Hello, my old friend.

What is that really bizarre sound? I can't quite put my finger on it. It sounds so strangely familiar but seems as though months have passed since I heard it last. Let me ask Elijah if he knows what is causing it...oh, that's right, Elijah is at the library with his friend, Evan. Hmm, perhaps Amelia and Zachary might be able to shed some light on the subject... no, that won't work either as they're both asleep for their naps at the same exact time today. Maybe you can help me figure this out as I'm sure you've heard it before. It's a very distinctive sound and doesn't resemble any of the noises which come from books on cd, tvs, lego dot coms, bouncy zebras, music choices, leap pads, leap tables, leapsters, learning cubes, little people sets, screams, laughs, cries, jokes, jingles, jabs, or any other sounds which emanate from the surprisingly loud cavern appearing under little tots noses. How about you, Simon and Garfunkel, do you know what that sound is?

Fast Forward Friday

My memory card in my camera is full. It's time to dump my assorted pictures and videos onto my hard drive. While I do that, let me give you a brief run down of this week's events; tennis camp, baby lap time, blocks, baseball, brownies, the park, the pool, a short story written, several novels read, running along the river, met Jen a.k.a. Zach's mom for lunch, Craig's list items sold, art projects, band practice, backgammon, and Benjamin.

It went that quickly, too.

But what kind of day care provider would I be to leave out the most significant development of the week. This of course is the news of Zachary's first step. His first official tread on terra firma was this past weekend when he walked from his dad to his mum. I'm certainly glad both of them were able to witness such a milestone in the creation of being who, in time, will become much quicker and more agile than they could ever hope to be. Did I mention slippery? Yeah, they become really slippery, too.

A Fish Called...

After almost a month trial run to make sure our tank was non-lethal to aquatic creatures, I'm happy to say that all of the fish (even Goldie) are doing just fine. In celebration of the continued consciousness of our proverbial coal mine canaries, the family and I made another trip to our favorite fish vendor to acquire a couple additional components to our own slice of eco-system situated within our dining room.

Our second fish mission to the pet store ended without anybody losing their job, unlike our Father's day mishap, so no news is good news on that front. It was somewhat a challenge, though, finding fish big enough not to be terrorized by the barbs and not too big as to terrorize the barbs, but after a ceaseless search we finally found a fit everyone could live with. We drove home with two additions to the family; a spotted catfish and a plecostomous, known to most as the common suckerfish.

We soon arrived at home and Elijah rushed into the house, followed by a slightly less rushing mom, Amelia and myself.

"What are you going to name your fish?" Mom asked while lifting the small plastic bags out of the large paper bag and setting them into the tank to acclimate.
He replied, "I would like to name the catfish Whiskers and the sucker fish will be named Sucky." with the stoic reverence of one who speaks of their own beloved children.
"Those are fantastic names." I smiled and looked over at him. He was stooping down and peering into the tank with his face up to the glass making sure his new friends were comfortable. It struck me as such a beautiful thing that in his six year old innocence he saw no possible negative connotations with his new fish's name.

It is, after all, the most logical name for a sucker fish.

Book Wormz

Hola amigos. I know it's been a long time since I rapped at ya but the three kids and I have been keeping ourselves busy trying to beat the summer heat doldrums. Fortunately for us, we live in between two great parks and have a great library 3 blocks away that we can walk over to and catch one of the many summer programs like the turtle lady or storybook corner, which we have frequented as of late. Although the age limit for storybook corner is 2 to 7 both Amelia and Zach have souls of much older beings and are, therefore, always welcome.
I'm so happy that Elijah still likes to go to the library for stories and baby lap time. He gets excited when I mention walking down there for all the events even as his friend (who shan't be named) never wants to go because he would rather sit at home and play x-box. It makes me sad to think about the day he will eventually decide he's too old for story time, too, so it really makes me enjoy these days I can spend with him that much more.

Oh and, by the way, Elijah just finished reading his first chapter book by himself on Tuesday. Yes, I'm a proud dad.

Amelia has become runner and a very inquiring one at that. She enjoys listening to the stories for all of 30 seconds and then it's off to pull all of the CDs from the shelf to stack them on the floor. Zach likes books quite a bit more than Amelia and will sometimes last as long as 90 seconds before he wants to crawl over to the curly-wired bead table, which he will play with the remainder of time we are there. His infatuation with the table is helpful since I'm usually chasing down a hyperactive Amelia through Eastern European literature at the other end of the library by that point.

Monkey Tuesday

It really is amazing how within the span of a week a baby can metamorphose into a toddler right before your very eyes. Zach is resembling less and less the baby of yore and more the toddler of today in both action and appearance. Perhaps the most striking are his chompers which are multiplying like gremlins in those sore little gums of his. Perhaps he was finally getting tired of all the liqui-food I've been giving him and decided he might just be ready for a steak.

In addition to his pearly whites, he is also showing great wisdom and proficiency in the area of the monkey walk. "What is the monkey walk?" you ask.

Well...

Popcorn and Junior Mints

We have got some happy children in the house today. It is a reunion of sorts and a jovial one at that. After being apart 8 full days, which is almost a month in baby time, Zach, Elijah, and Amelia are together once again. There have been numerous hugs and kisses all around from our long lost pal who we've all been missing dearly. Elijah pretty much summed it up when he said, "I think Zach missed baby play-land." This is the nickname we have given our living room because, for one, that's where all the good toys are, and two, it can close off completely to become mostly child proof. I use the quantifier "mostly" only because just recently, Amelia suddenly holds the notion that climbing up onto the arm of the couch, hanging down over the side, and dropping off is a good source of fun. I wonder who could have given her that idea.

Sweet Child of Mine

It's been a rather eventful weekend for us all here at el casa del Mr. Steve. The weeding went beautifully in almost every respect. Congratulation to the newly married couple, Shane and Liz. Have a splenid ol' time in Ireland and 'ave eh pint o' Ginniss fer meh. Surprisingly the only hitch was not my "best man's" speech but instead that the Mom and Son dance song was not performed by Sheryl Crow as was requested but instead by the original artist Guns and Roses. Rather than starting a Mom and Son mosh pit they let the DJ pick a song appropriate for the occasion. Under the circumstance, I think he pulled it off nicely with a Kenny Rogers staple that in the long run may become even more memorable than what was planned. Funny how that works out sometimes.
Grammie arrived here on Thursday and had a wonderful time with Elijah and Amelia. She spent so much time at the park and playing Indiana Jones Legos with her grandkids that she barely had a chance to visit with her kid-kids. It's safe to say it wasn't too big a disappointment. Elijah and Amelia are way more fun than we are anyway.

But to make the weekend really interesting, fifteen minutes before Grammie's plane arrived, I discovered that our basement had filled with about three inches of raw sewage overnight (as opposed to sautéed sewage). Most of the free time we would have had to visit with her was spent heavy lifting, wet vac-ing, sanitizing, and drying in the aftermath of the great flood of 2008. Throughout the ordeal we tried to keep positive by telling ourselves that it was a great opportunity to clean out a lot of the old junk we had been meaning to get rid of... occasionally it even worked. I will have to say that it felt pretty good after we got all of the waterlogged boxes outside. It was not really so much of a silver lining as it was chrome spray paint back-splash but, hey, I'll take what I can get at this point.

Zach has been at home sick with mom for the last couple days. As per the doc's orders, he will be gone until Thursday. Get well soon, little man, and we'll see you then.

It's a perfect June day. I see a zoo in our future.