Over the weekend Corwin exhibited an interest in playing chess. Mom played a few games with him and he did quite well against her. Mom was quite impressed with Corwin’s natural talent and speed at picking up the game. Afterwards, while working on Charles’ computer, I noticed Corwin playing chess on his computer, via a download from Nickelodeon. Corwin had neglected, somehow, to mention this to Mom.
Today, Mom took the monkeys shopping, during which Corwin announced that he wanted to buy another game cartridge for his GameBoy. Mom presumed he had figured out the cost and how much money he had, but when it was rung up, Corwin was short. He turned out some very sad looking puppy dog eyes1 and Mom covered the difference for him with a loan. Unfortunately, Corwin will easily cover it with his Christmas money (and for the relatives sending him some, know that he’s already spent a big chunk of it).
1 Another example of Corwin practicing behind the scenes to impress Mom. I had spent some time earlier this year working with him on that look, but he’s already more effective with it than I am.
[Dad is installing a game on Charles’ computer]
Charles: What you doing on my computer?
Dad: Installing a game.
Charles: But it my computer.
Dad: But Corwin or I might want to play on it.
Charles: You got youse [sic] own computers. You got lots of computers.
Dad: Would you share your computer with Corwin or his friends if you weren’t using it?
Charles: Yes. But it’s still my computer.
[Dad works on the install a bit more]
Charles: That my new computer. In twenty days it will be old.
Dad: It will be an old computer twenty days from now?
Charles: Yes. It not always be new. It change to old. It will be fast when it old.
Dad: It will be fast when it’s old?
Charles: Yes. It fast when it new and it will be fast when it old.
[Dad is glad to have the computer speed situation clarified]
While we were up visiting Aunt Debbie and her crew at Thanksgiving, she foisted off a bunch of junk antiques family heirlooms on Mom. One of them was a small tent that fits over a twin mattress. Mom set it up in Alice’s bedroom. Alice and Charles thought it was extremely fun, except when they would knock it over and Alice had to be extracted from the wreckage.
My big project after I got back was getting Charles computationally operational again. His computer failed a couple of months back and I hadn’t managed to convince Mom of a solution I found … appropriate. Then, a few weeks ago, I sent in my old blue gaming box (which POset enjoyed) to be repaired. Meanwhile I ordered another new computer for myself to replace it, one that was smaller, faster and much quieter. My repaired computer was slated to become Charles’, as it was still much faster than his old one and he never pays attention anyway so the noise wouldn’t make a difference. Of course, everything arrived while I was out of town but the first evening back (last evening) I got to work on getting Charles set up. I figured, since it had just come back from the repair shop, I’d just hook it up and present it to Charles. Sadly, that was not the case.
After a long evening, I managed to get it half way working. The next morning, I had become so obsessive that Mom gave in and we all went shopping for computer parts. After all, it was For The Children™, right?
Charles was very excited about buying stuff for his computer (that’s my boy!). We got a new CD-Rom drive to replace the old flaky ones and a new ethernet switch so both Corwin and Charles could cruise the network (but mainly so Corwin’s friends could borrow the computer for networked games). A few frustating hours later, I had a working system, ready for Charles to try his new Reader Rabbit game. Even Mom liked it, because she could play music videos from Nickelodeon for Alice, who danced like a maniac. Mom used to do that with her laptop but this was definitely more convenient. So, it was good for all the children. And if I have to break in a new computer so they can be happy, it’s a sacrifice I’m happy to make.
P.S. I also bumped Charles up to an 18” LCD instead of the old CRT he had. That was the last CRT we had in use in the house. And it turns out, no one else wants CRTs anymore. You literally can’t give them away.
I have finally returned home, to not much rejoicing. Mom even made me pick up the car I left at the airport before I could even see the house. But at least my computers were happy to see me! There was even a newly repaired one and a brand new one waiting for me!
The kids have been pretty good about Dad’s absence. Corwin and Charles have both asked when he is coming back, and seem accepting of the date. Alice is ok during the day, but at night she often wants to wander back downstairs and look for Daddy. Hanging with Daddy for a bit at night was part of her semi-regular routine. I try to keep her upstairs, but eventually, I let her wander down and follow her. She shuffles around looking confused, and finally submits to my picking her up and taking her back upstairs.
