He Said, He Said

Anna: Eeewww! Something smells like poo!

Thomas: Jack do!
Jack: Tommy do!

So this is how it's going to be.
Sigh.

Happy Birthday Gwammy

This Is Where It All Happens

Guess what? Right now Anna is into writing letters.

Making name labels and taping them on their potties so that the brothers know exactly which one to sit on?

Right, that was what occurred to Anna, too, as a way to get in some extra practice writing.

Yoga For The People

Tired of those snobby yoga studios heavy on the attitude but light on the enlightenment?
Right. Us too.

Come, join us for a free session right outside your door in nature's own Riverside Park, allowing NYC's 'Ganges-esque' public park water to work its magic on your chakras.

And don't worry: you'll quickly forget that that creeping dampness you feel is more than just energy.

And we also humbly suggest wearing underwear you can be proud of.

Hanging Out

I liked this shot. I thought the 'sun rising over the phone booth' effect was quite cool.

And whose kids are those, anyway?

SNACK!

Is evidently toddler English for 'Garcon!'.
At least I think this is the case because every time we go to a restaurant, as soon as Thomas is seated he starts looking around for the waitstaff, jabbing his finger in the direction of his little (empty) bread plate and shouting this at the top of his lungs.

Deep Thoughts: Space and Time

• We went to Coney Island 2 weeks ago (but more on that later). As we exited the Subway we could see the Cyclone and the ferris wheel in the distance. Anna's excited comment:
  
  "Mommy, the ferris wheel is kind of like Uranus without the rings--it spins tipped on its side!"
  

• Anna is sitting in the stroller after a long day and a hard fall. She is looking up at the sky.
  
  "Mommy, does the sky have ceilings? So that helium balloons can't just go up in space?"

• Anna has this USA map placemat. It has a drawing of a dinosaur on Montana. Presumably because that is a state where they dig up lots of dinosaur bones. Or perhaps there's more. Anna looked closely at the placemat the other day and said:
  
  "Mommy! Can you believe it? There are dinosaurs alive in Montana!"

Thomas

Thomas has not been a very good boy of late.
He is not sleeping well in his big boy bed. And he is very, very terribly two.

This is him at River Park.
Unlike the other small children, Thomas not only sits in the "river", he also lays in it.
He splashes his face and neck with it as if it were cologne.
He bends over and dunks his head in it as if he is in a Gatorade commercial.

As Anna put it to him sternly: "Thomas, you are causing confusion and delay."
And that's the least of it. (I would add pain and suffering.)

So I'm posting this to help me think happy Tommy thoughts.
Because he will wake up at 4:30AM tomorrow.
And then I'll need those thoughts...

Urban Shame

That's right: My Sons Are Afraid Of Trees.

Particularly when the wind blows and moves the leaves. Almost like magic.
There, now it's out there.
I feel better already.

How Things Work

"Tommy, turn it back on! Press the powder button!"

Thomas likes to play the Leap Pad with Anna. Thomas likes to push all available buttons. Thomas ends up un/intentionally turning off the Leap Pad several times during one of their play sessions. At which point you hear Anna scream at him to turn the thing back on. I wonder why Tommy never seems to get the thing back on...

This is another in Anna's line of creative-button-names-for-electronic-gadgets. I mean, who could forget the cheese button?

Jack, I Can't Play Right Now

... because I have to get something ready for dinner.
[Mommy starts to make rustling noises in the kitchen.]

What does Jack do?
He walks over to the drawer where we keep the delivery menus.
He opens the drawer and picks out the menu of the place we order from the most.
He hands me the menu.
No, I am not proud of this.

Jack also refers to heating hot dogs in the microwave as 'cooking'.
Again, not so proud.

All this reminds me of the day when I realized that 1-year old Anna knew her phone number. I was on the phone with our favorite Vietnamese place, had just finished my order and was asked for our phone number.
I got as far as "212-8" before Anna, quietly playing across the room, looked up and shouted out the rest.

Sigh.

Don't Hate Her Because She's Beautiful

... or because her Crazy Chemistry Class happened to land her in a magazine.
That's right: Anna, et al. are the new cover girls for the Children's Museum of Manhattan. This full page spread was in the October issue of Time Out NY Kids, page 59.

(from l to r: unknown girl in red, Sloane, Anna, Katharine)

The Art Of The Deal

Thomas and Jack wake up. Yes, it is 5AM.
Jack immediately runs over to the couch and grabs Tommy's favorite train.
Tommy decides he needs to do something. He starts with the straightforward approach and tries to grab it out of Jack's hand.
Jack is a bit too quick for this.
I do my Wharton-based parental intervention thing and say one word: "trade".

Tommy looks around.
He grabs another train. He offers it to Jack.
Jack knows he's got a hot commodity. He refuses.

Tommy looks around again.
He grabs Elmo off of the couch. He shoves it in Jack's face.
He shouts "Elmo!". Still, Jack does not budge.

Tommy looks around again.
He sees the other Elmo (we have two boys, after all) on the couch.
He grabs the other Elmo. He shoves it in Jack's face.
He yells "More Elmo!".

Creative, but ultimately unsuccessful.
I suppose it is true that you can have too much of a brightly colored puppet with a high pitched voice.

When I Die, You Can Be In Charge

No, I did NOT say this to any of my children.

Anna said it to me.

We were playing her current favorite game where she is the Mommy and I am the Anna and her stuffed animal horse is my "little sister". She wanted to do something one way. I, clever child that I am, suggested a different way.

At which point she looked me in the eye and set me straight on exactly when my turn was going to be.

Eastside, Baby!

That's right. Our buddies Hugo and Jasper had their birthday party on the other side of the park, so you know what that means: cab ride! First one with just Mommy and the brothers.

Naturally, I took some candid shots.

(And yes the ride definitely went much more smoothly after I took a moment to share with the cab driver Jack's tendency towards regurgitation in jerky, darting vehicles.)

It's A Guideline, Not A Timeline

Scene: Anna and Jack are doing their thing on their respective potties (sp?) in the bathroom. Jack is catching up on Maisy's latest adventure book while Anna is flipping through her horse encyclopedia

Jack says "All done!" and starts to stand up.

Anna: "What?? You're not done. You haven't even turned all the pages yet!"

Urban Dangler

Yeah, I let my kids do this.

Down On The Corner, Out In The Street

No doubt John Fogerty had this good looking crew in mind when he penned those lyrics.

Thanks, Gwammy & Gwampy for all your help with our birthday party (photos coming soon).
And for the ice cream at 84th & Broadway, of course...

Thoughts On The Bridge

You know, the part of a song "that connects two parts of that song, building a harmonic connection between those parts.".

The other morning at breakfast while we were listening to the

Oh, la la la, de de da
La la, de de da da da

part of Piano Man, Anna looked up and said "You could make your own song up here!"

What Is A Vegetarian Doctor, You Ask...

It seems obvious, eh? A doctor that doesn't eat meat.
It is also what Anna wants to be when she grows up.

Sort of.
After Anna told me that when she grows up she wants to be the person at the stable who gives the horses a shower, I told her that was great and why doesn't she think about med school while she's at it? That way after all the horses are nice and clean she can also be a veterinarian, which is a doctor who can take care of horses when they are sick.

Not sure if she got my message.