The M&M Story

DSC00016 Originally uploaded by Maynor .

DSC00018 Originally uploaded by Maynor . Cousin L spent the night on Tuesday while her mom and dad went to Sad World Series Game #3. Here they are going off to Wednesday morning school together. The kids had a blast together, and are both learning to be POLITE. So their one big argument (over whether L should turn on the white noise machine in M's room) took this format: L: please. M: No, thanks you. L: PLEASE!!! M: NO THANKS YOU!!!

window view--flagstone in herb garden Originally uploaded by Maynor . You may have noticed a sidebar called "Ads by Goooogle" on many of your favorite web pages. Google searches words on the page and puts up little classified-size ads based on the content of the page. The owner of the page rents out the space like any other advertising. So anyway, I put a bunch of pictures of our kitchen on Flickr.com for our cabinet guy (we're rehabbing our kitchen this Christmas). Almost 20 pictures with titles like "Kitchen," "cookbooks," "dishwasher," and you'd think Ads by Google would put up some ads for Crate and Barrel or Williams Sonoma or Martha Stewart. Nope. It picks up the one picture of our herb garden and gives the viewer a list of online headshops. (For our readers that were in seminary during the sixties--and you know who you are--a headshop sells paraphenalia for inhaling the smoke of herbs, many of which are not within the law.)

I was working downstairs last night at 7:00, and M ran down in his pajamas: "DADDY!! DADDY!! BASEBALL ON TEEPHEE!" When the commercials come on, he shrugs his shoulders and says "Baseball is??" Uncle Peter and Aunt Mimi get to go to the World Series Game 3 on Tuesday night, and cousin L gets to spend the night here!! October baseball sure is sweet this year. (sorry, mom, about the yankees.)

As you might guess, we're excited about baseball in our house, and hope to still be excited after tonight. One of the cardinal rules of childrearing is that ball throwing is NOT ALLOWED inside the house. We were a little giddy last night, though, after the Cards beat the Astros and the Red Sox turned the world on its head. And on the night that the Red Sox beat the Yankees in the house that Ruth built, we decided that all rules went out the window and we practiced pitching the baseball IN THE LIVINGROOM. No lamps were broken, by the way. We also crossed our eyes and THEY DIDN'T GET STUCK THAT WAY. Too bad the Astros will have to meet the mighty Cardinals on Satuday (please?).

1. Year 0-1: issue: child M holds his johnson the entire bath action step: wait for him to grow out of it (at least for now) result: accomplished. issue: child B shoots up a fountain of pee when he hits the water action step: short term-rinse long term-wait for him to grow out of it result: short term accomplished; long term still anticipated 2. Year 1-2: issue: child M drinks the bathwater, out of bucket, out of toys, and by sucking on washcloth action step: (a) lightly discipline (b) make blechy-face to demonstrate that bathwater is blechy result: 90% accomplished 3. Year 2-3 issue: child M refuses to sit down in bath because bandaid on knee will get wet and fall off. Water "hurts knee" (knee has been healed for weeks). If child M sits down, he keeps said knee out of water and cups hands over bandaid to keep it from getting wet. action steps attempted: too many to list. result: knee declared "all better" as of earlier th...

It's official. Mr. B can roll from back to front and front to back. Which means, as he discovered yesterday, that he can roll from Point A to Toy B, no matter how far away Toy B is. Favorite Toys toward which to roll: Mr. Pig Big Plastic Keys #1 Big Plastic Keys #2 Big Brother M Anything with a mirror attached Big Happy Half-Birthday Mylar Balloon with Attached Mini-Teddy Bear Forget rolling-- the BHHBMB w/AMTB is almost enough to get him to take up his playmat and walk.

photo courtesy Uncle Stephen Originally uploaded by Maynor . M bore the rings when his Uncle Stephen and Aunt Nealy wed this July in the sunny climes of Carmel Valley, California. B was the official wedding baby. His job was to look cute and snuggle up to people who could get us USGA Senior Open tickets. Both boys did stellar work. In April, M and I went to Gengis Formal wear in the mall to be measured for our tuxes--I'm a 39 long and he's a T3. T stands for Toddler. M was polite to the young woman that helped us, and after watching her stretch her measuring tape all over me (M loves measuring tapes), he stood right up with his arms outstretched, waiting his turn. He tried on a T3 right there in the shop, and it fit crisply. He loved his "'Xedo 'oat" (he tends to leave the first sounds off words), and for the first time, started getting excited about "Unka Steben's 'edding." Three months later, we were in Carmel and I was picking ...

watching birds Originally uploaded by Maynor . I melt when I look at this picture.

birdbook Originally uploaded by Maynor . M reads his new Missouri Field Guide from Nana.

bros eating cereal Originally uploaded by Maynor . Cereal rocks. Can you see a resemblance? I don't know...

Scooting up to the table Originally uploaded by Maynor . B had his first non-mommy meal this week. I've never seen so many diverse facial expressions in such a short time. Everything from "What the...?" to this one, "I need to unbuckle my belt and belly up to the ballgame."

Uncle Andy and B. Originally uploaded by Maynor . Separated at birth?

Bandaid close up Originally uploaded by Maynor . He bumped his nose (barely) and wore this for 24 hours. The only way he would happily take it off is that Uncle Andy was coming into town and I told him Uncle Andy would love to see his nose. I know there's a Michael Jackson joke here somewhere, but it's late.