Tis the season...

There were a lot of great gifts, visiting with family and friends, working on the house, crafts, activities, but the biggest change for our family happened on Christmas night.

Right when we were getting ready to eat ice cream cake, courtesy of Grandma, William started wiggling his loose front tooth and it finally came out! Finally, William's smile is evened out!



Now we're all looking forward to seeing how those beautiful new teeth look, hopefully in time for his birthday!

Elf On The Shelf

William, thinking he's figured out the mysterious nightly change in where the Elf On The Shelf sits...

"Mommy, are you sure you aren't moving the Elf around after we go to bed with a shovel?"

(He knows that people are not allowed to touch the Elf...)

A little holiday hike

This morning the Regans joined us for a hike in the woods at Washington Grove, followed by lunch at a greasy spoon, then apple and popcorn buying at Schutts apple mill. It was an awesome way for the kids to get out of the house for several hours.

Here's a few photos from the hike.

William's memory surprises us!

This morning we were driving home from the public market and listening to FM 91.5, WXXI. An old song came on, sung by a woman and after about 1 minutes into the song, William says from the back seat "Daddy,this song is from the Wizard of Oz".

Now, he's only seen that movie once or twice and the last time was at least a year ago. So I listened to it a little longer and told him that it wasn't from that movie. He disagreed at first, then relented and agreed with me.

At the end of the song, the DJ announced it was by Judy Garland! So although he got the fact that the song was in the movie wrong, he recognized Ms. Garland's voice and associated it with the movie.

Pretty impressive!

Here's the song. It's cute, especially for those parents raising 'tweens.

William's shark

We got up this morning to find that *someone* had ripped the head off of William's coloring book shark cutout.

So William asks Anne and I if we ripped his shark. We both respond no.

Then he asks Mary Grace:

William: Mary Grace, did you rip my shaak?
Mary Grace: No, I did not rip your shark
William: Well, I'm going to blame you anyway.

Thankfully there was no swift retribution.

Can you guess where the heat comes out?

Halloween!

This year, like the last, we group trick or treated for maximum enjoyment. Here are the kids walking down to the meeting house in costume.



Although we were a little late, we got a pseudo-group photo anyway, this one in front of our house.



After 1.5 hours of candy collecting, the kids rushed home to sort their candy, they even think this is the best part.




William proclaimed before falling asleep that THIS WAS THE BEST HALLOWEEN EVER!

More words that William has misunderstood

I think I've blogged it before, but he still pronounces his last name "Schriver". You wish, W.

Also he still says "eye bulb" instead of "eye ball"

And a new one is "apple cidern" instead of "apple cider".

As I lay in bed with him at night listening to him talk about the days events, I remark how amazing it is that at 5 year old (and even earlier), kids have so much ability to communicate. He's constantly adding new words to his vocabulary and can express his thoughts very clearly.

Little Mr. and Mrs. Wake Daddy Up

Even when the little munchkins in the house sleep well, they still have this habit of coming into our bedroom when they first wake up in the morning. Up until recently, they (one, the other, or both) would just climb into bed and snuggle with me. (Just me; they know better than to interrupt Mommy's sleep. :)

Lately, they started this new thing. They stand in front of me while I'm sleeping. Then they start tapping my shoulder or head. Three times. Followed by a pause. Then three more times. This goes on until I wake up.

Maybe it's just me, but I find this particularly annoying. I imagine they somehow learned this from watching Sponge Bob, which as you may know is the most annoying show known to mankind.

I think it's a great idea for an alarm clock. Rather than waking to audio, wake to TAP TAP TAP... TAP TAP TAP.

So lately, my response is to tell one to wake up the other and go downstairs to watch TV. I believe I learned this statement from my parents.

I know someday they'll be getting themselves up, will be self-sufficient, and I'll yearn for the days when they depended on me for something as simple as walking down the stairs in the morning, so I'm trying to grin and go with the flow.

