The Lindenbergs

I always seem to be running behind on keeping up with everyone’s fun and foibles. Here’s what’s new (in no particular order):

Anna’s first day of school was yesterday (Tuesday). She’ll have a couple of days of “orientation” without the rest of the returning students being present. The whole school will be in class starting on Friday (this includes Pierce). Nora tells me Anna took to school like a fish. She walked into the classroom and never looked back. The orientation days are pretty short, but Anna told me all about the schools playground equipment. Apparently the middle swing on the swing set is her favorite.

Last Saturday was fun. Pierce and I needed haircuts and Nora had a nail appointment that she was going to take Anna to while Pierce and I were gone. Nora and I decided to make this Dad/Pierce Day and Nora/Anna day. After the haircuts Pierce and I went out and had lunch together at IHOP (his favorite restaurant –he always gets the Rooti Tooti Jr.), then went to Wonderscope, a children’s museum, for several hours.

Pierce and Anna go the Wonderscope fairly regularly, but this is the first time Pierce got to be there by himself since Anna was born. For a change, I didn’t have any place I needed to be later in the day, so Pierce got to set the pace. We stayed in any given room for as long as he wanted, doing whatever he wanted. I think we were there for almost three hours. Towards the end of our stay Pierce started talking about wanting to see a skyscraper (I have no idea what brought this on). I told him I worked in a skyscraper and asked him if he’d like to see it on the way home –his answer: Yeah!

My building is a 14 floor high rise. It’s normally closed over the weekend but I have a security card that let us get to my office. Pierce was enthusiastic about the length/height of the elevator ride and really enjoyed looking out the windows from the 9th floor (our office). He liked the pictures that I have of him and Anna as the wallpaper on my PC, but his favorite was the 1/16th scale model Lamborghini on display in one of the other offices.

While Pierce and I were off having our adventures, Anna and Nora had their nails done (Nora did Anna’s while she waited for her appointment). The two feasted at Dairy Queen then went to the park, along with Nora’s friend Carrie, to feed the ducks. When we all got home that afternoon and discussed our activities Pierce commented that we “had more fun” then Nora and Mom.

-------------

I’ve turned Pierce and Anna on to the Muppet Show. This used to be one of my favorite shows when I was a kid and I have several seasons’ worth of episodes on my computer. For the last few days we’ve sat in my office before bedtime and watched. Pierce and Anna both think Gonzo (Banana Beak) is hilarious but I think Kermit is their favorite. Last night we watched a “classic” BMW commercial featuring Kermit driving a 7-series and Pierce just about lost his mind.

--------------
Over the weekend I was fixing a couple of dripping faucets in our master bathroom. I have a home repair book that I had spread open to the appropriate section resting on the Jacuzzi tub. There are about 7 different faucet types that the book describes –so you have to match your efforts to right faucet. During the endeavor Pierce walked in to check up on me. After watching me for a few minutes he walked over to the book, skimmed the section and asked me, “Are you repairing the ‘ceramic disk’ or ‘floating ball’ fixture.

-Eric (Dad)

I'm embarrassed to say, I think its been almost a year since I've posted any new pictures. I suspect Nora and I look about the same. Pierce is recognizable, but Anna's the most changed. Look at all that hair.

Enjoy.

Hmmm, I seem to be full of stories today.

Awhile back, when getting hugs from Pierce and Anna, I told them to squeeze harder to try and "squeeze my stuffing out". The result was a good fierce hug from each kid. They'd usually know when they have successfully squeezed my stuffing out when I make a raspberry noise (yeah, yeah -I know I'm not sophisticated). Interestly, Pierce and Anna never tire of this game. At bedtime they usually they out do themselves trying to get my stuffing to come out.

-Eric (Dad)

This story’s a little long, but bear with me. The other day we went to the pool. Pierce, Anna and I were jumping into the pool “as a family”. On one of the jumps I ended up landing in the pool splay legged and caught the impact on my privates. Pierce and Anna, unaware of the situation, wanted to climb all over me. I told that I needed them to give me a minute; I’d landed on my testicles.

Flash forward to yesterday morning when Anna wandered into the bathroom while I was getting ready for work (our master bath doesn’t have a door, so Nora and I get lots “visits”). Pointing at my nether-region Anna asked, “Dad, what’s that behind your penis?” While I think she already knew the answer, I explained that they were my testicles. Anna got a thoughtful look for a moment and responded, “Oh, that’s what you landed on in the pool” (good memory that girl).

End of story, when I got home from work yesterday I was visiting with Pierce and Anna. After a few minutes Anna declares, “Dad, when I was at Grandma and Grampa’s house today I told them that behind your butt you have TENTACLES.”

-Eric (Dad)

Nora called me at work yesterday with a “water balloon plan”. She wanted to invite several of the neighborhood kids over, along with their parents, for some visiting and a massive water balloon battle amongst the kids. She needed my help to fill the quantity of balloons required. Of course I said yes.

