Peas and Thank you

A conversation with Ian at lunch:

Ian: Mommy,there are balls in my soup. What are these green balls?

Mom: Peas, Ian, they are called peas.

Ian: I don't like ball soup, thank you.

Gone, but not forgotten

Tooth #2 is out, the right bottom tooth (or center bottom tooth as it has become since #1 popped out. Kinda gross.) As the story goes, Nate was on the playground, first recess, and was playing some kind of chase/tag game. He was pushed and somehow, the tooth came out. Not totally clear. He says he spit and saw some blood and realized that the tooth had fallen out in the bark chips. Talk about a needle in a haystack. His wonderful teacher, Mrs. Burrows, helped him look for it to no avail, so she wrote a sweet note to the tooth fairy explaining what has happened. Nate is still worried that she won't come and misses his tooth (there's been talk of going to school early tomorrow to look for it - God help me!) I am hoping a bonus buck from the fairy will keep me out of 38 degrees and raining come tomorrow morning! None the less, it's bitter sweet, my baby is growing up!

Congrats Dave!

Congrats Dave for making Presidents Award 2008 despite all the negatives in our housing economy! You did it!
Readers, your real estate referrals are appreciated and necessary in today's market, so if you know of anyone buying or selling or relocating in the greater Portland Area, please, send them to Super Dave (JLS link to your left)!

The Karate Kid, Part 2 (or Kid 2 as the case may be)

For the past 2 months or so, Ian has been unofficially training with Nate's Advanced Little Dragons class at Karate. We'd show up for class and Ian would do all the moves (or try) in the hallway and one day Sensi Guido invited him in. That sealed the deal, from that day forward, Ian sort of adopted the class as his own.
Tuesday Guido brought him his own Gi (rhymes with key). A size 000, the smallest the make. Ian was over the moon! He knows that you are supposed to be 4 years old to join the class, and you are supposed to start in Little Dragons (we will probably move him down when his friends turn 4 so he can be in a class with his peers), but for now, he thinks his is pretty hot stuff. He stands by Nate, front and center, and does his best to follow along. What I find most amazing is that he has picked up a lot of the Japanese terms and counting to 10 that they do in class, just by watching over the past year and a half.
Special thanks to Sensi Guido if he is reading this, for making this Shuster kid so happy!

V-Day Weekend Update

First a visit from the tooth fairy, then Cupid, it was a plentiful weekend. Nate had a game early on Saturday morning which went great as usual. We went to Toys R Us with the tooth fairy money ($5 bucks for the first tooth, can you believe that?) and Valentines money from Grandparents - thanks grandparents!

Finally! The tooth is out!!!

Friday the 13th is a lucky day at our house! First, Nate only had a half day of school,mostly consisting of a huge party and trading Valentines. Ian, Daddy and I were on hand to help with the festivities. After school, favorite restaurant, Benehana for shrimp, shrimp, shrimp! Then, the grand finale - afternoon baths followed by some tooth pulling. It took a bit of convincing and bribery to hold still, but that puppy was more than ready to come out. And just look at the pics - the new tooth is HUGE and more than half way in. You can hardly even tell! Nate is beyond thrilled that the Tooth Fairy AND Cupid will be visiting on the same night!

Weekend Update

Lego guy parade
Teamwork swinging at the Park

Trying to go higher than Daddy

Tree hugger,Ian

Nate, Man vs. Wild

Conquering cross bars


Pardon the posting interruptions, we (I) am am having a bit of blogger trouble. Good week, the sun is out and the back yard is finally getting a good work out again with kids playing (and mom is cheering that the kids can go outside again!) Nate had his game on Saturday and the Knights did great once again. They are a great shooting team! Nate scored the first point of the game and had a few more throughout. We were able to enjoy a few sunny hours after the game and the park and rec. compound near our house on Saturday.

Bad Hair Day

Ian just ran up to me and said "Look Mom, this is a picture I drew of Daddy having a bad hair day!"
So funny! Dave's hair is buzzed so short that a bad hair day isn't possible. Wish I could say that.