Sunday, October 28, 2012

Ahhh ....fall



Hiya Folks!
Since Will has started school this semester and I have assumed a more primary-caregiver role, I figure it’s my turn to write on the ol’ blog. We’ve been pretty busy this semester, but it has been fun. The leaves are changing, the weather is cooling down and Halloween is upon us. Hey, there is even a Hurricane to mark the season (Heeelllloooo Sandy!).

Claire is back in the same preschool she was in last year, but with mostly different kids, many of which are closer to her age. When I ask her about it she reports what they learned about that day, if “Mr. Monkey” (the teachers’ puppet) came to visit, and who she “hangs around with.” She is doing great and makes me laugh daily with her hilarious use of vocabulary.
This evening for instance, we were carving pumpkins and her remarks included the following:

“Eeeewwww! The guts are disgusting! I don’t think I want to get anymore guts out.”
“Mom, can I wash my hands yet?” (followed by more ews.)

And, when she was finished cleaning it out,
“Goodbye guts, hello carving!”

Later, when we let her carve her own face (she insisted), she would say things like

“Aren’t you impressive with me, Mom?”
“Aren’t you impressive with me, Dad?”
“I’m impressed with you, Mom.”
and
“I’m so very clever”
“Carving pumpkins is the best thing ever” (she seemed to forget the disgusting guts.)

Needless to say she was very pleased with her pumpkin and she actually worked very hard on it. She wanted help digging the guts out, but once it was carving time she insisted on being the only artist. I was impressed with how well it turned out, and how she stuck with it, she stayed at the table long after Will and I had finished.
 (Pictures of the adventure follow)

As for Avery, she is very adventurous and pretty mischievous. I remember Claire being curious at Avery’s age, but nothing like Avery. She is a pretty fast crawler these days and crawls around the house wreaking havoc in every room. Kitchen: she pulls things out of the dishwasher nearly as fast as I put them in there. Bathroom: I usually let her play in the bath toy cupboard when I am doing my hair, and she has gotten very good at emptying that cupboard in 2 seconds flat. This is particularly dangerous if we forget to pick up (for the hundredth time) before bed and someone inevitably stumbles or stubs their toe on an item. Bedroom: she is just tall enough to reach (on her tippy toes) the papers and books on her Dad’s bedside table. She seems to relish scattering them several times daily. She also likes to empty her sister’s child size craft table several times a day. She keeps us very busy chasing her around the house.

Also, I am a little unclear how it started, but I think somewhere along the line we have ended up rhyming “Baby” with “Waby”  and the “Waby” part stuck. As a result, we usually end up chasing her around the house, yelling “Waby!”, trying to pick up after her. I’m am sure the neighbors are wondering about us. But hey, they vacuum at 9 p.m., so who are they to judge?  

Avery has a sweet smile and she is very cute about her preferences. We are always greeted with a yelp and a speed crawl to the door when we return home. And, the other day before I went to school she teared up when she saw the babysitter because she realized that I was leaving.

The cutest thing she does right now is growl when I say or show her a lion. She also really enjoys clapping. We got family pictures taken last weekend and this is the only way the staff could get her to smile.

Well, I think that is all the news for now. Will and I are trying to juggle school and the kids this semester, and so far there have been no major disasters. We have been very blessed. We are getting ready to hunker down for exams, and looking forward to the holidays when we can visit all of our beloved friends and family.

Happy Halloween y’all!

Our little speed crawler

Claire on her first day of school this year



One of my favorite jammy pics of all time.

Subtle, right?


The finished product from tonight. Claire’s is the far right. 

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Avery Laughing

I'm feeling a little on the lazy side lately and so I have no stories this time, but I have had this video of Avery laughing that I have been meaning to post for about three weeks or so I decided that I would put the video up. Here it is.



Apparently watching me and Claire play catch was hilarious to Avery. And I suppose I must admit it did have its hilarious moments...like me attempting to make a stretching catch and almost falling over, Claire trying to catch the ball with her face...and other such silly happenings.

Here are a few pictures of the girls too. 







Sunday, April 29, 2012

Birthdays, Recollections and Naps.


So it’s been what almost three months since I last posted a blog? Woops. So much for the every week goal back when I started this thing… but then again did anyone really think that would last long? It is sort of like when I tell Hillary “I’m totally going to start working out every day,” I know that is false. She knows that is false. In fact, it is to the point now that even Claire knows it is false.  But don’t you worry this time will be different. I am recommitting – to exercising that is. The blog is pretty much a loss, I think once every three months is a reasonable expectation. Then I don’t have to feel guilty about not posting…and yes, I do feel guilty…well sometimes anyway…but it passes.  

Yesterday was my birthday. Birthdays always make me think about the past and I tend to get a little nostalgic. I have a friend who frequently posts what he calls “hazy recollections” and I had a few of those yesterday.  Here is one of them.

“A Hazy Recollection”

It is summertime, (or at least I remember it being summer and since this is my recollection I will decide on the “hazy” parts). This is after “the summer of whiffle ball” and also after “The summer of Nintendo 64 Goldeneye,” but before “the summer of halo.”  Me, Travis, Tyler and Dan are at Tyler and Travis’s home and we are bored stiff.  So we invent a game. It involves a green semi-squishy ball made out some sort of plastic compound about the size of a large cantaloupe that we found in TnT’s garage. We split into two teams and marked out the playing area. The area consisted of the driveway and roughly equal strips of grass on either side of the driveway. Each team occupied one of the areas of grass and the game consisted of trying to throw the ball across the driveway and getting it to hit the ground on the other team’s side.  If you succeeded you got one point. I think games usually went to 7, maybe 11. Win by two. We invented all sorts of rules to go along with it. But most of those are pretty “hazy” now. Like I think if the other team caught the ball you threw then your team lost a point. But if the ball hit one of the people on the other team and then hit the ground you got two points. If the ball hit the driveway then it was free game for either team. If a thrown ball hit someone then went out of bounds one point was awarded.

