Mom and I returned today, sunburnt, tired and sore. The kids were happy to see us. I think. Erica apparently spoiled them rotten the entire time we were gone, with trips to Chuck E. Cheese, friends staying overnight and ice cream for every meal. As Erica said “Oh, we partied the whole time”. It’s probably a good thing we didn’t leave Alice there or we might have had to raise bail. I asked Corwin if he wanted us to stay or leave him with Erica for a few more days and he had to think about it. But then we got out the presents we’d bought for them and everything was OK again.
We got Corwin an “action balloon” toy. It’s a pump with a bunch of long, skinny balloons. You pump up the balloons and then let them go. They zip around making an obnoxious noise. Corwin loved it. Charles got a hand painted sign that reads “MARKET”, to go with his store. Charles sort of liked it until I explained that “MARKET” was like the “SUPERMARKET” that Mom takes him to. Then Charles thought it was wonderful.
Mom also raided Grandma’s house for her old toys and brought back a mish mash of various plastic tea set items. Charles and Alice thought these were really cool and immediately started fighting over them. Charles later made me some tea and then some coffee. Mom asked him to make me pancakes but he said he didn’t have enough watermelon for that.
Charles and his new tea set
and MARKET sign in the background
Mom and I are celebrating our 16th wedding anniversary today and 22 years as an “item”. It’s such a special day that Mom even let do something she rarely lets me do – play tennis with her! The last tine we played was before Charles was born. Her serve is still a bit under powered but her ground game has definitely picked up. She’s talked about maybe doing a 20 mile hike tomorrow. Yowza!
Mom and I made it safely to our getaway spot, after dropping Alice off with Grandma. It’s very nice, with a lovely view from our room. It even has wireless internet access, although I think Mom has activities other than uninterrupted web surfing planned for us.
We called back home this evening to talk to Charles (plus Corwin). Yesterday Charles was playing with an old phone and was trying to plug it in to the wall so he could have a “real phone”.
Dad: Charles, don’t plug that it.
Charles: But I need a real phone.
Dad: Why?
Charles: So I can talk to people.
Dad: Who would you talk to?
Charles: I don’t know. [thinks a bit] I want to call Mommy [who was at work at the time]
Dad: Mom will be home soon, you don’t need to call her.
Charles: But you and Mommy going away. I need to call you while you gone.
To get Charles to not plug stuff in sockets in the wall (not a good long term child survival strategy), I had to promise that Mom and I would call him while we were gone. Corwin was completely indifferent, although Mom did interrogate him until he admitted that he had missed Mom while he was camping.
Mom and I are going away tomorrow morning for a long weekend, leaving Erica in charge of the boyen. Alice will be staying with Grandma. I suspect the boyen will keep Erica too busy to post as often as she has normally this summer and Mom and I will be busy enjoying our transitory childless state to post either, so you’ll have to do without updates until next week. Don’t forget us in the meantime!
Corwin was returned to us today from his camping expedition. It was very hot and muggy for the first three days followed by a thunderstorm and tornado warnings last night. It didn’t seem all that bad here but the pack master called all the parents to assure them that the boys had survived the storm.
Both of the boys Corwin had started out with in his tent left early so by the second (Monday) night they’d taken down Corwin’s tent and put him in another tent with other boys. This meant that Corwin couldn’t forget to put up the rain shroud during the storm.
Corwin didn’t seem too damaged, just some scratches and heat rash. And of course, he admitted that soap hadn’t touched his body since I dropped him off.
Overall Corwin had a good time, although he’s unwilling to commit to going again some day. He spent all his money but rationed it out so that he spent the last of it this morning before they broke camp, which I think is impressive for a boy turned loose. Corwin even donated some of his cash to other boys who burned through their stakes early. Corwin’s biggest complaints were insects and rain. Given the heat, rain and local terrain I expect the bugs were out in overwhelming force in the evening. I sent some bug spray along but I’m not sure if Corwin used it.
Corwin also earned his “whittling chip” which means he’s entitled to carry a knife around camp. Now he’s pressing to get a knife. I’m torn between the joy of looking at and buying a knife vs. having an armed Corwin. It’s going to be a tough call.
Secant’s cancer finally got the best of her and Mom had to take her in to be euthanized yesterday. Mom hung on as long as she could (tube feeding, experimental therapy, even doing subcutaneous rehydration) but it had become clear that Secant was no longer able to function at all and there was no hope of recovery, only further deterioration. Secant was approximately 16 years old.
