As Promised...

Our first Fall project....acorn gnomes.

Awwwwww.....

Quinn's very first attempt at writing Mommy...

Finally Fall

I love the changing of the seasons. Spring and Fall are absolutely the best times of the year - maybe I love them because they are so fleeting (especially Spring in the South) but I think the reason is there is something magical about nature changing. And while Spring is beautiful, Fall is my favorite - perhaps that is the witchy side of me coming out.

I have been trying to figure out why I love the season so much. It is a combination of so many things - a beautiful palette of reds, oranges and yellows; children's anticipation (and mine) for Halloween and all its fun - pumpkin carving and trick-or-treating; Bringing out candles and ghost stories as the sun fades away; warm apple cider on a cool afternoon; hearty stews that boil on the stove all day and fill the house with delicious aromas; nestling in under a down comforter; football Saturdays and Sundays; and finally Thanksgiving Day gorging on scrumptious food surrounded by family.

Fall thus far has, well, sucked. Since the first of September, Nashville has pretty much lived under a rain cloud. It has been muggy, wet and plain miserable. But finally yesterday the sun came out, the wind has a bite of cold to it and I am in heaven. I spent the morning ushering out summer in the house and we are going to welcome fall this week so stay tuned as my children OD on everything Autmn. Apple Cider, anyone??

Baby Sophie

Another weekend, another trip. This last weekend we headed south to Birmingham to meet our friends John and Ashley's new baby girl Sophie.

Baby Sophie is precious, though once my children learned she really didn't have any toys they could play with they much preferred terrorizing John and Ashley's dogs all weekend. On Saturday we took the kids to the Birmingham Science Center - which I will have to say is pretty good, much better than the one here in Nashville. The rest of the weekend we spent convincing John and Ashley that they only wanted one child as my children raced through the house screaming and playing with each other. Sophie is a wonderful baby and hardly ever cried and happily gurgled and slept through our visit. Wish my children would have done the same....

Nashville's Wayne Gretsky

To say that my son loves hockey is an understatement. To him it is the greatest thing in the universe. We play hundreds of different things every day - from pirates to riding bikes to digging in the dirt but every day we get some hockey in - whether it is inside or outside we are at some point at the rink.

For his 2nd birthday we got him a Little Tykes golf set which has been used for its intended purpose of golf around 3 or 4 times. To him it is a hockey stick and puck. As usual today, it was the first thing pulled out when we got outside. He is getting pretty good at his slapshot as evidenced by the red welt on my thigh from where that little white ball pummeled me (but hey I did stop a goal). He even goes so far now as to stop the game for intermission and the cleaning of the ice by the Zamboni (which is actually me sweeping the driveway with a broom - as instructed by my 4 year old).

His love of hockey is even a good behavior tool. This week he was playing with a broom at school and waving it around his head. His teacher told him to pretend it was a hockey stick and not to swing it up so high because he didn't want to get a high sticking penalty. He kept it down by the ground the rest of the day.

And where is Quinn during all of this? Well, she seems to be taking after her mother. This afternoon she pulled out a chair and sat in the yard and pretended to be on the phone and to text while the game was going on. I think she is waiting, like me, for basketball season.

Knight and Queen

Thursday Greyson and I killed some time in Marshall's until it was time to pick up Quinn. We stumbled onto the costume section and he insisted on buying an elephant costume. In the racks I also found an inexpensive knight costume. I asked Greyson if he wanted it and he said no but it was cheap so I bought it anyway.

When we got home the beloved elephant costume lasted for 5 minutes. "Hey, Mommy did you get that knight outfit?" After that it was all over - he has since lived in that costume, especially the crown. He has ridden his horse all over the kingdom and rescued many a fair maiden. Friday morning the first thing he did was grab that crown. Thankfully the snow princess outfit I bought Quinn had an accompanying crown and so she has played Queen right along side Greyson.

The most surprising thing of all this is that Friday morning as I was coming up from the basement the knight and the Queen were sitting happily together on the stairs. "Take a picture of us, please." Well I didn't have my camera and figured by the time I got it they would have the crowns off and be at each other throats but I thought I would try. And lo and behold they sat there nicely until I got back and even sat nicely for the pictures.

I guess it is true that medieval folk had much better manners.....

Self-reliant

On our way to Birmingham we stopped at a gas station to go to the bathroom. I took Quinn into the stall and right away she pointed out that there was some toilet paper on the floor.

"Don't touch that Mommy. We don't touch things on the floor 'cause they are dirty."

"My Quinn, you sure do know a lot of things. Who teaches you all of this? Does Mommy??"

(thoughtful pause) "No Mommy I learn them all by myself."

