Category: Uncategorized

Today Ralph from Ralph’s World was at the zoo. Neko was beside herself with excitement, but became insanely shy when she actually got to meet him. We had to go through the line before and after the show to get the one good picture we got, where you’ll notice she is clinging to my leg for dear life.

Ralph is always a good show, and I think we like him even a little more because he seems like the kind of guy we would hang out with. Plus, his shows here are special because his dad is a local, so he always brings him up on stage to sing some song that they used to sing in the car on their way to family vacations.

Neko got to hold Ellery on her lap for a good portion of the show, and even though I had visions of her infant head crashing on the concrete, I let it continue because Neko was so very proud and she was doing such a good job.

But you’ll notice my arm in the corner of the frame, ready to perform a lifesaving maneuver. Just in case.

Breakfast on the porch followed by chalk drawings. Neko’s drawing is of our family, the sun, and a rain cloud.

If I had to list the top five products for three-year-olds, blue painter’s tape would fall on that list. Neko desperately wants to attach things, but she can’t figure out string, and regular tape is too sticky for her or our furniture to handle. Blue tape is perfect. I’ve never had it destroy a surface.

At first we doled out little pieces, but ultimately realized that we could give her the whole roll and she’d run off and do fairly responsible stuff.

Today Wilbur the Pig must have done something wrong because Neko decided to turn the playgym into a cage. With a little help from Tom, there was no doubt…Wilbur was going nowhere.

Thank goodness we have Chris around, since he takes the time to capture photos like this.

We met Nancy and the kids at the museum today. Like a psychic “Omigodwhatwillwedoallday” connection, she called at 8am to see what we had going on. There was almost no one in the train area, so the kids ran laps around while Nancy and I stationed ourselves to make sure no one escaped. A nice little old lady gave the kids a tour of the old trolley car. Then we wandered over to natural history area where they were doing a bat presentation. While the little kids weren’t too impressed, Neko was enthralled.

Tonight she re-enacted the entire presentation for me with her stuffed Ugly Dolls—the Ice Bat version. And when it was time for bed, she noted that I hadn’t tucked in the bats. I tried to tuck them under the covers when I got corrected that bats sleep hanging upside down. Our trusty blue tape was called into action, and she tucked them in, hanging from the shelf next to her bed. A little extra tape solved the problem that they just wouldn’t close their eyes.

It finally snowed. Thank goodness global warming hasn’t kicked in entirely.

Finally documented. All our ornaments (other than the new Xmas balls) were kidnapped by Neko and crammed onto her three-foot tall artificial tree.

Since we’d be at Disney on Halloween, we decided to venture out a few days early to what’s known as Dorm Trick-or-Treat. If I had known about this in my youth, I would have been there every year, since the candy to effort ratio is outstanding.

Essentially, sweet, young college freshman sit in the doorway of their dorm rooms and the kids yell “Trick-or-treat!” and receive candy. They then move about four feet to the next doorway and repeat the process all over again. In the span of half an hour, our buckets were full and Tom and I decided much more would completely undo three and a half years of conscientious organic food shopping. So we had to go home.

Neko was beyond excited to be Cinderella, and refused to wear a coat even though it was freezing. I can’t say I blame her, as I refused to wear a sweater on my wedding day, even though it was way too cold for spaghetti straps. Somewhere on the X chromosome is the gene for the defiant, “I have have one day to wear this dress, and YOU WILL SEE IT, weather be damned.”

Shep was Buzz Lightyear (at Neko’s insistence, back when she was going to be Woody). He was less than thrilled about his costume, but lordy, he was cute. The pictures really don’t do it justice. I thought it was just parental bias, but I’ve seriously never seen so many 18-year-olds whip out their camera phones to document a two and a half foot tall space ranger.

Farm Day 4 went off without a hitch. Spliced between days and days of chilly, rainy weather, we got one perfect fall day where the sun was shining and it was just warm enough to hang outside.

Within the space of an hour, the house went from empty to buzzing with friends and family and zillions of kids. Toys spread from one corner of the house to the other, and kids were running and climbing and bouncing. Adults stood on the sidelines, holding actual conversations. Total, supa-fun mayhem, if I do say so myself.

At the end of the night I realized I totally forgot to pick up a camera. Thank goodness Chris snapped a few pix.