The other day, Skylar and I went to the track and ran.. It was the coolest thing ever.. She kind of runs like a Muppet, but it was really fun to see her get all jazzed up about getting into the “starting blocks”, and all out sprinting.. as a reward for a fun morning, I took Skylar to the local hardware store (Sky looooves shopping.. any kind of shopping).

She was in a social mood, so she was talking to lots of people…. which I thought was really cute… until she saw the cashier, who was placed in the middle part of the store..

Skylar goes up to the cashier (a tall skinny teenage kid) and says “Why your face all polka dots?” (he had pretty bad acne).

The kid pseudo-chuckled as I apologized and tried to shoo Sky down the closest aisle.

I say to Skylar, “That’s a very mean thing to say Skylar.. and it’s not polite“

She looks pensive and then says “Pleeze, ‘cuse me... But why your face all red polka dots?“.. this time a little louder.. Apparently, it’s polite now because she said “please” and “excuse me”.   *sigh*

…and of course, it gets even worse a few minutes later.

We are looking at this mini coy-pond that is inside the store, and an elderly lady hobbles up to Skylar.. She gets really close to Skylar (which Skylar didn’t like), patted her on the head, and said something along the lines of “You are so pretty, dear.. Do you like fish?”

Skylar then pulls away from the lady and makes a “Hmmmph” sound.. I apologize to the short/old lady and I explain how Skylar is shy sometimes. Skylar then says, “I’m not shy, she smells like Fenway (my dog)”

I was horrified, and we got out of the store pretty quickly after that.

————

Some random pics..

Sky at her dance class..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vid of Skylar at her gymnastics class..

Gymnastics

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Skylar “helping” with the leaves.. I think this is how Mommy got a sore back…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fenway snoozing in front of the stove during Thanksgiving..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sky’s first haircut (Gina has given her trims before. This is the first time at a salon).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I’m not sure how to explain this video.. Sky loves talking about bathroom stuff. Here’s just 1 example..

Back of Car

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Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving!

-pete

Skylar has this really gaudy purple sparkly toy cell phone. She likes to “chat” on it quite often when we are driving somewhere, or when we are getting ready to go somewhere.

The other day we were driving to school. As we get out of the car and start collecting our stuff (eg, lunchbox, windbreaker, etc), she says, “Daddy! Wait!”

She then proceeds to climb back into the car. I’m wondering what is going on. She then reaches over to the center-console thingie next to her kid’s seat and grabs the ugly-purple flip-phone.

She opens it, pretends to dial, and after a few moments she says… “Okay, I’m here. I come in. I see you in a couple minutes, okay? I am wearing a very pretty dress today.. Yes.. Bye”

Of course, I find this incredibly cute.. I then say to Skylar, “Hey Sky-sky, who were you talking to?”

She looks at me somewhat incredulously and responds, “Dad-dy…. nobody… (if she knew how to roll her eyes, she would have done it at this point)… this is a pretend phone“…

And then she tosses her phone back into the car, closes the door and skips to the school front-door..

What a little ham…

————————–

Here’s a pic of Skylar and I down in Newport, RI.

 

—

A couple of Vids

1). After we posted a video of Fenway’s trick a month or two ago, I figured we should give Kormi some equal time.  Here’s a clip of the evil-cat doing some tricks for Gina.

Kormi

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2). And Skylar has been getting really good with her letters lately. She doesn’t know how to spell much yet (basically just her name and a few other select words), so she often just strings together a bunch of random letters and then asks what word she just made. You know that Infinite Monkey Theorem? It states something along the lines of; Given enough time, a hypothetical chimpanzee typing at random would, as part of its output, eventually produce one of Shakespeare’s plays.

This video isn’t quite proof to that theorem, but you will get the generally idea..

Letters

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Have a great week!

