Johnny's Birthday

We gave John his train table this morning. He was ever so excited to see it. All he wanted to do was play with it. I'm surprised he wanted to go out and ride on the up and down at The Grove. After his nap this afternoon, his first thought was his train table. I think we hit a home run on the gift.

When I got home, we went to dinner at John's favorite pizzeria, Village Pizzeria. No, that isn't a fine Coca-Cola product he's drinking. It's milk. I suggested we go home for cake afterward; however, John had different ideas. He wanted to go get some ice cream. Since it is his birthday, we acquiesced and he had some vanilla ice cream. It was a little different than last year. He really liked it and got into it.

When we finally made it home, we had his cake that Maureen made from scratch. John really enjoyed it and said, "Yum! Yum!"

Guess Who's Going to Wake Up To These Surprises

Yes, tomorrow is John's 2nd birthday. As a special treat, Maureen baked him a great chocolate cake. He just loves chocolate cake. Really, he loves any type of cake or ice cream. He just likes to say "chocklick" the most.

To top it off, he'll wake up to his new train table. I hope he gives an enthusiastic "WOW!!" or "It's Cool!" when he sees it.

Johnny Year 2

I think only his mother, grandparents, and me are going to make it through the clips, but if you think you have the great intestinal fortitude of a mid-eighties WWF wrestler, have a look. Each clip is about 10-minutes long.

Part One:




Part Two:



I hope you enjoyed as much as I did.

Brotherly Fun

As you know, our John loves his little brother. Watch as he lovingly pushes him along.

John Knows Who Pays Daddy's Paycheck

Earlier this year, John was rather partial to Fiji drinking water. I think he just liked the little bottles. Anyway, he'd always reach for the Fiji when we'd go grocery shopping. Now that daddy works for Coca-Cola North America, that's not really a great option. I have taught John the great joys of Dasani. He loves it so much that he needs to drink it with multiple straws.

The Music of Raffi

At first, both Maureen and I were a little freaked out that John liked the music of Raffi, but as we listened, we realized that many of Raffi's songs are old children's classics. Sure, he sings annoying songs like Baby Beluga, but he also sings traditional childrens songs like, Baa Baa Black Sheep. That is one of John's favorites. He always says, "Again." when it is over, but he says it with such joy in his heart that we can't resist.

Hipster Dinner

Since John is quite the hipster, we decided to take him to Umami Burger for dinner on Friday evening. At first, we didn't know if it would be kid friendly, but we decided to take a chance. We visited the location on La Brea. It's small, but they carved out a nice space for us.

The best part of the experience, aside from the food, was that they had a paper table cover. We knew that'd be great for John's artistic expressions. Maureen, being the good mother, is always prepared with crayons for such event. He particularly likes the blue crayons. He actually walks around our apartment with 3 or 4 blue crayons and leaves them in random places.

Our server was a pleasant young man with a few tattoos and an interesting hairstyle. John seemed to like him and the server was kind enough to play "boop" with him. What's "Boop", you say? It's a game where wour server would touch the tip of John's nose with his finger and say, "BOOP!". John loved it and our server was kind enough to keep John entertained in that manner.

As for the food, I'd say it was ok. I had the Umami Burger plain. It was slightly undercooked, but it was good. I'd order it again. Maureen had the California burger well done. Maureen and John both liked it. John really liked his fries though. I think that's his favorite food. The funny thing is that John doesn't call them fries. He calls them pizza.

If you go to Umami Burger early enough, it's ok for kids. If you go after 5 PM, I'd say keep the kids at home. John and Nicholas were both on their best behavior and John had a grand old time writing on the paper. He knows that he's only allowed to write on paper although a few yellow crayon marks on his bedroom wall may tell you otherwise. Look at his grip on the crayon. Maureen says that some of her kindergarteners cannot grip crayons as well as our wunderkind!!

The Boy Is Back in Town

Goodtime Johnny has returned. It's so pleasing to see that he's feeling much better. He's eating and drinking regularly again. His BM schedule is back to normal. He's singing and dancing again. All in all, it was a rough couple of days to see him lying around and whimpering, but our boy is back and delightful as ever. We decided to go to Bob's for donuts yesterday to have a fun breakfast. Plus, we got to visit the fountain, so it was "win-win" for everyone involved.

Poor Little Johnny

He's not feeling like his normal self. He has an ear infection and he's just not feeling very cheery. His sleep habits have been pretty poor, but I did get him to eat some yogurt about 30 minutes ago.

Father's Day

It was a lovely day. We didn't go to the fountain at Park La Brea today, but we got to see an indoor fountain at the Northridge Mall, so we did do fountain time this weekend.

Today started with some lovely pancakes. Maureen made some of "Uncle Earle's Pancakes" in her new non-stick skillet. At first, I was really reluctant to believe that a non-stick skillet was the secret to good pancakes, but she proved me wrong. They were light and fluffy. I'd give them top marks for taste and consistency. John liked them so much that he cleaned his plate. He never does that. The boys and Maureen gave me a nice pop-up copy of "The Little Prince". We'll be able to read that as the boys grow older. It's such a lovely book. More people should read it. As you can see from the photo, John decided to start the day in his diaper. For some odd reason, he always just wants to take his jammies off as soon as he wakes up.

We started Nicholas on solid, well semi-solid food, rice cereal. He just went to town with it. He moved his jaws as if he had to chew it. He even made the face like it had a horrible flavor to it. That was this afternoon. I'm not too sure what changed between this morning and this afternoon's mush, but he started making faces.

Since we needed to go to JC Penney to buy John some shoes, we decided to go to the one in The Northridge Mall. Our other choice was the Fox Hills Mall and Maureen said that the Northridge store was better. We didn't get what we were looking for at JCP, but we did get to see the indoor fountain. As we walked out of JCP into the mall, John literally gasped and said, "WOW!! Fountain!" We had no idea that there was a fountain in the middle of the mall. The last time I was in the mall, there was a planter there. Anywho, the Sephora girls thought it was hilarious to see John get so excited and run toward the fountain.




After the mall, we headed over to my parents house to visit my dad and wish him a happy father's day. As always, John went to him. We like to think that it's because he loves his grandfather, but it may also have something to do with the cookies that my dad gives him. John just loves the cookies. Cousins Mia and Ana were over at the house as well. Mia just loves the boys, and Nick really loves her. He was so excited that he kept on trying to bite her nose. It's a miracle she'll even hold him, but she just loves him. John and Ana were having there fun.

On our way home, we decided to pick up some Larchmont Village Pizza because it's easy and I was in the mood for it. John was very excited once he realized where we had stopped. He kept on saying "Pizza! Pizza!" It was like listening to a Little Caesar's ad on tv. He was so excited once Maureen came back with the box. As we got to the parking garage, he asked Maureen to show him the pizza. When she did, a piece flopped out and hit the floor. It was hers (mushroom and green peppers). John was sad because he thought that it had all fallen. Once he realized that there was more, he was ok. And, he cleaned his pizza off his plate. I suppose he only really finishes what he really likes. He'll basically eat anything, even salad (much to my chagrin).

Now, it's time to catch up on sleep. Neither of the boys had long naps today, so it's night-night right now.