Thanksgiving weekend

Todd was disappointed that we didn't get to go Aunt Debbie and Uncle Ron's house for Thanksgiving this year. He was really looking forward to seeing everyone, especially Grandpa. I guess he still remembered how much they'd bonded during their Oklahoma trip earlier this year!

On Saturday, though, Oma and Opa came up to Santa Barbara, and we had lunch together, as well as visited the sights downtown a bit.

Here we are at the top of the Courthouse, overlooking a gorgeous view of Santa Barbara, the mountains and the ocean all around us:



And here we are in the Sunken Gardens of the Courthouse. As you can see in the last photo, the little man was weary of having his photo taken. At least he moved his hands enough so that his face was uncovered when Opa snapped this picture!

Literal answers

Mommy was planning to go somewhere today, and, knowing that Daddy knew where it was, she asked him: "How do I get there?"

But before Daddy could answer, Todd piped up with a very legitimate answer:

"You walk downstairs and then (get in the car and) drive there!"

He is his father's son, indeed :-P

Halloween 2009

Little man dressed as a pumpkin for Halloween. That makes... the 3rd time in the 6 Halloweens he's lived through ;-)



We were in Sylmar for the weekend, and so Todd got to go trick-or-treating in the same neighborhood Mommy used to go around when she was little. As luck would have it, little Johnny (now 3) was getting ready to go out with his mom and grandma, and so the 5 of us trooped around the neighborhood. Todd was excited to have a little friend accompany him, and it emboldened him to go up steps and ring doorbells by himself. It was great for Mommy to see old, familiar faces in the neighborhood, and catch up with some of them. Todd's first trick-or-treat adventure was a success! :-D

Progress report

Met with Todd's teacher today for a progress report. He's doing fine in all areas. His reading is doing especially well. She tested him up until 5th grade, and he was still able to read well at that level. Not only his sight-reading but his phonics were good, too, enabling him to sound out unfamiliar words. So far so good!

Why is it funny?

Todd said something VERY cute today. What exactly, I don't remember. But I remember thinking it was so cute, I laughed heartily. Aloud. So Todd, in all seriousness, queried: "Why is that funny?"

When I explained that I thought what he said was cute, he pressed on: "Well, why do you laugh when it's cute!?"

...I had no answer!

Age timeline

Todd's class assignment entailed him taking a sheet of paper that had a row of ages written down, and to indicate what he was doing at those ages. A timeline of his life, if you will. This is what Todd had to say about the various stages of his life:

0 - 2: I was a baby
3 :I was a little boy
4 : I started kindergarten
5 : I started first grade

Making lists

Todd's class read the "Frog and Toad" story in which Toad makes a list of things to do that day. Inspired by the story, the kids set about creating lists of their own. Todd's list contained things like

Eat barkfust
Take callium (calcium)
Play on the conputer
Read stories to my mom

etc... all of it written by himself, with very little spelling help!

Since then, he's had fun making lists at home, too!

Class photos, 2009

School has started. Todd is in first grade. It's a combined 1st/2nd grade class, so it's relatively "large".

My, how he has grown:



Here he is with his classmates:



And with the rest of the school:

You hurt my feelings more!

Talked to little man on the phone, where he at first refused to talk to me, because he was acting up a little. When he finally came onto the phone, reluctantly and sniffling, he explained that he was upset because Opa got mad at him for disobeying. As he put it: "Opa hurt my feelings!"

I tried to explain that disobeying Opa hurt his feelings, too.

Todd's response? "But Opa hurt my feelings MORE!"

Hehehehe...

Oklahoma visit

Todd accompanied Daddy and Grandpa on a trip to Oklahoma to see Uncle Barry & family, and Uncle Wayne. Daddy's favorite part of the trip? When Todd and Grandpa went to the airport restroom by themselves, and came back out holding hands. Todd's favorite part? Fishing! And the part in the airplane where Grandpa, in the window seat, turned the tables on Todd and declared the window off-limits, as he was now the one in charge of it ;-) Fun times for 3 generations of Knight men!

Todd rides a bike

Todd got a bicycle from Oma and Opa for his 5th birthday. Here's a couple shots of him taking it for a spin on their driveway:

Annual checkup

Updates in droves yet again! Be sure to scroll all the way down for the latest.

Took today off work to take Todd to the doctor for his annual exam. Here are his current height/weight stats:

46 inches tall -- almost 4 feet!?!?
44 pounds

He got his hearing and vision tested and passed with flying colors. Then came the hard part-- receiving FOUR shots and then getting blood drawn. Todd was NOT a happy camper after the 2nd shot, and was definitely unhappy about getting blood drawn, but as soon as the needle was in, he realized it didn't hurt and he stopped crying, watching the blood flow through the tube in fascination. Whew! Glad we survived that ordeal!

