Typography FAIL.

So I sent Sam to school the other day with his new lunchbox and about 2 hours later, I got a phone call from the director.

Director: Sally, everything is okay. I'm just wondering which lunchbox belongs to Sam.

Me: Oh, I'm sorry. It's the blue one. I haven't put his name on it yet.

Director: Oh, no worries. I'll just do it. I have a Sharpie right here. Have a great day!

Me: Okay!
-click-

And then I sat there at my desk wondering if it would be too crazy for me to call her back and ask her not to write on his lunchbox. Because you know... that would muck it up. Because, you know... I 'm a designer and stuff... and I'm funny about stuff like that. About a minute passed and I decided I shouldn't worry about it. That normal people don't care about such things. But secretly, when I saw it later that afternoon... I gasped.

That night, I designed a little Thomas tag. Something to redirect my eye and make Sam smile. Ah... that's better.

You Told that Lady Sam was Potty Trained

In a parenting first for me, Francis called me out on a lie I told someone else. This weekend, we went to IKEA. Our plan was to drop the kids, including Sam, off at the playland. I probably could have told you that the First Rule of Småland is that children must be potty trained. Two-and-a-half year old Sam can actually pass for potty trained, except when he has soiled himself. Helping the ruse, if you ever ask him if he just pooped his pants, he always responds with an emphatic, "No!" Our plan was to put him in there with a pull-up on "just in case."

As we approached, an IKEA employee was putting out a sign that said, "Småland Will Not Accept More Children For 35 minutes." Viewing an hour of free childcare by complete strangers as worth the wait, I sat with Francis, George, and Sam while Sally started shopping. The kids and I waited, playing twenty questions to pass the time. Francis was stumping me by picking kids in her school that I'd never met. Finally, after about forty five minutes, our time came.

Wait. Have that one stand on the green feet over there. He's potty trained?

Well, yeah.

He's not wearing a diaper?

He's got a pull-up on. You know, just in case.

It's right here on the sheet you just signed. No diapers OR pull-ups. No exceptions.

OK, sorry Sam. Francis, George: I'll see you in an hour.

Sam had been watching the fun through the giant window as we waited. He'd pointed out everything he wanted to play with. When he was refused entry, he wailed. It was sad and I felt guilty for leading him on this fool's errand. I felt guiltier later that night, when Francis said: "you told that lady Sam was potty trained."

I looked at Francis and said, "that didn't work out very well, did it?"

Francis laughed, and I hoped -- not for the first time -- that kids could learn from their dad being a dolt.

-Matt

The Stamp Game

Francis has been loving her new school, Daggett Montessori. She loves systems and being in control of her work plan. She has "x" amount of math, biology, language, etc. works that she has to do every week and can decide when to get them done. Right now, one of her favorites is the Stamp Game. It's a math work that teaches kids how to add and subtract large numbers. She's been so chatty about it, that I recently surprised her by buying one for our house. She was so adorably excited when it came in the mail. She couldn't get her hands on it fast enough to show me how it worked and even better, in keeping with the Montessori method, she couldn't wait to teach George. George, only 5, is now learning how to add four digit numbers together - and loving it.


Francis teaching George how to add the Montessori way, using the Stamp Game.


Francis' s classroom, also known as my living room.

Golf ball sized hail

Scout's Vise

Our coffee table is made out of rattan with a little triangle of space in between the supports on the floor. Ever since he was a little puppy, Scout has been using that triangle as a vise for things he needed to chew. Tonight, he's in his workshop taking a rawhide down to size.

Fire Ants!

I'm so glad that the fire ants found me after I played golf this weekend.

In other news this week: we finished Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets tonight. It probably took a solid month and a half of bedtime reading, but F and G were engrossed to the end. Two things I love about reading to these kids: (1) stopping on adjectives and asking them to show me what they look like with their faces (e.g. "astonished," "aghast," or "perplexed) and (2) inserting Notre Dame references throughout (always annoying the children).

In more other news: I'm really going to miss G saying "Di-Lego" instead of "Diego." F pointedly corrected him tonight, and I'm not sure he'll ever say it again.

Laying sod

I almost neglected to take a "before" picture. This was 3.9 pallets of sod and two days ago. It's Sunday night, and I still have more work to do, but we now have a lot of St. Augustine grass in front of and behind our house. With the rain today, I'm going to have to sharpen the mower blade soon.

