Christmas spirit

Maybe this post is meant to be a little cheering in the wake of everything that happened last week, and indicate the completely irrepressible awesomeness of kids.

One of the things that comes along with the holiday season at the boys' school are a lot of concerts. This picture is from one Jamie did at a senior living facility nearby, where they were much appreciated. He also did a couple of concerts at school. We went to the one during the day, and they had brought the kindergarteners in to sit on the floor and listen. Since there are a lot of concerts and performances at school, one of the things they work on is sitting still and quietly and listening and the kids were doing a great job. Until they played Jingle Bells. As they got to the chorus, there was a quiet, but insistent sound of 5- and 6-year-olds singing along. The teachers laughed, but very nicely told them to just listen. It was all for naught though. They just couldn't stop themselves. They knew the words and they were singing along and having a great time of it, especially with "laughing all the way (HA HA HA!!)." By the end, even the kids in the orchestra were smiling.

The State of Santa

Well, Christmas approaches with much anticipation in the Costello household. Connor, in his sweet way, is happily expecting Santa. Sarah did this thing where you can get Santa to send a personalized video greeting. Connor was a little anxious until Santa told him he was officially on the "nice" list, to which he responded with his signature arms-raised "YES!" exclamation. Unlike Jamie, who began pressing for the practical details of Santa, and testing the logical flaws of the whole thing when he was four, Connor has no inclination to question Santa at all.

Jamie, meanwhile, has gone back into full belief mode. As I have mentioned, last year in the lead-up to Christmas he cornered me outside, away from Connor, and asked very directly for the truth about Santa. Unlike the other times, I sensed that he really wanted to know this time, and he handled it fine then. But this year, when we were visiting the cousins in Austin, we all watched Elf. A great time was had, but after the movie, I found Jamie crying in his room alone. I asked what was wrong and was horrified to hear: "I wish you never told me about Santa!!!" Bad daddy!!! Bad daddy!!!

So after that he has basically decided to forget that I did tell him and is back in full-on Santa mode. I think playing it up for Connor helps with this as well. So, ho-ho-ho it is!!

Mr. Compliment

So Jamie and Sarah were reading a book he got from school about  Navy SEALs. He was very impressed by the rigorous training program they undertake. He marvelled at the fact that they run 200 miles over five days, and said "Mommy, you don't even run that far!" She agreed, but then they got to a picture of a SEAL, or would-be SEAL I guess, grimacing as he pulled himself up a rope obstacle. Jamie was less-impressed, "Mommy, you're tougher than that guy. You wouldn't make that face if you were doing that," he informed her.

Sarah wasn't quite sure this was true, but she didn't say anything. Given what's happened in the last week, if Jamie feels his Mommy is tougher than a Navy SEAL, he must feel pretty safe, so we'll take that.

My favorite things

A few days ago, prompted by absolutely nothing, Jamie sat down to make a list. He made three columns, headed "I like," "Things that smell bad," and "I don't like". I reproduce them here unedited, save a couple of comments:

I like
1. baseball
2. video games
3. books
4. TV
5. soccor
6. Barack Obama
7. LEGOs [he also added a "trademark" symbol]
8. P-51 Mustang
9. World War Two
10. Guinea Pigs
11. Medevil times
12. My house
13. My family
14. My friends
15. Cats
16. dirt
17. Christmas
18. My birthday
19. the cello
20. candy

Things that smell bad:
1. The compost [one of his chores is taking out the compost]
2. bannas
3. garbage [another chore]

I don't like:
1. haircuts
2. the zoo
3. Mitt Romney
4. school
5. Barbies
6. the hot
7. Massacres

Life lessons

Just a quick snippet we overheard between the boys just now:
Jamie: Let me give you some advice, Connor. About night-time battles.
Connor: OK.
Jamie: Never carry a torch.
Connor (Look of non-comprehension)
Jamie: Because it allows archers to see you. And shoot you down.
Connor: OK.

The Guinea Pig Handbook

As many of you know we were lucky enough to have Annabelle the kitty for the last couple years of her life. The boys really adored her and she actually liked them too, I think, even if she found Connor to be a little too unpredictable at times. She had these very specific ways of joining the family unit. We read books on the couch in the living room every night before bed and wherever she was in the house she would come running up and sit with all of us purring and squinting, which appears to be cat for "you please me at the moment." They took her departure hard, and still remember her very clearly and fondly. We were looking at the kitties for adoption while we were at the pet store recently and Jamie had to walk away. He said it made him think of Annabelle and that made him sad.

But of course, it wasn't too long after she died that the boys were clamouring for another pet. Some months of negotiation and thought followed. Connor at one point wanted a talking bird, mainly because of the one in the Judy Blume Fudge series, which says obnoxious things in French with impeccable comedic timing. I worried that any bird we got would have lacked either the obnoxiousness, the French, or worse, the timing, and so been a disappointment.

So we settled on guinea pigs for a few reasons (good combination of small size, ease of cleaning up, pleasant temperament, willingness to snuggle and cuteness). But being academics, we wanted to study them first, so we went to the store, looked at some, watched their behavior and then bought The Guinea Pig Handbook, a comprehensive and reliable guide. Jamie really dug into the task. He went to bed reading it and sat at breakfast with it open all the next week. He became quite knowledgeable about guinea pigs. (I pictured two guinea pigs somewhere that week munching parsley and reading The Little Boy Handbook.) This meant that not only was he well-prepared for their arrival the next weekend but he was prepared to ignore misinformation. One of their friends has a pet gerbil and insisted that if you tried to hold the guinea pig it would run away, because that's what the gerbil does. Jamie maintained steadfastedly that it was otherwise and when the friend continued to insist he just walked away and said, with a very very slight touch of pity in his voice, "You don't have The Guinea Pig Handbook."

Just before we got them we settled on Roma and Kouklia for the names, after the two places we stayed this summer. Sarah suggested this and after a week of constant fluctuation on names they settled on it very quickly. So the boys do indeed love the guinea pigs. The pigs tend to try to get away when we got to pick them up (I think instinctually for them a hand coming from above reads as "hawk"), but, as The Guinea Pig Handbook suggested, are very happy to snuggle once they've been caught, and they realize we are not hawks.

Dude, cello!

So we have two cellists in the house now. Their teacher was pretty openly laughing at us, pointing out that if they kept playing we would a) need at least one new car into which fit two full size cellos and b) tens of thousands of dollars to buy said cellos. Ha ha!

But it's been lots of fun watching Jamie bring Connor along. The first time Connor brought his cello home, Jamie was very eager to help and actually did in a rather light-handed helpful way. Instead of berating Connor for doing things wrong, he prefaced everything with "Dude!":

"Dude! You have to lay the case down with this side down."

"Dude! Hold the cello here! Dude!! Here!!"

(Laughing): "Dude!!! You can't let it hit things!"

I think they've both enjoyed it more having each other involved.

There was a bit of a difficulty lately, though. Jamie has accelerated a bit and so has moved from teh beginner class which Connor joined this year, to the intermediate group. We were pleased to hear about this from his teacher, but she said that when she told Jamie he could move if he wanted, he said he would have to ask Connor. Connor was indeed very upset at the prospect, because cello happens after school and without Jamie to tell him where to go, he gets very stressed. Jamie was eventually convinced that it had to happen sooner or later, but now when the class is over he goes running to get Connor because he knows the little guy will get scared without him. Cello seems to bring out the best of Jamie's big brother instincts,

Twinkle--twinkle...

Another good pre-blog moment was when he was about 2, he started singing Twinkle-twinkle, which was really cute to begin with. Then we realized he was saying, "Like a diaper in the sky."

We just told the boys this the other day it was about the funniest thing they had ever heard. Almost as funny as when one of the guinea pigs peed on me while I was holding it. That's pretty much the gold standard for funny these days.

Pre-blog days

As the semester ends I'll have some time for more blogging, but in the meanwhile, here's something from the days before the blog, when Jamie was about 1 1/2. This was an email Sarah sent in May 2005:

There have been many cute Jamie moments lately; he's
started "pretending" and the results are pretty
adorable, as he feeds his little stuffed mouse, etc.
But here are just a couple...

Jamie plays "bye-bye"--a version of Leo's toddler
"goin' now" game, I think. He waves bye-bye and walks
out of the room, around the corner, then comes back
laughing a second later, and plays again.

We got him the "finding Nemo" movie, and it was love
at first sight. Now he picks up the t.v. remote and
looks at us, asking, "Neh-mo?"

