Locking it up

The rest of the long weekend with Uncle B and Aunt J has flown by. We had a very nice time just visiting, though there was a bit of tourism as well; J had researched a few local tasty food establishments with high Zagat scores. While our favorite local formal restaurant was closed for the long weekend, I did take them into the city one evening for a yummy thali dinner. And a highly rated sandwich shop that I wasn't actually familiar with was our destination today. It's near the fabulous Golden Gardens and our wedding venue (has it really already been 10 years in just a month and a half?!), as well as the Ballard Locks, which I'd somehow never been to. Meh had a previous engagement, but O and I took them down to the locks, which were highly popular all around; a number of large boats were passing through as we arrived, and we watched the (completely empty at this time of year but for one stubborn minnow) fish ladder as well. Afterwards it was on to Paseo for sandwiches -- and for a non-descript shack with only picnic table seating, it was very tasty indeed! O was pleased to be able to have his lunch while watching cars and trucks drive by, and all of us had a very nice final day. And I happened to glance across the street, and realized we were indeed directly across from the venue where we got married. How did we miss this joint as part of the scouting?!

Uncle B and Aunt J are headed onward this evening to an Alaskan adventure - hope they have a fabulous time!

Bulls in a Glass Shop

A busy solo week gave way to a full house for the weekend; Meh returned from her trip (she had a wonderful time catching up with friends in both Houston and Fort Worth; you can read a brief reference on friends M & K's blog), and a mere 20 minutes later, Uncle B and Aunt J arrived from the east coast! They were part of the visual schedule I'd pinned to the refrigerator for Meh's trip to Texas, with two separate planes occupying the Saturday calendar box. The schedules worked out quite nicely; Meh's flight was late, theirs was early, and I was able to collect everyone in under thirty minutes. And the next morning, the boys were super happy to see both mommy back at home and Uncle B and Aunt J!
We had a very busy but fun weekend with everyone back; mommy was right back into the swing of things with a performance by her choir at the annual Northwest Folklife Festival the day after she got back. We all piled into the car and tromped down to the Seattle Center, where Meh was off for sound checks while we investigated the mob scene that is the festival. O enjoyed an elephant ear, fed to him piece by piece by Uncle B while he was up on my shoulders, while Z stuck with his standard fruit leather and crackers; both boys were pleased to later discover that the chocolate mommy had promised to bring back for them (an authentic Texas-purchased bag of M&Ms) had made it into our backpack.

We had a little bit of time to kill before the actual concert, so Uncle B and Aunt J suggested that we peek in at the very cool Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum. The boys were a little wild (and about to get a nice sugar rush from aforementioned snack), and I was kind of trying to hang back with, but before I knew it, we had tickets (thank you Uncle B and Aunt J!) and were on our way into the boys' very first museum. O was kind of falling apart initially, but eventually got very interested in the glass, asking why there was a boat full of glass and talking about all of the pretty colors and which ones I liked best. Of course for me the whole experience was, um, heightened by the fact that these amazing and amazingly fragile pieces were like right there in front of you, with no fence or gate or anything. The boys in general did a very good job of keeping respectful distance -- right up until I thought we'd made it through to the last room, a stunning glass greenhouse leading into the actual outdoor gardens. O bolted -- and I mean bolted (Aunt J caught the accompanying shot) -- across the open area, right up to a rope fence in front of the last exhibit, then ducked under it and immediately turned around and looked at me for a response. *sigh* At least he knew he'd been naughty.

It was concert time! This is the time when in past years I've generally ended up hanging out outside of the actual venue with one or both kids being unhappy. Not so this time - amazingly, we got into the venue right as her group started singing and both boys had huge smiles on their faces the entire time. When mommy's group was done and filed off the stage, the audience was quiet enough to nearly universally hear and chuckle at O's innocent "Where are they?" Z was concerned to see her exit, but we caught up with her outside immediately afterwards -- a very successful concert for all involved, hooray!

Muted response

Mommy is back tomorrow - hooray! Z continues to recap the countdown to her return fairly frequently ("...and then on Saturday, mommy will be home after we're asleep!"), but both boys and I definitely miss her lots and brief occasional phone calls aren't enough to find out how things are with her and to share the goings on here.

