Autumn weekend in Syracuse

The kids had a great time picking pumpkins, picking apples, and picking on their cousins while we were in Syracuse last weekend. Click here to see how little the kids were when we did this last year, and enjoy the slide show of our recent adventure here! Thanks, Grandma Vickie, Great Grandma, and the Santillanes family for such a fun weekend.

Reunited

Carey and the kids got home this afternoon. She has plenty of stories to share, but at this late hour, here's my favorite, above, of the 172 photos she shot over the weekend.

Happy Yom Kippur

I have no idea if it's a happy or sad holiday for the Jews (and can't be bothered to Google it), but Greta's school observes it, so we are too. Carey drove with the kids to Syracuse today and is coming back Sunday or Monday. She took the camera with her, so these photos from last weekend with the cousins will have to tide you over until they get back. I'm spending my weekend talking to the stars of Free Style, a movie I wouldn't recommend even to my enemies. Hope to get a bike ride in, too, and maybe reorganize the basement. Woot!

Jersey boy

I like football, but I've never liked playing it and have never lived and died with a team. Cheered for the Redskins when we lived in D.C., mostly because my friend Dudley is a lifelong fan. But we're just an exit-and-a-half away from the Meadowlands now and this is Giants Country. It also doesn't hurt that they won the Super Bowl in 2008. So we cheer for Eli Manning and the rest of the boys in blue. Carey picked up this sweatshirt at a Wal-Mart summer clearance sale for 17 cents. Yes, cents. We think maybe they forgot to use a $, but they honored the price. And that means I'll be a Giants fan forever.

School

Greta has taken like a fish to water to her new pre-school. Even this week with her friend Emma on vacation, she has willingly and happily strolled there each day, given Mommy or me a "Kissing Hand," and wandered off to play. I had the privilege of walking solo with her to school this morning. I wanted time to stop. She held my hand almost the whole way, letting go only to skip over cracks in the pavement. We didn't talk much. Didn't have to.

Dogsitting

We're watching the Hayden's dog Nellie this week while they enjoy some family time at Cape May. She's a white mutt, maybe part malamute like our dogs growing up. It's been a good dry run at what Greta and Lincoln would be like as dog owners. Lincoln is very bossy -- "Down, Nellie! No barking!" Greta is much more the nurturer. We spent an hour or so at a local dog park on Sunday and after we took Nellie off the leash, Greta followed her everywhere, I guess to make sure she didn't get lost.

Peek-a-boo

WNS Helping Parent I, or Lessons the Air Force Taught Me

When I was in the Air Force, I was always wary of BAMBI-ing too much when I arrived at a new assignment. You didn't often gain any ground by prefacing a statement at a staff meeting with: "Back At My Base I..." With that experience in mind, I tried to approach my first day as the helping parent at Greta's new preschool with an open mind and willingness to learn the Weekday Ways.

Well.

That lasted about 182 seconds. Because I just couldn't help myself. Under these circumstances, though, it was WWWAM!

"When We Were At Morrow, a helping parent arrived about 10-15 minutes early to help set up the room and get a run-down of the days activities," I told Greta's teacher when she looked surprised to see me. I could tell she was processing this information and trying to figure out how to un-learn me.
"Oh!" [long pause followed by little laugh] "Well, you need to play with the kids. And probably help them with their craft."

I raised my eyebrows and waited. Surely there had to be some additional instruction, particularly since there are 18 (!) kids in the class. Perhaps guidance on wiping down the tables or grabbing the "go bag" for gym time? Mrs. Lehrer could sense I was waiting for more, so she added, "we have a class meeting with the kids in a bit where I'll go over the plan for the day. Have fun playing with all the kids!"

Huh. I was there mainly to play. And BAM! WWWAM went out the window.

Greta enjoyed my company building a zoo with her friends. We went on a hunt to find the missing white swan. I was told to be the mean hippo. Why was I mean? All the kids explained that I drank all the water belonging to other animals in the zoo. Ahhhhh...they had played this game before!

When I got tired of playing with the mean blue hippo and Greta had moved on to play with pretty ponies, she "shared me" with Gianluca so I could help him get cars unstuck from the garage. Then she "shared me" with Aron and Sadie so we could play with the castles, and I could explain to them what a jester was. Then she "shared me" with Destiny so I could help her finish the art project she had missed when she was absent the day before.

Before I knew it, the bell was ringing (a rotating responsibility, not a helping friend duty) signaling clean up time. Then it was criss-cross-applesauce around Mrs. Lehrer's chair for the class meeting. We started with the pledge of allegiance, reviewed the days of the week, counted on a calendar, talked about the weather, identified the season (still summer, believe it or not!), and reviewed upcoming holidays. I felt like I was actually in school!