Corwin tried out for the drama club last week. One of the teachers organizes a school play each year. This year they are doing The Wizard of Oz. Corwin said that he read for the Scarecrow part.
I don’t know if he got that part or some other part, but he got a paper in his backpack Friday congratulating him on being admitted to the drama club. Should be fun. Most of the older siblings of the soccer team have been in the plays. Now we need to sit down and read Wizard of Oz so Corwin can get the proper grounding.
Both Corwin and Charles got tripped up by odd English semantics in the last week. One morning last week during breakfast, Corwin and I were talking about my lecture that day. I needed to make up a few more slides to make sure I had enough to talk about. Corwin asked me how many slides I needed, and I responded that it depended on now dense or thick they were. I had a printout of my slides so far sitting on the table. As I drank my coffee, Corwin looked through my slides. Finally he asked how the physical thickness of the slides affected anything.
That evening Charles was listening to the CD of the Christmas program music. When I was growing up, the church alwas did the same Christmas program, the basic nativity with the standard hymns. But our church does different programs each year. Generally a heart warming story that wraps around the standard nativity, e.g., little Johnny recognizes he is indeed blessed compared to many other people in the world. This year’s music sounds like Enya, ethereal, waif-like renditions of various Christmas hymns. Very pretty, but I cannot see how our stout little Lutheran kids are going to sound waif-like and ethereal.
Anyway, one of the songs is “Away in the Manger”. Charles was kind of singing along, and asking about the manger. I tried to explain what a manger was. Finally, he asked why it went away.
I think Dad has mentioned this too. Sometimes, Alice really, really likes to have her hair combed. Recently this has been at night. One way to get her to lay down is to start combing her hair. If you stop before she is completely asleep, she will angerly whap her head to indicate that you should continue. But if you keep combing, she will eventually drift off to sleep.
The boys never much liked or disliked having their hair combed. I think it is a hair length thing. They have always had short hair, so they wouldn’t feel the tugging of the comb.
Corwin is experiencing his first major interaction with standardized testing. The important one that affects our “No Child Left Behind” ranking is in the spring. They are doing this one kind of for practice and to determine where they should direct efforts to prepare for the spring. I believe they are taking the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. The entire week is dedicated to testing. Pretty much the whole day is either taking tests or taking a break from taking tests.
I dimly recall taking acheivement tests in grade school (Stanford something or another I think), but I thought we only spent a day or two on them. But of course that was many moons ago, so I may not be remembering correctly. It seems like it is pretty easy to let the the test drive how you teach. Most of the homework Corwin brings home seems to be more directed to learning how to answer test questions that learning something (the learning is incidental). I don’t think Corwin’s teacher uses the test to drive her in class instruction. This consistent education evaluation is a pretty tricky thing.
Corwin does not seem very concerned about the testing. Of course I’m not able to get much information from him about the test. As with most school things, he does not remember. Must be the memory eraser that have installed on the bus.
I don’t think I’ve logged this yet. For the last couple months, Charles has been talking about becoming a brother on his next birthday. We try to explain to him that he is already a brother, but evidently this is not true in Charles’ taxonomy.
From what I can gather, Corwin is a “brother”. Once Charles turns 5, he too will be a “brother”. Not clear what he thinks he is now. Perhaps a “big boy”. Alice is still a “baby”.
Slightly more than a month left until Charles is a “brother”.
I have to travel out to California again. Hopefully I will make it back for Thanksgiving. I am also sure that without having me around to take up all her time, Mom will find it easy to post many cute and wonderful things about the children.
It’s been a slow weekend. Mom and I got hit with some sort of flu and spent the weekend creaking along. Mom could barely speek.
Corwin, however, had quite the weekend. He didn’t have school on Friday and on Thursday I had to get some work done and Mom was off to some fancy-pants soiré, so I had Jack and Anwen over. Jack to entertain Corwin and Anwen to keep Alice out of the kitty litter. When Mom got home, she suggested that Jack spend the night, which Corwin and Jack’s parents thought was a fine idea. I had to roust Jack and Corwin out of the basement at 11PM. They didn’t believe me when I told them how late it was until they looked at a clock. Once I had them in bed, they wanted to stay up even later reading and playing Gameboy. Thinking ahead, I told them sure, stay up as late you like as long as you stay in the boy bedroom. Heh, I thought to myself, they won’t be up before 9 tomorrow and I can sleep in!
