Rocket and Rodeo

What a fun day! Nicholas, Rachel, and I made the trip to Arlington again to see another cool show at the UTA Planetarium. Today we saw "Secrets of the Cardboard Rocket" which is about two children on a magical journey through the Solar System, aided by a talking astronomy book, a cardboard rocket, and a vivid imagination. We landed on Venus, flew through the rings of Saturn, and discovered the secrets of the Solar System. Nicholas even brought his space helmet to wear at the show!



Tonight Stuart and Nicholas had a guys night out at the Lewisville Labor Day Rodeo. Nicholas wore his cowboy hat in honor of the event.



There were lots of bronc riding, tie down calf roping, team roping, etc. The guys had great seats in the middle on the second row. But unfortunately it was hard to get good pictures with the fast action and low light but here are some highlights.







Nicholas even went out in the arena floor to participate with all of the other children to try to pull a ribbon off the tail of two calves. He was so proud to be a calf wrangler for a day! He also seemed to really enjoy the rodeo clowns' performances and was very excited as he explained to me how silly they were.

A Little Knee Crawling, A Little Commando Belly Crawling

Rachel has finally figured out how to crawl on her knees. I really thought she would never get it. I thought for sure she would go straight from her commando belly crawl to walking. But she finally figured it out. Here's a cute video of her as she is trying to get it right. A little knee crawling, a little belly crawling. It's all cute!

The New Little Kitchen

A sweet friend of ours passed down her little play kitchen to Rachel. We didn't have a place for it at the time so we tucked it away in our dining room (doesn't everyone use their dining room for storage?). We finally made a place for it in the playroom so we just recently put it out for Rachel to play with. Not that she has any concept of what a kitchen is or what the play food is for but it's fun for her to pull up on it and to make a mess with the play food.



Well this afternoon I couldn't help but notice that Rachel was totally captivated by Nicholas' Batman cave and Nicholas was having a ball playing with the kitchen making meals for the three of us. Too funny!

Knock! Knock!

Nicholas loves Knock! Knock! jokes, even if he doesn't understand them. Here is his most recent one. Notice his punch line at the end....

Nicholas: Knock! Knock!
Mommy: Who's there?
Nicholas: Banana
Mommy: Banana who?
Nicholas: Knock! Knock!
Mommy: Who's there?
Nicholas: Banana
Mommy: Banana who?
Nicholas: Knock! Knock!
Mommy: Who's there?
Nicholas: Orange
Mommy: Orange who?
Nicholas: Orange aren't you glad I didn't say banana again? Ha! Ha! Ha!

Cute little guy! He can ruin a classic knock knock joke but it really just makes it even funnier!

First Homework Assignment!

Tonight Nicholas had his first homework assignment. He was actually pretty excited about having homework. It was super easy and we breezed right through it. He read a short book to me and then completed two worksheets on writing the letters F and M.





His class is learning the D'Nealian form of handwriting which is slightly different than how Nicholas has been taught to write. He already needed to work on his handwriting and now we've got to change the way he's been doing it. Ugh!



The D'Nealian form of writing seems awkward for just writing in print because the letters have a lot of tails that swoop up. It's just not how most people write in print. However, I can see that it is good for pre-cursive writing.