No Snow...so....THIS Happened:

yeah...my kid's rolling on a 2 wheeler. And I gotta say...he isn't just teetering around on the thing....he's ripping it LIKE A BOSS. Since we've had no snow and clear roads all Winter...the biking season has pretty much carried right through from Autumn. That was all the extra time that the kid needed to turn into Speed Racer on his rusty 2-wheeler. I'm dumbfounded.

One of the pinnacle moments of fatherhood...one that after-school specials and made-for-TV movies have shown to be an absolute certainty, is the dad.....running behind the 2 wheeler with his hand on the back of the seat...teaching their child about balance. over and over and over....until...finally....the child FINALLY gets it and wobbles him/herself a couple of yards while the dad gives chase in super-slo motion with arms raised towards the sky in triumph...right before the kid runs into a mailbox.

Nope.

Didn't get any of that.

4 steps.

That's what I got.
4 steps.

That's all it took.

Then he was OFF.

No looking back.

I blame this:



The Strider Bike (Since the boy is now rolling big time, Ivy inherited this hog). The idea is that it makes a kid learn all about balance but has no pedals....it's like a mutant scooter, the crazy thing is that it teaches kids balance at like an insanely early age...which, once they get that down, is apparently super-easy to add pedaling into the mix and, BAM...they are rocking a legit 2 wheeler. See for yourself:



For most kids under 4, they aren't given an opportunity to learn about vehicular balance before actually trying to ride a 2-wheeler...that's why it's usually such a chore when they finally get the training wheels off. This little gem allows a super young kid to get the idea of balance first...then eventually add in the element of pedaling....often without even the transition of training wheels. I gotta tell you....this balance bike turns kids into bicycle ninjas. It's unreal how quickly Gavin took to a 2-wheeler pedal bike after riding this baby for 6 months or so.

Ivy's got it now...and I wouldn't be surprised if she was on a pedal bike by her 3rd birthday. No pressure but, at any rate...we've been having a blast tooling up and down the neighborhood on our hogs. Here's proof:





It's crazy-amazing to watch your children's world get bigger. They learn to roll over, suddenly their world gets bigger by a blanket. They learn to crawl, suddenly their world gets bigger by a room. They learn to walk, suddenly their world gets bigger by a house. They learn to speak, suddenly their world gets bigger by words. They learn to ride a two-wheeler, suddenly their world gets bigger by:


Part of me wants to say: "Get back here!! You're still so little".

But there's that other part of me...that part that I know that I have to embrace that's screaming "GO MAN, GO!!".

Ride, Captain, Ride.

Back Where It Belongs

So...there's been something of a blog hiatus since about Christmas over here. Part of which is that there hasn't been much going on over these parts. I could have posted about all of our families exploits sledding, skating, making snow forts, braving the Winter Weather except that....there hasn't been any. This is, by far, the mildest Winter that I can recall. Our pond is completely clear of ice...in fact, we even fed bread to fish off our dock yesterday. It's almost time to string up the fishing poles and till the garden...VERY uncharacteristic for this time of year in New England.
That sounds good and all but, the main reason that I haven't been posting anything is....well....The Patriots. Yeah...I'll blame the Patriots. Specifically, what the Patriots Playoff run brought me to do. **cue Sinister Music**...Dun Dun DUUUNNNN!!!!

We plugged in the TV.

Yup. The ole' "Time Sucker" herself.

It started with a few weeks to go in the Pats season (and right around New Years...what to watch a half-dead Dick Clark desperatly cue the ball to drop and all)
At any rate...The original plan was to only bring up the TV for game days but, after a long Monday at work...what would I rather do? Haul the ole' girl down to the basement again, or check to see if there's a new episode of "American Pickers" on?

Hours led to days, days led to weeks, weeks to a month or so. There it sat in our Sunroom. The 32' behemouth. The Monolith. Staring at me like the Eye of Sauron....beckoning...."turn me on....turn me on....turn me ON". You may think that i'm being overly dramatic but, for a family that routinely watched VERY little tv....with this thing plugged and waiting to be watched...it was like staring down Clint freaking Eastwood....the thing just kept daring me...."Do you feel lucky, punk?"...and often I did.

For the past 5 weeks or so....the tube was the central figure in our sunroom. We kept it off, for the most part, while the kids were awake but, after snack, stories, prayers, and bed....you better believe that baby came on in record time. American Pickers, Pawn Stars, Planet Earth, That show with the British lady who tells parents about the trolls their kids have become, that show with the dude with the spikey blonde hair who goes to diners and stains his shirt telling us how unreal their corned beef is...I watched it all.

Well...This past Sunday, The Patriots laid an egg (again) and....enough was enough. It was time to relegate the 32' weapon of mass distraction back to it's rightful place:



Crammed between some totes and the wall in our basement. I gotta tell ya....I love T.V. LOVE T.V. i grew up in a home where the TV was on pretty much all waking hours (with loving parents, mind you....just lots of M*A*S*H* and The People's Court as well). it certainly is a sacrifice to go without it but....after a month or so...the time that is redeemed is wonderful, especially in a home with young children.
I know that I've posted this verse here before but...one of my favorite verses in the entire Bible is Ephesians 5: 15-16:

" See that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil."

It was a fun distraction, having the TV upstairs this past season...It was also stifling. In the few short days that "The Beast" has been put away, I've spent so much time growing...spending more time talking with Chrissy, reading just about everything there is to know about hunting/harvesting/field dressing deer, planning out this years garden, learning some cool Bluegrass scales and runs...it's amazing, the time that you find, when you are not tied to That Box.

i walked around my home tonight, thankful for the conviction of The Lord in putting that thing away...I was blessed with scenes like these:


My boy, sitting quietly in his room, poring over books (what you can't see is that He was also listening to The Bible on CD).


My girls making Pizza crusts.

That's the soundtrack to our home.....not some Platinum-Haired Doofus telling me how great the Shepherd's Pie is.

I gotta keep this in prayer, though...cuz...the Olympics are coming up in the Summer...and I love me some High Dive.

"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under he heaven."
- Ecclesiastes 3:1