Our Family Chronicle

Saturday I had another great maternity session.

I had photographed her once before – a special present for her husband who was headed to Iraq. He is coming back to the states in August and will be a new daddy. It is always a privilege to create images of my clients as their family grows – hearing that her husband would be back soon and they would be back together makes it even more precious.

Meanwhile my children had another swim meet.

Melinda was excited because she had improved her dive and was no longer afraid of that part of the race.

She has to work on it a bit more and her times will improve by leaps, but more important she was having more fun at the meet. And she did come in second place very close to the first place girl. Alex on the other hand was a full pool length ahead of second place making it a bit difficult to convince him that he needs to work his form. The little sh%# – it would be interesting to see how fast he could swim if he had someone that could get him to improve his form and work at it just a little. We might try finding some one to work on them both in a current pool. A balancing act between getting them to work at it a bit with out burning them out. I truly want them to keep improving while still enjoying it. Balance, Balance, Balance, Balance.

Sunday, I had a great Fathers-day

as I spent the morning with the family enjoying the sun – too much – at Elitches.

 Yes Alex made sure that both Yota (Pattie) and myself got drenched under the water falls.  Why are their no pictures of me looking like a drowned rat?   It was fathers-day and I had the camera. 

 First sun burn in a long time, and it wiped both myself and Pattie out for the rest of the day. The kids still had too much energy in the afternoon, but that’s normal. This is the first time I have been in a wave pool. It was fun and a unique experience (for me). It was great to see how much Melinda took to it (not timid at all) and Alex swam out to the deepest spot with the highest waves – not surprising. 

Hey!  the camera does work under water.

We also made it on to a couple of rides but it was just a nice mellow day.

Tags: family activities, new experiences, parenting by Randall
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A very eventful weekend (Last week) – Saturday was the first swim meet of the year. Alex won one of his races with ease (evidently). I had clients and was not able to watch most of the days events but was able to see the last couple of races.  That parent guilt – I know I can not possibly make it to everything but I try to make it to most of their events. Yota  (Pattie) and grandma Judy were both able to be their. Both Alex and Melinda ended the morning with a relay race. These last races went well and put Melinda in a better mood as she was upset about not doing as well as she thought she should in an earlier race. The ups and downs of competing.

Sunday morning we made it to Elitch’s (before the afternoon rain’s) and Melinda took her first ride on a roller coaster. She was not too sure about it and I had to encourage her strongly to give it a try. I told her that if I screamed she was not to tell anyone but I doubt that she knew if I screamed or not. Melinda spent most of the ride looking at the floor of the car but afterwards having lived through it she seemed happy to have made it through this mile stone. We will see if she will trust that she can live through it again because I plan on getting her on the ride again. We also tried a couple of water rides. Once I got home I realized that I had lost my keys (most likely in the water). Not the end of the world but it puts a damper on the lecture’s I give the kids about being responsible and not loosing their key’s.

Tags: family activities, parent guilt, parenting by Randall
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Dad why have the girls taken over the bathroom?
You better get used to it. After a hard but enjoyable evening class of gymnastics – Melinda and a friend decided to make dozens of little braids on each others head. This braiding of the hair ceremony took well over an hour. The whole time Alex pondered their need to do this and their need to be in the bathroom the whole time. At some point he finally asked me why?? Why?? Are they still in there? Why have they taken over the bathroom? He truly was confused and all I could tell him was that this was something he would have to get use to and that this was just the beginning and that it would be best if he could except that certain things in this world had no real answer – at least not one that would appease his curiosity. NO IT IS JUST BEST TO EXCEPT IT AND FIND ANOTHER BATHROOM IF YOU NEED TO, BECAUSE IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO SAY HOW LONG THE OCUPATION WILL LAST.

No!!! it is best if you do not try to throw them out – this is a battle you will ultimately lose every time (in one way or another). He looked at me with disbelieve. He could not believe I would give in so readily. They are just little girls after all.  I assured him that in my younger days I fought this battle many different ways and never gained any ground.  Move forward I told him, there are other battles to be fought.  So he moved forward – for now – I could see he was not satisfied with this answer and would take on the struggle alone if need be.  One day he will understand….

Tags: Kid's and animals, parenting, smart ass by Randall
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Great the house still reeks.

 I think it will dissipate in time -at least in the house – as for the garage who knows. We can not even close the garage door for any length of time because the stench builds up and permeates into the house. It almost seems that he was in the house. No it was not the kids – it was Alex’s dog Diamond. We kennel the dogs in the garage at night and Friday night Pattie was the one taking the dogs from the back through the house to their kennels. The main garage door was open and Diamond took the opportunity to take off and chase a skunk through the neighborhood. She must have cornered it because Pattie heard her yelp and when she finally got back to the house she stunk so bad I just about gagged when she got close to me.  The next step was the Internet. How to wash the skunk stench. Saturday Pattie and the kids tried the baking soda and peroxide mixture. Though a slight improvement she still stunk and we realized that the garage and even the house stunk of skunk. So carpet cleaned and baking soda for the carpet in the garage. And one more bath for Diamond today (Sunday). This time her bath was tomato past. We had heard from a few different people that this is the only thing that worked for their dogs.

Again she smelled better but she would need about a dozen of these tomato washings to get rid of the smell completely. The rest of it will have to just wear off.

Tags: Kid's and animals by Randall
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Pattie had her first root canal today. Three hrs in the chair and she has to go back. I can’t wait for my turn. I have some bad teeth as a result of poor care in my teens (my braces). It does catch up and I try to tell the kids that they don’t want to go through this so they need to take care of their teeth. We can only keep after them so much and eventually we have to trust and hope that they are brushing their teeth and flossing – yea right. I will have them come in and watch as I have my teeth worked on. Scared straight, MAYBE.

Alex had baseball practice tonight and he seemed to enjoy it. One of the boys caught a line drive in his family jewels and hit the ground. Time to get Alex his first cup. He might want kids one day.

Alex and Melinda spent most of the day hanging out with grandpa Dan. Grandma had some errands to run and is paranoid about leaving him alone ever sense he broke his leg. Last Friday Pattie and I went up north to get him an electric chair so he could get around better. I am glad I had Pattie go with. We were told that we would have a lift to get the chair into the back of the truck and it just didn’t happen. So Pattie (tougher than she looks) helped me lift it into the truck and back out. Now he can get up and down the ramp that is steeper than it should be and he gets around on the carpet better.

I will have to write about this Past weekend tomorrow because I am falling asleep and do not know what I am writing.

Tags: health or lack of, parenting by Randall
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