It's amazing how kids show such a different, and sometimes, more mature side of themselves when they are away from their parents. Today, we went to Taylor's first conference of the year with Senorita Robles and Taylor went with us. From the moment we walked in the door, I could tell Taylor was proud to call the classroom hers. She was content, confident, and proud to show us around and most importantly, the cleanliness and organization of her desk! 

I feel like the conference zoomed by. Taylor's teacher was very impressed with her reading skills and paid us a compliment by saying we must be doing something right at home. Taylor is also doing really well in math and her teacher sent us home with a book to photocopy some additional exercises that they don't do in class. What really impressed me was the way she spoke about Taylor - perfect, kind, sweet, bright, and a good citizen in the class...always reminding others to be good and follow the rules so they can earn "table points" for a reward at the end of the week! That's our Taylor. Now how do we get her to act like that at home?? 

We decided to reward Taylor tonight and take her and AJ ice skating. I think it was probably the best reward we could have given her. After all, from the moment she saw the rink (the previous night), she endlessly talked about going and even told everyone at school that she planned to go as soon as possible. When we got there, she was in heaven! At first, she stayed by the wall, but it didn't take long for her to branch out and skate unassisted and even do some wobbly spins. It was so great to see her having fun and working hard to get better. AJ also had tons of fun. He loved the colored lights that were projected onto the ice and he used a little assist bar to skate the loop. He melted our hearts when a little four year old girl offered to skate with him. I have a feeling he stayed on the ice even longer because he had a little buddy to keep up with. It was very sweet. 

AJ has a conference in a couple of weeks as well as a birthday. It'll be so interesting to see what his teachers say about him. Stay tuned! 

School starts and Soccer Season

So Taylor started the 1st grade on Monday.  She has Mrs Robles.  Today (Thursday) I found out that she called one of the other kids in her class on the phone and told her to be nice to McKenna.  I was surprised Nicky was ok with this, because we don't know the parents of this other girl.  She's too young to have a grudge, ugh!

Last weekend was Taylor's 6th Birthday party, and we had my family and Nicky's parents over, as well as the Politos.  Nicky's Mom hosted and she did a good job.  I think everyone had a good time, and the party was fun and relaxing.  She got like 17 My Little Pony dolls and they're now neatly lined up on her dresser.  She's a huge fan of Rainbow Dash.

Aj, as always, is crazy.  Tonight at Taylor's dance class, he somehow got his foot stuck in a vending machine.  I have no idea how this happened, but I can't wait to hear the full story.  The other day, he fell and hit his head on the quick release bolt of my bike.   I don't understand exactly how he's hurting himself, but he's pretty nuts, so it's not a total surprise.

Nicky has been wanting a new camera, and I'm getting more and more tempted.  I guess the big barrier is that we really don't have a good archival system for photos, so I'm afraid I'll lose them or we won't have a good way to save them.

Brave...

Today was pretty amazing.

We took Taylor to see her first movie.  The local theater had a $5 movie night and Taylor had been wanting to see Brave.  I have been told some kinds got scared or hid from parts of it.  Taylor loved the whole thing.  She watched and afterward she said "Dad I didn't take my eyes off the screen" Atta girl!

The whole ride home was discussion about the movie "Why was the bear mean?", "Did the blanket fix her?"... really thinking about the movie she just saw.  Future movie critic maybe?

Mina has been missing a few days, and we're starting to think she found an elderly person who lets her in the house to stay with.  At least I hope.

We recently went up to visit Nicky's parents and also my family had a day at the lake.  Aj and Taylor both have been tubing this summer, and today Taylor asked "Dad, do we only go tubing once a year?" ... How to explain to a 5 year old that Meme and Pops don't like to go out on the water that often.

Tay had her first softball game.  I'm not sure how she felt about it.  She got to play first base in the first inning, and she was sad that the team didn't throw her the ball more.  In the second inning she was at 2nd base, and she stood there the whole time... didn't touch the ball once.  Soccer is a much better sport.

Speaking of which, I might be assistant coaching on Taylor's team this year.  That would be cool, sounds like lots of fun.  Except for the heat.

