Blanket Blues (Subtitled: The Bane Of Tigers)

Like most others across the globe (hopefully), the Chanoli Gang is celebrating the birth of Jesus this morning.

One nice gift that Mama and I received today is a nice blue fleece blanket. Like almost every blanket in our house, it's not official Chanoli equipment until Papa, Chuckles, and Giggles have hidden under it together. Silliness occasionally gets into the fun, but her tolerance for hiding under blankets is still rather short.

We broke the blanket in today, and that brought to the surface one of Chuckles idiosyncrasies; sometimes he doesn't like to be touched. In this case, he didn't want Papas feet to touch him under the blanket. I explained to him that he was being too touchy, (pun intended,) and that he needed to be more gracious. It didn't work.

As a mildly ineffective way of desensitizing him I deliberately put a foot on him. He popped his head out from under the blanket, (my head wasn't under it at the time since I needed a breath of fresh air.) In his most serious tone he told me, "Daddy, foots aren't for touching people. They shouldn't touch people, foots should only touch tigers. They're for kicking tigers and that's all."

I guess we aren't ready to get a dog. (Not that we'd planned on it.)

May the blessings of our Lord and Saviour grace your home this day.


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Papa Chanoli

The Giggling Princess

This has been one horrible cold/flu season for the Chanoli family. We've been battling yet another bug that has ravaged the whole family this past week. Currently Mama and Papa seem to be the worst off.

Mama, in her daily travels with the little ones snapped a cute picture of Giggles the other day that I thought you might enjoy.





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Papa Chanoli

The Spirit of Christmas

By a Hairs Breadth

Mama Chanoli and I came within a hairs breadth of having a date night. I can't even remember the last time we we went out together. All we were going to do was a little Christmas shopping and maybe have an ice cream sundae together, but even that had me excited and looking forward to it.

Poor Chuckles came down with a fever and naturally we are in sick-house mode now. Date night was canceled.

Even still I find myself thankful for my lovely wife and her tireless care for the Chanoli gang.

Christmas is already merry.

Chuckles was just sitting on the couch watching Finding Nemo with Silliness on his lap and his arms wrapped around her. A big brother smile was on his face.

Giggles has taken to some extra drama when she gets upset. Recently she paced around our upstairs in tears hollering, "Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!" I still don't know what was bothering her, but it was unprecedented cuteness.

Life goes on in the Chanoli house.

Sometimes even laughter pales in comparison to a contented smile.





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Papa Chanoli

Snickers, Bubbles and Sweets

Tonight, Chuckles, Giggles and Silliness have their Cousins over. We'll call them Snickers, Bubbles and Sweets. They're a little bit older than the Chanoli gang, but oddly, and almost poetically, they are an older boy and two littler sisters like our children.

Karen, whose update link I keep at the bottom of my posts is their dear mother, and their father whom I'll call Bobblefingers for the sake of the mirth anybody who knows him will find in it, (He'll love me for that)is one of my own dear brothers. I am a fortunate man, in that I have the rare privilege of being able to look up to my younger brothers. They have been instruments of God's grace in my life, as have their wives, and now they and their families are my closest and most valued friends outside of Mama Chanoli and our little ones.

Snickers, Bubbles and Sweets are staying the night with us for a day and night of fun and games. Among the fun things that Mama Chanoli had set in store for us tonight was gingerbread men for dessert. Bubbles provided the blog-worthy entertainment for the evening. As we were eating our gingerbread men we labeled them according to their missing body parts...

"Look, mine's Headless." bellowed Snickers with a laugh.

"I ate my mans arms." laughed Chuckles.

I was busy interrogating mine as to whether it had seen the Muffin Man who lives on Drury Lane.

Holding up her dismembered figure, Bubbles bellowed, "Mines Legolas!"

Mama and I got a good laugh from that.

One more interesting note is that Chuckles and I were mopped up like spilled milk by Snickers, whose hat-trick will likely hold the record for years. He beat us at three out of three games. One of Chutes and Ladders and two of Candyland!

Ouch! I was trying my hardest!







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Papa Chanoli

Route 66

Chuckles loves race cars. So do I. Our first trip to the movies together was a disaster, but the second trip was great. We went to see Cars and both of us love the movie.