Man for All Seasons....

With the change of seasons this week, Greyson's preschool class took a little time this week to talk about all the different seasons...

His teacher asked the class if anyone knew the names of all four seasons - of course my intelligent son was the only one to raise his hand.

"OK, Greyson can you tell your friends the names of all the seasons?"

"Yes.....Hockey, Football, Soccer and Basketball"

Cool as a Habanero

One would think that after 4 months in the NICU the run of the mill medical mishaps of my children would be no big deal. After all, I saw Greyson with IV's coming out everywhere, tubes where there really should never be tubes and I even spent some time dealing with a portion of his intestines on the outside of his body. So a little blood and a little cut should be child's play, right....wrong.

Last night as I was making dinner the kids went upstairs to play their usual games of Japanese steakhouse and running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Then came the thud, the crash and the screams. Usain Bolt would have been left in the dust as I bounded upstairs to find Greyson sitting on the floor. I asked him what happened and he kindly ratted out his sister "Quinn pushed me off the bed." I picked him up to give him a big squeeze and then I saw it.....the blood. A lot of blood. I rushed him downstairs, got a paper towel and tried to wash it away and tried to find out where the hell it was coming from. At this point I don't know who was more terrified - me or Greyson. He was freaked out by the bloody paper towels and so was I. My mind was racing - do I take him to the ER, what do I do with Quinn?? I was thinking of where the LifeFlight helicopter was going to touch down in our neighborhood when I thought to call Raif. He told me he was three minutes away - I told him to be here in one. Now to be fair to myself (and at least show some redeeming qualities in all of this) by the time Raif got through the door I had managed to stop the bleeding enough to find the quarter inch gash in his head - not the six inch trench I had expected to find. So Raif had a better situation to deal with than I initially did. But my cool and collected husband rationally got Greyson to stop crying, found some liquid bandage and got the bleeding to stop.

Then of course came the next fear - the concussion. Once again Raif (as well as my mother) assured me that concussions come from hitting the back of your head or the temples not where Greyson had his cut. We sent him to bed and of course I was up all night worrying as my husband slept like a log.

Obviously, he was fine this morning. His head hurt a little and he asked for some Tylenol but was bright and chipper and ready to face the day. He obviously slept like a log too.

He has a nice bloody mass in his head - a mixture of blood and liquid bandage that we can't wash out until a nice scab forms. Ahhh, if only we were close to Halloween - he would already have a head start on a great costume.

Getting By With a Little Help From My Friends......

I received this e-mail today from Greyson's best friend Yohannes' Mom and thought I would share...

Lest one think that significant relationships are not formed at early ages....

One evening last week, when Yohannes’s mommy (that would be me!) accidentally let go of a balloon that shot off like an arrow into the stratosphere, Yohannes cried and cried and cried. As I was consoling him, he asked “Do big boys cry?” I assured him that they do, and that this was as good a reason as any to cry. As he continued to sob, Yohannes gulped out “I need my friend Greyson’s help!” I was so touched by the level of affection but also by the realization on Yohannes’s part that sometimes mommy (or daddy) isn’t enough, and that one simply needs a friend.

The Call of the Sea

Having grown up in the Midwest - about as far from the ocean as you can get - beach vacations didn't really exist for me. I went once with my parents but really have no actual memories of it. My first real beach vacation came as a sophomore in college on Spring Break, where becoming one with the ocean really was never on the itinerary. So for most of my life, the draw that people feel to the ocean was a mystery to me. Sure I enjoyed going and drinking my rum drink in the sand but that was all that was there. But then I met, fell in love with and married a man with salt water in his veins and over this past decade, especially after this vacation with the kids, I am finally beginning to understand the pull....

It is the awe, excitement, fear, and wonder in my children's eyes as they watch the waves crash on the shore. And it is the ever changing mixture of those emotions from moment to moment depending on how high the tide is and where they are. It is the sandcastles to be built and the fresh canvass each day to start anew. It is the endless search for buried treasure.

It is the eternal optimism of a crazy dog thinking that she could ever catch a sandpiper.

It is the continual roar of the ocean that drowns everything out, including your own thoughts, and forces you to actually think about nothing.

It is the strange calm that only comes over my husband when he stands on those shores.

Now, honestly, I think I will always find my true peace standing in the middle of the wide open plains of the Midwest but pretty soon I think the ocean might rank a close second.

Listening Walk

A while ago I stumbled across the book The Listening Walk. Perhaps most of you have heard of/ thought of a listening walk but I really hadn't until I read the book. People always tell you to stop and smell the roses but no one ever says "Stop and listen to the crickets."