Secant was a wonderful cat who we, of course, never sufficiently appreciated. She was exceptionally friendly and gentle, and quite affectionate. She was wonderful with the children, who liked her as well. Here’s a few photos of her in rememberance.
I was able to verbally convince Charles to do his washing this morning, but he refused to get dressed in more than his underwear. “I like to be naky” he told me. It being so hot out, I let him get away with that. Later in the day I ran in to him in the basement, which is still very cool.
Dad: Charles, are you going to get dressed today?
Charles: No. I like being naky.
Dad: Aren’t you cold?
Charles: No. I not cold.
Dad: But if you put on short pants and a short sleeve shirt, then you’d be cold?
Charles: Yes.
Last Friday, the night before the conference swim meet, we went over to Mara’s house for a cookout (just what you want on sultry night, a roaring fire). The kids had a good time. Even Charles interacted with some of the other children for a bit as they played light tag. I took over some glow cups, which were popular for the length of time it took to get them fired up. I don’t think anyone actually drank from one.
While we were there Corwin managed to scrape his shin on a rock. At first I thought he’d step on a hot coal in barefeet, the way he was yelling. He also had a round spot of mud on his foot which looked (at first glance) a lot like charred flesh, so I was bit stressed out right at first. After I realized that he’d just gotten a few abrasions (not even bleeding, really) I was somewhat put out. But Corwin insisted that he was greviously wounded and so we went in the house and got him some bandaids. Unfortunately for Corwin, Mara’s mom only had one bandaid left so she was not able to bandage all of Corwin’s injuries. I tried to point out that bandaids do not, in fact, have any analgesic properties but Corwin instantly dismissed such foolishness. But he toughed it out and went back to play with only one bandaid, which you can see in the picture back on this post.
I took Corwin off to Cub Scout Camp this afternoon. They’re out camping out what may well be the hottest and muggiest weekend this year (over 100° and over 90% humidity). I went along to help set up but I escaped around 4:30. I didn’t take pictures because I didn’t want to take my camera out in that kind of condition. I just hope that we didn’t forget anything critical.
As part of getting registered, Corwin had to do a swim test, which consisted of jumping in the deep end and doing four pool lengths. The kids could even stop for a moment between lengths and the pool didn’t look 25 meters long to me (I’d guess 15 m). Given that Corwin can swim 50 meters competively and regularly swims 100 meters during practice, I figured he’d blow throw the test. But in fact he seemed tired out by it and by the last length (which had to be done backstroke) the camp person was sticking his life guard float in to the water in case Corwin needed it. I wasn’t worried because Corwin generally looks like he’s drowning when he doesn’t maintain his forward speed but still, I had hoped for a slightly better performance. I just have to hope the other dads don’t find out about this. Keep it quiet, OK?
While Dad was getting Corwin settled at camp, Alice, Charles, and I spent the afternoon at the county fair. We had a good time, but it was very, very, very hot (probably the hottest day of the summer so far).
Charles rode most of the rides on the kiddie side: the old cars (which I think are the same that I rode 30+ years ago), jetskis, and the mini-train. Alice and I took a ride on the train too. Charles even went down the giant slide by himself with no hestitation at all.
Charles had a hot dog, and we split fries. Then Charles climbed the wooden cheese. All in all a successful fair outing.
Charles attended a friend’s birthday party for the first time yesterday. His daycare friend Tadas had a party at a mini-farm run by the local park district. Many of the daycare kids were there. Charles hasn’t seen them over the summer, but he recognized them and warmed up pretty quickly. After about 5 minutes of clinging, he joined the boy gang running around the park.
Tada’s mom tried to get the kids to take the farm tour and pet the various animals. The kids just wanted to run around and chase each other. But the parents were able to keep them in line for most of the tour. But by the time they reached the llamas, one of the children (Tadas I think) screeched ran 10 feet away and then fell on the ground squealing and all the other kids followed suit.
Wiggles were the birthday theme (plates, hat, blowers, and cake). As a side note, today’s Parade newspaper insert said that the Wiggles were Australia’s highest paid entertainment act beating out Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidmann.
The parents and younger siblings hung around, which was nice, so I could place names to faces. A couple of the parents commented that they rarely saw Charles because we drop him off later and pick him up earlier. One of the moms went so far to say she thought her son was lying about Charles’ existence until he would point out photos of Charles when she picked him up.
