General News

Ellie

Joshua

3.31.03

We signed the paperwork on the new house today...We are now the proud owners of two houses -- egads!

We took Ellie and Joshua over to the new house tonight so they could run around and see the future surroundings. Josh and Ellie spent a lot of time playing the piano while Paula starting stripping the wallpaper and adding new contact paper in the cabinets. I took measurements and stuff guys are supposed to do. ;-)

2.16.03

Wow! The deal fell through on the house below and we made an offer that should be accepted tomorrow. Looks like we'll be moving -- Close is set for March 31. Our new community will be East Grand Rapids (the best school district in all of Michigan). I found this on the website:

The East Grand Rapids School District has the distinction of being the only school district in the state of Michigan to receive full summary accreditation for all of its schools. Accreditation by the state of Michigan is awarded to schools who have demonstrated continuous improvement of their school, the accurate reporting of information about their school and the education of children to the public, and the achievement of specific standards as measured by the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP). Additionally, EGR high school has led the State on the SAT and ACT the past few years.

Only the best for my kids, eh? ;-)

Here's Joshua and Ellie's future grade school (and, there are only 3 houses in between our new house and this school):

Quite exciting times...Now, if only someone would buy our house quickly.

We spent the weekend in Chicago. We took the kids to see Blue's Clues Live along with their cousin Mark and his parents. It was a fun time, but went by too quickly.

I am getting close to revamping the website. We'll see if I can find the time.

2.11.03

Paula should have a new journal entry available soon (she started writing it in early January).

Big news...We could be VERY close to buying this house (it has an offer that is about to fall through). Click to see a photo (This is a large photo so you can see it better ~150k). It is located in East Grand Rapids.

1.24.03

Well, the stomach flu made its rounds through our family over the past few weeks. Joshua and Ellie seem to have lingering colds right now. Winter has been dropping the snow like crazy the past few weeks. I think we're ready to move to Florida...if we could take our jobs with us.

Daddy and Ellie will be off to Disney on Ice tomorrow (of course, it overlaps with the big KU - Arizona basketball game). Should be fun as daddy was able to get two front row seats. Ellie would tell you that I am the best daddy in the whole world...of course, she would tell you anything we asked her to tell you so that doesn't make it right...even if it is. ;-)

12.30.02

Well, not enough time to add many stories, but I do have photos from Kansas and our Christmas here. Here is the link.

12.5.02

Busy times in the Lancaster household. Paula spent the past few weeks writing another grant proposal. Plus, the end of the semester is winding down with finals next week. Big plans for us this holiday season so you'll have to come back in early January to read all about it.

10.31.02

Happy Halloween! It's Halloween and I already have the photos up...[Sean pats self on the back]...Enjoy.

Click here

10.26.02

We took the kids to get pictures taken. We were given a proofs sheet and I've scanned it in. You can view these photos by clicking here.

Paula has added a very long Journal entry that is worth reading.

10.7.02

Fun day today (yesterday now). We had a neighborhood scarecrow building party. I have added some pictures (click) from the party, as well as from earlier this week. Enjoy.

For those of you not keeping track...College basketball practices can officially begin this Sat. morning (12:00 AM).

9.6.02

Well, we had an exciting summer and I took a lot of time off from adding to the web site. Paula did find some time to add a journal entry related to Minnesota vacation. here are the photos.

Hard to believe that school is already back in session, but this semester is pretty easy for Paula and me. In fact, I decided to teach my first undergraduate class this semester. When it comes to technology, the younger generation tends to have more of a natural knack for understanding technology so I don't notice a drop off from the graduate classes to the undergraduate classes...yet...I haven't graded any work yet either. We'll see. ;-)

7.26.02

We all went to Grand Haven and hit the beach today. Ellie loved the water and Joshua loved being out of the water. We were able to accommodate both of them. Click to see photos.

7.15.02

Well, I finally made the switch to the new site. I should add the ability to choose your colors in the near future. Stay tuned.

7.16.02

Happy birthday to Paula.

Paula was in Kansas this week doing some consulting. Paula's father and niece, Molly, came up to help Sean with the kids (Sean had to teach his class and Paula's).

Grandpa took the kids to the Children's museum and the zoo. A fun time was had by all (even when grandpa got lost).

7.10.02

Well, I signed the mosaic and sent it on. I have a few pictures of the signing available here. If you would like to order a poster of the mosaic while donating money to the UCP at the same time, you can order them at this link.

