Life In M-town

We're moving!

2008-08-27T16:19:00.004-04:00

Now don't get all excited, thinking we have neglected to tell you some very important news personally. I'm talking about this blog -- it's moving to a new site, hosted by WordPress. This will be the last post on Blogger, so be sure and update your links (and RSS feeds if you're into that sort of thing).

Go on over to the new blog!

Just different

2008-08-20T15:42:00.016-04:00

My children are very blessed to have all 4 of their grandparents alive and well, along w/ a great-grandparent as a bonus. Doug and I both came from loving homes, but we had fairly different upbringings. He spent the first 15 years of his life in the suburbs in New Jersey as the youngest of 2 children. I grew up in the backwoods of North Carolina as the 5th of 6 children. I've adopted some of Doug's family's way of doing things, and he has taken some of mine. I like to think our children are a nice mix of the two.

These different backgrounds mean my children get very different experiences when they visit their 2 sets of grandparents. I think this is a good thing; it's a blessing that I hope they will appreciate one day. Time spent w/ one set is not better than a visit w/ the other; it's just different.

This past weekend we visited my parents. They still live in the house I was raised in. We arrived on Saturday night, hoping to get a swim in at the pool down the road where I learned to swim (or should I say where my daddy threw me into the deep end). It belongs to a very elderly gentleman that I have known all my life. Unfortunately, there was a lot of lightning and thunder so we just stayed at the house w/ my grandmother (my parents were out of town until the next day). Chloe seemed particularly fond of my Grandmother Louise (her great-grandmother) and we got some cute shots of inter-generational affection. I think I spotted a little puddle of Grandmother-Louise-heart on the couch afterwards:

After church and then lunch on Sunday we headed over to the pool. The children enjoyed their time in the water. Doug and I entertained them by jumping off the diving board and doing amazing feats of somersaults, twists, and flips before slipping gracefully into the water (making little to no splash, of course). Or maybe not. But I did touch my toes before that belly flop. And I think the children were amused.

My parents returned on Sunday afternoon, and we enjoyed a yummy supper w/ them, my grandmother, my brother Sid, his wife Tina, and their crew of 4 young'uns. Noah and Claire had an absolute ball playing w/ their cousins. Chloe liked to follow them around and got totally filthy in the process:

That afternoon we discovered that one of the nanny goats had had twins the day before. They were so little and cute! But very loud if you took them away from their mama:

My nephew Sidney, Noah, and Claire playing together:

Noah, Claire, Sidney, and Chloe playing:

My nephew Lincoln pulling Claire and his sister Rachel in the wagon:

On Monday, Doug and I went whitewater rafting on the French Broad River while my parents looked after the children. (Wasn't that nice of them?) It was in celebration of our 8th wedding anniversary, which is officially next week. We had a good time but got a bit crispy around the edges (i.e. sunburned on our arms and legs). While we were gone the children got to go fishing and played w/ their cousins some more. They also gorged themselves on tomatoes, blueberries, and raisin bread.

On Tuesday we got ready to leave. But first we had to sneak in a little bit of blueberry pickin'. Chloe did pretty well choosing the blue ones and not the green unripe ones.

But why bother when Mama will pick for you?

My mama loaded us up w/ produce before we left, including tomatoes, peppers, cantaloupe, blueberries, watermelon, okra, green beans, eggplant, pumpkin, and some honey from their bees. She wanted to give us some squash and cucumbers too but we already have a lot of those from our own garden. Mama says she needs to stop planting such a humongous garden every year, but I don't mind it one bit. We'll be eatin' pretty good this week!

For lunch we met Doug's dad (Grandpa Dave) at Olive Garden. This was planned at the last minute so we decided not to tell the children beforehand. I think they were very pleasantly surprised. Grandpa Dave quizzed Noah on what he had done in school the previous week. I'm sure he was dazzled by Noah's extensive knowledge of killer whales. He also gave Doug his birthday present (it's next week, 3 days after our anniversary). We had a nice meal and visit w/ him before we had to head on home. Claire told me in the bathroom at Olive Garden that we needed to come back again w/ Grandma Carol. I'm sure she would agree.

It was a fun weekend for everyone involved.

My kitchen table

2008-08-14T14:46:00.005-04:00

So guess what we've been up to this week?

Monday was our official start to school. I wanted to do something special to commemorate the occasion, so that morning the children and I went to one of their favorite restaurants for breakfast: IHOP. I took my camera along to take some pictures but realized the camera's batteries (and the backup batteries) were dead after we had settled into our booth. Then we went to Wal-mart to pick up a few things and then the dollar store. Noah bought 2 items w/ his tooth money and I got a few school supplies. Then we came home to actually start school. We mainly just looked thru his books and talked about what we would be doing this year. We did complete the introductory math lesson as it was quick and easy and I read the page about killer whales to him out of his animal encyclopedia. The plan is to do 1 animal a week for science, 20 animals in all. He's really digging orcas (another name for killer whales) right now, so we started w/ that.

On Tuesday we did a full day's worth -- math, reading/phonics, recess, handwriting, and then a trip to the public library to get more books about killer whales and Noah's very own library card. We've been doing Bible/history time after our main meal w/ Daddy everyday.

Here are some pictures from Wednesday's recess:

In case you're wondering, this is what "kitties playing soccer" looks like:

We combined today's recess w/ a lesson in auto mechanics, taught by Daddy. It's an integral part of every proper kindergarten curriculum, you know.

Today I had Noah tell me what he has learned about killer whales while I typed it into the computer (a narration). I had to do some prompting, but it is really quite neat how much he has retained. Then we found a spiffy picture on the internet, put that at the bottom, and printed it out for his science notebook. Doug suggested I look on YouTube for some killer whale videos. There were a couple of really neat clips from SeaWorld that the children enjoyed thoroughly. Also a few National Geographic-type videos of orcas in the wild.

Overall, he has been very receptive and cooperative about school. He tends to get tired after math (he has 1 worksheet to do every day and writing seems to tire him), so I do reading/phonics first, then math so that he has a break after that. He is holding his pencil correctly now, thanks to some triangular crayons and a special pencil grip I got for him.

It's quite satisfying to hear him talk about things he has learned outside of "school" time. He was playing like he was a killer whale today and told me that Chloe's pajama bottoms were his "prey"; he then started to "eat" them. I praised him and reminded him that he was the predator of the pajama bottoms. Then Claire held up a pillow and said she was going to eat and pray. So I guess she's learning something, too. :)

A too-fer, Part 2

2008-08-04T14:38:00.002-04:00

Noah found his tooth on the floor on Saturday night. I also found out the rest of the story on how it came out. He had been playing and slipped and hit his mouth on a chair. This totally dislodged the tooth that we knew was loose, and it fell out on the floor. It also must have hit the tooth next to it, and all it took was me wiping Noah's face to have it completely fall out. It had been a teeny bit wiggly, so I guess it was going to come out in the next few months anyway.

I learned all this on Saturday night from Doug. Evidently I hadn't asked Noah the right questions. Questions such as, "Did you fall and hit your mouth on a chair?"

A too-fer

2008-08-02T14:38:00.002-04:00

So I told you about how Noah started loosing teeth a little under a year ago. He lost 2 more back in May or June, and then about 3 weeks ago, one of his top front teeth became noticeably loose. He's been working on it, so today when he told me that it had come out, I was not surprised. He had a little bit of blood above his lip so I got a damp paper towel and started to clean him up. Then all of a sudden another tooth popped out! It scared me which I think scared him. I looked at the tooth and it didn't look decayed or anything. I asked him where the first tooth was and he said he didn't know. So he showed me in the playroom where he had been when he noticed it was missing and I looked all around to no avail. I asked him if he had swallowed it and he said he didn't think so. Doug suggested that maybe Chloe had eaten it. Ick.

He has 2 adult teeth w/ 4 empty spaces. I told him he was my cute little snaggletooth now.

On on an interesting side note, I recently found out that my niece lost 2 teeth at almost the exact same age that Noah was (approx. 4 years 10 months). Maybe it's a genetic thing.

School is (almost) in session

2008-07-26T15:39:00.001-04:00

For those who don't know, we are planning to homeschool the children. For years now, we have been asked if we are homeschoolers and I would reply, "Yes". Then I would usually have to clarify that my oldest was only x years old, but I would be homeschooling him in the future. We were homeschoolers at heart, if not in action.

Well, the future is now. Noah's birthday is in late November, so he was not eligible for kindergarten until this school year. Honestly, I've been dreading it. I've briefly looked at homeschooling methods in the past, but none of them really grabbed me. And don't even get me started on choosing the curriculum. There are dozens of websites and 2"-thick catalogs filled w/ thousands of choices. It's just so overwhelming, especially for someone who doesn't know what her homeschool ideology is besides "I don't want my children to be ignorant."

A few months ago I realized that I absolutely had to get cracking on this. I again looked online at the different approaches to see if I could narrow it down any. A few I could eliminate immediately as unsuitable candidates for our family. I knew I didn't want to order a bunch of textbooks and have public school at home. I like the idea of using "whole" books instead, where possible. (Though textbooks are necessary w/ subjects like math, in my opinion.) I also am not big on unit studies or "unschooling" which seems like it could become very hit-and-miss. So I ordered books about the Charlotte Mason (CM) method and the classical homeschooling (CH) method.

Without explaining what these different approaches involve, I'll just say that I had to make myself read the CM book. It took me 3 weeks to get halfway thru -- it just wasn't sparking my enthusiasm. So I put it aside and picked up the CH book, The Well-Trained Mind. WOW! Now we're talking! It actually got me excited about homeschooling, which is exactly what I needed. In particular, the approach to history is just so awesome and novel. Instead of jumping here and there, it's done chronologically! What a concept! :) I remember disliking history because it seemed so disjointed; there was no flow at all.

The authors have lots of book recommendations (some of those books having been written by themselves), which I wrote down and then researched online. I also used the website for Classical Christian Homeschooling to get book ideas. In the end, I picked some from each. We will also, of course, become good friends w/ our local public librarian.

So now I have half of my book choices sitting on my kitchen island, w/ the other half on a United States Postal Service truck somewhere between here and Atlanta. I'm going to really concentrate on improving Noah's reading and handwriting skills this year (he can read simple stuff but he is not very confident about it). We'll also be doing some math, ancient history, and science. I really like his history storybook; it mainly focuses on the Bible w/ some information about the surrounding cultures woven in. For science we'll be studying different kinds of animals, the human body, and plants. I'd like to keep the science light, interesting, and fun w/ plenty of hands-on activities and experiments.

We'll see how it goes. We may get 2 weeks into this and realize the classical method just isn't going to work, or we may love it. Noah likes to learn but gets discouraged easily. My job will include giving him lots of encouragement, I'm sure.

I told Doug I was kind of excited about learning all the stuff I should have learned all those years ago. My public school experience wasn't too bad overall (hey, I can write a semi-coherent blog post), but I know it was pretty deficient in a few areas. Hopefully Noah won't be able to say the same thing about his education.

Can't we share?

