Exciting few days

The last few days have been pretty darn exciting. (I'm not even going to describe our trip on Tuesday to get an H1N1 flu vaccine that involved the kids and me waiting two and a half hours at a local middle school. All I'll say is that we were lucky that we were able to wait by a little grassy area where Teddy could run around with his soccer ball.)

To begin with, we saw the Wiggles live at the Verizon Center on Thursday night with some friends. If you're familiar with the Wiggles, you don't need any more information. If you aren't familiar with them, the Wiggles are four guys from Australia who sing catchy songs that really appeal to the toddler set. My introduction to the Wiggles came from the cousins in Philly who were big fans in their younger days, so much so that I actually recognize some of the songs when they pop up on our stereo. In the past year or so, we've acquired some Wiggles DVDs and CDs, so Margaret and Teddy have become fans as well. And the recent concert took it up a notch. At this point, whenever I put a CD in the stereo, Teddy requests that it be a Wiggles CD. And Margaret keeps asking to watch their "Top of the Tots" video. So we may be stuck with them for a while, at least until the kids outgrow them when they are around, ummmm, five years old?

(An extended aside: I have a number of questions about the Wiggles and their show. For example, given that they were big when the Philly cousins were young, how much longer can they keep this up? They must be in their mid-forties. Will they be able to do this, and will the kids notice and still love them, when they're in their fifties? And as for their act, how much of it is an act? That is, do they switch off immediately after walking off stage? What happens when they run into some little kid and his parents in the loo? Do they immediately have to go into Wiggles mode, regardless of the situation? Do they have bad shows and what does that look like? Would anyone in their audience know that a show was "bad"? Given that our show went on for over an hour, at which point most of their audience seemed to be losing attention, do they ever "lose" an audience? What does that entail? Despite the pre-show admonishments to avoid having the kids rush the stage, do the kids ever get out of control? And do they have groupies? Not the among the toddler set, of course, but the tots' moms, perhaps? Such are the thoughts that one has when watching a bunch of silly guys dancing around in front of a bunch of adoring kids and their parents.)

In any case, here's a video from the show. Don't worry if you can't understand much of the vocals - because of their accents and a tendency to mumble, I couldn't understand much of what they said. While Margaret danced around a bit, Teddy mainly sat there with a stunned expression on his face. Afterward, he was so overstimulated that he kept saying "I like the Wiggles. I like the dog. I like the dinosaur. I like the Wiggles" until we got him home and put him in bed.


Then yesterday, I took the day off from work and spent the day wandering the Mall with the kids. We thought about going to the zoo but, because it was a bit chilly, decided to go to the Museum of Natural History instead. Teddy fell asleep shortly after we got off the Metro, so Margaret and I decided to go to the National Gallery of Art. We wandered around the museum, talking about various paintings. In each room, Margaret would pick one painting, and we would stop to contemplate it. Even though she usually liked paintings that involved "girls in dresses," one of our favorite paintings was a George Bellows painting entitled "New York", a fitting choice given that Aunt Eleanor and Uncle Steve both live in New York City and that I'm a big Bellows fan (see this or this or this). I would ask her various questions: What does she see in the painting? What does she think the people in the painting are doing? What does she think the girl's name is? What does she like best in the painting?

Sometimes, she would beg off answering my questions, but she was generally pretty good at coming up with answers. I suspect that she's at an age where she has started to recognize that there are "right" answers to certain questions - such as how many (whatever) do you see - but she isn't completely convinced that she has to give that answer. I tried to encourage her to say whatever popped into her head, and it was fun to see what she would come up with.

We stopped to have a gelato in the museum cafe - which we managed to finish just as Teddy woke up - before heading out to ride on the carousel in front of the old Smithsonian building. Then we went to fly a kite by the Washington Monument. Ironically, the wind, which had been gusting all day, died just as we started to fly our kite. I managed to get it up a few times, with Teddy and Margaret chasing each other around beneath it. But as soon as I'd pass it to Margaret, the wind would die and the kite would plummet to the ground.

