Grandma for President!

Around 11:00 Tuesday morning, Mommy and Daddy arrived at the polling place in the small town where Mommy grew up, to cast our votes for both the next President of the United States and our other elected officials. Expecting long lines, we drove out of our way in hopes that we could avoid the rush—and it worked. We walked right in, received our cards, and went to work!

While we were there, one of the attendants noticed the Drakelings’ T-shirts, laughing at how incredibly cute they were. However, she continued, we technically shouldn’t have be allowed in with them; it’s illegal to enter a polling place wearing campaign apparel. Of course, once she noticed just who they were campaigning for, she laughed some more and relented. After all, she mused, “I don’t think Grandma’s even on the ballot!”

After fulfilling our civic duty, we stepped outside to snap some pictures for the kids’ preferred candidate. Unfortunately, even if Grandma did win the Presidency, I doubt she could do anything about David’s aversion to staged photos. ☺

Winners!

So last night was the community Hallowe’en party—which is kind of ironic, since Daddy’s on the community social committee, but never got a call about it! Oh well…. The point is that Leah dressed up as Dorothy Gale, from The Wizard of Oz (yes, Dorothy was wearing red, this Hallowe’en); while David’s construction worker outfit made everyone think of Bob the Builder. Good thing, too; thanks to that supposed tie-in, he took first place in the animation category of the costume contest, with Leah coming in a close second!

For sweeping the category (there was no third-place prize), the Drakelings received a free Little Cæsar’s pizza, a free movie rental from Family Video, and a bag of microwave popcorn. How’s that for prizes even a one- and two-year-old could love?

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You Give Me Fever

David hasn’t been sleeping too well, lately, and today the reason became somewhat apparent: he was pretty sick. We figured it was just a cold, but then this evening things took a turn for the worse: his temperature spiked to 104.6˚F. It’s funny how familiarity breeds complacency that way: even a mere six months ago, we were completely freaked out by something like that. Today, Mommy just got on the phone to Mawmaw while Daddy scooped David up and stuck him in a lukewarm bath, to bring his fever down (which it did).

While David was in the tub, Daddy prayed to know what to do. He feels that, several times in our family’s past, we’ve given up faith too soon and run to Urgent Care when a Priesthood blessing would have been sufficient. As such, when Mommy came up the stairs declaring that we were going, Daddy asked her to please get the kids dressed while he figured out what we needed to do.

To be frank, Daddy was quite surprised. The voice of the Spirit—inaudible but no less understandable—came very clearly: “It’s pneumonia. Get him to the doctor, then give him a blessing.” Well, Daddy has finally learned not to put a question mark where the Lord puts a period, so after leaving a message for our home teacher Jacob, we headed over to Urgent Care to get him taken care of.

The doctor took a listen to his chest and noted that it—and his audible breathing—were each a little “crackly,” as he put it. Bolstered by a recent article in the Ensign (which he does not think he picked out of an entire magazine, by accident), he asked the doctor, “Could it be pneumonia?” The doctor agreed that it very well could be, but decided not to give David a shot nor order any X-rays, since his oxygen level was relatively high. He simply wrote out a prescription that would take out anything up to and including pneumonia, then sent us on our way.

Once all that was done and Daddy was finally home with the prescription, Jacob and Daddy gave David his second unrelated blessing of healing in as many weeks. He received many specific promises in today’s blessing, but Daddy’s favorite was the prophecy that David would be well by the time his prescription runs out (this Sunday).

Anyway, David is now sleeping peacefully in his Pack ’n’ Play (in the guest room) while ever-vigilant Mommy spends the night on the guest-room bed. Sleep tight, guys! We’ll see you in the morning!

Hospitality

This morning, Daddy was at work when Mommy came into the office, distraught. Turns out David had somehow managed to remove the lid from one of Mommy’s diabetes medications and was playing with the pills. Mommy and Daddy still don’t know with 100% surety that he didn’t take any of them, but we certainly couldn’t afford to take that chance. A quick call to Poison Control confirmed our fears: little David was on his way to the emergency room. ☹

Now, those of you that know David personally know how incredibly inquisitive he is, and the E.R. was no exception. They pricked his toe to draw some blood; he didn’t even flinch, instead concentrating on the pricker and glucose monitor. They stuck those little sticky monitors all over his chest; he stared at them, but it was quite a while before his sole attempt to remove them. They placed an IV in his arm; he stared at the nurses the whole time, giving them exactly the look that Gary Coleman made so famous. (Every test they ran came back fine, by the way, but goodness knows diabetes meds don’t necessary have an immediate effect.)

By this time, the kids’ Mawmaw—who had left work for a family emergency—had taken off to get him a pacifier (we couldn’t find one, before leaving). Thus, when our home teacher Jacob and Daddy’s new boss, Reid, showed up at the hospital to help Daddy give David a blessing, Reid wound up watching Leah while Jacob and Daddy, respectively, anointed and blessed him. The blessing prophesied that he would be okay, and Daddy personally felt that he hadn’t ingested anything (though he wasn’t prompted to say as much; he figures that was for his and Mommy’s sake, so they wouldn’t have to decide whether or not to check David out of the hospital—nor have to worry if they’d made the right decision, if they had. Dang lack of faith). Daddy then headed out to grab us some lunch, leaving Leah and Mawmaw (who had just returned) to join Mommy and David in the hospital room they were about to be wheeled up to.

