Desmond's Evaluation

Desmond got his first evaluation today at daycare. It's a good thing that Jen and I weren't being evaluated, because we completely forgot about the parent-teacher meeting. But when I picked up Desmond I got an abbreviated review on our toddler. He did well..."developing at or above the level of the other children." Supposedly he exhibits smart kid behaviors like stacking blocks, remembering everyone's name and reacting to music. Who'd a thunk it? I'm glad he's doing well though; we work on it. He knows most of the basic colors and can count to ten (sometimes he misses four for some reason...other times he starts at six and emphasizes seven). Anyway, my prediction of Desmond being relegated to the slow reading group may have been inaccurate.

Other updates include our Thanksgiving trip to Nebraska. We went to Columbus for the big day. Jen and Desmond's aunt H went shopping early the next morning and battled the crowds for the good buys. Later, Friday afternoon, we all went to Grand Island to meet up with Desmond's Grandpa's family. Everyone met up at a hotel where most of us stayed. There was some kind of Medieval entertainment troupe having a gathering at the hotel too...a bunch of freaks, all in costume including a hideous court jester. Desmond only knew it as a clown, but he was terrified by it just the same. By his expression when he saw it, you could tell that the image of the clown was being burned into his mind and being categorized as the scariest thing he had ever seen. Throughout the rest of the visit he was always paranoid that the clown was going to appear. That night as he was falling asleep he kept saying, "clown, sad." I don't blame him though, clowns are disgusting. I can't imagine there would ever be a time, in history, when anyone thought it was funny for a grown man to dress up like that. So, anyway, the word clown is not uttered in our house for fear of fear.


We drove home on Saturday and arrived early enough for Jen to nag Desmond and Pops back into the car so we could go get D his new toddler bed. Sunday Pops put it together and D has taken to it quiet nicely.
That's D expressing his "cheesy smile" as he stands next to his new bed.

Jen took out her braids a couple of weeks ago, and I wanted to post a picture. She ended up having to take them out herself, and it took a week's worth of evenings for her to get finished. This picture depicts what Desmond and I learned to expect from Jen for that week. Nice high waters Mom!
And of course there is motorcycle stuff to report. We go out to the track at least once a week while the weather is somewhat nice. Part of the track membership obligation includes having to donate four work hours to the club. The weekend before last I was a track official for the last race of the season. It was mostly a "for fun" race. It's the Turkey Run, and the the winners were awarded turkeys rather than trophies. Mostly I was responsible for a section of track to ensure that no one was killed or cut across parts of the track. Not much happened except for when the young kids raced and some of the youngest kept getting lost. Here's a (blurry) shot of the starting line.
So, that's about it...