A Dispassionate, Clinical Account (I.e., 'He Says')

At approximately 10:34 this morning, I received a call at work from Cindy.
She anxiously related that a carbon monoxide detector was going off.

I asked if both of the detectors were going off.
"No," she responded.
I asked which one of the two detector was going off.
She told me that it was the older one--the one that had caused a false alarm 3 years ago.
She further explained that she had turned the kerosene heater off about an hour earlier.

Having ascertained the pertinent facts, I reassured her that all was probably OK. I further said that she could call the fire department if she wished--the decision was hers, as she was still in her pajamas, etc. I further offered to come home if she wanted me to--I would meet her at Dean and Kay's house across the street.
Within seconds of hanging up, she called again and said that she wanted me to come home and that she was calling the FD.
I arrived home 10 minutes later, and after the FD came and ascertained that there was no carbon monoxide problem, I drove back to work.

As a countermeasure to such future false alarms, I will now be purchasing a CO detector with a readout that shows the current CO levels.
Problem solved!

Allyson Update

Maybe it's because we know she's the last one, but for whatever the reason, Allyson is a joy to have around.

It is heartwarming to see her break into a wriggling mass of smiles when she sees her Mom or Dad. Likewise when she is sucking her two fingers and you do some antic to coax the corners of her otherwise-occupied mouth upwards in a bemused grin.

She is good at scuttling around on her knees, and if she notices that you have food at hand, she scoots over and pulls herself up to make herself more available. If the food happens to be ice cream, she yelps whenever we let her go too long between bites.

She eats most everything. This past week I have fed her little bits of meatloaf, baked potato, freshly smashed bananas, and even some chicken enchilada. (Cindy was not amused with me when Allyson appeared to have a tummy ache after the enchilada and kept us both up half the night.)

She is now able to climb up the stairs--and quickly too--so we have dusted off the old baby gate again.

On the flip side, she doesn't sleep through the night as she used to, but we can handle that. At least she falls right back to sleep after getting tanked up again.


She is also a big 'Dancepad' fan!



What a gal!

Filthy Lucre Does the Trick

Cindy has come up with a new way to motivate the kids to get their daily chores done.

She made up chore charts, and at the end of each week the kids are now receiving an allowance based upon how many of the chores they have fully completed.

This is not to say that they get money for doing their chores, they just lose money if they don't do them. Cindy was also prescient enough to leave a number of empty spaces on each chart for additional weekly write-ins.

During the first week, everyone had deductions for missed work, but on the second week Cameron made sure he had everything done. The kid loves money!

And there have been a number of secondary salutary effects. There is no longer any fighting about who gets to sit at the end of the table (because the kid who sets the table for the whole week gets to pick where they want to sit, and they now know that they will each get a whole week to enjoy the 'hallowed' seat). Ditto for the big fights over who got to put what away from the dishwasher (they all strove mightily to do the silverware, one kid now does the entire dishwasher for the entire week!

Yes, Cindy is a genius!

With bowed head....

'Kenner has a new way of waking me up at night. She walks into our room, comes over to my side of the bed, and lays her head on my chest.

She then softly whines, 'I'm scared!'

That is my signal to get up and stagger behind her to her room and lay with her. Depending on how tired I am, I can be in there anywhere between 3 minutes and 4 hours.

Life is rough for a 42-year old dad!
However, Cindy is very appreciative of Makenna's new 'stealth mode,' as most of the time she doesn't hear Makenna come in, nor me leave.

Here is sweet 'Kenner during the daylight hours....


UPDATE! On Sunday night I woke up as she quietly came into the room. As she sidled over to my side of the bed, I pretended to be asleep, waiting for her to gently lay her head on my chest. She came near, paused for approximately 0.05 seconds, then roughly shoved me in order to wake me up. Just to show her my displeasure, I only stayed in her bed for 3 or 4 hours.

Allyson 'Spawn of Dracula'

A week ago Allyson was doing her darndest to get put on a formula-based diet.

As we have related previously, she has two lower teeth that are fully extended, and as Cindy let me know a number of times last week with her whimsical loud yelps (exaggerated for comical effect, I am sure), Allyson had been trying to get some red meat (or at least blood) in her diet. When Cindy first began yippin' at the nippin', Allyson would get startled, and even start crying in response. However, she soon grew hardened to the pain and just did it for fun.

Cindy is also quick to note that Allyson's fingernails also serve well as talons to pin down the prey during feeding time.

But as you might expect, Cindy finally found a good cure. As she started feeding Allyson she would gently place her thumb and forefinger on Allyson's soft cheek and softly caress her. When Allyson started to clamp down, Cindy would clamp the aforementioned two fingers together and apply some pressure until she stopped.

Thanks to this, Allyson has stopped being so carnivorous (cannibalous?) and both mother and baby are doing well.

Ahh, sabbaticals

Actually, the main reasons for the blogging being so light since Christmas is that things have gotten a lot busier at work, and I've been lazy during the time I get to spend at home.
But even more than that, it is also due to the disappointing performances of the kids--they really need to work on doing things that are blog-worthy!
They definitely need to get their collective acts together!

Parting words....

As I prepared to leave Makenna after tucking her in bed and tickling her back, she rolled over to face me and sweetly said, 'Don't even think about tootin' in my room!'