First Day of School

Yesterday was a big day for us ... Henry's first day of school. This year he'll be attending our town's preschool two days a week for a couple of hours in the morning. It's going to be great for all of us.

For the first day Meg went with Henry for an hour. All the other parents were there with their kids to assist in the introduction. Henry left the house willingly, but was a bit shy there and did have a few drop to floor moments. We think it went better than expected though, because later when we talked to Henry about it he seemed positive about it and isn't terrified of going again (not like a haircut anyway). Hope the first true, full day goes well!

We went to Panera Bread (Henry's choice) afterwards to celebrate. I took the day off and had a good time at the playground with the kids. Meg took a brief, much needed nap (Hazel's night time sleeping has been terrible lately).



Above is a picture Henry drew. He and Hazel have been playing with crayons a lot. Henry often requests that we put his pictures up on the refrigerator. He told Meg that this was a picture of two robots with long arms for picking flowers which they eat. One robot is holding a flower. I'm not sure if he's drawing such things intentionally or scribbling than coming up with stories about the scribbles, but I don't care. Like his dreams, I love hearing these stories. His imagination is growing by leaps and bounds these days!

1 large dollar and 54 small dollars had just one Canadian dollar (1989).

7 half dollars produced one 90% silver half (1961) and one 40% silver half (1966).

6,320 quarters yielded one silver Washington (1948), ten Canadians, two US dimes, seven US nickels, two UK 10 pence, one Bermuda 25¢ and one Cayman Islands 25¢. I also came across a silver quarter, 1963D, in the reject bin of a coin counting machine at the bank.

5,900 dimes rounded up two silver Rosies (1946, 1961), nine Canadians and one UK 5 pence. In this batch I also found a new modern dime for me, the 2011D.

3,000 nickels turned up just twelve Canadians (3 Ni).

9,000 had forty-four Wheats, sixty-two Canadians, two Barbados 1¢ and four US dimes. One of the Canadians was a pretty nice 1929 George V penny.

1940, 1941(4), 1942, 1944(4), 1945(4), 1946(3), 1948(5), 1949, 1951, 1952(2), 1953(2), 1954D, 1955, 1955D, 1956, 1956D, 1957(2), 1957D(2), 1958(2), 1958D

Found: 2 pennies, 1 nickel, 1 quarter (1963D, a 90% silver one)

Irene

Although we had a few stir crazy moments yesterday, we survived Irene rather well. Meg made lots of tomato sauce and a rainbow birthday cake (Henry said it was Duck's 1st birthday); I made lots of forts with pillows and blankets. We didn't loose power at all, but we did loose two garden plants and four or five big branches fell from a tree in our yard. The wind was pretty impressive at times. I'm glad it was just a tropical storm by the time it got to us!





The day before, Saturday, I had a great time with the kids at a nearby science museum. It was the first time I just let Hazel walk around there. For her it was like being their the first time (even though we go there about three times a month). It's more difficult following two of them around, but not too bad.

My coins were really good to me this weekend.

27 small dollars had nothing.

8,040 half dollars produced nineteen 90% silver halves (17 x 1964, 2 x 1964D), two 40% silver halves (1967, 1969D) and one proof (1973S). Only the proof half came from my weekly boxes. All of the silver came from a very fortunate bank stop I made on Friday.

1,600 quarters yielded five Canadians, one Bermuda 25¢ five US nickels, two US pennies, one US dime and a parking token.

1,800 dimes turned up eight Canadians, one Bermuda 10¢ and one Chinese 1 Jiao.

2,360 nickels rounded up thirty War Times (11 x 1943P, 3 x 1943S, 7 x 1944P, 7 x 1945P, 1945D, 1945S), eight US pennies, five Canadians and one German 10 Pfennig (1950). That's the most War Times I've come up with in one sitting. A real nickel hoard. It was from the same bank as the silver halves.

