Tag: Adam

The post that almost wasn’t

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running from the waterI 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.

Fidget rock 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 pinch of fog

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Pelican, fog, and sun

We almost never get fog here on the west coast of Florida, but this week has been full of exceptions. An evening fog is almost unheard of, even out on the barrier islands.

I took Adam out for a sunset walk on the beach this evening, and even though we didn’t see much sunset, it was still really cool… mostly because of the rare conditions. It reminded me of those early morning bike rides to work, when the moisture in the air condenses on the hair of your arms, and you don’t feel wet until you move suddenly… shaking the little drops free.

water's edgeAdam had an absolute blast. He fell asleep on the ride over, but was instantly awake when he saw the conditions. He was running up and down the beach as if it was morning and he’d had the whole night to recharge his batteries.

So we spent the last hour of sunlight walking along the gentle slope of the water’s edge, with small waves breaking at our feet, and tossing water worn limestones back into the gulf.

It was a great way to end the day. It seems like I’m saying that a lot lately.

Quiet <> good?

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imac5clr.jpgA 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.

Someday he’ll stop saying that

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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.

Climbing the ladder

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My boy Adam is a climber. The only think he likes better than climbing is leaping.

We now pause this entry for a little reconsideration.

On second thought, it’s hard to figure how much a boy likes to climb when he also likes to leap. Think about it.

It’s getting to the point were I’m considering taking Adam’s craft table and chairs out of our family room. It’s a Superman table that sits about 30 inches off the ground… the perfect step stool to get up on the counter top in our family room (and a fitting theme for what he likes to do with it most… or off of it). The counter, sitting about 40 inches off the floor, is the perfect platform to get at our (formerly) child-proof shelves. Said shelves were the perfect place to put all those things we didn’t want a three year old boy to have: scissors, permanent markers, etc.

The little stinker has figured out he can quietly close the family room door in order to mask the sound of his activities.

Getting his timing down

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The other night Cheryl and I were having a discussion about the feasibility of vertical diaper changing. We were having this discussion in front of Adam; diaper change in progress. We don’t normally argue in front of the kids, but in our defense it wasn’t really an argument… more a vigorous exchange of thoughts and ideas.

At one point I said to Cheryl, “listen, I’ve been the one who’s been changing him in the morning…”

… and I was interrupted by Adam.

“Listen to me,” he said. I flashed him a look that said he was doing a jig on some pretty thin ice.

“… I like to eat sausage in the morning,” he finished with a big grin.

Cheryl and I shared a look, and cracked up laughing. Maybe you had to be there, but that was just about the funniest thing I’d heard all week. Maybe the episode didn’t teach Adam the right thing, but it was just what we needed.

Shooting the toes with the new toy

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At Last! The new camera finally arrived. Now my only problem is there haven’t been enough things to photograph. I thought this weekend would offer up lots of opportunity, but the open house at Honeywell wasn’t completely open. There were no cameras allowed.

I really should have known. If I’d given it any thought, I wouldn’t have set myself up for disappointment. Now I’m down to one day of opportunity before we go trudging back to work.

This one was taken out front after work, just before the sidewalk stole a few layers of skin from two knees, an elbow, and the tip of a big toe.

Part three

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In case you’re one of the folks I haven’t told in person, Adam’s appointment with the neurosurgeon went as expected. The cysts in his brain are not cause for concern, as long as there are no symptoms. The doctor was kind and patient, and Cheryl left with a good impression, and less anxiety.

Can you ask for anything more from a doctor visit?

Although she didn’t think Adam had any neurological problems, she wanted to schedule him for a bone scan. She was intrigued by Adam’s complaints about back pain, and spent a good portion of the visit following up on what we’d done about Adam’s back… going so far as pulling up Adam’s MRI results from last month, and offering another opinion. Mind you, we weren’t there to discuss Adam’s back. We were seeing a specialist about the cysts in his brain. Adam’s back only came up because of the doctor’s general inquiry (presumably trying to be thorough).

I wasn’t there myself, so I don’t have a firm grasp on what she’s fishing for with the bone scan, but she apparently didn’t imply that it was anything serious. She apparently thought it was interesting that none of the tests he’d had so far showed anything… despite the fact that a three year old could describe his discomfort in such detail, and so consistently (suggesting it wasn’t made up).

Jeez! Considering all the problems my kids have had, if this keeps up I’m going to qualify for Superfund money to clean up my DNA.