A Unique Birthday

Having four b-days parties--one with our family (per C's insistance), one with Oma and Opa, one with the Fay clan, and one with the Allen clan--is unique (or perhaps, quadrique).  That apparently is the benefit of having a b-day near Thanksgiving and traveling to visit all available relatives (and having your mom demand each one of them make --or buy-- a cake for you...). 

Also unique is having your sister eat part of the candle.  In all fairness, it had icing on the bottom and it was the same color as the candle.  And once you start to eat something sweet and yummy, you just want to keep going...even though we paid enough for the icing and cake to have a different density and taste from the candle. 

As part of southern tradition, E had a cake of her own at the Allen b-day celebration (a "smash cake").  It was decorated with a lady bug--her costume for Halloween.  The red and black icing also make for extra festive messiness when the child smears icing all over herself.  Initially, E disappointed mommy and Aunt Kiki by not smashing and smearing her cake with sufficient gusto.  So mommy took E's hands and showed her how to mash her cake.  She then got into the swing of eating it off her hands, wiping it in her hair, balancing a chunk on her ear, nearly dumping the cake onto Dad, and all of fun things that babies do with cakes that justifies the ironclad southern tradition of giving babies their own cake so as to amuse their guests at the party and provide their parents opportunity to make videos with which to embarrass them in their teenage years.

E is celebrating her one year anniversary with teeth--two bottom teeth and now one on the top.  She's been a bit fussier lately because of it and is less interested in eating solid foods, even fruits.  She's also starting to walk holding onto our fingers.  She seems to get a kick out of it.  Walking shouldn't be too far away.  She still wakes up once or twice a night for feeding and often takes a while to go back to sleep.  Or maybe she just likes rocking or pacing the hall with daddy.

Aside from eating candles, M is phasing out of naps.  That is, after about two weeks of using her nap time to dump bottles of hair goop on the carpet (or into her shoes), and/or dump all her toys, clothes, hair bows, etc., on the floor (but doing it like a stealth ninja), Dad decided it was better to find alternative uses of our afternoons.  She's very talkative, likes to dance (in her phraseology, "shake my booty"), and likes to take off her clothes and diaper and dance.  Tracy has asked a friend who is a retired ballerina when dance lessons start.  The lessons start at three but require pants or poofy dresses.

M likes to ask about cousins A and H and ask where Oma and Opa are.  She likes to inform us earnestly that A and H got time outs for riding scooters in the house and not listening (which happened while we were on the phone with them a few weeks ago).  She also tells us that A and H call her "Mena-Beana" but that "Julie, Oma, Opa" don't.  In the car, she likes to ask what the driver is doing.  After hearing the answer, "I'm driving" 749 times, she will now update the question to "Are you driving?"  When asked what she is doing, she'll reply enthusiastically, "I'm sitting in my seat!"

C is doing very well in math at school and is doing better in reading and writing.  He got perfect scores on his two projects:  one on the wolf and his Thanksgiving project on the turkey who dressed up as a Christmas tree to escape being Thanksgiving dinner.  As C observantly wrote, "People like Christmas trees.  They don't eat them."  He also received his Bobcat badge in Scouts.

Eric is coming to the conclusion of his foray into his alter ego, "Mr. Mom." Life will be interesting as 2012 begins, as both Eric and Tracy both will be working full-time at their universities. Which means E will join her big sister at preschool. Miss Annette may want to wear earplugs on January 2nd...

E's Physical Law of Children in Motion

With apologies to Newton and Einstein, on Sunday I documented a new physical law of the universe:  Children traveling in an undesired direction move rapidly and in a straight line; Children traveling in a desired direction move slowly and randomly.  This law explains the bend in the space-time continuum which makes it impossible to arrive on time at a desired location regardless of the time buffer allowed by the parents for herding the children into the car.  It also provides an explanation for the mathematical anomoly that you can multiply the speed of the child in the desired direction by the speed of light and the speed of light is always faster.  To predict Estimated arrival times (E), use the equation E=1/cm2 (where cm= the speed of the Child in Motion).

