Getting Fixed

I worked from home yesterday and completed two fairly major repairs.  One was to replace the window regulator in the left door of the Civic.  Now the window actually cranks up and down!  The other was to fix the Wii.  One guess as to which repair was more popular in our house.

I tested the Wii with Noah just before he went to bed.  He was furious that we didn't play more.  We did bowl a game and we played 3 holes of golf, but he wanted to do the training mode.  In fact, the first thing he said to Amanda this morning when she came into his room was, "Can we play Wii training?"  She told him that "good morning" would have been more appropriate.

I'm glad to have this repair behind us, though there is a part of me that keeps waiting for the disc read error to reappear.  Here's hoping that we enjoy several years of play out of our Wii.

Dates

We had a relatively nice morning for late August yesterday, so we went out as a family for a hike at Umstead Park.  It was a nice walk in the woods to a really beautiful spot.  Lily was complaining a lot when we finished, so we went over to Lake Crabtree and got a boat for an hour.  We rowed around the lake a bit and then came home for lunch.

Lily was not a big fan of the rowboat.  We had her sit in the bow and she was pretty nervous as the boat rocked.  She also didn't like the sound of the clamps for the oars squeaking as we rowed.  It was too bad as it was a great day for it, though a bit hot.  She also complained that we only do what the adults want to do.  I asked her what she wanted to do that afternoon.

I ended up taking her to Chuck E. Cheese.  I spent $5 on tokens and she had a ball.  She doesn't really like playing the games of skill, but she really enjoys playing what is basically like a slot machine.  There is a big wheel with lights that go around it.  You pull a level to start the lights.  You hit a big red button to stop the lights and wherever they stop determines how many tickets you get.  If you time it just right you can get 250 tickets, but if you just miss you only get 2.  She got 2 quite a lot, but had fun doing it.  It's funny to see how miserly she is with the tokens.  She hates spending tokens on anything that will not give her tickets.

It's good to see that she is learning thrift.  Being responsible for your own resources will tend to do that.

Lazy Daze

I took the kids to Lazy Daze yesterday.  This is Cary's annual art festival.  I'm not sure where someone got the the idea to have an outdoor art festival in late August, but that's the tradition and it is a big deal in these parts.  The weather was less oppressively hot than usual, but it was still hot even in the morning.  The whole point was so that Lily could try a funnel cake.  We split it three ways.  She enjoyed it, but hopefully we won't have to get another one anytime soon.

We saw a great magician in the kids' booth.  Noah didn't like it very well, but he was getting hot and antsy.  We met a town councilman who is running for NC House and we visited the booth of another.  It was nice to talk to some candidates I support.  Somehow it feels a bit more "real" at the local level like that.  Lily and Noah were happy to get balloons and Lily enjoyed the fan we got.  Every year the various candidates pass out fans with their campaign logo on them.  Good plan for a hot day, I say.

We came home, had a small lunch, and then Noah took a nap while I did some work on my thesis.  We went to church and then attended a surprise party for one of Amanda's good friends.  There were a lot of kids there and Lily had fun in the pool.  Noah had fun playing with my iPod Touch.  It was another late night for the kids though as they were not in bed until 9:00.  Lily slept in a little bit this morning and Noah is still sleeping.

Hopefully we can take advantage of the slightly cooler weather today and do something fun outside.

Convocation

Last night was my seminary's fall convocation.  We have one of these at the beginning of each semester to get together and kick things off.  Amanda had a prior commitment, so I had to take the kids.  They had childcare for kids up to 5, which meant that Lily had to be with me.

I managed to sell the event to her pretty well.  I told her that she could get dressed up, which she did.  Amanda did her hair with a braid on one side and it looked very cute.  She enjoyed the food we had for dinner and the dessert was incredible.  Then she helped me pass out programs for the service.  We sat down in front because as the student council president I had to give a brief welcome to the students.  She was excited that I was going to speak, but I think the anticipation was better than the event.

The only problem was that the service took about 90 minutes between the singing, the updates on how the seminary is doing, introductions of faculty, and then the fairly brief message our guest speaker gave us.  Lily played games on my iPod Touch, which was OK except that she periodically let out a little noise when she would lose a game of Connect Four.  Overall, she did well.

