Happy birthday, Mom!

As a gift, here, have a picture of Ari at school. :)

Our first broken bone

Who: Xander

What: A possible hairline fracture

When:  Two days ago on the playground

Where: A growth plate on his right elbow

How: While playing "stick in the mud tag," which, according to my son, involves running around a lot until someone tags you.  Then you stay frozen and someone crawls between your bent legs to unfreeze you.  Xander was frozen in a weird position, and lost his balance when a friend crawled underneath him.  He fell directly on his arm.

Jonathan walked into school to pick him up, and saw a whole bunch of kids and all the teachers clustered around a child who was lying on the floor, screaming.  He thought to himself, "please don't let that be our child."

Yep.  It was our child.

At the doctor's office.  He has an ace bandage and a sling, not a cast, thank goodness.

And how is he now, you ask?  Fine.  Hating all the attention from his friends who ask him how he is.  And mad at us because we won't let him play on the jungle gym.  Ah, to be 5 again.

The two eldest

Xander the 1st-grader

Ari self-portrait

And we took a bunch of pictures of Connor eating chow mein, but to be honest, they all look really weird, like he's eating worms.  So more pictures of him to come. :)

Rosh Hashanah it is a'comin

Apples and honey as dessert three days in a row!

It's amazing what we can get away with in the name of holidays. :)

Playdate gone awry

On our way to a playdate.

Ran over something on the freeway.

Flat tire.

Pull over. 

3 children melting down.

Call AAA.

Get towed.

Go to the Honda dealership to patch the tire.

It can't be repaired.

$518, two new tires and a valve stem later, the car is fixed.  We make it to the playdate.


This sure was one expensive afternoon.

Xander took these pictures - kid's got a good eye

You just wait, Master Jedi.  Darth Maul and I aren't done yet!

Playtime respite.

Hi, big brother!!!!

WOW!  Flashing lights on cameras are so cool.

5 year old vocab

Me, talking to Xander last night as I get home from work:  "Hi, honey, how was your day?"

X: "Fantastically fantastic!"

Me: "Great!  What made it so fantastically fantastic?"

X: "We learned how to tell time.  On a clock!  Not like on the ones at home."

Me: "Right, ours at home are almost all digital. That means they don't have hands, they have numbers.  How cool that you're learning on the other ones, on the analog."

X: "Yeah, digital ones are hands-free.  Not like the ones at school, those are hands-full instead."


Then he scampered off.  He said it so casually by the time I realized what he meant, it was too late to correct him.  Hands-full.  What a great word!