Walking Man

The weather turned unbelievably beautiful and mild here over the past couple days and to revel in it we took the family on a walk around the neighborhood after dinner. One of my favorite things about watching little ones grow is how transparent they are in their pride. As grown-ups it can be considered conceited to revel in your accomplishments. But sometimes when you have slaved over a project, when it all comes together you should revel. You should be proud. You should laugh and clap and dance- but you probably don't. Dalton, on the other hand has no compunctions dancing, shouting, clapping and laughing with pride. Tonight was his first long walk out of the stroller and his sheer delight at being a big boy was beautiful to behold. He pretty much just did whatever Cayden did, so I asked Cayden to be obvious about stopping at intersections since Dalton is still learning. Being an excellent big brother, Cayden jumped in the air, then landed in a crouch with his hands outstretched in the classic "stop" sign at the next street crossing. Dalton proceeded to spend the next block walking five feet, squatting, putting his hands out and growling, then standing up and laughing like a mad man. It was one of those idyllic moments portrayed in a cheesy movie, where everything came together and everyone was laughing. Less than sixty seconds later they both diggered and started crying, but hey, I'll take what I can get. 

She asked for it...

We celebrated the end of the summer at The! Great! Allentown! Fair! on Saturday night with special guest-star Vavo. Much fun was had by all - I can't tell what Tyson enjoys more, poking fuzzy bunnies or riffling through the RV displays (I won't even endeavor to describe Vavo's joy at the dairy cows, I couldn't do it justice). Since Dalton is a bit young for rides and a bit intolerant of life past bedtime, I left Cayden, Daddy and Vavo to enjoy the rides for another hour while I walked home to put the pumpkin in bed. As I was headed towards the exit a little boy shoved by me to run ahead. Hot on his heals was a woman calling, "Loki! Wait!". Um, yeah...

Helmets

Is it wrong that we got him the pink bunny helmet?  It's just so CUTE.

Guileless?

C: reaches to pull stuffed snake out of D's hands
J: Cayden, Dalton is playing with that right now. You will have to wait until he is finished
C: pauses to think - So Mommy, I am going to come snuggle in your lap. D will get jealous, drop it and come over. Then I can jump down and grab Arbok (the snake)
J: Are you trying to involve me in your plan to emotionally manipulate your brother?
C: Yes!
J: stares down at the boy with one eyebrow raised
C: What? Mommy, it's my TRUE PLAN!

Roland of LFP 1999-2012

After 8 great years, 1 Jumping Cholla attack, countless snow-shoeing excursions, the treeing of an innocent Korean woman, 3 doz. stolen tortilla wraps, and enough hair shedding to violate the law of conservation of mass, Roland has moved on to that great Carpet in the Sky.

We rescued Roland from the animal shelter in Woodinville, Wa in September of 2004.  Jordanna picked him out of all the dogs who met her stringent criteria of being at least 100lbs, less energetic than she, and having the temperament of a buddhist monk.  

Through 3 states he has been a fixture in our family.  He greeted the addition of two children to our family with calm drool and occasional kisses no matter how rigorous the “affection”.  

He loved the snow, licking empty peanut butter jars, and laying down in the most trafficked part of a house.  

Roland was a great dog and we will miss him dearly.

The Cayden Files

A conversation between Cayden and I as I trundled him into the car to go to dojo:

J: (singing a fake song to try and get the kid to listen while maintaining patience) Butt in the seat, butt in the seat, butt in the seat...
C: Hey Mommy?
J: Yeah honey.
C: When I sing songs, I don't like just repeat the same word over and over again.
J: Yes?
C: Yeah, I like throw in some whistles and hums, "Butt in the seat... yeah yeah yeah...hmmm...hmmm. butt in the seat..." That way it's not boring for people to listen to.
J: (smothers laughter)

Really?

Ty: I don't even know how to make a lower case L anymore.
J: It's a line
Ty: Oh yeah!

Baby Steals Camera, Details at 11.

