A few more pics...

Otters playing. 2/19/10



Otter with ice. 1/16/10



Sunset over the bay. 1/16/10



Waves. 2/19/10



I used Picnik for the effects.

Just a few pics

Fish at the aquarium.



Playing in the sand a few days ago.



B's feet - aren't they darling?

Slow Down, Mommy! Slow Down!

This week, my 27, almost 28 month old has begun correcting my driving. He (fairly randomly although sometimes perhaps accurately) has been shouting out "Slow Down, Mommy! Slow Down!" as we make our way through our day.
He certainly comes by his backseat driving naturally and as amusing as is it now it may not continue to be so as time goes by...

Today, driving home from the aquarium, in between his commentary regarding my driving skills, with his little brown stuffed horse in hand, he told me "Get bigger, ride a horse." Meaning, when he gets bigger he wants to ride a horse. I told him I thought that was a great idea and he said "Yeah!" in this tone of voice like "Duh!". It was too sweet. I can't wait to see him up on a horse.

On another subject, he went through a period the last 2 months or so where he would only watch a certain show during dinner and finally the last two days he let us watch a different show...hallelujah!

Once again, I am just sharing little tidbits from the week. I feel sure there is more I'm forgetting- I guess if I think of something I will post again!

Moral Obligation Questions

I have been reading the Alexander McCall Smith series about Isabel Dalhousie, who is the editor of a philosophy journal. So her character is constantly pondering questions about morality and what our obligation to others are or should be.

This got me thinking about a hypothetical situation.

What if there were two people, A and B, who were mere acquaintances but who both had something in common, say, collecting rare stamps. These two people were connected by their own choice on a social network.

Then suddenly A loses his rare stamp to a fire, robbery, whatever. A is extraordinarily upset about this circumstance, because this stamp had been an exceptional and difficult acquisition in his collection. Not only is he upset, he makes quite clear his feelings about his situation and specifically what happened to him and which stamp was lost.

B never recognizes the loss of A's stamp. Then a week or so later, B goes on to announce that he has acquired the exact stamp lost by A.

A congratulates B on his good fortune.

However, B still refuses to acknowledge the loss of A, in spite of his own gain. In fact, B goes on posting many stories about the stamp and how it has increased in value, and is even rarer than once believed. At the same time, A has continued to post his feelings about his lost stamp, because it is still weighing heavily on him. Many other of their philatelist friends sent words of regret and solace to A.

So one would assume that the second collector sees at least one of A's posts as they are repeatedly posted.

What is A, who lost his stamp, supposed to do? Should that person "hide" B from his news feed to avoid seeing the stories about the lost stamp? Defriend B completely? Address the person directly regarding the matter?

Meanwhile, what should B do? Are we obligated to have empathy with someone who has lost something treasured, even as we have gained the same? Of course not.

But if B does see A's posts and remains silent, what does that do to B's soul? Is it darker and less than it should be?

Why do people do such things? Should we not strive to be more empathetic to one another?

Stealing Kisses and Making a Fast Exit

A few brief stories from this past week:

At the aquarium this afternoon, I was sitting about 20 feet away and B went up to a little girl about a year younger than him and planted several kisses on her! I thought it was just too cute. Of course when I realized what was going on I walked over and said "Have you found a new friend?" Her parents did not seem that pleased about it. Oh well.

Interestingly, for the past few days, he has been suddenly fascinated with "EXIT" signs, like the lit-up emergency exits inside stores. Every time he sees one he points it out and yells "Exit" and then he usually talks about the color of the letters. I am most bewildered about the origin of this sudden interest. We don't remember pointing one out to him. But they are apparently his new favorite thing.
In other news, he has a "doodle-pro" magnetic drawing tablet that we've been keeping in the car and the other day as GH was driving, I sat in the back with him and I was making letters with him. I showed him that "W" upside down looks like "M" and "Z" sideways looks like "N". He thought that was hilarious. Sometimes he draws a letter and tells us what it is - it doesn't always look correct, but I love that he tries. He did a "C" this afternoon that was pretty good!

Last night, GH asked B to pick up some of his toys, and he immediately responded "Papi, stop messing [with] [B]'s life!" We burst out laughing and made him repeat it because we couldn't believe what we'd just heard. Sure enough, the second time was more of the same! We were especially amused because neither of us say this kind of thing, so we have no idea where he came up with that.

I need to go get him in bed. I just wanted to catch up a little with the latest happenings before I forget it all!

Dinosaurs at the Aquarium

So, GH was desperate for some "alone time" this afternoon so he could get some work done at home...and B really needed some quality time outside our home. He just has so - much - energy!!! It is amazing really.

Anyway, we headed once again to the Aquarium. Our yearly membership runs out at the end of this month and we aren't planning to renew, so we are trying to pack in the visits.

We enjoyed a walk along the shoreline before we headed inside. The weather was just so lovely it was impossible to resist. Then we had to move our car because we were at a 2 hour meter- which also meant we had to find change - which in turn meant we had to find cash, something that rarely makes an appearance in my wallet.

This meant a lot of walking back and forth and back again. Advantage- used a lot of B's excess energy. Disadvantage- required a lot of energy that I was rapidly running out of.

Eventually, we made it to our original goal, with only one tear-shedding incident- that was me, when B mercilessly yanked my hair in both hands as he was "helping" feed the meter. Yeah.

Anyway, we made it, and I was mercifully not bald (I double-checked in the bathroom).

I asked what he wanted to see first and he immediately said "otters," so we headed that direction, with a slight detour at one of the large tanks that has several sharks, rays, tuna, etc. Very cool.

When we got over to the otter area, it was the end of their feeding/play time, so we watched for a few minutes. As we walked back downstairs, B said "Dinosaur!". Huh? I turned around and spotted this whale skeleton.




So I explained that although it resembled a dinosaur skeleton, it was actually a whale skeleton, all the while going over in my mind how he had even drawn that conclusion. He has never been to a museum with a dinosaur skeleton that I remember, certainly not in any recent months. The only dinosaurs he's ever seen that I am aware of have been either on "Curious George" - who does often go to museums with dinosaur skeletons - cartoon dinosaur skeletons, and on "Dinosaur Train," another PBS cartoon, but it does have a paleontologist at the end, and perhaps shows skeleton photos sometimes?

In conclusion, my mind was pretty much blown away by this little incident. It was without a doubt the highlight of the past 2 days for me.