Desmond in his nature habitat, reading.
At the annual St. Bernard’s fish fry, enjoying the more relaxed environment than Holy Name. Desmond is apparently really excited (or proud?) of his piece of white bread
Eleanor just ran laps the rest of the night. In toddler terms, she probably ran a 10K.
Desmond briefly returns to the table for a brownie.
Eleanor pretending she’s a big kid on the bleachers
Desmond’s new hobby: collecting icicles
With weather in the upper 50s, playing outside was nearly irresistible. Stinson Park provided the perfect snow-melt-mud-free destination
Ella shouted to the horizon as she ran, as if yelling “fore!” to warn the world she was coming
Ok, rest.
Not shown: Desmond sprinting off into the distance towards the tower. In open fields, the well-practiced and respected “red light!” system kinda breaks down :/
Ella giving it a good stretch of the legs
Eleanor definitely has the butt-scoot-shuffle-GO! move down better than her brother at this age, mastering the slide
“Take a picture of me!”
As dad was loading the camera back up to return home, this incredible “golden hour” light just jumped out. Ok, a few more.
Sunday evening art collaboration
Desmond honing his chopsticks skills on some of dad’s pad thai
A rare breakfast out, the wait at Culprit was worth it for the egg sandwich and coffee. These two did fairly well sharing their cereal appetizer
Mom makes some good oatmeal, but this was right up there as well. A bit more berries and syrup than at home, Des was all about it
A morning downtown is nice, even in February
As lead thrill-seeker in the family, it was time to introduce Eleanor to the slides in the Gene Leahy Mall
There may have been a bit more scooting and running involved without any of the accelerant materials typically found laying around in warmer weather
Yup, she’s a fan
Warm enough to be outside, but the water is still frozen most of the way through
As an ardent walker nowadays, Eleanor got a quick advanced tutorial on walking on ice. She’s certainly persistent.
The main event was seeing the light. installation at Kaneko.
Eleanor was stoked to play with what was essentially a large-scale Light Bright
All curled up on mom for movie night, a rewatching of Despicable Me
Happy belated birthday to dad, with his dreamy new lens. Test shots of the evening wildlife…
Later a great duel broke out between to friends…
Holding the flush valve chain, Desmond genuinely helped dad fix the broken toilet lever
For Valentine’s Day, mom and dad joined Desmond at preschool for a special pizza lunch. Let the shenanigans begin.
Coloring is now a spectator sport apparently
There’s metaphor in there somewhere…
Pizza Hut pizza, just as good as you remember it 😉
Dad’s a very traditional colorer, mom’s more of the free spirit (or was it “color by committee?”)
Desmond has been here for longer than he can remember. It’s a joy to watch him in his natural element-
Opening cards was certainly a crowd favorite
It is a day based on love and reading as well as giving and sharing. And the books that they read and give are loved and received. And through this giving and reading and loving and sharing, we too can share and love and give… and read.
A new tradition begins: the kids each received a book for Valentine’s Day. Ella was shriek-and-giggly happy to read her new Little Owl Colors book (thanks again aunt Kellie for couriering!)
Desmond intensely flips through each page of his new Star Wars storybook
While mom and dad traded in their tradition of watching gangster flicks on Valentine’s Day, another new tradition was born: let the kids pick the family meal. Since Eleanor is still holds a non-voting position with sibling votes, Desmond got to pick. His response of “SOUP!” however bordered on curiously reflexive…
Eleanor is in her newfound happy place: eating (arguably the best homemade ever) tomato soup. She’s demonstrating impressive usage of a spoon with challenging contents. She also instinctively dipped her grilled cheese sandwich into to tomato soup with the facial response suggesting, “Been doing that all my life.”
Eleanor sucking back some almond milk (mom had a rare evening work event) while reading a book with dad before bed. She was indifferent at first, though as dad offered to be a cup holder (drink more, sleep longer), she indulged throughout story time
I want to be your personal penguin…
