The Lindenbergs

Did I mention Pierce kissed my butt this morning? No, I don't mean figuratively. I was cleaning up in the kitchen and the boy walked up behind me and kissed me on the rear end. Then, of course, laughed uproariously. How can your day not start off well when your kid is so fond of you he wants to kiss your derriere?

-Eric (Dad)

Usually either Pierce or Anna will do something memorable or funny, and that prompts a blog entry. Interestingly, they just haven’t been that interesting lately.

Sunday, 9/18 was Nora and my anniversary. We celebrated a little early by going to dinner and a movie (by ourselves) on Friday evening. Dinner was delicious and the movie, Wedding Crashers, was hilarious. We HIGHLY recommend it. We finished up the evening with dessert at one of our favorite restaurants. MMmmmmmm. Nora’s folks watched Pierce and Anna. After putting them to bed they were unable to determine how to turn the TV on (it’s a long story and partially my fault), so when we got back we found them using the kid’s cards to play Old Maid. Needless to say, they were ready to go home.

Most of Saturday was devoted to yard work. Our trees and shrubs were WAY overgrown so I spent the first part of the day trimming them and the second part of the day picking up and bagging the debris (with assistance from Nora). 20 bags later and our yard looks respectable. We finished off the day with a visit to the Deavers for dinner and a play date.

Sunday was a Bally’s gym morning followed by an IHOP brunch (Pierce and Anna’s request). We went home for more yard work then out again for Pierce’s soccer practice. Course, it had rained all the previous night and we didn’t think to call the “is there a practice phone number?” because the day was sunny and warm. Classic neophyte soccer parent mistake, of course practice had been canceled and we were the only family to show up.

We finished the day by going out to eat with Nora’s folks and her brother’s family. Joann and Bill treated as a joint anniversary gift. We tried a new steakhouse that was delicious. I don’t think any of the kids ate dinner after scarffing through roll after roll of bread. But they were well behaved so none of us cared (I ate Pierce’s hamburger and fries the next day).

Anna’s bedtime resistance continues, but I think Nora and I have gotten used to it. We started putting a baby gate in her door so she can’t wander out of her room, and that’s helped quite a bit. Interestingly, last night a loud bang came from upstairs. I went to make sure everyone was all right and of course it was the gate crashing to the floor that had made the noise. We think Anna was actually climbing on it. I told her to get back to bed, and aside from her flipping the hall light on and off a few times, we didn’t hear any more from her that evening.

I’m on the road for the next couple of days and will be flying back on Saturday. Interestingly, the whole family, myself included, will be flying out Sunday for a week at Myrtle Beach for Scott’s wedding. It looks like the current hurricane is going to slam into Texas and Louisiana (again) and leave the east coast alone. So we should have a very nice time (how can we not, it’s a wedding!). Check back soon for pictures and stories.

-Eric (Dad)

Nora and I have a mild disagreement. I don’t care to have Pierce and Anna in our bed while we’re sleeping, I’d prefer they stay in their own rooms in the early morning hours. However, when Anna comes wandering into our bedroom at 5:00 am Nora tends to pick her up and put her into our bed without even fully waking up. I’m of the mind that Nora should send the girl back to her bed.

This morning I woke up about 2:00 am and darned if Anna wasn’t lying in bed between Nora and me. Now, I can live with an occasional 5:00 am visit. But 2:00 am is a bit much for me. The following conversation ensued:

Me: Nora?
Nora: Yeah
Me: Why is Anna in our bed at 2:00 in the morning?
Nora: …
Me: Nora?
Nora: Yeah?
Me: (Irately) Why is Anna in our bed?
Nora: …
Me: (loudly and more irritated) NORA!
Nora: Yeah?
Me: WHY IS ANNA IN OUR BED?
Nora: The baby gate is across Anna’s door, she can’t get out of her room.
Me: ??????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Note: On closer inspection what I thought was Anna was Nora’s hair and her hand. Apparently I dream saw her.

Me: Ummm, Nora?
Nora: ZZZ… huh?
Me: Sorry, I was confused.
Nora: ZZZzzzz.

I think I owe my wife a dinner.

-Eric (Dad)

My beautiful daughter Anna is driving me to distraction. This child does not sleep. With only a short nap yesterday afternoonc she still stayed up (after she’d been put to bed for the night) until about 10:00 pm. She’s so brazen she actually walked into Nora’s office (with Nora there) and tried to hide under her desk.

