schmits.org

Welcome to schmits.org: , , , and virtual front porch. This web site is just that; a place to visit for family, friends, and anyone, who are too far away, to stop by in person. Pull up a chair and stay a while....

Back on Track

I thank you for your patience during this delay. We are now back on schedule. I apologize for any inconvenience or undue distress this has caused. Grandparents and all you die-hard Dylan and Andrea fans, get your mouse ready to click and your cheek muscles ready to smile.

There are five new albums recently posted, covering the last three months of 2008 and Dylan's birthday in January 2009:

• A visit to Brookfield Zoo with Will in October
• October 2008, which includes Halloween
• November 2008, which includes Thanksgiving with Oma and Opa
• December 2008, which includes Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa and a post-Christmas visit from Tony
• Dylan's 5th Birthday

Stream of Consciousness

For the past week or so, Andrea is in a phase that I call "Stream of Consciousness." My guess is that her ability to speak words is catching up to her ability to think words. The result is that we get to see an unedited version of what is going on inside her head.

This can be good, and this can be bad.

Her teacher at school shared a story that was more on the bad end of the spectrum. Andrea wasn't waiting her turn for a toy, and it was explained to her that she needed to wait. Andrea verbalized what we all would think, which something like, "Well, I'm just going to say it was two minutes and take it back from her now."

On the good side of the spectrum, it allows me to understand what is motivating Andrea at any given moment in time. Instead of wondering why it is taking her twenty or thirty minutes to go to the bathroom, wash hands, and brush teeth, I get a running commentary on what is distracting her.

I know that this phase won't last long, so I'm going to try to take advantage of it any way I can.

Budding Scientist

Dylan shared with me that he wants to be a scientist when he grows up. He wants to do experiments. And he wants to write about them.

Yes, he wants to not only do science, but he wants to also share his findings with others.

Dylan is well on his way to his goals, as he wrote his first lab report last weekend. He did some experiments with his new science kit ("Mind Blowing Science"). Then, later that weekend, Dylan actually drew pictures to represent what had happened in the experiments.

Dylan was also creating a bar chart last week. He was polling his friends at school to pick a number. He then added a box to each bar to see which number was picked the most. He had some other complicated grid system that was designed to indicate how many friends he still had to ask. Unfortunately, I was there to pick him up and he didn't get to finish his master plan.

Four Years, 365 Days

For many, that means five years old. But not for Dylan. Since last year was a leap year, he has to wait one more day to turn five. Regardless, we celebrated his birthday today with a great party! We had a magician come who was great for the kids and parents alike, dinner of chicken nuggets, meatballs, and macaroni & cheese, a Wall-E cake, and a pinata this year. I think that I'd skip the pinata in the future unless I'm really coerced!

Tomorrow we'll open presents and celebrate at a more relaxed pace with just family. Happy 5th Birthday, Dylan!

Triathlon Training

My goal for this year is to complete a sprint triathlon.

Seven hundred and fifty meter swim. Twenty kilometer bike. Five kilometer run.

June 14, 2009.

This is my goal.

Come cheer me on!

Blanket

"Mommy, I want my blanket."

"Your blanket? Which blanket? Do you want your quilt?"

"My blanket."

"Andrea, which blanket?"

"My blanket. That blanket."

"Okay.

"Wait! You said, 'blanket.' Geoff, did you hear? Andrea said 'blanket.'

I admit that I was a bit slow. Andrea has evolved from "Daddy's" to "Did-it" and now on to "blanket." Looking back, it is possible that she's been saying blanket for days... or weeks... but, I've finally caught on.

Motion Baby

Once a motion baby, always a motion baby.

Today, I had the opportunity to once again hold Andrea, and sway, and bounce as I did when she was an infant. Today, Andrea was overtired and was attempting to refuse taking a nap. I started holding her so that she couldn't run away or head downstairs. In spite of her squirming, I could tell that she was tired. Eventually, she gave in to the fatigue and I could feel her body relax. So I stood, and swayed and bounced a bit more as she got more and more tired. Finally, she asked to lie down on the futon (in her room) and she was asleep in seconds.

