First day of school for William and summer roundup

While for Mary Grace school is now old-hat, today was William's first day at preschool. He got a gentle introduction to his new classroom, new fellow students and his new teachers! Here's a photo of the kids outside just before they entered.



The kids were so excited when I saw them at lunchtime. Mary Grace loves her newly redecorated/remodeled classroom and William enjoyed meeting the other kids and playing with our neighbor, his buddy, Joe.

Anne and I were asking the kids if they had a good summer and what was their favorite part. It ended up with us making a list of all the things we did and saying, we should post that on the blog.

Visit from all the Arizonians
Weekend visit to the Thiel family (first road trip)
Monday night swim parties at the Matzkys
Tuesday night swim lessons at Midtown (first swim lessons for William)
Weekend swimming and kidtowning at Midtown
Swimming in our backyard pool too!
Bike rides to the playground
Swimming in the waves at Durand-Eastman beach
Wednesdays with Didi and Catie
Multiple trips to Seabreeze
Our weekend trip to Buffalo (first time in a hotel)
Selling kettle corn Park Ave fest weekend
Leslie and Tim's wedding (first wedding)
(more to come, I'm sure)

What a weekend!

We had a great labor day weekend, filled with fun activities for both the kids and the parents. We started Saturday afternoon with an Auragen reunion, seeing all my old friends from 3+ years ago. The kids played on the playground, played batting the ball and played "soccer-ball". Everyone had a lot of fun.

Sunday, Daddy pushed for a day at the beach, so off to Durand-Eastman (aka "The Ocean") beach we went. We packed beach toys and a snack and arrived after lunch. William immediately set to work on the sand while Mary Grace wanted to look for beach glass. Next, we decided to brave the elements and go swimming. The wind was blowing and there were waves out at the sandbar. I took the kids individually out to the waves and either held them or just held their hands as we tried jumping over the crashing waves. It was the first time both kids enjoyed the water at the beach. Mary Grace got a little scared at the end, but William wore his perma-grin up until the moment I told him we had to go. Hope next year our first visit to the beach won't be on the second-last day of summer. :(

And Monday, the Daddy took the kids to Midtown to go swimming and for an event "games on the pool deck". The games turned out to be some dollar-store crafts, a little disappointing, but the kids enjoyed it. After our first craft (pipe-cleaner spiders and butterflys), we went swimming for almost an hour. We all started to get cold, so we got out and lounged with Roxanne, Katie, and Hurley girl. The kids got juice boxes, Daddy got a beer and we broke out the second craft.

Back home by 4:30 for dinner, then closed the weekend with some miscellaneous activities leading to bedtime. Sadly, the camera stayed home for all the events, so I'm posting some older, but recent photos of the kids at the pool.

William falls asleep in the most uncomfortable position EVER!

William really loves to watch me play Nintendo or Super Nintendo games on the computer. He even helps out on the simpler levels.

One afternoon, we were playing and he I sensed he was getting tired because he laid his heavy little head on my arm as I was playing. He shifted from one side to the other a few times, so I asked if he was tired and wanted to take a nap. Oh course, he replied "no, I'm not sleepy".

I suggested he could close his eyes and take a quick nap, and he was amenable to that. I swear, 5 seconds later, he was out. Cold.

Luckily, I had the camera on my desk, so I snapped the following evidence.



Then I carried him down to his big-boy bed where he proceeded to take a 2-hour power nap. That boy is such a cute napper. Look at that angelic little face!

The Nemo incident

Tonight the kids were taking a bath. Yes, they still bathe together. They were all washed up and just playing nicely so I walked out of the bathroom to get the towels. Next thing I hear Mary Grace screaming and crying and William holding onto the Nemo toy he had just hit Mary Grace in the face with, repeating "sorry, sorry, sorry".

This isn't the first time something like this has happened. Mary Grace seems to be the peace lover and William the war-starter. I admit, I lost my patience and yanked him out of the tub, wrapped him in a towel and carried him down to his room, put him in his bed and closed the door. We were both pretty upset.

Anne came up to help with William and I went back up to check on Mary Grace. Mary Grace was happy as a clam now. I asked what happened, and she said that William accidentally hit her in the face with the Nemo toy when they were playing. Oh jeez, I feel like a heel now.

Then Anne came up with William, and William's story was that he hit her with the Nemo toy on purpose when she squirted some water at him. Wait, what?! Mary Grace proclaiming William's innocence and William proclaiming his guilt?

Regardless, Daddy had to eat some humble pie and apologize to William. Judging how Mary Grace was crying and carrying on, I thought she was genuinely hurt, but there wasn't a mark on her. That girl is destined for Hollywood.

My boy and I finished the night bed buddies and snuggled until he fell asleep, so it's all good. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

You're silly daddy!

I figured I better blog this before it becomes a forgotten memory.

