On Sunday we went to the Christmas party hosted every year by the law office where my Mom works. Chance was having a good time playing with the kids throughout the party but he and this little girl were definitely hitting it off. At one point in the evening she asked him if he wanted to dance. He said yes and this is video of the two of them dancing. They danced for about ten songs much longer than the video and afterward she told her mom that she thought she was in love. It's so painfully cute.
Tuesday, December 06, 2011
Monday, November 07, 2011
Halloween 2011
This Halloween turned out to be pretty cool despite us not knowing at all where to go. Since we didn't really know the area in Tampa very well we decided to go to the mall. The Brandon mall is huge and they were doing trick-or-treating from store to store. It wasn't the ideal for Halloween but it was going to work just fine. We showed up early and started out trick-or-treating adventure around the mall, stopping here and there along the way to actually purchase a few things one of which being a new iPad for Scott that the best buy Mobile in the mall didn't have but held for us at the big Best Buy across from the mall (this comes into play later).
Most all stores were giving out candy and some were giving cookies and one even gave us each a candy corn shake. Think Vanilla shake with candy corn in it, I wouldn't buy it but it was fun as a sample for the occasion.
Here is Chance drinking/eating his candy corn shake at the mall. So after we went all the way around the mall we headed out to the Best Buy to pick up Scott's iPad. Since we aren't super familiar with the area yet we took a wrong turn and ending up getting on the interstate instead of going into the parking lot. So, we went down to the next exit and decided to turn down the first big road to see if it would take us back to the Best Buy. It did not, but it did take us directly to a perfect neighborhood for trick-or-treating. There were kids walking down the street and lots of people sitting out in their driveways with bowls of candy. Since we had plenty of time before Vest Buy closed and besides it was Halloween we asked Chance if he wanted to trick-or-treat some more and of course he said yes. So, we parked the car and headed out from door-to-door. It was perfect, everyone was friendly, it was a great family oriented neighborhood.
Chance at a house completely decorated for the holiday, graveyard and fog machine included. We collected more candy for over an hour then headed back to the car.
Chance's blue pumpkin was completely full of candy by the time we made it back to the apartment. And of course we dumped it out in the living room floor to inspect it. Not only did he have a lot of candy but it was quality candy as well, lots of chocolate and specialty things. All in all a great Halloween.
Most all stores were giving out candy and some were giving cookies and one even gave us each a candy corn shake. Think Vanilla shake with candy corn in it, I wouldn't buy it but it was fun as a sample for the occasion.
Here is Chance drinking/eating his candy corn shake at the mall. So after we went all the way around the mall we headed out to the Best Buy to pick up Scott's iPad. Since we aren't super familiar with the area yet we took a wrong turn and ending up getting on the interstate instead of going into the parking lot. So, we went down to the next exit and decided to turn down the first big road to see if it would take us back to the Best Buy. It did not, but it did take us directly to a perfect neighborhood for trick-or-treating. There were kids walking down the street and lots of people sitting out in their driveways with bowls of candy. Since we had plenty of time before Vest Buy closed and besides it was Halloween we asked Chance if he wanted to trick-or-treat some more and of course he said yes. So, we parked the car and headed out from door-to-door. It was perfect, everyone was friendly, it was a great family oriented neighborhood.
Chance at a house completely decorated for the holiday, graveyard and fog machine included. We collected more candy for over an hour then headed back to the car.
Chance's blue pumpkin was completely full of candy by the time we made it back to the apartment. And of course we dumped it out in the living room floor to inspect it. Not only did he have a lot of candy but it was quality candy as well, lots of chocolate and specialty things. All in all a great Halloween.
Swimming Class Graduate!
Last Saturday was Chance's last Preschool Level I swimming class. He graduated with flying colors. As a matter of fact he was the only one in his class that mastered all the requirements and got the OK to move on to Preschool Level II class. He loves swimming and can't wait to go to more classes, unfortunately they don't have classes in the winter so he will have to wait a little while but I will keep my eye on the website and as soon as they start up again next spring I will sign Chance up for the next level swimming class. I love that he has something physical that he likes to do so much and is very good at it. I love swimming and went through all these same swimming classes he is doing now, it's so cool to see him having such a good time and doing so well.
Chance Face
Chance wasn't really mad in this first picture he just made this roar face and his fist happened to be in the shot so it makes it look like he was really angry.
The next picture is just him being his cute self.
Back to the Aquarium
When we were at Guppyween Chance really wanted to go in the water play area but they had it closed for the event so I promised him we would come back the next day. Annual passes are awesome!
The next day I dressed Chance in his swimming trunks and off we went. He played for over two hours in the water area. climbing and running and sliding and getting soaking wet.