Finally, the sweetest thing of all... I was walking
outside with him today, and he was running on the
grass. He totally face-planted and I was waiting for
the tears, but instead he started laughing, because
the grass tickled his face. So he started falling down
on purpose and laughing each time as the grass tickled
him. It was the most perfect, innocent, childish game.
So sweet. 

Milestones

So Sarah is in the kitchen right now making cookies to bring to school for Jamie's birthday tomorrow. Jamie was feeling pleased because he is tall enough to not need a chair to stand at the counter like he used to. Connor, upon hearing this said, "I know I'm bigger than when I was in kindergarten. You know how? Because now I don't have to stand on tippy-toes to use the kindergarten bathroom!" Yahoo!

God is interesting

Got a bunch of blogging to catch up on so more coming soon. In the meanwhile here's a guest entry from Sarah:

Sometimes I worry a little about the fact that we don’t provide our kids any religious education. But inadvertently, we did, when we sent them to day camp for a week last summer at the Baptist church across the street (Hey, it’s across the street, cheap, and their friends go there!). They didn’t say a whole lot about it at the time, even when pressed, and I haven’t thought about it since. But Connor has.

I got in the car this morning with the kids and turned it on, and commented something about how alarming it is to turn the car on and be shouted at by a.m. radio (Leo was probably listening to a game the night before). This conversation ensued:

Jamie: What’s a.m. radio?

Sarah: (vague explanation about airwaves) So a.m. radio is mostly talk, about sports, politics, and god.

Connor: I think God is interesting.

S: Not when people on a.m. radio talk about him.

(Sarah reconsiders snarky comment, decides to be a better parent)

S: Connor, what do you find interesting about God?

C: He has a sword that comes out of his mouth.

S: Wow, I didn’t know that. Where did you see that?

C : At camp. Before we started, every day we would go to this… ummm…

J: God place.

C: Yeah, the God place. And they would tell us what God looks like, and heaven. And they said God has some sort of a sword that comes out of his mouth.

J: And the streets are paved with real gold. (Jamie is impressed by wealth.)

So there you have it. We’re providing them with a solid religious foundation.

PC at the zoo?

Jamie takes rules very seriously and is also driven by a profound sense of wanting to do the right thing. He's also very alert to language. So lately we've been talking a lot about diversity and he's also picked up on some political issues like gay marriage. He announced the other day that one of his friends said that "gay" was when two boys or two girls loved each other and that his Dad had a friend that was gay. We said yes, that's one of the many kinds of families that there could be and that we also had lots of friends who were gay. He was non-plussed by all of this, just wanted to be sure he had it right.

We've also talked about using the phrase "African-American" rather than black and some of the reasons for that. Then yesterday night Connor was describing some of the animals he and Sarah had seen at the zoo and mentioned having seen a regular leopard and a black leopard. Jamie jumped in to correct: "African-American leopard, Connor." There was much hilarity.

Zoo days

Connor has been home sick from school this week. Nothing serious, just the usual Connor virus, usually lasts 3-4 or days so we should be out of it soon. It's terrible seeing the little guy unwell and not his usual chipper self. Sarah took him to the doctor's yesterday and he was extremely specific about his symptoms. Exactly where and when his neck hurts; how one ear hurts when he talks and the other hurts when he swallows; he even described the kind of crazy dreams you get with a fever. The nurse dutifully took it all down.

The good part about it though is that spending a day with Connor is really pleasant. On Monday we went to the zoo in the morning. He was moving pretty slowly, so we didn't see too much. We went to the reptile house, which can take a while because he insists on seeing and finding every snake, tree frog, and lizard on display. Then he came and sat in my office while I taught nearby. I had given him all manner of electronics to keep him occupied, but when I came back he was dutifully coloring a wonderfully elaborate underwater scene.

Inspired by the Wild Kratts, Connor was talking the next day about wanting to see a Giant Pacific Octopus in the wild. Sarah gently said this would be tough for a variety of reasons. When they went to the zoo on Tuesday they visited the small aquarium there. Suddenly Connor exclaimed, "Look Mommy!" and there, lo and behold, was a Giant Pacific Octopus. There was much excitement.

One other funny thing about this picture. Before they went, Sarah asked Connor to get dressed and he emerged wearing this Brooklyn T-shirt that Suzanne gave to Jamie a few years ago. He said with great seriousness that he needed some grey shorts. Sarah said why and he replied that he needed it to go with the shirt. He was also excited to wear his Brooklyn hat (also from Suzanne!) because it is blue and would match the collar of the shirt. Sarah supported this planning but pointed out that in fashion it can be best to not be too matchy. Connor seemed interested in this nuance, we'll see how it affects his choices.

Watch out fishies!

So we took the boys fishing for the first time this weekend. They had asked about it periodically before but had never seemed to intent. Connor, however, really decided he wanted to go suddenly, spurred, inevitably, by an episode of the Wild Kratts, his favorite nature show. Jamie was lukewarm about the idea until I went to get them fishing poles, at which point he became very enthusiastic. We went outside and practiced casting in the front yard. They both did really astonishingly well, so off we went the next day.

The first thing we discovered was that the fish were not interested in anything but live bait. This was awkward because Connor is extremely sensitive to wildlife and didn't like the idea of using worms (there's a Wild Kratts episode about worms too!). Eventually we settled on the procedure of cutting the worms in half and letting one half go free and moved on, though Connor was still a little uncertain. The next issue, however, was that the fish turned out to be rather savvy. The water was clear and some of the fish were very close so we could watch them expertly nibble away the worm without getting hooked. Jamie had a couple of the line for a moment but they got away.

Nonetheless, they loved it and Jamie announced immediately that he wants to do it this coming weekend and every weekend, so I call it a success.

Feelings, woh-oh-oh feelings

Children are complex little creatures, there's no doubt about it. One spends a lot of time when they are babies trying to figure out what exactly they want and really that doesn't necessarily change as they get older. Their needs get more complex so they don't always develop the ability to voice this complexity. Freud and the dynamic subconscious and all. Sometimes, however, they are able to say exactly what they are feeling with surprising directness. I am inclined to repeat Jamie's question to Sarah as a three-year-old: "Mommy, when Daddy is old and tired will you marry someone else...like me??"

Along those lines, Connor had a moment of clarity not too long ago when our friend Suzanne and her baby, Daphne, visited. Sarah was very consciously trying to make sure she paid attention to the boys while cooing over Daphne and helping Suzanne. Even so, at some point Connor announced matter-of-factly: "Mommy, when you are holding baby Daphne it makes me feel like you don't love me." Way to share those feelings Connor!

School of Rock

I've mentioned before the boys' pleasure at the AC/DC song "TNT." I tried to build on this a little this summer while we going to baseball. Energy was flagging a little on the way to the game and another AC/DC song came on so I tried to get him a little psyched up with it. He was non-plussed.

A few days later though I was in the car with both boys and "Back in Black" came on and Jamie immediately identified it as AC/DC. Right after that a Led Zeppelin song came on, "Rock'n'Roll" I think it was. I asked Jamie how it compared to AC/DC and he replied, "It's a little less loud and a little less rock star-ish." Pretty much right on I think.

Zoo day

Yesterday was just a sort of randomly really good day. We didn't have things totally planned out but by the end of the day Connor exclaimed, "Today was the best day ever!" Jamie wasn't really willing to go that far, but he also didn't argue.

It started with Jamie going to a cello workshop in the morning.  It was a very fun, interactive teacher and Jamie really actually seems to enjoy playing cello. He also got a little more interested in terms like "Forte" and "Pianissimo" when he realized that they were Italian in origin.

When we got back it was decided that we would go to the zoo with some friends. Jamie has been a little anti-zoo for the last few...well, years really now that I think about. Why that is I don't know. Connor, however, you can well imagine loves it. As he is fond of saying sometimes, "You just don't know how much I love animals." They've got a new dinosaur exhibit at the zoo, which was a winner even with Jamie. One of them squirted water at the boys and while it is no longer so excruciatingly hot here, it's warm enough to make it feel pretty good and the boys just squealed every time they got sprayed.

They've also just put a new water park in at the zoo so we headed there next where the boys got really soaked. While the big boys were there I broke off with Connor to ride the carousel and he took this wonderful unaffected delight in the experience. He is very very into cheetahs these days so he joy at riding the cheetah on the carousel was unbounded. Then as we were coming home two pleasing things happened. First it began to rain rather hard, so we all got wet yet again, and we announced that they could play video games when we got home. Both of the boys have sort of adopted my fondness for rainy days so it was at this point that Connor made his announcement. 

