Lisa n Tom (n James n Joseph)

Lisa writes: We had an adventure today. We went to Breezy Point Beach in Calvert County, Maryland with our friends Chrissy, Aidan, and baby Collin. We played in the sand and surf and hunted for prehistoric shark teeth. We found nine (plus two others that might be shark teeth, might be pointy rocks). We left our phones in the car because (a) sand, (b) salt water, and (c) unsupervised electronics and I'm mostly glad, but there are two mental pictures I wish I could have gotten a digital copy of: - James standing in the ocean up to his shoulders and ducking under the waves, clutching his Spider-Man baseball cap. - Joseph stretched out on his belly right at the spot where the tip of the incoming waves washed up on the sand, squealing each time the water touched him. They were both absolutely fearless in the water. Didn't care that it was salt. Didn't mind it in the faces (or in their mouths). Thought the small waves were awesome. The sand was really hot -- they di...

Lisa writes: Today was the first full day of preschool. I wanted to do something fun afterwards, so I took the boys to the Fairfax Splash Pad. It's a little park that the city spritzed up a couple of years ago with some new landscaping, a gazebo, and this splash pad. When we got there, there was only one other kid -- a timid little girl who didn't want to play with us. But after a little while a bunch of other kids arrived. James has ... leadership skills? Bossiness? A budding dictatorship? Anyway, he had three other kids running back and forth, fetching water to fill his big cups for at least ten minutes. When you ask Joseph where his belly button is, a significant percentage of the time he'll point to his drainage scar. (Sad/funny story: He only noticed his belly button a few weeks ago. They were playing in the wading pool at Miss Sandy's house and his swim diaper was sagging down low enough to expose his belly button. He looked down, saw the belly button...

Lisa writes: Look at these little guys! Eleven boys, six girls. There's James in the white polo because we waited until two days before school to try to buy his uniform and they were all out of XS shirts. (We ordered some -- they'll arrive in two weeks.) The tiny blonde kid to the left of him is Grayson, his "best friend" because they played blocks together for 15 minutes during orientation. There are three -- count 'em, THREE -- boys named Sebastian in this class: the two on either side of James and Grayson and the boys on the far left, middle row. His teachers are Mrs. Miranda (right) and class assistant Mrs. Vosburg (left).

Lisa writes: yesterday, James announced that he was going to marry Ceci, the three-year-old at his daycare. He even asked Ceci's father's permission when he came to pick her up at the end of the day. Today, he reported a complication. Ceci said she wants to marry Milo, her dog. James got over the disappointment quickly. Now he says he's going to marry his babysitter, Abby. Good thing that all worked out.

Lisa writes: This is the end of orientation. They lined up on the map and each got a ball of white playdoh. The teacher read about poem that said something like "make a wish, and if this ball of clay changes color, you'll have a wonderful year" and then they all smushed up their clay. Magically, color started to appear (a drop of food coloring in the middle of the ball) and they were astounded. James asked if we could do it at home, so of course we came home and made more playdoh, rolled it into balls, and smashed them up. We now have a LOT of playdoh and he's absolutely guaranteed to have a good year.

Self-portrait by Joseph Lisa writes: Joseph learned a new word. I think he's been saying it for a few days, but I only just figured out what he was saying. "Dirty." In the following contexts: Me or Tom: "Joseph, do you have a poo poo diaper?" Joseph: (tugging on diaper) "Dirty." Me or Tom: "Let's wash your hands." Joseph: (rubbing hands together) "Dirty." Me, tonight while trying to get him to eat: "Bite?" Joseph: (pointing at the baseboard behind me) "Dirty." Sure enough, there were food drips on the baseboard. So now even my nearly pre-verbal toddler is critiquing my housekeeping.

