To infinity -- from scratch

O has fairly consistently indicated he wanted to be Buzz Lightyear for Halloween this year. What did Meh do? Make the most amazing jetpack with wings. From scratch. She really is simply amazing!
Both boys spent much of the day modeling (and, perhaps more importantly, very nicely sharing) the new jetpack.

Lost and found

We set out today with an aggressive itinerary of errands to run; after dropping off mommy at work, the boys and I headed to the barber shop for synchronized kids haircuts. Z actually got to start his trim first, and O happily sat watching Cars for perhaps the bazillionth time. Then once O started his hair cut in the adjacent chair, Z got a super case of the giggles and flinches -- just in time for the poor stylist to start trying to trim the back of his neck. She was mildly stressed about accidentally shaving him bald as his head and arms kept jumping around, though she did a great job and Z eventually emerged with a well executed big boy haircut, though also with the back of his shirt covered with hair from all of the squirming. O has continued to be super shy around people he doesn't know and kept nagging me to ask the barber for a lollipop (but refusing to ask her himself, even though she was completely hearing everything he said). Alas, our barber shop has stopped stocking lollipops -- I'll have to start remembering to pack them for future trips.

Before heading onward to lunch, we had to go grab some groceries. On the drive there, Z started saying "Where'd bunny go?" I was able to sort out that his favorite toy magna doodle's four little animal stamp magnets had fallen out of their holders. When we got to the store, I found a few in the door well and another under his seat -- but no bunny. I moved all of the seats around, looked in all of the nooks and crannies, but no dice. Z was asking about bunny for much of the rest of the afternoon with increasing concern, and I felt like I was living the live action version of one of the boys' old favorite books. Finally, after picking up mommy at work, I stopped back at the barber shop on the way home, and sure enough, in the middle of the parking lot I spotted a tiny little yellow plastic bunny magnet -- intact, though from the scratches in the magnetic surface I think probably run over once or twice. Z was super happy, and our very own version of Knuffle Bunny ended, much like the book, with a happy ending.

Backwards letters and numbers

Z's favorite toy of late is the magna doodle. In part from noticing the etched ID codes on the windows of our car, he's become fascinated with backwards letters and numbers, and will frequently either draw them backwards or sit in front of the hallway mirror, draw them forwards, and then hold them up to the mirror to see how they look in reverse. Did I mention he's also a huge fan of the percent symbol? This has even become a favorite toy to bring in the car, winning out over (gasp) toy vehicles. He seems to understand this is a bit of a game, often commenting after he draws a backwards letter, "Why did you draw backwards letters?". Tonight at dinner he had some letter cookies, and when I glanced over I noticed he'd flipped all of them over on his plate as well, saying "It's backwards letters and numbers!"

Booth babes

Happy Sukkot! Those Jewish new year holidays really do bunch up, don't they? The boys and I went to friends J, S, and their kids L and E's house for a lovely dinner. There were a number of other kids there, a fabulous outdoor sukkah, and even a plastic indoor one for the kids to play in when they were done with the outdoor fall weather. The food was excellent as well, though the boys wouldn't know it, declining to even sit down let alone try the dizzying variety of salads, brisket, chicken, and more. Finally I was able to get them to at least sample some challah and fruit -- and they did have a great time in the sukkah proper. O was continually trying to understand what the Etrog was and if we were going to "eat it like a lemon". After pondering starting a new babies eating etrog meme, I think I'll just have to ask Meh if she knows any citron recipes.

Love is all you need

The day of atonement saw us returning to the children's service at a local shul. It was a brisk 30-minute affair, and Z had to go potty as soon as we got there -- so for him and me, more like 20 minutes. Still, it was great to see O and he singing the songs (even later on during the day), and Z continued to do a solid job of sounding out words and phrases in the mahzor. The rabbi's sermon (well, more of a story for the kids) was ironically one that I'd just read in my own prayer book at home, though he modernized it to include some silly contemporary references (including a reminder of the high demand for a certain product I'm working on -- does that mean he would condone me getting back to work during the holiday? :)

Today we all went to Seattle's Greek Festival, where we met up with several friends and actually ran into a few other friends and coworkers as well, many of whom were using this as their super early Seahawks tailgate party. It was a loud and hectic affair, but the boys had a fabulous time. There were some Greek musicians (at one point Z pointed over to them and said "It's mommy's music", clearly identifying some musical parallels to Meh's Balkan choir) and of course a coin-operated car that the boys clung to for a few minutes before getting down to serious lunchtime. O was a particular fan of the small circular waffle French fries -- covered in feta, though he shook the cheese off and preferred the fries straight up. They also had a baklava ice cream sundae concoction that he gobbled up.