This morning she wandered into our room at about 5:00 am and tried to visit with us. I sent her back to bed and 5 minutes later she was downstairs playing at the train table. I’m not sure whose child this is, Nora and I love to sleep in and Pierce falls asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow.

Speaking of sleep, Pierce had a pretty significant nightmare over the weekend. I was still up so I heard him start yelling in his sleep. I went to check on him and, half awake he starts describing his dream to me. Of course I only caught bits and pieces, but it appears that a spider got into the library featured in the TV show “Between the Lions” and bit one of the lions. There also appeared to be a fire that burned down the library and a bee that kept flying into everyone’s faces. At this point in his dream description he started waving away this dream bee from his own face (I think he was still mostly asleep).

He and I went to the bathroom to get him a drink of water (I thought we could interrupt this dream if I could wake him all the way up and then have him go back to sleep fresh). On entering the bathroom Pierce tried to sit in the tub and drink from an empty cup. He then sprinted back to bed and was asleep within seconds. The next day when I asked him if he remembered having a nightmare he told me he did; he then proceeded to describe an old nightmare that occurred months ago.

-Eric (Dad)

Its interesting, I know its been a “few days” since my last posting and then, when I actually go out to the blog to update it, I realize that a lot more time has passed than I thought. Here are some highlights from the past few weeks:

I attended Ryan’s funeral in Northern Virginia. For those not keeping up-to-date, Ryan was the 5-year old son of one of my friends who recently died of cancer. As you can imagine, the funeral was extremely difficult. If you’ve never seen a child-sized casket consider yourself lucky, it’s absolutely heartrending. Greg and his wife Lori are coping as best they can. Fortunately, I think they have a very good support network to help them. There other younger son, Evan, has a life-long gift from his older brother: his middle name is Anakin, after Ryan’s favorite movie(s), Star Wars. Closing thought, when you’re done reading this blog entry, go find your family and give them a big hug, tell them that you love them, and then do the same thing everyday for the rest of your life.

The pool closed this past weekend for the season and swim lessons are behind us for another year. Pierce is a real fish and has left his water wings by the side of the pool permanently. It’s amazing to watch him swim. His two strokes are the dog paddle and a weird form of underwater breaststroke. Nora and I are both very proud of his swimming ability. Anna is also doing well in the water, but will still take another summer of seasoning before we’ll consider her proficient. She’s grown so much this summer that her favorite “strawberry” bathing suit no longer fits. She is not all that crazy about the replacements.

Pierce started school last week. He’s going full days (instead of half days like last year), 5 days a week. He doesn’t appear to have lost any momentum over the summer and fell back in the groove with no problems. He’s very excited that he gets to take a lunch box to school. He picked it out himself; it’s a blue, car-shaped cooler bag.

Anna’s personality is really starting to crystallize. She’s got to be the most independent-minded almost 3-year old I’ve ever met. Pretty darn stubborn too. Nora and I love just listening to her talk. She’s extremely articulate, but doesn’t always have much to say. One of her favorite activities is to dress up in her last year’s Halloween costume, Magenta (from Blue’s Clues). She likes it twice as much if Pierce will wear his Blues costume too. She’s also a massive Sesame Street junky. She has a plethora of characters from the show with her favorite being Big Bird.

Pierce started soccer this past week. His first practice was Sunday afternoon. Amazingly, he seems to have a lot of natural talent (I don’t know where that came from). He’s playing in a micro league, so the field and nets are smaller. Each kid gets their own soccer ball and the first half-hour of the practice focuses on basic drills/skills with the second half a scrimmage. My favorite part of last week’s practice was when the kids were working on their “dribbling”. The coach yelled go and all the kids started kicking their respective balls around the field. Except Pierce, he starts dribbling full tilt (quite well too). After about 5 minutes the coach yells stop and tells the kids to come on in. Of course, Pierce is now about 8 soccer fields away…

During the scrimmage portion of the practice it became apparent that some of these kids have been playing soccer for a while. They were quite good. Pierce started off pretty strong and had one down field run that was exceptional (of course he ran right past the goal and on to the next field, then the next field, …). But after awhile he seemed to lose interest. He would just stand there, not even facing in the general direction of the action. Of course, Nora and I one be yelling from the sidelines for him to go get the ball and he would re-engage for a little while, but then he’d stop again.

On the way home from practice I asked him about that. His response:
“Well Dad, you know when I’ve been running around for awhile I sometimes get tired.”

-Eric (Dad)