The water balloon battle started about 7:00 pm with six kids. Very rarely did a thrown balloon ever hit its intended target –most just popped in the lawn. There was lots of yelling and running, and of course we adults were spraying the kids with hoses as they ran past us. When the battle slowed, due to lack of balloons, the gaggle of kids played chase and swung on the swing set while Nora and I replenished the balloon supply.

Of course, none of the parents escaped the deluge; those water balloons had a magical way of finding us. The evening ended with the kids “swimming” in our kiddie pool.

-Eric (Dad)

Hmmm, for those keeping track it looks like I just surpassed the two-year mark in maintaining this blog. An all-time record for me; I've never been able to maintain a dairy or journal for an extended period. It must be the subject matter that's keeping me interested.

-Eric (Dad)

On Wednesday, after dinner, Nora and I spent several minutes filling water balloons. The request for these balloons came from Pierce and Anna. After the first round of balloons was filled, Anna proceeded to throw hers against the fence and Pierce tried to hit me with them by bowling them across the grass (of course they exploded as soon as they touched the lawn).

Nonetheless, we had enough fun that Nora and I prepared another large batch of balloons. This time Nora gave Pierce and Anna strategic direction on how to best attack me with their water bombs. While they were chasing me across the backyard, Nora winged a beautifully targeted balloon directly at my crotch. Sploosh.

The next 12 minutes were a frenzied chaos of flying water balloons, laughing kids (and parents), and very wet clothes. I think I got the worst of it; the water balloons seemed to bounce off Nora. Half the damage to Pierce and Anna was self-inflicted: they liked popping the balloons over their own heads.

-Eric (Dad)

Wednesday night we went to a community swimming pool after dinner. Our usual swimming haunt is our neighborhood pool that is fairly small with a deep end that the kids like to jump in to. By comparison the community pool is impressive with a cement “beach”, swim lanes, and diving boards. I think Nora’s parents have taken Pierce and Anna there before, but it was a first time for Nora and me.

The pool doesn’t permit water assist devices, so Anna couldn’t wear her water wings. It didn’t prove to be a problem because on the “cement beach” side of the pool the water gets to only a couple of feet deep –easy standing depth for her. As a matter of fact, Anna really blossomed in the environment. She was actually swimming! She’d put her face in the water, stroke her arms, kick and actually cover some distance. I’ve never been so proud! She reminded me that I’d shown her “face slams” last year/early this summer, then showed me how well she could do them. I think she’s well on her way to becoming a proficient swimmer.

After we’d moved to the deeper side of the “smaller” pool, so that Pierce and Anna could take turns jumping off the side, Pierce and I went to the large pool to see what it had to offer. This is the pool with the diving well, and Pierce immediately made a beeline for the low diving board. I was concerned the lifeguard might want Pierce to take a “swim test” before she’d let him dive, but it was not an issue. Pierce jumped off the board like he’d been doing it all his life. No fear whatsoever. He and I ended up spending the remainder of the evening jumping of the low dive. Pierce made up lots of jumps and even attempted to dive a couple of times (with mixed results).

I haven’t had the opportunity to use a diving board in a long time and I’m pretty out of practice. I didn’t even attempt to do flips, just pikes and splash dives. Interestingly, I’m actually a little sore from the experience. I’ve got bruises on my shoulders from where I struck the water. Weird.

-Eric (Dad)

As I think I previously mentioned, Anna has gone nuts for the albatross characters in the Rescuers and Rescuers Down Under movies. She’s been having Nora and me draw the characters (Orville and his cousin Wilber) regularly, then we cut them out and she plays with them. She makes up stories, has them talk to each other, has them talk to her other toys, and they frequently end up on her pillow at bedtime.

A couple of days ago Nora drew another picture of Orville, but with a purple (instead of yellow) scarf. Anna has christened this bird Or-Or-A-Thing and it appears to be Orville’s cousin. She’s very earnest about the whole thing. To the best of my recollection, Anna has never named any of her toys by anything other than what they are. Meaning, a toy bear is “Bear”, and a toy frog will be named “Frog”.

-Eric (Dad)

Yesterday (Monday) was a big day for Pierce. He was invited to one of his former t-ball teammate’s birthday party. From there he went to one of his schoolmate’s houses for the rest of the day, and night.

Nora tells me he had a great time at the birthday party. She spoke to him briefly last night and he seemed to be having a great time. He was anxious to get off the phone because they were about to watch a movie –I think the entire conversation may have been a couple of minutes long.

This is Pierce’s first sleepover. Its now 7:30 am and it looks like he made it through the night without incident (we didn’t think there would be any late night phone calls to come get him). Of course Nora and I missed him. It seemed so strange to know he wasn’t in his upstairs bed.

Nora and I planned a fun “Anna’s day” in Pierce’s absence. Nora took Anna to the Disney store in an attempt to find a child-friendly makeup kit so they could do “makeovers”, but the store didn’t carry what Nora was hoping for. Instead Anna got yet another Cinderella.

We went to Olive Garden for dinner (so Anna could have her favorite food, spaghetti) then planned to go to Chucky Cheeses for some games. Then, of course, Anna fell asleep in the restaurant between the salad and the breadsticks –her spaghetti is sitting in a box in the fridge.

-Eric (Dad)