Derby Day

Will participated in his very first Pinewood Derby a few weekends ago.  He and John (mostly John) spent a week getting his car ready.  Will picked out the design and did the painting, but John spent a fair bit of time adding weights to the car, sanding the axles and wheels, and making whatever legal modifications can be made to a piece of wood to make it faster.

My only contributions were fixing some painting snafus, and a last minute panicked trip to Ace Hardware on the eve of the derby to weigh the thing on the official scale:
 

(We were using my kitchen scale and John got the car to the maximum weight EXACTLY and was so proud, until I pointed out that I had no way of knowing if that scale was accurate.  But it was, thank goodness.)

John participated in one Pinewood Derby in his cub scouting days, and he came in last.  So he was determined that Will's car would not be last; I think he was exorcising some old demons with all that preparation. :-)

Will, all ready for the race:

After that stinker of a picture, I told him these were going on the blog where all the grandparents would see it.  That produced some smiles--he wanted to look good for his audience:

Will and his school buddy, Jacob, checking out the competition. 

 Jacob won the Wolf scout division easily--his car shot down that ramp like a guided missile.  His mother said they had a book on making derby cars, so I think I know what John is getting for Father's Day.

The bling:

Spectating:

On your marks, get set.....go:

Will's car came in 3rd in two heats and 4th in the other.  He was thrilled and thought that was as good as a win.  And then he ran off to play tag with his buddies without waiting to see the rest of the race!  His competitive streak has clearly not kicked in yet.

I was just relieved it made it to the finish--not everyone's car did--and was also glad that we were not the owners of the car that jumped 2 lanes and took out 2 other cars.  Although the boys thought that was pretty awesome and just like a Nascar wreck.

Trophies all around:

And more play time on the practice ramps:

Anna took a turn:

Will's den:

No one placed for speed, but two of the boys received trophies for creativity, so we were proud.

And, as we finally left and were walking to the parking lot, the back wheel fell off of Will's derby car.  And I might have whispered a "thank you" to the car for not losing that wheel two hours earlier. :-)

All That's Fit to Print

Will decided to publish a family newspaper last week.  He ended up doing one edition, and then quit--apparently the pressures of journalism got to him.  But here's his first and (so far) only issue:

(Pages 2 and 3 are in column format, in case you are confused.  I love his inappropriate hyphenation.  He is usually better at spelling and grammar, but not when he's in a hurry.)

The second story is sort of true--Anna and I did get rear-ended across the train tracks.  But we cleared the train by a good 10 seconds.  I think.  My car was fine except for a scratched rear bumper, but the poor man that hit us may still be shaking.  I did say a big thank-you prayer.  Anna blamed me for the accident and then complained about neck pain for a few minutes.  She'd make a great plaintiff.

And the other two news stories are not local (and the last one didn't happen in Texas and I don't think the elk considered it torture), but were featured on the Today show and made an impression on Will.  Here are the links to the stories--the elk video is worth a click:

Wild 'roll cloud' tumbles across Texas sky

Photographer has an up-close encounter with elk

Well...we never have to remind him to "dream big!"

This is for those of you who have asked me for birthday gift ideas for Will.  I hope you're ready for a jewel heist!

Will:  Mama, I know what I want for my birthday.  I think I want that diamond we saw in New York.

Me, thinking back to our trip to NYC and DC last spring:  What diamond did we see in New York?  Was it in a store window?

Will:  You remember that one in the big case?  In that dark room?

Me:  Wait....did we see it in DC?  With Aunt Missy?

Will:  Yes.  With Aunt Missy.

Me:  Was it in a museum?  In the Smithsonian?

Will:  Yep.  That big blue diamond.

Me:  You want the HOPE DIAMOND for your birthday????

Will:  Yep.  Or maybe I could buy it?  I have all those quarters.

