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...from Ben.  What important news or question was there?  "Is it pizza night?"  Yes!!!  I love pizza night!  

I went to Target today with Art to get him a scooter and a cash register.  He's been pretty good lately about sticking to our planned purchases, so I felt confident about taking him into the toy section.  Well, I found the cash register (complete with tiny conveyer belt, scale and microphone with authentic, fuzzy amplification!) and he found a big blue gun that shoots nerfy-type balls.  All of a sudden he was saying he didn't want the cash register.  No.  He just wanted that other toy.  Well, I managed to convince him that we didn't come for that gun (to which he said, "But I did come for that toy!) and we looked for the scooter.  Out!  They didn't have it!  He saw a rescue helicopter, complete with tfoo-tfoo-tfoo-tfoo sound and propellers that go when you squeeze a trigger.  And that, my friends, is why you don't take your three-year-old to the toy aisle.  You end up buying the helicopter because you had said we were going to get two toys at the store and you ...

Just sifting through some old photos and wanted to share a couple. This is Jessica on the tail end of her pregnancy with Art. She had just gotten through her PUPPS, a massive preggo rash. And here's me and Art a few months after he was born.

Many times lately Jessica and I will notice Lewis standing. Just today he was holding onto my leg and I moved to go get something. I looked back and there he was, standing up like a fence post, trying decide what to do next. Three or four seconds. He's amaaaaaazing! This photo was taken with a little fatherly coaching. I'd hold him, let go and take a couple photos before he fell down. I could make a newborn look like he was standing if I was quick enough, although the results would be a little more bruisy.

Yesterday was Mira's birthday (Art's cousin). He made a playdough cake, put in candles, and blew them out. Five times.

Yesterday we visited the Twin City Model Railroad Museum for night trains. it's a special thing they do with lit up trains in the evening. It, was, fun.

So, Evva and Art were in the backyard, trudging around in the fresh snow. They found a sled burried under there, started to dig it out then Evva ate a big bite of snow and Art dug up a handful, too. Next thing you know the two of them were just scooping snow into their mouths and.... What was that sound in the kitchen? Oh! Lewis. I probably shouldn't have been looking out the window so long. Wait - I know it's Cheerio size, but don't eat the cat food, Lewis! (posted by Jess)

Click here for 22-second audio track of Lew making some amazing sounds (from about 2 months ago...)

I came into Art's room yesterday and he was laying on the floor with two gackoos.  He said, "Mama, do you know that... I love gackoos?" Art gives Lewis a gackoo every time their in Art's room together.  I looked at them the other day and thought, "Look, they're doing drugs together!"

can you find Lewis' leg?

Before I forget, as I was reading Art a nap-time book and Lewis was crawling all over the place Art suddenly got out of bed and said, "Maybe you can read that book by yourself and Lewis and I will play with toys."   Today especially Art has been really sweet and generous with his little brother.  Usually Lewis is 10% my-sweet-little-brother and 60% intrusion. (The rest is oh-I-didn't-notice-someone-else-was-here.)  He shares his gackoo with Lewis when Lewis is in his room, which is the highest compliment Art can give.  A gackoo might as well be made of one finely shaped, large diamond, it's so valuable to him.  He has also been hugging Lewis occasionally (!) and when we were at IKEA the other night Art said something like, "That's my little brother, Lewis" to a stranger.  So that's been a nice change from the usual "No, Lewis!  That's MY toast!" Back to today's nap-time story, Art wasn't quite tired enough to sleep so I said, ...

Jessica says, "That outing was totally about Art and Evva and so NOT about the animals.  They ran around together, climbed stuff, washed and dried their hands over and over... And let it be noted that Evva is wearing her mother's swimsuit as a dress. "

She woke up this morning with a fever and chills. She had the flu or some other bad bug. She was weak and felt bad, and stayed in bed all day, emerging only around 8pm for a shower and 60 Minutes (actually, it was about 40 minutes until she went back upstairs to bed). I've always admired the way Jessica gives her body what it needs when it's sick. I tend to push myself and get worse. She just stops everything, wraps herself in an absurd amount of clothing, and lays horizontal for as long as needed.

Art's broken wrist is doing better. But it still hurts. At one point I re-wrapped his brace and saw his thin little wrist with the impressions the wrapping made on his skin. What a fragile little thing! I think it's sorta scary for him to see his wrist without the bandage, almost as if he's seeing a bad booboo up close. So we've been leaving it on all the time. He proud of it and will eagery show it to you and explain what happened. "I was walking on ice and I slipped and went 'boom!' (cue a gentle demonstration fall to the floor)". I gave Lewis a bath tonight and Art sat on the side playing in the water with his feet. His brace can't get wet. Although it got a little choclatey after he inhaled a slice of Bubbe's delicious chocolate cake (thanks Bubbe!).

