Holiday Highlights

Wasn't sick this year - woo hoo! - so there was cookie making happening. We actually ran out of tins to store them in! Here's our cookie station:

Crafts for gifts:

A weekend visit to Maine for Grandma's annual craft day with the "boys of '97", as R refers to them, also included a visit with Uncle R (my brother) who brought a box of Halloween clearance finds, some of which he gave the boys. He was amazed at how E falls right in to character for each item he puts on.

Our annual family outing was to see A Civil War Christmas at the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven on a weeknight. It was a little difficult to follow with jumping story lines, actors playing several different characters, and no clear sets helping to define what was going on, but we did share an interesting critique on the way home, and shared our favorite parts. The Long Wharf Theater is a fantastic venue that we look forward to returning to.

Had a huge snow storm which dropped about 10 inches the first day and another three the next night.

Woke up to all that snow, cleaned it all up, and drove down to New York to visit B's family. Here are six of the seven male cousins spawned from the three male sons born to my mother-in-law:

Picked up my deliriously happy sister in New York after visiting with B's family. She got engaged during her two-month hiatus to Columbia to meet up with her till-then mostly pen-pal man.

E had lots of fun introducing his new Hess truck from his grandparents to the ones they had given him in previous years:

Mom arrived with matching pajamas for the girls this year:

Decorating gingerbread cookies that Grandma had brought was lots of fun:

We had lots and lots of game playing going on the whole time my sister and mom were here:

My cousin stopped by on her way from her home in Philadelphia to her family in Maine on Christmas eve. It was a disappointingly short visit, but an extremely enjoyable one.

We left the camera near the fireplace so that Santa could take photos of the room with his presents there. Fantasy is still alive and well in this household.

R's favorite gift was the Nintendo DS that B and I gave him. I hope I don't end up regretting that agonizing decision.

This year the only present E asked for in his letter to Santa was a box of 40 flavors of Jelly Bellies. He wrote Santa that he could surprise him with the rest. Santa was very excited and did a fantastic job. Here we have a mask with parts you can put together however you like. Then you choose a mouth based on the voice changer you want to use. So you choose a face, then choose a voice. E said it was his favorite present.

He also desperately needed a new knight costume. His was way worn out from all the Renaissance Festivals we went to this year. He was extremely excited that this one came with a helmet.

After opening all the presents and enjoying eachother's company for a while, we went to the movies to see Bedtime Stories:


We really enjoy movies in our family, and this was a great one. It was a wonderful, kid-friendly story. All six of us thoroughly enjoyed it. I have really enjoyed growing up with Adam Sandler. I wish he would show this side of himself more often. And I loved seeing his buddies from Grandma's Boy, SNL and others my sister pointed out.

I have to admit, I have a hard time letting the photos do the talking. There is so much to fill in that I will surely forget over the years. But this is so much faster. And hopefully I chose photos and wrote enough to spark my memories.

This was the best Christmas I've had in years. All of us were so much more relaxed this year than we usually are. It was wonderful.

Early December

Friends came by to play in the snow.

We went to see Bolt in 3D. This movie was exquisitely beautiful. I can't say much about the story, although the boys seemed entertained. I was too busy simply looking at it. It was so well directed and the use of the 3D aspect was not at all gimmicky. When watching it flat you would not likely be able to tell it had been made for 3D. I'm so glad we saw this. It reminded me of admiring the beauty of the backgrounds in Disney's The Aristocats in my History of Animation class in college. Candy for the eyes. Disney rocks 3D.

I'm very happy to have gotten my birdfeeder back up. I haven't seen as many cats around as I had, so I thought I'd give it another try. The first day we filled up all those feeders the boys and I spent hours watching and counted 14 different kinds of birds. I wrote a list, which of course I can't find now. That's fine though, the fun was in the writing. We consulted my identifier book and listened to my chirping identifier and have since been enjoying watching immensly. Here are a Downy Woodpecker, male Cardinal, and a Carolina Chickadee.

We had a good long visit with friends we haven't seen in WAY too long.

E managed to pry out the ice R had prepared in the buckets Thanksgiving weekend.

