Zip it

There are certain things in a boys life that are in essence a right of passage. As a father, I try to warn Apollo about some of these events when they become age appropriate. It is inevitable that these things will come to pass, and I feel I can lessen the blow by forewarning my boys. This is one such story.
  ~Apollo, when you stumble across this story as a teenager, you will probably be very upset. With a few years of therapy and when you reach your mid to late twenties, hopefully you will forgive me for sharing this.~

  It was a dark and not so stormy night. By his mood, I could tell that Apollo was extra tired. Everything was a travesty. It had been a long day for him; up early, no naps, and full of running and playing. When he gets to this stage, we have learned that the best thing to do, is get him into bed. It was 8:30pm, and normally, this is early for him, but the symptoms told a different story. I took Apollo to his room, and he had brought along with him, his mothers’ Ipad. He was playing a game on it. I asked him to get into his “jammies”, which he did begrudgingly not wanting to stop in the middle of his game.

   It is important to note that Apollo’s pajamas are the full body type with the feet built into them. Apollo never liked these type of pajamas when he was younger. He hated to have his feet covered up. Consequently, we have never put him in these type of pj’s before. I guess that after watching Orion wear the “foot Jammies” every night for so long has changed Apollo’s mind. On a recent trip to Costco, Apollo spotted some “foot Jammies” in his size. “I want these!” he proclaimed with excitement. Wouldn’t you know it, he loves them. Having only two pairs, he is upset when both pairs are dirty and has to wear regular pajamas.

  Once Apollo had his jammies on, he started to play his game again. “Apollo, you need to go use the bathroom before you go to bed,” I told him. Okay, truth be told, I am not that formal with him. That is how Melanie would like me to talk to our boys. In reality I said, “Apollo, you need to go empty your ding-ding.” (Yes, “ding-ding” is what we call...it.) “My ding-ding is NOT full!” Apollo protested. “You need to go and try to empty it anyways. We are going to bed, so you need to at least try,” I replied. After a few minutes of Apollo debating with me, even to the point of almost breaking down in tears, he admitted that he thought Orion, would steal the ipad if he left it in the room. “Then take it with you, Apollo,” I reassured him. Off he went to the restroom, which happens to be right next to his room, with ipad in hand. The door closes. In the meantime, I am wrestling around with Orion on the bed, waiting for Apollo to return. About two minutes had lapsed, and then I hear Apollo yell out in distress, and can hear him jumping up and down. No words, just crying out. This is not unusually, for Apollo if he is extremely tired. The smallest mishap turns into a giant one. What popped into my mind at that moment is that he dropped his moms, ipad in the toilet, and was so upset that he couldn’t think to grab it and pull it out. I am also thinking about the wrath that Melanie will unleash upon me when she finds out that I allowed her ipad to get ruined.

  I race to the bathroom door, grab the handle and burst inside. I scan the room for the ipad, all the while Apollo is jumping up and down wailing. I spot the ipad on the counter, safe and dry. Perplexed, I turn to Apollo, “What, what, what!” Still jumping up and down and a look of horror on his face, Apollo brings his right hand around to his stomach level, and points down urgently. I then realize that his jammies are open and zipped up to his ding-ding, where he caught some skin! “Ouch! Okay, hold still!” quickly grabbing the fabric of this pajamas, and the zipper, and with a light tug, he was free. I zipped him up properly, and scooped up my defeated little man, who crumpled onto my shoulder, and carried him to his room to console him.

  The thing is, I have been warning Apollo for over a year, that that this would happen, and he needed to exercise caution when “zipping up”. I did not offer him an “I told you so,” Just held him while he whimpered and told him that he would be okay. I told him that I did this several times when I was his age and that back then, the zippers were all made of metal and did some real damage. Apollo escaped unscathed, with only his pride damaged.

  As Melanie was not at home when this occurred, I forgot to tell her about it that night. A couple days later, I remembered the incident and began to tell her about it while Apollo was in the room with us. “Oh Apollo, I am so sorry that happened to you. Dada told you that this would happen someday,” Melanie said empathetically to Apollo, “It must have been scary for you, huh?”

Apollo turned towards me.

“Zip it, dada! I don’t want to talk about it!” he snapped.

