Season's Greeting Cards

Santa Sunday

French Toast and the Grinch

A perfect Saturday morning.

Four Picture Friday: Oakland Children's Holiday Parade

After receiving a late tip from Little Chickling, we rushed downtown to catch the Children's Holiday Parade. We parked on the 'wrong' side of downtown and walked a few blocks and found ourselves, unexpectedly, at the headwaters of the parade and a few feet from Chimpy's TV friend (and parade Grand Marshall) Miss Rosa.




The woman in purple is Miss Rosa, PBS Kids' morning block host. Chimpy was a little starstruck but I called to Miss Rosa anyway. The wave and smile Miss Rosa gave to Chimpy affected Chimpy in a way I've never seen before and immediately afterwards she was emanating happiness and excitement.



Another block and we found ourselves suddenly under the parade floats. This had a huge effect on Jojo who couldn't understand why I was taking pictures of things other than the balloons.





We caught up with our friend, M., and sat down to watch the parade go by.



You're missing the balloons again!

Like much of what goes on in downtown Oakland, the parade seems to be overlooked by the rest of the Bay Area, which was great because it wasn't very crowded. Plus, it wasn't unusual for the parade watchers to suddenly rush the Curious George (for example) float. Here Chimpy and M. pose with the dancing Christmas tree ladies.



We took off a little early as the parade overlapped nap time so we missed Santa but we had a great time.

JoJo, Man of Mystery

What happens when you don't blog about your son for three months? He becomes a little man, that's what.

My happy, handsome son.

Sometime around Halloween Jojo's personality, comprehension and communication all shot through the roof. He's using signs now, asking for books, registering opinions (complaints) and has developed the inevitable boy passion for trucks.

Feeding himself?

No big deal.

Lemur attack?

I can handle it.

Merry-go-round?

Well, maybe just a little help.

His relationship with Chimpy is very typical (long moments of peace interrupted by sudden hair-pulling or toy-grabbing). It's obvious he loves his big sister, in this picture they were eating cupcakes when he spontaneously needed to give her a hug.

A perfect moment.

Here we are on our way to pick Chimpy up from preschool. The hand waving is his sign language for 'music.'



That's an update on our wonderful boy. I'd write more, but I often feel like I'm just getting to know him myself. I love this guy!

Twitter Tuesday

Technically, this should be called "Facebook Friday" as these are screenshots from Facebook. I try not to write too much about the precious things the kids do because a) I'd be writing all day and b) I don't really want to be that person. Still, it's inevitable that most of my tweets will be stay-at-home-dad-isms. Here are a couple for those of you not linked to me online.

I could probably write some variation of this twice a day, everyday. Such is my life.



This was a proud moment.



It's hard to out-wit cousin Lisa but she sets herself up here. The joke's on me, though, the deck still isn't finished.



Jojo's costume was awesome, see below.

We're Thankful

photo by Lara El Khazen, via Tom Reid (Thank you!)

Skating Surprise

We surprised Chimpy with an afternoon at the ice rink. It was her first time on skates and she did amazingly well.




Jojo and I stayed rink-side where he charmed all the ladies, as usual.

"Here comes that little blonde girl again..."

"Hey, where are you going?"

"Call me!"

Fall Guy

This is Jojo after taking a faceplant at the park:

No, you da man!"

What a guy!

Wednesday Moment of Zen

Trucker Zen

Four Picture Friday (retroactive): Sendak Exhibit

Run from for culture!

Look good for culture!

Eat cream puffs for culture!

We went to the Contemporary Jewish Museum to see the Maurice Sendak exhibit. Like most museums, the CJM has a no-photo policy in the gallery area so I wasn't able to get any pictures of Johnny, Pierre, Max or any of the Wild Things. It was a great exhibit, though, and we had a great time.

The exhibit gave Jojo a lot to think about.

But we may have overdid it. All that culture wore Chimpy out.

Wednesday Moment of Zen

Last Harvest Zen

Four Picture Friday: Bar Rasslin' Jojo

Jojo tries his hand at a family tradition.

"Let's see... Chimpy's Bar Rasslin' Made E-Z."

"Stare down, mm hm... grasp by neck, mm hm... shake..."

"Who am I kidding? I don't need this book."

"Rrrrr!"

"I'm a lover, not a fighter."

Wednesday Moment of Zen

Level headed zen

School Days: Deux Means Two

Yesterday was Deux Means Two Day at school. When I arrived to pick up Chimpy, her teacher handed the day's project to me and, noticing that I took notice of the drawing, explained "Today we traced people and then colored all the things we have two of. Isabel insisted we add to our lesson plan." Chimpy looked up and shouted "Yeah, we all have two boobs!"

Day Trip to Sis!

Of all the many things I could say about how awesome Chimpy and Sis are, I want to tell you I don't know of any two kids who play so well together. Despite anticipating their day together with great enthusiasm–a sure recipe for hyperactivity or disappointment–when they woke up and saw each other they picked up more or less where they left off.

Sis: Hi, Isabel.
Chimpy: Hi, Vera.
Sis: I'm wearing my pajamas.
Chimpy: Yeah, these pajamas have fancy bottoms.

And then it was off to the kitchen to make pancakes.

We spent the entire day together, breaking only for a nap, and had only one flare-up when Chimpy hit Sis on the head with a drumstick (Sis did hit Chimpy first, but she knows how to pull her punches). Sis cried because she had a lump on her head and Chimpy cried because she had hurt her best friend. But even that passed quickly and they played until it was time to put their fancy bottomed pajamas on again and say so long until next time.

~ ~ ~

Playground

Matching band-aids

Fruit leather snack on the beach

Pumpkin patch hay ride

Apple picking

Sis's roller skate academy

~ ~ ~

Oh yes, Jojo was there too.

Whee.