London is growing up

When Todd and I were kids we spent a lot of time with my cousins, who lived on a farm in southwest Kansas. We did farm work most days and spent our downtime engaging in serious goofing off, of the kind that can only happen when four boys have the run of a huge farm complete with a pond, a barn with a hayloft, several outbuildings, an immense yard, a million trees, and corn fields on all sides.

One of our favorite indoor activities was to set up some track for our Hot Wheels cars. Michael and Stanley (our cousins) had about 20 feet of orange track that snapped together in various lengths. We would clamp one end of the track to the tallest shelf we could reach and make a sort of ski-jump style ramp, which could send a Hot Wheels car flying clear across the room. Honestly, I'm not even sure what else you would want to do with the track; surely making huge jump ramps is the only worthwhile application.


The other day I was at Target with Tiny and I found that the folks at Hot Wheels evidently agree. This ski-jump style ramp setup goes over the top of a door and can easily send a car 15-20 feet, depending on the angle of the ramp. The first time we set it up we left it up for almost two weeks. We usually go out of the garage so we hardly ever use the front door, and when we did open it the ramp just moved with the door.

The real kicker is that the whole setup cost ten bucks. Man, talk about your great deals.


London has been doing more for himself lately, like trying to take his shirt off. He's almost got the idea. And he definitely has a cool shirt.


The other day we were playing in his bedroom and he grabbed a book, hopped up in this chair, and said that he was going to read to Daddy. Vicki came to find us while he was reading to me so I had her get the camera and slide it across the floor to me. It was pretty darn sweet. London had one of his picture books and he was pointing to each of the pictures and telling me what it was. We've got a two-year-old who like fruits and vegetables and wants to read to us, so I guess we're doing something right.


Time for some news on London's words:

I wanna be footbare yike Daddy.

Take off my sandal so I can be foot. BARE!

(After trying Vicki's bran cereal, points at a spoonful of his Cinnamon Toast Crunch)
This cereal? Is good!

London (with stacking boxes): Box!
Miss Bevelry (actually Miss Beverly, his daycare provider): Oh, that's wonderful.
London (assertively): Let's play with it!

Pry-rets (pirates)

Sun is closed. (after the sun goes down at night)

Sock is broken. (when one of his socks is coming off)

Car is upside down. (after seeing that I had backed one of our cars into the garage)

It's a Thomas about movie.

My sherdouls (shoulders, scrambled)

mushed ash (moustache)

fumb (thumb)

sumping (something)

Get a piece of cheese and pour some crackers on it. (We realized that London only saw more than one kind of food being combined when we pour milk on his cereal. So for him, pouring one thing on another isn't just one kind of combining food, it's the only kind.)

Did you remember about space?

It went befront of me. (about a Hot Wheels car)

Whammler (whammer)

Those are turtles. Those are Uncle Ryan's turtles!

rest-naunt (restaurant)

tor-da-duss (tortoise)

I'll fly away

Vicki's little brother, Matt Cooper, died in his sleep a few weeks ago, at the age of 29.

It still catches me by surprise when I remember it. Matt was one of my best friends and although my head knows that he no longer here, my heart is having a hard time accepting it. It is especially hard because London looks so much like Matt did when he was little. Matt and London didn't have a huge amount of time together, but they both enjoyed what time they did have. Matt taught London to say, "BOWMP-BOWMP -- chicka-chicka -- Oooooh Yeeeeaaaah!" and London still runs around saying it and asking about Uncle Matt.

What can I tell him? It's not like I understand it myself. Matt is in the arms of God but I still have to get through the rest of this life without him.

Godspeed, my brother. I will see you again.