R is very pleased with the Electronics class he took at the Green Street co-op we joined in Middletown. He is looking forward to taking it for the next 14 week session too. E is looking forward to continuing his music appreciation class.

The boys practiced their letter writing skills:

Thanksgiving Weekend in Photos

We started the day watching the parade on TV, and remembering how fun it had been to do it in person. The boys are happy to have seen it live, but also very much like it in a nice warm house in our pajamas.

Nagy Papa came over for dinner. “The men” all enjoyed some baseball in the backyard while I had an easy going afternoon in the quiet kitchen. We enjoyed a viewing of White Christmas after dinner, which only my dad and I had already seen. Good food. Good company. Great day.

Friday night the boys had a sleepover at their freinds' house, and B and I went to see Four Christmases. It was about as good as I expected. But it was great to be out with B and in a movie theater with only grown ups!

Saturday was a great day to finish up the last leaves from our Sweet Gum tree in the front (which is always last to bloom and last to fall). B spent some time reorganizing the shed for winter. We also finally planted our hollies between us and our neighbors. Our outside looks great in winter!

R decided it was too nice a day to help us out with chores and instead made himself a fire. After he talked B into letting him make a fire ring with stones, in a spot in the grass which was already bare, and dragging those stones down from the front of the shed to do it, he went into the woods and found plenty of dead wood for an excellent fire. Then he sawed it all up and lit the thing. It was awesome. “Only two logs were already cut for a fire. I cut all the rest myself.”

R had also spent some time filling buckets with water. He even used the tub from the garage that I had taken the Christmas lights out of. “I'm filling them with water so they'll freeze and then I can crack the ice with a bat.”

All that time E had been inside playing Jumpstart Adventures 3rd Grade (computer game), but he came right out when R told him there was a fire. E had a really hard time not being allowed to participate in fire maintenance, but loved his 30 minutes or so when R finally went inside. He took it well when I told him Dad would be coming inside soon, so he'd have to stop adding sticks. Even R was surprised at how well he had kept it going.

Well Sunday morning (this morning) there was ice. R couldn't get any out of the smaller pails because “it was stuck”. But he really enjoyed the nice sheet that came off the Christmas lights' tub. He used B's sneakers to stomp and slide on it.

I also came across this today:

B told me that E read the whole thing to himself very, very quietly. Quietly enough that he himself could concentrate on his own reading.

I am actually feeling hopeful that my boys may still be readers :-)

My Beautiful Boy

Reveling in the pouring rain and bouncing on moon shoes. And singing.

I stayed dry in the car while R was in his White Memorial class.

Our Fresh Air Fund Experience

Monday

Our Fresh Air Fund friend has arrived. It looks to be a very fun week. M is extremely outgoing and absolutely charming. Once in our van he gave the boys a BIG hug.


Tuesday and Wednesday

A couple of weeks before M arrived, we sent him a letter with about a dozen photos of us doing things around the house. This way he could get an idea of the kinds of things we like to do. He seems to have chosen a few favorites that he wants to participate in.

We have a daybed in the family room downstairs, and it has a pull out bed in a drawer underneath it. The boys wanted to take turns sleeping downstairs with M and Monday E did. Those two boys did not go to sleep until 10:30 pm and then E woke up at 6:30 and woke M up at 6:45. Ugh.

So Tuesday started out with M out on the street playing basketball at 7 am. I had to send B out to tell him it was too early to be creating that kind of echo throughout the cul-de-sac. When he came in all the boys played with playdough for a while. But then at one point M said something to E to make him cry, and that's when I knew we needed to be out.

So at 10:30 am. we headed to Cheshire Park. I thought a walk through the woods would be new and fun for a little boy from Harlem. I had the boys bring their bathing suits since there is a stream they could wade in, and they all had a wonderful time. It was quite touching to witness M holding his first toad.

I don't know if it's because there are so many things he wants to experience, or if it's a personality thing, but nothing seems to hold M's attention too long. Forty-five minutes is the most we get out of anything. So we headed home.