Hi Uncle Ricky

This post is for you. The following happened at bedtime tonight

William: Daddy, did you have any brothers or sisters when you were a little boy?
Daddy: Yes, I had two brothers. Mommy had three brothers.
William: Uncle Ricky is bald.
Daddy: Yes, he is.
William: Was Uncle Ricky bald when he was a little boy?
Daddy: No, he got bald when he got older. There's a picture of Uncle Ricky with a full head of hair at Mamma's house.
William: I think Uncle Ricky would look scary with hair.
William: Maybe he could wear a wig for Halloween!

Mary Grace FINALLY loses her first tooth!

It's been a very upsetting year and a half for Mary Grace. It all started when William lost his first tooth (naturally). My little girl cried and cried because she is the older sibling and she should lose her tooth first!

Then as all the kids in her classes have lost teeth, poor Mary Grace was the only little girl that still had all her baby teeth. Imdeed, at school today, she was the only one in her class to not have lost a tooth yet!

Very upsetting indeed.

Well, all that is behind her now. Her very wiggly tooth got looser today, then it started to bleed a little, then she decided to just pull it out. Of course, Mommy had to consult our dentist, but by the time she typed out a message, Mary Grace had already pulled it out!

So here's a picture my my angel showing off her new missing tooth at the garage we walked to tonight.



She's so relieved!

Tooth fairy, you've been waiting a LONG time to visit this little girl!

I'm trying to save up $100!

Mary Grace just told me that she wants to save up to $100. I asked how she plans on getting money.

Her response? "Every time I go to Aunty Rose's house, she gives me $5."

So I told her she has to go 20 times, and she's good with that. Aunty Rose better get to the bank!

Naples Grape Festival and Soccer

The weekend summary:

On Saturday morning we went to Seton soccer practice. I've been hanging with Mary Grace and letting William venture on his own. Every week during the scrimmage, Mary Grace can be found in the middle of the field, all alone either looking up at the sky, down at the ground, or admiring her finger nails. She does great during the warmups and drills, she just does not like the scrimmage part.

This week she started crying. Alone. In the middle of the field. I went and got her and talked her into trying again, which she did, until one of the kids kicked a ball that glanced off the top of her head (she wasn't looking, thankfully). That was enough for her. As Mommy says, maybe Mary Grace is not an athlete.

I think next week I'll switch it up.

Today we went to the Naples Grape Festival. It was a long ride there, but I told the kids to watch out for the bear at the side of the road where I have always stopped for grape pies in the past. Here are the kids at said bear.



William decided to frisk the bear and found a bunch of tools in his apron. Thankfully he didn't ask if he could keep them. And here's the deliciousness that we bought this year.



The grapes were sooo sweet and tasty that we upgraded to the large basket so that Anne could try making a homemade grape pie or two.


We proceeded to the festival and scored a decent parking spot on the main road then walked to the festival. It wasn't very far, but the crowds made it take forever.

We immediately went for food and decided to keep it simple with hot dogs all around (Zweiglers, as my mother-in-law calls them)

As I stood up from our shady picnic spot behind the vendors, I saw a look of horror on Annes face, then she says "THERE'S A GIANT BUG ON YOU". Now I don't dig bugs. When there's a bug on me I usually swat it away, and run away screaming, but this message was confusing. What kind of bug? Where exactly is this bug? So I stood there. Looking at my wife looking at me with a look of fear and disgust on her face. Then she swatted it off my shirtsleeve, screaming the whole time. What was this horrible pest that was about to consume me you might be wondering? Here it is:



Yes, a cute caterpillar. Lets just say the people working the booth that we were picnicking behind definitely knew we were city-folk. :)

After all the commotion, William entered into a single-minded goal to get some cotton candy and Mary Grace scored some new doll clothes. We walked the festival for a little over an hour, then made our way back to the car.

