Wanna know how to make a quick $5?

Step 1: Have your mom cover her eyes.

Step 2: Sit bravely on your dad’s lap (at the dinner table) while he extracts your wiggly tooth.

Step 3: Check in on mom to make sure she’s okay.

Step 4: Prepare for bed by brushing your teeth in record time since you now have two fewer teeth to clean.

Step 5: Put saved tooth under your pillow and keep hope alive in anticipation of a Tooth Fairy visit.

Step 6: Wake up at 3:00 a.m. to go potties and then reach under the pillow to see if the Tooth Fairy held up her end of the bargain.

Step 7: Become $5 richer.

Step 8: Brainstorm ideas for wiggling your remaining teeth into a profit so that you can purchase a new Nintendo Switch game.

= The best 4th of Julystone celebration EVER, thanks to Grandma & Grandpa Goodenough, my Nicolai cousins, the Martinez family, and my partner-in-crime Colin!

Genesee and I truly had the time of our lives, sharing a snuggly blanket in the truck camper tent bed, eating all of Grandma’s made-with-love-and-chocolate baked goods, swimming until our fingers got wrinkly, fishing for the big keeper, paddle-boating around a frog-inhabited pond, miniature golfing our hearts out, and relaxing by the snap-crackle-and-pop of the evening campfires.

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story, but let’s just say I suffered from Jellystone withdrawals upon arriving home and so I may or may not have convinced my parents to spend one more night in the camper… as it sat under the stars with a peaceful, remote, middle-of-nowhere view out the east-facing window, and an intimate angle of our garage from the west window.

On days like these, I pity the lactose intolerant.

So, to display my sympathy, I woke up before 6:00 a.m. to allow myself the indulgence of all things dairy, fresh from the farm, with no wait time and no bloating, cramps, or diarrhea to show for it.

And to demonstrate an attitude of gratitude for a well-organized Dairy Breakfast, I released a balloon into the air, I got a tattoo of a Holstein, I helped Genesee mount every available tractor, I slid down the inflatable slide, and loved on all of the furry friends.

The Dairy Breakfasts of June Dairy Days never disappoint.

We’ll be back next year; Genesee will bring more teeth and I’ll bring a bigger stomach!

Because my mom deserves fun too, I convinced her to enjoy a day out on the town with a fellow mom. The kiddos and I just tagged along as chaperones. You’re welcome.

June 6, 2019, marked my last day of 4-K preschool at Children’s Treehouse.

I’m gonna miss that place and all that came with it: the lovely teachers, the fun field trips, the artsy craftsies, and the silly shenanigans with my school bud besties. But, this wasn’t just a one-sided relationship; I think that place is gonna miss me too.

In fact, Mr. Andrew’s parting words prove that “everyone benefit[ed] from [my] compassion and kind heart.” And Ms. Lisa affirmed that I was a “super friend” and “so very smart.” Most importantly, Ms. Mel claimed that she “LOVED getting to know [me]” because I am “something special.”

Furthermore, if those classroom walls could talk, they’d probably disclose secrets of how I’m a budding genius, an upstanding human being, and the best hope for our future. And, if the carpets could talk, they would likely tell you about all of the moments I sobbed, and puked, and sometimes wore my muddy outside shoes inside.

Hopefully, nobody cares about the stories that carpets hold.

Still, even with the meltdown dropoffs and projectile green beans, the highs completely outweighed the lows. Thank you, Children’s Treehouse, from the bottom of my big heart! I’m taking with me all of the beautiful memories and leaving only invisible footprints that spell: “Jaeger was here.”

– J. Goodenough; Signed out.

There are many risk factors for tooth loss…. Gum disease, smoking, and apparently, turkey & cheese sandwiches. This is based on a scientific study that was conducted at school yesterday when I lost my first tooth at the lunch table! It’s been wiggly for a couple of weeks now, but after biting into my freshly-prepared turkey & cheese sandwich, my tooth was just hanging on by a thread! That’s when Miss Chrissy located the closest dental instrument (sometimes referred to as a “napkin”) and successfully completed the extraction for an impromptu show-and-tell with my classmates. I was ready, I was brave, and just when you thought I couldn’t get any cuter, I was suddenly gap-toothed.

