little games

Kari and Adler made up a game where they put a little tuft of his hair up in a hair clip so it sticks up like a little combination between a ponytail and a mohawk. Then one of them taps the hair with their hand and Kari says, "poke." Adler thinks it is absolutely hilarious.

It's not exactly the same but this made me think of Jon Stewart saying, in this very funny clip from the Daily Show, "because do you have any idea how long a weekend is with children?"

Brothers

Taking a little break together on a bench at the zoo.

Raiding daddy's office on a Friday afternoon for juice and junk food.

Adler knows how to live life. Shopping with mom at Whole Foods, feet up, glasses on, eating a vegan chocolate chip cookie. Life is good.

LT loves his bike, but what he might like more than just his bike is "mountain biking". He will find any patch of dirt or rock to ride on rather than sidewalks. I decided to gently ease him into the actual concept of mountain biking by taking him to a gradual slope near Sloans Lake. He loved it, but I think we can move up to a bit more challenging hill.

Early April

Yesterday LT, Adler, Ewan and his brother Holden and Isaac and his brother Jonah went to the Children's museum for a little fun. The big guys played in the bubbles, Adler played in the sink and was soaking wet within seconds. So wet that I wrung his shirt out. I felt badly, but he had to go home (and to dinner on the way home) in wet clothes.
Snack time on the stairs in orange shirts and blue pants.
We watched the Platt boys (Jonah and Isaac) a few days ago so MC could go to an appointment without kids. It looks like Adler is stealing this computer from Jonah, but they were actually playing together and laughing. Its fun to see Adler recognizing and having fun with his friends.
We had the boys over the dinner hour. Isaac and LT were excited to set the table! Adorable, thats the only way to describe what they did. They worked together really well to get the job done.
The big guys sat and ate their pizza. The cool way to eat when you are 18 months is to stand. Everyone was happy, thats all that matters.
Hailie's regular vet visits have continued. I hope this ends soon, but for now, it is what it is. The vet has a huge basket of treats that I don't buy or have around our house. I figure that spending a few hours a week at the vet when you are a little guy deserves some sort of reward. They each choose a treat, sometimes more depending on how long we are there, and it entertains them for a few minutes while I talk with the vet. The most recent time was a long visit and the snacks only lasted so long. We also walked around the block, colored in coloring books, read books and finally resorted to making balls out of medical tape and playing basketball in the room.

Over spring break we went to a kite making playdate. I had no idea this would catch LTs interest, but from the moment I mentioned the playdate (still several days away), LT asked about it several times a day. We even made a few kites at home beforehand.
The final product.
It was a really windy day and the kites flew well. LT ran around this huge backyard with his kite flying high in the air. We also flew it several times at home before it finally broke.
My cousin, Cierra, has a big St. Paddy's day party at a bar up in Morrison each year. Every year, Brian and I talk about going, but it hasn't worked out until this year. We took the boys and clearly LT fit right in at the bar. With his juice.

Chitaqua

LT and I have been up to Chitaqua in Boulder 2 times in the past week for little hikes. The first time it had snowed the night before. After a few minutes of hiking, our shoes had 2-3 inches of mud and other crud stuck to them. LT didn't mind a bit, he continued to "trail run" up the hill. Before LT, a few friends of mine and I used to trail run these paths, its fun to see LT enjoying them as much as I do.

Happy 9th Birthday, Hailie!

Today is Hailie's 9th birthday. Sadly, shes been pretty sick recently. We are trying desperately to figure out whats wrong and how best to treat her, but so far, we haven't made a lot of progress. Regardless, the boys both adore Hailie. When I asked LT the other day if he would have a dog when he grows up, he said, yes, "I will have Hailie". This isn't the best video, but the boys are sweetly giving her hugs, kisses and pets for her birthday. A few minutes later, LT brought a towel over to her, gave her a "card" and put a little stinky treat next to her. She doesn't move a lot these days, but she got up for her treat.

First Friday (and the weekend after)

Westword recently named a strip of Tennyson Street, not too far from our house, Denver's best neighborhood shopping district for 2011. I've not done extensive research or anything but I can't disagree with them. We love living somewhere that has restaurants and shops that are within easy walking distance. One great thing about the neighborhood is the Tennyson Street Art Walk on the first friday evening of every month. Kari and I both grew up in Park Hill and occasionally (like when we go to Oblio's) miss aspects of that area. Frist Fridays are a great reminder of the wonderful, unique and sometimes quirky aspects of this neighborhood and why we love living here.

As you can see in this video, LT was very excited about First Friday - he talked about it all day. I think his favorite parts are the brownies at Tenn Street Coffee and the sidewalk chalk at the framing place next door.

I always look forward to First Fridays but this one was a little bittersweet because it meant that the previous month's artwork at Tenn Street Coffee, which included some of my photographs, had just come done to make way for the April show. Hopefully that won't be the last time I get to try and peddle some of my work, however, and the fact that there are places like the coffee shop that give a local rank amateur like myself a place on the wall alongside real artists is one of the things that make Tennyson Street so great.

About half a block south of Tenn Street is one of many medical marijuana dispensaries in the area. This one had a couple of old guys out playing DJ for everyone walking past. Westword called the area "semi-gentrified" which is probably accurate but I'm not sure where this place falls on the gentrification scale. I mean, the ghetto homemade banner over the porch, the dead lawn, the tie-dye flag, the half working 'open' neon sign, and the general disrepair of the whole place aren't exactly doing wonders in dispelling any preconceived ideas folks might have about the kind of people that would open up a medical marijuana dispensary. It certainly adds a little color to the neighborhood which is good.

Speaking of color, our next stop was the The Bookery Nook which is a very cool little local bookstore. They had little cinnamon rolls that Alder and I enjoyed more than our share of. There was also a guy playing kids songs on a guitar while toddlers danced and sang along. Set just a few feet away from the kids activities was a large series of nude photographs, supposedly previously unseen, of the pop star Madona. You just don't find that kind of thing at your big box Barnes & Noble (or Amazon for that matter).

Across the street from the book store is Pearl Velo which is a little boutique bike shop that does mostly fixed gear bikes. The place was opened up about two years ago by a guy who lives in the neighborhood and has a kid around LT's age. It's been cool to watch the shop's success - I like to see thing work out for people when they follow their dreams and Pearl Velo definitely adds to the vibrance and welcoming feel of the area. Unfortunately the boys were tired and starting to fall apart by the time we went past the bike shop, so we didn't get to stop in. But there will be many more First Fridays.

The next day Kari took LT on a hike with his buddy Z in Boulder. So Adler and I got some quality time together which included walking the dogs and a trip to the playground. I made him mac & cheese for lunch which, you can see from the picture above, is one of his favorites.

After lunch we walked over to Tenn Street Coffee to try and unload some of our old books in their book buy. There were quite a few people with the same idea so we had to wait a while to sell our books. While we were waiting, Adler found a piece of the sidewalk chalk that had been left out next door and got right back to work where he'd left off the night before.

On Sunday LT and I got to hang out together during Adler's nap time. We went and got ice cream at Little Man and followed that up with a bike ride around the little park and some quality time on the playground.