2008-07-24T15:40:00.003-04:00

The other day we were at Office Max to look at copiers and also to copy some math worksheets for Noah. I was standing at the copier while Doug was watching the littl'uns. I guess Claire was bored or tired or both, because she started sucking her thumb and rubbing her neck. Chloe saw her doing this and decided that Sister looked like she was having a lot of fun. So she came over and tried to rub Claire's neck, too. But Claire swatted her hand away as if to say, "No way, it's mine! Get your own neck."

Fun with Family

2008-07-07T20:18:00.005-04:00

My children are not lacking in the extended family department. Besides having the perfect number of grandparents (4), they also have 1 great grandmother, 5 uncles, 6 aunts, and 16 cousins.

I enjoy seeing the children interact w/ their various family members. Because I love my children and I love my family, it's nice to see them getting to know each other. In May my little (as in younger AND shorter) sister, Sandra, came to visit us for a weekend. Usually when the children have seen Sandra it's been in a new environment w/ lots of other people around. So this time they got to interact on their own turf, w/ more individualized attention. Over supper we told them some riveting "How Aunt Sandra broke her arm the first, second, and third time" stories, in addition to "How Uncle Sid almost killed Aunt Sandra the first, second, and third time (unintentionally, of course)". All very exciting tales, indeed.

Here we are at Dollywood (that's Claire on the right side):

And then after we ate at Brumley's (a fantastic Sunday brunch buffet place):

Then this past weekend we went to my parents' house for the Fourth of July.
In addition to visiting w/ Grandma Sandy, Grandpa Louis, and Grandmother Louise, they also got to spend some quality time w/ their Uncle Sid, Aunt Tina, and cousins Sidney, Lincoln, Rachel, and Prairie. Sid and Tina took us thru the woods to see their beautiful new house (not quite finished).

Claire and Rachel w/ Uncle Sid:

Feeding the goats and donkeys (and mosquitoes) w/ Grandpa Louis:

Having some sort of cousin convention:

Claire "helping" Grandma Sandy in the garden:

Every year there is a neighborhood pool party and potluck at Papa Henry's house on the 4th. This is the second year I've gone since Doug and I got married (we went just about every year while I was growing up). We went a little early so the children could swim for a while w/o lots of other squirmy little bodies splashing and screaming around them.

On the night of the 4th, we went to Tina's niece's house to watch fireworks and enjoy some ice cream and yummy blueberry cobbler (made by Tina's sister, Brenda). We headed back home on Saturday after having lunch w/ Sid and Tina and crew at Fatz Cafe. By the time we got home, the children were exhausted (and so were Mama and Daddy).

From Grandpa and Grandma, with Love

2008-06-21T15:33:00.000-04:00

Have I ever mentioned before what generous in-laws I have? I mean, you'd think they love us or something. Well, this week we got something very special from them. A new playground for our backyard! They ordered it while they were here for Mother's Day. On Wednesday a homeschooling family (father, mother, 2 teenagers) came and installed it in 3 hours flat. They didn't even have to look at any directions. The dad said they had been doing it for 9 years. It would have taken us fo-evah to have done it. Or at *least* 2 very long days assuming there weren't any cute children around to ~~distract~~ help us.

On Thursday we had 13 cubic yards of playground mulch delivered. We've got it spread out pretty well now, but need to make it thicker in some places. We'd also like to get a bench for us big folks to sit on while we're out there supervising the li'l folks.

The playground is in a nice spot as there are trees around. It's pretty shady in the morning and then again in the late afternoon. It had a bit of a slope, but our friend David Gaut (of Gaut Construction Company fame) brought his BobCat over a few weeks ago and leveled it out for us. He also got us a bunch of used railroad ties to use for mulch containment. For FREE! He and his son even spent the good part of a hot Saturday afternoon putting them in place (Doug helped). What a blessing he has been to us!

Here's Claire keeping a safe distance from the BobCat work:

Nice and shady in the morning:

The weather has been gorgeous this week (low 80s w/ clear skies) so we've been outside every day. On Wednesday they spent 3 hours playing on it. They've been a lot more tired lately, begging to take naps and go to bed at night. There's just so much for them to do on the swingset -- 3 swings, a slide, rock wall, 360 degree tire swing, Jacob's rope ladder, trapeze/rings, ship's wheel and binoculars, and a cool little clubhouse.

So I have a message for Grandpa Dave and Grandma Carol from Noah, Claire, and Chloe: THANK YOU!!!

Down on the farm

2008-06-21T14:46:00.005-04:00

Last night we went to our new milk source to pick up milk for the week and to witness the evening milking. The children always enjoy our trips to the various farms we patronize. We've gotten milk from several different places, and they always find a new way to differentiate between them. There was the "farm w/ Bullet" (Bullet was a big, sweet German Shepherd), then the "farm w/ the swimming pool" (self-explanatory), and now the farm we visited last night. So far they're calling it the "farm where we watched them milk the cow". I hope they find a shorter name for it soon.

Besides the 2 Jersey cows (Milly and Tilly), this farm has a Jersey calf, 5 or 6 steers, a duck, a turkey named Tom, numerous chickens, a chocolate Lab named Buddy, and a cranky chihuahua that we didn't actually see but heard yipping like mad in one of the bedrooms.

Here are Chloe and Tilly sizing each other up. My money's on Chloe:

I like this picture because it looks like Tilly is giving Chloe a big kiss (though she's not):

This strange-looking contraption is an invention of David's, the farmer. He took an old washing machine and made it into an automatic butter churn. He just puts a gallon-sized jar filled w/ cream in the tub, selects the "Delicates" cycle, and presto! You've got butter in just 8 minutes.

The Schneider Beauty Parlor

2008-06-18T13:38:00.002-04:00

Chloe was sitting on her little potty the other day and so I sat next to her to keep her company. Then suddenly I was the victim of a vicious attack by 3 hairbrush-wielding cutie pies. (Notice the pink brush that Noah is using. This is one of a set of triplets, separated at Wal-mart. Aunt Sandra and Aunt Laura have its long-lost sisters.)

Honestly I have to say that I enjoyed it except that it made me very sleepy. They did a pretty good job of not ripping my hair out.

Summer fun

2008-06-18T07:29:00.006-04:00

So what have we been doing lately? Having fun, of course!

Yesterday was a gloriously beautiful day. Sunny skies w/ a few wisps of clouds. Doug and I trimmed the bushes in the front yard while the children played outside. Chloe climbed on the tricycle and Claire decided to give her a little push like I do sometimes:

After their naps we took them to the Splash Pad, which is basically a glorified concrete sprinkler here in M-town. It's much better than those glorified lawn sprinklers since the children don't end up w/ grass clippings all over them. And it's free!

They had an absolute blast. Although they were pretty cold when they stopped playing long enough to think about it. The wind was blowing slightly and it was only 80 degrees at most. It was perfect for Doug and I while we sat watching them.

Good times

2008-06-06T16:25:00.008-04:00

No, not the cheesy old sitcom, I mean the super-fun weekend we spent w/ Grandma and Grandpa (Doug's parents) at their condo in Myrtle Beach.

We arrived at Myrtle Beach on Friday. That evening after supper, we played putt-putt. This was the children's first putt-putt experience, and they really enjoyed it. Until the "volcano" started spurting fire, which broke Claire's concentration so much that Doug had to finish out the course for her. Here is Grandpa giving her some pointers on her golf game:

Here's Noah at the driving range afterward:

On Saturday we went to Alligator Adventure. It's kinda like a zoo except it's mostly alligators and other reptiles. Noah got to pet a small alligator (its mouth was taped shut) and both Noah and Claire petted (is that a word?) a Galapagos tortoise. So soft and fuzzy, those Galapagos tortoises.

Then that night we went to the beach. It was a bit chilly w/ the wind blowing, but the children seemed to enjoy it anyway. There was a wedding right next to where we were playing. The bride was wearing high heels in the sand for some strange reason.

Afterwards we went to Krispy Kreme so that the children could experience their first KK doughnut. Somehow we ended up bringing home almost twice as many doughnuts as we had planned. The guy at the drive-thru did a little sales pitch on Doug (who was driving) and he fell for it hook, line, and sinker. I admit I would have, too. I mean, come on, the Hot Doughnuts Now! sign was on. Like moths to a flame...

Sunday we went to the IMAX theatre where Grandpa and Grandma treated us to a movie about whales and dolphins. We got to wear the goofy 3D glasses and everything. Noah was a little disturbed by the apparent close proximity of the whales. We also did some shopping and the always-generous Grandma and Grandpa bought a HUMONGOUSLY GIANT picture to go over the fireplace in the playroom. It goes w/ the figurines they had purchased for the mantel. So now we have an African safari theme going on in there. Getting the picture in the van and back home turned out to be quite an adventure because it is just so HUGE, but it looks great so it was worth it.

Sunday night Doug and I went out on a date since we had such capable babysitters at our disposal. It was the usual kind of date, dinner and 2 movies back-to-back. Those movies being Prince Caspian and Indiana Jones. We were somewhat disappointed w/ both, in case you're wondering.

On Monday Doug and Grandpa played golf while Grandma and me and the children hung around the condo. That night we had a nice dinner and then went to the beach again. The weather was more conducive to beach frolicking that evening.

This picture was staged but it's really cute so who cares:

Then on Tuesday we had breakfast at Hot Stacks (where Noah consumed a wildly inappropriate amount of food) before we headed on home.

Yes, it was good times indeed.

Flew the coop

2008-05-20T12:33:00.005-04:00

By Doug

Our baby cardinals have left their nest. Only 9 days after hatching, they left. From what we read, the mother and father continue to care for them even after leaving the nest. Fortunately, we got a picture the day before they left.

There were 4 eggs, three hatched, and apparently only two survived. Oh, and the mother wasn't eating the egg shells. She was eating the baby bird poop. Yuck!

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.

Happy pigs, cows, and chickens

2007-07-14T10:32:00.001-04:00

This week we made our semi-annual meat run to Polyface Farm near Staunton, VA. We had some fantastic weather for visiting the farm. After we picked up our quarter ground (1/4 of a cow, all as ground beef) and other vittles, we visited w/ the happy animals. And their happy owner, Joel Salatin.

Goose Egg

2007-07-07T22:02:00.000-04:00

This past week we went to my parents' house in NC. Going to see the Grandma and Grandpa w/ the goats is always a thrill. Besides getting to visit w/ Grandma, Grandpa, and the goats, there are also donkeys, Uncle Sid and Aunt Tina, Cousins Sidney, Lincoln, Rachel, and Prairie, and lots of toys that make obnoxious sounds hidden under the kitchen sink.

We got there on Monday and that evening after supper, Cousin Sidney was pulling Noah in a wagon on the carport. They took a curve a little too fast and Noah toppled out, head first, onto the concrete. Within 1 minute, he had a huge goose egg on the upper left part of his forehead. I had never seen anything like it. We considered taking him to the ER but decided against it since he was not having trouble walking or talking or screaming bloody murder.

Doug and I took turns holding him afterwards and w/i an hour he was playing w/ Grandpa and Claire, so we figured he was going to be OK. We put him to bed hoping it would look better in the morning.