There were probably more rules and I probably got some of the ones I mentioned wrong. But for at least, I would say two months, we were crazy about that game.  We played it constantly. It was intense. There were amazing throws that bounced off the house or the basketball hoop. Ones that looped in the air or had weird spin applied to them that made the ball move in erratic ways, ones that used the wind (which was always blowing in IF) to throw off the other team.  Wondrous saves were made by lunging leaps and spectacular dives. Balls were snatched out of the air mere inches, no centimeters, from the ground. Glory was ours for the taking and take we did, as only young boys of summer can.

So, now that I have gotten that out of the way. Here is a story about Claire, which is what you all read this thing for anyway.

So the other day Hillary and I are sitting in the front room. It is a lazy Sunday afternoon and I am dozing on the couch. Claire is in her room which shares a wall with the front room.

Hillary says to me “Hey you napping over there?”
I reply: “Sure am.”
To which Claire, who has suddenly appeared in the front room apparently solely for the purpose of adding to the conversation, forcefully interjects: “I don’t want to take a nap. I hate naps.”
Me: “I love naps.”
Hillary: “Me too.”
Claire: “I just hate them.”
Me: “Why do you hate naps?”
Claire: “obviously, just cause you have to sleep.” (she recently mastered the word obviously and likes to use it when every she can)
Me: “But, sleep is what makes naps so great.”
Claire: “Nope. I hate sleep. It makes me bored.”
Me: “So you hate naps because they are boring?”
Claire: “Obviously.”
Me: “Well no one said you had to take one…”
Claire: “Oh, well ok, but I just hate them.”

She then leaves and returns to her room just as suddenly as she appeared. 

Claire reading Avery the Friend magazine

On Claire's Birthday


Claire "graduating" from preschool


Sunday, February 12, 2012

Pictures and Stuff


So, I've started saying things to Avery in my "I'm speaking to the baby to get her to smile voice." That alone is probably humorous enough. But there is more. Anyway, the things I say are usually just nonsense, you know typical baby talk stuff - googoogaga, lalala, yippielo, and other noises you might hear from a parrot or songbird who has nasal congestion.  Of course if Hillary is around I usually try to say a least one thing that is inappropriate- you know something like "I don't care about the very poor" or "I do have concerns about women in front-line combat...because of...[their]...emotions" or "I promise to have a moon colony of Americans by 2020" or "[let those silly people] cling to guns or religion." 

But one of my favorite phrases is to say "who's a beautiful baby?-dramatic pause for effect- Avery is!" It's my favorite because it gets the best results...which really isn't surprising, is there honestly a girl out there that doesn't like being told she is beautiful? 

Anyway, a while back I noticed that Claire was starting to get a little jealous, again not really surprising, is there honestly a girl out there that doesn't get jealous when she hears someone telling another girl she is beautiful? Exactly. So, to rectify the situation I've started saying to Claire: "who's a beautiful big girl? -pause for dramatic effect - Claire is!" She loves it, for reasons already mentioned. 


Well, the other day after I had said "who's a beautiful baby - Avery is!" and then right after "who's a beautiful big girl?- Claire is!" Without missing a beat Claire looked at me and exclaimed "Who's a beautiful old man? - pause for dramatic effect - Daddy is!"  



Apparently I must have looked a little jealous. I loved it...which, of course, is not surprising, is there honestly a dad out there that doesn't like being told he is beautiful by his 3yr old daughter? (even if she calls him an old man in the same sentence...)

Hope everyone is doing great. Here are some pictures of the girls. 






Sunday, January 8, 2012

Claire's First Email

So, Claire got on the computer the other day and I asked her what she was doing her reply: "Just checking my email, but I can't find one with my name on it."

After that she insisted on having an email with her name on it so we got her an email account that we send her sesame street videos and what not and I help her check it every other day or so. Well, a few days back she told Hillary she wanted to send me an email so Hillary acted as her scribe and this is a copy and paste of what I got in my inbox:


Dad,

We are going to send you something new. We had brought you something. And, we want you to check it on your computer. And, it's really nice to give you it. So, we are going to show it to you. And, we're going to be so happy to do it. So, we're going to do it right now.
Can we do it? Please? Please? so, Please?

"oh, okay"
Yay! Yay!
So, its such a kindful thing to do. So, we are going to offer you so we can do it. And show us that we can do it everyday. So, we are going to sent you and email, so you can check it on your computer. Okay?
So, Please, please, please can we do it?

So, we are going to check it for you. So, Avery likes that idea. And she said yes and no. And she can imagine she can do it when she's a big girl.
If you can imagine she can climb or she can be happy and choose the right.
Or she can be a baby or she can grow up and be me.
Please can we let her grow up? Please, please, please?
Or we can do something else.
That we can do it! On every search, they searched and searched. For every Dad, they searched and searched for where you were.
The giants searched on top of the water. For the deep,deep of it.
But Avery would like that.

That's all I would like to say.
We're done writing.

Love,
Ccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccclairrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre



Hillary let Claire type her name.


Anyway it made me laugh. Especially the part about the giants.

Hope everyone had a great Holiday season!