A Little Afternoon Boating

Anchors Aweigh

 Except for the annual Pattishall family beach week, our summer has been one long "staycation."  Steven started a new job as a hospitalist at Wake Med hospital on July 1st. While he's been adjusting to work, Edmund, Evie, and I have been doing a lot of exploring kid-friendly places in the area with several friends.  So while we haven't traveled too far from home, I feel like my kids have had a fun-filled summer with plenty of memories.  One of the perks of Steven's new job is that he, for the most part, is off every other week.  When that happens we not only get quite a bit done around the house, but also have the pleasure of his company on our outings.  Yesterday when I got home he informed me he had an adventure for our afternoon all mapped out.

Edmund at the Helm

He decided to take our family to Lake Crabtree for an afternoon of boating.  We've lived in the area for 3 years and I have no idea why we've never made the trip before.  We've been to other boating locations before, but they've always been too far to make an impromptu trip of it.  Lake Crabtree, on the other hand, is only 10 minutes from our house.  Our one worry was that there would be no "peanut" size life-jackets available for Evie, but fortunately they had one that fit her perfectly.  As a family of 4 we could choose between a pedal or row boat.  We decided on the row boat.  Even though this meant Steven would do all the hard work, it was definitely for the best, as we learned Evie needed a full-time wrangler.

With life jackets tightened, we loaded into the boat.  As the boat attendant pushed our boat from the dock he exclaimed, "wow that's a big snake."  As we looked back we saw the body of a massive red and black snake coiled around the dock.  Thank goodness it didn't try to hitch a ride in our boat.  I'm not sure what would have ensued had we known it was there when we loaded.

Little Mischief Maker

The lake was fairly big, but we didn't explore very much of it.  Evie, who is fearless when it comes to water, wanted nothing more than to climb out of the boat and into the lake.  She and I struggled for most of the ride with our conflict of interest, as Steven and Edmund rowed the boat. After about 30 minutes on the water we decided to head back to shore.  Any more time and Evie probably would have triumphed in our struggle.  As Steven rowed back I reminded him to be on the lookout for the snake.  I certainly didn't want to anger it by docking in its resting place.  I'm glad I remembered to watch for the slithering creature because as we approached the dock we saw the snake now had it's head of of the water, its tongue sticking out, and hissing in our direction.  I told Steven there was no way we were going to dock in our boat's assigned spot.  Fortunately for us, the attendant agreed when I pointed out the snake.  We were able to dock further down and made it to shore unscathed.

Steven really wanted to go sailing, as he had done a bunch of sailing in college.  Unfortunately the Sunfish sailboats only seat two, so that mean two in our family would have to sit out.  As much as I really wanted to go sailing, I had to agree with Steven that it didn't make much sense to leave our troublemakers with no supervision back on shore.  In the end Edmund got to be the skipper.  I have to admit this was the first time I've been jealous of my son.  I still have yet to go on a sailboat, but Steven promises we'll go back to the lake without the kids one day.

Setting Sail

When Edmund and Steven came ashore, it was clear from Edmund's uncontainable excitement they had a grand time.  I am glad that was the case as I missed most due to chasing after a strong willed toddler.  I'm very glad we have found a great outdoorsy place nearby with boating and trails to explore.  I love being outside, but know I'll probably never get into hardcore backpacking or the like, so this was just my speed.  After this trip I tried to convince Steven that we should take the plunge and get certified in SCUBA.  He says we ought to try snorkeling first.  If Evie's love of water keeps us, she might just beat us to it.  For now I'm just glad we have a fun outdoor activity our whole family enjoys.

The Turtle and the Ice Cream Truck: An After Dinner Tale

The Turtle in the Garage

I was downloading and organizing pictures today when I came upon one picture that screamed "you have to write my story down."  OK, the picture didn't really scream, but if it could I'm sure it would have.  I have no doubt this story will end up as Pattishall family lore, much like the lobster in the pot is now Mercer family lore.  

One evening after dinner our family decided to take advantage of a cool(er) summer night.  As I walked outside my neighbor came over to tell me that she had seen a large turtle heading for our garage.  She had chased it away and it was now residing under our holly bushes.  She warned me to be careful just in case we had a snapping turtle on our hands, though her best guess was that it was a box turtle.  I brought the rest of my family outside to enjoy this sight of nature so rarely seen in suburbia.  Our neighbor's two boys also came over to visit the turtle.  

