Wesley 101.

Recently Wesley's preschool held a "Family Day" in which the families of the students got to visit the classrooms. In addition to some arts and crafts projects, we were given a "newspaper" that Wesley completed with his teachers' help that detailed his thoughts on different subjects. Keep in mind these were Wesley's thoughts and feelings at the particular moment he was questioned and in no way reflect his answers 15 minutes later.

His favorite book is "Go, Dog, Go!" by P.D. Eastman. He commented "I like the cars they drive."

Wesley's favorite restaurant? "The car restaurant (Route 66) - I like their shakes. We eat there 68 times. Almost every day!"

His favorite movie was a no-brainer. "Cars - I really like Lightning McQueen. I'm going to visit them and take a picture with Mater (at Disney's California Adventure)."

Regarding animals, Wesley commented "I'm babysitting a puppy named Bella... for 100 weeks! You don't have to take a freeway where she lives."

Asked to talk about himself, Wesley said "I play and have dinner and I have a lot of fun with my Daddy. I do lots of cool tricks. I put on gymnastics shows for Mommy. I play with my cars and I like to tackle my Daddy. I really like to play with my little sister... but not always."

St. Patrick's Day.

All photos by the uber-talented Godmother, Adrea.

Wesley & Abby.

They may not see each other as often as they would like, but they are still pretty fond of one another. Photos by Adrea.

Five Years Old.

So as of January 31, Wesley is five years old. He celebrated the day with his friends at Scooter's Jungle (an inflatable bouncer/slide place), followed by a small family get together at the Fix house with swimming and cake. Needless to say Wesley had a great day. Thanks to Aunt Kelley for another amazing job with the birthday cake.

Santa Claus 2008.

So this year's visit went slightly better than last year. As you'll recall, the last time Julia saw Santa she was a screaming wreck. This year we prepped her and had no concerns. She WANTED to go see Santa, as she now has a firm grip on the Santa-brings-presents concept. Well, after a ten minute wait to think it over in line, she lost it again when we placed her on Santa's lap. However, we were able to get her to reign it in enough for a picture, as you can see. Yes, that is Shannon's hand she is holding. And yes, those are tears streaming down her cheeks. And yes, that is possibly the most strained smile you will ever see on Julia's face. As for Wesley, he did great. The smile on his face is the smile of a four year old boy smiling for a long, long time waiting for his sister to finally cooperate with the photographer.

Shamu.

Back in early October our family went on a little vacation to Sea World for a few days. Given a couple days, we were able to see all of the shows at the park, including the ever-popular Shamu show twice. Well, at one point in the Shamu show, the host asks the audience to repeat after him a chant of "Shamu" over and over. A very little detail of the show, but apparently one that stuck with Julia. In the past week or so, out of absolutely nowhere, Julia has begun calling for the chants from her car seat whenever the thought crosses her mind. It goes something like this (written in Juliaspeak)...

Julia: Hey duys, do you want to do Shamu?
Us: Uh, okay.
Julia: SHA-MUU!
Us: Shamu!
Julia: Good dob, duys!

The affirmation at the end is what usually makes me laugh. Julia usually leads the chants 3 or 4 more times before she moves on. One last thing - Wesley has no patience for this game of his sister's. While he has the ability to be fully content sitting in his seat quietly staring out the window, Julia is often a nonstop barrage of chatter from the moment the engine starts until we reach our destination.

Christmas Photos by Adrea.

Just a small selection from the amazing photo shoot by Wesley and Julia's Godmother, Adrea.

On The Floor.

A couple weeks ago, I was lying on my back on the floor of our living room. Wesley walked up to me and matter-of-factly stated, "in a second I'm going to sit on your face." I only had a moment to laugh before I was smothered by the denim of his jeans.

Halloween 2008.

Wesley was a firefighter, Julia was Cinderella. They both looked great and had a great time. After coming down to Nickelodeon for a studio Halloween party, we went over to the church for trick-or-treating. Julia no longer looks like a baby. Sniff.

Mickey II & Minnie II.

Enough said.

Swimming.

