May showers?

As a kid we learned the phrase "April showers bring May flowers."  We were taught that because typically April is a wetter month then May for much of the country, the earth is warming, plants are germinating, etc., etc.  Here in Minnesota though, it's not unheard of for us to still have snow on the ground in April, nevertheless, I think the real meaning is more metaphorical.

May is short in my world.  At State (St. Cloud State University), early to mid "May" is the end of the semester.  You might think that the end of the semester wouldn't be that bad for a workstation guy because we've had all semester to work out the kinks on the software load-sets that we run …but because people need to get their work done and machine usage approaches capacity, we have no little to no tolerance for system failures.

When the end of May rolls around we move into deploying new computers and software.  That's really when we hit the fan.  Things move fast for a couple or three weeks.  We tend to prep and place 200-300 new computers (which means we have to prep and move an equal number of old computers) and then we have to deal with the other 800-900 computers our team supports.  …by the end of "May" we're a little out-to-lunch when the end of our work day arrives.  

The real hard part of all of this is the impact that it has on the family.  Our Manager as well as our Director of IT make a big deal (rightly so) about remembering that we aren't just who we are at work and that we need to maintain a balance with work and home.  Even with that in mind, May is still just tough.  For my part, Jen's got plenty enough to deal with as it is without me being out-to-lunch when I get home.  This means that a balance needs to reached.  Fortunately, showers bring flowers and in this case "flowers" means vacation …and if memory serves, because of Memorial Day, I've got a 4 day weekend coming because we're on summer hours now and I don't work on Tuesdays.  ;-)

Catch up

I've been trying to think up stories, problem is, things happen so fast around us (me and Jen that is) that it's tough to remember all those little things when they happen …and even tougher to remember them a month later!  In the last month:

-the twins have really started walking
-the girl has said some less-then-desirable things
-"G" has gotten new glasses
-and the big guy has complained about -not- being able to play outside because of the rain.  [What's ironic about that is he would complain about not being allowed to play outside during the coldest days of winter!]

As for the rest of them, well, Griffin's glasses are, in fact, cool.  What's more cool is that he has spontaneously started reading and spelling words.  Good, and bad depending on what's going on.  Speaking of good, and (specifically) "bad."  The other day when Quinn and I were playing, I tackled her (like normal) and this time she blurted out "what the hell do you think you're doing dad?"  …um, yeah.  I'm not sure where that one came from, could have been me, could have been a friend of ours, could have been tv (she does like to sneak out of her room at night).  Doesn't matter, you'd be hard pressed to not find someone a bit taken aback when a 3-yr old says something like that.  We talked about that for a good bit.  Lastly, the twins and their walking.  Holden's been a bit ahead of Maddox anyway, but lately Maddox has developed something of a zombie/I pooped sort of gait.  He walks, but the foot only really moves about 4 inches forward each time.  He usually has this very large grin too.  …watching him walk sort of makes me think of the steam-roller scene from the original "Austin Powers" movies, only without the guy screaming "no."

What you see is what you get?

Recently "G," otherwise more properly know as, "Griffin," turned 5 years old.  He's grown some, but he's not overly tall for his age.  He's gained some weight, but you really can't say that he's chubby.  His run is more of a shuffle.  He's got glasses that Mr. Magoo would be lucky to have and he's got hair like Dennis the Menace.  Amazingly enough, he's a good reminder of the complexity of people.  Often enough, we look to categorize people so that we can better understand the world.  That's exceptionally difficult to do with a child because aside from major themes, their personalities usually aren't determined until they are much older.

That said, why is this important to know?  Well, G, has a very simplistic, naïve point of view that is pretty normal for a 5-year old, but it's also balanced by an innate wisdom and strength of will not normally found in much older people.  It's impressive.  Am I biased?  …a bit, no doubt.  However, and this is the important part, he reminds me that I shouldn't lose that balance that comes quite naturally to him.

Awesome like a hotdog…

…more like a hundred-billion hotdogs as Eddie Izzard would say.  Late last year I searched Facebook for an old grade school friend of mine.  Found him and reconnected - cool right?  Well, today a different grade school friend posted a picture of our 6th grade class (yes I had funny hair, but it was 1982 ok?) …and Neil, my old buddy tagged me.  Now, several hours later, I've re-connected with about a third of them.  These are people who I have not seen, talked to, or heard about since 1982.

Now I'm not simply surprised that this has happened, I'm actually awe struck.  We've all got our own lives, we live hundreds or thousands of miles apart and yet, as serendipity would have it, we're now re-connected.  If we all lived in New York City this would have been a crazy coincidence.  It wouldn't have been unheard of rather, just uncommon.  Clearly however, Facebook has also enabled this kind of thing, and I'm sure that I/we aren't the only occurrence.  In fact, I'm sure that Facebook has made this kind of thing more common.

Lastly, I'd like to point out (perhaps it's obvious) that today's elementary students will likely not go 28 years before they re-find their old friends.  As a Gen-X kid, I was juxtaposed with analog technology and digital technology.  My kids won't think that this even was all that special.  They'd agree that it was cool, not much more …but I think that it's still awesome.

She's proud of me (…awww)

So Quinn, the three year old and only daughter, told me that she was "proud of me" today.  I told her that she needed to go to the bathroom to poop (sorry, we use real words 'round here).  Normally she argues, complains, something to let us know that she is the one who is in control of her body.  While this is true, and I like seeing her self-determination, I'm not a big fan of the arguing when it comes to bodily functions.  This time, however, no complaints, no arguments, not even a comment other then "ok dad."  Needless to say, I was surprised.

When she got back I told her that I was very happy with her attitude and proud that she listened so well and went to the bathroom to do as instructed.  …that's when she told me she was also proud of me.  [Warm fuzzies right?]  She told me that she was proud of me because I wasn't yelling; hitting; fighting; throwing; kicking (kicking?); and biting (biting? -yes, "b-i-t-i-n-g").  Now, I've been known to yell at the kids, even spank them once or twice, but I don't recall ever doing any of the latter.  Anyhow, she proceeded to tell me that I should "keep up the good work and maybe mommy will be proud of me too" and then she reminded me (very gently) that I hadn't said "thank you."

A few numbers to start.

5 is the number of kids we have.

4 is the number of kids who are (almost) 5 or under

14 is the number of months we've had 5.

2 is for the twins that made 5, 14 months ago.

With this many people in the house someone pretty much always has a cold or something.  We just recently finished a three week period where six of us (including me and my wife) were on some kind of anti-biotic. Fun right?  …we're getting used to it I think.  At any rate, the babies are already boogering up again.  (yeah)

So today when I was home with the four younger ones, one of the boogery babies comes over to me and kisses me …on the eye.  Of course the "love" is nice, I wouldn't trade the spontaneous display of affection from a 14-month old for anything …but I'd be lying if I didn't say that my first thought wasn't "is it safe to use hand-sanitizer on my eye."