November Peanuts

• A common refrain in the morning: "Wawa! How!" [Matthew! Help!] Isaac thinks Matthew can fix anything.
  
• While in California, I learned that when the sign at the bakery advertises a Monte Cristo special with turkey, ham, and swiss, it will also be deep fried. And tasty. And served with jam and syrup.
  
• Thanks to a customer ticket, I got to watch time move backwards for a second stab at 1 AM during the daylight savings changeover.
  
• I let Isaac play Hero of Sparta on Rachel's ipod because I thought he wouldn't be able to figure out the controls and eventually get bored of just standing there. I was wrong; not only did he figure out fighting, but also the "virtual thumbstick" to move. Which is more than I've seen him do with a real thumbstick, actually.
  
• I was going to email Matthew a link he'd enjoy, then realized he doesn't have an email address yet.
  
• Isaac invented a game. He climbs on a chair, flaps his arms, yells "fly!" and jumps off. Jumping off solo is acceptable, but jumping across into Dad's lap is better. (We never taught him the word "fly" so that's good, that he's picking new words up organically now.)
  
• At some point, I went from being the young smart guy people tried to hire, to trying to hire young smart guys. A Polish dude younger than my little sister doing postdoc work drove this home for me.
  
• Rachel teaching Matthew the facts of life: "Kill the medics first. The wizards can't heal." (Matthew ended up beating Costume Quest, his first RPG and one of the only games he's played to completion.)
  
• There's a part of me that takes a childish glee in sending work-related emails to executives on holidays. Payback for interrupting my code the rest of the year!
  
• Matthew is branching out from Calvin and Hobbes to Fox Trot and Zits. He's not as fond of Zits because Jeremy spends a lot of time thinking about his girlfriend.
  
• Me: "I thought C. was younger. She doesn't act 18." Rachel: "Then again, it's been a looooong time since you were 18."
  
• I have some graphic novels that Matthew is not allowed to read "until he is 18." Matthew: "Can I read Walt and Skeezix?" Me: "Yes." Matthew: "Then I'm going to find something else."
  
• Isaac likes to listen to music at bedtime. One night he found a modern Christian music radio station: hymns plus autotune. Shudder.
  
• Jonathan's rule of Christmas shopping: don't ask people what they want for Christmas, because if it's cool, it won't be a surprise, and if it's lame, you'll have to ignore it.