O has always expressed, shall we say, concern with some loud sounds. Many times when I take him into a bathroom, he'll first ask if the toilet/urinal is going to be loud, then (regardless of my answer) he'll put his hands over his ears when he thinks the toilet will flush. This has lately manifest with films as well; while watching Cars the other day, he asked me to "make it quieter" for a scene where there are semi trucks honking at Lightning. I obliged, but he still wanted it even "quieter" -- as in, muted. This afternoon when we *started* the movie, he asked me to make it quieter "for the loud trucks". They're like 25 minutes into the film.

Yesterday, with rain continuing to hinder outdoor plans, O and I met up with friend S and her son L at an indoor playtime at a lovely indoor community center. He'd actually been there before with mommy and kept talking about a large bounce house with a giraffe(?) -- alas, they were down to a little one that fit like one kid at a time (S speculated that one of the kids who plays a bit rougher may have damaged it last time), but he had a wonderful time both with that bounce house, a bunch of playmats, and a little kids roller coaster-y thing that he nicely took turns with other kids on. Then the weather was actually turning nice, so the four of us continued playing outside on swings and a jungle gym for a bit, where O continued to practice his new-found skill of rolling his tongue.

Today at long last O and I followed through on his long-term interest in Seattle's link light rail. Every time we go to the airport, he first starts asking where the train is and then talking about it once we see one approaching or leaving the terminus of the rail line. So it was time to ride this thing and see how it went. Mima joined in for the adventure (we did all of this while Z was at school). Alas, nothing's simple -- the only station that has parking was completely full, so I started driving parallel to the line, looking for street parking at subsequent stations. At the second or third stop, I finally found a pay lot, so we got out and waited for the train. As a bonus, mima and my Orca cards meant we got to ride for free. O was super excited and smiled through station after station. Just before the SoDo stop, the tracks cross a very high bridge... over a dozen or more other link light rail trains at what must be their storage yard -- O was extra pleased to "look at all of those trains!" We alighted at the downtown stop and picked up sandwiches at one of them Seattle food trucks that I hadn't yet explored, a tasty salmon burger for both mima and myself. (O declined to try it or the tasty garlic/parsley fries.) A quick potty stop for O (at the posh Benaroya Hall no less), and we were back on the train heading home to catch up with Z's bus. A nice morning adventure, and finally something to cross off O's young bucket list. Of course when Z heard about this, he was quite interested as well, so we'll have to make another trip of it in the near future!

Random Musings

Getting to spend a good amount of time with O over the past few days, I've continued to be amused with the comments that come out of his mouth. I've tried to capture a few gems and e-mail them to Meh while she's away, but it's difficult to grab all of them! A sampling:

• (at 6 am, sneaking into bed with me): "Mm, the bed smells like mommy kisses."
• (after putting on his shirt): "Well, I look adorable in this!"
• (speaking into a bullhorn and trying to rally Z to throw a plastic ball with him): "All right everyone, it's time for baseball time!"
• (when at the mall we got a cupcake -- which, by the way, he picked out): "Mommy gets me one with swirl."
• "I bit my tongue because the ground looked a little bit brown".

We've had a busy couple of mornings while Z is at school. With the rain still hampering park attempts, we went to his favorite indoor play area yesterday morning -- and proceeded to go back in the afternoon with Z added into the mix.And today O and I went to the mall, where he played for a bit (and ate the aforementioned cupcake). Then we decided to do lunch, and he especially said he wanted to go someplace he'd never been before. I was ecstatic to support this newfound interest in expanding beyond burgers and sushi, but alas, by the time we approached an honest restaurant, he had reverted to strongly wanting Red Robin. Ah well, food exploration was still realized even if accidentally; the milkshake he requested ("with sprinkles") was for the first time served up with a maraschino cherry. He tried it, then made me eat it, then decided he really wanted it after all. The waitress patiently brought two more that ended up untouched on his plate. Still, at least he tried it -- and even briefly pondered mixing up his usual grilled cheese in favor of chicken tenders. We may have an adventurous eater on our hands. Some day.

