news of the boy
Wed, 05 Apr 2006 - 12:48
It's tough keeping up with the ever-changing technology, but thanks to Apple's new "iWeb" application, it's easier than ever to create and post Blog entries (meaning, Mommy can do it now). Accordingly, you can now follow The Boy's adventures at the New Location:
Fri, 23 Dec 2005 - 09:23So The Boy was rummaging through the fridge this morning (he's been able to open the door for a while now, and gets drinks, apples, etc. for himself) and came out with a grapefruit.
Mommy and Daddy wouldn't feed grapefruit to the dog (who doesn't like it, either), but Granni had included some in a basket of fruit.
Mommy told her "I keep meaning to bring those back to you -- nobody here eats them."
"What about Dalton?" Granni asked.
"Dunno," replied Mommy. "We've never given any to him."
So Mommy cut the grapefruit open and The Boy put a piece in his mouth and got an odd look on his face. Then he tried another bit, and his face screwed up a little more. The Third Time being the proverbial Charm, he gave it one more attempt before asking Mommy "What's in this strawberry?"
"It's not a strawberry, it's a grapefruit. Do you like it?"
"Yeah..." says The Boy hesitantly.
"Well, eat some more."
"But I don't like it," says The Boy. "Can I be excused from the table?"
On a whim, Daddy suggested giving a bit to Lexie, to see if the house was an official "Grapefruit-free Zone." The Boo ate the first piece and made the face she usually makes upon encountering some new taste, but she chowed two more pieces down without complaint.
It figures that we'd have one Grapefruit Holdout in the house.
Sun, 18 Dec 2005 - 16:57
The Boy just returned from a quick Down-n-Back trip to visit his cousin Sarah to celebrate her 4th birthday. A fine time was had by all, but as usual some bug jumped him there and Dalton spent the morning tossing his cookies (actually, banana, toast and milk). Lexie chucked in the truck on the way home the previous night, and Mommy figured it was the car-sickness that she's prone to. Maybe it was and maybe it wasn't -- Boo chowed plenty of food this morning and hasn't hurled (yet) so if we're all lucky it'll be a mild 24-hour-or-less deal (and Mommy and Daddy won't get it at all!).
He's making gingerbread men with Mommy at the moment, and you'd never know he is (or was) sick.
In other news, we all went to ride The Polar Express on the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad -- and the fact that it was the 13th made itself apparent. The tickets Mommy reserved turned out to be for the 14th -- but since the train wasn't sold out, we only had to cough up some extra cash to "transfer" the tickets for the 13th. Mommy claims the dude on the phone didn't get the order right when she called to make the reservations.
There would be pictures to view, but in the train coach Mommy sat on the digital camera and it was D.O.A. We'll probably be able to pull the photos that are on it off at some point, but the camera itself is toast. Might be worth fixing, we don't know. Happily, we brought the video camera as well, and that worked (as far as we know).
Finally, after we got off the train, Daddy decided we'd have lunch at "The Station Restaurant" right across the street from the depot. Bad choice, Daddy. Six and a half bucks for a mediocre Reuben sandwich that came with nothing but a pickle, and a glass of water which tasted like it came from the toilet bowl. According to Mommy, her Lobster Ravioli was alright, and the Boo chowed down most of the Chicken Strips that she and Dalton shared (he concentrated on the French Fries, and Daddy snared a few of those, too), so it wasn't a total loss. Won't be dropping back in for a return visit, however.
In between the mishaps, we had a great time. The coach we were in had 8-10 other people in it who were all very nice, and the two "chefs" that were our hosts during the trip were terrific. We all got hot chocolate and cookies, and sang Christmas carols and heard the story of The Polar Express. Then Santa Claus boarded the train.Dalton has seen the movie several times (and watched it on the way to the train station that morning) and has said all he wants for Christmas is a Silver Bell from Santa's sleigh. Well, he got one (and so did Lexie) directly from Santa on the train. He has misplaced it since then, but is confident that Santa will bring it back to him on Christmas, just like in the story.
Earlier in December, we visited his cousin Isabel, who just turned two. His Grandma and Grandpobbies came down from Minnesota, and it was good to see them. One of the highlights of the day for Dalton was the trip to a nearby school playground -- and since that happened before the death of the digital camera, there are pictures to look at, too. Isabel's grandparents (George and Nita) arrived later on, and we all had a fine pizza dinner before heading back home.
The day before that, we went to Bonsal with Granni and Pop-Pop and rode the Santa Train there (more pictures) -- luckily it was a nice day, since we were in open-air cars and the train moved at a pretty good clip. We were bundled up, though, and had a good time. Dalton ran around like a loon, looking at all the engines and coaches, but wasn't all that thrilled with Santa. At least he didn't scream or cry.
Thanksgiving dinner was at Dalton's house this year, and Granni and Pop-Pop, the Smith Family and cousins Amanda and Chelsea all packed in for the feast. It was Mommy's first-ever turkey, and it was tasty! We put the turkey in a brine the previous evening (following the recipe from Alton Brown of Good Eats on the Food Network) and it couldn't have been better. Yum! Of course, there were all the usual fixin's to go with it and we all stuffed ourselves silly, with stuffing, potatoes, green beans, sweet potatoes, and pies. There are, of course, photos of the festivities.
Now you're all caught up. Guess the "more frequent" part of this deal hasn't panned out quite as planned, but hey -- you're getting what you pay for, right?
Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!
Sun, 20 Nov 2005 - 10:45
Earlier in the month, we all went hiking for the day in the DuPont State Forest. It's a fine place to visit, with plenty of waterfalls (some of the movie The Last of the Mohicans was filmed there) and easy trails, and with the weather cooperating perfectly, we all had a great time.
It was a good thing we went when we did, since "fall" as you might think of it lasted all of about five days up here this year. The warm weather carried through most of October, and the leaves had just begun to turn at the beginning of November. The colors were really beautiful for a few days, then we had two days of strong wind storms which stripped the trees of their foliage and left things all brown and barren.
This was one of those first gorgeous days of fall, though. Mommy carried Lexie in a backpack, and Dalton enjoyed walking through the woods. There are, of course, plenty of pictures to look at. We went to the covered bridge at High Falls, and on the way we saw lots of riders on horses walking the trails. Dalton got to sit in the saddle on a big black horse! At the covered bridge, a ranger gave the Boy a "Smoky the Bear" sticker for his shirt.
Dalton found lots of interesting leaves and sticks, and as usual, just enjoyed being out and about.
After hiking to the covered picnic area overlooking the falls, we ate lunch and The Boy and his sister played by the old stone chimney and generally ran around. We managed to corral them long enough to take a few photos, in our time-honored "self-portrait" style, which involves a lot of practice with a really, really wide-angle lens on the camera. Early in the afternoon, we headed back to the truck and piled. Both munchkins were out like a light in no time, and slept until we got home.
The Boy persists in waking up at Oh-Dark-Thirty -- and the recent "fall back" time change hasn't helped that any. The rest of our household would happily sleep until the crack of noon or thereabouts, but Dalton has evidently been given the job of rousing the birds every morning. It doesn't seem to matter whether he's been running around all day, or if he stayed up late, or if he had a nap -- The Boy awakes at the same ungodly hour.
He wakes up Full Steam Ahead, too -- no lazy morning "ease-into-the-day" routine for him. No, the moment his head pops off the pillow, he's rarin' to go. Mommy has tried the "go back to bed, it's still dark" routine when he gets up, but it's futile. The main problem is in trying to keep the noise level down so The Boy doesn't wake up his sister, who definitely needs her Beauty Sleep (or she's a very grumpy Boo). Unfortunately, Dalton doesn't seem to have a strong grasp on the meaning of the phrase "be quiet."
The most effective solution has been to toss in a DVD and get an hour or so of relative peace, but it doesn't always hold his attention. Normally, that's not a bad thing -- we like the fact that he'd rather play with his trains or draw or mess around with Play-Doh or whatever instead of watching TV, but with Dalton, those other things all have one common element: lots of noise. That, of course, is what we're trying to avoid, and we're not sure how to accomplish it.
Tue, 01 Nov 2005 - 15:26This past weekend we drove down from the mountains to participate in the various Halloween Festivities with Granni and Pop-Pop and the Smith Family and Mommy's friend Kristin.
Saturday we had an invitation to go with Kristin to her church, to play games, have a wienie roast and go "Trunk-or-Treating" in the parking lot.
The Boy is opposed to wearing almost anything other than the usual pants and a shirt -- Mommy put him in a pair of overalls the other day and he had a fit. "Can't I just wear regular pants?!" he wailed. But she showed him how his toy hammer would fit into the loop on the left leg, and he was happy about it after that. He's the only 3-year-old boy in the world who doesn't like dressing up.
What that means is it took considerable convincing for him to wear a Halloween costume -- even though it was Thomas the Tank Engine. Granni had a "Gumby" suit set up on a tripod, and Dalton was a little afraid of it. So we told him that he could either be Gumby or Thomas, and he chose accordingly. He still asked several times throughout the evening if he could take his costume off.
The Boo was dressed as Minnie Mouse, and was a big hit with everyone, even though she kept pulling off her "ears." She didn't like having them on her head, although the rest of the costume didn't bother her a bit.
At the church party, Dalton played some halloween games for a while, and won a very cute stuffed Winnie-the-Pooh bear (which his sister immediately took ownership of, as The Boy wasn't interested) and a few plastic creepy-crawlies. Then he decided it would be more fun to run around the church grounds and explore, with Daddy in tow. Eventually, Mommy flagged him down and we went to roast hotdogs and marshmallows at the bonfire. That is to say, Daddy roasted the wienies and marshmallows, since the fire was pretty hot and Dalton didn't want to stick around near it.
The kids wolfed down the dogs and the chips and the marshmallows and the sodas, then it was time to run. Dalton started zipping this way and that around a grassy area, until he tripped on his costume and took a header into the dirt. There was some crying and Mommy took off his Thomas outfit and he immediately started running around again. At that point, some of the other kids started running with him, and they played a merry game of "chase me" for a while.
Eventually, it was time to hit the parking lot for "Trunk-or-Treat" out of the backs of the cars. Mommy and Lexie stayed with the Explorer to hand out goodies, while Daddy and Dalton cruised the cars for candy. The Boy was very cute and polite, since we had cautioned him to refrain from using "Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat!" and employ instead the much simpler and shorter "Trick or treat!" That worked, and he said "Thanks!" when the loot was delivered to his waiting bag.
By the time we returned to Granni & Pop-Pop's, both munchkins were running on empty, and even with the sugar buzz, bedtime was quick in coming.
Sunday, we had a triple birthday celebration for Pop-Pop, Kip and Ben, then went to the playground at a nearby elementary school where there were again some plentiful opportunities to run around like fools. The Boy dug in the sand, slid on the slides, and rode a "real" bike for the very first time! The Smiths had kindly brought one of their kids' little bikes, complete with training wheels, and Dalton had a fine time pedaling around the basketball court. Not bad, considering that just two weeks ago he finally got the knack of using the pedals on his trike!
On Halloween night, we journeyed to the mall -- mostly just to run around some more, since the last thing we needed was more candy. We stayed for about an hour or so, walking around the mall and looking at all the other kids in costumes.
Of course, it wouldn't be Halloween at the mall without Christmas decorations, and the photo above shows Dalton standing in front of the display where Santa will be hanging out in a few weeks. How irritating. It wasn't a total loss, though, as The Boy scored a couple more pieces of candy from some of the stores, then we came back home and went to bed.
Wed, 26 Oct 2005 - 22:19
Dalton writes his name! (sort of)
The Boy has been pretty interested in letters and writing recently. Aunt Stephanie got him a Thomas the Tank Engine book with a dry-erase marker for his birthday and he likes to trace over the names of all the engines (Thomas, Percy, Henry, etc.). He's getting good at it, and today Mommy showed him how to write "Boy" -- and he promptly wrote it on his own paper.
He's been spelling "boy" for a few months (it's his login on the iMac) -- you can ask him how to spell it, and he chirps out "Bee-Oh-Why boy!" He also knows how to spell "toy" and "mom" and is working on "dad."
Dalton can count to 50 now -- he figured out what to do after "20" a couple weeks ago, and once he learned that after "29" came "30" and after "39" came "40" he was set. He usually drops back down to 30 or 40 once he hits 50, but he enjoys counting.
Reading stories is a regular activity before bedtime, especially his Thomas stories, or any other story that has a train element to it. There's a Margaret Wise Brown story about a train from Kalamazoo to Timbuctoo, and Dalton insists that it's not Timbuctoo but rather "Tim-buc-one." Okay, CountingBoy, whatever you say.
Fri, 14 Oct 2005 - 20:45In an effort to provide more timely service, the Management has decided to see if setting up a Blog for The Boy would improve things around here.
Dashing off a few simple lines every day or week rather than having to create Small Novels every few weeks (or months, as the case has been) will hopefully allow the Teeming Millions to slake their thirst for updates on what Dalton has been doing.
