Beach memories...

Ah, Summer...

How the days fly by. Please forgive our lapse, faithful wingateupdate readers... The kids and I (Kate) thoroughly enjoyed phase two of the vacation -- after leaving Grandma Carol's house, we squeezed in a visit to Bethlehem, PA to visit Great Grammy Stella and Aunt Tootsie, then headed to Pop Pop and Grammy Rena's farm in WV for a few days. Oliver and I visited friends in Morgantown during the days, while Cora and Pop Pop (and Grammy on her day off) did it all on the farm. And I mean ALL. They fished, they rode bikes, they read books, they played with the dogs and cats, they rode horses, they cleaned the horses' stalls, they had a campfire, they saw deer and a whole flock of turkeys, they visited the beavers down at the pond, they fed the hummingbirds, they went to a parade, they fixed a broken bench, they had just candy for dinner one night... Needless to say everyone was pretty wiped out at the end of each day (except for that candy night). Cora soaked up every minute. That's how she prefers life, it seems -- constant stimulus, constant activity, constant interaction. I was just glad to have someone else providing it all for her.

Now we're back home, enjoying fat tomatoes and baby okras from our burgeoning garden. It's always a difficult re-entry process for all of us after a vacation ends, but so far so good. Oliver still says "Uh-oh" as frequently as ever, but he is adding in some new words every now and then. Brian's massage class is going well -- he just taught his second class today. I'm still busy unpacking and catching up on email. We'll be sure to post some new pictures soon, but I just didn't want another day to go by without posting something.

The days have begun to run together here, but one thing is clear: today is our last full day. We're determined to eke every ounce out of the sand and surf and family before 10am Saturday when we check out.

Happy Birthday Cora!

Fourth of July finally came and went, and Cora is now five years old. She has been waiting a whole year for this. Just after turning four she asked how soon she would be five. She hasn't asked about turning six yet, so I think she's going to savor this milestone for a while.

We were gearing up for a great fireworks display last night. A barge full of fireworks positioned itself in the ocean just as it began to get dark. Then the wind started whipping and a gigantic thunderstorm obliterated all chance of any fireworks. The storm was a great display itself, with high winds, driving rain and dramatic jags of lightning striking the water. We stood on the porch and watched; Cora even stayed out there for a while with cousin Rusty.

The Ocean

The ocean seduced both children yesterday. Cora loves to stand at the line of surf and let the water run over her feet. She goes into a meditative state, watching the waves come and go. She will stand there for ten minutes, not saying a word, with a smile on her face. Then she'll let out a wild squeal when a big wave crashes in. But overall the water seems to calm her.

Oliver was still spooked by the ocean yesterday. We edged him near the surf in our arms or sitting on the sand. When the waves approached he let out a concerned whimper and clenched us tightly. Then, yesterday afternoon, just as we were preparing to leave, he went nuts. He started charging into the waves, cackling and laughing. He pranced on the sand and gyrated with delight. I could barely keep him from diving headfirst into the surf. Several big waves doused him pretty throroughly, and he just cackled some more. I'm not sure what flipped the switch, but the the ocean is now his friend.

We made it!

We're halfway through our first day at Bethany Beach, just inside the Delaware state line. Cora is contentedly slurping on a Hawaiian shaved ice and Kate is putting Oliver down for a nap.

We're not roughing it by any stretch of the imagination--we're staying in a gorgeous ocean front condo with all the amenities, wireless internet included.

Both the kids ot their first glimpse of the ocean yesterday. Cora has been to the ocean before, but it's Oliver's first trip. Cora got to the top of the stairs, saw the ocean and said, "Um, let's go to the pool." She wasn't too sure. Oliver was very concerned as well; too much newness to process.

A good night's sleep helped. Cora and Kate took a walk on the sand this morning with a bucket and collected shells and other treasures. After a while we went down to the water. As we walked close to the water Cora said casually, "Daddy, I want to hold your hand." Then she crushed my knuckles in a vise grip. We just stood in one spot for about twenty minutes while the waves washed over our feet. Then Cora said, "Daddy, let's move a little closer." We moved up, and before long we were just a yard or two from the breaking waves, getting splashed. Cora was squealing with delight, saying over and over, "This is great! This is super-dee-duper!" and other variations on the theme.

Oliver, meanwhile, took an hour or so to warm up to the notion of the ocean water touching him. But slowly, surely, just like Cora, he realized it wasn't so bad.

Beach Bound

It's Saturday morning and I've been awake for about five minutes. The kids are occupied at the moment and the computer's available, so this is a fine way to get the morning cobwebs out.

We're beach bound today after our first day of travel. Everything went smoothly, all things considered. It only took two days or so to pack our bags and get the house relatively clean for some friends who will be staying at our place while we're gone.

We got to the airport early with both kids in good spirits. I remember when Cora was young I thought we would never be one of those families you see at the airport with a luggage cart full of a teetering pile of bags. We are one of those families now. It's unavoidable. One extra kid really tips the balance. The luggage increases, but there are still only two adults to carry it all. We checked both car seats, three bags, and had four carry-ons to boot.

As we stood in the ticket line we saw a prime example of how not to behave while traveling. A guy in military fatigues stormed to the ticket counter without waiting in line. He started yelling at the counter agent from about five feet away: "We gotta get going here!!" We couldn't hear the conversation from behind him, but his head bobbed and changed color in a way that we knew violent things were coming out the front. The Southwest people knew just how to treat him--they made him wait. After we checked our million bags he was still standing there about to implode. Our ticket agent admitted that, had he been nice, they would have sent him straight through to his gate.

We moved on to the security checkpoint next, and the metal detector beeped when I went through. I was moved into a holding pen until a security guard could come over with the metal detector wand. On the first pass the wand beeped right over my groin. Ahh, yes...my belt buckle. I took the belt off and set it aside. Second pass, it beeped again, right at my groin.
The guard: "Sir, I need you to lift your shirt. You may have a metal button on your pants."
Me: "I think I should tell you about my penile implant."
He appreciated that. Sure enough, I had a metal button in my pants. Before he patted down my legs, he advised me to hold up the waist of my pants so that we wouldn't "expose your penile implant."

The plane trip was smooth--Oliver was due for a nap and conked out right after takeoff. He slept until we landed. Cora had the window seat and stayed glued to it, watching the clouds go by and admiring the clouds.

G'ma Carol swooped us up at the airport and we headed to Mary Pat's for a wonderful evening of Afghani food, conversation around a backyard fire, s'mores and a pomegranate margarita nightcap.

Cora was delighted to see Cousin Elise, her hero. She slept in Elise's room last night on an air mattress slumber party style.

A few hours in the car today, and then....beach!!

Cora and Mommy's Story

Kate and Cora composed a story today, with each of them taking turns making up sentences. The complete story is reproduced below. One of the two contributors is italicized throughout and the other one isn't. See if you can figure out who's who.


