King of the Potato People

A week ago last Thursday, Renae dropped Felix off at my work for the last half hour while she went to a meeting. I gave him a pencil and paper to keep him occupied and when he finished his picture he tells me "Look dad, I drew a picture of me". His first self portrait. Sorry my photography isn't very sharp, Felix is the little mass in the lower right hand corner. His aunt Lisa says that Felix is at the stage where he draws "potato people".
The next day Natalie came for a visit and Felix drew these creatures for her:

Xmas Photo Fun

Dana had this great idea to take a Norman Rockwell type photograph for our Xmas cards this year. Then, as he bitterly let me know last night, I took it over and become some crazy control freak! Surprise, surprise. Anyway, Felix was a little reluctant to wear the tuxedo I had found for him but his obsession for all things black won him over and he donned the suit and joined us in our home made portrait studio. Dana and I did our best to remain in character while Felix did his best to squirm out of the shot or grab at my 'nurses'. Luckily, we had secured my brother, professional photographer Tyler Wilbourne, to take the photos and we managed to get a few shots worthy of Dana's Big Idea. Here are a few of the rejects that I still adored. The prize winning selection will arrive in your mailbox next week.

Dana insisted I couldn't post the blog until the cards had gone out so I hope you are enjoying them now.

Prepping For Santa

This year we got our Christmas tree from Felix's BFF's grandmother's (did I use the apostrophes correctly?) tree farm. Charlie's mother has taken Felix there on days she watches him for us, so, being familiar with the layout, Felix was able to direct us to the perfect tree. This was our first year getting a tree without Natalie and/or Megan. We definitely missed them and the way they would name the tree before we hacked it down. Anyway, while driving out there we would ask Felix if we were going the right way. He'd look out the window, consider the terrain, and then inform us that we were not and that we had to turn around. When we did make it to the farm, upon pulling into the drive way, he did let us know that this was it. Later that day we saw Kelly (Charlie's mother) and told her how Felix kept informing us, when asked, that we were not going the right way and that we had to turn around. She thought that was very funny and told us that is because she always accidentally drives past the farm and then has to turn around.

As you can see, Tru is wearing a hooded sweat shirt. Apparently he decided to turn off his super-skin for the day, maybe it wasn't working, who knows. I'm just glad he wore something. Though I suppose I should just accept that he'll know when he is cold enough to wear a coat.

Renae and I had so much fun decorating the tree with Felix this year, he really enjoyed being a part of it. We figured out ways to have him involved in every part, from putting up the tree, picking which lights to use and stringing them, and then which decorations he wanted to put on and where. It reinforced something I've always believed: kids want to be involved and they want to be an active participant in their parents' lives, not just the other way around.

Why Does the Sun Shine?

This song has become a favorite of Felix's. He learned it from listening to Renae and me sing it to him. The day after I took this this little video I found the original version on the internet. It's by Tom Glazer, from and album called Space Songs, released in 1959. Some of you may know this song from a They Might Be Giants cover.

We spent Thanksgiving Day in Puyallup at Felix's Aunt Rachael's house. What you see him holding in the picture is about what he ate for Thanksgiving. Maybe not quite that limited, but he wouldn't eat any Turkey. I worry about the nutrition he is not getting due to his picky eating; he won't even eat a kids multivitamin. It's gotten to where I have to crush his multivitamin in his cereal without him knowing. He'll read this some day- I pulled one over on you, son. Renae recently purchased the book "Deceptively Delicious", it's the book Jerry Seinfeld's wife is getting sued over. I think it's misnamed, I think it should be called "Deceptively Nutritious". Wouldn't that make more sense? What is the deal with... Never mind.
Natalie gave Felix an early Christmas gift:

They light up when he walks and they feature Transformers. Awesome.

