Halloween Update

Adoption

It's all begun again. Jenny and I have started pursuing another adoption, this time an international one through the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire). So far much has been the same as last time around - filling out paperwork, background checks, talking about my feelings - fun stuff. We're getting to the point where we will be having a social worker come to the house to interview us, so we were explaining to Quinton what we were doing. Jenny explained it to him that he was going to have a new brother. He looked very confused and concerned and asked her, "is Ethan leaving?"

Guest Author

Jenny's and my parents both came down to attend Ethan and Quin's Grandparent's day at their school. It's sort of a special year since both Ethan and Quin are in school along with their cousins, Jenny's sister's boys. Since Quin and their youngest are in the same class, and Ethan and their oldest are in separate classes (three classes in all), Ethan hatched a plan where the Kelchen boys could have their other grandparents be with the eldest Kelchen boy, Jenny's parents could hang out with the youngest Kelchen and Quinton, then my parents could hang out with Ethan. A fool proof plan if I've ever heard one! Well, that wasn't how things ultimately panned out...

Anyway, while my parents were down, they were helping the boys get ready for school or something. My dad recounts the conversation better than I could, so here I present my first ever guest auther - my dad, Glen Grady:

Last Tuesday morning, while we were getting ready for the Grandparents Day Mass at your house, Quinn was looking for his DSI- whatever that is. I was helping him look. We went down in the basement to the laundry room to look- when we were down there someone flushed the toilet and I pointed to the pipe and told him that that was where the water from the toilet and bath tub drained out- he looked at the furnace and saw the gas line and asked if that was the same thing- I told him that that was where the gas came in to burn in the furnace. He looked thoughtfully at me and said- you know Grandpa, if you have a fire in the house you are suppose to get on your hands and knees and crawl out of the house and not get up until someone tells you to. I asked him if he learned that at school- he said, "yes, a policeman came and told them that- and he didn't say "you're under arrest." I think big brother has been talking to our little Quin.

Quinton the Worker

Last weekend, Jenny and I ran in our first half marathon together. Let me explain - we've both run them before, but never at the same time, and never together. Probably not that important... Anyway, my parents were again in town to watch Ethan and Quin while we punished ourselves on the cold highways of Lake Mills. When we got home, my mom recounted the story where Quin had hung his own poster. When she told me about it, I immediately thought back to a couple of nights before when an Angry Birds poster showed up on his bed one night as I was tucking him in. I remember him telling me that he wanted to hang it up, and he clearly pointed to the exact spot on the wall where he was going to put it.

As mom recounts the story, Quin got out his toolbox that his other grandparents had gotten him earlier, complete with a plastic hammer, plastic wrench, and plastic, but mechanized drill. Mom said that he somehow came up with some nails (I assume from some other picture he took down from elsewhere in his room), then sized up the wall, took his plastic hammer, and somehow managed to hang the poster up all by himself. When he finally showed up while mom was relating the story, he got very excited and immediately took me upstairs to show me his handywork. I must admit, I was impressed - he did a very good job, and it was only slightly crooked. He then proudly told me that he was a "worker" and that was what he wanted to be when he grows up.

Halloween 2012

As I've no doubt written before, Ethan's favorite time of year is Halloween. November 1st marks the first day of planning for the next Halloween, typically. He helps everybody plan out their costumes. Quin rarely has to pick out his own costume as his big brother will tell him exactly what he should be (he was Spiderman this year, incidentally). In the past, Ethan has been your typical popular character - Spiderman, The Hulk, A Clone Trooper (twice), Darth Maul (which was actually very cool), but each year his excitement was clearly at a much higher level than mine was with regards to his costume. That was until this year.

The plan started hatching sometime in early to mid September. Ethan must have discussed his plan with my mother, because one day when they came to visit us, she showed up with our old accordion. At the time I wasn't sure what it was for - I assumed it was part of her sneaky plot to trick her grandchildren into taking all of her old stuff into my house so she could clean her attic. But this was for some grander vision. When Ethan saw what it was, he let me in on the plan - he was going to be Weird Al. More specifically, he was going to be a UHF era Weird Al.

Most of you that know me are aware that I am a very big Weird Al fan. Jenny has often complained that she has been to more Weird Al concerts than she has been to all other artists' concerts combined. Well, that fandom has clearly rubbed off on my oldest, who has also now been to a concert, has memorized large chunks of his only feature film (UHF), and has now decided that he was going to dress as him for Halloween.

