My future daughter-in-law: Breck Girl

Mark my words: Callahan will marry a girl with long, straight, dark hair.

Cal's favorite girls in his preschool class, the ones he plays house with, Sophie and Scarlett, both have long, straight, dark hair. The assistant teacher in Cal’s class, Miss Jenny, also has long, straight brown hair and Cal often comments on her beauty.

His fascination with hair goes back to when he was an infant. When we used to put him on the floor for tummy time, he would find a strand of my hair on the floor and become engrossed: pulling it, touching it, wrapping it around his fingers.

When he was fussy in his crib, I often hung my head over him so he could run his fingers through my hair to calm himself.

I can't wait to see how this fixation evolves!

Let the Games Begin

Early on I decided I wanted to have a family that play board and card games: they can teach strategic thinking, they’re a better alternative to TV and most importantly they facilitate family time. We started off with Go Fish, Old Maid and Candyland.

Now that Nye is older, we’ve started playing games that require a bit more strategy, including Uno, checkers and Connect Four. Not to brag or anything but Nye is really good! He catches on quickly and now beats me often; he’s even beat Chad at Uno and Connect Four a few times.

We recently learned that Nye’s elementary school offers an after-school chess club for kids in first grade and up. I have a feeling he'd really enjoy learning chess.

Christmas 2009

It was a lovely, but cold, Christmas. Nye got an early start on vacation by contracting strep throat and missing the last two days of school before the break. He started feeling better once he started the antibiotics. Unfortunately, he did not finish the antibiotic treatment during his camping trip to Big Bend in the days leading up tp Christmas and it came back to haunt us as scarlet fever on the day we returned to school (a second round of antibiotics – taken to completion solved the problem weeks later, although his entire body felt like sandpaper for a week).

While Nye and Daddy went camping with some friends, Callahan and I spent our days baking and decorating cookies, creating arts and crafts projects, watching movies and enjoying our time together.

Nye and Daddy returned Christmas Eve morning. We ate tamales for dinner and the boys each opened one gift from under the tree: their annual matching PJs to wake up in Christmas morning. After leaving gingerbread men, milk and nine carrots next to the fireplace the boys snuggled in their beds and had sugar plum dreams.

Favorite gifts from Santa this year included a Hot Wheels race track for Nye, Star Wars light sabers and nerf dart guns for both boys. Callahan was a little underwhelmed with his gifts this year. He’s more interested in what his big brother is doing – even if it’s not age-appropriate.

A few days after Christmas, we left town to visit the boys’ papa and cousins. They enjoyed wrestling with Ian and Townes, visiting the local museum and just being boys.

It was a wonderful holiday and we felt very blessed.

Run Nye, Run

Nye participated in his first Kids K this weekend. He ran a 1K race against kids in his age group from around the city. I’ve always been glad for Nye’s October birthday, which makes him the oldest in his class. Unfortunately, this did not work in his favor in the race. All the other 6-year-olds seemed be in first grade, hence several months older than Nye. In the end he placed sixth – one place shy of a ribbon.

It was his first race and he did well. He ran hard and had fun. We’re so proud of him!

Halloween 2009

This year we had two superheroes in the house: Batman and Mr. Incredible. I’ll admit I’m pretty sad that there are no more lion, teddy bear or pumpkin costumes in my future

Callahan is in a heavy dress-up phase and the Mr. Incredible outfit is getting heavy rotation. We bought that costume for Nye’s 4^th birthday after he’d seen the movie in France (July 2007) and insisted on buying it as soon as we got home. Nye got plenty of wear out of Mr. Incredible and how Cal has taken the mantle.

Nye’s elementary school holds a fall festival a few evenings before Halloween. This was our first year to participate and everyone had a blast; even the weather cooperated and we had to wear jackets. Everything cooperated, that is, except Nye.

Despite having looked forward to the festival all week, Nye fell asleep on the couch right after school that afternoon. In looking at our family photo, it’s so clear that Nye was not feeling well, but he was having so much fun and relished all the prizes he’s won.

The next night, Saturday, was Halloween and Nye spent the entire day in bed, mostly sleeping and occasionally just laying there, feeling sick. Callahan and I ended up trick-or-treating by ourselves with Charlie and Cade’s family while daddy and Nye held down the first and passed out candy.

Argh Matey: Nye is 6!

We hosted a pirate-themed party for Nye’s 6^th birthday. Now that he’s 6 and in kindergarten, Nye played a key role in planning his party. Honestly, I was not feeling up to hosting a party this year; work has been busy and life in general has been busy with Nye in kindergarten and in soccer and the boys at two different schools. I relented and hosted a party in late October.

Nye was allowed to invite anyone he wanted, so his friends Charlie, Gavin (soccer and kindergarten friend), Rowan (soccer and kindergarten friend) and George (kindergarten and after school care friend) attended, along with various siblings.

We found a terrific pirate ship piñata at Hobby Lobby and some great pirate booty at Terra Toys (pirate pencils, eye patches, pirate tattoos and stickers and some chocolate coins in gold foil). I decorated cupcakes with black icing and placed skeletons on each (having a birthday near Halloween has its perks).

It was a fun event, full of candy, horseplay and presents. I still can’t believe my little boy is 6!

Each year, I try to interview the boys on or around their birthday. Here’s Nye’s 6-year-old interview.

1. Favorite color? Brown, black, blue, green, red, orange, grey,
2. Favorite food? Pork roast, pasta with mommy’s turkey and tomato sauce, turkey breakfast sausage with maple syrup, tacos
3. Favorite book? I like the Hobbit, the Magic Tree house series, and my super hero coloring book
4. Halloween or Christmas? I can’t decide (he likes them both).
5. What do you want to be when you grow up? An astronaut, a “guy that hunts in a big camouflage truck, a motorcycle and racecar driver, a “guy that digs up dinosaur bones”
6. What do you love to do? I like to shoot my BB gun, I like when Charlie comes over, I like going to Ian’s house, I like Christmas and Halloween and I like going to the bookstore
7. Favorite Animals? Lizards, monkeys, lions, tigers, cheetahs, leopards,
8. Best friend(s)? Charlie, Ian, Lucas, Gavin and George

Kindergarten!

For the past three months, Nye has been counting down the days to kindergarten. That day finally came last week. The whole family walked him to his classroom to give him a proper send off. I shouldn’t have been surprised when he confidently walked away from us, smiled, waved and disappeared into another world. Another world, which I’ve come to discover, is much different from pre-school.

No longer can I walk into his classroom in the morning or afternoon and have an impromptu one-on-one chat with the teacher about Nye’s development in the classroom. Gone are our reasonable wake-up times and leisurely mornings. The kitchen staff is no longer part of my extended team making accommodations to ensure Nye does not accidentally consume gluten. Naps are nothing but a memory for my best-napper-ever.

I was able to hold back the tears until I hit the parking lot. The transition has been much more difficult for me than for Nye.

Nye is welcoming this next stage with enthusiasm. When I take one last peek at him before turning in each night, I see that he’s gotten out of bed after goodnight kisses, dressed himself from head to toe, and climbed back into bed ready for a new day. He double-checks that I’ve signed the daily note from his teacher. He advises me on what to pack for lunch now the he has only a short time to eat his lunch each day.

While I was somewhat disappointed none of his soccer or neighborhood friends are in his classroom, I’m proud that he’s making new friends while strengthening those other friendships in his afterschool program, which we couldn’t be happier with: gymnastics, swimming, arts and crafts and his pals. Life is good for Nye right now.

And if his first week of kindergarten wasn’t enough … he lost his first tooth Saturday. So a gold dollar coin from the tooth fairy was only proper, don’t you think?