Catching Up With Things!!

I can't believe that it has been a month since I have posted to our blog. The time, in many ways, has flown by, but in other ways seemed like a long, long, period of life. During those weeks, one of the most favorite things for Claire, Chloe, and Christopher was time spent at the lake with Paula's extended family. Claire and Chloe were so excited to tell us the details when they returned. I am borrowing a couple of pictures taken by Paula's cousin, I believe, of Chloe "driving the boat" and Claire and Uncle Vince driving as well. What memories were created for them during the week together with cousins, uncles, aunts, and Nonnie and Marc. Incidentally, I have never been sure how to spell Nonnie (Paula's Mom's nickname for Grandma) but today I verified it on a New Parents Guide website so I guess I will go with that, which for me was the natural spelling......

Also during these past weeks, Papa faced a hard surgery which ended up being a 21 day stay in the hospital. A few days prior to surgery day, sweet Paula brought the kids up for a play date with Papa, a great distraction for what was ahead. We started out by fixing lunch. Rather than start up the great big grill, we decided to "grill" our hot dogs on the grill pan on the stove. Claire and Chloe did a fine job of cooking with just a little help from Paula and me.

After lunch we took a quick trip to the park while Papa rested a bit. Back across the street, Chris got a little hose time in while the girls practiced their softball with the batting "T".

Papa's nearly 7 hour surgery went well. He is feeling quite good the evening of the surgery day. Pretty amazing, considering how sick he sometimes is after anesthesia. He did have some rough days following this picture, but in the end it all came out well.


Claire and Chloe visit and are very curious about all the things around Papa's hospital bed. They brought him art work for his room.

After a few days Papa was moved to the rehabilitation hospital where he worked very hard to gain his physical strength back. During the week, he had 6 therapy sessions per day. He also got some rest time which gave him time to play bridge and hearts on his computer.

After about a week and a half, Papa was given a four hour furlough to come home. He really enjoyed watching the kids swim, visited his birds, visited with friends who came to help me set up a couple of things for Norm's home coming, and had a good day overall.

One day Paula and the kids brought a special treat for Papa to the hospital. Here Chris stands on his tip-toes to get a little bite.

Chloe engages Papa in some conversation. Behind her you can see the art work that they brought when they visited. They visited several times which always served to be the highlight of his day and made the days go faster for him.

We are so very thankful to be home where Norm is resting, taking a couple of short walks per day, and enjoying the peace and quiet. Soon he will start three or so therapies a week, and will hopefully continue to build up strength and balance, as well as heal. We are also thankful to God for His healing and care during this time and for our many friends and precious family members that supported us in so many ways. Now on with summer.......

Swimming Days!

The repairs to our swimming pool are finally completed and this past week the three C's came for a couple of swim days. The girls love being in the water and although the swimming skills that were learned previously are a bit rusty, with a few more days in the water they will return.

On Monday both Paula and Mike were able to come, so the girls did not need to wear their life jackets. They had lots of fun with the pool toys.

Chris, if you look really carefully, can be seen in the little blow-up car. He enjoyed it for a while but wearing a life jacket wasn't his idea of lots of fun.

When the girls called the night before to ask about coming, Claire requested that we snack on some "baby pig ribs". Wow, do those girls like ribs! We think it is pretty funny that they are planning menus now. For Father's Day, they had requested that we have crab. Both requests were granted, naturally.

Since we were not going to be together to celebrate the 4th of July we decided to celebrate a little early. I baked a cake and Papa decorated it into a flag. Who knew that Papa had such skills? Actually, Papa is/was a wonderful cook prior to becoming partially disabled.

On Friday, they came again for a short swim. Chris was more interested in hanging out outside of the pool. He did play with the hose for some time and was pretty content.

Chloe is on the air mattress. Life jackets required this day because only Mike was able to come.

Papa and Claire.....

Ugh ~~! Chris can open and close the screen sliding door. If we keep the inside glass door closed however, he is still safe when inside the house. The pool is a real concern when the kids are this small.
A little juice break for Chris.

Hopefully, we will have lots more visits this summer. Nothing like a some sunshine and water for a day of fun!

Lots To Learn!

Our Grandchildren day this week was full of laughter and maybe a little mischief on Papa's part. Below you see Claire and Chris enjoying their midmorning snack which happened to be wheat-thin crackers. I'm not remembering what was delighting Chris so much but he sure was enjoying the moment.

The children are always interested in Papa's leg orthotic as well as information about his arm that doesn't work too well. He took off his orthotic and let them get the feel of having it on their legs. Each one took a turn.

We had lots of talk time on this visit and Claire and Chloe mentioned again that they had played 'Mary and Martha'. A couple of weeks ago when they had called us, they mentioned on the phone that was what they were playing. I asked Claire which of them plays Mary and which of them plays Martha and to tell me about it. Claire responded that she always plays Mary and Chloe always plays Martha. Claire said, "I am listening to Jesus and Martha just works and works and gets mad at me for not helping". Her sum up at the end was that you should always listen to Jesus rather than just work. Yep, I'm going to remember that! We often hear the girls talking about the stories they hear at preschool and Sunday School. It is so neat to know that so much of it is retained.

