He's not moving out.
He's just moving.
Nolan has always liked moving furniture.
Our large suitcases with wheels are a discovery of "the good life."
Grampa and Nolan are in the basement "fixing."
The electrical cord leads to Grampa's drill, NOT Nolan's.
These were Daddy's Legos.
Grampa and Nolan designed a truck.
At this age, my children played with the Fischer-Price Little People.
Lego pieces are so small, they need to be supervised closely.
Nolan doesn't think of it as being supervised.
He just loves having someone always ready to help and play with him.
Having a Grampa, who is an engineer, is great when it comes to complex design.
And having an engineer Grampa means never playing with the same toy twice.
Obviously, Grampa has a lot more practice on the Lincoln Logs than I have.
Although, I did have a set of my own.
I think mine had less pieces.
Nolan's favorite chore is watering flowers.
And there's the additional benefit of wiping spilled water;
clean floors every week.
My grandmother had a very large garden
and grew African violets in all of her south windows.
I remember her teaching me the correct way to water and care for plants.
Seth is nearly always happy.
Grampa and Nolan are fixing the family tree.
After each working with their own needle-nosed pliers,
Nolan traded pliers with Grampa, just to be sure they were the same.
Now it's time to add new pictures to the family tree.
When it's time to clean up,
Nolan sorts the play-doh colors very well,
down to the smallest piece.
To Nolan, it makes more sense to be comfortable working in the kitchen.
He sometimes moves the chair to his kitchen,
and sometimes moves the kitchen to a better location.
Seth has a very contented look after eating.
Look out, he's filled to the brim!
Grampa nearly got caught by a wet burp.
He was quick to move into a defensive position.
Nolan arrived home from our walk, still awake.
Seth is still not up to the challenge.
Gramma and her gentlemen spend time after naps enjoying play-doh.
Seth, like Nathan, loves the bright red dog.
The poor dog hangs by his neck to be at the perfect height.
The tail is just long enough for Seth to put it into his mouth.
Some toys have to be washed every week.
Grampa is fixing my Superscope without Nolan's help.
He took a picture of how the parts fit together, before disassembling.
Unfortunately, to test the repair, it must be put entirely back together.
After the third time, it actually worked.
Seth is beginning solid food; oatmeal.
Matt explained that the process was to put a spoonful in his mouth
and then scrape it off his chin and repeat as necessary.
In a couple of days, he was screaming for Mommy to be faster with the spoon.
Nolan thinks he'll be able to take over feeding his little brother soon.
The California Gentlemen
The organ at St. Peter has three manuals (keyboards).
One for each of us.
It is exciting to play cards if you're a Goedken.
I remember playing cards with Grampa's grandfather, Zeke Goedken.
He once said to his partner, "Couldn't you tell what he had by the way he passed?"
In our family the table talk was much more blatant.
You knew what someone had by the way they complained about their cards.
"I need a bucket of paint to put some pictures on these cards."
"I've got a hand like a foot."
We're not sure where Uncle Bob learned to play cards.
His card playing would have confused Zeke about what was in his hand.
But he certainly plays a good game of cards with his nephews.
They can learn good sportsmanship from him.
He encourages them and doesn't complain if he loses.
Who do you think won?
Gramma plays cards with her good luck charmer.
We only had four days to learn to play hands together.
We got it done!
I think it's much more fun to teach your grandchildren,
than your own children.
Grampa played Fox and Hens with Nathan.
He was shocked when he lost.
He was certain someone hadn't given him the correct set of rules.
He lost as the Fox, so he said he wanted to be the Hens.
He thought it must be easier.
When he lost as the hens, he demanded a rematch.
He lost again!
Fos and Hens is a great pre-checker game to teach children.
It helps them to learn to move diagonally, use only black squares
and to always move forward.
Nolan loves his cousins.
He wishes they were here every Friday.
It's where the gentlemen belong.
Sir Paddy
Chapter 1
by Gramma
When I was a little girl, we had a bulldog named, Sir Paddy. Paddy was a strong dog. And he did not like motorcycles. Paddy liked to sit outside in the sun. He had a big doghouse he sat in, if he wanted to sleep. The doghouse was up on blocks.
When the boys on motorcycles drove past our house on the hill, they used to rev the motorcycle motors. This made Paddy mad and he chased the motorcycles. To stop him from chasing motorcycles, we had to hook him to a chain. We then hooked the chain to the big doghouse. The boys saw that his chain did not make it to the street. He was tied to the doghouse. so they began to rev the motors to make him mad. Paddy barked at the boys. He did not like the chain. He did not like the motorcycles. He wanted to chase the motorcycles.
One day we were away from home. When we came back, we found Paddy and his doghouse in the street. We did not know how he got there. Paddy was glad to see us. The kids that lived next door told us that the boys on motorcycles rode past our house and made the motorcycle motors rev. Paddy was so mad, he pulled and pulled on the chain. He pulled the doghouse with him into the street. But he did not want to pull the doghouse back after the boys left.
