Our Town

>> Monday, April 5, 2010

In our town, we have quaint old brick buildings with narrow store fronts which have evolved from barber shops and fruit stores (in the days of my youth,) into fine gift and espresso shops. We have wide and tidy sidewalks and striped awnings. We have shops that string evergreen boughs with white lights at Christmas-time and create Anne Geddes-like displays at Easter-time. Our town is rich in colonial history and unique architecture, with a prestigious prep school smack dab in the middle of it. On any given day, you will find the downtown area electric with visitors, parents with babies in strollers, joggers, friendly dogs on leashes. Occasionally we spot someone with celebrity status walking our picturesque streets. The town is a living village, if you hang around long enough you will swear it breathes.

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And behind those fashionable and gourmet store fronts is a water dam with a rushing, white capping river and a boardwalk. The little people are always fascinated by the river, and since we live within walking distance, it's an interesting place for an excursion. There's ducks and seagulls and rocks to throw... (not at the ducks and seagulls.)

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It seems like that boardwalk calls their names. Recently, when I brought Caden to an eye appointment (perfect vision, by the way!) he begged me and begged me to let him walk on the boardwalk behind the buildings. It was raining and windy, but I let him have a few minutes to walk along the water and throw bagged cereal to the seagulls. I learned two things that day, Caden doesn't care about getting cold and wet as long as he's having fun doing it, and seagulls do not like Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

I'll admit, the thought of bringing Caden anywhere near rushing water still makes my heart skip for a second, and makes me feel like my breath has been snatched away. Caden... pre-autism-diagnosis... decided to climb over the metal railing at the top of the Canadian side of Niagara Falls in 2006. It happened in a blink of an eye while we (with two of our friends) were snapping pictures of our kids. (By the way, that is not a good example of how to effectively grow kids!) It was one of those life changing moments that I will never forget, I think the experience probably shaved ten years off of my overall life span, and it was just one more red flag for us at the time.

This picture was taken just minutes before he climbed over. See the top of the falls? See that steep and short embankment on the other side of the railing? *shudder* See that determined look on Caden's face? That, my friends, is a telling example of the dangerously serious poor impulse control we dealt with for the first five or so years of Caden's life.

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But as our little maker of mischief has grown, he has shed so many of his symptoms of autism. And whether it was just age or his own personal improvement that caused it, we are so grateful that he can now stand on a boardwalk by himself and blow bubbles.

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And we're so grateful for the two other little people in our lives, who in some ways have had to be the older siblings to their big brother, but are now able to have a big brother who plays with them and shares the things he learns at school. They can share their imaginations with him, and he shares his back. In so many ways, our two littlest have had to be more serious than the average five and three year old, and that makes my heart hurt a little, but also makes me even more grateful for the little souls that bless our family and make us complete. We love these little folk.

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And Caden... he astonishes me every day. Autism tried to take our baby from us, but we are getting him back, more and more as each day passes. From the little boy who didn't talk, to the little boy who won't ever stop talking, the little boy who wouldn't play with other kids, to the kid who wants his whole class to come to his birthday party.

You are amazing, Caden. I love you.

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Easter Weekend

>> Sunday, April 4, 2010

How do I describe a perfectly perfect weekend? The excitement in the air was palpable this weekend, and I have overheard many whispered conversations between the short people. The Easter Bunny was coming, and there was much to do to get ready! Dude, this is serious business.

Saturday morning started with three anxious little people climbing into "Mommadaddy's bed," snuggling and putting cold hands against us under the covers, and ticking off the day's agenda like professional Easter Coordinators. This morning management meeting is not what Lee and I had expected at 6:00 in the morning on a Saturday, but it felt just right.

Good morning you little smiley sunshine sprite...what are we doing today?

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Shall we start the day with some of daddy's homemade bagels? The bagels were starting to develop some wrinkles because they were made the day before (although if you ask any thirty-something year old, wrinkles are called character,) and our bagels had lots of character...

