It's a loud life

I should be heading to bed, or working on that proposal that's due... but what I also need is a charge. Recharge. And a reminder of all the good going on at the casa. Feeling in the grind rather than in the groove at the moment... sigh. No complaints. Just in search of a diversion while I enjoy a little late night quiet.

Was thinking about the list of things I want to remember about the Bear just yesterday evening... like how he says, "no no no bebe" in the sweetest little voice and also screams almost constantly between the hours of 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. nightly. The contrast in our lives from moment to moment is comical. Nothing you can do but laugh the longer the screaming goes on.

He has also just this weekend started taking my finger and saying "me, me... " as in "come with me mom I have something to show you." Often he wants to show me his juice cup in the fridge or the back door and how it leads to the OUTSIDE. Uhm- it was 105 the other day... it's going to be a long hot summer and being in the heat doesn't help my ability to be the patient and loving mother I strive to be.

My favorite, and one I hope to capture on video, is his rendition of the Darth Vader music. Dum dum dum, da-da dum, da-da dum. da, da da, Dum-da-dum da-da dum. Always gets the first three notes. Mind you, all those da das under his belt and he calls Daddy, "Mahhhhh." It's different than ma ma. But it's definitely not Dada. or Deeda. or anything close to Dad. We've got father's day coming up... maybe he can make the connection in time.

By the way, he could be in the middle of singing this tune and if someone says it's time to brush teeth he is off and running to the bathroom, scooting around the tight corner like a cartoon character bouncing on its heel...A guaranteed obedient/happy moment in the day. Maybe he'll take on the family business someday. The kid loves to brush.

Having B around is like having Godzilla in the living room sometimes. He throws his cup... he whacks things off the coffee table... The other day at the pool he was walking around the grounds pushing the white plastic chairs over. One at a time. Left arm, Right arm. Taking them out... because he can. And after the destruction and screaming and food all over the floor... he settles in smelling like pure honey. It's like he breathes honey past 8 p.m. At the day's end, he wants to rock and snuggle in. He will put his little hand on my shoulder and pat me three times... just like I do to him. Little Bear. Growing so fast. 20 months already. Barely any baby left...

And then there's G-man. The only baby left in that boy is this baby talk thing that makes me insane. INSANE! We're trying to break him of it... And then there's the recurring, "I love you mama" or "I love you daddy" that comes out of nowhere, a sincere gift every time. We hope it lasts forever. I guess it balances out.

Dressed as a sheep with specially requested horns, G started the pre-k graduation by leading the Pledge. I always said he has the right hair for politics. God help him. Since becoming a graduate, he's been at Camp at school and having a blast. Movies, swimming, library, game day...Today they did Zumba...I don't think the summer boredom thing is on his horizon. Although he has seemed to pick up the word boring from the older kids. "Ohhhhh but that will be so booooooooring," he said when I asked him to help me snap green beans last night... Of course once we were eating he wanted full credit for the beans.

This was in between renditions of the same song over and over again at full volume. At the table.I finally joined in singing it as loud as I could without scaring B. And then I whispered it to see if he took the lead. It didn't take. Singing is his new thing. Along with a top called a Bey Blade that has entertained him exclusively for days now. Who needs a video game? A top. It's all the rage. Seeeeeeeee, simple pleasures. Smile.

There's so much more... so much! But that's all I have for tonight... along with this thought. Remember that scene in Say Anything when they have the volume turned up above the red line? We spend a lot of time above the volume line at the Casa. The music of our lives is loud.

A Five Star Restaurant Experience

Parental stripes. Medals of honor. Badges for bravery. I have this invisible patch I where on my shoulder. Parenthood deserves acknowledgement. So every now and then I award myself another star.

I developed this system at a truck stop, Thanksgiving 2006, when I threw Grant’s soiled clothes in the garbage. There was no other option. Awwww. My first star. The memories.

Quite a few of these “awards” have to do with poop. In fact, each of us earned a couple last week when Barrett and the rest of his class had it out with the craziest stomach bug to curse our house (yet). B even got a star of his own for bravery as he puked time and again…

Despite the constant amount of crazy in our life, after five years in uniform there are days when you feel like you’ve got the gig under control. There are days when you think for a minute you may have seen it all. Except something tells you there’s another surprise just around the corner. Such was the case tonight.

The boys needed hair cuts. It’s Easter weekend and my camera is charging. I have a vision, of the two of them, angelic in pastel blue and white, carrying their baskets and holding hands…

A girl can dream even it never quite looks the same in real life. Real life looks good too. It’s just wearing rain boots and carrying a water gun. Exhibit A: Easter Sunday 2009.

Anyhoo, Dad picked the kids up from school. I met them there in order to art direct the stylists. I am sure they love that…

The hair cut evening ritual involves moving from the barber chair next door to the pizza place. It was the usual chaos at dinner. Lots of bending over and picking up cups and forks. Lots of entertaining the troops while waiting for pizza to arrive. Attempts at conversation but lots of interrupted thoughts. Good news is we each had managed to down an adult beverage before the shit hit the fan. Literally.

When we noticed B was making THAT face we motioned to the waitress to bring the check. We were without a diaper bag on this venture. No life raft. No pacifier. No wipes. No diaper. No mention of who left home without the pack.

Of course, nothing would have really made a difference about the poop that had run down B’s leg onto his shoes, pooled in the high chair and dripped onto the floor…

The aroma was mixing with garlic and filling the air in the small restaurant when the waitress clued in and brought us a towel. She also brought the check. God bless her.

Deeda rushed to the parking lot his arms straight out – Mr. B dangling, dripping and laughing. G followed giggling. I signed the check. Tipped double. Wiped poo with paper napkins from the high chair and made a special request they take extra care in cleaning the high chair before the next child came along… Oh to think of the times our children have licked public high chairs…

By the time I arrived in the parking lot B had one shoe and one sock off. I bent down to get the rest and strategized with Christian about the next course of action. I give us extra points for generally laughing the entire time.

Thankfully G had a beach towel in the car from his picnic day at school. So we wrapped B up like a burrito and buckled him in. I’ve already blocked out most of the drive home but I do remember turning around to make sure he didn’t have his hands in his mouth to see him smiling, clapping and laughing. Meanwhile G was interjecting on our front seat strategy session with offers to hose him down. You could tell, big brother was frothed he might get to squirt him with a hose.

And so we hosed him down, bathed him, bleached him and put him to bed. Poo smell has permeated my nose hairs, but I am trying to kill it with a stiff drink. To quote one of G's favorite phrases, "Iiiit's the weeeeeeekend!" Easter weekend.

And then it was March (almost).

At risk of sounding like a broken record, I’ll go ahead and say it. I don’t know where the time goes.

I spent the entire day today on retreat in Galveston with one scrapbooking group of mamas. As I culled through a year’s worth of memories and put them in albums, I relived so many days we’ve spent with friends and family. That is why my work here is important. More time than I’d like passes between posts, but I do my best to record the big days and the little things here at the casa.

Since it’s been a while, I once again find myself tempted to attempt to recap e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. BUT in keeping with my theme for the year of forward motion, I am going to spend less time dwelling in the past and do my best to sum it up fairly quickly. Here’s the highlights real. Then I’ll finish with current events.

Christmas came again. My personal favorite part was a relatively quiet Christmas morning just the four of us. It was actually pretty noisy with the sound of new toys and squeals in the air but that’s the sound of Christmas. I venture G’s favorite part had to do with one Nerf Gun. A close second would be the whoopi cusion uncle Nathan brought. B’s favorite is a stuffed Mickey Mouse Santa brought. To this day, if you ask him where Mickey is, he will hold his hands up in wonder and go walking around to find him.

January brought good news. Nennie and Grandaddy are moving to Houston. Grandaddy is already here working and Nennie will follow when Aunt Alyssa heads to college in the fall. We’re so excited and looking forward to much more time together. We celebrated Deeda’s birthday with a memorable meal at Hearsay Gastro Pub. The mac n’ cheese took mac n’ cheese to new heights. I wrote down the cheeses included. The Jalepeno cocktail was also delish and Deeda was beside himself to find his favorite, Tres Generations.

This January we also tackled a project I set out to do last January-update our master bedroom. Thanks to Nana’s savvy shopping skills and design ideas we have a whole new look and we didn’t even break the bank. It was a bargain bonanza! Let’s just say $7.95 curtain panels.

February is our third and running birthday month at our house. Unfortunately, we started it out with a case of the flu that took out the entire Pre-K at G’s school. I may not have known this had I not called most of the class to reschedule his birthday party. Ultimately, we had one heckuva Jedi Training Star Wars party. Deeda did a bang up job developing Jedi lessons and making a movie with our family in the staring rolls of a funny Star Wars remake. Many points for Master Deeda. Props to G-man too for trying his very best to rally on the day his party would have been. It was heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time.

While we’re on Star Wars, I also have to mention my post over at the Communications Plus blog. Once again, Volkswagon spoke to me. I’d swear directly. I seem to have always fallen into their target market.

I can’t let February’s recap go by without mentioning the viral rash/hives that took over Barrett’s body and changed shape daily for four days before disappearing as if nothing ever happened. Let’s just say, when I first saw him, I was woozy as if I might pass out. Best thing I can say about that long week is that while G recovered from the flu and got legal to go back to school, and B endured the rash in good spirits, we had a few days of togetherness we wouldn’t have had otherwise. In the midst of it, the sickness thing is stressful. Not only do my babies not feel well, but I feel stressed by missing work. The balancing act just gets more complicated. But on the other side, when the dust settles for a minute, I almost always look at it as an opportunity I had to hug them tighter, spend more hours in the day together and all in all become more aware of how grateful we are for two children who spend the majority of their days healthy and happy.

And here we are. Almost March. The rodeo season is kicking off with the cook off. The CP gang and spouses attended last night along with special guests Grandaddy and Uncle John. Thanks to our wonderful hosts/friends from Busters BBQ in Lakeway, we had a boot scootin’ good time.

So that’s the recap. What about today? Today B is getting two more teeth. That must be close to a mouthful… He loves to snuggle with his brother. And G tolerates it with patience and tenderness. G is super engrossed in star wars Legos. We go next week to register him for Kindergarten.

Tonight I am missing my boys. It’s been a very busy week with events each of the last three nights and though this time with my memories and my friends is wonderful, It will be equally as god to get home and settle in for another week.

Signing off. Let’s hope posts in 2011 are more frequent than quarterly.