Life In M-town

A special surprise for Mother's Day

2008-05-11T13:42:00.004-04:00

by Doug

A few posts back, we told you about our mama bird that built a nest and laid some eggs. We check on them everyday, and today we saw some little baby cardinals! Very appropriate for Mother's Day.

Update: we got some neat pictures and video of the mother bird feeding her babies:

It was also interesting to see the mother bird eating the egg shells. It looks like one of the eggs hasn't hatched.

Car show

2008-05-05T06:00:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago we went to a car show. The children enjoyed sitting and "driving" all the different types of cars.

Safety tips

2008-05-04T08:00:00.000-04:00

Our state has this program where they send a book each month to registered children under the age of 5. It's absolutely free, sponsored by some organization having to do w/ Dolly Parton. Once you reach your fifth birthday, they give you the boot. Noah has aged out but Claire and Chloe still get a new age-appropriate book each month. It's really quite cool and we've gotten some neat books.

Last month Claire got a book called "Officer Buckle and Gloria". It's about a police officer who goes around to schools w/ his police dog, Gloria, giving safety tips. It's terribly cute, and there's a little girl named Claire in it, too. On the front and back inside covers, it has a bunch of safety tips listed, such as, "Don't take other people's medicine" and "Don't talk to strangers". The first time we read the book I went thru and we talked about each one, explaining why these were good rules to follow.

Well, this book has inspired the children to come up w/ their own safety tips. They've actually come up w/ some really good ones, like "Don't stick your fingers in the electrical sockets" and "Hold your mama's hand in the parking lot". And then there are the equally valid, but a little more interesting ones. Like:

Claire
Don't put people in the oven.
Don't put nails in people's eyes.

Noah
Stay away from skunks.
Stay away from lions.
Don't drive motorcycles.
Don't stand on a rocking chair.
Watch out for cars. And leaf blowers, too.
Don't put a blanket over your head when you go night-night. (He does this every night.)
Don't stand next to Daddy when Daddy is hitting the ball. (The voice of experience?)

Sandwiches

2008-05-03T20:46:00.002-04:00

by Doug

Noah likes to make a Noah sandwich. To make a Noah sandwich, you take a Mama, a Daddy, some love (i.e., a hug), and put a thick slice of Noah in between. Sometimes, we like a little Claire and Chloe on our Noah sandwich.

We made a Noah sandwich the other day, and Noah asked why it was called a Noah sandwich. I explained that Mama and Daddy are like the bread, and he's the meat. To further illustrate the concept, I tried to use real world examples that he could relate to. The exchange went like this:

"Noah, what is on a salami sandwich?"

"Salami."

"Right. What's on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?"

"Peanut butter and jelly."

"Right. So Noah, what's on a club sandwich?"

I figured I had him stumped on this one, but he's a clever little boy. His immediate response:

"Golf clubs!"

We all laughed hysterically.

Daddy's little helper

2008-05-02T21:19:00.003-04:00

By Doug

Noah has always loved to "help" me. Usually, he's not much help, and he loses interest quickly and finds something to play with. One of the things he always wants to help with is changing the oil in the cars. Mainly, he likes to help pump the hydraulic jack, then goes to play. But this time he stayed with me. He was full of questions about cars, and I was more than happy to answer. I taught him about the air filter, the oil filter, the radiator, and why oil is important. He pointed to several things in the engine, asking what they were. I was eating it up! I love teaching him about my favorite subjects - weather, geography, baseball, and cars. Changing the oil is really a one-man job, and kinda messy, but I had to find some way to get him involved. So I got a step stool from the house, and had him pour the new oil into the engine. He seemed to enjoy that.

Fun with Spanish

2008-05-02T16:51:00.004-04:00

Doug's parents bought the children an educational computer game that, among other things, teaches a little foreign language. It does French, Spanish, Japanese, and English. Noah likes to look at maps and learn about geography (as do his parents), so the foreign language thing is a nice complement to that interest.

So for a while now he has been telling me "gracias" for making supper, or asking for "agua" to drink. But then the other morning, he asked me if we were having "werewolves" for breakfast. I stopped and looked at him and asked him to repeat his question. Again, it sounded like he was asking for a big scary lupine creature to eat. I asked him where he had heard that word, as I could not fathom where he could have gotten it from. He said it was from the computer. Then it dawned on me. He was asking if we were going to have "huevos" for breakfast, which is "eggs" in Spanish. Whoo, howdy, did we get a good laugh out of that one.

The French language part of the game has a character named "Chloe" which Noah and Claire got a kick out of. Then Noah told us that there was also a "Claire" on the game, too. Wow, what a coincidence, we thought. Then Noah showed us where the game talks about "Claire". It was also in the French part, where it teaches about delicious French pastries. You know, the ones called "eclairs".