Then Mrs. Lehrer explained that before free-play would begin again, there were 4 jobs for each child to do.First, paint paper t-shirts that would be similar to the one she was wearing: peace, love, and cupcakes. She explained that those were three of her favorite things, and then she went around the room and the kids all said what their favorite things were: flowers, butterflies, french fries, corn, fire trucks, dogs, etc. The second job was to decorate their September calendar (Rosh Hashanah, first day of autumn, Johnny Appleseed's birthday). The third was to sponge-paint trees and finger paint red apples on it, and the fourth was a fishing for shapes game/puzzle. She divided up the kids and off we went.

I was assigned the paper t-shirt painting, which proved to be lots of fun. Forgot to put smocks on the kids, and realized it didn't matter because four-year-olds can paint without making a huge mess!

The half-hour flew by, and I only took one picture of Greta doing her other painting job because I was just too busy.

The only helping friend responsibility at WNS is passing out snack. Greta declared yesterday that she wanted to take Go-Gurt and carrot sticks. I tried to talk her into bringing crackers as well, but she wouldn't hear it. The kids loved the Go-Gurts, and once I imitated how a rabbit eats a carrot (much to the amusement of Mrs. Lehrer), those were devoured as well.

After snack, it was off to the gym for some run-around time. Or rather bike around. The kids can seriously motor on the tricycles! And even better, they can give a ride to a friend (or a friend's mom!)

It was the fastest 2.5 hours I've experienced in a long time (at least since I saw the Half-Blood Prince). I'm already looking forward to WNS HPII next month!

Pals

Greta's new school is her buddy Emma Hayden's old school. This is Emma's second year there. Carey and Emma's mom, Sarah, drop off the older kids then hang out for 2.5 hours with the younger ones before picking up Greta & Emma usually for a park picnic. It all sounds very romantic to a guy who sits on his ass all day rolling his chair from a Mac monitor to two PC monitors to a bank of video decks.

New kicks

Greta is celebrating the new school year with her first pair of clogs, by Hanna Andersson. Carey found them at an upscale consignment shop for $10. They don't fit perfectly, but a little heel slippage is the price you pay for being a four-year-old fashionista.

Naked kitchen laps

One of the nicest things about our house, a center hall colonial, is the loop around the stairs that kids can make from the kitchen to the dining room to the living room. We've put it to good use in all sorts of games -- from Cinderella Lost Her Slipper to Tag to Farmer Brown to Choo-Choo Trains. But we've never done it naked before. Until Friday night, when Lincoln used the big boy potty. As Carey rinsed out the potty chair, Lincoln declared, "I'm naked!" and took off running. His sister, naturally, stripped down to her panties and gave chase.
Here are five semi-tasteful photos in a Kodak Slideshow.

Pre-K pretty

Greta started her second year of pre-school on Thursday. We moved her from Morrow Memorial to Weekday Nursery School so she could be in a morning class. 9-11:30 a.m., Monday-Friday with Mrs. Lehrer. It's still a co-op, where parents must spend one day a month helping out. She insisted on wearing her newest dress, which she calls her "Sleeping Beauty Dress," but we did manage to convince her to be practical and wear her Fancy Nancy sneakers.

B&W beauties

I was able to get the lens pretty close to the kids on Labor Day as they played at a local park. On my Christmas wish list, in addition to a basic telephoto lens, the Canon 50mm lens that is supposed to be IDEAL for portraits. But really, these aren't so bad. :-)

Stuck in a tree

Greta wears dresses. Every. Day. But happily that doesn't stop her from doing things like climbing trees.

Everybody out of the pool!

The South Orange Community Pool closed for the season today. We enjoyed quite a few summer weekends there, easily getting our $120 family membership's worth. Greta chose the final weekend to finally swim in the adult pool and was sad tonight that she won't be able to do it again until next May. In the final hour from 5-6 p.m., they gradually slashed prices at the snack bar, bringing all ice creams on a stick and popsicles down to $1. A good time was had by all. Slideshow here.

Bozo

A lovely Labor Day weekend here in New Jersey's wealth belt. Haven't taken very many recent photos, so here's a classic of Lincoln enjoying a Spider-Man popsicle.

Fastidious

Greta vacillates between Nancy Neat and Miss Messy. Last week she was neat. So neat, in fact, that she insisted on cleaning her entire room while Mommy put Lincoln to bed. Carey taught her how to fold blankets and she was very proud to do it All By Herself.

Nomenclature

Greta never names her stuffed animals, unless they are already named by the manufacturer. So we have a rabbit named Grace and a unicorn named Mystic. The rest occasionally get diminutive titles, but never a name. I haven't counted, but she must have at least a couple dozen and they are called simply "Black Kitty, Pink Flamingo, Lambie, Hedgehog." You get the deal.

Well.

For her birthday she gave cousin Esme a plush unicorn. The tag on this particular horned equine identified her as Fable.

Well.

Esme sent back a thank you and told Greta she loved the unicorn and had named her "Unirose." Greta was taken aback. Didn't Esme read the tag, Mommy?

Fast forward a few days. Greta spends some of her piggy bank money on a stuffed Goldfinch at the zoo. Plays with it all day and drags it upstairs at bedtime. As Mommy's tucking her in, she asks the bird's name.

"Goldrose."

Rasslin'