Grades! Can you believe it?

I can't believe I haven't posted since June. Well, OK, I can totally believe that since we've been so very busy! Jake started Pre-First at Brookfield School in August. He's doing really really well. Out of 80 spelling words (8 weeks of tests) he maintains a 100% average! He's reading well and doing addition and subtraction in Math. October 26th was the end of the first quarter and we got his first report car don Halloween. As in PE, Health, Computers, and Music (the only ones that gave letter grades). He got "Satisfactory" in everything else, other than his "Very Satisfactory" (highest mark) in Attitude and Effort for Spelling. There was an "S-" in penmanship, which didn't surprise me at all. He's struggling with it, not because he can't do it but because he simply won't take the time. It was a wonderful report card and we're very proud of him!!

The picture is of Jake having his first horseback riding lesson (a 5th birthday present from Memaw). He loved it and didn't want to get off of the horse. Oh, no.

Mommy Jake Week - Day 5

Today wasn't really eventful.We went to breakfast and lunch with Daddy, played tennis in Glenbrook park (he wants tennis lessons now), went to see Madagascar 3 (hilarious), and ran some errands. One of those errands was to find an object that I had no idea was going to require a tresure map and a lot of luck - A Twilight Turtle. This little object is a stuffed turtle that projects stars around the room. It's supposed to help babies/kids who are afraid of the dark. In the past, Jake wouldn't let me leave the room until he had fallen asleep. I was informed yesterday, completely out of the blue, that if one of these turtles was purchased, that I would be allowed to leave and he would fall asleep without me. For this I would drive all over town. Target was sold out. Brainy Zoo was sold out. Babies R Us had ONE. The guy in line behind me asked how much they were. Dude, I got the last one and I don't care if you were going to use it to save kittens, it's MINE.

So, I've been replaced by a $35 plastic turtle. Fitting end to a wonderful week of bonding with my baby because, really, being a Mommy is half cuddles and half letting him go and watching him grow up. I'm sure glad I had this week while he's still letting me cuddle him half the time, the growing up is happening way too fast.

Mommy Jake Week - Days 3 and 4

Day 3: Today was our slug day. We watched movies and made suncatchers. Jake needed a rest and it wasn't hard for me to rest too! In the afternoon we went to the Folsom Aquatic Center and swam for 3 HOURS! Jake made a new friend (of course) and spent the whole time jumping into the water with him. He really seemed to be over his fear of getting his face in the water. He even spent a lot of time jumping off of a deck that was about 18" above the water! And even though we weren't "practicing" his swimming got a lot better just trying to keep up with the other boy. We had snack with the boy and his mom, who was really nice, and Jake insisted I give them a card. He got a little sun on his face and fell asleep on the way home. I got burned to a crisp. Like "can't sleep at night" burned. Really should have done something to stop that. DoH.

Day 4: After 4 days of playing Wii, Jake and I decided to try some actual sports. So, after taking Daddy his meds AGAIN, we went to Big 5 and bought cheap tennis racquets, new goggles (though Jake swam all day the day before without goggles), and a cheap putter for me. We went home for a bit and played tennis (tip: never play tennis with two Shiba Inus, see picture) in the yard for a bit. Then we went to Sonic for lunch and spent 3 hours at Wacky Tacky, 2 of them with Cassie and Alicia. While Jake was super exited to see Cassie, they have an interesting relationship and he got tired of her bossing him around to play with her. Between that and being tired, it was time to go. Guitar class came next, then dinner at our least favorite place (Jake's favorite), Lumberjack's. Ick.

Honestly, at this point in the week I was expecting to understand why some animals eat their young. I thought I would be begging to go back to work. Alas, no. While Jake misses his friends, I will be crying on Monday when I have to go back to work and spend the day apart from my guy. He amazes me and cracks me up. His stories and jokes are darling. I love watching his mind work and watching him learn new things. Mommy Jake week will definately have to become an annual tradition!

Mommy Jake Week - Day 2

First, let me start with all the videos I promised:

Guitar recital: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7CFDMJFrg

Hip Hop recital: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgK7hVHe7J4

Graduation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coU4sFYMYkY, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB6-vKWTocs, and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUgLLe0f-vU.

