Friday Night Pizza Party

Its damp and rainy out, but inside we're playing Lee Morgan and dancing up a storm, eating homemade pizza with Bell's, and finishing everything off with chocolate chip cookies.  Not so shabby for a Friday night. 

Felix was so excited about his friends Spencer, Addie, and Nora coming over that he brought half his toys downstairs to share with them.  They all had a blast tonight.   The partying went up the stairs to the bedroom where there was much jumping on the bed and reading of stories, down the stairs where they danced to music, cooked in the play kitchen, and repaired things under the dining room table, then back up the stairs where another bed's bouncing abilities were sampled.

Felix and Spence were in sync tonight - they kept amping things up a notch, encouraging each other to do one better, until they were both at a fevered pitch of excitement and frenzy.  It was an amazing thing to see.  The glee in Felix's eyes seemed so complete.  It's like he's finally figuring out what to do with the other small people around him, who before he was just competing for toys with.  Like he's saying, "oh, so, we can play with each other, and bring ourselves to different levels of excitement - how cool!"   

Of course, the fun had to end.  The kids need to go to bed, and the parents need to clean up the kitchen and collapse on the couch. There was some sadness - it's hard to say goodbye, even with the promise of more fun on Sunday (way too far away in the two year old mind).  Felix handled it pretty well, but then took off down the street to say goodnight to the moon and it took a while to get back to the house, let alone upstairs to the bed. Once he went down though, he went down hard.  Now, I just have to wait for him to tell me about his dreams.

Goin' to Gabba Land

The day was full of pure and true possibilites: Monarch butterfly, Greek, and wild rice festivals, Obama's health care rally, and the sun shining and trees glimmering as they begin to change colors.  So what did we do?  Snip flowers?

No!  We went to the Yo Gabba Gabba show at the Target Book Festival!

Earlier that morning I read some critiques on some online parent forums about TV shows not being books and asking why Yo Gabba Gabba was at this festival.  I had to wonder...at a time when media and narrative comes in so many forms do we really need to split hairs?  And when there are so many other much more problematic and downright frightening shows out there do we really need to criticize the one with a sense of humor, decent message, and a good beat?  Though yes, I do still have my critiques of Gabba, but that's another story. 

Given that Felix now quotes YGG quite liberally - sometimes in context ("I'm so sorry" song) and sometimes not ("I'm a worm" - another song lyric fave), and knows the names of all the characters, we thought he would enjoy the adventure.

We picked up friends Mary and Augie packed ourselves into the car, quite literally, and headed out to the suburbs.

When we got to the festival we trekked up a hill and heard the music.  I could tell Felix recognized it.  Then we saw DJ Lance and Brobee!

This led to some enthusiastic dancing by both Felix and his sidekick.

After the show we headed over to the bouncy area for some serious bouncing - heading off a few near accidents for Augie!  Felix got his turn though in the climbing area at the playground a few minutes later when he got trapped in the structure, necessitating some adult intervention. 

Everyone was spent by the time we got out of there and mellowed out on the bus ride back to the car.  Then both kiddos fell asleep on the way home.

Austin City Limits

Felix and his mom and mama traveled down south this past weekend to Austin TX, for a reunion with the southern Svatek clan - Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Bonnie, Uncle Joe, and cousin Andie. Joe, Bonnie, and Andie recently moved to a new house in a development on the grounds of the former Austin airport. Felix was very interested in the air traffic control tower that could be seen from the window of the room we were sleeping in. He was also really disappointed when his mama would not run all the way to the tower in 90 degree heat.


Despite (or really in the midst of) the heat we got to do lots of fun things; for instance, we played in the park - yes, that is a sweat on Felix's head - and "fixed" the playground equipment!


We also got to ride on a train, the Zilker Zepher in fact, in Zilker Park which Felix was so overwhelmed with he was stunned into silence.



Felix also got to bond with his cousin Andie, 9 months his junior; a wee bit shorter than him, but able to hold her own in the verbal department.


Felix and Andie had many tea parties and worked on sharing toys with each other - as illustrated in these two videos.

Grandpa Svatek was also a big hit. They did a lot of exploring in the restored wetland area near Joe and Bonnie's house, and at the construction sites of houses still being built in the development. Grandpa let Felix store rocks he found in his pockets, and patiently answered many "why" questions.


All in all, it was a very nice visit, and we look forward to our next one, which will hopefully be at a slightly cooler time of year. Though, I'm sure we will still find it warm enough to eat lots of ice cream, custard, and shaved ice, which is in plentiful supply all over the city.