Felix the Rascal (or The TruMonster)

You might be asking yourself "What is Felix doing?", or "What is in Trumie's hands?", perhaps "Why can't Dana take a picture that's in focus?". Well, I can answer the first two. But before I do, I want you to look in the background of this picture out the window. Do you see those two bikes? They were stolen right off my porch. What our little Truman is doing is getting Karma wet. What is in his hands is a rubber ducky. How did we get to a wet dog from a child with a toy in his hand? Here is how, though with a different target for the demonstration:


































And now our victim-


I'm not sure where he got the idea for this. When I give him a bath we will sometimes fill the ducky with the bath water and squirt each other, but outside the bath was all him. I was lying on the couch when I saw him run into the family room, giggling, on his way to assaulting Karma with water. I then followed him with the camera and only interfered when he was on his way to Sosa. I thought the dogs had been tortured enough and suggested to Felix that Natalie might find it fun.

Otto Felixthal

About a week ago, I took Felix to the Museum of Flight. Felix loves machines; he loves earth movers, planes, trains, motorcycles, helicopters, jackhammers, cranes, all kinds of large machines (though his first and truest love is still the backhoe)- so the Museum of Flight was hog's heaven to Felix. He spent quite a bit of time on the second floor landing, staring out over the atrium at the many suspended planes and helicopters.










The latter part of our visit was spent at the kids play area. As you can see, there is a at one time fully functional helicopter that was originally promoted and sold as a commuter vehicle. He waited for as long as he could before he gently tried to push that other boy out of the pilots seat.
Renae bought Felix Truman some plastic hockey sticks and set up a little net (thank you Susan) for him in the street a couple of days ago. Felix had a lot of fun, but what I find really interesting about what happened is- see the shirt Felix is wearing? You may remember that shirt from several posts ago. That was the shirt he wore when he went with his cousin Rooney to the soccer camp. This is the first time he has worn that shirt since that day. When we put it on him earlier in the day, he said, "We go to soccer now". I don't know if he was asking or remarking, I just thought it was funny that he remembered that that was the shirt he wore to soccer.

The Very Hungry "Reader"

Blogspot is in the process of introducing a new feature to our blogs. To some extent we can now post short movies on our blogs. This little clip is from several weeks ago and, thanks to the miracles of modern technology, we can now share it with you. There is one little caveat that many of you may have already realized- you may not be able to see it. I did some tinkering on this and I have found that I am not able to view it using the Explorer browser. I have been able to view it using the Firefox Mozilla browser (I have found this browser to be far superior to Microsoft's, sorry Mike). Firefox Mozilla can be easily downloaded for free off the internet, and it's completely safe.
Back in April, we took a trip to Chicago. While there, Felix was given the book, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", by my dear cousin, Becky. Felix loves this book and it is in heavy rotation on the list of books Felix likes me to read to him. We've read it enough that Felix has memorized most of the book. So while it may appear in this clip that Felix Truman is reading, he is in fact trying to pull one over on you and is instead reciting. Below is the page he is "reading", if you open the picture in another window, you will be able to make out the words and read along with him.

The Felix of July and Rube Goldberg

When Americans hear "the 4th", they know it refers to July, the date on which a great nation was born and a date on which we were given the late Rube Goldberg. We celebrated the birth of our nation, once again, at Downtown Bellevue Park. It was a gorgeous day in Seattle- sunny and 80 degrees. We got there early afternoon in order to get a good site and to spend the day with each other, enjoying the park and the amusements. We had brought a little barbecue, and as we were carrying it up, a person with the parks department "strongly suggested" we not use it. "I mean, we really, really discourage you from using it", she discouraged. After Renae lamented "there goes dinner", the parks rep gave us vouchers for free teriyaki. Anyway, as you can see Felix got into the spirit, for about fifteen seconds, and would only don this hat while eating a Dorito, thereby showing respect to his Mexican roots he does not have.
Felix also enjoyed some ice cream. It was Renae's, and she was not happy about it. We made sure she got another and peace was restored.
Before I go any further, I would like to address a mistake I had made in a previous post. Apparently I misspelled Chewbacca. My error was brought to my attention by my Star Wars geek sister (I won't say which). Felix Truman's nickname should be written, Trubacca. My apologies to the Wookie my sister affectionately calls, Chewie.

