Who Looks Like Whom?

Chase on the left, Julian in the middle and Lincoln on the right. All pictures from 3-5 days after birth.

The Gnome Knows

I went to two Mets games last August and I learned something important at each:
On August 2nd, I learned that Julian loved Thor aka Noah Syndergaard.
On August 29th, I learned that if you wanted to get a promotional giveaway you need to get there early, or spend a lot of money to buy it on eBay.

As soon as we heard the Mets were giving away Noah Syndergaard-en Gnomes, we got our tickets.
We gave them the tickets for the 8th night of Hanukkah, so they had been looking forward to it almost as long, and perhaps much more excitedly, than to the arrival of their new brother.

Unfortunately, for the second straight time, a game I looked forward to all winter, became an inconvenience when the time was changed, this time from 7pm to 4pm.
That caused Mrs. Poop to have to miss the communion of her friend's daughter, Chase to miss the second tryout for travel baseball and it came into conflict with the final hours of Passover.

To avoid the traffic, parking fiasco of last year's Jesse Orosco bobblehead day, we left our house 4 hours and 20 minutes before game time.

We arrived at 12:15 for a 4:05 start, and had one hour and 50 minutes until the gates opened. We sat in the car, walked around the parking lot and got on line at the left field gate at 12:45. That's when a man came by and said this gate opens half an hour later than the main gate by Jackie Robinson Rotunda. Gnomes would still be given away, but we'd have half an hour less inside the stadium. So we relocated. At 1:05 PM, a full hour before the gates opened, the lines were so long that I almost doubted whether we would be among the first 15,000 to get them.

We did and the kids loved them.

Because our seats were in left field we watched batting practice along the wall on the Giants side of the field. Relief pitcher Derek Law made two enemies for life by not tossing the ball in his glove into the crowd.

Mrs. Poop was a trouper, toughing it out, from a seated position, at 36 weeks pregnant.

The game started off well, as the Mets scored 2 each in the first and second innings, but then deGrom game up 3 runs to make it close.

But Chase's burgeoning favorite Met (Michael Conforto) homered in the 5th, and Julian's favorite Met (Wilmer Flores -- they share a birthday and a tendency to cry on the field) homered in the 6th and the bullpen held on for a 6-5 win.

The enduring memory of this game will be the gnomes.

I offered the kids to keep one for their room, one in its box in the basement as a collectible, and sell the other 2 (they consistently sell for $80-$100 on eBay) but they the gnomes are way too cool to sell.

Note: One guy was walking the concourse before the game with a $10 bill offering to pay cash for the gnomes. People were laughing in his face.

A Boy and His Dog

The loss of Diesel has been hard on every member of the family and the kids have dealt with it, in their own way, befitting their normal personalities.

Chase was sweet, saying when he is sad he goes and lays with Diesel who makes him feel better.
He is old enough to understand the permanence and gravity of the situation but young enough that he doesn't quite know what to do with these feelings.

Even in his darkest hour, Julian can't help but be hilarious.
At first when we told him we were putting Diesel to sleep, he didn't seem to understand, thinking we would be able to go to the vet and pick him up when he woke up.
Once we explained that we would never ever be able to see Diesel again, he really freaked out, punching a pillow and shrieking.
When he finally calmed down he asked "Einstein and God invented everything right?"
We said "mostly God, but yes."
"Why did they invent dying?"
We didn't have a good answer for that.

Then we tried to explain that everything dies, pets, people. "and the dinosaurs!"

Lastly he wondered why "can't we make a robotic dog, with real dog fur, and we can reprogram him to not die."

Despite all this, I think the boys are taking it well. They grasp it now. They understand it's serious. They were appropriately sad, but not overly so.

But no matter where they go and what they do in life, Diesel will always be their first pet.

And nothing can compare to the love between a boy and his dog.

Have You Ever Loved Something This Much?

Through various TV shows and stuff Jules has become quite interested in Star Wars and I showed them "A New Hope" and they loved it.
Since then, the countdown has been on for the new movie.

I took the kids to a special Star Wars event at the Disney Store. It was quite cool. The taught the kids to use Jedi Mind tricks to trick a storm trooper, and eventually they received the Medal of Bravery from the Galactic Republic.

Note: I did my parental duty and reminded them of the racial injustice that denied Chewbacca his rightful medal.

After that, they learned to draw R2-D2 (neither of them follows in my artistic footsteps) and were given a cardboard 3-d puzzle of Artoo (which was very difficult to put together).

It was quite cool to be let into the mall an hour early for this special event (mainly because we got a good parking spot), but the real goal was to get the big shoppers into the store.

