October 4, 2011 by Dad.

While Cezanne is away at shool Etienne has found her “art desk” to be a great place for him to also “paint paint”. Here Lanelle has set him up with the color wonder finger gel. In the second photo he is saying “ta da” while showing off his masterpiece.

Etienne ( or Eti-anne as we have now begun to refer to him as ) is in serious need of a haircut. Lanelle and I love the long blonde hair so and it is going to be really hard to see it go, but the poor boy has now been called a little girl ( not sure what people were thinking when they use the word little ) a half a dozen times… The long locks are going to have to go…

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September 30, 2011 by Dad.

Etienne had his weekly gymboree class this week at the same time as Cezanne’s Gator Gallop ( a fun run fund raiser for her school ). I ended up taking an hour or so off to take Etienne to his class so that Lanelle could cheer for Cezanne. Lanelle is now one of the 3 classroom mommies and had a hand in making the costumes so it was only fair that she be there, more on Cezanne’s blog when I get there…

While we did miss seeing Cezanne run, we got there to watch the class enjoy popsicles and Etienne enjoyed a bottle of water.

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September 28, 2011 by Dad.

Etienne really enjoys playing outside - really !! Here are just a few photos from a random afternoon playing outside on the grass running up and down and then moving around to the new concrete side yard where the sand and water table have been moved to in order to try keep the mess off the main patio - yeah nice idea but really that sand is everywhere ! They do love the side yard though - it is all just for them and so was well worth the effort !

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September 17, 2011 by Dad.

During the late afternoons we leave the back door open and the kids can come and go as they please. What we need to be aware of is when the constant noise that they make dies down to that ominous quiet, when it does you know they are up to something.

When one of us needs to ask where is { insert child’s name here } then you know they are doing something they shouldn’t…

In this case I found what had been a clean, fully dressed Etienne playing in their “water bucket”. Playing with the water was just not enough, he had to be in the water… After a change and a wipe down with one of the towels that is now permanently on had near the back door, he rushed off to play cars on his new mat ( IKEA $15 ) with his wonderful big sister. We did at least manage to get a fresh, dry diaper on the boy before his escape.

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September 14, 2011 by Dad.

Come see Dad | Etienne “all wet” | Ta da !!!

Working with foam, pause, back to work !

With one child now in school each and every day of the “work week” we find that Etienne needs to be kept busy. His sister had been filling that role but now this falls to the mother to do. Etienne is lucky to have a mother that loves him and get him fun things to do. In this case a simple bucket of water with dish soap turns into a foam party.

I was working in my study and Etienne called me to come and see. When he shows you something now we does so with a “ta da” and arms in the air…

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August 31, 2011 by Dad.

Lanelle set Etienne up to do some art while Cezanne was at school. He really gets into his colors ! I am just not sure these photos were to show Etienne drawing or to show the magic trick involving the cap for that purple marker… I guess there are only 2 photos because that is all Lanelle could take before she had to put the camera down to fish the cap out of Etienne’s mouth…

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August 26, 2011 by Dad.

We had a little phonics train - we bought it at the Naperville yard-sale for like $5, but it was not in great condition and after Cezanne had played with it along with all the other kids that we shared it with it was really not in great shape by the time Etienne was now ready to play with it. Turns out that Jeffrey had the same train and it was looked after very carefully and was in such great condition that when it was handed down it was done so in its original box ( I even think the original gift receipt was still attached to the box ! )

Long story - but here are the photos to prove just how much joy this hand me down has brought Etienne, we can only hope that our donated set brings somebody else as much joy !

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August 22, 2011 by Dad.

Today was a milestone day for Cezanne and Etienne had his whole world turned upside down… His sister, his playmate, his buddy, his pal was now whisked off to school each and every morning… Oh well, he now gets to go for a morning walk to a place with lots of kids and a playground and then gets to do more walking / strollering and when he is returned home, he has sole access to all the toys. I think he will be just fine

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July 26, 2011 by Dad.

Lanelle caught the kids having tea on the patio today. Please notice the clear blue Californian summer sky in the background… We are looking for all the reasons we made this crazy move… So far it has been a rough ride ( yeah I know it seems like everything just went like butter but for us it has been quite a ride ).

Please also notice the expansive grassy backyard that we acquired - I had no idea that a backyard came at such a premium here in California - we really have been blessed to find and get this house - now we just need to make it our home…

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July 24, 2011 by Dad.

We bought a really neat train table for the kids at Christmas time but after hearing that it required a 2 - 4 hour build time and knowing we were moving we left it in the box and figured it would be a nice new toy for when we arrived in California. Well the stuff arrived and after a few weeks of sorting and making space we finally got around to building the train table. It was really not as bad as 2 - 4 hours in terms of building and the end result was exactly what we had hoped for - both kids love the table and play with it almost every day !

The silly posed photos with the kids showing off their trains !

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