Results tagged “Sean” from Proud Dad / Happy Husband

Many in the family have heard the story, but I now have a little time (ahem!) to tell it in video and pictures. Will has actually never been on an airplane, and back in June, he got an impromptu introduction to flying. It wasn’t a standard commercial airplane. No — he was in the passenger seat in a two-seater flown out of the local Hanover County Airport.

The Cub Scout pack was down for a visit with someone who has an airplane at the airport, so they could see the inside of the plane, the hanger where it was stored, and a little about the airport. See the picture below for the pilot and airplane we visited (as we got published in the local town paper). But no flights were planned.

But before we got that tour, we discovered that the Young Eagles program was at the airport, offering free, short flights for kids older than 6 (sorry, Sean and Daniel — and they really wanted to go, too). After checking with Will if he wanted to do it, we signed the waivers and got him in line for a flight. And what a flight it was — wind direction made takeoffs to the north the right thing to do, so the flight plan was to head north toward Kings Dominion (about 10 miles away), then turn around and come land from the south. So Will, having been to Kings Dominion just 2 weeks earlier (and his first time there, too), was able to see the park from the air. Of course, he definitely liked seeing the Eiffel Tower.

This is the part where I get mad at myself. We had the camera with us, but I forgot to check battery strength. Oops! We got 1 picture on it before it completely died, so I went to my handy, much-lower-res cameraphone. Oh well, at least we have some pictures and videos. Which unfortunately means I get mad about something else — namely, I accidentally deleted (instead of saved) the video of Will’s plane landing. It was a very smooth landing (pilot was excellent) and I was next to the taxiway, so I was right there. But I messed up in clicking and buttons, and the video was gone. So, instead you just get the takeoff and the taxiing for final park.

So, Will got to be the co-pilot of the plane (he had to sit up front), and he got to see Kings Dominion from the air. That’s really cool. Here are some more pictures from the event at the airport. Sean and Daniel did get to sit in a parked airplane and check things out, so that definitely made them a little happier.

Well, the snowfall ended about dinnertime last night, though the wind continued to blow. What was the final snowfall? Hard to say, as I didn’t measure last night. But when I went this morning to start shoveling things off, we had over 12 inches on the ground. That’s about the same as the snowstorm in December.

The boys still had some fun stomping through the deeper snow this morning, though it was a bit intimidating at times for Sean and Daniel. It was deep enough to definitely drop some snow down into my boots when I had to wander out into it. The boys and Kellie helped with some of the snow shoveling, though help may be a bit strong of a word for what the twins did. A video in the picture album below shows you how they helped there.

(I’m trying out a new photo album style. This one allows YouTube videos to be played within the slide show. Let me know what you think.)

The sun continues to shine today, even if the temperature is barely above freezing. The driveway, cars, and sidewalk are nicely cleared and melted, but the neighborhood roads still await a plowing. School for tomorrow has already been canceled. This is actually the first canceled school day of the year, as the last snowfall arrived after winter break started. I’m guessing Kellie and I won’t get canceled work days, however.

Yup, we’re getting socked by another snowstorm this winter. This is our third significant snow, though only the second one I’d call major. But having two major snowfalls in Richmond in one winter is out of the ordinary. The snow started overnight, but was relatively light. However, shortly after 8am, the intensity kicked up, and it has not let up since. In fact, it may be snowing even harder now, with more wind, too.

We ventured out into the snow around 10am this morning, and we already had 5 inches of snow at that point. The kids had fun stomping around in the snow — even Sean and Daniel stepped right into it. I shoveled the driveway off for a first cut, knowing more would come later, and the kids had fun wiping snow off the cars. They had fun catching snowflakes on the tongue. Unfortunately, this snow is fine and powdery, not good enough for snowballs or snowmen. But the kids were out in the snow for almost 45 minutes, enough to get just wet enough.

As I write this entry, not quite 4 hours after coming inside, I can barely see any evidence of what I shoveled on the front walkway. We’ve had that much more snow fall and get blown around. We also cannot see any tracks in the yard where Kellie and the kids walked around. And this storm isn’t over yet. Total snowfall could be interesting for this one.

Yes, we did wind up with a White Christmas. OK, technically it’s not snowing now, and the snow on the ground is almost a week old. But there is snow still there, so I think it counts.

The kids were wild this morning, tearing into their presents. They were really happy to see what Santa and family gave them. But things have now settled down a bit, though you certainly wouldn’t know it by looking at the floor.

But let’s also remember what this season is all about. And Linus and Charlie Brown really seem to have it down. (Yes, this is a repeat from last year. It’s still as relevant.)

Yup, the kids are really feeling it, too. Even Sean and Daniel are antsy about when Santa is going to get here. They really are itching to know that Santa will be here, even if they really don’t know what to expect. All three of them cannot wait for Christmas to be here.

That’s not to say that they don’t get the religious significance of tomorrow, either. We’ve been reading lots of Christmas story related books, and they know that we are celebrating Jesus’s birthday. (Will’s understanding is a bit deeper, as it should be with an older kid.)

But in honor of their antsyness, I give you this little Sesame Street ditty. Kinda cute, if you can stand Elmo and Cheryl Crow. (And yes, Sesame Street has lots of official short videos on YouTube now. Plenty to distract kids with, if they want to sit in your lap and share some computer time with you.)

I finally got the video and pictures straight from last weekend. After a heavy snowfall on Friday night, we awoke to more snow throughout the morning. But it stopped right before lunchtime, with only scattered snow that afternoon. Sunday morning was brisk, but clear in the sky. And by the afternoon, we started to get some melt on the parts of the road/driveway/sidewalk that had been cleared off.

The pictures cover the full range of the snow. All 3 kids got out on Saturday before lunchtime, but Sean and Daniel napped later in the afternoon when Will and Kellie went out to finish the snowman. Will spent Sunday with Gwama, so our time outside later that afternoon was spent with Sean and Daniel.

As you can see from the pictures above and video below, Sean and Daniel largely confined themselves to the sidewalk. They just didn’t like walking in the deep and uneven snow underfoot. But this afternoon, we got them home before sunset and spent some time outside, and they finally started wandering around in the snow on their own. Sean, in particular, was making fresh snow tracks. And we finally got a toboggan track going that all 3 kids went down a few times. We’ll see if the snow can last until Friday, for a white Christmas.

Wow, you’re now 3 years old. Crazy little time we’ve had getting this far.

More pix of the festivities will come later. Just wanted to wish the boys a happy 3rd birthday before the day was out.

Sean and Daniel just want to say, Hi. They know they haven’t checked in for a while. If they understood counting down the days, they’d be getting more excited about their birthday coming up. But they do know that it is coming up soon.

In more ways than one. The weather broke just in time for everyone to go out. It had rained from Friday night until about 3pm on Saturday, then the sun started to break through the clouds. We got a nice view of the almost-full moon as we were out in the neighborhood, but by 10pm, it was raining again. (And it still hasn’t stopped as I write this entry.)

If you saw the previous entry, you already know what the kids are going out as. But each of their outfits got improvements to go out tonight — red pants and shirts for the Elmos, facial make up and some added costume jewelry for the vampire.

Unfortunately for the twins, their outfit wound up being too warm for the 70 degree weather we had for walking around. Even I was hot and sweaty from walking around in the humid air. But they were troopers and stayed with the outfit the whole way, only removing the heads (like a hood) over the last 30 minutes or so.

They all got good reactions, but there must be something about seeing two Elmos walking around that makes women — from preteen through adult — just say “Awwww.” It happened probably at least 10 times as we were just walking around.

