2 and a half

When it gets quiet

When it gets quiet, something is up.

Take Audrey and her friend Alexa. They have more fun together than Audrey does with most of her other friends and, as a result, tend to make lots of noise. You know - running around chasing each other, climbing on furniture, yelling and screaming - the sort of thing that toddlers do together.

But while we were eating dinner at Alexa's parent's house this evening suddenly the background noise stopped. Sure - Grace was on the floor playing with blocks and making a small racket but the noise upstairs stopped. In the midst of our conversation during dinner I noticed it, but, seeing as how we were talking and all, I figured it wasn't worth interrupting anyone.

When Audrey came down the stairs her mouth was full of something; when I asked her what it was she opened her mouth and could barely keep the mushed-up mass of brown, melted chocolate from spilling out of her mouth. "I'm eating choclllllit," stammered Audrey.

As if I didn't know.

She and Alexa had been upstairs getting into Alexa's candy stash. By her own account, Audrey had one hard candy and shared three Hershey's Kisses with Alexa. But my wife told me later that Alexa's mom said at least 10 chocolates were missing from the bag which means Audrey very well could have had 5 or so, and perhaps a lot more if Alexa wasn't matching her 1 for 1.

That's on top of a generous dessert of brownies and ice cream.

Surprisingly neither one was overly hyper but perhaps it's because they spent all their energy playing together.

Noise good, quiet bad.

Bye Sammy, and other news

Sammy the Elf has retired for the season, having wrapped up his tour of our home by hanging acrobatically from one of the cupboards in our kitchen. Consistent with Audrey's wishes he stayed around for an extra day or so after Christmas so that she could say her goodbyes. And even then, when he was gone on the morning of the 27th, she still felt she hadn't sufficiently said farewell.

But, out with the old, in with the new. Or the somewhat new, I suppose. Audrey's imaginary friend Cali is back, for the first time since last April, and again has been spending her time at the top of the big tree behind our house. As before, Cali still resides full time in Chicago (specifically Evanston, Audrey reminded me yesterday) and still shows up only around breakfast time. We're told she's only going to stick around for another day or two so we make sure to wave to her each morning.

Grace has no imaginary friends yet - at least none we know of - perhaps because she is too busy keeping up with her real friends. Namely her sister and her cousin Trever who have a tendency to steamroll her when they are playing together, as well as Tuaca, her second cousin's Boykin Spaniel who is currently visiting for a few days. 

Speaking of dogs, it's the first time the girls have been exposed to a live puppy in our home environment and, I must say, it's only making things worse for me, who has been resiting repeated requests for one. Not that I'm not a dog lover - I am - but it's always a lot more work than one thinks and we don't have a fully fenced yard. Oh - and there's the occasional dog that disappears because it gets eaten by a mountain lion, not that the Department of Wildlife would admit that.

It's not that dogs disappear often, but when you hear about an incident you don't tend to forget about it. In one instance that took place either early this year or sometime last year, a woman was walking her Yorkie at night and a mountain lion literally leaped over a fence, grabbed the dog from its leash and was gone, all in a split second. Imagine how terrifying that would be - the woman has probably been in therapy since. If she ever gets a new dog, perhaps a defenseless little Yorkie isn't the kind to get. 

As I said, out with the old, in with the new.

Santa Closet, sticky window decorations and an angel

Audrey's and Grace's cousin Trever has re-named Santa, courtesy of the song "Santa Claus is coming to town." When you're 2, like Trever, I'd imagine that listening to adults speak or sing in English is kind of like an adult who knows just a bit of French listening to a fluent French-person speaking. Some words make sense and others don't and some just seem to blend together. Hence, Trever's "Santa Closet," as in "Santa Closet coming to town."

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We have these window decorations that are sticky on both sides that Grace loves to play with. Imagine really pliable and somewhat gooey stained glass that, when arranged the right way on a window, are semi-transparent in the light and form a picture. But instead of sticking them on windows Grace crumples them up and tears them into pieces and creates a trail of them around the house. 

