William's mis-hearing

Heard William utter the term "eyebulb" instead of "eyeball". He's combining eyeball and light bulb.

When he was a few years younger he also thought I was talking about a thunderstorm when I uttered the term "undershirt".

I remember having a lot of these growing up. I encourage the kids to ask questions, but for some reason they've already got it into their heard that learning is what goes on at school and fun is what goes on at home.

Photos by Mary Grace

I was luckily enough to score a "Bag Of Crap" during a Woot-Off on woot.com a while back. One of the items I got was a cute little caribener digital camera with a whopping 640x480 resolution, no on-screen preview, and no flash.

Mary Grace recently rediscovered it and here are the photos she took (all pictures were run through Picasa "I'm feeling lucky" filter due to lack of flash).

Anne suggested I tell you that there are 2 decent photos out of the 45 in this slide show. :)

Waking up to a spanking.

Last night William climbed into my bed at about 5:00am. Since I was awake, I almost started to wake up and start my Sunday super early, but the prior day work got the better of me and I decided to stay in bed and snuggle.

That lasted about 45 minutes, at which point I was awakened to William rapidly spanking my arm, probably 10 times. I asked him what he was doing at which point he opened his eyes and said "I'm spanking you...". If there are any social services folks reading, please trust me when I say that we've never spanked our kids.

Next I asked why he was spanking me? He turned over and went back to sleep.

Bet when you read the title you didn't think Daddy was getting a spanking, right?

Internet savey Mary Grace

Talking with Anne about my upcoming bike ride, and suddenly I hear "Friday" by Rebecca Black start playing on the ipad, followed by Mary Grace, with a beaming smile, saying

"I did that all by myself!"

Yes, she went to YouTube, typed "Friday" and played the video.

Straight up with a chaser!

After coming down with a pretty mild case of Strep throat, Mary Grace had to go on antibiotics. Since both Anne and I have a penicillin allergy, I should have figured that Mary Grace was a candidate too, but I didn't. Well, don't you know after a week of being on it she developed hives ALL OVER.

Freaked us out a little, so much so that we took Mary Grace to her pediatrician who pronounced judgement. Benadryl at such and such an interval. Duhh.

So the brave little thing decided to take it without any mixers, as have always been a requirement for medicine in the past. And she's done well with it. Tonight I gave her the dosage and asked if she wanted it "straight up".

Mary Grace: "What does that mean?"

Daddy: "It means, you don't mix it with anything"

Mary Grace: "OK, I'll take it straight up with a chaser"

My little daughter, tossing around the big girl bar terms. Too funny.

BTW, the chaser was apple juice.

Bedtime with William.

Tonight William lost 15 minutes of evening play time because he was naughty at the vet's office. So we're going to bed and he says "we didn't even have any time to play because you were washing the dishes".

I explained that everybody who eats also washes dishes, and the he could have helped me so that it would take less time.

He replied "But I want to be a boxer when I grow up, not a guy that washes dishes!".

So now he's successfully stalled bedtime and having a "bedtime snack" in the kitchen, which will inevitably lead to stalling at teeth brushing time, stalling a book selection time, stalling at book reading time. So much for going to bed early...

A warm spring day

Here's a few photos I snapped of the kids after having our first dinner on the back deck on May 13, 2011. The weather was sunny and the high was near 80. The kids had their bathing suits on and were running through the sprinkler in the back yard, just having a blast!

The new playhouse and swing set, part 1 of 2

Please, oh please, let this only be a 3 weekend project...

Starting with last weekend, I started gathering and prepping my supplies. Pressure treated wood and fasteners, then cutting, routing, and stacking. The wood then got to relax and dry out for a week as I made plans for assembly.

My awesome brother from Buffalo volunteered to come to Rochester to help put it together! We started at around 10, and by 3:00 we had the structure assembled. After some time leveling the whole thing, we moved on to the deck support boards and deck. This went pretty well despite some missteps using the chalk line. We next moved on to railings for the side and back. At this point we decided to wrap it up for the day.