Parks and Recreation

Meh is off to Texas this morning; I constructed another calendar view for the boys, with this fine image of O and a freeway rest stop buffalo sculpture (from our previous family trip to the Lone Star State) as the indicator of where mommy is, and one airplane today and two on Saturday -- since she'll return alongside Uncle B and Aunt J for a family visit -- hooray! Z is already counting off the days of the week until mommy comes home.

The aim had been to keep our schedule as consistent as possible while Meh was gone, but things immediately got bumpy when we learned that O's nanny had broken her leg - wishing her a very speedy recovery! So I'm taking likely the whole week as vacation and getting some quality O time. We had a fun but exhausting first day today featuring trips to four (!) separate parks. First we went to one of O's favorites and had a lovely time running around, playing, getting pushed on swings and spinning things, and then of course continuing to scare the heck out of daddy by climbing up a 20-foot-high rope net to O's favorite giant slide. Then I rang up friend K, whose daughter A is in childcare with O and was thus similarly having a day at the park. We met up for lunch (OMG, somewhere other than sushi or Red Robin) and then played at another park down by the water -- en route, O discovered the joy of getting to pick up and wave one of the city's many pedestrian-empowering safety-orange flags as we walked through the crosswalk. The sun made an appearance and it was actually warm; the kids decided they wanted to wade into the water, hiked up pants (O) and dress (A) and all. O also discovered some other kids' beach toys and was super excited to be shown how their water pistol worked. As I said on Facebook, Meh went to Texas and O just went Texan.

As we dropped off K and A, they mentioned a fun nearby park that had a castle and other fun toys. Hearing this, O suggested that we head over -- and after another pedestrian-flag-waving street crossing, our third park of the day didn't disappoint, with not only a castle similar to O's favorite park's, but also a wooden fire truck and train. Finally, exhausted, it was time to head home. O didn't make it, conking out as we got about halfway. I didn't want him to sit in a sunny driveway for his doze, so I drove us to a fourth park for the duration of his nap, before we finally got home for supper with Z and a quick call from mommy to let us know she'd gotten in safely. An exhausting but high energy first day for the Selfon boys!

Manly-cure

To distract O while Z had a playdate on Thursday with a friend, Meh offered to paint his nails. Of course he got to choose the colors - and different ones for each foot no less. When I tried to compliment the lovely nail polish on his right toenails and called it 'red', he looked at me and indignantly said "No, daddy, they're pink - and also these [right toenails] are blue." (As mima likes to say, his tone here often seems to imply the unspoken additional two words 'you idiot'.)

Summer de Mayo

Usually it's July 5 that summer starts in the northwest - or at best in June you'll start to get some tantalizingly sunny days during the week and consistently dreary weekends. Oddly this year it's all backwards, and we have our first fabulous weekend in May. It always amazes me how the switch flips and everyone is immediately outside at every possible park, beach, outdoor pedestrianized area, etc.

The boys and I beat the crowds out of the gates by dropping off mommy at work and going immediately to one of their favorite parks, which O has started calling "Singing Edward". It was an epic visit of more than 2.5 hours, with slides, swinging (both regular and a tire one that they both piled onto), a nice little picnic (O picked out a table with a nice view across a large field towards the bike trails; Z commented several times, "It looks like London!"), and more. And then while we were playing, I noticed a fire truck and firehouse ambulance pull into the parking lot sans flashers. We took the boys over to investigate, and sure enough, they were giving tours of the various compartments and of course letting kids climb up into the cab -- both boys were pretty darn ecstatic, and it had been a solidly fun day by 1 pm! Back to the playground for more fun before finally, exhausted, they waved goodbye to the fire truck, ambulance, slides, and swings, to head home for a quiet afternoon. Ah, summer!

Got birthday milk?

Meh has been having an epic and extended birthday celebration! The boys were very excited about planning mommy's birthday; I made a card (with kudos to the Keep Calm-O-Matic), and the boys signed their names (Z insisted on adding the date) and drew pictures for mommy. O drew mommy's face, "but there were no legs because the face was too low". We'd talked about what we wanted to do, and the boys agreed that bringing her breakfast in bed was the way to go; when I asked O what we should bring her, he said, "well... I'm going to bring her a glass of milk. Because milk is so yummy for breakfast." Sure enough, Thursday morning, O immediately wanted to pour the glass. I was able to stall him for a bit and he helped me pick out other breakfast items, but from the moment we co-poured some milk, practically before I could even gather the plate of food and tea, he was already walking it up the stairs -- very carefully, but I still dashed after him to make sure the milk actually made it intact. Meh seemed pleased with her breakfast and the card, though she was mildly concerned by our secret birthday dinner date night -- not to worry, it turned out great, at an excellent restaurant (special thanks to friend J for the recommendation!)

