Cavity Calamity

I got to spend my morning getting a pair of cavities filled. Then I got to spend my afternoon at the dentist with Shane. Carrie picked him up and brought him to my school to make the timing work out smoothly.

Shane got a hold of the controls and maxed out the chair height when given a chance.

He was overly playful while the technician cleaned his teeth. Shane wouldn't open his mouth after closing it for the saliva ejector. He'd just smile and hold on.

101 Dalmations helped Shane wait for the dentist. The cleaning and xrays went fairly quick, but it took a bit for her to work her way down the line to us.

I bet she didn't see this coming!

The bad news: Shane's got two cavities we need to act on. They're on his baby teeth adjacent to the molars. The dentist said they were tracking them from last time to see if they'd grow enough to be problems that needed to be dealt with. Shane needs to do a better job brushing and he should start flossing.

The good news: That's why I pay for dental insurance. It's optional, but I wanted to have it if we needed it.

We'll go back in a couple of weeks to get the first cavity filled. Depending on how Shane handles it, we may fill the smaller, second cavity or we may try an alternative treatment.

Happy Birthday, Love!

For your present, I.....well, you bought yourself the Battle for Azeroth expansion for World of Warcraft a couple weeks ago without telling me! Shane ratted out your character was suddenly level 110 and I didn't believe him at first! You made present shopping easy when you let me know I was off the hook!

But I still picked up some mochi. It was on sale at Costco.

We celebrated the day with mochi, Voltron, and World of Warcraft.

Fall Soccer 2018 Season Start

Shane and I showed up for his first soccer practice today! It was 90 degrees out and humid.  

There were nine kids and one coach as I walked up, so I became an assistant coach to even the odds.

I recognized the coach and the coach's kids names from Shane's preschool. They threw an end of year bash years ago.

Almost all of the kids were from Burnley-Moran. I recognized a few other Jackson Via kids' names on the roster, but they weren't at practice. At least one, Zakir, is switching teams for a practice time that better fits his family (They did that last Fall, too).

Shane was forced to go up to U10. He's only 7.5, and won't turn 8 before the end of the season, so I was a little annoyed about it.

I'm hoping Shane will play up to the level of those around him. He's the second youngest kid on the team and not exactly a star.

U10 will include position play, a goalie, and keeping the score for real. I'm curious how Shane will handle it. He was quick to volunteer to play defensive, but he, also, threw a fit and showed really thin-skin when Hayden laughed at him for making a mistake. The coach made Hayden sit down and said, "We don't laugh at teammates," but that makes me wonder how Shane will handle situations in a real game.

Our first game will be September 15th.

Carrie's Frog Post - Copied from Facebook

Monday: Pick Shane up from Day Camp, and he immediately pulls out a drink bottle from his lunch bag and says "Look what I caught!" ...... tadpole. A huge tadpole.

We now have a tadpole.

Monday Cont.: A brief moment of "HUH?!?" washes over, quickly replaced with a sudden urge of "What do I do! DONT YOU DIE ON ME!!" Cue, Petsmart. $25 later, we have tank, food and plants. Come home to a husband who laughs and says that the awesomeness of the event cancels out the "Not another pet!" component.

Tuesday: "Sparky needs friends!" Ok kid, I'll grant you that, it must be pretty lonely in there, I'll find some friends for... Sparky. Thankfully, I knew of a great friend with a water trough FULL of tadpoles, so I scoop up three and introduce them to their adoptive brother. They're interesting little buggers, just starting to grow little hind leg nubs.

Wednesday: "Mom!! Sparky, Boom, Booom & Man all have little back legs!" Yes, that's their names. You can thank Mike for the other three's monikers. But by golly, yes! All 4 little guys seemed to sprout hind legs over night! Huh, these are neat little guys...

Thursday: "Front legs!! Mom, I see front legs!!" No way, let me see... holy cow, there are front legs on two of them!! Like, overnight!! And their tails are shrinking!!

Thursday evening: "Mike!!! Ones hanging on the side of the tank!!! LOOK!!" Yes, one had decided to become a wall frog and pulled himself out of the water and was hanging on like one of those Garfield cat suckers you see on car windows. Wow.

Friday morning: Ok, I love our froglets. This has been a rollercoaster of emotions and as I'm typing, one has now perched himself on one of the plants, tail almost gone!

Huh, tadpoles..... who knew!!