Lately O has been increasingly frequent in demonstrating his solid passive aggressive skills -- specifically, if you do something that displeases him (translation: suggest he's not making a good choice or, heaven forbid, actually discipline him), he *won't* say he hates you. He'll just talk about how he loves everyone but you. "I just love mommy, and Z, and mima, and papa, and Lola, and grandma, and J, and of the people in the whole world, but not you, daddy." It would perhaps break my heart a bit if he wasn't doing this every 5-10 minutes with either or both of us -- though interestingly he rarely applies this tactic to Z.

Pedestrian effort

On weekends that mommy works, my goal is generally to find us at least one major activity a day - sometimes it's errands, when the weather cooperates we'll try to go to the park, when it's pouring rain (more often than not in the last few days, though today was thankfully beautiful) we'll find some kind of indoor play area. Yesterday was fairly typical -- the always energy-burning fun of the local mall play area followed by distracting O from the evil/brilliantly positioned cupcake shop right across from it, and completed with a sushi lunch (the waiter there knows us so well that he always concludes the meal with "See you again [insert arbitrary day of the week]!"

With the weather back to sunny for today, after dropping off mommy, I decided it was time to get back outdoors while we could (and O agreed, he wanted to "go to a park we haven't been to before"). So we drove over to the rarely visited Kelsey Creek park and farm. After playing on their playground for a few minutes, we hiked up to the farm proper and got to visit with some sheep, chickens, roosters, bunnies (all grazing and/or drinking water, but ignoring us), and a couple of sleeping pigs. Then Z was hiking away from us and I saw some goats and a horse down the path, so I figured sure, we'll follow him and visit with those animals. Then he kept hiking and suddenly we were on a trail. Again, I figured it was probably some kind of loop through the park (I'd checked a few maps beforehand and saw a pair of less-than-one-mile loops), and Z did an awesome job of sounding out the trail signs to see where we should go next. Alas, O wasn't quite as into the hike as Z, frequently panting dramatically and saying he was getting too tired -- so there was a fair amount of piggy backing. Anyway, we were gradually ascending alongside the creek, and eventually Z read a sign that put us .1 miles from the road that bounds the park. I figured there would be a bench or something there and we'd just stop for a snack then walk back along the road until we could cut back in on another path. Nope -- no benches, and no more trails as we proceeded to walk the southern circumference of the park back to the entrance. I've roughly estimated that we did a 2.5 mile hike -- not bad for Z, and even O was down and walking a fair bit. What I'd forgotten was that this road is pretty much a high speed divided highway; thankfully there was a wide sidewalk for most of it, which provided immense entertainment for Z as he kept turning around to catch vehicles whizzing past. We eventually did just camp out in a shady spot on the sidewalk, where the boys proceeded to devour the entire stock of snacks contained by the backpack. Hiking is hard work! Anyway, an unexpected but all in all successful adventure; we returned to the park where the boys insisted on playing on the playground once more before we finally headed back to the car and then home for some chill time before mommy was done with work. Hooray for positive outdoor experiences, even accidental ones!

Curtain call

Happy Jewish new year to those who observe; may you be well inscribed for a good year! O's second day of preschool wrapped up early for Rosh Hashana preparation, so I collected both boys (Z's school was a slight madhouse for their only second day of class, but I found him smiling in the elementary school lobby waiting for me with one of his teachers and one of his friends), and we then walked (with two of O's other classmates, friends J and A) literally across the street to a local synagogue's children's service. It was actually a decent turnout considering it was a 3 pm service, with maybe 30 kids and their parents. While I tried to get the boys to sit with me, they saw a gaggle of other kids up on the steps of the bimah and decided to join them - totally fine, though I noticed a big sign in front of the ark indicating there was an alarm set that would go off if anyone touched the doors. While the boys ended up getting the closest of all the kids to the sign, thankfully nothing was actually triggered. Towards the end of the service, plastic shofarot were distributed to all of the kids, and the racket that ensued... well, perhaps only slightly louder than World Cup vuvuzelas.

