I did my rounds checking on the kids and thought I’d just snap a fairly typical scene about an hour after formal bedtime.
Isaac read a LOT, and had come out to tell Kathleen all about the book:
Charlotte was asleep. Often she’s awake with her cat or just thinking, but sometimes she falls asleep quickly. Usually her bed is a mess; I fixed her blankets for her so she’d be warm.
Nicole almost always falls asleep looking at books. This is a huge Curious George book from the library.
Ila is often in a very silly mood when she ought to be asleep.
Isaac had an assignment to bring in 5 things about himself that fit into a brown paper lunch sack. Here is what he put in his sack:The book represents his love of reading and his love of space. The cat food was his idea for a way to symbolize having cats. If I had left this assignment to him, it might have been all lego creations because he wanted to put more of his creations in the bag and pictures of the ones that wouldn’t fit. The cards are filled with states that he has visited (the top card shows the ones he’s lived in and where his grandparents live).
Saturday last week I got tickets to go to the air show and hydroplane races. I imagine you can still get a good view without tickets, but I wanted to be front and center. Isaac and I took the light rail to Othello, then took a shuttle over to Genesee Park on Lake Washington. We just grabbed a spot in the grass along the shore to watch.
We watched a couple of heats of the hydroplanes first, which was a lot of fun. My camera was acting up a little, but I did get a few videos:
Here’s Isaac with his binoculars trying to get a better look at the hydroplanes:
The air show came next, with a few really neat demonstrations. Air shows present some unique photography challenges, and my little camera wasn’t up to capturing a lot of good images, but I did snap a few shots. Things I didn’t get good shots of were a visit from a P-51 Mustang and a Spitfire. I couldn’t have captured the really great sound of those Merlin engines anyway. The did several low passes for us.
After the WWII planes, we had a demonstration by Vietnam-era choppers, a Cobra and a Huey. They did several maneuvers showing us tactics that were used in Vietnam. The Huey would go in first, low and fast, snaking back and forth, scaring up ground fire, while the Cobra would arc up high and take out any VCs who were shooting. Great demonstration, and some really low flying.
The Coast Guard did a nice demo, where a rescue swimmer jumped into the water and was then picked up. My picture is terrible, but you may be able to click through and see them hoisting him back in.
Next up was a demo from an AV-8B Harrier, which was really cool. It was also very loud, as loud as all the Blue Angels together. Isaac kept his ears covered. Here’s a video I took of its departure:
After this, they had a routine by a stunt pilot named Sean D. Tucker, in a little custom built plane for the Oracle team. Holy carp. I have seen some ridiculous things, but he was bonkers. He was doing prop stalls, strange high-angle ultra-slow passes, outside loops (-6g!), and a really silly series of front flips where he literally just whipped the tail around over the cockpit. Ridiculous. Amazing. My video stinks, so here’s a better shot of his routine if you’re interested:
Isaac LOVED this, and I thought it was amazing too.
We had a demo from the C-130 attached to the Blue Angels, Fat Albert. Here’s a video of their big climb-out:
They used to use RATO for this, but from what I hear they’re running low on those; not as much need for them these days.
Finally, we had the Blue Angels. I’d seen the Thunderbirds before at Hill AFB in Ogden, but this was my first time seeing the Blue Angels. We’d been watching them and hearing them fly around the city all week, so Isaac and I were ready. It was a great setting; they zipped all over the lake and over Mercer Island for their routine. Isaac was getting a little worn out by the time they were flying, so he wasn’t as excited as I expected, but he still enjoyed it. I was able to get one fairly decent shot of them in formation:
Once they were done, we headed back to a long, hot line for the shuttle, and then the train home.
There’s one picture I kept even though it didn’t turn out, and even though I’m looking a little scruffy. The reason I kept it was because Isaac took it. He’s getting more independent, and I sent him out with my camera to take pictures. Most of them were of the camera strap, or the ground, but he got everything but the focus right here.
It was a busy week, but a lot of great fun with Isaac.
Last week was the main week of Seafair here in Seattle. That means parades, hydroplane races, an air show, and visits from the Navy. Isaac and I took advantage, and went on some fun adventures.
On Thursday, Isaac came to work with me. After I got through my morning meetings, we hopped on a bus and headed down to the pier to get a tour of the USS Bonhomme Richard, LHD-6. This is named after John Paul Jones’ famous ship, which itself was named to honor Benjamin Franklin.
First I should probably explain what an LHD is, for those who don’t know. An LHD looks a lot like an aircraft carrier, and it is in a sense. In fact, it displaces nearly twice as much water as HMS Invincible, the lead British aircraft carrier, and nearly as much as the largest carrier outside the US, the French Charles de Gaulle. The big distinction is the role.
