Sight For 4 Eyes! - Sept 30

Almost exactly 1 year ago Chloe was fitted for her first real pair of prescription glasses. She was excited and she has worn them successfully for an entire year without breaking or significantly scratching or damaging them. Proud parenting moment when your kid proves she is sometimes a responsible little human being. LOL. A few weeks back we both went in for our eye exam(s) and last week we scooted over to Costco to pick out some stylish new frames. Chloe actually picked hers out a few months ago which turned out to be a blessing because when we went back they didn't even have them on the wall as a choice. This kid if nothing else is the most decisive kid I have ever met. She says she wants something and she doesn't want anything else. We are weirdly similar in that way. =)

Her glasses were ready much faster than mine and we picked them up earlier this week. BOOM. Transformed into a different kid! I've said it before, I'll say it again: kids that wear glasses today are SO LUCKY. Stylish frames, thin lenses..oh man did I have some fun ones when I was a kid.

Just a few pics of the girl in her new specs. Have a great weekend, folks~
-B

TOP GUN! - Sept 23

I race R/C cars. It's fun, I love it. It probably sounds extremely dorky to the average person, but it's just something I have been into from a young age. When I was a kid, I remember getting my first car and it was awesome..and expensive...and it broke a lot. Not really a hobby even though it's aimed at kids that makes much sense for kids. When I was old enough to race, my friend and I were always like the youngest kids there it was always adults with..jobs and money. LOL.

Anyway, I remember selling off my stuff around the time that I started to need the money for my *real* car. When I was 21 or 22 I purchased a few cars from a guy and kind of got back into it a little bit with some guys I worked with but there still wasn't anywhere to race. Then, about 3 years ago I found out there was a track in Union City (about 30 minutes away) so I made a trip over there and shortly thereafter sold all my old r/c stuff and picked up a new "ready to run"(fully assembled)car to try to start racing again. For the last 3 years I have spent practically every Wednesday night racing and it has been a blast. Anyway, long story long, last weekend the track that I race at(now in San Jose) held their 7th annual "TOP GUN" race. It was the 3rd time I have been able to participate in this big race and the winner of each class is competing for an authentic, customized "TOP GUN" fighter pilot helmet. Basically, a dorky trophy.

The last 2 years I was able to finish 2nd and 3rd but never able to put it in the winners circle...until this year. I WON! I was mostly excited to bring home this stupid helmet and show Chloe. I figured she would get a kick out of it and...she didn't really care that much. LOL. We goofed around and I snapped some pics of her with it..and here we are.

Have a great weekend, folks~

-B

Signs Of Fall! - Sept 16

The weird thing about doing this blog now for so long is that things just start to happen without me even realizing almost exactly a year has gone by since the last time basically the same thing happened. Confused? LOL.

What I mean is, last week as Chloe and I were walking the dog an area caught my attention(that I noticed the year before) was already starting to pile up with fallen leaves. Every day when we walk the dog Chloe has this fascination with collecting sticks and leaves so when I mentioned to her that we would come back to snap a few pictures with the leaves, she remembered immediately doing it last year and was excited to do it again.

Looking back, had I posted the photos last week it would have been exactly 1 year from the last time we did this. The strange part is, now 2 years in a row she wore an "Inside Out" shirt which I thought was weird. Last year she did not have her glasses yet and had not lost her big front teeth so she definitely looks completely different this year. In a way it's sort of fun creating these stupid little traditions and I'm glad that Chloe is still interested to play along. =)

Have a great weekend, folks~
-B

Not Scared Of The Dentist!- Sept 9

Busy week but not many pictures to prove it, unfortunately. Last weekend was a long 3 day "labor day" weekend so in addition to our regularly scheduled weekend full of who knows what, we had an additional day Monday to do whatever. We ran some errands and did some things, headed to the park and tried Chloe's hand at actual Tennis and shot some basketball. Family stuff.

On Wednesday, I took Chloe in to the dentist to have her permanent molars "sealed". The dentist, in fact, is the same exact dentist that I had my teeth done when I was a kid. I may have told this story before but the dentist actually has in his file a note about me crying hysterically I believe when they had to do some work on a cavity. I can't remember how old I was, but we have a good laugh about it basically every time I go in there. He walked by while the lady was doing Chloe's teeth and commented about how great Chloe was doing with it. Then he told me a story about how his daughter went to college and came back with 8 cavities. WEIRD.