Boy, did it ever. When I got up Tuesday morning he was already in the kitchen eating some grapes w/ Claire. There was no swelling whatsoever! There was just a smidgen of concrete burn. I couldn't believe it. It now has a very slight yellow tinge to it, but that's about all that remains. We should have taken a picture of it for posterity.

Pat Pat, they call her Pat

2007-07-07T21:42:00.000-04:00

Chloe has learned to crawl on all fours now instead of doing the army belly crawl. She's also pulling up on everything and stands up in her crib. That's pretty good for a 7-month-old, I think. Her sitting up unassisted has really improved in the past 2 weeks so that I feel comfortable putting her on the floor w/o any pillows around her.

One of her favorite games is to tear wallpaper off the wall. There's a spot in our hall where the wallpaper had a little tiny rip in it. Little Miss Grabby decided it would look better if she pulled it all off, and that's what she's been trying to do. And then she tries to eat the pieces she pulls off but fortunately she's still got that gag reflex thing going on so nothing gets down her throat.

She has also started patting us on the back. It's very sweet. We'll be carrying or holding her and she will reach around and gives us a few pats on the back. This past Wednesday (July 4th) we were watching fireworks in my hometown. Doug was holding Chloe and she was mesmerized by the display. While she watched, she snuggled in close to him, patted his back, and stroked his neck like Claire does. There was a little puddle of Daddy heart on the grass.

Here's a cute picture I took while putting together Doug's Father's Day card.

Put me down!

2007-06-22T22:02:00.000-04:00

Well, Chloe is officially mobile. VERY mobile. She started doing a belly crawl a couple weeks ago and now there is just no stopping her. I might as well put the exersaucer and Johnny Jumper away because she has no interest in them anymore. All she wants is to be put down so she can explore. The electrical outlets are especially appealing for some reason but she is pretty responsive to "no" so it's not been too bad. She is able to open drawers and cabinets. But she hasn't quite figured out how to go backwards, so she'll get trapped sometimes against a wall. Maybe I'm having mommy brain but I don't remember Noah or Claire being so active at this age.

Chloe's taking 2 naps during the day, a short one in the morning and then a longer one in the afternoon. I put her down for the night around 7:30 or 8pm and she sleeps hard until 6:30 or 7am. I can't complain about that, huh?

Still no teeth. I'm waiting until she gets some toofers before I start any solids. Maybe I'll give her sauerkraut as her first food like I did w/ Claire. I can't help but wonder if that's why Claire is such a hearty eater now. She and Noah have been chowing down on kimchi (Korean sauerkraut) the last few days. We went thru a quart of it in 3 days! I'll have to post the recipe sometime. I made 4 quarts this past weekend but I don't think that's going to last us very long at this rate.

Uh, did you mean to say ...?

2007-06-22T15:41:00.000-04:00

I don't know if this is what all children do in the morning, but ours like to come in our room and jump into bed with us. It's a good thing we have a king size bed, eh? So the other morning, all 5 of us were in bed, with Noah and Claire playing together near the foot of the bed. Evidently Noah didn't like whatever it was they were playing because he was trying to crawl over Doug to get off the bed. As he did so, he said to Claire, "I'm getting off because you are making me drive nuts."

Noah's Cafe

2007-06-12T04:33:00.000-04:00

by Doug

One of Noah's new favorite games is to play restaurant. I'm the customer, and he's the waiter. If Claire is around, she'll join in too as his assistant. Here's a sample of what a typical visit to Noah's Cafe is like:

We are usually in the basement, and I'm sitting on the couch. Noah comes up to me holding a small pillow, which is where he writes my order. He gives me an imaginary menu.

"Waiter, what do you have to drink?"

"Umm, water, and milkshake, and egg nog."

"I'll have a milkshake please." "Waiter, what do you recommend to eat?"

"Salad."

"What kind of dressing do you have?"

"Blue cheese."

"Anything else?"

"No, just blue cheese."

"What else on the menu is yummy?"

"Salami sandwich."

"Ooo, I'll take one of those please. With mustard."

"Do you want french fries?"

"Sure."

Noah disappears around the corner for a few minutes, then comes back pretending to hold something.

"Here's your water." He hands me an imaginary glass.

"Thank you. May I have a straw?"

"There's already one in there."

"Oh, my mistake."

Noah disappears again for a little while, then returns, balancing pillow in his hand like a tray of food. He puts the pillow gently in my lap.

"What have you brought me?"

"French fries."

"Can I have some ketchup?"

"No, we don't have any ketchup."

"Where is my salami sandwich?"

"It's still cooking. It's taking a long time."

He disappears again, and I hear banging noises around the corner.

"Oh waiter? Waiter?"

"I'm coming. I'm getting you more water."

He brings another glass of water to me, and takes my empty plate (pillow) from my lap.

"I'll take the check now please."

He hands me the check, I hand him my credit card. I sign the receipt.

"Should I give you a big tip or a little tip?"

"A big tip."

No way, I never got my salami sandwich.

Nostalgia

2007-06-08T15:53:00.000-04:00

by Doug

One of my favorite shows when I was little (4-6 yo) was The Magic Garden. It was a children's show, like Mr. Rogers or Sesame Street, but it was only on in the New York area. I have fond memories of Carole and Paula and the songs they would sing and play guitar. Now, with the marvel of the internet, I can relive my childhood and watch The Magic Garden again. Here's the intro:

Carole and Paula are still in the entertainment business. Carole is on Broadway, and Paula is in a folk music group (Paula is the one with the guitar. I recall having a crush on Carole when I was little). They still perform together, and are available for parties and weddings. They even have their own website - Caroleandpaula.com.

Dollywood!

2007-06-01T14:31:00.000-04:00

On Tuesday we went to Dollywood w/ our friend Angie, her 3-year-old daughter Anna Kate, and 8-month-old Ryan. It was a lot of fun!

Noah surprised us w/ the rides he asked to go on. He became quite adventurous and by the end of the day was asking to go on the big wooden roller coaster, Thunder Head. We said no. :) (He didn't meet the height requirement anyway.) More on Thunder Head later. They had a swing ride that was a bigger, higher, and faster version of the one he and Claire had ridden on at the NASCAR Speedpark last week. I was disappointed that Claire did not meet the height requirement and thus could not ride. So it was just me, Doug, and Noah, w/ Doug and Noah riding together on a double-seater. Once we started the ride, though, I was very thankful for the height requirement. It was a little scary even for me! Angie was gracious enough to watch Claire and Chloe while we rode.

Dollywood had a lot of rides that the children could ride themselves (very tame so they were not scared) plus rides that were a little more intense that they could ride w/ me or Doug. We also enjoyed riding the steam train. They had an area where the children could take off their shoes to play in a little "stream" and cool off. This was a big hit w/ Noah and Claire.

Toward the end of the day (but before we ate), Doug rode his very first roller coaster (as in, the first roller coaster in his life). Thunder Head is a fast wooden coaster and he and I went on this together. I hadn't ridden a coaster since I was 18 and I feel like I showed my age. After riding TH, I had no desire to try out any of the other coasters that day. Sometime in the future yes, but not that day. I was glad we had waited to eat until afterwards. Doug enjoyed his first experience and said he would not be opposed to more in the future.

The children had a great time, and so did their Mama and Daddy. Even Chloe seemed to enjoy herself, even though the only rides she rode were the carousel and the steam train.

Do-it-yourself washing machine repair

2007-05-26T15:01:00.001-04:00

Less than 2 1/2 years ago (January 2005) we bought a new Whirlpool Duet front-loading washer/dryer set. The model we got has a Sanitary cycle which was attractive to me because we use cloth diapers and I wanted to be able to wash them in super-duper-hot water, plus do a pre-wash or pre-soak cycle and an extra rinse. It also has the capacity to hold tons of clothes and spins the water out so you don't have to dry them as long. I like my washer/dryer a lot, though it has had its problems.

It has a little display where it will tell you error codes if something messes up. I've learned what some of these mean w/o having to look them up and can usually fix them easily enough by pushing 1 or 2 buttons. But today, I got a door lock error that was not responding to the usual solutions. I spent 15 or 20 minutes trying to get the washer to lock the door and start my load of dirty diapers to no avail. So I jotted down the model and serial numbers and went upstairs to see what I could find on the source-for-everything-worth-knowing-and-a-lot-that's-not, aka the internet.

I found several websites that had the same info that I could find in my washer's manual, basically what the error codes mean and what I needed to look at to troubleshoot the problem. Of course all this stuff made no sense to me as I am not a washer repairman (or even a washer repairwoman). Then I found something I could understand. A site that suggested I make a fist and hit the top right back of my washer. I made a mental note and then continued my search. After 10 more minutes I hadn't found anything that sounded remotely promising besides "Call your Whirlpool repairman, wait 5 days for an appointment, and then prepare to spend big bucks."

So I trotted back down to the basement to try out my brute force tactic. I tried starting the cycle again to verify the problem was still present. It was. So I made a fist and hit my washer as described. Pushed the start button and VOILA! The blessed sound of the door lock engaging and the washer starting!

I was so pleased that I immediately called my sweet husband at work to tell him the good news (I had sent him an email telling him the bad news). Then I decided that this was worth blogging about on the off-chance that one of my loyal readers has a Whirlpool Duet washer (model # GHW9400PL0) w/ a door lock error problem.

General update on the children

2007-05-26T08:54:00.000-04:00

OK, so we've been real slackers when to comes to blogging. Forgive us for living life instead of writing about it. :)

Chloe is thinking about crawling now. She loves to be put down on the floor to play. Sometimes she'll get up on her hands and knees and rock back and forth. She also rolls around, goes in circles, and pulls herself a few feet while on her belly. I can't leave her alone on the bed anymore (even w/ pillows around her), and this morning I had to put the side rail up on the crib as she was pulling herself up on it to peek over at us.

She also does not like her car seat very much anymore. She does fine in the car but when we get to our destination she wants us to carry her or put her in a stroller (or a high chair if we are at a restaurant). Before she was happy to stay in the seat and we would put the seat in a stroller designed for this.

It's about time to play musical car seats. We will be moving Noah up to a booster seat (as soon as we purchase it), Claire will get Noah's car seat, and Chloe will get Claire's.

We went to the NASCAR SpeedPark near our house last Saturday w/ Doug's parents. Doug and Noah rode a couple of cars together (Doug driving, of course). Claire was too short to ride in those, but they did have some kiddie rides she was just barely tall enough for. There was a ride where you basically go around (and out a little) on a contraption similar to a swing at a playground. We asked Noah if he wanted to ride and he said no. Claire wanted to ride though, so we put her on and after Noah saw that she was going to do it, he wanted to. But he had to wait until the next time since the ride was already starting. Claire had a marvelous time. She is much more adventurous than Noah. He will not ride anything unless someone is w/ him, preferably me or Doug, though Claire will suffice.

After this, Doug and I were talking about how we would like to go to Dollywood (also near our house). The children do a little better w/ these rides each time we go to something like this. Doug's very generous parents have mentioned wanting to take us to Disney World at some point, so we want Noah and Claire to learn to enjoy rides before then. The next day at church, some friends of ours offered us free tickets to Dollywood! So we are excited about doing that this coming week. Thank you, Anders family!

