Your mummy loves you

Luke, it is amazing to think of all that you are at seven years old. You love Legos, pharoahs, magic, swimming, Harry Potter, and Plants vs. Zombies. You're a voracious reader and a tenacious debater. You have a healthy sense of skepticism and a wildly curious and creative mind. Your laugh is so contagious it has been known to make even the lamest joke seem funny. You have friends, young and old, all across the country. Could any of us have imagined this outsized personality growing out of the tiny baby whom we first met seven years ago? We could only have dared to hope.

Have a mummy cake, Luke. I love you, my seven-year-old boy.

Grab Bag

Making a mess, and some cookies.





Works of art.





Delivering some snacks and a note for Santa on Christmas Eve.





Hogwarts!





Water heater pillow!





Skype-ing Seattle.





Laughing all the way.

Mercy Mild

For all of the frenzy surrounding a large winter storm, you have to admit that the storm itself is quite serene. The tiny flakes float and drift and cover everything, from your eyelashes to the path that you just shoveled clear a few hours ago.

We had a riotous Christmas day, filled with food and cousins and big piles of wrapping paper and a large custom water heater pillow. Then the day afterwards was stunningly quiet, with no cousins, and with fluffy white snow falling steadily from 11 am onwards. It was a little too powdery to make a snowman, but apparently it was just right for running around in circles and yelling, "AAAAAHHH!!!"

Today in the forecast: Lots of snow play, followed by conditions of hot chocolate and snuggling under blankets.

Points and circles

Some of my favorite pictures from the week aren't necessarily the ones that document every minute; they're just the ones that capture a moment of happiness. Like Zach's time in the ball pit. I took him to free-play at MyGym this afternoon while Dave took Luke to a movie, and we had the place to ourselves for more than 90 minutes. Guess who took advantage of the opportunity to conduct a variety of experiments by rolling balls down inclines?

Here is Luke the other day after he and I made cookies. While Zach is a little more free-wheeling with his fun, Luke seems to get frustrated a little more easily. There's a new game on my iPad that Zach and Luke both like to play, but to advance to the next round you have to fail a couple of times to figure out the rules - and Zach is fine with that but it drives Luke nuts. Tonight Luke and I played through a level on the game and talked it through and failed, failed, failed until finally we got it right. Then we had a major victory celebration. When I see this cookie picture (which followed a few mess-ups) it reminds me of the same sense of pride and satisfaction in a job well done.

Next is a shot from the butterfly room at the Academy of Natural Sciences. What I love about this picture is that it looks like they are having a really good time together. For whatever reasons - maturity level, personality, etc. - those moments are few and far between. But I'd like to think that as Zach gets older and their interests converge a little more, they'll be able to do more stuff (and have fun memories of what they did)together.

Last is a picture of Dave sitting on the floor at Macy's with the boys while they wait for the light show to start. This picture says a lot to me about the kind of dad Dave is, as he sits on that cold, hard floor. Yesterday after our little trip into the city, Luke and I drove to Joe's house, while Dave and Zach took the train there. Of course they could have gone in the car with us, but Dave made it a point to set up a special train trip for Zach because that's what Zach loves. While Luke and I were in the car, I told him, "Just think about how great it is to have a dad like your dad. He's taking you to the movie Tron because you think it's cool, so he thinks it's cool too. He's making a special train trip for Zach because he knows how much Zach loves trains. This is a guy who will do just about anything for you guys." And that basically says it all.

Just chill

You don't see any pictures here, do you? One possible reason is that we toured the mint and the Federal Reserve today and absolutely no photos were allowed. Another reason is that I am still trying to figure out the technology end of this vacation. I love the iPad (and oh, do the boys ever love it) but it sure has been tricky trying to figure out how to do some things on here. But the only thing more boring than having technical difficulties is reading about someone else's technical difficulties, so this train of thought cannot continue.

