One of the presents Corwin got for his birthday was an electrical experiment kit. Corwin was playing with it in front of the TV when he suddenly started screaming. I ran over to see what the problem was. Corwin had one end of pair of alligator clips in his mouth. I presumed that he was unable to remove it because he was getting shocked too badly to get at it (even though the kit is powered by a couple of AA batteries). However, it turned out that Corwin had in fact clipped it to the inside of his cheek. I managed to reach in and open the jaws of the clip enough to get it out without hurting Corwin too badly. I didn’t have the heart to ask him how he’d managed it.
Alice, unlike her brothers, does not like riding in the car. As soon as we start out, and sometime as soon as she goes in the child seat, she starts screaming. Usually she’ll wear out after 5 or 10 minutes and subside in to low level mumbling. It might be just not being held, but there have been a number of times where Alice sat happily in the carrier until we loaded it in the van for transport. I think it’s just a phase in which she’s rebelling against parental authority and she’ll get over it when she realizes that it’s a shallow psychological ploy.
Charles is becoming psychologically crippled more often these days. On Friday he collapsed on the way to the basement because he had dropped one of his cars. It was less than a foot from his hand but he was unable to reach it. I eventually put it directly under his hand but his will was so sapped that he couldn’t summon the energy to grasp it.
However, I’ve been trying to help Charles with the car carrying. He was coming down the stairs slowly and crying the other day, because he kept dropping cars. I popped up and showed him how to put the cars in his shirt while holding the end so that he could carry all of his cars. He was so happy that he could carry all of his cars!
This lasted for a day or two before Charles was carrying so many cars that he couldn’t hold them in his shirt. So I’m looking in to a set of bags for Charles or earplugs.
We all made it back from the wedding. Mom enjoyed it. The boys tolerated it, although I had to take Alice and Charles out of the actual wedding so people could hear the priest instead of Charles calling out “choo!” as he drove his new Gordon train around the pew. Charles was fine with leaving but he immediately wanted back in to see Mom, but I wouldn’t let him (as the experience of hauling him out of the wedding screaming when he wouldn’t be quiet again was somewhat unappealing). I hauled him down to the basement, but Mom said later that she could, if she listened, hear his caterwauling anyway.
After the wedding we went to a restaurant because we hadn’t really eaten that day. Corwin was ravenous because he had a light breakfast, followed by breaking camp, going out to the cemetery to put flags on veteran’s graves, swim team practice and then getting ready to go to the wedding. Corwin ripped through his meal like the wolf boy he is. After that we went to the reception. After we arrived, Corwin’s first question was “when do we eat?”. We managed to hold him off with some fruit that was set out for appetizers before he had another meal at the reception. Followed, of course, by cake.
Grandma and Grandpa were there as well. They took Alice off after dinner to show her around. Despite their enthusiam for this task, Mom managed to track them down eventually and retrieve Alice for our departure. Corwin and Charles were very ready to go as well, even though Corwin had been enjoying some dancing by the table as the bridal couple and their parents danced on the dance floor. They had to clear out the churning mass of cake frosting powered running children, but that’s what fire hoses are for.
We did finally get back for a restful night’s sleep, except for starving Alice waking Mom up regularly while Dad had to search for the missing piece of Charles’ new train. If Charles wakes up in the night crying, it’s not a bad dream but missing vehicles. Such are his terrors.
Charles managed to fill out his potty card with all five stickers. In response, Mom bought him a new Gordon train engine and tender (the tender turned out to be a mistake). Charles was very happy with it. I made him give Mom the filled out card in exchange for the engine, to try and impress on him the connection between the two events. I’m not sure anything pentrated except “I got a Gordon!”. We’ll see how fast the second card fills up.
After swimming, Corwin and I went over to his Den Mother’s (DM) house. They’re having a camp out in the backyard for the scouts. Corwin has been camping previously, but it was so long ago that he doesn’t remember (he was only three at the time). He was excited about it. We took over our tent and a sleeping bag for Corwin, although I forgot to include a pillow.
The evening was spent with the boys running around the yard and screaming, followed by the roasting of marshmallows. There were, amazingly, no burn injuries, although how Corwin managed to not poke out someone’s eye the way he was waving his roasting stick around I can’t understand. I definitely need to work with him on the idea that when you hand somebody else something sharp, it’s best to hold it out handle first rather than stabbing the sharp end directly at him and hoping he’s got good enough reflexes to dodge.
After the marshmallows, the boys got ready for bed and I managed to escape. I needed a good night’s sleep because it will be a busy day tomorrow, with a morning scout activity, swimming and a wedding.
I updated Corwin’s picture in the sidebar yesterday. I resize all of those images, by hand in an hours long intricate process, to have the same width. What I noticed is that while I’ve been able to keep the width constant, the pictures keep getting taller. It’s like the kids are physically changing in size and shape. Very odd.
In other news, Alice can now hold her head up at 90° when she’s on her tummy. She can also roll over both ways. Those halycon days of a child with no mobility have gone past. Mom’s still hoping for green eyes.
Charles went potty at daycare this week, bringing him up to three stickers. As astute readers know, we started Charles on a sticker per potty use, with five required to get a new vehicle. After two weeks, we have saved some money on not having to buy cars every grocery trip.
Corwin skipped swimming this evening because Mom was of the opinion that he had too much other activity.
His class went on a field trip to Decatur, which is a long bus ride for the kids. They visited a museum and a zoo, and Corwin bought many things at the gift shop. Other than that physical evidence, our interrogations of Corwin yielded little information about the trip itself, although he did confess to seeing a large turtle.
After that Corwin went to violin lessons.
Next up was the “final scrimmage” for his spring soccer team. Most of the team showed up and they had a small game. In the picture you can see Allison, Mara, Benet and Maggie. The bit of white near Maggie’s knee is a flapping bandage. She skinned her knee very badly earlier this week after falling off a bike (unlike Corwin, who skins his knees with a scooter — the bike is for skinning his elbows).
