Butterflies!

In science class, Todd and his classmates have been studying the life cycle of the butterfly. The had some caterpillars that had gone into their cocoons, and the other day, butterflies finally came out! Here is Todd, gently holding one of them before they were released.

Bedwetting Updates

By the time Todd left SB for LA this summer, he'd been on the bedwetting alarm for 4 straight months. While most people reported that their kids showed marked improvement after only a few weeks, and the longest was just a couple of months, I was confident that we should have this nipped in the bud before he went to Oma and Opa's house for summer.

Alas, I was wrong.

I kept careful record of how each night went, and after a while, it was the same ol' pattern: gets wet after a couple of hours, alarm goes off, change everything (sometimes, even the sheets). Sometimes it would go off in the middle of the night afterward, but most of the time, I'd simply get him up along with me when I got up to do my own "midnight bathroom shuffle" at around 4-5am.

During the summer it was the same story. My mom would have to get him up or change him before she went to bed (usually a few hours after he fell asleep), and then my dad would get him up again in the morning (Dad usually wakes up around 4:30am).

It wasn't until the end of summer that he finally started going longer stretches between wetting episodes. We weren't sure if it was because he was getting older and finally outgrowing the bedwetting, and staying dry longer, or if it was because it was so hot that he was losing more liquids to sweat, thereby slowing the accumulation of liquid in his bladder?

He's been home a few days now, and so far the pattern has been fine-- in bed by 9pm, I manually drag him out to the toilet before I go to bed (around 11:30pm -- midnight), and then up again when I get up at 4-5am to use the bathroom myself. So far it's working out fine, and we haven't had any wetting incidents. But we shall see what happens over the weekend, when I might just let him go without getting him up myself, to see what time the alarm goes off. More adventures in potty training!

Elder Care

Todd was watching an episode of Caillou today, one where Caillou's grandmother was going into a nursing home. When Caillou's mother explained to Caillou what a nursing home was, Todd ran up to Oma and piped up:

"When you get too old to take care of yourself, you won't need to go into a nursing home! I'll take care of you!"

:-)

More artwork

Here is some more of Todd's artwork.

Santa Barbara Courthouse:

 
"Express Yourself" self-portrait, with emotions colored in:

Picasso-style sailboats:

Happy 8th Birthday!

Holy moly. EIGHT years!? Where does the time go!? Today we celebrated Todd's 8th birthday at the SB Gymnastics Club. It was the first time since Todd was born that we had an actual party with his actual friends (well, we did try to have one with his kindergarten classmates on his 5th birthday, but only one classmate came, so that... doesn't count?) and he was soooo excited! So were we, but in a different way-- could we handle a room full of kids? Well, that is precisely why we held the party in a location where we could pay the staff to actually run the show :-D

The kids had fun bouncing around and doing all kinds of obstacle courses and exercises on the floor mats and gym equipment. The staff kept them sufficiently busy so that they were pretty tuckered out by the end of it!

Boys being silly:

The outside of the gym:

Lot of festive decorations inside:

Panoramic shot of the facility before the kids arrived. Trying out the new panoramic feature of my new phone's camera. Click for the original sized shot:

Mother's Day Lament

After lamenting the fact that the church has special activities on Mother's Day (like hiring a photographer!) but nothing like that on Father's Day, which Todd found insulting, he added this:

"Someday I'll be a father and then the church will insult me by not taking photos on Father's Day!"

Daddy the Handyman?

On Daddy fixing the leaking bathroom sink faucet:

 

Todd: "Is he going to do it himself, or is he going to hire someone? You know, he should ask Opa to help. Opa's good at fixing stuff, and plus he's family!"

Mommy: "What, you don't think Daddy can fix it himself?"

Todd: "No, of course not!" (and then jumps right into a story about how Opa fished out a toothbrush he got stuck in the sink drain once)

Don't We Count??

We had friends over to our place to hang out and sing some home karaoke. June and Ron were the first to arrive, and Todd and Jake promptly started playing together. They were in the dining room, eating a snack, while the grownups sat around the couch, conversing.

Neither June nor I wanted to get up and sing, we said we wanted to wait until there were more people.

