Tag / Kirsten

by Greg

Kirstie’s Day

What a great fourth birthday for our little Kirstie! I figured it would be fun (at least for us!) to write out all the details of the big day, so here we go!

Kirstie was the last of the kids to wake up yesterday, so I gathered the other three and my guitar and we snuck into her room and quietly sang Happy Birthday to wake her up. 🙂 After a little disorientation… she stumbled out her door to see her new birthday poster (see below) and open a present (a new pink booster seat for a BIG GIRL in the van!) and then went downstairs for breakfast.

Mom did some fun-for-Kirstie things till lunch time, and then at lunch Dad came down from the office and Kirstie went on a birthday present scavenger hunt! Mom gave her an initial clue, and then each present she found had a clue for where to find the next one! Great idea by Jen, lots of fun for Kirsten (and the rest of us, too!) After that I made an awesome pink cake – later to be frosted with pink icing – for my pink-lovin’ girl!

I worked a bit more in the office, until the evening fun, which began around 7pm when we headed out for dinner.

First up was a birthday meal at Red Robin. Kirstie got a pink balloon (which ended up in the ceiling rafters…) and ordered a full kids meal – since she was a big girl – and of course had the free sundae which is brought out by singing red robin employees. Ian sang along and said, “I know all the words by heart!” 🙂 Fun times! We love birthdays at Red Robin!

After that we headed around the corner to Chuck E. Cheese! We love birthdays at Chuck E. Cheese! Thanks to some coupons, we got 120 tokens for $10! That’s a great deal, and a LOT of games! We fanned out and had a blast. Kirstie got to play games with all her family members, and just had a great time. One of her favorite things to do!

We stayed until close (they were very gracious) and then headed home, but with a stop at Uncle Scott & Aunt Leah’s first to eat her pink cake! It was a bit late for all, but they were great. Leah had the plates and ice cream (and birthday candles!) ready, and we got right to singing happy birthday, blowing out candles and eating cake & ice cream! The whole visit was only 45 minutes but nice that we could share another birthday with them before they move to Washington DC. We’ll miss them.

At the end of all that, Kirstie was BEAT! Exhausted. Wasted. But… in still able to bring up a few fun things from the day. When we got home she was crying about something (again, just exhausted) but managed to stop, and give Dad a big smile as I was saying good night. For her fourth birthday she felt like the little princess that she is. 🙂

Kirstie is four… next is Julia in just under two weeks… unless….

Baby is due pretty soon, too!

Lots of BIRTHdays! 🙂

by Greg

Happy 4th Birthday, Kirsten!

Happy Birthday Kirstie!
Today is our little girl’s 4th birthday. Kirstie Rae is FOUR today! The other kids and I sang her happy birthday this morning to wake her up, and then she opened a few presents (and got her birthday poster…) before heading down for breakfast. Mom has a fun scavenger hunt planned for her other presents, and then tonight we’ll celebrate at Red Robin and Chuck E. Cheese (two of her favorite things!) 🙂

So happy birthday little girl! Love you! 🙂

by Greg

Sickness Invades The Campbell Home

Jen (the pregnant one) has been sick (on top of the discomfort of pregnancy) over the past couple weeks with a few various ailments, but it didn’t stay with her. Kirstie has been complaining of ear/head/neck pain off and on for almost a week now. This morning, Kirstie was still very lethargic, and her oldest brother Ian joined her in her illness-induced lethargy.

The sickness canceled our plans for today. Which were quite plentiful.

Well, the two other kids and myself were not feeling sick at all – in fact quite the opposite for the “evens” (kids #2 and #4…). They were quite loud, boisterous, and generally making life more miserable for their sick siblings.

I decided to take the healthies out to Wendy’s where a group of friends generally gather every Sunday afternoon. Was even hoping to catch our nephew there who turned 20 today! (Yes… I am old…) 🙂 No luck there, but there were about 6 or 7 families represented, so it was definitely a nice visit for Dad who is a “people person.” 🙂

Untill…

Half way through our time there, Alex started showing signs of lethargy as well, and even ended up laying his head down on the table at one point. 🙁 He removed himself from the group (sat at a nearby table, not very like Alex with his friends) and just seemed to be getting exactly what everyone else had.

Scary thing? So did I.

As we were leaving, all of a sudden, my neck started aching, and I just felt very weird… maybe light-headed, but not that bad. Just tingly all over. Made it through that, enjoyed lunch, but felt a little strange all the way home. When we got home we put the new sickie in bed, and that’s when it hit me.

