Visit to a Sustainable Farm

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Go Fly A Kite!

My son and I spent yesterday afternoon flying a kite for the very first time. The Chesterfield County Parks and Recreation Department held a kite flying event at a sports center a few miles down the road from us. Free kites were handed out to the kids or you were free to bring your own kite. We got one of the free kites, which inexpensive but pretty neat little kits made out of tyvek. They were already put together so all we had to do was decorate it. They had sheets of cardboard on the ground so the kids could lay out and color with markers. Boo Jr, in typical fashion, drew a watermellon slice on one side and an apple on the other side.

It was a beautiful day here yesterday. Temperatures got into the low 60s and the sun was out in full force. However, it wasn't all that windy out. That didn't stop well over 100 other people coming out to participate. Boo Jr and I took turns with one person holding the kite and the other person running to get the kite up in the air. We got the kite up in the air most times, but it would only stay up for a minute or so. Like I said, not much wind. But there were a handful of times that we got the kite up quite high in the sky for a good few minutes. It was really great. Boo Jr was so excited to see his "flying watermellon". I had a great time too trying my best to maneuver the kite and keep it afloat. It was challenging to judge the wind direction and to avoid getting tangled with other people's kites. The only real pain in the ass was the string. The string frequently got tangled and knotted up, especially if I had a lot of string let out. On a couple of occasions, I had to cut the string, take out the knotted up portion, and the retie the string together. We ended up staying at the kite festival for almost two hours.

We went to Friendly's afterwards to celebrate with some ice cream sundaes. It was a special day for everyone.

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A Trip to the Dentist

Boo Jr had a routine cleaning at the dentist about a month ago. One of his x-rays showed a cavity. My wife and I felt devestated that our son would have a cavity at this early of an age. We have Boo Jr brush his teeth after every meal. He rarely drinks soda, and he probably eats a lot less junk than most kids. So today was the big day to get his cavity filled. I came home from work to accompany my son since my wife doesn't do well in situations like that. So they take another x-ray to confirm the exact location of the cavity and give him some laughing gas while they process the x-ray. It turned out that there wasn't a cavity after all. The first x-ray was a little blurry because Boo Jr must have wiggled a little bit. It created a little shadow that made it look just like a cavity. So, thankfully, there was no cavity and we were able to go home - no charge.

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Stories From Walt Disney World - 2

Fireworks are always a site to see at Disney. They didn't let me down this time around either. One nice thing about going to Disney this time of year is that it gets dark sooner so they hold the fireworks earlier. A couple of the most memorable moments was when we saw the fireworks at Magic Kingdom near the end of the week. We had heard that during the show, Tinkerbell flies from Cinderella's castle. Beforehand, my wife and I were discussing whether or not it would be a mechanical device or a real person. To our surprise, a real person attached to a zip line and all lit up with colorful LEDs "flew" from Cinderella's castle to Tomorrowland. Most kids seening this would exclaim, "WOW!" or "COOL!". But not my kid. Boo Jr exclaimed, "Oh my!"

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Stories From Walt Disney World - 1

My family and I drove to Walt Disney World this past week. Here are some of the highlights.

We visited the Hollywood Studios theme park during one of the days on our visit. There are many shows and attractions for people to see there. One of them is the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular.

The show recreates some of the famous scenes from the Indiana Jones movies and shows some of the behind the scenes for the stunts. Another part of the show is the "casting director" who picks volunteers from the audience to be extras in some of the movie scenes. The extras are brought on stage and asked to "try out" by performing simple tasks. Note that these pictures are ones that I simply grabbed from the Internet and are not of my trip.

So I raised my hand to volunteer and actually got picked. The girl said, "You in the back with the blue shirt and the shiny head! Come on down! I was part of a group with two women. The casting director asked the girls to laugh like a damsel in distress, and they went, "Tee-hee-hee-hee-hee." Then she came to me, and asked me my name and where I was from. The casting director was all flirty with me (part of the show) and asked me to give my best evil, dasterdly laugh. I have already seen this show so I was prepared. I gave out a loud, "BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA!" The casting director's eyes got really big and she said, "You're hired!"

So they took us off stage and got us dressed in these costumes to make us look like the citizens of Cairo. They later brought us back down on stage and participate in a few different scenes. It was neat seeing all of the stunt men and women doing their gymnastic routines and swinging around their swords. There was even a big explosion when we were down on stage!

