Astronomical wonders lost on two year-old

I heard on the radio the other morning that there was a lunar eclipse in progress. Since sunrise was still a long way off, I figured it might look pretty good, so I took a minute out of the morning routine to go out back and check it out. It was cool.

So, after I woke Will up and got him dressed we went outside to see the moon. Some time had passed since I was out earlier, so the moon was lower in the sky. We had to go across the street and several houses down to see the moon unobstructed by trees.
I held Will up and point out the moon and explained how it looked different because it was in the shadow of the earth. He seemed interested and repeated the key words dutifully: "eclipse, shadow of the earth, umbra, penumbra..."

Walking back, I said good morning to a guy riding by on a bike. Will exclaimed, "that guy was on a bike!" Yeah, sure, whatever. We just saw the moon mostly hidden and discolored. THAT is cool.

Later, after breakfast the whole gang was loaded up for the carpool to school/work. I asked Will to tell Mary what we went outside to see earlier. (Mary had been feeding David upstairs at the time and didn't know we went out.)

Will sits there for a minute and says he didn't know. Then his face brightened and he got all excited, "A guy on a bike!"

Geesh.

Moving away from the liquid diet

Well, at least a little bit. David hit four months old on Sunday and yesterday we gave him his first taste of rice cereal. Will was very interested in helping out and offered the first few spoonfuls. Then he decided he was off to go play upstairs. Moments later he reappeared in the kitchen with his violin -- the loudest, most commanding toy he probably has. I think he was looking to recapture some of that parental attention that was so focused on the little guy eating off a spoon. Big deal.

This event also marks the return of video to MoranMedia. We hope you like it: David's First Cereal

Returning to publication after taking the summer off

Or something like that... Two kids are definitely more than twice the work of one kid. We've been busy this summer. Both guys seem to be growing like weeds. Yesterday we measured them and Will and David stand 36.5" and 24" tall, respectively. In David's case, we helped him stand up.

David still doesn't quite sleep like we'd prefer, but is fairly predictable in his wake up times of 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. Hopefully we'll get him to start pulling all-nighters soon.

So what have we been doing this summer? We'll show you. I sorted the pictures that we've taken since the last post and was surprised that there were over 700 images. Luckily for you, we've pared that down:

• Papa Gets a Deere
• Celebrating Granny Burger's 80th on the beach
• A busy July
• At home in August

Look for the return of MoranMedia to the silver screen soon -- as David is getting more animated, we need to show some of his new speaking and rolling skills in ways that the still shots just can't cover.