Peaceful As A Frog

This little frog has been stuck to my window all day.

He’s just curled there, sticking to the glass, breathing.

He looks so amazingly serene he’s become an inspiration.

Funny where you find inspiration sometimes.



Amy and I had our first overnight together without the kids this weekend.

Talk about inspirational.

We lounged around the hotel, drinking wine and watching a movie in the afternoon. We strolled around Williamsburg with espresso and books and ice cream. We stumbled upon an amazing restaurant where they cook delicious food in front of you, explaining how and why as they go along – the sort of place booked weeks in advance that we got into because of a fortuitous last minute cancellation. We slept through the night and later than usual. We sat and talked and read.

I love those kids, but it sure was good to get away together, to celebrate our anniversary and remember why we wanted to have kids together in the first place.

Coffee Swimming and Rocket Catching

First of all, last Thursday was Kaleigh’s 20th birthday. Twenty years old. Two zero. As in, no longer a teenager. As in, entering her third decade.

Wow.

Awesome.

When I asked her how it felt to be 20, she said, “It’s pretty cool, but it’s kind of a teaser year. I’m not a teenager anymore but I can’t go to bars.”

Nana, forget you read that.

The other morning I was sleepily drinking my cup of coffee while making Declan’s lunch for school. I took a sip, put it down, and saw this:


You’re not seeing things, and neither was I. That’s what you think it is: a small rubber Biscuit the Dog, staring up. A curious thing to see in the morning to be sure. But actually not an uncommon type of thing, with Declan around.

When I saw it, I asked Declan, who was coloring at the table, why Biscuit was in my coffee.

“Because he needed a deep pool to swim in,” quoth he, in a rather isn’t-it-obvious tone.

Makes sense, I guess.

Team Whitney gave Declan a cool rocket for his birthday. On Saturday we went out into the field across the street to play with it. Declan kept yelling, “I love this game!” You'll hear me try to get him to say it on this video, but he left me hanging...

You should have heard him laughing the 300 times he popped it up into the air and I tried to catch it. Absolute guffaws.

Elsie had a good time gnawing on the rockets by the way.



And here are some cute pics of Elsie, who is walking like a champ now:

Go Sox

This morning, as I was giving Elsie her breathing treatment, we were watching this eight-minute on-demand video called (erroneously) Baby Genius, in which they sing nursery rhymes and stuff. Not really genius material, but it does help keep the lass distracted from the fact that I'm holding a breathing mask over her nose and mouth.

Anyway, as the kids on screen were singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," Declan asked, "Daddy, do you love the Red Sox?"

"Yes, son, do you?"

"Oh yes."

He must have known, intuitively, that with their win over Tampa Bay last night the Sox are now tied for first in the AL East. Tonight Beckett takes the mound and with another win they leap into first. It’s worth noting – mainly for Kaleigh’s sake – that the Yankees are nine games back.

In more important news, Elsie realized this morning that walking and standing gives her a better angle for patting the dog's head:


This photo, by the way, makes me realize how monochromatic the back room is. We're gearing up to redo it though, so we can fix that...

Middle of September Already?

Let’s see, where are we?

Kaleigh turns 20 on Thursday. TWENTY! That’s a whole new first digit. Amazing. We’re very bummed that we won’t be able to share the day with her, what with her being all off at college getting all danged learned and stuff.

But we love you Kaleigh!

Declan started soccer a couple weeks ago.


It’s a funny thing. He has fantastic skills, but his coaches still aren’t taking the time to sit down and explain basic things like what a team is, what an opposing team is, what a goal is, etc. He gets a little confused when everyone’s not cooperating.

I meant to have a mini soccer camp with him on Saturday morning before his first game, but we never got around to it. (Bad dad.) At the game it seemed he was a little intimidated by the whole thing and spent about 15% of the time on the field. Then we left early. He’ll get it though, and when he does, watch out.

Elsie is as cute as ever…


…and exploded into walking this weekend. Before Friday night, the most I’d ever seen her walk is two steps. Amy had seen more. But then Friday night, she just started walking everywhere. Like, walk across the restaurant, waving at people, stop, squat, pick up a rock, stand upright and walk back. So cool. And now we’re in real trouble.



Saturday afternoon, we went to a little carnival the apprentice school at Amy’s work put on. Despite the heat, Declan threw himself at every ride he could, including this tall slide thing. It meant climbing to the top of a 15-foot inflatable slide and then sliding down. It’s taller than it seems in this video. We thought he’d be scared, but:



We got a babysitter Saturday night and Amy and I went to a cookout at her coworkers' house. We were going to go to a movie afterwards but decided instead to stop at a nice little restaurant out in the country and have a drink by their fountain/pond and just talk. So nice! Adult stuff! Imagine!

Sunday morning Declan and I went on a little hike. It was awesome. I love seeing him out in the natural world, finding things, talking about how cool leaves and sticks are, asking questions about seed pods and streams.

He found this beetle:


And LOVED it. He was so amazed, and it was great to see that sense of wonder in his face and hear it in his voice:


We stayed watching the huge thing root around in a rotting log for a long time. Then Declan rooted around in the log’s upturned base:


We also saw a three-foot brown snake. Very cool. Oh, and got bitten by mosquitoes. Not so cool.

Finally, a few random pics from the phone. Amy has posted better shots on Snapfish. I should pull some off there, eh?