Nate Nate

We Have Found the Science

We took a quick trip to the wonderful, but still insanely crowded, Academy of Science Museum this morning, where Jonah identified a particularly exciting subject as a "comedian" (chameleon) and informed Andrea (correctly) that "snakes smell with their tongues."  Nate demanded four-times-hourly updates on Drew Brees's stats. 

 
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Boxing Day at the Highlands

The book said that at the top of Mount Diablo, one could see more land mass than anywhere other than Mount Kilmanjaro.  So we all set out up Mt. Diablo Scenic Drive to, like the bear, see what we could see (what we could see:  the other side of the mountain).  Unfortunately, a few hairpin turns later, we decided to stop about a third of the way up.  It was high enough for a very pretty hike. See if you can find Jonah clowning around behind Nate.

 
 




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Nate's Holiday Show, Soccer, and Eva's Party

I SANG EDELWEISS / THE CAT AND THE MOUSE/ AND HUSH-A BYE BIRDIE.IT WAS FUN.I SCORED A 3400 FOOT GOAL UNDER THE LINE OF SWEEATS AND WON BY 8 POINTS (8--2).

Jonah's Birfday

With action shots of Jonah & friends:

A Day at the Car Show with Rhys

Presented herein without comment:

The Author's Very First Work

Our sitter, Saundra, brought her adorable 8 month old baby along today.  Jonah was inspired to sit down and write a book that he could read to her.  I will now reproduce it in its entirety, minus the illustrations:

Bog a gog.  It went bog.  [Bong a gong, it went bong!]  Tah gog wus lawd.  Tah ent.

In other news, in case you haven't heard me shouting it from the rooftops, Nate is the first grade spelling champ.  All-school bee to follow next month!

BECUZ i AM FRSTi

"MOME," Jonah demands to know, in a letter he presents to me, "WAR iS Mi WOTR[?]"

[For those not fluent in Written Jonah, that's "Mommy, where is my water?"]

Four

And just like that, Jonah Butler turned four.  Four!  It seems like just yesterday that he was sleeping contentedly in my arms every night, causing us to say, "Wow, I thought Nate never cried, but this kid really never cries!"  Four years of endless smiling and laughing and being insanely silly and enthusiastic and loving and refusing to ever, ever go to sleep.  Ever.

I think it was a pretty good birthday.  We brought cupcakes and a hilarious book to his class, where Jonah inexplicably refused to wear his birthday crown.  "Well," he reflected tonight, "I thought it might be itchy."

I had repeatedly asked Jonah what he wanted for his special birthday dinner, and he had repeatedly told me that it was a secret.  Finally, I gave up and decided to order a pizza.  Then his teacher, trying to help me out, asked him what he wanted for his birthday dinner, and he said, "It's a surprise, and my mommy is gonna cook it!"  Since I'm not actually all that good at cooking a surprise meal when I don't know what the surprise is, I took Marsha's excellent advice and made blueberry pancakes. 

Jonah also enjoyed getting to pick absolutely everything today, from which pair of plain white Gap Kids socks he would wear to which straw would grace his chocolate milk glass.  "It's my special day," he recited.  "I get to pick."

Jonah opened some excellent presents, all of which he wanted to play with immediately, and gracefully accepted birthday wishes from his callers.  And this being December, he closed out the day with a letter to Santa.  "DER SANTA," Jonah wrote, "i WD LiK A ALiN."  Ha ha, Jonah's so funny -- a little reference to a Fountains of Wayne song!  He continued: "SANTA iTS Mi BRFDA."

Coming Sunday: A party and some party pictures!

Sensitive

Tonight, on the eve of the eve of his fourth birthday, Jonah B is sobbing his heart out in his Spongebob pajamas.  Why?  Because he does not want to turn four.  Apparently, he's really enjoyed being three.  And possibly, given his contemplative nature, he's bummed about the passing of time.  Fortunately, it was nothing a little early birthday present (super cool ball with all of the planets on it) couldn't cure, but man--real tears and everything.

Also sensitive is Jonah's art.  Today he presented me with two creations that he made at school.  The first was a card, addressed to "MOME" at our house number, with the following message: "MOME  LUV JONAH AND NATE i LOVe ADE [Daddy?] BLiG BOL BLEG [That's "bowling ball" and "bowling"][.]" 

The second was a totally recognizable flag of Japan, complete with stick.  Everyone is very high on Japan these days, as it is (a) the country of origin of part of our family, (b) the site of the first leg on this season of The Amazing Race, which the guys are VERY into (more on that in a minute), and (c) the site of one of our very first efforts at a Top Secret Adventure.  Even so, I'm not sure that Jonah's plan to "send it to the government for Japan" is going to take off.  Unsurprisingly, the letter he dictated for me to send to our own government -- "Dear Government, I would like a rocket ship, Love Jonah" did not get us any closer in our quest to visit outer space.  Still: one very cute dark blue Japanese flag now waves, as only construction paper can, in our kitchen.  And I'm pretty sure his teachers think I feed him flash cards for breakfast.

And also sensitive is poor Nate, who is so stressed out about seeing his favorite team compete in The Amazing Race that he cannot bear to watch the final, million dollar episode.  He therefore composed the following list of Rules For Watching The Final Amazing Race:

1.  Nate will not be watching.

2.  Mom, tell me who won a million dollars.

3.  Tell me who won 2nd.

4.  Tell me who won 3rd.

5.  Tell me where they went.

6.  Have fun!

Nate is also proving to be a shrewd viewer.  He's started an old season that we happen to have on DVD, and he immediately picked an excellent favorite team, the much-loved Jill and Jon Vito.  At the same time, however, he already knows who wins that season, because before I realized that we had it on DVD, I was telling him about the sad outcome of that season (when sweet Zach and wretched Flo stole the win at the last second by sheer taxi luck).  Nate has therefore decided to hedge his bets by also rooting for Zach and Flo.  Which isn't a half-bad strategy, as it improves his chances of actually making it through the season with his nerves intact.

The Elephant Seals Will Have to Wait

On the recommendation of a friend's mother, we were going to go to Ano Nuevo State Park to see the elephant seals fight each other for mates.  We had our trip timed to reach Santa Cruz by lunch, though, so we took the kids to the boardwalk to eat (you can imagine why this was a selling point to our Monopoly-obsessed).  Of course, Jonah wanted to ride some rides, and make sandcastles, and then sand sidewalks, and sand paintings, and Nate wanted to watch, and flee from, the waves -- a game that gets him giggling like a schoolgirl.  Frankly, Jonah could play in the sand all day, and Nate (and I) could watch the waves all day, and so it suited us just fine to spend a few hours on the beach.  By the time we got to Ano Nuevo, it was too late for the walk down to the beach, so the ranger turned us away.  Instead, we stopped a few miles up the road at a beach where huge waves, real California surfer-sized waves, crashed into the non-surfer-approved rocks (even at low tide).  Jonah was too cold and tired to muster much enthusiasm, but Nate scampered over the big rocks and played a little more tease-the-waves.  And nobody really missed the elephant seals.  They'll be there when we go back. 

Incidentally, an apology:  this was essentially the same drive that I ruined for my dad and Debbie back in the early 1990s, when I was a college student on vacation and wanted to sleep in.  So I petulantly dozed in the backseat.  Sorry.  Yeah, it's spectacular.   

There are pictures: 

 
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