12,450 pennies got me three hundred ninety-four Wheat (one Steelie), ninety-six Canadians, three US dimes, one Australia 5¢, one German 50 Pfennig (1980), one Bahamas 1¢, two UK pennies and one Zambia 1 Ngwee (1983). The majority of these Wheats came from one source I hadn't worked my way through earlier in the week. They definitely help my average, although most were kind of boring 1950's Wheats. In this big batch of pennies, however, I scored a really good, new one, the 1926S! This one felt really good, only 4,550,000 million were minted. Another one of those Wheats I wasn't so sure I'd find ... I guess I should have learned by now. The Zambia coin is a new country for me. Another great moment!





1919, 1926S, 1927, 1929(2), 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1940, 1941(6), 1941S, 1942(8), 1943, 1944(18), 1944D(2), 1945(4), 1945S, 1946(12), 1948(4), 1948D, 1949(5), 1949D, 1950(12), 1950D(4), 1950S(3), 1951(21), 1951D(16), 1951S(3), 1952(13), 1952D(21), 1953(15), 1953D(18), 1953S, 1954, 1954D, 1955(12), 1955D(14), 1956(35), 1956D(32), 1957(24), 1957D(28), 1958(29), 1958D(19)

67 small dollars and one half dollar didn't have anything.

3,480 quarters produced just one token, a Pete Rose token of some sort.



2,400 dimes turned up one silver Rosie (1959), five Canadians and one UK 5 pence.

1,200 nickels yielded two War Times (1943P, 1943S), one Canadian and one Swiss 20 Rappen.

5,700 pennies rounded up thirty-two Wheats, fifty-four Canadians, one US dime, one Euro 2¢ and one UK penny.

1925, 1926, 1940, 1941, 1941S, 1945(2), 1947, 1948, 1948D, 1949, 1950S, 1951D, 1952, 1952D, 1953(3), 1953D, 1954S, 1955(2), 1956(2), 1956D, 1957(3), 1957D(3), 1958(2)

The 1941S is the 103rd Wheat variety I've found this year. That makes 2011 the year with the most Wheat varieties for me! Strangely, I haven't found that one since November 18th, 2009.

Found: 1 foreign coin (a Canadian dime)

Last night's coins weren't as exciting as the night before's ... it's be tough to equal that night! We did, however, have a very successful bath night. Hazel badly needed a bath after she spilled a bottle of maple syrup on herself and then Henry volunteered to also take a bath.

391 small dollars had six mint set dollars (3 x 2002P, 2003P, 2006P, 2008P).

3,600 quarters produced just two Canadians ... boring.

2,000 dimes had nothing ... also boring.

1,640 nickels yielded two War Times (2 x 1945P), four Canadians (1 Ni) and one Guatemala 1¢ (1958) ... more exciting. The Guatemala coin is a new one for me.



600 pennies turned up four Wheats (1944, 1951, 1952D, 1956D), four Canadians, two UK pennies and one Taiwan 1 Yuan.

Found: 1 penny

Busted!

Last night's coins were OK, except for one super stunner!

2,280 quarters had just three Canadians and two US nickels.

2,700 dimes produced two silver dimes (1830, 1956), two Canadians, one Barbados 10¢, one UK 5 pence and one Bermuda 10¢.

One of the last rolls produced a true stunner, a 1830 US dime!! I'm still shocked. I've heard of people finding Seated Liberty dimes before, but I haven't seen any Capped Bust dimes show up on the forums I check out (some people have been lucky enough to find Capped Bust halves). I've only found one Barber dime myself and that one's really crappy. This one is pretty good shape, it doesn't have any dents or gouges and one can read all of the words on it. I think it's worth something like $60. It's the second oldest coin, the oldest US coin and the oldest US dime (beating my 1913, found 6/8/2009, by 83 years) I've found. It is also the rarest, by mintage, dime I've turned up. 510,000 were minted.



1,120 nickels had one War Time (1943S), two Canadians and one Swiss 20 Rappen.

