Piercing Blue Eyes

The Kids Lives

Phew! The past few weeks were a whirlwind of activity both at home and at work. The weather seems to be giving us more energy (or at least the kids) and we’re spending more time outdoors and allowing later bedtimes (much to my wife’s chagrin).

Each child has made some remarkable leaps in their developments, so, let me update you all on some of these:

Joey

Thursdays, I pick Joey up from school and bring him home. Jenny has class that night and needs to be leaving the house at the time I’d normally be departing work. This past Thursday, I left a little early to pick Joey up. Upon arriving, I was able to come inside to find him sitting on the rug listening to the day’s last story from one of his teachers.

On this particular Thursday, a teacher (and fellow neighbor of ours whom got us into Joey’s school in the first place) pulled me aside to inform me about an amazing breakthrough Joey had made that very day.

She handed me a few pages that were stapled together (something we get every day and we save like the good stock piling parents we are).

On the first page of his take-home paper work was a list of 6 equations. The instructions at the top of the page listed ‘=’, ‘>’, and ‘<’ as possible answers. The students were to look at the series of numbers, and choose which of the three numerical comparison operators fit between them. Joey had correctly identified 5 out of the 6 (and he proudly explained to me what he had been doing as well “Dad, this one is bigger than that one, and this one is the same as that one…”). The second page was a series of 9 math equations similar to the many we remember from our past as well. Examples:
1+4
2+7
0+9

Using a technique he had learned at the school, Joey had made a series of dots next to each number and used them to count the total for each equation. He got ALL of the equations correct.

Now, to most, this action may seem trivial, but you need to remember, this kid just turned 5 and has not even started kindergarten. I know that for myself, personally, I was not even exposed to the alphabet until my half-day kindergarten class started them, and I was 6, not 5.

Joey not only knows the alphabet, but he can spell a large number of three and four letter words, he has learned phonics to help him sound them out, and is now starting into math.

This kid amazes me every day.

Jessamyn

Every morning I drive Jessamyn to school. 20 – 25 minutes each morning, just the two of us. Each morning, Jess insists I start her ‘Princess Music’ while we commute. This is a CD of Disney’s best songs sung by their famous (and revered by Jess) list of official “Princesses.” We have Jasmine from Aladdin, Cinderella, Snow White, Pocahontas, and Sleeping Beauty to listen to.

After six or eight months of listening to the same songs over and over again, the normal person would either pull the CD out and smash and burn it, or drive into the nearest large object to escape the monotony. But, in the past six months, our little daughter has grown quite the set of pipes on her as she has started to sign these songs… word for word.

Now, this isn’t any normal “babble” that so many non-child exposed adults would chalk the somewhat incoherent ditties up as being. Nope, these are word for word reproductions, with melody, of each song that Jess has heard over the past 8 months.

We first became aware of her abilities as she usually sings along with the music in the car (something I insist upon… to keep me from running into the previously mentioned solid objects), but we quickly became aware that she had strong knowledge of each tune’s lyrics as she was able to sing from start to finish without missing lines AND singing in key.

Even now, you can ask her to sing you a song (without accompanying music) and she will start right off and singing happily along. She has even incorporated the Sound of Music, songs from ‘The Muppets’, and some top-40 artists heard on the radio (thanks to Mommy) into her vast repertoire.

I think I’ve finally found a “front man” for my band… now to get Joey and Jocie to play bass and keyboards.

Jocie

Our now well accomplished walker has opted to exercise her toddler-given right to expand her “private space” and broadly explores all geography available.

As she grows into a child, I felt the need to quickly document some of her early language skills.

“ah-bum” – My favorite word, which also has a derivant ‘ah-bu-ba-bum’. This means that Jocie is generally happy and is merely trying to communicate with someone in her immediate presence. Likely translation: “Hi, I’m happy, you should be too.”

“hi-yah” – Always accompanied by a clenched right hand to her ear. This is Jocie’s interpretation of a phone call. We often have lengthy short-distance phone conversations with Jocie (often from within 1 or 2 feet of her) using this catch phrase: Likely translation: “Hi there, I’m on the phone with you.”

“ma ma ma” – Jocie uses this word interchangeably when referring to a parental figure. Jenny, Brooke, or myself are affectionately known by this word. Likely translation: “Parent, come help me. Pick me up.”

“oey” – This is universal Jocie speak for either of her two siblings (or both).