He meticulously planned out each phase of the costume. Granted, it wasn't that hard. With the accordion secured, all he needed was a wig, some glasses, a fake mustache, and a Hawaiian shirt. After a trip to the costume store and Goodwill, his raw materials were assembled, and he was ready. When Halloween night finally came, he got into his costume, and I think I may have actually cried a little bit when I saw him. Honestly, I think he could one day be elected President of the United States and I wouldn't be prouder than I was of him at that moment.

We took a series of pictures as we typically do. One of the photos turned out well enough that I sent it to Al himself. In this day of social networks, it's easy to get something out there and potentially in front of that individual. Al has literally hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers, so I can only imagine the noise that he must get on that account, but somehow, some way, he picked Ethan out of the crowd and included him in his series of "Best Costumes of 2012."

Recognize the handsome devil in the lower left? OK, so when I said I couldn't be prouder, I guess I was wrong. Now he's been validated by the Weird one himself. NOW I couldn't be prouder!

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Time flies, stuff happens, and my writing suffers! It' hard to really comprehend all that has gone on in the humble Milwaukee Grady household since last I wrote on this 'blog, but I suppose I'll try to capture it here for your amusement, or at the least, for you to practice your proof reading skills!

The great family vacation! 

We took a year off last year from what had become an annual tradition, a trip up north. This year we again booked a cabin on a lake in northern Wisconsin for a week. Along with several other families, we took over Kafka's Resort on Lake George near Rhinelander. Kafka's was a very nice place, if not a little on the "quaint" side, with a very stodgy owner who I can't believe actually managed to rent out his place to anybody with kids. Kafka seemed to like things to operate in a particular way, and if you didn't see eye to eye with him, he figured you were trying to put him out of business, and he let you know it!

Well, Old Man Kafka aside, it was a very nice week with beautiful weather and plenty of outdoor activities for the kids to partake in where they would normally be watching movies or playing video games. We spent the days fishing, playing in the sand, swimming, playing on the playground, and different variations of those repeated throughout the week. The smaller kids (there were 12 total kids in our group) launched a fish hatchery business - Ethan and Quinton didn't really participate, though Quin did his best to keep them stocked with fish and did enjoy playing with the fish in the "hatchery."

Quin has actually proven himself to be quite the fisherman. He was up early most days fishing with whoever would help him untangle his Spiderman fishing pole's line and help him bait his hook. By the end of the week he was baiting his own hook and taking fish off himself. He and I went out on the boat with one of the other guys in our group one day, and Quin was able to occupy himself fishing the entire 90 minutes we were out there - and if you know Quin, that is quite a feat!

Ethan had quite a time doing water sports while up there. He had successfully started skiing behind our friend's boat this summer, but while in Rhinelander he became quite adept at it, mastering getting outside the wake and even the smooth dismount to come to a gentle stop in the shallow water so he didn't have to swim back to the launching point. He really likes skiing!

We did have one day that was a bit on the rainy side, so Quin, Ethan, Jacob (a friend's boy) and I went on a Rhinelander Hodag hunt. The boys and I tried to capture as many Hodags on our cameras as we could. In 2 hours time, we located at least a dozen throughout town. Quite the adventure!

The Circus

Quinton has been a big fan of Curious George for many months now. The wonder that is Netflix Streaming gives him the opportunity to watch many hours of this show per day, episode after episode. I think part of the reason he enjoys the show is because George shows him things that he can try to be even naughtier than he is now! That aside, he was really excited when George went to the circus. For the weeks following that episode he was begging and pleading for us to take him to the Circus. "We never go to the circus," was his battle cry.

A few weeks ago, Jenny actually located a circus about 60 miles from our home in Racine. It came across on a Groupon, so we got admission for 4 and 2 pizzas for $35. We didn't really think it was a great deal, but when we got there we were faced with a hefty dose of sticker shock. Normal admission to the circus was $38 per adult! I doubt anybody actually paid that due to different deals going on around town, but other prices were right in line with the admission. For example, you could go for a 2 minute pony ride for $6 or a camel ride for $12. A little cup of lemonade to wash down your prepaid pizza ran $6 a piece!