After some time the novelty of the "giant" turtle wore off.  This turtle gets bigger every time I tell the tale, but in my opinion it was monstrous.  The various children dispersed and then we all heard the sounds of an ice cream truck.  I don't know who shouted louder.  Edmund and I were both screaming for Steven to get us some money for some ice cream.  As a parent I now get the creepiness of the ice cream truck, but I suppressed that momentarily as fond memories of Ninja Turtle ice cream pops with bubble gum noses flooded back to me.  And can you believe they still sell them?  Of course that's what I got.  Is it sad I can't remember what my child chose as his first ice cream truck treat?  .

We stood in front of our neighbor's house eating the Popsicle with her children who had also been lured by the sound of the ice cream truck music.  While the children dripped sticky Popsicle juice all over themselves, I lamented the fact that I had ruined my amazing memories by partaking in the ice cream pop.  It probably still tasted the same, but was not what I remembered.  After we cleaned the kids' sticky hands we all dispersed and went our separate ways.  

Our family decided to take a quick walk around the culdesac before calling it a night.  I asked Steven if we should shut the garage as we had been warned that the turtle was hightailing it for our garage earlier.  His response, "It's a turtle (read slow), and we'll only be gone a few minutes."  After our very short back we returned home and the turtle was nowhere to be found.  I asked Edmund, who is lower to the ground than I, if he saw it anywhere.  He pointed under the car and said, "it's there!"  It took Steven and I awhile to see it, but eventually we did and now had to determine how to remove it from the garage.  

I took the kids inside and Steven moved the car.  The turtle was in its shell and Steven was able to back up without disturbing it.  Eventually, after some careful work with a snow shovel, Steven was able to remove the "gimongous" turtle from the garage and steer it back towards its peaceful home at the pond.  When I came downstairs to make sure all was well I spotted liquid of some sort in the garage.  I was informed that as man and beast cowered in fear of each other, the beast lost control of its bladder.  The next day our 5 year old boy could not contain his laughter as he heard there was turtle pee in the garage.  And thus concludes this telling of The Turtle and the Ice Cream Truck.

 

We Have a Crawler

 Click Above for Some Cuteness

Can I just say how over the moon I am about Evie's newest accomplishment?  I've watched hundreds of kids learn to crawl, and as exciting as it is, it's one of those (pseudo) milestones I took for granted.  That is until I had Edmund who decided to march to the beat of his own drummer.  The road he took to accomplish all those important gross motor skills was anxiety provoking for me and Steven, to say the least.  But eventually he got there in his own roundabout way and is such a happy, fun little boy who still likes to throw us for a loop. 

Evie seemed to be heading down a similar path, and since we'd had one child who'd done the same, Steven and I only had fleeting anxieties, but knew she'd be fine without the interventions we sought for Edmund.  We determined we had kids who skipped class the day typical development was taught, and that was OK.  But I was really hoping for a crawler and began to grieve that we might not have children who ever do the cute little creep.  Silly I know, but it is what it is. 

Last week Evie starting scooching forward on her bottom.  Then a few days ago she began commando crawling.  Every day before that I tried to practice the hands and knees crawling position with her, but she hated it.  Once Evie began scooching, I resigned myself to the fact that even if Evie wasn't a true crawler at least she was a mover. In fact if I had tried to put her on her hands and knees this morning I can say with 99% certainty she would have let me know emphatically that she would have none of it.

Tonight I reminded Edmund to clean his playroom before bed, but he was not thrilled with the idea.  I said I'd make it fun and began singing "A Spoonful of Sugar" while he cleaned and acted out the scene from Mary Poppins complete with doors and drawers popping open and shut.  The two of us had almost completed clean-up when he went to put his United States puzzle on the table, and then the inevitable happened.  All 50 states toppled to the ground.  I told him I'd work on it, but he said he wanted to keep cleaning if I'd sing the song.  And it was at that moment that Evie decided to crawl.  If I hadn't been bending over to look for Iowa I would have missed it.  She was full-on cute, butt in the air crawling.  I have no idea what prompted her, but she was crawling, albeit at a snail's pace, across the room.

Edmund and I cheered her on.  Hoping she would do it again, I ran to take a video for Steven, who had just left for a night at the hospital.  Evie performed until she could take no more, and so we were able to get the video.  This may not be the ultimate in baby achievements, but in our family it's a big deal.

Mun the Edmund

Cover Page (Sorry for the Poor Quality)

 Edmund has always loved books, but now he's really getting into reading.  He has a few books that he has memorized and "reads" those with ease.  I'm not knocking memorization, as it in fact was the way I began reading.  However, I wanted to gauge where he actually was in terms of phonemic awareness and recognizing sight words.  At several other mommy friends' suggestions I purchased Edmund Set 1 of the BOB Books (thanks to Kay Kay).  The books in the set build upon each other.  The first book in Set 1 uses only four letters so children can easily and successfully read the book. 

