Sonora dies...We landscape the house, put a garden in the trampoline spot, and move the trampoline to the shady north side of the house. Zane and Leo now have separate rooms...Leo's favorite record is Michael Jackson's Off The Wall...Zane plays T-Ball and can't decide which hand to throw with...Zane inadvertantly gives himself a hawkmo...The family visits Humboldt around 4th of July...Emmett makes his first visit to the old home on the hill...Tab and the kids spend a month in Maine...Leo's favorite friend is his cousin Sam Voter...In Maine, Zane and Leo get really really good at playing gameboy...Zane learns to operate an industrial excavator on tractor skids by himself...Zane, Leo, and Emmett's see The Simpsons film opening weekend in a deserted Skowhegan theatre. They love it. Their favorite cartoon slowly morphs over the summer from The Simpsons to Spongebob Squarepants...Dad is now freed up from wanting to watch TV during cartoontime...Zane learns to go underwater in the lake...Emmett learns to talk...The family sits in traffic from Maine to New Jersey, stopping enroute to visit paternal relatives, Basketball Hall of Fame, and Zane's middle namesake, Longmeadow...New Jersey is full of family and sand, and the boredwalk...Annie playfully chews on Jack (the rabbit) and kills him...Annie starts wandering to the neighbors and chasing their hens...Dad starts building a small treehouse near the deck which becomes a giant summer-long project involving all sorts of powertools and a 100 ft zipline connecting to some nearby oaks...It has three walls. One is red. One is green. One is mauve. The roof is see-through...The boys get a kitten from a schoolmate and name him Felix after the cartoon character...In October it is discovered that acorns are good for projectiles, and not much else.

Questions for discussion:

Does anyone have kids when they're 79?... If there's a baby in a mom's belly and I talk like this does it break the baby's eardrums?... What's the smallest city in the world?... Why don't kids have grey hair?... How do cats purr?... Why do ants always work together?... How come if you feel bad and you hold something soft it'll make you feel better?... Who's the oldest person in the world? Who's the youngest?... What's the earliest anyone has ever woken up?... Who are my great-great grandparents?... Why do you put butter under jam instead of on top?... How does all the stuff in your body fit inside your skin?... Read that book again?...

Earth Day, or the day after depending how you track such things. Today we walked through drizzle to the Cascade Raptor Center --a regional convalescent home for injured birds-- just up the road, Emmett in the stroller. Zane and Leo had feathers painted on their cheeks, and we put bandages on stuffed toy animals. We'd been there before but it was only this time that Zane was very curious about how each bird had wound up at the Center. I had to read each sign out loud. This one was run over, this one ran into an airplane, this one imprinted too early to people, etc... On the way back we collected bottles from the side of the road.

I think injury/recovery may be on the kids' minds because they've been told that Sonora is soon going to cat heaven. She's fifteen and has giant tumor in the intestines. Leo is sort of cavalier. He chirps happily to anyone who comes over, "This is our cat. She's going to die soon!" Zane wants to know exactly what's in cat heaven, and does each animal have its own heaven and how does each one know where to go and how come Yoda can live 900 years and cats can't? Should be able to find that stuff online, we tell him, just Google Cat Heaven. 21st Century kids.

Into the pet void steps our new dog Annie, a 9-month old yellow lab. She's very gentle with the kids, and her fair coat makes a nice palette for washable ink pens. She comes sometimes, when she wants to, if nothing else exciting is happening.

We made two separate trips to Southern California this spring, one with Dad's family and one with Mom's. More beach time in the first trip, more general chaos in the second. Loads of Lego booty acquired each trip.

To get in the SoCal mood, Zane got a skateboard a few weeks ago. We've explained that it takes years of practice, that the first step is just to ride straight on the thing but he is more entranced with the idea of skating than the actual skating. He's used the computer to look up all sorts of tricks, none of which he can do but he has memorized their descriptions. And he can hit the right buttons to make the computer skater do them. 21st Century kids.

In February Leo had the barber convert his shaggy mane into a 2 inch mohawk, just for kicks. We went through a lot of hairgel before it finally grew out.

We read bedtime stories every night and recently Zane wanted to know if every book was make believe (For a while before we read any book he'd ask, "Is this a true story?"). I said no, some books are true and in fact there are more true books than made up ones. "Which ones are true?" he asked. "I'll find one," I said and started skimming the binders of the kids books. I could not find one true book. Hmmm. Finally I just had to say "well, grownups read true books and kids read make believe books.", which may in fact be make believe. 21st Century kids.

Emmett is allergic to penicillin. True story.

Speaking of soul or lack of it, we've finally got all the cds loaded on the iPod in the dining room. Only one click to any song in the collecton. Or, in Emmett's case several clicks, some turning the music on or making it disappear, some opening the mysterious tape case or switching radio bands. But in the end lately it always seems to boil down to one thing. Emmett wants to listen to Cake's Motorcade of Generosity and he wants the volume up. Whenever it starts up he goes into a little dance, shoulders tilting and head bobbing.

