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. :)