The Lindenbergs

Nora went to a scrap booking seminar last weekend, so I got to fly solo with Pierce and Anna for a couple of days.

We had a pretty good weekend. Friday we went across the street to our neighbor's house. Mike and Lizz are expecting twins and earlier that afternoon they got to find out the genders. When we arrived at the door Lizz excitedly asked, "Guess what we're having?", to which Pierce responded "hot dogs!".

Saturday was a big yard work day for me. Both Pierce and Anna kept me company at varying times. Anna's the more "outdoorsy" of the two, so she was usually pretty close by. Later in the afternoon we swung by the Embassy Suites where the scrap booking seminar was taking place. We got to visit with Nora and her best friend, Carrie, and go swimming in the hotel pool. Sadly, the pool was in pretty bad shape; it stunk and the water was murder on the eyes. But we had fun anyway. Anna was extremely upset when we left and Nora stayed behind. But she was back to her old self by bedtime.

Saturday evening Bill and Joann, Nora's parents, joined us for a breakfast dinner at IHOP then came over to the house to watch an episode of the Justice League with Pierce and Anna. Very relaxing and enjoyable. I always enjoy their company and, of course, Pierce and Anna adore them.

Sunday, after breakfast, I'd planned a short trip to Science City. Our venture actually turned into about 5 hours. Pierce and Anna kept finding more things they wanted to do. Nora came home while we were still gone and had a chance to put her stuff away and take a little nap before we got back. Interestingly, Anna fell asleep in the car and was pretty much unwakeable. For as much as she wanted to see Nora, she refused to wake up for several hours -but boy did she smile when she finally did.

-Eric (Dad)

I'm sure I've mentioned that Anna is Josie's (our dog) biggest fan. The other night I came home to find a hand drawn picture taped to the inside of Josie's crate. Anna had created a masterpiece to adorn the inside of Josie's "house". The picture was mostly abstract but Anna, who's been working on her letters at school, had liberally sprinkled the picture with writing.

When I asked her what it said she told me "I don't know, I can't read."

-Eric (Dad)

Easter activities started for us about 2 weeks ago. Our neighborhood had its annual Easter hunt at the beginning of April. The weather was pretty questionable, so the hunt was held inside a gymnasium. Pierce is a pretty fierce egg hunter, which is funny, since he doesn’t like most of the types of candy that comes in the eggs (he actually has a pretty limited capacity for the candy he does like). Anna loves candy, but isn’t much of an egg hunter. She gets help from Mom and Dad in pointing her towards unfound eggs. It’s hard to believe, but this will be the last year Pierce can participate in the Homestead Woods Easter egg hunt. Next year he’ll be too old. Fortunately, the older kids have games to participate in, so we have a few years of activities left.

Starting off Easter proper, Dad and Mary sent the kids small baskets that arrived on Thursday. It was a nice mix of candy, popcorn and toys and was a very big hit with Pierce and Anna. Friday we headed off to Omaha to spend the Easter weekend with Dad and Mary.

We had a great visit, starting off with dinner at a Sports Pub Friday evening when we got into town. We went back to Dad and Mary’s apartment for dessert and a video –we brought several with us. The evening’s pick was Happy Feet. We didn’t finish it (it was pretty late) but left the movie with Dad –he was enjoying it a great deal.

Saturday morning started with a complimentary hotel breakfast and a swim in the indoor pool. We tried a different hotel this time; our old standby had their pool under maintenance. The hotel was a mixed bag, we stayed in a “kid’s suite”, which was just perfect for us (a separate bedroom with bunk beds for Pierce and Anna), but the hotel’s service was substandard. We’ll probably try something else next visit. And the pool was extremely cold. Nora and I lasted about an hour before we had to call it quits.

After a quick lunch with Dad and Mary, we headed off to a Children’s Museum in downtown Omaha. It was a little slow for Nora and me, but Pierce and Anna loved it. Its probably one of the nicer museums we’ve been too –a lot of thought, effort and money went into it. We finished the day with dinner at the Pizza Machine; a cross between an all you can eat pizza buffet and an uber arcade. We all ate like pigs and played video games, did rides and tried to win prizes. Pierce and Anna each won enough tickets to get an air-powered rocket.