In four days we have visited the wildlife sanctuary and hung out with alpacas, traipsed through a river park to see deer and ducks, and done two day's worth of cultural stuff in Philly. It's cold, but the weather hasn't seemed to slow anyone down. Yesterday it was a real thrill for me to experience the full Philadelphia cultural spectrum within about three hours: from watching the Nutcracker at the Academy of Music with the womenfolk (thank you, Sara) to eating pizza while standing at the counter of Lorenzo's on South Street. Dave took the boys to the Academy of Natural Sciences while I was out Nutcracker-ing, and he managed to keep them both thoroughly engaged, solo, for several hours. Tomorrow we are headed back into the city to view one of the most famous light displays in the country (voted tops by US Airways magazine at least) and then off to Joe's for a few hours.

Zach seems to be doing a little bit better; it's hard to measure but he was sure in a good mood after we baked cookies and later got a bag of shredded money from the Federal Reserve. Tonight I asked him to draw some designs on some butcher paper so that we could use it as hand-crafted wrapping paper. He spent about three minutes drawing two large scenes involving snow and cars; then spent the next two hours talking about how proud he was of his wrapping paper. Oh, and it is quite a sight to watch him operate the Trains and Jelly Doodle apps on the iPad. Makes you think that kids his age were literally born to do this.

Luke has been busy with a crystal-making project, along with cookie-baking, movie-watching, and Googling pharaoh stuff with my dad. Getting here so far ahead of Christmas has been confusing for both boys, who are certain it is imminent. Dave finally made up a calendar for Luke to hang on to that has all the milestones of our trip carefully marked. Personally I don't want to look at it because it's all going too fast for me already.

1200 pages

What is it with me? Only minutes to go until we fly, a million things left to do, and here I am blogging again. But I couldn't resist putting up a picture of Luke, having the greatest of great days. He had his holiday show, which went off swimmingly, and he and I finished the third Harry Potter book. That's 1200 pages of serious reading we've done together in the last three months, and that doesn't even count the other stuff we've read to him or the stuff he's read himself. If this kid isn't a bookworm, I don't know who is.

Now, off to fly the skies...

The Cram

These are the actual words I said to Dave before I left for work this morning: "Luke's snack is done. Zach's lunch is done except for the water bottle. His nap bag is downstairs in the front hall. I put three gifts in Luke's backpack for the EDP teachers; they each have labels with their names on it. Here is the platter with turkey club sandwiches for our class tonight; please stop by the house and pick them up before you drop Luke off at the class. I put 25 holiday cards on top of your wallet for you to drop off when you go to the mailbox. You don't have to do anything with the hummus appetizer plate because I'll be putting that together tonight after class and before I leave for the party."

Did you get all that?

The last few days have been a crazy whirlwind of gift-giving, extraordinary Christmas displays (up and down the Naples canals), cookie-making, and present-wrapping, all topped off with a massive fireworks show at the pier. We are cramming in as much as humanly possible (not necessarily by choice) before we leave for our holiday sojourn on Thursday. Everyone's got a holiday show, or presents to be wrapped, or cards to be written, and it is getting difficult to keep track of it all. Yesterday when Luke invited two friends over to our house, and simultaneously accepted an invitation to go over to another friend's house, my head nearly exploded.

Here's the final clincher: Zach's ears have been so goopy that when I took him to the ear nose and throat doctor yesterday, the doctor finally admitted that Zach's case was a little "extreme." He prescribed Zach some new eardrops that will supposedly dry him out, but if his ears are not dry by New Year's Day, the doctor is going to send us back to the hospital/operating room so that Zach can get a hospital-grade ear-vacuuming. Mmmm. Ear vacuum. One of my new favorite phrases.

Anyway, I have a few spare pictures on my cell phone sitting around, and a few spare seconds, so what the heck? In no particular order: Still photo from Zach's holiday show, Luke's delight when opening a magic kit from Suzi and Bill, the boys with the pizzas they made at the local pizza parlor's kids' open house, Zach feeding the fish yesterday at the wilderness park (note the short sleeves). We are headed to much colder climes - let's hope they are quieter too.

