Halloween Costumes

Happy Halloween

Aparently Fazoli's does kid's night every Tuesday. Who knew? You'd think that if this was a regular thing with them that they would have heard of washable paint. But no. So Tuesday Peter got stuck in traffic and I ended up for once picking up Sammy since I was home first. She announced that they school had told everyone that Fazoli's was letting kids paint pumpkins. So we were all ready to skip the whole cooking thing. The paint was, as I mentioned, not washable. And of course, Charlie's jacket was new. Sigh.
So now the funny part. As we're coming home with the pumpkins in the trunk, Charlotte is describing how she painted hers with eyes and a mouth, and hair and bangs. Then she announces, "I decided not to put arms and legs on the pumpkin because real pumpkins don't have arms and legs."
I mentioned, "but they do have faces, right?" no one laughed.
We carved our pumpkin last weekend. I had been so grateful that it had been cold so that the pumpkins wouldn't start to rot. Then of course, we had temps in 70's all week. Oh well. But we had some other pumpkins. I carved one of the one's out my garden today. It's funny, the girls take after Peter when it comes to slimy stuff. So aside from cutting off the top, I got to do most of the scooping out of guts and whatnot. The girls love the idea of carving pumpkins, but not much else. Though apparently Charlotte likes pumpkin seeds.
I also "carved" a pumpkin at work. With acetylene. We cut out the face and then replace the pieces. Then we place a chemical inside that reacts with water to form acetylene (as in acetylene torches). We pour in peroxide , which reacts with the pumpkin to make oxygen. Then all we need is an electric spark. Fuel + O2 + activation energy = boom! We did it about 6 times this week before the Jack O'lantern lost his forehead. I'll have to post a picture. Along with trick or treat pics.

I don't suppose anyone actually reads this, but Ned made it through surgery fine and is home and feeling better.
A few quick stories:
Sammy loves the Magic Tree House stories where Jack and Annie travel to different places and times in a magic tree house. Charlotte wants to be just like Sammy and asked us to read one. This one was about dinosaurs. The main characters meet a pteranadon, and Annie decides to call it Henry. Charlie announces, "I think the dinosaur's name is Pteranadon, not Henry."

Peter was talking to Sammy the other day and was talking to her about what the word biology meant. He told her that Dad was a biology professor. She was surprised and said she didn't know he was a professor. Peter asked her what she thought he did, and she responded, "I just thought he was really smart!" :)

Sammy gets to be in the Festival of the Horse parade this Friday! Her girl scout troop will be walking in it. We'll take pics!

Charlotte has recently become enamored with our little scarecrow "Skippy". She will go out on the porch and talk to "her" (because it has long hair) for 5 or 10 minutes. The other night she brought it in, gave it a bath, put it to bed and walked around the house telling us all to be very quiet. Then when it was time for dinner, she insisted on washing Skippy's hands too. (We insisted this be done in the play kitchen, not the bathroom sink). Skippy spent dinner at her feet. (Under the table). The whole thing was adorable.

A turn for the worse

Ned has apparently returned to the hospital. They have confirmed gall stones and an infection of some kind. They are uncertain as to exactly where the gall stone is, so that could be problematic. He is to have surgery tomorrow (Friday) morning. I think Mom and/or Dad are going up to help out. Please keep him and his ladies in your prayers.

The wisdom of Charlie Dot

Charlotte has had some real winners with Peter lately:

Me: I can't even fool Charlie anymore! Charlie Dot: That's 'cuz I'm too fast for you!

Charlotte (out of nowhere): "If someone takes your car, you call the policeman and they try to find your car, and then if they don't you call your 'surance and they give you a little money to get a new car with" Me: "That's right. Did you talk with someone about this?" Charlotte: "No. I just made it up."

And for the moment when you wish you didn't have to keep the smile off your face:
Charlotte didn't eat more than about a bite of dinner on a night I made cookies to send to Emily. They were still warm and the smell filled the house. Charlotte, of course, protested that she desperately wanted them, but did not want to eat her dinner. She was quite adamant and upset. Her reasoning was simple:
"I want them in my tummy now because they taste good!"

