Hambone and Hamslice do a Duet

My two favorite guys are doing a little "improv" on the keyboard and flute

Stumbling Upon Dragons

This weekend was the kinetic sculptures parade but we accidentally missed that. What a super bummer!!!  But we went to the Federal Hill neighborhood association picnic instead, and on the way back we happened upon Matsuri restaurant's 16th anniversary celebration with real Chinese Dragons.

Hamslice was pretty spooked at first. Always the adventurer, though, he found out that if he pet their tails, the tails would wiggle and pet back. He was squealing and giggling while the person under the dragon costume flipped the tail back and forth like a happy wiggly puppy.

We love city life.

Full Circle

I remember when I was just a little girl, hanging around with Mom. She had a little habit that I don't think either of us really thought much about, but it went like this: if we were sitting quietly for a while, she'd reach out and rub my knee just for just a second to let me know she was thinking about me.

I miss that.

Without knowing it, I've been doing the same thing with Hamslice -- there's just not enough things to talk about all the time, so I just give him that little touch so he knows he's on my mind.

Yesterday he did it back to me. And it was like my Mom was there too; three generations all thinking about each other, just for a moment.

Full circle.

Screwing up Santa

Our little guy was pretty pumped up about Santa this year -- probably more than he'll ever be again, and I may have taken it just a little too far.

Hamslice kept talking about hearing Santa's sleigh bells, and how he was looking forward to Christmas Eve when Santa would come. We made homemade cookies for Santa in the afternoon and left them out with some apples for the reindeer when we put Hamslice to bed.

And then I should have left it at that. But no, I remembered that we actually have a section of sleigh bells in the house, so Hambone muffled those in a blanket and brought them to the third floor, shaking his head and sighing the whole time.

At 5:00 am Christmas morning, I couldn't sleep anymore (unlike the boys) so I took the bells up on the roof and jangled them for all I was worth. And I stomped across the roof deck like a herd of deer. 5  minutes... nothing. 6 minutes... nothing.

I opened the door and called down to Jake that Santa was here, and a sleepy (and surprisingly crabby) little boy appeared at the bottom of the stairs. He said, "Go to bed Mom, I don't believe in Santa."

Not to be miffed right away, I asked if he wanted to open presents now or go back to bed. He opted for bed.

Completely deflated, I also returned to my bed. I would say "maybe next year" but I doubt it will work then either. *sigh*

Merry Christmas

The Great K-9 Switcheroo

As you may recall, we rescued a puppy about a year ago. What you may not know is that Hamslice declared himself a sworn enemy of the puppy fairly early on. It was a very rough and unpleasant ride.

So... last weekend we brought Elwood the (now full grown) dog to an adoption event that was held by the rescue agency where we got him last year. There were many dogs and lots of people, but there was no taker for Elwood. I was a little worried that Hamslice would blow a gasket if we had to go home with his "mortal enemy" so I wandered off with the dog.

When I returned, I told Hamslice (now this was a joke, so remember that) that I'd traded Elwood for this new dog named Pete. For some reason Hamslice believed me.

Since returning from the adoption fair, Hamslice and Pete have been inseparable. They play together, cuddle on the sofa together, and Hamslice keeps telling me how much he loves Pete and how happy we traded Elwood in for such a better dog.

Hambone, meanwhile, is completely unamused.

Catching up... Birthday, Soccer and more

Hamslice's birthday came during a very active hurricane season this year. His original birthday party was cancelled because there was an actual hurricane that day. His new party date also came during a pretty good rain storm, and the rescheduled "opening day" of soccer for his team was the same day. It all worked together to create this party, where Hamslice had a marvelous time even though just three of his friends showed up. Avery, Ava and Olivia. I was so grateful to those parents for getting out of bed to join us on that raw, rainy day.

Note to self: don't pay for such an elaborate outdoor party next year -- hurricane season is every year, after all.

Our next adventure in parenting was Soccer. We put him on the local team, and Hamslice uniformly decided that he hated everything about it. See his teammates in red, whooping it up on the field while our boy just sulks?

We were finally able to get him to play by threatening to put him in bed for the whole day if he didn't get out there. Once he played a bit, he liked it.... but not too much.

We then vowed to get him some exercise through biking or hiking or something. Somehow this boy has to learn to enjoy himself while exercising.

 We took Hamslice to the firemen department's annual "Thrill Show" where everyone gets to ride in fire trucks and do fire stuff. We watched a car fire and saw how the firemen put it out. (Hambone noted the sergeant behind us turning the propane switch on and off, but I didn't believe him)

Hamslice got to sit in the police helicopter, and it really made his day. This is where we went right after soccer (see photo above) so I think we made it a decent day after all.

The next weekend we went hiking. Hamslice was in heaven. He asked us about moss and lichen and plants and birds, such a hunger for learning!

At the end of the hike we were showing him different sized leaves and he said "Right. Grande y pequeño." And that blew our minds, because we haven't been teaching him Spanish. Way to go Montessori!!

Uncle C reads Tacky Penguin to Hamslice