Some little boys at the YMCA kid center were telling Griffin that his cowboy boots were "girl boots." He pretty much took it in stride, looking at them like they were idiots as they were obviously "boy boots." (I, however, felt like showing those boys who was wearing girl boots.)

Last night, the Shrek II soundtrack reemerged, and so Rowan danced in abandon this morning, and Berit, Griffin, and I with her. To see Rowan dance to Shrek II is to witness a human uninhibited, explosive, and beautiful!

Berit scored her very first goal of the season at her soccer game today!!! She has come so far with her ability, confidence, and her sheer getAfterIt! (Very proud, for sure. I told everyone.)

Most of Berit's nights are pretty busy now that school is in full swing. Spelling words are given out on Monday and quizes happen on Friday. Piano assignments go from Wednesday to Wednesday, and we try to practice about 15 minutes nightly. And homework is given out every school night except Monday. We've also been trying to do 20 minutes of reading each night.

I've started working Hooked on Phonics with Rowan, which has been cool because she likes the CD Rom that goes with it. She's actually started reading a few basic words, but we need to go back and work on her sounds a little bit more.

Griffin? He still loves to be read to. Tonight it was "The Trouble with Grandad" and "Baby Beluga." Berit also read "Horton Hears a Who" to the other two.

Berit blew me away at her Soccer game! Berit is typically a hanger-back on offense, but today she really got after the ball! It was really cool to watch her repeatedly steal the ball from the other team and dribble it back down towards their goal. It didn't end in a goal for her any time, but she got so close with it several times and was very persistent. A couple of the parents commented to me how good she looked, too! I was very proud.

Tough night for Berit. First she practiced piano, then she did her homework, then we drilled spelling words, and finally we read.

She enjoyed it all though, I had fun working with her. I especially enjoy helping her with piano. :)

Have I mentioned that Rowan spends much of her time listening to and dancing to the Shrek 2 soundtrack. It pleases her to bits when I'll come dance in her room with her. Me too.

What a great weekend!

We all went to Pioneer Days, an annual event that the Boulder Historic Society puts on at this ranch in the foothills to teach folks what it was like to live without electricity, running water, the internet...

Rowan was pretty tired which translated directly to pretty whiney and cranky. Still, she thoroughly enjoyed sitting in the seat of the big plow. We toured the ranch and were schooled in the fine arts of blacksmithing, lasooing, and spinning wool. It was obvious that the big winner for the kids was getting to manually wash, dry, and hang a sock (Berit did about 10 socks).

Pam and I square-danced with a handful of adults, and then Berit and I did the Virginia Reel. She didn't want to do it, but I think she had a good time, in spite of her efforts not to.

Berit has started soccer again, and is doing GREAT! She played hard this morning, running after the ball like I've never seen her do. She also had a chance to show her prowess in the goal.

I was being a little harsh with Griffin as I hurried him to bed for the umpteenth time, when he turned to me with his face all scrunched up in mock anger and said, "I'm going, you big, stupid man!"

It was a great weekend in Vail. On Saturday morning, we hooked Griffin up to Pam's bike in the burley trailer, Rowan rode behind me on the trail-a-bike, and Berit rode under her own steam on her one-speed. From East Vail to the way cool playground at Ford Park and then into Vail for lunch, we rode as a family. It's about 7 miles, and we rode there and back, which I thought was INCREDIBLE for Berit. No complaining, either.

Early in the ride, though, she seemed to lose control around a corner for no reason and ditched off the side of the trail. She was luckily not hurt.

If Griffin's not throwing a fit or destroying something just for the sheer fun of it, he's usually merely not paying attention to what I'm telling him to do.

Right now, he's screeching at the top of his lungs.

We all went to Berit's opening night of Seussical the Musical on Thursday. She played a Who. She was very cute singing and dancing up there in her Who outfit with all the other Whos, and she even had a line:

"It came without tags."

We feared she'd get into trouble with the director for all the discreet waving and smiling at us.