Labor Day Weekend

Once upon a time, we used to host a labor day weekend gathering in Columbus. Before anyone had kids the trip wasn't as bad and we had places to put people. We haven't done this in a while, but as some of you know, we invited people down this past weekend. We seemed to have forgotten that while inviting guests encourages us to clean the house, it also invites problems. Yes it rained, but that was the least of our problems. Before that, I left my phone at Kroger. When I went to get it, the person who had picked it up (and taken it home) called our house and Peter went out to get the phone. So when guests were calling with last minute questions Mom was answering the phone with "well, they're not here right now." But even that was a minor glitch. Before all this, I was at church (We do Labor Day on Sunday so people can travel on Monday), and Peter called on the cell (which I had yet to lose), to tell me to hurry home because Ned, my brother who was visiting with his wife and kids, had gone to the emergency room, leaving Peter in charge of 4 girls, with very few instructions for two of them!
Now I should say here that Ned is home from the hospital, and feeling much better. In fact we've packed his family in the care and they should be home soon as I write this. Apparently he became suddenly ill with nausea and (pardon me) vomiting. So he went to the hospital, where the non-medical patient and family diagnosed him with gall bladder issues, possibly gall stones. The people with the MD's gave him morphine, barium, and a CT scan, and then didn't come up with a firm diagnosis. In the mean time the two year old he left with us was understandably distressed, but that was the extent of the "understandability". She has started talking, but as anyone with kids know, two year olds are often difficult to understand! Let's add to it that this two year old is bilingual, and doesn't always pick English when you ask her what she want to drink! (Thank goodness her sister Ishani was there to translate!) But the girls were very well behaved and did quite well. Shreyasi, Ned's wife, came home for a while which helped considerably.
Eventually (that is, five minutes after it started raining) our guests started to arrive. We promised them enough food, but somehow we only had burgers and fruit salad (which one of them brought) on our plates. We forgot to cut the water melon, or cook the baked beans, or make the vegetables, or set out the dessert. I don't make a very good host. Eventually my dad came back from the hospital and I offered to cook him a burger. I put a couple more on the grill. Then I told Emily, "I tend to get distracted, so if it seems like a long time since I've checked on those, go ahead and flip them." Of course, I forgot about them, and so did Em who went inside. While chatting with some of our guests 20 minutes later, it suddenly dawned on me... that I'd need to get some new burgers on the grill.
But everyone (at least politely) said they had a good time and we enjoyed ourselves. Ned came home and crashed, but his girls we happy to see him. It seems to invite disaster, but we may ask everyone back next year!

Rethinking the Bike

I bought a bike this summer. The idea was that I could get some exercise and save a little gas (and thus in some small way help save the world). I knew I hadn't ridden a bike in about 10 years, maybe more, but I thought I would remember. I test drove the bike and felt like I could handle it. I got the helmet, a mirror, pads, a lock, even a bag so I can carry library books or groceries. I figured maybe I could ride to work once a week or something.
I quickly discovered that I am not currently strong enough to ride my bike to work. I made it one day (after a spill that prompted me to buy the elbow pads), but there is a decent sized hill on the main road outside our subdivision and I can't get enough speed to really be safe, especially at rush hour. So the goal was to build up some muscle so I could ride to work. My second problem was that I get to spend very little time with the girls, and I didn't want to interrupt that time to go on a bike ride alone. (I am a little faster than they are on their bikes). I can't ride at night because Kentucky's only bike law seems to be that you need to have a light to ride at night. Therefor, I haven't had much practice with the bike.
So after having the bike for almost two months I went to the store on Tuesday and while on the hill in our neighborhood I was barely able to pass the little old lady out for a morning stroll.
I had gone to the store to pick up a prescription. Of course, the pharmacy doesn't open until nine, so I had to wait to go, which meant I was a bit pressed for time for getting to work. I took my car keys, because my house key is attached and threw it in the bag with my wallet (which has a spare car key) and the key for the bike lock. So it took me a while to sort through all the keys to lock up my bike while I was at the store. On the way home, I was pondering how much gas I might have "saved" thus far. It would be generous to say that I might have travelled 12 miles on my bike. That's about half a gallon of gas, or (again, generously) $1.50. [Incidentally I had to pay 75cents to put air in my tires while I was at the store].
Then I got home. I couldn't find my keys. I had the bike lock keys. I had my wallet with my car key, but no house key. I didn't have time to ride my bike back to the store, so I drove. (At least I found the keys quickly) So much for saving gas today. Then I drove to work. Of course, I completely forgot that the ample parking at 8 am is non existent at 10am. So I drove around the block several times trying to find a spot. I think I thus negated the remainder of my $1.50 savings and any corresponding environmental benefit. And I still can barely make it up the hill.

