The Lindenbergs

At Anna's request, last night we watched Finding Nemo. Anna's developed a new habit, when a "scary" part of the movie comes on she hides under the kitchen table.

We all enjoyed watching it -I had forgotten how good it really is. As much as I enjoyed the new Cars movie I don't think it can hold a candle to Finding Nemo. Interestingly, as a parent, I'm starting to really be able to identify with Marlin. When Nora and I first saw the movie we didn't have children, and I watched it from a completely different perspective.

Anna fell asleep on the way home from her Grandparents, so Nora put her down for a nap and Pierce and I went to his t-ball practice (usually we go as a family). I help out pretty much every practice and really enjoy it. The kids are so funny -there are a few who "get it", the rest are more concerned about picking flowers and playing in the dirt.

Pierce is getting marginally better at paying attention, but still spends more time looking up at the sky. His throwing skills are really improving (unless he decides to throw "side-arm" -then its anyone's guess where the ball will go). Batting seems to be a hit or miss proposition (no pun intended). Some of his swings, and hits, are beautiful. Other times you'd swear he'd never held a bat before.

One of his teammates, Geric, is a "natural" with lots practice with his Dad. Geric loves to slide into bases. He was manning first base and slid into it everytime a player hit the ball off the T. Outfielders almost hit him in the head with the ball every time they threw it to him.

-Eric (Dad)

Pierce's caterpillar, Harold, emerged from its cocoon over the weekend. In celebration of the event Pierce renamed it Laurie and set it free the next day. I think all of us are in awe that we actually got to watch the process happen.

Anna was in rare form this weekend. On Sunday we went over to Nora's parent's house for a belated birthday dinner for Joann (Nora's Mom). For dessert the kids had ice cream while the adults had homemade cheesecake. The cheesecake eaters were outside on the deck, the ice cream eaters indulged in front of the TV.

On the way home, Anna, bereft of nap, began to moan and groan that she didn’t get any cake. The conversation went like this:

Anna: I didn’t get any cake

Eric and Nora: No, all the kids got ice cream. Adults had cheesecake

Anna: I need cake. We need to go back so I can have cake.

Eric and Nora: Honey, the cake’s all gone.

Anna: (through tears) When we get home we need to make a cake so I can eat it!

Eric and Nora: No, when we get home its time for bed

Anna: (crying harder) but I’m not tired! I don’t want to go to bed!

The rest of the trip home consisted of much crying and protestations that she was not tired; that she did not want to go to bed and that she needed to have cake. This continued while I got her undressed, while she brushed her teeth and while we put on pajamas.

Then she fell asleep on my shoulder.

-Eric (Dad)

Wow, I didn’t realize my powers of prediction were so strong (I should get to a casino fast). Pierce lost his tooth Tuesday at dinner. A bite into his Subway sandwich did the trick. The first thing he did when it fell out was pick it up off the floor and run into the dining room to look at his mouth in the wall mirror. Only after that did he come back into the kitchen to tell us he’d lost the tooth. The (generous) Tooth Fairy left him a dollar under his pillow. Early the next morning he excitedly came into our bedroom to show us his dollar. He’s decided he’d like to spend it at the Dollar Store (anyone want to bet he’ll buy a car?). Anna was, of course, very excited about the loss of Pierce’s tooth and has been walking around trying to wiggle her teeth with her fingers ever since.

The caterpillar Pierce “caught” has turned in to two caterpillars. Apparently, when Nora went back to the garden to get Harold some leaves to eat there was a second caterpillar on one of the leaves. Since being put in the bug jar one of the caterpillars has started making a cocoon. The other got a little manhandled (kidhandled?) by Pierce and Anna and is showing signs of wanting to die. He may “escape” one of these evenings if the trend continues.

Pierce had t-ball practice last night. He fell asleep in the car on the way over, so he wasn’t quite as enthusiastic about practice when we got there as he usually is. Fortunately, he shook it off and got into the swing of things fairly quickly. For a change I remembered to bring my glove, so I was able to help field hits as the kids practiced. Anna was extremely well behaved throughout the practice. She brought a stuffed Cat in the Hat that she played with most of the time.

Pierce and Anna finished their day off with a “midnight snack” (according to Pierce) –breadsticks and strawberries.

I got industrious last night and drained our now-empty fish tank. We’re going to stow it in the basement for a while and use the space for a computer desk and workstation. Hopefully it will be something Pierce and Anna will become comfortable using. I also put some trim on the DVD shelf I built awhile back. I was pleased with the look of the bookcase I built (that used trim) and thought that this addition would improve the look of the DVD shelf too. It’s not bad, but it definitely needs to be stained. I have a miter box and saw that I used to make angled corners and they work great. But man, it is hot work using that thing on a muggy summer night.

