Noah's Busy Weekend

Noah had himself quite a weekend. On Friday we did date nights. Lily and I tried the Doritos Locos Tacos while Amanda and Noah went to Pizza Hut. They went to YoLo, which is our closest frozen yogurt place. Everyone had a great time.

Saturday started with an 8:00 AM basketball game. Noah had easily his best game of the season. By my count, he had 12 points and 6 rebounds. He would have had 2 more, but his teammates' shots didn't touch any iron.

Amanda hosted a tea party for the ladies in our church's home fellowship, so Noah and I made ourselves scarce. We went to the cheap theater to see Wreck-It  Ralph, which was a lot of fun. We killed a little time afterwards at the game store, had dinner at Chick-fil-A, and then killed a few more minutes at Five Below. We then met his best friend and his dad to go to the Hurricanes game, which they won 6-2. It was fun to see them score 3 goals in the first 9:32 of the game. When asked later what his favorite thing was about the game he said that it was "getting ice cream."

Sunday was less remarkable, though he did enjoy joining Lily and me for a trip to the hardware store to get some paint samples. The local hardware store has free popcorn, so that was fun.

Unfortunately, it seems that the weekend caught up to him. Amanda discovered that he threw up next to his bed last night, though he doesn't remember it. He hasn't eaten this morning, but seems to be more or less OK. He has had to miss school, but I think he will be fine by tomorrow.

Fun Friday

Yesterday was a wonderful confluence of early release and beautiful weather. Unlike today when it has been in the high 30s and snowing, yesterday was in the low 60s and sunny. It worked out well because Lily finally got to enjoy her birthday present. Amanda bought a Groupon for horseback riding at a local farm and Lily went with her friend Grace. This is a photo of her upon her return.

Riding High

Amanda was a little nervous for the girls only because the group coming back had a nervous rider who fell off her horse. Lily and Grace did not have that problem and Pancho behaved wonderfully for Lily. She decided that she has developed a taste for horseback riding. To quote C-3PO, "we're doomed!" Speaking of C-3PO, we began a Star Wars marathon last night. Amanda had dinner plans with friends, so the kids and I watched Star Wars while eating pizza, popcorn, and cupcakes. It had been about a year since Noah saw Star Wars and it was time for a refresher. We watched The Empire Strikes Back today and I plan for us to watch Return of the Jedi on Monday since we are all off for Presidents' Day.

The day was also fun for Noah because he got to hang out at his friend Nathan's house during the day. It is great to see how well they play together. There is rarely any fighting and they just enjoy hanging out and doing boy stuff like shooting baskets on the inside Nerf hoop, playing outside, and playing Wii.

Obviously it won't be like this every time, but this was how to run an early release day. As Grandpa E used to like to quote, don't you just love it when a plan comes together?

International Night

Tonight was the second annual international night at Northwoods Elementary. We would not have gone, but Lily was in a play about the Trojan War. This was something she did in her AG (gifted) class and they decided to bring it out for international night. Forgive the choppiness, but I didn't realize that she was in back-to-back scenes.

Lily seems pretty natural playing Aphrodite, doesn't she? All the kids did a great job, particularly the young man who played Paris. 

After the play we were treated to some dancing. Lily's friend Adele from the bus stop did Irish dancing. It takes some courage to get up on that stage by yourself, but she did it and she did a great job. We got everyone clapping along with the music too. After that Noah and I ducked out to try playing some New Zealand dodge ball in the gym. It's always fun to talk to Coach Cuffe.

We hit the various tables where folks set up boards talking about their countries and we got to sample some food. I'd say personally the highlight was the homemade baklava. It was neat to learn a few things about the various countries. I also suggested to the Dominican Republic folks that under their country's exports they should add "shortstops."

I suspect that they will do this again next year. I really wanted to take the kids to chess night at the local game store instead, but I'm still glad that we went to this. 

Social Weekend

We just finished a very social weekend. It started on Friday with the Daddy-Daughter dance at Lily's dance studio. Lily and I started the evening with dinner at Firewurst, which we both enjoyed quite a bit. However, after dancing a while I started to regret the wasabi slaw. We did some line dances (Hokey Pokey, Electric Slide, Cha-Cha Slide), a little waltz, a little swing, and some popular songs. I got to learn some moves that Lily and her friends made up for the newer ones. I think Lily was surprised that I can move a little bit. We had a great time.

We started off Saturday with Noah's basketball game. It didn't start until 10:00, but we had to be there at 9:15 for team pictures. I gave the girls a break and they didn't arrive until just before the player introductions. Plus, they had to run an errand for a birthday party Lily was to attend on Sunday. Noah played much better. He pulled down two boards and brought the ball up the floor a couple of times. Unlike most 5 year-olds, he understands that he is supposed to pass when he gets in trouble. That was encouraging.

After basketball we went to Uncle Eric's birthday celebration lunch at a local restaurant. Right after that we stopped home to let out the dog and then met friends from our old church at the NC Museum of History. That was fun, but by the time we were done we were all very tired.