Meanwhile, Noah did his regular act of crying when getting dropped off, but he settled down and had fun.  He said that he bowled.  I don't know if there were actual bowling pins or if he made something up.  If it can stand vertically it can be a bowling pin to Noah.  Either way, he had a good time.  The kids didn't get to bed until around 9:30 and are still in bed now.

Today should be a very busy one for us, but it will be filled with fun things.  More on that tomorrow.

First Day Photos

Here are a few pics from Lily's first day of school. We hear that it went well. She likes her teacher. The only problem now is that she doesn't have any of her old friends in her class, but she will certainly make some. She always does.

Last Day

Today is the last day of summer vacation.  Sadly, it is an overcast and rainy one.  I am glad that I can work from home today as there was enough rain this morning to cause the NWS to issue flash flood advisories.  When it rains like this I'm glad that we live on such a steep hill, though we do lose a little bit of back yard every time too.

Amanda made some pancakes this morning so that there would be leftovers for tomorrow.  Although the details are yet undefined, they will do some fun things today.  They started the morning by reading more of Heidi in bed.  After all, today is the last one of unfettered leisure for a while.

I, on the other hand, have my first day of class this evening.  The class should be fairly easy and I am not too concerned.  It just means the beginning of yet another semester and the pressures that go along with it.  But with only one class night this semester it should be better than most.

Back Home

We made it home yesterday with very little incident other than some construction west of Winston-Salem.  We started the day with another outstanding breakfast.  After checking out we headed over to Fontana Dam.  It was pretty neat to see this engineering marvel of the TVA.  The lake was gorgeous and we enjoyed a pleasant walk back and forth across the dam.  Unfortunately they were not letting much water through at the time as I understand it can be quite spectacular when they do.

The kids met us outside when we arrived at the McKenzies'.  Word is that they had a good time and were reasonably well-behaved.  I guess that's about all we can ask for.

Today will be a catch-up day for Amanda as she gets back into the groove.  It's hard to believe that second grade starts on Wednesday, but it is fast-approaching!  At least Labor Day is later this year so she doesn't have three days of school and then a holiday.  Noah starts the Tuesday after Labor Day.

Falling Water

Yesterday was all about falling water.  One of the main reasons we come out this way is to see waterfalls.  We were very successful with that on Friday in seeing the three that are very close to where we're staying.  Since the weather looked a little iffy for tubing we chose to venture out to see some of the best waterfalls out this way.

We started with a trip out to Whitewater Falls.  I was rather proud of myself for getting there without having Amanda obsessively check the map.  The problem was that it was raining when we arrived.  We hung out in the car for a while, but we eventually decided to just go out and see the falls.  It alternated between light drizzle and fairly heavy rain.  Amanda took an umbrella and I had a hat.  The falls were completely worth seeing, but we didn't go down to the river or do the short hike to another waterfall because we knew that the trail would be fairly treacherous.

We were going to try to see Rainbow Falls, but that involved a 3-mile round-trip hike.  That would not normally be a big deal, but it didn't sound like much fun in the rain.  We skipped that and went past Bridal Veil Falls (driving behind it, of course) to Dry Falls.

We ended up waiting in the car for quite a while as the skies had completely opened up.  Think Caddyshack when Carl Spackler caddies for the bishop, except we didn't have as much thunder and lightning.  We did have a little bit of it, but nothing too scary.  We ate our picnic lunch in the car and waited some more.  I had enough coverage on my blackberry to see that the storm was in no hurry to pass through, so we just went for it.

I was completely drenched in about 30 seconds.  We got bonus waterfalls as we watched water stream down the steps and out of the side of the hill.  We also got a bonus in that the flow over Dry Falls was quite spectacular.  I was raised on Niagara Falls, so my image of a waterfall is a LOT of water going over the cliff.  Here the waterfalls tend to be more broken up with less water, but very pretty in a different way.  Dry Falls kind of gave us the best of both worlds.  Despite the description you read in the link, we actually were much drier behind the falls because we were shielded from the rain.  We stayed for a few minutes, but left when we were getting cold.  It was strange to be cold on August 21 in North Carolina, but we were.

We finished the evening with a very nice dinner.  Overall, it was a good day, though the weather was not ideal.  Today is not shaping up to be much better, but it should not hinder our drive home.

