A taste of things to come?

Erin is rather twitterpated about the new home.
The first day there she rang the doorbell, and then declared, 'That is the most wonderful sound in the world!'

But that was not enough for her! As I was working at the new house and Erin and Kenner were wandering around, Erin came up to me and excitedly requested, 'Dad! I want you to pretend I am in trouble and tell me to go to my room!'
Being in the middle of reading some instructions, I just grunted in response.
She asked me again, this time even giving me a script, 'Dad! Say, "Dang it Erin, go to your room!"'

What else could I do?

As she told Cindy later, 'I just wanted to know what it would feel like to get in trouble in the new house!'

I don't think she has to worry much about missing out on such feelings!

Do I detect a hint of minty freshness?

I took a break this PM to participate in the adult Pinewood Derby using Cameron's car with extra weights and a last-minute modification--a spark plug socket taped onto the top! (I had to work in the clerk's office towards the end, but it seems I tied for 4th with 4 other contenders).

Anyway, as we got into the car, I smelled a terrible odor emanating from a back seat in the back seat.

"ERIN!" I yelped through watering eyes, "You need to stop that!" (She had been 'active' (as in an sulphrous gas-spewing active volcano) all night.)

Makenna, always quick to come to Erin's aid, sang out, 'I think it smells good!'

Erin added, 'It smells minty!'

Yeah, like a mint and a steaming pile of fresh horse dung, minus the mint!

UPDATE: As I was going up and down the stairs lugging boxes, every time I reached to top of the stairs I was smelling something that was less than pleasant. I poked my head into the girls' room....and immediately regretted it.

I sure am glad that the kids are not bloggers yet, as they would probably find payback for Daddy for such as the above rather easy--even child's play!

Painting Bug and Barfing Bug

Well, it is 10:20 PM on Day 3 of painting in the new house. 7 rooms are done, and only one important (and big) one left to go. Now if Cindy can decide on the paint color we will be well on our way! (It didn't help that she had a major flu attack all of yesterday and is still feeling less than stellar today....And Denna came over and helped out tremendously with the painting yesterday (she's a real pro!), and we found out today that she now has come down with something akin to what Cindy had!)

And then today, with Cindy somewhat under the weather, me painting, and our old house looking like it had been hit by a cluster bomb, we got a call asking if a realtor could show our house tomorrow. Cindy initially said no (for the above reasons), but then she found out that the realtor in question was a friend of ours, so she said yes.

As you might guess, the upstairs is now immaculate, and the downstairs will be by tomorrow! And there are many more boxes packed (which probably accounts for the pristine kids' bedrooms!

She is a sickly miracle worker!

The big day....

This week may be rather light blogging.

We are closing on our new home today, and I have taken the week off to repaint the insides of the house in more child-friendly paint. Cindy and I will both be up to our eyeballs for approx. 16 hours each day!

The official moving day is scheduled for Saturday.

My back hurts already!

I guess it is time to ask one of the doctor's in the ward for a prescription bottle that has the words 'HEART MEDICINE'!? I've heard it comes in handy on moving days, especially when it is pulled out in the presence of others right before something heavy is about to be lifted!

How many times, you ask?

'Well,' explained a bleary-eyed Cindy, 'It feels like I was rolled over with a steam roller at least 16 times last night!

You see, Allyson has had a mild cold, and she is usually fine during the day, but come nighttime she has coughing fits and last night was no exception.

Cindy spent 2 hours with her and then I did the same (if she keeps her head elevated she can sleep for a couple hours if you're lucky!

Anyway, Cindy felt steamrolled, but I felt more like I had been slimed, then steamrolled. (Funny, looking at myself in mirror this AM, I see that it isn't nearly as slimming as I would have thought!)

For I should add that Allyson also has coughing fits during the day if she is running around too much. So last night we were at my sister's house for Easter dinner, and Cindy brings a coughing Allyson into the room and hands her off to me.

Allyson snuggled against me, coughed heavily, then puked all over my shirt and pants. (I had deftly directed the spew so as to avoid ruining the carpet.)

It is only now that I wonder why Cindy handed her off to me. Yes, Allyson is a daddy's girl, but I wonder....

And I need to teach Allyson to chew her food better. Some of those grapes were almost whole!

There's gold in them there pots! Leprechaun gold!

The leprechauns have been visiting our house on a yearly basis.

The first couple years they hid their gold coins in the backyard, but then they must've tired of the March dampness, learned how to pick locks, and began hiding their gold inside the house.

The scary part has been that they would do it later in the day, usually while we were home! Sneaky devils!

