Capital J

Maybe you thought I’d forgotten about my blog.   Well, I just needed a really good reason to write.   And she showed up tonight.   Introducing my little sister.  (Yes, a sister!).

Posey Elizabeth Carpenter, born on February 10.

I can tell she’s going to have an attitude…

OK – this might not be the prettiest smile you’ve ever seen — but I’m beginning to get used to it.

Turns out I needed to lose one of my front teeth early — and the dentist took it out today.   Dad says that I was really brave — little does he know that it was the “happy gas” the dentist gave me that  made it possible…  Anyway, I’ve just put the offending tooth under my pillow and I’m counting on this Fairy individual to crawl into my room late at night, reach under my sleeping head, and leave me with some Darth Vader action figures in exchange for it.   Why this doesn’t creep me out, I’m not sure…

That’s pretty much all the news that really counts this week.   Summer is really here – the last real week of full-time school.  Oliver’s going to a baseball camp this week.   We all are ready for the ballfields- and have the gear to prove it!  (And the summer haircuts!)

And, as part of the end of school, we had a great picnic over the weekend with all our school buds.   There was even an obstacle course.  Oliver was more about style and posing for the camera.   Me – I was speed personified — until I took a digger trying to make a corner — it was a pretty impressive wipeout at full speed, trust me.   We’re not really sure what TT was up to…

Hope your summer has started well.   Keep in touch.

JPC

It’s the real start of summer.   We were at the pool for the first time today — and it’s already HOT here in Washington.   A good day – we got to see all the motorcycles in town for Rolling Thunder.   Lots of American flags!   Yesterday we went to a baseball game – and although the Giants weren’t in town, we still had our colors on!   Here I am trying to get my rally cap to work in the 9th.   And TT spent most of the game looking away from the field.   He’s more of a people person than a spectator, I think.

We’ve all been very upset by the news from California that Buster Posey hurt himself.   Major trauma in the Carpenter household.   Oliver seems undeterred, however, in his desire to be a catcher.   He did take the time, however, to do a little face painting in Buster’s honor.

And, of course, there could be no update on the Carpenter boys, without the latest hyperbole about our baby brother.   He’s just strangely large and very strong.   Here he is trying to do pullups on the rings.  He now likes to hang from things.   And he’s written off fruits and vegetables entirely.   The boy’s at risk for scurvy…

So, here’s wishing everyone a very Happy Memorial Day.

JPC

Buster Posey is in town.   You can imagine what this has done to the general level of excitement in our household.  Yes, the White House Correspondents’ Dinner is literally two blocks down the road, but I don’t think my brothers and I could pick Wolf Blitzer out of a lineup.  We can, however, spot Tim Lincecum at 250 feet.   And we proved it today!

We got down on the field for Giants batting practice before their (undeserved, Dad says) 2-1 victory over the Nationals.  It was a great day at the ballpark.    Down on the field, Oliver spent long stretches of time just staring in a weird mixture of admiration and envy at the Giants players as they got ready to take BP.

Buster waved to us.  Aubrey Huff asked if we were triplets (I must have been kneeling!).  And Miguel Tejada gave us some love.  But truth be told, we got the most time with the Nationals — and we really liked meeting Lance Nix.  Oliver was a bit miffed that Lance had hit a home run off Lincecum the night before.   I just thought he was large.  And TT was in it for the loot (that’s his hat getting signed).

In the end, we all got objects of great affection.  If the looks on our faces here seem familiar to you, you’ve probably seen The Lord of the Rings — we look like Gollum having just laid hands on the ring…  three of them to be precise.  You try to get that ball out of TT’s hands.

You’ll note that we wear our divided loyalties proudly.

Then it was off to our super comfy seats.   Having shown up for batting practice, we had a few minutes to kill, and so had some space to spread out…

But the game was a great one.  Down to the final out.  I’m not exactly sure what’s putting that look of enjoyment on my brother’s face below — and don’t want to guess.  But I know that we liked our lemon ices later in the game…  I think Dad got them for us to keep us quiet and in our seats just a little longer.

Anyway – hope you all had a great weekend too.   See you soon!

JPC

Hope everyone had a great Easter.   The Easter Bunny visited us.   We got some good candy, but also some new threads.   TT and I got some proper football kits (though there is some angst that we’re wearing Man U and Chelsea colors — I think the denizens of Kalorama Park are really none the wiser).  If you look closely below, you’ll see Oliver has a new Tim Lincecum tee-shirt — in hopes of actually meeting the man when the Giants come to town this weekend!   And LeiLei has a bat.   But, then again, he seems to always have a bat.

Unfortunately, Mom wouldn’t let us wear our new duds to Easter brunch and the Easter Egg Hunt.   So we got changed…

We also got our first chance to hit golf balls at the driving range.   I was good at carrying the clubs — only so-so at using them.   My golf swing looks a lot like my hockey swing looks a lot like my baseball swing.  But all in good time.   We certainly looked the part though!

The other big news since I last posted is that LeiLei has turned two.   We still call him our baby brother, but it’s pretty clear that he’s quickly going to outgrow the lot of us.   So we had a basketball party in the park in his honor, with our favorite coaches from Kids in Sports.  I’ve posted a few photos from Leighton’s Birthday Party.  Hope you enjoy!

