Scoreboards

I'm fascinated with scores. Whenever a sport is turned on TV, I check the scoreboard to see who is winning. I've been making scoreboards on my own as well. When the Yankees were playing the Red Sox recently, I created my own scoreboard to keep track. I wrote the score down in pencil, so I could change it when more runs were scored.

Yesterday, I was busy making scoreboards again. I had some "bump car" races between Mater and Lightning. For those who don't know, bump cars are toy cars that go when you bump them. The winner was the car that went the furthest. On my scoreboard, I drew pictures of Lightning and Mater and created a grid of boxes. Every time one of them won, I put in "x" in the grid below his picture. After many races, Lightning won the most, but it was pretty close.

I also made a scoreboard for the colors of marshmallow pieces in my cars cereal. This cereal is sort of like Lucky Charms, but instead of having hearts, clovers, and the like, it has cars in various colors. I carefully picked out all the marshmallow pieces and then created a grid on a piece of paper to score the match. I then counted the cars of different colors and filled in squares on the grid. Yellow had the most. In the end, my scoreboard looked sort of like a bar graph, which I also like.

Smiley Balloon

I really love this balloon---so much so that I had Daddy take some pictures of it with his new camera this morning. You can also see a slide show
here.

Story Night

Tonight was story night at my school. This means that some of the teachers read stories and a whole bunch of the Mommies and Daddies read stories too. I got to hear about a zillion stories. Some were ones that I knew, like Click clack Moo. Cows that Type others were new to me. There was one, The Giving Tree that is really sad. In fact, it was too sad for me to sit through. I had a lot of fun hearing stories though.

Blog #800 - A milestone

This is my 800th blog entry---approximately one blog entry for every 2 days I've been alive. 800 is a bit higher than I can count. Most recently, I counted to 150 by ones. That was a big job. I was pretty happy with the fact that I got well past 72---my favorite number.

Not really much to report in this entry other than to note that it's kind of amazing that the blog has been going so strong for so long. Thank you loyal readers!

Mini Golf

The previous weekend, the whole three family went out and played mini-golf in Pleasanton. While I've played mini-golf before, this was my first attempt to play all 18 holes. (I played in Maui and only got through seven holes---I decided I liked the 7th so much that I played it over and over about a zillion times.) Mini golf is lots of fun although it's harder tan you might think. I like to keep putting the ball even while it's in motion (more like hockey than golf), which definitely makes it harder. Also, I'm pretty aggressive in my swing, so I sometimes shoot the short putts well past the hole.

One worry I had when playing was that I wouldn't like the putters on the mini golf course, so I brought my own putter. Most of the other people used the standard putters. Daddy did too, but he didn't like the putter at all. At the end, I was more or less tied with Mommy while Daddy shot 1 under par for the course. Mommy, however, made the only hole in one!

Catch

I'm getting very good at catching and throwing a football. While I really like to tackle and block, Daddy has insisted that I learn some other skills as well. We've been playing catch with my Steelers football. Initially, Daddy would throw some underhand spirals to me, and I would have to catch five in a row. I would toss the ball back to him as well. Over the weekend, he decided I was ready for the overhand spiral toss. Initially, I thought the ball was way to fact to even see, let alone catch.

My eyes are falling out of my head, the ball is so fast.

I said. But I soon adapted. Today was a new record---seven catches in a row. My throwing is also very strong too. I figure if Daddy can throw overhand spirals, so can I. So I zing the ball as fast as I can at him. He mostly catches it, which is pretty amazing.

While throwing and catching is fun, the best part of football is the "sack the quarterback" game. We set up pillows at each end of the room, representing the opposing quarterback. Then, we take turns being the blocker and the pass rusher. I like to be the rusher. Despite Daddy teaching me some techniques like the swim move, my preferred approach is to bull right into him, and try to push him out of the way. I'm getting good at getting leverage from below and keeping my feet moving. If he's not really ready, I can push him back a bunch of steps and slip through to get the quarterback.

Right now, my best athletic talents are: (1) My speed (I'm very fast); (2) My strength (I'm quite strong); and (3) My hitting ability (not so useful in football, but very useful in baseball).

