Creature of Habit

Tomorrow Tyler will wake up between 6 and 7:00 in the morning. He will walk up the steps with his two blankets and a sippy cup. He will sit down in the office and turn on a movie. About 20 minutes later, he will begin his morning play-time.

At about 7:30, he will wave at the door as Arthur pulls away to go to work. Once the garage is closed, he will go back to his morning play-time.

At around 10:00 AM, Dylan will go down for a nap. As soon as I return from putting Dylan to sleep, Tyler will ask me to help him with his Thomas the Tank Engine puzzle. This is a game that is reserved for times when Dylan is sleeping, and Tyler does not hesitate to remind me. He will instruct me to help him find the red "James" pieces followed by Cranky, Harold, Percy and finally Thomas - always in this order. A few remaining pieces will be added to complete the puzzle. As soon as all 24 pieces fit perfectly together, Tyler will start to dissemble the puzzle. As soon as I join him in the clean up, he will pick up the box and hold it carefully so that I can put all 24 pieces back in.

Once the puzzle is cleaned up, Tyler will run to find the game Memory (another game reserved for Dylan's nap time). Almost as soon as we get the game set up, he will tire of organized fun, and will start to play with his cars and train set. At some time during this play time, his cars and trains will be lined up in a perfectly straight line.

If he is thirsty, he will ask for juice. If I give him the option between juice and chocolate milk, he will request chocolate milk.

At lunch, I will sit him in his booster seat. Immediately, he will search for the straps to buckle himself in. If he cannot find the straps, he will scream relentlessly until I help him find them. He will use his fork to stab the table. I will remind him that we don't use forks to stab the table. He will stab the table again. I will remind him again that we don't use forks to stab the table and threaten to take the fork away if he does it again. He will stab the table again and I will put my hand out for the fork and he will give it to me.

When I feed Dylan, Tyler will request a taste of Dylan's food, I will offer him a small taste, and he will start laughing and say, "No that's Dylan's food!" and reject my offer.

Soon after lunch, it will be nap time. We will search the house for his two blankets and sippy cup. Once the items are located, Tyler will lay down in his bed. I will hand him his two blankets, put the sippy cup on the edge of the bed and if it is a warm day, I will cover him with his sheet only. He will protest and demand to have all blankets. I cover the bottom half of his legs with the rest of his blankets and convince him that this will be fine. I will give him kisses and wish him a good night.

3 hours later, Tyler will walk up the steps wet with sweat, holding his 2 blankets and his sippy cup.

We will go outside for a walk. I will put Dylan on one side of the stroller, and Tyler will climb into the other side by himself. Immediately, he will search for the straps to buckle himself in. If he cannot find the straps, he will scream relentlessly until I help him find them.

During the walk, he will say, "What's that noise?" as we pass a house with wind chimes. I will say, "wind chimes" and he will repeat "wind chimes".

When Arthur opens the garage door signalling his return from work, Tyler will make a mad dash to the door and will run out to welcome him home.

During dinner, I will sit him in his booster seat. Immediately, he will search for the straps to buckle himself in. If he cannot find the straps, he will scream relentlessly until I help him find them. He will use his fork to stab the table. I will remind him that we don't use forks to stab the table. He will stab the table again. I will remind him again that we don't use forks to stab the table and threaten to take the fork away if he does it again. He will stab the table again and I will put my hand out for the fork and he will give it to me.

When I feed Dylan his dinner, Tyler will request a taste of Dylan's food, I will offer him a small taste, and he will start laughing and say, "No that's Dylan's food!" and reject my offer.

When it is bath-time, Arthur will stand 10 feet from the tub and try to make a basket with Tyler's basket ball bath toys. Tyler will giggle with hysterics while he retrieves the balls for Arthur so that he can make another attempt.

At bed-time, Arthur will search the house for his two blankets and sippy cup. Once the items are located, Tyler will lay down in his bed. Arthur will hand him his two blankets and put the sippy cup on the edge of the bed. Arthur will read him 2-3 stories, say a prayer, and kiss him goodnight.

