Posted by Doug
Wed, 09 Mar 2005 03:20:00 GMT
Last night was our Cub Scout den meeting. We all started on our Pinewood Derby cars together. This was Josh’s first time to do anything remotely close to “wood working”. When I first talked to Mark, the host for the den meeting, he said he had some saws we could use. I misunderstood that he had either a scroll saw or a band saw or something. No, he just had a hand coping saw and another hand saw. At first, Josh didn’t want to use the saw. He wanted me to do it. I think he was a little nervous about either hurting himself or not knowing what to do with it or something. I got the groove started with the saw. I had him put his hand on the saw while I pushed and pulled so he could get a feel for the level of force needed. He mostly got the hang of it and did about half the cutting. I really think he enjoyed it.
The car has some pretty jagged cuts on it. We’ll need to do quite a bit of sanding to get it smooth. But, it really is
his car. In fact, I tried to steer him to a particular design I thought would both look good and race well. He was pretty sure what he wanted. I had him draw it several times. Each time was pretty much the same, so we went with it. I’m glad we did. His was much simpler to cut out by hand than what mine was.
I was really proud of Josh at the Den meeting. Of the three boys, he was pretty much the only one to stay focused on the car. The other two boys were off playing most of the time, but Josh stuck it out and kept working with me on the car. Like I said, he did about half the sawing and the design was pretty much all his.
The actual race is on March 19. We’ve got quite a bit of work to do before then. I’ll keep you posted.
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Posted by Doug
Sat, 05 Mar 2005 14:31:00 GMT
Josh has learned to peel oranges this week. He asked me last night (just before bed) if he could peel some oranges. I told him he could in the morning. When I got up today he was peeling away.
“Peeling oranges is the best thing I’ve ever done!”
“Peeling oranges kinda makes me feel like the dad”
“I think peeling oranges is my talent!”
In fact, right now as I’m typing this he’s saying, “Aren’t you going to come eat these oranges? They’re getting cold.” You’ve got to love the enthusiasm of youth.
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Posted by Doug
Mon, 24 Jan 2005 17:17:00 GMT
I was a little curious how this whole thing was going to go down. It turns out it was pretty fun, but expensive. We had a real auctioneer come in to sell the cakes. When he first started talking, most of the boys (including Josh) started laughing. They thought he was just trying to be silly or something. So one of the scout leaders would bring a cake up and the auctioneer would sell it.
There were a few boys who did their own bidding. I don’t know of they had a gift budget from their parents for the night or if it was their own money. Mostly the boys sat by their parents and told them which cakes they wanted while the parents bid. Josh wanted to do his own bidding, but didn’t understand how to stop bidding. He thought it was like school, “Ooo! Ooo! Pick me! I want that cake!” It was totally crazy which cakes brought how much. The dividing line was about $20; about half the cakes went for less and about half went for more. Before coming, I had told Josh we had a budget of $20 for the cake we were going to buy. I guess that was a little low. There really wasn’t any cakes below the $20 mark that we wanted.
All the cakes were on display at the back of the room. I told Josh to go pick out three cakes he wanted to bid on. Of course, he comes back with two of the most popular cakes plus his own. So here’s my dilemma: which cake to bid on. The one he really wants is a very cool “The Incredibles” cake that more than a few boys are going to want. His number two pick (a green snake) actually comes up for auction before his number one pick. Should I go ahead and get his #2 for fear his #1 will be too high? I’d hate to not bid on his #2 at all and then flat out loose his #1. Turns out the point is moot. The green snake sells for $35 and “The Incredibles” cake sells for I think $30.
At this point, the cake he really wants is his own. I don’t know if I’ll be able to buy it back or not. A fairly nice, store-bought, Oreo cake come up for auction. The auctioneer thinks it’s an Ice Cream cake. I think, “That’d be a cool cake.” It’s not going for very much, so I bid on it. I win the cake for $15. Josh is crushed. He didn’t want that cake. He wants his own cake. So I’m trying to talk him into wanting this cake. Finally, as one of the last cakes, his comes up for auction. He really wants it. What I should have done is just stick to my $20 budget and called it a night. What I did was buy his cake back for $27. So, I ended up spending $42 for the evening. (Yes, I know that’s a pretty amateurish photo. I used the flash and was too close.)
As we’re leaving, I’m talking to a few of the parents getting things squared away for our next Den meeting. Josh is holding his Sponge Bob cake. One of his friends asks if he can have some of the icing. Josh, being very generous, says yes. So the boy reaches up and takes one of the eyes off the top of the cake! By this time both the boy’s mother and I are there. Josh is doing OK, but the mother realizes this isn’t a good thing. So this boy is holding a big glob of icing that is Sponge Bob’s eye. Josh tells him to put it back. His mother (as mothers do) thinks about the whole “germ thing” and tells him he can’t put it back. Josh would be perfectly happy with Sponge Bob’s eye back where it belongs with or without germs. I’m not certain on the “5 second rule” of “one you touch it you can’t put it back” and end up agreeing with the mother. Josh looses it. I do my best to console my boy, but I never get him back past the tipping point. In his defense, what I didn’t realize at the time is that he’s finally caught the nasty cold business that’s been going around. So, I’ll pull out the “he’s tired and doesn’t feel well.”
So, I’m coming home with two cakes. Carla’s going to make another birthday cake for Tiffany’s party in two days. Obviously coming home with two cakes isn’t the right thing to do. So as we’re leaving the Pack Meeting there’s a young lady parked next to us leaving at the same time. I asked her if she got a cake. Turns out she was up at this church building for something totally unrelated. So I give her the Oreo cake (which wasn’t ice cream). Turns out that by this time Josh has become attached to this cake too. He gets really upset that I gave away the cake. “You’re just doing this on purpose to make me mad so I’ll act tired and you can send me to bed!”
I did my best “let’s be reasonable” appeal, but never really got very far. In the end I think he was still mad at the way I handled the whole thing. By the time we got home he was in a better mood. However, I think it was Grandma and Grandpa’s expected arrival a few minutes later that really lifted his spirit!
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Last night was our Cub Scout den meeting. We all started on our Pinewood Derby cars together. This was Josh’s first time to do anything remotely close to “wood working”. When I first talked to Mark, the host for the den meeting, he said he had some saws we could use. I misunderstood that he had either a scroll saw or a band saw or something. No, he just had a hand coping saw and another hand saw. At first, Josh didn’t want to use the saw. He wanted me to do it. I think he was a little nervous about either hurting himself or not knowing what to do with it or something. I got the groove started with the saw. I had him put his hand on the saw while I pushed and pulled so he could get a feel for the level of force needed. He mostly got the hang of it and did about half the cutting. I really think he enjoyed it.
