Enzo and I donned our red caps, and flew around and around the house until Enzo flopped down on the floor saying, "i'm tired!" After dinner tonight, we drove to Target to try to find a Robin action figure to complete his collection, but had no luck. When we got home, he said he was tired and wanted to go to sleep. Trying to put him to sleep early was a mistake. He got a second wind and spent nearly two hours goofing around and jumping in and out of bed, and didn't fall asleep until almost 9:30.

Monday — Enzo woke up and crawled into bed with us for some stories. Zoe started to read him a Japanese folktale about a monkey and a crab, but he stopped her and said, "a monkey and a crab? what, are you crayzeeee!" We laughed, so he said it 20 more times. Later that morning, he said "i want my wee wee to come out and say hi to me!" We had breakfast at the bakery with Zoe before she went to work, and then back home to meet Alex.

Zoe picked Enzo up from school today. He was happy to see her, but then wanted to go home. They managed to make it through a few songs before Enzo was really ready to go home. Before bed tonight, we all played hide and seek. Enzo gets a huge kick out of chasing us around the house. He loves to be surprised, so we hide around corners and in closets and behind doors, and then jump out and grab him. He shrieks and says, do it again.

Tuesday — Zoe was up and out early this morning. Enzo and I spent some time watching Blue Planet, and then headed out to Cindy's for the usual. Same old cast of characters there. Enzo was especially cute this morning, and he put smiles on the faces of a lot of grouchy half-asleep people at the diner. We played with the elite Superfriend team (Superman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman) and ate a big breakfast.

I picked him up from Pacific Oaks today. The teacher said it was his best day yet. Apparently, he spent most of the hot day (almost 100 degrees today!) sitting in a big red tub of water playing with a plastic octopus and puffer fish. We sang songs and then went to the car.

The power went out on our block during dinner, so we walked down the block to chat with the neighbors. It didnt come back on right away, so we drove out to the VW dealership to look at the new Routan minivan. They just came out a couple days ago, so they were only two on the lot, neither of which we wanted. But most likely will get it in the coming months. It is so huge compared to the Passat wagon, and comes loaded with an array of insane features. It will be a fun family car. Enzo climbed in one, and said, "it's so big!"

Zoe and I took the day off on Friday to play with Enzo. The big highlight of the day was the trip to see the Noah's Arc exhibit at the Skirball. It was pretty great, and Enzo had a blast. We fell asleep on the way home, so Zoe pulled over in a shady spot and let us sleep. Later that night, Alex came over to babysit, so we could out to dinner for the last time ever.

We spent most of the morning playing around the house with Enzo's new set of little Justice League guys, then we drove to Montrose to play in the park and buy a present for a birthday party later. With my birthday the other day, and this one, Enzo thought that maybe today was his birthday too. And he told us how he was going sing happy birthday, blow out the candles, and then eat some cake. Somehow Enzo ended up with an Apollo Mission spaceman toy to play with on the drive home.

He crashed hard for nap, and then we went to a friend's 2nd birthday. He had a blast running all over the place and diving in to the ball pit. But when the kids all sat in the center of the room, Enzo didnt want anything to do with it. He kept by himself, jumping & climbing. It wasnt until after we'd been there for nearly two hours, that he felt comfortable joining in the kids for a closing circle.

We strung him out another 30 minutes when got home to keep him awake. He took a nice calm bath, drank his milk, and was asleep quickly.

He played with me or by himself most of the time, but he joined in the sandbox mud hole creation after snack and some group dancing at the end of class. He had one anxious moment when I went into the kitchen to prepare the snack, but he recovered quickly after he had a few bites of snack. Zoe snack yesterday of mini pancakes and today of cereal mix and raisins were both smash hits. A couple kids sat for a half hour grinding away on snack today.

We went up to Wes' house for dinner after school. Neither of them ate much, but they had fun running around and couch diving. Enzo taught Wes the dead man backward flop off the arm rest. Eric was really pleased about that. I still cant believe, with both of them diving off opposite arm rests again and again, that there were no injuries.

When we got home, Enzo asked to go straight to bed. It was only 7PM, so I let him watch Bee Movie for a few minutes while I got his bath together. After a very short bath and quick milk, he was out.

Despite being feeling a little bit small, Enzo was a lot of fun this weekend. We really didnt do anything but bomb around the house, playing and watching a few movies. Enzo has discovered the Super Friends, so a big chunk of the weekend was spent talking for either Superman, Batman or Wonder Woman. He talks non-stop now. We set up trains in the living room too. Enzo did a lot of climbing on the couch for some "infinity and beyond", forward diving and backward flopping.

After dinner tonight, we went to South Pas to get an ice cream cone and watch the trains. When we got back home, I took him running down the block. About halfway into the run back up the hill toward home, he stopped, grabbed my hand, and briskly walked home with a very determined look on his face. Through the front door, and straight onto the potty. Such a good boy!

This morning, Enzo and I ran the dogs to DDC, and then grabbed a bagel dog at Noah's. Enzo still loves a good bagel dog. After work, we went back to get the dogs and pick up some burritos. Zoe is on call tonight, so we ate dinner in the living room playing with toys. Enzo and Zoe had another great phone call. He told how he saw some chinchillas at the pet store, and she made him promise to take it easy on me tonight. Saying the word chinchilla really cracks him up. Effortless bath and teeth and into bed. As he was falling asleep, I whispered to him, i love you enzo. And he replied, "i love you three times!", which I took to mean three times more than than my single "i love you".

Enzo definitely has a cold today after only four days of school. Poor baby couldn't breath out his nose as he was falling asleep. I cant believe he hasnt woken up yet.