Corollary 1 (the Halloween candy adjustment for the rate of motion):  when the child has illicit Halloween candy in hand, his or her speed quandruples in undesired directions and causes them to disappear into black holes while they hide to consume said candy.  Today, Miss M used a step stool to climb onto the kitchen counter to get a packet of Skittles (after Daddy told her she could not have candy until after dinner), then went upstairs and crawled under her bed to consume them.  When daddy realized M had disappeared, he searched downstairs, then upstairs, and upon finding M under the crib in her room, Miss M proudly produced the packet of Skittles to assure Daddy that they were "yummy" and to invite him to have some too.  Nice try.

We have missed the yearly tradition of posting Halloween costume photographs for the imminently practical reason that we can't find the camera to take the pictures.  So for the record, C wore his Iron Man costume (much to T's consternation as she had bought him a Transformers costume), M wore an Ohio State cheerleader costume to trunk or treat at church and a beautiful yellow princess dress (Belle) for neighborhood trick or treating, E wore a lady bug costume.  Ba should have taken the shepard paraphernalia from the Advent Xmas show a few years as he discovered a second corollary and second Halloween candy calculation adjustment to his Physical Law of Children in Motion: 

Corollary 2:   children have the same charge and are thus repelled from one another and thus cannot move in the same direction at the same time.  As corrected by the Halloween candy physical spacing adjustor:  The presence of candy in a doorway is the most powerful opposite charge in the universe as it can bring the children together long enough to grab the candy and say "thank you."  Or as C amusingly put it:  "Trick-or-treat-thank-you."  He is very efficient.

E is consistently using the traditional crawl to move at high rates of speed, has been pulling herself to standing positions using furniture, and cleans all the crumbs (and dirt) C and M leave on the carpet.  She likes to chatter away happily but will also screech her displeasure when intercepted on her missions to get into trouble.

Campin' with Colin

After months of asking to sleep out in a tent, C got his chance this weekend with his Cub Scout pack.  And it was Ba's first time sleeping on the ground in a really long time ('cause once you're staff at camp, you get to sleep in a cabin).

C and the rest of his Tiger den did extremely well.  They did all their activities quickly and then just played in the woods during their free time.  We went on a hike, ran an obstacle course that included a rope bridge, made a bird feeder out of a bagel, cooked our own meals over the coals.  It was fun to see C go for a hike and on the rope bridge as he wouldn't have done much of either had he only been with me.  In fact, on the hike, he started a "Mighty Tigers" call and response cheer that impressed his den leader.

He did well overnight too.  He was worn out by the end of the day and fell asleep during the "retiring of the flag" ceremony done by the Boy Scout troop at the campfire.  But after I carried him back to camp, he took his medicine, brushed his teeth and changed into pajamas without a tiredness meltdown.  I thought he might want me to stay with him in the tent until he was asleep, but he was reassured that I would be nearby at the campfire and kept the "big" flashlight in his sleeping bag "just in case."  I went to the campfire and he fell asleep on his own.  He only woke up once during the night and fell back to sleep once I reminded him that we were camping.

Sunday morning, I had parent breakfast duty and he went along with me to get breakfast ready.  As the boys went through line, he helped by telling them how many of each item they were allowed to have and showed them where to get juice.  In fact, he was a great helper the whole time, helping me load and unload the car, setting up the tent, and--his favorite--using a rake to clear a site for the tent (and cleaning up much of the ground cover in the vicinity!)

He slept almost the whole drive back to Charlotte and it was a well earned nap.

First Crawl

E's first crawl--the official body off the ground type-- occurred Saturday Sept. 24.  It was only a few feet until she reached her sock drawer (so she could distribute them across the floor...) but both Mommy and Daddy saw it.  Since Sat, she has only crawled one other time (also briefly) but continues to cover territory quickly with the commado crawl (using elbows and dragging the body).  She also is pulling herself up into sitting and kneeling positions.  She'll stand for a while if someone holds her or leans her against furniture.

