He dresses himself

Tonight, Pete chose his pajamas and put them on himself:

This transpired:

Pete: (chew chew chew)
Aaron: What are you eating?
Pete: Well, there was a cranberry on the floor over there, and Mom forgot to sweep it up!
Aaron: And you ate it up?
Pete: Yeah.
Aaron: (pause, considering my response, since the cranberry was already swallowed) Well, what if someone stepped on it. Yuk.
Pete: Well, I certainly got a hair in my mouth! What if someone put a hair on it?!

Igloo - Part 3

Almost finished

The igloo in it's final, Seussian shape

Our neighbors are members of the Jackass generation.

Igloo - Part 2

We finished our snow fort today. Pete was much less into it than I was.














It's kinda pointy.















A view from inside

Blizzard #3

Colorado has had bizarre weather this year, with three big snowstorms so far this year, dropping the kind of snow that we don't usually get until March or April. Actually, this news report says that the kind of snow we're getting this winter is typical, we just think it's abnormal because we've had 50% less snow than normal for the last decade.

Anyway, for the last two storms, I've been out of town. Actually, I've been stuck in Las Vegas both times. Missing the blizzards was a bummer, because I missed out on the fun of snow days and hot chocolate and huge snow drifts.

So now I'm happy to be home with the all-day coffee and hot chocolate, a fire in the fireplace, and fun crafts with the kids.

Christmas Adam Roundup

Adam came right before Eve.

So, Thursday night I returned home from a business trip in Las Vegas following a reasonably grand adventure. See, we were scheduled to fly into Denver on Wednesday, and our flight was cancelled. After a quick car rental, 850 miles or so, and one crazy night of karaoke in Grand Junction, I got home while a few thousand people were still sitting in the Denver Airport, starting to smell downright tribal.

It was a good story.

::

Lately, Pete's favorite activity has been cutting pictures of magazines and taping them onto construction paper. He's getting good at it, but we're running out of good magazines, so yesterday, I gave him a copy of Dwell, and he taped this up on the wall:

If you can't make it out, it's a beautiful model with a pet lobster. I have no idea what it's advertising.

::

Today, we built an amazing snow fort. I appreciated it more than Pete. Tomorrow we're going to try for the full igloo roof. I'll post a picture if it works.

::

And right now, the kids are doing this.

Idea Thing

Pete: Dad, I can't remember anything.
Aaron: Well, that's funny. Why not?
Pete: Because something's stuck in my idea thing.

Desktop Image

I scanned one of Pete's drawings, added some color, and now it's on my windows desktop, which thoroughly confuses my co-workers, who can't decide if it's a piece of abstract art, some kind of map, or my own scribblings.




















Here's an interpretation:

• The yellow vehicle on the lower left is a "mooncar", which is self explanatory. Note the wheels. The mooncar is under water.
• The brown mass directly above the mooncar is a pirate ship. Note the anchor and the anchor crank directly above it. Just to the right of the anchor crank is the steering wheel for the pirate ship.
• The line extending to the right from the pirate ship is the "poinky thing".

The Veep

Heather and I took a small road trip up to Denver yesterday evening, and we always have good talks once we get our roadtrip coffees from Starbucks and settle into the drive. One of the things we talked about yesterday is Pete's social behavior. Heather pointed out that in situations with lots of kids, Pete almost invariably falls into the role of being second-in-charge. He identifies the charismatic leader of the kid-pack, gets in close, and becomes the right-hand-man, the trusted number 2.

It's funny, because the role is clearly distinct from the rest of the kid-pack, and it's not a passive role. He's not just the first follower, imitating the leader. In his role, he seems to be in charge of coming up with new ideas, which the leader implements, and acting as a liason between the crowd and the leader. For example, a gang of kids will be playing on the playground, throwing rocks down the slide. Once the activity gets a little stale, Pete will go over to the steering wheel and say to the leader "lets be pirates", then the leader will come over, take the wheel, and tell Pete to man the cannons, and then the rest of the kids fall into their roles in the game. If anyone else pretends to shoot the cannon, the leader will insist that that's Pete's job, and Pete will find another place for the kid.

Being a leader is tough, and the leaders who have the kind of charisma, magnetism, and persuasiveness that other people follow without thinking sometimes don't have the administrative and creative skills to figure out the right direction and keep the gang involved. That's why every Picard needs his Riker, every Bush needs his Rove, every Jesus needs his Peter.

Grow your own mari______ kit

Man, I thought this said something different.

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