I Want a Weapon

Christy brought Pete and Sam into the office today for some trick-or-treating.

While we were changing Sam's diaper, I was distracting him with one of those extending pointers that I use in training and sales demonstrations. Of course, he wanted to keep playing with it after that. So he was running around the office with it. He ran past a group of people. Then Pete came running after him yelling "No fair. I want a weapon."

Fresh Water

This is what happens when Pete brushes his teeth before bed:

1. I fill up cup with fresh water
2. Pete brushes teeth
3. Pete dumps out water, fills cup, and rinses

So last night I had to ask about this.

Me: "Pete, I just put fresh water in there. Why do you dump it and fill it up again?"
Pete: "I want it to be totally fresh"


Then about 5 minutes after going to bed, he usually calls me in to ask for a cup of fresh water. One night, he asked me to put in some cubed ice because he was hot (he had noticed that this is one of the option on the refridgerator). Instead of ice, I put in a die from his Mouse Trap game. But he noticed right away when he looked in the cup.

Pete: "No, not cube dice. I wanted cubed ice."

Parent-Teacher Conference

We had our first parent-teacher conference yesterday with Miss Kirsch.

Congratulations to Pete for scoring a 102 on his phonics test, which ties the school record! He also continues to have outstanding achievement in morning work and snack.

Unfortunately, I understand that there is no Spelling Bee for the Kindergarten class. I guess we will have to wait until next year.

Many Petes

If you ever wondered what the world would be like if there were seven Petes, now that he has discovered the mirrors in the bathroom we have the answer.

Boys Week

This week is Boys' Week, since Christy has some sort of event scheduled for almost every evening. So far, it is not off to a great start.

1. (downstairs)
"I asked you once, now I'm telling you. Get my jammies immediately."

2. (brushing teeth)
"Um, I need to do something that's
going to be good for me, but terrible for you."
"What's that?"
"Brush your hair with my toothbrush."

3. (getting ready for bed)
"Give me your head for a minute, I need to do something."
"Ok, what are we doing?"
"Just Tanya's neck-breaker.
It's down, forward, down, forward, high kick."

4. (in bed)
"What is science?"

Sunday Means Eagles

Pete and I did what we usually do on Sunday, which is go to Tom's house to watch the Eagles game on Sunday Ticket with TiVo.

Pete has a soft football that he spikes whenever the Eagles score a touchdown. I bring it over to him when they are driving close to the end zone. Yesterday, the Eagles were running out of time at the end of the first half. Donovan McNabb needed to spike the ball quickly to stop the clock. Tom yelled out "spike it! spike it!". Pete looked up from his coloring book and said "I can't! It's over there on the floor!"

Sometimes it doesn't seem like Pete is watching, but then he notices things. During a commercial, he said "Why is that show called 2 and a half men? You can't have half a person."

Corn Maze

Above is a picture from the corn maze when we went last year. You can see Pete holding the yellow flag. The idea is that you can shake the flag in an emergency, and a spotter will come and help you find your way out of the maze. Apparently, Pete's definition of "emergency" was a liberal one because every time I looked over he was shaking the flag vigorously. Fortunately, they don't do much screening for the teenagers that they hire at these places and I believe the spotter on duty was off in the corner of a shack somewhere sending text messages and organizing the tunes on his iPod.

"Slippers"

On Sunday we were all sitting in the family room. Pete said "I need to go put on my slippers. I'll be right back". I'm thinking that this is strange, since I don't remember him wearing slippers any time recently.

About 2 minutes later he comes sliding into the room, there are several crashing noises, then he lands on his butt.

His "slippers" were two small toy trucks that he was trying to balance on. What made him think this is possible, I have no idea.

Bap

Sam has some words that are all-purpose words. One of these is "bap". This can represent a number of different things, such as:

- jump
- bat
- bed
- bad
- cup

The key is to listen for the inflection. Unfortunately, you can't ask him to use it in a sentence because the whole sentence is just "bap". The only multi-word sentences he does are things like "bye bye night night" when he gets out of his crib.

