Ewan's own Netflix Queue
More and more Ewan has been wanting to choose his own movies to watch. He's no longer content watching the girly stuff his older sister watches or the older stuff his brother watches. Often Aspen would take Ewan to her own Netflix queue and help him pick out movies and then add them to her queue for him; however, when Ewan was gone she would either move them to the bottom of her list or remove them entirely so that they would not supersede her own movie selections.So we setup Ewan with his own Netflix queue and today he got his first movie, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. Enid tells me that "you've never seen a child so happy as when he got his own movie in the mail."
posted on Monday, February 01, 2010
"En garbage"
Enid was observing a pretend sword fight between Ora 5 and Ewan and heard Ora 5 yell "En Garde!"Ewan responded, "En Garbage!"
posted on Thursday, January 14, 2010
“There’s nothing on it.”
Ewan has an interesting way of telling us that he wants to color:He hands his mom a piece of blank paper and says “there’s nothing on it.”
Labels: Ewan
posted on Tuesday, December 29, 2009
"Laptop"
The family picked me up from work today and as I walked out the door, I thought of something that I had forgot and walked back in. The kids asked Enid why I went back inside. "He must have forgot something," she explained.Ewan replied: "Laptop."
I didn't know he could say that or that he was perceptive enough to notice that I had taken my work laptop with me everywhere we went all weekend.
Labels: Ewan
posted on Monday, September 14, 2009
Ewan is 3
Ewan's birthday is tomorrow, but we're partying today. Family came over to celebrate with an amazing Thomas the Tank Engine cake. It is actually shaped like Thomas! My wife saw a picture of it and ordered it via phone, but never asked how much it was. When I went to pick it up and they asked me is it the "$44.99 signature cake?" In my mind I thought I hope not. But it was. LOL. Happy Birthday Ewan.
posted on Saturday, September 12, 2009
"Hair-cut"
Occasionally on our drive home, we'll take a different street to get to our house; although it is longer the kids have taken to calling this the "shortcut" and they like the change in pace.As we drive home tonight, Ewan began chanting "hair-cut. hair-cut. hair-cut."
"Do you want a haircut?" I inquired.
"Um-hmm."
"But you just had a haircut."
"hair-cut. hair-cut. hair-cut."
"Do you mean 'shortcut?'"
"Yeah."
Labels: Ewan
posted on Tuesday, August 18, 2009
KC Ethnic Enrichment Festival 2009
We went to the KC Ethnic Enrichment Festival today. I took a wrong turn and had to go into Swope Park thru the main entrance instead of on Gregory. That would normally be okay, but a lot of people showed up and we were in bumper-to-bumper traffic for about 20 minutes as we tried to get into the park. It was a beautiful day and I overheard one guy saying that he had never seen so many people at the festival: "Usually it's 100° or raining."
The festival was a lot of fun. As we walked in the kids picked up "passports" and each country with a booth had a stamp. The kids loved going from country to county getting their passports stamped. At the Chinese booth, they wrote the kids name in the passports in Chinese. (I assume mandarin, but I don't know.)
After visiting all the booths we ended at Tanzania and spent a long time looking at pictures a teacher had taken while visiting sponsored schools in Tanzania. Kansas City has a sister city in Tanzania and we have a particular interest since on of our Compassion kids is in Tanzania.
At one booth they had belly dancing outfits for sale. I encouraged Enid to buy one, but she settled for a few pictures:
Then we ate. Every booth had ethnic food, but no samples. So if you wanted to try something you would have to spend $1-3 at each booth. Times 47 booths and that's a lot of green. We each picked out what we wanted to eat: Ora 5 had Vietnamese chicken kabobs. I took the vegetables off for him. Aspen and Ewan weren't hungry for supper so they had baklava. Enid had trouble choosing between German and Israeli and chose a sample platter from Israel. I had a gyro from Greece.
Then the kids wanted souvenirs: Ora and Ewan got marionettes from the Mexico booth:
Aspen got a Hello Kitty spoon from the Japanese booth. Enid got a purse, but I don't remember where from.
