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Cole’s birthday party was today. He carefully chose 8 of his friends and we did the whole 5-year-old birthday party thing. We hired Eleanor (9 year old daughter of one of Jen’s business partners) to do the party planning. The theme of the party was “wild animals” so she planned games like Giraffe Stretch, Animal Charades, Decorate Your Own Mask, and Feed the Seal. The kids had a great time. Towards the end of the party, Cole opened one of his presents. We try to avoid the general “open every present” craziness by having the kids open one present a day (which sometimes means that Christmas lasts until February!) He opened his present from Jennifer and Jim — two way radios! At first he was a little unsure of the concept but he quickly caught on and he and Ally ran around the house jabbering to each other. Their conversations went like this:

• Cole: Ally, can you hear me? Can you hear me?
• Ally: (standing right next to him) Yes! I can!!
• Cole: (giggling) That’s so cool!

Somehow, when I wasn’t looking, 5 years have passed. When people would tell me that my kids would grow up fast, I never really understood what they meant. They don’t mean that time goes faster. They mean that you are so close to your kids for so long, that you don’t see them changing. So they seem the same today as they did yesterday, and you don’t realize that they’re entirely different from where they were a year ago.

A year ago is when I stopped uploading images to our Gallery for a variety of reasons. I got busy getting Gallery2 ready for release. We went to New York for a month which disrupted our lifestyle. Our camera broke, got fixed (and recently broke again). Mostly I was lazy. But recently, I got organized and got our photos migrated over to Gallery2 (which went flawlessly thanks to Jesse Mullan and other’s hard work on the migration module). And I bought a new Canon EOS 30d which makes taking photos way more fun.

So today, on Cole’s birthday we went to his regular soccer game and I took some photos of him running around and having a great time. I’ll be publishing a lot more photos (especially of his birthday party, which happens tomorrow). And over the next few weeks I’ll be uploading the last year’s worth of photos. Stay tuned!

On Tuesday and Wednesday mornings I drive Cole to kindergarten. He has to be there by 10:15 AM. Jen takes Ally to school around 8:45, then heads off to San Francisco to work at ForumJobs. So Cole comes in after Jen leaves and after some negotiations, we settle on a time when he’ll really wake me up. I tell him 9:30. He says “Daddy, I’m too lonely to wait that long!”. How can you argue with that? I talk him up to about 9:15 and then try to get another 30 minutes of shut-eye.

So 9:15 rolls around. I take a shower, Cole sits on the floor and plays with toys and tells me about them. I can’t hear a thing, all I hear is rushing water so it’s a very one way conversation with a lot of pantomiming. Then if there’s time he and I sit down and play Need for Speed. He used to call this “car game” for the longest time, but now that he’s a big boy he’s decided that he should call it by its real name. So sad, my boy is growing up. The game works like this. He sits on my lap and dictates what car we’ll drive, what color it’ll be, and what track we’ll race. I usually figure out how many laps we can race based on how much time we have. Then I drive the car and he honks the horn and editorializes. “Daddy, you shouldn’t drive off the road like that” or “Daddy, run over that stop sign. Yea!!” and the occasional “Did you see that car fly into the air?” with wild arm gestures. He loves that game.

When the time comes, we bundle into my car, put the top down and drive the 1 mile to school. I usually put in one of my CDs and we listen to music. Lately I’ve taken to explaining some of the music to Cole, which instruments are being played, how the beat interacts with the melody, how transitions work, what the lyrics mean, etc. He soaks it up like a sponge.

So this morning, I put in one of my 80s medleys. It’s alphabetical and I was up to music by the F’s — Foreigner, Frank Black etc. We listen to the tail end of a Foreigner song, then listen to Frank Black. When we get halfway through the song, Cole turns and says to me:

“Daddy, when this song is over, would you please put Juice Box Hero back on?”

We went to a rather formal 40th birthday (for the dad) and coming out (for the 2 month old daughter) party. It was in a nice restaurant in SF in a private room, about 30 people and only 4 kids (and yes, they were invited). A four hour lunch. We brought entertainment and the kids were awesome. The next day…

Cole: That really wasn’t a party for us, someone should have babysitted us.

Me: Why do you say that?

Cole: Because there weren’t very many toys and there was caffeine in the whipped cream on the birthday cake.

