Talking to Myself Again

New Friends!

When I saw that the weather forecast for Thursday was 64 and sunny, I decided it would be a good time to use a vacation day so that I could enjoy the nice weather.

My hope was that we could do some yardwork and then spend some time at Lincoln Memorial Gardens. We succeeded in the first, but never got to the second. But that's okay, because we made a new friend!

While I was out in the driveway cleaning all of the trash out of the car (quite an undertaking!), I noticed a woman walking by with a young boy about Lando's age. They paused at the end of our neighbor's driveway, so I called Lando over and pointed them out, asking him whether he wanted to go over and say "hi". Lando always wants to greet anyone who walks by our house. Except for this time. For whatever reason, he suddenly decided that he wasn't interested. Luckily Dawn came out just at that moment, and after she pointed out that the little boy was playing in a puddle, Lando just as quickly decided that saying "hi" was a good idea.

The woman's name is Jessica and her son, Marshall, is 4 years old. He has an older brother, Jack, who is in kindergarten this year. While Lando and Marshall played in the puddle, Dawn and I talked with Jessica about raising kids, the joys of home ownership, and how we came to live in Springfield.

It turns out that Jessica used to live in Colorado, less than 20 miles from Manitou Springs where Dawn lived! And it turns out that her ex-husband grew up in Centralia, the same town where I grew up! Somehow or other, we've all wound up in Springfield, living within walking distance of each other.

Eventually the mini-playdate migrated to the front porch of our house, and we exchanged phone numbers with Jessica. It looks like we managed to actually find Lando a friend he could play with in the neighborhood! For that matter, perhaps a friend for Dawn and I as well.

It's amazing how having a kid can both isolate you from your old friends ("Sorry, too busy, Lando needs to go to bed early") and introduce you to possible new friends at the same time.

Games Night

Our friend Ann hosted a games night last weekend. That's right – we actually left the house and spent time with other adults!

Well, Dawn spent time with other adults, playing a game called Apples to Apples. I mainly spent the night downstairs playing pool with Lando.

I've no idea why Lando looks so forlorn here. I doubt it was anything Maddie said!

Notice Lando's shirt? That's right – Super Mario Brothers! Yes, he is a Nintendo child! He wins races in Mario Kart fairly regularly now and has actually made it through the first level (1-1) of Super Mario Bros. Wii. Lando and I spent most of the evening downstairs playing pool. Lando has enhanced the game of pool with his own custom rules, most of them taken from Nintendo games, including obstacles and boss monsters.

Also, notice the cat with the jack-o-lantern body in Lando's hands? That's Pumpkin. Notice the lack of Giraffe in Lando's hands? After 5 years at the top of the totem pole, Giraffe has finally been displaced by Pumpkin as the toy that Lando carries with him everywhere! We're not sure why, but perhaps it's because Lando's hands are now large enough that Giraffe's long-suffering neck was too skinny to be a comfortable fit. Whatever the reason, Pumpkin is now top cat!

Can you say "cute overload"? That's Anna on the left (Ann's daughter) and Maddie on the right (daughter of Donna, who is providing the lap for this meeting of toddler minds).

Aww!

Look! It's Cute Thing 1 and Cute Thing 2!

And that concludes this installment of "Little Kids Being Cute Just by Existing"!

Family Portrait

I'm not sure whether we've ever taken a real "family photo". Lando needed one for a preschool project, so we decided the fireplace would make a nice backdrop.

Lando is standing on the fireplace hearth; he's tall, but he's not that tall!

After we took this photo, Lando was sick, so he didn't go to preschool. Then there were 2 days when preschool was closed for a workshop and parent-teacher conferences. So it wasn't until more than a week later that we were finally able to get this photo to his teachers. I haven't seen the result yet.

Speaking of parent-teacher conferences, we met with Lando's teacher, Mrs. House, to find out how Lando is doing. The short version is he's doing great! She did say that he doesn't like to dance, which was no surprise to us. Whenever the kids are asked to perform something like "Itsy Bitsy Spider" or "I'm a Little Teapot" (or whatever it is the kids do these days), he doesn't want to do it. We've noticed the same thing at Funshop, as well as at the preschool holiday shows where the kids put on a performance.

So far, despite his high energy level and friendly nature, he is not interested in being a showman!

Artist in Residence

Here's Lando demonstrating his artistic talents in the area of painting. (This was actually from 2 weeks ago. I'm a little behind!)