Backyard Blues

The title should not be taken to indicate that we are sad. Quite the contrary, we are thrilled that Spring has come and we can spend lots of time in our "backyard" (driveway). The boys just happen to be wearing a lot of blue in the pictures below!








And some picture from our inside times:

Davy and I made him a shield the other day so that he can fight dragons like Prince Philip. Unfortunately he also tends to fight me and Eddy and these weapons get taken away and put on a high shelf by mom several times a day. But when he is being a dashing knight and "protecting" me and Eddy it is quite adorable. He gets his knight helmet--a baseball hat turned around so he can see through the pony-tail gap, and sits on his white horse--a white toddler push car.


I don't think I've posted this picture before--I found it way back there and figured that the first time I looked at it I thought it was too blurry and ugly. But this time looking at it I laughed.


Aunt Erica sent a ginormous rubber duck from Bath and Body Works, where she works, and Davy was thrilled. He pulled it out of the box and immediately pronounced it "Mrs Mallard" (from Make Way for Ducklings) and said we needed some baby ducks. We don't have any little rubber ducks, but luckily there were some Easter eggs lying around so we used those for the babies instead. Then we had to take a bath to see if the big duck floated. It did!


My cousin, who also lives in Belmont, just had a baby girl. We got to go see her last week when she was 10 days old. So incredibly sweet. I wish I had a new baby, too! (Collin reminds me that I do have a new baby. But seven months is so much different than 7 days in the newness department!) Eddy wasn't that impressed. He did like her toys, though, that she is not quite old enough for. And Davy was very soft and gentle. He wanted to hold her and look at her the whole time.

Before I Forget

The other day Eddy was wearing an outfit with a nautical theme (his second outfit of the day, actually, but that's irrelevant). Davy pointed out the ship and announced that "that's Eddy's pirate outfit. Somebody needs to buy me a pirate shirt." Apparently I've been saying too many non-specific phrases like, "somebody needs to do the dishes" or "somebody should really fold the laundry." Somebody will have to work on that.

And the other afternoon we were taking a slow meandering walk in the spring drizzle--just HAD to get out of the house--when Davy found a brick on the sidewalk that had fallen off a brick wall. He was very into assessing it and I asked who built their house with bricks. I was expecting to just hear that the little pig had, because he likes that story. But he surprised me by saying promptly that "the wise man built his house of bricks. And rocks. And the big bad wolf didn't blow it down." Got the moral of that story, check!


Yikes, I know! Eddy is part of some research at Boston Children's Hospital research center. The study is called the Infant Sibling Project, if you want to google to find out more about it. Anyway, we go down several times during his first two years to the center and he does a few play time tests and then wears this crazy cool hat full of sensors for about 15 minutes while he looks at pictures of faces and listens to sounds. Eddy gets lots of attention (we were recorded during a 10 minute mother-child play time and it took me half the time to remember how to play one on one with a baby again!), Davy gets to play in a big toy room and a choice of snacks, both boys get a free new toy, and Eddy gets some education money. That's what I call a win-win situation, even if the little hat is kind of freaky looking!

Movie lines and other indications we watch too much TV

Big boy on the playground, going down head first on the twisty slide. And below are some clips for your free entertainment. We sure get a kick out of our kids!

Deloitte Office Day

Collin here. Rachel's off doing some cross-stitching and will be back in time for the next post. In the meantime, here's a look at our Saturday with members of the Deloitte Parents Network (DPN). When I first started at Deloitte, I heard about this network and asked how I could join or what activities were going on. I was told that the DPN in Boston had died down a bit and that there really was no leadership. A few weeks later, a guy in Consulting asked the same question. They forwarded his question on to me and told him I was the Boston DPN leader . . . . hmmm.

Long story, short, me and that guy, Felix, are now co-chairs of the DPN and have held a few events over the past three years, including a picnic on Boston Common, a trip to the New England Aquarium, and a Work-Life Balance Q&A panel of Deloitte partners. None of the those, however, were as well attended as the event this past Saturday - a "Take Your Kids to Work" day geared towards toddlers rather than the typical minimum 9-years-old requirement they have for the national holiday. People liked the idea so much that we had many asking if we were considering making it an annual event!

The day started out with an "Office Scavenger Hunt" where each child had a bingo-like card of things to locate around the office -- copy machine, projector, conference room, drinking fountain, view of the Mass. state house, etc. They seemed to enjoy it as that was really the exploration part of the day. Many kids were found staring out the windows at the city below (we were on the 14th floor), which shouldn't have surprised me as that is exactly what I found myself doing when I first came to interview. Next, the kids got to have snacks and color a picture of their mom or dad going to work. Then, just to give them some interaction with office equipment, they got to make a copy of their picture on the copy machine. This did not come without entertainment as one child managed to push a few numbers on the machine without his dad noticing. When 87 copies started to come out, his dad exclaimed, "Son, don't you know Daddy's on the 'Going Green' campaign?!"

Davy and Eddy got to explore more than the other kids as they were there an hour early to help set up. Davy had plenty of fun with the whiteboards. And other equipment that I didn't even know was in the office . . .


After coloring, we split the kids up into two different conference rooms (one, a very large board room), and let them show their drawings to each other over a video conference using our laptop webcams. We finished off with a brief kids video and some lunch.

While we were cleaning up, Davy had lots of fun running up and down the hallways with the Apke family kids. They completely exhausted him and he ended up crawling down the hallways after them. They have a daughter about Davy's age whom Davy referred to as his "pink friend" (she's blocked by one of her brothers in the pic below, but you can imagine that as the only girl in a family of four kids, she was definitely wearing lots of pink).


Outside the office, just before heading home, Dare-devil Davy found yet another thing to climb on that causes his parents to worry about skull damage or tooth loss. Doesn't stop us from capturing a good shot, though!

Hangin' with the homies

Collin found this great place to stick the baby--inside the collapsed tunnel. Davy thought it looked fun, too, so he joined in. But then it wasn't so fun for the baby.


Hogging the popcorn bowl on family movie night. We introduced Davy to the first Harry Potter movie and now all he asks for are Harry Potter stories.


A rare happy moment on his tummy. He doesn't usually like it, but he is getting stronger. And he'll love it when he realizes he can go somewhere from this position!


That is a sweet face. Lucky us to get to see it everyday and kiss those plump cheeks!


As you may have noticed, Davy is going around with no pants on these days. Spring is coming right in time for toilet training season! He sure loves being "comfy" in his underwear. Dress up is becoming more and more a favorite pastime. Love this age and getting a peek into his make-believe world!


Saturday session of General Conference. Just hangin' out on the floor and listening to great talks.

Don't know why I bother trying to get something specific out of the kid while on video. What he comes up with on his own is so much more entertaining.

Under what?

Underwear! Potty training!! Oh my!!!

I promise we will not be providing a blow-by-blow of our toilet training efforts, but this is a huge step for our family (and I truly mean that--it's as much training for the parents as for the kid, it seems to me) and ought to be documented. Davy has been a champ and taken to this whole endeavor quite well overall. We're really in the thick of it and it is our whole life right now. I hear that stage passes eventually, but for now it is potty all day every day. Even Collin's and my adult conversations revolve around it. So here's hoping the next few weeks go well and we can start to talk about other things soon--at least until Eddy's turn in, what, 2 years?