7.9.02

We are starting something new...Paula will finally have a chance to add her two cents to thelancasters.net...I'd like to welcome you to the newest feature on this site called...(insert drum roll here)...our family journal. Click here to visit (obviously, it is awaiting Paula's first real entry). We hope to add a journal entry weekly at the least.

7.2.02

Happy birthday to Sean. Since it is my birthday, I'd like to take a minute to tell you about a recent art project of mine to benefit the United Cerebral Palsy. I worked with 34 other artists from around the world to create a poster-sized mosaic (see mosaic by clicking here). This project is gaining a lot of steam. Apple computer recently focused on our mosaic for a hot news story on their site (click here to read it). Maccentral has gone to great lengths to market the story of the mosaic and to generate interest, which will hopefully pay off in high bids on the 5 signed copies at the NYC Macworld Expo auction in a few weeks. I am scheduled to have the 5 canvas posters arrive at my house next week so I can autograph them and get them sent to the next artist. I'll add some photos of the event when it takes place.

I have posted yet more photos of the kids (click here). I love the photo of Ellie feeding Joshua.

6.24.02

New photos now available (click here). If you think I have shown favoritism for Ellie in the past, wait until you see these photos...the little slugger gets much more air time. Enjoy!

6.20.02

Sorry for the long delay. I reinstalled everything on my machine late last month and have been waiting for the new versions of some of the software since then. It just made sense to wait and only have to install the software once and not clutter up my computer with old and new versions of the same thing. The software I use to create thelancasters.net (Dreamweaver) finally arrived today. Whew!

Much has happened over the past month with both kids. I should have updates to their pages completed today or tomorrow. Update...I just added new information about both kids. I still plan on adding some photos.

One of my students told me that my old homepage I had at KU was much more "lively and colorful" than this current site. I'd like to think this current site is somewhat customizable for you (click preferences above) and very accessible. Then again, this site hasn't undergone a change in a long time. Perhaps I'll try to give this place a makeover in the next week -- I start teaching a summer class next week and will likely lose some of my current free time for playing with thelancasters.net...we'll see what I can do. Stay tuned! If you have come across a particularly neat looking web site. that you think would be great for me to use as a model, email me the address.

5.26.02

Paula and I are busy enjoying the spring and the time off from Grand Valley State University. We started a bunch of landscaping recently and I hope to have pictures soon, but we have to finish first -- and that is quite the task.

Paula and I went away to a retreat this weekend in Indiana (Michigan City on Lake Michigan). We stayed at a wonderful Bed and Breakfast:

Paula actually had a meeting to attend on Friday and I took off for a day of golf. Along the way, I encountered a casino. I hadn't gambled in years. I decided to pop in for a few minutes and set a $50 limit (my golf money) on my adventure. I got crazy and bet the entire $50 on black (roulette) and won. I then bet $20 on one hand of blackjack and won. I left the casino after only being there for 10 minutes and took Paula out for a very nice dinner.

Photos of the kids (taken last month) can be found here (click).

3.05.03

Well...our little two year old knows opposites and can make simple inferences. I am not sure where kids this age are supposed to be along the development scale, but I am certainly enjoying Ellie's progress.

1.24.03

Last night, Josh started scrubbing the kitchen floor. It seemed like fun to Ellie so she asked Paula if she could help. Paula informed Ellie that she'd have to put the toys she was playing with away first. Ellie wanted to help scrub right away and blurted out, "okay meanie" to Paula. Paula paused for a moment. She then said, "what did you just say?" Ellie ignored Paula and again asked to scrub the floor. Paula asked her again and Ellie responded, "i said 'okay mimi'...that's my new name for you." So, Ellie is learning to tell fibs..and she's not bad at it. Hmmm. (Sean's comments: Do you think scrubbing the floor will be fun in another few years? I didn't think so)

Ellie now knows how to rhyme. Rhyming is a good step towards learning to read. She can also identify many letters and knows some of their sounds. We really want to get her into a preschool for next year, but can't find one we like...yet. The local school district has a program, but we examined the curriculum and there was not a single thing on it that Ellie doesn't already do. I think we'll look to a Montessori school in Grand Rapids. Who knows?

12.6.02

Ellie has been playing a lot of school lately. She gets it. She is now asking to be the teacher more often and does a mighty fine job.

