I let Alex go around 2:PM this afternoon, and Eric and Wes came over soon after. We all played outside in the backyard, and ate snacks at the picnic table. Nacho and the girls all went totally insane for about an hour chasing the ball and each other all over. We came inside to play with trains, and eat ham sandwiches. Our company left when Enzo needed to use the potty. And boy did he ever.

For the rest of night Enzo and just goofed around the living room. We drew many pictures on the chalk board, all of which were quickly erased. Enzo was soon covered in blue chalk dust from drawing Dory over and over. Then we wrestled around, laughing about erasing. I was laying on the floor, and Enzo was diving on to my chest, yelling "erase?" Each time he flopped on me, I gave him a big squeeze and said "no erase!" and he squealed with delight.

We ate noodles and hot dogs and yogurt (or ice cream as I like to call it) and some fruit and some crackers and some milk. We watched some monkeys and played with puzzles and read some books. I let him watch some Nemo only because he promised that he'd let me cut all his finger and toe nails. He did, and they badly needed clipping. Yikes.

Enzo played with his "many" sharks in the tub, and then we read books for about 45 minutes. He discovered A Kiss for Little Bear last night, and now can't get enough of it. He tried very hard to avoid bedtime tonight with the tried and true isn't it so very interesting method. I played along for a bit. Reading a few extra books. Yes, wow, look at all the animals. But soon it was time for "teeth", and then bed. I hope there aren't a bunch a fireworks at midnight.

Afterwards we had a great breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien in the valley. We did a little grocery shopping then went home and took an epic walk around the Arroyo - Enzo walked alongside us for parts of our walk, which is why it took so long. It was a beautiful day, and it was fun looking at all the big houses around here.

When we got home daddy played with Enzo in the backyard and hosed off the dogs while he watered the back yard - we have never seen Enzo laugh as loud or as hard as he did watching Betty jump and flop around trying to bite at the water. We had lunch in his fort and Enzo enjoyed his chips.

Daddy took him for a drive so that he would take an afternoon nap while mommy cleaned up and got dinner together. When he came home he was in the same goofy mood he's been in the whole weekend - flopping around the couch, running around, being very affectionate and asking for hugs and kisses.

We had a showdown during dinner - Enzo wanted a pop and we told him he had to eat several more bites of dinner before he could have it. We were a united front and didn't give in to his crying, and what do you know - he ate his last 2 bites, then happily enjoyed his pop.

After dinner, daddy wanted to let Enzo watch the Sunday night football game, and mommy wanted to let Enzo watch "The Sound of Music" because she thought he would enjoy the music. Mommy won.

We got things ready because we had our friends Kristy, Gary and their two kids Ronan and Kala over for a visit. Heather and baby Sara came over, too. We had a great day with them - we ate, hung out with the kids, climbed around on the playground, played with trains, and made s'mores on our fire pit. When Enzo had his first ever bite of marshmallow, he said "mmmm, good".

Enzo took a nice long nap in the middle of their visit, and stayed asleep even when Ronan went upstairs into his room, and turned on his light, and started rummaging through his toy chest. We heard this racket on the monitor and ran upstairs to intervene - poor kid did not know Enzo was asleep in there.

After everyone left, we fed Enzo some dinner - he has continued to make up for lost time during his bad week last week and is eating a ton - and watched some Nemo on the computer (our dvd player died). We played with his toys, had a bath, some milk and books and he went off to bed just as Alex came over to babysit.

Alex went home around 4:PM, so Enzo and I played out back and then watered the grass in the front waiting for Zoe to get home from work. Mommy had Peruvian take out, and Enzo ate one his favorites - seafood stir fried rice. When he was done eating, he ate a "pop" and then played with his new chainsaw.

After dinner, I took Enzo for a walk around the neighborhood. It's cold out tonight, so Enzo was bundled up in the stroller with a big fleece blanket. We stopped to see the deer of course.

