Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

2012-03-11T18:12:00.000-07:00

Green shoots are poking up through the ground. Since I don't care about gardening, this had to be pointed out to me. I do, however, care about 65 degree weather days during (most of) my spring break. It is too bad I spent much of it indoors working on a project demonstration for class.

I worked on hardware and some code. Rebecca worked on more of the code as we tried to solve some basic visualization problems. I never will buy these same relays again -- their connectors fall off with the slightest wiggle.

Paela missed school, but enjoyed having her dad home more often this week. I think Aderyn will have the hardest time of withdrawal next week. She did potty training this week. She picked things up really quickly and is doing great [not that we are, of course, without an accident here or there]. We haven't seen any kind of regression, but her night time habits make for several bathroom runs in the middle of the night. If only she didn't wake so much.

Hometeaching with someone on the high council is a unique experience for me. Instead of the usual visit and message, the entire trip lasted 3+ hours. I think I expect my life to be run like a smoothly oiled machine instead of cultivating bonds between people.

The weather has been great. I want it to stay like this all year round. Paela has different thoughts. She thinks it is still too cold. I suppose she's going through a phase where she doesn't like the out-of-doors due to extreme weather conditions. What she did love was flying our sport kite in the field behind our house. Bowling Green is often referred to as Blowing Green due to the ever-present strong winds. These are perfect for flying stunt kites and Paela got to help steer. She wants to fly kites even in the rain now.

my turn

2012-03-04T10:44:00.000-08:00

And we're back in good health (mostly) again. Wayne felt poorly two nights ago, but it seems it was a one-time fluke, as he felt well enough yesterday to paint the town proverbial red.

We were back to normal, including preschool and story time this week. Dr. Seuss day was celebrated with lots of reading and some Dr. Seuss ice cream (aka Nerds ice cream). Paela decided it was Dr. Seuss ice cream because it had lots of colors in it.

Yesterday we went up to Toledo to window shop at a few stores. We were successful at one of them, unsuccessful at another, partially successful at a third, and the girls had a blast at the toy store. Aderyn is in love with the tricycles, which Paela was never much impressed with. Maybe it's time to hunt craigslist.

I also had fun this weekend working on a project with Wayne. Ah, to dabble in code again.

The snow was finally good for making snow men. So we did. Even though it was only a dusting, we managed to scrape together enough to make one the right size for the girls. Now we're all happy.

so very sick

2012-02-26T16:53:00.000-08:00

Things didn't go well all week.

I was ill all Monday night. All. Night. Long. While I collapsed during the day, Rebecca took care of the girls and tried to keep things quieter than normal. I was hopeful that this was a simple 24 hour bug. I was wrong.

I pushed my way through two lectures on Wednesday, thinking everything was fine. By Thursday morning, I was having a relapse and had to cancel Thursday evening class (again!). I barely made it to BFA jury Friday morning and Rebecca didn't make it past that morning. The girls seem to have been up and down, much like myself, all week long. Only one of them bothered to inform us of their internal woes, but it shows in how fussy they are all the time. So we binged too much on television and could barely get out of the house to do anything. I'm afraid to drive anywhere because I seem to have a malfunctioning inner ear; I get very nauseous driving out of our neighborhood.

Through some serious diet control, Rebecca and I are not moaning and dead to the world today. We actually made it to church, which I wasn't sure if we would.

Reading over what I just wrote makes things sound worse than they are. We just had a week that was a total waste and will get over it soon. Yet, it is truly one of those weeks when we just have to forget our lack of progress and remind ourselves that we are normally better parents than we have been.

sickie poos

2012-02-20T19:04:00.000-08:00

We got sick. The last three days have been less than thrilling in our house. Particularly Saturday night. Both girls were up multiple times, and lots of changes of bedding were needed before the night was through. Fun stuff. Luckily, they got well quickly and were bouncing off walls by bedtime last night.

The rest of the week was good though. We went bowling with the girls, using a free pass we received. They had a blast, the lanes had bumpers that went up and down depending on whose turn it was, and they could barely wait to see the ball hit pins before they raced back to get their second chance. Maybe we can find some more coupons in the future. Wayne got his highest score ever, and both girls beat my score. Maybe I should try bumpers next time too. Tee hee.

Paela and Wayne went to go see some ice skaters perform. We had meant to all go, but it was the start of [see first paragraph] so only some of us went. Hopefully we didn't pass that bug on to too many other people.... They had a really fun time.

Paela got to attend preschool on Tuesday this week, even though it's not a usual day for her, so she could attend her class's party. I think Valentine's day is a huge win in her mind now. She loved looking at all her little cards, and a few of them had special things like stickers too. She made lots more Valentines during the week for random people, wanting to spread some more love.

And we filed taxes. Well, all except city taxes, which we are researching to determine if we need to file those or not. Hooray. What a headache it is to file taxes in two states.

And let's hope Wayne gets well soon.

we did things (for once)

2012-02-12T17:31:00.000-08:00

I gave a major assignment over three weeks ago. I requested two weeks ago to see a progress report on the image. I only saw a handful of students turn anything in to show me at that time. I should have panicked but since I am getting used to the lack of attention paid to deadlines by students at this school, I simply shrugged my shoulders and tried to make a big fuss about it every class period since. On Wednesday, I felt it was a good idea to give them one last hour to work on their projects in class to get my direct feedback before the project is due on Monday. This is primarily because I find that only a select few students ever understand how to transition beyond the high school mentality of literal imaging into a more advance and complex image making. But I was shocked to find that half of my students had not even started. I suppose I need to do some yoga tonight or something so I don't explode at them tomorrow during critique. I need to find a gentle way ... a zen way of explaining their failings to them. Perhaps...

Aderyn has worn dresses all week. I guess it has been weeks now. She demands to wear a dress so she can be a princess and if we dress her in pants, she will mope about the house saying, "I no princess." Dresses are what makes a princess. She also seems to have misunderstood our lessons on telling names to strangers. If you recall how Paela told people her name was Aurora, we began to teach our children that they should say, "My name is X, but you can call me Y." Aderyn has taken free liberties with this phrase and now walks up to total strangers and tells them, "My name is Belle, but you can call me Cinderella." These are, after all, her two favorite princesses.

Cub scouts will happen every Wednesday evening (either meetings, or with the scouts themselves). Monday nights are FHE. Tuesdays and Thursdays are classes until late. Did I mention my children have forgotten what it is like to have me at home for their bed times? [the other night, Paela prayed that her daddy would get home safe...never mind that he was just in the other room with Aderyn! -bec] Rebecca and I managed to find someone to watch our kids Friday night. We went out with a co-worker of mine and ate way too much at a local BBQ place. I thought since it was a Friday night that the place would be packed, but it wasn't. I suppose BG students are too cheap to eat out. Who knew? This school really needs to do something about the high tuition.

We visited my parents on Saturday one last time before they leave for Hawaii for ten days. The girls have been talking about seeing them all week, but we couldn't get away for more than an afternoon. It snowed and we were hoping to convince the girls to do snowmen or sledding, but they [err, Paela...] really don't like the cold this year. We're all getting cabin fever.

ah-choo

2012-02-05T17:30:00.000-08:00

I heard Aderyn's breathing one night this week, and just knew she was getting a cold. As if to confirm my suspicions, she woke up more than usual a couple of nights in a row. And was fussier during the day. We had to read to her at the kitchen table to keep her from exploding when she wasn't quite able to get her food on her fork. But the runny nose never seemed to come. She had a little more congestion at night, but nothing in the daytime. Weird.

And then I started feeling extra tired, and achy for no reason. Unlike Aderyn, however, I got the rest of the cold eventually. It just was slow to show other symptoms. Poor Paela and I are competing for the tissue box. Let's hope Wayne gets spared.

We saw a dusting of snow one day, and hit a high of 57 another. One of the warmer days (but not the warmest, since we let Wayne take the car that day), we put coats and hats and gloves on and went to the city park. The girls loved it. Oh, how we've missed going to the park. Aderyn was shivering by the time we called it quits, but even with the shivers she wanted to stay and play more.

On the other side of the spectrum, Paela had been telling her teachers at school that she was too cold to play outside (even with a coat and hat and mittens and sweater and boots), but she was happy to play outside when it hit 50 (so long as she still had all those layers of warmth). What can we say? She was a California baby.

We did playgroup at the library, and Aderyn got to go to a musicgarten trial class with me. Too bad we won't fork over the money for the real deal, but she did love the class. She loves singing and dancing in all varieties, even hitting the right pitch. One of our daily activities is for me to play Disney songs (which they call "princess songs") on the piano while the girls dance and dance in circles. They also like swing music.

Church today was a challenge. I think I spent more time in the halls than I did in the chapel. Mostly from Aderyn, but also from Paela who insists she doesn't know how to whisper. But then I got to play the piano for Primary, which is the best calling ever, so that was nice.

And for this week? Let's kick those cold bugs out the door.

dragons

2012-01-29T18:50:00.000-08:00

"You feel like you're falling behind at work and you're looking for better homes already." These are the two things that Rebecca told me to write about this week. Instead, I'll put a shout out for the Chinese New Year. All the story times at the library dealt with dragons. Paela was super-brave (for her) and even helped dance inside the dragon puppet costume [she opted out of the stamp so she could be one of the first two kids inside]. Afterwards, she put on the full body (and mask) costume and didn't want to leave. She loves friendly dragons.

And Aderyn is obsessed with princesses. We wish she wasn't. We wish that either girl would be more open to things like idolizing doctors and scientists and literary giants. Even though we cringe as we hear them simplify their existence into base stereotypes, we swallow our pride and let them be little girls.

Rebecca did some visiting teaching on Thursday night -- she took advantage of that and stayed out really late. I used that night as a work night for my class. They need time to figure things out and do their work, so I have a number of those throughout the semester. I wish our labs weren't failing so bad. I need to build their confidence in hacking at hardware, but lately even I have been having difficulty with the equipment. It seems I must have purchased some REALLY fragile LEDs.

Friday night we drove out to my parents' house so Rebecca and I could make it to the temple. Amazing that we get to the temple more often now than we did in Boston, even though the drive is now four times as long [older kids probably helps]. The girls stayed up way too late I'm sure and there have been plenty of meltdowns since then to prove it.

I managed to go help with the pinewood derby on Saturday afternoon. I still feel completely swamped and in shock at these events that I don't really know what is going on around me. I helped put the cars on the track. We had 19 cars and we ran all the heats in 30 minutes. It was a blur to me.

preschool and snow

2012-01-22T13:15:00.000-08:00

It felt like a busy week. But I'm not exactly sure why. I know preschool started this week, but there was also a holiday in there and a lazy weekend for the first time in a long time. So maybe it was only busy in my own mind. This is probably the case.

Click to see more house pictures

Paela says she loved her first day of preschool. In fact, she didn't want to leave. She did end up being assigned a student teacher tag-a-long after all, who told me Paela loved the play food area, but got overwhelmed when they went outside to play. Paela told me they have a real circle rug for circle time, and that she found friends, but she didn't know their names yet. She's excited to go back tomorrow. Aderyn kept busy running to the store with me and stopping by playgroup.

Wayne had cub scouts again this week, so the girls and I did bedtime by ourselves half of the week. But they were happy to have him come to story time with us. A trade off in time. Paela really got into being part of the Chinese dragon for the dragon themed story time.

We played in the snow a couple of times. Aderyn is generally more excited than Paela about going out in the snow. Paela wonders why it is that it's so cold every time it snows. (I'm with her one that one, personally.) And can we just celebrate that the snowfall was only one inch each time? Seriously. And tomorrow it is supposed to rain. What a strange winter.

We are also counting our blessings that when Paela woke me up because she threw up Sunday night, she only threw up once more that night and was keeping things down by lunchtime on Monday. And hooray for 4-year olds who can use a bucket. This meant Paela got to watch a few shows on Monday (princess shows, of course) and Aderyn "benefited" from this by finally seeing some of the shows about the princesses she's learned to love from her sister ("My name is Ariel. I say 'Ah-ah-ah!'"). We benefited from this by getting the cabinets in the bathroom sanded and painted. We finally took the "after" pictures for our work of the last three months. Not that we're done with projects, but that the most visually changing things are done.

Also, I made too many treats this week. But it was fun.

girls

2012-01-21T19:19:00.000-08:00

The girls and I were talking over lunch about how all of us were girls. I pointed out that their Dad is a boy, but Star cat is a girl. This was news to Aderyn, and she vehemently disagreed. "No, Star cat a kitty, not girl."

Apparently, cats have no gender.

we try things in our family

2012-01-21T19:14:00.000-08:00

One day this week, Paela noticed my peanut butter and honey sandwich. She asked to have one like it. Only, she requested cheese instead of peanut butter. A cheese and honey sandwich.

She ate the whole thing.

a story

2012-01-17T14:23:00.000-08:00

A: Once 'pon a time, there was a princess. She lived in a castle. There was a princess. This way, and this way. Did you fall? No. Did you fall? Yeah! Did you fall? No.

playing with your food

2012-01-17T14:21:00.000-08:00

Aderyn is my first exposure to a 1 (almost 2) year old playing with her food. A couple of months ago, she picked up one of her noodles and shook it at another saying:

"I mommy! I baby! I mommy! I happy!"

adopting Cinderella

2012-01-17T14:19:00.000-08:00

P: I want to go live in Cinderella's castle with her for ever and ever.

Me: I would miss you so, Paela!

P: Weeelllllll....I was hoping you and Daddy would come live with me too.

Me: That's nice of you Paela.

P: Yes. Cinderella doesn't have a mommy or a daddy. Her mommy and daddy both died. I wanted to get new ones for her so she can be happy too.

another semester started

2012-01-15T16:48:00.000-08:00

First week of class and... blah blah blah... it has all been said before. The only variable this time was that we had moved to a brand new building and there were many hiccups in that process.

Difficulty number one: I don't really like turning students away from adding my class. I learned my lesson last semester. Although the class was slated for 15, I permitted 18 students. The lab had 22 computers. It made simple math to me. Except, in the last quarter of the semester it felt as if every day we started 40 minutes late because of all the computer malfunctions. Note to future self: only permit the enrollment limit.

But this was really difficult for me this semester, because each class had a large number of people knocking on my door to get in. I mostly held my ground. In fact, I even managed to frighten away enough students for my upper division course on physical computing that all the waitlisted students were immediately added.

Difficulty number two: a professor's schedule is awesome/a professor's schedule is terrible. Shifts in our time routine are tough. Pulling this off every semester is going to be a drag. This semester I will be staying home in the morning on Tuesdays and Thursdays to balance out teaching late. I am able to go with the girls to library story times on both days. Sadly, neither girl was in the mood to show off and both were in a funk. Rebecca promises me it has been going on for a few weeks and not simply because I joined them.

The girls managed to go to the library on another day. Winter finally hit with snow and everything. This continues our struggle at finding things for the girls to do so they don't harm each other being trapped at home.
We finally found a sweet spot for the bird feeder in our back yard. They wouldn't touch things before, but now it was a swarm at the seeds. Paela enjoyed seeing them eat from "her birdseed."

Paela starts Pre-K this week. We 'met' her teacher. This wasn't as good of an event as we had hoped because we didn't realize that Paela doesn't have a student teacher (it is a lab Pre-K connected to the university) assigned to her. About 20 students in the room and none have schedules that match hers?

library and more library

2012-01-08T11:26:00.000-08:00

princesses!

We love the library. It's our favorite place to be. Especially this week, as we went three times. Playgroup met at the library, in addition to Paela and Aderyn's twice-a-week story time.

We also visited Paela's new preschool, which she'll start the week after next. Both girls loved it. Aderyn asked if she could go back to "school", but when I told her she wasn't old enough she countered with "Paela go school? I go story time?" I guess she wants to "own" some event in our week too.

Wayne starts classes tomorrow and put in long work days, including heading back to work after the girls went to bed several nights. It paid off though. He says he's ready to teach tomorrow and Tuesday, and has most of the semester planned now. Speaking of schedules, one of the classes is an evening class twice a week, so all of us will have new dynamics to get used to this semester. This includes an attempt to push dinner an hour later, so Wayne can eat with us after the afternoon class gets out at 6. Things should be exciting.

Also, we learned that our favorite candle company was bought out by Yankee Candle two years ago (how out of the loop are we!). We had stocked up before we left California, so it was only this week that we started to get low. Fortunately, though Yankee Candle shut down Illuminations, they kept some of the flavors. So we can still get our Napa Valley Harvest fix -- hooray.

