I love how Art calls every meal dinner.  Breakfast, lunch… It's all dinner.  "When I finish my dinner can we…" and he'll be sitting there with oatmeal and orange juice.  And snacks have specific names.  Dried mangos are a treat, not a snack.  He told me that today.  

After dinner Tsundi joined Art and I for a walk to the park. They had an enormous amount of fun. I enjoy watching how Tsundi and Arthur play and communicate, seeing as neither of them can understand much of what the other says. Although Tsundi has started to speak a bit more English. “Come on!” or “Push!” or “Chocolate!”

One of the playground highlights and something Art often asks for is a game we play on the bridge. Art says, “I’m going to go on your bridge, Papa!” and then of course I say, “No no no, I’m going to get you!” It’s very exciting to run across a bridge when someone below is pretending to grab you and eat your fingers and toes. So exciting that other kids want to play, and at one point there was a gaggle of 6 or 7 kids screaming and prancing across the bridge as I reached for their tasty feet.

A fascinating thing about Tsundi is that he always has something in his hands. Always. Rocks, sticks, food, trash, shovels, balls. As they were riding their bikes back home he stopped to collect rocks on the ground. At one point he didn’t have anything in his hands and I watched as he scoured the sidewalk hunched over looking for anything to grasp. It’s odd. And endearing.

I was anxious to get home as it was already past Art’s bedtime. As they were pushing their bikes up the hill Art stopped as he noticed an anthill (something he and Jessica often do). He showed Tsundi, and for the next 15 minutes they were looking at ant hills, moving methodically from one to the next, inspecting ant quantities and the shapes of the tiny mounds of dirt. Tsundi stood up and yelled something as he stomped on a hill. “No!” said Arthur. They worked it out.

Art’s bike is too big, Tsundi’s is too small.

Anthills.

This huge ugly plastic playground thing we were given from our neighbors (Thanks Becca and McClain!) has never been much of a hit with Arthur. Until this year. Both Lewis and Art can’t seem to get enough of it now. Arthur has learned to climb high, through, and up. Lewis is seen here standing right where he always does, in the doorway. He loves opening and closing this door, and can do it many times without complaining.

Jessica just sent me this funny email…

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: “Jessica Parker”
Date: Apr 28, 2009 11:17 AM
Subject: seaweed
To: “Ben Garvin”

Art’s watching a nature show – “Seasonal Seas” – and I was in the kitchen. He says, “Mama, can I have some seaweed?” I chucked and brought him some. Dolphins were passing a piece of seaweed to each other and Art said, “They are playing a seaweed game and so I wanted to have some seaweed!”
—

Lewis can be a real pain during meals lately, but it's all good.  He just wants to feed himself  from every utensil and cup available at the table.  No, really.  He grunts and whimpers and we just keep offering him all sorts of thing.  My shiny spoon, Ben's fork…By the end of one recent meal Lewis had drunk from every cup at the table and from the small pitcher for his extra water.  

Anyone who's eaten a few meals with us knows that the person who sits next to Lewis is responsible for refilling his cup with a little water over and over.  His cup skills are really good, but now he's discovered that it is lots of fun to put things into his cup and to pour the contents of his cup into other things.  I guess the novelty of drinking from the cup is long gone.  

Lewis walks real far.

I want those guns.

Art was curious about this image and asked what was going on. “I think he might have a boo boo and she’s trying to make him feel better.”

Our three hour napless flight forced Art and I to delve deep into our wells of creativity.

and seatbelts for everyone: