Soccer!

This is Dad's first post. I'm just not much of a blogger, but I am pretty excited about today.

You've probably read about our adventures with t-ball. Turns out that soccer is much more Spencer's thing. We joined Tucker Youth Soccer Association (TYSA) and Spencer got a jersey and a new soccer ball.

We were really afraid we'd have a repeat of t-ball, but Spencer jumped right after the ball. He followed all.... errr... most of the coach's instructions. The coach was very good at getting over a dozen kids to do the same thing at once. Not easy with a bunch of 4 yr olds.

Spencer did a great job dribbling, passing and shooting goals. I think he really liked scoring goals because I told him he could run around like an airplane screaming "GOOOOOAAAALLLL!" every time. He also did great getting involved with his team. I think it helped that a kid from his pre-school was there. Spencer never picked the ball up with his hands. Yeah!

Go TINY TYKES!

Holiday Summary

Spencer's third holiday season has come and gone. This was a fun season, since he understood (and believed in) Santa Claus and the reindeer and the elves. He also sleeps better now when we travel, so our Thanksgiving trip to Austin, TX to visit Aunt A and Uncle R was very enjoyable.

Here's a summary of Spencer's holiday activities:

During out Thanskgiving trip to Austin we rode on the 'duck boat'. The duck boat does a tour of the city then a tour of Lake Austin. Spencer insisted on wearing his life jacket on the bus/boat (even though no one else was...our safety conscious child!). While in the lake the driver was allowing young children to 'drive' the boat. Spencer refused for several minutes, then all of a sudden he got up and went to drive the boat. I was amazed, until he got back to his seat and I saw Fred giving him the M&M's that he had bribed him with. Spencer also had his first root beer float...good times.







































At school the teachers decided to do a program with the 3-year old classes for the first time. They called it 'cookies and carols'. It was adorable. He's still occasionally belting out Jingle Bells and Rudolph.



Christmas was spent at home. Spencer missed the annual picture on Santa's lap because he decided when it was our turn that he didn't want to. Of course as soon as I stepped out of line with him he changed his mind...no sir, that was the end of that and we had to drag him away kicking and screaming. So instead, Spencer dictated a letter to Santa, which Fred wrote for him. He also left out cookies and milk and carrots on the hearth, and was extremely delighted to see that they were gone the next morning. Christmas morning was very fun...he really enjoyed his gifts from Santa, and all the great gifts from family. (And yes, Santa brought him a farm set.)


I don't think Spencer even noticed New Years.

I wish there were more kids Spencer's age in the family. There are few cousins his age. For holidays there are really no kids for him to play with; no kids table. I'm sure he doesn't notice, but I do. We'll have to start making more of an effort to get together with the bit of family that has young kids. Maybe next year...

Happy fall to all!

We've had a busy fall season. We started with a trip to Washington Farms in Watkinsville, GA www.washingtonfarms.net. This is the same place we went last year. They have a pumpkin patch, hay ride, corn maze, and other fun kid activities. We went with a few friends and had a great time. This is definitely becoming a great tradition.We had many Halloween related activities this year. The weekend before Halloween we went to the zoo for their annual Boo at the Zoo event. They set up trick-or-treat stations around the zoo, so the kids gather candy as they are running around looking at the animals. Spencer was a cowboy...at least that's how he started out (this was the first year that he actually picked his costume. I think the idea came from Curious George). Little by little his costume starting sliding around and just got in the way, so by the time we made it around the zoo I was carrying the costume. Lesson learned...for trick-or-treating there were many safety pins involved in keeping the costume in place.














On Halloween day we went to a friend's annual Halloween party, them met up with some neighborhood families to go trick-or-treating. The weather was iffy (lots of rain throughout the day) but we caught a good window between rain. Unfortunately we had very few trick-or-treaters with the cold, rainy weather.

Last Friday Fred and I played hookie from work and took Spencer to the N GA mountains to ride the Blue Ridge Scenic railroard www.brscenic.com. It was a gorgeous fall day in the mountains and we had a great time (except when we hit Atlanta traffic on the way home...definitely not fun). The train ride lasts about 2 hours round trip, with a 2 hour stop in a scenic little mountain town on the GA/TN border. We didn't get to ride in the engine, but Spencer did get to help the conductor punch our tickets.

This weekend we had gorgeous weather, so we spent some time raking leaves in the backyard. And of course, as a result we had to get the obligatory 'kid in pile of leaves' picture.

Southern boy

Spencer has developed a southern accent. 'Bath' has become 'bay-ath', there is 'they-er', that is now 'thay-at'...and so on. We're not exactly sure where it came from. Obviously not from us, not from Nanny or PopPop (who are New Yorkers), and he doesn't spend enough time with my family to have picked it up from them. I thought maybe it was his teachers, but neither of them have accents. So it must be a friend from school...maybe he's trying to impress someone.

There is a little girl at school that he seems to like a lot. They were in the same class last year. This year they are in the same 'grade' but different classes. Apparently though when the kids are lined up waiting to go outside Spencer wants to line up with this little girl rather than stay with his class like he's supposed to. This has gotten him into a bit of trouble several times and we've had to talk to him about how he needs to resist her wiley ways and listen to his teachers. Who knew this behavior started so early?

We went to Fernbank Museum for the first time yesterday, so Spencer got to see his first real dinosaur skeletons. It was great fun. We bought him a new triceratops from the gift store, which he named 'Dargamel' (Fred actually suggested 'Gargamel' but Spencer misheard him). Unfortunately Dargamel and all of Spencer's other dinosaurs were all chewed up when we got home today (stupid dog...ok, ok, stupid people for leaving toys where the dog could get them). He was so upset (our sensitive little boy) that Fred wanted to go right to the store to get him some more dinosaurs. We definitely have to go dinosaur shopping soon.Spencer doesn't regularly nap during the week (I can usually get him to nap on weekends if I try). But when he's tired, he's tired! These pictures just crack me up!

Spencer goes camping!

A few months ago Spencer started asking about going camping. We would play camp in the house, with blankets and a flashlight. He would pretend to roast marshmallows by holding animal cookies in front of his flashlight. So, I bought a new tent and we contemplated the best way to camp (start out in the backyard? Just pack the car and hope for the best?). We finally decided to skip the trial run in the backyard and actually go to a campground. Unfortunately, we made the decision about a week before Labor Day, and it never occurred to me that we would have problems finding a place to camp. We decided to just drive north and hope for the best. We had 4 campgrounds in north GA mapped out, and we were just going to hit each one and hope that we found a place we could stay. Sort of a stressful situation with a 3-year old on his first camping adventure. At the last minute we decided to call Stone Mountain Park, and sure enough they had some tent sites available! None of them were choice sites of course, but given the situation we decided it was the best option. So, we made a reservation and drove the 10 minutes to Stone Mountain Park for our camping adventure. Of course the entire time were were making jokes like 'well, if we forgot something we can just run home' or 'I can run home and shower in the morning'.
We did some fishing, which Spencer was excited about for maybe 20 minutes before moving on to other things (namely sand, mud, rocks and dirt). I caught the first fish, really by accident, and immediately freaked out and yelled for Fred to come release it. The folks fishing down the beach from us thought that was hysterical. Spencer was excited to see the little fish (then quickly moved on to sand, mud, rocks and dirt again). He was a little confused about why we were throwing it back, but didn't have a fit about it.We roasted marshmallows, which of course Spencer decided he didn't like without even trying one. Fred tried to cook bacon on a fork...that didn't work out so well.
One night we decided to try to see the Stone Mtn laser show (a true redneck adventure). There was a handy little shuttle that took us from the campground to the attractions at the mountain. We got there, found a great spot on the lawn, and waited...and waited...and waited... At first Spencer had fun running around and found some other kids to play with. But around 9 he got tired and had just had enough. So he decided to leave. We chased after him and brought him back a few times, but then realized it just wasn't going to work (and the laser show still had not started). So we went to get the shuttle back to the campground, which apparently doesn't actually run during the show...just before and after. Luckily the woman in charge of the shuttles took pity on us so we got our own private shuttle ride back to the campground.

Spencer slept well in the tent, in his new little sleeping bag. The only downside really was that we were camped amongst a bunch of RVs, all of which were pulled by giant heavy duty Ford pick up trucks that sounded like bulldozers. This was very annoying when we were trying to fall asleep at night, or stay asleep in the morning and someone decided they needed to drive the 100 yards to the campground general store. I've also never seen so many golf carts at a campground; it reminded me a little bit of the movie Wall-E.

In all it was a very good camping experience. I think we'll definitely go again, maybe this year but definitely next year. And lesson learned...next time I'll make reservations (in a more tent friendly area). Maybe we can even find some friends to go with us (anyone interested???).

Where did summer go?

I can't believe it's already mid-August. Spencer starts school Monday, 5-mornings per week this year. I think we're all excited about that. He has grown up so much this summer. I can't believe his vocabulary, and sometimes because he speaks so well I forget how young he still is. He gets more and more proficient at picking up phrases, even when they are not said directly to him. One of his newest is 'That's nonsense!'. (Freditor's note: He gets that from me.) He's around 35 lbs, and is on the taller side for his age (tall and skinny). Still very blonde, but there are some darker strands showing.

We finished our T-ball season without much T-ball playing. I think Spencer got voted 'least likely to play'. But, we still went to the games. Maybe we'll try again next summer.

Our summer vacation to Grandpa and Grandma's house was great (except for the massive breakdown about 3/4 of the way through the plane ride to Phoenix...that was UGLY). Spencer enjoyed the pool, the park and playing with his cousin Mikey. And he loved their 5 dogs, especially Killer, the Chihuahua. And I enjoyed Spencer being occupied so I could sit by the pool reading my book and drinking mojitos...ah!
He is fully potty-trained, even at night. We went to AZ to visit Grandpa and Grandma in August, and he slept all night in a 'big boy' bed. So when we got home we set up his toddler bed and transitioned him out of the crib. That has been a bit of a challenge...the second night I ended up completely reassembling his crib as a threat because he wouldn't stay in his bed. His crib is still set up in his room, but we haven't had to use it except as a threat.Yesterday we took advantage of the mild summer temperature with a trip to the zoo. The weather was perfect and we had a great time. And that's all for now!

Fireworks

This 4th of July Spencer experienced his first fireworks. We went to a friend's house in the afternoon for a barbecue, and stayed for some neighborhood fireworks. After some great food and pool time, the kids started out with sparklers, which I thought would terrify Spencer. But he loved them! Even when he mildly burned his hand (yeah, oops) he was simultaneously crying in pain and crying 'I want another one!'. The kids also had a lot of fun watching the 'pooping snakes'...which it turns out is basically a small piece of rubber that just elongates as it burns (I had never seen them before). Spencer acted scared for some of the bigger fireworks, but I think it was partly just being a little tired and overwhelmed. When we ignored his whining he became much more interested in the fireworks, and less interested in being melodramatic.
Probably the most interesting...display...was when we were in the car about to leave. Fred said something and I turned around from the driver's seat to see lots and lots of tiny, purple, glowing specks all over Spencer's face, shirt and arms and the ceiling of the car. It looked like he had been infested with some sort of tiny, glowing bugs...turns out it was the liquid from inside a glow bracelet that had cracked open and spewed its contents everywhere.

This was probably the latest night that Spencer has ever had, at least intentionally. He was nearly drunk with exhaustion, and kept us laughing the entire way home with silly talk. Luckily for all of us he slept until past 9 the next morning.

In all, it was a great celebration of Independence Day!