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.





- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


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.




- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


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.




- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


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.




- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


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

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


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.




- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


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.

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)

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.