Right after Mary Grace started pre-school, she started saying to me "You're silly, Daddy!", not immediately after doing something silly either. She would say it with no rhyme or reason, just to say it. At first I wondered if maybe her teachers were saying it to her, then I wondered why she was saying it.

Anyway, it got to be really common, and slightly annoying until I figured out that it really means "I love you, Daddy!". So I explained that to Mary Grace, and now whenever she says "You're silly, Daddy", I respond with "Awww, I love you too Mary Grace!". And she immediately comes back with "That's not what it means!".

Well, I think my interpretation is correct, so I'm sticking with it!

New Beds

The kids get home and see their new beds for the first time.

William and those pesky Ls

So William still says most of his L words with W instead. As in Wunch instead of Lunch, Wemon instead of Lemon, etc. We started correcting him once we discovered he could say the L sound, but I think he's learned a lot of the words with W, and old habits are hard to break, even for a 3 year old...

One word we still allow, and will probably always allow with the W however, is Love. I wuv you Mommy. It's far too adorable!

Speaking of that particular statement, Mary Grace has started saying "I love you Mommy" whenever she is about to get into trouble for doing something naughty. It's really cute, but I don't get the logic behind it. Is she thinking that saying the magical phrase will make the consequence go away? Again, so cute, it probably even works sometimes!

Sorry doesn't cut it, William!

(03:14:50 PM) Anne: Mary Grace just told William that sorry doesn't cut it after he hurt her and then apologized!
(03:15:14 PM) Rick: in those words?
(03:15:39 PM) Anne: "sorry doesn't cut it, William" is what she said
(03:15:43 PM) Rick: hehe
(03:15:56 PM) Rick: who says that?
(03:16:37 PM) Anne: maybe me?

Mary Grace and William are both picking up on the things we say. With Mary Grace, I'll say something that she's never heard before and look at her and she's got that faraway stare going and I just know she's processing and storing the information.

Mr. Timmy Tiptoes

Mary Grace's favorite bedtime story is The Tale Of Timmy Tiptoes, by Beatrix Potter. Our next-door neighbor gave Mary Grace a big book of all of Beatrix Potter's stories and that is her favorite by far. Both her and her brother love to sing the two songs "Who's been digging up MY nuts" and "Little bit 'a bread and NO cheese".

Tonight we read the story again and I keep thinking about my little girl growing up and looking back on these moments and said to myself "self - you need to write this in the blog!". Check.

Stealthy bed changer and giggles.

Mary Grace has been occasionally coming into our room at night to sleep for whatever reason. Daddy doesn't mind so much except that she's a major bed hog! Either Anne or I end up carrying her back into her own bed after an either short or long time (which is directly related to her bed-hog-edness.

Last night we were very pleasantly awoken to Mary Graces's giggles as she slept between us. It seems she was having a very happy dream, although she has no recollection of it.

"Look at the flowers on those cukes!"

This reminds me that I have to have Anne record a tickle session with the kids, so that we have a recording of their little giggles.

Popcorn sale during Park Avenue Festival

Anne and the kids had a great idea to open up a stand and sell something in front of our house during the Park Avenue Festival this year. It was decided that homemade kettle corn would be the item to sell, at the low,low price of $0.50 per bag.

So Anne made a sign and set up a table with two chairs and an umbrella and we waited.
And waited.

Their friend Katie came by with her dad and we made our first sale - 2 bags! After that, we had a mix of neighbors and strangers, all perfectly happy to buy bags of kettle corn for .50. Some even contributed to the cause and gave $1.

William got a little confused during all of this and tried to give people money as they were walking past the house.

At several points, Anne had to go inside and pop more popcorn when we ran out. At one point, a tipsy couple came by and the woman said to Mary Grace "Oh, you want some money?" and proceeded to give her a few dollars. Thank you very much!

Soon, the trickle of people stopped and the kids started playing in the front yard instead, picking leaves off of bushes and pulling weeds out of the lawn. Daddy was left with a few bags of kettle corn, which he gladly ate.

Notes for next year: Start before 2:30pm on Sunday. We totally missed out on a large customer base

Also, educate the kids on selling rather than eating. They got bored and ate a large portion of their profits!

Carousel Protocol

One of the things that I've done with the kids since they were old enough to do it is to take them on carousel rides. Mary Grace has been riding the one at Strong Museum regularly, as has William.

It's been a while since I've been to Strong Museum, so I didn't realize there were protocol changes. I do remember the last time we rode, that I wasn't allowed to put my arm around her anymore.

So the ride starts and I casually put my hand over her hip, being the overprotective dad and all, I didn't want her to slip off. So my hand quickly gets brushed off of her and rests on the horse. Mary Grace looks back at my hand and pushes it again, this time all the way back to the tail.

We go around again and she looks back and sees my hand on her horses tail and asks "Could you take your hand off my horse?"

