Riding, Swimming, Soccer and Harry Potter
I came home from work today to learn that Hannah was 'nuthin' but trouble' all day. Crabby, crabby, crabby. Maybe the change from the routine of school? We'd already committed to Corey to babysit but if we hadn't, we'd have cancelled all plans and had a quiet night at home

Lara was Super-Active Mom today. She told me to hook the bike trailer up to the tagalong before I left for work, which I promptly forgot to do. She called me at the office an hour later, annoyed, to ask how to do it herself. She rode down to Pittsford and back, not a short hop, with Hannah on the tagalong AND the twins in the trailer. It's an impressive site, a wheelbase like a semi and a turning radius to match.

Then, she took all the girls to the pool at Marcus Park.

After work, I arrived home to an exasperated wife, a sulky 5 yr old and two happy toddlers. I quickly changed clothes and we tossed everyone into the car and raced to soccer.

Did I mention that H is playing soccer? Yes, we're soccer parents. Amazing and insidious how it takes over your life. I get up and leave my office in a rush, saying 'gotta go, soccer' and just get knowing nods from co-workers. Anyway, tonight I was on the hook for assistant coach responsibilities. I hadn't noticed any other parents taking a shift, but somehow I was volunteered so I did my part. After helping the kids do their skills drills, they had their first scrimmage. There was discussion with the coaches at the first session about the merits and perils of competition. H was a textbook example of the perils. So competitive, she was quickly stressed and soon in tears as the other team scored quickly. She recovered but then teetered back to the edge when they scored again. Poor H. She was pretty good, she's bigger than many of the kids, but the other team was bigger and more aggressive and several of Hannah's teammates didn't have a clue. One little girl stood like a statue, scratching her ear and staring in the sky as the entire field of players scrambled around her. To her credit, a while later that same girl stepped up and hammered the ball down the field and H's team scored a goal and all was right in Hannahs world again.

After soccer, we hurried home, handed off the twins to the Corey, changed clothes and dashed out to the movies to see the new Harry Potter. With Hannah. Had we gone without her to preview, she would not have been seeing it now. At least not in the theater. At home, smaller screen, pause-able, would have been a much better plan. Prior to going, Lara and I had asked people if they thought it was okay for her. Shame on you people! H was quite frightened numerous times and we could hardly blame her. For those of you who are 'all the way big" as Olivia and Leah classify grown-ups, we highly recommend it. By far the best of the series thus far. Much darker and spookier, but also richer, deeper. Even things seen in the other films were redone in a new, more detailed and darker way, like the castle, the hallways, the classrooms, the grounds, etc. We thoroughly enjoyed it including Hannah, though she watched half of it on our laps, clasping our hands and jumping with fright often.

11:25 PM |

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School's Out! Today was Hannah's last day of Kindergarten. She was sort of sad about it this morning. She said she would miss her teacher, (Mr. D.) and her friends but this afternoon she decided it was a time of celebration because she got free doughnuts (for her report card).

Hannah gets a couple of days 'off' and sleeping late.

Camp starts next week. Camp days are much longer than school days. Bus drop-off at 8:15 and pickup at 4:15. Last year we were worried about her handling it, but she loved it so much we signed her up for an additional session. This year, we signed up for the additional time from the start. She made huge swim progress and learned lots of Hebrew songs and such so we have high hopes for this year.

Hannah's long days make for easier days for Corey. She's usually looking after Hannah in the afternoon but now while H is at camp and the twins are napping, she's got nothing to do. We try not to have her doing housework, that's not her job, but we also don't want to be paying her to sit around either. We'll have to come up with some creative activities for her.

9:07 PM |

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Beeseball ha' been beddy beddy goood to us.
Hannah and I went to a Rochester Redwings game tonight. My managment team got the corporate box for a 'teambuilding' event. I'd have preferred to take the whole family but I only had 2 seats and Lara wasn't up for it, so Hannah and I made it a Father Daughter event. Frontier Field is a great place to see a ballgame and the weather was perfect. Sitting in one of the corporate boxes isn't exactly the true ballpark experience, but it's really nice, it's catered and comfortable. Hannah was the youngest in our crew by far, a co-worker brought his teenage son, but all the rest were adults. H was well behaved and polite, if a bit shy at times. At one point she was getting into the music and dancing, unaware that the entire group was sitting behind her and cracking up at her antics. As it turned out, one of Hannah's classmates was in another skybox three doors down. Midway through the game, we went over and visited and I took the two of them for a walk around the stands to the sweetshop for cotton candy, clearly illustrating the difference in lifestyles between myself and my coworkers. All in all, a perfect outing, except that the Redwings lost, as they seem to do everytime we go to a game.

