Today was Lydia's second baseball practice. She got hit in the face with a ball and didn't cry, and that moment has gone on Jayson's list of Top Ten Proud Daddy Moments.
Audrey had swim lessons so I swam with Lydia and Charlie. Charlie's new favorite thing to do is go under water while I put my hands on her waist and glide her around. She asked me to do it over and over again. Just to make sure the other moms and lifeguard didn't think I was abusing my child by constantly dunking her, I made her say, "One, two, three, GO!" and then she would push her face in the water before I would glide her. She loved it. I loved watching her underwater with her big round eyes and huge toothy smile.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Monday, June 11, 2012
There's 104 Days of Summer Vacation (I wish)...
Today was the first official day of summer vacation. It. Was. Awesome. Not so much because of what we did, but because I got to wake up with my girls (Jayson too!), eat breakfast, lay down in the afternoon, and just BE. Here are some highlights from the day:
It was Lydia's first day of baseball! She is not all that athletic or coordinated, so we were a bit worried, but she did great! She totally grounded some balls and threw them in the general vicinity of where she was supposed to! She did get lapped running bases. I'll take responsibility for the lack of speed. Those are my genes.
Charlie has moved up to the big-girl swings.
This was a new experiment. We are having a rummage sale in two weeks. I dumped all their toys on the futon and the took turns picking one toy to sell and one toy to keep. We got through about half of them and will continue tomorrow. I was surprised at how willing they were to get rid of some thing. In fact, there were a couple things they picked to sell that I rescued.
No, Charlie did not just run laps outside. She just woke up from her nap. It was 85 degrees outside and her bedroom is upstairs where it gets the hottest. She refuses to let us turn on a fan and insists on using a blanket. She wakes up a hot mess.
I gave the girls frozen Gogurts for their afternoon snack to hep them cool off. Audrey is a little mommy and helped Charlie by feeding her when she got to the bottom. Then she wiped Charlie's face.
It was Lydia's first day of baseball! She is not all that athletic or coordinated, so we were a bit worried, but she did great! She totally grounded some balls and threw them in the general vicinity of where she was supposed to! She did get lapped running bases. I'll take responsibility for the lack of speed. Those are my genes.
Charlie has moved up to the big-girl swings.
This was a new experiment. We are having a rummage sale in two weeks. I dumped all their toys on the futon and the took turns picking one toy to sell and one toy to keep. We got through about half of them and will continue tomorrow. I was surprised at how willing they were to get rid of some thing. In fact, there were a couple things they picked to sell that I rescued.
No, Charlie did not just run laps outside. She just woke up from her nap. It was 85 degrees outside and her bedroom is upstairs where it gets the hottest. She refuses to let us turn on a fan and insists on using a blanket. She wakes up a hot mess.
I gave the girls frozen Gogurts for their afternoon snack to hep them cool off. Audrey is a little mommy and helped Charlie by feeding her when she got to the bottom. Then she wiped Charlie's face.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
WTH?
Today, shortly after most of my family had arrived for Audrey's birthday party, Lydia was playing hide-and-seek with her cousin. He hid pretty well and she was looking all over the house for him. She walked through the kitchen and into the living room, within earshot of everybody, saying, "Where did he go? Where is he? Where the HELL did he go?" All of our eyes got big and we held back laughs that came exploding out. She was mortified and I could tell right away. She ran up to our bedroom and I followed to find her laying on the floor crying, with her head under our bed. I talked to her for a while and explained to her why people laughed. I think the embarrassment was enough to ensure that she won't be saying it again.
And Summer Vacation Begins.... NOW!
I am committed to posting more now that school is out. I plan on staying very busy this summer and will no doubt be exhausted at the end of the day, but unlike during the school year, I won't have any grading or planning to do! So, blogging will hopefully fill that hole. Also, with more frequent blogging, some of the posts might get boring. Like this one.
Friday ended with beers on a local patio with a large group of coworkers, many who will be missed as they move on to greener pastures. Jayson and the girls met me there for dinner and then we went grocery shopping and got We Bought a Zoo from Redbox.
In the morning, I did the Lozilu mud run with my sister, my bff, her sister, and a group of women from my sister's gym. I was not sure if I would be ready for it, just a day short of two weeks from my appendectomy. I knew I could run, but any kind of stretching or lifting was off limits. Luckily, I only had to skip one obstacle, which was climbing a wall. The giant Slip N Slide was my favorite. See how fun!?!?
My sister came home with me and while we waited for her husband and sons to drive from Madison (my oldest nephew had a baseball game), she played with the girls and I got food ready for Audrey's party. When everybody arrived, we went out to eat downtown at Ryan Braun's Graffito. The food was decent, but servings were small and overpriced. We sat on the patio where we could watch boats go up and down the river, and the kids enjoyed that. We wanted to get ice cream in the 3rd Ward, but everything was shutting down, so we went to Oscar's closer to home.
When we got home, we got beds ready for my sister's family to stay over. The kids played outside. I gave mine a quick shower and took one myself with Charlie (she won't go in alone) and it was bedtime. Everybody was asleep immediately after such a long day.
