weekend update

on a scorching hot weekend, we chose to stay inside for much of it ...

saturday we celebrated nana's birthday with a pancake and fruit fiesta (with whipped cream too, natch).

jack made a pancake man with strawberry eyes, blackberry nose, raspberry ears and pineapple smile. and no, those are not lyrics to a beatles song from sgt. pepper's.

did we mention the whipped cream?

and our girl got messy ...

no, she's not wounded and bleeding ... just very, berry messy!

some time in the wading pool helped us cool off (and clean up).

speaking of cleaning up ... jack decided he wanted to help clean the house on sunday and dusted, mopped and vacuumed his own room.

guess we know how to spend upcoming weekends!

s.o.c. x

strawberry cute forever!

and we here at ·ald· know how to count to at least 2000 in roman numerals, so this could go on a while ...

s.o.c. ix

crazy daisy

color me cute!

daycare report

as we mentioned, the kids headed to day care on friday when roxana was sick.

as it turns out, they both had a fantastic day:

single-click image to enlarge it

weekend update

my oh my -- what a busy weekend we had. a flurry of activity left we social butterflies ready for monday and a chance to catch our breath!

saturday started off with an outing by jack and nana to adventure theater to see "if you give a pig a pancake"

**spoiler alert**
it doesn't stop with just a pancake! that pig's a .... well ... a pig!



after the play, jack also caught a ride on the old-fashioned carousel ...

the theater goers returned home for lunch .. and found annie had already dug in to black beans!

we enjoyed an evening celebration of the (count em!) 9th birthday of our friends the twins. it was 5 fewer kids than will be in our beach house come august, and yet it was already plenty chaotic!

sunday was hot and steamy ... so we cooled off in the pool!

first in our front yard ...

this game is called "sea horse"

"mad swimmer"

we also celebrated our friend lucy's birthday with a party at her swim club. jack has made a lot of progress and was dog paddling his way (with face in the water) between human buoys.

a wet and wild weekend indeed!

quaking in our boots

call the authorities!

3 out of 4 of us were shaken awake at 5:06 am by a 3.6 magnitude earthquake that rattled the washington, dc area -- the first one since 1974!

mommy thought the purple line of the metro had been built overnight -- under our house!

jack thought it was a plane crashing.

daddy claims he thought it was an earthquake all along -- though his claim was a little ex post facto ...

annie ... well, annie never made a peep. we think she slept through it!

and it wasn't only the authorities who needed calling this morning ... we also got backup daycare on the horn.

mamaxana is down with a non-earthquake induced illness and so the kids are off to the center for the day.

we'll have a full report next week!

s.o.c. viii

peasant girl on a tool box -- what other caption could this have???

the a.m. routine

bless curious george and his ability to calm the wild things while mommy sips coffee and catches up on overnight email ...

s.o.c. vii

in a dress mommy bought in mexico when she was just 6 months old ...

annie is mexicali cute!

weekend update

saturday morning began with a drizzle. a steady, much-needed, steam-producing drizzle. after a pancake breakfast, we faced our prospects for the day. and we decided there was only one thing to do ...

go to the movies.

that's right -- jack experienced his first in-cinema movie with a viewing of toy story 3. mommy prepped jack on the drive to the mall for what to expect -- the movie would be very loud and the theater would get very dark and we would have to speak quietly. and that all helped when it was showtime. after half a dozen (at least!) previews, we settled in with our popcorn and strawberry milk to watch woody, buzz lightning [sic] and all the gang.

although scared for a few parts, mommy reminded jack that he had been scared in "car movie" the first time he saw that too, and he seemed to relax. we had a great and very successful screening.

after the movie, we rode the "train" that runs through the mall, and enjoyed a sbarro pizza and strawberry frozen custard (kid loves him some strawberry!)

we emerged to find sunny skies had returned. "mission: rainy-day movie" had been a success and meanwhile daddy and annie were able to enjoy some q.t. together, playing at home.

since we vanquished the clouds, sunday started off as ... well ... a sun day.

so, jack, mommy and annie headed off to the farm while daddy took care of some projects around the house, including the great bird nest eviction of 2010 (aka aviary sunday, bloody sunday).

while we have visited a number of times, this was annie's first ex utero experience at homestead farm. and, as suspected, she had a great time!

annie is a great lover of animals ... and animal sounds. she likes to hear and repeat what various animals say. cock-a-doodle doo is a particular favorite. and she got to hear it live and straight from the rooster's mouth. she was tickled.

jack enjoyed trying to feed the animals grass, but was taken aback when a chicken errantly pecked him. there are no photos of our visiting the goats because mommy was trying to keep annie from being treated like a tin can, if ya catch the drift.

