This Blog is on Strike

I don't get much traffic here. Especially when I haven't posted for two months. All the same, you are about to be redirected to help support the Internet blackout in opposition to SOPA and PIPA.

EDIT (1/18/2011 23:57): The blog is now uncensored, but if you are unfamiliar with SOPA and PIPA, please visit https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/ to find out more about the bills and how to contact your representatives to register your opposition.

My day off.

Wednesday is my day off. Not from my "day job" (which I actually work in the evening), but from the other one. I love the fact that, even though I have a 40 hour a week, Monday through Friday job, I still get to act like a stay-at-home-dad until 2:30 p.m. But Wednesday is my break from the go go go of stay-at-home-dadding followed immediately by airport info desking. I drive Ben down to Quarryville, drop him off at school at 9:00, and then I get the rest of the day (until work) to myself. He likes it because he gets to spend the morning at school, and the rest of the day at Grammie and Poppie's house, and I like it because it is my one chance to do what I want/need to do for longer than the hour and a half that nap time affords me. Today, I spent two hours of my me-time taking a desperately needed nap. Still, it means not seeing him for a 22 hour stretch, and by midway through my shift at the airport, I miss him something fierce.

So I look forward to Thursday morning, when I will swing open his bedroom door, say "ta-da!" and he will ask me, "Did I take a good nappy?"

I Hate September

And since it apparently did not suck enough already, a week and a half ago we had to put down one of our cats.
Algernon Bunbury Rezendes would have been 5 in November.

But it's October now. The weather is cooling off, our anniversary is on Saturday, and if the sun ever manages to come out for more than one day at a time, things should be looking up.

Each of the Five Points is a finger. When I close my hand it becomes a fist.

Total Depravity—Ben Carr
Unconditional Election—Timothy Rezendes
Limited Atonement—Daniel Klotz
Irresistible Grace—Mark Tebben
Perseverance of the Saints—Dave Gettel né Shiffer

We'll never have a complete fist again.

Four of the Five Points raise a litre.
10/1/2005

We miss you, Ben.

Day One

So today was The Day: Ben's first day of school. Sure, it's not actual school; he's only going for two and a half hours a week, but still, this is a milestone. And it is, thankfully, a milestone that went off without a hitch.

Last week, when we went for orientation, construction along the route stretched what should have been a 30 or so minute drive into a 60 minute drive. Today I left plenty of extra time and we had exactly zero trouble along the way. I'm not complaining, but we did arrive about 20 minutes early, which meant a boy who was very excited to go to school had to wait outside for the doors to be unlocked. Of course, we have an in, so we only had to wait until Grammie noticed us outside her office window and let us in (I swear we weren't angling to get in early, the floor-to-ceiling window just happens to be right next to the front doors). So we waited in Grammie's office for a few minutes until, finally, it was time to go to the classroom.

He bounded up the steps, ran down the hall and looked eagerly for his "shoe" on the wall. There is a line of hooks on the wall outside the classroom and they are marked with little shoe-shaped name tags. So eager was Ben to hang up his backpack and get to class that by the time the bag hit the ground after he missed the hook with it, he was already across the hall and into the classroom. He started class by cooking some breakfast, then sat down to do some puzzles. When I left, he was investigating the doll house.

As I walked back toward the front door, I could hear several crying children. Ben was not one of them. He had hardly had time for a goodbye kiss. He was too busy rolling out play dough with a rolling pin. Since he knew Grammie was in the building, I figured the worst-case scenario would involve him wanting to spend the whole day in her office. There were no such troubles. From what I hear, the most upset he got was when he got indignant because someone pushed him while playing and did not say "I'm sorry." He also reprimanded another student who did not want to sit in the circle for story time: "Sit down. It is time to read!"

I had no trouble leaving him. I usually drop him off at Grammie and Poppie's on Wednesday morning, so, procedurally, it's a very small change for me. Still, it's a big step, and I think Karin had a harder time with it. I just hope that every Wednesday morning goes as smoothly.

New pictures from this morning have been added to the Preschool set on Flickr.

Orientation

Wednesday was preschool orientation for Ben. School? Already?! Good grief, he's only two! Still, though, this is  important for him. Sure, he knows his colors and alphabet and can count to 16 (sometimes), but he's not around other kids much, so having a chance to interact with children will be good for him. It's only one day a week, and Karin's mother is the director of the school, so we should be able to count on not having any traumas (since Grammie's always right down the hall if she's needed). It's hard for me though. Not too hard, I hope, for the same reasons I hope it won't be too hard for Ben. But where did the time go?

His first real day is this coming Wednesday. I'll let you know how it goes. For now, take a look at the pictures from this week.

The Vacation Post

So, here we are, nearly four weeks since we returned from vacation. Sorry it's taken me so long to get around to this entry. I wanted to wait until I had our vacation photos online before posting again, and getting those adjusted, culled, and uploaded took until yesterday. Also, I wanted to leave some time to gain a little perspective.

