Pictures part 2

Drew and his first organized sport. He is getting more comfortable and less hesitant. Youngest kid in the league.


Ben was very nice to share his birthday cake. Drew, Kate, Andrew, and Dylan all got to eat the detritus off of Ben's hands.


I don't even know what this is.


Yum.


This is a big tree we saw whilst hiking. Sort of awe inspiring.

Let's do a giant batch pictures

I have a good reason for not updating a ton recently. Work is nuts and I can no longer get to the posting function of this blog thanks to work web blockers. So, I actually have to be productive. Let's let the pictures do the talking


Ben opened some birthday presents. Note the tongue.


Ben was Godzilla, the cake was Japan, and a family watched in awe at the destruction.



Ben proved he enjoys all food and has the manners of a bear.


Drew climbed Amicalola falls. Rode the backup up, walked down on his own about 1.5 miles. Also, he urinated off the mountain, so that was pretty awesome.



Ben showed a yen for castles and boy toys.

Benzing Norgay

So Ben was able to crawl all the way up the stairs today. Sherri was behind him letting him test his mettle. Made it with no issues, other than some random distractions from shiny objects.

Kate's future

Kate and I were talking about how she would still have to take hard classes
and classes she didn't like when she chose a major in college (because she
was whining about learning to add by 8s). She said, "Mommy, I can be more
than one thing, right?" I said, "Sure." She said, "Then I want to be a
dentist and a dog doctor and a doctor that gets babies out of Mommy's
tummies and then a coach." I said, "Wow. You sure will need a lot of
school to do all of those things." She said, "That's ok. I don't mind. I
would be so disappointed if I couldn't do all of those things."

Happy birthday to Drew

And, he's now 3. The party was quite fun, held at Grayson Park. Friends there were Andrew, Addie, Katie, Emmie, Kate, Avy, Ben. Water gun fights, bubbles, tons of playground time. Gifts were heavily focused on superheroes (and again, Drew has never seen any of them really do anything, they just appeal to his masculinity). He had a "Dark" Vader balloon that he chose.

Ben has a drinking problem

No, not really, but he did his most obvious deep thinking communication so far. Sherri and I were in the dining room, Ben was working his way around the kitchen floor. He went to the drawer with the kid cups, grabbed one, crawled over with it to the fridge, got on his knees and held the cup up towards the water dispenser. Looked at me with a big smile on his face.

Once again, soccer season

Or, an actual OK excuse for Drew to kick things. Kate is back with her crew, most o the team is the same as last soccer season, adding in Sophie which Kate is thrilled about. Rest of her team is Watson, Wynn, Andrew, Katie, Audrey, Zach.

Drew is playing for the first time, and I had forgotten (willfully obstructed) the memories of how much more stressful it is coaching 3 year olds that haven't played before. Drew has Emmie and Addie on his team which is nice. Other random kids are Riley, Theran, Ella, and Ethan. Once Drew decides playing is fun, he'll pretty much dominate I think. May not happen until we get into games though. Plus, he's the youngest one out there.

School updates

Kate is an avid reader. lots of time spent with puzzles, math, parts of speech, handwriting, following directions, creative writing, and probably 20 things I am not thinking of.

Drew spends time with puzzles, learning letters and numbers, and mechanical manipulation of objects.

Ben is a partial walker

As of about 5 days ago, he will now get up and walk behind something. Maybe 10 steps max, but he digs it. Only a matter of time now.

Kate is a relentless reading machine

And, after the test we gave her tonight, she has proven to read at somewhere between a 4th and 5th grade level.

Ben has a budding future as a sherpa

Since he has now figred out how to crawl while transporting things. The mouth can be a handy tool at times.

Week one of Katelyn the Kindergartner in the books

Lots of book technically. She learned all about Leif Ericsson, what a noun is, addition (and other math principles), a decent amount of puzzles/handwriting/and batches of other things. On the flip side, sounds like her friends in elementary school did some coloring. So, that sounds challenging.

How mellow is Ben?

Last night in the bath, Ben reached forward to get a ball bobbing in the water. In doing so, he stuck his head fully under the still running tub faucet and was thoroughly doused. Fished around, got his toy, and then sat up and smiled.

Now, imagine the same happening with either Kate or Drew at that age.

Thanks for the fun night in-laws/Sherri

So, forget the the kids in this one. This post is all about me. Sherri's parents are on a much needed vacation. When you leave behind a house, you tend to leave behind a couple of things that need doing. Sherri remembered last night at about 8PM that those things (take trash out, water indoor plants, move some stuff) still needed doing that night.

So, I did it, especially since Ben needed to stay home and was stuck on her like white on rice.

The only thing is, no one informed me that their new house has a working alarm system or that the code is now different than it was at the old house. There really is no feeling quite as helpless as those few seconds between realizing the alarm pad is warning you of an imminent alarm and knowing there isn't a thing you can do to stop it. Thankfully, with the door closed, what sounds like a piercing alarm on the inside can only be faintly heard on the outside. And, with the combination of empty neighborhood lots and really old people with poor hearing around them, I actually think I may have distrubed no one.

Plus, when the alarm company called to check to see if it was a real or false alarm, I was able to guess the all clear code.

So, that was pretty awesome.

Thanks for the fun night Ben

So, he's sick. The guess is an ear infection that caused mighty fun fever starting yesterday afternoon, the doc appointment will hopefully prove that out. So, he was pretty lethargic. And, between being up with him late, up again from about 3:15 to 4:30, and having to drive to Kroger to get children's Tylenol (off brand only please), it was a night that veered from the hoped for "sit down, hang out, vegetate" plan I had in mind after being on the phone with the CFO until 7PM last night.

Fever seemed better this AM, so that was good.