Batman’s Trusty Kick

Here’s Finn telling me a little bit about Robin. I love that his interpretation of “sidekick” is just “kick.”

Costume Mania!

I decided we needed to enhance our costume/dress-up selection, so I ordered some superhero costumes and some princess dresses from Amazon. They arrived yesterday and the fun ensued. Ezra had borrowed some light-up Cinderella shoes from Lucy so he was delighted that there was a Cinderella dress in the mix. They played out various scenarios for a couple of hours last night and I had a tough time getting them out of the costumes for bed time. Finn ended up sleeping with the Batman costume. Here are a couple videos of their routines.

And here’s a shot from last week at the Heffs’ house, where Finn couldn’t decide if he was a princess or a magician.

The cutest princess (or magician)

Science Center

We took the boys to the Science Center last weekend and, as expected, they had a really good time. For some reason, they were particularly interested in the Egyptian room. They climbed up on the camel for pictures, tried to piece together some pots (with varying degrees of success), and moved some 60-lb blocks using the rails like the Egyptians did when building the pyramids.

Ezra on the camel

Finn rides the camel

Putting together a pot

Ezra also liked the fog machine.

Ezra and the fog machine

And all three Moisions liked lifting the truck with the giant lever.

Three Moisions lift a truck

Ouch!

Words cannot express how much I was looking forward to yesterday morning. Both boys had school, and my plan was to head home after dropping off Finn at Cottage and enjoy a couple of hours of sheer solitude in my own home – a much-too-rare occurrence. I had a book to read and a nap to take.

However, just as I arrived at Cottage, I got a call from Bruce who said he had a serious stomach ache and hadn’t gone in to work (he’d tried to ride in, but quickly figured out he wasn’t going to make it). My first thought, selfishly, was “No! This is supposed to be my alone time!” But, once I got home and saw his face I knew he was in some serious pain. I’ve been with him when he broke his leg and when he was in the ER for chest pain, and neither registered the kind of pain he seemed to be in yesterday. After a quick call to his regular doc, I took him to the ER.

He was miserable, but we were lucky enough to have arrived at the ER when it was uncharacteristically empty. We got right in to a room and the nurse started a work up. He was struggling so much with the pain that I was having a hard time keeping it together. We had read a bit online before going to the hospital (of course) and we thought he might have appendicitis. Thus, I was wondering WHY ISN’T THE DOCTOR IN HERE YET???!!!

Turns out, it was a kidney stone. Extremely painful, but not life threatening. Once we knew this (and once he had not one but TWO doses of morphine in his IV), we both calmed down a lot. He had a CT which found a 4 mm stone, and we were sent home with some Vicodin. He passed the stone later that evening with no pain (thanks to the aforementioned Vicodin).

Here’s a shot of the actual stone.

Bruce's kidney stone

Here’s what he said it felt like.

What it felt like

Finn’s Hodgepodge Costume

Finn cobbled together the best costume ever today. In the Heffernans’ magic dress-up box, he found part of a camel costume, a magician’s hat, and a pair of Snow White shoes. Here’s the finished product. The pictures aren’t great, but you get the idea.

Finn's costume front

Finn's costume back

I think the orange underwear pull the whole outfit together nicely. Project Runway, look out!

Progress

Yesterday I took the boys to lunch at Islands, and Ezra jumped right and did one of the puzzles on the kids menu.

Ezra doing puzzles at Islands

He quickly figured out which pictures were matching and put a red X over the ones that didn’t match and a green check mark over the ones that did. The last time we were there, probably a month or two ago, he wanted to do this puzzle, but was easily frustrated by trying to make the Xs and asked me to do it for him. I was so proud of him that this time he made the marks by himself, I was ready to burst! Woot!

Finn’s Passport Arrived!

Finn’s passport came in the mail yesterday and he was very excited! Here he is holding it up so we could send a picture to Jamma.

Finn celebrates the arrival of his passport

He just wanted to hold it and “read” it forever. He sat on the porch steps looking at it, and at one point asked me, “Do you know what these words say?” I said, “What?” He said, “Mommy and Papa love you.” Awww, what a cutie.

Finn reads the passport

Oh, and he calls it his “pors-pat.”

Finn’s New “Cass”

Finn moved into the Monday, Tuesday, Thursday summer school class at Cottage this week, which mimics the class he’ll be in in the Fall. It’s a much smaller group (8 versus 17 or so) and the kids are closer to his age. I had a work shift yesterday and took some pictures, of course. Finn spent the entire day in his underwear (which was probably smart considering it was 96 degrees out).