We watched a couple minutes of turtles and birds, and then took our bath. After bath, Zoe read some bedtime stories. Enzo got up from the beanbag, walked to the top of the stairs and yelled "ralph! ralph! ralph!" until I came up. I wonder where he got that from?

We finished up a couple more books, and then at about 7:45PM, Enzo walked to his crib and said "bed?" We asked him if he wanted to go night night, and he said "yesch". I quickly brushed his teeth, put him in the crib, and he fell asleep right away. What a good boy.

After work tonight, Enzo ate a small dinner of rice and a pb&j whale sandwich, and a big bowl of fruit for dessert. I wrapped Enzo in a blanket and walked him down to see the deer that "move", and also the crazy lady house up the street with an insane display of lights and deer and santas and snowmen and wreaths and train and more lights.

Enzo took a long bath with his sharks and then we read books. He drank more milk, and his belly grew to epic proportions. We are worried that now he's really constipated. (Can't win!) We kept him up past his bed time and let him sit on the potty for a looong time, but no luck. Tomorrow is going to be interesting.

Around 3:PM, Alex came home with Enzo. He was in the midst of one of the worst fits I could remember seeing - screaming, crying, writhing around, pulling on his clothes. Also, his chapped lip had split open and his mouth was full of blood. I came downstairs to see what the hell was going on, and I got freaked out that he wasn't stopping. I really thought something was wrong with him, so I threw him in the car with plans to take him to the ER.

But within a few minutes into our drive, he settled down, asked for his milk, and then was fine. Turns out he hadn't slept all day. I put him down for a very late nap at almost 4:PM, and he slept for an hour. He woke up in a sour mood, but quickly mellowed after some milk and some Planet Earth.

When Zoe came home we finished making our Christmas dinner that we didn't make last night. Dinner with Enzo was over quickly as usual. Then he and mommy snuggled on the couch while he finished up a pb&j whale sandwich. Zoe sang Que Sera, Sera to him, but inserted lyrics about Betty ("will I be crazy, will I be loud"), Harriet ("will I be fat, will I be neurotic"), and Mr ("will I have hairballs, will I be lonely"). That really got him giggling.

Because he took such a late nap, we kept him up after his bath a bit later than usual. Zoe read him stories in the beanbag, and then mean old daddy swooped in with the toothbrush to end the fun.

He woke up in a good mood with a nice wet diaper, and no messy poop. Very good signs. Unfortunately, Zoe woke up feeling very bad. Like I did last week, I think finally she got what Enzo has. She had to spend most of the day sleeping and laying on the couch, so we canceled our plan to make a big Christmas dinner.

Enzo and I had a good day today. He is feeling soooo much better, and was happy all day long. We think that the lactose-free milk is a big part of it. We gave him 50% milk and water mix in his bottle today, and he didn't have any terrible diarrhea. In fact, he took his first solid poop in nine days. Nice.

After Enzo opened the few presents that we managed to actually save until Christmas morning, Enzo I spend the day playing around the house, in the backyard, watching Blue Planet, reading books, and eating snacks. He literally ate all day long today. Crackers, fruit, pb&j, noddles, toast, and cereal. On and on, he snacked and snacked.

We took a couple walks to feed the "many" ducks and coots, and then later to see the lighted reindeer that "move". We had a nice bath, and then Zoe read him books before he went to bed. And then Zoe went to bed too. Hopefully, we'll all feel better tomorrow.

Even though we've only been there twice, he has the place memorized and knew what was waiting around every turn. He was really anxious to get to the baby shark and ray touch tanks. He must have touched a dozen sharks and rays before he was ready to move on.

About halfway through our visit we had a very unfortunate diaper experience that was so beyond belief and terrible that I can't write about it. We went out to the car for a change of clothes, and went back and finished our visit. We saw the turtle eating sardines, the scuba man feeding squid to the big rays, and so many other interesting fish and critters. And we went back around and did the whole thing again from the start.

Enzo fell asleep on the way home, and then we played in the backyard until mommy came home. When Zoe walked in the door, we all went straight back out the backyard park and ate snacks.

