Gone for a Dip
Well, we are in the midst of a bad drought spanning several years here in the North Carolina Piedmont. Our local recreational lake (yes, we have our own recreational lake in Mebane) is rather low as a result. In any case, my brother and I took the kids up there to the park Saturday while Paul was working, and Jay and Isaac were very excited to see all the water. Isaac was a little bit TOO excited, if you ask me, because he headed down to the lakeshore where Todd and Jay were and, gathering momentum on his descent into what used to be part of the lake, didn't stop until Todd caught him by the waist and his face was underwater (for a split second). As you can imagine, this was not what he had anticipated, and I got to hold the soggy muddy toddler and comfort him in his whatever (I'm not sure whether it was distress or disappointment, but his feelings were strong). In any case, once he was comforted, he headed right back to the lake and waded in (again it was Todd who retrieved him). Crazy tiny boy!

And on a completely unrelated note, for what is probably the first time in our marriage, both our football teams (the Redskins and the Lions) are 2-0! Wow!!

Labels: boys, Football, summer

- posted by Gary @ 11:33 PM |

 
Yes, I Do Still Take Pictures of My Children
And my brother

Labels: boys, family, photos

- posted by Gary @ 11:19 PM |

 
Meantime, Back on the Farm...
Isaac seems to be doing much better. I have to take Paul's word for it, since I haven't changed a diaper all day. I know he had been doing better yesterday, so I've got no reason to doubt it. We didn't have an especially restful night, unfortunately. Isaac woke up, VERY unhappy, about 11 PM. As I had gotten to bed early (and was awfully sleepy), and no halfway measures seemed to be doing much for him, I asked him if he wanted to come downstairs and lie down with me. "Aa." Sometimes, he sleeps just fine on the futon, but last night, he'd wake up and fuss a few seconds out of every hour or so. He'd notice that I was there and go back to sleep, but uninterrupted it was not.

This morning I happened to be counting with him for some reason, and he picked it up after "three", chiming in with his version of four and five. AMAZing, as Jay would say. Isaac also really likes to play "Piggy". One of the first things he said to me this morning was "Piggy" (it took me a couple of times to figure it out!) Then this afternoon, I called Paul from work to give him a quick account of my court date, and he offered to put Isaac on. The conversation went something like this:

"Hi, Isaac!..Hi!"
...
"How are you, Isaac?"
"..Fine."
"Are you having fun today?"
"Aaa."
"Is Jay being nice to you?"
"Aaa."
"OK, Bye-bye!"
"Bye" (following a prompt from Daddy)

Jay's language skills continue to progress as well. Out of nowhere this evening he said to me, "You just never know." And then after he threw a (really minor) fit about Daddy telling him he couldn't go for a walk unless he put on shorts and shoes, he looked at me and said, "'Ere's sumfing wrong wif me, Mama." Wondering whether he had a tummyache, or just what was amiss, I asked him what was wrong. "Mine need juice." This I can handle!

Labels: baby talk, illness

- posted by Lenise @ 8:01 PM |

 
All Charges Dismissed
And I didn't even have to pay for parking! My former church in downtown Chapel Hill, only a few blocks from the courthouse/post office, kindly agreed to let me park in their lot. Thankfully, I only had to impose upon their kindness for less than an hour. The whole court date thing was surprisingly efficient. If I were a writer, like CEP, I would describe the grandfatherly security guard, a smattering of the defendants in their multi-ethnicity, the well-clad assistant DAs. I don't have the patience to do that, though! Suffice it to say, there was a long but orderly line, an astonishing amount of politeness and good will (this being Chapel Hill, and we being the riff-raff and all), and shortly and sweetly, my case was dropped without my setting foot in the actual courtroom.

I doubt the trooper who issued the citation will have as easy a time of it facing the charges which will almost certainly be filed against him. We have had a rash of trooper scandals around here the past month or so, with "my" trooper's being quite possibly the worst. While I'm not overly sympathetic to illegal immigrants' plight (there being legal, if more time-consuming, ways to enter the country), nobody deserves to have a law enforcement officer attempt to coerce her (into what, you can probably guess). Thankfully, the intended victim went to a lawyer, and "my" trooper is now a former trooper. As there was no citation issued, I really can't see where these folks have any motive to make up a story like this. I hate to see a sworn officer of the law attempting to tarnish our country's commitment to rule of law, especially in so despicable a manner. *Sigh*

Labels: law enforcement

- posted by Lenise @ 7:45 PM |

 
Encouragement from Tony Woodlief
For those of us who aspire to having well-behaved children. It's good for a chuckle, even if this is not an issue you're facing at the moment.