A reward for window washing

2008-05-01T15:24:00.004-04:00

Today I finally started on a chore that I should have done a while ago but kept putting off, washing my windows. I have no excuse, as we have nice vinyl windows that tilt in to make cleaning a lot less painful than it could be. But anyway, my goal was to get all the downstairs windows cleaned today. As I was preparing to start on the last 2 in the playroom, I noticed a little nest w/ 4 eggs in the rhododendron right outside the window. How exciting! I was curious as to what kind of bird had made it, and not 2 minutes later did I find out. A female cardinal came back to the nest and settled down on the eggs. She didn't seem too excited to see me. I heard her "talking" and then saw a male cardinal nearby. After I got out my camera and took a couple of pictures she flew away, but came back after a few minutes. I closed the blinds so that I could peek out at her w/o she seeing me.

Cute pictures

2008-04-25T15:06:00.003-04:00

We haven't posted any pictures recently. Here are a few, mainly from last month. I bought the girls matching dresses from Wal-mart and hats from Cracker Barrel, all on sale since it was just a couple days before Easter. The last one is of the girls on our screened porch, which is where the children have been spending a lot of time lately. It's probably their favorite room of the house.

Sesame Street Old School

2008-04-25T14:47:00.002-04:00

We watched the very first episode of Sesame Street last night. There's a DVD set called Sesame Street Old School Volume 1 (1969 - 1974). It has 1 full episode from each of the first 5 seasons, plus bonus clips. It was fun to watch and see an orange Oscar the Grouch and a funny-looking Big Bird. The children really seemed to enjoy it, and since it doesn't have much of a plot, Noah didn't get upset by it.

You see, Noah is really affected by music. If a video has music that is slow or sad or even happy (like in a crying happy kind of way), he gets very upset. I can't think of a single movie that he has seen where he did not break down in tears at some point because of "emotional" music. Not that he's seen very many, but he couldn't even handle "Milo and Otis", which is about as tame as it gets. He does better w/ shorter videos that don't have much of a storyline. I guess he just gets really involved w/ the characters and music just sends him over the edge.

There were a few times during the Sesame Street video that Doug and I looked over at him to see if he was going to cry. There was this one clip about where milk comes from (cows) that had a slow song playing in the background. He did OK w/ that.

At the end, Noah remarked to us that he had done a good job of not crying during the "movie". We agreed w/ him, and then he added, "I was holding in my sadness."

Life with Chloe

2008-03-14T21:06:00.012-04:00

My baby just turned 15 months a few days ago. I realize I haven't blogged in a while so I'd like to get my faithful readers up to speed on the little personality that is Chloe.

If Chloe were singing the "These are a Few of My Favorite Things" song from the Sound of Music, her list might include the schnitzel with noodles (the girl likes to eat), but it would also include shoes, jacket, bye-bye, bath, and cod liver oil. All these words get her excited!

Chloe is a white girl but doesn't let that stop her from busting a move when she hears any sort of music, even if it's just a ringtone on a cell phone.

She likes to take off her right sock. Very rarely her left will follow suit.

Chloe is very affectionate. She loves to hug and will sometimes give you a sweet pat on the back to go with it.

Chloe will nod yes (and mean it) in response to your questions. She has been doing this since before she turned a year old. I don't know if this is special or not, but Noah and Claire never did that until much much later.

She really likes stuffed animals, particularly baby dolls. "Mama" and "baby" are her most distinct words when talking.

She started walking the day before her first birthday.

If you ask her if she wants to wash her hands, she will immediately begin pulling up her sleeves.

She loves to climb in things. Anything will do: cabinets, drawers, boxes, baby doll cribs, laundry baskets, the warming drawer under my range, and suitcases.

Chloe likes hats.

She is fast and uses it to her advantage when getting to things she ought not to. Which is often. Chloe is more trouble than Noah and Claire combined were (at her age).

It's a good thing she is really cute.

Muffins

2008-03-14T17:09:00.002-04:00

Last week we were all sitting at the table eating breakfast, partaking of some delicious homemade pumpkin spelt muffins. They were moist and yummy, and did I mention they tasted really good? Well, anyway, we were talking about different kinds of muffins, when Claire became inspired by the lively conversation. She suddenly burst forth in song with a rousing rendition of the old, beloved hymn "Muffin But the Blood of Jesus".

