Daley Ponderings

Pocket Notes

joyful — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 17:16:54 -0400

Oh, yes. It has been half a year since my last pocket notes post...

9/6 - Joy says "yum" and "yummy", "all done/gone" (sounds like ah-doh), "where shoe?", and "mine" (sounds like my)

9/25 - Faith reading the Bible to Joy: "When you want Mommy to cuddle with you but she can't, you aren't alone because God is with you."

Faith also reminded herself of this as she went down to put tools away in the basement.

9/28 - Noah let me listen to his piano practice and I was impressed with his progress: both hands, dynamics, steady rythmn

10/2 - Noah lost his upper left second incisor. It had to come out to make room for the new first incisor. That is, he lost three baby teeth to make room for two adult teeth. As of March, he has not lost any more.

10/12 - Jon felt the baby move

~10/12 - Joy says, "'kay" for ok

10/14 - Faith felt the baby move

10/14 - Joy says, "two, three" sounds like "do, wee"

10/17 - Joy says, "hot" sounds like a breathy "ha"

10/21 - I turn 33.

10/24 - Joy says, "thank you" sounds like "tha tchoo"

10/31 - The almost-went-to-the-doctor day. Joy put a bead up Faith's nose (I think she was lying down). After much distress in attempting extraction, I finally got it with a toothpick. Later that same day, Jonathan cut his ankle on a piece of broken tile. He was very dramatic about it, which we have started to treat as the boy crying wolf, but when I actually saw it, I agreed that it was pretty impressive. But a butterfly closure did the trick and we did not need to go get stitches.

11/1 - Joy put on Faith's shirt, underwear, and shorts - she wants to be just like big sister!

11/1 - Joy said, "Faith" sounds like Thay.

11/18 - Jonathan turns 9

11/21 - Isaac would be 10. Wow.

12/8 - We move into our own house!

1/18 - Joy poured her own milk by herself (with the last of the gallon).

1/9 - I was looking for electrical caps. Joy said, "dap!" and handed me the jar of caps.

1/26 - To Joy, every animal says "roar"

1/28 - Jonathan had a bad math day. The worksheet would say "what's the difference..." and Jonathan's answer was "one's longer".

2/2 - Jon's birthday party/Housewarming party

2/8 - I was using a measuring cup to scoop batter out, and Joy said, "me do cup please"

2/9 - Jonathan: "Nobody can argue that Mrs.Lull is a good teacher." Faith: "'Cause she is!"

Joy likes giving high fives. She'll say "fie!" and hold her palm up.

2/11 - Jon turns 36.

2/13 - Jeremiah is born.

2/15 - Joy, heading down the stairs, said, "Bye. Love you, Mommy."

Three of Joy's two year molars came in after I last brushed her teeth before Jeremiah was born and before I first brushed her teeth a week later. The slow one is the top left.

2/23 - Joy turns two.

3/10 - Joy sees Jeremiah spit up on my shoulder. She says, "Spill." and then goes and gets me a sponge.

3/16 - Faith reads! She reads the first several stories in I Can Read It! Book 1.

Very Busy November

joyful — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 11:56:46 -0500

Actually, the only thing written in my pocket notes from all this time is that on 11/16, Jon solved the mirror cube with his eyes closed.

Jonathan's 7th birthday was a very fun time. He got a lot of cool presents and had a lot of cool people over to play. Grandma and Dad-o were there for the occasion and the next few days were also busy with fun.

Three days later was Isaac's 8th birthday and he was not forgotten. Here is something I wrote to Grammy on the day: "It's amazing how fast time flies sometimes. 8 is the age that I imagined him, just a few days after [his death], running up to me with a big smile on his face, saying, 'Don't worry, Mommy, it's fun up here!' and running off to keep playing. I always thought that he was so old in that dream. And here he would be..."

As we prepared to head to Philly for Thanksgiving, Dad recommended that we get a car-top carrier for all our stuff, as all the seats in the van would be full. That turned out to be a very good idea, especially because of all the presents we brought back home! As usual, the time with family at Thanksgiving was full of feasting, games, little sleep, and lots of fun. Noah made a good friend in cousin K, who played whatever he wanted very patiently. It was a blessing to see little Faith Isabella, who has had many health issues in her short life and for whom we have been praying through her many surgeries and struggles. Our Faith, when asked the baby's name, or when referring to her, calls her "Me" or "Baby Me".

Faith made great strides in potty training - I'm so glad I brought her little potty. She now consistently goes in her potty for all manner of needs and has not had an accident in a while. Also, her nighttime diapers had been dry for about two weeks, including during our stay away from home, so when we got home I decided to try putting her to bed in underwear. There has only been one bedwetting accident since then, and that was when she fell asleep during a movie and I did not have her go to the bathroom before putting her down in bed.