Sunday started off with church as usual. We came home, had a quick lunch, and then I took Lily to a birthday party. I was told that there would be a "fashion show" from 4:00-4:30 and the birthday girl's mom encouraged the other parents to attend. I told Amanda about it and she picked up Lily. There were a few snags though:

• The show didn't start until closer to 5:00
• It lasted about 45 minutes
• No other moms came

Nevertheless, Amanda survived and Lily had a great time. It was good that Lily went because apparently this girl likes Lily and it meant a lot for Lily to come (her mom's words). We wouldn't necessarily know that from the stories we've heard in third grade, but things can be complicated among 8-9 year-old girls. It encourages us that girls want to have Lily around. I think she is more popular than she thinks she is, but that is just fine.

This week is ramping up already with activities for me planned every evening. More to come later.

Long Night

We had a pretty rough one last night. It started at 9:45 when I got a page from work. Since I was not asleep that wasn't so bad, but it did keep me up a little bit later than I intended.

Then at around 1:00 or so we heard Noah crying. I ran to find him going to the bathroom to throw up. I got him cleaned up, calmed down, and back to bed. We heard him crying again around 2:30 and Amanda took that one. She brought him back to bed with us. Sleeping with him in the middle of the bed is not so great, but we managed. He woke up and threw up again around 5:00. Fortunately, he gave us some warning and I got him to the toilet. It breaks your heart when your little one asks, "Why can't I feel better?"

Noah is going to stay home from school today. I'm going to suggest bonus electronics to take his mind off his tummy. If that doesn't cheer him then he is really sick.

Raleigh Landmarks

Noah and I ran some errands after the ice melted. I wanted to check out a bookstore on Capital Blvd, so we went up that way and checked out that Sam's Club. It's always interesting to see a different Sam's and we enjoyed a few good samples.

After that we went to the Snoopy's Hot Dogs on Hillsborough St near downtown. When I saw that they were open until 3 AM on the weekends I realized that most folks get Snoopy's after a night on the town rather than as lunch with their 5 year-old son. Noah and I really enjoyed our dogs (brown, not red!) and sweet tea though.

I like taking Hillsborough St home and took the opportunity to check out the bowling alley across the street from NC State. They have managed to make retro very kitschy. The young man working at the counter told me that they like to tell people that they "get to keep score" rather than "have to keep score." I want to take Noah there one of these days so that he can see how it used to be. Plus, they have some good video games.

We hit the Indian grocery store to get some spices for a meal Amanda wants to make and then Aldi for our last stop. Being at the Indian grocery store is like stepping into another world for us. The music is in another language. I can't read some of the labels. Amanda sends me for a spice that I can say, but I have no idea what the packaging looks like. Last time I was proud of finding what we needed without having to ask, but I succumbed this week and asked a young man working the register. Visiting that store gets a little more expensive than it should be because I like to try stuff too. Noah got some date bars that were sort of like dry fig newtons, but with dates. Good stuff. I also like getting curried snacks.

As we were leaving Aldi I asked Noah if he wanted to take a nap when we came home. He said he didn't, but I said I did. It was a lot of stops, but it was also a lot of fun. I'm finding that Noah doesn't like to run errands anymore unless there is a treat involved. A few dogs and a cup of sweet tea is a small price to pay for his companionship.

Ice Storm

Unlike last week, we finally had a real winter weather event today. The kids went to bed on Thursday knowing that their school day would be 3 hours shorter, but they ended up getting dismissed 4 hours earlier than normal because the weather came in more quickly than expected. Basically, the county was trying to avoid what happened in 2005 when an inch of snow turned commutes across town into 8 hour drives.

I left the office at around 11:00 because we also were dismissed early. This was good because Amanda had lunch plans with a friend and I didn't want her to miss them. I waited in the freezing rain to pick the kids up at the bus stop, but by the time they arrived it had stopped. The kids and Oreo were glad for that. I got a fire going in the fireplace and got some work done while the kids hung our in their rooms.

The second wave hit around 2:00 with some legitimate ice. I had never seen a forecast for "ice pellets" until I moved to this area, but I certainly saw them. I salted the steps and driveway, but it was hard to stay on top of the ice because it came down so wet. As of right now we have about an 1/8 of an inch of ice on the driveway and on the road.

The only real negative to this is taking Oreo out. He doesn't mind the ice and in fact I think he kind of likes it. He keeps stopping because he wants to bite at frozen leaves, bits of dirt, and blades of grass. I'm not sure what we're going to do in the morning because walking on our road will be difficult with the ice. He may have to adapt to going in a different spot. The one thing for sure is that I am not going to have Lily walk the dog in the ice.

Noah's basketball has been canceled tomorrow. Unlike the locals, we did not manage to restock our milk before the storm hit, so we will have to improvise a bit at breakfast. If that last sentence doesn't make any sense then you've never lived in the South.