Cuddling Miriam

Untitled, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

Granny and Grandpa Collins enjoying an evening snuggle

Peter Pan mini golf

3 generations playing in the Austin sunshine on the first of the year.

Rifting on Lego

Lego rift, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

Lego magazine had jail instructions, shown here together with Z reimagining, including smoke and the hello kitty guard.

End of year Sunday

Sleeping And Eating

That is how the days are passing, here in the Collins house. Miriam is adjusting well to life on the outside. Mostly she is getting lots of snuggles, napping, and eating like a champ.

big brother cuddles

Untitled, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

Zachary has been amazing with Miriam. He keeps sneaking up and giving her the gentlest of kisses on the cheek or forehead.

Welcome, Green Jello!

We made it through the first night! Miriam Edith is hale and hearty, and Sarah got the green jello she had been dreaming of.

The Boys

Headed out to the Thinkery.

Our Little Candle

"Ok. I am overexcited."

Zachary declared that at dinner tonight, having with the enthusiasm of a viking warrior just sloshed grog (or water) all over himself.

Who can blame him. It is the last week of school. They have a field trip tomorrow. They had "Orange Santa" come today. Then a holiday party. Then pajama (half) day. Grandparents are arriving in waves.  The baby is coming Monday. THE INSANITY HAS REACHED FEVER PITCH.

This may explain yesterday's falling asleep on my lap like he hasn't done since he was a toddler. Or the fact that he's currently sneaking towards me disguised as an orange towel ghost.

We're a little overexcited. We'll let you know when we're back to our normally scheduled programming.

Rock a bye baby

Boomerang on a sunny sunday.

Z is starting to get the hang of it.  The lack of wind really made it much harder to get it all the way back to us. It landed about 15 feet away, my closest was about 25 feet away.

Thinkery - Austin childrens museum

a) The new space is fantastic. Z and I went both days on opening weekend.
b) so many really really cool things to do; light art, stop motion movie making, and aeroplane ...

this involves picking parts, testing them in the wind tunnel and then loading their planes into the cannon winding up the large bowling ball to 14 feet (see the blue ball in the column in th background) and then pressing the launch button.

Nutcracker field trip

Thinkery

Light art with a giant lite-brite

Last night

Eight chanukkiah for the last night! Each with candles (or oil) made for quite a heat wave in the house.
Z got to open the last of his presents and here is a ohmy! awesome surprised face.

Untitled, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

In other news the Boomarang he got the other day was a huge hit. And today when he tried it out he got it to go all the way across the street in a 40 ft arc.

Night six

Birthday sack racing

A classmate's birthday in Mueller park.  We had Sack racing, sunflower seed spitting and an impromptu tug o'war.

Kids who are not allowed to spit really have no clue. Most of them got it 1 to 3 feet, Z averaging with 2'. Those in the know were hitting the 6 foot mark. Hysterical.

Biking is getting better ...

this time we didn't run out of steam, get tired and have a crash that knocked back his confidence (last two times out). Plus he got to see Oliver nextdoor crashing on purpose and laughing about it, and a bit of competition was good for Z too. The crazy noise at the end of the second video is a head on challenge from Oliver playing "chicken".

Sugar skull

The sugar skull finally made it home. Zachary has been telling us all about this since before Dia de Muertos! Mexican day of the dead. He made it in multicultural arts.