Brendan's handiwork

Some pics of Brendan's work - his "germ" story; his first math test - he was very excited to see you could actually get more than 100 if you got the bonus question right; his crack at trying to spell antidisestablishmentarianism - a word he thinks is hilarious; a Halloween t-shirt he drew for me after I realized I'd gotten rid of my Old Navy Halloween t-shirt from a few years ago; and his solar system that he drew and cut out and that is taped up in our hallway.











And Mr. B himself

Big catch-up post

It's been too long since I've posted, let me see where do I begin.

Brendan is a first grader now!! It just amazes me that I have this 6 year old grown up boy. He made a seamless transition to first grade. He loves his teacher and hoping I don't jinx myself here, behavior has not been an issue at all. His class uses a green-yellow-red behavior system and he's been on green since the beginning of the year. I'm so hoping it stays that way. He's still far more advanced in reading, math, etc. than the rest of the class, but he seems very happy despite the work being below his capabilities. He has to read 15 minutes every weeknight and 30 minutes on the weekends which I'm very happy about. Despite reading since he was 2, he's not a big reader. He'll read his maps and books like Go Go America about the 50 States (a current favorite) if he's interested in a subject. But he's not a lose himself in a good story reader. We're actually reading together "The Day My Butt Went Psycho" which is just as awful as it sounds. But it's a chapter book with no pictures, the first he's really expressed an interest in reading. The first two nights I read to him and last night we alternated reading pages. In a few more days I want to see if I can get him reading it on his own. And he's learnig to touch type which really excites him. And he's doing great. There was a little incident at school the Friday before last that I wasn't very happy how the school handled it (nothing Brendan did) but I'm going to reserve judgment on that for now.

Right before Brendan went back to school, we had returned from our TOAL, i.e. trip of a lifetime. This was our 15 day Disney cruise through the Panama canal. It was just so amazing. We started at the Port of Los Angeles, stopped in Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco, went through the canal, then stopped in Cartagena, Aruba and Castaway Cay, Disney's island in the Bahamas. Despite my being horribly sick with the worst cold I've had in years and then a throat infection, I enjoyed every minute of it, and so did Brendan. I'd say the highlights were our dolphin encounter in Puerto Vallarta, going through the canal, our semi-submersible ride in Aruba, and playing on the beach at Castaway Cay. Mostly though it was just so relaxing. Brendan is a fabulous traveller and he knew every detail of that ship within a few days. He enjoyed the kids club alot and just loved hanging out. And it was nice to be able to have all that time together. I was so sorry when we had to come home.
If you want to see pictures from the cruise, I made a slideshow below (yes it's alot of pictures).



Let's see, what else. I had couple of more weeks of illness when I got home, but finally feel better. Oh, I will most likely be able to work from home 1 day a pay period starting in the next several weeks and I'm really looking forward to that. Brendan started basketball practice again this past weekend. It was very chaotic but he enjoyed it. We're settling into fall nicely and already the holidays are starting to beckon us. The year just flies by.

Basketball moves

We went to Toys R Us to get some Lego today and came out with a new basketball and an over the door nerf light up hoop. He just didn't seem that interested in the Lego once we were at the store and the sets were just outrageously priced. When did Lego get that expensive? Then he saw the basketballs and grabbed one and didn't stop dribbling until we left the store. He only has one other regulation sized ball and it's the old one his coach gave him to practice with in the spring, so I figured a new one would be a good idea. And then we saw the hoop. It's really cool, it lights up and the ball glows in the dark. We hung it over my bedroom door so he could run down the whole hallway and throw the ball in. But the reasons we were looking for the Lego was to give him something to do while he rests. He was running a fever on Friday and has a yucky cold now. He's been alternately running around like a maniac or slumping over on me whiny and feeling sick. His temp was 99.6 the last time I took it, just enough to feel not so hot, but not enough to be really sick.

