In the house of the Thunder Lizard

Before my folks went east to spend Christmas with my mom's family, my grandmother had her bathroom re-done.  In the same house where she and my grandfather raised six kids.  The only bathroom.  How they managed the logistics of that growing up I'll never know.

Part of the minor reno was a new toilet.  Someone - probably my stepdad - dubbed it the thunder lizard over the course of the holiday.  Reason being you can hear it being flushed from outside a couple blocks away.  If you're still sitting on it when you press that lever, you're a goner.  After only his first time, Declan henceforth sprinted away from the menace, covered his ears and warned anybody who'd care to listen: "Very, very loud noise!!" before I bravely flushed.

It sounded almost exactly like every single monster ever in the '80s Hercules Saturday morning cartoon series.  If you're over 30, you know what I'm talking about.  Only louder.  But I digress.

*****

Culled from the 100+ pics I snapped last weekend, here are a few choice selections to complement the previous post.  Looking at them now I realise it seems I have a thing for my brother, he pops up so often.  But, truly, it's only because we were together almost the entire time.  Not "together" together, but you get the point.

Anyway...

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Waiting in the plane for the crews to sweep the frost off the wings.  Tav downs the last couple swigs of Uncle Buster's double Ryan Coke to take the edge off.

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A first meeting, Thursday night.

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Two great uncles.

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Not even second cousins were exempt from Dex's demands of being read to.

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But if he couldn't find anyone, fine... screw 'em.  He'd do it himself.

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Two uncles play with their nephews.

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A grand matriarch and her first two grandsons.

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Dex and Uncle Buster go for a ride in Gram's bionic chair.

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There was another great grandmother to visit for the first time as well.
Conveniently, just three blocks away.

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After Dex started misbehaving in front of the old folks, Uncle Buster lost his patience and lobbed the boy head first into the china hutch.

That'll learn him!

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SHINY!!

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Talking to a lonely mother who missed her boys very much.

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By this time, Saturday evening, Uncle Buster was just sick of me taking pictures.
Seriously.

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Very nearly the last farewell.

Comments

[marian]

Very very loud noise. Oh boy. These all made me choke up a bit! I wonder if Dex will remember this trip.

[Mark]

It sounds like someone ordered that toilet from the airlines' source.

Remind me. What's a Ryan Coke, again?

That bionic chair shot is great. My dad inherited one of those from his mother, and now when we visit his house, Ben and his cousin sit in it playing with the wired remote control. When an adult's in it and someone makes a smartass remark, he or she says, "You watch out, I'm coming to get you. Don't even think of escape," then grabs the remote control to lower the chair. "In a few minutes, I'm outta this chair and you're gonna pay."

[Emilie B.]

Beat ya! They were 10 kids on my mom's side (including 5 sisters), with the one bathroom. We were just the 3 kids, and one bathroom, and lot of yelling took place, I can't imagine 10.

Also, sweet pics. :)

[Moksha Gren]

Very cool pictures, Simon. Glad I got to put a face to your grandmother, it adds to the story to know who this is all about.

Also, your brother can't complain. No one who continually does cute stuff with toddlers and infants can complain when someone wants to point a camera in his direction. If he'd just sit down and stop making photo ops...maybe you'd leave him alone. Maybe.

You and your brother remind me a bit of Jet and myself. Something tells me he's not hiding any Star Wars tatts or harbouring some secret dream of owning a Vader bike or writing blogs about data graphs.

[Tal]

Mark perhaps I can be of service. A Ryan Coke is a Rye and Coke. ;)

Simon, excellent pictures!

[Simon]

Marian, I really hope he does. If not, we've already got 40-odd pics back from being developed and he's enamoured of sitting on my lap and going through them. I'll have names and associations hammered into his head in no time.

Mark, Dex had even more fun standing on the floor, control in hand, and hoisting random sitters up and down on his whim. He's a power-hungry little man, that's for sure.

Emy, 10 kids makes 12 people with just one bathroom. I'm boggled! And I hope baby Xavier is doing well with the teething. Tav is nearly 11 months and STILL waiting to cut his first.

Moksha, the correlation between Buster and Jet is very nearly uncanny. I've thought about it before, too. My brother and I sometimes have a hard time seeing each other, considering we have to exert so much effort peering around constantly from the other side of the same coin.

Tal, thanks for enlightening Mark. I would have done so as well, but probably mocked him more for his ignorance of alcoholic colloquialisms.

[Moksha Gren]

Mark - Don't worry, bud. I had no idea what a Ryan Coke was either. I was just going to chalk it up as another strange Canadian thing.

[TerriTorial]

Great shots. I'm still amazed that you took two wee men with you on such a long trip. You're one hell of a Dad Simon.

Your grandmother is a beautiful woman. So glad to see her.

[Mark]

Too funny. Are two brothers ever both geeks (about the same things)? I don't know. My brother isn't. He enjoys watching Star Wars as an action movie fan, but that's about it. Actually, to his credit, he caught that the Trinity ghost scene at the end of Return of the Jedi now features a young Anakin instead of the old (which is pretty stupid, really).

I agree with Moksha on Buster -- he can't expect to be near your spawn so much and not be in pictures.

[Linda]

Toilet funny haha :-)
These pictures are awesome. I love the one of Tav and the light, it's beautiful. Can that boys cheeks fit through a doorway on a plane???
Both Grandmas are beautiful. You can see the love in their eyes...
Your caption for the china cabinet left me lol.
The pic of Dex talking to "lonely" mama; I remember that phone call, if it's the one I'm thinking of, Amy took it right after the wet T-shirt contest in the third bar we took her to. (Which of course she won.) You must have snapped the pic right after Dex said "Can I keep the trophy in my room?!"
The last picture, Si, is worth a million words. The perspective of your Gram's all-encompassing, tender, loving hands is too precious.
Oh and your bro' is looking good, again ;-)

[Paula]

I'm laughing so hard at the reference to the Hercules monsters, but those hissing horrors were a cartoon staple going back to the 60's. Trust me, I know.

[andi]

This post is going to give me scary toilet-related nightmares. The pics were super cute though, so that almost makes up for it...