The Force is Strong with This One

So neither of my children have ever watched Star Wars.

Shocking, I know.

However, they do know what lightsabers are; they're swords.

So one day Ireland and Scotland are having a lightsaber duel as they're prone to and things are progressing as usual.

(This particular duel involved two lightsaber apps on various webOS phones.)

As they're swinging their phones around (and not touching each other in any way; with a good distance between them), my son raises his right hand, back s it up and them does a "force attack" against his sister.

Ireland is thrown backwards against the couch and ends up on the floor.

She looks up at Scotland (who didn't lay a finger on her), looks at the ground, and wonders how in the world she ended up there.

Meanwhile I'm sitting on the couch wondering why I hadn't been filming this entire thing.

Scotland's 3!

Yesterday was Scotland's third birthday.
<br><br>&nbsp;Wow time flies by.<br><br>&nbsp;This is how Scotland celebrated his birthday.
<br>&nbsp;Scotland wanted "french fries and chicken", so we all went out to eat.

Sadly, he fell asleep on the way.

So the rest of us ate at the mall food court while he slept.
<br>Ireland also played in their play area, of course.

Somehow Ireland and I ended up at The Lego Store making Build-Your-Own-Lego-Men.
<br>Scotland woke up (kinda) and joined us.

After we had our Lego men, Scotland requested his chicken and french fries.
<br>&nbsp;So we stopped back off at Chick-fil-A in the food court and got him some food.
Since it was now Tuesday evening, we stumbled upon their Kids' Night balloon animal maker.
Scotland got a really big blue sword, and Ireland got a "Princess Catcher".
<br>&nbsp;After that, we headed over to Once Upon a Child.
The children picked out a free video and a small toy.

Then it was home for presents and cake.<br>&nbsp;Scotland had requested a cookie cake.
There were also cupcakes.

When we got to the presents, Scotland was hesitant at first, trying to open the wrapping without tearing it.
After he learned that "ripping it is part of the fun", he tore right into the rest of them.
<br>&nbsp;When he unwrapped his first package (a nondescript box) he shouted "It's just what I wanted!"
And then he opened it to find tissue paper.<br>&nbsp;"It's just what I wanted!"
<br>And again when he found the actual present.

That phrase was well-used by the end of the evening.
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Is this your phone?

Partly due to having an older sibling, Scotland has learned that objects have owners.

He's really big on returning things to people.
He used to grab discarded shoes and walk them to their owners.
Now he's moved on to phones.

When he sees a phone on a counter, or a charger, he asks "Is that your phone?" or "Is that Mommy's phone?".

Besides making sure that everyone has their phone, I'm sure it's pretty confusing to a 2yo when most of the phones in the house look the same…

~Michael Roney, Jr.
Professional Klingon Translator
webOS Developer

--Sent from my Palm Pre Plus

My First Con

Scotland attended his first Star Trek convention this weekend.
While he spent the majority of his time in either the stroller or someone's arms, he did run around quite a bit.
And despite his lack of costume, he was most commonly referred to as "Look! A baby Klingon."
People took lots of pictures of the two of us, and he even was on camera with me while I talked to Fox59.

He responded well to all of the different alien species except for one.

While he was running away from me, he ran into a Borg. He looked up, shreaked, did a quick about face, and ran right back into my arms.

We'll need to do some planning to get him a little costume for next time.

Update:


Scotland got to meet an actress from the first episode of Star Trek he saw.

Puppy Dogs

After recovering from the shock that I was pregnant with my second child, I got excited about having another girl. I envisioned the baby dresses I could un-pack from storage. I purchased a pink Baby Book. After already having one daughter, I felt sure I could handle a second.

When I found out my second child was going to be a boy, I knew that things would be very different. I was entering un-known waters. But I tried to keep an open mind and get to work.

First, was to go through all the baby clothes and hand-me-downs. I boxed up what was "too girly", and set aside the generic stuff for baby two to wear.

I noticed right away that most boy clothes were either covered in sports themes, puppies, or dinosaures. I was even given an outfit with a dinosaure playing sports! (Which was my favorite outfit until he grew out of it...)

I like dinosaures, so that was good. I've never been very into sports, so I gave most of those items away. And then came the puppies....

What is it with boys and puppy dogs? I'm a cat person myself. My daughter had several cat themed outfits. But all the cat clothes seemed too girly for my son. So, I resigned my little man to having a few puppy things, but that was it.

Until he was born.
Then the puppies flooded in.

First was a fuzzy blue dog from the hospital gift shop with the words "My First Puppy" stitched on a paw. Too cute! So, that was a keeper. Then came more puppy clothes, more blue dogs, and even a miniature of Clifford, the Big Red Dog. Not only that, but any time my daughter came across a toy puppy she'd automatically hand it to her little brother (awe!), thus re-enforcing the puppy thing.

It was quickly apparent that it was out of my controle. Which turned out to be okay, since my son seems very athletic, and likes all the puppies. So I guess they are here to stay.

Le'go My Eggo!

So I sit down to enjoy my Eggo waffles while holding Scotland. Not the first time I've eaten while holding a child. Won't be the last either. But I will start paying attention.

I had turned my head to talk to Dalyn, and when I looked back down, Scotland had two hands on my plate, pulling it towards him.

My left hand was "stuck" holding him, so I had to use my right hand to deal with *both* of his hands.

While trying to save my meal, he managed to sink his hands into the waffles themselves.
And oh did he try to shove them in his mouth.

"Le'go my Eggo!"

We eventually got the waffles out of his hands, and washed all of the syrup off of his fingers.

But boy was he determined to hold on as long as possible.

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Sorry about the lack of a picture, but I'm sure you understand.

"The Strength"

So for the last few months of the pregnancy, Dalyn felt like his Hawaiian name should be (something) "the strength"...
After he was born and they were testing and measuring him in the baby warmer, I was watching him.
He moved his arms back and forth in a primal show of force, flexed his muscles and furled his brow and wrinkled his forehead into countless folds.
It was rather impressive. In fact, he loked kinda like The Hulk, just not green.
So I agree with my wife, he *is* "the strength".