As we were pulling up to the shelter at the beginning of the two trails, we told the children that there was going to be a lot of wildlife and to stay close to Mommy and Daddy. Ty was in the middle row of the seats in the van and playing with Talon when we made the announcement. He made Talon smile and laughed himself. Kyle was sitting in the front seat, heard the laughter and said, “Oh, I hear monkeys!”
Archive for July, 2009
One More Thing… about our Everglades trip
Saturday, July 25th, 2009Evergladin’ Sleppy Style
Saturday, July 25th, 2009We went down to the Everglades today, among the thunderstorms and ravenous insects. We stopped by the visitor’s center to look around, then headed on down to the two short trails. At the start of the two trails, there stands a shelter with restrooms, water fountains, a tiny bookstore, and a breezeway with benches.
We started up the Anhinga trail, which is mostly elevated platform above water. Being a national park, the trails are wheelchair accessible, so we used the stroller to push a baby while I carried another. Dad pushed Kendall in the stroller and walked point with Ty, who carried an extra water canteen. I carried Talon in a sling and held Taylor’s hand. Kyle walked in front of me but frequently straggled behind. 
Taylor, Kyle, and Ty at the beginning of the Anhinga Trail.
We saw the dark clouds coming in and figured that we had 15-20 minutes before the rain came. A pair of grasshoppers were having reproductive relations in the middle of the trail. We were half way through the trail when the thunder became louder and the gray clouds closer. Staying on the trail but picking up the pace, we tried to get a good look of the glades and sky. 
Grasshopper porn on the Anhinga Trail.
On one of the turns, there lay an alligator. At first, we thought it was fake because we are all cynical about everything. But as we were leaving, we saw it moving its head. Ah, a robotic fake, like at Disney World! 
We reached a fork in the trail. The lightning crackled, and the thunder started getting loud. Dad and I chose the main path because we were running out of time. It started sprinkling as we saw the shelter. The last hundred yards, we had to run back because the big, fat rain began pouring down.
We waited out the storm under the breezeway. I nursed the two babies, who didn’t want to nurse at first because the storm distracted them. The sky flickered with the lightning, and pounding thunder quickly followed. This excited all of us. There were several minutes that the wind was blowing to the east, and the rain looked like it was falling sideways. The children kept talking about “that huge spider,” which was only as big as my hand. “Huge” is not the word I’d use.
After the thunderstorm passed, we started on another trail, the Gumbo Limbo. Instead of shallow, moving water, it’s a hardwood hammock. That was when the adventure began. In the stroller, Kendall was swarmed with mosquitoes even though I smeared insect repellent on everyone. She had them in her face and hair and arms and everywhere that repellent was. Dad stopped to pick her up to carry her. The mosquitoes congregated on them. They quickly got moving again, and Ty pushed the stroller. Kendall kept fussing, so we stopped to change our configuration in which I carried her in a spare sling. Every time we stopped, there were more mosquitoes on us than we could count. I covered both the babies as much as I could in their slings and hats. A family of four passed us. About halfway down the trail, they turned back; I could only assume that they couldn’t stand the mosquitoes. They were covered up and swatting the air. We all wore pants but still had hundreds of them on each of our legs. The foliage around the trail was so thick due to the summer season and wet due to the recent rainfall. At each turn, I was hoping that the shelter was just around. At one point, my hopes came true!
It started raining again but not as hard as the first time. Dad drove the van around, and we packed in. We toured a few more miles of the park before we turned around and took a tour of the toy store. The toy store? Yes, we stopped by Toys ‘R’ Us.
The boys have been asking all week to go there. I don’t know who put that idea in their heads. Taylor and I spent time looking at the Tooth Fairy dresses (which were Disney Princess costumes, but does she really have to know that?) She pointed at the dollhouses and princesses and castles and dragons. Every time I told her, “Okay, put it away,” she happily placed the toy back on the shelf. *sigh* Such good children.
Our purpose of going was to let the children ride the quarter-operated cars at the exit of the store. A buck-fifty to have Spiderman and Elmo and Zoe sit in the cars that swayed back and forth is a buck-fifty well spent.
