After work, Enzo needed to drive mommy and daddy's car. We went for a walk down the street to play with Jack for a bit, then back home for dinner. After dinner, Enzo sat with mommy and watched a few video clips on the computer, and then upstairs for an early bath and bed. We're all tired tonight. Coming to the end of another tough week of work and play.

I took Enzo to school about an hour later. He had another great day. He played all over the yard, got in to the water and dirt and paint. He spend a lot of time talking to one of the other dads there, and his son got upset about it. We spend the last half hour sitting inside playing with some trucks and a doll house.

After work, Enzo and I "watched something funny" on the computer, and then sat in my car for a looong time. He doesn't seem to be getting tired of doing that anytime soon. We went back in for pasta dinner and some Blue Planet. Enzo unfortunately snapped one of the DVDs trying to get it out of the case. He wasn't happy to hear that it was broken.

Tonight was a night of owies. He sat down and hit his back on the ottoman, he stumbled walking into the kitchen, he held a big column of legos up to show me what he made and it broke apart and hit him on the head, he pinched his hand in the car door handle, and bumped his head on the floor trying to goof around with Betty.

He was getting frustrated and upset about every little thing tonight, and just seemed really tired soon after dinner. So I gave him an early bath, and he was sound asleep by 8PM. I'll probably pay for that around 3AM tonight.

Soon after Enzo and Alex went to the zoo, there was a pretty big earthquake in the LA area. I was upstairs, and the house shook pretty seriously. It only lasted about 3 or 4 seconds, but that was long enough for me to wonder if it was going stop or get worse. Cell phone lines were jammed for about an hour after, but after seeing the news I knew Enzo was safe. Not really any damage in LA at all.

After work, I sat with Enzo as he had a conversation with the Iranian great grandma who live half the year next door, and the other half of the year in Iran. She loooooves Enzo, and has a hard time keeping her hands of him. Always giving him kisses on the arm and hand. Her english is pretty much limited to "baby good?" and "daddy/mommy good?", which I think confuses Enzo. But he has really warmed up to her this summer (was sort of scared of her last year). After sitting on the wall with her for a while chatting away, he danced a silly dance on the sidewalk which made her laugh.

We went for our usual family walk down the block after dinner, and then put him down early.

After work, Enzo wanted to "drive" daddy's car, so we sat in the driveway for almost 30 minutes, ejecting and replacing CDs, yanking stuff out of the glove box, and digging through the arm rest. Finally, he climbed into the back seat, so we went across town to drop off a few shirts at the dry cleaner, and grab some dinner at Los Tacos. Enzo had a shocking amount of a cheesy chick burrito.

Went went for a walk all the way around the block when we got home. Enzo found a very long stick, and carried the whole way. He pretended to be fishing, and caught several large whales, a continuation of a game he played with Zoe on last nights walk.

Zoe called to speak to Enzo, and they had a 5 minute conversation about his day. It was a great exchange - how was your day. good. what did you do. played with allie. what did you have for dinner. a burrito. and on and on. It's so much fun being able to communicate with him so easily now.

We played with legos in the living room until it was time for bath. We had an early lights out tonight at around 8:20PM. Trying to get him back on his pre-bed schedule. He tossed and turned quietly for about 20 minutes before falling asleep.

He was dying to stretch his legs, so we chased him around and around the house with this giant alligator we bought at Ikea. Fortunately, we were able to stop the game before someone got hurt.

Soon after we put him down for a nap. He got very upset about going to sleep. He kept crying and trying to get up out of bed. Zoe asked him why are you crying, and Enzo said, "well...i'm trying to go downstairs", and it made us laugh.

Enzo woke up from his short nap pretty grouchy, but settled down once Zoe got some food into him. We went to the grocery store, and then came home to set up the pool. Enzo and I had a serious battle with the hoses, and we got each other soaking wet. Enzo's teeth were chattering after about an hour, so Zoe scooped him up and brought him inside.

I built a big lego rocket ship while Zoe went to grab some dinner. After we ate, we went on the nightly bug hunt. Enzo carried around a couple of dried up old worms he found on the side walk until we finally convince him to let them go in the bushes.

We had mochi ice cream and then took our bath. Enzo made me read his favorite chapter from Frog & Toad about the melting ice cream twice before lights out.

