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

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

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

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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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

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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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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Our family thanks you.
Papa Chanoli

Old School Chuckles

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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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

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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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

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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Our family thanks you.
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)

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