A Nack And A Narnoon

There are a lot of things from the early years of my life with children that I realize now are slowly fading in my memory. So, I have decided that this would be a great place to keep those things recorded.

This afternoon, as I walked by the couch where Isaac was watching a movie with Cheryl and Julia, he asked for a snack. This reminded me of a little game we used to play. He would ask for something, and I would turn his request into a request to be tickled - a regular occurring around here.

When he was 3 or 4, he would ask, "Papa, can I have a snack and a cartoon?"

I would answer, "A Nak and a Narnoon? Sure!" I would pounce on him for a round of tickles.

His reply amidst the giggles was, "No, a SNack and a CArToon!"

I usually relented after a bit saying "OOOOh, I thought you said a Nak and a Narnoon - which means to be tickled! Sorry, I must've mis-heard you."

We had a lot of laughs this way. He was always a good sport and was today, too. This is definitely something that I do not want to forget!

Overheard at the Landes House

After a particularly good s'more, my son Isaac announced, "This is GROT!" Not being up to speed on this new evaluative term.

Cheryl inquired, "What is 'grot'?"

Isaac's eyes never left the s'more, and, without missing a beat, he explained, "It's better than great. It's GROT!" He smiled. We laughed hard.

Overheard at the Landes House

It has been a while since I did an "Overheard..." post, but this certainly warranted it!

Mondays are grill night around here since the purchase of my new gas grill. Tonight the menu was Chicken Shishkabobs. Isaac was protesting, and, to extend him an olive branch, I suggested that we to a "kids grill night" next week. He asked what that meant. I explained, "We'll find something fun to grill that you guys will like to eat!"

His response: "How're you gonna put a cake on the grill?!"

A Son! ... and the Father's Love

Papa and Caleb

I am a proud Papa again. Tonight I held Caleb and looked into his eyes. Just five days old and I have yet another vein of pure love to share with another child. It is funny, now, to consider the questions that came to mind before parenthood like "How can I find enough love for each new child?" Laughable from this position.

Children teach you much about love. They teach you that love is the strongest purest of emotions. You find that love motivates all manner of action and behavior. Love reveals its nature even in the most intense of anger; love is often at the heart of it. The love of a father is like this.

As a believer and father, love teaches me even more deeply about my Heavenly Father - God the Father, the origin and sustainer of creation, the origin and sustainer of love. When I realized with the birth of my second child the boundless nature of love, I saw God. I knew the moment I held Julia, our 2nd, and now again with Caleb that I could love a hundred more children equally. Love as God authored it is not a commodity, not a volume that is ever expended. It is not even like a muscle that can be worn out. It is a position and a decision.

We can see this more easily in the love of a new-born because they offer little in return. They come to us totally dependent without even the faintest concern for what they may reciprocate with. When we choose to love them, we take our position in relationship to them. From that oint forward, we approach them from that position of love regardless of what we bring. Grace, discipline, reward - whatever it is, it comes from love.

To consider the love of God in this light is humbling. He has chosen to approach us with His love - His easily boundless love. His grace comes from his love. His discipline and reward come from His love. While we are weak and imperfect and prone to failures - even the failure to love, God is perfect. His love never fails. It rather serves to drive out fear and founds our position in him.

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear...
- (1Jo 4:18a NASB)

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!"
- (Rom 8:15 NASB)

Getting Our Fins On Straight

From Model Rocket Fin Guide

So here is the predicament: How do you let your 5 year old be involved in the construction of their own model rocket without having it turn out unflyable? Isaac and I have had a blast with model rockets, but I am adamant that he be involved in the construction. This sometimes leads to a trade-off between his involvement and the "fly-ability " of the rocket. It is one thing if the stickers don't go on straight but quite another if the fins don't!

This got me to thinking of how I can set him up to be able to do the fins himself but still have a chance at this rocket flying in a straight line. The answer was a home-made rocket fin alignment guide. I'm pretty proud of the idea. It is limited in that it doesn't deal with the angles or spacing of the fins, but it does provide a flat surface for the fins to lie on and slide up to the rocket body. This is something more within the ability of a 5 year to do successfully.

Here is the basic idea. I cut a 45° angle bevel down the side of 2 boards. When the boards are placed facing one another, they create a "channel" in which the body of the rock can lay. This necessarily lines up the two boards with the body tube. I cut one board 4" short of the other so that its inside face makes a flat area along the side of the rocket body. Lay the fin on this surface and it is necessarily in line with the body. All that is left is to put glue on the edge of the fin, lay it down and slide it up to the rocket. Isaac can be much more involved now - we both love that!

