Like Father, Like Son

Before I get into what's on my mind tonight, I wanted to report that Tyler's second day went well, too. He played basketball at recess with his friends. His classroom has Legos. His behavior stoplight was on green all day (this is good), and his new shoes were perfect for gym. (Maybe a little too perfect. Apparently they make really cool echoing noises off the gym floor that really annoy the gym teacher.) Also while he was in gym, the teacher showed them where to go, as Tyler said, "in case someone comes in and tries to kidnap a kid or kill them or something". How sad that our children have to worry about such things. When Tyler got off the bus today he was about to burst with his exciting news: "D** got sent to the principal's office for showing his BUTT in the library today! He had to sit in the office for a whole hour!" I couldn't tell if his excitement was because of the kid (not one of his favorite people), the event (saying butt is bad enough but actually showing it...), or the fact that it wasn't him in trouble (this time). Tomorrow will be a new record: 3 days of school in a row. I'm expecting the excitement to wane.

This is what I really wanted to share, though:

This afternoon after school another boy from the neighborhood came and asked if Tyler could come over and play. This boy has asked several times lately, but Ron and I have always said no. In addition to the timing just not being right, we have some concerns about Tyler hanging out with this boy in his home when we’re not present. I felt bad saying no again, so I asked him if he’d like to come play at our house instead.

Tyler’s guest wanted to play Lego Star Wars on the game cube. Last fall Ron and Tyler spent hours playing this game together. They played for a little while almost every evening for weeks. They had a lot of fun together and really bonded over it. Ron was incredibly patient with Tyler and always encouraged him. It was almost sad when they finally solved the game. Given our experience, I asked the boy if he and his dad played video games together, too. He said, “No. I play them by myself.” He paused and then added, “Sometimes my mom plays.” I know how much those evenings with Ron meant to Tyler, and I felt sad for this kid. He probably doesn’t realize what he’s missing, but I do.

Tyler and his friend attempted to play through a level. The other boy kept killing Tyler’s character or knocking him off rocks & cliffs (certainly not how Ron would have played with Tyler). Tyler was surprisingly patient with his friend and continued to lead him through the level. He was also amazingly encouraging. Tyler kept saying things like, “That’s ok, buddy.” or “Good job, buddy!” or “Keep it up, buddy.” His words and tone of voice were surprisingly kind.

When Tyler’s words finally sunk in, I stopped what I was doing and reached for the phone to call Ron. Those are the same words of kindness Ron shared with Tyler when they played. He always called him buddy. He always encouraged him on. He was never cross with him. All those evenings Ron and Tyler fooled around on the game cube were actually evenings when Ron was investing his time in his son, teaching him by example and giving him worth, whether either of them realized it or not. And now Tyler was doing the same with his friend. I'm sure it didn't matter much to his friend and Tyler probably wasn't aware of what he was doing, but it was a great insight into the wonderful character our son is developing. A wonderful character like his father. I couldn’t have been more proud of my guys.

Tyler's First Day of 1st Grade

Tyler started 1st grade today. He wasn't looking forward to going back to school until we went to a back-to-school ice cream social at our neighbor's and then packed all his new supplies in his backpack last night. By the time he went to bed, he was excited. Fortunately he was still excited this morning. Even better, he was still excited when he got home!

Based on his kindergarten teacher's recommendation and Tyler's relationship with a certain teacher, we requested he be placed with a specific teacher, if possible. He did get her for his teacher, so I think that helped him not be so nervous. Someone gave me a hard time for requesting a specific teacher rather than making Tyler learn to adjust to whomever he had. I felt bad for a minute, but then decided that I'd rather set Tyler up to be successful whenever I can. He will still have the opportunity to learn to deal with difficult or different personalities because he'll have new kids in his class and encounter other teachers during the course of the school day. So don't give me any grief about it... So far Tyler's class only has 16 kids in it!!! I am very excited about the small class size, but I'm doubtful it will stay that small.


Hugging his sister goodbye










Waiting for the bus
















When Tyler came home this afternoon, he talked nonstop for about 20 minutes. Then he passed out on the couch. He loved his teacher. He had a great time making clay necklaces in art class. His chicken patty for lunch was sooo good but the green beans were gross. He has a new girlfriend (no teasing, please) but he can't remember her name. They had a recess rodeo this afternoon. The girl next to him cried when her parents dropped her off this morning. Tevante wears glasses now. You're not allowed to wear crocs because someone had a "terrible accident" on the playground once. There are tennis balls on the bottom of the chairs. And, oh by the way, "I need tennis shoes for gym class. I have gym class tomorrow."

