Iceland & Easter

Lincoln, Lydia & Henry really enjoy cousin time with the Hopwoods, and Ella's birthday party was a good time for them all to catch up. And Em made a darn good cake with some good coaching from the family cake guru.

The next country in Jenn's homeschooling/cooking adventure was Iceland. Iceland has some, shall we say, interesting cuisine. It was a two-fer for the kids, in that Jenn made a really neat dinner with lamb & Iclandic bread and then followed up with a traditional breakfast of Icelandic pancakes and yogurt. And it's amazing what these kids retain. Lydia walked up to the globe the other day, pointed out Iceland, and said, "Here's Iceland. And there's the glacier." And her finger was in the 100% correct spot!

We're liking the more spring-like weather. Between the hiking and playing outside, it's gonna be a good year, and we're even planning a real garden for the first time in this house. Photos to follow when it's through.

Mossy Log, Spring 2015

Of course, the kids are always looking for things to do around the house, and out and about.

The above photos are from Easter at the Parkinson's in Dublin. I'd like to draw your attention to the long bubble container, Lydia's is pink, that each of the kids got. This is the subject of a big first that I heard just a few days ago.

The kids were talking about wanting to blow bubbles outside, but I was in the middle of something in the kitchen and I couldn't go outside. Henry said, "Aw, now I can't play with my bubbles."

I asked him why not. His reply: "'Cause I can't hold the container with my other hand."

And that represented his first actual complaint about his hand. It made my heart sink a bit. I wonder how often these moments will happen in the future. But on the flip side, it's pretty darn amazing that he's made it to 4-and-a-half years old before voicing his first real complaint.

Jenn and I also have what may be an uncomfortable situation coming up this week. You may or may not know that we've decided to move Lincoln to a new school next year. Most of what we wanted to see out of his current school has simply not panned out. He's had two amazing teachers who have really connected well with him. The overall school environment is just not what we were looking for, and certainly not what we wanted to pay for. Lydia & Henry will join him next year, giving Jenn one destination (cue Handel & his Hallelujah). This Wednesday is our exit interview with a board member and principle of his current school. There shouldn't be too much of a discussion beyond us listing our reasons. I hope I'm proven wrong on my suspicions of it being uncomfortable.

One Week Post Asia

It's been the first week of many adjustments at the Gates Home. Jenn is working her tail off keeping up with the kids all day. Then when I get home, the bedtime/bathtime routine is taking about 90 minutes, and then we're whipped and everyone is asleep.It's become clear that Henry is quite delayed in the emotional development department. Eighteen months in a poor Chinese orphanage will do that to you. Going from...

• a year and a half of simply having his basic needs met to...
  
  
• spending two weeks with our undivided attention in either small, under-whelming hotel rooms or attached to one or the other of us to...
  
  
• learning how to adapt to an overwhelming house with other kids, and parents that can't pay 100% attention to him all of the time, and a routine with which he's not familiar.

Because of these events, this week has predictably been a challenge for Henry, and by extension, for Jenn and me. Lincoln and Lydia are doing pretty well. It didn't surprise us to see some behavioral setbacks with them given the circumstances of the past month. Lydia simply obeys when she wants to and lives in her own little princess world most of the time. Lincoln has been very good, very gentle, and very loving with Henry. He wants to be the boss most of the time, but what four-year-old doesn't?Interestingly, Gretel has been amazingly good lately, too. It's no secret that Jenn regretted getting Gretel early on in her time with us, but she's matured into a wonderful Boxer and a very good family dog. Henry was deathly, irrationally afraid of the dogs at first, and Gretel seemed to be very bothered by that. She'd go sit in the corner when Henry cried, nay screamed, around her. Now he's been less afraid of her in the past couple of days, but she's doing a wonderful job of letting him get comfortable with her. Betty, with her bouncing, snorting behavior is another story. Who'd have thought he'd warm up to Gretel before Betty?

After I was away from the clinic for three weeks, Dad was ready for a vacation, so he and Jeremy took off on the annual June fishing trip to Stony Lake. Thankfully I was able to get away around the kids naptime on Friday and help Jenn out with that. Until all three kids get used to the New Way, it's a lot of work brushing the teeth of a four year old and two year-and-a-half-year-olds, reading them their stories and getting them down for a nap.

