Cutey McSmiles

So this weekend was a certain little boy's 2 year birthday. Things were a bit hectic what with celebrating all the August birthdays and attending a rip-roaring wedding, so a special Birthday Blog was delayed. Here Johnny shows off his uncanny ability to eat cupcake frosting. And with talents like these who needs words? Johnny does apparently. He recently added Katy to his vocabulary (much to her enjoyment) and Blue (which describes every color in the tradition of multi-use words like "smurf" )

Part of the joy of raising children is dragging grandparents to "kid" locales. Here we see Grandpa esq. demonstrating the proper Whack-a-mole technique to Johnny at the fine establishment of Charles E. Queso (code for Chuck E. Cheeses, but I think the older two are catching on).

And lastly, but perhaps more monumental news, Katy appears to be overcoming her emense fear of costumed characters. Since birth it seems she has cowered and hidden from the Chik-Fil-A Cow and the Texas Roadhouse Armadillo. Not even Mickey or Santa were immune to this. But in her big girl fashion she willingly, albeit hesitantly, seeked out Chucky for a photo op. As Vince Vaughn said, they grows up and they grows up.

Watch out David Beckham

two of the cutest soccer players I have ever seen. The Dragons and the Wildcats have been practicing their way through August and come September will have their first games. We are very excited to be Soccer parents. My first description of U6 soccer was herding kittens. Two practices down I still fully believe that and don't even begin to understand what I am doing wrong and Katy's coach is so obviously doing right. When i look over she has all of the girls (plus a little brother...and occasionally an older sister) doing drills, dribbling the ball etc. I am jumping up and down trying to get the boys to pass the ball back and forth without being all over the place. Is it a difference between 5 year old boys and girls? Is she way more awesome than I am? Highly doubt that ;) Whatever it is I would like a little of it. That and just a pinch of the agressive go get it attitude that those girls seem to have. My boys I think want an ingraved invitation to touch the ball. those girls will knock over anyone in their way. I love it!

Aqua Kids

Today was an exciting day for water play. Lisa took the kids to Nana's pool for a fun afternoon of swimming. Normally, Katy is the one running for the side and jumping in while we try to get Matt pried from the side of the pool and off his noodle (Styrofoam floats) and coaxing Johnny near the water. Today, however, the stars were aligned and the confidence was out. Thanks to their time in swimming class, Katy and Matt are the fish they wanted to be. As you can see by the video, Katy can now swim all by herself across the width of the pool, even stopping a couple times to breathe. Matt, who is normally attached with glue to his noodle floats, asked for them but gladly hopped into the pool without. He was even smiling for underwater pictures, a feat unheard of before today. And finally, even Johnny was getting into the action and asked to get wet, jumping in to the joyous and open arms of both Mommy and Nana.

YEAH HONEY!!

As reported earlier in this Blog, Lisa is heading back to college. She went in today to take her placement tests for math and english, and in her words - she isn't totally retarded. Lisa has passed the english portion with flying colors and will be taking the English 100 class as required for her pending Associates Degree. While she did not get evaluated into the same level of math, she did much better than she was expecting. Despite her intelligence, 10 years without looking at a square root coupled with having been taught in a failed mathematics method ("Integrated Math") didn't have her feeling good about her prospects. But instead of having to take many many semesters of progressively difficult math, she should only have to take two. You Go Girl!

In True Form

In true family form, Johnny has decided to be one of the few, the
proud, the small percent that doesn't heal properly. Today he got to
meet a new doctor at our old stomping ground, the Miller Children's
Hospital. Like his father before him, Johnny is intent on getting to
meet at least 300 MD's before he turns 5. Lucky for all of us this is
outpatient surgery.

In more happy family news, Matt is testing for his Purple belt today.
We wish him the best of luck even though we know he has this down and
has worked hard to achieve this milestone on the way to his dream -
Junior Black Belt!

Back to School Planning

Summer can be a time of fun and relaxation, but there is the ever present impending doom of going back to school that can shroud many a child. Luckily, our kids aren't old enough to feel that gloom yet. But this year is particularly special for us because come September, we have not one, not two, but three people scheduled to attend places of learning. No, Johnny is not that advanced. MonsterMom herself will be taking up the call to arms (or books, whatever) and returning to college. We are all very proud of her decision, which has been brooding for some time. The real deterrent until now has been my crazy work schedule and the resulting need for child care in the event that my schedule changes and conflicts with her class schedule. Thanks to a friend of ours going back to College (cheers to him, too), we found out that a local community college offers all of their General Education classes and a great number of other classes online. Having attended an online college myself, I can attest to how wonderful that freedom of scheduling can be if you are organized enough. I have no doubt MonsterMom will do fabulously. Katy is eagerly anticipating 1st Grade with a zeal that can only be attributed to a 1st grader. She is under the impression that her class will include basically everybody she ever met from kindergarten, which would be an interesting class to try to teach. Matt got in at the local Parent Co-Op preschool. He is doing really well learning his letters and he can't stand that Katy is learning to read before him. His drive is so amazing. I have no doubt after how well he did in his Colorado preschool that he will be ready for kindergarten in 2009, but he really needs the socialization that only something like preschool can bring. Which leaves poor Johnny as the only non-scholarly Monster. He has a long year of being a lonely boy without his siblings around, but I am sure we can find something to do to pass the time. Then it is off to preschool for him, too, and a nice quiet house for us =)