Charlotte wanted me to put curlers in her hair today:
Her curls reminded her of her Fancy Nancy book, which she then wanted to read. Also, If I’m going to be the mother of 3 girls, I need to get better at curling their hair—I was always more of a curling iron hairstylist.
I found something interesting this week as I was stumbling around trying to find some information on our family tree. I was looking on a page that had a Marriage Index from Pittsburgh Area Newspapers and I found the following listing for my paternal great grandparents:
PAUKSZTYS Korst BRINDZ Julia Pitts Allegheny License 1903-01-07 Pitts Press
It is particularly interesting because I had always known my great-grandfather’s name to be Constant (Konstantas) Bird (Paukstis). I was told that at some point he Americanized his name.
My sister found his gravestone and said that his name was spelled “Constantine Pauksztz†and that he was buried in the poor part of the cemetery (I thought they had carelessly misspelled his name—it would still be misspelled according to my research, but less misspelled).
I have had very little success finding any information by searching Paukstis or Bird, so I decided to try the new spelling and I was able to find the census records which had previously eluded me:
This record shows a Stanley Pauksztys as the head of the household which I thought was odd. It also lists my grandfather and his siblings as children so I am sure this is his record.
As I continued to research, I found some interesting records that at least partially solved the mystery about why he was listed as Stanley on the Census Record. The following are listings of Naturalization records in Western Pennsylvania where a Korst Stanley Pauksztys was a witness (there is a fee to look at each record, so I didn’t pursue that farther):
The listing shows the name of who was being Naturalized and I wonder who these people were—are they friends or relatives?
My best find so far was a petition for Naturalization which included a letter written from his boss. In this paperwork you can clearly see his name written and signed as Korst Stanley Pauksztys multiple times. There may be a slight discrepancy between our records and the birthdate listed on the form (same day, but it looks like a different year). Also, of interest is his place of landing and date of landing which may lead to finding more information on him and hopefully a listing of his parents.
(the next two pictures are the top and bottom of the same page)
And I found this in a similar search, it must be the sign in for the above petition because it lists the date of his petition (oddly the text on my search listed him as from Italy, but Russia is clearly written on the actual document).
Hopefully this opens some doors for research. It looks like the name he preferred to use for legal documents in the US and possibly the name he went by (per letter from his boss) was Korst Stanley Pauksztys.
Saturday last week I got tickets to go to the air show and hydroplane races. I imagine you can still get a good view without tickets, but I wanted to be front and center. Isaac and I took the light rail to Othello, then took a shuttle over to Genesee Park on Lake Washington. We just grabbed a spot in the grass along the shore to watch.
We watched a couple of heats of the hydroplanes first, which was a lot of fun. My camera was acting up a little, but I did get a few videos:
Here’s Isaac with his binoculars trying to get a better look at the hydroplanes:
The air show came next, with a few really neat demonstrations. Air shows present some unique photography challenges, and my little camera wasn’t up to capturing a lot of good images, but I did snap a few shots. Things I didn’t get good shots of were a visit from a P-51 Mustang and a Spitfire. I couldn’t have captured the really great sound of those Merlin engines anyway. The did several low passes for us.
After the WWII planes, we had a demonstration by Vietnam-era choppers, a Cobra and a Huey. They did several maneuvers showing us tactics that were used in Vietnam. The Huey would go in first, low and fast, snaking back and forth, scaring up ground fire, while the Cobra would arc up high and take out any VCs who were shooting. Great demonstration, and some really low flying.
The Coast Guard did a nice demo, where a rescue swimmer jumped into the water and was then picked up. My picture is terrible, but you may be able to click through and see them hoisting him back in.
Next up was a demo from an AV-8B Harrier, which was really cool. It was also very loud, as loud as all the Blue Angels together. Isaac kept his ears covered. Here’s a video I took of its departure:
After this, they had a routine by a stunt pilot named Sean D. Tucker, in a little custom built plane for the Oracle team. Holy carp. I have seen some ridiculous things, but he was bonkers. He was doing prop stalls, strange high-angle ultra-slow passes, outside loops (-6g!), and a really silly series of front flips where he literally just whipped the tail around over the cockpit. Ridiculous. Amazing. My video stinks, so here’s a better shot of his routine if you’re interested:
Isaac LOVED this, and I thought it was amazing too.
We had a demo from the C-130 attached to the Blue Angels, Fat Albert. Here’s a video of their big climb-out:
They used to use RATO for this, but from what I hear they’re running low on those; not as much need for them these days.
Finally, we had the Blue Angels. I’d seen the Thunderbirds before at Hill AFB in Ogden, but this was my first time seeing the Blue Angels. We’d been watching them and hearing them fly around the city all week, so Isaac and I were ready. It was a great setting; they zipped all over the lake and over Mercer Island for their routine. Isaac was getting a little worn out by the time they were flying, so he wasn’t as excited as I expected, but he still enjoyed it. I was able to get one fairly decent shot of them in formation:
Once they were done, we headed back to a long, hot line for the shuttle, and then the train home.
There’s one picture I kept even though it didn’t turn out, and even though I’m looking a little scruffy. The reason I kept it was because Isaac took it. He’s getting more independent, and I sent him out with my camera to take pictures. Most of them were of the camera strap, or the ground, but he got everything but the focus right here.
It was a busy week, but a lot of great fun with Isaac.
Last week was the main week of Seafair here in Seattle. That means parades, hydroplane races, an air show, and visits from the Navy. Isaac and I took advantage, and went on some fun adventures.
On Thursday, Isaac came to work with me. After I got through my morning meetings, we hopped on a bus and headed down to the pier to get a tour of the USS Bonhomme Richard, LHD-6. This is named after John Paul Jones’ famous ship, which itself was named to honor Benjamin Franklin.
First I should probably explain what an LHD is, for those who don’t know. An LHD looks a lot like an aircraft carrier, and it is in a sense. In fact, it displaces nearly twice as much water as HMS Invincible, the lead British aircraft carrier, and nearly as much as the largest carrier outside the US, the French Charles de Gaulle. The big distinction is the role.
We opted for something simple and close to get back on our Saturday adventure routine. Luckily Renton has a great Park nearby with just about everything you’d want in a park. We went to Coulon Beach Park.
They have several sets of nice playground equipment which includes slides and swings and everything you’d expect at a park.
It also has a duck pond:
And it has a beach with a swimming area which is separated from the duck area:
In primary today Isaac drew this picture of our family: 
Lately I have been trying to improve the friendship between Ila and Nicole. It’s been a slow battle. Nicole likes to growl/yell Ila’s name and when she does, Ila instantly starts to cry. Several times a day Nicole will yell “Ila†and then Ila will stop what she’s doing and cry. Given that scenario, can you tell what is happening in our family picture? Nicole is the one on the end with a word bubble that says “Ila!†(I was impressed with Isaac’s use of the !) and Ila is in my arms crying “wa wa,†presumably in response.
The family is also surrounded by temples.
Just a few more that I never got around to sharing.
This is an angry Nicole trying to climb up and get some cookies from the top of the fridge:
Grandpa showing Nicole some Quail:
I celebrated my 33rd birthday in Utah (I can’t imagine ever being sensitive about my age, but I remember right after I turned 30, someone asked me how old I was and then apologized for asking when I told her I was 30).
Ila tried to sing along, but her little happy birthday was so cute and funny that it made everyone laugh.
And here is my awesome new birthday gift. I’ve wanted a KitchenAid mixer for a long time. Zach collected some donations from family members and was able to get me the 6 Quart Professional 600 series mixer.
We’re not the type to keep a pregnancy a secret so I thought I’d post our first look at baby #5.
