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We thought we'd never move on from the obsession with sharks, but this month actually saw us turn the corner. Well, slither around the corner, as August was all about snakes, of all types, from Cobras (below) to Garter snakes (at left). Not that we dropped sharks completely: Nick made a shark from a zucchini, I sent him shark pictures from Huntington Beach, and my favorite was the rubber shark that raced me to the bottom of the stairs by hurling himself over the railing and landing with a thud ("He'll race you down!) And we survived Shark Week 2013 on TV.
Really, it was a month full of wildlife 'pets'. He and mama found 'Snakey' in the yard, who was trying to eat Froggy, and was fortunately rescued by Nick... only to then both end up in jars for a day. Then he lets them both go, and finds the same snake (in theory) again a week later. There was Perky the dragonfly, Long Legs the spider (a house spider he's convinced was a brown recluse), and hummingbirds on our deck feeder (they're picky little flying rodents as they rejected some of the sugar water mixtures we offered, and they're competitive!)
Best quotes this month: "This is the way I wrangle a non-venemous species," "It's burning daylight!" "I want some candy or something, blah!"
We spent a weekend with the Poley's celebrating Myles' first birthday, and at the fancy playground in Birmingham (which makes up for the scary playground we tried in Southfield.) Regardless of the wealth, you can't beat the entertainment value of cardboard boxes as sleds on an AstroTurf hill. The kids are like small adults, all pecking away at their mobile devices, thoroughly ignoring each other, as the parents watch the animated movie. Along with the Woodward Dream Cruise again this year, and my Black Belt reunion, hard to believe it's been almost 20 years out of my gi.
Tee-ball finished at the start of the month, ending with Nick losing interest and drawing pictures in the gravel with his cleats. But he still loves swimming, and even with a cool summer, he got his pool time. He did his first actual dive on the last swim of the year. And now I know that a cannonball requires shouting the term first.
- Jason
Nick wakes up the day after July 4, throws open the garage door (as I'm outside washing a car, of course) and shouts, "Where's the cake and presents? It's my half birthday!" So we took him to see Despicable Me 2, bought him an ice cream cake, and plan to disappoint him when he's seven-and-a-half.
Most of our month was on a baseball diamond or in a pool.
We had about two weeks where Grandpa's pool was warm enough to swim, but otherwise it's been a cold summer. He loves the diving board this year, from cannonballs to flips. The kiddie swimming gear (floating devices) have been replaced with a wetsuit.
Tee-Ball started this month, with games twice each week. Our coaches are an odd couple (a quiet guy with limited organizations skills, and a rah-rah guy with unlimited energy.) I can see the kids getting better every week, although probably by default. Nick comes up with something every week I've never seen before... throwing the bat, running the ball instead of throwing it, constant check-swings. He's good at covering territory on the field, and backing up other players. And he's had several hits. He's the player in the green shorts. We made a tee for him to practice in the back yard; no store-bought tees that tip over, we rigged a pipe tee anchored in the ground.
From all the shows he watches, rescuing wildlife has become important. He plunged a toy shark face first into a glass of water, exclaiming, "Oh no, he's suffocating! I'll save him!" (His new word this month is 'hysterical'... whenever he's upset or out of hand, he claims to be hysterical.) He loves 'trofical fish'. And his best line of the month was comparing his anatomical member to a carnivorous amazonian fish (a candiru asu). All this leads us up to, "Happy Shark Week!"
Good pictures from this month.
- Jason
Another month of one-liners. When I ask how he thinks this stuff up, he replies, "Just flew out of my head" (with finger accompaniments for effect.) He sits on the downstairs throne after his mother heats up the room with a stand-up heater to de-fumigate her furnace filters, and says, "Ah, the potty is warm!" When there was mention of a bladder infection, he notes, "Mechanical six year-olds like me never get infections." And when opening the blinds in the morning, "I like the sun gazing."
We visited Coney Island in Cincinnati, where Nick rode his first roller coaster, the Python. I wasn't sure what he thought at first (it was obvious his mother wasn't riding it a second time) but he came away thinking it was, "awesome." The following weekend we went to the Oakland County Fair, and he rode some ride where they strapped him on his stomach like he was a flying superhero. Most of the day was spent on the slides and in the house of mirrors.
He had a one-week art class which wasn't what we expected, and he decided to switch to a Lego-building class at the facility. Didn't matter anyway, as his week was cut short now that the field next to Oakland Yard has horses, and his allergies sent him home early (interstingly he left early the day a plane crashed from Oakland Airport, in the open field next to the soccer fields.) With the pool now open, we're filling the hot days there. He's swimming like a fish, no restraints necessary, often in his wetsuit.
