Handy Daddy

In the midst of football season, Daddy started building the loft bed he designed for Big M during those rare weekends we didn't have to take any kid anywhere. He had made great progress but now the cold weather is here. Big M can't wait!

Day full of soccer

First thing in the morning in Saturday was the girls' 2nd soccer game. For once, Big M didn't have a game so he and Daddy was able to attend. Then it was off to team pictures, then off to another field for Daddy's concession stand duty.

The weather was so beautiful we decided to keep Daddy company at the concession stand. It was the most expensive volunteer duty ever! The kids ran around, watched different soccer games, said hi to many friends.

recent pictures

Miss K with her new dress I made for her.

Daddy & Mini Me (Little M)

Daddy & 3 kids.

Little M was put on time out. "Again?," he asked. Yup. Again.

missing daddy

A couple of weeks ago, Daddy left for business to California for 2 weeks. I knew right away that the biggest challenge for me is all the after school activities: church class, dance, soccer, soccer practice, lip sync, drama class. Some of these activities happen right after the other, so someone will have to miss something.

The first week was a doozy, especially that one of Big M's soccer practice was at 7 o'clock. It was simply way too late for the girls and Little M to tag along. I wanted to skip it, but Big M was due for a little recognition for executing a signature move during a game. So there we were, late at night, the girls were fine playing with their lip pad at first. Half way through the practice they got tired. So I walked them and Little M around the school. Following Little M was a job and a half in itself. It was a tiring night followed by a tiring day the next day.

All that first week, we went to as many things as possible. The only consolation was that the girls' dance was cancelled due to the weather. After week 1, week 2 was a matter of which one we will make instead of which one we will miss.

For Little M, every morning for 3-4 days, he looked for his Daddy. I had to remind him that Daddy was at work far far away that he had to ride the airplane to get there. "Oh, Daddy is at work," he'd say. After about 4 days, he stopped looking for him in the morning, but he would demand that he talk to Daddy via video on the iphone. If I told him no, he cried and screamed. Hearing this was hard on Daddy, too. Couple with the high-blood pressure problem that plagued him the minute he got off the plane in California, he was quite homesick. His blood pressure meds were changed and was not working for him. Stress of being away from family, or he truly has health problems? He was understandably worried, and so was I.

The 2nd week being away from home was extremely hard for him. As day 13 was nearing, the day he was to fly home, the weather was not looking too good. We were due for a massive snow storm in Upstate NY, one that would dump up to 16 inches of snow. He was to fly in on the evening of that storm, and so I suggested that he move his flight. I didn't want him to get stuck in the airport. So he changed his flight, but he couldn't get an earlier one, he got a flight one day later. When you're missing a loved ones, you count down the days when you would get reunited, and when that day gets delayed even just one day it is really hard. The children asked me to write the days down on a calendar so they would know when Daddy would be home too.

When Daddy did finally get home, it was right back into the routine. I was sick and couldn't make Big M's church class, so Daddy was supposed to take him. Only right when they were to leave, Daddy didn't feel good and measured his blood pressure again. It was high. He went to the urgent care instead. Thankfully, he someone that thought his blood pressure meds was nonsense and switched him to a different one. It worked. Daddy was relieved in that he wasn't having heart problems afterall. We were all relieved.

In the end, we agreed that 2 weeks was way too long for him, for me, and for the kids. He would try to arrange business trips to be slightly less than that.

Fun with daddy

Little M loves goofing around with Daddy. Sometimes he wants To be just like him.

fall soccer

The fall soccer season has been in full swing for a few weeks now, and it really makes for a busy time in our house. Daddy has also volunteered as an assistant coach, which makes it more fun for Little M, I think. Right now there are 2 assistant coaches, and the other dads are helping out too. This is from one of the practice where the dads played against the kids in order to demonstrate to them the importance of their position.

A new hobby

Daddy bought a wood carving magazine at Lowes and found an interesting easy whittling projects. He bought some wood and tried whittling a pencil. Then he made this wizard. It was so awesome I wanted to try it too. This owl was my first attempt. It was supposed to only take 5 minutes, but it took me am hour.

So now we're both hooked. Daddy has another project in mind and I tried my hand at a wizard for my 2nd try. We've bought more wood and bettertter knives. We're both excited to see where this hobby leads us! You know what they say about couples sharing the same hobby.... they go broke.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Daddy celebrated his birthday early last week. The boys and I took him out to lunch to the restaurant of his choosing. He chose Hooters. We enjoyed the wings, but I don't think Little M enjoyed his seat at the table though. Daddy agreed to be seated at a high-top table because it was the only one available. Fortunately a table opened up shortly after we made our order so we asked to be moved.
Daddy is not too thrilled about adding another number to his age.

Pro whittler

One night, Daddy discovered the art or whittling. And just like that he ordered some knives, wood and some magazines. This is his first attempt at a wizzard on a pencil. What at awesome ability! It looked so great I want to try it too. However I might stay away from people and animals. I don't know that this is one hobby I can take up and be good at, but I won't know until I try. In the meantime, I asked Daddy to make about 20 more and we can have a business up on Etsy.

daddy/daughter date night

I found out that Chick-Fil-A has a Daddy/Daughter date night once in a while so I signed Daddy and the girls up. Apparently some Chick-Fil-As go all out with red carpets, etc. Our neighborhood one did a great job, but they didn't go all out. Nonetheless, it was a night with just the girls with Daddy so it was special.

(J has the orange headband and K has the 2 pink flowers.)