Hidden Ball Game

Pete, Sam, and I were playing a new game where one person secretly hides a koosh ball under one of about 10 boxes of various sizes. Then the other two participants race to see who can find the ball first. The only problem was that every time Sam hid the ball, he would show us where it was right when we started looking for it.

This led to much laughter each time Sam would prematurely identify the location of the ball. After a while, Pete was laughing so much that he said "I'm running out of laughs."

Pumpkinville

It's mid-October, which means the obligatory photos from the obligatory visit to the pumpkin patch:













Note the last picture, which is Pete and Sam playing for 30 minutes on the playground equipment that they have anywhere.

Haircut Night

Life is funny sometimes. It's a typical evening. You're driving home, sitting in traffic. So you envision how nice the evening will be. You'll give a few hugs, have a quiet dinner, mix up a drink with a little umbrella in it, maybe pay a few bills, catch the end of the game, and knock off early.

Then you walk into the house and Christy says "Hey, let's give the boys haircuts tonight". So Tuesday night this week turned out to be haircut night.

Actually, it went pretty well. During Pete's haircut, Sam and I did some flippy and looked through his favorite book, which is the Super Mario 3 tips and tricks magazine. During Sam's haircut, Pete and I sat in the "gallery". This is the loveseat where two people can sit and make disparaging remarks about the person getting their hair cut. But we had to stop because Sam always wanted to jump in to the gallery instead of getting his hair cut.

The "after" photo is below. The reason Sam is looking off to the side is that I captured the precise moment when he realized that he was interested in the pizza that he didn't want an hour earlier.

Birthday Magic

We had a fun birthday celebration yesterday, with a picnic in the gazebo. Pete got me a magic kit for my present. It must be good, because it is from the dollar store. And it has 15 tricks. This seems like a bit of a stretch, though, since the kit only contains 3 or 4 implements. Also, I noticed the first few tricks are something like "The Disappearing Ring", "The Appearing Ring", and "The Amazing Ring". I have a feeling the next one may be "Schrodinger's Ring". For this trick, you put a ring in a sealed box and wait until the end of the universe.

We are doing one trick a day for the next 15 days. We will post if there are any good ones.

Camp-out Memories

Pete and I had fun at the daddy-son camp out.

The best moment was sunrise, with a mist over the lake and some geese swimming in perfect formation framed between the trees. Unfortunately, I could not get Pete in the picture because he was too cold. We went walking around looking for someone with a fire, but apparently most people don't get up at 6:30 at the campground.

The most interesting incident was when a group of boys stirred up a swarm of bees by the lake and came running up the hill. So Pete starts running down the hill to see what is going on. I said "Pete - no - run". So he turned around and started running. Then I couldn't find him for a few minutes, until I figured out that he had zipped himself inside of his tent.

Below are some pictures of Pete with two glowsticks and Pete fishing. It was pretty chilly that evening, and Pete made it through the whole night in his own tent - I believe possibly the only kid on the trip that did so. Not sure if this was related to his going to the hospital the next week, but he was fine for a few days after the trip so it is hard to say for sure.

Choosing a Costume

Two of Pete's favorite things are
yellow and Batman.

He was planning to go as a bat
for Halloween this year,
but changed his mind yesterday
to some sort of
winged goblin / vampire /
Frankenstein character.

I sent an instant message to Christy
that we should steer him toward
the bat. Later that evening,
he said "I saw what you said about
steering me toward the bat
and my answer to that is NEVER!!"

Note to self: Be more careful with my instant messages.

Sam Throws Things

Driving can be a dangerous activity when Sam gets mad. This is because he will start throwing things from his car seat. He used to just throw things on the floor, but now he is getting better at throwing and he has figured out that he gets more of a response when he throws something into the driver's line of vision.

So driving to Philadelphia and back this weekend, I had various items traversing over my head, hitting the steering wheel, dashboard, window, etc. It's a little bit like those video games where you will be driving and pedestrians and other obstacles will appear in the roadway. Except in my real life version there are pacifiers and McDonalds toys. I think he has a master plan. One day he will clump all his toys into a brick and hurl it at the back of my head. His hope will be that I will pass out and then the car will swerve to rest at an ice cream shop.