Finally, an episode of strong winds allowed us to get the kite up for both of the kids to fly. Naturally, at just that moment, a bicycle cop came by and asked us to take it down for thirty minutes or so. He didn't say why, but it probably had something to do with the helicopters that often swoop across the Mall. Rather than waiting, we packed up our kite and headed home.

Today, we had to pick up a FedEx package in Maryland (a long story that I won't go into), so we decided to make a day of it by going to the kids museum in Baltimore. Margaret and Teddy had a blast. On the way home, we stopped by Ikea, figuring that we might as well if we were in the 'burbs. Our main purchase was a little lamp that we can attach to Margaret's bed. Lately, she either wants us to sit with her or wants to "read books" while going to bed. Since we don't want to sit with her for hours on end, we've let her read books, but the light situation hasn't been ideal. Now, she has a little light that clamps on to her bed that allows us to turn off the other lights so that she can "read" her books, which mainly involves her talking to herself, while Teddy doesn't get disturbed.

The reason the light in notable is because it follows a general pattern in both of our families. My sister was notorious for reading books by flashlight when she was younger. And her daughter, Margaret's cousin, has frequently done the same. I'm not sure if Abby snuck books into bed at a young age, but I suspect that she did. Hence, we're maintaining a longstanding family tradition by allowing our daughter to ruin her eyes in order to read books in bed. Perhaps, however, her little Ikea light will help avoid the "ruin eyes" part. Still, it may create tension when Margaret actually starts to "read" and we need her to go to sleep. Stay tuned.

Halloween 2009

Well, another Halloween has come and gone. And Margaret is definitely starting to grasp the gestalt of the event. First, she's becoming a real afficianado of the costume shtick. This year, she was a cowgirl, something that she quickly latched onto after I suggested it as an alternative to "princess" which was her initial preference. (My other suggestion - "astronaut" - was quickly shot down.) The cowgirl outfit, and Margaret's determined insistence on it, was almost a disaster when we had problems finding the necessary gear, but I think that everything worked out fine in the end.

Second, she definitely understands the candy aspect of the event. In earlier years, she understood that she was getting "stuff," but didn't really understand exactly what she was getting. But now she knows - candy. And she asks for it a lot. We severely ration her intake, but also managed to recycle a lot of the candy that she received by giving it out to our own visitors. Still, between trick-or-treating at both school and home, she got quite a haul. (By the way, if it sounds "cheap" or "shady" to give out Margaret's candy to kids who come to our house, you have to understand the volume of trick-or-treaters that we get. Even if it was raining and our street was pretty lame this year, both of which kept the crowds down a bit, we still went through five big bags of candy.)

Teddy, on the other hand, was his usual grumpy self. He's definitely in the "no, I don't like that" stage. Given that he complains about just about everything, it's not surprising that he wasn't too keen on his costume. "I don't like it," he would whine. "I want to take it off, Papa." We managed to keep his costume on for a while at school and also got him to wear it while he headed around the neighborhood. He spent some time on the front stoop with me and Maddie where he was quite happy to wear his costume and hand out candy. Of course, he sucked on a couple of lollipops while we sat there, so it's not surprising that he was a happy little camper.

Oh yeah, Teddy was the same dinosaur/dragon thing that Margaret was last year. So my "hand me down" strategy has worked for at least one more year. And although an astronaut would have been ideal for the boy next year, some of the cowgirl stuff should be easily translated into a cowboy outfit. So look forward to "Cowboy Teddy" pictures next year. Unless, of course, Teddy decides that he wants to be something else. And is really as stubborn as he appears to be.

Of course, the high point of the weekend was the visit of Grandma Mary and Grandpa Dave from Illinois. Halloween is always lots of fun, but both of the kids were so happy to have their grandparents around. As were their parents - the kids are amazingly easy to deal with when there's someone else around to watch them.

