Halloween 2018

Shane was sad when his Wild Kratts costume didn't get any applause at the costume parade. He didn't know that we had something else in the works. I asked Shane earlier on if he wanted to be anything for Halloween. His first request had been "Zombie Pikachu," but Harry Potter was a close (and more feasible) second.

Mom made it happen!

Carrie had the reveal and dress up on Tuesday. Wednesday morning, Shane wanted to wear it to school.

"Are you sure?" I asked. "Are other kids going to wear costumes?"

Shane insisted. He wanted to go out in full gear! The thing was, he had second thoughts when we pulled up to school and he didn't see any other costumes. I heard him say that he didn't know why, but his mommy had dressed him up!

You threw Mom right under the bus, kid. It was your idea from the get-go! I heard Shane draw some compliments on the way in from the teachers.

He was ecstatic when I picked him up. Two other kids in his class had dressed up and he'd had a ball. Mom wasn't happy about Shane's initial reaction, but was glad to hear he loved the costume.

I took Shane to UVA to trick or treat on the lawn. I made the mistake of looking for closer parking. We killed twenty minutes stuck in traffic to loop back to my initial plan. The lawn's a popular spot!

It was a challenge to find a spot to join the line!

It annoyed me that other kids would totally bypass the line while others waited,

We tried to make friends, but mainly played "I spy" and people-watched.

Shane was a big hit reciting Harry Potter spells. He knows a few like "Alohomora!"

He LOVED the wand. I kept stopping him from shining it in people's eyes.

He tried to get the attention of anyone and everyone!

Which is in the spirit of Halloween. We got a grocery bag full of candy.

There weren't many trick or treaters this year. We only did the circle ourselves. It felt like everyone was at UVA and not out in the neighborhoods.

Shane and I spent nearly three hours out in costume with driving and walking, so he was fine with staying in after a short stint in the neighborhood. If there were other kids out, I would have been out for another couple of hours. Maybe I'll try driving him to a larger neighborhood or somewhere out of Charlottesville next year.

Bonus Story: The Jack-O'-Lantern

Some sort of critter attacked our jack. It actually enhanced it.

The critter came back a later night and Carrie used ketchup to make it look more intentional.

Bonus Story: The Haunted Library

There was a haunted house at the library the Saturday before Halloween.

Free activity? Library? You know Shane and I went there!

There were a lot of people, too! We were in group 16. There were about 10 people in our group, so imagine the others were similar.

Which led to a wait.

A fairly long one where Shane started to run and play hide and go seek squeezing between the stacks.

Shane saw a kid with a Harry Potter costume and walked up to say how cool it was. He didn't know that Carrie was working on a HP costume for him!

Shane switched to reading graphic novels and I switched to a card game while we waited.

It took an hour or so, but we were finally on standby.

The kids were excited!

We waited a chunk more. Shane was using his brain, but his mouth wouldn't stop either. He was talking over and to everyone about everything and about what would happen we went in.

Shane didn't pick up on my covert hints or my overt ones. I actually put my hand over his mouth as he tried to explain and yell how the volunteers were crawling behind sheets before they could spook people!

Honestly, it would have been a better experience if Shane was younger. I appreciated what the volunteers were trying to do, but he was out of the age range it would have been a home run for.

At least there were some free comics at the end! Shane was disappointed it wasn't candy, but he's spent longer looking at the comics than he would have spent chewing.

Bonus-Bonus-Bonus Story: Nightmare Before Christmas.

Since we don't watch broadcast TV, there's not really any sort of holiday spirit anywhere unless we seek it out. It can get lost in the routine and it can be fun. We decided to watch a Halloween movie as a family one night. The Nightmare Before Christmas was the winner. I'm not a huge fan, but it had singing and Carrie likes singing. 

Today, Shane learned a new way to get into trouble...

Today, Shane learned standing on the back of furniture and dancing in the window in your Finding Nemo briefs as Rah and Henry play on the porch is a punishable offense.

Doubly so when you're supposed to be putting on your Taekwando uniform, so you're not late to class.

Equipping Kids

While I can't put my entire philosophy of parenting into a few words, I can put a single word forth that fits into it.

