Cherish the little ones

Colleen and I are sitting at the kitchen table. It's quiet.

I look over at her and watch her reading and I can't help but smile. She's so intent on her book.

I whisper to her: "Psst." She looks up. I go on, "I like having little girls around. Little girls are awesome."

Instead of complaining that I've called her little, which she is known to do, she looks back at me, unimpressed, and whispers softly, "Reading my book."

She won't be 8 forever, this I know, just like she wasn't 4 or 5 for long in the grand scheme of things. But I'll always think of her this way, just like I remember Elizabeth as a little girl.

Blogworthy

So many moments have been blogworthy in the past month but I have failed to record them here. I'm waiting for laundry and nothing is on t.v. so I find myself without excuse.

Colleen was reading the back of her Tangled DVD (without pause or hesitation I might add - she's a great reader). One phrase caught my attention and I asked her what an "unlikely duo" means. She said "a duo is two people performing together to share their talents and unlikely means that you wouldn't put them together normally but it actually makes sense this one time."

I think she gets it. Again. I was going to list the other dates I made a post similar to this, but going through them I realize there are too many. Just take my word for it.

Colleen O'Lantern

Colleen lost a tooth (Mom helped) and hopefully that one in the middle will come out soon too.

We are a little surprised that it has held on so long. She hasn't perfected the art of eating away from a loose tooth. She'll chomp right in on her food, loose tooth and all. Every mealtime we expect it to go but it has been days. This one has staying power.

Robert lost a tooth too but not so dramatically as Colleen this time around.

Other tooth news, Elizabeth got bands (green and purple) on her braces.

Year of the Rock

There seems to be a confluence of curriculum in 1st, 4th, and 8th grades in the Bloomington Public School system. All three kids are doing earth science this year. Elizabeth's science class began with an overview of the geo-spheres and now they're discussing geologic time. Robert was waxing poetic this morning about metamorphic rocks and just a few weeks ago they were studying erosion. His classroom worked with models of the Elwha Dam so they could predict what will happen when it is removed. Colleen's classroom is keeping it simple and fun by gathering a rock collection.

Speaking of our good earth, what's with the trees this year? Our leaves all turned and fell but our neighbors' trees are mostly still green. Should we be concerned?

A long night at the ballpark

After the vacation, the kids and I have been getting reacquainted, sometimes more than others since Cate has been working a lot this past week. And when an opportunity to get four Twins tickets dropped into my lap pretty late in the week, I decided to take them out.

Colleen had never been to Target Field and we hadn't been to a baseball game all together since last year's incredible trip to Wrigley Field. We had the ability to get there really early, as well, as it was the start of a holiday weekend, and do some things none of us had been able to do at our new ballpark.

We've always had the opportunity to look at this wonderful glove sculpture just outside the ballpark but never had a chance to get pictures taken with it because the line is usually pretty long. But not when you show up at 5:15 for a 7:10 game.

Robert forgot to put on his Joe Mauer jersey, but in the end, it didn't matter -- Mauer went 3-for-4 and Robert had a great time. But that came much, much later.

Robert and Elizabeth filled Colleen in on one of their Target Field tips: the great chicken fingers. So they had chicken fingers and fries while the Brewers (boo!) were still taking batting practice. I have always looked longingly at the Kramarczuk's stand, selling locally made brats and sausages, but they are very popular and the line is also usually long. But not that early in the day, so I had the best ballpark bratwurst I've ever tasted. Also, somehow by the luck of the draw (how do we keep meeting people at Twins games?) I saw a former co-worker walking down the concourse while we were eating and recognized him, although neither of us could remember the other's name.

About 30 minutes before the game, they pulled the tarp out to cover the field, prompting groans and boos. But Robert had already pointed out the clouds approaching, so we were prepared. Our seats were under the overhang, lower deck, left field, but we decided to move back anyway and wait out the first wave of rain.

The second wave (like white-out, Elizabeth says) was stronger and we walked out into the concourse. Robert and Elizabeth both asked when we could go home (my response: when the game is over!) but Colleen just rolled with it, sitting on my lap. We had fun communicating with a little girl standing in front of us -- I asked Colleen if she thought the girl was four, Colleen thought five. We were both wrong. I caught her eye and held up four fingers to her with a quizzical look on my face, but the girl shook her head and held up three. So cute!

We'd been at the ballpark for about four hours before the game finally started at 9:11, two hours late. And Robert made a friend, too -- a man in his 20s next to us chatted with Robert all night, showing him stuff about the game, telling him about the Brewers, chatting about nerf guns, the Brewers' stadium roof and the like. I thanked him profusely for putting up with Robert, and he said he coaches high school cross country, so he's used to it. I'm pretty sure there's a big difference between a 14-year-old and a 9-year old, though!

