The REAL Santa

We've been fielding a lot of questions about Santa this year. "How old is he?", "What if he dies?", "How come Santa is not as fat sometimes?" and usually I turn it around and ask Wyatt what he thinks to save us from outright lies. I'm feeling like this may be one of the last years that he truly believes. We talked as we drove to the mall about how Santa sometimes uses helpers to visit with children since he can't be everywhere at once. Even so, I was so happy that as Santa came into view at a local mall, he looked like this:

Isn't he cute? Real beard and all. He chatted with Wyatt for a full five minutes, pulled out a wallet with some sort of Santa ID and a picture of himself on a WWII jet waving to the crowd (in full Santa gear). Wyatt exclaimed as we walked away, "That was the REAL Santa"!

Dress-up

I like to play dress up, mostly to wear more make-up than any one person should wear...and the fake eyelashes! Luckily, there is Halloween each year to fulfill this need in me. Several people commented that my vampiress was strangely Marie Osmond-ish. Hmmmm, the big, white teeth perhaps? I laughed harder than I have all year seeing Paul in his nerdy English teacher victim costume. And Wyatt...is a pure Power Ranger, don't ya think?

Hallo-Mania!

Wyatt is really excited for Halloween as I'm sure most 5-year-olds are at this time of year. The weather is sufficiently getting cold and the decorations have made their way in the house. Now, deciding on a costume...that's tricky. So far, he's deciding between a robot (box collection since mid-March), a Jedi, Captain Rex (some kind of Storm Trooper guy from StarWars) and a ghost. He's leaning toward Captain Rex and since he already has the costume from his birthday, I suppose that's the easy one, but I sure do miss making his costume. Here are some highlights from Halloweens past...

2005, Age 7 months, Jaguar

2006, Age 1-1/2, Charlie Brown-homemade

2007, Age 2-1/2, The Man in the Yellow Hat from Curious George-homemade except for the George doll.

2008, Age 3-1/2, Super Why!-homemade

2009, Age 4-1/2, Boba Fett-homemade belt & wristbands

Growing Up

Wyatt lost his first tooth last night, just weeks after starting Kinder-
garten. For some reason, this just seems to cap off the end-of-preschool phase perfectly. He's no longer "little". The other day I was watching Regis & Kelly and after he asked me a million questions about the guest Sylvester Stallone (who happened to be a high school crush of mine, but that is another story) and the things they were talking about, I switched it over to PBS. After about a minute of the show (something about dinosaurs) he declared it was a "baby show" and we must go back to the one with the muscle guy. Sigh...


The tooth fairy visited bearing a $2 bill...only to be followed by more questions with shifty answers...:)

Kindergarten...already???

Yes, today was Wyatt's first day. We handled it extremely well if I do say so myself. No tears shed at all. Of course, I was super-busy and so was Wyatt so who has time for tears? It's only when I have those quiet reflective moments that I think too much and realize this is my first & last day to do this particular special thing. Now, inch by inch he starts to gain his independence and I start to loosen those strings. He did hold my hand all the way home...


Wyatt's sweet teacher, Mrs. Perman, has won us over already!




Wyatt and Anna walking to the school. She's a first-grader and has been showing us the ropes!



Wy and his buddy, Isaac are in the same class at John Muir Elementary!


All smiles waiting in line for school to start.



This is how I left him, doing his morning work!

Summer Park Fun

Wyatt had fun today playing at the Spray Park in Bellevue. I realized this might be the last summer he really wants to go there since most of the features are for small kids. He does love climbing up that whale and sliding down it's nose.


A few weeks ago we enjoyed a day at Volunteer Park in Seattle. I thought he might be bored of the knee-deep wading pool, but he spent hours spraying, splashing and playing catch with his friends.

Has it really been 20 years?

Well, I did it. I went to my 20 year class reunion. I really wasn't all that interested until I got into facebook this summer and realized a lot of people I'd like to see were going. It turned out to be a really great time. I had fun seeing old friends and letting them peer-pressure me into dancing and singing karaoke. Some things never change!

Two of my very best friends: Amy and Julie

My prom date, Jayson, and my oldest friend, Kim

Prom Queen and King, David, re-enacting our "Forever Young" dance minus the crowns and fuscia gown, (thank goodness)!

"We got the beat!"

My favorite teacher, Mme Baird. Sorry I didn't keep up the French!

Patriotism at its Best

J

We ventured over to Gas Works Park this year for the big Seattle fireworks show over Lake Union. We've been there several times, but this is the first year Wyatt really knew what was happening and had been talking about it for a few weeks ahead. We arrived to a drizzle which continued for 2 hours.

Now a drizzle is not a pouring rain, but 2 hours of it is enough to soak us through. I was almost ready to pack it in when it stopped, the balloon man showed up to make Wyatt an alien and we got our kettle corn. Then The Presidents of the United States of America began their live show. Wyatt loves rock music and we were up on the top of the hill with a good view. He danced, played air guitar, and pumped his arms..."Mom, this means I really like it!" It was super fun for him and his first real concert.