There are water cannons on the pirate ship, the kids can shoot each other or the ship. I climbed all over the pirate ship with Chance and I didn't get wet but it was a close call. If there are kids using the water cannons there is only one little corner that is safe (dry) I hid there till they were done then made a run for it.
This slide doesn't look very wet in this picture but he was mostly dry at the top and after the short trip to the bottom he was soaked.
The next day I dressed Chance in his swimming trunks and off we went. He played for over two hours in the water area. climbing and running and sliding and getting soaking wet.
There are water cannons on the pirate ship, the kids can shoot each other or the ship. I climbed all over the pirate ship with Chance and I didn't get wet but it was a close call. If there are kids using the water cannons there is only one little corner that is safe (dry) I hid there till they were done then made a run for it.
This slide doesn't look very wet in this picture but he was mostly dry at the top and after the short trip to the bottom he was soaked.
Tampa Children's Museum
I am trying once again to catch up on the family blog and to that effort I am mostly going to just be writing captions on these photos rather than trying to tell the story of the day as I normally do.
On Halloween during the day we went to the Children's Museum in Tampa. We have been to a lot of children's museums and this one is definitely one of the best ones.
After making a paper airplane this contraption helps you fly it by giving it a boost. Place the airplane between two little wheels and swoosh up in to the sky it goes. Scott and Chance are launching their plane in this picture though the plane itself was too fast for me to capture.
Chance is wearing a fireman hat and driving a firetruck. The screen shows real street scenes from downtown Tampa as he turned the wheel and made the lights and sirens whir.
Here Chance is turning the crank around and around to "earn" money so he can make the train go around and around high above our heads. You can't see the train in the picture but Chance made it go around on its track many times, he still loves trains.
In this picture Chance is a weatherman. He is standing in front of the green screen and watching himself on the monitor.
On the first floor of the museum there is a replica of Tampa Bay with water flowing everywhere. There are boats to maneuver through the river and bridges roll balls across. Chance is turning a crank that moves a "boxcar" across the water and over to a train where you can then transfer your cargo and move it along the tracks. This was one of my favorite spots in the museum.
In one area there was an exhibit (not sure if that is the right word) reaching three stories tall! You could climb up and down in it exploring the different levels of the Florida aquifer. A great idea and lots of fun as long as you are not afraid of heights.
On Halloween during the day we went to the Children's Museum in Tampa. We have been to a lot of children's museums and this one is definitely one of the best ones.
After making a paper airplane this contraption helps you fly it by giving it a boost. Place the airplane between two little wheels and swoosh up in to the sky it goes. Scott and Chance are launching their plane in this picture though the plane itself was too fast for me to capture.
Chance is wearing a fireman hat and driving a firetruck. The screen shows real street scenes from downtown Tampa as he turned the wheel and made the lights and sirens whir.
Here Chance is turning the crank around and around to "earn" money so he can make the train go around and around high above our heads. You can't see the train in the picture but Chance made it go around on its track many times, he still loves trains.
In this picture Chance is a weatherman. He is standing in front of the green screen and watching himself on the monitor.
On the first floor of the museum there is a replica of Tampa Bay with water flowing everywhere. There are boats to maneuver through the river and bridges roll balls across. Chance is turning a crank that moves a "boxcar" across the water and over to a train where you can then transfer your cargo and move it along the tracks. This was one of my favorite spots in the museum.
In one area there was an exhibit (not sure if that is the right word) reaching three stories tall! You could climb up and down in it exploring the different levels of the Florida aquifer. A great idea and lots of fun as long as you are not afraid of heights.
Two Wonderful Gifts.
Chance and I spent a few days at the apartment in Tampa last week and when we arrived we had two wonderful surprises waiting for us at the front door from Nana and Grandpa Von. Well, really they are for Chance but we can all enjoy them. I was thinking of setting them aside to open when Scott was in town but Chance is too smart for me, he immediately looked at the labels and said "It says Chance, it's for me".
The first box we opened contained a huge book on the human body. There are brilliantly colored pictures, charts, diagrams and more along with tons of wonderful information that will make this book so incredibly useful for years to come.
Chance opened it up and started to ask questions right away. He was very interested, so much so that he picked it to read at bedtime for the next two nights. It's a great book because it will grow with him. For bedtime now we read the captions for the pictures on 10 pages each night and talked about what was in each picture.
The next box we opened was full of even more wonderful surprises. There were 15 wonderful works of art, a box to store them and an easel to display one at a time. Each piece of art is a print of a masterpiece by a famous artist. The back of each print is full of information about the artist's life, the inspiration for this work and info about their other works as well.
The first thing Chance did was pop the bubble wrap that came in the package. Then he lay each piece of art on the floor all over the living room so we could look at each one. Then after looking them all over he chose the Van Gogh to put on the easel first, then we put the easel on his shelf. The plan is to display one piece as we read parts of the back for storytime and bedtime then when we finish reading we will pick a new piece of art to display.
