The Brookston Family Blog
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Porter had so much fun taking the photos in the mirror with the camera’s self-timer that he asked to do it again the next day. These are some of the results.

Porter jumping on the bed.

Jumping as the styrofoam space shuttle launches overhead.

Falling backward while the shuttle flies.

Coming in for a landing.

Sarah’s little brother Dave’s birthday is today. He and his family were living in Texas for the last few years but last fall happily moved back to the Bay Area. It’s great seeing much more of Dave and his family and its particularly fun watching the cousins play together and develop closer relationships.

Dave during his Star Trek years.

With Porter.

Dave, Alice and Julien.

Dave and his Mom, Ruthanne.

Dave with his daughter Lily.

Dave and his family. From left: Lily, Cyndi, Dave, Julien and Amir.

Many of you already know that I host a Photo Scavenger Hunt in connection with my Photoblog. Each week I announce an object that you must “find” with your camera and then post it on your photoblog. Then you post a link to it on the scavenger hunt page and you get points in various ways for your photographs. It’s been a lot of fun and I’ve met some wonderful people around the world through the scavenger hunt. We just started a new season a few weeks ago and other players are suggesting each week’s hunt item, so even I don’t know what they’re going to be. Last week it was a reflection. We have a big mirror in our bedroom that covers both doors of our closet. So I set up my camera on a tripod and using the self-timer to shot my reflection. But the kids kept wanting to get into the act and frankly that worked out much better. I ended up using one with Alice but there were a lot of them that turned out pretty well so I thought I’d share some of them here. Porter really got into it and loved waiting for the click to jump on the bed, it was like a game to him.

Waving at myself.

Tossing Alice in the air.

Swinging Alice. I really liked this one but it didn’t show enough of the reflection.

This one showed more of the reflection.

Porter jumping on the bed.

Porter was laughing himself silly.

Sarah getting into the act.

Jumping onto the bed.

Saturday the family plus Grandma went to the Butter & Egg Days Parade in Petaluma. We sat on the curb and watched the parade for a little over an hour. Alice had a blast. Porter liked some of the stuff in the parade but got bored here and there. But it was still fun to watch him react to the different weird paraders. He loved seeing the horses and other animals. He also liked the tractors and trucks.

Grandma and Porter walk hand in hand to the parade.

Alice and Sarah sitting on the curb watching the parade.

Porter sees something, what is it?

A Llama! (Said in a high-pitched Monty Python voice)

Alice standing up to get a better view.

Of the chicken people.

“Oh my god, what is that?”

“It’s one of theose hybrid trucks. Half truck, half chicken.”

Sarah and the kids at the parade.

Last week Porter came home with a Lego airplane. He was very excited to have me build it for him. He watched excitedly as I put each piece together. And to be honest, I had fun, too. I had tons of Legos as a kid and built all kinds of things. But the Lego of today is very different than in my day, back when the dinosaurs still roamed the Earth. My old legos were pretty plain affairs and as such could be used to make virtually anything I could imagine. Today’s Legos all are pretty specifically designed to make just one thing. Taking the airplane as an example, a large majority of the pieces included have but one function and it’s very hard to conceive of what else you could use them for except to build this plane. It’s like it’s a paint-by-number set instead of just paints that could be used to create anything. And that’s the problem, I think. Why are toy company’s making toys that no longer encourage creativity and imagination? As I look around our toy-strewn house, many, many of the toys have one purpose and can do little else. Why? Are unimaginative kids easier to control? Do they do better on assembly lines or in offices where their job is to simply file the correct TPS report? I know I’m becoming a curmudgeon (okay, I already am — beat you to it, Karen) but come on, whatever happened to Lincoln Logs, Erector Sets, Lite Brite, Legos, blocks, Tinker Toys, etc.? I see some toys like them at high end toy shops but certainly not at Toys R Us and their mainstream ilk where I presume the majority of toys are purchased. So what’s going on here? I’ve got a few guesses but they’re pretty political and will further solidify my reputation as a conspiracy nut job. So what do those of you out there think?

The box Porter’s Lego airplane came in.

The completed airplane.

Porter lifting it up, getting ready for take off.

Cleared for take off.

Getting another fake smile, although this one’s much better than the diesel smile.

Oh, and before I forget, don’t get me started on quality of workmanship. I remember Lego pieces fitting pretty tightly together so you had to really work at getting them apart sometimes. This plane falls apart without the slighest provocation. A stiff breeze and it’s in pieces. The shoddy workmanship is just appaling, especially considering how expensive these things are. Porter’s got better than average fine motor skills and he’s breaking it apart accidently constantly. The doors for example, are so precarious that it’s more common for them to fall off when opening or closing them than not. How did that one flaw alone get off the drawing board or at least past the testing stage, let alone all the other weak points in its design? Plus this just runs contrary to common sense. You’d think that if it was designed to be like a puzzle, that is to be build in one shape and that’s it, that it would at least stay together once it is built, wouldn’t you?

The other morning, Porter was in a diesel train mood, and on the walk to the school bus he excitedly explained to me everything you could ever want to know about diesel engines.