Download a 3D model of it from the 3D Warehouse for Google SketchUp.

Here are some pics...

His Heavenly Father's Son

Today - this day Isaac confessed Christ. My son professed to me his trust in Jesus. Today I am as sure as an earthly father can be that my son has come to know his Heavenly Father and placed his trust not on his own merit but on the merit of Christ who died to set us free. My son. His son.

I've played this day out in my head a thousand times. I've wondered what would bring it about. I've wondered if I would even be there to witness. And, at some level I've had a degree of discomfort about it, too. Discomfort at wondering how I would know it is real. My greatest fear, honestly, was that i would go to pick him up from sunday school or a kids camp and they would tell me he had accepted Christ.

My fear came not from selfishly wanting to be there, but more so from the frequent stories I've heard and even witnessed where well-intentioned leaders impersonally offer a "sinner's prayer" and declare whomever raises their hand a new believer. My fear was born of the numerous testimonies that I've heard from believers who have lived a life of hollow religiosity after being swept up in an emotional night at summer camp.

My fears, today though, were relieved. Isaac and I went to the garage this AM to eat peanuts and watch the sun come up (our standing Saturday AM tradition). We piddled and eventually moved to the workbench to work on his model rocket. At a quiet point, he asked me, "Papa, can we talk about God?"

I turned around casually, but he had my full attention. "Sure, so what have you learned about God lately?" Isaac answered that God can bring a dead person back to life. He also noted that Jesus had come back to life. I asked if he knew why Jesus had died, and he knew it was to save us from our sin. At this point I realized that Isaac understood the basic tenets of the gospel, but did he believe? I began to explain that Christ offered to cover our sins asking only that we trust in his sacrifice over our own good deeds, but he stopped me. In his own words, he said, "I trust in Jesus, I just haven't told anyone yet." It was at that moment that my hesitancy to urge him into anything that he wasn't sincere about disappeared. We went immediately to tell Mama about it. We all rejoiced together, and then we prayed to thank God for this wonderful gift.

Isaac will deepen his understanding of God and his faith will grow, but by the grace of God he will forever be a child of The King.

Mat 19:14 NIV - Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

Climbing Buddy

I have enjoyed rock climbing since trying it out in college. I can't say I have ever been just a real hard core climber, but it is fun and I try to get out when I can. Since having kids, the amount of opportunities has dropped a bit, but I still get out now and then. This week I got to hit the crags with a new partner... Isaac!

That is right! My 4-year-old did some climbing with me at Enchanted Rock! Cheryl and I took the kids to the Park this week for a little day trip, and we decided to take our gear and maybe do a little climbing ourselves while the kids climbed around on the rocks.

We found a spot to set up and I dropped the ropes while Isaac watched. He was enthralled. I got on the rock to climb and again he was all eyes. I thought it would be fun to teach him a little about it and let him try it a bit, so I asked him if he wanted to climb. "YEAH!" Since he doesn't have a harness (yet!), I used some extra webbing to make him a "swiss seat" and we clipped him in!

Once on belay, Cheryl and I helped him to look for footholds and handholds, and he started climbing like a champ. I didn't know if the heights would bother him, but he never complained. He let us know when He was ready to come down and we belayed him down like he'd been doing it all along (well, almost!). He even got the hang of standing out against the rock while being lowered ... maybe I'll teach him how to rappel!

Here are some photos from our trip (Isaac's climbing pics are in the middle):

Overheard at Our House

At dinner Cheryl wanted to showcase some of the progress Isaac was making in his math studies. She explained to me that he was doing great and had even been solving some simple problems. At this point she turns to Isaac who is now beaming and in an increasingly silly mood.

Cheryl: Ok, what is 1 plus 3?

Isaac: (without hesitation) ... Addition!

Go Fish, Isaac!

Cheryl is off to see her sister Karen, and enjoy a couple of days celebrating her birthday. That leaves Isaac, Julia and I home alone for the weekend. While the cat is away...! The kids and I headed out right behind her to pick up a pizza, bring it home and have a little "Game Night". Isaac finished eating a little earlier so he and I decide to play a "grown-up" - that means one of the games from the hall closet (where we keep the games that are just a bit over their head).

Isaac is pretty solid with number recognition, so what game would be better with that skill - GO FISH! He did great - even won! we did have to work a bit on the concepts, though. He didn't get at first that when I called for a card that he had, that was not something to get excited about and cheered for me when I did! So, I returned the favor - it was an exceedingly cordial game! He also needed help fanning his cards but beyond that, he picked up the game quickly. We had a blast! Julia even had fun watching for us while she ate! What a night!