After the rain and the video games stopped we managed to get them to work in the yard. It's a delicate thing getting them outside. It needs to be packaged the right way, but once they get into they can be very happy. In this case, Sarah motivated Jamie to do some cleaning up out there as a part of his chores for his allowance. He started sweeping up leaves and putting them into the compost and managed to keep that up for a sold 30-40 minutes. So all in all a very routine, very fun Saturday.

The trouble with history

We went to San Antonio and Austin this week and had a great visit with family. We took the boys to the Alamo, which they enjoyed. Jamie was of course fascinated by the weapons on display and we spent some time discussing the difference between muskets and rifles. We also learned how complex it can get in trying to share history with kids. As they walked around Connor asked Sarah what one of the signs said. She told him it was about the missions in San Antonio. Things began to get tough quickly from there:

Connor: What's a mission?

Mommy: A mission is a place the Spanish built to get the local people to worship a certain way.

C: What's worship?

M: It's how people practice their religion.

C: What's religion?

At that point I think Sarah cleverly diverted the conversation before the inevitable "What's God?" came. Either that or one of the other boys came over to engage in a sword fight, which is what they did for most of the rest of the weekend. Phew.

What really matters

I got a number of reports about the first day of school some of which I'll summarize soon, but one little nugget I liked a lot came from their first cello session. Jamie is a vet now but this was Connor's first day. They handed out a get-to-know-you kind of quiz for each of the kids. One of the questions was what do you care about most. Connor's answer, and I suspect it came very quickly, was "Jamie." Jamie's answer, he reported to great hilarity, was "The Little League World Series." "But," he said, seriously, "the next thing I would have said would be Connor."

This got him thinking so later he said, sort of out of nowhere, "Dad, here are the things I need to survive: you guys, Connor, food, water, baseball, reading, video games and Legos." I'm pretty happy to make that list!

Next stop

Another funny part of the boys' experience with the language in Italy was their tendency to notice certain words. We had a great time almost from the moment we got there because Cheerios had "I Pinguini di Madagascar" on the front of the box. We all had a great time with "pinguini" which frankly sounds like a made-up Italianization of the English word.

They also got very into transportation, especially the Metro which was only about a five-minute walk from our apartment. They quickly learned all the stops but made up their own versions. Some they just pronounced as if English ("Spagna" and "Republic" for Repubblica) but in other cases they got "Barberini" became "Barbie," and to constant giggles Flaminio became "Flamingo."

One final note on the metro, Jamie finally conquered his dread of escalators. I'm afraid it was just sheer volume. We went in and out of so many metro stations, eventually he started by taking short up escalators. In this case, I think it being so crowded actually helped so he didn't feel he would fall. Then, gradually he managed some down ones and before you knew it he was happily running off to get on every escalator he could to display his newfound skill. Well, almost every ones. There are some really big, long ones at Barbie and Republic that still freaked him out but frankly they sort of scared the rest of us to, so can't blame him too much.

Forza Italia!

One of the great fortunes of our time in Italy was that it coincided with Italy's run to the finals of the European soccer tournament. As their rather unlikely series of victories gathered steam the boys got more and more into it. Really they didn't watch too much actual soccer, but it was more the experience that they enjoyed. We got in the habit of walking to the square in front of the Pantheon to watch the games at night. The bars and restaurants turned the TV's outward so we could sit and watch the game with a beer while the kids ran around nearby in the square with no fear of cars. There were guys selling these rockets that shoot up in the air and then float back down, so the boys ran around with seemingly boundless energy trying to catch them. One night, someone with a laser point in one of the rooms above the square found Connor and there commenced the most hilarious game of tag in the world, first with the pointer following Connor and then with him trying to catch it. This went on for probably 15 minutes with Connor just laughing hilariously as he ran around. Really we were all laughing and by the end so were most of the people nearby in the square.

While there we could also walk back to Giolitti's, home of delicious gelato. The on the way back after victories they also loved all the beeping cars and flags being waved and people singing in the street and yelling "Forza Italia!!!!" One of Jamie's friends is in Germany and after the Italians eliminated the Germans, Jamie was particularly pleased thinking of how quiet it must have been in Berlin at that same moment. Granted we got paid back when Italy got demolished by Spain in the final, but still it was a great run.

It helped us integrate a bit too, because we got the boys Italia shirts which they wore proudly and to good effect with the Italians.  Sometimes we needed to proclaim our allegiance too. When we were in Assisi we were getting an English language tour. It happened that this was the day before Italy's quarterfinal against England, so at some point a Franciscan monk came over to the guide, gestured gruffly at us and asked where we were from. When told the US, he lightened up considerably and smiled and said to us all...wait for it..."Forza Italia." Connor's blonde hair aroused some suspicion at times. The weekend before the final we were in Florence and our hotelier started eyeing Connor closely. Finally, he gave me a sideways look at said "Tedeschi?" (Are you German?). No, no I said, Americani. He kept looking at Connor though as though he wasn't convinced, so the net day we made sure they wore their allegiance proudly.

It's the little things

So it was really interesting seeing how the boys reacted to being abroad. For the most part, and I think this is instructive, they carried pretty much as they would anywhere else, suggesting that for all we worry about where we go and what we do with the location is pretty much a background to each other and us. As Sarah observed, I think one of the great things about this trip was that boys got even closer to each other. They still fought, of course, but they also had a lot of fun together and I think it was nice for Connor especially not to have to contend with an older friend of Jamie's.

When we ask them about Rome it was really little things that they remember. Certainly the food. As a lover (almost exclusively) of pasta, Jamie was in heaven in Italy and had the good sense to appreciate it.  At one restaurant in Florence, he pronounced it the best pasta in the world (he may have been right too). We told the waiter this, who responded enthusiastically "Ha molto ragione, questo bambino!!!" It was a small restaurant so everybody there knew that this boy has a great deal of sense. And Connor faced with a margherita (cheese) pizza at times went nuts and ate more than he usually eats in a week.

Other things that stood out for them were, predictably, the toy shops. There were quite a number of these dotted around the city and by the end of our time there, we knew quite a few of them.  They each got to pick a toy every week but I think they also just enjoyed the experience of a toy store, which has been lost a bit in these days of Target and Amazon.

Jamie generally really liked the energy and bustle of the city, because he is really an urban person. It's funny that this is so clear at this age, but he finds the country to be boring and quiet, so he enjoyed walking around the city, which we did a lot of. One of the things that made this possible, and one the things they both loved best were the water fountains everywhere. Not just the big famous ones but all over they have these spigots that constantly run deliciously cold water that you can cool off with and drink. One of the best ones was right outside one of the toy stores so we could kill  a good bit of time in the hot day going there. The spigots have a hole on the top so if clap your hand under the spigot it spurts out the top so you can drink it. This one had a lot of pressure so it would go a long way. The boys delighted in spraying the cars on the street. They were frankly horrified when we went to Florence for the weekend and there were no street fountains. The boys really seemed like ancient Romans shocked at the lack of civilization out in the country.

Little linguists

So one of the fun things about Italy was watching the boys cope with the surprising fact that people everywhere didn't speak English. We had sort of prepped them for this, but I think despite the prevalence of Spanish here in Tejas, they really couldn't conceive of it. At some point towards the end of the trip, Jamie seemed a little worn down by it, and admitted in a tired moment at the end of the day that he wanted to be where people spoke English again. But he actually did great with a little Italian. He was very good about saying "Grazie" and "per favore" at appropriate moments and often curried some real favor with it. By the end, he had also gotten to be able to really order a gelato in Italian, and I don't just mean "Gelato, per favore." He could say the whole thing, "Un piccolo cono, con ciocollato e straciatella, per favore." It was really cute. Unfortunately Rome being Rome and Romans being Romans, the gelato place was often far too busy and loud for the barristas to even note that he was doing it. He was pleased about his knowledge and looked forward to coming back to Houston and baffling ice creams stores with his Euro-skills. And then in the car yesterday he announced to a friend "I know deutsch! I know the word for German: deutsch, and for Rome: Rom!"

For his part Connor was a little shyer than Jamie about speaking to actual Italians, but he was picking it up in his quiet, attentive little way. We had to ride an elevator up and down to our apartment a few times everyday and an automated voice would announce the floor. Suddenly one day just before we got to our floor Connor beat the voice and said "Quarto piano" complete with rolled r and a little Sylvia Poggioli lilt. Clever bunny.