January Friends

 The echoing sound of songbirds squabbling as they dart in and out of the palm trees, bounce off the concrete buildings and asphalt pavement beneath my feet, as I step out of my work truck. If I close my eyes for a moment, I am far away from here... from where I am standing. If only for a second, it is magic. I block out everything else but the sweet melody of those dozen or so, feathered messengers promising that spring time is just around the corner. It is music to my ears; a momentary transcendence from the urban sprawl and sound of cars passing by on the nearby 101 freeway. I open my eyes and find K-mart standing before me. The usual "riff-raff" standing out front, a homeless man sprawled across the sidewalk warming himself in the late morning sun, and the occasional car racing through the parking lot in a hurry to go nowhere. I take a deep breath, hold it in for a moment, and let it out with a sigh, then head across the parking lot.
  Obviously the birds are completely unaffected by their surroundings. I wish I could say the same. I hurry in and out of the store and find that I am mildly irritated at the otherwise uneventful experience. I am not sure if it was the 40% higher price that I had to pay for the item that I needed, the slow moving cashier, or the solemn demeanor of the store employees. Needless to say, I was glad to be out of there and on my way. If not for the store's proximity to my work and the occasional urgent need of my daycare providing spouse in distress, I would avoid this place altogether.

 The day wears on and fades into night, and Apollo and Orion's voice have been reduced to slow and rhythmic slumbering breath, my mind returns to those birds. So excited, vibrant, playful and happy they were.  It reminded me of Apollo and Orion; playing carelessly, and not a worry in the world to trouble their  little minds. They feel safe. They know they are taken care of and every concern they have revolves around what they are feeling at a particular moment. They are not plagued by the daily news, or the burdens of paying bills, juggling finances, career, and family. It would be nice to be that carefree again, and I believe I would be much closer to a carefree state if it were not for my amazing boys. They are the reason I keep doing everything that I do. The pay off is that I get to watch them grow, and I get to be reckless and carefree through them.

  Orion has become quite expressive, when he is not smiling that is. He has a scowl that rivals that of his mother's. He stomps his foot when he is mad, and in cases of extreme discontent, he throws himself to the floor and has a few moves that resemble break dancing! (Foreshadowing the terrible 2's, I assume). But most of the time, he is happy and full of energy. Orion has a strange relationship with our dog Remi. He is the only kid, under 10 years of age, that can get Remi to play with him enthusiastically. Remi turns his nose up at other kids, including Apollo, but for some reason, Orion has the body language that illicit's a response in Remi that sends him into doggie manic mode. As Remi is an only dog now,  he has become selective in what foods he will eat from the floor or from a persons hands. If its not cheese, meat, or meat flavored he is not interested. But for some reason, he will eat all kinds of things that Orion offers him. He will eat a whole pack of graham-crackers, one bite at a time when fed by Orion, but I can offer him a graham-cracker at the same time and Remi will turn his nose up at me. The irony is that Orion is rough on Remi. He is not gentle like Apollo is. He pulls his hair, smacks him, and even lays on top of him and pulls his whiskers. Remi growls, and at times will give Orion a little nibble to back him down. But, as soon as food is involved, the two of them are best friends again.

 Orion continues to amaze us with what he comprehends and how he communicates his needs. He will do simple tasks that are asked of him because he understands what is being asked. My new favorite words that he has learned this month so far are, 'noodles' and 'Apollo.'
Orion moment of the week: While signing for milk, he says, "I wan' mull!" (I want milk). I do as ordered, pour milk in a sippy cup and slide it across the counter to Orion. A scowl forms across his brow, he shakes his head slightly from side-to-side, "No!...Cocow!" he demands, pushing his cup back to me. Cocow=Chocolate.

   I love the stages that both boys are at, but the fact that Apollo is now capable of carrying on long conversations which adds a new level to our relationship. He wants to know about everything, and has a great memory, but it is the drama and random comments that keep me laughing.
 With an extremely serious look on his face, and an 'official' tone to his voice, Apollo cocks his head to one side and says, "Dada, Xavier's house and school are both broken, so he wont be coming back to our house for a while."
I begin to chuckle, "what?" I ask wondering where this is leading.

"Dada, I'm serious, so you can't laugh, okay?" shaking his slightly cocked head slowly from side-to-side but keeping his eyes locked with mine, "you cant laugh. It's very serious."