My Little Rocketman

Isaac as you you may know has been on a bit of a "space" kick lately. He has his books about space. He's got a growing collection of space theme lego-creations. He's even got some nifty "WALL-E" sheets (by the way - great movie!). I really dug space as a kid, too, so what better hobby to introduce my son to? Model Rockets!

I dropped by WalMart and for the low, low price of $20 we got a starter kit complete with launch pad, launch controller, 3 engines and - can you believe it? - 2 Rockets! Yes. The thought "Great! One for me and one for him!" did cross my mind, but only for a moment. Of course they are both for him ... my 4 year old. um...

In all honesty I've enjoyed this a bit, but my uber-nerdiness cannot compete at all with his genuine exhuberance! He cannot put them down. He runs around the house despite my measured warnings about their fragility.

We had our first launch last Thursday, and the result: We need a bigger field! Isaac loved it - the first one went off without a hitch. It was a larger rocket with a parachute that was easy to follow down to where it landed. The second rocket was a different story. It was considerably smaller with the same size engine as the first. We pushed the button and "Whishhhhhh" - completely out of sight. Uh, houston, we have a problem. Since it went considerably higher it could fall further away ... and it did! We tromped all over the field where we launched it to no avail, until I finally left Isaac with Mama and struck out to cover more ground before the daylight waned! I did find it a good 50 yards beyond the furthest place I thought it could have fallen. Whew! Next time, I'm going to find a bigger field!

Our New Kazeebo!

Yes. If you were wondering a "Kazeebo" is the same as a Gazeebo. Isaac wasn't real clear on the name and the fact that we enjoyed the new name so much didn't help, so it is a "Kazeebo" now! ...And a really cool one at that!

This is the next project as we move (back) into our house. We've got a lot of plans and this one involves taking down the old crazy looking gazeebo(-esque) thing in the backyard and putting up something prettier - maybe something without cheap lattice tacked to 2x4's.

Big thanks to our friends Kyle and Kelly - they had the kit in their garage and passed it along to us. They were happy to have it out of the garage and we are happy to have this step get a big boost in the budget department!

Our Adventurer Reutrns Today!

Isaac and Julia will be home today! Whoopee! I can't wait to 'wrassle' with him and hear all about every tree he climbed and bug he caught - wow, I miss that kid!

Our Little Engineer

Isaac is quite the builder these days. He has gotten very adept with blocks and train tracks. This AM he came and got me to show me his latest creation - he called it his 'playscape'. While the description involved play areas, it also included a cooking area (the stove's chimney can be seen on top of the nightstand - round, red block. He lost me a bit on a system that 'heated caulk', but it did include a pipe system that went through the whole thing, the floor and at some point ended up in the ceiling fan!

Cheryl mentioned the other day that he might be just about ready for Legos - Oh yeah!

SeaDoo Fun

Wow - what a great weekend. We took the singles group out to a local lake and enjoyed the day waterskiing and riding on two jet-skis. Let me tell you - these were no ordinary jet-skis. These were the high-end kind. ...The high-end, blow your hair back kind. ... The high-end, 0-60 in close to 3 seconds, rocket across the water at 70 mph, fear for your life, "man, I wanna buy a jetski" kind. I haven't been blasted forward like that since riding the Greased Lightning at Astroworld as a kid. Wow.

Cheryl took a brief turn in the driver seat but seemed content to let me to the drive. ...So I did my best to make it fun (read "terrifying!") We did laugh a lot and it was a blast! Julia didn't take a turn but Isaac did give it a go. Sadly as choppy as the water

What is really funny is how biased I used to be about them. I used to say things like, "How fun could that be?" and "It would just be like a motorcycle stuck in a big flat parking lot!" Yeah, I was wrong. Ahhh, another expensive hobby! That will have to wait.

Here are a few more pics...

M: Frogger Meets His Match

Isaac hit the mother load of little boy discovery fun today when momma moved the toy bin in the back yard revealing a herd of frogs, lizards and the like! Let me tell you who doesn't like frogs though ... MOMMA! I came home today to find Isaac giddy and momma very on edge about the whole deal. She was a great sport about it, though. She let him put them in his "bug keeper" and he spent most of the afternoon playing with them one at a time. Julia didn't really get much out of it, but just give her time!

