Amazing. Robbie asked for cauliflower (first identified as "that one" then "caupair") for dinner, then refused to eat blueberries for dessert unless we removed any whipped cream on it. Surely this will not last.

From Robbie's 2nd Birthday

Happy birthday to my amazing little boy! Robbie had a much better birthday this year than last, mostly because of the absence of Coxsackievirus A. We celebrated with all the things Robbie loves - family, trains, a carousel, trains, trucks, trains, and bagels. He went nuts. We went on the train at Vasona Park and the conductor said she's never seen a kid quite as excited about the train as Robbie. We followed up with lunch at Great-grandpa Bob's house and a to-die-for princess cake from Bijan, and finally a much-needed nap. Despite the request to not bring gifts, some very gifts were brought, including Ninang's Yo Gabba Gabba gift set ("Wow, Gabba book! It's awesome!") and Mommy and Daddy's gifts of Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things That Go (a fave of Chez Bixler), Once Upon A Potty ("Jorsh!"), Richard Scarry's Best Storybook Ever (which still contains original, un-PC illustrations from Best Word Book Ever), and a Thomas train that works very nicely with the railroad set Richard and Mel gave him. 

His two year appointment went very well, despite some of the usual refusal to take clothes off/put clothes on again and some rearranging of exam room furniture. He got his HepA booster, and the doctor said he's talking very clearly (apparently that's the most common reason for follow-ups at this age) and everything else seems fine (god knows he's eating plenty) so no more regular checkups needed until next year.

In my continuing, unintentional series of orphan lit, I just finished The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart (I finished A Series of Unfortunate Events, and this post will end up being more about that than TMBS, I can tell you right now). I picked this up because it was recommended at the bookstore, and it's pretty fun, but after reading Lemony Snicket this puzzle-centric novel didn't have quite so much punch. Yet another team of clever orphans outwits bad guys, this time an island institute run by an egomaniac set on world domination through subliminal mind control. Part of what I wasn't impressed by was the whole mind control - by TV and radio at first - thing, which just seemed cliche. The other thing is that the book is a bit sappy. I understand that the idea is to show that the kids have heart and that's important, but there's a bit too much saying it and not enough showing it, and it felt a bit heavy-handed after a while.

Nevertheless the team is likable, even the crankiest member by the end. Perhaps the most fun was at the beginning of the book where the kids are selected by taking some very tricky tests, which you basically do along with them. However, the book also throws in a quiz separately at the end ("see which member you are most like!") which wasn't very revealing, or fun to take. It was just a trivia quiz, unlike the test the kids take in the book which really has some trick questions. The trick questions were more fun, imo, since they were almost entirely about problem solving and thinking outside the box. The book also had some very exciting action sequences, climaxing with some great chasing by (and outwitting of) truly unlikable older kids.


Anyways, what I think it fell most short at was the comedy. I could be wrong about this though - maybe the comedy was just aimed at younger kids. There's some fun silly moments, and some really gross moments that were a good laugh, but it's very different from Lemony Snicket, where the humor is very dark, very dry, and often very literary. Now that I say it, it does seem like the latter is aimed at adults, or maybe well-read children, and I do like when authors treat their readers with that kind of respect (flattery will potentially get you to purchase 13+2 books). All the cultural and literary homage of Lemony Snicket (and there's alot) is not wasted, imo. Helloooo, the series ends with a tempest, and something between The Tempest and Lost. And the penultimate book at the Hotel Denouement? Yes!

Speaking of which, I got the tangential Beatrice Letters, which reveals some hints about what happens after the end of the last A Series of Unfortunate Events novel as well as the relationship between Lemony Snicket and the first Beatrice Baudelaire. One thing that I've come to accept but I can see people having a hard time with is that some very big things are never solved/revealed in that series, and intentionally so. That's life. But the book design of the Series of Unfortunate Events is really some of the most innovative I've ever seen (check out the inside of the book cover of the Lemony Snicket Unauthorized Biography) (of the entirely of the epistolary "biography" itself, for that matter). The Beatrice Letters contains both letters (from Lemony to Beatrice I and from Beatrice II to Lemony) as well as punch-out LETTERS letters that spell out a variety of relevant anagrams. Like TMBS, ASUE is also full of puzzles, but mostly of the code and anagram type, and very silly codes at that but you'd be surprised how the get in your head after 15 books. TMBS uses morse code,  but that's it, and is that really that mysterious? Yes, the enemies figure it out too, so there you have it. But I digress. What I liked most about Beatrice Letters and reading it last is that it contains some of the most touching and utterly absurd love letters I have ever read.


and that is followed by some surprisingly loving lines about how love goes on despite time and distance and all the chaos of the world. I didn't think that you could talk about beards and secret notes delivered at restaurants (and there are alot of those in this series) and still feel warm and fuzzy, really.