We had a nice ichat with A-ma, then another ichat with cousin Sophie and aunty Mimi and uncle JP. Sophie is extremely cute. Enzo said A-ma! A-ma! after we stopped i chatting.

Enzo had GI problems for the rest of the day, even though he started out so well. Progressively worse throughout the day. He is still very sick, although he is trying so hard to stay upbeat and happy. It is breaking our hearts. Every time he has a terrible poop, and we tell him we need to change his diaper, he breakdown and cries and says "no, no, no". He just sounds so defeated and exhausted of the whole thing. After each time it happens throughout the day, 5 or 6 times, it gets harder and harder to get his spirits back up.

Now his intestinal lining is so irritated that he basically has an allergy-like reaction whenever he drinks milk. Which is very hard because he doesn't feel like eating, and constantly wants milk because he's hungry. Each time he drinks it, he has terrible bloating and diarrhea almost right away. If we refuse to give him milk, he cries. It will most likely be another week of serious GI issues and then a month or longer before his intestinal lining is completely healed.

I picked up some lactose-free milk which I'm hoping will help him tomorrow. Even though we know what we'll hear if we go in, we're thinking about taking him into the hospital tomorrow. Won't that be a Merry Christmas.

When he woke up again, we tried to have some pancakes but Enzo was not interested. He was super tired and grumpy so daddy took him on a drive where he managed to get a little nap in and came home in a better mood. We had some breakfast of apple sauce, bananas and Pirates Booty in the back yard. (We are trying to keep him on the BRAT diet while he is having his diarrhea issues. Pirates Booty is not on the BRAT diet, but its a good way to replenish his sodium). It was an absolutely beautiful, perfect day and it was great to hang out in the back yard with his playground and the dogs.

We iChatted with Grandma Dee and Grandpa Buzz for a bit. Enzo showed of his new easel and his backyard playground. They very impressed with both.

We watched some sharks and whales, then tried to put him down for a real nap but he did not want any part of his crib. We took him out on another drive, this time to get him some paint to go with his new easel, and he took another nippy nap in the car. After some Jamba Juice, we got home and went over to Wes' house to give her a Christmas present. he got to paint some cookies and play with her stuffed shark and whale - both of which he was coveting badly. On the way up there he said he was going to visit "Wes" and "Nacho" (their French bulldog).

We took a walk, came home and hung out while mommy made dinner. After dinner, mommy and Enzo drew many pictures on the new chalk board easel. Mommy would draw anything he asked - typically some type of fish. Then Enzo would pick up his new eraser and declare "erase", and it would be gone.

He is starting to get better. We are really looking forward to a speedy recovery - that is what we want from Santa!

We baked Christmas cookies after his nap - star shaped ones and special whale - shaped ones for Enzo. He had fun - too much fun - putting sprinkles on his whale cookies. He sat in wonder at the table after they were out of the oven, saying "wow" "many" "yum".

We took a walk to see out old friends the ducks - we saw many coots and not so many ducks. We got home in time to get dinner together, and had dinner with Katie, Luke, and the Pfleegers. All the kids had fun playing with the train set and with Enzo's playhouse. As Luke left he gave Enzo a very sweet hug and kiss.

Enzo is overall doing a bit better but still seems very small a lot of the time. We used to take his overall good health for granted, but we never will again. We are really looking forward to seeing him 100%, hopefully very soon.

He is being such a trooper. Obviously not feeling well, and eating makes him feel bad. But he keeps trying to eat and keeps trying to stay hydrated. He ate a very small breakfast that mommy made, and then we played in the living room until Alex came.

We took Enzo over to Whole Foods for dinner and some shopping. He didn't eat much, and we left to pick up the dogs. Enzo looked at the frogs and mice at the pet store. He stood and watched the dogs play for a few minutes with mommy.

Back home, we watched sharks and took a short bath. He was really tired and super snuggly for story time, which went on for an hour.

We headed across town to see the crane. We sat on the wall and watched for a bit, but the guys were on break, so it wasn't too exciting. On the way home, we stopped for a Jamba Juice. Enzo was happy to get it, but he didn't drink more than a couple slurps.