We went out for a family breakfast then ran some errands before we took mommy to pick up her car. On the way home I stopped to pick up Jamba Juice and Enzo tried hard to fall asleep in the car. When we got home the three of us crawled into bed together for an early nap.

When we got up we played with legos. Mommy had to run an errand for work so I took Enzo to the Eaton Canyon Nature park. Enzo was so excited about the reptiles and amphibian in the tanks in the nature center. He was dragging around the woman who worked there by the hand pointing out everything over and over. We went for a short walk around the grounds, then found a shady spot to sit and eat a snack.

Mommy had shaved ice waiting for us when we got home. We played in the backyard for awhile, throwing the ball for the dogs and sliding down the slide. Enzo spent some time alone back there spraying Betty with the hose while we watched him through the kitchen window so he wouldn't spray us.

We had Thai food for dinner and afterwards Enzo turned to mommy and said, "that was a nice dinner mommy I ate a lot". He especially liked his mango sticky rice.

We went on our usual walk after dinner then we played with legos and had bath and books. Tonight Enzo was especially sweet and talkative with his Emi doll, showing her his books and saying, "look its your favorite!" when he spied some dinosaurs. He put her to bed next to him and gave her a kiss goodnight. Maybe he won't claw her eyes out after all when she comes for real.

I took Enzo straight to school. He was a little tired and clingy today, but he fun. His main buddy wasn't there either, so I played with him most of the time. He asked to use the potty about halfway through class, and the teacher was impressed. He made his usual round from the sandbox to the sink to the slide to the boat to the kitchen and the doll house. He fell asleep on the 5 minute drive home, and I put him straight to bed.

Zoe is on call tonight, so Enzo and I drove out to get a burrito and pick up the dogs. I let him eat his burrito in the car on the way home, and that wasn't a great idea. My backseat is covered with rice and beans. But he managed to eat some it too.

We sat and finished dinner, then went for a walk around the block before bath. We read Frog & Toad. He likes the story about Toad baking cookies and the one about Toad being covered with melted chocolate ice cream. After lights out, he tossed and turned for about ten minutes, before falling asleep pressed up against me, tangled up in his blankies.

After work, I sat with Enzo in the car while he drove. He's learned how to start both cars. Tonight he shoved a quarter in the CD player. We came in side for pizza dinner, which Enzo liked, and then went for out walk down the block. Enzo spent a lot of time rolling down our neighbors grassy slope. We had a quick bath and then played with legos before bed.

After work, I took Enzo for a short walk, and then we sat for a big pasta dinner. Wes stopped by to show off her daddy's freshly shaved face. On their way out, a little white dog walking by bit Christa on the leg.

We ran down the street with Enzo, a nightly ritual. We stopped in all the usual lawns, picked up "violin sticks" and looked for pill bugs. Back home, we had a root beer float in the front yard, and tried to balance on the blow up slide. Enzo was very helpful cleaning up all his legos in the living room tonight, but then got upset when we wouldn't let him throw them on the floor again.

Every night now, Enzo asks to use the potty right before he falls asleep, which buys him another 15 minutes before lights out.

When he got home he was sweaty and excited to see mommy and daddy. We all played in his room for awhile then had dinner. We took a walk down the street then realized quickly that would not be enough exercise for him so we packed him in the car and headed off to the park.

He had such a good time - he ran around and climbed on all the structures but the highlight was daddy chasing him down the slide over and over again. He was laughing so hard and was so uninhibited on the slide he literally would jump down onto the slide and go whizzing down with no fear, only to jump off and go racing around to do it again.

We got home and played wiht his lego trucks then bath then an easy bedtime.

We had lunch and played some more when we got home and took our usual epic family weekend nap. 2 1/2 hours later we woke up and realized we had 5 minute to get to his haircut appointment. We hightailed it across town and got him a haircut, then met Li and Neil and little Elijah (who is not so little anymore) at Din Tai Fung in Arcadia. Enzo ate a ton of dumplings, noodles and fried rice. We got lost later trying to find this Taiwanese shaved ice place for dessert but finally found it. He had a lot of fun with Elijah running around and hugging.