I know Will and I were done with walking on the day. On Saturday morning, we went around a couple of nearby neighborhoods dropping off paper grocery bags for collecting food as part of our council’s Scouting for Food effort. Next Saturday, we’ll go back to these neighborhoods and pick up any bags that have been filled. Will actually had fun going around and leaving the bags on the front doors and stoops, even if it was lightly raining at times during our 2+ hours of bag distribution.

Nothing major — just at the daycare facility this afternoon. This was like last year. They get to dress up in their costumes. There is lots of food to eat. Some of the parents get time off from work to visit. And people go home a little early, though this year is a little different in that we don’t have to go trick-or-treating until tomorrow.

So, what are the kids dressing as? Well, you’ll just have to see below.

Will will get a better makeup treatment before going out tomorrow night. (As a vampire, if you cannot quite tell from the picture.)

One of the games that the Older Two class (the age group Sean and Daniel are in) did was apple bobbing. They each got their own little buckets to go bobbing for an apple. Lots of the kids weren’t really sure what to do. But one of ours did know what to do. First one to get it.

Not sure how I’m supposed to react here. This is a photo of Sean in the arcade room of the local Cici’s Pizza. It was a school spirit night, so we went there, spent our money on dinner, then dropped in the arcade to pretend play. Sean gravitated to this shoot-em-up game. As you can see, he grabbed both gun handles and just pretended to move them all around.

See my dilemma?

With that said, I don’t think he realized what he was doing or what the game even had. He just saw something where he could grab something with both hands and pretend to move them around. He definitely wasn’t making shooting noises. And later, he sat in the driving simulator/racer and pretended to drive by turning the steering wheel and even shifting the gear shift.

So, all’s well here. Especially now that I’m over the flu I had last week (though I still have a cough). More shortly on Will’s camping trip last Saturday night.

OK, first off, mornings are never good for me. I am not a morning person. But Sean picked up Will’s backpack and put it on (almost the the ground, but he could walk around with it), so of course, it’s picture time. And then Sean and Daniel insisted everyone should have a picture taken. And that lead to this round of pictures.

My second excuse? It’s been seven days since I first came down with the flu. I’m actually over it now (really, yesterday), but sleeping was tough most nights, with all of the coughing. So that’s the “real-life,” droopy-eyed view you get of me. I normally look much more chipper. (I think I also didn’t try to look better when the picture was taken.)

I hope none of you get this flu bug. It’s one of the longest lasting ones I have ever gotten.

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve written something. So here’s a quick note to kick off the week.

First, we should note that Will started second grade this year. It was tough to get a picture of Will getting on his school bus because it was raining and pouring outside. It meant I stayed in my car with the twins, so that they could see the bus, while Kellie stood under an umbrella with Will. And holding an umbrella makes it difficult to take a photo while protecting said camera.

Ah well, we have pictures from last year. Not too different, other than the rain.

At least on Labor Day, we were able to be outside and play at the park. I think you can see that it was already getting overcast then, but it still made for some fun times playing there. It’s pretty much a free-for-all, as the kids can climb on almost everything provided — and they really have some neat stuff available. Ah, to have been a kid when the current generation of playground equipment is available. It might have also prevented me from crushing my fingernail that one time, too.

And yes, Daniel insists on playing football with a baseball glove on. All the better to catch with, I guess, though he will catch without it, too. He certainly loves his sports toys, including the batting tee. And you should see him run with a football — and fall down at the end of his run, like he had been tackled. (That reminds me — I have to get video of that some time.)

So, what does this have to do with the title of this post? Well, let’s just say that a certain set of training wheels came off today. Nothing to report yet — not even a little boo-boo. We didn’t get far enough for that, but we did experiment with understanding the need to put feet down when stopping. But there was supported forward, pedaled motion. Stay tuned.

Other stuff that will get greater detail later — Sean is almost potty-trained (at least at day care); Kellie, Will and I went to Busch Gardens yesterday for a birthday celebration; and Will will be joining Cub Scouts this year.

Yup, it certainly was the power supply. I got a new supply with an increase in the power rating (not sure how I’ll spec this in the future), swapped it out in less than a half-hour, and voila — a working computer. Power supply swaps are easy, as long as the computer maker gives enough room to get to some of the connectors.

In my case, it was made a little tough by how HP placed the main 20-pin connector on the motherboard behind the drive bay. My big hands didn’t fit in there so well, so I had to pull the panel off the other side of the box, too, to get at it from behind.

But it works now, so I shouldn’t complain. Now, if the computer would just have the energy of my twins as they chant the mantra I want this computer to keep repeating…

The bouncing came from when they were watching a 70s music retrospective on PBS in our bedroom and decided they liked the phrase and could jump to the music.

Let me apologize for the quality of the video. This was taken with my cellphone, so frame rates were a bit slow and the mic wasn’t positioned well. Also, Sean was sitting in my lap. But I got an impromptu concert from the boys this evening that I didn’t think you’d want to miss.

Enjoy.

We present — footbowl…

Kellie broke out the plastic bowling set this morning for Sean and Daniel. And they were excited about it. And proceeded to show us that we haven’t been doing it right all these years.

I don’t think we’ll take them to a real set of lanes any time soon, as kicking those balls would probably hurt just a tiny bit.

Swimming at the pool.

Or something like that. (Wiggles are sticking in my brain.)

Last Sunday, we took the boys to the pool for a bit of swimming. We remembered to take the camera with us, so we got some shots of the boys jumping in the deep end (of course, Daddy is catching, as it’s too deep for Mommy) and Will swimming back to the edge.

A couple of interesting side notes on this. For 2 or 3 pool visits before this past Sunday, Sean would not get in the pool beyond the first step in the shallow end. He just didn’t want to get wet, for whatever reason. And now, suddenly, he’s jumping in like a pro. You can see a little hesitation at times, but he has too much fun jumping in and kicking around.

Daniel, on the other hand, loves to jump in. He even was doing it earlier in the afternoon. So it was strange to get him on camera doing essentially a belly flop. And shortly after that shot, he was jumping in normally. But I guess it adds a bit of humor to the jumping. All 3 boys took turns nicely jumping in.

I don’t know why things got a bit blurrier on the second shot, but it isn’t permanently on the camera. Oh well.

We wish we had thought to take a picture, but we (me in particular) were too mad to think of it at the time. Another adventure of the twins during their naptime. They emptied three drawers from the dresser and found something they shouldn’t have — a double-ended Sharpie pen.

We went in when the whining got too bad, and discovered a hurricane had hit. Pants were off. They had written all over each others’ legs, as well as some face and other body parts, plus on their sheets and one of the bed railings. As far as we could see, after picking up, there was nothing on the carpet, the stuffed animals, and just traces on a couple of blankets.

I’m still too mad about this one, even though I should be laughing at it.

During breakfast this morning, we were suddenly confronted with this. (See the picture to the right.)

It sure looks like Sean’s missing a tooth, doesn’t it? That was Kellie’s initial reaction. But it’s just a a bit too early for him to be losing a tooth.

On closer inspection, it was clear that it was just a piece of blackberry stuck between his front teeth. Still, it does give the nice impression of a missing tooth, doesn’t it? The quote about is what Kellie said to me at one point. But she hadn’t told me who it was, and she immediately told me what was really going on.

Daniel got in on providing the goofy looks, too, using his binoculars. It almost looks like robot eyes in the middle of his face. They’re really having fun using them, especially because they can be used from the front (to make images bigger) or the back (to make images smaller). These were their show-and-tell items for today, which is why they were at the table this morning.