Pain in Debut

Dave has picked up some fancy friends as a result of his real estate blog, and as a result we got invited to a high-profile party last night. The party was thrown by the publisher of a local luxury-lifestyles glossy magazine, and the pages of said magazine are always filled with party pictures and bold-face names. "I've never been a bold-face name before," I told Dave. "Maybe if we go to the party they'll take our pictures!"

So we headed over to the party last night, trying to look appropriately glamorous without looking like we were trying too hard, and sure enough there was a photographer there, snapping pictures left and right. Then Dave saw the host, who greeted us warmly and encouraged us to help ourselves at the taco bar. Mmmm...taco bar...two words that no one ever has to say to us more than once.

We piled our plates high with the most delicious tacos you've ever tasted, and then headed up to the balcony. I had just taken an enormous bite of taco when who should come over to us but the photographer. So I held up my forefinger in what I thought was the internationally recognized hand gesture for, "Just give me a moment while I chew and swallow," but the snap-happy photographer was not in a waiting mood. I was trying to eat so quickly I swallowed an enormous mouthful of (admittedly delicious) taco, but the flash went off just as I was grimacing from the gigantic lump in my throat. So there, folks, is my debut as a bold-face name. Bulging throat and all.

The next six days are going to be an enormously over-scheduled nightmare, so don't expect too much from me on this front. I'll leave you with a link to a short video from Zach's holiday show last night (thanks, Bill). Poor Zach is down to about 40 percent of his normal hearing capacity. He managed to do the hand gestures but never sang a word, instead looking like a (very handsome) deer in the headlights for most of the show. Kind of like me, except much cuter and without the enormous mouthful of taco.

We Are the Champions

Dave and I are making latkes and chicken soup for an impromptu Hanukkah celebration tonight. This sets Zach off in a flurry of excitement as he goes off in search of our menorah: "Where's the candle trophy?"

A thrill of hope; the weary world rejoices

For the past eleven years, since Dave and I have been married, I've been carefully cultivating a little Christmas ornament collection. It's a mish-mash of ornaments people have given me and ornaments I've bought at half price after Christmas every year (come on, you KNOW me). I've amassed nice variety of fun objects, ranging from lollipops and cats and dogs, to incredibly intricate sailboats, to a chicken water jug. My Empire State Building got crushed last year, which was highly disappointing. But, as I've told the kids, "The first rule of ornaments is that ornaments break." (It's kind of like Fight Club, except you can talk about the ornaments.) "If an ornament breaks, we'll be sad about it, and then we'll clean it up, and then we'll find another ornament to love."

Each year since the kids have been around, they've helped us as much as they can manage or understand but it hasn't been a fully coordinated family effort. This year was different.

This year we finally experienced - together - the full-on joy of opening the box, re-discovering our old favorites, deciding which ones we want where, and hanging them up together. Zach is finally old enough to "get" the concept of choosing an ornament and hanging it on the tree (as opposed to taking all of the ball ornaments and running off with them). Luke is old enough to remember the ornaments he made in past years and have fond memories of bringing them home.

When we were finished, we turned off all of the lights except for the ones on the tree and sat there marveling at our glorious handiwork. "This was a very nice Christmas," declared Zach.

Of course, there is an awkwardly large cluster of ornaments right at the front of the tree at the bottom. Am I going to move them? Nope.

Brain. Moving. Slowly

Woke up on Friday at 6:30 am East Coast time. Went to bed at 1:00 am West Coast time. Kid woke me up Saturday morning, ready to party at 5:30 am West Coast time. Been awake for 24 of the last 28 hours. I'm just sayin'.