Big changes

2008-03-08T17:41:00.024-05:00

When we moved to M-town 2.5 years ago, we bought a well-maintained older house (built in 1982) that needed some updating. We knew it had potential because of the square footage and "good bones", but it had some drawbacks, like a galley kitchen and laundry area in the basement. The kitchen had plenty of cabinet and countertop space, but it was a major thoroughfare (walkway to the garage) and the children always wanted to be w/ me when I was cooking. (When I was in there by myself, it was quite nice. But how often did that happen?) It had a nice, big laundry room, but laundry day often became laundry week because of it being in the basement where I could easily forget about it. :) These were all things we could live w/, but about a year and a half ago we started seriously thinking about remodeling. And we also started saving money.

Fast forward to this past December when we finally saved up enough to actually start the process. We got a recommendation for a contractor from Doug's boss at work and he gave us an estimate we thought was reasonable. He had an opening in his schedule for us as long as we were OK w/ him leaving for California for 2 weeks mid-project. Well, the timing was right for us so we decided to go for it. We had a floor plan in mind, but then a few days before we were scheduled to start, Kirk (the contractor) called and said he had been thinking about things and suggested we move the kitchen to a totally new area of the house to open up the floor plan. When we had been designing floor plans, we had always kept the kitchen in the same general area (albeit expanded) as the existing kitchen, thinking it would cost big bucks to move it. Kirk explained it wouldn't really cost any more to move it since we were going to be knocking out some walls w/ lots of plumbing anyway for the expansion. So I excitedly got to work and came up w/ a new plan w/ the kitchen where the playroom used to be. The old galley kitchen became my new pantry and laundry room (there was already a washer hookup there).

Kirk started work on January 21. We set up a little kitchen and dining area in the basement. I had a single burner and toaster oven for cooking, and a ping pong table for a prep area. The week before I cooked up a storm and put a lot of meals in the freezer to minimize eating out. We basically lived in the basement for 3 weeks (except for sleeping). I was really dreading it beforehand, but it turned out to be not nearly as bad as I was expecting.

Before he left for his 2 weeks in CA, Kirk got us a working kitchen w/ base cabinets, countertops, a sink, dishwasher, refrigerator, and range. I didn't have any wall cabinets (the cabinet company's fault, not his) but we made do for 2 weeks. When he came back we had to wait another week for the wall cabinets, but by March 6 everything was finished. It turned out wonderfully and we are very pleased w/ the job Kirk did.

As I love to watch television shows about remodeling and construction (especially those w/ before and after photos), I took a lot of pictures before, during, and after the process. Here are a few.

My old galley kitchen the day before work started. We had already emptied all the drawers and cabinets and took down the ceiling tiles. That door in the back led to the garage so this was a fairly high traffic area. Notice how low that ceiling was (less than 7 ft.). All together now, can we say "claustrophobic"?

In the kitchen, looking out into the breakfast area. The window opening in the red wall revealed the playroom, which was to become my new kitchen. Beyond that was our family room.

The old playroom, aka real estate for my new kitchen. The room beyond that was the "living room" but would have been more aptly-named the "we don't know what in the world to do with this space so we'll just stick random stuff in it and run around in it even though it's the first thing you see when you walk in the front door" room. It had quite the hodge-podge of items, including a spare bed, the children's computer, an extra table and chairs, an old coffee table we needed to get rid of, and usually various and sundry toys that had made their way over from the adjoining playroom. Lovely, eh?

Work begins. Down came the wall w/ the beautiful window opening that my wonderful father-in-law made (sorry, Dad!). We decided to leave a "column" at the corner to conceal some pipes that would have been a big pain to move. The wall between the playroom and the hallway came down, too. Nice and airy!

My old kitchen w/ most of the cabinets torn out. 'Twill be my new laundry room! Don'tcha just LOVE that wallpaper there on the left?

OK, enough tearing down, let's start fixing things up. The old playroom has become my new kitchen. Notice the doorway between the playroom and old living room has become a window opening.

From the new kitchen, you can see the old kitchen, where we had a door put in. There will be a little office area just to the left of the new door. Notice that they raised the ceiling to a normal height. Feels more spacious already!

Jump ahead to installation of the base cabinets. This is how the kitchen looked for 3 weeks while Kirk was in sunny California and then the cabinet people had my wall cabinets on backorder. A little irksome (the cabinet people, not Kirk) but not too bad. We kept all our appliances and the kitchen faucet as they were in good shape.

Whoops! How did this vision of sweetness and cuteness get in here? Well, I guess it's OK since she is holding a tape measure.

My new kitchen! Doug and I decided to spend a little more and get a tile backsplash and we are super-glad we did 'cause we REALLY like it.

More after pics. Notice the room beyond the window opening over my sink. We moved the family room to the old living room and made the old family room the children's playroom/schoolroom. So all the mess is in the back of the house! If you walk in the front door you might think to yourself what a most excellent housekeeper that Carla is because we are able to keep it fairly toy-free. (I won't post a picture of the playroom in order to keep that delusion alive.)

