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AGE 5, MONTH 11
JUN 21 – JUL 20 (2020)

TODD SAID…

• “I need a tutor to beat Act 3” (talking about the Hello Neighbor game)
• “Luke is my favorite actor. I like his hair, for one.”
• “I like cool songs. My brain has a vacuum in it and it sucks up cool songs. And it’s not sucking up this song.” (we were in the car & he asked me why I like ‘my’ songs)
• “Mama, you’re the best girl I can count on”
• “I’m glad I got to Act 3 on Hello Neighbor Xbox. I’m happy for myself”
• Todd pronounces ‘woozy’ as ‘oozy’ when talking about knocking out bad guys on (XBox) Gang Beasts (waves)
• Todd says “multiply” when he means “multi-task” (as in “I’ll multiply” or “You can multiply, mama”)
• “Hey, look over there!” (he does a trick when he wants to sneak something away)
• “My bad” or “That was my bad”

TRIP TO BEND, OREGON

• We drove to Bend on 6/19 & returned home on 6/23
• See post, “Trip to Bend (June 2020)”

HOME ENTERTAINMENT

• Movies: Shaun the Sheep (the movie), Moonraker, Star Wars movies (always!)
• Shows: Star Trek, Floor is Lava, Masha and the Bear
• Xbox: Playing Gang Beast; we got our 3^rd controller on 7/3 so we could all play together
• iPad games: Hello Neighbor (trying to pass Act 3), Minecraft
• Eric set up a video station for Todd with the GoPro for making videos of him playing games
• Todd & I play Minecraft in the same (creative) worlds
• Eric worked with Todd playing the keyboard

OUTSIDE ACTIVITIES

• Shooting basketballs with the new hoop in our tennis court (2x)
• Bunch o Balloons water balloon fights and spraying water with the hose (7/16, 7/19)
• Walking along the canal trail (7/20)

BIKING

• Biking around our home (9x)
• Biking in East Wenatchee (6/27)
• Todd & Eric went to Horse Lake for Todd’s 1^st ‘real’ mountain bike ride (7/12); Eric used a piece of theraband to assist Todd with the uphill; Todd said “That was an exceptional ride”
• The 3 of us went to Horse Lake for a short family mtb ride (7/13); there was a small fire that we could see
• See post, “Mountain Biking: Horse Lake (July 2020)“
  
• Elisa- mtb @ Squilchuck 8.96 miles / 5.04 mph (6/25)
• Elisa- mtb @ Squilchuck 5.93 miles / 5.05 mph (7/3)
• Elisa- mtb @ Squilchuck 6.54 miles / 5.42 mph (7/7)
• Elisa- mtb @ Squilchuck 4.77 miles / 5/07 mph (7/11)
• Elisa- mtb @ Squilchuck 5.62 miles / 5.22 mph (7/15)

ERIC

• Eric bought a new toy! It’s a 1989 Yamaha TW200

SWIMMING

• Yay! The pool finally opened on 7/4 (this summer it’s only open to residents & there’s a 5 person limit in the pool area)
• We swam 9x this month
• On 7/8 Todd decided to practice his back kicking

FOOD NOTES

• HUGE Milestone! Todd’s last “small boy Goppa” was 6/29! (small boy Goppa = using his Green Sprouts cups with silicone spouts). He finally decided he was ready to start working toward getting the Hello Neighbor Xbox game by drinking his Goppa out of his “Big Boy Goppas” for 15 days. He earned his prize on 7/17!
• He loves cantaloupe & he readily eats broccoli
• He loves having a combo of dry cereals (Rice/corn Chex, Special K, etc)
• He loves Gardein Fishless Filets with London Pub malt vinegar
• We started doing “Chipotle Mondays” and “Pizza Tuesday” for take out

BEDTIME ROUTINES & SLEEP

• Todd slept in his tent on his bed (7/5-)
• Sleepovers in Elisa’s room (6/25, 7/20)
• Making our own Mr men books: Mr. Nice, Mr. Fat, Mr. Sad, Mr. Sun
• We started a Scholastic Bookflix trial (7/13-7/29); Todd loved So You Want to be President?, The Great White Man-Eating Shark, Come On Rain, Goodnight Gorilla, and others
• On 7/17 Eric & Todd made a plan to get up in the night to look for the comet as well as bats. Eric ending up turning off his alarm but Todd woke up Eric, saying, “I think it’s the middle of the night, now.” They walked outside & Todd said, “Dada, thank you for motivating me to do this.” When Elisa & Todd went outside at bedtime, Todd said, “I’m motivated of bats, not the freaking comet.”
• On 7/18 Eric & Todd went outside to look for bats at bedtime
• On 7/19 Elisa & Todd went outside to look for bats at bedtime

MOUNTAIN BIKING: HORSE LAKE
AGE 5, MONTH 11
JUL 12 – JUL 13 (2020)

SUNDAY, JULY 12

Eric took Todd up to Horse Lake for Todd’s first mountain bike ride via pedal bike. (In the past, Todd biked Squilchuck with his balance bike.) Eric used a long piece of black Theraband as a climbing tether, and this was successful! At the end, Todd said, “That was an exceptional ride.”

