Warped Master!

Troy finally made it up the warp wall in ninja class today! He touched the bar a couple of times (which was a milestone in and of itself), but on his third and ultimately final attempt, he finally was able to grab it and hang on. As he dangled from the bar, making no attempt to try to pull himself up, I thought to myself, “Oh no, he’s just going to let go.” Which would have been okay. Like I said, just grabbing the bar was a milestone of its own accord. But Coach Earl ran up the wall next to Troy, and encouraged him to keep going, placing his hand under Troy’s armpit and giving him a little shove.

That’s when something miraculous happened. Troy actually started trying to pull himself up. As the coach talked him through it, Troy propped first one elbow on top of the wall, then the other. His confidence and determination grew with each movement. Instead of giving up as his little body strained with the effort, he dug deep to find the extra power he needed. Then, he swung a knee up, and then the other, and over the top of the wall he went. He slowly stood up and pushed the buzzer at the top for the first time. An accomplishment two years in the making.

He encountered a little setback after that. The warped wall is ten feet off the ground, and as he looked out over the edge and across the gym, he panicked from the height. He moved back into the corner and refused to move. Coach Earl had to climb up and carry him down, where I was waiting to give him a hug. I don’t blame him. I probably would have had the heebie-jeebies too. I just hope this doesn’t stop him from trying to climb up it again. Now that he knows how, and more importantly that he can do it, I hope he does it again, each time with more confidence. I’m so proud of our little man!

Claw-set

Troy [picking up the claw gloves that go with his Halloween costume]: “Where should I put these, dada?”
Me: “In the closet.”
Troy: “That’s funny. The ‘claw-set’!”
Me: “Well, that’s not exactly what I said, but you’re right it is funny. I mean where else would you put your claws, but in the ‘claw-set’?”

Giant Boxing

On a whim, I picked up some giant inflatable boxing gloves from Walmart that were on clearance. I thought it might be fun for Troy and I to punch it out without the prospect of one or both of us getting hurt. What I didn’t plan on was that it came with just two boxing gloves in the box, one left and one right. So, I’ll be going back tomorrow to get another set.

What we quickly learned was that my vast height advantage was a huge difference maker. Troy couldn’t get anywhere close to me, as I kept him at bay with my jab. I was only using a fraction of full power, just enough to basically tap him on the nose, but it was effective, and I did snap his head back a few times. He quickly got frustrated and started to bull rush me, which I stopped with an uppercut and a jab to the gut. Overall, my superior boxing knowledge was working for me, even with only one boxing glove and fighting southpaw…at least until Troy sucker punched me.

He came at me swinging his gigantic blue boxing glove around wildly. As I used my gigantic red boxing glove to stave off his ferocious attack, he reached out with his non-gloved hand and grabbed the edge of my boxing glove. He pulled it down just far enough to get his glove over my defense and clock me right on the chin. I collapsed like a sack of potatoes, and Troy pounced on top of me, switching from boxing to MMA, and began to pummel me.

I somehow managed to mount a little defense and throw him off me. From my knees, I launched out a vicious jab that sent Troy flying. That bought me enough time to get to my feet and resume my attack. In the end, I didn’t get the knockout, but the judges all voted in my favor for a unanimous decision. Dada is still the undefeated champion!

The Dallas Aquarium: Reunion

We decided to arrange a play date today at the Dallas Aquarium. It had been a while since Troy had seen Sasha, Misha, and Charlotte, and everyone was able to make it today. It was interesting to see the differences in the personalities of the kids…and the parents.

Troy and Sasha were calm and well-behaved. Misha was a terror running around unchecked and unsupervised. Charlotte was mostly left out of the group and hanging with her dad. I was trying to herd Sasha, Misha, and Troy together, but Misha kept running off in the opposite direction of everyone else. So, forced to make a choice, I left her on her own and followed the other two. Eventually, Misha’s mother finally decided to stop visiting for a minute to check in on her, and she couldn’t find her. After she finally tracked her down, she stayed with her after that. Sasha’s mother never once looked out for her daughter.

