Family

Wade on a slide, 7/11/06

Kids say the funniest things! What is often the funniest is the choice of what they pick up and parrot back from Mommy or Daddy.

Then there are the things I never thought I'd hear myself say out loud... but that is DEFINITELY another post

We've been meaning to start and keep a list of these things since he really started overflowing with the verbiage a few months ago. As you can see I'm just starting it now, so I'll probably forget some of the best, and I have no specifics on when he said these things or how old he was at the time or other pertinent facts like that.

But here goes:

"Hello World"

-- Picked out of a conversation between Mommy and Daddy about Daddy's work and piped in sweetly from the back seat of the car.

"I can take you"

-- Copied when said in jest by Daddy about a souped-up car in the next lane that made an undue display of their coolness (or lack thereof).

"Blazing a trail"

-- From when Daddy was reminiscing about his early adoption of a navigation system in a car we no longer own.

"DIE!!!"

-- When Daddy sqashed a single survivor of a battle with a colony of ants that occurred earlier this evening

"Hit the deck, Boy!"

-- Originally from the movie Raising Arizona, now part of the Loveless Family Lore, we can't quite remember why it was ever said out loud around Wade.

"I get you!" and, as of today "Gon Na Get You"

-- From "I'm gonna get you!" said often by Mommy in our little chase game that he loves.

"Wipe out!"

-- From the Backyardigans

That's it for now... We'll post more as I remember them and get some time.

Well it's been a while since most of you heard from us... but we are still on this planet, and doing pretty well!

Wade just turned 2 today and we can hardly believe it! Then again, we can, because he is talking up a storm these days and learning new words and phrases quickly, including Please (pease) and thank you.

We had a quiet but fun day on his birthday, because we are having a small party with a few friends and neighbors on the 13th. Nevertheless, there were a couple little surprises in store throughout the day, including our trip to In-N-Out Burger, from which he received a cool In-N-Out hat, which he put right on his head.

In other news, drumroll please....

We're expecting bambino number 2 sometime around 10/27/06. Yay! We'd been waiting until the first (or a couple of) doctor's appointments to make a big sweeping announcement like this, but it's pretty official now No news on gender yet, but we'll keep ya posted!

... Right back where we started from...

This picture is of Wade, on Weds., 9/7/2005, at the Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco, just across the Embarcadero (street) from the Ferry Building. I thought these two huge heads were interesting, and so did he... After I posed him in front of them, he kept twisting around to see them, and this was the only picture I could get of his cute little face! Click on the photo to see a much larger version of the picture.

BIG NEWS!!!! We're going back to San Fran! Clay was made an offer he couldn't refuse to go work for an up-and-coming dot-com, Feedster.com, in the city. Wednesday was his "first day," meeting the whole company, sitting in on some meetings, getting issued his laptop, signing papers, and getting official about the whole thing.

This all came about pretty quickly, a recruiter first found him and started trying to woo him on 8/18, and here we are, just three short weeks later, already signed on the dotted line! It seems as though it was meant to be.

I (Kendra) am going to need to finish out the psychology class I'm currently taking at the local community college, since it is a definite prerequisite for any master's program I'd be applying for, be it in Fresno or San Fran. BTW, I really like the look of the Masters/PhD program at UCSF/SFSU, I hope they'll like me as much in a couple/few years when I'm ready to apply!

So, when exactly will we be going? Not sure just yet... Clay needs to be there by Oct 1. Either we will have found something (an apartment) that works for all three of us (plus our 3 pets) by then, or Wade and I will follow him up there as soon as we do. One way or the other Wade and I will be commuting to and from the Bay Area once a week; either up there for the weekends, or down here for my one day per/week of class and to see Buzzy and Janny.

So the next few weeks will be a little Crazy, I'd guess! That's the update for now... I'll keep you all posted with the latest as best I can!

I've been "saving" this entry for a few days...

This picture is of Wade on 8/18/05, hamming it up while exuberantly using his spoon all by himself. Right-click to download or open a larger version in a new window or tab.

Wade now has 9, count 'em, NINE, teeth! Clay doesn't actually believe #9 is in, but I believe it is either already in, and or in the process of breaking through. It is a little hard to tell, as it would be top tooth number 5, and Wade is pretty good about keeping those top teeth hidden (which I just think is more proof of action on the top gum). Even when I brush his teeth, he doesn't let me actually LOOK at them, I have to do it all by touch.

We know that there were only 6 teeth, 4 bottom and 2 top when we left for West Fargo. We didn't think to keep too close an eye on it while there because he wasn't interested in sharing that info with us, and there had been no action for so long, we just assumed all was quiet. Well, maybe that was what some of his trouble sleeping was about, and it wasn't just sensory overload.

Last weekend, Jan asked if he still only had six teeth, and I said yes without checking. Later that night, I got a rare glimpse at his top gum and there were definitely two more there! Then a couple days later, I got another glimpse, and thought I saw another tooth bud eruption in progress on the top left.

On Onions... Well, he certainly didn't get this from me! We took him to In-N-Out for his first actual burger there, and as I was tearing it up into Wade-sized pieces, he reached out as I was discarding the onion. So I figured, "Ok, you can try it, but you won't like it!" The last part I did not say out loud. It's a good thing too, because he loved it!

He ended up eating the whole outer ring of a less-grilled-than-not onion throughout the course of his meal. It was not a mild onion, either, it had lots of "character," as did his breath for the rest of the day!

The part that amazed me was that he would have a little, toy with it (he LIKES that wierd texture/taste combo -- ew!), go on to something else, and then come back to the onion. He did this repeatedly, so he knew what he was doing, and was doing it purposefully.