COLD!!! I could not have been colder! I got under 6 or 7 blankets, all the way under, and turned the heat up! If you know me, you KNOW that something is wrong! 🙂 I really didn’t feel lethargic, but still had an achy body all over, and had the chills som’n fierce!

So, I had some tea, put on my warmest sweatshirt, and took the rest of the day a bit easier.

Dinner was funny. I just reheated some leftovers for all the sickies (which is all but Julia!) and no one really wanted much of anything. 🙂 I still ate a decent amount, but definitely didn’t taste right.

Right now, at a VERY early hour for me, I’m gonna down some NyQuil® and hit the sack! Might not wake up till 10 tomorrow! 🙂

Here’s hopin’!

by Greg

"I Need Helllp"

This morning as I was sitting here doing a few things on Facebook, I heard a little voice from the other room say, “Moooooommmm….” So, since Mom was not quite awake, I said, “Yes??” The voice responded, “I need helllllp.”

I didn’t really want to get up right then, and Alex was standing in our doorway, so I said, “Can Alex help you?”

The voice calmly and matter-of-factly responded, “Well, if he can get the poo poo off.”

Which for some reason just cracked me up. (Enough that I had to type this story before I went to help her!) 🙂

by Greg

Can’t Sleep

Not sure what it was about last night, but it was not our night to sleep 🙂

First, we got our Mac Mini back from the Apple store (replacing a defective hard drive) and hooked it up right away, even used it. But then, not-so-smart, plays-with-too-many-settings Dad tinkered with the display resolution one too many times and the TV just started flickering. A LOT. Could barely see anything… couldn’t find the cursor well enough to get it back to the right resolution. I tried everything, but to no avail.

So, since it was essentially a brand new drive with brand new settings – I reinstalled the OS. 🙂 (That takes a long time…)

As I was installing it, I watched a TV show I had downloaded from iTunes, and then put in Star Trek Insurrection which I had been wanting to watch for a long time.

The update was going along just fine, even downloaded all of the software updates from the internet once the original OS was on the disk. And all the while, Jen must have woken up a good three or four times. I had to go upstairs one time to find out why Alex was kicking the bar that keeps him from falling out of bed. Jen told me then that both boys had been talking and/or moaning in their sleep. Pretty funny.

I finally went to bed at 4am. (Later than usual…) and Jen was up again. Not long after that, the girls were needing help. I’m not sure if Julia did, but Kirstie wasn’t feeling that great, so she came in a few times. Jen got her a drink around 7:15? and then I did around 7:30. At that point, Julia was awake as well.

I finally just got up and took a shower at 8:30, and Alex wandered in the bathroom somewhere around 8:50 or so. Everyone is sorta/kinda awake right now (which is early for everyone else) and I can’t wait to see what kind of day we have… 🙂

So… perhaps naps are in order, and an early bed time!

OH! Funniest part? Around 8am I did go back to sleep, only to dream that all six of us were in a tiny two room place … NOT SLEEPING! It was 6am or so in my dream, and everyone was awake!! I was thinking – we all need to be sleeping!!! And Jen (in the dream) was just fine with everyone being awake.

I was awoken by Kirstie needing more help (around 8:30) and just had to chuckle. Dream was imitating reality, or vice versa.

I think we just need some sleep. 🙂

by Greg

Birthday Month

Welcome to February – a very busy birthday month for our family and friends. Our daughter Kirstie will be celebrating her fourth birthday at the end of the month, but before that four of her seven Walker cousins will be celebrating their birthdays also! And Kirstie’s youngest cousin on the Campbell side of the family is also a February birthday boy.

And, who knows… with a baby due mid March, she could have a sibling join her in the Birthday Month!

Besides close relatives, many friends also celebrate their birthdays this month with probably the craziest day being our oldest niece’s birthday. On February 20th (our niece’s birthday) three of our friends will also be celebrating their birthdays! Four on one day! (And two of them were born the same year also!)

So, it may be the shortest month of the year, but in a of way it’s one of our busiest! 🙂

(And don’t forget, this year we get a bonus day!)

Happy February! 🙂

by Greg

My Favorite

Last night we were leaving our friends’ house pretty late after another fun evening together, and as we were saying good bye I noticed our son Alex running in circles in their front yard. He’s usually one of the first out of the house when we’re leaving (and one of the first ones in as well) so I guess that’s how he was passing the time. Everyone else had made their way to the van and to where they needed to be, but Alex just needed to run around.