For Isaac’s Student of the week/VIP week we were provided with a list of things we could bring in. We decided to make two small posters of pictures and bring in a few beloved possessions. The first one is mostly full of Isaac at different places (Arches, mountain top, Washington DC, Norris Dam, ect) the second one lists things he likes to do. The middle one you should recognize from my earlier post:Here are the possessions that he chose to bring: (He loves maps and wanted to bring the instruction booklet to a set of toys that he has because it had a map of what they looked like all put together.)
He was also allowed to bring in a favorite snack to share. He wanted to bring in corndogs and chips, but I didn’t want to provide all that for 25 kids so we made sugar cookies in the shapes of things Isaac likes and frosted them in his favorite colors. After we made them, I thought it would have been even neater if we made them in the shape of little gears.On Thursday, Charlotte and I went to Isaac’s class just before lunch for his VIP presentation (many thanks to Jess for watching the other girls). He demonstrated how to build a snap circuit and showed the class how it worked. He seemed flustered and nervous. He stumbled over his words a little, but he was happy to show off his things.
He showed them his posters and talked about them: After the presentation, the kids got a chance to ask questions or give compliments, Isaac called on students with their hands up. Then he got to pick 4 kids to join us for lunch at a table in the back of the room. After we ate, Charlotte and I stayed for recess. Isaac was very excited to show Charlotte all the things he liked to do on the playground like here at https://www.playgroundmarkings.org.uk/playground-games/snakes-and-ladders. It also has playground markings and it’s similar to those at https://www.playgroundlinemarkings.co.uk/designs/traditional which makes them quite happy.
Charlotte had a blast. She ran from one set of equipment to another and attracted a small group of followers (a few girls that followed her around and tried to help her). I also learned that I was not allowed to take pictures on the playground because I didn’t have permission from the other kid’s parents.
Isaac was student of the week last week. They sent home a poster for us to fill out information about him. The following are his answers:
my favorites: color: blue and green
place: a french fry store with a play place
toy: Legos
book: The Polar Express
tv show: Tangled
sport: football
food: mac n’ cheese and corn, potato, and bacon soup
(Lately he has been telling me that everything I cook is his favorite food. He’s a great kid to have at meal time because he raves over every meal and tells me that I’m such a good cook and he loves everything I make.)
One question asked him to list 3 wishes. He insisted that he didn’t wish for anything and when I pressed him he said; “I’m not the kind of kid that has wishes.†I asked him if he wished that he had more Lego sets and he said yes. Here are the wishes he came up with:
1. I wish I had all the Legos for Lego city
2. I wish we had a train set that ran through the walls
3. I wish my friend Ryan lived next door
(I cheated a little on this list because he couldn’t think of anything and then when I suggested Leogs, he wanted two wishes about Legos and to leave the third one blank. So I suggested several things and he told me which things he wished).
The last question was about what he wanted to be when he grew up. He said that he wanted to design buildings that people would build so I wrote “architect†on the poster.
Over the weekend, Zach made Isaac frozen burritos. Isaac raved about how wonderful they tasted and said he thought his Dad should open up a restaurant to make and sell burritos since there is a Growth in the Quick-Serve Burger sales. On Monday morning, just before he went to school, Isaac asked me to cross out “architect†and write “make burritosâ€. He was insistent, so I added “or burrito engineer” to his poster. When I mentioned this exchange over dinner, Isaac explained he that that he could do both. Some days he would be an architect and other days he would make burritos.
The young men from our ward had the chance to have a presentation from the King County Bomb Squad this evening, and I thought I’d bring Isaac along. It turned out to be a great idea. He was completely riveted.
The officers were very gracious, answering lots of questions. They told stories about some of the calls they’ve been on; mostly suspicious packages, fireworks, or old dynamite people find. I recognized the smaller robot they had, since it’s the same company that makes our vacuum. It’s an iRobot Packbot. Isaac was so excited when I told him that he really wanted to tell the officers. He raised his hand.
Officer: “Yes, do you have a question?â€
Isaac: “No, I have a compliment. We have three robots at our house that are from the factory of that robot.â€
After questions, we had a chance to take a closer look at the robots, and some of the young men got a chance to interact with the robots. Isaac watched carefully for a while, and then wanted to try himself. Together, we figured out how to manipulate the arm and maneuver the bot. Isaac was very careful and explored each feature. He had it pretty well figured out; the officer was very impressed with him. I was pleased my boy didn’t wreck a robot that costs around $100k.
Zach has made some good arguments in favor of switching our online photo storage from Flickr to Picasa. I have not uploaded any pictures to Flickr since he has made this recommendation and now I’m woefully behind. I thought I’d share some recent shots here with commentary as I mentally prepare for the switchover.
