a hot day in September

I'm so far behind on blog postings there really is no way to catch up. Maybe I'll find time to do some flashback posts. Maybe.

Getting a drink from the sprinkler.

We are settling in to our fall schedule. I'm back to work. The days are active and full and go by quickly in the preschool classroom. I feel like a week goes by in a moment. I'm also taking one class in order to finish one of the Early Childhood credentials that the state requires. Jace is at a childcare center two days a week and spends much of the rest of his week at Grandma and Papa's house. Joel does everything that would not otherwise get done. He works for Gary, takes care of Jace, packs lunches, cleans the house and still manages to run 5 days a week as part of his marathon training. It is amazing to me.

Jace seems to like the childcare center. The first few weeks were rough at drop off (again, Joel is awesome cause he had to deal with the tears). Now, Jace asks for his teacher on days that he is not going to see her.

This weekend was the last big sailing event of the season, the Colorado Gov. Cup at Cherry Creek. Joel spent two long, hot days on the boat. They were able to win Vern a trophy for the end of this season.

Last night Joel and I joined Becky and Justin downtown for the Great American Beer Festival. It was a huge event at the convention center. Hundreds of American Brewers were pouring 1oz. samples of their beers for four hours. The crowd and the noise was unbelievable. It was definitely an experience. There was such a variety of beers. There was a wild cherry ale that tasted like malty cool aid, a winter brew that smelled like oranges and cloves, a sweet bourbon flavored stout, a weird one that the server described as "smoky" and I described as "this tastes like a box of Band-Aids", and a flavor failure that was just called "Mango". My favorite of the evening was a Rye Ale from Montana. I took notes in order to remember some of what I sampled. It was a unique event that I would like to do again but one that I would only want to do once a year.

Today was long and hot. Jace is fighting a cold that had him coughing in the night. He seems fine during the day but has trouble sleeping soundly when congestion settles. He and I spent a quiet afternoon at home. He had a good nap. We went to the store to pick out snacks for his first day of Playschool at the church tomorrow. After sailing, Joel came home and grilled burgers.

Photo: He picks my flowers and dances with them on his head singing, "la, la, la." It makes me laugh so he gets away with picking the flowers.

Daily Jace: While we were making dinner Jace found a penny that I had in my pocket. He was excited because he knows that the mechanical horse at the grocery store takes pennies. He danced around the kitchen saying "horsey, horsey". Then he accidentally dropped the penny and it bounced directly into the furnace vent. Jace was a little sad when I told him the penny was gone. He moped around for a few minutes. When I found another penny in my pocket I handed it to him saying, "Be careful don't loose it again." The words were not even out of my mouth when he ran to the vent and dropped the second penny in. This time on purpose. Joel and I both said something like, "Well, that's it, the pennies are all gone. We can't get them back." Later, at dinner he asked about them again. "Where go?" We said, "Sorry, they are all gone. We can't get them." (in our slightly sarcastic parenting voices) Jace had a solution. "Oso get 'em." Joel and I both had to laugh. Oso is a James Bond like secret agent panda bear cartoon. He shows up when kids have problems and helps them learn how to do simple things like fix a wagon wheel, or feed an animal at the petting zoo. Jace is pretty sure Oso could get the pennies back in "3 simple steps". Thanks, Disney channel.