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Next task, coloring eggs. Nevermind those PAAS kits with little dye tarts that get everywhere, we'll do it the old fashioned way and use food color! (By the way, if you use food color, 10 drops of red and 10 drops of blue do NOT make purple, the eggs come out some sort of unfortunate shade of baby poop brown.)

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Candy necklaces before lunch (bad momma)

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And then, Easter Sunday dawned...wait, I take that back. And then, the short people dawned at some unGodly hour on this very Godly day and insisted on going outside "RIGHT NOW." The Easter Bunny was in deep dookie for not leaving eggs and their baskets inside the house, they had already conducted a recon mission and assessed the situation. Therefore, there had better be some stuff outside. I stumbled around, trying to find bathrobes and slippers for the kids (one slipper in a drawer, one in the closet under the stairs, one in the toy box, two upstairs, and one where it was supposed to be.)

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That clever albeit sadistic bunny left the baskets high up in the swing set fort, hidden from sight, except from the KIDS because they could see them out a bedroom window before they ever went outside to search for them, (Ummm...HELLO!)

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I hope everyone has had a weekend filled with dyeing eggs, Easter egg hunts, baskets with chocolate bunnies, blue skies and mild weather, and braided Easter bread for breakfast. I hope your soul is happy and content today.

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Tree Houses & Easter

>> Friday, April 2, 2010

The beginning of April has brought us uncharacteristic 70 degree weather, and we embrace it after a long wet winter indoors! The grays and muted colors of winter are just barely starting to give way to clear blue skies and baby buds on the trees. Today was a perfect day to get outside, greet the beloved “tree house” in the backyard (it's really just a swing set with a fort,) and get dirty!

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The tree house has weathered the past four New England winters, and now the look of old wood against bright green makes for a charming contrast. The kids look at it every spring with new eyes, like it's the first time they have ever played with it.

Hello old friend. Wanna play?

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Every year they're just a little bigger, just a little braver, and just a little stronger.

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Nope, no autism in these pictures!

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And speaking of dear old friends, the oak tree on the front lawn is full of tiny buds, ready to spend another year shading the house and dropping acorns with caps that can be made into whistles, or used as tiny caps for little action figures. This tree is very dear to me, it was planted by my father when I was just a baby. I can remember when the trunk was just the width of my forearm, this tree is part of my life story and a familiar symbol of home. (Even though Lee wants to chop it down because the roots keep tapping into the sewer lines. Tough dookie, it's my tree. Deal.)

So, hello old friend.

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I love days like this, when people are emerging from their homes to enjoy the first warm days of the year. The sounds of children playing are a cacophony throughout the neighborhood, the delicious aroma of the neighbor's first grilled dinner of the year teases our noses and makes us hungry for dinner.

We have a busy weekend ahead with lots of ambitious plans, and we plan to enjoy every minute of it! After a long week, it's wonderful to be thinking of coloring eggs and baking Easter bread. We will be planting seeds and making candy necklaces. When Sunday morning arrives, the little people in the house will have to search and find where that crafty Easter bunny has left their baskets and eggs full of treasures.

We're so excited about celebrating Easter this weekend, and welcoming all the color back into our lives.

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Happy Easter!

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These are a few of my favorite things...

>> Saturday, March 20, 2010

Stream of consciousness. How exactly does that work? Whenever I try to let my brain loose and just type what comes out, I wind up writing about something like my concern about the load of laundry sitting in the washer too long and getting *that* smell (you know the one.)

So yeah, there is a lot of purely useless stuff in this noggin' of mine, I'm not sure I should necessarily let it out. It's kinda like writing about some hot topic and then...."SQUIRREL!!" (Ten points if you get that)

So instead, I'm going to write about some of my favorite things. Like Beepa, and Beepa's birthday, and celebrating Beepa's birthday by going out to dinner and eating the lopsided two layer birthday cake the short people and I made for Beepa's birthday. And the upside down birthday cake Caden drew on the cake, and the stick figure of Beepa with the arrow pointing to it that Brandon drew (he wanted to make sure we didn't mistake the stick figure for someone else,) and Mia's design....a Chinese proverb maybe? I dunno.