Since then I have tried to take the kids every so often on one, especially in a new environment. This week we took a wonderful one at night. Our condo has a large pond on one side and the ocean on the other so we got the best of both worlds. We heard crickets chirping and frogs bellowing at each other. The kids had fun trying to guess what all the animals were saying and talking about. Then we strolled over to the beach and listened to the waves crash on the shore. Finally we looked up and tried to count all the stars in the sky.

It is amazing what you can hear when you shut up for a moment and listen (not to mention listening is a great way to keep your children quiet so you can steal a moments peace). So if you have a moment stop and listen to the crickets.

Vacation Frustration

Did you know that I am psychic?? I am. I have the awesome power of ESP but only in very specific instances - OK actually just one. I can walk into any restaurant in the United States whether it be in Florida or Colorado or wherever and tell you without ever seeing a child's menu what is on it. Though to be fair - any Mom who has a child from 2 and beyond probably has the same power as me because every child's menu is the same: chicken tenders, grilled cheese, pasta of some sort (including mac n cheese) and cheese or pepperoni pizza. All of them come with a side of fries.

As a mother who prides herself on feeding her children a variety of healthy foods the children's menu frustrates me to no end. In Nashville, we eat out so infrequently that an occasional grilled cheese for dinner isn't a big deal but on vacation when the majority of meals are out a mild annoyance turns into a major dilemma.

The talking heads of the world banter about endlessly about why our children are obese. They really only need to look as far as the children's menu that contains absolutely nothing healthy.

So what is a mother to do? I either have to purchase them a high priced adult meal and leave 80% on the plate (a huge waste) or try to find something on the menu that we both agree on and inevitably I leave the restaurant hungry. Our third option is to bargain with the waitress. "Hey, can you do a child size salmon?" This generally leads to a blank stare and a "Uh, I will have to check on that?"

Am I alone in my frustration??? Does the rest of the world only feed their children fried crap for dinner? Seriously, the general population must feed their kids more than chicken fingers every night? How hard is it to offer, fresh, nutritional, tasty offerings in kid sizes? Maybe their is a lack of demand for it - and that is just sad.

As for dinner tonight - we found a wonderful Italian bistro where we shared appetizers of caprese salad, clams in a white wine sauce and dinner of spaghetti and meatballs. A whole hell of a lot better than mac-n-cheese, but perhaps that is just us.

Graceful Courage

Tonight we enjoyed a delicious meal on the outside veranda of OC Whites in downtown St. Augustine. As we ate a man with a guitar began to sing by the front of the restaurant and two lone people got up and began to dance as the sun set over them. What made this such a powerful moment was that both of them had severe MS. They could barely walk much less dance but there they were - dancing in their own way, clearly in love and not caring about the rest of the world.

As I watched them I wondered if I was in the same situation would I have the courage to do what they were doing - to dance in front of a restaurant full of people with my disability on my sleeve? As we finished dinner we sat for a moment by the front of restaurant, listened to the music and watched the couple dance. Before we left, Quinn got up and danced with them and I was struck by how lucky we are for our health and happiness. As we were walking outside, the man stopped us and told us what a good dancer Quinn was. We smiled and thanked him and I wished I could have shared with them how much their dancing touched me but instead I thought it best to let them go back to each other and the music.

Working Hard for the Money

We were playing around yesterday and started pretend calling Daddy at work. Sometimes I would play receptionist at the office (Good Morning, Regents Health Resources, How may I help you?) and sometimes they got to 'talk' to Daddy and sometimes he was on the phone or in a meeting. And then we would switch. At one point Greyson wouldn't let me talk to Daddy because he was in a meeting. I asked "Greyson, what does Daddy do in his meetings?"
"He throws a football with Mr. Brian."

Yup, I think that pretty much sums up what Raif does all day.

Where The Players Play...

Every so often we get an itch to go back to Atlanta. I think it is the combination of missing good friends and good food (the best Mexican and pizza anywhere). So this last weekend we packed up the family and headed South. The ever eternal gluttons-for-punishment Roberts graciously housed us for the weekend. Once again thanks Keith and Susanna and Kinley and Derby!!

We spent Saturday morning at the Georgia Aquarium with the kids discovering whales, sharks, jelly fish, sea otters and manta rays. Saturday night all of our old neighbors came over for a cook-out and the complete destruction of the Roberts play room by all the neighborhood children.

We had lunch on Sunday with the Tucks and got to demolish their play room as well. After a nap it was back in the car to head for home with two exhausted children (not to mention their parents).

As always, we had too many things to do and people to see in such a short weekend. Thanks to everyone who took time out of their weekend plans to squeeze us in. It was so good to see you and we miss you all!

Discovering the Deep Blue Sea