Barry’s Daily Web News

A Less Crowded Gym

I have noticed that gym attendance has dropped now that we are having nicer weather. Both this past Thursday and today, Sean has been the only student in his gym class. That’s both good and bad. Sean get’s the individual attention, but class only lasts 45 minutes, not the full hour. Still, that is enough to give Sean some exercise, and the class lasts until Sean’s bedtime.

A Good Day for the Park

We had nice weather today, cooling off a few degrees. It was so nice, that I took Sean and Ethan to the park twice today. The first time was right after breakfast, and the second time was right after dinner. Sean likes the swings the best. Sean needs help getting on the swing, since he can’t reach it. But once he is on it, and can swing himself, and get down by himself. Ethan likes both the bridge and the tunnel slide. Ethan seems to get tired of the park after 45 minutes or so, but it seems like Sean could stay all day long.

Traffic School

Today, I had to go to defensive driving school. Yes, I recently received a traffic ticket. It was for going through a red light. It was early in the morning, with no traffic in the intersection. The only problem was that a policeman from the next town over, on his way to work, saw me. I was surprised that he was able to give me a citation.

Anyway, the instructor kept the class lively by encouraging discussion, so it wasn’t too bad. The course length is a minimum of 5.5 hours, so with the registration time and breaks, the course took up most of the day.

Cortney and I went out to dinner just by ourselves, leaving Corky home to watch Sean and Ethan. We had a nice dinner, and it was nice to get some time alone. Corky leaves tomorrow morning for Florida.

No Ball Pit!

We made our usual trip to the Burger King play area this evening, with Cortney’s father, Corky, joining us. We had a big surprise when we arrived. The ball pit was gone! The play area was otherwise the same, but the space that had been the ball pit was turned into an entrance area, with a lousy tic-tac-toe game and a ball spinner. The only good news was that the manager said that they would be adding video games.

I thought that Sean and Ethan would get bored without the ball pit, but they still had fun playing, staying until the normal time we leave.

Ethan’s Well Visit

We took Ethan to the doctor for his two year well visit today. His weight and height are both 50%. I still think he looks a little on the thin side, but I think that is because he has a lot of muscle and very little baby fat. The only unusual thing the doctor reported was that his two year molars aren’t coming in yet. Ethan had to endure just one shot, which wasn’t too bad for him.

Ethan’s 2 Year Pictures?

We had ambitious plans this evening, to take Sean and Ethan to first get their hair cut, then to take family pictures.

The trip to the hair place went flawlessly. This is the first time ever that Sean hasn’t cried or complained about getting his haircut. We were taken early, since we had an appointment. The lady who took us did an excellent job on both of them, and we were able to leave early.

The trip to the portrait studio did not go as well. In fact, it was a disaster. They were running late, and it was well after six before we even started. We started off with a family shot. It wasn’t too bad, but we just couldn’t get both Sean and Ethan to look towards the camera and smile at the same time. The kids became restless, and we tried to move on to a picture of just Sean and Ethan. They wanted to play, not get their pictures taken. They were also starting to get tired at this point. After repeated attempts, we gave up. The studio offered to reschedule, and we realized this was our best option. We didn’t even get a single pose in. We’ll try again next week.

Library Night

Cortney’s father, Corky, joined Sean, Ethan, and me at the library this evening. The theme for the stories this evening was trains, and Sean enjoyed the train stories. I thought Ethan would too, but he wasn’t patient enough to sit still for the stories. Ethan did enjoy the movie at the end. We have to stay up past the kid’s bedtime to attend the last story time, but I think it is worth it.

Ethan’s Two

Our little baby is now two years old today. Cortney made a nice meal for dinner, and after a brief break to take Sean to gym class, we celebrated with birthday cake. Sean blew out the candles the first time they were lit, so we re-lit them to let Ethan blow out the candles, which he did. Ethan did a good job of eating his cake with a fork.

After cake, Ethan opened his presents. It’s too bad this was just before his bedtime; Ethan was all set to play with many of the gifts he received. I think Ethan had a good birthday. I captured much of it on video camera, so we will have to see if he agrees a few years from now.

Another Yard Work Day

I spent most of the day out in the yard. I wanted to get more accomplished, but just ran out of time. I did manage to clean all of the algea out of the pool, and we now have winter rye seed planted in the yard. There’s always next weekend.

Another Busy Day

Cortney’s garage sale took most of the day. Many people stopped by, and Cortney sold a lot of stuff. Cortney and her friend continued until late in the afternoon.

I left in the middle top pick up Cortney’s father, taking the kids with me. He actually arrived early, so it took us almost no time at all to drive down to the airport and return.

We went out to dinner tonight, and Sean and Ethan were well behaved.

Tomorrow will be my busy day. I have plans to overseed the grass in the backyard, and get lots of other stuff done.

A Busy Day for Cortney

Cortney was very busy today. She spent most of the morning getting ready for the garage sale tomorrow. She will be selling many of the toys and clothes that Ethan has outgrown. This afternoon, she held the first of Ethan’s birthday celebrations. Cortney also had to clean the house to get ready for her father arriving tomorrow.

I did what I could, giving Cortney a break by taking the kids out of the house after I arrived home from work. As usual, we went to the Burger King play area. Sean and Ethan both played until they were near exhaustion, so I’m hoping they will sleep late tomorrow. I will be watching them while Cortney works the garage sale.

Countdown to 2 Years

Tomorrow, Cortney will be having a birthday celebration for Ethan’s birthday for her MOMS group. Saturday, Cortney’s father will fly into town, and Monday, of course, is Ethan’s two year birthday. I can’t wait for the celebration to begin.

Fun at McDonalds

I considered taking Sean and Ethan to the park this evening, but I was a little tired, and Sean and Ethan wanted to go to McDonalds instead. I packed plenty of food with me, and they both ate good meals, with nutritious food brought from home, with the only occasional supplemented french fry.

Sean and Ethan spent most of their time on the video machines. I don’t know if Ethan just wants to be like his big brother or what. He was happy to just sit or stand and watch the video games, even if it was just the demo sequence in the introduction! Sean needs someone else to set up the games, either with me or one of the other children, but he likes to play the games. We ended up staying all the way until bedtime.

My Dearly Departed Grandmother

These are the hardest words to write that I have ever put in this journal.

My grandmother passed away today. While I deeply mourn her loss, I am almost comforted by the fact she lived a long and full life. She and my grandfather had a big impact on my own life growing up. My brother and I spent nearly every weekend at my grandparent’s house, for over a decade. My fondest memory of my grandmother is with my brother and I playing cards with my grandmother and grandfather, and frequently my grandfather’s sister and her husband.

My grandmother could seemingly talk with any stranger on any topic. She always had kind words to say about everybody. My grandmother was also a very good listener. While growing up, she was the only one I could count on to listen to anything I wanted to say. As I grew older, I learned to appreciate her wisdom learned from her unique life experiences.

My grandparents had just celebrated their sixty-fifth wedding anniversary. Before that, my grandparents had trouble living on their own, and moved from Florida to New Jersey to stay with my aunt. My sympathies go out to my aunt and grandfather. My grandmother’s passing will be hardest on them.

Library Night

Sean and Ethan both had fun at the library tonight. Ethan really liked the “If your are happy and you know it…” song, especially the “shout hooray!” part. The problem was that he kept shouting “hooray”, even when the librarian was reading the stories. It became bad enough that I had to take Ethan out of the story time room.

Sean was well behaved, except a few momentary lapses in judgement. He absolutely insisted on bring a video home. I insisted the video be a DVD, not the lousy VHS tapes. He accepted the compromise, so that both Sean and Ethan came home happy.