Signing Letters in Class

In Pete's class, they do an exercise each day called "Chant the Chart" where they do letters and words together. So they will say "A - Apple", then "B - Bear" and so on.

Miss Kirsch observed that Pete does the sign language symbol for each letter as they recite it.

Pete Does What Sam Does

Usually Sam does what Pete does, but sometimes it works the other way. The other night, Sam dumped out his clothes and started running around with the hamper on his head. Pete said "I'll be right back" and went out the door. In case you haven't guessed, he returned with his hamper also on his head. Then they did the Hamper Dance (which is very similar to the Hampster Dance).

Last night, Pete was climbing the floor. So Sam started climbing the floor too. This activity is hard to explain. Suffice it to say that you end up with a very dirty shirt.

Hospital

Pete and dad had a brief and unexpected stay in the hospital Monday evening. Pete was having some trouble breathing due to a constricted airway.

It is fun to be in the hospital if you are Pete:
- buttons move the bed around
- Playstation 2 (Crash Bandicoot and Jimmy Neutron)
- TV with remote
- unlimited juice
- send dad on food run
- button to call nurse
- machine that shows graph of your breathing

It is not so much fun if you are dad:
- sleep on chair in work clothes next to arctic blast from A/C unit
- turn off football game in 4th quarter ("too bright")
- fill out 12 page patient history at 1am
- wake up to breathing treatments every 2 hours

Camp-out

Tonight Pete and I are going on a "Daddy Son Camp Out". We don't know anyone else in the group, but it should be fun. To get in the spirit, below is a picture from one of our previous camping trips. Somehow, we haven't gone camping yet this year. I guess time flies when you move to a new house with two kids. We can still try to go again in October.

The Reason We Can Only Go To The Playground At 3am Or When It Is Raining

This is what happens when we go to the playground:

1. Pete slides down slide
2. Pete swings on swing
3. Pete climbs in equipment
4. Pete gets bored
5. Pete climbs up slide
6. Pete scales outside of slide framework
7. Pete scales swing assembly
8. Pete climbs on and around equipment
9. Other kids copy Pete
10. Parents give me dirty looks

Example: Pete standing on top of something he
should be crawling through --->

Bluemont Festival

We had fun at the festival in Bluemont. It is out west by the Shenandoah River. In the picture, Pete and Sam are playing with a contraption where you make music by hitting various objects with sticks. Sam liked this a lot. He played with it while Pete went to get his face painted with a bat. Some other things we did were climb on hay bales, throw beanbags, pet some animals, get balloons, see an old jazz band, walk through a caboose, play at the playground, visit the beekeeper booth, and get lemonade to benefit Katrina victims. Also, Sam started a rock collection in his stroller. Next year we will bring the wagon because there is a lot of walking.

Pete Likes Packages

Last weekend, Christy told Pete that there was something for him on the front porch. So he ran off. After a few minutes, I noticed it was quiet so I went to look for Pete. Here is what I found on the front porch.

Sam Ready for School

One evening last week Sam put on Pete's backpack and headed out the front door. We figured out that he was walking towards the bus stop. So we walked him to "the bus".

Lime

If someone tells you that Pete doesn't like to eat anything except pizza, that is not entirely true. He also likes limes.

Sam's Activity Names

Sam determines his own names to represent certain activities.

Recently we were playing Monopoly Jr. on the computer. There is an alligator in the game somewhere, because whenever we say "alligator" he runs over to the computer. And when he sees us playing the game, he says alligator ("ab-bluh").

Similarly, there is a character in Mortal Kombat 4 called Jax. So when we start walking down to the basement, Sam will say "Jax". That is his name for the game. And when we play the game, he points to the screen and says "Jax". Note, this game is not at all appropriate for children. If you find yourself getting punched or kicked by Pete, please note that I accept full responsibility and you can send me your medical bills.

Sam also likes anything with a hole. He will point to a hole and say "hole". Sometimes he says "hole" and you have to look at the object or landmark for a while to figure out where the hole is. I think in some cases, when there is no obvious hole, he is most likely referring to the holes in the porous membranes at the cellular level.

