Swimmer Kid

While Tucker DOES enjoy himself a running race, I think his real passion (as passionate a 5 year old can be) is in swimming. For the last four years, we’ve been taking Tucker to the swimming pool in our neighborhood for lessons over the summer. The last two years, we’ve also had him taking swim lessons at the indoor pool near my work.

Signing up for the summer lessons have historically been a nightmare. Last year, I stood in a line for over an hour, on a randomly freezing day for the end of April. It was snowing! The year before, my position in line was halfway around the building!

This year, the city FINALLY opened up online registration. And Tucker is signed up for swimming ALL summer.

I apologize for the brevity, but I also want to get the posts for P, Q, and T out today.

What are your summer fun plans?

Runner Kid

One of my coworkers in the social studies department is also the cross country coach for our school. I asked his advice for getting Tucker running more.

Tucker is a ball of energy; as far as athletics go, he loves two things: swimming and running.

My coworker suggested that we sign Tucker up for a Kid K (aka a fun run) to see how he formally liked running. After a little digging, I found the perfect run to start Tucker with. The Dino Dash, hosted by our local natural history museum. The cost was minimal and Tucker got a cool T-shirt and a race bib.

We had had Tucker taking science classes at the museum for about a year and a half, so he was very excited to learn that he would be participating in a fun run there.

A lot of the fun runs have a theme, and many of the racers did not disappoint when they selected their race attire.

The Dino Dash was, obviously, dinosaur themed and a lot of racers dressed in dino-themed leggings or shirts. Some even came in FULL dino costume. It was pretty awesome. We kept Tucker low-key. He’s got a pair of dino pajamas under his shorts and race shirt.

Pre-Race Pose

Excited Finisher

So, he was semi-hooked. Look at that proud finisher!

We ended up (or I ended up) signing him up for another one. This one was in October. Halloween themed, of course. This one was The Great Pumpkin Chase. As you can see, things just got real; little man earned a medal! And how fun to have a Halloween race–the costumes on ALL the racers were top notch. Way to show out, Albuquerque!

We skipped the Thanksgiving races (and there were a few). Instead, we opted for a Christmastime race. The Run, Run Rudolph. This race was cool because the fun run participants each got a pair of antlers AND a Rudolph nose. Our little racer did pretty awesome on this cold day! Also nice was the fact that the race was just down the way!

Tucker ran the Sweetheart Run in February. This race was just down the way (the other way) from our house at the Bosque School. Things were a little confusing at this race, and the fun runners (and their parents) weren’t sure where they would begin. Tucker did an AWESOME job, did his best, and was the 6th little kid to cross the finish line out of the 30 or so runners.

The post-run Tucker is pretty exhausted.

My husband, Jason, and I agreed that a kid k for Tucker every other month wasn’t too cost prohibitive. We want him to find things he loves, and right now he seems to love this, or at least enjoy it a lot. We have talked about getting ourselves into a running shape as well. Tucker may enjoy it now, but he may not if we (Jason and I) don’t join him. So that’s our plan. We want to be able to run the 2018 Run Run Rudolph WITH Tucker. And we are working toward that goal!

Last weekend, Tucker ran another kid k in the Albuquerque Marathon. He did great!

How do you get moving?

Outdoor Spaces

We are lucky in that we live in an area close to a lot of open spaces. Whether it’s parks, trails along the river, or national parks, we just need to pick a direction and nature awaits us.

 

To the east are the Sandia Mountians and directly west is the Petroglyph National Monument. About a mile east of our front door is the bosque and its trails. A five minute walk north is Miraposa park. We love getting out and spending time in the great outdoors.

What outdoor space do you enjoy?

A Noticed Thing

I’ve lived in Albuquerque for just over 30 years. When I drive around my city, I can reflect on the parts that bring me the fondest memories. And now that I have a child of my own, I am able to share some of those places and memories with him.