Back home, we curled up on the couch and watched some Blue Planet and read some books. We went out in the rain to swing out back for a minute. We had a couple snacks here and there.

Zoe came home around 1:PM, and Enzo went down for a nap soon after. He only slept for an hour. After nap, he had some noodles and we all played outside in the rain again for a bit. Zoe made Enzo some hot chocolate. We drove across town to do some Christmas shopping, and then came home for dinner. Enzo ate some, and then had a popsicle. He's still very dehydrated, so we're trying everything we can to get fluids in him.

He had a nice bath, and read books with mommy for almost an hour before bed. Keeping our fingers crossed that he's even better tomorrow.

Enzo actually had a good day today, despite having horrible diarrhea all day again, and nothing remotely close to a solid poop since Sunday morning. We shared some ramen noodles tonight, and he did pretty well. Zoe is on call, so we just laid low. Watched a bit of Nemo, had a popsicle, and some melon ("lemon").

After eating, poor Enzo had another yucky diaper, so we went straight into an early bath. He was talking a lot tonight while playing with his bath toys. He would set them all on the edge of the bath, and make them jump in the water. And would provide commentary along the way, "up here. shark. jump. splash."

We read a few books, and drank a few ounces of milk. He started getting really sleepy and a little upset around 7:45PM, so I put him down a little early tonight. He fell asleep right away.

I took him for a drive around 9:30 so he would sleep. He woke up feeling a little better. He tried to eat some melon and a popsicle, but he continued to have serious GI issues which was really upsetting him each time. We mainly hung out and watched Blue Planet. He did perk up and ask to go outside to the swing right before Alex came at 12:30.

When I got back home, Enzo was up and around and seemed pretty good. We played with trains and some puzzles until Zoe came home. He asked for some noodles at dinner, and ate a few. His real solid food since Sunday at lunch.

Poor baby is looking really skinny. His face is thin and his belly is flat, not sticking way out like usual. It's going to be a few more days until he's fully re-hydrated I think.

We took it easy tonight, and had an early bath. Mommy read him stories, and he drank a bit more milk.

Zoe made him pancakes, but he didn't eat much at all. His tummy was definitely still bothering him.

He was running a slight fever later in the afternoon when I got him from Alex. And having some serious GI issues all day apparently. He was so tired around 4:PM, but didn't want to lay down. I asked him if he wanted to go for a drive and he said "yesch", so we did. He fell asleep within minutes. I drove home and sat in the driveway with him until Zoe came home. He'd been asleep for about 30 minutes, so I woke him up.

Other than a short family walk to go see the lighted deer that "move", which Enzo is a little bit obsessed about, we took it easy. We watched some Blue Planet, ate popsicles and crushed ice, and laid around. We let him have some milk, and it caused another terrible BM, which really upset him. He was not interested in eating at all.

After bath, we read books in his room, and he drank a little bit more milk. He could barely keep his eyes open at about 8:PM, so we put him to bed. Hoping he feels better tomorrow, so we can go to school.

In addition to the bagels and lox and coffee cake, Enzo ate a chunk off of our jade plant in the backyard, and this led to a major disaster after his nap - he had a giant projectile vomit and proceeded to vomit every 30 minutes for the next 4 hours. After calls to Poison control as well as the pediatrician, we did our best to keep him relatively hydrated in between the bouts of vomiting.

So he had the worst day of his life - vomited and vomited which really scared him (and us!); but he also had the best day of his life - nonstop snuggying with mommy and daddy on the couch, 5 hours straight of Planet Earth and Blue Planet dvds, as well as all the pops he wanted as soon as he was keeping liquids down, and bedtime 2 hours after the usual time.

It was so sad to see his face as soon as he would realize he was about to vomit, he would get so upset. But when he started to feel better, it was obvious - he started asking for pops, sharks, fish, Betty, Harry and whales. We were too scared to give him any milk so he went to bed with a belly full of ice, water, pops, and a little bit of watermelon.