Labels: Aspen, Enid, Ewan, Ora 4, Ora 5
posted on Saturday, August 08, 2009
Water Confidence
Last week I put a swim belt on Ewan for the first time and he began to swim all over. He loved it. Well he must of gotten too confident because Saturday we were in a pool that didn't have swim belts (in his size) and while playing at a pool ladder decided to let go. He tried his hardest to tread water but the only part of his body above water was the top of his head.So, today when we returned to the Y and I put a swim belt on him, he held on to the side pretty tight. I encouraged him to let go and swim a bit. At first he did it timidly, but upon finding that he was staying above water, he proceeded to swim on his own for 2 hours.
Labels: Ewan
posted on Wednesday, July 29, 2009
"I poke your eye"
Ewan's in a mood today:Ewan: "I poke your eye."
Dad: "You're going to poke me in the eye? Ow."
Ewan laughs.
Labels: Ewan
posted on Friday, July 24, 2009
"Again" with the raspberries
At this point Ewan can say any word he wants; you just have to be listening carefully enough to catch it. I heard another word from Ewan today. I was giving him raspberries on his belly and every time I did it he laughed hilariously and then said "Again!"Labels: Ewan
posted on Monday, March 23, 2009
Ewan's Nurse's Elbow
Enid took the kids to a place that watches your kids while you do errands today. Ewan took a fall and was holding his arm afterward and was in obvious pain. After watching it for a while Enid took him into Children's Mercy Hospital. The Diagnosis: Nursemaid's Elbow, which Ora 5 had had when he was that age so we are very familiar with it. We were thankful that it wasn't worse.Labels: Ewan
posted on Monday, March 16, 2009
Ewan says "Please"
In the past couple of weeks Ewan has been saying a lot of words. It takes a mother or father (or even a sibling's) interpretation to understand the words, but we can recognize what he is saying.One of my favorites is "house." He will go to the computer, point to the browser and say "house." It's his way of telling us he wants to click on the "Home" button to go to the browsers home page. (Our home page is a landing page for the kids to find all their favorite sites.)
The one word that we hadn't heard yet is "Please." Today, when I got home, Enid told me that he finally said it.
Labels: Ewan
posted on Friday, January 30, 2009
Extended-Family Christmas
Every other year we spend Christmas with my Mom's side of the family. I had just bought a new camera and 2Gb cards for it, so I filled it up taking lots of pictures and playing with the video function. Here's some videos from it:Great-Grandpa and Ora playing with electronics:
Aspen, Eden and Ansley playing:
Mitch playing with Ewan and Eden:
Labels: Aspen, Ewan, Ora 5, vacation
posted on Saturday, December 27, 2008
Christmas Decorations
The rule at our house is that Christmas decorations can't go up until after Thanksgiving. Well, it's after Thanksgiving, so the decorations went up:
posted on Sunday, November 30, 2008
Halloween Costumes
posted on Friday, October 31, 2008
Homeschool Year Begins
Today is the first day of the home schooling year. It seems a bit later than all the other schools that started mid-August, but we hate the idea of starting before Labor Day.The state requires that Ora 5 have 1,000 hours of school. 600 of those 1,000 hours must be in 6 core subjects and 400 hours of those 1,000 must be in our home. (There can obviously be some overlap of the 600 and 400 hours.)
Enid is going to start Aspen on the Kindergarten curriculum and Ewan will have his own reading times as well.
Labels: Aspen, Enid, Ewan, Ora 5
posted on Wednesday, September 10, 2008
"my drink. my drink."