As an infant, we had many opportunities to contend with our motion baby. We would often walk and bounce with her in our arms until she fell asleep. When we were both fatigued, the bouncy seat sometimes came to the rescue. At daycare, I have many memories of Ms Karen happily dancing with Andrea in her arms. Andrea also motivated them to buy batteries for the vibrating bouncy seat that hadn't had working batteries in quite some time! The sling was our friend as she got older, as she would ride contently until she dozed off. Sometimes, we relied on the stroller and a walk around the block in nice weather.

I'm not sure if I'll ever forget our trip back from one of Andrea's early doctor appointments. She was screaming as loud as her little lungs could in the back seat of the car. As instantly as a light being switched, her screams turned to snores as we crossed the bumps of the three railroad tracks. It went something like this: Waaaah! Waaaaah! Waaaaaah!, Bumpity, Bumpity, Bumpity, ... {silence}.

And then, there was our disappointment when they re-paved a local road that we travel frequently. We would drive trying to hit the small bumps in the road to provide some soothing and comfort to our backseat passenger. Those bumps and potholes were our allies! Somehow we managed, but I suspect we dealt with a lot more crying that we would have had the potholes remained.

So, I guess I am thankful for the bumps in the road... both figuratively and literally.

Growing Up

Andrea is growing up!

We've seen remarkable growth and change in the last month or so. Andrea has really taken an interest in writing and is now writing what looks to me like an "H" but I think that she calls either an A (for Andrea) or a D (for Dylan). Andrea also is joining Dylan with lots of imaginative play. They have been playing much more interactively. Both of these changes have made a world of difference at church, where Andrea will now sit in the pew with us for an hour plus.

Just yesterday we encountered a huge milestone: Andrea rode in the truck for the first time. Over the weekend, Dylan rode in the back in the jumpseat. After investigating the rules of the road in Illinois, I learned that as long as there is only a lap belt this is permitted. The truck manual had guidelines for being at least 40 lbs to sit in the seat; Dylan is 42 lbs. Yesterday, we had a parent-teacher conference for Andrea, and both kids wanted to ride in the truck with Daddy. We were going to put Andrea in the carseat and adjust it, but then realized that in that carseat she is too big for the 5-point harness. So, she had her first ride with a belt-positioning booster. Upon arriving home, after a wonderful dinner at Jason's Deli, Andrea weighed in just over 30 lbs, so she is legit in the belt-positioning booster.

The car seat we have in the truck was never my favorite. I'm not sure who it's designed for... but let's keep this positive for tonight.

Conservation of Crankiness

Newton's long-forgotten fourth law, according to the physics teacher in the family, is the Conservation of Crankiness. We observed this in action the other night. It was quite amazing. Dylan was as grumpy as can be, while Andrea was very happily getting ready for bed. Then, once Dylan calmed down ready to listen to stories, Andrea became grumpy. We did not see how the crankiness was transferred, but it was quite a phenomenon.

The mystery to me is how on some evenings we have a low level of total crankiness, but on others it is a high level. I need to understand how to transfer the crankiness outside of our house!

M&M's, Skittles, and Genetics

I'm always amazed how genetic inheritance manifests itself in Dylan and Andrea. Tonight at dinner, Dylan and Andrea were eating Skittles from their Halloween loot. Dylan dumped his bag on his plate and remarked how his green Skittles blended in on his green plate. (After which Andrea remarked how her green Skittles blended in on her pink plate.) He then sorted his Skittles by color and counted how many he had of each type. He then proceeded to eat whichever color Skittle he had the most. When he had the same number of all colors, I believe there was a priority order in which he ate them, but I'm not sure what it was. This continued until he ate all of his Skittles.

I eat M&M's the exact same way. After sorting by color and counting, I eat whichever color I have the most. When I have the same number of more than one color, I eat them in this order: brown, red, orange, yellow, blue, and green. This order may be influence by some commercial or story about green M&M's resulting in a home run in baseball.