You may remember that we recently bought some new appliances at our house. When they were delivered, the guys who brought them cut the boxes up to get the appliances out. They also took the remnants of those boxes when they left.
For one brief moment, as our fridge was being delivered, I remembered my dad taking the box and cutting a hole in it for a door. He cut out a window and my brother and I had our own box fort. This memory came and went as they cut up the box.
My wife ordered a few things from Sam’s Club this week and they sent the items in a decent sized box. It did not take the kids long to “get in the boat” and take it for a ride …
Then they hid in their club house …
…which is where they played for quite some time!
Who needs toys when you have a huge box and a fantastic imagination?!
The fun lasted for a few hours … until Andrew found out that the box did not make a good trampoline.
Yesterday morning when I came home from work, the family shared some donuts I picked up from a local shop. It has sort of become a Saturday morning treat.
Sam may have caught a cold and she wasn’t feeling well yesterday. I told her to lie down and I would take the kids outside with me.
I have been meaning to tear the trampoline apart for a while and figured the weather was nice enough to do it while the kids played.
They were on the playscape, in the sandbox, and playing with various things in the yard while I worked. They were always in my line of site.
Occasionally, Ella would walk in the house. I assumed she was going in to get a drink or use the bathroom. The windows were open and I had to keep asking her to come back outside. I told her that I was almost done and we could go back in after that. She probably went in and came back out 6 times.
When I got the last of the big pieces apart, I told them we could go in for lunch. They went into the living room, where one of their shows was already on and I went and made lunch.
It was only when I walked into the living room to put their lunches on the table that I realized the reasons for Ella’s trips inside. When I looked to my right, there was a bunch of sand from the sandbox all over the floor and carpet. She had been taking it in one cup at a time!
“Can I bring the sandbox in the house, Daddy?”
Sigh….
I vacuumed, but I have a feeling there will be sand there for a few weeks…..
Sam went to the store today and saw that the had scooters on sale. These were the ones with two wheels in the front. She couldn’t pass up the deal and grabbed one for each kid.
I woke up a bit early this afternoon and it was such a nice day we all went outside and the kids showed me their new modes of transportation!
Ella, of course took right to it.
It took Andrew a little bit, but he learns fast!
Ella decided that she wanted to take a walk and for the first time in what seems like forever, the entire family got to stroll around the neighborhood before dinner. It was a beautiful day and it was some much needed family time.
Yesterday was nice, too. Sam and I have decided to get rid of the trampoline. We haven’t said anything to the kids yet, but I let them get on it yesterday for a sorta last hurrah. Watching them play on it, I am almost sad to get rid of it.
Speaking of trampolines – our local police Facebook page posted one of the funniest pictures I’ve seen in a while. This was tooling around Flint this morning ….
We have a high wind advisory in effect for the area tonight. The temperatures are still nice, so I opened the windows to enjoy the breeze.
The TV is on in the background and the kids and I are on the floor playing when I hear this huge wind gust. It was big. That was followed by a very loud bang, which scared all three of us.
I got up from the floor and looked out the window to see that the wind had rolled my barbecue about 6 feet. It also flipped open the lid, which is what cause the bang. I had been meaning to put the grill in the garage for the winter anyway, so I told the kids I’d be right back. I went outside to move it into the garage and that’s when I saw the funniest and sort of frightening thing.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see movement in the dark. As I look over, I realize that is is the trampoline “walking” along the grass at about 4-5 mph! That thing was at least 40 or 50 back from where I saw it and the wind was “pushing” it.
Panic hits me. We had one trampoline end up in the street a few years back. When that happened, I bought those screw -in-the ground spikes for dog chains and bought some heavy duty chain. I screwed it in to the ground and that helped keep it still. However, the last couple times I mowed the grass, I moved the trampoline and didn’t secure it again.
As I am watching the wind push that thing across my yard and toward a variety of things (swing set, neighbor’s house, trees, my car, and the road) the panic tells me, “You’ve got to stop that thing!!” I ran toward it, looking for the screw spike things. I see one in the dark and grab for it. I stick it as hard as I can in the ground and twist.
The wind is strong and despite the one spike being in, the trampoline still wants to be airborne. I have to find the other spike, so I run to the other side. That spike was rusted, so there wasn’t much silver to see it easily. I finally see the chain in the leg and follow it to the spike. I jab it into the ground and twisted.
Now “secure” I do a walk around and see the legs in the front are kind of buckling under. Not sure it’s going to be salvageable. The wind is still gusting, so I wonder if I have anything in the garage that I can put on the rest of the legs to prevent it from going anywhere else.
I walk into the garage and see I have four 50 pound bags of lime I didn’t use on the lawn. So now I am running from garage to trampoline with those bags. I throw them down and go back inside to my kids who have probably just watched the most ridiculous thing ever from the window.
