The Lindenbergs

I canceled my Friday morning sparring session so I could spend Friday morning with my family before I flew out of town for the weekend (I went to Northern Virginia to watch the George Mason basketball game with my college friends).

Understand, Pierce and Anna get along great 98% of the time. Mornings are the best, they play together, share toys, and tell stories. Except for Friday morning. They fought like cats and dogs starting at 6:00 am. My last words to them, through the windows of Nora’s car as she took them out for the day were, “Stop arguing, tell me that you love me, tell me that you’ll miss me”. Their response? They didn’t even stop arguing.

-Eric (Dad)

Two "Pierce and Anna" stories, one I witnessed, and one Nora told me about (I was playing tennis).

Story 1:
When I got home Nora let me know that she would be taking Pierce and Anna to the library while I played tennis –both activities were scheduled for after dinner. She asked if I would gather the library books from upstairs so we could take them back to the library. Pierce overheard this portion of the conversation, yelled “I’ll get them!” and raced upstairs. A couple of minutes later, with his arms full of books he headed out to the garage to climb in Nora’s car. Pierce was so excited about going to the library he was prepared to skip dinner.

Story 2:
Prior to heading off to the aforementioned library, Nora had Anna “go potty”. She then excused herself to use another bathroom and told Anna she’d be right back. On returning, Nora found that Pierce had wiped Anna’s tush and was attempting to help her get her underwear and pants back on. What a great big brother! The only catch? Pierce does a terrible job of wiping his own bottom.

-Eric (Dad)

Friday night, after Pierce and Anna were put to bed, Nora and I had scary movie night. We watched Night of the Living Dead and ate a huge plate of homemade Nachos. Nora jumped at every “gotcha” moment and I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard. Both of us realized we lack the ability to eat the volume of chips and cheese we were once able to pack away.

Saturday evening Nora went out with a few of her girlfriends. Interestingly, Pierce spotted the DVD, Who Framed Roger Rabbit (one of my all-time favorite movies that Nora gave me as a stocking stuffer for Christmas). I had tried to interest Pierce in this movie a couple of a years ago but he wasn’t interested. This time it was a huge hit with both him and Anna. Every time an animated character made a cameo appearance, Pierce and Anna would yell at the TV, “there’s Dumbo!, there’s the penguins from Mary Poppins!, etc.). Pierce was literally on the edge of his seat towards the end of the movie when it looked like Tune Town was going to get “dipped”.

Anna had a nightmare early Sunday morning. At about 4:30 am she awoke crying. When I went in to see what was wrong she was sobbing, “I don’t want to turn into a blueberry!”.

Sunday was Pierce’s first Soccer practice. While pretty warm at our house, the soccer fields were windy and cold. None of us were dressed for the weather. Nora wrapped Anna in her hooded sweatshirt and I wrapped my arms around Nora. Brrrrrr. Nora’s folks and her brother, Billy, and his family came out to watch the practice. We all retired afterwards to a local mall for dinner and visiting.

George Mason is in the Final Four! My Alma mater, which belongs to one of the worst conferences in the country, is actually playing like they’d like to win the NCAA. I’m getting calls and emails from across the country from college friends who are as excited as I am. Win or lose I don’t expect to see GMU perform at this level again in my lifetime. I’m contemplating trying to get a cheap ticket to DC so I can watch next weekend’s game with my fraternity brothers.

-Eric (Dad)

Nora and I took the kids to Union Station for a couple of hours. Union Station is a restored and functional train station that houses restaurants, a children's museum and a ton of train exhibits -obviously we went for the trains.

They had a train in from Louisiana with several cars displaying historic Mardi Gras items (it was actually pretty boring). They have a permanent display of a 1940s passenger train that Pierce and Anna love. Their favorite is the private passenger sleepers.

Union Station also has a large number of model train setups. Pierce would live in front of the these if he could. Nora and Anna tired of these well before the boy did. When we got home Pierce and I played with his model train set until dinner (Pierce was making up stories about traveling to Virginia by train). I think I'll jump on eBay and try and find some deals on some more engines and cars.

-Eric (Dad)

Over the last few weeks our little drama queen has been getting more and more bullheaded. Her “timeouts” over the last two weeks exceeds the number she received in the previous six months. This morning I decided to bring the big guns to bear on the issue and I think Pierce and Nora suffered some collateral damage from the engagement.

I asked Anna to go up to her room and get her shoes before she had breakfast. I was greeted with resistance and the slowest moving girl on the planet. She stopped moving completely halfway up the stairs. With a little more urging she actually made it to her room –and disappeared. She must have been up there for 10 minutes.