Porter pointing out one of the finer points of a diesel engine.

Still working on that fake smile.

Today was Sarah’s sister Margaret’s birthday. Margaret and her husband Don came over for a little cake and ice cream.

The kids watch as Marget prepares to blow out her candle.

Porter can’t resist helping, of course.

Margaret makes her wish.

And offers Porter a chocolate star.

But the kids prefer the white cupcakes.

So much so that Porter goes for seconds.

Porter “helps” Margaret open her present.

Margaret snuggling with Alice.

As Alice decimates a tangerine from the inside out.

Happy birthday Margaret!

At Occupational Therapy last Wednesday, one of Porter’s tasks was to climb up onto a big green rubber ball and then jump down onto a bed of cushions. Needless to say, Porter attacked this one with relish (which is also green).

King of the hill.

Preparing to jump.

Leaping into the sky.

Jumping into the cushions.

Sliding into home.

Here’s a movie of Porter climbing up and jumping off the big green ball at O.T. on Wednesday. You can either download the movie to your desktop or just click on the link to play it in your web browser (assuming your web browser has the quicktime plug-in installed).

While Alice was busy stealing koosh balls, Porter was working on climbing a ladder. He got pretty good at it over time, but Theresa kept making it more challanging by varying the amount of tension she put on the bottom of the ladder to hold it in place. The less tension, the harder it was to climb.

Aliuce makes her escape while Porter climbs.

Having a little trouble half way up.

Starting again from the bottom.

Stuck again, mid-way to the top.

Once he reached the top, Porter would climb into the lycra swing.

Later in Porter’s O.T. session he also spent some time swinging on the trapeze again. You can either download the movie to your desktop or just click on the link to play it in your web browser (assuming your web browser has the quicktime plug-in installed).

Danielle’s birthday party on Tuesday also included a pinata in the shape of a cake. All of the kids lined up to take a turn whacking it three times. But it must have been made of cement, because not only didn’t the kids break into the pinata but none of the adults who tried could break it open either.

Porter’s friend Parker tries his hand at the pinata.

The kids lined up to have a go at the pinata.

Alice whiffs.

Even Danielle’s mother couldn’t break the pinata.

Eventually they broke open the pinata manually so the kids scrambled to scoop up the candy and prizes inside.

Here’s a Quicktime movie of Porter whacking the pinata. As you can see, Porter didn’t stop at three but hit it two extra times. You can either download the movie to your desktop or just click on the link to play it in your web browser (assuming your web browser has the quicktime plug-in installed).

When we arrived at Porter’s Montessori on Tuesday there was a birthday party. It was for Danielle, who is the daughter of one of the instructors at the school. She turned four and they were having a big party. So Alice and I stayed for about an hour rather than ducking out right away, as we often do.

Porter natutrally gravitated toward the cake, like a moth to a flame.

The birthday girl Danielle (in red) examined her cake, with Porter’s friend Parker on the other side of the table.

As usual, Porter manages to get close to the cake action as Danielle prepares to blow out her candles.

While the kids are off playing and the cake has been cut, Alice sneaks back to sample some cake.

“Ummm, cake.”

Alice has the cake table all to herself.

Until finally the rest of the kids join her at the cake table.

Where Porter wolfs down his cake.

And Alice picks at her second piece.

Here’s a Quicktime movie of all the kids singing happy birthday to Danielle. Notice Porter is helping her blow out her candle. You can either download the movie to your desktop or just click on the link to play it in your web browser (assuming your web browser has the quicktime plug-in installed).

We’ve got this small tree outside of our living room window growing in the patch of dirt next to our driveway/parking lot. With all the rain we got over the winter, it’s been blooming like mad this spring. Over the weekend, Porter was admiring it from the window and asked me to go to the tree and pick some flowers for him.

The tree in front of our home. That’s our window in the upper left corner of the photo.

Porter smelling the white flowers from the tree.

Giving me another fake smile.

Shaking the flowers.

After playing outside last Friday, Porter joined his cousin Julien in the playroom to play trains, while Uncle Tuck kept watch over them.

Uncle Tuck referees the boys playing trains.

Jules steers the Polar Express through the tunnel.

But when he gets to the bridge, the tender and coaches uncouple and fall back through the tunnel, where Porter retrieves them.

On Saturday, Uncle Tuck also had a chance to play with Porter outside. They took Porter’s white styrofoam glider out into a sunny but windy day. The glider may not have flown straight, but they had a lot of fun.

Porter and his styrofoam glider.

Getting ready for the first flight.

Taking a runny.

Then rearing back.

And throwing it into the wind, where it proceded to fly up into the air and down the hill about 100 feet or more.

Tuck and Porter walk off into the sunset to retrieve the glider down the hill.

The other night the kids decided to double team me and wrestled me in the snuggle chair. But their were no losers, only winners — unless you count my thinning hair, that’s losing its battle with male pattern baldness. Sheesh.

Porter and Alice double team me.

Alice in a dominating position.

Porter jumps on Alice and holds her head so she can head butt me.

Alice tries to blind me while I fight off Porter.