Pretty sure a skunk was spraying at Gretel the other evening. I was playing a game with Lincoln when I smelled skunk, and then I saw Gretel on the deck licking profusely and foaming a lot around her mouth. Her muzzle smelled a bit like skunk. She was probably licking something that had just been sprayed. The house smelled of skunk for about 18 hours, but with the windows open and a good breeze, it passed before a day. With all that's been going on here, we didn't need to add a skunked dog to the mix over the next couple of weeks until the smell got off of here!

Lincoln to the Edge Games

Last night marked the final evening of Edge Games VIII, and I decided to take Lincoln with me. He enjoys Edge events, such as spending some time with my small group guys or going to a Wednesday evening Edge "church service." But the Edge Games are no ordinary event, and I had a suspicion that he'd like what he saw. Boy, did he ever!The first game for our team, Togo, was Chocolate Covered Pickle. It's a relay where each kid gets to choose between answering a trivia question or eating a chocolate covered pickle. If they get the correct answer, they can run back and tag the next person. If they get it wrong, they have to eat a chocolate covered pickle. Some of the kids liked the pickles, others didn't, and Lincoln enjoyed watching the whole thing.

The next game was a number of variations on Steal The Bacon. There's not much like watching 60 middleschoolers converge on center court to gather as many balls, frisbees, ropes and pucks as they can and then throw/run/kick them back to their corner. Again, Lincoln enjoyed the show.The evening wrapped up with the annual Edge's Got Talent show, and once again, these kids brought it. Winning the whole event was Brandon, one of my small group guys. He played a song that he'd written himself. If you're on facebook, you can watch a less loud version here (he played a rockin' electric version for the talent show). While there were other very good acts, Brandon was clearly the best act, and the most talented kid in the show, and I'm not just saying that because he's in my small group. In my opinion, he needs to be encouraged to keep writing, and the worship team at CCC in the Cafe needs to use his music during the worship time. Great job, Brandon!
Today, after Lincoln catches up on his sleep, will be a day of painting. With the rearranging of furniture that we're doing to prepare Henry's room, he and I will be painting our old double bed and setting it up in the basement. Our downstairs guest room is turning into a dorm room!Lydia continues to crack us up. I've mentioned her talking before, but I forgot to mention that her first reliable word has been, "sna," for, "snack." She waddles into the pantry, picks up the bag of Goldfish, and waddles out to Jenn and says, "Sna." Sure, she's starting to say "dada" and "mama" with some degree of regularity, but not like "sna." Today she fell asleep on the way home from Patrick & Marrissa's house (they were watching the kids this morning). She just recently got over (another) cold, and our home is so much more pleasant when she doesn't have snot coming out of her nose. When she's not upset because she's sick, she's 100% on the move.Lincoln finished up his final Pike class and in two weeks will be an Eel. He's making very good progress in the pool.

Back to the Cold

Jenn and I experienced a 50 degree swing, and we weren't too crazy about it. To get some of the dogs' wiggles out, we bundled up the kids and went to the Ledges. And we lasted about 20 minutes, but our mission was accomplished, so we felt good about it.Lydia is showing a real interest in talking now. She's reliably saying "da da" & "ma ma." Sometimes she says "bye bye," and once yesterday she said "Beh tee." It's also neat seeing her actively immitate Lincoln in some of his play.

Thanksgiving, Take 2

Thanksgiving came and went. We had a very low-key dinner at Grandma Paulette & Grandpa Doug's house with Grandma Gates and Aunt MarySue. After dinner we played Scattergories and Lincoln was in charge of the timer and letter ball.Last evening we had a second Thanksgiving Dinner with our good friends, Josh & Maria Tollefson. They drove in from Johnstown, PA, for the weekend and we had a great evening, especially after the kids went to bed!

Jenn is off at work this morning and Lincoln, Lydia and I are playing with things around the kitchen while I finish straightening up from lots of cooking and food prep.It's also been wall-to-wall Christmas music. While we'll never be as Christmas-Crazed as our friends Zach & Kristen (this is two mentions in one week!), we're doing our best to build anticipation with Lincoln. Wait until he sees his Advent calendar next week!

