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...