Our office area near the laundry room door.

My new laundry room and pantry. I have a pantry cabinet in the kitchen where I keep the stuff I use on a regular basis. But since I buy lots of stuff in bulk, I have most of my old wall cabinets on the wall to the right for extra storage. I also keep my wheat buckets there. The washer and dryer are to the right of the garage door. My old kitchen sink is still in there, but we moved our upright freezer in from the garage and also moved the bench that was under the window in the breakfast room in here. I'm not too crazy about how the wall color turned out (my fault, not Doug's -- he warned me), but it's growing on me. We'll probably repaint it in a few years. I'm really digging having the laundry room on the main floor instead of the basement.

Our new family room. This was the cheapest part of the remodeling since we just moved furniture around. :) That doorway on the right is new, though.

The window opening is probably one of the children's favorite parts of the remodel. A little person (or 2 or 3) often pops their head in the window to watch me wash dishes. (They're standing on the back of the couch.) Little Miss Mischief Maker has even been known to turn on the kitchen sink by herself. Wheee!

Another favorite part: the island/bar. When Doug is not home for a meal, this is where we usually eat (since there are only 4 chairs). Here the children are enjoying a yummy breakfast of spelt pancakes.

Well, that's it. I hope you enjoyed the tour. Now you know why I haven't been blogging very much lately.

Spring is sprung

2008-03-08T17:09:00.005-05:00

OK, well, not officially, but we had a nice day outside this week.

Mr. Fix-It

2007-12-31T17:33:00.000-05:00

I've told you all about my washer woes and how I had resorted to physical abuse to get it to do as it's told. A couple of months ago, it got to the point that even that didn't work. It would take me an entire day to finish 1 load of laundry because it would stop w/ an error every few minutes. My laundry room is in the basement, so unless I babysat it, it might sit there for hours flashing an error code before I came down to find it stopped yet again. It was frustrating to say the least.

Since I didn't feel like paying $800 to get it fixed by the Sears guy (his estimate -- $675 for the part, $125 installation), I got online to do more research. Turns out a lot of people are having the same problem. I found out I could buy the part for $250 online and install it myself, or better yet, some people were trying to fix the part in question, the central control unit. And they were succeeding! Basically they recommended taking out the circuit board and resoldering all the relays. Sounded easy, though I don't know how to solder anything. And what's a relay?

When Grandpa Dave (Doug's dad) came to visit us for Christmas, I asked him to bring his soldering iron and give it a try. I showed him the information from the internet (which was pretty vague, in my opinion) and he went to work. An hour later, I had a washing machine in good order. It's been thru about 10 washes now w/o a single problem.

I was/am extremely excited about this, but honestly, not too surprised that Dad was able to fix it. He has repaired numerous things at our house here and back in NC. Last weekend it was the washer, a leak on our water heater, a hose on our water softener, the train that goes under our Christmas tree, one of the reindeer in our yard, a small chair, numerous items that needed super-gluing, and probably something else I'm forgetting. He also helped Doug sand and repaint a bookcase. The last visit before that it was our doorbell. "Maybe Dad can fix it" is a common phrase in our house. We are extremely blessed to have such a handy guy in the family.

This past week I ran over Claire's watch w/ the vacuum cleaner, rendering the face cracked and useless. Later when she was looking for it, I told her it was broken because I had run over it w/ the vacuum. After a couple seconds of careful thought, she said, "Maybe Grandpa can fix it." I hated to tell her that there were some things that even Grandpa couldn't do.

Country-style fun

2007-10-30T22:09:00.000-04:00

From a hayride on Sunday:

Turning over a new tree

2007-10-30T21:17:00.001-04:00

The other day Doug and I were outside w/ the children. Being fall, there were lots of leaves on the ground, which inspired me to say to Noah, "You've really turned over a new leaf lately, Noah." To which Doug replied, "Noah has turned over a new tree lately."

Noah has gone thru some big changes in the last few weeks, all for the better. Even though he has been daytime potty-trained for over 2.5 years now, the nighttime thing has given him trouble. So he's been wearing extra large cloth diapers at night. We've attempted to train him several times, but after 5 or 6 days of washing at least 1 set of sheets every day, I would just give up and decide to wait a while longer. We would have him pee before bed, and then I would wake him up before I went to bed, around 11 or so, to have him use the bathroom one last time. The problem was that he always fought me. He would stand there at the toilet and say he did not need to go and fuss and whine and whatnot. Even though I knew he needed to go, his heart was not in it. We had even thrown in some incentives, like if he learned to stay dry at night (at least 5 nights out of 7) we would take him out for a milkshake. This excited him, but it sure didn't help his attitude when I went to wake him up. A couple of weeks ago Noah said he wanted to try again. He has had a big attitude change lately (more on that in a minute) so I said OK. Now when I go to wake him up, he gets up, does his business, and goes back to bed w/o a word of protest. He's been staying dry at night about 75% of the time, and I am thrilled. We took him out for his milkshake last week and he is very proud of himself.