Yawn

Sorry for the long pause in posts, as you all know it's been a crazy summer. At this point there is so much stuff to blog about that it's a little defeating thinking about where to start. So I'll just hop in with some short things. Jamie has been producing some very funny comments lately. Yesterday he was riding in the car with some friends and she mentioned that we were having people from my work over for a party that night. "Yes," he sighed, "art history people are soooo boring." For the most part, I can't really argue too much with him about that one.

Life in Italia

OK, definitely had a little pause in writing here as we've been busy. Good news is we've beaten the jet lag and everybody is on a good schedule, though a rather late Euro-schedule. We never seem to get the boys to bed much before 10-10:30, but I'm not sure they would fall asleep much earlier anyway. Everybody is adjusting to life here pretty well. Last Wednesday we all went to the Colosseum and the Forum with Sarah's students. The boys were relatively impressed with the building but this marked the first emergence of a dynamic that has become familiar, the boys being gripped by fatigue and heat when we go to see monuments that involve walking. One way of dealing with this, it turns out is to bring the camera and let them fire away. So we made it around the Colosseum with them taking random pictures and spent a little time on the Forum before I gave up and brought them home, with a gelato on the way. The strategic use of the gelato as both motivation and reward turns out to be crucial to doing things with them.

Since then, we've been all over Rome and environs, riding buses and subways in various degrees of crowds. Jamie and I have managed to get some baseball in here and there, having a catch with some friends here at the Villa Doria Pamphili and in the park behind the Castel Sant'Angelo. We have taken two trips out of the city as well, a bus ride to Assisi and yesterday a train trip to Ostia Antica. The boys were troopers on both. They complained some of the time, particularly as we ascended to the highest point in Assisi, the Rocca Maggiore. Once we got up there though, they discovered the joys of a medieval fort and had a great time running around. Jamie loved climbing the teeny spiral staircase to the top of the tower. Connor was OK going up, but not so happy coming down. So was Sarah for that matter.

Yesterday at Ostia Antica was amazing. Huge site, basically a complete Roman settlement. We were there for about 4 hours, had a delicious lunch that we brought of salami and/or cheese sandwiches and got to explore at well. Very hot.

Jet lag, day 3

Yep, we've got it. Jamie and Connor seemed to be dozing off last night but when push came to shove neither was asleep. There then ensued an hour or so of trying to get them to be quiet so Sarah could sleep for work. I was actually dozing off, might have fallen asleep, but they kept coming in with various and sundry complaints, which in the end boiled down to the fact that it was 3:00 pm in Houston and there was no way they were sleeping. After a while neither was I so. So I got up with them and after trying to quiet them down by joining them in bed, we variously read, played video games, ate, etc. until I began sense some tiredness. So then I went through the usual bedtime routine: cereal, bathroom, reading books, them reading in bed and lights out. I left them about 3:30 Rome time and went to bed, and heard nothing else. So they fell asleep right on time. Houston time that is.

Alas, Sarah had to get up and go early, which meant that she was tired and that we all slept late which won't help things tonight. I didn't really have any sense of anything, except that this time at some point Jamie crawled in bed with me, until noon again. Sigh. But tomorrow we're determined to get up and go to the Colosseum with Sarah and 9 so maybe that will help, even if it makes for a tired day.

It took a long time to get rolling today, which was as well because of the heat. Sarah got them both a toy to make up for the trauma of the barber experience, and we set off in the late afternoon for Trastevere. We took an absolutely packed bus, which neither boy appreciated and then toured around the old Jewish ghetto, which is lovely, stopping to get a gelato on the way. Saw some lovely ruins, then across the Tevere to Trastevere. This was beautiful and we eventually stopped for a dinner and then walked around a bit. Things eventually broke down when Connor developed a stomach ache. He was also very tired, so I ended up carrying him the entire way back to the apartment, with help from a bus. As of this writing, he is asleep and Jamie is decidedly not. What will tonight hold? Who could say, but it's great to be in Rome!

Roma, day 2

OK, so after we all slept until noon, we chilled out for a while until Sarah got back from work (brave soul!!) and decided to head to the other side of the river to the Pantheon. Traveling with the boys in Rome is a bit of thing. They approach walking in an extremely non-linear fashion, which is not ideal for crowded streets. Traffic is also its own thing here so we've got to keep a tight eye on them. But we all got on a bus without much incident and walked the rest of the way. They liked the Pantheon well enough but it is extremely hot at the moment (il grande caldo africano!!) so were pretty tired out quickly. We soon managed an ice cream for everyone, which always and set out for the Trevi fountain. They both threw coins in, so will return to Rome. Then a walk up to the Spanish steps. There is a fountain here where you can get really good drinking water. This Jamie found very novel and he proclaimed it was his favorite thing of the day.

Things did begin to break down, inevitably at this point so we headed back to the apartment. The challenge here was taking the Metro ride, which involved an escalator. Jamie still has a mortal dread of a moving staircase so he cling, very tightly to my neck as we went down. Worse yet, when we got out of the Metro, we happened upon a barber shop and had their hair cut. Jamie handled the indignity stoically. He was not overly pleased (he likes it long), but moved on quickly. Connor was not very stoic and became more and more demonstrative in his protests as the cut went on. Now an Italian barber is not inclined to cut corners, as it were. Eventually, we had to say "basta!!" but he was still looking at the back of Connor's head ruefully and gesticulating, clearly feeling there was more to be done. Connor was not so quick to get over it. He kept crying most of the walk home, saying he looked terrible. He did get a passing "poverino" as we went.

After that it was home for a simple, and I must say delicious meal, of pasta with olive oil and parmesan cheese. Jamie and I went down to the courtyard to have a quick catch after dinner and then Sarah read them books.

Getting them to bed, predictably, has been a bit of an adventure, but they seem to be settling down as of this dispatch.

In Roma!!

I'll try and make a lot of quick posts to keep up with the all the action from Rome. We are here safe and sound and the boys were real troopers on the long trip. As always, they earned rave reviews from fellow travelers for their behavior on the planes. The first plane, to Toronto, was small, and, as often in the summer flying from Houston, it was bumpy. The boys laughed hilariously through a turbulent take-off, punctuating every bump with a "woooohhh!" that had everybody on the plane giggling along.

Then the long trip to Rome. We had to work a little to get seats together (thanks United, for putting us all over the plane!) but once we were settled, they got into movie and video game mode. I tried to get them to settle down at some point, but there was really no hope. Only as we descended into Rome, of course, with literally about 20 minutes to go, did they both decide to be tired and curled up to snooze. Jamie woke upon landing and Connor soon thereafter, ensuring two tired boys. We cruised through passport and customs and found Mommy with no problem.

A cab ride later we were at our snug apartment in the middle of room. Before the landlady had finished showing us the room Connor was fast asleep on the couch. Jamie lay down in the bed to read, but after about 1/2 hour he was out too. I snoozed for a while as well but managed not to fall too deeply asleep, which was good I think. It was tough rousing them at about 4, but we managed when Sarah came back from teaching and set out for a walk along the Tevere, stopping along the way for their first taste of real gelato. They were duly impressed. Jamie got chocolate chip (straciatella) and dark chocolate, while Connor got strawberry and chocolate.

It was good for a while then Connor in particular got tired and hungry. We eventually made it to a ristorante for pasta and pizza. Jamie is very pleased to be in the spiritual home of pasta. They went to bed surprisingly well, given the nap. Connor, as far as I know stayed asleep all night. Jamie and I both woke up about 3. Jamie was distressed for a whole and says that once it got light enough he read for a while. I finally fell back asleep around 5 or 6 I think. Some time after Sarah left Connor crawled into bed with me. Next thing I knew it was about noon and I had to work to roust the boys. So all in all, a success.

Reality check

Jamie takes a particular pleasure in being the voice of reason around Connor. Where we are pretty happy to let Connor's rather Romantic 5-year-old version of reality exist on its own Jamie likes to explain the way things really are. He has a sort of deadpan, "just the facts" way of doing it, which contrasts charmingly with Connor's high-pitched, enthusiastic voice of wonder. It makes them a very good comedy team.

For example the other day, Connor, having been to our zoo probably 50 times, just realized that there are cheetahs (his current fave animal, along with the Draco Lizard), there. To be fair, they often lie out of view in the shade, so he really hasn't seen them in a while. He was amazed by this though, knowing as he does from the Wild Kratts, that cheetahs are the fastest land animal. In a voice of astonishment and beautiful wonder he said "How do they catch them???" Before Sarah or I could say anything Jamie replied in his most dour tone, "Dey shoot dem with tranquilizer guns Connnooo." Connor wasn't to be so easily put off and was in the midst of asking how they did that while they were running so fast, when Jamie cut him off with: "While they are sleeping."