Busy weekends

One of the reasons I haven't been posting much lately is because we've recently become a very active family on the weekends. I'm not quite sure why, but we seem to have hit a period in which we're busy busy busy, so that I don't really have time to think any deep thoughts about the kids, much less to write about them.

Today, for example, started with a trip to the main drag through Georgetown to watch the Marine Corps Marathon. We've recently become fans of marathons after Mama ran the first leg of a relay at the Baltimore Marathon a couple of weeks ago. At the marathons we've seen, the kids gape at the crowds, both those running and those lining the route, and occasionally yell "Go, go, go." Their yelps were much much more effective at Baltimore where the crowds on the route were more sparse yielding a bigger response from the runners. (I tend to yell at people wearing interesting gear, such as the guy with the "I love beer" shirt - which warranted a bellow of "BEER" - or folks wearing Cubs gear - who get a rousing "GO CUBBIES!!!") But the Marine Corps Marathon is a bigger event, and we got to watch a band that was set up at the corner of M St and Wisconsin Ave.

After an hour or so watching the band and the runners, we ate lunch and headed up for a swim at the city's new Wilson Aquatic Center. The Wilson Center is a real jewel - the type of place typically found in the 'burbs rather than the city. We've been going there almost every weekend since it opened. One of us takes the kids to the kiddie pool, where Margaret and Teddie cavort, splash, and generally work on their water skills, while the other swims (exhausting - for me, at least) laps in the 100M lap pool. It's a great activity as both we and the kids get completely worn out. (By the way, we suspect that Teddy may start actually swimming before Margaret. As in many situations, he tends to be more daring in the pool and seems to have a better grasp of kicking and paddling. Even if he still thrashes around and sinks like a rock when he gets disoriented.)

Then, once we got home, we loaded the kids in the stroller and trekked around the city. It was a beautiful fall day in DC, and we wandered around, hitting all sorts of interesting stores, while the kids snoozed.

After the kids woke up and we got home, I put Margaret in the back of the bike and went for a ride. We bought a kid bike seat some time ago, but I found that we didn't use it unless I really made an effort. As a result, just as we've gone for a swim almost every weekend, Margaret and I try to take a bike ride each weekend. We often bike down to the Jefferson Memorial, where, when the weather was warm, we would grab a rocket pop from our favorite vendor and would eat it while sitting on the side of the tidal basin, watching the paddle boats and tourists. Then we head around Hains Point before circling the Lincoln Memorial on the way home. Other times, we've biked down the Potomac River to Old Town Alexandria to meet Mama. Today, we headed up the Capital Crescent Trail which follows the Potomac before cutting up into Maryland. In general, our bike trips are a great time as I get a workout while Margaret gets to see interesting things. She often sits in the back talking or singing to herself.

So we all end up pretty exhausted by the end of a weekend day. The account of today's activities doesn't even cover the plays that we've seen (Go Dog Go!), the tennis and soccer episodes (we often play tennis early in the morning because it allows us to do something while the kids are confined in the court with their rackets and soccer balls), trips to local farmers' and flea markets, and our other events with friends. Still, it should provide some (weak) justification for why I haven't written much lately. Here, though, are some pictures for those who have missed them. Including some pictures from Teddy's second birthday. Good grief, did I miss writing a post about that?

I love the kids, but c'mon

So we had a bad day today. It was bad in so many dimensions that it's difficult to know where to start. Let's see...

First, Teddy was up a lot last night and ended up spending most of the night in our bed. This reflects a more general problem - the kids, especially Margaret who is now about to get out of her bed and can stagger into our room in the middle of the night, often get up during the night. Rather than trying to get them back to sleep in their own beds, we often let them sleep with us. This arrangement works ok in some instances, but in others, it disrupts our sleep too much, especially when we're all crammed in the bed together. Nevertheless, rather than fighting the kid-in-our-bed syndrome and spending hours trying to get them back to sleep in their own beds, we've generally allowed them to crash in our bed once they wake up. Maybe (probably?) a mistake, and something that we've been trying to figure out how to fix, but that's the current status quo.

