Gettysburg Family

The Latest in Susan Texts (Uncle Michael Post)

2012-01-25T03:07:00.000-08:00

Jan 19: Kennies sold out of the cinnamon gum drop jelly hearts. Apparently, I'm not the only one that loves them.

Jan 21: Em dumped a cup of cocoa powder in the toaster.

Jan 22: Me - Can you believe they still sell Kelloggs Corn Pops? Susan - I like Corn Pops. Wtf man.

Minutes later: Not a fan of Oreos. (I responded that I was calling the FBI as she was obviously a sleeper agent.)

Jan 23: [Greeley called me but after asking when I would be there next, stopped talking. So I hung up on her. I texted Susan this information.] I asked if it was you or the machine after end call beep beep came on and she said you. "Maybe he hung up because I wasn't saying anything. Hmmm."

My vacuum is not sucking well which sucks.

[I asked about the vacuum later.]
Rich fixed vacuum. Biggest fur ball ever.

Jan 24: Cinnamon hearts at Target!! And coffee mugs. Emerson did rack up some numbers in the last month in coffee mugs. smashing them TOGETHER proved quite effective.

UMP: Yo Gabba Riordans!

2012-01-01T13:14:00.000-08:00

Yo Gabba Gabba Theme Song

Recently I've been watching a couple of Yo Gabba Gabba episodes because Emmy likes them. ("Yoga!", he says.) One of the great things about Yo Gabba Gabba is the music. The show was created by an indie musician and one of the recurring stars is Mark Mothersbaugh, one of the founding members of Devo.

Recently I've been singing the theme song and making up my own words to go with the family. Sometimes they're kind of mean or they're related to my personal experiences with the family. But I've made up one that I think applies to the whole family (kids, anyway) perfectly. Watch the video at the link above and learn the tune and then apply it to these words.

"Shea-man! He's on his DS!"

"Atlee! She makes up puzzles!"

"Greeley! She has those tantrums!"*

"Emmy! He's a bulldozer!"

"Wilson! A magic sausage!"

I was going to provide pictures to go with each line but my pictures aren't on here and I don't know where relevant pictures would be on Susan's computer. Still: the song is fun.

*It would be mean, but it's based on too much fact.

UMP: A Couple of Randoms

2012-01-01T11:03:00.000-08:00

Even when she sleeps she poses like a movie star.

Here's a moment of levity between Greeley and Emerson.

Christmas 2011: The Day After (Uncle Michael Post)

2012-01-01T10:38:00.000-08:00

There were promises made and those promises were kept.

Uncle Michael Post: Christmas Day Eve

2011-12-29T14:44:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Day, we went to Cousin Karen's for the traditional Christmas day dinner/family party. Emmy liked going outside. Here Mommy and Emmy are sitting out front.

Later, when we got home, Emmy played with the blocks he had gotten

Greeley colored in mommy's bed.

Atlee couldn't keep up the pace. She crashed on the couch.

On the late local news, Gree got some exciting news.

Emmy, of course, was the last to fall sleep. But before then, he found a box to play with.

Then, at last, everyone was asleep.

Uncle Michael Post: Christmas Day 2011

2011-12-28T10:10:00.000-08:00

Greeley bought Mommy a hat for Christmas. Emmy looks great in it.

He's a munchkin and a wizard!

Shea got the microscope he had been wanting. Then he proceeded to trip over the AC wire and knock it over. Here he might be checking out the slide collection he got.

It's a new Strawberry Shortcake movie!!
(Also: check out the cool tea set in the foreground!)

Atlee asked for socks. Atlee got socks.

Emmy got a safari truck. Later, Wilson "got" a giraffe.
(He was just answering to his inner wild animal.)

Shea got...uh...triops! (Forgot for a second.) What are triops? "They're basically sea monkeys but he asked for them," said Mommy. What happened to the triops? As Shea would say: "Welllllll...." (He boiled them, essentially.)

A Hello Kitty coloring book!

The real presents, though, require a video.

Witness the excitement!!

Then, there was the biggest reveal.

This is why Greeley was excited.

More gifts:

Emmy got his own kitchen playset, so he can stop stealing Mommy's spatulas!

This is a homemade sign Atlee got from Mommy promising a new fish.
Mommy drew the fish herself!

No, this is not Atlee pretending to beg by the side of the road.
This is the written side of the fish promise.

This was one of the presents I wish I had video from.
When she opened it, Greeley was very excited about her Barbies.

Emmy got a truck with some cars! He really liked it!
Which was good, because...

Trucks Part 1:

Trucks, Part 2

Uncle Michael Post: Christmas Eve 2011

2011-12-28T09:53:00.000-08:00

This is Atlee and Daddy playing Mad Libs.

