Bedtime Conversation

Dean (holding up his hand so I can see the ring on his finger): I got married today.
Me: Oh, you did? Who did you marry?
Dean: Sophia, Bianca and Evy.
Me: Wow. Three wives! Where did you get married?
Dean: Mount cerebellum. It's in Texas. Texas, Canada.
Me: Oh, is Mount cerebellum very far away?
Dean: So far. I had to get on a plane and it took a day.
Me: What did you do there?
Dean: We went snowboarding and hiking. We went to the movies and more snowboarding.
Me: Wow, that sounds like a lot of fun.
Dean: It was. It was.

Words

Here is a list of words that Jack can spell. He did these on Monday with virtually no help from me.

ant
bug
cap
dad
end
fox
get
hot
ink
jug
kin
lap
men
nap
odd
pet
quiz
run
sat
tap
under
van
win
yum
zip

I gave him the words but he sounded them out and wrote them down in his notebook. This kid is obsessed with spelling!

Rather than do a play-by-play of the last week, I'm just going to touch on the highlights.

• Last week I took the boys to a community theater audition for a production of High School Musical. They had to get up in front of everyone and sing a song, any song would do, and Dean sang Happy Birthday. Jack refused to even sit with the others and tried to run out of the room. Despite my assurances that he wouldn't have to do anything and he didn't have to be in the show. Two days later, he told me that he would like to do the show. Of course.
• We went to the circus on Sunday. Dean's favorite part was the pretty ladies with the hula hoops, the juggler, the elephants and the acrobats. Jack's favorite part was the motorcycles. It was pretty fun.
  
• I've started running again after a 4 month hiatus. It feels really good and I'm not nearly as slow as I thought I'd be.
• Jack spelled 25 words today. He did some on the way to school, some on the way home, and some at the table while I made dinner. He loves homework.
• Dean came out of his room tonight (Tom thought he was asleep) and accused Tom of leaving while he was still awake. Tom insisted he was snoring and so he thought Dean was asleep. Dean said,"No, I didn't hear myself snoring."
• I'm going out of town for Mother's Day weekend and a little excited about it. Just my girlfriend and I for a little wine tasting, shopping and a spa day.
• I'm so tired right now I keep falling asleep while I type.
• If I don't make snese, that's why.

'Night, 'night.

Letter to Dean

Dear Dean,

Where do I begin? You continue to surprise, delight, defy, and frustrate me on a daily basis. You are smart, sassy, funny, defiant, imaginative, and emotional. Sometimes you are all those things within a time span of 3 minutes. Here are just a few things you're up to lately:

• You love watching High School Musical and want to wear your hair like 'Troy Bolton'.
• You love to sing and you walk around the house singing songs from Playhouse Disney and without a beat you go to a song from High School Musical. I see musical theater in your future.
  
• You hate getting your hair washed. You scream and cry and twist your head around to make it more difficult. You succeed at making it more difficult but a byproduct of that is that you get a lot more water in your eyes so, it's kind of a flawed strategy.
• Tonight for the first time in many, many months I washed your hair and you didn't even flinch. It was great.
• You love drawing and painting and you've got a knack for it. Sometimes you say you want to be an artist. You ask me to sign you up for art school on a regular basis. You also want to take music lessons.
• You love wearing costumes. Just today you were in 5 or 6 different ones before lunchtime. One day last week you told me that you wanted me to make you a costume and you would put feathers on it and wear green glasses and you would be Chicken Little. You were so delighted when I told you that we already have a Chicken Little costume. You wore it to school the next day. And the day after that.
  
• A few nights ago you suddenly announced that you need glasses. You were so adamant about it, insisting to us that you couldn't see. Daddy found some toy glasses, nothing more than paper without lenses, and you put them on. Oh, you were so relieved to finally be able to see.
• You love shoes. Uncle P & Uncle J brought you a pair of plaid converse - oh my gosh, they are so cute - and you wear them every single day. You call them your "cons". They brought Jack some Vans and you've been coveting them. Tonight when you didn't cry during your bath you asked if I would get some new shoes for you as a reward.
• We went to Sears yesterday to buy some new vacuum cleaner bags and we sat for an hour so you could watch Spiderman on the big screen tv. You watched with your hands over your ears. You also cried when we left because you wanted us to buy you new clothes.
• Tonight you announced that you have a date tomorrow with your girlfriend Bianca. You told me that you need to wear a white shirt and black coat and asked that I dry your hair just so. Later you changed your mind and announced that you would wear the Chicken Little costume.
  

