After nap, snack, and diaper change.

Today I took my little guy to the Arvada Center for his first ballet class.  It was taught by Miss Jen, who I knew from our classes together when I took ballet there 6 years ago.  A lot has changed since then; a career change, two home purchases, and two kids.  I had waves of nostalgia going through the building.  Maybe when the dudes are older I can return to take Tap classes like I've always wanted.   Enough about me, you want to see Jack! 


Let me say that his little dance outfit is adorable in it's simplicity.  Amongst all the tutus and pink and lavender was my sweet boy.  It was kind of a hassle getting the outfit together.  I got his Capezio shoes on Amazon.  The shorts are actually pants from Target that I cut short.  All their shorts were too big for him and I couldn't find any in his size anywhere else. 

After Miss Jen reviewed the rules for class with them (No hanging on barres, no picking at floor tape, no playing the piano, no touching each others tutus or hair, etc) they were released to the room.  Jack made a beeline for the giant mirror and took some coaxing to join the others. 



In general, he was more of a spaz than the other girls.  Jen said that's normal for boys that she teaches.  But he loved it and returned to task fairly well.  I'm glad the teacher understands that this is the first time these kids have ever had structure, turn taking, and direction following to this degree.  I think it will be so good for him. 




In this part she was teaching them stage right/left, up/down stage directions.  She would call out a direction and they ran to the matching side of the room.


Some basics.  Jack took a while to catch onto the copying part.  He wanted to show her his "twirls and "funny moves."




There we go. 




Videos! First some center work, learning plies, releves, and sautes.  They covered first position, but I think Jack will need to do some remedial work with me at home to master it. 

Then I think this game was to teach them cues.  (We couldn't hear anything from outside.)  She gave them moves to do around the room, then the music stopped and they needed to return to their places in the hula hoops. 



I tried to catch his happy face afterwards, but he was a total blur :-)



After class I showed him the dragon they have outside the building.  The foliage was gorgeous so I snapped more pictures. 

Amanda requested further commentary on Jack's Messy Art class.  It's a 4 session class offered at the Wheat Ridge rec center, for an hour each Friday.  It was really strange the first time I dropped him off and left the building.  It was the first time I've ever left him unattended, not counting babysitters or when I'm in the same building, like nursery at church.  I double checked with the teacher, really?  I can go?  I can leave him here and go to Target or whatever?  Sweeeeeeet. 

He seems to love the class and had no problem being left with strange kids and Coach Robin (who also does youth athletics, so she uses that moniker). 

Coach Robin puts the plan on the board each day, so parents can see what they did and cue conversation, since 3-4 year olds are not the best historians.  Usually there's a snack, one or two books, and three projects based on those books.  This was last week's:



And the results:


As you can see, the messy part refers to finger paints, shaving cream, and other sloppy things.  They have a rather simple and brilliant clean-up area.  Just a big tub of mildly soapy water on the floor where the kids can dip and splash to wash off messes. 

Next week is the last Friday art class, but also his first dance class on Wednesday.  I admit, I'm super excited for that one.  It's at the Arvada Center, where I took classes in the years between college and nursing school. 

This image makes me giddy:


After donning the shoes he ran in circles around our house about 17 times.  I'd say he's excited too.

After so many pre-Halloween activities, I had to do some work to make the day festive for Jack. Why not start with orange colored milk and a cupcake?


Sam needed to be pictured in this "My first Halloween" bib, even though he has no use for a bib at this point.

Jack loved the little Google game they posted on their home search page. 


Here's a great series of our pumpkin carving experience.

"Yay, Mom!  Pumpkins!"


"What am I going to do with these spoons?"


"Ehhh, it's yucky.  I don't like it."


"No! No! No!  You do it for me."


I wouldn't force him to scoop, but he kept asking what he could do to help.  I came up with the idea to have him design the pumpkin faces for me to copy.  He happily agreed (lucky for me) and I pulled out these cut-outs I made earlier this month.  






Then there was napping by both boys.


An early dinner of Mummy Hot Dogs and Hulk Juice.


Then Wolfie and his family met us to go trick-or-treating. 




It was blustery and chilly tonight.  The boys were done long before Ben would have liked, but plenty long for three year olds.  They came back to play games and watch Toy Story Terror at the house while eating gobs of candy.  A pretty good Halloween if I may say so myself.

We loaded up the kids so we could walk at a brisk pace in the brisk air.

On Tuesday me and the boys met Jack's friend Adam at story time for a special Halloween edition.  After an abbreviated group session, the kids made a parade and went trick-or-treating. 



That's my dragon boy and his friend Harry Potter up front. 


Here at the Help Desk a flock of dragons (3) help themselves to candy. 


Down the administration hall were many more bowls of candy.  The employees told me that they look forward to this day all year. 


Outside I had them show off their haul.  What cuties!  Thanks for letting Adam join us, April!

Betty and Richard came all the way to Colorado from Maine to meet their new grandson!  There was much baby-holding and coo-watching.  There was also much older brother spoiling ;-)  Jack loves visiting with them and was "so very very very sad" that they had to leave.

Meeting the grandson


Reading Jack a book while Sam snoozes


Walking around Cherry Creek shopping district


I snapped this Sweet Action photo right as Jack spilled his water.


Mason family get-together


Donning appropriate napkin placement for spaghetti slurping at Virgilio's



Sam and I opted for a warm visit to the library for "baby time" (story time for less than 1 year olds) instead of joining the group at the Denver Zoo.  He's already been twice and it was quite drizzly and cold.  I hear that they had the zoo to themselves and Jack had a ton of fun. 


Watching Toy Story Terror in our theater room with popcorn (yeah, I really need to get proper black-out curtains rather than blankets to block the light.  Oy, that looks bad).  Jack is showing how he uses one hand to hold Sam's body, and one hand to hold his head.  Not *quite* the technique I demonstrated to him, but close enough.


Sam cooing at Grandma


What fun!  They boys can't wait for the next visit.