For those who've not seen the movie, it features cars as the characters. There are no people. Each car has a face, a personality, and of course a name such as Lightning McQueen who is the main character. (Mater's my own favorite.)

Chuckles now plays with his toy cars more than ever, and frequently he imagines them dialogging with each other. I enjoy listening to those conversations.

Tonight he decided that only the toy cars of his which have eyes and a mouth get names. I asked him to name one little hot-wheels type of car that had no facial features and he refused, "Nope," he said, "could you put a face on it, then I'll name it for you."

I hunted down a permanent marker and established what I thought was a pretty lame face on the car. Chuckles responded to it favorably commenting, "That's nice!"

I asked him to name it and he thought for a moment then asked, "Hmm, I don't know. Can you name it for me?" I thought for a moment. This was my opportunity to impress him with a really cool name.

Mama looked the car over and asked, "Why don't you call it Ford?"

Much to my chagrin, he liked the name. I tried to modify it a little, "How about Joe Ford?"

"No," he said with a sideways glance at me, "His name is Ford."

Please try to envision a blank look on my face here if you know me, and if you don't know me, imagine the face of an extremely bored cat, half asleep by the fireplace.

I'm tempted to put faces on all his cars while he sleeps and hope he lets me name one.




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Papa Chanoli

Mixed Meanings

Giggles had a cheeseburger tonight. She likes cheeseburgers. Actually, the whole gang does, but Giggles is the one who pulled off the cuteness tonight.

I can understand a little girl mistaking a cheeseburger for a hamburger, but only my Giggles could get it mixed up enough to call it a hotdogger.


8)

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The Ravages Of Time

It's bad enough that Blogger is malfunctioning for me at every turn, but now injury is added to insult.

I don't mind my hair turning gray. I almost don't mind the minor thinning spots that have developed in my hair over the years. I can handle wrinkles and the loss of elasticity in my skin. Some of these things are even mentioned as blessings in scripture, such as the gray hair being a crown upon your head.

I must say that I completely fail to see how having a gray NOSE hair enhances venerability!

Mama Chanoli thought it was a booger!!!!!

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Sleepyness

Ok, let's see if this picture stays uploaded.

Need I say more?

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Is it good?

I've had a hard time reconciling to myself that there's been a lack of balance in the number of posts about each child. It took me a while to realize that it makes sense for Chuckles and then Giggles to provide more fodder for blogging. They are after-all older than Silliness, and they have the ability to dialogue when she doesn't. That said, I'm now resigned to posting whatever I think is worth posting, regardless of equal time.

Enough disclaimer...


Today I decided to make a nice chicken soup for dinner. Chuckles and Giggles usually don't have much enthusiasm for soups, but lately they've been more willing to eat them.

Chuckles though, as with most nights, was reluctant to eat dinner. I do have my ways of encouraging him, but that is for another post at another time.

I told him that he needed to start eating, and he nodded. I continued eating and still he had not taken a bite.

I loaded up the spoon for him and went to put it in his mouth. He opened his mouth, but he had some words for me before he took the bite.

He exclaimed, with his usual seriousness, "If it's good I won't cry!"

I sure was glad he didn't cry.





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Papa Chanoli

A Graceful Chuckle

Our home is currently graced by a visit from Gma and Papa. They traveled far to come see the Chanoli gang, and with them in the house we are certain to have much in the way of chuckles, giggles and silliness. For the sake of clarity, the Papa referred to here is Grandpa.

So tonight, we were at the dinner table. (Imagine that!)

Chuckles really does like having his Grandpa around. I've never seen him want to be so close to anybody beside myself or Mama Chanoli.

Papa was sitting next to Chuckles at the dinner table. Chuckles was nibbling prematurely at his meal, the content of which will be evident in a moment.

Chuckles had done a fine job of thanking our Lord for the meal at lunchtime so naturally Papa asked Chuckles, "Are you gonna' say grace?"

Chuckles replied in as serious a tone as you can imagine, "Nope. I don't have any grace, I'm having cornbread."

That's my boy. 80 grit smooth.






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Dinner Silliness

A little pre-dinner Silliness

Clandestine Operations

Calling all support units, I need some backup. This mission will require a united front.

Mama Chanoli left for a few hours today, and I'm C.O. of the troops. We've had a number of successful missions today, but this next mission is highly sensitive.