On the Lake

We made it to the mountains safely after an uneventful trip.  The B&B where we're staying is quite nice and we like our room.  We hiked a little bit in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and saw three waterfalls.  It's nice when you don't have to hike for hours to get to them.  We also scouted out the tubing options, of which we may avail ourselves today.

The highlight of the day was our kayaking trip on Fontana Lake.  This is a lake courtesy of the TVA and Fontana Dam.  The water levels are a bit lower than normal because of extra demand for electricity as well as the need to fill downstream rivers.  Nevertheless, there was plenty of water for us.  We decided that we like the kayaks.  We had an older guide named "Sarge" who was of course extremely friendly and helpful.  It was also nice that it was just the three of us rather than a big group.

The weather today is a bit foreboding, so we are going to have to play it by ear or just take a chance.  No matter what, we have reservations for a nice dinner tonight.  And there are worse things than being stuck in a nice B&B.

Open House

Yesterday was an open house at Lily's school and she got to meet her teacher.  We think that we're going to like Mrs. Slocum.  The big science project this year is that they are going to get a butterfly chrysalis.  Mrs. Slocum made the point yesterday that second grade is kind of like a chrysalis year for the kids because as their reading improves they just grow tremendously.  It's nice that Lily has an experienced teacher again this year.  We really liked Mrs. Turner.

Lily is a little bit sad because none of her close friends are in her class.  She only knows one girl and they are not particularly close.  They don't dislike each other, but they aren't particularly friends.  We keep trying to reassure her that she will make new friends.  I can't understand where Lily gets this fear of the unknown from...

Being a Kid

Amanda took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese yesterday.  They met Aunt Tiff and Brenna for some pizza and games.  Lily was a bit reluctant to play the games because of her fear of not doing them well.  She did eventually do them though.  She was more interested in games of chance.  I wonder where she learned that?

Noah loved the games, as you might imagine.  They have Whack-a-Mole for toddlers and he enjoyed that.  He really wanted to play Skee Ball, but he just isn't strong enough to get the ball up into the rings.  Amanda had to help him. He managed to get a few lollipops as prizes and Lily got some little things as well.  Lily enjoyed it so much she wants to go there as a date sometime.  I can do that.

Here are a few photos from Tuesday's shoot at North Cary Park.  We have a bunch more, but these are three of the highlights.  Enjoy!

New Smile

Lily has a new smile, as you can see here:



She was wiggling the tooth at the pool yesterday and it eventually stuck out at nearly a right angle.  Amanda pulled it out for her.  The tooth fairy is getting the hand of the creaky floor in Lily's room and should only get better with time.  I imagine that Lily will be happy this morning.

I would not be surprised if she was singing, "All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth" this year.

An Old Pasttime

Our DVD player is in its death throes, so we've been using the old PS2 to watch DVDs.  That means it is in the living room.  Over the weekend I got a binder for DVDs and put all my PS2 discs in it.  That means that my entire game library is at our fingertips in the living room.  And to Lily that means LEGO Star Wars.

Lily really enjoys the LEGO games, as any longtime reader of this blog will know.  She can do most of the episodes by herself, but there are still some challenges.  Today I found her crying and stomping her feet because she couldn't get past something.  It was driving her crazy.  The poor thing has got to learn how to bridle the temper, but now is the time to do it.  Better now than later in life!

The good news is that she and Noah are having fun with the old PS2 while we wait for the return of the Wii.  I look forward to playing a lot of those games with them.  Noah can even kind of play Burnout already.  He's way ahead of where she was at his age.  He's got good gaming genes.

Back Home

Amanda came home safely last night from her quick mountain retreat.  She had a great time with friends, both old and new ones.  It was good for her to get out of the grind for a weekend.

Meanwhile, we had a pretty good time here.  I cleaned some of the rugs on Saturday and did a couple of other little chores.  We went to church and came home for Lily's favorite meal - slow cooker risotto.  Yesterday we went out bowling in the afternoon.  Noah didn't do so well at bowling and at some of the stores we went to.  He's right on the bubble with naps.  He doesn't absolutely need one and when he does get one he can't go to sleep at night.  But sometimes he has some behavior problems when he doesn't get one.  Yesterday was one of those days.  We made it through though.

