He Doesn't Go in For That High-End Butchery

Keir: Cosmo, what did you have for lunch today?
Cosmo: I had milk and fruit and vegetable and meat.
Keir: What kind of meat did you have?
Cosmo: Just regular meat.

Hairy Transportation Issues

Every night at bedtime, Felix and Cosmo demand a new story about my life as a younger person. I am running out of material. (Depressing how quickly it's happened.) Last night, Cosmo rubbed my whiskery face ("Daddy, you need to shave tomorrow") which led me to tell them about the trials and tribulations of learning to shave. (As I said, I'm running out of material.)

Felix: I don't ever want to shave. I just want to get all hairy.

Next, I told them about my college days, when I couldn't afford to fly between Montana and Massachusetts and therefore rode the Greyhound bus.

Felix: But now we're rich, and we have lots of money, so you don't have to ride the Greyhound bus anymore. You can ride the CTA bus! It's a lot faster. Instead of taking three days, it just takes an evening.

Cosmo: Yes! We have lots and lots of money!

(Not sure where they're getting this--though, to be fair, they have missed the recent all-staff meetings at Mommy and Daddy's work.)

Happy Birthday, Cosmo!

Cosmo had a super 3rd birthday. Grandma Neva, Grandpa Dick, and Auntie Iris were visiting and took him and Felix to the Children's Museum - what could be better?!

Our little one is getting so big.

Vacation Ideas

While eating breakfast recently, Felix, Cosmo and I go on the topic of vacation destinations. Felix has definite ideas about where he wants to go.

F: I know where we can go on vacation: Iowa!
M: Sure, we can go there someday, but I don't think there is much to see or do there.
F: But we HAVE to go there because Iowa doesn't have earthquakes, volcanoes, or hurricanes!
Then, I turned a page in the newspaper to discover a picture of Rio de Janiero:
C: We can go there!
F: No, Cosmo. We can't go there because there are a lot of earthquakes there.
M: I don't think there are many earthquakes in Rio.
F: How would you know that?! You are not a scientist; you are an architect.

A Couple of Sprocket-Heads

At the bike shop on Saturday.

Dear Lightning McQueen

Felix and Cosmo love the movie Cars. Last night, we watched it for the second time. Today, Marya found Cars-branded notepads for the boys. Felix christened his with--what else?--a mash note to Lightning McQueen.
(Dear Lightning McQueen, I do not love Chick Hicks [the bad race car], but I love you)
(I love you; I do)
(Lovely Lightning McQueen, I have to give you 1,000 presents; all your presents will be Lightning McQueen bugs [a play on a nice visual joke in the movie, where the "bugs" are tiny Volkswagen Beetles])
(You will love your presents! Lucky Lightning McQueen loves stickers)
(The best car in the whole world. I love Tow Mater [the tow truck--"tomater"--get it?)

Loving Money and Shooting Mr. Grumps--What?

Felix has really been into board games lately. Where, last year, he wanted to play Chutes and Ladders and Candyland, now he wants to play Monopoly (which he pronounces to rhyme with "roly poly") and chess. Today he helped me inventory the old Clue game we got from Grandma and Grandpa McCulloch's house (it's missing only the lead pipe); he really wants to play it but we're in the middle of a Mono Poly marathon and I had to put my foot down. He gets really excited and shouts "I love MONEY" when he collects the rent.

Cosmo is really into guns and shooting and "shooters." On Monday, in a quiet library, while we were reading Lyle, Lyle Crocodile, he declared of Mr. Grumps: "If I see that bad guy, I will SHOOT him!"

Felix speaks with such precision and such a rich vocabulary. Today, after we got the training wheels put on his first bike, he told me, "Daddy, I have been longing for a bike for such a long time."

Cosmo doesn't listen carefully but always wants to know what's going on. "What?" he says. "What?" If you ask him a question, he's likely to reply, "What?"

No Red-Diaper Baby He

As we were reading the encyclopedia last night, Felix made this comment.

Felix: I don't want to be a coal miner. The roof would collapse on me and I would get as dirty as a pig. I want to be an engineer and stay nice and clean.