As for me, lots of board gaming, very little video gaming.  Haven't really been playing at all, and gotta say, it's kinda nice.  I'm sortof training for a triathalon in that I'm finally swimming and cycling regularly.  I hate running though, a lot.  Have to figure out how to get it done though.

Finally some photo catchup

Summer is fully here, and lots of summer pics to show you.

AJ has been an awesome little buddy, and he's getting really sweet.  One cute quote is that he calls Angry Birds "Hungry Birds".  It's a cute enough saying.  Taylor is obsessed with My Little Ponys.  I'm tempted to take her to a show, but I'm not sure how I would explain Bronyism.

The kids love to play Gulo Gulo, and I fully intend to build gamers out of them.  I'll keep this update short, but here some pics

We have a first grader in the house!

Well, it finally happened.  Taylor's last day of Kindergarten was yesterday, and now she's no longer the new kid in school.  I can't believe how fast it went.  She finished the year with excellent grades, all 4's and O's (Outstanding).

Couple of things I want to remember about Taylor at this age:
1 - She is PARANOID about being late to school.  I was dropping AJ off at preschool, 8AM.  Taylor has to be at school at 10:25, and it's 15 minutes from AJ's school to Taylors.  She is literally paniced in the car that she is going to be late, and nothing I say can calm her down.  I appreciate punctuality, but what is this?
2 - She loves the website Club Penguin.  She plays Karate Penguin so much she has a Ninja Mask (which I helped her get).  It was pretty cool, she was having a rough time, and I showed her how to beat the other penguins.  Now she's a Ninja!  Go Taylor!
3 - It's hard to believe she's only 5.  She uses adult words, expresses herself so well, and understands what to do and not to do to get in trouble.  She calls me on my bullshit and when she thinks I'm sad, she's a great peacemaker.  Today, at Linda's house, I asked her what she was up to, she said "I'm thinking I'm kindof like a grown up baby, and I'm very special, so maybe you could take me somewhere to show me how special I am". She wanted Big Spoon frozen yogurt!

AJ is getting big too, and he now talks about 2 friends at school, Aaron and Owen.  Some things I want to remember about him:
1 - He loves riding his bike.  He puts his little monkey helmet on and pedals like crazy.  For only having 1 gear he makes it work pretty well, whether it's uphill, downhill, or flat.
2 - He absolutely loves playing video games on the tablet or my phone.  He can play the spider man game, and he plays Plants vs Zombies every chance he gets.  I'm excited to play games together with him, only he's going to beat me by the time he's 7
3 - He likes to play Bedtime Slipper, where he sits on my foot and grabs around my leg, and I walk around with him on my leg.  He's heavy as it is, but it's so cute, I can't help enjoy it.

Nicky promises she'll take some Pics soon so that I can post them.  Hopefully next update!

Let me get you a banana

So today, I'm getting up, getting ready for work and AJ is up with me.  As he sees me getting dressed, he says "Daddy, you need a banana to take to work with you" and he went to the kitchen and brought me a banana.  What a sweet kid!

I'm not the coolest dad.. (duh!)

So I'm sitting with Taylor in the Jacuzzi at the Gym.. actual conversation:

"Dad! my friend has a police-dad"
"Does that mean her dad is a policeman?"
"Yeah, that's so cool!"
"Am I a cool dad?"
"Yeah, you can swim in the pool and go underwater"
"What is the coolest thing you can think of for a dad to do?" (Maybe I'll get lucky and it will be something I can do or learn)
"You could spin around on your head and juggle at the same time"
.....
Random jacuzzi guy "Good luck with that, dad"

No kidding!

Short update today:
Aj helped me mow the lawn.  I was really impressed because I expected him to help me for 5 minutes and get bored.  NOPE!  He insisted on helping me push the mower through the entire lawn and the bag dumping that came after.  When I started on the back yard, he wanted to keep helping.

What a cool kid.

Just a trip to burger king

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Bike Rides and Karaoke Machines

The new hotness with the kids is bike rides.  We go out more often than not.  Sometimes Nicky and I walk to the park while the kids ride, sometimes we all 4 ride.  AJ loves to peddle his little legs off.  I'm personally impressed at just how good the kids are at peddling the little single gear bikes.  I can't do anything without 4 or 5 gears, and they do it all with 1.