Let it happen to either of us (preferably Ralph) a 100 times before this ever happens to him again. We threw out that jade plant.

We beat the traffic and headed down to the pier, where we took a walk, gawked at the birds and the fishermen, walked around on the beach, eyeballed the beach volleyball players and played on the swings. We had planned to check out the small aquarium at the pier, but it opened later in the afternoon, and Enzo fell asleep before it opened.

We managed to get some lunch in Santa Monica while Enzo napped in his stroller - a rarity - but he woke up just as we were finishing up - a total of about 30 short minutes.

When we got home, we watched a little Planet Earth, and rumpused around in the backyard. Mommy made a big pot of lentil soup, then we went for a walk but Enzo was disappointed that none of the Christmas lights were on yet. We checked out some fire truck and ambulance activity up the street and said hi to one of the neighborhood kids.

Enzo loved watching daddy "help" Harriet and Betty to slide down the slide. We climbed up the rock wall and played in the swing. Mommy had the brilliant idea of putting Enzo on his tummy on the regular swing and having him "fly" - he fell on his face of course and scraped his forehead on the wood chips.

We had a great dinner - he loved his "bloop soup" (aka lentil soup), surprisingly. We did some preparatory grocery shopping for our brunch party tomorrow, and Enzo managed to get a strawberry gelato along the way. We looked at lights on the way home. We played with the train set and had our bath, lots of books, and bed right on time.

We packed up and left for the Museum of Natural History and Enzo got a little nippy nap on the way down there. Its a little on the thin side for a natural history museum (we cannot wait to take him to the ones we've seen in New York, London, and Paris someday!) but he had fun anyway. The highlight was the Discovery Center, where he got to see a lot of turtles that were swimming as well as some active tortoises, some very large snakes, some disgusting giant cockroaches, and all the stuffed animals. He saw every variation of moose and elk that exist.

After our fun time at the museum, we went to Chinatown and had some dim sum. At one point, there were 3 little old Chinese lady waitresses with their respective dim sum carts that surrounded us and were watching him eat with rapt attention. Too bad A-ma wasn't there, she would have been so proud. After lunch we still had to kill some time because the cleaning ladies were at our house so we got ourselves some coffee and went to look at the crane and do some Christmas shopping. On the way there, Enzo had a coughing fit in the car and when mommy asked him if he was alright, he answered "i sick". It cracked all of us up.

Mommy and Enzo went to pick up the dogs while daddy did some work, and when we got home we had dinner. Enzo is growing increasingly wary of the old airplane in the hangar trick. We went for a nighttime walk around the neighborhood after dinner to look at the Christmas lights - the highlight was a pair of lit deer that moved. There is also a house on the corner with all kinds of crazy lights and things all over the place - he was a bit overwhelmed by all that. We walked by all the places where we went trick- or-treating, and Enzo would say "knock?" It must confuse him, why its sometimes ok to knock and ask for candy and why sometimes we say no.

After our walk we watched one of his Christmas presents, the new Blue Planet dvd - lots and lots and lots of sharks and whales. We danced around the living room to the B-52s "Rock Lobster", wrestled around, had a long bath, read some books and off to bed. It was a really great day for the little man.

This afternoon, we just hung around the house with Enzo, reading books and playing in his house. We sat for a nice dinner that Zoe whipped up. And then watched a bit of bats and camels.

After bath, Zoe read Enzo stories. A new one he got in the mail today, Every Friday, is about a dad and son who eat breakfast at the diner down the street every Friday morning. He really liked that one. Later, Enzo was searching through a big pile of books on the floor, he picked up Dancing Skeleton, and said "dee?"

After work, we tried to eat dinner, but Enzo wasn't too interested. Then I noticed in the nanny log that he'd just had a 8 oz bottle of milk about 20 minutes before. We aborted dinner and went to the book store instead. We found a book about whales and story about a turtle. Enzo was very pleased.

Back home, we tried again with dinner and let Enzo watch a bit of Nemo before his bath. Mommy read him his new books, and then it was time for "night".

