Highlights
- Fun with Nanna and Poppa
- Swimming lessons come to our house
- Football, football, football
- Evan goes on first “movie adventure” and starts swimming
Calan
Nanna and Poppa visit
This month began while Nanna and Poppa were here for a special visit. The kids always find fun, little “themes” with Nanna and Poppa when they visit, and this time was no different. Most notable was Calan and Poppa solving mysteries together. Their toughest case was a loose coin that was found downstairs on the floor. It was a 10¢ Mexican coin. At first, no one knew how it got on the floor of the family room, or even how it came to be in our house in the first place. Together, Poppa and Calan asked questions and narrowed it down that Dada had been to Mexico City years ago, and had saved some Mexican coins. The coins were brought out earlier this year when Calan became interested in money and currency. Perhaps, this coin fell on the floor upstairs. When Calan discovered that stepping on a coin with his bare foot caused it to stick to the bottom of his foot, he hypothesized that the coin traveled downstairs on his the sole of his feet. Mystery solved!
Another theme during the trip had to do with an invisible bunny named “Harvey”. This little bunny was both illusive and mischievous. Whenever you tried to find him, it was…well impossible, because he was invisible. At times, Calan said that he could in fact see Harvey. He pointed out that Harvey had very long ears; and indeed, they were 85-feet long. Whew… But for the days that Nanna and Poppa were here, Harvey was responsible for anything then went wrong: when items went missing or were moved, or when unexplained messes were discovered. Harvey also made appearances on the pages of books we were reading with Calan. He’d literally pop up, right in the middle of the story. He was quite the guy, that little bunny.
Poppa also introduced “got your nose” to Calan. If you’re quick enough, you can swipe at someone’s face at the speed of light and capture their nose. If you hold your hand just right, you can show the person their nose in your hand. 😉 Calan had a lot of fun with this, although he preferred getting noses rather than having his taken.
Nanna got to enjoy many precious moments with the kids, sometimes just sitting and talking outside, walking around with Evan, or reading a book with Calan or Evan on the couch. She also did some math on the abacus with Evan, which was a sweet moment to see Nanna, the teacher with her grandson. We enjoyed our time, and even got to reminisce watching old videos and family photos Poppa had digitized and brought for us to watch.
As usual, the visit went by quickly, and before we knew it we were taking Nanna and Poppa back to the airport. Calan stayed home from the trip to Burbank, but as we pulled away, waving with windows down, Calan stretched his hand out toward Poppa alongside the car and yelled “got your nose!” Sorry, Poppa, hopefully you get your nose back soon.
Swimming and Football
Calan stayed pretty busy this month with his swimming lessons, football schedule and playing with friends. On the football side, Calan continued to enjoy his practices and games, despite being on the large team and not getting to touch the ball much. One fun moment came though when Dada urged Jose to influence the other coach to let Calan run a play for the first time this season. Calan had been eager to run for days. In fact, much of his play time in the house recently was running imaginary plays with his football. He was nearly obsessed. yelling “down, set, hike!”, then scurrying through the family room, around the kitchen, living room, and dodging imaginary tacklers always to score a touchdown. At times, Dada became the guy to defend some of his fantasy plays and was instructed to try to catch him. Of course, Calan believed he was getting faster and faster, showing us he was faster than when he was four and faster than the day before as he “trained” each day. Well, his intensity paid off on the play he had the chance to run. With Nanna and Poppa looking on, he got the ball and bootlegged around the left side, then turned up his speed as he raced along the sideline to the goal line with the opposing team in pursuit. Just as he crossed, he scored: https://youtu.be/xwQHApPywW4
As Calan’s football obsession continued, we coordinated some “off-field” games with friends. We had fun a couple Sunday afternoons at the Rodriquez family church. The intensity dominated here too as Calan worked hard to get the ball and be a part of the plays, unlike his structured YMCA games. And of course, after each Y Saturday game as time permitted, Calan loved running plays and racing his new friends Steve, Susie and Joe from the Trapp family. Calan also got much better at throwing and catching. When he wasn’t tearing through the house carrying the football, he and Dada were having some good throw and catch sessions in the living room. After a few days, Calan would have moments where he could catch almost anything thrown his way from the corner of the living room to the top of the first floor landing (yes, Mama we played safe). It was a quick and fun way for Calan to improve and get comfortable catching the football. Next season: practice throwing skills outside. 😉
On the swimming front, lessons moved from the early morning at another host’s house to an early afternoon session M-Th at our pool. There was a little extra activity because we hosted a second class to help out coach Lynne. Calan did great, continuing to improve his strokes. His hardest thing to remember was keeping “tight fingers” as he moved the water with his hands, and of course, taking breaths when swimming across the pool. He especially loved fin day on Wednesdays because he gets to go fast. He likes going as fast as he can, which Lynne quickly points out is okay as long as technique is good. He also got “cleared” to use his goggles for swimming but not to become dependent on them. Combined with swim play-dates with friends like the Rodriquez clan or Trapp family, Calan is getting to spend some good time in the pool this summer.
