Category Archives: Brenden

Kid Tricks

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The Box boys keep learning new tricks, and it’s time to brag a bit. Here are a few things each of them has picked up lately:

Brenden

  1. Writing His Name – Brenden’s pre-K class seems to be a big step up in terms of structure and curriculum, which seems appropriate considering they’ll be in kindergarten next year. One big change is writing letters. Yep, Brenden is starting to write and can already write his name. Depending on the available space, he might or might not put all the letters in the correct order or on the same line, or even include every letter each time, but I was impressed all the same.
  2. Phonics and Pre-reading – They are already working on phonics. B has a reading folder and phonic homework. We’re supposed to practice the short vowel sounds with him this week. Next week they start working on “blends”, consonants paired with vowels. He also seems to be pre-reading a bit. If you ask him to read you a book, he refuses. However, sometimes he seems to be reading without realizing it, such as recognizing someone’s written name or another word.
  3. Getting Dressed – In the morning, Brenden can take off his PJs and overnight pull-up, use the bathroom, and get dressed completely on his own.
  4. Typing – Yes, Brenden can type, sort of. He helped Jenny type a letter to Mickey Mouse. Basic typing should be easier than writing, if you think about it. Once he reaches junior high or even late elementary school, I wonder whether he’ll type more than he writes by hand in school.
  5. Tennis – He’s not bombing 130 mph aces down the T, but he has made significant progress in simply getting the ball over the net. We “played” last week with modified rules – if he hit it over, he generally won the point unless I felt like hitting a winner up the line, which I did a couple of times. (is that bad?) Once he understood that he got a point for clearing the net, tennis became much more fun rather than frustrating. His coordination has improved compared to the last time we played as well.

Jonathan

  1. Talking – Preschoolers’ acquisition of language fascinates me. Jonathan can still be difficult to understand if you’re not around him every day like we are, but he is really progressing in his speech. His language skills really picked up in January when he started preschool, and he generally speaks in complete sentences such as, “More milk, please”, “I sit wif you”, “He making a bad choice”, or “That’s not very nice!” His conversations with Brenden can be hilarious.
  2. Pottytraining – Hmm…how to discuss your son’s pottytraining on your blog without embarrassing him 10 years from now when he goes back and reads all the stuff you wrote about him? He’s in pull-ups all the time now. Um, number 1 is working great if we remind him. Number 2 is proving difficult, but he’s only 2 1/2, so I’m sure it will be OK. Right now, when it’s potty time, he wants us to drag him across the living room by his feet to the bathroom. Yeah, I don’t get it, either.
  3. Pedaling – After struggling with the idea for a while, Jonathan has figured out how to pedal his Mickey Mouse tricycle. I look forward to the day, still a couple years away, when all four of us can go ride in the park together.
  4. Letters and Numbers – Jonathan has known the alphabet for some time now, both in the song and on the page. He can also count to fifteen, maybe higher. We practice letters and counting every day. At bedtime, instead of a normal lullaby, he wants us to sing him the alphabet song.

All these new abilities remind me of a wonderful but sobering truth that nearly every parent faces at some point: someday our children will be on their own and won’t need us anymore. They will know enough tricks to go forth into the world and make their own way. Our job, even though the boys don’t always understand it or like it, is to prepare them for that day. Every new ability they gain brings them a bit closer. While a part of me is saddened by that thought, the rest is amazed by my children and what they can already think and say and do.

First Family Vacation to Galveston

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On Sunday, we hopped on the company plane, flew to Houston, and drove to Galveston for our first ever family vacation. It was an exhausting trip, but we survived, and the boys had a great time!

Photos from Our Trip

First Flights for Jonathan

We intentionally picked a short, wide-open flight for Jonathan’s first. That way if it didn’t go well, we wouldn’t bother as many people, and it would be over quicker. DAL-HOU is nearly as short as we could get, about 40-45 minutes in the air. After much debate over whether to bring their carseats onboard or to check them, we chose to check them. The boys had their own seats and sat very nicely after getting buckled in. I sat with Brenden on the way down and Jonathan on the way back, letting them watch part of a movie on my new iPad with kid-sized headphones. Jenny had their bag with a portable DVD player, paper, stickers, and other goodies to keep them entertained. Jonathan was a bit nervous at first, especially during takeoff, but didn’t seem bothered by the pressure in his ears. Later he said his favorite part was flying through the clouds. Brenden handled it like a veteran flyer.

Rental Car / Test Drive

We’d rented a standard mid-size car at Hobby. I was pleasantly surprised when they offered a Mazda5 SUV-minivan-crossover thing at no extra charge. We’ve been thinking about replacing our Grand Caravan with a Mazda5 in a couple of years, so this gave us the chance to test-drive it. As expected, it’s a cross between my Honda Fit and a minivan – sliding side doors, slightly longer and more spacious with an extra row of seats or storage in back, good gas mileage, and very comfortable. My only real complaint was the stereo, which needed more bass. I need to be able to crank Baby Got Back with feeling, and the Mazda5 just wasn’t up for it. That’s probably fixable, though. Brenden liked the vehicle so much that he wanted to take it home.