Well, to make a long story short, David’s hospital room is nice and comfy: there’s a chair and a sofa for visitors and for Mommy to sleep on, tonight; plenty of toys for him to play with (probably 80% of which he also has at home); very complete meals (especially considering he’s only 18 months old); and a playroom down the hall, where Leah is welcome to join him when she visits. He’ll be there all night, for observation—Mommy’s staying with him, Daddy is staying at home with Leah—but should be happily returned to his daily routine, late tomorrow morning. Phew!

(Oh, and by the way…. Don’t you just love him in that little hospital gown?) ☺

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Speakers

David’s been having a language explosion, this past week. It really is incredible to think that two weeks ago, he only regularly said about a dozen different words, eleven of which were “basketball.” ;-) Now, who knows? He’s definitely communicating, though! Yesterday morning, when I opened the blinds on our sliding glass door, he noticed his water table in the back yard and told Daddy, quite intelligibly: “Water table!” I guess he knows what he likes!

Tonight, though, Leah took the cake. Mommy had gotten a pound of beef out of the freezer, this morning, to defrost for sweet-and-sour meatballs. Leah apparently noticed this and asked Mommy what it was, to which Mommy replied that it was beef for supper. Well, say what you will about Leah, but there’s nothing wrong with her memory. As we were sitting down at dinner, she dug through her bowl inquisitively before finally turning to Daddy and asking, “Where’s the beef?!”

If only she knew….

Bates Cake

It’s funny how, here in Indiana, you don’t see the small, independently owned businesses like you still do, back in ’Jersey. While obviously there’s a few of them, around here—and far from every business Daddy remembers, from childhood, still exists—the Mom & Pop bakery is still very much an icon on the New Jersey landscape. And thus it is that Justin’s parents brought us a coffee cake from one of the apparently more renowned local bakeries.

When Daddy was growing up, one of his favorite snacks was a Drake’s Cake. Not that we had anything to do with Drake’s Cakes, but back in our neck of the woods, Drake’s Cakes was—and continues to be—almost as much as household name as Hostess. You can still go into pretty much any store and find them, and man are they good! (I just wish we were related to them; that would be some serious cash!)

So needless to say, when Justin’s parents brought the aforementioned coffee cake for us ‘out-of-towners’ to try, Grandma and Pop just had to give it a name, for the kids—and since Justin’s last name is Bates, why not “Bates Cake”?

By the end of the week, Leah and David were asking for “Bates Cake” by name, with almost every meal—and since Grandma and Pop are definitely the spoiling type, they generally got it. I guess you can tell from the way Leah’s licking the plate, they rather enjoyed this local delicacy. ☺

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Pwobwem Child

For those that don’t know, Mommy had to get her gall bladder removed on Friday morning, so she’s still a bit under the weather. Since the kids we’re at 100% either—and Daddy certainly couldn’t leave them home with Mommy—we all stayed home from Church, today.

So about an hour ago, Daddy was sitting on the family room couch, doing some stuff on the computer, when all of a sudden Leah’s voice came wafting in from the living room. Apparently David had done something she didn’t like, to which she loudly responded: “Go back to Heaven, Day-did. You’we a pwobwem!”

Now, in retrospect, that’s actually pretty cool: our two-year-old daughter knows that it’s possible to go back to live with Heavenly Father—something many adults have yet to figure out!—but at the same time, that child is soooo precocious! (Where does she get this stuff?!) ☺

The Pompton Queen

One of the best—and most unique—things about New Jersey is the diner. If you’ve never been to NJ, you may think you know what a diner is, but trust me: you probably don’t. The only place outside NJ that truly deserves the “diner” moniker is in Lafayette, on the corner of SR52 and SR26. It was formerly known as Nirvana, then reopened under new ownership as The Four Seasons. (The guy that owned Nirvana did reopen in a new location, a few months ago, using the name “Nirvanas”; unfortunately, Nirvanas closed down last month, so that’s the end of that.) ☹

Anyway, the true diners are quite ubiquitous in New Jersey. The best have been around for the better part of a century, and most have been open 24/7 for decades—long before that became so popular. While a few national chains (e.g. Denny’s, IHOP) have tried to capture the feel, it’s just not there. There’s a certain kind of food, a certain kind of ambience; if you don’t have both, it’s just not a diner. In short, identifying a true diner is like the famous quote about pornography: you can’t quite describe it, but you know it when you see it.

So now that that background’s out of the way, tomorrow is Grandma’s 60th birthday, so Pop orchestrated a phenomenal party for her at a local restaurant called the Manor. It’s a great place—all buffet style—but we’re talking prime rib, lobster, all high-end stuff. It’s like $50 a head, so goodness knows they don’t go there very often, much less invite Grandma’s entire family. (There were like twenty of us there, plus Pop paid to fly us out for it. You do the math.)