Paela hurt her lip pretty bad. She was running around in socks and slipped on the floor. It made two large gouges in her lip from her teeth, bled lots and made her miserable all day. Thankfully, by the morning, she was feeling better, although it will take a long time to heal.

I went to the ladies night out on Friday, which was fun, but super late. So I was super tired yesterday. Both girls have colds, so Paela was up for two hours in the night and Aderyn woke at 5am for the day (and a couple other times, but that's nothing new). Thanks to Wayne's hard work, we still got some closet doors painted and the drawers in the bathroom painted. We studied the fit of the last two pieces of countertop that we need to install, and we think we know what heights will need to be shimmed up to make the mitered edges meet correctly.

Always something new to do.

Don't Fear the Reaper

2012-01-01T16:14:00.000-08:00

Months back we ordered a countertop for our kitchen. With my father's help, we attempted to install that countertop and mis-cut the sinkhole. This left us with very few alternatives. We tried to patch the job, but nothing looked good enough. After discussing it with a professional contractor at church, he convinced us that the only solution was to reorder the piece we had damaged. I asked him if we should order the sink hole pre-cut (not having done it the previous time due to a lack of specified measurements), and he adamantly asserted that cutting a sink hole "in the field" is the proper option.

After we received a new countertop piece, we have been fretting about what to do for the past several weeks. I kept trying to get a professional out to help cut the piece, but no one came through or kept rescheduling. Finally, yesterday morning, I put on my bravest face and went out and did the job myself -- with a LOT of ideas and help on remeasuring from Rebecca.

We did it. We did it beautifully. We faced our demons and overcame the darkest moments. Don't Fear the Reaper.

I was asked to teach the four year old children at church. This is not an age I am confident with. I am especially aware of this as per conflicts at home with a very certain four year old that I feel hapless while trying to manage her. Regardless of this concern, I am grateful it isn't dealing with 10-11 year old boys. Those are ... out of my pay scale.

I might have seemed at ease in how I managed the class I gave today, but the truth was that it has been a long time since I have felt so far out of my element, or reckless in my planning. People complimented me (but only to my wife) for what they saw [I'm playing the piano for Primary now, so it's a good place to be to hear the Primary presidency's feedback -bec], but I am sure that a pile of gummy bears and a brand new game will only secure their interests for so long. Yet again, I have stood up to my fears. I have conquered the oppressing fist of the tightened stomach and clenched fists. Don't Fear the Reaper.

We haven't written for two weeks in part because of trips and holidays, but also in part because of pure laziness. I am proud to say that the semester finally wound down and I learned how to do less with my life for a week. During the week before Christmas, I was still at work every day churning through as much as I could before the next semester. I was one of probably five people in the whole building during that week. The lack of social interaction was draining. This past week, although I have gone into work, time has moved more slowly and I was many times less productive with that time.

Holidays: Christmas was pleasant. We commuted back and forth between home and my parent's house. We would have done most of the season here because we are trying to build up our own family memories and traditions at home. However, Camilla and Victor and Cameron were at my parent's house and the girls needed some good cousin time. There were nights of jumping and dancing non-stop for a good hour [who knew those Mo-Tab Christmas movies were so danceable? -bec]. Unfortunately, this didn't mean that they slept better at night. Maybe that is because Aderyn would eat an entire bag of M&Ms by herself? I dunno... just sayin'. Paela is at a good age for enjoying new games -- she loved playing Socken Zocken and Kinder Bunnies and memory. Multiple times in a row. Over and over.

New Year's Eve was spent doing projects like any other Saturday. Unlike any other Saturday, it was the most productive I have had in a long time. Our home is more energy-efficient, closer to being finished and the end of the construction zone is in sight. And for a gift to ourselves: we regained the use of our garage. Just in time for a series of snow storms this week.

I still have a great deal of planning to put in for my next semester's class on physical computing, but I am greatly looking forward to it.

most of the stockings were hung

2011-12-18T10:40:00.000-08:00

Paela was interested in seeing Santa a week ago yesterday, but she was much more excited about seeing Mrs. Claus yesterday. She and Aderyn went to the library as little girls, and came home angels, sporting halos they made themselves and candy canes Mrs. Claus gave them. They loved story time with this lady, and helped her take things out of her apron pockets.

We also made it to the Toledo zoo lights, which was fantastic. They spent months working on this display and it shows. Paela fell asleep on the way to the zoo, which made her extra happy to ride around with her grandma. They both fell asleep on the way home in the car. That is a first.

I got to go to the RS meeting on Tuesday, which was nice. In which I found some partners in crime to start a playgroup up. Hooray. We'll see what that's like on Wednesday this week.

Wayne finished up grading all the final projects and submitted the last of the grades on Friday. Extra hooray. Which doesn't make him less busy, because he has quite the line up of projects to accomplish this week as well.

Speaking of projects, we got the light on our newly installed bathroom vent working (!), as well as scraping, mudding, and painting the backsplash in our kitchen. There were a handful of smaller projects done as well. And one more stocking is almost done being sewn. The fourth stocking probably won't be done this year, but at least the girls are covered!

a half-bath complete

2011-12-11T18:33:00.000-08:00

I had a dream last night. Our house burned down. The insurance wasn't going to cover anything and all our possessions were gone as well. There was nothing we could do. We were completely financially devastated. Then I woke up, went to church and tried to give a talk on finding peace.

It has been like this all week.

This was the last week of full school. I had to have a difficult conversation with a few students about their grades and how they will fail my class. I don't like those conversations, but more than that I am confused how they got here. I have taught community college students for the past two years. While many of these students are not academically strong, when I approached them throughout the semester to turn in late assignments they would listen to my warnings and do what was asked. State university students aren't like that. They wait until the last week and then expect some form of leniency. I'm astonished at the lack of foresight and responsibility exhibited by most of them. I've never given such bad grades in my life, and I'm not a difficult grader. If you don't turn something in at all, then you don't get any credit for it. Go figure. What is very disheartening is two of the sections I taught were required courses for graduation to seniors. Those who don't pass, MUST retake that course (i.e. repeat a year of expensive school just for one class).

During the last week of class, I was expecting to have a calm and controlled week, unmarred by events. I was wrong. Due to my position of service managing the print lab full time, I was constantly trying to solve melt downs and problems in the lab all week. Most of the stress came from helping my lab techs keep on top of unforeseen difficulties. So far we have survived, but we aren't out of the crunch yet. I have learned a few things this semester about that print lab. First, I MUST keep on top of inventory and hold student employees more accountable. Second, we were open way too many hours this semester. I was led to believe that about 60 hours would be sufficient. It was overkill.

Paela and Aderyn got to go see Santa at the library. Paela wanted to have nothing to do with Santa, but Aderyn was enthused to stand in the line. However, when she got to the front she wasn't willing to go up to Santa until he held out a candy cane. She then snagged the candy and went right back to her mother. While walking to the car afterwards, Paela said, "But I didn't get to tell Santa what I wanted." [we're led to believe he has the internets, so hopefully Paela will get another chance to express her heart's desire. :)]

My parents came down, yet again, for more projects we could half-finish. For example, most of the day was spent attempting to install a shower vent fan. I have two large and painful bruises on my chest I got from trying to climb down into the soffit. We now have a working fan, but not a working light. Doesn't this mean we have to do it all over again?

Our half-bath is finished (thanks to Karl and Angela!) and we are going to have a house warming party here soon. We finally feel like we are reaching the end of large projects and only have many, many minor projects which will take up the rest of our lives.

getting closer

2011-12-04T15:30:00.001-08:00

Paela puts up the star!

As we drove home from the Toledo Nativity tonight in the dark, Wayne said, "Look at the lights, guys!"

"Oooh, a new bathtub!", Paela replied, admiringly.

Maybe she's been to Home Depot with us a few too many times.

The Toledo Nativity was smaller than others we've been to (aka Ann Arbor's), but we saw some good ones. And some funny things, like an upside-down tree. The BG library has an upside-down tree too. An area-wide epidemic, I'm sure. A Christmas tree, all decorated, hanging from the ceiling. Weird. The children's room at the nativity exhibit was fun for the girls. Stickers, and dress up (which Paela was interested, surprisingly), making ornaments and necklaces, getting a candy cane, making new friends. They loved it.

We hit story time this week, although we ended up making Wayne a bit late for his class to do it. [It is VERY embarrassing to be late to your class when you've been so hard on those who have shown tardiness. Then to do it again the very next class period... grr...] Whoops. Between us and the ice on our windshield, that is. Fortunately, we cleared out enough of the garage to get the car in yesterday, so we won't have the ice as excuse for running behind now.

The library hosted a "magical night at the library" on Thursday. The girls had a blast making paper wands and capes and having a late snack of pizza right before bedtime. We couldn't really see the magician show, but then we didn't try very hard.

Early yesterday, Paela and Wayne took some time to go to the young people's concert on campus. Paela loved the singing and the flutes the best, but she also loved watching the dancers. She was very attentive throughout, so we'll put the March and April performances on our calendar too. We chose wisely to not send Aderyn, of course.

Wayne went out late last night to a bowling party with art students and faculty. Now both his arms are in pain, but for different reasons. (One is still in pain from the bursitis.)

We started our advent calendars this week (thanks, Oma and Opa!). We got our Christmas decorations put up, the tree all decorated, and some house lights up. The girls had fun making a Christmas chain out of construction paper yesterday.

Our projects: We almost finished the raking for the season (tomorrow we'll drag the backyard piles to the front, when we can unbury the tarp). The flooring is down in all the rooms now, and we have just a little more baseboard to put up. The cupboards are painted, and after giving them a little more curing time, we'll put the doors back up this week. Assuming we can figure out the puzzle, of course. Wayne salvaged part of the bookcase that broke in our last move. And the contractor is close to being done with the chimney -- he just needs one more afternoon this week after the last part comes in. This is good, because we came in over budget and need to stop all future projects. Sigh.

thanks and some giving

2011-11-27T16:10:00.001-08:00

The first half of the week, we tried to finish as many projects as we could around the house before we left to visit family in Michigan. This meant painting every night and doing as much with flooring and little projects around. Yet, on Monday night as I was grading, I injured my elbow and ruptured something. It incapacitated the use of that arm. I almost didn't go into work the next day. So, while I rested on ice packs, Rebecca baked and packed and organized birthday supplies like a fury and we finished ZERO home projects.

Aderyn's birthday was the day after Thanksgiving. Thanks to all of you, as you made it a really wonderful birthday for her. She was jumping around for joy all day long. This made for a long weekend full of playing with cousins, having tantrum meltdowns and learning lots of new things. And lots of screaming, both good and bad.

We visited the temple Friday night, leaving our children at the whims of their grandparents. Paela and Pyre no longer have a good time going to bed in the same room. Paela wants to talk and Aderyn pushes herself too hard and needs that sleep. She eventually begins to scream hysterically at Paela because she's overtired. [but separating them until both were asleep and then moving them worked nicely!]

And everyone has had a cold. The children take it poorly, waking often at night and being grumps all day long. It seems to have gotten to the worst of it last night and today [so let's hope tonight begins the upswing]. Kids were restless and erupted at the smallest inconvenience. Of course, that also relates to having their friends/cousins/grandparents leave. [Paela especially misses her "big sister Elena" and wants to know if we can go to her house now.] They enjoyed the social connections.

rapunzel, rapunzel

2011-11-20T16:55:00.001-08:00

spinning on the office chair

Paela and I watched part of Tangled one day this week. And when you suddenly see Rapunzel all grown up and her long, long hair -- that is when Paela exclaimed, "[GASP!] My hair is almost as long as hers!!!" And she jumped up and down on the bean bag couch for good measure. She wants to never cut her hair, ever.

We have managed to keep ourselves busy this week. We went to both story times at the library -- the one for Paela's age group and also the one for Aderyn's. They didn't seem too different to me, though the younger one was a lot more full.

Our car is (mostly) legalized again. Apparently the state of Massachusetts caught wind of our address change and asked us to send our plates back, so we went to get Ohio plates. Pleasantly short lines in Bowling Green, that's for sure. We just need to get around to switching the plates....

Bowling Green hosts a Wood County parade the weekend before Thanksgiving. The parade on Saturday was fun. Paela, especially, loved it. She thought it was her role in the parade to wave to everyone. So when we started walking along to get ourselves closer to where we parked, she even waved to the crowd we were passing. She loved seeing (and waving to) the "whistle players" in the marching bands, the "Santa" (I think he was a historical figure...long black coat, tall black hat, and long white beard), and the dancers. She tells me her favorite part was the candy they threw. Aderyn enjoyed most of the parade, until the loud motorcycles went past. She doesn't like the loud motorized sounds very much and tried to bury herself inside of me.

And we had the sister missionaries over for dinner on Sunday. Paela enjoyed showing off tricks she can do with her tongue, and Aderyn gave lots of bashful grins and giggles.

Oh, and more projects, of course. Speakers set up, a little more flooring, more boxes have disappeared in the attic (to be sorted through when we finish the last closet), and there's been some painting on walls and cupboards. And other things, I'm sure. All the wall paper is finally gone. And more to come this week (like new countertops!).

SECAC 2011

2011-11-13T17:50:00.001-08:00

I was invited to present on my work and research at a panel for SECAC this year in Savannah. The panel went well, and I presented alongside some fascinating other artists doing interesting things. It is always a nice event when I get to spend time with brilliant minds working and talking together. I believe I need to work on how to handle post-lecture Q & A sessions, as my responses sounded terribly lame to myself.

I got trapped in Savannah and missed all the rest of the conference. My flight was supposed to leave shortly after my presentation. As I waited to leave, the flight kept pushing take off time further and further until I had already missed my layover flight. Since it was the last flight of the evening to Detroit, I was given a hotel voucher and sent on my way for the evening. While it was an inconvenience, I was grateful it was the least problematic inconvenience I could have experienced. Things would have been much worse if the girls were with me or if I had work or some other appointment the next day. As it was, I only missed most of Saturday's projects around the house.

The house: what a mess. We're finally getting the contractor to come out this week to fix our chimney. The toilet in the half-bath won't come out. We just don't have enough room to manage the projects we are working on in conjunction with unpacking our stuff. And we maxed out our planned budget for improvements. So, it appears as though we will finish the projects we have the stuff for and then call it quits. My parents were kind enough to come down on Saturday and help get us going for the next couple weeks' projects. They also brought down a MUCH needed dresser for the kids. They have been using clothing out of a suitcase for the past... months....

I can't believe there is only about 4 more weeks of the semester. I know that my senior level classes are ready for that time span (although some are clearly not going to be graduating this year due to failing my class), but my intro to digital imaging class has some issues with time management.

end of fall

2011-11-06T18:20:00.000-08:00

The quote of the week is from Paela, Halloween night:

"I've got more lollipops than I ever wanted!"

Of course, they didn't last very long. But they had a fun Halloween and a fun couple of days binge eating some candy. Paela was a pink ballerina mouse (all sorts of favorites in there), and Aderyn (after a scream fest when we put on the tiger costume) became Dora for the evening. Wayne and I took turns taking the girls around the neighborhood. On Wednesday, Paela helped me pick out most of the rest of the chocolate candy, chop it up, and make monster cookies for Cookie Monster day.

I liked that Paela was so eager to share her candy with me and Aderyn (and Wayne when he got home), so much that I let them eat more candy than I otherwise would have at any given moment. But mum's the word.

Aderyn gets a quote of the week too. The girls have been playing so nicely together that if I try to come in the room, she will shut the door in my face and say:

"No mommy. Go 'way."

But who am I to complain about them playing nicely? More unpacking time, the way I see it.

This is by far the most painful move yet. We have a good chunk of things unpacked, enough to mostly function. But now it feels like we're just shuffling boxes from one room to another as we work on projects. And some things I just am not unpacking yet because the places to put them aren't ready. Sigh. We are making progress though, it's true. I celebrated today when I found the box with my shoes. I've been surviving on two pairs of sandals since early August, and now I have some closed toed shoes! Hooray! And a warmer jacket! Double hooray! Plus, the floor is down everywhere except the half bath and the entry to it.

The girls have been troopers coming along to different stores to look at this or that, try out this idea or that one. Though I could tell the day I took them to story time at the library was a big relief to them. Paela found a girl to play with afterwards and they ran around pretending another boy was a dragon (he seemed happy to play the part). Aderyn followed them around (and told me to go 'way).

Oh and we do like our trees in the backyard. Even though the raking made us (me) super sore for a couple of days. Lesson learned: attempting to use a broom to rake leaves is tons slower than the rake your neighbor will lend you when you are halfway through.

ugh. moving. again

2011-10-30T17:40:00.000-07:00

make a pumpkin face!