Berit turned 7 years old on Saturday, and I'm already getting a glimpse of how I will see less and less of her the older she gets. She had Bridey sleep over on Thursday night and Elena on Friday. On Saturday, she had play practice for Seussical the Musical and had Mason over for pizza and ice cream that night. Even though she spent the nights at our house, I felt like I didn't spend any time with her at all. And last night, she slept over at Kiki's house.

Sigh.

It's funny when your kids start to pick up on your slang (unless your slang is profanity... then it's not funny).

Rowan is showing me how a floor lamp works at Grammy's house:

"See Daddy... you turn it on here (demonstrates)... and you turn it off here... THAT'S CRAZY!"

During the July 4 fireworks, Griffin covered his eyes and never uncovered them. He didn't scream and cry in dismay. He just sat on my lap very very silently with his eyes covered the whole time.

Sedona gave me peace. I am one with my fatherhood.

Tonight, Rowan cried miserably because she wanted a different tape than Berit wanted.

Griffin combined AIM toothpaste and Sunscreen lotion in our bathroom and left it on the carpet.

Berit and her friend Bridey ended up crying and not talking over a disagreement as to which blanket to lay beneath them and which on top.

I am one.

It's Fathers Day, 2004. We're in Sedona, AZ. Berit is practicing her little keyboard piano; Rowan is playing with dolls in her room; and Griffin is running around like a maniac being Super Naked Boy, as usual.

Sedona is excellent! The huge red rock formations are beautiful. We've enjoyed the pool both days that we've been here, and yesterday hiked up the Cathedral Rock Trail - hot, beautiful terrain, all scrub, cactus, and lizards - to the rope swing swim hole. It's been a blast so far.

And Pam's sending me to 2 hour Ashtanga Yoga for fathers day!

We're on our way to a week's vacation in Sedona, AZ, but first we've got to get there. We've been driving all day from Central Colorado down to Central New Mexico. Berit is exhausted and exasperated with all the driving, and it's starting to show on her.

"I think I'm going to explode!!" she bursts.

"Berit..." Rowan innocently retorts,"people don't explode!"

We're having brisket at Grammy's house (mmmm mmm). Berit and Rowan are sitting adjacent each other that the table's end, and Rowan has a strip of brisket skewered on her fork which she is dancing up and down for Berit.

"Look Berit! The meat is saying 'Hi' to you!"

Griffin is very excited as I drive with he and the girls in the car.

"There's Ole Nidanoles!" (Old McDonalds)

"There's the ice cream store!" (Dairy Queen)

Upon sighting the Starbucks, he exclaimed, "There's the coffee store ... where Mommy lives!"

This morning was from hell. Rowan had a bowel movement last night whose urgency exceeded her ability to get to the bathroom. Pam and I largely spent the morning in accelerated impromptu Carpet-Steaming 101.

That aside, Rowan's been falling apart at the drop of a hat lately. I'm not sure why this is. Unfortunately, I get bent out of shape sometimes and react negatively. What I'm practicing doing is giving her some tenderness and the option to spend a little time alone to recoup. It's hard.

Griffin is growing up crazy-fast. He's a blast to be with now.

Berit learned to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on the keyboard this morning. She was very excited about it. Hopefully, the excitement will translate to her lessons which start this week.

Griffin is entirely too independent for my tastes. He's taken his cup from the bedroom and gotten the chocolate milk out of the refrigerator and poured himself o cup of it at the table, taking care to screw the top back onto his cup

"I do it myself." he beams, uncertain whether I'm going to be angry or proud. I am simultaneously disquieted and proud of this newfoundland independence. There's absolutely no need for him to have anymore chocolate milk today, but what can I do?

"Good job, buddy." I say.

I'm taking Berit to her soccer game, and she asks me to open her juice for her. I have to steer the car with my knees and while doing so, and Berit remarks, "Sometimes Mommy steers with her knees when she's drinking coffee and talking on the telephone."

Irony:

We're at McDonald's with my sister and her kids. Rowan turns to me and whines, "Daddy... Emily called me a tattle-tale!"