Everything's Coming Up Cosmo!

A few more from late February/early March. The day after Cosmo's first trip to the emergency room (he fell up the stairs at school):

Holding court--at center court--at the family fun fair at the Broadway Armory.

Cosmo really, really enjoys waking up Grandpa Tom.

I think Grandpa Tom doesn't mind too much.

February Photos

We need to catch up on photos! These are from about a month ago. En route to school and work:

Miss Rosa's last day--a sad day for all of us. She was awfully sweet on Cosmito.

Hiding from tornadoes.

Feats of Memory

It sounds like we're bragging, and maybe we are, a little bit. But really, we're asking you to share our astonishment. Tonight at bedtime:

Keir: Cosmo, what song would you like?
Cosmo: Sing "Holy Ground."
Keir: (singing) Fare thee well, my lovely Dinah, and a thousand times adieu--
Felix: (interrupting) Daddy, "adieu" means "farewell" in French. It's also the title of chapter 12 in The Tale of Despereaux. That's a good memory. [Ed: Meaning, "I have a good memory, don't I?" But, reader, he does: we haven't read that book for MONTHS.]

A few weeks ago, when I brought home a copy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Felix was flipping through it when he made a discovery:

Felix: It's just like Charlotte's Web!
Marya: What is?
Felix: Chapter 11 is called "The Miracle." [Ed: Marya checked and Felix was right. We read Charlotte's Web to Felix LAST SPRING. It's just eerie.]

Now I Know How My Father Felt

I gave Felix an old tie awhile ago and he was really excited about wearing it to school. This morning, Marya helped him put it on and he looked like a prep-school rock 'n' roll star with his striped tie and untucked dress shirt. Hoping for a little father-son bonding, I started tying a tie myself. Felix, practicing to be a teenager, wasn't happy about this at all.

Felix: I don't like it when other people are wearing a tie on the same day as me.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture. Then again, he didn't even want me to look at him.

Two Pictures of Four People

A couple of pictures from Emily and Luke's recent visit. First: tongues.

Second, a rare family portrait.

Getting Started on the Interstate Rivalries Early

Reading the label on a piece of string cheese.

Felix: This cheese was made in Wisconsin.
Keir: They make a lot of cheese there.
Felix: They speak the cheese language.

***

Cosmo's favorite quote (from the Scrambled States book):

California: "I can't work with this! Get my agent on the phone!"

***

Tonight, while Marya was out a bit later than usual.

Cosmo: I want my mommy. Where's my mommy?
Keir: She had to work late. She's in a town just outside Chicago looking at a hospital.
Felix: But she's not dead.
Keir: No! She's not dead.
Felix: Because she's not very old. And she doesn't have any warts. Even some old people don't have warts.
Keir: (Well, anyway.) She'll be home soon.

Reasons Not to Go Spelunking

Admiring a large hole in the ground.

Felix: I bet nobody would want to fall down that hole. I think it's stinky and dark and cold down there.
Keir: Probably so.
Felix: And Daddy, you know what? I bet that hole is oxygen poor.

This Public Service Announcement Brought to You by People against Pulping People

While making a pitcher of orange rabbit.

Felix: Daddy, I have something important to say. Never--EVER--put a person in a juicer.

Fortunately, Sean Has Already Boned Up on This

In bed, after lights out.

Felix: Daddy, since you and Mommy don't know all about heart attacks, the next time we go to Utah we should ask Uncle Sean about heart attacks. He's a nurse and he knows all about taking care of adults.

More Christmas in Minnesota

By request, one picture of pretty mommy and her boys:

Catching up

Nancy's January Visit




Keir's birthday

Christmas in Minnesota

Sledding at Grandma and Grandpa's

Wearing His Allegiance on His Sleeve--Er, Chest

A belated, adorable pic from Inauguration Day. When I dropped the kids off, I overheard Miss Carol pointing to a picture and asking Cosmo, "Do you know who that is?" "Barack Obama!" he enthusiastically replied.

Then, when Marya picked up Felix and Cosmo after work, all the kids in Cosmo's class had pictures of Obama taped to their chests.