Alice enjoyed hanging out at Tadas’ party too. The mini-farm had a little bridge over a goldfish pond, which she really liked. She spent much of the 2 hours on the bridge, and she would have spent more time on the bridge if I didn’t keep dragging her away.
That’s it, swim season is over once again. Today was the big conference meet, the last event of the season. Corwin swam in five races: medley relay, freestyle relay, 50m freestyle, 25m backstroke and 25m breast stroke. Corwin did tolerably. He wasn’t actually last in any of the events, although he was disqualified in the breast stroke, presumably for bad form (it looked like about a third of the entrants got DQ’d in that race — the judges were being particularly strict apparently). We left at the half way point. The conference is all day so rather than have the kids sit around for extra long periods of time, the younger kids go in the morning and the older kids in the afternoon. Corwin’s team was in second after the morning, but given their problems in older boys their lead might not have lasted.
Of course, Corwin was involved in yet another scheduling mixup. He apparently fell in with the wrong group of boys for his last relay and they told him he wasn’t it in. But eventually it was worked out that he was in it, just with a different squad. So he got to swim all of this races, although not with out a bit of stress.
I think Corwin had an enjoyable season, presumably he’ll go back next year. We’ll see if Charles is ready for it, although there were at least a couple of kids during the conference who required adult assistance to finish the race. So maybe he doesn’t really have to be able to swim the whole length.
P.S. It turns out that Mara’s team did pull ahead of Corwin’s later in the day, so Corwin’s team finished third in the conference.
We went swimming yesterday and Charles was noticeably less clutchy, although Mom did have just a bit of problem with Charles. Mom’s swim suit is open back and Charles prefered to hang on to Mom via the edge of fabric right above her posterior. Apparently 40 pounds of squirming boy dragging down the waist line of her swim suit bothered her.
Here’s a video of Charles “swimming”. It’s hard to see but he does move a little bit.
The other day I caught Charles messing with one of my ties. It turned out, of course, that it was the one tie I own that I have positive feelings about. Charles was not happy about having to return it, so I gave him one of my other ties which he thought was just as good as the first one.
Charles spent the next several days playing with the tie. He’d carry it around the house and get upset if he left it somewhere. “Where my tie?!” he’d call out plaintively.
Now, though, I think the tie has lost its luster. I haven’t seen it all day nor has Charles asked about it. Maybe he just needs a re-introduction to it. Or perhaps I just need to convince him that he needs it to go to his office…
Speaking of Charles’ office, I made him very happy the other day with one of my cast off items. It was an file box that I used to used for filing papers but has fallen in to disuse since I got my new office. Rather than toss it, I gave it to Erica to give to Charles with the comment “You don’t have one of these in your office”. That did the trick, Charles thought it was totally wonderful. I checked on it the next day and Charles had actually filed some of his papers in the folders that were there. Certain other people noticed this and asked if he was really my child.
We were getting ready for swim and in the confusion Alice managed to slip out of parental supervision. She used her precious moments of freedom to grab the toothpaste dispenser out of the kids’ bathroom and then hide in her room to gnaw on it. When I discovered her, she gave me such a look of chagrin and pleading that I almost felt a twinge of guilt at stripping her of her prize.
Against my better judgement, we had Chloe over for a visit as promised. She played with Charles in the basement for a bit, before gravitating to the computer and its driving games. Chloe also inquired as to whether I had gotten her anything “from the computer”. Sadly, I had neglected to purchase an offering for her.
Luckily Erica was in an adventurous mood and took the gang off the pond. Chloe doesn’t like ponds because they’re “icky” but she was sent in to the water anyway. Erica reports that every now and then Chloe would claim that she wanted to go home (presumably to get away from the ick) but Erica would be evasive and send her back out, causing the desire to be forgotten. The pond outing kept them all busy until Chloe had to leave for piano lessons. That was a bit hectic as Chloe (in Erica’s words) “is bit more delicate than the boys” so she had to be carried back instead of walking.
Overall I think it was successful. Charles claimed he enjoyed it and Chloe had to be dragged out. Charles also said that Chloe should come back “Sunday” because “that’s the right day”. Maybe he was remembering from the conversation at the water park.
Alice is still making progress every now and then.
