At the Smith house, were fully immersed in this year's Olympic Games. We stayed involved by watching on TV, reading articles and results online, playing our own games at home, and even sampling cuisine from other countries.
We took the opportunity to make it a fun learning experience for Emry. We normally don't watch much TV, but it has been on every night since the opening ceremonies. Emry has enjoyed watching cycling, swimming, running, tennis, gymnastics and basketball. Oddly enough, the two events that she cheers for the most are diving and equestrian. During the diving events, she would clap her hands and say "yeah" after every dive. During the equestrian events, she would cheer and say "yeah horsey!" or "horsey jump" each time they would clear a gate.
While watching the gymnastics Emry noticed the strange move gymnasts do at the end of every event where they throw their hands in the air, puff out their chest and stick their butt back. Maren taught Emry to do that move and say "Ta-Da!" So now E will do somersaults, stand up and say "ta-da!"
We've eaten a lot of different meals the past couple of weeks too. To honor the origin of the Olympics, we ordered Greek cuisine from Manna the night of the opening ceremonies. Its one of our favorite take-out places. We've also made several new ethnic recipes at home including black bean burritos, sweet & sour chicken, Indian chicken curry, and fish & chips. Emry has actually eaten all of the different meals, even the curry...
FYI - Turmeric stains everything...Faces, hands and even skillets.
Even after a good scrubbing, we had some very yellow
pancakes for breakfast the next morning.
While watching the games on TV is pretty fun, everyone knows that playing them is a lot more fun. In a previous post, I mentioned how our kids might think they live in the 1980's. Well, when the track and field events started for the Olympics, we dusted off the NES and played World Class Track Meet!
Yes, that is a single tear of joy running down my cheek
Anyone who knows my history with Nintendo knows that this was a big deal to introduce it to the girls. This one event combined my 3 favorite things in the world(in no particular order):
1. Time with my family
2. Running
3. The Nintendo Entertainment System.
We taught Emry all the tricks to get the Nintendo to work, like blowing the dust out of the game cartridge...
And as you can see, not only do we still have a working Nintendo, but we are proud owners of the Power Pad!
For anyone who doesn't know(and I feel sorry for those of you who don't), the Power Pad was basically the original Wii. The Power Glove was another attempt Nintendo made as an "interactive controller." Although these devices weren't wireless, for kids in the 80's this was pretty cool technology...you can see how cool these kids look in this commercial...
Yeah, we were playing with power! Usain Bolt has nothing on us!
You heard Emry saying "Jump One!" at the end of that clip. She was referring to the long jump, which she was pretty good at...
One last thought about the Olympics...I posted the lame commercial for the power pad, but how weird were the Fruit of the Loom commercials that played during every single break?? Who goes to the beach in their boxerbriefs to workout on the on rings??
Emry thought those commercials were so funny that we decided to make our own...
We hope everyone enjoyed the 2012 Olympics as much as the Smith's did!
My freshmen year of high school I had a theology teacher who was lecturing our class one day and said "Don't say things that mean other things." I don't remember the situation that sparked his memorable phrase. I don't think anybody in our class remembered what made him say it, and the irony was that we weren't sure what he meant when he said it. So it became an on-going joke amongst our class anytime someone said something that could be mistaken for a sexual innuendo, we would say "Don't say things that mean other things." (This was well before Michael Scott made "That's what she said" a mainstream joke.)
Anyway, I was thinking about this on my run this morning because Emry is talking a lot right now and sometimes its really hard to figure out what she's saying. A lot of times she'll say something, but mean to say something else. To help out anyone who is hanging out with Emry, I've put together a list of some of her most commonly mistaken phrases:
Damen - Which means "banana". plural Damas. Oddly enough, she can can say banana perfectly if you ask her to say it, and she sings the Raffi song Banana Phone without a problem. But if she ever asks you for a damen, now you know what she means.
Hers - Her "B," Her room, Her bed...you'd think Emry would be talking about someone else's stuff. But if she says "hers", she really means "my" or "mine." Its funny because most parents try to get their kids to stop saying "mine" all the time, and we are desperately encouraging Emry to actually use the word.
