Hide And Seek

I'm currently very busy trying to get my family newsletter out, so I have to make this short. Seanie is extremely ambulatory - he will start crawling any day now. Until then, his primary method of transportation is his walker, and he likes to play games with us while in it. To wit:



Also, Aunt Feather's birthday gift for Lochlain came in the mail today. There were basically 2 things in the box - 1) a really cool book Aunt Feather made with pictures of spoons (which made Lochlain mad, as he couldn't pick up the spoons in the book), and 2):

LOCH'S WORDS OF THE WEEK: "Oh wow, cool" - last uttered when he saw all the different colored spoons in the box, but first noticed by Daddy when Loch started playing with different second-tier action figures this past weekend (which has a slightly humorous tale that we will get to another time).

John's Your Uncle*

Well, not YOUR uncle. HIS Uncle:

I introduce to you Brendan Michael Thiele - my newest nephew, and coincidentally, my godson. Huzzah! Born 01/20/07 and weighing in at 6 lbs, 15 ozs and 20 inches long - he's a cutie!

But so is Seanie, who once again escaped our North Carolina compound, fled South of The Border, and became a Mexican street urchin / pickpocket:

"¡Hola gobernador!"

And then there is Lochlain - Loch Mess, the Lochinator, Loch-a-doc, Cap'n Loch - the list goes on and on. The Terrible Twos have, as the month of March might put it, come in like a lion. A large, fierce lion with big, pointy, nasty teeth. He had his 2 year checkup last Thursday - a 37.75" (the nurse had to measure him twice because she was sure that couldn't be the correct measurement) / 32.5 lb engine of destruction. He's in the 97th percentile for height and 95th percentile for weight. And while I wouldn't say it's an orange on a toothpick, his giant melon is in the 90th percentile for head size. I hear it's going to slow down a bit according to other parents who had been in the same boat......but we'll see. Here is playing in his Super Fort - a gift from his Aunt Tatter:


*BLOGGER'S NOTE: I realize that while I am tickled pink over this very clever blog title, many of you would not get it. So here it is.

NEH-Neh-Neh-Neh-Neh-Neh-NEH-Neh!

You say it's your birthday

It's my birthday too--yeah
They say it's your birthday
We're gonna have a good time
I'm glad it's your birthday
Happy birthday to you!

So, today is Lochlain's birthday - or hopefully still will be by the time I finish this post. We had a very busy 4-day (for some) weekend that had surprising guests, great meals, outings, and a birthday party (or two). And of course, Seanie ran away from home, went overseas, and became a London street urchin / pickpocket:

"Oi, Guv'nor!"

But I digress -this weekend, Peepah came down for a long weekend visit. He arrived late Thursday night (so late, that by the time we got home from the airport and went to bed, it was well into Friday morning). Not to say that our house is big, but Peepah got a little lost on his way to his bedroom that first night - Ba-DUM-dum! The next day (Friday), we put the kids into Daycare, I dropped Bean off at work, and then Peepah and I tried to take care of registering our cars with NC DMV. 2 trips to the DMV office later, it was determined that Bean had to be present as well - so we ditched that idea and went shopping for Loch's birthday instead. Then Bean took us out for lunch at Ganache and afterwards Dad and I walked around checking out City Center Park right next to our office building (sometimes you can see the Bean and I going to and from lunch via the park's web cam). Later that day, Lochlain and Sean got to see their Peepah at home - Lochain was happy enough to give Peepah a kiss! After Bean made us a nice home-cooked meal of stuffed sole, it was time for - what else? HAT TIME!



Saturday was an exciting day - we had a nice breakfast and then once Peepah and Bean ran some birthday errands, we went to the Children's Museum in the afternoon and then had dinner at the Outback. But the biggest thrill of the day came when not 1, not 2, but 4 Katunas stopped by on their way back to NY! It was pretty crazy - especially considering that my brother and sisters have yet to come visit. Ed and I were so excited, we put on our favorite shirts to celebrate - was that weird? We almost didn't get to see them as Ed got lost - luckily, I have my giant map of Greensboro in my home office, so I was able to guide him back to our house. But don't worry, Ed - that will be our little secret (like he reads this blog, anyway). Once they left and I checked to make sure that Meg Katuna didn't break our downstairs toilet, it was off to bed.



(BLOGGER'S NOTE: Forgive Bean for her slightly off-key rendition of "Happy Birthday" - she was concentrating on her cinematography) On Sunday, we took Peepah to Mass and then to Costco, because one follows the other. After Costco, we returned home, had lunch, and saddled up (or in Lochlain's case, waggoned up) and went to the park and then toured our little neighborhood. That night we had the traditional Meagher Sunday Pizza dinner but this time it was out at a place called PieWorks. We then went back and had Lochlain's birthday party - with cake, presents, and hats (but no Hat Time). Peepah had a relaxing (?) day on Monday with us and then I rushed him to the airport for his 7:10PM flight - which became something like a 10:50PM flight due to crappy visibility in New York. Hopefully, the good times we had this weekend kept him from getting too bored at RDU.