We saw santa claus in chicago last weekend at a mall and Ellie wouldn't sit on his lap, but she did warm up to him enough to talk. She told him she wanted a cat and some food. While I don't see a real cat making its way into our house, a nice play cat could very well show up this year. Food? Hmmm. That's better than what she told everyone at Thanksgiving. Let me preface this by saying that our family was goofing around a few weeks ago (the #1 activity in our house is goofing around, b/t/w). Ellie, trying to be funny, said she wanted boogers for x-mas when asked. Eventually, she was telling people she wanted boogers and poop for x-mas (pleasant, eh?). So, to hear she wanted a cat and food was a pleasant surprise. At least she knew when to get serious. ;-)

Another funny story (Joshua had more stories last time) happened about 2 weeks ago. Paula had reprimanded Ellie for something -- rightly so. Ellie moped around a bit and then said, "you're mean mommy." Paula went over to Ellie and said, "that wasn't very nice Ellie." Ellie sat there for a moment and then said, "I want to be nice." She then said in the prettiest voice with a huge smile on her face, "you're mean mommy." I had to leave the room so she didn't see me laughing. Very, very funny stuff.

11.16.02

Ellie has been sick lately. Joshua was sick earlier this week and passed it on to Ellie (of course). The problem Ellie has is that she has my gag reflex. I cannot swallow pills. Ellie cannot even swallow liquid medicine without...well, we won't go there. Needless-to-say, it is so bad that the mere mention of medicine is sometimes enough to get Ellie gagging. She is just such an understanding little gal. She will do about anything we ask if we tell her it will help to make her better (e.g., drink your juice or drink some water -- "oookkkkaayyy daaaddddyyy").

10.19.02

Okay, it has started. Sad, but true. Paula and I were making dinner and had the kids sitting at the table. For some reason, the TV was on. All of a sudden, we heard, "I want that." Upon further investigation, we realized that Ellie was pointing at the TV and a commercial for a new kid's toy. She repeated her request for the item. Egads!

9.24.02

This past weekend was very rainy and cold. The kids wanted to go out and play, but the drizzle was just too much. Late Sunday afternoon, Ellie noticed a break in the rain and the sun popping out a bit. We put our jackets on and headed outside. After playing for a while, Ellie and I walked to the end of the driveway and stretched out on the driveway facing the sky. We sat there trying to find shapes in the clouds, (e.g., turtle, dog, tree). After a few minutes of searching for things, Ellie turned to me and said, "Dad...(short pause)...This is perfect." And, it was.

9.6.02

Ellie is learning to go on the potty chair (again -- she regressed when Joshua came along and did the diaper thing). We bought a chart to put on the wall to give her stickers when she goes on the potty chair. Paula was putting it up on the wall and explaining it to Ellie and the following conversation took place:

Paula: (blah blah)...and then we can put a sticker on the poster showing (Paula is cut off)

Ellie: Actually mom, it is a chart.

I thought this was quite funny to hear our 2 year old correct her mother. ;-)

7.25.02

What can I say about the little gal? Ellie is continuing to progress at a rapid rate in her cognitive development. She really understands the concept of counting things and is recognizing many letters by sight. She also is starting to understand that letters make certain sounds. She continues to amaze us with advanced language from time to time.

I had a case of food poison the other night...something I ate at mcdonalds. It came upon me pretty quickly and I stretched out on the floor on my tummy to try and get some relief. Ellie asked me what was wrong. I told her that I wasn't feeling well and needed to just stay there for a minute. She tried to get me to move and when I didn't, she started crying and said, "I just want to play with my best friend in the whole world." It just broke my heart. Of course, I still couldn't move darn it. Most of the time, Ellie will say that mommy is her best friend that Josh and daddy are best friends.

6.20.02

Late last week, Ellie asked to go to the doctor after having a fever for 3 days. She will not take medicine and has a pretty strong gag reflex that only adds to the complications. Anyway, she said, "I want to go to the doctor" and, not getting her to eat or drink at this point decided it was time to go (8:00pm - ish). I did manage to get her to drink some juice with her medicine on the way to the doctor's office (mommy stayed home with Joshua). I could tell Ellie was already feeling better as we sat in the waiting room. Oh well.