I've mentioned before his constipation woes and how those were finally fixed w/ a constant stream of some good probiotics. After the initial period of excitement where he would go 5 or 6 times a day, he started slacking off, going back to 1 or 2 times a week again. I said no way are we going back to that. So I had to tell him to go sit on the potty every day after breakfast. Which was annoying, but I just figured he didn't have the maturity to discipline himself to go and sit when nature called. He did fine once he got on the toilet. Well, now he is going all by himself every day w/o prompting. He even calls himself "the pooping machine". :)

Noah is also being kinder to his sisters and much more affectionate to them and to us. He comes up and tells me what a sweet mommy I am and gives me a hug. Noah has always been an emotional child, but he doesn't seem to get upset as easily, calms down quicker, and generally has a more pleasant attitude. He even asks to clean up the playroom! He's certainly not perfect, but hey, neither are we, right?

So what started this? A few weeks ago I started a new nighttime ritual. Instead of just putting the children in bed, praying w/ them, and then kissing goodnight, I now lie down next to them, sing some songs and/or talk, snuggle a while, and then pray. This extra 10 minutes of "Mama-time" has had a tremendous impact on our little boy. Doug and I have always felt that we did not have Noah's heart, that we were connected emotionally. It was almost like there was a constant wall between us, and there was no desire on his part to please us. A desire to please can go a long way. But now I feel like the wall is coming down, and it is soooo nice. Not just because he is more fun to be around nowadays, but because he is my child and I want to have fellowship w/ him. I can still physically restrain him now, but in 10 years, he will most likely be taller and stronger than me. What will I do then if I do not have his heart, his trust, his love? Will he listen to us, or just disregard our advice and go his own way? If I want him to listen to me when he is 15, I have to cultivate our relationship (which includes listening to him) when he is 5. I have heard it described as "tying heartstrings". I like that.

I don't chalk all of these changes up solely to the bedtime routine. Doug has always spent a lot of time playing w/ him and teaching him things. He's a great Daddy. We have prayed for a loooong time for this and for wisdom on how to gain his trust. I feel like we are making real progress, and I am so thankful for that. We just have to keep working and praying that we will be able to keep his heart.

Isn't my little man cute? :)

Pebbles

2007-10-30T20:11:00.000-04:00

Chloe has been sporting a new hairstyle lately, inspired by Pebbles of "The Flintstones" fame.

As you can see she is also sporting some new mouth hardware. Four are totally in, 2 more are sprouting on top, only 14 to go! She's been putting these toofers to good use, having discovered the joys of Mama's cooking. I tried for a week or 2 to give her food pureed or mashed and she just didn't want it. So I decided to give it to her undoctored and she liked it! Oatmeal, eggs, toast, fruit, veggies, and whatever else we're eating, she wants it.

She started signing "all done" about 6 weeks ago, and then yesterday started doing "more". For a long while she would grab my hands and sign "more" w/ them. But really she seems to prefer "yes" and "no". If I ask her if she wants more of something, instead of signing "more" or "all done" like Noah and Claire did, she will shake her head "no" or nod "yes". That seems a little more abstract to me for a baby to understand, so I was kinda impressed.

On the walking front, she is still doing lots of cruising and likes to push things around like Noah's buggy or laundry baskets. She's still finding new and inventive ways to get into trouble, like pulling things off tables and desks or eating the toilet paper I keep on the diaper changing table. Yum.

General Chloe cuteness pictures:

A rite of passage

2007-09-17T21:43:00.000-04:00

My little boy is growing up.

This morning Noah asked to brush his teeth. He does this fairly often, but I told him he could do it after I brushed his teeth as it had not been done by an adult in a while. So I started brushing his teeth when I noticed the gums around one of his bottom middle teeth looked kinda red. Then I realized that the tooth was very loose. Trying to sound calm but failing miserably, I asked Noah if he had hit his tooth. He said no. I asked him if it hurt and he said yes, but it wasn't a very believable yes. So I touched one of his other teeth (a canine, I think) and asked if this tooth hurt. He answered in the affirmative, and then I did another. This told me that they did not hurt because usually if something really hurts him he doesn't want us anywhere near it.

So I got online to investigate when children are supposed to start losing their baby teeth. He is 4 years and 10 months old, so almost 5, which is kinda early to be losing teeth. Though not unheard of. (The average age is 6-7 years old.) He got his first teeth (one of the ones that was loose) very early, right after he turned 3 months old. I remember being extremely surprised when it came thru.