Colleen the 6-year-old at a game was a bit different than Robert the 6-year-old was. But she was very into whatever everyone was cheering about. Admittedly, with three kids with me instead of one, I didn't give her as much individual attention as Robert got at our ballgame around that age, but she certainly screamed loud at appropriate times, sang every word of Take Me Out to the Ballgame, and only once asked me when it would be over. But late in the game, she put her head on my lap and went to sleep for a while.

So it was a late night, but thankfully the Twins won. We got to see Jim Thome hit his 594th career homer. In fact, as Thome came up in the bottom of the first with Mauer and Michael Cuddyer on base and two out, I was thinking, "We better score here, or we might not score all night." As Thome's ball went over the fence, I saw the guy next to us, a Brewers fan, shaking his head. When I asked him about it later, he said it was because, "there are only three hitters in the lineup who can hurt us, and they just did."

Final: 6-2 Twins. We walked in the door about 12:15 a.m.

Earth Day

Colleen has been asking if she could plant a tree for Earth Day. She settled for planting some Nasturtium seeds for the trellis in the backyard. Both she and Robert had a good time. We let Robert dig because he is so good at it. He got a little carried away for our tiny seeds. Colleen shouted to me, "Mom! Robert's going to China!"

Now we sit back and hope that we've seen the last frost.

Stone knives and bear skins

Remember how we had to explain to our kids what a computer disk was, a cassette tape, a record player, how to dial a phone?

Well, we've reached a whole new level.

Colleen came up to me and said, "Mom, how do you pause your TV?"

I told her that we actually can't pause my TV.

"Why not?" she said.

The TV in our bedroom is 18 years old. Needless to say, it's not HD and it doesn't have a DVR. And even though we've only had a TV with a DVR for less than two years, Colleen apparently doesn't remember it being any other way. And by the way, we thought this TV was not long for the world when we lived in Sterling.

Loose Tooth

Colleen has a loose tooth! I've been slow to realize that, as my youngest child, she'll have all the last "firsts" of the family. *sniff*

What the kids know

Friends of friends of ours just had a baby, 8 lbs., 9 oz., and as Cate noted, that's a pretty big baby.

Colleen overhears the conversation and says, "that's no big deal, it's just a little baby." I told her that was pretty big for a baby.

To try to drive home the point of what it must be like (since I don't know, obviously) to carry that big a baby inside you, I decide to teach Colleen a lesson. I ask her, "do you know where the baby comes from?"

Colleen answers, in a sing-song voice, "Uterus!"

I hope all of her children are at least eight and a half pounds.

How many days hath November?

30 days. And December had 31 but we missed them all on the blog. So I'll do a quick recap with photos if I can dig some up.

November was full of Nanny. She planned a nice long visit and it went beautifully, capped off with Elizabeth's birthday and Thanksgiving at Neil & Alicia's new home. Elizabeth was trilled to receive a Kindle from Aunt Jeannie and Nanny. Her first purchases for the Kindle were a collection of Sherlock Holmes stories and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (and sequels). She was blessed with many thoughtful gifts from loved ones near and far: antique pins from Aunt Claire whose relative also had the initials EGC, a new poncho hand-knit by Nonna with crazy pom-pom gloves to match and Star Wars pancake molds from Cousin Amelia (soon to be a Big Sister herself).

December was cold but that didn't stop Nonna from taking the kids on special trips. She took Robert to see a production of Robin Hood at the Children's Theater. Elizabeth accompanied Nonna to the Guthrie Theater to see A Midsummer Night's Dream, which happily prepared her for recent study of iambic pentameter in school. Colleen and Nonna had a great time together at the Nutcracker ballet. Also, Colleen and Amelia visited the Macy's Santaland display at Macy's downtown. The cold (rather the 20+ inches of snow that fell on Dec. 9-10) also contributed to the infamous Double Sleepover. Robert was sleeping over at Nonna and Da's while Colleen was with Amelia on Friday night. We weren't able to pick them up until Sunday and even then it was rough going on the Minneapolis streets.

That brings us right up to Christmas and post Christmas. Christmas was wonderful, low key and fun (kids looking happy/wacky on left). We did a small gathering at our house on Christmas Day, possibly the first time we've hosted but I'd have to check the record (aka ask Patrick). The next day all available Colemans gathered at Pat and Donna's. Then Patrick and I happily abandoned our children for a trip to Las Vegas :) Here we pose for a photo with the Hoover Dam.

Not a radio fan

In the car this morning, Colleen and I were listening to the radio and a Janis Joplin song came on, Piece of my Heart. I automatically cranked up the volume but Colleen protested, saying "Is that lady injured or something? This song is awful."