It's good to have Amanda home.  I hear Lily using the bathroom now.  I think she's particularly excited.  I'm just proud of the fact that her hair was brushed every time we went out of the house.  That's a big step up for me.

First Evening

Amanda had a whirlwind day yesterday.  She spent the day preparing for a trip and then took that trip late in the evening.  Before she could travel she had to speak on a panel at our church's "Girls' Night Out."  The trip was to Blowing Rock.  I'd like to hear how the trip went, but I don't dare call her.  I suspect that she got in some time after midnight.  She is in Blowing Rock because a friend invited her to join a birthday celebration.  I expect her back late Sunday evening.

So while Amanda hangs out with her pals the kids and I are making the best of it here.  We had what is becoming our typical Friday night.  We went bowling, to Chick-Fil-A, to Marmalade Skies, to Play-N-Trade, and for something new we also went to Target to pick up a few things.  My plan is for today to be a mixture of fun and chores.  There are a couple of things I'd like to get done around the house as a surprise for Amanda when she gets back.  We'll see how it goes.

Tale of the Tape

Noah had his well-child visit today.  He is 37 3/4 inches tall and weighs 34 pounds.  I'm not sure what his reach is as they didn't record that for us.

He is perfectly healthy.  He saw Dr. Adams, who may be the most laid-back pediatrician in the world, though I don't think he is related to Michael McKean.  It's probably a bit of an exaggeration when he describes our children as "perfect," but he does suit our style.  He was impressed when Noah did his vision test.  They don't have letters for the little guys and gals, so they have shapes.    Noah was supposed to identify a house, but when asked what he saw he said, "a PENTAGON!"  Dr. Adams asked Lily if she taught him that and she said that she didn't, but she taught him what a rhombus is.

Meanwhile, Lily is about to lose one of her front teeth.  It wiggles sideways a little and it will also go forward nicely.  When she smiles she has a distinctly redneck look about her.  I would be surprised if she still has it on Monday.

Quiet Night

Amanda had a meeting at church last night, so I stayed in with the kids.  I was thinking about taking them bowling, but with all the hustle and bustle of Tuesday night I decided it was better to stay in.  I ate some leftover homemade pizza from Monday evening and the kids had mac & cheese.  It warms my heart to see how much they like it, particularly Noah.  When I was little I could never decide if I that or pizza was my favorite food.

I did do a little parental cheating.  Noah played games on my iPod Touch for about 45 minutes and Lily caught up on her episodes of the Backyardigans on the Roku.  Noah went down fighting when I took the iPod Touch away and I have to remember that I told him no games tonight because of how he reacted.  Lily took a bath and went down peacefully.  I then settled into getting the formatting right for a paper I need to turn in.  It's a little frustrating to spend 5-6 hours writing and then have to spend another 1-2 hours getting the spacing just right.  I guess I shouldn't complain too much because it's a little easier to do this with Word than it would be with a typewriter.

Overall, it was a pretty uneventful evening.  The day was a little more busy as Amanda took our kids and Brenna on a picnic.  Today will be even busier with the final swim lesson in the morning, Noah's 3-year checkup at 2:00, and Lily's dance class at 3:00.  I will post an update on Noah tomorrow.

Errands

We had Brenna spend the night last night.  Tiffany had to get some work done in the afternoon, so Amanda just offered to keep her overnight.  They had fun in the afternoon and we had a nice dinner together, though the girls missed out on a lovely treat because they refused to finish their vegetables.  More chocolate and peanut butter for us!

Amanda had a few errands to run as did I, so we split up.  I took the kids to Lowes so I could get the parts for some workout gear I wanted to make.  They behaved really well considering that it had to be pretty boring for them.  Noah is happy as long as he is in a racecar cart.

I wish I could say that everyone settled down immediately to sleep, but of course that didn't happen.  Nevertheless, it was a pretty good evening.  Yesterday Amanda and our kids met Tiffany and Brenna at the planetarium in Chapel Hill.  They saw a pretty neat show, though Noah was a little scared.  Today should be Lily's swim lesson and then a dollar movie.  We are now officially 14 days from the start of second grade!

