At the tone, the time will be...

The boys of course have been park-crazed for years. Wednesday it was time to get L in on the action, with her very first swing opportunity. Meh and O took her to a favorite park after picking up O from school. L was placed into a swing and immediately loved it, with much smiling and laughter while both her brother and mommy pushed her. I had my first experience today with the L joy of swinging:

I suspect soon I'll be having to master pushing three swings at the same time.

As we've documented, Z has quite the love of schedules and routines. Frequently when he's excited about a new place, he'll talk about the time that he'll go there and come back. And with a new activity he did for the first time this weekend, he kept asking if there would be a clock there. (He had a great time; it will be wonderful to have this as a future opportunity for him!) So it wasn't a huge stretch to get him a watch of his very own, and Meh and he picked out one at the store yesterday, complete with a button that makes it flash a variety of colors. The only minus is that the time setting buttons are also easily accessible/accidentally pressable.

O was so excited about Z's watch that we knew he was going to want his own; we went (with the boys in full Seahawks paraphernalia for the big game) to the local store (just before said game, so it was a bit of a chaotic mess -- though thankfully not by the NFL-license-lacking kids watches section). I was mildly shocked to see O pass up on a cute Cars-themed watch, but he picked the always popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles one with a fancy fat wristband, and he was pretty darn adorable continuing to read and ask about the time for the rest of the day -- even with a giant bowl of ice cream in front of him.

Show time

Last month we heard from friends R and M that there was a live-action Disney "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" show coming to a local stadium. So after consulting with O for approximately 5 seconds and receiving the emphatic yes, we went in with them and got tickets. This was in advance of our recent Disney live show experience at the mothership, so I really had no idea what to expect. After the Disneyland show, I thought it might be something like that, though I was unclear on how they'd be scaling things up for a sports arena and hundreds (thousands?) of kids.

The show was today, preceded by an energetic lunch at a restaurant "in a rocket?!" Not quite, but the boys were both very excited. J had even graciously brought an extra whirling flashlight toy, as wise parents R and M had indicated the souvenir selling was alarmingly prevalent. After queuing up in the rain, and then explaining to O what precisely hockey is (seeing the signage for the Thunderbirds along the side of the building - ugh, I'm a failure as a sports-love-imbuing dad) we were into the venue -- which was indeed an arena decked out with thousands of seats while vendors hawked a number of Disney-themed wares (along with snacks). The show itself was not quite of the caliber of the one at Disneyland, with the puppets replaced by live actors (most of whom were accompanying their entirely lip-synced lines with highly exaggerated body movements -- designed to engage the preschoolers I suppose?) But the boys had a fabulous time and, as at the Magic Kingdom, the show ended with an explosion of "gold doubloons" (yellow tissue paper circles) showering down from the ceiling, which O of course once more collected, hoarded, and stuffed into his pockets while the staff tried to start shooing kids out for the later afternoon show. All in all, a fun and successful father/son date - thanks to R, M, and J for the invitation!

Treasures (and also geocaches)

Last night we had a late abandon of our planned Parents Night Out, as both boys had temperatures. But fear not, O suggested "the next Star Wars", so it was on to The Empire Strikes Back. Z actually fell asleep, but O stayed riveted through the whole thing -- though he talked his way right through the whole father reveal, so I had to back up the film to make sure he caught it. Mind. Blown. ("But why?")

Today all of the fevers had broken and the boys were wild, so it was time to get them out of the house so L had at least some shot at a nap. I decided it was time to continue exploring the boys' new geocaching obsession, and a nearby park looked to have multiple secretly just-out-of-sight treasure troves.

Geocaches are often a bit tricky (on a previous visit to this park, we'd wandered around an area that clearly had one, but couldn't find the specific stone/fencepost/nook where it was stashed), but for cache number one today, we had found the right location in about 10 minutes, and 5 minutes later I emerged with a waterproof canister attached to a wooden bird; O and Z were both delighted, commenting on it and wanting to check it out and pose with it for a picture for mommy.

Spot two was a bit trickier; these often depend on both luck and a bit on the accuracy of GPS reporting and your phone's magnetometer; for the latter two, my phone is pretty lame. We walked past some kind of busy bike obstacle course event in progress, but waded around it towards the second tagged spot, and explored at least two wrong paths before finding the correct one. While we were looking, suddenly a beautiful deer walked out of the woods in front of us. I stopped the boys, whispered, and pointed her out to them, and we all looked at each other for a half minute before she hopped away -- it was very special to be able to share that with O and Z. And that sustained us through the remainder of the search; 20 minutes and several more backtracks later, I decided to check an area that was in plain sight, and sure enough, a sneaky puzzle (also bird-shaped) contained our second treasure of the day. The boys had a great time, and it was just so nice to be able to spend it with them in nature and in pursuit of a family goal resulting in a few little shared discoveries.

Cut the turkey

For this episode of "successful picture of three kids", I present some blur, some looking off camera, but at least all smiles. Happy Thanksgiving! We had a festive and high energy celebration of 22 people (14 adults, 8 kids, 2 babies); needless to say, it was a bit hectic - but lovely and yummy as always; Meh and mima outdid themselves, selecting the breast only cuts from the grocery store meant way too much turkey (though far more success with the actual carving), and of course the challah was in high demand. Grandma and J came to visit from Michigan for the week as well, and had a lovely time hanging out with the boys and L. Grandma even got to put her very first girl in a dress (though one of her friends later disputed this, recalling grandma helping out with one of that friend's baby daughters).

