Triceratops

We went to build-a-bear workshop today. While there are many bears to choose from, I opted for a triceratops. If you'll recall, the first stuffy that was allowed to sleep with me was my little triceratops (known affectionately as "Tri"). I decided that she needed a friend.



I'm really happy with my new bigger triceratops. I carried her around with me all day and went to sleep hugging both her and my original Tri. I had Daddy take some pictures.

Putting on Ornaments

Today, we put some of the ornaments on the Christmas tree. Since I'm very strong, I helped Daddy cary some of the boxes out of the garage and into the house. Then, I put up some ornaments. It was very exciting to pick out the ones I like. The balls are really shiny, and I like these a lot.



I also picked out a number of others as favorites, including the Christmas shrimp and a very pretty trumpet.



I don't really like the nutcracker ornament, but Daddy and Mommy do, so it's on the tree.



We left the high parts of the tree for Mommy to do since she's taller than we are.

Daddy note: These "improbable" Christmas photos were taken using a tripod and a really long exposure time (30 seconds) with no ambient light. The long exposure creates the twinkles in the lights---it's not a Photoshop trick. In fact, there images are straight from the camera. Click on the image to view, download, or order prints of the big size.

O Christmas Tree

Well, we finally got a Christmas tree today. Its been super busy with my birthday party and other things, so the Christmas tree got pushed back. Because of the lateness of the season and the rains, we ended up getting an artificial tree this year. Mommy was ambivalent about this, but I like the "machinery" of the tree. It looks quite nice. Both Daddy and Mommy commented that artificial trees look a lot less artificial than they did when they were kids.



This evening we put the tree up, tomorrow we add the ornaments. I worked on the bottom branches.



Hooray for Christmas.

Christmas Cards

After Mommy finished with the gift wrap processing, she's turned to the next big Christmas job, writing the Christmas cards. While in past years, she signed the cards for me, with my new writing skills, I'm signing my own name to all the cards. There are lots of them, but I'm pretty quick at signing. I hope you like the cards.

Slow Motion Autumn

You know, people say that California doesn't have seasons like the east coast. This isn't really true. It's just that the seasons kind of occur in slow motion, so you don't notice them as much. For instance, right now it's what you would normally think of as fall on the east coast. The leaves are turning and falling off the trees. There's a crispness to the air. The trees and bushs are covered in nuts and berries. Here's a short photstream to give the flavor.

Birthday Celebration

Yesterday, I had an early birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. I invited all my classmates from kindergarten as well as some old friends as well. I had 12 people at my party, and everyone had a great time.



The theme of the party was my favorite sport--baseball. We even had a really cool Oakland A's cake, and I dressed as an A's player. Best of all, I got some very cool presents including a pair of nerf micro-dart guns that Daddy really likes. What a good day.

Early Birthday

After we went on the light-up train at Sunol, we stoppped off at Chevys, my favorite restaurant. Mommy had a birthday coupon from there, so we celebrated my birthday early.



I got the big sombrero, ice cream, and everything. Daddy only had his camera-phone, so we only have silly pictures

Sad Departure

Yesterday was a very sad day. I learned that the Oakland A's traded my favorite player, Danny Haren. I cried and cried. I said to Daddy that I love Danny Haren and wish he weren't traded. The only good news is that he was traded to the Diamond Backs, who play the Giants pretty often, so I'll still get to see him pitch from time to time. I'm getting a Diamond Backs hat to root for him.

I"m also extremely angry at the A's for making this move. I'm going to punish them by rooting against them for two whole games. The winter is a very sad time. Last year, I remember the day that Frank Thomas left the A's. This year, I'll remember the day Danny Haren was traded. These will both be very sad days for me.

Star of the Week - Update

Each day, I have a different star of the week responsibility. On Tuesday, my job was to bring in a story to read. I try to pick stories that are especially likely to amuse. For example, at a recent evening reading event, I brought in the book I Stink, which is about a garbage truck. For my star of the week offering, I brought in Bats at the Beach. While I really like this book, it didn't have sufficiently many gross parts to make the audience roll on the floor lauging uncontrollably. The best parts were when the book talked about the foods the bats liked to eat during their trips to the beach. These include "salted skeeters" and "roasted big-mallows."

Teddy Bear Cholla

On Wednesday, my job was to bring in some pictures of a place I went and explain them. While Mommy suggested I bring in shots of DC, I opted for desert pictures from Arizona. I brought in pictures of saguaro and barrel cactus, as well as cholla and prickly pear. I explained each of the pictures. My friend Logan was very impressed. He said the pictures were very cool. My teacher, Miss Nelson, was also impressed. She said she learned a lot about cactus from me. In particular, she did not know that you can tell the age of a saguaro from how many arms it has

Sunol Christmas Train

This evening, Mommy set up a surprise for me. She wouldn't tell me what it was or aything about it. Reluctantly, she told me it was "Sunol", which meant nothing to me. It turned out to be a lit-up Christmas train.



