Need a New Video Host

I'm not sure why, but zippyvideos.com has banned me from uploading or even accessing my account. At first I thought there was just a login error, and I wrote several times to tech support, with no response. Well, you can also do an 'anonymous' upload to their system, and I started getting a different error report, saying that "this user has been banned". Usually it takes something like pornography to get banned, and I've posted every video I ever uploaded to this blog. I think the pictures of Sam and Awyn are pretty harmless.

If anyone has a different free video hosting site, let me know. It's too bad, really, because some of the videos no longer exist anywhere else after that computer crash we had last year. I've tried watching the last video I posted on this blog, Sam dancing to Metallica, and I can't even view it, don't know if you can either. I'm guessing it's the one that got me banned, as it was the most recently uploaded and maybe it's a copyright thing? Anyway, I don't know.

You know, I originally started this blog to chronicle my pregnancy with Awyn and Sam's potty training adventures. Well, Awyn is now 15 months old, starting to string two word sentences together, running, walking backwards, stealing dinosaurs, and loving her brother and doggy. Still pretty bald though. She loves bike rides in the trailer, hates her helmet, but as it's a hat, begs for us to put it on her. Sam is mostly potty trained. He spends all day in underwear without accidents, but doesn't always want to poop in the potty, and sometimes insists on a diaper to do his business in. Actually, what he does is horde his poo until bedtime and then use up one or two of his night time diapers. After the shots he got last week he's been a little looser in the stool department and needing to poop during the day, so he's been pooping on the potty. Not sure if it's going to take for the long haul yet, and neither Eric or myself are willing to put him in underwear for a car trip.

I've been working on and off for a while, and we're trying to find time and money to do a nice short vacation. Right now I'm working on Eric's days off, so we haven't been able to go anywhere. We'd like to take the train to visit family again, but that's up in the air. Flying is cheaper than anything else right now, but we'd probably have to rent a car, and we can't afford 3 airplane ticket at the moment. So we might head up to Arkansas for a conference Eric wants to attend, visit some friends in the area and come home. It would take about a week, at the very beginning of October.

Drumming

 
I have a terrific video of this drumming, but zippy videos isn't working tonight; hopefully later. 

Top of the Waterfall

 
Yesterday we hiked up the Pine Canyon trail after lunch. Sam was grumpy for most of the climb up, but cheered up once we stopped and let him play, and then he 'drummed' his way up the trail with a couple of sticks. His current favorite movie is Fantasia 2000, mostly the 'city' piece, which most people know as Rhapsody in Blue. He likes it so much he'll rewind it again and again and again. At least it's a dvd, so endless repeats don't hurt. This is where he gets the drumming from. There's a scene with a guy drumming on all sorts of things, so Eric would point from rock to tree, telling Sam what needed drumming. This was interspersed with comments from Thomas the Tank Engine, about puffing with care, going uphill, going downhill, etc. I think the boy watches too many movies.
Awyn seemed to enjoy the hike as well. She loved climbing the rocks. We got rained on when we were about 1/3 of a mile from the jeep, so we hurried on and rode home wet. Awyn stayed pretty dry in the backpack, but the rest of us were a little cold. Tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches were a must after this hike, and both kids ate two bowls of soup, and crashed pretty fast afterward, as we got home after bedtime. 

At the base of the waterfall

 
You can't really see the water in this picture, and there's no real easy way to get the entire waterfall into one picture. 

Walking Stick

 
This is Sam's walking stick. It helped him about halfway down the trail. 

Awyn wants a cracker

 
Awyn had lots of graham crackers. 

Rock Climber

 
Awyn had a blast climbing rocks. She was very adventurous; sometimes she scared me a little. 

Sam and the leaf pile

 
Once we got to this leaf pile, Sam was happy to play. 

Baby Walking Stick

 
Sam was at first scared of this insect, but fairly soon he was obsessed with it and the new 'home' I gave it in a bush. I think his original fear was mostly because we woke him out of a too-short nap and forced him on a hike he wasn't in the mood for. 

Laundry Girl

 
Awyn loves to unload wet laundry from the washer into the dryer, and will move the entire load, close the doors, and be happy about it. Saves me from bending over. I have a neat video, but I need to learn to edit it as it is too large to upload. 

Holding hands and dancing

 
We were all dancing together, and Sam and Awyn decided to hold hands. No, we didn't pose this one! 

Sam Flings Sand

  

Awyn at Tornillo Creek

 
Eric and another couple of parents took the kids to the Hot Springs to splash in Tornillo Creek. They all had fun, I think, because the creek was up due to recent rainfall. 

Summer School is Over

After a long month of July, I am finally done with summer school. I enjoyed teaching it again; and I'm also glad it was for only one month. We did indeed make a student newspaper, with students interviewing each other and other people, and writing travel articles on their various vacations. We even had a sports editor writing about baseball, basketball, and his stuffed birds. Most of the kids seemed to really enjoy it, but a couple really hated it as I made them tow the line and keep working. It was an interesting challenge to keep the assignments reasonable for the different grade levels. A surprising number of people wanted copies of the newspaper, so I sent each student two copies. All in all, it was a good experience and I look forward to the possibility of doing it again next summer.

Awyn can crash anywhere

 
I hadn't finished cleaning up lunch, and Awyn hopped up on Sam's chair to finish his lunch, and hers. She really loves ramen noodles. I know, not the healthiest food in the world. It sure is a fun treat. Now if only they made whole wheat ramen...