Our Little Dolphin

Lily has three more days of swim lessons, including today.  Yesterday she started learning the backstroke.  Apparently she's doing pretty well, but she doesn't quite understand about cupping her hand to scoop the water under her.  She's just kind of doing a reverse pinwheel.  The good news is that she is doing it.

Amanda and the kids spent the afternoon at Aunt Tiff's pool.  This is good because it gave Lily a chance to practice her strokes, besides it just being a great day for the pool (the high was around 99).  I don't think we're quite ready to throw her into the deep end of the pool, but she is making great progress.

Date Day

I took Lily out for something of a daddy-daughter date yesterday.  We left around 1:00 and did not get back until 4:00.  The highlights were shopping for a new leotard and getting yogurt at Marmalade Skies.  We also had fun at a local used book store.  I had wanted to check the store out for a while and it seemed like a good opportunity.  Lily had fun reading while I browsed.  It's great that she can actually read now.

This was not Lily's first choice of how to spend the afternoon, but she went along with it.  She is very much interested in what is in it for her.  Her dream date right now is to go to a Bulls' game.  It's not that she wants to see the game, but she wants to get a funnel cake.  She heard about her cousin Brenna having a funnel cake at a game she went to with her dad and now Lily wants to try one.  I've promised her one when we go to Lazy Daze.    She does not want to wait three weeks.

Anyone in the Triangle know where one can get a funnel cake besides the Fair or some other festival?

Helpers

Amanda was fighting a summer cold yesterday and was kind of down for the count.  Fortunately, I worked from home and was able to take the kids out pretty early.  We left the house at 4:30 for a fun-filled evening.  First, we went bowling.  Lily got pretty down about it until she had a spare in the 9th frame of the last game.  Noah still beat her, but then again he did have my help.  I had a few doubles through the course of the two games, so that made me happy.

Next, we ate at Chick-Fil-A, which as anyone knows is practically like tithing.  The kids were a little disappointed that they couldn't play in the playground, but we were just getting started.  We next went to Marmalade Skies for yogurt.  Then the fun really began because we went to the library for me to do some research for my thesis.  Overall, that went well though Lily got into some trouble when she punched Noah over a game of tic-tac-toe.  It seems that he was not playing well and was messing up her stats against the computer on my iPod Touch.

We got home around 8:30 and everyone went to bed.  Today I plan a trip up to Wake Forest to use the big library.  Lily may or may not join me.

Forced Withdrawl

Sadly, our Wii is out for repairs.  Apparently it's fairly common for them to have problems reading discs after a while.  That's what we're seeing with ours, so I sent in to Nintendo for repair.  Others who have had the same problem say that it will be back in a week or so and good as new.  It's a little frustrating, but these are the risks you take with buying something off of craigslist.  Even with the cost of the repair we're still way ahead on the deal with all that came with the Wii.

Noah doesn't necessarily see things the same way.  This morning he asked me if I fixed the batteries in the Wii remote controls last night.  He remembers when we couldn't play the Wii because I had to recharge the batteries.  I explained that the Wii is gone for now.  I think it's slowly sinking in.

It is becoming clear that we are going to have to ration exposure to the Wii like we do with videos.  I can't imagine where my son got such an addictive personality for video games.

Snoopy's Book

It was a dark and stormy night.  A little after 1:00 AM everyone awoke to a very loud clap of thunder.  I heard a little cry and immediately got out of bed.  I met Lily in the hall and told her that she could join us.  Then I heard Noah cry, so I went to see how he was doing.  I took him to the potty and then put him back to bed.  What I find amazing about him is that I could just give him some reassurances and he went back to sleep.

Fortunately, I had my iPod Touch on my nightstand and was able to look at the radar.  The storm was on its way through, so I sent Lily to bed after she snuggled with Amanda for a few minutes.  She was still a little nervous, but she apparently got back to sleep.

I paid for this in the morning.  I didn't get out of bed in time to take my normal Thursday run, but I did manage a walk around the neighborhood.  I would not have been the least surprised to find a tree split in two by lightning based on the noise that we heard last night.  I didn't see any of that, but we certainly had some fairly close lightning strikes.

We enjoy a good thunderstorm from time to time.  In fact, that was one of the things we missed when we lived in California.  However, we don't particularly care for them in the middle of the night.  It's a small price to pay for the mild winters we enjoy here in the South though.