My doctor’s office has it’s own ultrasound machine so it’s common practice to see the baby on your first appointment. This was a special treat since I only got one ultrasound for 3 of my children (I had 3 ultrasounds with Isaac).
I love ultrasounds, it makes the baby seem more real. I actually got to see my little one wiggling around and hear his/her heartbeat. By now, I can even identify most of what I’m seeing—at least when they show me the profile. The baby’s head is on the right side of the picture with a little arm sticking up at the end of his/her nose. You can also see a little foot sticking up on the opposite side.
The technician measured from rump to head a few times and looked at my ovaries (Did you know that they can tell which one I ovulated from last just by looking? I didn’t until today, I also don’t know why they would want to know).
On the day of my appointment (7/26/2011), I was 10 weeks and 1 day pregnant. The baby measured exactly 10 weeks so he/she is right on track in terms of size/development.
Life is funny. Two years ago Krista and I lived in Provo and Orem, Utah. Last year we lived in Kentucky and Tennessee. This year we live in Texas and Washington. Unfortunately, we’ve been moving farther and farther apart and distance makes it hard to see each other. In fact, we didn’t know when we’d see each other again—until she mentioned that she was going to Utah in the middle of July. We didn’t get any pictures of us together, but we did take pictures of our kids together.
Isaac has a few things to learn about baby holding. We were trying to tell him to put his arms around Michael, but he didn’t understand what we meant.
Here are some pics of our youngest kids together. Ila is 19 months old, Michael is 5 months old.
Ila liked giving him kisses.
She even planted one right on his lips!
I spent most of this trip feeling the effects of morning sickness. I suffered from nausea, headaches, and dizzy spells and it seemed like I was taking every opportunity to lay down and close my eyes. It meant that I probably didn’t take as many pictures as I would have and I wasn’t a very fun houseguest. I also thought I’d get a chance to sit down and write more, but it seemed like I could only use my computer in short bursts of a few moments at a time before I’d start to feel dizzy and sick.
Here are some pictures that I did take:
Nicole enjoying some one-on-one time with Grandma (who for some reason she referred to as Great-Grandma)
Ila dancing to Zach playing the guitar
Isaac building with constructs.
Charlotte with catnip that she harvested with Laresa.
Zach trying out his grandfather’s accordion and explaining how to play it.
Learning about Laresa’s music box:
I started packing for our trip to Utah today. Nicole decided to pack herself. She even buckled herself into her suitcase.
Also, I took Isaac in for a haircut this week. 
Ward Breakfast, then snaps with the kiddos
After dinner, we let the kids play with sparklers in the back yard.
We lit off a few things in the front before the sun went down. The little girls were a bit nervous about them.
After scriptures and prayer, I put Ila to bed before taking Isaac and Charlotte to a friend’s house for more fireworks. Zach stayed home and put Nicole to bed.
The kids lined up against the wall to watch the small stuff (tank wars, bumblebees, ect)
Then they lit up massive amounts of sparklers. The kids actually were done playing with sparklers before the stash was out.
As you can see, the fireworks were more than ample. I overheard someone say that they estimated the sticker price on all those explosives to be over $2,000.
We watched from an elevated porch which looked down over the foundation for a house in the back yard.
The show lasted until about 11:00. They started off the show lighting mortars which launch high in the sky and explode in multiple colors. They lit 4 at once with blow torches. For the bulk of the show they set off cakes of aerial fireworks in sets of two at once. Needless to say it was an impressive show that filled the sky with lights. At one point, near the beginning, they had a misfire that exploded aerial fireworks all over the ground. Shortly after that, we saw a big blaze burning up over a fence not far from the property. Some of the guys pulled a hose over to the end of the property and started spraying water over the fence while another person ran around the block to see if it really was an accidental fire. It turns out it was a bonfire.
I know, maybe I have a problem. 
