For Heaven's Sake!

I came into the house and found Maranda and the boys playing UNO a few minutes ago. I briefly interrupted the game to talk to Mommy. After enduring the interruption for as long as he was able, Kieran blurted out "MOM, for heaven's sake do you have a yellow nine!!!" LOL

Boys are now roomates!

Starting tonight the boys are now sharing a room, and Mommy and Daddy have their own room for the first time in 5 years!

Kieran loves his new "look-out" bed. Now the main task will be convincing him that things don't need to be continually launched off the upper bed from his cannons....

Kieran Vacuuming

Kieran loves to clean, he thinks it is a very "special" adult activity. Here hoping he doesn't figure this out too soon!

Bull Run Mountain

Last weekend we took a hike up Bull Run mountain to check out the amazing fall color this year (cold snap really brought out the color!). The park is about 15 minutes from our house yet this was our first trip! It was a lot of fun, though we ended up with both boys in backpacks for most of the hike.

Fun at the Fair

Since Kieran basically plans his entire year around our county fair, we made sure to get in a good dose this year at the largest fair in the commonwealth of Virginia. We invited along some of our favorite hill folk and headed for an amazing time of rides, hot humidity, farm smells, vehicle crashes, and a stark plea for a national dental health program for carnival workers.

It was a great time for certain, though one that made me amazingly appreciative of our vehicles air conditioning on the way home. Kieran had a blast and was emboldened to go on some of the high rides by his fearless leader Ella (Kieran is quite timid with regards to heights, which surprises some given his boldness in other regards).

Here are some shots of the shindig, only to be topped by next years fair!

Kieran had scoped out the rabbit a full hour earlier and had to run around the carousel to find it.

Ella and Kieran had a lot of fun sharing the rides.

Nascar face

Our Friend Stacy with a huge turkey leg.

Who is Tristan?

What follows is basically a log of my perceptions of Tristan that I have been storing in my brain for a while. It is rather indulgent and intended to be a family record, so please skip if you would rather not read a parent blathering on about how great their kid is...

One of the greatest joys in my life has been getting to know my two boys as they have started to demonstrate their personalities and interests. As Tristan approaches eight months in age I have often intended to sit down and write this post, and just never seem to get to it. So I have finally gotten myself into the chair to try and capture what I have learned about this young human being who has entered our lives.

To begin with, apparent almost from his very first month, Tristan has been a very good natured and even tempered young man. We have learned to respond quickly to his cries because he rarely fusses without a very specific reason (of late this is often a certain almost four year old sitting on his head!). He seems surprisingly even keel and we definitely are grateful that his easy going nature makes life a little less hectic than it could be otherwise (and we feel for those who do not have this luxury!).

Tristan is a very happy little guy, he loves to laugh and smile and while break out in a fit of laughter anytime his brother makes silly faces or dances in front of him. He loves people and is surprisingly accepting of strangers, seeming content to be in most peoples arms (unless he hasn't had his quota of mommy for the day!). His gregarious nature is fun to watch, for example he discovered that he could look through the crack between the seats on the airplane coming back from Portland, so he eagerly "flirted" with a young woman sitting behind him for part of the flight.

This young man is determined. This seems to be a consistent theme in the Tennyson household, likely due to the Mother's genetic contribution. He started crawling somewhere toward the end of his six month, pulling himself by his arms since he couldn't figure out how to get his knees up (he still pretty much does a "military crawl"). When he encounters and obstacle he cannot easily overcome, he growls deep in his tummy and keeps pushing with his chubby legs until it is vanquished. He is not easily distracted from his goal, which bodes for some interesting parenting challenges in the future! :)

Tristan has surprising hand and foot dexterity, something I definitely attribute to his father's genetic contribution. He has continuously surprised us by doing things with this arms and legs that we didn't believe could be done at his age. For example, he started passing items between his hands when he was very young, weeks before we expected based on the timelines we had read.

Tristan loves daddy's brand of "tactile stimulation," or basically baby oriented horse play. He screams with delight when I "toss" him around the bed, roll gently on top of him, or put him in various MMA moves (mixed martial arts for those who are not avid fans). He definitely is a very "physical" young man. He loves to play with his brother and is mesmerized by all of the cool movements that he cannot yet reproduce. Even now at just shy of eight months he is clearly a huge fan of his big brother!