They later sent us back to our seats to watch the rest of the show. My wife was telling me that everyone in the area looked back at her when I did my laugh because no one believed I could laugh like that. Silly me also forgot to give my wife the camera when I went on stage (I had the camera on my belt) so we didn't end up getting any pictures. It was a great experience. I was nervous as hell, but it will always be something I'll remember.

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The Adventures of Small Wolf

Boo Jr has been studying Native American Indians in school recently. This is Boo Jr's retelling of a story they heard in school.

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Booboo Bunny - Green Roots Activist

Sorry I haven't posted here in a while. Work and family has been keeping me busy. I've also been busy with the "Go Green" blog for my son's elementary school. I recently learned that many plastic bags such as cereal bags, bread bags, ziplock bags, toilet paper and paper towel wrapping, and much more can be recycled at facilities that accept plastic grocery bags. Check out this link for a complete list of plastic bags that can and can not be recyled in this manner.

As dorky as it sounds, I was inspired to contact a bunch of manufacturers that use these types of bags in their packaging. So I e-mailed all of the major cereal manufacturers as well as other companies informing them that those bags are recyclable and would they publicize that fact on their packaging and website. I advised the to specifically note that they should be recycled at your local grocery store and similar facilities that accept plastic grocery bags. If you just mention that the bags are recyclable, people might put them in their curbside recycling. Most curbside recycling programs do not accept plastic grocery bags. They create havoc at the sorting facility because they get tangled in the machines and jam them up. The bags are also really lightweight and fly out of the back of the truck and become litter. I was disappointed in the reponse of some manufacturers in that they simply wrote back a boilerplate response thanking me for writing and that they would pass my concerns onto the appropriate party. Others did a better job and shared their other sustainable practices. They also said that they would share my idea with their marketing department and their webmaster. That would be cool if these companies made that change. Some of them were nice enough to send me some coupons for their products, so that made my time and effort more worth while.

I've been active with other grass roots efforts as well. I knew from researching the internet that many schools in our school disrtict had some sort of recycling program. I thought it would be great to share ideas amongst our schools and collaborate on larger projects. So I created a Google group to serve as an open forum to discuss these ideas. I also sent e-mails to all of the elementary schools' principals as well as the PTA presidents. I shared all of the great things we've done at my son's school, asked them to share what (if anything) they're doing at their school, and encouraged them to check out our green club blog. I got a response from less than half of those e-mails that I sent. For those that did respond, they gave me a simple answer back but gave me the impression they otherwise weren't interested. But I got some very favorable responses from about 5 or 6 schools. These are schools that are very interested in starting their own green effort and were looking for help getting things going. So my contacting them was very helpful to their effort. I got lots of great compliments on my green blog too.

One of the big changes I'd like to make in the school district is change from paperboard milk cartons to plastic milk chugs. This is because the former is not recyclable and the latter is. Switching to the plastic milk chugs will reduce the amount of trash heading to the landfill and will suplement our other recycling efforts in the school. I had enquired about this with the school district about a month ago and was told that the plastic milk bottles were more expensive than the traditional paperboard milk cartons. I did some research and learned that schools that make the switch have seen a big increase in milk and lunch sales. The increase in sales typically offsets the increased cost of the plastic milk chugs. Schools have found that it reduces the amount of waste generated in the cafeteria by about 10 - 15 percent. This will help reduce the overall amount of trash produced by the school so maybe the school could go with fewer and/or smaller dumpsters. This would result in an overall cost savings. I'm hoping that the reduction in waste hauling services would offset the costs for the school district to start a district-wide recycling program. Currently, most schools do not recycling. Some schools are partnered with recycling companies that collect only newspaper and aluminum cans. This is a free service to the schools and actually raises a little money for them. Other schools, such as my son's, pay for their recycling service. We have mixed stream recycling so we can also recycle paper, plastic, metal, and cardboard as well newspapers and aluminum cans. Our PTA pays for this service to the tune of over $700/year.

The last activity that has been taking up my time is a fundraiser for the green club. I collect cartons for MilkMuny. They pay schools 50 cents/carton and turn the cartons into neat wallets. It's similar to the popular Capri Sun juice pouch brigade that TerraCycle does. The school didn't want students bringing cartons to school so I found a different solution. Every Monday, I stop by my local IHOPs and pick up two to three garbage bags of Florida Natural 1/2 gallon OJ cartons. I average between 40 - 60 cartons a week. I spend Tuesday and Wednesday mornings (before work) cutting the tops and bottoms off the cartons and rinsing them out. I sent my first batch of 300 cartons to MilkMuny about a week ago and will soon receive a check for $150. They will accept up to 1,000 cartons over the course of the school year. We'll use that money to fund our battery recycling program as well as other activities.