Charlotte looks really nervous/scared in this one. She becomes very silent and still when she’s afraid:
Here she is more relaxed. They put a soft blanket on her and gave her sunglasses to shield her eyes from the bright lights. When we left she told me that it didn’t hurt at all.
The bear in the waiting room was as big as Nicole:
No cavities! Balloons for everyone! (also, Isaac was very excited to see the big ramp that led up to the door when we arrived).
Charlotte likes to brush the cats and collect all the fur that comes off of them into a ball. The other day she was walking around with her ball of fur and she came up 
with a plan which she was very excited about. She said that she would make a cat out of pink play-dough and then put the fur from her ball of fur on it. Then she would read a book about magic and then make her cat into a real cat and she would name it Zelda since the fur ball looks grey. Then she started composing a plan to make a fluffy cat and a white cat that she would name “Hello Kitty.â€
Charlotte likes to make observations aloud. Recently she was naming all the colors that cats can’t be, like blue and green. She said cats are only pink with all their fur off. Another time she was having a conversation with Isaac about age and Isaac said something about being 90. I said, “if Isaac was 90, he’d be old enough to be a great-grandpa†then he said something about being 100 and Charlotte said “then you would be an even greater grandpa!â€
Here is an example of one of her musings this week:
“Mom, I like pants and I like to wear them. Mom, are you glad I like to wear pants? But you can’t wear pants in the bathtub.â€
She has been very amused at finding more than one cat in the cat bed. Often when she finds both of our cats in the cat bed, she climbs up and tries to add more cats. Sometimes I find that she has covered the cats with a blanket or left little toys by the cat bed for them to play with.
I have been fretting that when school was out, the kids would spend too much time in front of the TV or computer screen. I came up with idea to give the kids 30 minute media chips that they can spend and earn. Here’s how it works:
Each morning they are issued their first two chips after they have gotten dressed and made their bed. They can earn additional chips by doing reading, writing, or math activities. Isaac loves to read, so I had to stipulate that they have to do all three learning activities before they can repeat any activity.
Media chips can be redeemed for video games, movies, or computer games. When they redeem a chip, I set a timer for them. If they stop or manipulate the timer, they lose the rest of their chips for the day. The only exception is that they can stop it to use the restroom.
So far I’ve been pleased with the results. The kids have gotten dressed and made their beds without me asking and when they want more media–they request school work. Plus, the majority of their time has been spent playing with toys or playing outside.
The picture above is of what I made for this program. The media chips were made in a document on the computer then printed,cut out, glued on a piece of scrapbook paper and laminated. I used a big yogurt container to store the media chips in and I laminated some envelopes with the kids names on them for them to keep their own media chips in. I also added yarn to one and attached the other to a necklace so they could wear them or hang them.
Tomorrow is the last day of school for Isaac. He has had a mixed experience with first grade.
In Knoxville he had a kind and nurturing teacher and I was able to go into his class several times and volunteer. I think he did well and I don’t remember him ever getting into trouble.
His teacher for the second part of the year couldn’t have been more different. She is an older Asian lady with a strong accent. I have had a hard time communicating with her at times, so I can imagine that Isaac has trouble communicating with her sometimes as well. I often come out of a conversation with her not knowing 
exactly what she said or meant by something. Once I even called the office back after speaking with her to ask them if she had wanted me to pick Isaac up because I wasn’t sure what she had said.
It was really hard for Isaac to move into her class in the middle of the year. She seems to have really high expectations and she didn’t seem to have compassion for the learning curve presented to a new student entering her class. He got in trouble frequently right away. She wanted him to jump right in and start writing paragraphs in a journal for 30 to 45 minutes a day and he just hadn’t had much practice at composing. When I went in to talk to her she showed me how the rest of the class could fill a page in that time, but Isaac had only written a line or two. She seemed to blame it on behavior. She kept him in from Gym class, gave everyone in the class a treat except him, and sent him to the Principal’s office.