Awards days

At the end of the year each grade has a little ceremony to reward the kids' accomplishments over the year so we've been enjoying that this week with the boys. When I say "we" I mean Sarah and I, because the boys are displeased. Not so much at the ceremony itself. Connor's, in fact, included a little song and dance routine, which he was quite diligent in preparing for and enthusiastic about performing. Jamie would never have been so willing.

No, it was the clothes that upset them. See, kids dress up for this, and our boys do not much like dressing up. Their reasons for being upset are indicative I think though. Connor, who, for the record,  looked unbelievably adorable (and one of the parents in the classed named him "best-dressed" of the group, so it's not just us), the concern was that he looked silly. All our attempts to reassure him that everybody else would be dressed up did no good and he threw a real fit Tuesday morning that only abated, but by no means finished, when I finally got them out of the car at school. Jamie, to his credit, really tried to be helpful and encourage Connor that morning.

Well, today it was Jamie's turn and one might have hoped that knowing it was coming he might have dealt a little better. But no. For him, it was a discomfort thing. He found the sleeves of his long-sleeve shirt to be distracting uncomfortable and he lamented being in jeans when it is so hot (I confess I'm sympathetic there). So he just scowled and grumbled the whole morning. About the only thing I could hear well was "Next time, I'm not going to encourage Connor!" 

For the record I would point out that a) Jamie also looked really good and b) there were plenty of kids there wearing SUITS so they ought to be grateful. Maybe next year we'll send them in white-tie since they're going to be unhappy anyway!

Connor is absurdly cute

That's really all I have to say here. These pictures are incontrovertible proof. These are all from kindergarten this year. It's really hard to believe that our little bunny is going to first grade. There's something so perfect about the fit between Connor and kindergarten. He is feeling this too, and he recently proclaimed that he wanted to stay in kindergarten for another year. We kind of wish he could.

No thanks to Daddy

So the boys are doing the swim team at our neighborhood pool. We had wanted them to do it last year but they were apprehensive so we let it go, with the understanding that it was a definite this time around. Jamie was again hesitant though. Last summer on the 4th of July we participated in the various family races they held and Jamie, swimming against 8-year-olds, fared poorly in his opinion in the father/son race (I was phenomenal of course). Jamie, as we know, does not like to do things he's not already very good at. I can understand it though, he's spent more than a year working up to a high level in baseball and I think the thought of being back at the bottom of the totem pole was off-putting. Even the fact that his particular friend from school, the one who is the reason he plays cello, is on the team wasn't enough. What finally got him, however, was when we mentioned that they could swim during the week after school when the pool is closed and at other times when nobody else could. He heard that and was basically sold.

So we had our first practices this week and both boys have done great. They will just be on the practice squad since we're going away for a month, but they get lots of individual instruction. Jamie was great and motored across the length of the pool in very creditable fashion. As he was watching the two other kids in his little group go, he became aware he would be expected to do a racing dive, which he's never done. He's never really dived before. Fearless as ever though, when his turn came he pitched himself headfirst towards the water, entering with arms, legs, elbows and knees going in about 7 different directions. It was really not pretty, but it worked, give him credit. For his part Connor has been unusually enthusiastic. He was the first one in the water yesterday and every time they ask who wants to go first he raises his and and says "Meeee!!!"

It rained over the weekend so the water has been very cold and yesterday was unusually overcast and cool, and windy so everybody was struggling a little. Connor was brave and made it through the practice but was distressed by the cold afterwards and clearly felt I wasn't doing enough about it, even though I changed him into dry clothes and wrapped him up in a cozy, big towel. On the way home he said he felt warmer, but not because of the clothes or the towel. "Not because of anything I've done then?" I confirmed. "Right," he said, "because of my bunny fur. I'm a bunny."

Wow, that worked

OK, so if anybody wants to make Connor happy, mention the Wild Kratts. As noted below, this is his favorite show and it's about animals. It has the power to overcome all obstacles to happiness, as we have just seen in the past 3 hours.

At about 5:30 this morning Connor woke up screaming in terror from a nightmare. I never quite got what it was, but he was really inconsolable. Said he couldn't stop thinking about and was just crying and crying. Sarah finally managed to get him out of his bed so Jamie could go back to sleep and brought him into our bed. I took him to the bathroom but he was still freaking out, so searching I said, "Connor, what's your favorite Wild Kratts episode? Mine is the one about cheetahs." He instantly, and I mean instantly, stopped crying and said his favorite one was the one about the baby cheetah that disguises itself as a skunk (never mind that it's the badger that does that!). He then proceeded to launch into long narrative about animal "mimicry," citing all kinds of examples. When I left to sleep on the couch, he was still jabbering away. Finally, Sarah suggested perhaps it was time to be quiet and go back to sleep and he said, "But can I whisper the song?" Soon enough he was snoring away and Sarah kind of wished he was back to whispering.

So this morning, perhaps fearing the mood of Connor on short sleep she put a Wild Kratts on while they ate breakfast and the bunny was positively ebullient. It can even overcome the morning grumpies! For his part, Jamie always plays the older brother role of seeming to disdain Wild Kratts, but when it's on he's completely into it.

TNT!

So when I was driving the boys to get them Chik-Fil-A that day when Jamie spotted the tough-looking toddler in the tank-top, the AC/DC song "TNT" came on the radio. It caught the boys' attention for very different reasons, which are at some level indicative of their personalities I think to say nothing of their response to music. As soon as the chorus started ("I'm TNT, I'm dynamite") Connor got very pleased and by the time it repeated he was happily singing along (interesting about AC/DC, incidentally, that there's something nursery rhyme-like in aspects of what they do). Jamie on the other hand, analyzed the lyrics and after hearing the second part of the chorus ("TNT/I'm a powerload, TNT/Watch me explode") asked in his serious way, "Is this song about someone in the air force?"

Reading/morning update

Harry Potter done. He's already on to the next Rick Riordan book. Interestingly, as much as I thought the reading was tied to a desire to see the movie, and I'm sure it was, this morning he did the same thing. Got up, got dressed for school, and came out and started reading on the couch. This appears to be a new era.

Connor meanwhile was a mess this morning, poor little guy. He seems to have a habit of falling on the blacktop at school and he really went down hard yesterday. Scraped both knees and his chin and his lip, which is all purple and puffy still. Plus he's got allergies raging so his stuffy and was coughing all night. Poor bunny. Given that mornings are pretty tough for him anyway, he really didn't deal too well today. As much as anything he seemed upset that everybody would be looking at his mouth and asking him what had happened. When I dropped them at school, he scowled and me and clapped a hand over his mouth and chin. That meant of course that I couldn't hear what he said, but I think it was something to the effect of "I'm keeping my hand here all day and there's nothing you can do about it Daddy!"

Race to the finish

So Jamie is on the last Harry Potter book now, which is some huge number of pages, 850 or something. It's been impressive watching him tear through it. We've been reading it to him at night but frankly that's 10-12 pages at a clip, the rest he;s doing by himself. It's this wonderful moment where he takes every spare minute he can to read. They're doing testing at school this week and he's been taking the book in with him and reading when he's finished with the sections of the test and has a few minutes. Then he gets home and plops down on the floor to read. Why the floor is preferable I don't know. He also favors reading with the lights off using a flashlight.

I think he's really into the story, in fact I'm sure of it, but there is something of a sense of doing it for the sake of doing it involved. Yesterday he plopped down in the driveway to read when we got home, because he said he was on page 598 and he had promised himself to get to 600 before he came home, so he wouldn't come in the door until he'd read two more pages. The other fact here is that he wants to see the movies. We've said that he can't see the movie of something until he's read the book, so that's been a big part of the motivation, there's no denying it.

Rock update

Well, you'll all be glad to know that we went to the ENT doctor yesterday for a follow-up and all is well with Connor's ear. The important thing for the happiness of the bunny, and all of us really, is that he was cleared for the pool on Saturday.

A funny little anecdote from school. Connor, like most 5-year-olds of course, has really selective hearing, which is to say it often doesn't work when he's being spoken to by anybody above the age of 12. So I was talking to his teacher yesterday who was saying at recess that she was saying his name over and over and couldn't get his attention. One of the other teachers said, "Oh it must be the rock in his ear" (the story is well-known now). No, his teacher said, they took that out 3 days ago. Ah, Connor.