Felix Enters the World of Politics

I had planned a post-election post, but then... well things happen, or don't happen. Anyway, my intention with this blog is and has been for it be about Felix exclusively. Well, I guess I can't say that as Renae started the blog. I can say for my part, I try to keep this free of items that don't directly pertain to Felix, so I did grapple with posting anything regarding the election. But this election will affect Felix as the president-elect will be a very different president than the current tragic failure. Obama will be replacing a president who once bragged that he ran against peace and prosperity and won. That win gave W a mandate to deliver us from peace and prosperity, I guess. Mission Accomplished. In the wake of his disastrous tenure, Bush and his neocon ideology leaves America (including my son) two unresolved failing wars, the magic trick of turning the largest budget surplus into the largest budget deficit, the worst financial crisis since the 30's, a massive expansion of the national debt, a massive wealth redistribution that has created a wealth gap that rivals that of the Gilded Age, an impending depression, and Al Qaida stronger than before his presidency. It is an extraordinary legacy, one that all of us and, most importantly to this blog, my son will have to pay for.
On election day, Californians narrowly passed the bigoted Proposition 8. In what is surely just a coincidence, California is now on fire. Last Saturday, in cities across America, rallies and marches took place to protest that decision. We picked Natalie up from her party house in the U district and took her and Tru to Seattle's rally at Volunteer Park where an estimated 6,000 people partook. The march that followed would have been a little too much for Felix so we walked over to the playground. On the way Felix found a very special stick that he put in his back pocket. After about an hour or so of play and 1/2 mile walk back to the car, Felix realized he no longer had his stick. He was very upset and explained to us that the stick was "very important to me". Some of you may remember a post from about a year ago (Nov. 2007) that Felix assigns a back-story to sticks he has found; so we knew how important it was to him. We drove back to the playground- the playground surrounded by trees, in fall- and with Natalie's assistance, Tru found his stick.

On a lighter note, Renae got this idea to blow up pictures we took on our 2003 trip to Europe and frame them. While laying them out Felix came by and saw a blow up of a portrait type picture of Renae and me taken on a water taxi in Venice. He snatched it up, walked out of the family room, and said "I'm gonna hang this in my room". This is a picture of him slumbering soundly under that picture.

Halloween IV

Our Halloween began a little early. The Sunday before Halloween some friends of ours invited us to go along with them to the Pumpkin Prowl at Woodland Park Zoo. Apparently it is an annual event, and as I was told by a participant from a bygone year, it was pretty lame. I'm not sure what it was like the year they went, but I thought it was pretty cool, and more importantly so did Felix. Our friends, Kendra and Mike, have a near two year old son, Finn, and they brought the 5yo son of a friend of theirs, Gabe.

This is the best picture I was able to get of the three boys together, that's Finn in the hat, Gabe in the green, and our Trumie in the black hoodie. Sorry, I should have tried harder. Anyway, Finn is still a little young but Felix and Gabe had so much fun together running through the haunted-house decorated Zoomazium, looking at the hundreds of pumpkins the zoo had lining the paths, and collecting the various goodies being given away at the stalls.

Felix has reached the age where he is fascinated with superheroes, thus he chose Batman as his costume. Above you see him standing next to our attempt at a graveyard in our front yard. The skeleton lights up. Felix really enjoyed going door to door, though initially he was a little shy. At the beginning of the day we had rain, but a little before dark the sun came out. It evaporated the water on the ground and caused an eerie mist throughout our neighborhood, it was great. I tried to take a picture of the house, with the mist; this is what I got:

Felix at the Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend Renae and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary in Port Townsend, the town in which we got married. Felix got to spend the weekend at his Aunt Rachael's, thank you Rachael. This post is not about last weekend, but the weekend prior; the weekend we visited the pumpkin patch. There is not too much to tell so maybe I'll load this post up with pictures. You'll notice our little Trumie is not wearing a coat, that is because we had beautiful weather for a Seattle October. Also because, as Felix told Renae, he doesn't need a coat because he has "super skin".


One last thing, Renae's brother, Tyler, is staying with us for a short while. Felix is enjoying having his uncle around. Tyler didn't come with us to the hunt for pumpkins and is not involved in this post in any other way. But how about some more pictures?


