Gametes In Love

My parents are visiting for S2’s birthday, and get the benefit of Trick Or Treating with the kids tonight. This morning, Mom and I carved pumpkins while the kids were at school. It was her first time… and she produced this (below). I, on the other hand, at this point, am just glad I completed my template without injury to me or my pumpkin 🙂

In mom’s defense: 4 yrs of sculpting classes I guess gives you some foundation, even in new media. But it’s something she’s never tried before… and her carving tools were sucky… so she used my kitchen knife… and free-handed it. I am very proud of and impressed by her! I also feel sorry for myself ;p

G’s kinder-garden teacher has a share day for each kid, every week. G’s share day is Wednesdays. Share days there are interesting, because it’s actually more a game of “guess what’s in the bag. On your share day, you bring your “item” in a paper bag. A kid in your class is supposed to ask you questions so they can guess what’s in the bag. G, being the mast “obscure things to pick when playing 20 questions” LOVES this game and is maniacally devising tricky things to bring each week. Today’s share item? Raffle tickets he won at this past week-end’s school fund-raising event.

If the kids have a hard time guessing, the teacher comes in to help. G, however, doesn’t allow her to peak in his bag. Why?

“Because she gives them clues!”

G: “Yeah? You know what kind of clues she gives them? It’s red and it puts out fire”
(this was the day that G brought in a fire truck toy)

Ok, we get it kid — the clues might as well spell out what it is.

I can’t decide how I feel about this upcoming parent-teacher conference period coming up in a few weeks 🙂

This year’s visit to Bob’s pumpkin patch was in the middle of the week, and might I say, Genius! It was us and one other family. That’s it! I loved it, and will probably consider taking an afternoon off of work going forward to repeat said excursion. But maybe go even later in the day than we did. Still trying to get the light just right, ‘cuz it’s all about the photos, right? ;p

Tonight as after-dinner treat the kids wanted this bag of candy corn. We were quizzing G on how to split it. There were 8 corn pieces inside. S asked G if everyone got a candy corn, how many pieces would everyone get? Pretty quickly, G answered 4.

Then I threw him in for a loop. I said “I hate candy corn, so I don’t want any” (this is all true, by the way). So now how many do the rest of you get?

At this point G busts out… and I mean, doesn’t even stop to think: “Well, two of us would get 3 and one would only get 2”. I’m pretty sure by jaw dropped. I thought diving by 4 would be hard…. let alone dividing by 3 and dealing with remainders. I don’t know what voodoo math he’s picking up and from where, but I’m all for it. Carry on, child! Carry on!

Me: Buddy, what am I packing you and your brother for snacks?
S2: I want pretzels for G. And pretzels for me. And salami for G. … Got it?
…
Me: Anyone tell you you’re overly bossy?

For G’s birthday, my parents got him a science kit. Ok, fine it’s a wizarding kit, but it’s really science disguised behind magic. I skipped the magic bit altogether and went straight for the cool chemistry fun. And it was! The boys were super excited to see colors change and make their own predictions on what would happen next. At the end, S2 asked me to put more baking soda to the overall solution. I knew it was a “not so good” idea, but in the spirit of experimenting went with it to see what would happen. Well — a massive chemical reaction and spill of liquid on our dining table is what happened. But hey, still an experiment 🙂

I have SO many photos to post. I might end up dumping them all out rather than spread the Foto Friday love.

G had his first baseball game almost a month ago. Conveniently it was at a park with a play-structure right next door, so S2 could run rampant while S and I had one eye on him and the other on our little baseball-player. It was also conveniently overcast, which allowed me the opportunity for some decent photos in what would otherwise be crummy light situation ;p

I kind of enjoyed watching him wave his hands as he declared himself “safe” upon reaching a base.

The kid really worked his butt off for the game, and was rewarded in the end by being declared one of two MVP’s for the game. He got a signed ball from the coaches as his keep-sake.

S2 and I were having a conversation this evening while I was making dinner. He was eating his yogurt and declared to me that he had two names

S2: S****, R*******

Me: Buddy, you know… you actually have three names: S**** V R*******

He looked at me like I had two heads.

S2: That’s not a name! That’s just a letter!!!

He was outraged. Like seriously mad, that I could even present that to him.

Meanwhile I walked away thinking, “Yeah, buddy. You got ripped off by parents that couldn’t come up with a legitimate middle name for you guys”