Year 3, recap

This is a post where New Dad tries to remember what fun/new things we did this year with the boy...because otherwise he'll forget it.

So, apologies in advance if this feels like a personal journal entry, because, well, that's pretty much what it is.  (But you might learn some fun things to do with your three-year-old!  But probably not.)

Bowling.  Turns out, this activity is not just good for overweight middle-aged men.  It's great for kids, too!  Also, they had an air hockey table.  The boy loves himself some air hockey.

Voting. The boy comes with New Dad to vote in a city election.  He learns that voting is fast, and that he can come inside the booth, and Daddy can hand him the ballot to give to the ballot takers, and for some reason it's cute, and not a possibly illegal way of voting.

Hiking and BBQing in the mountains.  Not in that order.  Also, a lot of driving.  Good fun, though.

Lancaster Air show.  Lots of planes.  The boy fell asleep before the Thunderbirds, which was good, because one "Thunderbird" was sick, which led to a lot of "More like gentle storm birds" jokes.  And by "led to," I mean, just this one, right now.

Natural History Museum.  Butterflies! And other natural stuff.

Local carnival with friends and their kids.   Rides, cotton candy, and he got to throw darts again this year, which was scary (again), yet also really brave of the carnie to turn their back while our 3-year-old and his 3-year-old friend with a wicked arm threw REAL DARTS at balloons.  And by "brave" I mean, dumb.  Real dumb.

Camping with friends and their kids.  Turns out, letting kids run around out doors tires them out. Next summer, the plan is to camp every day.

San Diego with grandparents and cousins.  So much fun.  Thanks for renting a house a block from the beach, grandma, but next time, ON THE SAND.  What are we, savages?  Why do we have a cross a street to get to the beach?  (This is a joke - house was amazing.  Thanks again!)

Mammoth with grandparents and cousins.  Another great trip.  Saw a lot of the cousins this year, now that I'm writing this all down...

Descanso Gardens with friends and their kids.  Good gardens with the smallest train ride in the world, for not the smallest ticket price.

Driving range and putting green.  The boy loves it!  For 10 minutes.

Sky Zone.  A trampoline park.  So much fun. New Dad loved it...for 10 minutes.  Then New Dad got tired.  The boy got tired after 45 minutes, and then noticed an air hockey table...

Cal Poly Pomona Pumpkin Patch. Arguably the most crowded pumpkin patch in Southern California.  Somehow, that day in October was the hottest day of the summer.  (Get it, it's actually fall?)  Amazing corn maze, though, and I don't say that lightly.

Thanksgiving Plane Flight to San Francisco, Drive to Central California.  The boy loved the plane flight - mostly, he loved playing Asteroids on the plane.  The boy loved San Francisco - mostly playing air hockey on Pier 39.  The boy has my genes.

Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)  Connected up the old system to show the boy Duck Hunt.  Turns out, the light gun doesn't work on "new" TVs.  Played Super Mario Bros instead.  Turns out, that game is SUPER INTENSE compared with the Angry Birds and Pokemon Go games of today.  Example: Mushrooms and venus fly traps are TRYING TO KILL YOU.  And if you're not careful, you fall down a hole to your death.  And that's just the first half of level 1-1.

By my count, that's 15 new things.  I thought that was a lot, but now I'm thinking there are 52 weekends in a year...

Next year we'll shoot for at least 26 new things.

And more camping.  And doing things where the boy can just run around and the parents can just sit around.

Seriously.

-ND

Coming up on the ending of year 2 (for the boy) and year 3 (for the parents) Do the math.

It has been a while since I updated this.

And today's "update" isn't going to be much, since I have to go downstairs and start breakfast in less than 5 minutes.

So, it may read like a journal entry.  So feel free to ignore it.. And also, feel free to use the word "So..." as many times as you want today when you begin a sentence...

(I'm labeling this post a rough draft, because it's one of those that may need some revising in the future and/or some deleting in the future)

There are so many updates for the boy - who used to be a baby but is now clearly a boy - I don't know where to begin.  He is potty trained now, though he has a few accidents, so do we still say they're potty trained?  I guess so.  If I know how to drive but I crash once in a while, I suppose I still know how to drive... So let's say he's a potty trained person, though he just started, so he makes some mistakes.

In his daycare, he has switched to the large side, which means the ratio from teacher to kid goes from 1-4 to 1-8, meaning there are 16 kids in his class and two teachers.

The problem is, there's really only one teacher.  The school hasn't hired a permanent second teacher, so that second spot always rotates.

