A crash course in teaching your kid to ride a bike

My 4-year-old just learned to ride a bike about a week ago. He's got the riding down, but he's still working on braking and stopping. Today we rode up to the park where we had to navigate a pretty steep hill. I told him that I would get off my bike and run along side of him. He said, "No. You can wait at the bottom of the hill in case I need help stopping." I don't know why I took the advice of a 4-year-old, but I did.
He started down the hill pedaling ... and not using his brakes. So he's barreling toward me going about 20 mph with a "Holy Shit!" look on his face, and I'm yelling, "Hit your brakes! Hit your brakes!" He didn't ... and I'm thinking at this point if he hit his brakes, he would probably hurtle over the handlebars. I'm also thinking, "Oh crap! This is going to hurt ... someone!" So as any good mother would do, I took the brunt of it. My front shin stopped his bike. It tipped over with him on it, but aside from a small scrape on his knee, he was fine. A nice man on the bike trail asked if he was OK. And I'm like, Yeah, he's fine ... my shin on the other hand ... is still hurting 8 hours later.
He did get right back on his bike though. And managed to give me one other heart-attack moment when he went barreling down a slight incline. You think I would have learned my lesson the first time.

Why I send my children to bible camp

I remember when I was a kid whenever I saw a sign that said "Vacation Bible School," I thought to myself, "What the hell is vacation bible school? I don't think that would be much of a vacation." But I grew up Catholic, and Catholics DO NOT have vacation bible school. We don't really read the bible either. I always thought Vacation Bible School was only done by those "weird religions." Everyone was catholic where I grew up, so pretty much anything not catholic was a weird religion to me.
So why do I send my children to Vacation Bible School? Well, for one I realized that just because somebody believes different things than I do and worships in a different way doesn't make it a weird religion. And I also realized that vacation bible school could be fun. They don't actually sit around and read the bible (which is what I thought they did when I was a kid). The one my kids go to has giant inflatables and on the last day of a the camp, there is a huge water fight. A firetruck actually shows up! And it teaches the kids about being a good person.
And HELLO! here's the best part: Free daycare from 9 to noon!

He may not listen but ...

Drew has had a lot of trouble listening lately. He's been getting timeouts at school for talking during circle time and also managed to get one at gymnastics for not listening. He was also so disruptive at his skating class that the whole class got off track. I told his teacher at school we were working on it, but he was still having trouble so to let me know if there were any problems. When I got an email with the subject line "Drew" from her, I thought, "What did he do now?" Here's what it said:

Wanted to let you know that Drew was so nice to Jonathan (new boy) today. He was the first boy to come up and introduce himself and Aidan and Drew invited Jonathan to play. Later Drew and Jonathan were side by side talking and playing together. He really made my job easier - I think Jonathan had a great first day because of Drew.

Sometimes (OK, probably about 90 percent of the time), he's a really great kid!

In closing ...

Two more cute pictures from our vacation ...


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A pretty ... cockroach?

Several peacocks, including a beautiful white peacock, resided at the resort we were staying at. In fact, it liked to hang out right next to our building, so we could see it from our balcony most of the time. On the second day we were there, I was reading on the balcony and Drew came out and was looking at the pool. He says, "Mom, the cockroach is by the pool." I'm thinking to myself. "A cockroach by the pool, and he can see it from our 4th floor balcony. I'm not sure I want to see that." When I looked over the balcony, I saw the peacock. "Oh, you mean the peacock," I said laughing. Drew says, "Oh yeah, I forgot!"


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Dolphin kisses

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On Friday, we had an awesome opportunity to interact with dolphins. The kids got to hear the dolphin sing and "conduct." They also got to pet the dolphin, feed it fish and get a kiss.


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Scott and I signed up for the dolphin experience and got to take a ride with Due.


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Taxi riding

One of the more interesting things for the kids, especially Drew, was not having to ride in carseats. In fact, we were lucky if there were even any seatbelts at all. The first time we rode in a cab, we got one without seatbelts. The next time, the cab had seatbelts, and Drew asked me why I was buckling him when I started to put the seatbelt on him. I said, "Because this cab has seatbelts." Drew says smiling, "Why? Is he a crazzzy driver?" Luckily, the cab driver barely spoke English :)

Ahoy, matey!

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We took a cruise on a pirate ship one day. I think the most exciting thing for the kids may have been the boys bathroom. I think it may have been for Scott, too, with as many pictures as he took. Scott did say the teeth made him a little nervous when he was relieving himself.


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The sinks were pretty cool, too.


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Swiming, swimming, swimming and ....

We spent quite a few days just enjoying the pools at the resort. Some days it was hard to get Drew out of the pool. He loved to swim. He didn't even want to get out to eat.


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Blake liked swimming, too. But some days he just lounged on the chairs by the pool to relax and read his Magic Tree House books. He also talked to the ladies. I'm not sure what he had in common with this young lady, but he talked to her for almost 20 minutes.


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Snakes and monkeys, oh my!

A PHRASE THAT ACTUALLY CAME OUT OF MY MOUTH: "When the man is done putting the big snake on people, he'll let us out of the monkey cage."

Swinging from tree to tree wasn't Blake or Drew's cup of tea, but the animal house at the Canopy Tour place was a big hit.
Blake wasn't scared to put a Burmese Python around his neck. In fact, he didn't want to take it off.