Brothers

Sigh

At least once a week I flip my wedding rings upside down to remind myself to do something important. Then I look at them the next day and have NO IDEA WHAT THAT THING IS! Moral of the story? Never leave the iPad behind...

Vasco da Gama

It has been about ten days since D learned to crawl, and we have seen a complete shift in how he views both the activity and his world. The first couple days, he was so proud of himself for accomplishing the actuality of crawling. The act itself was his reward. Then on the morning of day four he was at one end of the hallway and I was at the other. He looked at me and started to crawl. As he realized he was making himself get closer to me, he started laughing his head off. At this point he started using his new-found skill to move from point A to point B. Want a toy? Crawl to it! Want to investigate the stationary mass of hair and drool? Crawl to it! (Roland is less excited about D's new-found skill). Watching him piece together the skill with what the skill allowed him to do, I started pontificating on what his spatial understanding of the world has likely been to date. He would exist in a particular location until somebody moved him to the next location. He had great familiarity with many common places (the living room, his bedroom, school, etc.), but not necessarily the idea that those places have some sort of relationship with each other. Last night we saw a sudden shift in his locomotory behavior. Rather than crawling to see us or a toy, he started crawling to explore. He kept crawling out and back and out and back, starting with a known location and heading to the unknown. As I watched him completely let go of his intense need to be near me at all times in favor of exploration, I realized that he was probably starting to build a map of his environment. In the span of 10 days, we have watched his entire perception of how the world is pieced together change. There are so many aspects of parenting that blow my mind, and this one is definitely at the top of the list. Here's hoping he has Daddy's spatial mapping skills, and not mine!

Little Locomotion

The downside of  a crawling baby: he can spit-up in random and unexpected locations.
The upside of a crawling baby: he cleans it up as he painstakingly drags his legs through the mess.

... Now all we need is a microfiber baby suit and he can mop the floors...

Houston We Have Mobility

Building a History

Cayden and I sacked out in the kitchen together a couple nights ago and cooked dinner together. He has been "helping" since he was 16 months old, and has gotten shockingly useful. With a bit of guidance, the kid can actually top a pizza on his own. We were making hummus to go with the filafel Ty had mixed up earlier (I know, we are a strange family that likes chickpeas with our chickpeas). Cayden learned how to smash garlic cloves with the flat of a (plastic) knife to make them easier to peel, how to juice a lemon, what to add to the food processor, and when the humus had been processed enough to serve. While I was talking to him I was struck by a profound sense of ... future history. I have no proper phrase for this feeling in my vocabulary.  As I was standing at the counter watching the chickpeas be annihilated by the food processor I could see Cayden's future memories. I could see him grown up, cooking dinner, and casting back to a night cooking with me. I could see his history, our family history, being written. It was an profound moment of seeing what exactly it means to live on in your children. Of course, knowing my luck he will have Tyson's memory and forget my name before he is thirty.

Couples Communication 101

Tyson asked me to stop being passive aggressive about the lights in the basement, so I asked him to please turn the f***ing lights off.

Four Year Old Boy Logic

I know we are miserably behind documenting our life on the blog. This is because our life is phenomenally full. Full of work, diapers, reading books, playing, joy and not even remotely full of sleep. I am hoping put together a holiday card (predictably late), but don't want to put off random updates in the meantime. For example, we are encouraging D to try to sleep through night. He did better Saturday and Sunday nights than he did last night, and Ty was thinking that Cayden's night light might have been the cause. Our conversation on the topic went something like this:

J: Mommy and Daddy think your night light might have kept your brother up last night, so we are going to use the turtle tonight.
C: No it didn't
J: You don't know that
C: Yes I do.
J: Mommy and Daddy don't know if the night light is bothering your brother, how can you know the answer?
C: Because I am a Space Ranger

Thunderstone

My lovely wifey got me a "deck-building" game for x-mas that we finally got into last night. It took around 2 hours to organize the disaster of randomly packaged cards into the very specific piles that the gameplay requires. In fact, once we got it all set up and understood we took one turn each and then put it all back away. But now we're ready to conquer it anew tonight.