We stopped at the park on the way home so that Enzo could run off his shaved ice. Once he was exhausted we went home, had a bath then books and an effortless bedtime - we kept him up later because he woke up from his nap so late.

School was effortless today. Enzo had a lot of fun. He played by himself, and a little bit with the other kids, for most of the time, which is sort of the goal. He spend some time talking to one of the dads about these "amazing trucks", and sat with the head teacher to read a book also. We left wet, dirty and tired.

After work, we scooped Enzo up and went to Gus's BBQ to meet Gabeluke and parents. All three of them were insane, and the second we paid the bill we went down the block to the park to let them burn some energy. It was great to see Enzo playing with the boys &mdash: climbing, sliding and running all over the place.

Enzo was pooped and thirsty, so we headed home for bath and bed.

I had to be at a meeting, so couldn't take Enzo to school this morning. But I heard that Alex and Enzo had a very good day. He played by himself most of the time, and spent some time playing with another boy in his class, who is about the same age, and also like water, dirt, trucks, etc...

After work, we all went to get some dinner at a little Japanese place in Old Pas, and then back home to run up and down the block. We stopped to say hi to Linda, and roll down the little hill in front of her house, over and over. At the bottom of the hill, he would stand, take a couple drunken dizzy steps, and fall down laughing. Linda always comes out to say hi, and really seems to enjoy having him play in her yard.

We took a short bath, and then tried to put Enzo to bed. After a few books, some milk, playing with toys, more books, some more milk, some tears, and some thrashing around, Enzo finally fell asleep curled up with Zoe. After he fell asleep, she sneaked out and went to bed.

It was already really hot at 8AM, and the dogs tanked pretty quickly. Enzo isn't interested in throwing the ball anymore. he just wants to sword fight with the throwers, "fight, daddy, fight. fight all day long". It's like playing tugofwar with a puppy with your shoe, in the short term, it's funny and they love it, but nothing good can come from it. He got upset that I wasn't fighting back with sufficient enthusiasm. When we got home, Zoe asked him if he had fun. He said, "fight with daddy". Great.

Zoe on call tonight, so Enzo and I just bombed around the house, ate some mac-n-cheese, went on our usual walk, and stopped by to see Wes. She's not feeling well, so we kept our distance. Back at the house, Enzo came into the bathroom while I was taking a pee. "Good boy, daddy", he said.

Enzo did not want to sleep tonight. After lights out, he asked to use the potty. I praised him, and made sure he understood that no matter what, no matter what time, he could always ask me to help him use the potty. He apparently got the message because he asked to use the potty three more times in the next 45 minutes. Actually eeked a little pee each time.

I stayed with him until he fell asleep, and barely escaped before I fell asleep too.

After work, we drove across town to the VW dealership, stoppinf halfway to get some curry. It wasn't quite as mild as mommy's, and Enzo spit out the first bite, "too spicy". So we ordered some pasta instead. He loved mommy Calpico drink, one her favorites as a kid.

We dropped of the key, and then came back home. We stopped to burn of some energy at the park, and look for more bugs, "i love bugs". Back home, it was straight to the potty, where finally Enzo made something. It had been a couple days, and I was getting worried. He gets dehydrated very quickly in the heat, which causes some problems with other functions. He was impressed with his effort, and declared it a "rocket poo poo", apparently due to its aerodynamic shape and size.

Right before getting in bath, he bonked his head on the sink, so it was a quick one. Usual nuttiness before bed — wanting to jump around, play with toys, pick out his own book, use the potty again, want more milk, sitting up, thrashing around, and then finally sleep.

When that show was over, I took Enzo for a walk down the street, and hid his toy snake in the ivy by the sidewalk next door. I told him I thought I saw a snake in there. Enzo crept up slowly, whispering "there's a snake in there", and then cautiously reached in to grab it. The second he touched it, I grabbed him. He jumped and squealed. I finally convinced him to try again. When he finally picked up the snake, he was really excited. We played with the snake on the sidewalk, and carried around for 30 minutes. He would put it down in the grass, walk about ten feet away, and then declare, "it's so big, i can see it from here!"

We went out to meet Zoe's friend for dim sum. The friend was the woman who helped deliver Enzo. She commented that his head was still big. They have a little baby girl of their own now. They mentioned how she was so into Enzo, and that he was oblivious. Going to be the story of his life.

