Gametes In Love

We did it!

Ok, so NO designs came home, but we ended up drawing and talking through a couple of proposals after dinner. I present you with….

Design #1: Handles in vertical orientation and the rope over. Dismissed because the rope would get in the way of the ball.

Design #2: Handles in horizontal position and ropes to the sides. Dismissed because the ropes would only keep it stable left/right vs. front/back. Left/right movement wasn’t a problem: Back/front was.

Design #3: Handles in the horizontal position, and ropes to the front, and back. This one looks extra messy because we already had some revs to delete from before.

And the final result is….

G opted to build design #3 first. I feel like I lost on a teaching moment with the other 2 not doing what he wanted.

But now he’s a happy clam.

S and he are enjoying practicing his baseball pitching styles. I can see why he wanted to do this now: kid’s a jock. As long as he stays a brainy jock…

At home, we have two big-arse life-preserver-like things that the kids got for some sumo-wrestling-type games. You might have seen this fun video of them.
Luckily for us no injuries have happened yet… in big part because they tend not to battle in that manner much.
Instead G has created a game for himself, where he stands one donut up inside the cavity of the other, and then tries to throw a ball inside the standing circle. His contraption looks something like this:

Yes, this is where my formal art-instructed family can make fun of my terrible perspective. But you get the point, ya?

G’s main issue is that the donut standing up keeps falling when the ball hits it… or when it goes through. Today he threw a fit over it. Or more specifically threw a fit because his attempt to tie the two donuts together (through the handles) wasn’t working.

I challenged him! I told him that strings/rope would probably work. I told him to look at suspension bridges as inspiration for how, and I gave him homework to do during after-school in creating a design proposal of how that could look. I, honestly, can’t wait to see what he comes up with!

And if he doesn’t come up with anything, we’ll do a design together. Then we’ll build it.
Enter in nerdy project giddiness.

Last week, while surfing facebook I came across a friend’s post from a recent visit they did to a hay maze at Arata farms in Half Moon Bay. It looked awesome, so on a week-end that S needed some alone time to tackle his to-do list, I took the boys out. It took us an hour to get there (typical fall HMB traffic).
We drove past Bob’s pumpkin patch, which is where we’d been going for the past two years, and took a turn just a “block” past into Arata. I was super stoked to see that Arata was not only about the hay maze, but also had pumpkins. Two birds, one stone. I had brought my camera for our annual pumpkin picks, so score!!!!

I have a rule with the kids: “no pumpkin bigger than the size of your head”. This coincides with “no pumpkin heavier than you can carry”…. and “no pumpkin pricier than what I was to pay for”. S2’s approach to pumpkin shopping is to get the smallest pumpkin he can find. He thinks smallest = cutest, so every teenie pumpkin was cute. G’s a bit of the opposite — he goes for large, so the rule is especially helpful for him. We often compare: how big is your head next to that pumpkin? Also makes for good photo opp. This year I caved though and let him get one on the larger side. Sadly for me, though, I had to carry it most of the way, because it did get unwieldly for him.
We picked our pumpkins first. Good call. Got the kids to look over the maze — also good call. Then paid, and decided to drop the orange spheres back in the car before we went into the maze. THAT, on the other hand was a bad call. G tripped on the way back to the car, scraped his hand, and then just wanted to go home. Enter in sad mommy. Bummer. We went home. I went back to return the tickets, and we just drove home.

That was the maze that wasn’t.

However, after we got home and got to tell S about it, he got interested in going. This is a pleasant surprise, because the man hates driving to go to adventures like this. So we planned a second trip this past week-end. Next week-end is Pumpkin Fest in HMB, and you couldn’t pay me enough money to sit through THAT traffic, so it had to be either yesterday, or wait for another two weeks.

S2 literally ran the maze. This sucked, because we’re talking human adult sized maze, that takes 30 min to get through. Adults can’t see through the end (since the hay piles are taller than an adult), so it wasn’t exactly difficult to lose a child in there. And he wouldn’t stop running off. Thankfully most turns were dead ends, so he didn’t get too far, too quick, but still definitely a heart-racer there.

On the second trip, S2 found an even smaller pumpkin — it fit in his pocket, so it had to come home. Also G discovered the gourds and found one that looks like a perfect swan. It came home too. I’m a sucker!

The maze though was truly awesome! I’m hoping they’ll bring it back year after year, because I hope we can continue going every fall. They do evening maze runs too, which sounds evilishly fun.