It's morning!

And it stinks. That's pretty much the feeling around the Costello house these days. The boys are definitely ready for school to be done. Even Jamie routinely sleeps past 7 these days and is generally in a real grump before school. Mondays and Tuesdays are the worst. Connor will just keep sleeping until the point when we have to absolutely get him to get ready for school. Even when he's tired if you gently pat Jamie on teh shoulder he'll wake up and get out of bed. Connor will just sigh and roll over. So you've got to get more assertive and that just annoys him, so eventually he'll get up, but usually with a few choice comments to register his displeasure.

A couple of weeks ago, things kind of came to a head with this. I did the honors for two or three days in a row and got rewarded with a very angry bunny. He wouldn't even talk to me, just giving me this scowl (a version of his old angry dinosar look) as he trudged off for breakfast. Later as he complained about having to put shoes on (cruelty!), Sarah asked him to please try and be a helper and not be so upset. At which point he burst out, "WELL, DADDY KEEPS WAKING ME UP WHEN I'M STILL TIRED!!!"

Fashion ideas

Jamie has a wonderfully quirky way of looking at the world and finds interesting material everywhere. Yesterday after school I took the boys to Chik-Fil-A. Now, for some time CFA has been a bit of a dirty word for the boys because they understand it as the alternative to McDonald's that their annoying parents try to push on them. But lately, both of the boys have had to admit that they don't really like McDonald's very much and there hasn't been a Happy Meal theme that's excited them much in a while. Then suddenly last week Jamie said that he was desperate to have a Chik-Fil-A "hamburger,"by which he means chicken sandwich. Seems they sell them in the school store after school and on his way to magnet he smells them.

So we went and Jamie indeed scarfed down his "hamburger" enthusiastically. Connor also got one and did reasonably well after inspecting it closely for any signs of residue from the pickles that had so cruelly been placed on it.

As we're sitting there eating a toddler went by in a white tank-top. Jamie giggled and said, "That's a good idea. People should always put babies in those basketball shirts because they have chubby arms and it makes them look tough." What a good parent he will be someday.

Cheetah speed!

Connor's favorite show these days is called "Wild Kratts." It's an animal show, which features different kinds of animals every week with different skills. Connor takes it very seriously. He likes to have us listen to him sing along with the opening song. He's not very good at it, and basically just speaks along with it about a half-second behind, but he gets really into the line "Cheetah speed and lizard glide!" He repeats this a lot these days and it gets on Jamie's nerves inevitably. But he also really learns a lot about the animals and likes to bust out his knowledge, speaking of different "habitats" (this is sort of his new favorite word) and also adopting the persona. Thus, when he hops far he is a kangaroo and when he jumps high in the air he is a caracal. Just when you think he's really got it all down though, he begins talking about the red kangeroos of Africa. Sarah tried to correct him about this once. Once.

What is wrong with our children?

Well, the Costellos really had a banner week recently. First there was the Rock incident, about which most have probably heard. To recap, one day some time ago Connor informed us that he had a rock in his ear. He did seem concerned at all about it, and I'm embarrassed to say that because Connor has something of a reputation for, let's say creativity with respect to facts, we just didn't pay much attention. So 2 weeks ago he was feeling under the weather. He complained of headaches, and knowing that he has been prone to ear infections we took him to the doc who informed us that there was no infection, but something big in one of his ears. I wasn't even thinking about him mentioning the rock. So while the doc is poking around in there he jokingly asked Connor if he had been putting rocks in his ears. Connor suddenly got a very guilty look on his face and stammered, "uhhh....I...don't remember." The doctor's eyebrows raised and then I remembered. Once the doctor left the room, Connor told me "I don't put them in far." This was as close to a confession as he's come. He has still never admitted to putting this particular rock in his ear.

Efforts failed in getting it out and Connor was pretty distressed about them. So we took him to an ENT who after a pretty brief go of it when three of us tried to restrain Connor said he's have to be put under at the hospital. Connor wasn't concerned about this, mainly because I could promise him it wouldn't hurt. I told him it would be so easy that he might even take a nap while they did it and he grasped on to that.

So Sarah took him off to the hospital early Thursday morning, a lot more nervous than he was. After the inevitable wait they got him and started prepping everything. Sarah let him play Angry Birds, so he wasn't the slightest bit concerned with what was going on around him. They gave a little "cocktail" which made him loopy quickly and took him off. After 10 minutes he was in recovery, with his moose pillow pet, which was much admired by the nurses. They warned Sarah that he might come out of it pretty quickly. The nurse left for a minute with him asleep, and almost immediately up he was and ANGRY about the hospital gown. So Sarah dressed him and by the time the nurse came back he was up, dressed and ready to roll. A little drama ensued when it turned out woobie had been left in the room where the procedure had been done, but that recovered they left in good order and Connor was very much himself within an hour so.

We had a series of talks about not putting any more rocks in his ears. I thought I was getting through but when I asked him if he was going to do it again, he said, "No. But I might forget." However, because of the procedure he couldn't get any water on it, which meant he couldn't go in the pool when it opened this weekend. He handled this pretty well until the actual day of the pool. Sarah had to walk Jamie over because I was at Little League. As soon as he saw the pool, which was already in full chaos/fun mode he just started bawling and kept going for about 20 minutes. So I think the message about putting things in your ears has finally gotten through.

Lost in all of this was a detail from Jamie's school. Now Jamie seriously toes the line at school. Since starting there his weekly conduct report has been a boring series of "Excellents", week in week out. Thus, the "Satisfactory" for the week caught our attention. Then this explanation from his teacher: "Jamie ate an ant at recess. He said he's done it before. I gave him some water." Jamie was cagy on this and refused to explain or say much of anything, but he looked slightly pleased with himself. Seemingly he's done with that too.

A little window to the soul

One of Jamie's homework packages came home graded and had a number of question which I think together produce real insight into our little guy. Here's a sample taken directly from the page, unedited (they may seem random but all related to topics about which they'd been learning):

Q: What is your favorite way to travel- car, train, bus or plane?
A: Plane. Because you travel fast and you eat sweats.

Q: Which do you like better: leafy trees or pine trees?
A: Pine trees. Because you throw the pines at your brother.

Q: Where would you most like to live - city, suburb or country?
A: City. Because there is a lot to do.

Q: Would you have liked being a child in an early American colony?
A: No. Because there is nothing to do.

Q: If you had chosen the colors for the first American flag, would you have used red, white and blue?
A: No. Because I want a flag to have a lot more colors.

Memories...

Jamie has an astonishing memory, both for its detail and its randomness. This was on display last night. He had been tucked away in bed for a good 20 minutes or so, when, as is his wont, he called out that he needed to tell me something. These calls can be interesting. Sometimes it's nice because he gets a little affectionate or sappy. Other times it's just the complete random things he's thinking about from Legos to baseball to math, probably in that order.

This time there was a little of everything. He said, "Daddy, I remember when I was 4 or 5 and I watched Superman: The Movie. I was really sad when Superman's parents died." I started to get sympathetic thinking that he was upset. But he quickly continued, "I remember I was also playing with a Slinky and picking my toenails." This pleased him. He told me I should tell Mommy that as well and dismissed me with a hug. You just never know what you'll get.

Resistance is futile

We had an epic day yesterday. First Connor had a game at 10AM. It's sort of a mixed bag with him at this point. On the one hand, there is no question he is improving. He's got a great, firm stance at the plate whereas last year he was really all over the place, standing on the plate, facing the wrong direction, etc. He has also made the conceptual leap that takes many of them a long time, namely that one has the bat with the purpose of hitting the ball, which is approaching. As often, but not always, with this conceptual shift, comes the physical ability to actually do it and sure enough on Saturday Connor was three for three on hitting coach pitches and actually hit them pretty hard. In the field he can be really good at pitcher. This is because a) you're in the middle of the action there and a lot of balls come to you and b) because there is no dirt mound. Dirt is the biggest obstacle at this age by far. Virtually no child is able to resist its siren call for something as abstract as the (often remote) possibility that a ball might come in their direction. So when he wasn't at pitcher he lost focus pretty badly, whining about being hot, hungry, thirsty, etc. At some point as I tried to get him to stand ready and watch the batter, he brushed me aside and said "Daddy? How does your heart pumping make you be alive?"