-pete

 

This morning, Gina, Skylar, and I spent a few hours on the couch watching people honor the memory of the victims and heroes from 10 years ago. The TV coverage was really well done, but I had the sense that Skylar wasn’t retaining/understanding any of it (I was wrong).. Anyways, fast forward to the end of the day (after a great day of BBQing with good friends, riding bikes,  the playground, coloring, etc), Gina was tucking Skylar into bed after I read her a couple of books.

I was sitting outside in the hallway eavesdropping a bit, since I was really interested in the conversation.

I missed the first part of the conversation, but the remainder went something like this…

Skylar: Mommy, why did that man fly da plane into houses (buildings)?

Mommy: Skylar, those were really bad men. There are some bad people out there.. Not everyone is good

Skylar: Running inside the classroom is bad. Running is only for outside.

Mommy: Yes, that is bad. But that doesn’t make you a bad person. These people were bad people.

Skylar: Mommy, were you scared?

Mommy: Yes  (Gina was across the street from the Pentagon on 911)

Skylar: Did the building fall on you mommy?

Mommy: No, I was far enough away

Skylar: But other people did get falled-on and died?

Mommy: Yes…

Skylar: A lot of people died Mommy…

Mommy: …Yes…

Skylar: …That person on TV (from the morning’s coverage), her mommy and daddy died?

Mommy: Yes.. Skylar that was a long time ago, that’s not going to happen anymore. There are a lot of people to make sure that never happens again

but this is the part of the conversation that I remember the most..

Skylar: Mommy, why did they do that?……. Why?

Mommy:.. [silence.. no response from Mommy]..

Skylar: I love you Mommy…

Mommy: I love you too Skylar.. (kiss)

—–

I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to answer that last question for Skylar..

—-

Switching gears.. here’s a vid of Skylar rolling down a small hill in our front lawn..

Skylar horsing around..

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And here’s a quick vid of Fenway begging for some attention..

Fenway..

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Hope you all had a great weekend, and talk to you soon.

-pete

Hey guys, it’s been forever since I’ve made a posting on the blog.. A lot of folks have been asking me how the strike-coverage went during August.. It was pretty nuts, and probably not very good stories to post on Skylar’s blog…. so I’ll save those stories for when we have a few beers..

One quick story before we get to the pics..

On Saturday morning, I was in the family room with Skylar drinking my coffee.

Skylar says, “Daddy, why don’t you come sit on da couch and watch your show.. You watch baseball, okay?”

This kind of caught me off guard, but I thought this was  a really nice gesture from little Sky-sky. Of course, there isn’t any baseball on in the morning, but I figured I would take the chance to watch ESPN Sportscenter to watch some prior night’s highlights. So, I turn on the tv to ESPN.. However, it was on a pretty racy commercial where there was a half naked woman and man together (not sure what the commercial was for)…

Skylar then says to me “Daddy, this isn’t your show….. I think dis is Mommy’s show” … hmmm, I don’t think I’m going to let Gina watch her Soap Operas anymore when Skylar is close-by..  

—-

Onto the pics! I stole all of these off of Gina’s phone, as we haven’t used the camera in a looong time.

Here is Skylar waking up at Gina’s aunt/uncle’s place in Stephentown…..

Fenway looking confused in Gina’s office..

Skylar, Michael, Ben, and Steven watching fireworks at the end of Yankee Homecoming..

Skylar went to Storyland with a bunch of her buddies a couple weekends ago.. They had an awesome time.. Here’s a pic of Skylar driving Mommy around..

Skylar “armoring” up for her bike ride in Newburyport..

Skylar and her cousin Annie, at Grandma/Grandpa’s house..

Michael, Skylar, and Ben at Franklin Park..

Skylar has been taking Fenway for “walks” lately.. Here’s a vid where Gina couldn’t keep up with them..

Dog Walking

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Here’s a vid of some of the guys at Storyland..

Water Ride

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Talk to you soon!

-pete

Skylar seems to be turning into a teenager..

Here’s a typical conversation with her at dinner two nights ago..

“Hey Skylar, how was school today?”

“I dunno”

“Did you learn about any kind of animals today?”

“I dunno”

“What did mommy make you for lunch?”

“I dunno”

“Did you play outside with your friends?”

“I dunno”

“Skylar, I’m going to keep asking you questions until you tell me something about your day today..”

“I took a nap, and blah, blah, blah.. then I come home”

Wow.. *sigh* I thought this wasn’t supposed to happen until high school?

——-

The weather has been amazing up here in New England lately, so Skylar has spent a lot of time with Fenway running around, going for walks, etc.. Fenway is part Labrador, so she loves playing fetch.. Skylar loves to play the game as well, but doesn’t really understand the premise verywell. Here’s a vid clip to illustrate…

Fetch

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On Saturday, Skylar/Gina/I spent the afternoon at Jenness Beach in New Hampshire (by Rye Beach).. Good times.

On Sunday, Terry/Christa/Ben came over to hang out. Here’s a cool vid of the kids using the slide.. Do I earn “redneck” (yellowneck?) status for jerry-rigging this up?

Slide

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Hope everyone had a great weekend!

-pete

Hey Guys,

Sorry it’s been so long since the last blog posting.. I’m going to blame it on the heatwave…

So, back when Skylar was around 1 years old or so, we used to call her “Boo-boo”, because she was basically one giant-walking band-aid.. At school, she was always getting bumps, bruises, scratches.. However, she’s had a really good run where she reversed the trend.. at least up until recently..

Unfortunately, about 3 weeks ago, she had a horrible stretch where we got 3 phone calls from the school in 5 days where she got stitches (6 of them) on her forehead from running full speed into a shelf, a skid on the pavement scraping up her elbows/knees and her side, and pretty big cut on her chin when she fell over running..

Here’s a vid from several weeks ago a few days after her “slump”.

Boo-Boos

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Here’s a pic from about a month (?) ago where she had a play-date with her buddy Aoife.. Here they are working on an art project…

Skylar got a new car about a month ago.. She calls it “Skylar’s Outtie” (Audi)

A few weeks ago, the heatwave started and Avery’s parents had a lot of the kids over.. Here’s a pic of Kris and her daughter Leah, Jeana w/ Maddie, and Mark/Steve-o in the pool.. and a Pabst Blue Ribbon..

Skylar is getting good at jumping in the pool.. here’s a pic of me looking nervously on…

The best jumper of Skylar’s class is definitely Michael though.. Here’s a pic of his superman leap to his daddy Mike..

Not sure what was going on here, but I think it probably was a choo-choo train-thing..

Skylar, Owen, Steve-o, Avery, Michael, Leah, and Maddie..

Refueling…

I have a bunch of lake-house pics too, so I’ll get that on the blog soon.

Talk to ya soon!

-pete

Skylar is a 3 year-old girl… and one thing that seems to be common with girls her age is they like to be a little “bossy” sometimes… and as long as she’s not too nuts about it, Gina and I usually let it go..

She definitely likes to be able to “set the rules”, “be in charge”, or “be the enforcer” every now and then. We figure that she sees us in that role most of the time (onto her, that is), so she likes to try it out as well. This includes:

• disciplining her baby doll when her baby doll acts whiny/fussy
• telling the dog and the cat to wait and be patient
• yelling at food to get in her mouth when it falls off the fork

The other day, she was sitting on the potty and yelling the following (pretty loudly)… “Poopies, I told you to come out. Do you hear me? Poopies, it’s time to come out. If you don’t listen to me, you are going to get a timeout…… I’m going to count to 5, and if you don’t come out, I’m going to give you a timeout……. 1… 2…3…4…5… Okay, go to timeout!”

Now I thought this was hilarious.. although I admit that I was a bit worried, as Skylar’s timeout-place is the guest room.. I was half-expecting to walk into the guest room later in the day and see a poopie sitting there..

—

We have been really bad about taking pics lately..

Here are a couple things to share though:

Here’s a pic of a bunch of her classmates, Michael, Steven, and Julia (and Steven’s little sis, Michael’s little sis, and Julia’s little sisters)

And the weather has been AMAZING lately.. Skylar has been playing outside a lot lately, and is getting pretty good at her bike-riding. Yesterday, she finally got the hang of using the brake (that took awhile to learn!)

