mmmmm!

Photo b.kane

Cousin Sienna enjoys her malted shake after the Childrens Museum of Manhattan

A meditation on toast & jam

As Finn ate his breakfast this morning he discovered that the best part, and really the only part he wanted was the toast and jam. He devoured the tasty preserves as if he hadn't eaten for days and then became agitated while waiting for C to prepare his next slice.

In a moment of silliness or perhaps divine inspiration I told Finn that he needed to be calm and meditate. I closed my eyes and began to repeat "ohms" in a melodic monk like voice, and sure enough Finn followed suit and began to chant too. I know that Finn isn't the next Dalai Lama or anything like that but if we can prevent him from being half as stressed as C and I then we will be ecstatic.

ooooooohhhhhhhmmmmmmssssssss ooooooooooooohhhhhhhhmmmmmmssssss

Hey it can't hurt, right?

Christmas Mea Culpa

Every year we choose a theme for our holiday decorations and as you can see this year was red and white. The real theme however turned out to be Thomas the tank engine. Despite our best efforts to keep corporatized characters at bay, we succumbed to a few carefully vetted examples. So far we have exposed Finn to Thomas the tank engine, Yo Gabba Gabba and Elmo. Here is where I begin my justification process. . .

Thomas the tank engine seems to teach solid values while maintaining a sense of fun and innocence, and more importantly it contains no toy commercials. Plus, as a dad, I have this genetically built in desire to share trains and manly stuff with finn. Next up is Yo Gabba Gabba a crazy new show created by a couple o' L.A. type dads and features a who's who of retro and hip artists and musicians. The music is solid (most of the time) and we dig the fact that the show is so weird that if freaks out a lot of normal parents. Last and least we have Elmo (hangs head in shame), to be fair, Elmo is part of Sesame Street which carries a lot of weight since both C and I grew up with Jim Hensons crazy creations. Unfortunately, Elmo has become a huge mass media icon to every numbskull parent out there and that really doesn't appeal to us. I know we may be fooling ourselves but we sort of have this self image as trend setters or at the very least 'indie' parents. Unfortunately for us, the moment Finn caught a glance of that happy, bright red face and heard that high pitched voice he was sucked in as were we, by proxy.

So, yes it was a very Thomas the tank engine holiday and Finn had a blast playing with his new trains. We'll keep fighting the good fight, trying to minimize his exposure or interest in mass media crap. I think we are realizing that you have to pick your battles with this stuff. We get a kick out of him enjoying the trains and knowing all their names so we can deal with it. After all he hasn't said "McDonalds" or "Mickey Mouse" yet and I guess that counts for something.

Cape Cod Summer!

Yes I am biased about pics of my son, but I love this image. It has great lines and the light reflection from behind his hair is perfect. Not to mention the joyous summertime smile I caught. The best part is that this was a "shot from the hip" style image. I took this with a little point and shoot optio and had the camera down by my feet pointing up and just "winging" it. I've gotten pretty good at aiming the camera with out ever holding it to my face. With a toddler this is the best way to capture those real moments, you just don't have time to look through the viewfinder and compose a shot.