Still, last night was a particularly bad night with the boy. When I came up to bed, Teddy was already in our bed. I tried to move him back to his bed, but at some point, shortly after I fell asleep, he woke up and started howling. I tried to lay on the floor next to his bed - a really lovely situation - but eventually decided to bring him back to our bed rather than risking him waking Margaret. He spent the next few hours tossing and turning, constantly hitting me in the back. Teddy tends to grope around in our bed, grabbing us in various ways that prevent us from falling asleep, even when he's asleep. So I didn't get much rest. Thanks, Teddy.

Then, sometime during the night, he managed to overwhelm his diaper and left a wet spot on our bed. Lovely.

Margaret and he then had their usual battles in the morning over books and such. And Teddy howled, as he invariably does, about his sweater when I put it on him. Great.

After I picked them up from school, Teddy again howled about his sweater. Margaret then howled about her inability to use a particular "balance beam" (i.e., a wall near a sidewalk that she likes to walk on) because some other random toddler was using it. On average, I think, our life is pretty pleasant. The problem is that the average masks the wild variation that arises from one kid screaming while the other is beaming followed by the reverse of that situation. In this case, Teddy was a cheerful fellow in the front of the stroller as he informed me of the distress experienced by his sister in the back.

Then we went to the grocery store where Margaret had a major meltdown because I wouldn't buy her some cheese. This lasted for about 30 minutes during the entire visit to the grocery store and a good chunk of time afterwards. It got to the point where she was basically hyperventilating, and despite my irritation with her, I had to spend some time calming her down.

We then got home where Teddy and Margaret proceeded to pummel each other for a while. Margaret tends to use more sophisticated "psychological" warfare - such as teasing Teddy by holding a book out of his reach - while Teddy tends to use more physical methods - such as climbing all over his sister while she tries to read a book. I try to separate them, but they seem to be inevitably attracted to one another, such that they invariably end up in a conflict that makes one or both scream. Of course, during all of this, I'm trying to make dinner. Which wasn't helped tonight when Margaret managed to send water from the sink all over the kitchen. And both of the kids were badgering me, as they always do, for some sort of "special treat" to eat before dinner. The path of least resistance is to give them something, but then they don't eat any dinner. Such are the dilemmas that I face.

Eventually, Mom came home and we managed to eat dinner. A lovely dinner, I might add, of pork vindaloo. After which I was done - I handed the kids off for their baths and headed down to send some emails and watch TV. Just as well, I think, as Teddy managed, for the first time, to poop in the bathtub. Just perfect.

Belated post

So I haven't posted anything in quite a while. The lack of posts is partly due to other demands on my time, but it also reflects that blog posts involve a certain momentum that dissipates without activity. That is, I can't remember exactly what I was writing about or what was going on in my last posts. As a result, the whole process loses a sense of momentum and continuity.

The result is that I have some stuff - pictures and movies - to post. But I have no idea what to write about. Let's see.....

Well, Margaret is interesting, as always. But Teddy is the one who is really interesting at this point. His verbals skills have progressed to the point that he's actually a functioning member of the family. At this point, he rarely babbles. Instead, almost everything that he says - and he has a lot to say - actually means something. We may be the only people who can interpret his gibberish, but it's rarely complete nonsense. While Margaret tends to say more interesting things (such as, "We don't like taxi drivers because they don't know our city!" during our taxi ride home from the airport), Teddy occasionally tosses in interesting thoughts and opinions of his own. Although such opinions are noted but rarely honored, it's still fun to see what he'll say.