He seemed kinda upset about this tooth thing, probably picking up on my anxiety. But then we told him that when it came out, we would give him a dollar for it and take him to a store where he could pick something out to buy w/ his dollar. He cheered up considerably and started practicing wiggling the tooth w/ his tongue.

This evening around 5:30pm he pulled the tooth out w/ his fingers. I inspected it and the gums and they both look perfectly healthy, no decay or trauma is evident. So I guess it's just his time to start losing them.

I feel so old.

Before:

After (according to Noah, Snoopy lost a "sharp pointy tooth" today):

Going nowhere fast

2007-09-12T16:35:00.000-04:00

Call me lazy, but I generally dislike exercise. Which may come as a surprise since I played basketball on my school team for 6 years and volleyball for 4 years. Why did I participate in activities that required large amounts of bodily movement if I don't like exercise? Well, the main reason was that my friends did and I got to see them a whole lot more since we were all suffering together doing running drills. Second reason was because sports made me look like a "well-rounded" student on college scholarship applications.

Now I do enjoy playing a pick-up game of basketball or volleyball, but truth be told, I never enjoyed the somewhat-organized world of middle and high school sports. My coaches sensed this, I think. I just didn't have that killer instinct that it takes to be really good at a sport. That deep yearning to give 110% of myself and "be a winner". My senior year of high school we made it all the way to the game where, if you win, you get to go to Chapel Hill and play for the state championship in the Dean Dome. I don't remember specifics except that we lost an extremely close game in the closing seconds because of a very bad call by the referee. The whole game was very poorly officiated, actually, but the last minute was particularly heinous. Anyway, our team was mainly comprised of seniors and we knew this was the end of the line for our high school glory days of basketball. The locker room afterwards was very quiet except for the sound of crying and sniffling and nose-blowing. Hey, what can I say, we're girls. The head coach and her assistant were very misty-eyed, but all the players were bawling their eyes out, w/ one exception.

That would be me.

I felt really silly that I was the only one not crying. I tried to muster up some tears, but try as I might, the best I could do was an unconvincing pout. Don't get me wrong, I was sad we had lost and didn't get to go to the Dean Dome and all that jazz, but hey, don't you realize this means NO MORE BASKETBALL PRACTICE? And really, come on, it's just a game, right?

I don't regret those countless hours I spent playing sports because I do have some good memories from them, and I suspect they did help me get my free ride to college. But whenever I start thinking about exercise, and specifically running, it gives me a yucky feeling to my stomach as I recall those seemingly endless afternoons of basketball practice.

Which is why it's kinda funny that a few months ago I told Doug that I wanted to get a treadmill. I had been reading reviews of treadmills on the Consumer Reports website, courtesy of my Mama (she gave me a 1-year subscription for my birthday) and started thinking about how very little exercise I get. While I see this as a good thing, I also know that it is probably a bad thing considering that it's pretty much universally accepted as a major key to good health. I feel like I have our diet about where it should be, so why not conquer the other half of the "healthy lifestyle" duo?

So anyway, I ran this idea of acquiring a treadmill by Doug and he was less than enthused. First by the price tag of new treadmills and also by the fact that my better half shares some of my disdain for physical exertion. But then I looked on eBay and saw that we could solve the price problem there. And I patiently explained that I did not see walking up and down the stairs or around and around in the basement as an elegant solution to my treadmill-less-ness. So the more he thought about it, the more he warmed up to the idea of getting some exercise in a climate-controlled environment w/ visual entertainment just 10 feet away (aka the television).

So after several weeks of watching auctions and looking on craigslist, we finally got a nice treadmill. It goes up to 10mph and has incline settings (0-10) and a built-in fan. We've both been using it almost every day, usually going 2 miles at various inclines and speeds. I can't say I'm enjoying it, but I am very glad we got it and don't hate it the way I did back in high school. Maybe because it's me controlling how long and far I go instead of someone else yelling that I better pick up the pace or we'll have to start all over again.

Oh, a funny story about our purchase. The guy we bought it from is in the large city about an hour away. (Since people don't want to ship these things, large items are usually sold w/ local pick-up only.) We were going to go meet him there to pick it up from him, but he ended up needing to come to M-town to deliver a bed to his in-laws who live in the subdivision next to ours. So he brought it w/ him and left it there for us to get. Doug went to the seller's in-laws' house and realized that he plays handbells w/ the mother-in-law. Small world, eh?

Christmas in September?