We moved. Again.

I don't think we are getting more efficient at it. Instead, moving has become a burden we go through averaging once a year. Like a holiday, where you don't get to do anything you want to. Yet, we survived.

Every weekend we found ourselves camping out at the new house in the hopes that we might complete enough construction to permit us to move in. It finally happened last Saturday that we built enough flooring to put furniture down.

This house construction project has been overwhelming. We tore out carpets. We built new walls. We repainted. We put down laminate. Now we are finding that we need to solve window condensation problems, replace lighting, paint cabinets, replace countertops, repaint the entire outside of the house, as well as a bathtub that is slanted. My father is correct: projects are ALWAYS larger than they seem.

Rebecca and the girls have been keeping busy with packing (in Toledo) and unpacking (very slowly because the house isn't finished yet so there aren't places to put everything). I was able to sleep in an extra half hour each morning due to the reduced commute. It permits me to stay up that much later in the evening to keep laying down flooring and baseboards and unpacking.

Paela had a birthday. I have no idea how we fit that in right before the move. Rebecca even managed to make a pinata. The girls loved hitting it. Then I took a turn, only with the intent to "help it along." I guess the girls must have loosened something, because the pinata exploded from one hit. Paela also did her first primary program. She declared that she would go up to the stand, but would not stand up and sing. [one step at a time, right?]

Aderyn doesn't want naps anymore. She has skipped/delayed about half her naps this week. She screams and cries for bananas when we put her in the crib and fights falling asleep.

We found a nice apple orchard in Toledo, right after we moved to Bowling Green. The blueberry donuts were to die for, but the rest of the farmers' market was pretty standard. The girls picked out a pumpkin and we will carve that tonight. Paela has helped make her own costume so she could be a pink mouse ballerina. And Aderyn is going dressed as Dora. She now thinks "Halloween" is synonymous with "Dora".

it's official

2011-10-02T17:52:00.000-07:00

The mess....

All week long we thought closing would be delayed. They needed to get something from BGSU; the appraisal hadn't happened by Wednesday so the other realtor thought we would need to push back; at 2pm Thursday, I learned they wanted a copy of my last W-2 (why didn't they ask for this before?); then I learned they were contacting MIT directly instead of Lincoln Lab (much less efficient). I was sure we wouldn't be closing on Friday. That is, until after I gave them the (better) contact info for my previous employer, and an hour later at 4pm on Thursday, they told us it was all (finally) officially approved. We had 24 hours to get an official bank check and bring our ID for closing.

We debated about finding a sitter or not. Someone at Church had offered, after all. But 4pm is close enough to nap time that it seemed like it would more of a stretch to take the time to drop the girls off than it would to just bring along a laptop with a show. I think this was a better call anyway -- the previous owners really enjoyed meeting the girls and knowing that a young family was buying their house. What does this mean about buying a house when we aren't a young family anymore? Will people still be "glad to know" who is buying it?

First thing on Saturday, we all marched down to the new house and Wayne's parents helped us start ripping out carpet and putting up some drywall and tearing down wallpaper. Paela and Aderyn thought it was fun to have a new space to play in, and to have their grandparents there. We have more work than we thought ahead of us, but hopefully we can quickly get the things done that we need to before we move in, and can take more time with the rest. We shall see.

That pretty much dominated our week. The girls and I made it to the apple orchard for playgroup on Thursday, courtesy of my visiting teacher again. Aderyn is taking a liking to her 2-year old boy; they like to dance in their car seats next to each other, and she took him toys in nursery on Sunday. Also, it rained a lot. But pretty consistently in the afternoon, so we still got to take some neighborhood walks as well. And walk to Wal-mart once because Paela wanted to play with the toys there.

And though the girls just played all day with General Conference in the background, while we did our best to listen, it still influenced their play. I overheard Aderyn "singing" and Paela's littlest pet shop guys were taking turns giving prayers and talks about when they "are old enough to go to Jesus."

biting our fingernails

2011-09-25T09:19:00.000-07:00

Paela traced her shadow through the day.

We received word from our mortgage officer that the underwriter wouldn't pass our loan through. The email went something like this: "We can't approve a phD student who only is going to be at the school for a year. The client should go get in writing that his phD candidacy will take a minimum of 3 years." Rebecca and I read that email and a blank look of incomprehension passed over our faces. I am not a phD student. I also am not on a limited one year contract. How did things get so misunderstood? I quickly contacted our loan officer and corrected the misunderstanding. Apparently, he "forgot" I was a professor when I mentioned in passing that I needed to go to a class and figured I must be ATTENDING school, instead of teaching school. Further, he misunderstood the renewable nature of my position (think of it like a usual contract employment which is renewable upon performance evaluations) and messed up there as well. I am much more nervous about dealing with this bank. After a wasted week and a half, that was fixed and passed the underwriter and then he contacted us back and said "now we need to contact BGSU about getting some things from them." WHAT?!?!?! Why didn't you tell us BEFORE to take care of this information? I am beginning to realize how poorly banks are managed and their inability to multitask.

The botanical gardens near our house are amazing! It hasn't been since we visited the San Jose Japanese gardens that we been in the presence of such magnificently manicured space. There were bushes cultivated into high walls for a mini-maze. There were pavilions and bridges, rolling hills and terraces, and so much more. I love their Mediterranean Cypress trees and want some of my own. At least, when we have our own space I would like some.

Rebecca and I got pretty sick in the middle of the week. I only mention this because I'm hoping it means we have finally worked our way through all the remaining alternate strains of germs running around this place. It happens every time we move somewhere new: our bodies need to adjust to the new life forms around us. Luckily, the girls have been spared some of the pain. Because of lost time, I have struggled to catch up with work and still find my head to be way under water. However, I'm not too concerned as all my colleagues and relatives have expressed this same sentiment during the first year of academic employment. New courses are beasts to be tamed.

One of the unique features of having children who don't watch broadcast television is they aren't connected to contemporary social pressures. Without broadcast television, there are no television advertisements. Without advertisements, marketing tactics are unable to influence them, so they don't know what to "want" for birthdays. Since birthdays are coming up in the next two months, we have taken it upon ourselves to help our daughters evaluate what they like about toys. Anecdotally, this has proven to be more complicated than we expected. Toys are marketed equally in a store; none is given special preference by the medium (store) to elevate the desirability of one over another for any specific demographic. The toys which gain preference to our children are the toys which can be played with. Ergo, a child who has not seen television ads convincing them to love BUNNY-DOLL-EXTREME won't care two bits for the same doll in a store where the toy is behind plastic.

Raspberries! We visited my parents house Saturday morning to go pick berries. Paela picked lots. Aderyn ate lots (and really slowed Rebecca down). But we managed to pick and can lots. I believe my parents have forgotten how much jam children can go through, because I don't think we made enough for the year.

"too cold", says goldilocks

2011-09-18T18:49:00.000-07:00

Rocks are sooo cool!

Let's see. This week, it turned to fallish weather and I panicked that we only bothered finding one jacket each in all our boxes. Ah, the choices in only unpacking a little bit. This meant that Paela didn't want to play outside much because "it's too cold." But we found another jacket, so hopefully we can enjoy the weather a bit more.

Wednesday, we stayed inside all day even though I'd planned for us to take a long walk. Paela had kept me up several hours in the night. It turns out she was hungry, but it took her awhile to get around to telling me why she couldn't go back to sleep. Anyway, she "got" to see all of Beauty and the Beast for the first time while Aderyn napped because of it. Little does she know that it was for my own benefit. And Paela loved it. Hopefully not so much that she'll pull the same trick in the future....

Thursday, my visiting teacher picked us up to go to playgroup at the zoo! It was fun hanging out with new people (Aderyn danced with the little boy in the car seat next to her) and seeing some of our favorites. The gorillas all came right up to the glass while we watched, and the bear sniffed at the corner making us wonder if there was a crack big enough for him to smell us from. And the baby elephant was darling, working so hard to push the log upright. Hopefully we can catch a ride to playgroup in the future.

Wayne spent all day Friday at the TED conference in Bowling Green, and had a great time. I enjoyed hearing his report when he got back.

There were a couple of later nights for Wayne on campus, so we were all happy to spend most of Saturday with him. Granted, we managed this by tagging along to Bowling Green in the morning, and visiting the city park while he had a work meeting, but as a bonus we all got to visit his office afterward. And Bowling Green had a fantastic park.

And today we gave talks in Church. We had two weeks warning, and while I read a lot in the last two weeks, the actual writing all happened last night and this morning. In fact, last night as we put the girls to bed, Wayne said we needed to say a quick good night so we could get to work. No play for us. And I looked blankly at him wondering what work he meant (I could think of several things, but nothing jumped out as an agreed upon project). He had to remind me that I'd been reminding him all week. Well, the talks were well received in the end (this is one time afternoon meetings worked to my advantage!). And then we celebrated by taking the girls to visit their grandparents for dinner.

And there you have it.

OFF the JUICE

2011-09-11T15:13:00.000-07:00

hugs for star

After we meticulously followed our cat's progress with multiple blood tests every day for the past several months and adjusted her insulin accordingly...she is now officially off the insulin. Most cats never get to this point because working with a vet means that you aren't being as accurate in your dosage as we have been, but you also have less to worry about. Star has gone through multiple dosage drops, each time leveling off perfectly. And now, two weeks after we stopped her medication, she appears to be doing great. That's one more relief to our lives. [this makes her a diet-controlled diabetic, also referred to as "in remission." The diabetes symptoms could show up sometime in the future again, from stress or infection or if her low carb diet slips, so we'll test her every once in awhile and watch for the early signs. -bec]

Except, now the rest of us have been sick this week with nasty colds. It made for many long nights with crying kids and sleepy days. Every time we move, we have to get used to new germs. [remind me why we keep moving? -bec]

I invited all my colleagues over for dinner at our place. Originally, I was hoping for a good meet 'n greet deal, but it expanded to also become our usual Digital Arts division meeting, so we didn't have to meet twice in the same week. People brought great food and got to watch our girls run around screaming. It worked out well for everyone!

The girls finally got to get out and see the area a bit. On Monday, we visited the Toledo Zoo with my parents. On Saturday, we did the same. Hooray for membership passes!

Paela loves making bracelets and made a few more this week with help from her mother. This is a good Sunday activity for her to work on patterns and something to build her confidence. Because she is such an obstinate perfectionist, she refuses to do many things on the grounds that she believes she isn't capable of doing it correctly. So we have to find activities she is willing to brave before she thinks it's too difficult.

I attended a CV workshop run by the department director. Our school has a mandatory format for their internal CVs which are used in all performance reviews. While I was aware this would be important for tenure/pay scale reviews, I was surprised to learn that as a Lecturer I will also be subject to a similar annual evaluation process, including CV review. BGSU has an interesting model for their professors: they minimize tenure track lines down to maximum of two per division and fill the rest with lecturers, instead of adjuncts. It makes for higher morale and lower cost. I'm not sure I think it is successful, but it is what it is.

And, I think it might be official that we are buying a home. Since we got here we have been working with a Realtor, and put an offer several weeks back. We went back and forth on several issues, along with an inspector's report, et al and we have finally come to a finished agreement that everyone seems willing to come to the table on. So... September 30th. Be warned.

sleepy

2011-09-04T06:12:00.000-07:00

We're settling into new routines. The girls and I have not ventured to the buslines yet to get out during the day, but we have taken walks in the neighborhood and even the half mile walk to Wal-mart. I had to carry Aderyn most of the way there, and half the way home. Paela only declared halfway home that she was tired, and when I told her we were halfway home, she said she was only a little tired but would be very, very tired when we got home. I think the closest bus stop is next to Wal-mart, but I'm not positive (poorly organized website...).

After Wayne got home on Tuesday, we all went to the library. The girls were excited to go, and excited to see the park right next to the library. Paela was quite the climber and Aderyn wanted to swing, swing, swing.

Saturday, we took a trip up to Lake Erie at the Maumee Bay State Park. We didn't plan quite well enough. I mean, we had settled on the bay because it was 90+ degrees and all the local pools had closed a couple of weeks ago, but we didn't account for how long Aderyn's nap would be and how close to dinner it pushed us. Also we didn't remember that we had taken the sunblock out of the diaper bag to make it lighter during our move, so it was probably good that we didn't get there till 4pm. The girls enjoyed themselves greatly. And were greatly disappointed when we told them 45 minutes later that it was time to leave. Greatly. Ah, well. We can always go back again.

It seems like lately Aderyn has two good nights of sleep, and then a few bad nights in a row. Last night she woke up 5 times. And so we're sleepy today. Sleepy sleepy. But this morning the girls are playing hide-and-seek before Church. Paela has exactly one hiding spot. Aderyn enjoys the running around part screaming "I coming!".

monkey ice cream cake

2011-08-31T17:21:00.000-07:00

I have to say, when I saw a recipe for double chocolate and banana ice cream cake on Sweetapolita, it screamed Wayne all over. Loudly. And his birthday wasn't too far off, so I bookmarked it. Little did I know we would have just moved across the country and not have everything unpacked by his birthday. Luckily for me, this was a no-bake solution (we made it without the brownie layer). Doubly lucky that I found our springform pans and food processor.

So for those not into clicking over to the links, here's our adaptation (our edits include jam, Melissa's ganache recipe, and no brownie layer for "simplicity"):

Double Chocolate Banana Ice Cream Cake

Yield: One 9" round 2 layer cake, serves 12-14

Ingredients

Crust

1/2 cup (1 stick, 115 g, 4 ounces) unsalted butter

8 ounces (227 g) premium bittersweet (extra dark) or semisweet (dark) chocolate

14.5 ounces/382 g of Oreo cookie crumbs

Filling

7 cups of premium vanilla ice cream, slightly softened

3 large bananas, frozen (or cold, we didn't plan far enough ahead to freeze them)

jam (optional)

Glaze

1 cup (8 liquid ounces) whipping cream (heavy cream, 35%)

14 ounces chocolate chips (Ghirardelli is awesome, some mix of milk and semisweet)

1 tsp vanilla

Sprinkles (optional)

Method

Crust

1. Melt chocolate and butter in microwave on short intervals (stirring between) until smooth.

2. Grind oreos in food processor until fine crumbs.

3. Gently stir cookie crumbs into warm chocolate and butter mixture until just combined. Set 1 cup (8 liquid ounces) of the mixture aside, and gently press remaining crumbs onto the sides and then the bottom of a 9-inch round with 2 3/4″ sides springform pan. Place in freezer until firm.

Glaze

1. Process chocolate chips in food processor until finely chopped.

2. Heat cream in microwave until boiling.

3. With the processor still going, stream in the cream and pulse until smooth.

4. Add vanilla, pulse a few more times.

5. Let cool at room temperature until frosting consistency.

(Will keep 3 days at room temperature, 2 weeks in the fridge, or 6 months in the freezer.)

Filling

1. Remove frozen bananas from freezer about for about 30 minutes to soften, then puree in food processor.

2. With a wooden spoon, stir banana puree into vanilla ice cream (or, if you’re using homemade banana ice cream, omit step 1-2). You will want to work fairly quickly so the ice cream doesn’t become too soft).

Assembly

1. Spoon half of the ice cream into the frozen crust and spread evenly with an offset palette knife (you will want to place the bowl of remaining ice cream into the freezer while you work on the first half).

2. Sprinkle and gently press the reserved crumb mixture on top, followed by 1 cup of the cooled glaze. Freeze for about an hour.

3. Place remaining ice cream on top and freeze for about 4 hours.

4. Warm bowl of glaze over simmering water until it is pourable but not too warm.

5. Spread over top of ice cream with the small offset palette knife.

6. Sprinkle with desired decorations while glaze is still wet. Freeze overnight.

7. Loosen sides of cake with a small knife between pan and cake, then release from springform pan, and place on plate or platter.

Notes: Slice with a hot knife right out of the freezer, as the cake will be quite firm. I added a layer of jam after step 2.

Happy monkey birthday, Wayne. No, we hadn't unpacked the camera in time for a picture. Maybe next time.

words words and...

2011-08-28T08:35:00.000-07:00

running fast!

I'm exhausted.

Classes began for me on Tuesday. I'm quite impressed with my students so far. They show good abilities to reason and apply abstract concepts. I have learned that much of this is due to the fantastic first year program that our school has which challenges them to "teach creativity." I'm not sure how much I buy into the notion that creativity can be processed as an improvement or vocational skill, but what students do walk away with are quick and dirty ways to appear creative and genuinely solve problems. I want students who can learn and want to learn how to solve problems.

