Summer of 2014!!

Our first camping trip took us to the coast. It was a little cool, but it was like a billion in Eugene so we didn't complain.

Every new-ish parent is used to hearing the same three or four pieces of advice:

They grow up so fast.
Next think you know they're in high school.
Treasure these days.
Seriously, just lock them in the closet for a few hours and they'll learn.

On the one hand, I don't feel like these last 3 years with Wyatt have flown by. (He turns three in a month, so go ahead and start planning your party for him now). When you are a teacher, each year is pretty compartmentalized into two categories: "Summer," and "Sucky". So as a year goes by, I have a good feel and pace of it.

However, I did go into this summer with an understanding that Wyatt's only going to be two for a little bit longer. Right now, everything is new and wonderful and exciting for him. He gets wide eyed and takes big gasps when he sees a snail or a new type of bird, and his imagination is really starting to get a hold of him. I know that next year it won't be quite the same, and that he'll have tons of relentless, back-breaking questions and his words will be more formed and less cute and he'll have a better idea of what he does and doesn't like, and that next summer we'll have a little baby that will keep me from adventuring a bit more, so I really wanted to make this summer count.

For example, I had a goal of taking him camping every other week, during the summer. We went tent camping 4 times, in 4 different places, with 4 different groups of people, and we slept outside out grandpa's house and we'll probably sleep outside one of these nights too. But we did other things too.

The river spot we biked to at least 20 times.

We hiked and biked and swam in lakes and pools and rivers and threw rocks and saw waterfalls and ran races and built obstacle courses and read books and slept outside and slept in our hammocks and wrestled and wrestled and wrestled and we watched a snail cross the sidewalk and we tried to play cars with cats and we tried to learn about being a brother and we got him potty trained and got him sleeping through the night in his own bed and he pooped on my shoulder one time and we picked apples and we pressed cider and we picked berries and made cobbler and we went to like 12 different parks and we found waterfalls and we did so much more stuff.

It was a blast. It was a span of 10 weeks I will treasure forever. Really, we had so much fun and moved so fast I didn't get too many pictures of them all, which I am okay with.

Wyatt had the tow truck ready in case the snail broke down.

My two favorite people in one of my new favorite places.

Wyatt and Papa with Kambiz.

If you are a dentist and want to give us a free checkup, I assume this is the only picture you'd need? Just write me an email at worldsbestdad77@juno.com to let us know of any cavities.

You can't tell from his expression, but these are Wyatt's two best friends, and the people who get mentioned the most in his prayers outside of mom and dad.

Wyatt's favorite neighborhood cat, who isn't very good at playing cars.

The best picture I have of him at campfire, with his favorite accessory on his head and what I am going to assume is a box of matches in his hand. No, wait, that's a graham cracker.

I do love my job, actually. Teaching is wonderful because it is challenging and exhausting and it's never the same thing twice, really, and young people have energy and excitement. I like to pretend like summer ending is the worst thing that could happen to me, but only because squeezing a month between July and August sounds so appealing. But I've learned that I need to reach this mystical point where I am ready for school. Where I feel like I've done enough fun to enable myself to look out the window when I am sitting in my classroom, and see the sun and the breeze and be okay with the fact that I am not playing in that right now. This summer, I did that, and in a few hours I'll gladly go to my first day of work.

The summer of two-year-old Wyatt is over, can't wait for the fall.

My mood: Ready

Wyatt's mood: He actually spends about a week waking up in the morning and walking around the house looking for dad. He's used to having me home, but I am usually gone before he wakes up. It's cute and sweet and maybe a little sad.

Cara's mood: Sad I am going to work, but glad that I have a job and am not a total loser for 12 months of the year, just three of them.

Listening to: Ocean Avenue by Yellowcard

Boy or Girl Announcement!!

Alright, little man! Today we tell everyone if you're going to be a big brother or a big sister! Crazy how that works!

   Here's the deal: we know if we're having a boy or a girl!! This is super exciting and the tension is building!! How long can I keep typing before I reveal!? We just learned today! THIS IS SO FUN!!

   Actually, I've already talked about how much pressure there is to be all fancy and cute with these types of reveals. You need clever pictures if you are going to tell the world you're pregnant. You need colored cake to tell the world if you're having a boy or a girl. You need a special dance when you find out you're not the father on an episode of Maury.

