Brendan's 4th year

And what an amazing year it was.


Brendan's 4th year

Rainy weekend

It poured a good part of the weekend and was overcast and drizzly the rest. Of course this meant a repeat of the days of the lost satellite signal. Actually I got signals back fairly quickly after the pouring rains, but I variously lose connections on either receiver to the two satellites. So we'd have varying channels. I'd have to do check switches, try and download new program guides, it was a hassle and Brendan was not a happy camper. It's amazing we can spend a whole day without turning the TV on, but lose the satellite signal and suddenly it's as if he's being he's a victim of torture. We did both enjoy watching some of the Threes Company marathon on TVLand. Actually if you can, watch this show with a young child, it makes it 10 times as funny. For example, Jack woke in bed with Mr. Roper, Jack pokes him and Mr. Roper says "not tonight, I have a headache". Brendan tells me "He has a headache, he has to stay in bed all day now." Another time Jack was cooking for a couple and the wife was flirting with him, rubbing her foot up and down his leg under the table and practically purring "Mmmmmmm". Brendan looks at me and says "She must really like Jack's cooking", lol.

But at least were able to get out in the drizzle for a couple of really long walks. For him walks consist mainly of reading off the number on every house. And where we live, the houses are pretty packed together so he can read number after number after number. I enjoy the walks too because we get to get out and talk in between his number obsessing. I also get to hold his hand alot since there are alot of streets to cross. It's nice and relaxing and I love that they really are walks now, i.e., we're sans stroller. We walked for about an hour and a half on Saturday and over 2.5 hours yesterday and he would have walked even more if it wasn't getting time for dinner and I mean mommy made us go home. This is the same child who if he had to walk a few blocks would say "carry me".

We did have an incident when we first went out for our walk yesterday though. We got to our corner and there was an open house sign with balloons attached. Brendan went over and touched one of the balloons. He didn't do anything else, just touched it. One of the owners of the house, an older woman, had apparently been sitting in her car, I guess to direct people to the house, and she got out and started screaming at him to stop touching the balloon. Now, mind you he wasn't even doing anything but touching it, but it's a freaking balloon, what on earth would make you scream at a 4 year old? I was livid. I’m not a confrontational person and hate stuff like this, but I screamed back at her, that all he was doing was touching it and how dare she talk to a 4 year old like that. She then had the nerve to say that one of the balloons was popped, implying Brendan had done it. There were 2 orange balloons when Brendan walked over and apparently there was a popped white balloon attached. I went off, how dare she, there were only the two balloons when he'd walked over. And then she said to him, not even to me, to him, that he also left a fast food cup on the ground. I was spitting nails at this point. We've walked by that corner several times this weekend and the cup had been there for days. I screamed at her, first she had better not speak directly to my child again, and then that the cup had been there for days, which she'd know if she actually looked at her property and cleaned it every now and then. And I went off on her about how I'd never seen anything so bad, how dare she ever talk to a child like that, what a horrible person she was. Brendan was crying from her screaming at him, and she must have started to feel bad because she said she was sorry and told her she damn well should be sorry because there was nothing lower than making a small child cry. I picked him up and started to walk away and told him loudly so she could hear that he'd done nothing wrong and that the woman had yelled because she was a mean, nasty person. I was just so pissed off that this woman made my child cry, but thankfully in a couple of blocks he was fine and we had a nice walk afterwards.

But I think we'd both like it better to see a nice sunny sky. :)

His first library card

We went to the library this afternoon to return some overdue books and a tape. I actually got an e-mail from the library about them, although I don't remember ever giving them my e-mail. But I'm glad they did. It cost me $10.50 in fines. And they were only 4 days overdue!!! The books were only 10 cents for each day, which made me laugh because it was 10 cents back when I was Brendan's age, but the tape was $2.00 a day. That is so ridiculous. We're never taking a tape out from the library again. I could have just bought the @#$@#$ tape for the $8.00 it cost me.

But while I was paying a king's ransom in fines, Brendan asked the librarian if he could have his own library card and she said as long as he could sign his name he could have one. So I filled out the paperwork, and he got the card and signed it. He was just so proud of himself when we checked out some new books and we used his card. I just have to remember not to lose his. I've lost mine twice, including the last time we were there. The system at our library, you scan your own books. You put the card in and then after you've scanned there's nothing to remind you to take the card back. Luckily both times they had found the card at the library and I was able to get it back although today the librarian gave us a look like she thought Brendan might be more responsible with his card than I am with mine.

Here's a look at the first literary choices that Mr. B scanned on his new card -

Pinky Dinky Doo - Polka Dot Pox
Spiderman - Worst Enemies
Digger Pig and the Turnips
Cat in the Hat
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Hat

Great day

Today was a really long, but really fun day. It started with the standard 5:45am Saturday wake-up call from Brendan to let me know he's going to pee, lol. We were out the door by 8:00 to get him a haircut and pick up a few last minute items for his birthday party today. It was a small one, just family which is what he wanted, but it was nice. My parents came over at 11:00 and everyone else came about 11:30. We had munchies, pizza, a Blues Clues cake, and an ice cream sundae bar. Brendan was just in such a good mood. My cousin Kate had him doing some cute art projects and my cousin Mike had him in stitches playing really hard with him.