Loved, loved, loved the time with the cousins. My brain is not functioning well enough to write about it in essay form, but I'll throw in a few of my favorite moments:

Tons of pool time, with lots of water gun battles. Yesterday we spent the morning in the pool, which culminated in an East Coast/West Coast family water polo showdown.



Walking through the temple with Tony. It's about twice as big as last time we were there, and more impressive than ever. Luke was honored that Tony took a moment to open up the Torah for him.



The nighttime glowstick birthday party for Eli. He will turn three next week so we took the opportunity to have some cake and candles and general mayhem. None of the kids opposed the idea.






A hard-fought father/son chess battle. Very, very serious. Please do not disturb them while they are playing chess. And eating chips.




A lovely Thanksgiving dinner with Neil and Charlotte. This gave Zach his long-sought-after opportunity to eat "turkey with bones."




Gathering 'round to watch Tony open the coconut the boys had found. Moments after Tony got it open and the boys had a chance to sample the coconut juice, we were on the road headed back to the airport. It was so sad to leave, but it was a great finale. In fact, I think all vacations should end with a ceremonial bashing of a coconut. Thank you, thank you, thank you to our Florida family for a smashingly good time.


Today we are busy as all get-out as we attempt to unpack and then get ourselves ready for the next season. I told Luke, "Today I think we are going to put up a 'C.T.'"

Luke: "What does 'C.T.' stand for?"
Me: "I'll give you a hint: The 'T' stands for 'tree.' Today we are going to put up a 'C. Tree.'"
Luke ponders this for a moment, then says, "Conifer?"

The reason for the season

Luke: "Zach, what do you like best about Thanksgiving?"
Zach: "Uhhh...the trick-or-treating."
Luke: "No - that's Halloween. What do you like best about Thanksgiving?"
Zach: "Oh - opening presents!"

Headspin

I'm feeling a little dizzy right now. Last I knew I was in California. Then I went hurtling through space in a Southeastern direction, landed in Orlando and somehow found myself whipping at high speeds through Hogwarts castle. Next thing I know I'm at Tony and Joanna's house. What time is it, by the way?

We are on our Florida trip, and it is happening pretty darn fast. But it's fast in a good way, in everyone's opinion, except for Luke who is already mad that it's not going to be longer. As we headed out on our fantastic Virgin Airlines flight, Dave used the text feature to send a giddy message to me from the row behind: "This may be our best vacation this year!"

Luke and I spent the first day at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, or should I say waiting in line there. I'll sum it up with the amount of time spent in each line. Getting in the front gate of Islands of Adventure (10 minutes); waiting for timed entry passes to Harry Potter (10 minutes); waiting at the front entrance of Harry Potter (10 minutes); waiting at Olivander's wand shop (65 minutes); waiting at Honeyduke's candy store (20 minutes); waiting at Three Broomsticks for lunch and $10 butterbeers (60 minutes). After lunch I didn't think I had the stomach to wait in line again - and we hadn't even gone on any rides. But the castle beckoned and the sign said the line was "only" 75 minutes, so we decided to do it. The line zoomed right along and after about 30 minutes we happily entered the castle and gleefully watched the portraits talking to us in each room.

Then came the ride portion of the castle. I had assured Luke that there would be some turning and dipping (he is frightened of even the most gentle roller coasters) but it would be a fun way to see the castle. They strapped us into our chairs and - FOOM! What followed was the single most terrifying six minutes of my life with Luke. We were whipped, twisted, and catapulted through a 3-D scene of dementors and skeletons chasing us and flying through the air on broomsticks. (Oh - so THAT's why you have to be over four feet tall, not pregnant, in perfect health, and not over 260 pounds to go on this ride) I was holding Luke's hand but the scene was so loud and our heads were strapped into dividers so I couldn't talk to Luke or even check in with him to make sure he was OK. At a certain point, I didn't know whether I was more scared of the ride or more worried for Luke. But then it was done and, even though he declared he never wanted to do it again, he was fine, no tears. Just guilt for me.

