An Evening With Daddy

A few nights ago I went shopping by myself while Greg took care of the kids. He always does a good job of engaging them in fun activities. While I was gone the Greg got out the finger paint and let the kids have fun with their hands.

The Artists Inside

So, on Tuesday after we got our travel call, I realised how many things I still need to do before next week when we leave for Korea. You know all the little things that you tell yourself you have plenty of time to do? They have suddenly become very last minute.

One of the things I have been working on is making a picture to hang in Naomi's room. I wanted to make butterflies using Josiah's hand prints, but the more I tried to make them look like butterflies, the more they looked like spiders. I ditched that idea and on Tuesday morning made a trip to Michael's and got 3 small canvas boards.

Tuesday evening after dinner we had family project night. Now keep in mind I had a vision. I knew exactly how I wanted these 3 canvas boards to look when we were done. Apparently my instructions were taken as suggestions and we landed up with 3 very unique paintings. I think the result is good. I had a difficult time convincing Josiah that he should finger paint in a way that the 3 colors we used would shoe up. He likes to mix them all so that he has a new very ugly color. We managed to get something that is good and usable. What do you think

Shovelling 101

Yesterday afternoon and last night we had a few inches of snow. The first real snow of the winter. When Daddy got home from work Josiah wanted to go out and play. Considering he had been cooped up in the house for a week with the flu, how could we say no. After dinner Daddy and Josiah bundled up and went outside for some fun.
The first thing they did when they got out there was shovel the entrance steps and part of the driveway. Josiah decided that it was too hard work and stopped and watched Daddy. I then went out to try to convince Josiah to make a snow angel. We have been talking about making snow angels all winter. We finally had enough snow to make one and Josiah was a "poop" about it. Jan I put the word "poop" into my post just so that I could get my blog rated PG like yours. I convinced Daddy to show us how it was done. After getting very wet they came inside for some hot chocolate and Josiah got a warm bath before bed.
Today was a snow day so Josiah and I went to a friend's house for the morning. Boy how different are snow days here in Kentucky than when we lived in Wisconsin. Today would not have even come close to counting as a snow day there.

Never a Dull Moment

Christmas was wonderful. New Year was tiring and this last weekend was relaxing. Monday was one last day of fun at home with Mommy for Josiah. We spent the day at the zoo because who knew it could be 70 degrees in January. We had a great time. The day was just wrapping up with Mommy at the computer updating some files and Josiah and Daddy playing superheros in the other room. Life was peaceful and I had been rescued several times by Batman and Concrete man. How fun it is to hear them play. Until of course I hear a screech and them uncontrollable crying.
Josiah very seldom complains of pain. He and Daddy were wrestling and somehow Josiah hurt his elbow. He would not stop screaming in pain. So, what could a mother do? I scooped him up and ended up at Urgent Care. Several x-rays later and several bouts of blood curdling screaming, the Dr declares Josiah is fine and should go to school on Tuesday. "These things have a way of seeming so much better when friends are around," he says.
After a very restless and pain filled night I, like any other great Mom, send my poor baby to school. I tell his teacher he is probably fine and to call me if he is in too much pain.
I pick him up from school at the regular time. Josiah says his arms is still hurting and his teacher tells me that he hasn't used it all day. He held his right arm at his side all day and refused to move it. Any time I touched it he screamed and cried. After lunch and several phone calls to Greg and my parents I scoop him up once more and go back to Urgent Care (the same Dr was going to be there). The Dr. takes one look at him and sends us to the Pediatric Orthopedic doctor in town. We spent 3 hours there waiting to be seen. Another round of blood curdling x-rays, a twist and a turn of the elbow from the Dr. and Josiah is now sporting a beautiful blue cast. Yes it is broken! Don't I feel like Mother of the Year!

Daddy's Day Out

Saturday was Josiah’s day out with Daddy and when two muscle men like us set out for a day of fun we always start out with a hardy breakfast.

So we shared a full platter of eggs, bacon, hash browns and waffles at our local Waffle House. By the time we cleared our plates the waitress came and asked, “Honey, would you like me to bring you a towel?” We needed it.

Next stop, Home Depot.

There we put together a little coat rack. This time I was able to avoid getting any of my fingers smashed as Josiah hammered in the nails all by himself. We finished the project and had our certificate in hand by 9:15AM
From here we went to play at Seneca Park in St. Matthews. We climbed and slid on slides and swung in the swings. Josiah seemed to have the best time throwing his little baseball across the soccer field and running after it. Some how, he almost always got to the ball faster than his Daddy.

After lots of running around we decided to make a pretend campfire with all of the sticks that we could find under the trees. Once we had a good-sized pile of sticks we roasted some pretend marshmallows. By this time we were hot and very dirty and ready for another change of venue. So, I dusted off Josiah’s shorts and headed off to the library. This was my first time to our local library, but Josiah certainly seemed to know his way around.

As soon as we got in the door he was running for the computers in the kids section. He seriously considered pushing a little girl out of his way, but he decided to look at some books instead. Teresa coached me on the scientific method for selecting children’s books at the library. Let Josiah grab a large pile of anything that catches his eye, then keep the ones that have few enough words on each page to keep his attention.

While we were cooling off at the library we played with some plastic dinosaurs and some puzzles. On the way out Josiah wanted to look at the rats. The “rats” turned out to be a pair of hamsters. At this point in our day, it wasn’t even 11am yet and Teresa didn’t start shopping with her friend until 10. So I still had a lot of time on my hands.

We decided to find Cherokee park and drove until we found a different playground. This is a very large old park with lots of trees and lots of good sticks. Josiah is very into his sticks and rocks these days. He collected his sticks and stuck them into various holes in the playground equipment. We experienced a couple of major milestones while we played at the park.

Josiah climbed his first tree and just a moment later he said to me, “I’m sorry Daddy, I have to leave because I need to chase that girl.” In a flash he was off, chasing a little girl and shouting, “I am a scary ape.” The girl was faster than he was, which was good, because I don’t think he knew what he would do if he actually caught her. I didn’t know I was going to have to transition from tree climbing to girl chasing quite that fast, but they do say kids grow up so fast these days.

After lunch we caught up with Mommy and after naps we capped off our day with a slice of coconut meringue pie from the homemade pie kitchen. From this Daddy’s perspective, days just don’t get much sweeter than this.