Ron and Allan took offense to this, saying something along the lines of "What, don't we husbands count!?"

Todd peeked around the corner of the dining room and said: "Yeah, and what about your SONS!?"

Sigh... yeah, I supposed husbands and sons are people, too ;-)

Santa Barbara County Fair and Expo, 2012

Every year before/around my birthday, the SB Fair and Expo comes to the Earl Warren Showgrounds. This year, we decided to go with Ron and June and their 4-year-old son, Jake. Todd had such a blast being able to go on rides with a friend rather than having to rope Mommy or Daddy to accompany him, or simply go by himself. Most of the rides, both boys could go on, but there were a few where Jake was too short to go on, and even one where Todd was too TALL to get on. Surprising! But at least the height restrictions were equitable amongst the two boys :-)

JoJo's baby shower

All of our church friends threw a baby shower for Kevin and JoJo at our church's main building. It was one of those rare co-ed showers, which I always love better than the girls-only ones. Todd enjoyed the games immensely, particularly the "Advice Mad Libs" that we brought along :-) Here is Daddy and his own "baby":

Bee cake pop

Went to Taylor and Justin's gender-reveal cake party today. It was a yellow-and-brown bee theme, so the cake pops were shaped like bees. Todd managed to find the lone cake pop that featured a bee wearing glasses. Here is my little close-up shot of him:

Charlotte and Levi's birthday party

Our friends' kids, Charlotte and Levi, born just a couple days apart, celebrated their 2nd birthdays today. Todd was one of the oldest kids there, but that didn't stop him from finding another kid close to his age and having a ton of fun with both big and little kids alike.

Here are shots (taken by Matt Coon, Charlotte's dad) of Todd playing in/around a clubhouse that the birthday kids' parents build out of several large cardboard boxes:

Here are Todd and a new friend using their fathers' phone to take pictures of each other while Mackenzie looks on:

And here's a nice closeup of Todd after finishing his scavenger hunt and getting his goodie bag:

Bedwetting Alarm

With Todd rapidly approaching his 8th birthday, I thought it was high time we started doing something to address the fact that he is still not dry at night. During his annual physical exam, his doctor mentioned that a lot of people have had success using sleep alarms-- they sound an alarm when the sensor detects moisture, thereby waking up the kid before he completely empties his bladder. The idea is that it trains his body to recognize when he has to go pee, and then wake up when he does.

So we got Todd an alarm and are trying it out today. We'll see how it goes!

Hide the stuffed animals!

Todd, as most little kids his age do, likes to play with stuffed animals. Especially as an only child, he considers them his friends, and likes to have at least one accompany him everywhere: in bed, at the dining table, in the car. Lately, he's been bringing one of his favorite stuffed animals into the coffee shop where he and Daddy enjoy a snack before his karate class on Tuesdays.

Today, Todd and Daddy were busy with their stuff-- eating, drinking, doing their work, when all of a sudden Daddy was surprised when Todd thrust his stuffed animal at him. He looked around, and noticed that one of Todd's karate classmates had walked in.

So while our little boy still loves his animals, he doesn't want his friends to know about it!

Midget Todd

More silliness: Todd discovers how to make himself look several inches shorter (and with extra long arms to boot). He used this as a cover photo for his class "newspaper"-- a project that each kid has to do once during the school term, wherein they create a newspaper that centers around them.

Todd in a Box

We got a new memory foam mattress today, and when it was delivered, it was vacuum sealed and rolled up tightly, packed in an elongated box. After we got the mattress out and unrolled, Todd made a beeline for the box, figuring out that he could fit in it perfect! Here he is, after discovering how to climb into it and stand up without toppling over. Now all we need to figure out is how much postage it would cost to ship this package out! :-)

Todd's Artwork

The art teacher at Todd's school publishes some of the children's more accomplished artwork on a website called Artsonia. Here is what Todd has done so far:

First up, a landscape inspired by David Hockney:

 

Then, a self-portrait inspired by Modigliani:

The Artsonia page:

http://www.artsonia.com/artists/portfolio.asp?id=3404934&artid=16664245