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!

What's up doc

Today was Owen's three year wellness checkup with his pediatrician. Meh reported that he kept asking when he'd be seeing Doctor R (his dentist), but had some good interactions with Dr. P., and overall everything is looking very good. I asked him about the experience tonight and he said she looked at his teeth. I asked if she'd also looked at his eyes and ears, and he replied "No, just my ears."
The stats:

• Weight: 31 lbs (50th percentile)
• Height: 37" (50-75th percentile)
• BMI: 25-50%

Deep thoughts, by O

Home! I'm back from my whirlwind trip to both Jerusalem and London. It was so good to spend time with friends T, S, and their kids M, R, and A in Jerusalem, and to visit with N, S, J, and R in London. And my conference went very well. But home is goodness. Meh captured a list of O quotes while I was gone - she reported that some of the most excellent comments Owen had occurred at 5 in the morning (and thus weren't recorded), but here are some daytime and pen-at-hand ones:

"Can I have some? Cuz I do sure like it."

"I can't see you cuz I closed my eyes."

"Mommy, you are the beautiful princess"

"They're 5, they're 6, they're ninety ten, Thomas and his friends!" (actual lyric: "They're 2, they're 4, they're 6, they're 8")

Extreme Pond Jumping

Close college friends T and S and their super fun kids M, R, and A moved to Israel several months ago, and when I learned I'd be speaking at a conference in London, I figured that would be close by and a good opportunity to try to see them beforehand. Alas, my European geography apparently failed me slightly, as this meant a 5+ hour flight (and another 2 hour time change forward) less than 18 hours after I landed in London. Still, I got to get into London, have dinner with friends N, S, and their boys J and R, and then hop the Tube the next morning back to Heathrow, getting to friends T and S's house in Jerusalem by early afternoon!

Being in Israel was definitely a change from my last visit, which was more than 20 (!) years ago. The airport is gorgeous; in addition to the self-proclaimed largest duty-free shopping by square footage in the world, there was a giant mezuzah greeting travelers. T and S live in Baq'a, very near where I was based when I came to Israel in high school. In fact, on our first evening, we drove past the new home of the education facility where I'd stayed (which is now the second story of a car dealership). The visit was a nice combination of visiting with the family, playing tourist, lite shopping on Ben Yehuda Street, admiring impressive indoor and outdoor artwork at the Israel Museum, eating excellent kosher meaty food (the big new thing in Israel is apparently fancy burgers with dozens of different sauce options; they looked disappointed when I just asked for ketchup), and getting a brief dose of immersion with R's evening school activities, a doctor's office visit, and general hanging out. It was so great to get to spend time with friends as they adjust to living in a new country and culture. Of course I couldn't leave without a few souvenirs for the boys: a kippah with Pixar Cars, and another with Curious George. Oh, and some rugelach from an excellent bakery. Full pics here.

Back to London, where I had a good and productive conference, and got to see my friends once more before I head back to the US. A good but exhausting trip; very happy to be getting ready to board the plane back!

Slumber party

O has been, shall we say, exploring his sleeping options in the past week or two; last week, he apparently ended up in Z's bed, which Z was none too pleased about. Meh found Z quietly sitting (sulking?) on his stuffed bear seat at a concerningly late hour when she got home from work. And a few times in the past week, I've put him to bed only to have him open his door and then both boys to dash back and forth between bedrooms - this was particularly frazzling when I was solo while Meh was at a conference. So in some ways last night's experiment was bound to occur sooner or later: O was climbing into Z's bed during story time, insisting he wanted to sleep with Z. So Meh pulled down the mattress from the top bunk onto the floor, brought in O's blankies, and the experiment began. We almost immediately had a Berenstain Bears moment when the boys simultaneously declared that they wanted the lights on (Z) and the lights off (O), but managed to make peace with the compromise of the lights off but Z using his night sky-projecting turtle. We heard a very cute conversation from downstairs, but they did indeed both go to sleep in the same room successfully. Perhaps this is the start of a shared bedroom?

Hidey Hole

O had his bi-annual dental exam today, and Meh reports that he did fabulous with all of the related activities. His favorite parts were getting to brush the teeth of a pink dinosaur (with a giant toothbrush) and of course picking out a toy at the end of the visit. He also did great with the various parts of the exam, including his very first x-rays, where he got to wear the heavy vest (when I asked him if the heavy blanket was okay to wear, he said "it wasn't a blanket daddy, it was a jacket!") and hold said dinosaur while biting down on the film and everything. Actually, he was very intent on bringing home a toy for Z as well, so they gave him a second token - what a thoughtful brother! His teeth themselves were healthy, though it seems pretty clear already that some kind of orthodontics may be in his future; the x-ray that came home had some pretty seriously skewed baby boy teeth.

The remodel continues to progress, and the boys' "hidey hole" is just about complete. They're huge fans, both spending a fair amount of time bringing toys and pillows into it. Hopefully all of the downstairs will be wrapped up soon as well; as Zachary continues to remind us, "there's NO POTTY downstairs!" There's also an impressive pile of what used to be in the new hidey hole space that we need to weed through, including high school and college documents as well as plenty of other detritus that one collects when they have an attic to store things in. Meh and I have been trying to take quick tours down memory lane when the boys allow - today I found a Microsoft newsletter from when I was an intern there (yes, they used to have a printed 'newspaper') and some college pictures. Hard to believe this stuff is more than 15 years old!

Let's close with a video; one of the final items that came in the excellent Costco Disneyland vacation bundle was a gift card to the Disney Store. Meredith went over there earlier this week and picked up some excellent Buzz (O) and Woody (Z) pajamas for the boys. They were pleased to say the least, as demonstrated by their high energy bedtime, um, sprint:

Tear down this wall

With a major renovation to at least three rooms about to start, we're going to have workers going up and down the stairs. This meant that it was time to at least temporarily pull down the safety gates that have been fixtures at the top and bottom of the stairs for years. We actually pulled them down for nearly a week when Z was around three, but then O started to crawl/walk, and back up they went. As to the renovations themselves, we're pretty excited even if they're mostly minor rooms -- we're fixing up the bathroom and mudroom (the previous owner was apparently a, um, self fixer-upper, with varying quality results - highlighted recently by tiles cracking and/or starting to come up from the floor), moving the washer/dryer from the furnace room to the bathroom (hopefully opening up some storage space), and perhaps most exciting for the boys, finishing out the little subattic into a tiny room that will be an extension to the guest bedroom (which itself will be turning into their playroom). So a fair amount of change is coming - look for pictures when things start to shape up!