38 Weeks 6 Days and Other Minutiae

Well, we are almost there. Things are moving along with the pregnancy. Mary is doing well under the circumstances. Her nest is just about ready. Now if I can just get her to stop moving the furniture. I try to tell her that she should let me move the furniture at this point in the pregnancy. She doesn't listen.

What are the other updates? Check them out:

• If you ask Grace what I do for a living, she will say that I am a "statitician". It is a cross between a statistician and a beautician. It is my job to make numbers look beautiful.
• The latest incentive in our house for good behavior is a trip to Bertucci's. Caleb calls it Fertucci's.
• The baby's room is all set up. We finished moving the last few things on Tuesday morning while Grace was at school and I was home with Caleb. (Mary had a doctor appointment.) Mary showed Grace the room and asked her what she thought. Grace said, "I really like the set up of the room. But these boxes on the floor, they really need to go. We need to find a new spot for them." Oooookkkkaaayyyy, whatever you say, Grace.
• Caleb looked up at me in church and said, "Dad someday I'm going to take you to Funkytown." He had us and the woman in the pew in front of us laughing. What is it with Caleb and Funkytown?

I think that is it. Looks like we will have a baby sometime in February. We are excited.

A Day of Rest

Disclaimer: Due to the graphic nature of this blog post, reader discretion is advised. If you have a weak constitution or do not have children, you may not want to read this post.

Sundays are supposed to be a chance to rest from the day to day and focus on more important things. Let us regale you with a tale of our most recent Sunday...

Church starts for us at 8:30 AM. We got up early and I did a quick shovel of our walks. There was not even 1/4" on the ground, so I figured that I could get up to the church and quickly shovel if no one had done it yet. At 8:00 AM the phone rang. A local church leader wanted me up there shoveling. We rushed out the door, but it was done before we got there. The day was not off on the right foot.

Church went well. The young men spoke and a number of the talks were excellent. Classes went really well and church was a success. I had a meeting after church. I said goodbye to Mary and the children and was at the church for another hour.

When I got home, we had our home teachers visit. Caleb listened for the first half and then ran around the second half. I put him down for a nap and then helped Mary get the turkey in the oven. We had invited two families over and were cooking a big dinner.

Then I left for a home teaching visit. I got home an hour before the dinner guests were going to arrive. All of the food was getting prepared and we were on track. Caleb was a little slow to get up, but that is not unusual. Mary asked me to make two boxes of Ghirardelli Double Chocolate brownies. (Does that make them Quadruple Chocolate brownies?)

There were 20 minutes until our guests arrived and Caleb said his stomach hurt. So I went to check on him. Nothing in particular was wrong, so I went back to work. I cracked the eggs into the mix and Caleb was complaining again. I couldn't do anything for him, so I asked Mary to talk to him quickly. Caleb threw up on his bed and the floor before Mary got into the room. 15 minutes before our guests arrived. I put on the first load of laundry.

I threw him into the shower and cleaned up. Mary called our guests. One family cancelled, one family came. I went between the brownie making and the shower. In the shower Caleb threw up again. I was supposed to clear the drains on Saturday with cleaner and I had not done it. Now there is vomit in the drain and all over the shower and Caleb is shivering on the toilet sick. I got him warm and scooped the vomit out of the shower. As all of this is going on, dinner is starting in the other room. Caleb settled into our bed about thirty minutes after the guests arrive. I gave him some books and go eat.

Dinner is going fine, but Caleb needs help about 10 minutes later. Mary goes in there and he has diarrhea. I did not think he had anything left in him. I start the second load of laundry about an hour and a half into dinner.

We have dessert and our guests leave 45 minutes later. Caleb is not feeling well. He has ruined a couple of outfits and we are going threw clothes. We finally put him to bed around 9:00 pm and I get to work on the drains. After an hour the sink is draining like magic, the tub is not draining at all. So I ran out to the store, not something I like to do on Sunday. I get the drain fixed and Caleb wakes up sick. We quickly shower him off because his bottom is starting to hurt.