All of this volunteering has been very rewarding. I hope to inspire more and more people to help protect the environment.

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Polar Bear Nipples

I read a book to my son every night before he goes to sleep. He's been reading a bunch of non-fiction books lately. A few night ago, we read a book about polar bears. The book talked about baby polar bears getting milk from their mother. Boo Jr told me, "Polar bears don't drink milk. Milk comes from cows." I then explained to him that all mammals make milk and proceeded to list different kinds of mammals. I told him that if our dog, Sofie, had puppies that she would make milk, and told him that Mommy made milk after she gave birth to him.

"But where does the milk come from?" asked Boo Jr.

"Nipples." I said.

"Oh." my son said. And we continued on with reading our book.

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Doing Homework

My wife is the one who typically does the homework with Boo Jr. They do it right after he gets home from school and before dinner. But every once in a while, I'll do homework with him or help him study for his tests. One thing that I'm enjoying is that he's starting to learn more complex subject matter in school. Earlier this year, his class learned about the continents and oceans. They also studied American geography such as knowing where the Rocky Mountains, Appalachian Mountains, Mississippi River, James River, and Virginia are on a map. More recently, they've been studying the water cycle, The need to know all about evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and run off. It's neat that they also talk about how it's important to conserve water and protect our water sources from pollution. They've also gotten into learning about the states of matter - solid, liquid, and gas. It's been cool remembering the old days when I learned this material in school.

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Parent/Teacher Conference

My wife and I attended the first parent/teacher conference this school year. Boo Jr. is now in second grade and has been doing well. He had a bit of a rough patch adjusting to first grade and had a number of distractions to deal with. He was hospitalized last fall with salmonella poisoning and had a long term substitute teacher in the spring when his first grade teacher was out for several weeks due to a health issue.

The teacher described my son as "such a sweet and polite boy" and being "so enthusiastic" about school. It's great to hear comments about that to confirm that you're doing a good job raising your child. Boo Jr's doing well overall. He's above average in a couple areas and needs a little help in some other areas. He's made some great progress eith his reading comprehension skills and getting it more in line with his reading ability.

I really like Boo Jr's teacher, Mrs. L. His first grade teacher last year, Mrs. F, was OK, but Mrs. L just seems more warm and caring. That seems to be more beneficial in Boo Jr's success in school. I'm hoping that he continues to excell in his strengths and make progress with his weaknesses because third grade brings the dreaded SOL tests.

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That's My Boy!

It was busy weekend here at the Rabbit household. We had our company picnic to go to on Saturday and a birthday party on Sunday. It was just me and my son who went to the picnic. My wife is just getting over being sick and has a sorority conference to go to later this week so she didn't want to push her luck getting sick again. This year, the picnic was held at the president's house. He has a horse farm out in the boonies west of Richmond. It's a really nice house. We had it at his house this year because of the down economy. He provided the hamburgs, hot dogs, and sodas while everyone else brough a dish to pass. He has a large playset in his back yard for his grandkids, so that's where everyone's kids spent most of their time. There was one older woman who was looking over an infant who was playing in the kitchen under slide platform. Boo Jr was playing in there for a while too. When I stopped by to check in on my son, the woman complemented me on how well behaved he was and how gentle he was with the baby.

Yesterday, we had a birthday party to go to. It was at Mad Science. I stayed at the party because it was a half hour away and I didn't know the birthday boy's parents. It was a pretty neat party with lots of fire and loud noises, but I would never spend that kind of money on a party like that. The birthday boy's mother complemented me a number of times about how "awesome" his manners are. I can see why when you compare him to one girl who complained that her second slice of pizza was too small and was whining "when are we going to get our gift bags?". I was a little bummed that Boo Jr didn't want to go on the hovercraft ride. I think he was scared of the loud noise made by the blower. I had Boo Jr thank birthday boy's mom for the party, and unprompted, he gave her a hug. That really made my day. I need moments like that to reaffirm that my wife and I are doing a good job raising our son. The way my son acts at home sometimes (especially getting him downstairs to eat dinner), it makes you wonder how good a job you're doing. I guess we're doing just fine.

