DANGER: Pinch Point

Saturday evening, our neighbors were going to take Mommy and I out to the New Candlelight Dinner Theater to see West Side Story as a 'Thank You' for the work we’ve done on our other neighbor’s house.

After working outside for the afternoon, I went and got dressed up, then headed back outside for something (no idea what now) and noted that one of the kid’s scooters had been left outside. So I unlock the garage door, put the scooter in and start to close the door: All in a smooth, very quick motion.

So quick in fact that I went to close the garage door wrong and had 2 of my right-hand fingers in one of the seams. OUCH! In a panic, trying to get free, I reversed the motion of the door only to have it shift abruptly and make things that much more uncomfortable (understatement).

I finally got myself freed and, not having felt anything break, my initial thought was, ‘I can play this off’. Then I looked at my imprinted, black and blue fingers. I ran inside and put them under cold water for lack of any better clear-headed thought.

After a brief explanation of my stupidity, Mommy got me ice...and a chair as I now felt like I was going to pass out. A few long moments later, convinced that I hadn't broken anything, yet still decidedly uncomfortable (understatement) I decided we should still try to head out to dinner. So I spent the evening cuddled up to a icepack, but still got to enjoy a good dinner and show with my beautiful wife.

Today, I'm sore, but really not in bad shape; all things considered. If only the garage door had faired better...

Field Trip Frenzy

With the school year winding down (seriously, where does the time go?), the last 2 weeks have seen the final 3 (off-campus) field trips for the big kids this year.

First, on Wednesday, April 16th, Amanda and her 1st grade class, along with Mommy, spent the day at the Delaware Museum of Natural History.

The DMNH is always an exciting time for the kids, offering them a glimpse at a wide range of living and long-dead critters. The girls especially love this... :)






Next, on Wednesday, April 23rd, Abigail and her 3rd grade class, again with Mommy in tow, took a bus trip to historic Philadelphia, PA.

Some missed opportunities aside, such as touring Independence Hall, the class got to spend some quality time with the Liberty Bell, Congress Hall, the Franklin Court Underground Museum, the Betsy Ross House, and even Starbucks(?).







The third and final trip took place the very next day when Alex and his 5th grade class, along with Mommy and Daddy this time, headed to the Sight & Sound Millennium Theater in Strasburg, PA (awesome aerial shot here) to see the play Daniel and the Lion's Den.

If you've never been to Sight & Sound, honestly, you've got to see it to believe it. Their productions are awesome. The stage is 300 feet in length and wraps half-way around the audience, the sets can reach over 40 feet tall, and they make regular use of live animals; horses, camels, dogs, etc. Add to this the fact the shows are very God-honoring.

Absorbent and Yellow and Porous is He!

To Aidan's credit, he's learning and using new words daily; elbow, wheel, and eye are just a few recent examples that come to mind.

One of his troubled areas, are fruits. All fruits, with the exception of bananas, are "apple". This is less of a problem with pineapple, which in Aidan's limited world is yellow and comes from a can.

So Mommy took Aidan grocery shopping this morning. In the fresh fruit aisle, Aidan spotted the spiky object pictured to the left.

How to know your 2 year old is watching too much TV that's age inappropriate thanks to his older brother: He points to the fruit and excitedly blurts out, "Bob Bob!" (Aidanese translation - 'Sponge Bob')

The Best Things in Life

Taking advantage of the rare shimmer of sunlight we were blessed with on Saturday (Honestly, we've gotten more rain since getting getting the dog...kind'a like Murphy's Law when you get your car washed.) Mommy donned her running clothes and MP3 player, leashed the dog and went out for a run.

Upon her return, she excitedly told me about a foosball table she had seen while running. It was sitting at the curb and appeared to be being discarded. During her quick glimpse while running, she felt it looked to be in good shape and she wanted to go back and check it out. Maybe even retrieve it. So we emptied the van and drove down the street to check it out.

Arriving at the house, the table clearly had a sign that read "FREE + IT WORKS". Plus, it had the added bonus of also being an Air Hockey table. After a knock on the door went unanswered, we loaded it up, brought it home, and cleaned it up.

The kids haven't been able to stop playing with it since.

Science Olympiad 2008

Saturday, February 9th, Alex participated in his 2nd Elementary Science Olympiad at St. Marks High School. This year, 16 kids from RLCA competed in a 22 events.

