Such Insolence

Can you believe the nerve of this little monkey to call me by my name? And, his mother is egging him on. Such insolence cannot be tolerated. Daddy does not abide!

Ay Caramba

I guess we won't be able to speak in Spanish when we don't want him to understand.

What a Great Morning

Nicholas woke up at 6:30 AM and John woke up at about 7 AM. Johnny had yogurt for breakfast. When he eats yogurt, he needs to have multiple little containers of yogurt even though he just eats out of one. Anyway, he had his yogurt when we decided that we were going to go to Kmart to buy some sippy cups and check out Whole Foods for their baby food section.

At Kmart, they have both an elevator and an escalator. John was in heaven. He was very patient and waited until we had finished picking up our merchandise before he started saying, "Up and Down! Up and Down!" Maureen and I both took turns to go on the escalator with John.

We then moved onto Whole Foods where we discovered a wonderful world of baby food. I was quite pleasantly surprised with the prices. They were even lower than Ralphs on Earth's Best foods. John saw his little boxes of chocolate milk and got us to buy him one. As we were leaving, I said, "Why don't we have lunch here?" They have a lovely section of booths at the front of the store. I was surprised that they served hamburgers. This thing would have probably fed a family of 4, but I digress. John had a turkey sandwich. He loved his turkey and tomatoes. He tried Maureen's sparkling water and immediately spit the water and his turkey out. Obviously, he does not have a taste for the bubbly water. That's ok. He'll probably learn to like it like I did.

We may have to go back to Whole Foods to try their yummy looking pizza!

John's New PBS Show

I think we'll call this one, Counting with John. Each episode will feature him counting up to a certain number. He has 1 to 10 down pat, so we have at least 10 good episodes. Let's not even bring zero into the mix just yet.

A Birthday Greeting for Mrs. Lowther

Sorry it's a day late. He's quite talented that he can speak quite clearly with his boo.

Reading in Esperanto

I'm sure he's translating the book into Esperanto and that's why we can't make out most of the words.

This is the first in a series of nature videos with John. We hope to get it onto PBS Kids. It'll feature John exploring "the wilds" of Park La Brea and interacting with its "native" creatures. I know I'd watch it. Then again, I like to watch the Chabad telethon and the weekend show where the LDS Elders take over tv for an entire weekend in Utah. I find those things so fascinating.

No, I'm not going to convert, but I do appreciate freedom of religion...except if you are Scientologist. Sorry, I can't hang with stories about the Galactic Overlord Xenu.

Yay Drums

He may be the next Buddy Rich, or maybe he'll be in the drumline at Atlanta A&T University. In any event, he seems to have some talent. Look at the skill he demonstrates with the drum sticks! If we had a conga drum, I'd buy him a little tuxedo and have him parade around singing Babalu like Ricky Ricardo. Instead, he can just bang on his Thomas the Tank Engine drum.

Sick Boys

Both of the little princes have colds to varying degrees. John's isn't so bad, yet. Let's hope it doesn't get too bad.

The weekend was full of all sorts of fun. We went on many up and downs. We took him to Michael's in Burbank and he kept on asking about it long afterward. We decided to pick up some pizza for dinner last night because he'd been so good and he just loves it so. In the past, he'd eat about half the pizza and then be full. These days, our boy is eating his whole slice and part of Maureen's salad and the nice garlic rolls. Since we were running late, we decided to give him dinner in bed whilst watching Oswald and Make Way for Noddy.

Today, we went to mass at St. Anastasia. John was on fire with the flirting. One of Maureen's former students was sitting next to us. She's in the third grade. John kept on giving her the eyes and trying to get her attention. I don't know where he gets it, but he's well on his way to being this generations Porfirio Rubirosa. The little girl was trying to be good and listen to mass, but our boy was too much to resist.

We later went to a walk to "The Cookie Fountain" and then to "More/Mas Fountain". He calls it "The Cookie Fountain" because that is where we buy him a cookie when he's good. He calls the other fountain "More/Mas" because it's an even bigger fountain. Along the way to "More/Mas Fountain", we stop at the bushes to see the butterflies. John tries to touch them, but giggles as they fly away. There's a nice cafe there and we gave him a nice caprese sandwich for dinner. He really loves tomatos and cheese. On the walk back, he fell asleep. It's been such a long, but fun weekend for our little adventurer.

Happy Birthday

Sorry for the late birthday wishes, but Uncle Albert had a very special birthday last night. We won't say how old becuase it is not polite to talk about age. Happy Birthday!

Goodtime Johnny's Fun Sleepover

Johnny loves to go to Mami and Papi's house. He loves to spend the night because they let him get away with murder. He gets to stay up late and go look at the moon with The Juan and he gets to skleep in a big bed. He also gets ice cream.

Heck, Nicholas even gets ice cream. He just won't be getting any until he's older than one. Dr. K doesn't need to know about this gaffe.

New Breakfast Request

Over the last week or so, anytime we ask John what he'd like for breakfast, he'd say, "Ice cream!" Maureen had a great comeback the other day,"Maybe on your birthday, but not today." Let's hope he doesn't remember that.