G also had a fun run using my camera. I’m actually pretty proud of this kid. It took a bit of training, but he know knows how to back-button focus, take a photo, and zoom in and out. He was full on directing us what to do too. I might have to invest a bit more time teaching him how to work it more. Though admittedly, it IS a heavy combo, so it’s something I don’t completely trust him to run off with. Still — lookie!!!! I’m IN photos.

G brought this home on Friday. An activity they were working on in his after-school program (on account of the Spanish up top).

G wrote about his pet. This is our cat.

Can’t you see the resemblance?

I’m an especial fan of the chicken legs and lack of ears 🙂

If you need help figuring out the writing, it says:

Zoe (backwards Z)
It frie (meaning “It’s furry”)
It likes people

I genuinely love it!

It’s embarrassing how long it’s taken me to write this. School has been in for almost a month, and the week before we took the boys to Tahoe for an extended week-end. So, yeah, it’s been a month. Let’s pretend it’s only been a week, eh?

I’ll say that while this vacation was far from stress-free (the kids weren’t exactly angels), I got a whole new appreciation for Tahoe, to a point I would be 100% open to buying a second home there. To rent out while we’re not there, and for us to visit a few times a year. And when I say Tahoe, I’m pretty sure I mean Northstar. Shane found a 2 bedroom condo for us through an AirBNB, and it was perfect! Driving distance to the resort, quiet, REALLY kid friendly (internet, board games, furnished kitchen), AND it came with passes to the Northstar pool area which gave us something to do.

G’s major score was Walking With Dinosaurs. He had watched it in his kinder class, and really wanted to watch it with us too, but it was hard to figure out which one of the dozen series they watched. Luckily for us though, the ONE show he wanted was the one the owners had to share in their video library. We brought our own movies rented from the library too.

We took a hike, went to the lake for dinner with the kids. Most of our calm time was back at the condo, but it was still a trip I look back on pretty fondly.

[vimeo 135764220 w=640 h=427]

There’s a 7 yr old in our home today. Yesterday I said “Enjoy your last day at school as a 6 yr old!” This growing thing: It’s all going crazy fast! … at least from my perspective. On his end I’m sure each year feels like an eternity.

I saw him climbing up a table yesterday and just… marveled… and how he carried himself. He’s always been well coordinated, but this is just a whole new level. I just can’t believe THIS kid is so athletic. Really: anything with that involves a spherical object, he loves. Even basketball, which let’s face it, is NOT going to be this kid’s game (unless he surprises us and blackmails the height fairy in the next 10 years of his life).

He’s a smart monkey, and has really, really good deductive skills. He likes brain puzzles, and games that involve strategy — it doesn’t take him long to start piecing moves together, and I’m really hopeful this is just the beginning for him. He kicks butt at Mancala, and is digging chess (though he mostly challenges the iPad on the latter).

A smart monkey is sometimes a smart-mouth monkey. On the field (or off the field), this kiddo sometimes needs to keep his remarks to himself. He’s funny, though — great sense of humor, and still a bit of mischief baking in there.

He’s still an excellent cuddle bug, and loves hearing stories about himself as a little kid.

He’s not a morning bird, and like his daddy has to wake up the “right way” to get his day going well. Humor, quirkiness, and flattery usually get things going… in the right combination.

In the past year he’s had three pretty big achievements: reading and riding and big-kid school. Yep, two R’s (and a something else) 🙂 In no particular order. His reading has gotten SO much better… especially over this past summer. Whereas he quit easily before, I see him trying (and doing) to read words he sees in front of him. Ever the trickster, and motivated by mischief, I tease him that reading is a BAD idea, and I should stop encouraging him to read… after all if he could read he will be able to read my secret messages. Of course this only makes him try harder. Who knew? ;p
Also riding. Last year for his birthday, G got a pedal bike. He saw it, went “Meh!” and it hang out in our garage just about all year… until this summer, when he said he was ready. In a single go, he was pedaling away (see the video?).
He started and kicked butt in his kinder class. I’m so proud of him! First grade is also appearing to start off great, and I’m excited.

7 has brought on a new attitude for sure. It’s [sigh] not the best. Working on it, though.

I seriously love this kid. Can’t imagine life without him!

In his own words…

What is your name?
G*****
Do you know your full name?
G***** R*****
S2: G***** V R*****, silly!