Tonight was the birthday party proper -- Meh booked a small painting party with a few friends. It's apparently the new thing (grandma reported that she'd been to a similar event a month or so ago), where you all go to an art studio, drink wine, get your own easel and paints, and a professional artist guides your group through the process of painting a specific image. From the sound of it, the girls all had a fabulous time -- Meh returned home with an excellent picture of iris flowers (and some yummy leftover cake, sushi, and cheeses for me to enjoy too). Happy birthday weekend to Meh!

Dramatic Reading

Z has been learning a number of "sight words" (words that are both sounded out and learned to be recognized by visual cues) at school, and we recap many of them as part of his weekly homework assignments. He's been doing a good job overall with them, but in the past few weeks we've gotten a few happy surprises that indicate he's understanding and internalizing reading and writing even more than the homework would suggest. The other day he was sketching on a magnadoodle (a new favorite activity, and he's getting increasingly good at cars, trucks, people, airplanes and, my favorite, "catering trucks"), and I heard him slowly and deliberately say in time with his drawing, "This weekend I played with cars" -- sure enough when I looked down at it, he had written the first letter of each of those words. But today was the big one -- Meh brought home one of the Bob Books and we've read a few of the stories with the kids, but this morning, Z proceeded to read an entire story all by himself!

Coupled with O's recent success at re-potty training (really he'd already been self-trained, just too concerned about missing something exciting to actually walk the ten feet to the bathroom during the day), which included filling a 7 dry days sticker chart in just 8 days, this morning we went to our favorite newly (re-)discovered toy store with the boys for each of them to pick out a vehicle. Z pondered a large number before settling on a fine yellow die cast Lamborghini; O hoarded even more, and finally declared a moving truck (with operable rear gate) to be the winner. Alas, we then wandered the store for a few minutes while a birthday present for one of Z's classmates was wrapped, which was enough time for O to change his mind and instead select a Thomas and Friends talking Emily train -- which when rung up we learned was triple the price of his moving truck. Ah well - well earned. Congratulations on both sets of accomplishments, boys!

This is SportsCenter

It's been a weekend of birthday parties for several 3-year-old friends! On Saturday, I took the boys to friend E's third birthday party at her house. They had a great time playing with the many toy vehicles present, as well as going in and out of E's very fun (and excellently repurposed large appliance cardboard box) homemade playhouse. Oh, and O got bit by the electric model train bug; E's mom had just gotten her dad's set up and running, and he spent a good 45 minutes downstairs nicely watching and then operating a model locomotive, buffering it up to a couple of freight cars and throwing track switches like a pro to get it back on the mainline for a few loops.

Sunday was an O-only affair for friends' R and M's son J's third birthday party. (Mima got to have some alone time with Z, which they both enjoyed thoroughly.) I wasn't quite sure what to expect, as the invitation indicated "sports" would be played. It turned out to be an excellent organized activity where a coach teaches the kids some basic sports skills in a non-competitive super fun environment. O was incredibly into it, helping with various cheers and then going full tilt whenever the physical activities commenced. Here he was in the opening run-around-the-perimeter activity, showing excellent form:


There was an obstacle course, some basic basketball skills (practicing throwing a ball through a hula hoop), baseball base running and bat swinging skills, and (my personal favorite) they closed out with each kid in turn chasing down a rolling hula hoop:

It was great to see O get so into an activity, and he was talking about the sports he participated in the whole drive home, "Well, my favorite was the basketball... but we didn't have time for the tennis" (I presume the coach had mentioned this to them as something they'd run out of time for). Anyway, a thoroughly busy and fun weekend for both boys, and now the idea is planted to consider getting O into some kind of sports activity (perhaps even the Sportball classes they have that inspired R and M to make it J's birthday theme?) this summer.

