Things you can do and say.

You can spin a lasso, trick rope! Seriously. We saw a cowboy at the Randall museum and he was spinning a trick rope. We ordered it online and when you got it you had to learn how to spin it. At first it would just flop around but you kept trying. We helped teach you how to do it, and you kept practicing, and trying a little bit every day. And in less than a week you could spin the trick rope for a long time all by yourself. We watched every time you did it too. That's so great and we are really proud of you. Awesome. ;-)

You can turn the light switch on/off without a step stool.

You say "No problem". :-))

You draw really well and each week you learn and add more detail.

You're spelling and reading signs. And relating them to other words in sequence. We saw the word house on a sign, you spelled the word, and then you said "Like in 'Mickey Mouse Club House'". Excellent. And they say TV isnt educational.

You recognize numbers and say them 86, 101, 2006 for example.

You have been making up your own songs. Kid songs about things important to kids, both music and lyrics. And then you teach them to us so we can sing with you.

Collecting Fall Leaves

We decided after talking about how the leaves on some trees turn pretty colors and fall to the ground to have an adventure/picnic in Golden Gate Park to start Skyler's Fall leaf collection. We grabbed Nana, made some turkey avocado wraps, packed up some fruit and veggies and took off for the park. Skyler found lots of pretty leaves: golden yellow, red, pink & green, and some that had all of the colors mixed together on one leaf. We strolled through the park to the Botanical Garden and walked around the beautiful sections of flowers, bushes and trees from all around the world. We stopped and spread out our blanket on a grassy area somewhere in South Asia - little streams and stone pagodas and colorful flowers - and ate our lunch, played some ball and relaxed. We came home and Skyler and I put his leaves into and little basket on his bedside table. We are so lucky to live so close to such and magical place!

Fuzzbee came back to say "Hi!"

Tonight after dinner I was in the kitchen and a little brown Tussock moth flew in the backdoor! I called Skyler and he was so excited to see that our little friend Fuzzbee had turned into a moth and came back to let us know that he was okay. We were a little worried when he was a caterpillar and wouldn't eat any of the leaves we put in the little insect house for him, and when we let him go in the park Skyler was sad and we all hoped he would be all right. It was so nice of him to come back and show us that he was fine and happy to be a moth. He put on a great show flying around the kitchen and even though Skyler really wanted to hold him like he used to when he was a caterpillar, he was glad that he was a happy moth.

Welcome to the family Sparky!

After we let Fuzzbee go free so he could turn into a moth we decided to take a walk down to Clement and check out the tropical fish store. We knew that we wanted something easy i.e. no tank, filter, water treatments, etc. and we had a pretty bowl at home so we decided to get a little Beta. They keep them in small cups with colored water in it and most of them looked half asleep and a bit tattered but there was one bright red and blue Beta that was big and awake and actually looked happy (if that is possible), he was dancing around the cup and looking right at us. That is our new pet fish!

We brought him home and put him in our cute fish bowl and feed him the special Beta food and he danced around his bowl and looked happy to be here - for the first day, then he started sitting on the bottom of the bowl and not moving much. I had a feeling that it was probably too cold in our house for the little tropical fish so Matt called the store and they said that Beta's hate the cold (our house is extra burrr, always) so we went back and got him and little heater (so much for the simple and easy fish idea) and now we have the happiest little fish in town. He loves his warm water; he really does look like he's dancing around his bowl. Skyler named him Sparky and he gets to feed him breakfast and dinner and take extra great care of his buddy.