A few new toys in the arsenal in 2007. First, a pool table down in the basement. Zane is fairly competent for someone who can barely reach over the rail. He relies on the granny quite a bit. He is very into sports and games in general, and is shaping up to be a Duck fan, which is probably inevitable growing up in Eugene. Zane let us know recently that he may just skip college entirely and just go straight out of high school to the NBA. To help him realize the dream of becoming the first 5' 9" Jewish kid to be drafted out of high school we've installed a few hoops nearby, one in the hallway at about 8' and another outside at regulation height.

Another toy of note is the Gigaball, a rubber inflatable ball about 4' high which has openings on two ends so that a small person can get inside. Put it on the trampoline and whoever is in the Gigaball quickly experiences the butterfly effect, both in terms of stomach and chaotic movement...And of course more of the old stand-by toy: Legos. Zane and Leo have been building some truly imaginative space-ships lately, always with guns and always symmetrical. One week from now we will be in Lego-Land, California.

But that's in forever. Today is winter, the first good snow of 2007. The new house seems to have its own micro-climate. We're about 500 ft above the valley floor and it often snows here while the city below gets rain. This morning we had about 4 inches, slightly moist for perfect snowballs.

The 2006 DVD of the kids is finished and available. If anyone wants a copy, email me.

After a frantic summer of packing moving unpacking we are finally settled into the new house. (Careful readers of ZLE will note that this is only 9 months past the date forecast on this blog last Spring). It is at 43 59' 05.11" N, 123 04' 34.51" W. Although we are just south of Eugene city limits, it feels very rural. The house is great and has proven very kid friendly so far, especially the construction debris. We've used scrap wood to build airplanes and rubber band shooters, and a large pile of sand left over from well bore grouting has become a wonderful play pit slash mini golf course slash backyard beach. Some indoor photos are here, here, and here. We've had several overnight visitors since moving in. Anyone in the area is welcome to drop in and use the guest bed.

Zane has started the French program at Fox Hollow School just down the road. If the weather is nice Zane and Dad bike to school using the trail-a-bike. It's all downhill and takes about 8 minutes. Zane is still adjusting to the school routine. Half the time the teacher speaks calmly and clearly in a totally incomprehensible language. The rest of the time she seems to make sense. At lunch there is chocolate milk available. Zane and some of his schoolmates are on an AYSO under-6 soccer team.

Leo has been going to TBI for a few weeks and seems to be adjusting. He's pretty flexible. Every Friday they make Challah, and for the New Year it had raisins and honey which was a big hit. Leo and Zane are in a one day a week gymnastics class together. Lots of jumping on trampolines and handstands. Leo has become quite adept at Legos (luckily Softa saved all of Dad's old legos from 30 years ago). He builds lots of spaceships and guns, all of which seem to have perfect vertical symmetry.

Emmett has just in the past week begun to put steps together. As Lao Tsu said, "The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." And just like the ancient Chinese scribes, Emmett's successes are sprinkled with instances where he falls on his butt. His other tricks are clapping, waving, making popping sounds, and putting small objects in his mouth. He seems to enjoy music toys. About half the time, adults around him speak calmly and clearly in a totally incomprehensible language.

Tuesday morning. Zane's in preschool and Leo's downstairs with his buddy Ethan. This fall will fit a similar pattern. Zane will be at Garden Home preschool near Reed College for MWF. Leo and Ethan and possibly one other tot will share a babysitter two mornings per week. Leo is jealous that Zane gets to go to school but most of the preschools don't take kids until they're pottytrained which Leo isn't. Plenty of time for schooling later.

This is the calm before the storm. When baby Emmett comes along everyone's schedules will get a little wacked so we're trying to set up a rhythm now. Although Zane has several times requested an older brother he's instead getting a younger one. Due in about 3 weeks. The stage is set, the carseat, baby bath, cradle, swaddling clothes, baby diapers, etc. dug out of the basement for one last go around. Hopefully he'll hold off until then so that Zane and Leo's dad can watch Aunt Jenny (and soon to be Uncle Ken) get married in late August.

Zane and Leo tried watching Spiderman the other night but nothing much happened for the first half hour. Tobey McGuire kept making googly eyes at Kirsten Dunst while Zane asked over 30 times, "When's Spiderman going to put on his uniform?" Spiderman seems to have hit a nerve. Maybe it's that he climbs all over everything, spurring on Zane and Leo to do the same, and flying through the air makes him popular too. Whatever it is, the kids dig him. We picked up a few Spiderman comics this week, along with Flash, Superman, and X-Men. Amazing that the storylines can continue over decades and decades. Good vs. Evil is an inexhaustible subject, sort of along the lines of "You're either with us or against us." It's a worldview easily grasped by any 3-year old.

Zane's first question after getting the superhero comics: "Do these books have guns and money in them?"