Basketball! Er, Wait. No.

After Sydney had so much fun playing soccer - during two different six week sessions - we moved on to basketball. Our Parks & Recreation Department has a four year old division for basketball.  It's an introductory league where they teach very basic fundamentals and then have short games for the kids to play.

It is held in the gymnasium of a local elementary school.  They have six-foot rims and kid-sized basketballs.

While not overly excited about Sydney did seem to be looking forward to it.  Until we got there.

The gymnasium was about the size of a regulation basketball court with very little room past what would be the out of bounds lines.  There are two hoops on each long side of the court. That means each half-court of the regulation court was its own smaller basketball court.  That means, with the two courts there for the kids to play on, with two teams on each court, four teams could fit in the gymnasium.  With the parents, siblings and miscellaneous onlookers lining the walls just barely off the court.

They had eight teams of kids there for our session.  (And, apparently, eight more teams for the later session.)  That means that during the "coaching sessions" during the first hour of this thing two teams had to share a half court and one hoop of the already small court (so a quarter court of the full thing).

For the actual games four teams would play first while the other four sat around and waited, obviously making the sidelines even more crowded.  Then they would play after the first four teams finished (and hopefully left, making it less crowded).  But we didn't make it that far to find out how it would work out.

Yeah.  It was crowded.  It was chaotic.  Small basketballs were flying through the air and bouncing all over.

Sydney did not like it.  With a bit of coaxing I got her out on the court with me. When I managed to get a ball she shot it and made the basket. She was still very apprehensive about everything.

Her friend Hunter was in the same session, though on a different team.  He came over and shared a ball with Sydney.  She seemed happy enough so I went over to get our coats and things and move over to where Anne has gone closer to where Sydney was playing.  This was all before the session officially started during the free (for all) time.

From Anne's description of things, as I was picking stuff up a ball came close to landing and hitting Sydney. And several kids crowded in on her in apparent attempts to chase down that ball (or others in the vicinity).  And Sydney freaked.

At that point basketball was over. She got very upset and was basically hysterical. She was scared and crying. She didn't want to be there and didn't want to play basketball.  We spent a bit of time trying to calm her down and seeing if we could get her out there again.  As things became (sort of) organized on the floor and the coaches started with warm-ups she still didn't want to go.

Her coach was very nice. He came over a couple times to see how she was and try to get her out. As the kids met each other he pointed her out and they all waved to her and said hello.  But nothing could get her to play basketball.

We finally called it quits. We turned her shirt back in. We apologized to the coach and let him know she wouldn't be back in the following weeks.  He was very understanding.

At the beginning of things one of the Parks & Rec guys spoke. He mentioned that the gymnasium was small and it was crowded and hectic. This was the first year they were doing this basketball program and it had been more popular than they anticipated. They already had plans for having it more under control and less hectic for next year.

Unfortunately, that doesn't do Sydney any good for this year.

Oh, sorry.  No pictures in this post. Sydney wasn't active long enough for me to get any pictures of her playing basketball.  But maybe in the spring out in the driveway. She said she only wants to play basketball there.

Picture Update

Grandma B wrote:

As long as you throw in a picture of Sydney, it doesn't matter how much you write. Can't get too many Sydney pictures.

So this post is all about the pictures!

Wednesday was picture day at preschool. Sydney doesn't have preschool on Wednesday, but parents are invited to bring their kids down for pictures anyway. So Sydney and I went on Wednesday just before the assigned time for Sydney's class.

As you can probably imagine with anything involving preschoolers (and toddlers and some kindergarteners) organizing and keeping on schedule for something like this isn't going to happen.  And it didn't.  We were there about 20 minutes past the scheduled time for Sydney's class.  But Sydney was very patient even if she was acting extremely shy for some reason and didn't want to leave my side.

When the class before us finished up they ushered her class in to do the group picture.  After that they took the individual pictures.  Since Sydney was there on an off day they took her in first for that.

So Sydney's first ever class pictures are taken and ordered.  I have no idea when they'll be here.

And now Grandma B can be happy because this whole post is about nothing but Sydney pictures.

What? What do you mean that's not what she meant?

Five Little Pumpkins

What? Another blog post? From ME!?

Well, yes.  November is National Novel Writing Month.   I'm sure there's probably a blog version of that out there somewhere.  (That's what my mom may have been doing posting every day in October.)  But I'm not doing any official blog version.  I'm just doing my own version.

