More Ohio Pics

I'm still trying to catch up from the last week or so. These pictures were also taken while we were up in Ohio. Many of them were taken at my mom's house.

Contrary to the face she is making, Claire actually had a great time at Nana's, well, apart from the near paralyzing fear of my mom's two dogs that is. She spent most of her time hopping from one piece of furniture to the next to avoid having to come into contact with them. Ben, as you can see, didn't mind them much at all.

Kayli and Claire were lucky enough to have their first joint sleepover at Nana's. I use the term "sleepover" loosely, as I'm pretty sure there wasn't much sleeping going on. There was, however, bathing in Nana's big tub.

This picture was taken as evidence that Claire did, eventually, become accustomed to Sadie, my mom's golden retriever, as long as he didn't approach her head on. Back and hindquarters were safe though. Sammy, the Maltese, stayed on her "enemies at large" list.

Nothing like the strangle hold to show sibling love.

Nana had a cool battery operated car for the kids to use. I'll just let you guess which grandchild would have nothing to do with it.

Ben and Zeke getting in a little game of air hockey.

The two boys, Zeke and Ben, are 8 months apart, so they don't have a whole lot in common yet, including their hair color! But, they seemed to get along fine.

Zach and his very pregnant girlfriend, Amy, are due a baby boy (Noah Timothy) on the 17th. We are hoping he's born early, so that we can see him while we are up in Ohio for dad's wedding.

I love this picture. Ben and his Papa. I had several people tell me that they look alike.

yearbookyourself.com

My friend, Rachel, found this great website. It's hilarious to upload your pictures and see what you might have looked like in yearbook pictures of different decades. Some of these are eerily familiar! I laughed. Really hard.

1984

1988

1974

1968

1952

1996 - I'm pretty sure I have this exact picture of Shawn somewhere

1960

1976

1968

1958

1992 - Shut UP!

Claire and Kayli Jo

Just two months separate Claire and Kayli as far as their ages go, but many miles separate them from each other. Not having seen each other since Christmas was no barrier for these two, however. Kayli hopped in our car on the way to the zoo, and she and Claire picked up right where they left off. These two are like peas in a pod. Or, rather, like one pea and one carrot. Soon they were laughing at each other and playing games. But, like I said, one is a pea, and one a carrot. Or, as evidenced by their favorite animals, one a giraffe and the other a cheetah (guess which is which). These two are very different. While Claire is shy and timid, afraid of much, Kayli is fairly fearless and gets her kicks from telling jokes. For example, on the way to the zoo, I asked her to tell me one. This is what she came up with:

Kayli: What does the Snoop Dog (fairly certain she thought she was talking about snoopy here) use to wash his clothes?
Me: Um, I don't know. What?
Kayli: BleeAtch!

Yes, that's what she said. I burst out laughing. Her response? "Heh, heh, that's pretty funny, right?" Claire's response? "Kayli, what's bleeAtch?" Kayli replies, "Oh, I don't know. I think it's nothing." Having no idea what she is saying only adds to the hilarity of these jokes. And yes, Seth told her that joke.

As further evidence of their respective characteristics, the picture below was taken after trading in their tickets at the Magic Castle (like Chucky Cheese). Claire picked a ring, a candy bracelet, and a slinky as her prizes. Kayli? A pirate eye patch and purple vampire teeth.

Here's Kayli running around acting crazy while Claire just stands and laughs at her. This scene tends to play out in various other formats throughout their time together.

For all their differences, these two are the best of buddies. I really wish we lived closer so that they could play together more often.

Trip to Ohio - Cincinnati Zoo

We've been talking about going to the Zoo nearly all summer. Actually, I think Claire first brought it up sometime around Easter. The North Carolina Zoo is a natural habitat zoo where visitors are often lucky to catch site of the animals because they are contained in vast stretches of land or in lavish jungle like enclosures. Plus, you have to walk a TON to get to each exhibit. So, we weren't too excited about going there in the heat of the summer. Thus, when Seth suggested that we take the kids to the Cincinnati Zoo, it seemed like a great idea. It is much smaller and fairly accessible for kids too.

I took a whole hoard of pictures that day, so you'll have to just scroll through them all. Seth and his girlfriend, Alicia, brought Kayli, and Jesse brought Zeke, so all of the cousins (minus Tristyn who started her first day of 7th grade - poor, hormonal thing!) were there. Dad and SueAnne came as well.

Ben's favorite part was seeing the rhino. He kept telling it to "get out of the mud right NOW!"

This huge hairy beast of an ape provided nearly half an hour's worth of entertainment for my family. He was new to the exhibit that day and was not happy about his situation. Poor guy had to deal with three very curious female apes who kept crossing into his territory. Time and again he would pound against the outside wall and race across the exhibit while screaming at them. It was pretty terrifying just to watch. My brothers thought it was the coolest thing ever, of course.