Once upon a time there was a man.
This man was very very tall.
He drank a lot of alcohol.
This made him very sleepy.
And it kind of made him hyper. One night, when he had had too much alcohol, he got sick.
All of a sudden, a fairy appeared.
The fairy said, "If you drink too much alcohol, you will get sick."
The man said, "I drink too much because it dulls the pain from always hitting my head on the doorway, because I am so tall."
The fairy said, "Nonsense. You just let it alone and run your head under some water."
The man asked, "Will you use your magic to make me not so terribly tall?"
The fairy said "Yes." Then the man got shorter and shorter until he was as short as a telephone wire.
He was so short, he couldn't even reach the doorknob, or climb into his huge bed, or sit at the table to eat his huge food.
The fairy came back again. She said, "I think you have to get a little bit taller." Poof!
The man felt himself getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger, until he was a normal size, not too tall and not too short. However, his hands stayed tiny.
Then the fairy came back and said, "Your hands are little. Let's make them bigger." And so bigger, and bigger, and bigger his hands got.
They grew so big he couldn't lift them.
Why, now, the fairy was getting tired. She was called back by that man again. "My hands are too big. Give me smaller hands please."
And so, the fairy made the man's hands just the right size for his body.
The man just drank water like he not normally did. He never drank alcohol again, only when he felt like it, but not usually.
The fairy went back to her fairy kingdom and went to sleep because now she was so sleepy from doing all that magic for the silly man.

The next morning, the man woke up and went to the market.
He bought six gallons of water, and one teensy weensy little drop of alcohol.
He drank all the water, and he drank the drop of alcohol right before bedtime.
It's not good to drink alcohol right before your bed because it will make you hyper in the morning sometimes and might make you sick.
Well, that night, the man had very bad dreams.
But it wasn't so bad, but he got scared and started to run outside. He told all the people there was a dinosaur in his country.
They all said, "Oh, don't listen to him, he's just a silly drunk."
But he told them he wasn't drinking a lot of alcohol, just six gallons of water a day.
They didn't believe him and kept laughing at the man.
And he guided them to his house in the dark dark night and showed them the gallons of water.
Then they believed him.
And now, they believed him every morning. He said that they were great friends to him when he had sixteen gallons of water.
They asked him about the dinosaur in his country.
It was all just a dream.
The fairy looked down from above and smiled.
The man said, "There's a fairy up there for any of you that drink too much alcohol. She makes you as small as a telephone wire and then makes you big again."

another good one

Cora 2
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

complete with ice cream from Bobbie's Dairy Dip on the cheeks and shirt .....

Photo op

Cora 5
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

Cora usually won't sit still for a picture, but I managed to get some good ones today. There's a fresh batch of pictures on the Flickr site to enjoy.

smile!!!

smile!!!
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

We had a big weekend of entertaining, with friends over on Saturday night and friends and family over on Sunday night.

We put Cora's new bunkbed together Saturday morning, which proved to be a wise move. Several kids came over Sunday night , and the bunk proved to be very popular. I'm not sure if Cora would have been comfortable sleeping in the bunk bed Sunday night--it would all be so new--but after the kids crawled all over it for hours it was clear that 1. bunkbeds are cool, 2. top bunks are cooler. So she went to sleep with no problem after everyone left.

The bunkbed was another bequeathed item from our friends who are moving up north and also gave us the swingset. In one fell swoop they have certainly raised Cora's spot in the pecking order. The swings and the bunkbed are kid favorites, if not outright status symbols. I remember my own bunk bed fondly, as does Kate. Cora spent time in her room this morning, playing with dolls on the bottom bunk and then climbing up to the top to play some more. She has never really enjoyed pretending alone in her room very much, but the bunkbed seems to create a sort of sacred space. The bottom bunk is enclosed and safe, and the top is high above the parents. We haven't taken any pictures of the bunk yet, but we'll document it soon.

peek a boo!

peek a boo!
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

This is our most "interesting" photo on our Flickr account, according to their "interestingness" ratings. It is interesting I guess, and definitely cute.

It's finally here!

It's finally here!
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

Cora's eyes just about popped out of her head today when Grandma Sally dropped her off from camp and she walked into the backyard to see her much-anticipated SURPRISE. I do believe it lived up to her expectations, even if it isn't the biggest hermit crab ever. She was hanging upside down on that yellow bar within about five seconds, then worked her way through the swing, up the ladder, down the slide, and then did it all again. And again. And again...

At bedtime tonight, Cora said, "Mommy, will my big surprise still be there tomorrow?" I assured her that it wasn't going anywhere, and she promptly passed out, exhausted from another big day as a four-year-old. Lucky kid.

YUM!!!

Eat your greens!
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

Just thought I'd share a snapshot of what's growin' in our garden these days. Thanks to Grandma Sally, the gardening queen, we've got quite a bounty of fresh, delectable goodies growing right in our backyard. It never ceases to amaze me that I can harvest the green beans one day, and by the next afternoon, I've got a whole new batch ready to be picked. They really do grow overnight!

Brian and I earned major grown-up points today -- we met with a lawyer to set up our WILLS. Now, this is not my idea of a fun outing, but we managed to make a nice afternoon out of it. The lawyer we worked with was a real zombie at first, totally flat-affect, but after we cracked a few death jokes with her she lightened up a bit. Hers is definitely not a job I ever want, even if she did make a pretty penny off our short half-hour visit. Something about asking people over and over questions beginning with, "If you were to die tomorrow..." just doesn't appeal to me. Ah, well, to each her own.

Cora presented me with some of her hot-off-the-presses artwork/writing the other day. She drew a picture of a tree with the words (and I quote) "CHreez Ar BYUdOFl." Gotta love that phonetic spelling.

Oliver has been helping us as we continue to organize our back house in hopes of turning it into an art space for the fam. Today, he rummaged around in a pile of stuff and managed to procure not one, but two plungers. He had quite a jolly time thwocking them on the ground. Easily amused, yes...

Cora's June retrospective

A few pics from Junes past and present...


Surfin' 2002


That cheesy 2003 smile


A rare moment in 2004 when she actually left the cute pigtails in for more than two seconds


2005 -- Look, Mom! Garlic!


Bathing beauty 2006

She's growing up to be quite a stunning, sweet, bull-headed, articulate, confounding, one-of-a-kind, priceless young lady. (Says one misty-eyed Mommy)

The BIG surprise...

(First, a disclaimer -- this info is still a surprise to Cora, so if you happen to talk to her on the phone in the next couple of days, mum's the word, alright?)

Some neighborhood friends of ours will be moving away soon, and we are inheriting their backyard playground! It's a kid's dream come true -- swings, slide, playfort, sandbox, you name it. We decided to keep it a secret from Cora, so that when she got home from camp one of these days soon, it would be waiting for her in the backyard. But I (Kate) have a hard time with secrets, so I told Cora she would be getting a very exciting "something" soon, but I couldn't tell her what it was. This ended up backfiring on me -- it really pissed her off that I wouldn't spill the beans.