MONDAY, JULY 13

The very next day, we all did a repeat of the short ride at Horse Lake. Fun!

After descending via bikes to the parking lot, we headed up the hill on foot to the viewpoint, where we could see an active brush fire on Sunnyslope.

TRIP TO BEND (OREGON)
AGE 5, MONTHS 10 & 11
JUN 19 – JUN 23 (2020)

FRIDAY, JUNE 19

We got out of the house as soon as we could get packed up (we always bring way too much stuff!). Along the way, we stopped to check out the sights at a geologically scenic viewpoint along the Columbia river.

In the car, Todd drew a double decker bus with lots of seats! We also drew other pictures with markers.

As always, we stayed at my parent’s house. My aunt Elaine was there. We hadn’t seen her in two years, so that was really special! 🙂 Oops, no pictures of her! 😦

We had a family gathering and dinner that evening at my sister’s house.

SATURDAY, JUNE 20

In the morning Elaine went home, and we had a lazy day hanging out at my sister’s house. Todd loved playing video games with his cousin Eli on the iPad and Xbox. This was the highlight of the trip for Todd!

At dinner time, Todd, once again did a great job eating Grandma’s (vegan) mac ‘n cheese, and he also liked his drinks of lime on the rocks! Grandpa and Todd watched Shaun the Sheep together on Tubi, then Grandma read Mr. books to Todd before bed.

SUNDAY, JUNE 21

Happy Father’s Day! During the trip, Todd slept on the couch. (I love taking sleep pictures of my baby!) When Todd woke up, we gave Eric his gift of a homemade card, Geology Rocks book and the Mr. book, My Daddy & Me. We presented Grandpa with his homemade card, too. (He would later receive a personalized beer glass with engraved birthdates of his 3 grandchildren, as his gift.)

During the day, the whole family biked around Discovery Park for several laps. (This was Todd’s first time pedal biking in Bend!). Eric snapped some pictures of our group from the trail on the hill. We had lunch at my parent’s house, then hung out at my sister’s house once again.

In the evening we enjoyed the (breezy) fresh air at Discovery Park with take-out dinners…

MONDAY, JUNE 22

Oh, boy…Eric passed a kidney stone in the night!

In the morning, we took a rare opportunity to go mountain biking together. This was a fabulous ride for me, and a ‘painfully good’ ride for Eric.

{Despite the pain over this day and the next, Eric never did pass another stone…as of July 10th…}

In the afternoon Todd hung out with Eli, and I hung out with Karin. Todd had fun playing with Lucy, too!

We went back to my parent’s house for dinner and bedtime. Out on the patio, Grandpa read Mr. Topsy Turvy to Todd.

TUESDAY, JUNE 23

We drove home, making a stop in The Dalles for a Bliss shake at Burgerville. Mmm! Back at home, we picked up some take-out from Chipotle. Todd loves eating the lime-flavored white rice, flour tortillas (plain), corn chips and apple juice.

AGE 5, MONTH 10
MAY 21 – JUN 20 (2020)

HOME ENTERTAINMENT

• Movie: Looney Tunes: Back in Action (he likes getting dressed & acting out scenes)
• Todd loves his stuffed animal cats & her talks about wanting a cat
• Eric & I like watching Nick Zentner’s live stream geology talks @ 6pm T-Th and 9am Sat/Sun
• “Kid’s day” was 6/13: we set up our new family Xbox
• Xbox game: Game Beast
• Todd said:
  • “Come, on!”
  • “It’s your own dang fault”
  • he kept using the word “literally” (6/10)

“SCREEN” PLAY

• Favorite game apps: Minecraft (MC), Hello Neighbor (HN)
• Watching RonaldOMG (YouTube) play MC or HN while Todd plays MC or HN
• He likes to pretend he’s making YouTube videos of himself playing video games (imitating RonaldOMG)
• Todd said, “Geez, this is epic” (playing MC- he was finding a lot of things)

OUTSIDE PLAY

• Playing in the sprinklers (5x)
• Outside play / playing on the deck & riding his little trike
• Visiting the resident cat, “Chloe”

FUN ACTIVITIES

• U-pick strawberry picking at Annie’s (5/22)
• Eric & Todd went to the Cashmere pump track & Eastmont park (6/16)