He's Getting Better With Singing in Spanish

Some day, he'll take the world by storm. Last time we saw him singing Cielito Lindo, he could only do the "Aye Yay Yay Yay" part. Now, he's actually singing the chorus. He'll be the next Julio Iglesias, if he can learn to sing without food in his mouth.

Walking With Dinosaurs

I had the good fortune to be offered some tickets to Walking with the Dinosaurs at Staples Center through work. I wasn't too sure if John would enjoy it, but we decided to give it a go because there was limited risk. If he freaked out, we'd just leave and walk around LA Live.

John was in heaven because he got to ride the "BEEEG Up and Down" at Staples Center. If he could have, he would have just gone up and down that escalator instead of watching the show. The Coca-Cola suite was really nice. There were snacks and beverages in a lovely Coca-Cola refrigerator!!

John was good for the first act. He was really into the show. He actually laughed when everyone else was groaning because a large dinosaur ate a smaller one. He was just in heaven. He liked the lights and the colors and will even growl like a dinosaur if you ask him. He got a little antsy during the second act, but he recovered and watched the end of the show. I really thought he'd be scared by the T-Rex, but he just enjoyed it.

And, to top it all off, he didn't take a nap this afternoon. He took a 30-minute snooze as we drove to Staples and looked for parking, but he was a real trouper and made it through dinner on Larchmont without a hitch!

What a great day!!

Learning the Finer Art of Eating Yogurt

He's getting better at it. He just dips the spoon in there, but I'm sure he's not too far away from scooping it up. Besides, what would you rather do? Eat yogurt while your dad is video taping or watch Kai lan play with Ho Ho the Monkey and YehYeh,her grandfather? From this video, we know where John stands on that matter.

He's Going After Michael Flatley

Michael Flatley should tremble in his little Cuban dancing shoes! Our John will take him out to be The Emperor of the Dance. Does Michael Flatley have the skill and agility to dance on a moving water taxi? I haven't seen any videos of that. Have you?

Dinner at Tony P's

John does love the marina. He loves the boats. He loves the docks. He loves the pool at the Ritz (don't worry, he sneaks in with his mother). He sounds an awful lot like his Grandpa Dick, except for the Ritz pool part. Grandpa would have told him to go to the Best Western pool. The last couple of times we have been down at Tony P's for dinner, we've taken a round trip around the marina on the water taxi. We were fortunate enough to have some fo John's dearest friends, Aly and Jake, along for the ride. In case you were wondering, their parents were there with us. Do you think we are crazy to try to control 4 small children by ourselves?

After a lovely meal, well, actually it was an interesting meal because John got very antsy and had to go look at the boats twice in the course of the meal. He can be difficult like that. We headed to the water taxi to take our fun cruise along the marina. John had been telling Aly and Jake all about it and they were so excited to go on the taxi.

They had so much fun on the taxi. Each child got a turn to drive the boat. Our captain was cool like that. Aly and Jake had practice from driving their dad's boat. Aly was a champ at steering while Jake did a pretty good job. Our John, well, he just wanted to sit in the captain's chair and supervise. He's going places. He's already figured out that it's better to have others do work for you than do it yourself. Maybe he'll be president some day?

Enjoy Johnny taking in the scenery.

On a final note, you may ask, "Where was Nicholas?" He was right there with us, but he really couldn't do much aside from look cute and smile at everyone who'd get on the taxi.

Taking Pudding from Puddin'

After dinner last night, they brought over pudding for the kids. At first, John wanted nothing to do with it until he tasted it. At that point, he kept on dipping his spoon in Alyssa's cup and say, "Mmm, good."

As I was looking at the photos of it tonight, I realize that her parents used to call her Puddin'. For that reason, it's quite fitting that our John take some pudding from Puddin'.

Dumb and Dumber

Maureen seems to think that I cut John's hair a bit too much like Lloyd in Dumb and Dumber. Grammy doesn't like the cut at all. We know how particulr she can be when it comes to her grandsons' hair. Anywho, I'd like to say that it's not easy to cut a little boys hair. I didn't go to barber college. I didn't go to the Marinello School of Beauty like Jonathan Antin. I'm just a pencil pusher. Don't judge my skills too harshly. I've only been cutting my sons' hair for about 6-months. I think I'm getting better, but obviously, others think differently.

This is what happens when a mother won't let a father give his son a little boy buzz cut.

The Best Dinner Ever

Do you think John enjoyed his seat at dinner? I'd have to say yes. He was overlooking the marina. He could see the boats. He was able to go run down by the boats as we waited for our food. And, to top it all off, he was able to ride on a boat after dinner. All in all, it was a great day. I'll post a full recap and video of the shenanigans tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Cousin Marble-Ann

Happy Birthday Mia! I hope you had a great first day of school!

Yippie Skippie!!

John has a new friend named, Rebekah Karin Meneses. She was born today. Congratulations go out to proud parents, Saira and AJ.