New Toy for Warm Days

With warm weather here, I decided that Anthony needed his own water table. I kept my eye on Craig's List for about a week and then I scored! We got the Step2 sand and water table. Anthony doesn't like sand and I don't like mess, so we're going to keep both sides water. It didn't come with any accessories so I appropriated some of our indoor toys--the submarine, a cup and a few little cars. Anthony had a LOT of fun.

I'd still like to find a waterwheel and a few other cool toys to go with it.

The Triumverate Revisited

Elly and I have been friends for years, but I got to know Amelia when all three of us were waiting to adopt. All 3 of us adopted boys born within 3 months of each other.

Here is their first group photo.

Amelia moved to Texas awhile ago, so we haven't seen Nathan since he was a baby. They are here on vacation and we got all three boys together again for a playdate and photo opportunity.

First Solo Flight

No pictures, but today Anthony took his first solo flight.

Well, not really, but it was his first trip with Daddy completely unchaperoned. I was a little worried about Bob being able to pre-flight the plane and supervise Anthony, but it went off without a hitch!

Enjoying the California Academy of Sciences

I'd say the highlight of the museum for Anthony was bubble play outisde. The American Chemical Society meeting is in San Francisco this week. They sponsored science activities at the museum this afternoon, all run by college students. Anthony thought the bubble play was LOADS of fun and had a regular laugh fest.

Suprisingly enough, he did NOT like the aquarium. I think all the exhibits were too big and intimidating. It wasn't particularly crowded, either.

Our Friend Matthias

Bob's former housemate Ercilia and her family are in town from Italy for a month. We haven't seen them in TWO years. Anthony and Matthias hit it off like they were old friends. We went to the California Academy of Sciences together. What a great day!

Something to ponder...

Why will Anthony eat playdough and diaper cream but not rice crispy treats???

Fun-Dip

Last summer, one of the many ways that Anthony drove me crazy was by eating bubbles. He would eat them like Fun-Dip candy. Dip the bubble wand into the liquid, lick, repeat.

One of his Valentines contained GENUINE Fun-Dip. I set it aside, hoping to scarf it for myself. At some point he found it and recognized the package as candy. Didn't take him too long to develop a taste for it.

Potty Camp

This probably sounds crazy. In fact, it might actually be crazy.

The long story... My work provides up to 2 weeks of back-up daycare for when Anthony's sitter is sick or on vacation. The center is very nice and EXTREMELY expensive, a good $250/day.

Said expensive daycare sends out monthly announcements touting their great activities, trolling for business. Well, their March theme is potty camp. The way I figure it is, if my work wants to pay over a thousand dollars to potty train my child, who am I to say no?? (I might be just a little hostile about losing my job in two weeks.)

I'm not convinced that Anthony is actually ready to potty train. However, I'm not convinced he isn't, either. He is motivated--Kobe at daycare (a big kid) just learned to use the potty and Anthony is FASCINATED. So, we're enrolled in potty camp for the week.

The first day he wore big-boy underpants over his pull-ups and sat on the potty regularly. However, he wanted to wear his clothes on the potty. (He does NOT like sitting on a cold seat.) Supposedly day 2 or day 3 they wear their big boy underpants full-time. I've got about 5 changes of clothes in his bag.

I suspect they won't have much success and we'll go back to diapers for awhile.

In the meantime, though, boy is he excited about Potty Camp. Imagine Bob answering the door to some random solicitor. Small child runs and announces, "I'm going to Potty Camp!!"

More Holi Pictures

I think we'll use the family picture in our next adoption letter, what do you think???

If Anthony looks exhausted, it might be because he was. He took a 20 minute snooze in the car and declared that he was done for the day!

Happy Holi-day

Sunday our neighborhood had a block party to celebrate Holi, the Indian festival of colors. Manish provided the colors, Peter organized the water-fun and a great time was had by all.

Well, when the water play got overly rambunctious Anthony and Ciaran started crying immediately. Anthony definitely prefers vigorous play at a healthy distance. They gave the older kids a wide birth and then all were happy. Anthony spent about 10 minutes coloring Elly's (Ciaran's mom) cheek orange and both boys spent a lot of time making a mess of bubble liquid and spilled color.

After we were done with colors, water balloons, balloon rockets, a waterballoon catapult, and bubbles, we blocked off the street for tricycle time. Then we had a pot luck dinner.