Remember my last post? We were looking forward to so much rest, so much relaxation. And there was some, but not nearly so much as we had hoped. Part of the problem, no doubt, was the expectation. Last year we went into our vacation hoping for the best, but fully aware that it could be a disaster. It went so much better than we had even hoped that we went into this year's with high expectations. Don't get me wrong, it was not a disaster; we did have a very good time. The thing is, two and a half year olds are very big on routine, and Ben did not react well to being taken out of his. One and a half year olds aren't too happy about being removed from their routines either, but last year Ben was a little easier to just pick up and drag along to the next stop. He wasn't even talking yet. I had so looked forward, this time, to hearing his reaction to the fun things we were doing. Trouble was, his reaction was largely negative. He knows what he likes to do, and he isn't real big on trying new things, even if we know that he will probably enjoy them. For instance, we got him to the beach exactly once. He wouldn't even go near the water. Last year he loved it, but this year he was grumpy when we went the first time and so had no desire to try again. Thankfully, he did like the pool. He didn't swim in the ocean at all this year, but he was in the pool at least once a day, every day (well, except for the day we went to Nantucket, but I'll get to that). Of course, once he decided he liked the pool, that was all he wanted to do. That, and watch TV.

And then there was that day we went to Nantucket. I hadn't seen my grandma in a year, my grandpa in two years, and I don't even remember for sure how long it had been since I'd been to their house, so I was very happy we were making the trip. I was also excited to see how Ben would react to his very first boat ride. He enjoyed it, mostly, though he would have preferred to have free run of the place. And we all would have enjoyed it more if it hadn't been so windy and so choppy. As I said, it had been a long time since I'd been to Nantucket; I didn't used to get seasick. I do now. We all had a very good time that day, Ben included, but we were even further removed from any sort of routine, so Ben did not nap, and he got to bed late, and by the end of the day we were all exhausted (and a little grumpy).

Though I think Ben napped every day except the Nantucket day, he went to bed late on several occasions, and so he got progressively less accommodating throughout the week. It didn't help that the week had started with him practically staying up all night. The whole idea of leaving in the middle of the night was that he would only barely wake up between crib and car seat and so sleep for most of the trip. But he did not sleep. He didn't fuss, which was a blessing, but he didn't sleep. He just sat and stared out the window. About a half hour before sunrise he finally did nod off, but that ended as soon as the sun came up. So, right off the bat, he was over tired (as were Karin and I, since we didn't really sleep at all either).

Three paragraphs of negative reactions would probably lead you to believe we had a terrible time, but you'd be wrong. And that's the big reason this post is so long in coming. Upon arriving home, we were all very tired, possibly more so than when we left. So the memory of the week was colored by the exhaustion. Looking back now, it's easier to remember all the fun we did have, even if it wasn't especially relaxing fun.

This year's photoset comes in at just over half the size of last year's (43 vs. 83), and of those, 17 are of Ben in the pool. It may have superseded some of the (theoretically more interesting) activities that we had planned, but watching Ben fall in love with the water was wonderful.  I've been a swimmer my entire life, and am ashamed of how little chance I have given Ben to be in the pool so far. So seeing him take to the water like a fish was a lot of fun for me. With his fancy little floaty on, he was fearless (which is a little worrying; I might prefer a little healthy fear of water, since he can't actually swim yet). By the end of the week he was kicking from place to place on his own and jumping off the lower rungs of the ladder.

Seeing my family was wonderful, too. The day we went to Nantucket we had four generations of of Rezendeses in the same room. As far as I know, that's only the second time this generation that that has happened (in name; all of my cousins that have kids are girls, so have changed their names). The last time it would have happened before my dad's wedding two years ago was when his paternal grandfather was alive and I was but an infant. And Ben just absolutely loves his Uncle Casey, "Ape Ape," Nana and Papa, Mimi and Gum, Joe and Shan, and "Kiss and Hawy." Plus, having all those people around meant that Karin and I did get some quality time to ourselves. We took a walk on Nantucket, spent a morning at the beach, had a romantic dinner, and went to see Harry Potter and Captain America (not back to back).

So all in all, we did have a great time. The problem, really, is that coming home from vacation is always hard, but you hope to be refreshed and ready to deal with the transition back to real life; we came home tired, so that transition was doubly hard. Not to mention the fact that Karin and I spent pretty much a solid week in each other's company. With my job now, the best we usually do during the week is to get an hour or so in passing. After three and a half months, we'd started to get used to the schedule, but being thrust back into it after having the joy of spending almost 24 hours a day together, for nine days, made it that much harder again. But we're coping, and we're looking forward to next year, because we're sincerely hoping that two and a half will be the hardest age to go on vacation with. Right?

After all that, I almost forgot the link to the pictures. The two photos you see above and 41 others are on Flickr: Vacation 2011.