A good day

Today was a good day. First, Laureen, Erin, and I decided to tackle a project we've been talking about for weeks. We decided to build Erin a stage for puppet shows. As a hardware man, I am embarassed to admit that I am not much of a carpenter, but Laureen and I sat down with some paper to draw up a plan nonetheless. I had a rough vision in my head, so I quickly sketched out my ideas, and Laur and I discussed what would work and what would not. We took some measurements, did some math, retrieved the necessary tools, and gathered up some scrap lumber. Then, Laureen and I set about cutting the necessary lengths of wood (after receiving some basic instruction and donning a pair of safety glasses, Laur made most of the cuts with the circular saw). Every time Laur fired up the saws motor, Erin would run away with her hands over her ears... but as soon as the saw shut down, she was back, hovering over us, observing in her supervisory role. Once all the boards were cut, we began assembling them, using some pretty serious decking nails (3" galvanized twist decking nails). I chose nails over screws because they gave Erin an opportunity to get involved in the assembly. We each took turns driving the nails while the other two held the boards steady. Erin did really well considering she had to stand or kneel on a chair to get high enough, and it took her two hands to swing the one pound hammer we were using. She never once missed the head of the nail (thankfully, considering I was usually the one steadying it with my fingers). She did get a little frustrated as her arms grew weary, but we managed to ease her stress by adding a second hammer to the mix. We alternated swings (Erin would hit the nail, and then either Laur or I would) so that she could give her little arms a rest in between each blow. We nearly finished our project today, and I will definitely have some photos to share as soon as it is complete. It was really fun to work together as a family, and to see how proud Erin was of her involvement in the project. And of course, she cannot wait to put on her first puppet show at McDermottpiece Theater.

After we decided to take a break from our construction project, Laur and I thought it would be fun to finally take Erin on her first official bike ride on a street. She has been pestering us (especially Laureen) about this for quite some time. When we told her that she was finally going to ride on a street, her eyes lit up and she beamed a huge smile. Of course, she surprised us both when she decided her first street bicycle ride on the street was going to, in fact, be made on a tricycle. We tried to convinve her to take her bike, but her mind was made up, and there was no dissuading her. She was adamant that she can ride her tricycle much faster than her bicycle. Of course, she looked a little silly on the trike, as her knees nearly hit the handlebars on each rotation of the pedals, but it was a good first step. She was right about one thing... she really can fly on that tricycle. As we walked down one of the local, quiet side streets, Erin began saying "I want to go down a hill." We pointed to the gentle slope in the street that was just ahead of us, and I said, "Here comes a hill now, Erin." To this, she replied, "No Dadoo, I want to go down a real hill. A big, BIG hill." I said, "Well Erin, to go down a big hill, you usually have to go UP a big hill first. This will be a good starter hill for you." At this, Erin let out a little, exasperated sigh, and then turned on the afterburners, pumping her little legs like mad and pulling away from us. We had to pick up our pace to prevent her from getting too far ahead. Our little drama queen kept us laughing on the trip back to the house, though, by stopping several times and panting like a little, overworked puppy because she was SO tired. All in all, it was a very good day.