The Brave One

K and I went on a Daddy-Daughter camping trip last weekend. Nand J stayed home. Oh yeah, and my entire family and their families went too. It was a typical wild weekend with my family including lots of fun and drama. Five girls and my mom. It's hard not to have drama. Or fun. K really enjoyed it and was very good the whole weekend. Lot's of kids to play with and Lot's of fun things to do. We had water fights and swimming. Biking. Probably my favorite part was going down to the creek and skipping rocks. K is so brave. She didn't even hesitate and loved playing with the rocks. She didn't seem to mind the fish or the craw fish at all. It was really nice having a whole weekend with her. She is an amazing little thing. You can almost see her little mind working.
Wednesday N, J, K and I went to the county fair. We like looking at all the animals and eating fresh sweet corn. J was really curious and looked around a lot in wondrous amazement. K, the Brave, wanted to ride on the rides. We went on the train first. then the space ship. They were pretty benign. She wanted to ride the motorcycles like daddy. They started off pretty fast and I thought she might freak a little, but she hung on the first couple of laps and then she got comfortable and started looking up at the ceiling while it all whizzed by. Then she wanted to go down the big slide. N and I thought she might get freaked out going up the stairs and being that high up, but she didn't even blink. We got to the top and I asked if she was ready to go. She said yes and off we went. We got to the bottom and I asked her if it was fun and she said "let's do it again, daddy!" So we went to get back in line.
We had a caricature artist draw the kids and they turned out great. Then we started heading for the car since it was already and hour and a half past their bedtime. We walked past the pigs since we missed them on the way through the first time. I asked K if she saw them and heard them oinking. she said " yeah, they're in their nests daddy". they were all in cages for the night. I thought it was super sweet. she is such a sweet girl. and brave. N and I worry that she is too brave sometimes. I guess it's a parents job to worry.

Bonne Quatorze Julliet, Tout Le Monde!

It was a good evening, this one. The kids are obviously feeling better after a weekend of cranky fussy snotty sickness.
It's funny thinking about what will amuse your kids. Usually, it's something simple like playing with a cardboard box or throwing something randomly in the air. Enjoy.

Oh, it means happy fourteenth of July (Bastille Day) everyone. I was going to make you look it up. But I am too nice, I guess.

Our Pig Farmer

Picture a 6 foot something man of impressive stature who was a pig farmer. A tough man's man who doesn't have to take any grief from anyone. Someone who knows something about just about anything, and can figure out the rest. A doer who isn't afraid to get his hands dirty. This is my stepfather. He was up this past weekend with my mother to visit and to help me hang a new door in our house.
Now imagine him on his hands and knees making baby talk to my son J. It makes me smile to see him melt at the hands of my daughter K. He turns into a big Teddy bear when he is around them. It makes me smile to see him with them.
Even more impressive is how quickly he retreats at the first sign of any type of bodily fluid from these little creatures. The slightest bit of spit up and he is out of the room. I remember him watching J hurl in my face and I thought he was going to pass out he was so green. Keep in mind this is a man who has had his arm up to his elbow in a pig's a#%.
We love our pig farmer. Don't ever change.

Sweet Bedtime Girl

For anyone who doesn't know it already, I absolutely adore my children.
I have a lot to do tonight with N being pretty well down and out and company coming tomorrow for fourth of July festivities. So I don't really have time to blog and wasn't planning on it. I just had to take a break to write this down because I never want to forget it.
We had some friends over tonight for pizza and some socializing. We let bedtime get away by a half hour or so which always puts K on the fragile edge. She was struggling a bit but nothing that was too unmanageable. I got her in bed and we read some books. normal bedtime routine stuff. I was giving her a kiss goodnight afterwards, which I always do and she looks into my eyes and says " You are a good daddy, Daddy"
Instant Heart Melt.

Mobility and Immobility

It's funny how life's little irony's show up. N has been dealing with kidney stones for the past several days and finally had the first of two surgeries to get rid of the little fire breathing devils yesterday, rendering her immobile. So, of course J picks yesterday to crawl across the floor to grandma who was so graciously helping us out while we went to the hospital.
N is recovering nicely but is pretty sore and I have been trying to figure out how far I can go away and for how long before he gets into something he shouldn't. It's on now. Time to find out just how much child proofing still needs to be done at the new house. It's so cute watching him go that we have been putting things out of his reach just to see him go. Poor guy, he's probably thinking 'why are they pulling it away just as I am getting to it. They used to be much nicer, bringing me all that I need and want. WTF.'
they grow up so fast. here is some video of the little cruiser.