P.S. I had though that the … interesting … clothing choice Corwin had a few days ago was simply the result of him picking out the first items to come to hand in the morning, or perhaps an effect of the fact that he doesn’t really turn on mentally until he’s been up a half hour or so. I just wanted to tease him a bit and I know you all always like an extra picture of him.
But no - he had on the exact same outfit today.
Charles has been a bit of a struggle this morning. It started when I didn’t let him go downstairs until he’d done all of his “morning stuff” — fresh diaper, clean clothes, personal hygiene. One problem is it seems that when Charles gets upset, he loses control of his motor functions and verbal capabilities.
This morning, for instance, after I hauled Charles upstairs to do his morning stuff, he dropped a car just before I set him down. He then spent about 15 minutes laying on the ground, piteously calling for his blue van, which was laying about 5 feet from his outstretched hand in plain sight. I popped up and checked on him now and then. At some point while I was off on a task Charles decided to try coming downstairs again, at which point he easily stood up and picked up his dropped blue van.
I hauled Charles upstairs again and set him down. I asked him if he wanted to do his morning stuff to which he didn’t reply. I started back down the stairs at which point Charles let out a plaintive “wait!”. I turned and asked “Will Charles do his morning stuff?” and Charles choked out a grudging “yessss”. Five minutes later Charles was watching Teletubbies.
However, his troubles were not over because he desparately wanted something while he was watching, but he wouldn’t say what it was. After another fifteen minutes of mewling he decided to try Dad’s recommended technique and ask for what he wanted. He got up, came over to the table where I’m typing this and said “I want milk” and so I got him some milk. Finally, the end of the mewling (for now).
I do feel a bit sorry for Charles. I think that his grasp of language is much better than his ability to speak so that frequently he can’t get the words out in an understandable way, even with a trained Mom and Dad. This is very frustrating for him and probably contributes to his general inarticulateness. Hopefully by the time he’s four he’ll have physically developed enough to find his linguistic efforts worthwhile.
Last night there was an event at the school to hand out awards for Corwin’s first grade class. Luckily for Corwin, he got all of the academic awards so we’ll probably not be putting him in summer school. While he didn’t get top honors for best behaved, he was close to the top so we’ll let him slide … this time.
Corwin is still enjoying swim team. He’s made it through three practices now without complaint. At school today he managed to scrape himself up in the same spot on one elbow as he did last week. Apparently it bled a lot because the school made him change clothes and Mom had to go pick him up. But Corwin didn’t say anything about it when he jumped in to the chlorine filled swimming pool. I figured that it would be a lot less traumatic if I didn’t bring it up before hand. Corwin ended up staying extra time in the pool, but eventually got too cold to stay in.
Yesterday evening Corwin had his first swim team practice. Last year we had him in swimming lessons for the summer, but there’s basically only one set of lessons. As a result, Mom signed him up for the next level, the swim team. He’ll have practices 6 days a week until the end of July. These will be primarily during the day so Erica (poor, deluded Erica) will be taking him most of the time. We probably won’t do soccer this summer because we don’t want Corwin to have too much scheduled time. He does soccer in the spring and fall and in the summer, I think swimming will be a lot more pleasant.
I’m a bit concerned about Erica having to watch Charles and Alice as well, but I did that myself last night and it wasn’t too bad (and if I can do it, it should be a breeze for Erica). I hadn’t bothered to put Charles in to a swimsuit, which turned out to be a mistake. In the future, I’ll suit him up and put him in the wading pool, which gets all of 18” deep at the deep end so Charles should be fine without minimal supervision. He was mostly happy this time just pouring water in and out of the pool, so splashing around in it should work well.
Corwin got a new bicycle for his birthday. He outgrew his old bicycle so it was time for a new one. It’s a 20” bicycle, which looks much more like a “real” bicycle and not a toy. It’s got a kick stand as well, which is handy. Grandma and Grandpa picked it up yesterday and Corwin took it out for the first time last evening for a successful field trial (no crashes, no blood, no screaming - success!).
Mom and I had taken him to the store on Saturday to look at the bicycles. Corwin was oddly unhelpful in the process, not seeming to want to actually look at or try the bicycles. We browbeat him in to sitting on a couple of them, but after careful consideration of the various features, Corwin picked the red one (although, Mom and Dad being Evil Incarnate, we made Corwin actually sit on the bicycle before we bought it).
We survived Corwin’s birthday party. It started with two hours of bowling. I thought that was a bit long, but the first hour went by before I noticed. After about 1½ hours some of the younger set got tired and gave up on bowling. Luckily they were all on the same lane. About this same time Corwin started asking me when we would be opening presents. However, despite this most of the kids lasted the full two hours, although there were signs of general flagging by then. We had only one hand injury, one of the girls left with ice on her hand. I’m not sure what happened - the first hour was a frantic whirl of activity for me.
Corwin won the first game in his group, beating Megan (who is pictured here taking a breather from the intense pace of the competition) by a single point, 96 to 95, even though Megan was leading (by a single point) most of the game. However, Danielle bowled 111 (but don’t mention this to Corwin - it was his birthday party after all). Corwin scored well despite his technique. At one point I corrected him to start from in front of his lane instead of starting at the next lane over and running sideways. They were playing with bumpers so there were no gutter balls and this technique would cause the ball to bounce back and force across the lane several times before it impacted the pins.
Most of the kids threw very softly, so there was often a long wait before the ball got to the pins. One of the got the ball to stop about 5 feet in front of the pins. Several of them bowled on the wrong lane, despite the active lanes having the pins lit up and the inactive lanes dark. One time a pin rolled far enough forward that the pin catcher didn’t get it. We just played on and it was soon back in place. Despite all of this several strikes were scored (Corwin got two strikes himself).
After the bowling we went off for cake and present opening. That ran a little long - we had 45 minutes allocated but we would have done better to plan for 30. Corwin received many fine presents, although we didn’t let him open them until we got home. He’s off now exploring the wonders of the modern toy cornucopia. I think the other party goers had a good time as well.
