Visiting Preschool

  Anthony has just been dying for me to come "help" at preschool again.  This is my last week off work, so today I left Richard at Kathleen's house and spent the afternoon at preschool.  We started off with some good dirt fun.  They have a 15 foot moat in progress, complete with water.  They spent all their bikeyard time working on it.

  Anthony has science every other week and I was lucky enough to be there on science day.  He introuced me to his science teacher and I mentioned that I was a scientist.  Teacher Mike asked him what I did, and Anthony answered that I make medicine to make people feel better.  I was so proud! 

This week they learned about gravity.  They did a bunch of experiments to see whether or not two objects hit the ground at the same time.  It was pretty funny.  You ask the kids, which will hit the ground sooner, a block or a stuffed animal.  They pick the block every time.  You do the experiment (they each got turns, too) and see that they hit the ground together.  Now, let's try a ball or a block.  Once again, the kids all say, "the block".  Entertaining lesson, but they're not believers yet.

Special Student

Last week was Anthony's turn to be special student at school.  The special person gets all sorts of privileges, ringing the bell after outside playtime, counting all the students before they come in, doing the counting calendar and leading grace before snack.

He also brought several things to share; a few precious toys and his favorite book for story time.  We chose his pop-up "Wizard of Oz".  The class enjoyed it, but Mrs. M. commented that it was quite long.  (Oops.  Well, the pop-ups are amazing.)

We also made a poster of pictures to share.  It included pictures of our family, his cousins and our trip to Hawaii.  He also included a picture of his birthsisters.  Afterwards I asked Mrs. M. what he said about the pictures.  She told me that he said, "These are my birthsisters".  She said she wasn't quite sure if he had it right, but then looked at the pictures and sure enough, they look EXACTLY ALIKE. 

Take Your child to work day

  Anthony had a great time at Lab126's "Take Your Child to Work Day" event.  His favorite activities were working the candy factory supply chain and helping the QA group break Kindles. 

  While he had a grand old time dropping Kindles and trying to break them, I truly question the wisdom of encouraging that behavior.  This is the child who used to break electronics for sport.  His dismantling of the keyboard off the Sony laptop was a fatal injury.  (In his defense, he was pretty little at the time.)

Smiley Boy

Richard is getting to be so much fun!

Birthfamily Visit

Anthony has been dying to show off his new baby brother to his birth-sisters down in Gilroy.  They, in turn, were excited to meet the new baby.  We finally went down for a visit this weekend.

Its funny, for how excited everyone was, there was a lot of shyness at the beginning.  Then the slip-n-slide came out.  The kids had so much fun playing together, it was really sweet.

Summer Is Here

It's blazing hot so we've been doing water play every day. Anthony loves it, Richard is unsure.

"That's what is new at the Zoo"

   Title from one of Anthony's books.

  The other two days of my sister's visit were occupied with visits to various zoos.  We spent one day at Happy Hollow.  It was a fairly typical trip, but the boys enjoyed the newly opened "Crooked House".  It was really, very sweet.  The bottom part had several "mouse holes" where you could peep through and see mouse living rooms and the like.  The second story had a bunch of fun house mirrors and a really fast slide.  We also saw a new puppet show, "The Pied Piper of Cheddarswiss."  All the boys LOVED it.

  The next day was very warm so we went up to the San Francisco Zoo.  Once again, a really good day!

Tubes In, Adenoids Out

Anthony had his second set of tubes today plus his adenoids out in an attempt to stop the constant ear infections. Surgery went well. Dorothy cat had her ears "fixed" too. Anthony generally handled it well, but he did not like waking up to an IV.

  A funny...  They put Anthony's wristbands on in the waiting room.  He was reluctant, so the nurse put one on Dorothy's hand.  Then she returned with a new one for Anthony.  While she was encouraging him to give it a try, some nice grandmotherly type mentioned how lucky he was to get three wristbands, she didn't have any.  He immediately slipped one of his off, and went to give it to her.