The boys all changed and we headed out for a few errands. We stopped at McDonald's first, since M is not the greatest eater, and I wanted to get some food into him. I chose one with a playscape, correctly guessing that not many McDonald's in Manhattan have them. He loved it. And ate like a horse!

We went to the dollar store next, to pick up some bottled water. M doesn't get to do much shopping and was in awe of a store in which everything is one dollar. His dad had sent him with some money, so he bought him and his mom a gift there, and himself a cops-and-robber gun set, and a box of Nerds. He was absolutely thrilled to give the girl $10 and get change back.

A few more errands ended with Stop and Shop where I bought some things he said he likes. The boys were happy to find they had a couple of boxes of Morning Glories (fancy sparklers) left, so they bought them and lit them up as soon as we got home. All the boys had a great time with the three I did with each of them; what kid doesn't love playing with fire?

The boys also spent sporadic times throughout the day playing basketball, and computer games. M arrived with some sort of portable playstation thingy that I had to put away after I found R hiding in the garage with it, but he was very happy to learn that there were alternatives.

I also want to note that he was fine about putting away his game. When I told him there were more fun things to do around here than play games on a little screen, he completely agreed.

Tuesday night R slept with M downstairs, and at 9:15 I called down to them to stop talking. I told them that if they didn't stop that I would send R up into his own room. M stopped talking then and they were both asleep within 10 minutes.

When E came downstairs this morning his hair was all matted to his head like he was massively sweating. But when he sat on my lap and I ran my fingers through it, I learned that M had groomed him last night by putting baby oil in it. Ack! Even after a bath, it looked like his hair was filthy, all day.

Today, Wednesday, started early too. We left the house at 9:45 to go to the Oakdale Theater in Wallingford to watch a live performance of Snow White. I think this may be our last year for those shows; we have just about outgrown them. Nevertheless, the boys all enjoyed it, all the more because some friends met us there and sat beside us (other friends were only two rows away!).

After the show we ate our lunch out of our cooler in the parking lot, then headed down to the playground for playgroup. Playgroup met early today, so we got there for the tail end. Luckily the friends who joined us at the show, also joined us for our full stay at the park. This photo shows the kids who were there earlier.

The boys all used their own money to buy ice-cream from the ice-cream man, and had fun having water fights with water bottles and the water fountain. I had to stop them though so they would dry off for our next activity....

Golf lessons. Luckily the folks there let M participate for the day. Woo hoo! He really enjoyed himself. And I was happy to sneak out to BJ's to fill up with gas while they were occupied; to wait till they were done at 5:20 would have meant a huge line. A definite highlight of golf today was when a gentleman there pointed out a deer prancing along the course to M. M was breathless and worried about it getting hit by a car. We assured him that there was no risk of that out on the golf course, and he was relieved. And enamored.

Once home I cut up a cantaloupe, which M loves, and sent them out to play basketball (which he also loves) while I made dinner. Then we rushed through our barbecued chicken legs and corn so we could head over to a friend's pool.

O is a friend from R's soccer team. He lives close enough so that R occasionally rides his bike over to his house, sometimes to ride in their cul-de-sac, and sometimes to swim in their pool. O's mom knew we have a visitor this week and was nice enough to invite him and E to swim too. I went along to lifeguard, since the Fresh Air Fund makes a huge deal about kids boasting about non-existent swimming abilities. Seems that M really does know how to swim though.

We only stayed a short while since it was really late. And O's mom was nice enough to invite us all back this weekend. We'll see how things work out. On our way out, O asked his mom if M could go to his birthday party tomorrow. I thanked him but told him that M and E had other plans (O's mom obviously wanted to say "no" but it was an awkward situation).

The day ended with more bathing. This time I washed E's hair and hopefully tomorrow it will look ok. We are having a terrific time with M. After a little "testing" to see what he could get away with, he is learning my boundaries and is settling right in. He's a charming little boy and we are really enjoying his stay.


Thursday and Friday

Thursday is library day, and having lived in New York for 30 years before moving here to CT, I can tell you that the NY libraries can't compare. M came home with a couple of CD's, which since they didn't have explicit lyric labels on them, I told him I'd copy for him to take home.

