Stampede Game

One of Tanner's birthday gifts from his Auntie Sue was tickets for us to the Idaho Stampede Basketball game. Tanner also got some spending money from his Poppa for the hat, foam finger and mini-basketball that you can't quite see in the photo. Both of the boys loved the game.

We went on the YMCA appreciation night, so a bunch of kids from Jake's team, and the league as a whole were there. The kids got to go down on the court and form a High-5 tunnel for the player introductions, so Jake got to High-5 the entire Stampede team. He sat with his friend Tyler for the game and Tanner alternated between sitting on Marisa's Lap and mine.

Tanner had a great time rooting on the Stampede. He has his usual bout of "mascotitisosis", which is the fear that the guy in the "goofy suit" will come and make unwelcome comedic advances in your section and heaven forbid, to you directly. But "Rumble" stayed on his own side of the arena and Tanner was able to relax and enjoy the game. 

We were planning to leave at halftime, then after the third quarter, then ended up staying until the very end since the boys were having such a good time and behaving so well. We then finished our late night sports tradition by sleeping in separate beds; Tanner in with Marisa and Jake and I in our bed.

Thanks to Auntie Sue and Poppa for a great time out!

Tanner's 3rd Birthday

It was Tanner's 3rd birthday on Friday. After much back and forth by Marisa and I about where to have it (Tanner truly couldn't have cared less) we did it at our house after dinner. Tanner, who didn't seem at all interested in the fact that his birthday was approaching, seemed to enjoy everything at the party. He was very detached from the whole thing until the party actually started. Despite repeated attempts by Mom and Dad to get him into the process by asking him where he wanted to have his birthday, what kind of gifts he wanted, or what kind of cake even, the kid just didn't care. He would always answer, "I don't care, whatever you want Mom".

In the end, he had a good time. He got a lot of presents that he loves playing with, had a healthy dinner of beanie weenies and potato chips with diet coke and followed it up with the Dora cake that Marisa and Jake made for him. Grandma Cori, Jake, and Faith all had a good time, too!

I am of two minds when thinking about Tanner being three. I'm sure that this is just because he is the middle child, and is probably the case with all middle kids, but there are times that I can't believe he's three already, then there are times I can't believe he's ONLY three. He has turned three with a vengeance though, (no matter which I am looking at it that day). He has spent more time in Time Out then I think Jake has ever seen, and has a brave/stubborn/suicidal streak that is going to make the next year or so just AWESOME. But he balances it out by being a sweet and loving little boy when you least expect it.

We finished the weekend with a Pancake Breakfast/1 mile Turkey Trot fundraiser for Jake's school that Jake and I ran in. There was a shorter course for littler kids, but Tanner was clearly too worn out from being three to want to do it. It snowed a little here on the way to our basketball game on Saturday and we were socked in by a fog inversion this morning so thick we couldn't see the front yard. Perfect football day!

We are really looking forward to everyone showing up this week for Thanksgiving and can't wait for Turkey day. As we probably won't post again before then (unless Tanner lights his room on fire), have a great Thanksgiving. Spend good time with good people. Love to all.

Faith's First Haircut

Faith's hair is coming in slowly. Poor thing has quite an interesting hairline, with long wispy pieces on the sides and barely anything on top. We finally decided it was time to help things along, so we took her with Tanner (who was looking quite a bit more than shaggy) to get her hair cut today. She laid on my shoulder the whole time- didn't cry- just laid there while the lady trimmed the wispy ends and told her how good she was being.

Her favorite thing to say these days is, "No, Mama!!" when I try to help her do anything. She also has become very attached to the baby doll that was given to her by Grandma for her first b'day. She hugs it and kisses it, feeds it, and gives it juice. It's very cute. She has begun tormenting Tanner by taking anything he is playing with and running away with it, laughing maniacally. Considering Tanner's propensity for just this behavior, I say bring it on, Faith! She has clearly learned from the Master.

Jake

Jake had his first sleepover this weekend. His friend Sean from his K class and also his B-Ball team came home with us after the basketball game on Saturday afternoon. They had a blast! We took them out to dinner, then got ice cream from 31 Flavors and came home to watch "Little Giants" (a football movie for kids). They slept in Jake's bed together, while Tanner spent the night waiting for the Night Night Fairy sleeping between Brian and I.

He continues to love Kindergarten and is learning far more than I ever could have imagined. He can read- really read. It is incredible to me. And he can tell time and count change and write sentences. I have my issues with his school and the academic focus but since he is in all day K he gets a hefty dose of all the fun stuff, too, so I have made peace with it (mostly). The most important thing is that he is so happy there. He has so many friends. The best thing we heard at his parent conference was that he "is confident in who he is"- that he "is his own person". If we can hold onto that for a while, that's all we could ask for.

