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Eventful weekend. Watched the crapfest that is Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace Saturday afternoon, and I nearly fell asleep, as did the kids. Just mind-numbingly boring. But they’re into Star Wars, so we’re ticking them off.

Ran my first half-marathon on Saturday morning in Greensboro. 1 hour 50 minutes, which bettered my 2-hour goal considerably. Nice little run; would do again. Crisp and clear 45-degree morning, lovely scenic out-and-back course with a nice long shallow downhill straight around mile 8 or 9. Felt really good.

The kids wanted to go “camping” last night, so I set up the tent borrowed from my father-in-law and the kids eagerly got ready. I thought it was going to be cold, so I had them wear long-sleeve PJs and found extra blankets. We went to bed around 8 PM and Penelope lasted until about 8:45, when she declared she was “hot” and wanted to sleep in her own bed. So I took her inside and went back out to Luke, who was sleeping soundly. Pictures of the event forthcoming.

The other thing is that this morning, as we were getting ready to leave the garage and go out to the car, I had the garage door open like I usually do so we can walk through that opening, and the kids, standing there watching the rain come down said, totally unprompted, “It looks like Dagobah, Daddy!”

Make of that what you will.

• “Banding” Her word for “banging.” As in, when striking a hammer against a wall: “Daddy, look at me, I’m banding!” We’ve no idea where she got it from.
• “Baymbing Suit” Self-explanatory. This one has come to the fore lately, what with the summer months and talk of the beach.

Beautiful Friday. When it hasn’t been raining, the weather’s been uncommonly “California-ish” this past month, with sunny skies, dry air and temperatures in the 70s. Love it. And it’s a great weekend to head to my parents’ house in Chapel Hill for a little visit. Looking forward to that.

The kids are growing up. Penelope has nearly full command of complete sentences now, and has naturally adopted many of the social graces that even now, Luke can’t seem to find a use for, like greetings and goodbyes, among other things. For his part, Luke’s interest in astronomy is deepening, and his mastery of the computer is coming along too. I read him an information-packed library book about the planets last night and didn’t have to skip as much as I used to; I could read straight from the text and be fairly confident that he would understand it, as full of astronomy-related terms as it was. He certainly loves his planets.

And I’m grateful for that inasmuch as it’s a point of convergence between his interests and mine. I do have a very wide range of interests, so it was nearly a foregone conclusion that there would be a point of contact, but I’m glad it occurred in such a pleasing spot for both of us. If he had decided to be passionately interested in, say, baseball trivia, I probably wouldn’t have been able to “hang” as well as I am.

He doesn’t seem to have much interest in the things I’m really passionate about, though, which is totally and completely fine. Cars, airplanes, spacecraft… He doesn’t really track with me there—again, something utterly fine and expected. Interestingly, however, Penelope might be the one who’s more into those things than he is. Granted, she’s only 3, and as such is kind of all over the place with her interests, but I have demonstrated a few things about the car, and it’s held her attention, and she does point out with some frequency when an airplane flies over. Who knows. She’s such a crazy quilt of interests at this point: clothes, vehicles, sticks, animals, being “a superhero to save you,” TV, and many other things. Never a dull moment.

When learning a new answer in her catechism, if she doesn’t quite remember what she’s supposed to say but needs a hint, she’ll tilt her head ever so slightly, squint her eyes and say, in a cute, shy voice, “Wha’s that say?”

Kills me.

Sitting here at work putting off eating my turkey and cheese sandwich. Dave is out sick today, Charlie’s off to get his allergy shots, and thunderstorms are popping up here and there. The brunt of them is supposed to arrive tonight. It’ll be nice to have the rain. I love a good downpour.

Luke’s home sick, and Penelope amused herself this morning by getting into the (gas, thankfully) fireplace downstairs and emptying every last bit of dirt and soot out onto the white carpet. Diane called me in exasperation this morning and told me about it. Amazing how she chooses to ignore the dozens, nay, hundreds of toys downstairs and decides to mess with the fireplace. Unbelievable.