On the way back, we stopped at our favorite scenic overlook in Naples, looking down almost the entire length of Canandaigua lake. Here's my favorite girl enjoying the view with me



After we got home, the Regan kids came over and everyone got to play while Daddy worked on the basement. Continue on to http://rickdidit.blogspot.com for more on that.

Best dream

Mary Grace has unfortunately acquired her back-to-school virus and is home sick today. I'm working from home while mommy is working. So far she's slept, then watched "Night At The Museum". She just told me "Daddy, I had the best dream ever last night!" I asked what the dream was about and she replied "Mommy was hiding all my birthday presents in my closet and I saw all of them! There were two American Girl dolls and a bunch of pretty outfits!" Now she's watching American Girl doll stop-motion videos on YouTube using Darrick's Android tablet.

End of summer, 2011

It was a whirlwind end of summer for us. It started in July with our wonderful family from Arizona visiting. The kids had a great time with their cousins. They looked forward to the visit all spring and early summer and when the day arrived, they were uber-excited.

The "kids"

Crazy swinging on the kids new swingset!

The girls enjoying time at the big summer family reuinion

After our visitors returned to Arizona, we had another cousin come stay with us for almost a week. Sarah was a great guest and the kids had an awesome time playing with her. She even babysat the kids one day so that Anne and I could (independently) go to work. Here are some photos of a little summer marshmallow roasting we had one evening:

Not sure who's expression is better in this shot!

Cousins!

Next, we took a trip to Boston and Deerfield to both visit the American Girl store and to visit the Thiels. The American Girl store was a huge hit with Mary Grace and Anne and William and I lasted about 15 minutes there, then we went off in search of miniature golf. We met back at the store a few hours later and had a nice dinner at the restaurant right in the store!
Then we headed to Deerfield, fully aware that hurricane Irene was approaching. We spent a night and a day both enjoying our hosts company, their beautiful house and their wonderful kids. We saw the Eric Carle museum, a cool dinosaur museum, then attended a tomato festival! After a great dinner, we checked the weather. We had hoped for the best, that the storm would dissipate or veer off to the ocean, but that was not meant to be. So we sadly packed up and left that night at 9:00pm, returning to Rochester a little after 2:00am. In retrospect, it was the right decision as there was a LOT of rain and flooding and our return trip would probably have been 10x worse the next day.
And that brings us to the final week of summer and the first day of school.
The kids had plenty of time to consider the end of summer and the coming school year. Mary Grace was excited to start a new year and William was a little anxious to have a new teacher and new friends. All-in-all, it was a painless first day. The kids were up early because of the excitement. Mommy had everything in order and ready to go, and off we sent the kids on the bus. Mary Grace was a great big sister, showing William the ropes and even sitting with him on his first day.
Mommy followed the bus to school and took some more photos when the bus arrived. Here's our memories of that day.

All ready to go out and wait for the bus! Looking so beautiful and handsome!

William looking slightly nervous	The expressions tell it all!
Mama came to help out!	And off they go. Let the tears flow!

Private screening of "Tangled"

This weekend, William was all about playing his Scooby Doo game one the Wii. He loves watching Scooby Doo, and add in an interactive component and he's all over it. It's actually a pretty well done game and I enjoy it too!

Anyway, suddenly, I notice that Mary Grace is nowhere to be found, so I pause the game. I go to the second floor and call "Mary Grace?" No response. Again "Mary Grace?" "I'm in here Daddy."

So I got into her room, which is empty, and open the closet door. Way in back of the closet, behind all of her clothes, a little head pops out. "What are you doing back there?" I ask.

"I was just playing on the iPad." "Ohh, What are you playing?"
Umm. I was... Ummm".

At this point I'm sensing some potential deception coming my way

"I was watching something." "Oh, what were you watching?"

"I was watching Netflix." "Oh, Netflix. What were you watching on Netflix?"

"Ummm. I was watching...." "You don't remember?"