I'm glad Jake has discovered the Wii, but man am I SORE! Boxing, bowling, tennis, golf, baseball... it was all a little too much for me. We also went to the Sacramento Children's Museum, which lasted about an hour (maybe a little less) before Jake was bored. Note to self: don't bother unless he has friends with him. After lunch we went to Monster Mini Golf, which was really fun. No counting, not really playing by the rules, but he was starting to get the idea. It's really cool and has great party rooms. If you are in his playgroup, expect to be going there in September (hint, hint). Pretty mellow day, all in all. It was his 5th day without a nap and he was asleep by 8:20 so we may need to build in a little nap time today, but it was a good indication of how he will be when Pre-1st starts in a few months.

It's hard to tell, but the picture is Jake getting his arm eaten by a shark in blacklight. :-P

Mommy Jake Week - Day 1

Jake and I are spending this week together. We both took the week off and I wanted to recrd how well, or not, I do as a stay-at-home mom for the week. First of all, let me say that I am terrified. I do not expect to be able to maintain my patience for the week. I expect that by week's end we will both want to go back to our regular lives. But for today, it was awesome.

Tilden Park Little Farm
I had heard a lot about this place reading the Chron over the years (it's one of the many awesome free things to do in the Bay Area) and really wanted to go. Can't say I was really impressed. While Jake always loves animals, it's tiny and nothing we haven't seen a billion times. I guess if you've never seen a cow it's cool, but we live in Sacramento, home of the State Fair and (just this weekend) the Horse Expo. It was a little, "this is it?" But a pretty drive up there. My lesson: have a paper map. There is NO iPhone service up there.  Seriously.

Lawrence Hall of Science
I just noticed that the last time I blogged was the first time we went to the Lawrence. Clearly we like it there. Jake really wanted this to be the kick start to the week so we went and spent about 3.5 hours there. We got to pet a bunny and a dove, but he was a little disappointed that they weren't taking the tarantula out today. He spent a lot of time outside, and just generally kicking around. My goal this week is to let him spend as much time doing stuff as he wants. It should improve his experience and my patience. He really could have spent an hour just at the wall where you create a ping pong ball drop. We left so late that we ended up having to stop at Fenton's for dinner on the way home. Bummer. :-)


The gem phrases for this week are:

Learning is more important than winning (I felt like a success as a parent for about an hour after that one!).
After reading Solla Sollew: Troubles aren't bad, that's how you learn!
50 feet from the Walgreens parking lot in Berkeley: I can't help but notice that it appears that Jake does not have his snack...
Mommy, you always know what to say!
Me: Oh, I give up (trying to navigate and find a parking spot on Shadduck in Berkeley). Mommy, don't give up!

I love that kid.

The Graduate

 

Friday, June 8, 2012, Jacob Stanton Everett (as he insisted he be announced) grafuated frm pre-school. All of the preschool classes sang "Time of My Life" from Dirty Dancing. His class sang Dynamite and then all the classes returned to the stage to sing "Good Life" before getting their diplomas. It was seriously darling. Hot as the underside of a scorpion, but darling.  Video will be uploaded to You Tube as soon as I can figure out how to get it off of the camera. Duh.

The next day Memaw and Daddy took him to the Horse Expo. He was enamoured with the lasso. And his new hat (thanks, Memaw!!).

The Minister’s Cat goes to Berkley

Sunday we took Jake to the Lawrence Hall of Science and had a great and geeky day!

The Minister’s Cat is a preoccupied cat.
The trip down there was a somewhat unpleasant peek into my life when Jake is a teenager. An hour and a half with Steve playing on his phone and Jake playing on his iPod. Was anyone talking to me? Heck no, I’m just the chauffeur. Once we got to the Hall, however, it was game on!

The Minister’s Cat is an experimental cat.
Jake got to be in an experiment on the development of logical reasoning in kids for some Cal grad students. He was his usual charming self, but we had to tell them that the results were probably skewed. They put 4 blue, 4 red, and 14 green bricks in a bag and asked Jake what color one pulled at random would be. Of course Jake said “green.” However, we had to tell them that, in all honesty, green is his favorite color and he probably would have said green in any scenario. Still, it was fun being part of science!

The Minister’s Cat is a fossilized cat.
We also got to see a REAL triceratops fossil. Not the plaster cast, but the real deal. Mommy was really probably more excited than anyone.