A big thanks to Nana and Grandpa Von.
The first box we opened contained a huge book on the human body. There are brilliantly colored pictures, charts, diagrams and more along with tons of wonderful information that will make this book so incredibly useful for years to come.
Chance opened it up and started to ask questions right away. He was very interested, so much so that he picked it to read at bedtime for the next two nights. It's a great book because it will grow with him. For bedtime now we read the captions for the pictures on 10 pages each night and talked about what was in each picture.
The next box we opened was full of even more wonderful surprises. There were 15 wonderful works of art, a box to store them and an easel to display one at a time. Each piece of art is a print of a masterpiece by a famous artist. The back of each print is full of information about the artist's life, the inspiration for this work and info about their other works as well.
The first thing Chance did was pop the bubble wrap that came in the package. Then he lay each piece of art on the floor all over the living room so we could look at each one. Then after looking them all over he chose the Van Gogh to put on the easel first, then we put the easel on his shelf. The plan is to display one piece as we read parts of the back for storytime and bedtime then when we finish reading we will pick a new piece of art to display.
A big thanks to Nana and Grandpa Von.
Guppyween
The weekend before Halloween the Aquarium was having Guppyween. There were games for the kids and trick or treating all around the aquarium. Unfortunately I didn't know it was happening until we got to Tampa so we didn't have Chance's Halloween costume with us but it didn't matter. He had a pumpkin for candy collecting and that is all he needed.
We walked all around the Aquarium looking at all the fish and looking for people in Orange shirts with big orange bags of candy because if you say the magic words
(trick or treat) they will give you candy. Chance learned that really fast. Here he is waving at the horseshoe crabs
Chance is tossing little beanbags through the holes for a prize. He got to pick anything from the box and his choice: a green spider ring.
Inspecting his candy haul.
On the way out I saw a Guppyween banner hanging on the fence and decided it would be a good place to try for some pictures of the two of us. We took a bunch and none of them were great but there were a few cute ones.
We walked all around the Aquarium looking at all the fish and looking for people in Orange shirts with big orange bags of candy because if you say the magic words
(trick or treat) they will give you candy. Chance learned that really fast. Here he is waving at the horseshoe crabs
Chance is tossing little beanbags through the holes for a prize. He got to pick anything from the box and his choice: a green spider ring.
Inspecting his candy haul.
On the way out I saw a Guppyween banner hanging on the fence and decided it would be a good place to try for some pictures of the two of us. We took a bunch and none of them were great but there were a few cute ones.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Splash Pad and Spiderweb Climby Thing
In Lehigh not too far from where Chance takes his swimming lessons there is a park we had not taken the time to investigate until recently. It was a serious find, they have a splash pad, tons of green space to run around and a pretty neat playground as well.
There was water bubbling up from the ground and showering down from above in lots of fun and interesting ways. Chance had tons of fun getting totally soaked.
Then he tried to give me a heart attack:
See that kid all the way at the top of this spiderweb climby thing? That's Chance. He had a good time and didn't get hurt at all of course but still there were times I had to look away so he could go be a boy just like he is supposed to.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Pumpkin Patch
Chance as a pirate, rrrrrrrr.
This year we went to the same pumpkin patch at Lakes Park as we did last year. We met one of the playgroups at the park to let the little guys play together. Chance made friends with one of the little girls right away they are the same age and got along famously. We didn't actually buy our pumpkins there because we already had our pumpkins but we had a good time walking through all the scarecrow displays and of course Chance had a great time on the slide and in the bounce house.
Chance and Grace (playdate friend) in front of the Waterman Broadcasting Display
I wasn't able to get any good pictures of him on the slide because the sun was not favorable and in each picture his shadow gets enveloped in the shadow of the slide. My friend Becky met us at the park, it was nice for us to be able to catch up while Chance played. It's great being so close to really good friends, puts a smile on my face.
We were trying to get a group picture but this is the only one where Chance had a good smile.
Playing cars in the Morning
The arrangement we have worked out is if Chacne does his workbook pages today (usually 5 pages) then tomorrow morning he will be able to watch cartoons in the morning, if not then he doesn't. Well, last week Chance decided he didn't need to do his workbook pages so there was no TV. This wasn't a problem for him and really not a problem for me either since I am always eager to cut back on screen time. On the first morning he was upset even though he knew it was coming but after a few minutes he went to get his legos and set up a whole town on my bathroom counter. He played in there for nearly two hours building and rebuilding his town and driving cars all over the place. And he did the same thing for the next three days even though one of the days he did his workbook pages he chose to come back and play legos and cars. It worked out great for me because I got to stay in bed resting while he played and he was using his imagination and building skills rather than sitting in front of a screen. This is just a little mosaic I made of him being silly playing with his cars.