Hold You - Pronouns are a struggle for Emry. If she ever walks up to you and and says "Hold you" she really means to say "Hold me." Just pick her up and she'll be happy.
Pump 'n Dump - Not to be confused with the process by which a nursing mother drinks too much alcohol, then has to pump out the tainted breast milk and dump it down the sink. She really means to say "Pump it Up" which one of her favorite places to play.
Panato - This word is very complex, because she uses this word for both "potato" or "tomato." But if she also uses it as part of another phrase...
Panato Slide - Which means "tornado slide." So if you ever take her to the park and she wants to go down the "panato slide" she wants to go down the slide that twists in a circle.
Whitney Poop Diaper - This can be tricky. Emry has nighttime diapers she wears that are more absorbent that the daytime variety. Her nighttime diapers have a picture of Winnie the Pooh on them. So when she says "Whitney Poop Diaper" she is really trying to say "Winnie the Pooh diaper". However, if Emry happens to see you changing Whit's diaper, Emry will call the dirty diaper "Whitney poopy diaper."
Lopper - Which means "water." Just like she does with damen, Emry can correctly say water if you ask her to. But if she sees or asks for water, she will call it "lopper." The funny thing about this one is she will call a water bottle by the correct pronunciation, but if you ask whats in it, the answer is "lopper."
Toottat - Tattoo. This did not come from daddy, but originated with mommy. After playing at Pump 'n Dump one day, Emry came home with a temporary tattoo. She was afraid it would hurt to put it on, so Maren put it on her own leg instead. Maren explained that it was called a tattoo. Emry kept pointing to Maren's leg and saying "toottat." FYI - She calls daddy's tats "picture," "baseball" or "ring."
Welcome - This has a couple of layers to it, so bear with me...Emry is trying to to say "You're Welcome", but she only says the "welcome" part. Even though she is trying to say "You're Welcome", what she really means is "Thank you." We started working with Emry on saying please, thank you and you're welcome. Emry got the "please" portion down right away, but the rest of it is still a work in process. So don't be offended if you share your snack with Emry and she says "welcome."
I'm sure there are tons of other phrases and words that I'm forgetting. These were all I could think of on my run this morning. I need to be leaving for work, so I'm going to grab a damen and a sip of lopper. Welcome for reading the blog!
On the morning of July 4th I was running in a race called the Big Bang 5k. I was pushing our daughter Emry in the jogging stroller, and realized the two of us hadn't been out jogging together in a long time.
Doing a little pre-race stretching!
It has consistently been over 100 degrees outside, so I tried to remember the last time I used the jogging stroller...
One night recently, I took the stroller out so I could "run" to Target to exchange a cooking pot. I got a couple of honks from people driving down the road, and the lady at Target's return desk gave me a funny look when I unstrapped the pot from the stroller. Is it really that unusual to "run" errands and not "drive" them? Most of the people around here think its so weird, including Maren. In fact, before I left the house that night, she sprinted down the driveway to take pictures of her weird husband. In other parts of the country, its probably more acceptable to walk/run/bike as a mode of transportation, and in other parts of the world its the only option.
Yeah, its a pot...get over it!
After reminiscing about that experience, I realized that within the last 12 months, I've had the unique opportunity to run from one coast of our great nation to the other...
Last July, I was in San Diego for a few days for a work conference. I couldn't get used to the time change, so each morning around 4 am I'd go out for a jog. I'd run along the coastline, by the port and through the gas lamp district. On these early morning runs I encountered zero whale vaginas, but saw lots of homeless people sleeping on the sidewalks. One morning alone, I counted 34 homeless people.
A couple of weeks ago, I got to run on the sandy beach in Folly Beach, SC. One afternoon I ran along the road that exits the island. During the run, I'm pretty sure I saw more real estate signs than palm trees. When I turned around to go back, the line of cars to get on the island was so congested that I was actually passing the cars. Another day, I ran along the beach during high tide and literally had to jump over people's beach towels because it was so crowded. Some parts of the beach have eroded so badly from the new development that there is only about 15 ft of sand between the water and the sand dunes.