Enid told me that she got the kids shakes today. Ora 5 tried to take Ewan's shake after having drank his own and Ewan pitifully cried "my drink. my drink."Labels: Ewan
posted on Thursday, August 28, 2008
"Mo"
Ewan opened the TV armoire and said "Mo." Enid said that he wanted to watch Finding Nemo.Labels: Ewan
posted on Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Kansas City Literature Festival
We went to the Kansas City Literature Festival today. It was a lot of fun and we came home with free books, free bookmarks, free bags and Enid bought a shirt that says "Don't judge a book by its movie."Wonderscope, the local childrens' museum had a large hands on area. Here Ora is decorating a book:
They're writing on windows. They must be math geniuses:
Kansas City Bus where they had story time with kids' books read by the authors:
Labels: Aspen, books, Ewan, Ora 5
posted on Saturday, May 17, 2008
Upset
Occasionally Ora 5 or Aspen will get ahold of our camera and we'll find interesting pictures on there. This is what we found tonight:
Labels: Ewan
posted on Thursday, May 08, 2008
"I Wah Ma Ma Ma"
Ewan woke from his nap and began saying "I Wah Ma Ma Ma" with the perfect cadence to be saying "I want my momma."Labels: Ewan
posted on Sunday, April 27, 2008
"Guh, Guh, Da-Guh"
Watching the neighbors chase a small dog in the backyard, Ewan began saying "Guh, Guh, Da-Guh."Labels: Ewan
posted on Saturday, April 26, 2008
I Give You This, If You Pick Me Up
Ewan was awake early this morning and he walked up to me holding part of Ora 5's flashlight. He held it up to me. I took it and explained what it was to him and then handed it back to him. He looked at it quizzically, set it down and then held up his hands to me."Oh," I said. "I give you this, if you pick me up. Is that how this works?"
His arms stayed extended and I dutifully picked him up.
Labels: Ewan
posted on Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Ewan says "Aspen"
Very clearly, Ewan said "Aspen" tonight.posted on Saturday, January 12, 2008
A Ewan update
It's been a long while since I posted. I've added some back-dated posts, so be sure to check the archives. Particularly the last September ones about Ora 5 biking.The biggest news that has happened in recent months is Ewan's growth. Although, I don't understand him, Enid can interpret some of his words. He has almost half a mouth of teeth (why don't teeth grow in symmetrically?). And he is walking everywhere; he's almost running. He had taken some ginger steps in the past months, but a few weeks back he looked at something on the other side of the room and decided to walk to it. You could see it in his eyes as he looked at it. So, he stood and took several steps to it. Buoyed by this newly-found talent, he spent the rest of the day trying to get to things by walking.
My joy at watching his first deliberate attempt to attain something by walking to it was briefly interrupted when I thought that he would no longer crawl and that I would have no more babies that crawled around my house.
Labels: Ewan
posted on Monday, January 07, 2008
A 6-Mile Bike Tour
I had today off work for Columbus Day, so we decided to go for a bike ride. It was a good chance to test out Ora 5's new ability to bike. We put Aspen and Ewan in a trailer behind my bike and took one of the city's biking/walking trails. We had a good ride and when we were done I looked at the trail map and found that we had bike 5 miles.We then let Aspen and Ewan play on some playground equipment where our car was parked and Ora 5 did a half-mile loop. He did it twice! So Ora did a 6-mile bike ride today. I would not have dreamed he would have the stamina to do that.
posted on Monday, October 08, 2007
Ewan says "Amen"
After our dinner prayer tonight, Ewan repeated my "Amen."Labels: Ewan
posted on Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Ewan says "Boo"
Oma was up today and Ewan climbed onto the bench, hid himself under the table and then popped up and said "boo."posted on Sunday, September 23, 2007
Ewan says "Ora"
Ewan has begun to say "Ora" when he sees his big brother.posted on Friday, September 21, 2007
Ewan's 1st Birthday
Ewan was sick for his 1st birthday. That's why he has that spacy look in this picture.
Labels: Ewan
posted on Saturday, September 15, 2007
Ewan says "Dog"
When watching the Tour of Missouri there were a couple of dogs nearby. Ewan looked at them and said "Dog. Dog."Labels: Ewan
posted on Tuesday, September 11, 2007
First Step
Ewan took his first step tonight. For quite a while, when we set him down on the floor, he will stand momentarily and then get down on all fours. Tonight he was playing with a musical toy. He stood up and I expected him to begin dancing to the music, but instead he took one, deliberate step.I was so surprised, I shot a look at Enid. By the look on her face, I could tell she was surprised as well.