I

Another day another tooth

Ate a Tooth

Francis lost one of her top front teeth yesterday. She was eating a muffin as we walked up the sidewalk at Lily B. Elementary. Only seconds after talking about how she might lose her tooth at school, she stopped in her tracks and said, "It's Gone!"

We retraced her steps, but couldn't find the tooth. My guess is that, like her very first lost tooth, this one is in her belly. I expected her to be a little upset, since she had been looking forward to the celebration that accompanies losing a tooth at school (including wearing a special necklace with the lost tooth inside). She just laughed about eating another tooth.

Woodturning Baby Gifts

We're at that stage in life where all of our friends have been having babies for a while. In the last couple of years, since I've gotten into woodturning, it has been a lot of fun to give baby rattles on these occasions.

This is the second type of rattle that I've made. Step by step, here's how you do it. (1) cut two pieces of maple and one piece of walnut to identical size. I think these are about 2.75" x 6". (2) using a forstner bit, drill a biggish hole all the way through the walnut at both ends. I used one of the maple pieces as a backstop for the drilling, because it helps me line up the pieces during gluing (3) glue the drilled walnut to one piece of maple and fill the voids with some popcorn kernals (4) glue the other piece of maple to cover the corn-filled holes, clamp and let dry overnight.

The picture above is what you end up with after step 4. Sorry I don't have pictures of the first steps.

5) After mounting on the lathe and applying the roughing gouge, we have a cylinder.

(6) I mark out the high and low points with pencil before cutting to shape with a bowl gouge. Two of those marks remain in the picture below.

(7) First using a round-nosed scraper, and then 120, 220, and 400-grit sandpaper, I refined the shape of the rattle.

(8) (unpictured) turn the piece off of the lathe. That means you remove material until there is just a tiny bit holding it on each side and then take the last bit from the drive side and catch it as it falls.

(9) after sanding the evidence of mounting off of the ends, I put a few coats of mineral oil and beeswax on the rattle.

Pronunciology

Francis liked to bake pupcakes.

George always ate frackers.

Sam requires a bottle of milt.

I smile when I hear him say it, and I find myself responding in kind: "Sam, we ran out of milt yesterday." Francis and George don't say pupcakes and frackers anymore. One more sign of my mortality. Damn the speech therapists, I don't care if Sam says milt forever.

Already Gone

Already Gone from gulde on Vimeo.

Francis and Matt rarely collaborate musically. When he asks her to sing the Notre Dame Victory March, for example, she sneers and says "Go TCU." If we even look in the rear-view mirror when we hear her singing in the car, she buries her face in her chest. So I was very lucky to get this video of her playing the guitar with her daddy.

Three things I love about this video: (1) george banging his cars in passive-aggressive protest (2) uninterested dog on couch, and (3) Sam teetering on the chair across the room.

We Should Start Blogging Again

The kids were asking about their birthdays tonight at bedtime. Not their upcoming birthdays, but their second birthdays. We had a hard time coming up with some of the details. A lot of the details, actually. So I went into the blog archive and pulled up this post. I'd forgotten George's turn of phrase:

"George's favorite food is probably either waffles or pancakes. He will eat two very large pancakes, pausing only to demand, 'need more butter' several times per cake."

I'm sad to have let these moments slip from my mind, but grateful to have written them down. So, at the same age that I tried to capture George, here are some things that make our Sam our Sam.

Sam is a dancer. We've known this for a long time. Sally had an old party CD with "Mambo No. 5" that found its way into the minivan. Every time it came on, year-old Sam would start dancing --- mainly shoulders with a little grin. Play Mambo No. 5, and Sam would start moving his shoulders, even if he was half asleep.

The dancing has continued. Two weeks ago, he entertained the upper deck at the TCU-Houston baseball game with his moves. Every time a TCU batter came up, they played a theme song, and Sam jumped off the bench to shake it.

Sam's first word, beyond mommy and daddy, was "help!" Appropriate for third-born, I think.

Sam has a special relationship with Scout. He gives the dog hugs and kisses, and sometimes sits on him, saying "eee-ha!"

Just like Francis used to give her scary face, Sam loves to show how strong he is. He clenches his fists and teeth and poses when asked.

Sam's not climbing out of the crib yet, but he'll climb anything else. He loves to go up and down the playset that we inherited from the Blacks. Mischievous, too: his daily forays into the pantry forced us to install child locks on the doors.

Sam is a blanket hoarder. My mom made him a yellow one that he loves, but he also must have George's blue blanket. He calls them his "di-dis" and sleeps with both of them whenever he can.

Our Sam loves the water. He rolls around in the bathtub like an otter. In the pool, he puts his face under and comes up smiling.