The morning opened with the egg drop. Alex competed in this same event last year and hoped to capitalize on the experience. Teamed with friend Ben, the boys first tackled a 10 question quiz on energy, momentum, etc. Upon completing the quiz, the boys immediately went to work on their carrier, combining a Styrofoam cup, straws and index cards to try to protect their precious cargo. Check the video for the results.

After the egg drop, Alex moved on to compete in 2 more competitions: Up in the Air and Maps and Symbols. Up in the Air was a closed competition. Alex was teamed up with classmate Angela and had to answer questions about the atmosphere. Maps and Symbols was similarly a closed competition. Teamed with classmate Zach, the boys had to work with different types of maps to find locations and measure distances (right up Alex's alley).

At the end of the day, Alex and Zach brought home 5th place medals for Maps and Symbols. In total, RLCA brought home medals in 12 events. Not too shabby considering there were over 30 teams competing and this was only the 2nd year that RLCA has competed.

Congratulations to all who competed.

Post edited on 5/9/2011 due to shutdown of GoogleVideo.

Renovations

Back before Thanksgiving, Mommy and I decided that we were going to use Christmas break as a chance to redo our aging master bathroom. In the spirit of our kitchen, this would be a complete renovation: Taking it down to the studs. The advantage of doing the work over the break would be that the kids would be off school and I off work.

The plan was to plan and purchase during the beginning of December then lay into the project on Dec 20th and go non-stop over the next 2 weeks to finish it. Yes, we wanted to finish it during those 2 weeks. I kind'a looked at it this way: Those folks on TV can rebuild a whole house in a week. Surely I can redo a measly bathroom in 2 (ha ha).

So the 20th arrived, Poppop came over, the hammers came out, and the drywall came down. Demo took nearly 2 full days; longer than I had hoped, but we could make it up.

We had decided on an tub and toilet early on, but hadn't had a chance to pick any of it up. So Saturday morning we headed over to Lowes to do some buying. Once in the store, we met a very nice vendor who pointed out to us that the tub we wanted wasn't really white; it was more of a bone color. Thats a problem. As an alternative he pointed out to us that Lowes had on clearance they're remaining steel tubs...for $20. Mommy was sold instantly. The only trick; we had to drive to the New Castle Lowes to get one. By the time we got home and unloaded, Poppop had to leave for church. No biggie; we can make it up.

Christmas came and went (Merry Christmas, by the way), as did New Years (and Happy New Year, too), and we never made it up. By the time I went back to work on Jan 2nd, the electric and plumbing had been buttoned up, the tub had been set, the drywall hung and the tile mounted. But we still had spackling, painting, grouting, flooring, etc. etc. to do.

Aidan's 2nd birthday came on Jan 19th (by the way, Happy Birthday, Aidan). By this point, 30 days in, I was determined to have the space buttoned up and usable to show off to the family. I thrashed on it Friday night into Saturday. This is the point at which I discovered that my much desired toilet, after assembly and mounting, was just too darned big; it sat too far from the wall (?) and blocked the tub. So, in all the chaos of preparing a birthday party, Mommy ran out and bought another toilet. God bless her.

At this point, 41 days and counting, we're not 100% finished: Among the finishing details, we need to put quarter-round molding around the floor, I need to cut down one of the doors a bit more, and we need to paint the cabinet door I custom made. But everything is working and the space exceeded our expectations.

Domo arigato to Grammy for taking Aidan to her house for so many naps and to Poppop for all his hard work. Without you both we'd still be showering at our neighbor's.

Language Lessons...with Aidan

Anyone with young children will tell that you must be, at the least, bi-lingual in order to have any hope of communicating with your children as a toddler.

Below is a quick reference of Aidan-ese.

geacoo \'gē-ˈkü\ Cookie (rooted in speaking dyslexia)

goo gir \'gü ˈgər\ 1. "good girl" (used to praise the dog)
                        2. Sadie (also used to call the dog)

mamoo \ˈmä ˈmü\ Mommy (continues the "oo" sound fixation)

moe \ˈmō\ 1. Milk
               2. More
               3. Phone (every child has that one word
                   that gets used for everything)

wawa \ˈwȯ-ˈwȯ\ Boom Chicka Wah Wah (picked up from Amanda
                       from the commercials for the Chipmunks movie.)

yi \ˈyī\ Light(s) (Used excitedly with Christmas lights)

There are a few other common 'word' usages, "banana" and "bottle" for instance, that I'm not even going to try to spell...