Adored dad

Another snap, taken by one of Disney's ladies in waiting, at Sunday's soiree.

Perks of the job

The Princess & the Frog comes out on DVD this Tuesday, which means the Disney hype machine is in full swing. They hosted an official "crowning" on Sunday at the Palace Hotel. All the princesses came and so did Tina Fey, her toddler and her cleavage.

The kids had a great time and left with a packed goodie bag, including the DVD, a Tiana barbie and some big girl earrings. Lincoln loved the fruit kabobs and was rapt when they formally put the crown on Tiana's head.



He didn't want to pose with the princesses, but Greta had enough patience to pose once with Cinderella.


The Palace Hotel was lovely, decked out for spring.  Even lovelier were my two favorite women.

Pose in repose

Pack mule

This is progress -- Greta toting her backpack and her brother's and all the lunch bags this morning! My life just got a little bit easier...

When I'm big...

Lincoln is fond of starting sentences with that clause lately. Tonight he busted out a gem: "When I'm big, I'm going to have a gun." No, Lincoln, you don't want a gun, said his NRA-fearing father. "Yes I do." Why, son, why? "So I can hunt the fox."

Running into spring

Spring fever

It pushed 60 here today and I got the camera out during our trip to Grove Park. The kids were a lot like the squirrels who were having a post-winter nut orgy. They ran everywhere and wanted to do everything -- all at the same time. I'll trickle out some photos throughout the rest of the week. The best one is above.

Home sweet home

I don't know how traveling salesman do it. After 24 hours apart from Carey and the kids, I wanted to be home. They greeted me last night with chants of "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" as they trooped down the stairs in their pajamas at 8 o'clock. It took them about an hour to calm down and after a 15-minute "I don't want to go to bed!" tantrum from Greta, she slept through the night in her own bed for the first time in more than a month. So on this lovely spring day, we are filled with hope.

I'm staying home and recharging today. The kids are at school until 3pm, when I plan to pick them up early and hit the playground. Will take a few photos and post them later.

La-La Land

The view from the 8th floor of the Universal Hilton. I'm here until Monday night covering the Oscars. Leaving the blog in Carey's capable hands, but since she also has two kids in her capable hands AND a job, I'm thinking maybe we'll post again next week. For those of you who are curious, you can watch the two-hour red carpet show I'm producing from 6-8 p.m. ET on Sunday at www.livestream.com/aplive.

Bobsledding

The kids watched a little of the Winter Olympics this year. Some figure skating, some curling, some hockey and some bobsledding. Greta's schools also reinforced the theme, drawing the Olympic rings, creating laurel wreaths and bringing brooms and hockey pucks in for some bastardized hybrid of curling and hockey. So it's only natural that the other day the kids tipped over their kitchen stools so they could slide on the wood floor. Lincoln assumed the pusher position and Greta took the pilot seat.

Lullaby

I don't know any by heart, so I make them up. A few months ago I created this one and it is now on Lincoln's nightly playlist. I usually leave out the last word in each repeating line and he finishes the verse. If we ever find Carey's Nano with video, we'll record it. I just wanted to put it here for posterity since this is our de-facto baby book.

I love Lincoln, I love Lincoln
Yes I do, yes I do
I love Lincoln David, because he is the best boy
The best boy in the world, the best boy in the world

Flood's Hill

That's the name of the large downhill slope in our fine town. It's featured on page one of today's New York Times, just below the fold. If anybody subscribes, please save us a copy. Anyway, we visited our own little Whistler this afternoon. It was very hard-packed and pretty rutty, but FAST. I got some good shots of strangers and a couple good ones of my actual family.

What it means to have a snow day Chez Merrill

Olympics for breakfast. Pajamas 'til 10. New playdoh. Play date with the Baileys. Picnic lunch watching Swan Lake performed by the State Ballet of Oregon.
Cupcakes. Sticker art. Dress up parade.





















Make-your-own magnets. Homemade snow ice cream.


Chase the cat. Catch the cat.


Pretend weddings with Mommy's veils. Wabi Sabi dance off. Dinner with friends.







Greta said it was "just like the old days." Good times, indeed.

Bad guy costume

The kids spent the afternoon at the Haydens yesterday after their schools closed early. They played lots of dress-up and Emma was nice enough to loan Lincoln her superhero costume. He freakin' loves it.

Snow day today. Carey's trying not to feel guilty "working" from home while corralling the kids. I'm working a short day, 10a-5p. Thank God for global warming.

Show day PJs, again

The foolish teachers keep telling the kids to wear their pajamas inside out at bedtime to bring snow. And it keeps working! Another 8-12" expected today and tomorrow. And I thought we'd left the north country behind.

Did I mention it's almost baseball season?

God help Lincoln if he ends up hating the game, huh? So far, so good. Like his sister, if you say, "Goooooo...." he'll complete the cheer:  "Yankees!" And as previously noted, he's getting into hats and he loves to hit things with a bat or any object, so I'm hopeful a game of catch or shagging flies isn't too far in the future.

Chasing 28...

