Stop The Presses

It’s actually old news, since his birthday was back on January 8th, but yes, Samuel has turned one. When you’re the fourth child with a birthday after a busy holiday season you just have to be patient for birthday celebrations. In his case it was only a week late, but we did feel guilty, a little bit… okay, we barely felt guilty (hey, he did have a party).

A Party Like No Other

We decided to keep it simple (fourth child syndrome anyone?). So we didn’t go all out and have magicians, clowns, blow-up houses, hay rides, pony rides, train rides, singing dinosaurs, goofy middle-aged oddly dressed men dancing and singing, talking monsters, or dancing penguins. Nor did we release any doves, pigeons, bats, or bald eagles, and there were no wandering swans, storks, tigers, or monkeys. No bears were stuffed, no pizza was consumed while watching robotic equipment gyrate around, no sticks swung at hanging objects, no ceramic bowls were painted, no crafts disseminated to unsuspecting party-goers, no body parts were pinned on a flannel board, and no super-heros were impersonated (that was LAST month).

Now I truly mean no offense to anyone who has done any of these (or similar) things to celebrate the first year of the life of their little baby girl or boy (well if you had roaming tigers or middle-aged oddly dressed men dancing I actually do intend offense), but for us, family, food, and a few gifts were enough. We did, however, have to have a monkey… but just on the cake.

On A First Milestone

So, our small gathering celebrated another little life as he met the first milestone on his journey; a journey of which we are blessed to be a part. We look forward to each successive milestone and the little steps, giant leaps, and oft-taken side tracks that come in between.

It’s All About A Name

Let me just say first of all that Texans love Texas. They are not shy about it either. I’m not saying the state is filled with narcissists or ego-maniacs or that everybody is Texo-centric, but they are not ashamed to be in love with Texas. The name is everywhere. On the floor, on the ceiling, and even the door hinges have it.

And A Flag

The state flag is flying everywhere. Call me ignorant, but I don’t even think I know what the state flag of Michigan (where I grew up) or Ohio (where I currently live) looks like. However, I will never forget the state flag of Texas.

And A Shape

Even the shape of the state itself is everywhere.

WIthout question: In Texas, it’s all about Texas.

The Texas State Capital

Since we had the longest stay in Austin (an evening and morning), that afforded us time to visit the state capital building – twice. We went there at night, and then because we couldn’t figure what else to do with the few hours we had, we went back in the morning. It’s a nice building and all, but I think I’ve seen it enough.

Visiting the state capital, however, did give me the opportunity to give some fine folks a piece of my mind. I wasn’t too pleased to hear their response, as you can see.

The Food

We had the chance to enjoy a couple nice restaurants with some authentic Texas cuisine. Like The Salt Lick near Austin with its wonderful barbeque. The smell of a wood burning grill hits you the moment you get out of your car in the parking lot. (The staff had t-shirts which read, “You can smell our pits miles away.” It’s true.) You walk inside and are treated to a nice view of a wide open stone grill loaded with all sorts of meats being smoked. It was good.

On Texas

So, in the end, we are grateful for our time away to Texas. It’s a state that is proud of itself. People play country music without fear of reprisal or shame. They like their blue jeans, big boots, and large belt buckles. And they proudly wear them, along with their cowboy hats, to the state capital. It’s not an uncommon site to see a dozen bulls being trailered down the highway. So while it’s back to normal life here in Ohio, two words come to mind: Texas forever.

Oh, and I’ve also got a bridge in London to sell you…

Each set of grandparents was willing to spend two and one-half days with all four kids. So, while Erin and I were off galavanting in wide open spaces (sporting a snazzy Mercury Grand Marquis rental car no less), the grandparents were spinning in circles with baby food, diapers, snacks, legos, trucks, guns, swords, dolls, bottles, and sick children.

Yes, Alayna wasn’t feeling good. (Which, I’m sorry to say, is actually a good thing… she’s easier to manage when she’s not feeling good. Call me a bad parent, but when she’s got a little fever and just plain tired out, she’s really cute… and she doesn’t scream.) I am happy to report that everyone is still alive and well. Well, maybe just alive.

Extreme Babysitting

Upon reflection, I think that two and one-half days (60 hours) with four kids is pretty much a grandparent’s marathon. Actually, it’s more like one of those crazy extreme events where people bicycle across the United States in 10 days. This event is so extreme that the participants eventually start to hallucinate before completing the journey. In fact, a repeat winner halicuinates that deadly military forces are chasing him. It’s the only thing that keeps him going.

