Category: lil’ chino

the coming spawn

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both glee and stress

10pm at night and I just finished my last meeting.  Hey, it’s better than before daylight savings time ended and the same meeting was from 10pm-11pm.

Sharaun is out shopping.  Some last-minute preparation for her mom’s group tomorrow morning.  This means that once again it’s up to the music to keep me company.  Presently I’m listening to a 1967 record by the Incredible String Band.  Like I said yesterday, I’ve been on a somewhat erratic, dusty corners of the collection, thing this week.  Cohen is, blessedly, asleep – as is Keaton but that’s not what I want to write about.

He had a rough night tonight; his sleeping pattern seems to be shifting to later and he’s developed a strong sense of object permanence lately which sees him arch his back and screech when Sharaun’s not around.  I can manage him through the trauma, soothing him and letting him focus on my face instead (I’m being serious, get that kid in a staring contest and he’ll pass out while seemingly boring holes into your soul through your eyes).  Sharaun did me a favor and hung out long enough to settle him so he wouldn’t be hollering during my phone call (thus the late-night shopping).

Today at work I was reviewing my staff’s “vacation calendar,” a thing where we visually map out who’ll be gone when so we can easily see where we might need some extra coverage or have a problem with thin staffing.  Looking at it, I realized how very few working days I have between now and when we leave for Florida.  This realization came with both glee and stress, as I’m really ready to be there and hang out with family but I also have a load of things to get done before I can do so with a clear conscience.  I just looked at those blocked out days and marveled at where the year went.

Just a few more weeks and it’ll be over.  All of 2010.  The year of our second kid; of making right with God; of loss and stability and comfort; of too many blessings.

Goodnight.

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a family portrait

Sharaun posted this on her Facebook the other day (I know because I lurk), so it’s nothing new to the internet – but I love the drawing so much I wanted to share it here.  I don’t know if it’s as awesome as I think it is, but I’m impressed with the skills of my not-quite five year old up in here.

Above is a drawing of our family, done by Keaton this weekend.  Please note the details:

  • Sharaun’s lovely flowing tresses
  • Cohen lying down, which is pretty much all he does
  • Dad is bald, not a hair to be found
  • The proportions are strikingly reflective of real life; Dad’s the tallest, then mom, then Keaton and Cohen

Other things I love about the drawing:

  • We all appear to be happy and smiling
  • I don’t think Sharaun has arms, or they are hidden in her hair
  • We are legs attached to heads (to be fair, so are all the people Keaton draws)
  • Her handwriting seems consistent and impressive to me (I am her dad, after all)
  • We all have just three fingers

One day I hope to show this to her when she’s older… so cool.

Goodnight.

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keaton’s crush

The image accompanying this post was drawn by Keaton this Sunday at church.  Let me explain…

The other day I walked by Keaton’s room and saw her sitting on the bed, apparently doing nothing. I did a double-take and rounded to take another look. Upon closer inspection, she wasn’t exactly doing nothing: She was sitting quietly, hands folded in her lap, head angled slightly skyward, with a pie-eyed look on her face. My first thought was that she looked “contemplative.” Since I’m more accustomed to seeing her playing with her dollhouse or reading books or being engrossed in some imagined world, the Rodin-esque pose made me curious.

“Whatcha doin’, babe?” I asked. “I’m just thinking about something,” she replied. “I can see that… what are you thinking about?,” I asked. “Daaaad…” she sung-spoke, “Mom already knows what I’m thinking about.”  A curious explanation to a curious situation, I filed it away and made a mental note to ask Sharaun what she might be thinking on.  “OK,” I said, “Don’t think too hard,” and left her to it.

Arriving in the living room I asked Sharaun, “Keaton’s in there just sitting on the bed mooning over something.  It’s odd. She said you’d know…”  She cut me off, “Oh man, does she have my phone again?”  “No,” I said, “at least I didn’t see your phone.  Why?  What’s she doing with your phone.”  She sighed… rolled her eyes… and began to explain.

There’s a new mom at the weekly moms’ group at church, and with the new mom came a new kid – Jason.  Keaton really likes Jason… he is her new “favorite kid” at the moms’ group.  As she tells me this, I’m wondering if I smile and feel amused or if I frown and wonder why my not-quite five year old daughter thinks she has a crush on a boy.  Keaton, she explains, has been looking at a picture taken of she and Jason on the phone, and then basically doing a tiny mimic of a teenage swoon.

Keaton has mentioned Jason a few times since.  She’s asked me to invite him and his family to dinner.  Asked if Jason could come over and play.  Told me a few times about how much she likes playing with Jason on Tuesdays.  Jason, Jason, Jason.  While it’s not anything over-the-top or truly “concerning,” as a dad it started to get mulled over in my brain-piece.

All of the sudden, I found myself a little confused.  I started asking “parenting” type questions.  Where did she learn about “liking” boys?!  Is it normal for kids this young to do this?  Even assuming she doesn’t really understand what she’s doing, is it normal for her to emulate it?  Those “What to Expect” books stopped after “… the Third Year” so I’m totally on my own here, adrift in uncharted waters… I tried to reason it out.

