So, we have tried to make this a fun summer for Caroline what with the new baby and all. So, today we went to Grant’s Farm. I checked the website, set up the bike (because then it is free), and off we went.

As we roll in there are no cars. I recall that they don’t open until mid-morning so I have a fleeting Clark Griswald, “We’re the first ones here…” But, then I realize that the man I am looking at driving a golf cart was not John Candy and my heart sank. I asked if they were closed and he explained that I had mis-read the website twice – no Mondays and they are now on fall Schedule…

But, through conversation it was made clear that I could kind of go about the Clydesdales. It wasn’t exactly open, but it wasn’t exactly closed and we saw no people after the John Candy-character. It was wonderful, Caroline enjoyed being with the Clydesdales, and afterwards we went to the park. Perhaps just her and I and the Clydesdales were better than her and I and a thousand people with the other animals, the train, and the two free beers.

I could go on – I am amazed that she will sit in a swing for 40 minutes (and I have the sore forearms to prove it…). I love when she closes her eyes for five minutes at a time on the swing. I don’t love the whining that accompanies her being two… but, maybe that makes the 40 minutes of silence on the swing magical.

It has been a hard week. All of my girls have been amazing. I should take her to the zoo or something tomorrow…

So, I think camera phones are silly… But I still use mine and occaisonally find a pic like this one…

So, I was reading yesterday and the author mentioned, with a qualification that his book is not about parenting, that the goal is to convince our children that we love them more than they could possibly imagine… And, that they are not the center of the universe.

That struck me pretty profoundly because I was at home in order to take care of my two year old. Three days ago, she didn’t get out of bed for two hours – just laid there. She is talking less, and strangely – lots of n’s “Daenny” is my name sometimes. This was the part I knew I wasn’t as ready for as the other parts – the change for Caroline. My solution – talk to her about it, and make her play. I let her watch cartoons and have pizza and a popsicle (did I mention that she wasn’t eating or drinking much either?), then we went to the pool. She loves the pool, and started to perk up within sight of it – but then she slid back down. Wanted me to carry her everywhere, and wouldn’t engage in the things she loves to play with.

I talked to some parents I saw there – they had twins and then triplets!!! They said their twins still haven’t gotten over the triplets being born, but that that is their lot in life and they stopped trying to overextend after a few months of trying that. It didn’t fly well with me, but it was great advice. So, Caroline and I went to the slide. She did not want to go, but she wasn’t protesting. I took her down ten times, she never walked, and for awhile didn’t say she wanted to do it again. And, I kept telling her we were going to do it again (each time she would smile during the actual sliding); until she said “do it two more times???” Then she was back to normal and played with her noodle, ran, and then we went out to eat and she ate a plate of spaghetti (the shirt is now being stain-treated by Grandma).

We continue to talk with her, she is clearly worried about Mommy’s ouchey, and life will never be the same again. But I have my beloved dialectical-parenting philosophy. Basic, but with no arrival – just the way I like it.

Oh yeah… and Rachel and I are going home in about an hour. I suppose it will be worse when they are both teenagers!

Caroline did okay with Julia. Round two begins in about 20 minutes… She is a verbal processor so we will talk to her a lot (shocking that I would have a verbal kid…), she knows that Mommy has an ouchy. She knows that she was born here, and that helps her connect with Julia being born here… We have been buying her balloons when she visits.

She can say who Julia is, that Julia is her sister, etc.

We’re very interested in her reaction when she realizes Julia will not leave – ever.

This morning Caroline slept in for two extra hours (never happened)…

Mommy gets to shower today… first one since Sunday.

Monday, 10:51 PM, 8 lbs, 11 ounces

I use that word a lot… Silly. I must have a two year old.

I also got a new computer, and it changed my podcast web address to:

http://web.mac.com/mattblazer/Site/Podcast/Podcast.html

I don’t know why.

I will update that one after I finish putting my talks from Colossal Camp on there…

Macs are awesome, but who can explain them???

So, the latest game (for Caroline and I) is to play the “Wheels on the bus”. A slight bit like Calvin Ball, “Wheels on the bus” can exist outside where it involves running around the tree in our front yard singing various verses of the hit song. However, lately it is more interesting for Caroline to request that I make up new verses all the time. Current verses that may or may not be in the original (which we have copies of in at least two books) – The cars on the bus (“boom, boom, boom”), the penguins (“I can’t fly”), the spoons (“Scoop, scoop, scoop”), the dogs (“Woof, woof, woof”), the mommies (you think you’ve heard this one, but Caroline learned a different version from Mommy – must ask Mommy to hear that one), the cats, the sheep (“Don’t take my wool”), the cows (“moo, moo, moo”), the Carolines (“this is not a crisis…”), the Ronnies (our dog, “I Hate thunder”), the Batmans (he says “I am fat” because he is), Stegosaurus’, Bill the Dinosaurs (a T-Rex I think), Fred the Dinosaurs (like Bill, only yellow), Triceratops’ (“Get out of my way”), Racoons (“I can fight”, because I only know what I learned from Old Yeller), etc.

ANYWAY, tonight, while she was in the bathtub she asked for several new verses based upon letters she was picking up (she has these little letters that stick to the walls of the tub). Letters she knows: ‘t’, ‘g’, ‘q’, ‘x’, ‘m’, ‘w’… She mistook ‘o’ for ‘g’ and the number ‘1’ for the number ‘2’. It was amazing. Not because she is advanced (like every kid, I’m sure she is in some ways and not in others), but because she has learned so much! It is just fun to watch and participate alongside! Crazy crazy crazy…

Let me know if you have any fun verse ideas…

So, I’m in Baltimore, and I just got finished speaking to an amazing group of senior high and junior high students.

Throughout the week I was loosely encouraging those who were already Christians on what I had learned about apologetics in 2008… That is a fancy way of saying I used what I know of Tim Keller’s book “Reason for God” to encourage them on interacting with people who have these blocks between them and the Lord like – Suffering, the Exclusive Claims of Christianity, etc.

One of the hardest ones to deal with is the Record of Christians…

So, on the cab ride home from Dinner (which couldn’t have lasted more than 10 minutes), I was interrogated by a poor 72 year old Jewish man who was beat up repeatedly in school because “Jews killed Jesus”… I think I got a semi-free pass for not being Catholic. At the end he said, “Well, someone needs to ask forgiveness for all that…” and I leaned forward and I asked his forgiveness, and he granted it – said he wasn’t talking about me (to which I said I was in that tradition so I was asking anyway) – and he thanked me… And I upped my tip…

Then he came back to give me money back because he remembered that our first stop was for him to get gas…

We re-lived both the forgiveness and the tip again.

I suppose Tim Keller is right. I suppose I was right to encourage the kids to simply apologize and offer forgiveness when and where we can… Being right doesn’t make me any less sad that this poor man had to fight many days of his elementary school and junior high years. I wonder if I could have talked to him about Jesus if he hadn’t been beat up so much when he was young.