Clay and I figure this is a taste that must skip generations now and then...

Well I've finally put up another new slideshow -- a whopping 40 pictures in this one! -- of our first trip to Armour Park in West Fargo, ND, with all the great-grandchildren on 8/5/2005. We had a picnic lunch, swang on the swings, and frolicked in general. It was also a dry-run of sorts for the big full-family picnic/hymn-sing/Baptism of Wade planned for Sunday the 7th.

Not only did we have a lot of fun, but we also tried to get a portrait-like photo of the four youngest great-grands, who were born every third month, over a span of just nine short months. Needless to say we had fun in the trying, and got about a million cute candids, in various combinations of the four.

Here, as usual, are a couple of teasers:

The four youngest great-grands, 8/5/2005 (right-click on photo to open a larger version of the image, or save it to your computer)


Wade loves to swing! 8/5/2005 (right-click on photo to open a larger version of the image, or save it to your computer)

PS: Some of you saw the funky bruises I got from whatever bit me while at the park. I am happy to say that they are almost completely gone! When we got back, Jan had the idea they might be an allergic reaction, and suggested I take some Claritin, which I did. By golly, wouldn't you know it, they stopped itching and started clearing up immediately! Now, if I only knew what it was that bit me so I could avoid it in the future!

We are back from our wonderful trip to West Fargo via Minneapolis.

The occassion was a family reunion, focussed around Kendra's Grandma Goodie's 90th birthday. Other noteworthy events were Cindi's Birthday, Melissa's birthday, and Wade's Baptism.

All of the grandkids were there, except for Karl, whose leave schedule from the Marines did not permit him to be there, and whom we had the good fortune to shout a group "Hi, Karl!" to when he called.

I'll be posting pictures and slideshows as I go through and sort out the digital mayhem that is 273 digital photos taken over 10 days!

There are two new slideshows in the gallery so far, one of our stay in LA with dear Christine Jack and Keith, and the other of our time with cousins Melissa Shari James and Zach in Minneapolis.

Here are a couple teasers....

Jack and Wade, 8/1/05 (right-click on photo to open a larger version of the image, or save it to your computer)


Zach, Wade and James, 8/2/05 (right-click on photo to open a larger version of the image, or save it to your computer)

We had a blast with Wade in the pool a couple days ago, July 22, and I've put about 16 pictures from it into a new slideshow in the slideshow gallery.

At one point Wade was standing at the side of the pool in the shallow end and walked all the way around, holding on to the side of course... but still, it was definite shades of things to come! It was very cool. We caught it on a video clip with our still camera, and are just trying to figure out the best way to put it up for everyone to see. Its current filesize is HUGE, so we have to play with it.

Here are a couple pictures from the new slideshow:

Wade poses in the "shallow end" of the pool. 7/22/05 (right-click on photo to open a larger version of the image, or save it to your computer)


Wade had a lot of fun with the "sprinklies" that were spraying on him... until they turned cold! (right-click on photo to open a larger version of the image, or save it to your computer)

It's the little things that make me happy...

Last month I heard this ad on a local radio station, turns out to have been a national ad campaign. It was promoting girls' interest in science and a website about encouraging such.

Well, in one of the ads, they had the cutest rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, with new lyrics about stars (what they're made of, etc.). I tried to remember it until I got home so I could write it down and sing it to Wade, but alas, the heat must have steamed it out of my brain. I've been looking for it ever since.

Today, with a little help from Google, I found it on a fellow blogger's site. THANK YOU SO MUCH, fellow blogger!

Here it is, so you all may enjoy too:

To the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star...

Twinkle, twinkle, little star
You're a ball of gas that's very far
Thirty-two light-years in the sky
Ten parsecs which is really high
Helium, Carbon, and Hydrogen
Fuse to make our starry friend.
When it enters supernova stage
It explodes with bursts of rays
And if the star's mass is big and bold
It will become a big black hole

And a little recent visual of the one I'll be singing this to:

Wade goes for the camera, 7/16/05 (right-click on photo to open a larger version of the image, or save it to your computer)

Happy Fourth of July!

We hope you all had a good one, and were able to stay cool and eat yummy patriotic food.

We (Janny Buzzy Clay Wade and Kendra) had ourselves a quiet, yet scrumptious luncheon cookout. Wade entertained us all. Until he became too hot and got a little cranky. BUT we got some adorable pictures, like this one:


We also added another little album to our new photo gallery.

A few words about the new gallery:

• It's a slide show, with separate albums, which we'll keep adding. (I have to go back and add some from earlier this year, birthdays and etc., so keep your eyes peeled!)
• It automatically cycles through the pictures, and when it's done, it goes to the next album.
• You can pause or play the slide show by clicking the blue icons at the bottom right, > (play) or || (pause). There are other navigation buttons along the bottom as well.
• Click the button on the bottom left to get back to the menu of albums.
• When viewing an album slide show:
  • mouse over the photo to see a caption.
  • click the photo to see a much larger version of the photo in a new window
  • mouse over the numbers at the bottom to see thumbnail images

That's about it! Enjoy the rest of your Fourth, and please let me know if you have any trouble with the slide show!

Till next time,
Kendra

Well here are three happy Loveless Males! (4 if you count Red, the cat) Clay Buzz(y) and Wade enjoy a laid back moment on the couch, 6/26/05.



You can right click this image and save it too, but it's only 800x600 pixels. Leave me a comment (click "Comment" below) or email me if you'd like a larger version for printing!