www.largen.shutterfly.com August 31, 2008

For more pics, please visit my shutterfly website. www.largen.shutterfly.com. I couldn’t figure out how to link my flickr and wordpress accounts in a way that made sense to me, so I used something I was more familiar with: shutterfly. I’m not so good at all that stuff. I wrote the website address under the Creationship headline so that you can always find it.

Also, if you’ve never set up RSS feeds, it’s so GREAT. you don’t have to remember to go and check every site/blog that you’re interested in. Just subscribe and get them all consolidated to one place. Google Reader is my choice of…um…feeders? I don’t know the techy term.

When embarking on a trail… August 31, 2008

…know where the trail ends…or IF the trail ends.

So, we went on a trail ride yesterday on our nifty bikes. I was pretty sure that this trail was part of a park, which, in my mind, meant it circled around back toward the starting place. That makes sense to me. But, what do I know. I just started riding a bike again for the first time in about 12 years. No such luck. About an hour and a half (and five hundred “Daddy, my bottom hurts” statements) later we stopped a kind fella to ask him where the heck we were. He kind of laughed and said “Olathe.” Well, yes, I know we’re in Olathe, but that’s a big place. Where exactly? Well, it turns out that this very, very LINEAR trail (read: not at all circular and not at all in the direction of our car) was taking us very, VERY SOUTH and that yes, indeed, on our third trail ride ever we had managed to take ourselves a good hour+ away from our car…with a five year old whose “bottom hurts.” Yikes. Good thing it was a REALLY pretty ride. Can’t wait to do it again.

The good fella also informed us that if we took it North we could go all the way to Missouri… Hum. Maybe next time!

Syd-isms August 28, 2008

I ran across a list on my phone of funny little things that Sydney has said that I didn’t want to forget.

October, 2007

“You know, there’s never too little of a time to give a hug.” (said while we were in a HUGE hurry and I was totally rushing her into the car and into her carseat and griping for her to get buckled…and all she wanted was a hug.

July 25, 2008

“Did you know that if u stay up all night you can accidentally turn nocturnal?” (said while gazing out the window on a long drive)

July 30, 2008

“Sometimes I get tired of getting learned.” (in reference to not wanting to go to all day kindergarten).

August 4, 2008

Syd’s first wiggly teeth discovered…the bottom two middle ones! At the same time!

As Easy as Riding a Bike…sort of August 28, 2008

So our dear Sydney is not so fond of bikes…hers, that is. She is absolutely terrified of riding a bike, even with training wheels. So, Patrick found this handy-dandy, oh so cool, oh-please-let-it-work-so-we-can-ride-SOMEWHERE (even to the end of the street) contraption. And, let me tell you, it is a miracle worker! Within minutes she was comfortable and carefree on her little “bike.” I have yet to brave the balancing act and take her out for a spin, but Patrick is awesome at it. She’ll even peddle with so much gusto that she is pushing him! Amazing. So…if you see us out and about, please don’t laugh at our tandem ways.

Oh, and we have a REALLY great bike rack on our little new car. Definitely makes us feel cool. If anybody asks, we’ve CERTAINLY ridden our bikes more than once…twice, maybe! Patrick said the car looks like our van got smashed on all sides…and this is what we ended up with. But, we like it!

One Down August 28, 2008

Tooth Number One Status: Gone

On Aug 23, 2008, the long awaited day finally came and that blasted, wiggly, hangin-by-a-thread tooth came out…much to her surprise. Sydney was elated and somewhat shocked by the whole experience. We promptly emailed everyone and sent along a picture.

About three hours later we received an email from our little friend, Lillie (who is a whole 9 months younger!!!) and a picture of her first lost tooth. Sydney was shocked! “How old is she?” HOW could someone SO MUCH younger lose her tooth on the SAME DAY!?? Ah, the struggles of growing. She was already so frustrated that so many kindergartners had lost some baby teeth and SHE HADN’T!!! Well…she’s still excited and geared up to lose Tooth Number 2!

Tooth Number Two Status: A Little Wiggly

Creationship Explanationship August 28, 2008

“Creationship.”

What a lovely word. A word that requires some explanation(ship).

Sydney just started kindergarten. This is the beginning of week two and she already has nightly homework. Unbelievable, but also really fun. It’s her and Daddy’s time. Patrick is so good with teaching and pulling out of her a desire to learn.

So, her desire to learn also translates into a desire to teach…us…everything she learns…and now she wants us to do homework too…the same homework! Her assignment was to make a paper lunchbox and decorate it in any way she wants in order to share with her class and help them get to know her. So fun. She loved it…and promptly came home wanting each of us to make one to share with each other. The request went something like this:

“Mommy and Daddy, will you play with me? Ok, this is what we’ll do! We’ll each make a lunchbox and you can decorate it any way you want. It’s your creationship. Whatever you want to do with your creationship is ok. This is my creationship…” and on and on about Creationship. I couldn’t help but smile at the coining of such a wonderful word. I have no idea where it came from. We’ve certainly never used it…but WHY NOT? It’s so smart and so accurate! We are creatures who create. We are relational beings who enter into relationship…even through our own creations. We were meant for this: Creationship.

It’s such a great word!