Title Page

Edmund was so proud of himself when he read Book 1, entitled MAT all by himself.  He has since read all the books in the set, but is most confident with the first 4.  At bedtime Edmund is allowed to choose two stories, but when he asks to read a short BOB book, I'll oblige.  I figure if he's asking to read, at this point I shouldn't deny him. 

All this is to say that Edmund is loving his BOB books, so much so that for the past week he has been talking about making his very own.  While Edmund was at Grandma's house on Monday he finally sat down to create one.  I got back from the dentist just in time to see him complete his latest authorial endeavor.

Several of the BOB book titles are structured like Dot the Dog, for example.  Edmund picked up on this and titled his book Mun the Edmund.  I'm not quite sure what it means, but it is creative nonetheless.  He informed me he was both the author and illustrator and asked me to write those words out for him to copy.  He then put those words along with his name on the cover page.

The End and  Barcode

Next Edmund added some simple pictures to each of the pages.  The BOB books are known for their simple drawings and Edmund clearly made note of that fact.  He then went back and added words to each page.  His words were things like frrrpppp, but hey, he's making his own book, so I can't be picky.  Edmund knows that you have to sound words out in the BOB books.  He doesn't try to make up a story when he reads his completed book to me.  He sounds out frrrpppp, and then laughs hysterically.  Think about what this sounds like to a little boy and you'll know why we get the laughter.  

On the final page Edmund wrote "The End" with a little help from Grandma on the spelling.  He informed us that all BOB books end this way and he is correct.  Lastly, and I think probably Edmund's favorite addition to his book, he added "a thing that is on the back of every book."  Edmund had added the barcode.  Really, this kid thought of everything when he made this book.  This book will definitely make it into the keepsake box..

Spring Has (Almost) Sprung

Funny Bunny and Silly Children

Today is the first (it was when I first started writing) third day of spring and it is cold.  Maybe not by northern standards, but since I am officially claiming North Carolina as my state, it's COLD.  This past Saturday, fortunately, we got a brief reprieve from the cooler weather.  What did our family do?  We packed the day as full of outings as possible because it is now clear the Groundhog lied.  Spring did not come early and we needed to come out of hibernation.  Our initial plans included a brief breakfast with the Easter Bunny and a hop on over to the Planetarium for Legopalooza, but we were having so much fun we added on to each event.

Easter Breakfast Art

In the morning we headed over to University Mall for Breakfast with the Easter Bunny.  Edmund and Evie both enjoyed having their pictures made with him.  Edmund also had fun coloring and doing a spring craft.  He was very proud of his finished works of art.  

While at breakfast, we were told there would be a magic show happening shortly on the opposite end of the mall.  After a short debate about whether or not to insert the show into the morning's plans, we decided to take the plunge.  It turned out to be quite the elaborate ordeal for a free show, and we were glad we stayed.  In case anyone is looking for a magician, his name was Jeff Jones, and he was fabulous with young kids.  At one point when the children were getting a little overeager to go toward the stage, he commanded them to "criss-cross applesauce."  Magically they all sat down.  This is a teacher's trick too, but I'd never seen it work so well before, so must be magic.  Edmund was very excited when mom was called up to the stage to help with a trick.  Evie was probably excited too, but the expression on her face was asking "what is going on here?"  At the end of the show the children were given adorable bunny bags with little magic tricks inside.  Edmund's bag included a whoopee cushion, and the "whoofee cushion" as he calls it, has been summoning much laughter around our house the past few days.

Lego Master at Work

Next it was off to Legopalooza.  At this event members of the North Carolina Lego Users Group create Lego structures over the course of the weekend.  Visitors can then "ooh and ahh" at the creations they come up with on the spot.  There were castle creations, a town, an amusement park type structure, and a scene from Ghost Busters.  The creations were really fun to see and it was amazing to see what could be done with Legos.  Edmund even tried his hand at making a few of his own Lego creations using the Legos provided for kids and kids at heart.  Steven and I realized that if we go to this event again next year we should go at the end of the weekend because the creations will be complete and even more awe inspireing.  Still it was amazing to see what the guys and gals of NC-LUG came up with.

What Pretty Flowers!

For a family with a 4 year old and an infant Legopalooza doesn't take long.  Edmund, and if you can believe it,  Evie don't have the patience required to build an elaborate structure yet, so we had time to kill before lunch.  As it was such a beautiful day we decided to wander around the Arboretum on UNC's campus.  I somehow always forget what a lovely spot it is to visit.  We got in a couple of springy pictures of the kids sitting among the flowers.  Others had the same idea, but they brought along a professional photographer, not an I-Phone.  Our stint here was short-lived because a hungry Edmund is a cranky Edmund.  Next time I'll have to remember to pack a picnic so we can enjoy this treasure of a place even longer.


