Milo had a stellar year in kindergarten at P.S.11 in room K202 with his friends, classmates and the wonderful Mrs. Faye Bowie; their incredible teacher. We are all going to miss you Mrs. Bowie!
Congratulations kindergartners!

In case you didn't know Milo is the letter 'D' in the video below-

Our Summer Solstice was damp and dreary this time 'round, really making it feel like the longest day of the year. Even though the days are wet lately Milo scored some new sneaker sandals for the hot weather we all know is coming soon. Milo's review of his new cross-purpose shoes; "very fast".

Another day when I feel like the luckiest dad on the planet. Happy Fathers Day!

Milo and I were trying to wait out this afternoons deluge so Milo could take his new Razor on another tour...

Our neighbor Charlie and his son Yannic didn't quite have that luxury-

This morning Milo won the first place 'Shiai' trophy for orange belts at the Seido Children's Tournament. Of course we were fully impressed and proud of our boy! YEA MILO!!!

Watch the video of the final match-

Lookout Chuck Norris, your day is coming...

Cecilia is one of Milo's Kindergarten classmates and she lives on our block. She was just returning from Build-A-Bear-Workshop with her mom when she passed by our apartment.

Of course Milo had to try and impress her...

Congratulations Milo on receiving your orange belt in karate. Mommy and Papa are very proud. If you'd like to see a short video clip of the warm-up before the test click here

Milo's illustrious Grandfather John Paoletti Retired this past weekend after 37 years as a professor of Art History at Wesleyan University- Milo is super excited knowing he can now spend more time with his grandpa!

Milo's mom and Aunt Sarah were incredibly proud of their father here at the retirement festivities.

Milo is testing for his orange belt in Karate on Saturday and he needed two pictures, passport size for the application for his test. This software made it very simple. He's already got his game face on; so look out Chuck Norris, Milo's comin' after you!

Rebecca takes our boy off to school on another lovely rainy day!

Last week we went to San Diego CA for Milo's spring break. Milo wanted to climb this building in LEGOLAND and we said sure go ahead, but I for one was dubious (probably because I was projecting the fact that there was no way I could do it), but as you see he just motored up like it was nothing.

We also went to SeaWorld and dined with Shamu.

And that Shamu was a mischievous little Orca; when Milo wasn't looking he drenched him and his lunch.

Of course we stopped by the world famous San Diego Zoo and Milo really had a good time.

Some pictures from around our Mission Beach hotel:

On friday we went to P.S.11 to checkout Milo's enrichment project. Milo gave us a point by point explanation of one of the collages he made during his enrichment period.

As all New Yorkers know you go out to dinner without a reservation (and sometimes with) you wait. We went out to a family dinner Saturday evening at Co. Pizzeria and the woman at the podium told us there would be a forty-five minute wait, O.K. we're cool with that, well Milo is because it gives him the time to do what he always wants to do: draw, or as he calls it "color", and Rebecca is ever prepared with a notebook or two, an amazing stock of markers, ballpoint pens, colored pencils, and crayons to keep our Blue doin' his thing.

By the way the food was delicious and the wait ended up being only about 15 minutes, sorry Milo.

All of that in like a lion out like lamb stuff is all well and good in this wacky month of March, but every day has been unpredictable although yesterday afternoon was fairly nice, so Milo and I spent a couple of hours at "our" park, which even though Milo has almost outgrown is still a lot of fun. We didn't run into any of our old friends, but Milo made three new ones yesterday and got in some good playtime.

Milo and I even managed to go checkout the Philip-Lorca diCorcia show at David Zwirner which I thought was pretty cool and inspiring, Milo deemed it "boring", then we took a quick look at the paintings of Lisa Yuskavage which Milo said; he liked, "because if you poked the nipples with a needle they would squirt water all over the floor."
Hmm-

Before I met up with Milo, Sam, Rebecca and Sam's mom Sue, they had a post 'Alvin Ailey Bounding Boy's Class' romp at Madison Square Park. Then I met them all for lunch, after which the boy's bounded off down the streets of Manhattan-

Stopping only to ponder the pleasures of chocolate creme filled chocolate sandwich cookies.

And laughing away at their own hilarious jokes!

On the day before daylight savings time, a very spring like 56 degrees made our outing very pleasant, I couldn't help but think that for sure we'll have plenty of more days to sport our groovy winter wear; a classic weather 'sucker lull'.

Yippee! Snow Day! 9 inches of new snow and the New York City Public Schools declared it's first snow day in five years.

And I bet you can guess who was the target of all these snow balls...

Milo and I journeyed to Queens yesterday for Gaku Aihara's Ice Skating Birthday party, and Milo had a really great time! I had been sick since the previous Saturday and this was my first outing so I didn't skate, but Milo made it along with the help of Gaku's dad, thanks Gen and Atsuko for the fun party!

Click this picture of Milo's smiling face to see the action!

Above are pictures of Milo and Gaku from May 2004 and December 2008

Today was a R.A.D. (read all day) day for Milo, he loves these days because Rebecca comes to room K202 and reads a book for the entire classroom. I got this email from Rebecca's blackberry:" Hi sweetie, They're still having 5 more minutes of quiet reading time. But Milo ran to give me a hug and then announced to everyone, my MOM IS READING TODAY FOR RAD!!!"
Our little dude has been having a tough week at school; he's been plagued by a boy in another kindergarten class everyday this week. It finally came to head yesterday when the "other" boy bit Milo on the chest, Milo hit him, and then off to the principals office for the both them. Milo has been practically inconsolable since he was punished (no recess in the big yard), but now that mom is back from Chicago and Minneapolis, and is reading for his class; things are starting to look up.

Big Thanks to our friend Stephanie McFadden for making the hat Milo is wearing. Milo told me the night he got it: "I love this hat".
The war with the "other" boy intensified the day he wore his new hat to school. While at recess Milo was hanging upside down from the monkey bars when his hat fell off, then the boy picked up his hat and and threw it in a mud puddle. BIG MISTAKE.

Milo is maybe a bit overly enthusiastic, but it made the old Papa feel good! Watch the short video clip The Critic

How could it be happening so quickly, Milo has lost his second baby tooth! Next week we will be going to his high school graduation. Too fast the time goes...

Mommy applies some soothing emollient, then all is right with the world...

Milo gave the thumbs up to this Santa, saying: "yes he looks like the "real" Santa Claus, I'll sit on his lap." And we (the parents) agreed. We encourage you to go stand in line with all the other parents and fidgety kids for a half an hour or so and be tempted to purchase some of the oh so perfect items that surround you, I dare say; engulf you, as you wait to see the "real" Santa.
Oh lucky happy cheerful wonderful holiday day at ABC Carpet and Home GO! SHOP! BE HAPPY! NOW! GO! GO ON SPEND! NOW! GO!

The crazy thing was: Milo somehow got control of the elevator!

He brought us to the 11th floor, we exited the elevator. He then wanted us to check out the view from the windows at the end of the hall-

We stopped to note the changing moods as we neared the end of our odd errand -

Things seemed to fade to normal after we were lucky enough to score some Mako's incredible handmade soaps. Whew!

Well it's been almost a year since the last blog entry, and we thought we'd reinvigorate it with a High-Five to the little man. He had a really wonderful birthday party yesterday at City Treehouse

Thanks to everyone who made Milo's Fifth birthday so special. A big Shout out to Auntie Kim and Cousin Kyle for making the trip from California to celebrate with us!