Category Archives: Family

For those who didn't know, and have been wondering what caused the lack of updates here on the blog, we were out of our house for about 12 days due to a massive ice storm in our area that happened a couple of weeks ago. Luckily, a friend of Lori's father helped us drain our heating system before we took off, so we didn't have any pipes burst. But we are just now finally getting our life back to some level of normalcy. So expect the updates to start rolling out again within the next day or so.

Here is another old newspaper clipping I pulled from that old stack of Lori's stuff. This is from the same year that I moved to Epping and Lori and I met - and started dating. I think it was her goofy haircut that attracted me the most - heh! But seriously, all that spelling acumen has paid off well. We have to spell almost every interesting word when we are in front of the kids, in order to keep things a secret. It's amazing how adept you get at it with practice - I can probably spell d-e-s-s-e-r-t faster than anyone you know. And this is off topic, but it has to be said. Dan, you look like quite the goober in that photo. Get a haircut, hippie!

I found this in a stack of Lori's old stuff. It lists Lori and I as being on honor roll in 7th grade. It's weird to look at that list, and realize that I know almost every person on there. Barring just one or two exceptions, I haven't seen any of those people since graduation. It's strange how fast you lose touch, and how "meh" I feel about that. And not to call you out or anything, but - Chris, Dan - where are you on that list? Slackers. :P

Just recently, we've finally started to try and put Carter's hair up in pigtails. It's been long enough for a while, but we've had a few problems when we tried in the past. First, her hair is very fine, so it tends to slide right out of whatever we try to contain it with. And second, until just recently she would just pull out whatever we did manage to get to stay in. But now she is more interested in having pigtails than in playing with the elastics, so she isn't fussing with them as much. Isn't she adorable?

In an earlier post, I mentioned the daddy-daughter day that Carter and I shared. Well, on that same day Lori took Sean out bowling. She tells me that he really enjoyed it, and didn't due half bad. He was knocking pins down, but apparently it took ages for his ball to reach the end of the lane. Pictures don't do it justice - I'd love to see a video of this. :)

Last Sunday Carter and I had a Daddy-Daughter Day. Lori and I each took one of the kids to do something seperate, to see if a little one-on-one attention would do them some good. Verdict: success - both kids were better behaved, more cooperative, and just fundamentally more pleasant to be around when seperated from their sibling, and with one parent's full attention. In Sean's case, especially, the difference was shocking. I'm not sure what to do with this data now that we have it, though. :) But rather than engage in a little armchair psychology, I'd rather just tell you about the day Carter and I spent together.

First, Carter and I headed to Wal-Mart, to try to pick up some Christmas decorations for the house. While there, we spent a lot of time talking about Santa. I think she is really starting to understand the concept, and is getting excited about Christmas. She's been telling me about how Santa Claus will come down the chimney and eat cookies, and then there will be presents under the tree in the morning. I'm not sure she's figured out that it is Santa who will leave the presents, but I've been trying to explain to her how the two events are connected.

After we left Wal-Mart, we hopped back in the van to drive to Plaistow. On the way, Carter wanted to sing songs with me the whole way. Sean hates it when we try to sing in the car, so Carter was excited to finally get her chance. She only knows a line or two each of about 12 different songs, so mostly it was me singing by myself (with her mumbling and dancing along) - which I'm sure looked strange to other motorists, who couldn't see her carseat and therefore must have assumed I was alone. Although her favorite song is the one she made up herself. It goes like this: *cupcake, la la la, cupcake, la la la*. So cute.

Once we hit Plaistow, we headed to Friendly's for lunch. Carter insisted that we run from the van to the entrance, just for the sheer joy of running (we did the same when we were leaving). When we got inside, she looked over the menu thoroughly, and decided she wanted a cheeseburger. Normally, Lori and I call cheeseburgers "Crabby Patties" (from Spongebob Squarepants) in order to get them to eat them. But Carter told me she was a big girl now, and wanted a cheeseburger. She apparently believes that she has outgrown my ruse. *Sigh*, they grow up so fast.

When the food came, she immediately noticed something unexpected on her plate - a trio of pickle slices. Before this moment, I'm not sure if she'd ever seen a pickle, much less had one served to her. She poked it, prodded it, and said "Daddy, what's that?". I told her, and reassured her that it was in fact food. She then proceeded to lick each of the pickles in rotation, until they had all received at least 3 licks apiece. At which point she decided they were not to her liking (although why that took nine pickle-licks, I'll never know), and gave them no further attention.

And then, the climax of our meal - ice cream time. Our waitress brought us a tall strawberry shortcake sundae, and two spoons with handles nearly a foot long. Now mind you, while seated Carter's eyes only came about halfway up this glass. So she was reaching up above her head, with a very long, unwieldy spoon, and digging around in a glass she couldn't see into. So by the completion of dessert she was strawberried from fingertips to elbow. But damn, was she happy.

By the time we got home, we were both pretty beat from our long day out. She requested an episode of Dora the Explorer, and I obliged. I lay down on the couch, face up, and figured I would take a quick "break" while she watched her show. Within seconds, she climbed up onto me, and lay down on my chest. She and I used to do this when she was an infant, and I loved it, but once she hit about three months old she wouldn't do it anymore. But this day she stayed that way with me until Mommy came home, and the garage door opener woke us both up.

It was probably about the best day I have had with Carter in my entire life. It's good to be a daddy.

Nothing to special to say about this one - just a cute pic of Eli and Carter together. They're dressed almost identically, which was a complete accident.

I think I may be developing superpowers. As far as I know, I haven't been exposed to radiation, mutagens, spider-bites, or extraterrestrials. But how can I be sure? I wouldn't want to accidentally crush anything with my super-strength. A few weeks ago while demolishing the old porch, I bent my hammer - the hammer I have owned and used for probably 5-6 years now with no problems - nearly in half. A week or two before that, I bent a spaded shovel in half while trying to dig up a horrible-looking (and foul-smelling) bush next to our porch. I wonder if I can punch through concrete walls? Hang on a sec...

Ouch.

Sean had his first school picture taken a month or so ago. Now, you've all seen the pictures we've taken of him. It is impossible to get that boy to sit still for more than three seconds at a time. Frankly, Lori and I weren't expecting much from these school pics. So you can imagine our surprise when we opened them up and saw the photo you see here. We are still trying to figure out what the photographer must have done to get Sean to cooperate. My money is on drugs, but Lori is convinced it must have been a bribe.

I don't think I've mentioned this before, but last summer we started collecting rocks from the places we visited with the kids. I was hoping that it would give them a trigger to help them remember things we had done as a family. It seems to be working. The rocks are on the windowsill above our kitchen sink. Sometimes Sean catches sight of them while helping me cook or wash dishes, and tells me about them and where they come from. We've got a "special rock from the beach", a "special rock from Maudslay park", a couple of "special rocks from the Saco River", and a "special rock from the mountain". I'm hoping to keep this up next year. Who knows, maybe it will eventually lead to an interest in rock-hunting or geology. At the very least, though, it gives him a way to remember special moments we had, which is enough for me.