Vajramati took a photo in India for William

They're posing

The boys are starting to pose for photographs. I've captured it on cell phone photos that I sent to Facebook. Click on the links to see the photos for those of you who are not on Facebook, and havne't seen the photos.

My boys are posing with hand gestures like gang members, except they hold up the peace sign.

I'm not sure where William got this idea.

Andres being slick.

Peace brother.

And in a final non sequitur note, on the day I was born, Groovin' by The Young Rascals, was the hit single. For William it was Yeah! by Usher featuring Ludacris & Lil Jon. For Andres it was "Gold Digger" by Kanye West featuring Jamie Foxx. For Diana it was "(They Long to Be) Close to You" by The Carpenters.

William's wish list

I spent a few minutes coming up with some of the things William likes for his upcoming birthday April 14, a month away! William will be 5! I can't believe it.



Other virtue of a wish list is that there are no duplicates this way.

Weird Al's Spiderman

The boys like this video. They like Spiderman and the song, they don't know the original Billy Joel Song.



They also like the original Spiderman theme song:

Snow Day

The boy's school was canceled. I thought, like many weather reports that the threat was exaggerated for attention. But now, the snow is pretty deep outside, and city schools are closed. We called up our school and it's closed.

the merriment

The boys have been watching some Spiderman shows from 1967, the year I was born. William's obsessions and interest went from Thomas to dinosaurs to Spiderman and superheroes.

William uses the phrase, "oh the merriment!" He got it from Spongebob.

I've heard the phrases, "I want to watch Calliou," and, "I want ice cream," about 30 times today from Andres. He's a persistent little bugger sometimes.

I was really proud that Andres accepted his brother winning a game he really likes, Brown Bear - Panda Bear, what do you see, which is based on a story by Eric Carl. He's really into puzzles, especially his Lighting McQueen puzzle Zane and Bridget gave him for Valentine's Day, and a Veggie Tales puzzle that their mommy bought them.

I'm not blogging so much because work and school are draining me. The boys have had the week off from school. They slept over at Josephine's and Aida and Natasia's to get out of our house and mix it up. We enjoyed Sebastian's birthday party last week. Josephine gave the boys some old costumes. Along with old clothes throughout the years and other cast offs that we really appreciate.

Valentine's Day

The boys made excellent art projects and cards for Valentine's Day. Zane and Bridget sent some excellent presents for the boys. Diana and I are going out for a movie and dinner, which we haven't done for ages.

I haven't been writing a lot because I've been busy with work and school, and indeed parenting. Last weekend the boys went to the Central Park Zoo. They liked the web play thing.

Play

Psychology Today has an interesting article on play.

I notice the boys play spontaneously. I remember William used to want me to get him started with trains, but disliked if I went on further, he wanted the story to go his way.

The article suggests adult interference ruins child play. I'm not sure if that's really true, I think if you're aware, awake and sensitive, then you might be good at entering children's play. Perhaps it's a cautionary tale, to be careful and don't assume you know what is best.

Ears

Happy birthday yesterday for Sebastian. They cut a cake for Sebastian at Abuela's. The party is this weekend.

I got up early yesterday and drove "Gali's boy" to the airport. Carlos Alejandro and Jorge Washington went back to Ecuador after a visit to the USA.

I was sitting on the toilet. What's the big emergency? William has to tell me that Andres has big ears. Then Andres has to show me his ears. When I got out I measured them. We were watching Sid The Science Kid, and they had a show on measurement. So I got out the ruler. Andres' ears are 5.5 cm long. So is William's.

William doesn't feel well, so he's not going to school today.

Last weekend they had a play date with their cousins Nicole and Christian, also with Erin and Joseph.

spiderman lessons?

Diana was talking about getting William art lessons, and Andres music lessons, and William said, "I want Spiderman lessons." He's wearing his Spiderman costume from Halloween all the time. I remember liking Spiderman and the Hulk when I was little. I bought comics of them when I was younger.

Here's a Spiderman photo on facebook.

Andres says, "I told you so," when you pester him to do something and he does it. I wonder if I gave him the know-it-all jean.

We're having a lovely Christmas. I hope everyone is well.

W&A

Loss and illness

Tim is in the hospital and we're hoping he's OK.

Patrick Kavanagh passed away.

Punya passed away, he's a Buddhist friend. I can't find an on-line obit.