The Minister’s Cat is a memorable cat.
Jake’s favorite things were the pin wall, the paper airplanes, and the rocks outside that let you experience an “earthquake.”

Steve liked the paper airplanes best.

I liked playing Minister’s Cat on the car ride home, but I’m geeky that way (obviously). It’s really no wonder that Jake’s vocabulary scores for school were at the top of the chart.

The Minister’s Cat is a clever cat.
The child is clever but entirely random. One of the things we’re working on is getting him to give us context before asking a question: “In Kung Fu Panda 2, why does…” and so on. Sometimes he still leaves it out and the questions can get tricky. On the way to Berkley we got this stumper: “Why is there so much water in trash cans?” WHUCK? When we got it narrowed down to MegaMind, the question became a little more understandable. If you haven’t seen the movie, after MegaMind takes over Metro City/San Francisco he falls for the intrepid reporter, Roxanne Richey. When she laments how full of garbage the city has become, MegaMind takes he dehydration gun around the city and zaps all the garbage into tiny blue cubes to clean up. So, what Jake wanted to know is why, when you take the water out of a garbage can, is it only a tiny cube. Think about that for a second: to ask this question you have to know what dehydration is, that hard things like garbage cans don’t have that much water in them (unlike soft things like, say, a person), and you have to have a basic grasp of the conservation of mass. Wow. Awesome question, Dude. I’m totally putting my money on you for a future Nobel Prize.

The Minister’s Cat is a tired cat.
After a long and super fun day, Jake was asleep early. So was I, but nothing could possibly be more fun or awesome than a day in a science museum with my favorite guys!

What I'm thankful for...

Sitting at the table for Thanksgiving lst week, Jake wanted everyone to go around the table and say what they were thankful for. Yeah, I know, I must be doing something right. His answer was "Good food, good naps, and family." While I couldn't agree more (especially with the nap part, after a 4 day cooking marathon, I could use one!), I have a few things of my own to add:

Picnics.

One of Jake's new favorite activities is throwing picnics for his animals. Usually these involve laying out the blanket, deciding who gets what food to eat, and then making everyone take a nap. I guess that about covers at least 2 of the 3 things above. The first incarnation of this was tough. We knew what dogs, lions, porcupines, cats, and most of the rest of the crew ate, but there were a few hold outs. What do dragons eat? Cheshire cats? Well, sugar and cereal, obviously because, you know, they're MAGIC. Why do I even ask? However, even eschewing the magical creatures who were invited, what exactly DO meercats eat? Well, ours apparently eats Cheese Its (I could totally be a meercat).

Places to do art that aren't my house

See picture. 'Nuf said.

And, of course, my #1 thing I'm thankful for is the wonderful kid that I got. Happy Holidays to all of my many friends and to my family. Jake, Steve, and I are thankful and blessed to have you all in our lives.

Happy Birthday, Jake!

I see I haven't written since Spring. Yike. Well, Spring sprung, Summer passed, and Jake is now 4. Amazing how time flies. I wonder where it flies to?

Anyway, we made a decision this year that Jake's present from Daddy and I would be a trip or event instead of a thing, so we went to the Academy of Sciences in SF on August 28th to start the (apparently month-long) birthday festivities. We went specifically for the "Summer of Slither," which was awesome. After that, we went to Ocean Beach where Jake played tag with the waves. Fenton's on the way home, of course. I could make a whole book (and just might) of pictures of Jake playing on the beach, but I will just include my favorite. :-)

For Sir Birthdayboy's party this past weekend we held a tournament a la Ren Faire with jousting, quoits, and archery. All the kids got armor and blow up swords. The girls, who I was afraid wouldn't want armor, took to the Hello Kitty armor like fish to water and also got flower garlands with ribbons, which went over really well. It would have been lovely (and probably was for everyone but me, Ama, and Daddy - and possibly Jake) if the key to the building had fit. See, the key that I got from Sacramento Parks and Rec that said "East Portal Clubhouse Master" apparently didn't open, you know, the DOORS. And, after an hour of waiting, it turned out that Park Security, who was very nice in the face of my complete and utter panic, didn't have the key either. So there I was. 11 a.m., 50 people arriving, no power for the crock pot, no way to chill drinks or food, no tables, no chairs: nothing. CRAP. I was crying. Ama was crying. People were arriving. Jake was (unbeknownst to me who was not paying adequate attention to the sweet kid I was supposedly doing all this for) starving. Not a good scene.

