Monday, May 19, 2008
Maura's 5

Here she is, all big girl at school this morning.

 


photos
Monday, May 19, 2008 9:34:39 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #  Comments [0] 
SotW - The Old Black Rum

In honor of Maura's birthday, this week's SotW is one of her absolute favorites - "The Old Black Rum" by Great Big Sea.

Yeah, there's nothing like having to explain to the preschool teacher that if your daughter happens to say "rum", it's because of her favorite song...uh...it's traditional music...really, we're not alcoholics.

 

FYI - the video is from the Great Big Sea CD/DVD set - which I highly recommend - and has the closing credits on it.

 


Song of the Week | Team Maura
Monday, May 19, 2008 9:32:03 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #  Comments [0] 
 Sunday, May 18, 2008
So we have a duck..

what?  You don't have a duck?

Okay, we didn't mean to get a duck.  We just found it.  A little duckling in a shopping center, all by his lonesome.  We searched around for parents, thought we actually found them at one point, but no suck luck.  Josh said our choices were to leave it there and hope it made it, or take it home.

Good thing we bought Collin new sandals today and had a shoebox handy.

He has been named Lucky...you know, Lucky Duck.

 


animal tales
Sunday, May 18, 2008 7:19:56 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #  Comments [0] 
 Thursday, May 15, 2008
House Rule #323

You cannot keep your hair from your haircut to clone yourself.  We're Catholic  We don't clone.  Besides, if God wanted two of you Sean, you would have been twins.

 


house rules
Thursday, May 15, 2008 7:10:39 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #  Comments [1] 
late night babbling

Tonight, I made Maura a tutu and worked on the hedgehog I'm crocheting.  Yes, that's right, I'm crocheting a hedgehog.  Why?  Well, because it's cute!

"Empire Records" is on tv.  Love this movie.  Great music in it.  You've noticed I have a thing for music, have you?  How astute of you.

Ooo...I used a fancy word.  Astute.  I hope I spelled it right.  Twelve years of motherhood has taken me about twenty-four years away from that English degree I worked sort of hard for.  They say motherhood makes you smarter.  Well, it does.  Only in motherhood facts and arts.  The rest of your brain oozes out one ear from watching too much Nick Jr. Seriously, I often question what is considered "educational" children's programming.  I mean, how many times do we have to watch a guinea pig, a duckling and a little turtle save other baby animals who find themselves stuck in various places.  The trio sings a song, put a flying boat together, go from Maine to China in the space of several seconds, save the baby panda, eat some celery, and are back in their little cages within the course of fifteen minutes.  There, I've summed up every episode of "Wonder Pets" for you.

So why do I even let this on my television?  Because Maura laughs hysterically at them, loves Ming Ming Duckling and if you sing "What's gonna work?", she sings "Teaaaaaaaamwork."

Yes, motherhood has also lowered my "what amuses me" standards.  Not that those were very high to begin with.

I do sometimes feel like I'm getting dumber with age.  I used to write down quotes from Shakespeare, just because I thought they were good.  I found Russian history fascinating.  I had posters of Monet hanging off my walls.  Okay, in thnking about it, I haven't changed too much.  I still like a good quote.  I am still fascinated by Russian history.  I'm sitting under a Van Gogh knock-off. 

Change is inevitable.  You won't be the same person you were twelve years ago, children or not.  The other day though, I was reminded that the core of who I am hasn't changed too much, when I was picking violets in the yard.  I've always loved violets.  And music.  And kids.  And books.  And art.  Some things don't change I guess.



Wednesday, May 14, 2008 11:11:33 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #  Comments [0] 
 Monday, May 12, 2008
SotW - Photograph

This song takes me back to Oak Lawn, Illinois, 60453.  It's the town I grew up in.  I grew up in the big light blue house on 52nd Avenue.  Though it's no longer light blue. 

I loved that house.  Heck, even now I think it's a great house.  It had built-in bookcases, lots of windows, good closets.  It also had quirks like the former owners son's name carved here and there and the shelf in the upstairs bathroom that had been a window before the addition, which still had the window frame around it.  And the two attics, neither of which we ever managed to get into.  Oh sure, it also had mold in the bathroom and drafty windows and the basement that was great and scary at the same time.  But I've learned that no house is perfect...well, none I could afford.

I used to sit on the stairs and stare out the front door.  Watch it rain or just the cars go by.  I spent countless hours bursting out the back porch, down the stairs, out the gate, down the sidewalk.  We never really used the front door.  No one ever had a key for it. 

We moved into that house when I was 6 months old.  I left to go to college from it.  When I was twenty, we moved from it to a new house a few blocks away.  I would go back to Oak Lawn a lot to visit family, until they all moved away.  The last time I was in Oak Lawn, a few years ago, I realized that it had completely changed from the town I grew up in.  It was no longer that place.  Too much had changed, in both it and me. 

It was a great place to grow up, but as the song says, "Some had to leave it."  Turns out I was one of those who had to leave.  And it turns out, that was okay.

"Photograph" by Nickelback

 


reminiscing | Song of the Week
Monday, May 12, 2008 10:26:17 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #  Comments [0] 
 Saturday, May 10, 2008
House Rules #315 and #316

#315 - You may not tie one end of the jump rope on the hand rail on the stairs and the other end around your waist.  I know what you're up to.  Don't try it. It will only cause you pain.

No, not Sean.  Miriam.

#316 - Please keep your feet off the wall.  I know you're just trying to see how far up the wall you can climb up with your back against the table Sean, but I don't want to clean off footprints from the wall.  Or worse, have to explain why there are footprints on the wall.

