Bday Party Weekend!

We didn't go to Sarah's just to visit Maya.

Or to introduce her to Shane.

We went there to see kids!

Shane went a few weeks back for Lilly's birthday, Sarah's oldest, while I visited NOVA. This time, it was for Wyatt's birthday!

After being in the house for all of a couple minutes, the kids were out back on the playground. Which was fine by me, because I plopped down in a chair on the patio to keep an ear out and play on my phone.

There were some tadpoles that captured everyone's attention.

The kids poked, prodded, and tired to take care of them by adding water to their habitat from the pool.

"There's chlorine in there!" Shane said. "You can't do that!" (Which seemed wise to me, but Sarah said that they'd found tadpoles in chlorinated water before. I can't remember the exact phrasing, but 'tadpoles can handle some chlorine' was what I took away from it).

As more families arrived, the kids piled into the pool.

Shane does a fantastic job of revving everyone up.

He loves it until he hits his limit and then has no idea how to de-escalate the revving! You'd think he'd have learned some calm play skills by now, but it high-energy all the time and every time until the ensuing drama forces a break!

The kids came inside for a kebab lunch. In case you didn't recognize her with wet hair, that's Landie!

Sarah had three dogs including two giants who could have easily served themselves from the table if they were poorly trained.

Once the kids were done eating, it was cake time! Wyatt requested Sonic the Hedgehog decorations.

I only took a few pictures, because Wyatt was so excited he didn't realize his pants were sagging (I only wanted pictures of the horizontal smile which weren't available from where I was stationed!).

It was right back outside after cake. No adults wanted to follow at first, so the kids had to settle for Battleship until the pool was open again.

I went outside and set up station in the shade. I wasn't really worried about the water and was mainly there to photograph and prevent Carrie from having any anxiety about the water. I'd intervene if someone was in danger, but my goal was to stay out of playground politics.

Which of course started up right away. One little boy, Toa (?), was all about having a water gun fight. Shane obliged. Lily, being younger and not as athletic, would frequently appeal to me to make the boys follow rules of her choosing. When I wouldn't help, she'd try to enlist another adult!

To be fair, the boys weren't the best at watching out for collateral damage. Sometimes other kids would get blasted in the face as the boys tried to use them as cover. Still, I don't believe in adult intervention when kids play until it doesn't suit them and then immediately restarting when its to their advantage. 

The kids were clearly getting tired after nearly 3 hours, but it was still going well enough to continue.

I think some of the other adults were surprised I didn't intervene with the second slide went on top of the first!

Frankly, it seemed like fun. I did a quick check to make sure it was stable and no one would fall backwards from a height and then let the play continue unabated. The slides didn't really match up, so there was no risk of excessive acceleration.

What did cause acceleration was Shane turning the green slide into a water slide. He and the other boy loved it. They put a floatie at the bottom to make a pad and it seemed fine to me. 

Unfortunately, it was a little fast for Lilly. She wasn't expecting it and it scared her. She hit the bottom with both legs locked straight. Instead of bending her knees it made her stand up and she fell forward onto her hands. There was no big impact, but you could tell it shocked and probably embarrassed her. She ran inside crying that Shane forced her to go down the slide. More adults came outside and the game was over.

It was a good time to wrap things up. Like I said, the kids had been playing well and wild for nearly 3.5 hours by the time we called it quits! Younger kids run themselves ragged and get grouchy without them knowing why!

We left so glad that Sarah had invited us. It was a fantastic, fun social opportunity. Ellie commented that she appreciates how Shane is always so good with kids younger than him. It seems like he's wild, but he makes sure to be gentle enough to not hurt the other kids.

Spelling!

I got a kick out of this spelling test. Shane only got 6 out of 10 right, but he was close with all of his mistakes.

But what I'm laughing about is the teacher had to write his name. He must've been too busy drawing the giant plant monster!

And that monster probably made the quiz's owner easy to identify for the teacher! 

I thought the quiz was so funny I put it on the projector for my students to remind them of their 5th grade experiences.

Pick a Pawpaw

Mary, an old co-teacher of mine, gave me a pair of pawpaws. They're an indigenous fruit that I'd somehow never seen or heard of. I showed them to both my A and B day classes (mostly because I forgot to take them home) and used them as a learning opportunity. 

I took them home to share with Carrie and Shane.

Carrie was not eager. She hates mangoes and the pawpaw's flavor profile is described as a something of a cross between a banana and mango. Shane was hesitant, as well, but that might have been from seeing Carrie's reluctance. 

I liked it, but I was the only one. Carrie took a small bite and then immediately went to brush! Shane took a bite and then went, "Nah."

I was hoping to find something magical and new, but it didn't work out that way. I did enjoy the thrill of the discovery and thought it was a story worth sharing! Who knows? Maybe you'll see a pawpaw at a local farmer's market, try it, and love it! 

Eowyn Update

It was sometime not too long ago Carrie got news on Eowyn's baby.

And it was sometime not too long after that Eowyn was a brat and knocked over Carrie.