Hot Chocolate

When O talked to mommy on the phone while she was gone (and I think even before she left), his primary concern was that she bring him back a present of some chocolate. Diligent mommy indeed brought the boys some, um, "authentic" Arizona chocolates -- namely a pair of Kit Kat bars, accidentally left in a hot Tucson car for the 2-3 minutes it takes for them to melt into a chocolaty wafery blob. Owen was still ecstatic, and gobbled his up on the ride over to Z's after school program today. Z took one look at his and tried to give it to Owen; I indicated a tummy ache might be possible, so O grudgingly gave it up to me before devouring it all.

The boys have been big fans of the rolling album of pictures from our recent London trip, particularly the British vehicles we managed to snap pictures of. Exclamations of "British fire truck!", "It's a British police car!", and "Look at that big blue British dump truck!" can be heard often -- though my personal favorite was Z gesturing to this picture of Osterley House and saying "Picture of a British fence!"

Bachelor party

While Meh has had an occasional night or two away from the boys (and a few longer trips with me), this week marked her first major airplane-involving expedition away solo; friends T and P and their kids J and M are getting ready to move from Arizona to the Czech Republic, so this was a last opportunity to visit them while still in the same country and time zone (well, MST versus PDT, but close enough). We all took mommy to the airport and gave her kisses goodbye; Z continues to struggle with goodbyes, but actually did fairly well. Back at home, I created a visual schedule for him, with a picture of an airplane and "Arizona" (a desert/cactus landscape) next to another airplane and a picture of home, with a calendar of days counting down to mommy's return -- we X'ed out the previous day each morning at breakfast. Both boys would later comment on the desert landscape, "it looks like Cars Land!". Z still frequently talked about "mommy having lunch with J and M", while O preferred to discuss what kind of chocolate present she'd be bringing him back from Arizona.

Despite Z being on spring break, we actually had a pretty full end of the week/weekend of activities to keep us busy. After dropping off mommy (and excitedly talking about the train as we drove alongside/beneath it - one of these days we'll actually ride the thing), we did a little shopping for O's friend P's birthday and other sundries; O picked out a new toothbrush to complement Z's (from a recent very positive dentist visit!). On Friday, Z and I ran errands and had a daddy-son sushi lunch while O played with his friends at his nanny's house, and on Friday evening, we attended one of O's friend's birthday party at an excellent bounce house. Generously they let Z come along as well, and both boys had a blast; both boys particularly enjoyed the transparent maze-like tube paths they had taped to the walls, which you could send whiffle balls hurtling through and across the entire warehouse. Z actually tried a sandwich, and O was in love with the ice cream cake.

On Saturday we had a lovely brunch at our friends D and S's house, where the boys proceeded to rifle through baby K's toys and find (but very nicely share) her one toy car; we also had a nice dinner with mima. And on Sunday, with rain once again falling (and seemingly permanently; someday we'll get enough dry weather to finish that house painting!) we all piled into the car and visited another of our favorite indoor play areas, which as a bonus is situated in a mall with a number of coin-operated vehicle rides and a carousel. Alas, I was quarter-free, so the boys snagged a free ride when another kid went on the carousel, but were content to sit in non-moving cars and trains. And then they played like crazy, after which we all sat in tall stools at the counter of the mall's deli, eating grilled hot dogs (or not - Owen: "I don't like the brown parts") and French fries. Everyone knew that mommy was coming home tonight and was very excited about it; looking forward to her flight landing soon, and we'll all be happy to welcome her home (though hopefully not too early) tomorrow morning!