After thinking about those runs, I realized that living in the midwest isn't so bad at all. They might get better weather on the coasts, but they've definitely got their issues too. By the time I finished the Big Bang 5k I came to the conclusion that through my running experiences within the past year, I'm happy to call the midwest home sweet home.
Then it all came full circle this past weekend...Emry and I were camping at my aunt's property in Lynnville. On Saturday morning, we stepped off their driveway and were on a quiet country road. There were no cars, no exhaust, no real estate construction, no trash along the road and homeless people or sunbathers to jump over. It was just me, Emry, two deer, three rabbits, a slight drizzle and a bunch of song birds. It was the best run I've had all year. I wouldn't have traded it for anything!
By the way, Emry ended up beating me in the Big Bang 5k. She finished just a split second ahead of me...
Being a parent makes you do weird things. Case in point, last week I was driving down the interstate when nature decided to call. I found myself considering the options of pulling over at the next exit or going to the bathroom in a plastic cup we had in the car. No, we didn't trick Seabass and the fellas into paying for our lunch, but there were some extreme circumstances that put me in this frame of mind...
"Who's the deadman that hit me with the saltshaker!?"
We were on a family vacation to Folly Beach, SC, and in true Griswald fashion, instead of flying, we made the 12 hour drive. We knew it would be an adventure with 2 little ones under 2 yrs old, but we got more than we bargained for. About 3 hours into the trip we noticed the A/C was blowing air, but it was only slightly cool. After another hour it was blowing warm air. We drove the final two hours of the day in a hot car(it was 94 degrees outside), and when we pulled into Knoxville we were 4 sweaty, cranky and miserable people. Luckily we found a Chipotle for dinner!
After dinner, we decided to stop there for the night and wake up early the following morning. We wanted to get on the road before it got too hot again. The forecasted high temp was in the mid-nineties.
We piled the girls back into the car early the next morning. It was a cool 80 degrees outside, and it felt pretty good inside the car. We had 6 hours to drive, and things were looking pretty good. Until...
About an hour into the trip, nature started calling. I really had to go! The girls were sound asleep in the back and the temp in the car was still pretty cool. Since we didn't want to wake them up or lose any travel time during the cool temperature, Maren said "Why don't you go in this cup?"
I'm not sure if she was joking or serious, but at that point it actually sounded like a good idea. I checked the mirrors, and there weren't any cars nearby, so I said to Maren "Grab the wheel, we're doing this!"
I'm not sure how many ounces a 32oz cup holds when it is tilted at a 45 degree angle....but I can tell you that it is less than the amount of water I drank that morning. Without going into great detail(too late), lets just say there was a little overflow before the "mission was aborted".
Despite the early cut-off, I felt relieved. Obviously we were traveling with the girls and had their baby wipes, so I was able to wash my hands, and all was good. We just prayed that we wouldn't get pulled over.
Tic Tac?
The rest of the trip was smooth sailing, and we made it without any further follies. We got the A/C repaired while we were there, so we didn't have to go through the same thing on the drive home.
The good things that came out of the A/C fiasco were: 1. We found out that crying babies like having the windows down in the car. The sound of the wind must be soothing or something. 2. We came away with a greater appreciation for the things that we usually take for granted on a day to day basis.
I'm actually kind of glad the A/C went out, because instead of simply taking a trip, we experienced an unforgetable adventure. I'll leave you with one final thought to ponder...after you fill a cup with pee in your car, what do you do with it?
Its time for me to add to the list of things I've learned about children, raising kids, life with a family and other things I've discovered since becoming a father. Since our niece turned 6 months old recently, I wanted to give a heads up for her parents to know what to expect in the upcoming months. I'll revisit a couple of previous comments from my first list and second list, but this mainly tackles the topics I learned from when Emry was between 6 months and a year old.
Helping with the laundry!
1. Long gone are the days when you can set your child on the floor in one room and walk into another room to do something for a few minutes. Can anyone explain to me why lamp cords are so fascinating?