"Okay," I agreed, fighting back the laughter, then excused myself to the next room so I could burst into laughter. Of course none of what he said was true. It was just a random story concocted by his friend, Xavier, but Apollo was so sincere because he truly believed he wouldn't see his friend for a while.
 Apollo moment of the week: On a recent after hours trip to my office, Apollo was asking me about my two computer screens and what was on each one and why. I was busy doing something and when I turned around, he was entering numbers into a spread sheet. "What are you doing Apollo?" I enquired. Apollo replied very matter-of-factly "I'm making money."

The Alpha and Omega

 It has been three years since I started this blog. A lot has changed in that time. I started the blog as a way to share my experiences from my perspective raising Apollo, with my family and friends. At that time, I never thought there would be an Orion. One kid was more than enough for me and I never expected that to change, yet here we are with another little miracle turning our lives upside down.
  I originally named the blog Apple G after the name that Apollo was calling himself at 20 months old. It has come time to rename the blog to honor both Apollo and Orion since Orion has unexpectedly joined our little family and has graced the pages of my blog for 2 years now (pregnancy included).

  To understand the new name for the blog, Alpha and Omega, let me explain how we picked the names, Apollo and Orion. When picking a name for Apollo before he was born, we wanted a Greek name to pay homage to my Greek heritage. It was hard to pick between traditional Greek names, and family Greek names. We wanted a name that would stand out but not be too strange. Greek mythology was the key; we found the name Apollo, and it was perfect.
  When Orion came along and we learned that we were having another boy, we decided that we would need to find another name with the same parameters that would go along with Apollo. After all, we couldn't have Ian, Aden, Apollo, and Steve ( or Phil, or Mike, or Dave.) As all three older boys had vowels for their first letter of their names, it seemed only natural that we would need another name that started with a vowel as well.

When we came across the name Orion, it was equally as perfect. It came from Greek mythology, had the same amount of syllables as Apollo, started with a vowel, and since Apollo was my firstborn and Orion would be my last, they aligned themselves with the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet; Alpha and Omega. It may sound a little silly, but these are actually all the things we considered in picking Orion's name.
                     ~
  So here it is, 2013; new blog title, new adventures and new beginnings. 2012 was a pivotal year for us. We started the year thinking that we may pick up and move again.
As the year unfolded, we decided to stick around until at least Ian and Aden were out of high school, and look for new and creative ways to change some of the things that made us think about moving in the first place while taking advantage of where we live. As we go forward, I will shed some light on our newest quest as they begin to unfold.

 We closed out 2012 with a camping trip to the coast to celebrate our 8 year anniversary and at the same time reflect on the year that ended and talk about the year to come. With a new perspective, new adventures, and amazing children that shape each and everyday, we welcome the new year with open arms.
Happy New Year!

A perfect Christmas eve

  I must admit that I love Christmas. I always have. I can still remember the magic and excitement that I felt as a young child. It was nearly unbearable on Christmas eve and in the predawn hours of Christmas day as my brother and I snooped around the tree to see what presents Santa had left for us. The world seemed so much simpler then. I can still close my eyes and see the house I grew up in like it was yesterday; Avocado green paint, wood shingled roof, and red brick accents. Multi-colored Christmas lights line the roof, and a white plastic, lighted nativity set sits under the eaves of a dormer over the living room. A painted plywood Santa with his green toy sack slung over his shoulder is attached to the chimney. It seemed that nearly every house had Christmas lights on them back in those days. Four decades have passed since my earliest memories of Christmas, some of them are still very vivid. They world has changed a lot since then. Its not as innocent as it once was, and everyone is trying to be politically correct these days so as not to offend someone; "Merry Christmas" has become "Happy Holidays," Christmas vacation has become winter break, and so on.

  Still, we try to share the magic of Christmas with our children. Apollo is old enough that he gets really excited for Christmas now, Santa Claus aside. He has no love for Santa. He finds him scary and only wants Santa's reindeer to bring him presents. This sets the stage for a month of teasing and joking about going to see Santa or moving to Christmas. "I will only go and see Santa if he has Rudolph with him!" he proclaims.
  Apollo is an incredible negotiator. He will try to negotiate his way out of his annual Santa picture. This year, he has decided that he wont be afraid of Santa when he is 10, but if we didn't make him go see Santa this year, then he would agree to go see him when he was 7 or 8. "You can go see Santa for me and tell him what I want for Christmas, dada."
  Orion is still too young to be affected by Christmas in any way, but he does enjoy a good party especially when it involves ripping open packages.

