Cousins

This was such a nice moment. Tim & Sara came over for dinner with Clara and Joey and as we sat down to eat, the 3 kids all played nicely together for a few wonderful moments. Marco enjoyed Tommy's toys on Sunday while he helped us move... Tommy was not home to play along!

(I hope this one's on the mantle...)

Moving pictures

If you want to see pictures from the move and "in-progress" shots of the house check out this slideshow. Thanks to Gma C and others for actually taking the pictures and thanks again to all those who helped with the move in one way or another! "After" shots will be forthcoming. Talk to me in a few months!

Thanks Nana

Tom: That sure was nice of Grandma to let us stay with her.
Tommy: Yeah! Thanks Nana.

Thank you for your patience

We are done moving but everything is in boxes and we don't have a phone line until tomorrow and then we have to wait for the internet stuff to show up. Anyway, there are adorable moving pictures to be posted at a later date (soon I hope). Thanks to Nana G, Aunt Jen, Gma C, Gpa C, Uncle Jeff, and Cousin Marco for their moving/babysitting assistance and thanks to the Godfather for the use of his car. If you were ever wondering... the inside of a Ford Escape is bigger than our Jeep, Jeff's Jeep, or even Tim's giant freaking GMC (because the seats don't come out). Good to know... never would have guessed. And, yes, we measured them all! Other words of wisdom - the Public Storage on top of the hill Daly City has a 9ft clearance - don't bring your stuff there if you have dreams of using a moving truck. Be back soon!

Not surprising really...

I guess I need to step it up a bit to keep up with Sara


but perhaps we earned our junior high reading level due to the number of pictures on our blog. Everyone likes a book with pictures (everyone in junior high at least)

Well I started teaching summer school today and am teaching Junior High Grammar/English so expect things to class up a little bit here. There was a typo on my course description so we learned our first vocabulary word: Irony. Off to a fabulous start, Ms. Galvin.

Here's pics of yesterday's Giants game. Slummin' it in the bleachers.

Happy Father's Day!
Tommy meets his future arch-nemesis: the "You must be this tall to ride..." sign. Welcome to the world, kid. We didn't want to ride your product placement slide anyway Coke/Giants...

Thanks for the tickets, Aunt Jen, and for the 4-inning nap Tommy took on you. How's your back?Please don't tell me if there are any spelling/grammar errors today, I can't handle it. Besides, Tom tells me anyway and I go in and edit it and hope you didn't notice. (This is so stressful!)

Boy Meets Ocean

The Bucket Pic

The Galvins will know that there exists (though its whereabouts are currently unknown) a picture of a very young Ted/Tom standing in a bucket. That's it, there's not much else to the story, it's pretty good on its own.

Well, here you go. Tom would just like to point out that he did this to himself with no parental assistance.

Grandpa Galvin goes to Washington

In other Grandpa Tom news, Gpa went to the White House last week to attend the Medal of Honor ceremony for Private First Class Ross Andrew McGinnis. This heroic young man was in the same Infantry Regiment as Gpa Tom and Gpa was invited to the White House and to this ceremony by the McGinnis family.

Here are a couple of his pictures - you can see how close he was to the President and family!

Those are the facts!

It seems the Toms Galvin got together on a theme for birthday presents... videos from my youth that I want Tommy to see. Gpa Tom got me the Animaniacs DVDs!! Now if you weren't 8-14 years old from 1993-1995 then this show might not even be on your radar. Please catch up.
(**Please note, it is Mrs. Galvin's official policy that wikipedia is NOT an academic resource and may not be used as such on your research paper. Wikipedia, like IMDB, is for settling bets with your friends/spouse/Greg as to which episode of Full House did Tommy Page sing at Stephanie's birthday party [Season 5, Episode 16 "Crushed"])

Animaniacs was an after school cartoon in the same genre and time slot as Tiny Toons. If you grew up on Looney Toones, you'd like Animaniacs. Same deal. We watched a couple of episodes today. Tommy was nonplussed but Tom sang along to the Countries of the World song (our version did not have the subtitles offered here)

Anyway, we are very pleased that Tommy will have some decent cartoons to watch when he is interested. Plus the number of Broadway parodies they did are bound to come in handy in my classes. Thanks Gpa Tom!