Jamie played at 12 and the Aggies got their first victory of the year 10-3. It wasn't the best we can play, but for the first time we sort of put everything together and played a pretty complete game. And little James continues to be a real contributor. He was 2 for 3 at the plate, both hard hit balls and both contributing to the two rallies in which we scored most of our runs. The second one was great because it was late in the game and although we'd been in control the whole time we were still up just 5-2. The first two batters in the inning struck out. As he was on deck he said to me "Dad, after I score can I go to the restroom?" Sure, I said, though this seemed a little optimistic. But there he was at first and thus began a two-out rally that got us to 10-2 and pushed the game out of reach. He also made a couple of plays at pitcher in the last inning as we snuffed out any possible comebacks.

So then Sarah and I had to go volunteer at the concession stand. The boys were actually very helpful there, getting drinks and candies for people. I had to close up the facilities afterwards, and then we came home and working in the yard and then made dinner. By the time we got them sorted and in bed it was 9 and we were all exhausted. Connor was asleep in seconds. Jamie, however, who does have a tendency to resist at precisely the points when things should be simple, seemed literally to be fighting sleep, coming up with one reason or another to call to us into the room. After he asked me to change the temperature, I went in there and asked for one last hug (sleepy boys hugs are great). He said no, because he was too tired to even sit up, but rolled towards me and said I could pat his head. I did and I think he succumbed before I even left the room.

Catch phrases

We had a great trip to Florida and I'll update some of the fun in a bit. But a couple of small notes to come from it. One of the things that will stick out in my mind is that Connor started making this sort of disco sound when he was excited or impressed by something. It's sort of a hands-raised "ooo-ooo-oooooooo". Must have heard it a hundred times over the week.

Jamie continues to be a wordsmith, but in this case he proved that he's got some Italian in him. At some point, impressed by something, he said "Holy Cannoli!" I'm pretty sure he's never heard the term cannoli, let alone the phrase "Leave the gun take the cannoli," though you can be sure as he comes to be Godfather watching age he will.

States of mind

When we drove up to New York for the holidays, one of the big themes was license plates. Nana and Pops gave them a portable map that you can track license plates on for the car ride and that got Jamie's attention in a big way. So we watched for plates the entire way and made it back having missed only Wyoming and Hawai'i. Jamie got a little obsessed, as is his way, and would ask at the beginning of every day whether I thought we would see Hawai'i that day. So now as we drive around Houston he is still doing it and more or less every day brings a list of interesting states he has seen. This often prompts him to wonder what all those people are doing here in Texas. This then prompts me to wonder sometimes what we're doing in Texas, but that's a different story.

Connor's interaction with this is a little less intense, but he's into it because Jamie's into it. But he can't recognize/read the plates as well and this leads to frustration, which in turn leads to fabrication. Connor basically just makes stuff up, so he'll claim to have seem some obscure state that none of the rest of us saw. He also makes up state names. He came home from school claiming to have seen a "Sensake" license plate. Even Jamie has learned most of the time to just go along with it, because if you try and question Connor about whether he really saw this, he becomes an ANGRY bunny, and nobody wants that. Connor hasn't quite tried it with Hawai'i yet, I think sensing that the stakes are too high there and that Jamie is likely to be unable to resist calling him out on that one.

Our car

The red Mazda that we bought from Jim and Fran when we came to Houston has officially acquired iconic status for the boys. It used to be, when I had my little Honda 2-seater, that this was the only car they rode in and it came to be called simply "Our car" as if that were the make and model. They've just never cottoned on to the new Mazda-5 and still prefer to ride in our car when possible.

They were particularly loving it last night. I usually take them to McDonald's or Chick-Fil-A one night a week, usually after karate, so Wednesdays this semester. Last night it was sort of drizzling as we left to go home. "Our car" has a sun roof and they are quite fascinated by having a window in the roof of the car especially when it is raining. This time it was light enough that I opened it up entirely and as we started driving the rain blew back on to them in the back seat. They just laughed and screamed with delight the whole way home. This prompted Jamie to proclaim: "Our car should be a mark of our family. When I grow up I'll drive it and then give it to my son or daughter and they will pass it on!" I'd better keep up with the oil changes!

Baby otter

Connor is so cute sometimes it's just ridiculous. One thing that's been really fun with him is his love of animals. Jamie just never really went through a big animals phase so it's nice having this time with Connor. His favorites right now are perhaps otters, though sometimes seals. He was reading an animals book with Sarah the other night before bed and they were reading about how the baby otters would sit on the mother's belly while they floated. Connor had a look of such wonder that Sarah asked if he wanted to pretend to do that. He said yes in ay that suggested he would like nothing more in the world. So now periodically we do this. He likes for us to get get him food which means we have to put him in seaweed while we dive underwater to get him food.

Don't be tacky!

Another quick Connorism. Though it was brief, for a while this year he referred to khakies as "tackies." It is Connor's particular ability to add great humor to ordinary situations. Mornings before school become so much more enjoyable to hear him dashing off to his room saying "Where are ma tackies? Need to put ma tackies on!!!!"

Cultural observation

Jamie is coming to understand some of the ways of movies. This morning he said, "Girls always hate Indiana Jones. But then they end up kissing him."

Game #2

OK, I promise I wont narrate every baseball games this season, but they've been really exciting and Jamie seems to develop from game to game. So maybe I will, actually. You are warned.

Game 2 began promisingly with the first two batters on base, but things fizzled from there and we found ourselves down 6-0 going into the 4th inning. We got a couple and they got a couple so it was 8-2 going into the 5th. Now, remember that one can only score five runs in an inning so we needed to get within that going into the 6th to have a chance. We got two in the top of the inning and so needed to hold them in the bottom, which we did, in part thanks to Jamie, who has turned into a real contributor in the field. Earlier he played first base, which is a very important position at this level and made a great play. The ball was hit to his right and he moved off, stopped it, picked it up and hustled to the bag to get the kid by 1/4 of a stride. In this inning he was at the pitcher position and got the third out with a kid on base, so it was a huge play. What was great was it was pretty routine. Grounder came to him, he gobbled it up, made a perfect throw to first and got him by a mile. Easy peasy.

So then in the top of the 6th we came roaring back and scored 4 runs to tie it. Alas, a couple of close plays at first, including one on Jamie, kept us from nudging ahead. They got a player to second in the bottom of the inning and it went to two strikes on the batter who then hit a high pop fly which our shortstop heroically...almost caught. But there was still a play at the plate and the throw beat the runner there. But the catcher bobbled and he slid in. Game over, 9-8 and another heartbreaker for the Aggies. Can't say they don't give the fans their money's worth though.

Why?

This will be brief, but is an observation that has built up over the years. Namely, for some reason the boys really like stepping on/standing on our feet. Why is this? I happen to have noticed it lately because in two separate incidents I have injured toes on my left foot. And since then, I have found myself spending an inordinate amount of time and effort trying to keep them out of the way of little feet that are intent on finding them and applying maximum painful pressure. I am never fully successful either, they always manage it. What's the impulse? I know that they enjoy causing me pain, they've said so. But, knowing this, I've intentionally hidden the injury from them. I think maybe there is a claiming thing going on, but maybe it's a desire for closeness. Injuries, personal space issues and shoe care aside, there's something pretty nice about 2 little creatures for whom an inch away would be too far sometimes.

Plotting

Jamie proclaimed to me in the car today: "When I'm an old man, I'm going to mess with people. I'll put my underwear on over my pants and whenever anybody says anything to me, I'll say ehhhhhh?".

Play ball!

Well, late February means one thing in Texas, at least for the Costello family these days: baseball!! Yes, we had opening day on Saturday, though it was rather chilly. Both the boys were playing though happily not at the same time. We had a hectic morning in any case getting both to the park having pictures taken, and then a game for the Aggies at 10.

In addition to being Jamie's first game of the season, it was my first game as head coach, so there were all kinds of butterflies. Jamie seems pleased that I am coach but in some ways it's less productive for him I think. With his coach last year he would have jumped off a bridge if he'd been told to. With me, he gets a little impatient with being coached, because it's criticism coming from me. It also puts him in a comfort zone, which is good of course, but Jamie in a comfort zone means being very silly. When he is in a new situation he seriously toes the line. But once he feels at home, he turns into quite a comedian. So there's a bit of behavior control going on in practice as well.

On the other hand, it is amazing to see how far he's come from this time last year. He is very good when the ball is hit straight at him, but less so when he needs to move to it. He struck out his first time up and was pretty disconsolate about it. He was in a bit of a slump at the end of last season and had started to feel that he wasn't good at hitting. The issue is actually a good one. For the most part of last Spring he was simply putting the bat out there and the ball would hit and the bat would actually snap backward. Now he is swinging harder and really following through, but is discovering it's harder to time this way.

