Bryce and Aidan got hold of the digital camera this afternoon and
started snapping pictures around the house..
At some point, Bryce decided he was interested in the left-over
zucchini bread on the kitchen counter..
Well, I think the photographic evidence speaks for itself..
Aidan came to Bryce's class to visit during their Christmas party this morning..
Santa Claus is coming to town!
Well, Santa made a special visit to Bryce's school and with Aidan already on Christmas break, both boys were able to visit with him...
Aidan hopped right into his lap and started yakking at him about life on the North Pole.. but Bryce wasn't so sure he wanted to get up close and personal with the man in the big beard..
Packages have been arriving steadily for the boys... and excitement builds with each ring of the doorbell around here...
Today, two packages arrived from Aunt Eileen..
... or perhaps not.
Watch here as, despite all the best efforts of the YMCA pre-school to stage this Christmas Choral presentation, complete with nominal choir director (that's the woman in the red sweater who motions to the children in a vain attempt to give structure to the event), Bryce and his surly gang of 2-year old non-conformists steadfastly refuse to sing! And so order gradually slips from the Y Staff's grasp...
See if you can catch the moment when Bryce spots his Mom and asks "where's Aunt Patty?"
Sorry for the shaky-cam-- it was the best I could do, considering we were at full-zoom from the back of the gym, and Bryce was yanking my arm, wanting to see the camera (you can hear him in the background asking questions)...
As promised-- though a little late-- some pictures from the 'Fine Arts Performance' at St. Ed's. Aidan got up on stage with the rest of his classmates and sang some Christmas carols-- and yes, he actually sang!
Can you pick him out of the crowd?
Bryce saw Santa Claus!Aidan and Bryce helping to decorate the tree ...
and another shot of the new tree...
We did some serious Christmas decorating last week.. and the boys got into the spirit helping us to put ornaments on the tree (and then they went down to Gramma and Grampa's this weekend and helped decorate their tree as well!)...
...for the brief hiatus.
Daddy has been away to Los Angeles for the Notre Dame-USC game ...
..though as you may be able to tell from this second picture, the good people at USC didn't give us the greatest of seats.
Email from Mama this morning:
The boys were just in the playroom with that nerf football, and Aidan
yelled, "I'm Brady Quinn! Catch, Bryce!" So I said, "Does that make
Bryce Jeff Samarzdija?" And Aidan yelled back, "NO, Mom, he's Darius
Walker. That's my player!"
It's the week of Thanksgiving, of course, so the boys are each getting to celebrate the holiday in different ways in their respective classrooms. Bryce really took the cake today, though, when he came home dressed as "Swift Bear"... and it only took him about 5 minutes to figure out how to open up his little shaker to find out that there were beans inside...
Today, Aidan got to go to school dressed as his favorite character from a children's book..
He chose to go dressed as Charlie from the Charlie and Lola books.
Here he is with his friend Andrew-- who apparently is a fan of the Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy books (I'm actually not sure who Andrew was dressed was)...
The subject of occupations came up this week-- a conversation that I, frankly, think is long overdue-- and Aidan made no bones about his intentions:
"When I grow up, I'm going to be a Daddy."
But what do you want to be for work?
"I won't ever go to work"
No?
"No. I'll just get to stay home and do whatever I want to do."
Bryce then interjected an idea for himself:
"I'm going to be a necklace."
Friends from Paducah, Dudley and Gail, came for a visit today with their kids, Olivia and Connor. The kids had a great time playing all afternoon.. in fact, they hardly stopped playing long enough for me to snap this picture of them!
Good friends Miki and Tom and their little boy James visited this weekend and we also had Aidan's friend Jake as an overnight guest on Saturday..
So what better way to spend the afternoon than to run around a playground for an hour or two..
James has really grown up so much since the boys saw him last November and we had a great time visiting with Miki and Tom, amidst all the kid-chaos! We will have to make another trip to Knoxville sometime in the near future to see them again soon!
Had a little trouble posting pictures the other night.. so here are some more pictures of the boys with freshly carved pumpkins, in their Halloween Costumes, and sorting through their candy..
Well, as expected the boys had a magnificent Halloween this year.
Aidan went as a clown and Bryce went as Woody from Toy Story and they got to visit with a bunch of our new friends from the neighborhood and meet a few new people, as well.
They both came back from trick-or-treating with loads of candy and then were excited to sit on the front porch and watch for trick-or-treaters coming to our house so they could be the ones to dole out some candy.
Aunt Frances and Uncle Wyatt came over for dinner last night and we carved some pumpkins, so we had plenty of good jack-o-lanterns decorating the porch through the night.
Now that they've come down off the sugar-high, we've managed to get the boys both into bed, so we're all winding down here now..
Happy Halloween!
Over the weekend, our friends Janeen and Paul, and their daughter Carly Beth visited us from Mississippi.
Carly Beth is 3 and Aidan and Bryce had a WONDERFUL time playing with her while she was here.
Aidan had his fourth and final Cross Country meet today.
I shot some more video and (really will) be posting a little clipped-together compilation very soon..
Over the course of the last several weeks, Aidan's really developed into quite the little runner. He's not the fastest out there, but he has fun and seems to enjoy the competition-- sometimes a little too much-- "I beat you, Will!"
So we're focusing on the more important stuff with him-- finishing, running hard, and having fun. All of which he's done superbly I think.