Random Chloe Cuteness

2007-04-24T15:23:00.000-04:00

Because you just can't get enough...

Our little slugger

2007-04-24T15:07:00.000-04:00

by Doug

One of the things I looked forward to the most about having children, and a son specifically, is to have someone to play baseball with me. Noah is starting to really take an interest in playing baseball, and I try to encourage it. He is getting very good at throwing the ball (he's definitely right-handed; not ideal for a long major league career as a pitcher), and his hitting has improved greatly in the past few weeks. I pitch to him overhand - pretty hard too, not just a light lob - and he makes solid contact. It's pretty impressive for a 4 year old.

Yesterday we went to a sporting goods store and bought him his first baseball glove, an aluminum tee-ball bat, and a ball that's between a baseball and softball in size. When we got home, he wanted to play with them immediately. I accidently gave him a pitch that hit his head, so today we went to the store and bought a helmet and a tee so he can hit without me. He's still not too good at catching the ball in his glove. He tends to cringe and back away when I throw it to him. I guess he can play in the American League and be a DH. Look for his big league debut in Yankee Stadium in 2027.

An extreme little boy

2007-04-11T21:07:00.000-04:00

OK, I don't want to have to rename this blog "Bodily Functions of Little Children in M-town". It seems like a lot of my posts lately have been about vomit or bowel movements or pee. But I MUST tell you about this one, as it is just too exciting to keep to myself.

For those who do not know, Noah has had constipation issues since, like, forever. Even as a newborn totally-breastfed baby, he would have a bowel movement once a week. A big one. It didn't seem to bother him at all. This concerned me at first, but I looked online and read that this is normal for some babies, so don't worry. OK, I won't. But then when he started solids, it got worse and it obviously did bother him. He would not go until he couldn't hold it any longer and would scream from the pain. We took to using glycerin suppositories to help him out, though I hated doing this.

So this has been the story of his life for the past almost 4.5 years. Once a week we would sit him on the toilet and make him stay there until he produced. We took him to the doctor to see if there was a mechanical problem. The doctor suggested I give him more roughage, like Metamucil or something. I knew it was not a fiber problem; Noah gets way more fiber than most children as we eat brown rice, whole wheat bread, and plenty of veggies and fruit. Prunes didn't work either (he loves them). I had cut out milk for a few weeks at one point to see if that was the problem but no improvement. I had also tried probiotics before but had a hard time getting him to take it consistently because it was in a powder form. We have been praying for him as well, but I was still on the look-out for other (natural) things to try. I am aware that there are drugs and herbs for this but I did not want to go down that path. I was confident that 95% of Noah's problem was psychological. He held it in because he knew it would hurt. If I could get him past that, I knew it would be OK.

About a month ago I was talking to a friend of mine who is an herbalist. I mentioned Noah's issue in an off-hand way (we were talking about something totally different) and she suggested I try probiotics again. She had a product that was a chewable probiotic called Nature's Sunshine L. Reuteri (Lactobacillus Reuteri is the strain of bacteria). Since this would be an easy way to get him to take it consistently, I jumped at it. It was $30 for 60 tablets (dosage is 1 tablet per day). Expensive, but I would pay $100 if it would fix Noah's problem. I gave both Noah and Claire one tablet each immediately. They liked it and ask for it every morning now. (Well, Noah likes it, Claire tolerates it.)

Well, 2 weeks into it, I noticed that Noah's bm looked softer. After he got over being sick w/ the stomach bug, he started eating a lot more. I don't know if it was a growth spurt, or trying to put weight back on after being sick or what, but he has become quite the little piggie lately. So he could only go 3-4 days between bowel movements. I decided to try putting him on the toilet every other day, and he started doing that, though I had to give a few suppositories to help him along. Then I said, let's go for broke. I explained to him that he was going to sit on the potty every single day after breakfast and that if he pooped every day that it would not hurt his bottom (we have been telling him this for the past 2 years). The first day I put him on, he went w/i a few minutes of sitting down (a minor miracle) and said it did not hurt. This seemed to give him some confidence. The next day, more success. That night he did something he has never done in his entire life. He asked to sit on the toilet. I about fell over from shock. I put him on and he did not go, but I was excited nonetheless.

He has gone everyday for the last 8 days. In fact, yesterday he had 5 bowel movements and today he had 6. Some of them were pretty small, but that is irrelevant. He is GOING! He is excited and we are excited. He has told everyone he's seen about his success. We are praising him and praising God.

Noah has gone from one extreme to the other -- 1 bm in 7 days to (almost) 7 in 1 day. I'm hoping he'll settle down soon and keep it to 2-3 times per day, but I am not going to tell him he can't sit on the potty.

If you've made it this far, give yourself a pat on the back. I'll try not to have any more posts about bodily functions for at least a week. I've been going to extremes lately, too.

P.S. I found the L. Reuteri online for $19.95 a bottle w/ free shipping if you order $40 or more worth of Nature's Sunshine products. I went ahead and got 3 bottles as it is also helping Claire's skin considerably.

P.P.S Noah's breath has also improved. It used to be pretty bad but now is pretty good. I attribute this to the probiotics.

P.P.P.S. I think I need to write a post extolling the virtues of probiotics, as they are an absolutely essential part of a healthy lifestyle (whether via supplements or natural stuff like kefir and other fermented foods). We started using them over 2 years ago and they are good stuff. We prefer kefir and Garden of Life's Primal Defense (or PD Ultra).

It tastes like car wash

2007-04-11T20:45:00.000-04:00

Noah smells. As in, he likes to smell, not that he stinks. We noticed this quite a while ago. He is always asking to smell things. Like when I am in the kitchen cooking (especially if I pull out the vanilla bottle), or we are washing his hands in a public bathroom where there is some new exciting odor to be had from the soap dispenser, or a new article of clothing, or Claire's vomit on the floor (yes, I'm serious), or his Grandpa's tie. Grandpa thought Noah was trying to wipe his nose on his tie until I explained he just wanted to catch a whiff. We have no idea where he got this obsession. OK, that's a lie, his Mama is the same way, though I do refrain from sniffing vomit. Doug can't say he didn't know what he was getting into when he married me. On our first date we were sitting outside Outback waiting to be seated. I leaned over and sniffed his shirt and said, "You smell good." Bold, yes? But he married me anyway.

Back to the story. On Monday we were travelling back to M-town after a nice weekend in NC visiting family. We stopped at a Wendy's in Mocksville for lunch. As we were ordering, Doug saw that they had Cheerwine. Being that our fine state is Cheerwine-less, he got quite excited and decided to order one instead of our usual water. In case you've never had one, it's a cherry-flavored cola, far superior in taste to Cherry Coke or Cherry Pepsi. I have to admit, it's tasty stuff. Though thoroughly laced w/ the deadly high fructose corn syrup which we make a habit of avoiding.

As we sat down to eat, Noah wanted to taste Doug's drink. He took a big swig and made a bit of a face since he is not used to carbonation. I asked him if it was spicy (our word for fizzy). He said, "It tastes like car wash."

This may sound funny, but I knew exactly what he meant. There is a particular car wash we like to use, as it uses brushes instead of those useless "touchless" car washes that don't really work. The soap it uses has a distinct cherry smell to it. Noah, being the smell-a-holic that he is, noticed this. And since the senses of smell and taste are intricately linked, he made a connection between the cherry smell of the car wash and the cherry taste of Cheerwine. Neat, eh?

Sometimes I just marvel ...

2007-03-30T12:01:00.000-04:00

at the extreme cuteness of my offspring.

Lotsa cookie tossin'

2007-03-17T16:34:00.000-04:00

This past Wednesday I woke Chloe up around 5am to nurse. I noticed that she felt very warm. When Noah got up a couple hours later, he said his tummy hurt. A few minutes later, he started throwing up his milk. At first I thought that maybe he was just throwing up because I had given him too much probiotic the previous day (this has happened before). When Chloe woke up again to nurse, it was obvious she had a fever. I thought Claire was OK, but after breakfast she was playing happily at the train table when she projectile vomited all over it and the carpet. She gave no indication that she wasn't feeling well. Besides that whole vomiting thing, of course.

Chloe basically slept all day Wednesday. I would wake her up to nurse every 3 hours and then she would go right back to sleep. Thankfully she never threw up, just had a fever. She woke up happy and completely normal on Thursday.

Noah and Claire continued to throw up all day Wednesday. Noah sat on the couch or the bed in the living room w/ his bowl so he didn't make too much of a mess. Claire, on the other hand, liked to walk around the house and play like normal. But every couple of hours she would stop and toss her cookies all over the carpet or furniture she was on. In between heaves, she would try to say (verbally and w/ sign language), "All done all done".

On Wednesday night Noah and Claire were throwing up every 15-20 minutes. They couldn't keep anything down. We were starting to worry about dehydration as they were begging for water. Finally around 1:30am it started to slow down a little, and they got a few hours rest.

They were still vomiting on Thursday, though not nearly as frequently. Claire seemed a little better but Noah did not. She ate a little food but Noah was not hungry at all. They both felt warm.

Friday Claire was clearly on the mend though she had developed diarrhea in place of the vomiting. The poor girl had an accident in her panties and was so upset that she had lost control of her bowels. Noah was still not feeling great, though he did try to eat a little bit of supper (which he threw up).

Today they are both doing much better. They had some eggs for breakfast and played a little, though they did want to take early naps. Claire is still struggling w/ the diarrhea issue.

This is the first time I've ever had a child sick w/ a stomach bug, and I am thankful to be done w/ it. It's so hard to watch your child suffering and you can do nothing about it. I think that Doug and I would have gotten sick by now if we were going to get it, which is a good thing. Somebody has to be well enough to do all the laundry that piled up over the last few days.

Chloe goes to convention

2007-03-17T14:03:00.000-04:00

I took a shower the other night before bed and Doug was watching Chloe. He decided to hold a stuffed animal convention on the bed.

She gets it!

2007-03-02T23:50:00.000-05:00

Well, I guess I consider Claire to be potty-trained now. For the past two days she has told me when she needed to go, w/ no accidents except for when we are out of the house. And she actually told me she needed to go then but only gave me about 5 seconds warning. I'm so proud of my little girl!

Mission POSSIBLE! Potty Training: Day 5

2007-02-28T21:12:00.000-05:00

I realize these potty-training posts have limited appeal for others, but it makes me happy and I want to tell somebody about it.

Things are going pretty well! Here's a brief run-down of how things have gone the past few days.

Day 2 (Sunday): Total failure. Had to put a diaper on her in the evening because we were at someone else's house and I didn't want to deal w/ an accident there.
Day 3 (Monday): Improvement. Caught her in the middle of the act (both #1 and #2) and rushed her to the potty to finish.
Day 4 (Tuesday): She's starting to get it! Peed w/i 10 seconds of putting her on the potty!
Day 5 (Wednesday): Had a bm w/i 3 minutes of putting her on the potty. Tonight while I was making supper she told me she needed to pee and she did it! I was so happy! (And so was she!)

I was telling my mother about all this today and she said it was funny that a college graduate could get so excited about the toilet habits of a 2 year old. I told her that college graduates get excited about not having to change dirty diapers. Plus I'll be able to go 4 days between washing diapers instead of 3.