Update: They keep growing. This guy has only one eye.

Around the Block

It's been hot lately. Shane's wanted to go outside, but I have not. He got a chance to climb a tree as we left church, at least.

Rah has found a new group of friends. He's been showing up to play basketball with another 5th and 6th grader. One of the kids took a toy off our porch over the summer. Carrie challenged him and he lied to her, so she's not a fan.

Shane's been curious. We didn't let him out as much during the week, but it was time to change that. I want to get to know anyone who shows up in my driveway, so we went out to play some. The boys are all older than Shane and want to play semi-serious basketball. They were good sports about him running around and trying to change all the rules, though. Rah spoke up for him a couple of times and there was the occasional, "Hey Mike, he's got my shoes."

Oops. We drove there again.

John was like, "Don't bother coming up for board game day. It'll probably suck." 

I replied, "Are you kidding? Shane and I are looking forward to seeing you! Get ready, because we're coming!"

The only problem was I needed somewhere to go in the morning Shane could play. John was working, Megan was out of town, Matthew and Renee were swamped, and Ken and his kids were on vacation. 

Luckily, Travis and his boys were around! I've tried to meet up with Travis a few times over the summer, but the schedules never fit. Today, it happened. It's been years since the boys have seen each other. 

There was Minecraft, so there was no shyness. A controller was handed to Shane and the kids got right to it.

Travis and I talked and watched. I was really impressed when the kids built a minecart roller coaster while my attention was turned. There was a huge ramp that went through lava, curved underground, hit speed boosts, and a ramp!

Shane did not want to leave. He started to throw a fit when I told him it was time to go. He was overstimulated to the extreme!

But leave we did. The original point of coming up was to help John with his club and bolster his spirits! Never leave a friend in need! Especially one as true as John. 

Shane got hooked up on the Switch with Shovel Knight when we arrived.

There was a much lower turnout this time. Four adults (including John) were playing a game about Disney villains called Villainous. There was a teenager, Pablo, looking at a game called Roll Player I've been curious about, so I introduced myself and said, "Let's roll!" 

We ended up playing a couple of different games. It was a good thing I showed up, or he would have had to wait for the first game to end to get into the next (assuming he stayed).

Hopefully, the low turnout was a fluke due to it being the end of summer. The hope is that the club will be self-sustaining.

John showed off some of the terrain he's been working on for Adeptus Titanicus.

I played some Mario Kart with Shane while we waited for John to get off work. I haven't lost the touch.

I would have finished 1st in the first game we played if Shane hadn't nuked me from last place with a spiked shell!

I worked it out, so that John would come with us to visit Travis on our way out. We all go way back. I want to keep bonds intact and it'd be nice if those two found ways to meet up during the week.

John promised that the quality of the quarter pounders had gone up at MacDonald's so we stopped there for dinner. "I don't know what they were making their burgers with before, but they promise it's real beef now," John said. "And it's not half bad."

I think the touch screen ordering, while a novelty, made things go slower. The light up tables were cool, though! I had to scrub it down, and noticed the lights changed colors. Shane was amazed when I pointed it out.

I was amazed at how he could zone out on the TV after having played electronics morning and afternoon.

The sound wasn't even on!

Shane became player three again the moment we hit Travis'.

And John and Travis got right back to it like days of old! We all talked a lot.

We couldn't stay too long. Travis had work to do, John was worn out, and Shane and I had a couple of hours of road ahead of us.

Shane threw a fit again when it was time to leave. He wanted to spend the night at Jama's, so he could play more in the morning with the boys. He was confused when Brayden and Noah told him that they wouldn't be there tomorrow, because they had to go to their mom's. Shane and I talked on the way out about what that meant (Travis and his ex split custody week by week). 

Besides, we had one more stop I wanted to do! Genevieve and Chris lived near Travis!

I didn't know if they were home (or doing married stuff), so we stopped outside and took some pictures before knocking. Carrie was on her computer and phone trying to gauge where they were, so we could surprise them.

Carrie sent Chris the pictures we were taking. He was surprised and popped outside! Genevieve was still driving back from work (I don't miss NOVA traffic).

Shane and I went inside to wait. Oliver, their 'special' cat, took one look at Shane and hissed.

Chris threw the cat in a room and pulled out a 'dubious gift bag.' "It should all be child appropriate," he chortled.