Till next time.

JPC

Greetings from a non-shutdown Washington DC.  We’re all glad daddy gets to go to work tomorrow; but I think mommy was more worried that DC trash collectors would have stopped.   We make a lot of trash — and some of what Leighton produces, you don’t want lingering around the home and garden, if you know what I mean.

But that’s all old news now.  And the arrival of some spring weather means more time outside – in shorter sleeves and fewer jackets – and plenty of baseball.  Here we are on one of our first full days in the park.  You can almost feel the unfortunate teenage years already sneaking up on some of us.

And you’ll note that TT’s taken to wearing shirts designed to remind him, well… you know.   I’ve since gotten a haircut, so don’t worry about the faux helmet in the shot above.  I’m sporting a much more stylish look these days.  Speaking of style (and my haircut) — that reminds me to tell you that you can now “follow me” on Twitter.  Apparently blogging is so very 2006 (which I thought was appropriate given that I was only born that year).   But all the cool kids on twitter these days — including me and my brothers.  You can find us here:  

I can’t promise the most outrageous tweets — but I’ll try to put up a few photos now and then.  And, on that subject, here are a few more photos of our goings on in recent weeks.

Leighton’s got good skills already with both feet and hands — and no, that’s not a doctored photo, we seem to have a true southpaw in the family.

In the first one below, I don’t know how this turns out for me — or for TT, for that matter, given his habit of sneaking up to try to catch the ball as I hit it.   But at least I seem to have my eye on the ball.  And then a couple photos of our first day of real tee ball practice.

I seem to have a skill for base running.  We’ll leave the hitting to Oliver.

See you soon!

JPC

My first (definitely not my last!) trip to the Jersey Shore this weekend. Very cool. Home of The Boss. Hurricane force winds the first day – but it was pretty nice today. We went to celebrate Christine’s wedding – which meant I got to see some of my cousins (on my mom’s side). And it turns out that I’m quite a dancer. The photos and video from the party aren’t out yet (and probably aren’t suitable for this family-friendly blog), but I’ll hopefully have an opportunity to demonstrate my moves in person for you before too long. And I promise, no yellow tutu this time.

Before we left, I decided to work on my beach modeling shots. It’s never too cold to work on your smolder.

While my brothers horsed around with some styrofoam rockets in a gale-force breeze. Very fun indeed.

Hope everyone’s doing well. See you soon!

JPC

We went skiing today.  I had a lesson with the big kids.  I went all by myself — with my helmet and my new gloves.   Hopefully Dad will take me back, and we can do some more skiing soon.   I have good form!

My brothers came too.  Leighton had a few runs down the tubing hill with his brothers…  Here’s a short video of one of his first runs:

Leighton Goes Tubing from James Carpenter.

(At the end of the video, the boy in the red coat lying face-down on his tube blocking the way is, of course, TT….)

But after a couple of runs, LeiLei just wanted to sit in the car and play with the iPad…

The twins had a good time roaming around — and came over to watch me ski – with snow cones in hand.   Why do they always look like they’ve just committed some sort of crime?

Hi all — hope everyone’s enjoying the winter.   We’ve had lots of snow and ice — even got a day off school earlier this week (that Mom and Dad didn’t seem so thrilled about…)  It means we’re all about indoor activities — and today it was a Monster Truck Jam!

I have to say that it was very cool.   Though I couldn’t understand why the yellow cars didn’t just drive out of the way.   In the end, I got pretty excited to see them crushed (over and over and over again).   We went with my cousins (the Original Carpenter Boys) who seem to be old hands at this stuff (we have much to learn from them!).

This was, I think, about the last thing that my mom wanted to be doing on a Saturday afternoon.  When we got to our seats and looked out over this…

… she knew she was in over her head.

Anyway, it wasn’t Leighton’s cup of tea, either — so they boogied off for ice cream for most of the show.  I think we can probably get Dad to take us again in the future, but I think he may be on his own from here on out.

Oh, and just in case you think I have no loyalty — here’s a photo of me and TT from this summer, when we got to hang out with the Illuminator — a local truck.   I was pulling for him today (and he’s the guy jumping up top).  Very cool.

Hope everyone has had a great January… can you believe it’s gone already?!   Keep in touch.

JPC

Well, our week of celebrating the twins’ birthdays has finally come to a close.  I think it’s pretty nice that – since there are two of them – they seemed to have double the time to celebrate.   But I think we’ve finally seen the end of it.   Today we had a great party with the coaches from Kids in Sports.  They ran us through a whole bunch of baseball drills.   Very very fun.

And, of course we were dressed for the part!

As you can see, we’re getting all the mileage we can out of the Giants stunning World Series win last year.   Figuring it might be another five decades or so before we see another.

But our own games are definitely improving.   Here I am going through some early stretches (with real purpose!).

Oliver seems to be the best at “ball handling”…   Trust me, though, when he offers to shake your hand or give you a high five, you might want to think twice!

Hope 2011 is off to a good start for everyone!   Keep in touch.

JPC