Since I certainly don't have time to participate in NaNoWriMo this year I'm going to attempt to at least update my blog regularly this month.  It won't be every day.  Heck, I already missed November 1.  And November 2 if you count the Halloween post as being posted after midnight so it was posted on November 3.  But look, this is the second post already on November 3.

Anyway, my goal is just to post on as many days as I can.  It won't be every day. Some posts will be short and sweet.  Some posts will be long and sweet.  Some probably won't even be sweet.  But I do have a lot of content to catch up on from the last several months and more stuff happening this month that I'll be writing about.  So we'll see how this goes.  Check back regularly.

Near the end of September Anne sheepishly admitted that we should have signed Sydney up for three days of preschool.  Sydney really likes going to preschool and it was more Anne not wanting to be away fom her so much as thinking that she couldn't handle it.  So we talked to the school and got Sydney signed up for a third day.

A lot of times Sydney doesn't remember what she did in school.  But many times she does.  When asked about friends she can't remember any names except her teacher.  When I take her in there are several kids that come up and say hello and call her by name and sometimes even give her hugs.  But she doesn't remember their names.

But here is one of the things that Sydney does remember from school.  She was reciting it over and over again the last few days before Halloween and on Halloween.  This video was taken at the table right after we finished eating dinner on Halloween.  A transcript follows the video in case you can't make out what she's saying (and the first word or two are cut off since she started before I was ready).




[Five little] pumpkins sitting on a gate,
The first one said, "oh my it's getting late".
The second one said, "there are witches in the air".
The third one said, "we don't care".
The [fourth] one said, "let's run and run and run".
The fifth one said, "it's only Halloween fun".
Oooo came the witch, and out went the lights,
And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

Halloween

We had a good time on Halloween.

We saw some costumes at Costco close to two months ago. One of them was a Tinkerbell costume and Sydney wanted to be that for Halloween.  So we got it.

Sydney has been very excited about Halloween.  Just about every day she would talk about it and get herself excited.

There's a house down the block and just around the corner that really decorates for Halloween.  They get the whole yard and front of the house decorated with all sorts of things.  They even do the inside over-the-top (from what can be seen at the door).  Two years ago Sydney wanted to go there, she got scared by the lady living there (she was in costume and had a skull face painted on with black and white paint) and that promptly ended all trick-or-treating.  Last year Sydney did not go there.

Since that house started putting up decorations Sydney was fascinated with it as always.  It is always the "Halloween house," or something similar to that.  But it is also the "scary house," and one she is not going to go to for trick-or-treating.  Fair enough.

We had a generally relaxing day on Halloween.  There were only a few times Sydney asked how much longer it was until she got to go out trick-or-treating.  Only a few times before breakfast.  A few times after breakfast.  A few times while we were getting dressed and ready for the day.  A few times before lunch.  A few times after lunch.  A few times while we were playing.  A few times before dinner.  She didn't ask too many times after dinner since by then it was just about time to put on her costume and get ready.

But she did ask a few times during breakfast, during lunch and during dinner.  I forgot to mention those.

Mommy promised Sydney that she would put some make up on her for her costume.  So around 5:00 they went upstairs and started getting ready.  When they came down we had Tinkerbell in our midst!

Tinkerbell doesn't normally wear leggings under her skirt or a long-sleeved shirt under her top, but then Tinkerbell doesn't live where it gets very cold.  But Sydney didn't care.  She was a very happy fairy.

It had actually been a fairly warm day (high around 60F), though it was windy.  Sydney was warm enough trick-or-treating dressed like that and she didn't need a jacket.  (She did need and wear shoes, though.)

Sydney's make up involved some face painting by Mommy.

A flower on one cheek.

And a butterfly on the other.

They're not the best artwork, but then a hyper, excited four year old is not the best canvas.  You make do with what you got.  And Sydney certainly loved them.  (For the record, I think they're great, too.  I am not artistic - I missed out on all those genes from my mom's side of the family - and are better than I would have done.)

Grandma M came over to hand out candy while Anne and I took Sydney out.  We went around the block and then down the street at the end.  Sydney decided that she wanted to go to the scary house!  She was so sure and so excited about it that she was willing to skip houses to get there.

We slowed her down and went to all the houses and finally made it to the scary house.  Sydney was barely apprehensive about it as we went up.  The lady of the house was in a much more normal, non-scary costume this year and Sydney had no problems at the house.  Trick-or-treating continued on after that.

Anne decided that she was cold enough that she went back to the house to relieve Grandma M.  Sydney and I continued.

