Seabrook Wildlife

Tonight Barbara and friend ran the Kemah bridge, but this time Sean and I hung out under the bridge on the Seabrook side.  It was teeming with wildlife: blue herons, cats behind the seafood place, great white herons, brown pelicans, and 4-year old humans. (Joe can correct my identifications if I'm wrong!)

Team in Training Marathon Coming Up!

In a few weeks Barbara will be running the Nike's Women's Marathon in San Fransisco.  Thank you to all who have donated to the cause they are raising money for - the Lukemia and Lymphoma Society.


http://pages.teamintraining.org/txg/nikesf11/bpastalani

Balancing Experiments

During a long trip to Nana's Park Sean spent the majority of time balancing the see-saws with rocks (which were easy to find since grass does not grow in Kerrville anymore!)  Sean appear to have inherited sticking his tongue out while concentrating from either Uncle Joe or Uncle Michael Jordon - we are not sure which.

Kerrville Weekend

We spent a 3-day weekend in Kerrville, which featured near triple digit temperatures and 14% humidity.  On Sunday morning Barbara did her long run (21 miles) in preparation for her marathon in San Fran next month.  Sean got to go to "Nana's Playground" 3 or 4 times, not to mention other area playgrounds.  On Monday Nana and Grandpa took Sean to the farm at LBJ Ranch and he got to "harvest" and egg from a chicken nest.  Our butterfly colony spent the weekend at Uncle Joe's, where he tried to train them with little success.  They seemed to mainly be interested in making new butterflies.

Sean sleeping in Kerrville - something that does not happen very often!

Walking with Mom after her run

Most times there is at least some water running over the dam

Nana and Sean calling the ducks

Sean's apostles

Grandpa reading to Sean. Not sure why he is sitting on Lucky Bear.

Butterfly and Reading Update

This is really an update on the butterflies, however when I went to get Sean to watch the chrysalis transfer he was in bed looking at a book on insects.  Kind of unexpected, 9 times out of 10 he is reading books on dinosaurs.  Read? Kind of.  He is doing really well with his reading level books and can recognize much larger words out of context, but only if they are the names of dinosaurs or states!

He loves the PBS Kids website, especially Dinosaur Train (which, I must admit, is excellent.)  He know the proper pronunciation of most common dinosaur names and is always correcting me.

The bed time story we are reading to him this week is really physics.  It is an iPad app called Bobo Light.  It has lots of interactive items on each page that demonstrate how each aspect of the physics of light works.  It is fun, and we are learning some things, too (mainly me, there is not much that a former 2nd grade teacher does not know!)

Back to the butterflies - they have been in the chrysalis stage for several days now, so it was time to transfer them from their original container into the habitat.  What is cool is that when disturbed they wiggle back and forth quite vigorously inside the chrysalis.  

Tuesday Kemah Run Day

Once a week Barbara and a friend meet either at the track or at Kemah to train for the San Fransisco marathon (next month!)  They run in Kemah because the Kemah bridge is the biggest hill around (as if running in 100F heat in September doesn't count as running on a hill.)  Sean and I get to play around.

What temperature is the water?

Shadow Sean and Dave

The telescope (with no quarters to put in it) was a lot more fun once we decided it was a cannon

Pool Time

Throughout the summer we have been enjoying best special purchase we have ever made at Wall-Mart - our above ground pool  It gives Dave license to play chemist and also to hit Sean over the head with blunt (but soft) objects.

Barbara also uses it to cool off when she finishes her long runs on Saturdays.  Believe it or not, 90 degree pool water feels incredibly refreshing when you've been running in 100 degree heat. 

Creepy, Crawly, September

Aunt Joanne gave Sean a great bug gift - caterpillars that grow from very small to large and then turn into butterflies.  We got them on Saturday and they have already tripled in size!

Also, as the humidity here recently has been near record low (e.g. what most normal humans are exposed to,) Sean has been getting bloody noses again at night.  We have been using a humidifier lent to us by Barbara's dear parents, however it makes it sound like a freight train is running through the room.  So, we are trying a new one out tonight that one can just barely hear.  

Bugs on Sunday

Bugs on Monday

Bugs on Monday

Old humidifier

New humidifier

Dylan & Elissa Visit in August

In mid-August the Boyce's were very busy buying a cool new house and readying their house for sale.  Elissa and Dylan stayed with us for a couple of days to help them out.  As always, they got along famously.  Apparently Dylan has a thing for cherry tomatoes, no matter whose plate they are on!