Dude, Our Solar System is Just One of Those Floaties in a Cosmic Glass of Water

Things are moving pretty fast. Every single day, paola looks different to me. Her movements are more and more intentional. She grasps at food with the intention of putting it into her mouth and not uncontrolably rubbing it in her hair; she grabs toys with the intention of playing with them.

Adolfo IV is such a good kid. I'm falling even more in love with him more and more each day. He wants to play soccer with his daddy, wants to play monopoly, Life, chess, and read books. He loves his sister and affectionately talks jibberish to her. He is pleased when she laughs at him. He reads his own books, and writes his own shopping lists. He loves to get in the water.

It's been a wet few days here in Houston, so today will undoubtedly be a steamy, mosquito-infested mess; although, it is incredibly green around my house. The ferns out front are healthy and bright green. I noticed this morning that a vine had completely taken over my azaleas out front (note to self: remember to pull that out). The backyard is bright green. The jalapeno tree is blooming jalapenos left and right. Every week, i pull maybe 6 off the small plant. The potted avacado is getting taller and taller. I am considering putting it into the ground, but my average for things that go into my ground is not very good. That pine tree that i put out front is still alive but still just as tall as it was when i put it in the ground three years ago.

The banana tree that i put into the ground doesn't seem to be going anywhere. No new leaves, no explosions of banana goodness. I am an impatient man.

Speaking of impatience, carol is chugging away at algebra. Our evening schedule has changed dramatically to accomodate her school. I've got the kids from 7 to bedtime while she attends lab, and then class till 10:30. It's been working out pretty good so far. Carol gets home and feeds paola and then we all sit down to dinner and chat. Adolfo IV tells us about his day at camp and carol and i speed-talk about what happened at work/what needs to get done/etc..
Usually, carol can get in about 20 minutes or so of (warning: PDF) one-on-one play time with adolfo, which he cherishes.

We also had to get her aPC laptop so she could access the class online. I tried desperately to access the pages using Safari, but the site required Active-X control and Internet Explorer (despite the Active-X control plug-in for Firefox). A trip to Best Buy and $399.99 (clearance price) dollars later, we came home with their cheapest wirelessly enabled laptop. I ended up having to jam another gig of RAM ($60) in there to make it usable. She's enjoying it and is eye-ing a crop of Manga stickers for it.

Once she takes off, i usually finish off feeding paola and am able to put her down for a bit while i play with adolfo or get some stuff done around the house. For example, tonight i have to clean up Adolfo's room - he and Cole DESTROYED it over the weekend. It's the price we pay for a little bit of freetime while adolfo is distracted with a friend.

On a less child-centered note: yesterday was Father's Day and was rewarded handsomely for my tireless efforts at fatherhood. My wife got me a 4 burner propane grill! Of course, my first thoughts turned to Bob, who is a charcoal/wood cooker. How am i going to explain this to him? "I didn't buy it, bob! Someone else bought it for me! I swear!"