"But that's my favorite color!"

Much to Corinne's encouragement, Daddy took on the dunk tank at the FANA picnic today an lost big time to the tune of 5 stitches under the eye and 3 more in the corner of the eye. Unfortunately, Corinne had to witness the profusion of blood and water. So, anxious that the tender child (riiiight) wasn't scared for life herself, she retold the story to Diane:

"It (Dad's eye) was Red. It was very, very red. But, that's my favorite color!"

Okay, she and I will be okay... ;-) ...not winking, just swollen a bit.

"Mooooommmy, come and look at my ploppies!"

Hard to believe how sweet that sounds...

"I fooound your sunglasses! They were under my butt!"

Having left my sunglasses on Corinne's seat while packing the car and departed in a cloud of frustration having misplaced them, Corinne broke the tension with her discovery (without her soft Cheeks breaking the sunglasses).

"Can I call you 'Ugly'"?

Corinne chose this response while Mommy was demanding an apology from Corinne for saying: "Mommy is stupid."

She is definitely a Pip.

"This is the bestest night ever!"

Just after the first volley of fireworks at her first 4th of July fireworks...

"Thanks for not throwing my eggs on the floor."

This was stated in the sweetest most appreciative voice. The last scrambled egg a few weeks back had some additional scrabbling on the floor while moving it from pan to plate...

Avoiding the Spanish Inquisition...the Corinne way:

Mom: "Where are you going?"
Corinne: "Nowhere"
Mom: "What are you doing?"
Corinne: "Nothing"
Corinne: "JUST COOK DINNER!"

...as Corinne tries to sneak past Mom for some dry shorts and panties after a pee "accident".

"What's that about?"

I just want to remember the phrase that Corinne always uses when she wants to understand something that Diane or I have said, whether she didn't hear it or didn't understand it...

While walking around the block with the darlings...

Cheeks: "Where are we going?"
Mom & Dad in two-part harmony: "Crazy!"
Cheeks: "Where are we going after that?"

"Mommy...I HATE YOUR FLOOR!"

Corinne, feeling rather ornery after being disciplined by Mother, resorted to stomping through the kitchen. As that was not enough to get Mommy's attention, the girl had to make sure she tossed out an insult.

"But then you will be dead and you won't wash dishes."

This was Corinne's reply to Diane warding off sharks by punching them...

So, you may be able to sleep when you're dead, but you can't wash dishes.

"I want the house painted bright red with pick, bubbly spots!"

We are accepting any and all suggestions...

Thanks Lindsay!

Thanks Lindsay!

Corinne gets a dragon on Nick's Birthday! What a deal!

"I want to be a mommy"

"No. I want to be a daddy."
"No. I want to be a mommy. Then we (The Mommy and I) can shop"

...I'm in big, big trouble. Some folks save for college; I am starting to save for teenage shopping.

Uncle John visits for Nick's Birthday

Uncle John visits for Nick's Birthday

Uncle John makes for peaceful company to Corinne while Nick puts on his best little terrorist face.

Making Monster Blood

Making Monster Blood

Nick and Corinne partake in the time honored tradition of the creation of monster blood.

Potter vs. Barney

Cheeks: "Nick likes Harry Potter."
Dad: "Do you think you'll ever like Harry Potter?"
Cheeks: "Actually, I like Barney."

They look as scared as I am ...

"I want to be where Nick is 'cause that's my favorite place."

...and anywhere that favorite place is, is indeed better than the toothbrushing place dad is cajoling her to locate...

"No. That's not my favorite thing."

Corinne's answer to Nick at the breakfast table say: "Corinne, after breakfast I am going to boil you."

Mapa & Bapa's - Spring 2006

Backyard Wonder

QuickTime movie, click here ->

"Can you make me feel better?"

After daddy insisted on Corinne doing something she didn't want to do, in tears she sought out Nick for consolation. Nick promptly obliged and had her laugh inside of 10secs. doing something goofy.

"Do dummies like ice cream?"

Mom: "Yes."
Cheeks: "WEEELL, Bapa loooooves ice cream!"

A Day Out with Thomas and Sir Topham

"Nick, take your clothes off and be the par-tay!"

"Was that my Greg?"

When I called down to Mapa' to check in... "He misses me very much."

"You stop! I'm talking to Bapa now!

Diane was starting to interrupt an intense conversation between Bapa and Cheeks and Corinne interjected with the obligatory "stop" hand gesture. Where does she get these things?

"The skinny one."

Mommy: "Is Bapa your daddy?"
Cheek: "Noooo."
Mommy: "Who?"
Cheeks: "The skinny one."

A: "Smart Dummy."

Bapa Q: "What kind of dummy am I?"

Birthday Ball

The Shoe Fits!

Using some photographic trickery to extend exposures, I captured these images of a dance scene on Corinne's birthday. For a really cute slideshow of the rest of the session, check out this QuickTime movie:
Click here ->
Or, if you are really patient for the upload, here is a bigger one:

Corinne's Favorite Birthday Shirt - THANKS JUNIE!!!

Nick's Valintine

Trail Blazers

QuickTime movie on the trail:
Click here ->
Or, if you are really patient for the upload, here is a bigger one:

Cheeks And Grandma

"Mommy, how about after breakfast, instead of a vitamin, can I have a chocolate donut?"

...the breakfast of champions.

Changing the subject:

Daddy: "Let's go watch hockey."
Corinne: "Yeah! Let's go play puzzles!"

"Look Daddy, see those red things on your eyes? Your eyes are cracking."

"Nick, when you go to school the next day, you're going to wear PANTIES!"

Corinne really knows how to irritate her brother.

"That's Daddy. I'd better speak to him."

Corinne's response when she hears Daddy's car pull into the garage.

"I want to be 6."

...the only thing Corinne wants for her THIRD birthday.

"Mommy, go somewhere else where you can't eat my donut...

... you silly goose!

Do not get between this girl and her donut.

"The pink beautiful dragon loves sugar."

... and coffee. Colombian through and through...

"If you pee on the pancake, it would be no good. Uck!"

Chemistry 101

"Mommy, don't blow a basketball."

Corinne's attempt at reusing Mommy's "I'm going to blow a gasket." when it looked like she might...

"...all you need is love. do-ta-do-ta-doo...'

You Are My Sunshine
My only sunshine.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my sunshine away

We, Corinne and I, had a rough process of turning in for bedtime this evening and we didn't get through the nightly protocol including the requisite cuddles and kisses. She was beside herself until I was summoned to her room for the missing steps in the pageantry. It was then that got this sweetly sung to me in my ear as she got her good-night hug...

"When the stars come out tonight, I'm gonna sing a sweet song."

"Turn your face and look at me."

Whatever she was talking to me about while I worked on some domestic project, she was finding little satisfaction with my feigning interest "Uh-huh" responses.

"I like Nick."

Cheeks response to Mom's comment after she gave Dad an enthusiastic hug: "I'd be afraid to ask her who she liked better, Mom or Dad?"

"Mommy, I'm going to pull your nose off and flush it down the toilet like a big turd!"

Oh, she thinks she is so funny.

"I DID IT!"

Corinne is enthusiastically devouring beginner puzzles for 3-7yr old ranges. With arms pumping, its fun to see her sense accomplishment and watch the transition from ineptness to "can do". Dad's are in training here too; what does it take to encourage this particular child to excel?

A Couple of Dozers

Nick was on the mend from a rather nasty virus and still working on gathering back his strength. This cute moment, Corinne decided to lounge with him.

"I'm plugging my ears so no one will talk about me."

"I got a booger on the time-out chair. Mommy, wanna come see?"

Oh no. Not on the Stickley leather!

"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...