Last Sunday Mom’s friend Laura came over to take some more family picture. I am not so fond of that, as it’s much harder to avoid being in the picture when that happens. Oh well, just one of the many sacrifices that a loving and dedicated Dad is willing to make.
Yesterday we had Laura’s younger older son Ethan over for a visit. Although Mom and Laura are the same age, Ethan is college. We will be taking an extended business trip in the near future and we were checking him out as a temporary nanny for the boys (Grandma will get stuck with Princess Grumpy Pants — she’s a full time task all by herself. Alice, that is. Grandma’s not that hard to take care of). Ethan agreed to endure the boys for a few days. We’ll see what he looks like afterwards.
Today was an “exhibition” game against another team. There wasn’t a scheduled game for today so the coach found someone else to play against. Like the local university team starting a season it was supposed to be an easy match against 4th graders. Instead, it was a rather hard fought game.
Corwin’s team seemed a bit off to me, especially in the first quarter. They are missing several of their better players from last year due to families moving, players getting too old, and the transition to middle school. Most of the ones remaining just didn’t seem very on, although Keith did well and Colin in particular was better than normal. Corwin was average Corwin, getting in some good saves and kicks but not hustling as much as he could (he missed a couple of stops he would have had if he’d just been willing to move before it was obviously necessary).
Still, by the second quarter the team was definitely improving. They managed to pull ahead 2-0 on a good goal play and a free kick, both right over the opposing goalie’s arms. The other team came back with a score late in the third quarter. That the last score leaving the team with a win of 2-1. I thought the other team played a good game. Corwin’s team did OK, but definitely needs to tighten up their playing. But I suppose that’s the point of a pre-season game.
There was a controversial save by the other team, and one of Corwin’s team mates got a yellow card, the first I have seen in a game. Click the text to see mind numbing details about the former.
We went out for Chinese buffet for dinner and Corwin picked up a boiled crawfish. After we sat down, he inquired about how to actually eat it. Neither Mom nor I had any idea, as neither of us had ever had one. Corwin refused to proceed after Mom talked about how he was supposed to suck the green gooey brains out. I took it and extracted the tail meat, because that’s what you eat on a lobster, then forced Corwin to eat that. He tried just nibbling at it but either I intimidated him enough or it wasn’t so bad and he choked it down. He admitted that it wasn’t terrible, although he didn’t get any more of them.
Speaking of recycling, we need a picture here and I have been so busy the last couple of weeks that I don’t have a good stock, so I’ll recycle this from our recent trip to Chicago. This is a big white sphere along with four cameras that project imagery on it. It appears to spin but that’s really just the projected display updating. The cool part is that it can be changed to show all sorts of global data, like the last month’s worth of satellite images so you can see weather sweeping around the planet. I want one!
I think that instead of viewing our childrens’ inability to remember to flush the toilet after going pee, I’ll think of it as a function of their environmental sensitivity with regard to water use.
Now the boys are back in school. Corwin now has to go to a bus stop that is not within sight of our house. It’s actually all the way down near the entrance to the subdivision. This means, among other things, that he can’t wait until he hears the bus turning the corner before running out to catch it. He has to actually keep to a schedule. I suspect it will be rough for the first couple of years but hopefully he’ll get the hang of it before he’s in High School. Mom is planning on offering him the alternative of biking to school, which is more work but also more flexibility in scheduling. As for Corwin’s first day of middle school? “It wasn’t so bad. Lunch was good.”
Charles seems OK with school, his first day being “good”. I haven’t met his new teacher yet, although I think Mom has. Charles claims to have spoken with the teacher but I think I will hold off on confirmation until we have a parent / teacher conference.
I think Alice is adjusting reasonably well to going back to school full time. On Sunday we mentioned her return at dinner and she denied any intention of submitting to such incarceration. Monday morning, though, she seemed fine. This morning she was a bit more reluctant, being “very tired — too tired to go to school!”. Alice, however, was not as tired as Mom was dedicated to keeping to the schedule.
Alice just before she knocked over the tower. I told her she could do it if I could take a picture, but she didn’t wait — she took it out immediately after I took this picture.
Charles started soccer practice today, even though he said during the summer “I don’t want to play soccer!”. Mom clarified his opinion on that.
Corwin returned to us today. He survived his expedition although he lost the money we sent with him very shortly after getting to the amusement park. Mom suggested using a wallet, and I noted that it is quite possible to put money in one’s pockets in such a manner as to prevent it from falling out while riding on amusement park rides. Having seen Corwin emplace his money, I doubted he had availed himself of such a technique.