Lisa writes: PreK is preschool, or more specifically, the year before kids start kindergarten. Here's James at his new school, checking out the room and chugging a milk. By the way, I hadn't realized school was so ... time-consuming. I know now that this sounds incredible clueless and naïve, but I guess I just assumed it was kind of like daycare: write a check, drop them up, the end. No no no. With school, there's lots of checks (or setting up an online account), lots more paperwork, an open house, a parent orientation, a student orientation, a PTO ice cream social, a used uniform sale, signing up for 20 hours of volunteer work for the school, and about 20 emails. All before the semester begins! It get easier from here ... right?

Lisa writes: I've written this before and I'll write it again: In the book of our lives, Costco will have its own chapter.

Lisa writes: Donny sent me 398 pictures to review from Mom's birthday party. That's 389 attempts at getting some good photos of our family. There is not a single one where everybody is (a) all in the same shot, (b) looking toward the camera, (c) not doing something weird with their hands/feet/face. Sigh. This is why we don't have our own reality show, people. Anyway, I sat down and fixed one of the better ones. Christmas cards are all ready to go! Mom doesn't like this one. What I was going for was "in movies, cool guys walk away from explosions without looking back. This one's my FAVORITE.

Lisa writes: I had to renew my drivers license. Not the kind of renewal where you send in some money and they send you a new license. This was the kind where you have to go in, take an eye exam, and get a new (less-flattering-every-year) photo. Joseph came too.

Lisa writes: Spike the Third died last week. He might have gotten squeezed a little bit during a playdate with a friend while I was out of the room. James isn't exactly confessing, but he did say, "I didn't know what Spike felt like." We talked about how fish have a slime layer on their skin to protect them from germs, and if you touch them, it wipes off the slime layer and they can get sick and die. And we talked about how, next time, James will be the protector of the fish. He announces this now, "I AM THE FISH PROTECTOR. NOBODY TOUCH SPIKE!" so I'm hopeful Spike the Fourth may have a longer life. Meanwhile, last night, James asked if Spike would lay eggs. I said no, he has to have a girlfriend to lay eggs. He asked, if we put a girl in Spike's tank, would Spike fight her? (We've talked about how bettas live alone because they fight each other.) I said I didn't know, he'd have to ask Spike. So he put his face down close to the top o...

Lisa writes: Joseph pooped on the potty this morning! He "told" us he needed to (pointed at his diaper), then sat down and actually did it! That is all.

Lisa writes: I feel like there's a lot going on the frame here that I should explain. We have two giant double-strollers sitting in the carport at the moment because lady at ECHO needs one. She came in two weeks ago and asked if we had any double-strollers because she has one-year old twins (and no car -- think about the daily logistics of that situation). It's not a common item, and we didn't have any, but I told her I'd keep an eye out for one. After two weeks and none arriving, I sent out an email to my neighborhood. One person replied back immediately with her address and said she'd leave it out in the driveway and I could pick it up. I thanked her. A minute later, another replied to say they'd just dropped one off at our house. So now we have two. They both need some cleaning. In the meantime, Tom took the taller of the two strollers for a run with both boys. They LOVED it, and here we have Joseph attempting to recreate the fun for James. Um, also, w...

Lisa writes: Tonight was our annual neighborhood ice cream social. I usually prep for this a couple of days ahead, but today waited until the last minute. The boys and I ran to the grocery store to get ice cream an hour before the party was scheduled to begin and THIS was what we found in the ice cream section. (Turned out the freezer was broken; they had plenty of ice cream, it was just in the back. But I did have a heart attack for a moment.) And here are a couple of happy ice cream guests with host, Joseph. Valentina is a heart buddy -- she was born with a similar condition and has had three surgeries, two of which are the same ones Joseph will have. She's eleven months old, tiny, but doing well. She got a bite of ice cream.

Lisa writes: Joseph called me Mama for the first time today. He and James were sitting in the backseat. James was calling "Mama Mama Mama" and Joseph parroted him: "Mama Mama Mama." When I went around to the other side of the car to get Joseph out of the car he looked at me and said it again. He's 21 months old. I think that may be some sort of a record.

Lisa writes: Both boys have figured out how to take pictures using our phones. James Joseph