A few days later, I decided to make use of Cora's away-at-camp-time to trim the overgrown bushes in the backyard to make sure the soon-to-be swings will have enough room to move. Later that evening, when Cora noticed the trimming I'd done, I couldn't resist telling her it was to make room for her surprise. Well, that really gave her something to chew on. Ever since then, at random times, she'll just come out with a guess as to what this big backyard surprise is. Thus far, she's guessed a big truck, an airplane, and a pool. Then this morning she and Brian were playing out back and out of the blue, Cora said, "Daddy, is it the biggest hermit crab ever?" Ah, the brain of a cunning four-year-old.

We'll post pics of the playset as soon as it's up and running. Til then, ZIP IT.

The Wedding Crasher

The Party Animal
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

Aunt Janine was inspired by the following May blog entry and submitted this photo from Anne and Nathan's wedding:

Where am I....where is my Blackberry?....must have left it in the car with my sippy cup.....who are all these people....I'm feeling a little woozy...really must master this walking thing soon...

Great work Janine! It's amazing what children can conceal from their parents. If you hadn't caught it on film we'd still have no idea!

We've got a Reader

Cora is reading now. She's been working up to it for a while, sounding out letters and putting together three letter words. But in the last two weeks she made the leap to full blown reading. She caught me when I skipped a word during her bedtime story tonight. That's a scary thing because sometimes she picks out long stories on purpose just to stay up later. If I can't skip any words we're in trouble.

The Little Red Wagon

Kate here. Well, we've reached yet another American family milestone -- the aquisition of a Radio Flyer wagon. After a zoo trip yesterday, sans wagon, during which Cora spent almost as much time riding piggy-back (on an already weary Mommy) as walking, I decided -- wagon time. After a brief test-run at our local Toys-R-Us, we headed home with our new purchase, which, the salesman assured me, required minimal assembly. The assembly was quite straightforward, and for once the instruction booklet was actually clear and understandable, but holy moley, this d*** thing just about killed me trying to put it together. The nuts were lined with some kind of plastic coating which is, I understand, designed to prevent loosening. Well, it also prevents tightening. I had to work so hard trying to get just eight bolts tight that my right hand has three big blisters, one of which actually became an open wound in the process. Thank goodness for Cora's prompt medical care ("I'll go get the big honker band-aids, Mommy!") and her chanting, "Go, Mommy, go Mommy, go, Mommy" as I put my all into the last blessed bolt. She's also quite handy with a hammer -- I didn't have to help her at all as she banged the red hubcaps onto each wheel, while I took a much-needed time-out on the sofa. Finally, our wagon was in one piece and ready for its first spin. Grandma Sally came over and we took kids and wagon over to our neighborhood park for a pre-dinner outing. I wish I had some pictures to share, but I am still (much to my chagrin) untrained in the ways of Brian's fancy camera. I'll post some pictures as soon as he's taken them. Overall, a pain in the ass to assemble, but well worth it.

Bedtime protests

Cora, at bedtime a few minutes ago, indignantly: "Sleep isn't that important for our bodies."
Mommy: "Cora, without sleep we would die."

How's that for a goodnight? We haven't heard a peep from her yet...

Flashback

Cora started camp today and rushed off without even saying goodbye. She was ready.

Oliver is imitating our words more lately. His words still consist of mostly monosyllables, but they're starting to take more recognizable forms. A list off the cuff:
ball=ball
waa=water
coa=cora
teet=bird
moo=milk
daddy=daddy
mah=mommy
tees=teeth
nack=snack
ow=down
eye=eye
bye=bye
tee=tree
bebutt=belly button
ooh=shoe
bubbooh=bubble
ish=fish
tickaticka=tickle tickle!

We're brainstorming this list while Kate nurses Oliver in the living room. As we say his words he keeps popping off and confirming our pronunciation.

In documenting Ollie's words we were inspired to look up Cora's words when she was around his age. Here's the list from September 17th, 2002, when she was fourteen months old. The picture in this post is a picture of her from that month.

pooter=computer
tees=keys
buckle=buckle
dun=down
noonul=noodle
meyh=melon
cake=rice cake
bye=butterfly
boon=balloon
ood=food
bock-ee=broccoli
baw=ball
baby!=baby!
man=man
bebutt=belly button
beebah=bib
mackie=napkin
boat=boat
buddha=buddha
budt=bird
wok=walk
manna=banana
keek keek=kitty cat
waadooh=water
back ack=backpack
poon=spoon
wow!=wow!
bock=block
minkie=monkey
pooh=Pooh (Winnie the)
bottle=bottle
peacock=peacock
boomboo=bamboo
bat=bath
hat=hat
book=book
egg=egg
bean=bean
quool=squirrel
tee=tree
muck=milk
teet=teeth
tutu=tofu

It's amazing to see what a wide lens and nimble tongue Cora had at fourteen months (and that hasn't changed).

Message from Cora

Dear Elise and Alex, and all your Dads and Moms,

I hope that you have a happy trip to the beach. I am looking forward to making sand castles and playing in a kiddie pool and playing out on the beach and finding seashells too.

Love,
Cora

Cora packed her suitcase for the beach this morning. She obviously doesn't take after her daddy, who packed the night before for a four month trip in college. Cora's packing almost a month in advance. She's ready to go!

Summer

Summer vacation is intense. All of our routines have suddenly been released from their moorings with Cora out of school. Now she is here, all the time, every minute of every day, ready to do something or be engaged or have some attention or get some attention away from Oliver.......anything except rest or take a break or (gasp) take a nap once in a while, even when she's exhausted and there are bags under her eyes.

Oliver, meanwhile, has taken to yelling in the car, for long stretches, in a monotone. It sounds like he's saying "WaaaaaaaaaaaooooooooooooooW!" over and over. It seems he is finally fed up with the Little House on the Prairie books that we've been listening to in the car. We're on book six, and Oliver must be irritated by the narrator's voice. When we put in the disc and the book starts, he cranks up a loud "WaaaaaaaaaaOoooooooooooW!" and continues, over and over, in a monotone, until we stop the book. Resourceful kid.

The Chitlins

pool bucket
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

The Pool Bucket

We hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. We didn't do anything fancy; just stuck around here and sweated in the heat. It was close to ninety degrees all weekend and we were inspired to create our own pool out of a large bucket. As you will see in the video, there's just enough room for two and not much room for swimmming. But it was a hit with the kids and kept them occupied for several hours.

Oh that hair...

Bath time
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

It will be time for Oliver's first haircut soon. Several people have inquired in the last few days whether he is a boy or a girl. But it's so hard to think of cutting it....

Parade press

Kate got local news coverage in the paper and on television. Here's a link to the newspaper article.

Teeth!

About four nights ago Oliver didn't sleep so well. He was cutting a front bottom tooth, so we figured it was bothering him. The next night he slept even worse, waking up every two hours or so, obviously agitated. The next morning Kate felt around in his mouth and discovered about four teeth coming in at once. Premolars are pushing through on top to help with all his chewing.

Some doctors say that teething pain is mostly a myth and that it doesn't bother kids at night. They are obviously childless doctors. Teeth are like the proverbial watched pot that never boils--their progress is agonizingly slow, especially when your sleep depends on them. We're hanging in there but looking forward to more than two hours' sleep at a time.

Cora is down to one and a half more days of school before summer vacation. She is very excited. We just can't believe it's summer vacation already.

