Learning to Ride

A week or so ago, Hallie went to visit her friend, Mason. (He is the one who sent her the love letter in the previous blog story.) Mason learned to ride his bike and wanted Hallie to bring hers over when she came. Seeing Mason ride without training wheels made Hallie want to learn. For all who know Hallie, you know that she can't let someone know how to do something that she can't do.

This past weekend, Hallie insisted that I take the training wheels off of her bicycle. I didn't really want to because I didn't want to spend the day holding the back of a bicycle and watching her fall down repeatedly, but since she really wanted to try, I removed the training wheels.

We made a couple of trips across our driveway while I was holding onto the back of her seat. I walked away for a second to take a drink of my water and when I turned back around, Hallie was riding her bike. She made about 5-6 revolutions with the pedals and screamed, "Did you see that?" From that point on, she just started riding. We ran out of room in the driveway, so we went down to the cul de sac. She rode and rode and rode. She did fall twice, but only cried once because she saw blood. Once the bandaid was on, she was back on the bicycle.

I would say that it was the easiest bike riding lesson ever, only there was no lesson. She just did it. I guess there is no substitute for no fear and extreme determination.

Snow Day

We have snow. Yes we do. We have snow. How 'bout you?

This morning we all woke up to snow on the ground. Jaime saw it first and we waited for Andrew and Daniel to wake up. Blake and Hallie were at Bidee's house. Andrew woke up and without even coming downstairs, we heard him yell, "Daniel, it is snowing outside of our window". I don't know what made him decide to look out his window, but he did and was very excited.

We immediately got dressed and ran outside to play. We caught some snowflakes on our tongues, threw some snowballs, and made a little snowman. The snowman didn't last long because Daniel decided to kick it over.

Here is some video of Andrew and Daniel enjoying the snow.

When the snow slacked up a little and before it got really bad, I drove out to Bidee's to get Blake and Hallie. They had made a snowman and were making snow ice cream when I got there. We rushed out the door to make it back home.

Once we got home, we all suited up again and played some more. Hallie wanted to make a big snowman, so we did. Blake wanted a snowball fight, so we did that too. Hallie and Daniel wanted to make an even bigger second snowman, so we did that too. After everyone talked of being cold and wet, we scooped some snow in a big bowl, went inside, and made some snow ice cream. It was a blast.

A few hours later the snow was gone and one of our snowmen had fallen to the ground. We went out again and Hallie and Daniel smashed the other snowman to the ground with a baseball bat.

In a year or two or ten, maybe we will get to do it all again.

The Name Game

Andrew and Daniel have started a new, for lack of a better word, game when we are going places in the car. The game is they think of everyone that they know and ask Jaime and I that person's whole name. Normally, it is us, them, Blake, Hallie, grandparents, uncles, aunts, etc.

The other morning, on the way to school, they started the game. After going through the usual suspects, Daniel thought of someone that he has never asked before. "Daddy, what is Santa's whole name?" I chuckled and then told him that it was Santa Claus. Then he really threw me a curve.

"Daddy, what is God's whole name?" The first thing that popped in my head was the many sermons Pastor Buddy had preached using God's name. I told Daniel that God's whole name was Yahweh (I am). He told me that I was wrong and God's whole name was Yahweh God.

Then he asked, "what is Jesus' whole name?" I completely drew a blank for some reason. (Jaime later told me this one was easy, Jesus Christ.) I couldn't think so I just told him Jesus' whole name was Jesus. He again told me that I was wrong and said that Jesus' whole name was Jesus Is Strong. Then he started to sing, "they are weak, but he is strong". Then he said, "See Daddy, Jesus Is Strong". How do you disagree with that?

Talent that every boy should have

A few nights back, the kids decided that they wanted pancakes for dinner. Blake and Andrew seemed to be in an eating contest to find out who could eat the most. Blake ended up eating 6, slightly edging out Andrew, who ate 5.

