Good Eaters

Our boys were always such good eaters as babies - as toddlers, they don't do so well. I've noticed it again with Andrew. He has always been excited to try new things, from bottles to cereals to vegetables. He doesn't spit it out and throw it all over the dining room the way you see in the movies. He sits quietly and opens his mouth when he sees food coming. The only thing is that he gets a little worked up and excited when we take too long.

Daniel is back to eating normally again but Josh is still in his hibernation stage. I'm not sure if he's more like a bear or a camel, but he'll eat straight for about 12 hours. Always asking for more food. Then he won't touch his food for 3 or 4 days. It seems to work for him, so we're letting it go. Daniel grew out of it and I'm sure Andrew will grow into it.

Just brothers

The boys are starting to look so much alike. Andrew looks almost identical to Daniel when he was 6 months old, so I have a feeling they'll be triplet teenagers.

We've mentioned it a few times before. Here, here, and here, but people often ask if the boys are twins. It's gotten to a new level now though.

I was out shopping with Daniel and Josh the other day. We were standing at the till and an older lady in line behind us looked at them and said, "Cute boys."

"Thank you."

"Are they twins?"

Trying to pay and talk to the cashier at the same time, I just said, "No".

Daniel helped out by sighing and saying with a bit of impatience, "We're four and two".

A thought?

The "problem" with today's society, is that; (no one) knows how, to punctuate correctly, anymore?

Rough night, nice morning

So, we're out camping this weekend. We came out to a little campground in Southern Alberta to hang out with Amber's family. Our 5 plus Amber's parents slept in a camper that "sleeps" 5 or 6.

Andrew was up all night. He was "sleeping" between his parents and seemed to cry every 5 minutes all night. We were trapped on a shelf and couldn't get out without stomping on the older ones. We finally got him a diaper and something from a dropper and he started to doze off, then Joshie woke up.

It's amazing how well D and J did though. They can tune out a crying baby as well as they tune out nagging parents. Daniel didn't move all night, but once Josh was up, he couldn't get back to sleep and I knew it was only a matter of time before he said those magic words, "I have to go pee!"

So, we got up and got our shoes and coats on and found our way to the "stinky room" outhouse. When we got back, we were both wide awake. I checked the time: 5:50. It felt like it was about 10•C so we started a fire and just hung out together for a while. We talked and ate some snacks and built up the fire. After a while he got a little chilly and I sent him back to bed. I brought out my book and read for a bit until Daniel woke up - maybe 15 minutes.

D came out and we had our time together. We read bible stories, did fire experiments and talked about the moon. Once the sun came out, Daniel went to go play in the sandbox. I was sitting in front of the fire with the sun starting to warm everything up. I had my own little worship time in God's beautiful creation and thought, "I could do this kind of camping."

Then other people woke up. :)

Just following orders

We went to the mall today and while Amber and Andrew went off on their own, the boys and I were checking out cool stuff at Future Shop. The boys saw some cool flashing LEDs in the car stereo department and were immediately drawn to them. We looked at them for a bit and then we were about to leave. I took Josh's hand and started walking away. I heard a thud, thud, thud. It sounded like Daniel had turned on a subwoofer.

I look back and see him haul back and smack the centre of a 12 inch speaker with his fist. Thud! I was in shock. He hit it again and I ran to him and said, "Daniel! Don't hit that. What are you doing?" He looks up at me and I get a better look at the speaker.



I couldn't help but laugh. He saw a word, read it, and followed directions. I guess he thought it was like a button to push or something.

Boys Arguing

Daniel and Josh were playing cars in the basement and getting along fine. They have a few Happy Meal toys from the Cars movie they saw with Grandma and Grandpa. All of a sudden Josh starts crying and comes over to me saying, "Daddy! I crying cars queen calling cars Daniel didn't (gasp) calling not right (sob) him cars not the queen (sniff)"

"Ummm... what Joshie?"