The kids cared more about seeing each other than really looking at the aquarium, so we blew through the exhibits at Mach speed. We probably would have been better served to just take them to the park. It definitely would have been cheaper. Oh well, the kids had fun, and they loved seeing each other again after so long.

Dadmatized

Me: “Look into my eye sockets. You’ve been dadmatized. You are a dad zombie.”
Troy [giggling]: “Where did that come from?”
Me: “It came from Ded Bob.”
Troy: “Who’s that?”
Me: “He’s a talking skeleton.”
Troy: “Oh. Why do you call him ‘Ded Bob’? Why not just ‘Bob’?”
Me: “That’s his name. He used to be Bob, but now he’s Ded Bob.”
Troy: “Well, when was he just Bob?”
Me: “When he wasn’t dead.”
Troy: “How did he die?”
Me: “Hmmm…well, someone tooted on him.”
Troy [giggling]: “What?! That wouldn’t kill him! That may knock him out, but he wouldn’t die!”
Me: “Well, it was a pretty bad toot. And…you’re not going to believe this, but…it was Gammy that tooted on him.”
Troy [laughing hysterically]: “Gammy?! I can’t imagine Gammy tooting on anyone.”
Me: “Well, she did, and someone died. Of course that was back when she was known as ‘Fifi.’”
Troy: “You’re so silly, dada.”

Fummies

Troy: “Mama, do you know what happens to mummies after a few years of leaving them in the ground?”
My Wife: “No, what?”
Troy: “They pop back out of the ground.”
Me: “I happen to know for a fact that that’s not true. I have three friends that are mummies, and none of them have ever popped out of their sarcophaguses.”
My Wife [snickering]: “Did you hear that, Troy?”
Troy: “Well, maybe they’re not the popping kind of mummies. Some mummies pop, and others don’t.”
My Wife: “I didn’t know that. I didn’t know there were different kinds of mummies.”
Troy: “Yeah. And did you know that there was a mummy named Tiny Butthead?”
Me: “Do you mean Tutankbottom?”
My Wife [laughing]: “I don’t think that was his name.”
Me: “Eh, close enough. Troy, if mothers are called ‘mummies,’ then does that mean that fathers are called ‘fummies’?”
My Wife [laughing]: “Fummies! Dada is silly, Troy.”
Me: “And that must mean that babies are called…”
My Wife [laughing]: “Bummies!”
Troy [laughing]: “You’re a bummy, dada!”
Me: “No, I’m a fummy. You’re the only baby here. Sorry, that’s the rules. You’re a bummy. So, that would mean that Gammy would be a ‘gummy,’ and Giagia would be a ‘yummy.’”
Troy: “So, what would Big Daddy be?”
Me: “Oh…uh…he’d be a Big…um…Fummy.”
My Wife: “Yeah, let’s go with that.”

Wedding Day: Kinder Edition

My Wife: “So, apparently Troy got married today.”
Me: “What?! How did this happen?!”
My Wife: “I dunno, I guess he was tired of playing the field.”

…Troy comes walking into the room.

Me: “You got married, Troy?!”
Troy: “Yeah, to Reagan.”
Me: “Okay, well congratulations. Why did you choose her?”
Troy: “Because she’s sweet, and she’s nice to me, and she agreed to marry me.”
Me: “All important qualities in a wife. So, which one is Reagan? Show me in this picture from Superhero Day.”
Troy: “She’s the one dressed up as a villain.”
Me: “Oh, now I understand.”

Picture Day: Kindergarten

Today was picture day for Troy's class.  They allowed the kids to dress in a different shirt for the photo, but it still had to be a buttoned up, collared shirt, so we decided that it didn't make sense to send him with extra clothes.  After the fact, they gave us a choice of digital backgrounds to choose from, which was a nice touch.  Troy came out looking like a proper little boy, which is crazy for me to see.  I want to still think of him as my little baby.  I added the school logo and the year to the picture, so we could keep track of the years.