During preparations for today's mission objectives, orders came down to not let the troops have any milk. It's on a need to know basis, but recon says it's so the milk doesn't aggravate the enemy cold bug that has invaded the local nasal passages, thereby increasing hostilities.

It's to late people, the troops have already been supplied with hot chocolate.

In order to prevent my summary execution before the firing squad, we need to convince HQ that hot chocolate is NOT a milk product. Repeat; hot chocolate is absolutely NOT a milk product.

Under any other circumstances this information would remain top secret, but further recon indicates that the troops have loose lips.

Stick with me on this people. If HQ gets word of this procedural error we'll all need to stick together. Again, a united front is mandatory. Hot chocolate is NOT a milk product.

Don't forget it.

Over and out.






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Unabashed Advertisement

While we were all sick this past week, Mama Chanoli and I managed to watch the Arts and Entertainment mini-series version of the Jane Austin book, "Pride and Prejudice." We loved the dialogue, and the story line drew us in. I have yet to read the book, but we will definitely read it very soon since the book is always so much better than the movie.

In this case it looks as though Arts and Entertainment did their best to remain true to the story and do justice to this acclaimed classic book. Their choices in actors and actress' could not have been better.

I give this movie my highest recommendation for your entertainment pleasure.

Sleepy Lobes

Chuckles is suffering an unusual malady right now. He told Mama that he has a yawn in his ear. She, being the diligent Mama that she is, immediately informed me so that we could inspect his ear.

I asked him which ear had the yawn. It was his right ear. I had him lay down on the couch so I could take a close look. He was very cooperative. He won't let you put a band-aid anywhere on his body without extreme difficulty, but he'll yield to an ear yawn inspection with no trouble at all.

I looked in his ear for a moment and confirmed the presence of the yawn for him saying, "That's quite a yawn you have in your ear Chuckles."

"Yeah, it's a big yawn." he replied dead-pan.






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Papa Chanoli

Silly Putty

Some faces contort, some distort, others seem to be more like silly putty they are so expressive. That would be Silliness' face.

(Please ignore the time of this post, I'm the midnight cougher right now.)

Since the cold bug is the latest family theme, I will try to describe some of the cold induced, putty-like Silliness I have witnessed today, but first I must build the setting.

Silliness has a 14 month old obsession with tissues. A couple of days ago, while dear Mama Chanoli was trying to keep up with four sicklings, she walked into our living-room and yelped. Silliness bellowed a comedic response. I was coming down the stairs just in time to witness the bellowing and her arms outstretched as if to say she wasn't a party to this crime. Silliness was looking down at where she had just nearly emptied a new box of tissues into a white cloud around her feet.

Silliness then began to scold,(herself?) with her pointer finger pointing in the air and shaking side to side. Her tongue was wagging audibly against her upper lip rapidly, in the time honored way that children say everything and nothing at once while she looked back and forth between Mama and I. Laughing and coughing was the response she got, since scolding from her looks more like an angry songbird sitting on a branch than anything else. Needless to say we've done our best to keep tissues out of her reach since then. This wasn't the first episode in that story.

To add to the picture in your mind, know that when I blow my nose, well, the neighbors might wonder if there's been a foghorn installed in the neighborhood. You've all heard the sound, if not from me, then from somebody else who blows his nose too hard. You'll have to envision that sound fully to get the effect I'm after here.

Yesterday I blew my nose in my way. Naturally before I did, I grabbed a tissue out of the newly formed zip-loc bag of tissues, but an extra tissue drifted to the floor. Silliness pounced on it, but it was only the one tissue so I decided to let her have it.

I blew, the fog rolled in, and the foghorn echoed. Echoed? I wasn't finished so I blew again. Again there was the echo. I looked down at Silliness who had the tissue pressed to her forehead with one hand. Her lips were pressed together doing a near perfect impression of the sound I make blowing my nose.

Laughing, coughing etc...

I was glad I was able to get her to repeat the stunt for Mama later in the day. Some things in life should not be missed.

On that note, take a moment to appreciate the fun parts of the loved ones near you and then click the link below and send a quick prayer up to the God who gave this all to you. Be reminded that the small things in life grow ever more valuable as time goes by, and every one of those small things is given by Gods grace and kindness. To God alone be the glory.