  This was the first year that we didn't spend Christmas with extended family. We chose to stay home with just our kids, and we had no family over. It was actually quite nice. We took Apollo and Orion on a Christmas eve tour of the neighborhood to look at all the Christmas lights and decorations. We decorated our bikes and the bike trailer with battery powered lights, bundled up the kids and headed out into the brisk winter air. Yes, I said brisk, and at 45°, that is brisk for Santa Rosa :).  Upon returning home, Melanie made hot chocolate and served them with candy canes. Orion fell to sleep soon after, and Apollo and I curled up on the couch together and watched Polar Express. About half way through the movie, Apollo's eyes grew heavy and he drifted off to sleep. It was a perfect Christmas eve.

800 days

It's official! Melanie has informed me that Apollo is by far the naughtiest child that she has ever had...I couldn't be prouder! That means that my genes coupled with my parenting skills are paying off!!
  I do need to clarify a bit though; it's not that he is a bad kid, he is just very commanding, demanding, and passionate about his opinions, thoughts, and feelings. He can be a handful at times and may need to be brought back down to reality, however, he really is an awesome kid with a wild imagination. But instead of running with the naughtiest kid in the world theme, I want to tell you one of Apollo's more endearing sides and leave the funny stories for another day.
  I can honestly say that Apollo looks forward to spending as much time as he can with me. Every night at bed time, without fail, Apollo asks me, "Are you going to be here in the morning?"
 My usual answer is, "No, I have to work in the morning."
 "Aaaaaaawe, I wanted you to be here in the morning when I wake up," he will reply in disappointment.
  Apollo had worked out the details on how I could stay home with him. He would often say something like, "I want mama to go to work  so you can stay home with me."
   Dont take that statement to mean that Apollo doesn't like to hang out with his mom, because he really does like hanging out with her, he just doesn't get to hang out with his dad as much as he would like. And lets face it, I am the fun one and mama is the disciplinarian.
   I usually respond to Apollo by telling him that I need to go to work so I can pay for our house, cars, food, bills, camping and other fun things. One night I explained to Apollo that his mama needs to stay home so she can take care of Mungie, wash our clothes, make us nice things to eat, and just to take care of all of us so we have a nice place to live. I also told him that his mama couldn't make as much money as I do right now, and that I couldn't do as good of a job taking care of all of us as his mama does. Apollo thought about this for a bit and then replied, "I want brothers (Ian and Aden) to go to work so they can make money for you, so you can stay home with me." Yes, Apollo is a genius, and wise beyond his years...now if only I can convince the brothers!

   I have begun to tell Apollo how many more days until the weekend. "I have to go to work for 3 more mornings", I will tell him. "And then what?" he will reply with excitement building in his voice. "Then I get to stay home for two mornings." I answer. Apollo usually giggles with excitement.
  A few weeks ago Ian started a new job. We were all seated around the table having dinner and Ian was telling us about his first day at work. Apollo listened intently and leaned over to me and asked in a whisper, "Does Ian have a job now?" "Yes he does." I responded with out really thinking about where he was going with his question. "Are you kidding me!?," he reeled with excitement, "are you going to stay home with me now!" Unfortunately, I had to let Apollo down. He doesn't understand why his brother isn't going to be paying my bills so I can stay home with him. He feels that it his brothers responsibility to do that for us. (Like I said, wise beyond his years!)
  Apollo's requests and pleadings for me not to go to work have now turned into a definitive length of time. I am now continually told, "Dada, I just want you to stay home with me for 800 days. Then I will let you go back to work." (Tempting...very tempting!)