He hit a skid this month with an increased frequency of personal damage. He tangled with a treadmill and lost, ripping a layer of skin off his shoulder and back. Then he nearly poked an eye out with an airplane and left a gash under his eye. But it's about survival at this age, and he'll live to see July. (At least more likely than the turtles we keep rescuing off the road in our neighborhood.)
- Jason
It seems like all we did was run to Nick's activities during May, and the summer stuff has not yet begun. In the past two weeks, Nick had Field Day at school, a field trip to the Kensington Farm (who runs a school and organizes a trip to a zoo but won't let them have peanuts in the classroom?! Allergy discrimination, hello?), Hazel Park Raceway, another Home Depot kids activity, a lousy small-scale train ride, the movies, numerous playgrounds and playdates. And he managed to grow almost three inches since the last time we measured him, so the lack of sleep isn't stunting his growth (lots of pancakes and ice cream [SpongeBobs], and about a jar of peanut butter per week, keep the calorie count up.)
He's making up his own words with definitions now, and exercising his learnings about the social aspects of the English language, such as stating at the dinner table, "I farted, but I'm pretending nothing happened." One evening I find his mother in her swimsuit, which apparently was his idea - he wanted her to look like a Kardashian (need to limit his late night TV, particularly those with commercials). And he suggested she dye her hair blonde as an experiment, which is where I drew the line - if he wants a blonde, he can go find his own (I feel like I need to start proofreading the letters he sends to the girl next door). We're sticking to experiments like the 'Mentos and Diet Coke' explosion in our back yard, which went over better than the experiment where he and his mother clogged the bathroom plumbing with some goo-like substance that expanded faster than our universe.
In the pictures you'll see the end of a game where he beat me at chess, growing his own strawberry plant, and time on the playground. He also built a dam in our driveway from sticks and branches; I'm clearing the property, and instead of the debris going into the trash or the woods, he's stacking it in the driveway with the hose running.
We got "man time" one Saturday night when mama went out with friends, so I took him to the racetrack for some harness racing. He lost his first wager on a horse named 'Jeremy Sharky' then hit a streak of four wins, before blowing it all on the last horse by a single length. I'd rather be the one to teach him how to gamble so he's doing it right. By the end of the night, he could place his own bets. We also did family day out and saw an animated movie, The Croods.
He's also expanding his video game experience with an old Game Boy from a friend at work, whose son had outgrown it. Good to see him playing baseball and the sports games as he's learning more; makes a Dad proud when his son is bragging about a strikeout, even if it's electronic.
Along with photos, I got all the videos working again, and added a few more.
- Jason
I had a business trip to Miami for a few days this month; Brandi and Nick came down for a long weekend after our presentation was finished at iStrategy. They flew down on an 'awesome' American Airlines jet, and we spent four days mixing up activities for all of us. It was good to get time with the family, as I had just finished two weeks travelling as a focus group moderator.
At each hotel Nick is in search of a pool, but loses interest quckly with the cold ones. He says, "I have an idea. We need a machine that can heat the water and put it back in the pool. We'll call it a 'hot-i-nator." Now, he's sharp, or he's heard that somewhere. But he had no fear of the Atlantic ocean, which wasn't much warmer. During our days on the beach he was in the water more than on the sand. We had a private area of beach which was quiet during the week.
We ate well. I tried Squid Ink for the first time. but most of our dining wasn't overly adventurous. One afternoon our splurge meal was at the Grillfish in South Beach, just to take in the atmosphere. We had Italian at Ludos in Coconut Grove on the last day, taking in the small town with a table along the sidewalk. All I wanted was a quiet meal, which was a challenge given at every turn my peace was disrupted by every possible man-made distrubance, from annoying children to Hare Krishna parades. (Still beats being screwed for two subs for $25 at the Miami Beach Subway where they don't speak English and the receipt is illegible.) We stayed at the Cadillac Hotel along the ocean; the balcony view and ocean breeze were wonderful (once we got past the construction and 24-hour power generators outside of our window.)
We visited the Miami SeaQuarium on Saturday, where Nick experienced sharks, dolphins, sea lions, and a killer whale. The shows were nicely done, but the park itself was rather run-down.
His first baseball game was the Cubs vs. Marlins, at Miami Marlins Park. He most enjoyed Billy the Marlin, and a couple bags of cotton candy, a hot dog, and a pretzel. But he followed quite a bit of the game, cheering and seeing a couple good innings. Like most of the trip, he had a portable TV to pass the time when the action slowed down.
Finally we visited Viscaya, an architechtrual home from 1912, built with the International Harvester fortune. Nick was a bundle of questions during the tour, abd good ones, actually ("If that's the organ, where are the pipes? Want to make it better, add a train around it.") The surrounding gardens were beautiful, where Nick honed in on a wedding party and got a picture with a tall brunette named Christina. You'll recognize the property from the end of the Movie, "The Money Pit" (a film close to my heart.)
The pictures share the stories much better than the words.
- Jason