House painting

While early (pre-6 am) wakeups are still often the norm for the boys, very occasionally they'll leave us to sleep for a bit and go play together in their fabulous new playroom; it's particularly amusing to hear O coax Z out of bed (the latter firmly believes that he's supposed to stay in bed until his clock's light turns green, at 7 am sharp) with the promise of toys and games. Yesterday was one of those occasions, and it was such a great feeling to come in and see the boys playing nicely, applying stickers to their many vehicles. This morning I was amazed/thankful to hear them entertaining each other without us for a second day in a row. Meh and I were both enjoying the extra snooze time until I heard Z complain that his shirt was wet and then heard him run out of the play room. Hmm. What I saw when I entered was the kind of thing I thought only happened to men with yellow hats or the parents of precocious pigs: we have some art supplies designed to generally be used under adult supervision, and O had decided that it was a good morning to paint some Cars pictures, with six different little containers of paint opened, and several large puddles of different primary colors on the carpeted floor. To his credit, most of the paint and the brushes were still on the little table (the picture itself was the typical kids' supersaturated mud-brown), but yikes! We got the boys cleaned up and dabbed up the room as much as possible; the damage was pretty localized, and the paint is hypothetically "washable", but we'll have to test that with our carpet cleaner as soon as we can get some more detergent for it. Ah well, now it's *definitely* a kids' room!

Completely unrelated, but also matching the subject of this post, we'd noticed strips of paint starting to peel off the house a few weeks ago, and discovered another joy of our house's previous (original) owners' installation techniques: the siding was apparently never primed before the first ever coat of paint was applied. Whoops. So we're booked for our second repainting in 5 or 6 years, and it likely won't have much more staying power. Regardless, it will still be fun to get to transform our house's exterior color scheme once more!

O and Z: The Musical

The boys have gradually been introduced to a few live action films over the past few months, and their favorite at the moment is Annie. Special thanks to Grandma and J for sending it to O for his birthday; his interest had actually started with a mix CD that Meh had helped contribute to for a friend's baby shower a few months ago. Anyway, both boys have quickly been picking up on the tunes and lyrics, and have their favorites that they request in both the car and now on the TV. Z even has a number of new quotes in his arsenal, but the sing-along is by far my favorite:

Neverending Story

O is fairly obsessed with stories, both hearing and telling them. For naps, he frequently wants one of us to lie down with him and tell him a story beforehand. Then when that one is finished, he wants another. A few months ago, we had the idea to ask him to tell us a story instead, and that's been the beginning of Owen's storytelling career. A few weeks ago he started telling stories about when he was born -- examples included "When I was born, I drove that bus" (while pointing to a passing city bus). Today's was a bit more elaborate: "Once upon a time, there were two boys named O and Z, and their two grownups were named mommy and daddy. They all went to have sushi, and then they went to the park. And then they went home and went to sleep." Solid three act structure right there.

Video games unleavened

Straight from one trip to another! Meh and I returned from an excellent London holiday on Sunday afternoon, and first thing Monday I was on a plane down to San Francisco for a conference. Due to scheduling restrictions with Moscone, the Game Developers Conference was booked to coincide with both Passover and Good Friday this year. On the first night, friends A and E invited me to their lovely family seder; it was great to be able to be with friends and observe a meaningful start to the holiday. The next day was the full-day tutorial I've run for now twelve straight years (yes, I still coordinated it the year I couldn't attend due to some kind of family thing :), but after it completed, I was off to an unofficial Game Developers Passover Seder, held at the open art space of YetiZen (ironically while YetiZen themselves were co-hosting an IGDA party elsewhere that received some negative publicity). It was again a nice drawing together of the fairly disparate community of video game developers who observe (or in some cases were just curious about) Passover. There's a nice blog post on the seder here.

Huge thanks to both the overall event planners and my company's own awesome event planner, both of whom secured kosher-for-Passover meals for breakfasts and lunches during the week.

Ditching the date

London-town! It seems like I was just here last month. Oh, because I was. But this time I was accompanied by a lovely lady -- yes, it was Meh's long-awaited return to her favorite (favourite) city! Grandma and J had graciously offered to fly in for the week and watch the boys back at home while we jetset across to the UK. I had work meetings and such, but Meh of course found fabulous ways to spend the days in my absence, and we had some great experiences together as well. We arrived on St. Patrick's Day which, while surprisingly not nearly as big of a thing as it is in the states, still features a giant crazy parade that ends right down the street from our hotel (thank goodness we took the Tube rather than a taxi!). We tried to explore, but the pedestrian density (and the rain/umbrellas) kept us away; we ended up just walking through Covent Garden, then caught up with friends N and S and their boys J and R, followed by a grownups only dinner at an excellent kosher curry establishment.

