June was just kind of a busy, fun month. For Texas, it wasn’t too terribly hot, I don’t remember anyone getting sick. And generally speaking, I just don’t recall a lot of drama.
Kayaking with Dad.
The weekend after our little Galveston trip, we went to Sean’s annual work picnic. Every year, they do some sort of food contest, and this year it was all about homemade sausage. Sean’s boss seemed completely convinced that I would be entering. I was completely convinced that I was not. I’m not competitive by nature. Having not made sausage since before the kids were born, I was way out of practice, and on top of that, it’s pretty labor intensive. Plus, I find social gatherings to be stressful by default. Add to it the need to compete and I was worried I’d melt down.
Finally though, over memorial day weekend, I gave in. We had a three-day stretch with no plans, so we gathered up supplies and I made some roasted poblano sausage and some hot dogs, vacuum-packed them, and stored them in the freezer. Even with that done though, I informed Sean that I wasn’t competing. I was just bringing things to share with the group. Sean’s boss can be … and I’m trying to find polite words here … impervious to any argument, well-reasoned or otherwise. Anyway, so I was entered in the contest. I was largely either ignored or harassed through the cooking, and I dropped one of my two pans of sausages when I was moving them from the grill to the table. But in the end, I won the contest. I will not be entering again. The good part about the whole thing was that Maya was SUPER proud that her mom won a trophy, so I’m going to lean into that.
While at the picnic, Sean was able to take the kids out in a canoe, which they both really loved. They puttered in the water and collected shells. Maya played with a little minnow-type fish that another kid had caught in his net. We left without any sunburn or serious injuries.
Alamo Drafthouse family party for Secret Life of Pets 2
The very next day, we took them to one of the Alamo Drafthouse’s fun family parties to see Secret Life of Pets 2. Both kids seems to really enjoy the movie – even Ian, who has a lot of trouble caring about a movie for all that long. He was cheering on the characters and during one particularly daring scene even exclaimed, “That was awesome!”
(And immediately following that, we went a birthday party! After which, the entire Woods clan collapsed into an over-scheduled, socially wrung-out heap.)
All through her entire kindergarten year, Maya was perpetually fussed about all the kids losing teeth. The sting became especially intense once Maya had celebrated her 6th birthday and many of the kids who were still *only* five years old were losing teeth. We talked to her about it and tried to assure her, but it did no good.
First tooth lost … and second tooth lost … all in short order.
She had one very loose tooth that we had been discussing. Is she going to lose her tooth while swimming in the ocean, at NASA, at the picnic, in this dark theater? Finally, on that Sunday night, after the very busy weekend, after hearing her lament the fact that she’d never lose a tooth, we explained to her that if she sort of slowly but firmly wiggled her loose tooth back and forth, she could probably convince it to come out. And she did it! It took a little while, and it hurt a bit, but she got the job done by herself. Pure elation radiated from her body as she shot comet-like back and forth through the house. She was thrilled to have finally lost a tooth.
Since we were working through bedtime routines and getting the house buttoned up for the night, we weren’t paying especially great attention to what Maya was up to. She had a second loose tooth right next to the one she had just extracted. This one wasn’t nearly so wiggly as the first one, but apparently Maya was a girl on a mission. She wiggled that second tooth back and forth and back and forth and eventually coaxed it out as well, albeit with considerably more bleeding. I’m not sure “lost” is the right word here, but the girl had now lost two teeth in a single night. And since then, I’m not sure she’s even had one that’s been loose.
She thinks she looks mean.
Not long after we got library cards, Maya had checked out a book about skateboarding. As we read it to her, her excitement became palpable. She decided that she too wanted to learn to skateboard. We thought it maybe wouldn’t stick, but over the course of a few months, she saved up her money and did some shopping around and on the day she had saved enough, she proudly plunked down her own money to buy her own skateboard. Mom and Dad ponied up the cash for safety gear.
We watched a few youtube videos on how best to get started. After some practice during her first outing with her board, she was able to move herself forward and tentatively balance. The asphalt wasn’t the easiest surface to ride on (or fall on), so we even took her down to the local skate park one morning. Again, she did pretty well for a rank beginner. We had found a relatively quiet corner to practice in, but it was a little terrifying with all the accomplished skaters, roller-bladers, and BMXers zooming around. I didn’t want her to get hurt, and I didn’t want her to cause an accident either. Ian rode his little scooter around while Maya practiced skateboarding. The kids had fun watching the people doing tricks in the big curvy pool part of the park. Maya earned several grins as she cheered people on.
Tie-dying shirts for Dad (and themselves).
We even managed to celebrate Father’s Day. The kids made tie-dyed shirts for Dad (and themselves). Together we baked him some of his favorite aged chocolate chip cookies. And I made him a lasagna for dinner while he built his Steamboat Willie legos with the kids. All in all, it was a quiet day, but I think he enjoyed it.
And toward the end of the month, Sean and I got to go see one of our favorite bands from our college years – Jawbreaker! We missed them when they came through town last year and weren’t going to make that mistake again. The show was great and we had fun, but it may have been nicer if audience members weren’t flinging cans of beer at the band. Honestly, who buys an $8 can of beer just to hurl it at the stage?