At this point Pierce was well into his breakfast, Nora had finished packing lunches and Anna is still a no-show. Nora started to get a little impatient with our girl and Anna was still non-responsive so, of course, I escalated. Anna was threatened with the loss of breakfast (raisin bran) if she didn’t get moving. Unfortunately, it didn’t motivate her.

I am all about keeping promises, so Anna had to settle for a cup of milk for breakfast. Pierce offered to share his pancakes because Anna claimed, “she was starting to get very hungry”. But she turned him down -she only wanted raisin bran. Did I mention Anna was working the “tears” angle through the entire adventure?

Nora snuck a Ziploc bag of raisin bran into the car so her folks could give it to Anna later today. Anna sobbed on my shoulder and told me she thought she would be ok. And Pierce is terribly confused by the entire event. Sigh. I hope Anna learned something from all this, but I doubt it.

-Eric (Dad)

Pierce and Anna are both prolific artists. Our house is swimming with drawings and paintings. There’s so many of them that they get stacked wherever there is a clear surface. Pierce has taken to putting his favorite drawings in his toy box. Last night I made portfolios for both Pierce and Anna (I cut up a cardboard box and used duck tape to seal the edges and create a bottom hinge, and added suitcase-style handles made of rope).

Both Pierce and Anna were very excited and spent the rest of the evening decorating their respective portfolios. Anna’s is more abstract with lots of colors and patterns and Pierce’s is covered in cars, roads, flowers and trees. Pierce likes his so much that he dragged it behind him all morning, including into the bathroom.

-Eric (Dad)

My Uncle Sid passed away this week.

Uncle Sid and Aunt Sherma are among my favorite relatives. Aunt Sherma is gregarious and bombastic and everyone she meets is the smartest, funniest person she’s ever met. You can’t be around Aunt Sherma and not smile. I suspect Pierce owes a little bit of his charming personality to the same set of genes that make Sherma so fun to be around.

Uncle Sid is her perfect partner. He generates a quiet warmth, with a ready smile and a mischievous twinkle. Uncle Sid is the type of man people immediately feel comfortable being around. I suspect Anna is the beneficiary of some of Uncle Sid’s generous spirit and warmth.

Unfortunately, distance and time have kept us from seeing Sherma and Sid often, but Pierce and Anna did get to meet them at Scott and Stacey’s wedding last October. We have some great pictures of Aunt Sherma and Anna hamming it up.

It’s hard for me to believe that Uncle Sid has passed away. He and Aunt Sherma, to my mind, are eternal: they’ve never aged, they’re energies never flagged. Uncle Sid, we’ll miss you. Aunt Sherma, our hearts and prayers go out to you during this difficult time.

-Eric (Dad)

Pierce and I went for haircuts over the weekend. He went first and did great (as always). He entertained the stylist with all kinds of interesting anecdotes. When he was done, and it was my turn, he chose to go back to the waiting area. An older woman with a permanent frown slid over so Pierce would have room to sit.

Pierce took this as an invitation to make this woman his new best friend. He read to her from a book he’d brought, described our entire family, pointed out my car, pointed out the car next to my car in the parking lot, talked about Anna, described his school…

When I went to pick him up the woman was still wearing her permanent frown but commented that he was an excellent reader.

-Eric (Dad)

Well, plans change. Due to pending snow we postponed our trip out to see my Dad in Omaha. Nora and I took advantage of the free Friday night to go out to dinner together (no kids). Ahhh, I love adult time (thanks to Nora’s folks for watching Pierce and Anna).

Two stories worth repeating from the last week:

Josie (the family dog) followed me into Pierce’s room Friday morning to see what Pierce was up to. Pierce had awakened early and was playing with Legos on his bedroom floor. Josie promptly stepped on one of the Lego constructions eliciting a cry of horror and despair from Pierce. I explained to him that Josie loved him and just wanted to be near him –she doesn’t understand Legos. Pierce immediately held a Lego in front of Josie’s nose and explained, “Josie, this is a Lego”.

Ever since Anna’s battle with the stomach flu she’s been saying, “I have another cold, I need to go to the bathroom” which never made sense to me. She finally clarified, “I need to go to the bathroom so a cold can come out of my mouth” –this is her way of describing vomiting. Of course, she’s perfectly healthy –this is her way of starting a conversation.

Twice this week Anna has awakened after going to sleep for the night and asked to be taken to the bathroom to go “potty”. I think her potty training is complete, she’s been consistently dry night and day. I told her when the current supply of pull-ups (which she wears at night) is exhausted we wouldn’t get her anymore.

Saturday was an easy day. We all lounged in our pajamas until about lunchtime. Anna was a crank all day, so she earned herself a nap. I caught up on 3 months worth of digital pictures –burning them to DVD (to be taken for developing) and creating video slideshow to add to the Lindenberg archives). Saturday night Nora went out with the girls, so it was just the kids and me. I can’t remember what we did, but I know we enjoyed it.