We spent last Saturday at the Louisville Zoo. Peter decided he liked it much better than the Cincinnati Zoo. I think that was in part because parking was easier. In fact, it was free! It was a warm day, but we all had a good time. I think it is a mark of a good zoo to have lots of things for kids to climb on. So, you can see the girls on a Rhino here. They also climbed on statues of an elephant and a tortoise.

What I thought was great was that they had "zoo keeper's notes" which told something about the specific animals we were looking at, not just the species. One told about a bird that had just hatched earlier this summer and was not nearly full grown. Another (sadly) talked about how one of the animals had an incurable form of cancer, which was why it was so thin. We also learned that the bald eagles at the zoo did not have to be netted in because they both had arrived after they had a wing permanently damaged by a gunshot.

The girls, of course, enjoyed themselves. Sammy was fascinated watching the meercats eat live crickets. (We saw some small birds join them at feeding time, and learned that if they didn't hustle out of there with their lunch the meercats might eat the birds instead!). She was also a fan of the penguins and danced for them a bit. It took us a while to find the penguins. For obvious reasons, they are kept indoors. However, we were walking through the building for a while and every room was a sauna! The one other air conditioned room though was for the orangutan. Charlotte was entranced! She just watched and watched for a long time, and finally we had to pull her away to go find the penguins!

While we were watching the jaguar, Charlotte noted that "Diego has a jaguar". (Diego is a cartoon, cousin of Dora). I pointed out that his jaguar was a baby and that grown-up jaguars do not make good pets. When I explained why, Charlotte looked terrified, and clung tightly to me, so I told her that's why there was a fence between us. For the next several days Charlie would somberly announce to us, "Grown up Jaguars are not good pets. That's why they have a fence. The jaguar stays on that side and we stay on this side."

When we went into the gift shop, of course they had stuffed animals of practically every animal at the zoo. Charlotte came across a pile of frogs that looked much like the stuffed one we got here when she mastered potty training. "This is just like Dagio" she announced. (Incidentally, the frog is named after the term, "Adagio" she hears on Little Einsteins. I guess some cartoons are educational!) Then she asked, "Can I carry it around with me?" Sure. "Another one, can I carry this one too?" I guess so. "A tiger tiger! Can I carry this too?" At some point I had to put a stop to it, so I think I limited her to carrying four stuffed animals. Of course she wanted to take one home, but her room is packed with stuffed animals she never plays with! But we did find a magnet with her name on it (for some reason, Charlotte is really hard to find).

The girls also picked out some post cards. After Charlie Dot carefully taped hers into her notebook at home, she was "writing" as she talked about the pictures. At one point we overheard her dictate "And we saw two tiger tiger roars, which is my favorite animal."

On a side note, I just have to brag a little bit. A couple of weeks ago I was talking to Sammy, who had not yet started first grade. We were talking about people sharing something, I don't remember what. I asked he off-handedly, "So if there were ten of them and 5 people, how many would each person have?" She paused to think, but never lifted her fingers to count. In about 15 seconds she asserted "two." The kid intuits division. :)

We went to Brown County Indiana to celebrate our 10th Anniversary. (Thanks to Mimi for watching the girls). We were only there for a couple of days. Nashville is a small tourist trap kind of town with lots of art shops and candy stores. We bought some homemade ice cream at Miller's and had Pizza at the Harvest Moon. I forgot how good bread sticks and cheese can be! On Saturday we went to the state park where there were several hiking trails. They were a lot longer than we thought! When we finished hiking we went horseback riding. This was Peter's first time on a horse. His horse got startled early on in the trip and ran up a hill a short ways! Yikes! After recovering the rest of the trip went well. The horses liked to trot to catch up, which is quite bouncy.