I was really impressed though with how he was dribbling the ball. He dribbles alot at home, but mostly the yoga balls inside. I bet he's been getting alot of practice in at camp. His coach really is going to be shocked when he starts up again in the fall, he's so far better than he was when basketball ended in March. And he passes and catches well now. We were playing before and again it was so much better than he used to be. I'll be glad when basketball starts up again. I'm trying to figure out though what other activity to try and introduce in the fall. I'm debating between karate, swimming, piano or guitar. I think he should have more physical activity, but I also want to start him with music lessons. I think he'd enjoy guitar better, but I don't think he's coordinated enough yet for it.

Here he is showing off his moves at Toys R Us -

Random camp shots

Brendan's camp posts pics and videos every day. Here are some random shots of summer camp fun!!

Camp rap

Brendan started camp two weeks ago and he just loves it. He comes home every day dirty, sweaty and tired which is just the way it should be. He's in a group of boys all his age and they have 4 counsellors. The kids go swimming every day and they go on trips one day a week, so far to a puppet show and bowling, with this week being to a game/fun place sort of like Chuck E. Cheese. He's done karate, karoake, arts & crafts, cooking, dance, jewelry making, computers, played in a game room, played kickball, dodgeball, basketball, baseball, had a juggling show, and I'm sure there's more I can't remember.

It's been a good exercise in responsibility since he has to change clothes all by himself before and after swimming (he's come home with shorts on backwards a few times), manage his camp bag and remember to not lose and come home with his swim stuff, lunch bag, water bottle, etc. He's riding the bus to camp which is a first for him since we live only a block away from his school. There's also been some friendship issues. There are two boys from his class in school in his group and one of the boys wants to play with him exclusively and Brendan doesn't want that and there's been some friction, but he's been handling it so maturely. He didn't seem at all upset and just told me about the situation and how he's been dealing with it. He's also become more adventurous. He plays in the water every day when he used to never want to go near water if I wasn't with him. I took him to the playground yesterday and he's doing all sorts of things there that he wouldn't do on his own before. It's been a really good experience for him I think and I'm so glad he's having such a good time.

And strangest thing for me is that I've been getting home from work before he gets home from camp. He gets off the bus around 5:00 and I get home usually about 4:15-4:30. It's so weird to get home and not have a child there, although it's nice to give me some time to get dinner started and just putter around a little. And I get to meet him at the bus and to hear all about his day right away.

This is Brendan's camp rap -

We're back!!!!

To see a slideshow from our trip -

Our California Adventure!!


We had such a wonderful vacation. Our flight out to LA (all 5.5 hours) wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. We flew out on Virgin America and I have to wholeheartedly recommend them to anyone. Besides the satellite TV, they have texting from seat to seat, games, music and you can order food and drinks from your seat, and all of this in coach. Brendan was very loud and drove our seatmate crazy, but didn't fuss or say he was bored. And on the way onto the plane, Brendan got to go into the cockpit and sit in the captain's seat. Very nice!!

We got into LAX and got the shuttle to Anaheim where we met our friends and M and M at the HoJo. We had great rooms. The main pool area was closed down for refurbishment and we had asked for and gotten upgrades to the Disneyland view rooms. It was so cool to see the Matterhorn from our balconies.

Having been 4 times to Disney World in the last 2 years, Brendan and I had alot of fun getting to know Disneyland and California Adventure. We both decided that we really liked Disneyland better than Magic Kingdom and that we loved having the two parks and Downtown Disney right there by each other and being able to walk to them from our hotel. Brendan loved the Davey Crockett Canoes and Monsters Inc that we don't have at Disney World. He also liked Winnie the Pooh better there and Autopia more than Indy Speedway. Buzz Lightyear was as usual a great hit.

We went to the parks on Monday and Tuesday and on Wednesday met up with I and her boys L and S at the San Diego Zoo. We were enchanted with the pandas and Brendan loved the children's zoo area while I loved the hippos. The zoo is fabulous and it was a nice break from the parks. But it was also getting a little hot that day.