               ~

  The days are short now and the nights are long. The fall colored leaves in the vineyards have begun to drop and the green grasses have crept up covering the brown earth beneath the vines. The hills here have transformed into vibrant greens as the rains have breathed new life into them. Every season here has a beautiful color pallet, and winter is no exception. But instead of white snow and barren trees, we have green grasses and emerging flowers. Daffodils are starting to make a show along with  some of the earlier pink blooming magnolia trees. Winter is more of a 'pre-spring' in wine country.
   Orion is doing some transforming of his own. He is picking up many words and phrases. Although many of his words are not yet very clear, we understand what he is saying pretty easily, and we are surprised everyday by what he can say; "Mmm-light" he will say while pointing at the light switch. "Mmm-poop" while grabbing his crotch, means 'Change my diaper!' Not sure why he likes to put "mmm" in front of those words, but its pretty cute. His favorite color is blue and he likes anything that is blue. "I want blue", while pointing at a blue toy.

He will also point at anything blue that he sees and say, "Blue".  After spending too much time in the store on Saturday, Orion became restless and agitated. While in the middle of whining, I saw the 'a-ha' moment on his face. He had made the connection in his little brain on what he needed to say to get his point across; "Lets go."
  I was caught off guard and I thought to myself, 'he didn't just say that.' "What did you say Mungie?" I asked. "Let's go," he said, "Let's go."
 On top of his ability to communicate, Orion understands so much. We can ask him to go and do many things and he will run off and do them; "Take this to mama,"  "Go wake up brothers," "Bring me that toy". Orion also loves to get involved with the the chores, and will be the first (and only) kid in our house to jump in and offer to help out. He will often be right along side his mom helping to sweep, pick up toys, or washing dishes, or will even help in the yard by raking and picking up leaves.
  Our biggest fear with Orion is that he is a danger to himself because he is absolutely fearless. He climbs on top of everything and is unbelievably resourceful in finding and moving objects around to use to climb on top of things he cant reach while standing on the floor. We have to constantly move and hide things to keep him safe. At the same time we do not want to hold him back completely. We allow him to climb on things while supervised. We also use the opportunity to tell him when something is not safe to climb on and will offer him another place to climb instead. One night a few weeks back, I was sitting on the foot of Apollo's bed near the dresser. Orion entered the room, pulled out the bottom drawer of the dresser, stepped up on it and proceeded to climb up on top of the dresser. Once on top, he did his usual inspection of all the objects sitting on the dresser, and threw all the ones he did not like onto the floor. Once he was done he stood up, turned around, gave me his mischievous smile, and then leapt without warning from the top of the dresser, right towards me. I got an instant rush of adrenaline and quickly threw my arms up and caught him. This has become a daily game now and solidifies the fact that Orion is an adrenaline junkie.

  

Giving Thanks

 The midday sky is boiling with an unsettled pallet of grey and silver hues. Although raindrops have taken a moment to stop falling, the light breeze shakes the leaves of the trees that line the street causing drops of water to rain down from their canopy. Some of the trees explode out of the background in brilliant reds and gold. The contrast of the surrounding greenery and dark grey sky, makes the fall spectacle of these trees even more stunning. The street is all but deserted as I walk down the middle of the road, wishing I could spend the day in this moment. Still, I was on an errand for my work and could only linger for a short time before heading back to my office.

  It is not that this place I found myself in was any more special than anywhere else around here, it is that I found a moment in time that was beautiful and peaceful; a rare treat these days as a father of two young boys. Moments like this are so rare at this point in my life. Not for lack of want, we certainly make a concerted effort to get out and enjoy the beauty that surrounds us where we live, but honestly, children are chaos! Long gone are the days of a quiet, peaceful hike where all you hear is the sound of the nature around you.   Instead you get a constant stream of questions, usually along the lines of where we are going and why, along with statements like, "I'm hungry", or "I'm thirsty".
 Nor can you lay down in the sand on the beach with your eyes closed feeling the warmth of the sun and listening to the sound of the waves. It is non-stop chasing kids, keeping them out of the surf and off of the rocks.
  This is parenthood...and I would not give it up for anything. There is a great payoff to all the sacrifices and such a deep connection with your children that I would have never known were it not for them.
                                                                                 ~
Orion, being just shy of 16 months, has a knack for being able to communicate beyond his ability to use words. Although he can say words and simple sentences, he has had to develop his own style of forming words and sounds. Example; "I want this" started out as "I UNTthisss".  "UNT" was an ascending, loud shrill which tapered off into "this", which had a few extra s's on the end. He has begun to annunciate better now, and the shrill sound is going away. "I want this" has also become "I want milk","I want juice."and "I want down."
   On Thanksgiving day, we were caught off guard by Orion's ability to convey his desires. Orion had his first taste of Martinelli's sparkling apple juice. He climbed up on the table after spying a bottle of his new favorite juice, sitting right in front of Melanie. "I want juice... I want juice...I want juice." he said over and over pointing at the Martinelli's. "Yeah, thats juice," Melanie said in an effort to pacify him, but since she did not offer Orion any of this delicious nectar, Orions plea's became more desperate; "I want juice!" he proclaimed, pointing at the juice and then pointing at his chest, over and over again. It was adorable and he certainly made his point.