“uh oh” – Same meaning to Jocie as to us. When she drops something (often deliberately), she immediately states this. She has very appropriate usage of this word, especially in public places where she KNOWS she can get gobs of public attention by boisterously dropping a sippy-cup into an isle way and immediately screaming ‘uh oh’.

“owie” – Any time she hurts herself, she immediately claims this word. She is also aware of this condition when relating to others: she recently pointed to one of Jessamyn’s many cuts and bruises and while touching it, stated ‘owie’. Likely translation: “boo bo”, “injury”, or “you’re hurt here.”

“eye yie yie yie” – I learned this just the other day when she bonked my head accidentally and I said ‘ow’. Jocie immediately turned around, gave me a big hug, and stated this word over and over again. Likely translation: “sorry” or “I love you”.

“kit tee” – Means either cat or dog to Jocie.

From the Joey phrase book, I’ve got to post this one here (since only he would ever say/sing this to us):

“ooo – dee – doh” – We have no idea? But it was really cute when he did it!

jp

Jocie's First Slide

While at Joey's birthday party, Brooke took little Jocie for a ride down the slide.

Screams of joy dittoed the smiles seen on her face in these photos.

She loved every ounce of this experience.

jp

Great Wolf Lodge (Take 2)

This past weekend we drove up to Traverse City to attend our second annual family vacation at the Great Wolf Lodge of the North with the kids. Although the park has remained the same during the past year, our children’s abilities have definitely grown and matured when compared against the previous year's mental metrics.

Last year, Joey was adamant about not going down any of the park’s larger slides when we were there in April of 2007, but after a rather forced trial experience this time, he made the return runs in an almost constant vigil.

Jessamyn had been our more adventurous child previously and this time she kept her daring side flaring as she too attempted even larger slides and met the challenges with positivity.

Even our little Jocie experienced her first ride down the slides!

This year we were met at the park by our good friends the McClish’s. Their children, Maddie, Logan, and Kennedy played hand-in-hand with our children as they pushed each other's abilities in games and challenges that I would never have expected them to do on their own.

Joey and Logan began game of ‘jump in’ where they both pretended to be firefighters that were busy rescuing imaginary victims from the pools.

Jessamyn and Maddie took to the park’s massive fort and descended the slides time and time again as they ran happily through its structure.

As parents, we enjoyed having friends to share the experiences with this time as well as employing a “group parenting” strategy to manage the six children that ran like wild beasts through the forty thousand square feet of water park.

I look forward to next year’s visit and can’t wait for it to come.

jp

Dinner with Crazy and Cute

As I walk through the front door the previous evening, I found myself greeted with a screaming voice yelling “Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” as my three year old daughter comes rushing from the living room to the front door to greet me. Her jubilance at seeing me every night makes me feel like a king in her eyes.

Normally I park in the garage and enter through the side of the house each night and I play a little game of hid-from-the kids when I first hear them running towards me as I try to make my way to the front of the house to doff my shoes, coat, and anything else that I may be carrying in from the car. On this day, though, I’ve had to park outside since my usual spot in the garage has been taken by Brooke, and come through the front door and am ambushed without an escape-route to exit to. Jess plows into me like a locomotive giving me a great big huge hug and saying “Daddy’s home” in a very relieved sounding voice.

I ask where her brother is, since he usually joins in this nightly game.

“Well, he’s upstairs, he’s not feeling very good.”

Her mom had previously informed me that Joey had been to the doctor’s office that afternoon and was diagnosed with a severe flue. He was so tired from his illness that he fell asleep on the doctor’s office examination room table (you know, the tables with that oh so comfortable tissue paper all over them that makes you feel like your some sort of cold-cut sandwich being wrapped up at a deli) after stating ”I’m sleepy.”

Deciding to harass my daughter, which is something I take great pride in and developed my “toddler harassment” techniques to a fine art in the past several years, I tell her that I don’t see her as I throw my coat on top of her.

“Well, were did Jess go… she was just here a moment ago?”

A muffled voice can be heard from underneath the now wiggling blue colored Columbia coat that my wife bought me for Christmas.

“Right here Daddy! I’m right here!”

I circle around, acting like I’m still having a hard time hearing the now overpowering yells that has increased at least two full octaves since this search began.

“Hrmm, well, I guess she must have gone to bed. I guess I’ll just take a little seat right here until she comes back.”