Mad Libs

Sometimes Pete is unpredictable, but not always.

For example, if you are doing Mad Libs and it asks for an article of clothing, he will always choose "underpants".

Walk by the Pond

Pete and I went for a walk one night by a local pond. We drove around to look for a fun place, and found a secluded pond in one of the places in Northern Virginia where they haven't built houses yet. Our loose objective was to go talk to the geese, or at a minimum convince them to go into the water. First we found some good feathers to bring home to mom. Then we traversed a few dangerous embankments to the far side of the pond. Pete saw a snake. He leaned down to pick it up, but it slithered away.

Me: Pete, you can't pick up a snake. It could be poisonous.
Pete: He's not poisonous, he's just shy.

We found a good piece of string on the way back to the car. We held the string between us, so Pete could pull on the string, if necessary. This was the system:

1 pull: stop walking
2 pulls: desperate emergency
3 pulls: Pete has a question

This was not the greatest system, since every time Pete had a question I was worried that it was a desperate emergency during the time between the second and third pulls.

We found a good pile of trash on the way back to the car. This was good, since we found a few more things to bring home for mom and Sam, such as a piece of red ribbon and some wood for a shelf.

Pete Logic

Breakfast conversation (7:00am):

Me: Pete, why are you banging on your head?
Pete: I'm waking my brain up
Me: Well, let me check if it is up
Pete: ok
Me: What is 3 + 9 ?
Pete: 12
Me: That's pretty good. How did you know that?
Pete: Well, 3 plus 10 is 13, so it's one less than that.

Figuring Out Words

Sam is at the point where he is trying
to communiicate with some words.
The way it works is, he says a "word"
and then you have to try to figure
out what it is.

Here is a sample conversation:
Sam: "da-zzj"
Me: "you would like a donut?"
Sam: "da-thj"
Me: "you want to dance"
Sam: "du-shz"
Me: "Fascism?"
Sam: "da-szjz"
Me: "you want to go downstairs?"
(Sam laughs)

When he laughs, it means you got it right.
Now it is time to start over with another word.

Sam and Friend

What is the difference between Sam and Chuck E. Cheese?

One is a wide-eyed character who likes cheese and thinks he can drive, and the other is a mouse.

Go Eagles

Tonight is the Eagles season opener. Better post some pictures for good luck.

A Break for Mom and Dad

Somehow we managed to get Sam into a swing and convince Pete to push him. So mom and dad get a 3 minute break until Pete pushes too hard and Sam kicks him in the head.

Ice Cream Shop

Pete likes to set up an imaginary ice cream shop at any playground with one of those little openings. Lately he has hired a new employee, Sam. When we took this picture, he had a special going with free toppings. Also, if you come back the next day with a coupon, you can get unlimited free ice cream and toppings. One thing I noticed is that he charges his family more than he charges complete strangers. We will have to clarify this policy with him.

Note in the picture, Sam punching in numbers on the imaginary cash register.

Brave Sam

Sam is getting brave with his activities. This is because he likes to do whatever Pete does.

Saturday he tried skateboarding, biking, and climbing the tree.

Popsicle

A conversation I had with Pete yesterday:

Pete: I want dessert
Me: Ok, while mom and I are eating dinner you can have a popsicle
-- pause --
Pete: I'm sorry you're not feeling well
Me: What?
Pete: Think about it
Me: I don't get it. Just tell me.
Pete: You said Pop sick ill

Sam Vocabulary Update

Sam will be 21 months on Sunday. He is doing pretty well with his words. He likes to point to balls and say the color. He can do purple, red, blue, and orange. Plus a few others not as clearly. Yesterday he went to Home Depot so he got a lot of practice with "orange". He's at the age where pretty soon Pete will know exactly what he is saying, but everyone else will be scratching their head.

He likes to say goodbye to things. When I came home from work, I gave him a kiss. I usually give him a kiss in the morning, so he said "bye bye". Then after he finished his dinner, he pointed to his plate and said "bye bye pizza".