But I'm still in a tight spot as my class preparations are only a few classes ahead of what I'm teaching. This is the joy of receiving a job offer a few weeks before classes start, then spending most of that time moving. But if I take all Mondays and Wednesdays and Fridays and Saturdays to work on class prep, perhaps I won't fall behind.

Friday evening we had the bright idea to drive up to my parents house, drop the girls off, then race to the temple and spend the night at my parents' house afterwards. Race accurately describes the state of our rush. According to the GPS, we were going to be four minutes late. After speeding way too fast, we then lost more time stuck in rush hour traffic. Eventually, we arrived two minutes before the session, but we weren't the last to arrive.

Early Saturday, we convinced my parents to let us help work on the waterfall in their backyard. We decided on the final arrangements of rocks, cemented them down and finished the rest of the arrangement. The waterfall is complete, but they still need to landscape around the hill.

The girls really love playing at their grandparents' house. There are toys and treats and a great backyard for them. And because they have no other distractions, my parents can give the girls their full attention. They eat all that attention up.

Aderyn's favorite word of the week: "Why?" Over and over again, she asks why. It's time to put on our shoes! Why? So we can go outside. Why? Because we like to go outside. Why? Rinse, and repeat.

Late Saturday, we attended a BBQ at the house of a first year program (FYP) faculty. This is where I learned more details about the FYP program and how successful it is. I plan on attending some of their classes. It seems like I should be attending MOST of the classes taught by other professors in the Digital Media division, but this takes away from prep time for my own classes. How to balance? I don't know. I'm really hoping I get a second year here so I can build on my experience next year.

Moving it in

2011-08-21T17:41:00.000-07:00

We are really tired. And not just from a move, house hunting, job prep or any of those other things. It is also from the girls not being used to their new home and crying all night. And from unpacking. And all the little things which add up.

A few weeks back, I took a job offer to teach a one year position at Bowling Green State University. We kept it quiet in family emails for so long because it is bad form to expose this information publicly on the internet until things are more solid. Currently, we have moved to Toledo and are staying at a wonderful place. But we have swiftly realized that we need to be closer to the University.

Some time ago, we determined we were going to stay a one-car family as long as we could. Part of it is simple economics and part of it is due to environmental consciousness, but the decision was made and it has led to a specific lifestyle which precludes living long distances from work.

So we moved in, only to know that we're moving out soon. We didn't unpack all our boxes; we kept anything we don't use daily in the garage. Why do we keep all this stuff that we don't use that often? Do we really need it?!?!?!

And now begins my adventure of attempting to teach as a full-time professor. We determined that these coming years would be time to prove to myself that this really is the career choice I want. At least I will have given it a fair shot.

Thanks to everyone for their birthday wishes. It was a great birthday, even if I was at meetings for half the day.

Ohio?

2011-08-18T12:06:00.001-07:00

We arrived in Bowling Green a few days ago. There are boxes everywhere. We are trying to figure out how our life is going to work here. It will be fun.

packing it up

2011-08-07T16:19:00.000-07:00

"Pooh" and "Piglet" in the "jungle" to the bike path.

We spent most of the week packing in all our free time. Some of the week was spent trying to get in touch with my boss to give my "two week" notice (less than two weeks on account of how long it took to catch him). And some of the week was spent trying to do some legwork on a new place to live.

In Ohio.

Wayne got and accepted an offer as Lecturer at Bowling Green State University, and the week since has been coordinating efforts to get us out there sooner rather than later. Classes start in two weeks. There's a faculty function in a week and a half. And so we leave Massachusetts on Saturday.

There were a handful of other things. We escaped the boxes in our house on Saturday with Camilla and Victor and Cameron to visit the splash park. It was too cold, but good to escape. I predict more efforts to escape boxes as the piles grow taller. I also had a dentist appointment (yay, no cavities!).

Paela and Aderyn have helped in their ways. Paela has woken up several mornings, asking for a box to put her books and toys in so we don't leave them behind. Aderyn looks for boxes to climb in or put on her head. She prefers plastic boxes, but cardboard will do in a pinch. Of course, Paela has also told me a couple of times already that she doesn't want to move. Maybe Aderyn would tell us that too if she could. Or maybe some of those tantrums are saying more than we know.

A new beginning...

2011-08-02T04:59:00.000-07:00

She kept asking for more!

To begin with, we should mention to everyone that we are relocating our family website. Of course, if you're reading this from our new email, then it should be pretty straightforward to you. But for the rest of you who just get weekly emails, etc. it is important to note that we are using blogger's services instead of our own content management. Thanks to Karl for helping us make the transition and hopefully we won't run into too many bugs. This means we're going to be using more "mainstream" methods for videos and pictures, which I have mixed feelings about.

Also new is my sprained wrist. I have decided to become a later-in-life beginning longboard skateboarder. Mostly because I was interested in a fun way for me to get exercise in a solitary way, but because we have such a great bike trail behind our house I picked one up and promptly fell off it within the first 30 seconds of riding. Leaving sore palms and a hurt wrist. The girls got to come with me to get X-Rays, which turned out negative. I still have a record of never breaking any bone in my body, knock on wood. Paela, per her usual self, was an angel at the doctor's and quietly drew the whole time. Aderyn, per her usual self, erupted in tears at the thought of being taken away from one of her parents (no one can be in the same room as someone being imaged with X-Rays). But we managed.

Aderyn has a great difficulty staying in Sacrament meeting at church. She wiggles and fidgets and eventually manages to get Rebecca to take her out into the hall. Some days it is faster than others. Last Sunday they only left with 10 minutes to spare. Hooray.

Oh. And an anniversary. We took advantage of a certain nearby sister to babysit the girls while they were asleep (or supposed to be) and went out for some dessert at The Melting Pot. And then Rebecca convinced me to go shopping for shoes. That's all she wanted, so I was happy to oblige. [we both needed new sandals and had for a month or two, and seriously, who wants to wear socks in the summer? But shoe shopping with girls in tow was not an exciting prospect.] It was quiet, but we got to be alone and that's all that matters to us now.

A funny story about that night. Aderyn is a notoriously bad sleeper. Waking her up or disturbing her sleep is usually a guarantee for an entire night with no sleep. While Camilla was listening for the girls, Aderyn cried out. When she went in to her, she felt that her diaper was wet and thus changed her diaper. Aderyn giggled. It was a VERY unconventional thing for her to experience. Had this happened in the past, it would be a long sleepless night. But it wasn't. Is her body finally telling her that continuous sleep is good?

not THAT excited

2011-07-26T08:10:00.000-07:00

Paela explains how she feels at the amusement park.

I do it! (and not bird people)

2011-07-24T17:43:00.000-07:00

This week we lost Keet. He was flying around, and apparently he was just as bird-brained as we teased. He flew right into the fan, fell on the floor, and died. Like he hadn't had a year to learn there is something to be avoided there. Two birds gone in a year's time is suggesting we aren't good bird owners. At least not at this time.

I was impressed by how well Paela took things. She listened very carefully, asked if we would see his spirit when we go to heaven, told me she was sad about Keet, and helped make a little memorial for him in the backyard. She also later explained things well for Camilla and Victor. She was glad to hear that I miss him too.

Aderyn has been full of "I do it!" moments. It's a blessing and a curse. A blessing because I love to see her independence. But a curse because there are even more scrapes and bruises and tantrums when she needs a little guidance sometimes. Ah, growth.

Paela had a chance to go to a friend's birthday princess tea party. She says it was fun. I think she fooled a couple of the parents there, since she didn't want to do most of the activities, but to each their own. She's also told me only Camilla, Victor, Cameron, and her friend Adeline (the birthday girl) are to come when it's her birthday. She's a girl who knows what she wants. A good skill to learn.

And work is busy. When is it not? The heat wave meant that they told us to turn off all non-essential things on Friday. We turned off lights and kept all our power hungry computers on. And in the evening we took the girls to the splash park as often as possible.

The flower I got for mother's day in bulb form has bloomed. I'm not sure who was more pleased -- me or Paela. Hopefully Aderyn has been drilled not to pick it.

Summer 2011

2011-07-17T16:24:00.000-07:00

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Summer 2011

Family Reunion, Lake Canobie and more.

Quieter summer?

2011-07-17T16:05:00.000-07:00

After all my family left, Paela and Aderyn took one day to detox from having so many people around. Aderyn erupted in spontaneous giggles because she had kept her feelings so bottled up for many days. Paela was content to just play in her room by herself all day. But the day after, Paela was already asking when her cousins were coming back.

It has been hot. This means that the girls stay inside because it is cooler, but they get in each other's hair more because they want to be out and running around. We take advantage of our fantastic city splash park which is free after 5:30 and have gone almost every day. Aderyn walks around talking about her swim suit, wanting to put it on over her clothes and wear it all day.

So we went to Lake Canobie, our local amusement park. It is like a state fair on steroids and this is perfect for our kids. Aderyn wouldn't go on a ride at first unless she could go with her momma, and even though she seemed to like the spinning tea cups her first run, Paela went several more times without Aderyn. Until we got to the little kids' area. After she screamed when she rode the pony ride alone, she figured out it was lots of fun and wanted to ride everything, even without her momma. Especially the swing ride.

And Paela loves roller coasters. We're lucky to have a real one that they let kids her size ride (with an adult). She screams with delight.

We wanted to give people an update on our cat. After a few weeks of heavy sickness and lots of visits to the vet, we finally got her bladder infection under control and we're (slowly) getting the hang of having a diabetic cat. It isn't as bad as the first few weeks because our kitty doesn't mind having us touch/prick her paws, but it still is a ball and chain we could do without.

There were a handful of meetings I went to and a handful that I showed up for that no one else did. I've been asked to teach seminary for our ward. Yeah...

we're all together again...

2011-07-03T17:52:00.000-07:00

...we're here, we're here.

The week started with us brainstorming what needed to be done before people came out. Shopping, double checking hours on places, and other research items. All to be ready for the big Madsen family reunion this weekend, Boston-style.

We met up with Melissa and family at Hampton Beach in New Hampshire on Thursday. Aderyn, who regularly asks to be put in her swimsuit (him-hoot) in the hopes that she can get wet, was terrified of the waves touching her. Eventually she warmed up when Wayne made a little lagoon for her to splash and kick and let everyone pile sand up on her. Paela loved the waves like always and reminded us that we let too long go between taking her back to the ocean. I thought the water was way too cold, but acknowledge that we live just as close to the beach here as we did in CA. So maybe Paela has a point. The sand is warm and that is nice.

Friday, we waited for the rest of everyone to come in, made some dinner, and enjoyed some good Bedford Farms ice cream for dessert. The kids ran around like crazy. Good times.

We braved downtown on Saturday. I was pleased there was not as crazy of crowds as I expected to see. Paela and Aderyn thought the kid's museum was fun, though Paela was pretty tired and had a few meltdowns until we found a quieter room to hang out in. Aderyn was, of course, clingy. This has been a theme for her all weekend. No surprises there. Heaven forbid I have to powder my nose.

Chinatown and Boston Commons were fun too. Paela and I were lucky to be wandering on a hill when we heard the gunfire of a renactment. And then we went home and did more running around.

And today, we had everyone at Church with us, and did some crafts (Paela loves her some beads, who knew?) and more running around. Aderyn might be a little intimidated, but Paela is loving having cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents around. And in between the running around, we've enjoyed conversations with all the adults.

And Star is enjoying her insulin. Nice healthy numbers, and a very low dose. She feels like a kitten again and played some "baseball" with us for the first time in years.

Aderyn shows her Canadian roots

2011-06-26T15:04:00.000-07:00

Aderyn has become obsessed with the bumper boats, talking about them frequently. Especially when we see anything else loud, like trucks and vacuum cleaners.

barnacles

2011-06-26T14:45:00.000-07:00

We ditched the veteranarian we had. Partially this was because our cat's blood sugar registered levels were in the 200s -- which isn't healthy, but as good as a vet would want to get while relying on their own blood tests -- and also because he failed to note her elevated bacteria level in her bladder. So then, she got sick. Really sick.

Star wasn't eating and was emptying her stomach every three hours for two days. We went to a new vet who immediately gave her some fluids and a week's worth of antibiotics. Working with this guy has been cryptic and there have been moments we thought Star was gone for sure [like, he kept reminding us we were working one day at a time if we asked too many forward-looking questions -bec], but last night she started acting more like her normal self and has been eating (lightly) and has kept it down for the last day and a half.

The sickness was related to untreated diabetes. So yay for us. But Rebecca has been amazing at researching information and resources for us. We have received financial aid to pay for vet appointments [thanks to Diabetic Cats in Need]. We have a large shipment of equipment for treating her with insulin (I feel kind of dirty, like we got something on the black market).

Aderyn has had an interesting two weeks of nursery. Because Rebecca works in the other nursery and I teach Sunday School during the second hour, it makes for a failed activity to leave her in nursery: she screams and they take her right next door to where she knows her mommy is. Last week, we tried something new. We noticed that if a babysitter gives Aderyn her pacifier, then that person becomes her new best friend. So we gave the pacifier to the nursery leaders and told them to offer it to her after we leave. Amazingly, it works. It worked better than we had hoped. She lasts all the way through nursery, two weeks in a row, without complaint. Sure, dropping her off is like prying barnacles off a ship's hull, but it works.

monsters in the closet

2011-06-19T13:25:00.000-07:00

One night, Paela woke me up four different times, calming down when I came to her each time. One time, I asked her why she kept waking up. The fact that I bothered asking a rhetorical question like this is evidence of my own grogginess. She, however, was more coherent than I was:

"There are no monsters in my room, but I really think that there is!"

aderyn's secret weapon

2011-06-19T13:15:00.000-07:00

Aderyn stayed in her own nursery class today. Wayne handed her teacher the "secret weapon" to give her after he left the room. We think it must put her teacher on her "good list" if she can give Aderyn something so treasured as a pacifier.

We made it to Walden Pond and North Bridge and Kimball Farm before my parents had to leave again. Paela was sad to lose her "best buds", but she's been asking if we can go do bumper boats ever since. Bumper boats and the indoor playground and best buds are very high on Paela's to do list. [Kimball farms is definitely one of the more fun places I have been to, with the best mini golf course I have played. It is a shame we won't be going there for the family reunion. -Wayne]

She took me to someone's house down the street earlier when she saw kids playing out front. She enjoyed telling them she's "almost" four and that her cat's name is Star cat and asking them to play her games, including pretending to run around "swimming".

We celebrated Springs Brook pool being open this week (free after 5:30!), though the spray park was closed for repairs. Aderyn loved splashing in the shallow area, and Paela enjoyed the sand.

Wayne went to Axiom to catalog tech equipment and organize things better -- "spring cleaning"/comprehensive style. I went to a Primary training meeting another night. And combining that with pending work deadlines and Wayne's phone interview and Wayne's talk at Church today, and it's been a busy week.

whales and history

2011-06-12T12:46:00.000-07:00

We began the week learning that my contract won't be renewed this fall.

Aderyn has been ultra-clingy all week, unwilling to let go of her mother for any reason. Except maybe for fruit snacks.

We took Star to the vet for an insulin demo. We told him that we tested her blood sugar at home and got a 200 the night before and the same that morning. The doctor didn't trust our home testing and wanted to run a $25 test at the vet office. We told him we weren't ready to spend that money, could we please just get our perscription and do the blood testing at home. He then sent us out of the offices sans perscription, claiming that 200 is close enough for her to be considered non-diabetic. For those of you out of the "know," 50-100 is considered normal. Vets only aim for 150-200 because it is safer than trying to get a cat down to a normal level, since they don't trust home monitoring.

Rebecca's parents came to visit this week and Paela has loved having them around. It gives her more people to talk to and play with, which is what she really wants. We, as parents, don't do a sufficient job at supplying her with healthy horizontal social connections.

But we've gone places this weekend. Whale watching wasn't as fantastic as I had hoped, but most everyone else enjoyed it. Aderyn was the one who got really antsy by the end [two hours past normal naptime...]. No surprises there. We went to the MFA and Paela showed off her art knowledge. I'm happy to see her interest in non-linear history is strong. We also did about 1/3 of the freedom trail. By the end, Aderyn was melting (in the rain!). That seems to be her normal behavior this week. At church, she refused to be in her nursery class, even with me. She was also clingy and problematic with Rebecca in the older nursery class. The only place she was happy was running around outside during church. Running madly. Such a wonderful age.

a diagnosis

2011-06-05T10:43:00.000-07:00

It's official. Star has feline diabetes. Lots to learn. There are some helpful online communities that have given advice and start-up supplies, so we'll try this out and see how bad treatment will be. Our biggest worry still is the time commitment -- what do we do when we need to go on vacation if she needs insulin twice a day?