If you were to come to my house on any average day, these are the things that you would probably witness. Tyler is definitely my creature of habit.

Summer Picnic with Mickey

Top 10 ways to know if you are at a Disney event:


10. Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck are walking around.
9. You spot people humming tunes like "zippity doo da" as they wait in line for hot dogs.
8. Every car in the parking lot has a "DSNYFAN", "MKYMOUS", or "WLTDSNY" type vanity license plate.
7. Winners of the raffle are named Ariel Smith, Jasmine Jones, and Dash Williams.
6. There are more people waiting in line at the pin-trading station than at the ferris wheel.
5. The MC sounds a whole lot like Goofy.
4. It is perfectly normal for an adult to walk around with Mickey Mouse Ears on his head.
3. People are heard conversing about new plants around Disneyland.
2. Complaints are raised about why there is no Fast Pass for the BBQ line.
1. Mispronouncing my last name could get someone kicked out.



Here are some pictures from this summer's picnic at Calamigos Ranch in Malibu:

A Few Good Men

Due to less-than-stellar acclaim, Kerri is forcing me to contribute to her blog. Personally, I think things have been going fine without me; but, I have to admit that the endless stream of cutesy-wutesy pictures and videos must be sickening to all but the sappiest among you, so it's time to add a man's perspective to things.

When I come home from work, Kerri usually has a list of (a) grievances involving the evil things our two boys have done in the course of the day, or (b) the kids have done something that makes her particularly proud. Many of these things that make her happy have been meticulously captured on film and shared with you readers as well.

Yes, I admit, these things that make a mother proud are "nice" and "pleasing", but what I have to share with you today are things that mothers may place in category (a) but that I, as the father, feel belong in category (b) as a sign that my boys are well on their way to becoming real men.

After a year of life generally being a lump, leaving me to fret about his manhood, Tyler began showing masculine qualities at his 1 year birthday party, when we placed a whole chocolate cake in front of him. The speed with which he devoured it, leaving a trail of destruction from the high chair to the bathtub where Mommy bathed him, pretty much confirmed the fact that my son was descended from club-wielding caveman ancestors. We knew we didn't have a prissy son.











From there, Tyler has demonstrated an amazing knack to "out-man" even his father. From the infamous "eating shredder contents" incident (where one day we found him consuming remnants of old credit card bills) to the full-blown frat party whipped cream chugging contest (thanks Uncle Aaron and Andrew), our son's energy has never left a doubt that we would find him cavorting with Barbie dolls.










Another pleasing sign: Tyler doesn't have the time nor energy to be consumed by his own appearance, as evidenced by these two hair occasions. As anyone who has seen my hair can attest to, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

In this next set of virile shots, Tyler is showing his no-nonsense macho fashion. Thanks to Uncle Aaron, Tyler can be seen about town in his bomber jacket and airman sunglasses. Next, thanks to me, Tyler shows off his newly acquired tattoo - hopefully a sign of things to come, except I encourage him to get more becoming tattoos - stuff like motorcycles and anchors.











What is a man without a gun? Tyler doesn't even know what a gun is; unfortunately, I have never brought him to the shooting range. But, in the hands of a natural man, a plastic toy drill inherently is a weapon that must be aimed and pointed at people.

Finally, a couple of images and stories that would have never seen the light of blogdom if Kerri continued on her way. On the left, looks like an innocent picture of a sink, right? Well, look a little closer. On this day, Tyler pulled a booger out of his nose and started chasing me with it to put it on me. Note: I've never chased Tyler around with a booger, so the whole time I was running around, it was secretly with delight that he passed this rite of passage - being a disgusting boy. Finally, I managed to convince him to wash his finger in the sink like all decent booger wielding men, but he had to do one last thing - wipe it on the sink for someone to wash. I enclose this picture because blogs need more pictures like this, and less giggling sumo babies.