   Apollo makes me laugh all the time. He acts goofy and comes up with off the wall things that he says or does. I know I focus on how funny he is quite often in my blog, but he is such a bright young man as well. He has a fascination with rockets, stars, planets, and all things space. Apollo has a pretty wild imagination too, and loves to make up his own stories. Melanie reads a lot of stories with both boys, and although I am not as consistent with the reading, I do like to encourage Apollo to use his imagination. I will lie in bed next to him, we will close our eyes and tell eachother stories that we have made up. I encourage him to picture in his mind, the characters and describe what they look like. The resulting stories and visualizations are fun for both of us. There are times that Apollo will come up with something that totally surprises me. Last night, we took a trip via rocket that had guns in the fins to shoot asteroids, to Jupiter. Apollo Told me that Jupiter has no solid surface to stand on so we had to land on one of the moons. I was impressed that he listened to and retained this kind of information, but was mildly shocked that he put together that Jupiters moons had a solid surface that we could land on. One thing left me a bit perplexed though; In Apollo's story, after we landed on one of Jupiters moons, he paused for a minute, and said, "Dada, it takes a long time to get to the planets by rocket. If we wanted to get home fast, we can just take the water tubes."
"Water tubes?" I asked.
"Yeah, there are watertubes that connect all the planets. They are just invisible and you have to know where to find them, but they can take you back to earth really fast," he replied.
It sounds to me like he was talking about worm holes as envisioned by a child, but I have no idea how he came up with that. I thought it was pretty creative and also very insightful for a 4-year-old that has never heard of physics or general relativity. Maybe we have a future scientist or sci-fi writer on our hands.
                                                                   ~
 In this season of thanks, I would be remiss if I did not offer up what it is in my life that I am thankful for:
   I am thankful my children and all the love and laughter they show me. They are extraordinary to me in every way. I am thankful for my beautiful wife. She keeps all of us in line and takes great care of us and loves us unconditionally. We would be lost without her. I am thankful that my family is healthy, especially Apollo and Orion at their young age. I am thankful for every breath that fills their lungs, every step that they take, every word that they speak, every noise that they make.
  I am thankful for the adventures that Apollo and Orion share with me; it has made this life much more interesting.
  

Fevers and contempt

 The cold and flu season...what a fabulous time of year with young children. We have just reached the end of a ten day run of severe colds between Apollo and Orion. Two and a half days of high fevers followed by cough, congestion, runny noses. This all equals very little sleep for Melanie and I. Some how, I seem to end up in Apollo's room with the sicker of the two boys.
  I don't mind really, and Melanie often has a valid reason (valid to her anyways) why I should have the sickest kid. There is something about the heat that their little bodies put off, especially if it is a cool night. They snuggle up against you because the feel cold and you are more than happy to hold them against you to keep yourself warm. It is like the warmth of the morning sun falling upon your face through a window. They are not sweaty, just very warm to the touch. Something I never noticed until Apollo and Orion is that the fever seems to travel all over their bodies. Typically, it starts at their  head and then moves downward. The funny thing is that it seems to migrate all around as if it is a moving mass of heat. First the back is raging hot, then maybe the chest or stomach, then possibly returning to the back and then perhaps out to the legs and arms. I know it sounds bizarre but this has been my experience with both boys. They may be hot all over, but the intensity of the heat is different from one place to another.      