Alright, so back to the 4th. We did have a wonderful day just relaxing and spending time together. We did miss Megan, who is in California visiting her mother. But we were thinking of her, and did get to talk to her. We brought a small tent with us for shade, and pitched it right next to the water, where Felix and Renae would dangle their feet.
And here we are getting ready for the fireworks-It was about 10pm when the fireworks started. Felix Truman was a little tired by then after such an active day. Just before the first explosion, the lights went out throughout the park and everyone got quiet. Felix could sense the tension and became very alert, he sat on mommy's lap as we directed his gaze to the other side of the park. As the first flare exploded, he sat in awe, gripped Renae's arms a little tighter, and then smiled. They lasted about a half hour, and Felix Truman fell asleep about half way through.

Felix's First Walk To School

Natalie gave Felix one of her old back packs; a stuffed Pikachu. He has been trying it on lately and is quite adorable. While I was working on the front porch today, Felix was inside putting the backpack on, he opened the front door, walked past me and announced matter-of-factly, "I'm ready for school." With that he stepped off the porch, walked out of the yard, got to the street corner and then turned to walk out of my sight. He looked back only once and not in that 'I'm two years old and daring you to chase me' way but instead in that, 'see you after school gets out, mom' way. I ran into the house to tell dad that his son had just left for school and was currently in front of the neighbor's house out of sight! Dad caught up with him and confirmed that Felix was indeed, "going to school". 99% adorable 1% scary.


What dad doesn't know is that he pulled a similar stunt with my purse this week only that time he was, "going to work".

Me Against Steve Pool

Every Friday morning I turn to the back page of the Seattle section of our local newspaper to check Steve Pool's weekend weather forecast, and every Friday morning I look at his ridiculous mug, with that stupid, smug smile, laughing at me because he knows that his prediction is nothing more than a coin flip. But I am a trusting man, and when I read this last Friday's forecast, a forecast Mr. Pool described as "spectacular" with highs in the mid-70s, sunny and clear, I thought, "yes, finally Summer is here", and I dressed myself and Felix in shorts. So, as Felix Truman and I went about our Friday routine, which begins with a trip to Trader Joe's, we were met with gray skies. It is not unusual for a "spectacular" Seattle day to start off a bit overcast and burn off mid-morning. But, knowing Steve's track record I thought, "don't let me down, Steve". After shopping, dropping the groceries off, and getting ready for our bike ride to the park, it was now well after mid-morning and Steve's crap shoot forecast had failed again. But this time I wasn't going to let Steve beat me; as you can see in the pictures above and below, despite the 60 degree weather, we still wore shorts. By the way, it rained that afternoon. What a charlatan.

The other day Rooney came over for a visit. Felix Truman and Rooney have a somewhat strained relationship. I don't quite understand it, they get along for the most part, but at some point they will usually take a swing at the other. But this time they didn't. They played together, took a bike ride together, and as you can see here, they even shared. I knew they could put aside their differences. Perhaps the Israelis and Palestinians could take a lesson.


You may have noticed that I've been referring to Felix Truman as Felix Truman. There is a reason; the other day, Renae, was lamenting that "Felix" does not readily lend itself to nicknames. Truman does however, my favorite nickname being Trubaka (thank you, Annie), it rhymes with the wookie, Chewbaka (or however he/she spells his/her name). If anyone has any ideas, we'd love to hear them. Also, please feel free to leave comments, sometimes I feel like I'm writing only for myself.
Here are a few more pictures of Felix Truman, helping out by watering the plants. What a good little guy.

Toot Toot Tooing

As many of you may know, I am a bit of a pacifist. I didn't want Felix to have anything to do with guns. I had forbidden the girls from showing him anything related to a gun, including violent video games, tv/movies. Perhaps it is innate, because for the past few weeks he has been carrying around a Mr. Potato Head arm, one with a little sign of a clown on it, and has pretended it to be a too-tooer (that is his sound effect he makes when he "shoots" it). Well, yesterday we celebrated Father's Day and we watched whatever movie Dad wanted. It happened to have a few fighting scenes full of Matrix-esque moves and lots of gunfire. This morning, Felix grabbed his favorite potato head arm and started, "Toot toot tooting" the dogs, a fly, and then Mommy! How am I to respond?

