Another Morning

We are a quiet trickle
marching gently
There is bacon in my teeth
We flow from side streets
falling into line
bunched in twos and threes

Familiar good mornings to
the dad with the always-bundled baby
the mom with the screen in her stroller-boy's face
the tall woman clutching her NPR travel mug,
awkward next to the young man in kitchen pants
leaning on the bus stop sign
The 552 is late

It's kisses, it's there's egg on your lip, it's clip your gloves together, it's mommy did you take your medicine

Airplanes weave patterns in the wide blue
Holly bushes shine silver dollars of sunshine
back to me
The bacon is gone from my teeth

That old New Jersey jeep hiccups,
warming
White puffs disappear behind it
The steering wheel shakes
like always

Garbage trucks beep and clang and
slow motion drop this week's scraps inside

carpet installers
hoist a tight roll on their shoulders
aiming at an open door
nodding good morning

I smile into my vest, thinking of mornings
and family and cities and
open the door
to my full coffee pot

Cal and Clark's Thanks

It's Thanksgiving week so I asked the boys what they are thankful for.

Thankful: "You like something that someone gave you" -Clark

Calvin is thankful:
for lots of food
for having a nice house
having a nice and big car
for the rain
for our scooters
for Teddy
for having money to play hockey
for our superhero wallets
for to have a nice mom
for all of our cups
for having all of our towels
for our 60 story building
for all our crayons ad pencils
for all our canteens
for a nice Daddy
for my clothes


Clark is thankful:
that we have comfortable jammies
for how we're behaving
that we have a good family
for that the Caps don't lose
for Teddy
that the hockey game we love but we're sad that your team lost
for having a nice car
for having a nice wedding for Mom and Dad
for having a nice winter together
for having a nice house when the weather is fine going outside to play
for having a nice Caps game we went to
for having nice trees that God made and beautiful brides at weddings
for having a nice house
for not dying when a shelf falls right on your head
for a nice Mommy and Daddy
for Gammy Crosson
for having a nice dance together

Three of my many blessings

The Next Ones

I averaged about two seizures each year over the past ten years. But in less than a year now I've had five seizures. Yesterday I had the fifth one-- the second one since I had Teddy. It was absolutely and completely my own fault this time. I had forgotten to take my medicine. The time before yesterday was in August, and that was when my neurologist had me cut back on my dosage too quickly and I had one in our street with all three boys. Fortunately for that one Brian was just upstairs in our house and Calvin sprinted up to get him while Clark stayed with Teddy. Awesome kids.

Yesterday my dear friend Missy stayed with me after she was going to drop us all off because I had felt a sometimes-seizure-indicating tremor while we were out. So when I had the seizure I was not only safe at home, I was safe at home with Missy to take care of the FIVE children that were there. It inconveniently happened on a rare day that I was watching little Alex, who I used to watch all the time. I fell into a wall and got a black eye and bit my tongue all up.

I hate my situation so much. I have sole responsibility for the lives of my children and sometimes others' children too, and yet I can't always guarantee that I will be capable-- even conscious-- throughout my responsibility. I find myself wondering if having children was a smart decision. Every day they are in jeopardy because of my seizures. And then I get bummed out about it and sad and wonder if my seizures will get worse and worse or stay the same or get better. I'm sad that my seizures scare my kids and husband. And then my medication makes me spacey and I forget what I was worrying about. I know it could be much, much worse.

It's an odd and helpless feeling to have your own body fighting against you in this way-- I'm sure in any way.

One thing is for certain; I am blessed to have so many people who are willing to drop everything and help me when I need it.

My eye from yesterday

My knees from the street in August

4 Year-Olds' Sports Party

Since the boys are obsessed with sports, as I've written about here, we decided to have a sports birthday party for them. Last year it was astronauts and space robots they were obsessed with, but that phase is over and now every day is a sports day.

We borrowed sports equipment from several different friends, and set up Gammy and Poppy's yard and driveway with a baseball field, soccer field, basketball court, golf course, football field, and hockey rink. I asked everyone to wear jerseys for the occasion. We set up a popcorn machine and smoothie station on the deck, grilled hot dogs and hamburgers, and also had the sand table out which is always a big hit with the kids.

The past few years we've also had their birthday parties at Gammy and Poppy's house in their nice backyard and we had two beautiful days for the parties. Not so this year. About 45 minutes to an hour into the party it started raining. So we had somewhere around 60 people (half of them little people) all over in the house, with some brave ones still playing outside for awhile. It was disappointing, but obviously we knew the risk of planning such a party and we had to get over it.

I made baseball and football cupcakes for dessert. The boys and I had partially made two pinatas but I ran out of steam and never got them painted. That turned out fine actually, because doing a pinata in the house would have been a disaster, as would have been a soggy pinata outside. I got foam pennants and stickers for the kids to each decorate a pennant to take home. The favor bags were wrapped up like peanuts at a ball game.