With the move and all, I haven’t had a chance to sit down and play with the boy as much as I’d like. Remember how I mentioned his favorite part of the Smithsonian was when they had these Snap Circuits kits for him to play with? Well, I got him a set for Christmas, and we’ve been working together on them. Here are a couple of videos.
Isaac loves to read. He enjoys reading books in bed, reading scriptures at night with the family and pretty much any words he sees. He has started reading billboards and signs everywhere we go. He’ll read the name of a restaurant or other such place and ask me what it is or say something like “what does see red, save green mean.†Our most interesting billboard conversation to date was on Sunday when he saw a sign that said “Stop Drinking.†He didn’t understand why they would want people to stop drinking and thought it meant to stop drinking anything (including milk and water). This sparked a rather lengthy conversation where I described all the ill affects of drinking alcohol and tried to be as honest as I could and he asked a lot of good questions like “why would anyone want to drink that†and “do you know anyone who drinks alcohol.â€
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Zach: There’s a bus coming
Isaac: If it’s 279 don’t hit it. . . Actually, if it’s going out to pick up kids or coming back from the school full of kids don’t hit it either.
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Charlotte (after learning about/eating a fortune cookie): I knew they had cookies, but I didn’t know they had cookies that could tell the future.
From Isaac: Isaac was originally going to write a chapter book about Grandpa’s birthday in which he surprised his grandfather by jumping out of the cake.
From Charlotte:
I wanted her to write her name on the back. She refused to write it and said that if she wrote her name on the back then her book would be fiction and she wanted it to stay nonfiction.
From Nicole: Nicole sang happy birthday as she colored, but stopped coloring when she recognized another opportunity to eat.
Here are some letters the kids wrote to their grandparents. I had them in an envelope to send, but before I put them in the mailbox, we booked some flights for grandma and decided to just give them to her in person. Isaac was going to write a letter to each grandparent, but then he realized how much work writing is for him and decided just to have grandma tell him he loves him too. This is the longest letter Charlotte has hand-written to date. The pink person in the red box is Charlotte.
Isaac got to ride the school bus for the first time on Thursday. When I had asked the school about riding the bus, they had told me that they only pick kids up at bus stops. With no really close stops and no sidewalks on our street, I decided that he wouldn’t be riding the bus.On Wednesday I found out that the bus will drop the kids off at their house if they’re going right by it (which is the case for us). I’m thrilled that I won’t have to wake up any of his sisters from a nap in order to pick him up from school again!I asked him what riding the bus was like and he said “It was amazing!â€
On Friday I had another opportunity to go to Isaac’s school. They were having a pajama day and reading campout. The kids were asked to wear their pajamas to school and bring a blanket or sleeping bag and game. I asked Isaac to pick out his favorite pair of pajamas to wear to school. He chose to wear his space pajamas.
Instead of going out for recess, the kids laid out their blankets and sleeping bags and played games. When I arrived, Isaac was busily reading books and taking quizzes. He had been working towards joining The Lunch Bunch* and was just a few points short. As the kids started playing games, Isaac continued to read. I think he read at least 5 books and took 5 quizzes while I was there, but he was able to earn enough points to join The Lunch Bunch and even got to join the other kids for the last 5 minutes of playtime.
After lunch, I read some books to the kids and went outside with them while their teacher went to a meeting. The official reading campout happened later that day when the kids got to read books in their sleeping bags.
*The lunch bunch is a group of kids who eat lunch in the classroom with their teacher every Friday. In order to join, you have to have 25 or more points (earned by reading and passing quizzes) and have had no cards pulled all week (good behavior). Apparently Isaac will also get a hat that he can wear all day at school every Friday.
Isaac has decided that he wants to design and direct construction when he grows up. He was telling me his ideas as we were driving home the other day. He wanted to build an apartment building with a McDonalds on the bottom. His idea was that the tenants could call for room service and someone would bring the McDonalds food up to them. He said the building would be mostly made of brick and it would be in Tennessee. He said that I could live in his building for free.
His next idea was to build a subway system in Knoxville. He said he’d have it ready when I was a grandma. He also said that I would be able to ride it for free. I asked where the stops would be and he said he would make a stop right by my house. He also said there would be a subway car for my car and that when the subway would stop for fuel it would refuel my car as well for free. I also heard him bargaining with Charlotte to work for him. He told her that he’d pay her more money than anyone else. Charlotte said that she’d pay him even more than she’d pay herself.
Thanks to a visit from my mother-in-law, I was able to go help out with Isaac’s Fall Party. It was held the Friday before Halloween, but it was not a Halloween party. I’m not entirely sure why not, but no one in the school dressed up in costumes. We had an orange-themed party (which worked out considering the local college football team’s primary color is orange). Anyway, I took some pictures so I thought I’d post them.
They played some games and did a craft.
Then they went to PE and library, before finishing the party off with some snacks and a group picture.