I really enjoyed this morning’s “stay-cation,” even if the mosquitoes were about to fly off with one of our twins! We now can be better prepared for next trip to the Everglades. We have our comparisons to appreciate the wetland prairie in all seasons. 
Pine rockland a way’s southwest of the two short trails.
How can we call ourselves Florida Crackers if we can’t take a walk a half-mile in the glades in the middle of the summer?
Whistler Ty O’Tooth
Friday, July 24th, 2009On Wednesday, the 15th, Ty lost his third tooth. Kyle pulled it out of his mouth, actually. It was wiggling and wobbling, and it apparently was bothering both Ty and Kyle. So Kyle pulled it out.
We couldn’t get the Tooth Fairy to come by that night because she didn’t have enough notice. She doesn’t bring cash to the Sleppy children. She brings toys, so she needs at least a few hours’ notice. On Thursday night, she traded Ty’s tooth for an Irish “D” tin whistle. It came in a package with an instruction book that contains musical notation and tablature to play popular melodies.
Ty started playing it immediately. I frustrated him when I offered to teach him. He followed the instruction book well enough to learn to play all of the tunes.
On Wednesday, a week after Ty lost his tooth, I started practicing my violin. I asked Ty if he wanted to play with me. We played Mozart’s “Ah, vous dirai-je Maman” several times for practice. The next day, we practiced some more of the same, but I played some harmony on the violin. We also played “Au Claire de la Lune” and a German folk song, both from the instruction book. And today, Friday… well, we haven’t played yet, but I hope that we can get some practicing done this weekend.
Playing together is helping him with his breathing into the whistle. When he first started learning it, he’d breathe hard to make the sounds, but the whistle plays a higher octave if it’s played that way. It took him a couple of days to get the breathing steady where he wasn’t playing higher octaves. Also, he’s not separating his tones as he was at the beginning. Most tones in the music are quarter notes, and it doesn’t sound too badly if he separates them. He still has to be reminded to hold the half notes, but once he gets warmed up, the longer notes sound pretty good.
Ty sometimes sits around the house and makes up tunes for himself. He doesn’t write them down or bother to remember them.
Let’s Go for a Walk
Saturday, July 18th, 2009I have been exercising four times a week for the past month or so. The boys ride their bikes, and I pull the three girls in a Radio Flyer. I also carry a telescopic tactical baton in its deployed position in case of stray dogs or creepy people. We don’t have a lot of either of the two in this neighborhood, but you never know until you know. And by that time, it’s too late.
We go around the lake, which isn’t really visible from the street where we walk because it’s a private lake. The circumference is suitable for a morning walk (just under a mile), and the scenery is pleasant. To get to the lake, we take the long route. To the lake, around the lake, and back, we travel between two and a half and three miles.
Most mornings, I’m really working hard at a quick pace. I sing the running cadences that we sang in the Army: “A Yellow Bird” and “Hail O Ordnance Corps” are my favorites and the ones that I remember. It’s been 10 years since I sang cadences in formation. But some mornings, I do low-intensity exercise, so I don’t huff and puff so much.
As we come within a quarter mile of our finish line, I pick up the pace to where I’m almost at a jog (but I can’t jog because the wheels on the wagon aren’t built for that speed – and because I hate jogging). Our last tenth of a mile is our cool down period. When we get home, we drink lots and lots of water!
Our Twin Babies Turn One
Monday, July 13th, 2009We woke up this morning and immediately started writing down our time table. That’s Time Table, as in, Time. Not multiplication. For the most part, we stuck to our assigned tasks at the assigned times. I started the cakes a little too late, so I finished them later than planned. The children helped to clean up the house. I swept more than a few times because the floor just couldn’t keep clean. We ate lunch, rested a bit, and continued our cleaning.
My aunt and cousins were visiting from out of state. They came down with a family friend and my maternal grandmother who was visiting them from another country. My parents offered them lodgings in their house in the city. Being Kendall and Talon’s first birthday, we asked them to come down today to celebrate.