Our flight, unfortunately, was delayed by three hours, which actually turned out to be a bit of a good thing: Leah got sick and was able to puke all over the airport floor instead of on the plane, thank goodness. But by the time we landed—around 10:30 at night—she was feeling much better and we were all hungry. So where do we go? (One guess. You have been paying attention, haven’t you?) Yes, that’s right: the diner. Specifically, Pequannock’s long-time staple of a diner, the Pompton Queen. We called Jaci and Justin from Pop’s cell, had them meet us there—never mind that it was after midnight; at the diner, that’s standard fare. There were probably another 20-30 people there, just chilling out, having a midnight meal, watching some TV, maybe splitting a dozen silver-dollar pancakes (which is what Leah and David did, although I think they only ate one each; the rest are still left over, in the fridge). In short, it was just like I remembered it, and after sleeping on the plane, the kids were more than up for it, despite the late hour.

Oh, and we took a bunch of pics!

Family Album

Daddy’s here to announce a major change in the way we’re going to be doing things, from now on. For those of you that have been paying attention, the Photos page has been woefully behind for quite a while, now—arguably since the switch from OurLittleLeah.com to Drakelings.com, but probably even before that. At the same time, the Movies section has completely gone to waste, with highly occasional uploads in an attempt to rebuild it, but virtually nothing since the end of 2006.

So here’s the deal: if you look at the top of your screen, you’ll notice a new link: “Family Album.” Mommy and Daddy have made the executive decision that movies can just be lumped in with the appropriate photo shoots. It’ll still be a while before the old ones make it into place, but at least we can stop worrying about two things and get our little Drakelings out there in all their animated glory!

The Birthday Party

Well, David’s party was a bit more sparsely attended than expected. What with Uncle Eddie’s and Aunt Becca’s families living out of state, Uncle Ben’s family visiting other family out of state, Ashante working (and Liz and Alicia also unavailable), and three of Aubrey’s kids home sick, we had a grand total of twelve people in attendance—just a third of the Queens, plus Grandma, Pop, and Aunt Jaci. Still, we know they were thinking of him—several let us know as much—and when you come right down to it, let’s face it: there was cake, there was ice cream, there were plenty of presents. What more does a one-year-old need? ☺

Swim Class!

In addition to David’s first birthday party (more on that, later), yesterday was also the kids’ very first swim class at the YMCA. Grandma, Pop, and Jaci were all able to arrive in time to see it, so there’s plenty of pictures from the bleachers.

David, it must be said, has always been a natural in the water. From his very first time in the big-boy bathtub, he’s had the greatest time splashing his sister, his parents, his toys, the walls, etc., and that huge bathtub that his family calls a “pool,” of all things, sees exactly the same behavior. While some of the other kids (including big sister) clutched at their parents’ necks for dear life, David splashed and kicked with impunity, clearing the area within about five feet of his undiscriminating shower.

For the record, Leah did eventually get into it. She still loves “wimming” (as she calls it); she just wants to make absolutely sure she doesn’t get gagged. They say it’s the difference between one- and two-year-olds, but I’m sure the contrast between Leah’s active temperament and David’s intense placidity has a lot to do with it, too. They’re both having fun, and as long as they’re safe, that’s what’s ultimately important. ☺

David’s First Birthday

Well, yesterday was a big milestone for our little man: he’s zero no more! After an entire year of figuring out where he fits in this world, he’s now a little crawling machine, slowly vanquishing both his natural separation anxiety and the constant machinations of his own private Goleahth.

The day was actually a pretty normal one: Daddy went to work during the day while Mommy took care of the kids. However, the incredible shrinking Mommy did have her first aquaerobics class at 7:00 p.m., so the birthday boy and his big sister got to spend some special time with Daddy during her workout.

The party’s on Saturday, and Grandma and Pop (and maybe Aunt Jaci!) will be driving out from New Jersey to participate. Stay tuned!

Big Talkers

Man, it’s been ages since I posted anything to the blog! I was really backed up at work for a while—several clients (and even project managers!) vying for my time, thus giving me a lot of much-needed overtime—and then of course we had the holidays. It’s been crazy, but I’m trying to get back on the horse, so to speak.

The title of this entry actually applies to both of my beautiful children, who have each been improving their conversation skills in leaps and bounds! Leah, for example, has begun speaking in complete sentences—e.g. “Is Mommy coming?” instead of “Mommy come?”—and has mastered the concept of maybe, e.g. Daddy responds to her request for an apple with, “We don’t have any apples, Sweetie,” and Leah responds, “Maybe an orange?” She’s also begun saying stuff like “Great idea, Daddy!” She’s such a sweetie!

David, for his part, is mostly working with single words, but he’s quite the little repeater, too. He knows Mama, Dada, Amen, baba (bottle), wawa (water, which he first said immediately after taking the Sacrament, yesterday), mo! (more), and this morning I swear he said “Dowstay!” as we were about to go downstairs. (Granted, we’d been talking about going downstairs, so it could have just been repetition, but still…!)

Anyway, the kids are just getting cuter and cuter, these days, so I’ll hopefully be making the time to blog, more often. I really want to have a record of this for us, if nothing else. (Not that you, dear reader, are chopped liver.) ☺