Since day one, Wesley has been horrified of putting his face in the water. Considering we live in the hotbox known as Santa Clarita, it has always felt like a necessity for Wesley to acquire some swimming skills. So last summer, we signed him up for swimming lessons through a friend from the church. Wesley made it clear pretty fast that he was not ready for this. His teacher "Miss Debbie" tried everything, but Wesley snapped into "terrified" mode pretty regularly and would not try very much. Shannon and I felt stuck, trying to balance a desire to not do any harm emotionally but at the same time encourage him to overcome this fear. We decided to not sign up Wesley for any classes this summer and just see how he did on his own. When Shannon suggested Wesley try out the life jacket we had gotten him last summer for use in his uncle's boat, he decided to try it out - albeit with me glued to his side. After an afternoon of getting used to it, the life jacket became his best friend. He wouldn't go in the pool without it, as this freed him up to swim wherever he wanted in the pool. However, he still was terrified of his head going in the water and got very skilled at keeping his head up. During a conversation one day, Wesley told Shannon and I that he would put his head in the water if he had goggles (something he turned down last summer). So we picked up a pair and headed back to the pool. We suggested that he try out his goggles without his life jacket and, after some tentative moments, his fear completely disappeared. Within a half hour, he was like a newly-freed dolphin in the water. Not only was he putting his entire face in the water without hesitation, he was kicking and paddling all over the place in excitement. Now we try to get over to the pool to swim a few times a week, and Wesley loves it. It has definitely increased his confidence in trying new things, which is a very good thing.

Photo by the masterful Adrea.

Stung.

Wesley (4 years old) - 4 bee stings
1 bee sting in our backyard
1 bee sting in our house (bees invaded house thru the oven vent)
1 bee sting at the zoo
1 bee sting at the beach

Julia (2 years old) - 1 bee sting
1 bee sting at her 2nd birthday party in our backyard

And, to complete the picture:
the first 35 years of my life - 0 bee stings
the last 2 years - 2 bee stings in our backyard

Wo Wo Part 2.

Yes, he still likes to do this. Yes, his sister loves it too. No, my back doesn't care for it much.

Snacks.

Considering the amount of Cheerios, pretzels, rice cakes and other snack items I find scattered throughout the floors of our house, I'm fairly certain we could sell our vacuum cleaner bags as snack mix.

Charm.

Whenever Julia walks up to me with a big smile on her face, grabs my hand, chirps "s'go Daddy!" ("let's go Daddy!") and walks me off to wherever she wants to play, I melt. Please don't tell her this.

Carpinteria Fourth.

Family members that have experienced July 4th camping in Carpinteria should appreciate this strip by Richard Thompson.

Julia the Cartoon.

Julia's recently begun doing something very amusing, although I don't have any idea as to where she picked it up from. When asked a question, she'll mutter "hmm" and tap her chin with her index finger. As far as I know, no one outside of a cartoon (it is a staple expression there) has genuinely done the finger-tapping-on-the-chin-while-thinking thing in over 50 years, so I have no idea where she got this from. And no, she didn't get it from me, because my kids have neither a clue nor the interest in what I do while I'm away all day at work.

Mickey and Minnie.

So we went back to the pet store to purchase a new fish for Wesley and brought home two (one for Julia). They settled on the names Mickey and Minnie (I know - Shannon is completely in their heads now). When we had to leave to go camping in Carpinteria a week or so later, I purchased a fish feeder "biscuit" that supposedly releases food over time. We returned a couple days later to find Minnie and a deceased Mickey. Note to self: no more feeder biscuits. I quickly removed Mickey, placed the fish bowl in a place to obscure Wesley's view and waited until nap time to rush back to the pet store and find the best match for Mickey I could find. I found one and Wesley was none the wiser when he visited the fish after his nap. Crisis averted.

R.I.P. James the Goldfish.

Our family lost our first pet yesterday morning. Alas, it was only a goldfish, but it was Wesley's first pet. And unfortunately he took it pretty hard when we told him this morning. After we sat and talked with Wesley a little, he decided he wanted to go downstairs to see the empty goldfish bowl. A few minutes passed and he didn't come back or respond to our calls, so I went to look for him. I found Wesley silently standing at the bottom of the stairs with eyes big as saucers and an enormous frown on his face. My heart shattered as he started bawling. The rest of the day was mostly a series of questions about James and death coming in the middle of unrelated conversations. Yes, for Wesley to lose a "friend" he saw on a daily basis has been hard.

Princess Music.

Whenever our family gets into the car, there is a fairly good chance that a disagreement will arise over the choice of music we listen to. Both Wesley and Julia like Disney music, so Shannon keeps the car well-stocked in that regard. But recently Julia has begun to describe any Disney music with female vocals as "princess music." And while Wesley has always liked Disney music, the description of songs he likes as "princess music" is too much for him to take. As a result Wesley no longer likes to listen to "princess music." A few days ago, we were getting into the car when Julia immediately requested "princess music." Wesley vehemently protested, but was told he'd have to wait until Julia's song was over before he got to choose a song. Wesley was visibly stewing as Julia's music played in the car. At that point Julia looked over at Wesley, smiled, and started singing at the top of her lungs along with the "princess music." Intentional or not, she was clearly rubbing it in and it made me laugh out loud. Fortunately, Wesley began to laugh as well, although I'm not entirely sure he knew why.