Given the obessive detail with which I write here, I’m shocked that I haven’t mentioned Alice’s eye problems yet. For the last couple months she’s been having problems with eye gunk build up, to the point where sometimes she couldn’t open her eyes until Mom or I cleaned them off. The doctor said that the most likely cause was blocked tear ducts. He gave us some antibiotic eye drops to use, which made Alice’s eyes less gunky but didn’t make a real difference.
What finally cured her was another trip to the doctor. Alice never liked the eye drops so the day of the visit she woke up with only slightly gunky eyes and they’ve been clear ever since. So while the eye drops themselves didn’t help that much, the fear of them did. It’s never too early to start with operant conditioning.
It was another big evening here yesterday.
First up was Jared, Jacob’s brother, who was abandoned by his Mom at our house. He and Charles had fun playing with dart rockets, shooting each other in the basement and then around the backyard. Jared spent most of his time in the basement saying to Charles “shoot your daaaaaad”.
Corwin had some fun with them as well. For a while they had Charles bouncing back and forth across the basement to cries of “shoot Corwin! shoot Jared!”. I liked it better when they were out in the backyard shooting each other. My primary regret is that I didn’t send Jared home with one of the rocket darts, but I think I can fix that at Corwin’s birthday party tomorrow…
Later that afternoon, Bear and his family (Mom, Dad, little brother Wolf, Aunt Lucy) came over for a visit. Bear was in high energy form and Corwin was feeling a little better. Charles was in a good mood as well so there was much boyish enthusiasm. Luckily we managed to keep most of it internal to the boy scrum although bits would leak out now and then.
About the time Bear arrived, Jared’s dad stopped by to pick him up. After that the rest of us went over to the pond. Bear and Corwin had on their swimming suits and hit the water immediately. Charle waded out in his shorts. He made us very nervous because he’d wade out to almost his neck deep even though he can’t swim. When we called out to him to come in closer he’d start crying and we’d get really nervous in case he collapsed in a pile of hysteria as he is wont to do. The boy simply has no fear of drowning. The pond was a lot of fun, after which we sloshed the boys home for some cleaning.
Mom cooked up a nice dinner and then after dinner Bear and Corwin disappeared in to the basement to play on the computer. Bear doesn’t have a computer at home so he was enthralled with the boys office. Charles wasn’t so happy because his computer was commandered by the older pair, but I think he’ll get over it.
From what his mother tells me, Bear’s primary memory of our last visit there was that I had a large collection of light emitting objects. His mother claims that he pestered her with questions about what kinds of light toys would be available if he visited Corwin. Well, as though who know me will attest, I don’t like to show off gadgets but for Bear I decided to make an exception. I broke out the 15” glowsticks and other assorted lesser ones. Bear ended up with a blinking daisy and five pointed star along with a couple of others I don’t remember. In the picture you can see the star blinking under his face, several light ropes in another hand and a multi colored blinkie being swung in a circle (the other helix is done by Corwin). Much photonic fun was had.
After this, Mom asked Bear’s mom if he could spend the night. Bear’s mom was stunned that Mom could be so foolish but agreed nonetheless. Bear was very excited about it - apparently he hasn’t had a sleep over before. By this time, of course, it was late and we basically just put the two of them to bed after Bear’s family left. But the boys were back up at 6 this morning to hit the computer gaming circut. Mom mentioned this to me repeatedly today for some reason, even though it didn’t wake me up. After some morning fun we returned Bear, injured to be sure (although properly bandaged up), but mostly in one piece.
Today is Corwin’s birthday. He is now seven years old. He didn’t get a large amount of loot this year but he did get two large water guns and a bike, and I expect he’ll haul in a goodly amount of stuff from his party tomorrow at the bowling alley. We should have about 10-12 kids there.
Corwin and Charles went out to play with the new water guns for a while, which they both greatly enjoyed. Charles got a bit wetter than Corwin.
We had some cake after supper. Charles was very excited by this. He was kind of just moping about until Mom said “Charles, would you like some cake?” at which point he turned on. He walked about saying “cake cake cake” in various inflections. Mom pointed out that it was big brother’s birthday so Charles switched to “happy birthday cake!”. He ate all the icing off his first piece and eventually about half the actual cake. Charles liked the cake very much.
Corwin’s party is tomorrow because he had a violin recital tonight. It went well and Corwin played his part in good form. He didn’t appreciate having to dress nicely but even I think it was for the best. Charles, Alice, Grandma and Grandpa all came along.
On Wednesday night we had a bunch of people from work over for dinner. They were visiting work from San Jose, Austin and Israel to help out with some user interface development. Mom thought that it would be nice to invite them over, especially those from California so we could compare house size and price.
Mom grilled up a bunch of steaks and chicken. A little of chicken got eaten but the steaks just disappeared. The plate went once around the table and it was empty.
It was fun. Corwin got to play soccer with unagile and out of shape software engineers. Luckily there were no injuries or fatalities although Corwin almost took out a window on the sun room a couple of times. Charles for some reason was a bubbling cauldron of boyish enthusiasm for most of the evening. I think it wore him out because he got very cranky about not getting to watch a specific DVD. Luckily that was near the end of the evening.
One of the people visiting was Nick, who is someone that’s been in our group for a long time. He has grandson who is named Jacob (yes, yet another one). Corwin’s been over to play there on a couple of earlier trips out to California (so long ago that they’re not recorded on this weblog). Corwin, sadly, no longer has any memory of these trips. Nick remembered Corwin, though (especially that Corwin drew on his cubicle walls with a whiteboard marker). However, not being a big fan of playing soccer Nick decided to skip the outdoor activity and relax with a fine wine and wriggly baby, as you can see from the picture.
I like to let Corwin pick out his own clothes (although Mom is frequently a bit explicit about what constitutes proper attire). This is what Corwin was wearing this morning. It’s certainly a wonderful feeling when your child follows your path in something, such as fashion sense. Mom was not quite as impressed but didn’t actually say anything.
Corwin’s been a bit under the weather the last couple of days, with his scrapes and complaining of a sore throat. I recommended he have some yogurt because it would be easier to eat and might soothe his throat a bit. He, of course, didn’t like any of the yogurt we had in the house but fortunately Mom popped out to pick up some food for an event this evening and got some new, different yogurt for Corwin (because, you know, all those different massively processed kid’s yogurts taste completely different).
Mom’s old friend Sarah is in town (who, just to be clear, is not Mom’s old friend Sara — it was fun in the old days when the terror quad of Sara, Sarah, Susan & Susan strode the halls). We visited her and her son Bear a while back (there were some other family members about too, I think). Bear was brought along for this visit and Corwin got to play with him a little bit yesterday afternoon. The whole gang is coming over this afternoon because “Bear is tired of hanging out with old people”.
Definitely a day to work late.
We bought a new refigerator when we moved in to our current house. I insisted on getting one with an external water and ice dispenser, although Mom thought it was a pointess extravagance. However, it’s turned out quite well. Even Mom uses it. The best part, though, is that it seems to be training Corwin to drink plain water instead of soda. Mimi comented on it while we were down in Texas.
Because we keep cups right across from the refigerator Corwin can just get his own drinks and it’s easier for him to get water than to open up the refigerator and look for something which usually isn’t there. We don’t buy soda for the children and don’t stock juice boxes much either. It’s better all around to just go with the water. And the real benefit is that Corwin keeps the ice fresh for Mom and Dad when we need to get a drink!
How do you help a child recover from being abused by the laws of physics? Charles was crying and calling for help a few minutes ago because his Lego cargo won’t fit in the back of his pickup truck. I tried to help but he pushed me away and then collapsed to the floor in despair. Now he’s stuck on the floor because he’s become psychologically crippled, a state that can last for quite a while. He retains only enough mobility to crawl across the floor to the nearest firetruck.
Alice continues to pratice her rolling talents. This is a picture of her on her pad after she’s rotated herself to a tummy down position.
Mom is started puting Alice in her crib on Saturday, although she generally doesn’t last more than a few hours before she ends up in our room. Based on the boys, we probably have another three years or so before she regularly sleeps on her own.
As you can see from the picture, she’s also finally big enough to wear her tie die outfit. No pants for Alice because not only has it gotten warm here but Alice is a very hot baby, carrying on the in the tradition of Mom’s kids. Each one has run ever hotter. Alice does, however, have cold feet (I know where she gets that from) so frequently we’ll put booties on her. It’s very stylish.
Our boys have been exploring gravity lately.
Charles has discovered that his parents thinks it’s cute when he falls off his tricycle. He’ll do it over and over. It’s tell when you can see him look over the side carefully for anything on the ground before he “falls” over on his side. Afterwards of course he announces “I fall down!”.
Corwin uses a more advanced technique. He was out on his bike Saturday when he took a bad spill. He came in screaming at the top of his lungs - I thought he’d done something serious. It turns out that he just scraped up both his elbows. They were hardly even bleeding and only about a half square inch on each side. He also banged up his lip a bit but it wasn’t bleeding. I slapped some bandaids on him and suggested perhaps wearing his elbow pads. I wondered about how much they actually hurt when, in the midst of an absolutely blood curdling scream he stopped, rolled up his pant leg, and in a completely normal tone of voice said “my knee is OK” before going back to screaming.
Corwin had mostly forgotten about the injuries by Sunday, or at least I didn’t hear anymore about them, which is a win for my bedside manner.
Alice managed to roll over yesterday. I had her on her pad in the media area. She started by rolling most of the way over while working her way around the edge of the pad. Eventually, though, she got enough momentum up that she flipped right over. She also managed to wiggle right out of her diaper. I was sitting over at the table when suddenly I noticed a bare bottom wiggling on the pad. Neither of these (naked nor butt) was expected. But I lept in to action and got them both fixed before Mom caught on.
Instead, Mom was surpised by Alice herself when she rolled herself right off the bed while Mom was distracted. Alice was quite upset but she quieted down relatively quickly so she wasn’t really hurt.
UPDATE: Alice went to the doctor today. She got some shots, which she didn’t much appreciate. In other news Alice is now 12 pounds, 8 oz and 25 inches long. Alice demonstrated her new rotational talents for the doctor. Alice was declared to be in good health and beating that weight problem.
We’re starting a new phase of the Charles potty war. We’ve decided to restrict car purchases for Charles. Instead of getting a car every time he goes to WalMart, we’re giving him a sticker for every potty use and then a car for every five stickers. Charles was excited about getting a sticker yesterday morning for using the potty. However, Charles seemed to be more resigned to not getting a car than putting stickers on his card.
This is consistent with other behaviour on the part of Charles. Because he poops so often (4-5 times a day) and doesn’t mind a dirty diaper he frequently gets a bit of diaper rash. This makes a diaper change an unpleasant experience (which I don’t try to mitigate, as it is a policy goal to discourage the use of diapers). When Charles objects to getting cleaned up, I point out that this wouldn’t be necessary if he used the potty. This doesn’t make him want to use the potty but it does quiet him down. I can only suppose that he’s made the decision to endure the diaper rash rather than use the potty.
What’s bizarre is that Charles doesn’t dislike the potty itself, only using it. If he doesn’t have to go he’s fine with sitting on the potty, sometimes for extended periods. It is only the actual use of the potty to which he objects.
Charles does have a reasonable amount of control over his bowels. He never poops at daycare. He poops before and after but never there, which can only mean that he’s got enough control to avoid that situation. The upside of that is that it means we have to supply a lot fewer diapers to daycare.
Alice can now almost roll over, even when she’s not in a fury. She gets stuck on her arm, which is a common problem for babies. Soon, though, it will no longer be safe to leave her somewhere and assume that she’ll stay there unless restrained.
We got back the pictures for Charles and he actually smiled. Two years ago he looked like he was being tortured and last year he was so upset that they didn’t take pictures at all. But this year the pictures are actually good! Be sure to ask Mom for one next time you see her.