2007-09-09T07:49:00.001-04:00

On our last visit to the eye doctor, he recommended that we start some light vision therapy w/ Claire by getting some red-green games that train the eyes to work together. The premise is that you wear a special pair of glasses where one lens is green and the other red. Then when you look at games w/ red and green pieces, both eyes have to be involved to be able to see everything and actually play the game or complete a puzzle.

So I ordered some stuff a few weeks ago and it finally came yesterday. I ordered 2 pairs of children's glasses and one adult pair. I wanted to be able to see what Claire would be seeing, plus I knew Noah would want a pair once he saw Claire w/ them. Here is a picture of Noah and Claire sporting their new shades:

Here is a picture of the magnetic alphabet we got for her to work w/:

It's really quite strange to use the glasses. Your eye w/ the green lens sees the green objects and the eye w/ the red lens sees the red ones. So if I point to a green letter or shape and ask Claire what it is and she has no idea, I know that the eye w/ the green lens is not getting used. She was obviously not using her left eye (cataract/amblyopic eye) at first, but by the end of our "session", she was doing better. I'm supposed to work w/ her everyday w/ these activities. Doug and I actually had to concentrate to see everything correctly as well when we wore the glasses.

Here is an example of what you see w/o the glasses (first pic), then what you see thru the green lens (second pic), and then finally thru the red (third pic). This is a game where she is supposed to put button shapes on the matching shape on the card. Half are red and half are green so in order to do the whole card, she has to use both eyes.

Here's Noah doing the domino game:

In other news, Chloe is just a vision of sweetness and cuteness. And major mischief. She likes to get in the pantry and "organize" it for me:

She's also just tall enough that she can grab the bar on the front of the range and hold on and swing like the big monkey she is:

She can stand on her own for 4-5 seconds. Her two top teeth are just barely poking thru the gums now. She's also saying something that sounds like "mama" and "dada".

Yesterday Noah told me he wanted to go back to the "Nacar Pee Pock" (NASCAR Speed Park).

Last night Claire told me that Chloe was "lookin' for trouble". Noah likes to say that he just doesn't know what we're going to do w/ her.

They love their little sister!

A real knee-slapper

2007-08-23T02:51:00.000-04:00

by Doug

We were eating dinner yesterday evening, and during our intriguing dinner conversation, Noah mentioned something about cows, I think (I was too engrossed in eating my wife's delicious cooking). That prompted Carla to ask him "Why do cows wear bells?" Noah said "I don't know." Carla said "Because their horns don't work!" I started laughing, embellishing it a little for the kids enjoyment. Noah had a slightly confused look on his face, then started laughing with me. We realized at that moment that he has no idea what a joke is. We tried to explain it to him - it's a story or a question that makes people laugh. After a few minutes, Noah thought he would give it a try. He asks "Why do dogs wear collars?" Without waiting for an answer, he says "Because their eyes don't work!" We all laugh harder at his joke than hers, but with a slightly confused look on our faces.

I want rice.

2007-08-17T23:35:00.001-04:00

We had an interesting conversation w/ Noah today about that new vegetable called "both". It went somewhere along the lines of the following.

Me: Noah, do you want beans, broccoli, or both?

Noah: I want rice.

Me: Yes, I know you want rice. But do you want beans, broccoli, or both?

Noah: Uh, both.

Me (looking skeptical as broccoli is the lesser of 2 evils in Noah's opinion): You want both broccoli and beans?

Noah: I want rice. I don't want beans and broccoli.

Daddy: Do you know what "both" means? It means you get 2 things, beans and broccoli.

Me: So do you want both or do you just want broccoli?

Noah: Broccoli. I want rice.

Me: Yes, Noah, I know you want rice. That fact has been established already.

I can read!

2007-08-13T16:33:00.000-04:00

A few months ago when Grandma Carol was here she remarked to me that she had a feeling I was going to have a hard time homeschooling Noah because he wasn't very open to instruction. I had noticed this too and shared her concern. We had tried talking to him about letters and the sounds they make (and other things) but he just got this weird look on his face and tuned out.

My sisters-in-law Laura and Tina have been telling me about these LeapFrog DVDs that their children just loved to watch. It really helped them learn their letters and the sounds they make. I admit I was very resistant to this idea because I'm not a big fan of children watching videos. But finally I got the first in the series, LeapFrog Letter Factory. Noah and Claire LOVED it and w/i 3 or 4 days (one viewing per day) both were learning their sounds. We eventually moved on to LeapFrog Talking Words Factory 1 and 2.

Well, that was all Noah needed. They both have been very interested in letters and we've been working w/ Noah on sounding out words. Tina lent me her book "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" and I have been working w/ Noah from that. It is painfully repetitive, so we mainly just read the words it has to sound out and the little stories w/ pictures it has. It introduces one letter/sound at a time so that is good review for him. So far he is doing very well, wanting to cover 3 or 4 lessons at a sitting. He asks to do the "book w/ the sounds". I am so happy that he is eager to learn! I think he enjoys the extra one-on-one time w/ me as well.

