Ty’s Weblog

We headed out to the pool today! In years past, we’ve not really been pool goers. Xander never really got into it when he was very little, mostly because Kate and I weren’t very good at putting on sunscreen on a squirming kid and it got in his eyes the first time we went. Then we had Mira, and it just seemed like more work than it was really worth.

Well, we’ve decided that this year we are going to make use of the pool and give the kids a good chance to enjoy it.

Xander had a good time. There were a few other kids there and he played with them some. He still doesn’t really enjoy the water, he wasn’t willing to really get down in it, but he did walk around in it and pick things up off the bottom of the pool. This is all the baby pool I’m talking about. I managed to get him into the big pool up to his knees, but he decided that was enough of that for the day. Mira still has to use the baby pool, so that’s where he really wanted to be anyway. In any case, he had a good time walking around and playing with the other kids and the toys they had brought.

Mira spent most of our time there standing 5 feet away from the pool staring at it. She wasn’t really sure what to make of it. Before we left, we managed to get her sitting on the edge with her feet in and she seemed to enjoy it. Kate and I think it might have been the other kids there that was really bothering her more than the water. We put in in the bathtub later in the day and she splashed around till we made her get out, so I don’t think it was the water that was bothering her.

We are planning on heading out there again today to see how it goes. We’re going to take some of out toys with us and maybe that’ll let Mira have more fun also.

I’m thrilled to report that we have an Arby’s in Leesburg now. It opened today and we ate there twice. It was a madhouse at dinner time. Apparently, we really needed an Arby’s.

We’ve gotten Xander and Mira new bicycles this weekend. And what a weekend it was.

Xander has a thing at his school this week on bike safety, and they are doing a big bike-a-thon on Friday. We decided that his tricycle was too small for him and it was time to move up to a bike. Mira wanted one too, so we figured we’d just go ahead and get them both one then.

Saturday morning we headed out to Target to look at bikes. We found one for each of them, but they were all boxed up, no way to try them out at the store. We read everything on them though, and they seemed to be the right size. We put those in the cart and started looking at helmets.

Helemts are nontrivial. We spent quite a while looking at different ones and trying to figure out what did and didn’t fit. We finally gave up. We decided to go get some lunch and then try and find a bike shop in town to get help with the helments. We put the bikes back on the shelf for now, since we can’t use them without helmets anyway.

On the way to lunch, we passed a bike shop, so we decided to head back to it after lunch. Turns out it was a good thing we did. The bike shop was hosting a free bike saftey class done by the police department. Part of the class was a fitting for a helmet, and you get to keep the helment for free. So we lucked into a $70 windfall there and the kids got a quick bike safety class out of it.

After that we headed back to Target and picked up the bikes we’d decided on earlier.

Move ahead to Saturday night. We get the kids in bed and move the bike boxes into the family room so we can put them together. We open up Xander’s first. I start reading the instructions and realize that this bike has a hand brake. It had never occured to me that bikes for that age would even have that as an option. We talk about it and decide that pedal brakes are going to be a lot easier to learn on and that a hand brake really takes a lot of work to use. So that goes back in the box to be returned.

Xander wasn’t asleep yet, so we called him downstairs to tell him about what we have found and the decision we’ve made, so we won’t be upset in the morning when his bike isn’t put together like we’d promissed. He was very understanding about it. We told him we’d wait and not put Mira’s together either since we couldn’t do his tonight. He told us to go ahead and put Mira’s togehter and he’d just ride his tricycle in the morning when they got up, because he didn’t want her to have to wait. I was amazed. I admit that sometimes I worry that we’re making mistakes with him, but then he does something like that. I figure any kid who at 6 years old can put his little sister before himself like that can’t turn out too bad in the end.

Anyway, we send Xander back up to bed and start getting Mira’s bike out. I’m thinking, “This should be no problem, it says right on the box, 5 easy steps.” I’d like to point out to the bike makers that it’s not really 5 easy steps when each step has parts a through f. That’s really 30 steps. In any case, I made it though “step 1″ pretty easily. Step 2 was a show stopper though. Before I’d started, I’d made sure I had the tools that the instructions said I’d need. One of those was a 6″ adjustable wrench. I had a 8″ adjustable wrench, so all should be good. The 8″ wrench couldn’t expand far enough to turn the bolt for step 2. Wonderful. So that has to wait till I can get a bigger wrench. Back in the box.

At this point, I call up my Dad to find out exactly how anyone after René had gotten a bike. He said that pretty much, after the first try, he bought them put together. Hey, that’s an idea!

So Sunday morning we head out to look for bikes again. First try is Wal-Mart. No real luck there. They didn’t really have anything that was the right size for Xander in stock.

So we head out to Sterling to the ToysRUs there. After some poking around we find two good bikes for them. It turns out that the instructions on the box for assembling the bikes are wrong. What you really need to assemble two bicycles it a pair of $10 bills. After some work with the associates in the store, we convince them to let us take two of the ones up on the shelf that are already put together, instead of coming back in two days to pick up one that they have freshly put together. A little more work convinces them to go open a new box up to get us the instructions for the bike that is missing them.

We go eat then and come home. The kids have a short quiet time so we can rest a little bit and then we head outside. The kids had a great time on the new bikes. Xander did a great job on his. I think he’ll be ready to get rid of the training wheels before too much longer. Mira still has some learning to do about how to use the peddles, but she had a good time also. It was a lot of fun watching them ride their new bikes and well worth the effort that was involved.

Xander had his play this week, Aesop’s Fables. He was a storyteller for it, which means he was narating three of the stories that the actors were doing. His stories were, The Dog and the Bone, The Tortoise and the Hare, and The Crow and the Pitcher. He had three performances this week.

Tuesday was the “dress rehersal” which was for the younger kids at his school (It’s the kindgergarten and elementry kids doing the play).

Wednesday morning was the first “real” performance. It was for whoever could make it, and for the kids from the Reston campus of the school he goes to. This was the first time we got to see it. He (and all the kids) did an amazing job. The biggest problem he has had is saying his lines too fast, because he knows them so well. He was a little fast on the first story, but was great on the last two. Mira also did a great job. She sat quietly and watched the whole play (which lasts about 30 minutes).

Thursday night was the “big” performance. Pretty much all the parents showed up for that one, along with anyone else they were bringing, which in our case included Nannie and JPa. Xander did an even better job this time. He was perfect on all his lines and stood still and tall for them. We were very impressed. Mira did another great job also watching the play.

Xander was very excited after the play, because his teacher gave him a flower to celebrate how well he had done. It was a wonderful time and we all enjoyed it.

I got the final crown on my tooth this morning. Wasn’t really any big deal. Everything went well. It’ll take a little while to get used to it being there, I suspect. It doesn’t hurt or anything, it’s just odd having it there.

They did the full all around x-ray thing while I was there. I’ve got a small cavity on the other side of my mouth where one of the fillings has errorded. She actually said that all the fillings on that side are in bad shape so they are going to replace them when they deal with the cavity. I’ve got an appointment for May 22nd to get that done.

I also got my cleaning done today, so after the filling replacements, I’ll be good for another 6 months.

Xander is very excited because he beat me for the first time in Battleship today. He’s been trying since he got it and today he managed it for the first time. He’s very proud of himself.

Found this out on the net.

A group of about 80 people go into a Best Buy dressed to resemble employees. They don’t ever claim to be, they just all show up at the same time and hang around the store. Quite funny.