Sydney managed to fill up her little cloth pumpkin bag so I grabbed handfuls out and put them in my coat pocket so she could continue on.  At every other house or so after the scary house Sydney would ask me if the next house was going to be scary.  I kept telling her I didn't know but assured her that I would be right there with her and that everything was only pretend.

After the trip up the street beside us she had enough.  We went back down the other side, trick-or-treating as we went and then headed home.  We hit one or two houses on our street that hadn't had their lights on earlier.

When we got home Sydney was just as excited about helping to hand out candy. She would run to the door in front of us every time someone came.  She wanted to be the one to hand out the candy.

It was a rather light night for trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.  I'm guessing it was mainly because of the nasty illness going around (including the swine flu and subsequent scare of that).

Because it was light Sydney kept getting frustrated at the wait times between people coming to the door.  She wanted to hand out candy, darn it!  She kept asking us where the "customers" were and when the next "customers" were going to come trick-or-treating.  We tried to explain that they weren't customers, so to speak, but she kept calling them that anyway.

Finally we turned the light off and took Sydney upstairs for bed.  She got to stay up late, but she also got an extra hour of sleep due to turning the clock back.

Pre-School

I have some older stuff to post, but that will need to wait (some more) until another time. The summer at work has been very busy. Short, but very busy. Combined with a busy household - especially now that Sydney is older and a lot more active - makes for tired parents. And makes for one parent in particular not feeling like writing blog posts.

I am on Twitter, though, and I try to tweet more regularly when anything of interest is going on than I tend to update the blog. So if youre on Twitter, not already following me, and are interested let me know.

Sydney and Anne are in bed now. I am home from work early. Tonight was the open house at Sydney's new pre-school. We got to look around, see and meet some of the other parents and children and meet the staff.

Sydney will be going to pre-school two days a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It starts on Tuesday. I will be taking Sydney to class in the morning. Anne will be picking her up in the afternoon.

Anne is nervous, anxious and sad. Sydney is a little excited but quite afraid. We've assured her that everyone is scared when they first start school but they soon realize there is nothing to be scared of and start having a lot of fun. I am a little sad and very excited to see my little girl start out into the larger world. Anne is glad that I'm taking her on her first day and she is not.

So we'll see what Tuesday brings and all the changes we'll need to endure and work through.

Short Sydney Story

Monday morning I turned the TV on. I usually try to leave it on ESPN when I turn it off because I know that's an okay channel for Sydney to watch no matter what time of day it is. (And it's an okay channel for me to watch, too.)

This past Monday ESPN was televising the end of the U.S. Open Golf Tournament. Sydney is aware of most of the major sports from watching ESPN or sports on TV with me. She immediately knew golf was on and watched for a few minutes with me.

At one point they showed a golfer getting ready to make a shot and Sydney said, "Daddy, is that Tiger?"

"No, Sweetie, that's not Tiger," I answered. I was, of course, talking about Tiger Woods.

"Oh," she said, sounding a bit disappointed. "Is he Kipper?"

Santa Barbara

I have two things to mention before getting into the Santa Barbara trip.

First, happy birthday today (Thursday) to my Grandma Monette. (She's Sydney's Great-Grandma.) She turned 87 today. To celebrate she had surgery and had a heart catheter and four stents put in. She seems to have come through surgery fine and when Mom (Grandma B) left the hospital a little while ago she was awake, having dinner and chatting with the cardiac nurses. (Edit: Finishing this post up on Friday, Grandma is now home and doing fine.)

Second, I need to post some pictures of stuff from our Montana trip that I forgot last post. Grandma B asked to see some pictures of the things we bought at the stone shop and I completely forgot them last post.

First up is Sydney's hedgehog. Our friend Shawna crocheted it and brought it for Sydney when we met. The hedgehog lives in a little mushroom. Sydney loves it.



Here are the stones we found in our big pile of rocks. The ones on the left are the large, good stones that could be finished. The ones one the right are the stones that are too small or flawed/cracked to be finished.



And here are the items we bought in the shop. There are two pyramids Anne got to put in her Egyptian room. There's also a little camel there. And Sydney picked out a little stone hippo. The large rock formation on the right is something I thought looked nice and bought.



So there's that. Now, Santa Barbara.

We went down to Santa Barbara the first week in May. Anne had some training to do for work. The company they bought some new lab machines from (I think hey got the ones where the lightning crackles up between two flanges) flew her down and she had to go to training for four days. They paid for the hotel so Sydney and I got tickets and went down, too.

We arrived on Sunday afternoon and immediately started to explore. We were right down at the waterfront. We were across the street from a beach and marina and a few blocks down the road was Stearn's Wharf. That's a large wharf with shops and restaurants on it.