KINDERGARTEN

• Mondays: New packet pick-up & “Pizza Monday” (getting Todd a personal pan pizza, sauce only)
• Tuesdays: meetings with his teacher @ 10AM & small group @ 11AM
• See video below for Todd’s line in the class kindergarten poem. Todd had “G is for great friends…”
• Todd’s last week of school was 6/8 – 6/12
• Kindergarten graduation (6/11) & I got him the Mr. Marvelous book
• Last official day of school was 6/12 – new stuffed kitty from Safeway
• See post, “Kindergarten Graduation 2020“

HIKING

• Red Hill (Cashmere, WA) (5/23) (see post, “Hiking: Red Hill (5/23/20)”
• Leavenworth Ski Hill (4 the Boys trail) (6/7) (see post, “Hiking: Leavenworth Ski Hill (6/07/20)“
• Part way up Castle Rock (6/13); on the way home we found a phone & when we located the owner, she gave us $100!

BIKING

• We biked around our home (10x)
• We biked to St. Joe’s (2x)
• Biking on the loop trail (E. Wenatchee section) & throwing rocks down by the river (2x)
• We biked around Lincoln Rock SP then Todd played at Eastmont park (6/14)
• Elisa- mtb @ Squilchuck 4.46 miles / 4.99 mph (5/25)
• Elisa- mtb @ Squilchuck 6.97 miles / 5.14 mph (6/10)

TRIP TO BEND, OREGON

• We drove to Bend on 6/19 & returned home on 6/23
• See the upcoming post, “Trip to Bend (June 2020)” (coming next month!)

FOOD NOTES

• Todd loves eating raw red pepper now!
• Take-out: Burger King, Chipotle (3x)

SLEEP

• Todd likes to make a different ‘fort’ on his bed each night to sleep under
• He loves the “Mr.” books & we read 2 of them every night; he cracks up to Mr. Wrong
• His before bed ‘game’ is typically playing with his Minecraft Lego scene
• Another game is we both launch Hot Wheels toward each other on a portion of track & then act out ‘slow motion replays’ of them
• Sleepovers in my room (5x)
• On 6/10 he wanted to make some instructional videos like I was doing for my work in the school district

HIKING: LEAVENWORTH SKI HILL
AGE 5, MONTH 10
JUN 7 (2020)

On this day– we hiked up the trail called, “4 the Boys” at Leavenworth Ski Hill. On the above map, starting from the parking lot, the trail appears red then blue. We turned around at the viewpoint located at the top of the yellow (Lower Rosy Boa) trail. From the viewpoint, we were lucky enough to see a long train sweep around the Chumstick valley.

KINDERGARTEN GRADUATION
AGE 5, MONTH 10
JUN 11 (2020)

Todd’s school arranged for an outdoor graduation ceremony with social distancing that was fairly short, but sweet! Each family had their designated areas, including a basket of kindergarten mementos and a balloon. It was really too bad that all of the kids couldn’t play together or talk to each other one last time, though!

Here are the videos, except the clip when Todd’s name was announced (and other students’ names). There were technical difficulties with the microphone on and off, which is why I started and stopped the videos.

All of the students in Todd’s class (and his teacher!) had a letter in the class poem to spell K-I-N-D-E-R-G-A-R-T-E-N. Todd’s letter was ‘G’. Note: The poem video is not mine.

Here’s the slideshow video from his class…(Note: it’s not my video)

HIKING: RED HILL
AGE 5, MONTH 10
MAY 23 (2020)

On this day, we drove to Cashmere, WA and parked at the trailhead for the Red Hill Trail #1223. The Green Trail map is Wenatchee / Mission Ridge / Devils Gulch, WA – NO 211S (note that our map is old, so possibly outdated).

There were a few parties of motorized traffic but otherwise fairly uncrowded for a holiday weekend Saturday. We made it about halfway to the first dot along the trail before turning around (this is hiking with a 5 year old). There were a few peek-a-boo views, but mostly this was a nice walk in the forest. [We did a mountain bike ride here years ago!]

Todd was focused on “creating a new world” during the hike, and it took me a little while to make the connection to playing Minecraft. Eric likes pointing out geological interests.

