englers.org

Last Wednesday evening, I was out in the front yard with the boys, when I realized that Thursday is trash day.

So, I decided to open the garage and take out the trash. Nothing too difficult, and actually rather mundane.

Well, when I opened the garage door, Grayson followed me in the garage, and just inside we found the trusty Bobby Car that Frank and Mary gave Jack for his first birthday.

I took the two containers of recycling down the hill, each time returning to Grayson trying to get his leg over the Bobby Car enough so that he could ride it. And each time, I told him “Be careful, if you get on that and start going down the drive way, it’s going to hurt when you fall off.” He’d look at me in his all-knowing, all-understanding 18 month old way, and say something in his baby gibberish like “Puckadoaloo”.

My third trip down the drive way was to take all of the cardboard Christine had dutifully bundled up earlier in the week.

When I got to the top of the drive way this last trip, I grabbed the large city provided municipal grey trash bin, and started to guide it down the hill (it’s usually so full and heavy that it’s all I can do to keep it from running me over if I’m in front of it, or from running away from me if it’s in front of me.)

I turned one last time and saw Grayson almost on top of the Bobby Car, so I say “Grayson. No! Be very careful. You’re going to get hurt.”

And I went down the hill, pushed by the trash can. At the bottom, I turned it to position it at the end of the drive way, and as I did…

I heard this roar of plastic wheels on concrete.

And it was getting louder… and Louder… and LOUDER.

I looked between the two cars that were parked at the top, and saw Grayson shooting out from between them. Hands holding on dearly to the yellow steering wheel. Face turning from fascination to total fear, then to full on terror. His feet were kicked up and he was leaning back. His knuckles were white, and his mouth was wide open… either in a silent scream, or a preemptive cry… I couldn’t tell which.

It went so fast, yet at the same time, everything was moving so slow.

I swear he was moving 50 miles-per-hour down that hill.

And I was moving less than half a foot per hour.

I couldn’t move fast enough to get in front of him, and so, as he got to the bottom of the hill…

I think I heard a sonic boom while he crossed over into super-sonic speed, and right at that moment, he lost control.

The Bobby car’s front wheels turned ever so slightly, and he rolled off to his right, as the car went to his left.

But he’d made it down the hill… a good 25 or 30 feet… at I swear, at least 50mph.

I was torn between swelling pride at my son, the next Evel Knieval, and the fear choking my throat that he’d broken an arm, or a leg, or both, and crushed his face when he planted himself squarely into the asphalt that the road is built out of. I was also afraid that some neighbor might have seen the whole thing progress, and was at that moment calling CPS.

At that moment, I became a super-hero, and cover the 10 feet from myself to Grayson in a flash.

The car was laying on it’s side too. Wheels still spinning… the body all dented in and crushed, and what I imagined was gasoline spilling down the drive way, just waiting for a latent spark to set it off and blow us all to high heaven.

Grayson was laying on his side too. Looking up at me with a questioning “why didn’t you catch me Daddy?” look on his face.

I scooped him up into my arms and held him tighter than I’ve ever held him.

He wasn’t crying.

Yet.

After what seemed like a minute (and was probably half a second) he started crying.

At first, just a sob. Then slowly the volume and intensity increased.

I could hear his crying echo off the valley walls from the hills miles to our north.

It was all I could do to not cry with him.

I just held him until he started to sob in between breaths, and then I pushed him back from my chest just a little bit, while I started to inspect him.

First his left left. Left ankle. Left foot. Left arm, left hand, left cheek. Nothing. Wow!

Then his right side. The side he landed on first. His right arm, shoulder, cheek, nose… All fine.

His right leg had a small, barely noticable abrasion on it, and his right ankle had a small (smaller than a dime) strawberry on it.

I sat him on my thigh while I tested his joints. All of them worked, and he wasn’t complaining about them as I made him move them back and forth.

Then I felt his head and there seemed to be no bumps or bruises.

He was pretty much done crying at this point… so I asked him “Do you want to get down and play?”

He said “down” perfectly (a first).

So, I put him down in the grass. He walked over to the big dirt pile, and started looking for rocks.

Episode forgotten. No collateral damage.

Later that night, as we put him to bed, Christine and I found a bump on the side of his head, but here, three days later, it’s gone.

Wednesday, May 7th, will forever go down in history for me as “The Day Grayson Went 50MPH on a Bobby Car and Lived to Tell Us All About It, But Couldn’t Yet Talk.”

What a day that was.

Aren’t kids fun?

Here are some photos of Jack and Grayson on April 30th, just acting silly.

See this hat?

Yes, it’s a turtle. Grayson with a turtle on his head.

And here is Jack with a fish hat…

But it’s not on his head. Silly kid put it around his chest… goofball.

And here they are just being silly together:

There’s a big dirt hill out in front of our house right now.

It’s there because we’re remodeling the back yard.