While we were driving, Mom started singing the “backpack song” from Dora the Explorer because Charles likes it. Alice liked it too and even sang along, getting the words mostly correct (better diction than I’ve heard her use elsewhere). Of course, the lyrics consist solely of the word “backpack”…
Alice has also learned how to pull a blanket over herself for a nap. I saw her lay down and then arrange the blanket over herself. Alice also likes the big pillows in the media room for naps as well. Occasionally when she’s tired, she’ll stalk over to one and throw herself down on it to rest. Even more occasionally, she’ll actually fall asleep.
Alice is also starting to make lip smacking sounds, apparently to defend herself against Mom smoochies.
Alice continues to be obsessed with the cats. She stalks them around the house. She also enjoys pointing them out to other people, in case we hadn’t noticed their presence. If only she didn’t pull their tails quite so hard.
Last week Erica made special treats for the boyen — ice cream blizzards! Erica is professionally trained at making blizzards so things went well, even with the boyen “helping”.
Several weeks back, Corwin spent the week at the Bowdacious String Band camp. The Bowdacious String band meets over the year, and they play blue grass/folk/dance music. I thought it would be a good mix to play something other than classical music and play with other kids.
Most of the string band members are older than Corwin and they know each other from playing during the year. But Corwin still seemed to have a good time. He learned a couple fiddle tunes, and the theme to Star Wars. On Saturday, they had a final program for the parents. They played their pieces, and they did a Star Wars skit with an agricultural twist. Corwin got to be Cuke Skywalker. Full of puns, but the kids seemed to enjoy it.
Corwin provided special music at church service yesterday. He played Minuet 3 by J. S. Bach. Since his progress has slowed over the summer due to many other activiites, I was a little afraid that this piece wasn’t quite ready for prime time. But Corwin did quite well, and I thought it sounded good.
The organist went with the Bach theme for the prelude, offertory, and postlude.
Next up this Thursday, playing at a local nursing home organized by his violin teacher.
After the swim meet on Saturday, Corwin, Charles, and I headed off to a water park for a Cub Scout event. It was a nice little water park. Corwin had a good time, although I hardly saw him while we were there. I had to hang out with Charles, who insisted on clutching at me even though (1) he claimed he could swim and (2) he could stand up in the water. Luckily Chloe was there and I was able to send Charles off with her for a bit. They seemed to have a good time together.
I think Chloe might have been laying in wait, as we hadn’t been there more than a couple minutes before she found us. I hadn’t even finished putting sunscreen on myself and Charles. Chloe then insisted that I put sunscreen on her as well. Later, Charles decided he wanted a snack so we went off to the snack bar. Once I got Charles set with some snacks I popped back to see if I could spot Corwin. Instead I found Chloe, who insisted that she was desperately hungry and needed a snack. So I took her over to eat with Charles. Chloe also explained to me that she was coming over to our house (I’d discussed this with her mom earlier in the week).
Chloe: I’m coming over to your house.
Dad: Yes, that’s likely.
Chloe: How about today?
Dad: Well, I don’t think that would work out.
Chloe: Tomorrow, then!
Dad: Weekends aren’t really so good. What about Tuesday?
Chloe: Why not today?
Fortunately her mom showed up about then to gather her brood for departure.
We left somewhat later, after about 3 hours at the park. On the way home, I suggested that we head on over to the swim club. Corwin, however, was watered out.
Since that time a while ago that Alice climbed up in to Corwin’s bed (the top bunk of the boys’ bunk bed), she hadn’t really tried it. Until late this week, that is, at which time she resumed her assents. The last time, she just barely made it, struggling for a while with that last step in to the bed. Now she scurries right up the ladder, no problem. In fact, Alice knows that the bunk bed is there and will stake off from the media room, zip up the stairs in to the boys’ room and up the ladder. If she’s been up there and I put here down anywhere upstairs, she goes right back up. I have to drag her down stairs (kicking and screaming) and then distract her with something else. We used to be able to leave Alice in the boys room with just the boys for supervision, but now that she can get up the ladder it’s one more place she’s not safe anymore.
Today was Corwin’s last regular swim meet. Next week is the conference meet and then it’s all over for swim this year.
Corwin’s team won, although it was very close. They’re very short of older boys this year. One mom told me that in this meet, they didn’t have single boy 13 or over. The girls must have done very well to pull it out.
Corwin himself didn’t do all that well. In his final race, a relay, he had the anchor slot and didn’t get in the water until all the other teams had finished. He did look like he swam his leg at a good clip. He also got put in a breast stroke race where he finished very last. He doesn’t normally swim that, but someone was missing and so Corwin got drafted. Corwin, on the other hand, felt he did well and he did finish better in his other two races, which were more his style (backstroke and freestyle).
