The people have spoken ...

Photo number 2 it is. And thanks to all who noticed the missing "p" in equipping. It shall be properly spelled in the final version.

Please vote

We're cranking out a new brochure about our work in Ukraine, and we can't choose a cover. The size is 3.75 by 5 inches. Which one would you pick?

Descriptive

Dietrich, halfway through his first-ever Jamba Juice:

"I no like it."

"Why not?"

"Iz too swippery! Iz too hot!"

Favorite Christmas moments

We've moved down to Southern California, and I'm re-living Christmas as I (finally) download pictures.


The quality of this photo isn't great, but I love the way all the grown-ups are standing expectantly in the back, waiting to see if the slide will be a hit.


Wouldn't go to sleep without his new baseball book. Still won't, actually.


Aunt Jit Fong and Uncle Sam introduce Dietrich to "Yo Gabba Gabba."


Yep, it was a hit. Thanks, Craig's list!

Glad that's over with

Exactly two years and three months ago, 3-day-old Dietrich's eye started to well over with tears, even when he wasn't crying. Since then, we've massaged his lacrimal tear duct once or twice a day, hoping that it would open up under the pressure of our fingers.

That didn't happen, so today Dietrich had himself a wee surgery to open the duct.

Oh my was I nervous -- more about the anesthesia than about the actual procedure. (Two little boys we love have recently had heart surgery, so we recognize not having to worry about the procedure as a blessing.)

We got there early, so we killed about 30 minutes watching Thomas and charming the nurses. I initialed the problem eye, and the nurse gave Dietrich a quick dose of a sedative. Within about 10 minutes, he was calm and drowsy. Time to say goodbye. We placed him in a cute red wagon, outfitted with a fluffy pillow and a heated blanket, told him we loved him, and headed out to the waiting room. Meanwhile, he got anesthetized and had rods of increasing sizes pushed down his tear duct.



We won't know for sure if the probing worked for six weeks or so, but the doctor felt confident that it had. "A textbook case," she said. In her after-surgery meeting with us, she accidentally referred to Dietrich as a girl, apologized, and then continued to refer to him as a girl about 10 more times. To avoid an embarrassing moment, I tried to refer to him only by gender-neutral terms, such as "kiddo" and "our little one." I was quite thankful that she didn't show such signs of absentmindedness before the procedure.

Next time we saw Dietrich, he was coming-to in the arms of a nurse. We cuddled in bed, I sang to him, and he slowly woke up. He seemed more perturbed by the vital-signs monitor wrapped around his big toe than by his eye. We were warned not to let him rub his eye, but he hasn't tried to do so yet. Way to be a model patient, Dietrich!

Important life lessons from dad

Overheard: "Dietrich, tonight I'm going to teach you how to eat a candy bar."

Regression

We trick-or-treated tonight. Dietrich, our little dinosaur, was totally into it. We thought we'd be lucky to get 30 minutes out of the little guy, but we stumbled home, exhausted, more than two hours after we left.

And that's when I regressed. When my brother and I were younger, we meticulously sorted our Halloween candy, dividing it up by type, counting, trading and otherwise commoditizing the free loot. Once I saw the big bowl of candy that Dietrich brought home, I couldn't help myself. I present, to you, our take (though I imagine only Sam will care).

9 mini hershey bars
1 full-size hershey bar
2 kit kats
7 nestle crunches
7 bags plain m & m’s
4 bags peanut m & m’s
2 three musketeers
4 baby ruths
8 butterfingers
6 reeses cups
2 bags skittles
1 milky way
1 take five
1 twix
1 heath bar
1 charleston chew
1 heath bar
1 almond joy
1 gummy body part (sadly, we can't tell which part)
3 jolly ranchers
2 sweettarts (but one was open and hence got tossed)
1 laffy taffy
1 starburst
1 box nerds
2 tootsie roll pops
1 box red raspberry dollars
1 bag runts
1 air head
1 disney high school musical milk chocolate flavored strawberry pop rockin’ candy

consumed on the road or shared with grandpa
1 tootsie roll pop
1 charleston chew
1 kit kat
1 tootsie roll
1 full-size bag m & m’s
1 box whoppers
1 butterfinger
(I think we showed great restraint.)

Anyone want to trade?

For those of you who aren't so interested in the various forms that our Halloween goodies took, here's a treat: Our little dinosaur. Or toucan, according to one mask-wearing celebrant.

As Dietrich would say: "Happy Ween!"