At this point, she has almost gotten the coat off her head that I’ve been continually putting back on top of her each time she shrugs it off, all the while backing her towards a coffee table that sits in the middle of our living room. As she is trying to tell me that she is right behind me, I gently sit on her and hold my hand up to my face in a mock thinking pose.

“Wow, that’s really odd. I know I had just seen her here when I came in, it just seems so odd that she would have left. Now where could she be?”

Jess is so lost in giggles at this point that she can’t even make a single word come out of her mouth as I’m helping provoke her response by now tickling her sides.

By now, my one year old daughter, whom had supposedly said ‘Dada’ for her first time when I first came in the door (this event was unheard by me due to the above mentioned shrieking from Jessamyn), has spotted me and is making loud announcements in my general direction in her attempt to invite me towards her.

Actually, to her credit, Jocie almost always calls me ‘Da’ when she sees me, which absolutely love, since, from her, any acknowledgement of my existence is a gift, given her early life dependency belief that her mother was the world’s only satisfactory caregiver.

With a happy kiss and greeting from my wife, the greetings from the y chromosome deprived faction of my household are now complete.

Happy to no longer be a cushion for her father, Jess now escorts me to the dining room and ushers me into my chair. She helps sort out my food (tonight’s dining cuisine is from Burger King, a horrible choice for me since I had a burger for lunch, but, my flue ridden son had previously usurped the family dining plans with a feeble voiced request for ‘Nuggets’ which ended up diverted the entire family into a fast food dinner scenerio), sets my drink in front of me and announces “There you go Daddy, now you can eat.”

Like the Tasmanian Devil of the Loony Toons series so loved in my youth, Jessamyn now tears off into the living room screaming and bouncing from couch to couch, tossing pillows and cushions off as she flails.

Since Jenny and Brooke are busy straightening out the kitchen, I enjoy my dinner for two with the company of Jocie who now sits across the table from me. We both share smiles and little laughs as we enjoy the tableside performance of the extremely animated serenade of screams and bounces from Jessamyn.

Tonight, Jocie’s face is much more presentable than the night previous when she got to try ketchup for the first time and promptly took two fully drenched fists and planted them on top of her head (note: this happend after I gave her a bath not thirty minutes prior… L) leaving what looks like two spots where, if she were to act like her older sister on this night, I’m sure two horns could have sprouted from.

Normally an attentive listener, Jocie doesn’t provide very much insight into conversations I’ve held with her… Most of my serious life’s questions are either met with a ‘aieee’, ‘da’, ‘mama’, or just some cute looks which, although lacking in verbose substance, leave me with a residual feeling of elation. It seems to me that she tries to provide more inspiration than soulful insights, which is just fine with me.

I update her on the events of my day, tell her how work was stressful since I’m working on 14 projects simultaneously, spend half of the day on conference calls about the projects (something that sounds and is counterproductive, yet a part of everyday life in the IT industry), and ask her if she is as excited as I am about going to DisneyWorld in just over seventy-six days (my wife is tracking the countdown like she is some sort of director at Nasa’s Mission Control Center… thanks honey).

“da yaaaaaaa. Mama… a daaaa”

This sounds as plausible a response as any thus far in our dining discussion.

Quiet fills the room as the crazy whirlwind named Jess has now ascended to other parts, thankfully distant parts, of the upstairs portion of the house.

I can see that she must have finished her dinner at least fifteen minutes ago, yet this little one will eat and eat if someone remains in her company as she now attempts to place a few more bites of food into her well food-decorated mouth.

We smile some more at each other, and play a quick napkin shielded game of ‘peek-a-boo’ before deciding we’re both done eating.

I should also note at this point that she also enjoys the ‘peek-a-boo’ games that happen while I do the nightly dishes as she sits just around the corner from my view in the dining room. After each dish I place in the washer, I take a quick peed around to see her eagerly awaiting my glance, at which I am rewarded with an ear piercing joyous outburst of laughter. This game will last for at least the duration of the large dishes, but by the time I get to the silverware, she will have decided that she wants to help out and that I need to come get her out of her chair to assist me. Once free, she will come right into the kitchen and supervise my efforts and even verify my quality of work by climbing up onto the dishwasher lid and manually examining all of the spoons and forks (I place the knives towards the back where she can’t reach them). If she finds my work satisfactory, she will then continue her examination by verifying each plate is in its proper place by removing them and placing them next to her. A true hard worker in her profession, she never complains about the hazardous conditions she is often exposed to since there is often water on the dishwasher lid. She just climbs right in and starts helping Daddy out.