Meantime Dave and Zach were having a rollicking good time at the water park where we stayed, and even after Luke and I dragged ourselves back from Harry Potter, Dave and Zach continued to go down the waterslides again and again and again.

Three hours after they dried off, we arrived at Tony and Joanna's house and we have been soaking up the Florida sun ever since then. The boys have been busy with toys, video games, and pool time; and last night we participated in an annual Florida Thanksgiving-Eve tradition: Dinner at the Deli. Then, even though we got home late, we had an impromptu birthday party for Eli out on the back patio. The boys blew party streamers and waved glowsticks in the air, and I took pictures that were so blurry they were dizzying. Kind of like this trip.

In the interim

It's strange, I just don't have that much to say at the moment. Let me run through the repertoire: Amusing kid quotes? Not really. Sardonic life observations? Nah. Self-deprecating it's-so-hard-to-be-a-parent stories? Nope.

My creative brain has basically shut down the blog portion of its operations while I work on our holiday card and on the family photo books. Let me just say that we have had some great times this year, and everyone looks incredibly handsome in book form. (These are two of the pictures a friend of mine took at a beach photo shoot she did for us.)

Now can I have some peace and quiet around here please?

Nick of Time

"Downtown Train Departs in 2 Minutes," read the digital sign near the baggage claim at the Portland airport. Dave was fiddling with the buttons on the ticket machine; the boys and I had assumed ready-to-run positions with our luggage. A pleasant attendant approached and helped Dave assess where we were going and how much it would cost to get downtown. "Downtown Train Departs in 1 Minute," the sign seemed to nag at us, heightening our anxiety. Plunk! The tickets dropped out of the machine. And - GO!!!!!! We dashed off through the airport exit, across the drop-off zone, and over to the tracks. And at the very second our feet touched the floor inside the train, we heard a *ding!* and then the automated voice, "Doors closing!"

That, folks, is what it is like to be Dave. Things just ...work out, albeit in hair-raising, last-minute fashion.

So Portland was beautiful, the weather was astonishingly perfect, there were these cool bubbly water fountains on every corner, and we got around without ever once setting foot in an (energy-wasting) automobile. Luke and Zach both had an opportunity to collect leaves and sticks in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. Oh, and the train and bus system was so efficient that on Wednesday we even decided to stay downtown until 1:30 (for a 3:15 return flight) just because we knew we could count on the train to drop us back off at the airport in a timely fashion. But then again, that's Dave.

Of course one of the highlights was having a room connected to Grandma Joan and Papa; an unexpected benefit was meeting Dad's friend Rich, who is essentially his long-lost brother. Kind of like having an extra Papa around - beard, twinkly eyes, liberal politics, and all.

We won't dwell much on the election except to say that the returns were somewhat expected. While the men-folk were off enjoying Portland wine and political conversation at the election parties, Mom and I took the kids out for ice cream. Strangely enough, by 8 pm the Ben and Jerry's was closed, so we wandered around looking for something - anything - sweet, and finally wound up at a McDonald's. The only notable thing here was that while Luke was looking around the place suspiciously ("My friend Shane says that McDonald's doesn't care if people die!") Zach got busy with his chocolate-dipped cone and declared, "This is the best ice cream EVER!"

Clearly the trip made an impression on Zach because the next day he was inspired to narrate a story to his teacher, who wrote it down in book format:

The Hotel Room, by Zach.
There are two hotel rooms. One with Grandma and Papa and one with me. The alarm went off. There are alarms on the box. I ate a chocolate chip muffin.

Yep, that pretty much sums up the trip with the perfect blend of fiction and non-fiction. Except he didn't mention anything about running to catch the train. Maybe in his book that's just a given.