But we’re all well. Our latest home improvements are as follows:

1. Painted the outside shutters black to match the front door. They look awesome.
2. Spent all day Friday and Saturday putting up beadboard on the kitchen walls. Nearly cursed at my utterly useless stud finder.
3. Built a big, long work table for the garage. It fits between the cars and has storage on the bottom shelf.
4. Scored some free wood on Monday, courtesy of a crate the company was going to throw out. It’s good plywood and two-by-fours I’ll use for additional shelving in the garage.
5. Finished painting the hallway and front room Seashell Gray. It looks wonderful, cool, calm and refreshing. Love the color.

I’ve been really itching to start on the Datsun restoration, even though I know

• It’s a multi-year project,
• It’ll be far more expensive than we can budget for now,
• Home improvements are the first priority, and
• I really should be focusing more of my time and attention on my family, given where they all are.

So that’ll definitely have to wait. I might just move it to our house, though, just to help Mom and Dad by freeing up some space in their garage. And there might be little things I can tackle without spending any money. Ahh…we’ll see.

The wind is really blowing outside now. I can see the pollen and leaves come off the trees. Storm’s coming.

Or at least, such a claim was scrawled by Luke on a piece of paper now residing on the fridge. It’s amazing how literally he takes this stuff, how black-and-white it is for him. I tell him that the environment on the surface of Venus is like the inside of our oven, and I can just see the gears turning in his head as he works out the similarities between cooking foods in the oven here and what it must be like on Venus. It’s palpable.

Here are some of the latest Penelope-isms:

• A determined “No FANK you!” when a suggestion/command is unwelcome.
• Every morning she asks, “Dad, is it time for tasty breaktast?
• She loves to sit and watch TV with you, but she hates Pinky Dinky Doo.
• She loves to wear her headband, shoes, watches, any kind of accessory.

I finally found all our long-overdue library books after the move, returned them and was able to check out H.A. Rey’s Find the Constellations for Luke. We went through and it interested him, though he wasn’t exactly captivated by it. He’s getting a telescope for his birthday, so I foresee many stargazing nights ahead. I love that he loves the stars and constellations, by the way.

Finished reading the recently-published, excellent Children of Hùrin. Started the Silmarillion. Yes, I’m on a Tolkien kick.

1. Luke requested that I make him a couple of paper airplanes last night. I obliged and made him a “long” airplane before making him a “wide” airplane. The wide one flew better, as they usually do. After that I made him a paper popper. He’s loves them, but he’s continually amazed both by my ability to make them pop and frustrated by his own inability to do the same. He tried really hard last night, though, even going so far as to windmill his arm a few times before he brought it down in another futile attempt. He’ll get it.

2. Earlier that evening, before his sister went to bed, Luke pulled out her dress-up box, so he told me, to have a “rummage sale,” like he’s seen on Max & Ruby. Eventually he found the wings and halo from Penelope’s Halloween costume and put them on, dressing up as an angel. I was getting Pen ready for bed when I heard him announce, “I’m an angel!” and then, “Penelope, you’re a shepherd so you need to be scared of me.” I told Pen to act scared, which she did, then Luke came over to her and said, “Okay, let’s go see baby Jesus,” before leading her by the hand over to a pile of clean laundry, where baby Jesus “was.” It was very cute.

3. Penelope gets more expressive and creative by the day. Yesterday during her bath I peeked in to observe her playing with the dragon/alligator washcloth and mimicking a deep dragon voice as it interacted with the other bath toys. Her “robot voice” is something to behold as well, a monotone, “I am a robot. I am a robot.” And her pirate, “Arrrrgh!” is excellent as well.

4. We were in Chapel Hill all weekend for Paul and Carrie’s wedding, which was wonderful. We’re beyond happy for them and excited about the prospect of them moving closer than Juneau. David, Rachel and Catherine stayed at my parents’ house with Diane, Luke, Penelope and myself and we spent a lot of good time together. It was especially fun to watch Luke and Catherine interact. He loves her and is just excited to hang out with her, prance around her and “help out” his aunt Rachel. For her part, she seemed to welcome the attention and smile and laugh at him. Most 6-year-olds don’t have much time for their younger siblings, much less babies in the family, so it’s nice to see Luke enjoy interacting as much as he did.

