At dinner Isaiah proudly announced “I’m gonna Fart!”  Then farted, and said “I’m sorry”.  He has developed a new habit of announcing his pending flatulence.  So then I asked him why he said “I’m sorry” instead of “excuse me.”  His response was to giggle and then say “pardon me… that’s what ‘fancy’ people say.”  I’m laughing even now – “fancy people”!!?  Then Harrison decided to get in on the action and repeat Isaiah, but instead of “pardon me” kept saying “part of me”.  These two crack me up.

I have a gig tomorrow, so I was practicing tonight.  Side note: I play in a big-band combo called the HASBand.  Jillian was a bit crabby, so I sat her on my lap while I practiced.  She enjoyed grabbing at the keys while I played.  Overall it was quite a feat, but I am determined.  Some might say stubborn, but I prefer determined.

At bedtime I was herding the kids up the stairs when I blurted out “go put your jammies to bed”.  I had meant to say “go put your jammies on and go to bed”, but in my haste I left out a few words.  The boys thought this was absolutely hilarious.

Jillian picked this exact time to start crawling.  Or at least I think this was the first time she really crawled.  I haven’t talked to Meredith to see if she was doing it this morning, but she was definitely not doing it yesterday.  So the boys had fun watching Jillian crawl around for a while.  She started by crawling from her bedroom to the boy’s bedroom.  There she pulled all their clothes out of a basket and then crawled into the bathroom and opened all the cabinet doors.  From there she headed straight to the top of the stairs.  It’s going to be fun…

1. 1. Isaiah killed the cat!!  I did not!  He did Mommy – I heard air come out! 
2. 2. I want to go live with the Mathews.  (that’s the neighbor’s house)
3. 3. A few weeks ago, we had some friends over for dinner.  We asked them what they’d like to drink, and Harrison proudly announced “we have a beer fridge in the basement!”
4. 4. Mommy!  Jillian almost just said humpback whale!  She said “humm…..”

And here are a few photo highlights:

Isaiah was really excited last week when he realized his tooth was really loose.  He asked me all afternoon what he could do to get it out, and was feeling a little discouraged after eating an apple with no success on the tooth.  He pressed on though, and soon enough it popped right out!  He was so excited, but then I think he was a little freaked out by the taste of blood in his mouth.  I think this picture might show that surprise in his eyes! 

 

 

 

 

It’s really kind of difficult to get them to all look in the same direction at the same time with normal looking smiles and open eyes…..this is as close as we got, but I think you’ll get the idea.  Harrison’s “chicky” is still hanging around, although he has lost his chirper, and Isaiah and Blue Bear are still buds, even after Blue Bear’s almost two year disappearance.  Jillian hasn’t latched on to anything yet except her brothers – this summer is going to be quite a treat!!

 

 

 

 

 

Jillian was happy as a clam in her walker, newly moved up from the basement, and Harrison was busy doing some coloring.  I thought I had a few quick moments, so I ran to the bathroom assuming everything would be fine.  I came out to find a totally empty kitchen and an awfully quiet house.  After calling Harrison’s name a few times, he yelled back that he was in the living room giving Jillian a ride!  It appears that both of them enjoyed the ride….I did not enjoy the heart attack. 

On a related note, I was talking to Isaiah at bedtime tonight about his day at school.  We got on the subject of music class when I asked him if he learned any new songs.  The conversation went something like this:

Dad: Did you learn any new songs at school today?
Isaiah: Yes
Dad: Can you sing one for me?
Isaiah: It didn’t get stuck in my head yet.
Dad: Oh you haven’t memorized it yet.
Isaiah: Yea.  I have a lot of songs stuck in my head.  But I lost some.  Other peoples heads took them.

- Mike

I turned on the oven to preheat it for our fabulous Sunday night pizza.  Unfortunately, I completely forgot that I made caramel rolls in the oven on Christmas Day, and the caramel oozed all over in the bottom of the oven.  Needless to say, it probably got somewhere close to the 400 mark, and there were flames in the bottom of the oven.   As I stood in awe with Jillian in my arms, Mike reminded me that we should probably do something about it rather than just stare at it.  Blow it Out.  Success!  Blow it Out.  Success Again!  Douse it with water….make the cat run screaming across the kitchen….make the boys probably pee a little…..Mom and Jillian standing by…..All Success!  So we thought it was a good time to talk about fire safety.  Boys, if you ever hear the smoke detector (which is now blaring) and mom and dad aren’t home, what do you do?  Isaiah:  Call the Fire Department!  Call 911.  Do we have to get out of the house now?

Us:  No , we don’t have to get out now….but if there was a real fire, it would be a great idea to get out and call the fire department. 

