The Littlest

Wow, Thomas has been sick, nothing melts my heart faster than a sick two year old. He started sleeping in our bed about a week ago and now I can't get him out. He has been able to bust out of his crib for a couple of months now. His ability to escape, having a place to go and a soft spot in Daddies defenses has made for some very uncomfortable nights.
There is a battle on the horizon. Getting the little fella to accept his place is not going to be a lot of fun. I am dreading it in fact. I heard a rumor that Santa is going to bring him a big boy's bed, maybe that will help. Wait a minute, that is a month away. A battle looms on the horizon, unless the illness persists we are going to have it out, I haven't lost yet and will be damned if the last one breaks me.
Thomas does have an advantage over the other two when it comes to taking advantage of Dad, he is the youngest. The time I spend with Thomas on my lap is the end of the line. There are no more toddlers or babies to follow. The children are all growing up fast and the bigger they get the worse they fit on my lap. Merry is too big to snuggle in, David is at the maximum size and my limbs fall asleep under the pressure. Thomas fits and snuggles in perfect, when we are situated in the big chair watching the fire, or the Football game, or even Sprout, I know it is fleeting. I want him to grow, really I do, but part of me wants him to be my baby forever. The child still thinks that I am a God, all knowing and all powerful, and when he calls to me I have to answer.
He will sleep in his own bed again soon. The minute the coughing, runny nose, and fever clear up he is out. Back in his own bed whether he likes it or not.

Congrats

Expensive

Money, money, money! Money makes the world go around and the lack of it keeps me moving. Three kids and a house cost, there is no way to get around it. Something breaks it should be fixed, then there are lessons and pre-school, it adds up and it adds up quick.
Without the Tutu Boutique we would not be able to keep up. I want to thank my wife for her hard work making the online venture the success it is. The tutus keep us a float, who knew you could use a tutu as a life preserver? I didn't but now I do.

Father's Day Weekend

The weather was beautiful and we took advantage. When I go swimming with the kids it takes me right back to an age of innocence and fun. The worries of adulthood rinse off with the first plunge into the brisk water.

Merry is perfecting her "pencil jump" hands pinned to her side, toes pointed, eyes scrunched up. Before take off you wave to the spectators stand at attention and then proceed with the jump. Upon resurfacing one hand should be raised above your head in a fist that exclaims victory.

I am proud to report that she almost has it mastered, along with the butterfly jump and the ballerina jump she is developing a very impressive resume of tricks. It makes me very proud.

My son Thomas wants to and thinks that, he can fly. He jumps off the side of the pool into and under the water. I pull him up to the surface slowly and he smiles and yells, Again, Again, Again! He learned that from his sister. Sometimes I hold him in my arms, we run down the hill and leap into the pool. He likes it almost as much as I do.

David is far more reserved. Saturday he barely got wet,opting instead to watch and assist his Grandfather in digging a trench. Sunday he swam, but he does not enter the pool with the same abandon as his father and siblings. David makes sure his bubble is secure and lowers himself down the stairs with caution. He doggy paddles around in circles for hours happily swimming in a world of his own, only occasionally asking for the world to "look at me!"

The next ten or twelve years are going to be great fun. I love playing with my kids and I think that they like playing with me.

Here is to sunshine and summertime!

Night Night.

Say Goodnight to the Yankees. After this weekend is over nothing is going to save them. The only thing I like better than the Yankees losing is the Red Sox winning.

After the Sox take two out of three, who on the Yankees roster is going to be left standing? I wonder if Roger has a "No Trade" clause. They are going to need a new manager, it was a good run Joe. They are going to need a new G.M. Tough being Georgy's puppet, he decides who you sign and then blames you when it doesn't work out. See you later Mr. Cashman.

It is a new Era, Red Sox fans feeling strong and talking smack that sticks. Still I do find it odd, my fixation with the Yankees, I wish I didn't care, but I do.

A Good Start!

What a great beginning to summer. We visited with friends, attended a wedding, marched in a parade, did lots of swimming and had a cook out. The only thing we missed was a trip to the beach.

The boat is broke! but it is OK because we got Grampy's pool. Life is good except for the fact that I still haven't figured out how to play with my kids full time instead of going to work.

Tuckerman's Ravine

9:00am
Ready to hike.
11:00
From Spring to Winter
The Hermit Lake Shelter

11:33am
The Ravine

Lunch Rocks

Assent into Heaven

Over The Headwall

View from the Top

Back to Lunch Rocks

Last trip up

Preparing for Take Off

Rendez Vous at the base of the Ravine

This is where the next adventure begins. I never skied off the mountain before and it was tons of fun. This however is enough for today, it is only one third of the story.
Maybe tomorrow I will write about the motorcycle wreck/car accident that happened on our way to the mountain.

