Flippy the Fish

Our neighboor, John Black's* wife, asked me if we could watch their fish while they were away for the weekend. She said that they'd pick it up on Sunday night when they got back. It's Monday morning and Flippy is still here. John's been very helpful in taking care of Flippy. We may even get him a fish for his birthday if he's good.

* Our neighbor's first name is John, but we don't know his last name. He only seems to wear the color black, so we refer to him as John Black.

Matato's Birthday

We went to a beach party on Saturday for Mateo, but John calls him Matato or sometimes just Tato. Anyway, John was a little shy at first and just wanted to play in the sand by himself. Eventually, Tato walked over and smashed our sand mountain that we built. I was a bit annoyed since it took a while to build, but John loved it. He asked me to rebuild the mountain so he could destroy it.

Eventually, our little Anti-Social Annie, aka John, decided to join the party and partake in cookies and brownies. After a while, he just wanted to sit and enjoy the scenery.

This Is Called Mia's Small World

John really loves his music. He really gets into it and starts to feel it.

Sunday with the Boys

I Love It When A Plan Comes Together

Both of the boys woke up at 6 AM this morning. We couldn't convince them to go back to sleep. John already had a plan for the day made up. We'd go to a farmer's market to buy some strawberries and go to the Grove to ride the escalators, say hello to the security guard friend at Barnes and Noble, and get donuts. Nicholas got to benefit from this plan because we pretty much followed through on most of it. We didn't go to a farmer's market for strawberries because we just bought strawberries at The Farmer's Market on Fairfax.

John is quite a good tactician. He'd make a good military man, but I think he's probably going to go into the priesthood. He really loves watching the Catholic channel and singing songs about Jesus, Mary, and Jophes. Yes, he sings about Jophes, not Joseph. Give him a break. He's not even three yet.

Sunday Afternoon

We bought some butterflies a while back to watch them grow and develop. Little did I know that there was quite a bit of upkeep for butterflies. We finally gave up today and decided to set them free before any more died (sadly two had died). All in all, we released 7 butterflies to the wild. After we let them go, the boys got to enjoy some fun at the play structure. I'm not a fan of the play structure because of the sand, but both John and Nicholas loved it.

Our Big Boy Is Growing Up

First, he gives up his boo without much of a fight. I think he really likes his "c'peter" as he calls his hand held device. It tells stories and sings songs. Now, he's wearing big boy jammies with buttons. On top of that, the jammies are "softies". He really likes things that are "softie."

In case you are wondering, he's trying to sing in Swedish and Spanish. He's good like that.

Jesus Rides The Rails

John vacilates between liking and disliking Jesus. Today, we found a little Jesus figurine and John hasn't put him down since he picked him up. He even gave him a voice. Maureen and I were talking and I told Maureen to make her choice. Our John pipes up and says, "Jesus says, 'Make Your Choice!'". I wish I had video because it was hillarious.

Later this evening, he decided to put Jesus in his train and give him a ride.

The Train and Merry Go Round at Griffith Park

As a treat, we took the boys to Griffith Park for the train ride. We still haven't made it up to Travel Town because John would never want to leave, but I think a 5-minute train ride is more than enough for right now. One good indicator that he is my mini-me is that he lacks a bit of patience. He didn't quite understand why we had to wait in line. Just as we were at the front of the line, they had reached their limit and had to close the gates for this particular ride. John thought that we weren't going to get to go on the train and had a bit of a melt down. Eventually, he calmed down and we got to ride the train. He really enjoyed the ride this trip. He raised his arms in the tunnel and said, "Wooo!"

After that, we drove up the hill to look at the merry go round. I hadn't ridden one of those in ages and I'd never been to this one. It's a bit on the antique side of things, but it still does the job. We rode in the bench since we weren't sure how the boys would react. John really enjoyed himself. He even raised his arms in the air like he did on the train. That boy knows all the right things to do on a ride.

Sadly, we couldn't stop at the Mullholland Fountain. There was nowhere to park, so that put a damper on things since John just loves that "Big Fountain" as he calls it.

The Beach Boy

For Easter, we were fortunate to spend a few days at the beach thanks to Aunt Lisa and Uncle Robert. John loved the play in the sand and run around like a little mad man. He wasn't crazy about the temperature of the ocean water, but he did enjoy the view. He'd get quite upset when we told him it was time to come in. His lips may have been turning purple, but our boy just wanted to run around and play

Incidentally, we were close enough to the marina and were able to look at boats for a while. Sadly, it wasn't long enough for John's liking, but he did enjoy the time with his cousins.

The Easter Dandies

John and his cousins look quite nice in their fine Easter attire. Don't you think? They spent a good 20-minutes looking at the gold fish in the pond. It was quite entertaining because John and Thomas were quite enthralled by the gold fish, but Adriana wanted to go play on the patio. The boys said no, but she was a good sport about it and stayed with the boys by the pond. Sadly, we couldn't let Nicholas near the pond for fear that our little Destructo would go and fall in. He's quite clumsy like that.

The Boo Fairy

Last Friday night, the Boo Fairy paid a visit to John. Actually, he wrote her a letter earlier in the week asking for a handheld computer he saw at Target. She responded with a note saying that she'd visit him on Friday night/Saturday morning. Sure enough when he woke up, all his boos were gone and there was a hand held computer waiting for him. It even had a Scooby Doo story/game included.

He's had a couple of episodes where he really wants a boo, but he's been good for the most part. He made a comment Sunday morning at 5:30 AM stating that the Easter Bunny had taken his computer, but we assured him that it was safe and sound. This afternoon, as we were driving home, he said to me, "Let's go to Target and buy some boos. We can keep them at Papi's house and the Boo Fairy won't know." That boy is too clever for his own good.

Sorry for the Delay

We have a few weeks worth of photos and stories, but we are way behind on other more pressing matters. Plus, Maureen left the camera with our photos at Grammy's house today. In the coming days, you'll see and hear stories of hair cuts, the beach, Easter, and Griffith Park.