Pelicans made a sand bar/break water out a ways from the beach home. In the late afternoon they would all get up and start flying at the same time. Then they would spread out and go fishing. It was neat to watch them dive into the water and then pop back to the surface a few seconds later.



Out near the end of Stearn's Wharf a few pelicans apparently decided it was a nice place to be rather than the sand and rocks. You could actually get pretty close to them before they seemed to care. (Though we didn't get too close.)



And sometimes they were flying close enough to be able to capture them with the telephoto lens.



The candy shop up on Stearn's Wharf had a caged Tasmanian Taffy Turkey right outside the door. It bobbed up and down at the taffy. Strangely enough, in all my time spent over at the Museum of Hoaxes I have never heard of one of these creatures. But I got a picture of it to make sure I had documentation for further study.



Anne didn't have to go to her class on Monday so we all went exploring. And if I had updated my blog earlier I'd probably remember exactly what we did. But I'm sure it was exciting and that some of the pictures came from then. In fact, I believe we walked to Stearn's Wharf and got the pictures of the pelicans and the creature outside the candy shop.

On Tuesday Anne had training so Sydney and I were on our own. We went to the Santa Barbara Zoo.

Santa Barbara was very easy to get around even though we didn't have a car. We could pretty much walk anywhere down along the shoreline or, if it was too far, they had an electric bus that ran during the day. It cost $.25 per person to ride. There was a bus that ran along the shore and one that ran up the street where Stearn's Wharf was. Up that street was the downtown area. The zoo was at the far end of Santa Barbara along the beach so Sydney and I took the bus down there.

First we walked along the beach and stopped in the Visitor's Center to get a discount coupon. Along the way I snapped a picture of the beach, Stearn's Wharf and clouds rolling down the mountains.



The big black thing near the center of the picture was a tractor that was raking the beach.

After we got to the Visitor's Center we still had to wait about a half hour before the bus started running so we checked out a park next door. There was a fountian there and Sydney always like to throw pennies into fountains so I gave her a couple.



The park ran a good length along the road and there was a playground at the far end. We didn't go down there. I figured we'd have time to play on it another day (we did on Friday) and that it might be hard to get Sydney away from it to catch the bus. So we crossed the road and found a bus stop to wait at.

Nearby where we were waiting there was a culvert that came in from the ocean. The sides of it were lined with rocks. In the spaces and cracks between rocks lived a bunch of squirrels. They had cute little baby squirrels running around too. We kept our distance but enjoyed watching them. A lady walking by fed one of the squirrels some peanuts. Sydney got slightly freaked out when, shortly after this, one of the squirrels started approaching her. It thought she had food and was coming to get it. I scared it back and we retreated to a safe distance to watch them and wait for the bus.

We reached the zoo shortly after they opened (which was the same time the buses started running) and went in. First stop was to use the bathroom. Sydney, for some reason, decided on this trip that she was going to have severe anxiety about using any toilet that wasn't in our house. And since we were in southern California and not northern Idaho that posed a bit of a problem. As the week progressed she got better about it - especially at the hotel - but early in the week she would have complete meltdowns about having to sit on a foreign toilet.

After a traumatic toilet experience we were ready to start our trek through the zoo. First stop was... Sydney tripping on the sidewalk and scraping her knee. So we headed back into the bathroom to clean it up. Then we headed out to start our zoo experience.

The zoo was good-sized, but not too big. The website said it was a good half-day trip. And it was.

We got to see California sea otters.



Madagascar hissing cockroaches.



Many types of tropical birds.



Including flamingoes.



We got to see some penguins.



And we got to hear them call out.



We got to see some elephants.



There was a nice fountain where we sat down and took a rest.



But we didn't throw any pennies in because there were koi in it.



Sydney got to ride a little rocking car ride.





We got to see some California condors.



And bald eagles.



But if you ask Sydney what her favorite part of the zoo was she will probably tell you it was the giraffes. Because she got to feed them.





When we had lunch we were sitting in a little courtyard area near the entrance of the zoo. A mother and son, about Sydney's age, were sitting at the table next to us. The son had chicken nuggets for lunch. Some type of sea bird (not a gull) was hanging around and, when no expected it, it swooped in and stole one of the boy's chicken nuggets. The mother and I found it kind of funny but tried not to laugh. Sydney was amazed and couldn't talk about anything else the rest of the meal. The little boy was traumatized and upset. He guarded his chicken nuggets closely as he finished. And when the bird finally managed to swallow the one it stole and looked like it wanted another I had to jump to the rescue and scare it away.