You constantly amaze me, continue to surprise me, and always inspire me. I am so lucky to be your Mommy. I love you dearly.

Love,
Momma

Letter to Jack

Dear Jack,

I've been sitting here trying to figure out how to describe you. I started to say you're just such a good kid but that is so unoriginal and a total understatement. Instead, I think I'll just describe some of the things you do that are uniquely you.

• You have recently become enamored of moths. You catch them and put them in a box with holes in it. You always name them Mothy. They always seem to die within a day or two and you quickly replace them. I don't know if that's a good thing or not.
• You clean your bedroom without being asked and you do a really good job. Your motivation is money - even though we don't expressly tell you that you'll get money for doing it. But one time we gave you a quarter for making your bed and ever since then, you do it out of hope.
• You love money. You are always looking at the ground hoping to find a nickel, a dime or a penny. You get especially excited when you find a quarter. You save everything you find and you have amassed a miniature fortune (for a 5 year old).
• You have grown out of your red phase. Lately your preference has been to wear light colored linen pants, a hawaiian shirt and flip flops. You look very handsome. There are still some days that you wear blue camo pants with a green and orange top though. So sometimes I still wonder about the color-blindness.
• When you get angry you become stiff as a board with your arms straight at your sides, your fists balled up. Your voice becomes thick with emotion and you won't look at me.
  
• You had a hard time faling asleep last night and I think it's because Daddy is out of town and he told you to take good care of me. I think you take your responsibility very seriously and you couldn't fall asleep last night because of it. You finally lost the battle at 10:30pm last night.
• You have become a very adventurous eater and I'm so excited about that. You have tried so many new foods this year - from simple foods like peas and avocado to more exotic foods like sushi and thai.
  
• You don't like you hair to be spiked up or messy. You want it neatly combed straight down your forehead. Definitely not parted on the side.
• You don't like to be the center of attention.
  
• You throw a mean spiral.
• You sometimes make up songs about me and sing them quietly.
• You long to know how to make traps and potions and are disappointed that I don't know anything about traps or potions.
  
• You have an insatiable curiosity about the world and your place in it.
• It's hot tonight and you are laying on the hardwood floor as you've done every hot night for the last 3 years. Some nights it's the only way you can fall asleep.

I could go on and on. You are a miracle. You make me want to be a better mommy and you have definitely made me a better person. I am so lucky to have you in my life.

Love,
Momma

All in the Family

Hey Everyone,

My sister in law just started a blog! Go give her some love and see my beautiful nephews!

We went out to dinner tonight at our favorite sushi restaurant. Dean didn't really like anything but the rice and edamame but Jack! Jack ate spicy tuna, yellowtail sushi, salmon sushi, shrimp, and an eel/avocado roll. Wow. He ate almost as much as me.

Afterward we went to Cold Stone for ice cream. And now, I'm feeling full and sleepy.

Good night!

I am @ the train

I am @ the train station waiting 4 Tom. Listening 2 high school musical. Boys r having a rasberry contest. My eye is twitching. Its no wonder.

NaBloPoMo - Day 9

This is my mom's response to an earlier post:

Dear Kelsi,

Responding to your April 3 post. I remember all of it.

You would tell me "I don't need a nap" so I would say "OK, you don't need to take a nap, just rest on the couch with your blanket." You would almost always fall asleep.

Oh, the anticipation of Christmas Eve on the farm. Then we would go downstairs and work until midnight setting everything up under the tree. Tying the stockings on the backs of dining room chairs with rubber bands because the tree was in front of the fireplace! Did you ever wonder how Santa got into the house with that tree in front of the fireplace?

We still do the throwing the food in the air at the grocery thing - it adds a little excitement to a mundane chore.

That was a little silver paring knife that Grandma Wright gave me - and that sharp is still very, very knife!

The stick shift! We were on Raab Rd. just east of Greenbriar. I had just bought that silver car - can't remember the make or model. The clutch was very mushy. You did OK once you were out of first gear! Shortly after that I bought that new little Nissan Sentra (1990). You didn't even have to step on the gas when letting out on the clutch, it was so tight. You perfected your skills on that long, blacktop driveway at Bernie's house out in the country. All Sunday afternoon you drove up and back, up and back. That late afternoon you drove all the way back to Bloomington. Confident.