Now he won't go back to bed because he is thristy. It is 12:30 AM and I am looking for the nearest CVS. I go and get some Pedialyte and bring it home. It is 1:15 AM. I set up the futon for Mary and she goes to sleep out there. Caleb and I go to bed around 1:30 AM. We get up at 2:00, 3:30, and 5:30. Each time he wakes up, he wants to drink something and then he runs into the bathroom. At 7:15 we are up for good.

Isn't that a beautiful day of rest?

Before the end of Monday, Caleb has gone threw at least 10 pairs of underwear, I have done 6 loads of laundry, and we have cleaned up vomit 4 or 5 times. It is so painful to watch your children when they are sick. You want to do so much, but can do so little.

Life is just like that at times.

Ode to Aunt Jen

When the family recently got together, Aunt Jen was a stalwart in posting the latest happenings and pictures to her blog. As a thank you, we dedicate these pictures of Grace and Caleb in their reunion shirts to you. Thanks for keeping those of us that could not make it up on the latest news. Hope all is well for you guys out there in school! We hope to visit with you guys in June when we make a trip out that way.

Sleeping Like a Baby

Caleb has been falling asleep everywhere lately. He has even been crawling up on laps for naps. There is nothing better than a warm child napping on your lap.

O Christmas Tree

Well, it has been just over a month since Christmas and a full three weeks since the final decorative vestiges of Christmas disappeared into their boxes until next year. I need to write about our Christmas tree.

Our Christmas tree is modest. It is a fake Christmas tree that is about three feet tall. We place it on a folding table, so it looks bigger. I love that tree. It is our first tree and I am attached to it. Mary is not overly sentimental about it. I had resigned myself to that fact that we would get a big tree this year since I am the only one attached to this small tree. But there was a miscommunication and we ended up not purchasing a new tree. I was really excited that we kept the old one.

Don't get me wrong, I think a larger tree would look great in our house. We also have enough decorations to upgrade the tree. There was one problem this year, though. If we had a big Christmas tree, Robert should have been playing under it and the decorations should have been moving up the tree as the season wore on. And I would know that every time I walked past a big tree. But I did not have to think about that as I walked past our small tree.

And that was why Christmas was difficult. You never knew when you would be reminded that Robert wasn't around.

The children sat on Santa's lap ... well not all of them.
Did you see the gleam in the children's eyes as the ripped off the Christmas paper? Or at least all the children but one?

Be safe Robert. We love you and miss you.

Nicknames

I am addicted to basketball. It would be difficult for me to play "enough" ball, and impossible to fathom what "too much basketball" means. I am a hoops junkie and play every Tuesday and Saturday.

The only problem with this addiction is injuries. Bumps and scrapes are part of the game. My ankles have had a particularly rough couple of months. I have tweaked or twisted my ankle five times since Thanksgiving. Three of the sprains have happened within the last three weeks. Tuesday night was the big one. None of the previous injuries kept me away from the upcoming games, but I really hit the floor hard on Tuesday. I have been hobbling around and asked Mary to drive me to and from work a couple of days this week.

She called when she arrived the other day and left a message for "Old Hop-a-long" since I was not at my desk. Grace did not understand this reference, so Mary explained it to her.

Now when I get into the car, Grace always breaks out my new nickname, Hopalong.

Caleb still has not quite gotten the nickname down. He calls me "Papalong".

I'm It

My brother Oliver tagged me to write five things you might not know about me. Given that many of you are good friends or family, this is a difficult task. Hopefully, you will learn at least one or two things that you did not know about me.

1. If Herndon Intermediate had a zero tolerance policy, I may never have made it out of there. Like many of you, Junior High/Middle School/Intermediate was not my finest hour. How I did not get suspended for having bottle rockets at school is beyond me. (Yes, bottle rockets are illegal in Virginia and I was selling them to a friend, or buying them, can't remember.) Obviously, I was not the sharpest knife in the drawer. (Not much has changed.) But we won't mention the day I skipped school or the time some friends and I moved the tail end of a small car so it could not leave its parking space. Really, I should just move on. My children aren't reading this, are they? Do I have to remember this post when they are that age?