There was a little time to burn before meeting up with friends, mommy, and mima for a holiday dinner, so the three of us hopped down to a local park to burn some energy -- and for Owen to repeatedly ask me (and warn Z) about the geese and ducks leaving poop all over the footpath. At last it was time for dinner at friends J, A, and E's house, with a number of other young friends and their parents in attendance. Dinner was as hectic as you'd expect with 7 (!) kids, but it was wonderful to get to catch up with friends and the boys even shared E's toys pretty well with the others (in between fighting with each other). On the way home, O was telling mommy about how much fun we had at the "movies". Confused, I asked if he was talking about when he saw "Planes" a few weeks ago, but slowly from his descriptions I figured out that at the synagogue, the fact that there were rows of connected chairs, and that as we were leaving he'd noticed some dark, heavy curtains blocking off a larger area of the shul's sanctuary that wasn't needed for the kids service, meant that we'd clearly been to see a film. A live action one where he and O ran around and blew plastic shofars, but sure, it almost makes sense.

Today we took the boys to another kids' service at another shul, one we took them to perhaps two or three years ago. O made sure both his and Z's plastic shofars were in the car, and even carried his in with him (garnering compliments from a few greeters), though I warned him that we shouldn't play it in the synagogue (he agreed: "because it's too loud!"). There were songs and stories with a guitar-playing rabbi, Z did a great job of reading some words from the prayer book, and the boys had a good time once more. Hooray for positive Jewish experiences, and happy 5774!

School lunch

First day of school! This year, both boys were off to class this morning. Kind of a stuttering start to the school year since Thursday and Friday are Rosh Hashana, but at least there are a few days to start to get acclimated to the classroom, meet teachers and new friends, and in general start to get back into the fall swing of things. For Z, we were mildly unprepared by the bus actually being early (same driver as last year; her voicemail had even said "hooray!", as Z is one of her favorite kids to pick up), since driver V had warned us she'd probably be pretty late on the first day. Still, we managed to throw on Z's clothes and new raincoat (as if on cue, the weather flipped to rain today) and get him out the door and onto the bus in time to head out. He brought home a nicely colored first day picture, signed with his name -- and he'd then continuing on around the perimeter of the paper to count the numbers up to 20 - now he's just showing off!

O in the meantime had an excellent first day at preschool. He comes in knowing two friends (and actually one of the teachers was a counselor at Z's camp this summer), and in the picture they e-mailed back after day 1, he was happily chowing down on apples and honey and then sitting with friend A watching one of the teachers read a book. But when we asked him what his favorite part of his first day was, it was his "special lunch"; mommy made him a sandwich shaped like a school bus, and he was apparently exclaiming about it for the rest of the day. He at the whole thing "but not the crusts", as he told us later in the day. Z's similar school bus sandwich didn't get nearly the ecstatic verbal reception, but his lunch container similarly came home nearly empty. Happy first day to everyone!

He's a pirate

With huge thanks to friend R for the heads up in advance, after a tasty brunch with mima, papa, and Uncle J this morning, we headed onward with Uncle J to visit two tall ships temporarily docked at a nearby pier. The boys were super excited; O insisted on wearing his full pirate getup (we had to talk him out of wearing it into the restaurant), complete with hook hand. They were nearly onboard the Hawaiian Chieftain before we'd even gotten out the camera. The timing worked out well and we got to say hi to R, M, and their son J, who were also aboard. These ships apparently sail the Pacific coast from their Grays Harbor home, teaching people about 18th/19th century seafaring life. Oh, and also starring in practically every film that requires a ship of the vague general period; the second ship we boarded, the Lady Washington, was featured in Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Trek: Generations, and the Once Upon a Time TV show. Meh was of course pleased to follow in the steps of Jack Sparrow, while I was happy to occupy the same bridge as Jean-Luc Picard. (dorks)

The boys had an excellent time exploring the ships, looking over the edge of the ship at the water (I had to remove O's hat for fear it and/or he would go overboard). And O was very intent on operating most of the ship using his hook. More pictures of the boys and their plunder here.

Plane Fun

On our drive up to Whidbey last week, we passed some signage for both a Future of Flight museum and, oddly enough, a nearby Historic Flight museum. I hadn't recognized the names (I later figured out that the former is the rebranded Boeing Tour), but knowing the boys' interest in "visiting the Museum of Flight another time", I figured I better store these away. Sure enough, this week Meh stumbled upon an announcement for Vintage Aircraft Weekend, where they would be flying a number of classic World War II planes. The pictures alone were enough to convince me that I had to take the boys; there were images of fields and runways filled with planes that you could walk right up to. Meh was off to a choir retreat, which was going to pose a challenge if this show was anything like the don't-touch-a-vehicle experience of the recent car show. Thankfully Mima was up for the adventure, and the four of us headed out early this afternoon.