For Christmas Eve, we were invited to brother Gene's for dinner. It was decided that Mommy and Emmy would stay home and the rest of us would head down.

When I got out of the shower I found the girls were dressed in finery befitting the season. At one point, Atlee jumped down to Greeley's feet and said "Ooo; I like your shoes." Greeley shrugged and said "It's easy when you're a princess."

Here's the princess now! She looked fabulous and when she randomly struck this pose at the top of the stairs so I asked her to recreate it so I could take a picture.

Here she is ready to head out; purse with pull up, stuffed reindeer and - as always - the leopard print jacket. Because if the Riordan girls are nothing else, they are WILD.

Since I took a picture of Gree, I tried to get the other two as well but I wasn't very successful.

At was decked out in purple.

Down in Maryland, Aunt Mary taught Atlee how to play Othello. What is Greeley doing? Looking for a piece that fell.

I think Atlee lost but it was probably because she was confused by the fact that Aunt Mary kept speaking to her in German.

Later, Uncle John played Shea.

Greeley has been feeling VERY affectionate lately. In the past week, she's probably told her mother "I love you" between 50 and 80 times. It would get old but she's just so cute.

Greeley: "Atlee! Do you want to go sit and look at the tree??"
Greeley really liked Uncle Gene's tree.

When we got home, it was back to business as usual. :)

Shea always wanted to do this.

2011-12-28T05:06:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry you have to turn your head sideways.

Emmy's Horoscope, December 6

2011-12-06T18:44:00.000-08:00

Courtesy of my DirecTV (this is Uncle Michael):

"You see an opportunity, and yet this is no easy feat. You won't be able to simply 'let it happen' on this one. If you want it to happen, you'll have to make it happen."

The Essence of Childhood

2011-12-05T22:14:00.000-08:00

Does anyone not remember doing something like this?

Scorpio

2011-12-05T16:36:00.000-08:00

One of the ways that Mommy likes to amuse herself is by reading Emerson's horoscope and seeing it in light of his personality and...er..."lifestyle."

This is Uncle Michael. It turns out DirecTV has a horoscope feature, so I looked up today's and this is what is says for Scorpio:

"For you, it's not enough to merely show up and do what you're supposed to do. You will dedicate yourself to taking things to the next level. You'll inspire others to do the same."

You see? In this case, one can only shudder while worrying what exactly it means that Emmy would "inspire others to do the same."

Wreathing

2011-12-05T14:45:00.000-08:00

Just so you don't forget there are other people in this family, let's show a project Daddy and Atlee worked on the Saturday after Thanksgiving (after getting the tree).

Dammit! Does this kid become the focus of everything?? *

Wait..... It looks like we might be getting back to Atlee and Daddy...

Yes...

And we close out full circle. (Disclosure: I don't think any wreaths got done during this session. I came across a half-finished one on the porch later. - Uncle Michael)

*Greeley probably wonders this same thing.

In case you were worried...

2011-12-05T04:27:00.001-08:00

The tree is up and decorated.

* pay no attention to the man in the box

Vampire Monkey!

2011-12-04T14:02:00.001-08:00

In case you haven't had a chance to witness this phenomenon first hand.

A Little Bit of Emmy

2011-12-01T22:12:00.000-08:00

"Hello, and welcome to Babies of the Rich and Famous. I'm your host, DESTRUCTOR!"

"My PRECIOUS! I dropped it down the drain!!!"

"PAPARAZZI!! NOOOOOOO!!"

The Secret Service dogs stay close to the official family vehicle.

Tell me this is not a picture of imminent destruction. Luckily, I was right there. (Uncle Michael)

We were going around the block when Emmy stopped for an important errand.

He had to pick up some rocks so he could put them in his big wheel.

"Mo wide!" he kept saying. I thought he would be a bit chilly, with no clothes on (*I* could feel the chill); but no. "Mo wide!"

Family Reunion Part 2 [Uncle Michael Post]

2011-11-20T17:20:00.000-08:00

When it got dark, everyone moved inside to the basement game room. There was a ping-pong table, a foosball table, a table-table, a nice corner couch and a flat screen TV.

Everyone first surrounded the foosball table.

A lot of times, there was more than one ball on the "field" because someone kept adding balls. If you look closely in the picture below, you can see a ball coming out of Greeley's hand.

Shea spent the time doing what he always did.

No, the truth is, he played foosball, he played ping-pong, and he watched Ben play on his 3DS.

Everyone enjoyed the light switches. Emerson showed us the way but I only caught Atlee doing it.

Because I hadn't taken a lot of pictures, I started to snap some of Greeley.

She helped me by parading back and forth in front of me.