We try to let the fevers run their course with out intervening unless they get too hot or the fever last more than a couple days. I know that the body is doing what it needs to get over the virus and build its immunity, but it is hard to watch them be so sick. All is well now. Both boys survived and have returned to their rotten old selves.
                    ~
  It is hard to express in words how much joy your small children can bring into your life. Orion is incredibly sweet and charming (when he is not sick) and has so much personality.  He can disarm even the foulest mood with his adorable smile and facial expressions. The feeling that he pulls up inside, I can only equate to that of a new puppy the first few days after you bring him home; it is something about their appearance and the way they move that just melts your heart, and the way they look at you like you are their whole world, causes you to surrender yourselves to them and cater to their every need.
  Orion is very playful, and wants to try everything the bigger kids are doing. He loves cars and trucks in much the way that Apollo does, however, Orion really enjoys ball sports more than Apollo does, or did at the same age. He will kick a ball all around the house especially if you are kicking it with him. If he can pick the ball up, he will throw it. He will throw anything and everything for that matter; phones, tv remotes, apples, cups, etc.. Orion is very bright and aware for his age and often surprises us with what he knows and what he has figured out for himself. He has discovered how to unlock my iPhone, find the music icon, press it and upon it opening up he will press the small arrow that starts the music playing.    


 He has been doing this for a while and I have told Melanie about it several times, yet I don't think she really believed me until we both watched as Orion grabbed her iPad and did the exact same thing, except in this case, the first icon he opened up was iTunes since the iTunes and music icon both have music symbols on them. Once opened, he realized that this was not what he was looking for, closed the app, found the correct icon, opened it up and pressed play. Orion is intrigued by electronics. TV remotes and phones are his favorite and we have a tough time keeping his hands off of them. His newest trick is to grab the house phone and call random numbers that are stored in the menu...yes, he has been prank calling our family and friends.

Out of the two boys, Orion is definitely the more social of the two. He likes big groups of people and is not intimidated in the least by a room full of kids. Apollo on the other hand, would much rather interact with one or two kids at a time and will get noticeable upset if there are too many kids in a situation that he wants to be a part of.
  Apollo likes to be private about things, from using the restroom, to getting hurt or in trouble or even when praised; "Don't tell mama about my owee.", "I don't want you to say 'Good Job' if I get it right.", "I don't want you to watch me take a bite."
  It is a curious stage and while we placate him most times, we have had to be creative to find ways for him to work through some of this behavior by encouraging 'bravery' and rewarding his actions with a toned down version of "Good Job!".
  As a father I take great joy in all the little phases that my sons go through. I enjoy watching them grow and shape their personalities into the people they will become as adults. There is always those behaviors that as a parent, you find less desirable. With Apollo, our biggest
challenge is encouraging him to be nice to his brother all the time. Apollo does not like the fact that he has to share everyone and everything with Orion now. Don't get me wrong, Apollo can be very sweet to Orion, and will often play with him and make him laugh into hysterics, but he has a hard time watching Orion play with a toy other than the one Apollo gave him, and he has an even harder time watching any of his top three people (myself, Melanie, and yiayia) holding, playing, or interacting with Orion.
 "That's MY dada!" Apollo will protest while pushing Orion away. "I don't like to share my dada!"
"Apollo," I will reply, "I am Orion's dada, too."
"No your not." he refutes.
"If I am not his dada, who is?" I will reason.
"Well, I think Pablo (our green winged macaw) is his dada...he was hatched from an egg."
  Ah yes, the mind of a 4-year-old; so imaginative.

Apollo knows how to manipulate me, I will confess, and not necessarily in a bad way. He just appeals to my juvenile sense of humor. He will do things just to make me laugh, which is often in public and much to Melanie's horror. I can not help but break into laughter, which I know eggs him on, but as I see it, you only live once and may as well enjoy every moment that I can while my kids are still young. It all is going by way too fast. Even here at the house, Apollo finds things to do that Melanie finds appalling and I find hilarious. I love when Apollo heads out the back door and says "I'm going to water my chickens." In moments I find him at the edge of the patio with his pants around his ankles, and an arc of urine raining down on his chickens.
The chickens try to scatter in all directions, tripping over each other and running into things while trying to avoid the acid rain.  Of course at this point I am in tears from laughing so hard. Observing the chickens race from the scene, Apollo will very mater-of-factly state, "Rhodie is my fastest chicken, she is even faster than Dash."

  Even with all of his naughtiness, and contempt for his little brother, Apollo has moments of clarity where he can express exactly what he is feeling and what he needs. One of my favorite of these moments is when he feels Orion has had more attention than he deserves, Apollo will grab my hands look me in the eyes and say,  "I need some dada time."