Kate and Phyllis

Kate and Phyllis
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

Mothers Day Parade 2006

fruity mama
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

What a day -- Nashville's First Annual Mothers Day Peace Parade was a huge success and went way beyond my (Kate) expectations. We had a great turnout, young and old, in strollers, on legs, in wheelchairs, riding trikes, joyfully celebrating our human family and the awesome contributions mothers make to world peace each and every day. As with Anne and Nate's wedding, the gods were smiling on us and decided to part the rain clouds just in time for our parade to begin. Not one harsh, derisive word was utterred, not one negative response from the passersby, -- it was truly a celebration of our common desire for PEACE, regardless of political leanings. Plus, I got interviewed by our local news channel and will hopefully make it onto the 10:00 news tonight! Click on the pic to see more photos from today, and I'll send links to media coverage in another post, to come soon. I hope you all had a fabulous Mothers Day -- I did!

Spotted at the Wedding...

Deranged Baby Businessman
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

Where am I....where is my Blackberry?....must have left it in the car with my sippy cup.....who are all these people....I'm feeling a little woozy...really must master this walking thing soon...

Wedding Weekend Part 2....

So yes, the mountain air was chilly. And sweet and clear and moist. Wonderful to breathe. G'ma Carol snatched Oliver up and Cora started playing with Mary Grace. We stayed until dark and Cora played tag and hide and seek with flashlights in the dark. I reunited with some dear friends. None of us could sleep that night--we were too keyed up. Cora was awake until 11:30, much to our dismay.

After Friday's rain, Saturday morning came with a clear blue sky and a light breeze. Perfect weather. It reminded me of my second season at Omega when a group of Peruvian shamans came for their first workshop in the United States. The day before they arrived, a huge storm hit the campus. It raged into the night and we all had to sleep in one of the meeting halls for safety. Some large trees fell in the wind and it felt like we were in a hurricane or a tornado. The next morning, the sky was brilliant and the campus felt like it had been scrubbed clean by the storm. Then the shamans arrived. It's impossible to say for sure, but it felt like a supernatural storm, and these were supernatural voyagers. Perhaps they wanted to clear the energy before their arrival. It certainly felt that way. And perhaps someone was smiling on Anne and Nathan too, clearing the space for their ceremony.

Wedding Weekend Part 1...

Due to the epic nature of any road trip with children, this post will be written in several installments. Pictures will be coming soon. We neglected to take any of our own because we were having too much fun.

Rain greeted us Friday morning as we packed the car for the trip to Asheville. It intensified as the day progressed, buffeting the car on the highway and limiting visibility to ten feet at times. Tractor trailers in front of us kicked up plumes of spray that swallowed our car in a misty fog. Not a good omen for an outdoor wedding weekend.

The rain followed us sporadically all the way there. Whenever Cora needed to pee the rain would miraculously stop. Once we got back on the highway again the deluge resumed. This happened probably three times, and Cora found it quite amusing.

After almost seven hours in the car we pulled into Deerfields with the rain still coming down. But there is something so peaceful about the North Carolina mountains that rain seems more of an embellishment than a nuisance. As we left the paved road for the single lane dirt road into Deerfields I felt like I was in familiar territory. The little road led up to a lake flanked by two log cabins and ringed on one side with a white gravel drive. We unpacked the kids and joined the fray of wedding preparations. The rain continued to fall and water poured in rivulets from the unguttered cabin porch roof. The mountain air was chilly.

Road Trip coming up

on his own....just making sure
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

We're preparing for a grand weekend road trip to Asheville, North Carolina, for Anne and Nathan's wedding. We went by the library today and stocked up on CD books for the drive.

Ollie's New Shoes

Today Oliver and I (Kate) took a trip to Stride Rite to get him some new sandals for summer. On our last trip there, we bought him his first pair of shoes, insanely overpriced (I mean, these things cost more than MY shoes, for pete's sake!) but assured to aid him in his newest hobby, walking. The saleslady measured his feet on that first trip, and proclaimed him to be a size 5XW (the XW standing for extra wide). Well, his extra wide feet have worn those sneaks down, and now that summer is here, his piggies need to breathe a bit. So today, on our return trip, he again stepped on that cold metal scale I remember so well from my trips to the shoe store as a kid. Now he's a 5 and a half 2W, which, the saleslady interpreted, is one size WIDER than the XW! So his feet are only getting WIDER! I must admit, their resemblance to fat, juicy sausages is quite remarkable. Then she said to me, "They usually outgrow this (the wide-footedness) by the time they're 3 or 4. And if not, then you're really screwed." How reassuring. I assume she means we will be forced to continue to pay through the nose for these "special" shoes until he slims down. Don't worry, though -- we won't be putting him on a diet anytime soon. His fat feet are worth the extra expense....

Happy May

Happy May 1st to everyone. This marks Cora's last month of school and her last year at Abintra Montessori School. She has been there full time since she was two years old. It's hard to believe she is fast approaching five already. She practically spilled her cereal at breakfast when we told her she will be five in two months.

We went to a spaghetti dinner/fundraiser at the school we hope Cora will attend next year. It is a public school near us that uses an approach called Paideia. Kate has visited several times and I had my first experience there at the spaghetti dinner. The school reminds us both of our own elementary schools, back in those golden years, oh so long ago. The teachers are enthusiastic and all the parents rave about the school. Cora is 8th on the waitlist now and it looks likely that she will get in before the school year starts.

Unk!

Dan and Cora
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

Uncle Dan was in town for the weekend from California, and he was treated as visiting royalty. Cora ate him up, and Oliver acted like Dan was an old pal.

Both kids seem to have an intuitive feeling for family members, even ones they haven't seen in a long time. Oliver was only a couple months old the last time Dan was here, so it was reasonable to assume it might take a little while for Ollie to warm up to Dan. Dan came right in the door and snatched Ollie up, and Oliver never missed a beat. He was ready to see Unk as if Dan hadn't been in California all this time. Both kids loved having him here, and we did too.

Lizard attack

A friend of mine posted this clip on her website. A local anchorman at a news station is doing an animal segment when a lizard decides to jump him. His reaction is priceless. Best viewed with the volume up and friends to share the laughter with.

The Parade

The parade that Kate is helping organize is picking up steam. See the webpage here. Kate's organizing partner is Ms. Booty Homemaker. Stay tuned...

On another note, Sarah got some good press in a Nashville weekly--a review of her new EP and plug for this weekend's show. Go girl!

These days

mom and 'em
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

A snapshot of the kids these days:

Cora has been on a growing jag lately. We have a growth chart of pencil marks on the kitchen wall, and she has been excited to see her progress. Her legs look like skinny girl legs now with no remnants of baby fat.

Oliver, on the other hand, waddles around like a Hobbit. His growth spurt hasn't come yet evidently. He has six teeth and we've been waiting on the next round for several weeks.

Cora has really been enjoying books on tape in the car. On our way to school and basically any time she's in the car we've been listening to the Little House on the Prairie books. We're listening to "On the Banks of Plum Creek" right now. The books have sucked us all in, and Kate and I often sneak in extra listening time when Cora's not in the car and then rewind when she is ready to listen again.