After school

This year the kids get to keep their things in their own desks. I asked him if he liked having his own desk. He said, "Yes, but I wish she [the teacher] would get all her things out of it! She has stuff everywhere in everyone's desk." I had to laugh. I said, "You mean books and stuff? Those are YOUR text books. You'll have to use those this year!" It was so funny.

Tonight we celebrated his first day with a dinner of his choosing (Chipotle) and a special cake. He thought his cake was really cool. Tonight (after I went shoe shopping) he told me how much he loved school today and how wonderful first grade is. I asked if there was something specific that made it so special, but he said it was all great. I hope that sentiment continues. We'll see how he feels by Friday.

Looking for Summer

Where did it go?! Tyler starts 1st grade tomorrow, officially bringing our summer frivolity to an end.

Today we completed the last item on my summer To Do List and visited a place that sells playsets, trampolines, playhouses, and basketball hoops. Kids can play on all the equipment on the showroom floor. We had 2 garage sales at the beginning of the summer and have been using our earnings to fund our summer activities. It cost $6 for both kids to play today. I had $8 left! I guess it's a good thing the summer is drawing to a close. We have just enough left to stop the ice cream truck the next time he's in the neighborhood.

We really have had an amazing summer. We did so many things and made so many fun memories. I think this has been one of my favorite summers. I'm going to miss Tyler when he's away at school every day, all week long. We've been together the majority of the time for the past 6 years. Even last year he was home two or three days during the week. It's going to take some adjusting. I will enjoy having a couple hours to myself now and then and some alone time with Danielle, but I'm going to miss my first grader.

The One That Got Away

Every fisherman needs a good fish story. Now Tyler has one. I don't think he'll mind if I share it on his behalf.

Yesterday after dinner we took the kids fishing. We had such a nice time the week before, we thought we'd try it again. We went to a different lake and fished some place new to us.

Shortly after we got ourselves settled, Ron and Danielle went to explore another spot while Tyler and I threw our lines in. Suddenly Tyler gave his pole a big jerk and jumped out of his chair. He struggled to reel his line in and yelled to me for help. I thought he was exaggerating until I put my hand over his to help him reel. I have never reeled in anything that heavy! It was amazing. He kept a firm grip on his pole and the two of us continued to slowly reel his line in. I thought maybe we were pulling in a log or something else really heavy, but then part of the fish's tail broke the surface of the water. His tail was HUGE! Based on the size of his tail, he had to be at least 2' long! (Tyler claims it was a baby whale.) At this point, a crowd of people had started to gather and were all waiting to see what Tyler was going to pull out. He was so excited. We continued to slowly reel the line in until the fish was about 3 feet from shore, and then we heard the terrible sound of the line snapping. The pole became light again, and everyone around us moaned. One guy offered to jump in and grab the fish, but it was too late. I grabbed the floating bobber while Tyler processed what had just happened. Instead of being sad about losing his "whale", he was super excited about almost catching it! The crowd dispersed while Tyler and I rehashed the excitement. And then Ron and Danielle came back. They missed everything. Tyler was so excited he could hardly get the full story out. Ron thought we were exaggerating, but there was one woman left who verified our account. It really was an amazing experience!

We're pretty sure Tyler's almost-catch was a huge catfish. Someone else a little further up the beach caught a 15lb catfish later in the evening. We should have asked her to check for our hook

in the catfish's mouth.

The rest of the evening was dull in comparison. Ron and I each caught a perch and Tyler caught this little guy. Danielle entertained herself with the shells on the shoreline until the sun went down. Once the sun went down she entertained herself by driving us crazy. We called it a night around 10, packed up our chairs, and left with some great memories and an even better fish story.

Mom, The Bible is Amazing!

My aunt bought Tyler The Usborne Children’s Bible for Christmas. (Tyler has the big one. There is also a miniature edition.) I thought he’d reached the age where he needed a Bible with a little more “meat” than his toddler Bible offered. I researched some of them and thought this one looked like a good choice. Tyler rediscovered it the other day when we cleared some of the other books off the shelves by his bed, and that has been the book he’s been picking for me to read from before bed.

Last night after Tyler had been tucked into bed and was supposed to be sleeping, he suddenly popped out of his room and declared, “Mom, the Bible is amazing! I’ve been reading it and it’s just AMAZING!” How could I yell at him to get back in bed after an epiphany like that? I agreed with him and told him we could discuss what he read in the morning. (When was the last time I read something in the Bible that made me feel like jumping out of bed & exclaiming?!)

