Sometimes it Sucks...

We're now facing some of the true agonies of raising a child, especially a multiracial child. Seems there are a few kids on the bus who like to poke fun at Haley, for one reason or another. First it was the kids who told her she was dumb. I wasn't aware of it until one night when we were working on sight words (words you recognize just by seeing them; you don't need to sound them out). She has been having a hard time with those, and that night was no different. Finally, she started crying in frustration and said "Those kids on the bus were right. I am dumb." I absolutely wanted to throttle those kids. Kelsee and I, of course, had to remind Haley that she is just in kindergarten and is still learning. I told her that just because someone says something doesn't make it true. We reminded her that she has a vocabulary twice that of most kids her age and more than many kids older than her. We also took her through her addition table, which she does well at. When we were done, she was feeling much better. I still want to throttle those kids. Then yesterday she tells me about some second or third grader on the bus who calls her "Brownie". I asked her why she called her that, and Haley says it's because she has brown hair and brown eyes. I asked Haley if this girl calls other brown hair, brown eye kids that, and Haley says she doesn't, that it's Haley's "special name". By the way, Haley is likely one of the only multiracial children on the bus. I'm POSITIVE she's not the only brown-hair, brown-eye kid... Anyway, she told me that sometimes she's being nice when she calls Haley that, but other times she's being mean. Uh, what the...??? OK. I'm so glad my daughter has help working on her self-esteem every afternoon on her way home from school. Did I mention I want to throttle those kids?

Random Stuff for Mid-December

First, a Haley-ism. You know, because that always draws people in... Last night we were singing some Christmas carols after FHE. Haley was in form, singing at the top of her lungs. (As an aside, Cameron was also in form, feigning ignorance regarding the words of the songs.) We sang "Away in a Manger" and then "Silent Night". Kelsee kind of lost Haley and I on the second and third verses. When Kelsee started in on "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", Haley jumped back in with gusto. Kelsee and I sang along until we came to one part of the song, and then we lost it. Haley's version: Good tithings we bring, to you and your kids... Good tithings for Christmas and a Happy New Year! ------ By the way, here is the effect on a Microsuede couch when you've been sitting for too long: Butt imprints immortalized in time!!! ----- Speaking of pictures immortalized in time, here's Haley outside before school during our first day of snow flurries... She doesn't always walk this way. Honest. She was spinning circles trying to catch the flakes on her tongue. And here's one... Who decided to teach Haley to take pictures with my cell phone? Huh? HUH?

14 And Counting...

Yesterday, Kelsee and I "celebrated" our 14th Wedding Anniversary. I put the verb above in quotes because here's how we celebrated: 1. We had a fight the evening before. Yes, we made up before we went to bed. (Everybody, get your minds out of the gutter. It wasn't like that, and even if it was, I wouldn't tell you here.) 2. I slept through the alarm and was awakened by Kirk (my friend and the guy I carpool with) calling my cell wondering where I was. I showered and was out the door after a hasty kiss for my wife. 3. I forgot that I had a gift for Kelsee that I wanted to have waiting for her when she woke up, so I called her while I was on the road and told her where she could find it. (I'll explain why I didn't just wait until I got home in a moment.) 4. I worked all day. 5. I went and administered a final exam for one of my classes. 6. Several students ended up staying after the final exam to received last minute help completing some assignments. I didn't leave until 9:40. Mind you, I mentioned it was my anniversary, and we even talked about it for a while. The students kept saying things like "your wife is going to hate us" or "I'm almost done". 7. I arrived home about 10:30, exhausted. 8. Kelsee was tired and also not feeling well. We chatted until about midnight about this and that, then ventured to the land of nod. 9. That's it. 10. Seriously. Kelsee made a good point last night, though. We don't need to wait for a specific day to commemorate our marriage and love. Hopefully, we're commemorating every day. We're even commemorating during a three-day romantic excursion to the mountains of West Virginia starting tomorrow. The thing is, I think we are both most looking forward to sleeping in each morning. That and the absence of anyone who speaks Whinese. (If I walk into a restaurant and hear a whiny kid, I'm going to dump my entire bowl of salsa/bottle of A1/plate of linguine over his or her head. I'm guessing his or her parents will hug me with tears of gratitude in their eyes, and everyone else will be jealous because they didn't think of it first.) I really don't care what we do on our trip, as long as I'm with my sweetie. (Sure, you can use words like "cheesy", "suck-up", or just roll your eyes, but that doesn't make the above sentence any less true. So snicker all you want. If everybody had as good a marriage as we do, the world would be a heck of a lot better place.)

