Like herding cats

Poo-pah (Z's name for Grandpa Walt) sent some Carnegie Mellon gear to the kids a while ago, but the shirt was too big for Miss S. She's finally grown into it, so I wanted to take a photo of the two of them wearing their CMU shirts today. After I wrangled them onto the bench (the easiest way to get them together is to make them sit on something that forces proximity), I faced the challenge of photographing two young children who aren't very interested in being photographed. Afterward, as I was looking through the photos to pick out my favorites, I decided that it would be more fun to show you what a typical photo session with these two looks like.  And maybe you will appreciate why I have so few photos of them together.



So after all of that, here's what we ended up with!  (Although I have to admit that some of my favorites are the sillier photos that show their personalities.)

Quote of the Day

Me: Z, do you know what a windmill does?
Z: Yeah. (In the noncommittal tone he uses when he's ignoring you, doesn't understand the question, or doesn't know the answer.)
Me: What does it do?
Z: Yeah.
Me: Maybe I can help. What do you think this part that looks like a fan does?
Z: Oh, that's the part that spins around to generate electricity.

Quote of the Day

Z:

"Uh oh, the excavator is broken. Do you know what 'broken' means? It means 'tighty-whitey'. And when something is broken, you say 'okie-dokie' and then Mommy comes and fixes it. But I don't need to fix the excavator right now because now it's a crane."

Happy Easter!

This was the best I could do in my attempt to get a photo of the two of them "together" and "smiling".  You can see Miss S's adorable Easter dress, knitted by Gramma Hill!  We also realized today that Z only has one button-down shirt, and it's the same one he wore in his Santa photo last year.

At least they are both looking at the camera this time...

The only way to get a smile in a photo around here is to do it myself.

After the Egg Hunt, Daddy reads their new Easter book to them.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend!

Firework

Z loves to sing Katy Perry's "Firework", so his teachers at preschool filmed him today. I think my favorite part is the end when he says, "I've been singing back and forth! I didn't know I could sing back and forth."

Compare & Contrast: Santa Photos (2008, 2009, 2010)

The first one (from 2008) still makes me laugh.  Z was doing just fine until the lady “helping” the photographer started ringing that darn cowbell.

Our very own Zcrooge

Santa:  Are you hoping for anything special for Christmas?

Z (with his back to Santa): <silence>

Santa:  How about Legos?  Do you like to play with Legos?

Z: <silence>

Santa:  I bet you like toy cars.

Z (still with his back to Santa):  I.  LIKE.  TRAINS.

All in the family

Mommy’s hat (from the crazy “hat-a-day” knitting days…pre-children, of course)

+

Big brother’s snowsuit

=

Pure sweetness

  

Happy Birthday, Poopah!

Breakfast conversation

Mommy:  What does a cow say?

Z:  Cows say MOO!

Mommy:  What does Cowboy say?

Z:  Cowboy says ARF ARF ARF!

Mommy:  What does Sophia say?

Z:  Sophia says BAH!

Mommy:  What does Daddy say?

Z:  Daddy says ARRRRRG!

Mommy:  What does Mommy say?

Z:  Mommy says RAAAAWR!

Mommy:  What does Zachary say?

Z:  Zachary says F*CK!

<Stunned silence, followed by a quick recovery>

Mommy:  Oh, Zachary says FORK?

Z:  Yeah.

Mommy:  Does Zachary say KNIFE too?

Z:  Yeah, Zachary says KNIFE!

Mommy:  OK, let’s say KNIFE.

Happy Birthday, Grandma Hill!

Happy Halloween!

From the cutest Strawberry, Cat in the Hat, and Skele-Cow around!

Z's business advice

Background:  We often frequent an area called Tangletown.  There are several businesses and restaurants in Tangletown, including Mighty O Donuts.  One of our favorite places to visit used to be a market called Meridian Market, but it closed last month.  Z often asks about Meridian Market when we walk or drive past, and I've tried to explain why we can't go anymore.  Here's his assessment:

"Meridian Market is very sad.  It is sad so it is closed.  When it's happy, it will be open!"
"Why is Meridian Market sad?"
"Meridian Market doesn't have any money.  If everybody gave Meridian Market some money, it will be happy again and it will open up so we can go see the telephone."
"I don't think Meridian Market will open up again, honey."
"No, Meridian Market will be closed.  Everybody gives money to Mighty O Donuts.  Nobody gives money to Meridian Market."
"Why don't people give money to Meridian Market?"
"Because Meridian Market doesn't have donuts."