"Daddy, God doesn't want us to fight... or to pull each other's hair." Rowan is expounding philosophically.
"Or to hit each other or punch each other in the neck."

Last night we were all hangin around the alley area by our driveway -- our family and a number of neighbor kids and moms. It was a great homey feeling, everyone just chillin in the twilight.

Berit was shooting baskets, and while the hoop is currently set wayyy low, she was doing as well as any of the the similarly aged boys out there and better than a couple of them. She blushed with joy at shooting so well, and I counted off the number of shots she would hit in a row, coloring with pride a little myself.

Rowan was a tad emotional, so she and I took off and grabbed dinner at Good Times by ourselves.

Berit lost her first tooth tonight... bottom row, a little bit to the left of center if you're facing her. We were taking turns reading "Ramona the Pest" and I guess she was playing with it with her tongue and it just fell out. She lit up like a lightbulb! Most of her friends have lost teeth already, and Berit was very excited that it finally happened to her! Not to mention the inevitable visit from the tooth fairy!

I took the kids to the playground tonight while Pam went for a hike. Rowan and I had a fun time hiding while Berit and Griffin counted and then found us. When Berit boasted that the reason she found us was that she peeked, I gave her a hard time, told her that it was cheating.

Rowan's drawings are getting better and better. She's actually doing people in her pictures, and it's really interesting to watch. Also, her letters are coming along nicely.

Berit made a "Sell Phone" with pen and paper this evening. One piece of paper is the cradle, and the other is the handset. The handset has buttons numbered from 1 to 27. :)

Everybody is really enjoying Pam's recent acquisition of the Baby Beluga CD... there's an awful lot of dancing and singing to this Raffi collection, and Griffin knows all the words to the title song. He's a riot.

Just home now and checked on the kids asleep in their beds. Well, almost in their beds. Berit is sleeping in Rowan's (bottom) bunk, as usual. But where's Rowan? She's asleep under the bed. I pulled her out and placed her next to Berit.

As I'm leaving the room, I hear Berit sleep-talking with urgency, "Mommy! She needs paper!"

Griffin came running in here just now exclaiming, "The bug is all gone!"

He found a bug scurrying around on the sliding glass door and immediately ran to the bathroom to get some toilet paper. Evidently, he managed to hunt and kill the invader and flushed its remains straight down to watery bug heaven, where it belongs.

Griffin is so proud of himself, he's beaming and throwing his fists in the air.

Berit and Rowan and I tried to fly a kite in Chautauqua Park today. This was after they were making mudballs at home (kids really do make mudballs!).

There wasn't much wind, but Berit still enjoyed running with the string in her hand to keep the kite aloft. Rowan felt a little left out. I probably should have let her try to run with it.

At the bookstore, Berit noticed that there were a lot of Easter items out, and speculated that Easter must be coming soon.

"I hope the Easter bunny remembers to bring us stuff."
"Of course he will, Berit. He always does."
"Yeah, but since we moved, he might not know where we live."

I told her he'd know where we'd live, but she countered by pointing out that the leprachauns didn't bring us anything for Saint Patrick's Day. I told her that leprachauns don't usually bring presents for Saint Patricks Day, and she reminded me of the leprachaun-bear bookmarks they brought last year. I'd forgotten all about that, but decided it wouldn't be to bad a tradition for leprachauns to bring a little something each year. :)

I took time off for spring break, but then Vail was just going to be warm and rainy so we didn't go. Instead we're taking our vacation at home, which actually has been pretty nice. We've maintained a good balance of time for Mark and Pam and time for the kids. We've also separated the kids a bit - ie: Pam takes Griffin, and I take Rowan and Berit. That tends to keep it a little more peaceful.

6 am comes early, and Griffin is up spreading Keri Lotion on the carpeted steps. Now they're moist.

I can't handle him inside, so we go outside and walk past the houses under construction and then up to the climbing wall. It's pretty nice.

Last night around 10 pm while we're reading in bed, Berit comes down to tell us her plan of opening up a lemonade stand to raise money. This morning she drew me a plan so that I could build it.