As I write this, the wind is still kicking up and is knocking limbs off trees, taking care of any leaves hanging on to its tree, and blowing any plastic play toys across the yard. When I wake up in the morning, I will hope that the trampoline is still where I left it. I will also sleep lightly in case the local police knock on the door at 3 or 4 am….
“Excuse me for waking you, sir, but is that your trampoline!?*
We had our garage sale on Friday and Saturday, but Sunday may have been busier than the rest of my weekend. I got my steps in for the day, that’s for sure!
You may remember that when we were expecting Ella, we took what was our dining room and built a wall to make a nursery. When that happened, we moved our dining room table to the living room. Eventually, we bought Ella toys that we needed to make room for, so we moved the table downstairs.
So for over 2 years, we’ve eaten dinners on the couch and Ella ate at her little table. Sam decided it was time to bring the table back upstairs. Ella is big enough to sit at the table (she may need a booster) and Andrew has a high chair that straps to one of the chairs. So we put Ella’s table in her room and got rid of the big high chair.
I brought up the table and Sunday morning, we all got to eat breakfast and lunch at the table. It’s amazing how much that really meant to us. Having all of us at the table really was quite a nice bonding experience. It’s been nice to be able to do this again.
The kids and I played outside a lot and we took our walk around the neighborhood. Afterward, we came home and played with toys and watched TV. Ella was sitting next to me on the floor and we were watching one of her shows. We were probably sitting like this for 15 minutes before I noticed that we were sitting the same way. So I grabbed my phone and snapped a picture. Please pardon the “weekend bumming around” socks I am wearing.
On Monday morning, Andrew was up first. I got up with him and made him a bottle. After he ate it, he got down on the floor and was trying to pet our cat. Our cat is terrified of Ella. Probably because she chases her all over the place. I’m surprised at how much the cat lets Andrew pet her.
Knowing that I had over did it with the chimichangas from Saturday night, I wanted to be sure that I got a good walk in. I put the kids in the stroller and we were off and walking. Midway through the walk, I was thrown a curveball. I totally lost one of the front wheels on the stroller!!
We were at least a half mile from home, and Sam was asleep, so I had to keep walking home. There were times where I was able to push with just the one wheel. Most of the time, however, I pushed down on the stroller handle to lift the wheel up from the ground and walked home that way. Either way, it was not fun.
By the time we got home, Ella wanted to stay outside and play. All I wanted to do was sit down and chug a bottle of water. So I put Andrew in his swing and Ella played in the dirt. LOL
I must have been worried about weighing in on Tuesday morning, because Monday night I had a dream that I was sitting at the dining room table stuffing my face with plain M&M’s.
I don’t remember what I was stressing about in the dream, but I just kept stuffing my face with those M&M’s. Finally, I remember I have to weigh in and push the bowl off the table.
When I weighed in, I was surprised to see that I had actually lost a pound. I really thought that I would be up or stay the same. Those chimichangas were worth every bite, and I know that because of them, my week was not as good as it could have been. However, a loss is still a loss. I will do it one pound at a time. Total weight loss – 14 pounds.
I took the kids out for a walk in the other double stroller we have. It’s not as easy to push as the jogger, but it gets us through the neighborhood. After we got home, Ella wanted to play on the trampoline. I decided to let Andrew go in for a second and he loved it. If I had to pick a picture that says “This is summer,” it might just be this one:
Ella wanted me to come in and play, too. It takes me a minute to get myself up and in that thing (and even longer to get out). We had such fun just rolling and jumping around. The kids are hard to wrangle for photos now, but I was able to nab this one of the three of us before going inside for naps.
When I get home in the morning, my little girl will be two years old. My wife probably didn’t intend on making me cry, but she sent me a picture of her sleeping in her crib with the message “Last picture as a 1 year old,” but she did.
I wish I had taken the day off tomorrow. I didn’t because I had to save my PTO time for a surgery I am having this month. I want to spend the entire day with her. I want to celebrate HER! Sadly, I have to work tomorrow night, so I will probably miss most of her day.
As I look back over the last year, it is amazing to see how much she has grown and just how far she has come. Some highlights:
First birthday at the Sea Life Aquarium
Amazing professional First Birthday/Cake Smash photoshoot
First haircut with Miss Sherry
Family Easter Egg hunt
Finding out she was going to be a big sister
First time eating corn on the cob
First time bowling (with big brothers)
Family visit to the Detroit and Saginaw Zoos
First trip to the library
Drawing her first picture
Daddy/Daughter picnic
First surgery – ear tubes
Outside adventures (trampoline fun, walks around the neighborhood, sidewalk chalk drawings, sandbox fun, visits to the park, playing on the splashpad, swimming in her kiddie pool, playing in leaf piles, sledding and making snow angels)
Arrival of Little Brother and official promotion to Big Sister
Family visit with Santa at Cabella’s
Daddy/Daughter trip to Bronners to buy the annual Christmas ornament
Visits from Aunt Margaret, Cousin Marissa, Papa and Grandma, Uncle Chris, and so many others.