Corwin had reasonable pictures, but we didn’t realize that morning that it was picture day so he has an orange shirt with red pants on. Oh well.
It rained heavily yesterday afternoon. Charles was playing outside so we brought him in when the rain started. However, he kept trying to go out in to the garage which we didn’t allow because we thought he wanted to go through there to outside. However, it seems that what he really wanted was a small umbrella that was in the car in the garage (I had taken it away from him and Corwin when they wanted to use it as a toy in the car on a trip).
I got the umbrella and sent Charles out in to the rainstorm. Charles thought it was great. He was out there about 20 minutes. He used the umbrella but still managed to get fairly wet. He needed a bath anyway so this wasn’t a problem. Charles favorite spot was under a failing gutter which provided aperiodic washes of rainwater. Amazingly, the umbrella survived without damage.
Mom finally made it home today. Her final flight was a little delayed but she made it home without major incident. I popped home from work, waited for Corwin and as soon as he arrived (before he even made it in the house) I loaded him up for the trip to the airport. Alice was a bit cranky but Mom said that Alice had been mostly good during the trip. Mom had a few minutes of conversation before we dumped him on Jacob’s family for an outing. Mom dropped me off at work and went home with Charles and Alice for some decompression. She seemed somewhat chipper, actually, probably because she’s no longer facing an interminable set of meetings in a distant city.
One of the activities Corwin found fun was playing badminton out in the driveway. While Corwin did this, Charles decided that gathering up leaves and throwing them at Dad was his new fun activity.
At first Charles would just toss the leaves from a short distance. But I started dodging which meant he frequently missed getting the leaves on me. As a result, he would strive for direct physical contact before releasing the leaf payload. I next started hiding. It turns out that Charles doesn’t seek very well. He usually found me because one of the cousins ratted me out or he would turn big, sad eyes at Mom who would turn me in. Sometimes I would hide behind trees that were only about 6” wide but Charles still tended to not spot me. However, he did learn so that when he didn’t see me immediately he would start going to each hiding place I had used in sequence.
I tried to escape by just leaving the area but Charles would get sad, run up, grab my hand and pull me back so he could throw more leaves on me.
At the cookout last night, there was a swing set whose base was filled with … leaves! Charles threw some at me, a bunch at Chloe (who threw leaves back), at the dog (I made him stop doing that which made him very sad) and finally one of the swing seats. It’s good to see him interacting with nature but perhaps not quite so enthusiastically.
Because Corwin was out of town last weekend, he missed his pack graduation ceremony. Instead, den mother D.M. had a cookout in place of the normal den meeting and graduated Corwin there. So Corwin is now officially a Wolf Scout, having completed the Tiger Cub achievements and aged the correct amount over the last year.
Mom is coming home today and she called this morning to confirm plans. Due to the fact that our wireless phones stopped working while we were gone and my cell phone was destroyed during the Charles Incident contact with Mom is somewhat sporadic. As a result, only important information is transmitted during our connection windows. While I was talking to Mom Corwin piped up that I should be sure to tell Mom that he was a Wolf Scout now.
P.S. Chloe, D.M.’s daughter, was able to get Charles to play with her. Sadly, I forgot to bring a camera so I didn’t capture the moment of Charles actually interacting with someone who isn’t kin.
Corwin has a strong dislike for spicy foods but Charles is more tolerant. I remember Charles eating some wasabi flavored chips when he was just two. While it’s nice that Charles has a wider food preference, it can be a problem. On the trip down, we stopped for lunch in the airport and got a couple of personal pizzas. Corwin’s, of course, was plain cheese but I got a pepperoni one. Charles got a blueberry muffin because he doesn’t handle . Charles clearly regarded this as inadequate because he proceeded to steal the pepperonis from my pizza. He didn’t get all of them because I was eating the pizza at the time, but he got most of them. He’s a quick little boy.
As for the muffin, I need to learn to stop buying those for Charles. It’s not clear he actually eats any of it as opposed to crumbling it just for fun. Unfortunately, a muffin type thing is frequently the only plausible choice due to various constraints. So we leave a trail of muffin crumb encrusted tables, chairs and floors in our wake as we travel.
Another long day of travel. Last night was exhausting, getting everything ready for the morning. However, we got on the road on schedule and made our flights without much problem. Charles was much better about getting on the planes this time. I think it was because we were going home. I don’t think this vacation did much for Charles - he expressed a desire to go home several times, starting in the first airport. But today we were in fact going home and he was much better. He only melted down a couple of times, The first time was when I let Corwin have the window seat on the second leg (Corwin broke down in to tears on the first leg because Charles got the window seat, but at least he didn’t scream and refuse to get buckled in). He had some issues on ride home in the van because something went wrong with his trucks. I never did quite figure out what. We stopped at a rest stop for Corwin and Charles insisted on following him in and after we got back and re-assembled, everything was fine.
So now we’re once more ensconced in our home base, vegetating until we get back to the grind tomorrow. Till then, I have to change Charles’ poopy diaper.
After the morning adventure on Sunday, we went to watch Bryson play in his baseball tournament. The first game was close but the second was a blow out that was called because Bryson’s team was too far ahead.
After the games we headed back to Mimi’s and the creek. Mom and Alice stayed behind, along with Charles who declined to accompany the expidition. It might be that he had had too much immersion already, although he complained about his leg hurting (both he and Corwin have some serious scrapes on their legs, although no lengths of dangling flesh). It as a bit late in the day but it was still warm and humid which made it not unpleasant. It was definitely more fun with some extra people along. Uncle Craig and I eventually started the evacuation because the sun was setting and it was starting to get a bit dark.
On our return, the womenfolk had foraged for some Texas barbeque which was quite good. After feasting, we saw the cousins off and started on our frantic packing efforts. I thought it would be easier on the way back but Mom’s shopping created a space problem which luckily Dad’s superior spatial visualization skills solved (plus just a little bit of shoving & squeezing…)
Normally I try to be flippant but as a father, it’s my duty to embarass my boys. Corwin was a very good boy during Charles’ little adventure this morning. He reacted immediately to Charles falling in and came over to help. As noted, he helped me to get Charles back up on shore and stable. Once Charles was up and away from the bank, Corwin said to me “you stay here - I’ll get Mom”. Of course, I was neck deep in water at the time but still it was a good thought. He managed to retrieve Mom without getting lost, which was very helpful (Mom heard us yelling but because of bad echoes didn’t think it was us). Corwin was quite level headed during the entire event, which was much appreciated by Dad.
While we were drying out I tried to tell Mimi about Corwin being so good but he gave me a scowling “why are you embarassing me?” look so I stopped. It would be nice to be able to praise Corwin as easily as I admonish him, but he seems to find the latter more irritating than the former. Maybe I should say nice things about bad stuff he does…
It’s been a rather destructive trip so far.
This morning we got up late again. We debated going down to the creek but Bryson, the poopers’ cousin, is in a baseball tournament this weekend (it was supposed to be last weekend but it got rained out). The game is at a bad time, so we didn’t really have time for a good outing at the river because we don’t want to go before it gets warm. Instead Mom suggested we go down to a park on along the river. That makes everything her fault, in my view.
We parked near the park and walked down. It’s situated farther down the same creek as Mimi’s house, but it’s a river by that point. There were a couple of small dams (4 foot and 2 foot) along the river, creating a large pond. We hiked over to a table next to the pond. Corwin wanted to learn how to skip rocks so I started instructing him in the art. Mom and Alice wandered off further along the park.
Charles decided to play right by the edge of the pond and ended up tumbling in, over a foot high embankment. Charles can’t swim so this was a bit of a problem. I ran over but I couldn’t quite grab him from above. He didn’t look like he was sinking so I assumed that was because the water wasn’t too deep so I hopped in. Well, the water was about 6 foot deep off the embankment. I sank in up to my neck while trying to hold up Charles and thinking about all of the electronic equipment I keep in my vest. Because the water was so deep it was hard to get Charles up on shore. Eventually I found a root running along the edge with my foot which gave me enough purchase to hurl Charles most of the way up over the embankment. Corwin helped pull him the rest of the way. Without Charles I was able to easily shift down to a shallower place and get out myself.
Sadly, my vest turns out to be competely non-water resistant. I’ve got stuff drying off on the kitchen table now, but I’m not sure how much I will recover. At least I wasn’t carrying a camera at the time. I suppose I should have just leaned over the bank or taken off my vest (which would only have taken a second or two) but I just assumed water only a few feet deep. Sigh. Charles was upset about being all wet and muddy, although when he looked up, crying and saying “I fell in the pond!” I decided to not leave him there.
We trudged back to the car and drove back to Mimi’s house to get cleaned up. We’re heading off to the baseball game in just a bit, leaving the kitchen table covered with various things from the pockets of my vest. However, we did manage to save all of Charles’ cars and their attendant parts so it wasn’t a real disaster.
Today was creek day. Corwin has been looking forward to going down to the creek for months. He was disappointed that we didn’t go down yesterday, but I had promised that we’d make the trip today. Mom and Alice pleaded “delicate feminine sensibilities” to avoid the outing, but Mimi came along because, she said, she didn’t want me to be all alone when the rattle snakes attacked.
So the four of us set off. It’s a bit of a hike along some local roads, down a steep access road, along a mini-cliff, down some steps and there’s the creek. Charles didn’t like the walking much on the way there so I put him up on my shoulders. He definitely liked that. Mimi made me put him down once we started scrambling over the rocks near the cliff. As we edged along the cliff Charles dropped his car off the edge into the trickle at the bottom of the ravine. At least Charles didn’t hurl himself off the cliff after the car. Mimi actually convinced him to put the rest of his cars in a bag for safe keeping. I charged on ahead so I could backtrack up the ravine to get the car. It was actually quite pretty, with wide pool and tiny trickle down a moss covered fall.
We tramped down the river bank for a bit until I spotted a dam we’d built last year. It dams most of the creek with a small gap in the middle, which creates a very strong current in about 3 feet of water. Corwin let himself get sucked in a couple of times but he had a rock impact and decided not to do that anymore. Instead he’d try to jump on me as I went through so I would hit the rocks instead of him. He’s a clever boy, that one.
Charles mainly played on the edge of the creek, tossing in pebbles. He went out in the water a few times and I held him in the current for a bit, which he didn’t like the first time but thought was great fun subsequently. He didn’t like me floating through it because Mimi started yelling about how Dad was going to get swept away.
I decided to call it a day after a couple of hours because we had to get back for Ashlyn’s soccer game. Charles needed to be carried back to the sloping access way, but he walked from there all the way back to the house, which was a long, hard trip for a little boy like him. I was very proud of him.
P.S. For those with more patience, here’s a larger picture of Corwin in the creek.
Alice attended her (hopefully) last Cisco summit last week. She was a pretty good trooper through 3 of the 4 days. She’d sleep through most of the morning, and then be content to be bounced or wiggle on the ground.
By the last day she had had enough. I spent most of my time hovering by the door for 5 or 10 minutes and then darting away as Alice worked herself up for a good scream. Fortunately most of the other summit participants felt like that the last day, so it ended early.
Alice and I are heading for more meetings in San Jose Monday. But they have a corporate daycare site, so Alice will be spared those meetings. If only I had a similar excuse.
As we were leaving yesterday to go to the cousins’ house, Corwin managed to slam the front door so hard that a rectangular chunk of glass in the door popped out and shattered on the floor. I didn’t hear the door slam, but I did hear the glass drop, so I’m not sure how hard he really slammed it. On the other hand, he’s a pretty strong boy and glass shattering is easy to hear. Mom also confessed that she had replaced the original thin glass with ¼ inch glass and had only two brads holding it in. I suspected as much because our dear little Corwin would never be so unaware of his surroundings as to cause that kind of accident.
