1st bee sting

Today Gordy fell down onto a rock while riding his scooter and the result was a huge, raw, raised strawberry on his okole cheek.  While trying to distract him from the crying, I was asking him what kind of hurt he was feeling (i.e. throbbing, stinging, etc.).  He stopped crying for a minute and asked what stinging felt like.  So, I told him that it felt like the time he was stung by a bee on his finger and he had no recollection of the incident.  I searched the blog to find a posting about it, and nothing... bad mom.  So, here's the belated story of Gordy's 1st bee sting:

Sometime between the ages of 3 and 4, a sad kiddo with his bottom lip out past his nose came running into the house to find me.  He had his pointer finger held high in the air and he was crying telling me that his finger hurt because "a bit bit me".  Once we got some ice on his finger, he was finally able to tell me what happened.  Apparently he watched a bee fly through our open front door into the latch plate where is seemed (to Gordy) to be stuck.  So, being the bee lover that he is, he stuck his finger in there to help the bee get out, at which point, the bee stung him.

Thankfully, he still loves bees (and most other creatures), but he was a bit weary of them being on him for a while after the sting.  

Pohaku and Niele

Gordy still absolutely loves cats.  And, since we aren't getting another one until we find a place further away from a busy road, we have been doing our best to enjoy the neighborhood felines.  Two of his favorites are Pohaku and Niele (Sanoe's kitties).  Their owners go on holidays to the mainland pretty regularly and while they're gone, they hire Gordy to take care of their cats.  Twice a day, we head over there and as we are walking down their long driveway, Gordy calls to them.  When hearing his voice, the kitties come out from their hiding places and meet him at their food bowls.  They seem to be about 50% interested in the food and 50% interested in getting some solid love, so we spend quite a bit of time after we feed them sitting and petting them.

Gordy hasn't asked for another kitty in awhile, so thankfully, it seems his kitty-feeding job is helping to fill that void.

tandem surfing

 A few weeks ago, the surf spot chocolates was "pumping".  So, Gordy's friend Alia and her family met us out there and Todd took the two of them tandem surfing.  All three of them road some waves, just the kiddos surfed some, but mostly, they spent their time one-upping each other in jumps off the board.  Hopefully we score another session out there again soon!

uncle aaron

While Gordy has a lot of pretty cool uncles, one of his favorite is uncle Aaron.  Uncle Aaron lived in our batcave for a few months while he was looking for a longer term situation.  And during that time, Gordy couldn't have been happier.  Pretty much daily, he would find any and every reason to head down to Aaron's place and chat him up.   

When we went places, Gordy would tell other people about his Uncle Aaron and how he is the "fastest backstroker in the deep blue sea" (he isn't wrong).  He would follow that up by telling people about Aaron's five gold metals and then people would look at me with a look assuming that Gordy was making up stories and I'd have to nod and tell them that he's telling the truth.

When Aaron found a new place and moved out, the only thing that consoled Gordy was the idea that we would see Aaron each week at sprints - which we've consistently kept our promise on.  Uncle Aaron also still comes over for dinner here and there and Gordy always gets super excited because he's pretty sure that "Aaron is going to wrestle" him.

Uncle Aaron definitely has a special place in Gordy's heart.

that darn leprechaun

Our St. Paddy's Day tradition continued again this year with a leprechaun trap that was 100% Gordy's design - a scary robot with a leprechaun catching net.  

He built the legs out of empty beer cans (thanks Dad), the body out of an empty juice container, arms out of popsicle sticks, and a Gordy original crayon face and wild hair.  We then made our own net out of a pipecleaner and some string and set the trap up near the sliding glass door.  The idea was that the scary robot would scare the leprechaun and he'd fall into the net and get trapped.  And, just to make sure that we got him, Gordy set up a barricade of balls to trip the leprechaun in case he got past the robot.

While Gordy and I were brushing teeth and Todd was down taking a shower, we heard a massive crash and bang in the front room.  Gordy and I ran out to find the trap laying on the floor.  Obviously the leprechaun had gotten inside and had trashed our trap.  Since the doors were still closed, the leprechaun had to still be in the house.  So, we reset the trap and tried our hardest to go to sleep.

The next morning, we woke up to a trashed house!  "That darn leprechaun" had messed up the cushions on the couch, had thrown the balls all over the floor, peed green pee in the toilet, stuck the robot up on the christmas lights, and left a trail of green confetti in his wake.

He also left a little note encouraging another trap next year and a golden coin for Gordy's effort.  The whole thing was very exciting and Gordy has started his 2023 trap plan!

tutu & pop pop, cousins, lemonade, apricot jam and first snow

After Gordy got his vaccine and declared that his first celebratory trip would be to see the snow, we started our search for tickets to Oakland.  "Quick as a wink", as Gordy would say, we found tickets for under $200!  So, we booked them and Gordy began telling everyone who would listen about his upcoming travel plans.

Once we arrived in Piedmont, Gordy didn't waste any time before scheduling his first lemonade-making session with pop pop, confirming that there was tutu's apricot jam to top his toast with in the morning, and making sure that his cousins were planning to visit the next day.  Lucky for him, all of the above was already planned.

After a few days with the fam, we loaded up and headed to Tahoe for the snow portion of our trip.  For 2 hours, Gordy sat patiently in the backseat of the car, staring out the window scanning the ground for signs of white.  Once we finally spotted some, he could barely sit in his seat - he was so excited!  We spent the next couple of hours sledding and playing in the snow in 57degree weather with sunny skies!

The next two days in Tahoe were filled with yummy coffees and scones, grocery outlet lunches and snacks, sledding, incredible views, delicious dinners, un-melted smores and more sledding.

We finished off our trip with a few more days in Piedmont having melted smores, hot tubbing with tutu, hanging out at a fire station, riding a ferry into SF and then riding busses, trolleys and BART, sampling some sourdough bread from a famous manufactory, playing with cousins, and enjoying our favorite breakfast nook in the Sells' house.

On our way back to Piedmont from Tahoe, Gordy shed a few tears says that he was going to miss the snow and Tahoe.  Then, the night before our flight home, he lightly cried himself to sleep saying that he was going to miss tutu and pop pop and his cousins and he wanted to move to California.  He stayed sad and a little sullen all the way home and for the next day or so.  

We all miss you Sells family and we hope to see you again soon!