The Brookston Family Blog
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Tonight’s bath involved more bubbles. We recently picked up some bubble bath with a container that’s shaped like Shrek and Donkey from the movie Shrek, which Porter calls “Shrek bubbles.” I thought they’d produce huge, billowing Mr. Bubble-size bubbles but they’re only slightly more bubbly than our regular baby wash. Anyway, Porter decided it would be fun to make a meal of the bubbles. I tried to instill in him that eating bubbles was “yucky” but all I managed to do was teach Alice a new word. He still kept eating the bubbles.

Porter using one of his bath toys to stuff himself with a mouthful of bubbles.

Bubble-face.

One of the highlights of the playdate today was T.J. and Porter playing “The Crab Game,” which is one that toddlers seem instinctively to know. Every time we come to the Bay Room and there are a group of kids, this game seems to spontaneously erupt and they all seem to know the rules.

First, they start with a full basket of crabs.

After dumping them, they fill up the basket again.

And winch them to the top of the dock.

Once they’re at the top again, they either pick them off and drop them down the metal bucket (which has a false bottom with a tube that transports them back to the bottom of the stairs where they fall out a hole in the wall - think minitaure golf trick hole) or they dump them off the basket wholesale.

Then the process repeats itself. Here Porter uses the winch to lower the basket again while T.J. rushes downstairs to fill the basket again.

Here’s a Quicktime movie of Porter and T.J. dumping crabs, which is a good illustration of the crab game. 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).

Porter had his first official playdate this afternoon with a boy in his class, T.J. We met him and his mother Diana at the Bay Area Discovery Museum after school. The boys had a great time playing together and Alice, of course, had a grand old time, too. I think it was an unqualified success. When we got back to the car and I was strapping Porter into his car seat, he told me “I love T.J.,” which was very sweet.

First stop, naturally, was the Bay Room which features the train layout.

After several days of heavy rain, we were very fortunate to have a beautiful sunny day. Here, T.J.’s mom Diana helps the boys with their construction project. That’s T.J. in green, Porter in blue stripes and an unknown helper in white.

Alice helps Porter with one of the jobs.

Porter voluntarily wore a construction helmet. (That’s T.J. behind him).

The boys break for snack time.

Alice was very taken with the tide pool.

The boys climbed up into the crow’s nest.

Work, work, work. Our friend Kristine is the general manager of a group of radio stations in the Boise, Idaho area. This photo was from a promotion of some kind at one of the stations.

Kristine with porn star Ron Jeremy, a.k.a “The Hedgehog.” Actually, his short film, Being Ron Jeremy, a low-budget spoof of Being John Malkovich, is a pretty funny film.

Our friend Kristine sent us a link to photographs from her Thanksgiving weekend, which based on the photographic evdience (there was no supporting text), she spent in the the South Bay. Most of our friends from when we lived there were in attendence and it looks like a great time was had by all.

Sheldon and Suzanne.

At Florentine’s?: Mystery Woman, Sheldon, Shmare, Jenny, Chris and Zenobia.

Definitely Florentine’s: John, Kristine, George, Katherine and Suzanne.

Shmare, Kristine and John in one of his famous “John Smith Self-Portraits” at Duke of Edinburgh?

A great photo of Zobe and Shmare.

Zenobia, Shmare and Kristine.

Kristine with Jen and Dom.

Corey and Nikki with Kristine. (Sorry Corey, this was the only photo in which Nikki had her eyes open).

Last night Sarah and I went to the NaNoWriMo T.G.I.O. (Thank God It’s Over) Party at the Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco. Everybody who finished their novel (or at least wrote 50,000 words during the month) got to wear a dorky crown. We had a few beers (Speakeasy Big Daddy’s - yum!) and mingled a little bit. We even worked the check-in booth for a time. Anyway, it was fun to see the other speed writers and it was a nice bookend to the kick-off party that I went to in late October.

Me in my crown in front of the wall where people pinned up excerpts from their novels.

Many other crowned novelists from the balcony.