The Simple Answer for Everything

Our family made a shopping trip to Meijer on Saturday, to take advantage of their awesome deals. Among the items on sale: Teddy Grahams, which make a great morning snack for the kids. Strangely, there’s a new kind of Teddy Grahams that’s shaped like Disney Princesses—wouldn’t that be Princess Grahams?—so of course Leah noticed that immediately and just had to have it. (No, we don’t give in often, but Graham crackers are a pretty good choice, so I let her have that one.)

Yesterday after lunch, Leah noticed that Mommy was in the pantry and made a beeline for her, in hopes of getting some of her Princess crackers. Unfortunately for Leah, Mommy isn’t so easily swayed and informed her that no, she couldn’t have any right then, that she’d just had lunch and it wasn’t snack time. So our little girl, with all the indignation she could muster, placed her hands on her hips and responded:

“So change your mind!”

Wouldn’t it be great if life were that simple?

“A” Is for Apple

Last week, Leah and David started preschool! It‘s actually just a small group: three Latter-day Saint moms in our neighborhood—hopefully, soon to be four—have decided to hold class each Wednesday morning. They take turns hosting, with the host mommy teaching. Mommy Drake went first, setting the theme with a lesson entitled “ ‘A’ Is for Apple.” They talked about the letter A, but also discussed apples in great detail: where they come from, what colors they are, etc.. They also played “Pin the Apple on the Tree” and dipped real apples in finger paint, to make cool apple-inspired designs. (They did not, however, discuss Mommy and Daddy’s computers.) ;-)

Since the Drakelings are visiting Grandma and Pop, this week, they obviously weren’t able to attend this week’s class, but we did decide to build upon last week’s lesson: we all headed up to Warwick, New York, and got to pick some real apples! We got McIntosh, Gravenstein, and Gala—ironically skipping the Cortlands, which Pop for some reason didn’t want to bother with. The coolest part, though, is that the particular orchard was very young, so the kids were actually able to pick some low-hanging apples, all by themselves—no adult assistance required! (We did pick them up for some of the higher apples—not to mention a few pears, in the adjoining orchard—but even that is pretty impressive, compared to the apple-picker rentals required, at most orchards.)


Finally, an interesting aside: last night, while Mommy and Daddy were relaxing in the bungalow, the kids started playing school. Leah was “Miss Drake” and David was her student, “Cortland.” They closed themselves in the back bedroom for class, and when class was over, the door opened as Leah called out, “Goodbye, class!” David emerged, and Leah called after him, “You can leave your jacket here!” and slammed the door behind him. :-)

Little Conversations

David has officially entered the “why” stage. You know; the one where many statements will elicit a response of “Why?” from the child? Well, here’s a conversation we had yesterday, as best as I can remember.

To set the stage: we’re currently on vacation at Grandma and Pop’s house, but specifically, to attend their retirement party. As things were winding down, last night (there were like 80 people here, at the height of things), the kids asked to get in the pool. Unfortunately, it was just a little too chilly for that, by that point, so we compromised and got in the hot tub.

While Leah, David, and I (Daddy) were “swimming” in the hot tub, my aunts, Barbara, Janice, and Mary Lou, sat down with Mommy and talked with me and the kids, from beside the tub. One by one, the aunts took off for their respective destinations, which eventually led David to ask what was going on.

David: “Where’s Janice?”

Daddy: “At the hotel.”

David: “Where?”

Daddy: “On Route 23.”

David: “Why?”

Daddy: “So she can sleep.”

David: “Why?”

Daddy: “Because she’s tired.”

David: “Why?”

Daddy: “Because it’s night time.”

David: “Why?”

Daddy: “Because the sun went down.”

David: “Why?”

Daddy: “Because the Earth rotates on its axis.”

David: “Why?”

Daddy: “Because if it didn’t, we’d fall off.”

David: “Why?”

Daddy: “Because there’d be no gravity.”

David: “Oh.”

…which apparently explained everything, since that’s where the conversation ended. ;-)

Rock on!

First of all, a subtle petition to Blogger.com:

BRING BACK LUCIDA GRANDE!

Thank you.

So anyway, it’s obviously been quite a while since I (Daddy) last posted, here. First I was in Kentucky, then I was in California, and then I was supposed to be in Georgia. And of course, because of the nature of the Internet, that’s absolutely no excuse. But I thought I’d at least upload this picture of the kids, rocking out. How cute is that?

Since my last post, we’ve had a visit from the kids’ uncle Eddie and his family, a visit from Leah’s birthdad, Danny, and his mother and sister, and are now preparing to head out to New Jersey to visit Daddy’s family, plus the kids’ uncle Ben and his family (who recently moved there, as well).

I’ll probably fill everybody in on the last month (or some of it, at least), a bit later, but for right now, just know that I haven’t abandoned the blog. I’m still here, rocking on, just like my kids. :-)

Oh and by the way: you can also check out my own, new blog, The Empty Soda Can. It’s frigoriffic!