Not having any dishes due to chosen dinnertime meal, Jocie helps me clean up by bringing in the garbage from the dining table to the kitchen and then we both go upstairs to join the rest of the family in the kid’s playroom.

The perceivable absence of an older brother has left Jessamyn with three adults to herself, and in her after dinner playroom free time she decides to make the most of the attention by running around, dancing, and sharing quick exclamations while jumping up on our knees wanting us to interact with her.

Brooke finally gives in and starting playing with this wiggling and giggling infestation of exuberant energy disguised as our child while I play ‘Superman’ with Jocie (the game where I lay on my back and ‘foat’ her up in the air on my bare feet while holding her hands for safety).

This nighttime enjoyment continues until, like a roaring train that has suddenly run out of fuel and stopped, both of the energy bound bodies quickly descend into their beds and pass-out without even firing a single warning cry or protest, a true testament to the energy burned off in the “witching hour” events of the past several hours.

Amazed adults with puzzled minds try to make sense of the energetic chaos that has transpired, but feeling too tired and worn out from keeping up with bodies thirty years younger, decide on relaxation in the form of homework (if you can really call that relaxing…).

Another day has passed and yet somehow we’ve made it through it unharmed, still alive, and for some unknown reason, eagerly awaiting the next day.

jp

February Musings

In contrast to her normal “bubbly baby” personality, Jocie has recently been a much more subdued, calm, quiet, and very cuddly baby. Although I’ve loved this recent character trait, it is indicative of a more pressing issue. Compounded by our daughter’s entrance into our room this morning announcing that her head hurt, my wife took the whole family to the Pediatrician this morning.

A double-ear infection for Jocie is the culprit for the change of personality, and Jessamyn has been stricken with ‘strep throat.’ Joey was luckily exempt for illness as should be expected by his rather intense concoction of drugs, antibiotics, and allergy medicines prescribed to help treat a chronic sinus infection aggravated by allergies.

Stuck in the middle of the “Winter Blues”, I guess this is as good a time as any for our children to be sick, though, it is hard trying to get a good night’s sleep in our household.

Here are some updates on the family members:

Joey did amazingly well at his second skiing lesson of the year and even earned himself a pair of Scott goggles, which he has been proudly wearing (with helmet) around the house claiming that he is either a Power Ranger, FireFighter, or Soldier. On my cube wall now hang the output of his imaginative artistry from this past weekend as he colored me several paintings of firefighters spraying black tipped hoses gushing blue water that seems to move in directions I’ve never thought possible. I’m sure my mother often dotted her own private spaces with similar creations in my youth. It adds to the hundreds of photos of my family and our vacations that line my office walls.

Jessamyn is sort of experiencing a pre-teen ten-year early attitude disorder where she gets very moody, crosses her arms, scowls, and will not participate in anything. She did this last Saturday during her weekly ballet class. In watching through the window, we noted that for most of the hour she would be seen standing in this position and ignoring the rest of the surrounding class. It’s as if she is trying to say “I’ll ignore you and act mad until I get what I want.” Oh, it assuredly is just a phase, but, a tough one to deal with as “Ms. Nice” seems to involve herself in everything and when she gets scolded or can’t affect change on the rest of the family, out comes “Ms. Temper Tantrum.” Most of the time, though, she is just as sweet as can be and continues to be a great helper and caretaker over her little sister. Ask anything of Jess, and she'll most likely do it.

Jocie refuses to learn to walk, following a similar pattern of her elder siblings whom also refuted the task as long as possible. Instead, she opts to Stand, Clap, Fall to Knees, Crawl to next destination, and Repeat. Nice and cute… ‘till I started noticing the DVD player in the bedroom having an odd desire to keep coming to life sometime between the morning and when I come home from work, whence I turn it off again. We even tried teaching her to descend stairs, but this seems to end in a few stairs down and ten stairs up to the top, and she’s gone playing again.

Jenny and Brooke continue their momentous schooling endeavors with constant studying and discussions about what teacher said what, who did what in their class, and just how much they can’t wait to be done with class.

