Tag / life

Lily’s Creek

lilys-creek

After hiking through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Thursday, we stopped on the way back out of the park and walked down to a clear (and very cold) mountain stream. The kids had changed out of their boots and into their Crocs and were walking around on the rocks in the creek. Fearful that they might slip and fall in, I told them all to take off their shoes and walk around barefoot. I have some priceless video of this… the water was probably 50 degrees.

Well, it was only a matter of time before it happened: Lily, while standing fairly close to me, slipped and fell. She got up, slipped again, and I grabbed her on the way down. She slipped again while we were trying to get/keep our footing but I still had ahold of her, so she was okay at this point. (I should also note that the water was moving pretty fast and was probably 3 feet deep right next to where she slipped. Oh, I was also holding the video camera through all of this… tense moments!)

She was crying, not because she was hurt, but because she was terrified. After a few minutes, she got herself under control and we walked up to the car to change out of her wet clothes. I mentioned while we were walking how proud I was of her because she dealt with it and got over it very quickly. It was impressive.

Later that night, we were sitting in a restaurant and Char asked the kids to turn over their placemats and draw a picture of their favorite thing from the day. Of course, Jack drew picture of Lily falling in the creek and crying. (He’s such a putz!)

When we asked them to share their pictures, Lily got pretty bashful and started crossing things off and hiding it. It was clear she didn’t want us to see it, so (of course!) we forced it out of her. To my surprise, she had also drawn a picture of her falling into the creek. Except in her picture, though she was dripping wet, she was smiling. She had also included me in her picture holding on to her. She wrote, “The best part of my day was falling into the creek because Dad was there to catch me.”

Here’s a picture of what will always be known as “Lily’s Creek.”

Doing something for your kids, every day


I was working on my Indianapolis Business Journal article this morning and noticed a post on the Wired Magazine GeekDad blog. The post was called “Cool Little Parenting Rituals” and referenced two Dads who were doing a little extra something for their kids on pretty much a daily basis. Both of the Dads he featured are artists who spend a little of their spare time each day creating lunch bags for their kids. Lunch Bag Art simply says “A new bag each day for my kids. I’m the dad. I make these during my lunch break.” Judging by the detail on some of these, I’m guessing he has some extended lunches; they are very, very cool.

Another also dresses up the lunch bag every day: After seeing the robots his son had drawn on their chalkboard, Justin decided to rip them off [his emphasis, not mine] try drawing some them on the lunchbags. He says he creates “Lunchbots” as a fun way to express his love for friends and family, and that alone makes it worth doing. They’re seriously cool, and I imagine seriously fun at school.
So, all of this got me wondering… what can I do?

I can't make sense of this math…

Last week, while they were on Spring Break, Char piled up all the kids and took them to the YMCA to play in the morning. Then they went to an early showing of “Horton Hears a Who.” After the movie, they went out to lunch. When they came home, got out of the car and were walking up to the door, Lily said, “Mom, I’m bored.”

Char and I got married ten years ago in January, 1999. Lily was born almost two years later in September. So here’s the thing: If she was born seven-and-a-half years ago, where did this teenager come from?

When I grow up, I want to be…

Lily turns seven tomorrow. On the way to school recently we were discussing what she and Jack want to be when they grow up. Not surprisingly, Jack wants to be a spy, like his Dad. Lily, on the other hand, had a different idea.

“I want to be a Vet, Dad. Like Megan’s Mom,” she said.

“That’s a good idea,” I responded. “You’re really going to have to study and get good grades for that.” Thinking about her bossy side, I added, “You know what you should be, Lil? A dictator.”

She got a funny look on her face and asked what a dictator was.

“That’s someone who runs country and tells everyone what to do,” I answered.

She got a far away look on her face for a moment, smiled, and then said, “I could be good at that.”

Searching for "How To…"

I’m always intrigued to lurk around and see what types of things people are searching for. Luckily, there are some sites out there like Hitwise that make it fairly easy.

What kind of insights can be gleaned through this type of voyeurism? Good question. Try visiting Google and searching for… (Just kidding.)

A recent Time Magazine article examined the emerging use of search engines to do more than perform simple queries. Increasingly, we’re asking these tools to sort through mountains of data to answer philosophical questions (why?) and instructional ponderings (how to?) It’s the second of these that recently caught my eye.

Did you know, for instance, that over the last two years, the How To question asked most often has been “How to tie a tie?” Seriously, haven’t we gotten this down yet?

Other notables:

“How to make out?”
“How to kiss?”
“How to have sex?”
(Those seem obvious, but I might be missing something. Now I’ll have to check.)

“How to levitate?” (That’s one I’d actually like to know.)

“How to get pregnant?” (No comment.)

Regardless, it’s an interesting look at culture through our common queries, which now account for almost three percent of all searches.