While we were at the zoo a forest fire started up in the hills of Santa Barbara. You might have seen something about it on the news back then. It didn't affect us that much, really, since we were down at the ocean. But in the late afternoon winds would shift and start blowing out to sea. So the smoke clouds would cover the sky above us and ash would fall from the sky.

Wednesday morning when Sydney and I were out and about there wasn't much smoke up in the hills. It seemed like the fire was mostly out. But it wasn't. We went to a park with a playground at the far end of the downtown area, so we were somewhat close to the hills. Planes and helicopters kept flying overhead. That afternoon the fire burst up again and spread as high winds hit it. The fire was still going (but mostly contained) when we left on Sunday.







But that Wednesday Sydney and I went to the downtown area. We road the bus to the far end and then took a walk a few blocks to a park. It was pretty, but pretty bland and boring for a four year old as we approached.



But once we got through those trees in the middle of the park we could see the playground.



The playground was huge. It was of the same style as the Fort Sherman playground in downtown Coeur d'Alene that we have been to many times. But it was about twice as big as Fort Sherman playground. And Fort Sherman playground is a pretty big playground.

Sydney had fun playing.





And then, without warning, Sydney was attacked by a shark. AHHHH!



But she managed to wrestle it into submission.



Thursday the company Anne was training with took us out to lunch. Here's the group picture of everyone there (except me taking the picture).



And this is a shot of the tree we were sitting under out in the back of the restaurant.



On Friday the training was canceled. The fire had forced evacuations and the company was close to one of those areas. There was a warning that they might be closing the area they were in if the fires spread more, so they just canceled the last day of training rather than risk having everyone there and then having to leave.

That was actually good because Anne started to get a bit of a cold on Friday. And Sydney hadn't really taken much of a nap all week so she and Anne took one Friday afernoon. So I went out and took a walk. I took some pictures of an interesting tree in a park around the corner from us.





Somewhere along the line the last couple months Sydney decided that she is afraid of crabs. We don't know where or how it started, but she tells us at any and every opportunity. Although crabs in cartoons don't seem to bother her.

So after I snapped pictures of the tree I took a walk down along the marina. As I went along guess what I noticed down by the water, crawling over the rocks?





So after I went and got up Anne and Sydney from their nap we went for a walk. We went to the marina and I pointed out the crabs. We were well above them and Sydney was fascinated. She wanted to watch them and point out everytime one of them moved. But she didn't want to get any closer (not that we could have).

She still says she's scared of crabs, but she seemed to enjoy the time she actually got to see real ones.

Friday night Anne and Sydney went to bed so I got to go out on my own for a while. I walked down to Stearn's Wharf to get some ice cream. On my way there I was waiting to cross the street. A guy came around the corner, did a double take at me and walked right over to me.

He was completely high on something. I was wearing my LEGOLAND baseball cap. He said he loved my hat and wanted it. He asked how much he could buy it for. I told him it wasn't for sale. There was then the minute or so of, "Dude. Really. I want the hat. You wo't sell it to me? Really? Come on. Please? I'll give you anything. I really like it. I have to have it."

He finally gave up ad turned away. But, because I'm a smart mouth and don't know when to keep my mouth shut, I said, "How about $5000.00?"

He turned around and said, "Really, man? Sure." He reached into his pocket and pulled out his driver's license and tried to hand it to me. I told him I didn't want his driver's license and he tried to stick it in my pocket. I grabbed it and he turned around and walked off to go into the restaurant we were in front of.

I said loudly that he may want his license but he didn't pay attention to me. So I flicked it in his general direction and it fell to the sidewalk outside the restaurant. I went off to get my ice cream and on my way back I didn't see the guy or his driver's license anywhere around.

That night I hung out by the pool with two of the ladies from Anne's training, Stephanie and Tanya. (They're the two girls in the foreground of the lunch picture above.) We drank wine, wine, more wine, walked over to the 7-Eleven to buy another bottle of wine and drank that.

I wasn't feeling so hot on Saturday. I went to breakfast with Anne and Sydney the next morning, but didn't get any further than that. It was back to the hotel with me to recuperate from too much wine.

On Sunday we got up way too early and flew home. Overall it was a really fun trip. It helped that we were there during a warm and sunny (around the smoke) week. We were told the week before was cool and rainy and the forecast for the following week was the same.

There are other pictures that didn't make it into the blog over at my Picturetrail photo album if you want to check them out.