Sunday I again helped my brother-in-law, Billy, with framing his basement. We made good progress, finishing the bathroom and furnace closet. We even got the door roughed out. Pierce spent the day at his friend Isabelle’s house including staying for dinner (chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes with ketchup, and corn). He and Isabelle played “Vampire” –apparently they found some capes to wear. We finished the evening with some family wrestling and called it a night.

-Eric (Dad)

Last night (Wednesday) was supposed to be our gym night, but Anna hadn’t taken a nap that afternoon and was pretty manic. We decided to punt rather than put the entire gym at risk.

After dinner we hung out as a family. Pierce, Anna and I played some arcade games on the Bagurditz, when Anna tired of it then it was just Pierce and me. Afterwards we watched a little Electronic Company. We’ve started watching the last disk in the collection and I’m already getting depressed that we’ve worked our way through them. They’re a huge hit with Pierce.

While we were watching Nora laid down on the couch with me and held Anna in her lap. Within 10 minutes they’d both fallen asleep. I wish we’d taken a picture, it was very sweet.

-Eric (Dad)

Pierce has a ViewMaster projector that he got as a gift a few years ago. At the time he got it he was a little too young for it. He’s recently rediscovered it and he and Anna like to host their version of “Movie Night”.

Recently Nora bid on, and won, several sets of ViewMaster discs on eBay and they arrived in the mail over the weekend. After dinner Nora had me and the kids go upstairs and play hide and seek while she set up her surprise. When we came back downstairs Nora had set up the kitchen like a movie theater, made cookies, and setup the projector to show the new disks.

Pierce and Anna were extremely excited (so was Nora). The new disks included scenes from Cinderella, Bambi, and Snow White. But the hands down favorite was the disk with scenes from Herbie the Love Bug. Pierce and Anna spent the remainder of the evening projecting Herbie on every flat surface in the house.

-Eric (Dad)

Ahh, back home again. I’ve been on the road for the last few weeks. Week one was in Springfield, IL and last week was in New Jersey. Both sets of customers are extremely nice and the visits went well. But it’s nice to have my travel calendar clear for a little while.

The Lindenberg family is healthy again –Pierce and Anna are done throwing up and I’m over my cold. Life can resume. Last weekend Nora and the kids traveled with her sister-in-law, Nicole, and her children to St. Louis for a surprise birthday party. Billy (my brother-in-law) and I stayed behind and worked on finishing his basement. Very fun. There’s something very cathartic about swinging a hammer for a few hours. I’m hoping to take what I learn from Billy’s project and apply it to my own basement in the future.

While the families were in St. Louis they got some quality hotel pool-time in. Nora tells me that Pierce hasn’t lost any of his skills and was swimming like a fish. Anna did well but still needs some assistance. The chemicals in the pool were not adjusted properly and everyone’s suits were bleached out. Anna had the only new suit and it went from purple to pink (her favorite color) so she wasn’t too upset.

Anna hit another milestone last night. She woke up and told Nora she needed to use the bathroom (instead of going in her pull-up). She’s been consistently dry in the mornings, so we think potty training is just about complete. When this last package of pull-ups is gone I think we won’t be replacing it. Yeah!

Next weekend we’re off to Omaha to see my Dad and Mary. I think we’ll get some more quality hotel pool-time in while we’re there. I’m getting excited about the visit; we haven’t seen them since last summer.

We made another run to the library last week. I’m reading The Da Vinci Cod –it’s a parody of a book with a similar name (perhaps you’ve heard of it?). Pierce’s favorite is MoonDogs –a story about a boy who goes to the moon to get a pet dog. I don’t think Anna has found a book in this latest batch that has drawn her attention.

-Eric (Dad)

Its like we had the “Perfect Storm” of illness; Pierce got some kind of stomach bug that had him sick to his stomach all week. I lost track of the number of times we had to change the sheets on his bed and his pajamas. He cried Friday morning when he was only allowed to have plain waffles –no syrup.

By Friday evening he’s back to his normal self and Nora and I are able to a catch a show (by ourselves). Come Saturday night its Anna’s turn. The first wave of vomit hit at midnight. It seemed like every three hours she was at it again. I’m putting sheets on her bed that I didn’t even know we still had, it must have been at least 10 years since some of them have been used. Nora, of course, was Supermom and handled the whole thing beautifully.

The interesting thing is the difference in how Pierce and Anna handle vomiting. Pierce wails and cries and is generally miserable. Anna makes interesting observations like, “I just divided through my mouth”. Between bouts you’d never even know she was under the weather.

-Eric (Dad)