Fortunately, I have the BEST friends in the whole wide world, one of whom (as his lawyer in this matter I refuse to diulge his name. I'm sure you understand. We'll call him Superman.) opened the door with a credit card at about 11:30 and saved the day. YAY Superman! All my dear friends sprang into action, setting up tables and chairs, mixing fruit salad, covering the tables, whatever needed to be done to get ready. You know, all the stuff I had gotten to the park at 9:30 a.m. to do. So we got to joust. No quoits. No archery. No mac and cheese (Jake's one request. Sorry, baby!). But there was plenty of food, the cupcakes were awesome, if a little melty, and the kids loved the dragon jousting. The weather was wonderful (thanks Nana. If it'd been threatening rain like it is today my meltdown would have hit "hurricane force" really quickly) and everyone ELSE seemed to have a good time.

After everyone left Jake and I passed out some of the balloons that we bought but never really put out. He got to experience making other people happy, which was a really good thing. He was also asleep at 8:20, poor kid. Of course, I was asleep at 8:40, so which of us was worse?

Thanks to all who came (if you're reading this) and a special thanks to all my dear dear friends without whom the party would have been an actual tragedy, not just a logisitcal nightmare. I love you all.

Happy Birthday, my beautiful, amazing man. I love you to forever and back. Next year you have a 10 guest limit.

Spring is here.

What a weekend! Friday we had the Ladybug Social (a/k/a The Great Ladybug Massacre or The Ladybug Stomp) at Jake’s school. He loved having us at his school and loved playing with the ladybugs. He was wonderful this year (at not squashing them) and braver than most of the kids who wouldn’t hold them at all!




Saturday Jake had his first swim lesson! He was hilarious. As soon as he saw the pool the shoes came off, the shirt came off… he was ready to drop trou right there on the deck as long as it meant he could go SWIM! Once dressed he hovered at the shower waiting for the teachers to be ready. His teacher explained that she was going to get a bite to eat and walked over to the side. The second she stepped away from the area where she had been eating, he was on her: “are you done eating? Can we go in now?” He did great. He kicked. He paddled. He blew bubbles. She was super impressed with him and he smiled the whole time. It was fun. Lessons start full-time (every weekend) starting in May.
Monday was Passover. Jake and I have been reading a selection of Passover books for weeks now (mostly Matzoh Ball Boy and Dinosaur on Passover) so he was completely looking forward to the seder. He has learned many new words in preparation for this particular holiday including yarmulke, plague, recline, afikomen, bubbe, rabbi, yenta, feh, and nosh. He was looking forward to the following things, in no particular order: wearing his yarmulke, saying the four questions, dipping “kid wine” (grape juice) out of his cup for the plagues, and finding the afikomen. I coached him to say “Ama, what’s it worth to you?” when he found the afikomen – for which he got a new Chuggington chugger. Very exciting. He did a great job with all of it, including being patient while we went through the ceremony (quickly. Most of it.). He also loved dinner (he mostly ate eggs, matzoh ball soup, and strawberries and rhubarb). All in all, I think he’s hooked on Passover (but it will probably fade when Hanukkah comes around).
In other news, he’s doing really well with his guitar, having fun at school, and still loving the new bike. Spring is here and the days are just packed!

Super Jake!

OK, he was being Metro Man (from MegaMind), but Super Jake is cuter...

3 1/2 years!

Well, Jake turned 3 ½ on the 28th. It’s been ages since I’ve updated this blog, and there’s no way to cover all the darling that’s occurred since January, so I’m just going to have to settle for this weekend.

Friday: We got to try out the bike trailer that my wonderful brother gave us. At first, Jake was scared to be on it, because he’s only been on a bike with training wheels and this one tips like a real bike as Steve rides (at the moment it only hooks to Steve’s bike, but we’re working on that). He was making these sad little panting noises, it was terrible. But after about 3 minutes on it, as I suspected, he was in love! He can pedal, although it’s almost too big, and goes just as fast as we do! It makes our rides to LoLo’s house quick (and easier that jogging behind him as he rides his bike) and will make going to ice cream on Tuesdays much faster. I can’t wait for the water to go down so we can ride on the bike trail by the river!