Those two (two, of course) little pumpkins Felix spent a lot of time selecting, they had to be just right. He also wanted to get some "big, little pumpkins", which means medium sized pumpkins.
Speaking of 'two', I just remembered a story from last Friday while Renae was working- There is a show on PBS that Felix enjoys called Wishbone, a show about a live action dog that stars as the main character in a retelling of several classic children's tales. He also has a new favorite color: black. As you know Felix likes things, he also likes to combine things he likes. In this case, while he and I were playing with some blocks and making a little dog kennel out of them, Felix went for the trifecta: two, black Wishbone dogs were the imaginary occupants of his kennel. He then expanded on his characters, they were a daddy and a little boy Wishbone. He also told me that there was a "mommy Wishbone, and a little girl Wishbone, and another girl Wishbone" he begins and looks me in the eye, slightly tilting his head and says mournfully, "but they are dead". But the daddy Wishbone and the little boy Wishbone had names: Dana and Felix. I was touched.

Felix's First School Portrait

Things Felix's Generation Won't Know

Roll down your window? Hang up the phone. The actions these terms describe are no longer relevant. (Well, we do still have a manual window in the Geo, which sadly has to be used to operate the door since the inside door knob broke off, but you get the point.)

Felix pointed to something the other day and I was very confused and couldn't make out what he meant for sometime. I was describing how the humidifier worked and he asked me what the mouse was for. I didn't figure it out until the next day when we played with tanagrams and he repeated the use of the noun mouse for this directional identifier. See the picture below, Felix doesn't call that shape the term we might use. He calls it a mouse. As in the cursor on a computer screen.

Why are Bad Guys Bad?

I see myself as a pacifist and yet I've got a boy who is obsessed with guns and shooting (well, "pewing" is the term) and Bad Guys. Felix sees bad guys everywhere. He pews them all day long, stomps them, runs from them or after them. There is definitely a love-hate relationship going on here. He wants to be the black spiderman for Halloween. The other morning on the way to school he asked, "Why are bad guys bad?". I was quiet while I struggled with the answer, wrestling with some inner-demons no-doubt, so Felix suggested in his let-me-quote-Mommy-voice, "Maybe we should get a book about that at the library today?" The librarian directed me to several books with titles such as: Patience; Tolerance; Kindness; and Why War is Not Good (which was a very touching and honest children's story). However, I'm still struggling with the question, as we all are really. Dana and I teased about it having something to do with conservatism and republicans...but I don't really think that. Perhaps the answer to that will be left to Felix's generation, along with our debt, bank bailouts and the disastrous affects of the Iraq war. Truth is, bad guys aren't all bad, good guys aren't all good, and until Marvel introduces the Not So Naughty Grey Spiderman, I'm just not sure how to explain that to a 3 year-old.

O'Felix, The Number 2, and Pluto (or How the IAU Broke a Young Boy's Heart)

Felix has some likes. He likes the letter O, he likes it so much he insists his name begin with it when we write it out. I'm not sure where he developed his affection for the letter O, but I can understand it- it's a nice looking letter.
Tru likes the number 2. I think 2 gained a place in his heart when he was two. Even though he is three, it seems he remembers two very fondly and commemorates that age by collecting items with 2 on them. Playing games that involve numbered cards can become difficult as the only cards he is interested in are the cards with a 2 on them. Sometimes, if he sees me writing, he'll ask that I write a 2 on a sheet and give it to him. Renae writes her 2's with a loop. Oh no. No, no, no, that is all wrong, write it again mom.
And then there's Pluto.

Felix had shown some interest in the stars so a while back we borrowed astronomy books for kids from the library. He really took to them and he learned to identify several of the planets- including Pluto, his favorite (I think it may have become his favorite because of O). As the book was a little older it listed Pluto as a planet. I showed him a newer book where Pluto was excluded. He asked where Pluto was and I told him that on August 24th, 2006, the International Astronomical Union reclassified Pluto and that it was no longer considered a planet. Well, maybe just the part about Pluto no longer being considered a planet.
DENIAL
"No dad, it's still a planet" he says. I explained to him that some scientists had decided it wasn't after the first book was written.
BARGAINING
He gingerly puts his hand on my face to direct my gaze into his soft eyes as he sweetly says "But it still could be, we could read this book". I explain that that book is older and that information has been superseded.
ANGER
"No dad, it's a planet!" he commands. I try to move us along and ask if he wants to keep reading.
DEPRESSION
He does want to keep reading, but he doesn't really care which book, and he seems kind of bummed out.
And that is where it was for several weeks. Well we got past it. I still read him astronomy books, but ones that excluded Pluto as a planet. Then a couple of days ago, Renae and Felix find a book specifically about Pluto at the library, and last night I read it to him. The first sentence starts "Pluto is a dwarf planet..." and Felix interrupts "Pluto is not a planet". I tell him that he is correct but "dwarf planet" is a different classification than planet. He says "okay, but it's not a planet". ACCEPTANCE