-Eric (Dad)

Last weekend was spent primarily at the pool. We’ve had a run of hot weather with temperatures getting into the 90s. Nora and I are still getting used to the idea of Pierce swimming without water wings, but he’s doing great. Anna absolutely loves to jump into the pool. She’s got different jumps (of course, they all look the same to me). She particularly likes it when we hold hands and jump in together.

We had some neighbors over for hamburgers and hotdogs on Saturday night. They’re new additions to the neighborhood and very nice. They have three children, the oldest two are close to Pierce and Anna’s ages and they play well together. Both their older boys are Star Wars fans, so there was a lot of singing of the movie’s theme song during dinner. We had dessert out on the patio (messy and delicious ice cream bars) then Pierce started catching fireflies with his bug net. The evening ended when all the kids were ready to drop from exhaustion.

Last night (Monday) was a pretty quiet evening. Sunday night Anna did not sleep well, she seemed to be having a lot of nightmares. Consequently, she fell asleep at dinner and was in bed before 7:00 pm. When she fell asleep she was wearing a Cinderella costume and pretty much refused to let me take it off her when putting her to bed. I ultimately let her fall into a deep sleep before Nora made another attempt.

Nora and I grabbed a couple of beers and read out on the patio while Pierce went on another mad bug hunt. I found a caterpillar in our vegetable garden and gave it to Pierce –he was extremely excited. We put him in a bug jar with some lettuce leaves and Pierce named him Harold. Pierce has a deep and abiding interest in caterpillars/butterflies and has decided he’d like to keep this one until it turns into a butterfly. We have several books on the subject and Nora and I thought we knew what we were committing to. This morning most of the lettuce had been eaten and the bug jar was filled with caterpillar poop –yuck, none of the books told us about caterpillar poop.

Pierce finished off the evening by catching fireflies with Nora. He’s the expert catcher, than Nora helps transfer the bugs from the net to the bug cage. The cage must have had upwards of 20 fireflies by the end of the evening. Before we went in Pierce released them back into the “wild” –mostly by tossing them into the air as if he were releasing carrier pigeons.

We’ve been having some problems with our dog, Josie. After a year of perfect behavior, she’s started peeing in the front rooms of the house. You can imagine how excited I am by the prospect. She’s been checked by the vet (who suspected a bladder infection) and has gone through two rounds of antibiotics, but the problem doesn’t appear to be getting appreciably better. Out of self-defense we’ve decided to start keeping her in a dog cage when we’re not home. Pierce and I went out to PetsMart after dinner last night to pick one out.

Nora and I (the two Stooges) somehow managed to assemble the thing. All I can say is you don’t get much dog cage for your money these days. Interestingly, PetsMart’s credit authorization process was not working when we went to checkout. In a desperate attempt to keep my business, they actually sold me the cage for the amount of cash I had in my pocket –appreciably less than it originally rang up for.

Since Pierce is out of school for the summer, Nora has modified her schedule. A few days a week she’s taking Pierce and Anna over to her parent’s house early then going straight to the gym for a workout. I’m so proud of her. She seems to be enjoying the workouts (she reads her favorite books while riding the stationary bike).

Our poor house is way overdue for an exterior painting. We haven’t had it painted since we bought it and the housing is suffering from wood rot and areas where the paint was touched up distinctly show as a different shade. After numerous estimates we finally decided on a painter. The company is so backed up we’re not scheduled to start until July –so we haven’t actually picked a color yet. The company offers a deal where they’ll paint the interior of your house for cost during the off-season. How can you beat that?

Pierce and Anna continue to grow like weeds. While their faces still look the same (to me anyway) it looks like they’ve been put on stretching machines. Interestingly, even as they grow and thin out they are retaining their little Buddha bellies.

Pierce has a loose tooth that he’s very proud of. He’ll show anyone, including strangers, how he can wiggle it. I expect he’ll be getting a visit from the Tooth Fairy any day now. Anna, who of course adores Pierce, insists that she has a loose tooth too.

Anna is absolutely fascinated with the idea of putting things in other things. She puts balls and beads in boxes, stuffed bears and bunnies in Barbie clothes, and paper dolls in anywhere they’ll fit. Paper dolls are big with her. She regularly carries around a Cinderella paper doll and she’s having Nora make her a “Frosty the Snowman” paper dolls frequently (she must have 3 or 4 of them by now).

Over the weekend Pierce asked that the Herbie costume I made him for Halloween be brought up from the basement. Several months ago I added functional wheels to it, so he can push it or climb into it and race it around. Anna was pretty jealous and was asking me to make one for her –unfortunately, a task a little larger than I want to take on. Ultimately I drew a large-scale picture of Herbie (which Anna colored yellow) that we taped to the front of a large toy car that Anna can climb in and drive. She was ecstatic and of course Pierce was jealous –could I build a steering wheel and horn into his Herbie?