Mommy got home around 2:PM and let Alex go home early. They played in the backyard park, and watched some sharks. When daddy got home, we went back out to swing and to throw the ball for Betty.

On the drive over to Whole Foods around 5:PM, Enzo fell asleep in the car. Something we never let him do at that time of night. He took a 20 minute, Luke Metcalf style nap on my shoulder as I carried him around in the store. He's never done that before. When he woke up, he wasn't happy about being at the store so we came home for dinner. He loved his teriyaki salmon and rice.

After dinner, we watched the Cave episode of the Planet Earth set for the first time. He asked to see the intro of the guys base jumping into some deep hole about ten times. And we also unwittingly started a new obsession - bats.

We took a nice long bubbly bath, and mommy read some bedtime stories.

Zoe is on call tonight, so after work, Enzo and I just ate dinner and played around the house. He liked his spaghetti. He did such a good job with dinner, I let him have a fruit "pop". We sat and played with animals at the dinner table for another half hour while we talked about all the different kinds. We mixed them all up and then sorted the similar animals into groups and talked about that too. It's too bad that his favorite animals - shark, fish, and turtle - don't say anything, because he loves to make all the animal noises. He also likes to tell us that bees make "honey", and cows make "milk".

After the dinner table, we played in the living room, reading books and examining the drawing of Sherman the turtle that Alex drew on his cardboard house. Enzo got right down on his stomach to get a closer look - "sherman" he says matter of factly.

We played with trains some, wrestled on the couch, and then Enzo wanted me to chase him around the house. As he runs, he yells "i zoom!" It's still very unsettling to see him running full speed in such tight quarters - one stumble away from the wall or a piece of furniture. We put on our shark slippers, played with the fish puzzle, and examined the new ornaments on the tree that he made today. One is a fish, which he pointed out at least twenty times. Remarkably, he didn't ask to watch his Planet Earth dvd tonight.

Enzo took a very long bath tonight. I turned on the faucet and he spent about 15 minutes just watching the water run through his fingers. At one point, he stuck his head under the running water, but instantly regretted that decision.

We only read three books before bed, but he asked to read each one four or five times, so it went on for about 30 minutes. He was siily and very wide awake when I put him in the crib, but he wasn't upset at all. I've been listening to him talk to himself and to his stuffed animals on the monitor while writing this. He just now finally fell asleep about 30 minutes after I put him down.

We ran across town to pick up Enzo's first Christmas tree. It took us a while to find the perfect one, but Enzo was very happy with the final decision. We brought it straight home to put on lights and the decorations that Enzo and Alex have been working on all week. We decided to go with colored lights, and Enzo was happy about that too. His favorite one is the "bah-looo" light. He likes his fish ornaments too, but isn't happy that they are out of reach.

Enzo had a snack and went back out to play. Zoe gave him some peanuts to feed to a squirrel he saw, and he stood in the back yard, holding a peanut over his head, yelling "come!" and "nut!" over and over. One squirrel actually did scurry past on the telephone wire overhead, and Enzo couldn't understand why he didn't stop for a nut.

Soon after, Enzo went down for a long nap. When he woke up we had a snack and then went back out to swing. It took some coaxing to get him to get out of the swing to go on a walk with the dogs. He watched some more giant salamanders and crocs, and then helped me put lights on the fence in the front yard.

After dinner, we played with trains, read books, and wrestled on the couch. And then it was time for bath. Mommy read him several books, including Say Please at least six times before he was ready for "teeth" and then sleep.

When Zoe came home, we went out to the back yard to play with the "park" for the first time. Enzo couldn't believe that he has his own park in the backyard. We did some "climbing" and "i slide!", and then sat in the swing for a long time.

Gabe and Luke came over to play around lunch time. Gabe had a lot of fun too. He scooted right up the rock wall all by himself on the first try. Gabe patiently waiting while Enzo thought hard about launching himself down the slide. We took a break for tacos and then played some more. Enzo yelled for "gabe!", who was still at the table. Then we all went inside to play with trains and wake Luke up from his nap. Enzo took a long two hour nap, and so did mommy and daddy.