So there you go, birthday gift-getters.  If it helps, Will does have about $30, mostly in change, that he's willing to contribute.  Maybe it can buy gas for the getaway car? :-)

This blog post needs a parental advisory warning

So Will is all flush with Halloween spirit and has been making lots of decorations to hang around the house....pumpkins, ghosts, etc.  He made a large skeleton a few days ago, and John helped him hang it up near the front door.  Apparently neither of us took a good look at the skeleton, because it took us a few days to realize that Will made it...ahem...anatomically correct:

Me, shocked: "Will, does your skeleton have boy parts????"

Will, proudly: "Yes, I made it out of candy corn!!"

He also has knees made of Twizzlers, and elbows of jelly beans, in case you were curious.

So now I'm trying to convince him to make the skeleton some pants, and, like any artist, he's strongly resisting any alterations to his work.  Pretty sure I'm going to win this one.

I'm also pretty sure I know why the pest control man was laughing when he came to the door today.

Will's First T-ball game

Will is playing T-ball with the city league this spring.  He has been practicing with his team for the past 3 weeks, and they had their first game on Saturday.

Now is that cute or what?  Anna, as usual, was a little upset to be stuck on the sidelines.  It will be interesting to see if she's as enthusiastic about these sports when she's finally old enough to play them.

The games go for 3 innings--each player gets a chance at bat, and there are no outs and no keeping score.  The last player on the bench always gets a grand slam, although, in our game, the last player usually stopped on first base anyway and waited until he was reminded that he could keep running. :-)

Will did great--hit the ball on the first try each time, and he fielded from the mound during the third inning and did a good job.  In fact on one hit, he did such a good job that he actually got the ball to the first baseman at the same time the batter got to first base--which, in Tball, seems to occur about as often as a lunar eclipse--resulting in a collision between those two players.  That caused a few tears, which were quickly dried when everyone realized the game was finally over and it was time for the best part....snacks!!

Here are a few more photos, and a video:

Gentlemen prefer blondes

I think Will may already have a "type" when it comes to girls.  He's been enamored with a cute little blonde girl in his class since about the third week of school.  We hear all about her--who she sits by, when she's absent from school, when she smiles or waves at Will, etc.  I don't think she returns his affection, though, because Will sadly announced one day that she told him she wasn't allowed to play with boys.  Rejection stinks, even if you're only five years old.  Poor Will.

Anyway, it looks like my little studmuffin has bounced back nicely.  Today the children's choir sang at church, so Will was sitting in the front row with the rest of his choir buddies drawing on the prayer request cards when I came into the church.  As I sat down a few rows behind him, I heard him say loudly, "You can have my pen, Lila."  He stood up, handed a pen to a cute little blonde girl next to him, and sat back down holding his paper.

Knowing how much Will loves to draw, I couldn't imagine he gave his only pen away--I stood up to see if he had another one, but he didn't.  So then I waited for him to turn around and tell me about how nicely he shared--he usually wants to make sure he gets rewarded for any unselfish gesture.  But he didn't look at me at all, just sat quietly watching the little girl draw.

Just then, his choir teacher asked the children to come forward to practice.  On the way up to the chancel rail, the little girl grabbed Will's hand and held it as they walked up.  Will turned around and gave me a huge smile--obviously he got the reward he really wanted for sharing that pen. :-)

Medical Day!

(this post could also be titled "Daddy Explains What He Does to Bring Home the Bacon")

Will's kindergarten class just finished up their unit on the human body, so his teacher invited a few medical professionals (who happen to be kindergarten parents) to come talk to the class.  I visited one day and spent about 30 minutes talking about my job and letting them try out some doctor tools.  I also brought an ear model and we talked about ear infections, not sticking anything inside the ear(!), and earwax (always a popular topic with kids!).

The following day, the kids had a "Medical Clinic"--they brought in a favorite stuffed animal to doctor.  John came for the first part of that day, and shared about his job.  He brought Xrays, a spine model, and some masks and surgical scrub hats.  I stopped in on my lunch break to help tie on some masks, but these photos are from the school:

The teacher brought in some medical braces--they tried to stump John by seeing if he knew what body part they belonged to.

