It’s summer here in San Jose, so naturally I’m staying inside to post pictures of the kids. The alternative—working outside in the yard—is too frightening to contemplate.

We actually have two new sets of pictures up on the site this weekend. The first is a batch of photos from the last month or so, including Joe’s sixth birthday. The second takes us a little further back in time, all the way to Christmas 2008.

Seeing as it’s early June, the biggest news, of course, is that Joe’s birthday has come and gone. We played it pretty low key this year: just the family, Joe’s choice of dinner (cheeseburgers cooked on the grill) and an ice cream cake. Lego Ninjago seemed to be the overriding theme. It’s become cliché to comment on how different Lego sets are from the ones people my age had growing up, but, well, they’re definitely different. Nevertheless, there are certainly worse pastimes, like his other obsessions, Sonic and Mario.

Speaking of toys I had growing up, my parents sent us a Magic Shot, which is a near replica of the one my brother had when he and I were little—it even has the same half-functioning bell. Magic Shot consists of a plastic box, a magnetic gun, and a slew of metal BB pellets that you can shoot at targets inside the box. Now that’s a good, old-fashioned toy.

I apologize for the somewhat low quality of the birthday pictures: our main camera is broken, and Julie’s fancy new phone wasn’t charged, so we were left to capture the moment with my old phone.

Just about a year ago, Joe had his first visit from the tooth fairy after he lost one of his bottom front teeth. This seemed a bit early, as Julia still hadn’t lost her first tooth yet, but still within the realm of reason: his teeth came in earlier than hers, after all. Well, as of this writing, Joe has lost six teeth altogether, including his two top front teeth and both lower canines just in the last couple months. Suffice it to say that he’s not gnawing on a lot of beef jerky.

At this point, I have no idea if this is completely normal, cause for panic, or something in between. We’re going to give it a couple weeks to see if his permanent teeth start poking through his gums. He still sucks his thumb more or less compulsively, so that may be a factor. He’s also been playing with his “loose” teeth constantly, so I’m vaguely concerned that he’s actually making them loose in anticipation of the big tooth fairy payout. If this doesn’t stop, we’re either going to have to coat his fingers with something foul tasting or give him a quick lesson in economics: he might be a bit less excited about the dollar coins the tooth fairy brings if he understands that each of them covers about fifteen seconds of a college education.