Saturday: I had to go to San Fran again for my last Bar Grading meeting so, after guitar (Jake is doing really well and playing like a big boy already!), Jake and Steve went to the Sac Zoo for their Earth Fest. Mostly because they had face painting and Jake wanted a spider. Back up: Jake wanted a Spee-I-Der, like MegaMind says it. In fact, he wanted an Arachnis Deathicus, just like in MegaMind. However, Jake had not yet mastered his “th” sound and still says it like “f,” which leads to it being and Arachnis Deficus. Well, that would be a totally different spider, and certainly not one that you would want on your face (ew! A poop spider!). This pronunciation also led to a lot of laughter on the part of his sadly-not-Latin-deficient parents. Well, Jake hates nothing more than being laughed at, so he actually taught himself to say “th” just so he could say “Arachnis DeaTHicus.” He over-pronounces and spits a little, but it’s progress and it’s SO cute. Good going Jake!

In general, Jake is a happy, smart, and polite little guy. He is also 3 ½. He tells me “NO” on a regular basis. The benefit of this rebellious period, as opposed to when he’s 16, is that he’s still small enough for me to pick his sorry little butt up and make him brush his teeth. Sweetie, the harder you cry, the easier it is to reach your molars. But, as he will tell you, he’s a BIG BOY now, and he’s getting better at doing things by himself all the time. I had him go in his room and change his shirt all by himself yesterday! Ok, he put it on backward, but he put it on himself! So proud. It seems like no time since it was only ½ and I’m sure it’ll be no time at all until there’s a 1 in front of that 3. Thank heavens he’s such a cool kid that, no matter what, it’s always fun.

Long time, no blog

Yeah, well, it's been a busy year so far. I can't believe it's almost February! Here's what I wanted to blog about, but missed:


Giddey Up! Jake got to go see Memaw and ride her horse, Boo. He also got to meet "his" horse, Casey. He rode on a real saddle for about 30 minutes and loved every second of it!

The weekend of blood: I stabbed myself in the hand with a pair of pruning shears while removing a nonedible vine in hopes of replacing it this year with raspberries. I have visions of Jake asking for a snack in August and me sending him out front to eat berries off the bush. It makes me happy. The tetanus shot I needed did not, however, make me happy. The next day we went to the snow. Jake went down the hill on his sled. Steve came after on a disk. A little too soon after. In order to avoid a collision that would easily have very badly hurt Jake, Steve took an impressively graceful and heroic facer into the very icy snow. The new motto: Blood in the snow, it's time to go. On the way home Jake wasn't feeling well so I stopped to let his tummy settle for a while. In the ballet of me getting his car seat off, him taking his sunglasses off, and getting out, we hit upon the exact combination of movements to shove the arm of his glasses up his nose. No idea how, so don't ask. High altitude + week-long cold + sunglasses up the nose = blood (with a side order of hysterical child and a little moment of mommy-panic). Ah. Ok. Now everyone has bled, we're done. Done, do you hear me? Thankyouverymuch.

You've Got A Friend In Me: Jake had his school performance. His class sang "You've Got A Friend In Me" from Toy Story. All the classes did Disney stuff. It was super cute and really well done. Jake sang and did the moves and looked all-around great. Especially since all he did last year was cry and scream for me. Progress! Sadly, the pictures were largely too dark. I'm expecting video from his new school.

New school: Jake is really happy at his new school. He has a new BFF, Ernesto, who we had the pleasure of having a zoo playdate with this last weekend. The boys are darling together. They lent him a book (Skippyjohn Jones: Lost In Spice) because he loves it, which I thought was not only sweet of them, but I was impressed that they know what books he likes so well. Also, I get e-mails from his teachers weekly with the suff they're doing, which is just amazingly wonderful! To show how much he loves his new school, I dropped him off this morning with nary a peep of "Mommy don't go." Honestly, he never did that even at the old school when he'd been there 2 1/2 years. So, in short, he is really happy there. We made a good choice on this one.