I’m pretty sure that grandparents start to hallucinate about two hours into this extreme four-child babysitting event. I just can’t figure out what sort of hallucination keeps them going for the remaining 58 hours. Maybe someday I’ll find out. Not sure if I want to though.

One More Time?

So, Texas was fun, but I don’t think we’ll be able to call in another hallucination-inducing favor again… well for at least a few years.

Who Knows What They’re Doing?

Growing up I always thought my parents knew exactly what they were supposed to do at every moment. I now recognize they had no clue. None. We certainly don’t. We just wing it. And I don’t think we’re alone. (Maybe you know a little bit more than that, but you have to admit, it’s not as much as you thought your parents knew.)

Sometimes parenting can seem like walking through a dark cave, you just can’t see what’s around the corner or how to proceed. So while we see parenting as a challenge (and we learn more each day about handling this challenge), it has these wonderful moments that come as shafts of light piercing the darkness. It’s these moments that keep us moving forward on a brightened path.

Tough and Terrific Are All Mixed Up

Often these moments are intermixed with challenges, as our recent adventure with family pictures proves. We just haven’t figured out whether the terrific times are like cheese on a mouse trap, or presents on Christmas morning.

Regardless, we’re learning to just soak up every moment, wonderful or challenging, and enjoy them all, since nothing is guaranteed.

Our Little Rays of Light

And Now A Little Dose of Reality…

The Facts of Life

When having a family picture taken, it’s inevitable that as one child looks at the camera, another will look away. It’s a fact of life. Cows chew their cud, chickens peck the ground, road runners escape and outwit coyotes, and children never simultaneously look at a camera.

Sometimes I think a magical, invisible string is attached to their faces. One end is fastened to the ear of the first child and the other to the nose of a second – preventing even the possibility of them looking the same direction.

Parents can sometimes break this invisible string if they yell, jump up and down like fools, and frantically wave whatever is nearby (sticks, leaves, small poodles). However, being a magic string, it reconnects immediately following any breakage.

The Chaoss Scale

This fact of life produces a traumatic effect on parents, which can be measured and quantified in a manner similar to the Richter scale. (For each tenth point the traumatic effect is multiplied 10 times.) It’s known as the CHAOSS (Children Having Acute Overactive Sensory Stimuli) scale. Let me give you the math. (If you don’t like math, then you can skip the next paragraph of it… kinda like you did in school.)

The age of the child is inversely proportional to the trauma of the parent. So the younger the child is, the more traumatic family pictures become. Here’s the formula to calculate the traumatic effect of family portraits on parents. Subtract the age of the child from the average lifespan of a person (say 70 for easy math). Then divide that number by the result of multiplying the age of the child by 10. Add all children together.

Having four young children, we’re about a 13.1 on the CHAOSS scale. Imagine a 13.1 earthquake and you’ll have something close to the traumatic effect we endure with family pictures.

The Trauma

Bottom line: it’s hard. Really hard.

One child looks and smiles, the second sticks his leg in the air. A third looks and smiles while the fourth is playing with the grass. The second decides to look and smile (because of a recent verbal barrage from the parents) when the third puts her hand in her mouth and shows us the apple from which she just took a bite. The fourth is still playing with the grass. The first puts his head down as the apple is swallowed by the third. The fourth finally looks up with a confused stare at the flailing arms and loud emotive sounds coming from just behind the camera, while the second falls down. The third shoos away bugs as the first is chomping on and proudly display his gum.

After loud shouts, clapping hands, and the waving of leaves, sticks, nearby small animals, and any other non-translucent object, the magic, invisible string breaks, and all four children look at the camera for an instant. Then the fourth looks back at the grass, the third complains about pieces of apple in her teeth, the second puts his leg back in the air and the first begins to wander away. One second for a picture in the thousand seconds that it took to get it. The parents are… well, I don’t know if they are at all any longer.

This is the CHAOSS scale at work.

And We Have The Photos To Prove It

Keep in mind, our photographer did a fantastic job of getting the absolute best shots from the entire thousand seconds. The ones with legs in the air, children falling on the ground, and so on, weren’t taken.

And the winner is… ?

Well, at least they’re all looking at the camera… sorta.

Superheroes are commonplace in our household. The intricacies of how Batman, Spiderman, and Superman live their lives and conduct their business are routinely discussed. Their actions are repeatedly performed upon unsuspecting and usually helpless smaller siblings (the bad guys), stuffed animals, and invisible intruders. Of course, this is not an uncommon thing in families with younger children (especially boys). However, our four year old has created a new superhero, of whose persona he has taken.

What’s In A Name?

