The Past Week
We have been busy.
First my parents anticipated arrival on the 22nd was postponed due to the unusually heavy snow in the Pacific Northwest this year. The earliest they could get a new flight was Christmas night, the same time Brad’s parents arrived. So we planned for a nice quiet Christmas at home. Forest woke Brad and I on Christmas Eve at around 12:30 AM screaming. A fever showed up at around 4 AM. We had our first sick child. Forest had an ear infection. We made it two years before our first sick baby. It was an awful experience to hold him as he screamed with no idea how to help him. As kids will do, Forest played with the train table we got the boys and the toys Dusty got for them in between extra naps and lots of cuddles.
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| From xmas 08 |
Christmas morning with the train table.
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| From xmas 08 |
Not able to put down the sick baby even though my arm was asleep. Reminded me too much of having an infant again and for some reason that was a good feeling.
By this point the boys had participated in three Christmases; the Trammell’s, at our home, and at Dusty’s home. Friday morning Brad’s parents had Christmas with us and Sunday afternoon my parents did their Christmas with us. Yes, the boys made out well. Actually, we were all very blessed with wonderful gifts. We got in family time with Brad’s extended family on Saturday and Sunday and lots of time with my parents before they left on New Year’s Eve. Forest got better and better with each day and aside from some cold and allergy symptoms and teething agitation, is fit as a fiddle again.
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| From xmas 08 |
Little Builders
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No ear infection can keep Forest down!
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Logan loved the pies.
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The new rope swing with Dusty, aka “Green Daddy”.
Dusty took the boys New Year’s Eve afternoon and Brad and I had the opportunity to participate in Austin’s First Night Parade with our friend’s belly dance troupe. Brad played the djimbe and I was on tambourine with a group of about 8 other “band” members. We watched the amazing clock tower burn down at Auditorium shores, ate some good street food, and made it just in time to watch and hear the Tesla coils play music. Talk about an amazing New Years. Unfortunately, now Dusty is having ear trouble and I suspect a sinus infection. Oh, and did I mention that Brad’s dad came down with an ear infection the day before leaving to go back to California?
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| From xmas 08 |
Logan checks on Grandpa Warren to make sure his ear is ok. The past few weeks have been a lesson is the boys understanding of emotion and empathy. It’s precious.
Oh yeah, did I also mention that we bought training pottys for the boys earlier this week, too? Yes, it’s THAT time!
I found out this afternoon that a special friend’s father passed away after a two year battle with aggressive cancer. I find myself reflective this evening, New Year’s Day 2009, about mortality in general, but specifically the mortality of our parents as I near my 36th year of life. Aging is a strange experience. I find myself not understanding how I suddenly am now a mom who cares for sick children, who’s parents come to visit for the holidays when I remember so (perceived) clearly my own Christmas experiences of childhood. We were very blessed to spend the holidays with our families and know all the comforts of warmth, food, and shelter. To have health insurance, no debt, and savings that is still worth something despite the economy. It feels a bit more like Thanksgiving again to me.
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| From xmas 08 |
Drawing
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| From xmas 08 |
Logan wearing his New Year’s Eve seahorse while trying to draw an “A”.
Prayers for Tuesday
Tuesday’s mother has requested renewed prayers for Tuesday as they are back in the hospital with a new tumor. Please take a moment out of your holiday time to remember this precious life and her struggle with cancer and send prayers for healing her way.
Letting Go and Having Fun
I’m extremely stubborn. It’s something that has caused a multitude of problems for me and that I’m constantly working on. It’s particularly difficult being a mom because I want to be the laid back mom that is able to let the boys get dirty and make messes and just go with that flow as appropriate. But it’s really hard for me because somewhere in my subconscious resides this woman who wants the perfect Norman Rockwell experiences of baking cookies, setting up the Christmas tree, playing in the kiddy pool, or whatever it may be. But today I realized something. I seem to be able to let go if I stop being “mom” and move behind the lens of a camera. And here’s the proof.