Daniel comes over to explain, "Joshie was saying this guy isn't Lighting McQueen. He called him something else."

Josh replied, "Daddy, he is not Lemmy LeQueen. He is Conrad!"

"He's Conrad?"

"No he's Lightning McQueen, Joshie! Don't call him Conrad!" Daniel argued.

Josh looked up at me with a tear streaked face, "Daddy. Him is Conrad."

I then had to have my first (of many I'm sure) conversation with Daniel where I explain to him that even though he's right, it doesn't help to argue about it.

Treasure Hunters vs. Amazing Race

I'm not only a Dad, but I'm a bit of a reality TV geek. I got into The Amazing Race towards the end of season 7, but thanks to GSN and OLN, I've been able to catch many of the older seasons.

This summer I've been watching a show that at first glance seems to be comparable to The Amazing Race, Treasure Hunters. As Treasure Hunters gears up for its season (and most likely, series) finale, I decided to make a few notes of comparison between the two. For those of you who haven't seen either of these, you may not get any of this, but with the internet as big as it is, perhaps someone will appreciate this analysis.

1) Phil Keoghan vs Laird MacIntosh: TAR's host is known for being somewhat stiff when announcing the tasks and when greeting the teams at the end of each leg, but he can communicate so much emotion with just one raised eyebrow. He's even been seen to dance at times. TH's "host" only communicates with the teams via "Motorola messages", video clips on their shamelessly plugged Motorola RAZRs. He is a complete robot who shows absolutely no emotion or charisma. This week he mentioned that if it weren't for historical American shipping magnate, Stephen Girard, "we would have lost the War of 1812 and I would be speaking to you with an... ... English accent". I'm sure it wouldn't take much to adjust his programming to give him an English accent, I think it would suit him better anyway.

2) Competition: On TAR, the teams are in a RACE. They compete against each other to solve clues, find places, complete tasks, and get where they need to be as fast as possible. Occasionally two teams will share information or a cab - but only so far as it benefits them. TH teams seem to be more interested in helping each other than in winning. They complain about the few teams who had been playing to win. I don't understand how you can play a game for a tie.

3. Rules: TH seems to be making up the rules as they go along. In an early episode, one team had to drop out because a member hurt her leg - the producers brought back the team who had previously been eliminated. One week later a member of that resurrected team hurt his leg and the producers allowed the team to continue the race without him. I'm not one to believe in conspiracies, but it really seems like they change the rules to benefit the teams they like. On TAR, the rules seem to be consistent and are explained up front.

4. Evil Christians: 0n TAR: Family Edition, there was a team who constantly flaunted their Christianity by praying loudly and declaring themselves superior. They mocked other teams, lied and did what they could to win. The other teams couldn't stand them or wait foir them to lose. On TH we have the Fogal family, a pastor, his wife and grown daughter. They stole, lied, sent other teams on a wld goose chase. The other teams were fooled into helping them for a while but daughter Kayte's constant screaming, whining, and overdramatic antics eventually led the other teams to coin the phrase, "We just got Fogaled" to mean that they had been tricked, duped, or just had a really bad bout of bad luck.

5. Dominant teams: Last season's Amazing Race had the same two teams battling for first and second place in almost every leg. No matter how many artificial equalizers the producers inserted, BJ & Tyler and Eric & Jeremy dominated nearly every challenge and every leg and ended up being the top 2 teams at the end. On Treasure Hunters, Team Air Force has led nearly every leg and looks like they can't be beaten. Coincidentally (or not), they are the one team who has consistently avoided these silly alliances and sharing answers to the puzzles. I would count on them to win the grand prize next week.

Well, it's been a nice summer diversion and even though it is a mere shadow of The Amazing Race, I've really enjoyed Treasure Hunters. It has had so many moments of unintentional humour. I'll take it for what it was and look forward to the crown jewels of reality TV, TAR and Survivor, starting up in about a month or so.

Now back to your regularly scheduled cute kid stories.

What's with people?