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Papa Chanoli

Laughing and Coughing

I have determined conclusively that laughing is not good when you are struck with a coughing fit.

At this point, nobody in our home has been spared this cold.

Today during lunch, when we would preferably have been enjoying a meal with our church family on our Lord's day, I was struck with a coughing fit. One of those fits where the more you cough, the more it makes you cough so you cough and cough and cough. Giggles was watching this particular fit intently... with a smile on her face.

Just as the fit subsided I looked at her and she said in her cutest little girl voice, "You're a good cougher Daddy!"

This was naturally answered by laughter, and more coughing.

Chuckles, shortly after that was overcome by all the humor I guess. He misquoted someone somewhere, "That's cracking me out."

More laughter... more coughing etc...




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Papa Chanoli

Yuck

We are all ill. An unforgiving cold virus is my assumption, but it hit the little ones first. Of course they acted almost as though nothing was wrong and only Chuckles really seemed all that sick. Then the bomb hit. I caught it and am sicker than a wet stray dog in winter. I hoped that Mama would be spared, but now it seems to be her turn.

Needless to say, posting here has been the least thing on my mind, even though the Chanoli gang is as entertaining as ever.

I hope to bring you some of their clever quotes soon, but for now it's time for healing up.

Blog at ya' soon.




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Papa Chanoli

Old School Chuckles

Worth seeing once:

Now I don't really need a blender right now, at least, not enough to justify the purchase of one, but if I did, I'm thinking this is the one to get.

From what I've seen, the extra links on this page can be pretty random, so preview this before linking up with little ones in the room.

I almost don't believe this actually happened:

Blending 50 marbles:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OmpnfL5PCw

And for your extra viewing pleasure, blending Golf Balls!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC8Zvl-8ziA


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Papa Chanoli

Not funny, This one is need to know:

I just read this from a link on a friends blog to this blog. I don't know anything about the links on this page, but since a lot of our friends with children read the Chanoli blog I want to pass this information on.

Please at least read the beginning. This is a safety warning and I think it's relevant. I've used this product and it works great with almost unbelievable results. I was suspicious of it's content just because it works so good, but I wouldn't have guessed at this side effect.

Magic Eraser burns:

http://kerflop.com/2006/11/02/chemical-burn/


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Papa Chanoli

Extra Fun

Tonight our home is blessed by the presence of a friend we will call Miss Mach2 for the sake of her quick wit. She has been playing with the Chanoli gang while Mama and I try to catch up on our duties.

Miss Mach2 joined us for dinner this evening also, and that earned her a place in the blog because after all, that seems to be where all our material comes from.

Miss Mach2 was seated between Chuckles and Giggles for the duration of the meal, and was keeping up a dialogue with them both. Chuckles was in imagination mode and was explaining to Miss Mach2 that we don't have cars. <<(envision my head shaking in befuddlement)>>

At one point Chuckles told her that he can't drive cars, and she of course asked him why.

"I don't know." he explained.

"Your legs are too short. Even if we put the seat all the way forward your feet still wouldn't reach the pedals." Miss Mach2 said, egging him on.

Chuckles, in true form replied, "Yep, I need extra legs."


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Papa Chanoli

Words Of The Day

Deewishus, as in "Mama, this toothpaste is deewishus." (Chuckles)


Moo-ah, said after giving Mama a really big kiss. (Giggles)


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Papa Chanoli

Ok, so I goofed up!

Tonight at Dinner... (a common refrain at this point.)

I was working at keeping Giggles' attention on eating her meal, doing all the weird little things we do to convince our little ones that they really do want to take the next bite.

My trick this time was to point to, (touch, tickle) her stomach and tell her that this was where she wanted to put her food.

It would have been helpful to point out that there was a designated route. No sooner had I said it than both Chuckles and Giggles had their shirts up and were inserting bite sized pieces of pork into their belly-buttons.

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Papa Chanoli

Help me now

It seems that the funny things that I can remember well enough to post usually happen at the dinner table. Don't ask me why, 'cause I dunno'.

