In Lily’s class, it was some sort of sports players and cheerleaders thing where the kids either danced or jumped up and down in costumes to music. Hey, what do you expect from a classroom of two-year olds? In Josh’s class, they showcased dancing from the 50′s through the present day, and Josh did some 50′s dancing. At the end, the kids “graduating” walked down the aisle and on stage in red caps and gowns to receive their “diplomas.” It was all very cute.

Afterwards, we all went back to our house for dinner and drinks, and the kids ran around playing and screaming. My sister took photographs and I took video, but neither is actually available to be posted. Check back later.

Joshua's new eyeglasses

Joshua has succumbed to his DNA. At his annual checkup this year, he had trouble with the vision test. I watched it happen, and I was unnerved. The doctor recommended we take him to see an opthamologist. That doctor also confirmed that Joshua would need corrective lenses. Sigh. I had this small hope that he would always be the happy little young boy who didn’t have to wear eyeglasses growing up. I started wearing eyeglasses in 2nd grade back in 1985, and I still don’t like them much.

We found some decent eyeglasses from Pearle Vision, and he seems to like them enough. We can’t be sure how well they’ve improved his vision, but he says so. I’ll post a picture here when I can. On the first Monday back to school, all the teachers told me that he now looks just like me. What, he didn’t look like me before?

On Saturday, I was up early and at the church to help out with the Spring clean up. Every season, church members get together to help tidy up the church. Cleaning up branches, weeding, removing leaves, etc. With all the late winter storms, we had a lot of fallen branches (and trees.) I spent the morning working on removing fallen tree branches and leaves, using the blowers to clean the parking lot, and sweeping. I opted out of weeding, as I don’t enjoy doing that at my own house, so I wouldn’t want to do it here either. We finished around 12 noon, and I came home to have lunch with the family.

I took Josh out later in the afternoon to accompany him as he rode his bike around the neighborhood, and we hung out at the playground for a while. An ice cream truck was down the street, so I encouraged him that if he did some serious pedaling, I’d treat him to an ice cream cone. Wow, he rode fast, so another example that it’s all about the incentives. I bought him a $2 soft serve ice cream cone, and it was a race between him eating and the ice cream melting. Unfortunately, the ice cream was winning, so I helped him out by eating some of his ice cream. He’s not ready for riding sans training wheels, but he’s getting better at pedaling.

22 miles to Jackson NJ roundtrip

On Sunday after church and lunch, most of us took an afternoon nap. Josh seems to have inherited the Ipe energy genes, and he rarely naps in the afternoon anymore. Around 4:30pm, hoping to beat the predicted isolated thunderstorms, I jumped on my bike, and took a ride. I missed an opportunity to ride last weekend, and certainly didn’t want to miss another one this weekend. I rode to the Jackson Outlets 22 miles and back, which I was proud of. That’s certainly an improvement from 17 miles I rode two weeks ago. It’s a far cry from the 50 miles I hope to ride later this month at the MS Bike Tour, but it’s a start. Riding wasn’t too painful, but there was a terribly long hill on the ride home that had me alternating between swearing profusely and crying like a little girl. I had a stitch in my side that hurt like hell. At certain moments up the hill, I looked around and hoped there were no children around to hear me swearing and crying.

Sunday evening, the family made a run to our local ShopRite. My wife has been doing a lot of cooking in the kitchen this past week, following new recipes, and it’s been a delicious week of experimentation. Prior to the supermarket run, she made a big list of grocery items to pick up, and I’m looking forward to this week’s culinary experiences. This is an example where being a guinea pig ain’t so bad.

Josh was happy to eat popcorn and watch a movie with me

Early Thursday morning, I took Lily at 7am to Quest Diagnostics for some bloodwork. She did fairly well – she didn’t cry initially when the needle went in, but it was a slow boil until she really started crying. She calmed down quickly afterwards.

At lunch time, I picked up Josh from school and we drove to Princeton to meet up with Nums for lunch. There’s a decent Indian restaurant across the street from her office, so we sat on the rooftop patio, and enjoyed an Indian buffet. Beautiful weather today.

After lunch, we drove to Hamilton, NJ, to get me a quick haircut, and then see a 2pm showing of How to Train Your Dragon, a Dreamworks animated film available in 2D and 3D. I initially wanted to take Josh for the 3D version of the film, but given that the next 3D movie showing was a few hours away, I didn’t want to waste too much daylight. In hindsight, the 2D version was just as enjoyable. I think Josh especially loves the popcorn. Even after enjoying hearty Indian buffet, he still had room in his 5-year old belly for a small bag of popcorn. Oh, and the bottle of water I snuck in. Yeah, I snuck in outside food. Why should I pay $4 for a bottle of water?

How to Train Your Dragon (2010)

Every preview shown before the movie was another upcoming 3D movie. Looks like there will be many 3D movies released this year. However, how do you get around the cost? The two tickets for an adult and child-under-12 on a quiet Thursday afternoon cost $16.50. I asked how much would be an adult 3D ticket, and it was $13.50. Waiting for the 3D showing would have cost me an extra $10. That’s a lot of money, IMHO.