The Well Rounded Felix

Felix is back and bigger than ever! The "terrible twos" are upon us now, and Felix is a handful. I don't know if it's because he's a boy, or maybe he just happens to be particularly rambunctious, but Natalie and Megan were not this ornery. I'm not complaining, I love it. Renae gets frustrated by it, but she is so patient with him and turns that clamorous energy into favorable construction. Felix keep digging up the dirt around some flowers we had planted in the front yard, so Renae pulled up the grass in a section of our backyard so Felix could use his Earth moving toys - his backhoe, dump truck, and bulldozer - as much as he can dig. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of it. But Renae got a picture of Felix "operating" a backhoe:
Felix loves mowing the lawn with pops. He will go through all the motions of operating a lawn mower: he checks the gas, he pulls the chord, and he engages the self-propulsion. Once we have our machines going, he will walk beside me as I go back and forth, for almost the entire yard. He even comes over and helps when I mow the neighbor's lawn (the poor man is unable to do it himself).

And it's not only lawn mowers that have captured his fancy, he also likes weed whackers. He doesn't have a toy weed whacker but he found this long piece of plastic that was a part of mobile that resembles a weed whacker.
Just recently, we took Felix to a little soccer camp or class or whatever it is they call it. Susan takes Rooney there, and so we were checking it out. The lighting was somewhat muted and the kids were so active, we never managed to get a picture of Felix and Rooney together.
This is the best picture we got. You may wondering what happened to Felix's left arm. I assure you, it is still there. Also, not that it's related, but I'll throw in a picture of Felix in his Spiderman jammies. Notice the webbing between the arms and the torso. Just adorable!
Lastly, I have been meaning to blog about our trip to Chicago. I haven't posted in so long because I wanted to make sure I put together a worthy post but I haven't had the time to do so. Anyway, I hope to do it soon, but until then- here is a picture of Uncle Pat and Felix.

Is Pat getting stiff-armed?

Sleep! Sleep! Sleep!

Getting Felix to sleep has been a challenge for sometime. Correction, getting Felix to sleep alone and without nursing all night is the challenge. Shortly before his second birthday I went away for two days and we tried to break Felix of the mommy all night long habit. When I returned we put him to sleep in his own twin bed, in his own adorable room (the favorite room of the house, by the way). He did well and continued to sleep on his own for more than two weeks. Mom and Dad really enjoyed getting almost a full night's sleep again and frankly, enjoyed having some time alone. Then Felix had his first ear infection and spent a week of sick nights in Mommy's arms in the bed. We didn't fight it for the next few weeks as we were going to share a bed with him in Chicago anyway. So the last few nights we have been trying to re-introduce the 'little bed' as he calls it and so far so good! Here is a picture of him enjoying his first night's sleep with the beautiful quilt his Grandma Judy in Canada lovingly made for him. Here is also a picture of him settled rather comfortably in our bed!

The Windy City

We had such a nice time in Chicago visiting Dana's family. We were there to share in the celebration of Grandpa and Grandma Morse's 60th Wedding Anniversary. We came a week early and joined them for Easter as well. The weather was sunny in Seattle but snowy in the Windy City so we were bundled up for most of our adventures but it sure was fun. Our tour guide was Dana's cousin, Becky, which we adore and miss already. Felix really enjoyed playing with the toy lawn mower and back hoe that Aunt Jill brought out. He also liked the Easter egg hunt. The girls were on their best behavior (wish I could say the same for myself) and Felix was a delight. Felix did very well on the plane rides, thus proving his future status as a world-traveler. Here is a new family picture to enjoy.