It's interesting to think about this all being digital now.  I was reminded of my own picture day...a lot of days ago (as Troy would say).  We used to order packages of pictures with little wallet sized ones that we'd give out to all of our friends.  Funny enough, I still have some of those pictures.  Nowadays, nobody cares about getting pictures of their friends.  It's all about sending them to family members or posting them to online blogs!

Entrepreneur

Troy: “Dada, can you play with me?”
Me: “Not right now. I’m folding laundry.”
Troy: “Mama, what about you?”
My Wife: “Sorry, baby, I’m folding curtains.”
Me: “You know, you could come help us.”
Troy: “Nah, I’d rather play.”
Me: “Can you at least come and give me a hug? You could give mama one too while you’re in here. Kind of a two for the price of one thing.”
Troy: “If you want a hug, then you’ll have to come in here. And it’ll cost you five dollars!”
Me: “Wait…I have to come get a hug? AND it’s going to cost me five dollars on top of that?!”
Troy: “Yeah…each.”
Me: “Wow, that’s pretty steep. Worth it, but steep.”
Troy: “And you have to pay me before you get the hug.”
Me: “Wow, you don’t trust me, eh? Do you take credit cards?”
Troy: “Yes, I take coins and credit cards.”
Me: “Okay, I’ll have to see what I can scrape together. Give me a sec.”

My Eyes Are Burning!

Troy: “Dada, why is the skeleton across the street screaming?”
Me: “Well, it’s because she has to look into the sun with no sunglasses all afternoon. You’d be screaming too. ‘Aaaaahhhh, my eyes! It’s burning my eyes! It’s like a car crash! It’s horrible, but I can’t look away! I can’t even blink, because I don’t have any eyelids! My eeeeeeyyyyyyyes!’”
Troy [giggling]: “My eeeeeeyyyyyyyes!”

Articulation: Part 2

My wife met with the school’s Dean of Students today. She wanted to discuss Troy not eating a lot during lunch, because he gets easily distracted, talking or playing, and how we can work with him to be less scared and emotional during drop-off. The dean spent some time observing Troy, talking to Troy’s teacher, and interacting with Troy himself. She gave my wife some advice on things we can try, but the one amazing thing to come out of the conversation was the dean commenting on Troy’s communication ability.

Not only did she note that Troy has an extensive vocabulary for a five year-old, but also that he articulates and expresses himself like an adult. She also said that he has an amazing imagination and likes to tell stories. I know all of these things already, but I guess I take them for granted, because that’s just how Troy has always been. I’m not around a lot of other five year-olds, so I don’t have a lot of comparisons. What I think is truly interesting is that Troy is around other kids all day long, so he must encounter a “downgrade” in language. But it doesn’t seem to bring down his own communication. I’d be interested to know if it actually helps bring up everyone else’s.

Private Hands

Troy has started to do this weird thing when he goes to the bathroom at home. He leaves the door open while he’s peeing, which isn’t new or unusual, but he closes it to wash his hands. I’m not sure why washing his hands is so personal and private, and why he doesn’t want anyone to see him do it.

He also likes to stand in the bathroom, moving the toilet seat up and down and signing. I’m not sure if he’s just fascinated by the motion of the seat hinge or if he’s trying to act like the toilet is the one actually singing, but it’s strange. And he may stand in there for 5-7 minutes doing that before I’ll notice that he’s still not out and go to extricate him.

Superhero Day

Today, Troy’s school was celebrating Superhero Day in recognition of learning the vowels…which they called the super vowels. To make it more special and meaningful, they let the kids dress up in superhero costumes. Troy and I had gone to the Halloween store, hoping that we could double up with his Halloween costume too. Unfortunately, he wanted these bloody and gory ax murderers and zombies, which I didn’t think would go well at his Christian school. I really don’t know why he’s so into the dark and macabre. He’s obsessed with it. No matter how I try to steer him away, he always drifts back to it. We finally settled on a Venom costume, which was still horrifying but tame in comparison.