(It’s easier to think about spending money on the backyard if I call it remodeling, than if I call it landscaping for some reason. I think it’s because landscaping is something I feel like I should be doing myself, whereas I’m totally done with thinking about doing any more remodeling all by myself. I don’t know why, that’s just how I think about it).

Anyways, there’s this big dirt hill.

And Jack just loves playing on it. What 3 year old little boy wouldn’t?

We are always taking random photos of the kids when we have time.

Here are some photos from April 26th and April 29th:

I’m typing this entry at 9:15 a.m. from the comfort of our new outdoor patio furniture that I put together yesterday for our new back yard patio. Christine picked it up at Sam’s a few weeks ago, in anticipation of spending lots of time in the back yard this summer.

It’s a little chilly as I type this… the thermometer on the side of the house says about 60°F. (or as Jack calls it “six and oh … which means it’s very warm”). The wind is blowing ever so softly through the tree tops and slightly moving the hair on my legs.

The boys are up the hill just a little digging in the dirt and rolling their trucks up and down the hill. Jack took his pants off to pee in the yard just a minute ago, and Grayson is exploring the upper level of the yard while Jack looks for bugs on the middle level.

This photo isn’t the best, but it’s the best I can do with my laptop (Jack locked the back door when he came outside a few minutes ago… he came through the doggy door again).

side note: Jack just brought me a “rolly-polly” that he says is “Just for you… but you can share with Mommy if you want to…” and as he walked back up the hill he turned and said “I’ll try to find Mommy one too” and he joined Grayson a little ways up the hill, where they’re both standing with shovels digging in the dirt.

So, suffice it to say… I love our new back yard.

side note: Jack just brought me another “rolly-polly” saying “I got one for Mommy. Look Daddy, it’s big.” And as he walked off this time he mumbled “I’m going to find one for Lydia and Leo” and up the hill he went, purpose in mind.

I’m surrounded by limestone, sun, and the sounds of playing boys. Every once in a while the dogs in the yard over bark, but not for too long or too loud. We’ve been out here for an hour or two now, and Wesley is used to it, so he’s not barking back any more.

There are birds all around, though I haven’t seen any, I can definitely hear them all talking to each other. I can just imagine:

Bird One: “Hey Fred, got any good sticks or twine over there? I’m building a new nest.”

Bird Two: “No, Barry, no twine or sticks over here, but you should see this red-head I’m chasing… she’s a keeper.”

Bird One: “Fred. Concentrate. If you don’t build a nice looking nest first, you won’t have anywhere to take that red-head later tonight after we take her out on the town.”

Bird Two: “Damn, Barry, you’re right. Okay, back to work.”

Red-head: [to herself] “Thank God. That bird’s house is pitiful, I can’t believe he is so easily distracted. Doesn’t he know I want a big nest with purple ribbon running through it, and a little green moss on the sides? Sheesh.”

Where was I?

Oh yeah, the yard…

The Yard is now four levels. The first level is the patio. It’s made of sawn limestone and pea gravel. Big limestone blocks with pea gravel in between them. The “TV Room” opens right out onto the patio. The “Living Room” has brand new cedar steps that come down onto the patio. The patio is rather spacious, and we got rid of the cover over the old concrete patio, and it really opened up the space outside.

From the patio, you walk up three steps to the second level, and the first new planting bed. There’s a retaining wall that hols back the dirt, and helps with drainage. There will be sod on that first level in a few days.

Then up one more step to the third level, which is about the same size as the second level… probably about 100-150 square feet of dirt on each of those levels.

After that last step, you can also now walk up the hill just a little bit (maybe another two feet in elevation) around the new retaining walls to the top level of the yard… which is the largest. That level is about 700 square feet of yard, and is where the kids’ picnic table that Papa built is, and their sand box (need to go buy sand, and I’m not looking forward to carrying all that sand up the hill from the front yard). It’s also where we put the freebie table and chairs we got from Joel, a friend from the office.

That last level is also where all of the trees are, and I can just see the start of a tree fort that we’ll build in the years to come. For now, the kids just love running up there, and riding their tricycle and bicycles up there… oh, and getting pushed around in the Bobby Car.

Ok, enough typing… I’m going to play with the boys.

I love the new back yard.

On April 25th, Rowan and Caelyn came over to visit for the evening while Cyndi and Marc when out for the evening.

The kids had a blast together.

We ate dinner, and everyone had good manners… which was pretty amazing considering when we get them all together they usually go nuts and lose all semblance to humans for at least an hour.

After dinner, Jack and Rowan played with cars and drove all over the house, while Grayson and Caelyn played hide and seek and made either other laugh over and over and over… too cute.

Then we took baths in shifts: Grayson and Caelyn together, then Jack and Rowan. Everyone did a good job getting cleaned up, and Rowan even showed Jack how to scrub his knees and toes and back and under-arms…

After baths, Grayson went to bed, while Christine, Jack, Rowan and Caelyn and I watched a movie.

Then Marc and Cyndi showed up and took R & C home, and Jack went to bed.