There’s a park near the mall on the East side of town where my grandfather used to take me. My mom has albums full of memories, many of which were made at this park. When I was a girl, there was a sort of monkey bars sculpted into the shape of a giraffe. I hadn’t really thought about that park in years. My grandfather passed away when I was eight, and I had no reason to visit the park afterward since I lived in another part of the city. Last spring, almost exactly a year ago, Tucker was invited to a friend’s party and it just so happened to be at that very park.

Of course I have passed by this park, now and again, through the years. I noted at some point the giraffe seemed to have been removed or relocated. I never stopped to look until the day of that party.

It was there. Tucked back in the corner of the park, off the main road. Set aside like some monument to my childhood. Before joining the party, I let Tucker climb that giraffe.

 

Movie Lists

Over the last few years, Jason and I have, of course, taken on the pop-enculturation of Tucker. We have been working on the cinematic element of this lifelong process most recently.

In addition to the myriad animated movies courtesy of Disney, Don Bluth, and Studio Ghibli we indulge in, we also ensure a fair amount of live action and mixed action films as well.

About a year or so back, I drafted a list of animated movies that would be of relative interest to Tucker. I looked for movies with male characters who learned valuable life lessons through their adventures within the movie. Don’t get me wrong, movies with strong female characters are just as valuable, and two of Tucker’s favorite movies that don’t involve vehicles, dinosaurs, or super heroes are Frozen, Coraline, and Ponyo.

We have a few movie lists to share including our animated movie list for boys, live action movie list, and mixed action movie list. The titles in bold are ones Tucker has actually seen while the others are movies we are either waiting to watch with him (The Dark Crystal is probably too scary right now) or just haven’t gotten to yet (Pinocchio doesn’t come on that often).

Animated Movie List with Boys in Mind

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1. Aladdin
2. Aladdin and the 40 Thieves
3. All Dogs go to Heaven
4. Atlantis
5. Bee Movie
6. Big Hero 6
7. Bolt
8. Brother Bear
9. Brother Bear 2
10. Bug’s Life
11. Cars
12. Cars 2
13. Cars 3
14. Chicken Little
15. Dinosaur
16. Dumbo
17. Emperor’s New Groove
18. Finding Nemo
19. Gnomeo and Juliet
20. Goofy Movie
21. Hercules 
22. Howl’s Moving Castle
23. Hunchback of Notre Dame
24. Jungle Book
25. Kronk’s New Groove
26. Lion King
27. Meet the Robinsons
28. Monster’s Inc
29. Monster’s University
30. Oliver and Company
31. Peter Pan
32. Pinocchio
33. Planes
34. Ratatouille 
35. Return of Jafar
36. Robin Hood
37. Sherlock Gnomes
38. Shrek
39. Shrek 2
40. Shrek 3
41. Tarzan
42. The Black Cauldron 
43. The Brave Little Toaster
44. The Croods
45. The Fox and the Hound
46. The Good Dinosaur 
47. The Great Mouse Detective
48. The Incredibles
49. The Incredibles 2 (coming soon)
50. The Land Before Time
51. The Sword in the Stone
52. Toy Story
53. Toy Story 2
54. Toy Story 3
55. Toy Story 4
56. Treasure Planet
57. Up
58. Winnie the Pooh
59. Wreck It Ralph
60. Wreck It Ralph 2 (coming soon)

Live Action Movie List

1. Gnome Mobile
2. Herbie the Love Bug
3. Herbie Rides Again
4. Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo
5. Herbie Goes Bananas
6. The Flight of the Navigator
7. The Explorers
8. The Goonies
9. The Cat from Outerspace
10. Labrynth
11. Muppets Treasure Island
12. Muppets from Space
13. The Neverending Story
14. Annie
15. Mac and Me
16. ET
17. The Dark Crystal

Mixed Action Movie List

1. The Phantom Tollbooth
2. Mary Poppins
3. Bedknobs and Broomsticks 
4. Who Framed Roger Rabbit

**These are obviously not exhaustive lists. What movies would you add? What movies are on your lists of movies you absolutely need to share with your kids?