"It's nice having a little buddy around!"

Daniel announced this morning about his cousin. Matthew agrees.

5 Years

5 Years ago today...

The ceremony


Driving away to the reception



Dancing



Time for a picture

Sailing away into the night

It's 8:45pm at night. We're home late from a party...

Daniel: "I can't go to sleep tonight, Daddy."

Chris: "Why?"

Daniel: "Because I'm too weak to go to sleep."

Chris: "Why are you to weak?"

Daniel: "Because you don't give me enough food."

Chris: "Are you trying to say you need more food, Daniel?"

Daniel: "Yes, I need a peanut butter and jelly sandwich."

Don't worry, I have everything under control

Eusterzelishror 2010

For the past couple of years we've had the opportunity to vacation with our good college friends, the Eustermans and Stamschrors. We had a great time this year - and doubled the number of kids from last year's trip! Enjoy some fun pics of the gang.

Eusterzelischror

The kids.

Nothing like Mommy time.

The Mommies.



Daniel experiments with inverted swinging.

Daniel, Elizabeth, and Noah.

The dinner picture.

Crab hunting with Matt.

Cheese!

The Moms...er...two moms with Casey.

The special cake the men baked and decorated in honor of the women.

Daniel and Matthew.

On the ferry to the island.

Six hand piano: a masterpiece.

The babies: Maximilian, Cecilia, and Matthew

Guess what?

Just as Daniel was about to drift off to sleep tonight, he whispered:

"Daddy, guess what....?"

I prepared myself for a litany of excuses why he didn't have to go to bed.

"What, Daniel?"

"........The store has milk.......and so does Costco."

Can I drive?

Daniel is 16 in his mind.

"Mommy, Daddy, can I drive home please?"

"No, Daniel. Driving takes practice, plus you need to be 16 years old to drive. You're 2."

"OK, I can drive all the way home by myself. You guys can walk."

Graffiti revelations and more

We packed up and went on a great vacation to Anderson Island with some friends this past week (post to come). On the way home we had to make the inevitable potty break.

We pulled off the freeway in a "tough" part of town, and went into a store to use the facilities. The walls of the stall were covered in gang graffiti and some not-so-nice phrases (thank God Daniel can't ready yet). However, he was quite funny.

"Daddy, why are there 'no-nos' all over the wall?" (writing on the wall is a 'no-no' at home).

"Some people make bad choices and write on walls when they shouldn't. But you know better."

"Ya, they used lots of crayons. That's a big 'no-no'. And there isn't a time out chair in here for them to sit on."

At that moment I imagined some hooligan sitting in 'time out' for graffiting the stall walls. I wonder if it'd be an effective punishment? :)

###

Later that day at home, Daniel proclaimed that he needed to go potty, and that he would be doing it all by himself. Daniel has never gone potty by himself before, but we were curious to see him try.

He entered the bathroom and promptly closed the door behind him. When we tried to enter to watch, he explained that we needed to leave so he could have some privacy.

Honoring his request, we waited on the other side of the door, listening. A few moments had passed when we heard...

"Uh....Daddy, can you come in here and wipe the poopy off my hand?"

It was a valiant first try.

Daniel vs. The Pavement

I can't go to sleep because...

Daniel is in his big boy bed now (a mattress on the floor). He was so excited about it he ran around the house yelling. But now it seems things have changed. Daniel had quite a list of reasons for getting up tonight...

The litany of excuses (serious, he used all of these):

1. I have to go potty.
2. I need to blow my nose.
3. I have to go potty (5 minutes since last trip).
4. I need some water.
5. I needed to build a ramp onto my bed to get into it.
6. My owie hurts.
7. My band-aide is stuck to the sheets.
8. My bed is broken (i.e. my blanket isn't straight).
9. I need to blow my nose, again.
10. I think my big boy bed is too much for me, I want to sleep in my crib.

He gave it a good try. We'll see how tomorrow night goes.