And Bryce has really honed his cheering skills. He asks to be lifted up so he can see the runners and then, mimicking all the parents around him, he claps his hands and shouts things like "Yeah, runners! Way to go!"
And then at the end of the race today, Bryce gave Aidan a big hug and said "I'm so proud of you."
Well, I guess it's good to know the kids don't only hear the cussing their Mama and I utter.
Just a quick note to say that Aidan had his third (of four) cross country meet yesterday-- and not only did he finish again this week, but he really blew by some of the competition.
Now understand, there are some kids-- even at the kindgergarten level-- who would appear to be getting coaching on the side from the Kenyan national team. But, with Grampa and Aunt Laura there to cheer him on this week, Aidan did really well and finished up pretty close to a few of the kids who are normally way out in front!
Next week is the last of the cross country meets for the year.
It's funny how your toddler can sometimes transmit to you the little things their teachers must say during the day.
Bryce was looking at photos of Aidan's classmates online with his Mama when, out of the blue, Bryce, in response to one of the photos, says "Oh my gracious!"
Our only guess is that this must be one of those little everyday turns of phrase that Bryce's pre-school teacher, Ms. Jean, must use.
It's Cowboy Round-Up at Aidan's school today.
Aidan and his friend Andrew posed for this picture shortly after we got there.
Oh, to be in Kindergarten again!
Just wanted to make sure and get a quick note up here about Aidan's second Cross Country meet-- which he ran yesterday.
It was a beautiful, sunny day-- 86 degrees, but with a cool breeze (that note for any of the family from the North who may be reading this!)
He did just fine and didn't seem to worry at all about a repeat of last week.
He ran right through the parking lot section of the course and straight on to the finish line..
In fact, after snapping a picture of him running by in the parking lot, I tried to scamper over to the finish line in time to catch a picture of him there, but no luck-- he'd beaten me there!
So this second picture is of the Finish Line, with Aidan having disappeared around the corner and into the crowd around the Finish Line just a moment before.
He was very excited and proud to have finished the race.. and he really looked great out there!
Here's a quick video of Aidan and Bryce in the wake of painting a Clifford puppet (as part of a project for Aidan's class).. Well, you can see how it goes. My wife, I think, suffered the classic journalistic dilemma: whether to put the camera down and intervene or just keep shooting..
Aidan had his first Cross Country meet today.
Yeah, that's right.. in Kindergarten at St. Ed's, they do Cross Country-- or as Aidan more aptly describes it, "Running."
It's a good way for Aidan to run off a little extra energy twice a week after school.
It's also a good way for 1500 or so parents and volunteers from Catholic schools all over the region to get together and mill around on a big field for a few hours on a series of Sundays in the early Fall. It was SOOO much larger an event than any of us expected, I think we were all a little overwhelmed.
Unfortunately for Aidan, during the Kindergarten Boys run, some of that milling involved some volunteers from another school-- in their attempts to cheers on and encourage a few kids from another school-- knocking Aidan down. And that wouldn't have been so bad if he hadn't fallen flat on his forehead. And even THAT wouldn't have been so bad if this all hadn't come during the part of the run pass through an asphalt parking lot..
So Aidan's got a HUGE knot on his head tonight and a skinned knee. We were worried at first that we might need to take him to the Emergency Room, but another parent at the meet who indicated she's a doctor checked him out and said there wasn't anything more serious than the big bruise. We've been keeping an eye on him to make sure he's okay tonight and he seems to be doing fine. He seems most upset that he didn't finish the race.. and he's already talking about practice tomorrow and wanting to finish the race at the next meet next Sunday.
(quick note if you're looking at the pictures: the St. Ed's kids are the ones in the bright Kelly Green jerseys)
Making pancakes this morning and, as usual, the boys wanted to help..
Aidan helped add the sugar.. Bryce helped add the baking powder..
And both helped to stir the batter..
And when Aidan got the whisk in his hand, he announced to Bryce and me:
"I'm going to stir. I'm the Stirring Man."
Last Sunday, Aunt Patty and I took the boys to the Tennessee Central Railway Museum to see Thomas the Tank Engine-- who made a stop in Nashville as part of his swing through the mid-South. We got to meet Sir Topham Hatt, got some temporary tattoos, and even got to ride in a train car pulled by Thomas...
Aidan shows off his tattoo.
Thomas showed remarkable patience with all of these gawking onlookers...
Catching up on the last couple of weeks..
Bryce started back to his little Y pre-school last week..
He was, we think, a little disappointed that he hasn't been able to make the leap straight to Kindergarten with his older brother.. but now that he's back with a few of his old friends from the spring, he's loving it.
And his teacher has been very complimentary to us on what a strong, independent little boy we're raising-- and we laugh to each other because we hardly feel like we've had anything to do with it.
Young Bryce is a force to be reckoned with!
Bedtime story-time is all the rage at our house..
And occasionally, Aidan will take it upon himself to read a story to Bryce..
And yes, Bryce does have that monkey's paw in his mouth.. and no, I don't have any idea why.
Okay, I know this is off topic..
but Notre Dame plays Penn State today... so I've just got to go back to the last time the Irish played the Nittany Lions...
Bettis, Brooks, Mirer, Bobby Taylor, Irv Smith, and Craig Hentrich (... and a really gutsy last-second call by Lou Holtz..
Remember the "Snow Bowl".. and the days when coaches needed 'Cable Caddies' so they could stalk the sidelines with the headset on..
