Los pollitos

Will has really surprised us with his progress in his Spanish-immersion Kindergarten.  He still ebbs and flows between insisting that he doesn't speak Spanish to rattling off 1-29 in Spanish.  If you asked him today if he speaks Spanish, he'd probably say yes.

So tonight was Spanish heritage night at his school and his Kindergarten class had to sing "Los Pollitos" in Spanish.  So one download from iTunes and dozens and dozens of mind-sticking plays later, Will and his class sang it tonight in front of a packed gymnasium.

Will was petrified and crying about this just a week ago but he bravely went up there and sang as much of it as he knew (just like everyone else).  Please click here to mostly see and sort of hear his class singing.  We might turn into the rest of the parents in Will's school who stand up and tape everything, but not tonight.

All Will wants for Christmas is...

Two front teeth.

Fast on the heels of losing his third bottom tooth, Will quickly lost his top front left tooth on September 17th and his top front right tooth on September 27th.  He hardly had time to enjoy the one missing tooth - sticking a straw through it for drinking - before the second came out.

One of his two front teeth is already visible so he won't have a gap for long.  Oddly enough, it hasn't impacted his speech much.  If anything, it's made him slow down a little which helps him remember to enunciate better.

The girls think it's absolutely magical how they come out and grow back.  It's hard to imagine that they could start losing teeth in another year or two.

Brick Fest

On September 21st, Will and Daddy got to spend some quality time near Baltimore at Brick Fest.  It's a medium-scale vendor-driven Lego festival with lots of space for free-building, lots of vendors hocking custom-made Lego pieces and accessories, and lots of Lego-inspired fun.

The free-build areas let kids (and parents) make anything and then add that vehicle, building, street, or whatever, to the larger playing field.

Will became a ninja for a moment.

Will REALLY wanted to make a derby car and enter it in a race and he waited so patiently for our turn to build one.  When it was our turn, we rushed over to the building tables with our frame and wheels and used our 4-minutes to whip together a cool race car - complete with the Empire logo.  Once it was complete, he waited patiently again for his turn to race against other kids.  Click here to see if he won.....

There were lots of displays of spectacular creations.  Boats, satellites, buildings, working trains, and more.

Will's "special" purchase were two scoops, and he wasted no time making trucks for them as soon as he got home.  You've got to see him make something to appreciate how creative he is, especially when he's trying to recreate a truck or something that we've seen in the area.  He's got a better attention to detail than he does patience...

The Big Build 2014

On September 20th, Patrick took the kids on the Metro to the National Building Museum in Washington, DC for The Big Build 2014.  The Big Build is an annual event where kids can build just about anything in any medium, using real tools of the trade.  Old hand-powered drills, saws, planes, plus pipe-fitting, home repairs, etc.

First, the kids learned about landscape architecture by drawing their dream parks.  Then they all got to spackle a wall...

Then they all busted out the wrenches and became certified pipe fitters.

Will cut some PVC pipe that later became a bank.

Then it was outside to see the heavy machinery.  Will is gaga about flatbeds right now so we checked that out right away.  He also sat in the driver's seat of this Mack (maybe his favorite thing ever), plus the street-sweeper and garbage truck.  Then he sat with a police officer in the front of his DC police car and got to play with the microphone.  Right before this video starts, Will picked up the microphone and said to the passerby "pull over in the name of the law!"