All in all, the circus was definitely fun. Both of the kids had their favorite parts, and the performers were pretty good for a traveling circus in today's day and age! Quin really enjoyed the "clown" who did an act where he was dancing to a song that was playing on his boom box. Another circus official would come out, turn off the boom box, and in Broken English tell the clown, "No Music!" The clown would turn to the crowd who would boo him, the official would turn around and plead his case, then walk away, at which time the clown turned the boom box back on. Quin was in stitches at the end when the circus official put the boom box in a garbage can and put the cover on to stifle the music, only to have the clown take the cover off of the garbage can and have the music play again. Like I said, big fan of Curious George...

Jenny and I had a favorite part as well. Just prior to intermission, the ring announcer addressed the crowd to inform them that during intermission, several rarities would be available in the ring for people to take their picture. On one side of the ring was a real lemur from Madagascar. In the other side of the ring was a 7 foot python! Then, in the middle of the ring was everybody's favorite Transformer, Optimus Prime! When they announced this, we looked up to see a 6'5" Eastern European guy come walking out in what can only be described as a kid's Halloween costume - in fact, Ethan actually has this costume - complete with flimsy plastic mask! He then proceeded to dance by himself in the middle of the ring while the diapered lemur and snake took pictures with a steady stream of patrons. Our best guess is that this is some sort of circus hazing where the new guy has to dress up as Optimus prime, kind of like Happy Gilmore was enticed to stand on the 18th green at 9:00...

Ethan's first driving lesson

We still have my dad's old truck sitting around in our driveway. I insure it but don't license it, and pretty much just use it to move things around the yard - sort of like a big wheelbarrow. Over the summer we removed a bunch of branches from various trees around the yard and had them stacked up in the back of the yard. A couple of weekends ago we were going to pick up the branches in the truck and drive them to Jenny's sister's house who was going to be renting a wood chipper for the day.

As I was preparing the truck to go pick up the branches, Quin asked if he could ride in the back, to which I agreed immediately. Quickly afterwards, Ethan asked me if he could drive. I hesitated, but then said OK, what's the worst thing that could happen, right? I lined the truck up pointing toward the back yard, put it in park, then slid over to allow Ethan to drive it to the back. He put it in gear, then started rolling right toward the house. I started chanting, "brake, brake!" to which he responded, "I am!!!" I quickly flipped the truck to park, it rolled about 10 more feet right into our front lamp pole, bending it to a 45 degree angle, then finally came to rest. Ethan was frazzled, I was yelling, so I told him to move over and I would drive it - sure enough, no brakes! I suppose it wouldn't have been so bad if our neighbor hadn't been outside watching the whole thing unfold! Just call us the Oconomowoc Hillbillies, I suppose.

First day of school

Last Tuesday was the first day of school. Ethan's first day in 6th grade and Quinton's first day in K4. Quinton was, and still is, very excited to ride on the bus, and has seemed to take to school quite well. I was a little worried that Quin would be a handful at school. He seems like quite a handful at home! On the first day he went in, I was at work when I received a call on my cell phone from a 262 number that I didn't recognize. My mind immediately told me that Quin was already in the principal's office! Well, it turned out not to be the case and Quin's been good enough not to warrant a call home yet.

Well, I suppose we did get a call home the other day. Quin got off the bus and told Jenny that he had sat in some "pokey grass" at school and that he cried. Later in the evening we got a call from his teacher telling us that she thinks he was bit by a bee on the playground and was very upset about it.

He seems to be doing pretty well in school. Last week as I was coaching Ethan's soccer practice, Jenny dropped Quin off for the last 20 minutes of practice so she could meet up with somebody. We were scrimmaging at the time, so I was walking up and down the sideline with my clipboard and practice cheat sheet with me. He asked if he could draw me a picture, so I gave him the practice sheet and pen. What he drew is classic Quinton - a big circle person with stick hands and feet and a circle head. This particular person was kicking a soccer ball. The best part of this piece was that Quinton signed it for me. His name's not perfect on it, but it's definitely Quinton, and he didn't even have anything to copy it or anything. Jenny is bragging that he's been in school only a week and has already mastered the letter Q and is obsessed with soccer.