Of course the boys had their traditional sleepover at grandma and J's hotel (it sounded like some amount of sleeping actually did occur, though many stories were read first). L continued to show off her backwards crawling to everyone's amusement, and even chowed down on most everything that was at the Thanksgiving table - turkey, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and more.

In earlier news, this past weekend was another rainy/gloomy affair, so I decided to introduce the boys to the pastime of bowling at a local alley. It was like turning back time walking through the door, with the same combination of banner beer ads, funky carpet smell, pull tabs, and of course the classic rental shoes. Thankfully, these fine folks offered automated bumper bowling, where bumpers would physically pop up in the gutters when it was the boys' turn and then back down for mine -- it mostly worked. The scores were embarrassing (well, mine was), but everyone had a great time rolling (or in O's case, hurling) the ball down the lane. And there were even some light math lessons ("you knocked down 3 pins - how many are left?"). Z was a great fan of everyone's bowling, and would hilariously bowl, cheer quickly, then run back to his seat to watch the ball slowly (sooo slowly, though the boys' balls only got stuck like five times) wobble down the lane. The shoes were the favorite part for O, as of couse they had his favorite color (blue) in them.

Cache and Carry

What? That last post had not a single gratuitous pic of L? Just a Facebook link? Okay, rectified here, with a shot of her at the boys' new favorite indoor rainy day activity, jumping on large trampolines until they get sweaty and exhausted. She obviously enjoys going and watching the activities as well. You're welcome.

I've talked at length about O's obsession with "treasure" (perhaps encouraged a little too much by that trove he unearthed at the beach?); every time we go to a park, he's looking on the ground for treasures that he can keep. More often than not he spies litter (wrappers, bottle caps, etc.), but occasionally there's actually a penny or something interesting and non-gross enough to take home. Over the past few weeks, Meh reminded me of the sport of letterboxing, where people around the country hide a small artifact and then post clues online for others to find the item (and then rehide it for others to discover as well). Many of these are hidden in parks and woods, and sure enough, when I checked, the boys' favorite park was indeed a spot with a buried letterbox. Alas, the sport (or at least this trove) appears to have been aged out of fashion, as the boys and I followed the precise instructions but there was no letterbox to be found (the box had been hidden nearly 10 years ago, and the website was feeling a bit long in the tooth as well).

But never fear, in actuality it appears the pastime has rather just morphed in our connected mobile world to something called geocaching, where in addition to (or sometimes in place of) clues are provided GPS coordinates, and of course apps on every phone (yes, even mine) that let you kind of sort of orienteer to the prize. We returned to the same park, which claimed to have a geocache, and after the prerequisite 'exercise' (me pushing them on the swings), O and I intently followed the instructions while L snoozed and Z played with mommy. We looked very carefully at the hiding place, and lifted a seemingly innocuous rock to uncover a tiny black canister filled with a scroll of paper that you sign indicating you've discovered it. O was in awe and super excited, but also concerned when I indicated it was time to re-hide the cache for the next, um, geocacher? Afterwards, he talked about how cool it was, but how it wasn't treasure because you couldn't take it home with you. I asked if he wanted to do it again, and he said he'd rather find treasure. We'll just have to see if Z gets interested as well.

Electronic report card

Grandma and J's visit wrapped up nicely, and they're back in Michigan -- soon to head to New York to meet their other new grandchild! We all had such a nice time and were sad to see them go. Z said it best: "we'll definitely see them another time". The boys have been wearing their new grandma and J-gifted Cars pajamas nearly constantly too. Other than that, it's just been back to our regular schedule around here.

Today I received an interesting e-mail -- it was a hyperlink to O's "report card" for his recently completed set of swimming classes. Because he takes lessons at his preschool, I've only gotten to see him swimming once, so it was super cool that they actually provide some documentation. And it was actually a very nicely formatted web page, with quotes from the teacher interspersed with photos, which I of course scraped for our own archival purposes. O will be continuing his lessons next quarter, as well as adding an additional class in "gymnastics", which he insists is "like 'nastics', but with 'gym'". Mrow?

This is SportsCenter

It's been a weekend of birthday parties for several 3-year-old friends! On Saturday, I took the boys to friend E's third birthday party at her house. They had a great time playing with the many toy vehicles present, as well as going in and out of E's very fun (and excellently repurposed large appliance cardboard box) homemade playhouse. Oh, and O got bit by the electric model train bug; E's mom had just gotten her dad's set up and running, and he spent a good 45 minutes downstairs nicely watching and then operating a model locomotive, buffering it up to a couple of freight cars and throwing track switches like a pro to get it back on the mainline for a few loops.

Sunday was an O-only affair for friends' R and M's son J's third birthday party. (Mima got to have some alone time with Z, which they both enjoyed thoroughly.) I wasn't quite sure what to expect, as the invitation indicated "sports" would be played. It turned out to be an excellent organized activity where a coach teaches the kids some basic sports skills in a non-competitive super fun environment. O was incredibly into it, helping with various cheers and then going full tilt whenever the physical activities commenced. Here he was in the opening run-around-the-perimeter activity, showing excellent form:


There was an obstacle course, some basic basketball skills (practicing throwing a ball through a hula hoop), baseball base running and bat swinging skills, and (my personal favorite) they closed out with each kid in turn chasing down a rolling hula hoop:

It was great to see O get so into an activity, and he was talking about the sports he participated in the whole drive home, "Well, my favorite was the basketball... but we didn't have time for the tennis" (I presume the coach had mentioned this to them as something they'd run out of time for). Anyway, a thoroughly busy and fun weekend for both boys, and now the idea is planted to consider getting O into some kind of sports activity (perhaps even the Sportball classes they have that inspired R and M to make it J's birthday theme?) this summer.