2. As long as we are talking about Intermediate, when I was in 7th and 8th grade one of my favorite activities was skateboarding. I didn't have the body of a skateboarder, but I sure skated a lot then. I even wore some of the skater clothes, but not the haircut and I didn't really do the skater music.


3. I married a Homecoming Queen. Its true. Not only is she beautiful, she is wonderful and perfect for me in every possible way. I am certainly not the homecoming royalty type, but I did marry well. Not bad for a geek.


4. My marriage life is a stereotypical traditional marriage from the perspective of the husband's and wife's roles and responsibilities. This really deserves its own post. As the man in the relationship, I like to discuss differences. As the woman, Mary likes to be silent and just let it pass. Mary likes to hit the sporting events and I take her to museums or the ballet. Mary is the disciplinarian. I tend to be more affectionate with the children. I am much more sentimental about objects and other things. (That is not saying much. This is a compliment, but I have never met someone less sentimental about things than Mary. One secret for why she is so organized. And those things are not going with us after this life anyway, so might as well be unsentimental about them now.) I could go on, but you get the idea.


5. My favorite poem is "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock". It has been for as long as I can remember. The first time I read this poem it spoke to me. Though this has always been my favorite poem*, I did not know much about Thomas Stearns. I have recently read "T. S. Eliot" by Lyndall Gordon. The book is dense and I did not understand all of the references to Eliot's works, but I still learned a lot. He was a curious man with interesting ideas. One quote for you to ponder:

   Surely there is something wrong in our attitude towards money. The acquisitive, rather than the creative and spiritual instincts, are encouraged. The fact that money is always forthcoming for the purpose of making more money, whilst it is so difficult to obtain ... for the needs of the most needy, is disturbing to those who are not economists.
   —T. S. Eliot, The Idea of a Christian Society

Well, that is my list of five things and I did not even bring up the shot put. Who would I like to learn more about? Let's see...

• Dad it is time to start posting again.
• Mom needs to post for the first time. Ask Oliver or Dad for some pointers on how to start.
• Let's hear Matt's five things as well.
• And I am really missing some White Trash in my life. (Don't let us down. You never do when you get around to posting your musings.)

*There are two other poems that had an impact on me. The first is a nonsense poem that Brian and Dan wrote on a long bus ride home from high school. (Disclaimer: I was peripherally involved but did not contribute much to the final poem.) It is truly a work of art.

The second is a poem a friend in high school, Ravi Shankar, wrote. After I read it a couple of times, I finally got what he was saying. It helped me understand more about the power of confession and poetry. The beginning of the first and all of the second are published here without express written consent from the authors.

Bang, bang, swing of hammer,
Inmates working in the slammer,
Inner city has no glamour,
Swallow retainer, sputter and stammer,
Enter castle with a rammer,
Radio silenced — electro jammer.

Dropping, falling, white bird bomber,
If you're hot then ride a llama,
You're too young, go cry to mama,
Smelly shoes and wet pajamas,
After that, go maim a chicken.

This goes on for twelve more stanzas.

Envy

Once a girl always a girl
belonged if humans could be bought
but not sold to a man.   We shall
call him man not to bias the sample.
The man contributed greatly to 537
nanometers of light tingling in my
innards that could not be portrayed
nor sought and pinpointed.
Needless.
Needless to say   my heart was   inside
my body and i knew an exterior and interior.
Built a home more of a cage and
inside green   outside painted on
blue and yellow   and white. Eventually
so it goes as all action produces
a reaction heralded science i myself
was in the cage rattling. Could i
but realize or have realized as post
mortum goes that even
manacles are better than a cage
made of 537 nanometers of light and
me. Paint slowly dries and hardens
though, and still my heart races.
So it goes.

Theory of Relativity

If you follow Einstein's theory of relativity, time travel may be possible. Obviously, there is much we have to learn before you are able to pass through the time-space continuum. Until we are able to do that, this little trip in the way back machine will have to do.