I don't remember the guy being on a tractor. I just remember the road was seldom used and it was dusky or near dark. I thought he was just one of the rare cars who ever used that road and just happened down it as you were trying to learn how to drive that car. We were surrounded by cornfeidls, though.

You water skiied. I sat on the sand and drank electric kool-aid, as I remember it! Fun times. I do remember the floating dock got away from us and you swam way out and got it and pulled it back to its place. I was a nervous wreck, pacing and smoking cigarettes!

You would still sit on the toilet in the bathroom and watch me put my makeup on if you didn't have two 5 yeard olds to supervise.!

The Screaming Eagle at Six Flags! I didn't know you were terrified. You were too busy screaming!

Garcia's Flying Tomato Brothers hot air balloon! It landed right by Lancaster Heights (or Lancaster Depths as we used to call it). They tethered it to a stake with a great big rope and took people 50 feet or so up in the air. I remember the heat on top of my head from the flames heating and expanding the gas in the balloon. What a ride. It was so quiet and peaceful up there. I can't believe you didn't go up in it. The hardest part was getting in and out of that basket - there was no door.

Peeking through the curtain at the window in my dressing room at the church to see you, my maid of honor, standing at the altar waiting for me to walk down the aisle at my wedding.

Did you think I was going to be a "Runaway Bride?" Oh, no, I was just letting the anticipation build. It was fun peeking through that window and watching people start to look around like "Where is she?" HA!

Dancing at my wedding - we did enjoy that. I throw good parties.

I love the Brian Regan DVD you sent me for Christmas. He is funny, funny, funny. Science Fair Dirt Cup. "It's a DIRT CUP. It's a CUP with some DIRT in it. It's a CUP of DIRT."

We still laugh until we can't breathe over America's Funniest Home Videos. After all, people fall down. I took the DVD you sent me for Christmas of AFV Kids and Pets along to Texas and watched on my portable DVD player last week.

I believe the presents we opened on the floor of our house in Geneva were wedding presents.

The day you left for California. The darkest day of my life - it surpasses the day I my dad died and the day I had to have Meischje put to sleep. I pray you NEVER have to know the pain.

You were working at Bombay Bicycle Club, living in your first little apartment in California. I believe your roommate got busted that same day!!! Anyway, we painted your bedroom furniture on that little balcony.

The I Love You sign. We still do that, although tears don't stream down our faces anymore. That doesn't mean that I've reconciled myself to it. My heart still cries.

My graduation party was a blast! We rode to it in the '31 Buick. As mentioned before, I throw good parties.

Your wedding. Beautiful setting, beautiful bride. So final.

I was standing in the kitchen when we lived on 9th St. in that 100 year old Queen Anne house when you called to tell me you were pregnant with twins.

If I knew then what I know now about your high risk pregnancy, I doubt that I would have left California. Now that I've been working in labor/delivery/recovery with some high risk thrown in, I shudder. I am at work right now and my patient is 24 weeks 2 days with pre-term labor and on 2.5 grams of mag. She's miserable. I told her about you just like I tell every one of my mag patients about you. You are an inspiration.

I was having lunch at the Cracker Barrel with Fishers and Todds when you called as you were being wheeled into the OR.

Wow, those babies were so little but so feisty. Wimpy, little white boys, true. Two little miracles.

I remember it all...

Love, Mommy

NaBloPoMo - All Messed UP!!

I know, I know. I have no excuse other than Friday night I wanted to lay down with the boys because I wouldn't see them for two days (they went camping). But I really have no excuse for Saturday, Sunday or Monday so I'm not even going to try.

Instead, look here at these pictures:



I went for a helicopter ride! Below is a shot of my office building and yes! that's my foot! hanging out the door of the helicopter! which actually, didn't have a door! yikes!

NaBloPoMo - Day Three

Dear Mom,

The most important lesson I’ve taken from Grandpa Jack’s life and death is the absolute necessity of letting your loved ones know how they’ve touched you. Too often we wait until a person is gone before we reflect on the wonderful moments when our lives converged.