The weather actually mostly cooperated except for the rain from noon until 4, when some of the assembly had to be done in the garage. We had to don ponchos for some of the outdoor work. All in all, it was a productive day and we're all pleased with the progress.

Next weekend should be final assembly and prototyping the swings and slide and sandbox.

After that comes the nonstop fun that a play set in one's yard will bring!

Miss Preston

William's teacher has an assistant this year and her name is Miss Preston. Ever since the beginning of school William has been talking about Miss Preston. Tonight at bed time I asked him why he likes Miss Preston so much. Here's his response:

"I like miss preston because she never gets mad at me... She never puts her eyebrows down".

I just loved that he put the angry face into a few simple words like that. He continued:

"Miss preston has the prettiest blue eyes. I just like her so much! Even when I do something naughty, she says 'William, you shouldn't do that' instead of getting mad. I LIKE HER SO MUCH!

My first bike ride with my kids!

We finally got William a big boy bike and Mary Grace got upgraded from her 12" bike with training wheels to a 16" bike. Ever since then they have both been so excited to go on bike rides.

We took a ride up and down the street a few nights ago and I was having trouble keeping up with William (aka Cannonball - thanks Michael Bell). So tonight, I got my bike out too and all three of us took a little ride together!

We rode down towards the pedestrian bridge, then rode up the ramp to the playground at School #1. I was most impressed with their ability to ride up the ramp, then on the way back with their ability to use the brakes on their bikes to slow themselves down.

William lost some of his Cannonball energy towards the end, and I noticed that when Mary Grace's helmet came off after the ride that her hair was a little sweaty. So we had fun and got a little exercise too!

Next time, Anne has offered to come along as well!

At the Farmer's Brunch

Last month I was asked by Mary Grace's school to volunteer for the Farmer's Brunch. To go along with what the kids were learning at that time they had parents donate food and time to run a parent/child brunch.

The parents helped the kids cook various foods, then we got to eat what we cooked! It sounded good to me and I had all the fixin's for a good cowboy costume, so yeehaw...

Mary Grace got a new bandana and a pretty red straw hat and just looked so cute!

Mary Grace and I and several other kids all ended up on pancake duty, which was perfect since we've been making pancakes together since she was 3. The kids measured and poured and mixed, and even poured the batter onto the skillet. The cowboy took over from there.

When the food was all done, all the parents got to join the kids for a nice brunch.

The parts I'll remember for a while are: being called "Silly Mr. Daddy man" by a bunch of kids, because Mary Grace told them that's my name. ??? Also, getting to meet a bunch of Mary Grace's friends from her class that I'd never met before.

Here's a few photos of the fun event!

The Big Birthday Party

William has been looking forward to the Big Birthday Party at Bernies Bouncers. He invited his whole preschool class to the big shindig, and there were a few regrets, so he got to invite a bunch of his friends from the neighborhood too!

Bernies Bouncers is highly recommended. Rather than subjecting your party to the public and losing most of your party most of the time, they have a private party room with big inflated slide things, games and a self-propelled train things on a track. Only your group occupies this room for the duration of your party. It's far superior. :)

We had very good luck at the event as nobody misbehaved and there were only a few small bumps and scratches. William got a naughty scratch on his tummy that is now being covered by a cool Dracula band aid (Thanks Andrea and Larry!).

The pizza and cake were delicious and then the party was over! No prep and no cleanup made it much easier on Mommy and Daddy. Now if we could only find a place to store all the toys this birthday season has brought William!



Happy 5th birthday, William!

William's parsing skills

So we've noticed that William is getting better at listening and parsing out important (to him) information from what people are saying. Here's an example.

Anne: William, it's time to get dressed for school
William:
Anne: William, you have to get dressed. I'm not going to tell you again!
William: (does something else)
Anne: William, get dressed now or you'll be late for school!
William: Mommy, you said you weren't going to tell me again!

He finally did get dressed though...

Anne notes that he's also started quoting commercials in his hard-sell to get her to buy him things. For example:

William: (watches butterfly garden commercial)
William: Mommy, I want a butterfly garden
Anne: Well, we'll see.
William: Mommy, if you buy me the butterfly garden, you can get twice as many butterflies for only a little bit more money!