Tonight we had ketsup on the side as dippin' sauce. It was good. Chuckles was happy with himself because he had squirted some on his plate, "all by myself," like a good 4 year old.
After that mighty feat, he was satisfied to have the ketsup and mustard containers lined up in front of him on the table, until I had the audacity to want some ketsup.

Without asking, I reached over and took the ketsup, squirted a bit on my plate and placed it on the table in front of me. He was watching. Little did I know how important it was that I place it back in front of Chuckles. He promptly protested in a very 4 year old manner, "Daddy, give that back to me!"

You can imagine that a suitable admonishment was forth-coming, but he protested further, "Daddy, put that back, now!" Imagine that, a 4 year old being demanding. Has anybody ever heard of such a thing? Further admonishment was what he got in return.

Other than the words of training, I generally ignored his request until it was given properly, but Chuckles had another angle to try. He tapped Mama Chanoli on the leg, waiting patiently for her to turn her attention to him, and when she did, he stated in a quiet tone, "Mommy, I need some help with Daddy."

I couldn't help but laugh. Mama just smiled, for little did I know that this marked an accomplishment for her. She asked, "Do you know why he did that?"

I promptly replied, "Nope."

"I've been teaching them to come to one of us when they have difficulty with each other."

Now I was the one smiling.




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Papa Chanoli

Friday Evening Trip To The Park

After running errands this evening we decided to stop in the park and wear out the Chanoli gang.

Here's a glimpse of the result.

Mama's new glasses and Silliness's new pigtails

Look like Chuckles is holding on tight?

No tighter than Giggles is holding on!

C'mon Nora!
Hi!

One last slide...
Look at the little tree climber!

We ran across these vagrants sleeping on the bench and decided to wake them up.

I thought you all might enjoy these.

God Bless

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Papa Chanoli

Building Up Character

Every one of us who is a parent knows first hand the diligence it takes to develop good character within our children. We hope and pray as we work at it that our labors will bear good fruit. We seek in all our leadership to build them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.

We work at building their intelligence too, and like most other things, that has it's challenges.

Here below is on of those challenges exemplified:

We've all seen these. The blocks that are part of those early stages of training. They aid in teaching colors, the alphabet. The pictures help us to teach them the name's of things.

Please tell me if you can, what exactly should I teach little Silliness that the name of this picture is?

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Enough of corny. We're all cheesy now.

Our little architect of home life builds her first model...

Of course, she tops it off with a giggle...

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Papa Chanoli

Ok, this one's corny as they get.

Hug your kids. I got in a few today and I recommend it for what ails ya'.

Like I said. Corny.

Chuckles asked me for a hug today. Simple, but oh so valuable to me.




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Papa Chanoli

G-g-g-Giggles

Giggles took a bath tonight. Actually she took her second bath, but tonight during dinner she decided to rub mayonnaise in her hair so she scored another soaking.

The best way I know to get Chuckles out of the bath is to subtly change the water to cold until he asks to get out. (It's easier when it's his choice.)

I tried the same technique on Giggles, but with unexpected results. As the water got colder she just acted like it wasn't happening. She'd fill her bath-toy cup up at the spout and dump it over her legs with a shiver and a giggle as she looked up at me saying, "That's very warm daddy!"

Needless to say, I had to see how far she'd go with it, so I gradually made the water colder. I admit, the girl's got a stubborn streak. I had it full on cold and all she did was get a little reluctant to pour it on her legs until she looked up at me with a slight tint of blue coming over her, "I think I'm done with my bath now" she said. Standing there with a nice thick towel to warm her, I asked if she wanted to dump the water on her legs one more time. She didn't look too thrilled about the idea, but she did it.

I guess it's ok to be a little nervous about how that characteristic will play out when she's a teen. I think I'll pray about that one tonight.

For now it's cute.

I bet that nice towel felt good.



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Papa Chanoli

Chuck chuck chuckles....

Tonight, I was standing in the bathroom and Chuckles came strolling in with my little half of a broken comb in hand. With an innocent look on his face he asked, "See how my head is handsome?"

I must have had an affirmative yet confused look on my face for he clarified, "I combed it."

Can you keep from grinning at that?



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Papa Chanoli

An evening of fun...

Tonight, we decided to take a trip to the pumpkin patch. We all had a great time. I chased Chuckles up and down the rows until one of us was tired out. (Not sure which one it was though.) The boy can run FAST now!
Here's a glimpse of the fun.