Ever since we saw the first trailer for "The Force Awakens" Julian loved BB-8, the roly poly new droid, though he kept calling him "BBQ."
He said he liked him "because he's cute like me!"

So I bought him a stuffed action figure, and bought Chase the figurine set.

And for the rest of the day he carried around this little BB-8 everywhere saying "I'm obsessed with him."

And then when Mrs. Poop went to check on him during the night, this is what she saw.

I wish I could get back to those innocent days of childhood when a ten dollar toy provided so much joy and happiness that I couldn't bear to be away from it, not even for a second, not even while sleeping.

Incidentally the other BB-8 we saw while we were in the store was fuckin awesome.

It's very similar to a remote control car, except you use an app through your phone to move it around the house. And it does cool things like create a map of your house based on things it runs into, including you. And it can even play messages hologram style, I think.

Read the review to understand more.

Only problems: it costs $150, and Julian would want to sleep with it in his bed.

Julian's First Mets Game

I love the Mets. I don't know why, I just do. So many of my good childhood memories involve watching the Mets with Papa Poop. Obviously the entire 1986 season and of course World Series Game 6, just cemented it. When God made me, he tapped me on the head and said "Mets fan."
As a father there is nothing better than spending time with your kids. If you can do that while sharing something you love, and seeing them love it too, well, that feeling is better than just about anything I could possibly describe.
It's why I decided to make my children wait until they were five years old to take them to a live sporting event. And that event would have to be a Mets game. Just me and my son. This caused much controversy and tears, and I almost went back on it several times.
But I followed through and bought tickets for the Sunday game right before his birthday. Sunday, August 2nd. At 1pm. Until about two weeks before, when ESPN decided it would like to air the contest between the top two teams in the National League East to a national audience.
That delayed the time of the game until 8pm. Yikes. A little late for a youngster. Especially one such as Julian who goes hard all day, doesn't nap, but often asks to go to bed at night so he won't be "cranky all day tomorrow."
I was doubly irritated when I called to see if I could get a refund or an exchange (they said no) and was told the post-game Mr. Met Dash (the only thing he really understood and cared about) would not take place.
But I explained to Julian that neither he nor I deals very well with disappointment and this was just a test for us, to see if we could make the best of it.
I put on my brand new Mitchell & Ness 1986 Mets Keith Hernandez batting practice jersey and we put a blue tint in Jules's faux-hawk and we were ready to roll.

Trivia question for 1986 Mets: A Year to Remember aficionados: Keith is seen at batting practice, wearing this jersey, in one part of the video, what does he say?

The entire ride there he was peppering me with questions about how long it would go and what roads we're on until finally he said "so the cross bronx, the whitestone bridge, the whitestone expressway and Citifield -- BOOM!"

And several times he told me how long he had been waiting for this, each time recalibrating how long, until he just decided it was his whole life.

After stopping for the obligatory CitiField pictures

we headed to Mets plaza where a bunch of kids games and attractions were set up.
There was a Mr. Met Bouncy House,

a pitching area (I love this action shot, looks fundamentally sound),

and an art station where Jules colored a K.

After that we headed inside with a stop in the Mets museum. He enjoyed counting the plaques and I made him stop next to my favorite one.

And he wanted to pose with Casey Stengel.

Then we decided to go to our seats, because the thing he was the second most excited about (after running the bases, and way more than the actual game) was the helmet full of popcorn.

Due to our mutual love of popcorn, I had scouted this location as it appears to be the only one like it in the entire stadium. When purchasing tickets, I specifically picked a section near the stand, located behind Sec. 125, for easy refills. Though we only refilled it once, two big helpings of popcorn and a souvenir helmet for $12 is a downright steal by CitiField prices.

On the way up and down the aisle we noticed three Mets fans who had the same idea we had: Thor hammers. Jules became obsessed with these guys and they seemed to like him equally as much.

Midway during the game Jules asked "can we go back and see my friends? I want to ask them how the game is going?"

Finally the game started, though not well, as the second batter for the Nationals hit a home run to put the Mets down 1-0. By the second inning Jules was asking when the game would be over and I was really starting to worry.

And then it happened!

First it was Granderson, with a man on, to give the Mets the lead.

Then while we were still celebrating and high-fiving, Daniel Murphy hit one. Which I have to admit we didn't even see, or know what was happening until we heard the crowd reaction.

And finally when we started to settle down (and Julian put down his Thor hammer so he could clap more easily), Cespedes singled and then Duda completed the barrage with a home run that looked -- from our seats down the left field line -- like it was going to go foul.

But it stayed fair!

What ensued was a moment I will never forget. Julian, in a sea of screaming fans was shrieking from the bottom of his lungs, eyes popping out of his head, clapping and high-fiving and jumping up and down.