They arrived at our house at about 6:30pm. We talked and watched the boys sword fight. I, once again, defended my child-led weaning beliefs. Ty played the piano for them (and they were very much impressed). My youngest cousin and his friend went outside and played Frisbee with the children. Later on, we sat down for dinner. Dad had made a casserole from scratch, and everyone gobbled it up.
Talon and Kendall really had no idea what was going on except that there were strangers in the house. Talon looked a little worried but kept quiet most of the time. Kendall, on the other hand, expressed her upset fervently. My dad stopped by after work to eat a small dinner and have some birthday cake.
I am usually the one bringing the cake forward, to the birthday boy or girl, but Kendall wouldn’t stop crying unless I was holding her. So Dad brought forth the cake. I directed the singers with a starting tone (to keep it sounding good because “Happy Birthday” sounds awful when people aren’t singing on the same key). When we stopped singing, I held her face to the flame so that she could blow it out. She just looked like she was going to cry some more. Kyle was close by and blew the candle out.
We ate slices of the cake. Eight minutes later, it was Talon’s turn. (Talon was born an hour and eight minutes later, but we’re not going to wait that long).
I was holding Talon and hummed the beginning tone. Dad brought forth her cake. We sang Happy Birthday, and I held her face to the flame. But she just looked around. Again, Kyle helped blow out the candle. I cut up her cake, and we had seconds — but of much smaller sizes because we had already had Kendall’s cake.
We hung around for a little while longer, cleaned up the big messes, and finally said our goodbyes.
Kendall was really tired and went down easily, but Talon wanted to nurse a little longer. She’s only one, you know. She still needs “nurse.”
Leftovers Goulash
Friday, July 10th, 2009It’s easy to boil up some barley, chop up a carrot, a celery stalk, and an onion, and throw in some lentils. It’s what I’ve been making for lunch this week. This morning, we had leftovers for breakfast. Lentils for breakfast? Yes!!
I beat two eggs, added 1/3 cup flour, stirred in the rice, barley, and lentils (about 2 cups combined), added some salt and sugar to taste (not a lot of either, like a teaspoon of salt and a table spoon of sugar), and let it sit in a medium-heat pan for a few minutes, like a frittata. Cut it into quarters to manage the size. Flipped it. Let it sit some more.
It tasted like a veggie burger, I swear. The children said that it was like eating chicken nuggets. Some of the carrot and celery pieces were big enough to see, but they didn’t care. Even Taylor, who has been hiding her food under the table or throwing it in the sink, ate it up. Ate. It. Up.
Curry pie with prunes and squash is next.
Kidding. Kidding.
On Indepedence Day
Sunday, July 5th, 2009Friday night, the babies kept waking up every 45 minutes. Talon didn’t want to sleep. She only slept when I nursed her on the couch. When I went to put her down in her crib, she cried. I went to lay in my bed with her and let her nurse there but couldn’t sleep because I had to keep a hold of her because she could fall over to the edge. (We don’t have a co-sleeper net because Taylor sleeps on an improvised bed on the floor). Well, finally, around four in the morning, Talon fell into a deep sleep and allowed herself to sleep in the crib.
Our plans were to wake up early, have breakfast early, and be ready to go to the parade half-past eight. But I didn’t wake until seven, and we were rushing to make breakfast, change the babies, and get ready. In spite of waking half an hour late, we were ready to go five minutes after we had originally planned.
We piled into the van and rode a mile (yes, just a mile) to the corner where we park the van every year for the parade. This year’s parade didn’t top the previous years’. It could have been better and more organized. Not that I’m volunteering or anything. I think, however, one of these years, we’ll make our own float.
Our children collected candy that was thrown by the parade’s participants. It landed on the street, close to their feet, and the children gave it to us — GAVE it to us. Afterward, we walked to the park where, upon arriving, we saw the bounce house. Dad said, “We are not going in that thing.” No problem on my side; the fewer square yards to get lost, the better. I sat on a bench with the babies while Dad watched the three older children. We didn’t take our radios. After about twenty minutes, we lost one.
Taylor was jumping in the bounce house when I found her. She took a three and a half hour time-out in her room when we got home. Actually, she napped.