After dinner, it was bath time. We finished bathing Andrew and Daniel and then laid them on the floor while we got their pajamas. They started playing and rolling around on the floor. Then Andrew broke large, cut the cheese, stepped on a frog, or just plain farted. (However you want to say it.)

Being a normal 3-99 year old boy, he thought it was hilarious and so did Daniel. Because he got such a great response, he fired another shot. They both laughed again. Of course, I thought it was hilarious too. Then he did it again and again and again and again. He ripped off about 15-20 in a row. Even Jaime couldn't help but laugh.

As a father, it was a glorious moment. One of my sons has the gift or maybe it was just the pancakes. You know what they say, "Pancakes, pancakes, good for the heart . . . "

Love Letter

When Hallie was 3 years old, she met a boy named Mason at school and they became great friends. At school, they were inseparable. Many of you, I am sure, have heard Hallie talk about Mason. Hallie has always had a crush on Mason and Mason has always had a crush on Hallie. They have talked of being married for about 3 years now.

Since both of them live in different school systems, they have been separated for their first year in Kindergarten. Hallie still talks about him and they have managed to stay in touch. They have been to each other's birthday parties. Jaime and Mason's mom even got them together for their first official date to take them to the movies.

The other day, Hallie got a letter from Mason in the mail and she was extremely excited. She opened it up and read it fairly easily, even though it was written by a kindergarten boy who was learning to read and write phonetically. I guess in the language of love, there are no misspellings. I had to share this letter.

Translation: "Dear Hallie. I love you because you are so beautiful."

After school

We have been fortunate enough to find a baby-sitter to watch Blake and Hallie after school instead of them having to go to after-school care. Long story short, we were put in touch with a girl from the youth group of our church, who was looking for a job to sit with kids after school. The opportunity sounded great to us, so Shaye started last week.


Shaye meets the kids at the bus stop and takes care of them until we get home from work. She gets them started on their homework and spends time doing fun things with them. Hallie and Blake say that the have played games and "done all kinds of fun things". She also helps us out tremendously by driving them to their after school activities such as Blake's drama class and Hallie's gymnastics. I can't tell you how much easier this has made things on us.


The first week, she gave them a bible verse to memorize with the promise of doing something special at the end of the week if they were able to do it. Hallie the overachiever, of course, had the verse memorized the first day. Both had it memorized by the end of the week and have repeated it several times since.


Blake and Hallie love having Shaye around. In their own words, "she is great". It has also been great for us.

Bedtime

As anyone with kids knows, bedtime is a process. Our kids are no different. None of them like to go to bed and none of them go to bed the same way. Here is what I am talking about.


Blake always has to listen to music. Hallie always asks for a story, a kiss, a hug, to be tucked in, a second kiss, a second hug, something to drink, and music. Andrew and Daniel always want books to read in bed with them. Of course they have to read them by night light because we are smart enough to know not to leave on their bedroom light.

Blake and Hallie always go to sleep easily. They stay in their bed and we don't hear from them until morning. Daniel is usually asleep really fast and rarely gets out of his bed to come downstairs. Daniel does have a peculiar habit of taking all of his clothes off before he falls asleep. There have been many mornings that we find him waiting for us in his room naked as a jaybird. On the days that he does keep on his pajamas, he usually takes off his pull-up. Except for that, he is no problem.

The problem is Andrew. We think that he just doesn't need as much sleep as the others. He seems to need a minimum of three trips downstairs and a minimum of three trips back upstairs before he will close his eyes. The funny thing about him coming downstairs is that he changes clothes for each trip. The first trip is normally in the pajamas that he wore to bed. The next trip usually consists of a shirt change. In the trip after that, he is wearing clothes that he would normally wear to school, sometimes complete with jacket and shoes. At least it makes it easier to get him dressed in the morning.


When morning does come, Hallie is always the first one up and some mornings comes downstairs completely dressed. Here recently, her back seems to be hurting every morning. I am starting to think that it is a ploy. She comes downstairs, climbs in our bed and announces that her back is hurting and she needs a massage. Then she lays their with a huge smile on her while she gets her back massaged. Like mother, like daughter