We had a fun Memorial day at Camilla and Victor's. Paela loves going to their house. Aderyn found some dolls and stuffed animals to carry around. And Paela practiced the wii -- with it downstairs she doesn't play with it much at home!

We took advantage of Wayne's summer schedule and my part-time status to go visit a local indoor playground one rainy morning. It smells just like I remember those kinds of places smelling. Like feet and plastic. But the girls liked it.

Another morning we visited the DeCordova sculpture park and museum. It's been awhile since I've been to an art museum with Paela, and I was impressed with the kinds of observations and guesses she was willing to hazard about various pieces. I think both girls loved the chimes they got to play with most, until Paela tripped and skinned a knee. She limped around the rest of the day, begging to be carried. Silly girl.

The neighbor girl wandered over another afternoon, and Paela had fun offering her chalk and balls and showing her the slides and asking her questions.

And both girls crashed super early two different days. The mysterious fever probably had something to do with it. Luckily it was just a fever and tiredness. Those kind of bugs feel like a cakewalk comparatively speaking.

And we look forward to my folks arriving this week! Time to nail down plans.

who is mario?

2011-05-29T16:11:00.000-07:00

Paela graduated to a big kid bed this week. She has been struggling for weeks now with her toddler bed being too small for her body (as well as all the stuffed animals and additional things she takes with her to bed). So we promised her a big kid (twin size) bed and we got her one. At least, a mattress. We're still working on the rest of the bed.

So on Friday night, we visited our local Wal-Mart (don't ask me why) to pick up a set of sheets. We walked up and down the aisles asking Paela which sheets she liked. She didn't want princess sheets. She didn't want sheets that matched Mom and Dad's bed. She wanted Mario Kart sheets. Of course, this would make sense for a kid who loves her Nintendo, except Paela has no idea who Mario is. All the way home, she asked who Mario and Luigi were. I'm assuming she vehemently selected these particular sheets for their solid primary colors and vivid cartoon images.

For weeks now, our cat has been acting a little strange. This is probably TMI, but she drinks three times as much water and urinates with an increased frequency. After investigating it some online, we decided it might be serious enough to visit a Vet. The Vet took blood samples and requested that we get a urine sample. The blood sample showed elevated blood sugar, but the Vet wouldn't be able to confirm Diabetes until they test a urine sample. Getting a sample from our cat proved to be challenging. She has learned to hold litter breaks for a long period of time, thanks to our road trips. Eventually she cracked this morning at 6am and now we have cat urine in our fridge. For the next several days. So, our cat might have diabetes and we might not have the capability to take care of that kind of long term investment. Our time in Boston has been full of surprises.

We tried to go swimming one day with Camilla and Victor, but due to elevated security (thanks to post-Bin Laden feared retalliation), we couldn't get them on base. Later in the week we brought out the kiddie pool, and both the girls had fun with that.

Oh, and I had a wisdom tooth ripped out of my skull. On purpose, for sure, but it still hurt. Having a tooth smashed, broken and torn from your head makes you realize how mortal you are. Even post surgery, I managed to: re-mulch the church building gardens, take care of two daughters all week, gallery sit for Axiom, Doctor's appointment for myself and Aderyn, and more!

Hey, it was only one tooth, right?

just hiding

2011-05-22T19:16:00.000-07:00

"I wasn't sleeping, I was just hiding," said Paela. She put a blanket over her head when we took the girls for a wagon ride, which she's done before. But this time when I uncovered her once we got home, her eyes were closed. She fell asleep sitting up. At 6 in the evening. Though when we tried to put her in bed, she started kicking the bed ten minutes later, so it was just a cat nap. Whew.

This week...I finally got some allergy perscriptions again for the first time in five years. It's a relief. Whew. And Paela got a perscription for the rash/bumps on her legs that are supposed to just "go away on their own" that have gotten worse (itching and stuff) instead. Whew. Although it involved Wayne having to hold Paela down while the back of her leg was covered in blood. And not all the bumps are gone. Hmm. At least the cream takes care of the itch, but I'm not so sure the doctor's solution to the bumps is...um...not ideal.

My visiting teacher brought her kids over for a play date/visit on Thursday, which was fun. Paela warmed up more easily than on previous playdates, though Aderyn took her turn on my lap. Until I held the baby, and she got to put the pacifier in the baby's mouth and pull it out and put it back in again over and over. Which she loved.

Wayne went to man the Axiom gallery, on Wednesday. He enjoyed talking with the people that came in. And I made a 4-hour cake. It was good. My first experience making mousse. I'm sure it won't take me quite that long next time, assuming I make it again.

5/15

2011-05-15T17:40:00.000-07:00

One professor I admire confided in me that at the beginning of the semester he already knows who will be the A-grade students and who will be the C-grade students. We discussed this paradigm and at the time, I felt this to be an unfair prejudice towards incoming students. After some time teaching I have decided it is a horrible assumption to have, and yet it still rings (mostly) true semester after semester. Perhaps the reason why I keep seeing this behavior prediction come true is because my courses are very cumulative in structure. Therefore, if a student begins to fall behind early in the semester because -- for whatever reason -- they aren't completing assignments, then I always see these students not catch up by the end of the semester. There are many broken promises on their parts of made-up work and failed 'last minute' attempts. I believe that I'd like to try a different approach to learning which doesn't depend so much on consecutive and consequential units. I attempted something similiar to that at the end of this last semester with a final project which was disconnected from the concrete tools they had learned, but more contingent on synthesizing the theoretical constructs. As a result, some students surprised me with their ability to succeed. However, it also left some very promising students in the dust -- which I didn't like.

Rebecca and the girls mostly got over their coughs. Rebecca still has hers. She had a presentation at work she had to give in a meeting that went WAY over their planned time slot. But her 15 minutes of slides lasted 40 minutes of Q & A, even with a cough.

Last weekend, we promised Paela that we would go swimming. It didn't work out and to resolve our broken promise to our 3-year old, we showed her that we were going to put it on our calendar to do this week. So we snuck out of work early on Thursday (i.e. went in early) to go to the military swimming pool and the girls had lots of fun. Aderyn only stayed in the pool for about an hour before leaving, blue lips and goosebumps being the driving force out of the pool. Paela would have stayed all night if she could.

We also had some little friends visit our house this weekend. Cameron came over for the evening on Saturday so Camilla and Victor could have a date night without the kid. And our friends, the Owen family, came over tonight for dinner and a game. Abby and Paela love playing together, even though she is (almost) a year younger. Sometimes Paela demonstrates the emotional maturity of a 2 1/2 year old, so I'm sure they speak each other's language.

tagging along

2011-05-08T12:22:00.000-07:00

Wayne and the girls tagged along on a few adventures with Camilla this week. The science museum on Monday, the water show at Jordan's another day, and the park on Saturday. Cameron and Camilla came to play Thursday while Wayne was teaching class too. Paela has enjoyed running around with her cousin so much. And Aderyn has enjoyed tagging along.

The girls and I got nasty colds this week, though, so I didn't do exactly what I'd planned. I worked from home a couple of days, since I have a presentation to prepare and couldn't just take a sick day. I missed book club even though I actually read the book a month ago. And I kept meaning to run an errand or two that still haven't been done. Also, napping with a one-year old and three-year old is just a dream. Even if it is Sunday afternoon. Because one of them will want you to know they need to use the bathroom, and the other will have an amazingly short nap herself.

You'd like to think I was good about going to bed early this week, but you'd be wrong. Wayne and I were working on a website quite late several nights this week. It's coming together, so that's nice.

Paela was smart though, and went to bed a full two hours early two nights. She didn't even want dinner, she just said she wanted to go to bed. And she still slept until the usual time the next morning. Lucky for the rest of us!

Today Paela joined the other Primary kids (with Wayne tagging along) while the kids sang a song to all the mothers. Her willingness to go up to the front of the chapel is much appreciated. Just a few weeks ago she adamently refused to go up to join in singing an Easter song.

One more random story from the week: Aderyn and Paela enjoyed a healthy lunch, and then Aderyn pointed to the microwave and said "POP! POP!" It turns out she wanted popcorn to complete her lunch. Which she came up with all on her own. Silly girl.

friends don't let friends "curve"

2011-05-01T16:43:00.000-07:00

I still haven't caught up on my email inbox.

Things here have been busy, although not exactly taking care of highest priority events. Because the weather has turned suddenly warm, we took advantage of that fact to get the girls out of the house as much as we could. They both enjoyed the Drumlin farm on multiple occasions -- since we decided to get a membership this year -- and were lucky enough to get to see one day old pigs. Although both girls preferred the baby goats and lambs, but it was a good and tiring adventure for both.

Wagon rides are back in season. Aderyn got a nice wagon for her birthday last November and we haven't had much opportunity to take the girls out for long wagon rides until this week. The minuteman bike trail is near our house, but there isn't any easy access route to get on the trail. Trekking down streets is dangerous -- our part of Massachusetts doesn't endorse sidewalks in any fashion -- and walking through the swamp was barely manageable. But manage we did.

Aderyn's vocabulary has exploded the past couple of weeks. We've listed close to 100 'words' she knows. Most of them are only partial phoneme or syllable approximations, but the consistency is unmistakable, so I suppose that means it's language. I believe her 'baby accent' as we're calling it is similar to her cousin Kristen's.

Paela has had a couple of good social advancements this week. She has tried playing with the boy next door in the past, but the social tradeoff is noticeably one-sided. While she enjoys the exchange, she doesn't say much to him -- instead, she runs around laughing at his clownish games. This week a girl from down the street who is much closer to Paela's age came over and the two of them played in a more reciprocal fashion. We were happy to let the two of them run around the house, coming up with new games to play on their own (only listening in occasionally). At one point in their conversation they were discussing how they do their hair and Paela told her friend "I curve my hair." Grins.

This semester is almost over. It has been a good one with my New Media I class challenging me and accepting my challenges. I wish that we had a longer semester with more class time. But, of course, things would progress much further if I could require students to purchase their software. Or that they weren't all coming from massive commutes.

"oh, it is so bright!"

2011-04-24T18:49:00.000-07:00

wock wock wock

2011-04-24T18:11:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter! Camilla and Victor and Cameron came to Church with us and then hung out for dinner and running around time. It was a great day. Paela especially loved having them over. She was concerned as we were driving home from Church, wanting to make sure they were still behind us. And never mind that Aderyn wanted to hold Paela's hand for ring around the rosy -- Paela was busy trying to sandwich herself between Cameron and Camilla!

We looked briefly at the furniture store, trying to visualize Paela in a twin-sized bed, but her legs are just a touch too short to make it comfortable for her to climb on. So we shall return to trying to convince some of her stuffed animals to "sleep in the box with the others" to minimize the bed crowding. Both girls loved running around the store though. Plus, it was the store that has a huge colorful water show and little cars we could use as strollers. Fun times.

I had Monday off for Patriot's day (what? You didn't??), so the girls and I made a day of it. Wayne got back late that night, and we all celebrated my birthday a day late on Tuesday. Paela had suggested I have a tomato cake, and since my opinion doesn't matter, that's what we did. Or rather, I had my usual cookie cake (yum!) which Wayne decorated to look like a happy tomato. It was a win-win. Both girls were quite eager to help me tear up wrapping paper.

The piano technician came to fix middle-C on our piano (hoo-ray!). It is amazingly difficult playing anything without a working middle-C. It totally throws me off my groove, even more than having two little girls banging on the keys next to me.

And Aderyn has been exploding with words this week. Every day she comes up with 2-3 more words. Her favorite was "wock" as she rocked her little rocking chair. She giggled her little head off and said "wock, wock, wock" over and over. Also, she is showing her independence more and more. She absolutely refuses to wear a bib anymore (sigh, hello stain remover). And she refuses to have the tray on her high chair. She almost refused the whole booster seat feature, but slowly she came to see the benefit to sitting a bit higher. If we have a fork, so must she. Preferably our size and hers both. It took several nights of dinner-time melt downs before we wised up to the new way things are. Too bad the language explosion is happening after we resolved that. I'm sure she'll find new ways to puzzle us to tears in the future.

little miss forgetful

2011-04-17T17:47:00.000-07:00

I didn't keep a very good calendar this week. And my memory in the past year or so has gone down the tubes, but I'll give it a shot.

We went to celebrate Cameron's birthday at Camilla and Victor's last night. We all had fun, and Cameron was a happy birthday boy. Cake, bubbles, balloons, new toys...what's not to love about birthdays? Although Aderyn thought I was leaving at one point when I went to the other room. She has quite the lungs. And is not afraid to use them.

I made it to Church (and Nursery) for the first time in a month, I think. Sick kids, travel, conference -- all conspired against me. Aderyn was again afraid I was leaving her when I went to go fill up the water pitcher. Oops. I heard her from the water fountain and knew my mistake. And Paela had a cup of soggy Lucky Charms when we picked her up from her Sunbeam class. Apparently she told the teacher she likes milk on her cereal and can she please have some water to put on it? Odd. Especially considering she has only taken milk on her cereal maybe twice in her life. Maybe she's starting a new habit though.

Spring was with us. We had several cold and rainy days, some windy days, and one or two nice days. We enjoyed a few walks -- Paela is the instigator lately. If we end up outside and she isn't cold, she will sooner or later ask if we can go for a walk. It's nice to have a good reminder to do things we like.

And that's all I have for you.

again?

2011-04-10T11:26:00.000-07:00

We got the plague again. Well, Aderyn and I did. The rest of them are healthy enough, so far. I suppose I got less sick than everyone else the other times, so maybe it was my due comeuppance. We are tired of stomach bugs in our house, though.

Sunday was a sad, sad day. We made a mistake, and let the parakeets out of their cage between sessions to amuse Paela. And then when Aderyn wanted to go outside, we tramped outside. Forgetting that the birds were still waiting on top of their cage and not yet inside it. And Parrot flew out the open door. Poor Parrot! Poor Keet! And poor Paela who keeps praying that Parrot won't be lost anymore. A local pet shop told us a story about a man who was annoyed at how loud his parakeet was, and purposefully let it fly away outside. A year later, the bird flew into the man's chimney looking for home! So a few times this week we let Keet fly around the bedroom while we leave their cage outside, hoping that Parrot is still there somewhere and might see his cage and fly home.

A couple of Paela's friends (and mine) came over on Tuesday. We had a fun morning with them, and I learned that Paela has definite ideas of how her toys are meant to be played with, and she can communicate that to her friends. Whether they agree or not is a different matter. I am happy they disagree peacefully though. (For now.)

Wednesday found Wayne and the girls at the library's story-time. Aderyn's naps are finally conducive to the story-time schedule again. I had Wayne and the girls pick me up from work a bit early so I could renew my driver's license. I now have a Massachusetts driver's license. Thankfully the line was short, and we made our exit to go to the mall play area soon enough. The girls had a blast, and Paela was glad she was wearing plain old socks that she could take off and get better traction that way.

Camilla and Cameron came to babysit Friday, and the girls had great fun with them once Aderyn got over being sad to see me leave. We had a beta test for our big demo, and it went well. No crazy last minute bugs, so we keep our fingers crossed.

And yesterday, the girls and I cleaned house before we went to the local farm to feed the animals and pick up some honey. They loved visiting the farm! The loud noises that used to startle Paela don't faze her anymore, and she was eager to give each animal a turn at the lettuce the farm supplies. Later in the afternoon we hung out at the crazy busy park, where the girls ran from slides to swings and back again. And then Paela ran across the bridge over and over for nearly half an hour. And that is when I started feeling ill, so we went home again.

But I'm getting better. Thankfully.

happy april fool's day

2011-04-03T08:41:00.000-07:00

We got 6 inches of snow on Friday. Every weather station's favorite joke was about mother nature pulling a spring prank on us. Luckily, it all melted again that very same day. We snuck in a snowman before it was all gone, and didn't even have to shovel. That's the kind of snowfall I'm talking about.

Wayne had a consultation about his wisdom teeth. He never had to have them out before, but they are now recommending that one of them come out. It's not urgent, so he scheduled that surgery for late May after the semester is over. Smart man, from what I remember about wisdom teeth surgery.

