I served as a chaperone on Oscar’s school field trip to the pumpkin patch. What can I tell you…it was fun but dusty & hot out there. The kids were like ping pong balls bouncing around all of play areas that were set-up. That’s nice because all I had to do was follow them. Here are some quick pictures:
All Oscar wants to do with his pumpkin is make a pumpkin pie. He has no interest in jack-o-lanterns. My mom got him hot on that idea…I don’t think he’ll wait till Thanksgiving, Grammy!
There was an old barn filled with a slope made of cotton seeds that the kids were sliding on.
Today was super fun for Oscar & me. I had the time and energy to indulge one of his project ideas and we spent 3 hours working on it together. It all started when he wanted me to buy him some chex mix. We happened to have most of the ingredients at home and when I told him that we could make it ourselves he was inspired to create an entire restaurant. We first donned our aprons, then pulled the step ladder up to the kitchen counter and got to cooking. Luckily Brian’s grandma was able to come over to dine with us. We served her a feast that included the following menu items; chex mix, soup, PB&J’s, pizza, yogurt, & punch. He carefully set the table, decided on a jazz station and candle to set the mood, named the restaurant “The Squished Burrito” and then later changed it to “The Smashed Potato”, and created menus. Oscar was so focused and happy all morning. It was a real treat for me to play along.
We got his apron at the hardware store during one of their kid craft projects.
Laurel likes to stand next to her brother on the step ladder & look for trouble.
It has been real quiet around here. That’s because we have just returned from a few days in Anaheim and are recuperating. Yep, we went to Disneyland. We rocked that place. Oscar can handle any ride that we throw his way (Space Mountain – check, Big Thunder Mountain – check, The Matterhorn – check, Splash Mountain – check). Laurel is all about meeting characters, and watching parades & shows. There are plenty of photos to be had at Flickr, but these should give you a little taste. We should be working on a video edit of our trip that we’ll try to get up on The Full Catastrophe this weekend. Stay tuned.
The Teal Turtles played the Glow Worms yesterday in the league opener. The Worms seemed bigger and more experienced than the Turtles but (lucky for us) score is not kept in micro-league soccer games. The Turtles did score a few goals & it was terrific watching the kids maneuver the ball around the field and through the pack of 3 & 4 year olds. We were a little dismayed by the fact that a puppy belonging to one of the Worms was allowed to wander onto the field right when the Turtles had the ball in scoring position. A little sabotage, perhaps? Here are some other noteworthy moments from the game:
The friends were fired up and well-behaved at the start of the game.
Oscar dropped to the ground during play. I’m sure he was overcome by the excitement of it all. Here he is during his collapse.
Halftime snack was sliced apples. We were afraid that was going to be the highlight of the game for #8. He was nervous and acted lethargically through the first 38 minutes of the game. I was working all of the pep talk I could muster to try to get him involved. All of a sudden, Oscar rose from the sidelines, walked on the field, and joined the game! We were thrilled. He made a run on the goal (and just missed..dagnabit!). He got to make an overhead pass and he ran with the pack for the remainder of the game. That’s a smile on his face:
What do you think the chances are that he’ll be ready to play before halftime on Saturday?
My parents are writing this post filled with their take on a couple of days with us and our little DeHamer monsters.
Day dawned at 5:30 am as did the first of four (kid) breakfasts, two park playing marathons and lots of running, reading and laughing. Oscar, now at 42 inches of height (up one inch from 5:30 a.m.) requires a lot of strawberries and french fries.
Now we were off for lunch! We survived cheeseburgers and heavy metal music at Hodads in time to watch Laurel stop the tides in OB with the shake of her head. Oscar faced his first “time-out” of the day when he charged into the waves after his mother told him he could not get wet!
Our granddog Clara earned a C- on her walk around the block. Unknown to her parent owners, she got loose twice, ran into the street once, knocked Oscar down three times, but after four letter **&^%## (which we made sure Oscar and Laurel did not hear), we all arrived back to #88846 in fine form.
Us country folk don’t have bank robberies like the one we saw across the street from Point Loma Seafoods this evening. We made sure that we sat outside with our fish tacos so that we didn’t miss any of the police action. Back up in our mountain country, folks would have stopped munching to watch all the action — not these So Cal city folk — bandit still at large!
Great visit. Our train for San Juan Capistrano departs at 9:30 tomorrow morning for the next family adventure! We are so lucky.
I’m a sucker mom…oops, I meant to say soccer mom. Oscar is a member of the Teal Turtles in our local “micro” soccer league. As a Teal Turtle he’s among eight other 3-4 year olds who gear up in cleats and shin guards THREE DAYS A WEEK for games and practices. We went to opening ceremonies this morning with probably 500 other sucker…I mean soccer families. At today’s opening day event, all of the teams in our club participated in a parade wearing their uniforms and carrying team banners. It was Olympic.
Despite the fact that it is a huge commitment of time and effort, I’m so far pleased with the experience. It is a big deal for our guy to try new things and he is warming up to his team mates and sport. It is a long season, though. We play through November. I often ask for readers of the Full Catastrophe to wish us luck…so please continue to wish us luck!
Cute banner, right? Us sucker moms made it ourselves. What’s worse…a sucker mom or a hockey mom?
Oscar is playing soccer now has to wear shin guards to practice. We sort of had to explain to him what exactly "shin guards" were and ultimately related it back to "armor for your legs" (after all, any self-respecting 3-year-old boy knows what armor is).
Of course, if armor on your shins is good, then armor on your shins, knees, arms, head and face has got to be even better! That’s how we ended up with this:
Personally, I’m not sure that wearing all this armor is going to do you much if you don’t have the good sense to at least wear some pants . . . but I’m sure not going to be the one to try and suggest that to this guy.
For our less tech-savvy readers, the backpack with shipping tubes attached is of course a jetpack.
We’ve been taking swim lessons since May. Oscar’s gained a lot of confidence in the water and is probably on the verge of some kind of break-through. He’s been crushing on his instructor all summer and usually likes to try to impress her. He’ll have a new teacher this week, wish us luck!
Laurel has never had a fear of the water and has surpassed her brother in terms of swimming ability. Watch her go:
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