The top picture is Rachel painting Anthony's face. Don't worry, Bob got a lot more color on him by the end of the day!

Happy Hollow Zoo Reopens

Today was the members only preview of Happy Hollow Park and Zoo. It reopened after being closed for almost 2 years for renovation. Boy is the new zoo nice! We only saw a little bit, and I was impressed.

The new entrance area is gorgeous. Just inside is the newly refurbished carousel, all shiny and new. Anthony chose to ride the dragon. Then we went over to the petting zoo area and made friends with some goats. The goats seemed out of practice remembering where food comes from, but when they did notice us they got a little aggressive, which made Anthony nervous. We saw the mineature horses, a donkey and lambs that were only 8 days old. We also visited the wallabies and the lemurs. Anthony enjoyed the parallel play area next to the lemur exhibit and that and lunch pretty much rounded out our trip.

Oh, while we were waiting for lunch, Anthony met Danny the Dragon. The Danny the Dragon ride was a beloved part of the old zoo and will be better when it reopens and isn't belching diesel fumes anymore! Anthony was a little nervous about Danny but warmed up to him and seemed quite interested that Danny doesn't talk. (Bob had the camera, so no pictures.)

There's a lot more to the zoo/park that we didn't get to experience today--a bunch of kiddie rides, an enormous play structure and all the animals down in the hollow.

We'll be back again!

Playing Hopicopter

 

Bob bought a little remote control helicopter a few weeks ago. Anthony, of course, likes it almost as much as Bob. He loves flying it in the house, but that makes Mama shriek that hopicopters are outside toys. Unfortunately, they tend to crash harder when flown outside.

Airplane Crash into the Windsock

For quite some time, Anthony has obsessed over the "Mike da Mustang" video. He loves acting it out, but until now he didn't have a windsock to crash the airplane into. Well, we put Grandpa Walt (and Grandma Kay) to the task and they came through and then some! Anthony's face totally lit up when I showed it to him. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!



By the way, the copy of Richard Scarry's "Biggest Word Book Ever" is open to the airplane page. In fact, its the only page that ever gets read.

Mardi Gras

A week late...

No idea who taught him that!

Envision this

Walking down the street
Red sweater, diaper, rainboots
It was quite the look.

A Great Afternoon

Last Saturday we had the BEST afternoon. Robert's mom organized a massive exodus to the park to enjoy the sunny weather. TWELVE kids from our block went and played together. They ranged from Anthony and Robert at the bottom to a pair of first graders. All the kids had a great time playing together and going on bike races. It was pretty funny--there was a big mass of kids, a few slower and then Anthony and Robert bringing up the rear.

As we were getting ready to leave, J&J's mother showed up with ice cream for everyone. Anthony thoroughly enjoyed his popsicle and then went straight to Robert's house to join him in the bath.

A few more videos

He was kind of running out of steam at this point.

Flying, Flying... Or is it Swimming, Swimming?

One of the songs we've been singing in music class is "Swimming", a song I sang at camp MANY eons ago. Its one of Anthony's favorites, especially once Daddy re-wrote it as the Flying song. Well, he now mixes up the two versions.


As he sings it:
Flying, flying in the swimming pool
When days are hot, when days are cold
In the swimming pool.
Breast stroke, back stroke,
Fancy loop-di-loo.
Don't you wish you didn't have anything else to do!

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Little dude has become quite the singer!

Valentines

Anthony brought home his valentines from daycare today. Boy was he happy to explore his loot. Not suprisingly, most of his valentines included candy.

On a side note, he ate his first lollipop yesterday. It was his Valentine's present from Claire and Robert. He was VERY excited about the lollipop--he'd been asking for one for a long time. (I'm not quite sure how he learned about lollipops, as they don't serve them in daycare.) Although they are on the train in "The Little Engine that Could." Bob is reading it right now.

Anthony's valentine's might be overkill. It wasn't too hard to bake the heart cookies on sticks, though they had to be VERY thick. I then decorated them with pink royal icing with white icing and white beads. I was very pleased with how they came out.

Ballerina Boys: Part Two

For those who are uninitiated in modern children's music, the boys are dancing to Tantrum by the Spin Doctors. Its from Sandra Boynton's Dog Train album.



I don't think the video loads to Facebook. If it doesn't show up there check out Anthony's blog. Sorry.