So I turned to another station. Forget You by Cee-lo was on, right at the part where he cries "Why?! Wwwwwhy?!"

Colleen says, "Turn off the music. It's too depressing."

Next time I'll bring the Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat CD she received as a Christmas gift from her godmother, Jennifer. That she loves! I think this photo conveys the awesomeness of Joseph.

Finally, Autumn

We can't seem to make sense of the weather lately. We saw 80 degrees last week. But now we're back to wearing sweatshirts, rather than shorts.

The snap dragons we planted for Colleen's birthday in April continue to bloom into October. Here you see they are slightly crowded by fallen leaves but still going strong.

A leaf blower is a handy tool, especially when there are four children waiting to jump into leaves. Do you know how hard it is to get all of them to look at the camera when there's a giant pile of leaves to be scattered? The photo below is earlier this week. You can just see Amelia in there sitting in front of Elizabeth.



While searching for photos I came across this photo of Amelia and Colleen (lowest), taken one year ago and shown here for comparison.

Fun with The Works

As an end-of-the-summer gift, Nonna got us a Groupon for The Works, a handmade mini-science museum in Edina. This morning we went and spent many hours there. The kids even ran into a few friends. Although they enjoyed the zoetrope, pneumatic bike, binary machine, giant zipper, pulleys and a foaming lab experiment, their favorite things to do were building and racing K-nex cars and the foam bricks. Literally hours and hours of building walls and knocking them down, over and over. Huge fun!!

There are lots of photos on Flickr.

... and beyond!

Colleen showed me a new trick - pinching a rubber band in half. I said "Great fish, Colleen!" to which she replied,

"It's not a fish, Mom. It's infinity!"

That'll teach me not to underestimate a kindergartner. I asked her what infinity is and she told me that "infinity is a lot. It goes on forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and evvvvvvver." Yep, she knows what she's talking about. What are they teaching kids in school these days?

I think we have a problem

Setting the scene, Colleen and I are in the kitchen on Saturday. Colleen comes in to look at the calendar.

She asks, "What day is it today?"

I told her it was the 18th.

She said, "What regular day?"

I told her it was Saturday, Sept. 18.

She said, "OK," and left.

Two minutes later she comes back into the kitchen and says, in a voice worthy of a confessional: "Mom, I think we have a problem. I forgot to go to school yesterday."

Colleen stayed home from school on Friday because she was sick. But we had never told her she wasn't going in to school.

I gave her a hug and told her she would go back to school on Monday.

Cousins Group Photo, sort of

Every August since moving to Minnesota the cousins have posed for an official photo. I think I'll leave the photography to Neil or Patrick because this is what happened when I tried. Sigh.

Don't we all?

We've overheard some good stuff over the years. Here's one from this afternoon. I was in the kitchen and the kids were downstairs playing I don't know what. There was some excited, unintelligible chatter, then this....

Colleen: "I will not run for my life. Why are you always telling me that?! You have issues with running I think."

Colemans at Wrigley, and more

Phew, what a whirlwind! Day Two of our one and a half in Chicago ended sometime around 11 p.m. when we finally got out of Wrigleyville. Although we had to leave the ballpark in the top of the 11th, hey, we had three kids happy (despite the look on Robert's face, promise) up until that time. With the Cubs-Cardinals game tied and no end necessarily in sight, we walked. The go-ahead run came up as we left Wrigley and the noise of Cardinals fans was deafening.

Robert was very much into this ballgame, rooting hard for the Cubs because we had Cardinals fans behind us. They loved the kids, especially Robert wearing his Joe Mauer jersey. I had thought perhaps he would not be the only person in Wrigley Field last night in a Mauer jersey, although I don't know that for a fact. (We did see a bunch of Twins hats and shirts and one Denard Span jersey.)

Earlier in the day we attended Mass at Nanny and Pa's parish in Niles, Ill., where Nonna and Da were married. We visited Nanny's grave, the first time for any of the kids, none of whom were alive when she died in 1997. That was followed by a trip downtown to go to the top of the Sears Tower (Robert refused to call it by its new name, the Willis Tower, and they were still selling Sears Tower memorabilia). The kids were great with the hour-plus wait in line. Colleen was a little scared but not so scared she wouldn't go up to the windows and look out.

Plus we had found a free parking spot on the street just two blocks from the tower.

It took us a while to get to a spot on the beach -- where does one park to get to the lake? We drove around a lot and finally found another free spot on the street. We did well on parking early in the trip, which made the $20 we paid to park near Wrigley more bearable. So we had to walk three-quarters of a mile to get there, in flip-flops, not a problem. Unfortunately, because of high levels of bacteria, they were not allowing people in the water. Robert was bummed out about it but got over it by eating one of the best cheeseburgers he's ever tasted. (He got one fresh off the grill because the ones already cooked and wrapped all had tomato on them. The kid behind the counter wanted me to just pull the tomato off. I told him my son was allergic.)