Each baby is different

2007-08-13T16:19:00.000-04:00

Chloe continues to amaze us. A few weeks ago she started walking along while holding onto the couch, and now she is moving from object to object (chair to piano, couch to table, etc.). She just turned 8 months old and is doing more than Noah and Claire were doing at 1 year. She is more petite than they were and just more active in general. She's just now getting to where I can give her pureed bits of fruit w/o her acting like she's gagging. Though she's still having no trouble getting wallpaper down. :)

Here's a recent pic of our sweet slice of cutie pie at Grandma and Grandpa's condo near Myrtle Beach:

And a pic of Claire at home a week before our vacation. We actually got her to give a good smile instead of her fake cheesin'-way-too-hard one:

Noah looking sweet:

And a silly one just because (in case you're wondering, that's Noah's pajama bottoms on his head and shirt on Claire's head):

Ketchup

2007-08-12T18:00:00.001-04:00

OK, so we've been serious slackers when it comes to blogging. I'll try to play catch-up, but I'm sure I'll forget something.

The biggest thing that has happened in the last month (!!!) is our super-fun vacation visiting w/ Grandmas and Grandpas!

On Thursday, August 2, we drove to see Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Louis. We left after Doug got off work so got there around 9pm. Though it was a shameless "hotel" stop, we did get to visit w/ them a decent amount.

We left around 9am the next morning to head to see Doug's parents (Grandma Carol and Grandpa Dave). That evening we got to see Uncle Knocker, Aunt Laura, Aunt Sandra and her boyfriend Josh (who does not respond to "Joshie"), and 6 Gaskins cousins. Noah and Claire jumped right into the fray and had a grand time. Aunt Laura made us some yummy homemade pizza and cheesecake. And Sophie gave Claire a very pretty dress. Here is a picture of Claire wearing the dress later that night after we got back to G & G's place:

On Saturday the children and I hung around the house w/ G & G while Doug went to the House in the Horseshoe re-enactment. We came around 4pm w/ Grandpa Dave to see the actual battle. It was HOT HOT HOT. Here is Noah w/ Doug. Notice the neon orange ear plugs Noah is sporting to match his gun:

Here are some action shots of Doug. He's the one in white sitting against the well w/ the big brown hat and then the one on the left shooting his gun.

Saturday night G & G graciously offered to babysit Chloe while we took Noah and Claire to see Ratatouille. We'd been wanting to see this for a while but had to wait until we had someone to watch Chloe as we knew she would not sit still for that long. Noah said he did not want to go but we told him he would have a good time and that he was going to go. Well, let's just say we came to regret our decision to take him. From the opening previews, he was terrified. He spent the entire movie sitting on my lap in a fetal position w/ his hands and Snoopy over his ears. He even screamed during the particularly intense parts, aka parts w/ slow music or thunderstorms or sudden noises. Claire LOVED the movie. Noah is probably scarred for life.

Then on Sunday we made our way to North Myrtle Beach where Doug's parents have a condo. That night we went to the beach. I was expecting Noah and Claire to take about 30 minutes to warm up to the idea of getting in the water, but they went right for it. Chloe took to it immediately as well, which surprised me. The first time we took Noah and Claire to the beach (right around the same age as Chloe) they did not enjoy it at all. We put Chloe down on the sand in the very shallow water and she crawled all over the place, splashing, eating sand, and charging the waves. The water was the warmest I've ever felt, I think.

I used to love going to the beach as a child but got to the point where it just didn't excite me anymore because of the sandiness and saltiness you have to deal w/ afterwards. Watching our children discover the joys of the beach has renewed my enthusiasm. I really enjoyed sitting and playing w/ them in the shallow water.

When we got back to the condo we set up an assembly line to clean them up. I had all 3 of them in the tub and Doug dried and dressed them as I got each one out.

We went to the beach on Monday night and then swam in the pool on Tuesday night. We tend to do our water activities in the evening for several reasons:
1. There's hardly anyone at the pool or the beach in the evening.
2. There's very little chance of getting sunburnt.
3. It's much easier to keep an eye on my little children when there aren't millions of other little children running around.
4. It's not so hot.
5. Little to no half-naked women sunbathing in the evening.

Wednesday morning we ate at Hot Stacks where Noah ate an enormous breakfast of 3 big pancakes w/ apple topping. It took us a good 9.5 hours to get home, though that included several stops and a long leisurely "lunch" in Spartanburg. We pulled into our garage around 8:30pm and we were glad to be home.