Growth spurt: So I stood the boy up against the wall where we mark his height on Saturday. I thought he looked taller. He's grown 2" in the last 4 months since his birthday. Holy schnikeys! So all his pants are floods because, while the 4s fit ok in the leg, they fall off his skinny little butt. Boy, if the kid weren't cute I'd hate him for that. *Jealous*

How does our garden grow: So far we've planted peas and carrots in the garden. Jake planted one barrel of peas, I planted another. His are doing waaaay better than mine. I guess he got Gran's green thumb. We went to the nursery to get seed starting stuff on Saturday. He loved the kitty (Casper at Tallini's on Folsom) and was very upset when he thought I said that he didn't have a favorite nursery. He loved all the plants too. I love this kid!

I'm sure there's a ton more I've forgotten. As Calvin and Hobbes used to say, "the days are just packed!"

And I have an idea for the next installment but it's a secret.... shhhhh!

Hey-Ho the Holidays are OVER!!

The jingle of bells is softening. The blinking lights are off. The hustle and bustle of having way the hell too many things to do and far too little time is winding down. The joyous season of not-the-holidays is finally upon us. I doubt my Santa-crazed 3 year old would agree, but let’s face it, he didn’t have to bake pies or shop for presents. So, as I reach the time when I simply can’t put off taking the tree down any longer, I want to recap, for those who couldn’t join us, the highlights of the holidays.

Knights, dragons, and castles. Yup. That was it. Jake got a ton of cool knights and dragons. He got a really cool castle from Santa (to which his stunned response was simply “WOAH.” What could be better?). He got a dragon puppet from his Uncle Dave, which he adores. He got knight books, knight Legos, and knight Playmobil toys, and gift certificates to Barnes and Noble, which he used to buy MORE knight books. I think you get a good picture of what the house looks like now. If we are surrounded by the SCA, I think we’re covered.

New Year’s Eve was a fun day. Mom, Steve, Jake and I went to the California Academies of Science in Golden Gate Park. Jake loved the sharks, bat rays, penguins, jellies, tide pool interactive area, rainforest, the giant skeletons of whales and dinosaurs, and the cockroaches. OK, he mostly loved the cockroaches because they made Mommy and Ama go “EEEEEWWWW!” but he’s a boy, what do you want? He got his picture taken hugging the white alligator (no, not the real one) and played in the indoor snow. That place is all kinds of cool. He can’t wait to go back and neither can I! I love that, while he’s not ready to learn about any of the things he saw yet, he loved going and exploring. I foresee many more trips to the city and the Exploratorium coming soon!!

The rest of new year’s weekend was rainy, so we went to Wacky Tacky in Roseville/Rocklin. This is also someplace where we will spend a lot of time. It’s like the biggest McDonald’s playground you’ve ever seen x4 and add pneumatic guns and a fountain that shoot foam balls. Without the crap food. It was cool.

So the rush is over. The presents are unwrapped. Santa is safely back at the North Pole doing whatever the heck it is he does for the other 11 months of the year. And my child is already asking if it’s Christmas yet again. I guess Macy’s isn’t the only one that wants it to be Christmas all year, but as for me… I’m so very glad it’s over.

Happy Winter

Two fun things happened last weekend (well, more than that but I'm speaking broadly). First, we met Santa. Second, we went to the snow. Santa was an accident. We were going to Country Club Mall to buy a sled for the snow. I figured this was pretty safe since Country Club Mall is the zombie of malls - it's dead and it doesn't know it yet. Also, it will eat your brain given the chance. So I figured there was no way they had the scratch to have a Santa there. Yeah - WRONG. We walked through the doors at 10 a.m. and there was "the chair" and the trees and the giant creepy fake Jack-in-the-box. Everything but the elves. Well, my 3 year old isn't stupid. He knows what all that means this time of year. So we were stuck between a tantrum and a hard place, as it were. But Santa wasn't going to be there until 11, so we had some time. Buying the sled took about 25 minutes. Jake was wearing his grey sweats and a pirate t-shirt, not an outfit I thought appropriate to meet and have one's picture taken with Santa. So I went to Ross and bought him the only outfit I could find in his size that wasn't ridiculous - jeans and a polo. By the time I got back, the line had formed and Steve and Jake were 3rd. Nice! A quick change and it was almost time for the jolly old elf to appear. When he arrived, he stopped and talked to Jake for a minute. He even complimented his nail polish: a fact for which I will always go back to Country Club at Christmas. By the time it was Jake's turn, he was actually glowing from the joy of talking to Santa. He told him he wanted knights and dragons for Christmas and took a great picture on his lap. He spent the rest of the weekend telling anyone who listened that he "knows Santa." Like they do lunch and go on vacation together. It was awesome. 3 is the BEST age for Santa!