Chatty Patty

Grace has always been chatty. Around the age of three, there was a period where she would be quiet around people. That stage did not last long. She is always ready for a good conversation. I think that is one of her personalities traits. But some people think it has to do with the fact that she is a girl.

Our closest neighbors have three children. All of them are boys (6, 4, 2). The other day Anita, the mother, invited Grace and Caleb to come play. Off they went to the neighbors house for an hour. Mary needed the break and got a lot done. When she went over to talk for a few minutes and collect Grace and Caleb, Anita told her what happened when the children came over.

Immediately the boys ran to play. Grace loves to play with the boys and their toys, but not so today. Instead she went over to Anita and started talking with her. Grace told Anita where we are going on vacation this summer. Then Grace regaled Anita with our summer 2005 car trip to Michigan. ("It took like 100 hours to drive there. It was the longest car trip of my life.")

After they had discussed vacations a bit, Grace went off to play. Anita thought it must be a girl thing. I think it might just be a Grace thing. I can still hear her squeaky, little voice saying, "Shange biaper, Poppa," when she was younger than 18 months and needed a diaper change.

I love talking with Grace. You never know where your conversation will lead and what she will tell you she remembers.

Why Cooking with the Children is Better

I was making cupcakes to share with some friends and the children wanted to help me. Grace, Caleb, and I had a great time cooking together. And they had an even better time cleaning up.

Playing... Doctor?!?

Three more weeks until the baby is due. Now, Mary sees the doctor every week. There are some logistical difficulties with going that often. It isn't practical to find someone to watch Caleb for every visit, so he tags along. Let's say he knows the routine pretty well. He mimics what the baby's heartbeat sounds like and measures mama's belly for the doctor.

Today Mary had an appointment. The nurse called Mary and Caleb back and showed them into an exam room. After doing the usual nurse routine (weight, blood pressure, etc.), the nurse told Mary to sit down on the table and the doctor would be in shortly.

As the nurse closed the door, Caleb sprung into action. He moved the doctor's chair over to the exam table, sat down, looked at Mary, and said, "So, how are you doing today?"

Mary laughed. The doctor came into the room a few minutes later. She pulled the chair over and looked at Mary and said, "So, how are you doing today?"

Drive-Thru Posting (Updated)

I have a couple of stories to share, but not enough time to write them up. Here is the short version.

• Caleb loves ice cream and pudding. His favorite flavor is vanilla. Unfortunately, he cannot pronounce it. It comes out "valilla".
• We were eating breakfast this morning and Grace put both of her arms on the table (two lines) next to her cereal bowl (a circle). Then she said, "Look Dad, it is one hundred and ten."
• Mary taught about the joy of order/organization for pre-school today. Talk about serendipity.
• The other night we were giggling on the bed. I was joking with Caleb that he needed a pinch on the bottom. He looked at me and said, "Don't pinch my bottom. Its a special bottom."
• Mary's nickname is Mimi. My nephew, Andrew, called her that before he could say Mary properly and it stuck. Caleb knows that is Mary's nickname and has come up with his own. Periodically he calls her "Meem" (rhymes with beam).
• Caleb found a Hershey's Kiss in his bed the other day. Mary asked him what a Hershey's Kiss was doing in his bed. Caleb said, "I'm just lucky Mom."
• Caleb has taken to schoolwork lately. He has started to draw his first people and recently began filling out his school papers with attempts at letters. Three and a half seems to be the age where our children begin to do schoolwork.
• Caleb always uses two hands to show you a number. One hand has three fingers up and the other is holding the remaining two fingers down.
• Tonight Grace and Caleb were working with the magnetic alphabet by the fridge. What were they doing? Writing out words or their names? No, they were sorting them by color groups. You need to get organized first.

Simple as Pi

We went to a baptism for an 8-year old yesterday. There was a short talk about baptism before the ordinance was performed. A relative had been asked to prepare a few remarks about baptism and its meaning. The message was mainly directed at the 8-year old who was going to be baptized.

The speaker began by saying, "I was told to keep this simple."

