'Curious George' is not a How-To Manual
I like Curious George
George learns by doing. He wants a fleet of boats, he folds a bunch of newspapers and makes the fleet. He doesn't concern himself with the consequences - it does not matter that he needed to deliver the papers to the customers, he just wanted to float some boats. George wanted to help with the train schedule so he just did it. No matter that his schedule sent trains to "MxyTPlc" at "7k:45x", he helped out.
The Man With the Yellow Hat has the parenting skills to which I aspire. The Man possesses infinite patience and forgiveness - no matter what George winds up doing, The Man is there to support and nurture him. I understand how fiction works and how it differs from reality. Still, the Man is The Man.
I love my kids. They are healthier, smarter and more capable than any other set of children on the planet. They have terrific curious minds and always try out new things. One in particular (Ben) is always "just busy". Just busy seeing what happens when he takes a fork to a table. Just busy tying string to every door knob in the house. Just busy. Just curious.
Somedays, I need to sit back and think of the Man With the Yellow Hat. Maybe Curious George is a How-To Manual - how-to provide unconditional love to children.
Posted at 09:47AM Jul 20, 2009 by schnee in General |
Fourth of Ben
Benjamin Thomas Schneeman turned four years old last week. We held a little party for him at the easy-walking-distance park. We invited eight or so of his friends, opened it up to siblings and told parents that they could just drop-off and take-off. For the most part, all parents stuck around, and we wound up having probably close to 20 guests. For a four year old. By the end of the party, Ben wound up looking like this:
but until that point, he had a pretty good time. Except for the part when he thought that his buddy was taking a present instead of giving it to him - it took me a good ten minutes to settle the little guy down.
More images here.
Posted at 11:42AM Mar 11, 2009 by schnee in General |
"No, I got that when I hit the car"
Kathleen called yesterday; the first words out of her mouth were "he's okay". Never a good sign, that.
We
live in an area possessed of varied geography - it is hilly and a few
streams cut through it (including one straight through my property, but
that is another story).
Over time, these streams have cut gullies and ravines; bridges have
been built to allow cars and bikes to cross. Kathleen, Anna and Ben
went for a ride yesterday - Ben on his two-wheeler, Kathleen on my bike
and Anna in the trailer. Ben is still on training wheels and probably
has an over-inflated sense of competence. He loves to fly down hills.
He was flying down one such hill:
on
the sidewalk in the image above. As you can see, the sidewalk veers off
to the left to avoid the mailbox. It crosses the driveway and then
rejoins its original flow. Unfortunately, if one follows the veer, the
path leads to a 40 foot cliff down into the ravine.
Ben followed the veer.
Kathleen
was a few feet behind him but could not do anything but watch. Ben hit
the grass and could not course-correct. With milliseconds to spare, he
dove off his bike, flew to the right and collided with the end of the
concrete guard rail. Kathleen watched his bike career down the rocky
cliff, initially not seeing where Ben was (and thinking maybe he was
with the bike).
All is well. Ben was banged up physically and
emotionally but he is bouncing back. I was talking to a neighbor with
Ben last evening, recounting the story. I saw a bruise on his cheek and
assumed that he got it during the bike ride. That's when he told me and
the neighbor "No, I got that when I hit the car".
Sigh.
Posted at 12:00AM Feb 04, 2009 by schnee in General |
Its all about the Benjamin
Ben is in the throws of two-dom. He is really asserting himself on the world. "This way", "that way", "no, not this way" (even thought that way was the way he wanted to go) - he just wants a bit of control.
Ben is pretty sad that his big brother is going off to school without him. Ben just watched with sad eyes as his brother and I went off to school this morning. By the time I got back, however, he was happily playing the in the sand box, making mud, so that's good.
The other day, I went shopping for some PJs for Jack - we're trying to get him into the whole boxer-and-t-shirt look for sleep. I saw a Lightning McQueen pack - boxers and a tank top - in Jack's size. I bought it. The tank must have been miss marked because it was way too small for him. We gave it to Ben instead and Ben was pleased as punch. He was running around telling everyone "I got Lightning shirt" (since everyone was Kathleen and me, we heard this over and over). Sticking out his chest, showing off. He was literally preening. It was very cute. He wore the shirt for two solid days.