2. A tip I learned was to turn our toilet paper rolls around so that the paper is dispensed from the backside instead of coming over the front. So when your kid walks up and spins the roll, it just rolls up...if you have it turned the other way you end up with a pile of tp on the floor. But his will only buy you a couple of months...eventually they figure out how to grab the tp from the back and pull it down.
3. Reflecting back on our expenses for the year...having a kid is the most expensive tax break we've ever received.
4. Kids are like drunks (revisited) - they stagger and stumble all over the place, and require you to help them walk around.
"Mom! Are you really letting
him do this to me?"
5. We've already established that other driver's seem like Mario Andretti when you first drive with your baby in the car, but the first time you put your kid in a child's bike seat every driver on the road turns into Ricky Bobby.
6. When kids start eating real food, their poop gets real -- I'm talking really real.
7. Which bring me to my next observation, when a kid eats a blue crayon, they'll have a blue turd. I've got the picture on my phone to prove it...and no I won't post it...this isn't some sicko fetish website...I can't believe you even asked...disgusting.
8. You know you've arrived as a father the first time you carry your sleeping kid from the car, to the house, to the crib and she remains sleeping the entire time.
9. Babies' sneezes come in two's, three's, or more. Bottom line...don't try to kiss you're baby after the first sneeze, or you'll end up with a face full of sneezy-spray.
Doing some P90 yoga!
10. Balancing your work, personal time and family time is an art. I found that an attention-seeking 6 month old makes a great weight for P90x. Its like combining the shake weight with P90x...talk about muscle confusion!
11. Why is your baby crying now?(revisited) During this age its likely because she fell over or bumped her head on something. But assuming she's not injured, she's probably frustrated. She wants to scoot, crawl, walk or reach for something but can't quite do it. I found if you help her get the items she wants you'll be good to go!
12. The only difference between infant toothpaste and toddler toothpaste are the words "toddler" and "infant" on the package. They have the exact same amount of each active ingredient. Companies that make baby products have no shame when it comes trying to get you to spend your money. Pee-pee tee-pees? Really?? Its called a wash cloth! Diaper Genie?? Its called a trash can!
13. Aquaphor is to personal/medical care what duct tape is to home repair...they both will fix about 90% of your small issues. Diaper rash, cuts, dry skin, scraped knees, eczema, chapped lips, tattoo scars, etc. We literally(figuratively) use it for everything...I started rubbing it on my lower back and the pain is gone! If you've ever seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding, you'll understand what I mean when I say Aquaphor is our Windex...
14. I shamefully admit that some parenting tips and advice I've learned from movies, but movies can also ruin the parenting experience. I used to come home from work everyday, pickup Emry, and say "Do you have a kiss for daddy?" The problem was I said it with the exact same inflection in my voice as Ferris Bueller in the scene below...and Maren asked me to stop because it creeped her out!
Bonus: Things i discovered about fatherhood since having 2 kids
1. With the second child, your wife's the nipples aren't a big topic of conversation - maybe its because the feedings were easier for "us" with #2, but mainly I think people were concerned about other things - "How's Emry adjusting?", "What's it like having two?", etc
Please note the candle stick holders.
They will come into play later...
2. This applies when you just have one child, but I just now realized that if your wife is nursing, the dads will find themselves giving their baby "the finger!" Until mom starts pumping, if she's not around and the baby starts crying, you have to resort to shoving your finger in her mouth and let her suck away. Its pretty much the same principle as giving "the finger" to a driver on the road, because you're pretty much saying to your baby "I know your hungry and upset, but screw it, you're just gonna have to wait!"
3. Earlier I mentioned my beef with gimmicky baby products, but with 2 kids I realized that the diaper genie really is magic! We got a diaper genie as a shower gift with the first child and I thought it was stupid. When the second came along, we just put a trash can with a lid in the older child's room, but it stinks up the whole room if you don't change the bag after 2-3 days. Score one for the diaper genie! 4. Even if your wife is nursing, when 2 kids are awake at the same time in the middle of the night, you no longer have an excuse for not getting up to help.
5. Dads are a lot more hands on when there's two kids, so a skill you need to master is doing everything one handed. To practice, try carrying around a 10lb sack of potatoes and do your normal daily activities like eating, getting dressed, typing, peeing etc.