In the vid, we are biking past Jane’s house, so she starts talking about her..

436

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Have a great week! -pete

When we head out the door to go somewhere, we usually make Skylar use the bathroom first.. You know, to avoid the situation where she says “I need to go potty” immediately after we enter the highway…

Skylar’s been a really good sport w/ this rule (even when she thinks she doesn’t have to go).. One trick we learned lately is that if we say that all of us (including Mom/Dad) have to use the bathroom before we go,  she’s even more amenable to the practice..

Of course this started to backfire the other day, as Skylar now likes to script the order of who goes to the bathroom and in what order..

“Mommy, you go potty first.. Then I (Skylar) go potty.. Daddy, you go last because you always make stinky’s and smell bad.. If you need go now, go use potty upstairs and Mommy-Skylar use dis one… “

*ouch* 

—–

Here’s a pic I forgot to post last week from our California visit..

“Uncle Jamie” teaching Skylar how to play “angry birds” on his phone..

The weather has been awesome lately, so we hit our local town beach for a few minutes today..

It was really nice out.. but the water was COOOOLD!!!!!

This new microphone thingie has been driving me nuts.. and I’m thinking about hiding it somewhere (or breaking it)..

This morning, Skylar stood on the back-deck and yelled “Itsy Bitsy Spider”, “This Old Man”, “The Alphabet Song”.. and several other “hits” into this microphone for about 25 minutes straight..

Skylar is so good at so many things.. But she’s definitely inherited her mom’s singing voice..

This was Skylar’s audience.. Yes, Fenway did end up howling .. “A-woooooooo!!!!!”

Have a great week!

-pete

Hi Everyone, sorry for the delayed posting… It looks like we missed a week on the blog..

Skylar, Gina, and I took a trip out to California over the Memorial Day Weekend to visit Gina’s brother, Jamie, and his long-time girlfriend, Fabby.

Skylar was REALLY excited, and had tons of fun. She really bonded w/ “Uncle Jamie”, as they have very similar humor.. After a couple of days, they had their own language going.. the language only consisted of several words, but it was pretty funny to watch..

At the end of the weekend, she said her favorite part of the trip was watching the whales and getting “splashed” during the show (although we sat pretty far back, so she only got hit by a few drops)..

There are a lot of pics, so I’m going to be lazy and use the bulk-upload tool today. To see the pics, click the thumbnails.

Have a great week!

-pete

Last week, I came home from the gym around 7:20′ish… As I was taking off my shoes, I hear Skylar yell in a very excited voice “DADDY IS HOME! DADDY IS HOME! YAY! MOMMY, DADDY IS HOME!”…

Of course, this is music to my ears, so I get ready for a giant hug… except she never comes over.. I wait some more.. she never comes over..

So, I exit the shoe area and go into the kitchen, to see her sitting at the kitchen table eating… Of course, I then say “Skylar, I thought you were excited that I came home? Where is my hug?”

She then tells me, “Mommy told me when you came home, I could eat this M&M cookie…. “

Ooooh, man… She was just excited because she could eat a cookie when I got home… and poor daddy never got his hug….

—-

Onto some pics!

Skylar making some giant bubbles….

Sharing the bubbles with Fenway…

Grandpa Schuyler and Judy came for a quick visit.. Skylar showing off her art skills..

It’s getting harder and harder to take “normal” pics of Skylar these days.. It seems like she makes these kind of faces in most of her pics now.. Isn’t that supposed to happen much later?

On Sunday, we were at a baby shower in Seabrook.. here is a pic of Skylar with her buddy Morgan…

And this pic is a little old.. But a week or 2 ago, we met up with a bunch of our friends in downtown Newburyport for a playground day..

Here’s a pic of Skylar with her buddy, Julia… and Gina’s index finger…

Have a great week everyone!

-Pete