Remote Control

Ty got this cool new remote control car for xmas. Yesterday it was super warm (in the 70's) and we took the car out to the cul-de-sac at the end of the street. We had lots of room to maneuver and test our driving skill. We were eventually joined by some neighbors who also had an RC car. Their 2 year old was fascinated by the whole thing and was trying to imitate Ty. It was all very cute.

Wishing you a happy and healthy 2009 from our family to yours.

Mystery Photo #1

I got Ty a little camera that he could take on trips. It has very low resolution and he can snap away whenever he likes. It also has a slow shutter speed which makes for interesting results. When I downloaded some of his recent photos onto the computer I came across this one he apparently took somewhere in our house.

See if anyone can guess what this is. Feel free to post your guesses in the comment section. I will reveal the answer in a later post.

San-Ty Claus

Happy Holidays to all our friends and family. With love from Ty and Kevin.

All Decorated

The tree is up and Ty helped place the ornaments. Looking forward to see what Santa brings this year.

Trail of Lights

Ty and I went the other night down to Zilker Park to see the famous trail of lights. This was the warmest night of the last few weeks and it seems we were not the only people who thought of taking advantage of that. No joke, there were probably 25,000 people in the park that night.

By the time we made it through the whole display, we finally ended up at the tree where, as tradition dictates, we spun around under it while looking up at the lights. A very magical night that left both of us super tired, but only one of us was able to fall asleep in the car for the ride back home.

Everything Has Its Place

If a Montessori education teaches your child one thing, it is being precise and organized. I will often find Ty lining up a few action figures or creating some symmetrical LEGO design. This time he went all out.

I left the room for a few minutes and came back to discover he had taken most of his small toys (cars, action figures, animals) and placed them all over his train table. The result was this amazingly organized pattern of colors and shapes.

I tried to capture it on film, but the 3-D experience is what's needed to fully appreciate this. At the very least please click on the image to enlarge to see the details. Perhaps Uncle Casey would display this as post-modern art in his Chelsea gallery?

More Marble Madness

Highly sophisticated mechanical engineering was involved here in creating some workable marble creations. This set differed from the one we have back at our house. It was made of wood and the blocks have several options of how they will drop the marble. Dad mastered this quite well to the envy of his brother and G-pop.

Laughing and Crying

Ty and his cousin Swann don't get to see much of each other. Maybe once or twice a year. The excitement built up when Thanksgiving day finally arrived and the two finally got to play.

Let's preface this by saying that they are close to the same age and pretty much have run of the house when they are apart. The first hour was wonderful. They got along, were affectionate, cooperative and complimentary.

By the second or third hour, boundary lines were being drawn, sharing wasn't so easy, and giggles were becoming tears.

By the end of the evening, they needed to be separated. Those of you with multiple children probably see this dynamic a lot, or watch it develop over time. We got an encapsulated view of childhood emotions all very quickly. Very entertaining, and tiring at the same time.

Needless to say, they got to hang out again the next day and things were pretty much the same roller coaster. Can't wait to do it again next year.

Stew Leonard's

Anyone who has ever been to CT has probably heard of this place. Imagine crossing Disney with a supermarket and this is what you get. Follow this link here for some fun tunes sung by animatronic milk cartons.

Ty and I joined Gram the day before Thanksgiving to pick up some last minute items.
Ty also got a chance to model his new winter wear for the first time. (something we don't often need in Austin).

Autumn in Connecticut

Here's Ty standing on the deck behind my parents' house. We liked to watch the ducks swim along the river each day. I can't explain the finger gestures here though.

38 Stories Up

Picture perfect day in the city. We can look across to Central Park from my parents' apartment. One day earlier and we could have watched the balloons bobbing along Central Park West headed downtown. (One year I saw that and it was really cool).

Ty enjoyed the view and pointed out several landmarks (the Empire State Building). He also liked the super fast elevator which brought us higher than just about any building in Austin would get us.

*** Editor's note: This is post #300 on the blog. Big milestone. Thanks to all our readers and family for making this fun to do.