Laurie and her husband Simon announce the arrival of their second child, a boy, Noah Edward. He was born 16 July, at 8:32 AM.
We went out for a small party last night, as Mom’s friend Sara was in town. Several other of Sara’s and Mom’s friends (with their entourages) showed up at Sara’s family estate so it was like a mini-class reunion. There was much handing around of babies and toddlers. We also go to tell Sara and Matt that their lives will no longer be measured by anything they do, but by how much of the house their daughter Ella can get to.
Corwin and Charles enjoyed the visit. They got to see a pony, although the pony was too skittish to be ridden. We got trapped in the barn for a while by a sudden rain shower, which Corwin didn’t much like, especially the drumming of the rain on the tin roof.
Current vocabulary
| no | no | Very distinctive. No doubt about this one. |
| ya | yes | Sometimes, but not consistently. |
| mi | milk | Definite. |
| cone | Corwin | Occasional use, but clear when used. |
| dah | that | Not infrequent. |
| kitt | kitty | Probable but not definite. She certainly associates a sound with the cat. |
| nana | banana / food | I haven’t heard this one for a while |
According to the doctor, Alice should be mixing real words with her babble. I haven’t heard her do that, although she has so few words that maybe it just doesn’t come up.
Jack came over last night for an overnight. He and Corwin had a lot of fun, except for a few small disagreements. Mom set up the bunk beds for them, but Jack wanted to sleep on the world map in the basement like he did last time he was over. Corwin, however, wanted to sleep in his own bed. Corwin won on that point, so next they argued about who got the top bunk. In the end, both of them slept up there. Charles slept in our bed and I slept down on the couch in the basement, because Charles is very cuddly when he’s sleeping, which keeps me awake all night.
I had a little bit of fun myself, as the three boys have acquired a near pathological fear of my camera. I could send them in to paroxysms of screaming and flight simply by announcing “Hey, it’s picture time!”. Charles thought this was fun too, until I actually took a picture of him. This made him very cross and he lectured me on the need to not take pictures. “It’s evil” he claimed, sternly. Sounds like it’s definitely time for the telephoto lens.
This morning we had a trip to the doctors. Alice and Corwin needed physicals, Alice because she was due and Corwin so he can go Cub Scout camping. Mom, being much smarter than I am, scheduled a meeting for that timeslot.
It wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought, getting the kids ready early (we had to be there by 8:30). Alice, for once, wasn’t Princess Grumpy-Pants and Charles didn’t lay on the floor upstairs for an hour in protest at having to do his morning washing. The only real irritant was from Mom having told Corwin to “pester” me about getting an appointment for my own physical. Corwin thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity. Thoroughly.
Alice was cooperative at first. She happily walked hand in hand with the nurse when we left the waiting room, stood still for both weighing and height measurements and went to the examination room in a rather perky mood. However, once we were inside the examination room and she was no longer exploring new terrain, she turned in to a clutchy, scared little girl. Then she got four shots. She didn’t really react to the first one, but by the third she was not having a good time. I tried to hold her still but she’s a strong little bunny. She’s tough, though — she only cried loudly during the actual shot and was basically calm within half a minute or so afterwards.
Corwin was good. He got his first experience with hospital gowns as well. The doctor did have to tell him to not hold his shirt over his chest. The doctor was also a little taken aback when Corwin claimed to not know whether or what he was eating. Personally, I believe him.
At several points, Corwin started chanting “bored. bored. bored.” because we were waiting. After a couple of rounds of this, I said “well, if you’re bored, I can sing!”. I lead off with one of my and Alice’s favorites:
Little monkey Alice, swinging through the forest
Picking up the Charles boys and bopping them on the head!
By the second line Corwin was pleading with me to stop. I merely noted that he was no longer bored and declared the experiment a success that should continue. At this point, his spirit broken, Corwin agreed to not be bored anymore during the visit and, oddly enough, he wasn’t (at least publically).
Charles was mostly good, except that at one point he nearly broke down in tears because, while I had a pen, I did not have any paper. Luckily there were some magazines in the examination room which had shed subscription cards. I gave one to Charles, who happily started filling it out (he did a great job on the return address).
Final results: Alice and Corwin healthy. Corwin: 68 pounds, 54 inches. Alice: 24 pounds, 31 inches. Alice is at 30% height and 40% weight for her age group, so she really is a petite flower.