Me? Well, I’m still trying to decide if I’m going to stay on the fire deparment. I’m taking pictures every chance I get (and reading lots of books to try to improve my abilities). Someday soon, I hope to play drums with my friend Scott.

jp

Me and three

Jocie and I had a ‘daddy daughter’ bonding experience last night as we sat at the top of the stairs and played with some Lego’s that Joey had left in the play room. While I repeatedly put the cubes together into a tall wall, she persisted in removing the blocks one by one and handing them back to me.

We laughed and kept countering each other's productivity until she realized that gravity would help to pull a thrown block down the stairs. Apparently this was much more fun than the interaction we were participating in. She squealed with delight as individual blocks started raining down like bombs of World War II on the city of London towards the unsuspecting populous of dogs and cats below.

The event was short lived as only a finite number of blocks had been absconded from the bin in the main floor’s living room by a nearly five year old.

Returning to cleaning up the house (the wife was at class and it’s my noble duty as a father in need of his wife's respect to prove his ability to juggle three kids, dinner, bedtime, and sanity against cleaning the house up to prove my worth…. Sure, it’s no big deal, right?), a naked from a ‘falling-off the potty incident’ three year old alerts me that her little sister has now attempted to assist her older brother in his quest to relieve himself.

Splash…. “hehehe”… splash… “Weee!!!”

I run in to find my oldest holding the lid up (he hasn’t learned that another fifteen degrees in the lids arc will net it a gravitational hold against the basin that holds the water for the toilet and alleviate the necessity of holding it while he is mid-stream) and a barley one year old figure leaning over the side in a pose reminiscent of a child that’s dropped a precious toy down a wishing well. She’s splashing away in what I’d like to believe is clean unfettered water (well, as clean as toilet water can be…. It seems fine for the dogs…), yet I know it’s anything but that.

During the removal process of separating Jocie from the toilet, somehow an hand wetted with the liquid is placed into her mouth. I’m filled with total disgust at this moment. Her wrongdoings are quickly punished with a brisk rinse of both mouth and hands with water and liquid soap and a placement at the far end of the hallway far away from the bathroom.

I return to try and clean up the mess made all over the side of the bowl, floor, and lid top. My Son had decided that standing on the stool that his next oldest sister had just used, prior to her incident, was an appropriate decision before he did his “duty” yet failed to anticipate the elevated position's affect on his output projection angle in relation to the ring of the seat, and thus coated a clean underside of a toilet lid with requisite spray emanating in an arc-like pattern on surrounding surfaces and neighboring sink cabinet.

Like a bullet, our zoom baby appears from her short marathon and rushes just past my reach to the other side of the bowl where she again darts into the now visibly unclean water with her hands for yet another time.

Arghhh…. I’ve had enough at this point and quickly place the now giggling uncontrollably post-infant protagonist into pajamas.

Not thinking about her bathroom obsession (even though the lid is now closed, she’s still a bad omen when left to her own means in a bathroom…. And I should have rememberd this), I took the older two into their rooms and quickly dressed them for bed.

Silence…. And for several minutes I think nothing of it. Yet, something about being a parent puts you in tune to this sixth sense-like concern over silence. Normally, our house is a constant deafening drone that accompanies children that I can barely think, and my wife is plagued by constant ‘evening headaches’ that result in the common statement of “would you kids settle down, you’re giving me a headache!” But now, there is no sort of sound coming from our baby who sends out an unending squabble of little noises which allow us to track her like some sort of house-born infant radar.

Quiet….

At this point, it’s a bad thing.

And it can only mean one of two things. Either she’s sleeping, which is highly unlikely given the female quotient of our household’s penchant for exuberant energy, or she is getting into big time trouble.

A quick run towards the bathroom rewards me with the view of a standing one year old coated in what appears to be three feet of white snow. Yet on closer inspection this ends up being the entire contents of what was recently a new roll of toilet paper.

My frustration level at wanting to portray the vision of a perfect household ends in an immediate bedtime for the littlest one.

For the next two hours I will be continually reminded by her that she was not ready to go to bed yet. She waits ‘till after 10:00pm before silently giving in to defeat.

And at 7:30am, I’m re-acquainted to the same happy faced presence that she wakes with each and every morning.

It’s times like this when I’m so glad to head to the office.

jp

Jocie Turned One!

Well, she really did it. Against her parents wishes, Jocie decided it was time to turn one. All of her friends and relatives came to join in the celebration. Here are some pictures from this momentous occasion.

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