Mousse, Nana, Skateboaring and the chicken

The world feels pretty crappy right now in a lot of ways, so here's a picture of my mom getting some animal therapy from Mousse.  

 She gave him a couple of dog toys including this chicken that he loves but also kind of freaks him out.  It's pretty awesome.

We are getting a little tired of walking around our neighborhood so we went to a walking path in San Jose.

Right after we got Mousse we saw a guy being pulled on his skateboard by his dog and Leo decided he wanted Mousse to do that with him.  I was skeptical that Mousse would do it since he's such a distracted little puppy but he totally did it!

 It went pretty well until Mousse ran between Serafina's legs and everyone went down.  No one was hurt and they all got back up and kept going.

Leo's quaratine hair is getting so crazy that it's starting to stick out through the helmet.

Santa Cruz

Leo has been skateboarding more and more recently.  He's also asked to visit the local skate parks.  Today we combined a skate park visit with a trip to the beach when we went to Santa Cruz.  

He is still a newbie but he's very brave and doesn't get intimidated by the big kids there.  

Serafina has been bringing her roller skates to skate parks.  Today she wasn't sure if she wanted to go in so she stayed outside the gate for a while.  

 Then she got brave and went inside.  She stuck to some flat spots but she had fun.

 Then we headed to the beach.

 There was a rip current so swimming wasn't advised.  They dug a giant hole instead and buried a log.

 Then we got ice cream from our favorite spot.

Pretty perfect trip to Santa Cruz.

School activities and a video

 Serafina's class went on a field trip to the Guadalupe River on Monday.  I didn't sign up to help with this one and I'm glad I didn't because I came home from Tahoe pretty sick.  She did fine without me and enjoyed the trip.  Here's a picture with her teacher Mrs. Moriarty.

And meeting an educational puppet.  

 On Friday, Leo had Theater class at school.  He said he enjoyed it.  Here he is doing an acting exercise with his friends Sharon and Solomon.

Leo also experimented with our neighbor Colleen's Rip-Stick today.  She's letting Leo borrow it for a little while since he is getting the hang of it and thinks it's pretty fun.

Trying new things

Leo has expressed an interest in skateboarding on and off for a while.  Last week, I took him to his first skateboarding lesson at a skate shop not too far from our house.  

 The guys I grew up with taught themselves to skateboard out on the streets - no lessons, no pads, no helmets.  But this is a different era and I paid a sweet guy to hit the streets with Leo and show him the ropes.  He thrived on the one-on-one attention and enjoyed his first lesson.  I gave him his space during the first lesson so all I have is paparazzi type photos like this one of him returning to the shop at the end of the lesson.

We borrowed a board from his friend Max and Leo practiced at home during the week.  On Saturday, we returned for another lesson.  He spent half the time out on the street and the other half on the ramp in the back of the shop.  

 He really likes skateboarding and we really like to see him excited about something.  He practiced at home.

 Yesterday I got him his own board and to say he was thrilled would be a major understatement.  He wanted to ride it to the park that afternoon but also wanted me to hold his hand the whole way.  How could I say no.  He's not going to want to hold my hand while skateboarding, or any other time, for much longer.

Today we took a little trip to a skate park with his friend Max.  Max has been skating for a lot longer and is much bolder, but I was proud of my timid guy for being brave, shaking off the falls and trying his best.  

This little firecracker is all signed up to play soccer this fall.  Practices will start later this month so I decided I should show her some basics.  I think she'll do just fine.