(Walk) Street Urchins

Another Halloween come and gone, and as exhaustion slowly takes over where the sugar coma left off, the kids are now in bed, with visions of Kit-Kats dancing in their heads. First up we have a Death Eater (from Harry Potter) and you have to admit, even if he doesn't eat food like the rest of us, he sure didn't miss anything in the looks department. The mask that came with the costume was super-scary, but it was also uncomfortable, so fortunately we got to see more of his face than the mask. Luke's best friend Shane dressed up as Harry Potter, and Shane's brother Ty went as a Dementor, so as they trick-or-treated they were like three little black caped shadows darting through the night.

Zach has had quite the week of publicity, if you count his making the semi-finals in the pumpkin race, and subsequently being featured in the local paper with his cat pumpkin named Milo. Also, if you haven't already been bombarded by my emails, you know that Zach asked for, and is very proud of, his water heater costume. I entered him into the costume contest at our local mall, and if you haven't voted for him yet, or only voted for him once, please do so again at Manhattan Village (under the contest tab). Apparently you can vote once every 24 hours until November 4, which lots of other parents seem to be doing, because Zach was way down in the voting last I checked. Now I don't care so much about winning, but it would really bum me out to have some other kid with a mass-produced costume win the costume contest. As my sister indignantly put it, "You can't enter a costume contest if you bought it from the store!"

Last night at the appointed hour Zach decided that he would rather be a cat for trick-or-treating purposes, which was fine with me because the water heater costume is a little restrictive and he was going to need to do a lot of walking and step-climbing. With cat and Death Eater in tow, we headed out to the circus that is the walk streets. Each year we've done this it seems to get more crowded, but it also seems to get more manageable as the boys get a little older and we know more friends who live on those streets. This time we were able to get a little respite by darting into a few houses where the real action (read: private parties with cupcakes for the kids and wine for the grownups) was going on.

Zach was just about the happiest cat in the world, tripping down the street with treat bag in hand. "Truck or treat!" he would call out proudly at each house. Then, after he received said treat, he would say, "Happy Halloween!" with a heart-melting smile. At some point when his bag was almost too heavy for him to carry, he declared, "I am a treat machine!" Too true. Now for the aftermath...

Passing storm

On Tuesday I was in one big storm cloud of a mood. In fact I'm pretty sure there was an actual black cloud hovering over my head as I made it through the day. One thing that made matters worse was that a friend who I was hoping could help me with Luke that afternoon was actually in Hawaii for the week (I had the wrong week in mind). She signed her cheerfully apologetic email to me, "Aloha!" Darn.

Dave was gone, and as we talked on the phone that night, I was flopped down in the bed, exhausted from making breakfasts and lunches, working all day, making dinners, giving baths, and then cleaning up the collateral damage. Meantime Dave was telling me about what a nice German restaurant they went to in Portland that night. Oh, and then Zach woke me up in the middle of the night for some unknown reason. So you can see what direction things were going in.

But then somehow, I turned it around. On Wednesday Luke and I had signed up to volunteer for Beautification Day on campus at the school. It was hot by our standards (mid-70s) and the sun was beating down. The weeds were plentiful and scratchy, and the garden was matted with a year's worth of overgrowth. But somehow, between the friends and the frozen juice boxes that we kept ferrying over from our house, we had a great time doing some tough physical labor. There seemed to be something cleansing about the whole experience, dirt notwithstanding. In fact, Luke told me that it was his favorite part of the day. This afternoon, as we stopped by "our" little garden patch on the way home from school, I heard him cheering on the little flowers he planted: "Grow! Grow, little plant! Grow!"

Zach knows that his name starts with "Z" and he is obsessed with finding the letter "Z" anywhere he can So the other day I asked him, "Do you want to draw the letter Z?" and before I even had a chance to draw one for him, he grabbed a piece of paper and painstakingly made these two Zs. His first Zs. Not bad, eh? I have been keeping this paper in my room because it makes me smile every time I look at it. I think I might need to frame it.

