Satiated from our breakfast and soccer jaunt, Caleb and I came back home and looked for the next morning activity to undertake before his nap. I suggested cleaning the house and taking an early nap and he suggested baseball. …so baseball it was.
The only problem with baseball is that at the moment, Caleb quickly tires of my horrid pitching, so we typically play T-Ball instead with me holding a paper towel roll as a T. Getting a sudden spark of inspiration, I decided it was time that we make him a permanent T (perhaps it was the “bats” — water bottles, dog bones, plastic celery stalks, and anything else remotely cylindrical — flying by my face at the teetering ball that made me look for a more static solution).
Armed with a mass of tape, some boxes, and the trusty paper towel roll, I am proud to say we concocted a pretty useful T. Click on the photo, or here, to see how we made it, and then check out the movie below to see it in action!
Yay! Finally we have a Daddy Day with nice weather! Caleb and I took full advantage and romped around the city all day yesterday, starting things off with an awesome breakfast at Anthony’s (we shared eggs, toast, potatoes and milk) before heading over to Christopher Columbus Park for some soccer. Here’s a video of Caleb playing soccer by himself.
The video below is from a fairly recent Daddy Day outing to the Boston Museum of Science. We were only there for a few hours but probably could have stayed much longer if our trip didn’t run into Caleb’s afternoon nap time. He had a great time, and I am quite impressed with the museum, and will likely be back with a membership in hand.
If you didn’t know this about Caleb, he is pretty infatuated with cars, race cars in particular. We were on an upper level when he caught a glimpse of this thing and insisted that we go down a few floors and check it out. Little did I know that he was trying to negotiate a bit of playtime behind the wheel… To complicate matters, I think at the end of the video, I kind of made a promise to him. Hmmm… I wonder what the age restrictions are at Skip Barber (yes, I am kidding… kind of… maybe a father/son class?… when he turns 3?… maybe…).
Okay, so this video is a bit dark, somewhat outdated (it was shot during the playoffs a few months ago), and you can see Caleb’s discarded and crumpled napkin on the floor in the background… Oh, who cares?!? I think it is pretty cute!
Caleb made the Red Sox flag at his day care and was really excited about watching a game later that evening (I think he made it through an inning or two before we had to get him to bed for our own sanity (seems he was over tired and very excited…). Nadine, ever the sweetheart, served as the perfect pivot point for Caleb’s song and dance.
On the left: Daddy’s Backpack. On the right: Caleb’s Backpack. After a lot of searching, I bought the latter earlier this afternoon as my main Christmas gift to Caleb. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that Caleb and I like to roam around Boston, or wherever else we are, having “adventures.” Mention to him that tomorrow is “Daddy Day” and ask him what he wants to do, and he’ll respond emphatically, “Have an adventure!”
Since we always load my red backpack (which he and I picked out together some months ago) with supplies before we head out the door for our adventures, he has built a strong connection to the backpack and having fun with me. If we are having a lazy afternoon, sometimes he’ll drag the backpack over to me and ask if I want to go outside and have an adventure. It is very cute and makes me very happy.
So, when thinking about what gift I could give him for Christmas, I decided it was time to get him his own backpack. I’ve been noodling on the idea for many weeks and tried a woman’s hydration pack on him during our trip to Vermont last month. The pack was the perfect overall size — the base of the pack rested perfectly at his hips, and it was narrow enough overall to appear to distribute weight well. Wanting to get him a functional pack, rather than simply one he’d “play” with, I became determined to find one that would fit and have everything he might want.
The one I settled on is from REI (just like my red one) and is specifically designed for kids. I am sure it is meant for a child a bit older than Caleb, but it is hard to discount that he is tall enough for the pack to fit him perfectly. I tried it on him in the store and loaded it up with a one-pound weight, and then later with a five-pound weight. He handled the latter like a champ, and since he’d probably never have more than a pound or two (some raisins, a few carrot sticks, a toy car, his sunglasses, maybe a sandwich, and possibly a smidgen of water) in the pack until he is bigger, I decided that we had finally found our pack.
As a plus it has a hydration bladder that rests inside the main compartment, though I think we’ll only fill it up with a small amount of water given the amount of weight it added when we tried it out at full capacity tonight.
At any rate, I really like to hem and haw over the gifts I give, even if it means that I don’t get someone something because I haven’t found or devised the right “thing.” I am very happy with the backpack and plan to stuff it with a few other special gifts as well that I know Caleb will appreciate.
This shot is a few weeks old (it was taken just before one of the World Series games) but one of my favorites. I was working on my laptop and Caleb was drawing on his pad of paper. Megan grabbed the decisive moment…
Caleb turns two in a few weeks and is already a budding soccer star. We haven’t had a chance to kick the ball around much recently but this morning spent an hour or so kicking and dribbling around the North End. We broke the morning up with a trip to the playground in between soccer sessions so I think Caleb was a bit tired toward the end. Regardless, he handled himself like a champ and dribbled the ball all the way home (Gassie to Old North Church)!
Caleb and I were at a park in the North End this morning and I decided to film him on the swings. Interestingly enough, if you put the camera in the path of your son’s feet, it will get kicked.
Fancy that.
This isn’t another Parkour clip — it’s one part workout, one part silliness, and one part Irish dancing.
I think I am supposed to be discouraging when my son does something dangerous, but at the same time, there is something fascinating about his lack of fear, and what I would say is some pretty sweet agility for a one-year old. There is also a very large part of me that wants him to learn how to fall (read: safely) now, while he can’t climb so high and isn’t so bold, rather then when he is 6 and trying to jump off some roof without breaking a leg.
Enter Caleb’s budding Parkour skills. The video below is more for the sake of humor, but Caleb seems to be developing a fondness for some of the sport’s core tenants (disciplines?). Primarily, he doesn’t like to take the path the rest of the world travels. If there is a wall running along a sidewalk, he pulls us over to climb and walk on top of it. If, with Caleb perched on my shoulders, we are in a park walking along a path with a curb separating it from the grass, Caleb will insist that I walk along the length of the curb, and over any obstacle that comes our way. Bored with the jungle-gym at the playground yesterday, he entertained himself by climbing up, around, and over one of the benches.
Perhaps it is time to take him on a training trip to Lisses…
