Work

Jason,

To my great excitement/anxiety/pride/sadness/fear/loneliness you started school this fall. You love the materials--I dare not call them "toys" for fear of being firmly corrected by the Montessori Directress--and tell me you are going to "work like Daddy." Very serious business, this work of yours! Most of the work doesn't lead to something tangible to show us, so you are especially proud of the few items you bring home at the end of each week. I'm going to apologize in advance because--unlike my own mother, who has suitcases full of every single piece of paper I ever produced at school--I don't plan to save all of your work. (Sorry mom.)

However, to ensure future history books have a record of your earliest achievements, I will do my best to hang on to a few representative pieces. I'll start here, with the very first work you produced in an academic setting. Prepare yourself for genius in action:

A quote, for you both

"Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary."

-- John Keating (Robin Williams), in Dead Poets Society


I don't know if people still watch this movie, fellas, but when I was 13 it was a pretty big deal and I was just coming out of a shell. So as cliche as it may be now, it kinda hit home, and I don't get accused of shell-hiding much any more...

You two gremlins probably won't need a former-TV-alien-turned-Academy-Award-Winning-Actor to teach you life lessons, but I promise you'll love the movie.

And I love YOU,
Dad

Peek-a-boo

Boys,
Nothing captures the essence of our days quite like the following video clip. Jason does something silly, Matthew laughs, Jason does something silly again, Matthew laughs some more, and on and on until somehow it is 11:30 and we're still in our jammies because we've spent an entire morning playing peek-a-boo!

Tummy Time

Matthew,
You recently learned how to roll onto your tummy and happily perform your new trick every time I put you down:

Swimming, Part 2

So I just uploaded some more pictures and couldn't resist including a few of Superman!

Swimming

We just returned from a surprise end-of-summer visit to Key Largo, where you both had a great time playing in the pool. The water was the perfect temperature for me, right around 92 degrees. Jason, you have no fear and spent most of your pool time doing cannonballs and asking to be thrown in the air, "all the way up to the top of the house!" Matthew, you started smiling, splashing and kicking the moment you hit the water--a water baby all the way!

First Tooth

Matthew,
Today, after a few weeks of drooling all over me, your first tooth arrived! Bottom left incisor. Looks like the right is soon to follow :)