Here are some pictures.

The boys helping put all the names on the pennants a few days before

My baseball and football cupcakes

Goodie bags wrapped like hot peanuts

Pennants to decorate

Just a ball player hydratin' 

Gammy the smoothie queen/popcorn machine runner

Brian decorated by hanging jerseys on the fences

Backyard

Four year-old birthday ball players

Pennants!

Fierce!

More athlete brothers

Henry's first pennant

So THAT's where all the lady bug stickers went...

Alex was so excited to give the boys their gift...

It's more twin brother athletes! (upside-down)

My Baby Alex is growing up!

Santiago preferred to decorate the back of his, so...

Upside down and hidden Oliver

Clark photo-bombs Sonja's delightful pennant picture.

Pretty Rebecca

Some sports snuggling with Aunt Julie

That's an intense hockey player with Uncle A

Another set of helmets to add to the collection...

Capitals bobbleheads and other Caps gear from Gammy and Poppy
They'll even get to ice skate at the Caps practice facility!

From what I've heard, even though much of the party ended up being inside,
the kids still had enough fun to be completely wiped out.

We've spent the last week enjoying all kinds of new toys from our kind friends and family. Here is some documentation of the fun the boys have had with their new things.

Thanks to Grandma, Papa, Great Grandma, and Cowboy Grandpa,
these boys have scooters, helmets, pads, and ferocity. 

They LOVE their umbrellas from Alex! We had three rainy days to try them out.

Radio-controlled cars from cousins have been motoring
all over the house. Soon we'll try them out in water, too!

Golf gear and an inside putting hole have been a big hit.

A soccer ball to decorate, awesome place-mat doodle pads, art supplies...

Today they got to try out the golf shirts and hats.

Yep, they work

They tried out the scooters and new caped superhero shirts.

Alex tended to Clark's boo-boo. Shouldn't have taken the helmet off...

The radio control also works as a tool for knee surgery on RG3.

We are so blessed by our family and friends who helped make the party fun and the birthday special for the boys. Thank you. They are constantly telling everyone that they are now four years old. Brian and I cannot believe it! These years are going so quickly.

The Mighty BFFs Demolish Candy Canes and Return to Earth Safely

It's been two full months since Alexandra's grandma moved to the area and started watching her, which means two full months since I've watched her. She had been coming to our house at least a couple days a week since she was three months old, and she's now two years and three months old. Man, have we missed that little girl at our house. And from what her parents say, she misses her boys and her Dawnee too.

Her mom and I had been trying to get together for the past few weeks but we were all sick and then she and her family were sick, so finally after a long time apart, we got together again. The kids had such a blast (and Jamie I did okay too) that we decided Alex should come over again soon while her mom got some work done. Today was the day!

Alex's very first day at our house. She was three months old,
the boys were 20 months old. I think it was love at first sight.
Back then they called her "Baby Akiss"

The boys were surprised and excited to see Alex when her dad dropped her off this morning, and we had a busy day. She seems to be getting back at the boys for all the time they spent bossing her around. She can now tell them exactly what she wants them to do and vividly display her displeasure when they do not do what she wants. They totally deserve every bit of that.

Aside for a stubborn standoff or two, they all got along perfectly. I'm sure we'll do it again soon. She cried and cried when she had to leave and she called Cal and Clark "her boys," which made me want to cry a little. I'm so glad that she remembers us...seems like at her age it would be easy to forget.

I wanted to do something special for her visit. I had candy canes sitting around from Christmas, and had noticed online that a friend of mine had made some cookies with crushed candy canes. I know how much my boys like to crush/break/damage/smash/demolish/destroy/obliterate things so thought I'd try that. They all three smashed up the candy canes with rolling pins and we used them like sprinkles on our sugar cookies.

Three little chipmunks helping with cookie dough

Crushing candy canes!

Cutting...

Placing...

Sprinkling with candy cane sprinkles

Maybe they ate a few chunks too...

They were surprisingly picky about getting
all the chunks in place.

Pretty

Of course, once the boys realized that having Alex over meant there were three kids here, they immediately assigned  flight suits and set up their Apollo 13 mission. They are always Jack and Jim from Apollo 13, and spend a fair amount of time talking about how one day Peapod can be Fred, to complete the Apollo 13 team. Well, today Alexandra got to be Fred. I'm happy to report that despite the explosion in the oxygen tank, the Apollo 13 astronauts survived and returned home to my Mission Control Center's wild applause.

Apollo 13 astronauts: Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise are ready to take off!

Houston, we have a problem.

Okay, Houston, we figured it out.
It was the blue and purple buttons.

Made it back safely! Thanks, Mommy Houston

Alex explains to the boys The Way to jump.

I'm so happy they have each other as friends. Being together for those few years was such a blessing for everyone involved.

And if you think that day didn't wear me out, you're wrong. I'm not sure how I did it for so long.