 

 


house rules
Saturday, May 10, 2008 10:32:11 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #  Comments [0] 
 Friday, May 09, 2008
Just something else to get used to

That's a three month supply of Maura's seizure meds.

We had to switch to the online pharmacy delivery service if we wanted the insurance to keep covering it.  Not the most ideal, but not terrible either.  Except that at the pharmacy,  I could get a small bottle to put some of the medication in so I could easily transport it in my purse (she gets it three times a day, so it's good to have it on hand at all times.)

Today, I had one of the boxes with the big bottle in the diaper bag, as I don't have a smaller one right now that will work.  Then promptly forgot I had the gianormous bottle in said bag and wondered why the diaper bag felt so heavy.  Duh.

Collin asked me a few weeks ago how much longer Maura would have to take her medicine.  "Two years." I said.  "And that's if she doesn't have another seizure."

"Whoa."

Whoa indeed.  At least it works for us and has no lousy side effects. 

And in other news - look at my girl swing!

 


photos | Team Maura
Friday, May 09, 2008 4:31:05 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #  Comments [0] 
 Thursday, May 08, 2008
So Sean's 10

My baby boy decided to hit double digits.  Sigh. 

He had a happy birthday.  Played Wii, watched his brother take out the garbage (usually Sean's chore), got Star Wars and Legos and gift cards and the Wii Ocean game.  And he got to stay up until 9 pm - oooo...ahhh.

In six years, he's going to think he'll be able to drive my car.  AHAHAHAHAHAA! 

The night I went into labor with Sean, we went off to the hospital, checked in, got settle into a room...and then there were tornado sirens.  That should have been a warning to us that Sean would not be any ordinary kid.

He was my baby with the pretty hair.  Lovely dark blonde hair.  Even the doctor commented about it.  The nurses and I pet his pretty head so much, one nurse joked he'd go home bald.  He was a pretty content, laid back baby, with a schedule only he could figure out.  Again, should have been a clue. 

He cut teeth at four months, started crawling shortly thereafter, and was walking at 8 months.  Soon, he was climbing.  His first sentence was "I'm tuck!", as he kept getting caught in things.  Like the rocking airplane.  Yes, there's nothing like calling up your husband at work and asking where the allan wrench is, because his son is stuck in a toy.

You would also think he'd learn the first time, but no...a few days later, I heard "I'm tuck!  I'm tuck!"  At least I knew where the allan wrench was that time.

Sean had no fear.  We got the fear Sean should have had.  He was either standing on something, tasting something he shouldn't, or flying off a surface.  We bought a crib tent after he learned how to hoist himself up over the crib rail and flop out of the crib.  I had Poison Control's number memorized. I knew the signs of concussion and when a cut needed stitches.  Collin got good at alerting us to Sean's impending doom...or when he fell. 

Like the Sunday morning the boys were playing in the living room.  I was in the bathroom (no, never did learn that going to the bathroom is just asking for trouble to happen), and heard a crash and Collin yelling "Sean's hurt!"  Only took one look to realize this one would need stitches.  Four.  Actually, he could have used five, but Sean managed to get free of the papoose system they had strapped him into at the hospital.  Two days later, Sean slid into the front door and had a big lump to go with the stitches on his forehead.  The day after that, he fell down the front steps, scraping the rest of his face up on the concrete.  The next day was Collin's birthday and Sean looked like we had taken him by the ankles and swung him repeatedly into a brick wall. 

Thank goodness with age, Sean gained some fear. 

He went from a toddler on a tear, to a really bright kid.  When he turned five, he finally got interested in letters and numbers.  By the time he turned six, he was reading and writing and spelling.  Proving that not only did he look just like his father, but that they had similar brains.  When they decide to learn something, they learn it instantly.

There are times I feel badly for Sean.  He does seem to draw the short straws on things.  Like Sean - the boy who loves to eat healthy, who would choose white milk over Sprite at McDonald's, who brushed his teeth five times a day - he was the one who got Dad's lousy tooth enamel.  And when the dog decided to eat a toy on the way down to Arkansas one Christmas, she ate Sean's most favorite toy.  We drove the rest of the way to Little Rock, with Sean holding his half-eaten Kyogre toy that was wrapped up in his hat, sniffling and looking all pathetic.  And then he said "It's okay, Santa will bring me a new one, right?"  It was December 22rd.

Proving that God does answer prayers, we found one at Target and gave it to him as an early Christmas present.

And now he's ten.  Sigh. He is still my sweet Seanie Boy, even if he won't let me call him that most of the time.  Or that he'll be in middle school in the fall. 

 



Thursday, May 08, 2008 9:19:24 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #  Comments [0] 
 Monday, May 05, 2008
SotW- Unwritten

This week I bring you Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten" - it's fun to dance to, a bit inspirational, and it appeals to the writer in me.  I also am somewhat amazed that I can keep up with it when I sing along with it when it comes on the radio.  It has a lot of S's in it. 

See, as a child, I had a big bad speech problem.  I couldn't say S, SH, CH, J, soft G's, Z's, R's...W-R combinations would trip me up at times...I'd also spit a lot b/c of my speech problem.  I was teased a LOT because of it.  It wasn't until 8th grade that I conquered it all.  Now, I meet speech therapists and they are amazed at how well I speak after hearing my history.  No one who has known me since high school ever guesses I had a big bad speech problem.  As the song goes, "No one else can speak the words on your lips" - they couldn't.  I had to learn it all myself.  And now I can sing that line...maybe not the best that anyone has ever sung it, but all my S's are as clear as anyone else's.  It never occured to me until recently just how much that should be celebrated. 

 


reminiscing | Song of the Week
Monday, May 05, 2008 9:20:16 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #  Comments [0]