Children and Pets

Today Josh's teacher told Chris that Josh had a good day at school. She also asked that we remind Josh not to lick the chairs there.

It seems as if he's been watching too much Clifford.

Destructo Baby

Here's Molly partaking in Phase I of one of her favorite pastimes: emptying my purse and wallet out onto the floor. Phase II involves (if she can get away with it) carrying the contents all over the house. Luckily I caught her early today (she was pretty sneaky about it, hiding under my desk) and collected most of my valuables.

Kindergarten Oriented

We have just finished a week of orientation meetings for kindergarten, and it has gone surprisingly well. Making the decision to send Josh to kindergarten in the fall was difficult, as he will be one of the youngest in his class and already has some issues that set him behind.

Tonight we walked up with some neighbors and Josh's future co-kindergarteners to the school orientation. I was bracing for the worst, but Josh gladly went off to a classroom with the other kids while I went to the parent meeting. When I picked him up, he was actually sitting on the carpet listening to the teacher--a major accomplishment for Josh.

As I was telling Emily tonight, Josh's issues have made the otherwise "normal" things of his childhood that much sweeter. I was so happy walking home from school with Josh and the neighbors, watching Josh stop to play "Ring around the Rosies" and pretending to be a duck and a shark with the other kids. For a kid with Josh's issues, interacting with other children and using his imagination are big steps forward. "Normal" is a big deal around here, and it was so nice to get a taste of it tonight!

Solidarity

Happy Earth Day

We celebrated a little early this weekend at an Earth Day event in Stallings, a town I cover for the Observer. Here's Josh in an electric car that the owner told us is more commonly called the Banana Car. It was small enough that it looks like Josh could even drive it. The owner said he drives it to the school where he works every day, and he often see people pointing at him and taking pictures with their cell phones as he goes by.

The other highlight of our Earth Day was learning about a dual flush toilet from Australia that is so powerful it can flush a potato. We discussed the owner of that one letting me take a picture of him sitting on the demo, but he obviously wasn't interested.

The Treasure Box

We've been dragging the kids around Charlotte lately doing research for an article I've sold to a local magazine about geocaching, one of our favorite hobbies. It basically involves using a GPS to find stuff that people have hidden on public land all over the world, and there are a number of geocaches in Charlotte. I needed a photo to go with the article, and hopefully the magazine will like this one of Josh today looking through a cache we found in a nearby park.

Here's Molly playing with the toy she chose from the cache and sporting a new bump on her forehead courtesy of Josh and an accidental swing of a big stick.

10,000 Gator Shirts

Josh's obsession with Gator shirts seemed normal today when took him to the largest gathering of people wearing Gator shirts possible: the Florida football stadium. Today was a spring training game for the Florida players, where half of the team beat the other half 28-14. The sun was so bright you can't really see the background in the photo, but there is a sea of orange and blue shirts. Josh fit right in.

I'll also note here that we have come to somewhat of a truce on the UF/UNC brainwashing issue. Josh now knows that he says "Go Gators" at Gran and Grandad's house and "Go Tar Heels" at our house.

Here's Josh in the source of Gator shirts: The Gator Shop.

More from Florida

Molly and Josh have quickly taken to the laid-back Florida lifestyle!

Butterflies Beware

Today we took Josh and Molly to the Butterfly Rainforest at the Florida Museum of Natural History. It was a truly beautiful place with all colors of butterflies flitting around. I was rightly nervous about unleashing Josh in such a place, as he tried to catch them, blow on them and step on them despite repeated warnings that he was just supposed to walk and look. He finally got with the program toward the end of the walk, and the butterflies made it through our visit unharmed.

Park Madness

The weather in Florida is beautiful, so we took Josh and Molly to a nearby park today for a picnic. Molly is all about walking these days, and she also appears to believe she's about four years older than she really is (i.e. Josh's age). She wouldn't go down this slide, but she did try out the tire swing with Josh and the kid swings (as opposed to the infant swings), which was fun until she let go and did a belly flop onto the ground. She made a quick recovery, though, and was back on the swings at my parents' later that afternoon.

Spring Break Tour 2008

We have embarked on yet another driving tour of the southeastern U.S., this time via Atlanta and my grandmother's before arriving at my parents' house for the duration of Josh's spring break. We've spent three days in my dad's SUV, where I've been lodged in the backseat between Josh and Molly. All I can say about that is we are glad to be in Gainesville and in our own rooms.

We spent out first night with our cousins Bobby and Maggie, and Molly quickly took to Bobby, who agreed to hold her while he ate breakfast. She was pretty happy with that arrangement!

I was just too tired to get out the camera at my grandmother's, but we had a nice visit and Josh learned firsthand what happens when you step in an ant bed and then squat down to look at the chaos you've created. Hopefully this week will bring less painful adventures.

Fun before The Disaster

Our Saturday night started out quite fun with the Finks and Steph joining us for dinner at home. Molly and Josh were thrilled to have company, and we were thrilled to put all of the little ones to bed to allow for some adult conversation.

Unfortunately our evening soured when we turned on the TV and watched one basketball team run over another one in a matter of minutes. I appreciated Randy's inexplicable optimism that UNC would prevail, but alas it was not to be this year. Blech.

Mullet Update

Molly is progressing quite well with her hair growth, although she still looks mostly bald from the front. Most of the growth is coming out the back, giving Molly the beginnings of a nice, curly mullet. Thankfully we're getting fewer "what a cute little boy" comments from strangers, and if we're lucky we'll get a bow in her hair soon!