Category: Family

The boy found a caterpillar with basically a white fuzzy coat and a few long, darker lashes coming out of it. After poking around on the web, it looks to be an American Dagger Moth.

Since his school class has been watching catepillars turn into butterflies, he decided to take the initiative. “Dad, can I have a jar to put this caterpillar in so I can watch it turn into a chrysallis?” It’s amusing too listen to him stumble over a “big” word like “chrysallis.” Are they supposed to know that sort of thing already?

So I dutifully went and grabbed a canning jar and poked some holes in the lid. Then I brought it over to him and he started filling it with grass. I figured the caterpillar might like something else so I grabbed an oak leaf and a maple leaf and added them to the jar.

He has barely set the jar down since. We went out and he wanted to bring the jar along because he didn’t want to miss the caterpillar turning into a chrysallis. When we picked up the lass from school, he told her about the “surprise” he had waiting at home. When they went to bed I was instructed to check on the caterpillar to make sure it was OK. He could barely wait to show the Wife when she came down this morning.

Simple things that get taken for granted when you grow up. I guess that’s a fringe benefit of being a parent. We get reminders about those simple things if we’re willing to stop and listen.

The kids were in a helpful mood yesterday. They are very excited about the pile of logs now sitting in our driveway and I decided to start hacking away at it yesterday. Without any prompting on my part they came outside with me, put on their ear protection and started “helping” to stack the pieces that I cut off the logs. I was impressed.

The Wife left on Monday and she ain’t comin’ back… ’til Friday.  Business travel.

I’m reasonably practiced at flying solo with the kids.  The wrinkle nowadays is the schedule- which makes things interesting around lunch.  But hey, we adapt and make things work.  I’m sure others have worse to deal with.  Plus, I figure trading off between mornings and afternoons is good for the kids because they have to figure out how to get along without one another.  Definitely a change of pace considering how they bounced off one another all summer.  For now, they both seem to be adjusting just fine.

Things have been a little slow this morning.  The Wife is knitting and I’m tooling around on the web trying to find reliable estimates for the DC Tea Party.  On the one side, the claims are for 30,000 or so.  On the other, 1.5 to 2 million.  I’ve seen quite a few claiming easy 6 digit numbers as well.  It’d be nice if a number could be settled on.

Anyway, since the Wife and I are taking our time, the kids decided to take matters into their own hands.  They fixed breakfast for everyone!

They came up and asked us what we wanted, to which we both replied “muffins.” (The kids and the Wife did some baking yesterday.) The boy managed to get the plates out of the cabinets without breaking them and also pulled out the strawberries from the fridge.  The lass handled the muffins which were on the counter.  They plated everything and served us where we sat.

I just finished my strawberry and muffin breakfast.  I politely asked and the lass came and served me seconds, after which she proudly declared to the Wife how she had given me seconds.

Not a bad way to start the morning.  But then, this happened after a battle royale over which cartoons to watch.  Maybe the morning is more of a push…

Nah.

Well, I’ve been through the routine enough now to know that I don’t really like it.

When school started for the Lass last week, things went so smoothly that the moment barely registered on the event scale.  Enter the long holiday weekend and now it’s “School- The Return!”  Upon arrival today, I counted no less than 5 puffy faced urchins pining for the days of old when they didn’t have to deal with the whole “school” thing.  One poor boy was dead set in not letting Mom leave without him.  Also, the air of “smooth-running-machine” was gone.  Instead, you basically had teachers flailing around looking to pull wrenches out of the works.  Suffice to say, a rough morning.

Thankfully, the Lass was a sea of tranquility amongst the chaos.  She even remembered her little kaleidoscope for sharing this morning.   She happily chirped a goodbye as she toddled off into the next room to see what she could get involved in.

At least this part of dealing with her has been easy.  So far…

It’s funny how life throws curve balls.

We’ve been going to the same beach with the kids for the past couple of years.  Once of the reasons for going to this particular beach is that the surf is pretty gentle.  It’s not my cup of tea- I’d prefer stuff a little more substantial for body surfing and what not.  But if getting the kids to enjoy the ocean is the goal, then smaller surf is the order of the day.

So naturally, on this day, probably our last visit to the beach this year, the surf is rough.  Ironically, the Wife and I were having a conversation on the way down alluding to the possibility of exposing the kids to rougher surf next summer.  At that point, the idea of larger waves intrigued the boy but he was glad he wouldn’t have to deal with them for awhile.

Like I said, life throws curve balls.

I had forgotten that the lass had managed to break the rear window of our Highlander this past Friday.  Now by break I don’t mean threw-a-rock-into-the-window-causing-daddy’s-head-to-explode kind of break.  I mean more in the hey-I’m-pushing-the-button-for-the-window-and-it-nothing-is-happening-BANG!

Ahem- sorry ’bout that.

She was so excited, we had to wake her up in order to get her going this morning.

She came down and after the Wife had gotten her dressed I asked her why she was all dressed up.  She replied “‘Cause I’m going to school!  Silly Dad.”  Yep, that’s about the size of it.

We all left- the boy accounted well for himself.  No pushing or shoving or trying to grab the limelight.  As for the Lass, it went about as I figured.  You see- she’s been watching big brother do this for 2 years so she’s got it down COLD.  We brought her up to the classroom where she let Mom take a picture of her next to a little classroom mural thing.  Then she went and deposited her backpack where it was supposed to be.  Finally, she sat down at a table, pulled a piece of paper her way and started coloring.  And that was it.  No worries.

