A Jonah post.
There's a lot going on right now, as evidenced by my lack of posting here, I think. I've been active over on my costuming journal, mostly in preparation for Dragon*Con. But other than that, I just can't seem to squeeze out enough time to write up a post. I start and then I don't ever get around to finishing it. So, maybe I'll compartmentalize and the most important stuff will get up here and the rest, well... who knows.
Jonah just started back to school. Last week was his first week back and boy have I missed that Tuesday/Thursday reprieve. Oh, and so has he. He loves it so much and I think it's really going to help with the last bit of potty training. So, Chris and I discussed it and we're now on a waiting list to add Wednesdays as well.
Speaking of potty training, we are making steady forward progress, but it's slow and at times very frustrating. He still doesn't get the whole pooping thing and I'm really at a loss of what's going to make that happen other than just to keep doing what we're doing. He's done it once or twice, but he's still not putting two and two together. He stays dry if I stay on a steady schedule of making sure he goes to the potty. As in, I set a timer on my phone to go off every hour and half the time I have to chase him down to make him go. It's frustrating because we've not been able to find something that consistently motivates him to go. He could care less about getting a couple of pieces of candy as a reward anymore. For a little while, shooting off fireworks before bed was a good motivator to get him to keep his pants dry all day. But like I said, it's all progress, even if it's slower and harder than I ever imagined.
Of other things he's starting, last week was our first week of soccer as well. He had practice on Friday and a game on Saturday. It's pretty fun and he seems to love it, despite the melting heat. Turns out he was in class with the coach's son last year (and will be again if we can pick up that Wednesday) and there's one other boy on the team who was in his class both last year and this year.
Happy boy having fun at his first practice on Friday evening:
Action shot of warming up for the game Saturday morning:
In other fun stuff with Jonah news, we went to Huntsville the weekend before last to the Star Wars exhibit at the Space and Rocket Center. They allowed non-flash photography, but I didn't think to take the big camera. I figured there were probably better pics of the props and costumes than I could get in such low light with my cell phone, so I didn't bother taking any pics in the exhibit. There was only one female costume there: Classic Leia (the white hooded dress you first see her in). Wait, I take that back, there was a Tusken woman as well, which was actually kind of neat.
What was really cool were the experiments they had set up for the kids to do. We built an electromagnetic hover speeder from Lego and propelled it from one end of a magnetic track to the other using electromagnetic coils. We tried out different kinds of wheels on an R2D2 looking robot that we then hooked up to an ethernet cable and programmed some commands to have it navigate a little obstacle course type thing. It was the sneakiest science lesson ever! Unfortunately, the wait for the Millennium Falcon theater thingy to feel the jump to light speed (assuming Han got it working, of course) was longer than we wanted to wait.
So we skipped that and, of course, exited through the gift shop. *sigh* Jonah has been saying for 8 months every single time I ask him that he wants to be a ghost for Halloween. I've been impressed with his consistency, honestly. I thought for sure he'd change his mind every time I asked. Of course, as we're leaving, he sees the gift shop fully populated with Star Wars merch, including costumes. Suddenly, unprompted, he pipes up with "I want to be Darth Vader for Halloween!" *headdesk* Well, at this point, with all the crap I've got going on between now and Halloween, he's getting another commercial costume this year if Darth Vader is what he wants. Which really sucks because making a kid sized Darth Vader would be so much fun!
Anyway, we wandered around through the Rocket Park outside as we made our way back to our car and I snapped a few pics.
Chris and I both remember playing in this thing when we were kids:
The rocket park has changed a bit, with the relocation of some pieces that are weather damaged from over the years. I guess they're starting to realize these are pieces of American history and they're refurbing them and placing them indoors (including the huge Saturn 5 rocket that used to lay on the ground in the very back of the park among other things that I noticed were missing).
There's the addition of this carnival game type area. The Space and Rocket Center knows, you guys. They just know.
Yellow Submarine! There's even a porthole for each Beatle.
And that's it from me for a bit. Back to work on costuming!
Jonah just started back to school. Last week was his first week back and boy have I missed that Tuesday/Thursday reprieve. Oh, and so has he. He loves it so much and I think it's really going to help with the last bit of potty training. So, Chris and I discussed it and we're now on a waiting list to add Wednesdays as well.
Speaking of potty training, we are making steady forward progress, but it's slow and at times very frustrating. He still doesn't get the whole pooping thing and I'm really at a loss of what's going to make that happen other than just to keep doing what we're doing. He's done it once or twice, but he's still not putting two and two together. He stays dry if I stay on a steady schedule of making sure he goes to the potty. As in, I set a timer on my phone to go off every hour and half the time I have to chase him down to make him go. It's frustrating because we've not been able to find something that consistently motivates him to go. He could care less about getting a couple of pieces of candy as a reward anymore. For a little while, shooting off fireworks before bed was a good motivator to get him to keep his pants dry all day. But like I said, it's all progress, even if it's slower and harder than I ever imagined.
Of other things he's starting, last week was our first week of soccer as well. He had practice on Friday and a game on Saturday. It's pretty fun and he seems to love it, despite the melting heat. Turns out he was in class with the coach's son last year (and will be again if we can pick up that Wednesday) and there's one other boy on the team who was in his class both last year and this year.
Happy boy having fun at his first practice on Friday evening:
Action shot of warming up for the game Saturday morning:
In other fun stuff with Jonah news, we went to Huntsville the weekend before last to the Star Wars exhibit at the Space and Rocket Center. They allowed non-flash photography, but I didn't think to take the big camera. I figured there were probably better pics of the props and costumes than I could get in such low light with my cell phone, so I didn't bother taking any pics in the exhibit. There was only one female costume there: Classic Leia (the white hooded dress you first see her in). Wait, I take that back, there was a Tusken woman as well, which was actually kind of neat.
What was really cool were the experiments they had set up for the kids to do. We built an electromagnetic hover speeder from Lego and propelled it from one end of a magnetic track to the other using electromagnetic coils. We tried out different kinds of wheels on an R2D2 looking robot that we then hooked up to an ethernet cable and programmed some commands to have it navigate a little obstacle course type thing. It was the sneakiest science lesson ever! Unfortunately, the wait for the Millennium Falcon theater thingy to feel the jump to light speed (assuming Han got it working, of course) was longer than we wanted to wait.
So we skipped that and, of course, exited through the gift shop. *sigh* Jonah has been saying for 8 months every single time I ask him that he wants to be a ghost for Halloween. I've been impressed with his consistency, honestly. I thought for sure he'd change his mind every time I asked. Of course, as we're leaving, he sees the gift shop fully populated with Star Wars merch, including costumes. Suddenly, unprompted, he pipes up with "I want to be Darth Vader for Halloween!" *headdesk* Well, at this point, with all the crap I've got going on between now and Halloween, he's getting another commercial costume this year if Darth Vader is what he wants. Which really sucks because making a kid sized Darth Vader would be so much fun!
Anyway, we wandered around through the Rocket Park outside as we made our way back to our car and I snapped a few pics.
Chris and I both remember playing in this thing when we were kids:
The rocket park has changed a bit, with the relocation of some pieces that are weather damaged from over the years. I guess they're starting to realize these are pieces of American history and they're refurbing them and placing them indoors (including the huge Saturn 5 rocket that used to lay on the ground in the very back of the park among other things that I noticed were missing).
There's the addition of this carnival game type area. The Space and Rocket Center knows, you guys. They just know.
Yellow Submarine! There's even a porthole for each Beatle.
And that's it from me for a bit. Back to work on costuming!