Labels: discipline, philosophy

- posted by Lenise @ 10:54 PM |

 
Poor, Poor, Pitiful Isaac
My little guy has come down with a stomach bug and the attending nasty diaper rash. He was miserable Sunday morning, but seemed to be kicking the stomach part of his ailment by nightfall, though he was still raw and sore. Late last night (early this morning), he woke up crying, and I went to get him. He wanted to be held, and I didn't want to turn on the light, (plus I really had to empty the ol' bladder) so Isaac and I went downstairs. I was wondering just what I was going to do with no baby wipes and no diaper cream (thinking he'd probably had another number 2), when I realized that I could give him an oatmeal bath and do the preliminaries with cotton pads. So I unsnapped his clothes and opened his diaper to find nothing but gelled urine and cream residue. I talked him out of the bath I had already offered, put a dry diaper on him, and we lay down on the futon to finish out the night. It took a while for him to settle back down, but eventually we both fell asleep. In the morning, he was looking much better, and I was confident he'd be almost good as new by the time I got home. Sadly, he is just as rashy as he was yesterday evening. I hope he can sleep through the night tonight, though it is probably just as well that I was able to switch out his wet diaper for a dry one. The boys and I prayed last night that Isaac's seat would improve last night, but apparently we weren't diligent enough in repeating the prayer! So sad.

Meantime, when the diaper's on, Isaac is pretty much his usual cheerful self, trying out new words and phrases throughout the day. Jay's also been working on his verbal skills. I brought a bag I had found in the basket of our stroller when I got home from work today. When I came in, Jay made his usual pronouncement, "Mein muver's home!" and ran to tell Paul and Isaac. Then, on his return, he noticed the dark green bag: "Da's mein cheese! Da's mein cheese! (etc)... Mein bought 'at at da cheese store!" and he relieved me of the burden. There was something kind of grown-up in the way he said it: sometimes he gets very serious. Anyway, it was cute, but you probably had to be there. [He still slips out with a "Mein pway wifing DIS" for "I'm playing with this." I still correct him, and you can see why "being haive" seemed like a good bet (pesky predicate phrases!).]

Somewhere in the middle of all this, Isaac came teetering towards me with his huge smile, proclaiming, "Mama! Mama! Mama!" Even while I'm holding him, he likes to remind me he's there. He'll say, quietly, smiling, "Hi." And you know that's not cute ;)

Labels: baby talk, boys, illness

- posted by Lenise @ 9:59 PM |

 
IF We Knew We Were Staying,
I'd be pushing pretty hard for this place. Close to church, close to my place of employment, quiet neighborhood, some extra space.

It's probably got serious-ish problems, though, as it was off the market once and relisted at a lower price. Besides, there are a lot of stairs, and it's kind of boring in a modern utilitarian way. Not that I've seen inside.

Labels: real estate

- posted by Gary @ 9:09 PM |

 
Inspiration
The boys and I spent a lovely couple of days with Aunt Cathy, Uncle Josh and Jonah over the holiday. Jonah astounded by counting to ten in quite a few languages. Jay had forgotten his Russian numbers, though after I went through them with him and he watched Jonah's Baby Einstein Language Nursery video, he did pretty well with Paul tonight. It took Paul's keen ear to discern that Isaac was trying his hand (well, mouth) at it too, making vaguely "deyats"-like sounds at the end where dyevyats and dyesyats appear. So Paul started from the beginning with him.

"Isaac, say 'ahdeen'"
"deen!"
"Good! 'Dva'"
"Dva!"
"'Tree'"
...
"'Tree'"
...
"Isaac, say 'tree'"
"Tee"

And then the second time, Isaac said 'deen' and went ahead to 'dva' without prompting, and again to 'tee'. Kids these days! They are just too smart for me!

Labels: baby talk, boys, Russian

- posted by Lenise @ 8:50 PM |