What a One-derful year it has been!
The “terrible twos” don’t scare me. I just hope that time slows down a bit.
Yesterday, I kissed my one year old for the last time. When I get home in the morning, I will kiss my two year old for the first time. I can’t wait to see her….
Tonight I return to work after being off for 6 days. The best thing about being off was being able to spend time with my family. Naturally, I had my camera ready and caught many wonderful moments.
Wednesday
We were very minimal with the ornaments we put on the tree this year. Ella is all about the tree and the lights already. The special ones we did put up were more toward the top of the tree, while the “generic” ones were toward the bottom of the tree. Ella can reach over the gate that we have around the tree and gets to those. It was probably smart to keep the extra fragile ones in the box this year.
We did make sure to put AJ’s ornament close to Ella’s matching ornament from last year, though.
Wednesday, my brother sent a package to the kids with a few outfits from the Disney store. I am pretty sure that my kids first Disney trip will be accompanied by Uncle Chris! He sent Ella a Christmas Minnie Mouse, who she has been hugging on since she arrived.
My wife is a “Pinterest Mom.” She is always on there looking for things. She found a recipe for homemade Play-Doh. It was messier to make than to play with. It consisted of cake frosting and powdered sugar. Once it was made, Sam gave Ella a rolling pin and cookie cutters and they were playing with it. She certainly had fun.
Thanksgiving Day
Our family stayed home this year. With Covid numbers rising, we felt it best to just celebrate at home. A few years ago, I bought a silly turkey hat at the Christmas Tree Store. Ella took pictures in it last year, and naturally, I had to pull it out again to get more!
Last year’s picture is her in this same hat in front of the Christmas tree, too. AJ is just too small for the hat to fit him, but I had to get at least one of him in his “First Thanksgiving” shirt near it …
Once the turkey was in the oven, I sat down to watch the Detroit Lions lose another game. It seems like they always find ways to lose! It looked like they actually might win this one, but as usual, stupid penalties helped them add another “L” to their record.
Friday
I can say that in my entire life, I have only been Black Friday shopping once! That was enough. We spent the day relaxing at home on Friday. My wife went out briefly to run a couple errands, but no shopping was done!
We’ve been trying to get AJ as much “floor time” as we can. As I sat next to him on the floor, Ella came over and decided she was going to lay next to him. There was lots of laughter and giggling.
Saturday
I picked Dimitri up in the afternoon and he pretty much stayed in his room playing on the X-Box. He brought over some game called Halo. It’s one of those “kill the aliens” games. While he was doing that, I was watching the U of M/Ohio State game. As a Michigander, whether you are a Michigan State fan or U of M fan, you ALWAYS root for whoever is playing Ohio State.
I wasn’t really sure if the Wolverines were going to pull off a win, and there were many sports folks saying that Ohio State was probably going to win. I was happy to see Michigan walk away with the win. So was AJ, who celebrated on Ella’s U of M blanket!
Sunday
It snowed pretty much all day on Sunday. Dimitri usually stays with me until evening, but said he wanted to go home around 2:30 that afternoon. When I returned home, I noticed that the snow was perfect “Snowman making” snow. I grabbed Ella’s snow pants and got her dressed and we went outside.
She walked around the yard and wasn’t sure what to make of things. I made a snowball and started rolling it for the bottom of our snowman. She watched me and I tried to get her to help me. She was more interested in just sitting in the snow or laying in it. The snowman was never completed.
Instead, we walked around to the front of the house, where she sat and pointed out the colors of the oversized Christmas bulbs. She then returned to the back yard, where I grabbed the sled that Sam’s dad gave us. I placed her in it and pulled her around the yard. At first, she seemed confused by it, but by the middle of the ride, she was all smiles!
She eventually walked back to the trampoline, which was covered in snow, and wanted to jump on it. Why not!? She had a blast! I could see that her nose was red and I knew it was time to bring her in the house, but that was a challenge. She loves being outside! I eventually talked her into going to see mommy inside. I had so much fun with her outside! Hopefully, next snowfall, we’ll finish that snowman!
Monday
I had my physical Monday morning. It went sort of how I expected it would. I will probably blog about it in more detail separately.
The highlight of the entire day was close to bedtime. I was reading Ella some books, which as soon as I was finished with, she’d take them to mom to read. As I took this picture, and reflected on Thanksgiving, I realized just how lucky I am and how thankful I am for my family.
I hope that you and yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 