Mimi ended up staying behind to clean up the mess, the glass having shattered on impact. She ended up tacking a piece of formica in place of the glass and talks of getting new glass with something sandblasted in to it. I figured about 4-5 years of Corwin’s allowance would pay for it, but Mimi decided to not demand financial compensation. That’s for the best, because mailing down the check every week would have been a pain.
We took it a little easier today. We got up late, except for Corwin who got up early to bug Mimi. Uncle Bruce arrived about 9 and Corwin made him go out to the drive way and play badminton without a net for while, until Mimi, Bruce and I had to go run an errand for Mimi to take care of some bank things left over from Gramp’s passing away. Mom was left with all three poopers but she seems to have survived. After that Mom and I took Alice and Charles out for some coffee (“mmmm…coffee…” said Mom). Mom did a bit of shopping and then we went back to rescue Mimi from Corwin.
Later that afternoon Corwin found a water ball game, which consists of a bat and a base that flings up plastic balls on jets of water. Corwin quite enjoyed it for a bit and then Charles came out to see what was going on. It turned out very well, Charles considered fetching the balls for Corwin to be great fun. The first picture is Corwin trying to hit the ball (which has gone up out of the top of the frame) while Charles watches with great excitement. Charles was giggling and squealing with excitement most of the time, until he got too cold and had to come in.
In the evening we went over to have supper with Uncle Craig, Aunt Linda and the three cousins Ashlyn, Bryson and Dawson. We had planned to go to the park but the kids preferred to play in the house. They played kickball in the living room for a while without breaking anything, which was quite amazing. I noticed that the cousins didn’t mind Charles’ eating, although Corwin ate with a hand over one ear. My favorite bit of the evening was a short conversation between Uncle Craig and Ashlyn when Ashlyn started playing on the computer.
Uncle Craig: “You can play that anytime.” [translation - turn it off and play with your cousins]
Ashlyn: [continuing to play] “Right now is anytime”
Uncle Craig did not find this nearly as amusing as I did.
I’ve got a couple of short video clips as well. First we see Charles reloading the launcher. The other clips shows Corwin swinging at the ball and making a hit. At the very end you can see Charles start to take off after the ball. Note how the second ball floats in the water stream.
Our day of travel started out well. The boys woke up and got ready ahead of schedule. Corwin ended up sitting impatiently in the van while Dad obsessively double checked that he had everything (and even so, had Corwin pop in the back and verify all the bags were there about half way to the airport).
We had a two hour drive to the airport, got checked in and headed for the gate. On the way Corwin insisted on picking up a bag of gummi worms. This percipitated the first of many of Charles’ melt downs. This time it was because Charles didn’t get a bag of gummie worms. I tried to explain that there were plenty of worms to share but this failed to mollify him. I tried walking off to see if Charles would follow, but he preferred to just get more distraught until I had to carry him away. After that, Charles only melted down when
But other than that, Charles was fine. The melt downs about getting on the plane were very unexpected - normally it’s hard to convince Charles that he can’t get on the plane, but apparently since the last few times he’s been to the airport he didn’t get to go, he now considers that the normal order of things.
Corwin was for once the better behaved boy, not complaining at all about carting his luggage around. He did tend to get a bit too far ahead of me at times. In the last airport, the lady who had been sitting behind him walked by, noticed he was looking very distraught and pointed me out behind him. Corwin claims that he wasn’t lost and knew where I was.
We finally arrived at my parent’s house, exhausted (except for Corwin), hung out for a while and went to sleep.
Everything eventually ends, including a day of travel with the boys. Corwin was actually not too bad (although he did have a tendency to wander off). Charles was the Melt Down Kid, collapsing in tears at least six different times, including security and boarding both planes. Everyone except Corwin is completely worn out. As soon as I finish this it’s time for bed. I’ll write more tomorrow if I wake up.
This trip is going to be harder than normal for me, because I have to pack for the boys. Normally Mom does that because I
These two facts are not, of course, unrelated.
For this trip, I started the packing process yesterday morning. I made Corwin do most of his own packing, although I tried to double check what he had (hmmm…maybe he forgot to pack something, I’d better check again — hold on a sec…). I packed for Charles, who doesn’t need underwear yet, just shirts, socks and shorts. As of now, I’ve got all the clothes packed and the electronics gathered (like my GPS, cell phone charger, cameras, extra mouse, etc.). I just have to get the toiletries together in the morning. We don’t need to be on the road until 8AM, so we shouldn’t be too rushed. Corwin is used to getting ready by then and Charles I can just stuff in the van. Hopefully I won’t be up too late packing tonight, although I know I’ve forgotten something major because I’ve only filled (not overstuffed) my large rolling luggage and Corwin’s (small) rolling luggage is only about two thirds full. Sigh. I’m sure I’ll remember after we’re on the road for an hour or so.
In the first picture we see Charles’ effort this morning to bring some order to the chaos of the house. When he came down, all of these cars where in a bucket (which he had been proudly carrying around yesterday). Now, everything is in its place. Charles used this set up later to pick the one car he is allowed to take to visit his little friends.
The next picture is a sadly missed photo opportunity. Charles started playing with the empty box and at one point decided that just sitting in it was cool. Corwin decided that if it was fun for Charles, it would be fun for him as well. I managed to snap a picture of Corwin getting out but I missed (because I misoperated the camera) the shot of the two of them, sitting together in the box, ready for delivery.
Corwin has also been saying “Cinco de Mayo” for the last couple of days, which I thought I’d mention since it is Cinco de Mayo today. Corwin tried to claim that I was “de Mayo”, but I told him that he was “de Mayo”, having been born in May.Charles seems to still have his ability to move matter to and from alternate dimensions. I had some papers about Cub Scout summer camp for Corwin which disappeared. I looked all over for them but couldn’t find them. I was getting desperate. I wanted to call the den mother but of course her phone number was on the missing papers. Luckily she called me this morning about scout stuff, so I was able to get most of the information I needed. As soon as I finished the conversation and walked over to check on Charles, there were the papers, laying in the middle of the floor in front of the TV. I can only presume that Charles shifted them out of our reality and once Dad had to embarass himself by admitting that they had been lost, Charles brought them back to our reality. I simply can’t think of any other plausible explanation.