Around 6:45 AM Friday, Jack and Corwin were up and rowdy, anough that all of the poopers were active by 7:30. Such much for my clever plan.
After Jack went home, Jacbo’s Mom came over to help with the office. She ended up bring over Jacob, Jessika, and Jared to keep Corwin entertained. When they all left, they took Corwin with them and he ended up spedning the night there, then going to a movie the next day. Later in the afternoon Andreas showed up to play with Corwin. Later on from that, Matias showed up as well. I figured that Matias had been sent to bring Andreas home, but got stuck here, so I called to let their mom know that he hadn’t gotten lost. This came as a surprise to their mom, as she wasn’t aware that Matias had even left the house. It all worked out, however, and I think they had a good time. Heck, they even went outside at one point.
But it’s back to the grind for me today. Mom is somewhat recovered (although it appears that she considers cooking as good therapy, having whomped up a bunch of food yesterday). Other things are back to normal, with Charles throwing a fit and a book at Corwin because Corwin went in the house first after they got back from Sunday school.
Back at Halloween, I got a roll of Halloween themed stickers. It had a few hundred stickers on it in 8 or 9 different designs. I gave it to Charles, presuming that he would pick off the stickers one by one and put them on paper. Instead, Charles picked his favorite design and went through the entire roll, picking off just that design to put on paper. Not that Charles is obsessive or anything.
I must say, there’s nothing like Jehovah’s Witnesses to make you appreciate having a bunch of screaming kids. Everything is useful in some way.
Alice was having a bath the other day and decided that splashing water out of the tub was at the top of her priority list. She started with the tupperware bowl we keep in there for rinsing off hair. I of course immediately snatched it away from her. She, without pause or complaint, turned to a toy boat of Charles’ that was in the tub. That, too, was removed from the game. This stumped Alice only for a few moments, after which she realized that if she dunked the washcloth in the water, it would hold the water well enough for her purposes. This resulted in some more water out of the tub and the disappearance of the wash cloth. But the intrepid little girl was undaunted. She found a little plastic octopus toy that could hold water and squirt a tiny stream when squeezed. Alice tried to use this to get water out of the tub but filling it was beyond her skill set. Persistent and clever, not always a happy combination in a child.
P.S. For some reason, at the end of this bath, Alice would stand up if I wasn’t immediately next to the bath tub. The instant I turned and looked at her, though, she’d throw herself flat, face down, in the water and then giggle. This was a lot of fun until we forced her out of the tub. Luckily she’d drained most of the water by this time so she didn’t drown or get more water on the floor.
Charles was in pestering me about flashlights. He took my green flashlight and then asked for another green flashlight. I told him that I didn’t have two green flashlights and even if I did, he wouldn’t be happy because he’d just ask for three green flashlights. Charles considered this for a bit and then started say “I want two green flashlights! [giggles] I want three green flashlights! [giggles]”. After he got to five, he changed to “I want all numbers of flashlights!”. Corwin, I remember, would try to to think of new, bigger numbers. Charles appears to be a more abstract thinker and went straight for the entire set which, as he explained, would give him “the whole numbers of flashlights!”.
This evening Mom walked over to talk to me in my office, Alice in tow. As Mom stopped at the door frame to talk to me (she doesn’t like to get too close to me if she can avoid it), Alice suddenly sprinted for the storage room. Mom tried to grab her but Alice is a quick little thing when she has to be. Alice ran for the kitty litter and hopped in. Of course Mom was right behind her and immediately plucked her back out, but this doesn’t seem like a good habit. We may have to get a gate with a kitty sized hole in it.
Mom and I debated a while on whether I should post this at all, but I think it’s definitely the kind of thing I want a record of for later in life. Besides, an honest record should have the low points as well as the high ones.
Last Sunday I was trying to get some work done when I heard Mom calling out for Alice, who had wandered off while Mom was cleaning the house to avoid her work. Mom wandered about for a little while, calling out for Alice with no luck. I began to get a little concerned and joined in the search. We looked in my office, the basement and upstairs. Actual worry was setting when suddenly Mom looked stricken and said “oh NOOOO!”. She rushed off to the storage room and yes, there was Alice, fully immersed in what had she had only touched the surface of previously. Mom rushed off to get something to wrap her in so we didn’t have the debris all over the house. I grabbed the camera off my desk and took a couple of pictures to distract Alice from further playing until we could remove her and take her up for thorough bathing.