 I think he's got it figured out.

My favorite pumpkins

The fun-capacity of a sun tent should never be underestimated

Catching up with a few pictures

It's been a busy summer here at raising hill and I've been terrible at keeping this blog updated. Here a few photos to show what we've been doing:

Mei-mei takes a stroll with her wagon while her brother waits (not-so-patiently) for his turn. (Note: I've also realized that his fingers go in his mouth whenever I get the camera out -- unless he's specifically asked me to take a picture. Hmmmm.)

 

Mei-mei frequently displaces Cowboy from his bed while she rolls around and tries to do somersaults. However, she makes it up to him by giving him one of her "head-butt hugs".

A rare hug from big brother. She looks as surprised about it as I was.

1.  Z was very excited to wear his favorite pajamas on "Pajama Day" at preschool. He wanted me to take a picture of them, so he did the same cute little stick-your-knee-out pose he does every time he asks me to photograph an outfit. Chris does this exact pose when he tries on new pants. I half expect Z to say, "How do these look, honey?"

2.  Ahh, summertime in Seattle.  Heading out for a Sunday walk.  Of course, after we walked a few blocks in pouring rain and got thoroughly drenched, the skies cleared, the sun came out, and we looked ridiculous in our rain gear.

3.  Little Miss still loiters around the house, but now her range has increased because she no longer needs to hold onto anything.  She’s also started taking a few tentative little steps, but she’s not fully walking yet.  I know it’s coming VERY soon though!  Time to get her some shoes.

At least he’s honest

Mei-mei:  “WAAAAAAH!!!”

Me:  “Uh oh, what happened?”

Z:  “I’m ALL DONE kicking Mei-mei in face!”

Going for a ride

I have some catching up to do on this blog, but I wanted to give you a little taste of what’s going on around here.  Here’s a photo of Z helping Mei-mei use her new walker wagon.  She’s not so sure this is how it’s supposed to be used…

Scamp

After hearing Mei-mei scream and seeing Z’s guilty face, I asked him what happened.  He turned away and changed the subject.  A few minutes later, I heard him talking to his stuffed dog, Blue.  “Blue!  NO hitting Mei-mei in face!  We don’t hit in this family.”

Hard day

We had a rough day yesterday, but thankfully, things are much better today.

We spent the entire afternoon in the ER with Z, running him through a battery of tests to try to figure out why he suddenly spiked a ridiculously high fever (it was 108.1 the first time I took it, and even when we stripped him down, gave him cold water to drink, and had him in the air conditioned room for 15 minutes, it was still over 106 degrees). He's been on antibiotics for 10 days to treat his ear/sinus infection, so it seemed even more strange that he would suddenly have such a high fever.

Z was such a brave boy, despite missing his nap and not having anything to eat other than a couple snack-sized bags of Goldfish crackers and Teddy Grahams. In the picture, you can see his cool red and purple armband, which is actually a red sock wrapped with purple tape. That was to keep him from pulling out the IV they inserted in his arm (poor boy!). He also had a chest x-ray and was checked over from head-to-toe by multiple doctors.  On the bright side, he got a bunch of truck stickers and a new penguin friend he named “Waddle Waddle”.

His preliminary blood work showed nothing more than an elevated white blood cell count, which they expected due to the fever. His chest is clear, so we know it's not pneumonia. He's in good spirits and isn't vomiting or having trouble with balance or moving his neck, so we know it's not meningitis. Since he's already on antibiotics, we're relatively certain it's a viral infection. But that's about all we know. The doctor will be watching his blood culture over the next couple of days to see if they can find anything else, but in the meantime, we're just supposed to give him Tylenol to keep his fever down and keep an eye on him. His pediatrician will be following up with us today and tomorrow to check on him.  Today he woke up singing, ate almost all of his breakfast, and has been running around and playing all morning. His fever is mostly gone (he's just below the 100.4 degree threshold for an "official" fever) and he seems to be feeling fine. I hope he continues to feel fine and his fever is gone for good, although I am worried about whatever caused him to have such a high fever.

In other news, he apparently finished reading his copy of "How To Sabotage Your Sibling's Big Day" and pulled the ultimate trump card. Because of his fever, we don't want to risk infecting other children with whatever he has. So, we've canceled Mei-mei's birthday party today. Luckily, she's too young to care. But if Z is already starting to sabotage her events now, at the ripe old age of 2.5 years, I'm really curious about what he'll do on her wedding day!