I was about to get a nice one of her when Atlee stood up in between us. Thanks, Atlee. :P

Then Greeley asked if she could use the camera. Being a foolish softie that I am, I handed the camera to her. The first thing she did was take a picture of me. (Regarding my expression: I am watching TV. I'm allowed to be slack-jawed.)

Then she took this interesting photo of.....uh....my elbow?

Then she took a picture of some pillows on the floor. There are two of these pictures but I think you get the gist of it.

A couple of minutes later she brought the camera to me and handed it to me. The screen was blue with an hourglass on it and the word "Processing." It does that when I'm changing the memory from internal to a card but not usually for more than a second or two. As I took the camera from her, it kept doing it, so I shut it off. When I turned it on, the Kodak logo came up and the words "Lens" and some numbers appeared. I turned the camera over and discovered the lens was bent and would no long retract. I asked her what happened and she told me but I couldn't hear her as her voice got very low. The picture below is the last one taken. I don't know what that is. I think it might be her hand but she hadn't made a mark on her hand like the one that seems to be in this picture, so...

Riordans in Maryland

2011-11-20T14:12:00.000-08:00

Yesterday there was a family reunion in Maryland with some of Rich's mom's family.

Outside they had a neat bean bag game. Uncle Michael played Shea the first game.

Emmy wanted to check out the equipment, make sure everything was on the up and up.

OR it could have been that he found a new toy.

Then he found a platform to speak from.

As is standard procedure in these things, the game quickly broke down into something totally different.

Greeley was wearing a short dress with no leggings and it was a little chilly out. "You're going to catch cold," Uncle Michael said. "Mommy says I already have one," she replied. Uncle Michael lent her a hat to her anyway.

Soon it became less about getting the bags into the holes and more about getting the bags to hit your opponent in the face.

Uncle Michael went to the other side of the yard - and, as usual, was followed. So we ended up playing that age-old game, "Chase Uncle Michael." Notice the frequent shots of Uncle Michael's bald pate.

It was really cold outside, so this footage (of how the game transformed from "toss" to "war!") was taken from inside.

Greeley in a position of power.

Further out in the yard, Atlee discovered horseshoe pits.

Emmy was very excited with these strange new implements.

After playing with the horseshoes at his pit for a couple of minutes, I told him that Atlee had abandoned her pit so we could go get her horseshoes.

I would just like to point out that Emerson did this himself. He picked up the heavy shoe and then positioned it over his shoulder to carry it. I have no idea why but I was very impressed.

Two Posts in a Row?

2011-11-10T06:22:00.000-08:00

Surprised you there, didn't I?

Do you know what I miss in November when it's chilly and my furnace is disassembled because the pressure tank apparently has a hole in it which causes it to make such a thunderous clamor that we were all pretty sure it was going to explode at one point? Do you? Do you?

I go to my happy place. And my happy place is the camp in Maine.

Happy children playing on the lake shore.

Happy dogs chasing Frisbees.

Kids all piled into the front of Boat, waiting for a ride.

This year Wilson taught Cady how to swim. In return, Cady taught Wilson how to bark. Gee, thanks Cady.

Did you know my husband loves his boat? I know the kids and I rank at the top of the list, but Boat? Boat is right behind us.

Like Shea, being towed by his dad on the lake. Right behind. See what I did there? Oh, I am a clever little wordsmith.

Or like I love my own little Boat. His name is Wilson and he's not really little.

As we noticed when he tried to climb up on the raft. This was almost as amusing as when he tried to fetch the buoy for the boat.

And after a long day of tubing on the boat, they all come ashore on the paddle boat.

Much better to look at this then to think about a stupid broken furnace.

An Actual Gettysburg Mom Post

2011-11-09T09:29:00.001-08:00

What have we have we been up to for the last six months?

A selection for you....

There were evening walks with little girls in pink sparkly dresses with flamingo paper lanterns.

There were also maniacal little girls riding big wheels on those walks. Also wearing pink.

There was a sweet little boy asking his daddy why he loves his boat more. "Why, Daddy, Why?"

There may or may not have been a princess themed homemade hammock in the climbing tree out front for a while. Oh, OK, there totally was.

And water fights with giggly little boys.

There was lots of swimming in the pool in the backyard. Not to be confused for in the spring when the back yard IS the pool.

Somewhere in Cleveland, I decided that I still loved my husband.

And then we both decided that we loved Cleveland- even if we didn't end up going to a lot of its more popular sites. That's the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame up there. I hear they have Lady Gaga's meat dress on display now- so that's something.

This fall there has been candy corn, candy corn, candy corn.

Sweet Wilson has apparently gained 40 pounds since he joined us last year. So, no candy corn for him. And he has asked that- out of respect- we keep all snap shots of him framed as the neck up only.

A Lunch Meeting [UMP]

2011-11-06T09:45:00.000-08:00

Uncle Michael met Susan, Greeley and Emerson in Shady Grove for a quick lunch.