Equipping.

I look at a lot of what I do as equipping Shane.

Being a loving, faithful, and capable adult is the end goal. With that in mind, I want to give Shane tips, tools, and opportunities to get there. This factors into discipline, entertainment, experiences, all of it.

I love my son. I love him so much right now, I want him to be prepared later. Shane's not supposed to remain a little boy forever. If I don't work to equip him for the future he's either going to wing it or be in a pickle. 

If I tried to deny he's growing and keep him as such, that isn't love for him. It's a selfish love for only myself where I want to keep things they way I currently like them.

In Ephesians 6:4 (NIV), Paul writes "Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord."

The hope is that I can raise Shane up in a loving manner, so that he accepts whatever teaching and discipline comes his way rather than exasperating him!

Last NOVA Hurrah

I missed the last board game meetup at John's library. I wanted to show up one last time before wrestling season began.

So that's exactly what Shane and I did. We went to the library....in Northern VA.

I didn't message Jama or anyone else, because it was meant to be a 'quick' trip: Games and back. I could have reminded Ken about the Game club, but I didn't message him ahead of time. I might have managed to set Shane up with a play date with Ken's kids at the library if I had. However, I wasn't sure how Carrie would be feeling after her operation. I didn't make the decision to go up until Saturday.

There weren't many people there which worked out well for John and I. He had brought his models for us to do a run through of his new game, Adeptus Titanicus.

I have no interest in paying for a miniatures game. Especially, a Games Workshop miniatures game! (They're high quality, but high price to match!).

John is absurdly creative and enjoys modeling, though. He had the materials.

I'm happy to learn and experiment with a new game system. Especially with a good friend.

It took a several hours to play through the game. We were talking, stopping, reading rules, and herding Shane as we played, so that added a chunk of time. Still, I'd play it again if it was with John. Time with a friend is time well spent.

Shane was ready to get outside and climb trees by the time the library closed. He would have gone out sooner if I wasn't waiting for John.

Note: Shane's pretty good at tree climbing. I wouldn't say he's advanced yet, but Carrie won't like these pictures when she sees them. Some car drove by and started to hit the brakes. I guess they realized I was there and moved on wondering, "Will I see something on the news later?"

We drove west to check out a game store and get Shane dinner at Burger King before heading out. It extended our time with John a little while moving us on our way out to shorten the two hour drive.

It was a pretty store. It opened up after Game Parlor shut down and we'd been gone from the area or I might have frequented it.

Carrie called while we were on the way to Burger King. She missed us and wanted to know where we were! Shane, John, and I got our food, ate, and said farewells. 

What's up with Shane's costume?

The observant reader may have noticed Shane was wearing a Wild Kratts costume in earlier photos. There was a costume parade at Sunday school this morning. The Children's Director was an inflatable Tyrannosaurus. 

We left straight from church and it's Halloween season anyway, so why not dress up?

Car Seat

"How long does Shane need to keep using a car seat, anyway?" I asked.

"The law says ______," Carrie replied.

"There's no way I can see anyone that age in car seat!"

Carrie swapped out Shane's car seat for a booster seat from the bug. We're one step closer to shedding the accessories, but we're not there yet! Shane's probably due for a growth spurt soon.

The old, crusty seat (which has carved semi-permanent indentations into the car) is in the house awaiting reassignment/donation to cousins.

Jack-O-Lantern

Shane's been dying to carve this year's pumpkin. I acquiesced reluctantly to work on it Thursday.

I was happy Shane coaxed me into it pretty quickly.

I started handing out duties to Shane to make him do most of the work......in theory. Shane worked at it for a while, but I pulled most of the guts out.

Shane did do the tracing and carving all on his own, though! I helped pull the mouth out in sections and did some clean-up, but the work was 95% him.

And it turned out well! I'm proud of what little man accomplished! We put a candle in it to test it out and then put it out on the porch. We're Halloween-ready!

Operation Day

I took a sick day from school to drive Carrie to the hospital Thursday. Carrie's had something nagging at her for a while and we decided it was time to deal with it. We dropped Shane off at school and reported in at 8 AM.

Ironically, one of my student's parents was there. He was missing school for an ACL surgery. I heard him shuddering and groaning as he came back from under anesthesia and poked my head out. Part of me wanted to walk over and say, "Do you need help with Geometry?" That seemed a little too cruel and surreal....., but, boy, was it tempting! I talked to his mom some when I was kicked out to wait for Carrie to return from her operation.

I didn't have to wait too long. Carrie was in a recovery room under a heated, plastic-wrap waiting for me.

Sprawlopolis came in handy for entertaining myself.

We spent about four hours total at the hospital.

We got ChicFilA on the way home to celebrate. Hopefully, it will be a quick recovery time. Carrie seems like she's doing well already.

Random Building

Shane likes building toys.

Sometimes I ask to take a picture of what he makes. It takes some of the sting out of cleaning it up.

When Shane builds something at home, it'll sometimes sit for days.

Like this maze:

I think it lasted two days before I'd had enough of it clogging up the table!

Sometimes, It's Your Night

I went 8 for 8 on the visual round. I owe #2 to Carrie!

Geekiest visual round to date and I loved it.

Post-It of Doom

Shane's teacher posted a note on one of his papers.

I'm all about supporting a fellow teacher, but doodling doesn't strike me as actionable. I doodled all over the last handout I had on a professional development day! I like that my kid has imagination.

If being distracted is the root of the problem, I'll be more concerned. We'll hear about it when parent-teacher conferences hit early November. I turned my doodling habit into taking notes when I matured, but that wasn't in 2nd grade!

UVA Soccer Day #2 (Now with Friends!)

We had so much fun last week, we decided to go to a UVA Women's game again this week!

It was a homecoming match. There was free swag and balloons!

Shane was ready to sword fight with friends before we ever found our seats!

We invited Sam to go with us. His family decided to attend as a family trip, though.

Shane and I sat next to the band, because they're loud and he's loud. It was a match made in heaven.

We switched seats when we heard back from Sam's family. They'd sat away from the band due to the noise (Ha!). They had Iggy with them, as well.

Iggy was really into the game. Sam was mostly into the game. Shane was into the cheering, stomping, and "Let's go run on the other side together!"

I hoped to avoid the concession stand this time. I had Shane eat before we left. However, Paul bought Sam and Iggy candy at halftime, so I was sunk.

Candy side note: At first, all the boys wanted sour patch kids. Then, Sam or Iggy said, "Nah! Skittles!" and suddenly all the boys wanted Skittles instead. Shane had already grabbed Sourpatch, so I told him, "Too late!" Shane was bummed at first, but it opened up a world of candy trading later amongst the boys. Sometimes it's great to be the odd one out!

Shane got his wish and we went to the other side of the field for the last 15 minutes of the game. UVA was losing. Their goalie gave up an accidental goal she could have picked up and the other team capitalized on a breakaway earlier, as well. UVA had the ball more often, shot more, corner kicked more, but they couldn't get the shots on goal and past the goalie.

And while Iggy was into the game, Sam came to the wild side.

Iggy's the one in the scarf ignoring all the wrestling and rolling about!

I was perfectly happy to let the kids run and do whatever as long as they didn't do it in front of another family watching on blankets.

Wrestling in the grass? Why not!?

Thunder stick sword fight?

Go for it boys! Even Iggy joined that one for a moment.

Sam's parents were more reserved about horseplay at a sports game, and I got it. They let Sam run around until they felt like it was obnoxious to others and made him take a break. I had Shane sit with me, so that his friend could calm down and listen to his parents before we left.

All in all, it was a great game! Shane wanted to know if Sam and Iggy could play afterward, too. He was okay if Sam's visiting grandparents came as well, and was less keen on understanding the concept of "family time!"

Iggy used to be in Shane's class, but he's not at Jackson Via anymore. I don't know the full story there. It was good to see him at the game.

Hilariously, we broke the groups apart to say, "Farewell," and I stalled a little bit with Shane before heading to the car.

We were parked next to each other! I don't know who parked first, but we met up again a final time!

Shane barely registered that UVA lost. He was pumped up from time with friends in a crowd. That's my little extrovert.