I’ve wondered about Charles wearing long pants and sleeves during the summer. I presumed it was force of habit, but perhaps he really gets cold easily. Certainly if we go to the pool, unless it’s blistering out Charles will complain of the coldness of the water and stop swimming. We have the air conditioning in the house on and if Charles doesn’t have his shirt on for a while, he complains of the cold, even though we have the thermostat set at 78°. Charles has always run hot so maybe he really does like the long clothes for warmth.
Charles has turned against my photography.
Charles: Don’t take picture of me!
Charles: No pictures!
Dad: But Charles, Mom likes it when I take pictures of you. She thinks it is nice.
Charles: It not nice for me!
Charles didn’t elaborate on what, exactly, wasn’t nice about it.
Charles is also succumbing to materialism. He came in to my office the other day, sniffling, and I had to comfort him by letting him sit in my lap. He then poured out his heart to me, telling me of what was troubling him.
Charles: You got lots of stuff in here.
Dad: Yes, Daddy’s office has lots of stuff in it.
Charles: [pathetic little voice] My office not have a lot of stuff in it.
[Charles hugs Dad’s arm in misery]
Today Charles was scavenging in my office for screwdrivers, leading off the hunt with a conversation that, for some reason, triggered a deep sense of deja vú.
[Charles climbs in to Dad’s lap]
Charles: You got a screwdriver in yous [sic] office.
Dad: Yes. I need to use them now and then.
Charles: [pathetic little voice] My office not have a screwdriver in it.
[Charles hugs Dad’s arm in misery and makes a grab for the screwdriver]
Charles then proceeded through my drawers, eventually gathering up three screwdrivers. I can see the future, and it involves a great circle of office supply migrations.
Yesterday, after a lazy early afternoon recuperating from the swim meet, we went over to an Animal Planet exposition. Yes, for some reason, they were in our town. Nobody from the actual show, of course, but they had a full complement of corporate staffers.
It was OK. Nothing spectacular but a nice outing. Corwin had the most fun, as the activities were geared towards children his age. Both the boys enjoyed a demonstration of frisbee catching dogs. The dogs were quite good at it. In the picture, the dog has just run up the back of his handler, jumped off and caught the frisbee. This same dog tried to catch one that was just thrown, missed it the first time but caught on the second try before it hit the ground.
Corwin spent time in the “Endurance Challenge” area. One trial was to hold on to a horizontal metal bar when it was raised up to bring you off your feet. They’d set up 8 kids at a time and see how long they could hold on. Corwin wasn’t the first out but he didn’t last nearly as long as some of the kids. There were also some video games. The one Corwin liked best was a variant of “rock, scissors, paper”. He was very proud of having beat the computer, but listening to the other kids play I strongly suspect that the game is rigged to generate a lot of winners. I didn’t notice a single child who lost, which seems somewhat unlikely in a fair game.
Corwin had a swim meet today. I took both cameras, because I wanted to experiment with the kit lens and perspective a bit and … oh, right. Swimming. Are you sure you wouldn’t be more interested in …? No? Philistine.
Today’s meet was against Indian Acres, which is the powerhouse of the conference. Corwin’s team got crushed. They didn’t even bother to announce the score. What was really impressive was the sheer number of swimmers. For one event (I think it was girls 9-10 freestyle) they had four heats. In most meets, they’ll frequently double up events because they’ll both fit in the lanes. Because of the way scoring is done, filling events yields lots of points (something we’ve done to other, smaller teams).
Corwin swam in five races, which is a lot. I could tell he was really dragging on the last couple of races. When he turns vertical during a race you know he’s not pushing it. He also had to swim in a relay with a 13-14 year old boys relay team, which was a bit odd. That was his first race and I think it tired him out because it was 50 m and he really pushed on it. He also managed to cut two of his toes at various points, one of which hurt to the point of tears because of the pool water. I was worried that Corwin might just drop out for the day, but after the next race he showed no sign of his injury.
As a result, in one of his races Corwin dragged far to the rear. On the other hand, he did much better in an earlier race, looking very competitive. I think endurance is what he really needs. That and diving head first instead of knee first, as you can see in the accompanying photograph. Next year.
P.S. I got in big trouble with one of Corwin’s swim teammates today. He’d been hassling me on and off for a while, so I tweaked up a picture I had of him to put a Hello Kitty logo on his vest and change his root beer can in to a Hello Kitty cup. I gave the original and modified pictures to his mom, who immediately showed them around to everyone. Not unexpected, but my planning did let me say “but I gave them to your mom! She is the one let other people see them!”. I couldn’t feel too bad since the image editing turned out so well, both technically and psychologically.
