All By Himself

What in the Holy Cracks

Due to a number of pretty ridiculous circumstances, we let our cleaning lady go before Thanksgiving of last year, and I've been cleaning since. It's mostly been just fine - as I've been able to get things really clean in ways she just never did. But of course, it's pretty hard to spend half a day cleaning, only to see it vanish nearly immediately...

Case in point - today.

I cleaned the house from top to bottom - bathroom, bedrooms, everything - finishing up while Danny played outside and Matty napped.

And I'm feeling pretty good! The house looks great!

Matty wakes up, and I go out to pull the laundry in before it starts to rain, and I find Danny with his arms entirely - ENTIRELY - like Avatar-style - coated in paint.

BLARRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

I tell him to get inside and DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He gets in the tub, and within seconds, it's a scene from Psycho up in there.




(And of course, there's Matty, thinking it's hysterically awesome.)

So, after realizing I could scream for 5 minutes straight, or just go with it, I kind of split the difference, screamed for about a minute, then gave Danny a nice long bath.

Then Matty jumped in the tub too. He's been doing this lately - just holding a rubber ball in his mouth for the entire bath. It's hysterical.




So of course Danny had to do it too.




And so did I, trust me. It was that, or yell for another 10 minutes. Goodness!

Pops' Birthday

We cooked an absolutely delicious piece of salmon Sheila-style and had a delicious cake from - our favorite bakery - natch - on Sunday night. It was really, really nice to celebrate with Pops.





Here's everybody at the party - all but Matty employing the patented David Butler Chin Lift Technique (TM) for photo-taking - taught to him by one of the guys taking ID photos on the Warner Brothers studio lot - to get rid of unwanted double chins.








Hey, we look pretty good - maybe we should all just walk around like this all the time!



Here's to another 70 Pops!

More of Pops

We spent last Saturday morning at the Getty, always a family favorite. It was warm, as you can see from the slight flush in both of the boys - but the flush is mostly because Danny just wanted to run up and down the hill over and over. (It wasn't Danny's best day, as you can see from the photos...)




So we resorted to photos of Pops and Matty, who was much happier to be there.



(Except here, where he seems to be telling Pops to "talk to the hand.")



But look at that view! I'm not sure it's ever been so clear here. You could literally see all the way to Palos Verdes, Catalina, all of it. Stunning.

Here's Danny tearing up and down the hill.



Here's Matty trying to join.






We had some sandwiches,



A few bites of dirt,




walked a little,



looked at a few paintings, and headed for home.



Wish I got a shot of the tram - it was clearly the best part of the trip for the boys, and maybe for Pops too.

(And for posterity, in case you ever wonder if you threw tantrums Danny: YES, you did. Right on the floor of the Getty, and people had to step around you, while I'm begging you to get up and you're laughing right in my face. Ahem.)

Pops' Visit

Dear Pops was here for his 70th birthday. More to come but here are a few.

This is some of what I'd find when I'd leave him alone with the boys for five minutes.

(I'm just teasing - we love ya Pops.)

And say what you will about Southern California (Lala I'm looking at you) -

It's FEBRUARY.

David's Big Four Oh

Well, I'm happy to report that I think David had a pretty great 40th birthday. (In a perfect world, he would have probably slept until 2pm, but outside of that it was pretty swell.)

My dear friend Betsy happened to be stopping through from Portland (and brought the coolest little bumper cars you've ever seen and the most divine macaroons...), but before she came by we managed to pick up a cake and some balloons from our favorite bakery and hang this up outside:



We've been working on this for weeks and hiding the letters in the garage. We also hid the cake and the balloons in the garage, which Danny promptly announced to David when he came home for lunch: "Want to go in the garage and get your birthday cake and balloons?"

"SHSHHHHHHH!!!! It's a secret!" I shushed him.

"IT'S A SECRET!" Danny then yelled to David, pointing at him like a crotchety old man.

We had a lovely lunch and played outside a bit in the sunshine.




David got stuck at work a little later than usual (given) so we ordered pizza from Abbot's and everybody chowed down. Then, time for cake and presents!







The night before I'd given David a few gifts - some blue suede shoes and a pair of ironic t-shirts (telling him he can't wear them much longer without being "that guy") and a fancy cigar from Arnold Schwarzenegger's insanely chauvinistic cigar shop on Main Street.

Tonight he got the gifts from the boys - Danny helped me pick out a Padres Iphone cover and two lego men - one zombie and one mexican wrestler. We also got a Wii dance game that we played for HOURS. Lala sent a beautiful wooden rice bowl and Pops and DiDi sent a killer pizza stone that we can use in the grill. And in June, once he's not working so much, he and I are going to a Padres game sans kiddos and sit in excellent seats.

The kids were great, Danny ate a piece of cake the size of his head, and then Uncle John came over for a few more hilarious rounds of Wii Dancing. (PS, I was the NEARLY UNDEFEATED dance champion, except when David ALMOST beat me on the Beyonce song.)

Happy 40th David! We love you so much.



(Yes, Danny is naked in this picture.)

Quote of the Day

Matty was crying last night for a little while, and apparently Danny woke up and came out of his room to assess the situation. He announced this to David in the morning, saying:

"I waked up! I came out to see what you were doing to Matty! I was like, 'WHAT in the holy CRACKS' is going ON?"

Then, he repeated this exact statement to me.

Time to REALLY start watching what we say around here...

Quote of the Day

We were at a Superbowl party yesterday, and one of the dads went up to Danny, pointed at Matty and said, "Hey, who's that over there? Is that your brother?"

Danny replied:

"He's Matty.

He's a boy.

He knows things.

And don't push him!"

The Artist at Work

Aaaaannnnd....




...perfection!



Now I'll go jump in the bucket of balls.




(Hi Matty!)