I work for a cell phone company doing tech support over the phone. It amazes me how many people will call in with a problem with their cell phone and when I say, "Can I get your phone number please so I can look up your account," they reply, "My cell phone number?"

Do these people do this everywhere?

Waiter: What would you like to drink?
Bonehead: For ME to drink? With my meal?

Doctor: And what seems to be the problem today?
Bonehead: With my medical problems?

911 Operator: And what is the address of the fire?
Bonehead: My box number? My email address? The address of my first girlfriend?

At least it makes for an interesting night

Daniel's Birthday

We are a little behind in our blogging but there are a few "Adventures" that we need to get down before we forget.

Daniel had his birthday at the end of June and because he had so many people he wanted to invite, we decided to go with two different parties. The first was right on his birthday and we had all of his grandparents, uncles, and cousins come to our place. I burned a huge pile of hamburgers and Amber made a cake. We had 7 boys there from 0 to 7 tearing around and having lots of fun.

We got Daniel bunkbeds and we put them together earlier in the week. I had wanted to put it together during the party but D was too excited and couldn't wait, so we did it together. Amber already put up some pictures of that.

About a week later we had another party at the park. This is something of a tradition for us. Daniel has had a Calgary park birthday party for the last 4 years. He invited his whole preschool class as well as a bunch of other friends. We figured with siblings and parents, the guest list could end up well over 100 people. It ended up about 20 something total and was a great little party. The kids raced around in the field and in the trees. We had painting, snacks, games, presents and lots of fun. We ended up hanging out with some new friends at the pool for an hour or more afterwards and it was another great day.

I'm posting this from my work device on my lunch break so I don't have access to any pictures right now but I'll have Amber post some links soon.

New Study

A South American scientist from Argentina, after a lengthy study, has discovered that people with "IBA" or insufficient brain activity read blogs with their hand on the mouse.

Don't bother taking it off now, it's too late…

Stampede Party Pooper

I know this might get me kicked out of the city, but I just have to say it. I don't like the Calgary Stampede.

I don't drink. I don't like crowds. Cowboy boots, long sleeve shirts, and jeans in 30 degree weather don't make sense to me. I like to use my money wisely.

The average person in Calgary (native or tourist) spends hundreds of dollars during the 10 days of Stampede. I couldn't find the current quotes but I know that when we've gone to the grounds for one day, Amber and I will usually spend over a hundred bucks on parking, admission, a few rides, and some food. And that's not including the shows, bars, clothing, etc that people spend their money on.

I'm proud to say that we have spent exactly zero dollars on the Stampede this year (possibly less). We went to the free Stampede breakfast at church and had a nice time dressing up and eating pancakes outside in the beautiful sunshine, listening to some live country music. We even got a few Subway gift certificates out of the deal thanks to Daniel and Josh's cute galloping on their cardboard tube horses. And today, I got to partake of a free barbecue at work. The Delta Bow Valley hotel came by and brought corn, slow roasted beef, and succulent beef ribs. So good.

I really don't mind the music - and free food is always nice - but I think for the next few years (until the boys can appreciate it) we may be skipping out on Stampede, either figuratively or literally. We're taking the money we've saved and spending the weekend at a hotel in Lethbridge. We haven't had even a weekend vacation since we got back from Nakusp in early November, so I'm sure we will appreciate it.

Friday's Feast

Appetizer
Name one thing nice that you could do for someone else today.

I just spent 40 minutes helping an old guy set up his hotmail address on his phone when I shouldn't have. It's not something we support but he was so confused and I thought I could give him a hand.

Soup
When was the last time you were frightened by the weather?

I can't remember ever being scared of the weather. We get hail, blizzards, floods out here but I always am amazed at God's wonderful power. I haven't been in a hurricane or tornado - I think I might have a different answer then.

Salad
What would you say is the most useful website or blog that you visit?

I love Amber's website but the two most useful blogs to me are TVGasm.com and TechDirt.com

Main Course
Who was your favorite singer/group when you were a child?

