First Day of School

It's back to school for everyone!  After a super fun and busy summer, we are back to a routine...  Let's start with Trevor:

Trevor started his second year of preschool with Teacher Cathy.  We love her!  It is a little strange that this will be our last year with a child in her class...  As expected, I drove up to the house, and Trevor did NOT want me to get out.  He is big and can hop out of the car and ring the doorbell without me!  So I had to let him have his independent moment, then get out to take pictures.   

Charlotte is a big 2nd grader!  Her teacher is Mrs. Nethercut (that's who we were hoping for) and she has some of her best friends in her class.  And as you can see, she FINALLY lost her top front tooth the week before school!  

And Mr. Scott...  He's in 4th grade!  He has Mr. Haskins, which will be his first male teacher.  So far we are both very impressed.  Scott's best friends are also in his class, so he is thrilled.

Now 3 days into the week and all the kids are happy and excited to be back!  I love our school :)

Another First Day of School!

Scott and Charlotte are off to 3rd and 1st grade!  Charlotte still hasn't quite figured out how to smile normal since her tooth fell out...  They are both really excited for another year at JAA! After the tears and sobbing during the last day of school in June (I'll post about that later...maybe...), it was wonderful to see them counting down the days and SO enthusiastic about going back.

Hum Baby! Go Giants!

If you grew up listening to SF Giants games on KNBR 680 in the 80s, then you are singing the "Hum Baby" song in your head right now after reading my post title... Another thing Grandpa and Scott we were able to squeeze in before school was a Giants game!  This was his first MLB game, and he was just slightly excited about it.  His full Giants uniform from t-ball was laid out on the floor the night before.  At 6:25am the day of the game, Scott was at my bedside asking if it was ok for him to get ready.

The game was sweet...  The Giants won 4-0 and there were 2 home runs.  So between getting a ball, taking a picture with Zito, the win, the food (pizza), and the perfect weather, it was a pretty awesome day! 

Waiting for Grandpa...

Ya think Trevor will be excited when it is his turn?

Scott with my mom's childhood hero...  When asked in her primary class as a kid to name a hero, others chose a parent or person from the scriptures.  My mom said, "Willie Mays!"

They were there early to watch batting practice and Scott got a ball!

Barry Zito!

The LONG awaited day!

Scott has been SO anxious to loose a tooth... It would just be humiliating to be the only 2nd grader with ALL baby teeth. The past 3 times we have been to the dentist his top front teeth were loose, but regardless of how much he tried to wiggle them, they are still about the same as they were a year ago.

But this morning while eating his waffle for breakfast, he said, "Mommy, my bottom tooth is super wiggly!" And sure enough, it was REALLY loose! Uncle Jeff, my brother in dental school who Scott idolizes, gave the kids a Berenstain Bears book about going to the dentist. Scott wanted to reenact the book, which was basically that Baby Sister bear woke up with a loose tooth, and then the dentist used gauze to pull it out. Therefore, I also needed to use gauze to pull out his tooth. And the momentous event happened at 8:22pm. If you want to see it in action, check out the video. If you just want the final result, the picture is good enough :)

The award for first broken bone goes to...

...Scott! And we all would have put money on Trevor taking that title. While we were in Utah for Spring Break (yes, again, I'm very behind on my posts), Scott was having a fantastic time playing with all of his boy cousins at my brother-in-law's backyard in Heber City. Then all of the sudden I saw him crying on the couch with an ice pack on his elbow. I didn't see it all go down, but apparently he was holding on to a bar on the swing set, trying to pull his feet up and somehow slipped. Being the insensitive mom that I am, I would have just told him to keep the ice on it, take some Motrin and see how it feels in the morning. But thank goodness Drew's dad, aka Dr. Grandpa, was there. Always nice to have a surgeon in the family... After a quick exam by Grandpa, he thought we should have it x-rayed. Fortunately, urgent care at the Heber City hospital was about 5 minutes away and open and had no wait, so we totally lucked out. The x-ray showed 2 fractures on the inside of his elbow. Poor kid!