30 minutes in the chair and we were out of there. Chloe handled it like a champ. Hopefully this combined with her fantastic dental habits she has learned from her flossing, brushing parents will set her up pretty well. =)

Have a great weekend, folks~

-B

The Chore Chart - Sept 2

Well week one of Chloe starting school "late" has come to an end. It's kind of trippy, but so far so good. The dumb thing of course is that smack dab in the middle of the week they have the oddball day where everybody comes and goes at the same (earlier) time. The real difference for me comes with the insanity that is 3pm pick up. The rest of the school all gets out right around 3pm so it becomes a crazy parking/driving free for all when 900 parents are all trying to pick their kids up without having to get out of the car. I've been hearing people complain about this for a while now on facebook and it seems to be much worse at other schools but I can definitely vouch, it's a thing. I've been playing with what time I get there and where I park which I still have yet to find the best method of the two..but I have plenty of time to work it out. lol.

Something we have been sort of "soft launching" this chore chart thing for Chloe which I imagine parent's are familiar with in some capacity. Going through the summer we definitely had some attitude issues and some general conflicts that seem to come with the kid being 6 years old(or so I'm told). This so far has been a good way to get Chloe into good behavior and potentially earning some things that she wants. It's been working pretty well so far and I imagine we will continue to fine tune it as time goes on. I also think starting back into school has helped in tuning Chloe's attitude. Hopefully she won't make a liar out of me!

Have a great weekend, folks~

-B

The Late Bird! - Aug 26

This week Chloe's school had their "back to school" night (is that what it's called?) on Wednesday and I, of course, didn't go. LOL.

Actually, that's a joke because both Heather and I have been quite fortunate thus far to be able to attend almost every school function the last several years together. I know many families struggle to even get just one parent there. This year, Heather went by herself because it happened to fall on a Wednesday night(that is really the only night of the week that I kind of have standing plans). By now we kind of know the drill so Heather went and filled me in on all the new things that will be happening this year. The school seems to have adopted a new homework policy (for grades k-3 at least) of which there basically is not any homework. The kids will be asked to read daily at home in some capacity but beyond that, she will not have homework. They also apparently won't be having any field trips this year where they will physically leave the school. All of the events they will be participating in will be coming to the school instead.

Another significant change for us starting on Monday is that Chloe has been assigned "late bird" status. If you aren't familiar, the first grade class is essentially split in half early bird/late bird where each half of the class will have 50 minutes per day of concentrated time with the teacher(s) for reading. Starting Monday, instead of starting school at 830, Chloe will now start at 920. Instead of getting out at 2pm, she will now get out at 3pm.

Now, I dislike getting up early as much as the next guy but...a big part of me was hoping that she would get "early bird" status just because we have been doing it this way all along, and it works. That said, I'm sure this will be fine. It just will take some getting used to(for all of us).

Just a few random pics of Chloe this week. Have a great weekend, folks~

B

First Grade! - Aug 19

Yes it's Friday and we now officially conclude Chloe's first week of 1st grade.

That was fast.

So on Monday we officially said goodbye to summer vacation and hello again to school. This time it was not the huge mountain of uncertainty that it was LAST YEAR when we started kindergarten. Summer seemed like it was just a couple of short weeks and now it was just time to fall back into the "routine" again. Chloe was excited to start school and she was excited that she would know a few of her classmates from the year before. This year, her teacher from last year actually is teaching the K/1 split class so there are some kids from Chloe's class last year that have the same teacher for the 2nd year in a row. Chloe's new teacher seems nice and everybody that asks who we have tells us nothing but good things(really about any/all of the 1st grade teachers) so that's a relief. LOL.

We got to do a quick tour of the classroom last Friday and then like I said Monday it was GAME TIME. There really was not the big pomp and circumstance there was last year for the first Kinder drop off although all the parents were all over the place and my claustrophobia was starting to get a little bit agitated. The kids greeted each other(or played shy and stood quietly) and the teacher came out and said hello to each kid in line and then they were gone. Just like that.

Like I said, it sort of felt like winter break last year, no big deal and right back to the grind. 1st grade starts 10 minutes later than last year but goes about an hour and some change longer each day. The schedule is wacky and in a few weeks they will assign the whole early bird/late bird thing and the schedule will change again(potentially). According to Chloe, the main difference so far is the fact that they get TWO recesses and they eat lunch. From what I can gather, they release the kids out to recess, then call them in to have lunch, then release them again after they eat.