Valdy

Dessert
Do you have any rituals? If so, what are they?

With my schedule being so weird, it's tough to have rituals.

Twins?

Last week Daniel was in swimming lessons with Amber, and this week it's Josh's turn. The pool is near the library and a couple parks so I have been taking the other two boys on various adventures during swimming.

Last week, Josh and I found a pretty cool park about a block away. There were slides and ladders and a climbing rock. Josh also met a 7-year old boy who was having fun playing tag (or Tickle Monster) with him. Josh chased him around the park for about 20 minutes until it was time for us to go get Daniel. This led to a very interesting situation when Daniel, Andrew and I showed up there yesterday.

The same boy was there and he recognized me and Andrew's carseat and therefore, recognized "Josh". Daniel ran up to the play structure to see what he could do and the little boy jumped out from behind the steps and yelled, "Raaaaarh!"

Daniel looked at him, and then looked at me and kept climbing. He was running over the bridge and the boy climbed up behind him and said, "Wanna play Tickle Monster?"

Daniel looked at this stranger and said, "No!" This went on for a while with the little guy chasing his former friend around trying to figure out why he wasn't as fun as last week.

Daniel came running to me and said, "That boy is trying to catch me"

Me: "I think he thinks you are Josh. He and Josh were playing here last week and he thinks you are him." Daniel looks confused but runs away.

Little boy: "I don't think that. I know he's Josh"

Me: "No, that's Josh's brother. It's a different boy."

Daniel (yelling from across the park): "I'm not Josh. I was in swimming lessons and now it's Josh's turn. He's not here"

Boy: "Oh, they look the same."

Me: "Yes, they do look very similar"

Boy: "I didn't know they were twins"

Me: "No, they aren't twins. They just look alike"

Confused Boy (chasing after Daniel): "Wanna play Tickle Monster?"

Where's Joshie?

The last couple nights have been rough for the boys. I've been working late so Amber's alone with them. It's hot so they have trouble sleeping and don't feel like eating supper so they're hungry at bed time.

When I got home at about 10 last night, they were still up and being loud. Daniel kept coming out and asking for food. We kept sending him back to bed. Josh was being quiet, so I assumed he was asleep. I went in to check on him and he wasn't on his bed. There was a glow under his bed and he was laying on the floor way under it by the wall. Fast asleep.



Theory Number One:

His flashlight is stuck between the wall and his bed, shining down under the bed. Josh crawled under the bed to get it and fell asleep before he got it out.

I asked Daniel why Josh was under his bed. He said, "I put his flashlight there so he could see." The flashlight was tucked into the cross boards of the bed and actually pointing at him.

Theory Number Two:

Josh crawled under his bed for some reason - to escape from Daniel's relentless crying and screaming? And he fell asleep. Then Daniel... brought his flashlight under so... Josh wouldn't be in the dark...? Theory Number Two needs work.

So, Amber managed to get Josh out from under his bed before she went to bed and got him back up on top.

When Josh woke up this morning, I asked him, "Josh, when I came home last night, you weren't sleeping on your bed. Do you know where you were?"

"Yeah, under my bed"

"Why were you under your bed?"

"Daniel and me went under my bed with the flashlight. We were having a venture. We readed our books under my bed"

Now that I look at my pictures again, I can see the flashlight tucked into the bars and a book under his head.



Theory Number Three:

Josh and Daniel crawled under his bed together for a "venture". They were reading books and camping. Daniel tucked the flashlight in so they could see. When Daniel left to come and cry and whine about having to pee and being hungry, Josh fell asleep waiting for him.

Makes sense... I guess

He said, he said, he said

My lovely wife wanted me to start this post off by telling you that she has dropped off the face of the earth. She was trying to post daily adventures and that lasted about a week. And now with swimming lessons, birthday parties, and scrapbooking, she seems to have vanished. When she's back, she'll post again.

Now, on with our story...