So it was that he came up for his second at-bat. I used to complain that when he did get hits he would always do it on the last pitch (they get 4 in machine pitch), so I had to suffer through the whole at-bat desperately trying to will the bat to the ball. This time though he stepped up and rapped the first pitch in the air over the pitcher and out to second base where it dribbled into the outfield. From that point on there is a blank spot in my memory. Partially this is because as coach I am less focused on Jamie and was watching the kid who was at second. But I do know that the ball started flying around and the next thing I know parents are screaming and Jamie is getting waved around third and is heading for home. I braced for a play at the plate but none was coming. He slid in just in case and looked good doing it. He literally got mobbed in the dugout. Next time up he hit a good one but right to the pitcher who caught it, and the Aggies ended up dropping a heart-breaker 8-7.

Then we trekked over to Connor's game which was a very merry affair. The burgeoning competitiveness of Jamie's age group is fun, but it's also nice going back to the world of no score. It was also fun to see how far Connor has come. His concentration is so much better and he fielded a couple of balls and gamely slung the ball in the general direction of first base. But the big thrill was that for the first time ever Connor hit the ball pitched by the coach, and didn't need recourse to the tee. Off he went to first base, which looks an awfully long way away for such little legs! There was great cheering all around.

Tooth fairy

So after a pretty long interlude, Jamie lost a tooth yesterday. It had been unbelievably loose for some time, and Jamie delighted in making Sarah squirm by turning it around almost 360 degrees in his mouth. After it came out I told him to go put it under his pillow so he wouldn't forget to leave it for the tooth fairy. Connor and I came along. After he had done it, Jamie came up with some ruse to make Connor leave the room (I'm afraid the bunny is all-too easily convinced. I think it was something like 'you can play with one of my bey-blades Connor" and off he went, not inclined to look a gift horse in the mouth). With Connor gone Jamie said conspiratorially, "Dad I know since there isn't a Santa Claus that the tooth fairy isn't real. But do I still get a dollar?"

Assured that he would, Jamie was not displeased by the loss of the Tooth Fairy idea and is actually rather intrigued by the collection of his baby teeth.

Co-sleeping

This is a big topic these days. The boys are almost always angling for to be able to have some form of sleepover. The most common one is for me to sleep in a mattress in their room. This can be very cozy and I love that they want me to do this. I've gotten relatively used to the loud breathing/snoring that emanates from them all night. The only harsh thing about it is that Jamie wakes me up by jumping from his top bunk bed almost on top of me. Then he snuggles for a tantalizing moment during which time I imagine going back to sleep, before he unceremoniously gets up and not only leaves, but drags the blanket right off of me, so he can sit under it and read in the living room.

For his part Connor has been especially into sleeping with Mommy recently. A couple of nights ago he asked if he could sleep in her bed. Well, she said, where would Daddy sleep? He smiled brightly and said, "I'll show you," and escorted her out of the bedroom, into the guest room. He happily pointed and the futon and said "There!" matter-of-factly. Ouch.

The cutest thing though is that Jamie often wants to sleep with Connor. The success of this, recorded above, is very rare. Usually Connor can't settle down and stop talking so eventually we move him, which angers Jamie, who blames both us and Connor. For his part Connor doesn't much care for it. I suspect he realizes that Jamie has woobie-ized him a bit because he is impatient with the degree to which Jamie wants him to be merely present so he can go to sleep, whereas Connor wants to have some silliness. Sometimes, in moments of real frustration Jamie claims to want his own room, but the fact of the matter is he's pretty dependent on having the bunny in there with him and has admitted it a couple of times.

When we travelled to NY of course, they each wanted to sleep in a bed with us, which means in the end, not a lot of sleep for the adult. I think sleeping with Connor is worse. First of all he snores. Secondly, he has some absolute magnet to whoever he is sleeping with so you end with about 1/8 of the bed and a snoring child pressing his pointy little elbows in your rib cage.

House music

It's a little hard to explain why this one was so funny, but I'll give it a shot. There are a couple of elements to this, one being Connor's love of dinosaurs and the other his tendency to mix words up and make his own little versions of things.

So there is this beautiful pop-up dinosaur book we have, which is a big nighttime books favorite for Connor. It happened that he and Sarah read it a few times together and they began to make a series of silly games with the various pop-ups. The T-Rex, for instance, would try to bite Connor's and Jamie's noses and generally tear around roaring mightily. Then it would argue with the Archeaopteryx on the next page, taking objection to the notion that it could be related to a chicken. For the Anklyosaurus, sort of an armored tank kind of dinosaur, they started making it dance by pulling the book open and shut. The next time I read it to Connor, I was aware that they had developed some pretty elaborate scenarios and I was keeping up OK, but I wasn't prepared for what happened when we got to this page. He grabbed the book and started opening and closing it really fast so the Anklyosaurus bounced up down spastically. Then Connor started saying, with great enthusiasm "The bass is pumpin'! The crab is jumpin'!" over and over again. Jamie has learned to delight in Connor's malapropisms and improvisations so soon we were all saying it and roaring with laughter. Connor just got more enthusiastic the more we laughed. It's sort of a catch-phrase around here now.

When will we learn?

This is a cello update, but the larger theme is that at some point Sarah and I are just going to have to stop doubting Jamie's mojo. He does these things and we think we need to give him some advice only to see that he's got it totally under control. For instance, it has made us crazy for years the way Jamie is completely poker-faced around girls. We tell him to be nice otherwise they won't want to talk to him anymore. But then everyday it seems more girls say "Hi Jamie!!" as he walks down the hall. We should stay out of it clearly.

In the last cello post, I suggested that Jamie's usual wait-until-he-can-do-it-all, rather than learn incrementally, method wouldn't work for music. Au contraire mon pere. Yet again, he has proved that you can run at least at the same time that you can walk. After weeks of barely being allowed to use the bow and being the only child who hadn't satisfactorily performed any songs, suddenly he's shot forward and is about pass his third song. His teacher remarked a couple of weeks ago that he would probably pass about four in a row at once. So there you have it, the Jamie method strikes again.

I don't know if he's enjoying the playing the cello exactly, but he definitely likes knowing songs and is actually rather a quick learn. His teacher is still doggedly trying to get his posture and bow hand position correct and is learning what it can be like to work with Jamie. In the lesson yesterday he sat there with this expressionless face he gets during lessons and as she tried to push his fingers in place, get his back straight, his elbow up, etc., she finally looked up in exasperation and said, "He's pushing against everything I'm doing!" Welcome to our world. Love that little guy, but lord can he be stubborn. Got to come to it his own way.

Napoleon Costello

We have all known Connor, since the time of his birth, to be a very good-natured, sunny little fellow. We have also seen him have to contend with the force of nature that is his older brother. Generally, he goes along with what Jamie wants and finds places to insert himself where he can.

What's funny though is what happens when Jamie is not around. First of all, this is usually a big problem because inevitably he wants to be where Jamie is. He hasn't quite got the idea yet that if one of Jamie's buddies invites him over for a sleepover, Connor doesn't automatically get to go. But, finding himself back here alone with us, something changes. Suddenly he realizes he has the field to himself and two things happen. One is that he becomes very bossy, producing a series of requests and generally keeping us both and his bidding. Believe me, we try to keep it under control and at least get him to ask politely but the onslaught is really extraordinary.

The other thing that happens is that he NEVER stops talking. I mean that literally. Until the moment he falls asleep and starting again immediately when he wakes up, it is a constant stream of consciousness, as if all the stuff he's forced to keep quiet about as Jamie fills the space suddenly comes pouring out. He has this way of moving from one utterance to another, beginning with the phrase "Oh and mommy??! or "Oh and daddy??!" (sometimes he confuses us, but it doesn't really matter). This can often introduce a topic that had been dropped days ago as if we had been just talking about it, so you have to stay alert. We hear that phrase about 50 times an hour.

This has happened the last couple of days with Jamie around, however, and I think it has to do with Legos. See, he got a bunch of them for Christmas, about which he is thrilled, of course. He has now tasked us with building them, and our initial responsiveness with this seems to have sort of empowered him. Seeing us doing his bidding like that must evoke those brief periods of solitary power and so he is in full on Connor rules mode. But of course Jamie cedes no sonic ground whatsoever, so the last two days have been a real cacophony of sound here.