We went home to see the F-16 fly-over from our front yard. There were four F-16s from the Air Base down south. A few minutes later, we saw a pair of WWII era bombers that were flying higher and probably coming from the airport on the west side of town.
For lunch, Dad grilled hot dogs, which we topped with cold, delicious sauerkraut. We spent the afternoon pondering and talking about the men who signed their lives for independence and concluded that wishing a “Happy 4th” had different connotations than wishing a “Happy Independence Day” and that the former is wrong while the latter is correct. For dinner, Dad cooked up cheese burgers, and we had them with baked beans and husk-roasted corn.
Around 8:30pm, the fireworks started at Black Point Marina, where we saw them from our front yard. We didn’t go outside until everyone had finished eating dinner, so it was half an hour into the display.
We came back inside to eat watermelon slices, but the fireworks kept calling us out. We stood out there for another fifteen minutes, and the air started getting thick with smoke (the Ridge Rats also do their neighborhood redneck fireworks display).
As we were coming inside, Kyle told me that his tooth was bothering him. I wiggled it and noticed that it was way more, uh, wiggly than it was even hours before. The corn must have done its part in wiggling the tooth. While I was in the shower, Dad came in to tell me that Kyle got tired of his tooth and pulled it out.
Pulled it OUT! We told Kyle that the Tooth Fairy would visit him not that night but the next night because she was watching the fireworks. (The Tooth Fairy doesn’t leave coins or cash; she leaves toys).
It was a lovely Day of Independence.
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
Why am I posting so frequently without a title? Because I have been putting my immediate thoughts on my facebook status and then realizing that I’m using fb as our family archives when THIS blog should be our archives!
That mentioned, I found Isis’ empty food bowl in her crate. Isis was standing over it. Taylor had given the dog her dinner. I looked more closely and found what looked like herbs in her bowl. It seems that Taylor, in her want to do things right, had sprinkled parsley on Isis’ food. (We put garlic on her food to ward of ticks). Taylor confused parsley with garlic. I thought that was really cute and sweet.
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
I found the dog with her snout in my bag. She didn’t get to a lot of the chocolate. Looks like she just smooshed it around my journal, my hairbrush, and my keys. It’s my fault, of course, for leaving my bag open in the music room, where I usually keep it during the day. She knows she did wrong. She went straight to her crate with that guilty look.
Talon really really really looks like she wants to walk. She doesn’t want it badly enough, however, because if she did, she’d be walking already. It’s just mind over matter. I take her down the corridor in the mornings, and she prefers to walk instead of crawl until I let go. Then she stands in thought for a few moments and prefers crawling. She has made attempts, real attempts, to walk. The last time, she walked to the coffee table, wobbled a little and fell forward, hitting her lip on the table leg. She didn’t hit it hard, and she didn’t cry. I don’t think that it was enough for her to stop trying.
Talon and Kendall fight over toys and food. I’ll give a piece of zweiback toast to Kendall, and she looks like she’s considering taking it. Talon just takes it. Kendall yells and gets mad. I give another one to Kendall, but she doesn’t want that one. She wants the original one that I gave her. It’s the same way with toys. Talon will be playing with a Little People person or a building block, and Kendall will snatch it from her hands. Talon is still where another toy will console and entertain her, but I don’t know how long that’ll last.
Ty has started learning knots. His first know is a bowline. He can’t do it without the help of the illustrations in the book. He learned the clove hitch, but still needs help from the book. I tell him that he should learn these things because he’ll be running errands for us in town when we move to the country. He’ll need to tie his horse to the posts in a way that he can untie the horse but the horse can’t untie itself. And he won’t have a book to help him along. That motivates him, knowing that he’ll have a horse and go into town by himself (or with a buddy).
One of my piano moms gave me about a hundred books that she doesn’t need anymore. She has two boys who are out of college who read and learned from these books. They are great books. Though I’m not a fan of coloring books in general, the coloring books that she did give me were of epic images: castles, Columbus’ voyage, Pilgrims, Civil War, Native Americans. And there were snippets of information that went along with each image, i.e. biographies.