Tomorrow we have to go shopping in the afternoon. We'll see how things go during the morning and decide then whether we'll attempt the excursion w/o a diaper. She basically only pees twice a day, once in the morning and then in the evening. This tells me she is holding it more than when she was in diapers as I was having to change her more frequently than that.

Note to self when it's time to train Chloe: Put sweatpants on her -- it soaks up most of the pee accidents so nothing gets on the floor.

Mission Impossible: Potty Training, Day 1

2007-02-24T21:17:00.000-05:00

I chose to accept this mission rather impulsively today. We trained Noah in the spring of 2005 when he was 2.25 years old and Claire was a baby. I knew I would probably be training Claire soon but I had planned to wait until it was a little warmer out. But for some reason I have just been totally disgusted by her dirty diapers lately (didn't bother me while I was pregnant w/ Chloe at all). And for the last few days she has been going twice a day instead of her normal once a day. So this morning when I changed her out of her nighttime diaper, I decided to put on the cute little panties we had bought at Wal-mart last week.

I had her on her little potty quite a bit this morning w/ no results. Then she wet herself twice, once before lunch and the other right after I put her down for her nap. She woke up crying from her nap and I put her on the potty because I figured she needed to go. She was hysterical for 30 minutes but I couldn't figure out why. She kept asking for her diaper and when I said no she would cry harder. I told her all the wonderful things that would happen if she went: much clapping and happiness, a sticker, calling Grandmas and Grandpas on the phone to tell them the exciting news, and getting off the potty, of course!

Finally, an hour after she woke up, SUCCESS! I honestly think it was a total accident on her part, for she had a bm and then looked surprised and told me she had gone. Oh the celebration that ensued! She seemed so pleased w/ herself.

We kept her in her panties this evening. She still had not peed since the beginning of her nap and it was getting to be bedtime. So we all went in the bathroom and she sat down on the potty again, this time w/ a good attitude like she really wanted to do it. I was hoping for her to pee, but after about 10 minutes she had another bm! And I could tell she was actually doing it on purpose. It wasn't like the first time where she just happened to be sitting on the potty when she needed to go. Another celebration ensued and we waited a few more minutes. Then she peed! I am hoping this turned on the little light bulb in her head.

Claire's Mama is doing a little happy dance tonight!

My little copycats

2007-02-23T21:10:00.000-05:00

Claire and I are similar creatures. We are both female, wear glasses, have thick hair and little to no gag reflex, and are crazy about that man she calls Daddy. (Most of our family knows what I call him but I won't say it here since it would probably embarrass him.) Besides all this, she loves to do what I do. I usually take off my glasses before eating. She started doing this a few weeks ago as well. Then earlier this week we were dragging cut branches to the road. It was getting pretty warm out so I pulled up my long sleeves before grabbing another branch. Claire saw me and started tugging at her own sleeves. She didn't want to help drag again until I helped her get them in the proper position. Noah is a bit of a parrot as well, though he tends to imitate Doug's activities more (as he should).

This is very cute at times, but it's also very scary. When I see her whine or selfishly clutch a toy or speak in an unkind tone of voice, is she showing her own selfishness, or is it a reflection of mine? I know that noone has to show her how to do those things; it comes naturally to all of us. I've always thought that people who believe that humans are basically good and just do bad things due to poor influences must not have ever been around children very much. A two-year-old left to her own devices is not what I would call a good moral being. I'm not bashing Claire here; she has an extremely sweet temperament and makes me feel like a pretty good parent. But she is not perfect, just like her Mama (and Daddy).

I, as a born-again believer in Christ, have the power to resist these inborn human impulses of greediness, unkindness, impatience, and self-centeredness (see Galatians 5:22-23). But having three little pairs of eyes watching my every move has been revealing. It's like carrying a mirror around all day. Am I modeling the fruits of the Spirit to my impressionable little copycats (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control)? I pray that the answer is "yes". And for those times that the answer is a definite "no", I have found myself practicing the art of humility. For that's what it takes to apologize to a 4-year-old for speaking harshly. I've found parenting in general to be one big exercise in humility. But hopefully they'll copy that, too.

One season following another

2007-02-09T20:48:00.000-05:00

When Doug and I had our wedding rehearsal dinner, my brother Knocker unveiled a 15-minute video he had created. He had borrowed pictures, 8mm film clips, VHS video clips, and some "commercials" that Doug and I had "starred" in when we were younger (independently -- Doug made them up in NJ w/ his brother David and some friends, I had made commercials in NC w/ my brothers Sid and Knocker and little sister Sandra). He took all this and put together a video montage set to various music. Of course there was lots of embarrassing stuff in there. Think of it as a roasting video, if you will.

We were watching this video last week at Doug's parents' house. Noah and Claire will watch this over and over if I let them. One of the songs on the video is "Sunrise Sunset" from the movie "Fiddler on the Roof". In case you haven't seen Fiddler, you're missing out. Big time. It's funny and sad at the same time.

Anyway, ever since we watched it last week, I've had that song stuck in my head. I can really relate to it now that I am a parent. I feel like my life is just flying by. And w/ each child we've had, it goes faster and faster. Chloe is already 2 months old. Noah is 4 and Claire is 2. Where has the time gone? Next thing I know they'll be getting married. I could be a grandma in less than 20 years!

As of 2 weeks ago, my 20s are gone and my 30s are here. It seems like it took forever to get to 20, but 30 came so quickly. Thinking about all this makes me kind of depressed, but it also motivates me to enjoy the time I have w/ my children. Yes, they generate a lot of work for me right now, but in 2 decades (or less) when they are walking up the aisle, arm-in-arm w/ their new spouse, I know I will weep for these busy days gone by.

BTW, if you're reading this Knocker, thanks again for the video. It's very special to me (and Doug likes it, too!).

New pictures

2007-02-09T16:26:00.000-05:00

I put some new pictures up on our website. Bask in the cuteness of our children!

Chloe cuteness

2007-01-16T17:30:00.000-05:00

My baby is growing up! She's packing on the pounds and 90% of it seems to be going straight to her cheeks.

Hallelujah for shrinking cataracts!

2007-01-11T13:37:00.000-05:00

This past Tuesday we took Claire to Dr. Clopton, her eye doctor. He is about 2.5 hours from here so a trip to see him is an all-day affair. We last saw him in August, and he had taken a slit-lamp picture of Claire's cataracts since she was being so cooperative. At that time, he had referred us to a cataract specialist to see about having them surgically removed. (Dr. Galloway had said they weren't bad enough to warrant surgery.)

We told Dr. Clopton what Dr. Galloway had said and he was surprised but said OK. He did a basic eye exam on her and then dilated her pupils so we could get a good look at the cataracts and take more pictures to compare them to last time. He brought them up (old and new pictures) side-by-side, and we were all very excited to see that they were actually smaller! He was astounded but we told him that is what we had been praying for so we shouldn't be surprised. (Dr. Clopton is a believer and acknowledged the Lord had definitely been at work on Claire -- cataracts are not supposed to shrink.) Her vision is also a little better, so he gave us a new prescription for her glasses. Claire was extremely cooperative during the whole visit (as usual -- she likes Dr. Clopton).

He also examined Chloe's eyes just to make sure she does not have the same issues as Claire. I had been looking for cataracts since she was born but haven't seen anything (I had seen them w/ Claire but didn't know what they were). He could not find any cataracts or problems w/ Chloe.

We left his office very encouraged. We will go back in 6 months to see how much smaller they are then!

What is the opposite of sunshine?

2007-01-10T21:29:00.000-05:00

We've been talking to Noah about opposites lately. He likes for us to name something and then he tells us its opposite. You know, hot and cold, dirty and clean, etc. It's gotten to the point where we are really struggling to come up w/ new ones to ask him.

On Sunday our friends the Gauts were at our house and they were in on the game. After the really easy ones, Mr. Gaut gave Noah a toughy (or so he thought). He asked Noah what the opposite of "sunshine" was, looking for the answer "cloudy" or something along those lines. Instead, Noah thought for a second and shouted out "moonshine!"

We all got a really good laugh out of that one.

Christmas memories

2006-12-25T21:07:00.000-05:00

Christmas was always my favorite time of year as a child. I have very happy memories of Christmas when I was growing up. I would make my list of Christmas presents months in advance, usually right after my birthday in August. I would make the list in order of priority, and explain carefully to my parents what was most important to get. They usually got my top request, but there were always some surprises. I enjoyed snooping around the house, trying to find their hiding places for my gifts, and I was successful at this for a few years before they wised up. I was also very good at guessing what a present was before I opened it. They put the presents under the tree several days in advance (we didn't do Santa), and I would shake and feel every one with my name on it. Eventually, they stopped labeling who the presents were for, which threw me off, but also threw them off when distributing the presents for opening. I was an expert at present-opening; as fast as lightning. And my reaction to seeing the present was, well, fanatical exuberance, with a dance and shouts of joy.

Since I have become a parent, the fun of Christmas has totally changed for me. It's still fun, but in a different way. I don't get as excited over my presents (which have been greatly reduced in number), but the fun of Christmas now comes from seeing Noah and Claire open their presents. Noah reacts to his presents much the same way I did - with wild expressions of surprise and happiness. His present-opening technique still needs work, but he's getting better. What I look forward to the most now about Christmas is seeing the joy on their faces. Now I know how my parents felt when they watched me open my gifts. And I know now that it is better to give than to receive.

Convicting

2006-12-21T20:45:00.000-05:00

Noah has memorized some Bible verses. He seems to enjoy it, and sometimes asks to do it. He has learned John 14:6, Genesis 1:1, and Isaiah 53:6. It helps that we have bought CDs with Bible verse songs, and listen to them a lot in the car. Noah and Claire like to sing along with some of the songs, which is really cute.

There is one verse that we have tried to get him to memorize, but he has no interest in it. Whenever I try to teach it to him, he says he doesn't want to learn that one. I think it's because the verse is too convicting for him. His response to this verse reminds me of how many church denominations want to pick and choose which parts of the Bible to follow, throwing aside the verses that make them uncomfortable.

Noah's least favorite Bible verse is Ephesians 6:1 - "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right."

Christmas letters

2006-12-14T16:31:00.000-05:00

We enjoy getting Christmas letters from our friends and family. It's nice to hear how people are doing that you normally don't hear from during the year. It is more enjoyable and interesting to get a letter that tells how the family is doing and what has happened to them over the past year than to get a card that just says "Merry Christmas". I'm not big on cards myself, and Carla isn't either - it's a nice gesture, but I'd rather have a letter to go along with it that gives more info.

A few years ago we started writing our own "Christmas" letters to ourselves. It's more of a New Year's letter really. At the end of the year we record all the things of significance that happened in our lives over the past year. We try to keep a running list through the year so we don't forget something, but we usually forget to do it until the end of the year. It's fun to look back on some of the things that happened years ago. The first year we did it, 2001, we recorded things like our first house, a trip to Spokane, WA, how Carla started grinding her own wheat and making bread, and a miscarriage.