Cora's imagination has also been very active. I imagine it's related to the stories but it's impossible to say for sure. She's afraid of the dark and we check her closet several times before bedtime. Normal kid stuff. I remember thinking that someone was coming up behind me on the stairs at our house. And I was probably thirteen at the time.

Cora painted a beautiful flower with watercolors last week. I had never seen her draw a flower and then she cranks out a beautiful picture. It's amazing how fast things develop sometimes.

Our neighbors have a new puppy named Abigail--a golden labrador mix. She's only a few months old, and Cora loves her. Abigail is still learning not to bite, so Cora hasn't been over the fence to play with her much. But she stands at the fence and watches Abigail play. Cora also talks to our neighbors and yard hops in the afternoon when they're outside.

The garden is looking great and we've already harvested green onions and radishes and enjoyed some mustard greens that we thinned out. G'ma Sally is the primary gardener but Kate has been out there a lot too with the great weather.

Oliver loves being outside--he explores all over the place, swinging his arms, exclaiming merrily, pointing at airplanes and birds.

Big weekend

yellow flag
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

We had a big time Easter weekend, with lots of family time and sugar consumption. We went to Cheekwood for their annual Easter egg hunt. It was our first time there for the hunt and didn't really know what to expect. It turns out they have "hunts" in several places throughout the day. They have truckloads of easter eggs. A Cheekwood employee threw out the eggs on the ground in an open field with cut grass. So there was no "hunt"--the eggs just sat there. The kids were held at the starting line and then set loose to swarm over the grass and snatch up the eggs. It was wild. Cora had a blast.
We closed out the weekend with a nice dinner at the grandparent's house, enjoying the breeze on the deck and the absence of mosquitoes. They'll be here soon I'm sure.

This weekend should be fun as Uncle Dan (Mark's brother)is visiting from California and Sarah plays a show in town.

Love to everyone!

Easter Bunny Humor

Easter and spring are here

swinging
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

It's Easter weekend, which means Daddy doesn't have to work on Saturday, among other things. We haven't cranked up too many Easter traditions yet, but I think we'll dye some eggs this year.

It was in the upper 80s today and the trees are pushing out leaves as fast as they can to soak up the sun. Just two weeks ago there was frost on the deck in the mornings.

I took my bike in to get tuned up at the shop today. With gas at $3/gallon this summer (and maybe for the foreseeable future) it is time to explore alternative means of travel. It's only seven miles from our door to my work, but there are some treacherous stretches along the way. Tennessee drivers are not really used to sharing the road--even with other cars--so I will be taking some back ways or using the bus. Or driving, after I get home once with my skin intact and swear I'll never do that again.

Ollie's new motto

Ollie's new motto
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

Anne and Grandma Carol were in town this weekend for Anne's bridal shower.

Grandma brought Oliver a great new shirt. He seems relieved that we finally understand his needs.

We're Okay!

Kate here. We've had a bit of nasty weather in these parts, as you may have heard on the news. Tornadoes passed quite near Nashville and did a fair amount of damage in some outlying suburbs, but thankfully, we didn't find ourselves in their path of destruction. Anne, Grandma Carol, Cora, Ollie and I were actually at the mall, of all places, completely oblivious of the tornado warning. We were on the upper level, en route to a store, when I happened to look down and see a man with a walkie-talkie motioning to us. He was some kind of mall security person, and was busily herding all the shoppers into an enclave of sorts under a large stairway and away from the massive skylit ceiling nearby. So there we went and there we sat, for about ten minutes or so, crammed in with a bunch of strangers on cell phones. Cora was pretty freaked out (I was too, but I had to pretend that I wasn't), but seemed to understand that we were in a safe place. Then, the walkie-talkie man said everything was clear and let us go. So what did we do? We kept shopping!

On a side note, I took Cora to an art class today at a local botanical garden and overheard a woman talking with the art teacher about the tornadoes. She actually said, "I mean, I keep thinking they'll find a way to control the weather," as if it's unbelievable that they haven't already. That's the last thing we need -- George Bush deciding, God-like, who gets the tornadoes, the wild fires, the hurricanes. Hmmm...Katrina...maybe they've already figured it out...

busy busy

wading feet
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the momentum of things and forget to stop and take a breath. We've been in that mode lately.

Things are picking up for all of us. Kate just started a part-time job from home editing the website of an online high school, Compuhigh. That is keeping her busy, along with her growing involvement with local activists here. She is organizing a Mothers Day peace rally along with another local woman in conjunction with an organization called Mothers Acting Up. The ball started rolling when Kate met with Medea Benjamin from Codepink and momentum has continued from there.

I'm working on edits for my second manuscript and will have them finished by Monday the 10th (Hallelujah Praise the Lord). In July I'll be teaching a course in Myofascial Release along with my other duties.

Cora is eagerly anticipating her spring break next week. She loves school, but the five day week can be a grind.

Oliver is doing great--no major milestones; he just stays busy eating food and growing teeth.

We went to the park on Monday and enjoyed the spring warmth. Oliver and Cora waded in the frigid creek.

Phew....

I hit "send" this morning on the second of two manuscripts. Ahh...relief. I've been hoarding my words lately.

We're all passing around a springtime cold. Cora brought it home from school and it has slowly infested the house and our sinuses.

Our hermit crab Hermie has a new roommate--another hermit crab named Abigail. Abigail is the third in a procession of now-dead Hermie roommates: Clancy and Clancy Junior never survived more than a week.

Mommy Blogger!

Hello, Kate here. It's about time I added a few of my own words to the blog, especially because Brian is so busy with his own writing these days. Cora is home sick today. She woke up three times last night, congested and delirious, looking for tissues. This morning she put on her most pitiful sick-kid face, coughed a few times, and asked very sweetly if she could stay home from school today. Even though she was laying it on a bit heavy ("My throat hurts, my eyes are watering, I've got a tummyache..."), it was obvious that she really was sick, so we agreed to let her stay home. She got this look on her face, like she was trying to maintain her pitifulness despite being overjoyed to be allowed to miss school. I remember putting on that face myself as a kid...

Fresh air

We went to the park yesterday and enjoyed the warm weather. We've all been a little stressed so it was nice to get out.

cora and ollie

cora and ollie
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

pics from the park...

Shoe Relocation Program

Kate fell prey to one of Oliver's abiding interests this morning--shoe relocation. He likes to walk around the house with a shoe in his hand. The problem is that he manages to leave the shoe in an obscure spot that takes extreme searching to locate.

His other passion is toilets. Two mornings ago Cora used the bathroom and forgot to close the door behind her. A few minutes later, as I was preparing breakfast, I heard some splashing in the bathroom. I discovered Oliver playing happily at the toilet. He had dropped a shampoo bottle in the bowl and was stirring it in Cora's pee. When he saw me, he of course said "nuh nuh nuh."

Springtime is here and the kids have been playing outside. The Bradford pears are blooming and the daffodils are blooming. It's too early for mosquitoes, so it really is one of the nicest times of the year. G'ma Sally and Kate got the spring garden started and the radishes are already sprouting.