M: Going Nuts

Julia and Isaac had a ball this AM playing with nuts. Scads of toys in their room, a dog waiting in the yard and sun shining outside and what do they get the biggest time out of? Nuts! That's it! Birthdays are a cinch from here on out! We're getting the kids PRODUCE!

Can I Hold Your Hand, Papa?

Isaac asked me today, "Can I hold your hand, Papa?" I agreed, of course, and it got me to thinking again of something that has crossed my mind often lately. There will be a day soon when he doesn't want to hold my hand anymore. Like so many other airs of childhood, this one, too, will trail off behind him. But, for now I'm treasuring it. He is my son. My SON. I can't find a word to describe how deeply I love Isaac and Julia. At this age, his fickle attitude can shift wildly, but there is no doubt that he knows his Papa. At this age Cheryl and I are his "home."

So I do my best to remain vividly aware when Isaac or Julia want to connect. If it is to hold my hand, to be picked up ... whatever ... I'm paying attention. I'm actively trying to burn those memories in deep. He will not know what I'm thinking or how deeply it affects me until one day his child takes his hand and same part of his heart.

A High Time at Lowe's

Our little town is growing up! Somewhere in the last 10 years Dairy Queen lost its place as the status symbol of a real town. Now, you now it's a 'real' town if you've got a Lowe's or Home Depot. We just got a Lowe's and I love it.

Cheryl and I had opportunity to be in the Lowe's the other day when they were doing a craft project for kids and decided to jump right in. Isaac loved it. They handed out aprons, goggles, hammers and a kit for a small project. Isaac and I could find room at one of the tables so we just set up shop on the floor! The kit had pieces precut and drilled to mat a little tool box and we got started. There were almost too many nails for the patience of a 4 year old, but I fought the urge to take over and helped him hammer each one in. Cheryl took a turn at it too and Julia enjoy playing with the parts that hadn't been used yet. In the end, we had a pretty good looking toolbox and some great family time on a Saturday morning.

Please Be Make Plaster Car Fun!

Cheryl found a fun gift for Isaac for Christmas (among the many fun gifts that she is so good at finding) - a "Make a Racer" kit. It allows you to make a working race car out of plaster of paris and some plastic accessories that come in the kit. It even included paint. What it didn't include where directions written by an English speaker!

The directions read like the output of some of these automated translators (likely because it was!). Phrases like "step 2 ... Cuts open the bag of plasters and put them into the mixing bowl." and later the warning that began, "Be reminded ..." made the instructions somewhat difficult to follow!

After having a bit of a laugh at some of the directions, I grabbed Isaac and we got started making the car. The mixture instructions were vastly miscalculated, though and I wound up with far too little water in the plaster. I had put it in a zip-loc baggie thinking I cut just cut the corner off and let Isaac squeeze it in ala pastry tool ... uh no. He looked at me after a second and said it was too hard, so I tried. By brute strength and determinaton I managed to extrude something that bore little resemblance to anything I'd discuss in proper company and certainly not a race car. I then again tried to enlist Isaac in mashing the ... uh, extrusion into the race car mold.

Half an hour, Oila! later we had a very hard plaster model of a ... uh, extrusion. Isaac was non-plussed - he was ready to add wheels. I pointed out that the plaster had been too hard to put in the axles and promised that we would try again with better plaster. The failed model quietly disappeared later that night.

The happy ending is that after a trip to Hobby Lobby (a favorite store in our family) and a second attempt with more legible instructions, we did manage to produce a car worth of the roads! Isaac has yet to paint it but he did help spray it green until he can find time to 'detail' it!

Fish Food and Family

Right after new year, Isaac and I had a special guys night - one we've been planning for quite a while. We went out for fish! I love fish - we grew up often eating fish that we or a friend had caught. We ate catfish, bass, perch, the occasional variety of fish that dad would catch off shore on a trip with his coaching staff.

This made it all the more interesting when I fell in love with a gal that doesn't like fish! How can it be?! Well, menu doth not a marriage make! While our marriage never suffered from this difference, it has presented some interesting situations - like when I brought Cheryl to Arkansas for the first time and my family celebrated with a fish fry! She did well though - even tried some.

Isaac, on the other hand, is quite the fish lover. He and I have been talking for weeks about our fish night. Right after New Year's we finally found the evening to do it. We headed out to Sea Island for a fish dinner. It was a blast - fun mainly for the alone time with my boy but also for a chance to have fish. Soon, we're going to have to find a place to fish. Maybe it will awaken my 'fishing' gene that has proved recessive since high school.