Apparently Corwin thinks that Mom is a good cook. After soccer practice yesterday, I offered to take the boys out to KFC. Normally Corwin is a big fan of going out to eat, but he declined the offer and stated that he wanted to eat at home and have some of the chicken Mom had cooked before she left. True to his word, Corwin was willing to eat the chicken for dinner. Charles initially refused the chicken and had peanut butter toast instead, but after he finished it he helped himself to the last chicken leg. At least I just had to reheat it instead of cooking, because even the pre-packaged macaroni&cheese I made Sunday night is a bit of a challenge for me.
Despite Mom being gone, I managed to get the boys dressed and fed in time for them to go off. We got a good night’s sleep because of Charles. I had put on a DVD for him and popped down in the basement to hang with Corwin for a bit. Shortly thereafter I heard Charles crying upstairs to I went up to see what was wrong. Charles was upset because it was time to go to bed and Corwin and I weren’t heading upstairs. That crisis, at least, was easily solved…
I also learned a new technique for getting Charles to come up for a diaper change. Ordinarily this can be a long process, because Charles wants to drive his cars up the stairs. He can get very upset if picked up and moved to the changing room. This is a problem because changing a poopy boy who’s also crying, screaming and struggling to get his cars back on track is somewhat difficult. What I did this morning is pick up Charles but kind of lean him over near the edge of the stairs so that he could run the cars there as I hauled him up. This worked quite well. I’m not sure if my back is up to doing it on a regular basis, however.
I was unable to help Charles with one of his other problems, however, which is that objects that are larger than an open space will not fit in that space. This little “gotcha” in the laws of physics really bugs Charles, but sadly I’m inadequate to the task of changing it. Maybe I’ll write my Congressman.
Mom and Alice left us early this afternoon. Corwin had spent the morning asking Mom when she was leaving and complaning that Mom wanted to spend time with him instead of letting him watch TV and play computer games. Mom is going to Texas for a business trip. The rest of us will be going on Thursday to visit my family. Corwin and Charles were a bit disappointed that we weren’t leaving today, but Dad needs to work and we don’t want Corwin to miss too many days of school.
Corwin had great fun after we got rid of Mom. First he noticed that we’d gotten rid of all the girls and it was now only boys at home. Next I popped out Alice’s car seat and let Corwin sit in one of the middle seats on the van. He really liked that. Even better, because it was warm in the van I opened the middle windows. This really thrilled Corwin. And Mom thought I wanted those windows just for me!
We also went shopping afterwards and I got Corwin his own rolling luggage bag. Corwin’s primary utility criterion was whether the bag was red. I tried to get a small bag for Charles, but he told me that all of the selections were too big. Even a small fanny pack was described as “too big”. At that size, though, I’d be lucky to get a single set of clothes in so I gave up. I will just hope that Charles doesn’t decide that Charles is too much to carry through the airport.
Yesterday was Corwin’s last soccer game of the spring season. His team has one more game next Saturday but Corwin will be in Texas.
I was surprised that they even had this game. It was 50°F out, with gusting winds and light rain. Not the most pleasant time for a soccer game. However, both Corwin’s and the other team had a full set of players (the other team was short one until right as the game started). Corwin’s team actually had some extra players. For team that doesn’t win that often it’s got some hardcore players and families. It was a lot easier to park, though, as we seemed to be the only game actually being played (the other teams at that time being smarter than us).
Corwin played in various positions. While he was goalie he made a quite spectacular save, jumping up to block an open kick and then diving on the ball. Corwin also demonstrated his ability to kick. Rather than throwing the ball out as goalie he was kicking it. This seemed like a good strategy because Corwin could reliable put the ball across the midline in a single kick. Corwin got some other good kicks in at other positions as well - it’s no wonder they call him Metal Foot. Corwin was also willing to shout instructions at the rest of the team while he was on the sideline, useful things like “make the shot! score a goal!”.
Presumably because of Corwin’s spectacular contributions, the team actually won the game. I thought it was tied 2-2 but one of the goals I saw wasn’t a real goal. One of them was against Corwin so I’m not sure if he was really scored against. Right after his big save there was a scrum around the goal with lots of kicking and confusion. Corwin tried to jump on the ball but it was kicked away from him and edged in to the goal. I suspect that goal was discounted because it was kicked in from too close to the goal, but I’m not sure. However, in a few weeks no one will remember and this weblog will be the only record of the event, so I’ll just come back and edit it to make Corwin the star player of the game! It’s as they say, history writers turn out to be the winners…
Charles and Alice both have an irritating eating habit. This is the view fingers are an important part of eating food.
Alice tends to put just one finger in her mouth when she’s trying to feed. This of course makes her sucking efforts very ineffective. Mom sometimes has to hold her hand back in order to get her started. I think Corwin used to do that as well. Why she does it is a mystery, but it’s not an accident. It may just be that she’s gotten used to sucking her digits when she’s hungry and waiting for Mom to show up and keeps doing it even when there’s food available.
Charles style is to stuff as much food as physically possible in to his mouth and then uses his fingers to help hold it in. If Mom or I try to get him to stop using his fingers, we are rewarded with a tumble of chewed food. On the other hand, we know why he does it…
Charles is now capable of working with standard sized Legos. What he has used his new found motor skills for is to build things that he can destroy. What’s cute is that he announces these cylces of creation and destruction. He will hold up an object and announce “I make this” and then he’ll smash it to bits with the claim “I broke it!”. If he puts it back together he says “I fix it!”.
Charles has extended this to other objects. For his toy semi-trailers he “fixes” and “breaks” them when he puts the trailer on and off.
In other places on the language front, Charles is learning ever more machinery related words. He’s latched on to “back-hoe” to describe his back-hoe toy. His most endearing verbal tick is to add a long ‘e’ sound to verbs - ‘Daddy fixie the truck!’.