4,400 pennies rounded up thirty-seven Wheats, thirty Wheats, three US dimes, one UK penny (2000) and a penny stamped with the outline of Pennsylvania.

1919, 1926, 1934, 1937D, 1939, 1941, 1942, 1944(3), 1945, 1945S, 1946(3), 1947(3), 1948(2), 1950D, 1951, 1951D(2), 1951S, 1953D, 1955(2), 1956D(2), 1957D(2), 1958(2), 1958D(3)

Mysteries

There are definitely a lot of mysteries with children, particularly with Henry and his increased conversational skills. He gets a lot more across, but he also opens up a lot more confusion at time as we sometimes don't get what he's getting at or what word he's insisting on using (we can't just say, "Can you spell it?", but I'm tempted!).

Last night when I got home he told me that I skipped on page in his book because it was stuck to another page (a library book) and that we should have known that because the front cover had small pictures of all trucks covered inside the book. The logic of all this really impresses me. It's thrilling to observe his thought development!

The next one's more funny. Henry was playing with Meg's deodorant yesterday. We told him it was for putting on one's arm pits to make them smell nice. Henry put it on his forearms and told Meg, "now I smell like an airplane." She had no idea why he said that, but he insisted. I had no clue either. This morning Meg figured out he said that because the deodorant has a picture of a small airplane on it to denote that is is safe for airplane travel ... go figure!!

I had a big victory last night! I snaked out our sink drain for 2 hours and beat the clog. It took snaking it from the basement through some clean out point and one terrific mess ... I feel like Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs ... but it is now done and didn't cost me anything. No $200-$300 plumber call!

On to another mystery ...

The coins were pretty good to me last night (at least for the amount searched).

53 small dollars had nothing.

5,240 quarters produced two silver Washingtons (1942D, 1964) and sixteen Canadians. Finding two silver quarters and including a new one in one sitting was awesome. I haven't found two in one night since April. Putting a new (older coin anyway) in my albums is one great feeling. I brought the album into work today just to gloat to myself. The silver quarter album is very slowing filling up, just another 100 years or so and I'll be done.

2,500 dimes yielded just nine Canadians and one East Caribbean States 10¢.

1,080 nickels turned up one War Time (1945P) and four Canadians (1 Ni).

600 pennies (not sure where all these were at the three banks I hit) rounded up just three Wheats (1944, 1945, 1958D) and five Canadians.

Found: 5 pennies (one was a 1934 Wheat) and 2 dimes

This past weekend we were on vacation. We went to Cape Cod and stayed it my Uncle's place. Once again the accommodations worked out really well for us and we had a good time. Here are some pictures.



Our first day was super rainy, but that didn't stop us from setting up the beach tent inside and the kids from dancing to a clock radio. Check out Henry's finger pointing move!



On the second day we went to the Cape Cod Natural History Museum. Both kids really enjoyed looking at the aquariums and stuffed birds. I think this might be my favorite family day every, at least one of them.





Henry goofing around in the library.



At the beach the kids did great. (I'm choosing to forget about the struggles to put sun block on Henry.) Henry could have walked in the water and dug holes in the muddy sand all day. Hazel could easily have spent just as long in the sand or mud. These sunglasses are Hazel's, but Henry likes to wear them more than she does.





Hazel's two piece!



We had a lot of fun at the Heritage Museum on our last day. Henry and Hazel both like looking at the "old time" cars.







A picture of we, parents!

The other big news is ... Hazel is walking! Yup. She started taking more and more steps the week before left and on the Saturday before I was pretty excited to see her take eight or so steps. Now she's walking just about everywhere around the house. She's really good at it too. Of course being able to walk means you can carry things (besides in your mouth). One of Hazel's new favorite games is walking around with a bag and stopping to put things in it. We call it shopping, but perhaps she is cleaning.

After vacation there was some coin waiting for me (the week was light on coin, but I did do some).

50 small dollars had nothing.