Physically, Teddy is also making progress. He rarely makes clearly clumsy moves at this point. For example, he is much better on the stairs, so much so that we have considered taking down the many gates. And he loves to run. He pumps his little arms and churns his body, as if such actions will make him go faster. In the end, he may fall, but such events are less systematic than they once were. An associated development is his interest in sports - he loves soccer/futbol, basketball, baseball, and tennis. He doesn't always correctly identify the sport on TV, with confusion often arising for basketball, baseball, and football, but he's drawn to and loves to play them all. Of course, Margaret likes sports and sporting events as well, especially soccer and events associated with our hometown team, DC United, but Teddy takes his interest to another level. As with many other differences between the kids, we're not sure if this reflects a gender difference or something else.

Hmmm, what else? Can't think of much, but perhaps the following pictures and video will suffice.

Pink princess slippers

(For folks looking for pictures, we're heading up to Philly for Labor Day weekend, so we should have plenty of pictures when we return.)

After a nasty, putrid August, the weather in DC has become much cooler and less humid in the last week. In fact, it got so cool that Margaret asked for a sweater after breakfast on Tuesday. I ran upstairs and grabbed the gray fleece sweater that I'd bought for her in a sale at some point over the summer. "I don't like that sweater. I want my pink sweater," she said, after I brought it downstairs. "But your pink sweater doesn't fit you anymore," I said, "Just wear this one." "No, I want a pink sweater." We went back and forth for a while until I finally convinced Margaret to wear the gray sweater "just this once." After we pointed out, in the car on our way to school, that both Mama and Grandma Nancy have gray fleece sweaters, she seemed to tentatively accept that the gray sweater was actually acceptable. But she didn't seem terribly happy about it.

This exchange reflects a battle that I've been expecting for some time. Apparently, kids can become very obstinate about their clothes. This behavior has been evident in our family for some time - Margaret often puts up a fight over her clothes, for no apparent reason except to reject the proposed outfit. I've also heard many stories about girls who want to wear "pink princess" outfits. (Abby tells a story about how she wore a particular cowgirl outfit for an extended period when she was a kid.) To the extent that this behavior reflects random attempts to exert control, I have little sympathy for it. After all, Teddy will say "not that one" we pull out a shirt, even if he has no real rationale for refusing the shirt, other than the fact that we proposed it. (He has no clue, but likes to use the phrases that he knows in an appropriate context. Bravo, I say, but that still doesn't make me want to honor his "requests.") But if Margaret's behavior reflects an actual shift in her clothing preferences, it's more problematic as it runs counter to a strategy that I've been using for some time. Let me explain.

Most people that I know find out the gender of their children before they are born. We didn't. Certain friends of mine found this baffling. "Why would you refuse free information?," one friend asked me (as gender determination is trivial given all of the prenatal ultrasounds). In the case of Margaret, my rationale for not learning her gender was quite simple. If we don't know the gender of the kid, then we'll receive lots of "gender neutral" stuff, including apparel and other baby items. Not pink or blue, but green, yellow or some other gender neutral color. If we were then to have a second kid, which we planned to do so on some level, then all of that stuff for the first kid would be usable for the second, regardless of the second's gender. In contrast, if we had known that Margaret was a girl, all of her pink clothes would have been useless for Teddy. As it turned out, baby Teddy ended up wearing a lot of the stuff that we received prior to Margaret's birth.

This only works for infant clothes, as once Margaret was born, the girl clothes flooded in. (It also doesn't explain why we didn't learn Teddy's gender. I actually can't explain that one.) But I've tried to keep up the basic "gender neutral" theme. Get a green shirt or plain tan shorts or simple blue jeans - Margaret can wear it now, and Teddy can wear it later. This hasn't worked perfectly as many kids clothes are too geared towards one gender or the other, but for certain items, say a red winter coat or maybe a gray fleece sweater, it has worked pretty well.