Haley, Haley, and More Haley

Did I mention this post is all about Haley? We had some snow a couple of Sundays ago. Not much, but enough to just barely dust the ground. As we drove past the rolling hills and farmland on our way to church, Haley gasped. We looked at her. She was wide eyed and pointing at the big round hay bales, their tops covered in white snow. "Those look just like that cereal!" she exclaimed. "You mean Frosted Mini-wheats?" Kelsee clarified. "Yeah, just like those!" What an imagination! She often points out clouds as we drive, telling us what object or animal they look like to her. Or she'll see scribbles on a piece of paper or a blanket piled up on the bed and tell us that it looks like something to her. As soon as she points it out, of course, it's obvious. Pretty amazing. ------ Cameron and I rented The Incredible Hulk last week, which meant Haley wanted to rent a movie, too. She chose the original cartoon "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". I told her she could watch it the next day. Needless to say, when we got home from church, she bounded into the house exclaiming, "Let's watch The Grunch! Let's watch The Grunch RIGHT NOW!" ------ A while back Haley was snuggling with Kelsee while they flipped through a magazine. They came to an advertisement that prompted Haley to blurt out: "Hey that looks like Grandma Kappes!" Kelsee and I ROARED with laughter after we scanned the picture: ------ The other day, Haley had just finished making some very astute observation. Kelsee responded by telling the curly-haired imp how smart she was. Haley smiled sweetly at Kelsee and said "I save all my good thinking for you, Mommy." Don't you just love kids?

Rise and Shine!

Haley is not a morning person. (OK. It's relative. After 7:30, all bets are off, but before then...) Anyway, when we wake her on weekdays, usually around 6:00 or 6:15, she grumbles and complains about being tired or sick. She came up with a new one the other day. Me: Haaaleeeey...time to get up. Haley: *grumble* Me (shaking Haley): Come on, Noodle. Get up. Haley (stretching): *grumble* Me: Got to get up so you can get ready for school, sweetie. Haley (sitting up): I didn't tell you but I had to go the doctor at school yesterday. (She calls the school nurse the doctor.) Kelsee: Really? Haley: Yeah. She said I was sick and that I should stay home today. Yes, it was a lie, a fib, a fabrication. We still busted a gut. She didn't stay home, however, much to her chagrin.

Birthday party at Kappes grandparents' home

We had lots of fun with our family at Haley's birthday dinner. We had Haley's favorite dinner - taco salad! Yum!

Lots of birthday cuteness!

Haley had a great birthday and had tons of fun at the circus! She loved getting an art easel and some new Groovy Girl items and lots of other fun things. We've been overrun with presents!

Phobia...

Haley has a lot of anxieties and fears. She has never been a good sleeper and has genuinely been awakened by fear several times in her short little life. This last week at school there's been lots of talk about Halloween, and of course, the various monsters that go with it. Two nights ago she started back into her "I'm afraid of monsters so I can't fall asleep in my own room" routine, which we've not seen for a while. I was able to placate her, however. Last night, though her phobia was in full vengence. Kelsee was the one putting her to bed, and when "I won't be able to fall asleep because I'm afraid of monsters" didn't look like it was going to work getting her into our room, Haley became desperate. H: *wailing* Mommy, I'm afraid! K: Of what, Haley? H: I'm afraid of heights! K: Heights? Haley, do you even know what that means? H: *sheepish look* K: Afraid of heights means you are afraid of going up in high places. H: Oh...*resumes wailing* Well, I'm still afraid of it! Oh, that kid... --------- I'm down a half-century from my March 2008 weight. Holding off on the new wardrobe, though. I like the "kid wearing his daddy's clothes" look.