Inside and out, the train was decorated with lots of lights. It had 13 cars (we counted them)---a very long train. They had all different kinds of cars: restaurant cars, sleepers, pullman cars, and so on. They were all decorated in different ways, so it was pretty neat.



The only problem was that the train took forever to get going. I was bored during that time. Still, it was a fun evening all around.

Here's a set of shots from the evening. As usual, you can download, post, remix, or order prints from these.

Daddy note: I've abandoned all the other photo services for Flickr. It's much easier to share, do nice slide shows, and embed images in the blog. In addition, for those who like to download (you know who you are), it's much better in terms of image quality and it's free---just click the "download image" link for each picture. Finally, prints are cheaper: 4x6s are 15 cents each while 8x10, my favorite format, is only $2 each. For 8x10, that's abour 50% cheaper than Shutterfly and Snapfish. I may occasionally post images elsewhere, but mostly it will be to Flickr.

Star of the Week

I have extra responsibilities this week since I'm the star of the week. I was all excited this morning. I popped out of bed, put on clothes quickly, and zipped off to eat breakfast. I did not want to be late. This promises to be the most fun week of Kindergarten ever!

Busy, busy weekend

It was a very busy weekend. On Saturday, we got up early and went to a trophy ceremony for a golf group that Daddy belongs to. It turns out that Daddy won the trophy---the "Coffee Cup" (in honor of the early morning times they play). It was great. I even kissed the trophy I was so happy.

Next, we went off to soccer where, annoyingly, we wore our white shirts again. You see, we have reversible white and green shirts for soccer. I much prefer the green, but our team, the Tigers, never seems to get to be green. In fact, last week I was so upset that we were white again that I protested enough that I changed teams.



After that, Daddy and I went on a hike in the Mount Diablo foothills. Here's a batch of photos from around there.

Sunday was almost as busy. I spent the afternoon working with Mommy on my star of the week poster. See, this week, I'm the STAR OF THE WEEK in Kindergarten. Pretty cool.

We also went out for sushi and saw the Amazing Race (my favorite show) tonight.

Bunker Shots

Yesterday, Daddy and I played golf in the backyard, and I discovered that I had a remarkable talent--I can effortlessly hit bunker shots. Now you may wonder how I learned this since we don't have bunkers (sand traps) in our yard. Well, we put in a bunch of new powdery dirt in our garden area. It is about the same consistency as bunker sand. I decided that it would be fun to hit some balls out of this spot. Using my baseball grip on the golf club, I easily blasted my way out of the bunker. Daddy set the ball to have some tougher lies including something called a "plug lie" where the ball is half buried in the sand. Again, no problem for me. I hit textbook blast shots out from the bunker. (For those who don't know, a blast shot is one where you hit a little bit behind the ball and use the force of the sand in part to propel the ball out of the bunker.)

What is amazing is that no one ever taught me how to hit this shot. Daddy has always been more concerned with my hitting normal shots than tough bunker shots. It just seems like something that comes naturally to me.

Photostream

You will notice a new feature to the blog---a photostream. This is a looping slideshow of pictures posted to Flickr. Many of these appear as links in blog entries. If see a picture you like in the photostream, just click on it and you'll bounce to Flickr where you can download it or order a print.

Arizona - One Last Time

This is the last of the batch of highlight photos from Arizona.

Arizona Desert Museum

Photo Safari

Yesterday, Daddy went on a photo safari---a very long hike in the Diablo Foothills in search of pictures. Here are some of his best shots (view as a slideshow for best effect):

Plants

Animals

The large bird in two of the shots is a hawk. The creature that looks like a dog is a coyote. Daddy wants me to tell you that these photos were all taken with his 70-300mm lens, which is amazing. Only with the super powers of zoom can you get pictures this close of a coyote.

Finally, here are some scenes.

All of these are downloadable or you can make prints.

Goal!

I played soccer today and scored a goal. In this league, goals are tough to come by as there are a zillion kids vying for the ball. I got the ball near the goal mouth and kicked it through.

Gooooal!

I also did well as a goalie. I only let in one goal.

Sabino Canyon

As I mentioned before, we went to a place called Sabino Canyon on your recent trip to Arizona. There used to be a tram that wouuld take you all the way to the end of the canyon, where there is a nice waterfall. Sadly, there was a flood in 2006 that washed out the top half of the road, so the tram only goes halfway up. That meant we had to walk the other half of the way.



It was a hot day and for some reason I only wore my Sunday School shoes on the trip out, so my feet got sore fast. I didn't want to go on with the hike. I would sit down in the middle of the trail and refuse to go on.



Eventually, this became sufficiently annoying to everyone that we all turned around to go back.




Still, it was a very pretty place. Here are some photo highlights.

Reid Park Zoo

These are some photos from the zoo in Arizona. I had a great time pretending to be a peacock. Here are the photo highlights.

Marble Run

This weekend we've been playing a lot with my marble run. I really enjoy filling it completely with marbles.




