Dedicated

David's Dedication ~ June 24, 2007 ~ 3 Months Old

(I am not crying and Jeff is not stoned...this is just the only closer up of David on his special day.)

(Both sets of grandparents were invited to join in...)

(These are Jeff's parents on the right, just 4 weeks post-triple bypass surgery for his Dad and 5 days post-esophageal cancer diagnosis for his Mom. Please pray for our family.)

2001

A while ago Julia was in the baby's room visiting with me while I fed him or something. To busy herself she began straightening his growing collection of stuffed animals and asking me who had given him each one. When she came to a handsome pair of Snoopy's, I cautioned her to treat them with extra care since they were both "very old". I explained that one of them was a gift for my 5th birthday, how I had dearly loved Snoopy as a youngster, how that love had been one of the reasons I had chosen to do the baby's nursery in Snoopy, and that he was one of the only toys that I still had from childhood. I told her I had received the other one for my 10th birthday which was "a long, long time ago". I could see her taking it all in, feeling privileged to be in the know, and then she asked, "Was that in like 2001 or 2002?"

St. Grandma

What do you do to celebrate your birthday when you are 85 and Catholic? You grab your best good St. Mary and head to the local horse racing track, of course. =)

God bless Jeff's grandmother:

Mother of 15 (+3 pregnancy losses and 1 infant loss...that makes 19!)
Grandmother of 53
Great Grandmother of 79
Great Great Grandmother of 4 with 1 more on the way

This is an amazing woman. As she becomes more confused in her old age, she still calls most of her children by their first and middle names and remembers all of their birth weights. Lay it 3-1 odds, that alone qualifies any woman for sainthood in my book.

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Lift Your Voice

Kathryn singing as she rides the stationary bicycle next to me:

"Lift your voice like the lowly Jesus, no not one, no not one..."

The words to "Days of Elijah" frequently find themselves where they don't belong.

Hmmm.

Three Things

Three things I miss about living in the country...

1. The little bitty rural post office that had exactly 3 parking spaces where I could safely leave my children in the vehicle without fear of abduction, or of being turned in to Child Protective Services.
2. Being able to water my flowers in my sleep attire. My neighbor is usually applying the daily finishing coat of Turtle Wax to his Jimmy or fertilizing his lawn by the time I make it out for the morning watering. At dusk, he is feather dusting the Jimmy and planting more grass seed. Yes, he's retired. And about the nicest man you'd ever want to meet so maybe it's a fair trade-off for my dead flowers.
   
3. Being able to use a baby monitor without feeling like I am training for a career in espionage. Sheesh! I am always hearing other people's stuff, unfortunately nothing very interesting, unlike when we lived in an apartment and could hear neighbor's conversations on our cordless phone. The other day I could hear hymns playing. Funny thing is that I am not aware of any peoples on our street who have babies or who are church-going folk. So how far away does this monitor pick up? And can they also hear our not-so-very-interesting conversations?

That's all I miss. I hardly live in the center of a hustling bustling city now, you'd laugh if you saw it and knew I was calling it "not the country", but it works for me and I love it! Almost everywhere I go is 3 miles or less away so I have lots more time and energy to blog and not water my flowers.

Do NOT have a happy birthday!

Yesterday was Jeff's birthday and I could not resist snatching up this over-priced talking card just to hear Michael's voice say again and again...


"Reverse psychology is an awesome tool. I don't know if you guys know about it, but basically you make someone think the opposite of what you believe and that tricks them into doing something stupid. Works like a charm!"

Who could resist that?

And it did work like a charm. I tricked him right into having a happy birthday anyway!

Smiley Eyes

Because I haven't posted a photo of the boy in a while...

He's closing in on 12 weeks on Saturday. I believe it is after this milestone that parents usually stop referring to the age of their infants in weeks and begin marking the passage of time in months.
How ever you mark it, it passes too quickly.

Rosa

My son Andrew is a quietly funny boy, not unlike his father. A touch dry, but richly witty, they never miss a chance to interject humor into the otherwise mundane routine of life, without ever drawing much attention to themselves in so doing. Often those outside of their immediate surroundings miss the punchline altogether.

My brother met my husband before I did and came home late one evening to report that he had met the man I was going to marry. When pressed for an explanation, I don't remember much he offered aside from the fact that he had been in the Army and that he was funny..."a Johnny S. in the making" said he. (I assume everyone knows which Johnny I mean, but ask me if you don't.) I was undazzled by his veteran experience, but as for the humor, I knew exactly what he was talking about as soon as I met him a few weeks later. And I knew right then and there I wanted him to father all of my funny children. Okay, not really, but it was truly impressive. He still puts me to shame even on an off day.

All this to say that last night the girls wanted to set up TV trays to doodle upon whilst watching television on the couch. Julia was able to set hers up and get rolling on her own, but Kathryn asked and asked and asked for someone to help her. I was busy with the baby so I asked Andrew to please get her a TV tray. Obediently, he hopped to retrieve it and returned to set it up for her in the very spot he had already been comfortably sitting in. Ever so quietly he said, "I'm giving up my seat...unlike Rosa Parks."

Okay, maybe it's only funny to his mother, but it just struck me so funny and made me thankful that 1) he was paying attention in 4th grade Social Studies and 2) that one of our children has been blessed with a sense of humor...either you got it or you don't...we can spend half an hour telling one of our other children why something is supposed to be funny and she'll still ask with much bewilderment, "But why did you say that?"

Yes, my blog is almost exclusively about my children. And no, I have not lost my identity entirely. If you don't enjoy it, the door is right over there. Thank you, come again! =)

Shortcut

Three things in life are certain: Death. Taxes. This.
And that pride cometh before a fall.
This was but one of the valuable life lessons I learned last week.
I had always prided myself in the fact that THIS had never happened.
Now it has and don't you think it won't happen to you.

No Scab Left Unpicked

It doesn't seem this picture needs further explanation, but feel free to inquire if you can't get what Kathryn's latest obsession is.
Heaven help us!