We met with her and with the principal, but I don’t know if his situation ever really improved. I know he’s progressed and learned much this year. He has even gotten 
much better at writing which was his main academic issue.
Based on things Isaac says, it sounds like she uses a lot of negative reinforcement, labeling and threats. He says that his teacher calls him “a talker†and said something about her thinking he was “the baddest kid in the class.†Last week he came home distraught and told me he was worried that he wouldn’t be able to go to the second grade. He said that his teacher said he wasn’t passing or that she wouldn’t let him go to second grade. Another day, he said that she gave the rest of the class “the best treat of the year†(an ice cream sandwich and juice), but he wasn’t allowed to have one because he was in trouble.
I went to an awards ceremony at his school this morning and had a conversation with another mother. She said that her daughter had started off in Isaac’s teacher’s class, but her daughter started refusing to get up in the morning because she didn’t want to go to school. As soon as she changed classes, her daughter woke up willingly, even sometimes extra early because she was excited to go to school again.
I really hope that he gets a good second grade teacher next year. He is a good kid who loves to learn.
What better way to celebrate, than children’s artwork. Isaac brought home the following from school:
Here is Isaac’s Card for Grandpa Bird. This is the front cover and the back. It’s interesting to me that he often draws it raining since we moved to Seattle. I asked if he was frowning in the picture on the back because he missed his grandpa, he said it was because he couldn’t play outside because it was raining.
He was excited about the idea of having his sisters wake up to a surprise birthday breakfast of eggs and bacon. Unfortunately, two of them were up before breakfast so he had to just surprise Charlotte. 
After breakfast we all walked to school. Isaac carried a cupcake and a note he had written to his bus driver. She wished him a happy birthday when he got on and thanked him for the cupcake. (We gave him some new clothes on his birthday eve to wear to school on his birthday).
It’s funny, in the early days of first grade when we were still in Knoxville, he asked if he would ever go to school on his birthday. I told him that I didn’t think he ever would. Little did I know we’d be in Seattle and schools out here end much later.
I spent the day baking, taking Nicole to the doctor, filling a prescription, and not finding any time to fold my mountain of laundry that I had procrastinated folding the night before.
We had made arrangements to bring a treat to his class and sing happy birthday at 2:15. We were a little early and got to help him empty out his desk. He he was given a choice of which birthday song to sing. He choose one that included a “cha, cha, cha†and clapping. We passed out the cupcakes he had wanted (chocolate cream filled with chocolate gnache on top). His classmates were shocked at how delicious they were and thought they were filled with ice cream.
Isaac got to leave with us a few minutes early. We were able to stop in the office and drop off some extra cupcakes and then make our exit before the rest of the kids were released from school and traffic got bad.
I took them to Taco Bell where they were running a special; Crunch wrap Supremes for $1 each. I bought one for everyone, except Ila. Isaac thought it was the best treat ever. (I left my camera in the car, so my phone took the next picture)
At home we had a little less than 2 hours before his friend, Ryan came. I let Isaac open two presents. One from Charlotte. It was a play dough ice cream set that she purchased with her own money. The other gift was from me. It was a long pipe and a variety of elbows, caps, and other such things. He was so excited for Ryan to come that he kept asking me how much longer and then told me he’d like periodic updates on how much time before Ryan gets there.
He spent the 2 hours playing with the play dough toy, preparing a pipe configuration, and doing “art projects.†
Ryan and Isaac enjoyed playing with pipes and other toys. 
We ate dinner. Isaac had requested spaghetti with vegetable enriched pasta.
At 6:30, Great-Grandma and Great uncle Gale arrived. Isaac opened his presents and then played with his presents. Zach’s aunt Karin came with her daughter-in-law and grandchildren. 
We sang and skyped the birthday song and ate cake. 
After the cake, the kids put their PJs on and watched movies until they fell asleep. Ryan reluctantly left in the middle of the first movie.