Today was Audrey's birthday party. Her buddy from the gym, Nathan, came and she was just beside herself with excitement. I made her an Ariel cake, per her request, and it turned out! Yay! Nathan gave her plush Angry Birds toys and as I type, she is cuddled up with them in bed, one happy little girl.
Tomorrow is the official start to summer vacation and tonight we talked about all the things we want to do. The list thus far:
Friday ended with beers on a local patio with a large group of coworkers, many who will be missed as they move on to greener pastures. Jayson and the girls met me there for dinner and then we went grocery shopping and got We Bought a Zoo from Redbox.
In the morning, I did the Lozilu mud run with my sister, my bff, her sister, and a group of women from my sister's gym. I was not sure if I would be ready for it, just a day short of two weeks from my appendectomy. I knew I could run, but any kind of stretching or lifting was off limits. Luckily, I only had to skip one obstacle, which was climbing a wall. The giant Slip N Slide was my favorite. See how fun!?!?
When we got home, we got beds ready for my sister's family to stay over. The kids played outside. I gave mine a quick shower and took one myself with Charlie (she won't go in alone) and it was bedtime. Everybody was asleep immediately after such a long day.
Today was Audrey's birthday party. Her buddy from the gym, Nathan, came and she was just beside herself with excitement. I made her an Ariel cake, per her request, and it turned out! Yay! Nathan gave her plush Angry Birds toys and as I type, she is cuddled up with them in bed, one happy little girl.
Tomorrow is the official start to summer vacation and tonight we talked about all the things we want to do. The list thus far:
- Museums (we have a Discovery World Membership and a Betty Brinn one-time pass)
- Beaches (we like Fox Brook Park in Brookfield)
- Splash pads
- Fountains at Bayshore
- Pools (the gym for sure, but hopefully some outdoor ones too)
- Water Park (we got passes to Country Springs for Christmas)
- Shedd Aquarium and possibly more of Chicago
- Jelly Belly
- Library
- Bay Beach (and visit the fabulous Adam and Jenny and their new little baby)
- Bike rides
- Zoo
- Madison
- ???
Hopefully we'll add to the list.
Monday, June 4, 2012
Smartest Two Year-Old Ever
OK, I may be exaggerating, but it's my blog and I get to do that. I've been MIA for a couple weeks with the insanity of school finishing up and a surprise appendectomy, but summer is just around the corner and I plan on blogging much fore frequently.
Here's Charlie singing her ABC's (kind of) and counting (kind of... she skips six and gets stuck on thirteen). Also, don't call her Charlotte.
Here's Charlie singing her ABC's (kind of) and counting (kind of... she skips six and gets stuck on thirteen). Also, don't call her Charlotte.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Mother's Day Ode to My Amazing Mom
I have been trying to compose a Mother's Day post in my head, and it's been tough. My childhood was by no means unhappy, but it wasn't exactly picturesque either. Just admitting it wasn't perfect is enough to make me uncomfortable. When I think of the reasons, admitting them scares me to death, even though they're not mine to fear. Not any more. I grew up with an alcoholic father, who is now estranged. People who grew up in a situation like mine know the complete chaos and turmoil it causes in a family. They also know the shame and the amazing lengths a family dealing with addiction will go to in order to cover it up and appear normal.
As I get older and try to remember exactly how it was, I get a lot of conflicted feelings. There are memories I would like to leave in the past, but also feelings of great warmth, happiness, and pride. Those are purely due to my mom's magical way of keeping a fractured family together. Sometimes I wonder how and why she worked so hard to keep a sinking ship afloat, and sometimes it takes all my strength not to run to her house and hug her and thank her for keeping my childhood as idyllic as possible.
You see, addiction brings nothing but uncertainty. That's what it was like living with my dad. You could never be certain of anything. He was loving and funny one day and the next he was angry and belligerent. But we could always rely on mom. She was always a pillar of strength. A security blanket when nothing else seemed safe. One memory that always sticks in my head is sitting at home after school, watching TV when I was younger, working on homework when I was older, and hearing the garage door open at precisely 5:30pm, and that little jump in my heart knowing my mom was home. I remember dropping whatever I was doing and excitedly listening as her high heels clipped across the kitchen floor. She was home, and all was right in the world. I remember following her to her room and lying on her bed as she changed out of her stylish work clothes, slowly removing each piece of jewelry and putting it in its proper place, and then threw on her comfortable after-work clothes. There were other happy memories scattered throughout, but that solid, predictable, reliable memory, no matter how mundane it may seem or how often it was repeated is the one that means the most to me and to me symbolizes my childhood and my mom's role in it.
Now that I have three daughters of my own, I still don't think I will ever understand how she did what she did. It's hard enough raising three kids with a husband who isn't an alcoholic and is in fact quite capable and an amazing dad. However, I still see some of my mom in what I do with my girls. One thing my mom always did well was make the ordinary seem enjoyable. We didn't go on big vacations (the first time I flew on an airplane was when I was 17 and that was with my best friend's family), and we didn't have a lot of extra money for her to shower us with impressive gifts -- although she did make sure we always had a nice mixture of what we wanted and what we needed, and she very likely spent more money on us than was really prudent. But I remember just loving being around my mom (and I still do). I remember walks to get custard, trips to the mall, and just baking cookies always seemed more fun for us than for other people. I can't even really pinpoint why. I remember feeling so fortunate that she was my mom. I try to make sure my girls experience those same daily joys as well.