Until now, it would appear. Margaret has apparently reached the "pink princess" phase where she can recognize the difference between styles of clothes and, moveover, has clear opinions about the clothes that she actually likes. Hence, in addition to the protests over the gray sweater, we had the following exchange earlier tonight.

"Where are my slippers?," she asked.

"Your dragon slippers?," I replied.

"Yes, where are they?"

"Well, I think that they're in your shoe bin."

After digging around for them, Margaret pulled them out, compared them to her Converse hi-tops, and asked, "Are they size 7? Will they still fit me?"

"I don't know. They may be too small for you, in which case Teddy can have them. We may have to get you some new slippers."

"Can we get pink princess slippers?"

"No, I think that we'll look for more dragon slippers."

"But I want pink princess slippers!"

"But dragon slippers are really cool! Don't you want more dragon slippers?"

"No, I want pink princess slippers!"

As Abby noted regarding the gray sweater, I'm probably fighting a losing battle.

My goodness

Has it really been almost a month since I last posted on this blog? If so, where are the cries of outrage from my many fans? Even if you don't appreciate my always insightful commentary, you must want pics of the kids. Right?

I don't currently have much to report on the kids. Teddy is becoming a "big boy" in many ways. He's not only physically big, but he's starting to "talk" in the broadest sense of the word. He says lots of stuff, often involving actual words which occasionally reflect complex sentences with nouns, pronouns and verbs. Still, only the teachers at daycare, Abby and I can generally decipher what he's saying.

As for Margaret, she continues to become more and more interesting. Lots of interesting thoughts and opinions. She's become a serious fan of books without pictures, especially those written by Beverly Cleary. She spied a shelf of Ramona books in Barnes and Noble the other day which led us to buy a book from the Henry Huggins series. When we read them at night, she sits there on the edge of her bed, while Teddy drifts off to sleep, waiting for the next exciting episode. And for a three year old, she has an amazing ability to not only absorb the stories but also to recall them. It's a lot of fun, especially when I'm recounting stories about Henry and Ribsy that make me chuckle.

Here's a mish-mash of pics from the last month:

Why?

Everyone out there with (older) kids will smile and sagely nod his or her head in response to this post. Because Margaret has reached the point where one of her favorite words is. . . Why?

Margaret is a pretty vocal little kid. (By the way, although this post isn't about him, so is Teddy. He just isn't terribly articulate or comprehensible at this point.) She loves to talk and talk about all sorts of things in a very piercing voice that cuts through everything else. That voice is very effective at waking you up in the middle of the night. Or, as the case may be, in the morning. As I think I wrote about before, Margaret talked the entire time during a flight from Chicago to DC. On the one hand, I was happy that she wasn't fussing, given that it was a late flight. But I also felt bad for everyone near us who had to listen to the incessant chirpy voice from a nearby seat. The upshot is that Margaret is very difficult to ignore.

Margaret also has interesting things to say. On our recent drive to Connecticut, we started trying to distract her with "stories" about her and Teddy. These stories, told by Abby, chronicle the first few days of one kid or the other. Margaret has found these stories to be fascinating and keeps requesting them. To the point that I'm pretty fed up with the whole "birth story" genre. After it became apparent that her requests for "my story" or "Teddy's story" wouldn't be met, she has started telling those stories on her own. It's fascinating to hear her take on our pre-kid life and the subsequent disruption caused by the arrival of the kids.

On our walk home, we have always had interesting conversations. But lately, she has started asking "why." It really doesn't matter what we're talking about - she just asks "why." "Why is the fire truck not in the fire station?" "Why did that person ask you for directions?" "Why do we have to cross the street?" "Why are you yelling at that taxi cab?" And so on.

The "why" sequences fall in two general classes. In the first, variations of the same question are repeated over and over.

For example, Gypsy, the cat belonging to a former neighbor, went AWOL a few months ago (and has not returned).

"Why did Gypsy leave?," Margaret will ask, during our walk home.

"I'm not sure. Gypsy didn't tell us," I'll reply.