Proof of the walker--take a look!

Here's a 30 second clip of Oliver walking.

There's also a clip from Ollie's first birthday. Enjoy!

Really walking

proof of the walker
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

Today Oliver really started walking. Yesterday he still held on to a wall for support most of the time, but today he motored around without any help. Tonight before bed he walked all through the house with a huge grin on his face, clearly excited by his new skill.

We've been pretty busy here--Kate's organizing an event for code pink (women for peace) and I'm starting my second freelance manuscript of the year for a company I've written for for several years. I finished one on football last week and have a deadline for a soccer book on March 20th. If postings are scarce for a little while you know why!

Cora started her transition from the Montessori school to public school this week by going in for evaluations and testing with the public school system. She will finish out the school year at her current school and then will start public school (kindergarten!) in late summer. The public school system here has a program for (hmm...advanced...smart...precocious) kids and you have to test into it. When I was in school you got your own class of nerds to be around all the time, but here you only have one class per week with fellow smarties. It's interesting because a smart child is considered disabled here; a gifted child is technically a child with a disability. So we received a big packet for parents with disabled children. Cora finished the first round of testing and will proceed to the next phase late next month.

Cora was in a room alone with the tester while Kate waited outside. According to Cora they read books and played games and the lady asked her questions about them. Anyone who has spent any time with Cora knows how relentlessly observant she is. The evaluator scored Cora in the 99.8th percentile in the social sciences category, or her observations of the world. Afterward, as the evaluator explained the results to Kate she raised her eyebrows and said, "Clearly she observes a lot."

Oliver's Travels and the Power of No

Oliver has learned the meaning of the word "no" now, with amusing results. He likes to touch the computer power button, look up at me, and say "nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh." Yesterday morning he went into the bathroom, unspooled the toilet paper, put it in the toilet and then tried to flush. When I came in--"nuh nuh nuh nuh." He went behind the chair to the power outlet yesterday--"nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh." He's obviously watching and learning.

He's walking in bursts, usually from one "station" to another a few feet away.

Kate and I just finished watching the movie "What the Bleep Do We Know" last night. Highly recommended grist for the mill.

Cora and Leo

Cora and Leo
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

Cora and Leo spent some time in the snow last week while we stayed at G'ma and G'dad's house. Leo is a neighborhood dog with a great personality and impeccable timing. He always knows when dinner is being served.

We finally found a good contractor here in Nashville. Cora's bathroom looks great and the new wall in the bedroom is perfect. I thought we would grieve for a while over the loss of our large bedroom, but the new wall is so well done that it feels like we added space to the house. Double doors open up the wall, so it still feels spacious. Oliver now has his own room and it's very cozy. We still need to paint one of these days but all the dust is gone and we're back into the routine here.

Staying with the parents was a revelation for us. We just had the best week at the grandparents' house, and it's a great reminder of how much we have to be thankful for--in this case, the power of family and loving support. Cora and Oliver are surrounded by an extended family that loves them to pieces. From the beginning Cora has always had a strong bond with her relatives, even those that we only see once a year or so. Living together under their roof for one week felt natural and lighter. We watched Olympics together like my family did when I was young. It's hard to go back to the nuclear unit.

Oliver's really starting to walk now after a few weeks of mostly crawling again. He staggers around like someone's holding his ankles, usually four or five steps and then plop on the butt again.

Go Sarah!

The Grammys are on tonight, and I'm proud to say that Alison Krauss won Best Country Album against some heavy hitters. This is great news because Aunt Sarah wrote a song on the album. Congratulations Sarah!

We're staying at my parents' for at least a few days while we get some work done on the house. We figured it was time to move Oliver out of the bathroom into a proper room of his own. The only problem was that we knocked down the bedroom wall when we moved in to make a spacious master bedroom. Adios spacious master bedroom, hello old wall. The new wall is actually better than the old one because it is now a custom wall with a four foot opening right in the middle. That way the room shouldn't feel too small and during the day we can keep the doors open. The wall is framed out already and it looks really good. Meanwhile, we've had a wonderful time and have soaked up the feeling of familial "village" life.

Cora is also getting a new floor, toilet, and sink in her bathroom. She's very excited of course, having acquired a taste for the finer things during her stay at the bed and breakfast last weekend.

Home again....

We made it home safely last night and drove straight to G'ma and G'dad's for a Super Bowl viewing party. Cora refused to sleep on the way home from Asheville even though she was completely sleep deprived over the weekend. I don't know what she thinks she'll miss. I guess it will be a few years before she realizes that her parents are completely boring and not good for much except food, shelter and transportation.

I had been looking forward to the drive to Asheville as we had not been on a road trip with all four of us in the same car. About twenty minutes into the trip I realized I had been romanticizing things. Asheville was still over five hours away and two young children were strapped down just three feet behind my ears. I realized on this trip that minivans are designed to keep your children as far away from you as possible while driving.

Kate and I both pinched ourselves that we are now the parents carting the kids around. We have our own memories of family road trips--both dads always finding the old staticky radio stations that barely came in at all, John managing to always find a polka station somewhere in Pennsylvania. As we left I had a strong memory of my Dad stopping at the gas station on our way out on road trips and picking up a cup of coffee for the road. As he pulled out of the parking lot he would hold his coffee in his right hand, steer with the left, pull into traffic and start exploring the lid with his lips, testing the temperature in a combination blow-sip-slurp. I never knew how he did all those things at once. I just thought he liked coffee (and never understood that either). But now I understand the valuable self-medication aspects of coffee--it acts as some sort of psychic insulation from other stimuli. Car sleep was also a fond memory for both of us. We shared our fond view of sleep with Cora but she's not buying.

Asheville itself is a beautiful city nestled in the North Carolina mountains, and Anne and Nathan have a sweet little place just a few minutes from the city and just off the Appalachian Trail and the Blue Ridge Parkway. Nathan's parents were there for the weekend and we all had a great time hanging out.

Cora had two sleepovers with G'ma Carol at a bed and breakfast. They had wonderful girl time together. The proprietor made Cora a special order of Belgian waffles(Cora called them "bargain waffles") on Sunday morning.

Oliver took about twelve steps at once on Sunday. He looks like he's walking over hot coals or a very cold floor.

The Wingate Men

self-portait(s)
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

We're home again

reunion
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

We're home again safely from our Asheville trip.....update coming soon. To bed now.
Love,
us

First Steps!

We are in Asheville for the weekend visiting Anne and Nathan. The trip took about six hours and went pretty smoothly.

Last night Oliver took his first steps. Two shaky staggering steps and then he hit the floor. But it's a start!

Happy Birthday little man!

Olliecouch
Originally uploaded by cree78.

Aunt Sarah made a wonderful video retrospective of Oliver's first year. It's about eight minutes long. Get out your Kleenex or at least be prepared to smile a lot. There is audio also so turn on your speakers too. She posted it online here:


She had to compress the file to fit it on the site, so the picture quality is poor compared to the original. Kate and I haven't watched the original without crying yet. If you would like a good quality copy, let us know and we'll mail you one.