The next day, we had a lovely breakfast in St. James Park at the aptly named Inn the Park, before setting off to play tourist at a fabulous museum I've walked past multiple times without even noticing, the Churchill War Rooms -- bunkers used during World War II that are now a surprisingly large museum. Then we set off for what I think Meh managed to acquire nearly every day of our visit, some excellent civilised afternoon tea, at our favorite royal establishment. Alas, while we knew the forecast was for rain and had brought our umbrellas, our choice to walk across the four parks needed to get to our favorite spot was met with first a drizzle, then rain, then a downpour, followed by thunder, lightning, hail, and sleet. We were pretty much soaked to the bone by the time we arrived at the Orangery, but warmed up nicely with some earl grey.

To the title of this post -- we'd really hoped to catch The Book of Mormon in London, and were disappointed to learn beforehand that it was totally sold out (it had just opened). However, I saw that they do a pre-show raffle of returned tickets, and as it was just about the time that we'd gotten back from our tea, we wandered over to the theater. It was really a fun event, with people clustered on the sidewalk while two humorous entertainers from the theater (I never did find out if they were involved in the production) encouraged/harassed people to complete their raffle entries and drop them into the metal cage raffle box. Finally, they started drawing names, and everyone celebrated the winners, who marched inside to purchase their tickets. On the raffle request form, you got to indicate whether you wanted 1 or 2 tickets, and of course everyone had been selecting two, so it wasn't a huge surprise when they indicated there were an odd number left, and finally they were down to what they termed a "ditch the date" situation, with a single ticket left. Meh and I had agreed early on that if only one of us won, she would go and I'd meet up with her after the show. The single ticket winner they drew... was not us. The winner came up and gallantly indicated that he could not ditch the date; he received a lovely parting prize of a Book of Mormon frog. The next name they drew... was me! Before I could even make my way up to the front, Meh gleefully belted out "I'm ditching him!!" to much laughter and applause from the audience. I too got a frog for being ditched, and queued to get the ticket. The raffle-holders closed the doors and were still chuckling about Meh's comment as I paid. Then the ticket seller told me that there had actually been one additional late return ticket - not near where Meh was sitting, but would I still like it? But of course! So I got a frog and both of us got to see the show, catching up at the break with each other. Score! And great fun; I actually ended up sitting next to two other Americans (coincidentally one of their children is a student at my alma matter on a London semester exchange) who were having a great time - I started telling them how I got my tickets, and they commented "Oh, your wife was the one who yelled, 'I'm ditching him!' when your name was called." -- they hadn't won the raffle, but had managed to buy some returned tickets.

No need to go blow-by-blow through the whole trip (I know, too late), but a few more highlights included touring and a lovely tea at the impressive Wallace Collection, a second excellent show ("Once", where the stage is a bar -- no really, they serve drinks before the show and at intermission), tasty morsels from the Borough Market, visiting with friends T and B (and their Z-aged son T, who we've known since the boys were both infants) near Reading, and Meh even got to experience one of friend N's excellent student programs, an in-person tour that tied British Museum Egyptian artifacts to the Passover/Exodus story.

Along the way, we were of course thinking about the boys frequently and checking in with grandma and J to learn that they were having an excellent time (there might be pictures, though I suspect they'll be locked on grandma's camera for some time :) We of course stocked up on both chocolates (O's permanent expectation for returning from any trip) and transport-themed materials from the London Transport Museum, but also took a number of pictures of British vehicles for the boys to look at when we get back -- I expect this is the one they will be most excited about, the 747 jumbo jet that will shortly be taking us back home! It's been an amazing and wonderful trip (full album here), but it will be good to get back to them (alas for me, for all too short a time; I'm back on a plane tomorrow for the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco -- and for the start of and most of Passover no less, ugh!). Huge thanks once more to grandma and J for spending a full and likely exhausting week with the boys and their hectic schedules!

Down the stunky roo-a-bah

It makes no sense, but "Down the stunky roo-a-bah" is the new song that Zachary and Owen will ask each other sing frequently, generally to the tune of 'London Bridge', occasionally adding a bit of swing/syncopation to the end of the phrase, and then punctuating each verse with "my... fair... [something they think is silly -- an animal, a vehicle type, a name, etc.]". In trying to decode the title's origin, I tried asking them a few pronunciation variants to see if I was just misunderstanding, but O insisted, "No, daddy, it's 'down the *stunky* woo-a-bah!'" I then asked what it meant, to which O replied, "Well, 'down a stunky' is the first name. And 'woo-a-bah' is the last name." So never mind, it all makes perfect sense now.