-Eric (Dad)

Pierce has finished up his soccer season. I think his playing has improved since the last season, but its a little hard to tell. He likes running and kicking the ball (his dribbling is pretty good), but he doesn't seem very interested in the whole process of playing: no shooting goals, no trying to get the ball. All the players got "medals" at the end of the season and Pierce his been taking it to bed for several days. He's very proud of it -he wanted to take it on vacation with us to the beach. It now has a place of honor on the shelf next to his t-ball trophy.

Pierce's t-ball season started the week before our vacation. Pierce is very "in to" it and is having a lot of fun. He particularly likes batting and, for those who remember from last year, he's playing in the dirt a lot less this time around. Yesterday's practice was fun for me because I got to help out. I fielded hits from the practicing kids and practiced a little catch with Pierce. Anna fell asleep in the car on the way over to practice and didn't wake up until the last 10 minutes. Interesting, because she would usually wake up within the first few minutes of a soccer practice. I guess baseball is more quiet for a sleeping 3-year old.

Now that the weather has warmed, and our neighborhood pool is open, we've been doing some swimming. Tuesday Nora took Pierce and Anna to the pool and, when I got off work, I brought sandwiches over for a picnic dinner. Neither kid has any fear of the water. Pierce looks to be developing into a pretty strong swimmer and Anna is well on her way. They'll resume swimming lessons in a couple of weeks. I'm hoping we can get Pierce onto a swim team either this season or next.

We're still unpacking from our trip to the beach. Seems impossible that we could have packed so much. I can only assume the kids clothes and toys multiplied while in the suitcases. We haven't downloaded the pictures from the still camera yet -hopefully I'll have some pictures to post within a few days.

-Eric (Dad)

We’re back from our annual trip to the Outer Banks. As usual, it was a great time. I think this year’s house has been by far the nicest. It had every amenity imaginable including flat-screen TVs in the bathrooms, double showerheads in the master showers (there were 3 master bedrooms), a 56 inch TV in the rec room, and a very sweet pool table. We chose to have the outdoor pool heated this year, and it made a world of difference. I think we spent more time in the pool in one day than we’ve done for entire weeks in prior years. We had the pool heated to 89 degrees, it was so warm that we rarely used the hot tub –nobody was ever cold.

We had perfect weather for the trip; sunny and in the high 70s or low 80s all week. Pierce and Anna were more interested in the pool than the beach this visit, so we really only had one “beach day”, but Doug and I got several days of surfing in (the waves were pretty small, but we had fun). Unfortunately, Scott brought some work with him this year, but was able to bring his laptop out to the poolside bar –so at least he didn’t have to lock himself away to get it done.

Chance’s friend was not able to come out with him this year. He had to drop out at the last minute. Chance took it in stride and managed to find lots of things to do. He was very good about playing with Pierce, Anna and Kevin, but tended to do more things with his parents and grandparents. Kevin is of the age where he wanted to be around Pierce during most of his waking moments. If Pierces said it or did it, Kevin said it or did it too. Anna had a few unhappy moments where she didn’t feel like she was part of the club but it didn’t get out of hand.

Bill, Joanne, and Carrie were not able to make it this year. Their absence was felt and we hope to have them join us again next year. With them not present no one attempted to complete any jigsaw puzzles. Nora and Stacy brought lots of activities for everyone to do. Nora brought lots of gear for tie dying and the shirts came out great. Stacy brought crafts for making door hangers, necklaces and bracelets. And Nora brought crafts for making picture frames. All the kids had lots of crayons, paints and paper and I think all of the adults ended up leaving with a custom picture drawn by at least one kid.

Nora and I took Pierce and Anna to go see the movie “Over the Hedge”. It was very good, but a little slow for Anna –more jokes than action. We also managed to make a trip out to the Currituck Lighthouse –always a favorite with Pierce. Both kids managed to climb to the top themselves. We got some great pictures of them looking out over the island.

Doug, Scott and I made good use of the house’s basketball hoop and pool table. We usually did one or both every evening. I think Scott and I were neck-and-neck in our skills this year (Scott ultimately walked out with the “King of the Pool Table” title).

Joining us this year were Doug and Erin’s new arrivals, Derrick and Adam. The twins were born in February and were all of 4 months old. Unfortunately, they both had colds, so they weren’t as happy as they could have been. All the adults had lots of opportunities to hold and feed babies and I think my Mom must have been holding one of the twins for most of her waking hours. Both boys are exceedingly handsome and when they smile they light up a room. Doug and Erin managed their additional parenting tasks with finesse.

The Kansas contingent of the Lindenberg family didn’t have much luck with air travel this year. Our flight out should have been about 6 hours, landing us in Nofolk, Va a little after 6:00 pm. Instead we were about 12 hours in transit and arrived well after midnight. Sadly, we had equally poor results on the way home; getting home after 9:00 pm when we should have been home by dinnertime. Fortunately, we’re all seasoned travelers –we bring food, snacks, games and a portable DVD player. Pierce and Anna both did great.

-Eric (Dad)