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Drew on the other hand was a little more leery as you can see by the look on his face when the snake got a little too close.


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Drew preferred the monkeys which sat on his shoulder and head to eat the fruit from the little tubes we were given.


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High in the treetops

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One of the "high"lights of the trip was a "canopy tour" in the mountains and jungle of Puerto Vallarta. The tour consisted of 14 zip lines (the longest cable was 400 meters long). We signed Blake up because he just met the minimum age, but he took one look at the first zip line and said "no way." Here he is with mom suited up and ready to go. This is about as far as he made it.


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Chilling in Mexico

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OK. I've been a real slacker lately. So, here's some posts from our recent vacation to Puerto Vallarta. After a long day of traveling on Saturday -- we got up at 5 a.m. to catch our plane to Chicago before making the five-hour trek to Mexico -- we arrived in Puerto Vallarta. Blake and Drew did very well despite being cooped up on a plane for that long.
Here's some pictures of the resort. We spent the rest of the first day at the pool.


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Be sure to click on the photos in all of the Mexico posts to see more photos.

This is what happens ...

... when I take yearbook photos and Blake is involved.


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"I Have a Dream"

Blake and two of his classmates read parts of Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' speech at morning opening at his school. He had to say big words like "injustice and oppression." And he did great. Here's a really crappy video of it. I didn't want to get too close because Blake sometimes has a tendency to act like a goofball when a camera or videocamera is near. See post above this one.


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My little baby

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Can you believe Drew is 4.

Happy New Year!

I haven't had much time to post over the holidays., but would like to wish everyone a Happy 2008 from the Klingsick family. We had a great Christmas. Blake's favorite gift was a Playstation 2. He's been asking for one for a year now so was very excited. His second favorite gift was a $10 T-shirt from Club Penguin. Club Penguin is an online site that using cartoon penguin, players can waddle around, chat, converse, play minigames, and participate in other activities with one another in a snow-covered virtual world. Disney recently bought the company making it more popular. It's designed for 6-14 year olds. He immediately wanted to wear the shirt that day and asked if he could wear it the first day of school.
Drew got an Optimus Prime helmet.


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But I think his favorite gift came from Uncle Tim. An R2D2 that walks and talks and is "supposed to" follow orders. He was jumping up and down as soon as he tore the top part of the package off, and then proceeded to dance like R2D2.


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Happy New Year to all! Keep checking out this site in 2008.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

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St. Louis got its first major snowfall of the season, and it was a big one for St. Louis. We got about six inches. The kids actually got to enjoy it because it came on the weekend. We woke up Saturday morning with about 2 inches on the ground, and it was still falling. Blake and Drew couldn't wait to get out. And the snow was perfect for building a snowman. The snowman was as tall as Scott and I. We got 4 more inches over the rest of the day on Saturday, and on Sunday we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Klingsick's for sledding. Drew enjoyed sledding a lot more this year. He was able to get up the hill on his own, and he rode by himself. The only part he wasn't to happy about is when he and I were going down and we got a spray of snow in the face.
Click on the pictures to see more.


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A mouse from outerspace

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Blake is in Drama Club at school, and they performed "The Mice From Outer space" this year. It was very cute, mainly singing. Here's a picture of Blake dressed up as a space mouse.

My children: The church's entertainment

Blake and Drew "sang" at our church on Sunday for Christmas to the great amusement of the rest of the parishioners. One woman told me she "was laughing so hard she was crying." Another told me "Blake is the one she watches now."
So what's so funny about "Away in the Manger" and "Go Tell It on the Mountain?" Blake sang as loud as he could which wasn't so bad (I could live with that). He wasn't shouting just singing louder than the rest. I was even amused by it slightly. Between the first and second song, Drew decided to move to the front near his brother. He was off to side relatively behaving himself before this. About midway through "Go Tell it on the Mountain," the "spirit" (or perhaps it was the sugary Happy Birthday Jesus cake before church) moved Drew to start dancing wildly. Blake proceeded to do the same.
They might be embarassing us now, but just wait until they're teenagers. Then it's our turn to repay the favors. Maybe when Blake gets his first girlfriend, I can pull out the tape of this "performance!"

Blake did redeem himself later during the children's sermon. They were talking about Advent Calendars. The one the lady who was conducting the sermon had was a stable scene, and the last piece you put on was the Baby Jesus. Blake told her we put Santa Claus at the top on Christmas Eve. (Scott and I hang our heads). Later in the sermon, she asked what Christmas was really all about. Blake raises his hand and she calls on him. (Me silently in my head: Please don't say Playstation 2; getting presents; or Santa coming!) Blake's answer: Giving thanks for Jesus. (Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!) See were not such bad parents :)

All I Want for Christmas ...

... is my 1 front tooth!

Blake lost his first tooth. He told me his tooth was loose in the morning, and wiggled and wiggled and wiggled and wiggled it some more ALL DAY LONG! And it finally fell out. He was very excited and couldn't wait to go to bed that night. The Tooth Fairy brought $2 and a note thanking him for taking such good care of his teeth. The note was on tooth-shaped stationary! We told him the Tooth Fairy gave less money for teeth with cavities because she had to fix them :)
How much does your "Tooth Fairy" give?