Rediscovering Shady Oaks
Chance swinging high.
My parents used to take me and my sister to Shady Oaks Park when we were little. Like the name implies there is plenty of shade so we set out to rediscover this great little park. The park is exactly as I remember it, almost all the same playground equipment we used to play on is still there. All in the shade of beautiful oak trees. There were a few little boys at the park just Chance's age, they had a great time playing together. It was fun watching Chance play in the same park I played in when I was his age.
While we were there Chance really started working on his swinging skills. The other little boys knew how to pump their legs to swing so they tried to teach him and for the first time Chance really worked to make his swing go all by himself. Since then he has continued to work on his leg pumping skills. Yay!
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Chance's Halloween Costume
This year when we asked Chance what he wanted to be for Halloween he thought for just a second and said "a soldier". That was about a week before we actually went costume shopping. When we went to actually pick out his costume he went straight for the soldier outfit. We picked up a helmet to go with it and off we went. In the first picture Chance is sporting his helmet in the car leaving Party City and the pictures below are after we got back to the house Chance trying out his new costume.
Safety Day in Swimming Class
Evidently for one class every session al the kids learn about safety in open water as if they fell overboard. They watched a video then each practiced the things they saw in the video. First they put on life jackets then all jumped in the water and learned how to huddle together for safety and warmth while in the water and how to coordinate yelling for help. Then how to float in a life jacket and not panic. Afterward they all lined up, the first person in line jumped in while the next person threw in the life preserver, the first person grabbed on and was pulled in by the next guy in line. I didn't get a picture of Chance rescuing the kid in front of him but here he is being pulled to safety.
Florida Aquarium
Chance in front of the sign at the entrance to the Aquarium
Tampa has a lot of family friendly attractions of which I am sure we will end up exploring all, very soon. First of the big attractions for us was the Florida Aquarium. The Aquarium is right on the streetcar line (yeah there is a streetcar here did I forget to mention that?) and it's downtown so that means walking distance from the Aquarium to the Children's Museum, Riverfront park and the Center for the Arts and plenty of cool little places to grab a bite to eat. Anyway, I think I am getting off track...we got a year pass to the Aquarium with which we get into the Aquarium of course and also free parking, on top of that though we also get 50% off admission to other Zoo's, And Aquariums around the country including the zoo here (the children's museum here too) and the zoo in Portland (for the next visit to Nana and Grandpa Von).
Scott and Chance looking at the Alligators
The Florida Aquarium has a cool Florida wetland area that is humid and muggy with real mangroves growing over the walkways. There are Alligators and turtles and lots of other fish swimming all about as well as birds all through this habitat. The wetland area is also the aviary so there are florida birds flying all around too.
Chance looking at that HUGE fish.
We saw, eels and sharks, seahorses and lots of beautifully colored fish too. As well as this huge fish that looked like he could barely move he was so big even though he was floating right along. They had a really neat interactive exhibit where each of six fish get to plead their case then at the end you vote for your favorite.
Chance pointing out fish in the Reef Tunnel
We were thinking the Aquarium was worth the year membership and then we went outside and realized that it was DEFINITELY worth the year membership price. There is a pirate ship themed water play area with a restaurant and a bar. We didn't know they had that area so we didn't have Chance's swimming trunks so he couldn't play in the big water area. He played for a long time on the playground where there are just a few misters while Scott and I had a drink at the bar. Next time we will bring his trunks so he can really play.
Chance checking out a seahorse
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Frozen yogurt at Ikea
"Has an Ikea" is definitely on the list of things I like about Tampa for so many reasons. As if the shopping wasn't enough they also have a child play area where I can check Chance in to play for 45 minutes (every day if I wanted to) while I shop and they give me a free coffee every time I go as well. It's like a small slice of heaven.
When we signed up for their free loyalty program we got a free frozen yogurt which as you can see Chance greatly enjoyed.
Games in the Park
Downtown Tampa there is a big park right on the river. It has a lot of lovely green grass, two fountains made specifically for kids to play in and a really neat playground with this electronic game that Chance and I are playing in these pictures. There are a few different versions you can pick from but the basics of each game are the same. Pick a color (red or green) then push the button that corresponds with your color light faster than the other guy. It's a pretty fun game and Chance is better than you would think.
Riding the Carousel
Here they come...
A very short distance from the apartment in Brandon is a mall and in that mall is a double decker carousel. That's right it's inside the mall and it has two floors.
Needless to say really Chance has wanted to go on this every time he has seen it, which is only stice but the first time we did not have any cash so we couldn't go for a ride. The next time though we were prepared with our $2 and so Chance and Scott went for a ride. It looked like a lot of fun, next time I might just have to go for a ride myself.
Here they are...big wave.
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