After nap, we went out for an early dinner to one of Enzo's favorite spots. After a big meal, we walked over to look at the Christmas trees for sale at OSH. They were looking pretty sorry, so we didn't get one. We stopped by Whole Foods on the way home for some breakfast groceries. Enzo liked driving over the speed bumps in the parking structure, "bump!"

Back home, we played with trains again, then took a bath. After milk in the beanbag with mommy, Enzo was looking through a stack of books to read, when he picked one up and said "zin zin". Didn't know what he was talking about until we saw that it was Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin!, so I read him the story. Soon after he was ready for "night".

Zoe is on call tonight, so I picked up some Peruvian takeout. Enzo loves the rice and the beefy french fries, "fry!" So dark and rainy tonight, there wasn't much to do but hang around the house. I asked him he wanted to go out for a treat, and he said "no". So we watched some more Planet Earth. We mixed it up a little, and watched the Ice Worlds segment. This made Enzo realize how much he wanted some ice, "isch". So he sat watching penguins and whales and seals and foxes and seabirds, happily crunching away on crushed ice I gave to him in a cup.

We were laying around on the living room floor just goofing around, when Enzo took a running leap on to my chest. I said, "jeez enzo, be careful." And just like "gosh" the other day, he took that and ran. "Jeez" this and "jeez" that all night long, with this little grin on his face.

We filled the next couple hours with some crispy japanese market snacks, orange slices, trains, sticking vehicles that don't fit in the tunnel into the tunnel, animal and fish books, looking for Mr, "climbin" on the couch, trot trot, sitting on the potty playing with the opposites puzzle (which he has completely memorized), more puzzles, farm toob animals, milk, couch tunnel, refrigerator magnet alphabet, chasing Betty, brushing our hair, pulling all the dish towels out of the drawer and throwing them on the floor, taking a bath, squirting daddy in the face with the porcupine fish, more milk, more books, lego tunnel, shark toob sharks, blankie, brushing teeth, and then finally to bed.

I dropped Enzo off at home for Alex, and then met them up at Waldorf a couple hours later. Enzo had a great day at school today, despite there being only one other kid there. He kept dumping out this basket of felt and yarn balls, and declaring, "mess!". Over and over and over. He made it through class with no milk break, and sort of sat through snack too. He joined in closing circle trot trot, and held Adrienne's hand for My Wee Ring.

We went out for dinner at our favorite neighborhood Japanese restaurant tonight - Enzo was a champ. Daddy took him for a tour of the golf shop next door while mommy ran in the restaurant and ordered - by the time we sat down, Enzo was starving and the food was ready for him. He ate a ton of food and sat in his chair the entire time. Mommy and daddy even got to finish their dinner together. He impressed the little old Japanese waitress with how much he could talk and eat.

We got home and daddy bribed Enzo with some post dinner Nemo so that he could clip his nails. We had a bath in which everyone got wet, lot of books, then played "catch" with Enzo with his little nerf football. He is absolutely terrible at catching the football. Maybe he will get those ballet lessons after all.

Enzo was in a funny mood when mommy got home, and he was happy to see her. Alex had just mixed up a batch of insta snow for him and plopped him down in the breakfast nook where, needless to say, he made a gigantic mess. At least he had fun and didn't eat any.

He and daddy watched a mommy whale and baby whale on "Planet Earth" while mommy made clam chowder. Enzo did very well at dinner, and seemed to like the clam chowder to our surprise, although he did first dump some on the table then ate it directly off the table.

After dinner he ran around after the dogs wearing the oven mitts on his hands, yelling, "crazy! crazy!" We didn't know whether he meant him or the dogs. We played upstairs in his room, then jumped around on mommy's bed. We had our usual bath with quite a lot of splashing, then books, then bed right on time. We videotaped him reading "Too Much Noise" along with mommy.

