Enzo Dancer Astronomer

Playing before the big dance.

Enzo is in a dance class in Newark. They performed at an outdoor event. Enzo loves a "big stage" and this one was special because it was outside. In fact, when he video called me at work recently one of his questions was to ask where the "big stage" was at. He knows we have a stage at my work and that's one of those things that he associated with the school I work at, though I was in my office when we were video chatting. The point is, he likes stages.

Lined up in order to go out to the stage.

After the dance...
T: you know I started to get teary eyed watching him dance up there.
Me: me too! It's so weird! Why am I getting tears? I don't know.

 Check out the video of Enzo dancing. I love this kid.

 He is so impressive. And handsome.


In other Enzo anecdotal news.....

Here is a child-astronomy conversation from a recent drive. When it gets dark we always say the sun is going behind the Earth rather than that the sun is going down. This we talk about often. But on a recent drive home Enzo took this and went further for the first time.

E: Papi the sun is going behind the Earth and it’s getting darker.
Me: that's right.
E: the sun is fire. When the fire is out on the sun then there is no more fire on the sun. Right Papi?
Me: that's right. (We never talked about the sun going out before, new territory.) The sun is a constant explosion like the other stars and when they go out they can become black holes.... Or white dwarfs.... Or....red giants... Or..
E: or a car! That would be funny.
Me: HA!, yes, that would be funny.
E: or a horse! That's so silly!!!!

Ha!!! Space jokes from my three year old! I'm pretty satisfied in life.

Checking out a police car at the event after the dance.

Enzo has been asking me to tell him stories at night after we are done reading books and the light is out. So far I start them all, as my grandma always did with me, "Once upon a time.." This story telling all started in just the last few days so its pretty new to me. One thing I've done is quickly think of a picture and then tell a story around that picture in my mind. I also try to incorporate Enzo’s interests and what we have been talking about lately. I told him a story about the sun after our star conversation and I added the idea that wherever the sun goes it brings daytime and that our night time is other people’s daytime. It's neat because now that is part of his conversation with me. The next night he asked "Papi can you tell a story, but not that one (I hadn't started one yet but he was obviously thinking of one of the stories), I want the one with the boy and the sun and the day time?"

I like these talks. I hope we enjoy them for a very long time.

Happy Mother's Day

 For the moms in my world, especially my Wife, My Mom, and my Grandma, I am very grateful. And I am fortunate beyond my ability to express. Thank you.

This is what Tami received from the kids. It is salt dough prints of both kids' hands framed in a shadow box. Tami has Enzo’s prints from when he was 5 months old as Tami’s first mother’s day present from her own child. These are her first of Ana’s hands and the first with both kids. By the way, making salt dough this big presented some challenges. I look forward to seeing how this ages through the years.

Ana Uku the 2 Year Old

It's hard to even put into words now much I love my Ana Uku, how fantastic it is to love her and hold her as she grows, and how conflicting the slight tinge I feel as I say goodbye to each little Ana Uku and welcome with kisses each new and slightly more complex Ana Uku that greets me.

I love it every time she snuggles in and seems to completely enjoy me holding her. I get mushy every time we are lying down and she rests a hand on my beard and plays with it or wraps both of her arms around one of mine.

In a recent conversation with a teacher friend, while talking about the grey that is taking a stand in my beard and also how much I adore my kids, I told him that I would gladly sacrifice years of my life to prevent these kids from horrible pains, not the little falls but all of the great and unnecessary pains that may occur in life. He laughed, having previously made the connection of grey hair acceleration after having a second child himself and said, "that's what we are already doing, isn't it?" Which made me laugh and maybe the grey is accelerated but I think my laugh lines have accelerated as well so a good balance.