All in all, it has been an easy week for Chloe but she has literally always been ready for school every year so far. She really likes school and that's good because I have it on good authority that feeling does not last forever. Just like everything with kids, just try to enjoy it while it lasts. =)

Have a great weekend, folks~

-B

Route Sixty...Sick! - Aug 12

Well, it was bound to happen. Take enough trips to Disneyland and you are eventually bound to have a weird one. You can call us last minute Sally because once again we slapped together a last minute trip to Disneyland. I know, I know, we just went. Basically, whatever. LOL. We have annual passes, Heather had time off work, Summer is just about over, what's the problem then, you ask? Let me tell you.

On Friday night, Chloe said her belly hurt before going to bed. Note to self, Chloe's belly never hurts her so if she says that, something is going to happen. Sure enough, after about 2 hours she woke up and threw up..A LOT. Chloe, however, is a champ and she kept going back to sleep but unfortunately waking up all night throwing up. We aren't sure if she ate something bad or if she had a bug, but she was up all night getting sick(and so was Heather). She let me sleep knowing I had an ALL DAY wedding the next day. Very grateful.

So Saturday, it's already to late to cancel our hotel room so Heather stayed home all day with Chloe trying to see what her situation was. Like I said before, I was going to be gone all day and our plan was to leave first thing Sunday morning..so I left it all in Heather's hands. Chloe didn't get sick anymore but(That's not 100% true) she also was not interested in eating anything, as you can imagine. Well, we decided to go anyway and we drove down Sunday without issue. When we arrived, we loaded up and went to the park and while Chloe was excited to do some rides, her body was not up for it. We had dinner and went back to the room to go to bed and try again fresh on Monday morning. Monday, Chloe was in good spirits and was eating and drinking. We went to the park and she did go on some rides although we did take it pretty easy and we ended up going back to the room pretty early with the intention of taking a nap and then going back. We all fell asleep and instead of napping for an hour, we all woke up 2.5 hours later and that was a wrap.

Tuesday, Chloe was almost completely herself again but unfortunately Heather wasn't feeling well. It was hot and we tried to do our normal routine but everything we tried to do seemed to backfire on us. We started our day in Disney California Adventure getting our "Radiator Springs Racers" fast passes and then by Chloe's request, "California Screamin" (roller coaster). Then we went to Regular "Disneyland" and got our first fast passes for "Splash Mountain" and then went over to do another of Chloe's favorites, "Big Thunder Mountain". After waiting in line about 30 minutes for the train ride, it broke down and they asked everyone to get out of line. It was closed for over an hour so we wend to have lunch and see what else we could do. When time came for our fast passes for Splash Mountain we walked through the line, got right up to the front about 10 feet from being on the ride..and that ride broke down. They said we could wait in line if we wanted, so we waited about 30 minutes only to overhear them saying it was going to be another 1+ hour because they were waiting for the fire department to assist in getting people off a certain portion of the ride.

So we left that ride and the park was absolutely PACKED at that point. All the main rides that Chloe wanted to do had over a 1 hour wait. Matterhorn, Indiana Jones, Star Tours, Space Mountain, even Pirates of the Caribbean. Actually, the Pirates ride said it was "only" 40 minutes but as we walked by that ride people were leaving because that ride broke down as well. Literally, a disaster. We went back to Disney California because at least we could do some stuff and not have ridiculous wait times.
As the day went on, Heather was feeling worse so once again the decision was made to cut the day short and head back to the room to turn in early. Our "relaxing" vacation while not perfect, wasn't terrible after all but it certainly wasn't our "usual" experience. LOL.

Today(Friday) we will find out who Chloe's teacher will be for next year and we get to do a little meet and greet in the classroom. On Monday, SCHOOL STARTS! Crazy. Summer vacation is officially OVER.

Here are some pics of the trip. Random, as usual but it's always fun just to look back at this with Chloe and see some Disney stuff. The last picture is a split screen of our 2nd trip to Disney when Chloe was just 2 years old and this last trip. The first picture, Chloe had fallen asleep in my arms while we waited over 45 minutes to do the 3-D Toy Story Mainia ride. Every time we wait in that line, that's all either of us can think about. And the VERY last pic is from the 2nd "Hot Danville Nights" show where my dad decided to bring out his Mustang for the first time ever.

Have a great weekend, folks~

-B