Merry Christmas!

Santa and sidekick

Merry Christmas from all of us. There are a few more photos at Flickr. More to come soon.

Spiderman is nice

I just realized I still had these notes on my computer, that I had planned to incorporate in my blog post this morning:

Luke and I were watching the dinosaur/Rite of Spring segment of Fantasia this morning. It features scenes of earthquakes and lava and rocks . Luke wondered if they were "rock stars."

Me: No, "rock stars" don't have anything to do with rocks. They play rock and roll music. Like the guys in Wilco [a band we all like].
Luke: Is Spiderman a rock star?
Me: No, he is a superhero.
Luke: And he catches bad guys? And chases them to jail?
Me: That's right. That's what a superhero does.
Luke: Is he in real life?
Me: No, he is a character. He's pretend.
Luke: It's too bad that Spider Man isn't in real life, since he is so nice.

Nick is cute

Smiley guy

I just noticed that we have many more Luke photos on the blog than we have Nick photos. So I thought I'd post this cute one I took today.

Sick day

Blue day

Luke started to come down with something yesterday morning, but, being the heartless parents that we are, we sent him to preschool anyway. I came and got him in mid-afternoon when he woke from his nap feeling crummy.

So today, he has mostly been hanging around, watching videos, reading books. Shanon has come down with it, too. So far Nick and I are OK (knock on wood!).

Fierce predator!

Fierce predator!

We took the guys to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science this weekend. It was our first time there, and Luke loved the dinosaurs and the insects and all the old-fashioned exhibits. He was great at finding the hidden bugs in the diorama, having been in training all summer with our bug hunting adventures.

He was less thrilled with the "Grossology" exhibit, about snot and poop, and all that fun stuff. "Why does that man have to throw up?" Luckily it is a temporary exhibit; I have been charged with calling the museum before we go again to be sure that the exhibit is gone before we return.

At Boo at the Zoo

At Boo at the Zoo

We've got a few more Halloween photos up on Flickr, mostly of Luke, in full Wicked Witch get-up, at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo's Halloween festival. This was his third Halloween (as a Dinosaur, a Wizard,and now a Witch), and even though we don't get to see many animals, Luke just loves the experience of being out at night. And the carousel still holds much of its earlier allure.

He made a gorgeous witch. Most of the people who saw him with his hat on thought he was a girl. Luke loved it, of course, taking it as proof that his costume was a good disguise.

Jen and Nick

Jen and Nick

I've (Shanon) uploaded some photos from Jen Brown's visit last month. She was an invaluable help during Steve's conference in Monteray, and the boys couldn't get enough of her. She endeared herself to Luke especially by bringing him a toy called Dinosaur Slime. What more could a small boy want?

My pretty

My pretty

We went to a Halloween party tonight at Luke's friend, Colton's house. Luke's original plan to be Tyrannosaurus for Halloween fell apart when we couldn't find him a decent and affordable costume, but he's very happy to be a witch; the new hat (with hair!) and broom help. Several more photos on Flickr.

Consider signing up for Flickr

If you have been enjoying our photos on Flickr, you might want to sign up for an account.

We get nothing out of this--it's not a pyramid scheme. It's free, and no salesman will call. Flickr recently got bought up by Yahoo!, so if you already have a Yahoo! account, it will be even easier to get an account.

Why do this? You will be able to download our photos in larger sizes to print out (or use as a desktop photo on your computer, or put on a T-shirt, or whatever), for one thing. You could leave comments on our photos there, which could be fun. If we ever want to limit some photos to just family and friends, you'd be in with the in crowd.

And that's all without using Flickr for your own images. You wouldn't have to do that, of course, but it is a fun and easy way to do that.

Anyway, no pressure, but I know that we don't send many (any) printed photos of the boys around, and I think you will enjoy these more if you have an account.

Let's Try That Again

Hoodies

Ok, so the great movie download of 2005 was a bust. Let me know if this idea works. Go to our file sharing page to download. I've put two videos up that you should be able to download, and I've got two more that I'll put up if this page works (including one with some Nicholas, so you can reassure yourselves that he does indeed move).
And, of course, I have more photos for you. As before, click on the photo to go to our Flickr account. You'll have to move backwards and forwards through the images to see all the new photos.

Luke and Andrew

Luke likes to be front and center

Luke's friend, Andrew, came over after dinner the other night for a short visit. They carried Luke's paints around the back yard for a bit, and made Tyrannosaurus faces for the camera. Luke won't let anyone come between him and the camera.

Dinosaurs!

Albert and Luke

Ever since I found out about the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center in Woodland Park (about half an hour from home), I have thought "as soon as Luke gets interested in dinosaurs, we are going there."

I took his wanting to rewind over and over (and over) again the five minute dinosaur sequence in the Fantasia version of "Rite of Spring" ("can we see the Tyrannosaurus Rex die again, daddy? Please?") as my cue that he was ready for the dinos.

We drove up this morning, after a brief detour to fly our box kite. Luke was surprised that the place just looked like an ordinary building from the outside (he was expecting volcanoes?). I had to drag him out of the gift shop and into the museum (er, "resource center"; sounds like they are finding the dinos jobs or something), but once we were there, he was quite thrilled to see the big dinosaur skeletons.

A three-year-old is not the ideal museum-goer, as he tended to look at an exhibit for ten seconds, then run off to an entirely different part of the facility, play drums on the side of the platform, ask me to read the "DO NOT TOUCH" sign to him again, and duck out of posing for a picture, before dashing back to the first exhibit. But he soaked it all in. He generally resisted my efforts to show him things, and instead made up his own stories of how the bones in one exhibit actually belonged to an entirely different dinosaur.

T. Rex v. turkey sandwich

We spent about as long in the gift shop as we did in the museum, then went outside with Luke's new Tyrannosaurus Rex (he'll correct you if you say "T. Rex") and our lunch (see illustration of both at right). Then he was ready to go back in again. It's not a very large place, but I was glad he wanted to go back in, as I felt we hadn't really seen everything.

After another half-hour visit or so, we were ready to go, making a stop at the Donut Mill before heading back to the Springs. Luke made his new enthusiasm official this afternoon by saying that he likes three things now: whales, bugs, and dinosaurs. I reminded him that he also liked guitars and drums, and he replied that he was talking about animals that he liked.

One final note: when I try and tell him that dinosaurs lived millions and millions of years ago, he asks "when you were a little boy?"

Luke on the radio tomorrow morning

Luke's preschool class is supposed to be singing "This Land is Your Land" (presumably the original song, not the JibJab version) on the campus radio station, KRCC. The morning DJ's daughter is in Luke's class.

I believe it is supposed to happen around 10:00 MDT tomorrow morning, and you can listen (wherever you are) by clicking on the "Listen!" link near the top left of the KRCC home page.