The doctor looked Ellie over and couldn't find anything wrong (her temperature was down to 101.9 by this time). The doctor decided to get a urine sample to test for a urinary tract infection. They put a baggy-type contraption on Ellie and told us to go to the waiting area and...well, wait. While sitting in the waiting room, Ellie named all of the colors of blocks that they had on a table. She also said her ABC's and the receptionist was amazed (she had a 2 year old daughter, too). Ellie then decided to spell her name for the woman. Before the woman could finish clapping, Ellie proceeded to spell, "m-o-m-m-y...mommy" and that even amazed me. Paula had spelled each of our names with chalk on the driveway recently, but we hadn't worked on teaching her to spell anything beyond her name.

Finally, around 10:30, we decided that she wasn't going to "go" on her own and we thought that a catheter would be the best option to get us done and get Ellie home in bed. I helped to hold Ellie's arms while the nurses and doctor did their thing. Of course, this was an unpleasant experience and Ellie cried. In between her cries, I explained to Ellie that they were just trying to help. Ellie looked at the medical staff and said, "thaaank yooouuuu" - mixed in with her cry. It just broke my heart.

Everything turned out fine and Ellie's temperature was back to normal by the time we left (~11:00pm). She's been fine ever since. She also still likes the doctor's office.

5.26.02

Ellie uses words far more advanced than most kids her age. We were sitting at dinner tonight and I pretended to win a contest. Ellie, without missing a beat, told me "congratulations daddy. You did a good job!" Somewhere along the line, she picked up the word, 'congratulations' and is using it in her regular vocabulary.

Ellie's dolls have full conversations with each other and her imagination is very good. She even imagines that Joshua can understand her as she talks to him all of the time. She is such a good older sister and often tries to include Joshua in an activity that is far beyond his capabilities (she likes to push him) ;-). Josh has a knack for wanting to pull hair and Ellie just laughs when Joshua grabs hold of her hair -- while she gently gets away from his grip.

Ellie proudly proclaim that basketball was her favorite sport today...You've just gotta love this girl.

3.05.03

The other day, we heard Ellie just laughing and laughing. We figured she was watching something on TV. In between a laugh, we heard Ellie say, "Josh, you're cracking me up." I went in to find Joshua doing a silly dance for Ellie. He's developing a good sense of humor and enjoys entertaining. He is also getting better about not using aggression.

1.24.03

Joshua has figured out that aggression works for him when dealing with Ellie. Ellie is far too passive with Joshua and his first reaction any time he doesn't get his way is to smack Ellie in the head or push her or pull her hair. He is a tough little guy and she tends to just walk away and give up her toy. We are struggling a bit to help him understand that it doesn't work this way and we are trying to get Ellie to push back and not give up her toys so easily. We'll see.

Joshua really enjoys stacking things. He is actually pretty good at balancing things. I can't describe it well, but I showed Joshua how to stack some items on top of something like this: without the dog head on top (and the stick on our similar toy is about twice as wide). Well, it took me a few tries to get things balanced on this stick and it gave Joshua a good laugh of excitement. He really enjoyed knocking it all down, too. I left the room and came back about a minute later and Joshua had stacked things even higher than I showed him. Wow.

12.5.02

Joshua is such a sweet little guy. He loves to snuggle. Now, he has not lost his little mean streak, but he and Ellie can sit and play together for long stretches. The other day I watched from another room as the two of them had a tea party. Ellie would even hand Josh a cup and he would pretend to take a drink. It was adorable to watch. Eventually though, Joshua gets bored and just throws everything...laughs...walks away. Heh heh.

11.16.02

Joshua went from saying, "momma" to saying many words and it happened almost overnight. Some of his new vocabulary includes, "night night" and, "no," "yeah," and "okay." He can also act like a monkey with the correct sound effects. It's pretty amazing to see the rapid development in his language skills.

Another thing that Joshua has learned is how to best antagonize his big sister. He has become the master. When he spots Ellie on the floor laying on her Ziggy Piggy (stuffed pig pillow), he lights up and immediately goes over to her. Some of his usual tactics include the following: (1) step on her head, but act like he didn't see her, (2) throw his blanket on her and then pretend she is a giant pillow by throwing his whole body on her, etc. The key to making these efforts successful is that Joshua breaks out in laughter the moment he starts in on his sister. Of course, each of these torture routines causes Ellie to scream, "no Josh" and "stop it!" I knew these spats would happen, but I figured they would at least wait until they were a little older. Fun times, to say the least.

