Re-cap

While we hope this blog is somewhat entertaining to friends and family who follow us, we also use it as a family journal. So in that vain, we have a few items we need to post. Think of this as a quick, disjointed re-cap on the past two weeks in the Piantanida house.

Dave and I attended a friend's wedding on the lawn of the National Building Museum. They set it up like a casual backyard BBQ in the middle of downtown DC - very cool. Great company, great setting, great couple.


Bodie started Pre-K. What's the difference between preschool and Pre-K? To a four year old, a lot. It just means that next year is kindergarten; Bodie is already talking about what's next. The night before his first day of school I asked him, "Who would you like to drive you to school?" I was implying me or Dave - Dave was happy to take the morning off of work to escort him to his first big day. Bodie's reply, "Kari." (Kari is his buddy Poppy's mom. Poppy goes to his school.) Me, "Um, Kari? Not me or dad?" Bodie, "Yea, Kari. You guys have met my teacher. I need to introduce Kari to my new teacher and show her where my cubby hole is." Me, "Um, okay, I'll call Kari." And he was off. He loves school, loves learning, and LOVES the giant social pond. And we love how much he loves it.

New park tricks. Both Gates and Bodie have been charging the parks and pushing themselves to try new challenges. This is the "year of the monkey bars" for Bodie. He decided that even if he can't reach the monkey bars at most playgrounds, he was going to learn to cross them. He continues to learn but really enjoys the physical challenge. He's even figured out how to climb on top of and bear crawl across the top. "Look what I can do," is said an average of 58 times per park visit, (but who's counting!)

While not walking yet (5 steps is his current record), Gates plays on the park equipment like he's 8 years old. He climbs unassisted up any height of stairs, finds a slide, barrels down it, wiggles off to the ground, crawls back to the stairs, and starts all over again. He also loves climbing up the slides, going backwards down the stairs, and repeating it all over again. It is so fun watching them try new stuff and see how far they can push their little bodies.