While Mom and I were nonplussed by the situation, Alice was a happy little camper the entire time. She did throw up all over the bathroom floor later on, but by then Mom and I figured it was probably for the best. At least we got her over the tile instead of the bed or the carpet.
P.S. The worst part is, it’s not something we can just lock away from her without even more disgusting results.
But if you’ve got a strong stomach, click the text immediately below.
After many attempts of pointless sitting, this morning for the first time Alice actually made pee on the potty. Hopefully, it is a good sign for successful potty training.
If you’re starting to think about a present for Charles for his birthday or Christmas (and Charles is of the firm opinion that you should be), you might want to check out this place. I have an old catalog from them and Charles has found it a wonderful resource. During the outing on Saturday, I got some colored paper that the printer can use and the combination of that and the catalog has been hard on the ink supply.
We went out shopping yesterday, because we were on that side of town and I needed to pick up some office supply stuff. That turned out well, because Charles likes paper and paper products almost as much as I do. We ended up getting him two presents there, a pack of calculator paper rolls (which he carried the entire time in the store and all the way home) and a Mini Color Explosion Rainbow pad.
After that we went to the bookstore, because Mom mentioned it casually and Charles latched on to it as a wonderful idea. Charles got another present there as well. On the way home, however, Charles refused to stop asking for presents every day.
Corwin didn’t have school today, so he was basically in a vegetative state most of the day. Late in the morning I decided to try and get him at least outside for a bit. I had some pictures to deliver to Mara’s family. As a result, since I needed some exercise as well, I forced Corwin to go with me over to their house. I expected to just drop off the pictures but Mara and Zina had the day off as well and their mom was having the same lack of outdoor activity problem. She seized upon Corwin as an excellent justification for kicking everyone out of the house. So I left Corwin there and headed home alone.
Later I got a call from Mara’s mom, to inform me that Corwin was heading home. I was told that the final conversation went like this:
Mara Mom: Are you doing OK, Corwin?
Corwin: I’m hungry.
Mara Mom: That’s fine. We’re just about to sit down and have some food.
Corwin: I need to go home and eat food there. Bye!
I have now recovered from the long Halloween weekend. It’s getting to be worse than Christmas.
Despite all this, Mom was never able to get Alice to wear the cute pumpkin costume nor did we do any pumpkin carving. At least that gives us a plan for growth for next year.
1 Note to self: the air-zooka seems to work well, which is something Corwin picked out as a present.
Alice can say “daddy” now. She likes to combine it with “no” most of the time.
Alice also likes chocolate donuts. If Mom buys some, Alice will find them in the groceries bags and try to escape with them. She doesn’t know how to open the bag yet, but I suspect that’s coming soon. She’s tried gnawing through the side a few times, though.
Alice is also fanatical about candy. She has a strong grasp on the concept of “individually wrapped treats”. She started looting her brothers’ treat bags as soon as they got back from the soggy outing. When I saw her doing that, she grabbed the first thing at hand (instead of looking for her favorite) and toddled off like a wild animal with prey, searching for a safe lair in which to feast.
After that chase down, I put the bags up on the counter, but Alice knows how to deal with that so I had to hide them, which caused an Alice melt-down. It’s an open question of whether it’s better to let her have the chocolate or the sand.
Corwin’s friend Keith from soccer came over last Saturday for the afternoon. They played at the house for a bit and then went over to the pond (Charles had a major panic attack at the thought that Keith and Corwin were at the pond without him as well). When I got there with Charles, Keith and Corwin were wandering on the trail around the the pond. I, of course, was armed wtih my 70-200 lens. This was a device of such menace that I was able to spend about 30 minutes chasing the two of them around the pond with hardly any motion on my part. You can see them here, the first time they looked across the pond and spotted me with my equipment. I ended up doing one circut and by the end of that, the boys staggered out of the woods, so exhausted that they submitted to being imaged.
After that, all three of them spent quite a while building various things in the sand. Charles even got to help out, carrying water from the pond to the construction site both to maintain the landscaping and provide wet sand for further construction. Eventually I had to drag them home so that Corwin could get ready for a party that evening.
