Family cycle

Our new family hobby is cycling. Tennyson is at a good stage where he's perfectly content to sit in his bike seat for hours while Suzanne and I pedal him around the DC area. In fact, he sings the entire time. So we're trying to take advantage of the good weather and Tennyson's cooperative spirit by hitting the roads/trails whenever we can. This weekend we biked to/around the National Arboretum to enjoy the spring blossoms (Azelias, Dogwoods, and a thousand other spring delights).

Tennyson practiced his photography skills...

...and would still be staring at the turtles, ducks, and fish had we not pulled him away.

We asked for a backyard pool, but ended up with this back yard-pool.  Oh well, Tennyson thought he was living the American dream by coming home from a good workout to cool off in his puddle.

Hunting and playing

Tennyson participated in the annual Easter Egg Hunt at the National Arboretum. Remember when Easter Eggs were filled with candy? Yeah, well not so much any more. Oh well - Mr. T likes balloons and bubbles, and seemed plenty happy to run around and contribute to the chaos.

Tennyson has abandoned his bedroom in favor of living in the back yard.  (We've now got a guest room, if anyone wants to visit.)  Whether digging up our flowers or practicing his shot, Tennyson defines perpetual motion from sunrise to sunset.

Ahhh, the sweet smell of spring

Nursery Rhyming

Tenny's favorite bedtime storybook right now is a collection of nursery rhymes. Here are some of his favorites:

Funny Tenny

Two classics:

Mac Smackdown
Suzy recently took Tennyson with her to the Mac store in Virginia to have some work done on our laptop. For those not yet baptized into the Mac world, Mac stores have two fairly universal qualities: (1) the front wall of the store is almost always made entirely of glass; (2) the help desk (known as the "Genius Bar") is almost always super busy. Well, the Genius Bar was busy, and it was taking a long time to get the work done on our laptop. Tennyson doesn't particularly enjoy waiting around, so he decided to bide his time by going crazy. At one point, Suzanne lost the choke hold she had been using to restrain our sweet little destroying angel, and he took off from the back of the store to get away from her. Suzanne ran after him, weaving through the throngs of Macvangelists, but Tennyson broke out of the pack and ran straight for the exit. Unfortunately, he's kind of new to the floor-to-ceiling glass thing -- he ran full speed into the glass wall at the front of the store and flew back several feet before landing on his back. Mac nerds attempted to hold back laughter. Suzanne comforted the boy who had narrowly escaped one of the most important lessons of any young bird's life. It's funny because he survived and shows no signs of cerebral malfunction. Just in case, though, we purchased a helmet for use anytime we allow him out of his padded cell.

Outbursts at Church
I was talking to some friends in church recently with Tennyson standing nearby. During a lull in the conversation, we heard a robust flatulant, and we all looked down to see the source of the impolite noise. My boy looked at us, and without missing a beat exclaimed, "A toot!" We all laughed, but I felt a bit bad at laughing at my son, who had a concerned look on his face. Believing our laughing at him was making him sad, I intended to comfort him, but soon found out the true source of his consternation when he exclaimed, "Here comes another!" I can only imagine that he learned that from one of his grandmas, because he certainly didn't learn that from us.