Contrary to Mom’s concerns, Corwin rode many of the roller coasters, avoid only a couple of the big vertical drop style ones. He said they were at the gates at 10 AM, opening time, and left just as the park was starting to shut down, achieving an effectively maximal exposure. One of the adults along told me that even the kids had had enough by then. Even more amazing, the kids were all rousted at 6:45 AM the next morning to make it back home by noon. Corwin, naturally, had neglected to mention his expected return time so he had to call me to come get him. Luckily it’s only a 5 minute drive there, so things were still being unloaded by the time I arrived. I should have driven more slowly.
Because it’s hectic in our work related world, Mom decided that her project for today was re-arranging the boyen den. I had, foolishly, made a chance remark on how to better utilize the space in the room. The result was Mom moving out most of the furniture, and taking all of the shelves and other attachments off the wall, then moving everything back. I think the room does look a bit better — there’s now a small nook next to the bed just wide enough for small chair and a reading lamp. Charles said it was “OK”.
As long as Mom was paying attention, I said that we could look at not having the reading nook, but putting a small mattress in there for Alice and turning her room in to a library / clothes storage area. Charles thought that was fine, as his clothes are in the closet so it would be Corwin’s that would be moved out. Alice thought it was a wonderful idea. It was so tempting to set it up just to mess with Corwin’s mind when he got back, but I didn’t think I could handle the aftermath of Alice discovering we were just kidding.
Corwin went off this evening to do some camping with the Boy Scouts, which also involves spending all day tomorrow at Six Flags. The camping is apparently just a way to be first in line on Saturday. I thought about going, but things have turned extremely hectic here and I just couldn’t get away for an entire weekend. Maybe next year.
I forgot to mention yesterday that Mom was out late, partying with a bunch of wild women, wild like they’d been stuck with kids for years and finally had a taste of freedom. Yeah, that kind of wild. They went to see Mama Mia and I thought that was the big activity, but Mom didn’t show up back at home till near midnight. She’s refused to discuss anything that went on.
Our friend Noa came to visit us today, along with her parents. They were in town from California visiting family. Noa and Alice were a little shy around each other at first, but they warmed up until the inevitable screaming fits because they both wanted to play with the baby Lego™ puppy. Despite that, they had a very good time together jumping on the sofa. I had to tell Noa that we had a special jumping sofa so she wasn’t as tempted to try it at home.
After too many little girl meltdowns, we went to the park to let them burn off some energy so they’d collapse instead of scream. That worked well, the girls and Charles had a lot of fun. We left grumpy Corwin home to guard the house. I expected to come back to a looted, burned out shell with Corwin the basement saying “but I didn’t hear anything!”. Luckily, the pillagers were elsewhere today.
Corwin went off for most of the day to middle school orientation. Mom had the privilege of accompanying him. Corwin said the experience was “good”, as expected. He’s not due back at school until next Wednesday. While school officially starts Monday, there are two “institute days” so we’re not rid of the kids don’t get to get schooled until Wednesday. Alice goes back on Monday, however, at a full time schedule (she’s had the last two weeks off because the day care shuts down then).
Today was Abby’s last day for being our summer nanny. She had some lame excuse about school starting or something, but I think she had had enough and was just being polite. I did tell Charles and Alice to be extra interactive during the day because they wouldn’t have a chance later on, although since Abby didn’t leave early I am not sure if they followed that advice.
Here’s Alice word stomping with the other girls. I’m recycling the trip because nothing else really happened today. Some last trip highlights —
Corwin got pooped on by a bird at Navy Pier. Yeah, but it was a big deal to him.
Alice was quite the Princess Grumpy-Pants most of the trip.
The kids now whine and sniffle when Mom says “let’s watch the Olympics!”.
Corwin started soccer practice today.
Virtual Corwin
I had thought we might just head back this morning, but Mom decided we should do something. Corwin had become obsessed with the coal mine exhibit for no apparent reason. Mom finally gave in and we headed back to the down town to hit the Museum. Mom took Alice off to the water play room while the men folk headed for the coal mine. We had a bit of a wait because the exhibit was short staffed but eventually we loaded up and headed in to the depths. One father had a under two year old child with him who freaked out as soon as the elevator door closed. Charles was stressing a bit but overcame his fears. Another boy about Charles’ age lost it for a bit, but eventually recovered. Corwin spent his time asking “is this going to be loud?”. Other than that, it was an interesting exhibit which I think the boys enjoyed. I found out that coal is Illinois’ second biggest industry, after corn.
