Halloween 2012

This being this third time around, Casey is getting pretty good at this. Weeks ago, he went costume shopping with Mommy. He saw a brown UPS outfit, and he fell in love with it. His first day home, he wore it, and insisted that he sleep in it! In the days leading up to Halloween he would blurt out, 'I want to go trick or treating'. I would ask him what he was going to dress up as, and he would reply, 'Brown delivery truck man'. To help celebrate the season, Casey had a field trip to the pumpkin patch. But we wanted to do a family outing to the pumpkin patch to introduce Sydney to the concept. Ol' Casey was a veteran, and was anxious to show his lil bro how to feed the animals and pick pumpkins.

Then came time for the main event: Halloween night. In what has become somewhat of a tradition, Casey went trick or treating with his buddies... Allison, CJ, Ian, Sammy. Often Casey the elephant led the charge from house to house. Despite all the excitement, he minded his P's and Q's, saying thank you to each and every house!

Casey the UPS Delivery Man

Feeding the goats

Hoisting the pumpkin

Group Shot

Trick or Treat!

Leading the Charge

Big Bro and Little Bro taking a break from trick or treating

Good Dad

Today Casey and I were at the park. He was having a great time playing, when he hit his head and starting crying. He came to me for comforting; hugs and kisses. I finally was able to console him to the point the crying stopped... Then he told me he needed a tissue. 'Cept, I didn't have one. So, I had a choice. End his fun time and go home... or take one for the team. I offered him my arm to wipe his boogers/snot on, and he said he wanted my shirt. So, I gave him my shirt sleeve, and he proceeded to take four HUGE swipes of both nostrils across my sleeve, leaving streak marks that soaked thru my sleeve. And he went on his merry way, back to playing... Meanwhile, it started getting cold, and the wind hit the wet spots on my sleeve and made me freeze. But I man-d up and continued to let him play!

Are you ready for some football?

Football season 2012 just started, and coincidently, I just ran across a few pix from LAST football season. I wanted to share a funny story connected to the pix. One day in the fall of 2011, I was watching football on TV. Casey was hanging around, kinda playing and kinda watching TV. Suddenly, he gets his mini football. Then he runs downstairs.... I hear the door to the garage open.. A few moments later, he coming running up the stairs, WITH HIS BIKE HELMET on!!! Gotta love the thought process and imagination. He grabs his football, runs in a tight circle, and falls down, just like he was tackled...

Casey's touchdown dance

Touchdown!

Rock Climbing Wall

One of the interesting activities we sampled this summer was a rock climbing wall. The local YMCA has family nights once a month, and they have activities for the kids. I came up with a great idea that I should expose Casey to a rock climbing wall. My thought was that I would go first, climb up and demonstrate for him... and hope that he would want to be like Daddy and try too. We get to the facility, and see the wall for the first time. I ask Casey if he wants to try. Thankfully, he said yes. We get harnessed, and he bolts straight for the wall. I ask if he wants to watch Daddy go first, he doesnt even answer, he's too busy getting locked into his climbing harness... And he just goes for it... Like it was nothing. No instructions needed, no encouragement.. He spiderman'ed right up the face of the wall, until he got about 20 feet in the air. I suspect he looked down at that point and realized just how high off the ground he was, cause he suddenly asked to come down...

After Casey was safely back on tierra firma, and since I was all harnessed up, I decided I would try a climb, even if Casey no longer needed me to lead by example. Good thing too, cause about 10 feet up the wall, my fingers started cramping, my groin muscled started spasm-ing, and I aborted the mission. Good thing Casey was off playing in the foam pit by this point, and didnt have to witness Daddy's sad attempt.

Casey-isms

I've been meaning to post this entry for a long time, but couldn't settle on a good format. Suddenly, I look up and 3.5 years have passed. I realized that I'm gonna forget some Casey-ism's... In other words, the unique ways Casey describes things. So, format be damned, here goes. Check back periodically, as Casey is bound to add to this list.

Cacish- Early on, he had a fascination with vacuum cleaners. For some unknown reason, he called them cacish.. Which happens to be the Portugese word for poop!

Ses-Ses-Ses- One of his first favorite TV shows was Sesame Street. He would point at the TV and say "Ses-Ses-Ses".

Pork-a-cheese- Mom was talking to Casey, but not in English. Apparently, she was speaking "Pork-a-cheese" instead!

Mac-a-oni- One of his favorite meals is Mac-a-oni and Cheese.

Guac-a-oni- Casey sure likes his chip and guac-a-oni... We had to concentrate to differentiate between Mac-a-oni and Gauc-a-oni.

BBBBBBB-chips- For some unknown reason, he would add a bunch of B's before getting the word 'chips' out of his mouth when requesting potato chips.

Yennow- The color yellow.

Peppa-oni- His favorite pizza topping.

SD trip- Happy 80th Birthday Nai Nai

Each visit to San Diego produces new memories. And Nai-Nai's imagination produces new and exciting activities for Casey each and every time. This time, one highlight was watering plants and squirting the garden hose. I'm sure it helped that the water can was shaped like an elephant (one of Casey's favorite animals). And Ye-Ye sure has a lot of plants for Casey to water. I'm not so sure about the hose squirting thing. I foresee Casey hosing his baby brother, and Sydney attempting to fight back and the whole episode escalating to a full blown water fight.

Football game

Tonight was another first. Well, lemme back up. A few weeks ago, Uncle Andy and cousin Nate invited Casey to a baseball game. He enjoyed himself, particularly the junk food and the cheering. He didn't understand the nuances of the game like hitting behind the runner, advancing runners into scoring position with less than two outs, etc. But Casey made it clear how he felt. In the parking lot, on the way out of the game, he says, "Daddy, I had fun at the baseball game." "I want to goto a football game now." Fast forward until now, (when football was actually in season) and I made his wish come true. Tonight, Casey went to his first football game; West High v Torrance High. When the home team scored, Casey raised his hands overhead and said "touchdown". We capped the night off with a stop at the 'ice cream factory' where he got some ice cream. On the way home, he said, "I want to goto a basketball game"...