Last night the boys and I were on our own again so we decided to carve our pumpkins. Then, when it got dark, we set them outside with these special battery-powered candles in them. The candles don't have an on/off switch; they light up once you put the batteries in, so I knew we wouldn't be able to leave them on forever. But we decided to keep them outside as a little greeting, and maybe Dave would see them when he got home.

A little after 10 pm, Dave got home from Portland and rushed in with a big smile. "I saw the pumpkins you left out for me - I love them!" Great, I said, now will you do me a favor and go back out there and take the batteries out of the candles? "I already took care of that," he said. "The candles are in the hallway." How do you like that? Even with suitcase and briefcase in hand, he still stops to reach his hand into the bowels of the pumpkin to save the 9-volt battery. This is a man who has his priorities straight.

Now comes even better news: He cleans up messes too - both literal and figurative. Dave and I have been working on a rag-tag plan to bring the family up to Portland for election night. (My parents are going to be there too, for different reasons.) Earlier in the week, an "angel" volunteered to give us the miles to fly up there. A nail-biting few days ensued, as we waited to find out if we could book the flights we wanted, and if we could get into the same hotel as my parents. Foolishly, I decided to wait until we got the flights before booking the hotel. And this morning, when we got the flights, I went to book the hotel room and...completely sold out, according to the hotel and every available online service. Gaggghh.

Now this is the point at which mere mortals like myself would call it quits. But Dave took matters into his own hands. And sure enough, within a matter of hours, he called me back. "How does 'We're booked at the hotel, in a room next to your parents,' sound to you?"

Sigh. My hero. Who needs Hawaii when I have sunshine here, all year round?

Can't wait to see what happens next

Lots of stuff about Zach recently; what can I say? He's infinitely cute and funny. But don't think for a second that there's anything less interesting or fun about Luke. Tonight, for instance, he and Dave and I were high-fiving like crazy because they finally finished all 341 pages of the second Harry Potter book (Chamber of Secrets).

This week, as Student of the Week, Luke had to ask us (me and Dave) to write a letter about all of the things that were special about him. Then he brought the letter to school and the teacher read it out loud as he sat in a special chair in front of the class. Did he have a great time listening to the letter? Did he ever. Did I have a great time writing it? Yup:

"Ever since he was a tiny kid, Luke has always been a thinker. He loves to try to build things, fix things, solve problems, and ask lots and lots of questions.

"One of Luke’s favorite things in the world is Legos. He has an amazing ability to take a pile of bricks and turn them into the most incredible creations. Over the summer he saved up all his money to buy the Venator Class Republic Attack Cruiser, a Star Wars Lego set with 1,170 pieces, and he built it all himself.

"When Luke is not building Legos, you can almost always find him curled up with a good book. He loved the Captain Underpants books and the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, and now we are reading the Harry Potter books with him. He has always been fascinated by magic, and he loves to carry out spells and create potions. He made up a special potion that has the longest, craziest name in the world – you should ask him sometime to tell you the word.

"Luke is very interested in science and he loves looking at rocks, especially crystals. He can tell you the name of just about any kind of crystal. One of his favorite parts of our summer vacation was when we went mining for gold. He was very good at sifting through all of the dirt and mud and finding the little tiny nuggets.

"If you ask Luke what he wants to be when he grows up, he will probably tell you he wants to be a billionaire. Luke loves doing math problems – even in his head – and is very good at saving money and thinking of new ways to make money. This summer he had four different drink sales down on the Strand. He bought all of his own supplies and he made almost $100 selling cold drinks on hot days. He is already thinking of new strategies for making money next summer.

"Luke loves hanging out with his friends and playing with his DS, or else running around and playing Star Wars games or creating potions. He loves being on a soccer team and a t-ball team because his dad is the coach. When he’s with his mom, he loves to cook fancy meals in the kitchen and pretend he is a chef running his own restaurant. At the end of the day, he loves watching movies or baseball with his mom and dad.

