Allosaurus of the Redwoods

 

Arcata!

 

 

 

 

King of the Sea Monster

 

Our Kids

 

Goofball

 

 

 

 

Nowadays, me taking any kind of posed photo of Alec consists of me saying, "No goofy face" as he sticks out his tongue or gives me the skunk eye. We are also contending with another sign of the almost-4-year-old: the "annoying voice."

First Day of 3-Day Preschool

 

 

Last year, for Alec's first day of preschool, I stood him in front of the house with his little rolling backpack and he dutifully waited while I took several pictures suitable for framing. This year, he insisted on holding this random frog and then he kept making that goofy face that little boys make.

Soon after Tom and Alec got to preschool, Tom called to give me a heads-up that Doodle, the class rat, had died two days prior. (But I just SAW Doodle at the preschool board meeting; Doodle we hardly knew ye!) Alec has been asking a lot of questions about death, so we wanted to keep an eye on the Doodle bomb-drop. Alec is gradually becoming aware that higher and higher orders of animals die, ever since the death of his fish, Greenie, whom many months later he still starts to say goodbye to every time we leave the house. He'll say, "But lizards don't die. They grow a new tail and then a new head." He's up to, "But cats don't die."

When I got to the preschool at noon for the lunchy meetup, Alec was in circle time sweating in a tiger suit and loving it.

Gram Pal

 

We're leaving Yreka to head back to Chico tomorrow. Alec is going to miss his grandma and Gram and being spoiled rotten. But we're anxious to get back to Dad and Jody.

Smoky Fair

 

 

 

Lofty Goals

Alec says when he grows up he wants to be just like Daddy, or an allosaurus.

More Vacay Pix

 

 

 

 

The highlights: the beach; surry; aerial tram
The lowlight: Gram's broken wrist

Brilliant Things Alec Has Said Lately

--I was decorating a bee cupcake for EasyCupcakes.com and Alec said, "You should put a stinger on it. Use licorice."

--Alec asked (for the bazillionth time) why Dad and I work. I eventually boiled down my answer to, "To make money." Today he said, "Well, I can make money with the machine at Chuck E. Cheese's."

--Yesterday Alec said he wasn't tired at bedtime and wanted to stay up. "Mom, I think I'm a nocturnal animal."

Who's Afraid of the Aerial SkyTram?

 

 

 

 

Beach Bum

 

 

 

 

Alec's Definitions

"There's something sizzling my feet." Translation: His foot fell asleep.

eye fur = eyebrows

hairwater = sweat

Happy 4th of July!

Best Gram Ever

 

Semantics

Alec was just playing dinos and he had a little dino shoved in a big dino's mouth. And he clarified: "He's not eating it. He's babysitting it with his mouth."

Threshing Bee: We Passed on the Bee Beard

 

 

 

Chuck E. Cheese's: Not As Disgusting As You Might Expect

Yesterday Alec learned that we'd been keeping something from him. Something big. Something called Chuck E. Cheese's.

Tom and I are not fans of that mouse, due to horrible memories of dirt-crusted singing robotic animals, cardboard pizza and, most of all, screeching children covered in varying degrees of snot.

Because I love Alec so much, I planned a trip to the big cheese. I did not tell Tom. I told Alec we were going to a mystery location, to which he asked, "Can we take the Mystery Machine like Shaggy and Scooby-Doo?" When we pulled up to the evil destination, his eyes got as big as cardboard pizzas. It was as if I had never told him that a herd of dinosaurs secretly lives in that overgrown patch in our back yard, or that he could eat blueberries and cheese doodles all day.

It was surprisingly clean, and empty (because it was about 3 in the afternoon, I guess). Alec was scared of the two Jurassic Park games and a stomp-on-spiders game and wouldn't go on the tunnel climbing thing, but he rode some rides and played some games. Once he figured out the currency of the situation (games=tickets=prizes) he was really into it. He carefully deliberated over the prizes and selected a stretchy dino, nose glasses, a lollipop and tattoos.

He's been talking about it ever since. "What was that place I went to? It's called Chuck E. Cheese. What's the good game? What's the scary game? What did I did? What did I win?"

Achievement of Olympic Proportions

 

 

 

 

Yes, it seems silly to have a preschool graduation. And even more indulgent to give "diplomas" to the kids who are just moving up from the two-day class to the three-day. But it's so darn cute!
The festivities yesterday evening at Alec's school capped off the month's Olympics theme. The kids took part in a relay (Instead of circling the playground, Alec took the baton and sat down) and a water balloon toss before joining in a pint-sized protest of the Beijing Olympics (OK, I made that last part up). They each got a crown of grape leaves (really maple) and a medal; Alec is still miffed I wouldn't let him wear his to bed.
Then came the graduation ceremonies, which consisted of the teacher presenting a diploma and saying what each kid had told her he or she wanted to be upon growing up. Alec said "a dino," which might not seem to be the most realistic of career goals, but dino is a far more power position than that chosen by the kids who wanted to be a kitten, a frog and a pegasus.