He is currently the only child who says "go irish" without irony.

I love who this kid is. Can't wait to see who he becomes.

There's nothing like a good friend.

The Browns descended upon Fort Worth at the end of February and I can't believe I'm not reading about it in the Star Telegram. I mean, seriously... these people are awesome. Some of my favorites in the whole world.


This is our crew headed to the Fort Worth Federal Bureau of Engraving and Printing. (Which, by the way, was an awesome free tour.) Look how happy I am over there on the left. I love these people.

I've known Becca since I was 12? and living in Panama. Yes, the Canal/Panama. Long story. But she grew up there and I lived there from ages 11-15. Fast forward to college and she (and her husband) went to Notre Dame with my (now) husband. Did she introduce me to my husband, Matt, you ask? No, I met him at summer camp when I was 15. Anyway, I've known these people since I was a wee thing. It is a unique and special gift to have a couple that you and your spouse love so dearly. I think these two are crazy smart (He: MD, She: PH.D), crazy funny, and crazy genuine. I have shared many tears and laughter with this crew. I am so thankful for them. So grateful for friendships like this in my life.



Aside from knowing each other as teens, we also got married the same year, lived in Chicago together (roommates at times) and have had three children - each all around the same time. Getting together these days (being each, a family of five) proves to be a challenge. They live in the northeast, and we are now in the great state of Texas. It means the world to have them make a trip like this. We. had. such. a. great. time.


Ryan's cousin's art exhibit was showing here in Fort Worth.


All of the kids piling on Ryan on the museum lawn.


My first visit down to the Stockyards. It was actually pretty awesome, not as hokey as I thought it would be. I definitely recommend it.

I mean, check this out:

These are not actors. They are not tourists. They are real cowboys getting their boots polished.


It's a great place to take pics, lots of great backdrops. But good luck finding kids as cute as these to take photos of. ;)


Kurt sacked out in the Stockyards. Doing his best not to look like a yankee.

Love you, Browns.
Y'all come right back, ya hear?

Cute baby alert.

BareBooks

Do you know about Bare books? If you don't, you should. They are awesome. My best friend, KP, told me about them a few years ago. They're super cheap, high quality empty books for kids to fill up with their stories and artwork. Certainly, the idea isn't original, but they are at such a fair price, like $1.50, they stand out as a favorite in our house. They also sell game boards you can customize, Francis has been on me about ordering one, so I'll post it when I do. Can't wait to see what game she comes up with. She is hilariously all about the rules. Don't ever play Chutes and Ladders with that girl... it takes FOREVER. I don't mean to say that I like to cheat, but people... when you land at the top of the slide for the 8th time...can't we just pretend it didn't happen? Nope. Not in this house.

Here are the front and back of the ocean themed books:

And the farm books:


I think my favorites are the completely blank books, but Francis likes the ones with the covers she can color. She likes having a "theme" for her books. She has a Farm animal book that she draws farm animals in and writes facts about them, etc. and George, well, he doesn't discriminate. He'll draw whatever, wherever. He's my free spirit. He doesn't need a themed cover...

Happy Valentines Day!

We celebrated with hot chocolate on the back deck. I am loving this Texas weather. Such a shock to my system after 12 years in Chicagoland.




Yum.


Yum.


Yum.

I could kick myself for not taking photos, but here are links to the Valentines they made:
Francis made the cell phones and George made the robots.

I just went here and let them scroll through and pick the project they wanted. We actually started these about a month before Valentines Day so that we were sure they'd get done in time (without mom putting in a late night of finishing work.)

They were very cute. Again. Kicking myself for no photos. Sometimes though, you got to put down the camera and just enjoy the moment.

Baby Sammie

A sweet shot of Sammie tonight. He is non-stop moving these days and growing before my eyes. Man, I love this kid. I can't believe he'll be two in just two months. Time flies.

Stir Crazy Snow Daze

With the record snowfall we've been having, the kids have been a little stir crazy as evidenced by the following photos:








Sneaking snacks.


Putting the homebrew childlock back on the cabinet after he has stolen what he wants:


Watching way too much TV in mom's bedroom.


And lastly, my favorite:
Climbing the fridge (it helps when you put your knee in the water dispenser).

Snow Day

Last week, we had record snowfall in Fort Worth. Matt took the big kids sledding so Sam and I decided to take a walk around the 'hood.


Our snowy and drafty green house. High on curb appeal, low on insulation. ;)










And then, he fell asleep. ;)