Special time

The last couple of months, they boys have been competing for attention more and more.  JD is quite forward and demanding in terms of attracting attention.  AJ has, in some situations, resorted to attracting negative attention - at least unconsciously assuming that negative attention is still better than no attention.  In response to all of this, my wife and I decided to devote Saturday's to dedicated, one-on-one time with kids.  Each Saturday, we alternate which parent is with which kid and that kid gets undivided attention (without having to compete for it).  So far, it seems to be working quite well - especially for AJ.

Here's a quick summary of what I've done with the boys the first four Saturdays.

Week #1: AJ

AJ and I went to the Oakland Zoo and saw animals and went on some rides.  We stopped by the visitor's center at the Oakland Temple and then we got lunch.  We went to Tilden Park after that and rode the train, went to a playground, went to the Nature Center, gathered some leaves, went to the Little Farm, rode a carousel, and got ice cream.

Week #2: JD

JD and I helped with a clean-up at the church building.  We went to Target and bought some Pokemon cards.  We came home, cleaned out the Altima (which had needed a good cleaning for awhile), had some lunch, and learned how to play Pokemon.  Then we went to JD's soccer game.  Afterwards, JD and I went on a two and a half hour bike ride to Shoreline Park and back - including a stop at 7-Eleven on the way home to buy Gatorade.  Since JD hadn't had enough physical activity that day, we wrapped up by playing more sports at his school until it got dark.

Week #3: AJ

AJ and I went up to Pier 39 in San Francisco.  We went to the Aquarium of the Bay - which has some cool exhibits.  We saw the sea lions and got some lunch.  We also bought some ballons at the magic store and some cookies at Mrs. Fields.  We were planning to spend the whole day up in San Francisco but it was raining pretty hard so we headed home.  The ballons we got included some instructions on how to make dogs, swords, and other ballon animals.  It took a little practice but I was able to figure out how to make dogs pretty well.  So we ended up making 8 of them - four for our family and four for another family.  Then we rented the movie "Thomas and Friends: The Great Discovery", popped some popcorn, and watched the movie together.  Afterwards, we took one of the balloon families over to one of AJ's friends along with two of the cookies.

Week #4: JD

JD and I practiced soccer at his school and played 2006 FIFA World Cup on the Playstation 2. It was JD's first time playing home video games. We went to his soccer game (and his Uncle DE and cousin SE came along).  Then we started playing Pokemon, went to lunch at California Pizza Kitchen, and came home to finish our Pokemon game (which JD won since he stacked the deck in his favor). JD used the computer for a bit while I (unfortunately) took care of something for work. Then we went to Sky High Sports - and had dinner at Jack in the Box while we were out.

If you have suggestions on cool things for me or my wife to do with the kids, please let me know.