3 Degrees of Separation

It had come to my attention just yesterday that our possible future VP (god forbid) and Felix are separated by three degrees. The picture above includes a friend of mine (the one with the basketball) playing against the "Barracuda". It probably isn't fair to claim such a relationship as my friend does not remember Sarah.
To add to Felix's fame by acquaintance, the link below is to this years I-Madonnari Italian Street Painting Festival. You may remember a previous post where I included a picture of Felix in chalk. That picture was one of those chosen for this year's brochure. If you visit the link, go to page four and the memory of that past post will come flooding back to you.
http://www.aiacentralcoast.org/AIA-IMADONNARI/FULL_Brochure2008sm.pdf
Felix has been in school for about two and half weeks and he loves it... I wish I could say. Actually, he's kind of tight-lipped about it. When I come home I ask him how school was that day, and just about every time he answers "great", and that's about it. He seems to be at that stage where school is great while he's there, but the next morning when it's time to go, he's not all that interested. Well, tough luck kid, you're going.

Last weekend we were invited to an event held by one of Renae's clients. I'm not sure Renae understood the invitation because when we arrived we were given instructions on how to serve the guests. That didn't happen, and we did have a lovely time. Actually there isn't much to tell about it so I made up what would have made for an interesting story. Felix did discover the power of the light saber as he played with one of the boys. And yes, that is a soccer ball, not a light saber in Tru's hands.

Recently cousin Rooney stopped by to make some chocolate chip cookies with Felix. And on another day Felix and April went to the beach.

Felix's First Day of School

Felix has started school!

Felix was admitted into our top choice for preschool two weeks ago after a long, long wait on the waiting list. Today was his first day and this is how it went. Felix and I got up early and spent a wonderful morning together until it was time to change out of his pj's and get ready for school. Luckily, Daddy arrived back from work just in time to get the ball rolling and get us out the door on time. We were welcomed at the school by his teacher and lots of other eager kids with reluctant parents (there were a few with reversed adjectives). He took off his shoes and donned his rubber boots and we proceeded to the playground to 'check in', a term which he is required to say to the volunteer with the clipboard each morning but which he was unwilling to voice today. Once in the playground my little Seattleite, who always refuses his coat, was told he had to bring a coat each day and if he didn't want to wear it he could hang it on the bridge (picture below). He soon found his comfort zone (picture below) and forgot about his hovering parents. After the flag raising (complete with salute and song - oh, by the way, a moment of pure kindred spirit occurred during the flag salute when I, as is usually my custom, omitted the words "under God" and the woman next to me said, "I do that too!" - Oh, I am so going to love this Montessori community) the kids changed back out of their boots and went into the classroom while the parents gathered down the street at a park for a coffee social. When I picked Felix up he was ready to go home and asked me if I missed him. He said he missed me too and was hungry for lunch. He said they had ELEPHANTS! at the school (not to confuse you, they do have goats, lizards, and an alpaca but the elephants were miniaturized toys).


Side note: Felix and I were visiting a neighbor (a couple roughly the same age as Dana and I with no kids and two spoiled dogs) when Felix shyly asked if the woman could make a sun. It took him so long to finally say it out loud and then we were so confused as to what he meant. She and I spent a few minutes unsuccessfully attempting to gesture a sunshine much to his disappointment. He motioned in front of himself with his hands but we just couldn't figure it out. Finally, he said, "No, one that will turn into a boy." Guess he was looking for a playmate. Out of the mouths of babes...

