Wednesday, August 12, 2015

We have achieved pity

Now, not normally would pity be something I necessarily want to "achieve" as far as things parenting go ... in this case today the milestone wasn't pity an emotional respect ... it was her first attempt at "please?"

As usual I am feeding and entertaining her while he sleeps in.  This morning she went through her usual routine of going to each of the locations of the variations of sugar that we have.  The two "cubes" in the pantry that contain sweet tarts and cookie bears, then over to the actual cookie jars to ask for the specific cookie in the large container.  After another shake of the head and gentle "no" from me she moved to her last resort, the brownie tray ... all to no avail as I was not dispensing any sugar this morning.

She finally conceded, "balabla?", pointing to the bananas ... 

I replied, "yes, can you say balabla please?"

"BALABLA BALABLA" jumping jumping jumping ... one of her earliest forms of "yes, you finally are correct" based communication was jumping.  Funny.

Anywho, she had her balabla and some cheerios and went about her morning of placing the cheerios in places that I won't find for a while.  I was finding some of them when I heard "pitee" "PITEE"

She was back at the snack area ready for "clitchs" (chips) ...

"You would like chips?"

"clitchs pitee"

:)

We have achieved "please" ... tiny battle, big war.

Jeff


Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Levitation and lit chansaws


Ha, this photo has been in my queue for a while, unpublished ... so here!

Well not quite Derry anymore

Greetings,

I am contemplating a complete re-work of "blogs" and photos, so pardon a few lapses in updating, etc.

We are in residence a mile or so off of the W&OD rail to trail line, in Ashburn, Virginia.  Rail to trail lines are pathways that are used by cyclists, runners, walkers and equestrians ... effectively no motorized (gas/electric?) vehicles on paths that rail lines used to run on.  The W&OD line is around 45 miles and ends near DC, so theoretically with a decent tailwind I'm just over an hour from DC on a bike as I enter the trail around mile 28.7354 something.  Of course heading back into the wind ...

The home is a part of a larger community so there are mini parks and a pool we can access.  The biggest "perk" is the tiny (for us) commute to and from work and or the "big" airport (Dulles) of about fifteen minutes in traffic.  So as a unit we'll be getting time back for a while.

For the most part packing, and unpacking while chasing the 4 and nearly 2 year old, is distracting at best.  Thanks to all who helped during the transition!

The kids have settled into the house, making things fairly easy as far as moves go with wee ones.  Play dates have begun for Stone, and Sora isn't too far behind.

I managed to drag them in the bike trailer on an exploratory ride, on the line mentioned earlier, and it was well received by the kids.  I only had to "stop this bike and open that trailer" once as Sora was out of fluid and was demanding Stone's ... so after topping her bottle off we proceeded North toward Purcellville VA (the end of the line to the North).  

I hadn't expected to make it all the way, as it was quite warm and only the trees / tree lined sections provided cover.  As Stone was on the side being hit by the energy from the sun he was a bit done after a few miles.  Thus, we turned around to head back.  Within a few moments all was quiet.

I had noted the locations of certain parks and pubs (hooray) along the route as there are lots of businesses catering to the trail users.  I thought that on the way back Stone would explain just how many parks I was passing ... but not a peep.  Sora started making some noise and we chatted for a while, I asked Stone a question, and heard "brodur sweepy".  Sure enough as I had thought, his head was resting against the side of the carrier, sound asleep.

I pulled over as I wanted to see the "quarry view" (which is near our turn off from the bike highway).  At the overlook / picnic area, Sora and I looked over the cliff to see a working quarry with loaders and diggers and rock sorters and crushers and lifters ... and quite noisy even at the distant range we were from any action ... and he slept and slept until we woke him to go into the house.

Until the next time,

Jeff