Sunday morning, Pierce and Anna awoke to Easter baskets (I wonder how that happened?). The baskets each included some trinkets and new L-Max games –a very big hit. Plus a little candy. Anna wondered how the Easter bunny knew we’d be at a hotel and how he had access to Leap Pad games…

As you’ve probably gathered, the main activity on this visit was eating. We finished up our visit with a wonderful Sunday brunch at a restaurant at the historic Old Market in downtown. Except for Anna, we had custom made omelets (Pierce wrote his own order ticket for scrambled eggs), prime rib, sausage, French toast, and lots of dessert. We were on the top floor of a 3-story restaurant which was serviced by the kitchen by elevator. Interestingly, they just couldn’t seem to get desserts to the top floor fast enough.

As much as we would have like to have stayed longer, we left for home from the restaurant. We went to our house briefly to let the dog out, and discovered some very nice baskets left by Nora’s friend Carrie. There was even a basket for Josie (our dog). We then headed off to Nora’s parents house for an Easter egg hunt and dinner.

As with most of the country, Easter weekend was very cold. But, fortunately, it was much warmer in Kansas than it was in Nebraska. Nora’s extended family made it for the activities. We got lots of video of all the kids hunting for eggs. Of course, Easter baskets were waiting for Pierce and Anna, complete with candy and a jumbo bottle of bubble solution. All the kids went out to the back deck to blow bubbles across the back yard. The evening finished with, you guessed it, more food. A wonderful meal of ham, German potato salad, corn, bread and upside-down pineapple cake.

If I was a camel my hump would be very large.

-Eric (Dad)

We had two memorable moments with Anna yesterday.

1. At dinner Nora and Anna were having a light-hearted debate over the number of pieces of ham Anna needed to eat. As a reminder, Nora held up three fingers to which Anna responded "Two" (keep in mind, Anna can easily count to 30). "No," says Nora, "count again". "Four, five?" guessed Anna. I jumped in, "let's count together". I pointed to Nora's first finger, "One", says Anna. I pointed to the next finger, "two", says Anna. I pointed to the last finger, "four" says Anna. Pause (wait for it), "I got you!" declared our little stinker.
2. Anna was doing some serious foot-dragging when it was time for her bath. I had to repeatedly ask her to get undressed (a pet peeve of mine, I don't like to repeat myself). She'd start to get undressed, then would get distracted by an Easter basket; moving toys in and out of it. After my third request to get undressed I had to threaten to put the basket and toys away. Anna's response was to cross her arms across her chest and put on her "mad" face. So I used the same trick my parents used on me, "Anna, you'd better not smile. No smiling!" My cutie pie didn't make it ten seconds before the smile cracked through. When I told her she better not laugh she erupted into such a deep belly laugh she got Nora laughing too.

-Eric (Dad)

Yesterday was an interesting day with Pierce:

1. The Roy Orbison song "Pretty Woman" was playing on the stereo. Pierce started singing along, "Pretty Walmart, walking down the street. Pretty Walmart, the kind I'd like to meet..."
2. He and I were reading a Superman comic book at bedtime. Metropolis was called the "Big Apricot". Now keep in mind, Pierce doesn't know that New York is called the Big Apple, but he thought this was hilarious.
3. In the same comic book, a young superhero is having "dialog" with a bad guy robot. It went something like, "Let's play disassemble the robot, we'll start by pulling this gizmo out of your chest" (the robot falls over dead) "ahh, you lost your sad semblance of a life and a chance at a new car". Again, Pierce doesn't understand the context, he's never seen a game show, but he thought the funniest thing he'd ever heard. After we turned out the lights and said our good nights, giggling emanated from Pierce's room with the repeated refrain, "lost your life and a chance at a new car.."

-Eric (Dad)

Yes Way! Hey, I know I don't get out here nearly often enough to share my version of life with Eric, Pierce and Anna! I'm sorry, I'll try to do better but can't promise any more than that.