After lunch, Enzo and mommy took a long nap in Enzo's bed. We ran a few errands, and then came home to hang out. Zoe ran and got some bbq, and we had a picnic in the front yard. Enzo said an iChat hello to Dee and Buzz. And in typical fashion, mr non-stop talker barely said a word. Deer in the headlights.

Zoe crashed with Enzo to get him to sleep again tonight. I have to admit, curling up next to him and falling asleep is pretty great. Probably not much longer we'll be able to do that.

We were up early, and then drove out to pick up Zoe from work. We stopped in Pasadena for a coffee, and then back home to play in the front yard. Enzo and I had a war of the hoses. He blasted me right in the chest with his hose on the jet setting, and I gave it right back with mine set on soaker. "come on ralph! dont do that!"

He started getting fussy around noon, so we brought him up to bed for a nap. We both laid down with him to read stories, and then both fell asleep. I woke up about three hours later with this sweaty little boy clutching my arm with his leg draped over me. We woke him up, so we'd have some hope of getting him to sleep tonight before 9PM.

We drove up to Montrose to get dinner and buy Enzo an Emi doll. We're hoping that it will help him get used to the idea of having another baby around. When we first gave it to him in the car, he was definitely uncomfortable, but he warmed up to it quickly, and soon was calling it Emi.

Back home, we played with toys and went for a few walks, and then up the stairs for a late bath. It took a long time to get him to sleep again. Zoe laid down with him until he fell asleep, and then tiptoed out. I'm sure he'll be again later.

I took him straight to school, and we had a great day. He spent a long time playing with these three identical backhoes and another set up dump trucks. Then we moved inside to play with the doll house. One by one he stood the people who lived in the house on the ledge of the second floor window, said "no no don't jump", and then pushed them out. Not sure I should be worried about that. Last time I was there he put all the people in the oven and closed the door.

He sat and ate snack with the class today for the first time, after his crisis last class about not getting his won snack. With about 10 minutes to go, he was still going strong, but then got hit on the head by the stand up mirror in the corner. He cried for a while but then cheered up for closing songs and drums. He likes the turtle song, and I caught him singing it to himself later in the day.

Zoe on call tonight again, so we had boys night out - french fries and nuggets for dinner, and then a late trip to the park to run and catch bugs, "so many bugs".

He wasn't interested in going to sleep tonight, so after an hour of reading and hanging out with him, I just said goodnight and left the room, like we always did before the new bed. He came out of the room about ten times, but I just put him back in bed each time. Finally I out the childproof doorknob on the door. He tried it one more time, then went to bed and fell asleep without any protest. There's hope he'll be back on his old sleep schedule again soon.

After work, we walked down to say hi to jack. Enzo rode on jack's tricycle for a few minutes, and then looked for pill bugs. We sat in the front yard waiting for the tow truck to come take the Passat. the guy ended up not taking the wagon, so it wasn't as exciting as it could have been. But still fun for him to see the truck up close. He was too tired for a long bath tonight. We took turns reading to him, and then I sat with him until he fell asleep around 9PM.

He was in a great mood when I got home. I asked him about school, he said he had fun, and then he said he "cried at brand new school". He told me got upset because he wanted a fruit leather and juice but Alex wouldn't let him have it (not allowed to eat your own snack during class).

We went for a walk, played with bubbles. ate dinner, went for another walk, stopped to play with Wes, back home for an ice cream sandwich, then back out for another walk, then bath, then bed. Well after his bedtime, he was still bouncing off the walls in his bed, saying "i'm awake! i'm awake!", but finally around 9PM he settled down and drifted off.

Zoe called after Enzo fell asleep to say that Emi is doing fine.

Mommy was off early to work, and daddy was too. We were able to get much of a breakfast in him before we left because he was being a bit of a pill. I think seeing us both scurrying around getting ready to leave got him out of sorts.

When I got home, Enzo was "playing" the kazoo. He just kept making the same loud noise over and over. Kind of like a strangled goose gasping for it's last breath. After a big dinner or noodles and korean bbq, we went for our usual walk down the block. Jack wasn't around tonight but we did bump into Mary. Enzo told her that he had a sister, Emi, who lived in mommy's tummy. How cute is that?