Sunday we went to the snow at Adventure Mountain at Echo Lake. It's a really fun snow park/sledding area that we had been to last year. Only about 80 miles from home. We got there before the rest of the playgroup because I know my boy and snow and 2 hours was simply NOT going to be enough. We sledded for about an hour before everyone else came. Then we sledded as a group for another 1-1.5 hours. Jake went down all by himself most of the time! He tried Brandon's saucer and it went too fast for him (plus, I tried to stop him at the bottom and ended up splitting the poor kid's lip :-() but his sled got great use. We had lunch, made a snowman (that should be in quotes...), and had a great snowball fight. The snow was perfect, the day was warm and sunny, the company was fun - it was a great way to kick off the snow season! Of course, he didn't sleep at all on the way home (unlike his Daddy) so took a late nap at Ama's house, which made getting to bed hard. But totally worth it and we all can't wait to go again.

Coming up we have Hanukkah with the family (yes, I know it's been over for over a week), Christmas, of course, including a surprise addition to the requested knights and dragons, Uncle David's visit, and much more fun. Happy Holidays everyone, from our family to yours.

Tidbits from this weekend

This weekend Jake wanted his nails painted. Fingers and toes. Green. Like dark, Christmas green. Ooooo kaaaay. He actually sat still, with Alice in Wonderland playing, and let me paint them and waited for them to dry. By the time the show was over he wanted the polish off, which Steve had to do to preserve MY manicure, but it was awesome while it lasted. Sadly, no pictures.

Jake refuses to believe that pot roast is made from cows. Why? Because cows have "white stuff with black spots" on them and pot roast doesn't. Um, ok, the white "stuff" is fur/skin and under that white stuff.... pot roast. Daddy, spent dinner poking his pot roast and making moo-ing noises. Probably not helpful for our future vegan.

Jake is really into introducing himself, which is wonderful and a skill I wish I was better at. Other kids do not seem to know how to react. The conversation usually goes something like "Hi, I'm Jake!" .... long pause with no eye contact... "What's your name?" .... long pause. This weekend at Art Beast he added on to it, in a futile but darling attempt to start a conversation or just to be polite, "These are my parents: Mommy and Daddy." I can imagine the conversation next "Wow, my parents are named Mommy and Daddy too! How weird!"

There were a million other things that were cute beyond words. I really need to write them down as they happen somehow. I just love "3."

Halloween and other things

OK, I know I haven't posted in ages and I have no excuse. Bad Mommy. Jake was Super Why for Halloween and what a darling little hero he was! Daddy took him trick or treating and he and Lauren were out on the town for 1.5 hours! The haul of candy was amazing and he had a great time. I'm also happy to say that, other than the 2 pieces he had that night, he hasn't even asked for any of the candy. I'm also sorry to say that, because, let's face it, it's still gone - it's just on MY hips instead of his. The other picture is Jake all punked out for Crazy Hair Day at school. Billy Idol, eat your heart out!

The Monday after Halloween Jake had his 3 year doctor's appointment. He's 38 1/4 inches tall and weighs 35 pounds. He is brilliant, perfect, and healthy, which we knew, but it's nice to hear. Unfortunately, he had to get FOUR shots. We will never do that again - it was just too much for his little system and he really felt yucky for the rest of the day. But he got a pumpkin muffin at Noah's and to go to the zoo with Mommy, so that was a little bit of an up-side.

While still a fan of pirates, Jake is starting to get more into knights and dragons (and princesses, but, thankfully, I'M still his princess most of the time!). He is asking Santa for "shining armor." So... the cheap stuff is easy to find, but if anyone knows where I can get armor for a 3 year old (preferably expandible), let me know!