This morning I was putting dishes away in the kitchen when Tyler wandered in to talk to me. His face brightened and he said, “Now I know the rules!”
“What rules?” I asked.
“You know - Jesus’ rules! Last night I read about them.”
“Oh! You mean the 10 commandments?” ( I was impressed he made the connection between commandments and rules!)
“Yeah. The rules. That guy Moses went and got them when he was really old. Now I know Jesus’ rules.” He looked pleased with himself and ran off to play.

The Bible is amazing, and watching our son discover its treasures and learn about God’s love is pretty amazing, too.

Making Smiles & Lanterns

Today we went to visit my great-aunt. She turned 97 on Monday. She never got married and instead stayed home to care for her aging parents. She is sharp and spunky, and still manages to live by herself in her own home. At 97! Pretty amazing. Today she shared a couple stories about my grandpa misbehaving in school. Tyler thought her stories of Great-Grandpa being tied to his chair in school because he wouldn't sit still were pretty funny. (I think he could relate.) The kids brought her a crown from BK so she could be the birthday princess. I think she enjoyed our visit.

Tonight Grandpa helped Tyler finish his homemade lantern. Apparently the project and design were Tyler's ideas. Grandpa just lent a helping hand. Given Tyler's passion to design and create, I'm pretty sure he'll have a future in engineering.

Farewell to the Butterflies

No, they didn't die. I finally talked Danielle into setting them free. I know she was sad about letting them go, but it was the right thing to do. As soon as we took their little home outside into the sunshine, they started flapping all over the place. They obviously really enjoyed being outside. That made the kids feel a little better.

She and Tyler took turns letting them go one at a time. They each flew a little way and then rested in the grass for a minute. A couple of them hung around for quite awhile after we set them free, and Danielle was sure she saw one fly across the yard a couple hours later. Danielle mentioned several times tonight that she misses her butterflies. I think she might use some of her birthday money to buy more caterpillars (which is much better than buying more Barbies).





Here are a couple videos. (I did not prompt her to say anything.) As a side note, our yard really needs some rain!!










After we released the butterflies and were sitting outside enjoying the weather, Tyler was suddenly struck by a creative bug. He became very excited as he explained to me how we should spend the rest of the afternoon creating rockets "with nose cones" out of boxes. (We saw Space Chimps yesterday. I think that's why he was thinking about rockets.) That wasn't exactly what I had planned for the rest of the day, but he was so excited. Saying no would have crushed him. And really, what a great way to encourage creative thinking and problem solving! I am also mindful of the time we have left before school starts. In only a little over a week, Tyler will be gone all day, 5 days a week. It will be a little more difficult to fit in projects like these.





I rounded up some supplies, and they got busy. The rockets evolved into airplanes. The kids did all the designing, I just cut. (I did even out some of Danielle's lines a bit as I cut.) After they decorated the pieces, we taped everything together and the kids took off. They pretended the yard was a runway and even gave rides to their stuffed animals. (The pose for the last picture was Tyler's idea.)

It took us 2 1/2 hours to complete the airplanes. That was 150 minutes of no fighting, just being together and working hard. That was better than anything on my agenda for today.

Football Practice & the Perseids

As requested, here are a few videos from Tyler's football practice tonight. (He's the tall kid in the khaki shorts & gray/green shirt.) This was his third practice. He enjoyed practice a lot the first two days, not so much tonight. He was tired tonight and didn't handle being thrown around as well. When he tries, he does very well. He's still trying to figure out the difference between offense & defense, when to block versus when to run, and why it's now ok to knock someone on the ground. Ron spent some time explaining some things to him after practice tonight, and I think that will help him out. (Ron pulled out the paper and pencil and demonstrated with the standard football "x"s and "o"s. Tyler started laughing and said, "Awww. You're writing hugs and kisses.") He collided with the ball carrier once tonight and got a mouth full of football that brought him to tears. Somehow that extremely loose tooth is still hanging in there, though. I guess the mouth guard works.







Tyler was tired tonight partly because he and I got up at 2am to watch the annual Perseid meteor shower last night. I learned my lesson after last year and got Danielle up, too. I held her outside for a minute until she saw a shooting star. After that she'd had enough and went back to bed. I tucked her back in and got Tyler up. He and I sat on the steps out back and watched for a few minutes. After seeing several, we decided to spread out a blanket, grab the sleeping bags, and get more comfortable. The air was a little chilly, so we snuggled together and watched the sky. We saw so many shooting stars that we lost count. There were bright ones and faint ones and some that left long trails across the sky. Somewhere in between the chirping of the crickets and the nonstop talk of my excited son, I was struck by just how lucky I am to have such special children and how blessed we are to share such special times together. We headed back to bed shortly after 3. It was one of those "memorable moments" that will stand out to me for a very long time.