The Soccer Gradys

I'm not entirely sure how it happened, but soccer has torn through our house as a family pass time. I was hornswoggled into coaching Ethan's U12 rec team. Ethan is doing very well this year and has already scored 3 goals in our first game of the season, a game his team won 12-0. Quinton has started playing U6 ball, which consists of a 30 minute practice followed by a 30 minute game each Saturday. This last Saturday was Quin's first session and he was VERY excited. As soon as he woke up at 6:30 he was asking when we were going to soccer. He continued to ask when we were going until we got there at 10:00. In fact, as we were driving there, he frequently asked us if we were going the right way, and when we would stop at a stop sign he would ask why we weren't going to soccer... He had a great game! He listened very well to his coach and even scored 2 goals, one for each team!

My Little Triathetes

Last weekend was the annual "Tri-ing for Children's Triathlon," a weekend long set of triathlons to benefit Children's Hospital here in town. Jenny and I were both signed up to do the sprint triathlon, a 1/4 mile swim, 15 mile bike, then 3.1 mile run. We've done it a few years in a row now, so that's not what I'm writing about - this year we decided to let our kids participate in the kid's event on the Saturday prior to the adult races.

For Quin this was his first triathlon. He was to swim 25 yards, bike 1/4 mile, then run 0.1 mile to the finish. Even though he'd never done one before, we were pretty confident that he would do well - he's one of the only 4 year olds I know that is on 2 wheels versus training wheels, and he's pretty fast. His race started out well - they started them every 3 seconds until all of them were in the water, and they were chip timed. He passed the girl in front of him in the "swim," which was 25 yards in waist deep water - all the kids I saw walked it, and Quin was no exception. From there, he ran to transition where I helped him putting on a shirt, shoes, and socks - what we would soon realize was a disastrous mistake. As soon as we got his shoes and socks on, he was off on the bike - calling it 1/4 mile was very generous - it was a single lap around a quite small parking lot. Quin was out and back in only a few seconds. From there, he parked the bike and took off on the 0.1 mile run. When it was all over, Quin placed 9th overall at 6 minutes 40 seconds. We're pretty sure if we had just put Crocs on him instead of bothering with shoes and socks, he could have contended! Oh well, next year he'll be in the next, tougher division, so the strategy will have to be learned anew.

After Quin was done with his race it was hurry up and wait for Ethan. He was competing in the 11-14 year old division, the oldest kids at the triathlon. He stood dutifully on the beach watching wave after wave of 5-11 year olds swim their lap in the waist deep water then head off to the bike. Though he claimed not to be nervous, he was getting impatient with waiting and exclaimed, "I just want this to be over." As they went through the different age groups, they continued to move the swimming area buoy further and further apart, until they ran out of room in the swimming area. I started wondering aloud with Ethan how they were going to accommodate his 200 yard swim in that small area, but assured him he would be able to touch throughout the entirety of the swim. As they finally got to Ethan's division, the announced how the legs would be run. They would swim to the far buoy in the swimming area, then out of the swimming area to some of the adult buoys for Sunday's race! What!??! They were sending him out past the weeds where he couldn't touch!!?!?! This was crazy... Well, Jenny and I kind of crapped ourselves, but pulled it together. As calmly as I could, I told Jenny to just back off, knowing she would probably freak him out, and I went up to talk with Ethan. Casually I said to him, "Well, it looks like you are not going to be able touch the whole way." He looked at me with that "duh, dad" look on his face, paused dramatically, then said, "well, I suppose I'll just have to swim then." He convinced me, and he did just that - he swam the whole 200 yards, then got out on his 6 mile bike, and finished it off with a 1 mile run. He wasn't in great shape, and he wasn't anywhere near as good as some crazy good triathlete kids out there, but he finished it - it wasn't a big deal to him - he just doesn't freak out about those things like I do, I suppose, and I'm a little jealous.

Ethan's "I'm just going to do it" attitude inspired me for my triathlon the next day. I'd like to say I ran it fast, but I didn't. Instead, I got the most sleep I've ever had the night before a triathlon and ran a very comfortable race. Because if Ethan can do it, so can I!

 

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Little Quinny

Have you ever heard the "Little Johnny" jokes? For several reasons, I have a feeling that they might one day be replaced by "Little Quinny" jokes. Here's an example of one - Little Johnny was in class learning his ABCs. The teacher was asking the class to name something with each letter of the alphabet in order. Little Johnny raised his hand for each letter, but she kept skipping him thinking that he would say something bad, like "ass" for A and "butt" for B. Finally, she had gotten all the way to R. Little Johnny dutifully raised his hand while nobody else did. She figured, "what could he say that is naughty that starts with R?" So she called on Little Johnny. Little Johnny immediately said, "Rats!" "Oh, that's nice," the teacher said, relieved. "No, Rats, with big penises!" Little Johnny followed up immediately...