Anyways, ASUE: very sweet and great for fans of absurdism.

 "Daddy poo-poo. Grandpa poo-poo. Grandma poo-poo. Cowboy poo-poo." 

One of the things I wrote about before LJ deleted the vast majority of my last post (::shakes fist::) was that I am working my way through Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. I stalled out after the 3rd book or so, then just picked it up again and it definitely got better. The running plot really picks up around the 5th or 6th book when you find out that the Baudelaires' parents' death was not accidental, and in general the writing gets progressively smarter and funnier. My favorite part is Sunny, the baby, whose baby babble is increasingly a foreign or cultural reference (e.g. "akrofil" when they have to climb to a 66th floor penthouse apartment, or "merd" when the proverbial shit hits the fan, or "orlando" when referring to the androgynous member of Count Olaf's gang, and "sakesushi" when they have to fish for salmon for lunch). Last night/this morning (love you, insomnia) I finished The Carnivorous Carnival, which was definitely the funniest book so far. If I weren't lacking so much sleep I could probably tell you why, but as things are you'll just have to take my word for it. :p

 Ever since having Robbie almost two years ago I've had on-and-off insomnia. Right now it's a bit past 6AM and I've been up since about 4:30, but it's not the worst thing ever since I got to sleep around 9:30. 

Anyways, thanks to either_or 

Robbie just completed his 5th airplane flight this year, including two coast-to-coast round trips. I have to say it's been a big relief - the last three trips have been vastly and increasingly easier and I'm starting to feel like we still have hope for real travel again in the future. In the last trips he's really gotten excited about flying ("PLANE! TRUCK! FOUR BAGS!"), and the free pretzels ("PETS!") and getting to ride the armrest like a horse doesn't hurt. In fact, when we were at my mom' s house he kept dragging around a box pretending it was his suitcase and going to the door saying "Bye bye! Airport going!" 

Whew!

 My god, I didn't think it was possible for these kids to get any cuter but there you have it. Robbie is SO KISSY! He hugs, like, everyone and everything - hugs the bunnies in his book, hugs himself in his high chair - although he's much more aggressive with little babies and young Asian women. Eh, go figure.

Also I love it when he says "felant" for elephant and "noonle" for noodle.

::end gushing::

I don't know what happen but all of a sudden Robbie started demanding things like a big kid (Llama llama red pajama). Last night he didn't want to go to sleep so he'd say "Water!" then I'd bring him a sippy cup, then "This book!", then "More water!" then he's dribble on himself and complain 'Wet!" so I'd have to dry his neck off (I don't know why it bothers him so much - it's like he's in a swimming pool the way he sweats at night) then back to "More water!" then he'd get wet and it would start all over again. This went on for probably 20 minutes.

Then this morning he woke up, sat up without a word, I asked "What do you need?" and he said, "Toast." And as we speak we're going through rounds of "More cheese!" as he eats all the cream cheese off the top of his one slice of toast.

Well, I'm glad to see they didn't delete my LJ because of inactivity. Anyways, yeah, Robbie's running everywhere. He's talking a good amount - lots of 2 word phrases, often containing "more", "no", and occasionally "horse". Eating like a champ, as always, with a penchant for barbecue and Persian food, but never really a big fan of chicken or potatoes. Good at hugging, but bad a sharing, and unfortunately good at pushing people in his personal space or playing with his toys (he has been using hugs to steal toys from the little babies at daycare, which is some really dirty pool, imo). And finally today, after an eternity with zero dental activity aside from playing with his Spongebob Squarepants toothbrush...The Seventh Tooth! I thought that thing was never going to appear.