At this moment, I wish I had recorded video to share with you all. Because that was pure joy.

But in that moment, I'm glad I just existed in the moment. I didn't let the moment pass me by as I held up my iPhone.

I was jumping and screaming as loudly as anyone. I swear I will remember that moment, those home runs, the people around us, Julian's face, as long as I live. In 60 years when they wheel me out for my tapioca pudding they could ask me who hit those home runs, and I know I will remember, Granderson, Murphy and Duda.

From then, the game kind of zoomed on uneventfully, which is kind of a shame because Noah Syndergaard pitched a gem. And had it not been for the fashion in which the Mets scored those runs, the biggest memory from this game might have been him striking out Bryce Harper in the 8th inning with a 99 mph fastball.

A couple of times during the game Jules got a little impatient, but I soothed him with a pink lemonade (all the popcorn made him thirsty). And then they announced that there would in fact be the Mr. Met Dash after the game, which bumped his excitement level up, but also his impatience.

When the game finally ended and I slowly packed up our stuff he said "dad, come on, run the bases, let's go!"

When I did this with Chase three years ago, it took forever, we had to leave the Stadium, walk around the block and wait half an hour. This time we went right down the stairs, out the door and right back in. Obviously the security people wanted to go home to bed, because they were rushing parents and kids, and being downright rude about it. But I did manage to get some pictures of Julian on the field

And this video

You can see he got thrown off by the people rushing the kids off the field, he forgot to touch home plate.

But I think he was pretty happy.

Sometimes I feel (and I'm sure many others do) that the world is against me and my whole life is a struggle. But times like these (when something really important exceeds my wildest expectations), I really get this feeling that something out there (I call it the Universe) loves me and wants me to be happy. That's how I felt during this game.

And this feeling was worth waiting for.

The Moment You've All Been Waiting For

Diesel in Maine in 2007:



Diesel in Maine in 2008:


Diesel in Maine in 2009:


Diesel in Maine in 2010:


Diesel in Maine in 2011:

Diesel in Maine in 2012

Diesel in Maine in 2013

Diesel in Maine in 2014:

Diesel in Maine in 2015:

Kitchen Dance Party

I accepted TON's challenge and had Chase and Julian perform a kitchen dance party to "Shut Up and Dance" by Walk the Moon (SOTW, 4/29/15).

The Disney Reveal

We sprung a trip to Disney on Chase and Julian right after we got home from trick or treating on Halloween.



So the reaction was very underwhelming to me. Chase reacted just as I thought he would, but I expected Julian to jump and yell like he did in the famous anywhere chair video

How Tall This Fall

2014:

2013:

2012:

2011:



2010:



2009:



2008:



2007:

Contrasting Styles

Chase and Julian have the same parents. They have grown up in the same house with the same rules. Yet somehow nature and nurture have turned them into two completely different kids.
Chase is shier, eager to please and sensitive. Julian is a bull who doesn't give a fuck.
Chase is quiet, Julian is loud.
Chase has brown hair and brown eyes. Julian is blonde with blue eyes.
Chase is small (though this is a more recent development), Julian is a giant among 4-year olds.
When Chase falls down (such as on the way to the school dance) he cries for a long time (30 minutes in the school dance incident). When Julian falls down, he says "I'm ok" before he even hits the ground. Once he said "I'm ok" before assessing the situation, and after a few seconds of silence he realized that he wasn't ok, and he started to cry.

Mrs. Poop gave them pennies to throw into a fountain. Later they told us what they wished for. Chase wished for a modest $28 toy. Julian wished that there would be no more rules.

In one incident Julian got his finger stuck under the booster seat attached to his chair. He very calmly told me his finger was stuck. Too calmly. I didn't act with necessary urgency. When I got his finger unstuck and he saw it was cut and red, he cried hysterically. Chase gave him a toy to make him feel better.

My favorite story about Chase's easy-going nature is from Tali's birthday party several years ago. A man was giving the kids temporary tattoos. Each time he warned the children that the water would be very cold. Chase replied "I love cold water." Now, I'm not saying Juju would have decked the guy, but he certainly wouldn't have been as accepting of freezing cold water on his arm.

I could go on forever about the differences between them (which in general are great, I am glad they are unique and distinct individuals) but I think I will leave it here.

This is a picture of Chase being scared on a roller-coaster.

And this is a picture of Julian being scared on a roller-coaster.

The Most Interesting Telephone Pole in the World

Diesel in Maine in 2007:



Diesel in Maine in 2008:


Diesel in Maine in 2009:


Diesel in Maine in 2010:


Diesel in Maine in 2011:

Diesel in Maine in 2012

Diesel in Maine in 2013

Diesel in Maine in 2014: