Change!

We bought a trampoline for the boys when C was barely 3 and K was just 1.  They loved it then, and still love it today.  The jumps have gotten much bigger, and the tricks have come a long way.  We used to play a game we called "Change."  I would pick an animal to be and I would announce what type of animal I was. When C or K was able to knock me down I had to "Change," which merely meant that I had to announce a new animal and attempt to attack them while portraying some characteristics of that animal.  For several years, this was the greatest trampoline game for them.  They would laugh hysterically when I had to change from a tiger to a pteranodon, etc.

Today I marveled at how old they are as they showed me their flips on the trampoline.  They still want me to bounce with them, but I suspect it is mostly because my weight can really help to vault them into the air even higher.  When you had a baby three months ago trampolines can be a tad disconcerting.  I had to hold my jelly belly as I was bouncing, and put some extra faith in my bladder.

Here are some videos of two flipping boys.  C is getting really close to landing his flip on two feet.

Already!?!

This afternoon we headed to my least favorite big box store for some back to school supply shopping.  The school supply aisle looked like a bomb had gone off.  The only crayons left in any sort of order were the horrible waxy Rose Art ones.  The entire Crayola section had completely exploded, there were heaps of random supplies piled around haphazardly.  I was quickly reminded why I like to avoid this store. 

On our list, each boy needed to select one single subject notebook and two two-pocket folders.  K quickly selected a very cute little puppy notebook and vacillated between some three-dimensional dinosaur folders and a Toy Story III folder with soldiers on it.  C was more hesitant.  He isn't the fastest decision maker on a good day, but today he had other things on his mind.  C told me he didn't think he could choose Toy Story because he might be too old for it, and he didn't want anyone to laugh at him.  He hasn't even started back to school yet and he already knows to think about his peers. 

They grow so fast

A will be 12 weeks old tomorrow.  Here is a short but sweet video of her first day.

A at 2 weeks

I love, love watching A wake up. These are clips of A waking, rather attempting to waken, at just 2 weeks (these were taken near the end of June).  She had a bad case of thrush on her tongue, but it cleared up pretty quickly.  The baby mouth is so fun to watch.

Safety in numbers?

In early July we took a day trip to Lake of the Woods.  The boys and Johan rode the Fish Lake to Lake of the Woods trail on their bikes with some friends.  A and I waited at Lake of the Woods for the group.  When the boys arrived they wanted to rent a paddle boat.  I am sure this is what good parents do:

Yes, that little boat is loaded up with 5 boys. They are ALL wearing life vests, and they really aren't that far from the shore.  Nikki and I (with A strapped to me in the Bjorn and Max on his leash) are running along the shore shouting instructions.  The boys are jostling for control over the steering mechanism and the prime front seats.  What this picture fails to capture is the massive amount of wind.  It turns out that paddle boating is really quite difficult on windy days.

This event became briefly scary/hilarious when the boys were blown into the docks where the big boats are kept while trying to park their paddle boat.  As the boat was being blown perilously close to several nice big boats, two of the boys (literally) jumped ship.  With A strapped to me, I could merely watch.  Nikki leaped to the rescue, boarded the vessel and unflinchingly piloted it into the headwind with aplomb.

All babies should come with...

...older brothers!  This morning I slipped out of my bed quietly, because A was sleeping in it, and got on the treadmill.  Sometime during my run C and K woke up.  Not much later A woke up.  K was quick to pick her up.  He is getting very good at comforting her with some gentle rocking.  C came to let me know that A was awake.  By the time I made it upstairs K had A propped up on the sofa and was talking to her.  She seemed content enough so I asked K if he would mind staying with her while I showered.  When I was finished with my shower this is what I found:

The boys were in their room setting up for a game of Axis and Allies.  They had laid A out on the floor and she was happy to be watching them play.  One boy would take his turn while the other would chat with A, then they would switch.  She was still content so I was able to finish getting ready while C and K entertained A.  Apparently three-month olds are much easier when they come with 9 and 7 year olds.

"A" Laughs

A sure does love her papa. I love her super cute baby sounds. Yesterday we caught her laughing on video.

David and Goliath

Last weekend was C's first soccer tournament.  He is playing "classic" soccer now and is thrilled to be playing in this new very challenging league.  I took the boys and A to Portland for the tournament.  The competition was fierce, but C played well.  He did not back down, even as he took on very tough, very large opponents...

Smiling

When A was just a couple of days old her mouth would occasionally turn up in a sort of smile.  The boys asked why she was smiling.  We told them that sometimes it could be "just gas."  For C and K who very much appreciate bathroom humor this was a fabulous explanation.  Having gas quickly earned a new nickname, "smiling."  Now there are times when I walk into my boys room and have to ask, "Whew...who smiled?"

We went to church this evening and A was asleep in her car seat.  About halfway through mass we decided to wake her up, hoping that this would lead to a better night of sleep for us.  Johan lifted her out of her car seat and we all enjoyed gazing at her as she slowly woke up.  As consciousness returned, she started to stretch, and pass gas smile...loudly.  The first smile caught C by surprise, the result was a case of the giggles.  With the next few smiles C could barely contain himself.  K missed the excitement because evening mass often makes him sleepy.  A's smiling was timed for the start of communion (the solemn time when the church is super quiet).  The families in front of us and behind us were suppressing giggles, and I was hoping that they realized that it was our little girl who was the one responsible for all of the smiling.

Wakey Wakey...

Baby A is here and we are in love.  In the past week her attention span has sky rocketed.  Ahemmmmm...genius???  She loves to hear us talk to her, and is getting more and more reliable about returning a smile.  Nightime fussiness continues, but is thankfully waning.

I absolutely love watching her wake up.  Johan got this great series of her a little over a week ago.  In these pictures she is approaching 5 weeks old.  No poker face here, you know exactly how she is feeling.

I brought her out to the kitchen as she was waking up in the morning.  She is not a morning girl...poor thing has inherited my preference for late nights.

Here she is relaxed, sleeping in...

Starting to stir...

Can you tell how A is feeling right now?

Loving that lower lip.

This mouth is in constant motion.

Oh I wish this were a video, the little grunts are so cute!

Yikes!

Good Morning Sunshine!

Baby A!!!

Johan made a video for both of the boys when they were born. Here is Ms. A's...

A Snag

Johan and I picked the boys up from camp this afternoon (because we were not at the hospital having a baby).  When I found K he quickly let me know that he was a little disappointed because while fishing he only caught a "snag."  He said he thought it must have been a "ginormous" fish because he couldn't even reel it in.  When we got to the car K proceeded to tell Johan about the giant "snag" that he had caught.  Then he turned to me and inquired, "Mama, what is a snag?"  It was at this point that burst out laughing, I realized that K must have been told by his camp counselor that he had "caught a snag."  From this K understood that a "snag" must be a really big fish, because it was so difficult to reel in.  He was disappointed because he never got to see the "snag."

C had more luck today, he caught a croaker.  Apparently it really does audibly croak.  C gives an excellent impression.  He was disappointed because although it was 13 inches long (long enough to keep) the camp was only doing catch and release fishing today.  The croaker is a bottom feeder found throughout the Gulf of Mexico and along the Atlantic coast.  Today the boys were fishing on the bottom off of a pier using shrimp.  This is what the croaker looks like:

Fishing Practice

The boys are participating in "Sea-N-Sail" summer camp during their last week in Biloxi. The camp is hosted by the Maritime Museum and they get to do a variety of activities; sailing, shrimping, swimming, etc.  K went on a real working shrimp boat yesterday, C will go today (he is in the older group).  K thought that it was interesting to learn how they shrimp, he said he had never seen "shrimp that are alive."  Along with the shrimp, the boat pulled in two eels and a flounder, which was very exciting. 

At camp, the boys also get to do some fishing and cast netting.  We did not bring our fishing gear with us to Mississippi so I checked out rods for the boys from the MWR office on Keesler AFB.  These rods are a bit longer than the rods they have at home, so before we sent them off for fishing at camp we decided to do a little fishing practice yesterday evening.  Actually, I skipped the practice session.  I stayed in the condo and did some reading and more hoping that "A" will arrive.  So Johan, my mom, and Hector took the boys down to practice.

The water here is extremely shallow.  You have to wade out quite a distance to cast.  Sometimes at the beach I'll call out to the boys to come back in because they are way too far.  They might be 100 yards away, so far that they can hardly hear me.  They are usually laying down flat, so I can't tell how deep it is.  They hear me calling and stand up to get a better idea of what I am saying, and I realize that the water isn't even past their knees.

Here is K hoping for a nibble.



The headline news when the boys returned was C's fish story.  As he burst through the door he exclaimed, "Mama, I caught one!"  K was quick to add that, "It wasn't very big."  C relived the experience telling me that he was reeling in his line and he didn't feel anything, then he looked down and thought, "Hey, that little fish is following my lure."  Not until he pulled up his line did he realize he had actually caught one.  Johan pointed out that the hook couldn't have been much smaller than this fish's mouth.  That is one ambitious fish!



So today the boys are off at camp again.  C's schedule for the day is shrimping aboard the Sailfish, followed by a presentation from the Hurricane Hunters (who are based here at Keesler), and then fishing and cast netting off of Schooner Pier.  Today K will go; sailing aboard one of the Maritime museum's Schooners, fishing, see the Hurricane Hunter presentation, and finally bowling. 

I am so glad that they are at camp this week.  The boys are as ready as I am for A to arrive.  They are frequently asking, "When is A going to be here?"  Or, "Mama, when do you think A will be here?"  Their absence leaves me with plenty of time to lament the fact that I am still pregnant!  Where are you A?  We had thought that we would be leaving Mississippi with a two-week old baby girl.  Now we will be lucky if she is a couple of days old.  We are supposed to start driving one-week from today...

Johan took this shot of our condo from the beach.  We are on the 13th floor of 14, our patio is the one in the center, just below the top floor.

 

Something in the Water

Last night from our balcony on the 13th floor we watched a gorgeous sunset. Then we noticed the water. It looked strange. In patches it was a different color than we had ever seen. Our first thought was, "Oh no, the oil is here." But then we noticed the birds. There were rain clouds in the area, and we had been experiencing off an on thunderstorms all day. Johan thought for a moment that perhaps there was rain falling just in those patchy areas because the water was rippling. We decided to go down to the water for a better look.

When we got to the water the sun had nearly set, but we could see that it was churning. The boys and Johan walked right in. They announced that the water felt like "slimy popcorn." There were literally millions of these tiny fish swimming everywhere. The boys could just dip their hands into the water and come up with several. Here C holds one to show us what they look like:



These little guys were everywhere. The sunlight was mostly gone, this next picture doesn't do justice to the massive amount of little fish out there. The silvery things towards the top of the picture are the fish, not the brown stuff toward the bottom, those are just leaves and wood. I think we had scattered a lot of the fish by the time we took this picture because their initial concentration was much more dense.



Here is K with a couple more:



It was getting very dark, so it was difficult to see what was in the water. K, who picks up everything anyway and thinks that just about all of it is a treasure to behold was just reaching down into the water and picking things up. In New Orleans I had to tell him not to pick up anymore trash because we didn't know who it had belonged to or where it had been. K ran over to Nana and me and he excitedly, almost breathlessly announced, "I just picked something up, and it was hard and had a long tail." He paused here, perhaps for dramatic effect, then, "I think it was either a ray or a horseshoe crab." We responded with the appropriate, "Wow, that is cool K!" But I don't think either one of us genuinely believed there was ray or horseshoe crab swimming around that he just happened to scoop up in the dark. K then scanned the water again and shouted, "There it is!"


We used the camera and held down the picture button so that the red light that comes on just before the flash would illuminate the water better. We were shocked. There it was. C and Johan came running over to see what all the excitement was about. C wanted Johan to pick it up. Johan wasn't excited about picking it up. None of us knew if it had a barb. K encouraged Johan by pointing out that he had already picked it up and that it hadn't hurt him. Johan obliged, but we all worried about inadvertently hurting it, so we decided to just watch him.

Cake for "A"

This afternoon we made a cake for A. She is due to arrive tomorrow but sadly I have no reason to believe that she is any nearer than last week... Today the boys and I made a birthday cake for her. We had hoped she would want to come to her party...

Here is C writing her name on the cake, with K closely supervising.

Now it is K's turn with the icing, he is adding some stars.

Here is a shot of the boys putting the finishing touches on the cake.

TA DA!

Here both boys are getting ready to enjoy their big slices of cake.

By the way, this cake was FABULOUS. It is Strawberry Meringue. The meringue was spectacular, and the orange juice we added to the cake mix made it so moist. At first bite C exclaimed, "Oh WOW! This is great!" We did use a box cake mix which was a bit of cheating. I am sure we will make this again, especially in the summer when we can get tasty fresh strawberries. If we do I'll try to do it without the box.

Here is the recipe:

Strawberry Meringue Cake

Prep Time: 30 Minutes
Cook Time: 35 Minutes Ready In: 1 Hour 5 Minutes
Servings: 12

Ingredients

1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 1/3 cups orange juice
4 eggs, separated
1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange peel
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
2 cups whipping cream
2 pints fresh strawberries, divided

Directions

1.In a mixing bowl, combine cake mix, orange juice, egg yolks and orange peel. Beat on medium speed for 4 minutes. Pour into two greased and floured 9-in. round baking pans; set aside. In a mixing bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar on medium until foamy. Gradually beat in 1 cup sugar, a tablespoon at a time, on high until stiff glossy peaks form and sugar is dissolved. Spread the meringue evenly over cake batter. Bake at 350 degrees F for 35 minutes or until meringue is lightly browned. Cool in pans on wire racks (meringue will crack).

2.Beat cream until stiff peaks form. Mash 1/2 cup of strawberries with remaining sugar; fold into whipped cream. Loosen edges of cakes from pans with a knife. Using two large spatulas, carefully remove one cake to a serving platter, meringue side up. Carefully spread with about two-thirds of the cream mixture. Slice the remaining berries; arrange half over cream mixture. Repeat layers. Store in the refrigerator.

Skate Park

We have a skate park in Klamath Falls, but it is way too much skate park for me. I believe that the skate park in Klamath Falls is nationally ranked, the #3 skate park in the nation. It is a concrete masterpiece that absolutely frightens me. So when we are out of town and spot a lesser skate park, the boys are always eager for an opportunity to ride. I am grateful now for everyday that they prefer their scooters to their skate boards.

Here in Mississippi there is a skate park on the Air Force Base. It is small enough for me, and big enough for the boys. The boys spotted the skate park on our first day here, but the military sign posted that warned of a required equipment check, and use by authorized personnel only allowed me to delay our visit. On Friday I had an appointment at the hospital, so Johan took the boys to the skate park and I later met them there.

It didn't take long for the boys to get red faced in the Mississippi heat and humidity. Underneath those helmets are two heads, completely wet with sweat. Notice K's tongue in these pictures. Even as a baby his tongue was out of his mouth just slightly whenever he engaged in any physical activity that required any amount of concentration. C is our dare-devil. He started just going up the ramp ever so slightly, gradually he inched his way up.

Insectarium

We have been through New Orleans in the past, we shipped a car from there to Alaska years ago, but we have never spent any time in the city. On Saturday we (Johan and I, along with my mom and the boys) took the short 1 and 1/2 hour drive west to New Orleans. I was surprised to see that five years after the city was hit by the massive flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina how much of the devastation is still very apparent. As soon as we crossed the bridge that spans Lake Pontchartrain we saw entire neighborhoods that remain in ruins. Miles of what were likely formerly flourishing suburbs were abandoned, huge box stores were merely shells.

Our destination was downtown, The Audubon Society's Insectarium. We were extremely disappointed with the city itself. On Saturday afternoon the traffic inside the city was horrendous. The city felt dirty and generally run down. Johan and I were both quickly reminded of why we really do not like big cities.

The Insectarium is located in a beautiful old building. I believe that it was at some point a U.S. Customs building. The facility itself is grand and the exhibits are stunning. We, especially the boys, enjoyed the museum immensely, but overall I found it over-priced and quite limited. As an "insectarium," they really didn't have a massive collection of insects. There were the great displays, but for the most part the insects weren't much more than you find as part of larger collections in zoos, aquariums, or science centers.

Here is K posed in front of a giant picture of a tarantula.

We are very amused right now, because no matter how many times we correct him, he still pronounces it "TRY-ran-TU-la." Of course Johan and I both pointed to the large bug and asked K, "What is that one?" We just wanted to hear him say it. You wouldn't think that tarantula would be a frequently used word, but at our house right now it really is, especially because the boys have a card game called Top Trumps. The game is played much like the card game "War," but in this game the cards are all different insects with different values assigned to their various traits (mobility, life span, gross out, danger, etc. ). The person who won the last hand gets to choose which trait is to be considered for the next hand. In this game the tarantula is the equivalent of an ace when it comes to life-span, so it is a valuable card and has been the topic of more than a few conversations.

Here is a shot of the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach. Kind of standard fare at places like this. C and K jumped at the opportunity to "pet" one.

There was one major attraction that we have not have the privilege of seeing anywhere else, and both boys took full advantage of it. We learned that entomophagy (insect eating) is practiced all over the world. The Insectarium had a "cooking class." Here visitors were given the opportunity to sample foods prepared with--insects. In many places, bugs are eaten as a good and readily available source of protein, minerals, carbohydrates, fats and vitamins. C and K were absolutely delighted with the idea of eating bugs. C was brave, but withheld praise. While he found them tolerable, C did not appreciate the aftertaste of many of the insects. Remarkably, K, typically the most picky eater, dove right into the chocolate covered crickets. K can spot a tomato buried in just about any dish from a distance of 10 yards. Having spotted said tomato he will request that I remove it from his plate with my fork so as to avoid contaminating his own. Offer him a sample of meal-worm salsa, or cinnamon and sugar coated wax-worms and he won't even flinch. In fact he will go back for seconds with a smile on his face. Remarkable!

Here is a shot of C and K considering their first taste of chocolate covered grasshopper.


This is a delightful smorgasbord that included; "Six-Legged Salsa," "Hoppin' Herb Dip," "Cinnamon-Bug Crunch," and "Southwestern Wax Worms."

K kept on popping the chocolate covered grasshoppers. As we chatted, he kept turning around and grabbing another one.

Crispy Cajun Crickets anyone?

Here the boys are posed in front of a display of chrysalis (is it chrysalises or chrysali???).

These are all in different stages of development, and if we had been there about 5 minutes earlier we would have seen a butterfly emerge. We did get to see the brand new wet wings drying. From the chrysalis we walked through a huge butterfly habitat with quite a few varieties of butterflies.

After the Insectarium we wandered around looking for an authentic Louisianan place for lunch. No luck, we were too hot and hungry to search for long. We ended up on the boardwalk at a sports bar that caters to tourists.

Here are a few shots of the boys on the boardwalk in front of a fountain.

"Isn't this so fun?"

We took the boys mini-golfing with Nana this evening. I know we have taken them in the past, but it has been years and neither boy could remember having been on a mini-golf course. They were extremely excited. By the third hole they were doing a kind of gallop/skip around as they moved from hole to hole and as they waited for their turn. K came up to me and excitedly inquired, "Mama! Isn't this so fun!?!"

This course was apparently destroyed in Hurricane Katrina and has been recently rebuilt and reopened. The owners were thrifty though, the course while neat and tidy is extremely basic. No animated windmill, no moving crocodile mouth. Just some indoor/outdoor grass arranged around a few small rocks. But if it is your first time mini-golfing the bar is not very high. The boys love, love, loved this. K marvelled, "This is getting complicated," as we stared down a lumpy 10 yard stretch of indoor/outdoor grass carpet with the hole arranged in a mound like a volcano at the end.

One thing I truly appreciate about the south is the sound of "Y'all." It has this smooth ring to it when delivered with the southern accent. Love it! You could say just about anything to a group of people when it is directed at "Y'all." We let a group of people play through, as we were permitting mulligans and generally taking our time. They all uttered, as only a southerner can, "Thanks y'all." It sounded so genuinely thankful. If this Yankee had tried the same it would have sounded harsh and nasally.

We did get passed by a group of serious golfers. In this shot we posed K so that we could covertly get them in the background.

Yes, they are carrying a real golf bag, and no they are not using the rubber putters provided by the mini-golf course. Oh no, no, they are all using real putters. And, gem, not sure if you can see it, but one among them does have real golf gloves hanging out of his pocket. In fairness, they could have lapped us on the golf course, the mini-volcano thing that took me 8 strokes was nailed by each of them in quick succession in just 2 strokes...no mulligans. And, as they passed they offered a friendly, "Y'all have a good night."

U.S.S. Alabama

We took a day trip to Mobile, Alabama today. It is just a short one-hour trip to the east on I-10. Battleship park sits on the gulf coast and the U.S.S. Alabama which began its career in WWII is docked there in the water. The park also features some static aircraft displays, and a submarine.

Our tour began outside the museum with an up close look at the B-52 Strato-fortress. This one had a position for a tail gunner and the bomb bay doors were open so that the boys could walk under the plane and view the bombs. The boys were so excited. They really are good museum tourists, they generally like you to read all the information that one might ordinarily be comfortable skipping past. B-52s are still around, but this one was configured circa Vietnam.

The day was hot and humid, as a good summer day in the south ought to be. Parts of the interior of the U.S.S. Alabama were air conditioned, but most of the boat was an oven. As a result of the very steep ladders on the ship, the temperatures, and my current condition I only lasted with the boys for about an hour. Their exuberance didn't wane with mine, so I left them with Johan and headed for the creature comforts of the gift shop.

Here are some shots of the boys manning the gun on board the U.S.S. Alabama.

I like this next little photo sequence of the boys because it is fairly typical of what we get when trying to pose them for a photo op. They start standing about 6 inches apart smugly looking in the general direction of the camera. We ask for a nice smile and suggest, "Put your arm around your brother." This results in a cheesy grin and a huge arm grab. The close proximity necessitated by the arm grab lasts for several seconds before quickly dissolving into a silly round of wrestling. The wrestling is usually good natured in a supremely boyish way. Note, these pictures are not staged. Johan had the camera set to very rapidly take one picture after another successively.

Step 1: Indulge your parents with a photo op.

Step 2: Cheesy smile

Step 3: Big grab



Step 4: Bigger grab

Step 5: Launch offensive punch

Step 6: Incoming punch

Step 7: Land the punch... with an overly dramatic response from K who is notably still smiling.

Step 8: More drama--Mission Accomplished!

When the boys were confident that they had seen every inch of the ship with Johan, I rejoined them for the aircraft displays, most of which were (thank goodness) to be found inside an air conditioned hangar. I marvelled at the WWII technology. The U.S.S. Alabama actually launched two airplanes off of its stern. The planes had floats and would land in the water near the boat to be reloaded by an on-board crane. One of these planes was on display in the hangar, however it apparently sustained more damage during Hurricane Katrina than during WWII.

While the boys were thrilled with the opportunity to sit in the gunners' seats on the battleship the star of the show was the static display of the SR-71 Blackbird. We did not know that the Blackbird would be there, but off and on all week the boys had been discussing this plane. It came up when one of them wanted to know what the fastest airplane is, and just last night we were talking about how the plane generates so much friction in the air as a result of its speed that the metal actually expands enough as it flies that gaps are left in the structure of the aircraft such that when the plane is on the ground it leaks gas. When we stepped into the hangar and spotted the SR-71 both boys gasped.

Following Battleship Park it was time for a late lunch. We headed downtown and discovered "A Spot of Tea." A local breakfast/diner that later morphs into a nightclub. They specialize in sweet tea, which is of course a southern treat, but theirs is strawberry sweet tea. Delicious! Because they also serve breakfast all day, K ordered a decadent lunch, Bananas Foster French Toast. With Johan's encouragement, C experienced his first Monte Cristo (a deep fried ham and cheese sandwich on what is essentially two slices of French toast). Johan was disappointed because the Monte Cristoes of his past are served with raspberry jam, C's came with honey mustard. Happily though it was also served with a large side of hash browns covered in (pure joy) cheese and bacon. Johan and I ordered more responsibly, hoping that we might be able to "help" the boys. Unfortunately, our boys can eat...they are way past kids meals now, and most of the time eat more than we do. Today was no exception.