My parents came down to visit this past weekend, so everyone got to have some fun (even though it was scorchingly hot). We got out for visits to the pool on both Saturday and Sunday, and having extra hands available made having 3 kids in the pool much easier.

Saturday was actually a bit cooler when we went to the pool at midday, and having a cloudy sky made the water feel just a bit cooler. (I think I described it at brisk when I jumped in.) Needless to say, we were the only ones there willing to get in the pool. Sunday was bright and sunny, and more people trickled in and out while we were there midday.

The kids also got to spend some time playing outside and doing other things with the grandparents. Kellie and I got to go out for a few hours on our own for dinner and just time away. All in all, I think everyone had a good time. And of course, the kids didn’t want Nana and Grampa to leave. Too bad Rice couldn’t get back to the NCAA College World Series for the fourth straight year. Looking forward to next year.

This should have been posted last Monday or Tuesday. But I just let this partially written post languish, and I’m left finishing it on Friday. So, try to flash back to the long, Memorial Day holiday weekend…

What an interesting weekend. What do you get when you mix blood, dirty diapers, dresser-climbing, and wrestling moves? (Not all at once, thank goodness.) Just a “normal” weekend for the twins. I guess the terrible twos may be underway.

Sean and Daniel certainly play off of each other now, and that sometimes means they are antagonizing each other. That certainly was the case when we found both of them on top of the dresser/changing table during one of their supposed naptimes. The way it was positioned, they could get on top of their bed rails and climb up on the dresser. They were sitting facing each other, and Daniel was pushing Sean’s face into his own lap, kind of like a facewash. I guess that’s why Sean was complaining a little bit (from what we could hear over the baby monitor).

At least they took their nap after this incident. Two other times this weekend, they didn’t even take their naps. The first time, they had knocked the lamp off the dresser. (The lamp’s not there any more.) Unfortunately, the bulb broke all over the floor and Daniel’s bed. And the boys probably tried picking up the pieces, as by the time we found them, Sean had cuts on his hand and foot, and Daniel had one on his leg. And there was blood on the carpet, bed sheets, wall(!), and diaper pail. What fun to clean up (both the blood and the shattered glass).

And Congress wants to do away with incandescent light bulbs within 5 years? For fluorescent bulbs (and their mercury contents)? Whose brilliant idea is this? That’s a rant for another day, but this shows perfectly why this may not be an appropriate tradeoff.

The other day, we’re not sure what happened, but it sounded like Daniel fell hard on the floor - twice. We’re guessing he might have fallen off the dresser, but neither he nor Sean really told us what happened. We just had one very upset boy who wanted to be held for a while.

After the second incident, I rearranged the bedroom so that they cannot get on the dresser any more. (Well, unless they get creative and move something like the hamper closer. That day hasn’t come - yet.) But both of them were sufficiently wound up that they never quite fell asleep, so we allowed them out of the room. But they were a bit cranky the rest of the day, so it was quick to bed after an early dinner.

Then there was Sunday morning, when I went in to get the boys dressed and they had reached in the diaper pail and pulled out several “used” diapers and wipes (including the dirty ones) and had them laid around the room. Ugh.

We were lucky with Will, in that we never experienced anything like this. I guess it’s our turn to really experience boys growing up. We hope your Memorial Day weekend was not as exciting/crazy as ours.

Kellie and I did see Star Trek (the movie) a week ago, as I had previously mentioned. It turns out that their first choices for the roles of Kirk and Spock — well, they weren’t quite old enough yet. See what they would have looked like if they had gone with their first choices.

OK, maybe not. Kellie was playing around on the Star Trek site and found the ability to create your own Trek character. So, we get Daniel as Kirk and Sean as Spock. Quite fun, actually. I had to check it out myself, and I wound up creating this Romulan character, with motion and custom speech.

Yes, that was Sweetie. sigh That face almost works as a Romulan.

Hope your weekend was fun. The pool opens next weekend, so you know what that means.

What’s with all of these nice wishes for Kellie? How did we work out getting her all of the attention this time of year? (At least in 2011, I only have to cover one day for both the anniversary and Mother’s Day.)

Most of the day was spent at home with the kids. Kellie’s mom came over for lunch, and Will had his final swim lesson today. (That post is for another day.) I think Kellie enjoyed the day. She got to relax a fair amount, although the kids seemed a bit punchier than normal. Daniel’s got an ear infection that he is getting over, but the rest of them don’t have an excuse. It isn’t even a full moon.

Nothing epitomizes that punchiness more than what happened at the twins’ naptime. We left them in their beds, and they continued to jabber away for a little while. Well, the jabbering didn’t stop, and eventually, it was time to put an end to their ways. That typically means that, when one of us enters the room, we’ll usually find them in the same bed, with all of the blankets, stuffed animals, and many toys jammed in there as well. Kind of like a peace conference, I guess.

Well, today, I was greeted by a sight I won’t soon forget. The floor was covered with the contents of 3 previously unopened packets of baby wipes, with Daniel standing in the middle of it. Daniel also had in his hands two plastic rods that hold the clothes bag that sits inside the hamper. However, the most hilarious part of the image was Daniel standing there with only his shirt on, naked from the waist down. Turns out Sean had done the same thing, and if you looked closely, you could spot the removed diapers in amongst the wipes.

Who knows how long they had been running around naked in there. I’m not sure this was like any peace conference that have happened in international relations. To top it off, when Kellie came in to take in the scene (I insisted she see it, rather than me relate to it), Daniel picks up one of the wipes and starts using it, saying, “I wipe myself, I wipe myself.” As if that would make the scene that much more normal and expected. Needless to say, Kellie and I busted a gut over it before helping them clean it up. And they did help pick up the wipes.

As I told Kellie when she walked in, Happy Mother’s Day. This one likely won’t be forgotten, much like Sweetie’s illness on Kellie’s birthday last year.

OK, here is the long-awaited multimedia documentary of Sean’s and Daniel’s introduction to their new beds last Saturday. Yes, it took a while for us to do this — they should have been in them long ago. But they’ve got them now, and they certainly enjoy their “new beds.”

Now, the video helps anchor it all. The first clip shows them walking in the room the first time with the new arrangement. After putting them to bed, we had to check back in on them about an hour later. Needless to say, things had not been too quiet in the room.

(No, Will, this was their afternoon nap. They won’t be sleeping until morning.)

Needless to say, after the second half of that video, we stripped the room further of excess toys and stuffed animals and books. We had a feeling it might happen, but after seeing them strewn everywhere, we knew we didn’t want to be picking that up after every rest.

And right now, Sean is the one who gets out of bed after we leave the room, while Daniel stays in bed. But don’t let the video fool you. Sean was also out of bed during that time. We just happened to walk in when he had gone over to his bed for a moment.

Just had to get a couple of these pictures out there for you. The little leprechauns had a fun time at dinner time, getting a traditional Irish meal of corned beef and cabbage, soda bread, and green shamrock sugar cookies. Yum!

(And if you pay attention, you might be able to see the gap where Will’s sixth tooth used to be.)

Also wanted to share with you a classic tune from the original “Irish” tenors. Hope you had a Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

Yes, today is Pi Day. No, that is not a mispelling. You know — 3.14159 etc. You can even celebrate Pi Second: 1:59:26pm on 3/14. (That’s pi to the 7th decimal place.) Our US Congress even got into the act with a non-binding resolution honoring Pi Day 2009. Yes, our leaders truly are watching out for the most important issues of the day.