Aderyn had her weight check this week. She gained nearly a pound and a half in one week's time. She's back on track again. We all have colds now, but that never seems to get in the way of growing like normal, so whew.

Speaking of illnesses, apparently there is a plague in our Church building. Some volunteers went to clean the toys in the Nursery room (where Aderyn and I hang out each Sunday) and every one of them got sick afterwards. Only half of the nursery kids were there last Sunday (we were of the half missing) - the rest were sick. Let's hope it's been purged by now.

The girls got to play at a couple of friend's houses this week, and they did great. Aderyn apparently stood in one spot and watched the other kids play for an hour, but then warmed up. And Paela quickly got in the spirit of playing with one of the friends from her Sunbeam class, taking turns directing one another to go do this or that, as three-year olds do.

We all went to the zoo yesterday to enjoy 50-degree weather. The girls liked the bears and the llamas best, and the puddles. Lots of melted-snow puddles. Three of us went home with wet socks and shoes. Sadly, the pool closed early so we didn't get our second adventure. The girls settled for playing in the tub with swimsuits still on.

Conference with a one-year old is challenging.

And that is that.

another week

2011-03-27T10:29:00.000-07:00

The level of busy continues to be crazy. Ask me offline if you care about the details. Wayne was busy all week, and I was busy all week. The girls are busy all the time.

Aderyn had a 15-month check up (only a month late...) on Monday. Unfortunate timing, really, because she had gone through about 8 diapers in 4 hours time. They still had me bring her in, but didn't give her shots because they decided after asking me details and weighing Aderyn that she was too sick. They also were shocked that she had not gained an ounce in the last four months. And so I get to bring her in again tomorrow for the shots and another weighing so we can be sure she's bouncing back. Fun times.

Luckily, Aderyn and Paela were all recovered by Tuesday and eating normal foods again. Which is good, because then we could let some friends and family help with babysitting later in the week so I could go into the office. They did well, though when I took them to the mall play area on Saturday, Aderyn was clingier than normal, crying when I left her sight. She was a happy camper otherwise, trying all sorts of climbing stunts and slides on her own. Paela was happy to wander, but less ambitious with the climbing -- tights make her feet too slippery, she says.

Quote of the week: "Is Aderyn a mean baby?", asks Paela, after Aderyn took one of the toys Paela had carefully piled up.

We've been reading scriptures with Paela (sometimes Aderyn, but she doesn't really sit). This week we got to her favorite story so far -- when Jesus visited the Nephites. She remembered some of the details and asked lots of questions about it, wanting to keep reading and reading that night. And Aderyn is in love with singing time. "I'm so Glad When Daddy Comes Home" is her favorite song right now.

Winter weather returned. Good thing I hadn't even thought of putting our coats away a couple of weeks ago when we had a taste of warmer times. Ah, well, at least it was enough of a taste to remind us all that it is coming!

deja vu

2011-03-20T16:45:00.000-07:00

Wayne is incredibly, overwhelmingly, insanely busy for the next several weeks, so I will take a few extra turns with our weekly update. Even when he's able to be home, we still sometimes pretend he's not so he can get more done.

I just looked at my calendar to see what we did. Spring Break was this week??? No kidding. Huh. I guess we did our job of pretending Wayne wasn't here during his usual campus time pretty well! Plus, he went to Axiom to gallery-sit Thursday evening, and spent much of his time troubleshooting some installation problems with the artist.

A friend of mine watched the girls on Tuesday so I could go into the office for a bit (I have my share of deadlines too). Paela was slow to warm up during the drop off, but did great once I had left. Aderyn was the opposite. I'm told she passed out twice, just laying down where she was, in the middle of the toys, to go to sleep for 20-30 minutes. Wow. She never does that. Either it was really stressful not having us there, or it was the beginnings of her illness.

Illness. That is where the deja vu comes in. We've all been sick this weekend, and Paela is taking the worst of the bug so far. Fever, stomach bug, hacking cough, runny nose, the works. Hopefully Wayne can escape the worst of the bug. None of us made it to Church today. I really thought you were only allotted at most one stomach bug per year. I guess I'm wrong.

We had 60-degree weather twice last week. Twice! It was so nice. We went to the park. We took wagon rides. We're back down to highs in the 40s again, with snow predicted for tomorrow. But, there's hope. Plus, we (finally) had all the snow from January melt this week, so we can handle one more inch. Especially knowing that 60-degree weather could be hiding around to say hello again.

approaching normal

2011-03-13T18:30:00.000-07:00

Play: A few of the days last week approached the mid-50s, and we took the girls outside more to celebrate. They loved it (though eventually Paela declared she was too cold and went inside). It was rainy (most days), and we splashed in puddles, which Aderyn was a huge fan of. Her shoes took all day to dry out. Mental note, look for rainboots. Wayne even took a towel to the park one day so they could try and dry off a slide or two. We need more towels.

Work: Wayne had an Axiom meeting one night, and lots of class and trip preparations other nights. He's been insanely busy. With a demo day scheduled at work for mid-April, I've been pretty busy myself. And then a CD got stuck in our laptop's optical drive, which halted progress for a couple of hours until an online search taught us the trick of using my dental health insurance card (it was the right thickness) to give it the leverage it needed to pop out. And after three attempts in talking to HP customer service, they have agreed to fix the problem. We'll take care of this when the semester is less crazy.

Health: Wayne got his teeth cleaned. Aderyn and Wayne are getting colds. We all know how much sleep we get when Aderyn gets sick. Sigh.

Fun: We celebrated pi day two days (yesterday and today) to make up for not celebrating tomorrow. And our local ice cream store is open again! Hooray. It's been too long.

sleep

2011-03-06T11:02:00.000-08:00

There was melting snow. The weather has been occasionally warmer. And now we see grass for the first time since we left for Christmas vacation.

We tried to do something new to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday this year. Instead of cake, green eggs and ham or other food related items, we made oobleck. Rebecca found a few recipes to make a non-Newtonian fluid and Paela helped us color and play with it. I'm not a fan of the stuff, but Paela liked playing with it.

Aderyn has refused her medicine for several weeks now, which means no sleep at night and stomach troubles during the day. After trying a wide range of unsuccessful transportation methods, we finally discovered that she will (for now) take her morning and evening dosage if we douse it in blue kool-aid. So, for the past week she only wakes up (briefly) twice at night and doesn't throw up during the day. Hooray.

We finally got our car in to service on Saturday. We had scheduled a maintenance visit weeks back, but then we all got really ill for a full week and when we attempted to reschedule, the calendar showed us the next available date was this Saturday. So, we were only 500 miles over...

Camilla and Cameron came over for a girl scout cookie party last night. And then the girls didn't sleep well last night, so we're trying to catch some naps today.

HUGS!

2011-03-06T05:33:00.000-08:00

Aderyn learns from those around her (obviously) and she has picked up from Paela that we should hit one another. We try to convince them that the song actuallly goes "love one another", but it's a work in progress. Nowadays, we'll tell Aderyn "That's not nice" or "Say you're sorry" or "No hitting" when we catch her in the act, and she promptly gives Paela a great big bear hug. That's one way to apologize!

(Luckily, Paela agrees.)

I did it!

2011-03-06T05:30:00.000-08:00

I was in the other room when I heard Paela shout "I did it!" and race from her room. She ran this way and that way in our apartment, shouting "I did it!" over and over as she went, carrying a plastic tiger with her. When she was finally calm enough to ask, she told me she spelled "tiger". I was surprised, of course, and asked her to show me. She took me to a toy of hers that has all the letters of the alphabet on it. She pressed the "T" button which proclaimed "Tiger begins with T" and Paela shouted she spelled tiger again and ran all over the apartment.

And that is the level of excitement I hope she maintains as she learns more about what this "spelling" thing is.

getting better

2011-02-27T11:27:00.000-08:00

We are getting better. Mostly. Our colds took the opportunity of weakened immune systems from the stomach flu to make a huge resurgence, but we're mostly better by now and (finally) sleeping some again. Some sleep is better than none, though not as good as lots.

I'm glad we had President's day off for a bit more recovery time, though that's the day we told Paela no more "sick time" napping (makes for much too late of a bedtime when she takes a not-sick nap). Aderyn got super clingy (but this is normal for her) wanting Just Mom all the time. Paela got jealous and also wanted Just Mom. Wayne got worried about Tuesday afternoon when it would be Just Dad again, but returning to work was fine for both of us. Though Paela requested we call Wayne on the phone to ask him when he was coming home Tuesday morning.

Aderyn also stopped taking her medicine. She spits it out. We have tried sneaking in her oatmeal, her applesauce, her yogurt, her milk, her water, her juice, special chocolate milk, and giving it in a big girl cup. No dice. And no medicine makes for a (very) grumpy Aderyn. Which makes for a (very) grumpy family. Yesterday we had luck with blue kool-aid as a transportation device. Let's hope that success holds, because her tummy definitely knows when she skips a dose.

We went to the aquarium yesterday with Camilla and Victor and Cameron. It was a fun adventure for the girls. Paela especially loves watching the fish, the seals, and the diver, and the turtles. Her favorite part was the seals, though. Funny enough you can watch those without even entering the aquarium, so maybe next time we're downtown we'll just watch the seals. Aderyn likes the penguins best, though, and you do need to get tickets to see those. Thanks for library freeness though! Afterwards, we ventured to Chinatown on a coworkers recommendation, and it was amazing food!

Wayne had some Axiom meetings this week (and with the Boston Cyberarts people). Invigorating, but hard for him to fall asleep afterwards. Overall it's a good place to be involved with.

We had another five inches of snow this morning -- which is not enough to cancel Church -- and Paela finally got to give her talk in Primary! A first for all of us. Paela did a great job, too. She was understandably nervous, and buried her head, but holding pictures gave her something besides me to hide behind and she even said all of the words as I prompted her (though not into the microphone, which was not adjustable enough to compensate for an adult holding a child), jumping ahead of me once (we had practiced). Hooray, Paela!

8 bugs, many sick days

2011-02-20T10:28:00.000-08:00

Most of what we did this week was be sick. Really sick. All of us. And it wasn't just the stomach flu, but also colds on top of that.

Paela skipped her class on Monday because of her nasty cold and then by Wednesday night, things got really bad. I had to drive Paela to the emergency room at the Children's hospital Thursday night carrying a bucket in my hand for both of us. She passed out and then caught a second wind LATE into the night at the hospital, around the time they kicked us out.

This wasn't a 24 hour bug either. Nope. Not even close. I'm still on a diet of crackers. Only crackers. But everyone else is doing better, somewhat. We all missed work and school and church and could barely leave the house. It is important to keep our vision focused on time beyond these moments, because they will be just a brief painful experience to be remembered. But perhaps not treasured.

EDIT: Somewhere in there, Paela managed to go to the dentist for the first time. She wasn't scared and talked to the hygenist, even.

NYC

2011-02-13T11:25:00.000-08:00

New York city this week was fun, though exhausting all around. Tons of walking (and carrying heavy kids) for me, eight interviews in three days for Wayne, and a very busy city full of stimuli for all the senses for the girls. I'm glad we went, and it is good to be home today.

Monday and Tuesday were full of trip preparations and getting the house in order. Wayne also took down one of his art shows. Aderyn took the chance to decide to become a one nap kid. A rough transition all around, but frankly it meant we got to do more things in NYC, so not bad timing. Aderyn is also done with bottles. Another transition, though not so rough because she eats tons of food all day long.

Wednesday we took off for the train station and our big adventure. The girls loved the train. So did we. For this particular commute, it makes a lot more sense to us than flying or driving, and while more expensive than a bus, it meant Aderyn could roam the aisles and climb on empty seats. When we got to New York, Wayne raced off to an interview while the girls and I took the time to visit FAO Schwarz (the toy store with the big piano). We all met up again for dinner with friends before bedtime. After walking around the city, I was convinced Aderyn loved having so much to see. She kept pointing at things and "talking" and gasping and pointing. Listening to a one-year old gasp is hilarious, by the way.

We were fine with the suite we stayed in. It was converted from an apartment building, I think, so the closets were spacious. Big enough to put a crib in. Enough said. [I only saw one cockroach roaming the halls and we have yet to see how bad the bed bug situation was. New York is such a sanitary city! -Wayne]

Thursday took us to the Sony Wonder technology lab. Aderyn loved pushing buttons, especially if they made noise or turned on lights. Paela had a good time using the computer at each station, using the mouse like a pro. We sent Wayne back to his conference while Aderyn caught a nap, and then the girls and I wandered Central Park together. It was cold, but not as cold as Boston. The buildings block some of the wind. And the girls both loved pointing out the horses and carriages that passed us. The ice skating was fun to watch too.

Wayne was at the conference pretty much all day on Friday. But when the girls and I got to the subway station that morning, Paela literally jumped up and down, she was so excited to see the trains go past. She loves the trains! Thank goodness, I say. We had our fair share of trains to catch, after all. We visited the Natural History museum, where Paela loved "the fishies" and Aderyn loved pointing at all the animals. After another nap at the hotel, we went over to the Children's Museum of Manhattan. It was a great place to visit! Aderyn was old enough to get some of the things (buttons to push that made noise! characters she knew!) and Paela really wanted to interact with most of the exhibits. Both of them loved the Dora and Diego exhibit. Paela slid down a (short) fireman's pole. They both found slides and tunnels and music makers. It was great.

And Saturday...well I was disappointed that things opened so late and that our checkout time meant we could only fit in a very short morning adventure. Wayne went to the MoMA and caught another conference session while the girls and I found some fun puppets at the toy store. And the afternoon was cut short, too, by our train schedule. Aderyn threw too many tantrums for us to enjoy anything in the afternoon, anyway. I tried. But we were all tired and so I ended up buying a cookie to share with them instead. Thankfully Aderyn was enamored enough with the train to be well-behaved wandering up and down the aisle for three hours before she crashed (with one ten-minute crying spell). And Paela was tired enough to just sit and watch out the window and then watch a show and then watch out the window again until she passed out too. [I need to mention for our own sakes the guy on the train who stole Paela's seat when we were switching seats. Then when we pointed out his error, he didn't care and just put his things down to take up the whole row. Where was he from? Only from Boston... -Wayne]

And today we rest our weary selves. Aderyn is marathon napping, and Paela is enjoying her favorite toys again. Aderyn was super excited to see her favorite toys this morning before Church -- she ran from toy to book to Star cat and back again, barely stopping ten seconds to play with each one. What a cutie.

And I forgot the camera every. Single. Day. Sorry.

Winter of 2011

2011-02-06T17:37:00.000-08:00

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Winter of 2011

More snow than we can shake a stick at. Or a snowblower at.

snow forever!!

2011-02-06T12:43:00.000-08:00

Snow, snow, snow. In order to prepare for the additional snow, I had to borrow a electrical mini-snow blower and move the 4 foot tall mountains of snow a couple of feet closer to the center of the lawn. After about 5 hours of this, I decided that I would end up with a psychological disorder due to the stress. We are running out of room and places to put the snow. Our roof might cave in. The drainage pipes are full and when this snow melts it will cause a second disaster. [I am reassured that the locals are talking about how much snow it is too. At least we're not out-of-town wimps! -bec]

Aderyn has increased the number of times she has slept through the night from five to more than five. We met with a different doctor -- a REAL pediatrician -- who immediately did some calculations and told us our medical dosage for her was off because of her weight, etc. Why didn't our family practicioner do this? We don't know. But that shift, along with a few other things, has dramatically improved her sleep at night. She's still no angel, but she's also not waking every hour. Or staying up for a couple hours at one in the morning. For that we are grateful.

We did the normal things these past two weeks: gymnastics for Paela, a few playdates for the girls. I filled out dozens more applications and lined up about 7-8 interviews for a conference this week. We prepared plans for travel and tried to stay out of the weather. I was going to go to a nice reception last night, but turned my tail and came back home when the car was sliding all over the road due to freezing rain.

We try to feel "warmer" by doing bbq in the snow.

princesses

2011-01-30T12:55:00.000-08:00

Princesses in our house:

"Princesses dance. They do not twirl and whirl. They just dance. They also sing. And they help people, like my friends. Princesses also hug and kiss people lots."

And then Paela gave me and Wayne each a great big hug. I guess she must be a princess!

'bless yous'

2011-01-24T05:45:00.000-08:00

W: "Paela, do you have the sneezes?"

P: "No, I don't have the sneezes, I have the bless-yous."

ah-choo!