We stopped at the toy store to get a birthday gift for R's friend O, and discovered just how little experience M has shopping. The boys were getting frustrated at having to keep saying "you can't just leave that there, put it back", or "now pick that up".

We came home and spent some time around the house. The woman who interviewed us for hosting kept emphasizing that we needn't take him a million places, that "your home is the destination", and I took that to heart.

E rode his bike around the cul-de-sac while M shot him with the dozen or so foam discs in E's disc shooter. E got really upset when M refused to pick them all up off the street and he had to do it himself.

R and M played basketball for a while.

I suggested the boys play on the Slip-n-Slide in the backyard. E came running inside in tears since one of the two not usable and he had spent his own money on them. It only got worse when R ripped the other one while attaching the hose to it. He managed to fix it all up with duct tape though. However, while E recovered and ran to put his bathing suit on, M stepped on the darn thing and fell. So by the time E got outside, M was done.

Unfortunately my boys were getting really frustrated with M by this point. R said he was really tired of taking time to set things up for M to play with and having him use them for like five minutes before just walking away and leaving him with the mess (i.e. Legos a couple of days earlier, playdough, and now the slip-n-slide). So I suggested we all sit down and do some spin art together, since M is crafty. Although M did try the spin art, we didn't have much paint left, so they all did some drawing instead.

I got a call from O's mother. Seems that two boys couldn't make it to O's birthday party, and since their spots were already paid for, did I want to bring M and E? R was in tears when I told him. He needed some big boy time with his friends, so I said thanks anyway.

Soon it was time to drop off R at the party at LaserPlanet (life will never be the same). So M and E and I met B at Friendly's for dinner. We had a pleasant meal and enjoyed playing some Hangman together. Unfortunately for him though, M doesn't like ice-cream.

Thursday had been a tough day. My boys were feeling like their belongings and feelings weren't being respected, and M was getting frustrated to not be the center of attention and make all the decisions all the time.

Friday was a fresh start though, and I realized that "home is the destination" is a load of crap in M's case. In three days he had spent all of five minutes in our backyard. All he wanted to do was hit the pavement to play basketball. So we needed to go do things.

We started at the new Kids in Motion playground. It's huge and my boys love it.

However, M was not interested in playing with my boys. Instead he gravitated to the young men who were the camp counselors for the campers there that day. He followed them all around and even got one of them to push him on a swing before they left with their campers. I'm glad they were kind to him.

My boys were getting increasingly frustrated with M though, and when R had my ear he told me that he definitely wants to do this again next year, but with a different kid. At this point I told him that he could stop being such an overly gracious host, that he and E should just go ahead and do what they wanted and if M wanted to join in, he could. But not to worry about keeping him entertained.

When we left the park we headed down to Hamden to get our milk. We stopped at 7-11 on the way back and got some slurpees, (they even have Crystal Light ones now - woo hoo!) which M actually liked.

Then we headed to the beach at Mixville Pond.

M played in the water for the now predictable five minutes and then insisted they all get out. This time around R and E continued with their fun though. M entertained himself on the beach for a while before seriously yelling at them to come out of the water because he wanted to leave. I explained to him that R and E were still having fun and he couldn't expect everyone to do what he wanted all the time, that he had to think of other people's feelings too. Eventually they did come out and they all played together in the sand for a while before we headed home.

When we got home the neighborhood kids were out so E hopped on his bike and rode off to join them. R apparently hid in the van listening to his audiobook. E came in a few minutes later to tell me that M was riding a bike without a helmet on. So I called him inside to speak to him about it, and on his way past E he really started telling him off. My very stern "M get in here now" pushed him over the edge and I waited several minutes before calling him out of the garage. When he came in I said "M it seems like you're having a tough day, would you like to call your mom?" I let him call from the basement so he could close the door and have some privacy, but I couldn't help hearing him sobbing. Poor thing.

He stayed in the basement to gather himself for a while. O's mom called me a little while later to invite R over into their pool. M made quite a racket picking up the extension downstairs to listen in. He probably thought it was his mom calling to fill me in, and loudly hung up when he realized it wasn't. I didn't have the energy to address it in a patient manner, so I let it slide.

