Making the Call

Lily has a Fisher-Price karaoke kit. Apparently today she figured out how to work it. She didn't have a tape in it, but she just wanted to amplify her voice. Amanda tells me that the first thing she did was baseball play-by-play. Apparently there was a home run hit "way back!"

You Indians fans out there should get that one.

Spring Daze

We went to the annual Spring Daze arts festival this morning. The weather was nearly perfect for it. Lily finally found something to use her allowance on. She is now the proud owner of a pink pearl bead necklace. It looks great with most of her outfits. Hopefully she will consider it $5 well-spent. She also got a little taste of how money works when she wanted to buy something else later, but discovered that she didn't have enough money.

Overall, it's been a pretty low-key day. We're supposed to have some thunderstorms tonight, which would be good. We still have not turned the A/C on yet and we're fighting it all the way.

School is Coming!

Well, it's going for me, but it's coming for our little Peanut. Actually, Lily has announced that she doesn't like that name anymore. Too bad as I will likely keep calling her that for a while. I think that is the kind of thing that daddies of little girls get to do, right?

As I type this, Noah is napping in his crib (which is a dynamic experience now that you don't know where he'll be when you go to get him) while Amanda and Lily are at kindergarten orientation at Lily's school.

Lily is very excited about kindergarten now and we are sure that she will make friends quickly. She doesn't seem to have a problem with that. We are both glad that Lily will have something to do all day and it won't cost us a dime beyond what we already pay in property taxes. However, it is a little tough to watch our little Peanut turn into a big girl.

On a side note, I have to admit that I have a hard time with the end of "Little Mermaid." Something about Ariel's dad being willing to give her legs and know that she cannot ever visit again really chokes me up. I keep telling Lily that would be very, very hard for a daddy to do.

Update

I have been very busy this week with work and school, so please forgive the lack of posts. Fortunately school is winding up. All I really have left to do is prepare for a final next Thursday and I'm done for a couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to a short break and then the beach.

Things have been pretty good with the kids. Yesterday Lily had a picnic with Ruby from dance class. Amanda was really honored that someone said that Lily was a child that she wanted her daughter to play with and that is how the picnic got set up. I guess that there were some small fights as they are both bossy older sisters, but overall it was a good picnic. We had some passing storms yesterday and Amanda said that they got in the car just as it started pouring. Good timing!

I took Noah to Sam's Club on Tuesday, which was an adventure because of storms on Tuesday too. It wasn't raining much when we left, but it was coming down pretty good when we got there. I brought a hand towel to dry off the basket on the cart for him and I ended up putting it over his head for the walk to the car. He seemed to like having the towel on his head.

He has been chewing on stuff and drooling like crazy. Amanda keeps feeling around, but can't find a tooth coming in. I figure there has to be one on its way.

Overall, life is good right now.

What's So Funny?

Amanda captured this today. Forgive the distortion as I had to rotate it 90 degrees.

He could be laughing because we're back to the normal number of people sleeping at our house. I don't think that was it though because it was quite fun to have the McKenzies sojourn here. Apart from a couple of incidents with Brenna they were very easy guests. Their new house is very nice and we look forward to visiting them only 15 minutes away instead of 45.

Air Show

Uncle Bill and I took Lily to Wilmington for the air show on Saturday. She really didn't have that great of a time, but at least it was a nice day. Her favorite act was the woman who walked on the wing of a biplane. She really liked it when we walked over to see the plane with the pole attached to the top wing. She also enjoyed seeing the pilots for the Thunderbirds (or Thunderstorm-birds as she said once) get into their airplanes. In the end she had a hard time naming three things she really liked about the show. However, I still think it was a good day overall, except for the hour it took us to move 50 feet in the parking lot.

Here is a photo Uncle Bill took of us. As you can see, it was quite windy. It was so windy, in fact, that the Golden Knights couldn't perform.

I'm Dreaming...

...of a blog without toile.

Actually, I don't think he cares. As you can see, Amanda has been doing some tinkering. I hope that you like it. I am glad to have a blog that looks different than the basic template. I also apologize for not blogging more lately. It has been a very busy weekend. I'll write more about it later.

Surprising Furlough

My Greek class only has five members on a good day, but today we had two of them at a conference and one surprisingly absent. That only left two of us, so we took the quiz and the professor sent us home. This meant that I got an extra two hours to play with, which was a happy surprise.

It was good to be home and put Lily to bed. She and Brenna liked dancing to the ESPN Jock Rock CD as well as to old reliable, The Nutcracker. Everyone is now tucked in bed.

It's nice not to have anything huge to report.

Daddy Time

We enjoyed the end of a nice warm spell yesterday. It was hot in the house on Friday, pleasant on Saturday, and it started getting cool yesterday. I figured that yesterday was my best chance to take Lily to a Bulls' game, so we went. It was warm, sunny, and breezy in Cary when we left. It was cool, gray, and windy in Durham when we arrived. Fortunately Lily had her sweater in the car.

It was a pretty good game overall, though there wasn't much scoring. Lily managed to make it through a couple of innings before she got really antsy. The main thing was that she ate her hot dog, so she got some cotton candy. Now we have a bag of cotton candy at the house that hopefully she and Brenna can polish off. I ate some and remembered why I don't like it very much anymore.

Earlier in the day I had some good bonding time with Noah. I took him for his first trip to the airport. We watched an American Airlines MD-80 take off and we also saw another plane land. He wasn't that interested, but that was what I expected. At least we're starting the airport bonding process. I also took him to Harris Teeter for some hunting and gathering. He has to learn about how the menfolk provide for the family.

Some Firsts

We have had some exciting firsts lately. We believe that Noah said his first official word. Thanks to much coaching from Amanda, his first word was "Mama". Tiffany confirmed that he said it when Amanda left him. I got "Dada" from Lily, so this is just fine with me.

Lily ate BBQ pork yesterday and today. I called it "sweet meat" and she loved it. It really was good and it really was kind of sweet, thanks to the sauce. She thinks that it is chicken. I haven't corrected her yet.

Lily rode her bike a couple of times without training wheels. Don't get too excited -- she did this with either Amanda or I walking behind her and holding both handles. This happened because apparently I didn't tighten one of the nuts enough and the wheel came off. Amanda took the other wheel off and Lily tried it. Apparently she wanted to show off a bit for Cooper and Michael. I have since put the wheels back on, but they are as high as they can go.

Lovely Day

We're enjoying some incredible weather today. Yesterday and today are welcome respites from the week of gloom we just finished. I realize that those in NE Ohio may not have much sympathy for us enduring 20% of what they did in January. Of course, we didn't have any snow or ice either.

At any rate, it is a lovely day for the kids to play outside. I'm taking a crack at making some homemade BBQ in the slow cooker. My recipe is a bottle of sauce, 3T of cider vinegar, and as much worscestershire sauce as we had left (a bit less than 1T). I'm slow cooking that with about 2 pounds of boneless pork tenderloin. We'll see how it goes.

I'm ready for the weekend.

Leaves of Grass

Things went fairly smoothly this morning at the Chamberlain household. Lily was ready for school, Noah had his morning constitutional, and Amanda had him fed with lots of time to get Lily to school on time. I asked Amanda where Lily was and she told me that she was outside yelling at birds and squirrels. Lily doesn't like them in our yard for some reason.

Things started to unravel when Amanda opened the door to discover that Lily had made piles of grass clippings on the porch and had her sandals covered in grass. We have had tons of rain and I wasn't able to mow the lawn until it was really long. That left some pretty good clippings and Lily decided to make piles of them. She has a thing about making piles.

Anyhow, Amanda was not amused. Hopefully the rest of the day will go more smoothly.