The Tristan "roar" has become quite famous in our household. When he gets excited he will often throw back his head and let out a "raaaarrrr." Often the various family members will roar back, eliciting more of the same.

Tristan loves food and has begun to forgo mommies milk in order to stuff down some more rice cereal, yogurt, mango, slightly chewed turkey bacon (his favorite), or anything else that is put in front of him. He has been so food focused that keeping him hydrated has been a bit of a challenge as of late. He has been growing like a little weed and is wearing clothes three months ahead of his age. Kieran was always very slender so it is quite interesting to have such a lusty young lad in the family! :)

Well, I think that paints at least a bit of a picture of the impressions I have formed over the course of Tristan's short stint with the Tennyson's thus far. I am sure he has many surprises in store for us as we move ahead, an adventure we eagerly await.

Kieran's Trip to the ER

So Kieran had his first visit to the ER yesterday evening. As my neighbor put it, he had a small "farming accident." We were on our way down to the garden to pick tomatoes and he fell carrying a bucket with a rough plastic edge. The edge hit him across the mouth and opened up a pretty good gash across his lips.

Fortunately the bleeding stopped rather quickly. Kieran was pretty upset but calmed down by the time we headed out. Luckily we got a very kind nurse practioner, plus he was able to watch Formula One racing on TV while they gave him numbing shots and put in three stitches. He was very brave and although he gasped a few times, he never cried out or struggled. The nurse commented several times that he was very brave for his age. In the end I think it was definitely harder on Mommy and Daddy than Kieran, as he was very pleased with his popsicle and spiderman stickers, while we were both exhausted by the ordeal.

Thunder and Lightening

So we have had a couple amazing thunder and lightening storms recently.  Yesterday in the early am hours a really humdinger swept over our house, with cracks of lightening illuminating our darkened room and crashing thundering literally vibrating the windows!  Maranda and I marveled at the storm, and also at the fact that Kieran did not show up at our door or start screaming in his room.  I was pretty convinced that he must have somehow slept through the celestial heavy metal concert that passed over our house.

In the morning when I walked into Kieran's room to wake him up, he sat up quickly and began to excitedly tell me about the loud storm.  "It was so loud that I crawled under my covers to be safe.  Then I fell asleep still under the covers and got all sweaty when I woke up."  I asked him if we was scared and he said "a little, but not too bad."  As far as I know, this is the first time he has crawled under his covers during the night to feel safe, Maranda and I both got a kick out of him relaying the story.

Memorial Day Weekend

This memorial day we went fishing....  Seems like we have been doing a lot of fishing lately!  It was a great trip, with Maranda outfishing me quite effortlessly.  We caught a total of 23 keeper size crappie, 8 bluegill, and 1 perch.  Kieran did a masterful job of fighting the perch, bluegill, and several crappie.  Maranda could be considered a show off after she hooked four crappie in under three minutes.  We were also accompanied by our friend Bruce from a church we have been joining fellowship with.  It was a fun time to swap tales and he kept the boys entertained while I ran to retrieve Maranda's frequent fish.

Here is Kieran proudly showing off our catch

A trophy bluegill

Our friend Bruce with Tristan

Weekend Survival

Sometimes we are just happy to have survived the weekend!  We had lots of plans for how we might spend this weekend, all the projects and things we could do, perhaps even heading into DC for the cherry blossoms.  Alas, this was not to be our fate...

To start things off, we have a new dog in our family (Duke), who is a big male from the first litter we raised close to three years ago.  The owners had to give him up and we had asked that all buyers look us up if there was a chance a dog would be given to a shelter or pound.  We agreed to take him in and have quickly found he is in need of a LOT of training.  

Along with the training, Duke and his mother have been having stand offs over who is the new pack leader.  She is 15-20 pound lighter than him, but fully undeterred.  Finally Saturday morning it reached a climax and they went full bore for several minutes.  When I finally headed down with gloves on to bring things up, they separated and Duke went scurrying toward the house, looking like the beaten dog.  Both dogs had bite wounds to their ears, but Duke was way worse and had a wound on his chest as well.  

SO, Maranda and I spent several hours midday Saturday cleaning dog wounds, flushing them, and applying antibacterial salve.  Maranda did the lion's share of the work, I did the restraining when the worst wounds were addressed.  We have continued to rinse and clean the wounds since, and antibiotics will be here tomorrow....wheeghh.

