Here are some random notes from Bobby's 3rd year:

36 months

•   Birthday fun: Had a good turnout for Bobby's 3rd birthday on April 21, 2002: Ellen and Fred, his grandparents, stayed with us for the weekend; Peggy and Diane drove up from San Jose; and Kevin, Kathy, Kris and Karyn came in from Roseville; and Linda Pipe and her son Kennet lent some madcap fun to the proceedings. Bobby ducked under the table when we brought the cake out and then hit his head and cried, but the cries were quickly doused when he blew out the candles.

•   Phoenix: We hit Phoenix for three days in early May to reconnect with my brother and his three boys. One afternoon, on May 9, Bobby swam with three Latino girls (Krystal, Nicole and a sister) in the public pool when they loaned him an orange floatie while I alternately held him and waded behind him. Next day we drove 2½ hours to Kartchner Caverns in southern Arizona. In the back seat cousin Rick kept calling Bobby "Bobbinator," and finally Bobby had enough and blurted out, "I not Bobbinator! I a baby kitty cat!"

37 months

•   Hot tub fun: On May 25 Mekala and Colleen came by for a barbecue and Bobby went into hot tub for the second time after considerable coaxing (he complained it was too hot — he likes his baths cool).

•   First kite: Like last year, we went to the annual kite festival in San Ramon on May 27 and were taken by the scores of kites fluttering in the sky. Good day with lots of wind. We bought Bobby his first kite and he managed (with some help) to get it aloft. Great fun, and we captured it on videotape.

•   Best of buds: Bobby's got two close friends at St. Clare's Preschool: Jacqueline and Andrew. Monday as Bobby was leaving, Jacqueline told him, "Bye, Bobby. I love you!"

•   Bigfoot: Bobby has just graduated from size 10 to size 10½ tennies. Yow.

•   In the sun: We spent the weekend at Grandma and Grandpa Schrader in Sacramento, and on Saturday the Moynihans came over and JD, Bobby, Karyn and Diane played in the pool. Here's a quieter shot of Bobby and Karyn after the water-gun shootout.

•   Bobby the protector: Bobby's latest vice is "Scooby Doo," the old TV cartoon. He was getting tense watching an episode tonight. Mary said to him, "This is too scary." And he took her hand and said, "I'll hold your hand, Mommy."

38 months

•   Capitola: For our sixth anniversary we visited Capitola for the second time. Last time was when Bobby was 24 weeks old. This time we stayed at the Venetian Inn, overlooking the beach and bay. Bobby built a castle with a swimming pool and unique drainage system.

•   Big brother: Tonight we tell Bobby our plans for later in the evening. "We're going to try to make babies," Mary says. Bobby's quick retort: "No way!" Visions of upchucking, poopy-diapered Dill from "Rugrats" fill his head.

•   Nice birdies: We hit the Alameda County Fair today. Bobby liked the merry-go-round and piglet races. But his favorite part was sitting in the front row as a "bird lady" trotted out some exotic, and well-trained, birds, which flapped about and made cool sounds. Our favorites were the majestic west Africa crown crane and the Australian kookaburra (check out its call).

•   New neighbors: We're making friends with some new neighbors, Lara & Corey, who have three children: Cally, 8; Daniel, 5; and Katyah, 2. We all hit a water park in Dublin this week, where the kids played on slides and ran through the sprinklers. We visited them to play in their little pool, And a few days later Lara brought her three kids over to play in Bobby's wading pool and in our spa.

•   We're doing OK: While we were at the gym today Bobby looked up at me and said, "You're the bestest Daddy ever." When I told Mary this later, with Bobby there, he told her, "And you're the bestest Mommy."

39 months

•   Angel Island: For my birthday, we decided to head to a new destination: Angel Island, a 15-minute ferry ride from Tiburon in Marin County. Bobby was excited about his first ferry ride. (I was so busy trying to figure a way to fit the bike in the trunk -- it wouldn't -- that I forgot to bring the camera.) Bobby kept repeating "Angel Island" the whole day. We probably pushed him a bit too much -- took a 3-mile hike around the southern end, and I wound up carrying him for most of the last mile. Fun day, though!.

•   Potty-trained: Bobby's just about completely potty-trained now. He's got this pull-ups that he wears at night, and sometimes he has trouble pulling them down. So last night I found him splayed on the bathroom rug; I got him up, pulled down his pull-ups and he peed in his potty.

