Pseudo-celebs

Earlier this week, our good friend Jesse invited Sam and the boys to an event at the Nat's ballpark that was a fundraiser for a charity called Horton's Kids.  They all got to go down on the field, swing a bat, eat, drink, and be merry with full run of the park.  Apparently there were some VIPs there besides our family, so it was covered by the local political press.

Home Runs for Horton's Kids
Check out the "Amgen" family, about halfway down the page on the right.  (Amgen is the company Jesse works for, and it was on the bottom of the nametags.)

Arlo is FOUR today!

Arlo turns four today. Wow. It's still amazing to me that it was four years ago we welcomed this person into our lives (although he'd certainly been there with us for a while before that too...) What a warm, strong memory I have of that day. How lucky we were to have such a great birth, to be home with him that afternoon, wondering what on earth we were supposed to do with this little guy in our arms now that he was on the outside. Arlo and Magnus both seem to be going through some shifts in the last two weeks or so. Magnus is "talking" a lot more - he's added new sounds (ba, the all important MA, etc) and he's trying to sing and babbling away. This is recent and seems to be snowballing. He just started trying to repeat on the "Moo, Baa, La La La" book and identifying things both verbally and with signs. He also - just today in fact - began trying and succeeding at jumping. He's got a tiny bit of air between the sneakers and the ground. I captured a video while we were at Arlo's school, but it's a bit funny cause it ends with a big stumble into a table. Maybe we'll upload it...if you see it, don't worry too much - there was no crying involved. Arlo - though reluctant to want to turn four - seems to be growing up a bit. He's having fewer fits after a little phase where they were back in full swing. He's getting more interested in trying and learning new things. He's "reading" by spelling words and sounding them out a bit - he recognized Sam's name on an envelope in just a quick glance, of course knows his own name, and can find words on a page when I ask him to look for them (sometimes takes prompting to figure out what letters we might be looking for, but he can sound out some of the letters and do this pretty well now.) Without a second thought, he found the words Frog, Toad, and, Are and Friends in the title of one of his favorite books. Arlo also likes to tell stories. He has a good imagination and rambles on, with all kinds of funny plot twists and turns and silly parts to the story. Mostly they are "little grey cat" stories, which originated with Sam telling Arlo stories he made up at bedtime. The little grey cat goes on tons of adventures. Mom's little grey cat story always involves a process like baking cookies. He is very quick - as I think most kids are - in picking up how to use the tablet and using computer games for kids. He knows exactly how to play a show on Netflix or find his favorite game without any help. We let him have A LITTLE screen time but try to keep it limited, as ADD and other related problems seem to be showing stronger and stronger ties to early TV viewing. His favorite shows are Blues Clues, Sid the Science Kid, and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Maybe I'm missing one... On his birthday, Arlo got his new bike. It has training wheels but it's a real big kid bike. He's pretty excited. We took him to school and he had a normal day in class, then at the end of the day the whole family came in to celebrate with the class. I read them all a book (Smash, Mash, Crash) and Sam played some songs (This is a Song about Sammy, On the Road Again), and we all had popsicles. Unfortunately, at the end of it, Arlo had horrible chills which were not from the cold popsicle but actually from a nasty fever. He's been feeling icky all day since. We have been all home, hunkered down watching the storms and hoping he feels better. Hoping things improve in time to celebrate his birthday with some friends later this weekend - keeping our fingers crossed!