How much can YOU do in a month?

Alright, so here we go.

First there was our bimonthly assembly at school. My class and I were bugs for the assembly and had to share a cool fact about the insects we represented. I was an ant.


Yes, that's me on the end pulling off one of my own antennas. It was hot on the stage and we were all in black. Did you know an ant can lift twenty times its own body weight?

After the assembly we had Frog Fest. Yes, a celebration of everything frog. We at Willow Wood celebrate life in all its glorious forms. Frog Fest is one of the ways we continue to appreciate the world around us. And how'd we do it?



Frog legs, yum. There were more frog legs than you could imagine and they tasted surprising chicken-like. I like frogs, not necessarily the eating of their legs, but frogs in general, as a creature of our fine world, frogs are pretty dang cool. We have a frog pond at the school...


...with turtles and Koi. Maybe it's a Koi pond with turtles, or a turtle pond with Koi. I haven't seen the frog since the end of last summer.

Farewell to Nissa and Feeding Therapy

It has been a long time coming, but the end of so many of my parents worries is coming to an end. Since I was five weeks old, I have fought to whole idea of eating, a condition that worsened with the onset of severe acid reflux and the poor medicinal practices of my first pediatrician.

I'm now five and this was my last meal with Nissa, my feeding therapist for the last two years:



If you're having a hard time figuring out what's on the plate, well, let me help you. There are three items on this dinner plate of mine: Fettuccine in Alfredo sauce, cheesy broccoli, and beef frank.

It has been a lot of hard work, worry, and patience, but I think everyone would agree, it has really paid off. In fact, I'm doing so well, it's possible my G-tube could come out this summer or early fall (hopefully before school starts).

I just wanted to take a moment and thank all those who have played a part in getting me to this wonderfully fun part of my life. I am trying all kinds of new foods, almost daily, and discovering things (you can eat) I never thought I would enjoy. And I'm not just thanking those who have had an active role in getting me to eat, but all those who cowered in the dark corners of their own houses for fear of invoking the wrath of my mother should you somehow interrupt my feeding (you know who you are). You had a very big role to play as well. I will never forget the patience and understanding you showed my folks as they struggled to help me eat.

I have a good family, the best, and I thank you all for helping me get this far. Now, I've got a bowl of Lucky Charms and a fruit cocktail cup to eat for breakfast. Chow for now, my peeps.

Party on. Hunter.

Random Family Photos

Life moves along, faster for some of us than for others, and here's a look at how life has been moving for me and mine...




Things you should notice in these pics:

#1 In the pic of my beautiful Mama, sitting on top of her never-left-at-home notebook is a tube of Buttpaste. No joke. It's really called Buttpaste, isn't that the coolest name of a product you've ever heard?! Buttpaste.

#2 Yes, that's me in a swaddle. Ah, reminds me of the good ol' days...

#3 The wedge Cole is on is designed to get him ready for American Ninja 2030!

Alrighty then, more pics.





Daddy's working on a pillow fight video but he's having some issues with the USB streaming feature of his laptop. Apparently Microsoft felt it necessary to make streaming video through the USB port less than easy. But for now, enjoy these random family pics.

Hunter out.

The 100th Day of School

At my school (Willow Wood, for those that don't recall the name), we like to celebrate all sorts of things. Recently, our school won Best of Parade in the Brentwood Holiday Parade. It was our third year in a row winning. Amongst the other usual celebrations, we celebrate the 100th Day of School. You might be wondering, how does one celebrate the 100th Day of School...? (Unless of course, you've gotten stuck on the Why do you celebrate the 100th Day of School, a question I'm not going to address because I don't really know the answer). But, to answer how, we do it like this:


...we celebrate it with a hat of course! But not just any hat, a hat decorated with a hundred items! That's right. Our 100th Day Hat has 100 things attached to it! My 100th Day Hat had 10 groups of these ten items:

Squishy Frogs
Paperclips
Safety Pins
Monster Truck Stickers
Rubberbands
SpongeBob Stickers
Mickey Mouse Stickers
Zoo Animal Stickers
Legos
Metal Washers

Here's what that looks like in picture:





Not only were we tasked with making hats to celebrate the day, but at school we had a 100th Day Hat Parade (Apparently my school is big into parades as well). And after the parade, for snack time, we had 100th School Day Trail Mix (another at-home project where I got to choose ten of my favorite snack foods and make a 100 Day Trail Mix. You might wonder, knowing my limited snacking options, What could I possibly put into a trail mix that I would actually eat? Well, let me tell you:

10 Swedish Fish
10 Bow Pretzels
10 Cheese-Its
10 Gummy Bears
10 Rainbow Goldfish
10 Gummy Worms
10 Cheetos
10 Gummy LifeSavers
10 SpongeBob Cookies
10 Raisins

It was quite the unique trail mix, if I do say so myself. So, to all you schoolers out there, on this, the 100th Day of School, I just like to wish you all a very Happy 100th Day!