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Happy 9th Anniversary

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First Day of School 2009

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Hail Storm

We had a brief but violent hail storm yesterday afternoon. Gumball-sized hail with some really gusty winds buffeted the house for about 5 minutes yesterday afternoon. Good thing I brought the car inside the garage.


Another round of storms passes through about 2:00 last night with some really heavy rain, lightning, and thunder. I feel tired enough this morning having to go back to work after 10 days of vacation but an hour long thunderstorm was not what I needed last night.

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A Father/Son Moment

I've talked some about Boo Jr's developmental issues on my blog. However, I don't think I've talked much about issues with his motor skills. Boo Jr was late hitting his milestones for gross motor skills. He was Mr. Rolly-Man in order to get around instead of walking. Boo Jr was 22 months when he first started walking. He seems to be behind his peers when it comes to sports and other activities that require coordination. Not that I had any preconceived notion that my son would be an athletic superstar, but this is one area that's been frustrating for me.

We bought Boo Jr his first bicycle about 3 years ago. It didn't get used very much over the past three years. It was challenging teaching my son how to pedal. I'm sure that he was strong enough to pedal. I just think he didn't "get it". Teaching him the concept of steering was difficult too. So it wasn't the funnest thing in the world for me - guiding his handlebars with one hand while stooping over and turning the pedals with the other. The fact that it's quite hot and humid here in Richmond during the summer made it even less enjoyable. I tried my best to not let Boo Jr see my frustration but it was hard to not let it show at times. Honestly, I think the primary reason for my son not wanting to ride his bike was his lack of confidence. So we didn't puch him into riding if he didn't feel like it. Like I said, we didn't end up riding that bike much.

We bought Boo Jr a new bike about a week ago since he has outgrown his first bike. It was also a new opportunity to get him intersted in riding again. My son could pedal OK by this point but was scared to go too fast. It had been a challenge teaching him to use his brake, but was constantly using it once he learned how. He would also freeze up if he started going off-course. They talked about bicyle safety at school right before school got out so that peaked his interest again. The new bike fit him much better. I was let down though that whatever confidence he had gained with riding his first bike disappeared with his new bike.

But we had a breakthru while riding his bike yesterday. Boo Jr would constantly brake his bike and stop because he was scared. Up to this point, I had been constantly reminding him that he was wearing his helmet, that I was right there, and that I would let him crash. I needed an idea to get him to pedal faster so he could maintain his momentum. So on a flat part of the road, I challenged Boo Jr to a race. My son likes to race at everything and always has to be first. Having a race really perked up his excitement level and he really started turning those pedals. The expression of excitement and joy on his face was priceless and will be one that I will remember forever. I hope this excitement and more importantly my son's confidence in hiself continues to grow. It really made my Father's Day.

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An Early Father's Day Present

Boo Jr gave me this card which he worked on at school. His answers about me are in red.

He's as handsome as a president.

He's as smart as a nurse.

He's as tall as a person on stilts.

He's as funny as a gorilla.

He's as happy as a tiger.

He's as strong as King Kong.

He's as hungry as a shark.

He's as nice as me.

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Boo Jr's New Playset - Construction Photos

I took Friday afternoon off from work to get a head start on assembling Boo Jr's new Cedar Works play set. Good thing because it took me a long time. The set came with really good instructions, but it was a very time consuming process for just one person. It took a fair amount of effort getting the structure and all of the ramps and ladders to sit properly on my sloped yard. Lots of deck screws and lag bolts to be screwed in too. Boy, is my shoulder sore! Sweat my ass off too. I put together the two main structures Friday afternoon. Got an early start on Saturday and got it about 90% complete. I still need to attach all of the "rocks" to the rock wall, adjust the rope ladder, and attach the knotted climbing rope. One of the roof panels for the small structure got damaged during shipping, so Cedar Works is sending me a replacement panel. Boo Jr is really enjoying the playset so far. I'll be sure to post more photos showing him enjoying his new playset. It's raining today (Sunday) so the playset will have to wait until next weekend to be 100% complete. Here are some photos documenting my hard work.

UPDATE - I got the new roof panel delivered yesterday. I took today (Friday) off from work. I put the roof on the smaller structure, added all the rocks to the rock wall, attached the knoted rope, and added a layer of mulch underneath each structure. So basically I'm all done now. Even though the play set is definately expensive, so far it's been worth every penny. The quality and ease of installation of the Cedar Works playset is definately better than any other play set out there.

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