Went to Tanglewood for Penelope’s third birthday party. We located a table near the kids’ (and our) favorite playground and turned them loose while we set up. All four of the grandparents, one set of great-grandparents, and four of the aunts and uncles were in attendance. We had strawberry cupcakes just like her first birthday, and she received some dress-up clothes, a game and some other odds and ends. Near the end of the party Luke and Granddad, and Pen, Grandpa and myself took paddle boat rides. Luke and Pen both loved being out on the water.

Luke had a good time too, though I did have to “manage” him like I do most birthday parties. He’s just got an insatiable desire to be in the middle of everything. I suppose that’s a normal kid desire that needs to be tempered; the perceived need to be the center of attention, especially with relatives around, whose attention you’d like to have and around whom you feel more entitled to behave just as you feel. We’ve been doing more “imagine how you’d feel if you were X and they treated you a certain way” exercises, but I’m doubtful they’ve taken hold. Just have to do our best to be patient, consistent and persistent.

Overall, the Thanksgiving break was lovely. We visited my parents in Chapel Hill this year and enjoyed a relatively small dinner, with only Gran, my aunts Jeri and Cheryl in attendance in addition to our family and my parents. Turkey was great, as were the other dishes and especially the bean dip, something Diane prepared at my behest this year even though it’s not typically Thanksgiving-ish.

After we returned Saturday night, we went to see the drive-through Christmas light display at nearby Tanglewood Park. The lights themselves were extensive and gorgeous, as they have been the past two years we’ve been. However, Luke was in full-on brat mode and Penelope has the attention span of a mosquito (and was up past her bedtime besides), so from a parental perspective, the outing was, um, difficult. Pen is two and we can’t expect a whole lot from her given her age and the circumstances, but Luke’s a different story.

We recently checked out a book on manners from the library. It’s a little old for him, but it has cute illustrations of good and bad manners in various situations and I thought it would be good to get him acclimated with politeness and rudeness in everyday life. It didn’t turn out quite as well as I’d hoped, though—Luke is much more interested in acting out all the ways to be rude, rather than their counterparts. In other words, it gave him a truckload of new ways to test his parents and push the envelope. Kids really are naked, living proof of the desperate condition of the human heart without the Lord. Not only that, the current situation with Luke is a perfect illustration, in a microcosm, of our sin nature’s response to “the Law” as described by Paul in Romans. The more rules we’re given, the more our nature will chafe against them. As Paul says, “Is the law sinful? By no means!” The rules aren’t corrupt or flawed—the condition of our hearts and minds is.

Halloween was Saturday. Luke was a lion for the second year in a row and Pen wore a lamb costume my mom found. It was a cold, drizzly day—pretty much the worst possible for trick-or-treating. We made a quick trip ’round the apartment complex but only found one house that was participating. We ended up returning home, putting the girl to bed and doing trick-or-treating in the house, which consisted of Diane and myself hiding behind the bathroom and bedroom doors, respectively, and Luke going between the two, knocking and announcing himself. It actually worked out pretty well.

Penelope wasn’t all that thrilled about her costume…until she saw herself in the mirror. That distracted her for a little bit. An orange lollipop helped too. Luke, on the other hand, loves his costume like nothing else. He wore it for several days before the event and was wearing it when I awoke this morning. I think the fact that he’s able to put it on and remove it himself helps—it’s a rush when you’re 5 years old and have that kind of control over your own wardrobe, I guess.

1. She was enjoying some strawberry yogurt in her high chair earlier, and playing with a Snow White figurine. The yogurt is close to her favorite thing and she’s been doing passably well learning to use her spoon to retrieve it, but it’s still slow going. Today her solution was to use her Snow White as a makeshift utensil by unceremoniously dipping the figurine’s head into the yogurt at the bottom of the cup and then licking it off. Didn’t seem to disturb her at all but Diane and I were in stitches.