Thanksgiving 2011

Happy Thanksgiving! We have so much for which to be thankful. Particularly, when Jenn and I think about what Henry is doing today, it's awfully humbling to think about our circumstances. This is the first Thanksgiving where Lincoln can start to understand just what Thanksgiving means. This has been a neat series of conversations with him.

Certainly a portion of our thoughts are with Auntie Em & Uncle Jeremy. They went to New York City for their anniversary trip to take in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Hopefully they'll see more balloons than OWS-Loonies.Yesterday was an odd Wednesday in that Jenn worked (she was off on Monday). Also, Kristen worked at CFVC, which is unusual. The reason why I lead with this is because the Myers have been into Christmas 2011 for some time now, and she had it set to Christmas music in the treatment room. I've been purposely avoiding all the Christmas stuff until after Thanksgiving because I don't want to be sick of it all by the time mid-December rolls around. But I started getting into the songs, and along the same lines, I was really getting into the Christmas spirit. This, combined with Lincoln's coming excitement about the season, is going to make for a fun Christmas.

And now Jenn's preparing some Thanksgiving Dinner food in the kitchen and listening to Christmas music. I glad I didn't hear Christmas music in the treatment room in October!Last evening I met up with my high school buddies at Fischer's. In attendance was Speas, Flaker, Jeff, Lyle, Bob & Bish. Blasts from the past, I tell you. It was good to catch up a little bit. Life has definitely pulled us in different directions, but our friendship is still there. We recalled some funny memories, and that made for a good time.

Worship with Huey

The Cafe Worship Band at Christ Community Chapel (formerly known as Hudson Community Chapel) is really good. Jim Bossler leads it, and the musicians rotate a bit, but they're all fantastic at what they do. The particular grouping of guys this morning had been rehearsing all week to play in Docs Who Rock, an annual concert at E.J. Thomas Hall. The stipulation is that each band has to have at least one doctor. No problem for the CCC band, as one of the guitarists is a Doc.

Jim opened the morning by prefacing the first song, saying that after practicing all week, they didn't want to just play their songs once, and that they were going to be a little unconventional this morning. And then I heard the opening chord to my favorite Rock 'n' Roll song by my favorite Rock 'n' Roll band, I whipped out my iPad, and I recorded this...Lincoln and I were jammin' and rockin' out in a big way. As we were leaving church, Lincoln said to Jenn, "Mr. Bossler's band played a Huey Lewis song!" Of course Jenn didn't believe him, but when I told her it was true, she said, "Well, I guess they couldn't play 'My Other Woman's Got Another Man.'"

I want to go on record saying that we're really blessed at the CCC Cafe with Jim and his crew. They're simply great worship leaders, and no one in our family takes him/them for granted.

One of Lincoln's prayer items that has become a daily habit over the past 4 months or so is to pray for "Mr. Bossler and Pastor Joe as they get ready for this Sunday." Since he's been praying for them, I 've been able to draw a point of connection when we're sitting in our seats on Sunday by saying, "Lincoln, here's Mr. Bossler/Pastor Joe. You prayed for him this week!" Lincoln's face lights up. His familiarity with them on his prayer level has made his transition to paying attention during the worship/teaching time much better.Who knows how many pretty days we'll get in northeast Ohio before the year is up? We sure don't, and that's why we decided to make today another hiking day. Unfortunately, we didn't get too see as much color on the trees this year as last year because of a huge wind storm we had last week, but it was still a very pleasant day to be outside. Lincoln did a bunch of running, Lydia did a bunch of bouncing, Gretel ran around like a nut, Betty... well, she's still a lazy Pug... and we all came home a little more tired than when we left, which was a good thing.

Another trip past The Mossy Log. The Kendall Lake Bum Pincher was on the loose!

Boo At The Zoo

So we went to Boo at the Zoo today, and it was total craziness. It was completely packed, but we still got to have fun dressing up and shuffling around getting glimpses of animals here and there and getting good candy and treats.Earlier in the day Lydia had a really cute moment with Gretel. She's been interested in Gretel's toys, and Gretel has been interested in shoving her toys right in front of Lydia. It's a pretty good relationship they've got going, and Gretel couldn't be more gentle with Lydia.