8,000 half dollars turned up eight 90% silver halves (1945D, 1958D, 6 x 1964), twenty-six 40% silver halves (1965, 6 x 1966, 8 x 1957, 7 x 1968D, 4 x 1969D). Still looking for that 1944D! This felt close.

6,680 quarters yielded six Canadians, four US nickels, two UK 10 pence, one East Caribbean States 25¢, one Bermuda 25¢ and one Russian 2 Roubles.

5,300 dimes produced five silver Rosies (1950D, 1954, 1954D, 1964, 1964D) and six Canadians (one was a 1965, 80% silver dime).

2,520 nickels rounded up one dateless Buffalo, four Canadians (1 Ni) and five US dimes.

11,700 pennies brought me one hundred fourteen Wheats, seventy-four Canadians, five US dimes and two Bermuda 1¢.

1920, 1921, 1924, 1926(2), 1935, 1936(2), 1938, 1940(6), 1941(7), 1942(7), 1944(13), 1944S, 1946(3), 1946D(2), 1947, 1948(3), 1949(3), 1950, 1951(3), 1952(3), 1952D(3), 1952S, 1953(6), 1953D(2), 1953S, 1954(2), 1955(6), 1955D, 1956(2), 1956D(10), 1957(7), 1957D(2), 1958(2), 1958(6)

Found: 2 pennies, 2 dimes

Things are bit busy right now, but here's a coin update.

10 large dollars and 56 small dollars had nothing.

8,022 halves turned up nineteen 90% silver halves (1944, 1951S, 15 x 1964, 2 x 1964D), forty-seven 40% silver halves (5 x 1965, 8 x 1966, 15 x 1967, 10 x 1968D, 9 x 1969D) and one proof half (1988S).

6,480 quarters produced one silver Washington (1952D), seven Canadians, eight US nickels, five US dimes, two US pennies and one Canadians nickel (1 Ni).

5,150 dimes had one silver Rosie (1962D) and seven Canadians.

3,040 nickels rounded up one War Time (1943P), three Canadians (1 Ni), one US dimes, one Japanese 1 Yen and one Somalia 5 Shillings.

11,100 pennies got me eighty-nine Wheats, seventy-seven Canadians, one Swiss 1 Rappen (1957), one German 2 Pfennig, one Euro 2¢ and one US dime.

1919, 1920(2), 1923, 1927D, 1934, 1937, 1940(2), 1940D, 1941(6), 1942, 1944(9), 1944D(2), 1945(2), 1946(6), 1946D, 1947(2), 1948(7), 1949, 1950(4), 1950D, 1951, 1951D, 1952(2), 1952D(3), 1953(6), 1953D(2), 1955(2), 1955D(2), 1956(3), 1956D(2), 1957(3), 1957D(4), 1958, 1958D(2)

Found: 6 pennies

Here's some fun pictures we took recently.





(Dig the Loverboy look Henry's got going!)







171 small dollars didn't have anything.

5,440 quarters had seven Canadians, two US nickels and one UK 10 pence. Yikes, this week I searched a lot of quarters!

1,950 dimes produced one silver dime (1923), four Canadians, one Bermuda 10¢ and one UK 5 pence. The Mercury dime was the second I found in two days and this one was in pretty good shape, especially considering its age.



120 nickels had squat. Strange, but that's all the nickels they had for me.

3,550 pennies turned up one Indian Head (1874), thirty-five Wheats, twenty-four Canadians and one Trinidad and Tobago 1¢. The Indian Head is the oldest penny and oldest US coin I've found! It's the rarest Indian Head I've come across too, 14,187,500 were minted. Except for the hole someone put in it, it is in pretty good shape.



1912, 1918, 1923, 1925, 1926, 1940, 1942D, 1944(4), 1945, 1945D, 1946(3), 1948(2), 1949(2), 1951, 1952, 1952D, 1953(2), 1952D, 1956, 1956D(4), 1957D(2), 1958D(2)

Jinxed

Unfortunately I jinxed us by mentioned the good sleep we had the night before last. Last night was terrible. Ugh.