We made lemonade — the kids squeezed the lemons, added water, mint and sugar, and did lots of taste testing. Here’s Finn adding some more mint while Charlie helps himself to another taste.

More mint

They also did some painting — first cardboard boxes, then themselves.

Painting cardboard

Then they took the painted cardboard boxes and taped together a space ship.

Building a spaceship

Ice Cream Cones!

Ezra’s been wanting to go get ice cream (in cones, NOT cups) for a while now. In fact, there’s been a note on our chalkboard about it since our last outing to Buster’s — because that time they got cups and he wanted to make sure the next time he got a cone.

So today was the day. Finn opted for “choc-it” and Ezra went for the “blue and white one.” No idea what flavor it is, but he likes blue. His whole mouth — inside and out — was blue for hours after he finished, and Finn was a big, drippy, chocolate mess, but they were thrilled.

Ice Cream Ezra

Ice Cream Finn

A Call for Rain?

Ezra and Finn picked out their own accessories this morning before school:

School outfits

I’m not sure why Ezra wanted the rain boots and umbrella, but Finn followed suit, going with the “mish-mash” (mix-match) rain boots. As an aside, this was what the weather looked like today:

forecast

They were both quite a hit when we walked in to drop Ezra off at Hamilton, especially Finn since he is at a super cute stage and was using the cane Bruce made him last year when he broke his leg. I think all the attention went to his head a bit. When I told him we had to go to the grocery store before I took him to Cottage, he said he wanted to go to a store where everyone would notice his mish-mash boots.

Debs Park

We’ve been wanting to check out Debs Park in L.A. — or more specifically the Audubon Center at Debs Park — for a while now since some friends went and had a great time. Sadly, the Center is closed on Sundays, so we thought we would give the park a try. It was a bit of a bust for Bruce and me, but I think the boys had a pretty good time. After a short hike up to a creepy green lake and back, we let the boys roam around a forest-like area by the parking lot. We came across what looked like some kind of debris catch and the boys’ imagination took off. They pretended to be firemen sliding down the poles at the fire station and ran around the area (making siren sounds) looking for and putting out fires.

Pretending to be firemen sliding down the pole

Finn liked writing an F in the dirt with his “writing stick.”

Finn writing an F in the dirt

Ezra found part of a tree branch that he thought looked like moose antlers. He also found a string with a hook on the end, so he hooked them together and called it “Moosey.” He was very proud.

Ezra pulling the tree branch he found

Then we cleaned up and had snack time at the car. Everyone say Bananas!

Snack time 1 -- Everybody say Bananas!

Heff BBQ

The Heffs can throw an impromptu party like no one else! Great food, drinks and company including eleven kids five years old and younger and everyone got along swimmingly.

Things got started with Otter Pops for the kids and for some reason (his magnetic personality?) everyone crowded around Bruce.

Bruce and many kids

There were squirties.

Lucy and her squirtie

And more squirties.

Charlie was saying, "Go, Finn"

And, obviously, Lucy, Charlie and Finn decided to have an underwear party. Ezra kept his clothes on, and had fun with the fan in Lucy’s (very pink) room.

Ezra has fun with the fan

All in all, a fantastic way to spend a Saturday afternoon/evening!

Ezra’s Last Day at Cottage

Even though Ezra graduated from Cottage last month, yesterday was his official last day because I signed him up for four weeks of summer school. I happened to have a work shift, so I got the chance to take a few pictures of his activities throughout the day.

Over the last month, Ezra and some of his friends have managed to dig a gigantic hole. Teacher Gilda finally got them to “decide” to fill it in yesterday. (She let them come up with the idea, and they bought in completely.) I’m not sure much progress was made, but about half the class got into the filling action.

The gang tries to fill in the big hole

During group time, Teacher Dianna led a discussion of how the kids got to school that day and how they wished they’d gotten to school. Ezra said he got there by “Mini” which was initially misinterpreted as “minivan,” much to Ezra’s dismay. Finally though, his teacher understood. Ezra then said that he wished he’d gotten there by space shuttle.

Group time

For snack time, the kids made smoothies. Both the making and eating of said smoothies was a huge mess, but the kids love them.

Snack time!

And finally, just a shot I thought was cute — Ezra going into the playhouse.

Ezra heads into the playhouse

I’m sure he’ll miss Cottage, but at least for the moment he seems pretty excited about his Intro to Kindergarten class. Even though they don’t have skitters there. Or bikes.