They also built sand castles with the John Hancock tower in the background. Colleen was sad when we had to leave, but not for long. We also saw no fewer than five rabbits on the lawn of apartment buildings along Lake Shore Drive on the walk back to the car.

The ballgame was a great time, too. Everyone got free T-shirts (I saw another fan wearing theirs when I stopped to get the kids into the bathroom somewhere between Des Plaines and Rockford.) Colleen didn't ask "when is it done?" until the sixth inning or so, and didn't make life too miserable when she was trying to take a nap in the ninth and 10th. Robert got very upset when Colleen was rooting for the Cardinals, following the crowd behind us.

Other highlights.

• Colleen was a great walker, all weekend. I put the stroller in the trunk but never pulled it out.
• Colleen sang every word and every note of Take Me Out to the Ballgame. Better than Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly did, if you ask me.
• Driving down Waveland about an hour before game time and just watching the crowd.
• Robert letting Elizabeth use his camera pretty much all weekend without a complaint. She made use of the panoramic feature, including the shot at the end of this post of Wrigley about a half-hour before game time. Click the image for a bigger version.
  
• The giardiniera at Wrigley, immediately made me wish I'd gotten the Italian beef sandwich instead of the sausage, but I put it on anyway. Nice and hot.
• We couldn't get down the Obamas' street on our visit to the Hyde Park neighborhood. Blocked off by Secret Service.
  
• Elizabeth was a trooper, a couple of times, especially taking Colleen to the ladies room in a couple of key circumstances while I either had to stay in a line or stay with the car.
• The trip home was pleasantly uneventful. A special shout-out goes to the nearly full moon, which was bright and helped keep fatigue away until the pre-dawn light took over in the final hour of the drive.
  
• The kids slept all the way. And then for five more hours after we got home and poured ourselves into bed.
  

Great day in Chicago

Thankful for the following:

Rain that happened before we got here.

Kids patient enough to wait for dad's deep dish pizza.

A museum that has membership reciprocity with the Science Museum of Minnesota.

Two little kids who think sleeping on the pullout couch in a hotel is a cool adventure.

A cool IMAX film everyone could enjoy.

Dessert for four for $2.50 at Target.

An oldest daughter who can get the youngest one bathed.

Hope for such good fortune tomorrow.

Photo: The kids outside the Museum of Science and Industry, posing with an R2D2 mailbox.

Four days in ...

So we're four days into our grand Bloomington adventure. Cate is safely in Ireland with Patty and Jeannie. And so far the kids have gotten all their meals, have been to bed on time, the laundry and dishes are caught up and all that jazz.

Elizabeth is trying not to let the extra authority go to her head. I do definitely need her help, just because I'm still working at home during the day. But in the afternoons she has taken to crocheting upstairs in our bedroom while watching TV. She needs her alone time, after all, and basically neither of us is going to get much of it the next few weeks. She and I also have a touch-base meeting every night, where I encourage her to speak freely. She did ask one good question and I hope she will continue to be honest.

Robert shows most outwardly how much he misses his mom. Colleen will mention Cate in passing and Robert will instantly look a little sad. He mopes. He recovers. He doesn't like to talk about it. Tonight he didn't feel much like dinner but he was quick to remind me that he had a whole sandwich for lunch instead of his usual half, so I didn't make a big deal out of it. He asked if he could have cereal for dinner, but I told him cereal for breakfast, PB&J for lunch and cereal for dinner was not going to cut it.

Colleen is doing great so far. She doesn't have a whole lot of worries. Someone gets her breakfast in the morning. She plays on the computer, reads books, gets outside a little bit but has a hard time getting her siblings to go along with her outside. She and Robert each got a new Webkin in a care package from Patty, while Elizabeth got a Harry Potter game for the Wii. My goodness, they can kill a lot of time with those things!

Elizabeth has the night off, sleeping over at a friend's house. Much deserved. There she doesn't have to help get anyone ready for bed or clear dishes. Well, she might have to clear the dishes, not sure.

For a high-tech guy, I keep the calendar pretty low-tech. Any new appointments or items for the to-do list are on the one-a-day calendar on the desk in my home office. Tomorrow is pretty busy. Robert was invited to a classmate's birthday party, Elizabeth needs to be picked up from the sleepover, Colleen is spending the night with Neil and Alicia and Elizabeth and I are going to a family get-together. So, today we had to go out and buy a gift and drop Elizabeth off at her friend's. Also, Mom came over and picked up the kids and took them to the park for a few hours, helping them knock an item off the bingo card.

Sorry, no pictures. But I promise they are all still alive.