Would we send out Christmas letters to our friends and family? As much as we like to get them, we would probably not send them. After all, that's what this blog is for!

Chloe's birth

2006-12-07T17:38:00.000-05:00

Well there's definitely something to the full moon theory. The moon was very full on the 4th and 5th. I started having regular "false labor" on Tuesday, the 5th, though the contractions didn't hurt and I had had that happen the previous week. Chloe was born on the 6th at 5:25am. So we missed our 2 year and 1 week spacing by 5.5 hours! We'll have to take the moon into heavy consideration the next time we try and predict the birthday. :)

I had at one point prayed for a fast labor and delivery, but I don't think I will do that again. I think I prefer slow-and-steady-wins-the-race to get-it-all-done-in-2.5-hours.

My mother was not able to make it to the birth because of a family emergency in Kansas. She was at both Noah and Claire's births. I had been a little disappointed that she would not be able to come if I went into labor this week, but she wouldn't have made it in time anyway. I would have called her at 3am (when I realized I was definitely in labor) but she would not have gotten here before 6am, a good 30 minutes after the birth. So that made me feel a little better about it. Doug's dad was in town for business so he got to come by that afternoon to meet his new granddaughter (what incredible timing, praise God!).

Chloe was 8 pounds 6 ounces and 20 inches long, a real light-weight. She is nursing well and sleeps most of the time she isn't eating.

Click here to read the full account of Chloe's birth. WARNING: If you're not into reading birth stories (mention of blood and other stuff), don't read it!

Chloe!

2006-12-06T16:31:00.000-05:00

Introducing Chloe Grace Schneider, born at home this morning at 5:25 am. Mother and daughter are doing well. More details soon...

More on potato guns

2006-12-04T16:13:00.000-05:00

Here is more than you ever cared to know about potato guns.

Some potato gun fun facts:

They are also known as spud guns, potato cannons, or produce accelerators.

Launchers can be combustion, pneumatic, or hybrid.

Combustion potato guns, like Sid's, can launch a potato at speeds of 200 mph.

Projectiles fired by a hybrid have broken the sound barrier.

Combustion spud guns are considered firearms in New Zealand, Germany, and the state of Texas.

Claire cuteness

2006-12-04T14:58:00.000-05:00

Full moon babies

2006-12-04T14:27:00.000-05:00

Doug and I were talking today about how there will be a full moon soon. Turns out it will happen tonight. We vaguely remembered talking w/ our midwife that delivered Claire about how more women go into labor during a full moon. So I decided to look up the lunar phases for when Noah and Claire were born. I found this nifty little website at http://stardate.org/nightsky/moon/ where you can look up the lunar phase for any month from 1951 to 2015.

In November 2002, there was a full moon on November 19, which is the day I started feeling contractions w/ Noah. He wasn't actually born until the 21st because he had his hand up near his head and wouldn't come down. There was a lot of pain involved between that full moon and November 21, a good 19 days past his due date.

In November 2004, there was a full moon on November 27 (her due date), which is the day I started having contractions w/ Claire. She was born the next day.

Sooo, maybe today is the day things will start happening! I am not actually due until this Saturday (the 9th), but I don't feel like I will be going late like I did w/ Noah. Doug and I both are hoping the baby will be born tomorrow, the 5th. That will put 2 years and 1 week between Noah and Claire and Claire and the new baby. We like symmetry, ya know.

Oh, my official prediction is a girl, under 9 pounds, December 5 (the weight guess sounds vague, I know, but would be a truly remarkable feat so it really is quite a bold forecast).

A Gaskins Thanksgiving

2006-11-25T16:42:00.000-05:00

We have Thanksgiving every year with Carla's family. With 17 children and 14 adults, and one more child added nearly every year, it is always interesting. The first time I ever met Carla's family was at Thanksgiving 1999. It was quite different from what I had experienced with my family. Not better, not worse, just different. Definitely more crowded, and less formal - children crawling all over you, intense sports competition, and eating anywhere in the house that you can find a seat. While I have to admit to feeling somewhat uncomfortable that first Thanksgiving, I am definitely part of the family now, because it would feel strange to have Thanksgiving done any other way.

This year we all met at Carla's parents' house in Lenoir, NC. We arrived in the morning, and jumped right into a game of volleyball. Carla was clearly the best player, despite the large pregnant belly. She didn't dive much. We then had Thanksgiving dinner (closer to lunchtime), which consisted of the usual Thanksgiving foods. To burn off all those calories, the men played a game of basketball. It was pretty intense - those Gaskins don't mess around. I sprained my foot when I tried to charge into a wall by the name of Sid. I also took a wicked pass from Knocker off my right eye. But I played through the injuries, and I was on fire from the perimeter - I was the best long-range shooter on the court (driveway).

After the game we had dessert of two types of cheesecake, apple pie, pumpkin pie, and Klondike bars. We spent the rest of the evening talking or playing with the kids. As the icing on the cake of a fun Gaskins Thanksgiving, Sid pulled out the Potato Gun. It just wouldn't be a proper Gaskins Thanksgiving without the Potato Gun.

Buggin'

2006-11-21T18:53:00.000-05:00

Noah was playing with his trains when Claire got in the way. Noah said, "Claire, stop bugging me!", then "Claire is bugging me and naughty!".

Today Noah turned 4 years old. We had a party for him and Claire on Saturday when Grandma and Grandpa Schneider came to visit. Noah got a shopping cart (a buggy for you Southerners), a new train for his train set, books, a puzzle, and some clothes. Claire got some clothes, a ladybug costume and a southern belle costume, a play cell phone, a wallet, and a purse. We had their favorite food for dinner - chicken soup, with cheesecake for dessert.

For his nap today, Noah went to sleep under the kitchen table, with Snoopy as his pillow. I wonder if other 4-year-olds do that on their birthday.

Me and my llama

2006-11-03T09:52:00.000-05:00

This is Noah's new favorite Sesame Street video clip.

Polka dots

2006-10-05T21:26:00.000-04:00

I have always been fascinated by word origins. I think maybe it has to do w/ my spelling bee past. My mama and I would practice for spelling bees by having me look at the list of words for a while, and then she would call out the words and I would spell them back to her. Often she would tell me ways to remember a spelling, and sometimes this would include a tidbit of word origin. I think it was those tips (and the fact that I have a somewhat-photographic memory) that made me a pretty decent speller.

I took an etymology (word origins -- not bugs) class in college my freshman year. We studied all sorts of Latin and Greek root words and much of the lectures revolved around some of the more wacky word origins. For example, one of my favorites was the word "hysteria". The Greek root "hyster" refers to the uterus (as in "hysterectomy", or the "cutting out of the uterus"). A uterus is something only women have. Or at least in normal circumstances. Anyway, as you probably know, hysteria is "a psychoneurosis marked by emotional excitability and disturbances of the psychic, sensory, vasomotor, and visceral functions" (Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online). Or as I like to think of it, a hissy fit. Evidently, those Greeks thought hissy fits were a woman thing, and what does a woman have that a man does not? A uterus! So it must be that ol' womb acting up again. It's kinda funny, really.

Okaaaay, so what does this have to do w/ polka dots?

A few weeks ago I put a new dress on Claire. It was navy blue, covered w/ polka dots of all different colors. She was fascinated by the pattern, as was Noah. I explained that they were called "polka dots". She would point at them and say "that?" over and over and then repeat "poka dot" after I told her again what they were. I think she just liked to hear me say it.

Anyway, it occurred to me to question why they are called "polka dots" to begin w/. I mean, really, it's a weird phrase. Doug did not know why, and so I vowed to go to the source of all totally useless knowledge (along w/ some useful knowledge) -- the internet. And this is what I found at www.wordorigins.org:

Polka Dot

Where did this name for round circles of dye on clothing originate? And what, if anything, does it have to do with the dance of the same name?

In the 1840s, the polka was sweeping America. It was the latest dance craze, like the Charleston of the 1920s or the Macarena of a few summers ago. In an effort to cash in on the fad, manufacturers began naming all sorts of thing polka. Polka gauze, polka hats, polka curtain bands and many other products with the polka name hit the market in the 1840s. Although, the actual term polka dot is not attested to until 1866. Of these, only polka dots survive today.

The term polka dot first appears in the New York Times on 21 Sep 1866: "It is effectively trimmed with anumber of rows of silk galloon of the same shade, with black or white brocaded polka dots."

There are two possible origins for the word polka. It could come from the Czech pulka, or half-step, Pul meaning half. Or, it could be a combination of the polonaise and mazurka.

(Sources: Oxford English Dictionary Online, Proquest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times)

I found several different websites w/ similar information, so I'm assuming this is true. Interesting, yes? You know you love it!

Cataract update

2006-10-05T12:21:00.000-04:00

We went to the cataract surgeon last Wednesday. His office seems to be out in the middle of nowhere, but it's really smack dab in the middle of a retirement community. Smart guy. Anyway, he looked at Claire and said there really was no rush at all. Usually cataracts either need to come out or they don't, and he said she was in the gray area, meaning let's not do surgery because it's not necessary at this point. The longer we can delay the better, really. Her eye is still growing (and will until she is 9-10 years old). If they were to put a new lens in her eye, it would be a total guess as to what strength, size, etc. at this point. The closer she is to finishing her growth, the better idea they will have on what lens to put in there.

He said he would send the pictures to a pediatric ophthalmologist in Memphis to get a second opinion, but really didn't see a fire that needed to be put out. Yay yay yay! We had been praying that God would just take the cataract away, but this diagnosis was fine w/ us!

In other news, the day of our appointment we continued our tradition of checking out any local state parks before we saw the doctor. We had a picnic at Cumberland Mountain State Park and played on the playground. It wasn't as nice as Burgess Falls, but Noah and Claire loved the swingset. When Noah was 7 months old we took him to Glen Rock Park up in NJ (the park Doug used to play at when he was little). That was his first encounter w/ a swing, and he loved it. But since then, he has not liked them at all. Claire was a little weird about them at first, but that's definitely her favorite now, and Noah's too.

Here is a cute recent picture. Claire's hair is long enough to put in proper pigtails as long as it is not freshly washed.

You'll never see this on a Toyota...

2006-09-29T16:55:00.000-04:00

I'm guessing this person has not had a good experience with their vehicle.

Mt. LeConte

2006-09-26T17:14:00.000-04:00

Today, I went for a hike up one of the tallest mountains east of the Mississippi - the third highest, I think, after Mt. Mitchell and Clingman's Dome - Mt. LeConte, elevation 6,593 feet. Our office maintains a weather station at the top of the mountain where there are some cabins, and once a year someone hikes up the mountain to do this. There were 6 of us from the office that went. I was the youngest, so I couldn't let the older guys show me up. We started at 3,800 feet and hiked to the top in about 2.5 hours. It was very pretty with great views. Needless to say, I was exhausted. In the cabin, there was a picture of the guy who started the lodge at the top - in 1929 he carried his mother up the mountain in a rocking chair strapped to his back! We were at the top for another 2.5 hours, bought a souvenir tee shirt, ate lunch, then headed down, taking about 1.5 hours. I'm not much of a hiker, but I had a good time. Maybe I'll do it again next year, but right now, that doesn't sound very appealing. My legs hurt.