Harrison:  Call 1-1-9!  Roll Stop and Drop!!

All of us….even Isaiah:  Laughing.

Harry gets an A+ for effort!!

Side note:  John is walking!!!  And I thought I had a hard time keeping up with him before. 

We will see you all at the Christmas party in Jan.

Love

Doug, Brandy and John

The year started great with a trip to Peru
Translating and sweating, but with quite a crew
We helped so many in just a few days
God wouldn’t have had it a different way.

What else we did, I don’t exactly recall
But I know it was fun and exciting for all!
The boys waited anxiously for 9 months to pass
For the baby to be born – a girl, at last!

Isaiah started baseball, and a found a new love
But it’s football he dreams of, and not the glove.
He also started kindergarten at Lakeview School
He loves every minute, and thinks it is cool.

Harrison is still silly, funny and great
Although when you’re with him, you don’t know your fate
A tiger, a leopard, a dinosaur, a friend
These are all things he likes to pretend.

Jillian Meredith – It’s A Girl!  They exclaimed
we laughed and we cried at the news proclaimed. 
Daddy was quick to paint her room brown and pink.
In love with his daughter, if I ever did think. 

Mike is working hard to keep everything going
Through work, home, and fun his spirit is showing
He wrestles with his boys and gives kisses to his girls
He even surprised Mommy with a new set of pearls. 

And then there is me – what more can I say? 
My family is who I am and I like it that way
After deciding to chase the next chapter in my life
I am leaving my job to be a wife.
A mom and a friend I will continue to be
To many I love, but won’t as much see.
So how do I share such news with you all?
With Social Media of Course, perhaps a Tweet Up at the mall.
On Facebook, on MySpace, on Mashable and Flickr
On Delicious on Digg, maybe Technorati Or Twitter.
I am laughing hysterically at my own jokes
But listen up folks, if you like what you read
Leave us a note with some kind of lead. 
We would love to see you and hear all your stories
Merry Christmas to all – To God be the Glory!

This is day 1 of the Daddy Chronicles II.  This will be a short chronicling as Meredith is only gone for the weekend.  She went on a scrap-book (or Picture Pages as I always call it) weekend at some B&B in BFE.  I know all you other husbands out there know exactly what I’m talking about. 

Harrison has strep throat, so I spent the afternoon at home with the kids.  I have some deadlines coming up at work, so I still tried to get some work done.  Ever try to telecommute with 3 kids at home, including a 3 month old baby?  Actually I didn’t do too bad.  The boys kept pretty busy playing (I know Harry’s pretty sick, right), and Jillian is pretty happy as long as she keeps bouncing.

At one point the kids decided they were going to “box”… you know fisticuffs!  So they went to their bedroom to get shorts, took off their shirts and started punching each other.  Aren’t boys FUN!  Anyway, this ended in the inevitable, Isaiah got a knock down and Harrison started bawling.  So, I stepped in and put an end to the Boxing.  Why did I let it get that far, you might ask.  Well, morbid curiosity. 

Whenever Jillian gets a little cranky, I’ll take off all her clothes and she cheers right up - she loves to be naked.  This makes perfect sense to me.  I have the same reaction when her mom gets naked.

Later in the evening I made dinner, and told the kids to come up and eat (they were watching TV in the basement).  They came right up without complaining?  I know, weird.  After dinner they were watching TV again, and I told them to shut off the TV when the show was over, clean up the basement, the family room and the living room, and put on their Jammies.  When the show was over, that’s exactly what they did, again without any complaint.  I know, now it’s just getting scary.  Isaiah asked if they could stay up later if they got everything done fast.  So, I said sure.  It was amazing, the worked together and everything.  So I then I said they had to turn off the TV and go to bed after Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! (about 8:30).  So I came in from doing something outside at about 8:30, and the TV was off, the lights were off, and the boys were already upstairs in their bedroom.  I know, now it’s just getting creepy… My kids are possessed… by Good spirits.  I can’t explain it.

Now it’s Daddy’s turn to imbibe some spirits! 

Day 6 started at 7:22 – I know amazing isn’t it.  Jillian stayed up late last night so she let us all sleep in a bit.  Everyone took their time getting dressed and eating breakfast.  We had a laid back morning with no need to rush off to anywhere.

Meredith was home around 4:30 when I got back from picking up the kids.  Everyone was excited to see Mom again.

We made it through 6 whole days without getting terribly injured, without starving, without going insane, and without Mom!  How did we do it?  With the closing of our adventure, I thought I would leave you with the top 10 things that got me through the week.