After the party I put together the scooter my parents gave him. He couldn't wait to get outside and try it out. He even wanted to wear the helmet, knee and elbow pads and gloves, which I was sure he'd never want to wear. And he really figured it out quickly how to use it. He's not exactly a pro yet, but he did really well. We were out there for about an hour and a half while he scooted (is that the right term?) all around the neighborhood.

Then late in the afternoon we headed over to a carnival that was being held at one of the local churches. My normally reticent child went on a ton of rides, all of them except one without me on them, and he had a blast. There was one ride where you went through a bouncy house, climbed big rope ladders, went down curvy slides. Normally he's scared of rope ladders and the circular slides, but he went right through like a big kid and then insisted on going on it another 5 times. And he couldn't believe it that we didn't leave there until about 7:45 which is past his bedtime. That was all he kept saying on the way home, "I stayed up past my bedtime at the carnival" or "carnibal" as he called it.

This was just one of those really great days when you just have so much joy watching your child be really happy. Oh, and he had another milestone last night. It was the first night he actually slept under his sheets instead of on top of them. I can't believe this little boy is going to be 4 years old in 2 days.















And riding on his scooter -


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Children's Day

It was Children's Day at South Street Seaport, although isn't every day Children's Day?

It 's a really nice event though sponsored by Channel 13, our local PBS station and Noggin. Gordon from Sesame Street was there and sang songs with the kids. There were characters. We saw Bert, Ernie, Cookie Monster, Elmo, Moose A. Moose from Noggin, Jack from Jack's Big Music Show, Curious George, Arthur. We were waiting to see Dora but there was a huge line of people to meet her and take pics and Brendan just wanted to go. There were also lots of giveaways. We got a kite from Target who was also a sponsor, Noggin crayons, a CD from Jack's Big Music Show, a Barney tape, a coloring book. Barney was also on stage. There were other acts that we left before like Hi-5 and they're supposed be doing fireworks tonight. And it was all free. The weather was also perfect. We went without the stroller and other than him wanting me to carry him intermittently on some of the lines, he did great without it and that was with a lot of walking. I really love days like this. It's so great to have a child who I can take to these kind of events and know he'll enjoy them and will be able to deal with the crowds and noise. And of course the Haagen Dazs fix we both got definitely helped his good mood.

He hugged Bert and Ernie a zillion times each, kissed them and gave them high 5s.





He didn't want to leave Curious George, I practically had to pry him away.



Gordon's my man. He sings really well.



Hanging at the Seaport.




And Gordon singing the theme to Sesame Street (sorry it's kind of jerky, but I was holding Brendan so he could see over everyone's head and holding the camera in my other hand) -

http://www.dropshots.com/day.php?userid=97527&cdate=20060610&ctime=140346

What did people used to do

With whiny children on rainy days before there was TV? That was the question a co-worker and I were kicking around today. It had been storming most of the week and the weekend was no different. Brendan was pretty hellishly behaved when I took him out on Saturday morning to go grocery shopping and we got home just before the deluge. The only thing that ever knocks out the satellite signal are thunderstorms or heavy downpours. As an aside we had the most amazing thunderstorms last Thursday. They went on for over 2 hours and for a good half hour or more the lightning was so close that I could see the bolts in the sky outside my front window. Maybe this is a city girl thing and if you live elsewhere you get to see bolts of lightning more frequently, but I swear I'd never seen any before, just the flashes of lightning in the sky. A little scary, but very beautiful. But back to the satellite. So we lose the signal around 12:30pm. And even though the rain slows gradually to a drizzle, it never comes back. This has never happened before and I call the satellite company and they say to give it time. Brendan is bouncing off the walls shouting "TV fixer, come fix our TVs." We have a zillion DVDs and tapes, but of course only Noggin will do. Let's just say after many further frustrating call I eventually got someone at Dish who was actually able to give me some constructive help and I eventually managed to restore some signal, although it keeps going out intermittently and I have a service call scheduled for Wednesday for some guy to come and have fun crawling all over the roof and to tell me he doesn't see anything wrong (what happens every time I have a service call). My co-worker on the other hand was not as lucky. Her cable went out the same time we lost satellite signal and she still doesn't have it back. Her phone and internet are all bundled with the cable so she was really screwed. Her weekend long whining session with her 5 year old, another Noggin-aholic, trumps Saturday's brouhaha with Mr. B. But really before TV, were kids just more creative and able to entertain themselves, or did they also go insane when stuck indoors but just didn't have TV to whine for?

We did have a much better Sunday though, of which I spent a good part of the afternoon ordering a new laptop. The battery on my Toshiba started draining power on Friday and continued on Saturday. I tried another battery, but same thing. This happened once before when the laptop was still on warranty and I had to get the power source replaced. I love this laptop, I really do, but I've already had to get it repaired 4 times and it's only 2.5 years old. In all my years of having computers, I've only ever had to get one other one repaired. I figured with a $125 repair here and $100 repair there with the laptop, it just made sense to get another one than keep throwing away money on it. I shelled out a large sum of money at Dell, but they were actually having great deals. I got $300 off, a free DVD burner, a free upgrade to a 100gig hd, free shipping, etc. This did effectively cancel the trip to Hershey I'd been planning for August, but hey I took the boy to Disney in March and we're going back there in December, I don't think he'll miss the Hershey trip that much. And I get a new toy!!! And Brendan gets to keep the old laptop. I'm going to see if I can keep it going for as long as I can without getting it repaired and let him play it to death. The new one is supposed to have a ship date of 6/12 and should arrive somewhere around Brendan's b'day. So nice presents for us both.