The drive was shockingly short (I really need to try to explore to the north more often), and we were parking in a grass field in no time. O was initially conked out (fighting a cough and cold), but when I transferred him to the stroller, he woke up to ask me why, then waited for me to stroll him up the bumpy steep hill before bailing out and declaring he didn't want to use it anymore. Mima and the boys waited in line while I took the stroller back to the car.

Once we got inside, I knew this was going to be a winner with the boys: there were planes right inside of the door to look at (along with a bunch of aircraft artifacts and a video lecture going on at the other end of the building), and the hangar doors wide open to the outdoors, where there were all of the boys' favorites: classic cars, a giant classic red fire truck, go carts, a whole row of military vehicles, and yes, planes! We must've walked up to more than forty planes in all, and the boys got to sit in a little one themselves. And did I mention the two bounce houses, both of which were nearly unoccupied when we got there? And the announcement that the air exhibition would be beginning 15 minutes later? Suffice it to say the boys had an excellent time, as did we; snack time up on a hill watching planes taking off and making passes of the runway, bagpipers marching around, multiple trips to the bounce house, and walking down amongst the planes and along the runways to watch the big bombers and fighter planes take off and land. More pictures here; alas, looks like at some point during the visit (or perhaps under Z's watch during his photo shoot last week?) the lens developed a scratch.

Three Guys (and Mima)

While the boys and we eat at restaurants (arguably perhaps too often), the selection is, shall we say, limited: sushi or Red Robin. So when the boys and I decided to go out for lunch today, picked up mima to join us, and when I asked everyone where we should go, O declared "I want to go eat somewhere that we haven't been to before", I had to make the best of it -- while still setting us up for the possibility that both Z and O might actually find something to eat. Both close by and not previously sampled was the latest rendition of the best burger places in the world ever. We'll ignore for the moment that neither boy eats burgers and both mima and I don't eat meat.

Anyway, so we popped over; the boys were fans from the moment we walked in, because there were tables with those crazy high bar stool seats. The kind that Z tried to climb and almost tipped before I anchored it. Yikes. Anyway, we ordered and sat -- and O immediately noticed a giant barrel full of peanuts and asked what they were. I tried to describe them, but then noticed a scoop and little paper baskets: bottomless appetizers. I gave him a few to try to shell and he actually snacked on some before his tasty grilled cheese came out, along with mima and my veggie burgers (excellent), Z's hot dog, and a cup of fries for the table. Well, intended for the table; O tried one and never looked back -- not even to his grilled cheese. But after some time of hesitation, Z did try his hot dog and ended up eating about half of it. So I think we'll call this a third restaurant in the repertoire -- hooray!

Sons of the beach

Whidbey Island vacation! Mima and papa organized the trip more than a month ago, booking us a few nights at a house rental right on the beach, and the boys had been talking about getting to "go to the beach house" for about as long as we'd mentioned it was coming. As an added bonus (well, because Meh had to work), they and their fearless chihuahua Lola took the boys a day early (along with an alarmingly fully packed car of foodstuffs and beach paraphernalia that we did somehow manage to consume), e-mailing us the top particularly cute picture of the boys' first day watching the ocean. Uncle J joined us the day after we arrived. The weather was amazing the entire trip; we did everything you would expect of a trip to the beach, which was actually a fair amount of nothing. O kept collecting shells and making "mud soup". Z liked to sit in the sand. I taught O to fly a kite. We read books, roasted marshmallows, ate well, beachcombed, played frisbee (O for the first time, and he did a fine job catching even if the throwing is still an emerging skill) and also explored several nearby seaside towns (including the boys eating blueberries straight from a bush in front of a posh island inn -- with permission from the gardener of course). Oh, and we also found parks with great play areas for the boys -- and even drove the length of the island to check out the dizzying bridge over Deception Pass; Z was a particular fan.