Funny story about Jake: The kids play this game they call "Stroller Girl" which consists of the boys riding their mini trucks around the downstairs, chasing Faith who is pushing her doll stroller. So the other day they were doing this and Jake was leading. He had made it into a game in which they were headed to Minnesota to visit their cousins. They hit the laundry room door and he delcared that they "were lost". So he points to Faith and loudly states the solution: "Follow Stroller Girl! She's got the GPS!". Make Believe- 2008 style!

He loves playing basketball still and loves watching Football on TV. He still gets sad that he won't be allowed to play "professional football" (anything more than playing with friends out on the green) and lamented that "It's not fair that Faith and Tanner both have two kidneys and can play football!" on the way home from his annual ultrasound. He then ammended this statement to say, "Well, Faith can't. She can only play tennis or golf". That got my inner feminist riled up but when I told him that it wasn't true, he pointed out that there are no girls on Major League B'Ball teams or in the NFL, NHL, or NBA. I vowed to make him watch the WNBA but will not under any circumstances allow him to watch anything called "Powder Puff Football".

The Night Night Fairy Strikes Again!

Tanner turns 3 on Friday, so in preparation for that momentous event the Night-Night fairy visited our house on Saturday night. The "Night Night Fairy" (for those of you not in the know) is the mythical creature that comes to childrens houses and takes their binkies (presumably to give to little babies that need them) and leaves a present in their place. Tanner was a champ. He left his binkies in a little pile on the stair railing and was a bit shocked I think to find that the Fairy did indeed take them and leave in their place a firetruck with Dora and Diego riding inside (just what he asked for... that Night Night Fairy knows ALL!). He hasn't looked back since. He proudly proclaims each morning, "NO more night night face, Mom!" ("Night Night Face" being the icky goo that tends to collect on the upper lip of the addicted).

He has good days and bad days. And just like the poem my grandpa used to quote, "When he is good he is very very good, but when he is bad he is horrid"! He is very low-key about his upcoming birthday. When asked what he wants he says, "I don't care. Whatever you want, Mama". He doesn't really have an opinion what what kind of cake he wants or if there is a character on it or not. He did not want a party but told us that he just wanted "to have dinner at the Merc with mommy, daddy, Faith, Jake, and Nana". He's such a funny boy. It is hard to believe he is the same age Jake was when we decided to move here. They are so different.

Halloween 2008

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. The boys dressed up as BSU Football player. The hockey-player-dressed-as-a-football-player idea was quickly forgotten when Jake realized he wouldn't be able to wear his football helmet with the mask on. However, the mask (as you can see) did not got to waste .

Tanner really got into trick-or-treating (much to our surprise) and loudly shouted, "TRICK OR TREAT! GO BOISE STATE! YEAH!!" at every door. He stayed out with Jake and I till the bitter end- walking the whole way and asking, "Just one more house, Mom, please???" as it got later. He was scared of the house that played spooky noises, but other than that he was game for the whole thing.

Faith was a black cat. Nana had brought her the cosume earlier in the week and she loved dragging it around the house and saying "MEOW!"- wanting to take it to bed with her at night but not wanting to put it on at all. When it was time to get ready to go she saw that I was going to try to put her in the costume and she hid behind our stools, crying. I forced her in it (put another dollar in the therapy jar- as my sister would say..... ) and she was ready to go.

The concept of"knocking on doors and asking for candy" really appealed to her, too. The first house we went to she walked right in, past the lady holding the candy, and would have gone right into their kitchen and joined in the party had we not dragged her out. She also walked most of the way, and went to way more houses than either Jake or Tanner went to when they were her age. She came home early with Brian and proceeded to dump out her loot and talk to herself- oohing and aahhing over the bounty before she got scared upon answering the door for a scary trick-or-treater and promptly asked to go to bed.

1st B-Ball Game

So today was our 1st Basketball game. We had the 9:00 am game the day after Halloween, so we ended up short a couple of players off our normal roster, but we had enough to play. The game was AWESOME!

We have only had two practices, and there is so much to go over, that I was worried that it was going to be a rather large fuster cluck, but the Y really has it down on game day (they have issues at ALL other times). They have two ref's that come and work with the kids 1st on rules, drills etc. and work with them during them game. They were great about calling (and not calling) penalties to help the kids learn. They bring colored wristbands and kids on each team all have different ones, corresponding to the kids on the other team that they are supposed to guard, which helps with the whole "mob ball" thing, and the kids did really good. 

They passed, they played defense, they made a couple of shots...mainly they had a good time. A couple of minor injuries, couple of "non-listening" instances, but mainly good teamwork and sportsmanship. This is a really great program for the little kids; no score, no stats, 4 eight minute quarters, a "safe zone" they can go to where no defense is allowed and short baskets (8') so they can actually make a shot, which is the big news...

...Jake made his 1st basket! He did such a great job (see below). We have another practice this week and a game next Saturday. We got red uniform shirts today at the game, so the kids named themselves The Red Rockets (much better than Team #2).