Tanner Updates

Christopher's cousin Tanner is now 5 months old. Here are some recent pics.

Hmm, updates?

So it has been over a month. Wow! I have not been keeping up like I should. So I will try to catch up to what C has been up to. He finished up his swim lessons and did not quite graduate from Youth Level 3. I had thought he was an awesome swimmer and he just was average in the class and never really progressed while in the class. I do have to say I was less than thrilled with his instructor. She didn’t have a good handle on the kids and C knew it and was a big goof in the class. Then at lesson 7 of 8 realized she hadn’t even been getting his name right the entire session. Way to get a kid to listen to you, call them the wrong name for 3 ½ weeks. He enjoyed it, so that is what really matters. He wasn’t very happy that he didn’t “graduate” to next level, but he will be fine. We have been tinkering with the idea of swim team, but will probably wait until the next session.
He had his first project to do at school. They are studying Community Helpers and had to pick one to do a report on. He chose Police Man. I tried many times to correct him and say Police Officer, but he said, but I want to do Police Man. He had to write down ways they help the community, what they do, how they become one, and why he would want to be one. He made a nice poster board with police themed pictures and had to present in class. I asked him why he chose police officer and he said so he could have a “real gun”. LOL. I did find out he wasn’t the only kid in class that had decided that.

Halloween 2008

Christopher really enjoyed Trick-or-Treating this year. He said thank you *most*of the time, said Trick-or-Treat and Happy Halloween.
He ran from house to house. We went with the neighbor twins that are identical. So at the beginning of the night he ran with N and then at the end ran with J. They took breaks in between. It was nice that I had someone to walk with and C loves them so much, they have the coolest toys he says.
He got to TOT at his friend Leya's house and stop for a picture with her.
After TOT we went over to their house to warm up, it was so cold. The boys ate some candy, but mostly played some Chicken game on the Wii and then Batman Lego on the Wii. C did not want to stop playing. It turned out to be a lot of fun.
Here are some pics:

Vote for my CuteKid

I submitted a picture of the Dude for the CuteKid contest. Vote for him.

http://www.thecutekid.com/ckgallery/votemypic/email/1638

Nickerson Look-alike Meter

I found this cool gadget on another blog and thought it was cool. I know I don't necessarily need this gadget to tell me that C looks so much more like his daddy than me. So according to the pics I loaded, C looks 45% more like Chris than myself. I had played around with it a bit and depending on the pics I chose, it was anywhere from equally (never skewed to mom) to 45% more like Chris.

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Free genealogy - Family search

Calendar of Presence

My AP group is doing a daily calendar of presence for the month of October which is Attachment Parenting Month. It is really cool. It is one topic a day that gives you an idea of how to focus on your child for that day. I don’t always need a reminder to get down and focus on Christopher, but sometimes I get wrapped up in what I want versus what he wants. So each day a topic is posted that you can try to do that day to have presence in their lives and show your love and care.

Some of the ideas that I have loved and will do or have done this month are:

1. Take a walk with your child.
2. Bake with your child.
3. Play a game your child wants, without being hurried and play as many times as they want.
4. Make eye contact with your child each time you speak with them today.
5. Collect fall leaves.
6. Work on an art project.
7. Look at the stars or watch the sunset.

They are all simple ideas of ways to just connect with your child that day.

Soccer is over, onto swimming

Soccer season ended on Saturday with his final game of the season. He played really well. He had two favorite boys on his team and the three of them played so well together. They really came together with blocking, passing, and scoring goals. He got a trophy which he was super excited about. It is a little soccer boy. He is up to two trophies now. He didn’t happen to score, but he did have two assists.
This week he started swimming lessons. He is now in Youth Class 3, it is 6-9 year olds and they need to be swimming at least 15 yards unassisted. He was about average in the class. He wasn’t the best, but not the worst. His teacher said he did well and listened a lot. I am so happy for him, he LOVED being in the pool. He swam and treaded water. He needs to work on listening to the teacher a little more; I think he was so excited to be in the water, that he was having a hard time sitting still at all. He has lessons the whole month of November.
Not sure what we will do for his next activity, Chris wants to make sure that he is not over scheduled and doing more than one thing at a time. Spring soccer starts end of February.