The Adventures of El Destructo (and Family)

http://www.amazon.com/wishlist/1D93NK9NI2A2Z

We seem to keep getting asked "so what do the boys want for the holidays?" (well, actually, the holiday part tends to be more specific but you get the idea) and so I think a gift list is a good idea. Here goes...

Important Unit Specifications

Child, boy, unit 1, is 42" tall, weighs about 40 pounds, and wears a size 10 shoe ("toddler" ten? it is the 10 that is actually pretty small). He has outgrown all of his size 4T clothes! He cannot get any clothes smaller than 5/5T. (Long sleeve shirts should probably be kid's "S" by now, as he will be able to wear those next year also.) His system name is QUIN.

Child, boy, unit 2, is 32" tall, weighs about 27 pounds, and is 21 months old. He still wears some 12mo clothes, but those are almost entirely too small. He fits real well into his 18mo clothes. But that is NOW. He must not get any clothes smaller than 24mo/2T. He wears a size 6 shoe. His system name is OLIVER.

Please, to prevent duplicate acquisition of Recreation and Assorted Activity Devices, consult with Adult Units 1 and 2 to confirm existing stock. (i.e. call Kim and Jeff to see if we have the thing already)

Potential Unit Recreation and Assorted Activity Devices
Unit 1

• Hot Wheels/Matchbox cars
  
• Books that may teach simple reading. Suggestion: Mo Willems' "Elephant and Piggie" series. (Actually, any Mo Willems book is great!) Suggetion 2: Any "David" books by David Shannon.
  
• Kid's board game(s). Trouble, Chute's and Ladders, Candyland, etc.
  

Unit 2

• Stuffed animals. Especially cute or unusual ones.
  
• Board books (that we don't already have, not that we even know what we have at this point)
  
• Big chunky safe-for-2-year-old cars. For example, the "Chubbies" by Vikingtoys [Viking Toys at Amazon]

Okay, so I missed a lot of updating. Sorry! Looks like last we tuned in it was an a-maze-ing conr adventure in the beginning of October and it is already Thanksgiving! Whew, time goes fast.

Well, since I don't have a digital camera anymore [1] I have taken to using my phone more and more. Luckily, the thing takes not-too-bad pics and videos that are pretty easy to upload. So here are some VIDEO UPDATES! Yay! In no particular order.

Last week, we went to the Inner Harbor for a little while. Actually, we really went to the main branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, which has some great (and FREE) kids activities on Saturdays. After that we weren't really all done being out, and we had brought lunch, and it was turning out to be kinda nice after being kinda rainy, so we went to the Inner Harbor to eat and walk around for a little. My parking carma was in full effect as I was able to park extremely close and for free. So here are some vids of the boys chasing pigeons.





I wish I had taken more! I also have a couple of videos of the boys at a typical dinner time, chatting, winking, smiling, laughing, and being normal. Warning: video content only interesting to parents, grandparents, and possibly some other next-level relatives of said children. You have been warned.





OKAY SEEYA BYE!

Hi, so, we went to this amazing Corn Maze today. It was a lot of fun. The farm had a pumpkin patch, animals, and a corn maze. The maze was, to quote Quin, "Ginormous!"

Anyway, I took some picture phone pictures. My camera is dead. Like I said before, this is the perfect time to buy Quin and Oliver's Daddy a new digital SLR. Prices have come way, way down. So with that said, first some links to a couple of great DSLRs, and then, some great pics of the boys.

• Olympus E420
• Nikon D40

Okay, enough of that!

So, Quin and Oliver liked the Corn Maze. Here is them getting lost in it:


And a quick peek behind him:


Also, I grabbed a vid of the kids. My phone is pretty good, but not as good as a real digital SLR. Not sure if I mentioned that already.

So we're eating dinner. The radio mentioned "blah blah blah by twenty-twelve blah blah" and Quin picked up on the 2012 part.

Quin: "Twenty twelve??!"
Daddy: "Do you know what that is? It's a year, a date"
Q: Oh
D: You will be EIGHT years old in 2012. You'll be able to read, and be in school [etc etc]. Do you want to learn to read?
Q: Yes! But not right now, because I'm eating dinner!

I thought that was funny.

BYE!

