Curious Christian (and Curious Kaylyn, and Curious Joslyn)

 

Discovering George

The kids love Curious George. Why? Because, well, he’s curious. And he does crazy stuff.

 

Our kids have officially joined generations of kids in loving the crazy monkey and the main with the yellow hat. So much so that we bought the complete adventures of Curious George the other day at Half-Price Books. (Did you know the first one was written way back in 1941?)

It started with Christian’s pre-school teacher, Ms. Pat, reading the original to her class. Then we got the Curious George program on DVD. Had to beat the kids off that disc with a stick. (Not literally – please, no comments.) Which has led to the Complete Adventures book.

Like anything the kids love, it has become good leverage. If they do their bedtime routine, we’ll read some more crazy adventures. Shar captured this pic the night we did 105 pages of the book at once. The kids definitely out-stamina-ed Toddler Daddy that night.

New Toddler Toter

2007 Ford Explorer Sport Trac Limited

Long time readers of this blog know of our struggle for an answer to transportation questions. Our main workhorse is a 2005 Toyota Sienna minivan. With regular trips across the metroplex to Flower Mound for church, we have put some serious miles on the van in the its three years.

The secondary Wilson vehicle is our beloved 1994 Mazda Miata M-Edition. Most people laugh at the thought of toddler daddy, toddler mommy and the four yung’uns owning a Miata as a second car, but with me working at home, we’ve managed to make it work for years. Hey, we figure – it’s paid for, it’s appreciating in value as a collector, and it’s fun, so why change it?

The need for a second car, though, has been growing for a while, and the addition of Austin put things over the top. So about a week and a half ago, we made the plunge and got a truck. I am of course thrilled. Shar surprisingly has decided she likes it, too!

What is not to like? We can fit 5 comfortably (if we need all 6, we take the van), it has an extender in the bed, it is late model (2007), it has leather, a moon roof, and a rocking sound system, and it is clean clean clean. Note pix. So the toddler daddy family is pleased with its new toddler toter.

School Rules

Kaylyn and Christian both love Powell elementary school. Homework, too. We haven’t told them that kids aren’t supposed to love homework, and so far they are none the wiser. Kaylyn had told us over the summer that she missed  school and wanted to go back. So getting into the groove was no problem for her. First grade is definitely a step up, with actual tests and more intense homework and reading assignments, but so far she is still loving it.

One might think Christian may have a more difficult time, since he’s a fresh kindergartner, but he’s been prepped by his sister and by pre-school, so he hit the ground running. (See photo for an eager first day Christian.)

Only problem we’ve had was him burning his finger the first day of school. Apparently a slice of pizza was calling his name but the cafeteria steamer didn’t want to give it to him. He got a steam burn on his left forefinger. Pretty bad burn, too – took a few weeks for the finger to completely heal. But he was a trooper. Always is when it comes to pain. He handled that situation and is now sailing along with his class.

Illegal Formation

Grabbed my chips and queso and my Dr. Pepper. Got the fan on, the window closed, and the remotes in hand. Just as I’m settling in for opening weekend kickoff, Christian joins me. As the kick sails in the air, the questions begin:

“Daddy, why do grownups like football?” – Because it’s fun. It’s a game.

“Daddy, what is the man with the U?”  - He’s the umpire.

“What does the umpire do?” – He makes sure the players don’t cheat.

“What’s the man with the R?” – He’s the referee, he’s like the umpire.

“Why are there two of them?” – There’s a lot of them. They all watch the game together.

“How long is the game?” – Three hours.

“Three hours! That takes forever!”

And on and on it goes.

Summer’s End

With school starting, we crammed a summer’s worth of fun into a few days with the kids. A no-brainer on the todo list was to get another round of Six Flags fun out of our season passes. Here’s a photo of Kaylyn posing in the gymnast deal:

After fun in the park, the kids noticed a gaggle of ducks. Or is a flock of geese? A congress of birds? Anyway, they wanted to feed them, so we found some crackers in the van:

More beginning of school year posts coming.