Well, I have my own version of Little Johnny in my house. We had some friends over for dinner. All of the adults had gathered outside while the kids gathered in the kitchen. One brave soul went in to check on her son, and came out a couple of minutes later laughing. She said that Quin was teaching the kids the alphabet. "A, B, C, D, E, F, penis..." She apparently kept it together long enough to get outside before she busted out laughing...

Ethan has been showing off his entrepreneurial side again. He and a buddy were out exploring near a train station a few days back and they found what they are sure are chunks of coal. The two of them are convinced that they can sell it for big money on Ebay, only one of them needs an account. So he asked me, and I told him we'd talk about it later, and then left to go to a movie with Jenny. Before the movie we stopped for appetizers at a brewpub and I got a call on my cell phone - it was Ethan, using his iPod as a phone. I answered and he asked if it was OK if he signed up for an Ebay account - he was apparently at the screen where it said you had to ask your parents. So I told him no and that we would talk about it later... It's kind of funny how persistent he is on one hand, yet he's so afraid to break the rules that he insists on calling me even a few minutes after we had already discussed it - and still follows my directions.

Quinny the Spy

Quin and I were at home together the other day - I can't remember why. Jenny and Ethan were out somewhere, I think to get Ethan a haircut. We opened the garage and heard something flying around in there. Before long, Quin had spotted the culprit - a bird had gotten itself stuck in the garage. He was having a hard time finding his way out, and Quin was enthralled! I went into the house and started putting things away from my day's work. 

Quin came in a couple of minutes later and asked for some juice, which I gave him, and he took it outside with him to watch the bird some more. After awhile, Ethan came home, and Quin came inside and asked for something else to drink. I asked him where his juice was, but he didn't know. So I told him he had to find his other juice before I would give him another one. Well, he couldn't find it - and after awhile, I couldn't either. In fact, I was getting a little upset at him, and he could tell, so he told me, "I think the birdie took it." I rolled my eyes, thinking he was just messing with me and was hiding it. After a few minutes, we went outside to look in the garage together. Quin looked up and saw the bird, and said very sincerely, "he doesn't have it!" I'm pretty sure he really believed that the bird had taken it!

 

After looking for a few more minutes, Quin told me that we should call a spy to come and help us find it, because that's what spies do, "right dad?" I have no idea where he comes up with this stuff, but the whole exchange cracked me up...

Happy Memorial Day!

We had the opportunity to travel to Spread Eagle, WI near Iron Mountain, MI for Memorial Day this year. A friend of ours works for a company that owns a "cabin" on a lake up there, which they allow their employees to rent by the week during the year. When say cabin, I mean a 5 bedroom, 4000 square foot, modern home that is situated on a lake up north. So we joined 3 other families up there for the weekend. 

For some reason, the whole day leading up to our travel up there, Quin couldn't stop talking about going fishing! He kept asking when we were going to go fishing. The drive was over 4 hours to get up there, but he kept asking. Once we were up there, he did just that. Not the first day, but on Saturday he fished, and fished, and fished. He was completely slaying the fish around the pier. Each time he dropped his hook in the water a fish would bite. In fact, I didn't really get an opportunity to fish at all because Quin kept reeling them in so fast. When we were getting ready to leave this morning, he was still fishing, and just as we were about to put the fishing poles away, he cast one last time and caught a big bass, the biggest of the trip!

 

On Sunday morning, the kids, our friend Tim, and I were down on the pier emptying the fishing boat of the rain water that had collected the night prior. Quin and Ethan were messing around with some canoe paddles, and Quin of course dropped on in the lake, out of reach from anybody on the pier. Ethan declared that the only way to get it would be to swim after it! Being a reasonable adult, I told him to not do that and that I would get it with the canoe, which I started to do. Apparently Ethan took that as a challenge, obtained an inner-tube, then got in it, fully clothed, and raced me to the paddle. Meanwhile, Quin was sitting on a bench on the pier, which I told him he had to do until I retrieved the paddle, kind of a punishment. He saw Ethan in the water, and apparently was overcome with the notion of being in the water. The next thing I knew he was flying through the air, fleece jacket and all, into the water! Officially I was angry at him, but secretly I was laughing hysterically at both of them. Yeah, their clothes were all wet, but they sure were having a good time despite their old fuddy duddy of a dad!

