Mass Distraction: November 2005

At Gramma's house, squirrels come up to her back step and beg for peanuts.
You can also tap peanuts on the edge of the step & if one is nearby it'll come running for a peanutty treat.

Julia has already picked up this skill

Julia with peanut

Tap tap tapping for squirrel

Quick little thing ran right over,
"You have something for me?"

Too squirrely too close, so she kinda fumbled the peanut onto the steps.
Squirrels are too quick to worry about the 3 second rule.

We taught her the sign for squirrel, so whenever she would see one, she'd dash over to the table where the peanut basket was and make the 'squirrel' sign.
With her and Antonio helping, Gramma is going to have some fat squirrels.

Happy Thanksbirthdaygiving!

Antonio entertaining himself while he waits for everyone else to load up at dinner.

OOOhhhhh....creepy olive fingers!

Julia ready to eat, the fork is really just for show. She pitched it soon after the picture and Magic Pokey finger rooted through to get to the potatoes and stuffing only.
To hell with turkey.

Today concluded The Birthday Week for Antonio.
Six is going to be a great year!

What else would you have after Thanksgiving pie?
Cake, of course!

Julia snagged the lei from her brother as soon as he let it out of his site, and low enough for her to reach.

She's been practicing getting dressed lately. Taking a sweatshirt, blankie, and now lei and putting it over her head. Often times she just walks around with said sweatshirt or blankie covering her head, but this time she got it.

Along with the mimicking theme, she's been prettying herself up. She'll walk around brushing her hair, and any anyone else's in the house that she can reach.
This evening there was a malfunction.

This year Antonio's birthday falls on Thanksgiving, so we had his party the weekend before, in case his pals were going to be out of town for the holiday weekend.

Also, since we will be out of town at Gramma's house, we gave Antonio is 'big' birthday present this morning. Family chipped in (thank you!) and Dad picked it out.

Here he is after his first spin around the neighborhood.

With the recent release of Madagascar, he chose to theme his birthday after it.
The party was at the local skating rink, which I highly recommend.
A two hour skate session, pizza delivered & then cake, skating to wear off the yah~yah's and no mess at our house!
Winner all around.

Here's the cake he picked...

Happy birthday guy!

When we got home, he got to open another present, the Madagascar movie.
He had been harping at me all week about getting it, and I, having purchased it the day it was released, had a difficult time not watching it that same day after he went to sleep.

If you haven't seen it, do. Get it now!

As I've said many times before, Antonio is a great brother. He's really sweet about sharing with his sister. Well, unless it's the super toy of the moment, but eventually he'll share that with her too.
Julia loves Bananas, she'll climb, jump, beg and pull any circus trick for a bite.
She may even sneak up while Antonio is distracted.

But, Antonio is still the big brother which totally has benefits...

Goldfish drawing:

Antonio had a few bits of homework today.
Here is his dot-to-dot goldfish that he completed and colored.

He explained that the tail is a lighter color than the rest of the fish because it doesn't have bones, right? So, since there aren't any bones, it's more clear-er than the rest of the fish, so it's lighter.

On nights when Geno has duty the pace in the house slows down. I always think it'll be more hectic with one less adult in the house, but that's rarely the case.

After Julia's bath, I noticed how much I'd been ignoring my feet since he came home. The kids and I would have regular pedicure nights when Geno was in Cuba.

Knowing full well I cannot just sit down and do anything without being attacked, I stand and put my foot up on the toilet lid and paint my nails. Pretty, I know.

Julia nipping at my heels, stops for a moment and looks at what I'm doing. No hands, just closer and closer inspection, I'm surprised I didn't have eyelash prints on the wet paint. She stops, looks down at her feet. Looks back at mine, and carefully lifts up her foot, peering up at me.

I take her in my lap, we pick out a pink hue, I didn't think the toxic color I had would be appropriate on her. She sat the most still she sat on my lap in weeks as I touched the brush to each of her little toes. She even sat still as I blew on them to dry. Once I put her down, she squatted down to inspect them, stood up and toddled off to another project.

Antonio said he was starved just before bed.
Dad fixed him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I usually just do peanutbutter for pre-bed sandwiches, but apparently he won't go into a sugar induced craze if it happens.
With sandwich in hand and a glass of soy milk he set himself up at the kitchen table.

Julia walked up to Dad and jumped and squawked for a bite.
With her bite in hand, she walked over to the kitchen table looked at her brother, pushed out a chair and raised her foot, a little attempt at climbing up into the big people chair.
Every meal she's had is generally in the high chair on someone's lap. She hadn't a solo mission on a chair yet. So put her in the requested chair and take a few steps back to hover nearby.
She was cool.
And the kids enjoyed each other's company.

Gramma and Grandpa came to visit this weekend.
After newspaper time and breakfast, we bundled up and headed over to a waterfront park.

Grandma found a great little park that Antonio loves to go to. From reading the placards along the trail this area of the sound used to have a sawmill, all that remains now is this enormous rusty bread slicer looking piece of machinery, that used to, in fact, slice logs into boards.
Antonio, lover of all things mechanical, is fascinated by it. Gramma points out how it's great to let him run and explore, as she did with us kids when we were little.

We notice how the trees and things have changed for winter since the last time we were there.

Julia hangs in her stroller. Geno does a pretty good job at keeping her out of the direct wind blowing off from the water.

Awww yeah, we had Batman in the house last night
He was very proud to announce he would use his power for good, and vowed to track down evile candy in our neighborhood