We came home on Sunday and Monday was the last full day at home with Grandma and Dad-o. We had a mini-Christmas with them on Monday morning and that was fun though rather chaotic. Adding to both the excitement and the chaos was the arrival of birthday presents for all from Auntie E.

Tuesday, we all headed up to help our former pastor's family get unpacked into their new house. It was very rainy and muddy, but the truck got unpacked by the end of the night. We got enough beds together that they could sleep there that night, but Jon left all his tools there so we could come back Wednesday to finish up some projects.

Wednesday morning, the rain had turned to snow! Happy December! It was sticking, about an inch, though the roads were fine. I brushed off my parents's rental car and we said good-bye. Mom was going home and Dad was going back to Thailand.

Then the Daleys headed back up to Indiana. I helped get shelf liner in the kitchen and Jon continued to work on plumbing for the washer, dryer and utility sink. I went to Lowe's three times - reminded me of when we moved! It was a long but productive day and the washer was ready to be used when we left.

The next few days were spent in catching up on home things and recovering from the very full past couple of weeks. It has continued to snow and be very Christmas-y. Some friends gave us a sled and the boys have had lots of fun playing outside. There was a snow penguin at some point but I think he is now just a large ball on the front walkway.

Today is full of jackhammering in our basement, as we finally decided to have people come in and put in drains and a pump to keep our basement dry. We'll see if Jon wants to make a more detailed post when the job's all done.

I Heard It From a Newspaper...

jondaley — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:27:34 -0400

So, I know you can't believe anything you read in a newspaper, but if the newspaper calls you and tells you something, then can you believe it? How about if both Pittsburgh newspapers call?

We've heard that Judy was acquitted of two of the three charges brought against her, but she was fined the maximum for the third charge, which comes to a grand total of $100.

It'd be nice if the county would notice that the prosecution wasted seven years trying to get a verdict, and failed so future folks don't have to go through all of this.

News I Forgot to Mention

jondaley — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:41:04 -0400

Speaking of news, I forgot to post here that the closing arguments for Judy's trial are scheduled for tomorrow, and I'll be heading to Pittsburgh to hang out with folks who will be there in her support. Of course, this might be the first time a scheduled meeting actually happened when it was supposed to (or did it already get postponed once? It's hard to keep it straight) so I wouldn't be too surprised if Lisa is on vacation and forgot to tell anyone.

As I understand it, tomorrow's events should be pretty straightforward, with each attorney getting to talk however they like and then the judge goes away for a week to ponder the incredulity of it all and come back and rule on the three charges (there are three charges, either because the district attorney agrees with Stephan about lists, or in the hopes of getting one to stick).

And of course, Jonathan hasn't graduated from college yet, so it probably won't really end, though I understand that in this case, the prosecution can't appeal, so it is up to Judy whether she would want to continue to drag this out forever if he finds her guilty on any of the charges. After seven years, she might just be tired of it all, though I suppose it probably partly depends on the findings, and ramifications for other women in the US (or at least Pennsylvania, though in this case, the judge explicitly asked Judy's attorney to find him cases from other states) who want to employ a midwife.

Trial Update - Jon's Testimony

joyful — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:58:11 -0500

Check out Mom's post and Jon's comments afterwards for the update.

A Practical and Fun Memorial

joyful — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:48:57 -0400

Grammy and Papa bought a playground for their backyard, "In memory of Isaac and in honor of all [their] grandchildren."� Two weekends ago, we went to New Hampshire to help them assemble it.� It was a fun and busy weekend.� The playground is big and immensely fun.� Even though we were not able to finish it that weekend, it was assembled enough for the boys to clamber all around.� Jonathan said, "This is the most fun thing ever!"

All the playground pictures are on our pictures page.

The boys on the Rollicking Roundabout:

Latest picture from Papa; they did more work last weekend:

The memorial plaque:

Trial?

jondaley — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:14:43 -0400

I was just served with a subpeona to appear for Judy's trial on September 22nd, with a preparation meeting on September 8th.� Probably not what Heather wants to be thinking about with our baby due any day now.

I told the detective that with our baby coming, we might not be able to make it, and he said to call the prosecutor, but she is "out of the office" until Monday, so I assume she won't get the message in time.� Oh well, I guess that is what they get for not notifying us sooner.

Trial Date?

jondaley — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 12:12:23 -0500

I had meant to post that the trial was going to be on March 17th, but I just found out that it has been postponed until September 22.� So, more waiting.� Crazy.

November in a Nutshell

joyful — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 19:00:30 -0500

This month has been full, busy, and blog-sparse. Because we're actually living life instead of blogging about it! But here goes:

Noah is experimenting more with sounds. He copies a lot. Still not much consistently, but here are some things we've heard him say: "where?" "Papa" "more" "Dad" "no" "none" "that" "hot" "hat." He also often covers his mouth when he sneezes or coughs.

Jonathan has been interested in non-fiction books recently - specifically one about storms and one about skin. On the way back from the playground last week, Jonathan said to me about his knee, "Every time somebody whacks it, it hurts, because I scratched it to the dermis."

