Category: drunken midgets

Despite my pleading, Claire would not let us take the $15 Fung Wah bus to Boston this Thanksgiving. That didn’t stop Julia from throwing up and we had two eruptions on the way. The difference was this time we could pull over and clean ourselves up. Maybe Claire is right about the bus.

We wound up having a great time. One highlight was the New England Aquarium. There we took the kids to their first IMAX experience. We were told the tamest show playing was Deep Sea 3D, but I guess everything is relative. I carefully balanced the 3D glasses on Weston’s nose and watched closely and tried to gauge his reaction. Right after the opening credits a fish swam toward us and Weston let out an extremely impressive scream. I quickly removed the glasses and he calmed down. I kept putting the glasses back on, hoping he’d get used to it. It was like flipping a light switch off and on. If I put the glasses on, he’d scream. If I took them off, he’d be quiet. I felt bad because he could either be frightened or watch blurry patterns move across the screen (The movie is meant to be watched in 3D). Julia, on the other hand, had the time of her life. She was standing and trying to grab the jellyfish that appeared to be swimming in front of her. I imagine she was a quite a nuisance for the lady with poofy white hair who was sitting in front of us. I was worried it was going to be another instance like the hot dog at the Mets game.

Weston enjoyed the aquarium much more than the movie and loved watching the sharks swim by. Julia walked around the aquarium like a jellyfish bobbing up and down. So, Julia is now “Princess Julia Jellyfish” and Weston is “Please-don’t-eat-me-I’m-too-young-to-die Weston.”

Weston chuckles and says, “Bye bye, little crocodile.”

Rich looks at him blankly, wondering why he just called him a crocodile.

Claire clarifies (Get it?…hehehe), “See you in a while crocodile.”

These photos were taken by a student who is doing a project based on kids learning about science. When he asked me, I thought he knew about my mad scientist renderings, but it turns out we each came up with the idea independently. Rather than asking strangers in the park if he could take photos of their kids, he and I met up and lucked out on some pretty good shots. The kids were surprisingly willing to play along.

Bad Ju-Ju

X-Con

Wild West’n

The gathering spot in our apartment is not the fireplace (as if we had a fireplace) or even the TV; it’s the window sill. The kids love to stand by the window and look out at all of the people and cars on Broadway. When Conrad was getting comfortable standing, he would stand bull-legged and lightly bang his hands on the window. I remarked that he looked like King Kong. Weston overheard this and said, “No…he’s not King Con.” I think this was Weston’s way of reaffirming that he was next in line to be king. It sort of stuck because it fits with the rest of the kids’ nicknames: Julia is always princess something or other (Princess Aurora, Princess JuJu, Princess Dandelion, etc.) and she decided early on that Weston was her Prince Syrup (“Syrup” was how Weston said, “Philip”), and I always just assumed that I was King and Claire was Queen. I guess I’ve been overthrown and Conrad has usurped the throne.

Oh, and by the way, his royal highness is walking all over the place now. And he sings, gives high fives, waves, and jabs with a pretend sword (complete with sound effects).

Weston peeping into our jack o’ lantern.