•   Potty-mouth: He's picked up a bad habit lately, calling people "poopie-head" when he's upset. And somewhere he's picked up another pithy insult. When he's upset he tells people "You're a big bowl of phlegm." Most of the time they have no idea what he's saying.

40 months

•   Seaworld: Mary flew down to San Diego on business Aug. 18, and I flew down with Bobby two days later. We spent Wednesday (8-21-02) at Seaworld and loved it. (Bobby especially enjoyed Pirates 4D, with birds "pooping" on the audience (it was actually water). We also had beach days with him Thursday and Friday at La Jolla Shores.

•   Sign of the times: When we were in San Diego and Mary fixed Bobby's hair one too many times, he turned to her at the farmer's market, pointed to a sign, and said, "This sign says, No more messing up Bobby hair." She was floored.

•   Busy weekend: The Sunday after we returned from San Diego we watched cousin Karyn in a soccer game in San Ramon (she later kicked the tournament-winning goal), and then attended classmate Jacqueline's 3rd birthday party at a water park. Bobby loved playing in the fountains and he liked getting sprayed.

•   Yellow room: Bobby has graduated from the Red room to his potty-trained peers in the Yellow room. Of the 10 kids, Bobby's already the tallest.

•   Mary & Joey: This week he's discovered that we have first names, so he's been calling us Mary and Joey. It's pretty cute, but we've told him we like to be called Mommy and Daddy. We drove up to Sacramento on the Saturday before Labor Day for an end-of-summer pool party with Grandma and Grandpa Schrader and the Moynihans. Bobby tried out his kickboard in the pool for the first time.

•   Tennis, anyone?: I played a neighbor, Jami, in tennis today, while Mary watched Bobby in the adjoining playground. Then Bobby joined us for some whacks at the ball with my old racquetball racket; he even hit a few back (though none over the net). I think he could be a good player some day.

41 months

•   Flower power: On Sept. 25 Bobby had his third class photo taken, this one in a tropical flowered shirt.

•   Campout: We decided to spent one last night in the tent in the backyard before the warm weather vanishes. So Friday night (Sept. 27, 2002) we brought our sleeping bags into the tent, lit up the flashlights, and told stories. Mary had the best one, an old chestnut from her camp days called Little Bunny Frou Frou. Bobby just loved it (so did I) and made her tell it three times that night.

•   Beatles fan: Bobby and I were watching a TV show and a Beatles' track, "Blackbird," welled up. He thrust out his fists, turned to me and said, "Rock 'n' roll, baby!"

•   Best friends: After I picked up Bobby at Janet's this afternoon and I was buckling him up in his car seat, he said, "You're my best friend, Daddy."

•   First joke: During Bobby's first train ride -- winging on Amtrak from Newark to Union Station -- Mary told him we were in Pennsylvania. Bobby wisecracked, "It's full of pencils!"

•   Home sweet home: Bobby and Mary flew home from Dulles Airport in DC on Oct. 17 after a weeklong trip to New Jersey and Washington. Just after returning from the long trip, Mary reports, Bobby exclaimed, "I am so so so so so glad to be home!"

•   First 'rock' concert: Our neighbor Lara had extra tickets for the Raffi concert in Berkeley, so Bobby and Mary joined her three kids (Cally, Daniel and Katyah) for a rollicking rock 'n' roll show.

42 months

•   Super consumer: Bobby can't watch TV for more than a 10-minute stretch without pointing to a commercial and saying, "I want that." His newest fascinations: robots and spaceships.

43 months

•   Thanksgiving: Bobby caught a stomach virus five days ago but is OK now. JD and Mary, meantime, are under the weather (I spent the night vomiting two nights ago). Still, we all trooped down to Peggy and Diane's house for a nice holiday meal with the family. bobby played with Dianna's new kitten, Frances.

•   Mad about you: Bobby's got a new habit. When he's annoyed or frustrated, he crinkles up his forehead, thrusts out his lower lip and declares, "I'm mad!"

•   Stage fright: St. Clare's put on its annual Christmas pageant on Thursday night (Dec. 12, 2002). Bobby had rehearsed his Yellow Room song all week, but when it came time to go on, he balked and began crying -- because he'd already sung the song and didn't want to again. I walked up to the front with him while Mary videotaped the masked kids, angels and shepherds. Cute stuff.

•   Deck the halls: Last night (Dec. 14) we put up the Christmas tree. Bobby was in charge of putting up the ornaments on the lower part of the tree. (I remember videotaping the tree decoration last year, but we didn't have time this year.)