A few days late on this photo, taken Feb. 17 when pitchers and catchers reported to New York Yankees spring training in Tampa, Fla. In addition to winning the World Series again, our goal this year is to get both kids to a game.

Lincoln's first piece of gum!

Saturday with Peter Pan

8:30 and the girls are still sleeping. Greta has had two AWFUL nights in a row that one of us will blog about if we ever get enough sleep to think clearly. Lincoln's been OK, but he often wakes up when Greta launches into one of her middle-of-the-night rants. Still, he's a sweet little boy this morning and all is forgiven.

Mean guy

Lincoln is obsessed with all things mean and bad. It started with Dr. Facilier from "The Princess and the Frog," then he got mostly black pajamas from Grandma Pat for Christmas. The irony is the pajamas say RESCUE on them and are not meant to connote anything bad. But to Lincoln they're his "bad guy pajamas." He's now trying to affect the bad guy look, striking his best "mean guy pose" for the camera. Is it related to his increased physicality, hair pulling and occasional hitting? You be the judge.

Impromptu visit

We were supposed to entertain our friends the Humphreys in South Orange over President's Day weekend. But when Washington's snowpacalypse forced Gardner to work on Monday, we found ourselves with three days ahead of us and nothing to do. We debated staying home, but thought we'd get stir crazy after awhile or go on too many shopping trips and buy things we don't need. So we packed up the CRV and the kids on Saturday and drove to Syracuse. Arrived in time for dinner and a movie ("Fantastic Mr. Fox" - two thumbs up). Lincoln had a horrible night, spiking fevers and complaining -- finally -- about his ear. Voila. Took him to an urgent care facility on Sunday morning and got him his first amoxicillin prescription. Three doses a day for 10 days.  He's only on his fourth and feels better already. Part of me is hoping that his little body (just 25 pounds at 2 years, 8 months!) will be so supercharged with its first-ever antibiotic that he'll be able to carve a path of destruction through daycare. Touching the dirtiest places, sticking his two fingers in his mouth, licking the snot off other kids' faces -- it won't matter because he'll be so pumped with antibiotics!

We're headed home shortly and I'll take a look at photos tonight. There might be one good one of the kids sledding. For now, here's Lincoln and cousin Matt enjoying Grandma's barbecued chicken and a second viewing of "Fantastic Mr. Fox."

V-Day haul

The kids both had Valentine's Day parties at school today. V-Day cards have come a long way since I twisted a pink pipe cleaner into a heart for my 4-year-old crush Beth. At least half of them now come with some confection -- from chocolate to lollipops. Lincoln wanted to sample every one of them, of course, despite a 101-degree fever this evening.

What Lincoln really wanted to do in the snow

Naturally, after two days off from school for snow, he's now running a fever. No other symptoms, so we plan to dose him with Motrin at 8am and see if it gets us through the day. Good parents!

Snowmageddon

I'll admit to feeling a certain smugness when I heard from all my D.C. friends about the blizzard that dumped 20+" on the capitol area over the weekend. I should have known Karma would come back to bite me. We got about 2 feet today and it's still coming down in fat flakes that look like white rain. The kids ventured outside for about 30 minutes this morning and then again this evening when we dragged them on the sled a couple blocks to have dinner with the Baileys. I didn't dare have the camera outside for too long but got a couple decent shots. All area schools are already closed for tomorrow, so one of us is staying home again.

Snow Day PJs

Greta hopes Mother Nature is right this time and we actually receive the 300 inches of snow the weatherman is predicting. In an effort to seal the deal, she is following her teacher's orders and wearing her pajamas inside out.

Super party

We whiled away the hours before the big game hosting our three favorite local families and their children for what was billed as Sarah Hayden's delayed birthday bash. Really, it was a chance for our kids -- who used to play together almost daily when Carey was at home -- to enjoy some quality time. They made personal pizzas, performed a couple impromptu "shows" for the adults (which consisted of six kids singing discordant tunes loudly at the same time) and enjoyed heaping slices of Costco's All American Chocolate Cake.

Daddy's shoes

Light at the end of the tunnel...

As we come to the tail end of this horrible health week, just a photo of Greta on Monday sitting on top of a "Children of the World" puzzle that she proudly assembled with me in between guzzling Motrin and hacking up her lungs.

Sick portraits

Carey and I told each other when she returned to work that we could expect to take at least one sick day per month. Daycares, for all their modern lifestyle necessity and usefulness, are breeding grounds for germs. Need proof? We can count on one hand the number of times either kid was really, really sick while Carey stayed at home. Carey went back to work on Jan. 4 and after Feb. 2 we will have burned four sick days between us. The latest is a particularly insidious cough/fever combo that makes sleeping difficult. Lincoln had the cough all last week but didn't pop a fever until Sunday. It was above 103 all day but came down with Motrin. Greta's cough is worse, but her fever is much lower. Long story short, Daddy stayed home today, Mommy gets to do it tomorrow. Thank God we have understanding employers (so far).

I couldn't resist taking a couple portraits. Actually like the one of Lincoln. Didn't get the focus quite right on Greta's. Any photographers out there have good tips on how to do that with the No Flash setting on a Canon XSi? I didn't try switching to manual focus. That might help.