(Video after all the angst)

It's one thing to know your child is delayed. Another thing to stand in a children's shoe store, picking out her overpriced orthopedic shoes and observe her among peers. The contrast could break your heart. Or mine, really. There she stood as two twin girls just a little older than her, literally ran and climbed circles around her in every way possible.

It took a couple tries, but I finally found an orthopedic surgeon who knew what to do for Sadie. Other than calling her "he", this doctor sized up the situation quickly, saying that her problem is severe pronation and nothing more. Instead of the barbaric night-time splint thingy another doctor fancied, this one recommended specific orthotic additions to good shoes. More than I've ever spent on shoes for myself but hopefully effective.

In the meantime, as we wait for these diamond-encrusted specimens to arrive, she makes very slow progress at staying on her feet.

I grabbed the camera yesterday when she was outside taking some steps. I realized I haven't videotaped her in a long time because her milestones might look like failure to others.  Time to change that.



Music: Simon and Garfunkel, "Feuilles-O"

Sun, sand and soldiers

We've been home from our little vacation now for over a week but I still like to pretend I'm back there. Minus the bugs, thank you very much.



We tried a couple different beaches on nearby Lake Margrethe. The one time I didn't bring my camera was the only occasion we brought along our raft. It was later punctured after that one use.



Enough of that, though. We were able to gain access to a military base, Camp Grayling, in order to try out the beach there. It was largely empty and we enjoyed our long stretch of sand.



Keith filled me in on statistics about the base. Apparently it is the largest National Guard training spot in the U.S. It's not every day you glance behind your shoulder and suddenly become aware of several camouflaged men crouching below the trees, rifles up and pointed in your direction. A minute later, gone.

Very creepy.

Here's a little clip from the beach. If you watch closely, you can see a few soldiers running by in the far background.



Nothing like a well protected vacation.

Coming soon: Guest post!

It's a long one

Music:
"Everybody"-Ingrid Michaelson
"The Melendy's Go Abroad"-The Innocence Mission
excerpt from John Williams' Star Wars "Victory Celebration"

Experiment

Let's see if embedding this video I posted on facebook will work here.

Oh the geekery

I blame all of this on Keith. I don't think I'd even seen any Star Wars movies until I met him.

How it began

Easter morning and we were up bright and early. 2 a.m. to be precise. We wanted an early start for our long drive to Georgia. Adam slept maybe two hours total of the twelve hour trip and the older boys a little more.



This was how I felt much of the trip myself, especially when driving.

Just some silly clips

Click To Play

Music: Dan Zanes, "Wonder Wheel"

Multimedia message brought to you by cold, dreary, LONG morning with Keith working a rare day shift

Warning: It's a long one:

Click To Play

I'm a little embarrassed by the amount of fast-food role-playing happening here. Hmmmmm. Where did they learn such behavior?

(Music: "Peppermint Patty" from George Winston's Vince Guaraldi album)

Drew warms up to "bebeh" Adam

The beauty of the cheap, compact Canon is its accessibility. It helps me catch snippets of silliness here and there.

Click To Play

Please tell me why the nose is always so fascinating when the camera is rolling.

A slice (or two) of Adam's life

Music to my ears

Ethan has listened to music as part of his evening routine since babyhood. At some point, his music of choice became the cassette tape of the Toy Story soundtrack which he must have listened to every night for at least a year. This ritual stopped for a while when Drew started sharing a room with him but recently he has taken it up again in earnest.

I'm not sure what it is about these songs but he just loves listening to them and "singing" along. (And believe me, those are not misplaced quotation marks) Occasionally, I even find him sitting on his top bunk in the middle of the day playing this tape.

Keith, the techno-sneak, decided to see what we could catch on tape the other night, whether it be Ethan's singing or his interesting conversations with Drew. He rigged up a hidden camera in Ethan's closet and, after some editing, this is what we got.

I laughed myself silly but I realize it may not be that funny to the rest of the world. It's a fairly long clip but hang in there for the last song which I think is the best of all. I have no idea what words he's "singing" much of the time.

Getting to know Drew

It's been a while since I've done a video and I'm sure I won't keep it up monthly but here's a little bit of Drew's antics for all to admire. Maybe it's just me but he doesn't look any different than he did 5 months ago! Enjoy:

Click To Play

(James Taylor "Getting to Know You")

12 month video!

With Drew's birthday quickly approaching, I've been working on his 12 month video and actually finished it early! I've been slacking off on these videos the past couple months, so it's about time I came up with some more exciting clips. I'm planning to keep this birthday low key even as I struggle a little with the too-close-to-Christmas overcompensation tendencies. But, honestly, does Drew care? I think not. I'll start saving up my energy for the years when he does.

It's about six minutes long and pretty big (21.7MB) and Keith keeps begging me to re-process it into a shadow of it's former self for people with slow connections. But after all that work, I hate reducing the quality more than I must. Please ignore all the dirt and clutter. I did.