Their gold has changed over the years too. Most years it has been chocolate coins, but this year they changed to gold foil-covered Rollos. (I don't think the kids complained any!)

So yesterday after school the kids came home and Cameron and Makenna immediately went on point and began searching throughout the house.

Cameron was the first to find the pot of gold....in a manner of speaking.

During his frantic searching he rushed into the downstairs bathroom to look inside the small cupboard over the toilet. Intensely focused on the cupboard, he kneeled on the toilet seat and--SPLASH--to his surprise and chagrin found that someone had left the toilet seat up AND had forgotten to flush a No. 1!

He truly found a pot of gold. Liquid gold, that is!

Pierced to the very core!

Today Erin went through another rite of passage in the pre-teeny-bopper world by getting her ears pierced.
From what I was told, it didn't hurt much and she just loves the studs in her ears right now.
At the time, Cindy considered telling Erin, 'You are officially a woman,' but decided to save that one for a year (or longer, we hope!) down the line, and instead went with, 'You are officially......growing up!'



Regarding her high spirits, when tonight at the dinner table I made the comment, 'Erin, for someone who says they don't like rice much, you are sure chowing down!' she pertly replied, 'Sometimes I'm not in the mood for hot stuff--except for myself!'

Wide awake in America

There's nothing that wakes up a parent quicker to full, sharp, even searing consciousness than to have a young daughter come in at 2:43 AM and say,

"I've got a bloody nose! And I don't know what did it!"

Of course, having new carpet may facilitate this instantaneous move from inert slumber to whirling action.

UPDATE: After Cindy read this entry, she replied, "I didn't think it was a big deal at the time and I didn't even think about the new carpet, but I've never seen you jump out of bed so fast! If it had been a case of a wet bed, etc., you probably would've stayed in bed!"
I don't know what engenders this lack of confidence....
I doubt if it has anything to do with the fact that I even pulled out my MagLite and checked the girls' bedroom for drips on the carpet!

10,000 BC

We do try our darndest.

And even if you don't happen to fully agree with the quote

Every generation, Western civilization is invaded by barbarians — we call them “children”

(and yes, it does depend on the day, AND on the child in question), sometimes being a parent can be downright depressing.

For example, if we were to faithfully chronicle our daily family life on this blog, it could lead to great disillusionment, possible ostracism, and not be nearly so attractive to read. (I would envision the site being blacklisted.)

That is why we tend to focus on the bright spots--few as they may sometimes be--in our lives of quiet (or was that 'cacophonous'?) desperation.

Take Ally for example. We have taught her to drink from a cup, to brush her teeth (she loves the adult-strength Crest with Scope), and to otherwise walk and talk (albeit in a limited fashion) like a regular lady.

Tonight I loaded up her toothbrush, set her on the vanity, turned on the water, and let her do her stuff. Then I turned away for a second, and when I turned back I saw THIS:



Postnote: When I showed Cindy the picture she said, 'Oh yes, she has been doing that for a day or so--she saw Cameron doing it yesterday.'

We shoulda known!

I don't think this quite qualifies as bragging.....

So, as I pull into the driveway Cameron comes over to my open window (it's over 60 degrees and sunshiny) and in a fairly conversational tone informs me of the following:

"Book 4 of Harry Potter: Page 117. My butt itches. Oooh, my _____ itches!" then prances away to do that voodoo that he do.

Baby butt cream, Cameron?

Cameron, who every day reminds me more and more of charming Little Willie* from poetry memorized during my childhood, now has a new phrase that he just loves to share.

Namely, 'My butt itches.'

The delivery is not one of a child with a sear in his rear. No, it is more like a casual conversation starter.

If you were a fly on the Floyd family wall, the conversation you hear might go something like this:

Cindy: Cameron, have you brushed your teeth for school yet?

Cam: Makenna sucks! [Then, repeatedly slapping his protruding bony butt for emphasis...] My butt itches.

Cindy: [Sigh.] Don't talk like that, just go brush your teeth Cameron.

Cam: MybuttitchesMybuttitches!

Cindy: Oh, do you need the baby butt cream?

Cam: Shut up! My butt itches!

At this point you would be begging for a flyswatter.....

DISCLAIMER: Please do not be alarmed or send us your favorite home remedy, for there is no true butt itch. Cameron has just found a new phrase to annoy the family. Actually, he has a massive quiver of phrases at his command that he lets fly, but this is the only one suitable for posting. For example, there is now another 'thing' he says that itches him greatly, but this is a family blog and thus will not be aired.