The next day was the big day - Brendan's 6th birthday!! He was just the happiest boy that day. We started off with a fabulous character breakfast at the Plaza Inn. He had his Happy Birthday Mickey ears, a birthday shirt and a birthday pin they gave him at the restaurant. He told just about anyone who would listen and plenty who wouldn't that it was his birthday that day. Did I mention though that it was really hot though?

The next day we realized we were fully in the midst of the major heat wave that was hitting CA when it was about 98 degrees at the park. Or at least that's what it was earlier in the day, who knows what it was later on. I actually got a stroller for Brendan just so he'd be out of sun, which if you can imagine my jumbo boy in there, it was amusing. And hot. Really hot. But it was a really nice day.

The next sweltering day we started out on the nice cool Balboa Pier at Newport Beach. We had breakfast at Ruby's Diner and then Brendan and I went into the surf. The water was beautiful and cool and in one of my finer parenting moments Brendan's shoes got washed away in the surf. Well they showed up eventually, but soaking wet and full of sand. We were heading over to the farmer's market in LA anyway which has a nice outdoor mall built around it and we got a pair of Geox sneakers at Nordstrom that Brendan is in love with. Considering he had been wearing size 1 and the new sneakers are size 2, maybe it was a good thing that we had the waterlogged shoes. After that we went to the LaBrea Tarpits and did the Hollywood tour around. As more of my fine parenting, I ran Brendan out into traffic to get a shot of him with the Hollywood sign, but hey you got to do it.

The next morning we said goodbye to M and M and flew up to Oakland to stay with my friend J and her daughter S (and parents and dogs and cat). Brendan freaked out on the last 20 or so minutes of the flight saying his ear was in alot of pain. He'd never had that problem before and I hoped it was just a fluke. J picked us up at the airport and drove us back to their house in Pleasanton. Brendan and S hit it off immediately and were like two peas in a pod and were off playing together while J and I had margaritas. We had a nice early evening while the puppy (a big 40 lb puppy) jumped on us and licked our ears and chewed our feet.

The next day we met C and her daughter H, and C's sister G and her son S at the Monterey aquarium. J, C and I all met for work 10 years ago and have remained friends since. But I live in NY, J lives in CA and C lives in FL. We've all met up at times, but never all together and with the kids. It was soooo good to be altogether, with C's trip to visit her sister G in CA coinciding with ours. The kids had fun and Brendan especially loved the jellyfish. He was very tired though having spent the previous night with croup and a cold and actually slept part of the way back to Pleasanton.

He had another night of croup after that but the next day we went into San Francisco for our touristy day. We went to Pier 39 and saw the seals and went to Fisherman's Wharf. We checked out Alcatraz and toured a submarine. I got Brendan black and white striped Escaped from Alcatraz pajamas, lol. Then we rode a cable car and saw some of the city. Later on we went to the Alameda County Fair where among other things Brendan took a pony ride, the first time I've ever gotten him near anything equine. It was a really nice ending for our trip.

J drove us back to the airport the next day. We took JetBlue home form Oakland. Normally I really love JetBlue, but compared to Virgin America it actually seemed a little shabby, but still nice to have the satellite seatback TVs. Brendan has the previous night said his ear hurt and in the morning had wailed about it hurting and I was dosing him up with Tylenol, sure his ear was probably infected. He was fine on the flight and I was sighing with relief until again the last 20-30 minutes of the flight when the pressure changes made him wail with pain. I felt really bad for him, but a trip to the pediatrician the next day got us a prescription for Zithromax and he's on the mend.

All in all it was a fabulous, fabulous trip. It was great to see M and M again and to share the week with them. And then stay with J and S (where Brendan was very enamored with J's little niece R who was 10 months, who her mother watched every day) and for finally J, C and I all to be together with the kids. The only bad part of the trip was having it end.