"The doctor had big boogers."

Boogers are what Corinne calls Q-tips. She made this observation after taking a (positive) throat culture for strep.

"Come on Nick. Let's go to the beach where the water is warm...

...and our clothes are off."

Girl gone wild.

"You are NOT going to get very cross. You are going to get STUPID!"

Wow. What a way to respond to Mommy's request to "stay out of that or I'll get very cross".

Where does she learn this stuff?

Find a Christmas tree, but don't move...

Even bundled up beyond being able to move, they had lot of fun just the same.

"DADDY! Know what we got for you?MORE BRAN!

This was after a trip to Wegman's. I don't think I thanked her... my response went something like "Wooow!"

Trimming Tree Touch

Corinne invites Bogeyta to dinner...

And he gladly accepts...I think he's coming in...

The Painter

Pretty in Pink

"Bapa is a favorite man. He does lots of painting."

Whine or Wine?

Mommy: After listening to some complaint... "Don't say it with a whine in your voice."
Cheeks: In her best Monty Python styled voice... "Whiiiiine! I DON'T DRINK WINE. GROWN-UPS DRINK WINE!"

"To do what..."

Cheeks: "Where are you going?"
Daddy: "I have to go outside."
Cheeks: "To do what, smoking?"

We like Blue Berry Pie

Bogeyta II

Corinne's 1st snowman, Bogeyta II, with a little help from the Sam & Elliott...

Go here to see Bogeyta I...

Cute shot...

Smug shot...

What profession would I partake in...

... that might keep me away from my children? Mmmm... perhaps only one childhood dream job comes to mind: Astronaut.

In a 60 Minutes conversation with Ed Bradley, billed as the first television profile Neil Armstrong has ever agreed to do, Armstrong shared that in 1962, he was faced with his most difficult test, losing his 2-year old daughter, Karen, to brain cancer. Armstrong poured himself into his work.

“I thought the best thing for me to do in that situation was to continue with my work, keep things as normal as I could. And try as hard as I could not to have it affect my ability to do useful things.”

Latter in the interview, Armstrong shared his only (emotional) regret:

"The one thing I regret was that my work required an enormous amount of my time and a lot of travel,and I didn’t get to spend the time I would have liked with my family as they grew up." - Neil Armstrong

So there you have it. There doesn't seem to be any job worth doing if it takes you away from your kids. Take it from the one who got to walk on the gosh-darn moon!

"I JUST LOVE BEER!"

...with Diane, right in front of the Wegman's beer cooler. Interestingly, everyone around had a sudden need to use their mobile phones; all using some 3 digit speed code.

"We don't BITE; we LICK!"

In may become the diet craze of 2025.

"Oh my GAWD! Bertram [name of Rendezvous] is getting all wet!"

Out in the rain...

"This is the best day ever!"

A rainy, windy overcast raw Rochester day after having been dragged in and out of the car for an ugly day of shopping. Corinne is the ray of sunshine we didn't know we needed here in less-than-sunny Rochester.

"Mommy, I'm making a seatbelt [out of a strand of spagetti]."

Mommy: "A seatbelt?"
Corinne: "A nice cosy seatbelt."

Food art has never reached such levels; takes comfort food a whole new level.

♬ E-F-G, E-F-G, E-F-G,... ♩

Corinne serenading Nick in the car. He loves it... ♬ E-F-G, E-F-G, E-F-G,... ♩

"Where's the other pink?'

Corinne experiencing her fist viewing of her newly painted bedroom...

"I want the crotch."

Diane and Nick made big gingerbread man cake to warm up a cold, grey fall day. Nick and Corinne got an opportunity to pick a certain section of the 'man' ... She says these things to keep me rattled.

"I just love you, Mom. You're so wonderful."

Just when Mom feels that all she does goes unnoticed and unappreciated, Cheeks hugs with all her might and says this.

Now isn't this much better than earning a paycheck?

"I like scarry stuffs'es."

Corinne joins in Nick fascination with the Dark Side as Halloween draws nearer...

"We have to do my works'es."

Corinne's emphatically insists upon a Playdoh work ethtic with Nick...

"You silly old butt!"

She musters up a one of her cutting castigations toward Mommy.