11:12 PM |

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Happy Daddy's Day! I hope all daddies had a good day today and felt at least a little 'entitled'. That's my thing, retaining a little sense of entitlement that I might be able to simply say, 'No, not doing that' whenever it suits me and actually get away with it. In reality, the day isn't really any different from most weekend days: mow the lawn, do some chores, some playtime, maybe a run, etc. but I try to retain that sense of entitlement. This particular Father's Day was especially sweet because this morning Leah and Olivia climbed into our bed and piled onto me and said Happy Fathers Day, Daddy-o! Absolutely priceless. I frequently internally reflect on the joys of fatherhood and the exceptional intense experience of being a father raising twins but I just can't express it aloud or in words here nearly well enough.

I got some sweet gifts for the occasion: bookmarks made by the twins and an collection of fish and sea life window cling art created by Hannah and stuck on my bathroom mirror, which I really like and imagine will remain in place for a long time. I also got a Great Dad T-shirt which I actually wore today, a small book about Dads and Daughters, and some indulgent socks for running, the sort of thing I need but never buy for myself. I also got some 'runner's lubricant' but I won't go into that any further.

10:02 PM |

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Happy 'verse, Dear! In addition to being Father's Day, today was also our 11th wedding anniversary. We were actually married on Father's Day, but I cannot recall the two events coinciding since that fateful day. We actually celebrated on Saturday because 1. Father's Day should be spent with the kids and 2. our preferred restaurant is closed on Sunday. (No, not Pearl, Tastings) We also went to an early showing of the Terminal. Two thumbs up, though Lara ended up sitting next to the most annoying theater goers in the world. This couple came in late, explained things to each other (loudly, in Spanish) and actually engaged in not one, but TWO phone conversations DURING the movie. Their phone RANG, they answered it and actually spoke for a moment. Ten minutes later, IT RANG AGAIN. Unbelievable.

We bought each other nice gifts. In the past, we've bought gifts exclusively for the other person. We're been trending towards gifts of more shared value. I bought two Adirondack chairs and Lara bought a gorgeous set of pots and pans, which if you know us, is a big deal and something not entered into lightely. I told Lara that I'd spend ALOT on Mother's Day so I was not going to go crazy for this occasion. She apparently didn't get the message.

10:01 PM |

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Berry Pickin'! Family outing for the day, first time for the twins. They're still really too small for it but we just dressed them in dark clothes and allowed ourselves to let them get messy. They came home with pink stained faces, hands and shoes but they had a great time. Leah ate more berries than she put into her basket. Olivia seemed to prefer to pick nasty ones and I had to secretly empty her basket every few minutes. She got really upset the first time she discovered that I was dumping her rotten berries so I had to be more discreet. Hannah really had a good time and she picked a ton. We took H at the same age as the twins are now, she dropped her entire basket in the parking lot and cried profusely. Without reminding her of that occasion, we kept after her to carry her load carefully. The weather was perfect and we were in and out of the field in about 30 minutes. Leah required two potty breaks which meant lifting her up and squatting her down in the grass behind the parked cars. She actually gets a kick out of going 'on the floor'. We went to the Farmers Market for some other goodies but the highlight for the girls were the homemade doughnuts.

10:00 PM |

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Spelling Bee Answers one of which might surprise you . . .

Otchoc = Artichoke (I swear, H loves artichokes and while I wasn't sure of the word myself, the drawing accompanying the words undeniably confirmed her intent)

Lolepp = Lollipop, which if you sound it out is pretty close.

Cucez = Cookies, which I think is clever enough to warrant a product name. Wouldn't you buy Cucez!? I cracked up when I read that one.

5:06 PM |

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Spelling Bee
Hannah regularly bring home little book projects that she makes at school. Typically, they include drawings and writing following a simple narrative. Hannah follows certain themes despite the varied subject matter prescribed by the teacher and the particular weeks activities. Today, she brought home a book entitled 'Ants Like Picnics, Too.' On each page, she drew a picture of herself eating various foods and the pre-printed text said "I like" and a blank for her to fill in, these were followed by a page of her holding the food and an ant coming to eat it and the words, "Ants do, too!". Hannah wrote in the names of foods, sounding out the words herself and writing out her guess at the spelling. This is called 'experimental spelling' (seriously) Usually the teacher writes the intended word below so we can figure out what she meant. Today he did not. See if you can guess what foods these are:

Otchoc

Lolepp

Cucez

Answers posted tomorrow!

10:55 PM |

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Catch up !
So much going on, so little time to write about it. I'm going to play around with the posting times to put a bunch of posts up about the various goings ons.

9:46 PM |

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Thursday Night at the Races ! The Corporate Challenge was Thursday evening. Second race in 4 days, ouch! It's only 3.5 miles and the field is absolutely huge, close to 10,000 participants. I'd agreed to run after watching Lara run in last years event, but it's not a good measure of one's fitness, it's more of a social event. The Lilac 10K was a much more meaningful effort.