"Well, there's this movie that I've always wanted to see"

"So I saw it on Netflix and I was watching that" "Oh, what movie is it"

"Umm... Umm... It's Tangled"

Anne had been scanning that movie to make sure it was appropriate for the kids, since Disney movies cannot be trusted blindly. Mary Grace must have launched Netflix and that movie came up to resume.

Long story, I know, but it was just so cute that she went to such lengths keep us from knowing she was watching a movie that in the end was target marketed to her

The chessboard incident

Anne was recently organising some things in the basement in preparation for the upcoming basement remodel when she came across something disturbing.

I had gotten a beautiful marble chess board as a gift in college. It had a nice marble base with black/gray marble squares and carved marble chess pieces. I had kept it safe ever since, placing it out of harms way and storing it in the upper shelves of closets when I wasn't using it. I've had it for nearly 26 years.

Well, it got organised from it's safe resting place to a shelf along with a bunch of kids toys in the basement. And this morning, Anne discovered the base cracked into 7 pieces, hopelessly ruined.

Anne asked Mary Grace and William what happened to it and both denied any knowledge, both equally convincing.

I got home from work and upon inspecting the damage, Mary Grace stepped up and admitted she broke it a few weeks back while taking a different toy off the shelf. She also got hurt when it happened, with a little cut to her shin but kept that to herself too.

She took the pieces and stacked them in the back of the shelf, then put a bunch of other toys on top of it, obviously hoping that nobody would find it. But mommy finds all.

I'm proud that she admitted breaking it, and her only punishment was a hug and a kiss for Daddy. I'm also a little disappointed that it's gone, but not disappointed enough to replace it (right now).

So we have some lying, some shame, some confession, some forgiveness and some gratitude for a good lesson learned.

Mary Grace's photos

Here are a bunch of photos from summer 2011 that Mary Grace took

4th Friday off in July

This week was a wash. Plans started forming for a fishing outing after William woke up on Monday morning telling me that he dreamed that he and I went fishing and he caught a big fish. I asked some of my friends about fishing in Rochester and got some good information, but ultimately, my lack of experience and lack of any sort of fishing tackle shot down that plan.

Then I had another plan to take the kids to a canoe rental place near Genesee Valley Park, but after discussing it with Anne, we decided that the kids are probably not mature enough to be trusted on a boat in deep water.

So, we opted for a morning at home playing on the swing set, doing some gardening, and playing some games. Mommy came home at around noon and then we all did something or another. :)

3rd Friday off in July

This week we all did what we intended to do last week, that being going to kirshaw park in Canandaigua! I somehow managed to get the kids out of the house by 9:30 am and we arrived there at around 10:10.

The parking lots were still empty, but there were a lot of parents and kids heading in to the park to set up. We paid our dues ($3) and found a nice spot under the pergolas that was somewhat shaded and somewhat sunny.

Although we had just finished breakfast 1 hour ago, the kids demanded a snack before swimming. Pretzels and popcorn consumed, we headed into the water. It was smooth and clear as glass, and stayed somewhat shallow almost the entire swim area. We headed to the deep part and practiced our swimming for a while, then moved back and played beach ball catch. Some other kids joined in, so that was fun in the sun.

Next, we returned to the beach and built sand castles for a while, a very long while for William. I had sun screened him, but he was hanging out at the beach aso long after Mary Grace lost interest that i had to keep returning to add more clothes and a hat.

Aftere finally prying William away from the beach, we relaxed in the sun/shade for a while, then grumbling tummies directed us to McDonalds for happy meals and fish sandwiches. After lunch we drive to DiDi's house and spent several hours there playing with old school toys.

Finally homes, we chilled for a little while, then took the wagon to Park Ave to have dinner at Collies, followed by ice cream at Abbotts.

The kids are sleeping now, hopefully dreaming up a plan for my next Friday-daddy-adventure! Two more to go, making the most of it!