William's birthday cake, and his reaction to it

Mommy decided to make William's birthday cake, so he got to choose the flavor (chocolate) and the design (easter egg). After spending hours in the kitchen baking the cake and decorating it, here's the final product:




And Mommy called the kids into the kitchen to see the final product. William's response upon seeing it? "It's awful". He was apparently expecting the cake to be in the shape of an egg.

Happy spring; first day of kids swimming season at the pool this afternoon from 1-2pm. April 23 as the first day, what will be the last day??

Rainy afternoon at the movies with the Regans

William got a watch

As a gift "from Blast"... Today he asked me if he can pause his watch while we go outside to play.

I really love the refreshing thoughts like that which we've been programmed not to even consider!

He also said that a watch can be turned into a clock if you stick it to a wall...

William looses a tooth!

We all know the story about how William lost his first tooth. According to Mary Grace "Daddy knocked it out". It was actually a really bad fall on the stairs, but I accept responsibility since I put him here. :(

Anyway, William's second tooth has decided to meet the tooth fairy. It had been loosening but William was content to leave it in place. Then one morning he was eating my homemade bread and I hear him scream "MY TOOTH!" Mary Grace came running and sure enough that cute little tooth was in William's hand.

So now he's got a gap that he can fit a straw into with his teeth clenched. Surely that's worth something?




It should be noted that during the shooting of this video, Mary Grace was in her bedroom crying because she hasn't lost any teeth yet. I tried to convince her that little girls should lose all their teeth at the same time. I'm not sure she bought into it though.

Afterwards, William placed the tooth in his special "tooth fairy pillow" under his regular pillow. And don't you know that the tooth fairy came overnight and left $5 and a quarter too! Yikes, inflation; when I was little, it was just a quarter!

A snow William!

William and I played for hours in the snow last weekend, but sadly our goals for an epic snowball battle did not materialize as the snow was not good for packing.

We also had to shelve our plans for a snowman for the same reason. But I was able to make a SNOW WILLIAM! With him posing, I shoveled the snow all around him and stuck a carrot in his mouth. Doesn't my boy make a convincing snowman?



The next day it warmed up and we had our snowball battle, with a uniquely designed fort for each of us. After the battle, we started digging tunnels in the snow. We had some quite involved tunnels made, then exhaustion set in and we retired indoors for some relaxing TV and hot chocolate. A great few days as winter winds down!

Mary Grace is officially 6 years old.

So far this year, we had a friends party for some of her kindergarten friends. Sadly, Mary Grace couldn't invite everyone on her list, but we had a good sized group for our house size.

It was a Tinkerbell/Pixie Hollow theme party with each room decorated for a season and costumes optional. It was a windy and snowy day right after a big mid-winter melt and we all stayed cozy in the house. The party lasted a little over two hours and consisted of a butterfly decorating craft, lunch, bag decorating, another craft, a pinata and finally cake and ice cream.

	All ready for the party
	Cake time!
	Opening presents!

On Mary Grace's birthday proper, we got her a surprise -- a stay at a local hotel with a nice swimming pool and hot tub in a heated atrium. Walking in to the hotel, William was first to ask "does this hotel have a swimming pool?". Upon hearing yes, the screaming started.

After checking in to our room, we swam for a little over two hours. Then as hunger began to kick in, we went back to the room and changed, then headed out for Mary Grace's dinner of choice, pizza. Dinner at Pizzeria Uno, ice cream sundaes and William falling asleep there (at 7:45!), then back to the hotel. I offered more swimming but the kids were tuckered out.

The next morning, we had an early brunch in the hotel restaurant, then it was back to the pool until checkout time.

The kids had a great time mid-winter swimming and they've been asking to go back to the pool to swim ever since...

	Hamming it up, poolside
	Mary Grace and her daddy

Leg Hair.

William: Daddy, why do you have hair on your legs?
Daddy: Why do you think?
William: Because you're an alien.
Daddy: LOL!

I wish I remembered all of these micro-interactions. Sadly, some of the funniest ones have been long forgotten.