On a more serious note, I have a few things to post, but not the time yet to pull together the multimedia aspects. Cool stuff this week include:

1. Will lost his sixth tooth on Tuesday, almost 1 year to the day after he lost his first tooth (3/8/08). This was in the lower left quadrant, second from the midline. (Whatever it is called.) He had lost the one on the right previously.
2. Will had an after-school event at school yesterday called Gator Rock, which is basically an activity to get kids moving, mostly with semi-organized dancing. I was able to join him for part of it, and I think he had a good time.
3. Today was bed day. Sean and Daniel no longer have cribs. The twins now have twin beds. (No, not bunk beds.) Needless to say, getting freed from the “fences” made for interesting sleep times. We have the video to prove it.

Hope everyone is counting down the days until spring. It’s less than a week away, right?

Well, we got quite a shock for ourselves this afternoon, driving around with the kids after getting the twins new shoes. (Have you ever seen velcro go bad? Neither have we, until now.) We were going to try out a new restaurant (Riverbound Cafe — very nice and good food), when we saw the Wienermobile parked next to the Kroger.

Of course, we had to see it. You cannot climb into it, but you can look into it from the steps. Definitely an interesting looking ride. And if you’re getting ready to graduate from college, you can become a Hotdogger and drive around in it. What more could a recent college graduate want?

Apologies about the photo quality, but taking these pictures on a cameraphone resulted in all sorts of washed out colors that I couldn’t quite compensate for (with my limited skills).

Everyone else is resting now. It’s a good thing, as daylight saving time starts tomorrow. You remembered that, right?

Everyone had fun in the snow on Monday. I promised some shots and video, and this is what I have. Of course, the photo to the right isn’t in the snow, but shows the boys trying share Cookie Monster between their cribs. Caught in the act, indeed. At least Sean isn’t throwing the stuffed animal into Daniel’s crib, like he’s been doing a lot recently.

And yes, they need to get into their beds.

Did you notice in the album that one of the adults was caught sledding? Well, they didn’t get a shot of the other one sledding, too. Their loss. In the afternoon, we set up a different run heading into the other cul-de-sac, as you can see from the later pictures. Our best hill is in our backyard, but it ends in our shed, so it’s not prime sledding real estate for the young and inexperienced.

We got quite a snowstorm last night. It was done by around 8am this morning, and when it was done, we were looking at just over 10 inches of snow. Unfortunately, the snow isn’t wet enough to compact well for making a snowman. Some snowballs were tossed around this morning (Nana vs. Will; Sean vs. Daniel), but otherwise, we were stuck making a mound for the base of the snowman. No rolling snow today.

We did break out the toboggan and saucer for some runs down the front yard slope. Once we got a nice little path packed down, all three of the boys were able to get things going. They all loved riding, whether together or alone. Sean has even figured out who to rock the body to get going if he gets slightly stuck or slows down. I hope to get a chance to post some pictures and video shortly.

Here are some outside shots taken right as the snowfall was ending this morning.

For those of you on the east coast, I hope you survive your own dustings of snow. School is already closed tomorrow, not that I’m surprised. When I went to my doctor’s appointment this morning, the main roads still weren’t well-plowed and were mostly packed ice. However, they didn’t feel slippery under-tire, but it will take a while for enough roads to be cleared to make it safe for school buses.

And yes, the hand surgeon gave me the all clear today. He’s very happy with the final result — not perfect range-of-motion, but you almost cannot tell. Looks like he and the physical therapist did a good job.

That’s the only way I can describe today’s precipitation. You’ve heard of a sun-shower. Well, we got hit by a sun-flurry. The picture to the right really cannot do it justice. (I don’t have the camera or the know-how to take the shot properly, but clicking on it will allow you to see the flakes.) But I was walking around the house, with the sun shining bright outside, and looked out a window to see large snowflakes falling. And they were sticking to the ground!

We still haven’t had a good snowfall yet.

The weekend has been a good one. Will had another good outing of swim lessons this afternoon. He’s really trying more and more stuff. It’s really cool that I think he may finally be willing to try more of it and get a little better at it each time. Could be an interesting summer of swimming for Will — which would be a good thing to have him swim more independently. That will allow Kellie and I to focus on Sean and Daniel, who will probably really want to take to the water this summer.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get any video of Sean and Daniel dancing to the music on the Weather Channel forecast. The boys have taken to another skill instead — vacuuming up their mess under the table after a meal. Well, at least they do it sometimes. We also give you a ball throwing exhibition, with a touch of twin-on-twin “violence.”

Hope you have a good week ahead.

I think everyone knows that today is St. Valentine’s Day. The kids got to dress up in red, exchange cards, and have a good time. The chocolate and cookies actually were not finished off tonight, which is probably a good thing. They’re getting into it.

The kids do send out their Valentine’s wishes to everyone today. We hope you have a good one. Of course, I’m not sure what to make of the fact that all of the boys (even the young ones), are actually wishing you a happy Valentine’s day. After all, Daniel and Sean both said goodbye to a fake tree in the foyer of the doctor’s office on Wednesday. (Yes, they really did, without prompting. I still crack up remembering it.) I guess they know it’s good manners to do it, just like wishing you a happy day.

Not much else to report at this point. They’re predicting a light dusting of snow for Sunday night, but Monday is a school holiday, so there’s not much that we have to worry about there. The kids were already on schedule to go to daycare that day.

OK, it’s been a while since I checked in. Things have been busy, but not hectic. I think that’s a good indication. My parents visited this last weekend, and with the abnormally nice weather (mid-70s), we were able to get outside for some stuff. Nana, Kellie and Will also went to see Hotel for Dogs Saturday night (generally decent, according to them).

I hope my parents get to rest this weekend. They had been traveling to California the previous weekend — for my dad’s uncle’s 100th birthday. Congrats, Uncle Charles.

The kids are definitely growing up. Sean is in full-bore potty mode. We don’t even need to bribe him (like we did with Will). Not enough to keep the diaper dry, but he generally lets us know if he needs to go potty, and at daycare, where they keep him on a regular schedule, he has gone every time this week. Daniel — eh, not so interested yet.

Sean is definitely Mr. More-Independent now. He often insists on putting on his own pants and shirt (with a little not-so-obvious assistance from Mommy or Daddy). Definitely growing up. Sigh, what are we going to do?

Will is big-time into his bike now, when it’s warm enough outside. He has a new helmet that looks much better than the one before. Maybe this is the year the training wheels come off? Who knows — though he is always a little cautious about things. Will also starts weekly swimming lessons again this Sunday. That should be fun for him.

That 70 degree weather really stuck around for a while. Even today, it was in the mid-60s, though incredibly windy. Unfortunately, Punxsutawney Phil may be right in that spring isn’t coming early this year. It’s going to chill back down this weekend. I still haven’t seen a robin yet this year — that’s abnormally late, compared to the past few years. And the crocuses are just starting to pop through the ground — again, late. That January cold snap was definitely worse than normal (as my gas bill also shows). So stay warm, and keep in touch.

Now it’s time to get back to work. The fun is over.

I guess this is the first time I’ve really paid attention to the presidential inauguration, but I was helped by the fact that both of the twins are still sick and needed to stay home from daycare. So I had the inauguration festivities on, and believe it or not, but Sean and Daniel were at least mesmerized by the actual swearing in ceremony. They paid attention starting with the musical piece and then into the swearing in of the vice president and president, which is a long time to sit still for essentially boring speechmaking.