My 15 seconds of international fame

2006-09-23T10:05:00.000-04:00

OK, so it's not really fame since they never said my name or anything, but I'm still excited. :)

Back in July, we went on our semi-annual meat run to Polyface Farm in Virginia. We get all our beef and chicken from this farm run by Joel Salatin. This time we got 1/2 a cow and 15 chickens, along w/ some chicken wings for making buffalo wings and a few boneless chicken breasts. When you buy in bulk like this, it really isn't much more expensive than buying meat at the grocery store (especially when you consider you get plenty of steak!), and it is WAAAY cheaper than buying organic meat from Earth Fare or Whole Foods. Meat from Polyface is grassfed and practically organic (no antibiotics, hormones, etc.).

Anyway, when we arrived there was a reporter from the BBC interviewing some of Joel's customers about why they buy from him. And in many cases (like ours) driving hundreds of miles to do so. I suspected they would use our interview as I'm pretty sure we drive the farthest and sure enough, they did!

If you go here you can hear me being interviewed by the BBC. If you don't want to listen to the whole thing (around 25 minutes long), start listening around the 17:20 mark. The program is interesting, though.

Do as Daddy says, not as he does

2006-09-13T21:53:00.000-04:00

Last night as we were eating supper, Noah was talking and seemed to be asking a question of some sort. Problem was, his mouth was full of food so we couldn't understand a word of it. After asking him to repeat his question, it occurred to Doug that Noah shouldn't be talking w/ his mouth full of food to begin w/. So Doug said to him, "Don't talk while you have food in your mouth." I stopped and stared at him for a split second before I burst out laughing. Doug had instructed his son while his own mouth was full of food! He realized why I was laughing and started laughing himself (after he swallowed his food, of course). Noah watched us and then started laughing, though he had no idea why. Claire just sat there and looked at us like we were all weirdos.

eBay

2006-09-03T10:37:00.000-04:00

I'm sure many of our loyal readers are familiar w/ eBay, but I know some are not. We didn't really start utilizing it until a few months ago, though I knew about it and had looked for stuff starting a few years ago. But now, it's the first thing we think of when we talk about buying something.

I've sold a few things, mainly to declutter before we moved to M-town. I'm mainly a buyer, though. Doug has gotten a nice set of golf clubs, golf balls, a camping cot for re-enacting, and various other items. I've gotten dishes (for some reason, things seem to break more often when there are young children in the house) and coats/clothes for Noah and Claire.

Looking for clothes can be overwhelming because there is just so much to choose from on eBay. So I decided I would go strictly for the Lands' End stuff. I know the high quality of LE and the styles are usually pretty basic and not too trendy. I especially love their little cotton dresses for Claire. I've gotten several of thoes for $5 including shipping, compared to $20 new (not including tax and shipping). One thing I've noticed is that boys' clothing often is sold in lots (groups of items vs. just one thing), which is fine w/ me. I recently won an 18-piece lot of LE shirts and pants for Noah for less than $30 including shipping. It came last week and most of the items look like they've hardly been worn! I used to buy stuff from LE Overstocks but even that seems expensive now.

eBay is not so cool if you don't have a high-speed internet connection. Pages take way too long to load. But if you do have it, I highly encourage you to check it out! It's probably not as cheap as yard saling (partly because of the shipping) but I'm willing to pay more for the selection and convenience of not having to leave the house. Gas ain't cheap, ya know.

Burgess Falls State Park

2006-09-03T10:10:00.000-04:00

On Thursday when we went to see the eye doctor for Claire, we had a picnic beforehand at Burgess Falls State Park. It is only 15 minutes from the doctor's office (which is a good 2.5 hours from home). They have 3 waterfalls along the somewhat rugged 3/4 mile trail, each one bigger than the previous.

We strapped Claire in the Ergo and were SO VERY GLAD we had it! She is so heavy and there is no way she could have walked it. Actually she could have if we had had 3 days to kill. Anyway, on the hike out, I carried her in the Ergo and Noah held Doug's hand except for some really steep spots where Doug carried him. After we spent some time resting at the end of the trail (the really big waterfall), we put Noah in the Ergo (he loves the Ergo and had been asking for a ride in it) and Doug carried Claire in his arms until we got back to the middle falls. Then Doug carried Claire in the Ergo and I held Noah's hand on the walk back to the van/picnic area.

After lunch, we had to choose between the very nice playground and throwing rocks in the water because of time constraints. Noah chose the playground.

We'll definitely go back to BFSP the next time Claire needs to see Dr. Clopton. It is a beautiful park!

Cataract surgery?!?!

2006-09-01T13:08:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we took Claire to see Dr. Clopton, the vision therapist. We got to where his office had been before but it was gone. So I called and got directions to the new place, which was thankfully only 5 minutes away. They've got a lot more room now and a much nicer setup.

Anyway, he examined her and said that both eyes are getting used, but that they are not moving in sync. Her left eye is still turned in ever so slightly, which I had noticed before. It's not really obvious if you are just looking at her, but I have been looking at where light reflects on her eyes and could tell it was just slightly off sometimes. Other times it is fine. The cataracts in her left eye became the main concern.

Claire was extremely cooperative w/ Dr. Clopton. We went to a different exam room so he could spray her eye to dilate the pupil and take pictures of her cataracts. He showed them to us and sent them to our email address. I had noticed them myself when she was just a few months old but did not know what they were. You only see them at a certain angle when her eyes are not dilated. Doug had never actually seen them before.

The first picture is a straight-on shot.

The second one was taken while her left eye was looking inward, so it's more of a side shot of the main cataract.

He said the cataracts have definitely grown since her last appointment (early April) and is now recommending we get them removed as this is probably a major contributing factor as to why her eye is still turning in a little. That and it is now in her main line of vision. He was a little surprised the surgeon did not do that while he was straightening her eye, but we explained why he did not. (See previous post) So he called another eye surgeon and talked to him about it. This guy, Dr. Galloway, would put in an intraocular lens (IOL) after removing Claire's lens so that she would not require a contact on that eye. They would put one in that is a little too strong at this point in anticipation of her eye growing so that when she is 10 or so, when her eye is done growing, it should be just right. In the meantime they would correct her vision w/ glasses.

So we have an appointment w/ Dr. Galloway on Sept. 27 for him to take a look for himself. Dr. Clopton did email the pictures to him.

After I put Noah and Claire to bed last night, I got online to do some research on the surgery. I'm not quite as anxious about the procedure itself as I was w/ her strabismus surgery (been there, done that?). Cataract removal is the most common surgery done in the U.S. Putting an IOL in a child is somewhat controversial, but it's either that or contacts for the rest of her life. What concerns me the most is the risk of her developing glaucoma anywhere from days to years after the surgery. It is not uncommon for that to happen, but moreso in children who have the cataracts removed at a very early age (weeks old). It appears that the risk decreases as the child gets older. (Claire would be in the "older" category.) There are "treatments" for glaucoma, which consist of drops, drugs, or surgery, none of which appeal to me AT ALL. I emailed Dr. Clopton about this and he says the risk is very small, especially when compared to what will happen if we don't do the surgery. He encouraged me to talk to the surgeon about it.

I'm trying to picture a 3 year old w/ glaucoma and it's a bit unsettling. Maybe I'm just used to the idea of cataracts and glaucoma is a big new scary concept for me to grapple w/.

There's a right way and a wrong way.

2006-08-27T19:44:00.000-04:00

My sister-in-law's blog entry on the proper way to make a PB&J sandwich prompted me to reveal to the loyal readers of this blog the proper way to make a cold cut sandwich. I know what you're thinking - "There's a proper way to make a cold cut sandwich?". Yes, there is a right way and a wrong way. I don't know where I learned the right way, but it probably came from my mother, who always made sandwiches to take to lunch that were the envy of everyone at school (they always tried to trade their lame PB&J's for my awesome sandwiches - no way!). The debate of the proper technique of sandwich contruction was a cause of some (very rare) tension in our marriage, but after six years of training, Carla has finally aquiesced to my sensibilities.

It's really very simple. The cardinal rule of proper sandwich construction is that the condiments (usually just mustard for me) NEVER, under any circumstaces, make contact with the cheese. For years, when Carla would make a sandwich for me, she would spread the mustard on the bread, then carelessly slap a slice of cheese on top. Every time she did this, I would (very gently and lovingly) remind her of her error. Ideally, the cheese should be on the bottom bread slice, with the meat above that, and the mustard spread either directly on the meat or on the top slice of bread. If there are two cheese slices involved, which I usually prefer, the mustard must be spread between the meat (for a proper cold cut sandwich, there must be two types of meat. Ideally, the meat should consist of genoa salami and virginia ham. Turkey or roast beef may be substituted for the ham, but the salami is an absolute requirement). I can see how spreading on bread is easier than spreading on meat, but not at the expence of making mustard-to-cheese contact.

So Carla now makes my sandwiches the right way, without having to be reminded. Sadly, she continues to make her sandwiches the wrong way. She just doesn't understand why I have to have it my way, but I don't ask her to understand. I just ask that she humor me and make the sandwich the right way. Then she gives me the sandwich and says, "I made it the wrong way.". And I say "Thank you, dear."

Goin' to the chapel

2006-08-27T15:54:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary. Six years of bliss! We celebrated by grilling out some filet mignon steaks from our half a cow (plus my yummy oven potatoes and some broccoli), and I made a cheesecake w/ some strawberry sauce to go w/ it.

We also watched the rehearsal dinner video that Knocker put together for us and 2 different "versions" of our wedding. One taken by Julia Conley, my sister-in-law Laura's mother (Knocker's mother-in-law) and one taken by friends of the Schneider family, the Weningers. It was good to have 2 different tapes since they were at different angles (literally during the ceremony and figuratively w/ 1 focused more on Gaskins people and the other more Schneider-centric).

We haven't watched these in a few years, at least since Noah was born. He has seen our wedding photos including my bridal portrait and we've kinda told him what it means to be married, but I doubt he really understood very much. So he and Claire watched the videos w/ us and was very interested in it all. We explained things along the way (who people were, what they were doing, what they were talking about) and when we were thru he wanted to see it all again!

He then announced he was getting married and went out on the screened porch to do so. He kept talking about the cheesecake they would eat (he really likes cheesecake and we told him how delicious our wedding cake was). At one point he married Claire and kissed her, then he married Katie, his cousin. I guess that was an absentee wedding. And an illegal one as I believe it is not lawful to marry your sister or even your cousin. We don't live in West Virginia, ya know.

Since our wedding, some things have stayed the same yet there have also been some big changes in our lives. This morning we had 2 sweet little children bound into our room to awaken us at 7am. I certainly don't remember that happening 6 years ago. I enjoyed our time as just a couple, but looking back, I think life is sweeter now w/ our 2-going-on-3 blessings from God.

He's listening!

2006-08-20T12:43:00.000-04:00

A few days ago, Noah, Claire, and I were sitting at the table getting ready to eat. Claire was being a little impatient and making a low whining noise. Evidently, this did not impress Noah a bit because he said to her, "Cwy me a wiva, Cair." (Translation: Cry me a river, Claire.)