Ferry and Beach

We rode the free ferry across the bay. It was the boys’ first trip on a ferry, and a friend had told Jenny it was a great way to see dolphins. And the friend was right. The bay is teeming with dolphins. We probably saw a few dozen. Each sighting was brief, so watching for them required a level of patience that the boys didn’t quite have yet. But they did see a few and got really excited.

Then we played on the beach for a while, their first trip to the beach. Lots of firsts on this trip! We went to Stewart Beach, a family-friendly public beach across Seawall Blvd. from our hotel. The beach was free, but parking was $8. I’ll be honest. I’ve been to some amazing beaches (Ambergris Caye in Belize, Orient Beach in St. Martin, Panama City Beach in Florida, several in Hawaii, etc.), but this wasn’t one of them. Some of the other beaches in Galveston are probably nicer, like the ones I remember from childhood trips to the island. However, this year at Stewart Beach, the water was muddy, the sand was dirty, and the beach workers’ only concern seemed to be managing the rental chairs and umbrellas. But it was cheap, close to the hotel, and had sand, sea, and freshwater showers. More importantly, the boys had a blast digging in the sand, playing in the water, chasing seagulls, and just running around carefree. Brenden played Godzilla with any sandcastle that we built and immediately demolished it. None survived long enough to get a picture.

Rainforest Cafe

Grapevine Mills Mall features a Rainforest Cafe that I’ve seen numerous times but never patronized. Since we were on vacation with the boys, we gave it a try and were pleasantly surprised. Yes, it’s a bit expensive, but the food was MUCH better than I’d heard. My macadamia-encrusted tilapia tasted fantastic, as did Jenny’s bacon-wrapped shrimp. The theming is Disney-level, with animatronic elephants, gorillas, and anacondas plus simulated thunderstorms and authentic-looking rainforest trees. Our server was obviously comfortable with children and provided excellent service. After a bit of debate, we chose to try the Volcano, a ridiculously huge and amazing dessert that probably contains as many calories as I burned in Hotter’N Hell on Saturday. We ate all of it but one piece of chocolate cake.

On the drive to Rainforest, I was shocked to discover that a longtime Galveston landmark had been torn down. The Flagship Hotel, formerly one of the only hotels in the world to be built on a pier, had been demolished and replaced with a small, questionably named amusement park called Pleasure Pier. Apparently, the hotel took major damage from Hurricane Ike in 2008.

Hotel

We stayed at the Best Western Plus on the east end of the island. It’s nothing fancy, just clean and cheap with decent free breakfast and a beach across the street. They let us check in early, which was very helpful. The toughest thing about the hotel was sleeping with the boys. This time we wore them out during the day, put them in separate beds while we got ready and checking our mail/Facebook/Twitter/etc., and waited for them to fall asleep. Once they did, Jenny moved Brenden into bed with Jonathan. It worked great until about 4:30am. One of them woke up and woke the other one up, and after that they were done. Jenny and Brenden swapped places. Finally, after some talking and tossing and turning, everyone went back to sleep.

Overall, it was a great trip. We learned some valuable lessons that we hope to apply for the Disney trip in January. Unfortunately, Jenny and I started off exhausted after Hotter’N Hell on Saturday morning and insufficient sleep the night before, so we weren’t in the best of moods until we got home Monday and napped for a while. The boys were tired as well after playing all day Sunday without a nap and then lack of sleep Sunday night. But instead of being grumpy like I was, they simply chose not to obey and seemed to have a flawless ability to push our buttons at the worst possible time. So the trip stressed Jenny and me out significantly, but the boys had a wonderful time, which is the most important thing. They already want to go back.

The Week Ahead

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This is a crazy but very exciting week for the Box household. Here is our agenda:

Monday – the boys start swim lessons at the Grapevine public pool. They’ll go five days a week, thirty minutes a day for the next two weeks unless we have something else going on. They took a few lessons last year, but these will be a bit more involved.

Tuesday – We hope to close on our refi around lunchtime! Then we’ll pick up the boys from school and go to Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine. This will be the boys’ first night in a hotel and first night sharing a bed with each other, and I’m not sure how it will go. We’ll do our best to wear them out in the indoor water park.

Wednesday – Play at Great Wolf in the morning, nap, and then swim lessons.

Thursday – Jenny has Mommy Day, so I’ll be taking the boys to and from school and then to swim lessons. (oh boy…help, Jenny, what do I do?!?) While they’re at school, I hope to run or do some yoga and then meet my mom and her parents for lunch. That night, our babysitter is coming over to watch the boys while we see The Dark Knight Rises at Studio Movie Grill.