But as the afternoon wore on, and there is a private luncheon, and then a bunch of speechmaking — get your photo next to these one-of-a-kind crystal bowls to honor this occasion — that this whole endeavor started to take on the worst aspects of a wedding reception. Honestly, the ego stroking going on serves very little purpose. I’m sad to say that the luncheon (which is something only started in the 1950s) and many of the activities before the parade appear to be absolutely useless.

And then to invest the millions upon millions of dollars in the inauguration balls seems to me to be the height of lunacy in a time when we’re going to be asked to make sacrifices. If people want to party on their own, let them. But to give the seal of significance on these events by organizing and attending them continues to reinforce for me that they’re just trying to repay (no, it’s really not that, they say) the contributors (more ego stroking) and ask them to shell out more money for their lobbying efforts. After all, who gets the invitations to these balls or can even afford them?

Oh, baloney. I don’t think I need to answer that.

I’m not sure why I’m so mad about it at this time. Honestly, I came into today feeling fairly upbeat. I want to believe that it’s all going to make a difference and make my life easier. But I’ve lived through enough of these administrations — Republican and Democratic — to feel pretty certain that it’s a lie. I’m willing to give Obama a chance, because gosh darn it, he comes across as such an optimistic and likable fellow. Or at least, that’s what his body language says.

But also call me torn on the prospects at this time. Because neither party’s kool-aid is all sugary-sweet. And I haven’t seen enough of the ability to lead and make the tough compromises from the leaders of either party to give me great hope for the coming years of our Government.

Good luck, Mr. 44th President — Mr. Obama. There’re a lot of challenges out there to make things right for all of the generations. I pray that you make the right decisions.

I know it’s been a while since you’ve seen anything from the kids. It’s been kind of slow, though this weekend has been busy with Sean and Daniel getting sick and needing medication in the middle of the night. That turns Mommy and Daddy into zombies (with the interrupted sleep).

Now that the boys are two, they’re getting out of their infant things, like the high chair and crib. Actually, the crib is on hold — we were going to move them this long weekend, but with them being sick, we decided it wasn’t the right time. However, they are out of the high chairs (seemingly permanently) and sitting at the table with us. Well, they’re sitting at the table when they feel like it. The first part of the video shows them eating some yogurt at the table (interesting stuff, I’m sure).

You also get regaled by one of the twins with his singing skills. He actually knows all of the words, but for some reason copped out on the middle part in this take.

Well, now, today is going to be a very busy Christmas day. So I’ll dash off a note wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. If you have to travel to see family, be safe and arrive secure. Enjoy the company of family and friends. And if you need a reminder about what this holiday means, perhaps I should let Linus remind you.

Sean also would like to pass on greetings to you. Daniel is actually the one that started doing it spontaneously one day, but he refuses to do it on camera. So Sean will substitute for the wishes.

We went and saw Legendary Santa this morning. Legendary Santa is a bit of a tradition in Richmond (since 1936), and we’ve tried to take the kids most years. This year has been a bit hectic, so we got ourselves a morning appointment (yes, it cost a few $$) to let the boys see Santa. We were curious about how Sean and Daniel, in particular, would react to Santa in person. They have a definite awareness of Santa now. Whenever they see an image of Santa, they know who he is and call out his name.

Santa largely has the same entrance that he always does. And the wait in line was fine — no apprehension from the boys, even as we walked up.

However, once we put Sean and Daniel on Santa’s lap and walked away (to allow a picture to be taken), the screaming started. Nope, they wanted nothing of Santa up close. We got an okay picture out of it, and Will got to tell Santa what he wanted. And when it was time to go, Sean and Daniel both actually waved and said good-bye to Santa. I guess being safely with Mommy and Daddy eases their fears and allows them to interact with Santa.

We also have a couple of pictures of the boys in their outfits from visiting Santa today. Christmas season almost is complete now. The shopping is done, the wrapping and baking is almost done, and Sean has already found one minor present and ripped the wrapping paper off. The celebrations can now begin.

You saw Will singing yesterday. Sean and Daniel also showed off their budding music skills yesterday. Actually, Sean showed talent in blowing a whistle that he’d never had before. It took about four tries before he got a random sound and got all excited. (Unfortunately, that’s not on video.) But he was able to repeat it fairly quickly, and after that, it was just a lot of whistling.

Daniel, on the other hand, got very frustrated with it. He started trying before Sean, but couldn’t get it. And when Sean could make sounds, but he couldn’t, that really got him upset. He did make the whistle sound a few times, but it was essentially random noise where he could repeat the blowing out to sound it again.

Keep at it, guys.

Sean has always enjoyed gazing at reflective surfaces, but today, he took it to a new level of self-awareness.

He was the one who initiated the self-gazing at first. We just didn’t catch it on video, with him holding his spoon, at first. So, yes, it was stages a little, but we didn’t feed him the answers.

Today won’t be the detailed rundown of how everything went. I’m still playing catch-up from being out of the house since Tuesday. The family took a trip to New York City (well, part of us did), and everyone had a good time. The pictures and video are bountiful, so I’m going to need some time to pull it all together. However, a bullet-point summary of what we did the past 5 days would go like this:

Tuesday

• Travel to my parent’s in Northern Virginia after school with all 3 kids

Wednesday

• Leave the twins with my parents (thank you for watching them) to drive to Manhattan to visit my sister Emily for a few days
• Walk around the tour of the Macy’s Parade balloons, as they are moored next to the Museum of Natural History (only 1 block from Emily’s apartment) — it was crazy/busy there

Thursday

• Watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade from the middle of 73rd Avenue — we couldn’t get any closer, but was close enough to see almost everything
• Take Will to a playground in Central Park for a while, then walk over to Strawberry Fields and back to the apartment
• Eat a Thanksgiving dinner with Emily

Friday

• Ride the subway twice — first to go to the Empire State Building, then to go to Rockefeller Plaza to watch ice skating, see the tree (unlit), and eat lunch
• Meet up with Emily and visit St. Patrick’s Cathedral
• Walk to FAO Schwartz, only to find the wait in line to be rather long
• Take a taxi back to Emily’s apartment (Will’s first ride in a taxi), then back to the playground one last time
• Go to the movies to see Madagascar 2 (all 4 of us enjoyed it), then go out to eat at a diner-style restaurant

Saturday

• Try to leave early, only to discover the battery was dead — finally got a jump from AAA
• Drive back to Northern Virginia to spend the night at my parent’s house
• Got to see Dena, Dennis and Nicholas at dinner — Will really enjoyed seeing his new cousin again

Sunday

• Drive back home in the rain — only took about 30 minutes longer than normal, and that included a stop for gas

That’s a lot going on in one long trip. We all survived, and we really enjoyed the company of everyone we met over those days. We hope everyone else had a fun and safe holiday weekend. We hope to see you soon.

As I said, I hope to post pictures and video at a later date, but I hope this suffices for a quick summary at moment.

Well, this one is a day late. Yesterday was a busy day, so I’m just going to give you a video of the boys’ second birthday celebration highlights. (I still have a couple other sets of highlights to pull together — there’s last Saturday’s birthday celebration with my parents, and then yesterday morning’s visit with Santa at our church bazaar. So much to cover, so little time.)

And after all of the bustle of yesterday, today was a bit more quiet and allowed folks to settle down. In fact, I found Sean and Daniel doing just that this morning. I found the rather relaxed posture on our good couch kind of amusing.

This first thing is a bit of an experiment. I am trying out a freeware program called Jalbum for creating an online photo album (rather than creating a video of images). This has the potential to be a much more useful tool for displaying a lot of related images, rather than tossing them into a video or showing a whole bunch of them below. It’s a Flash-based application that will do a whole bunch of different things, depending on what I set it up to do.