So I obediently follow her directions and focus all my overprotectiveness on my little boy instead. Now he better not try to pull that until he's 10!

Didi, you've been warned. :)



Uncle Ricky and the kids at the Strong Museum Carousel

The kids and daddy at bedtime

The kids wanted to read a book in mommy and daddy's bed, so here we are getting all set. What's missing? The ritual! Brush teeth, wash faces and hands, put on jammies, THEN read a book, then tuck in and kisses and I love yous.

Nate and Jon and Mary Grace and William!

William and Mary Grace with their cousins Jon and Nate, taking a bike-ride on a nice sunny afternoon!

Daddy, I have a question for you

I put William to bed tonight and he was a dream. Very gentle and cute, talking with his little boy voice, and extra snuggly. We read three short books, then he hopped off my lap and climbed into his bed. After kisses and tucking him in, I went across the hall to my bedroom.

A few minutes later, I heard William call me. I went back in and he says

"Daddy, I have a question for you".
"OK, William, go ahead".
"Will I have bad dreams tonight?".
"No, you won't have bad dreams, just try to think of happy things and when you fall asleep you'll dream about those things. You could think about going to the amusement park, or playing with your cousins".
"OK, I'll think about playing with my cousins".

So Nate and Jon, he REALLY loved you guys being here and playing with him. Anne and I had a nice time with you too. :)

William's made-up foods

Lately, William has been making up new foods and renaming existing foods. We hope this is a trend he continues, because we find it so cute!

Mud-crushers - Miniature Snickers bars
Spider Balls - A new type of cereal he made up which has no sugar in it.
Rainbow Dogs - A type of candy.

(Hmmm, I wonder if William knows that they all have 12 letters? Is this some sort of clue?)

A rare good picture of mommy and daddy

We don't come up with good pictures of ourselves very often, but we both liked this one, so up it goes! (at least until Anne asks me to take it down :) **

**picture was changed by Anne.

It's been nice being your neighbor Mike and Doris

With great sadness, we bid farewell and best wishes to Mike and Doris our neighbors for 7 years, and mine for 14 years, the kids for their whole lives! We'll never forget Mary Grace and William yelling over the fence "Hi Mike!" and "Hi Doris!" EVERY TIME Mike or Doris were in their yard. We'll always be reminded of our ex-neighbors by all the great toys they've given the kids over the years and the beautiful quilt that Doris made for each of the kids when they were born.

My favorite story is when I met Mike the first time he handed me a key to his house and a key to his truck. "If you need anything from the house, just let yourself in and take it; if you need the truck, don't ask me, just take it." It doesn't get much better than that. Mike taught me about building retaining walls, hanging drywall, using leverage to your advantage, trimming trees, and most importantly, pacing yourself and singing while you work.

We threw a little neighborhood surprise party for Mike and Doris a few weeks back and here are some of the highlight photos.


Mike and Doris



The gang



The girls waiting for cake



The boy being a boy

I hope we can keep in touch and see each other again because we will all miss you!

A funny thing happened at Kidtown tonight

As typical on Wednesday evenings, Rick teaches a class at Midtown Athletic Club. I drop the kids off at KidTown, their child care. The kids usually have a great time, and aside from a little over-indulgence with TV viewing.

Tonight when I went to pick up the kids at 7:30, I was very surprised to hear that William fell asleep and was still sleeping. So I walk over to the TV area and there's my boy, sound asleep with a loaner blanket with 5 kids all around him watching TV (including Mary Grace).

That boy was OUT COLD. I picked him up and took him to the car and he barely stirred. Only when I mentioned stopping at Wendys did he snap out of it!

No, William, 5:00am is not morning-time!

William had a rare bad night last night. Usually he's asleep at 8:30pm and we don't hear a peep from him until the next morning at 7:30ish. So it was very alarming to hear him screaming "Mommy!!!!!!!" with some urgency at 4:30am. Anne went and tended to his needs (he though he saw a bug in his book basket) and came back to bed. Then again at 4:45 with the bug thing, this time in his laundry basket. Dozing off around 5:00am and the screaming resumes! So I got him and brought him into our bed.

Unfortunately, the sun started coming up which in William's mind means it's time to get up. So he laid there restlessly for about 15 minutes before I finally got up with him. Let me remind you that there's not a lot to do at 5:15am. He played some games, drank some milk, then started distracting me (I was trying to do some work remotely)

So I got dressed and we took a trip to Wegmans to get some groceries, then came back and unloaded, then ate a donut. OK... 6:15am. :(

So we went back to the games and some TV and some tinkertoys. That stretched things out until I was finally able to go to work.

Unfortunately for William, today is an action packed Seabreeze with friends day. Anne and I were taking bets on when exactly he would conk out. I predicted before lunch, she said just after. So at about 1:30pm, he started getting really whiney and impatient, followed by a need to "rest" in the stroller, immediately followed my sleep.