Now I still feel fortunate that she was my mom because I don't know another woman who would have had the strength to do it. I feel fortunate to have her in my life because I still get a little tinge of excitement when she comes to my house. Even more than that though, I feel so fortunate that my girls get to have her for a grandma. I may feel a small tinge of excitement when she comes over, but they are in full-out Grandma-mania mode with the screams of excitement and "IT'S GRANDMA DEB!!! She's HERE!!!!" You would think Justin Bieber just walked into a room of 12 year-olds. I see her shower them with love and small gifts and show them that they deserve everything the world gives to them and she makes each moment with them special. I feel like she maybe gets to love them -- three little girls -- in a way that has fewer barriers than the first time around with her own three little girls. No sinking ship. No uncertainty. No having to be Super Mom. The fact that I am able to give that gift to her means so much to me but I know it will never pay her back for all that she has given me. She has been the single most important influence in making me the woman I am today and that is a gift I can never repay.
As I get older and try to remember exactly how it was, I get a lot of conflicted feelings. There are memories I would like to leave in the past, but also feelings of great warmth, happiness, and pride. Those are purely due to my mom's magical way of keeping a fractured family together. Sometimes I wonder how and why she worked so hard to keep a sinking ship afloat, and sometimes it takes all my strength not to run to her house and hug her and thank her for keeping my childhood as idyllic as possible.
You see, addiction brings nothing but uncertainty. That's what it was like living with my dad. You could never be certain of anything. He was loving and funny one day and the next he was angry and belligerent. But we could always rely on mom. She was always a pillar of strength. A security blanket when nothing else seemed safe. One memory that always sticks in my head is sitting at home after school, watching TV when I was younger, working on homework when I was older, and hearing the garage door open at precisely 5:30pm, and that little jump in my heart knowing my mom was home. I remember dropping whatever I was doing and excitedly listening as her high heels clipped across the kitchen floor. She was home, and all was right in the world. I remember following her to her room and lying on her bed as she changed out of her stylish work clothes, slowly removing each piece of jewelry and putting it in its proper place, and then threw on her comfortable after-work clothes. There were other happy memories scattered throughout, but that solid, predictable, reliable memory, no matter how mundane it may seem or how often it was repeated is the one that means the most to me and to me symbolizes my childhood and my mom's role in it.
Now that I have three daughters of my own, I still don't think I will ever understand how she did what she did. It's hard enough raising three kids with a husband who isn't an alcoholic and is in fact quite capable and an amazing dad. However, I still see some of my mom in what I do with my girls. One thing my mom always did well was make the ordinary seem enjoyable. We didn't go on big vacations (the first time I flew on an airplane was when I was 17 and that was with my best friend's family), and we didn't have a lot of extra money for her to shower us with impressive gifts -- although she did make sure we always had a nice mixture of what we wanted and what we needed, and she very likely spent more money on us than was really prudent. But I remember just loving being around my mom (and I still do). I remember walks to get custard, trips to the mall, and just baking cookies always seemed more fun for us than for other people. I can't even really pinpoint why. I remember feeling so fortunate that she was my mom. I try to make sure my girls experience those same daily joys as well.
Now I still feel fortunate that she was my mom because I don't know another woman who would have had the strength to do it. I feel fortunate to have her in my life because I still get a little tinge of excitement when she comes to my house. Even more than that though, I feel so fortunate that my girls get to have her for a grandma. I may feel a small tinge of excitement when she comes over, but they are in full-out Grandma-mania mode with the screams of excitement and "IT'S GRANDMA DEB!!! She's HERE!!!!" You would think Justin Bieber just walked into a room of 12 year-olds. I see her shower them with love and small gifts and show them that they deserve everything the world gives to them and she makes each moment with them special. I feel like she maybe gets to love them -- three little girls -- in a way that has fewer barriers than the first time around with her own three little girls. No sinking ship. No uncertainty. No having to be Super Mom. The fact that I am able to give that gift to her means so much to me but I know it will never pay her back for all that she has given me. She has been the single most important influence in making me the woman I am today and that is a gift I can never repay.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Audrey's Acceptance Letter
As soon as I got home today, Audrey came tearing into the kitchen yelling, "I have something to show you!" Her eyes scanned the table and she frantically asked Jayson, "Where is it?! Where is it!?" He handed her a sheet of paper and she ran up to me. "I'm going to KINDERGARTEN!" She excitedly shoved a letter in my face that confirmed she is registered for four year-old kindergarten next year. "I'm going to turn four and I'm going to go to Hoover School!" I frowned and looked at Jayson and he laughed, because he knows how sad I am about the girls getting so big. Lydia gave me a pat on the back to assure me it would be OK. Awwww... Audge-pants is going to school!
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