Fire Works

O's birthday proper was Friday, but we had a nice weekend celebration this morning with a few of O's friends. Of course, Meh outdid herself once more -- O had this year requested a fire truck, and an awesome one was created. He'd been talking all week about how he'd eat the ladder (not even bothering to find out what it was going to be made of), and assigning other parts for consumption - papa would get a wheel, Z would get the front, etc. Alas, O has grown to expect so much of mommy's creations that when she unveiled the completed cake (but prior to adding the final attachments, including the ladder), O looked at it and simply said: "where is the ladder"? All the while Z was smiling and jumping around, excitedly talking about how it was a fabulous fire truck cake.

Nevertheless, with ladder (and a fondant hose - dude!) properly attached, both boys and all of the guests were gushing over the cake. If you're wondering, O ended up abandoning his plan and, soon after happy birthday, proceeded to pluck off all of the flashing lights (Dots candies), and also ate a fire truck wheel (fondant). Meh had an awesome full theme going as well, with kids getting to make their own food art fire trucks, with big rectangular cracker frames, cucumber wheels, red cream cheese "paint", corn chex windows, pretzel ladder segments, and more. O made the excellent version pictured above. Did I mention even the other snacks were all fire truck themed, with burning logs (pretzels dipped in white chocolate with colored sugar), fire truck wheels (oreo cookies on sticks dipped in dark chocolate), and more? Awesomeness. Best. Mommy. Evar.

Great fun was had by all, and I don't even think there were any meltdown moments among the attendees. Happy extended third birthday once more to Mister O -- the celebration continues for one more day tomorrow with a special mima and papa trip to Tacoma's rumored-to-be-excellent zoo/aquarium!

Bunk Mates

As a special birthday present, we finally transferred the top mattress in Z's bunk bed back to the top bunk so O could sleep "up high". (As you may recall, it's been sitting on the floor where O has been having slumber parties nearly every night.) Alas, he bailed on it the first night and ended up sleeping back in his own room (a very rare event for Mister O). But last night O talked all the way home about sleeping in the top bunk, and after bathtime and a few stories, he eagerly climbed up the ladder all by himself. He got snuggly with another of his birthday presents, the ladybug equivalent to Zachary's turtle night light. A short bit of chatting later, both boys were conked out in actual beds, Z's floor once again accessible to all.

I forgot to mention, Meh also had our amazing organizer friend S come over while I was out of town, and the boys' playroom and other converted areas are now complete. We have a newly smaller but cozy bathroom, a separate laundry room (soon to be supplemented with fancy organized wall shelving), a bunch more space freed up in the furnace room (which is now a more proper pantry), a cozy understairs 'office' space for Meh, and of course the boys' aforementioned new playroom and hidey hole. Everyone is very pleased with the changes and updates, and we all feel like we've gotten some fun new spaces to explore and use.

Today I am fhree!

Happy third birthday to Mister O! He's been talking about it for the past few weeks with anyone who asks. A sample commentary: "Well, right now I am two. Actually, I am going to be fhree. I will be fhree on March 8!" This morning, mommy made him sprinkle pancakes and we all sang happy birthday. Strategically waiting until after Z went to school, we gave him one of his presents, which (shock of shocks) was a car. Then at his nanny L's house, all of the girls and he had cupcakes (courtesy of mommy), which L then added three little candles to. The dad of one of the girls who can't attend his party this weekend stopped by my office to drop off her gifts, two more cars (we haven't quite been brave enough to give him these vehicles yet). And when I went to pick him up from L's after work, she had given him gifts as well: 5 more cars (well, two were monster trucks). Hey, at least everyone knows what he likes! We then had Shabbat dinner at friends M and A's house, where O once again got to hear a rendition of happy birthday with a piece of chocolate pie featuring "3" and "O" candles. A very exciting third birthday celebration that will stretch throughout the weekend, and even into Monday as mima and papa plan to take him out for a full day of fun with them!