Grant Robert, Barista

My morning begins with coffee.  Coffee is among my worst vices.  I go through several cups per day.  It helps me get my day started and by midday it helps keep me going.

Most mornings my routine merely consists of going downstairs and setting up the coffee pot.  I check the news and email and within that amount of time the first floor is filled with the wonderful smell of coffee.

For the last few months I have had a helper. If Grant is awake he eagerly jumps out of bed with me and announces, "I'll help!"  He then says that he will make coffee with me but pronounces with a "T" so it comes out "toffee." He holds my hand as we walk downstairs or requests a piggyback ride.

I perch him on the counter and he talks me through the steps. Get the filter (he pushes it into place).  Get the grounds (he helps scoop them into the filter).  Get the water (he pours the water into the reservoir).  Close the lid.  Press the button (his favorite part because he gets to do it all by himself).

Once these steps are done so is he and takes off for cartoons on the iPad or jumps back into bed with mommy.  Task complete, he has no interest in the actual beverage itself.


My reward is spending some simple time with Grant in our own private ritual.

Maybe I'll teach him how to do it all on his own and I can sleep in a little longer!

I Am The Tooth Fairy

Looking Like Don Vito Corleone

TJ is now at that age where he is losing his baby teeth.  This the age where one by one first teeth get loose, bend over at grossly odd angles, and eventually come out.

Actually, it has only been two so far.  Each time we make sure that the tooth is conveniently place in in a plastic bag and put under the pillow.  As we go to bed I make the exchange of the white little nub for a one dollar coin.  That's the easy part.

I am the tooth fairy.

TJ's second loose tooth was hampered by his adult tooth coming in at a gross, odd angle behind it.  That baby tooth was stubborn too.  It lasted for almost two weeks to the distress of Lisa who imagined (and helped me imagine) the dental bill for braces if our son's teeth came in crooked. 

At lunch over the weekend I told TJ that I was going to pull it out.  TJ, ever the nervous one when it comes to medical stuff, was definitely uneasy with the idea.  TJ knows it must be "bad" when dad takes over as doctor.  Remember, I'm the one who gave him an enema(s).  I'm the one who, when he jumped off the couch and bit through his lip, stopped the bleeding with a towel and ice (as opposed to a trip to Urgent Care where Lisa would have taken him).  However, in this case, mom was at the table and wasn't saying, "No," so it must be okay.

Turns out baby teeth are much harder to grasp a hold of than I ever realized.  My big fingers just couldn't get a grip on it - not enough to yank it.

I keep a set of common house tools in the pantry, right behind where I sit at the kitchen table.  Among the tools are a pair of nice, long, needle nose pliers.

Lisa's eyes got wide as I pulled them out but TJ seemed pretty cool with it.  Maybe he thought I was kidding.  I gently grabbed the tooth and .37 seconds later it was out.  Along with a gusher of blood.  Lisa ran from the table in a combination of utter surprise, disgust, and empathetic pain for her son. As soon as he saw the tooth pinched in between the ends of the pliers TJ cried. 

I am the dentist.

So now TJ is running to his mom, his mouth full of blood, I am running after him trying to get a paper towel in the gap left by the tooth so he doesn't bleed all over her or the couch, and Grant is sitting at the table taking it all in and making mental notes for when he's older. 

That's all for now.  If I undertake any other minor surgery I'll post it here first.

Cabin Fever

Three days at home with the kids can test your patience and sanity.

For the second time in three weeks the Wake County Public Schools have been closed for three and a half days due to weather.  Snow, and it's evil cousin, ice. 

This week the first patch of bad weather started on Tuesday afternoon with a strong snow storm that hit Ft Bragg and forced me to hit the road by noon.  We all knew that this was Round 1 of a three part storm.

On Wednesday, Round 2 hit harder than the first day.  In our little town the roads were covered with white chaos within 20 minutes.  In the time it took us to get extra provisions from the store our car was covered in snow.  It took my neighbor 90 minutes to go from the store to our subdivision - a trip of three miles. 

When the weather turns bad here the only option is to go home and stay there until you think the main roads are passable.  Lacking any serious snow moving equipment, the towns and counties in North Carolina rely on Mother Nature to remove the snow for them.  This means it was 29* yesterday and it was 55* degrees today.  Yesterday the roads had snow on them and today the snow melted.   Since we average one significant snow storm here a year - One Per Year - it makes no sense to invest in plows. 

When the weather turns bad here life pauses.  Businesses close up.  Grocery stores shutter.  People seem to disappear altogether.  There are no adventurers out there.  Unless, of course, you waited too long at work and got caught on a major highway.  In that case, you were screwed.  People abandoned cars rather than wait for a rescue that may or may not have come.

When the weather turns bad here you are trapped inside with your family for the duration.  We were lucky and kept electricity throughout.  TJ and Grant played together and one their own without any issues and we managed to get over to grandma's a couple of times to let TJ have a change of scenery.  TJ and I even had a "camping" night as Round 3 - the ice storm - rolled through during the night of Wednesday to Thursday morning and we slept down stairs while the gas fireplace stayed on. 

By Thursday afternoon the roads were clearly passable but the neighborhood roads were a mess and with the drop in temperature into the twenties again, school was cancelled for Friday too.  Ugh.  Lisa and I both brought home our work computers so we were able to get some work done even though both Ft Bragg and the ARC were closed.  But, eventually, you run out of things to do.

All those little chores you have been putting off?  They finally get done.  Tupperware drawers get organized, clothes get folded and put away, the fridge gets cleaned.  And that's just the first two hours...

I am reminded that I do not miss the northern weather.  I feel for those people who stay there for one reason or another and have endured one of the worst winters in recent memory.  My heart goes out to them as one storm after another pounded them this year. 

All storms pass and we were greeted with sunny skies and warm temperatures today.  All in all - we made it.  The kids were good and our cabin fever didn't turn out to be that bad.  

The forecast next week calls for 78* and thunder storms.  Helloooo spring.