Or should I say Strawberry eating? Rhys, who LOVES fruit, especially strawberries, must have thought he was in heaven. Although he wasn’t being very saintly, eating most of what he picked before it was paid for.

“One for the box…

One for me.”

“One for the box…

One for me.”

“One for the box…

One for me.”

“One for the box…

One for me.”

“RHYS, QUIT EATING THE STRAWBERRIES!”

“What??”

Myles has a stuffed animal that he sleeps with every night since he got it for his birthday. It is from the “Ugly Doll” collection and this one is “Ugly Dog”. We always refer to it as doggy. I started to notice when he would ask for it or reach for it he would say one thing in particular. He gave the doggy a name and its name is “Barsh”. So now we all refer to it as Barsh and even Rhys knows what to bring when I ask him to get Barsh for Myles, which he always does with loving enthusiasm.

I had a great idea.  The external component that would have brought this idea to life never came to fruition. Now, somebody close to me did have the external component come to fruition and they have decided to take my idea and present it as their own. If the external component ever comes to life for me, I will still want to go forward with my idea, which of course will now seem to all that I am copying the idea of them, for the rest of my life. Am I justified in feeling aggrieved by this? Had I been approached with a simple statement of affirmation of my idea and a simple gesture saying they would like to do the same, I might feel differently, had that been the case. Instead I was met with ignorance and indifference.  The unfortunate truth is this is something that is common among these others: to hear someone say something and then a few days later announce this great idea that they have.  So am I just to accept that there is nothing I can do about it, that this is just the way these people are, or do I have a right to be angry?

Cabbage Patch Kids, growing in the garden…

Today is Rhys’ first day at pre-school! Myles and I dropped him off and he had no problems with me leaving him there. The teacher had him come say bye at the window, which he did and then quickly turned around to keep playing. I had a harder time getting Myles, who wanted to play, to leave. Myles and I went home for a little while and I found myself wondering about what Rhys was doing and how I was going to be missing out when he made a discovery or did something cute. Basically, I was feeling very sad for myself on what was supposed to be a very exciting day. I can’t help it if I miss him. Its amazing to watch these kids everyday.

Before it was time to pick Rhys up, Myles and I went to the Panhandle playground to meet Laura (my friend) and Finn (Myles’ friend). Myles runs right over to the play equipment as I walk towards our friends. I loose him in the crowd of toddlers for a minute and when I see him he had climbed to the highest point of the play-structure. Not sure how he even got that high that fast, but this kid has no fear (soon to prove to be a adverse trait) I had to then climb up to get him to come down the twisty slide. He played around for a while more before the incident. Somehow he managed to dive from one level of the playground to the level below, landing with his face. He hit and scratched up his forehead and nose and I’m sure all of San Francisco could hear him screaming. Of course this is the case every time he cries, as Myles has no median; if he’s crying, the volume is all the way up . We left the park. It was time to pick up Rhys anyways. By the time we got to the school his bumped spots on his face were getting pretty purple and swollen. So I picked up Rhys from school (where they said he did great) and I called the doctor’s office and the nurse suggested they take a look. I pick up John and went to the office. The initial exam was by a med student and was the most thorough exam he had ever had (I think because Myles didn’t recognize him). Dr Wyatt came in to check his nose and he started SCREAMING. She checked him quickly and he kept screaming after she was done, so she said she was going to leave, so he said Bye-bye and waved to her all while still screaming. The second she opened the door, he stopped and said “Micky Mouse” whose picture was on the wall outside the room. It was actually very funny. She said she didn’t think it was broken, but even if it was, there is nothing that could be done for it, until it stopped growing and then only if the septum was deviated. By then he seemed much better anyway.

From the doctors office, we had to take John back to work and then drive back across the city to go home. One block before we got back to our house, Rhys threw up in the car. (UGHHHH… are you kidding me?)

I finally got a tattoo! I wanted one when I was 18, but thought, “you know that is pretty big commitment. If you want the same thing when you are 21 get it then”. Well here I am at 30 finally following through. Since so may people have asked already, here it is, “Yes it did hurt!”. I kept thinking while he was doing it, “Thank god I didn’t get a big design, thank god I didn’t get a big design…just breath, just breath.” All in all it didn’t take to long to do. Probably under 30 minutes once he started jabbing me with a needle. So, now I have it and I love it. Here’s a few pics:

I have the sweetest kid ever!!  The two boys share a bed room and Myles is really not happy about going to bed tonight and is in there crying.  Rhys started by asking him if he was alright, and is now singing to him his favorite song.  Such a sweet boy!! It worked too!

Yup, I’ve finally unpacked all the boxes from our move.  So what if its only taken 13 months to do it.  I know your thinking, ‘how could I not be unpacked yet?’.  Well I’ve had the luxury, or the curse, depending on how you look at it, of having an extra bed room with which to store and pile stuff upon stuff.  Having had quite enough of that room and wanting to move forward with the plans we’ve had for that room, I hired a babysitter to watch the kids so I could put my full attention into reorganizing, rearranging, cleaning and unpacking that room.  My next step is to paint that room.  Something about the deep pastel blue and purple walls just doesn’t appeal to me!

We took the boys for a ride on their tandem tricycle this weekend.

They both get set to peddle, even though Myles don’t move.

Here they go.

Down one of our San Francisco hills. (Its getting back up, that’s the trick)