Jelly Belly Factory

 My sister's and Anthony's spring breaks lined up perfectly this year, so they came up for the first part of last week to visit the baby and have a bit of a vacation.

  Last Monday we loaded everyone into the minivan (poor Richard sat in the back all by himself) and drove out to the jelly belly factory.  The boys enjoyed their factory tours immensely.  Highlights were tasting the candy at the end and watching the robots do their thing.  We had lunch at their cafe, all the boys were thrilled that their lunches were shaped like jelly beans.

Great America

Great America was open for Spring Break, so we went there for a few hours this afternoon.  Anthony is finally tall enough to ride some of the more adventurous rides.  Last fall there were some he was begging to ride but was just too short.  He also briefly headed into one of the water play areas.  He turned back pretty quickly when he realized how cold and wet it was!

  Great America made me realize how much I appreciate Disneyland.  Not just is it excessively clean and perfect, but the rides are all open to short people!  There was only one ride at Disney that my little daredevil couldn't ride!

Discovery Museum

  Anthony has been asking to go to the "purple museum" for quite some time, so we headed there for today's adventure.  His favorite area by FAR was the water play.  We were there for probably an hour!  Anthony was ALL THE WAY drenched.  Afterwards we spent another hour outside in Guadalupe River Park, exploring the mastadon sculpture, playing with ladybugs and chasing pigeons through the grass.  (Richard joined us on the adventure but his exploration was highly limited.)

  I enjoy that museum on weekdays much more than weekends, but I don't feel the need to go there very often.  Its so LOUD.  Its also hostile to outside food, which means that you are held hostage to the mediocre cafeteria, unless you pack lunch and go outside to picnic.

Beignets

Anthony has been fascinated by beignets since he first saw "The Princess and the Frog".   He asked me what they were, and I said that they were like a doughnut.  Then the poor deprived child asked me what a doughnut was.  As part of our Spring Break extravaganza, we went to Nola in Palo Alto for a special afternoon treat. 

  Fortunately, he LOVED his treat.  He ate one and a half dipped in raspberry sauce and then licked all the sugar off a third!

Art Week

This week at preschool Anthony's class explored different kinds of art, and an introduction to some famous artists including Picasso, van Gogh and Monet. Then they created their own works of art. This included mixing new colors, using chalk and white paint to create a picture like Starry Night, and self-portraits. Anthony brought home over a dozen pieces of art that he created this week. He was so proud of his work and eager to share what he had learned.

These pictures are Anthony's Starry Night, his self-portrait and the Jackson Pollack painting (on canvas!) created by the entire class.

Grown Up Roller Coaster Ride

One of the MANY highlights of our day at Disneyland was Anthony's first grown-up roller coaster ride, the Matterhorn.  Or, as Anthony calls it, "the ride with the scary snow monster."  He treated baby Richard to his first grown-up roller coaster ride last week.

Three Months Old!

 Baby brother was 3 months old on Easter Sunday.  Time has really flown!  He is up to 11 pounds, 9 ounces which puts him at 8%.  He's on the growth charts!!!!!  (22 inches, not on the charts there.)

Things he can do:
Smile.  Its not entirely clear exactly WHAT makes him smile at whom, but they are definitely real smiles.  My favorite was Easter morning when instead of eating his bottle like a good boy he was smiling it up.  Poor Anthony has not gotten smiles yet.

Sleep.  Not quite through the night, but he's heading that way.  (Shouldn't have said that out loud.)  He generally wakes once around 2-3 in the morning and then can often sleep until 6 am.  Once he made it all the way from 10-4.

As you can see in the photo, he is getting decent head control.

He tolerates Anthony's love.  His favorite toys are the blinky lights and music on his activity gym and his mobile.  He's actually having a hard time napping in his crib now because if we put him down awake he'll stare at the mobile, willing it to go.

Dancing with Grandma

We always enjoy the music at the Farmer's Market, but Grandma added something special.