"Are you stuck in a hole?"

While killing time in the waiting room while the car was being repaired, I called home to see what was up. Corinne, knowing I was having car trouble, got on the phone with above burning question...

"Go away! ...

...Go in the basement! Work something...computer!"

Well. She knows were we should be if she doesn't want us paying attention to her...

Dingelschloss

From Merriam-Corrine Dictionary:

1. [noun] a soft thread for cleaning the spaces between the teeth. Etymology: German, I think.

"Shhh. Klem is sleeping."

Mom came in to extricate Cheeks from her crib after her nap. Corinne was careful to protect her alter-ego, 'Klem', from being woken.

"Peameal is wierd."

Mommy: "I wish we had peameal."
Cheeks: reply above...

We recently reaquainted outselves with peameal Candian bacon on our vacation trip. Good bacon, that Canadian bacon...

"Daddy's bigger."

Daddy: "Bigger than what?"
Cheeks: "Bigger than a smaller dad."

A Visit to Brown's Berry Patch

The whole family took a trip to Brown's Berry Patch in Albion, NY. It is a nice halfway distance for us to meet up with our friends from Lewiston, Kevin and Lyn S. and thier kids Colin & Lauren. It was a perfect day and a lot of fun. The kids loved it. For kids the age of ours, I highly recommend the trip there.

Check all the pics, click here ->

Vacation '05 MultiMedia

[WARNING: Movie plays sound; adjust to your environment!]
QuickTime movie, click here ->

Vacation pics, click here ->

"Is that the leaf store?"

"Let's go home."

They love it here at the cottage on Buck Lake, but it just occured to Corinne that going home might be an interesting thing to do.

"Talk to the words" (or letters)

We can't remember if she said talk to the "words" or "letters", but she wanted us to read something to her. Cute phrase. If you are big on reading-a-loud to your kids, this phrase has a nice extra twist to it.

"That's beatiful Nicholas! Wow, that's impressed (sic)"!

Corinne was providing critical assessment of one of Nick's drawings. In this case, it was a black snake with yellow stripes, a rendition of a snake we found on the property at the lake. So, whether Corinne was offering genuine enthusiasm or exercising her manipulation of a member of the opposite sex is topic we shall leave to the child psycolocists out there.

A Walk

Corinne and I took a hike down a old overgrown road. She eagerly walked until there was a stick in the way causing mild protest but, she managed to get around it only to lose her footing on a small rock. "I'm coming Dad!"

We walked about a1/4mi over small hills and vales with her clutching my index finger finishing up near a rather large beaver dam seperating two lakes. At that point, she was tapping out. I carried her over one hill then let her down for a few dozen steps before I was sure that the unencombered part of the jaunt had come to an end. I lifted her up and began a slow walk and within parhaps 50 steps, she was dead weight with only the slightest whisper of air passing through her tiny nose. As soon as we came upon the car, arm aching, back tiring, I turned around and walked the other way sensing that this may be the last time I get to carry her to sleep.

"I'm BIG E-nough!!!" ...

...to go for a canoe ride. And indeed she was. As we set off, daddy lost his balance just enough to rock her out of her seat and onto the floor of the canoe. Nonplused, she was perched back onto the middle of the seat. So began the rest of her first and much less eventful canoe ride. She used one of her oft borrowed phrases from Harry Potter's 3rd movie in her best Carribean dialect, "It's going to be a bumpy ride!".

The next few posts refer to Corinne's 1st Family Vacation...

... at a cottage we rented from a neighbor. The cottage is on Buck Lake between Kingston and Westport, Ontario Canada.

"It popped out!"

Corinne's first reaction to the sensation of biting kernels from a fresh ear of summer corn.

"I have a bellyache. I need ice cream!

Corinne has no concept of what a "bellyache" actually is, but apparently she knows the cure...

"I play with naked Sam in the squirts!"

"Where's daddy?"

Mommy: "He's on the computer in the basement."
Cheeks: "Heeeee's playing playdoh!"

A couple techies have fun out back...

Here is a video taken at the R.'s, the family directly behind our house. The video shows their son Sam on their swing set with Nick and Corinne. The video was shot using Charlie R.s PalmOne Zire equipped with camera/video.