Daddy and I also like to do a version of mythbusters with the marble run. The latest myths we've been studying involve these two "Y" sections of the marble run, where the marbles can either go to the left or to the right. The way the marble run is formed, there's a "Y" early in the run and a "Y" later in the run. The marble has to pass through both Y's to land in the red or green bins but only the first Y to land in the yellow bin. The myth is that the marble is equally likely to land in any of the three bins. We busted that myth--a marble is more likely to land in yellow than either of the other two bins. We also checked that the Y's are "fair" in that the marble is just as likely to go left as right. So, how do you solve this mystery?

Wine Country

Yesterday Daddy and I went to wine country together. Our official purpose was to pick up wine shipments from the two wineries that we are members of. Unofficially, the purpose was to go on a photo safari during the colorful fall season in wine country. We visited Trefethen and wandered around the barrels there. We also visited a new winery--August Briggs--up in Calistoga. Their winery is in the shape of a big barn.



We wandered around the grapevines and got a lot of nice pictures. Next, we went to Duckhorn and found a whole bunch of secret trails around the property.




I also got to take some pictures with Daddy's camera. Here is a nice one of Daddy.


We had a great time. Here's a link to all the photos (run the slideshow in fullscreen mode for best results).

It's Delicious

When I'm having foods that I like, I tend to lavish them with praise. For instance, a Kit Kat bar is "absolutely scrumptious." What I've discovered though is that if I can praise a food not just for its taste but also for its superior nutritional properties, this is even better. I like to increase the odds of getting more of my favorite stuff. My favorite is to offer a rhyming phrase:

It's delicious. It's nutritious!

This is a useful phrase for a host of foods. For instance, Oreo Cakesters are big chocolaty cakey cookies. I proudly announce,

They're delicious. They're nutritious!

No one seems to believe this though.

Sometimes I'm more successful. Chocolate milk, for instance:

It's delicious. It's nutritious!

Happily, this produces some level of agreement.

Back from Arizona

I'm just back from our trip to Arizona. It's a really neat place. I've never seen so many cactuses in my entire life. When we got off the plane at the airport, there were cactuses on the side of the road. I just kept seeing them everywhere. I asked Mommy and Daddy what would happen if a cactus suddenly grew in the middle of the road. Could cars get past it? Later, Mommy got me a book about the life of a saguaro cactus. What I learned is that it takes forever for one of these cactuses to grow.

At various restaurants and stores, I offered my perspective on cactuses:

You guys sure must like cactuses.

I suggested to various workers.



We did a lot of fun stuff in Arizona. We went to a "desert museum", which had lots of interesting plants and creatures. One of the activities at the museum was archeology. I used a duster thing to uncover a fossil of a dinosaur.



We went on a tram (and then on a hike) in Sabino Canyon. I liked the tram ride. I did not like the hike. We also went to the Tucson zoo.

Here are some pictures from the trip. Link here.

Tired

Trick or treating is very tiring. My legs were really sore this morning, and I was generally really tired today. I went to bed early. Daddy took a couple of pictures (above) of story time. One of the stories was called Mouse Paint. I got out the mouse finger puppets that go with this. I had the red one and Mommy had the blue one. You can see the blue guy (he's a bit blurry) in one of the shots. Daddy says that the cool feature of these shots is that they were done in the natural (dim) light of the house--no flash at all. Both of these photos are downloadable. Links here:

First photo

Second photo

World Series Party

This past weekend we had a World Series party. We decorated the house with lots of baseball stuff. Baseball caps lined the living room. Oakland A's bobbleheads adorned the mantle. Also, I made some cutout pictures of baseball players which we taped to the entertainment center. We invited over Roxy and her family as well as Daddy's friend Maria (who was kind enough to provide the awesome A's tickets last year).

As part of the festivities, I designed a quiz for the people between innings. It consisted of trivia questions like: How many all-star game wins does the National League have? How many World Series have the Red Sox won? I memorized the answers from Daddy.

Of course, one of the best parts of the World Series is when a team wins the trophy and all the players pour champagne on each other. Our party was on Sunday---the day the Boston Red Sox swept the series. Roxy, Daddy, and I were all jumping around and hugging each other with the Sox victory. World Series parties are fun. I can't wait to have a Super Bowl party!

Happy Halloween

Halloween is one of the best holidays. You get to dress up. You get to visit lots of people. You get candy. What's not to like? This year I dressed up as the Shadow Ranger. While most of the Power Rangers are teenagers who have been trained by the Sensei to have powerful crime fighting skills, the Shadow Ranger is a dog-like creature named Anubis "Doggie" Cruger. He retired from being a ranger but then came out of retirement to save the world from the evil General Benaag. In the picture above, I'm with my friend, Christopher, who is dressed up as Vernon Davis, a player on the 49ers.

Daddy did a photo shoot of me showing off my many crime fighting moves. Check it out here.

Campanile

Here are some fall pictures of the campanile at Daddy's work. Check them out here.