Scott kept the arm splinted for the last couple of days in Utah, and then the day after we arrived back home, we visited the orthopedic doctor here. The big mystery was what color he would chose for the cast... In the end, he went with Dodger Blue, to match his Little League team. Speaking of Little League, it was really disappointing that the broken arm took him out for the rest of the season. Especially after the last game he played he went 6 for 6 :(

So the cast went up to basically his shoulder and he had to have it on for month. It came off last week and all looks good! It is still stiff and he can't straighten it all the way, but no pain. And in another week he should be able to do anything he did before the break.

Scott was an amazing patient through it all. He was incredibly tough immediately after the break and through the long exam and diagnosis. He was even very good about following the advice of the doctor and Grandpa. He told me, "Grandpa said I should keep my arm at 90 degrees. It feels pretty warm - about 70 degrees." That one has jumped to the top of my list of favorite Scott quotes...

Play ball!

Our house is split NorCal and SoCal... Last year I was THRILLED Scott's team for T-ball was the Giants! And being the good dad that he is, Drew reluctantly went out and bought himself a Giants hat, which was a little painful. So I guess it was inevitable that this year would be different. Scott now plays for the Dodgers. Sad. However, he is so excited to be able to hit real pitches (sort of - they use a machine) and play with several of his good friends: Tyler, Connor, Caden and Parker. And I'm excited because I know I will get to hang out with a bunch of awesome ladies while we watch our boys play!

The first 3 games of the season were cancelled because of rain, and Scott could HARDLY wait to play! Finally, they were able to play last Saturday, versus the Giants, of course. It wasn't bad for the first game! He did get a couple of hits which was very pleased with.




But sadly, his last at bat he was called out on a strike 3 (by the opposing coach), when clearly he tipped the ball. He was crushed. Tough to learn your first lesson about bad calls... It took a trip to The Habit after the game with Daddy to recover from that trauma. But we have a long season ahead of us, and I'm sure we will see lots of improvement!


BTW, the Cat in the Hat was his class pet he was supposed to take care of this weekend...

To ski or not to ski?

Skiing is not my thing. That became obvious when I was in the 6th grade and I did a night ski trip with my jr. high to Boreal. It was freezing. And not my idea of fun. But Drew does love to ski, so since I won't go, he decided to take Scott for his first lesson. I think Scott had a good time, although when I asked him what his favorite part was, he said, "The hot chocolate." That's my boy!

Inspired by the Globetrotters

Scott just completed week #4 of basketball. His team has a 45-minute practice each Saturday, followed by a game. The first 2 weeks, Scott didn't touch the ball in either game. The third week he made his first basket! And here is the report from Scott about his last game:

Dear everyone,
At my basketball I shot 2 baskets ! How I did my first basket was… One of my teammates was trying to shoot but missed, then I caught the ball and shot. How I did my second basket was… One person from the other team was trying to shoot and then, I caught the ball and ran the whole court and shot.

From Scott
P.S. That was my fourth game.

As a witness, I have to say that second basket was impressive... He dribbled the entire length of the court and made the shot! Coach Bell and Ganskie would have been impressed.

Whistle Sweet Georgia Brown while you read this...

Scott and Drew had a little boy bonding time on Monday. They were able to go see the Harlem Globetrotters at Arco! I was a little jealous, but happy they had the chance to go. Of course, Scott thought the funniest part was when one of the Globetrotters pulled down the shorts of one of the Generals. Hilarious! And it never gets old...

Surfin' USA

Scott's school did their annual dance show last night and it was awesome! Grandma was especially excited to see him dancing to a song from her generation. I do think it is pretty cool that my kids love the Beach Boys and Beatles...

The kid right in front of Scott in the video is Connor, his BFF:

Scott's Goal

It was amazing. Scott scored his first soccer goal EVER last Saturday! You have no idea how long he has talked about this and how much he wanted to do it... And here is the proof:

Yes, I realize you can't actually see the goal in the video, but trust me, it was awesome! Scott has been asking for Just Dance, a Wii game, for about 6 months. So as an incentive (bribe) I told him that we would get the game if he made a goal. And after the game, Daddy took the kids to In-n-Out and ToysRUs to celebrate and get the game. And here are Scott and Daddy dancing to Can't Touch This:



This was so great for Scott. He was really ready to quit soccer because he thought it was too hard. So with this little accomplishment, I hope he is learning that with practice, he can do hard things.