"Luke also has a little brother, Zach, who is 3 ½. Luke loves to teach Zach new things, and he can’t wait until Zach is a little bit older so they can play DS together. For now, they love to swim, go to the beach, and build Legos together.

"Luke is a great kid who is affectionate, sweet, and a lot of fun to be around. We love watching him learn and grow every day, and we can’t wait to see what he is going to do next.

"Love,

Mom and Dad"

Lost in Wonderland

A.k.a. the water heater aisle at Home Depot.

Half-time

For the past 24 hours I've been telling Zach that today is going to be his half-birthday, he is going to be 3 1/2, and we are going to have a little cake to celebrate. It wasn't until mid-afternoon that I realized - wait a minute - today isn't the 23rd; it's only the 22nd! Calendar FAIL. But we're not going to get started with that again.

The real story is that I had a secret cake plan up my sleeve. I knew I was going in to the office today (Friday), I knew there would be a big multi-birthday celebration, I knew there would be a huge cake with lots of leftovers, and I knew I would be bringing some home for the boys. So I promised Zach that after dinner we would have "something with frosting" to celebrate his little day.

Sure enough, I came home this afternoon with a big plate of leftover cake in hand - carrot cake with cream cheese icing, as it turns out.

But Zach seems to have had other ideas. When he and I went to Trader Joe's to pick up some milk just before dinner, he happened to notice a big display with some fancy Trader Joe's chocolate cake mix. "Mom - I think we should buy this cake!" he announced. "I think this will be my 'Happy Half Birthday' cake!"

Well, er, em...I hemmed and hawed. I did have a big plate of cake at home already. But it was carrot cake. And it was left over from someone else's birthday. And (truth be told, this did cross my mind) we have done some mighty fancy half-birthday parties for Luke in the past.

So I caved. I bought the chocolate cake mix. And you have never seen a happier boy in your life. He insisted on carrying the box in his hand, not the shopping bag. He carried the box in his lap all the way home. He held onto the box while I read him a book. ("Mom, this is my 'Happy Half Birthday' cake!")

What else was there to do? He and I made the cake together, along with some frosting (from scratch), and we turned our back on the carrot cake altogether (I think it is bound for the freezer).

In the interest of time, I didn't wait for the chocolate cake to cool off before frosting it, so the effect was something akin to those chocolate lava cakes that are so popular now - a piping hot cake with a gooey, melting chocolate topping. And it was huge - easily enough for a party of 20.

Zach loved it. And he was proud of it - because it was really his. I might be going out on a limb here, but I'm going to say I think this was his happiest half birthday EVER.

My chocolate man, my little chef. Three and a half years has just made me want more and more.

That was then

Travel Town train, February 2007: A cold and overcast day. Luke had just turned three; I was six months pregnant. Luke was into tools, guitars, and the vending machine. I was focused on spending quality time with Luke and possibly heading out to buy some more maternity clothes. I had no way of knowing that this was my last weekend out in the world before heading to the hospital. In fact, this picture never made it onto the blog - Dave had to upload it while I was in the hospital so he could print out some pictures for me. I remember that this was one of the most difficult pictures for me to look at because it reminded me of my last days of free-wheeling fun with Luke. I just had no idea what was ahead.

Travel Town train, October 2010: A cold and overcast day. Zach is almost three and a half; Luke is in first grade; I'm older and possibly wiser and definitely more tired. Zach is into trains, cats, and hot water heaters; he's wearing his cat costume. I'm enjoying some quality time with my littlest guy on my day off from work . Is there some big change lurking on the horizon? Who can ever know? But we had a great time, and this time I was able to put the picture on the blog.

At our Tuesday night class, Zach likes to walk around the exterior of the school building and point out all of the "alarms" (mostly intercoms and/or speakers). Today we passed a small metal box mounted on the outside wall.
Me: "Zach, do you think that is another alarm?"
Zach: (exasperated sigh) "No, mom, that's a tankless water heater."