2,400 quarters yielded one proof quarter (1999S PA), three Canadians, two US nickels and one US dime. The proof is in pretty good condition. I now have found three of the five clad proof quarters produced in 1999.

3,000 dimes turned up three silvers (1945, 1951, 1964D), eight Canadians and two US pennies. That's the first Mercury dime I've turned up since May. That's a bit of a drought for me. This amount of dimes put me past last years search total. I now have searched more than last year for all denominations except halves!

1,660 nickels rounded up just three Canadians (1 Ni, a slightly older, rarer for me, 1949 George VI nickel).

4,500 pennies had twenty-seven Wheats, twenty-seven Canadians and three US dimes.

1910, 1927, 1936, 1938, 1939, 1944, 1945(3), 1946(3), 1950(2), 1951, 1952, 1952D, 1953D, 1955D(2), 1956, 1956D(2), 1957, 1957D, 1958

Found: 1 penny, 1 quarter

Big Nap!

Last night Henry said told us he had a big nap. He, Hazel, Meg and I all slept through the night. It was glorious.

My coin from yesterday wasn't too exciting.

62 small dollars, 6 halves and 1,600 quarters had nothing.

1,450 dimes produced one silver Rosie (1961) and one Canadian.

3,440 nickels turned up seven Canadians (3 Ni), one UK penny and a Japanese 1 Yen (1950). The Japanese coin is a new one for me. I had some fun looking up how to read the date on the coin.



4,200 pennies yielded fifteen Wheats, nineteen Canadians, six US dimes and one Bahamas 1¢. One of the Wheats, the 1929D, was a rarer one for me.

1929D, 1940(3), 1942, 1945S, 1946(2), 1950S, 1951, 1952(2), 1952D, 1958D(2)

Found: 3 pennies, 1 dime

This weekend was a pretty good one for us. There was just one fitful episode from Henry. Mom and Dad both got some stuff done, had good times with the kids and went out!

On Saturday I took the kids to a local field and some new trails. Before Hazel's afternoon nap we went out again to our favorite park for some swinging. In the evening Mom and Dad had a rare date night! My mother and father watched the kids. Henry had fun reading with Nana.

Sunday morning I took Henry to church. His Cioci watched him and Liam. Henry said to Nicole, “Hazel and I like bananas. Mom and Dad like soda.” Henry and Liam had several disagreements about how to pronounce the word bananas. Strangely, Henry was in the right, Nicole said. After church we went over to Nicole’s for a short play date. Evan and Liam were “wrestling” a little roughly at one point. Henry told them to stop. Liam yelled, “you’re not the boss of me, Henry!” It was pretty funny.

After Hazel’s nap I took the kids to the Ecotarium. On the way there I realized Henry didn’t have shoes! We drove back home to get them. Hazel didn’t like that too much. After Meg passed them into the car, Henry asked, “did we get both of them?” “Why’d we (funny) leave them at home?” “Don’t worry Haze, we’ll be there soon.” At the place we had a train ride. Hazel loved that. She bounced most of the time and did her singing. We played with tubes, crawled in some equipment and saw a real bunny outside. In the evening we had a good bath time (finally Henry seems to have gotten over his bath aversion – Hazel’s being excited for baths seems to have swayed him). Henry came down a couple of times before sleeping for real. He can make up so many excuses. If it doesn’t go on for very long it is pretty cute as he’s really chatty then.

8,000 halves had just one 40% silver half (1966).

5,000 pennies produced twenty-eight Wheats, forty-three Canadians and one Bahamas 1¢ (1974).

1924, 1925, 1926, 1936, 1940, 1945(2), 1948D, 1949, 1950S, 1951, 1952D(2), 1952S, 1955(2), 1955D, 1956, 1956D(2), 1957D(6), 1958

4,100 pennies produced eighteen Wheats (one Steelie) and forty-one Canadians.