In our family prayer this morning, Isaac prayed that he would get to sit next to Emma at school.
Last year I asked him who his friends were at school and he said the kids he played with the most were Emma and Storm. This year Storm is in another class, but Emma is in his class. He comes home from school everyday talking about Emma. He’ll say things like “today, we got pumpkins and I looked at them in the hall and mine was two pumpkins away from Emma’s. Is that good?†When I ask him about his day, he tells me about times he got to sit next to or play with Emma. As we drove away from school yesterday he said “Mom, Emma looked at our van!â€
I am also starting to see an increase of Emma related doodles on his paper. Here are some examples:
So this morning we had a talk that went something like this: “Isaac, do you know that when you’re 6 you should have friends that are girls, but not girlfriends?†Then I tried to describe the difference without giving him any ideas (I didn’t mention things like hand holding and kissing). As cute as a first girlfriend might seem at his age, I think it’s dangerous for kids to pair off too young. I’d be happy if he didn’t have any girlfriends until after high school. He can go on group dates when he’s sixteen.
Isaac’s school is currently having a variety of fundraisers (have I ever mentioned how much I hate asking people for money and thus hate fundraisers?) They were suppose to get as many donations as possible. Any donation would let them walk and it took $15 worth of donations to get a T-shirt. I was inspired by my desire not to have my son feel left out so I contributed the $15.
Parents were invited to witness the grand event which consisted of watching your child, walk, run, and hop around the track repeatedly with his (or her) class. Very few parents took the opportunity. I brought all three of my girls and we made some signs to cheer Isaac on. This sign says “Go Isaac Go! Walk your fastest walk!†Charlotte carefully colored each word. She received many comments on her sign and was even photographed by someone I don’t know who was taking pictures of the event. Nicole colored the sign on the other side which read “Walk your heart out! We love you!â€After watching him go around a few times, I gathered all the girls and we took a lap with him. Before long there was a flock of first graders hanging onto the stroller so that it constantly bumped into feet as it moved around the track.
Nicole picked up a purple cone, placed it on her head and took off around the track. She didn’t care that she was running with a bunch of strange kids, she was just happy to be wearing a cone on her head. Once around the track with my stroller mauled by children was enough. I put the stroller on the sideline and carried Ila around the next lap. Charlotte held Isaac’s hand and they ran together.After their laps, they each got a water bottle and some time to play on the playground. The girls stayed to play with Isaac and the other kids on the playground. I had to drag Nicole kicking and screaming off the playground to go home at the end. Here is a picture of Isaac with his class. His teacher (Mrs. Rader) is in the back with the dark colored shirt and bunny ears.
My mom came down to Tennessee to help while Zach recovered from his surgery. She arrived on Friday night and was able to stay with the kids while I picked up Zach from the hospital and then got his perscriptions. Zach was miserable all week and barely emerged from our room. He ate almost nothing and mostly just wanted to sleep the week away (perhaps he will post more details about his torturous recovery). His reclusive recovery meant that my mother and I spent the entire week taking care of the kids together.
Charlotte really enjoyed lots of one-one time with her grandmother. They played games and read together and Charlotte invented several new kinds of hugs just for Grandma. On Thursday when I asked her if she wanted to go to the library with me for some one-on-one time she said “no, I like grandma Bunny more than you, mom.†Charlotte is generally always eager for time with me, so I could tell that she was loving every minute with her Grandma (and I wasn’t worried, I know deep down she loves me more).Nicole was charming and cute, as always, and she took to her grandma right away. Nicole gave her Grandma great hugs and Grandma enjoyed hearing her cute funny vocabulary. When I took Isaac to school in the morning, Nicole came with me a few mornings and was very worried when Grandma didn’t get in the car too. She’d start to cry and call out “Grandma, where are you?†On Friday Grandma followed us to the gym in her car instead of riding with us. Nicole fell to pieces when she saw Grandma get into her own car. She screamed and cried and called out “Grandma, where are you?†and didn’t calm down the whole drive. Ila is still mostly a mommas girl, but on Thursday when I went to Isaac’s school, Ila finally let Grandma hold her and play with her without crying and was good the whole time I was gone. She even ate the green beans that Grandma fed her. Grandma was especially impressed with Ila’s great skill in playing with toys with her feet.Isaac really enjoyed reading with Grandma. He read some books to her and listened as she read to him. Grandma remarked on how neat it was to read with him because he asked such thoughtful and intelligent questions and he really seemed to be enthralled with every topic they read about. Grandma’s visit also gave me the opportunity to spend some time with Isaac at school which he was very excited about.
After their laps, they each got a water bottle and some time to play on the playground. The girls stayed to play with Isaac and the other kids on the playground. I had to drag Nicole kicking and screaming off the playground to go home at the end.