 

Happy Mother's Day

My boys really don't think much, normally, before a Hallmark Holiday like Mother's Day. Last night, however, Ethan asked me (discretely) what mom's favorite breakfast was. I told him that she liked an egg over easy with toast. He nodded, then said that he'd like to make that for her in the morning.

So this morning, Quin (and I, I suppose) woke up a little after 6:00. He watched Garfield while I watched the inside of my eyelids for an hour more. Around 7:45, I heard Jenny stirring, watching TV in the bedroom. After another 15 minutes, I went upstairs to wake up my tweenager who had only 10 hours of sleep at that point, and told him it was time. He asked me what to do, and I told him. While Ethan was frying the egg, Quin made and buttered toast. Ethan got the egg just right on the first try, impressively! Quin then put a carnation in his teeth and carried the plate while Ethan poured some orange juice in a glass and delivered it to mom for mother's day! I have no idea how it tasted, but Jenny ate it all up, so either it tasted fine, or she is just a good mom - I suppose it could be both...

It was a nice day today - seasonably warm and sunny with no wind. Quin and I were outside mowing the lawn a little later in the morning. He was bored, so I told him he could wash bird droppings off the house with the hose (aren't I a nice dad!). While I was getting the hose ready, he was looking in the sky and told me, "the sun tickles your eyes." Well, in Quinglish he said, "the sun tickles you eyes." I had no idea how poetic my 4 year old was!

Happy mothers day to all (mothers)!

Westward Expansion

I had an interesting experience as a parent last night and had to share it with the world, because that's what we do in the day and age of over sharing... Ethan has a test in Social Studies today. They are covering early history of the United states, from Washington's presidency through the war of 1812. As an aside, I make a way better fifth grader as a 39 year old than I ever did as a 10 year old... That is to say that this information is way more interesting to me today than it ever was 30 years ago. So the way I quiz him is I go through and read the chapters while picking out what I think are key details of the chapters. To my delight, we were talking about Daniel Boone and the Westward Expansion, Louisiana Purchase, etc., and we got to a quote that is credited to DB himself when asked why he continued to move west until his dying day, which was (I'm paraphrasing), "I need some elbow room." That, of course, made me think back to Saturday morning cartoon interludes from our friends at School House Rock. Since I had my laptop sitting right next to me, I quickly searched for the video and was rewarded with the 3 minutes and 10 seconds of goodness that I remembered. I quickly brought it up and let Ethan watch it. I now share it with you for nostalgia's sake:

To me it was one of those moments that I think I will remember for a long time. The perfect blend of experience and technology coming together at just the right time and place. Of course, I guess it all only matters if Ethan does well on the test - if he remembers the content of the cartoon and his chapter and translates it back to his studies. It also makes me wonder if, when Ethan is 39 years old, will he be able to somehow relate "Annoying Orange" to some important history lesson for his children?

Potpourri

The Big Update

First, for the prerequisite apology. My wife and my mother both have scolded me for not having an update out here for going on 2 months now, so here is the big update.

Quin Does Music

Over the last 2 months, Quin has put his musical skills on display. He enjoys listening to music on his CD player in his room - last night he told his babysitter all about the music player he had in his room with at least 10 CDs! He also told her that he had a really big bed. Something tells me that he is starting to develop his pickup lines early. Anyway, he loves listening to all kinds of music, but some of his favorites are "Sexy and I Know It" by LMFAO (he sings it "Sexxies and I Know It") and "Moves Like Jagger" by Marroon 5, which Quin sings "Moves like Quinton." His moves are not to be taken lightly. He very much enjoys doing "The Booty Dance" for us (sorry, I don't have a video), particularly when Ethan is showing us some of his moves. More on that later.

Quinton on Food

Quinny has become quite the food expert. He likes food - a lot. It takes quite a bit of food to support his ever growing body. He likes to tell me, "Dad, I'm growing bigger!" A recent trip to the doctor confirmed that statement to the tune of 45 inches tall and 45 pounds - his 4 year old checkup! I don't like to brag, but he's off the chart for height and at the 95th percentile on weight, though he is modestly at the 50th percentile on the weight per height metric. Anyway - food. Though I believe his favorite food continues to be spaghetti, a newcomer to the race is the corndog, which Quinton pronounces "Horndog!" I'm pretty sure it is among his favorites because of its ability to get large quantities of ketchup into his mouth. We were out with some friends a couple of weeks ago where Quin ordered a "horndog." Though he was the only one using the full bottle of ketchup at the table, by the end of the meal, over half of it was gone...