1934, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943D, 1944, 1946(3), 1948D, 1951, 1952, 1955D, 1956, 1957D(3), 1958D

Found: 1 penny, 1 foreign coin (a Canadian dime)

33 small dollars had one Canadian $1 (2008).

4,400 quarters turned up one silver Washington (1964), seven Canadians, one Malaysia 20 Sen (1990) and one India 50 Paise (1985). Those last two coins are new foreign types for me!





2,600 dimes rounded up two silver Rosies (1960D, 1962D), three Canadians, one UK 5 pence and one India 25 Paise (1988).

2,000 nickels produced one dateless Buffalo, three War Times (1943S, 1944P, 1945S), three Canadians (1 Ni) and one Bermuda 5¢.

8,500 pennies yielded fifty-four Wheats, eighty-one Canadians, three US dimes, one German 2 Pfennig and one Euro 2¢.

1920, 1923, 1926, 1928, 1934(2), 1935(3), 1937(2), 1938, 1940, 1941(2), 1942(3), 1944(6), 1945(5), 1946(4), 1946D, 1951D, 1952(2), 1952D, 1953, 1953D(2), 1955, 1956, 1956D, 1957, 1957D(5), 1958, 1958D(2)

Yesterday I found gathered lots of coin. One of my favorite tellers was back from a two week vacation so she had lots for me.

9 small dollars had nothing.

7,720 quarters produced ten Canadians, two Bermuda 25¢, two Cayman Islands 25¢, one French franc, one arcade token, three US nickels, one US penny and two US dimes.

5,750 dimes yielded twelve Canadians, one Aruba 10¢, one Swiss 10 Rappen (1939), three UK 5 pence, two US pennies and a Botswana 10 Thebe. The Swiss coin is a new type for me, a pretty old one too. The Botswana coin is the same type as one I found in the reject bin of a Coin Star machine some time ago.



3,440 nickels rounded up one dateless Buffalo, three War Times (2 x 1943P, 1944P), six Canadians (4 Ni), two US pennies and one Euro 5¢.

Lately I've seen a lot of creativity from Henry. I know Meg sees this during the day, but because I'm at work (usually) I miss it. On the weekend he was excited to make race tracks out of play dough, on Monday he wanted to make a race track out of a large piece of cardboard (by drawing it, he told me what to draw and where) and today he was very excited to do some painting and use his magic markers. He drew what he told us was some train tracks.

My coins last night were OK.

30 large dollars and 127 small dollars had mint set dollar (2006P).

20 half dollars had one proof half (1977S).

4,080 quarters turned up nine Canadians, one Bahamas 25¢, one Bermuda 25¢, one Hong Kong $1 and one US nickel.

3,150 dimes yielded four silver Rosies (1948, 1948D, 1960D, 1964), three Canadians, one UK 5 pence and one Brazil 1¢.



2,000 nickels produced one proof nickel (2005S Ocean in View), three Canadians (1 Ni), five US pennies (in place of a nickel) and one US dime. In the mix was also a 1949S. It felt pretty cool to find another new proof nickel so soon!

7,600 pennies rounded up forty-eight Wheats, forty-one Canadians, one German 1 Pfennig, one Swedish 50 Ore and three US dimes. One of the Wheats, the 1925S, is a pretty good one for me. I only found this one once before, on the West Coast.

1918S, 1919S, 1925S, 1927, 1930, 134, 1937, 1939(2), 1942(2), 1942D, 1944(2), 1944D, 1945(3), 1946(2), 1947, 1948(3), 1950D, 1950S, 1951, 1951D(2), 1952, 1952D, 1953, 1953D(2), 1954, 1955(2), 1956, 1956D, 1957(2), 1957D, 1958, 1958D

A nice teller also saved for me three $2 red seal notes (1953A, 2 x 1963). The 1953A bill is the oldest piece of currency I've turned up so far.



Found: 2 pennies