It's been about 15 years since I had been to the Cincy zoo, and much has changed. One new addition is the Lorikeet cage. You can enter the cage and purchase sweetened milk. The lorikeets and various other colorful birds will fly down, land on you and drink the milk. Claire put one foot in the cage and about had a heart attack. Ben lasted a few minutes longer, but everyone else did ok - apart from getting bird doo-doo on them, that is. SueAnne, Zeke, Alicia and Jesse all got doo-doo baptized.



Claire's favorite animal is the giraffe. I'm not sure why this is. Perhaps it is because they don't make any scary noise and are slow moving? That probably has something to do with it. Anyway, the new giraffe habitat was pretty cool. Had we visited it a half hour later, we could have actually fed the giraffes by hand.



My mom says it has been this way for a long time, but the zoo allows the peacocks to roam around the zoo on their own. You run into them all over the place, and they usually congregate around the snack bars and restaurants hoping to find some food.

Kayli and her daddy (Seth) at the Polar Bear exhibit.
Claire is apparently afraid that Papa Bill is going to throw her in with the Polar Bear. You can tell by the picture that he is telling her to "shush."

This picture of Ben and Shawn was taken at the beginning of the day. Poor Ben was exhausted by the end of the visit, and actually spiked a fever for the next few days. We never figured out what caused it, but he was NOT a happy camper.

Catch Up - Pool Days

The last few weeks have been very busy in Casa de Black, and I am woefully behind on my "blogging." In my defense, I have been trying for over a week to upload a stinking hilarious video of Ben shaking toy maracas while doing the booty dance. See, I told you it was funny. Alas, blogger is not helping me out on this. So, I uploaded all the pictures off my camera, and I'm ready to try to catch up on our other activities.

Lest my sorry list of new posts for August mislead you, we did actually do some things. One of our favorite summer activities is going swimming at the local pool. It's a small neighborhood pool which I believe we have outgrown, but it was good for the kids this year. Here they are in the "baby pool" playing together. I believe this particular game involves the watering can and the "trees" they are watering. Um, I don't ask.

Michael Phelps has nothing to fear from these two. Claire still refuses to put her face in the water. Though, she is perfectly content paddling around the pool with her "swim muscles." Ben would probably jump straight into the pool if we would let him, but his ear tubes prevent much of his pool fun. He loves the pool, but has a short attention span. When he's done, he'll yell out, "done, go home," swim over to the ladder and climb right out.

Here they are enjoying their absolute favorite pool activity - drinking juice boxes. For kids who typically get watered down juice in their sippy cups, a full box of non-diluted, sugary juice is a real treat.

Pow-Wow

I would venture to say that nearly every parent believes their offspring to be in possession of a singular talent, ability or genius. While I can't, at this time anyway, point specifically to a particular talent or ability (though she does do a mean ballerina spin in the living room), Claire is most certainly in possession of an eager brain. She laps up new information like a thirsty dog (ok, bad simile there), and is constantly asking questions. Now, I am quite aware that this behavior is common among children of her age, but let me just pretend that her quest for knowledge is part of her "genius." After all, she did tell me the other day that she was "so exasperated."

This quest most certainly has caused problems for her, as simple answers aren't enough for her overactive brain and imagination. No, she has to know exactly where bees live and how it feels to be stung, what kind of bug is that on the bottom of the pool and what does it eat and does it have a stinger, etc. Nightmares were a common problem for her when she was younger, to say the least.

Anyway, the result of all this is that she will oftentimes get fixated on a particular topic of interest. And, for the last few weeks or so, Indians have been the topic of choice. They first entered her sphere of knowledge via the Laura Ingalls Wilder books and Laura's account of Indians while living on the prairies. Certainly not one to be included in the current politically correct category, Wilder's view of Indians is often fearful, disdainful and derogatory. This, of course, sparked Claire's interest and we spent many minutes discussing where Indians lived, what they wore, why they were so mean then, etc. To add to this already colorful picture of our Native American friends, is Claire's current fascination with the Disney version of Peter Pan. She tends to watch a movie over and over for a week or so and then move on to a new one. Well, I am fairly certain that Walt Disney has no friends in the Native American population. His depiction of the "Red Man" is stereotypical at best and rudely derogatory at worst.

So, when Claire found out that King is the annual host to the Indian Pow-Wow, she was determined to attend. Having fears that she would arouse hostility by asking the nearest "red man" why he wanted to kill white people or when was the last time he used his tomahawk, I spent a lot of time explaining to her that, for the most part, Indians are just like we are, are not mean, etc. I do think this finally hit home for her because I overheard her talking to Benjamin and telling him not to worry when we went to the Pow-Wow because the Indians don't want to kill us anymore. Right, at least we got that one covered.

I've posted a few pictures from that day. None of them are taken too close to any actual Native Americans, as Claire was not comfortable enough to stand next to them. But she seemed to enjoy herself.

These two pictures are of a game where a woman runs in front of a boy or man and tries to protect him from getting swatted by the broom-wielding other male participant. ???

So, Claire met some real Indians, and now she can rest easy in the knowledge of our peaceful Native Americans. Plus she has some new information to file away in that genius mind of hers.