But don't be alarmed! He's doing fine. Last night on the way out to the car, Art slipped and broke his wrist. Jess and the kids were en route to meet me in St. Paul for dinner. Apparently Art cried real hard, but like most times he falls he recovered shortly after. But after they picked me up in St. Paul it was clear his wrist was tender and he didn't want anyone near it. So we went to urgent care and indeed, as evidenced by an x-ray (see below), it's broken. It's not cracked like older folks bones would be, it sorta just got squished and there's a little bump in the bone. The doctor said he's seen a million of them and to just take it easy and wear a brace for a month and it'll be fine. He actually said a thousand years ago they wouldn't have done anything and it'd heal fine--the brace is just to prevent re-injury. Lewis joined us at urgent care and spent most of the time tootling up and down the hallway pushing a chair (see photo below). Arthu...

That's what Art yelled to Lewis when Lewis was grabbing at Art foot while he watched his favorite show, Reading Rainbow, hosted by Levar Burton.

Here's the audio.

this was an e-mail to some family today: "It's Ben's birthday.  He is 33.  At last!  You know, for the last two months I've been two years older than him and I was beginning to feel like a real cougar."

Table manners were always important in my house when we grew up.  We had to use our silverware the right way, we had to wait until everyone was sitting down before we could start serving ourselves and we had to "scrape, rinse and put" our dishes in the dishwasher after we were done.  Well, tonight after dinner Art got up while he was talking and just took his plate in to the kitchen.  I didn't even realize he'd done it until I was about to get up and saw his plate was gone.  My sister may be the only one who truly knows how happy this makes me.

We visited the Childrens' museum Sunday, and Art had an incredible time. Jess will update with a few details later. These photos are from a fun network of ant tunnels.

Lewis had his check-up yesterday.  I wish they could have explained why our usually happy and self-sustaining baby has been so whiny lately.  Blame it on teething.  I'm just going to  blame it on teething.   But he's in GREAT health!  Growing nicely, almost too nicely.  His weight-to-length ratio has been going up and up so she said we need to really wean him off those middle of the night bottles, not just for his sleeping but for is waistline!  Length/height?  2ft 6inch.  Weight?  25lb 14oz.  Head?  99th percentile!  But she wasn't concerned that his head is bigger that 98% of other babies his age since I told her that it runs in the family.  Poor "Big Head Ben".   But as my sister noted, Lewis does have much more of a neck than Art did at the same age.  Art even noticed Lewis's neck, however he just noticed it wasn't a big one.  "Lewis has a small neck.  Why does he have a small neck?" About Art, he likes school and will actually admit it n...

I'm playing with Arthur in the basement right now and am taking a quick break to blog something funny. Last night Uncle Mike was here playing with Art and they had a real fun time in the basement playing all sorts of made-up games. So tonight Arthur is pretending to be Michael, saying, "Michael is going to do this or that, Michael is going to throw the ball, etc." Well, right in the middle of having lots of fun, Art danced around in a circle and said, "Michael has to make a poop, Papa!"

Uncle Mike helps Art administer a shot to Lucky's mouth.

My mom Nan finally had her power during on after more than a week of living in darkness. Fayetteville (Ark) was devastated by an ice storm, as evidenced by the photos she just sent (posted below). If you want to write her a sympathetic e-mail saying how proud you are of her for making it through, her e-mail is nyarnelle@gmail.com her backyard. the street leading to her home. She said it looked like a war zone with trees fallen everywhere.

I took Art to school today, my first time to go in the morning. Ms. Wendy is really a great teacher and friend to him. He was upset briefly when I left, but as Jessica does, I made a few funny "jokes" as I walked out, walking into a wall and tripping over myself. He laughed, and I have a feeling is having a great day. Today's letter is "K", so for show and tell Arthur wanted to bring a picture of Carma (we didn't tell him we spell it with a 'C'). He actually said that on his own this morning. "Carma starts with a K!" Art asks Ms. Wendy to fix a toy.

Yesterday we finally had Jessica's birthday-observed dinner and cake (her real birthday is Dec 26th!). Bubbe came over made an completely delicious dinner of chicken scampi and a superb pound cake (requested by Jessica). Thanks, Bubbe.

Last night I set my alarm for 5:20am so I could wake up before Lewis (he's been sleeping in 'til around 6 lately) and have a little Jessica-time to start the day.  Guess who was up and smiling at 4:30?  Actually, both of us.  I couldn't resist chuckling at the irony of being beat to the alarm the first day I set it.  And I got my Jessica time because Ben entertained Lew for 15 minutes while I stretched a little and did my thing. Oh, and Lewis can go up the stairs now!  Good job, Lewis.  Time to put up the gate.

This isn't entirely family related, but I wanted to alert folks that starting Monday February 16th there will be a week-long ebay auction for 11x14 signed prints featuring the images below. All are from Minnesota photojournalists and the money raised will be used to support our annual convention in the Twin Cities this spring. I'll re-post a reminder and send out annoying e-mails when the auction starts! http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf