Christmas Cards That Didn't Make the Cut

I had to take about three dozen photos before I got one that was usable for a Christmas card.  Here Thomas gets a kick out of squeezing Frederick.
Frederick readies for the flash by squinting.
I told them to "act like you like each other."  This is what they came up with:
Getting fed up with the fruitlessness of getting a "natural" looking posed shot, we headed outside for "candid fun."  Thomas gives Frederick another rib busting squeeze. 
Frederick cracks Thomas us by eating snow.  It was this stunt that actually got them to both smile at the same time and gave us the picture I used in the card.  It's out of focus, but that is as good as it gets in this household.

Morning has Broken...

Christmas morning wasn't as insane as it has been in the past. Frederick slept in until almost 8 and Thomas didn't emerge from his room until almost 9. (Thomas has been staying up reading, writing, drawing and in general pissing about until sometime between 2 and 4 am every night now for weeks, so I think we finally have crazy Christmas mornings behind us.) Frederick excited about getting a triple pack of Sesame Street cds:
Thomas clearly over the moon about a game I know nothing about:
Simon tunes out, completely engrossed with a comic book:Frederick gets an electronic drum set. What WERE we thinking?And here is Thomas with what he has been asking for for several years:

The Birthday Girl

Granny reading card from Thomas, which came with a 4 pound glass paperweight. Thomas obviously thought such a gift exactly what someone needs who is limited to two small bags on the international flight home. Simon treated her to his famous vegetable torte which was delicious, or so I thought--we're not allowed to discuss it ("I used inferior cheeses! Stop TALKING about it!").
But the REAL question is: Is there such a thing as having TOO MANY knitting books?

Santa Visits Frederick's School

Just before the end of the year, Santa visited Frederick's school.  We were asked before the day whether or not we would order photos of the event.  We were skeptical that Frederick would enjoy sitting on a stranger's knee but, as you can see from the photo our worries were ill founded. The thing in Frederick's right hand is a big sleigh bell stick, which he is clearly enjoying ringing.  According to his teacher, Frederick's classmates held it daintily with two fingers and wondered what to do with it.  Frederick, having benefited from several years of bell ringing in his music lessons with Mr. Mike, knew exactly what it was all about. 

What Happened?

Every morning Frederick wakes up around 6:30 or 7, gets out of bed and stands in the hallway, waiting for me to take him to the bathroom. Once in there he does his toilet business and we head back to his room where he reads books, listens to a cd of his favorite music and he waits for everyone else to get up and start the day. The other day I heard his door open and noticed, as usual, that it was around 6:30 in the morning. I could see him outlined in our doorway but not much else since it is still pitch black at that time of day. When we went into the bathroom I flipped on the light switch. We both looked at him and noticed that he was, unlike when he went to bed the night before, stark naked. Frederick looked at me, completely stunned, and asked, "What happened?"

And This Came a Few Days Ago

More mysterious instructions:

Here is the puzzle. (Frederick's letters are hard to see, but it reads: "Frederick, Ready, set, go! Into the tee pee Love, Emily"):

And when did this take place? Not recently, since there has been snow and ice on the ground for a few days now.

More on Frederick's Secret Life

A letter came in the mail a while ago with this secret code inside. Frederick quickly decoded the strange message:

Then this was inside:

And this as well:

Thanksgiving Weekend

We've made it through 12 weeks of the semester, and have only two to go. This weekend we have a 5 day break from school, just enough time to learn to really enjoy not working, but not long enough to fully recover and get prepared for the final stretch before exams. Frederick is glad to be home. Today Emily came over and, after she said, "It's Saturday! You don't have to go to school!" He shouted, "Whoopee!" and ran into the back yard.

Thomas only wakes up to shift from his bed, where he plays his DSi, to his computer, where he is rediscovering Roller Coaster Tycoon. He spent the past 8 weeks earning a computer game, Roller Coaster Triple Pack of Thrills!. I ordered it on Monday after work and since then we have heard a repeating loop of these phrases: "Is it here yet? Will it come today? Has the mail come yet? Where do you think it is right now?" alternating with a repeating loop of these phrases: "It's never coming. It's never going to be here. I'm never going to get to play it." Thank the Nintendo gods that it arrived in the mail today. Thomas squealed with delight and then retreated back to his room. (Which stinks of feet.)
Not to mention the turtle smell. Here are two of them, basking. I've been waiting four months to get a picture of these guys roasting themselves on their rock or floating log. They eat more than their weight in food every day, and constantly beg for more. When they aren't begging, they are dozing under the heat lamp. You can see that the one on the left has his legs completely tucked up into his shell. That is a sign of a truly happy turtle (or so the turtle experts on the web pages say). (Simon announced the other day that he "really doesn't like the turtles." Well, he could have said something before we got the damn things! We're stuck with them now.)

Frederick's secret life

A letter arrived for Frederick the other day, and in it was this photograph. As Jami said, it was like that gag (as featured in the film Amelie) where a person loses his or her garden gnome only to receive pictures of it at various famous places around the world. So, apparently he's quite the sailor...

What's the Moral of the Story?

John died yesterday evening. It was very quiet and rather sad, but not depressing if that makes sense. I wanted to find pictures of him that I had that I thought looked nice, and these pictures make me the happiest.  Sturge, me and John probably winter 1968. 
John, me and Sturge with unknown puppies, Autumn 1971:
Don't we look fabulous?  The world is our oyster.

Halloween

I can't believe it--it's Halloween already. Didn't we just do this? Here are Thomas and Frederick about to head out for tricking and treating. Notice Thomas is NOT in costume not because he doesn't have one--he does and wore it to a school party yesterday--but because he felt he was "too old" to go tricking and treating. He did want to walk with us, though, and check out events in the neighborhood. I told him to tell that to the "kids" several inches taller than me that came to our door this evening, but that didn't change Thomas' mind. Frederick, though, is a bat in case you can't tell). Here he is trying to look menacing but can't help smiling.
Here they are with Simon amongst the flood of children hitting our neighborhood. Minivans park in the video store lot next to our house and unload 10 or 20 of them. Every year someone gets caught up in our climbing rose in our front yard. This time it was a giant kid dressed as Michael Myers. (I saw one kid dressed as Urkel this year--I haven't seen that in at least 15 years.)

Lazing on a (not so) Sunny Afternoon

Simon and Frederick head out to the "light poles", the name of a walking tour of the College Cultural Area that Frederick mapped out in late Spring. It's about 3 miles round trip and includes stops at a nearby park (the boat park, so called because it features a wooden boat), Mott Community College, and our offices at UM-Flint. Frederick has been known to run the whole route, which Simon loves because it gives him some much needed exercise after teaching philosophy all day.
Dangerous monkey bars (with bars 6 inches apart so kids can get their heads stuck in them) are slowly being replaced with these sorts of things.

Frederick checks out the boat--hasn't changed since the last time he was here, the day before.

Saturday Frederick weighed in at the doctor's office (a check up with his allergenist--we're down to one shot every 4 weeks now! Whoopee!) at a whopping 64 pounds. How long before he can no longer squeeze in through the windows?
Frederick enjoying himself. Is Simon laughing that hard? I'm sure he is. He loves this walk.

Hard Times

Thursday evening and all seems well. Thomas is getting the timpani set up for another 2 hour Philharmonia rehearsal. This season features, among other numbers, a segment of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony. So far, it's a bit hit and miss but there has been noticable improvement even since the first run through a month ago.

Omid, Thomas's percussion side-kick for the past 5 years, is clearly geeked to be there.

But a mere 3 hours later Thomas is hit with a flu that lays him out cold. Symptoms: headache, fever and sore throat. Today, Sunday, he is better (he actually ate something!) but has completely lost his voice--scary, but admittedly not necessarily a bad thing from the parental point of view.
And, meanwhile, what has Simon been up to? Acting not his age but his shoe size and getting into a brawl on the basketball court. Here he is modeling his split lip which the doctor sealed up with super glue--faster than stiches and leaves no scars. (Rumor has it that we can thank the US involvement in Vietnam for that piece of medical progress. If true then perhaps our students are right--everything always works out best in the end.)

The New York Times is obsessed with Flint

This is the third article I've seen in there about Flint this year. (These are the other two. Our street even gets a mention:)

For-Mar in the Fall with Frederick

The Rock of (Sad) Birthdays

On the way to Thomas's school we pass by this rock every morning, and two or three times a week it's been re-painted, presumably by elves.  Usually the rock says "Happy Birthday" but usually it's to somebody who died (because their date of death is supplied).  Perhaps painting a rock by the side of a busy road.  I only have my cell phone with me, so you will have to peer to get something of the true glory of the Rock of Sad Birthdays (this is just a selection):