Happy Halloween!

Crazy time Pumpkin Patch, Part 3: The Exciting Finale

Awwww.  Everybody was plum tuckered out.

Molly's Second Birthday

Bounce House!!

Danny with some kid named "Tank" - given name.

Click on this one to zoom in - seriously.  Do it.

This looks strangely like a fashion shoot or something.  I'm kind of obsessed with it.

Crazy Time Pumpkin Patch, Part 2: The "Pumpkin Patch"

Now I can be a little sarcastic, and at the end of the day we did have a really nice time (I think), but if I were advertising this adventure, I'd call it "The Train Ride to H E double hockey sticks."  Our train arrives much more smoothly than it left (thank heavens - though we were all prepared in crash position) - and we exit to the sweet, sweet family-oriented sounds of The Fat Boys being blasted over the stereo system.  John and I look at each other, John and David look at each other, David and I look at each other....gulp.

Oh, and it's about 95 degrees with very little shade, almost all of which was taken up early by the smart Seniors.

Basically, this place is one big pretty cheesy Halloween-themed hand in your pocket.  Replete with a fake smoke machine and $12 tri tip sandwiches on Wonder Bread rolls.  There is nothing to do, nowhere to go, without spending money on pretty cheesy stuff.  It's hard not to feel a little trapped, and maybe even frightened.  (Not really, unless you're Uncle John.)  Uncle John, seriously putting in trooper time, looks like he's about to freak out.  Because - and here is the kicker - if we don't leave IMMEDIATELY on the return train, we can't leave for two hours when the train makes it's next deposit of naive souls.

We're honestly leaning towards going, but Pops is kind of into it, and disappears conveniently right as we'd have to get back on.  So, as the train departs with a loud whistle, we decide to make the best of it.  We grab some chairs and drag them into some shade, have lunch, drink lots of water, try to enjoy the blaring Beach Boys and Monster Mash, and most excitedly, Danny decides to go on a pony ride.  I'm not the biggest fan of keeping these poor ponies cooped up like this, but desperate times...

Dan started out very unsure, although very very brave.  I was so proud, I cried a little.  Look at him, he's so small they had to put a pillow to keep him in!!

And then suddenly, he was totally into it.  I don't think he wanted it to end!  He's ridden a horse as many times as I have, and fallen off three times fewer!

Hooray!

David contends that this place, had it been something other than roasting, might have been OK.  There was a hay ride ($5) and a corn maze ($3) that might have been cool, had it not been, well, 95 degrees.  I beg to differ.  Maybe it's because I grew up with hayrides every year for my birthday, on a real farm with real corn...this place was just a big old pile of ridiculously expensive Colby.

But, of course, the company was superb.

Stay tuned for the exciting finale of Crazy Time Pumpkin Patch, coming tomorrow!

Crazy Time Pumpkin Patch, Part 1: The Train Ride

We drove into the hinterlands of Los Angeles for this adventure - a train ride on the Fillmore and Western railroad that takes you to a pumpkin patch and family fun extravaganza.  The ride started out with such a shocking and loud BUMP! that it took Danny a while to recover.  Heck, all of us to recover.

Who looks like they're having the MOST fun of everybody here?

Darn Those Buses!

Dan and Di

Comfy on the couch.

The Force Is Strong with This One

Danny had four costume choices (thank you Lala!), and this is the only one he would wear. Maybe we can get him into another one on Halloween proper. Anyway, we had a really fun party with my mom's group tonight. Great fun and glo sticks were had by all.

Our First Adventure to the ER

First of all, nobody panic - everything is just fine.

Danny stumbled down a step at the playground on Tuesday and seemed to somehow have hurt his foot. Every day David and I would discuss whether we should go to the doctor, and either one or both of us felt it was getting better, so it wasn't necessary. Well, he was still limping slightly yesterday, although happily walking, so I just kind of freaked out and went to the doctor to make sure he didn't become a club foot or something. It was so late in the day that I had to see the practice's pinch hitter, who has zero bedside manner. She basically told me, without examining his foot, that I should have gone to to the ER that day, because now, if it WAS broken, and it was healing, it was healing incorrectly already, and there was nothing I could do today that was any better than Monday, when we'd be able to get an X-ray to see if it was broken. (Cue tears and hair-pulling, and lesson learned. Jeez, you try to not be alarmist, and that will teach you.) Anyway, after telling her nicely that was the most stressful and counterintuitive thing any doctor had ever told me, David and I decided to meet at the Pediatric Orthopaedic ER in Santa Monica as he got off from work, so we didn't have to agonize through the weekend about what bad parents we are.

I was expecting writhing masses of swine flu-infected people on their deathbed, but it was pretty quiet. Danny wasn't too excited about the place, except for the homeless lady sleeping on the couch, who he kept wanting to kiss. Ahem. We got to our room, and he wasn't having the nice nurse, or the X-ray tech at all. Much tears. But, true to nature, once the very attractive young pediatrician came in to examine his foot, he was all charm. He, of course, had to give her a kiss, which "made her day."

Bottom line: no fracture that they can see, keep an eye on it, seems like a sore tendon. But, it is true that they can't see toddler fractures sometimes for a few weeks, so if he keeps limping through next week, we should go back in.

We got home, absolutely exhausted, and Danny and I stripped down and hosed off the swine flu germs. Here is the foot with his little bracelet as he's being decontaminated.

I'm sure that's the last time we'll be in the ER with him, right???

Really Oldies but Goodies

I almost forgot about some pictures we took this summer, and wanted to get them up here. These are from our trip to Wildwood, New Jersey with the Rulnicks in July. Bunny is about 21 weeks pregnant here, being quite the trooper. Their son Maxim had just turned 2 and fortunately came with a big old box of toys.

Wildwood was a little underwhelming, unfortunately, but it was great to see them. We went to the Ocean City Boardwalk, which was a trip, but Ocean City you broke my heart when the sparkly unicorn iron-on decal at the t-shirt shop was only for show! How could you! I've been looking for that exact iron-on decal since I lost that shirt in 1988. Sob!

I only wish we had pictures of our wait in line at the Shake Shack in Madison Square Garden later that week..

.

That, by definition, is a sentence.

This morning, I had to go to work late (9am) for a meeting in Hollywood. I woke Dan up so I could get him in his clothes and give him his morning smoothie. He has 4 teeth coming in and woke up with some discomfort. I held him for a while, he snuggled his head into my neck. After a few minutes, he lifted his head, faced me and said "I want Mommy."

Miss Megan and The Indomitable Miss Finley

These are from this summer when we went to Baltimore. This is Heather's friend Megan and her amazing daughter Finley, who live with husband Jon and new baby daughter Ryan. Something like 4 months post-partum Megan cooked us an amazing steak dinner. Delish.

The best picture is the very last. If you look closely you can see she's giving Danny a nice fat pinch!

Pops and the Biplane Swing

Pops and Grammy Di showed up last Thursday and it was right to work putting together Dan's new swing. After a test drive and Woody supervising, Pops turned over the controls to young Daniel.

He loves rotating the propeller with an accompanying "brrrrrrmmmm!" sound.