Ewan smiled at us and then got down on all fours.
posted on Friday, September 07, 2007
A Favorite Toy
Ewan has a favorite toy. It's a small toy plane that when you push it along the floor, it propels itself forward a couple of feet. He likes the sound the gears inside make when its propelling itself. Enid tells me that he'll play with it all day.Labels: Ewan
posted on Thursday, September 06, 2007
Everthing's "Uh-Oh" today
Ewan is saying "Uh-oh" every time he touches or does something today. Even as I typed the last sentence he crawled to the door and said "Uh-oh."Labels: Ewan
posted on Thursday, August 09, 2007
"Got. Got. Got."
Ewan has been saying "Got. Got. Got." today. Enid wondered how this came to be one of his first words until he grabbed something and Enid asked him her usual inquiry: "Whatcha got?"posted on Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Hiking the Hollow Fox Trail
We took a hiking trip this afternoon. There's a new trail that has been a couple years in the making. We walked a bit of it. Here's some pictures for you.
This is me and the kids at the beginning of the hike.
Ewan's first walk in the carrier.
Whenever you find a rock that is hanging, you are obliged to get a picture of someone holding it up. Here's Aspen.
And Here's Ora.
This was at the bottom of the hike before proceeding up a hill to return to the nature center. The bridge in the background is Gregory Blvd, just East of the entrance to the zoo.
The Martindale men.
Labels: Aspen, Enid, Ewan, Ora 4, Ora 5
posted on Sunday, April 15, 2007
Meet the Martindales in 3D
We went to see Meet the Robinsons this morning and as you can see we got the goofy glasses.
The movie was great. Some parts were very predictable, but I didn't see the end coming. One interesting side affect of 3D glasses is that the villains are scarier. The hat is a villain and in a couple of parts flies toward the screen. This scared Aspen a bit.
At first I was looking at the screen and trying to decide if the whole movie was 3D or if only seemed that way because it was a 3D animated movie. I quickly realized that the entire movie was going to be 3D and wondered how the did it. I soon saw the answer on the Disney Channel: When animating a 3D movie, you create a scene by placing all the characters into a set in the software. You can manipulate them however you want to create the scene. Then you place virtual "cameras" in the scene to capture what is going on. By adding a second camera beside the first, you create a 3D affect. One camera records the image the left eye will see and the other records the image the right eye will see. The further you pull the 2 cameras apart the more the objects appear to pop out of the screen. Using this technique, it is easy to make any computer animated movie 3D. The only changes that have to be made is deciding how far apart to place the two cameras for any particular scene.
I also noticed that 3D technology has changed a lot over time. This was my first 3D movie (not counting theme park rides like Spiderman, Terminator and Captain EO), but before the movie they ran a 1953 Disney short film with Donald Duck and Chip & Dale. I took my glasses off briefly during the short and you could distinctly see the 2 images that were on the screen giving a very blurry affect. When I did the same thing during Meet the Robinsons, the 2 images were much closer so it looked out of focus, but you could still watch it. (Now that I know that they can move the two cameras apart for certain scenes, I'm curious if those scenes would look much more blurry than the scene I saw without my glasses.) Now, both movies use different degrees of separating the images; however the same glasses worked for both. My children both had "kids packs" and on the back was the older style, blue and red 3D glasses. I tried watching the movie with those. I saw 4-6 separate images which made it so blurry that I couldn't see a thing.
Anyway, very cool movie! Very cool experience in 3D.
Labels: Aspen, Enid, Ewan, movies, Ora 4, Ora 5
posted on Saturday, March 31, 2007
Looking Cool
Aspen put her sunglasses on Ewan. Boy did he think he was cool:
posted on Saturday, February 10, 2007
Ewan, How ya' doin'?
Ora has taken to using the phrase "Ewan, How ya' doin'?"posted on Thursday, December 14, 2006
A Thumbsucker in the family
Ewan is sucking his thumb. It's strange to think that he's the only one of the kids who has done that.Labels: Ewan
posted on Monday, December 11, 2006
Baby U-an
Aspen said Baby Onion tonight and I wondered if she could say his name correctly. "Aspen, can you say Ew-an?""U... an"
Now whenever she says his name she'll say "Onion," I'll ask "What's his name?" She'll then pause, think about it and say "U... an."
posted on Friday, November 24, 2006
