Picture of the Day : Rainbow

4th of July 2008 Lake Webster

They weren't the best fireworks I've ever seen. It really didn't matter though. Maybe it was the armada of pontoons anchored to the weedy lake bottom. All in wait like an outdoor drive-in theatre in the lake. Watching the day slowly layer with deeper shades of night. A fingernail crescent moon hanging. Eli and Sam persistently questioning "When, when are they going to go??" Then the first sizzling fuse climbs the dark sky to a long awaited boom. Don't get me wrong, it was a good show, but the best thing for me was the experience. The kids, the boat, the lake, the misquitos, a moment in time. Wish Amy had been there.

Of course after it was over, they were ready to go home as you'll hear in the second video. And Sam had to pee. We'll just say that she didn't make it to shore before that happened. Good thing she was still wearing a pull-up.

The Penny

He swallowed the penny to catch the fly. I don't know why he swallowed the fly.

Actually he didn't swallow the penny to catch the fly. He swallowed it up as a re-enactment of Mr Crabbs. Mr Crabbs, you know SpongeBob works for him. And Mr Crabbs is money OBSESSED. He LOVES money.

So Eli was doing just that. Going crazy with money. Coins that is. In his mouth. A bunch of them apparently. And as he was going crazy lie Mr Crabbs as he describes, he swallows a penny. Well, we didn't know it at the time, but when it came hurtling up like a change machine spitting out coins, I saw that it was a penny. The exact coin you see above.

Kids just make a lot of mistakes. As if adults don't. But these are type of mistakes that cause emergency room visits. The kind that cause stitches. The sort of innocent, yet quickly learned, mistakes that you don't often repeat. I don't think Eli wil be swallowing any more spare change.

Amy stopped off at MedCheck. This was after we called to see what to do. They said go to the ER. But not ringing the alarm bells, MedCheck was a safe bet. They basically said wait it out, which is what we did. He said the middle of his chest was sore. Probably from the coin turning and perhaps scraping the esophogus. As it turns out, I'm fairly certain that after three days it DIDN'T make it to the stomach. But it did, as I said, get ejected on the family room rug.

I believe it was in his esophagus. Everything, thankfully, worked out or worked itself out. If Eli had made it to the ER, he would have likely faced surgery. Instead it's just a small, but important, episode in his life. He even made it through a birthday party not being able to gobble down cake. Too hard. Hard stuff hurt going down and didn't stay down. Guess that should have been a clue to us that it wasn't in his stomach. Like I said worked out. Wshew.

Picture of the Day: Monument Circle

In the middle of Moument circle downtown Indy sets the War Memorial. We climbed every step up and down. I'm not sure how many steps there are, but the stairwell was clear. The elevator line was loooong. Pretty good view but kinda stuffy.

Here's a picture of the

memorial

Youtube Test

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuZQwRRnpS8

Picture of the Day : Charlie

Sam is Three and Charlie is Here

Sam has just turned three on Friday April 25th 2008. We had a tea party to celebrate. Actually more of a strawberry lemonade party with a butterfly cake.

And to top it off, our family went feline. I really didn't want this to happen. Reluctantly I folded to the persistent imploring. I figure the best I can do as a parent is to give my kids lasting experiences, even if it is with a cat. Well, experience is exactly what we got.

Sam has the intention right now of man-handling this kitty. She is quite brutish with him but is learning, ... I think. I'll admit I did have to raise my voice a bit when I saw her carrying Charlie around by his collar. She hasn't done that since. Charlie himself has either accidentally, or perhaps purposely, placed rather pungent gifts throughout the house in the first few days of his arrival.

Things have calmed down a bit now as we expected some excitement. Charlie is actually growing on me although he distracts me when he tries to attack the cursor on the computer monitor. And the camera strap. And my shoestrings. And my fingers and toes. But I think he will fit in fine. And there have been no classic dog-cat disagreements thus far. I guess we'll have to keep him. He's a heck of a lot easier than a new puppy.