Trouble

Bedtime has been shifting here over the last few months.  I typically put Noah to bed and we play a game on the iPod Touch (or iTod Poch as he says it).  Meanwhile, Lily and Amanda play "sissies" where Lily pretends to be Amanda's older sister.  They snuggle in bed.  Sometimes Lily plays the thunderstorm sound on our alarm clock and "comforts" Amanda.  Amanda reads Lily a chapter from a book (lately it's been Heidi) and then Amanda reads Lily her Bible story and puts her to bed.  Meanwhile, I go downstairs and start working on homework or whatever else it is I have to do.

This is not bad, but I have come to realize that we are starting to hit that spot where Lily would much rather spend time with Amanda than me.  This is good and natural, but it's something I need to fight a little bit.  When Noah was younger it was just Lily and me in the evenings.  Now Noah stays up later and I feel like I'm losing that connection to her.  Given what tends to happen to girls who don't have a good relationship with their dads, I don't want to have that happen.

Amanda and I talked about this and instead of them playing sissies we played a game of Trouble last night.  It was a good game and Lily won, which is always good for her.  She and Amanda kind of teamed up on me, but that was OK.  The important thing is that we got to do something together.  My next step is to talk to her about going out on a date of some kind.  I need to date both of my girls.  I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

More Lessons

Lily has started another round of swim lessons this week.  She has class from 9:00 - 9:30 Monday-Thursday this week and next.  We were going to have her go to Meredith College, but they aren't doing the swim classes this summer because of budget cutbacks.  She's taking them in Morrisville instead.  Yesterday went well.  She is one of the younger kids in the class, but Amanda said that she is not the most nervous, for whatever that is worth.  Apparently there are a couple of boys who could probably be in the next level, but are there likely due to nervous moms.

Lily enjoyed the first class.  She likes her instructor.  We're excited that she is starting to learn some strokes.  She will get to show off her stuff later today when they go to Aunt Tiff's pool.  It's great to see her getting more confident in the water.

Long Evening

Yesterday was not the best day for the Chamberlains.  All of us except Noah were a little stuffy.  We think it may be from cleaning out the garage on Saturday where we kicked up some ancient dust.  At any rate, I felt a little off, Lily was stuffy and coughing, and Amanda had a sinus headache.  Amanda had a commitment to watch our 4 month-old nephew, so that left me with the kids.  No problem.

I made what is usually a very safe dinner in hot dogs and mac & cheese.  Noah was thrilled.  Lily took one bite of her mac & cheese and spit the noodles out because it was "too dry."  When she wouldn't settle down she got sent to her room for the night.  I knew she wasn't feeling well, but that was no excuse to behave like that.  We had a talk about it later.  What I found encouraging is that when Lily gets a timeout in her room she reads her Bible.  I told her that she should read her Bible when she's not feeling well, so apparently she's taking the idea to heart.

To pick up some news from previous weeks, I am glad to report that Lily's fish is doing really well.  We cleaned out the bowl last night and found that Isabella had covered the surface of the water with a bubble nest.  Keep in mind that Isabella is really a male fish.

Houseguest

We're enjoying the company of a young man named Nathan.  Amanda has a friend from church who is in the process of a big move and she needed a place for her son to spend the night last night.  He is a little bit older than Lily, though not much.  He has been a perfect gentleman.  Amanda was impressed that he got the door for her when they left the Fun Zone at church yesterday.  His manners have been impeccable too.

What amazes me is that he has been fine through this whole process even though he just met us yesterday.  I can't imagine how Lily would be.  It wouldn't be pretty, that's for sure.  But I understand that boys are a little different too.

Yesterday we picked him up, took him to church, then we had dinner at Chick-Fil-A.  We then went out for dessert at a new frozen yogurt place near church.  This frozen yogurt place may very well become my preferred place for dessert.  A self-serve sundae bar is like my dream come true.

His parents are coming for him a little bit after lunchtime.  I think we're going to miss him.  Noah certainly will.  Nathan is sleeping in Noah's top bunk.  Noah really wanted to sleep in the same room, but was so excited he couldn't stop talking.  Noah is sleeping on his little mat in Lily's room instead.