HERE I AM!

Rumors of this journal’s demise have been greatly exaggerated…. True I haven’t posted an entry in over two months, and that if I hauled out the same, tired, redundant excuses about not having time, they would undoubtedly fall on deaf ears. So without excuse or explanation – here I am – back at the Streamside, months behind but eager to catch up.

School Daze –

On Monday, September 10th, 2007, Landon Wyatt took his first step into what hopefully will be a long and productive world of education and development. This fall he enrolled part-time at Christ Lutheran Preschool. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning he joins his Mom on her commute to her school (La Veta Elementary) and at 7:30 walks with her across the street to his conveniently located school. He joins a class of eleven other three-year olds where he stays until 3:30 in the afternoon. School includes play, instruction, snacks, a lunch and a nap – not bad.

Rhiannon and I were both a little apprehensive about this change. Landon would no longer have Stacey watch him, a relationship that started when Landon was only a few months old, and he would be going to a new environment, further outside of our control. The preschool had received very strong reviews from several parents at La Veta, and its proximity also alleviated some concerns. Regardless, this represented a first step of independence that Landon was taking down a path that would lead him farther away from the direct influence of his parents. We were slightly unnerved and unsure how to handle the change. With all of that being said, our initial trepidation has largely faded. Landon cried as Rhiannon dropped him off that first morning, and she dropped a few tears as well, but by the end of the week, the separation between the two became more routine.

Landon has excelled at school. He now recognizes and knows almost if not all of his letters and their associated sounds. He constantly is pointing out “L for Landon” on various signs and in his bedtime stories. His counting has improved, he can hold a pencil or crayon with two fingers and a thumb, and the side of our refrigerator is adorned with colorful art projects. Landon has a few friends, Andrew and Jack, whom he talks about and shares adventures with (a few weeks back we attended Jack’s birthday party at a local bowling alley). He periodically breaks into singing Christian themed songs, with the ‘Ballad of Johnny Appleseed’ being a repeat favorite. He listens and responds to questions, and has learned to interact and play with his younger brother without bickering or refusing to share. Basically, Christ Lutheran Preschool gets a big gold star in our book up to this point, and our sense of relief is substantial.

Sentences –

Colt has started putting words together and several short sentences are now intermixed with his ever-growing vocabulary. That being said he still also relies on an ever evolving personal language that no one but he can clearly decipher, for example his stuffed penguin that he has been dragging around lately is referred to as “Gunga”. He understands most conversations, and even sometimes does what he is asked, although as fast as his communication skills have developed, his own sense of independence has equally increased. Colt now firmly grasps that he is his own little person, with his own set of little wants and desires, the only problem is that he doesn’t always understand why those needs aren’t immediately filled. We are rapidly drifting into the stretch of the terrible-twos albeit several months early. The past month has seen a steady increase in red faced tantrums complete with moments where frustration out competes the need to breathe.

Transportation –

Both boys have become very proficient at navigating various vehicles. Landon’s favorite is his tricycle which he has become very adept at riding both forward and backward. Colt still has yet to master pedals, so he contently motors around on a Red Rider sit-down scooter that relies on foot-power. He enjoys taking the scooter off-road onto any available bumps and the structural integrity of his favorite scooter is slowly becoming compromised. Before the end of daylight savings time crippled our exploits, we would have regular bike rides around the neighborhood when I got home from work.

Earlier this fall, Landon and I took Colt on his first train ride on a full-size Amtrak diesel. It was a rainy Saturday Morning and we only traveled one stop from San Juan Capistrano to Irvine, but Colt seemed impressed with both the size and the sound of the engine. Once at the station we shared a lunch on a bench under a small roof while buckets of rain fell around. Giggles and splashes exploded around us which made the day that much more memorable. Our return train was cancelled so we had to call up Mom to rescue us from the abandoned station.

Trains still play an important role in our sons’ lives. The train table in Landon’s room is a frequent location of shared adventures between the boys and although Colt has learned how to put the tracks together he often seems to enjoy breaking them apart just as much. We still watch train videos (primarily Thomas) and the downstairs table has also become consistently littered with trains and train related items. Landon has developed the ability to integrate just about any object into his railroad adventures as some sort of important freight. With the holidays approaching I’m sure the amount of train related items at our house, which currently teeters at museum level, will only continue to expand. While at times I wish that this enthusiasm spread across several topics, I also am enthralled by how much investigation, exploration and creativity is stretched across the wooden and plastic tracks on our family room floor.

Halloween –

This year’s Halloween represented the first time that Colt was old enough to carry a bucket and beg for treats from the neighbors, and also represented the first time that Landon truly grasped how this great holiday works. Rhiannon got a pumpkin costume for Colt, and a week or so before the big day Landon decried that he also wanted to be a pumpkin for Halloween. So we had a pair of pumpkin brothers rolling around the neighborhood surrounded by various ghosts and pirates and princesses and super heroes. Landon also dressed up as a green crayon at his school and joined the other crayons in his class for some on-site trick or treating. We carved an angry and a happy jack-o-lantern, and played with pumpkin guts while watching Elmo’s Halloween Adventure. The boys continued to trick or treat for residual candy for the next few weeks until they (with a little help from their parents) had depleted their supply of sweets.

Wildfires –

The middle of October this year found Southern California smothered under a dark cloud of smoke. Several wildfires raged out of control from Santa Barbara south to San Diego. Two of these fires burned far too close to family and friends. In Poway, the Witch Creek fire burned within less than a block of my childhood home and the current residence of my parents. They were evacuated for close to a week and even spent a night sleeping on our floor. Their house was spared by the amazing work and dedication of the firefighters on scene, looking at the maps of the fire’s border during the evacuation I had pretty much written of the house, and was relieved that my parents had escaped. I haven’t been back down to Poway since the fires, but from all description the charred earth left behind is the tangible definition of a wasteland.

Simultaneously a second fire burned just north of our home in rancho Santa Margarita. Labeled as the Santiago fire, this blaze was set by some arsonist creep during the building santa ana winds. The fire devastated over 20,000 acres of primarily open space and natural habitat, a large portion of which surrounds the canyon route Rhiannon often takes on her commute to avoid the toll roads. Her first visit back she cried when she witnessed the vast destruction. The fire burned to within less than two miles of our home, if it had entered the adjacent Trabuco canyon (and its trickle of a trout stream) the devastation and threat to our home would have been immediate. Luckily the winds subsided in time for the fire to burn back on itself and over the mountains to the east. We walked to the park down the block several times during the week of the fires to watch the flames crawl over the hillsides north of our town. Thousands of neighbors and residents would migrate through the area throughout the day to check on the fires slowly advancing perimeter. We had boxes of valuables packed, but fortunately the call to evacuate never came. The smoke lingered in the air for close to two weeks keeping us primarily enclosed within the confines of our house, which after awhile had us all going a little stir crazy.

Summary –

There are innumerous other events over the past few months worthy of mention that I will only begin to list here. Rhiannon and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary (in Las Vegas), I joined an adult indoor soccer league in Rancho and although my knees are groaning it has been a blast, lobster season has opened again complete with a lobster tailgate with the Reynolds crew at a recent Chargers game, the saltwater fish tank is quickly outgrowing its glass confines, we’ve visited Disneyland a few times and finally waited in the line for the new Nemo ride, but most importantly we have been healthy and smiling significantly more than frowning. Life is good.