• Dale & Kim
• Mark & Alison
• Paul
• Ron & Kristy

It started this spring, when we were in the park to get some pictures taken. The park had a man-made pond in the middle, but the shape of the pond, like the park, was long and skinny — a bit like a river in places. At some point, I refered to the water by one name (maybe pond); Eden raised her voice and responded “No, River!”.

So here it is six months later, and while we’re driving down the road (usually past some water), I’ll hear from the back seat “No, River!” What follows then is a debate suggesting various bodies of water:

• No, Ocean!
• No, Bay!
• No, Sea!

Rhonda and I try to throw out new ones every time, so the list has grown to include terms like inlet and sound, among others.

It’s funny hearing a 2 year old and a 4 year old debate terminology.

Here’s a clip from the National Weather Service forecast:

AN INCH OF SLEET AND A DAMAGING ACCUMULATION OF ICE IS ALSO EXPECTED

In addition, we got away from the mean guy at the end of the block. Just knowing we’ll never have to face him again is a great feeling. It’s a shame that to feel that way about another human being, but he has earned the nickname “Stupid” and I’m glad we’ve moved away.

We’re living in a rental for now, while we figure out exactly what to build at the lake. We sent our initial ideas for the floorplan to the architect, but this is the first time I’ve ever built a custom home so I don’t know how long the process will take. Our current lease is good until the end of June, but we may need to extend it.

Serena and Eden at Northlake

Click here to see a short video with Serena and Eden.

Then I remembered that Rhonda bought a box of Magic Erasers. Rhonda got one first, wet it, and as soon as she started scrubbing the marks instantly began to vanish. I ran over and grabbed another, since the other cleaning materials were completely ineffective. Within a minute or two we had all of the marks removed. We were amazed.

Before we did, Rhonda looked up a few Geocaching locations. We got close, but didn’t find either one.

After returning the Lowrance, we bought a Garmin unit, which was about half the size but seemed much more accurate. The best “estimated error” I noticed on the Lowrance was about 35 feet, but when I was looking for one cache in a relatively open area, the EPE was closer to 100 feet. With the Garmin, driving home in the car, it was regularly near 20 feet.

We haven’t had a chance to really exercise the Garmin, but I’m sure we will…

So much has been happening, it’s hard to keep up. Eden is saying key words — like mommy, daddy, and bubba (which is baby-talk for bottle, it’s not what she calls me). She’s walking and crawling up stairs (if we open the gate at the bottom).

And she’s a firecracker. She hates having her diaper changed; if she’s not adequately distracted, she’ll squirm everywhere and cry/scream. If she wants to get up (or down), she’ll let you know — usually loudly, sometimes by arching and thrashing. She screams at Serena if she can’t get something she wants, and she’s been known to pull Serena’s hair. She tends to get away with it (we’ll try to get her to stop, but I don’t think she gets it). When Serena pushes her down (and makes her cry) Serena usually gets in trouble (and understands that she’s in trouble). It’s hard to be fair, because Serena should know better (at least I think she should — we’ve told her so many times), but she gets whiny when Eden is in her face and she can’t do anything to stop her.

I would write more, but it’s time for bed. I’ve realized I’m not enough of a writer to keep this blog up to date. When I get to the end of a long day, and the girls are in bed, I don’t have the energy or the concentration to sit down and write. I’d rather surf the internet or play with tech toys (web sites or programming new languages like Ruby). I’ll try to write more, but I’m not making any promises…