By the way, for those worried about my past football injury two years ago---I've forgotten all about it. I'm as aggressive as ever.

Homework---Results

My homework assignment was due on Friday, and I did great. I totally nailed the Sammy Snake poem and got a smiley face with two stars for eyes--the highest possible score. This week's assignment is Missy Mouse (in honor of the letter of the week, "M"). I'm less excited about Missy than I was about Sammy the Snake, but I should do well with this also.

Risk

As I mentioned, we got the game "Risk" over the weekend. I love this game. We played a full game on Sunday. I had the blue pieces while Daddy had the pink. Initially, I controlled much of Asia while Daddy held all of Australia and slivers of the other continents. There were some big wars in Iraq, Iceland, and Siam, but eventually my forces defeated all of Daddy's. I gradually managed to take over all of South America, then Europe, then the rest of the world. I'm very proud of myself for winning the game on only my second try. The die rolling in this game is very exciting!

Go....bears

This Saturday, Daddy and I went to a Cal football game. I've wanted to go to a game for a while, so this was really great. It was a bit rainy in the morning, so I wasn't sure I wanted to go, but it cleared up.

We got an early start, so I could visit Daddy's office before the game. It took a while to find parking owing to the fact that most of the lots were closed for the game, but we found a good spot. On the way to work, Daddy stopped off and picked up a new game for us to play while we "worked." The game is called "Risk". the object is simple---take over the whole world. While Daddy initially worred that the ages for the game were 10+, I quickly got the hang of what was going on and put up a god fight. There were giant wars in Iraq (just like the real world) and Kamchatka. After a bit of time, we went to the game. It was great. There were a zillion fans, and I liked a lot of the cheers. The best one was "Go...Bears". The way this cheer works is for one side of the stadium to yell "go" and then the other to reply "bears". There was also a cheer I didn't like, "Roll on you bears." For this cheer, you have to say the words while twirling your finger in a circle.

Anyay, the Bears destroyed the Arizona Wildcats. One of the best things about Cal is the terrific colors of their uniforms. They wore blue tops with yellow letters and, best of all, yellow pants.

Sunset Ride

As you know, Daddy loves to take photos. Here are some pictures of his ride home from work today.



Drive Home Sept 2007

Showtime

Well, homework is due today. I think I'm prepared. Two of my assignments involve reciting things. One of the recitations is the Pledge of Allegiance, which I hate to say. The other, Sammy the Snake, is more fun. Here it is:

ssss Sammy Snake
Seesaw sandwiches
Silly soup
Saturdays
Ssss Sammy Snake

Picture Day

It's picture day at school today. While this is not such a big deal for me, it is for Mommy. She was fretting about what outfit I should wear and what color backdrop will be most complementary to my coloring. (She settled on blue.) One not so fun thing about picture day is that Mommy is fussier than usual when it comes to my hair. I don't really liked to have my hair brushed---instead preferring the natural look---but Mommy definitely wants it to be somewhat in place for the picture.

Bedtime with Aidan

My bedtime routine hasn't really changed that much over the years. I still get read several stories, Mommy and Daddy still sing songs. Maybe the only thing that has changed are the details of the last bit. Right now, I like to be tucked in with my "stuffies" to the side of me. Sometimes, there are so many stuffies that it's hard to fit the covers over all of them.

Daddy decided to take a couple of photos of me in bed. They're pretty much impossible to take with a normal camera since Daddy used no flash and with only the nightlight in my room. You can see them here.

Homework

A milestone for me happened earlier this week. I got my first batch of homework. (Yes, there is homework in Kindergarten these days.) There are actually a bunch of things I have to do by the end of the week. They include learning the pledge of allegiance, learning a poem about Sammy the snake, tracing the letter s in various places, and some sort of social studies. I've nailed the snake poem already, and I'm pretty confident about tracing the S's. I don't know about the other things though. The Bell school is pretty tough.