"Why did Gypsy go away?"

"We should ask Marissa." (Gypsy's owner.)

A pause. "Why doesn't Marissa have Gypsy anymore?"

"I don't know."

"Why didn't Gypsy tell us when she left?"

"I don't know. We really don't know where she went."

"Why didn't Gypsy tell us where she went?"

"I don't know."

And so on, and so on. The general theme is that I don't know the answer and give a vague response, but Margaret won't let the issue go.

The second, and more sophisticated, form of "why" questioning involves questions that are distinct, but logically follow one another. For example, after running into Marissa while walking home:

"Where is Marissa going?"

"She's probably going home to walk Boone." (Her dog.)

"Why is she going to walk Boone?"

"Because he has been inside all day."

"Why has he been inside all day?"

"Because Marissa has been at work."

"Why has Marissa been at work?"

"Because that's what adults do, they go to work."

"Why do adults go to work?"

"Because that's what adults do."

"Why do adults do that?"

"Because they need to buy groceries and stuff."

"Why do they need to buy groceries?"

"Because people need to eat food."

And so on. Occasionally, Margaret will catch me in a tautology, because I rarely pay much attention to my responses. Such logical problems rarely seem to bother her. Instead, she's focused on getting answers to the series of questions that pop into her head.

Why, why, why?

Eventually, I get tired of the whole routine and try to distract her with another line of conversation. Currently, I often succeed. However, I suspect that she will eventually figure out when I'm stonewalling her or, alternatively, just bullshitting. That's when the "why" will really have bite.

Embarassing the brother

While I posted a version of this some time ago on YouTube, I recently learned (while posting the video of Teddy in the fountain) that I could upload better quality videos directly from my camera. Hence, I shall embarass my brother by posting this (higher quality) video from his wedding reception.

I can only say three things.

First, I think that he's playing my dad's old guitar which, if I recall correctly, became my guitar at some point. Not sure when ownership was transferred, but I've been looking for a guitar to entertain the kids. I've been thinking about getting a Martin, but an old, beat up Gibson that tears up your fingers would probably work just as well (and after using this one, you'll surely agree Steve, you can play any guitar).

Second, the song is actually pretty catchy.

Third, I have three regrets from my own wedding. First, and perhaps superficially, my tux didn't fit well which made me unhappy during the reception. Second, Abby was unable to follow my lead during our dance. Hell, it wasn't a very complicated song. As one of my friend said at the time, "Mark's trying to fox trot, but Abby won't let him lead." Finally, and relevant for this post, I didn't "toast" Abby. I know exactly what I would've said. When we met, what I thought about her, when I knew that she was "the one," where we'd been, what we'd done together, and so on - no need to rehash it here. Still, I didn't get off my ass to do it.

In contrast, Steve pulled this off like a champ. And I hope that this video serves as a memorial of sorts to his wedding.


As a complete aside, for those who are interested, here's a version of our song from my wedding. Who couldn't fox trot to this? (And, for the sake of completeness, here's a poem that Joe read during our ceremony. I just like it, that's why I'm linking to it.)

A fine weekend

We had a pretty good weekend. (After taking the above photo, I said, "Teddy, this is Teddy. High five?" And our little Teddy gave big Teddy a big high five. Margaret kept saying, "Who is Teddy Roosevelt?")

Again, we had a pretty good weekend. But it didn't start that way, as little Teddy was a real crank yesterday morning. He just fussed and fussed and fussed, especially whenever his mama put him down. When we went shopping at Target, Teddy would give a heart wrenching rendition of what is currently his most complex sentence - "Don't leave me!!" - every time Abby walked away, despite the fact that I was right there pushing him in the shopping cart, smiling and nodding at all of the people who scowled at me for my obvious negligence. It got to the point that we thought he might be sick, with an ear infection or something like that. By noon yesterday, I was thinking about what a bad weekend it could be and how nice it would be to send the boy back to daycare on Monday. He was just being almost indescribably petulant.