Newnan part two

We had a nice dinner at Sprayberry’s Tuesday night and then Molly and Ben came over. The boys really took to Molly, it was quite sweet to see her enter into their play and listen to them. The boys were their usual energetic and alive levels, with their egotistical pursuits where they worked to include others. I must say I think William is a wonderful social being. Andres is a little more withdrawn, and perhaps watches his older brother, but also joins in and plays wonderfully. I do wish they would take turns in conversation better, but that will come with time, I’m sure. I see streaks of know-it-all, and interrupting that are uncomfortable mirrors, and just plain difficult behaviors at times. Just before they came over I was upset at William for punching me in the eye during some rough housing. Turns out he’d just punched his mother in the eye too, which really annoyed me. I can get so angry one minute, and feel their sweetness the next, which is what children are like. Anyway, I’m a big fan of Molly now after he sweetness to the boys. Molly said a funny story about Braxton. He looked at the Target flier and said, “I want all the toys for boys and some of the toys for girls.”

Wednesday was rainy, and I rested up for the trip back. The boys played well. We left 7am the next day and arrived at 2am in the early morning the next day. Nineteen hours of travel. I was sad to leave them. Thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for their generosity in hosting us while we were there. Thank you to everyone who visited.

Newnan

We drove to Annapolis Saturday evening, which took 5 hours from NYC. Gas prices have dropped and are cheaper outside the city—I was happy to learn that. The boys watched a lot of movies, and Andres took a nap. We stopped for dinner in Deleware. We got to Gretchen’s around 10. The boys were scared of Georgia the bulldog, and Kalamazoo the cat, but they got to playing with them eventually. I played with the cat, and they copied that.

In the morning they were more into playing with them, they enjoy the tug-of-war with Georgia, who out weighs them. We went to breakfast at a really good place. Gretchen lives in an interesting part of Annapolis, so it was cool walking around there. We thought we might come back another time seeing how cool it is.

The drive from Annapolis to Newnan was grueling, but the boys did really well. They had me stop for an emergency pit stop quite a lot, but there were no accidents. We let them run around at rest stops and when we got gas. Andres took 2 naps. We left around 11am and got there around 11pm. We’ll be doing that on Thursday again, when we reverse course.

We’ve just been hanging out here. The boys have been gentle with Grandma. I went food shopping with Grandpa. The boys draw, play with lego or trains. The boys like running around the house. Braxton came over yesterday, and they played for a while. Braxton is really cute. William was really excited to see him. Braxton liked playing with the puzzle, and the trains. He also liked running around with the boys.

They’re out raking leaves with great grandpa. I found a wifi spot to do some internet. They have 3 networks in range of my grandparents but I don’t know the passwords. I thought to knock on doors, offer them some money. But decided to find another spot. The library is close, so that's where I am.

New cell phone

I got a new cell phone, so I'll be taking more pictures again, that go easily to Facebook. Here's the latest photo.

Here's one of Andres.

More photos

Chicago

We had a lovely trip to Chicago.

Our flight there was not too stressful. I think I'm getting more used to traveling with my pollywogs. Here's a link to Andres on plane.

Here's a link to a photo of William on the plane.

Andres was next to me, and he fell asleep and I got to finish my Paul Auster book, Brooklyn Follies.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving meal when we arrived. The boys liked the apartment my parents are renting near the Navy Pier. They had some presents, a big collection of markers and paper, plus scissors and glue. William and Andres made some pictures for them.

Friday we went to the Field Museum. Above is a photo of William in front of the famous Sue. Then Kathy and Rich treated the boys to some presents in the Sue Store. I got to look at the little Tibetan section.

We had a lovely lunch at Wishbone. Then we hung out at home, after the boys tried a nearby park. Rich and Kathy were amazed at the animation and sophistication of children's movies like The Incredibles, and Ratatouille. The boys played together nicely for the most part.

Saturday we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo.

William would not say goodbye to Glamma when we got to the airport. He wanted to change the reality by denying it was happening. In the airport we saw a large reproduction of a dinosaur, and the boys got some more gifts. Poor William dropped his winter globe of Sue, and broke it. So I bought him another one. Our flight back was OK. We were in the last row. Andres fell asleep just as we were about to land. Victor was right there with our car. I think it was a lovely trip. Thank you Kathy and Rich for such a wonderful time!

homework

Andres calls a TV magazine his "homework" and likes to write in it and cut it.

We spent lunch with William's class yesterday. I love making connections with other parents. There's wonderful mixes in the class. One child has a Japanese father and Peruvian mother. Another is half Chinese. Another is half Panamanian. So many interesting mixes. My boys are half Ecuadorian! What a wonderful mix!

Update

Thank you to Abuela for cooking and Diana for cleaning for our 20 people early Thanksgiving party. Thanks to everyone who came. We had a lovely time with family early because we're out of town on Thanksgiving.

William got 3 shots and blood taken. Andres has blood taken. They went to the doctor and when Diana got home she said, "you owe me one." The boys had some presents. They were crying a lot with the shots.

A new nickname for Andres is "Gomez" from The Addams Family. You can check out some of his kissing here. Diana called Andres that because he kisses a lot.

They fixed the concrete sidewalks around our house lately.

Andres photo