Full House

Surprise! Auntie Jen, Aiden, Adyson and Nanna showed up from Florida and Atlanta to spend the week. Merry and Heidi are thrilled, David does not want to be left out, and Thomas has an entire new set of victims.

Having Heidi's family at The Old Blue House makes me feel happy. There is something about having extended family close by that fulfills me. All the children running around the sister's and their mom chatting, it makes the house feel full and alive. I like it.

Democracy

I attended my first town meeting last night and learned that Democracy is painfully SLOW.

I packed it up and left at 12:15 am, there were 7 more warrants to be discussed and voted on. I could not take anymore, they were arguing language on whether or not to extend the town sewer up the street 1500 feet and could not get it straight. I bailed.

The highlight of the evening came when a woman decided in honorarium of her predecessor at the historical commission she would read to the captive audience from Dr. Seusse. I am not even sure which it was, I do know it was long and the gist of it was "waste not want not." Fifteen minutes into her reading we booed her off the stage, it felt wrong, breaking in on her tribute, but my God, I will never get that fifteen minutes back. She held us hostage with nursery rhyme, it was painful.

I am glad that I went and I will attend again. Next time I will take a nap before I go.

Popcorn

Kids love popcorn and mine are no exception. One of the many benefits of Grampy's house is the never ending bags of microwave popcorn. A few months ago we actually had some in the pantry of the Old Blue house.

Merry, David and Thomas were in the other room chomping away, the children were very happy. We do not have microwave popcorn around all that often, not for any other reason than we forget to buy it. It was a treat and they were treating it as such.

I was in the kitchen, reading the paper, washing dishes, or drinking beer, I do not remember which when Merry and David marched in. I assumed they were there to get another bag of the good and buttery stuff. I was wrong.

Merry looked up at me and said "Daddy, I have a popcorn seed stuck up my nose."

I went and got my flashlight, lifted her up onto the kitchen counter and peaked in. She was right, she did have a popcorn seed up her nose. I asked her how it got there and she told me that she put it there. Go figure.

What is the solution when presented with a kernel of popcorn stuck in your little ones nose? I saw two options, the first was a trip to the hospital and a wait at the emergency room. This did not seem like the best answer. The second, was to get it out myself. This one I liked, but how?

As I considered ways to remove the foreign object from my princesses button nose, Thomas walked in sipping milk through the straw of his sippy cup. Ha Hah! Urecka! and all that. I went to the cabinet, got a straw from the straw box, laid a very calm, cool and collected four year old out on the kitchen counter, inserted the straw and applied suction.

Out of her nose came the kernel, into the microwave went the next bag of popcorn and life proceeded as usual at The Old Blue House.

Sunday Skiing

On a happier note here are some photos from our family ski adventure. I do not know why this first picture is so small. It represents how I spent most of the day.
I tried to move them to the lifts this way, they couldn't hang onto the poles and I had to resort to the bum push.
This is an example of the bum push and it works terrific.

Good Bye

Good Bye Jackson, we loved you and will miss you. You meant more to me than you ever realized.

Number 37

Wish me Happy Birthday.

Thirty seven feels much older than thirty six. It is going to take some getting used to, you know, being a day older today than I was yesterday.

My hope is to just keep piling on the years as long as I can carry them.

We're Back

The Tutu Boutique has weathered another storm. I do not know what happened or why it disappeared, but it is back and I am thankful.

When I called the hosting company yesterday the girl who answered the phone apologized and said there really wasn't much she could tell me because her system was down as well. She said they were aware of the situation, were working to fix it and would send me an email when things were back up.

This morning I had a couple of emails, one from a guy who reads the blog, somehow he was aware of the company we use to host the site, he uses the same company and he gave me all types of good information. He also informed a representative from the company about the situation and he also reached out.

Before I got to speak to anybody, the site returned to normal operation. I do look forward to building a relationship with this contact and learning more about these things that I know nothing about.

Excellent Adventure

Merry and David spent the weekend with Auntie Shannon, they headed down Maine to visit with Mr. and Mrs. Arch, Shannon's parents.

By all accounts they had a terrific trip, the thing is, that the boy who arrived home Sunday night is not the same child that left on Friday. David has always been a spare talker, not really all that interested in sharing all of the details. Things change.

David has not stopped talking since he got back! Fishing pole this and fishing pole that. I did this and can we do that? It is a nice change although a bit tiring.

Auntie Shannon's influence is spreading over my children. Auntie Shannon can talk with the best of them and David is her new disciple.

Play

I love to get lost, lost in play. As an adult we do not often lose ourselves, one of the gifts associated with being a parent is the ability to get down on our children's level and play.

We got snow here in north eastern Massachusetts last week, the snow was then coated with rain, which then froze solid. This combination almost put Jet Blue out of business. Jet Blue's blue's were the Old Blue House's happy.

