Sunday, June 29, 2008

Baby Jonas meets the O'Neal Clan!



Last week we made a special trip back to Indiana so that we could be formally introduced to Jonas Thomas Ross. This would be Isaac and Jacob’s first cousin on the Ross side of the family. Now, let me start by saying that Isaac and Jake love their O’Neal-side cousins, Nate, Emily, and Sarah, because of the huge doses of attention they get when we are in Indianapolis. However, the O’Neal (read Novicki) kids are old enough to babysit, making Jonas the first relative of their age. We expect Isaac, Jake, and Jonas to be reenacting"Wrestlemania" and setting things on fire in no time.

This picture actually tells of another interesting side story, Isaac’s fascination with babies. Whenever we visit with baby Anna, Luke, or Sam, Isaac has to hold them. He’s gentle, interested, and warm, amazingly not 4-year oldish.



Dada loved his time with baby Jonas too. He is the bringer of sleep, not only to grad students in lecture halls, but to all babies of the world. Here is Dada doing what he does best. No one is actually sure who fell asleep first.

Of course, there are no words to describe Aunt Claire's love for baby Jonas. But, you mothers out there can agree, the thought of chasing my 2-year old around with a baby in hand made me realize how much I'm satisfied with the current size of our family (at least for now).

Monday, June 16, 2008

Father’s Day booty: the era of handmade crafts begins

This Father’s day was a wonderful time for Daddy. School was over. Helsinki was a blur of plane rides of the past. And, most importantly, he spent Saturday morning playing with his boys while Mommy slept in. It was a debt in need of payment. Mother's Day had brought the cold of the century upon Daddy, and along with it, the guilt of being in bed all day.

This year’s special treat was a handmade item straight from Isaac’s preschool. It is a collage of construction paper and buttons, glued together to resemble a father’s dress shirt (as if any of the daddies at Isaac’s preschool wear ties). Anyway, this is the first real piece of art specially designed for a family-oriented holiday that Isaac has produced. Soon to be framed and adorning the walls of Dada’s office, it will be the material that draws tears in years to come when our boys have moved on to bigger and better things.

Daddy has insight here because Dadaw’s office at his shop if full of mementos from the past. We’ve seen them thousands of times with no real sense of their importance. Now it’s all clear. These are the treasures of our lives, worth more than retirement funds and savings accounts. Happy Father’s Day to you, too, Dadaw and Poppop. May your offices pile higher and deeper with the real treasures of life.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

From the land of almost eternal sun

Thursday afternoon we picked up Herra O'Neal from the airport, ending his Finnish adventure. He brought us all some thoughtful eastern European trinkets, but most importantly, he survived nearly 22 hours of travel that day and brought himself. We missed him quite an uncomfortable bit.

Daddy and I did a fantastically free job of communicating while he was gone, using IM instead of trying to figure out the nuances and rate systems of international calling. So I knew a bit about where he was and what he was up to, but once he got home and downloaded all his pictures, it was nice to have visuals to go along with those stories.

Daddy fretted about staying at a plush hotel that was far away from the conference because the preferred, closer inn had no more room. Turns out, once he got there, this closer place had space for him after all. Oh, and did I mention it was a hostel? Yes, HOSTEL. It's that cheery buttercup-yellow thing on the left, here on Hietaniemenkatu street.



The view from his window. The sea is just over that brick red building. Well, less so "sea" than the Gulf of Finland, which feeds into the Baltic Sea.



The first night in town, Daddy and his grad student Ashley ate a Finnish version of Chinese food at a huge marketplace (read: MALL) that was a quick stroll from their hostel.



Here's Daddy in front of the number one tourist attraction in Helsinki...a Lutheran church.



Stately and gorgeous, yes, but it would seem that these Finns aren't so much the party types. For example, the number two tourist attraction in Helsinki? An Eastern Orthodox church. That red thing behind Ashley.



Daddy did get to visit something else old and important -- an island fortress that's cool enough to call itself a UNESCO heritage site.



That goateed dude is of course not Daddy, but rather Daddy's new friend Dan from the University of Wisconsin. Dan has a 1-year-old girl, so he and Daddy moaned and groaned together about how horrible it was to be away from their children so that they could fly halfway around the world for free. Boo-freakin'-hoo, me thinks. Oh yes, and speaking of island fortress-plus-people Daddy knows, there's Daddy's Russian-guy collaborator, in the army-green jacket, in front of some sort of military vessel docked at this island.



Everyone took a sunset ferry back to Helsinki. Daddy took about a bazillion pictures of the city against the sky. Go Lutheran church!

Sunday, June 08, 2008

Third time's the charm

We can proudly confess that, as of today, the O'Neal family has attended church three Sundays in a row. Daddy claims it's his first trifecta in twenty years and suggests that he only went for the free air conditioning. It is, after all, our second straight day of heat indices reaching the 100-degrees. But the highlight of our churchgoing isn't the end to Daddy's amoral sabbatical. It was that Isaac and Jacob went to the play room for the entire service, leaving the big kids to snuggle in their pew alone. When offered an opportunity to join Mommy and Daddy in the sanctuary, both of our little heathens chose to stay playing. The playroom attendant, a recent high-school graduate, made the mistake of letting Isaac rope her into reading him a dinosaur book. "Professor Isaac" spent the entire time correcting her pronunciation of the different species and providing commentary not available in book designed for toddlers. She enjoyed telling us how brilliant our big man is.