Shane didn't like his first gift.

"You're wearing that the whole way home!" I laughed.

It was an empty box meant as a joke, so Shane got to pull out a different gift after we were done laughing (Shane not so much!). This time he had the perfect pull: A small Mega-man toy.

Genevieve came home shortly thereafter. I loved the space stickers they put up.

Shane asked for a cup of milk. I pointed out the "his and her" swords that "Genevieve and Chris quested with."

The best line of the night came from Shane. We were looking at Gen and Chris' board games and he wanted to play.

"Sorry," I said. "You don't satisfy the age requirements."

"I can satisfy anything!" Shane replied.

He didn't know why we all thought it was so funny, but I'll quote it when he's older! Genevieve promised to tell Carrie if I didn't.

We got back later than planned, but it was a great day! I wish Carrie was built for that sort of road trip with unplanned pit stops, but at least Shane's a good traveling buddy!

First Week Report

Shane's week took a turn for the better after a stuttering start. His 1st Grade and Kindergarten teachers were wonderful (Fenton and Samuels). His 2nd grade teacher seems stricter. Her name is Breakiron. How's that for an intimidation factor!?

Still, stricter could be what Shane needs. Or, it could be difficult. It's still too early to really know much of anything. Carrie was worried about the start of the year when the classroom was mostly empty and Shane had a rough first day. He's reported that it's gone better since and he likes that the class is reading Frindle. It's "not as good" as 1st Grade, but that's not entirely unexpected as things get more academic.

My week was an interesting one. I walked to a funeral on Friday for a student's father. There was a group of us including the counselor and five students. A fight nearly broke out and the police were called. That was novel.

I'm still a little lower energy than normal, but it's gone well overall. The new boss seems highly capable so far. It was a dagger when the online program I've used (and counted on using) was cut by the city Friday morning after I'd already started the students on it! There's always some sort of wrinkle in every plan! I'll have to figure something out. Even if it means paying for the program out of pocket.

Not as planned

I thought I would play retro video games and watch old cartoons with Shane.

That has not happened......much.

I have games and shows I want to share with Shane.

However, Shane's electronic time is a break time instead of shared time.

Whenever I put Shane on electronics, I get a breather. He either watches something on the TV, plays the DS, or hops on my computer. When he's on my computer, I have a set of headphones he wears and zones out the world (and talks extra loud to tell you what he's doing).

We have played some games together, but normally I leave Shane on his own. He's so high-energy and attention seeking when he's not hooked up that I use the electronics at the end of the day as my time to decompress.

As for the TV shows, they have to pass Carrie's approval. If she's home (and she's normally home nowadays), she wants a say in what goes on the TV. We have different senses of nostalgia. I've shown Shane some older shows (like Robotech), but they usually get vetoed or turned off after an episode or two. Plus, I don't always want to sit down and watch. I'll do dishes, chores, or hop on the computer for a break.

I get the feeling I had a lot more electronics time than Shane, as well. I can remember a huge variety of shows and games. Shane's Pokemon crazy and has watched hundreds of episodes of that one show (sans commercials and able to fast-forward....he can, watch an episode in 20 minutes vs the 30 minutes it took on live TV), but I don't think that tallies up with my totals at his age.

I want to spend some more time on games together as he gets older, but I like that he's more independent and tries to figure things out for himself before calling for help now.

First Day of 2nd Grade - 2018

We got Shane to smile for a first day of school picture.

And thankfully Carrie took it quick, because the smile didn't last.

I tried to be a good example (time time...).

Rah walked over to see us off. He rides a different bus for 5th grade with a pick up time 40 minutes later. However, he was up and out, so he hung out with us.

Carrie and I showed up at 5:15 PM to pick Shane up from CLASS and found him under a table.

If you thought Shane would be tired on his first day and ready to come home, you'd be wrong. He was embedded like a tick and didn't want to leave!

"I just started to play!"

We gave him a few minutes before forcing him to come home. I didn't help when I suggested Shane try different colored blocks to see if it made his 'top' change colors when it spun.

The first day may not have gone well in his actual class, though.

"You have to make a lot fewer mistakes in 2nd grade. Like, A LOT fewer," Shane said. "I made some too many. If I made too many more [the teacher] said she'd call home!"

He went into a tale about "finger dancing quietly on the desk" and some other things.  "All you do is FOCUS. All day you focus. Yeah."