August small bits - Part 3

August 26

Model airplanes!  One of Yannick's favorite pastimes is going to Rancho San Antonio and watching the retirees engage in their hobby: flying model airplanes  

We were sitting in the trunk with the hatchback open, staying in the shade, watching the planes.  Yes, Nick has his jammies on still.

We got a jolting piece of mail today.  A letter from the new owners of our 1320 Seward house.  The letter was very sweet, but the return address was like a teeny tiny knife in the heart.

Our old address with the new owner name attached to it.  They paid enough for it, so it should be theirs, but still a bit of a shock.

Aug 27

Wyatt, Nick and another kid from kindergarden hanging out at the park before kindergarden starts.

Riding the dinosaur.  I love that Nick has no idea who this kid is, but he's going to grab him for stability!

Aug 30

Zachary was complaining about how long it takes to vacuum the house.  His complaining earned him a new chore!  

Getting the play room clean

Afterwards, he found he did not mind the new chore all that much!

Aug 30

Art made it home from work in time to join the boys in the pool.  Mom does NOT get in the little pool because the water is FREEZING!  Zachary does not last terribly long before he starts shivering.  However, with DaU there, he had longer staying power.

Yannick doesn't love it.  It is cold, and the big guys do a lot of splashing

Art doing a belly flop, as requested by ZW

The broken bucket makes an excellent shower!

Aug 31

Zachary wanting to eat breakfast in the high chair.  I am not sure how we got him in there!

Big day for Yannick - we are attempting to follow the potty-training-in-one-day book that worked so beautifully for Wyatt.  

Yannick is excited to be wearing Lightning McQueen underwear!

Art took ZW to a remote control race track to get them out of the house.  I had bought a Groupon weeks ago, thinking of this very day.

The potty training was a bust.  After 2 hours of pushing fluids and snacks, with nothing in the potty, I took a brief break to grab some more books, came back, and Yannick had peed on the floor.  It was nearly lunch time, so I gave up.  No harm done.  We will wait a few months and try again.  He was SO VERY bored in the bathroom with just me and no toys.

Later, after nap/rest time, more pool fun was to be had

Wyatt lasts the longest in the pool; able to stay in that cold water for hours really

All 3 enjoying the pool.  This time, I have gotten the flippers, snorkle and mask out.  Zachary outlasted Wyatt for once, just snorkling around and around the little pool.

Our lovely neighbors are moving this weekend.  The new owners are taking the keys.  So we used this time to collect all the oranges we could from their tree.  Some are sweet and some are tart, but the fresh squeezed OJ they makes is tremendous!

Ringling Brothers!!

August 25

Circus Circus Circus!!!  I am so excited excited about going to the circut today!  I have been looking forward to taking the boys to the circus forever and now we are finally doing it!  We nearly did last year when we were still in Evanston, but decided the $ was just too much for something they may or may not enjoy.  Now however, thanks to the YMCA, we got discount tickets for $15/ea.  We used some $ we had gotten from Tante Mary and put it toward circus tickets.  And now today is the day.  We debated whether we should take Yannick or leave him with a sitter.  Would he enjoy it, or would we be miserable trying to keep him happy?

First, we drove down there, expecting big bucks to park, but we found a lot that was pretty close for less than $10, which seems insane after Chicago parking prices ($29 for 2 hours) and San Francisco ($60).  

A short walk and we were there.  We went early early to meet the animals.

Here the boys are all touching a replica elephant foot

Many of the circus animals were in their pens outside (in the shade), and you could walk by and see the elephants, horses, and tigers up close.

Lazy tigers. So so pretty!

Me and my boys at the Greatest Show on Earth!

After seeing the animals, we went inside.  They were doing a pre-circus show on the circus floor that we got to go to, that started about an hour before the circus was to start.  This part was GREAT!!  At first the boys, especially Yannick, were quite overwhelmed by all the noise and the people and all the things to see, but once they got right in the front to watch a clown act, just feet away from us, they settled down and enjoyed it.

This was when we first got there, and Yannick was overwhelmed.  He spent a lot of time with his hands over his ears - a throwback from his 4th of July trauma.  Now when things are loud or he's feeling uncomfortable his hands go to his ears.  ZW loved seeing the clowns up close.  

Clown college graduate class of 2028!

Parents are a couple of clowns too!

Art sporting his circus tattoo, and Yannick enjoying the clown show.  Zachary of course thought the clowns were the BEST!  Next came the finale of the pre-show on the floor

We were so so close!  So great to have gotten here early!  This elephant would paint a picture and they would draw a name and give it away.

Wyatt loved being this close to the elephant!  Then it was time to find our seats. 

I was not sure if they would allow food in the arena, so I brought a few snacks for us, planning on getting a heavier snack while there.  I had packed the boys dinner to eat in the car on the way home.  It should be over around 7:30.  Our seats were pretty high up, but we could still see pretty well everything that was happening.  ZW both loved every minute of it.  They would start to lose patience with acts like the ladies twirling by their necks, but then get back into it with the animals (dogs, horses, TIGERS, elephants), and any gymnasts.  They liked the trapeze, but the arial stuff was hard to see because it was happening in an awkward place for anyone over the platforms to see.  Yannick mostly enjoyed it.  Sometimes it would get too loud (and i agree, it was a bit too loud) and he would cover his ears and hide. Near the end of the show, he was tired and wanted his paci and to snuggle in our laps.  he did great, better than I could have hoped for really.  The big guys liked it so much.  It was so great to be there with them, and to love it, and to be sad when it is over!  

A family favorite!