 

Eowyn's a real brat when it comes to working on her hooves. Because she's pregnant, she can't be given any happy juice or other things to mellow her out, either. She's not being ridden, so Carrie opted to work on Eowyn's feet herself rather than paying/subjecting the farrier to it.

Carrie's treating it like an opportunity to train Eowyn's manners, but it got off to a rocky start (as you saw from the pic). While Carrie was down in a crouch, Eowyn shifted her weight and knocked Carrie over. Carrie caught herself on her wrist in the gravel. She must have caught a rock just right, too.

Carrie said Eowyn must've realized she'd hurt Carrie, because she acted like an angel the rest of the session. Carrie's wrist continued to swell up and she's been limited with it since (which is why I became horse boy on Labor Day).

So, Carrie needs to heal from something again, but the baby is doing well. Here's a picture from the ultrasound.

Carly detected a heartbeat, saw no abnormal developments, and there was no twin (which is dangerous in horses).

I never thought we'd go down this road again, but we are and so far it's going well. I pray that God keeps it that way! Controlling how life forms in a womb is beyond us mere mortals.

Soccer Started

Soccer started, but Shane missed the first practice. He woke up that morning saying he was snotty and his throat was sore. There was no fever, but his throat looked a little red so Carrie kept him home. I would have sent his butt to school, but in the current Corona-climate it seemed kinder to others to play it cautious.

Shane was fine by evening (shock.), but since he didn't go to school I didn't take him to soccer either. My thought was "Not well enough for school, then not well enough for fun," but, the truth is, Shane was just as happy to stay home and not exert himself.

But that was last week. This week, we made it to practice! Unfortunately for taking pictures, the coach took the kids way across the field from where I was sitting under the gazebo. I took a couple pictures at maximum zoom and didn't bother with anymore.

It looked like it went well! Shane enjoyed himself. I'll park under the trees next week to be closer to the action.

Laboring on Labor Day

Monday was a day off from school, but not a day off. It was a farrier day and Carrie was thrilled to have me around to help. She hurt her hand recently (future post), so I spent 3.5 hours doing chores and holding horses while Meredith worked on their feet.

In case you didn't know, horse hooves are a little like giant fingernails. They can overgrow and need to be trimmed. If you trim them back too far it can cause a horse pain, so it's not to be done willy nilly.

Loki likes fresh hoof treats.

But we're talking about the barn right now. We pulled all the horses up for breakfast and then left most of them in while Meredith worked. As herd animals, horses do better when they're not alone. 

Eddy decided to take a nap while he was waiting around for his friends to get their pedicures.

Don't worry! He was fine. He rolled up to look at me when I was taking pictures before laying back down for a snooze.

Lane was the first one up. He's had consistent foot problems and needed all four feet shoed. 

He did a fantastic job. Much better than Lilly who was a slight brat (which means she kept wiggling, or wouldn't keep her foot up long enough for the farrier to finish in one go).

I took a picture of Lilly's foot to show my students. You can see the nail holes from her old shoe.

Meredith scrapes, cuts, sands and cleans away growth to promote a healthy foot and a clean connection with the new shoe.

Not all horses need shoes, but they all need someone to check on their feet and trim them if they're not wearing down naturally at the correct rate (and pastured/stalled horses usually don't).

Carrie took a few pictures of me at work.

She stayed the whole time as barn manager to keep tabs on what was going on. I walked back and forth to check on Shane some. He was more interested in finishing chores and earning electronics than he was with anything relating to the horses.

Which is a shame since he missed the smoke. Meredith hot shoes. That means she fires up the new shoe, so that it's red hot and uses the heat to melt/mold the hoof to be a flush fit with the shoe.

It doesn't hurt the horse, at all. Do you think we'd be able to hold back a 1,000+ lbs animal if we were hurting it?

It was a full morning, but still a nice break from school. I wouldn't want to do it daily, but I enjoy doing a variety of things and helping out.

It wasn't a double rainbow...

We had a double fire drill Friday. The first one was a drill. The second one was some turd decided to pull a prank 9 minutes before the dismissal bell rang.

When students asked me if the second alarm was a drill, I'd ask, "Do you think we'd want to have a drill that delays when you get to go home?"

I didn't know it was a prank at the time, so I told the kids it was "70% odds." It was too early in the year for any crazy chemistry experiments, so the other 30% may have been a hot pocket in a microwave accident or something silly like that (I've been guilty of the hot pocket one...)

In some ways, the 2nd round of fire alarms was a good analogy for how the year has been going. The kids all filed out of the room without whooping, yelling, and craziness. They knew the routine and we got through it fine. It was mildly vexing to lose the last minutes of class and it happened in my most difficult class. Even though, I was annoyed I felt like I'd dodged a bullet. If the final bell hadn't rung, I probably wouldn't have been able to call them to enough order to do much. ...assuming all the kids made it back. Several of the more challenging ones grabbed their bags as we were leaving and I didn't see them again.

So...it's like a normal year, but with extra hurdles. Many things are going well and most kids have adapted to most of it. There are holdouts, though. Those are the ones who are protesting the idea of work and/or that their masks have to be worn. I have kids who have completed 10 minutes of classwork who tell me I expect too much. Meanwhile, some of their neighbors finished all the work for the day in 10 minutes and I find myself trying to enroll them to help their peers. Some of it is probably a reflection of which students tried to do work during virtual school and which ones did diddly-squat.

Only thing to do is go forward, though. I took a picture of the back field to tell my students in advance where I'll be hanging out in future fire drills. That way if they get separated from the class (by accident or choice...) they'll know where I am (which eliminates excuses).

Hard-Earned Lessons: Limit Hay in the Spreader

We had some hay stay in a feeder overlong, so Carrie threw it in the back of the spreader. It wasn't full, so over the next several days I filled it with the usual payload.

I got a surprise when I tried to spread it: Nothing was coming out. I saw why when I stopped to inspect it. 

The hay gummed up the whole works. I pulled enough hay out of the bottom by hand the spreader was able to get back to spreading, but when I stopped I saw a new tangle.

Which I had to work out by hand, because my hands were already nice and dirty by that point. It was hot to the touch.

I made multiple mental notes to not touch my face. Or anything. But I cleared the mess and left a pile of hay off on the bridle path.

Lesson learned: Minimize hay in the spreader. I don't feel like repeating the experience!

PG13 Shane?

Jurassic Park is one of Carrie's all-time favorite movies. I like it a lot, too (I've even read the book!).

So we both agree it's a great movie...., but we didn't agree when it would be a good time to show Shane.

Carrie saw the movie when she was younger than Shane is now. I was older and saw it at a birthday party in 8th grade (I think....I was the only other kid at the party, so I can't ask around).

I feel Shane is more sensitive than me. When I was young and a bad guy got shot in a show, I thought "Yeah! The good guys are winning!" 

Shane's asked, "Is he dead?" ("Who cares!? He was bad and the good guys are winning! Yeah!"....)

But I digress. Carrie and I had a discussion on when Shane would be old enough for some of the good PG-13s. Jurassic Park came up, because it was on the Netflix "The Movies That Made Us" series. I said we could do it in December after Shane turns 11.

Carrie didn't want to wait.

This is one of those gray zones that sometimes happen in marital disagreements. If Shane was 5 or 6, I'd be like "This is nightmare fuel!" I'd turn the TV off before having it on. However, if I was willing to have Shane watch the movie in a few months was now that much different?

Carrie put the movie on, because she wanted to see it. I had misgivings, but not enough to overturn anything...

....so I took pictures. I filmed Shane's reaction! He thought the movie was amazing up until the T-rex attack. I caught a few goofy faces, because Shane likes to overreact to everything (especially if he knows he's on camera).

If you haven't seen Jurassic Park, it has some jump scares and the dinos do get some fresh meat. They work to avoid showing gore and cut away and gross moments (With only one quick exception I can think of when someone gets a hand on their shoulder). SPOILER - We were able to tell Shane the kids would be alright (A courtesy neither Carrie or I had when we watched it!).

Carrie looked over before the T-rex scene. She knew there was going to be a reaction, too.

Shane was not as happy!

We didn't laugh out loud, but there were some silent laughs shared as Shane reacted and complained.

Shane tried to embellish what happened after he poked his head back up to finish the movie. We'd talked about the animatronics and stuff before to help make it less real. We even mentioned how they pulled off the scene, because "It's all fake."

Jurassic Park is the edgiest movie we've shown Shane. He ended up really enjoying it, but I don't think thrillers are his genre of choice at the moment! He'd seen the Lego Jurassic World stuff on Netflix, so he didn't go in totally blind.

For the most part, I don't mind showing Shane some PG13 movies as long as the rating is mainly from suspense and non-gory action. It's the birds and the bees stuff I want to avoid! He's at the age where there's a beginning to the awareness of it, but Shane has no impulse control or thoughts-into-words-filters! I can't say I think most media treats it appropriately/respectfully enough, either.

But anyway, Shane's now seen a classic! We'll probably show him the making of at a later point since Jurassic Park is the first movie that integrated CG effects....and that was after someone disobeyed his boss when told "not to look into it." It's a fun story!

A Random Manga Aside

It started when I bought Carrie a manga as a surprise. I was in Virginia Beach the morning after Shane was in the ER from the failed flip at camp.

I read the manga while eating lunch and waiting for camp to end. It was fun, but ended (predictably) on a cliffhanger.

I thought Carrie would read it, but she didn't. Instead, I took Shane to a comic book shop while our power was out. The shop had the next two books in the series, so I picked them up.

Another cliffhanger. 

At this point, I was invested. I wanted to know what happened next.

I bought the next two books from the comic shop when Carrie and I were on errands near Dover Saddlery.

We ordered Vol 6 and 7 on Amazon and then I made a detour on the way home picking up Shane. I got him a Wings of Fire book (so that it wasn't all about me!) and picked up Vol 8-10.

So...yeah. One thing led to another and now I have them all.

Sadly, the next volume isn't released until November. 

(9/22 UPDATE: Shane finally earned the 10th volume of his Splatoon manga as I'm writing this. We bought a ten pack over the summer to dole out. No we'll have to decide if we want to buy more or switch to a new title).