Increasingly

upright

Evansville

Lindsey is still Buster's best girl.

And here's Amy with Daisy, and special guest star Daisy's belly. (6/17)

Worker man

Buster helps Ms. Kathy wash the dishes at the Art Cafe at school. Regularly. He also helps her clean up the table, move the trash can and generally tidy up after breakfast.

Just like he helps out at home!

Riiiiiiight.

Conversations with my cousin

Buster: My mommy's in Seattle. That's very far away.

Talia: My mommy's in the kitchen. It's right there.

Sunglasses

First inaugural address

Hide and seek

Or something, with Grandad Jim. (6/17)

The firefighter

It really helps to picture Buster's half of these morning conversations spoken in his big, deep, firefighter voice.

After the party, when all the people go, you can carry all my toys back downstairs, because I have little hands, and you have really big hands.
Let me see. [Compares hand sizes.] Oh, yeah, my hand is a little bigger than yours, isn't it? I never noticed that. I bet my feet are bigger than yours too, huh?
Uh-huh.
Someday yours'll be bigger than mine. Can you imagine that?
Yeah.
You can? I can't. But I bet you will. You'll be bigger than me someday. You can picture that, huh?
Yeah. I'll be a big, tall firefighter.
Oh, OK.
Yeah. But I'll still just be Buster.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Firefighters have really good pencils.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

I'm the firefighter, and you're the firefighter, and Mommy's the fire chief.
She's the fire chief? She'll be glad to hear that.

Mom: Good morning, Buster. [Kisses top of his head.]
No. The fire chief doesn't kiss the firefighters.

Daredevil

Daisy

C

L

I

M

B

S

Uh?

Whatchoo lookin' at?

Play-doh

What's this blue stuff?
Eggs
Blue eggs?!
Yeah.
Like green eggs? Like green eggs and ham?
They're blue jays' eggs.
Oh. Are blue jays' eggs blue?
Yeah.
I didn't know that. What about cardinals' eggs? Are they red?
[No answer]
Or are they blue? Or maybe white. I dunno. I've never seen one.
Yes you have.
I have?
Yeah. Remember? We went to the old Cardinals and there was a Cardinal bird there with pants on.
Yes! I do remember that.
Yeah! He was silly!

Whoop!

This is a game where Eula snatches the bowling pins away just before Buster can knock them over with his sippy cup. Owen and Buster agreed this was the funniest thing ever to happen in the history of the world. (6/3)

Playground

Daisy's new hangout: Under the table.

Big world

Little kid.

Dance party

Working it out to "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" -- we have a 45 -- with Owen Gastineau. Dad Jeff is only encouraging this sort of behavior. (6/3)
Here's Owen's front:

Buster explains the toolbox

These are pliers.
What do pliers do?
They ply.

Last Cali picture dump

Filbert Street near Washington Square in San Francisco. Buster thought that parking on this hill, which is way steeper than it looks in this photo, was the funniest thing he'd ever seen. He's from St. Louis. We live near a neighborhood called "The Hill" that he thinks is actually on, you know, a hill.


Some big bridge (5/7)


Family portrait, Sacramento zoo, Tom Double D Thumb and Veena's wedding. (5/6)


Big Stick Mick, aka Just Mick, aka Michael, with Daisy, and with his son Hank, aka Buster in a few years. That's Hank's sister Fifi in the background. At the wedding. (5/6)

No singing

[Singing] Hurry, hurry, get your socks on, hurry --
No! Don't sing that.
What do you want me to sing?
Nothing.
OK. [Singing] Nothing! Nothing-nothing, noth --
No! Don't sing that either!
Why not?
'Cause it's noying me.

Parent of the year

nomination photo. (S.F., early May)

Blurry

girl.

The cook

Very, very

Daddy, I wish I had some Scooby-Doo socks.
I wish you did too.
Well, Daddy, when you go to the store, tomorrow, let's go to the store. When you go, will you please get some Scooby-Doo socks for me?
Yeah, I will.
Daddy, if you go to the Scooby-Doo store and get me some Scooby-Doo socks, I will be very, very happy. Very happy.
I'll try to do that. I don't know if there's such a thing as Scooby-Doo socks, but if there is I'm gonna try to get them because that was really good talking.
Yeah. Daddy, when your little boy does something good, you should do a nice thing for your little boy, because that's very, very good. And the good thing I did was change my poopy pullup.

Ball

Forest Park, late April.

Travelin' Man

Lambert Field, early morning, 4/29/06.

A-need confusion

Asleep in the high chair.