Where did she learn it?  Oh I’m convinced she learned it from Velma’s unrequieted love for Shaggy on the Cartoon Network’s modern instantiation of the Scooby Doo show.  I’ll admit, I love that new Scooby Doo.  I actually enjoy watching it with Keaton. I should know that, if it’s something I can enjoy, as a full-grown adult, then the themes are probably a little “advanced” for a four year old.  Maybe it’s time to stop watching the new Scooby Doo.

OK so maybe Scooby Doo is to blame for the concept or example.  But how about the question of it being “normal” or not?  Then I remembered the first love-note I got as a kid… in kindergarten.  My folks saved it; stuck it in the pages of my baby book.  Was that abnormal?  I don’t know… but kindergarten is about five years old, right?  Guess what, dad?… so is your daughter.

In the end, I calmed down and chalked it up to kids being kids.  Maybe we’ll invite Jason’s folks over some time so I can check this dude out… get a feel for his aspirations in life, see how he carries himself, whether he’s got good instincts.  Ha.

Girls… man I’m in for it.

I’m just thankful she hasn’t learned how to draw hearts yet; seeing little pretend ones at her hand my break my for-real big one just a little bit.  Goodnight.

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halloween dashed

Monday.  Almost didn’t write.  Fired this off around 11pm when I realized I had one thing to write about and that Sharaun made a neat video.

Here’s the one thing: Wouldn’t be the run-up to Halloween if there wasn’t some catastrophe with our stupid-complicated house and yard decorations.

In the past it’s been vandals, poor workmanship, and storms.

This year storms struck again.  A two-day rainstorm with freak winds strong enough to wreak havoc on the props.  The witch tore her moorings to the fascia and dropped to the driveway below.  The mausoleum blew over and couldn’t be set right without falling apart at its shoddily nailed joints.  On its way over it took out two of the homemade tombstones.  It was a mess to wake up to.  I’m not sure I can make all the repairs before Friday’s party… it’ll be  race at best.

Here’s the video:

Goodnight.

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productivity

8:40pm and the first free minutes yet tonight find me writing, listening to Spirit’s eponymous 1968 debut with the house wide open.

I’ve just finished reading to Keaton before Sharaun puts her down (which she’s currently doing), we’re starting to get back into The Hobbit after too long a break where she’d tired of it.  Surprisingly she remembered exactly where we were and what had been going on and so picking up where we’d left off worked well (the company just escaped the warg and goblin firefight).  Tonight, instead of lamenting each “chore” speeding me from my homecoming to my late-night meeting, I decided to purposely engage in these clock-moving tasks without care.  I played with Cohen, fed him a bottle and held him while Sharaun made some homemade caramel in the kitchen.  Keaton and I climbed trees with Gandalf and Bilbo and Thorin.  And, even though it’s 9pm and I’m really just now getting “time off” (a whole hour before my 10pm meeting), I feel better about not counting the minutes.

This weekend I pulled down all the Halloween props and, with Keaton’s help, got most things setup and running.  I still haven’t run the air to the pneumatic props nor have I setup the motion detectors or prop timers or anything like that.  But I’m happy to report the standard yearly prop maintenance wasn’t too bad this year.  Things look to be holding together OK, and where they’re not I’ve been lucky with repairs, spare parts, and replacements.  In a fit of creativity I decided to build a new prop for the cemetery.  In the span of a few hours, and with some help from a buddy, I’d built a little  mausoleum in which we placed the animatronic witch Sharaun found on clearance at Ross last year.  The little structure keeps her out of the elements, protects her electric internals, and gives me something to anchor her to to stave off theft.  You can see a snapshot of the unfinished creation accompanying this post.

It’s been a productive few days.

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couple months in pictures

Thursday already, and yet still not Friday.  Paradoxical, or something.

Over the past few months you may have noticed that the gallery plugin I use on the blog has been broken (it’s actually been a whole year, believe it or not).  The cool effect that pops-up the image in your browser probably wasn’t happening (you might have even been dropped on a white page with a lonely image and no caption and may have had to, gasp, hit the back arrow to get here again).

That effect is called “lightbox” or “shutter” or something, and I spent an hour tonight selectively enabling and disabling plugins to get it working again.  Maybe you’ll notice and be appreciative, or maybe it’ll be broken again when I wake up – that crap is flaky as sin.  The popup/javascrip effects don’t work in Chrome either… the placement is all wrong and they jump all over the page.  Maybe one day there will be a simple, easy, just-works solution for hosting your own images on the web.  For now, we’ll have to live with what I’ve got (and lose it all if something better ever does come around).

Regardless, here are some snapshots from this past month or so.

[nggallery id=45]

And you know, the kinda guy I am… I went and upgraded my old gallery to see if that solution is any better… maybe I’ll start using that again.  Can’t have content in too many places y’know, helps limit confusion.

Until tomorrow, love you & goodnight.