Saturday evening we went back into Nashville for dinner at the "Holy Cow" Restaurant. (It tastes so good it should be a sin... or so they claim) We had a cheesecake shortchange for dessert which was awesome! Then we went to a musical theatre performance set up like an old radio show performing Hollywood Musical classics. What fun!

The weather was perfect all weekend for being outdoors. Never too warm or too humid, particularly in the park. Though we were walking around a bit, we were mostly in the shade, so it all balanced out. It didn't rain at all (unlike today!).

More pictures appear below.

The top is a view from our patio room. Beautiful! The middle two are from when we went horsback riding (my rear still hurts!). The bottom is from a "look out" on our hike in the State Park

Sammy on Horseback

Sammy LOVED Horseback camp. She even learned to trot a little. She was dissapointed that someone had to lead the horse, but the camp was only a week long!

It's like wearing a hug

When the girls were babies and we would get them ready for bed we would tell them that pajamas were so cozy, they were like wearing a hug. For some reason we reminded them of this about a week ago. This morning Charlie Dot came into my room as I was changing out of my pajamas. She said to me, "I'm going to give you a hug since you are no longer wearing yours."

Sammy has been a bit ambivalent about Day Camp. She doesn't make friends easily, and with the turn over from week to week it's been a bit socially challenging, though she has enjoyed the opportunity to play. This week she is at horseback camp. She is having a ball! After just one day she was going on and on about all she learned. Plus, an acquaintance of hers is also in the camp so she KNOWS someone, which is good.

We also have her in swimming lessons. What a crazy week! Actually, she was supposed to start swim lessons last week and we just spaced it. D'oh! But she is loving these as well, and her friend Morgan is in her class. So I think this will be a good week for her, if an exhausting one!

Emergency Room

So we made trip to the emergency room last night. So you are not kept in suspense, everyone is now fine. We were walking to the library for their last summer kids activity. Charlotte had decided she was thirsty and had slowed down to drink some water. When she ran to catch up she fell flat on her face and cut up her chin pretty bad. Since we had walked and were about half a mile from home, it took us a few minutes to sort out what to do. Some people a few houses down had been outside and were wonderful. The brought out a first aid kit to help stop the bleeding and to bandage her up. The wife sat down with Sammy and calmed her down while Peter ran home to get the car. The husband brought out a clean shirt for Charlotte (hers was drenched in blood), and then got Popsicles for the girls while we waited for Peter.
Understandably, both girls were pretty upset. Charlie cried for Daddy the whole time he was gone but calmed down considerably once we were in the car. I think while her chin really hurt, it was more the chaos that was frightening her. Sammy couldn't stand the sight of the blood and was upset that Charlotte was screaming and she didn't know if this was a minor thing or a major thing.
We got to the ER, and while it seemed like a long wait when my child had a gash in her chin, She had stopped bleeding and we probably only had to wait 10 minutes to see a nurse and another 5 or so to see the doctor. They didn't even need stitches. They have a glue called "dermabond" and glued the whole shut. Charlie had been calm, even cheerful, up until this point. But the strangeness of the situation and the doctor hovering over her were too much and she started bawling again, which of course had Sammy hiding in the curtain. But once the doctor left we all calmed down quickly and returned home. The doctor thought Charlie might end up with a black eye, but aside from her initial abrasions, she looked fine this morning. Whew.

"Duty is my new favorite word!"

In the past few days, Charlie Dot has fallen in love with the word "Duty". At first we thought she thought it was a funny way to refer to bathroom habits, but no, she just seems to like the word (as we have only used it in the sense of obligation). We have a collection of funny sounding words. My family will recognize that our list started with "rutabaga" and "kumquat". I don't think the girls exactly realize those are real words. Our list also includes "didgeridoo" and "heeby jeebies". Sammy at some point added "green dumpster". I think she just thought the list was arbitrary, but she still laughs when she hears the word. And now we have "duty". Peter told the girls a make-up story involving a man in the army (Johny) who was no good at anything (except marching... you can guess where that went), so he kept getting "duties" Kitchen duty, hole digging duty, hole filling duty... Charlie was delighted.
Charlotte also loves the song "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious", though of course has considerable trouble with the words. The interlude between verses includes some nonsense "humdeedle dee dee Hum diddle eye..." Since it was nonsense anyway, Charlie just stuck in the word "Duty" for the heck of it.

