The 43

We knew August would fly by, and here is proof -- we have been back from vacation for three weeks, and I haven't even blogged about it. So five weeks since vacation started, here was our trip: Vacation was two weeks long, our longest trip yet. It wasn't long enough, as we didn't quite see everyone we wanted to see, and didn't get more time with just us -- us being Wife, the boys and myself. At the same time, we were ready to get back: Vacations are great, but they are work. We visited so many people. I saw a friend I hadn't seen since 1990. Our kids played with our friends' kids. My sister and her kids came in from Texas. We went to northern Wisconsin and stayed a great resort near Eagle River. Eldest got to fish for the first time. Littlest swung on a swing just about every day of the trip. Eldest went out several mornings with his Grandpa to exercise the dog. Littlest would wake up with the earlier sunrises and exclaim to us "Let's go!" It was hu...

I took Eldest to his first professional baseball game today. We saw the Triple-A Salt Lake Bees play the Fresno Grizzlies at Franklin Covey Field on a sunny, warm afternoon. Yes, it was just a minor-league game, but it was a nice father-son milestone nonetheless. Admittedly, I wondered how long Eldest would last. Four-year-olds get bored quickly, and he hasn't quite picked up on all the elements of baseball yet. We arrived at the stadium and looked around a little, but got some food, found our seats and settled in for the game. He made it three innings before he got a little antsy. He did witness a Bees home run, which was cool. After the third, we walked over to the playground (yes, this stadium has its own playground) beyond center field. He played there for a few innings, then said he wanted to go home, but I convinced him to stay through the seventh-inning stretch and "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." I bought us some ice cream in a mini-helmet and sat back down, thinkin...

We've been back from vacation for more than a week now, but I haven't seemed to get back into our pre-vacation routine. The cold I was fighting last week didn't help, but I think part of the reason is that we didn't have much scheduled this week. No swim lessons. No playdates. No soccer camp. No preschool, obviously. One Little Gym class Monday morning, and not much since. And these last three days have seemed to have dragged on. Sure, I did get things done, and it's not like we stayed inside every minute of every day (we did go on a fun jaunt to a new park and then IKEA on Tuesday). But by the time I went to work Wednesday night, I was starting to go a little stir-crazy. Maybe I, we (the boys included), thrive on flexible routines. They can be tiring, but at least there's no time to get bored, flustered or unproductive. Soccer camp returns next week, then a couple busy weeks, then school starts after Labor Day. Though it will be sad to see the summer end, I...

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted! The week before vacation got real busy, then we went on vacation -- and though theoretically it would have been nice to blog on our trip, it just didn't happen (plus I needed to write my NFL blog, which came first whenever I had some free computer time). We got back just as I was catching a cold. All of a sudden, we've been back three days (ever notice how the immediate days after you get back from vacation zip by, as if almost to sneer at the fact your vacation is way in the past?) and I still hadn't posted. So here it is. Vacation was great -- the boys had a blast and it was nice to see as many people as we did. I caught this hit-and-run cold that has spread to the rest of the family, and as a result, the last three days weren't as productive as I would have hoped. They weren't totally devoid of usefulness, and we did celebrate Wife's 40the birthday, but for I would have liked to have accomplished more in the days...

After a long week, and with the threat of thunderstorms looming, we took it a little easy Sunday and took the boys to see "Wall-E." It was Littlest's first movie in a while, and we were wondering how he was going to handle it. Like most things in his life, he might have been a little to excited -- he wanted to watch the movie, but he didn't want to sit still. He found things funny and amusing, but at times when the movie wasn't quiet or amusing, then would squeal with delight. Finally, I took him from our seats, and we walked around, seeing some of the last 20 minutes of the movie and some of the rest of the multiplex. Eldest wasn't the calmest person at a movie at Littlest's age, either -- I pulled him out of "Curious George" after we ran out of Junior Mints early, and he even got a little bored with "Cars" at the show, and that's his favorite movie. And if you are going to have a happily loud child at a movie, better it be a G-rat...

It's the Fourth of July and I got to see fireworks tonight. In fact, I got to see the whole Salt Lake Valley's fireworks — I worked tonight and watched them from our office's top-floor balcony. Aside from working, it was a good holiday. The neighborhood parade/party was fun — what the Fourth of July felt like it should be before adulthood and Summerfest morphed the holiday for me (not that Independence Day at Summerfest wasn't fun). Patriotism and flag-waving notwithstanding, it's a kids' holiday, meant to highlight the summer in a blast of heat, music, food and fireworks. And the boys today had a blast, especially Eldest, who rocked on his bike during the parade, running into only one understanding neighbor and riding the whole parade. Yeah, I had to work, and it turned too hot to do much else outside the rest of the afternoon, but at least we celebrated for those couple hours at the parade. And that was holiday enough.

Eldest reached another milestone of his young life today: He officially can ride a two-wheeled bicycle. We took his training wheels off in May, partly because one fell off, partly because he saw some of his classmates riding without them and wanted to give it a shot. He started out really well, and we thought he was getting the hang of it -- he'd pedal a couple times after I let go before stopping or falling -- but he seemed to start regressing. The goal, we told him, was to ride his bike in the neighborhood July 4 parade. Between the heat, my working more nights and his sudden apprehension, I didn't think he was going to make it. But on Sunday night, we had a breakthrough, and it was a minor a change as just how I was holding him as he rode. Before, I'd hold the bottom of his seat, maybe a handlebar, let him get the balance, then let go. He'd go a few times then inexplicably stop pedaling. I think he knew when I wasn't there and purposely stopped. He was the change...