Thursday, February 6, 2014

A Couple of Milestones

We hit a couple of important milestones recently.

One, Ana, for the first time that I know of, told me (on 1/27/14) what she wants to be when she grows up. This was unprompted. Ana said that when she grows up she will be a fire fighter. Cool. I don't have any knowledge of what inspired this. I can't think of any recent conversation while I was present that would have led to this. However, I will not at all be surprised if Ana as I know her now grows up to be a firefighter. Actually, I will not be surprised if the Ana I know now grows up to be in any field that I could possibly imagine.

Two, on a drive, Enzo innocently achieved a major cliche milestone in growing up. He called out "Are we there yet?" Excellent. Another right of passage achieved.
 
 We hung up the alphabet train poster that they got for Christmas. They really liked it and spent a lot of time talking about it together and pointing things out. We have gone back to it a few times since. This, I think, was a good purchase. Enzo, in front of the poster or otherwise, is talking with more and more complex thoughts. I get the feeling that his mind is beyond the vocabulary that we are providing for him. I try to add new words to our conversations and none of them trip him up. I need to up the level, I think. For the same reason, I recently purchased two documentaries on Apple TV. I bought a nature documentary by Disney called Earth and the documentary Babies. They both have enjoyed them very much and their attention is fully focused on their entirety just as if it was the animated Cars. Also, they bring up questions and new thoughts during and after the documentaries are over. Their minds are expending and I need to keep up because I am clearly falling behind.


The kiddos got sick a couple of weeks ago. As in up all night puking sick. One day I felt a little sick so I stayed home from work which was good because that was after being up all night with a throwing up kid and I was pretty tired. The next day, a Saturday, Tami stayed home with the kids as they recovered and I got to get a morning ride in. I am so glad I got that in. For one, I rode a motorcycle. And that is awesome even after all these years. I went up to Alice's Restaurant riding the Norton. It has no mufflers right now. It ran superbly, by the way. A great ride. Another reason I am so happy I got that ride in is because it occurred during a very narrow window of time when that ride was actually possible. Soon after I got home, everything changed for both me and Tami. We suddenly found ourselves in decidedly bad shape.... quite pathetic, really. We even had to call off Sunday breakfast and call in Phyllis, my mother in law, to watch the kids while Tami and I rolled around in the back of the house being horribly uncomfortable and ill. Phyllis, the most impressive person in the universe at that moment in my life, made us soup and brought crackers and medicine and totally took care of our children. An angel, really. I am pretty sure I can not show my gratitude enough for that reprieve from responsibility. Come Monday, Tami managed to go to work, the kids went to school as well, and I still had to stay home another day recovering. When I did finally get back to work, I learned that this had run through the office and many people were sick at least one of the two work days that I missed in addition to the weekend. But me, at least I had an excellent ride to remember and be grateful for.

In less miserable news....

Ana is an incredibly confident climber. It's not that I didn't know that already but I am always impressed. Tami, me and the kids went to Baylands Park in Sunnyvale this last weekend. It was a good time. I love this family of mine.






 We all walked around, played in the playground, played on the swings, and played with ladybugs. There were so many ladybugs by the car that we played with them for a while and the kids each took turns asking me to place one on their hand and enjoying them one after the other until one would choose to fly off. I love days like that. I am a very fortunate man.

Speaking of fortunate, one of my favorite things happened this morning while I was getting ready for work. I could overhear my two kiddos outside my room laughing together up a storm! Loved it! It just makes me happy.