Off to the Pumpkin Patch

The fun begins....

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Papa Chanoli

Ok Everybody, Fold Your Hands and Look At The Camera. Yeah Right!

(Laughter can be heard from the Chanoli gang amid instructions from Mama and the sound of a camera turning on)

(Papa chimes in...)

Everybody say Fuzzy Pickles! (click)

Darn. Let's try that again. Fuzzy Pickles! Look over here! (click)

Look over here guys! (click)

Hmmm, maybe fuzzy pickles isn't working. Look over here guys! (click)
>
Woops, blurry...(click)



Well, that was cute, but not what we were after. Here we go, say cheeeeze! (click)

(two or three more blurry shots now occur then...)

Oh well. Let's try again later. I'm sure a couple of'em turned out ok....
(camera shutting off noises)

Pure Silliness

Here's a little Silliness for your blogging enjoyment.

Treasure Hunt!

Chuckles and Giggles exploring a trunk full of old treasures from Mama Chanoli's parents.


Can't wait to get the old Lionel running for the Christmas tree!

Woops

Mama Chanoli doesn't like it when use the word "fart." She has good reason to, as demonstrated by last night at the dinner table. I just have a hard time bringing myself to use her alternative, "boomies."

Last night Chuckles, at the dinner table no less said, "I farted."

I hung my head.

Mama looked at him after giving me a look I could call chastisement and then asked him, "Was that you?."

He nodded.

She asked, "Or was it that car outside?" to which he started chuckling and said, "yeah," with a sideways glance back at her and another good chuckle.

Mama started laughing, which caused what must have been a startled expression on my face after the look I got from her but I was laughing to.

In explanation Mama said, "I think he just cracked his first joke!"

That's my boy.

Dinner time

Tonight at dinner we were having steak, among other things. It was very good, hickory smoked on the BBQ. MMmmmm, delicious.

Chuckles' carnivorous tendencies are starting to show. He is my son.

He devoured his share of meat and asked for more. That's a recent development lately.

After we had all finished there was a small portion of meat left and Chuckles asked, "Can I have that big meat?" (big for him at least)

I told him we could each have half of it and he replied that he would like to come sit on my lap and eat it. As he walked over I pulled the meat platter over and he sat down on my knee. He then wanted his own fork, which Mama promptly handed to him saying that a man should be able to have his own fork when he wants, but I had already offered to let Charlie use my fork. He liked that idea. When I handed him his fork which Mama had handed over he said, "Here, I'll use your fork and you can use mine," to which I agreed and handed him my fork. He handed me his fork and we commenced to cut the meat and split in half each bite I cut, after soaking it in the left over juices. We ate it in great enjoyment together.

Giggles had watched this whole affair and said, "That's good sharing guys!"

Mama and I laughed.





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Please link to http://www.welovekaren.blogspot.com for current prayer request updates.

Our family thanks you.
Papa Chanoli

--<<( Smiles )>>--

It does my heart good to hear from you Melanie and Nan. I have resolved myself to be more diligent in paying attention to the things the little ones do and say so that I can post it here. Mama Chanoli calls herself a blogette because she likes to read but doesn't like to post, so I have taken up the torch and we'll see how far I get with it. Our love to you both and your families.

Todays funniness is watching the little ones learn the Nicene Creed. Giggles can't quite wrap her little mouth around the words "visible and invisible." It comes out more like "vibido and imbibido."

I can hardly get her to not dance while she says the words too, but today she said the first three lines with very little help.

God bless you all.

PC



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The God of the Bible and the Christ are my first love and loyalty. Next to God, come Mama Chanoli, Chuckles, Giggles and Silliness. Next to them come my dear brothers and their families.

One among us needs your prayers. Please link to http://www.welovekaren.blogspot.com for current prayer request updates.

Our family thanks you.
Papa Chanoli

Overdue

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The God of the Bible and the Christ are my first love and loyalty. Next to God, come Mama Chanoli, Chuckles, Giggles and Silliness. Next to them come my dear brothers and their families.

One among us needs your prayers. Please link to http://www.welovekaren.blogspot.com for current prayer request updates.

Our family thanks you.
Papa Chanoli

Out of the mouth of babes...