How old are you about to be?
7

What is your favorite color?
Orange and red

Who are your best friends?
Milo, Brayden, Kaeyur, Milad, Daedalus, Jaylen and Sam and Oli
Well… I didn’t ask who ALL your friends were, just who were your favorite
[I’m pretty sure he just listed the kids he played with last week]

What’s your favorite book?
Hmn… [long pause] The kids’ first big book of dinosaurs

What is your favorite movie?
Phineas & Ferb
Well, the next question is what your favorite TV show…
TV show? Phineas & Ferb
So do you want to go back and change your answer on what is your favorite movie?
Yeah, Dusty Crophopper and the fire rescue

What is your favorite animal?
King Cobra
Really? Why?
The poison, and it’s a snake
Why do you like that it’s poisonous?
Because I like poison
Ok… a little disturbing

What is your favorite food?
Easy! Mac & Cheese! No. Indian food!

What is your favorite shirt?
Green. No a gray shirt
[he’s picky about his closet, you can tell]

What is the greatest wisdom you can share with me at age “almost 7”?
What does that mean?
What is the smartest thing you can tell me?
I’m smart?
What is the best advice you can give me?
I don’t know!
Can you think of anything?
Nope!
You know what you told me when you were 3?
What?
“Don’t eat poop!” That was pretty good advice!
[giggles] No I didn’t!
Yeah, yeah, you did!

What is your favorite toy?
Crane

What do you want to do when you grow up?
I dunno.
Do you have a job you want to do wen you grow up?
Nope. I’m still thinking.

And he’s off!

Getting up and out today was easier than I expected. I was also pleasantly surprised to wake up with him snuggled in bed with us — he does that less and less these days, and it felt kind of special to wake up next to him.

Big kid now. I feel nostalgic for the wee bit he was, but don’t feel sad about him growing up. I like the guy he is.

He felt pretty blaze about school today. If he was nervous he surely didn’t show it. Walked right up to his friends as if he was only off for a week.

His teacher this year is a guy. G is excited to have a “boy in charge” this year. It’s amusing to me how we go from a society of (mostly) women being in charge/responsible for overseeing day to day, learning, and you’re accountable to, to a world where most of politics then transitions to men. How does that work??? But I digress.

I’m looking forward to hearing about his day later tonight.

P.S. like those school-buses? I found the secret spot where they park at the end of the day. I dragged the kids on Monday for some “back to school” photos. They were so NOT in the mood, but what’s more iconic than a yellow school bus? Even though we don’t get to use them :-/

S2 is swimming every day this summer. He’s enrolled in classes, which is great, since this kid hasn’t seen an instructor on this topic since last summer. Getting them in classes at the same time, while coordinating work schedules, and week-end activities just hasn’t worked out. He’s reclaiming his sea-legs, let’s just say. He’s definitely a lot more mature in the water than he used to be. For example, he’s no longer trying to drain the pool by drinking it. Win! However, his attention span is that of a gnat, and I heard his instructor yell out his name just about every other second. I’m hoping swimming through this summer will make him a little more water independent.

G also hasn’t had any lessons over the past year, but he’s still holding his own in the pool. He’s relying more heavily on the doggie paddle, though, which makes me a little sad, given that he was swimming butterfly style (well… for beginners) last summer.

I watched both of them swim last week… and I took photos. I got subjected to a slew of inquisition from G’s classmates over why I was there, and how come I wasn’t at work, and how I was able to take the time off of work to do that. What I was really hearing was a lot of excuses other parents gave their kids on why they couldn’t be there: I get it. I normally AM that parent, myself. Punches you in the gut to hear it from the other side, though.
G dug having the camera around mostly because he was the kid with a parent around. I dug that he and his buddy B were more or less doing what I asked them to… though B is by far a much more willing subject.

Here goes:

I want more swim-time photos of the kids. Now that I feel pretty comfortable with the GoPro, I see a community pool visit coming up soon with some under-water fun. Consider this my “above ground” contribution for the year.

G and S2 have been sharing a room now for a few weeks. This was driven mostly because S2 refused to sleep in a room alone. He’d beg and plead his brother to let him sleep in his room, and the only way that was happening is if they shared G’s bed. This produced us coming in to wake them [the following morning] to scenes like this. I’ve started going in with my phone, because they’re cute (or hilarious) and deserve some documentation.

The funny thing is that even AFTER they moved into the same room, they occasionally still wake-up in the same bed. So… the photos will continue 🙂

G taught us a new word today: sherpant. Apparently it’s part sherpa, part servant. He referred to it as our parental duties. Clearly he has something figured out there… though it doesn’t quite coincide with reality.