Busy little bee

Bronx Zoo.  Lovin' those baby lion cubs!

My father sweetly sent me an email letting me know I'm behind :)  So, while I'm bound and determined to finish putting up pics of our summer trip before we head back to Kansas for our winter visit (yeesh), tonight is a quick catch up of our busy, busy days....

The child has chosen to participate in an art class every Wednesday and a book club every Friday.  After art typically finds us frolicking afar on some adventure and our post club E-free Fridays are our fun "date-night."  Tuesdays and Thursdays have been filled with playdates and errands and projects, leaving lowly Monday to supposedly catch up on housework... hah :)  Well, we had a great time in the park on a treasure hunt this Monday... the best  of intentions....

I know I've said it a million times before, but its soooo fascinating to watch the child go through cycles and seasons.  There has been a flurry of creativity and projects around here (more to come on that!).  He's jumping to play with his friends more and more interactively and is really excited about adventures.  Then, suddenly, like today, we c.r.a.s.h.  Despite the planned playdate (sorry, Dina!) the intake finally comes and respite has to be found.  We lolled and cuddled and crafted our way through the day in our p.j.'s  :)

At any rate, here's some quick phone pics from our fun-filled days....

Beach time, post summer filled frenzy.

I swear.  A soft frisbee is the only safe frisbee with a five year old ;)

P's freebie pedal bike.  The child biked all the way to Dumbo, played, then biked to Red Hook.  That's no joke.

Rocks in the park.

Bronx Zoo.  Mysterious tiger caravan and super cute cubs.

The Aviary was the one area P requested we hit.

The box house.  We've had it for 2 years (yah, store that shit in a Brooklyn pad!) and it has undergone a HUGE renovation this week... Pics of later stages to come.

The subway.  P got his first card.  He was hanging it out, all cool-like ;)

Hapkido trial class.  The child was So Focused.  The instructor even came up to us after class, amazed at the child's focus.  E, the proud Papa who had never seen the kid in a class before, was seriously beaming.  I had to chuckle from experience.  Give the child a chance to get comfy in a few more classes and he'll get as squirrelly as the rest of 'em :)  The instructor also handed out stickers for accomplishments.  It was fascinating to see a child raised without rewards focus on getting one :)

Treasure hunting with pals.

Awesome new climbing gym in the park.

Cooking.

Climbing some more!

Oh. And there is LOTS of Birthday and Halloween talk too.  Serious T-Minus mode here. Harry Potter has been chosen as Halloween inspiration and the child is beside himself with happiness, constantly wearing his costume in anticipatory glee (which, in and of itself is a huge change to his fancy-frock-free past).  To keep the vibes going, the child chooses his Harry Potter book each night for pre-bed reading.  Since the story is thoroughly memorized, the Little Man just thumbs to any ol' page and we read for as long as we want before nodding off to magic filled dreams.  But this is only after he expresses his sheer delight at all of his plans for the next day.  His love of life and fire for Do-ing and Be-ing is down right contagious.