Learnin' to talk Italian - Lesson One

Grandma C babysat Marco today so once again Tommy and I crashed the party and trekked to Oakland to hang with the elusive Marco in his natural habitat. Tommy enjoyed the new toy options and the delicious pizza we got at Zza's when we met up with Jeff.

Marco (the most Italian of Tommy's cousins) has several toys from the Old Country sent from Sarah's very Italian cousins. Tommy enjoyed this bear that taught the A, B, Cs. He totally understood "C come cane (woof woof)." There is a video... but it needs a little trimming.


Here's Grandma C and the boys. Great pic of Gma... boys making silly boy faces. She's used to it!

Please enjoy this comparison shot:

Joey and Tommy July 2007 (Joey 18 months, Tommy 3 months)

Tommy and Marco June 2008 (Tommy 13.5 months, Marco 4.5 months)

Tommy wanted to hold Marco's hand but couldn't reach. This was adorable because Joey used to try to hold Tommy's hand when they both rode in the car like this. Yet another example, why Joey is a sweet boy who will teach all his cousins great things!

Johnny! (minimal Tommy content)

Thanks to all for the cards, movies, dinner, brunch, and gifts for my bday. It was a very nice weekend.

Not to much to report on Tommy. His walking is getting better and he's using it more often but he still likes to speed around crawling. Everything is moving forward nicely on the house and should sign sometime next week, I think.

One for the Cecchins here... look what Tom got me for my birthday. An important family tradition will live on for another generation.

oh yeah... on DVD (much fancier than the taped off TV version we watched a hundred times). And yes, we already watched it and it was delightful. Tommy was asleep so he hasn't had the pleasure yet but Tom did enjoy (I think) his first viewing. Haven't heard him whistling the "Liberty Tree" song yet so he might need to watch it again. And yes, you will now be whistling the "Liberty Tree" song yourself today! Enjoy!

Next on the wish list: Brat Patrol, Pete's Dragon, The Shaggy Dog & The Incredible Journey (original versions of course)

**Ok after I typed this I looked up Brat Patrol on YouTube... it's all there! Who keeps a video since the early 80s, then converts it to digital and then uploads it to YouTube? Whoever you are, bless you. Thanks for letting this poor-man's Goonies see the light again. Apparently, Sean Astin was even in it, which I didn't know at the time. ***

Field Trip!

We joined the 6th graders for a trip to the Exploratorium today. If you haven't been in decades (I think the last time I went, I was in 6th grade!) I'm happy to report it is very much the same! We scoured the place to find the Shadow Box which has been downsized and moved to the back corner near the Tactile Dome but is nevertheless still there as evidenced by these photos of Tom and Tommy. If you've never been, there's a countdown and a big flash and then your shadows are left on the wall even after you move. There's science to it, but you'll have to go learn that yourself!

Tommy really liked the place, lots of action and fun things to look at and everything can be touched! They even have a toddler area that is gated and fenced in with baby gadgets, etc to play with. We sought refuge there on more than one occaision as we were not the only field trip present and kids get pushy at the Exploratorium!

Here's a picture that will no doubt haunt Tom for a long time. I almost don't want to explain it because it's more fun without...

BUT... the sign says, this toilet has never been used and this water is perfectly clean but most people still won't drink out of it. It's an area about challenging superstitions or preconceived notions. It was right near a ladder you were invited to walk under (I did not...).

Tommy was very cute taking stroller breaks to walk around; usually holding one of our hands but also doing the super cute thing of holding one of each of our hands with him in the middle. Couldn't get a picture of that for obvious reasons. He liked this shadow exhibit that had 3 colored lights and therefore 3 shadows. The former lighting designers were less wowed but enjoyed Tommy's enjoyment! (I had to turn the flash off to see the shadows and thus the camera is slower and thus the blinking face)
We skipped the cow's eye dissection (I remember Mr. Boorman made us watch that in sixth grade!) and reminded kids to "stay with their group" and asked, "where's your adult?" Oh field trip fun! Seriously, check out the Exploratorium if you haven't... good times! Free the first Wednesday of every month and Tom scored a couple of passes for the future!