slow motion

What do you think of when everything around you suddenly slows down? When you are acutely aware of every tenth of a second as it passes?

I woke up Saturday morning to Kat's music in her room. When I looked in on her, she was dancing. Spinning in circles with her arms and hands outstretched, a huge smile on her face with her hair thrown around. "UP, Daddy! UP!" So I picked her up and danced to Itsy bitsy spider. Her face in mine, watching her smile and hearing her giggle. We spun around together like grinning fools, enjoying the moment. Nothing else really mattered.

AS the truck tire fell off the pavement, the DOT hadn't plowed and the front end swung around, I wasn't driving fast. Maybe 55 MPH. The roads were a mess, snow covered and no way to tell where the shoulder hid, waiting to pull you down to a catastrophe.

The boy has been sick. He had my cold and now has my cough. He has a rash and other problems that make him miserable. Last night Jill and I held him and tried to comfort him. He would have none of it. He stood and screamed at the injustice of it all; why did HE have to hurt? Did he really want these teeth? We held him and tried to comfort him and share his frustration.

The truck is sliding sideways, free of friction from the road and the tires held to nothing, just sliding over snow and ice. The headlights pointed into the median and the road starting to curve into my travel. Counter steer, just like I was taught in drivers ed, over 25 years ago. Pray, just like I was taught at home nearly 40 years ago.

Kat, wound up and cranky. Cabin fever making her temper boil. I found her at the door, in her jacket, hat and mittens. Crying to DO SOMETHING. Outside? Sled, she tells me. So I dressed quickly, put on her boots and carried her out and got the sled. I tell her to hold on and enjoy! She is going down the hill, faster and farther. Looking back for the security of daddy watching over her. Laughter and dancing, jumping up and down. Again! Again. Four trips in all, up the hill, position in the sled and point down the hill. GO! down the hill, faster than before, I hear her calling, Daddy!

There is a van stuck in the median. The truck has swung nearly 180* and I see the van coming up on my left. Or is it? The van is still, I am shooting towards it when the back of the truck hits the thick, wet, sticky snow of the median and the front end snaps around like a whip. The van seems to pass me by, when I should know I am the passer by. Nose into the deeper snow, slowing down as though I just drove into a lake. Snow splashing up all around, I see the snow pass over the hood and past my windows. How deep will I go?

Sunday morning, Jill took Kyle to the dr, leaving Kat home with me. Kat is mommy's little girl and spends a half hour crying for MOMMY! and looking all over the house trying to find her mommy. I distract her finally with the music from the day before and once again we are dancing, cheek to cheek. In a rare moment of perspective, I marvel and appreciate the moment. She doesn't want me to hold her often and we don't dance together. "This is precious and I don't want it to stop." I am in the moment and I know what priceless really means.

The truck is nearly in the other lane. Headlights flash in front of me, staring into my eyes. This makes it hard to see and I have my eyes open to meet my fate. What will happen when I finally come to rest? I am now heading back towards the middle of the median, snow showering all around me. Will my planner hit me in the head? Will my flashlight shake free and fracture my teeth? Will I be a burden to my family, paralyzed or blind? Is this all karma; am I wearing clean underwear?

A rough night last night. Wife and I got back to sleep around 530. We snuggled up close and dozed off. We had each gone to the children to help them get through the night and back to sleep. One woke the other and they both resented the interruption of sleep. We all did. Jill and I hit snooze and we wound ourselves closer to one another. I murmured in her ear; we used to do this every morning, BK. We cuddled and snuggled and stored up love and affection like squirrels storing nuts, corporate life is like a stark freezing Iowa winter. Store up your love and affection because outside of this house you don't have many friends or allies to help nourish your spirit. Some days that nourishment of your spirit runs out before you get to the safe haven of home.

I realize the truck has some response in the wheel. Maybe I can, I think. I am at the bottom of the hill, I have been plowing snow for a quarter mile. Give it some gas and steer. The worst that can happen is unthinkable; the best that can happen is still possible. The truck responds to the foot feed and slogs its way in the deep snow. Thirty more yards, twenty then five and OUT! We are on the road! Careful, don't go to the other ditch and look for cars coming down that hill! Keep driving a little faster, up to 45 and pointed in the right direction. Lets get home carefully, safely; ten miles to go and the road isn't any cleaner.

I park the truck at home and feel kind of weak. shut the garage door and go inside. It is too much to hope the kids are up; it is 8:15. DADDY'S HOME. A bundle of long brown curly hair runs out of her bedroom and throws herself around my knees. UP, UP, UP she commands. I pick up my daughter and a tear slides down my cheek. Jill comes into the kitchen carrying Kyle and we have a group hug. A hug has never been more precious or needed than right at that moment. I would freeze that moment in time if I could and never regret it.

I feel like it took thirty minutes to drive through that median and another hour to get home but that hug lasted for barely an instant.

family observations

So how many wipes is it supposed to take to change a stinky diaper? I think my expectation in the beginning was two. Because, really, I use two when I have to wipe. Isn't it reasonable to expect the same of my kids?
Apparently, not.
But I got used to changing Kat. Four wipes and we were done.
The boy? Who knows?! With all of the extra equipment to wipe around, who knows how long we will be there.
I swear, he works at making poo difficult.
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The kids were having a moment tonight. Both of them were screaming and waving and having fits.
I tried reasoning with them and they would have none of it.
After what seemed like HOURS but was more likely only one hour or so (maybe a full minute), I shut off my hearing aids and let them work it out for themselves.
Not bad, I should have tried that earlier.

You say it's his BIRTHDAY!