Cooper

Lily spent a lot of time with Cooper yesterday. When it's just the two of them they spend a lot of time just riding bikes around the cul-de-sac, which is fine by me. Sarah wanted Lily to keep playing when it was time for Lily to have dinner, so we told her that Lily could come back out if she ate a good meal. That seemed to motivate Lily to eat her Crock-Pot chicken, which is often a chore.

Lily played with the posse a little bit then came back in. She watched some more of "The Little Mermaid" and then Cooper came to call. It was just him and he wanted Lily to play with him. The scary thing is that earlier Lily had written "I Love Cooper" on her little ladybug magnetic writing pad.

Obviously this is all very cute when she is four. Amanda and I have been putting our heads together to figure out why Cooper wants to play with Lily. She certainly likes trying to boss him around. It's funny to see her get off her bike, put her hands on her hips, and then point and shout at him to do something or stop doing something. What's amazing is that he sometimes obeys!

One of these days Lily needs to learn to ask the two J questions of any suitor. Specifically, they are:

• Does he have a job?


• Does he love Jesus?

Sorry, Cooper.

Those Eyes

Noah gets a lot of comments when we're out in public. We are of course a bit biased, but we think he is up there on the baby cuteness scale. It seems that most of the comments center on his eyes. Noah has a very intense look about him. He gets locked in on things and just stares at them with those big brown eyes. He looks at people that way too, which is probably how he gets so many comments. I notice that when I get him out of his crib and carry him around the house he has a tendency to lean forward to get a better look at things. He loves to see what is going on.

Again, I know I'm biased, but it seems that Noah is very intent on taking things in. It would seem that he is as observant as Lily, but I suspect that he will be quieter about life. There is very little guessing about what is going on with Lily. Noah may prove to be a bit more enigmatic. Time will tell.

Home Safe

I made it back from my conference in South Carolina. It was a good time and I learned a few things that I think will help in both my ministry and as a father and husband. Amanda spent her time at the McKenzies, which was good.

I knew that I had to bring something home for Lily and Amanda suggested some sort of confection. We have enough stuffed animals and toys, so something edible made sense. I didn't really see anything ideal when I was in South Carolina, so I stopped at a Cracker Barrel on the way home. I got her some of the sticks of hard candy, which was obvious enough. While browsing my eye caught a retro treat -- pop rocks.

Lily enjoyed the pop rock experience so much that she had to run outside to tell Cooper about having pop rocks. We just have to make sure that she doesn't down a 6-pack of Pepsi too, right?

Day 3

We had a break from the rain today and Lily was able to play outside. I haven't had too many updates from the home front, so there isn't much to write. I am writing to let you know that there may not be any more updates until Saturday or Sunday. I am heading to a biblical counseling conference in Easley, SC tomorrow and will not be back until Saturday evening. Amanda will be staying at least one night at the McKenzies. I guess it will be quiet around our house for a change.

Day 2

In lieu of Bible study this week Amanda's friends gathered at someone's house down in "the Quay" as Fuquay-Varina is sometimes called here. It was more of an informal gathering. All the kids had fun playing together and the ladies wanted to hold Noah. He has that way with people.

Lily got to play with the neighborhood posse after the storms passed. She also got to spend some time jumping in puddles, which she loves. We've decided that Lily doesn't get any say at all in what she eats anymore. She is either going to eat or not eat what we put in front of her. That may sound obvious, but understand that we tried to give her choices only when we were having something she wouldn't like (i.e. Ethiopian food) or for breakfast. She was starting to pull a trick where she would change her mind mid-meal. She's not getting away with that anymore.

On a side note, Amanda now has a new surname. She claimed some previously unclaimed money from a retirement account in California. The highly detail-oriented clerk who wrote out the check typed:

A P CGANBERKAUB

I remember my typing teacher emphasizing the importance of having my fingers properly on home row. Now I see why!

I wonder if the person who typed this is any relation to Chief Wiggum?