Doug and I have been known to say this to express our lack of sympathy for a child's plight. I have to say I'm a little impressed that Noah picked up on that and applied it to a different situation.

Ergo

2006-08-20T12:22:00.000-04:00

I have recently had 2 mothers recommend I check out a baby carrier called the Ergo. Supposedly you can carry a 40 pound child in one of these things for hours w/o pain because much of the weight is distributed to your waist/hips instead of your back and shoulders. I did a lot of research online and seems like a lot of people are crazy about them. Since Claire is too big/heavy (29 pounds) for a sling, I decided to give it a try. Plus you can use it for newborns, and you never know when one of those will come into your life. :)

Of course, I looked at eBay first. I watched for a week and they had several on there, but they were going for $5 - $10 less than brand new, which just isn't worth it to me. These things evidently hold their value!

So my new Ergo came yesterday in the mail. It wasn't too hard to figure out how to use it. I put Claire in first, but she wasn't too impressed. I don't think she was uncomfortable, I think she wanted to get down and play w/ her Daddy who had recently come home from work. Noah wanted to get in and he LOVED it! And I can't believe that it really did not hurt my back or shoulders at all. Last time we checked he was around 38 pounds, so he's no lightweight. Next time we go out on an errand I'll put Claire in again.

Noah wanted to wear the Ergo this morning so I put it on him and tightened all the straps as tight as they would go. Then we put his baby in the back. You can wear a child on your back, hip, or front w/ the Ergo.

One horse, two monkeys, and general cuteness

2006-08-13T11:45:00.000-04:00

Fun with chainsaws!

2006-08-11T18:11:00.000-04:00

I decided to go out and buy a chainsaw today. I chose to do so today because a large tree decided to die across our driveway. It was assisted in its demise by winds from a severe thunderstorm that moved through the night before. It's a shame, because it was a very nice tree - a full grown Bradford pear. It provided shade for our hostas below it, but now those will have to go too. So for the first time in my life, I used a chainsaw without parental supervision. It didn't go so well at first. The chain got stuck in a limb when I was cutting, so I had to get an axe to cut it out. This made a slight bend in the chain, which is probably fixable, but fortunately the chainsaw came with a spare chain. My technique gradually improved, and when I was done, I still had all my limbs intact, though they were all very sore.

Pictures!

2006-08-02T15:02:00.000-04:00

Here are some of the pictures we sat for last Wednesday:

RECIPE: Creamy Chicken Vegetable Soup

2006-07-30T09:30:00.000-04:00

I recently made up a recipe that we all really enjoy, especially Noah and Claire. I like it because I can basically stick any vegetable in it w/o protests from Noah. He likes many vegetables, but can't eat potatoes w/o gagging and detests zucchini. I'll list some of the stuff I usually put in, but just be creative! All the vegetables need to be cut up into chunks, though bite-sized is not necessary. You'll be blending it all in a food processor or blender anyway, so don't waste your time chopping them into small pieces.

Creamy Chicken Vegetable Soup

1 quart chicken broth
2 cups cooked chicken, cut into small pieces
1 cup cooked brown rice (optional)
onion
garlic
zucchini
broccoli
celery
carrots
potatoes
1/2 cup cream
1/2 cup butter
Sea salt and ground black pepper to taste

Combine the broth and chopped vegetables in a large pot. You want to add enough veges so they are sticking out of the broth; they will cook down. Simmer on medium low heat until veges are cooked.

Place broth/veges in a food processor or blender and blend until fairly smooth. Transfer back to the pot and add the chicken and rice, if desired. Heat thru. Stir in the butter and heat until melted. Add cream, stir, and season w/ salt and pepper. Serve.

Claire's mind at work

2006-07-29T15:15:00.000-04:00

So what do you think of when you see this? It is a picture of an unusual wood grain formation in our kitchen table. I've always thought it rather freaky-looking, kinda like a raccoon or something. Evidently Claire sees a cat. We were sitting at the table eating supper the other day when she pointed at it and said "Meow meow, key cat". I was amazed and praised her for her imaginativeness, but I tried not to get too excited. I didn't know if Doug had pointed out to her before and suggested that it looked like a cat. (He was at work when this happened.) So I told him about it later, and he was equally impressed as he had not prompted her about it at all.

Claire surprises us like that. Noah was not even talking at this point (20 months). He didn't try to communicate w/ us verbally until he was just over 2 years old. So maybe he thought about these kinds of things, but wasn't able to tell us about them. He did sign language and could be quite creative w/ that, making up his own signs that actually made sense (in other words, we could understand what he meant). But Claire is different, which makes it fun. I can't wait to see what the next baby sees in the wood grain, because I'm sure it will be just as marvelous to see his/her little mind at work.

Picture Day - The Aftermath

2006-07-26T20:36:00.000-04:00

We had our pictures taken today. Overall, it went pretty well. Noah was resistant at first, and didn't want to go into the picture room - until we told him that there was a train to play with. That seemed to warm him up to joining us, then he willingly sat on my lap. The photographer had a feather duster that she used to tickle their toes and make them smile. Noah liked this, but Claire was not amused. Noah ended up with a big smile for nearly every picture, but Claire would hardly crack a smile. There was a stuffed teddy bear prop that we gave her, and that seemed to loosen her up a little, but she was still rather stoic compared to her normal jovial self. We were all prepared for a battle with Noah, and in the end it was Claire that was the less-cooperative one. But in the end the pictures ended up looking really good. With children as cute as these, how could they not look good?

Picture Day

2006-07-25T22:31:00.000-04:00

I remember Picture Day back in school. I was always so excited at the prospect that maybe this year, it would turn out well. I was also very nervous at the idea that it probably wouldn't. I wasn't the most photogenic child in the world. Can't say I'm a particularly photogenic adult, either. At least I'm not afraid to smile anymore.

Tomorrow we are going to have a family portrait made. We haven't done that since Noah was 3 months old and he looks a little different now. Plus we have Claire! I've been wanting to do this since she was born. Now that #3 is coming it needs to be done. I'm not too concerned about how I will turn out (though I will try and remember to brush my hair beforehand). Now I'm concerned about how Noah and Claire will do. Though they tend to take cute pictures.

Noah can be a little iffy about pictures. Some days he is posing and practially begging you to take his picture. Other days he gets upset if you break out the camera (though this happens less frequently than it used to). So I've been telling him about this for the past few days, hoping that by taking any element of surprise out of the equation, he'll be OK w/ it. I showed him the picture from when he was little, explaining that he looks different now and that Claire is not in the picture so we need to get a new one. I also explained to him that after the baby comes we can do it again so that the baby will be in the picture. Talking about the baby always puts him in a good mood.

For extra insurance, I told him that he definitely will NOT look cute in the picture. Why? Whenever he gets a new outfit, whether it be from Grandma/Grandpa or a hand-me-down or whatever, he resists wearing it, saying he doesn't want to look cute. This made things difficult for a while, until one day I said, "You won't look cute" just out of pure exasperation! That totally satisfied him! And it works every time.

I'll try and post the pictures when we get them.

Twins!

2006-07-21T12:46:00.000-04:00

Now don't go and get excited. As far as we know, I am not carrying twins. I'm talking about Noah. He gave birth to some very fraternal twins the other night, AKA Snoopy and Little Lamb. LL was first, a double footling breech, which would have been a C-section for sure at the hospital. Good thing he decided to stay home as he had an easy time pulling him out feet-first from under his shirt. Then came Snoopy. He decided to nurse his babies this time. He lifted his shirt and was walking around w/ Snoopy nursing him from just below his collarbone. Then he looked down and smiled at his baby and remarked to the proud grandparents, "My baby likes my milk."

Noah and the Baby

2006-07-15T11:38:00.000-04:00

As Doug mentioned in a previous post, the baby has started kicking. I am 19 weeks along today, almost halfway there! It is flying by. I felt Noah and Claire "flutter" at 13.5 weeks each. With this one, I've felt very little. Then a couple of weeks ago I was lying in bed when I got a good, solid, unmistakable kick. Since then it's been party time! I've felt movement almost every day. I've gained a whopping 6 pounds so far. I seriously doubt I'll reach 50 like I did w/ Noah.

I'm really enjoying having a new person to "share" the pregnancy w/, even if he's only 3.5 years old. Noah is very excited about the baby. I told him very early on that the baby (and my belly) would get bigger, and then I would be able to feel the baby move, and then he would be able to feel the baby move. Last night as we were sitting on the couch, I felt the baby move so I put my hand on my belly and then felt a kick w/ my hand! Noah was right beside me so I put his hand on my belly but then the baby decided to go to sleep.

We saw a newborn the other night at my midwife's house after my prenatal checkup was over. Baby Josiah is only 2 weeks old. Noah and Claire were enchanted! As we were leaving, Noah started pretending that Snoopy was his baby. He even put him under his shirt like he was pregnant!

Noah told me that he wanted the baby to come out now. I explained that if the baby came while it was still very little, it would have to go to be w/ God. The baby would be happy w/ God, but we would be sad because we wouldn't be able to hold and kiss it. He decided it would be better if the baby waited to come out until it's this big (holding his hands far apart).

Noah just came to me and said that his baby (Snoopy) had come out. I asked if he was big enough and he said yes. Then I asked if he was going to nurse the baby. He replied, "Maybe tomorrow". Then he put Snoopy on my lap. Maybe I'm supposed to nurse him until then?

Star Wars

2006-07-15T09:01:00.000-04:00

We let Noah watch a movie with us last night. It was Star Wars, Episode 4, the original. He seemed to really enjoy it, maybe a little too much. When Chewbacca appeared on the scene, he said, "Monkey!". We then had to explain how things in the movie are not real, like Wookies and Jawas and Banthas. I told him that spaceships are real, but not like in the movie. I think that confused him. When the slow music played during the scene when Luke is looking at the two suns of Tattooine, he started to cry. And when the Death Star blew up, he said, "Fireworks!". But his favorite part was at the end when the "airplanes" fight. After the movie, he kept going on and on about the "airplanes", and pretended to fly in one - with Katie.

Noah's "imaginary" friend

2006-07-11T11:38:00.000-04:00

Noah has an imaginary friend. Well, she's really not imaginary, since she's a real person, but Noah likes to pretend she is with him all the time. His new friend is Katie, his 7ish year-old cousin. We went to Carla's parents' house, and several of our nieces and nephews were there too. Noah is kind of shy around people he's not totally familiar with, and since he only sees his cousins a couple times a year at the most, they are probably virual strangers to him. But he warmed up really fast to Katie. All his other cousins were trying to get his attention and play with him, but he would not talk to anyone but Katie. He always wanted to know where she was and wanted to be near her. After we left, he brought his imaginary Katie home with him. He likes to show her how he can put on his shoes by himself, how he goes pee by himself, how he can buckle his seatbelt by himself, and how he can ride his tricycle. He pulls her around in his wagon. She sits beside him in the car and at the dinner table. Good thing she doesn't eat much, since Claire eats more than her fair share.

Maybe one of these days, Carla will get around to blogging about how she is starting to feel the baby kicking.