Olin, careful with your words...

The boys got a word construction game for Christmas. Olin was excited that he wrote a 'story,' so we went to look. I think the first sentence is a bit much.

Steiner ranch and the terrifying bunny

Its the first day of our stay at the Steiner Ranch, and it has been absolutely beautiful. Here is a sequence of photos and videos we took in a walk along the grounds.

We give the kids some popsicles and head off on our walk:

And we are off on the tractor path, headed for the duck pond.

The kids are proud of their purple tongues:

When I was a kid we had purple tongue contests after eating blueberry pies. The scale went from possible purple, to partially purple, to positively purple, to preposterously purple. The kids got partially.

Olin gets tired, goes on my shoulders.

Max realizes we are close to the house, and runs down the vineyard line,

And then the funniest thing happened, the point of this post. On the way to the farm we had been telling the boys that they needed to let us know if they saw deer, since we had to get them off the farm since they would damage the grapes. Maybe we made a big deal about it. But as Max ran along, suddenly he stopped and screamed hysterically, turned back towards us, and ran for his life, shouting DEER! DEER! DEER! And the most enormous jackrabbit (think German Shepherd) bounded across the path, and hopped off into the distance over the hill. Max was shuddering. Until we told him that he had just seen the Easter Bunny.

Max is cheering his book as he writes it

Max is writing another book about a Giants v Phillies make believe world series. The narrative sounds like a radio broadcast. He just cheered wildly as Giants got a home run (which he had penned seconds earlier). They are now at the bottom of the fifth.

About to spit on myself

As sometimes happens, about 15 minutes after I've put the kids to bed I hear Olin's small, musical voice start calling "Daddy... (pause) Daddy... (pause) Daddy..." So I amble over to their room, and open the door.

Me: Yes?

Olin: (Softly) I need a little bit of water cause I'm about to spit on myself.

Me: OK.

I go get a little bit of water. Olin sits up and drinks. I walk out.

Olin: (Full throttle) DADDYDADDYDaddyHowBoutAKiss????

Despite the very loud request, on my return to the room Max is still snoring, Olin is perched on the edge of his bed, arms out, lips puckered. I kiss the lovebird and lay his head back on the pillow.

Olin: (softly) Thank you Daddy. Goodnight.

Max and Olin's Cottage Industry of Books

So Max and Olin are now trying to raise funds by selling books. See Max's current oeuvre:

Max has original sketches on the left for 15 cents. Books on the right for 20 cents (Olin isn't quite as commercial yet). Today he wrote "the letter 1". Anna told him that 1 was not a letter. Max's reply: "Mommy. You just don't get it."

The book is about how the number 1 looks a lot like the lowercase letter 'L' but you can tell it is really different since it should have 2 smaller lines on it.

He was pressuring me to buy one. But I think I prefer the artwork in The Boy.

Girls vs Boys

Olin was at Meghan's for a playdate and Meghan's mom Deirdre overheard the following:

O: is you a woman?
M, bossily: yes and you're a boy

Olin...

I tickled Olin to wake him up this morning. Giggling he said, "Stop tickling me mommy, I am not a toy."

I was driving Olin and his friend Meghan to school one morning this week and Meghan said to Olin, "Olin when we go to college, we're going to live together." Olin paused, smiled and yelled, "let's go to college!"