Soccer Round Up

The soccer season came to a close sometime in October, shortly after Quinn's birthday.  While I truly enjoyed watching the kids play and sitting out in the wonderful weather, I am more than a little relieved to be done with 3 a week sport practices and marathon mornings at the soccer park.

Quinn finished the year as the team MVP (well to be honest I gave her that title, but since she averaged 8 goals a game I don't think that is a stretch).  And Greyson found his calling as a defensive play maker, occasionally throwing in a goal for good measure (see pic below).  All in all, not a bad fall sports season.

Catching My Wind (and Up)

As Mark Twain once said "The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

I have tried very hard over the last few years to keep my blog updated fairly regularly.  It keeps the Grandmas happy and it keeps me with a journal of such of my children growing up.  So you may wonder, "Where the hell have you been these last two weeks, Michele?"  Well let me explain....

About 6 weeks ago or so, Raif's company (which he is a 30% owner) landed a HUGE client with a very critical timeline.  Great for the company, bad for my husband, or more accurately bad for me in getting to see my husband.  During these last 6 weeks I have been averaging about 15 minutes of face time with him a day.  We groggily grunted at each other over the sink in the morning as we brushed our teeth.  At breakfast we quickly went over the crucial life happenings of our children and any other urgent business that needed attending.  He took the kids to school so he could spend a little time with them and I told him I would see him tomorrow as he usually rolled home that night sometime between midnight and one.  On the weekends, IF he was home he was plastered to his computer in the dining room with a Do Not Disturb sign clearly plastered on his forehead.  So I have basically spent the last six weeks playing the role of the single Mom and for all the single moms out there...you so deserve a medal.  I had to navigate through the end of soccer, Quinn's birthday, vacation to Atlanta, Halloween, various school programs and volunteer days and hockey practices all without my usual safety valve.

To add insult to injury, somewhere in all of that Greyson managed to contract a horrid case Hand, Foot and Mouth disease.  His poor throat was pretty much swollen shut and he cried like we were pouring battery acid down his throat anytime he swallowed food.  He spent a good 3 days or so subsisting on hot chocolate and popsicles.  He pretty much missed a whole week of school and any attempt I had of keeping life going after that went down the tubes.  I will admit on more than one occasion a school uniform was recycled from the laundry bin after passing the smell test and I am sure I offended someone who was down wind of me.

Thankfully, however I have seen the light at the end of the tunnel.  Starting middle of last week my husband made his first appearances at the dinner table and he even had the weekend (mostly) off.  So as I am starting to dig myself out of my hole, I will be trying to catch everyone up on all the exciting things going on around here, which honestly aren't many because we have been too busy to be exciting.  But there are a few nuggets here and there, so enjoy!

Happy Halloween

First

Being an only child, I sometimes have a tough time understanding and dealing with the sibling rivalry that goes on around here.  But from what I have gathered from my daughter, being the younger sibling is probably equivalent to being water boarded on a daily basis.  It is the worst thing to be on the whole entire planet because big brother gets to do everything and she gets to do nothing.  From hearing her talk you would think that we shut her in a closet 24 hours a day while Greyson rides unicorns and slides down rainbows into fields of marshmallows.


So you can imagine her excitement when she FINALLY got to go on a field trip with her class at school.  It didn't matter that it was to the same pumpkin patch she had been to three days earlier.  All that mattered was that she was going AND going on a school bus.

As you can tell from the pictures she was beaming the entire trip, whether it was walking through the corn maze or picking out her perfect pumpkin there was a little more swagger in her step after knocking field trip off her bucket list.

So at least for one day she was the one on the unicorn.

Soccer Studs

Blast Off!!

So I am a little out of chronological order here...sue me.

About a month ago, Greyson's school had it's Fall Book Fair and the theme was Blast Off Into Reading.  As part of the hoopla leading up to it, each child was offered a chance to build their own rocket for the fair to be displayed in the library.  It was an optional assignment, but one that Greyson was very excited to undertake.  The requirements were to create a rocket out of household materials that demonstrated your favorite book.  Greyson chose Pinocchio (the original, not the bastardized Disney version, thank you very much) and designed his rocket all by himself.  With only small amount of Daddy help (scooping out the bottom of the Styrofoam ball to insert on the paper towel roll and printing out the book page) he did it all by himself.  And for a little guy I was really impressed with his imagination and understanding of the what was being asked of him.  So without further ado......

(It is hard to tell from the picture but we scanned and reprinted the picture from the book showing Gepetto carving Pinocchio out of wood and wrapped it around the center of the rocket)

During the book fair all the kids voted on their favorite rocket (there were 70 entries all together) and the winner won a prize.  Now, being the volunteering Mom that I am, I actually worked the Book Fair and as such got to be in on the vote tally and am very proud to say that Greyson got 7 votes for his rocket, which for a Kindergartner competing with 4th graders is pretty impressive.  I would also like to note that while the 1st place rocket (done by a 4th grader) was an impressive rocket, just putting the faces of the Harry Potter characters in the windows of your spaceship does not necessarily make it a Harry Potter themed ship, I am just saying.  I would dare say that my son embraced the concept better than the winner.

Ties That Bind

I always find it fascinating the different ways that people become friends.  Some people you build friendships with slowly over time, like that neighbor you see at the park every week with their kids or the husband/wife of a long time friend.  Other times the connection is instant and after one evening out you know you will be friends forever.  And sometimes it is circumstances that forever bind you.

Raif and I met Calanit a week after Greyson was born in Northside's preemie support group.  Our stories seem to follow a similar path.  We both had twins, though she had girls, and we both lost one.  While Aydan was stillborn, precious Ilana lost her fight after complications with heart surgery after 10 months in the NICU.  We shared the struggle of losing a child and the challenge of raising a preemie with various health issues.  When we got together our conversations invariably turned to RSV vaccinations, therapy and growth charts.  It was comforting to be able to talk to someone who really understood our issues.

Then our paths became intertwined even more when we got pregnant pretty much at the same time.  We held each others hands as we passed through those scary 24-28 week stages and panicked at each little cramp and unfamiliar feeling.  And there was no greater cheerleader for the other when we each passed by the 37th week and could consider ourselves 'full term.'

Our visits have been few and far between since we moved to Nashville but we were beyond excited when this past Sunday we actually found a time to get together.  We sat in Calanit's kitchen marveling over the miracle's that were playing dress up and cars in the next room and while the conversation did wind its way to the various health issues that they both face the fact that the majority of the time we talked about 'normal' stuff indicates how far both these kids have come.

And while they both will never understand it, this pictures means so much to all of us.






 
Evan, Greyson, Talia and Quinn.  All happy and healthy!


(Parental photo courtesy of Talia Hayes)