We went sledding, I love sledding, you do not get to experience the full effect of the joy of sledding unless you share it with three and four year old's. It is all new to them, the speed, the danger and the exhilaration. It makes me happy and my enthusiasm makes them happy. We cheer and high five and laugh. When the sledding is done, over hot chocolate and cookies, we recount our stories of daring and laugh and high five and smile.

Another game that we have been playing a lot of is "tickle me, Daddy" This is David's favorite and quickly rising on Thomas' list. David yells out commands, "Stop", "Tickle" and we laugh and roll and laugh and catch our breath, and laugh. Lost in time, lost in Play.

Two Things

Number 1: Last night as I was tucking the children into their beds I was overwhelmed with love.

Number 2: I predict before President Bush is out of office The United States will be millitarily involved with Iran and possibly Syria.

Frump

I am in the middle of a blogging frump.

I do not have any particular insight or thoughts of interest to pass along.

If any of you want to know what a man thinks about a certain moisturizer you can read his thoughts here. If you want to try that product let me know. If you want to get started on the road to financial independence, network marketing and direct selling maybe an option. Shoot me an e-mail.

We are all just a bit sick at The Old Blue House. Lots of snot in the morning but as the day proceeds we all begin to feel better. Makes for a tricky morning, the children being grumpy makes the parents feel grumpy. Tough way to start the day but we work through it.

The Tutu Boutique is experiencing its first growth spurt, it is humming along at such a pace that Heidi has started to make some structural changes to the way the business operates. Heidi has three children, young children, she has an Arbonne downline that needs attention and lots of customer service questions to attend to at the Tutu Boutique. It is exciting and scary at the same time. I hope when the dust settles that maybe we can get some part time help. Either with the children or the business or even better with both.

Many evenings when I get home from work I find Heidi at her computer with Thomas on her lap, typing an email response while talking on the phone. There does not seem to be enough time in the day for her to accomplish all of the tasks that she wishes to accomplish. I want her to know that I really appreciate her effort and hard work. I want her to know that I love her and that I am thankful that she is my kids mom.

How's Merry?

Has anyone heard from the big sister in the family? It feels as though her brothers are getting all of the press around here. The reason is, Merry is perfect, rarely does she incur the ire of her parents.

She has the skill and grace to con her brothers into doing the bad things, this skill allows Merry to reap the rewards, while the boys suffer the consequences. How long will it take the boys to figure out they are being played? They probably never will figure it out. Lord knows girls are still getting the best of me. As for being upset at her for manipulating her brothers, not a chance, that is a skill I want to nurture not retard. Mom may not have a similar opinion.

Meredith is slowly getting a handle on her letters, between pre-school and Mom there has been tremendous progress since the over reaction of a couple posts ago.
Dance school continues to be her favorite, last week she made the front page of The Salem Evening News and today is her mid year recital. I wish I could find the photo online and share it, I know it is out there I just can't find a digital copy.

Meredith's grip on the throne of The Old Blue House is strong. She has all of her subjects under her thumb behaving as she wishes. We, her loyal subjects are lucky to have such a well behaved and benevolent ruler.

Blogversary

Steve, thank you for your generous offer to help with the overhaul, but after mentioning it to the boss and thinking it over, I have decided to let the inner sissy shine. I do not need a new layout or format, The Tutu Boutique is part of me and I am sticking with it.

It is Sunday morning, Baby Einstein is watching my children and I am reflecting on a year in the blog-o-sphere. Blogging has been a terrific hobby, I have had a chance to experience different perspectives and characters. There are families all over the country whose window I have had a chance to peak in.

We are all different however there is a common thread that ties the blogs I read together. That thread is the journey of parenting. Some are further down the path than others, some are just starting out. Some face special challenges, some have lots of kids, some have one. We all love and want the best for these children, we all use blogging to work through issues, that when we toss them out there we find are universal. We are not alone, there are others in the same boat, dealing with the same circumstances.

There are writers who expose themselves to us unabashedly, their fears, joys, misgivings and questions on display for all of the world to experience. There are Dads simply trying to chronicle the adventure of raising children. Developing an archive for their children , a place where those children will be able to look back and get an idea of what dear old Dad was thinking.

More times than I can count I have read stories that filled me with emotion, sitting in front of the computer I have laughed, I have cried, I have been confused, I have felt hope and despair. This little window, perhaps is not so little.

The act of sitting down, typing out the issue I am struggling with, usually shines a light on the solution. Generally I have a solution to the problem I am blogging about before I hit the publish button. I do not consider myself a writer,but I have come to rely on writing to help get through. It has been eye opening this blogging and I am happy that I got involved.

This blog is for me and my children, however you are all welcome to come and have a peak in the window of The Old Blue House. If you see or hear something while you are peaking inside, remember you are welcome here and your two cents is appreciated.