2011-01-23T17:37:00.000-08:00

We all had colds this week. Except for Paela. I'm glad one of us could escape those little germs! I stayed home to work on Tuesday in part because of the on-coming cold and in part because of the on-coming snow. But with deadlines at work, I couldn't afford to just rest. We've had three demos of our application in the last week. And that translates to lots of things to finish beforehand, and lots of new things to work on after.

We saw lots and lots of snow this week. Our mound by the driveway is higher than the car now and our mailbox is just barely visible. The girls have not really enjoyed the snow at all. Aderyn touched it once last week without a mitten on (we were just walking to the car) and she cried and cried and shook her little hand. Paela just flat out refuses to go outside unless we're going straight to the car. Fortunately, we manage to keep busy inside, or find indoor places to go, and the girls are starting to be co-conspirators at times.

Camilla and Victor did us the favor of hanging out with our girls Saturday so we could go to a movie (thanks, Susan!). We decided on Harry Potter, because we thought it'd be fun to see while still in theater. I liked it, but Wayne felt kind of lost [I'm not even going to go into how nonsensical Rowling's works are...]. So I guess it goes to show you actually should read the books if you want to watch the movies. We were glad both of the girls tolerated our absence superbly and alright, respectively.

And Wayne almost got killed at a restaurant we had a gift certificate to. Both girls loved the food, but suddenly Wayne stopped eating because a quarter-inch stiff sharp tin plate appeared in his food. Crazy! We were both thankful that it was our meal and not the girls' meal. And that he saw it and didn't eat it.

Here's to us feeling better this week. And that the snow on Wednesday is less than they say. Because it's not looking to melt anytime soon, that's for sure.

let it snow? NO!

2011-01-16T12:22:00.000-08:00

It snowed. And snowed. While I may have experienced more snow than this in my life, I don't remember it. It was much more than predicted and the commonwealth of Massachusetts was put under a state of emergency. Somewhere between 18 - 24 inches fell, making the snow drifts close to three feet tall. The snow plows built a wall blocking us in our driveway, which took us most of the day to dig out of. I had hoped that Paela would enjoy the snow -- because she did in Michigan -- but it proved to be too overwhelming for her.

Lucky for us, Aderyn was better from her sickness during this time. Even more lucky was that none of the rest of us picked up her bug. I'm amazed that in confined spaces we didn't manage to pass this disease around the family. I'm not sure when that becomes the norm, but I don't look forward to it.

Paela went to her pre-gymnastics class on Monday. This is the more advanced class where she does it by herself, instead of with me. Paela has some good teachers that helped her participate and some new friends in the class which held her hand as they did the activities. Afterwards, Paela told us she liked it better than last year's class, but it is hard to know what she really thinks because she's such a Yes Man. But Rebecca showed her some online videos of olympic gymnastics and Paela thought that was pretty cool. I guess we had forgotten the step to show her what she was practicing for.

Our toilet was leaking. Water was dripping through the basement ceiling. Fortunately, the landlord was quick and skilled in repairing the worn out gaskets. Now things are good again.

We went down to Jamaica Plain a few times this week. I am in a new show up at the Axiom Center and so we had an opening Friday night. We brought the whole family -- which was fun -- but we won't be doing that again anytime soon. The girls just can't handle being confined for so long and I felt really bad that I wasn't there the whole time, etc. But we returned the next day to babysit Cameron while Camilla and Victor went on a Chocolate Tour of Boston. I think we might do the Chocolate Buffet someday because that looks awesome.

Aderyn has started talking the same way she started walking: barreling through it. Paela began to talk using words and proper phonemes, but Aderyn stumbles through it and keeps trying under the impression that she will get it right someday. So she says things like "sheeush (Cheese)" and "sssees (Please)" and "bah-i-bay (Baby)" -- and of course all the onomatopoetic sounds like "Mraow" and "Woof Woof" and "Ooh Oooh Ooh."

Paela is a doctor (and I have a new camera)

2011-01-14T08:48:00.000-08:00

short

2011-01-09T11:31:00.000-08:00

Let's keep this short.

We got home from Michigan on Monday. Nice quick travel, though Aderyn didn't like having to nap in our arms on one leg. Paela is a super traveling buddy. Everyone (especially Aderyn) was thankful to see all the usual toys and Star cats and things. Home was all in order (Thanks to the Jones family!). We got home early in the evening, but getting used to our own beds again was a trick. Aderyn was crying off and on all night. Paela got moved to the couch, waking a couple of times herself. Thankfully sleep has been looking up every night since.

I ordered new glasses three and a half weeks ago. They were not in on Tuesday as expected. They arrived Saturday, but we had plans so I wasn't able to get them. Maybe tomorrow.

Wayne set up a show at Axiom Art. It took a few emails and several trips, and one more is in order before the reception on Friday, but things are mostly in place.

Victor and Camilla and Cameron came over to hang out Saturday and play a game. Paela fell asleep within five minutes of them leaving -- she was worn out!

And Aderyn threw up a couple of times today, starting at 5:45 this morning. Fun.

Paela seemed to do well with her first day with her Sunbeam class at Church. She sat on Sister O'Brien's lap during the first half of Primary, and Wayne visited her class the second half. Aderyn and I hung out and read lots of books at home because she was lacking energy for anything else.

I realize I talk a lot about sleep, or the lack thereof. All things in their season, right?

Aderyn likes to play with boxes

2011-01-08T11:24:00.000-08:00

christmas time christmas time

2011-01-02T08:20:00.000-08:00

The girls enjoyed Christmas at their grandparent's house, but this might be the last Christmas we travel. We left Boston before a major blizzard hit, dumping close to two feet of snow. Lucky for us, we were safe before that hit. The night we left, a miracle happened: Aderyn slept through the night for the first time in her life. Of course, we had to leave at 4am, so we messed that up. [hopefully she didn't take that message the wrong way! -reb]

But there was snow here, as well. We took the girls sledding, but neither really wanted to go more than twice. So I ended up doing most of the sledding alone. I think it was the cold weather that wore them down, because I know that Paela loves rollercoasters... so... We also visited an indoor playground that excited and delighted both. Indoor playgrounds are pretty awesome.

The weather has been mostly cold with enough snow to make a snowman. Paela was fascinated by walking on the frozen pond, but Aderyn was more tentative. ["I have a secret from Daddy. I will tell him next Christmas. I like snow." -Paela]

We tried to catch all the foods we can't get at home. I should note that we CAN get good food in the Boston area, it just takes a LONG time to travel through the horrible traffic to get to a decent restaurant. [and Aderyn hates, hates, hates riding in the car. Still. -bec] So we made use of an abundance of restaurants and grabbed our favorites.

One of the nicest perks of staying with family is that we can finally get some babysitters our girls trust. We went to the temple one night and stayed out way too late with friends on another night.

My parents helped Paela watch too much TV. She watched football with them. ["What color has the ball now?" -Paela] She watched Shaun the Sheep (and I tried to convert her to loving it). She watched her first 'princess' movie and loved Cinderella, even though some parts made her anxious. She tells us she likes Cinderella better than Wall-e.

Amazingly, Aderyn has been sleeping better now. She still doesn't sleep through the night, but her wake periods are much shorter and less frequent. During this trip, Aderyn learned to put pegs in the pegboard toy. We've been successful at teaching her to pet the kitty nicer, but that might just be how she interacts with her grandparents' cats. We'll see what she does at our house. Aderyn has also learned where her tongue is -- and sticks it out when you ask her to -- and where daddy's nose is. Sleep does a baby good. [not to mention the rest of us! -bec]

santa ho ho ho

2010-12-19T16:48:00.000-08:00

It was the Christmas lesson for my Primary class this week. Next week we don't have Primary -- just Sacrament meeting. And so I talked to my class about Santa. I mean, Christmas. They all turned seven this year, so I actually was surprised that they believe. Especially since I already knew they don't believe in the big old bunny. I guess just because learned about all the big magical stories at once (my brothers, cough, cough), doesn't mean everyone did.

I enjoyed hearing about their traditions. One family exchanges gifts, and Santa is just in charge of the stockings (and a small gift in there). Another does one big Santa gift to the family. Another draws a name of a family member and does secret things for them all month long. Another opens presents today because they are traveling for the holidays.

So why are we bringing all of ours with us to Michigan?

We've had a fun week with Paela and Aderyn. We bundled up and took a wagon ride around the neighborhood to see lights one night. And played with nativity puppets tonight (Paela wanted to do it over, and over, and over, and over, and over!). We made a holiday ornament. We started packing (okay maybe that was just me and Wayne, not so much the girls).

Paela also had her last "pregymnastics" class. Which ended in tears. The teachers wanted the kids to "do it all on their own" and kept stressing "their big show" and it was too much for poor Paela. She did not want to do it on her own. She is not dwelling on the experience, but it shook me up a lot to see her in tears. Although we have had more "I can't do it"s and "I don't know how"s this week (e.g. I can't walk. Or I can't wash my hands. Or I don't know how to pull up my pants). She was quite pleased to show me at home how she jumps and does cartwheels and the balance beam, informing me that she likes to do it at home but not in class.

We also had a first Primary activity where Paela met one of her Sunbeam teachers. And today was her last day of Nursery. She is sad about that. I get the feeling she is not too excited about Primary, though I've tried to talk it up and play "pretend Primary" with her. We'll see how that transition goes.

Aderyn and Paela slept in their room together last night until 3am, when Paela informed me there was a "ketchy noise" and even magic quiet dust didn't get rid of it. So she finished the night on the couch. But we are closer to them being in a room together. A room which is not ours.

And this week will be a race against the weather. We're hoping our flight makes it out before the snow gets here!

second week of christmas?

2010-12-12T17:08:00.000-08:00

St. Nick's day was nice. We've been trying to do a better job at creating new family traditions, so we are following our advent calendar and doing crafts with the kids and making cookies as well.

Most things ran a little too late for our girls this week. For example, we showed up to the ward Christmas party in our pajamas and left shortly after it started.

All our packages are in the mail. All should arrive before the big day. Keep an eye open for them.

We've started sleep training on Aderyn. So you know what that means... it's time to end this email and get some much needed rest.

the other shoe

2010-12-08T09:03:00.000-08:00

Normally when we leave our front closet door open, Aderyn will bring us shoes in the hopes that we will wise up and take her outside. This particular morning, however, while I was lying on the couch pretending we weren't really awake yet, Aderyn brought me one of the pump pieces from my work bag. I made a mental note to put it away before leaving for work, otherwise I'd be in trouble once I got to work. Fortunately, I did remember the pump piece.

Imagine my surprise, however, when I opened my bag at work. She hadn't just taken my pump piece -- she had made an exchange! Her left shoe was waiting for me. Perhaps by bringing me my pump piece, she had hoped I would trade her back for the shoe she dropped in my bag. Unfortunately, I did not wise up to her ways this time.

I hope she didn't need to go anywhere outside today!

on the first day of Christmas

2010-12-05T13:19:00.000-08:00

Tooth number two broke through for Aderyn. With no fanfare. Not even the (joyous) biting we went through with the first one. But she does chew on her shirt sleeves now.

She also had a healthy check up with her Doctor this week. Growing well, and all that entails. The spit-up thing is definitely not normal, but at least the medicine helps, mostly. The not-sleeping-all-night thing is also decidely not normal. But our Doctor has no plans of action for either. Unless we can somehow show that they are related. But really...who knows? At least the daytime is fun and games. She is running everywhere and climbing all sorts of things and playing fetch for us. What, don't you play fetch with your one-year old?

We started our advent calendar this week. Activities every day! And chocolate every day (thanks Oma and Opa)! What fun. Paela had fun with the paper tree decorating, and both girls enjoyed all the cool lights at Stone Zoo on Saturday with Camilla and Cameron. The ornaments are not really staying put on the tree. I can't imagine what little hands might be at the root of that!

We've had a lot of errands this week and are about halfway through Christmas shopping. But since we just started, that's not too shabby.

And that, my friends, is that.

thanksgiving travellers

2010-11-28T11:21:00.000-08:00

The house required several days worth of cleaning to prepare for my parents' visit. I'm amazed at the dirt that two little girls can spread all over the house. My parents arrived on Wednesday afternoon and Camilla and Victor and Cameron came to have a sleep-over that evening. They decided to come spend the night in order to get an earlier start on preparing Thanksgiving the next morning.

So we were all up by 7am and getting things ready for the day. We made lots of food, three loads of dishwasher dishes and tired ourselves out. We opened birthday presents for Aderyn all day long and I feel we did a good balance of Thanksgiving events mingled with birthday events. She loves her presents and a special thank you to everyone. She would carry around her birthday cards and show them to everyone.

Friday morning, we looked at hotels with my parents in preparation for a family reunion trip next year. It seems it is a little more complicated to prepare for a reunion when you are more familiar with the location than if you don't know what you might be missing.

A nasty cold front has come through and we missed the first snow of the season. We didn't even know it had snowed (nothing stuck to the ground), but we were informed by neighbors who took pictures.

We enjoyed having family here during the holiday and the girls especially enjoyed having so many adults to interact with. After everyone left Sunday morning, both girls started screaming and fighting again because there wasn't anyone else to entertain them.

calm before the storm

2010-11-21T12:46:00.000-08:00

It was a calm week. We're planning the fun for this week, I suppose. All we talked about all this week was what we want to do next week!

The only other things of note are that we all got sick. Okay, everyone but Wayne. Not that it's slowed the girls down. I stayed home with the girls today, because we didn't want them coughing all over the other kids at Church. Paela's voice is a whole octave lower than normal.

Camilla had the great idea to go swimming yesterday. We attempted to fit in between all the naps. It turns out one-a-day nappers and two-a-day nappers are kind of tricky to coordinate. But we found a 45 minute chunk of the day to go swimming. And everyone loved it! The water could have been maybe a teeny bit warmer for the kids' sake, but you know, they didn't seem to mind their lips turning blue and such. Aderyn and Paela can't wait for someone to suggest swimming again.

We did finish the raking, and unpacking all the sweaters and coats. For once, we're ready before the first snow. Now watch it not snow until January.

(not that I would complain...)

Three weeks already?

2010-11-14T17:39:00.000-08:00

Sorry it has taken us so long to write everyone. We took a week off because we had a late night with Halloween and then we were in Austin last week with family. Our adventures have been fun, as have the attempts to return to a normal daily pattern of events.

We tried to take the girls to a trunk or treat Saturday before Halloween, but someone at church seriously didn't think through their activity plans and did the group activity from 6 until 8:30. Our girls -- and most every other family with kids the same age -- left at 8 PM after a few meltdowns. But on the whole, it was lots of fun for both. Aderyn chased balloons and people liked her monkey costume. Paela has been going through an obsession with the color red lately, so we helped her get dressed up as Santa Claus. That made her happy. As did the donuts.

But sadly, no candy this year. Whatever. They didn't really need it anyway.

We took off for Austin last week and spent the weekend with a family reunion of sorts. Rebecca's grandfather was baptized last year and went through the temple this year. We were both planning on making that trip, but due to complications with Aderyn, Rebecca went to the ceremony and I stayed outside and played with the baby.

The girls enjoyed playing with cousins and we hardly spent much time with Paela. Aderyn stayed close, but was so entertained by the environment that we didn't hear much from her either. Things have been different since we got back, because they only have each other and they're tired of all their toys.

But Aderyn was visibly ecstatic to be home. She ran from place to place giving kisses and jumping on her favorite spots. She giggled at her crib and laid on her bean bag chair. She was pleased as punch to be back with her stuff. And the cat got lots of love.

It's time to buckle down and do lots of applications. Rebecca has already helped me accumulate a list of 70+ places to apply for. I'm currently working with an artist collective connected to the Boston Cyberarts Festival, so I should be spending more time working and doing grants and curatorial stuff. It should be great.

Paela traces some letters

2010-10-29T07:20:00.000-07:00

wet wipes

2010-10-24T13:14:00.000-07:00

This is a story not for the general interest. There will be mention of diapers. And wipes. And etcetera. Let you be warned.

One day, Aderyn was a little fussy. But dinner preparations were underway and problem solving was slow to happen. Soon, I saw her toddling her way down the hall carrying her wet wipes container with her. She brought them right to me, threw them on my lap, and clapped her little hands. I scratched my head a moment or two, and then (you guessed it) took a sniff.

Thank you, Aderyn, for bringing me the wet wipes. I do so need them on your behalf.

Note: this isn't the only time she solved problems this way. She has trained us well that if she needs something, she brings it to us, throws it at us and then claps.