Ice Cream Social

It was a busy weekend this weekend. On Sunday, the whole three family went off to play miniature golf in Livermore. It was really fun. I putted pretty well and really enjoyed playing. Daddy putted extremely well and ended up finishing 1 under for the course. After that, we went home and watched football for a little bit before going off to the ice cream social/gong show at my school. I liked the ice cream part quite a bit, but the gong show part, where the Daddies were supposed to showcase their talent, was a bit boring. Overall, it was a really fun day.

Daddy took some pictures with his new camera at both events. One of the things he's most excited about with this camera is his 50mm prime lens. He especially likes the "bokeh" from this lens. Apparently, if you set it in a particular way, you van get a laser sharp image of the subject while softly blurring everything in the background. The ice cream social shots (those where I don't have a golf club) are good examples of this effect. You can view them here.

World Series of Poker

As you know, poker is one of my favorite games. This is especially true this time of year when ESPN is running episodes of the main event of the World Series of Poker. I really like watching all the players decide what to do and have my own views about which hands I'd like to hold.

Anyway, I've been pressing Daddy for quite a while to increase the number of cards we use in playing poker. Initially, we played one card poker, which was quite fun. (And, on one memorable evening, I managed to wipe out Nainnie in a one card poker tournament through a combination of pretty good bluffing and an Ace at the right moment.) We advanced to two card poker and eventually three card.

I felt ready for the real deal---major league poker---Texas Hold 'Em. In this game, each player is dealt two cards face down (the hole cards). Next, three cards (the flop) are turned face up in the middle. These are shared by both players. Next a fourth card is turned face up (the turn), and finally a fifth card (the river). Best five card hand wins. Now, the trickey part for me is remembering all the possible hands. There are a lot of them: quads, full house, flush, straight, trips, two pairs, a pair, and a high card. Daddy thoughtfully laid out all the possibilities in order for me to consult. I'm getting pretty good at figuring things out though. I managed to win with a full house recently. I've also had a couple of straights, and a flush or two. The best is when I have a pair of aces in the hole. This hand has a special name, pocket rockets, since the letter "A" is shaped sort of like a rocket ship. I've never lost with these.

Usually, I'll have a couple of helpers like Thomas trains or stuffed animals to help me decide what to do. The only bad thing about poker is that I'm sad when things don't work out on a hand with a big pot. I really want to win these. Still, I love playing poker.

Christopher

Last night, I went over to visit with my new school friend Christopher while Mommy and Daddy went to the opera. Initially, I was quite worried about this visit since the original plan called for me to go to sleep at Christopher's house until Mommy and Daddy came to pick me up after the opera. Fortunately, Christopher's Mommy was kind enough to agree to take me back to my home for bedtime (the only live a couple of blocks away). While this was a good thing, Christopher and I came up with an even better plan--we decided that it would be great if he could come over to visit my house since he hadn't seen it. So off we all went to my house. It was really exciting showing him all the many toys. I also pointed out some of my sports stuff since Christopher is a really big sports fan. (He got TWO football helmets for his birthday and we decked out in Alex Smith garb last night). It turned out to be a great night.

Are you ready for some football?

Football season has just started and that means it's time for me to put on the pads and get out there as well. Daddy and I have been playing a number of football related games. One of my favorites is "sack the quarterback". In this game, we set up two pillows (one for each QB) and then take turns acting as offensive lineman and pass rusher. The pass rusher has to get past the blocker to tackle the opposing QB. The offensive lineman's job is to block. While there is plenty of contact in this game, there's no tackling, which is a plus.

The next game is "pass routes". Here, one player is the QB and the other is the wide receiver. The receiver runs the route called by the QB and tries to catch the pass. I've learned a number of pass routes already. I know square in, square out, slant, and fly patterns. I especially like the fly since it allows me to run down the field at top speed to catch the pass. My catching skills are much improved too. We've been doing some pass catching drills. Daddy tosses the football to me until I catch five in a row. If I drop a pass, we have to start over. This really forces me to concentrate on catching passes. I've become quite good at catching five in a row though.

Of course, I also love to watch football on TV--especially when the Steelers or the Packers are on. Happily, both teams are undefeated so far this season.