Emmy needed to get his shoes put on to go into McDonald's. As I held him up for Mom to put his shoes on, he noticed something in the distance.

Inside McDonald's, Emerson was his usual whirlwind of activity. Both he and Greeley were interested in the display case showing off what toys were available with the Happy Meals but only Emerson noticed that the display case seemed to be a bit open and he thought he could maybe just get his toys directly.

Greeley and Emmy in Mickey D's (as my dad used to call it).
(I tried to upload this video about five times but it's too large. Hopefully you'll be able to see it.)

We soon claimed a table to have our lunch while mommy waited in line for the food. If you see some fingers in the edge of this video, it's because Greeley was feeling a bit left out.

Finally, to give Greeley a bit of attention, I asked her about her extensive tattoos - but unfortunately I didn't have much memory left.

Later, Emerson showed off his impression of a mountain lion.

FLASHBACK: MAY 31st [UMP]

2011-11-05T15:06:00.001-07:00

Greeley explains why she likes me (Uncle Michael). [You may want to turn the volume down.]

What's Susan Been Up To? (an Uncle Michael post)

2011-10-07T15:56:00.001-07:00

Once I texted her to say "Hey! Where've you been? You're not replying to my texts!"

"Oh," I said. Then:

"MY GOD," I said, "why haven't you cut that child's arms off yet??"

"That kid is a walking disaster."

A little while later:

The Wedding

2011-10-05T22:09:00.000-07:00

an Uncle Michael post

First, there was the week before. I was talking to Susan and said that probably that all the adults would be thrilled to play with the kids and they wouldn't even notice I was there.

Well, it wasn't long before that was obvious. As my brother John and I were driving to Massachusetts, I received these texts:

I must have asked about their room.

Well, we got there later that night and sure enough, Gree wanted to sleep in my room. And, it turned out, so did Atlee. I call this photo: Room Invaders.

Gree didn't make it. At about 11 o'clock she said in a small voice: "I changed my mind; I want to go sleep with mommy and daddy." So I took her back downstairs. Atlee said she was fine and stayed and slept over.

The next day there was a party at our cousin Anne's house. When I showed up, somebody was happy to see me.

We went out into the yard and sat on the bench swing hanging from some trees and Greeley looked as cute as could be.

She might have been shoving a cracker in her mouth there. I'm not sure.

There was a little creek that ran through Anne's yard. Greeley really wanted to play in the creek.
"Can we go in the creek, Uncle Michael?"
"What did your mom and dad say?"
"They said no. But I'm asking you. So can we?"

Uncle Michael is a soft touch.

And of course, once one sister gets to play at the creek, the other sister wants to, too.

Everybody wanted to get in.

"Can I step over there?"

"If I just slide down here..."

"We could get in over there-e-e..."

Sure. Lean over the "rapids" (such as they are). Give Uncle Michael a heart attack.

Oh, ok, sure. You do it, too.
By the way? Sliding down that rock got mold all over your butt.

I don't know what I said to occasion this look but obviously it was incredibly silly.
(The green mustache is from food-coloring-enhanced lemonade.)
Right. Again: Standing on a wet rock right next to the foot drop is not making Uncle Michael feel good.

"Look, Uncle Michael! I'm standing in the water! Who knows what kinds of things I could step on!!"

Emmy of course wanted to get in, too, but he was wearing jeans and his nice new sneakers! There was no way Daddy was letting that happen! So he found a different way to get Emmy close to the water.

"Hey, Uncle Michael! Another part of the creek! Do these rocks look precarious enough?"

Those girls love water. (To be honest, I do, too, which is why I was so lenient.)

The family gathered together to take a picture of everyone. I sat down next to a handsome fellow with a modern hairstyle who was enjoying a delectable summer treat.

"You want some?" he gestured.

No thanks, I said.

The gang's all here.

"Man, that was some good ice cream. Even if I did drop the majority of it on the ground."

Shea was happy to find his natural habitat, the Wii, in the house. He advanced steadily through the boxing ranks but unfortunately his character couldn't save.

Meanwhile, cousin Sarah Rose had gotten a pumpkin and cut it open and Atlee had happily scooped out the guts. Here she's separating the seeds from the goop to save for later.

Greeley was happy to watch. "Don't let that stuff touch my leg."

"This stuff is really great for your nails," she said.

"Oh, I love goop!" she said.

Other people who were at the wedding:

Aunt Mary

Uncle John

[Gruff law enforcement voice]: "The preceding individuals don't trust the internet and therefore do not want their faces shown on this public, shameful and embarrassing website."

2011-10-05T21:53:00.000-07:00

Just so you don't forget how beautiful these children are, I found some reminders.