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!

Soccer or bust? Bust.

Last night was our first night of soccer class. Imagine if you took 40 cats of all different sizes, colors, shapes, breeds, and levels of tameness (ok, probably not a word, but bear with me here), dropped either LSD or meth (or both) in their water, and tried to teach them to walk backward with their eyes closed while tossing a ball. You now have a rough idea of what my evening was like last night. This was complete order and tranquility by comparison.

Here are five reasons why I hated the soccer “classes” we started last night. Well, let me say, first of all, Natalie, if you read this, I don’t blame you. It seemed like a fun idea. So here we go:

1. There were waaaaay too many kids. The sign up said the class was limited to 30, but if that was 30 kids, I’m David Beckham.

2. The guy was trying to get these kids to do things that they are just not physically ready to do yet. Walk backward with your eyes closed while tossing and catching a ball?! I’m not sure I could do that.

3. He gave them NO time to practice these new skills. No activity lasted longer than, say, 30 seconds. OK, I get that they have tiny attention spans, but you have to give someone time to do something more than 1-2 times in order for them to get it. How about “let’s all do this together slowly” once or twice. It was like boot camp.

4. The instructions were way too complicated and moved too fast. An example: ok, we’re going to start walking backward, when I blow my whistle we’re going to run backward, when I blow my whistle again you’re going to turn around and run forward to the white line, but don’t touch the white line, just stand by it. Uh, dude, I’ve lost you. I promise you my 3 year old stopped listening at “run.”

5. There was no time for free play. It was a one hour (yes, ONE HOUR) workout with no fun! Gabe, Jake’s guitar teacher always says (and I agree) “if you’re not having fun, you’re not learning!”

So, in conclusion, we enjoyed the 15 minutes before Coach Doofus started talking when the kids could just play with soccer balls. But I can do that at home or in the park for free and I’m sincerely glad that this is just a 4 week class and not an entire season. Maybe somewhere else when he’s 5 or so. Meanwhile, I got a little workout and Jake and I will kick the ball around in the park more often. Soccer CAN be fun, despite the night of tripped out cat herding.