As I mentioned, the movie itself was enjoyable. The story was good, not as predictable as I thought, and the animation was very nice. I liked the characters, and the star dragon (“Toothless”) was very catlike. I liked it.

To wrap up the day, we had time for Joshua to catch a make-up gym class at 6:30pm. We had leftovers for dinner, and the kids were off to an early bed. We parents were so tired, we went to bed around 10pm. I’m not a fan of going to bed early, but when you are that tired, you just gotta let it go.

On Saturday, we visited the Bicycle Rack, our local bicycle shop in the area. We briefly considered choosing a simple children’s bicycle from one of the major retailers (e.g. Target, Toys R’ Us), but I prefer the smaller shops. You get more personalized service, and it supports our local small business owners. We originally intended to do some price comparison shopping, but we found a nice 16″ Schwinn for a decent price. After a short test ride around the parking lot, we bought the bike and a helmet.

I was fairly excited, as I was about to introduce my son to my love of riding. For the sake of disclosure, he didn’t seem to be very enamored by the time we got home. Possibly, he wasn’t quite gripping the basics of pedaling and steering, so he was become frustrated. After we got home, he just wanted to watch tv, so I was a little upset. By Sunday, he was more excited, and getting a better handle on riding. I also did a lot of brainwashing about how fun it is, so I hope he believed me! In the evening, the girls next door were riding their own bicycles in the parking lot, so I raced Joshua outside so he could ride with them. I figure that the more he sees other children riding, he’ll feel more comfortable doing it.

Josh's first bicycle

Party at our house	Catered dinner
Plexy & Sheba	Lesh & Lily play Pictionary

We don’t have a lot of people over very often, and always forget how much work goes into hosting a party. It’s not easy to get the house all clean and spiffy (our kids certainly don’t help), and there’s a lot to do! After some of the guests started to arrive, I drafted Vijay and Sunil to accompany me for a liquor and grocery store run. Later, I made a separate run to pick up dinner.

Apart from the leftover tasks that we had after guests started arriving, our friends helped out with some stuff, and everything else fell into place. The weather was great, the house was nicely decorated, most people could make it, and the food was delicious. Along with the great dinner party conversation and tasty food, we all played Pictionary for entertainment. I think the party broke up around 12:30am, so I think it went extremely well. Photos are posted for your amusement. We should have people over more often.

Josh's 5th Birthday Party

This year for Josh’s birthday party, my wife was looking for something different. Each time his classmates have a birthday party, it’s at one of these kid gyms. My wife found an interesting option with the Plainsboro Preserve. A one hour educational nature program plus an additional hour to exchange gifts, eat, and check out the other animals. Neat!

The morning of, my sister and her husband came over to help us get all the supplies and decorations over to the Preserve. The weather was atrocious, as a powerful nor’easter hit the Northeast. What is it with the weather in the past few months this winter? A blizzard or two, heavy rainfalls, high winds — we’ve had some fun times. This nor’easter was the usual heavy rain and winds, and plenty of flooding. I’m glad my sister and her husband were there with helping hands to get stuff in order. It’s always nice to have an extra set of hands

Josh's snake-themed birthday cake

We started a little late, due to parents/kids arriving late due to the rain, but it wasn’t an issue. Kids played in an indoor treehouse and checked out animals until we started. The instructor brought out a snake, salamander, a turtle, some other animals, and other science-related stuff for an hour, then we broke out the Papa John’s pizza, sodas, and juice boxes. My wife made a custom cake in the shape of a snake, which was pretty cool, and people had to take pictures.

After the party was over, we loaded everything back up, opened presents at home, and stayed home nice and dry while the nor’easter continued to rage outside. It’s going to be a crazy, windy, rainy weekend.

Pictures are posted within the March 2010 photo gallery.

Turns out that more parents are trying out yoga for the kids. According to CNN’s article, “Yoga helps even little ones channel energy, emotion“, hundreds of studios across country teach yoga to children. Wow, I had no idea.

We’ve also watched Star Wars Episode IV (A New Hope) and Episode V (The Empire Strikes Back) which are slightly over his head, but he asked a lot of questions.  He obviously didn’t get it all, and I did some minor fast-fowarding, but I kept him engaged in the main storyline.  I also made sure he thought Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and Chewbacca are all pretty cool.  I think he just likes R2-D2 a lot. He’s already asking when are we going to find out what happens next in Episode VI (Return of the Jedi.) I was happy that at a birthday party a week ago where they had a Prince & Princess theme, he was amenable to the idea his sword was a lightsaber. 

This year, I’ve been embracing my inner geek. All these years, I’ve been too self-conscious to admit to it, but it obviously often showed.  Now, I feel secure enough to let myself…. um, be myself, I guess. I’m a geek.  Nothing wrong with that.  Why be a half-ass geek?  Go whole-ass, I say. Be the techno geek.  The sci-fi geek.  Why not, after all?  There are others out there like me.  As a matter of fact, Wired.com has a Geek Dad column, written by someone just like me. Enjoy it. Love it. Live it!

If I can make my kids enjoy sci-fi too, hey that’s great.  Their journey towards the Dark side will be complete.  I just hope they can get still dates in 10-15 years.