Quinton on Climbing

Quinton has swimming lessons on Tuesday nights - Ethan has lessons on Thursdays. Our YMCA is equipped with a rock climbing wall, complete with auto-belay systems and equipment for all ages to climb. The first week Quinton had lessons, we let Ethan climb the wall for his first time - well, his first time in awhile. He did pretty well, but Quinton was entranced. He wanted to try it, but we had to go. During Ethan's lesson on Thursday, Quinton got in trouble at school, so his punishment was no rock climbing (yes, meanest. parents. ever.).

Well, finally, a week later, Quinton managed to be good enough at school and home that we were going to try rock climbing with him during Ethan's lesson. We walked up to get his equipment but were almost turned away as their policy had apparently only recently (within the last week) been changed to include 4 year olds in the eligible age group. So they strapped Quin up and put him on lane 5, the beginner's wall. It's still 40 feet high (I think), but the pegs are a little closer together and the wall doesn't vary in and out all that much like the more advanced walls do. His first try he made it up a few feet before he jettisoned from the wall and was gently let down by the auto-belay system. The next time he did about the same. I figured he would be ready to go by then, but he just walked right back up to the wall again and again, determined to climb. By his 4th try, he finally escaped the gravitational pull of the ground and climbed about half way up the wall. The lady that was helping him was stunned - I couldn't stop grinning. This 4 year old was laying waste to several teenagers attempting to climb at the same time. By the time he reached 15-20 feet, he again let go and gently fell to the floor - which I figured would be the end of it, but he went right back to the wall. A few more failed attempts and I convinced him to take a rest, but he was hooked, and had become somewhat of a local celebrity.

We went through one more session of this while Ethan was at his lesson and while Jenny ran upstairs, then I convinced him that we should go play in the family room where they have a cool tunnel toy and computer games. When Jenny came back from her run and Ethan was done with his lesson, I was relating the story to the two of them. At this point, the competitive juices were flowing through Ethan. He climbed well the week before, but had never "rung the bell" at the top of the wall, so he was going to climb. Quin wanted to climb again, too, and Jenny (kind of) wanted to see him do it.

Well, Ethan made it up to the top of several lanes as well as the very difficult rope ladder, for the first time, and Quin again made it up quite high, this time at least 2/3 of the way to the top. Below you will find the video of Jenny's reaction to our newly turned 4 year olds newly found obsession.

Ethan

Ethan continues to stay busy. He continues to take piano lessons and has recently joined the school Swing Choir. While he hasn't had a concert yet, he has been learning the moves to the dances, which he occasionally comes home to show us. Of course, when he shows us his moves, Quin immediately wants to show us his own moves, which are actually very good - sometimes he even ends doing some sort of Little Richard drop to the floor...

Cub Scouts has (finally) come to and end for Ethan and I when we celebrated his receiving of the Arrow of Light, Cub Scout's highest honor. He was very excited to be done with Cub Scouts, but also wants to move on to Boy Scouts and eventually earn his Eagle Scout. We'll see if he can stick to it, but right now that's the plan!

Basketball is also (finally) over for the year. Ethan's team took first place in their league, and also won the St. Killian's of Hartford Tournament. In all he got 2 basketball trophies this year, the first for a second place finish in an earlier tournament. Ethan improved a lot this year, but still has a ways to go before he can compete with some of the other boys on the team. Most importantly, he learned a lot, and had fun doing it. I think he will probably try it again next year, and has actually been shooting around a lot since the season ended.

