In color, and with moving pictures!

My dad ("Pop-Pop," in our boys' parlance) fairly recently resumed work on his model railroad, a project that had been on hiatus in our basement for many years. I can remember being excited about it when I was a girl, but I'm pretty sure that my long-ago excitement would be faint next to Jonah's enthusiasm. Pop-Pop showed Jonah (and even Manny) how to use the control board to direct the trains, something at which Jonah became farly adept (he is, after all, not even three yet). In this video, though, you'll see that controlling the trains is hardly better than watching them: It's something of a miracle that Jonah's nose wasn't skinned by the passing locomotive. (This video is from our early April visit to Michigan.)

This truck was a Christmas gift from my sister and her husband to the boys. I won't say that I hate it: It's not out for play often enough for me to have developed any strong feelings about it. It does, however, provoke some pretty cute reactions in the boys that keep me from re-gifting it to another child. I'm just glad that the boys don't yet know just what it is that they're supposed to be shaking.

The great outdoors

At our new apartment, we at last have a usable backyard. Besides the dog poop that initially lurked in the backyard of our former apartment, there were two sets of treacherous cement stairs; a giant, sharp piece of metal that I dug out of the grass one day; and a significant portion of what might've otherwise been grass claimed by a garage stuffed impossibly full of junk (trust me, I once got a glimpse) and a giant cement pad on either side of the double-wide lot. I'm thankful that we had a park almost right out our back door, but I wouldn't trade that for the luxury of the play-in-able backyard that we have now: It's paradise! (Though I do need to find a way to secure that back and side gates, now that the Monday Monkey has figured out how to open them and hears the siren song of the alley.) As I write this in June, the peonies are in full bloom out back. As these pictures are from mid-April, said peonies are still in the ground. The neighbors I've met are nice and have pretty backyards, and the ease of just going downstairs and into the outdoors makes living in the city feel that much more homey. This lovely plot of grass alone may have been worth all the hassle of moving.

Despite the face, Jonah actually loves to play in the backyard. Manny's far too small for this yet, but that doesn't mean that he can't try.

The neighbor's barking dog caught the attention of both boys.

Dog barking from one direction, bus going by from the other.

I "re-purposed" what I think is an old dog food-and-water stand that I took from someone's trash pile at the curb as a play table. ("Re-purposing" from other people's trash or litter is a skill that I watched my dad hone over the course of many years. I've never actually dove into a dumpster, though.) I've since upgraded to a plastic under-bed storage bin filled with sand, which the boys love. The dog food stand will do in a pinch, though.

Hammy Manny

Yes, Manny's a pretty happy kid. Why do you ask?