First Birthday extravaganza

sugar rushes are fun!
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

We all gathered at G'ma and G'Dad's last night for Oliver's first birthday party. It will still be a few days until the actual event (Feb.2), but we'll be out of town next week and it's never too early to celebrate. Especially when you've never had a birthday before.

We arrived in the early afternoon and Cora helped Sarah decorate the cake. That meant a fair amount of icing was ingested during the decorating process. Once the early sugar rush set in, Cora started running around the house while we all hung out and loafed while Grandma slaved away in the kitchen.

Oliver wore a new outfit-a slick nylon jumpsuit that Grammy Stella sent for Christmas. He looked quite stylish and Grandma couldn't stop squeezing his chunky legs.

We opened presents and enjoyed a fabulous dinner and then unveiled the cake. There were quite a few candles on the cake, and when Oliver saw a burning cake coming his way he started squirming in his chair, ready to head in the opposite direction. But once the candles were out and the ice cream and cake were safely on his plate he was happy to indulge himself. As you can see, the cake and ice cream eating soon devolved into a chocolate-sugar-fueled-face-smeared-plate-licking-kid-fest. Both of the kids had a ball, and we all did too. Kate and I were too uptight to let Cora have that much fun when she was one. Then again she had barely started eating food when she was that age. We practically have to hold Oliver back from digging into our plates he's so eager to eat grown-up food already. Once the carnage was over G'ma and Kate bathed the kids, got the chocolate out of their hair, we took them home, and tucked them into bed. A great first Birthday.

Roofers...

Things have been relatively quiet around here....Cora and Oliver both weathered their sicknesses pretty well without taking nosedives.

We've had a stack of shingles in our yard for two weeks now, waiting for the roofers to come give us a new roof. They dropped off the shingles and have not lined up a time to actually use them. The tarps are holding up well so far, but I imagine there's only so much sun, wind, and buckets of rain that tarps and duct tape can withstand. Since our house is at the top of the "T" in a T-intersection, our yard is highly visible to all the cars that stop there. Word must have spread in the "shingling" workers pool that our house had a large amount of shingles sitting in the yard with no one to use them. A guy approached Kate last week and offered to shingle the roof for cheap. This morning as I left our driveway a truck pulled out of another driveway nearby. He backed out and blocked the road and gestured for me to roll down the window. I did, and he pointed to our front yard.
"Do you have someone to put on those shingles?"
I assured him that we did. It feels like we're being staked out by opportunistic shady shinglers.

As soon as I got to work I called our supposed roofing company. Evidently our work order got lost in the shuffle. So hopefully the roof will soon be out of our yard and on the roof.

Winter bug

psychedelic ollie
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

The winter bug has descended and taken Cora and Oliver down. They're both fighting colds or some sort of sickness. Cora has a classic cold and Oliver keeps running a high fever with no other symptoms. Cora has been out of school for two days so Mommy has been on double duty.

Oliver is still crab crawling happily with occasional balancing moments. He'll probably walk in a month or two. He has stopped talking (he had a total of three or four words) and has chosen to go back to his native tongue of baby babble. He's doing that quite a lot with great enthusiasm. It's clear that he knows exactly what he's saying to us, we just don't understand him yet.

before...

the eye
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

after!

the new 'do
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

It had to happen eventually

New haircut profile
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

Yesterday, as I picked Cora up from school, her teacher April personally escorted her to the car. This never happens. Bad sign number one. As April helped Cora into the car she asked me casually, "Will you and Kate be home this evening? I would like to give you a call." Very bad sign, ominous even. Surely a death blow. Then she turned to Cora and said "Why don't you tell your daddy what was happening this afternoon. I'll give him a call tonight and we'll see what you talked about."

April then shut the door, leaving me confused and obviously concerned. Just as I began to turn back around, April mimed with her hands a pair of scissors across her forehead and mouthed the words "She cut her hair." Three other teachers were standing by the fence, all smiling from ear to ear as we drove away.

Cora had a hat on because it was cold outside, so I couldn't see the damage done. I figured it was significant though. I asked Cora how her day at school had gone and if she had done anything unusual. On to me as usual, she talked about the playground and lunchtime. Then with a flourish she whipped off her hat and said "And I cut my hair!"

I must admit she did a pretty good job. The picture is after the visit to the barber. She had hacked the front bangs to the nub and then cut back the sides to just over the ears, leaving the back long like a supermodel mullet. It looked stylish in a weird way. She was quite tickled about it.

One self-haircut is fine, and probably to be expected, but it's not a habit we want to encourage. So we tried not to appear too amused and insisted that we go to Fantastic Sam's where people are trained to cut hair. We all agreed that would remain their job in the future and Cora would concentrate on other skills.

The funny part is how cute her new haircut looks. She has a little pixie cut and it looks great.

On another note, once again, as Cora was brushing her teeth today, she came up with another pearl.
She said, "Daddy, I had a dream last night that I was a giant chicken."
"Yeah? What did you do when you were a chicken?"
"I got baked in the oven."

Big Week

We just finished an exciting week. Cora went to the dentist on Wednesday--her third checkup--and discovered that she has big teeth underneath the baby teeth in her lower jaw. She is very excited about them and is telling everyone that her big teeth are pushing on the baby teeth. It will probably be a while before they start getting loose, but it's still a reminder that her body is only getting bigger and older.

Another reminder is her new bed, which she is sleeping in tonight for the first time. She inherited it from Anne, who won't have room for it in Asheville. It's a big girl bed, big enough for adults to sleep in. She has a new set of Pooh sheets that match her pajamas and she's snuggled in for the night. Quite a big coming of age week for a four year old.

We helped Anne pack the moving van today and she's heading to Asheville tomorrow for the next chapter in her life. It will really sink in soon that she's not just down the road, but for now it doesn't feel real yet.

Science lessons

This morning as Cora was brushing her teeth for school she turned to me with an excited expression. She gets her most inspiration for deep thoughts when we are on a deadline. She said, "Did you know, plants breathe out the air that we need to live. And we breathe out the hydrogen peroxide that the plants need! Isn't that neat!"

sunny day

sunny day
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

We enjoyed an afternoon of unseasonably warm weather today--it was probably mid-60's all day, San Diego weather.

Oliver got his own photo shoot while Cora was at school. Check out the set at the flickr site. Click on the picture and then "view as slideshow". Also check out the "new Camera" set.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Five years today....yeeha!

New Camera!

eyes
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

Thanks to Pop Pop and Grammy Rena, we now have a new camera--a Panasonic fz20. As you can see, it is a considerable step up from the old point and shoot variety. I have to figure out how to use it, but in the meantime it is still making some beautiful pictures. Click on the picture to go to our Flickr site and see the set of pictures we took today.

Wingate Bobbleheads

Wingate Bobbleheads
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

We are now a commodity. Immortalized. The Wingates are now bobbleheads. And we're also mostly African American, Cora being the sole exception. That could only mean that Pop Pop and Grammy Rena are in town with Christmas goodies gathered throughout the year; you never know what they're going to bring.