Last day of school!

Wow. Todd is officially done with kindergarten. When he returns to school he shall be in first grade-- the first of the numbered grade levels. In other words, he's really in REAL school now. Hard to believe this school year is over-- where did the time go!?

Last night was Celebratio, the end-of-year school assembly and celebration. The classes performed various pieces of music and drama, and then awards were handed out-- Todd got one for excellence in Language Arts.

Today the kids went to Zodo's for some fun bowling action before getting dismissed at noon, whereupon everyone trooped to Goleta Beach for a barbecue. Todd enjoyed playing in the sand with the other kids, and before we knew it-- the school year was officially over! One final private karate lesson and then it was off to Oma and Opa's house for the summer!

Testing and another promotion

Tonight was a busy night-- Todd skipped his swim lesson in order to attend testing for karate during the same time. He and the rest of the young students participated in a series of kicks, punches and katas as a group, and at the end they received their promotions.

Now, typically the testing takes place one week and the promotions the following week, but this week everything was compressed, because the testing that should've taken place last week was postponed due to graduation.

In terms of the promotion: for many it meant an extra stripe on their belt, and for some it meant the next color belt. Todd received his third stripe, which means that, after some more training, he's eligible to test for the yellow belt. Hopefully this summer's karate classes in LA will prepare him for that when he returns to SB :-)

Student of the month

Guess who's the karate student of the month for June 2009? Here's the images for the newsletter (click for full-size images). You can also read the same article on the South Coast Karate blog:

http://southcoastkarate.blogspot.com/

Happy 5th Birthday, part 3

Whew! Didn't think there'd be THREE celebrations for little man, eh? This afternoon, after the tournament, we held Todd's birthday party at the apartment complex. We had the little personal celebration on the day of, the family celebration last week at Aunt Debbie and Uncle Ron's, and then today-- the celebration with his friends from school, plus a couple other kids. Only two kids wound up RSVPing, and then one of them got sick the day of and couldn't come. So it ended up being Ginny and her little brother. Todd didn't seem to notice or mind, though, and the kids had lots of fun. Thankfully the toys that Aunt Debbie and Uncle Ron gave him last week came in handy! 3-D chalk (which worked even better than before!) and bubbles provided lots of entertainment.



Here's Todd with a finished Lite Brite picture-- the Lite Brite was one of his birthday presents.

Karate Tournament

Tournament in Carpinteria this morning. Got up early and had a hearty breakfast :-9 Kids could compete in 3 categories: Kata, Sparring and Padded Weapons. Since Todd hasn't learned the latter 2 yet, we only signed him up for Kata. He won 3rd place in his age/belt group, which actually isn't saying much, as there were only 4 kids in his group ;-) Here's some pictures from the event:

Happy 5th Birthday, part 2

Whew! Updates in droves yet again! Added some more posts which are back-dated and interspersed through ones I'd written previously, so be sure to scroll down and catch all the latest :-)

Had Todd's second celebration for his 5th birthday today. Drove down to LA to celebrate with the family at Aunt Debbie and Uncle Ron's house. The day was hot and Todd squealed with delight as he engaged in water gun fights with everyone. At one point, as Aunt Debbie was distracted fending off attacks from Uncle Ron, Todd snuck up behind her with his little water pistol, and got her in the back! Now THAT's what I call a sneak attack! ;-)

He enjoyed playing with bubbles and doodling on the patio with 3-D sidewalk chalk, and had a great time building a helicopter with Uncle Ron and Aunt Debbie out of one of his presents-- a junior erector set.

It was great to see him open up a bit more and interact with Allan's family. He's been coming out of his shell a little bit at a time, but this visit brought about the most changes-- this time he wasn't as shy or hesitant about talking to them and actively engaging in conversation as he played. Let's hope there are more strides in the visits to come!

Now... on to the final celebration with the kiddies next week... more when that event happens!

I Madonnari

Today was the first time I'd ever been to the annual I Madonnari Festival in Santa Barbara. This time I actually had a twofold incentive to go: Todd's karate school had a square, and so did Citrix Online. Todd and I went there after his karate lesson, and wandered around, enjoying the fruits of the chalk painters on their hands and knees, hard at work, till we finally found the karate square tucked away in the back-- and shade!

We ate a lunch of pizza and a snow cone, and then went back to the karate square so Todd could draw. Here are some shots of him in action: he basically traced and colored his hand, and then colored the surrounding background black. Notice how everyone else, being right-handed, traced their left hands. Sensei challenged Todd to trace his right hand instead-- and he did it! Not bad, even if it does look like a baseball mitt ;-) Here's a few shots of Todd in action:

Froggy costume

Today was the read-in at school, culminating several week's worth of intensive reading. Parents came to the school and helped read to the classes. Daddy read to the kindergartners in the morning, and Mommy read to them in the afternoon. We each had a theme.