AGE 5, MONTH 9
APR 21 – MAY 20 (2020)

TODD SAID…

• “I’m not vegan on this game” (playing Minecraft)
• “Hey! That’s my mama!” (when I went over to Eric on his couch to hug him)
• “Bond will kill him, if I might ask” (he says ‘ask’ instead of ‘say’)
• “Just go with it” (Todd called me ‘hon’ and told Eric that I’m Todd’s hon not Dada’s hon)

HOME ENTERTAINMENT

• Favorite phone games: Scary Teacher, Hello Neighbor, Minecraft
• Favorite books: Tyrannosaurus Wrecks & the Mr. books
• Favorite online Scholastic book: Come on, Rain
• Favorite YouTube: RonaldOMG, K-City Gaming
• Favorite movies: Moonraker; He cracks up watching Jaws fly “like a chicken”
• Rainy day: walking outside/puddles (4/22)
• Playing with his small black stuffed kitty
• Playing ‘zombie’ in the house
• Eating dinner on the deck & making art on the deck
• Making a cardboard ‘gingerbread house’ with pizza boxes & hot glue
• Playing with the girls outside (4/27) & pretending to shoot bad guys with the umbrella (5/20)
• He likes to play a game on the iPad while RonaldOMG is on the TV (so it’s like a friend is over & they are sharing an experience)
• Humming the James Bond theme music a lot
• Making his own ‘instructional video’ (since he saw me making videos for my work)
• Watching Nick Zentzer (Geologist from CWU) on YouTube (Elisa/Eric)
• Morning family walk before watching Nick (5/17)

MOSES COULEE DAY TRIP

• Moses Coulee scenic drive & hike @ Hungate Cyn (4/25) & stop at Jameson Lake to check out ducks & a caterpillar
• See post, “Day Trip: Moses Coulee (4/25/20)“

KINDERGARTEN

• “Pizza Mondays” & picking up his new packet for the week
• Tuesday video chats with his teacher & class
• He did 52 sit ups for his PE fit test
• Playing in the sprinkler during a break
• Todd said, “That’s annoying. I’m finishing my work and I don’t want to get distracted.”

HIKING: CASTLE ROCK

• Todd’s first time making it all the way to the top! (Elisa/Todd, 4/26)

HIKING

• Dry Gulch (Wenatchee, WA); see post, “Hiking: Dry Gulch (4/29/20)“
• Hay Canyon (Cashmere, WA) (5/2); see post, “Hiking: Hay Canyon (April/May 2020)“
• Lake Clara (Wenatchee, WA) (5/9); see post, “Hiking: Lake Clara (5/09/20)“
• He pretends to Facetime his stuffed kitty with his walkie talkie. He pretends he is James Bond and Eric is Jaws.

BIKING

• See post, “Pedal Bike Progression (Age 5, Month 9)“
• I rode from home to do a portion of the Saddle Rock trail (5/17)

FOOD NOTES

• Todd tried a Tofutti Cutie & liked it
• He’s back to eating Gardein Fishless Filets
• Likes eating plain angel hair pasta
• Take out: Chipotle (2x); Pizza Hut personal pan pizzas for Todd, Burger King Impossible burger; Blue Spoon (5/15)

HEALTH & MISC

• Todd wanted his hair in a pony tail
• In the tub, he likes pouring cold water over his head repeatedly & laughing
• Dentist appointment (5/19); first pictures, no cavities, bottom 2 teeth slightly wiggly. Afterward he was rewarded with a stuffed dinosaur.

SLEEP

• ‘Sleepovers’ on the foam pads in my room (9x)
• He woke up asking “When can we get a cat?” (5/9)
• Todd frequently has dreams that he’s James Bond
• Less interest in having his pillow blankets with him at night (more interested in stuffed pets)

HIKING: DRY GULCH
AGE 5, MONTH 9
APR 29 (2020)

Located in Wenatchee, WA– We parked at the trailhead for the Saddle Rock hike, but instead, opted for the less populated trail, Dry Gulch. This trail offers a side view of Saddle Rock, which is neat.

Toward the beginning of the hike, we saw a large snake…perhaps a Bull snake…(?)

We stopped at a natural high point. This is the view if we’d continued on the trail. It appears to get a bit ‘airy’ but I’m not really sure! That’ll be for another time…

Todd insisted on a lightsaber fight before heading back down…

HIKING: LAKE CLARA
AGE 5, MONTH 9
MAY 9 (2020)

This is a beautiful place with its trailhead located at the base of the Mission Ridge ski area. Todd geared up (to fight bad guys along the way), wearing his backpack, trooper mask, and medal. I posed him for his Kindergarten group picture like this first picture, but here’s the version of him while wearing the mask…

On the trail, Todd paused to answer a “Facetime” call from his kitties at home…

We’d never done this hike in early May. Todd loved the feeling of post holing in the snow. He was wet by the end of the trip! I enjoyed seeing all the flowers blooming where the snow had already melted.

This is always a favorite spot to stop and play. We pushed chunks of snow into the creek and watched them turn clear and then disappear.

Approaching the lake, Todd’s joy continued, plodding in the deep snow. And- I caught him on camera falling on his butt!