Tonight was one of those nights where we waited just a moment too long to get dinner together, and the kids went wacky. What parent doesn't know that one? So I, Papa C decide to go out and fetch a dinner pre-made. One that I know the kids will love, and that will take some of the pressure off of Mama C.

As I come waltzing through the front door, returning from the dinner errand, Giggles (the observant one) notices the bags in my hand and comes running up with a scream and a big hug with arms wrapped around my legs...

"Oh thank you daddy, that was sooo generous!"

We didn't quite tear up, but both Mama and I had huge smiles on our faces as we laughed. How these children absorb our words and phrases never ceases to amaze me. They just intuitively grasp the context of certain things, and yet other things they have to hear a hundred times before you finally see the result.

Thank God for those little moments that make it all so worthwhile.

PC

Bad Papa!

Ok, So I've spent considerable spare minutes playing with html code for fun and goofing with my other blog as if it will ever have more than the one faithful reader (Gotta love Marie,), but in the mean time The Tale of Three goes neglected.

In the mean time, Chuckles has turned four, and at any given moment he has a chance of informing you that he'll be five in ten minutes. That's not a direct quote, but it's close enough to get a chuckle out of me.

Giggles has taken to dancing. She's actually quite practiced, but you just hafta' love the 2 1/2 year old gracefully flailing arms. It's the fluttering eyelashes and the smile that really melt me though.

Silliness has decided it is time to assert her will. Needless to say, that's not so silly in the eyes of Mama and Papa Chanoli. She can go from smiling to barking in 0.5 seconds or less.

Chuckles came out of the restroom the other day after extracting something he wanted from Silliness' hands, to which she responded with a loud audible outburst. He was nearly in tears as he announced, "She barked at me!"

How do you not laugh at that?

On a serious note, there is one major event in the life of our extended family that has commanded a fair amount of our attention and nearly perpetual prayers as our thoughts gravitate continuously toward someone very close to us. Most anyone who reads this blog and has any clue who we really are will already be aware, but just in case someone stumbles across this blog and happens to actually read it, please take this link to another blog and at the very least pay attention to the prayer requests listed there. If you are a believer in Christ our Savior, then please lay your prayers before the throne of our gracious God and add your voice to the chorus of petitions that are being laid at His feet for Karen.

If you are not a believer in the Christ of the Bible, then I know that Karen and anyone else who matters to us would want you to rather pray that God would soften your heart and bless you with the gift of faith in Him.

Either way, take a look at what has occurred in little more than a week at the time of this posting and see why we as Christians turn toward God with humility and tears of thanksgiving. There is a testimony that will reach deep into your heart at www.welovekaren.blogspot.com

PC

The Chanoli Blog

With a little favorable providence, this blog will be a study in the exploits of three adventurous children as narrated by us, their parents who are lovingly aliased as Mama and Papa Chanoli. Our little ones will be referred to collectively as Chanoli, since that word abbreviates all three of their names together. Individually we will refer to them As Chuckles, Giggles, and Silliness. See below for a better understanding of who those names refer to.)

Mama Chanoli is the love of my wife. She endures all the challenges that every stay-at-home mother of three faces and manages to tolerate me while keeping our home, and still finding time to make me remember why I fell in love with her in the first place. First and foremost, she is living proof that God is merciful, because He has given me more than I ever could have asked for in a good wife.

Now for the characters in our story:

Chuckles is our almost 4 year old son who thinks everything on earth that fits in your hand is somehow capable of launching a projectile. If it shoots, has a sword, or is in any way related to horses, he'll be paying attention.

Giggles is our 2 1/2 year old Daughter. She is truly a princess whose largest concerns in life are what color she is wearing today and which part of her body her imagination just injured. She's also the cuddly one in the family, if you can get her to sit still for more than 15 seconds.

Silliness just plain IS a cartoon character. She's our youngest daughter at just over 1 year old, but as far as she's concerned, the world is hers to toy with. She has her brother and sister in training and is working very hard to train Mama and Papa as well.

We'll look forward to seeing how this whole blog concept turns out.

More than likely this blog will be posted too rarely at best, but on the odd occasion we might get the mood to update family and friends or wax eloquent. We'll see how it turns out.

Call it a test of sorts.

God Bless,
Papa Chanoli