However, his fussiness quickly dissipated once we got to a birthday party at a public water park in northern Virginia. Where he had a great time and where we also were able to observe some notable differences between Margaret and the boy. (BTW, the next few paragraphs are all of the profound parenting ruminations that I'll be writing today.)

As I said, the birthday party was at a nearby public water park. These parks are scattered throughout Arlington and involve a small area with jets of water that periodically shoot up in the air. They aren't terribly fancy, although DC would never be able to put together something like them. We've visited this type of park in the past with Margaret, and although she likes them, she has never been very active in them. Instead, she sort of loiters around the edges, giggling and jumping when she gets sprayed with water, but never really exposing herself to the jets.

In contrast, after an initial period of hesitation, Teddy dove right in. As you can see in the pics below, he would put his hands, feet and even his face in the stream. He ran all over the place and, for better or worse, learned various tricks, like drinking the water, from the "big boys." At some point, he figured out that he could stand over a jet so that it would shoot up into his pants. He seemed to enjoy this sensation.



The behavioral difference between Margaret and Teddy at the water park illustrates a more fundamental difference between the two: the boy tends to be much less cautious than Margaret. He'll throw himself around in ways that Margaret would have avoided at the same age. For example, to the extent that he can, given his still limited mobility, he'll launch himself down slides. Such as the circular slides found at many parks and a big, old-school slide (roughly 20 feet high) that he insisted on using (with me close behind) at a park last weekend.

As another (non-physical) example, Margaret tends to be pretty reserved around people in costumes like the big Teddy Roosevelt in the photo at the top of this post. Frankly, I can understand her concern - a clown or big guy like Teddy R. can be a bit frightening, especially if you're a little person. In situations like those with big sports mascots, Teddy doesn't necessarily throw himself at the guy in the costume, but he certainly doesn't show the same apprehension that Margaret does.

Is this a gender thing? I don't know, although I have heard many stories from other parents about how their sons are much more reckless than their daughters. And I think that I've read somewhere about how male traders tend to take bigger risks, and are correspondingly more likely to blow up, in financial markets. Do I have any deep insights or thoughts about this? No. All I know is that Teddy is much more active at places like the water park than Margaret. He gets the high of feeling water shoot up his shorts, but he's also more likely to slip and bonk his head. On some level, that's just, I suppose, the risk-return trade off that also drives those male traders.

The other reason that we had a good weekend was that the Cubs were in town for a four game series against the Nationals. I managed to attend games on Friday night (with a friend from Chicago), Saturday night (with Abby), and today (with the entire family) - all without paying for a single ticket (whoo-hoo!!) due to various connections (I'm very proud of that accomplishment, especially as our tickets for every game were primo - on Friday, we actually had waitresses serving our section). Despite the fact that it was really, really sunny and warm in our seats today, and despite some difficulties with the Metro - a stroller on a train full of baseball fans isn't very easy to maneuver, even without the delays due to the recent Metro accident - we ended up having a fun time. The kids ate pop corn and Cracker Jacks, in addition to a couple of cups of ice that a nice vendor gave us. I kept putting chunks of ice under Teddy's hat to cool him down, but that didn't seem to staunch his enthusiasm. Instead, he had fun watching "baseball" or "tennis" or "basketball" or whatever he felt like calling it. And he really enjoyed grooving to the music.

Best of all, the Cubs ended up sweeping the Nats. Nothing like a trip to DC to make a team look like a real winner.

I'm sure that neither of the kids comprehend the game at all. And they don't really seem to have a clear sense of a "rooting interest," as both kids would clap, for either team, whenever other people clapped. Still, they both seem to enjoy the crowd and the whole spectacle. And Teddy would point at people in Cubs gear that we passed - and we saw lots and lots of people in Cubs regalia - and would say "Go Cubs!"

Faces of the kids