As a funny aside, the basketball tournament he had was in Hartford, about a 45 minute drive from our house. The way it worked, he played on consecutive Tuesdays, then played the championship game on a Saturday, so we were driving back and forth between Hartford and our house a few times during that tournament. The first game was what we thought was an 8:15 game, which turned out to be a miscommunication, so we got there late like almost the entire team did. That aside, they managed to win the game by 8:30, so Ethan and I were traveling back home through Hartford when we passed a sign that said "Free Scoop if your name is Ethan." I pulled over, parked the car, and Ethan ran into the ice cream shop that was boasting the sign. Being somewhat more cautious, I casually walked up to the shop and noticed that they were clearly cleaning up for closing. A quick glance at the placard out front indicated that they closed at 8:30, and my watch read 8:45. So I hung out outside and watched the scene transpire. Ethan walked confidently up to the counter, talked with a girl in uniform. She nodded, he pointed, she built him a cone, handed it to him, then said something. He shook his head, nodded, then walked out. I later found out what the conversation entailed. After boldly entering the "closed" shop, without missing a beat, he ordered a single scoop of Blue Moon. After the girl behind the counter handed him the cone, she said it would be $3.25. He said, "no it won't - my name's Ethan," and then walked out. I never did tell him that the shop was closed...

 

This basketball tournament was ripe with interesting conversation since we had 90 minutes to kill in the car each time we traveled up there. On one trip, I don't know how the conversation arrived on the topic, but we started talking about sex. I remembered that we had our talk about our bodies with the doctor when we were in fifth grade, so I figured he was going to be getting a lot of information some time in the near future, so I asked him, "so, you know that sex is how babies are made, right?" He answered, yes. I then asked him if he knew what it was. He said, "kind of. Isn't it that thing that people do with those weird balloons?" I didn't know how to react, so I stuck with the blunt approach. "You mean condoms? Where did you hear about those?" He told me that it was in the movie that he and I had watched, "The Naked Gun" with Leslie Nielson and Prescilla Preslie. There is a montage scene in there where the two of them fall in love, and being released in the 80s, safe sex was being preached, so the comical ending to the falling in love montage had them performing safe sex with each other in full body condoms... So I'm not sure how much he still understands, but hopefully he's not getting all of his information from the movies that I let him watch.

 

January update

It's tough for me to write today because my favorite group of millionaires lost to somebody else's favorite group of millionaires in a game I was sure would go my millionaire's way. Oh well, we must persevere!

It's been a typical busy couple of weeks. Today was one of Ethan's last functions as a Cub Scout, the Pinewood Derby. For most kids this is an exciting event, but for Ethan and I, we sort of dread it. Neither Ethan or I really understand what it takes to build a "good car." Our cars generally make it to the end of the track, but rarely very fast, and always much slower than most other cars. After the first year of innocence where we thought we could possibly achieve a place, we settled into the common goal of not finishing last. Last year we only achieved that goal by 1 or 2 places, and that was in the overall results, not just within our den! So it wasn't too shocking this year when Ethan told me that he didn't even want to make a car. Since I'm a den leader, though, I was bullied into pressuring him into making a car, so we did, but we did the barest minimum of work on it. No cuts, he wrapped it in a car wrapper purchased from the local hobby shop, we sanded and polished the axles and wheels like we've heard you should, and finally finished up the car on Saturday night. It wasn't much to look at, but it at least went straight! 

Today we held the derby at our church school. Ethan's car was doing OK. They run each car in 4 races, once in each lane. His car took 3rd of 4 in each race except for the last where he took 2nd, but his times were very competitive. When the math was done, we were shocked to see that he placed 3rd in the den, of 9 kids! It's his first trophy for any sort of individual (or team) event. I'm pretty sure I'm more excited about it...

I can tell he wasn't all that excited because he had to leave early for his other weekend commitment, basketball. He and another boy from school are on a team with another local Catholic school who has a lot of really good players. Their team lays waste to most other teams they encounter, but not because of Ethan's play at all. Today, though, he actually got to shoot 5 times, and almost made several of them! When we were driving home from the game, he didn't say anything about the derby, only that he was sure he was going to sink at least one of those shots!!! He had a feeling he'd score points today!

Quin's been his usual challenge, but is still full of surprising and funny comments. A few days ago, he, Ethan and I were sitting on the couch watching a movie. We all had our shoes off. I'm not sure how it happened, but at one point, Quin had put his foot on mine and Ethan had put his foot on Ethan's. Quin Looked at me and said, "Look Dad, we mad a sandwich!"

A few days later, Quin had gotten up earlier than everybody else in the house (again). He got tired of waiting for the rest of us to get ready, so he went upstairs to get himself ready. When he came down he had on a pair of orange pants and a shirt that was much too big for him. I told him that I liked his shirt, and he turned to me and said, "I know, I'm awesome!" Well, I suppose that self confidence is one of those nurture things...