I dropped him off at home for Alex, and then met them a couple hours later at school. We had another good day. Enzo slipped and bumped his chin five minutes into class but recovered quickly. He is really starting to get into opening circle songs, and trying to do some of the hand movements. He played with the duck and tunnels and the little man with no arms, like he always does. We had to leave right after snack today so daddy could be on time for a meeting.

When mommy got home, Enzo was busy rifling through the kitchen drawers and trying to get into trouble. We had a nice dinner and tried to keep Enzo from putting his big feet on the table. We went out for a milkshake after dinner, and Enzo charmed the girls at the soda fountain asking for his "shake". We stopped at the fire station afterwards to look through the window at the fire trucks.

When we got home, we watched Enzo chase the dogs around and call Betty "crazy". He also worked out his sugar high by climbing on the arm of the couch over and over. We had a nice bath, then milk then books - his current favorite is Too Much Noise by Ann McGovern - he loves to complete the sentences in the book, making the animal noises. He is especially cute when he says, "hee haw".

When we got home from work, Enzo was in a funny mood, stoping around and chasing the dogs. Alex showed off all the supplies she got at Lakeshore for making Christmas ornaments with Enzo. He ate a lot of dinner, then we goofed around the living room and watched some sharks. At one point he disappeared into the kitchen and was very quiet - we looked in there and found him in the pantry, rummaging through a bag of cookies. He managed to look guilty, at least.

Before we went upstairs for bath, I asked him, "who's the man?", and of course he pointed to daddy. We had our usual bath and milk and books before he was tucked in for the night

On the way home, we stopped for a Jamba Juice. As we were walking to the car, I said to Enzo, "gosh! this is good!" He thought that was hilarious, and we said "gosh!" back and forth all the way home. And again and again for a big chunk of the day. Back home, we had a snack and watched giant salamanders eat helpless fish on the Planet Earth DVD. Then we all went out to look for Christmas decorations, and sort of failed.

Enzo was difficult to put down for a nap, so I took him for a drive while mommy went to the store. Enzo took a very long nap in the back seat of the wagon.

This afternoon, we played around the house, and went for a walk down the block. We bumped into Jack, and he came over to play with trains before dinner. As we were getting dinner together, Enzo and Harriet curled up on the couch together for the first time, which was very sweet.

After dinner, we played with Enzo's sharks, and then took a bath. Enzo was pretty mellow and sleepy tonight while Zoe read him some stories.

We drove out to the Long Beach Aquarium, and Enzo was absolutely in awe of all the "fisch", "shark", "ray" and "turdle" that he saw. He also loved the giant model of the whale (he calls them "lo" for some reason) hanging from the ceiling. Other highlights: the seals and sea lions with their underwater acrobatics; touching the rays and sharks' the big shark tank; watching the divers feed the fish (the coolest thing was the feeding frenzy using a head of romaine lettuce); and a little tank filled with clownfish and blue regal tangs (Nemo and Dory from the movie).

He crashed as soon as we got in the car, and even though we tried to wake him when we passed the Goodyear blimp in a big field off the 405 freeway, he was completely dead asleep. Zoe did some grocery shopping while daddy sat in the car with Enzo, and he woke up when we pulled into the driveway over an hour later.

We had lunch at home and Enzo ate a frightening amount of SPAM musubi, took a poop on the big boy potty, then we went to Old Pas to run errands. He managed to also have a nice big Jamba Juice. When we got home, mommy went to pick up an early dinner of Korean barbecue while daddy and Enzo went up to visit Wes.

We had a fun dinner, then made a quick Costco run to pick up Christmas lights. On the way to Costco, the radio played the B-52s Rock Lobster - Enzo was dancing around in the backseat and we were both singing at the top of our lungs.

We had ice cream afterwards, and Enzo showed another way that he is so much like his dad: he showed a distinct preference for mint chip over cookies and cream. (Also: Enzo loves all marine animals and fish, has a funny sense of humor, and is cranky and prone to tantrums) We had a nice bath, then the usual books then bed. What a great day.