The following moments are memories that whenever I think of them, I’m always filled with warmth, humor and love:
• Curling up on the black couch in our house in Towanda with my little blanket while you watched TV and folded clothes
• Being tucked in at the farm on Christmas Eve
• You throwing groceries up in the air and me trying to catch them with the cart
• The time you warned me to be careful because ‘this sharp is very, very knife’
• Learning how to drive a stick shift on a dark country road
• Laughing about the farmer who stopped his tractor to make sure we were ok
• Water skiing at the gravel pit
• Sitting on the toilet in the bathroom watching you put your makeup on
• Riding The Screaming Eagle with you and being terrified when you wouldn’t put your arms down
• Watching you go up in the hot air balloon and being afraid you would crash
• Waiting for you to walk down the aisle on your wedding day
• Being relieved when you finally started walking down the aisle on your wedding day
• Dancing at your wedding
• Laughing at Brian Regan ‘it’s a dirt cup’
• Laughing at America’s Funniest Home Videos
• Opening housewarming presents on the floor of our house in Geneva
• Waving through tears the day I left for California
• The time you came to visit me and we painted my bedroom furniture
• Signing I Love You, tears streaming down my face, as you boarded a plane to go back home
• Dancing at your graduation party
• Dancing with you and Chad at my wedding
• Telling you that I was pregnant and with twins
• Doing crossword puzzles with you while on bedrest in the hospital
• Hearing your voice as I was being wheeled down the hall for my c-section
• The look on your face the first time you saw your grandchildren

There are others of course, but these are among my favorites. These memories just flooded back to me and some really surprised me – like the hot air balloon. Do you even remember that??

I love you Mom.

Kels

NaBloPoMo - Day Two

On Day Two: A letter to my young self . . .

Dear High School Kelsi,

Trust me, there’s so much more to life than this. I promise you that you will not care about most of these people by the 10 year reunion.

I have a book that was given to me on the cusp of my journey to California. The book is called “Oh the Places You’ll Go” by Dr. Seuss and I’ve kept it all this time. I now read it to my children and hope that someday when they’re choosing a path less traveled that they’ll remember the lesson of that book and know that sometimes you have to trust your instinct, sometimes you have to take a chance and choose the thing that feels right to you despite anyone else’s opinion.

It may not have helped you, H.S. Kelsi but it couldn’t have hurt. You were so insecure and full of doubt; sarcasm your only defense against the perceived criticism. Hey, maybe they were making fun of you. Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you, right?

Still, what I would tell you if I could just sit you down is that you’ll be fine. Really. You’re going to go on from that high school place and forge your own path. You’re going to take risks and make choices that will lead to a pretty nice life. And all that angst will be forgotten. Or, mostly forgotten. It will rear it’s ugly head at the 10 year high school reunion but then you’ll make the decision right then and there that you will never go back again. And when the 20 year comes around, you don’t! So, there!

And I would remind you that it wasn’t all bad. Well except for the crazy years long crushes you used to get. That was a little ridiculous, wouldn’t you agree? You’ll be happy to know that your husband is super hot – way hotter than Erik Johnson or Brad James. Seriously.

But really, the best thing that came out of Normal Community High School was your friendship with Jenny. I mean who would have thought it would survive that one summer, with her getting all crazy with the fun and you being all self-righteous and trying to play house, but it did. And she is the one friend who you can call and just spend an hour on the phone with and it feels like time stops. Trust me.

So hang in there H.S. Kelsi and know that this is just a brief moment in your life and all too soon the time will pass and you will look back and wonder why it ever mattered.

Oh the places you’ll go.

Love,
Your grown up self

NaBloPoMo - Day One

No, it's no April Fool's joke, I really challenged myself to post everyday for the month of April. The theme for April is LETTERS. Below is my first one. It's not what I intended to write but it's all that I can think about so . . .

Dear Soma,

It's been a rough day what with the not sleeping very well last night; a feverish boy wedged next to me on one side and a stuffed up husband on the other. Not surprisingly, I woke up feeling rather Quaisomodo-ish. You know, it's the kind of stiffness that leads you to believe you can probably take care of it on your own. A little self-massage and a quick head jerk and *pop*, the pain is gone. Except that it didn't help - it only made my neck feel more strained. And that's when I started to think about you.

Advil kept the pain at bay but it doesn't know me the way you do. Nothing relaxes me the way you do, baby.

I'll only take a piece of you, just a quarter is enough.

Soma, thanks to you I will wake up tomorrow morning with the ability to turn my head.

Too bad you can't do anything about a child's fevers.

Love,
Kelsi