I came home to find Rowan and Griffin digging in our yet unlandscaped yard. It was quite nice getting shovels for all three of us and digging with abandon. They were unduly fascinated with the game also.

Now they are locked in Rowan's room purportedly cleaning up a mess before allowing me to come in. Who is in control here?

Griffin climbed into bed with us this morning. He was wet. I changed him, and he went back to sleep fairly quickly. He was funny, though... growled at me in his sleep... and then laughed.

Berit was unbelievably sad about the broken little play piano yesterday. I guess she's quite attached to it. Maybe that 's a good project for us - to try to fix it together.

It's great having this climbing walll right near the house. We all walked over to it today and climbed and talked and stood around communing with the neighbors. All of the kids love to climb on it, too. Needless to say, Berit is a a monkey and is doing tricks off of the top of the wall. Rowan is following close behind her, though I have to help her off the wall at times. She had gotten to the top this one time, and was frightened. I had her legs, and told her to let go, but she wouldn't believe me and was even more scared and gripped the wall all the more tightly. It ended in me pulling her off the wall, and her in tears. This is, I think the very essence of the difficulties I have with the kids. Instead of negotiating and rethinking my approach with them, I just kep asserting my position and butting heads.

We've been in the new house for a week now, and though we've got the girls set up with their new bunk beds (which they have been very excited about), I checked on them tonight to find that Berit had abandoned her coveted top bunk to sleep curled up with Rowan on the single bed beneath. It was the cutest and loveliest thing I've ever seen (though my memory is bad so perhaps not)

Griffin is excelling on the tricycle. This evening we chased each other round and round in circles in the basement - he on the trike and me on the kateboard. all the while we sang, "I'm chasing you... I'm chasing you..."

I picked Berit up from gymnastics last night and took her to The Siamese Plate To Go (on Pam's suggestion). I wasn't sure that she'd like anything Thai, but she pointed to the Phad Thai and wanted to try it. She liked it! And she even liked the bean sprouts and the crushed peanuts on top of it. AND she ate with chopsticks... so, I'm gonna give her some credit for broadening her palate.

She told me all about school. About Mrs. Cohen tracing out her body on a big piece of paper and her coloring it in; about making clay people in art. She didn't tell me what Pam told me later, which was that she was in tears because some boy was making fun of her initials - S.F. - calling her "San Francisco." I'm going to tell Berit what a beautiful and exciting place San Francisco is.

"Hey Daddy, 'Mom' spelled backwards is still 'Mom.'" she tells me on the way out of the restaurant. I tell her that's called a 'palindrome' and then we figure out a bunch more palindromes, which she 'collects' on a piece of paper on the car ride home.

"This is my palindrome collection."

I love my kids so much. It's incredible being a dad.

Parenting turns you into a cornball.

I'm out in public yesterday with Berit singing a song from Mr. Rogers"

"It's such a good feeling to know you're alive
it's such a happy feeling - you're growing inside
and when you wake up ready to say,
'I think I'll start a snappy new day!"

at the end, we snap in unison. It's a beautiful thing.

First rule of parenting: plan ahead.

Don't do as I did last night, which was tell Berit we could go to Chili's restaurant together as a special treat, AND THEN try to bargain with her as to what she was allowed to get from the kid's menu.

It doesn't work. She just keeps begging until she breaks me down, and before I know it, my 6 year old is sitting across from me eating a corn dog and french fries, and I'm sitting there thinking that I'm going to have to answer to social services for her malnutrition.

For her Destination Imagination group play, Berit tells everyone she wants to be a cat.

"You ALWAYS want to be a cat, Berit!" says Nicki, another member, who obviously has spent some time around my daughter.

Berit was out sick from school again today. She spent the day with me, prowling around downtown Boulder... snowballs and tea and granola and chinese yo yos... topping it all off with a free arrowhead from your local grizzled street flint-knapper.

Griffin and I walk through 4 inches of snow into the open space during my lunch hour. The day and the snow are cold, but the Colorado sun is beaming as usual. I pick up a handful of snow, form it into a ball, and hand it to Griffin. He is pleased beyond measure.