I bought 2 new board games, specifically Magic Labyrinth and Viva Topo!.  Both are designed for kids ages 4-8, and I happen to have 2 of those.  Magic Labyrinth is a memory game and Viva Topo is a little cat and mouse push your luck game.  The kids request both of them daily, so I'm glad to hear they're a hit.

Last week I flew to New York for work, and was gone for 3 days.  It's weird, before I had kids, it would have been totally awesome.  It was still cool, but it isn't as cool as it could be, because I was thinking about hanging out with the kids and Nicky.  Weird how that happens.

Yesterday, I was rough housing with AJ on the bed and he did a little spin kick move.  I don't know where he saw that, or what gave him the idea but I'm always surprised by how much different AJ and Taylor are, when I don't feel like we parent any differently for either of them.  Everyone says that, but it's different when they're your kids.

No pictures this time, talk to Nicky's photography skills!

Taylor learns to ride a bicycle

Taylor is 5 now, and has been for about 6 months.  We heard that a 5 year old should be able to ride a bike without training wheels, but Tay has never been interested in learning.  We didn't want to force the issue, and so she's had training wheels on her bike.  We went to the park yesterday with Parker's mom, Marge, and Parker.  Marge brought her wrench, and convinced Taylor that she could ride without training wheels, "just like Parker".

Maybe having taught 4 kids how to ride without training wheels teaches you some magic tricks, but in an instant, Taylor was riding without training wheels.  Since then she has been out practicing, and now she's pretty good at it.  She can stop without crashing, start without help and ride around with no training wheels!  It's so awesome!

We also got AJ up onto a regular 2 wheel bike, bought him a helmet and got him a bike his size (Thanks again to Marge).  So amazing that they're growing so fast, and I really look forward to family bike riding trips.

Happy holidays

Christmas time!  First we went up to the Buda House, and everyone got together for Christmas celebration.  After that, off to the Wood family for more celebration.  The kids had a great time, but this is mostly a picture update.

Been I can't believe we haven't updated since July

So hopefully over the next week or two I'm going to get caught up on what's been going on.  I really need to schedule this on my calendar so that I regularly update.

Today's Update:  Taylor had her first season of Soccer.  Her coach, Coach Alex, was awesome.  He has 4 kids, 1 Taylor's age, and the little girl is in Taylor's kindergarden class.  He was super patient and really pushed the kids to play soccer and have fun.

If you've never been to a 5 year old soccer game, it's awesome.  A huge pile of kids surrounding a ball, then the ball pops out and the melee chases it down.  It's great fun and really excellent to see the competition and fun the kids have.  I really look forward to next year.

I have to write about this so I don't forget.  Final game of the Season, Taylor's team had lost 1 or 2 games all season, her team was 2nd in her age group.  We're facing the one team that beat us earlier in the season, and they were undefeated.  Taylor wanted to win SOOoooo bad, and she played an amazing game.  In 1 quarter, she broke past 3 defenders *3* times to get open 1v1 shots on the goal.  The other team's goalie was impressive and stopped all 3, but watching Taylor weave through them like it was nothing was such a cool moment.

Taylor also played a quarter in the goalie box, and she had 2 amazing saves, including one where the ball got past her and she crawled on hands and knees and stopped it from going in.  Then, later on, she thought play had stopped, and it hadn't.  She turned around as the ball passed her and the other team got the go ahead goal.  She was SO sad, it was one of those "Thrill of Victory, Agony of Defeat" moments, like you'd see on the cover of a sports magazine.  She cried and I was proud and sad for her at the same time.  After the game, like 2 of the other team parents came over and congratulated her on an amazing game.  

At the end of the season dinner, Taylor was the last kid to get her award, and I remember what Coach Alex said.  "When you coach, there are lots of good times, but sometimes a player comes who reminds you why you coach, and makes it all worthwhile.  In the final game, that was Taylor.  Thank you Taylor"

It was so cool, I love soccer!