Unfortunately, the video format is ASF, a Microsoft specific wrapper around MPEG. :-P So, all you MS users should be able to view this with the MS Media Player just fine.

Internet Explorer will open this fine, but if you use Opera, you will have to map ASF -> MS Media Player..

All her responses are in sickiningly sweet sing-song...

Daddy: "How do you like your eggs?"
Cheeks: "Goooood."
Daddy: "Well, eat'em."
Cheeks: "You eat'em."

Marketing.

"MOMMY! I LIKE MINE ALLL BUTTERED UP!"

Anything: bread, pancakes...

Why all caps? Nothing is said quietly around here anymore...

"Cook! You need to cook!"

Just prior to starting dinner preparations, Diane suspected something was in Corinne's mouth and asked her what it was. Corinne ran away certifying guilt. At the end of the line, Corinne spun around on her heals, pointed at Diane as she appoached and gave her the above quoted marching orders. What was in her mouth? A tiny, tasty stone... Indeed, get cooking!

"Hi. I Satan!"

Diane got a very nice letter from a neighborhood mom looking for new friends for her 5yr old son. After arranging the date, Diane walked over waggoning both Nick & Corinne to visit the new friends. As they walked up the driveway and were greeted by the new mom, this is how Corinne introduced herself. The background is that Nick has become enthralled by all things supernatural from superheroes to biblical characters. He loved Disney's Fantasia, recently borrowed from the library. With Sorcerer's Apprentice and Night on Bald Mountian ranking as favorites. Corinne was, apparently, very impressed.

Fatigue sets in...

In Nicks enthusiastic love affair with his sister, sometimes he can get overbearing. After a long morning of stomping about the playground, Nick was being a bit 'overbearing'...

Daddy: "Nick, leave her alone, she is starting to get tired..."

Corinne: "...and cranky."

Mood swing training in full gear...

Sense of Identity, Chapter 1

(Scene: Waiting in checkout line at grocery store")

Cheeks: "GO GO, Mommy, GO GO"
Mommy: "Cheeks, you sure are bossy."
Cheeks: "No I not! I CORINNE!"

Sense of Identity, Chapter 2

Mommy: "You're so cute."
Cheeks: "No I not! I Bossy!"

Sense of Identity, Chapter 3

Nick: "Mommy's a bigbutt."
Cheeks: "No is not! Is DIANE!"

(thanks Cheeks...)

Politeness School

Lesson 1:
Dayye: Say "May I have ice cream please?"
Cheeks: "Very good." complete with hand clapping as Dayye would do if she was polite...
Lesson 2:
Dayye: Say "May I have ice cream please?"
Cheeks: "YES!"
...this could be a while...

"Hello bugs! I Cheeks. I play outside."

As she was hailing this grand introduction of herself to all bugs within ear shot, her nose was pressed up against a big tree in Bapa's backyard, peering into the bark crevices for any bugs marching on by...

"Come on, boys!"

Trying to get the attention of Nick and Sam, the neighbor Nick's age.

"I like it eating pie, cake, ice cream, pie..."

As she and Ma'yee drove out of the grocery store parking lot...

"Si-le-lence!"

Corinne is getting feisty. She pounds her little fist and demands silence.

"Twinkle, Twinkle little Daddy"

Corinne is definitely developing a sense of humor, along with her love of nursery rhymes and songs.

"Quiet! I'm eating pizza!"

I guess pizza is really important to The Cheeks.

"Yes"

The first time Corinne actually uttered this affirmative answer, was in response to Nick's question: "Do you like me?"

It couldn't have come at a better time.

"I NEED PIE!...I NEED PIE!...I NEED PIE!"

Corinne and Daddy love their pie. Corinne sensed we were approaching the pie aisle in the grocery store when this outburst happened.

"Why not?"

The Cheeks' answer/question to many of Mommy's statements. Most recently:
Mommy: "it is not crayon time."
Cheeks: "Why not?"

Surprisingly we reached the "why not" stage before the "why" stage. Why not?

"Dingle bells, Dingle bells, Dingle bells....."

Corinne has the Christmas song stuck in her brain.