So, yes, been at pool a lot. They have a nice snack bar (nice as in that it exists and has a large-ish selection of deep fried food items and ice cream, but it is run by slow, indifferent teenagers with generally poor customer skills).

Anyway, July 3rd we went and got some ICE CREAM. In cones. Oliver loves it, but is a little uncertain on the proper eating technique. Quin loves it but is a little uncertain on the proper eating technique, but different aspects of said ice-cream eating technique than Oliver.

OLIVER EATING ICE CREAM


So, do note that Oliver eats ice-cream cones from the bottom up. Yes, we know, it is not really the most effective technique, but it worked for him, and that's all that really matters, now, isn't it?

QUIN EATING ICE CREAM

Hi, everyone. Just some wee updates for yins. File under "Mommy and Daddy Notes," as this is Daddy spekkin. Lessee here...

So, been spending a good bit of time at the pool lately. So HOT out! Oliver loves, and I mean loves the pool. He is a bit more of a water baby than Quin every was, as Quin still doesn't like getting his face wet. I often wonder if that is a parenting issue -- did we jump in too quickly on our poor baby when he was a wee one, oh no, fell in the water oh oh oh! and condition him to be afraid of putting his head in the water -- or is it just his personality. Like most things in life, then answer is probably somewher in between, but my parental guilt assures me that it leans towards the "our fault" side of the spectrum.

Anyway, Oliver, who has pretty much converted into full walker-hood this week, loves the deep pool. The one that goes up to three feet. Mind you, Oliver is two feet tall. So, that is a bit of a problem. (See diagram).



He doesn't care about that, though. He just barrels on down into the deep end, laughing all the way. Oops! Too deep! Under water! Glub glub!

Quin, on the other hand, who is now tall enough to cross the entire big-kid's pool with his head above water, still insists that I hold his hand for the whole trip. "Close your mouth, Quin!" But it is pretty hard for our very active boy to keep his mouth closed for more than three seconds. But he'll get it eventually.

Right now, Quin is standing next to me saying a rhyme.

Gomikka pikka pickle man
a fna a man oh stan o lan
chacka bocka ban, a wakka wakka wan
oh stan oh man oh chokca locka fan

etc...

So, I broke my camera. Zowie. Not sure when I'll get a new one, so expect crappy cell-phone pictures for a while. (Actually, my phone takes rather decent pictures. Also, still got the video camera!)

So, Oliver is pretty much a full-on walker now. He roams around the house, this way and that, like drunken Frankenstein's monster. Or maybe The Mummy. But he is so funny; he will walk and wobble all the way across the room, stop, look, pivot, wobble, and turn, and then go back to where he was. The destination, the journey is, my young padawan Oliver.

So, anyway, no more good quality pics for a while. (The Nikon D40 DSLR is only $489.99 at Newegg.com hint hint birthday birthday hint) But I do have some more video clips I created for posting! I hope I get a chance, soon, to prep and upload them.

Oliver started to walk last week. Naturally, I shot it on HIGH DEF 1080p in 7.2 surround stereo. I cut the vid up a little and I'll put it onto YouTube, but I'm warning you: YouTube greatly reduces the fidelity of their videos. They don't even tell ya, they just shrink it up and make it look like some amateur shot it with a 9 year old video camera in his living room. I mean, really.

Anyway, I shot a few video clips recently, and here is the first of several. Oliver making funny faces at dinner time. He can be pretty hilarious!

OLIVER'S FUNNY FACES

Oh, by the way, that banging sound in the last clip is Oliver endlessly banging his feet against his chair.

I'm gonna go through and crank out some more clips, but I'm gonna dribble 'em out onto the web a little at a time so it looks like I have more to say than I actually do.

Oh, but first, the first steps clip, coming in a few minutes.

Okay, here it is...

OLIVER'S FIRST STEPS!!

So, last Sunday was Father's Day. Kim had to work. So I spent a good bit of the day with the boys, and we decided to go to the beach.

As it turns out, there are several great beaches very close to where we live. If there is one thing Baltimore has a lot of, it is access to waterways. These beaches just aren't all on the Atlantic Ocean, but on the tributaries of or the actual Chesapeake Bay itself. We went to Gunpowder Falls State Park. It was packed!

I took some pictures of Quin and Oliver having fun.