They do play pretty well together these days. Joshua is not into Ellie's doll house, but he does like to play tag and hang out with Ellie doing whatever she makes look fun. Joshua is much more of a typical boy in that he likes to be a bit destructive and he likes to throw things -- and we try very hard not to teach and encourage stereotypes. He just has some difficulty understanding that Ellie doesn't appreciate his actions, but her reaction can sure egg him on.

10.19.02

Joshua walks much more normally these days. He is very jealous of anything that Ellie has and she ALWAYS has the best and only worthy toy in the house (of course). Fortunately for the little guy, Ellie is very polite and gentle with Joshua. He just loves to play with his sister...She really just loves for him to find somewhere else to play, 'No Josh...Josh is coming after me...Give it back Josh" etc. They act just like brothers and sisters are supposed to act. We're loving it. ;-)

9.24.02

Josh now expects to walk everywhere and it's about all he wants to do. He spends long stretches all day long just walking around the house and smiling the whole way. Looks a little like Frankenstein (as Paula points out in her recent journal entry). Hard to believe Josh will be one in less than a week. It's been a great year for our family.

9.6.02

Joshua is still realizing that crawling is faster than walking so he still chooses to crawl even though he can walk pretty well at this point.

We have a little wooden box that has holes in it to place wooden shapes in the correct hole. Joshua can do the triangle pretty regularly. I think I made a video of Ellie when she was a little bit older than Joshua and I proclaimed her a genius. She may have started talking much earlier than Joshua, but he appears to have much better eye-hand coordination. He plays a pretty mean game of roll the ball back-and-forth, too.

7.25.02

Joshua is walking now...Okay, not regularly, but he does take steps. Just last week, he walked all the way across the living room without any help. Last night, he walked across the dining room without help. Paula and I often play a game where we sit about 6 feet apart and have Joshua try walking between us. He is now starting to realize that we are behind him and thinks it is funny to just fall backwards. Doh!

Joshua is starting to show a keen sense of humor. He knows what to do to cause Ellie to scream (e.g., pull her hair or steal her toy) and attempts these things with a huge smile on his face. He also cracks himself up while being fed by spitting the food out and all over the person feeding him. Ha ha Joshua. ;-)

Last night, Paula was giving Ellie a bath upstairs. I had Joshua downstairs. He kept heading over to the stairs and climbing up one or two before I would grab him (all the while, he is cracking up laughing). Well, I let him go when Paula had finished and we watched him climb the stairs in record time. I think Ellie was closer to 15 months before she was climbing the stairs like this. Wow!

6.20.02

Joshua is crawling now. He started late last week and is already about as fast as a kid can be on all fours. I think he waited until he knew he could do it well before trying. Josh was crawling around and we were getting dinner prepared on only his second day of crawling. Paula went to check on Josh and Ellie in the living room and Josh was standing up (wow!). He had pulled open a drawer on the entertainment center and grabbed hold of the drawer and pulled himself up. This was the first time he had stood up on his own. Bunches of firsts for the little guy.

Just prior to crawling, Josh was quick to get frustrated and let you know about it. Now that he crawls, the fussing is much closer to nil again. Whew! He is a happy boy.

5.26.02

Well, Joshua is getting more and more vocal. He says, mama and dada and lots of other sounds -- often just to hear himself talk. He and I will often get into shouting contests and that causes him to laugh and laugh.

He is not quite crawling yet, but he scoots around and rolls over and over to get where he wants to go. It is interesting to note that Joshua can stand and walk around if you let him hold 1 finger in each of his hands. He can also sit up alone and stand if you place him so that his hands are on a table.

He is a demanding child and knows what he wants and lets you know. He wants to do everything Ellie is doing and loves to watch her. He can often sit and watch her do something and laugh when she looks at him. I wish we could bottle this love up and pull it out when these two are older.

3.22.02

Not a lot has changed with the little slugger. He now rolls over with relative ease from back to front and front to back. He is also getting bigger and bigger (e.g., see Clifford, the big red dog). Josh can wear outfits that Ellie wore at 10 - 12 months and he's only nearly 6 months old.

We were worried after having Ellie because she was such a good baby...we figured things would average out with Joshua. Josh has turned out to be easier than Ellie was up to this point. He is always happy (except when hungry or tired). He loves to watch everything that is going on and to play with all sorts of little toys. Won't be long before we can start shooting some movies of Joshua, too.