Today Kieran and I scampered away after church to try and put a hurt on the local bluegill population.  We had tried one spot with no success, and had relocated to a place that clearly had a MOTHERLODE of big bad blues...  Shortly into the afternoon, with only two decent fish on the stringer, I suddenly heard a big splash next to my elevated position near the shore.  Kieran had been playing with a stick in the water when his straw hat blew off in the wind into the pond.  

Instead of calling to me he had rushed into the pool and was up to his armpits in water.  I jumped down and fished him out, and then saved the hat.  He was rather distraught over the hat, and then became distraught over his soaked clothing.   So I stripped him down to his briefs, packed up, and headed home.

So hear I sit after burping a fussy baby for the last hour, with a late dinner in the oven, wondering where the weekend went!  I actually am thinking how nice it will be to ease into my cube tomorrow with a big cup of coffee.  I guess the one thing I can say is that all creatures in our home survived the weekend, everything will soon be fed, and tomorrow is another day....

Party In My Tummy

Ever since we first saw this clip, this has been a refrain in our family around dinner time!  Kieran had mommy call me at work this afternoon, and he told me there WASN'T a party in his tummy because they had pizza at school that he couldn't eat (milk allergy).  "But," he breathlessly relayed, "later there WILL be a party in my tummy because mommy is going to make Pizza!!!!"

This song has weird, hypnotic staying power, you have been forewarned!

Grandma Reading to Boys

Grandma Tennyson reading to the boys.

Our Church Family

As part of our children's service today our church family created a video to send to people needing encouragement. The following clip is a portion of the recordings, mostly with kids singing. Kieran is in a clip singing "Old McDonald" and then again at the end on stage. I was the guy behind the camera humming along! :)

First Couple Minutes of Christmas Morning

Here is a video clip of the first couple minutes of Christmas morning showing Kieran discovering and then opening his stocking.




And here is Kieran unwrapping the "big" present, which he exclaims "I hope it is a rocket, I always wanted a rocket" during the clip.

I am not in that movie!

During Kieran's T.V. time he primarily watches Noggin, a great kids channel that features a lot of education and interactive shows. I have noticed that many times the show will solicit a response from the children watching, and Kieran will not respond, even though I know he knows the answers (I verify this by asking him the answer). The other day I pushed him to respond verbally to the T.V., and his response was an exasperated "Dad, I am not in that movie!."

Welcome Baby Tristan!

Tristan Riley Tennyson was born on 11/01 today, December 16th. He was 7 lbs, 13 oz and 21 inches long. We are so excited to have this little boy join our family! Maranda and the baby are doing fantastic, thankfully labor went fairly smoothly (if such a thing can be said!). Our midwife was fantastic, a wonderful experience to be sure!





Baby Tristan at just over three hours old. Family friend Deanna is holding him at the start of the video clip.




Video of Kieran "helping" the nurse to move baby Tristan from the birthing room to the recovery room.

Baby Goat Surprise!

In the strangest of outcomes, we are now owners of a baby goat. It is a story with mixed emotions, as the nanny goat that has been in our care all summer passed away shortly after delivering this adorable little creature. We are not sure yet what happened, possibly complications trying to deliver a second baby (twins are quite common).

We are not aware that our nanny was pregnant, as we assumed she had given birth this spring based on the milk in her udder. This morning Maranda discovered the baby and quickly tracked down some baby goat formula as well as some goat collostrum. So far we have had pretty good success with the bottle, although as any anxious parent of a newborn we are fretting that she isn't eating enough.

Check out an adorable clip of Kieran snuggling the goat this evening.

Pumpkin Patch

We took Kieran and his friend Keenan to a pumpkin patch a week ago, here are some of the best shots. Kieran is in the gold shirt.

Searching for the "best" pumpkin



Proudly showing off their finds.



Exploring the corn maze



Checking out some old tractors



Video clip of the boys wandering the pumpkin patch.



Corn maze fun



The "cow train"

Tristan Riley Tennyson

Its official, our second boy will be named Tristan Riley Tennyson. We are eagerly awaiting his expected arrival in the 2nd week of December, pray Godspeed for Maranda's sake!

Kieran's 3rd Birthday Party

At long last Kieran's third birthday party arrived! It was a lot of fun, see below for our best shots.

Kieran & Maranda to the right.












Car sandwiches!



Dance Party!