Felix's Expanding World

Here you see Felix enjoying beautiful Lake Washington. This was from earlier this month. I know that was a little while ago but I've been pretty busy and I have been neglecting the blog. I had several pictures that went along with the one above and I was going to blog about the time we had at the beach. But, time passes, memories fade, and the past becomes a jumbled mess of partial recollections. I thought I would make that the theme of this post.
Last weekend we went camping on the Olympic Peninsula. Here you see Felix commanding the smoke of our bonfire.
He had a good time camping, maybe because we only stayed one night. The forecast called for rain the next night so we left. But not before we swung out to the coast. From the look of the picture you may think we went in January, but that is August.

As you see him in the picture below, Felix lied across the back of his mother's chair and said that he was a "jaguar hanging", like a jaguar lounging on a tree limb in the Amazon. I don't know where he learned about jaguars but it made me realize that there is world of his that I don't know anything about. He visits friends where they will speak of things and share concepts that I won't be able to understand. He spoke of being a jaguar hanging, a concept he learned about outside my knowledge, drawing upon the memory of a context I'll never know. I further realize that this blog will continue to get less and less relevant to the actual events and thoughts of his life. I wonder if one day he will take over this blog. That thought makes me a little sad, there was a time when his mother and I knew everything that happened to him and everything he did. We could predict behavior (I don't mean as in good/bad behavior), and easily understood, even with his less sophisticated language, where he may have gotten the impression to do or say a certain thing. His world is bigger than me.

With that said, we just found out last Monday that he was accepted to Montessori school. He starts September 2nd. There is actually a long story that goes with that, I will save that tale for the First Day of School post.

I'm Felix. My Mommy and Daddy Made Me.

Lately, Felix has said the cutest things. We often have long discussions starting with what seemed an innocuous statement by myself, followed by a series of Felix repeating "why?" and then my exhausting attempts to explain the universe. Somehow, we got onto the subject of his birth and my wise little son now easily declares that his mommy and daddy really wanted him and so made him. When a little friend of his was trying to learn his name he proudly introduced himself as, "I'm Felix. My mommy and daddy made me."

This morning as we were cuddling in bed before we had committed to getting up, Felix announced, "I'm ready to be a man." When I explained that it would involve sleeping all night in his own bed, he agreed that he wasn't quite ready.

One thing he says that I'm reluctant to teach the proper term is when he is hungry he says he is hungry and when he is thirsty he says he is, "drinky", such as, "Can I have apple juice? I'm very drinky."

The picture I've included is from a day in downtown Seattle where I was responsible for all the kids in the picture, by myself, with one stroller. We had quite the adventure, including finding our way from Westlake to the waterfront and then splurging on a cab ride back. At the point of the picture, I'm waiting outside the car for the keys and decided to prop all the kids up on a wall where they can't get down without my help and then half-heartedly threatening to walk away from them. A bystander was so amused, he offered to take a picture and email it to me. As far as what Felix was saying at this point, I'm sure it was a lot of, "I wanna hold you, Mommy."

Sorry my posts are far and few between, any opportunity to get on the computer without Felix's protests are usually used for billable work. I've got great babysitting lined up for the rest of the summer though so hopefully you'll hear more from me! I had to add, just now he clipped his nails, he says, so he could "see his bones". Which reminds me of the frequent question he asks when handed a bottle of water these days, "Are there bones in it?" This took a little explanation from his grandma, apparently he choked on water, down the wrong tube, and my Grandma Hoffman's joke, "Were there bones in that water?" really stuck with him. Love, Renae

The 4th of Goodbye

How is that for a sappy title?
Almost every year as a family we spend the 4th of July at Downtown Bellevue Park. We get there at about 1:00pm, spend the day enjoying the playground, the vendors and attractions the park has brought in, and relaxing with each other while awaiting the fireworks show later in the evening. For this reason, it has become one of my favorite holidays. This year we missed the 4th of July with the family. Renae accompanied me on a trip to New York City for a softball tournament. We had such a great time there, and I got to play in Central Park, but I still have some regret about missing Independence Day with Felix. Last year he was interested in the fireworks, though he did fall asleep halfway through the display. This year he anticipated the fireworks and had an understanding and excitement for what was coming. He spent the 4th with Grandma Deanna and Grandpa Lee in Mount Vernon and had a wonderful time. When Renae and I got back, he told us all about the big explosions. That made me even more wistful for what I missed. The picture above is from the water park down the street from us. It has nothing to do with the 4th, and because we were in NYC, we don't have any pictures from that occasion. This picture is from July though.