I was pretty excited to hear a simple message about baptism. I think there is a lot of power in the simple truths. Some direct quotes from the speaker:

• Part of the symbology of baptism is..
• The water represents coming from the womb and the watery rebirth.
• There is a thorough testimony of the resurrection in sacred record.

Obviously, simple messages for 8-year olds have changes since I was 8.

Formatting the Blog

Well, you may not notice, but tonight I reformatted much of this blog. Earlier I was having issues with my pictures not displaying properly. It had to do with the html coding after moving pictures around in the "Compose" interface. I should have been doing it in the "Edit Html" interface all along. Oh well, you live and learn. So, I fixed all the old photos. Now you can see the appropriate large versions of every photo in this blog. It did take a little time, but I think it was worth it.

What I really should have done is gone back and fixed some of the old photos with red eyes, etc. I am starting to do a little more red eye correction, cropping, and resizing of photos. Hopefully that will make it easier to view them in the blog. I don't love how pictures are currently displayed, but I can live with it. These changes should make future pictures marginally better.

Also, Oliver cannot call my beta.blogger extremely ghetto. (And it really wasn't that ghetto at the time. It was my fault since I was not double checking the html code.)

Battling the Genius(es)

We had a great Christmas. Santa was more than generous with the children. Add that to the gifts relative sent and we had more than we needed. The surprise was Grace and Caleb loved every gift.

Usually there are a couple of toys with which the children do not play. It is inevitable. Something just doesn't work out for some reason. That did not happen this year. Grace has used all of her art supplies and kits. Caleb has played with every toy he received. There is no end to the fun the children have had. This is all due to Mary. She is the genius behind the operation. All of the gifts she picked out worked.

Though she is a genius, there still are difficult situations. With this pregnancy she is in full-time nesting mode. She was ready to take down decorations last week. We went back and forth on this and somehow I convinced her to leave them up until January 6. I am still shocked that I was able to talk her into that arrangement.

Then could you imagine my shock when I had this conversation with Grace on January 1?

Grace said, "Dad, it is time to take down all of the Christmas decorations."

"Why?" I protested.

"Well, it is January and Christmas is over. We can put them away and set up the crib to get ready for the baby."

"MARY!!" I screamed, "Did you put her up to this?"

Mary came from the next room and said, "No. What did she say?"

I told her of the conversation and she was laughing so hard because she really did not put her up to it.

I do get the benefit of living with a genius, but I need to remember she has a mini-me sidekick.

Art Gallery (Updated)

Parents love to hang artwork from their children. The fridge is usually the first place it goes. We have a bulletin board where all of our treasures end up. This is not sufficient for Grace. She wants to be an artist and continually works at her craft. She creates tons of art and takes it upon herself to hang it in our home. Here is a recent sample of her artwork and its presentation.

"Thermostat in Mixed Media"
Marker on foam paper with wire hanger, thermostat and tape.

"Alphanumeric in Limbo"
Marker on foam paper hung with tape. Each piece of foam paper has a single alphanumeric character written on it. Found throughout the family room (walls, furniture, TV, doors, windows, etc).

"Caleb With Yellow Belt"
Marker on paper and foam paper with pipe cleaner and tape.

"Lemonade Stands"
Marker on Post-It paper. Pictures of proposed lemonade stands for the next few years with pictures of our home and a Christmas tree.

"My Favorite Things"
Marker on Post-It Paper. Pictures include hearts, family, price of lemonade, and a princess.

"Flying Love"
Marker on Post-It Paper. Pictures of a kite and a heart placed next to Mom and Dad's bed.

Triskaidekaphobia

The latest addition to our family will be here in just about five more weeks. We have a difficult time describing the emotion we are feeling about the impending birth. Excitement is an understatement. As I thought of the upcoming birth, I realized this will be the 13th grandchild on my side of the family.

Then I thought of Mary's side of the family. This child will be the 13th grandchild, as well.

Talk about a convergence. I guess we know this baby's lucky number. Is there such a thing as triskaidekaphilia?