I thought we were done, but Corwin decided that he needed to show an exhibit to Mom that we had found when we got lost on the way to the coal mine. This was the Net World exhibit. Mom and I were happy to earn about computers. Alice greatly enjoyed chasing words around that were projected on the floor. This was such fun that three other little girls who showed up shortly after we did started doing it as well. That’s our Alice, trend setter. But we couldn’t stop with just one thing, we ended up spending another couple of hours wandering through the rest of the connected exhibits until time had marched on far enough to put picking up Poly from her doggy vacation at risk.
After getting home and picking up Poly, we trudged in to the media room to watch Olympics.
P.S. For those wondering about the title of this post
What do you think? Perfect for Christmas cards?
Today we spent at the mall. We had a late start but managed to hit the one mall store Charles has been fantasizing about for a week or two — Legoland (because Josh and Jake went and tested it for us). It was a bit pricey to get in but we ended up staying there till early afternoon. We did a few of the tour things, and Corwin and I caught the “4-D” movie which was interesting. Most of the rest of the time was spent in the big construction room. It had a number of ramps where kids could try out wheeled vehicles. Corwin worked on one for a while but never quite got it right. I think they should have had more wheels, given the ramps, because kids were constantly scrounging for them. Charles built a few things, but wasn’t nearly as thrilled as he thought he would be. Alice had a lot of fun, doing a little bit of building but spending most of her time in a little playscape in that room. Charles said he wanted to leave a couple of times, but got distracted so he can’t have been having too terrible a time.
Until we got to the store. Everything Charles wanted was way too expensive, and he wouldn’t accept a compromise of a ½ pound of the Legos™ of his choice. Meanwhile, Alice got a pink foam sword and I think Corwin got something, so Charles declared the entire expedition a failure because “you wouldn’t let me get anything!”.
After that we went to lunch an upscale noodle shop, which I quite enjoyed. They had some very pricey but excellent ginger ale and noodles. Mom ordered some sort of curry thing which turned out to be spicy and bland. Moral: if you go to a noodle shop, order the noodles.
It was 3 or so before we were done with lunch, having gone way past lunch time at Legoland. It was therefore time for the actual mall. Naturally, we went to the Lego™ store there first. Charles got a kit, as did Corwin. The kit Alice wanted was not in stock, but they said if we paid for it they’d ship it to us at no charge. Then it was time for Mom to get stuff for Alice. We hit the Disney store to get Alice a Disney Princess jacket so she’d have a light jacket for fall that wasn’t handed down from her brothers. Then it was Hannah Anderson for cute fall dresses. For Alice! Mom thought about going to a Mommy clothing store, but the lure of IKEA1 was too much. We spent the rest of the day there, because naturally having had a late lunch and it being just late afternoon, we had to have food. Alice and Charles got to play in the play room but Corwin was forced to march with Mom. My generous offer to stay and make sure the little ones were OK was denied as well. We shopped for a good long while, although Mom didn’t get much stuff. Instead, Charles got “Big D”, a 3 foot long stuffed plush dolphin. This meant that Charles had along for vacation Big D, Sharky, Timmy, and “Cowy”, his mad cow disease bacteria. Mom had tried to prevent Charles from acquiring another plush cetacean by avoiding the aquarium but for once IKEA came through for me. Charles was so happy that he was willing (as the price for Big D) to say “Mom, I am glad we went to IKEA today”. And after all that, Mom ended up with just a few new bowls and a seat cushion.
To finish off the trip, we picked the cursed check out line. Only two groups ahead of us, but the first had some mysterious problem that involved long discussions with the check out guy. The next group had a credit card problem which took running multiple cards through along with trips to the car to fetch the cards to resolve. Everyone else got nice snacks while I waited in line. But, that’s the kind of stoic, uncomplaining Dad I am.
After that we trudged back to the hotel to watch Olympics.
1 IKEA being the real reason Mom planned the trip. Just like Legoland for Charles. Lucky for Charles that the Legoland Mall was just down the road from IKEA or he might have not had his dreams destroyed by the bitter reality of limited parental budgets.
Today we headed up to Chicago for a mini-vacation. Mom’s been bummed out that due to business constraints we didn’t manage to get away on any vacations this summer.She had wanted to do two mini-vacations, this weekend and the next, but Corwin put a stop to that with a Boy Scout activity next weekend, but for now we’re on the road again.