Off to First Grade

Scott is officially a first grader! He has been SO excited for SO long that is has been hard to wait for the big day. He woke up at 6:30am, early for him (and me) and got in the shower without any prompting from me. And at 8:20am, we were ready to go -- complete with helmet, scooter, lunch and Phineas and Ferb backpack.

Too bad the first 105+ degree day just happens to be today...

So after school, I didn't get many details. All he would tell me was that he had 3 recesses, and if he comes to school early, he can have a 4th... But he did say he really liked it, his teacher is nice, he made a new friend, and is excited to go back tomorrow. I guess that's all I can ask for!

Thinking ahead to Halloween

Scott told me today who he wants to be for Halloween...


John Henson (on the right), cohost of Wipeout

Maybe we could make it a family thing and Charlotte could be Jill Wagner and Trevor could be John Anderson. And Drew and I could dress up as the Big Balls, or maybe the Motivator...

First sleepovers

July was a big month for Scott... He had his first sleepovers, one with a friend at our house and another at a friend's house. Both were successful! No middle of the night phone calls wanting to go home, like I did to my mom at my first sleepover... Here is a photo of Scott and Conner sacked out on the couch, and the evidence of their fun evening spread all around:

Big Boy Weekend

Wow! A lot of big news events happened for the Syphi boys this weekend...

First, Trevor has his first haircut. It was hard, because he is my only child to have curls. And lots of them. And they were SOOO cute. But I was afraid that I would be the parent who thinks her child looks adorable, even when sporting an out-of-control over-grown baby mullet. So we had it all chopped off. Trevor did a decent job sitting during the cut, thanks mostly to the lollipop.


Second, it was a red-letter weekend for Scott. On Friday, he ate (drumroll, please) ........

A CHEESEBURGER!

AND LIKED IT!

This is huge.

I had to bribe him with a trip to Sunsplash, but we were planning to go there anyway when Uncle Jeff and Aunt D get here.

He desperately wants a Nintendo DS, which I agreed to get for him IF he eats 25 new foods, learns to ride his bike, and reads 30 minutes a day. With our Hawaii trip 3 weeks away and the pressure of earning the DS before the plane ride at the forefront of his mind, he has been very focused on reaching his goal. He has 12 new foods to go, and added feta cheese to the list today with NO force from me. It was cheese, so it wasn't very risky in his mind. And it liked it, too! So tonight we made a list of the remaining 11 foods to try. Included are corn dogs, nectarines, cottage cheese (cheese being the important word), tacos WITH meat, and his own personal suggestion - bleu cheese. I told him he didn't have to try bleu cheese since it smells like dead ants, but he is motivated...

And that leads me to the second requirement for the DS -- learning to ride his bike. I think I will just let this video to the talking:

A Little Obsessed

Since his birthday, Scott has been a little obsessed with Super Mario Brothers Wii. Fortunately the 24/7 desire to do nothing but play Mario has subsided a bit in the past couple weeks. That's since I implemented a new rule that he has to earn time to play Wii by reading. If he reads 30 minutes one day, he can play Wii 30 minutes the next day. One of my more brilliant parenting moves. But I thought I would share the evidence of his obsession that he brought home from school a few weeks ago:


If you can't read it, Scott's sentence using the word "up":

I got a 1up on Super Mario Bros.

He did use the word 'up' correctly, so I guess he gets full credit.

Go Giants!

Scott is playing T-Ball this year and he LOVES it! To be honest, I think Scott and I are both enjoying this more than soccer. Drew is having a bit of a hard time with the fact that his first son is playing for the Giants, but he did cheer for the Black and Orange, even when we played the Dodgers. Scott has had a few games so far, and has done really well! In his first inning on the field, he played the pitcher position and picked up lots of balls and did a good job throwing to first base. And it has been really fun to see how much these little boys are improving in just a few weeks! Although my favorite thing is to watch a ground ball and see about 5 tiny boys sprinting to the ball...

GO GIANTS!