Sorry, Mom!

I finally admitted school is about to start and took Tyler shopping for school supplies tonight. We made an evening out of it and enjoyed dinner out, too. He is such good company and is so fun to carry on a conversation with when he’s not competing for attention with his sister. We had a good time, despite being very aware that school is only 2 weeks away.

While we were in the store picking up supplies, Tyler offered to push the cart. After pushing nicely for a minute, he pushed the cart a little faster, jumped on, & coasted for a few feet. Then he jumped off & attempted to pull the speeding cart to a halt. He was wearing sandals, though, so he didn’t really stop it. The cart kind of pulled him along a little as he slowed it down. He did this a couple times and then I asked him to stop. We proceeded down an aisle and I wandered ahead a little to find the item we were looking for. All of a sudden the shopping cart slammed full speed into my Achilles tendon. It was so painful I had to fight back the tears. I had a giant skid mark (& torn skin) about 3 inches up my heel. Tyler looked horrified and couldn’t say “I’m sorry” enough. I know he felt really bad. It was really hard to reassure him I wasn’t mad because it hurt so badly. It didn’t matter what words came out of my mouth, he could see the look of pain on my face. I finally regained some composure & commandeered the shopping cart. As we hobbled on down the aisle, I suddenly had a very clear vision of nailing my mom in the heels with a shopping cart, too. Multiple times. I couldn’t help but laugh. And then I squeezed my son. (Sorry, Mom.)

The State Fair

We took the kids to the state fair today. The last time we went was on Danielle's first birthday, so both kids were too young to remember it. With blue skies and the temperatures only in the upper 70s, it was a perfect day to go.

We had a lot of fun eating the food, looking at the animals, riding the rides, and seeing the sights. Here are some pictures from our day.

Grandma & Grandpa C & Uncle Ron came over for dinner tonight to celebrate Danielle's birthday. We had a good dinner and a nice time visiting. Uncle Ron gave Danielle a hula hoop (which she pronounces hue-la hoop). I think it's funny how her whole body wiggles. We had a good visit but I think I'm about partied out.

Grandma R asked about the butterflies. The original plan was to release them at Danielle's party. Then we decided maybe that wouldn't be a good idea because not everyone could hold one to release it. Also, Danielle wanted to be able to show Grandma & Grandpa C. So, she told me we could release them today. Today she decided that she can't bear to part with them and would like to keep them until they die (which realistically could be any day now). It will be kind of sad when they're gone. They've been a lot more fun than I imagined. I feel kind of bad keeping them in their little habitat forever, but I suppose they don't know any different (and the company that sent them said they would be fine if that's what we chose to do). Some monarch butterflies live up to 6 months and actually migrate to Mexico. Maybe we'll have to get some of those next time.

Danielle's Butterfly Birthday Party

Today was Danielle's birthday party. I think everyone had a really good time, including the birthday girl. A special thank you to Mamaw & Aunt Nikki for helping out and to Uncle Ron for the perfect butterfly party dress! Here are some pictures of her party:

The Decorations & Wings

(Mom R, I wanted you to see how we used the butterflies. Thank you.)

The Birthday Girl














The Friends

The Games

Stick the butterfly on the flower

Musical flowers (the towels were flowers). I wasn't sure if 4 & 5 year olds could handle being eliminated, so we continued to take away the "flowers" but left all the kids in the game. By the end they were all scrambling to stand on the same flower. It worked out well!

Bug Hunt. Each child got a bug box & then hunted for 5 different plastic insects in the back yard.

The Craft

Butterfly "suncatchers" made from posterboard, contact paper, & tissue paper. Each goody bag contained a suction cup window hanger so they could hang their artwork up when they got home.

The Food

Butterfly cakes & caterpillar cupcakes

Butterfly shaped ice cream

Caterpillar fruit kabobs (I didn't have pretzel sticks for the antenna, but they were cute anyway)

Keebler Bug Bites Graham Crackers

Nectar (pink lemonade)

The Goody Bags

The kids decorated their own bags when they first arrived (great ice breaker). The bags contained the book I Spy a Butterfly and various other butterfly themed goodies. They also got to take home their wings and bug filled bug boxes.