700 miles

2010-10-24T12:45:00.000-07:00

In a week and a half we've gone 700 miles. Why do we drive so much? Who knows. Wayne says it's an embarrassment. If you do the math, this is definitely not beyond the norm for us though. With his work 33 miles away and various errands 20 miles this way and that, it's easy to do. It is a shame it's so easy to drive so much.

And that's exactly what this week was: normal. I don't have anything really on my calendar that isn't normal. Paela's little "class", grocery shopping, the bike trail with Paela's bike, playing in the leaves, finding a place to dump the leaves (Bedford doesn't pick them up with the trash...who knew? Why did they take them last year for us? Nice of them to have done so, anyway!). Oh, Paela's friend Alice and her older sister came over. That was fun. So I got to have a visit too. Thank goodness for friends willing to work around my work schedule.

Aderyn has another cold. Sleep is even more elusive (at night) than normal. Sigh. Also, she got her first tooth. The two are unrelated.

The Primary presentation was today at Church. The only treasure I saw was the little 4-year old that threw his shoe at someone sitting on the front row. The rest was cuteness and wrangling the 7-year old seat-bouncers in my class. Much better than the practice last week led me to expect (when two of said 7-year olds tackled the girls because they misunderstood who was supposed to follow who. They were sitting in order! And another had an outburst because a leader took his paper he was folding and refolding away. Thankfully the actual presentation is half as long as the practice.).

And that's all folks. We'll see where another 700 miles takes us next time.

Fall of 2010

2010-10-17T11:34:00.000-07:00

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Fall of 2010

Paela has a birthday. It is colder (finally). We do various activities.

car wrecks

2010-10-17T10:46:00.000-07:00

Our week was derailed on Monday when we were in a car accident. The whole family was in the car. Rebecca took it pretty bad, as did the two girls. The car was still fully functional, but upon taking it to a body shop for repairs we discovered that all parts on our car were discontinued, particularly the crash bar which was needed to drive safely (upon event of a second car crash). Because we have made a conscious decision to be a single car family for various reasons, we then began the painful process of car shopping without any comfortable window of time to do it in.

The difficult part in this process was that both Rebecca and I BELIEVE in purchasing used cars. We are not advocates of new cars because of two major reasons. Primarily, because new cars drop in value so fast, you can hear your money fly out the window as you drive off the lot. Secondarily, because it is more environmentally conscious to keep using used cars until they are unusable before adding another new car to the pile of cars on the road. However, we ran into a tough decision right at the beginning of car shopping -- to purchase a used car or a new car -- because of our fellow Bostonians. The used car market here is insane, much like the used anything market in the area. People on craigslist will dramatically overprice their car with the hopes that some clueless person will come along and buy it from them at that price, but also with the expectation that their fellow Bostonian will try and talk them down to a more reasonable price. We were seeing cars that list at Blue Book value for $6000 being priced at twice as much or more. At that, is with no guarantee of a clean mechanical bill. So, we decided to play it safe from all the nutjobs out here, and headed to the dealerships.

We tried out a couple of different models, doing our best to make sure there was enough room in the back seat for Rebecca to sit back with the girls. Even though it was the end of the year, we sadly had to purchase a 2010 model at full price, because the 2011 models weren't out yet. This is what happens when you are forced to buy.

So we just managed to get a new car in time for Paela's birthday. Don't let her think that this will happen ever again [knock on wood, so to speak -bec].

Paela had a quiet birthday, even if she wasn't. She has officially transitioned out of naps -- not our choice -- and we are still trying to figure out how to avoid meltdowns in the evening. Paela loved her Boots the Monkey cake, and we managed to put some orange sherbet on her plate and call it "Swiper the Fox ice cream." [all she wanted when we would ask her what she wanted for her birthday this last month is a Boots cake and Swiper ice cream. Well, a Boots cake with Dora and Swiper on it, but we talked her down to a Boots cake and she came up with Swiper ice cream shortly after that! -bec]

[Of course this isn't to say she didn't immensely enjoy her "birthday toys" once she realized the presents had toys in them and not cake. -bec]

going, going, gone

2010-10-10T12:10:00.000-07:00

It is decidedly Fall. We had lots of rain, and then it cleared up just in time for us to go to the orchard on Saturday with Camilla and Cameron. We enjoy the sun, it's true. Today as we walked into our house, Paela felt the sun and asked if it was Spring yet. Sorry to disappoint, but I'm sure she'll find things (aka snow) to enjoy about Winter.

Paela was grumpy on the way to the orchard Saturday. Aderyn had her crib blanket, and Paela only had a car blanket, not her bed blanket. She wanted to go home and get it. And not see any pumpkins, she said. But after tears, she decided that if I carried her "like a baby" that it was worth seeing the pumpkins and donuts and goats and everything. And then she was excited to see everything. Just like that. Aderyn enjoyed walking around feeling the pumpkins. I suppose we should get her some shoes that fit. We only have a size too big.

It was otherwise a normal week. Some of this, some of that. Two things of note, Wayne's painting participated in an auction on Saturday. And he met with a graduate student (from a different school than the one he teaches at) that wanted another thesis committee member. Should be a fun experience.

I'm starting a sewing project for Christmas. Don't tell Paela. Anyone have (more) unexpired JoAnn's coupons lying around? (Thanks, Camilla!) And Wayne is debating what to do with a moped that won't work. We thought it was a good trade at the time.... Live and learn.

walkers

2010-10-03T16:48:00.000-07:00

So we didn't write last week. Whoops. Especially since that was the week that Aderyn decided to become a full fledged walker and almost abandon all crawling. Crawling is only used when she needs to race to the door if someone is going outside.

Paela has had a number of playdates lately. She enjoys the social stuff, as long as it is a one-on-one interaction. As a side effect of her excitement for playdates, she has picked up the names of the week, even though she doesn't understand the order. We would let her know days before the playdate -- in order to prepare her for the experience -- that she would see her friend Alice on "Friday." Now she likes to ask what day it is and talk about what is supposed to happen on other days -- "We go to church on Sunday," or "It's not called 'windsday,' Daddy... today is Friday and that's the day I see my friend Alice."

Last weekend, we went to the Bedford Day Parade and tried to convince Paela to pick up candy thrown from the cars. Last year, I thought that this was a natural response to the combination of free candy and children, but Paela needed a little bit of instruction as to the correct response to thrown candy. By the end of the parade, she was getting the hang of trying to move fast enough to get some before the other kids grabbed it all.

I agreed to a commission painting. It was a different idea from my usual style, but someone requested that I paint their family crest in exchange for their moped. This commission was the first painting I've done in about three years and reminded me of the methodical practice and calming feelings I have towards painting... at least when things have been planned out ahead. However, my time at nights has been severely divided. Job postings for the next school year have become due and I've been trying to get those ready, which split my evenings. Now that the painting is finished, I will spend most of my nights managing time for class prep and for applications. Yippee.

Rebecca tried to make it to a book club one evening, but failed. The girls were making such a terrible fuss about going (and staying) to sleep, that she just had to stay home. Where was I? See the above paragraph. Part of the problem now is that both girls have nasty colds and can't breathe at night.

Aderyn made an intriguing discovery this week. We have never been able to get her to drink water, without holding an open-faced cup to her lips -- and this makes a large mess -- because she doesn't drink out of the sippy cups we have given to her. She has a very concave and rigid palette, which causes her discomfort when using some of the more standard drinking apparatuses: sippy cups, bottles, breasts. But this week, when her cousin Cameron was at our house, she managed to steal his sippy cup and instantly showed success! [shh...don't tell Cameron she's using the cup he left behind yesterday until we get her one just it tomorrow! -bec]

Paela started "gymnastics" last week and loves every second of it. She's been talking all week about how she gets to go back on Monday.

the week

2010-09-19T17:52:00.000-07:00

It is beginning to look a lot like autumn. Everywhere you go. Soon the leaves will fall. And the thing that will make them ring is the carol that you'll sing.

Or something like that.

We were glad to have cooler weather. Even if the leaves are (already!) changing color. The girls and Wayne went to the zoo (so sad to miss Aunt 'Mil!) Wednesday. We had a picnic one day after a walk. We've gone to the park several evenings this week. So much that Paela starts asking if it's time to go to the park as she's putting her dinner plate away.

There was more to the week. Wayne took some paintings up to another show. I missed a couple of things with friends Thursday because I lost track of time. But we had friends over Tuesday. Wayne started a new painting (commissioned) that will be part of a barter with a guy on craigslist. Which meant a rush to the store to pick up paint thinner because he hasn't painted in ages. Since California at least.

We went to Camilla and Victor's place today. Paela tells me Cameron is her "best friend" and that Uncle Victor is her "favorite" and that she loves Aunt 'Mil. And they all love her. She says. Also, she asked one of her friends in nursery to come play this week. I need to remember to follow up with said friend's mother....

We canned pears. And peaches. Grocery stores don't have great prices, but we have found nothing better (and lots of more expensive u-pick places).

And Paela invites her "friend" "Kate" over on the "phone." This friend is of the imaginary persuasion. They go on adventures together. What a fun age.

crunchies

2010-09-19T17:47:00.000-07:00

We aren't big cereal eaters in our house. Well, we weren't. Until the time we bought a certain kind of cereal and Paela decided she loved eating our "crunchies." The name stuck. And the cereal is still a must-have on our grocery list:

Crunchy Granola Raisin Bran

But Paela does not like the raisins, she informs us as she picks out every raisin to line it up next to her bowl. She likes raisins. She just doesn't think they belong in her "crunchies" bowl. And heaven forbid we buy Crunchy Granola Bran (do they even make that?).

Last week I thought Paela was so grown up the morning she told me "I think I want to try my raisins today." She ate the whole bowl, raisins and all.

The next morning, she had a line of raisins next to her bowl by the end of breakfast. Old habits are hard to break.

special screeches

2010-09-19T17:36:00.000-07:00

Aderyn has added to her "special screech" repertoire. Our current "favorite" screech is the signal that she just noticed we sat down to look at the computer. The minute she notices one of us is on the computer, she crawls over as fast as she possibly can, screeching and crying and pulling on our legs until we get off the computer. Does she want us to play with her? Maybe. Mostly she just wants us to not be on the computer.

The stinker.

Burn center

2010-09-12T17:24:00.000-07:00

Aderyn stood up and put her hands on the hot stove.

We had cooked breakfast in the oven and after she was finished eating her mush, we let her down to roam. But when we heard her screeching at the tops of her lungs, we looked over and saw that she couldn't let go because she was leaning against the front panel. We doused her hands in water full of ice cubes as she screamed more bloody murder. After five minutes of this, it dawned on us that she normally LIKES to play in water. So we sat her down with a bowl of water on the kitchen floor and let her try to grab the slippery ice cubes out. Lucky for all of us, there was no burn damage.

But she still went to the doctor's office that afternoon for a checkup on her ear. She's had a prolonged cold and after several hours of yanking on her ear the day before, we decided to have a quick check for infection. There wasn't anything and we got sent home with a clean bill of health. She still has the cold -- it has been almost two weeks now -- but we're almost through it.

Labor day was this week, but we spent most of it at home, trying to feel better from the aforementioned colds. We took a trip to a mini-golf course. Paela didn't understand the entire premise of the game, but understood putting the ball down and knocking it into a hole, so we let her do just that.

Classes started. Software wasn't installed. Things were chaotic, not to mention that I only have 7 students in my class. The required minimum is 15, but they're forcing this class through because it's required for these students. Which means I'm going to work them hard to make sure the high price the college is paying will be worth it. I'm not sure what else to do. How does one fill out classes? It seems that all students who used to take the courses I teach have moved on to wanting to learn how to make video games. Ah, video games: the new Hollywood. It's just as seductive and just as terrible (mostly) a place to work.

uhhh......

2010-09-05T12:27:00.000-07:00

Where do you want to go today, Paela? The toy store. She says. And so Wayne and the girls went to the toy story a couple of days when it was too too hot to stay outside. And the mall play area.

And then when hurricane Earl was cooling things down for us (it didn't get much more intense than a bit of rain for us), they joined forces with Cameron and Camilla to visit the zoo. Paela reported that her favorite part of the zoo was when the birds landed on her hands. She got to feed some seeds to a bunch of birds, and she talked about birds landing on hands for the last couple of days. Happily, Aderyn tolerated the stroller for the zoo visit (normally she screams and screams when we try and use the stroller and we thank heavens for the moby), since she got to sit next to her favorite cousin Cameron.

It was a pretty calm week. In retrospect perhaps we should have done something exciting since Wayne starts teaching this week. But then, we were all sick for a lot of the week. Some of us more than others. Aderyn one night woke up every half hour. (I just loved that......) Wayne had to sleep in a sitting position so his own coughing wouldn't wake him up. And Paela had a fever and told us how cold she was, poor girl. Surprisingly, I kept a low profile for this particular bug.

Wayne made a couple of fun trades on craigslist for paintings. People are sometimes more willing to trade paintings for things like a kindle or a network printer. And we are happy to receive.

And today we're off to go play with Camilla and Victor and Cameron. As soon as naptime is over.

42-21-hike

2010-08-30T08:01:00.000-07:00

Sometimes Paela will tackle Aderyn. Her full body goes into the hold in an attemptto keep Aderyn from something, out of something, away from something.At home, it's usually to prevent her baby sister from getting into her toys and making a mess. Sometimes she does the "baby tackle" for a less self-serving purpose, like trying to keep her from reaching the oven or the electrical outlet.

Today, Wayne called from the mall to describe this scene: Aderyn crawls away from him in the play area as fast as she can to the caterpillar tunnel; some random kids follow her because, hey, she's cute; Paela notices and hurries to her sister's side where she casually drops a hand on her back (this one is mine!) and follows Aderyn to the tunnel. Where she sits and holds her sister while the other kids crowd in to watch the baby. Holds her tightly. Much to her sister's chagrin.

Too bad Aderyn tries to shrug off this attention (always), because (sometimes) it's cute.

THAT age

2010-08-30T07:58:00.000-07:00

One evening after Aderyn went to bed, I went downstairs to watch a short show with Paela. We shared a blanket and a bean bag chair together, cozied up. I told Paela I liked to snuggle with her, and she looked at me and said "I love you, Mommy."

Yes, she's at that age.

fast week

2010-08-29T17:49:00.000-07:00

Summer is almost over.

But that didn't stop us from going to a new splash park in the area Saturday night. Both girls frolicked in the water, but Paela ended things early because she only wanted to do the swings.

And we went on a canoe ride up in Concord. I hadn't realized we've been married for over seven years and never done any kind of boat ride. Rebecca has never been in a canoe. But we found a great -- and contaminated -- river to have our adventure on. Paela was hesitant, but Aderyn was completely fussy, for the first half hour of the trip. But the rest of the time, the girls figured out what to do and how to enjoy their water adventure. I'm impressed the boat rental place didn't have a problem with us dragging our nine month old on a boat.

Aderyn did her nine month check up and she's still in the same high percentages as before.

Class will start in a week or so, which means it is time to finalize lesson plans and lectures need to be ahead of schedule.

Drawing faces

2010-08-22T17:06:00.000-07:00

Paela likes to draw entire scenes on her blackboard.

birthday time

2010-08-22T12:32:00.000-07:00

For a second I thought it was a pretty calm week. And it was. But it was also birthday week, so at least there's a little bit of newsworthy material.

Wayne had a birthday. We celebrated a bit early with Camilla and Victor coming over Sunday evening to hang out. But I made Wayne wait until Tuesday to carry on with presents and cake and such. I'm such a stickler that way, I guess.

Paela did an excellent job keeping the surprises secret. She helped me choose wrapping paper and wrap presents, and when Wayne tried to ask what he was getting for his birthday, she said "presents" and when he asked what was in the presents, she said "surprises." She wanted to get him something clown red for his birthday, or maybe it was a clown which was red. We're not sure which.

On Tuesday, Paela had a grand time helping to open presents and blow out candles. No waiting around between presents like she did for her own birthday and Christmas last year. I'm anxious to see if she will go slow, wanting to pause and play with each thing, before moving on to another present come her own birthday in October.

Yesterday we pretended our big bean bag couch was a pond, because Paela wanted to go to the pond again but did not want to go upstairs or get shoes or get in the car. Later on, she was sad to not go to the real pond, but we all had fun jumping in the "water" until naptime.

Primary was a handful again today at Church. How can three seven-year old kids be such a challenge? At least there are only three of them.

Otherwise not much out of the ordinary happened. Park visits, spray parks, feeding goats at the neighborhood farm, library, pet stores, and the like. Like I said, pretty calm.

First steps?

2010-08-15T12:23:00.000-07:00