We spent the morning driving and then dropped by the Museum of Science and Industry. I had to leave Mom and the kids there to make a business meeting but I think they had fun while I was gone. Mom had several activities lined up, including a virtual tour of the Colorado River and glass making. Best of all, she let the kids get some stuff at the Museum store. Corwin got a trick paper airplane, and Charles and Alice got stuffed microbes, salmonella for Alice and mad cow disease for Charles. I wanted to buy some of those from one of my geek catalogs a while back, but Mom said noooooooo. I thought she considered them too geeky, but now I see that she just wanted to credit!
I didn’t make it back to the Museum so I met the gang at Navy Pier. We hung out there for a while. Mom persuaded the kids to try the ferris wheel, which Alice in particular was reluctant to do. We watched parts of an air show just to the north, and experienced some very close fly-bys from an F-22, F-15, and a P-51. At first I couldn’t figure out what the jet going by was, but eventually Mom realized that it was two different planes. Later, we saw all three flying together, representing the best of piston, jet, and stealth technology. Some of the passes were very close. I thought Alice would be frightened by the noise but she would dart out to try to catch a glimpse of the aircraft. Charles was kind of interested, but I guess real life planes are not his thing.
We also played a round of mini-golf at Corwin’s insistance. I crushed him like the insect he is, getting two holes in one and two others where the ball glanced off the edge. Alice helped by dancing around and singing “Daddy won! Daddy won!”. Charles even won one hole, beating both Corwin and me.
After that we trudged back to the hotel to watch Olympics.
P.S. Gosh there’s a lot of construction going on downtown. According to some flyer at Navy Pier, there’s a plan to put a 2000 foot tower on the south corner of the pier. That should be something.
Matt and Claire are back in town. Their family goes off to the East Coast for the summer somewhere, but with school looming it was time to return. They dropped by for a visit today, enticed by the tree platform. Claire zipped right up the ladder, but Matt is unsettled by swaying and so was daunted by the ladder. I sent Alice up as enticement but Matt decided to try the branches instead. That didn’t work because it’s even more swaying and difficult than the ladder. Eventually, though, he made it up. His mom and Mom had a bit of a challenge getting him back down later though.
Charles had his first cello lesson today. The cello teacher lives in our old neighborhood, in the house where one of Corwin’s early girlfriends lived. Apparently it went OK, although Mom has stated that after forking out for a cello, Charles is effectively an indentured student until the pain of payment fades sufficiently.
Corwin returned from the concert (they actually came back the same evening / early morning, but let Corwin sleep over). Through some cleverness, though, we got stuck with Josh and Jake for a while. They of course wanted to check out the tree platform and much fun was had.
The rest of the family made it back, having enjoyed themselves at Grandma’s and in Iowa. Mom bought a half sized cello for Charles. It’s a bit big, but we figure there’s a good chance he’ll grow in to it at some point. Mom didn’t manage to get a new violin for Corwin because there weren’t any in stock. The store was a bit off because they got flooded out during the summer and are still getting things back in shape from that.
Corwin wasn’t home long, though. Josh’s family took Corwin away this evening to see Weird Al Yankovich in concert at the state fair. I had considered going but as you may have noted from the slow updates here, I have been super busy this month. So I had to remain behind. Jack and his mom went as well, so there was quite the crew enjoying the musical experience.
The kids have been spending a lot of time with blocks, so I thought I’d prepare a small survey of some of their efforts. Click just below to see.
Mom took the kids away for a two day spree at Grandma’s and Iowa violin stores. She looking for a new violin for Corwin and possibly a cello for Charles. I get to stay home and work. Cool!
Yesterday we had pizza with Mom’s second cousin once removed and his family. Mom decided that we could do that at the pizza place that we normally get carry out. It moved in the last year or so such that although it’s a bit of a hike, we only have to cross one street at a stop light to get there. Therefore, Mom decided it was time for a family bike ride. She wanted Alice to go in the trailer but Alice insisted on riding her own bike. That wasn’t too bad on the way there, although Mom had to carry Alice’s bike on the trail from our street to the park. The boys and I left them behind to catch up to make sure we got a table and had someone at the restaurant at the appointed time.
We had a good time at dinner. We set the four boys over at one table, while the good people ate a different one. A key lesson learned is that we should sit the boys with siblings at opposite corners.