Creating Christmas Traditions
Being a new parents brings up the question of what traditions we want to have for our family. Some traditions are introduced by us from our childhood and own experiences, others are organic and emerge as the family simply lives our experiences.
One tradition that we agreed to before the boys were born was to always spend Christmas as a family together including all three of us coparents. Because we get along so well, we would rather all three share Christmas with the boys instead of having to divide the holiday up. Of course there may come special family trips in the future but for the most part, if our families want to see the boys on Christmas day, they will have to either travel here to our home or invite all three parents to theirs.
A tradition that Brad and I started for ourselves last year is bagels and lox for Christmas breakfast. For some reason there is something about that meal that makes me feel like I’m on vacation and since the local New York deli is open on Christmas morning, what a perfect tradition. Oh, and potatoe latkes with sour cream. MMmmm
This year was my first opportunity to really do stockings right for the boys. Last year there just wasn’t much that would fit well because of they were still putting everything into their mouths. This year I had a field day in Target’s dollar section over the past few months. That and we finally broke down and gave them candy so they will get a few chocolates as well.
We’ve had several conversations about Santa Claus around our house. All three of us parents have agreed that we’ll introduce the boys to Santa and such but won’t go to great lengths to maintain his existance. If they ask, we’ll be honest and talk about him as representing the spirit of giving. Yeah, we’ll pry be the parents who’s kids tell your kids that Santa isn’t real. And being huge fans of mythology and religious studies , our kids will know the origins of Santa Claus and probably also be the ones telling other kids that the three wise men wouldn’t really have been in the manger scene either. I’d like to think the boys will even know to tell people that the wise men were probably Zorastrians. Talk about bonus points for our geekiness. There is a fine line between mythology and magic and I think that you can have both simply by having faith in God.
We’ve enjoyed introducing the entire Christmas cast of characters this year: the Christmas tree, the star on top of the tree, Reindeer, Santa, snowmen, wrapped gifts, stockings hung on the fireplace. The boys hear me singing carols constantly and Forest even joined in “la la la” with Deck the Halls the other day in the car. I love how easily they soak in the traditions and characters.
We haven’t joined a church family here in Austin yet so church traditions are yet to be set. But we did buy the boys their first book telling the story of Baby Jesus and it’s sweet to see them pointing at the baby in the manger and teaching them that his name is Jesus, his Mommy is Mary. Start simple I say. Big concepts to come in the future. I’d also like to introduce the boys to Chanukah so if any of my Jewish friends have a good board book recommendation, please comment. Again, we are inclusive instead of specific about our religious beliefs and plan to expose the boys to many traditions and beliefs as they grow up.
Christmas cookie baking is also one of my traditions from childhood that I am going to stand firm on keeping with the boys. Christmas eve we’ll be cutting out shaped sugar cookies and decorating them with sprinkles and frosting. Pictures will follow of that!
What traditions have you as parents created in your family? What comes from your childhood and what is new?
prayers of gratitude
I’d like share some special special prayers of gratitude for the healing and health that has come this year. Baby Catherine who wasn’t supposed to live at birth but is at home in time for Christmas and to live with her family and two year old Tuesday who’s little body has made it through chemo and will spend Christmas at home and clean of cancer cells. Prayers of gratitude for the all the survivors of cancer and the miracles of every baby’s first breath outside of the womb. The miracle of O.E being with us for another year. The miracle of Earthsprings being once again protected during hurricanes. The miracles of Christina’s, Marci’s, Glenda’s, and Jim’s health this year. Prayers of gratitude for all the healings and miracles throughout our lives, those that are big enough to send us pleading tearful prayers down on our knees and those that are so small we may not even realize they happen.