It was a full night, but a fun night, for sure. The rest of the photos are here.

Leo, Jack’s best friend, turned three years old recently and he had a party the weekend of April 20th. Joan and Tim threw the party at Zilker Park, and the kids had a blast. We played on the playground for 45 minutes or so, and watched the train go past us a couple of times. Then after eating some yummy lunch, we all rode the train:

The kids had a blast on the train. And after the train, we went back over to the party zone to eat cake (Joan made a really cute little Thomas the Train cake) and hit a pinata. Talk about a great day at Zilker!

On Wednesday April 16th, Christine took Jack and Grayson to a place that had lots of air-filled bouncy things for the kids to jump on and slide down… which Jack just loves. They played for a couple of hours, and Christine got a couple of action shots:

On Monday April 14th, while I was in San Francisco on a business trip Christine had Jack and Grayson site down together and paint. They had a blast:

I took Jack and Grayson to the park after work on April 10th, and while they were both way up high on the top of one of the playscapes, I took a couple of photos of them way up high. We love that little park by our house.

On April 7th, Christine met Joan at the park, and Grayson, Jack, Leo and Lydia all played. And as you can tell from the photos, they had a blast:

What you can’t tell from the photos is that Jack and Grayson played so hard at the park that JAck fell asleep on the couch while Christine was putting Grayson down for his nap when they got home:

That was a first!

On April 8th, after work, Christine, Jack Grayson and I took a little walk in the neighborhood. Well, we took a walk with a bicycle and a dog that is…

Grayson tried to break into a neighbor’s car.

At some point, Jack ditched the bike on the side of the road, and got on “Daddy’s shoulders” while Grayson walked the dog in front of us:

On April 9th, Christine took the boys to get their haircut. While they were out, they went to the little wooden toy factory next door to the hair-dresser’s.

She took this super cute photo of them riding the horses outside the toy shop:

On the morning of April 8th, while waiting for Jack to get out of school, Christine took Grayson to the State Capitol building for a tour. And boy was Grayson touristy.

First he chased squirrels around the grounds:

Then he spent some time climbing back and forth over the curb in front of the building. Then Grayson checked out the little cannon out front that was given to the Republic of Texas by General Chambers in 1836:

After that it was up the steps into the building where he gave Christine a tour of the statues in the foyer:

After spending time inside, the two of them went out to the fountains in front of the building where Grayson checked out the water and started picking flowers…

So, here it is, almost the end of April, and I’m just now getting around to posting a group of photo sets from the end of March… Sorry… these would have been up earlier this week if I wasn’t having problems with englers.org this week. I ended up having to reinstall the whole site from a backup, so hopefully nothing to missing from this week and last. Nevertheless… I’m not traveling this coming month (hopefully that’ll stay true) so hopefully we’ll find more time to post updates and photos. The thing for me to remember is that I really want to spend more time with the kids, not necessarily time writing about the kids… But, hopefully I can do both this coming month.

Anyways, on with the show…

Here are some photo galleries from mid-March through the end of March:

March 15, 2008: Around the House - just some photos of Jack and Grayson playing at home, when it was just the three of us… Christine was out shopping or maybe riding her bike (she’s become quite the little cyclist lately).

March 18, 2008: At the table - These photos are of Grayson having a blast at dinner getting food and pudding all over himself. There are also some good action thoughts of Jack in his underwear jumping off the couch arm onto the couch seat, which was pretty funny, and was in no small part responsible for Grayson’s laughing…

March 23, 2008: Easter 2008 - This year, we did Easter in Austin, for a variety of logistical reasons, and we all had a blast. The kids had a few opportunities to collect eggs, get candy, and spend time with friends. We did the First United Methodist Egg Hunt on the lawn of the State Capital. The Easter Bunny left baskets of candy for us, and we went over to Leo and Lydia’s (Ted and Joan) house for an Easter Hunt and Easter Dinner.

March 28, 2008: Momo’s House - We drove down to Bellville this last weekend in March, and had a BLAST with Evan, Shadel, Ella and Momo. I won’t say anything more about these photos except to say that the kids were adorable in the outfits they dressed up in while a Momo’s:

March 29, 2008: Evan’s House - . This group of photos is from Evan’s house and has a lots of great shots of the kids, Jack, Grayson and Ella. Suffice it to say the kids had a blast playing in the yard with each other.

March 30, 2008: Ella’s Birthday - Shadel and Evan hosted Ella’s Fourth Birthday Party (she’s already four… I can’t believe that) at the Teddy Bear Factory at Katy Mills Mall in Katy on March 30th. The party was a blast. The kids spent a lot of time before the party playing on a bunch of rides that were in the mall concourse (since when do rides cost $2.00 to ride on?) - they also walked down to the Rainforest Cafe and looked at the elephants and alligators. Then during the party, we had pizza and cake. After cake, the kids got to build their own bears, and afterwards we all went home, fat and happy.