Friday – I hope to visit the office of Gary Tylock to discuss getting LASIK for my right eye. Yep, I finally decided to go for it. In the afternoon, I’m taking Brenden to his friend Landry’s birthday party at 4:00. Then we’re hosting Brenden’s 4th birthday party at 6:30 while the DVR records the Olympic opening ceremony. Jenny’s parents are taking the boys home that night because…

Saturday – Jenny and I plan to ride in our first organized bicycle ride, The Goatneck in Cleburne. We’ve already gone farther in training than the 27 miles we signed up to ride there, so I’m confident we can finish this one. We’ll spend the rest of the day trying to recover and watching the Olympics.

Things I’ve Learned Lately

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  1. If you ever get overconfident regarding your own abilities, try applying them in another discipline and see how you do. Due to my running and cycling, I’d convinced myself that my legs were pretty strong. Then I went to a hot yoga class with Jenny at her gym. My legs were sore for two days afterward.
  2. My original hybrid bike (Specialized Sirrus Elite, size XL) weighed 27 pounds. My new road bike (Trek 2.3, size 58cm) weighs 21.6 pounds. Jenny’s bike (Specialized Dolce Elite, size 51.5cm) weighs 21.6 pounds as well.
  3. We tried a test ride on Friday right after we brought the new bikes home. I hit 26mph on a flat at near max effort. I never came close to that speed on a flat with my hybrid. It felt like I was flying. I liked it.
  4. If someone can watch our boys for the night, Jenny and I plan to ride the Hotter’N Hell 50 mile race on August 25. It will be a challenge, but with our current fitness levels and ten weeks to train, I think we can finish it. As a warmup, we might do a shorter race in late July at Texas Motor Speedway.
  5. There’s a thing called sprouted grain bread that my friends are eating on their new diet. They say it’s easier to digest and better for your body. Bread made from sprouted grain is more expensive, but they say it’s worth it. According to Livestrong, it’s similar to whole wheat bread with a few added benefits.
  6. A $6 bottle of sparkling white wine can be just as tasty as a $45 bottle of real champagne, maybe even more so.
  7. We don’t use our beautiful wedding-present champagne flutes enough. There’s always something to celebrate if you look for it.
  8. An easy way to feel guilty is to ignore a panhandler on the corner and then drop $4 on a cappuccino at Starbucks.
  9. Gloria’s in Oak Cliff has fantastic Mexican and Salvadorian food and great service. It seems to be in an old firehouse and still has a fire pole. (no, they won’t let you slide down, maybe due to their strong margaritas). We ate there with Jenny’s family for her parents’ 40th anniversary, her brother-in-law’s birthday, and her father’s birthday. The only downside was the forced valet parking. Living in the suburbs has spoiled me in the parking department.
  10. Brenden and Jonathan will be in school three days a week starting in July: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. This will help Brenden get ready for kindergarten next year (WHOA) and give Jenny a little more free time.

Brenden’s Spring Programs – Then and Now

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This week was Brenden’s spring program at school, his second big performance so far in his young career. His school, Colleyville Christian School. is full of wonderful teachers and students who worked really hard and put together a great show as expected. Brenden’s class performed “Behold, Behold” and “Awesome God”. We are so thankful that all four of his grandparents and two of his great-grandparents got to attend. We took up most of a row.

Before it began, his teacher gave us his “Me Book”, a compilation of projects, pictures, and other memories of Brenden from throughout the school year plus a really sweet, personalized note from his lead teacher. I wish I could post it here somehow, as it’s a wonderful book that we’ll keep for years to come. I can only imagine how much work it took for his teachers to assemble these books for every student in the class.

Naturally, I had to record his performance. Sorry about the shaky camera work. I’m not the most experienced video guy, but at least I work for cheap!

Spring Program 2012 (Age 3.75)

Spring Program 2011 (Age 2.75)

For comparison, here is Brenden’s performance from last year. Note how much more coordinated and attentive Brenden is now compared to a year ago.

2012 Pictures

Here are a few other pictures of Brenden with his family from this year’s program.

Next spring, both boys will be old enough to participate in the program. They didn’t want to attempt a performance with Jonathan’s one-year-olds class. 🙂

Brenden’s First Bike

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We got Brenden his first real bike for Christmas, a Specialized Hotrock 12 with black and lime green trim. He was having so much fun on his scooter this fall that we weren’t sure how much he would like a bike at first, but so far he’s really enjoying it. The pedaling is a bit different from his tricycle, so he still has a little trouble with hills and bumps in the sidewalk. He and I rode together in the neighborhood a couple of times this week. I love being able to ride with him. Once Jonathan gets older, we might get a couple more bikes and go riding as a family in the parks near our house.