Lochlain celebrated his actual birthday (today) at his daycare with a little party with his classmates - Mommy and Daddy got to attend as well. He also got well-wishes from a lot of his family, and that made all of us very happy!

X-try! X-try! Read All About It!!

Today at approximately 9:48 AM, Lochlain "went poopies on the potty"! And it didn't look anything like the picture above, either (imagine it being slightly more chaotic in less space with spectators). Here is the schedule of events - as best as I can put it together:

6:30 AM: Lochlain wakes up; calls for Daddy half-heartedly, is ignored.
6:46 AM: Ramping up his enthusiasm, Lochlain calls more forcefully for Daddy - is ignored.
6:47 AM: Lochlain now yelling for Daddy; Mommy "suggests" I get up before Seanie is awakened and I have two children to deal with.
6:49 AM: I get up, change Lochlain, and take him downstairs for milk and Wiggles.
7:00 AM - 9:30 AM: The usual morning routines of TV, cuddling, playing, breakfast, and wrestling; Mommy and Sean come down at some point.
9:45 AM: Lochlain announces to Daddy "Lochlain gonna go potty"; we go to downstairs bathroom where Elmo Training Potty is located.
9:46 AM: Daddy pulls down Lochlain's pants and sits him on the potty, still with diaper on; Lochlain tells Daddy "No Daddy, Lochlain gonna go potty" and kicks pants off totally while pulling at diaper.
9:46:30 AM: Daddy realizes this is the real deal; takes diaper off.
9:46:35 AM: Daddy realizes that the Elmo Training Potty has inadequate urination shielding; mentally and emotionally prepares for the worst.
9:46:45 AM: Lightbulb appears over Daddy's head; positions used diaper for optimal deflection; yells for Mommy to get new diaper and wipes stat.
9:47 AM: Lochlain shifts in chair trying to get comfortable; Daddy has flashes of Lochlain running around house, crapping all over.
9:48 AM: Lochlain "releases the hounds" on potty - no urination; Daddy breathes sigh of relief; Mommy claps; Seanie drools.
9:49 AM: Clean-up detail and mini-celebration; Mommy asks etiquette on picture taking for posterity; Daddy puts the kibosh on that.
10:00 AM: Phone calls go out - Lochlain tells Memar and Poppy: (hushed voice) "lochlain go poopy" (yells)"ON THE POTTY!"; refuses to talk to anyone else on the phone for the rest of the day.
12:10 PM: Mommy buys new training potty that touts, among other features, a "detachable deflector"; Daddy breathes second sigh of relief.

Of course, Seanie watched it all with an odd fascination - he even appeared to be cheering his brother on at one point. Seanie loves his jumper seat - we just started putting him in it recently. He'll laugh and smile (more than usual) in it - not that this video is any evidence of that (kudos to Bean on the camera work - though that creepy sign-off slightly disturbs me):



LOCH'S WORDS OF THE WEEK: Lochlain - against his father's 10 Rules That Make Life Easy (Rule #7: Never Refer To Yourself In The Third Person) - often refers to himself in the third person. In fact the only pronoun Lochlain seems to use is "Mine" but only as single word - usually shouted (e.g. Lochlain's spoons are referred to as "Lochlain's 'poons", unless you try to take them away from him at which point they are referred to as "MINE!!!). He is also big on using the word "gonna" - he will announce what he is "gonna"do right before or as he is doing it (e.g. "Lochlain gonna go potty" or "Lochlain gonna fall down").

I Know What You Did Last Christmas

The above gem is courtesy of OfficeMax's Elf Yourself website - props to my brother-in-law Johnny D. for pointing it out (by sending a dancing elf with my head on it) to us. And so started our Christmas in NY........

A good time was had by all - you can see over 200 photos of Christmas whilst at my Dad's at Aunt Feather's Flickr site. We spent most of the week (after Christmas) at Memar and Poppy's (Bean's parents) - though Lochlain has converted "Poppy" over to "Peepah", but understands they are 2 different people with the same name. While at my In-laws, we got to see our nephews and nieces - and more importantly, Lochlain got to play with them - like here as they run Poppy/Peepah's train set under the Christmas tree:

Seanie also started rolling over onto his belly and back again on a regular basis while at Memar and Poppy's - and also started to learn to crawl - which I almost captured on video here if not for some interference from someone who shall remain nameless:







Also, Bean seemed obsessed with getting shots of the boys in front of her parents' tree in a certain matching pajama set - but we got such good sleep while at my in-laws (pictured here) that the boys often slept in later than usual, causing them to wet their diapers thru their PJs - so Mommy ended up washing them just about every day. She eventually ended up getting the pic of them not only in front of her Mom and Dad's tree in New York, but our tree in North Carolina as well:

We even got home on New Year's Eve at 11 PM - and of course, the kids got woken up by the car-to-house transfer so we all watched the ball drop at Midnight before going off to bed.