If you can dodge a wrench...

...you can dodge a ball!

Flat Stanley

One of Greta's schools had the kids make them a couple weeks ago prior to spring break. The kids were told to bring Stanley with them wherever they went on vacation. Since we didn't vacation anywhere while the school was closed (we simply had Greta attend her second school for the full day), we didn't take any pictures. On Monday, Greta came home from school and told us all about the books and posters kids made with their photos. She assured us that two other kids forgot to bring theirs. I suggested we take some photos around the house and this is the first one she suggested -- Flat Stanley visits Manhattan.

We then went outside, where Flat Stanley was posed with Greta's favorite narcissus flowers and was pushed in the swing until he blew away.

Weekend update

A lovely spring weekend in South Orange. Lots of playground time, cleaned out a few closets (six garbage bags of kids' clothes to charity!) and copious amounts of golf on TV. A couple shots from the Marshall School playground on Saturday.

Last hurrah for the Easter dress

Daddy's big girl

I created a chant a year or so ago, appropos of nothing, but it goes like this: "Big kid, little kid, all around the kid kids." It's used as an all-purpose greeting when Greta and Lincoln pick me up at the train station or when I pick them up at school, as well as random other times when it makes even less sense. I was chanting it to Greta on Sunday when this photo was taken by Amy.

Friends

I miss having them. We have mid-life acquaintances here in South Orange so far. Given time, perhaps, we'll forge lifelong friendships. I should use the more personal pronoun, sorry. Thanks to stay-at-home motherhood, Carey has made some tighter bonds. But 2 1/2 years into this second New Jersey adventure, I don't have any men with whom I do much more than share a spot under a playground tree or have an occasional beer with at a backyard barbecue.

This isn't meant as a knock against the fine people we have met here. Our kids genuinely like their kids and at 38 that seems to be the most important thing.

I mention this because my oldest friend visited this weekend. I met Aaron Reid when we were five years old. Mrs. Jones' kindergarten class, 1977. We were classmates through high school graduation in 1990 and then managed to both attend Middlebury College. To this day I'm not sure how that happened. Laziness when it came to college applications? Or simply a desire to not say goodbye? We both ended up marrying girls we'd known since grade school, too. It all led to speaking roles at our respective weddings, time spent living near one another in Washington, D.C., and now visits every four months or so in New Hampshire or New Jersey. I figure I'm almost half done with this life, and I suspect if he's lucky enough to outlive me, he'll say a few kind words at the funeral.

Easter hike

I don't look at a tree and see proof of God's benevolent plan. I don't stand in a grove of trees and feel like I'm tithing the Church of Mother Nature. But I do believe that if we don't preserve and protect our environment, we as a species will not have future Easters to enjoy.

So.

We spent a couple hours outside this afternoon, hiking to a waterfall in the South Mountain Reservation with Aaron & Amy before they drove home to New Hampshire.

The kids wore their new sunglasses, gifted by the Easter bunny.

Happy Easter!

We had a photo shoot among the South Orange cherry blossoms this afternoon. Let me know which you like best.

Easter tree

Continuing a tradition I didn't know existed until we had a daughter, Greta and Carey decorated our Easter tree this evening, with a little help from Lincoln, who asked to put the "bluebird of happiness" on a branch. I played around with camera settings, trying to focus the girls' faces through the branches, but obviously got it backwards. So just imagine the branches are blurry and the faces are in focus.

Weekend fun

Because we're spontaneous and a little sadistic, we decided to paint our living room this weekend. It's needed it since we moved here in Sept. 2007 and even more so after our kitchen renovation last summer. We chose Behr Premium Ultra plateau and got to work on Saturday. The kids enjoyed DVD viewings of Ponyo and Earth while one of us painted. It was when both of us tried to paint that the real fun started. Lincoln couldn't understand why Carey couldn't freehand a straight line while he rode on her back.

But Carey was patient and gave both kids a Karate Kid lesson.

Bum wheel

This was Lincoln during a more mobile moment on Sunday at the park, before he jumped off his sister's bed and twisted his foot. Out of an abundance of caution -- and because he was crying in pain when he placed weight on it -- Carey took him to the ER last night after dinner. No breaks visible in the x-ray, but he might have messed up the "growth plate" in his right foot, so it merits watching. For now, he's wrapped in an ace bandage and wearing one of his sister's bigger socks as the teachers carry him most of the time at school.

A pose for Grandpa Jerry

Imprisoned at the playground

Not my kid

But the photo was too good not to share. This is Shaw Kirk McVety, almost 6 months old, at her brother's fifth birthday party on Saturday.

Family photo

Taken in Sara's backyard on Sunday. The kids' school has a "family tree" on a bulletin board and we've received a reminder every week for the last 10 that our children have no delineated ancestry. So they can have this shot, with my apologies.

Rye beach

We spent a couple hours there on this windswept Sunday with my folks and the cousins. They spent the week watching Max and Esme while Sara and Peter gallivanted around London.

The eyes have it

My father, in his never-ending quest for artistic inspiration, is painting or drawing some sort of eye montage of Greta, Lincoln, Max and Esme.  Max is writing a tall tale to accompany the art. It's for some contest they're entering together. ANYWAY, he asked me to take eye photos and I obliged today.

Dinner conversation

Greta: "I'm going to marry Lincoln because I love him."
Carey: "You can't marry Lincoln; he's your brother."
Greta: "But I want to marry him because I love him."
Carey: "I know you love him, but you can't marry him because he's your brother. Sisters don't marry brothers. You love the person you marry, but it's a different kind of love."
Lincoln: "I love Greta. I'll marry Greta."
Carey: "You can't marry Greta. She's your sister. It's against the law. So think of someone else you love that you can marry."
Greta: "I love Duncan."
Carey: "You can marry Duncan. Greta McVety; that sounds nice."
Greta (giggling): "Greta McVeeeeety."
Lincoln: "I love Duncan. I'll marry Duncan. Lincoln McVeety."
Greta: "You can't marry Duncan. He's a boy. Right, mommy?"
Carey (deep breath): "Lincoln can marry anyone he loves, except you, because you're his sister."

Tree monkey

Last week's torrential rains brought down an ancient tree in a local park. Because we don't pay enough taxes for the village to quickly remove the hazard from the playground, it's still there and the kids love crawling all over it.

I drink your milkshake, I drink it up!

Our princess

Carey spent a few nostalgic minutes tonight visiting old blog posts -- commenting on how frequently she used to post and how witty she was when she did. Most of 2006 is great stuff, if you're ever bored. For now, here's our little girl all grown up on Sunday.

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