*A sampling of Little Willie poetry at its finest:
1. Willie, whose ideas are swell,
Threw his sister in the well.
Mother couldn't find her daughter,
Now we sterilize our water.

2. Willie saw some dynamite,
Couldn't understand it quite;
Curiosity never pays.
It rained Willie seven days.

Et tu, basketball?

Because of the big snow on Friday and Saturday, Erin's Saturday basketball tournament was postponed.

Naturally, with the high percentage of church-going folks in Ohio, the league triumvirate conveniently rescheduled the games for Sunday morning.

Our kids are pretty good sports about activities that fall on a Sunday. All three of the older ones have missed a veritable cornucopia of birthday parties and sports team parties, and they don't even get upset about it anymore.

(Actually, they often get more upset about having to go to church than not being able to go to parties. And conversely, Cindy and I end up being more upset with them at church than we probably would've been with them at home. Such is life....)

So anyway, she missed the game, the team lost by 2, and we later found out that this was a single-elimination tourney, so now the season is over.

Erin was less than crushed. She smiled sweetly, and confirmed, 'The season is over?'
She then continued, 'That means you are taking me to the mall to get my ears pierced! Would this Saturday work for you? It works for me!'

Erin did have a good year. She had an excellent coach (i.e., a knowledgeable but laid-back coach who placed higher priority on letting all the girls get to play than in just winning), and she became more aggressive (if anything Erin does outside of attacking Cindy's delicious desserts could be called aggressive) in pulling down rebounds and also got better at finding the open gal and making good passes to them. Though probably 8 inches taller than any other girl in the league, a ball hog she was not. But she usually managed to score 4~10 points a game, and by the end of the season was pulling down 10 or more rebounds a game.

Pottering around....

Well, it has now officially been 12 days since Cameron began reading the first Harry Potter book.

This evening I had to take him to the library to return Book 3 and check out Book 4.

He also checked out Book 5 just in case he finished Book 4 too quickly.

It is obvious that he reads as fast as he retorts!

(But we like him a lot better when he is reading.)

UPDATE: As Cameron and I were driving to the YMCA on Tuesday, he modestly theorized that there was no one else in his class who could even read a Harry Potter book. Always analytical, he went on, 'Take Xxxx for example. Books can only be renewed once and so there is no way he could finish it in that length of time.'

Live and learn

As some of you may have noticed, Cindy and I have added links to our 'Bookshelf' to our Favorite Links site.

Clicking on the links will take you to pages that show our favorite books.

Tonight Cindy wanted to upload a picture of herself for this other site, but she couldn't decide on one.

She then decided to go upstairs.

I was thus left to my own devices.

The rest is history!

Just call her 'Pippi.'

UPDATE: Naturally, I put a humorous picture on my Bookshelf too!

UPDATE 2: Cindy already did a switcheroo! I am just glad in my heart of hearts that she doesn't know my Bookshelf password!

Akin to 'Pronoun Trouble'?

Allyson has become an Internet addict. One day I had the terrible idea of showing her pictures of cute doggies on the Internet. This was fine for awhile, but soon it didn't soothe her cravings, so we progressed to harder substances----elephants, peacocks, and her new favorite, snakes!

So, whenever I am at the computer she runs over, climbs up the desk, deposits her cute little bum in my lap, and says, 'Snake!' or 'Chocklit doggie! (chocolate labradors)' etc.

It's really irritating.

So if any of you have little kids, give it a try! This is our favorite site (click on 'Galleries' for different animals).

Anyhoo, being so young, her pronunciation is less than perfect. A perfect example of this is heard when she sees a fox. She knows what it is by sight, and can say the word, but her little tongue has 'issues.' You see, she gets the 'f' just fine, but the 'o' sounds more like a 'u', and her 'x' sounds like a hard 'k'.

You do the math!

She's plumb salty in her talkin'!

It finally comes out....

Erin, like most girls her age, is 11. Also like most girls her age, she doesn't like math.

In fact, if you were to ask her, she would likely say something like, 'I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY WANT ME TO DO! THE TEACHER ONLY EXPLAINED IT FOR 5 MINUTES AND THEN EXPECTS US TO DO IT! I HATE MATH! MATH SUCKS!'

Naturally, this week she was invited to join the math club.

And she accepted!

You see, Erin does fine in math. With just one small caveat. Namely, she is good at math when she turns on her brain. Sadly, this is a rare thing when she is in 'homework mode.' When doing her homework, she would much rather have us explain it to her using the actual problem (this is also known as 'trying to con your parents into doing your homework for you'). We seldom acquiesce.

