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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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

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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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

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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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

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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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

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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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

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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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

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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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

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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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

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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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

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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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

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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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

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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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

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