New dimensions

In Scooby-Doo, thanks to the new portable DVD player, bought for the trip to San Francisco. This was the trial run. As it happened, it wasn't needed on the flight out. Buster was a model of comportment and a fine traveling companion. But it sure eased the stress level knowing the big gun was waiting under the seat if needed.

Baby

Buster, is Daisy the cutest baby in that baby room at school?
Daisy is the cutest baby in the whole baby world.

Uncles

Peter and Jeb get to know Daisy. We're backing up a little here to late April.

Customer service

Here's some money, and here.
Oh, a credit card. Can I take this to the store?
Well, this is the store.
Oh, then I'd like to buy something.
OK.
I'd like to buy some gramupples.
We don't have any gramupples.
You don't have any gramupples?!
Well, we do. These are gramupples.
OK.
These are gramupples.
OK, I'd like some.
Well, actually, this is ChapStick.
Oh, you don't have gramupples, then?
No.
Oh. Well, do you have any whizzenpuffs?
No, we don't have any whizzenpuffs.
No, gramupples and no whizzenpuffs? What kind of outfit are you running here?
[Slowly, as to an idiot] This. Is. A. Store!

She bends over backwards

To take a cute picture. (S.F. ~5/3)

Tourists

On the cable car. We stayed at a flat in Noe Valley. Buster was really into the street cars, especially our home line, the J Church. One morning, we got on the J Church, rode it to Powell and Market, got on the cable car, rode it up to Fisherman's Wharf, bought Buster his own toy cable car, walked over ...

to Pier 39 to say hello to the sea lions --

or play with the new toy cable car, as the case may be, for a few minutes, then got on the F car and rode it down the Embarcadero and up Market to Church, where we got the J Church and went home. It was about a three and a half-hour trip, about three hours of it on public transportation, and we had a fabulous time. Who'da thunk.

Wha?

Some kind of baffling science thing at the Exploratorium. (~5/1)

Who's who

You're Daddy [to Mom], you're Buster [to Dad] and I'm the daddy.
You're the daddy?
Yeah!
[Whining] Pick me uuuuuup.
No, I'm too big. I'm not your daddy, I'm the monkey's daddy.

She's a real dish!

S.F., around May 1.

Superman

In San Francisco. (4/29)

Conversations with my kids' monkeys

Hi. I'm a monkey.
Hello, monkey.
I'm Curious George.
Oh, hi. I hear you're a good little monkey and always very curious.
Yeah, and my jungle is downstairs.
Is that where you live?
Yeah. My jungle is in the living room.
Oh, sure. That makes sense. It has a leopard rug.
And it has a train. But I can't play with the train.
Why not?
'Cause I'm a monkey.
Oh.
Monkeys don't play with trains.
What do they play with?
They play with soda.
With soda?
Yeah. They dump it out.
Why do they do that?
'Cause they're kinda silly.
I guess so.
Yeah. I'm kinda silly. And I love you. [Kiss.] 'Cause I'm a nice monkey.

Steps

Daisy takes a few at the marathon. (4/9)

She never spoke Spanish to me

Does Corrye talk Spanish to you?
Yes.
Do you know what it means when she talks in Spanish?
Yes.
What does she say?
She says "uno, dos, tres."
What does that mean in English?
[Slowly, as to an idiot] That's Spanish.

First

Time on a swing. Believe it or not. Buster had always refused to go on swings. Every time we were ever around swings, I asked if he wanted to go on them and he always said no. Until this day in Forest Park, where we'd gone to watch the St. Louis Marathon, when he said yes. And he had a fabulous time. He was 3 years, 2 months, 11 days old, and I submit he is the oldest American child of the 21st century to go on a swing for the first time. Can you dispute? (4/9)

Hammer

Is this sharp?
No.
Can I touch it?
Yeah, you can touch it, but you can't hammer with it.
Why?
Because I don't want you to hammer anything right here and break something.
Yeah, we don't hammer on the floor or the table or a face.

Rookie

card. Now that the weather's warming up, we're learning to swing the old lumber. Er, foam. Note the winter gloves, used as batting gloves, have baseball players on them.

(mid-March)

Outfit

Pebbles

Arch

Madness. At the Missouri Valley Conference basketball tournament. (3/4)

Outfit

Oui oui, Fifi.

First

warm day. Home from school with pink eye, so it's off to the zoo. (3/1)

Cap

Superman

Outfit

Daisy (late Feb.)

Audience

(mid-Feb.)

Scissors

Really big on scissors these days. You use them to open the package of mackyroni and cheese. (mid-Feb.)