Greta Who?

I was down at an outlying site doing some site investigation. It's an old target range that we are looking to get rid of that barely looks like its part of a military installation. We were out taking pictures and measurements and people kept driving right on because the fence is broken, and it is a beautiful spot. Well one lady, he husband and her kids come up and start talking to us. She tells us that she's from Milan, but one of her kids is half American, and that her current husband is more New Zealander, while they all currently live in England. One of the guys with us talked to her for a while after that, I had to go check out some more stuff. Well later the other guy tells us that she is Greta Scacchi!!! Yeah, I didn't know who that is either until I looked her up on Google. I guess she was real big in the movie "Heat and Dust." It's pretty cool to meet someone that is Googleable.

The dark water around it is all underwater reefs. Our use of it as a target range helped set up the area to become an underwater reservation.
Sicily is pretty right now, green and flowery. I
t's too bad that it doesn't rain all summer and this all dies off. So if you want to see Sicily at its' best, come in May.

Best Dad Ever (at least that's what I thought)

When we were at Disneyland the first ride that Bruin wanted to go on was the Dumbo ride. He had just seen the movie before we went to Paris, and was excited to ride with Dumbo, though he wanted Dumbo to have a feather. Kathy pushed Logan through the shops while Bruin and I waited. While I was waiting in line with Bruin, he noticed that some of their hats were green. He told me that he wanted to ride a green one. I realized that almost all of the hats looked green, some were obviously bluish, or yellow, but a lot seemed like they could be green. (I'm red-green color-blind mind you.) Finally, after an hour and a half, we got near the front of the line. The operator let a large group through, and it looked like we'd get second choice on the next round. "Great," I thought, "we're sure to get a green one." Then the operator came back and said there were two open. We had to go out. One of the Dumbo's was clearly not green, and when I asked Bruin where a green one was, he pointed toward the other empty cart. So I hustled over and hopped in before the other father son duo could get it. They had to ride the non-green one. Triumph I thought, Bruin must think I'm the best dad ever.


About 2 hours later as we were heading to lunch with the characters, Kathy says to me, "so was Bruin upset that he wasn't able to ride in a green one?" First I say, "how did you know he would want a green one?" Then it hits me, "that wasn't a green one! Gah!" Confidence fading, I murmur, "pretty good I guess, he didn't even complain..."

I guess Bruin was pointing at a green one near the one we got on.

Look what we made...

My Pregnancy This Week Hello, Alexander! Your baby is about the size of a sesame seed, and he looks more like a tiny tadpole than a human. The big development this week: Your baby's brain is beginning to grow! It develops from the neural tube, a structure that will also spawn your baby's spinal cord, nerves, and backbone. Since folic acid helps prevent neural tube defects, you can see why it's so important early in pregnancy. In the meantime, the primitive placenta and umbilical cord, which deliver nourishment and oxygen to your baby, are already on the job.

For even more fun details, click here
So you all better start getting your passports and planning on coming out this summer, because soon we won't have enough room in the car or the house. Of course you could come next winter and see the little bugger. Bruin says that he will be getting another baby brother. When I tell him it could be a sister, he says "no, that would be silly."

Kathy keeps saying "two is great and 'normal', but now that we are headed toward three, we become a circus family. The kids outnumber the parents, and so at least one of them can always be up to something. Plus we don't fit in a normal car..." So I tell her, "we might as well keep having more so we can fill up a whole Suburban. It's a waste to drive that huge 9 PAX vehicle for only 5 of us."

"Daddy, I shot those Pirates"

(Beware of Pirates near Notre Dame)

When we were at the Disney Village waiting for the train to bring us to Paris, Bruin found a derringer that Kathy agreed he could have. It turned out to be a great entertainer for him. Somehow he came to realize that the gun is designed to fight Pirates. Kathy and I can't really remember how he came about this knowledge. I think we told him it was a pirate gun because it was from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" stuff that they were selling. Throughout our entire day of exploring Paris, Bruin kept whipping out his pistol to shoot "Pirates". He would shoot them in cars that drove by, he shot a couple of gypsies that were obviously pirates, but the main thing were the people in the tour boats that go up and down the river.Logan tried to join in the "Pirate Hunt" with Bruin. He used a little bottle of sanitizer gel, chasing after Bruin pointing it around and saying "Ban Ban Ban".
When we were going through this park, Bruin ran over picked a flower and gave it to Kathy, saying "I love you mommy!" And then he shot her. Stinkin' little boys...The absolute funniest part had to have been when we were in the zoo. Liberal, free thinking Parisian zoo keepers absolutely loved having our little American "Mohican" (as the Brits kept calling him due to his haircut) running through their zoo shooting their beloved endangered animals. I think I saw one girl shed a tear. He was really into it, like he was on a big hunt. Let's go shoot big deer daddy... I want to go shoot the elephant now... When the day was done, and we rode the train back to the hotel exhausted, Bruin reached down and completely on his own stuffed his gun in his sock. I have no idea how he learned that that is the proper place to put your gun when you're on a train, maybe he's learning too much from watching Disney movies.

Boys on a plane!

Some people are amazed that we go on so many airplane rides. They seem to imagine that it's like Snakes on a Plane, but with children. Bruin for the most part is very good on the plane. He buckles himself up, pulls his toys out of his backpack and entertains himself. On the way to Paris we were on the same flight as our friends the Woods, and he sat with Abigail in some free seats and they had fun reading and playing with cars. He does try to get us to take him to the bathroom every fifteen minutes so he can watch the toilet flush purple, but that's pretty easy to deal with.


Logan on the other hand is tougher. Usually he spends the whole time going through check-in and security in his stroller. When he finally gets out of the stroller and into the plane, he is anxious to get down and play. But he has not learned to entertain himself, or understand invisible boundaries. He would run up and down the plane if we let him. So it usually turns into a juggling act between me and Kathy trying to keep him occupied. It would be easier if he didn't have such a flexible snake spine, but all in all, we have just gotten used good at it. Plus, it will be much harder to fly to Paris when it's 10 hours instead of 2.5.