My first attempt is actually a more complex set of albums, with artwork and other projects that Sean and Daniel have been doing at their daycare center over about the last 6 to 8 months. You click on the links in the top left to open any of the three albums (Sean & Daniel combo art, Daniel-only art, and Sean-only art). Scroll through, or launch the slide show, even download some of the pictures (albeit lower res — still working on that). And let me know what you think of the approach.

And here is some video of Sean at dinner tonight. He loved one food in particular — ‘pease?’

Are they really coming up on their second birthdays? Yes, they are — this Saturday. They’ve already had one birthday party this past weekend (with my parents), with more to come this weekend with the local contingent.

But today was a checkup day. When we last checked in five-and-a-half months ago, they were growing fine. And they still are — Daniel is over 90% in height, while Sean is over 75% in height. We just have to remind ourselves that they are also 5 weeks premature, so they’ll be down the scale a little bit. But at this rate, it looks like Will may wind up being the tallest (he was 37.5” at his 2-year check up). Here are their

Daniel
Height: 36” (+2.25”)
Weight: 28 pounds 10 ounces (+2 pounds 11 ounces)
Head: 51 cm (+0.5 cm)

Sean
Height: 35” (+2”)
Weight: 24 pounds 0 ounces (+2 pounds 10 ounces)
Head: 49cm (+1 cm)

Everything is pretty much staying on the proper curve from the last time, so their growth patterns are very consistent (including Sean being in the tenth percentile in weight, despite being as tall as he is). Keep growing up, guys, like this video below shows.

Yes, these can happen even on the warmest of days, like this past weekend (when it was in the 70s). Sean and Daniel have figured out how to have snowball fights - using toilet paper and kleenex. I know — it’s the normal thing that kids this age do. It’s still kind of cute, though picking it up is less so. Particularly when they find the trashcan with the remains of the fight and proceed to empty it back out again.

Then there is Daniel, showing off his dancing skills (of the most dangerous variety). Not sure what he was dancing to, but it clearly caught his fancy.

Today was a big day of trick or treating. Will got early release from elementary school today (it was also the last day of the first marking period), and they had a fall festival (including halloween costume dress up) at the three boys’ daycare. I spent some time in Sean’s and Daniel’s class, where they ate a lot and were a general mess. Unfortunately, by the time I made it to Will’s class, he was done.

Then came time for trick or treating in the neighborhood. Sean and Daniel (if you cannot guess from the pictures above) went as football players, while Will got to dress up as a fireman. (Just like his dad did when he was seven — that picture will have to wait for another day.) The temperature was perfect — no need for jackets, just a long sleeve shirt underneath any of the kids’ outfits.

All 5 of us went out (the bowl of candy went on the stoop for kids to help themselves — of course, it was all gone when we got back). Sean and Daniel pretty much rode in the wagon the whole time and were very good about sitting back and enjoying things. Will actually made the trips to the various houses to get his sack filled up. There’s more than enough candy to go around.

I told you I was falling behind on a bunch of postings of pictures and videos. I just have to make a little time each day to pull things together. Today’s posting is a follow-up to the Fall Festival notes I had from two Saturdays ago. I decided to just put it together in a video package, rather than separating the pictures out into a flowing display below the video portion. I think it works alright and isn’t too long.

The moon bounces were obviously the most fun for Will. As I said before, Sean and Daniel weren’t quite as interested. There were other items around the festival that we got to do, but in many ways, it was just cold enough out to not make it too fun. (By comparison, I think it was sunny and in the 70s last year.)

I finally got the video uploaded this morning, so here we go…

OK, these aren’t what I had originally intended to pull together, but I discovered some video that Kellie had taken last Wednesday when scanning through Picasa. And while I was previewing the video, I discovered that Picasa version 3 now has the ability to mash together video clips with simple transitions and other features and then automatically upload the resulting composite video directly to YouTube. So what you see below is an attempt to make this happen.

I will say this — the upload feature in Picasa is extremely slow. I could have uploaded it much faster directly through the YouTube site.

The pictures are just a couple of shots of some cool cats, trying out their new sunglasses. They’re definitely too cool for me.

Man, I’m behind on getting pictures together on several recent events. However, I will pass on this — Daniel is now capable of going down one step without holding on. I caught him this morning taking a single step down from our eating area to the family room. He did very well with it, under control and no lurch or awkward move to keep balance at the bottom. Very smooth.

Unfortunately, I had no idea this was going to happen, so there was no video. And I never did catch him trying to do it again. Oh well — maybe next time.

Will did some more biking today. He was moving so fast at times that I had to run to keep up with him. He still has the training wheels, but he definitely understands how to brake now, even on downhills (no more putting the feet down).

And Sean has a new game he introduced me to today. I like to sing to them (on occasion), particularly something like a march (John Phillips Sousa’s The Stars and Stripes Forever is a good one). Tonight, he started pointing at me and saying “Stop.” I figured out what he was saying, so I’d stop whatever note I was on (good experience from having been in band before). Then he’d give the sign language for “More,” expecting me to continue singing (which I would). He (and Daniel) though this was funny. But I’d always try to start with the next note from when I stopped. It’s actually kind of fun (in a crazy kind of way).

Or perhaps I’m just too tired.

Today isn’t a big day in history. There’s just this bit about some guy named Chris finding an island he called San Salvador. And 96 years ago, Rice University held its opening ceremonies to launch a new institution of higher learning in the then hinterlands of Houston.

I guess someone else got to do the heavy lifting. I, at least, am the beneficiary of these two events. Everyone got to relax today — Kellie headed back to the Folk Festival to see Dale Watson again — and now I just need to figure out how the Skins lost to the Rams today.

Lunch gave us an opportunity to take a few shots of the kids. Not sure why the focus was slightly off on these photos, but I tried to touch them up a little. Sean’s hair gel is courtesy of fish sticks (in case you’re looking for something with exceptional hold).

We caught Sean in all of his glory . Will is also in the video, but this is really about Sean showing off what he can do on the swing set. This was actually the first time he has ever tried hanging from the trapeze bars. And later, after the video was done, Sean actually climbed up the ladder on the big slide without any help. He just figured it out for himself, now that he knew where the steps were.

That’s Sean — Mr. Dangerous.

And if you’re wondering where Daniel is, he’s still taking his nap. The Richmond Folk Festival apparently was a bit much for him.

We did get out to the Richmond Folk Festival, and I’ll be honest — we had a great time. The weather was perfect (mid-70s, a light breeze, mostly sunny). Will still talks about how much fun he had, so I think we’ll want to go back next year.

We actually parked by 11:30am and found a spot just a couple blocks from the festival area (down on Brown’s Island and the Tredegar museum area). We were there before any of the acts started at noon, and we also beat the crowds. Things were definitely getting more crowded by the time we left at 2pm. (The kids needed to get some rest.)

But in the time that we were there, we were able to catch parts of 3 shows, all of which were excellent:

• San Jose Taiko (Japanese ritual drumming)
• Dale Watson (honky tonk country)
• Líadan (Irish)

As we wandered around between stages, we overheard a couple of other acts — a bluegrass and a Persian percussion act stand out. There were many more performances which we didn’t get to stick around to see that I would have enjoyed, but we have kids now. I think Kellie really wants to go back to see Dale Watson tomorrow afternoon. We’ll see — though he did mention that he comes through Richmond a couple times a year. He was very good.

Here are some quick pix and video from the three performances that we did catch. (My apologies on the quality, as everything was taken with a small digital camera at a distance at max optical zoom.) Maybe you can join us for the festival next year.

OK, I still don’t have the State Fair slides done. (Gotta work with Kellie on figuring out what the pictures represent in some cases.) Busy day of a long run, a run to drop off recycling, shopping, and yardwork. But I did catch a quick video on the cellphone this evening before Sean’s and Daniel’s bath time. I thought you might enjoy it. (Converting it from the 3GPPS format is a bear. I finally found a decent converter.) The video is actually at double-speed, as the cellphone only takes 15 frames per second, but most videos are 30 frames per second. The boys do not run around like they are part of the Incredibles family.

And congrats to Emily for breaking 1:45 in a half-marathon today. She’s 4 weeks out from the NYC Marathon — looks like she’s rounding into form nicely.

You know, I should think before I post. (Or not post late at night.) The big news with Sean and Daniel is that they are learning their colors. It’s still hard to tell if they’re just guessing right or actually recognize them most of the time. I’d say they are right about 75% of the time, whether they’re being shown an object for the first time or if they are seeing the object again. (That’s why I’m not sure it’s memorization, as they’ll see the same object again but will sometimes say a different color.) Still, it’s kind of cool to see them trying to process colors. And they do usually understand if we ask them, “What color is this?”

Now, for something completely different (to waste time over the weekend) — a World War I flying ace game, where you shoot things down and drop bombs. It’s actually kind of cool, and reminds me of a game like it I used to play a long time ago. But I cannot remember what that game was called. (Maybe someone else remembers.) This is definitely a souped up version.

(I should have enough time tomorrow to get the State Fair pictures and video finished.)

I hope to write later about the half-marathon (yes, I finished it), but wanted to pass on a couple of humorous things about the kids. We went to Cici’s Pizza for lunch, and Daniel wasn’t too happy about things. (I think he was still tired.) They always having music playing in the background, and one song popped up on the speakers — Rick James’s Super Freak. Daniel immediately stopped complaining and started bopping along to the music. Sean also immediately started grooving. So, here are 2 toddlers grooving along to Super Freak in a restaurant, bopping their heads and shoulders. One of the staff members cleaning tables couldn’t stop laughing at Sean and Daniel getting down. (The next song was Wooly Bully, by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, and they both bopped along to that one, too.)

Which brings us to this video from today. The first scene is from Daniel and Sean feeding on their mid-morning snack. This was while I was away at the race, so Kellie had them sitting next to each other. The second half was when I popped a classic 70s song on the iPod (after we got home from CiCi’s) and both Sean and Daniel immediately started dancing again. Daniel had stopped by the time we took some video, but Sean gives you a sense of what they were doing.

Well, notes and pictures that extend into today. We finally took the twins back to the pool on Saturday, this time with floatation devices to make things a little easier to control. They actually both seemed to enjoy getting to float around like that for a while. They got to splash, kick, and do other things, and it kept Mommy and Daddy from getting too tired trying to hold them the whole time.

We eventually ate lunch at the pool before Mommy took the twins home for a bath and nap, while Daddy stayed with Will to continue to practice swimming and do other fun pool things. Will is actually taking to swimming under the water for a few strokes before needing to come up for air, which is kind of impressive, considering he doesn’t swim on the surface for more than a few strokes before needing air and stopping swimming. In due time, I’m sure Will is going to put it all together.

On Sunday, we caught Sweetie flaking out in the middle of the floor. I guess things are getting a little too hot for her. And no, she’s not possessed (as far as we know). But there’s no easy way to get rid of that type of redeye (at least with the tools I have). She still can be a bit of a goofball at times.

Sean and Daniel have been showing off their charming sides recently, too. We caught some snapshots of them at the table that are sometimes mischievous, sometimes silly. I think what’s clear from these pictures is that the boys love to eat, especially their fruit. Tonight it was apples.

We tried, but didn’t get any good shots of Will. So he’s going to have to get a rain check on displaying his good side here.

Our first tomatoes are coming in. We got a couple of cherry tomatoes (not even an inch in diameter) off the plants yesterday. They tasted good. We can’t wait for more of the cherry tomatoes, plus the bigger ones that are on the vine (but very green).

On another food note, Sean continues to prove that he will eat anything edible. (Sand at the beach notwithstanding.) Kellie and I had brussels sprouts for our veggie for dinner tonight, and we offered both Sean and Daniel a few cut up pieces. (We knew better than to offer it to Will.) Daniel ate a few, but left most of his pieces, focusing on the meatballs. Sean started with the brussels sprouts and ate most of them, eventually getting around to the meatballs.

Will successfully completed his second overnight visit (on Saturday night), this time without either parent. That meant he got to spend more time with Ryan, and they had a blast together. He had so much fun that he didn’t want him to leave. He even wanted to go back on Sunday night to sleep at Gwama’s. (That wasn’t going to happen.)

Will has also started to ride his three-wheel scooter more now. We walked/rode down to the pool and back yesterday, which is much farther than he’s ever shown interest in riding it before. He’s still not ready for the two-wheel scooter that Aunt Dena and Uncle Dennis got him, but I see that day coming at some point. Now he wants to ride his scooter every day (even before dinner tonight). I think that’s a good thing for him.

And if you talk to Emily any time soon, ask her about her performance in the NYC Half-Marathon yesterday. She did very well, though I’m not sure you’ll see her in the results. (Again, you’ll just have to ask her.) Congrats on an excellent time — I think it’s a few seconds better than my fastest half-marathon time.

Tim and Ryan took the train down from Cincinnati yesterday (waking up at 3:30am to get to the train) and have been staying at Faye’s house. Will and Kellie went over last night for a sleep over, and I kept the twins overnight into this morning. Will had a blast.

Ryan came back to our house this afternoon, so that he, Will and Kellie could go to our pool. He also got to see and interact with the twins. Tim eventually came back over so he could also see the twins. Everyone had a grand time, though Daniel was acting a little shy around Uncle Tim. Sean didn’t care — he wanted Uncle Tim to carry him around everywhere.

Uncle Tim and Ryan are going back to Cincinnati tomorrow, but Will has decided to go back to have another sleep over with Ryan tonight — without Mommy. Originally, he didn’t like the idea, but I think once he started having fun with Ryan, he wanted more of it. He was definitely ready to go back for the sleep over this afternoon — he kept pestering everyone for when it was time for Uncle Tim to drive him back to the Southside. So maybe Camp Fairfax may still be possible.

And tonight, Will is going to watch the Hannah Montana 3-D concert special with Ryan. They’re both looking forward to this one. Ryan even made sure that he got the 3-D glasses for Will, too. I’m sure they will have a lot of fun.

And no alcohol was involved. Just the family jamming out to Huey Lewis and the News on the 4th of July. You say, what?

Well, after dinner, but before heading outside for our neighborhood fireworks shoot-off (legal stuff only), we had on the Capitol Fourth celebration. Huey Lewis and the News came on for their three-song set, and the twins (Sean first) just started getting into the music. Luckily, cameras were nearby, and you get to see the subsequent display of dancing “talent.”

We’ll start you off with a few pictures from the day, and of the twins marching to music with their flags, but then the real fun starts. And try to hang on for the full 4+ minutes. The finale is a riot.

Or maybe it’s just me that thought this was a classic.

Just a couple of quick notes, as the video of stuff from the 4th of July is going to take longer than I have to post today. But to give you a taste of what you might see, please check out Sean getting down to the Chicken Dance and the Itsy-Bitsy-Spider at a party at his daycare on July 3rd.

As for post-Independence Day events, Kellie and the kids joined me and my parents (who were down for the weekend) at the 30th annual Hanover Tomato Festival. Hanover is well-known for its tomatoes (okay, at least in these parts) and celebrates the season when they are available.

My real reason for posting actually has to do with politics. One thing that you get at the Tomato Festival is various levels of politicking going on, particularly with signs sprouting along the side of the road, as well as patrons who allow campaign volunteers to get them to wear candidate-supporting stickers. Hanover County is strongly Republican-leaning (see the 2006 election results, where the George Allen took 67% of the vote, despite losing the Senate election).

What I found most interesting is that the Republican volunteers were trying to interest attendees in both John McCain and Jim Gilmore (Republican Senate candidate) stickers, but there were very few I saw that had both stickers. I saw quite a few McCain stickers, but not so many Gilmore stickers. On the Democratic side, I saw an okay number of Mark Warner (Democratic Senate candidate) stickers and just a few sporting Barack Obama stickers.

And that’s just one man’s observation in a heavily Republican county at a region-wide event.

OK, one of these days, I’m going to finish cleaning up and organizing my office. In the meantime, I can shoot off this quick tidbit from today.

We took the kids to eat at a restaurant called Noodles & Company. We had one open recently in a nearby shopping center. I don’t know if any of you have eaten at one, but the food is good. I had eaten an one several times (when I traveled to Milwaukee on business), but Kellie and the kids had not eaten at one. We went today because a church parishioner had opened the restaurant and was offering a fundraiser for the church youth program if enough people ate there. It was fairly busy when we were there, so I’m guessing it might have been successful.

The kids all had macaroni and cheese, while Kellie and I tried a couple of different Asian-inspired dishes. Please realize, Sean will eat anything. Seriously, we put it in front of him and he’ll eat it — asparagus tips, squash, Daddy’s Texas-style chili, etc. Daniel isn’t quite as adventerous, but often will try things.

Well, Sean saw the bean sprouts on my dish and started pointing at them. I thought he just wanted my chopsticks, but no, he wanted the bean sprouts. So, I gave him one, and in the mouth it went. Crunch, crunch, and suddenly it was gone. OK, I go back to eating. Except there is this insistent grunt to my right, and Sean wants more. A whole lot more, it turns out. And getting one with a bit too much spicy sauce (from my dish) only temporarily deters him. A quick drink from the sippy cup, and he’s back at the pile. He was shoveling them in.

When Daniel saw Sean trying these out, he decided he too needed it. So he picks up the bean sprout, looks at it, then takes a small bite. Then another, and another bite. He doesn’t eat as much as Sean, nor as quickly, but he does get a second helping.

Don’t worry — Will is still like a normal kid. He wouldn’t try it. (Even said No Thank You.)

We wished we had the camera with us. Watching Sean eat them was just jaw-dropping - eating plain bean sprouts over mac and cheese. Not that you would expect to have a camera-worthy moment when just eating bowls of mac and cheese; hence no camera.

Will had a great time passing on from kindergarten. But what he really liked was the watch that he got from Nana and Grampa. He really wanted to wear it to day care on Friday and doesn’t like taking it off. Kellie swears he looks at it every 15 minutes or so. And because he can read time to the exact minute on it, we can no longer fool him into thinking that it’s a few minutes later than it really is (and thus time to go home/go do something).

Today was a busy morning. The kids got out and got new shoes (everyone was pretty much outgrowing what they had). And we hit the new Chick-Fil-A that opened up at the nearby shopping center. This is a “big” deal - now there’s one only 5 minutes away instead of 15 minutes away. And being brand new (today was day 3), everything was still clean (not that I’ve ever seen a Chick-Fil-A that wasn’t clean) and they were giving things away (like brownie samples and balloons with their little cows at the end as an anchor). It made for a nice treat for the kids.

I’m also going to throw up a bunch of images and a quick movie of the boys. Lots of stuff to share. Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.

I really owe Will right here. He’s got a lot of news to post, but that’s the problem. I’m having a hard time getting my head around all of the elements and what I want to post first. (He’s got 4 different things to cover right now. Just to know what they are, they are swimming lessons, soccer games, school musical/play, and Field Day. More soon.)

But this one is easy to post. Sean and Daniel had their checkups today, and everything came out fine. They’re growing great, too. Only one shot each. They’re weights are sliding a little bit on the percentile scale, but they’re eating everything we put in front of them, so we’re not too concerned. Next check up is not for 6 more months. Yay!

Daniel
Height: 33.75”
Weight: 25 pounds 15 ounces
Head: 50.5 cm

Sean
Height: 33”
Weight: 21 pounds 6 ounces
Head: 48cm

Seems like someone knows how to enjoy Vienna Fingers.

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend, and that you remembered why we celebrate it.

Given the hubbub about normal holiday travel periods, it certainly appeared (at least down here) that traffic was definitely down this weekend. I was on the interstates yesterday afternoon, and I just didn’t see the volume I’m used to seeing. I was actually fearful of getting caught in a surprise backup on I-95 when returning home, but saw nothing of the sort.

As for the home front, everyone is doing fine. Daniel may have had a bug over the weekend, but by Monday, he was all better. Sean also enjoyed things. Neither of them got to visit the pool (particularly because of Daniel’s bug), but they will get there soon enough. If it’s anything like their bathtime, they will have a blast (and probably wear out Mommy and Daddy).

And being that it is a holiday, some people (one of whom shall remain nameless) took naps. Not that I begrudge that or anything. Just pointing out the obvious. (The picture to the left hides the identity of the guilty one, who was also feeling a bit under the weather yesterday.)

Will did go to the pool on Saturday and Sunday, but the pool water was quite cool. The poolwater thermometer read 72 degrees, but it sure felt a lot colder. The idea was to get in, get used to it, and then don’t poke the body back above the water. I think you know the drill.

Lastly, we held a yard sale on Saturday. We did quite well and unloaded several large items. There is a little extra room in the garage now. But still plenty of fodder for future yard sales (especially as the boys get older).

Will’s class play/musical is tonight, and Kellie is going. Hopefully, we’ll have some decent pictures. We’re counting down the days to school’s end — 12 more to go, then summer is “officially” here.

I think we all knew that they would grow up. Comes with the territory as you are in your teens (as measured in months). The boys are finally walking, including Daniel. So it is not so easy to keep track of them any more. They definitely move faster than crawling.

Sean gets to show off his inner sports star in this entry. He’s channeling MJ as he jams Pooh in the hoop. He’s got the droopy, baggy pants going, too. (No animals - stuffed or live - were injured or killed in the filming of this sequence.) He really got into it, whether with a ball, Pooh, or even a shoe. Kellie and I get the feeling that Sean may be the one of the three that might give sports a real try.

The video below is more of Sean and Daniel at home this past couple of weekends. Sean shows off his inner Tiger in the first half of it, then Daniel gets to show that he, too, finally enjoys walking around.

Well, Sean had to stay home today because of a fever he developed yesterday. His fever is actually gone by midday, but we’re one of those families that tries to honor school policies and keep him out to prevent the spread of germs. Too bad other families don’t follow those rules as well.

At least we can proudly show that Sean has finally decided that he’d rather walk almost anywhere. It took him a while, but this seems par for the course with our kids. Will lasted 16 months, and Daniel still believes it’s faster to crawl than walk unless he’s holding something. The funny thing is — he is faster crawling; he’s just a bullet. This video of Sean walking is from 2 weekends ago.