Maiden Voyages

We had two landmark events on Sunday. The weather was beautiful, so we took our leftover cheese and meat for another picnic.This time we went to Lake Johnson Park. We enjoyed our picnic, though Noah was extremely slow in eating his sandwich. While he finished I set up Amanda's inflatable kayak. She took Lily out for its maiden voyage. Lily was pretty scared at first, but she loosened up when Amanda took her back out. Meanwhile, Noah and I walked around. When they came back we all went out as a family. That was a good time.

On the way home we stopped at Target and picked up a bike helmet for Noah. We got him a bike for his birthday off of craigslist, but we decided to give it to him early. By the time we get to his birthday it is going to be hot and muggy. We figured that it made more sense to give it to him while the weather is nice. After a small adjustment of the training wheels so that the back wheel actually touched the ground he was able to figure it out. He now knows that he needs to get a little head start to get back up the hill on our cul-de-sac. He liked it so much that he wanted to go back out after dinner, and we had to explain that it was dark and he couldn't do it.

I'd say that these are two vehicular successes that will be used much in the coming months.

Two Photos

I hope to write more tomorrow if I can get myself out of bed. In the meantime, here are two cute photos.

The first is of Lily after she read all 50 of her Battle of the Books books.

This is Noah after falling asleep while playing Wii. You know he's tired when he falls asleep playing Wii.

Getting Bugged

Lily was up at 6:30 this morning because she saw a bug in her room. She happened to wake up and since she had turned on her night light she was able to see a bug on the wall. Amanda was up to do her exercise video and told Lily to go to our room to sleep. The weather has been warming up and we have spotted some tree roaches in the house already. I have not had a chance to spray yet. These things happen.

After I put Lily to bed I was sitting in the basement doing some homework when I heard the telltale sound of Lily's feet running through the main floor. I knew what was coming. She saw the bug again. I came up with her and grabbed a tissue ready to do battle with a big tree roach. After all, those things are quick and tough to kill without making a big splat.

Lily told me that the bug was still on the wall and it was behind a small wicker bookshelf she has. I was starting to plot my strategy because the last thing I wanted was for the tree roach to end up in the closet, under the bed, or some other difficult to reach place.

It turns out all that all the fuss was for a 1/2 inch long silverfish.  She hates bugs of all sorts. I just wish that her reaction was proportional to the size of the bug. Then again, when she does see a roach in her room it will likely sound like something out of a slasher movie.

Seen and Heard

We've had a few funny moments lately that I thought would combine for a good blog post. First, one evening Amanda couldn't quite make out what Noah was singing in his room. Turns out it was this song.

Yesterday Amanda had her contemporary Christian station going on Pandora. Nevertheless, Noah was doing some disco moves to whatever song was playing. Apparently the disco channel Amanda plays is having some effect on him.

When I got home from work today Amanda was putting the finishing touches on dinner and a pie she baked for me. Noah and Lily were "playing" in the living room, which really meant that they were play fighting. Lily pushed Noah down and he started to cry. This was not really such a bad thing since they were play fighting. When we asked Lily to come into the kitchen and tell us what happened she said, "Noah got pushed down." I can't think of a better use of the passive voice than that.

Overall, things are pretty good. We're enjoying my reading week from seminary. I'm taking Friday off this week so I can get a few things done.

Soccer Game

One of Noah's friends from preschool has a brother Lily's age who recently had an appendectomy. We volunteered to watch Noah's friend Scott to help them out for a few hours. He came over around 10:00 and we took advantage of the beautiful day.

First, I took Lily to the grocery to get some picnic supplies. She really didn't want to go and I ended up having to bribe her with Cheetos. That's a little bit sad for me since she used to be my faithful companion. That mantle has fallen to Noah and I don't know how long it will last, but I'm going to keep at it.

Once we had our supplies we went over to North Cary Park for our picnic. Everyone enjoyed the picnic and fortunately Noah forgot that I told him we could bring juice boxes. Then the kids played in the playground for a while. After they got bored with that we moved up to the soccer fields. They chased the ball around for a while and then moved back to the playground.

I don't know about how Scott was, but Noah was ready to sleep at 7:00 last night. Lily was too for that matter. More soccer, we say!

All You Need

Amanda volunteered in the 3 year-old room for the second service tonight, which meant that we had to take two cars. Lily rode with her in the Civic while I drove Noah in the van. The girls listened to the Beatles' "All You Need is Love," and Lily had an insightful comment. She noted that love is really important, but if you don't have Jesus then you don't have true love.

My seven year-old is thinking about Beatles' songs through a theological lens. That warms my heart to no end.

Get What You Deserve

Noah confused Amanda recently with a question about his birthday. He said that he wants to have "deservings" at his party. She had no idea what he was talking about. She thought maybe he meant desserts, but that was not what he meant. It turns out that he was hoping for the party favors that you blow and they go from being all curled up to extended. Ideally, they would be noisemakers.

We have no idea where he got the term "deservings" from, but it was kind of cute. Noah doesn't always express himself very well. It's getting better though!