P.P.S. The coaches wore the T-shirts with the swim team picture on it and I got several compliments on it and requests from people who wanted to buy one. I probably need to talk to the swim club guy about it. It was also amusing to watch kids poke at the coachs’ chests as they tried to spot themselves or teammates.
We’ve been clearing off the table a little more consistently these days. The general procedure is that Alice finishes eating and gets bored. Mom and/or Dad then frantically put stuff away from the table before it gets Aliced. She’s a clever little monkey and will rapidly change seats if the one she’s standing on doesn’t provide good access to potential mess generating items.
Tonight, Dad wasn’t quite quick enough so we ended up with a lot of water on the floor and a water bottle full of carrots. Luckily there wasn’t much ranch dressing left and most of what was left was clinging to Alice’s face so things didn’t turn out as messy as Alice could have made them.
Alice has acquired the habit of putting her face in water when she has the opportunity. She does this a lot in the bath and has been doing it in the water box. Erica tells me that Alice found a puddle on the pool deck and enjoyed dunking her face in it. Mom and Erica claim that Alice likes to do this, but my view is that she is unhappy with getting her face wet yet is compelled to do so anyway. Maybe she’s just trying to get a closer look at the surface.
Charles heads out on a mission for which he needs a broom and a bucket of water
On the ground, just to the right of Charles, you can see the remnants of his new sidewalk project.
The kids await the fireworks
You can see the open cooler behind Alice and Charles. It’s open because Alice spent most of her time waiting rooting through it. She would become incensed if we tried to keep it closed. Charles is waving one of the light emitting devices I brought. Corwin has some string cheese, although he’s the one who bugged me before we left as to whether I had prepared a properly large selection of light emitting devices.
The Charles Art Gallery
Charles has been doing a lot of painting lately. Erica has been very patient with his efforts, although she does make him take off his shirt before painting. It doesn’t take much time watching Charles at work before the reason for this becomes clear. The only thing I wonder about is whether Charles likes painting or just taping up the resulting pieces of paper.
Charles: Ghosts made out of paper when it getting nighttime.
Mom,Dad: [chuckle]
Charles: That is not funny!
[Charles goes on for a bit about ghosts and nighttime]
Charles: The end. Was that a good story?
We’re driving off the the fireworks (which we ended up missing because it was raining and they kept getting delayed) and discussing the effort to get ready.
Mom: So you wrestled Alice into her dress?
Dad: Yes. She did not want to have clothes on.
Mom: Well, she was naked almost all day today. And most of the day yesterday.
Dad: She’s getting used to it.
Charles: Babies like to be naky!
Dad: They do?
Charles: Yes!
Dad: Do you like to be naky?
Charles: Yes! [giggles]
The children marvel at their discovery, mixing dirt and water to create a new material for play
Dad having failed to take Charles to a party, Charles built his own “party” out in the driveway yesterday. It consisted of a couple of coolers near each other with a gap and a variety of rolls of Mom’s metal fencing. We’re not sure how it constituted a party but that’s what Charles called it and he quite enjoyed it. I had to put it away last night to get the cars in the garage and this morning when we went out, Charles gota very sad look in his eyes and said “my party got ruined”. I told him that parties normally end and that he’d just have to have another one someday.
Charles works in his “store”, plying Erica (leg at right) with his wares
Erica says the best part of the store is that she can pay 4 chips for something that costs 4 chips and get 4 chips in change.
Kind of a low key day. I’m recovering from exhaustion and a mild case of sunburn on my lower arms. In the morning I watched Alice while everyone else went to church. That turned out to be the right choice because Alice was in a very cross mood. After lunch we had Corwin’s friend Keith over for swimming and then hanging around at the house. He apparently thinks we’re reasonably exciting because he referred to his house as we dropped him off as “the most boring place on Earth”.
In the evening Mom practiced her tennis while Charles worked on mysterious Charles constructions, this time involving a large number of pieces of discarded lumber that was left in the garage by the previous owners. When it got dark we lit off some small fireworks. Corwin got to light most of them, which I think was a thrill for him. My biggest worry was stopping him from running out in bare feet after the firework burnt out, having scattered hundreds of little burning bits all over the concrete.