Before bath, we drove across town to buy some snail poison for our garden and stopped for an ice cream. ENoz wanted the pink strawberry ice cream, but it was sickenly sweet, he didn't eat much. We karate chopped some styrofoam boards in the back seat on the drive home, and then straight upstairs for a shower with daddy.

Enzo is getting a little easier to put to sleep. He still want us to stay until he falls asleep, but he's back to falling asleep at about 9, not 10.

He has been into a video of skeletons running around, dancing and singing "Dem Bones" and we got him a little plastic skeleton. He walks around with it saying "dem bones and dem bones and dem dry bones". He also sings "the foot bone is connected to the...leg bone is connected to the...Betty bone" and so on and so on. Its more than a little weird.

He had a fun busy day with Alex today and he and mommy got home at the same time - he was sweaty and flushed and looked like he had been running around all afternoon. We had a nice dinner then went for a walk. He ran around like a madman with Jack again until bathtime.

We had Cynthia DeFelice night after bath tonight - Casey and the Bath and The Dancing Skeleton. He especially liked saying "woooeeee! aint we having fun" at the end. He had to have his skeleton in bed with him tonight. Actually getting him to stay in bed was a little easier tonight.

We took a much needed family nap this afternoon, all crammed together in his twin bed, and when we all woke up we were amazed to find that it was after 4. We sprawled out in the shady front yard in our lawn chairs and enjoyed the great afternoon.

Jack and Fred came over and we all watched the boys chase each other and roughhouse in the yard. At bath time tonight, he asked for the shower for the first time - he really enjoyed it and didn't even mind getting his face wet.

Mondays after a long three day weekend with mommy and daddy is always hard for all of us.

He cracks us up every day with the funny things that come out of his mouth. Today we were in the parking lot of a neighborhood grocery store and he said, "daddy i'm so so so hungry. Want a burrito" mommy answered, "ok Enzo, we'll have a burrito when we get home". He then pointed across the street and said, "but the burrito place is right there!" and it was.

We went to the toy store near our house to get a present for yet another kid's birthday party. Enzo got a present too which is weird. A new firetruck. We waiting until after his nap to give it to him, and he spent a long time playing with it.

Before bed, he ran down the street again to play with Jack. We met another little baby who just moved across the street on the walk back home.

Enzo is still not comfortable going to sleep in his new bed without one of us there sitting by the bed. But he'll get it soon enough.

We played in the pool out front for a while. Enzo has one hose and and I have another to fill it up. If he sprays the hose toward us, I spray him back. "No daddy, don't do that!!" Again and again, I sprayed the hose up in the air to make it rain on him. He couldn't quite figure out where the rain was coming from. We had a nice ichat with little cousin Sophie in Bermuda, who is so cute. Interestingly, she looks quite a bit like Enzo now even though neither of us look anything like Sophie's parents.

Putting him down for his nap today was a bit of a struggle. He's still not very secure in his new bed. But once he finally fell asleep, he had a good nap.

We went to Gabeluke's for dinner. Betty and Harriet went bananas the entire time, jumping in and out of the kiddie pool, turning it into a mud puddle. Didn't stop the boys from playing, or stop Luke from taking a few sips. Enzo played with a big firetruck we bought Luke for his birthday a few weeks ago. I see one in Enzo's near future. The boys all ate a big dinner and then we made shave ice, which was a big hit. Each time we go up to the Metcalf's the boys interact and talk and play with each other a little bit more. It's really interesting and fun to see them playing on their own, sharing, struggling, and working stuff out.

We raced home, threw Enzo in the bath. He pooped in the bathtub for the first, and hopefully, last time. We just didn't make it to the potty in time, and it made mommy scream. We then headed down the street to the Colorado bridge to see the Rose Bowl fireworks. We thought there'd be a few people on the bridge watching. Instead it was a total madhouse, street shut down, and few thousand people there. The firework weren't scheduled to start until 9PM, an hour after Enzo's bed time, and they didn't start until about 9:15 or so. Enzo was getting antsy and tired so we only stayed for about five more minutes once the fireworks started. He was excited, but we made our escape before he got too tired.

Straight to bed when we got back. Asleep at about 10PM!