Happy Halloween!

And here's even more Halloween fun.

The Softer Side Of Evil

Finn: "Mom, I'm the best Darth Vader because I look out for all the little sisters."

Look Upon My Works, Ye Mighty, And Despair!

Blog 2.0

Welcome to the new and improved Double Duty Diary!

With the wonderful help of Sheryl, who created the cool banner above based on photos of Finn and Shea, and an entirely new template, we've freshened the place up for you. Come on in, take off your coat, and stay a while!

We've got a poppin' new color scheme, more links to lots of fun blogs, a less aggressive font size -- and even more to come.

Enjoy!

In Opa's Garden

Finn's Shoes & Papa's Hat

Shea and I are both a bit under the weather this week with head colds, so I'm envisioning many posts with just pictures as she and I work our way through 147 boxes of tissues.

But here's a teaser of things to come: DDD may be getting a facelift soon, so check back soon for our new "look."

Same goofy content, natch.

Reason #422 Why Grandma's More Fun Than Mommy

She lets the kids take all the Tupperware out of her kitchen cabinet and spread it across the living room carpet.

A Note To Follow So

A quick primer of Shea's World focusing, randomly, on two-syllable words that begin with the letter L.

LOLA
Lola is perhaps Shea's favorite television character and she asks for her by name daily. As one of the two stars of Charlie and Lola, she gets into tons of adorable mischief, isn't afraid to get dirty, and tests her brother's patience on a regular basis. She's Shea's hero.

LOLO
This is Logan, Finney's best buddy and Shea's first real-life crush (the girl's got great taste, no?). He's very sweet and regularly indulges her requests for hugs and hellos before he gallantly dashes off to the playground with Finn. Shea calls him "Lolo," and as she does tiny hearts evaporate off the top of her little head.



LILO
Lilo lives in Hawaii, does a beautiful hula dance, and loves everything about the ocean. She's who I'm hoping Shea will resemble in a couple years.



LALA
Lala is the yellow Teletubbie. She has a curl on her head, just like Shea, and they have roughly similar vocabularies at this point.

LULU
This is a dress from the wonderful little girl's clothing line, Baby Lulu. Their stuff is super cute, unbelievably soft, and ridiculously expensive. But we've managed to find a few pieces in the second-hand kids shops and on eBay, which look great on Shea.

It's That Time Of Year Again

One Year Later

This is the big bear in Big Bear.


His name is Kirby and he lives in our friend Trudi's cabin. Each time we visit, we greet Kirby (Hi, Kirby!) and he greets us (Welcome!), as he sits in the main living room, standing guard over us and our frivolities.

We also use him as a measuring stick.

This picture was taken last October, when Finn was three, Kirby was still noticably taller than Finn, and Finn was just a smidge afraid of him.

This picture was taken last weekend. (It appears at first that Finn's on his tiptoes, but his back foot is actually planted flat on the ground.) Finn was so excited that, now that he's "four and a quarter," he finally surpassed his wooden pal.

"Mom, I must be growing!" Indeed.

Wigging Out

Our good friends Chrissy and Jon (and their son, Frankie Dino), along with everyone's favorite Auntie, Christine, joined us in Big Bear last weekend.

I like to think of Chrissy as the Patron Saint of Good Times, as I can't think of very many encounters I've had with her in our 11+ years of friendship when I didn't have a total ball or at least a good giggle.

So, true to form, Chrissy and crew showed up at the cabin's front door with a Box-Full-O-Fun to keep us entertained and laughing throughout the weekend, including miniature musical instruments, a mobile karaoke machine that connected right to the television set, and--most over the top of all--about 10 different wigs and hats, including these very realistic mullets.

The karaoke festivities proved to be a well-needed celebration for us all and, after witnessing some downright inspired renditions of The Beatles' "Blackbird" and Frank Sinatra's "My Way," I decided to swallow my pride (along with a few extra glasses of red wine) and belt out my FIRST-EVER song on a karaoke mike. Pretty fun, from what I can remember of it.

The little guys had a ball, too, even when they weren't on the microphones.

Here, Christine shows us her groove thing.

While John and Chrissy do their wigs proud as they prepare to croon a duet together.

We also had a chance to take some beautiful walks and even attend the local Oktoberfest. No snow yet, but lots of clear, crisp weather to broaden the mind and clean out the mental cobwebs.

To see more pictures of our trip to Big Bear, click here.

POP! POP! POP!

We're back, safe and sound.

I'm hoping to have posts and photos tomorrow, so in the meantime you can keep yourself entertained with this bit of virtual GENIUS:

http://fun.from.hell.pl/2003-11-24/bubblewrap.swf

If Only

"All creative people should be required to leave California for three months every year."
--Gloria Swanson

Although Ms. Swanson's insightful directive remains a logistical and financial impossibility in our world, we're still grateful for the occasional weekend getaway--albeit within the state--every now and again.

So we're off to the mountains. For a breather. In the cool, fresh air. And some perspective. Ahhhhhhh.

Back soon.


In the meantime, you should know Shea uttered her first sentence last week:

"MOH TEE TEE PEEZ!"

Which, of course, means:

"More cookies, please."

Really, a smart girl in so many ways.

Overheard

J: Look at that, Finney, you're starting to get some hair on your legs.


F: Yup, that's why I'm four and a quarter.


J: See, I've got lots of hair on my legs.


F: And that's why you're 40.

Sometimes She Reminds Me Of Jimmy Connors

She's Even Glamorous When She First Wakes Up

Gingham And Stripes

Dreaming Of Hula, Pineapples And Kona (Or Maybe That's Me)

After Their Bath, Before Bed

Minutiae

So you may have noticed that things here at DDD have been, admittedly, a little photo heavy lately. And while most of you don't seem to mind gazing at new pictures of the kids day after day, I thought I'd check in and let you know what's up with everyone, as boring as the details may be. So here goes:

Finn is studying the letter D in school this week. When I asked him to tell me a word that begins with the letter D he responded immediately with doo-doo-pants, and then burst into an explosion of four-year-old boy giggles. So we're really making great strides in the whole diminution of potty talk effort. Ahem.


Shea has refused to take more than half of her afternoon naps over the last week, leading me head-first into the crashing realization that she may soon be ready for only ONE nap each day. (I'm quick, no?) What this really means, of course, and why I'm stumbling to let it seep into my consciousness, is that when this happens I will only have about 60 minutes of quiet, no-children time during daylight hours each day. SIXTY minutes. Need to make an appointment? Conduct an interview? Call a friend to chat uninterrupted? Empty the dishwasher without threat of tiny fingers grabbing the knives out of the silverware caddy? SIXTY minutes, baby. I can almost hear the tick-tick-tick-tick-tick of the "60 Minutes" opening credits. And, as usual, I'm dreading Andy Rooney.

John's watching the final excruciating moments of Alien vs. Predator on the couch. Apparently, the Dodgers won't start their post-season play until tomorrow, when they take on the Mets, so we're subjected to random science fiction cheese on the box tonight. He also just asked me to put X-Men III: The Final Scratching, or something like that, on the Blockbuster DVD wish list. (Paul, think you can talk some film sense into your sweet brother?)

As for me, I'm mired in freelance assignments, which is both good and bad. Good to have the work and great to be able to camp out in my head more often as I strategize my stories. Bad because I don't have a lot of time for other stuff, like...um...blogging, right now. So please be patient as I race toward my next crop of deadlines; I'll try to make sure there are at least some new photos for you to look at each day.

In the meantime, how about this nice shot of Whiney McSurleypants before he became a bonafide curmudgeon?

Isn't he kind of adorable?

Granules Of Truth