The boy celebrated his birthday yesterday. It was a zoo with most of my in-laws over with their children and my mom. Our little house isn't really well equipt to deal with four little kids under 6 to run off their energy.

The star of the day had a blast with attention from everyone and CAKE!

I managed to keep very busy during the party with helping making lunch for everyone (pouring the ham juice down my front in the meantime) and constantly washing dishes and attending crying kids. Right after lunch I needed a time out so I went downstairs to the man-cave, took out my hearing aids and put on ear muffs to enjoys some peace. Jill brought me back up for cake.

Everyone had so much fun running around then having cake and ice cream. We had a back up cake and a pie so there were lots of choices for everyone. We didn't play any organized games as the older kids made up their own.

Kyle was pretty much passed from aunts to grammas all day long, he was the star of the party!

Help out a friend

I haven't done this before, but there is always a first time....
A friend of mine is in the hospital after getting treatment for cancer. She isn't feeling well and when I was talking to her husband, he said that he would like it if she received a 'boatload' of well wishing cards or notes.
So, for the price of a 41cent stamp, let's send Barb a get well card.
Send it to;
Barb Figgins
UIHC
Room 7091
200 Hawkins Dr.
Iowa City, IA 52242.

If you have a holiday card left over, use it up by writing a nice note of encouragement and send it to a great lady who isn't feeling well.
Thanks

snipits in the house

How strange are my kids. The boys first words are "UhOh" and the girls favorite DVD to watch is "Learn Chinese - the adventures of the River Dragon King" We have watched that a minimum of 5 times a day since she opened it.


heard in the house tonight, "Kevin, would you change our daughter? I am WIPED!"


A full day today and another planned for the rest of the week. Time off of work is some of the busiest times I have.

Best Christmas Present ever fragments

I am sitting at the table with my boy in my lap, wiggling, watching it snow like a snow globe over the pond and woods and taking in the scent of my son's hair and there isn't a better experience in the world.

Kyle's first words don't appear to be Mama or Dada, but rather, UhOh. I think his sister taught him to say it. He will push his bottle off the high chair and after he hears it hit the floor, he says "UhOh" very clearly.

Kat has a blankey. It is HER blankey. This afternoon when taking her nap, Kat took off her diaper. Then she wet the bed. Except she had swaddled herself with blankey. So it is disgusting. Really disgusting. But she has a tantrum when we try to take it away and wash it, which it desperately needs.

We took the kids sledding this afternoon. Jill and I had very different approaches. She had a long toboggan and put Kat in front, climbed in the back and wheee! down the hill the raced. I had Kyle in his own little sled and pulled him down the hill. After about three minutes, he started crying. He cried and cried until he howled. I don't know if it was the cold sleigh or the cold air or the ride, but he was one unhappy little dude. So I brought him back in and we watched Kat and Jill go down the hill, over and over again. The boy seems to like a warm fire in the house.

Kat got a computer for Christmas. We hooked it up to the TV to see how she would like playing with it. She has zero interest in it so far. The toy she plays with the most is her brother's noise making merry go round. Between her bedroom and the living room, we look like we have about seven kids if you count all the toys.

Supper tonight consisted of salmon cooked on a cedar plank. It was very good. Kudos to the wife for thinking it up and getting the cedar to cook on.

It is bedtime for the Kat and she is taking this opportunity to jump up and down around the house. In and out of her bedroom and into the kitchen and back, she is like a tigger with the bounce, bounce, bounce.



I am trying to link this to Mrs. 4444 fragment link, I don't know if it will work.

Merry Christmas

Christmas morning found the boy waking up early. Around 6am. Fortunately, Mom and Fran were here and took him down to the basement where they played with him until Kat woke up.
When Kat woke up she was SO excited! The presents that everyone told her would be there were all piled under the tree. She ran around the house and jumped up and down and clapped her hands, she was so excited.
Jill decreed the that there would be no opening of gifts until breakfast was eaten and the table was cleared. This made NO sense to Kat. She was EXCITED about the presents!
Before to long, breakfast was eaten and the dishes cleared. We made sure that the cameras had fresh batteries and told Kat to open a present. It turns out she didn’t really know what she was going to DO with the presents, she was just excited they were there. She would pick one up and run around the room and hand it to someone, then pick up another one and jump up and down with it. Kat was all wound up and it turns out, she didn’t really know why.
Kyle on the other hand, was excited because Kat was excited. He kept watching her and wanting to crawl over to where she was.
We finally helped Kat open her first gift. Then we got it out of the package and let her play with it. She was perfectly happy to play with the one gift. She pretty much forgot about the rest of them under the tree. Here we had spent 20 minutes on her first gift and at this rate, it would be around 5pm before we got through all of them. So we took that one away and handed her another package. Pawpaw had to help her open it. Then she was excited again! Another toy! And she had to play with this one, too.
Kyle had no clue. We would unwrap something and put it in front of him. He would ignore it so he could watch his sister. He worked harder at crawling to wherever she was to try and get a better look at what she was doing than playing with his own gifts. With one exception. Kyle got an inch worm that played different tunes. I haven’t mentioned it before but Kyle is enthralled with music. This inch worm was no different. He sat on the floor and pushed the button over and over to hear the tunes.
Through the course of the morning, we finally got Kat to figure out the idea of OPENING the packages we handed her. Then it turned into, she wanted to open EVERY package under the tree. We tried to stop that runaway train but had to hide the rest of the presents to get Kat to stop opening all of them.
All in all, we had a very good time playing with the kids and watching them wind up higher than a kite.