Zachary knew, at the end, when everyone started parading out, that it was the end, and he says loudly "oh, no, not yet!" :)  He loved the clowns!  None of them liked the human cannonball though.  I thought it was cool, but it was loud!

I had entertained the idea that we would buy some souvenir, but man alive is that stuff expensive, and most of it is junk!  I had thought about one of those large mugs with a snow cone in it, but they were about $20/ea.  What?!  So we passed this year.

We were all very glad that we came, and Art and I both agree that it was a good use of our special money.

August Small Bits - Part 2

This post is for some of the small bits that occurred in the second half of August.

August 18

We have decided to start a new institution in our house: Sunday Father-Son Day (clever!  And sung to the tune of Sunday, Bloody Sunday).  This means that every Sunday Art takes one boy out (must be 5yrs old).  He gets $5 and 30min to do what they want.  Go get ice cream, go get donuts, go to Target and spent it.  Combine it with their own money to get something.  Their choice.  Just DaU and son.  Today is the inaugural day.  Zachary's first Sunday Father-Son Day.

The other special thing about S-F-S-D is that they get to sit in the front seat.  We are able to turn the airbag off, so it is legal for them to be in the front, as long as they are still in their car seat/booster.

August 20

Yannick does not want to actually EAT his chicken nuggets for lunch.  He tells me that he only wants to "lick it".  Gross.  

He did eventually eat them, but not before licking them all.

August 20

We were preparing to make a birthday video.  That means crazy costumes.

Costume one deemed "too little"  Nice Spidey capris! 

Now that is better for Z!  Combo of Red Power Ranger, a Clone Trooper, and Mr. Incredible.  

Wyatt is ready as grey Ironman with a mask and wooden sword!

Art with Scooby Doo and Mr. Incredible boots.  There are no words.  No. Words.

Doesn't every Superman also wear a transformer mask??

August 21

First day riding the bus together!!

Zachary coming down like a pro!

Wyatt coming down moments later, all loaded down.

Sadly, I caused them to have a bit of a scary first bus ride.  I had told them NOT to get on the bus without the other one.  But I did not know that Wyatt's teacher would not have him stand in line for the bus, but take him all the way on the bus.  So Z did not know what to do, and W did not know what to do.  They both got on the bus, and ended up sitting together, but they were both uncomfortable at first.  So we had to make some new and improved rules.  The second day of the bus was so so much better!

Aug 22 & 23

The house down the street from us is being torn down.  I took Wyatt and Yannick down to watch some of the destruction.

Wyatt back at the site.  No more house!

Asking if he can throw this rock.  Sure!

There it goes!  All this time I have Yannick in the ergobaby because he is not feeling well.

We will not be able to go to the Chima Tournament again today because Yannick has a fever.

He fell asleep in my bed while I was holding him.  Poor little guy!  Luckily Wyatt is very happy still with his win from Wednesday and is ok with not going back.

Wyatt killed me at Blokus before school this morning!  I was trying to keep all my pieces tightly together, and Wyatt was "getting all up in my business".  he destroyed me!

Wyatt wanted to play Star Wars Wii with Art.  Yannick wanted to play too of course, so Art let him hold the nunchuck.

Aug 24

Today we went to a new-to-us beach.  Natural Bridges.  It was a social outing for our Neighborhood Group (bible study).  It was a bit chilly on the beach actually.  I was very glad I had brought jackets for everyone!  It was a bit of a walk for us, and straight down to get to the beach.  Kevin and Leslie were there, as were the Parks, and the Stantons.  There was a very cool area where high tide left tide pools. The water was so cold, I was happy the boys did not really want to spend much time in it.  When Z would get chilly, he would lay doing in the hot sand to warm up.

He and Wyatt and Jaelyn had a great time rolling down the sand hill.

At one point we thought Yannick was getting sick again, because he just lost it.  We thought he was going to fall asleep at 11am!  But after we had a picnic lunch, he was ok again.  It was a beautiful beach, but it was just a bit windy for us.  I would come back here again though.

August 25

After much discussion, and input from others, we decided to try the concept of an allowance again.  We tried it once with Zachary when he was about 4, or 5, but it was a total fail.  We made the mistake of setting it up so it was chore based, and he would just refuse to do the chore, saying he did not want the money.  So now we are trying again.  NOT chore based.  They have their chores and assorted "jobs" to do just for being part of the family.  With that responsibility comes the reward of getting an allowance.  Starting at age 5.  $0.50/yr old.  So we are starting with $2.50 for W and $3.50 for Z.  They can earn extra money for special jobs (like once I paid Z $1 to clean out a rubbermaid container).  They also have been, for about 2 years, earning Counts Bucks.  We made, out of construction paper and stickers, fake money.  They earn a Counts Buck when they are caught doing something nice or responsible, or obeying right away, or not complaining with a hard task, etc etc.  They can exchange 10 Counts Bucks for $1.

Today is the first day of getting allowance.

Zachary excited to be getting money

Wyatt feeling pretty grown up.

Tonight is also Sunday, which makes it Sunday, Father-Son Day.  Wyatt's turn.

Wyatt also gets to sit in the front seat with DaU.  30 minutes, $5.  Wyatt opted to go to Target, look at toys and get a cookie

Yum!

August 25

This is a bit uncalled-for, but I needed to document it.  I asked Art to please clean up the bath toys.  I had taken the mesh turtle out of the tub and washed it, and asked Art to put it all back.  This is what I found when I went to shower.

Sitting in the bottom of the tub was all the toys piled ONTO the turtle.  The turtle was not hanging up, nor were the toys put IN the pockets of the turtle.  WHAT?!?  Sorry, but this has to be documented!