We watched her for a few minutes, during which she invited other kids to come and color with her.  Most of them were not nearly as sure of the whole situation as she was.  We left before circle time because clearly, we didn’t need to be there any longer.  A quick kiss “GoodBye!” and we were off- myself to the Y with the Boy for a little racquetball practice and the  Wife back to the house for work.

When I picked her up just prior to lunch her teacher told me that she did just fine.  She was happy and easy to deal with.  I told her that I figure in about 3 weeks she’ll be bored with the whole thing and the teacher nodded in agreement.  That’s the usual.  As for the Lass, she liked her time there but was disappointed she didn’t get to go play on the playground outside.

I told her not to worry, she had plenty more days to get outside and play.

Saturday was a long day.  We went to the mall to take care of eyeglasses for the Wife and then I had a trip to my alma mater for a retirement party for my former track coach.  The mall was sort of on the way, so we took separate cars to get there and out first stop was LensCrafters.

The kids were barely controllable.  The boy in particular was difficult.  Climbing under tables, competing for the same empty chair (when there were other empty chairs to steps away), running through the store dipping and dodging other patrons- these were the order of the moment.  Tensions began building quickly as a number of countermeasures were employed attempting to arrest the obnoxiousness.  Multiple trips into the main mall area and to the bathroom, as well as distraction techniques and threats of punishment provided only temporary respites.  The problem is that getting new eye glasses takes a long time and the kids patience level is not that long.  Not even close.

When things get busy around here, clearly something has to give and writing to the blog is one of them.  The irony is that when things are busy- there’s lots of potential material for blogging topics.  So now that I have a little time, I get to play catch-up from memory.  The flipside is perhaps the delay is a good thing.  It acts as a sort of filter where the impulse to write about every little thing gets dulled so that every little thing doesn’t end up enshrined on a webpage.

Friday was a busy day, it was the lad’s 3rd day of school, and the lass had an ice cream social at her soon to be school that night.  Personally, I had the excitement of a pending reunion of sorts along with a guaranteed Whale siting.  More on that in another post.

The bus showed up at about 10 to 12 to pick him up.  No tearful goodbyes, no running away.  He just got up on the bus and he was off to school.  No muss, no fuss.  I spent the rest of the afternoon with the lass.  We played Candyland, ran the dogs a little, played with dinosaurs, then went to the park.  When we came home, the Wife was already waiting for the bus.

When the bus finally did go by, the Wife laughed and said “I think he was sleeping!”  Sure enough, the bus pulled up, and the driver informed us that someone would have to wake him up- he was out like a light.  The Wife took care of it and to his credit, he got up and walked off the bus himself.  He wasn’t too happy about falling asleep but by the end of the day I think we’d convinced him it wasn’t something to be ashamed of.

After he unwound for a little we went into the pool and played there for awhile.  After dinner, he talked to both sets of Grandparents to tell them about his first day and the bus trip.  And that was the day.  Just 180 or so more to go…

And now the countdown starts for the lass, whom will start her pre-K next week.

This is it- the last day before school starts for the boy.  It’ll be punctuated tonight with a little teacher-to-be sponsored ice cream party at the school.  Not sure how we’ll spend it but the weather is nice right now.  It’s almost like a taunt- “Ha ha- this is what summer weather is really like, too bad your summer is over.”

The countdown starts…

Today the kids achieved another first.  I left a store before I was ready to because I couldn’t deal with their antics anymore.  Not exactly a first to brag about, but there it is.

I decided to stop in at a Bernie’s today to investigate new TV sets.  I went to look at the first few LCD’s, and the urchins laid down on the floor.  Minor annoyance, but manageable.  So I moved on to look at some other sets and the kids come tearing after me.  The daughter jumped in front of me and in the process almost trips a sales guy.  Little Miss Oblivious.  The salesman was good natured about it- “I’ve got big ones now but I remember…” sort of stuff.  In retrospect, it was only a matter of time from here.

The kids have one habit in particular that drives me crazy. It’s one of those kid things that I remember doing and only now can I appreciate the patience my parents must have practiced with me and my siblings. The worst part is that you are captive to them in this situation because you’re all in the car together. And they are bored.

And then the “potty” language starts.

Today was the kind of day where your sweat sweats. The kind of day where you walk around with a coat of grime and you deal with it because well- what else can you do?

Find some A/C, that’s what.  Of course, with the kids I also needed a way to keep them busy. Bored kids are a difficult beast to deal with. Leave them alone for too long and they will almost certainly get into trouble of some sort. Creativity knows no bounds. So it was off to the Children’s Museum- where there is plenty to keep them going for the afternoon. Most importantly, though, they have A/C.

We have a pellet stove to heat our basement. Of course, you need to fuel the stove with pellets. This year we purchased a couple of tons of pellets which, as of earlier today, were still sitting in our driveway. Not a good situation for the pellets, even though they are covered with a couple of layers of plastic. I know from past experience that the only way to keep the pellets dry is to keep them in something that keeps the water outside, and plastic wrap doesn’t do that.

I’m a pretty handy guy.  There isn’t too much in a house that I’m unable to fix when it breaks.  The only exception is plumbing- by which I mean copper pipes.  Faucets and toilets I can deal with.  Even things that I’ve never dealt with before I’m unafraid to tackle because I’ve done enough fixit projects and collected enough tools to feel comfortable that I’ll be able to get myself out of whatever trouble I get myself into.

Dad has a website related to EIFS inspections that the Brother has started for him.