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.