The boys have been talking so much, I wanted to post an update on their progress.

Andrew: He said, "Mama!" for the first time this week. He kept repeating it to see Amber smile and giggle. It won't be long before he's running around and yelling with his brothers.

Josh: His grammar is really improving. He tries so hard to get things just right. He recently came to me in the morning and said, "Daddy, I wake... I waked... I WOKE up." It's cute that not only does he know there are rules for speech, but he thinks they are important.

Daniel: He is starting to grasp the concept of time. Until recently, he would place random "time" phrases in his sentences like "Last year I had pizza. I watched that movie a week ago."

But yesterday was the best one. He turned 4 on Thursday and that was a big thing for him. He's been waiting for it for months now. Anyway, we were going out and instead of putting on his sandals, he got his hiking boots out. I figured it couldn't hurt anything, so I let him put them on. He told me, "Daddy, these aren't my sandals. They are my boots. My Bob the Builder hiking boots... from when I was three."

That's it for now. We'll see who posts next... ;)

Feast One Hundred

Appetizer
On average, approximately how many times per day do you yawn?

On days when I'm working till 11pm, it's a couple dozen. Sunday afternoons are good for a few. But usually maybe 1 or 2.

Soup
What was your most memorable school field trip?

I have been on lots but I think my most memorable was Hawaii in 93. I went with my high school band and it was my first big trip away from my family and the first of 5 international trips in the next 3 years.

Salad
Fill in the blank: I was extremely __________________ this week.

BUSY....and HOT

Main Course
Which color do you think of when you hear the word "soothing"?

Lavender. I'm not sure why.

Dessert
What is something that, if you had to, you could save up the money to buy within one month?

Pretty much anything. I've been amazed at how we can scrimp and find extra money. God is so good. Something that we found the money for this month was bunk beds.

Doctor Visit

I took Andrew and Daniel to the doctor last week (I know I'm late in posting but it's been a busy week so forgive me). Daniel was going for his 4-year-old checkup and Andrew had a suspected ear infection.

They were both in great shape. Andrew apparently has just discovered his ears and when he's yanking on them, it's normal 5 month old curiosity. Daniel is doing all the stuff a kid his age should be doing.

Daniel wouldn't leave until the doctor checked his mouth. Apparently last time we went to the doctor, he didn't get to say, "Aaaaah!" and it bugged him for a while. In his mind, that is one of the most important parts of a doctor visit. So, Dr. Thomas checked his tongue and teeth and D was happy.

He impressed the doctor and the resident with his reading. She asked me if I thought he was ready for school and I responded by having Daniel read a poster on the wall that had words like "affect", "bacteria" and "antibiotics". He sounded out the words he didn't know and suprised even me. It's amazing how his mind is growing.

We are so blessed to have healthy kids. I thank God for them and also for the medical community we have available to us should anything happen. I'm not sure how all the proposed changes to health care will proceed, but I know that our family is well taken care of.

12 of 12

Well, here's another go at 12 of 12. Twelve pictures of June 12 in my life.



No, that's not a mistake. That's approximately what time our day started. Amber blogged about our rough night earlier today but here's my details. Josh couldn't fall asleep last night. After several hours of trying and coming out to see us, at 1:47 we finally brought him into our bed. After an hour of him flailing about I took him back to his bed just in time to hear Andrew wake up. Amber nursed him while I tried to get a little more sleep until about



I got up with Andrew and took him to the living room for a bottle. I laid him on his play mat while I went to go make a bottle. When I had finished, he was looking so happy, I let him lay there giggling while I did up some dishes.



He fell asleep shortly before Daniel woke up and came out to visit. I made Daniel and I breakfast and he said, "Daddy, that breakfast looks good. You know what else is good? Chess!"

I started teaching him chess this week and he loves it. He wants to play all the time now. It's ridiculous. The kid isn't even four yet - is there anything he can't do? So anyway, we eat our breakfast and start a game of chess.



