Happy Father's Day!

Father's Day and Mother's Day are working holidays, if ever there were any. Since there's never a day off from parenthood, the best a parent can hope for is at least a warm breakfast, a little extra dose of obedience from the children, and a handmade card or two.

Daddy lucked out on two of those three things this Father's Day. Guess what was missing? Yes, the obedience! Father's Day dawned a bit cloudy but the dreary weather didn't deter the boys' spirits as they propelled themselves on top of Daddy. In spite of Daddy's shouts and groans of "no, no, no" and Mommy's comparatively weak and disinterested pleas to the same, children ran amok on our bed early yesterday morning with little limbs poking in places that assure Helios and Hesperos that they will be the only children in our small family.

Afterward, we trundled into the car to enjoy a Sunday brunch off the lake at a local restaurant. Hesperos was particularly fond of the waffles (missing is the photo of Hesperos and the chocolate chips, wherein we see the remnants of the great Chocolate Chip Monster that Hesperos roundly defeated by eating a glorious finish!).

Contrary to how it may appear in this photo, Helios also enjoyed himself at brunch -- the still position and pained smile was the price he paid for being allowed to cut his own waffle with a knife.

Following the brunch festivities, there was a little bit of shopping, a little bit of undisciplined behavior on the part of little children, a nice long nap that corrected much of it, and then early evening entertainment featuring Helios' very own composition, "An Ode to Grandpas on Father's Day."

Happy Father's Day to Daddy, Grandpa Wil, and Grandpa Mel!

"Mommy, I'm Sick."

Earlier last month, Helios climbed into bed with Mommy and Daddy. While Mommy appreciated the extra warmth (it's now June and she's still waiting for summer), Helios was clearly burning up. With a plaintive little cry he whimpered, "Mommy, I'm sick."

When these little boys are sick, it is extremely difficult for Mommy and Daddy to tell. They rarely run fevers and even less tell-tale physical signs like red ears and skin splotches are noticeably missing. If they appear even the slightest bit cranky, generally a train or some popcorn does the trick and they're happy as clams. (Why are clams so happy? Are they even sentient beings? Don't they know they're going to be eaten?) In fact, they often can have raging ear or sinus infections and we won't know until they are thoroughly miserable, days after the infection has set in. There are few early warning signs. So, when Helios came in pleading illness, we figured it was legit.

Mommy took Helios to the doctor that day and imagine her surprise when, a couple of x-rays later, we learned he had bacterial pneumonia! Oops. We missed that one. So, Helios came home and, for the next few days, in between spurts of energetic activity, he rested on the couch with two fleece blankets, both made by Grandma Jane, and a heating pad while watching episodes of Thomas the Tank Engine and Signing Time. The rest (plus the heavy-duty anti-biotic) must have done the trick -- within three days, he was torturing Hesperos again and arguing over who got to play with the trains.

Even Sheets Are Fun When You're Little

A few months ago, Mommy and Daddy were working on painting the ceilings and had the floors covered accordingly with canvas drapes. For some reason, the novelty of having canvas drapes on the floor was excitement itself for the boys. Without needing any prompting or encouragement at all, they took the opportunity to run in circles on the drape while shouting "whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa." We don't understand it, we don't know why. But if a canvas drape is good for 30 minutes of mindless exercise and entertainment, who needs preschool and toys?

Happy Valentine's Day

Some celebrate with chocolate, some with flowers, some with romantic evenings. The people who celebrate Valentine's day that way either don't have little people or are better endowed with babysitters.









For our family, Valentine's day is more of a family affair reminiscent of Easter but without an egg-depositing fluffy bunny. This is thanks to Mommy and her attempts to game the system when she was a little person herself. When Mommy figured out that Grandma Joan and Grandpa Wil were indispensable helpers to Santa and the Easter Bunny, she slyly decided that they could provide the same level of support to the Great Valentine and the Sparkly Firecracker, two B-list holiday celebrities....that she invented...right at that moment.

Since then, Valentine's Day has been more than just an opportunity to trade cards with classmates -- it's also a bagged gift affair replete with small wrapped toys, balloons, and bags of popcorn from Aunt Sully. But the best part was the Valentine's chocolate brownies, heart-shaped and eaten with love.

First Dentist Visit

February was the month of sweets, the month of love, and the month when the boys went to the dentist to atone for their love of sweets (notably homemade cookies and chocolate chips).

This was Hesperos' first visit. The dentist checked out his chompers, doing a quick count by sweeping his gloved finger through the drool-slaked mouth. (The dentist only had to ask to see the bite-shaped imprint on Mommy's shoulder to know how many teeth Hesperos had, without ever looking inside.) After being given a clean bill of toothy health and a new Crayola toothbrush, the doctor let Hesperos go, resulting in him making a dash out the door and a shaky diaper-bottomed hustle to the box of chewy rubber duckies around the corner. I don't know if a rubber duck was included in our baby dentist visit, but I think it's something the dental office staff and insurance company can figure out without my helpful suggestions.

This was Helios' second visit, and came complete with his first cleaning. Initially distrustful of the hygienist, Helios was wooed by her grandmotherly charm, winning smile, and her invitation to let him ride up and down in her "space chair." That's right, folks -- no matter what the age, boys love toys.

However, toy love lasted only until the hygienist wanted to put the cleaning tool into Helios' mouth. He protested mightily and with much suspicion (just wait until Helios visits the proctologist for the first time...I wonder if the doc will have a cool chair?). But, the hygienist, with that same comforting voice (she managed to make Helios feel like a big boy while telling us that he was one of the easiest children she's worked with), invited Helios to choose his flavor of tooth polish. "Mint, orange, chocolate, strawberry banana, latte, fruit punch..." she rattled off, but Helios had stopped listening. "CHOC-O-LATE!" he exclaimed. Big surprise there. As she polished his teeth with chocolate fluoride paste, Helios would occasionally come up for air with Mommy-like insights and interjections. "Mommy, why don't we have chocolate toothpaste at home?" and "At home I have to brush my teeth after chocolate but at the dentist office I brush my teeth with chocolate. Can I brush my teeth with chocolate at home?" And then, my favorite, "I want chocolate teeth all the time!"

Of course he does.