An afternoon with Miles

We've got a little boy here for a sleep-over tonight. His mommy and daddy are at a benefit for an O-town family, and decided to ask if we'd Miley-sit. We had a very nice day, but it went too fast. Miles was too pooped to participate by 7:00, and so we gave in and let him go to bed, cuddled up to Rosie the pretend puppy. Here are some highlights.

Enjoying the sunshine with Grandpa

Chasing shadows by the ChapelMiles is a pro at brushing his teeth

Bless my shillelagh

Not having much of an interest in things Irish (other than a few friends), I didn't get fired up for the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade in St. Peter this year, much less for the fascinating photos in the local paper showing the Irish folk from town, including the biggest clans--Genelins, O'Malleys, Connellys and more. Hannah O'Dellon and Miles O'Grimmius will have to come to St. Peter sometime for the big event. In the meantime, the two little ones are in their second year of wearing a traditional Irish onsie on St. Paddy's Day. According to Miles, the green Cool Whip was a big hit at daycare, and Hannah learned about how to change water from clear (claro) to the color verde. A little food coloring goes a long way to entertain toddlers. Here are our Irish grandchildren. The Zigs will have to wear Irish onsies next year and be a part of the fun!

Long time no blog

I haven't been writing lately because it would be crabby and whiny stuff, and lord knows my family can't take much more of it. The good parts of the past week include: a video of Hannah calling to "the people" from a balcony in Puerto Rico (Hannah, it reminded me of Eva Peron, singing to her people not to cry for her), a visit with Miley, and a trip to Richfield to deliver a dryer and participate in the assembly of a crib. I can't share the video of Hannah, as she is slightly under-dressed, but here are visual mementos of the other two highlights of the week.

Miles, who can read upside down or right side up

Larry and Angie, during Crib Assembly 101. I won't elaborate on the

nuts and screws comments that were flying back and forth.Charlie, Angie, and the Twin Flatties...Caballo and Lion

Cuteness

We love all the NC pictures of the Lead Cousin and her able assistant, and we look at them over and over and laugh at how cute and grown up the two of them seem when compared to a year ago when they were still babies. Getting those two together, and eventually adding in the two Zigs, guarantees a lot of cuteness for a long time to come. Here are two pictures from the cousin reunion that crack me up.

Fred and Emma? You decide!

And, as Elisabeth and Evan labeled this one
from the science museum,

"Double double, toil and trouble..."
These two could put a spell on anyone!

If you give a toddler a bagel

I haven't written anything about our brief trip to NC a few weeks ago, for which I apologize. It may be enough to say "a good time was had by all." At least Dad/Larry/Paco/Grandpappy and I would say so. Hannah calls us Gampa and Namma, with an "ah" sound for the "a's". What a delight to wake up in the morning to a little voice calling "Gampa! Namma!" from the bottom of the stairs in a sing-song voice. We should've recorded it for our morning wake-up call at home. Here's a video of sweet Hannah when we went out one day for a bagel lunch. Unfortunately, I didn't get the best scene recorded. When a patron's cell phone rang, Hannah picked up a piece of bagel, held it up to her ear, and said her distinctive, "Hi-yoh!"--more than once. She's a character and we love her like crazy, so it really isn't fair that we make her perform like this. : o ( But it's cute.

Who likes to make mouth noises? I do!

For anyone who's been keeping track, I'm not writing much lately. Not that I don't have a lot to write about; but, I'd rather not be found by a Google search and have certain people know what's on my mind right now. I'd have to use strong words that aren't meant for family blog viewing and I'd incriminate myself. What would Hannah and Miles think? I don't want to be a negative role model for innocent children, after all.

Speaking of innocent children, this one visited us yesterday. He's got quite a mouth-noise repertoire, and this particular is amplified to an astonishing level of realism when made on the surface of a leather ottoman or couch. Unfortunately, we were all laughing too hard to capture the sound upgrade on video. I barely caught this little bit. Enjoy.

Spin cycle and baby names

It's official. We bought a new washer and dryer today, which will be delivered on Tuesday. Shopping for appliances is hardly what one would term an uplifting experience, although it's not the worst thing a guy could do, either. The end result is an updated version of what we already have; somewhat akin to buying underwear. When it wears out, you've gotta replace it, but in the end it's still underwear. Pun intended.

A difference between old and new is that we are avoiding front-loading washers this round. When we bought the stylin' Neptune a number of years ago, the local appliance salesman, who always has the same depressed expression on his face, convinced us we were getting new technology, saving energy and water, and would never look back. As it turned out instead, we got a machine that slowly fills with water when not in use and is the repository for death-defying mildew. And did I mention that in recent months it rivals the space shuttle lift-offs for decibal level? We decided to shop elsewhere this time.

On Tuesday, that will all change, and we'll have our new generation Whirlpool Cabrio top loading washer and companion dryer. Yup. Undoubtedly there will be something evil lurking in the bowels of this washing machine, too, but I have hope that it will stay hidden for a while. At least until the warranty expires.

PS for Teresa: The salesman is in his late 20's and his name is Chad. I think he is a school adminstrator during the week. LOL

------------------------------------

MORE
I've been thinking about Finn and Ollie, twin babies born to someone Annie knows. When I saw the subject line "Finn and Ollie" on the email she forwarded to me from her friend Natalie, I misread it as "Finn and Ole", and expected an Ole and Lena joke spin-off. Then I saw attached pictures of cute little twin boys and realized i'd made a mistake. I thought about the names Finn and Ollie and had a flashback. For nearly 40 years, WCCO radio had two announcers, Charlie Boone and Roger Erickson, who often did comic routines and impersonations. In one of their schticks they called themselves Gill and Finn, and said they were the only two radio hosts named after fish parts. So, if Charlie and Angie name the babies Gill and Finn, they would have the only set of identical twin boys named after fish parts.

Or, if they have twin girls and someone hasn't already suggested it, they could call the babies Finny and Fanny, the only identical twin girls named after goldfish.
What do you think CP and Aunchie? Do these names make the "worth considering" list?