Have you heard about this new trend? People have parties to announce the gender. The parents have someone else find out and bake a cake with blue or pink frosting on the inside. You cut it open to find out, and then realize how incredibly self involved you are!! Cara and I are planning on doing this, because it seems like a good scam to get presents. We'll have a "gender shower" where everyone brings two presents, one for a baby girl and one for a baby boy, or just two for the baby's dad. Then we open them and eat cake and you leave and we keep all the presents. Maybe I should just write another blog post about this and not put it in a caption.

   So let's skip all the failed attempts at being adorable and just skip to the facts. Here's the only image you'll need:

   There!! I can't imagine anything else you'd need in order to know the sex of our new little baby! I can't wait to start getting cute, appropriately colored onesies from all of you!!

   Hmm. On second thought, that might not be obvious enough to all of you non-doctors like my wife, or non-masters like myself. Here's a second try:

   Gah! I think Cara has some splaining to do.

   Ok no but seriously we are having a boy. A boy!! Wahoo!! Here's an actually somewhat useful picture of Cara's actual, somewhat useful belly:

   Pretty cute already, right? I mean his ears are kind of big and his forehead is suitable for sledding, but that's one adorable little nose, just like this guy's:

I feel like I deserve some kind of award for having never actually taken a bite out of his cheeks.  Circa 7 months old.

   A boy!! I'll check back in later to tell you just how happy I am about this, but it sure is fun to get the word out!

My mood: Things got real today. I'm ecstatic.
Wyatt's mood: Concerned about losing his throne.
Cara's mood: Outnumbered instead of even.
Listening to: Tom Petty

Classic Comedy!!

This kid will play till he drops. And then keep playing. He actually built himself
a sand pillow. Then he muttered "Car wy night night sleep." Over and over.

   Wyatt loves to say lots of words, and is really able to communicate what he wants with specific words, grunts and gestures. I wish he'd start stringing some sentences together, and throw in some words like "the, it, or, if, we, me, you, I..." really any non-noun or non-verb would be appreciated. Is there a word for words that aren't nouns or verbs?

   But don't think I am not trying to get him to talk more!! When he wants something, I pretend like I don't know what he wants. I want him to use his words, to tell me what he wants without just pointing. This happens:

   Let's all agree he's absurdly cute and move on.

   Wyatt has some interesting definitions he uses in language. Calling a fire truck a "water truck" and a garbage truck a "trash truck" isn't odd and is totally adorable, and things like calling a plane a "high bird" or a helicopter a "big bird" are logical, sure, but sometimes he's pretty entertaining.

  He's defined the word "mine" to mean "Wyatt's." Cara will be eating food and Wyatt takes a handful. Cara says "No Wyatt, that's mine."
Wyatt agrees and says "Uh huh! Mine!"
"No, Wyatt, it's mine. Mama's."
"Uh huh! Mine! Wyatt's!"
Cara then grabs the food and says "mine" and Wyatt says "mine!" and then I come home and say "Cara! You're the adult here!! You shouldn't be in a game of tug-of-war-of-words with a toddler. And if you are - holy crap you better win!"


   That video you saw above is not the only time I've run a Who's On First con on unsuspecting citizens.

   My buddy RJ and I have floated the McKenzie river bajillions of times. It was our pastime during high school and college summers. We bought two cheap, small inner-tubes and, in order to be able to tell them apart, on a whim we named them "My Tube" and "Yours." We even wrote these names on them with Sharpie.

   Soon, the comedy potential struck us. We'd float with new friends and I'd ask Rj "which tube do you have?"
"I have Yours."
"Good, cause I have My Tube." (Imagine it without the capital letters, and you'd be more confused.)

   My little brother in particular was a fun float friend for this reason. Every time, we'd run some clever concoction.
"Rj, can I take My Tube this time?"
"No, you've been using My Tube all summer, take Yours."
"Yours is full of wrappers from the last float, I'm going to take My Tube."

   Garrett knew some joke was up, but never figured it out. Sometimes Rj and I would pause to look at him and see if he had pieced it together (the names were written on the tubes for crying out loud), but he never did. Later, when I explained it to ANOTHER friend on a float, Garrett exclaims "Oh so that's what you were doing all along. Then I saw him process it for about half an hour, running all those conversations through his mind.

   Um... I guess that's all? Here's another picture and then we'll get to the finish line:

Cute little guy walking a cute little dog.

My mood: entertained yet frustrated
Wyatt's mood: Frustrated yet entertaining
Cara's doing: really, really well!!!