You remember Pavlov, right? Well I get an immediate response whenever one of my children hears the shutter release on my camera.
Adam had fallen asleep on the train at Busch Gardens this afternoon, and Beth yelled out, “take a picture dad, take a picture!”
So I did.
“Let me see! Let me see!”
So I let her see.
“Oh, you can do better dad.”
Jeez, I can’t catch a break these days.
Today was supposed to be the day Beth and I went kayaking. Adam was in school, we both had the day off, and Cheryl was too sick to venture outdoors. Wa-la! The perfect day to rent a two-person kayak and tool around the the intra-coastal waterway for the day. The weather looked like it was trying really hard to do it’s part. It warmed up quickly around lunchtime and hovered around 70 all afternoon. The winds looked pretty calm at the house so it looked like the gulf would be pretty calm.
I knew it wasn’t going to work out when we hit the causeway and the flags at the gas station were showing a lot of activity. So now I had to explain to Beth why I didn’t want to take her out on her first kayaking trip around the island in 25-30 mph gusts and three ft chop… on open water. It wasn’t easy. I would have told her about swimming with sharks, but I’d still like her to go with me some day.
Honeymoon Island is just down at the end of the causeway, and Beth decided a little more “exploring” (like there’s anything left to explore) was a fair consolation prize, so we kept going. Ah, but I felt bad about the kayaking. She’d been looking forward to it for a long time, so I decided to see if the ferry was running out to Caladesi (a beautiful island just south of Honeymoon with the best beaches I’ve ever seen). The Caladesi ferry docks just inside the park entrance to Honeymoon Island, so I figured I could make a quick left inside the park, and before she knew it, we’d be on our way to a surprise day trip to paradise (and she’s wanted to go there for a while too.) We drove in, walked over to the little hut where they take your money for the ferry fare, and I plunked down my VISA.
Well, it turns out Caladesi Island is one of the nation’s best beaches, but if you want to walk it’s powdery, white sandy shores you better come with your own boat… or bring something other than your VISA card, because VISA isn’t taken everywhere either (with apologies to AmEx).
All they took was cash and traveler’s checks. As it happens, I rarely carry cash, and I don’t think I’ve ever carried a traveler’s check. (Though, I haven’t done much traveling either.) Sure enough, I had neither.
AGH! Mother nature and the cash curmudgeon were conspiring to ruin my day!
Fortunately, even after building up her hopes and crushing them twice in twenty minutes, Beth is still a pretty easy-going kid. We decided to park by the pet beach and wander the south end of the island, which turned out really cool.
I still feel bad though.
If you’ve got kids, chances are you know all about different kinds of flooring and their carrying capacity for fluids. My fellow parents know all about carpeting, and it’s uncanny ability to absorb.
As some of you know, Beth had her share of health problems as a baby, and it led to a fair amount of clean up. It was one of the big reasons we pulled out our carpet. Hey, don’t laugh. I’m serious. A few years ago we would have needed a couple days off to get the smell out of our floor, but not now my friend! All I needed was a few minutes with a mop and I was free to tackle the next challenge: the bathroom.
I’m thinking the kids’ bathroom needs some tweaking next… something that lends itself to being hosed down.
(Post was written 12/1/2007. I didn’t think it was worth posting then, but I saved it anyway, for a day when my standards grew a little more forgiving.)
In some ways I wish I had something bad to tell you, so I wouldn’t have to worry about balance taking a whack at me later this week. As it stands, I’m a little afraid about court tomorrow. Something really bad is bound to happen.
Saturday we went down to Ft Desoto. I can’t believe Adam’s three and we’ve never taken him. The kids liked the fort (what there is of it – really just a couple of old 12 inch gun batteries are left), but the beach was the real attraction – again.
Sunday we went back over to Honeymoon for a picnic. All we packed was a couple sandwiches, yogurt, crackers and some water… but you pack that stuff up and eat it on the beach, and suddenly it’s the best darn lunch in recent memory.
We also got a good Beth story out of the weekend. Well, I think it’s good. Well, maybe not good in the classic sense; but typical Beth (which often accompanies a spike in blood pressure).
Cheryl, Beth, the Friday night shopping horde, and a Target employee were waiting at the front of the store on Friday night. All of the registers were tied up with long lines and the Target employee was calling in reinforcements – in vain. After a few minutes Beth took matters into her own hands.
“Excuse me sir, we’ve been waiting for a while. Could you check us out?” She asked.
“No, I’m sorry. I can’t”
“Why not?”
“I’m not supposed open a register because I’m supposed to supervise the front of the store to make sure everything runs smoothly.”
“That sounds like a dumb reason, especially since no one seems to be listening to you.”
This is the point in this story when Cheryl wishes she’d left Beth home. Well, sort of… the thing is, shame can be a powerful motivator. The guy opened up a register and checked them out after all.
I’m not entirely sure I wanted Beth to learn this lesson – the one about the squeaky wheel. One thing’s for sure, Beth is not shy.
I didn’t have any intention of writing this evening, right up until about twenty minutes ago. That was when I decided to have a look at some of the pictures I took on our little hike this afternoon.