Daddy chose the "Froggy" theme, based on the Froggy series by Jonathan London. Mommy chose a turtle theme, and brought Pistachio along as a prop. The kids even got to pass him around and hug and kiss him! Lots of love for the stuffed sea turtle today :-)

Everyone was allowed to dress up as his/her favorite book character, so I made a makeshift costume for Todd out of a paper plate mask and a green t-shirt: Froggy!

Here's the mask I slaved over the day before the read-in (I'm only exaggerating slightly-- I'm not the artsy/crafty type!) some paper plates and green acrylic paint, plus made use of leftover pink felt from my rat ears and black nail polish from my Black Death carrier costume :-)



And here is Todd wearing the mask, along with a green t-shirt (a perfect find at the craft store!) that I got in a too-large size, so he'll have time to use it as he grows into it :-) I added the name label for added recognizability, knowing that he'd take the mask off as soon as he got into the classroom.

Happy 5th Birthday, part 1

With 3 celebrations this year, I figure I'll be blogging a multi-part series. Little nugget from this morning:

When Daddy took Todd to school, Loftur greeted his friend with an enthusiastic "Happy Birthday!" and a big hug. A hug which.... kept.... going...

... after a long while and no sign of disentanglement, Todd finally piped up, in a matter-of-fact tone: "Um... why are you still hugging me?"

Happy Birthday, little man. I can hardly believe you're 5 years old. You're not a tiny tot or even toddler anymore. You're a bona fide kid... making the transition from little kid to big kid! Where does the time go!?

Plans for the rest of the day:
Cupcakes to share with all the other kids at school (and I mean the whole school) at lunchtime, and then an evening of dinner and bowling at Zodo's, with Loftur. More updates later, as they happen!

White Belt, 2nd class

I put in for Todd's promotion-- had to fill out a form and have Todd's teacher sign off on it, vouching for his good performance in school. Monday he was awarded his 2nd stripe! He is now a White Belt, 2nd class. Just one more stripe to go, and he'll be able to test for his Yellow Belt, after some more training, of course :-)

Next day, Sensei visited Todd's school and taught the lower school kids about bullying: how to spot it, and what to do about it. The kids really enjoyed his presentation, hopefully he'll be back to the school again soon to teach some of his other safety classes!

Strawberry Festival

Whew! Updates in droves again. I really should update this thing as soon as the events in question happen, otherwise I'm liable to forget details or funny incidents themselves... it's been a crazy busy month!

Took Todd to the Strawberry Festival in Oxnard. I'd been wanting to go for the past 7 years, but every year, something always came up and I couldn't go... this year I was bound and determined to take my little man there before he outgrew the rides.

We arrived in the morning and had a TON of fun. The crowds hadn't grown yet, so there were virtually no lines for many of the kiddie rides. We ate strawberry pizza and strawberry crepes for lunch. When I suggested we go to the sinks to hose him down after a messy lunch, he said "Don't hose me down! Just wipe me off!" We waited an hour in line to ride the Strawberry "teacup" rides, which we spun so fast that I stumbled out of the ride, dizzy as all heck. We shared a strawberry smoothie while we rested. We met some of our small group friends and chatted a bit, and wrapped up the visit with a gift purchase for daddy: a whimsical adult-sized bib! :-)

Did a bit of shopping at Wal-Mart and Fry's (since we're in the area, why not!) and then went home, exhausted but satisfied.

Another fun Mommy-son outing. I collapsed into bed when we got home that evening, and let Daddy take over the nighttime kiddie chores, but it was so worth it. Nothing quite like seeing my little man giggle with glee as he enjoyed a ride or dug into some yummy strawberry treats :-9

I took lots of pictures but haven't had time to get them off my camera and post them yet... soon, soon!

Crazy Hair Day, 2

More popular than we thought! Remember Todd's crazy hair day from preschool?

Faux-hawks, obviously, are the easiest thing to do-- minimal fuss and mess. A little harder to do with shorter hair (as evidenced in the preschool photos), yet we discovered that if your hair is too long, that is also difficult. We only had mousse and hairspray on hand, I believe if we'd had good ol' hair gel, the faux-hawk would've stayed better. Ah well, here's some shots in the morning, before trotting off to school:

Who cooks around here?

Todd: Mommy, how come Daddy always cooks?
Mommy: Because he's better at it than I am.
Todd: You mean you haven't learned how to cook yet!?

I couldn't answer through my fits of laughter. Nor could I really explain how Daddy and I had made a deal before marriage: he cooks, I clean the kitchen afterward. Funny thing is, he never asks Oma why she cooks, despite the fact that Opa indeed never cooks, either.