While I posted a version of this some time ago on YouTube, I recently learned (while posting the video of Teddy in the fountain) that I could upload better quality videos directly from my camera. Hence, I shall embarass my brother by posting this (higher quality) video from his wedding reception.
I can only say three things.
First, I think that he's playing my dad's old guitar which, if I recall correctly, became my guitar at some point. Not sure when ownership was transferred, but I've been looking for a guitar to entertain the kids. I've been thinking about getting a Martin, but an old, beat up Gibson that tears up your fingers would probably work just as well (and after using this one, you'll surely agree Steve, you can play any guitar).
Second, the song is actually pretty catchy.
Third, I have three regrets from my own wedding. First, and perhaps superficially, my tux didn't fit well which made me unhappy during the reception. Second, Abby was unable to follow my lead during our dance. Hell, it wasn't a very complicated song. As one of my friend said at the time, "Mark's trying to fox trot, but Abby won't let him lead." Finally, and relevant for this post, I didn't "toast" Abby. I know exactly what I would've said. When we met, what I thought about her, when I knew that she was "the one," where we'd been, what we'd done together, and so on - no need to rehash it here. Still, I didn't get off my ass to do it.
In contrast, Steve pulled this off like a champ. And I hope that this video serves as a memorial of sorts to his wedding.
As a complete aside, for those who are interested, here's a version of our song from my wedding. Who couldn't fox trot to this? (And, for the sake of completeness, here's a poem that Joe read during our ceremony. I just like it, that's why I'm linking to it.)
We had a pretty good weekend. (After taking the above photo, I said, "Teddy, this is Teddy. High five?" And our little Teddy gave big Teddy a big high five. Margaret kept saying, "Who is Teddy Roosevelt?")
Again, we had a pretty good weekend. But it didn't start that way, as little Teddy was a real crank yesterday morning. He just fussed and fussed and fussed, especially whenever his mama put him down. When we went shopping at Target, Teddy would give a heart wrenching rendition of what is currently his most complex sentence - "Don't leave me!!" - every time Abby walked away, despite the fact that I was right there pushing him in the shopping cart, smiling and nodding at all of the people who scowled at me for my obvious negligence. It got to the point that we thought he might be sick, with an ear infection or something like that. By noon yesterday, I was thinking about what a bad weekend it could be and how nice it would be to send the boy back to daycare on Monday. He was just being almost indescribably petulant.
However, his fussiness quickly dissipated once we got to a birthday party at a public water park in northern Virginia. Where he had a great time and where we also were able to observe some notable differences between Margaret and the boy. (BTW, the next few paragraphs are all of the profound parenting ruminations that I'll be writing today.)
As I said, the birthday party was at a nearby public water park. These parks are scattered throughout Arlington and involve a small area with jets of water that periodically shoot up in the air. They aren't terribly fancy, although DC would never be able to put together something like them. We've visited this type of park in the past with Margaret, and although she likes them, she has never been very active in them. Instead, she sort of loiters around the edges, giggling and jumping when she gets sprayed with water, but never really exposing herself to the jets.
In contrast, after an initial period of hesitation, Teddy dove right in. As you can see in the pics below, he would put his hands, feet and even his face in the stream. He ran all over the place and, for better or worse, learned various tricks, like drinking the water, from the "big boys." At some point, he figured out that he could stand over a jet so that it would shoot up into his pants. He seemed to enjoy this sensation.
The behavioral difference between Margaret and Teddy at the water park illustrates a more fundamental difference between the two: the boy tends to be much less cautious than Margaret. He'll throw himself around in ways that Margaret would have avoided at the same age. For example, to the extent that he can, given his still limited mobility, he'll launch himself down slides. Such as the circular slides found at many parks and a big, old-school slide (roughly 20 feet high) that he insisted on using (with me close behind) at a park last weekend.
As another (non-physical) example, Margaret tends to be pretty reserved around people in costumes like the big Teddy Roosevelt in the photo at the top of this post. Frankly, I can understand her concern - a clown or big guy like Teddy R. can be a bit frightening, especially if you're a little person. In situations like those with big sports mascots, Teddy doesn't necessarily throw himself at the guy in the costume, but he certainly doesn't show the same apprehension that Margaret does.
Is this a gender thing? I don't know, although I have heard many stories from other parents about how their sons are much more reckless than their daughters. And I think that I've read somewhere about how male traders tend to take bigger risks, and are correspondingly more likely to blow up, in financial markets. Do I have any deep insights or thoughts about this? No. All I know is that Teddy is much more active at places like the water park than Margaret. He gets the high of feeling water shoot up his shorts, but he's also more likely to slip and bonk his head. On some level, that's just, I suppose, the risk-return trade off that also drives those male traders.
The other reason that we had a good weekend was that the Cubs were in town for a four game series against the Nationals. I managed to attend games on Friday night (with a friend from Chicago), Saturday night (with Abby), and today (with the entire family) - all without paying for a single ticket (whoo-hoo!!) due to various connections (I'm very proud of that accomplishment, especially as our tickets for every game were primo - on Friday, we actually had waitresses serving our section). Despite the fact that it was really, really sunny and warm in our seats today, and despite some difficulties with the Metro - a stroller on a train full of baseball fans isn't very easy to maneuver, even without the delays due to the recent Metro accident - we ended up having a fun time. The kids ate pop corn and Cracker Jacks, in addition to a couple of cups of ice that a nice vendor gave us. I kept putting chunks of ice under Teddy's hat to cool him down, but that didn't seem to staunch his enthusiasm. Instead, he had fun watching "baseball" or "tennis" or "basketball" or whatever he felt like calling it. And he really enjoyed grooving to the music.
Best of all, the Cubs ended up sweeping the Nats. Nothing like a trip to DC to make a team look like a real winner.