The kids were getting a little restless, and Cheryl really wasn’t feeling well, so I decided to get the kids out of the house. We hopped in the car and five minutes later we were cruising across the Dunedin Causeway towards Honeymoon Island again.
Taking a look at the pictures I’m reminded that some of the most fun I’ve had with my kids has been doing the free stuff. Disney is o.k., and Busch Gardens can be pretty cool for a little afternoon getaway, but the free stuff seems like so much less work. A walk to the park, an impromptu session of keep-away with a soccer ball, or a few hours on the beach can have all the fun, but none of the expectations; and I think that sometimes makes all the difference.
We might decide to play a little chase, throw rocks at the waves, or collect interesting rocks shaped by the surf. We just do whatever comes to mind, whenever it comes. It feels so liberating. Sometimes I’m walk along behind and watch my kids have fun being kids. Today was one of those days.
It doesn’t take much to make me happy sometimes. At some point I usually find an odd piece of limestone to carry with me. I like to find something that’s small enough to toss, but with an odd shape. With all the limestone around here, that’s not very hard.
So picture me with an odd little white rock, tossing it in the air and snatching it back. Imagine my kids running up and down the beach, chasing the waves, the birds and each other. Imagine a small, contented grin seemingly permanently etched on my face.
A week or so ago I told you about the iMac we took in. I’d described it as another one of the original Bondi Blue models, to go along with the other two we have already (one that works, and another that’s fried, but we keep for parts). Cheryl brought it home after getting in late that night and we put it on the only horizontal space available: the desk in Adam’s room.
Adam woke the next morning with eyes wide enough to drive a small car through.
We opened up the blinds in his room and my eyes got wider too. This wasn’t just another Bondi Blue iMac, it was yet another piece of Apple lore to add to my collection: one of the five fruity color iMacs… in this case lime.
My son was already excited, and my yep of glee pushed him right over the edge. He took a few excited leaps on his bed before we could restrain him, visions of our last ER visit still fresh in our minds.
Since that morning I’ve had to take the power cord away, to keep him from powering the thing up constantly. Even with a password required at start-up, he still got a kick out of turning it on, hearing the Mac OS 9 start-up chime, and shutting it down. Without a password required, he quickly figured out how to turn it on and launch one of the old educational games we installed from when Beth was his age (we woke up one morning to the sounds of “Jump Start Preschool” not long ago).
Now both of our kids have computers, and whenever we allow them access to the power cord (such as this morning), the house descends into almost total silence.
Silence is a troubling thing in a house with two small kids, no matter what they’re up to.
Beth and I finally made it out to Honeymoon Island for a good hike. I’d been waiting to take my new camera out to the park to hunt for some good pictures, and by golly, today was an excellent day for it. We had a high around 80 with a nice sea breeze to mix up the air a little… what you might call a chamber of commerce kind of day… one for the brochures.
I posted a bunch of the pics on flickr, on the off chance you might be interested in taking a look. Most of you have seen Honeymoon Island, and those of you who haven’t have probably seen “the real Florida” before. In that case, I won’t mind if you take a pass.
Once again, I’m taking a little bit of liberty with the post tag. Going a few miles down the road hardly qualifies as “travel.” I’m sticking with it anyway. When you hike out to the end of the island, it’s easy to imagine your far away from the city. It’s so quiet and peaceful it’s hard to come back.
Beth is learning about electricity this week, along with some of the basic physics involved. So it looks like this week I’m teaching physics!
If you’ve got a school aged child, you too may be familiar with the task of filling in the teaching gaps.
We started out kind of backwards, because for some reason her assignment/textbook addressed conductors and resistors BEFORE it covered electrons. Makes perfect sense, right? This meant we discussed conductors, resistors and their kin over dinner prep; leaving electrons… and the basic anatomy of an atom for the dinner table.
It’s funny how life works… my fate left to some textbook publisher.
So we got to talking about electrons, and Cheryl made some comment about protons. “Yeah,” Beth said. “We talked about both of them in school today. They had these models of atoms, and they had little red balls for the electrons, and blue ones for the… what are they called again?”
I replied, “Protons Beth, I’m pretty sure the blue balls were protons.”
For some reason Adam, my three year old son, found this part of the conversation absolutely hilarious. He announced: “You’ve got blue balls dad!?!”
I thought I was going to have to perform an emergency procedure on my wife. That kind of laughing can be dangerous at the dinner table.
Now I just hope he doesn’t decide to bring it up at school tomorrow.
I’m not up on my computer science, but it made me a little worried when Beth said, “Hey dad! Come here and see what this magnet does to the computer! It’s really cool!”
You’ve got to start when they’re young. Some of your earlier efforts might be in vain, but you’ve got to be careful because you never know when they’ll start noticing… and imitating your behavior. It’s scary sometimes, knowing that they’re watching everything you do, making mental notes when you least expect it, and imitating a weak moment when it’s least convenient. Fortunately, we’ve been pretty consistent with my daughter, and it warmed my heart to see the evidence yesterday evening.
“Dad, how do I get that ‘Made on a Mac’ icon to show up on my web site?”
I’m glad you asked, kid.