Felix at Two

I'm embarrassed and sorry that it has taken me so long to update Felix's blog. That is becoming a recurring motif of this blog, I should probably consider renaming it. Besides, Felix is two now, he should be doing it himself. So what have we missed? Christmas was a good time, my birthday was a riot, my Seahawks lost to the hapless Bears in the NFC championship game, and of course Felix's birthday on March 10th. He is already two! But, before he turned two, it was either in December or January, happened what I think is a very funny story. The story, a short story, is precipitated by Felix discovering chocolate. Felix loves chocolate. Anyway, so on that December or January day I walk into the kitchen and see Felix squatting in front of the cupboard in which Renae keeps her baking supplies. Renae happens to make the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever had, and therefore keeps a supply of Ghiradelli semi-sweet chips on hand. At some previous date Felix must have discovered the chips, and on this date thought he would indulge his tastes. When he sees me walk into the kitchen, he looks up at me, smiles, and then thinks to say "daddy go out".
I then ask, "should I go?".
He responds, "daddy go out, bye bye".
"Okay, I'm going, bye".
"Bye".
"I love you, Felix".
"I love you, bye".
So I walk out, but he's not convinced I left. I peek back around the corner and see Felix still looking over in that direction, making sure I left. He sees me, and reminds me "go, bye", smiling the entire time. I thought it was so funny. But I don't know why he did that. I have not yet had refuse him something he has asked for. I'm not sure why he thought that I would not allow him to have chocolate and that he would have to take it without me knowing about it. Perhaps Renae has been in that situation where she has denied him, but she doesn't recall.
I am continually awed by the process of Felix learning new concepts. One he has recently learned, or became aware of, or is now able to express, is not knowing. The first I noticed is when I asked him where his shoes were, he looked at the spot were they are usually kept, thought for a moment, and then said "I don't know". I thought, perhaps, he learned a phrase that, to him, meant, 'not there'. A few days later, we were looking at pictures of animals and he was naming them as I asked what they were, until we came to one he hadn't seen before. He considered the picture for a moment and then said, "I don't know". And shortly after that, we were playing with a set of four balls, one of each color: red, blue, green, and yellow. The yellow ball was not around so I asked Felix where the yellow ball was, and he looked around and then replied, "I don't know where it is". I found that really fascinating for two reasons: first, he used 'I'; he was aware that it was he, the individual, that did not know- and second, he was conscious of the fact that things exist outside of his knowledge.
Blah, blah, blah, alright, onto the pictures. The first one, the one at the top, was taken by Renae at Ikea. Renae was there without my knowledge or permission. Anyway, that pose Felix struck is his lounging position; he will sit like that on our couch while watching Clifford.

Speaking of Clifford, Felix loves Clifford. Felix's aunt Rachael painted Clifford on our window for Felix's birthday party. If it ever comes up in a Trivial Pursuit game you may be playing, Clifford's family name is Howard.

The picture to the right was taken in late November, can you see how much younger Felix looks? This picture was taken at Fort Worden in Port Townsend, that is where Renae and I got married. We were joined in this picture by some people we don't know.
And finally, Renae and Felix enjoying some homemade pizza and another picture.


It appears that I need to put some text under the pictures in order for the pictures not to run into the previous post.

Snow Day

Just thought I'd add the latest snow picture. By the way, Felix placed the hat on Frosty and then when I put the carrot in the snow for the nose he asked quizically, "Boogie?" as in booger.



If any of you not in the Seattle area watched Monday Night Football, where the Seahawks defeated the Packers in Seattle, you will already know that we had snow last night. Today, the following Tuesday, I just happened to have the day off. Here are a few pictures of the boy enjoying his first romp in the snow.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

I know, you are stunned that I am updating my blog! How did I find the time between my booming bookkeeping business, my volunteer activites, Megan's latest teen crisis and the constant needs of a toddler? I hired a nanny! It was only 2 days and a total of 7 hours but wow, what a difference! I got a little bit caught up with my clients and didn't have to work like a dog on the evenings and weekends! Felix really took to her and the first day he took a walk with her without even checking on me, no mom in tow, no apron strings attached! He is sleeping now, in his bed, after she cleverly got him down for a nap. These are pictures taken with Marlies' cell camera.

There is something to be said for hiring someone truly dedicated to the care of your child, not distracted by a desire to get back to their my space account or to their video game! Nothing against the loving attention he gets from his sisters, but I am so relieved to know that he can and will go to someone other than family! When Dana and Natalie were in Switzerland I got really behind on work and realized that I was always juggling Felix's needs against that of my business and it takes a lot of effort to keep those balls in the air. Now that I am caught up and looking to the holidays, I am aware that I need to let go of more in order to be more focused on the things I am most thankful for: my loved ones! If it weren't for this bookeeping business I wouln't be able to be at home with Felix and there for Megan after school. I've got to find a balance.