A Moment of Self-indulgence

This post is total self-indulgence, for me, of course. Read at your own risk. I don't know if this ever happens to anyone else, but sometimes I just get these collection of things in my head, and I can't get them out until I write them down. This is one of those times. There is probably nothing in this post of any value for anyone else, but just consider this a brain purge so I can actually accomplish things next week. I started running a 2 3/4 mile route yesterday morning. My muscles were screaming at me when I was done. I did more walking than I wanted, but whatever. Today I ran it again and did much better. I think I probably walk less than a quarter mile during the whole route, though I have no way of knowing for sure. Again, whatever. It feels good, and it's not a competition against anyone but myself. I'm proud of myself, considering I started walking a 1 1/4 mile route in mid July and began running it a week later. I'm down three pants sizes and my business casual attire that I wear to work are pretty baggy. I even bought a new pair of jeans and gave a perfectly good pair in my old size to goodwill. Usually I get rid of clothes because they wear out or I outgrow them. I can't remember the last time I "outshrunk" something. I don't know how much weight I've lost since I don't own a scale and I'm not about to pay my nurse practitioner for weekly visits to help monitor my weight, especially since it was never about the weight for me. It was about my family. We'll be back to our program after this brief break... -------- If it wasn't for music, I don't think I could survive running. MP3 players were made for runners, I'm sure of it. Anyway, if I could only have 10 songs on my jogging list, right now it would be these, in no particular order (only one per artist): 1. Timebomb - Godsmack 2. Gettting Away with Murder - Papa Roach 3. Qwerty - Linkin Park 4. Grind - Alice in Chains 5. Pure Trauma - downset. 6. The Beautiful People - Marilyn Manson 7. Psycho - Puddle of Mudd 8. Head Like a Hole - Nine Inch Nails 9. Sabotage - Beastie Boys 10. Down With the Sickness - Disturbed (Most of these are Alternative Rock, with lots of guitar and bass. I mix in bunches of other songs: rap, rock ballads, classic rock, some R&B. But these are fixtures.) Now, back to our program. -------- After years of staying fairly stable in weight (I was still way overweight, but I wasn't really gaining anything new), I suddenly began putting on the pounds again. I wasn't any more sedintary than before, though I think I was eating more. Regardless, I found myself with considerably less energy. I couldn't keep up with Haley for long, I didn't have the energy to give to Kelsee in the evening, and I was really starting to feel it in my joints. When Cameron came to live with us in spring, things in our lives obviously went topsy turvy. Because of the stress, I was more tired then ever. I needed a boost, so I began cutting back on the food I ate. I didn't stop eating what I liked, I just ate less of it. If I wanted a greasy burger, I ate it. Knowing me, there was now way I was going to move to some diet. So portion control was my goal. I don't think I consciously began doing that, but when I had a series of five or six doctors appointments over the spring and summer, I began to notice a trend. After about the third visit, I realized my weight had gone down 3-5 pounds each time. Now when you are as heavy as I am, weight fluctuation isn't strange, but I decided to make a conscious effort to watch my food intake. By my last visit in late July or early August, shortly after I began running, I'd lost 35 pounds. I started running because I could tell that I would start to stabilize in my weight loss if all I did was portion control. At first running was excrutiating. My cardiovascular system sucked. I couldn't run very far without getting very winded. I think if I hadn't been playing basketball once a week, it would have been worse. Anyway, my muscles ached and my joints throbbed. I did a lot of walk-running, trying to increase the running distance and decrease the walking. I also realized that I was killing myself on this 1 1/4 mile route (which I'd actually bumped up to 1.6 miles). I had a big hill at the beginning, which meant that I was pretty wasted after I got to the top. I decided to choose a new route and increase the distance. Bingo! I was now running 2 miles without killing myself as much. I mean I still had bad running days and good running days, but my new route only had little hills, so I didn't have to expend as much energy at the beginning. Last week, I extended that route to 2 1/4 miles, but that didn't really test me more than the 2 miles. So I extended it to 2 3/4 miles yesterday. Yesterday, I hurt. Today I feel good. I'm shooting to get up to 3 miles, and then decrease my walking distances to as little as possible. Who knows? Maybe I'll run one of those 5K charity runs or something one day. The best part? I'm able to hang with Haley when we play (at least for longer; kids have boundless energy). I'm get less sleep (since I'm teaching three classes this semester), but I have more energy throughout the day. Which means I'm better company in the evening (I guess we'll let Kelsee be the judge of that). I think I'm happier, too. And physically I feel better. Now if only I can get rid of the other stressors in my life...Oh, well. C'est la vie.

A Blissful State of Random...

Haley has expanded the Purdy Lexicon by leaps and bounds. Her latest can be explained with this story: Haley needed to go to the restroom. Sometimes she takes forever (she is nothing if not my child). This particular time was one of those. After what seemed to be an eternity, she emerged and announced to anyone in earshot: "I had a melty poop." So now, in our home, a possible symptom of the flu is melty poop. ------------- During my sister's nearly three week stay at the hospital, I became intimately acquainted with the idiosyncrasies of the parking garage, most especially the painfully slow elevator. While I was often in a less than alert state of mind during my elevator wait, I did happen to once take stock of my surroundings. I discovered the most interesting set-up. Either someone had a great sense of humor or they just wanted to tempt people. ------------- We took Haley to see Ringling Bro/Barnum & Bailey Circus. Wo, talk about sensory overload. I didn't know where to focus my eyes or ears at times. Anyway, it was awesome. Well done, funny, exciting, and not horribly expensive. Haley had a blast. For the first time she really seemed to get into something like this without having to be coaxed. When she went with Kelsee, Austin and my mom to see High School Musical on Ice, she just sat kind of in a trance, though she says she had fun. At the circus, however, she would clap enthusiastically at the right times, laugh at the jokes (even the more subtle ones) and just responded exactly as appropriate. Very nice investment, indeed. Here she is at the circus, with that award winning grin: ------------------ Speaking of the circus, Haley's favorite parts were the clowns. And their were bunches of them. She loved them, laughing and clapping at their antics. Needless to say, we had to do a clown cake for her birthday party the next day. Kudos to my Honey for another awesome cake. --------------- Just another couple of random pics of Haley in an effort to increase our blog traffic and number of comments. ------------------ So all the humor aside, let me wrap up with what I feel is a sweet though heart wrenching picture. This tender moment of Cameron and his mother was taken a couple of days after she was admitted to the hospital and placed in the ICU. I miss you, Tanya.