The beach house itself was cute and cozy, with a nice fire pit in the back overlooking the bay, and a beach that got huge when the tide went dramatically out hundreds of feet. The upstairs was a loft with three queen beds; the boys ostensibly slept in one, us in a second, and Uncle J in the third (there was also a bedroom downstairs for mima and papa). I won't suggest we all got enormous amounts of sleep or that the boys didn't pile into bed with us at crazy early hours of the morning, but we all loved our time there. As we were leaving, O and Z were already quizzing us about "coming back another time", though of course the ferry ride back was yet another highlight to wrap up their fun adventure. Many (many) more pictures of the trip can be found here.

PEPSapalooza

While we never actually participated in PEPS, Seattle's Program for Early Parent Support (weekly meetings among new parents and a volunteer facilitator), we've heard for years about PEPSapalooza, a big event featuring music and kids activities. This year the schedules aligned (and Meh planned ahead) for us to finally attend, and it did not disappoint; they held it at the Everett Stadium where the Aqua Sox (the Mariners' minor league team) play, and it was an enormous affair -- thankfully we arrived early enough that it wasn't too crazy yet. There were stations/tents for every conceivable kids-related business, multiple bounce houses, and live performances by multiple of the kids' favorites (arriving to Recess Monkey playing "Jet Pack" sold both the boys on the event immediately). There was a kids barber shop offering silly hair gel; a nanny service art station making custom bubble wands (Meh of course was awesome at it and made a car-shaped one for O, while Z and I were happily using a pre-created wand); the Seattle Children's Museum station had a bunch of noisemaking "instruments"; and much much more.

The boys had an excellent time bouncing in a school bus that's been converted to a play area (!), and afterwards, without any prompting at all, just parked themselves on the concrete for snack. My favorite was when Z noticed there was a painted circle on the concrete, and automatically scooted himself to sit right on the edge (an artifact from summer camp perhaps?); O watched his brother and immediately imitated him. There was also a hat-making station with sticker letters and shapes; Z was the first kid at the station to spell an entire sentence out on his hat. Silly man. Anyway, a very fun morning for everyone, capped off with lunch at (where else but) Red Robin.

Second Run

Sunday was Z's first film screening, and O was extremely excited to hear that he'd get his opportunity to experience some movie magic today! Same movie, different audience: Meh and he had an excellent time. (Well, Meh indicated the film itself was fairly weak compared with Pixar quality, but she had fun watching it with O.) O apparently was good about sitting still through almost all of the film, only getting a bit bored and climbing around for the last few minutes.

The movie theater adventure was preceded with O's dental appointment; Meh reported that he did amazing with the whole process, paying good attention to the dentist and hygienist throughout. He scored a new green toothbrush featuring Tigger. One of the boys' favorite parts of our dentist is that at the end of the appointment they get a token and can feed it into bubblegum-style machines for a variety of prizes. O picked out a fabulous purple ring, and then very politely asked for another token so he could get a present for his brother. Such a thoughtful boy! He clutched the dentist bag all through the movie, as you can see in the picture.

Premiere Screening

Zachary's birthday present from mima and papa was for them to take him to see the new (and highly anticipated by both boys) Disney film "Planes". He had an excellent time, apparently chowing through an entire theater-sized bucket of popcorn. When I asked him afterwards what the movie was about, he answered "toys". Sure, I can see that. (And sure enough, we've already queued up the franchise's toys, likely to bring along on our upcoming trip to Whidbey Island.) Later he indicated the film had jetways, which I thought was interesting since what purpose would those serve with anthropomorphic planes? But regardless, he had a fabulous time in his first full film since "mommy and me" infant screenings. Happy birthday once more, Mister Z!

All's well that ends sick?

Yesterday was Z's 6-year wellness exam. We were concerned that he might have to get some booster shots, but apparently he's free and clear of those for another four or five years. Somehow my own memory of childhood doctor visits wasn't nearly as shot-free, but we'll take it! The stats:

• Weight: 39 lbs 2 oz (10-25%)
• Height: 42 3/4" (10-25%)
• BMI: 15.1 (25-50%)

Meh then dropped him off at camp with a successful exam behind him. Three hours later I had a phone call that he was acting under the weather and likely had a fever -- poor Z, when I got there to pick him up, he was lying asleep in the counselors' office. I got him home with snuggles and a quiet evening, and he bounced right back with a bit of Tylenol.

