"hey, brother-"

I took the boys to the play yard this afternoon. Milo got on the swing and as I started to push him, Joey began walking towards us. Milo shouted "Get out of the way, brother!"

Awww- he's looking after his little brother and sounding hip at the same time.

Daddy Investigates What is so Damn Special About Standing on the Table

In an attempt to reach out and understand why our children are fascinated by certain seemingly irresponsible behaviors, last night I attempted to walk a few steps in their shoes....

Their shoes... of course, at the time, were on the dining room table.

I suppose that from this vantage point, the boys can more easily spot the various items we have placed out of their reach and view. However, I think the main reason behind their table standing is nothing more than pure and simple juvenile defiance.

After all, Joey's first distinguishable spoken words were "Get Down."

Will do handstands on the dinner table...

The trait that Joey has carried the most from his daddy is that of having 'no fear'. I'm sure this is where most of the paybacks are going to come. Joey will determinedly climb up and down from the dining room table, the coffee table.. the hand rail from the shower.. .stairs, baby gates.. If you can name it, he's probably figured out a way over it.

However, at Calen's birthday party today young Joey may have met his match by way of an inflatable moonwalk. Maybe it was the colors, the extra noise, or just the unfamiliar surroundings... but I finally found something that will stop him in his tracks.

We tried to take things easily at first.. but in the end, I don't think it was Joey's favorite adventure.

Milo, on the other hand... while lacking confidence at first, adapted quickly to his new terrain. His cute moment of the day was after mommy had worked with him to climb to the top of the inflatable slide, he climbed up the next one all by himself and when he arrived at the top I could hear his little voice proudly say "I DID IT!"

Milo gives Joey a spanking

The other day the boys were playing in their room and Joey started messing with one of the electrical outlets. While I don't generally support physical discipline, I do believe it is acceptable if it prevents an immediate and greater injury... such as sticking two slobbery fingers in a light socket.

However, at that very moment I had my hands full with some freshly folded laundry. So I shoo-ed Joey away from danger with my foot and jokingly said "Milo, go spank your brother"

Milo got up... ran over to Joey, threw a punch in Joey's back that knocked him down and shouted "Bad Baby!"

Joey wasn't hurt... but god it was funny!

"And here... and here...and here"

A few Saturdays ago we went out for dinner with our friend Sanjae and his wife.

At Waterloo Ice House, we opted for the kid's meals for the boys. Unfortunately they were not too thrilled with the homemade mac-n-cheese. I, however, loved it.

So after a dinner that consisted of picking up the crayons Joey kept dropping between bites... and sometimes even chews... We piled up the leftovers into a styrofoam container and headed toward the door.

Before we got to the door Irene tripped over a step, the contents of the container dumped out all over the floor. I stood guard while holding Joey and keeping Milo by the arm while Irene went to get help from one of the servers.

A kind lady from a nearby table grabbed a napkin and started to clean up our mess. While being appreciative, I told her that my wife was notifying the waitstaff and that we would be fine. Milo, on the other hand... seemed to take over foreman duties and began to point our ever piece of mac-n-cheese that she missed....

"And here... and here...and here"

I want two apple pies

The other day Milo walked up to the baby gate that separates our kitchen from the rest of the house and said "I want two apple pies."

Now, I supposed that apple pie is not an unusual request for a 3 year old... any more than asking for two. However, I know that I've never made an apple pie and Irene would have trouble thawing out a frozen Mrs. Smith's dessert... I couldn't for the life of me figure out where he might have ever sampled one.

Then it finally dawned on me... 'Apple Pie' is probably how is little brain is processing "Papaya"... which we always have on hand. It's pretty cute... so I'm not sure when we'll correct him.