I'm sure that neither of the kids comprehend the game at all. And they don't really seem to have a clear sense of a "rooting interest," as both kids would clap, for either team, whenever other people clapped. Still, they both seem to enjoy the crowd and the whole spectacle. And Teddy would point at people in Cubs gear that we passed - and we saw lots and lots of people in Cubs regalia - and would say "Go Cubs!"
Life with a three year old involves many battles. Getting dressed, using the potty, eating dinner - each may or may not involve its own little power struggle between us and our little sweetheart. (As an aside, I think that Margaret randomizes, perhaps strategically, over whether she'll put up a battle for a given task. Will she get dressed tomorrow without yelling about it? Who knows.)
Lately, the most prominent battles have occurred at bedtime. For the past month or so, as soon as the light has been turned out, Margaret has declared, "I can't sleep." There's no lag at all, just an immediate declaration: "I can't sleep." We've tried all sorts of tricks to encourage her to sleep. I've made the "Grandma Mary" argument - your body is tired, so just close your eyes and try to rest your body - that was used on me as a child (and, hell, I still use that approach as an adult). For a while that worked as Margaret would rest and eventually fall asleep. We've tried bribery: If you sleep tonight, you can go for a walk with Mama and Maddie tomorrow. And we've tried moral suasion: The teachers at daycare (and the Berenstain Bears) say that you should avoid bedtime battles and should instead listen to your parents.
Lately, however, none of that has worked, and she's been much more difficult at bedtime. If we leave, she gets more and more agitated to the point that she ends up yelling for us (really Mama) at the top of her lungs. In the worst case scenario, such behavior ends up waking the boy, so we end up with not one, but two kids who are awake at 10:00.
In the past week or so, disruptions to Margaret's sleep schedule have exacerbated the problem. She stayed up until 11:00 after the fireworks on July 4th. Then after we had people over the next night, she was too wound up to fall asleep again until around the same time.
In the past, she would settle down after a few books. Even though we've started reading her "big girl" books without pictures (e.g., Beezus and Ramona), she doesn't calm down in the same way. (As another aside, it's very exciting that Margaret shows such enthusiasm for big girl books. But that's a subject for another, more positive post.) And none of our previous tricks, such as the "Grandma Mary" argument, are working either. Even if, in desperation, we give her a nuk, defying every parenting bone in my body, she still won't go to sleep. Instead, Abby or I (more commonly, Abby) end up sitting with her until she finally nods off, which takes way longer than we would like.
Good grief, what a lame post. I'm complaining about a normal toddler "phase." At least I hope that it's just a phase. But even if it is, we're reaching the end of our rope with her. (Any advice from current or former parents would be greatly appreciated.)
One perk of living in DC is the great parades. While I remember going to parades at various points in my childhood, living a 20 minute walk from the usual parade route down Constitution Avenue in the nation's capital, a place which ends up having lots of parades as a matter of course, means that we end up seeing lots of parades. And again because we live in the capital, the parades tend to be top notch.
The standard parade in DC involves a combination of floats and big balloon characters, celebrities (Hey, isn't that Alex Trebek? Or, hey, that's apparently a guy from American Idol!), high school marching bands, people on miscellaneous modes of transportation such as motorcycles, old cars, unicycles, or old fashioned bikes with big front wheels, community groups such as clowns, boy scout troops, or veterans, and representatives of various ethnic groups doing whatever dances and music are typical for them.
Now, I recall high school marching bands in the parades that I attended as a child, but the number and quality of bands in DC parades beat anything from my childhood. After a few parades in DC, one becomes quite the connoisseur of high school bands. The best are those that toss some fancy footwork into their marching when the drums are playing their boom-boom boom-chicka-boom bits. Although I remember not liking when the drums and not the horns were playing when I was a child, Teddy and I like to groove along to the beat when only the drummers are playing. There's nothing more fun in a parade, I've concluded, than a good high school band. Although the music isn't always that good. And their outfits are invariably terrible. And they always look so damn hot in those terrible outfits, especially because our standard vantage point is at the end of the route when they're almost falling over. Still, you have to give them credit for the effort, and the whole event of a passing marching band makes us (especially Teddy) perk up and pay attention.
I suppose that the old cars and such were present in the parades of my youth along with the community groups, but what really distinguishes a parade in DC are the contingents from various ethnic groups. Today, we saw marchers from Mexico, Bolivia, Peru, Vietnam, and China. On one level, I suppose that's not different from the Irish or Polish groups who march in the parades in Chicago, but the groups in DC really put on a show. Not to get too philosophical, but at the end of the day, these groups really makes me think about how heterogeneous the U.S. really is and how we're fundamentally a nation comprised of immigrants from all over the place. For all of the tension that immigration creates, we ultimately end up assimilating immigrant groups while also, to varying degrees, keeping their idiosyncratic traditions (for example, think Italian food, St. Patrick's Day, Cinco de Mayo).
In any case, below are some pictures and a video of our trip to this year's 4th of July parade. One observation: As readers might notice, this set of pictures involves more pictures of Teddy than pictures of Margaret. To some extent, that reflects the fact that Margaret was being a bit petulant during the parade while Teddy was being a jovial little guy. But on a broader level, the focus on Teddy is indicative of the fact that he's becoming a much more interesting little person. Not only is he talking more, but he has interesting things to say and interesting ways of saying those things. Of course, much of what he says is garbled nonsense, but part of the fun is trying to decipher what he's trying to communicate. And he can be very charming as he tries to communicate with us. Or infuriating depending on the situation. Which makes it even more fun.
I don't have any deep thoughts about kids at this point. Frankly, I suspect that no one wants to hear my deep thoughts anyway, rather they want to see pics of the kids. Thus, here are a bunch of pics, most from our recent trip to the Great White North:
