Soccer Take 3....with Nana and Pop!

Nana and Pop stopped by on their way south again! Shane is always thrilled to see them.

It also meant there were some pictures of me.

Here, I am pointing and telling Shane to put his arms in his sleeves and go to his team. 

Somehow he ended up tied to a tree.

It's healthy to smile and laugh when you can.

We did make it to the field on time.

And team pictures.

Shane didn't feel the game this time around.

It wasn't as amazing a practice as the second time around, but learning is a process. Shane needs to learn how to be part of a team and handle some competition. Soccer is fun and what's on the menu. Lots of life skills to learn and fun to be had.

And let's not forget blob tag. You can't play that on your own (Shane has asked).

I love to see Shane play. I plan to enroll him in sports for years to come. He can pick for himself when he's older. I wonder what sport he'll choose as his own.

Off to Market Again

Carrie went off to market again today. This is going to be a biannual occurrence. She'll get back late Wednesday night.

Shane and I make sure to videochat her at least once a day.

It turns into a wrestling session most of the time. Shane loves when Carrie kisses the camera. He reciprocates with wet, sloppy kisses on my screen. I pull the phone away and he tries to jump on my arm and drag it back. At some point, tickling ensues. It's quite the show.

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

I used a personal day on Thursday to go on a field trip with Shane. His school visited a pumpkin patch!

Everyone met at Shane's school to get organized (of course). The boys all played chase.

Shane was the monster.

My son loves to roar.

There were enough parents that almost everyone drove their own child. The patch was less than half an hour away.

Note: Shane didn't really pose nicely when we first arrived. I took that picture later when he'd slowed down a little. No, we started by running, laughing, and screaming with all the other kids as they ran to the animals.

There were a turkeys,...

...goats,...

...and pigs!

And there was a giant bale of hay in the center of it all.

The perfect cheap climbing structure for a swarm of preschool kids.

Shane's room was the first to go on the hayride. 

We got to see lots of cows.

There were calves in the fields, too.

And with the cows, we got to see lots of poop.

Even the baby was in on it.

Carrie hasn't looked up Shane's question yet. Maybe I should remind him.

After the hayride, we gathered to go through the corn maze.

This was the part of the trip I was the most excited about. I loved mazes as a kid. I had never gotten a chance to walk through a corn one. Several of the teachers talked about how hard it was. They said there class had wandered around and around!

Shane was more interested in the corn than the maze.

He tried to eat some of it.

The maze didn't turn out to be much of a maze. It felt like a weirdly shaped figure eight. The corn on the entry side was thin enough I could easily make out the picnic shelter as a point of reference, too. Shane and I went back in several times on our own after everyone else left, amazed they got out alive.

The picnic area had the next big attractions: Lunch and wagons.

Shane loved to pull his friends around.

He proved to be too heavy when one girl tried to go off-roading (Please note: I wasn't the only parent with a camera).

We got in some good practice taking turns.

The final event of the day was to pick a pumpkin. Each kid was allowed a free pie pumpkin. Shane wanted to find the biggest instead (pie pumpkin or not!).

We settled on a nice rich orange one. 

We left not a minute too soon. I had to work to keep Shane awake in the car! He earned his nap marble with ease when his class laid down to rest. 

I really enjoyed spending the day with Shane. I'd love to do something like that with him again.

My substitute loved the day, as well. There were so many kids suspended or absent that he only had a handful of kids to deal with all day! That's a different story, though.

Farewell Pumpkin Patch. I took a picture of the schedule of live music in case we decide to come back on a weekend!

Shane Can Math!

"Daddy, 4 + 2 is..." pause for finger counting "6!"

Whoa! When did that happen?

"And 6 + 2 is...8!"

Shane can math. He decided to reveal it in the parking lot of a Food Lion. I was impressed.

His teacher took this picture a few days later.

Now Shane plays a "math is fun" game on the little leapfrog handheld system Nana picked up for him at a thrift store. He can do a lot of it, too. I hadn't worked with him on adding recently when the breakthrough came. This is his preschool and perhaps his natural bent showing. Pretty awesome.

Another Video Roundup

Some old videos that never got posted.

1) Carrie put the cape from the birthday party on the ceiling fan. Shane's a fan!

2) Carrie sold her old saddle and bought a new one for Pixel. Do you think she hopes Shane will learn to ride?

3) Nana apologizes to me every time she buys a garbage truck at a thrift store. She also tells me every bullet I dodge when she sees one, but Shane's not there to beg for it. This is why:

Does It Ever Get Easy?

I keep waiting for the moment when I've been at it long enough, learned the skills, put in the work, and life becomes easy.

Hasn't happened yet.

The difficulty scales.

The present challenge is always the consuming one. There's always a new one on the horizon, too.

It's the way the world works.

I love my life, but it's rarely easy. Each day has enough trouble of it's own to keep me occupied.

As a kid, I assumed there would be some milestone or watershed moment when I got it right and it was downhill from there. After 7th grade, there was 8th, though. After high school was college. After college there was a job hunt. After I became a teacher, I got better at it each year. Yet each year the kids do their best to drive me crazy as another class waits in the wings to follow suit. After being single for years, I met Carrie. After we dated, we got engaged, then married, and then we had a kid. One day, I hope Shane has a kid (after he's happily married and with a means to support said child, of course).

A new challenge at every turn.

I've got no clue how it will all turn out, but that's part of the beauty of it when I'm not worn out by it.

New Yorkers, Ahoy!

Was it really two years since Charles and Jenn last visited? It didn't feel like it. They rode the train down from NYC to spend Columbus day weekend with us in Charlottesville.

And is there a better board game for a train fan than Ticket to Ride? Carrie taught Charles and Jenn how to play when I took Shane to soccer. It was a big hit.

"We buy a new game after every visit," Jenn said. 

We went to Duck Donuts for breakfast. 

Jenn loved it. Her family is from Oregon and she's a University of Oregon alum. The Ducks were scheduled to play Saturday night, too (we streamed it).

The ladies and Shane napped it off later (even the cats, and they weren't there!). Charles and I played Ticket to Ride while the house slumbered.

Then the bridge building began. 

Charles is the engineering type. He likes buildings and architecture.

Carrie is competitive. She never backs down from a challenge.

Shane likes toys. He also likes to wiggle and weights forty pounds.

I sat him on the bridge, because I like trouble.

It didn't hold.

Version 2.0 took home the gold.

 It was the most fun we've ever had with K'Nex.

The football game didn't go so well (Sorry, Ducks).

The next morning, we went apple picking on Carter Mountain. We tried to go Saturday, but the line of like-minded fellows was incredible.

A certain someone wakes up early regardless of the day, so it was no trouble to visit before nine.

I love the view from up high.

Our mountains aren't as tall as the Rockies, but the trees make up for it.

The weather was perfect for apple picking.

And apple eating. Shane couldn't wait.

We picked winesaps, jonagolds, and golden deliciouses (I think).

Shane and I left for church aftewards. Carrie drove Charles and Jenn down the road to Monticello. 

Charles, the stinker, didn't tell anyone he'd already been. Jenn, Carrie, and I thought that he'd love the tour since he's a history and architecture buff. When the tour guide asked, "Has anyone been here before?" Charles raised his hand. 

We spent the afternoon at the house. Carrie cooked pumpkin pie. After Shane's nap, we went en mass to the barn. Jenn and Shane played with the dog while Carrie rode.

Carrie rode (of course).

Jenn got voluntold to hold on to Pixel later. She's quite the animal fan.

Shane had his normal run of the barn. He enjoyed telling Charles where to take pictures. 

There were hot air balloons everywhere! We saw two take off while we were at Costco. I've half a mind to track down where it is they're launching from. 

Meanwhile, Jenn and Charles were fascinated by how 'empty' our Costco was. Compared to New York City, it was a ghost town. I parked up front.

The next morning, I dropped Jenn and Charles off at the train station on the way to work. We loved having them visit and we hope that we don't have to go two years in between until the next time!

PS - It's amazing the difference a good camera can make.

My picture:

Charlie's picture:

Charlie could zoom in and see the people riding on hot air balloons. Blew both Shane's and my mind.

It blew my mind further when Charlie let Shane take pictures with his camera.

Shane's aim wasn't always the greatest, but the camera did a lot of work for him.

The cats also got to pose.

Charles could make dirt look good with his gear. I don't plan on upgrading from my phone anytime soon, but I can appreciate what Charles' can produce with his skill and equipment. I'm glad he posted a selection, so I could raid and re-post them here.