On a completely unrelated note, here it is almost midnight, and instead of going to bed here I am. I blame the summer. While I have classes starting at 8 over the summer, but not until nine usually during the year, we have been letting the girls stay up a bit later. Their schedules are not so rigid. So by the time they are down for the night, and I can pick up some work or knitting in peace, I really ought to be going to bed. But I need my kid free time to unwind! What'll I do when their bed-times are later just because they are older?

Church today was interesting. I was helping serve communion, when we ran out. That's right, we ran out of communion. Now, for those not familiar with communion in the Lutheran church there are two important features I should note. We take bread and wine, but the bread is supposed to be unleavened (flat) because that was what was eaten at the passover. Secondly, unlike in other protestant churches, the communion is not seen as a symbolic gesture, but rather the bread and wine become holy after being properly blessed. With about a dozen people to go, there was no more bread, and dwindling wine. Someone ran off to find bread while the rest of us stood there for what seemed like forever. I thought perhaps there was a supply of unleavened bread that we had. No, apparently it is made each week. We couldn't just grab a few slices of sandwich bread. So when the person returned it was with... wait for it... apricot pound cake ( I think, but some kind of shortbread). Then the pastor did the VERY abbreviated blessing over the pound cake, and the last few people had probably the tastiest communion of their lives. (And we just barely stretched the wine). Too bad we weren't working with loaves and fishes!

Hankey Doodle

Happly Fourth of July! We've been singing patriotic songs all week. Charlie Dot's favorite is "Hankey Doodle". :)

Garden of Constants

While I was at my conference at OSU, we took the girls to the "Garden of constants". The most promenant feature is these giant numbers scattered about. There are also imbedded in the walkway thinks like pi and boltzman's constants, but these are much less noticeable. At one point I had it in mind that I would take Sammy's picture by these numbers each summer. Then we moved to Kentucky, so it didn't happen. But I thought, as long as we're in the area!

Peter took the girls to Villlage to meet some old colleagues and to the Park of Roses. The Rose festival was not going on, but the flowers were in full bloom. He also wen't to Trader Joe's to stalk up on some of our favorite Chai Mix. Later we let them run around at the mall for a while because were were going to be in the car for a while.

I'm from China!

Sammy and Chalie have been playing a game all morning that they are now calling "China". It started as "house" while we were in PA. Sammy (the mom) sent Charlie Dot to school. She came into the bedroom with her lunchbox and announced "I'm from China!" She repeated this several times while "riding the bus" and "eating her lunch" and then "going home". Now the game is called china instead of house and the girls are wearing blankets like long skirts to get ready for a ball of some kind. I think Sammy is stretching Charlie Dot's patience a bit though. Plus, it is WAY past naptime!

Strawberry Picking

Erika Suggested we go strawberry picking. Apparently in KY, the season ends in late may, but we managed to find a few. The girls seemed to enjoy it, but what was more fun was eating the strawberry shortcake that night. I also made some jam. Yum!

Birthday Bash

Sammy had her birthday party last weekend. Sammy asked for Auntie Em to come and do some "cool" science stuff. We got some dry ice and Emily did all kinds of fun things with it. My favorite was when she made bubbles with the dry ice. They were all smoky and because carbon dioxide is heavier than air they did not act the way you expect bubbles to. We hooked the kids up with "lab coats" (large white button up shirts) and let them do a few experiments of their own. One of Sammy's favorites is the mentos/diet coke trick. I did that with a big soda bottle, then gave each of the kids some smarties and an individual diet coke. They also got to make ice cream with the dry ice. Because it carbonates the ice cream, it tastes a little like a float. We neutralized the acid a bit, so I liked it. Sammy wasn't a fan, so we pulled out some store bought stuff as well.