•   Be safe: Bobby was asking about the family today, and Mary explained that Granda and Grandpa Schrader were her parents and Grandma Lasica in New Jersey was my mother. "Where's Daddy's Daddy?" he asked. Mary explained that he'd already gone to heaven. Hours later, when he came into the garage and saw me teetering atop the shaky lader leading up to the garage, he said, "Don't get hurt like your Daddy."

44 months

•   Family movie night: We've started a new tradition on most Saturday nights: family movie night. We rent a family movie and watch it together. So far: "The Littlest Vampire," "The Santa Clause" and "Ice Age." Lots of fun.

•   Christmas: We hosted Christmas for the first time here. Mary's parents and sister came for dinner, and her brother and his family came on Christmas Eve. Bobby got a big new robot, the top item on his list to Santa, and a giant stuffed Scooby Doo.

•   Scooby stories: Mary's becoming quite the proficient storyteller. To settle Bobby down for nap or for quiet time, she'll make up a new story about Scooby Doo and the gang from whole cloth. At times Bobby will correct a plot twist for her, and at other times he'll make up his own Scooby stories.

45 months

•   Teen rebel: Bobby's going through his teenage rebel phase a bit early. Sometimes when he's cross he'll pout, scrunch up his eyebrows and declare, "I don't like you! I don't like nobody!"

•   Nightly tears: Almost every night Bobby falls asleep in our bed watching Scooby Doo, or he coaxes Mary into telling him a new Scooby story. Then, around midnight, he wakes up crying because he has to pee. Quite a daily mini-trauma.

•   The old ennui: Bobby's picked up a little bit of an attitude, probably at pre-school. When he's been doing something familiar for more than a couple of minutes, he'll now say, "I'm bored!" But then we wrestle him on the bed and snap him out of it.

46 months

•   Nick Jr.: His latest passion is hopping onto the computer with Mom or Dad and visiting NickJr.com. "Let's go on NickJr.-dot-com!" he'll declare. There he'll play games, listen to music and more.

•   Nightmares: Bobby had a nightmare last night, one of his first.He dreamt that his classmates were leaving and he was stuck in the bathroom and he wet his pants. Anxiety at 3!

•   Lava alert: Bobby's imagination is getting pretty good. When we're walking down a hallway with a patterned carpet, he says, "Don't step in the lava!" So we have to avoid the spots he indicates are volcanic.

•   First snow: We spent the weekend of March 14-17, 2003, at the Marriott's Timber Lodge at South Lake Tahoe. On Saturday morning, Bobby was mesmerized by a steady snowfall. That afternoon we hit a sledding park on the east side of the lake, and a nice couple loaned us their round metal sled, letting both Mary and JD take Bobby down the slope. He did the last one solo. (We got some video footage.) We also built a pretty sad-looking snowman, and tossed some soft snowballs at each other. Bobby loved it. It was the first time he's ever been in the snow. By the way, I had one major wipeout on the slopes at Heavenly (it had been 7 years to the day since I'd last skied); gotta remember to rent 160s next time, not 150s.

•   St. Valentine's Day: For St. Valentine's Day, while Mary and JD had a romantic dinner in the living room, Bobby got up and did a rock 'n' roll dance around the sofa. Of course, we had to get up, chase him, and dance like crazy ourselves.

47 months

•   Scooby stories: Most nights, after the TV goes off, Mary (sometimes JD) tells Bobby a Scooby story to get him to fall asleep. Each is a wholly new adventure of the Scooby gang set in an exotic locale like Italy, the South Seas, or Tahoe. Often, Bobby -- being a child of the interactive age -- will correct a detail or plot twist as we go along.

•   Bulletins: When we're watching TV in the family room and Bobby is watching a show in our bedroom, he'll often come running in with a breaking news bulletin to report on the latest happenings on screen, such as a ghost or monster.

•   Hopathon: They had a hopathon to raise money for St. Clare's at the preschool on April 15. Bobby had been practicing hopping on our bed. Even though it was held on terra firma, Bobby did 146 hops.

•   Patience: Driving Bobby from his preschool to pick up our camera in Dublin, I was stuck in a rush-hour traffic jam and expressed my exasperation. To which Bobby calmed said in the back seat, "Be patient, Dad." Youthful wisdom, there.


GO TO: | Bobby's photo gallery, age 3

GO TO: | Bobby journal: age 4

GO TO: | Bobby's home page