Tuesday’s Miracle
For those of you who have been following along with Tuesday’s situation and are praying for her - I wanted to share with you the amazing news that her scans are all showing CLEAN of cancer. She still has a lot ahead of her including a stem cell transplant to keep her body clean for the years to come. But for now I offer up incredible prayers of gratitude for the miracle of Tuesday’s health for this Christmas and all the Christmas’ to come.
Birthdays
Friday Brad and I took the boys for their first experience at “Inflatable Wonderland” - one of those bounce places in the mall. It rocked being there on a Friday afternoon with only a few other kids so that the boys could run, climb, slide, jump, bounce and otherwise enjoy themselves without being trampled.
Thank you to everyone who offered birthday wishes via comments on the blog, twitter, facebook, email, phone calls, cards, or in person. It really meant a lot to us all. We started a tradition last year of watching their baby videos on their birthday and it really was an awesome reminder to me to see how many people had come to the hospital that day and waited there for hours to meet the boys. Everyone is so busy in their every day lives and often goes months without seeing the boys. But their love and blessings from those first few hours will remain an important foundation for their lives. I am intensely moved by the community that we have.
Wendy made the boys a very thoughtful gift. She took letters, painted them and decorated them with various stickers with cute sayings, pictures of bugs, etc. Per a request, here are the pictures. I couldn’t get the pics good enough to show all the sweet stickers but if you scrapbook you’ll get it.
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| From names |
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| From names |
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| From names |
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| From names |
Happy Birthday Forest and Logan
Tomorrow the boys turn two. I don’t even know where to begin or what to say.
I love the way Logan calls animals and things “cute” with the sweetest accent. I love how he says “hi” and “bye” in a very high pitched voice.
I love how Forest dances around all the time…always prancing around on his tip toes dancing. And how he’s started singing.
I love how the boys want to do the hokie pokie and other silly songs with body movements. How they actually try and say/sing the words and do the hand/body motions.
I love that Logan wants to climb and crawl all over Brad but understands that he can’t play that way with Mommy. I love how he calls out for daddy at night and mommy won’t do.
I love that Forest always calls for me in the morning. That he gets in bed with me for cuddles and sometimes even goes back to sleep for a bit in my arms.
I love how Logan still can’t get enough of being outside no matter how bad the weather or how cold it is. The kid could live outside.
I love how Forest props up his bunny and pacifier to “watch” him play outside or eat a meal.
I love that the boys help each other and bring each other things. That even though they spend their days complaining about touching each other (the grocery cart has become a nightmare!) they cuddle up together before bed or naps.
I love that the boys learn new words daily and I can’t even begin to keep up with their vocabulary. That they are able to use words like “wow”, “cute” and “fun” appropriately without ever having them explained to them.
I love hearing the boys try to count things. Now that they know the words for various numbers, they are always trying to count but get the numbers in the wrong order. They even seem to have favorite numbers, Forest’s is “five”.
From this:
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| From Birth |
To this:
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| From 1 year photos |
To this:
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| From Record Cover |
In all three of those pictures, Forest is on the right and Logan on the left. I didn’t do that on purpose, it just happened that way. I love synchronicity.
They were flirting with a grandmother in the grocery store today and she said to me “you are so blessed.” She has no idea.
Christmas Tree Parent Hack
I’m not the most creative person, as in I have trouble thinking outside of the box. I’m stubborn. But as anyone will tell you, when you have kids, you learn to be less stubborn. You learn to bend a bit. And so when we put up the Christmas tree and Logan immediately picked up one of the glass balls and threw it to the ground saying “ball, throw!”, I figured this was going to be one bare tree. We put a few special balls and ornaments near the top. And then I remembered that I have a bag of ribbon collected over the years, mainly from Dusty’s mom’s gifts to me. She always does the prettiest wrapping with all these big, beautiful bows. And I knew they’d come in handy some day. Saturday was that some day! My very own first parent hack: when you have toddlers who don’t understand to stay away from the Christmas balls, use pretty ribbon to add color to your tree. A much better solution then putting up the big ugly gate we used last year.
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Santa’s Helpers
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