I forgot to mention that at Corwin’s last baseball game, while Alice was playing with Charles and Maggie, she was also spending some time eating dirt. Several of the other mothers came up to me in great concern to inform of this fact. I probably didn’t win many points as a good parent when I just shrugged and replied “Oh, she does that. There’s no point in trying to stop her”. I did bow to social pressure a bit and clean the dirt off her face once, but it was replaced within minutes.
I spent all day today at the annual rocket launch for my rocket club. I tried to take pictures but I wasn’t in the zone. On the other hand, I had four flights, three of the good and all of them non-damaging to my rockets. That’s better than the flight that came within about 3 feet impaling one of the spectators.
It was a gorgeous day, a bit hot but not blistering. I did managed to get sunburn on my lower biceps, which is not a place I’ve really burned by itself before.
Mom and the spaw showed up about half way through. They watched for a while, although Alice tried to strangle Mom in fear whenever a rocket boosted. After a bit Mom, Charles and Alice left, leaving me with Corwin who was bugging me about building him a rocket and asking a lot of questions while walking off balance right next to my rockets. He seemed quite excited about rocketry. I need to get him started on it this summer. Corwin ended up staying until the end of the event, which was a long time for him. He also borrowed my camera and took a lot of pictures, some of which weren’t too bad. Corwin didn’t like having to pack up and haul stuff back to the car, though.
The rocket here is my Green Rage 4, a PML Amraam kit with a 4” diameter and about 6’ 6” tall. It’s boosting on an H180-S motor. It had the best flight of my rockets, I think. This is definitely the best picture I got. It’s a bit small because they put the big rockets on the far pad for GARLO because of the crowds.
UPDATE: I made the local newspaper. Page A-5, Sunday. It’s a picture of the same rocket as this one. I think it’s because I sucked up to the photographer and admired her cameras, but hey — it’s a tough world, you do what you have to.
[We see Charles zipping along on his scooter, carrying a couple blocks of wood]
Mom: Why do you have that wood, Charles?
Charles: I use them to stop my scooter
[Charles stops his scooter and then puts the blocks of wood in front of the tires, like tire chucks for an airplane]
Charles: [to himself] Now nobody move the scooter. Nobody can move it.
Dad: Look, Charles, your sister is turning brown!
Charles: What is brown?
Dad: Your sister. She’s getting all brown. Is she spoiling?
Charles: [comes over to examine Alice] That brown go all over, make her safe.
Dad: The brown is all over and keeps her safe?
Charles: Yes. Very safe.
[Alice starts playing with a marble]
Charles: Marbles made of ice.
Dad: Ice?
Charles: Yes.
Dad: No, actually marbles are made of glass.
Charles: Marbles made of glass but they have ice on the outside.
Dad: Ice on the outside?
Charles: Yes. They need ice on the outside to hold the glass in.
I finally gave up hinting at Mom and bought the mini mangonel and petraria myself. I got the former primarily for Corwin, who had been bugging me about getting a “real” catapult for a while. Corwin’s gotten a few of the plastic toy style ones but those just weren’t enough. I suspect he overheard me mentioning this to Mom and decided to get in on the action himself.
Corwin was very excited when the kit arrived and he managed to maintain that enthusiasm through the building process. It took about 5 days to build, although we only spent about 10-15 minutes a day on it. Most of the work was “glue these couple of pieces in place and wait for the glue to dry”. I let Corwin work on as much as possible, although the majority of the work I had to do because it was too tricky or required too much strenghth for Corwin (especially gettting the diagonal supports in place and threading the skein).
Overall it turned out well, although if I did it again I’d be a lot more careful about wiping off excess glue. We’re getting about 8 ft of range with a 25mm super ball. To do that we need to elevate the mangonel so the sling can hang down behind it. I should probably get some wood and build a little stand for it to make that easier. That would also allow making the sling a bit longer which should help with the range.
Now I just have to endure Corwin pestering me about building the petraria.
I found tape all along the edge of the piano the other day. I immediately guessed it was Charles. When I asked why he did it, he explained that he was fixing “holes in the piano” so that it wouldn’t break any more. He had, in fact, put the tape precisely over chips in the finish of the piano.
Charles likes to win. Here’s a video of Charles expressing his joy at scoring a goal on Dad.
Charles’ new phrase is “I never do that again” when he’s called on something, like taping the pillows together or pouring water out of the bathtub. I’m not sure where he picked it up, but he sounds very sincere when he says it.
