Pinewood Derby

This past weekend was the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. Whoo, boy. It's easy to see that some kids (and parents) get waaaay into it. It's like Toddlers and Tiaras for boys to a certain extent. Bjorn and Andy did spend a lot of time working on it - nothing major, but it was a good project they did together. Some of these designs were amazing (sadly, no pictures) and some parents were grumbling to each other that there was some cheating going on.

Andy managed to come in 5th or 6th out of six in his pack (den? I can never remember). He didn't cry to throw a fit - we'd prepared him pretty well for it. Some kids were bitter and sad - to be expected when you work hard and it doesn't work out. Now the boys in my house want to build a track so they can practice between now and next year.

Bjorn has also agreed to take on being the leader of this age group. Big props! He's a great guy to do it and there is a cumulative sigh of relief from all the parents.

Oh, boy

So here's an interesting problem that came up in our house the other day. We were at an event and ran into one of Andy's buddies and they decided to have a play date. Great! We love play dates.

The kids played outside in the creek while I worked in the yard next to them and then they played upstairs and downstairs for about an hour. I was around in the house folding laundry and putting things away. I'm downstairs when I hear from upstairs, "Mom! He's trying to kiss me!"

...

That's about what I thought, too. So I casually said to stop that, as if I was telling them to stop fighting, and gave the five minute warning. Convenient since I had just texted with the boy's mom and it was time to go home.

I am sure this isn't a gay thing (not that there's anything wrong with that), but kids being curious. But it's a good lesson on boundaries and leading into private parts and who can('t) see them. And damn, it's a lesson for me, too. Just when I thought it was safe to let kids play alone, they smack me in the face with a reminder why I have to keep watch. Gah. Don't these kids know Downton Abbey isn't going to watch itself?

Enjoy it!

Several friends posted this essay this week on parenting that so rang true, I laughed out loud several times. Then I sent it to several friends. I love my kids. Loads, even. But there are certain situations and days that are just a challenge and that's always the day that some random stranger tells you to love every minute of it. Hee. Good stuff. It's always nice to know I'm not alone in thinking that while motherhood is truly one of the coolest adventures I've ever undertaken, some days are more fun than others.

Speaking of fun though, we've been having some good stuff lately.



This is the makings of the pinewood derby car Andy (and Bjorn) will race this weekend. We finally found use of a Dremel that's been in the garage since we bought it to renovate our kitchen in our last house, probably circa 2004. It's nice when being a pack-rat pays off.

This is the inside of the laser tag arena where we had Andy's party. I may have had more fun than he did.

Unwrapping presents. We had a small group - four kids plus Andy - so we could do that during a break in the action.

I can't recall what he got but it apparently smells really bad.



And we're off

The training wheels came off yesterday. And it's pretty awesome.

He learned how to ride without training wheels at the end of the summer on his older, much smaller bike. But he couldn't get comfortable on this bigger bike. So we put the training wheels on and have been riding a lot lately. I have been asking for weeks (months) if he was ready, but he always said no. So Saturday we met friends who were also ready to take their training wheels off. Something about the peer pressure or the barometric pressure that day because he was ready.

Several people have likened this to potty training, "When they're ready, they're ready." Fortunately, this didn't involve any missteps that included bowel movements in sweaty boys underwear.