The Felix Helix

Sorry, I realize it's been another several-month hiatus, which is BAD. So here are some pictures from May. Things happened, boys were cute, blah blah blah. You only care about pictures, right?

Felix is obsessed with Nanerpus. If you don't know what the heck I'm talking about, it's a Denny's Superbowl commercial from several years ago. Some of you on the other side of the pond STILL won't know what I'm talking about, but here's a video of Felix dancing to the commercial (and the original commercial, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur0LENvY5TE ) nanerpus2 - iPhone

Apparently, what happens at Grandma's is that Robbie teaches Felix how to read. At least, so I was informed by Felix when I came to pick him up. (Sorry, this video is hoooooorrible. Don't worry, I flip the phone sideways about 20 seconds in.) Not bad for a morning's work, huh?

I think I posted here already about the backyard: short story is the landlord had our soil tested last summer, the lead levels came back very high, and he had some workers come at the end of the summer to remove and replace the top foot of soil. So now we're starting again! The landlord had a guy come last week to put in these great wood planting beds so that we can grow vegetables and not worry about the roots getting close to the lead-y undersoil. Felix "helped" Giles put in a huge batch of strawberry plants. Hopefully we'll be able to keep the squirrels away from them.

So... that went fast. Leto is one! To celebrate Leto's first birthday, we had a little party at the house. Leto's actual birthday was Easter Sunday, which made it a bit difficult to schedule anything big. In keeping with my increasingly serious Martha-Stewart-syndrome, I've stepped up my cake-making game. This time, I sculpted my own cake topper with gum paste. Take that, Martha! I'm pretty proud of it, but worried about what I can do next time to one-up myself. We had a bunch of people over, and I hope lots of fun was had by all. Thanks to everyone for coming out!

These two are kind of starting to love each other. It's cute. The only problem is Felix sometimes hugs Leto a little TOO much. Not a bad problem to have, I guess!

You know how it goes. Just chillin' with some dinner.

With our way-past-unseasonably warm weather lately, it was hard NOT to play hooky. So, yeah. This is just another Thursday, in the park. In March. This time last year I think we were still buried in snow!

I'm the NINJAbreadman. Felix spent a few weeks obsessed with the Gingerbreadman, running around the house yelling "Can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread boy!" I took advantage and convinced him to help make some ninjabread men. Way harder to catch than the regular gingerbread ones.

The New York Transit Museum is, rather like the Botanical Garden Train exhibit, tuned fairly accurately to the wavelength of Felix's brain. It's close by, but we'd go anyway since it's beautifully made (situated inside an old dis-used subway station) and perfect for an outing: full of robust trains which can't really be broken by boisterous boys, and an excellent gift shop. Next to Felix is Justin, Felix's daily playmate, with whom Felix shares common interests (to wit, trains, not sharing toys, etc.)