and, as with any trip to the farm in july, we bought a week's supply of peaches, blue berries (last of the season), blackberries, tomato and corn to bring home.

at least we thought it was a week's supply. until we downed a quart of blackberries in one sitting!

after a second day in a row of late, long naps, we wrapped up the weekend with a afternoon/evening trip to the pool where annie has become much steadier in the baby pool and jack stood up to the tweenagers who took the tether ball from him, eventually convincing them to play on the pirate ship jungle gym with him.

the moral of this weekend update? there are worse things than catching a flick when the rains come. there are worse things than having your kids eat too many berries. there are worse things than naps that run long and late. there are worse things than playing on the pirate ship when the tether ball gets taken.

and we fully enjoyed our weekend full of "less worse" things.

strike up the band

this was the welcome that greeted mommy upon her arrival home one night this week:

think of this as your welcome into the weekend.

pediatric update

the headline: jack is a normal, healthy 4 year old boy and is growing up just right and very cute to boot.

* weight = 34.2 lbs. (30th percentile)
* height = 41.5" (75th percentile)
* and apparently they've quit measuring his head circumference

the doctor spent a while talking to jack about his birthday party, his friends, his school and what he likes to play with. while this seemed like nice conversation, it was really a way for her to assess language and cognitive skills as well as social and emotional development. she observed jack still has some pronunciation issues, particularly with "l" (which he pronounces as "w") but that it was all within the normal range. and she complimented his language skills and vocabulary.

she also checked jack over -- examining his spine, his walk, his ability to jump, his heart, chest, eyes, ears and mouth. head to toe. actually, she hadn't examined his toes, so jack prompted her: "check my feet!" yup, the tickle reflex works.

after a very pleasant and positive visit with the doctor ... the nurse came.

in what was the headline for jack, she came in and gave him -- count 'em -- 4 shots. jack tearfully declared he never wanted to come to the doctor again. can't fault him for that.

we then went into a little booth to get his hearing checked. despite parental claims that his listening leaves something to be desired, he raised his hand every time a tone beeped in the headphones -- his hearing is just fine.

so what about the listening???

who's the boss?

this post has been a long time in coming ...

most who read this blog already know this story, but since a big point of this exercise is to record things for posterity (read: for publicly embarrassing our progeny at an opportune moment during their adult lives), it is today that we share the story of jarges.

let us begin with a statement of fact: many young children have imaginary friends. this is not uncommon and quite normal. in fact, it may even be positive according to no less an authority than wondertime magazine.

however ... and we acknowledge we have no empirical evidence with which to back this assertion ... having an imaginary *boss* is -- ahem -- less common.

and yet, that is exactly what jack has.

jack's boss is named jarges.

we have adopted a french spelling, though we have also entertained the possibility that it is a more kyrgyz spelling of zhargh.

jack's imaginary boss can be something of a tyrant. he is apparently a concert promoter who requires jack to perform many dancing concerts a day. usually a whistle blows, and jack must begin to dance.

jack only seems to catch a break when jarges goes on vacation. jarges has recently traveled to china, mexico (multiple visits) and new york city on the vamoose bus. however, while he is on the road, jarges is always sure to check in with jack by email on his blackberry.

jack also gets a break from the constant mandated performing when jarges is sick and injured. jarges took ill in mid-may when he fell into poison ivy and ate rocks which caused him to throw up. we are told he was hospitalized for these maladies.

but, jarges is also apparently something of a benevolent despot -- on july 1 he turned thirty-eleven (because he is older than daddy). he was going to have a birthday party, however in this case the post office ran out of stamps, the mailmen all got sick and were instructed by the doctor to stay in bed for 11 days, and -- bad news -- the party was canceled.

which was really too bad since we had a present all ready to go! jack said that since jarges was old (older than daddy, so that's saying something) he wanted furniture. mommy suggested a bed but that was apparently a terrible idea, per jack. jarges, he declared, wanted a refrigerator for his birthday.

how long will jarges be in our lives ... only time will tell. for now he's is a constant presence and as long as he is ... we're gonna keep on dancing.

4th of july

we started our independence day festivities with a red, white and blue breakfast ... homemade waffles with whipped cream, strawberries, blueberries and raspberries.

our fruit-fiend children were appropriately ravenous ...

one we were adequately fueled ... we headed out for the annual neighborhood parade, which ends up at the park/elementary school playground. a good time was had by all!

happy birthday america!!!

portraits of annie

for annie's first birthday, we had some portraits taken by our friend erin. they turned out beautifully -- no surprise.

some of our favorites of (one of) the best thing(s) to ever happen to us:

s.o.c. vi

pretty in purple