Orange Belt

Pete passed his test and graduated to orange belt on Saturday.

During the ceremony, Mr. Moss broke a board over Pete's head.

Sam Does What Pete Does

Sam generally does exactly the things that Pete does, regardless of whether they are reasonable things to do. Sometimes this can be good, such as when Pete is going upstairs to brush his teeth.

Other times, you get a situation like the one in this video.

Me Two

Dad: Pete, be nice to your brother. He's a little bit sick.
Pete: Sam, are you sick?
Sam: No, me two.

Too Close

Sam likes to crawl into bed with people. It can be a little surprising when you're asleep and you open your eyes and see this right in front of your face.

Chat Interrupted

Sam does not know how to send Instant Messages yet (like Pete), but he is still able to impact our chats indirectly.

Below is an excerpt from a chat yesterday between mom and dad:

Crib Crisis

Sam had an emergency last night. Pete and I heard him yelling about 5 minutes after I put him to bed. I went up there to see what was the problem. We had this conversation in the darkness.

Me: Hi Sam
Sam: Daddy, mine blanket is lellow
Me: Yes, your blanket is yellow. Good night
Sam: Night night

Another crisis resolved.

Sam's First Band-Aid

Sam had an unfortunate encounter with
the footrest for the glider in his room.

He wasn't too upset, though. He wanted
to keep playing.

Here is his first adult Band-Aid.

Eric B and Rakim

Driving in the car with Pete and Sam, I took out Pete's music to put in Sam's music for a few minutes.

Pete: Hey, Sam wants to listen to Eric B and Rakim
Dad: No, he likes Children's Favorites
Sam: Eric B Rakim
Pete: See, he said Eric B and Rakim
Dad: He doesn't even know what he's saying half of the time
Pete: Well, this is one of the half where he knows

Racquetball

I took Pete to play racquetball today. It went rather well. We played for an entire hour, with no frustration. It is helpful that you can hit the ball off of any wall and it usually comes back to you. Pete's backhand is not too good yet, his better shot is "fronthand". He wanted to play again on Sunday, but we will wait until next weekend. One nice thing is that in the new house it is free for us to play any time at the Pavillion.

Now that Pete doesn't get so frustrated, maybe he is ready to try some other activities that we have given up on in previous years.

Sam Frown

We took pictures of the boys the other day in various poses. We tried to take a picture of Pete and Sam frowning. But Sam would not cooperate. He would always change his expression right before we could take the picture.

Monopoly Jr.

It is fun to play Monopoly Jr. with Pete.

We don't worry so much about who wins the game, it is more about developing the appropriate cash liquidity in each of our transactions.

Sometimes, Pete likes to get all of the 1's. So, for example, if a property costs 1 dollar, he will give you 2 5's and ask for 9 1's back. Other times, he decides that he prefers the larger denominations. So if something costs 2 dollars, he will give you 6 2's and ask for 2 5's back. Sometimes he puts in 3 or 4 consecutive transaction requests, and I find myself aggressively working to meet his demands while maintaining the integrity of the bank.

Maybe some day Pete will be a banker, or one of those guys who asks for change at the counter and they somehow end up with less money than they had before.

A Regular Picture

This is likely our first (and last) picture of Pete and Sam standing nicely and looking at the camera.

A Rival for Pete

We now have a rival for Pete.

Pictured is the future master.
He possesses a special weapon,
which are Bob the Builder
shoes that light up.

Partners in Crime

No Fair

One night we were tumbling around and Pete and Sam bumped heads.

Pete: Hey, no fair!
Me: What?
Pete: Sam bumped his head into mine, and it didn't hurt him at all.

Glue on Fingers

One night I was helping Pete with a craft project which involved gluing together some felt ornaments. When he was brushing his teeth, I was peeling some glue from my fingers. He gave me some advice which seemed to be from personal experience:

"When you peel that, if it doesn't hurt, it's glue. If it hurts, it's skin."

Chocolate Milk

Sam saw Pete enjoying a quiet mug of chocolate milk, so he decided to grab a straw and join in.

Spiderman Triple Threat

Here is Pete fighting against Green Goblin in his Spider Man Triple Threat game that he got for Christmas. It is one of those virtual games where you put on gloves and a chest plate and punch the air. Pete has defeated all of the enemies.

Sam puts on the gloves sometimes to try. But he is not very good. Which is bad for Pete, since he is usually wearing the chest plate so he gets to feel all of the damage when Sam gets hit by the enemies. But he does not seem to mind.

Sam is also happy just to read through the instruction booklet.

Magic Rocks

Pete stayed up until about 11:30 on New Year's Eve.

One of the activities we did was Magic Rocks that Pete got for Christmas from Aunt Robin. She is good at getting Pete unusual and interesting gifts.