Anyway, the boy likes the big playground, but I don't think he likes all the other kids.

Everytime I pick him up, though, he's busy playing with magnets with other kids, or pretending to cook while wearing a princess dress (not sure the dress is necessary for him to cook...and when I think about it, it seems a little bit gender stereotypical...do they make him put on that dress over his clothes when he cooks?  Or did he choose it himself?  Anyhow, this has only happened once, so we'll see.

Christmas pageant is Friday at his school.  We'll see how the Frosty and Rudulf songs go.  And hopefully I'll update about it.

If not, there will be an update about the books I read this year, because damn if I didn't keep track on that Google doc for nothing.

Oh shit, time for breakfst.

Breakfast.

(I could have corrected my misspelling - like I just did for the word "mispelling" - but I wanted to illustrate how pressed for time I am these days.)

Sincerely,

-ND

Milestones - 2 years, just over 4 months

(This post is a rough draft.  For finished, polished posts, might I reccommend (see how I spelled "recommend" incorrectly?  I may not even have time to go back and fix that!) one of the "Popular Posts" in the box on the right.  A handful of folks were particularly not bored by "5 Tricks to Get Your Toddler to Do What You Want) 

So, I missed the boy's birthday update that I was so diligent about the first year of his life.  Missed it like I've missed it for maybe a year now.

Because who celebrates monthly birthdays?  It's confusing for the kid AND the parent.

So here are a few things, mostly for my own record, of what he's been doing these days:

Boy is 2 years, 4 months and change...here are some things he's doing:

Likes to say:

Most recently:

"NB play trumpet, make daddy laugh."

"NB poo on daddy!  NB pee on daddy!  NB poo on carpet.  NB pee on carpet!" He doesn't do any of these things, but he only says them when he isn't wearing a diaper, and sometimes has snuck up behind Daddy and wrapped him in a pants-less hug.  I think he just likes to see the raised eyebrow expression I give him.  So, I need to work on not reacting to SOMEONE  SAYING THEY'RE GOING TO POO OR PEE ON YOU!

When asked where to go: "Go to the Japanese market!"

"Daddy, play ABCs.  NB play Twinkle Twinkle."  Not sure if he knows these are the same song, but he puts them together.

Other:

Counts to 13, but then skips to 16 or 17.  Goes on to 30, with slight assistance.

Says the letters of the alphabet, but skips N.  (Who needs it, anyway?)

Tip toes.

Walks "slowly."

(Most of the time is running, so these variations are interesting...to his parents, only...)

Ate 6 raw oysters a few weeks ago.

Ate intestine cold dish apetizer yesterday.

Eats shrimp like it's running out of style.

There's a lot more, but it's breakfast time..

-ND

Baby is 2 years and 2 months old, tomorrow!

Haven't updated in a while, so just wanted to write something.  So this is rough.  I need to label this or something. (Done!)

It seems like there's some sort of milestone every day.  I think that's why I haven't updated.  Things are moving fast.

The funniest things he's said recently include:

"Daddy tired.  Mommy tired.  Only Baby Boy happy."  (Except he used his name instead of "Baby Boy")

To which I responded: Truer words have never been spoken, my son.

Eh, I'm not sure anyone will be interested in updates like these, except for the grandparents.

I recently told him that we used to call him Mr Wiggles, and now he calls himself Mr. Wiggles when he lies down to change a diaper.

Oh, big milestone earlier this month (or late last month?) - he sat on the toilet - with his potty cover - and went poo.

Well, according to New Mom, he did.

Well, according to New Mom, and the pictures she took, he did.

He hasn't done it since.  So maybe it scared him?

He is excited about getting some undies though.  I'm not sure why.  (What has New Mom told him about undies?)

Put on his own sock (just one) the other day.  That was surprising.

He can put on his own shoes...sometimes.  And sometimes they're on the right feet.

He likes saying things like:

"Baby boy is gardener!" when he works in the garden.

"Baby boy hit D" when he hits the dog.

"Baby boy kick D" when he kicks the dog.

"Go to Japanese Market"

"Momma come back / Daddy come back"


Phrases I wish he never learned:

"One more...." whatever it is, just one more won't hurt, Daddy.  C'mon.

"Ice cream." Two words that can never be spoken around him - no matter what time of day it is.


Will write more later.  Hopefully.

It's time to get dressed and get the day started.

(Written in 10 minutes, before breakfast, and getting the day started)


-ND