Hunter Out.

The Crystal Growing Experiment

For Christmas, my big brother Ethan asked for a crystal growing experiment. He got one and over the break we started growing his first batch of crystals. This experiment was called the "Golden Citrine Experiment" and it was designed to grow golden-colored crystals using a piece of granite rock as a base. Here's a look at how we documented the crystal growth:

Day One (the morning after the mixture and rock were placed in a plastic bath together):


You can small crystals starting to form not only on the surface of the granite rock, but also along the base of the plastic bath. So far, everything looks to be growing just as planned.

Day Three (there was little notable change on Day Two):


The crystals have made some noticeable growth and the water level has dropped in the bath, causing crystals to start forming where the water level had previously been. There are also more crystals forming around the base of the granite stone, more so than on the surface of the stone itself.

Day Four:

There was a considerable amount of growth seen in the plastic bath on Day Four of the experiment, so we took several pics to document the growth. This was also the first day growth on the surface of the rock breached the surface of the bath's liquid. It was very exciting!





As you can see from the pics, there is lots going on in the bath now. It's a lot of fun to watch and see how the crystals change and what surfaces they seem to grow best on.

Day Nine:

These two pics were taken from above the bath, one with a flash and one without a flash. Notice how the flash changes the color of the growing crystals.



Day Seventeen:

After over two weeks of observation, the crystals have stopped growing and the bath is empty of liquid. Daddy broke out the crystals and took these pics of the final crystals. Pretty cool.





This was a super fun experiment. Thanks Ethan for letting us keep it going for you. Hope you like what we did and can't wait to do it again when you get back this summer. My next experiment will involve the hatching and raising of prehistoric sea monsters!!

See you soon. Hunter.

Happy New Year!

Unfortunately, we spent most of the holiday sick and at home. But, if you've been to our home, you know the only thing we have to leave for is food, cause my brothers and I have tons to keep us busy. Between giant Nerf Wars and fort building, video gaming and science labs, books, movies, and LEGO building, and a host of other activities, we can stay pretty much holed up in the house for a long time without any complaints.

Daddy did take us out to see Tron: Legacy which was AWESOME! Daddy talks about the original Tron sometimes, and although I haven't seen the original, this movie rocked!

Christmas was cool. We all got lots of cool stuff and had loads of fun, but wait, I'm totally getting ahead of myself! I'm 5! Five years old! And what did Mama and Daddy get me for my birthday?





Yes, I really enjoy my drumset and have wanted one for a while. BestBuy got rid of theirs, so Daddy couldn't take me there to play anymore. So, now onto Christmas, just a quick look at some of the fun...





There was just fun and more fun for hours and hours, and it was the first Christmas that I really dug the whole present thing, unwrapping and giving, it was very exciting to be around all my family...




Along with all the festiveness, I had another gymnastics show at the Little Gym. This show was so much more awesome than the last one. I was adventurous, daring, fearless, which made the whole experience that much more cool!




So, that pretty much brings you up to speed with us. Cole had a few things to add, but I think I'll let him tell you about it. Oh, there was one other thing, I recently had to give up the chair that has been my good friend for a very long time, it was a sad goodbye...


Coming Soon...more Creatures From My World, but up next is Ethan's Crystal Growing Experiment! Check back soon, Hunter out.

My First Christmas Pageant!

December 17th was my last day of school for the year and we celebrated with a class Christmas Party, but the week before, we had our Christmas Pageant. The theme...The Mice Before Christmas. My class and I were gray mice...


We'd been practicing the play (songs and dances) and our lines for weeks. I didn't start out all that excited, but by the day of the show, I couldn't get my line out fast enough...


"Look! Look! A gingerbread house. A midnight snack for a little ol' mouse." That was my line and I delivered with a finesse that made my Dad (a Thespian himself) and Mama proud. Here's a look at some of the other shots my Dad got of me at the show...





It was a much better experience than I thought and a lot of fun. I have great classmates and a great teacher which makes everything else so much more delightful and easy. Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year!