Speaking of bouncing, the boys are pretty much pinballing their way to bed lately, wild beyond belief even after bath time, stories, and a trip to the potty. Sometimes there's fighting or whining, and that can get a little frustrating to deal with. Other times you just have to try not to laugh -- here was what we heard at the top of the stairs tonight:

Blow Outs

Happy sixth birthday to Z! Mommy made pancakes with sprinkles this morning; Z was very pleased with us singing happy birthday and did a great job blowing out the candle. It was pajama day at camp, so he didn't even have to get dressed for his birthday. When I picked him up from camp, he had a fabulous birthday hat (I later found out that everyone made silly hats that day, but his was super cute, and he kept talking about his hat the whole drive home). After collecting O (and dropping off fellow camp-friend N), the three of us decided to celebrate the big day with birthday sushi! Our favorite waiter was there, and when he found out that it was Z's birthday, a giant bowl of ice cream with another birthday candle made its way out.

Z was happy to blow out a second candle (somehow through a piece of cucumber roll that he had in his mouth at the time), and O was happy to consume all of the ice cream (Z declined). A very fun end to a great birthday for Z!

Airborn

Z's birthday is on Thursday, which meant this weekend was his birthday party! Despite hectic schedules all around, Meh still managed to make for a wonderful celebration of Z turning 6. His interest in airports hasn't abated, and when Meh asked him what kind of cake he wanted, he immediately said "airport cake". I then made the mistake of doing an online image search of them for him, and he's been requesting "pictures of airport cakes" ever since, so the bar was even higher than usual. Nonetheless, mommy outdid both the internets and herself, with an excellent cake featuring a runway with a "plane taking off" (Z was insistent that it wasn't landing), a terminal building (the tower was an inverted ice cream cone), and of course many airplane vehicles that immediately became Z's (and thus also O's) favorite toys. The boys' wonder at the cake first thing Sunday morning was only topped by the guy arriving with a bounce house (Cars-themed, just to push the boys' interest to eleven) that was to become the entertainment of the party. He apologetically indicated that due to scheduling, he'd have to leave the bounce house a few hours longer than we'd booked -- oh, the suffering.

Of course it wouldn't be an airport party without Meh making awesome accompanying goody bags for the kids, decorations around the house, and a kids activity (our own recreation of the fun "build an airplane out of high fructose corn syrup" adventure we had a few months ago). Everyone had a wonderful time -- once the party itself wrapped up, O gave Z a birthday present he apparently saw at the store and thought was perfect for him. Didn't seem to matter that O himself helped open it; both boys enjoyed the foam dart rockets for a good five to ten minutes.
But I think my very favorite part of Z's birthday festivities was late in the afternoon after dinner time, where we had one more family-only bounce house jumpathon. The boys were forlorn to see it deflate this evening, but as Z likes to say, "we can always go in the bounce house another time".

I'm OK, You're OK

Something I experienced this morning that made me chuckle, but which Meh says she's heard a few times over the past few days -- a crash from another room followed by O, unprompted, hollering "I'm okay mommy!" While I was getting ready for work this morning, the boys were both in the playroom. Another crash, then O yelled from two rooms away "Don't worry, Zachary's okay, daddy!"

Cars and trucks and things that go

Driving through downtown Kirkland last week, I saw some signage indicating an upcoming car show. After our roaring success with one the boys and I stumbled across last year, I knew we had to try to be there. Friend B even volunteered to come along - it was slightly stress-reducing to have another set of adult eyes on the rambunctious boys. There was a wonderful variety of cars there from the 1920s up through the present (I was chuckling at one late 1970s wood paneled station wagon, which apparently now qualifies as a 'classic'?), in all different colors and varieties. The boys were of course comparing every car they saw to the Pixar ones, and were particularly pleased to see three different police cars, two of which were close in appearance and livery to Sarge. The third police car was a modern interceptor placed next to a 1930s period City of Kirkland police car with a poster board indicating the many differences in the size/population of the city, police force, capabilities of the vehicles, etc.

But by far the boys' favorite was the bright. red. fire truck. Up until this point I'd been reminding them that these cars were for "decoration" and that they should "look with their eyes" despite them lingering closer and closer (with some wary owners I think keeping a polishing cloth at the ready). But the fire truck specifically had a piece of paper on it indicating that it was fine for touching, climbing, and playing on. The boys were completely thrilled. When I was finally able to pry them away to see more of the actual vehicles, O kept asking if any of these cars also had "pieces of paper" (e.g. could he climb on/in them). We had to make a return trip before heading out, but what a great morning activity for the boys!