Rob's family

Melinda was pretty psyched about the whole thing. Tracey's Dad came over to watch Gretchen (Tracey had a bow-making class), so my leaving (normally a tragic affair) was hardly noticed. Melinda skipped to the car giving me directions about everything - she's four after all - she's a woman of the world. As we walked in, Melinda happily led me to her classroom. A couple Dads & kids were waiting when we got there. "That's Eric, Dad. And that's Colleen." I had informed Melinda that I wanted to meet all of her friends, and she was very good at letting me know who everyone was. School opened and after hanging up her coat, Melinda went right to the "kitchen." Over the next 17 minutes, I met everyone in her class (the fifteen other kids that came). "This is Bridget, and that's Molly and Madeline." We flitted from activity to activity. I actually got a couple minutes to talk with Mrs. Karen and Mrs. Mary. "Is she always this happy at...

from Jim Tracey. I'll take pity on my coldish daughter and do this correspondence be e-mail, so you don't have to talk on the phone. But before I fill you in on the weekend (all good), I've been meaning to relay what Melinda told me when we baby sat a week or so ago. If you and Rob ever wondered whether the time and cost of going to Disney World was worthwhile, the answer from Melinda's viewpoint would be yes. We were talking about the vacation, and I asked her what she remembered most. She quickly responded Disney World. Then she told me about the rides...the fact that she wasn't very interested in the animals because they were too big, but that Gretchen got to know Pluto...and the videotaping of Small World "and we videotaped you, too, Papa." So Disney World seems to have been a worthwhile venture at least for Melinda. She was, not surprisingly, just about perfect over the weekend. She played indoors and out...did the computer only once...did some cr...

Tracey and I decided that the weather was good enough today for a trip to the zoo. Packed up the family and headed down to Brookfield. Tracey's folks give her a family membership for her birthday each year. It works out great for us - if we arrive and the weather is lousy or the kids are crabby, we can punt and not worry about having spent $35 for an hour. Melinda is taking a much more active role in deciding where we're going at the Zoo. "I want to see the Leopards first." She's inquisitive and loves to run around playing with this exhibit or that - moving levers, and lifting flaps. She's been to the zoo so many times, now she knows where things are. Upon entering the children's zoo - "Dad, I want to go pet the goats." Very self assured, but also tentative at times. Petting little goats is fine, but she remembers an aggressive (big) goat from another time and shies away from the big ones. It's tough to look at Gretchen and not consid...

From Tracey "Playdate" is the trendy term for moms and their kids getting together for a few hours. Makes it sound like our little tykes have important social agendas already. Anyway, a high school friend of mine with a 2-year-old daughter invited us over for the afternoon. Melinda basically slept while Annie played with toys. This is the first time I had met Annie, but I have heard over and over (from her own mom and grandparents, no less) "what a handful" this child is. Not so, I think. She’s cute and happily building a lego house for her Fisher-Price little people. Then Melinda wakes up, and Annie wants to see the baby. (I am quickly finding out that toddlers are enchanted by babies.) So I hold Melinda in my lap, while Jean reminds Annie to play nice and be GENTLE with the baby. They come over and Annie pats Melinda on the head. A split second later, Annie is pinching MelindaÂ’s arm—and when Jean pulls AnnieÂ’s hand away, it accidently scrapes Melinda a...

I moved my family website from a publicly hosted spot to a company server (and put new pictures from Connecticut) http://fitest.inspect.com/coleman It'll be http://www.chicagocolemanfamily.com/">www.chicagocolemanfamily.com(it's not - don't click that link) just as soon as I can convince Tracey that the $50 a year is worth it for a vanity plate... --- Did the camping thing this weekend with Melinda for the first time. Tracey has about as much interest in camping as skydiving. Thus, it'll be a daddy-daughter thing until one or both girls gives up playing with worms (more on that in a bit). Gretchen too decided to sit this one out(she can go when she's potty trained). I met a buddy of mine from High School (Mike) and his 5-year old daughter in Buckhorn State Park in Wisconsin. He drove down from St. Paul. Buckhorn is about 3 hours for each of us. The girls had a great time. None of the things that bothered me bothered them. No sore backs, or compl...

We're working HARD at getting Melinda to help prepare dinner without snitching food. Difficult given the examples she has to watch. "Do as I say! Not as I do." She's also fond of that little bit of food, right before dinner. Tonight, after she helped me set the table - "You can do the silverware, Dad." she snuck up on a helpless bag of cherry tomatoes (I kid you not, she'll sit down and eat a pint - by herself). Noting her intent, I informed her that she could ask: Dad : Melinda, if you want a tomato, please say, "Dad, may I have a tomato please." Melinda : Dad, may I get myself a tomato please? Dad : Here, you may have this one. Melinda : I want to pick my OWN tomato. Dad : If you want a tomato, you can have this one. Conversation ends with Melinda not taking the one I offered, but electing, instead, to cry and sulk outside.> At dinner time, I decided to try to mend fences by offering to split a big tomato with her. She's amenabl...

from Tracey The rain clouds that have been camped out over Chicago lately finally moved away overnight, and it's a glorious day! Poor Rob had to go in to work this afternoon, but I got to play with the girls. Melinda stayed overnight with my parents last night. Earlier in the day she said "I don't want to go by myself", but when they came to pick her up, she was out the door almost without a goodbye to old Mom & Dad. My parents seemed surprised when I called at 9:30 to make sure there had been no problems at bedtime. Apparently Melinda had a grand time. Rob and I took advantage of Gretchen still being at the portable age and went out to eat. Nice little tapas restaurant that Rob has been wanting to try. Definitely not a toddler-friendly menu, but someday we'll get a babysitter and go back with friends. Today, my parents and I took Melinda and Gretchen to a playground. While we were there, along came the first ice cream truck of the season. Finally bein...