2. Lately she’s been adding the suffix “Z’me” to every request she makes. As in, “Wanna doggie z’me.” We’re not quite sure what she means by it or where she got it from, but it’s quite cute.

Penelope will turn 2 years old at the end of next month. Here are some things she does nowadays:

• Says "More strawberry yogurt, please" as all one word, something like "mostabedeenogurtpudlee." It’s very cute. Her language is acquiring a little more sophistication; for instance, she can now pronounce the word "skunk" (she has a little stuffed one) correctly, instead of how she used to say it, "suck" (said with complete relish).
• Colors literally everything if she is loose with a crayon. We’ve had to scrub the walls, the floor and the trash can lately, our ottoman has been ruined and more than a few books have been "graffitied."
• Greets me at the front door with "Hi pretty girl," which she now assumes is a standard greeting from most anyone.
• Takes all her clothes off in her crib. Seriously–we have a hard time getting her to keep her clothes on in there, and this is a problem for a still-diapered girl. We’ve come in there on more than one occasion to find her standing up in the crib, stark naked, stuffed animals on the floor, pillow on the opposite side of the bed, and she’ll be reaching for something on the dresser next to her crib with a "determined yet confused" look on her face. We’ve had to resort to dressing her for bed in tights rather than her usual loose PJ pants to keep her from being able to pull them off. We’re hoping this behavior will just "extinguish," as they say.
• Loves to read books. She’ll get into moods where she’ll just bring you an endless succession of books to sit down and read with her. Her favorite is Goodnight Moon (with sound effects) but she’ll sit for almost anything. Books with "doors" in them are also winners.
• Has a real thing for shoes. If she finds a shoe she’ll want to wear it immediately, regardless if it’s too small. Upon being told the shoe is too small, she’ll just repeat "Is too small" while continuing to try to put it on. Oh, and the number of shoes doesn’t matter either. She trudged around for most of the day today wearing just one of her brother’s red Converse hi-tops.

“A-lay-lay.”

Her name for herself. Mommy and Daddy and Penelope play a game wherein Daddy uses her hand to point to himself, Mommy and then her, saying each of our names in turn. She then mimics us, first pointing to “Dada,” “Momma,” and then “A-lay-lay.” She’s acquiring words…

Random scenes around the house: Penelope’s tongue in overdrive during breakfast, a beautiful rainbow after a summer rain a few weeks ago and Luke singing his favorite hymn, “Christ the Lord is Risen Today,” during family devotion time last Sunday. He sang it much more enthusiastically the first time, but as usual the camcorder wasn’t close at hand. Next time…

Luke has warmed up to Maple. She’s been learning, ever so slowly, not to bite the members of her family, and he’s been learning to have fun with her and enjoy being chased by her, as evidenced by the photo below. She’ll accompany us on our walks around the neighborhood and has already become something of a celebrity, with folks making conversation from their front yards and cars when they otherwise wouldn’t, asking about her breed, what she’s like, etc. She loves the walks and is quite the trooper, given that she’s a little dog and Luke and I don’t exactly take short walks.

For his part, Luke’s greatest source of fascination at the moment, besides his seemingly perpetual interest in geography, is a particular azalea bush in one of our side yards. There are a total of five, planted in a row, but he is drawn to one that has decided to grow out of the ground at an approximately 45-degree angle. He calls it his “leaning plant” and loves to visit it every chance he gets to go outside. Granddad jokingly refers to it as Luke’s “blasted sapling,” a moniker I particularly like. I’ve been working a lot on the yard lately and Luke often accompanies me on my tasks, buzzing especially around the Leaning Plant. We’ve already had a couple of running-through-the-sprinkler sessions, and could have some more this weekend. The azaleas in the backyard still need weeding and watering.

Recent camera photos, just a tad photoshopped (crop, grayscale):

My beautiful wife, conversing with me off the end of the bed.

Luke in the midst of morning antics today.

Pen being social for company on Wednesday.