Random quote from Charlie: "I want my taco naked".

To keep taco filling from going everywhere, we have in the past put the girls' tacos in a sandwhich bag. They have recently be experimenting with just holding it in their hands with no bag, or "naked".

On Sunday

Peter is out of town. We've been explaining to Charlotte that he will be on his trip until Sunday. So Charlotte looks out the window and says, "But its Sunny right now!"

Tonight she asked me to put a hair band on her... one of those cloth ones that wraps around your head. This one had thin white, blue, purple and green stripes. When she was all set she looked at me and said, "Now I look like Santa Clause." I asked her why and she said, "Because I'm wearing one of these!" So I said, Santa wears a hair band? And she nodded definitively and said, "YES".

Kindergarten Graduation

Sammy has her kindergarten graduation tomorrow. They get caps and gowns and everything! The kids have learned a poem and a song to recite. Sammy's pretty pumped.

I've always sort of thought that kindergarten graduations were odd. I mean, why this grade but not say 2nd or 4th? should we do one every year? And its not like they are really going to flunk someone from kindergarten. I mean, extreme cases maybe, but I think pretty much every kid goes on to first grade. Not that I'm not proud of her or anything, but it seems silly. Still, the we get to see her in an adorable outfit and she gets to do her poem and all. Of course, Charlotte wants to be in the graduation now too. Thanks Southern Elementary!

Peter's missing the event. He's out of town for the annual ARML (Math league) competition. I got him a shirt for the trip. It says. "I was promised there would be math involved." Actually, originally it said "no math" but I covered up the word "no" with a smiley face patch. Perfect weekend for him to leave town too. (please read that with sarcasm) The girls are both in tumbling classes. Charlotte at 9 and Sammy at 10:15, with a 45 minute break in the middle. But this week they are doing pictures, so the girls have to be there 20 minutes early. Not that they EVER get pictures done before class. They wait until everyone shows up, realize other kids are getting pictures then cut class short and do them at the end. Sammy also has a birthday party to go to on Saturday. Then on sunday they have tumbling again, to make up for last week when tumbling was cancelled! At least Peter will be back on Sunday.

We went to Indy last weekend and had a fine time. Charlotte has developed a real attachment to Mimi. On the way home she slept most of the way. When she woke up about 45 miles from our house she started calling out, "Mimi! Mimi!" I know she can't wait until we visit again!

While we were in Indy we went to Toys R Us. I had some free $3 coupons that would expire, and the girls like to go and play. I used to be able to find things they really liked, but already they are getting beyond me. Of course, part of it is they like the bells and whistles initially, so it's hard to distract them. On the other hand, one thing that never fails is rubber balls. For all the other toys, charlotte wanted to play with rubber balls. Anytime we go to a store they want to play with or at least hold a rubber ball. Such cheep entertainment!

We did get Sammy a baseball mitt and I practiced catching with her. She can be good at it, but she hates it when someone tells her how to do something if she isn't doing it right. She can be very stubborn! We have to walk a fine line between getting her to accept help and getting her so mad she'll refuse to play. I was pretty successful yesterday, but I was also working on dinner at the same time, so we only played catch for a few minutes. Then Charlie Dot came home with Peter and she wanted to play. But she doesn't have a glove. Sigh.

A New (Blog) Home!

Since Geocitites is shutting down this summer, we have moved here. I'm trying to figure out how to import the old blog files, but Yahoo doesn't make taht easy! More soon.
In the mean time, here is a little anectdote. Yesterday morning Peter "stole" Charlie Dot's nose, as fathers will do. He mimed putting it in his pocket and said he'd hold on to it until we were at Mimi's this weekend. Instead of protesting as we normally expect, Charlotte simply said, Okay.
We all promptly dropped the subject and hadn't thought about it since.
Then at breakfast this morning, Charlie asked Peter, "Do you still have my nose?" After a moment to decifer this strange request, Peter reached for his pocket and said, "Oh, yeah. Do you want it back?" Charlotte responded, " No, we're not at Mimi's yet!"