Enjoy!

Jingle bell croak

I know, I know, I'm weird. But I just couldn't help it. I tried to entertain Drew with this musical camel that Grandma (C) bought for Ethan from Israel two or three years ago and soon discovered the creature is losing his touch. So...does this put you in the Christmas spirit?


See if you can decipher the tune

Drew's verdict: Gah!

Bend it like Ethan

Today was Ethan's second soccer game with his team, the Red Hots. He was rarin' to go from the beginning and did very well. Keith and I cheered with delight as he scored one goal and another...and another...until our cheers began to turn to cringes as he managed to monopolize the ball more and more. He scored seven of the team's eight goals and Keith managed to catch them all on tape.

One of Ethan's greatest assets was the opposing team. They would step aside and watch him pass by. The goalie made a few good saves but more often was seen picking grass or just watching the ball with curiousity and mild interest as it rolled up to and past him. One of Ethan's opponents looks like he is escorting him all the way up the field and into the goal at one point. I laugh every time I watch that part.

Keith just had a little talk with Ethan and suggested that possibly he could let other members of his team take some shots in tommorow's game. Ethan said, "Why would I do that? Then I would only have six goals instead of seven."


Watch some highlights of the game (Ethan is number 8)

9 months

Here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for: Drew is nine months old today! In spite of pretty constant fussing he's becoming more and more interesting every day. He claps when we ask him, and scoots around on the floor, although he isn't crawling yet. We're still on a tooth watch and it looks to me like the bottom two are getting ready to push up any time now. He's pretty much on the same developmental timeline as Ethan, so far.

The best news....other than the horror of the past two nights, Drew is pretty much sleeping through the night now! Well, not sleeping entirely, but for all general purposes you could call it that.

Tommorow is his nine month check up and I'm holding my breath to see if he has gained any weight since our last visit. It certainly won't be much.

Maybe I'll post some about my adventure calling 911 this past weekend, once I stop feeling sick to my stomach about the impending bill. Fun times.

So...without further ado...a slightly candy coated view into the life of Drew:

Watch the video

Weeeeee!

Drew swings. That's all. But the music's good. (Gorky's)


Watch the clip

This will end in tears

The lighting is awful but I think you'll get the idea.

Click here to watch

Now, if only I could make teething go this fast!

The rest of the story

Ethan woke up this morning raving about his "cool party". Eight of his friends were able to come and most of their parents were around and really helped me out. In spite of all my efforts, I realized throughout the day I still have a lot to learn about this birthday party stuff. Got to brush up on the old cake decorating skills. Must buy more than two prizes for "pin the spiderman to the web" game in case almost every child pins it correctly!

Of course none of these things bothered Ethan who was thrilled with his friends, the games, his gifts and the miracle of turning FOUR! Very exciting stuff.

Can't forget Spiderman of course. We walked the kids out front and around to the backyard to "look for a special present" for Ethan, while Spidey was getting situated. When he was ready, we went into the backyard and the kids quickly spied him up in the tree.

















At first, Ethan seemed to have barely any reaction and watched, frozen, with a hint of a smile on his face. Then, Spiderman dazzled us all, swinging ever so gracefully to the ground where he made his way over to the kids with a present for Ethan. At that point, the mix of emotions on Ethan's face was almost painful to behold. It was quite a combination of fear, wonder, worry, and excitement.














Spiderman hung around for a few photos and questions from the kids before running off to catch some bad guys, or something like that. From left to right: Ella, Shiloh, Grant, Hunter, Spidey with the birthday boy, Andrew, Christopher and Julia. Kathryn and Drew didn't make the shot. Again, thanks to Amy, Brandi and Janelle for sharing their pictures. I'll put more on Flickr soon.














I can't resist posting a little clip of Ethan playing the "pin the spiderman" game. He got pretty disoriented and basically pinned his own self to the wall, poor thing.

Watch the video

We're glad you were born, Ethan!

Mighty 24

"And another regrettable thing about death
is the ceasing of your own brand of magic,...
the quips, the witticisms, the slant
adjusted to a few, those loved ones nearest the lip of the stage..."
--John Updike, "Perfection Wasted"


Yesterday as Ethan worked on a puzzle, he sat on the floor, one leg tucked under him and the other leg bent up, his chin resting on the raised knee. As I watched him, I suddenly remembered that this was just how Andrew used to sit for long periods of time as a young boy, reading books. We often marvelled at how he could stand to stay in this position for so long. A small thing, to be sure, but anything that evokes such a memory is a gift.

I wish that Andrew would not be defined only by his absence. Today, on his birthday, I like to remember the many ways he made us laugh. I just had to pull out the 'ol gingerbread clip for any who dare take the time to download it. (all 13 MB!)

The crushing of the gingerbread