 I'm glad we got to have such a fun family outing that included daddy.  Now that we know we'll be in North Carolina next year and that Steven will have a predictable schedule, we look forward to having more of these family outings.  For now we'll take what we can get, both in the weather and in the daddy departments.

The Start of Evie's Adventures

Evie Enjoying Music and Movement

I've decided it's time for some honesty about my life with two.  I sincerely want to keep up with this blog.  When Edmund was a baby I'd sometimes get in one post a day.  As he got older it got closer to once a week or two times a month.  Now with two kiddos I'm doing well to get in one post a month and I'm sure my small "readership" has dropped because of it.  But this blog is really more for me to document these fleeting years with my children than to become "blog of the year."  If I'm being honest, I could probably write a post every other day.  Evie takes a nap in the morning, but that's my time to get things done around the house.  Both kids generally take an afternoon nap and I could write then, but nap time has become sacred mommy rest time.  If I am going to make it until bedtime with my balls of energy I need nap time to zone out and recoup.

Chef Evie

It will come as no surprise to most of you that I love babies, so sometimes it makes me a little sad I won't have as much to show Evie about her early years as Edmund will.  Not to stereotype (well maybe a little), but Evie will probably be more interested in seeing her baby pictures than Edmund will.  Edmund's first few years were documented to death, between the blog, his baby book, and the massive portfolios I kept on him at the preschool.  Edmund has a plethora of movies featuring him and pictures galore.  This week I realized it had been almost a month since I took a picture of Evie.  I have a camera on my phone that is with me almost all the time, but I justify not taking it out because I'm afraid I'll miss a moment with her or because in reality by the time I actually get the camera out fussiness starts or the moment has passed.

Evie spends quite a bit of time in the car whilst we take Edmund to and from sports, lessons, and school.  However, now that she's older Evie and I are slowly finding activities to do together.  Recently Evie and I discovered the Southwest Branch of the Durham Public Library is a few minutes from Edmund's preschool, which makes it the perfect place for us to go right before morning nap.  This particular branch has something for children almost every day.  I can't say I'm deliberate in planning when we go.  Whatever happens to be occurring on the day we stumble in is what we attend (granted Evie fits the age range.)  Those who know me well will know stumbling into anything is not my style, but at least with library visits it's working for me.  So far Evie and I have attended several lapsit story times and music and movement classes.  Evie's still a little young to really "get" music and movement, but she loves the instruments, especially the egg shakers, and watching the older toddlers dance around.  To see the smile on her face you'd think the whole class was designed just for her. 

Delighting in Prepared Meal

With Evie's morning nap and Edmund's school schedule I think it will be a couple of months before Evie can do something more formal like Gymboree or Kindermusik.  I love my "big buddy E" to death, but I am also looking forward to the start of kindergarten so that Evie and I can have a little more mommy and Evie play time.  Many friends have told me it's hard to really get to know the second child, so I'm hoping that next year will be a time for me to get to know Evie's likes and dislikes and what makes her tick.  The start of our adventures is just around the corner.  And so my little Evie, you are just as loved as your big brother with or without the pictures to prove it. 

Space Travel

My laptop of 8 years died on me a couple of weeks ago.  It is beyond resuscitation I'm afraid.  I had plans to write about our Disney trip, but haven't gotten the pictures sorted since I am now sharing a laptop with Steven.  Posts will probably be intermittent until I figure out what to replace my laptop with.  However, Edmund said something so cute yesterday I just have to write it down.

Steven and I have one garment bag hanging in the closet.  Edmund noticed it yesterday and asked what was inside.  Steven replied "my suit."  Edmund thought about it for a minute and asked "your spacesuit, daddy?'

As much as we talk about space with Edmund you'd think daddy's former space travel would have come up by now.  This also informed me that we don't get out enough.  Perhaps we'll start working on it.

In Evie news, Evie is working on eating little pieces of food.  She still isn't crawling, but is a roller extraordinaire.  She can stand up very well if someone puts her in the position.  She also has chosen a few favorite stuffed animal friends to sleep with now.  I went in to get her up from nap yesterday and she looked so cute snuggling with her sock monkey.  I went to get my camera, but by the time I came back the moment had passed.  Evie is now waving and it is the most adorable thing I have seen.  We have strangers stop us everywhere to comment on her eyes and smile.  Then she waves at them and they about die.  Of course I think my baby's cute, but she really does seem to have an effect on people.