They rolled in last night after a full ten hour day on the road. Cora was so anxious to see them that she kept running back and forth to the door. I offered to read a book to her when I got home and she said "No Daddy, I have to watch for Pop Pop and Grammy Rena." We had a wonderful evening together once they arrived and then put them to work today.

Standing!

Oliver stood up on his own for about ten seconds on Tuesday. He was playing by the couch and picked up a toy with both hands. He was so absorbed looking at it that he must have forgotten he couldn't stand yet. Ten seconds up, then.....plop on the diaper bottom. We'll miss the crab crawl. We'll also miss the butt swivel, when he sits on the floor and spins around with his legs like a gunners turret, surveying the 360 degree landscape.

At this point--almost one year old already!--we are starting to discern some of Oliver's passions. Food and music are the two frontrunners. He grunts and lunges whenever we eat apples, bananas, or drink water. Gimme some! Cora got a bucket of instruments for Christmas, mostly percussive ones like a hand drum, triangle, wooden strikers, clacker thingies, a penny whistle, a tambourine, and some other stuff to create racket with. On three separate occasions now Oliver has crawled over to the music box, dumped everything out in a pile, picked out the appropriate instruments and begun to play them. The first time he chose the drum and the matching drumstick. Then the triangle and the matching striker. Then the wood strikers. He gets completely absorbed.

Then when we were at G'ma and G'dad's and they were playing music at New Years he couldn't get enough of the music they were playing. He listened contentedly for a while and then crawled up to the instruments, intent on playing them himself. His technique is quite good already; he fans his fingers in a gentle strumming motion. There is obviously a strong genetic pull toward music in his blood, but it's amazing to see him approach instruments as if he's played them before. (Insert parental comments here--He's a genius!)

Critter adventures

Now that the temperature has dropped around here we have some tiny furry friends trying to share the house with us. We have been finding mouse droppings in various areas over tha last few weeks, and in the beginning the warfare was moderate--put all the food in containers, wipe the counters with bleach, make sure there are no water sources, etc. I read on the Internet that mice abhor peppermint oil and will stay away if you put some on cotton balls and drop it where you think they are coming in the house. It sounded like a humane enough idea, so I tried it. Also installed a sonic deterrent in the kitchen.

The next day, more poops, right on the countertop under the sonic deterrent. The house has a lovely smell of peppermint to mask the unsightly countertop turds. So we ramped it up a bit and got some catch and release traps, still trying to respect these creatures' right to life. No luck after several days.

The turning point came one night after dinner. We usually put our dishes on the counter, put the kids to bed, and then clean up afterwards. So a few nights ago I put Cora to bed and headed back into the kitchen to do the dishes. As I'm standing at the counter a mouse ran right across a plate and jumped behind the refrigerator. That was the last straw. I wanted that sucker dead. His right to life ended when he licked my dinner plate. He poked his nose out from under the fridge a few times to see if we were still there, so I turned on all the lights to keep him there. At this point it became clear to me that mice must pass on two golden rules to their young:
1. If you smell peanut butter, don't eat it. It's a trap.
2. Never let the humans see you in their own house. Then they will REALLY try to kill you.

I could tell this mouse knew he had violated the second sacred rule and would shortly be dead. Happy to oblige, I went to Lowe's for what the salesman called the "mouse electric chair" and some glue traps. I surrounded the fridge in a ring of death, went into the living room, turned on a movie with Kate, and waited. Not three minutes later we heard a "squeak, squeak!" and found the varmint stuck fast to the glue board. Kate wanted to peel him off the board and set him free. I assured her that wouldn't be feasible. If he had only gone into the electric chair it would have been so much easier. But we had to throw him in a trash bag and take him to a dumpster down the road, to asphyxiate slowly or freeze in the night. I felt bad for a little while--it doesn't feel right to extinguish life--but sure felt good knowing there was one less mouse around. I put a glue board behind our entertainment center and another beside the fridge and we went to bed.

The next morning we were happy to find clean countertops and no sign of mice anywhere. We made breakfast as usual, Cora ran around while Oliver played in the living room. Kate and I ducked our heads in occasionally to check on him and he was always playing contentedly with some toys or pulling up on the bookshelf. I had just checked on Oliver not even two minutes before when Kate looked into the living room and didn't see him. She went in to find him and I heard an "Oh no! Brian, come here!" I ran in to find Kate pulling Oliver out from behind the entertainment center, his hand glued to the mouse board. Turns out there's just enough room for a baby to get back there. He's an observant little guy--never been back there before, but then again there's never been a glue board to play with. Obviously the mouse wasn't the only curious critter in the house. Luckily it was non-toxic glue, we pulled Oliver out of it, and he's still in one piece. And we haven't seen any mouse poops since then.

Fam in the leafpile

Fam in the leafpile
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

Now that Christmas is over life has resumed some of its normal rhythms. I've been able to take off from work most of the last two weeks, which helps blunt Cora's impact on a single caregiver.

We started getting estimates for the work on our roof and other parts of the house that are falling apart. The first guy came highly recommended and it was an interesting visit. I learned several things from him in the course of a 30-minute housecall:
1. He has a good account with the local animal hospital.
2. He can do anything and everything well.
3. His daughter was conceived on a pool table in a biker bar.
4. He was the manager of the biker bar at the time.

And the list goes on....it felt like a two hour visit by the time he left. Nice guy, but a little too much of something.

Merry Christmas!

Family Christmas
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

The kids are all nestled snug in their beds, and Christmas 2005 comes to an end. Suddenly all that Christmas music sounds tacky. So yesterday.

We had a great Christmas here. It's sooo nice to be able to stay in town with two little ones. The festivities started yesterday on Christmas Eve with Christmas dinner at G'ma and G'dad's house in the afternoon. That meant Cora had to withstand the anticipation of the event for most of the day. She struggled. "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" really threw her off her game. The notion that he knew what she was doing, when she was doing it, and whether she was being bad or good definitely frayed her nerves. By about two in the afternoon she was crying uncontrollably. She looked at me and said, "Santa understands that everyone is going to have a bad day sometimes!"

About that time our roof started leaking, and I ended up on the roof in the rain with a tarp while Kate suddenly tried to corral the kids for Christmas dinner on her own. After a trip to Lowe's for better tarps I lashed them down with the help of my Dad and figured they weren't going anywhere. There's only so much you can do on Christmas weekend.

Once we got to Christmas dinner everything went well. Cora was giddy with excitement and could barely wait her turn in the gift giving before tearing into another present. After our eyes glazed over from a fantastic meal we packed the kids home to get ready for Santa and another round of Christmasness.

Cora was up a little before 6am, ready to go. We hit the ground running with stockings and started in on presents once Anne got here. We had three waves of opening to pace ourselves, and Cora did well. Opening some presents on Christmas Eve seemed to take some of the manic edge off. Oliver slept through most of the unwrapping festivities but woke up in time to thrash through boxes and paper wrapping.

G"ma and G'dad came over bearing instruments in the afternoon and set up a family quartet--Sally on cello, Mark on violin, Anne on recorder, and Kate on flute. Cora added an extra spice with accompaniment on triangle and drum. It sounded wonderful.