Don't stretch out your
legs too far!
6. Which remind me...it is possible to go to the bathroom while carrying a child in the baby bjorn. I found this out after a long flight and an emergency pit stop at the airport bathroom.
7. Speaking of airports, if you and your spouse fly Southwest Airlines with 2 kids, you should sit in a row with 3 seats. I found out they only have 4 oxygen masks per row, so the third seat in your row will have to remain empty. Hello elbow room!
8. You'er a lot more relaxed once you have two kids...one example is the that the 5 second rule turns eventually turns into the 30 second rule. Then somewhere along the line it becomes the "Is this that blueberry from today? Wait...oh well...I guess its okay" rule.
9.Throw pillows are not for throwing. In the middle of the longest night of my life, I was sitting on the couch holding an inconsolable baby. In my frustration, I threw a "throw pillow" off the couch. It slid across the wooden dining room floor and hit a candle holder, knocking it to the floor, busting into a hundred pieces, and waking up Emry and Maren. Yeah...I was in trouble...lesson learned.
10. Speaking of wood floors, they are highly overrated. A realtor might spruce up a home listing by saying something like "beautiful, original hardwood floors." I would read that listing and see "mine field you have to tiptoe across after laying your sleeping baby down for bed." I have finally figured out the spots where our floor squeaks the loudest, but I feel like I'm playing frogger every night when I have to walk from Whitney's room to the living room.
11. Spray sunscreen is also overrated. It doesn't work if you spay your hands and rub it on your child's face. Emry, we're sorry for the facial burn two weeks in a row...I promise we're not trying to make you look like that crazy lady in New Jersey!
12. 2 year olds only refer to themselves in third person...Which probably explains why we are disgusted when celebrities and sports figures think its acceptable to do it.
Thats all I've got right now. Hope all the dads out there had a Happy Father's Day!
A little more about life in the projects...in addition to our recent travels and the previously mentioned flower pots, we've also spent a couple weekends preparing and planting the spring vegetables. All of that has kept us busy, but the most time consuming project has been the swing set we've been building Emry for her second birthday.
Our mindset was "Go big or go home!" The sturdy, custom-built type of swing sets were what wanted, but can you believe those prices?! After the sticker shock wore off, we decided that we would rather put Emry through college than to buy a custom swing set. Next, we tried the frugal route and searched endlessly on craigslist to find a good deal on a used one, but every time we found a deal, all we ever heard was "SOLD! SOLD! SOLD!" Finally, we went to the big box stores, but their "kits" were not as structurally sound as I wanted for the price that they wanted. So we decided to start from scratch and draw our own plans.
If anyone wants to see the plans we made, just let me know!
Using our blueprint as a guide, we did a rough estimate of how much lumber and hardware we needed and made a "shopping list." After spending almost 3 hours in Lowes one evening, we had all the supplies. Now all we had to do was put it together.
Proof that I use my safety glasses for things
other than early morning winter runs!
We did did most of the work over two days of Memorial Day weekend. I made the sides of the tower on Saturday.
Maren, Emry and Whit were a big help!
I applied my tarp technique to clean up my tools each day...just
drug the tarp into the yardbarn at the end of each day!
All we did on Sunday was raise the sides and bolt it together.
Emry had fun climbing the ladder and playing
with dad's power tools
Special thanks to Rob, Steph and Gramps for their
help with raising the sides and the beam
On Monday we did the deck floor, ladder, slide, "A" frame and raised the beam for the swings.
Emry wanted to give an additional thanks to Gramps
for helping all day Monday as well!
The view from the top is amazing!
That just left a couple finishing touches, like adding the swings and accessories, which I did the following week.
Finally finished!
Now we can hang in the backyard and not have to worry about
Emry running off to the neighbor's house to
play on their swing set!
Emry has had a blast playing on it so far! For her second birthday, she had all of her friends over to play on her new swing set. It was the first time since we've had kids that we've had a big party...the good news was the swing set didn't fall down and nothing broke!...the bad news was we had 4 incidents where kids ended up crying, 3 who stumbled and fell down, one bloody nose, and one who threw up at the bottom of the slide. So all in all, it was a great party!