Cole: I want to go to the park!
Ally: I want to go to the library!
Cole: Let’s play ro-sham-bo!
Ally: OK!!!

Both: Ro…. sham…. bo!

Ally: Nooo! I wanted to win!
Cole: Ok, if you want to win me [sic] you have to throw paper
Ally: OK!!!

Both: Ro…. sham…. bo!

Ally: Yay!!
Cole: Oh noOoOooo, I didn’t mean to throw rock!
Ally: Ok how about I throw scissors and you throw paper?

Jen and I are laughing so much at this point that we miss the rest of their negotiation.

So we’re in NYC for a month. We’re living in a small one-bedroom in the upper west side which is a most excellent location. Baby sitting for the kids, Jen works out of the apartment. I work out of the Google office in Manhattan by day, and in the evenings we get to spend time with my family. The kids love it, we love it (except for the 97 degree heat wave — ugh).

A couple of weekends ago, we take the kids out to visit my parents and we use my brother’s SUV which has a DVD player in it. The kids start watching Little Mermaid 2. Cole (who will be 5 in about a month) understands way more of it than Ally (who turned 3 back in April) and after a while he starts to get scared. So I pause the movie and we talk about it. The conversation goes something like this:

Cole: I’m scared
Me: Ok. Well maybe we shouldn’t watch it.
Ally: Well I’m not scared! I want to watch it
Cole: But Ally, I’m scared.
Ally: [thinking] Ok Cole. I have a great idea! How about I watch Little Mermaid 2 and you just don’t watch?
Cole: [looking around the back seat] No, Ally. The TV is right THERE. [pointing at the screen which is about 3 feet from his face]
Ally: [thinks some more]. Ok Cole. I have a great idea! How about I watch Little Mermaid 2 and [picking up a stuffed animal from the floor] you look at this Polar Bear.
Cole: [looks at the stuffed polar bear]. No, Ally. Even if I look at the polar bear I can still HEAR the show and I’ll be scared.
Ally: [thinks for a while]. Ok Cole. I have a great idea! How about I watch Little Mermaid 2 and you look at the polar bear and listen to Daddy’s Earpods [this is what she calls my iPod shuffle, which I loaded up with kids music before the trip]
Cole: No, Ally. I’ll still be able to SEE the TV around the polar bear.

Ally: [thinks for a long time]. Ok Cole. I have a great idea! How about I watch Little Mermaid 2, you listen to Daddy’s Earpods and look out the window? [she looks really hopeful]

Cole: No, Ally. Even if I look out the window I might ACCIDENTALLY see the TV and get scared!!

Ally gives up.

When I realized this morning that I scheduled a phone meeting when my parents will be here, I said “Oh shoot!” Cole asked why so I explained the situation.

“It’s ok Mommy, you can still have your meeting. They’re coming here to see us, not you!”

Ally’s contractions: milkstache (what you have on your upper lip after you drink milk) and youmember (for “do you remember?”)

Other fun pronunciations: sauserage (sausage), offius (office), tail polish

If you’re happy and your nose, clap your hands!

Cole: “Mommy, can three people can get married to each other?”
Me thinking: oh my, where is this coming from?

I ask a few questions and get to the heart of the matter. Cole thinks he is going to marry Ally when he grows up and wants to know what happens if we have a third kid. Fortunately for him, this will not be a problem.

In his last entry, Bharat was sharing their rhyming games. For a while, if Ally said, “Henry, Henry…that rhymes!” Cole would say “It rhymes but it’s not a very good rhyme.”

I keep meaning to write down the hilarious things the kids are saying. They are so serious sometimes.. but I always forget to write a blog entry. Jen and I have been so busy lately that sometimes we don’t get to fully catch up for a day or two. But when we do, she always has a ton of funny stories to tell me about the kids and as she tells them to me I can always picture the kids saying them. So here is the latest one that she told me — I wish I could have been there to hear it in person. I think it happened in the car on the way home from Anna’s house. Ally has been learning about how to make rhymes so…

Ally: Henry … Henry! That rhymes!
Cole: No, Ally. That doesn’t rhyme it’s the same word!
Ally: Yes it does!
Cole: No, you have to use different words. Henry … BENRY! THAT rhymes.
Ally: Yeaaaaah!

With the stuff that Ally learns from Cole, it’s a wonder she understands anything in this world

Ally: Where is the brown and vanilla game? I want to play!

(She was talking about backgammon)