And somehow, in that moment, it just reminded me of how much I love him. In fact, my actual thoughts were, “He’s my favorite!”

At first I reacted to that thinking, “Of course, so are the rest…” That’s when I realized… they are. Alex is my favorite, and so are Ian, Kirsten, and Julia. Even the next baby that we haven’t met yet. I guaranteed he or she will be my favorite, too. 🙂

There’s a cool book I have mentioned here a time or two before called, The Shack. In this book, a guy has an in-person encounter with God and many times when God refers to any person this guy brings up, God says, “Oh, he’s my favorite.” (Or, one of my favorites, or something.)

Last night, I really understood that. It’s completely true of my and my kids. They really are my favorites. My favorite people. I love them more than they can know, or than I can probably express. But I’ll keep trying anyway. 🙂

[As a footnote to this whole story, I was re-telling the events to Jen as we were pulling in our driveway. When I said the part about thinking Alex is my favorite, it wasn’t long before Jen noticed him running circles around our yard, too. Guess he likes being “the favorite”…] 🙂

by Greg

Caught In A Snow Storm!

Last night I took our four kids up to the library to return some books, and to pick up a few new ones. The library is only half-way around the block, so we bundled up for a nice winter walk. It was even lightly snowing, so it was more fun than usual!

We even sang a song on the way there:

“Going for a walk in the snow to the library,
Going for a walk in the snow
Going for a walk in the snow to the library,
Going for a walk in the snow!”

It was perfect, and the kids did pretty well in the library. We got the books we wanted, and some stamps from the nice librarian. We bundled back up and headed out the door.

What we discovered was astonishing.

Swirling, blowing, blinding SNOW! Where did this come from?!? I just laughed! It was like a joke! What happened to our light flurries??? Well, we had no other way home, so I made sure faces were as covered as they could be and we set out into the storm.

And this was a storm! The wind was a constant 10-15 mph I’d guess, with stronger gusts. And the snow was collecting on the ground – and on us! – at an alarming rate. The worst part was, a third of our trip was heading west, directly into the wind! At one point during that stretch I turned around and pulled Julia in the stroller backwards (which helped a lot I think) and saw poor little Kirstie just closing her eyes and leaning into the wind as she pressed ahead into the blizzard!

It was crazy!!

Once we were able to turn south, and find a bit of shelter behind a giant brick church building, it got a little better. We laughed all the way home through the still rapidly falling snow.

Red cheeks, faces, and other exposed skin greeted Mom when we got home. Mom actually met us in the driveway, as she had seen the fierce winter storm and was coming to get us. But we managed to brave the elements and make it back home safely.

I told the kids as we were fighting the storm that we’d have hot cocoa and hot baths when we got home! And we’d also read a couple of the library books we just worked so hard to get.

And we did. 🙂

by Greg

Lesson Learned?

I was observing my three-year-old daughter and her one-year-old sister today as they tried to play together. They were just a few feet in front of me, and truthfully, it was not going well.

Julia, the younger, was taking things from Kirstie, the older, and this was not a welcome action. Kirstie was just whining about it, and then taking matters into her own hand, retrieving what had been taken. Of course, this only exacerbated the situation, so I decided to step in.

“Kirstie,” I said in my most parental, instructional tone of voice, “That is just not going to work. You can’t whine, and you can’t just take the blocks back from her. How would you like it if she did that to you? This is a good chance for you to practice ‘Treat others the way you want to be treated.’ Why don’t you ask her for what you want, instead of just take it?”

She followed my instructions and her younger sister gladly gave up her blocks (which were stolen in the first place…) and everyone was smiling. For about two seconds. That’s when older sister decided to just take some more of what younger sister had. This resulted in very loud, shrill screaming.

Again… not going to fly with Dad.

Since this didn’t seem to be getting through, so I said to the perpetrator Julia, “Julia, why don’t you show Kirstie what it feels like. Take that yellow block on the top of her tower.” Julia was happy to oblige. She reached over and grabbed three blocks from the top of Kirsten’s tower. (She was probably pretty amazed I was letting her do this!)

Once the blocks were safely in Julia’s possession, I asked Kirstie, “Now how do you feel?”

To my surprise, the first response came from Julia who said, “Good!”

Haha! That was too funny. Kind of ruined the moment, and taught the wrong lesson, but… at least we know that when you’re allowed to do whatever you want… it feels good. 🙂