His friend, Dylan and his family arrived and they had fun playing football until about 30 minutes before the fireworks show. Luckily, there was recorded music of songs, such as Neil Diamond and Simon & Garfunkel in the videos below, to keep the boys happily entertained and awake for the show. The fireworks were AMAZING and well worth the incessant drizzle, cold, and chain smokers. I'm still recovering from the walk UP to the car...Hooray for the U.S.A.!

Pre-K Graduation

OK, my first thought (and maybe yours)...is this really necessary? Pre-K Graduation? But it was very cute and his last day as a preschooler, so I suppose it can do no harm. Each child got to come up and share something special. Wyatt shared his state quarter collection and his Hot Wheel collection. Then Teacher Debbie read a paragraph about each child and tried not to cry. I copied Wyatt's below. Now on to KINDERGARTEN!!

"Wyatt is a very quick learner and always has good ideas to add to our class discussions. He loves to entertain his friends and make them laugh, and is excited to participate in every activity. He's very sensitive and likes everyone to get along. When it's free play time, he's at the center of the action and loves coming up with new ideas for having fun. Good job, Wyatt!"

~Teacher Debbie June 14, 2010

Conquering 5-year-old Anxieties

Wyatt has a lot of fears...His biggest are food related, mosquitoes (incl. bees and other flying insects), and lately going to bed on his own. He's always been a great sleeper, but during the summer we fell into the habit of lying down with him until he fell asleep. His 5 year birthday was the cut-off and we've been sticking to it for one week. He's been creating lots of ways to try to entice us back in...including, but not limited to, bugs crawling up through the crack between his bed and his wall, the fact that he's crying and we need to help him not cry, aliens, and the most frightening, robbers coming in to cut off his head. I was a bit shocked by this one and had to hold back the laughter. Tonight he came up with his own solution and

taped it to the front door himself...I guess that is one way for him to work out his own fears!

Oh, and he also recently rode a carousel (on the actual moving horse, not just on the bench for older people) and willingly held this worm. Maybe he's not a lost cause?

If only I could get him to eat more of a variety...

The "Weezers" Biggest Fan

Wyatt gets easily obsessed with things, then he lives, breathes, and thinks about this thing until it has run it's course. It happened with ABCs, puzzles, Curious George and Little Einsteins, The United States & capitals, I Spy books, etc...

A few weeks ago I played the song Island in the Sun by Weezer in the car and Wyatt fell in love. (hip hip) We've now completed listening to each of the six albums we own plus a few of the songs from the new album we found online--with a few edits from Mom. Hash Pipe is not one I want to explain at this point. Thanks to search engines and websites we know more than we ever wanted to know about Weezer, or as Wyatt calls them, The Weezers. I tried to explain the band name concept but he will not accept the singular if there are 4 band members. "Mom, the Beatles...get it?" I've let it go...

Now my days are full of all sorts of interesting Weezer questions.

"Mom, how old are the Weezers? Do they live together in the same house? Are the Weezers cousins, friends, or brothers? Do they have kids?"

If I say I don't know, he makes up the answers: "I think some of them are cousins and some are friends and they all live in their house together so they can all play whenever they want. They are probably 25 and don't have any kids 'cause their too busy playing music."

He's taken to calling himself Brian Bell and playing the air guitar. In the car he wears sunglasses and combs his hair into his eyes in a certain way before playing said air guitar. We've created a monster...

How young is too young for guitar lessons?

A Giving Heart

I’ve been learning a lot from my almost 5-year-old lately. This year his birthday party choices are either to do a small home birthday party with 3-4 friends or a huge jumping party at the local inflatable gym. It seems that my busy schedule has helped our decision be the latter, since if you pay someone enough, they will do the party for you. Not that Wyatt is complaining. The only caveat is that since he’s inviting close to 20 friends and cousins, we are asking for no gifts, but for a donation to a charitable organization. I wish I would have taped the look of horror that crossed Wyatt’s face when we first discussed it. My feelings tipped back and forth from, “Are we forcing this on him? Is that OK? Is he too young to understand why we’re doing this?” to, “Wouldn’t he have so much fun opening gifts? Should I just clean out his room and let him have a boat-load of gifts?”

Wyatt answered the questions himself. He’s been really interested in Haiti. In fact, geography is his current obsession, so we regularly discuss current events at his level and look for places on the map. He’s really concerned about the people of Haiti. He helped me look up the website to donate some funds and wanted to make sure that we were not going to hand deliver it ourselves. I talked to him about some possible uses for the money and that there are children there who don’t have parents and need all the things parents can provide. After a few minutes he came to me and said that he thought it would be OK to share his room and his toys with a boy (not a girl) from Haiti. Specifically, he said, “He can have my Lightnin’ McQueen blow up bed and then when Jesus makes his parents alive again, he can go back to live with them.”

He might not understand the intricacies yet, but his little heart is in the right place. I think his birthday party will be just fine...