"Make another snowball." he says.

I do, and we go about this for sometime. I make snowballs for him, and he throws them. He loves throwing them. He trys to make them with his little fleece-mittened hands, but he can't quite get it.

"I tan't. You make it snowball, Daddy."

He's having a blast taking them from me and throwing them against the open space fence. It's the most fun he's had all day, and he reminds me that this really is the greatest thing on the planet.

Berit came to work and cleaned up selling Girl Scout Cookies. Now she's drawing on my dry erase board.

"It's fun to draw stuff that's happening right now. Like I drew you typing on the computer, and me drawing up here on your board, and the pictures on your walll, and the garbage can. That's what I like is to draw what's happening right now."

"Are we late, Daddy?" Rowan asks as we are leaving the Rec Center pool. It's 5 pm, and dusk is just falling.

"Late? No Rowan, we're not late. Why?"

"Because it's getting dark, and when it gets dark, it's late."

Entering the house with Pam, Griffin turns the corner to see me. He flashes me his large grin,does a little hop,points into the air and exclaims, "Superman!"

Berit evidently tied Griffin to the front porch with a jump-rope, this morning. Unfortunately, I was at work and missed it. Pam came down on her hard, though: no hot chocolate at Starbucks for her.

Tonight, I picked Berit up at Destination Imagination. First we went to Whole Foods for dinner. I asked Berit to change into her yoga clothes in the bathroom there, while I got food. She choked on the words, almost crying as shetried to express her fear at me being so far away. So instead, we got dinner together - a nice meanl of salmon, brocolli, mushrooms and cornbread. Berit ate and liked the mushrooms.

Afterwards we went to the YMCA for yoga. She was great, as usual - flexible as Gumby and willing to do most of the postures, as long as she was guaranteed short breaks in between.

After yoga, it was over to Barnes & Noble for a small after dinner treat and a few books. It was a stellar adventure.

Early in the morning, I've got "Bear and the Big Blue House" on to entertain the kids while I'm getting ready for work. In a moment of parental guilt before walking outthe door, I offer Berit the opportunity to do one of the tangram daily puzzles with me. It's a no brainer for her -Really, Dad, as much as I'd love to, there's actual television happening right now that I can't afford to miss. Rowan, on the other hand, shoots me a huge grin and says, "I'll do a tangram with you, Daddy," despite the alluring presence of TV. She loved doing it, too - having my attention to herself. I loved it, too.

I picked up Berit at gymnastics class - that was great fun. We hung around for a while afterward so that she could play a bit on the parallel bars and show me her stuff. She's quite good, and I was very proud watching her.

Griffin is Mr. Independence these days- he's constantly moving the chairs over to the kitchen counter to get at fruit, eggs. knives...

The other night upon returning late from the bookstore, I found that Pam had gone to bed already. The only one awake in the house was Rowan, who came out to me all cuteness, smiles, and red cheeks and proferred a sketch pad to me.

"Here's the drawing pad, Daddy."

I had no idea why she was coming out to give this to me at 10:30 pm, but as with many things the kids do I just accepted it and thanked her. I also advised her that it was very late and ushered her back into her bedroom to go to sleep, where (aHa!) saw that she had been busily cutting up pages from the drawing pad into small confetti that was strewn all about the room, making it into a winter wonderland of small white bits of paper. :)

this is an avant-blog test post

I just noticed that December was a pathetic 2 entries. I promise to do better.

New Years Day!

It was a beautiful day - a balmy 50 degrees on which I took Berit up on her request for a bike ride. We found the Coal Creek Trail that took us all the way from this house to our old house. Berit was pleasantly surprised to see how far she had ridden, and I was very impressed with her stoic approach to the ride! To top it off, we saw a coyote on the way home... and not just some distant sighting, either. The coyote was within 10-15 yards of us in the open space off the trailside. Big, too! He just looked at us, and then disappeared behind a tree. Most certainly an auspicious omen for the new year.

We followed this up with a family hike in the open space behind the house, and we later went to Grammy's house to celebrate Rowan's Birthday!