Papa's mischief started shortly after that conversation. The girls started discussing lunch and what they wanted to eat. Naturally, they didn't want the same thing. Papa talked to them about flipping a coin and explained that someone had to loose when you flip a coin. They both agreed that they would abide by the coin flip. So the coin was flipped and immediately one of the girls (who shall remain nameless to preserve her privacy :) ) went running off to the bedroom in tears. She was back shortly and the winning twin offered to flip again. Well, the results were the same for three flips and each time the looser ran off to her bedroom. She was never gone more than a minute and recovered quickly. Finally the winning twin offered to have what the loosing twin wanted, she just wanted to make her sister happy. Now, as if that wasn't enough drama for the day, Papa also got to talking about tic-tac-toe. He offered to show them how to play it. Well, the first looser ran off to the bedroom in tears. She returned quickly however, and the other twin lost the next time. She also ran off to the bedroom in tears. This went on for several games, one after the other. They would loose, run off in dispair, and then return a few minutes later wanting to play again. The final straw was a game where it was a tie and Papa announced that neither one of them had won, and that the 'cat' (as we always said in our home) was the winner and drew a big 'C' through the game. Now both girls immediately ran off to their bedroom in tears, and I mean real tears! The bad thing was that by now Papa and I were laughing so hard it made it worse. One of the girls maintained that the game was not fair!!! Lessons learned, I think we will choose our activities more carefully next time. I have decided after thinking about it, that maybe if you are a younger sibling you might be more able to accept that you are going to often loose to an older sibling, but when you are exactly the same age, your expectations are different. Whatever the case, we sure need to work on sportsmanship.

Below you can see Chris watching to see if anyone is noticing that he is about to play with one of the girls' LeapPads. Normally we keep them up when not in use. He didn't get away with it for long I might add.

Chloe asked me if I would take a movie of her. If you click on this link you can see what she had to say. So sweet. Once again I am unable to upload movies to this blogspot. I need to get to the bottom of this.

Looking forward to celebrating our wonderful freedoms and our country this week. I am so thankful for what we have, and for the opportunities we have been given, and to live in such a great country. God has truly blessed the USA, may we never take that for granted.

Father's Day Water Fun & Time With Grandma

Father's Day was a great low-key day with the grandchildren, Mike and Paula, and Suzie and Eric. Our pool is in the process of being repaired and so we decided to come up with some alternate water activities. We set up a slip & slide, a little wading pool, and a lizard, that when attached to a hose, squirts water. The kids had a wonderful time. Claire told me a couple of times what a great pool party we were having! It doesn't take much to entertain children and actually, considering how watchful we have to be in the pool area, it was probably more relaxing as well.

Papa had a dentist appointment this week on the day we were scheduled to visit Chris, Chloe, and Claire, and even though they were very disappointed that he wasn't there, we managed to have a fun morning. When I got out my camera, Chris made a beeline for the bench in the entryway. I rounded up the girls and they were all happy to pose for a picture. That is not always the case.

A little while later, Claire became concerned that someone had put some garbage at the top of their driveway. Given that it appeared to be a yellow plastic bag, I assumed it was a new telephone book, but decided it would be a good activity for them to go check it out. They put on their shoes and headed up the driveway.

Claire was quite relieved that it wasn't garbage.

They stopped along the way to examine a blossom on a plant. They are so much like their Daddy in that respect and there is always something new and beautiful to look at in their yard.

They always want breath mints when we are with them, and once I had given each of them one, they moved down the hallway and announced that they were having a 'mint party'. Chris joined right in. He follows the girls around like a little puppy dog most of the time and so far, the majority of the time, the girls let him join in.

June has flown by and the summer is going fast. We are looking forward to time with the three C's on Tuesday of this week. Enjoy your week!

Time With the Toddlers

Are four year olds still considered toddlers? I'm not sure, but it made for a catchier title today. Sometimes those blog titles don't just "pop up" for me. The week before last, we had a day with the grandchildren. We were all headed for the park but Chris started to show strong signs of sleepyness and so we paused in our preparations and within minutes he was asleep. Mike came home about then, so we took off to the park with just Claire and Chloe. We stopped and picked up some lunch and had a picnic before moving on to the swings. Both girls are proficient in pumping themselves now but they still like occasional pushes from Papa or me.

Chloe and Claire love this slide, so eventually we moved to the area where the slides are and enjoyed watching them run, play, and slide for quite a while.

Sisters....you can't beat having a sister for a playmate which brings me to a conversation that Paula overheard and then passed along to me.

Chloe: "Claire, I love you more than I love Mommy and Daddy."

Claire (ever the diplomat): "Well Chloe, I love you JUST the same as I love Mommy and Daddy." (Maybe she sensed Mommy was listening.) :)

Claire with her collected items, rocks, sticks, and leaves.

Chris was awake when we returned, none the wiser that he had missed out on lots of fun. He was ready for some time on Papa's lap.

Later that week their family went on an overnight camping trip to a nearby lake area. The girls called when they got home bursting with stories about what they had experienced. They were most excited about the trilliums and marsh marigolds they had seen. Since their Daddy is really into a trillium project at the moment, which you can read about here, I guess they have caught his enthusiasm. They also saw lots of crayfish and had "so much fun with their flashlights in the tent" when it was dark. I can tell you that Mike and Paula didn't enjoy the trip quite as much as the kids did, but I am sure they will go again and again.


This past week on Tuesday we arrived with some apricots fresh off of our tree. Chris LOVED them as evidenced below. What a character, I finally had to say no more, I was worried he would get a stomach ache.

Unfortunately shortly after we got there Chloe began to feel rather lousy. She was very feverish and spent the rest of the time either on Papa's lap or mine.

We turned on the TV to keep things quiet and calm and Claire and Chris were glued to whatever was on.

A little book time before we left and then our time was over. Chris eventually got the bug as well, but the last I had heard, Claire had escaped it. Thank goodness.

We are so looking forward to time with the "toddlers" again this week. Stay tuned.