Charlie and the Tractor Factory

I didn't realize Renae was going to post so soon. Now this blog will be out of order and I'll have to start Felix's blog all over from scratch. Actually, I think I'll just accept that this will be out of order.
I really don't have too much to say on this one. The pictures were taken by our friend Kelly, Charlie's mom, and I don't know much about what went on other than Kelly found that she had our camera and snapped some pictures. Thank you, Kelly.




As you can imagine, Tru had the time of his life.













It has been expressed to me by several people, including Renae, that they don't know what it means that Felix has The Shine. The Shine is an extrasensory gift held by a little boy in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 movie, The Shining (I realize it was a book first, but I didn't read it). The Shine was expressed by the boys pointer finger that used him as a medium in delivering cryptic messages of impending doom. You can understand now why Pointer has me so concerned. Scatman Crothers recognized the gift but I don't remember if he himself had The Shine. If he did, he failed to foresee an ax in the back.
One last thing, Renae is supposed to have some pictures to go along with the previous post; don't let her get away with not adding them.

The Big Show at the Little Gym

For the last three weeks Felix has been joining his friend, Charlie, at the Little Gym's Funny Bugs gymnastics class for 3 year-olds. They go together on Tuesdays while Charlie's mom, Kelly, watches Felix and I get some much needed work done. This has worked out very well as Charlie and Felix get along famously and seem to share the same high level of vocabulary and imagination. With Vala and April in Iceland the success of the situation is a great relief. Anyway, the culmination of 12 weeks of training (only 3 for Felix) is the 'Big Show', which I attended on Tuesday. I haven't attended any of the Little Gym sessions as I figured Felix would be much less likely to participate if I were around. Just after I arrived I saw Charlie coming up the walk so I ducked into the bathroom so I wouldn't distract Felix from his pre-performance preparations. I left the light off so I could hear when to come out and thus scared some poor kid and her mom when they came in to use the bathroom. (Dana just commented, "Renae, you do the weirdest things sometimes." - So True) I continued to hide from Felix until the performance began and then managed to sneak into the audience unnoticed. The kids went through several routines that they'd been practicing, all with child development in mind as well as basic gymnastics skills. After a round of jumping and attempting handstands and forward rolls, Felix ran to sit next to his buddy, Charlie and exclaimed, "That really tires me out."

Felix has always enjoyed the balance beam and the instructor described the story they tell to coordinate with the child's movements: A caterpillar crawls along a branch (balance beam), crouches into a cocoon and waits for the count of three and then stands up, spreads his wings and says "I have beautiful wings" while turning in a circle. Then the butterfly walks to the end of the branch, flies (sticks one leg out) and then jumps off the branch and says, "Tada" with arms up in the air. Felix did the routine perfectly except that as he spun in a circle he caught my eye and exclaimed, "I see my mom!" From then on there was little the instructor could do that kept his attention. All the other parents clearly understood why I had previously been hiding out and got quite a kick out of it.

Felix Has "The Shine"

In the above picture, in front of Felix's face, is Pointer. Pointer tells Felix things. Today Pointer told Felix that Felix wanted to watch Looney Toons. Here is what happened: After picking Tru up from his Aunt Susie's, we arrived home and began playing on my bed. Then Felix extended his pointer finger and introduced me to Pointer. He said in a lowered voice while showing me his finger, "This is Pointer", he then turned Pointer to his chest and in a slow, gruff voice, and as if Pointer is talking of himself in the third person, he says "Pointer wants Felix to watch (now Pointer is pointing to the TV)Looney Toons." I would have thought that he was visited by Scatman Crothers except that Scatman Crothers is dead. (Renae had to clarify that Scatman Crothers is the person who visited the boy in the movie, the Shining, and foretold that the boy had the 'shine'. Remember "Redrum, redrum"?)

Today is Renae's birthday. While I was at work, Renae dropped Felix off at Cousin Rooney's pad, and spent the day with her mother and sisters. Once I got home after picking Felix up, he and I celebrated Renae's birthday blowing bubbles in the front yard.