After we got home from church, the original plan was to go soak in the pool until fully pruned. But Daddy came up with the most wonderful suggestion; go to the movies. Daddy and the boys have been ooh-ing and ahh-ing over previews to the new movie Kung-Fu Panda and it was our luck that there were several showings for those looking to escape a hot Sunday afternoon. It's a continuation of the air-conditioning philosophy, though a bit more expensive.

Daddy, in traditional form, piled us high and deep with soda and popcorn. The highlight for Jake was this bench near the concession stand. "Wall-E! Eve!!!"



This was Isaac's second movie theater adventure -- the first being Ratatouille -- and Jake's first feature film on the big screen. Although Ike was completely absorbed, Jake spent half of the moving hanging out in the aisle or threatening to poop and then actually doing so. Not bad for a first timer.

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Pool, glorious pool



Being the ridiculous cheapskate I am, it is my summer goal to maximize the value of our pool membership by going as much as we can. So far, so good -- the pool's been open almost 2 weeks and we've been there 6 of those days. Tuesday we went twice in one day.

When we went to the pool before, as "guests", we always met friends there for lunch and stayed for a couple hours. This was fun, yes, but kind of annoying. The pool doesn't even open until noon, which meant we would inevitably stay long past when we should to get a nap. Also, the water in the baby pool would have been freshly changed and thus very, very cold. I realize that complaining about the pool is pretty lame, almost like complaining about being at Disney World.

The nice thing about being members is that we can go whenever we want without coordinating with friends. We are a 5 minute drive away, so if only want to go for a few minutes it's no big hassle and we don't feel like we're being cheated. We still prefer to meet friends there whenever they can, though, and it's especially fun now because nearly everyone we hang out with is always there whether we've planned to meet or not.

At the suggestion of buddies, we've discovered the real beauty of the pool -- going at night. Once the babies get up from nap, I pile them in the car and we stay there -- this gets us there between 4:30 and 5:30 -- until we get too hungry to stay any longer, around 6:30 or 7. The baby pool is usually cozy warm from being boiled by the sun all day. The sun is not so hot and overbearing such that constant and vigilant application of sunscreen is not such a worry. When we come back to the house, not only do they scarf down their dinners (EVEN ISAAC), but they are completely exhausted and I can put them to bed at 8:30 or 9 instead of their usual and ridiculous night-owl time of 9:30 or 10. Now THAT is worth the price of admission.

Monday, June 02, 2008

Committed

I think Jacob made the potty-training decision for me. All day today he refused to wear diapers, even for naps.

Our strawberry adventure of this morning? He wore underpants the whole time. No accidents. Of course, we visited the Port-A-Potty twice pre-emptorily, but still. The boy actually tells me when he has to go, and only half the time is it because he's dribbled a little in his pants. He even stayed completely dry during nap today. I have him sleeping on a folded up towel with a spare sheet at the ready, especially for this evening. His brother was a natural at holding his pee through the sleep; perhaps Jacob will follow in his stead.

Jake's pooping situation is much improved. He pooped twice today with no pain. Neither time in a toilet, of course -- first thing in the morning, in his diaper; this evening, in his swimsuit just before we went to the pool. He was pretty grossed out when he pooped in his swimsuit, a feeling I hope clings to him long after his poop has gone. Isaac had to have an in-your-face "eww" moment to be convinced that he should poop in the potty -- his was pooping on Meemaw's kitchen floor. Thanks for that, Meemaw! We love you and your Clorox wipes!

So, I suppose we are potty training Jacob. How can I say no to the process when he is pretty much demanding we do it? Most kids I know had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the potty. If my Jacob wants to go, as young as he is, who am I to stand in his way?

Strawberry picking today

Hi, Daddy!





Sunday, June 01, 2008

The power of Christ compels you...to go to church, you filthy heathens!

Daddy and I are not aggressively spiritual or religious people, but we have always agreed that we wanted our kids to be brought up in the church. We were, both of us. We think it's good for families, and especially good for kids, to celebrate churches, what they do and what they stand for. We don't belong to a church in town yet, but we have one that we go to, when we go to church. It suits us well, and we like the pastors a lot. But I say "when we go", because to this point we have probably been there 5 times since we moved to town. We feel pretty guilty, but have thus far avoided going for two major, troublemaking reasons. Perhaps you can guess their names.

We are a bit ridiculous in that we don't do the church nursery. I realize it is a lifesaver to many people. To us, it is a debacle. Our babies throw a fit when we try to leave them there all by their lonesomes, surrounded by new-to-them toys and willing grownups. And so church tends to be a loud and stressful affair. Every time we go, we realize we are not ready to keep two fussy boys silent, because somehow we always forget that roll of duct tape.

Last Sunday morning I brought up church again. We probably think about it every week before blowing it off. But last week we managed to gather ourselves and many toys and snacks in time and went. Isaac and Jacob were the most perfectly behaved children you have ever seen, eating snacks, coloring, playing with toys quietly. Mostly, though, they just wanted to be held. The four of us sat or stood as a huddled bunch for almost the entire service. We were complimented on our angel children by a mom sitting in our pew as she wrestled with her typical 3-year-old.

It was so lovely that I ventured to do it again, by myself this time. Again, they did fine. We were helped by my ignorance of the church's "summer schedule", which began, oh, today. Where usually late service begins at 10:45, today it started at 10. We rolled in just as the offering plate was coming around. We got to take communion together, sing a song, and then jet. Piece of cake!

Here they are when we got home, Jakey's shirt newly untucked. Aren't they just so handsome?