10.  Blogging – writing in my blog and reading your responses has been therapeutic
9.  Laughter – having a sense of humour helps to put it all in perspective
8.  Vacation – having a few days off really helped me keep my sanity
7.  Netflix – the boys watched Scooby Doo and Thomas the Train online
6.  Lunchables – much more efficient than making lunch
5.  Evil Dad – I only used it once, but it was enough
4.  Sleep – Jillian slept through the night every night, that really made a difference
3.  Formula – a bottle right before bed helped Jillian sleep through the night
2.  Beer – a bottle right before bed helped Dad sleep through the night

And the number one thing that got me through the weekend…
1.  The Kids – they were great all week!

Day 5 started at 5:22 – another two minutes!  This morning I accomplished a feat not soon to be repeated.  I got all the kids up, dressed, fed, and made it to Heart of a Child at exactly 8:00, though I still had on the same pair of underwear I was wearing the day before.  8:00 was a very important time, because that’s when the bus left to go on the field trip to The Little Farmer.  Sure enough, when we got to Heart of  Child, there was the bus, and everyone was getting on board.  When informed of this Isaiah asked in consternation, “Dad, why are you so slow?”  To which I responded with fits of laughter.

Of course Jillian didn’t go on the field trip, but she wasn’t sad.  She got to spend the day taking endless rides in her favorite swing and getting a spa treatment.  Lately Jillian has had some major cradle cap.  Her head was so scaly, she was starting to look like a lizard.  So, I have to give kudos to Ms. Wendy at Heart of a Child for clearing it up with a two day spa treatment that must have included steel wool. 

After dinner, I was flipping through the channels on TV, when Isaiah blurted out “hey a corvette!”  Sure enough, their was a show on the National Geographic channel about how corvette’s are manufactured.  The boys thought that was pretty cool, so we watched it.  Afterword, Isaiah noted “when I grow up, I want to make corvettes.” 

Tonight after putting Jillian down for one of her cat naps, I went to tuck in Harrison (Isaiah was fast asleep).  When I laid down next to him, he casually noted that “Wally has a laser.”  Wally…?  Who’s this Wally, and what does he dowith his laser?  So, I asked “who’s Wally?”  Harrison looked at me incredulously, and replied “Wally!” with a tone that insinuated I was an idiot for not knowing who Wally was.  Then he went on to say that “Eve has a gun.  Eve is a girl.  She has blue eyes.”  I was confused and concerned.  It sounded like Bonnie and Clyde reincarnate.  But then it occurred to me.  He was talking about WALL-E. 

Jillian burps like a man!  Meredith should be proud.

We all miss Mommy, especially me.  We can’t wait to see her when she comes home tomorrow. 

Well I made it through day 4, but I’m starting to feel the effects – I’m exhausted.  In fact, I fell asleep as I was typing this blog.  I did get another 20 minutes out of Jillian though, starting my day at 5:20.  What I remember of the morning was uneventful, but my days are starting to be a blur. 

I went to Isaiah’s school to see the Halloween parade around 10:30.  Isaiah went dressed as Optimus Prime.  When I got their each student was being called up to the front of class show their costume.  Their teacher, Mrs Terrill would ask, “do you want to tell us anything about your costume?”  At which point, most kids would cast a mortified look at their riveted classmates, shake their head no in earnest, and quickly sit back down.  Now Isaiah on the other hand, proceeded to tell the class that he was “enemies with Chevy.  He’s dressed like Megatron, and I’m dressed like Optimus Prime.  He’s the bad guy, and I’m the leader of the good guys.”  Note the emphasis on leader, that’s our Isaiah, he likes to be in charge.  And, yes there is a boy in his classed named Chevy.    The Halloween parade was cute.  It was fun to see all the kids in their costumes.

Isaiah had a half day of school, and I took off work.  So I picked him up at 1pm.  We played baseball in the backyard for a while.  I even got to bat for a while.  Isaiah’s ball control is really getting better.  In fact, he throws equally well with either hand.  Fascinating!  After baseball, Isaiah helped me rake leaves.  Or rather, I repeatedly covered him in leaves.  At first, he was a vampire rising from the grave, but then it turned into a pool, then a mud pit, and finally a tar pit.  No one will ever say our kids lack imagination.

Jillian is getting more interactive every day.  It’s great to make eye contact with her and watch her break into that toothless, open mouth grin, with milk-drool running down her chin.  When she was only days old I would try to make eye contact with her and then stick out my tongue.  Of course their was no reaction.  However, when she sees me now, she sticks out her tongue.  I’m not sure if it is just a quirky coincidence, or if we are communicating on some primordial level.

Harrison has one level… High Intensity!  He’ll be the first one to break  some major bone.