So, where do I begin? I read a few of Eric's most recent postings, so let me start by commenting on those. The story about Pierce not wanting to read out loud to me and my reaction is true. His response did hurt a little, but I was trying not to take it personally. I was also really tired that evening, which may have been a factor in how I felt. Eric was a neutral party and talked to Pierce about it. I was amazed (even in my half-asleep state) when Pierce came in early the next morning to apologize to me and try to make it right by offering to read to me later that day. I am so proud of him! And yes, the story about Anna and the tennis 'skort' is true. Eric was more on Anna's side in that one, I think. I just find it so hard to believe that at 4 years old she already cares so much about looking 'cool'. I don't know how she came up with her definition of 'cool', but it doesn't include skirts and dresses anymore and I can only assume it has something to do with the fact that she has an older brother, three older cousins who are boys and three cousins that are about her age or younger, also boys! On top of that, the majority of the neighbor kids close to her age are boys! I was so glad when she started school so she would be able to have some girls to make friends with. However, I am going to try not to worry about what she does and doesn't like to wear. I remember a few outfits I hated to wear when I was a kid too...

I can hardly believe this school year is close to it's end! Anna's first year of preschool, Pierce in Kindergarten - it's so funny how Pierce's and Anna's attutudes toward school are different. Pierce loves school and looks forward to seeing his teachers and friends. He gets to work immediately in the morning, usually a drawing or reading a book. Anna, on the other hand, doesn't want me to go most mornings. She needs some suggestions for starting her day, and usually Mrs. Chaney is the one who helps her with that. her teachers tell us that once she gets started, she actually enjoys school.

I'm so impressed and proud of Eric! He did a really great job getting the whole house fan in and I'm looking forward to trying it out when it warms up again. He did have some help from my brother, Billy, and we really appreciate it! Thanks Billy!!

Anna helped me plant some rose bushes yesterday - well, she actually helped with the watering, not the digging. I am not much of a gardener, but I love roses and we've had good luck with them in our yard. I planted two new bushes on the garage side (we had one there already) and two in the front of the house. I want to plant more in the back yard too. I am really excited about this summer when they are all in bloom! And, I've got my little herb garden from last year. The Chives came back as expected. I need to figure out what else to plant - definitely Basil, maybe Cilantro and Rosemary...

Well, I've got much more to say, but it's getting late. I'll try to get back here soon to write more. Oh, wait before I forget, Pierce made up a little poem the other day(at least I think he made it up). I like it & think it's cute, but for some reason he is very shy about repeating it when I ask. It went something like this:

It's cold outside,
but it looks warm.
I think it's likely
a tornado will form.

I'll be back...

Nora (Mom)

There's an internet movie that's been out for several years; 405 The Movie (Click here to view it on youtube.com). The 3 minute movie is about a passenger liner that makes an emergency landing on a highway and ends up landing its nose on a guy's Jeep. Just as things can't get any worse, the guy driving the Jeep spots an elderly woman driving about 2 mph directly in his path. I showed the movie to Pierce and Anna last week and its become a recurring topic of conversation (they've re-viewed it several times since).

I told Pierce that if he was interested, he could draw me a picture of the plane and Jeep and I would scan them into my computer and make it look like he was driving the drawing of the Jeep and Anna the old woman's car. Pierce assured me he'd draw a really big airplane (despite my protests that I didn't need a big airplane drawing, I could make it the correct size in the computer). On Sunday he taped about 30 sheets of paper together and drew an airplane well over 6 feet long. I'm not sure how I'm going to scan it into the computer.

-Eric (Dad)

With the help of my brother-in-law, Billy, I put a whole-house fan in this week. The job was relatively easy (the house was pre-wired and pre-framed for the fan), but it still took more time than it should have. It was an enjoyable task and the end result is one we'll reap benefits from as the weather grows warmer.

Interestingly, Anna was fascinated by the whole process. She helped carry tools, reminded me to wear my safety classes, and stayed close through most of the construction (sometimes a little too close for my comfort). When she was younger she used to love to play with toy tools and a minature workbench. I may have to break it back out for her again.

She got pretty upset when we went into the attic and she couldn't see us. She tried to talk to us the whole time we were up there. It will be interesting to see if her interest in home improvement continues as she grows older.

-Eric (Dad)