The Challenge was moved this year from Highland Park in the city out to RIT which allowed the organizers a much larger area and more participants, but it was a huge hassle for us to get there and home again. We had to race to get there at 5:30pm before the parking lots were closed and then had to walk about a mile to the start area, through several virtually empty but blocked off parking lots. It was sunny and breezy when we started walking, but it quickly clouded over and the started in a good steady rain by racetime. Joy.

I ran reasonably well, considering the crowds and conditions. I ran the entire first mile on the mud on the side of the road to avoid the people who were unable to read the signs indicating where to lineup based on your running speed. The idea is that everyone lines up at the proper place at the start so that the fast runners aren't obstructed by the slower runners. In theory, if everyone paid attention, you wouldn't need to pass a single runner, everyone in front of you would be faster and everyone behind you would be slower. Of course, this only works in theory and if everoyne pays attention, which they do for serious races, but not for social events like this. Needless to say, I must have passed more than 1,000 people, including one woman who wearing jeans, high heels and carrying an umbrella. Lara did well, too, though she experienced the same thing. She said it was much worse than last year. So much for the success of a larger event.

We both surpassed our goals and were happy we participated, despite the hassles.

I was also excited about the event because Jenny and I designed the Kodak team t-shirt which we found out earlier in the day won an award (Most Corporate). I was already agitated about the hassle of getting there, and the turning weather, and then I got to the Kodak tent and actually saw the shirt. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. The design was great and the printers absolutely butchered it. Yuck. Lara suggested I try to channel my frustration in the race. Good idea.

The other plus of the event was that because the weather was still good when we left the house, the girls came along to cheer us on. Nona and Corey looked after them while Lara and I ran and they stood out in the rain (with umbrella and raincoats) at the curve at the 3 mile marker. It was really a great boost to see those little faces at that stage in the race. I hadn't thought much about the missed opportunity to have them at the Lilac and now I wished we'd dragged them out. They were a little wet, but not unhappy and they got a big kick out of the whole hub-bub and seeing Mommy and Daddy out in the race. Nona and Corey really did us a huge favor because it was a major hassle and we couldn't have done it without BOTH of them. Nona had said she could do it herself and if she hadn't been in town, we'd have asked Corey to do it herself and it would have been a nightmare for either of them but together they handled it fine. Lara and I helped a bit but we were too distracted before the race and too busy recovering afterward.

The next big race is not yet identified. Lara isn't so sure that running races is something she likes. I can see her point. While we've met our goals, which good incentive, she finds running in a pack of faster runners discouraging and she's right, it is and there's always faster runners so you always get somewhat discouraged. It's exhilirating afterwards, but the actual event is not always so great. For me, the problem is that now that the two big events have passed, I need something to get me motivated to get back on the training wagon.

9:45 PM |

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Now we're raising more than kids
We have a neighbors who carp at us about the condition of our lawn and trees, etc. It's become something of a running joke amongst us and the other neighbors that we're friends with. I may have written about these complainers in the past. The wife has gotten into it with Lara and if you know Lara, you know that the woman was lucky to escape intact. Lara was just minding her own business, watching the kids play in the backyard when this woman started up. Lara tried repeatedly to deflect the whole thing. Ironically, the woman got much of what she wanted. We eventually got the backyard whipped into shape. Of course, they still went and put up a fence which effectively got everyone in the neighborhood to dislike them and feel bad for us living next to them. Way back when the twins were new, the husband complained at me about the condition of part of the front yard. I'm usually overly cordial and agreeable but at that time I just didn't want to hear about it so I quickly shot back a comment that I was raising kids inside, not crops outside. The yard and such was just not my highest priority at the time.

Well, times they are a changin'. Progress on the playhouse has slowed drastically as Lara and I have been putting lots of time, sweat and money into the yard lately. I've become a shrub-popping fool. I've dug up 8 shrubs in the last couple weeks. A few were tiny and long since dead, but most have been overgrown monsters. I've busted two shovels in the process, but I've become much more proficient in the process. I also started cutting down a straggly pine tree. Lara consulted with our more horticulturally-oriented neighbors and then went out and got new smaller, more tasteful plants for some the newly vacated beds. We also planted a couple of tomato plants and some other veggies and herbs in another small bed. Meanwhile, I actually bagged while cutting this lawn this weekend. That may not sound like much, but it's a major indicator of how much my attitude has changed. It's rained so much that the grass has grown like crazy and I knew that if I didn't bag, the clippings would be a real mess and bad for the lawn, so I bagged. 25 times. The pile of clipping was HUGE. The lawn still has some crappy spots, but overall, it's looking the best its been since we've lived in this house.

9:44 PM |

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See the photo albums

FINALLY! Tons of new pictures are now online!

18 new albums posted, some new, some old. Now more than 60 albums containing over 1,200 pics

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