M and C both are terrific helpers with E and she gets very excited when she sees them--she smiles and squeaks and fails her arms and legs.  C has been busy with Tiger Scouts on Tues evenings and soccer practice on Thurs evenings and games on Sat mornings.  M is obsessed with "Yo Gabba Gabba".  T got Fufa (the pink one) and Toody (the blue one) dolls for her and she takes them everywhere.

Mena Elise--U.S. Citizen

First, apologizes to C since his birthday festivities haven't been posted yet.  But today is M's day.  Her citizenship "ceremony" was this morning.  We dressed up, took C out of school for the morning, so we all could be there for the big moment when mommy or daddy would forcibly try to get her to raise her right hand and then would say the oath for her.  (As she presumably would be yelling "No, Daddy.  No, Daddy.  No." to the amusement of everyone in the room but me.)
 
In fact, there was no ceremony, oaths, or anything close.  I basically went up to a bank teller window, handed in her green card, signed two copies of the citizenship certificate on her behalf, and that was it.  Other than trying to coax C and M to stay with me or at least be quiet as they chased each other through the rows of chairs in the room.  No flag-waving (though they did give us one to take home), no speeches, no Star Spangled Banner, no fuss, nothing.  Maximum anti-climax.

But it's official and final.  M is a US Citizen.  God Bless America.

And she's off...

Colin: The Musical (Live)

This week, C attended a musicals camp at UNCC. He initally wasn't excited about attending--although he had been the one to choose this camp (E editorial interjection:  T insists she is not projecting.  Ahem.) but quickly changed his mind the first day when he saw his friend, Sy. As the week progressed, C had a blast. He was secretive about Friday's "big show." As C stated, "Mommy, it's a secret. I no can tell you what we doing."  Though one of the great things about keeping secrets at age 5 is that you can practice your musical numbers every night at home for your parents to applaud, safe in the knowledge that they are too dense to realize that the songs are part of the show.  By the time you're a teenager, they'll really be out of it...

The big secret? His group put on a musical production of "Stone Soup." C helped decorate the set and had a fun role in the production. Watch out Broadway, here he comes!

And now, the video(s), Stone Soup, parts 1, 2, and 3 (Ah, the wonderful world of trilogies. Regretfully, in this production you'll find no Vader revealing himself as Luke's father - or, thankfully, Jar Jar Binks). I must apologize in advance for the quality of the video. Apparently, in the ravages of mommy braindom, I forgot to charge the video camera and had to use the cell phone's video camera program to capture C's performance for posterity. Having said that, hope you enjoy "Stone Soup: The Musical"!

Part One:

Part Two:

Part Three:

Only a parent could appreciate...

a momentous day like July 28, 2011.  No, not because it was Oma's b-day (as momentous as that is!), but because Peanut used the potty for the first time.  See told ya (all non-parents said "ewww.."; all parents smiled knowingly).  Several weeks ago, she had been asking to sit on the potty frequently, but never went, and hadn't asked to try it in a while.  So last night after dinner, I was intrigued when she called to me that she needed to go potty.  I sat her down and the deed was done.  Of course, as I'm trying to praise her in the background Lil E was screaming because I left the room and C was screaming that I hadn't procured (his word ;) ) him something to drink quickly enough.  Yet, we try not to let that dampen (more word choice issues) the festivities.  T reported that Peanut used the potty three more times this morning, including doing the mysteriously-named #2.  When she (Peanut, not T) got up from her nap, I asked her about it.  She responded:  "I put poopy in potty.  I pull up my pants."  That sums it up!

Lil E has been spending more time on her tummy with things she really wants just out of reach.  Her parents diabolical, but not so clever, plot to place aforementioned items just out of reach and get her to crawl to said object.  No dice.  Lil E has figured out the she can roll over a few times to cover the same ground. - clever girl (she is her daddy's girl, after all).