How's this for a triple negative: "undoned-ed" (As in My shoelace came undoned-ed, will you please retie it.)

When he grows up, Jonathan wants to be a construction worker, a painter, a dentist, an astronaut, and a fireman. He says, "I'll do some construction, and then I'll say, 'bye, guys, time for me to go paint' and then I'll paint, and then I'll say, 'bye, guys, time to do my dentist work" and go there."

And now to chronological events. Grammy and Papa came for the weekend of the 9th. We had a blast at the children's museum. The highlight for me was watching everyone in the garage workshop. Jon, Jonathan, and Phil spent a long time building a big complicated house with bolts and nuts. Noah helped, too. Three generations of engineers! Noah spent a long time with some audio-type plugs that controlled the bulbs of a streetlight.

Jonathan opened some early birthday presents, including some piano lesson books and a lego street sweeper. Jonathan is more like Jon who would rather make up his own things, than like me who likes the kits. He asked for piano lessons every day until we got distracted by activities later on.

Grandma arrived on Tuesday the 13th. We went to the zoo on Thursday and had a delightful time playing with one of the polar bears through the underwater tunnel. Dad-o arrived Friday night.

Jonathan's birthday party was Saturday, complete with construction excavator cake. He had made the excavator from duplos a couple of months before and said, "Save this for my birthday cake." Grammy brought candy rocks for decoration, too. (They tasted like m&m's!) Dad-o supplied candles that spelled out JONATHAN.

In the evening, Jon said he could open one present early - our present to him. It was a battery charger for the remote control car, but really to him it was the car itself. That was the hit present of the weekend.

On his real birthday, Jonathan woke up to balloons and decorations on his bed (balloons supplied by Grandma who tried to buy them twice before the store actually opened.) "I'm really four!!!!"

We went to church, where the tradition is for the whole congregation to sing Happy Birthday. Kim asked Jonathan what is name was and he said, "Dash!" So the church sang "Happy birthday, dear Dash" which thrilled him to pieces.

At home he opened more presents and Dad-o bought Thai take-out for dinner. Jonathan's only request was that the restaurant would have soda, so Jon got ginger ale at the store when he picked up the food. A fun birthday, and Jonathan is so happy to be four. He did think he felt bigger. (:

Then we had a day to get ready, and on Tuesday we drove to Philly. The trip was quick and uneventful. Cousin K had an orchestra concert at a retirement home that night. It was standing room only for the players' parents, so Jon stayed home with the boys. But we hadn't prepared them ahead of time, so Jonathan was really upset about not coming with me. Noah seemed to handle it ok that night, but was especially Mommy-clingy the rest of the week.

The concert itself was enjoyable. My favorite piece was a chamber orchestra with jazz piano trio. And I'll happily report to my sister that Dad did a great job with after-concert comments. He asked K what his favorite piece was and gave many positive comments.

The Thanksgiving weekend was full of family, fun, and food. The boys had a great time playing with cousins. Cousin A reported to his mom, "Jonathan is really fun to play with!" K spent a lot of time playing with Noah and Jonathan as well. The weather was warm the first few days and lots of outdoor fun happened, too. We had a concert (was that soup night or Thanksgiving night?) with cello, guitar, saxophone, flute, oboe, trumpet and piano. It was a fun, cacophonous time, though we missed our other oboe/whistle/etc player.

Wednesday was Isaac's fifth birthday, which I remembered in sweet sad thankfulness lying on a hammock with my other two boys in the beautiful sunshine.

The trip home Sunday also was quick, because we heeded the traffic warning and took a back road for an exit or two around a clog-up. Noah was really ready to be out of the carseat, though.

This morning, we were going to be on time for women's Bible study, but just as I was getting in the car, saw that the front left tire was flat! I was determined to change it myself and let Jon sleep (he had stayed up to the wee hours on a project that was going so well he didn't want to stop.) But neither Mom nor I nor the two of us together could get the lug nuts off. So Jon took care of the car while our neighbor drove us to Ascension. Near the end of the meeting I felt my phone vibrating on my toe (it was in the backpack - the phone, not my toe!) and it was Jon letting me know that he had dropped off the fixed car in the parking lot. (The cause of thew flat was a half inch screw by the way.)

Tomorrow we bring Grandma back to the airport, and pick Sanda up from the same. We then have two more days to finish up the organizing of the computer room, and here we are, Advent! I doubt the fast pace will slow much until, oh, about March. Pictures will be up soon, but I have taken so long to write this that they will have to wait.

Hearing Continued (AKA Never Ending)

jondaley — Thu, 24 May 2007 10:03:32 -0400

The hearing to argue pre-trial motions in Judy's case has been continued to October 9, 2007. Judy's Expert Witnesses will present written argument to the judge at that time and he will decide whether to dismiss the case or go to trial.