Leaving was a more interesting proposition. Despite having received an affirmative answer to a specific inquiry as to whether Mom had a key to the bike lock I used on my bike, it turned out that she didn’t. So we had to leave the bike there while I walked home with Alice on her bike. It was dark by then and Alice did not like biking home in the dark. She indicated that it made her scared multiple times. That stepped us once we turned off the main road in to the park, and the trail back from the park to the house was a tunnel of fright, the wall of sound of insects not contributing positively to Alice’s state of mind. But she overcame all of this (with just a hint of “oh, I guess I’ll leave you for the bears” from Dad) and managed to get break through back on to our street, safe at last.
But delivering Alice safe home was not the end, because my bike was cruelly exposed to the hoards of bike thieves who frequent our environs. Mom insisted that we go out with bolt cutters to retrieve it. Either my mentioning this possibility to the staff before leaving, or lack of concern, or just being lost in the crowd of bike thieves, saved us from any unfortunate interactions with local law enforcement in the ten or fifteen minutes it took to cut through the cable. One small silver lining is that we finally threw out the lock for which we had lost the keys over a decade ago.
Charles and Alice have been doing a lot of building with the blocks lately. Even Corwin has done some work (I’ll fill up tomorrow with a picture of one of his constructs). Charles and Alice even build together sometimes, if Charles is willing to build horse stables. This has been consuming multiple hours per day and has probably been the dominant activity for the last week. I think the extra box of Kapla worked out very well. It seems to have reached the tipping point of having enough for the kids to build until they’re tired, as opposed to running out frequently.
The Charles and Alice military camp with riding stables
Even Abby has been doing some building
Alice and Charles spent some time in the tree house yesterday while the rest of us worked. Both of them have no problem zipping up and down the ladder and hanging out up there by themselves. It’s the parents who have some problems with it. Although Alice and Charles seem to have a healthy respect for the edge, some railing will provide a modicum of reduction in parental ulcer formation.
Alice’s first time on high
Mom has temporarily set aside the tree house to work on other home improvements.
We gave away the playscape a few months back, leaving a big bare patch of dirt in the back yard. Mom decided it would make a nice fire pit, instead of using the dead end street. She made Corwin dig it out a bit last week. Today she made him try it out by building a fire in it. Even with a box of matches and a BBQ igniter (admittedly a poorly functioning one) Corwin didn’t manage to get the fire going. His problem was that he a lot of small twigs, some big logs, and green branches. I eventually got it going by getting a rocket motor I had messed up and setting the fuel on fire which produced a lot of very hot flame, along with positioning the big logs more appropriately. Naturally, while I was trying to feed the flames, I managed to grab a burning branch by the wrong end, so I was clutching a paper towel filled with ice in my hand for the rest of the work1.
Mom also decided to put an air conditioner in my office window, which had been sitting on my desk for a few weeks. We got the window out and Mom cut some plywood to block the rest of it (because it’s a swing window, not a sash window). It turned out to be very effective, even at a low setting.
Mom also got most of the deck re-sealed. It was a good weekend for her.
1 That’s a very effective technique. The burns didn’t hurt much while I had the ice, and afterwards hurt only for 10 minutes or so. No blisters either.
I have been so busy that I haven’t had time to get pictures ready leaving a lot of text without enough picture leavening, so here’s one of the few I have managed lately.
Today’s activity was a performance at the ballet studio. Now that Charles is doing acrobatics there, both he and Alice were on stage. Corwin got to be an appreciative audience member. The performance was much shorter and less formal than the big one back in the spring. Charles did well. Alice did well in one number, but on the other she got “stuck” staring at the audience instead of watching her teacher and just stood gazing wide eyed instead of dancing. I was surprised at that, since she’s normally such an attention pig. Maybe having all those people looking at her was too much of a rush for her to focus.
As I write these updates, Alice is busy in the other room delivering singing pictures to Mom. Alice’s pictures don’t just come with a story, but a song!
Alice built this one all by herself. She was very proud about putting seats / benches in the bottom for people to sit on.
Corwin and Charles built artillery towers one day. This was Corwin’s version.
Charles’ artillery tower, with Alice for scale. Note the tilted blocks representing the artillery.
Here’s a close up where you can see the artillery. What’s most amazing to me is the blue “people” on top, which Charles managed to get all upright without knocking them or the tower over. The red people below were put in and then the tower built over them, not placed after the tower was finished.