As you can see, we have had to replace one of the white knights with Junior Asparagus from the VeggieTales Sumo of the Opera playset. We have a pretty messy basement (as you would remember from last month's 12 of 12) and it's gonna take us time to find that missing little plastic horse.

Anyway, Joshie woke up and was helping Daniel - by picking up the pieces off the floor and continually calling out "Corners Daniel, corners!" Andrew also woke up and he sat on my lap and helped out the white side.

Daniel's just starting to understand planning moves. He rarely sees beyond the move he's making but sometimes he surprises me. I help him out a bit and somehow he ended up with me in checkmate. He actually looks kind of upset that the game is over - even though he won.



So, I headed off to work. Here are a few pictures of my workspace.



This is my cube farm. My jacket is the second one you see there. All those windows let in quite a bit of natural light during the day, and the airvent you see over my desk lets in a few dead tiny fleas that I get to brush off my desktop every day before I start work. Maybe I could save them in a jar and sell them to a guy with a gecko.



Here's where I sit 5 times per week for 8 hours minus lunch and coffee breaks. It's nice to have my own set space, I really should put up some pictures or something, it's kind of depressing now that I look at it.

An interesting thing to note is my water bottle. I won it for having the highest mark in my training class. I go through about 3 of those full of ice water a day. Apparently talking all day and inhaling fleas makes one very thirsty.



Here's my first picture of me in 12 of 12. This is what I look like at work - if you are my water bottle. Hmmm, the glow from that fluorescent light fixture doesn't look too healthy.



This is the first day in over a month that I bought my lunch at work. That chess game took longer than I expected and I didn't get a chance to make a lunch. So, I drove to the nearby Wendy's and got a delicious Bacon Mushroom Melt. All that gooey cheese sauce with bacon and a greasy square burger - if the radiation from the lights don't get me the transfats will.



When I got home the boys celebrated my arrival by emptying their toybox all over the living room. Once I finish up here, I'm gonna go try to get all of that back in the box.

Amber left for the evening for some well-deserved girl time. The boys had been rowdy and rough all day. I put them to bed 2 hours ago and I just took this picture. They haven't moved a muscle. Apparently terrorizing one's mother and scattering toys makes one very sleepy.



I fell asleep on the couch waiting for Amber and Andrew. With TELUS TV, there's always a poker game to be found. Nothing is more surreal than watching Dave Foley from The Kids in the Hall doing colour commentary on a poker game including Dennis Rodman, Chandler Bing, and Doogie Howser M.D.



And that was my day in pictures. Why don't you try doing a 12 of 12 next month? You don't need a blog. It's simple to set up a flickr.com account to share photos. I'll try to post a reminder message a little early next month.

Brothers First, Brothers Always

I'm not sure where I heard it - I think it was some nanny show on TV - but it really stuck with me. Brothers first, brothers always. To me it means that no matter what happens, your brother is your brother. Friends come and go but family sticks together.

Daniel and Josh have really learned this lesson well. Amber blogged about it a while ago. They just love each other. They are best friends and I can see already that they include Andrew in their circle of brotherhood. It's so sweet.

That's why this weekend is so hard.

Daniel is out of town with Grandpa visiting his great-grandparents. It's his first big trip alone from mom and dad. The boys regularly have sleepovers at Grandma and Grandpa's but this is the first time we are more than a quick drive away and (as far as I can remember) the first time since Joshie was a little baby that they have been apart at night - surely for 2 or 3 nights at a time.

It's been tough on Amber and me too, having our first baby away but we are able to deal with it, but poor Josh. He's not sure what's going on. He said a few times today, "Daniel is lost." We had to remind him where his brother was and that he was OK.

I feel bad for him but I have no idea how Daniel is dealing with this. I'll write again with his side when he gets back.

Mobile Blogging

I'm trying something new here. I have a new Blackberry from work for the next few weeks and I'm gonna see if I can blog from it, wherever I am. Should be pretty cool.