Posted at 08:44AM Aug 28, 2007 by schnee in General | Comments[1]
Some more summertime images
Some more photos taking during Graduation Day. I noticed that my scanner is getting dark - the thing is 8 years old. Maybe time to get a new one. Sheesh!
The kids and the dad.
Jack in flight, celebrating being a graduate!
Ben mugging for the camera.
Posted at 10:14AM Jun 12, 2007 by schnee in Photography |
Some summertime photos
Jack graduated from preschool last month. While I don't have any photos scanned from the actual ceremony, we needed to load a new roll of film during the event. The roll of Fuji NPZ 800 was developed at Costco, which provides relatively inexpensive scans of decent quality. Costco doesn't process slide film, which was used during the ceremony. Scanning that takes time since I have to do it myself. And time is of short supply, unfortunately.
Here's Ben screwing around in a tire-based playscape. This is on the grounds of Jack's old preschool. Fortunately for Ben, he'll be going there in the Fall.
More Ben and the Tires. He seems to enjoy them.
Ben has moved onto a swinging tube. This is a really good candid photography. Almost as if I placed Ben in the tube and told him to look at me.
Jack and his good friend from preschool Sam. They are playing with a water faucet. As I type this, it occurs to me that this was the last time they are likely to play together in this location. Sam will not be going to Jack's school in the Fall, but they've played on the same soccer team and have gotten together in the for playdates and birthday parties and the like.
Ben, looking like he is having fun
Jack, showing me that he has learned to swing by himself.
Jack and Ben on the swingset.
Posted at 10:27AM Jun 11, 2007 by schnee in Life |
The other day, I met a bear
The other day
I met a bear
A great big bear
Oh way out there
I tried to remember those lyrics, wanting to contribute some song to the campfire sing-a-long to which my 15 girl scout hostesses invited the boys and I. They gave us s'mores and banana boats after-all and the only thing I brought was a hastily assembled bouquet of native grasses and a "goofy guests" verse to "He's got the whole world in His hands". Perhaps I should start at the beginning...
The boys and I camped at Inks Lake in Central Texas this past weekend. Kathleen made the arrangements and stayed behind with Anna as Ben, Jack and I loaded the Subaru and headed out for our Saturday night stay. Inks Lake is a rather nice state park about 90 minutes (or less!) from our house. Camping in Central Texas isn't the best (follow that link to see how I broke that promise), but we gotta do what we gotta do. Ironically, the boys and I got the campsite that the Choir was in (again, follow that link).
The site was about 30 metres from where the car could be parked. I had two boys, neither of which can be completely unsupervised. I had to set up the camp and be a dad at the same time. It was a bit difficult, but I managed. Once the tent was up and snacks served, I took the boys swimming at the lake. We met a very nice family ('hi Jose, Monika, Joseph and Jaden!') and played around for a couple of hours. Then it was time to head back to the camp, for cooking and eating.
That went pretty well. As we were setting up, the Girl Scout leader from the next camp over invited us for s'mores and banana boats later on. A very welcome invitation that was. The scouts totally owned me in the "campfire making" category - they had a roaring fire when all I had (initially) was a feeble matchstick. And, of course, Jack noticed ("Daddy, why is there fire so much bigger"). Eventually, we got our fire popping and all was well. Cooked hotdogs and had dinner, followed by a pre-s'more marshmallow or two. Then it was time to visit the Girl Scouts.
That was fun. We sat around and sang songs, roasted marshmallow and had a good time. Jack immediately joined in the sing-a-longs and Ben eventually caught on. We stayed for an hour and then went on a moonlight hike, which both boys enjoyed immensely (the super power flashlights probably had something to do with).
Sleep that night was a challenge for a bit - both boys kept screwing around it the tent until I had to put my foot down and separate them. Sleep eventually followed and was too-soon followed by morning.
We went on a long hike into the granite (documented by the craptacular cellphone camera, below) and loaded up into the car for the drive home. It was quite fun!
Posted at 02:46PM May 07, 2007 by schnee in Life |
2.0's 2.0
Early last month, Ben turn two. We held a little party at our place, and it was a bit different than the one last year, but not much. We had a few people over, we ate cake and we opened presents. Ben was much more interactive, and to this day, any time we say "cake" he always says "birthday cake, fun!". Here are some photos.
Posted at 08:57PM Apr 04, 2007 by schnee in Life |