Ballerina Boys!

Really, I'm not quite sure what more I can say. Anthony's first love is really, truly airplanes. However, playing ballerina is a relatively close second. Every day when we come home from daycare Anthony asks to go play ballerina at Robert's house. He takes great joy in picking out the RIGHT costume. Today, for example, he rejected the tutu that Robert is wearing in this picture in favor of a blue cinderella dress. Anyway, on Friday he picked out the princess dress and then chose a rather stunning "HAT" to go with it.

Sarah shot some great footage of the boys dancing. Hopefully I'll get it up in a day or two.

Music Class

Last Saturday was the start of music class for the quarter. Its funny, Anthony doesn't seem to participate too much in class, but he comes home singing all the songs. I think he's so busy absorbing that there is no output.

However, there are parts of it that we can count on him enjoying. When teacher Daniel reads the story Anthony scoots so far forward that he's practically sitting on Daniel's feet. He obviously prefers the songs that involve jumping and dancing, too. However, he likes to sing the quiet ones at home, too. (I'll try and get more on video.)

The first video is Anthony playing auto-harp. The final one is the tug-of-war that Daniel plays with each kid at the end.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Honestly, I think he used to sing it much better. Well, its been awhile since we've had a birthday party. (All of his pals have fall birthdays so he was singing it weekly at daycare!)

Notice that he blows out the candles at the end.

(Why is it that they never perform on command?)

Melt-down

Anthony is generally pretty even tempered, but he has his moments. In this case, it was because Robert was driving the police car and Claire had the tricycle. There were two push-toys available, but it wasn't what he wanted.

So-sad!

Hide and Seek

One of Anthony's favorite games is hide and seek. He plays it in his airplane hangar, behind the curtains, and even at the kitchen table.

Funny story--a few months ago Anthony was hiding underneath a blanket. Repeatedly. I kept calling, "Anthony, where are you?" A few seconds later he'd peek out. At one point Claire (age 4) finally shrieked at me, "He's under the blanket! He's ALWAYS under the blanket!"

Airplane Museum with Friends

Anthony's Christmas present for Claire and Robert was a trip to the airplane museum. (Robert's Daddy is a pilot, too.) They had a GREAT time together. The top picture is Anthony sitting in some sort of airplane. The middle picture is on the observation platform. You can stand there and watch the planes at the San Carlos airport take off and land. The bottom picture is playing in a helicopter simulator.

I think that Hiller is probably Anthony's favorite place in the whole wide world and it was great sharing it with his friends.

(By the way, he's wearing his airplane sweater for the occasion!)

Preschool!

Current adventures....

I'm signing Anthony up for preschool this fall. I have to say, its REALLY REALLY stressing me out. Over PRESCHOOL!!

So, this is how it works. Registration starts Monday morning. Historically families would camp out overnight to reserve their place in line. Its now slightly more humane, the line is "virtual". You show up Monday morning and put your name on the list. (The first Moms there started the list.) Then there is role call Monday and Tuesday at 8:00 am and 4:00 pm. Your presence continues to hold your place in line. Then Wednesday you show up at 7:30 to line up for 8:00 registration.

This really is truly crazy. However, my motivations....
I truly fell in love with this particular preschool when I toured it. Everyone I know who has sent their children there have only said good things about it. It is one of the two preschools that our daycare provider deliver kids to.

About the program:
I want little dude in the "morning threes". It will be two days a week for 3 hours a day. It is a playbased program. There is certainly structure in their day, but no worksheets or anything awful like that. I shadowed one room in December when I toured. One group was doing pattern work: strip of paper with a dot on the left edge. They alternated gluing on dark blue and light blue stars, starting at the dot. A pre-reading activity--left to right, pattern recognition, and still a little difficult for some of the kids. The other group had stockings they were decorating with stripes. You counted out FIVE stripes and glued them on. Then you could decorate with stickers, etc. I also saw tricycle time (each group gets daily tricycle time) and gymnastics, which they get once a week. (This isn't competitive tumbling, but organized play.)

Sorry about the lack of pictures. We had to take apart the computer to move the desk to get the windows installed. Nothing is put back together yet.

Edited to add: We're in!
Now, hopefully we'll get my job situation sorted out (i.e. new job) and that it will work to keep Anthony at his current daycare so he can go to this preschool!

Happy New Year!