Ana is talking regularly. She so often reminds me of Enzo at this stage that it helps me to recognize just how much Enzo has grown and matured in the 16 months since he was the same age. Her words still have the annunciation of a new 2 year old and often require a close listen to discern if you weren't familiar. But being familiar, I recognize new words nearly every day listening to Ana. And her questions! "What's that?" "That Papi’s?" - which for her means- not for kids, right?, like when she is pointing at my razor when I shave in the morning. She knows the answer to some things and reinforces that knowledge and then goes further to a new "What's that?" And once she has asked I can often expect the reinforcement questions in the coming days.

Ana loves to play outside and to name things she recognizes. She likes to open doors to follow me and especially to let our dog Monte in or out. She lately likes to throw her weight into opening the fridge door and declaring what she wants for about five seconds before she attempts to climb the shelves to go after what she wants. She likes to do things herself, just about everything, and with adorable smiles, and adorable declarations, and she does NOT like to do what she does not like to do. Her favorite way of expressing the later is to simply lie down where ever she is and make a good deal of noise about it. Even this she does adorably, amusingly at the very least.

Ana Uku is now two. And she knows it. If you say "two" or "birthday party" she will generally reply with the rest. I might tell Enzo "Yes, Ana gets ositos vitaminos (gummy bear vitamins) now that she is two years old." Ana will run up and say "Me two birthday party."

I love my Ana Uku.

Here are pics from Ana's 2nd birthday party.

 Tami baked the cakes and I decorated. The theme was under the ocean. This is a fish.

 And here is the shark cake.

My parents made a fishing game. Thank goodness because we somehow didn't think of games.

 Which was good for Nathan because he then had finger puppets to play with.

In keeping with tradition, our string pulling pinata did not work as planned. In the end I opened it up and shook the prizes out.  But isn't this a beautiful pinata my parents got for Ana? It is art.

 Tami made frozen banana sharks which were a delicious hit.

 We had a good time and so did Ana. Happy birthday love!


Another big deal? Now that Ana is two she is old enough to go to school! Ana the scholar.

These are from her first day of school.

Here is Ana leaving the house for her first day of school.

 Going into class.

With her amigos. Ana brought her classmates flower head decorations to wear and frozen sharks to eat to celebrate her birthday.

Send Your Name to Mars

This is super cool!

You can send your name to Mars! It does not cost anything, there is nothing to buy, no sales pitch. NASA is placing submitted names on a DVD and sending them to Mars on the MAVEN space craft.

How cool is that!? I have submitted my name and both of the kids' names. You have to create a log in but it's easy. I found out it lets you submit up to three names. So, Tami is going to have create her own account if she wants to go to Mars with us. If you are interested, and I don't see how anyone could not be, you have until the end of June to get your name in.

Here is the link:
http://lasp.colorado.edu/maven/goingtomars/

Here is the article I chanced upon where I learned about this:
http://earthsky.org/science-wire/nasa-invites-public-to-send-names-and-messages-to-mars

They are also accepting haiku poems, three of which will be selected to go to Mars, too. And student art to be selected and sent, also. Submissions for the student art are over but the voting is going on now.

Happy travels to Mars.

Bye to Nana O

Today we said bye to Nana O.










Nana O is my dad's mom.



The kids picked flowers from our house and brought them to say good bye to Nana O. You can see them here.






After the service the kids played by this tree for a while before heading to the reception. The service was beautiful especially when three of the grandkids got up to speak. As I recall from one of the heartfelt speeches, Nana O had 7 children, over twenty grandchildren, and about as many great grandchildren. There are a lot of ways to exit but having as many people as Nana O did around her at home and loving her in her last days must be one of the better ways to leave.















Among the huge spread of food and the big family to share with, there was sliced cheese which Enzo thought was super cool and held up for me when he saw I had my phone out to take his picture walking around.



Ana found this bike in Nana O's yard. The kids and cousins took turns with it but Enzo and Ana, especially Enzo, played with it the most. Our kids never had a bike with brakes so they weren't going very far at first. They are use to going forward and backward on tricycles. But dad showed Enzo how to avoid the brake and then there was no stopping him from riding ten miles on the space available to him.




It was a nice day to say good bye, spend time with family, and to celebrate a life.

Good bye Nana O.