So anyway, getting to the point of this post, as you may have noticed Cindy has made a lot of changes and enhancements to our blog. Sadly, during this process she lost a lot of the elements and had to redo them from scratch, and then I had to play with the html code to keep the elements she had redone from scratch.

Then she found out that the links to her friends' sites weren't working. I found the problem and got them up and running. With fecund tears of gratitude (which she stoically kept in check just inside her tear ducts), she said, 'You know, I guess she gets it from me....' Puzzling over this enigmatic statement, I asked, 'Uhhh, whaddya mean?'

She replied, 'I guess Erin gets it from me. When there are problems like I had with the blog today, I would rather just have someone fix it for me rather than try to figure it out myself!'

OK--they got it right this time....

Well, for once out of 5 times, the local weathermen got it mostly right! (At only 20% accuracy, could it be that they are recent transferees from the Seattle area?)

And for the first time in our 10 years here, we even had a BLIZZARD WARNING! Alas, except for a couple gusts in some areas overnight, the wind never really reached the requisite 30 mph.



Anyway, the snow blower got some heavy usage this morning, and we probably have 10 inches on the ground, with 2~3 foot drifts in places.

UPDATE: Oops, Cindy was logged in when I posted this.... so it is under Mommo!

4th Time's the charm?

Well, the local weathermen are forecasting 6~10 inches of snow starting tomorrow morning thru Saturday morning.

I can hardly wait for the 'Winter Storm Advisory' to change to a frightening WINTER STORM WARNING!

Hmmm.....the last three times this happened, we got a lot of....what is it called?....Oh yes, RAIN!

And the one time there wasn't a grand WARNING announced in solemn tones with great fanfare? Oh yes, 5 inches of snow!

PS: Cameron's mind started running in high gear when I told him how much snow we might get. I am hoping it is only visions of sledding and snowmen rather than visions of walloping his sisters with snowballs.

Mmmmmmm.....Cod!

Who would have thought when we sat down for dinner last night that Allyson would be the last one at the table. Usually she is done eating before everyone has food on their plate, but tonight she was an eating machine--she never paused as she shoveled in morsel after morsel. Apparently we hit upon a winner. Breaded cod with LOTS of tartar sauce--as a matter of fact, she ate her first serving of tartar sauce before she ever got any fish! I have given her fish once before and she chowed down on it then too. Louis suggested that we should try feeding her sushi next!

[UPDATE from Louis] Mmmm....sushi!

Harry Potter read-a-thon

Christmas of 2006 brought to our family the first 4 Harry Potter movies. We had never let the kids watch them, neither had they read any of the books. Needless to say, over the course of time since then they have watched and re-watched the movies many times--including the latest one that was added to our collection this past Christmas.
This past Christmas Cameron asked for the Harry Potter Scene It DVD game. It has been played so many times you would think every possible question would have been seen....but new ones still keep popping up. Cameron is typically the winner, and he is not shy about letting the world know--especially the world of losers!
Last Saturday he insisted we get Book 1 from the library. (We actually have all books but they are in our storage unit until we move.) Louis took him and got the only copy of Book 1 they had. Cameron dived in, and over the next 2 days he gave us constant updates as to what page he was on. Monday evening just before FHE he made the big announcement that he had completed it-- 300ish pages in 2 1/2 days. (This is from a kids who "hates" chapter books.) NOTE: Which is not to say that he doesn't like to read--he devours non-fiction books about sharks, snakes, other creepy-crawlies, and science in general.)
Tuesday morning before leaving for school I was given the charge to get Book 2 and 3 from the library. I took the only copies at the library, and as of last night (Wednesday) he was halfway through Book 2.
We certainly enjoy the quiet (and peace) during his reading spells!

I smell a rat....

About 2 months ago Cindy finally made it to the top of the reserve list at the library and got a copy of the Disney/Pixar movie Ratatouille.

We all watched it a time or two over the course of a couple weeks--it was a thoroughly enjoyable morsel--and then returned it.

Then about 2 weeks ago, Allyson began saying 'Tooey! Tooey!'

What could this possibly mean?

Growing disgusted with our lack of comprehension, she added another word to her vocabulary.

'Watch.'

But instead of 'Watch Barbie!' Or 'Watch Emmo [Nemo]' she said 'Watch Tooie!'

When asked, 'Do you mean Ratatouille?' she replied with her trademark 'A-huh!' followed with her usual heart-melting grin.

We put her off for a week, but she kept at it, so on Saturday Cindy called a friend and luckily they had it. Allyson has now watched it another 6 times or so and is quite content.