Emry and dad enjoying an evening of playing together
Later that evening, after I reviewed our homeowners insurance policy, after reflecting on the day's events, I realized this party was pretty much the same as the parties we threw when we were fresh out of college - people falling over, getting sick, crying etc.
Now that we've gotten the spring projects finished things have settled down and aren't quite as busy. We've been spending a lot more time relaxing and hanging in the backyard and are trying to get back into the normal routine of running the Smiths.....That reminds me, with Father's day right around the corner, I've got several more fatherly tips and things I've learned...
Its been a while since I've posted anything, but we've been busy at the Smith house the past several weeks. We've been doing some traveling, but mainly we've been busy with lots of projects, and it seems like every night when I come home from work there is something around the house that needs to be done.
Since Maren finished this semester of grad school, she's been spending a lot of time on Pinterest.She had found some great recipes and other ideas she's done around the house. She also found a great project that we did with the kids recently. We made some flower pots for both the grandmas for Mother's day. We spent a Sunday afternoon and a couple of week nights working on it, and the kids had a blast! Here is what we did...
Supplies:
Clay flower pots
Acrylic paint
Paint brushes
Spray sealant
Potting soil
Flowers of your choice
Tiny hands and feet
Lots of patience and cleanup rags!
First we cleaned the flower pots and painted them white. Emry did a decent job using a paintbrush, and surprisingly she didn't get too messy! After two coats of white paint it was time to let them dry....
We put them on these stakes in the yard to let them dry really well. Then it was time to decorate them...
Emry went first. We tested hand prints on a piece of paper and found when she dipped her hand in the paint, it was way to saturated and the prints looked sloppy and runny. It worked much better when we painted her hand with a paintbrush.
Showing off her hand after mom wiped it clean!
By using a brush we could make sure the paint wasn't too thick. Emry absolutely loved it! She kept saying "Paint, hand!" We did have to assist her to make sure she kept her fingers extended and didn't smear it everywhere.
Next it was Whitney's turn. We could only do her feet because she wouldn't keep her hand open long enough for us to make a good print. The cold paint on her feet made Whitney jerk her leg back when each time we applied a coat. But she didn't fuss about it at all, which made the process a lot easier to do!
She didn't fuss or cry at all, what a trooper!
When Emry saw Whitney doing the footprints she said "Whitney foot paint!" She thought it was pretty cool, so she started saying "Emry foot paint!" We had only planned on doing her hands, but we found a couple spots to cram her footprints on there too.
You can see on the pots to the left and right of the picture
that we had to put Emry's foot diagonally just
to fit it on the small flower pots!
We decided to make butterflies out of Whitney's foot prints, and to get the wings shaped correctly , we had to put her foot prints on the opposite side...so Whit's right foot made the left wing and her left foot made the right wing. (Don't ask me why I felt the need to explain that, I'm pretty sure you all know what "opposite" means.)
Here is a visual in case you don't understand the concept of opposites,
or my full explanation of what I meant by opposite.
It was fun, but messy. And Whitney still had paint in between her toes over 2 weeks later!
Emry kept looking at her hand and saying "messy!"
After the girls did their prints, Maren and I painted the top ring around the pot either pink or green. We used my finger for the body of the butterflies then painted little eyes and antenna on them. I wanted to paint "Grandma's pot" on the side of them, but Maren wouldn't let me.
After we let them dry for about 48 hours, we took the pots back outside and put them on the stakes again. We used a spray sealant approved for outdoor use to protect the paint from chipping or smearing. When that was dry, it was finally time to plant the flowers. Emry had a lot of fun digging around in the dirt. For some reason she liked pulling the potting soil out of the bag and throwing it in the yard.
Yes, that is a jack-o-lantern jacket, but it was a cool morning
and it fits her right now, so don't judge!
The project it made for a fun couple of days and the grandmas loved their pot.
The finished product!
They were a big hit with the grandma's!
This is just one of the projects I've been living in lately, I'll tell you about the big one we've been working on for Emry's upcoming birthday really soon...