Today, I took him to Cindy's for breakfast, and Alex took him to school. We had a nice dinner over at Jacks house a few doors down. Enzo loved all the "new" toys. He found a Woody doll, and then asked us "where's buzz?" every five minutes. Luckily the phone rang right at bath time. He thought is was the police man reminding him to get in the tub, so he ran upstairs for a bath.

The best part was we got a fireman and a policeman to gently remind him to take a bath or shower every night and brush his teeth every night (the last few nights, for whatever reason, there was a lot of carrying on and tears before the usual bath and teeth ritual). He listened to them very closely and was very very cooperative for bath and teeth tonight.

We called all the parents of young kids we knew to let them know about this, and met up with William and Jake and Eliza down there.

After the firetruck extravaganza, we ran a few errands and went grocery shopping. While we were in pottery barn kids he found a ratty old little Buzz Lightyear that some other poor kid had left behind. He was so excited about this thing.

He took a nice nap and he was in the best mood all afternoon. We had a fun dinner and he rediscovered his love of the sweet potato. We ran around after dinner, had a long bath, and he went to bed exhausted.

We have realized that he will come across certain words that he just likes the sound of and he will laugh hysterically when he hears them. Today these words were "Jeez Louise!" and "slop!"

Zoe dropped me and Enzo off at the park, and took the dogs home. Enzo and I ran the length of the park about 10 times. By the time Zoe came back to get us, he was exhausted. It's getting dark earlier, and Enzo is started to go to bed earlier too. After I brushed his teeth tonight, he said "now my teeth wont fall out anymore!"

Enzo spent most of his time at class in the sand box, and running around wearing a red cape. He spent some time playing on his own, but checked in with us a lot. We still can't imagine leaving him there.

After work today, we just hung at the house playing with Legos and playing with "buzz light beer". We've been letting Enzo run around the house with no diaper on, and he goes to the potty every single time if he's not wearing one. He still is so proud, especially when he goes with us prompting him.

PO is amazing; the campus is beautiful and the classroom well stocked and filled with things that kept Enzo very entertained: different costumes, including a funny red cape, cars, dolls, playdough, musical instruments, stuffed animals, puzzles, books. He spent most of his time in the sand box and playing with the water pump. He never even got to the slide or the boat or the paints or colored water.

His teachers were so nice and we all liked his classmates and their various parents. There is a girl there that lives right up the street from us; there is another girl in the class that has been with Enzo in various places since he was 6 months old at Gymboree. There were only 1/2 the usual number of kids there today; the classes are staggered for the first week. It will be interesting to see what the place is like when there are 14 kids in there instead of the 7 that we had today. When we left this afternoon as we were getting in the car, he turned to us and said, "I like this place!"

He was exhausted from all his running around when we got home - it made for a peaceful dinner where he ate a ton and an easy bath and bedtime.

He had a great time with mommy and daddy though. He loved the the area where entire cities were built from Legos. He did not like the first ride we went on which was a boat trip - we traveled under a bridge where a Lego troll was waiting - he turned to us, with his quivering lips and said, "I want to go home!" We had been there all of 10 minutes. We also visited a small Legoland aquarium that just opened - totally bizarre. Blissfully the park was pretty empty. He liked the big Lego shark head.

We stayed at the Sheraton within walking distance and he loved their pool. He spent a long time jumping in and out of the water. Ralph would let him actually jump into the water for a split second before he would scoop him out, and even though it didn't bother him, he started to get nervous about jumping in. He would start out crouching and ready to jump then turn around and ease in on his belly, saying, "I just want to get in"

We had fun in the hotel room after dinner, looking out the window at "all the beautiful things". A perfect 36 hour mini vacation that was much needed by all of us.

It's becoming increasingly difficult for me to work at home during the day anymore. Once he realizes I'm here, he repeatedly visits the door, often sitting down to cry "want daddy right now".

After work today, we played around the house and went for a couple walks down the street. He was very happy to see mommy come home. She'd been out in Baldwin Park getting scanned. Emi is doing really well, and seems so far to have a normal sized head, unlike her brother.

Enzo definitely gets what is going on in mommy's tummy, and he seems excited about it. Whenever he sees a baby or baby photo, he mentions "just like baby Emi". He's taken to kissing Zoe's tummy and saying he loves Emi. So sweet. Also, on our walk today, out of nowhere he looked up and said, "love you mommy, love you daddy". Slayed me.

After dinner, we played with the rocket launcher in the front yard for a long time. He can really stomp on that thing now.

We had a nice weekend with Enzo. We laid low to avoid the craziness of Labor Day weekend. Sat and Sun spent mostly around the house, with a few trips out to eat and to the store and to play with friends.

Today, Alex watched Enzo in the morning while I went out to REI to buy a bike and a kid chariot. Going to start biking Enzo to school, and maybe riding my bike to work too.

When I got back around 2PM, Enzo was waking up from his nap. I showed him a new pair of shoes I got him at REI, and he was excited. We put them on and ran out the door. He said he could run faster and jump higher with them on.

We bombed around the house, and then went for a drive to see the blimp over the Rose Bowl, and stopped for Jamba Juice too. We had his golf clubs int he car, so we stopped at the course for a quick round of putt putt. He was a lot more focused than when we went the other day with all the boys. He actually took a full swing and connected with a ball, sending it flying into the bushes. He was impressed with himself.

We ate a great big early dinner, and then went for another walk. After we went the length of the block, I put him on my shoulders and we walked all the way around. No one home at Wes'.

After a snack and some Bee Movie, we took a long bath and then went to sleep without a fight.