New developments

We just returned from a family vacation/conference for Jennie in Park City and it was a busy, fun and exhausting week. Jennie and I went skiing in the Canyons 4 days and the kids went to a drop-in daycare called The Clubhouse. It was a clean, well-run joint for the kids and allowed us to partake in the "Greatest Snow on Earth" (Utah ski industry tourist motto). In addition to the usual (kids can't sleep because of the timezone issues, strange beds, etc), we had some new stuff to brag about. Firstly, within an hour of check-in, Baxter declared that he wanted to poop in the potty. And he did, 2 times within the hour. This is an absolute first for him and we rejoiced later that evening with an ice cream. He tried to negotiate some extra "cake treat and pie treat", but we kept things from getting out of hand and stuck with the ice cream.
Paige was not to be outdone and started crawling a few days later. And at 9 1/2 months, she beats her brother by about 2 weeks. She's got two modes, regular crawl and a modified version that looks like some sort of monkey scoot. She's really cute, still so tiny that it's amazing to see her motor herself across the floor. We'll need to start keeping the house a little cleaner now, she picks up the tiniest pieces of junk to stuff into her mouth. We call her Roomba....

We're happy to be home and are getting some sleep to recover. We even did some sleeping on the way home.

Little pitchers have big ears

This saying never made much sense to me, but I remember it fondly from our annual Christmas viewing of "The Christmas Story". The gist of it is this: don't say anything you want kids repeating. In our childless years, we used curse words like most normal non-trucker people. As Jennie was pregnant with Baxter, we started retraining our vernacular with the inevitable assumption that we would need to be curse-free for the next 20 years. For the most part, we have been pretty clean, only slipping up when faced with severely frustrating situations. Family members, especially those who go weeks without seeing the kids, will occasional lapse. This makes for a slightly funny but awkward situation that requires us, the former children to reprimand our parents for swearing. 20 years ago, I would never have thought the following would leave my lips directed at Jennie's dad: "Watch your mouth old man! Do I need to take my belt off?"
As I mentioned in an earlier post, we recently had prolonged issues with leaky bathrooms. The shower stall has just been "repaired" for the 2nd time when I took a shower. As I opened the door, I noticed a dark wet spot on the floor towel. Filled with frustration, I muttered under my breath, "Jesus." Baxter just happened to be in the room with me and repeated what he thought he heard, using the same disgusted tone as his soon to be ashamed father. Only when it came out of his mouth, it sounded more like "Pizzas". Being well-read on how to deal with these situations, I didn't pursue or prod him further, but I didn't enjoy a nice chuckle. So next time you're struggling to find a strong but clean exclamation for a frustrating situation, remember there's always pizza.

See you on the (frozen) playground!

These eyes have seen a lotta love.......

I successfully had lasik surgery this past Friday at the Vermont Laser Eyecare Center. When I say successful, I mean 20-15 vision and I went skiing the very next day. What an amazing procedure, I have a hard time putting it into words, but I guess I'll try. I have a decent memory and one of the files deep in my brain bank includes getting glasses when I was 6 or 7. Blackboard items at Ol Brushton-Moira seemed a little too blurry and I was tested for vision issues. The first (5-6) pairs of glasses were shall we say, from the geek series of eye wear. Combined with my super-cool mullet, I was able to snare my amazing-ish girlfriend Jennie during the high school days. I finally got contacts my frosh year of college and have worn them since. Recently I began having some issues with the contacts and Jennie, now playing the role of best wife on the planet, got me lasik's for Christmas and the rest is history. As I said before, everything turned out a-ok, but I must admit to a smidgen of anxiety and while getting the kids ready for the day, I had a frightful thought that I could be seeing them for the last time (irrational moment, even non-successful surgery wouldn't result in blindness, i think). So I took an extra 5 seconds with each kid, staring at their faces and soaking up their beautifulness. Luckily, I get to keep seeing those faces for the unforeseeable future. Even the outsider can admit, it's a sweet view. (Baxter "helped" with brownies, Paige just waking from a nap)