King Richard’s Fair

We brought Spotty Chop to his first Renaissance Fair and wouldn’t you know he loved it? Boy Toy and I used to frequent these all the time, but haven’t been in probably 10 years or so. We got there early to see the opening ceremonies and then spent the rest of the day. Spotty had such a good time that Monday morning he asked me “mama do you think you could write down everything we did so I can bring it to show my friends?” Hell yes baby boy. This is the listing:

Played in a human chess game

Put daddy in the stocks

Threw ninja stars

Threw darts

Shot cannons

Tried to climb an un-climbable ladder

Shot Arrows

Watched a joust

Bought a sword, shield, pennant, pendant

Had sword fights

Walked through a history of torture (may have been a mistake – but no nightmares and I didn’t go into detail on what we were seeing)

Went to knight school

Knighted by the king

It was a full day. When Boy Toy asked what Spotty’s favorite part of the day was he said “Knight school and being knighted by the King”.

He is so frelling CUTE.



Dear Spotty Chop you were 78 months old several days to a few weeks ago

You have grown a bit; all of your pants seem to end at your calves.

J Man was finally at camp and the two of you have been adventuring like crazy.

You were a real trooper when I had to hit the hospital and was out of commission for a few days (more like 3 weeks of crazy). You never complained when I couldn’t do the things we usually do, and you and dada managed not to kill each other, so thanks!

You are Papa’s best bud. You only want to play with him and have adventures. Nannie says she doesn’t mind…but I think she may be a little grumpy about it. You work Papa so hard that he usually needs to take a nap before you leave. You two had some amazing adventures this summer. Aquarium, Science Museum, multiple kayaking trips, Hammond Castle , trips to the beach, drawing of maps, playing in sprinklers, playing hide and seek and other crazy chasing games. You keep Papa young.

You will not eat grapes, blueberries, green beans, or carrots. The only 3 foods you have always turned to whenever you are hungry. You are eating cherries, which is grand, but the season is ending and dude, you got to find some other fruits and veggies.

One of my cousins got married and we all went to the wedding. You made my heart stop when at one point during the night you walked over to me held out your hand and said “mama will you dance with me?” Multiple people came up to me to tell me that they were


1.) Jealous that their sons didn’t ask them to dance

2) Amazed that you had to courage to dance in front of everyone. May this last your entire lifetime!

I am truly one lucky mama.


We had a pretty decent hurricane, Irene. We had no power for close to a week, and had to cancel a camping trip, but we did end up going to the Cape with Nannie, Papa, Favorite Brother and Froggy. The Cape had no power either, but there was plenty of sun at the beach. You are besotted with Froggy. You told me that you had a double crush on her because “she is so beautiful and nice, who wouldn’t have a crush on her?” You are the sweetest thing ever!

I know you did plenty of cute things, and had very amusing and insightful things to say, but this past month blew lemon scented chunks for me. Hopefully next month will be better.

The end of the summer is a bummer unless you have your 2 best friends in your class, then you can’t wait for the summer to end so you can go back to school and see them EVERY DAY!

What a difference a few months make!

Spotty has started fall soccer and I am amazed with how much better he is playing this season compared to last season (granted, last season was his first season). His dribbling is natural, he is so much more aggressive and he seems to really get the game. He scored 3 or 4 times his first game but he also prevented 4 or 5 goals by being in the right place at the right time. We over heard a father telling one of the kids Spotty was playing with that “you can’t take the ball away from your teammate (Spotty); you have to get open so he can pass to you.” We started chatting a little while later. He was impressed with how good Spotty was and lamenting that his son didn’t quite know the rules as this was his son’s first time playing. We laughed and said that Spotty started playing last season and we were blown away with how much better he was playing now. We explained that last season all Spotty did was pass he never really wanted to run with the ball.

We were worried when we first walked up to the field because Spotty seemed to be so much bigger than everyone else on his team. Turns out he is the oldest member of the team by a month. Apparently he really grew this summer. His team does have a lot of little kids on it, but last spring he was the smallest on his team. I am glad he is still in instructional. I think this will be a big confidence builder for him. Plus? I love watching my boy run!