Chase

For awhile now Jack has been crawling away from us and then suddenly stopping to look back. I thought he was just checking to see if we were still there or maybe to see if we were still looking.
Now I have discovered that he is baiting me into a game of chase. Last night he stopped to look back and I was on the floor. I started to crawl towards him and he let out a huge laugh and then took off away from me. I chased him all over the house as he squealed with delight. I even got him to chase me for a minute. When I would catch him he would giggle with joy. Kate even got in on the action. Tonight, he started it again by giving me the most playful look I have ever seen him give. He seems to be discovering how to interact more when he plays. Much to his fathers delight.

Uninspired

I have not been writing of late. I just haven't felt inspired at all. I decided to write just to do it and see what comes out. It's not that I haven't had anything to write about. I guess I have just been busy and stressed and haven't done it. We are going on vacation in a couple of weeks, so there is a lot to do. Well, I guess it's kind of a pseudo vacation. My sister is having a last minute destination wedding in Florida and we are making a vacation out of it. We have some friends in Jacksonville and are going to visit them when the wedding is over. I am looking forward to it although it is straining the budget quite a bit. We hadn't really planned on a vacation this year since we bought a new house etc. but I think we will be able to manage it alright.
K has been stressing us out lately. She does so well some days with going potty in the bathroom but then she always seems to slide back into going in her panties. She knows what to do but just can't seem to be bothered by it sometimes. We have tried many things but nothing seems to work. Any suggestions here would be great. We are pretty much at our wits end.
On a good note one of my very best friends had a baby this past week. The baby looks beautiful and he and Momma are doing very well. I am so happy for E. He is starting on a wonderful journey filled with amazing moments and also great challenges ( see above). I hope he enjoys every minute of it like I have.
It seems to be a week of catching up with my best friends. I have heard from another of my very best friends this week and he and his family are doing well. The kids are growing too fast though. You will have to do something about that S. Uncle D wants some fun boy time with them before they are all grown up. Maybe letting off some rockets or something.
My other best friends J&C are trying for another baby. Go girls! I will be praying for you. You can do it. Maybe you can have a little one growing and listening to motorcycles racing around the speedway. I hadn't heard from them for a little while either since they were out of town for a bit, so that was very exciting news.
Also heard from my friend and mentor D. thanks for the email. Glad you two are doing OK.
That pretty much brings you up to speed on all my friends:) I don't have many but the ones I do have are definitely keepers.
Well, I do feel oddly better having written down my thoughts. However disjointed. I will try to keep up with it even when I don't feel like it.

The Big 3

Well, I can't believe it. K is about to turn three. It just doesn't seem that long ago that I was holding this little 4.5 lb. girl for the first time. Now she is so big. I am amazed sometimes when I look at her and it seems that she has grown overnight. She is so curious about the world and so sweet. She has started the Whys. She wants to know everything. N started to cry yesterday when she realized K is turning three. K wanted to know why she was sad. N said she wasn't sad, she was crying from happiness. K seemed a little confused by that but later said that mommy was crying because she was happy.

I love the ordinary moments that kids seem to be able to make extraordinary. We were having some ice cream yesterday and K looked up and said, 'be careful everyone, the ice cream is really tricky.' I am not sure what she meant but it was a very funny moment. Today, I was reading a book with K before nap time. Well, actually she was reading it to me. She has been doing that lately making up great stories to match the pictures. I was holding J on her bed as she read. J was playing with a yellow balloon. Suddenly, he realized that he could see through it as he held it up to his face. He started moving the balloon away to make sure it was the same things that he was looking at through the balloon. Pretty soon it became a game. it was like his own little hide and seek game. It was fascinating to watch. All the while K was making up a story to go with the pictures in the new little bear book she got from her grandma for her birthday. An extraordinary moment in our lives and all we were doing was reading a bedtime story. I love it.

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.