Grandpa Tom's Visit

At the Chinese New Year parade on Argyle. A bit wintry.

Moments after this photo was taken, the firecrackers started -- signaling the end of Felix's involvement with the parade. Maybe next year.

Poor Marya, now that we got our new camera -- she loves it -- she's not in any of the pictures. She didn't like the old camera, so I wasn't in many of those....

Random Anecdotes

Okay, I've done a terrible job of compiling stories and anecdotes lately -- but, salvaged from scraps of paper and my memory, here's a selection of exchanges with Felix over the last six weeks....

Ggetting bossy about the music on the stereo:
Felix: You want to listen to the other song that you just listened to after the other one.

Talking to Cooper:
Felix: You want me to pet me?
Felix: (Speaking for Cooper) Yes.
Felix: Okay. (Commences petting.)

Getting tucked in:
Keir: Let me tuck you in and make you all nice and cozy.
Felix: You don't want me to tuck you in. You want to sleep on the floor.
Keir: I'm sure you don't want to sleep on the floor. If you sleep on the floor you will be cold and uncomfortable.
Felix: You want to sleep on the floor and be cold.

The morning after a bad, weird dream:
Felix: (Sitting on the bed, sleepily introspective) You said you wanted to wear your yellow socks. You had an accident and you peed in your yellow socks.
Keir: Was this in your dream?
Felix: You had a bad dream. There was something in your bed and it was playing with you.
Keir: What was playing with you?
Felix: Your aardvark was playing with you.

Demonstrating how you can correct someone and still be polite:
Keir: Felix, do you want another cookie?
Felix: Excuse me! That is a cracker!

One morning on the bus, as we passed the playing fields at Montrose and Marine Drive:
Felix: Daddy! It would be really, really, really fun to play at the playground on Montrose Street.
Keir: You're right, that would be a lot of fun. Unfortunately, we have to go to school today. But tomorrow, if it's warm enough, you can wear your snowpants and run around in the snow and make snow angels.
Felix: Daddy, daddy!
Keir: What, Felix?
Felix: When the bus stops you want to go out the front door and get off the bus.

Felix already shows a real love of playing with words and language. He enjoys using nicknames, and creating them, too. He uses the first or last half of random words just for fun. The book Funny Little Woman becomes "The Funny Little Wom," for example. Cooper is "Coop"; Cosmo is "Cos" or "Mo."

An earlier version of the bad dream:
Felix: You were scared in your bed last night and something was playing with you.
Keir: What was playing with you, Felix?
Felix: You were scared in your bed last night and aardvark was hopping on your tummy.

After more discussion, Felix revealed that:
Felix: You heard the lamp make a bad noise.
(We're checking the wiring. )

Like many opinion-makers in the public sphere, Felix also enjoys making his own verbs. These often have to do with wrestling, nuzzling, or cuddling. "You're dadding me"; "you're armpitting me"; "you're duzzling me"; etc.

Cosmo is talking a lot, too, these days, though it's a lot harder to quote -- mainly consontant sounds, but more and more insistent, and sometimes sounding an awful lot like "mama" and "dada"....

All for now!

photos from January

Christmas in Salt Lake City, Part Two

Of course, Christmas wasn't ALL cold baths and trips to the emergency room....







Oscar and Felix mixed things up in the kitchen.















Wilhelmina and Marya did, too.














All three boys played a rousing game of skee-ball--well, Cosmo enjoyed watching, anyway.













A swollen lip didn't stop Felix from enjoying a good squishing.

















And Oscar contemplated the miracle of birth and other chicken-and-the-egg questions.

Christmas in Salt Lake City, Part One

This story is old news to everyone by now, but not everyone has seen pictures. For Christmas, we went to Salt Lake City to visit Uncle Sean, Auntie Kirstin, Cousin Wilhelmina, and Cousin Oscar. Felix, as was documented earlier, couldn't wait. The visit, however, was more eventful than even he expected.

On Christmas Eve, we were getting everyone bundled up to go sledding--Felix's first ever sledding experience. It's hard to time these things exactly right with four adults and four kids, and Felix ended up being the first to be suited up. He was waiting patiently by the back door in his snowpants, parka, and snow boots when I looked at him and thought, "He must be burning up."

I was hurrying into my own boots so I could take him out into the yard when he cried out. Marya was first on the scene, and as I looked over her shoulder I saw that he had fallen backward down to the first turn in the basement stairs. Blood was coming out of his mouth. We could tell by his crying and the bleeding that it was pretty bad, so we rushed him into the car--Cosmo stayed with Auntie Kirstin and his cousins--and headed off to a clinic, Felix crying the whole way.

At the clinic they said the wound went through enough layers of tissue that it should be sutured by the trauma docs at the hospital, so we got back in the car and went to the hospital. I've already made this telling far too long, but perhaps the most memorable moment was when one of the doctors passed a thin plastic probe all the way through Felix's lip and said, "Yep, it's through-and-through." He'd bitten right through it.

They put two stitches inside his lip, in the muscle, I think, and three on the front, and left the inside open to drain. The staff were incredibly nice, and gave Felix first a tiny stuffed Chihuahua, whom he dubbed "John Henry the Little Dog" for his bravery (Felix was pretty brave, too), then a large stuffed moose, a fleece blanket with monkeys on it, a stuffed squirrel, and a stocking full of candy. With reinforcement like that, I'm guessing that, next Christmas Eve, Felix will suddenly find himself feeling a little bit clumsy....

Getting the stitches in was pretty rough, but, thanks to Versed, he doesn't seem to remember the bad parts. He enjoyed a nice popsicle before we went home, and then he slept for 4 or 5 hours straight.

Anyway, the photos:









Home from the hospital and feeling relieved.













A day or two later.





















The swelling went down pretty quickly, although he still has a small scar and a bump on his lip.

And then, the day after Christmas, both Felix and Cosmo came down with 104-degree fevers. Fortunately, there was a nurse-in-training in the house. Sean and Kirstin were incredibly helpful and energetic, and Wilhelmina and Oscar were remarkably patient given the number of times they were told to take it easy on their ailing cousins. Obviously we would have had more fun without the accident and sickness, but I can't think of a better home-away-from-home to have been in when it happened.

Even stitches and fever couldn't keep Felix from playing chase with his cousins--but I don't have a picture of that.

Photos from December

All right, it's been a ridiculously long time since we've updated the blog. Way back before Christmas, I tried to post these photos five times in a row and Blogger kept crashing. But I really like 'em, so here they are:








Cosmo's angelic halo of hair. It's finally starting to lie down now -- a little.













Felix, also angelic.














There's something about laundry baskets that makes kids really happy. Cats, too. My associations with laundry baskets are somewhat less smile-inducing.














Felix is getting ready to audition for a spot on Project Runway. This is my favorite ensemble.