I figured that I could always send him without a mask, and then it would just look like a black Spider-Man costume. Nevertheless, Troy was pumped about the costume…in particular the fake muscles that ripple throughout the costume. In fact, he refused to take it off all day, even wearing it during lunch and outside on the playground…despite it being 95 degrees today. He reported back that his choice was a hit among the other kids, and that nobody else had a Venom costume…probably because nobody else thinks of Venom as a superhero. Oh well, it was worth it to see him so happy.

Team Artistry

After I picked Troy up today, we went home and drew some pictures together. He’d draw part of it, and I’d draw part of it. We spent about an hour drawing pictures of Venom fighting Spider-man, Venom fighting another Venom, a dragon with his six baby dragons, a very long snake, and me getting bum-kicked in the head by a giant stuffed bear. Then, we wrestled previously-mentioned stuffed bear upstairs while pretending to be Venom.

It was fun to just hang out with him with no agenda, no place to go, and no TV to watch. It reminded me of when he was a baby and we’d do that every day while we waited for my wife to get home from work. Of course back then, Troy wasn’t obsessed with villains, and I didn’t end up with nearly as many bruises!

The Riverwalk Saga

On a whim, we decided to drive down to San Antonio to see my friend’s new house. He’s been bugging me to come see it for months now, so I figured it was time. And since it was a holiday weekend, it meant we could go down Saturday, come back Sunday, and still have Monday to relax. The plan was to get there in early afternoon, see their house, and then head to the Riverwalk for dinner. And then afterward, we’d ride the river boat, so Troy could enjoy that. With that plan, I booked a hotel right on the Riverwalk, so we could walk instead of having to find a place to park, and so we’d be closer after our Riverwalk excursion.

We headed out Saturday as planned, but along the way our plans got derailed. Not only did we make several unplanned pit stops, but we also blew out a tire. By the time we got the spare on, almost every place was closed. And as we were soon to find out, they were closed on Sundays as well, and being a holiday, on Monday too! The places that we did find open didn’t carry the specialty tires for my wife’s car. We drove to every tire shop we could find for the next two hours with no luck. We were ready to give up when my wife decided to pull into a Midas tire center. I told her that they were closed, but she insisted that we try because the bay doors were open.

At first, one of the guys met us at the doors and told us that they were closed, but after my wife broke down in tears telling her story, they let us in. They didn’t have the exact tire that we needed, but they had one that was similar. Unfortunately, after getting it on the rim, we discovered that the tread was separating from the tire. So, we were back to square one, but still sending kudos to the guys at Midas for trying to help us when so many others had turned us away.

It was getting dark, so we decided to head on to my friend’s house and try again in the morning. After the traumatic and emotional day, we decided to forego the Riverwalk and eat somewhere close. When we arrived at our hotel, it was late. Also, we found out that Labor Day weekend is a popular time in San Antonio for anime conventions and concerts. Which translates to zero parking. We ended up having to pay for valet just to park in the hotel’s garage.

The room at the Hotel Contessa was nice, but they somehow screwed up our booking, and we ended up with one king bed instead of two queens. So, Troy and my wife shared the bed, while I took the couch. By the time we crashed, it didn’t really matter…it was enclosed and cozy…with a picture of a bull on the wall.

The next morning, we decided to have breakfast on the Riverwalk to salvage some small sliver of the trip. While we got ready, I managed to find a couple of tire shops that were open. Nobody had our exact tires, but taking a page from the guys at Midas, we asked about tires near in size. We found one Goodyear tire shop that carried the bigger tires. We decided that was better than driving home in the spare, so we made an appointment and went to grab breakfast.

The weather was unusually beautiful and the walk along the river was very nice. It was a shame that we didn’t have more time to enjoy it. We ate at a very popular German restaurant, which turned out to be very good. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to ride the boats, so after a brisk walk back, we headed to the tire shop.

We opted for two tires instead of one, to attempt to save the alignment. And it took them two hours to change them, for some reason, even though there was only one other car at the shop. So, it was after two o’clock before we got on the road to Dallas. The drive back was uneventful, except for the weird thunderstorms that we drove through as we hit the edge of town. On the positive side God took care of us in our time of need. On the negative side, nothing went as planned this weekend.