Anyway, we love our Beepa.

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And I can write about cupcakes, because there is always an occasion for cupcakes. We love homemade cupcakes with big swirlies of buttercream frosting, and we love squirting the extra frosting out of the frosting bag on to extended little tongues, the frosting so sweet it makes your tongue cramp. Green cupcakes are a St. Patrick's Day tradition, right? Meh, even if it isn't, we'll find another reason to make cupcakes. I think everyone should eat cupcakes, the world would be a happier place.

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Another favorite thing (or person, as the case may be...) my five year old with a grubby face, a leprechaun hat, and a smiley stamp on his forehead (don't ask.) He's such a ham bone, this silly little monkey o'mine.

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And oh, how we love our day trips. The Discovery Center and planetarium was the perfect place to feed our little sponge brains, especially our oldest's "IQ of 127 - take THAT autism!" brain. Planets and stars are "all the rage" (as my mother would say) in our house, and we can't dole out the information fast enough. There's nothing like being corrected by our nearly seven year old for mispronouncing the name of one of Neptune's moons.

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And lest I forget, another favorite thing of mine is knowing there are three jammied little souls sleeping comfortably in their beds while I type this. A cup of Lee's strong freshly ground and brewed coffee next to me, and the peace and quiet the evening brings when Lee and I can just enjoy being a couple for an hour or two. As much as I love those little sleeping people, I love my selfish time with my husband too.

I hope everyone gets to eat a cupcake tomorrow and has sweet dreams tonight. Tomorrow brings the possibility of new adventures and favorite things.

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R.I.P. Eggweena

>> Wednesday, August 13, 2008

The object of my oldest son's affection, a cute black fancy hamster who served for the past four months as his first pet, did something very inconvenient yesterday - she died. She was a very loved hamster, loved by all three of the kids (I have to admit, Lee and I were a little smitten with her too). How we managed to kill the poor thing in only four short months, I'll never know. I did some investigative googling last night and found out hamsters can die from noise-related STRESS. Stress because of noise? Huh, who knew? Any hamster who will manage to survive in this boisterous household will have to be made of stronger stuff.

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I discovered the untimely passing when I attempted to feed the hamster right before bedtime. she was in her fluff ball, as usual....but she didn't do a back flip off her perch like she usually did when I filled her food bowl. I tapped the cage, banged the cage, cursed her name, and cryptically informed Lee by making the ol' "coup de grace" gesture and nodding to the cage. When the kids were tucked in to bed, Lee buried Eggweena in the backyard in the dark, and we started to plot the first great parental deception of our tenure. (Well, aside from Santa, Easter Bunny, and all the usual suspects.)

We considered using this opportunity to teach the kids about death, and received some very sound advice from some very wise mothers on the subject, but ultimately...we just couldn't do it. Our big boy sings songs about Eggweena, draws pictures of Eggweena, he would be devastated. My poor little man.

So today I called 3,497,086 pet stores in the area, and discovered I could not locate a female black fancy hamster in the whole freaking state. Out of desperation, I agreed to drive to a town 20 minutes away to take a look at a female hamster the pet-store-stoner-dude I talked to described as "kinda dark." Well, the hamster looks like Eggweena in the sense that they were both hamsters, but she was definitely NOT a fancy black hamster. In fact, she's brown with lighter colored patches on her, tan around her eyes and mouth, and white under her chin, and she's a porker. Ummm...yeah, not so much Eggweena-like. She also looked like an old hamster (very long yellow teeth), but the stoner-dude assured me she was very young. As I mentioned, I was desperate, so I paid $13.99 for the geriatric rodent and smuggled her in to the house.

Wouldn't you know...the kids don't notice a difference AT ALL. So the kids are fine, Eggweena II is settling in to her new home, and Lee and I are probably going straight to hell.

Lee and I will miss Eggweena the Original though, she had some personality............for a hamster.

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"Eggweena" March 2008 - August 2008

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