This new superhero’s name is derived from Batman… in a way. We taught them the Batman jingle; the one from back in the day. You know, the one that goes duduh duduh duduh duduh duduh duduh duduh duduh BATMAN! Well that got transformed into doodoo doodoo doodoo doodoo doodoo doodoo doodoo doodoo BATMAN! The next step can be guessed from here… doodoo doodoo doodoo doodoo doodoo doodoo doodoo doodoo MAN! So our little superhero is Doo Doo Man. [Insert potty joke of your choice here.] Doo Doo Man has stuffed animals up his shirt to make him “bumpy.” So, Doo Doo Man is lumpy and bumpy….

At least he’s not wearing brown.

The black lines are from being a football player earlier in the day… has a nice effect for a superhero, don’t you think?

While we were there, Ryan and Heidi took us on a 3.6 mile hike in Estes Park. Ethan hiked a little over a mile down the mountain… he loved it. Lucas loved riding on my back and Noah hiked the whole thing! He did great and earned his first Rocky Mountain National Park patch! Good job Noah!

We also went to the Cheyenne Frontier Days in Wyoming. We watched an air show in the morning and then hit the Rodeo in the afternoon.

The kids had lots of fun just playing around the house. Ethan fell in love with Noah’s tricycle and learned how to stay clear of Noah’s “hugs” All in all, we had a great visit and we look forward to being together again at Christmas.

Love you guys and miss you already!

Colorado

Kevin and I had been pretty busy around the house trying to get everything ready not only for Lucas but for Christmas. We had been saying all along how we wanted this baby to be a 2006 baby (for tax purposes and health deductible reasons). But we weren’t quite expecting 3 weeks early.

I woke up Sunday morning with a few small contractions not really thinking much of it b/c I kinda forgot what they felt like. I starting getting ready like normal and when the time came to go to church I thought maybe we should just stay home and see where things go. I called my parents to make sure they were home so if we had to drop Ethan off they’d be there. We usually go to their house on Sunday’s anyway for dinner so we said we’d plan to come around noon for lunch and that way they could help with Ethan if things got pretty crazy. We packed our bags, got the car seat ready and decided to make a stop at Walmart to pick out an outfit for the baby to come home in. While in Walmart I had a few more strong contractions … we then figured this was the real thing but still thought we had plenty of time.

We got to my parents house and my mom was just getting off the phone. She then told me the horrible news that my grandfather was in the hospital and going down hill fast. Wow… what mixed emotions! How could I concentrate on having this kid when my heart and my head were with my grandpa. After that, contractions starting coming faster and stronger. I sat down to try to eat something before we left for the hospital and my water broke! Ahhhh! Kevin and my mom helped me up to make our way to the car…. i made it to the back door and couldn’t go any further. When my next contraction came I felt like I had to push. Kevin’s face was priceless… “No, you can’t push here!” My dad then decided to call 911 since I couldn’t move and I really felt this baby was going to come in my parent’s laundry room! It seemed like FOREVER for the ambulance to come but when they finally came I was relived to be on my way. They wouldn’t let Kevin ride in the back with me so I was with 3 strange men telling me they didn’t want to deliver this baby. When they found out I was 3 weeks early they decided to take me to the nearest hospital instead of the hospital I was supposed to go to. Fine with me, I didn’t want them to deliver my baby either! It took everything within me to stay calm and relaxed during the 10 min. ride to the hospital (which seemed like forever). But we made it and once we got there, 9 mins. later at 2:09 PM, after 3 pushes, baby Lucas was born! Whew… just in time! What a whirlwind! It took us quite a while to process the whole thing. And still, when i think about it, I can’t believe how quick everything happened.

As for my grandfather, he passed away on Thursday in his sleep but before he died he was able to see some pictures of Lucas and was so proud to have another grandson. Grandpa was a wonderful man and he will be greatly missed!

Here are a few pictures of the little guy. I will post more pictures as I get the time so please be patient.

halloween

After much discussion on whether we should go or not, we decided to go… but only b/c a friend of ours so graciously offered us the use of their camper.

Believe it or not the weather report was dead on! The rain started to fall at 2:00 AM and didn’t really stop till Saturday night. Our friends who toughed it out in their tents woke up the next morning pretty soggy. So needless to say we cooked most of our meals in the camper instead of over the open fire. but we did get to hang out and had many laughs and were even able to play a few games. And don’t forget the memories!

Since we had the camper, we were the only ones that stayed till Sunday and once again the weather report rang true… Sunday was a beautiful day!!!

Check out our Camping Album Below:

camping