I like the little note Pete wrote, which says "Do Not Drink".

Air and Space Museum

On Monday after Christmas, we went to the new Smithsonian Air and Space Annex which is just a few miles from our house.

This picture is from waiting in line to go up to the control tower. The tower is pretty cool - you can see planes making their final approach and landing at Dulles airport.

The line was only about 20 minutes wait, but it was right around naptime so you can see we had to pull out all the stops to keep Sam happy:

Level 1 - binky
Level 2 - sit on shoulders
Level 3 - gouge dad's eyes

Overall, Sam had a good time at the museum. His favorite things were McDonalds, elevator, and looking for our car in the parking lot from the control tower.

Skyler

This is cousin Skyler.
He is the King of entropy.
His goal in life is to quietly
sneak away, locate an ordered
system of objects, and reduce
the system to a state of disorder.

Here he is holding one of those
locks that prevents opening
a cabinet containing household
chemicals. The device apparently
works by allowing the child to
rip it off and then play with
the device instead of the chemicals.

It was fun to have Skyler visit
us for Christmas. He left behind
lots of gifts for us, in the form
of little toy people spread
randomly throughout the house.

Me

Sam developed a habit of walking up to the Christmas tree and saying "Me". Pete and I finally figured out that he could see his reflection in some of the ornaments.

Cousins

Here are Shayna, Sam, and Pete enjoying a quiet moment in the big chair. This photo must have been taken during the 30 seconds of the weekend that Pete was not playing Crash Bandicoot.

Note the Homer Santa in the background.

Pancakes

We had pancakes for brunch the day after Christmas. Here is Pete making sure the chocolate chip ones are being prepared correctly.

Note the camo outfit, which is currently Pete's favorite. He was going to wear it to school last week, until he spilled his breakfast all over it. But he got to wear it this day. Unfortunately, this was not the best choice of clothes for the Air and Space museum. He would walk three feet away and get lost in the crowd. Next time we need something bright orange with reflectors and some sort of homing device.

Merry Christmas

Christmas 2005 was quite the event, with a weekend visit from Robin, Manny, Shayna, and Skyler and then surprise appearances by Stephen, George, and Vickie on Christmas morning. We had a wonderful time opening presents and sharing Christmas dinner together as a big family.

Above is Sam playing with Pete's snap-together model of Crash Bandicoot riding his jet board. It's a little tricky to snap together, but that's ok since Sam seems content with just the box. If we ever figure out how to get the model together, we will post a picture of that too.

Mystery Eye

See if you can guess if this eye is Sam or Pete.


===================================

Answer: Pete

Computer

Pete has started to teach Sam how to use the laptop downstairs in the kitchen. Pretty soon we will reach the point where I have to ask Pete how to fix things on the computer. Then soon after that, we will all have to ask Sam. Being the youngest in the house, he will probably have the most expertise.

Also, they are wearing their new matching sweatshirts.

Food Bank

Pete went with dad and George (Poppy) on Saturday morning to volunteer at a local food bank. We gave out tons of food to dozens of families. Pete helped with re-stocking shelves (our section included rice, cereal, tuna, hamburger helper, cake mix, mac&cheese, corn muffins, condiments, and oatmeal). He also helped people pick out their allotted food and put it in the cart. Next year we will have to bone up on our Spanish first.

Pete also went with mom on Monday to give out toys, but she did not take any pictures so you will have to use your imagination on that one.

Ornaments

Here are the ornaments that Pete and dad made this year with Model Magic.

1. See if you can guess which one Pete made and which one dad made.
2. See if you can guess which one is Aku Aku and which one is Uka Uka. (If you need help, you can click here for Aku Aku or here for Uka Uka).

Drumsticks and Wishes

Above is Pete holding a red plastic drumstick and doing the closest he can to acting normal for a picture. There are different theories as to the cause of the red halo that mysteriously developed in the picture. I think it can only be a secret sign from God that Pete is the chosen one to lead the world to greater peace than it has ever known. Pete, however, seems to think it is something called "glare".

On the topic of magic wands, Pete was watching a show the other day where they were wishing for various things. I thought it would be a good opportunity for some creative interaction, but in retrospect I'm not sure Pete was in the mood for a spirited discussion.
Me: "Pete, what do you wish for?"
Pete: "I don't have any wishes."
Me: "Poof! You have three wishes. What do you wish for?"
Pete: "I wish that I have zero wishes."

Stripes

Pete has achieved an
assortment of stripes
at karate class.

I'm not sure what each
one is for, but based
on his video games, I
think one of the orange
ones is the skull crusher
and one of the black ones
is the overhead power slam.

