He’s been up for 20 minutes


Do that again, Mommy!


And already he’s planned a city built of glow sticks, become entangled by cranes, and eaten all the blue in the world.  Apparently he’s also absorbed Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” by osmosis, as he’s announced, “”The Christmas Ghosts are coming. They are going to howl theirselves. 1,2,3- that’s it!””

And, lest I forget:

“Prepare to meet your doom! And smile!”

Wow! Butterflies!

Here is a photo of Ian screaming in terror as he attempts to flee the butterfly exhibit at the Smithsonian. Sorry it’s blurry, but he was moving pretty fast and I only got one take.  

It probably makes me a bad mother, but I laugh hysterically every time I look at this picture.  I’m not even sure why this hits me in my tickle spot, but it may have something to do with the fact that once we got outside, he ran directly to the window that looks into the pavilion and stood with his nose pressed up against it.

I also loved when one landed on him, and, while I was busy appreciating the wonder and beauty of this special creature, my son was screaming, “GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF!”

Good thing this exhibit is free on Tuesdays, because I’d be surprised if we used two full minutes of our allotted 15 minute time slot.

Friendship Firehouse

What could be better than a visit to a historical firehouse with a friend? Well, how about following that up with a trip to the candy store? We enjoyed the Friendship Firehouse and then we went to The Sugar Cube, where we enjoyed free samples, the holiday atmosphere, and the old-fashioned pleasure of choosing and scooping out candy to purchase.  Santa should stop by- it seems right up his alley.

Lost in Translation

Ian and Sophie

Ages ago we told Ian the story of his birth and have repeated it many times.  Recently, however, it has come to our attention that something got a little lost in translation.  Ian was born, for anyone who does not know, via emergency C-section.  Our first clue that we had explained this procedure poorly came recently when he asked if they had cut mommy’s neck to get him out.  Of course I explained that babies grow in their mother’s bellies, and showed him my scar so he’d understand that no, he did not come out of Mommy’s neck.  He seemed to understand and accept this information quite well.

That is, until we showed him the pictures of Spazzface 2.0 and we started talking about The Baby in Mommy’s Belly.  His first question was, “Is it MY baby, Mommy?”  He was promptly told that, “yes, sweetie, it’s your baby, Mommy’s baby, and Daddy’s baby.  This is OUR baby and it will live here with us. ” (So far this has, thankfully, put paid to his efforts to convince us to adopt our friend’s infants.)

Predictably, his next question was, “Can they get it out of yours belly, Mommy?”  And, naturally, we explained that yes, we will get the baby out when the baby is ready, but it’s still very tiny and we’ll have to wait a LONG TIME before that happens.  “And then they will cut off yours head and get my baby out, Mommy.  Let’s get my baby out of there!”

I, to be perfectly honest, was laughing too hard to talk, but Daddy, for some reason, took a dim view of this talk of cutting off my head.  Michael immediately and emphatically replied, “NO! We are NEVER cutting off your mother’s head.  NEVER.”  So that’s settled.  (Also, we’ve told Ian he MAY NOT watch them get the baby out of Mommy’s tummy.)