Notable quotes this month:
Dada just before a warm Saturday flag football game: “Don’t drink all your water at one time.”
Calan: “But the Earth has more water. We can just dig for it.”
“I’m so cold. If I was warmer, I’d still be cold.”
Mama and Dada were talking about how Calan forgot to subtract on one of his math activities…he had added instead. Overhearing, Calan looked up and said, “Oh, c’mon guys, don’t just talk about it…sing about it!”
After trying to go potty one night before bed and nothing came out: “My body says, ‘OK we’re not gonna go potty now, the food hasn’t dissolved yet.'”
Calan: “Did you know cats are nocturnal and we’re diurnal?”
Dada: (feeling particularly tired at the moment) “I want to be both, just so I can sleep all night and then sleep all day.”
Calan: “Well…Dada, that’s what bears do in the winter.”
When talking one morning about ages: “Mama, why do people turn numbers and not letters?”
“Sometimes I try and kick my butt and do butt-kickers to keep from people grabbing my flag.” (Oh, we’re talking about a football drill here)
Evan
Evan had a couple of fun “firsts” this month. Since Calan’s swim coach Lynne needed our pool for 4 weeks to use for another class we worked out that she would introduce Evan to the pool officially one Sunday afternoon. Evan was comfortable floating around and getting “dunked” in the water last summer. This summer, he had forgotten that it’s okay to get in the water and was a little apprehensive. Just when he was back in the groove with Dada though, we handed him over to Lynne for his 30-minute session. He didn’t like that so much. With Evan crying, we hid ourselves inside with Calan and watched out the window. Within a few minutes, Lynne was able to calm him down to first be comfortable with her. Twenty minutes later, Evan was happily diving under water in Lynne’s grasp and retrieving “treasures” at the bottom of the pool. He had accomplished the first step toward learning to swim. Lynne gave us some instructions, including buying some new treasure with Evan and letting him go under water daily with us. It’s safe to say that Evan looks forward to his swim sessions with both Mama and Dada (and Calan too, of course).
Evan also went to his first movie in a theater this month. Like his swimming lesson, he was unsure at first as we walked though the door and into the dark theater with speakers booming out a preview. Evan stopped in his tracks, then started inching backwards, saying “too loud, too loud.” Once we helped him in and got settled though he was glued to Dada’s lap the entire movie. We saw “The Secret Life of Pets” (co-written by Mama’s old student’s Dad Cinco). He enjoyed the movie, but needed the security of Dada (and Mama, who joined us a few minutes in coming from work). The “movie adventure” was also extra special because we went with our new friends, the Trapp family from flag football. Evan and Dada sat next to Lizzy…who is just a couple months older than Evan but was a movie veteran. Needless to say, she didn’t stay in her seat the entire movie.
A sweet moment with Calan, we have to record was when one morning Calan was doing math exercises at the kitchen table. Evan came up and started to nuzzle Calan with the top of his head. Calan instantly got annoyed with the interruption from his little brother, but then realized that Evan was just showing him some loving affection. Just then Evan said, “I love you CAW-yon.” Calan immediately took a break from his work, and they hugged for nearly a minute just cuddling head to head. That’s good stuff.
Notable quotes this month:
Evan loves baths, and one Sunday evening as Dada drew the water Evan said, “Evan take a bath. Take off shirt and take off pants.” As Evan begins to say short sentences and other strings of thoughts and words, this one was especially cute.
Sometimes when we stop doing something with Evan, we say “last time”. He likes to apply this to other things like “last time piece” to say one more piece…or “last time book” for that one final book.