Will checks for a heartbeat on Mickey Skywalker:

Will's buddy, Elijah, brought his mom in as well--she's a surgical scrub nurse and I think she was the hit of the day.  She cut open a stuffed animal at home, unstuffed it and then restuffed it with candy.  Then she brought it into the class, where she prepped and draped it, then let the kids surgically remove the candy from the animal's stomach:

Is that genius or what?  The kids loooved it...here's Will:

She also brought in a stuffed animal coated with special powder.  She had the children pass the animal around (so that they all got the powder on their hands) and then showed them with a black light how the powder had gotten on everyone's hands, to show them how germs are spread.  Will is already a germaphobe, so this pushed him over the edge:

I asked Will if he enjoyed having us come to his class, and he did, so I guess we're still a few years from the point where he's embarrassed by us. :-)

From Will's Perspective

I found this worksheet in Will's end-of-the-week folder today, and it's too good not to share.  The assignment was to draw each parent at work.

I told Will I needed a little help figuring out these photos.

Will: "That's you, taking care of a baby...."

(The baby doesn't look very happy about it; they rarely are.)

"....and that's Daddy....

"....bringing home the bacon!"

Gooooooooooooal!

So this weekend marked Will's first foray into team sports, and officially made me a soccer mom.  We enrolled him in the "Little Strikers" program in the local soccer club.  They practice for about an hour each Saturday--no games, just learning how to play.  I took both kids by myself for the first practice, along with two special guests...

Mr. Alligator (who had to be strategically positioned so that he could watch Will play):

and Bubbles:

Bubbles was my baby doll back in the day, but has now been passed on to Anna.  I have to admit I am considering taking her back, however, since Anna is always putting Bubbles in "time-out" and refuses to let her wear clothes. I think Bubbles prefers me, too...doesn't she look like she's pleading to go back home, get dressed, and have a quiet bottle of milk?

Anyway, we arrived at the soccer field along with literally hundreds of other people (several soccer games were going on, as well as a Pop Warner football game).  Will happily joined a bunch of other boys on the field and tried to follow directions:

I didn't get to watch much of this, because I was dealing with an angry girl.  I should have realized Anna was going to be jealous of this activity when she tried to get us to buy her some shin guards when we were buying Will's gear.

Sure enough, she tried to run onto the field to play with the rest of the kids.  I literally had to drag her kicking and screaming back to the sidelines.  She pouted for quite awhile ("Ee-na kick ball!  Ee-na kick ball!"), but I made up a game where she had to run along the sidelines and back, which kept her entertained for the rest of practice:

Will had a good time, especially at the end when they divided into teams.  While I was watching him, I thought he was employing the same strategy I used to get through team sports in PE--namely, trying to run around and look busy, yet still avoid any actual contact with the ball.  He got close several times but usually let another more aggressive kid kick it away from him.  On the way home, though, he said he needed to "do more exercise so I can get the ball more," and he's been practicing in the afternoons at home.

 Go Will! :-)

The Dark Side

I found this photo on my phone last night.  It was taken a few months ago and I had never shown it to John, so we enjoyed a good laugh about it last night.

Can you guess what movie villain Will is pretending to be?

As a hint, Will was very upset that I could not provide him with a larger blanket, preferably black.  He didn't think the Nemo blanket was very menacing.

As a second hint, here is his most recent illustration of that character:

And his nemesis (Yoda, not Luke Skywalker--can you tell by the ears?):

That backwards 3 indicates he's number 3 in the series--there was a 5 on the Darth Vader picture.   Will also drew Princess Leia, Chewie, and somebody else, but I threw those away--I'm sure Picasso's mom did the same.

(And yes, Anna thought she was dressed as Darth Vader, too, poor girl.)