May is for Mother’s Day! (May 12)

…And Grandma’s birthday (May 14)

…And Dad’s birthday (May 21)

…And friends’ birthdays (Vivian & Evan)

…And Taylor’s graduation party (May 25)

…And frisbees and fireside chats!

May is for memories. Happy May, everyone!

May 24th marked the last lesson of my final 8-week swimming session through the CTH/YMCA partnership. Every Friday, I would board a small, yellow school bus at 9:00 a.m. and head poolside with my Lightning McQueen backpack and Batman towel. In an effort to further develop my swim skills, I spent valuable time away from the classroom because even though school is important, swimming is importanter. Haha… see what I did there?

Seriously though, I am going to miss these days and I’m pretty sure that pool and those swim coaches are going to miss my Batman moves and strokes. But “I’ll be back,” perhaps as the Terminator, someday in the future to achieve my next levels of swimming greatness.

Thanks for the swim (and life) lessons, YMCA! And thanks, mom, for being there to document my high dives & silly splashes, helping my shivering body remove those cold & wet swim trunks, and then taking me out to lunch with Dad to celebrate!

Dear future me,

You belong to the class of 2032. That means, by this time next year, we’ll be celebrating your kindergarten graduation, after having spent 180 days as a 1st-grader-in-training. You’ll likely have a bunch of new friends, but hopefully, you’ve stayed in touch with your current best buds: Ireland, Lila, and Colin.

Today, you want to be a police officer, and I’m curious to see if you’ll hang onto that dream throughout kindergarten or if you’ll explore other aspirations. I’m guessing you may also take up soccer or basketball, and with any luck, you’ll have found a way to get enrolled into that karate class you’ve been begging mom about. But, regardless of the path you choose, I promise to always be by your side!

My only advice is to pause from time to time, when you’re in that new school as a bigger fish making bigger splashes, and look downstream to remember who you are, where you came from, and what you’ve accomplished. Because surely those memories will lead you back to your 4K graduation and all that you embodied on that celebratory day… You wore your cap and gown so proudly. And your dance skills were on point. And your eyes sparkled while you skipped around with cupcake fingers. Everything about that moment was magical. But mostly, I loved how you sang at the top of your lungs, freely distributed endless hugs and high-fives, and chased your buddies until you were sweaty and out of breath… almost like you heard Darius Rucker’s refrain, “It won’t be like this for long.”

So, live it up, little man! Be bold, stay curious, and keep smiling. And if you ever experience self-doubt, just lean on your loyal fan club/paparazzi… as you probably noticed at your 4K graduation ceremony, they will forever be rooting for you.

Cheers to the Class of 2032!

Best wishes and much love with a cherry on top,
Jaeger the 4K Graduate

P.S. Be sure to check in on mom; I noticed she got teary-eyed during the 4K graduation slideshow and so she’ll probably be a bigger mess when you graduate from kindergarten. Like, maybe give her extra snuggles?

P.P.S. Is it scary exploring the world without training wheels? And how do you like your new big-boy bedroom!?

Last weekend, we headed down to the North Bend Bottoms to kick off the fishing season!

I woke up wide-eyed and bushy-tailed, unlike my sleepyhead father, who forgot my life jacket. Luckily, we had a different lifesaver along: Grandpa, who remembered the Oreos.

Part of being a 5-year-old fisherboy is boredom. But, just as I got so bored that I started missing my sister, we caught some action in the form of a Red Horse and a Sturgeon – two types of fish I’ve never seen before. Then, I was hooked!

Fishing with Dad and Grandpa is the best… Go for the Oreos and stay to see what else Grandpa packed in his lunch cooler. And, of course, it’s fun to catch fish with my five-year-old muscles, too!