Occasionally if you're walking in bare feet or socks you'll step on a piece - the sensation is that you've just stepped on a slimy piece of banana or avocado but then you're relieved that it's something that can't make that sort of mess. 

She'll taunt us, too, by showing us that she's going to put a piece in her mouth and, when one of us gets up to take it from her, she'll sprint the other way as fast as her little legs can take her. And sometimes she's really sweet about it and will walk up and hand us a piece and say "dank-oo" which is her latest version of "thank you."

Yesterday she was reaching for a large yellow circle on the window through an opening in the wooden window shutter. But when she reached through the shutter closed a bit and her hand got stuck. She was surprisingly content about it - when I walked down the stairs and saw her stuck there she looked back at me and just waited. So I went over and saw that her hand was stuck and moved the shutter so she could extricate herself. She looked up at me with her big blue eyes and reached out to show me her prize and said, "dank-oo." She's such a sweetheart.

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Audrey's school does a Christmas pageant each year and this year's took place last Tuesday. As I drove her to school that day I asked her what her role would be and she didn't know so I guess it just kind of comes together somehow. When I dropped her off I found out from her teacher that she could either be a shepherd or an angel. That was an easy one - angel of course.

After the pageant Suzanne called me at work to tell me I'd be cracking up when I watched the video that evening. Sure enough, when we put it on, Audrey was the stand-out. As all the other angels sat there patiently on stage, Audrey was on her feet blowing kisses to the audience. And she was waving too - like someone on a parade float waving to the crowd. THAT kind of waving. Now, baby Jesus was a real baby and did perfectly and I'm sure all eyes were on him for much of the time, but it was a close call between who the show-stealer was.

Cousins

This past week Audrey's and Grace's cousins Sage and Bryce have been visiting from Las Vegas and her local cousins Jane and Trever have joined the party as well. That's six cousins who have been mixing it up at our house this week.

Having the Vegas boys around has reinforced how different it is to have boys in the house versus girls though (keep in mind I'm the only male in my household). They spend a lot of their time beating on each other, eating and playing video games - basically what you'd expect pre-adolescent boys to do. Audrey gets amped up and runs around after them but mainly hangs with Jane who is also older and who Audrey looks up to like no other. Trever is a year younger than Audrey and enjoys driving his battery-powered, toddler-sized car around the house. And generally my wife and I try to keep baby Grace out of harm's way. (One of the cousins forgot she can't yet walk and set her down on her feet to stand by accident - she was fine but you get the drift.)

Audrey is really loving it. Being a 3-year-old and having all your cousins around is like being... well, a kid in a candy store. But only because they are all eating so much sugar all the time. (What are you supposed to say when your daughter wants candy that her three cousins are munching on right in front of her?) She is really going to miss them when all of them are gone.

Meanwhile our house is a bit like a revolving door. Mi casa su casa, as they say.

A sad ending

A sad ending to what I had hoped would be the opposite. As a father to two girls I teared up while reading Rick's post:

It is with great sadness that we have to share the news that our baby Julia died Tuesday morning. She suffered from an unrecoverable brain injury and internal bleeding that most likely started on Friday and got worse due to the heavy anti-coagulants she had to take while on the heart support machines. She was too sick to remain on the heart transplant list and could not recover enough to get back on it.

Holding her for the last time while she peacefully drifted away and realizing we would never see her again was the most difficult thing in the world. She had a strong spirit and will be missed so much. We still have a great life and a lot to live for, so we will find a way to get better and get through this. Thanks to everyone for pulling for us and praying for us. May peace be with us all.

Baby Julia

My wife's friend Rick has a baby named Julia. She's 20 months and underwent mitral valve replacement surgery on April 30. Whether or not you know that the means, there were complications and she's been battling to stay alive. Two days ago she nearly died. Her story is here - pray that the doctors do the right things and that her body is strong enough to recover.

Swim meet

I swam growing up and I'd forgotten how hectic swim meets can be. We attended our niece Jane's state swim meet last Saturday and it's a whirlwind. Throngs of under-14 swimmers milling back and forth, coaches' tables lining all sides of the pool and parents and other event-goers hurriedly making their way somewhere. The pool deck is so narrow on three sides it's a wonder nobody get shoved into the pool occasionally.

Then there's the schedule. Swimming is pure dedication. Jane swam Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and on Saturday and Sunday, at least, she had to be at the pool by 6am. She swam several events each morning and then had 4+ hours of downtime before swimming more events in the late afternoon/early evening. Meets are that way throughout the season and the season pretty much lasts all year. It's no wonder Michael Phelps occasionally (and foolishly) displays a wild side - he's always swimming.

Jane is a great swimmer and comes from a long line of them, including her dad who nearly qualified for the Olympics a couple decades ago and her aunt (my wife) who was quite the swimmer growing up. Jane is a distance swimmer which means races longer than 200 meters or so.

Audrey and Grace attended of course - it was their first swim meet. Everything remains so new for Grace that she just stares wide-eyed at everything she sees. Audrey loved seeing Jane but found the pool area, with its tile walls and floors amplifying the continuous roar of the onlookers, coaches and swimmers, a bit loud. So she plugged her ears while she watched.

(The ear plugging thing has become common around loud noises. During the last 4th of July Audrey plugged her ears during the entire fireworks show. A month or so ago we took her to an event where a brass band provided the entertainment - our front row table meant her ears would remain plugged the whole time. The one time she doesn't plug her ears, in fact, is when she's the one making the loud noise. Then it's Daddy plugging his ears.)

In any case, Audrey was bummed when we had to leave the swim meet and Jane had to stay to swim some more. My wife and I left contemplating whether we've got what it takes to raise a kid who's got the schedule of a swimmer. Audrey says she's contemplating it but I think she's a bit wary of the water. Right now it's all about seeing her older cousin Jane.

In memory of Riley Ann

This is just so sad. On the one hand, justice has been served - Kimberly Dawn Trenor will be in prison for the rest of her life and her fellow inmates will probably try to kill her at every chance they get because she is such a despicable human being. But on the other hand it's impossible not to think about the awful things she did to her 2-year-old in July 2007 - things that tortured her and killed her. To read words from Kimberly's journal about the killing makes one want to vomit. What on earth is wrong with people? 

Be good to your baby girls. And to your baby boys. They are defenseless and 100% reliant on you, their parents. You are their caretakers and their heroes. How could you be anything but that to them?

Hot tub

Just wrapped up a great ski weekend with my wife and some family and friends. Among those present were my 12-year-old niece, Jane, and my friend's 8-year old son, Jordan. They are great kids and it was fun to watch them in action - they both can board like it's nobody's business, making me wonder whether I was anywhere close to as good as they are at those ages. Audrey and Grace were there too, although they can't ski quite yet. (Maybe next year for Audrey.)

The ideal progression of a ski day is to wake up early, ski all day, do the apres ski thing for a bit and then find a hot tub. It turns out the adults were pretty good at waking up late, skiing a half day and then going home to lounge on the couch. Jane and Jordan, on the other hand, followed the formula more closely (skipping apres ski, of course).

On Saturday evening it was time to hit the hot tub - for some anyway. While the adults planted themselves on the couch, a bit too sore to move, Jane and Jordan wanted to go for a dip. The snow was falling, a purple light glowed from under the water and pop music thumped from the speakers outside - what more could a couple young kids want?

I'll tell you. Gatorade. Apparently it's the champagne of non-alcoholic drinks for kids under 13.

Jane asked my wife for some and she brought a bottle for each of them - lemon-lime for Jane and grape for Jordan.

When Jordan got his we heard him exclaim, "Purple Gatorade! Wow, it doesn't get any better than this!" (Jane is a little older, so I imagine it was also fun and maybe a bit nerve-wracking for Jordan to be hanging out with an older girl.)

After the fact we found out that Jane was quite pleased with her Gatorade as well.

They spent nearly 45-minutes in the water with snow falling, music playing and most important, Gatorade flowing. Honestly, I wish that still did it for me. If I swapped beer for Gatorade it would be so much easier to wake up early to ski in the morning.