We have the most beautiful daughters!!

butterflies everywhere!

We went to a Butterfly Exhibit at the mall last weekend. There was a big tent set up and all the butterflies were flying everywhere and landing on everyone. We were given cotton buds dipped in Gatorade in order to attract the butterflies, but really they liked everyone anyway without it.

J wanted to see one on her cotton bud, but not on her. When butterflies kept landing on her head, and anywhere on her, the experience got old really quick. I don't have a picture of K because she was done after 10 minutes.

Enjoying the butterly on his collar. 

M and his friend had a blast. They both love butterflies.

My very "special" husband.

Little M was fascinated by the butterflies but Daddy had to hold him back because he wanted to grab all of them. Poor butterflies.

Holding Little M back.

Big M sports a new hair accessory.

A new body jewelry?

At one point he had butterflies on ALL his fingers. I think he squeezed the Gatorade cotton buds onto his hands.

Little M is contemplating how best to grab the butterfly.

The butterfly boy.

We brought home a pupa and a Monarch came out 2 days later. Another day later and we released it.

Playing on th sidewalk

The weather was nice and cool this weekend. It was very much of a springtime weather rather than summer.  The girls wanted to play with their sidewalk chalk. Little M wanted to eat them. Big M and Daddy were inside bonding over a video game that is, in my opinion, really much too old and violent for Big M.


K is in the foreground. Notice Little M on the grass busy with the chalk.

 Little M ate some of the chalk. Eww.


Tired from the day's activities.

Busy baby

After finalizing the details for his sisters' birthday party, Little M caught up with Daddy to do lunch. He was quick to point out when Daddy was not fast enough with the food. He also loved pulling Daddy close to him by pulling on his sleeves. There were a couple of ladies he exchanged pleasantries with but he was really too busy eating to have a meaningful conversation.

off to the botanical garden

We finally had our first outing here in TX during the spring break. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the beautiful flowers and fairy castles. K, J and Little M also had their first bus ride. There were so many people at the botanical garden we had to park 4 blocks away and had to be shuttled in.

It was a little windy.

The sun came out so everyone put on their squinty face. Little M loves the feel of the grass in his hands.
(K in pink, J in yellow)

J & K in the Little Mermaid's castle.
The do love each other...sometimes.

In Alladin's Castle.

Beauty & The Beast's Castle

Being silly.

As we were about to leave, Big M found a butterfly struggling in a bird's mouth. He chased the birds away  and the bird dropped the injured butterfly. The butterfly's wings were so damaged it couldn't fly anymore. Big M took it and set it down on the grass to talk and comfort it.

stay-cation is in!

Museum of Natural Science

"Run for your lives!!"
Drama class is paying off.

A moment with Daddy - Daddy teaches them about poop.

Zipping through the course with a square-wheeled trike!
(K)

Monkey Puzzle
(J)

The 2 kids in the middle were trying to put the puzzles together and was going nowhere until Big M stepped in. He looked at the picture and in 1 minute grabbed 2 pieces, put them together and was on his way to finishing.

Little M is pretty proud of himself balancing on a Mammoth's tusk.

missing Daddy

Daddy has been apart from us for 8 days. Daddy talks to the kids at least once a day, and they are doing great with that. Curious George talks about he and Daddy's plan on buying Lego once we get to Texas. Thing 2 asks where Daddy is in the morning and at random times during the day. Thing 1 does the same thing and sometimes explains to Thing 2 that Daddy is downstairs. :)

But Thing 1 is ever so slightly acting different. Between her and Thing 2, she usually do not come to me unless she's feeling especially tender like when she's sick or hurt (she is usually more of Daddy's girl outside of those tender moments). But these past few days, she's been coming to me more often. Then this evening, they finally got to "see" Daddy again when we set up a webcam on both ends. I got my webcam first, so I've been having the kids have fun with it by letting them watch themselves make goofy faces and let them figure that they were indeed looking at themselves.

But tonight when they saw Daddy instead, everyone went crazy happy. After several minutes, Thing 1 began saying, "couch? fun? couch, Daddy?" I thought she was asking Daddy if he was sitting on the couch. But then we began to understand what she really meant, and Daddy began explaining that he couldn't sit with her right now. But in a few days, he will be here. At that point, Thing 1 began crying and crying and crying. She turned to me for a hug, and would quiet down, but then when she turned toward the computer screen and saw Daddy again, she would cry again. It's heart breaking to see her this way.

Only 5 more days and Daddy would be back here with us. As I was saying good night to Curious George he said to me, "Today is day 5. Tomorrow is day 4. When it's day zero, Daddy will be here."

the bears' den at Cherokee

This is a backtrack to the end of July on our trip to Cherokee, NC. It's an Indian reservation that is thriving and very busy during the summer months due to tourism. We found a "zoo" of bears and brought the kids there. It's not much of a zoo, but when we're talking about 4 and 2 year olds, it's just a perfect size. :)

The bears were doing tricks for food and the girls loved them!

Curious George's puncanny imitation of the bear in the entrance.

One of the bear poses for food.

Thing 1 (pink) and Thing 2 (green) love the bears!

There is an iguana cage that is covered with chicken wire. Unfortunately, little fingers still fit through. Thankfully, with Mommy and Daddy's super sonic speed, we were able to keep the iguana from having a finger lunch. Thing 1 wasn't too happy about being told "NO" of course.

A baby goat was walking around saying hi to the visitors. Thing 2 said, "How cute!"

Thing 2, Curious George and I pose for one more picture before heading out.