By now, everyone who is a regular visitor to this blog has seen our Florida vacation pictures. Nice and sweet, right? They paint an image of a perfect beach vacation of a middle class family reunion enjoying picturesque walks along the Florida coastline. What Kerri "forgot" to tell you was about incidents like this, where Tyler insisted on pointing out delightful sights to us on our beach walks, like this "big poopoo" (driftwood). Way to go, son!


Finally, I would like to leave you with some last images of our other son Dylan, who is still pretty much in his lump phase, but has begun to show some signs of masculine virtues.

In Exhibit A, I present to you an image of a one-week old gangster-to-be:










Exhibit B, Dylan recently began speaking his first words. As we strained our ears in anxious anticipation to hear his first words of wisdom, what did we hear? The secret of life? Mommy? Daddy? I think it's quite clear from this video that Dylan's first word is going down in history as "butt":



Readers, I hate to toot my own horn, but I think my job as a father is almost done. I think it's clear from these images that my job in raising the next generation of men is on the righteous path to success.

I am so proud of my boys! <sniff>

Arthur vs. Superman

At last, the long awaited battle!

Okay, so we went a little out of control with this video, but I hope you enjoy it!

I have to give almost all of the credit to Arthur because I am pretty much an idiot when it comes to video editing.

Florida - Final installment

Finally, here is the last recap of our Florida trip. Everyone is probably hoping that we don't go on any European tours soon. I hope you enjoy at least some of these pictures, though!

On Friday, we celebrated Jimmy's 7th and Arthur's 31st Birthdays

Can you guess the theme of the party?

Tyler was just happy to have so much candy

Kellen and Dylan

Todd and Dylan

Mike and Rhoda

Don't worry, Mike doesn't always have this goofy look on his face, although he does always look a bit goofy.

Amanda showing off her gift to Uncle Arthur

Saturday was our last full day in Florida, so we spent it at the beach

Sunday, we headed back to California.

Being the much wiser older brother, Tyler decided to tell Dylan all about airplane fun.

I am having a bit of trouble uploading the Arthur/Superman battle. Hopefully Arthur can help me iron out the kinks, and it will be on here soon. I know you are all shaking with anticipation!

Happy Birthday Grandma Shek!

I need to interrupt the Florida vacation report with a special message to Grandma Shek.

Happy Birthday! We hope you were able to celebrate in style while in Japan. Hopefully this will add joy to your day...

Vocals by Arthur and Kerri
Dancing by Tyler and Dylan
Choreography by Arthur

Florida - Days 3 and 4

Here is the second installment of our Florida trip. Yes, there is still more to come after this post. Yes, I can hear all the yawns of boredom already. I have gone nuts with all the pictures I want to share, so if you aren't in the mood to relive a vacation that you didn't get to take, you may want to check back here sometime next week! For those of you who still are interested, I hope it isn't too painful!

Here is our lovely beach house. We were located 2 blocks from the beach in lovely Destin, Florida.

Tyler insisted on wearing his sunglasses whenever we were on the beach. Of course, we didn't mind that the $4 glasses from Target were being put to good use!


Dylan is a true beach-bum! As soon as we got close to the ocean waves, he snuggled into me and fell right to sleep. Again, I was pleased to see him wearing the sunglasses as well!










Yes, those are Dylan's toes sticking out from under Grandma Shields' chair![Photo]












Dylan wasn't much of an ocean swimmer, but he did enjoy his swimming pool floating lounge chair (complete with sun visor).









After a day at the beach, the kids were in need of popsicles.

Here are Tyson, Jimmy, Tyler, Amanda, Aidan, Todd and Kellen demonstrating the best part about eating popsicles.












Oh look at how cute: they let Justin ride on the kiddie train with Kellen and Quinn!

Meanwhile, Tyler and Dylan didn't know what they were missing bec ause they were too busy snoozing.

I know you are all waiting for the Superman vs. Arthur picture, but you will just have to wait for another installment of the Florida vacation. Don't worry - unlike the show Lost, this beach vacation does have an ending!