Shawnee 2011

We started with Lewisburg's (pre)4th of July parade.  This year was especially fun as Ashley, Haley, and Aunt Julie came to Oma and Opa's to join us for the parade.  Peanut was content to sit on mommy's lap until the last 15 minutes of the parade (apparently, she was observing her brother and cousins and wanted to get in on the candy action).  C trained Ash & Haley how to collect candy thrown from the floats and vehicles (as if any training is necessary when it comes to candy).  Though do avoid any candy coming from a horse...

The highlights of Shawnee included the visit by Uncle Jamar (later Jo'Mar; to the rest of us, traditionally known by the more pedestrian Joe) and "Mrs. Uncle Jamar" (or her more conventional appalation, Aunt Helen).  We were pleased C was able to discover Uncle Joe's inner black nationalist, which has been sublimated since his attempt to join the Black Student Union at Gettysburg College in the mid-1970s (thereby increasing its numbers to 4).  His rejection apparently left him scarred and he moved on to other radical causes such as equality for women.  To this date, he engages in stereotype-defying behaviors such as  refusing to sit in the sun at the beach and reading the New York Times in public.  Perhaps C's summoning of the inner Jamar will unleash the rage of the 1960s campus movements (which, appropriately enough in this case, mostly happened in the 1970s) on the GOP PA legislature.  I'm sure that will be effective...and entertaining...

Monday, we had a fun day with Uncle John, Aunt Peggy, Katie, Braden, Lily and Ryan at the beach at John and Peg's Pocono's place.  Uncle John is an accountant and used to work for the IRS, which explains why C was unable to identify any black nationalist tendencies.  Along the same lines, a few years ago C called him the "white whale" while observing John swimming.  Despite working for The Man and being a tool of the establishment, he and Jamar seem to get along well enough.  Perhaps he appeased his brother by voting for the post-colonial Kenyan, Anti-Christ, Muslim, UCC-attending, Marxist presidential candidate (along with the leftist states of North Carolina and Indiana) while not admitting it to his accountant friends.  Regardless, he's a nice guy though he does have a peculiar tendency to fall off buildings.

On Wed., we visited the Land of Make Believe.  No, not the PA legislature, an amusement and water park in NJ.  C liked the "cupcake ride"--a.k.a. the tilt-a-whirl. Peanut enjoyed having mommy spin her in circles while sitting in the teacup seat on the carousel (evidenced by her shouting "again, again" when the ride stopped).

Unlike her brother, Peanut had absolutely no reservations or hesitation at the Shawnee pool (well, in all fairness, it took C 2 seasons and help from Uncle Kevin to feel comfortable in the pool - now, he's a champ!). In fact, she unleashed her inner daredevil by insisting on jumping off the side of the pool into mommy's waiting arms (at least she listened when mommy said "wait" and would say the same thing, complete with pointer finger waving, before leaping off the concrete in a single bound). Peanut also allowed mommy to submerge her face underwater and help her float. Lil E also enjoyed the pool. She smiled, laughed, and splashed as mommy or daddy would walk with her.

As usual, we had our annual C & Ash funny face extravaganza photo event. The ham factor catapulted to level 100. This year, we also had the joy of experiencing C, Ash, and Peanut's "Thriller" zombie dance, added below for your enjoyment.

After Shawnee, Oma and Opa took us to T&D's Cats of the World, which thankfully had more than cats.  We saw lions, tigers, bears, ...monkeys, deer, a lots more, including some animals I'd never seen before.  Pretty remarkable for a small zoo in the thriving metropolis of Penns Creek, PA.

As always, everyone had a blast.  We're already looking forward to next year... and the next trip to PA to see the whole Fay clan with Heberlig extension for Thanksgiving.

And now, what you've really been waiting for...the vacation slideshow!

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Seven Months Old

Today Lil E is seven months old. My how she has grown over the past seven months. I'm amazed at the amount of growth she's experienced in a short amount of time.

I will say one thing - No one makes her laugh quite like C. Here's a sample of the giggles he creates.