Facebook questions (again)

I just realized I hadn't done one of these in almost a year, so here's the latest quiz:

Favorite TV Show: Clifford the Big Red Dog
Favorite color: What day is it?
Favorite saying: Okie dokie artichokie!
Best friend: Luren S.
Favorite music: Swing (this has been the case since before he was born. The first kick I felt was to Swing Session's Knock Me A Kiss)
Favorite song: I'm A Gnu (from John Lithgow's Singin' In The Bathtub CD).
Favorite instrument: Electric guitar!
Favorite toy: Bink, the monkey, or his pirate sword. The tinkertoys also count, since he makes pirate swords out of those too.
Favorite game: Pirate sword fight.
Favorite sport: Soccer or baseball.
Favorite foods: Macaroni and cheese. Tomatoes. Hot dogs. Not always in that order.
Least favorite foods: Meat and asparagus.
Favorite ice cream flavor: Mango.
Cake or icing? ICING!
Favorite book: Clifford's Halloween.
Favorite place to go: Fairy Tale Town.
Favorite animal: Dragons.
Favorite superhero: Iron Man. Although he's going to be Super Why for Halloween.
Favorite outfit: Anything with a guitar on it.
What he wants to be when he grows up: A super hero.
Favorite fruit: Apples.
Pet Peeve: Being told "no."
Stuff he's into: Superheroes, knights and dragons, pirates, martial arts, firemen/fire engines.

Any more questions for Jake? Ask them in the comments!

The Story of Cornfed

Once upon a time in late September, as the corn crop was rapidly disappearing from the farmers' markets, a little blond boy asked his mommy for some corn. "OK" his mommy replied, unable to resist her darling son's pleas for vegetables. So the kind mommy bought 5 ears of fairly funky looking corn, even though she had a baaaaad feeling about it.

That night for dinner the mommy was shucking the corn and discovered that her feeling had been right. For ever ear that she opened had a corn earworm caterpillar in it! Some ears had only been nibbled, some ears had been nearly devoured (up to 1/3 of the ear!), but in the forth ear the mommy discovered a caterpillar that was still alive!

"Wow!" cried the mommy, "Come look at this!" So the little boy rushed over and watched the green caterpillar in wonder. The mommy decided to keep the little bug so that the little boy could watch it grow and turn first into a pupa and then into a moth. So the mommy found a pint canning jar, a side effect of her new hobby, and placed the little caterpillar and the top 1/2 of the corn cob into it. Then the mommy put a knee-high over the top and attached it with a rubber band. Voila! Instant science experiment.

Days passed and the family watched the little caterpillar grow into a much bigger caterpillar. They soon decided that their little friend needed a name. The daddy suggested "Cornfed" because of the little critters preferred food. The decision was made and the name stuck. One day, the family noticed that Cornfed was spending a lot of time on the bottom of his jar. The daddy looked up on the Internet and discovered that Corn Borers, which is what Cornfed was, cocoon on the ground. Sure enough, a day or so later the pretty green catterpillar had turned into a little brown cocoon! Weeks past and the family went on with their lives, occasionally checking on their now less-than-exciting friend.

Finally, one night after the mommy and the little boy had returned from a visit to his best friend's house, the daddy, with a knowing smile, suggested that they check on their little friend. Sure enough, Cornfed had energed from his cocoon to become a pretty, fuzzy little moth!

The mommy and the little boy took the moth outside and released him from his jar. He was really new to the world and couldn't even fly yet, but he let the mommy and the little boy hold him as he fluttered and sputtered and tried out his lovely new wings. Cornfed had cute little fuzzy legs and big green eyes, just the same color as the caterpillar he had so recently been. Finally, after bidding the mommy and the little boy good bye he flew off into the night to live with the other "flutters." Happily ever after. Of course.

(Jake was asking me to make up a story last night. Of course, he misses our Cornfed and wishes he could stay with us, but he was also really good about understanding that Cornfed wanted to be with the other flutters and live his life. Hopefully this little impromptu project will begin a lifetime love of science and an understanding of, and empathy for, other creatures and their need for freedom. I have to say, though, I miss the little bugger too. )

Fairy Tale Weekend

Jake and I had a lovely weekend. We had guitar on Saturday and then he gave a wonderful concert at my mom’s birthday dinner that night. Sunday we went to Fairy Tale Town (where we are now members) for 2.5 hours! The attached pictures are from our outing. The Cheese Stands Alone was one of my favorite things when I was a kid. No idea where it comes from, but I've been trying to get his picture on it forever. I love the upside down one. He had a ball being a mouse, climbing all over the cheese!