Big Bag

I walk in the family room the other day
and Pete is eating from an enormous
bag of potato chips. Somehow I found
this to be amusing.

1. In general, I think there is an
unwritten rule that you should not
eat anything that is about the
same size that you are.

2. I said "Pete, do you want a bowl
or something?" and he said "no, I'm ok".

Jammie Day

Pete had jammie day at school on
Monday. They got to wear pajamas
to Kindergarten. I think maybe
they are studying the Babylonians,
who were also known for wearing
pajamas on Mondays (or something
like that). Unfortunately, this
option is not available at my office.

Note that Sam has decided to
participate also. Maybe this is what
Pete is annoyed about in the
picture. Actually, Sam gets a lot
of jammie days. One of his phrases
he likes to say when you are
getting him dressed is
"Nooo! Jammy all day".

Sam is 2

Sam turned 2 on December 4th. He celebrated by eating a flaming cupcake.

Snowman

This is Pete and his snowman Clyde. Pete is wearing his new hat that Christy made for him. Clyde is wearing Sam's hat.

Pete's Faces

Time to experiment with some video on the blog. If you have a high-speed connection and video player, turn up your speaker and try clicking here to see a younger Pete make some faces. If it doesn't work, you can try clicking the photo (which links to a different playback service).

Good Morning For Sam

Here is Sam enjoying his morning. He is in a comfortable spot on the floor with some milk, two puzzle pieces, and the booklet from Crash Warped on Playstation. It is a good life to be Sam.

Snow Strategy

Last night, Pete told me his strategy for making it snow:

1. Wear pajamas inside out
2. Sing "Let it Snow"
3. Put ice cubes in toilet

I guess it works, since we got about 3-4 inches last night.

Holiday Photo Shoot

We had the "bright" idea of taking an impromptu picture of the family to put on our holiday / change of address cards. Somehow, we ended up with one lucky shot where everyone was sort of looking in the direction of the camera.

The other 90 photos all look something like this:

Sam's First Joke

This is Sam's first joke. He made it up himself.

ock ock (Knock Knock)
oo Da (Who's there)
Unno (I don't know)

Note, it's not interactive. He does all three parts himself.

Yoga Master Sam

Sam discovered that he can climb
into a plastic container we have
in the basement. He gets stuck,
then he says "dumpy" and someone
needs to come over and dump him
out. Pete is usually happy to
assist with the dumping.
Maybe when Sam grows up, he can
be one of those Yogi masters who
squeezes his whole body into a
small box. Don't laugh - they're
projecting 73% growth in this
profession. Right now, there are
only 11 guys who can do this, but
they will need 19 by the year 2020.

Thanksgiving

We hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving weekend.

Above is Sam's portion of our Thanksgiving feast. There is one item in the picture that he actually ingested during the meal. See if you can guess what it is.

Hint: it's not on the green plate.

Sam is a Munchworm

Pete asked me to post an entry to the blog called "Sam is a Munchworm". This is because when Sam eats an apple he takes a few random bites all over the apple (see picture).

This is the picture Sam kept asking to see when he would grab the digital camera and say "Bam appoo".

Birthday Card

Pete and I do not always think alike. When he was making a birthday card for Miss Kirsch, I thought he should include a poem, or perhaps a thoughtful message. But we decided to go with his idea, which was a picture of him wearing the crazy birthday hat.

Pow-Wow

We went to Pete's pow-wow at school on Friday. Sam came too. It was fun - they did a few songs, then we had some turkey and mashed potatoes for breakfast. We found the picture of Pete holding the vegetables on the wall. His name was Running Deer. If you want to know the native american names of all of the other kids in the class, you can ask Pete.

Tattoo Artist

Sam has become more interested lately in drawing. He doesn't scribble much - he tends to do a series of very small drawings. One thing he likes to draw is little spirals. The nature of this type of drawing is that there are usually several things that you can interpret to look like real objects. It is similar to looking in the sky and finding shapes in the cloud formations.

He also discovered earlier this week that he can use his arm instead of paper. Since he favors a blue or black pen, sometimes it looks like he has little tattoos. I tried to capture this in the photo, of course while he was flailing his arms around and yelling "Bam appoo" (this is because he knows there's his favorite picture on the digital camera of him eating an apple). Notice that this particular formation looks a little bit like the barbed wire tattoo that has been popular in recent years.

Enemies

Most kids have a special item. For some it is a blanket. For others, a teddy bear. Sam's special item is a printout of enemies from Mega Man 3. He walks around with it. If you try to take it from him he says "Nooo! Emenies!"

Our Little Che Guevara

I Think These People Are Related

On the left is Christy wearing a necklace from Pete. On the right is Pete wearing Sam's overalls.