B got home just in the nick of time. E continued on his bike, R escaped over to O's house, and B gave M the adult male full attention he normally gets so much of at home with his dad. E eventually made his way in to check on ownership of his own dad.

I was so grateful it was Friday and B could give me some time to hide out myself. I married a great guy.

I spoke to M's dad that evening. He himself participated in the Fresh Air Fund program when he was younger, and told me of his own experience of calling home to cry. We had a great chat that made me feel a lot better.


Saturday and Sunday

We had a hard time choosing between Old Sturbridge Village and The Renaissance Festival. We had never been to this particular Festival before and we really wanted to check it out. But B is not a fan of the festivals and preferred OSV. M had heard of neither so left it up to us.

We had a hard time deciding which one M would enjoy more. We decided on the Festival. And it was the right choice. M had a great time. He had never experienced anything like it before, and spent the afternoon following the "princess" around, even after we got a photo with her. He also enjoyed being one of the chess pieces in a giant chess game. I don't know whether it was that we finally found something that he was into, or that he finally had the full attention of an adult male, but M was a different person that day.

We all had a wonderful time at the Festival. The boys and I really love them, and B even admitted it was "pretty good".

Afterwards we took M to Hometown Buffet. I figured there must be something there he would eat. And again, I was right. He even found some vegetables he was willing to have. Yay!

On Sunday B took the boys to the town pool. They got their hands stamped and came home for lunch before heading back. I joined them to snap a few photos, but spent most of my afternoon looking for a souvenir shirt for M to bring home. I finally found a great UCONN basketball shirt that said "Connecticut" across the front. I also stopped into the toy store and got him a Drop Pop, which he had been playing with a few days before. He was very happy with my selections, and finding them without an entourage was so much easier!

Monday morning we took M to the bus stop to be picked up. He met up with a boy he had ridden with on the way here and ran on to the bus with him without saying goodbye. We waited for the bus to drive away before leaving anyway.

M is a very sweet boy. We wondered why he selected our family though, since he didn't seem very interested in anything we had to offer. He has called us a couple of times since his visit, so perhaps he is just "spirited" and doesn't convey his enjoyment of things until they are over. But my boys are looking forward to hosting someone who enjoys doing the things they do and has a longer attention span. Someone who prefers playing with children to grown-ups.

In the meantime, my boys have formed a new respect for each other. They appreciate that they understand and respect the other's boundaries. They have been getting along so well lately.

An easy going Independence Day Weekend

We saw some fireworks in Waterbury. Nagy Papa came with us. Here are the boys watching from the top of the car. We really enjoyed the show and the boys went back and forth between the top of the car, and coming down to light sparklers during the show.

The rest of the weekend was lazy for me. Other than a bunch of laundry I didn't do much but watch a lot of Waltons. B got a lot done though; he's not very good at sitting still.


On Sunday we had fun seeing Wall-E. It's rare that B gets to join us at the movies, and he was happy to this time. It was a wonderful movie, that I highly recommend. It was touching and amusing, with a great social commentary. I will say though, that kids under five were asking questions all over the theater, so if you have young ones, leave them home; it's over their heads.

This is one I won't mind seeing again. It ranks right up there with Over the Hedge.

A Lovely Day

We started at the Waterbury Mall watching The Bee Movie for free. Gotta love those free movies on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings! The boys don't care that we've seen most of them already; a movie in the theater is always a treat.

Then we had planned to go to Mixville Park today with playgroup, but since it rained last night, it got canceled; people were too worried about bacteria, from goose poop washing into the water. So, while most of playgroup went to DiNicola Park, we went to Kids in Motion, which is the new park here in our town. The boys hate DiNicola and didn't want to go. Luckily we had other friends join us: The W's, who are off from school for the summer, and The E's, who we only just met recently. They live in our town and the 13-year-old also goes to school (but was there since he is now off), but the younger guy (5) will be homeschooled. We all had a really nice time together.

After that we headed home for a quick smoothie and then were off for the boys' first golf lesson. I was concerned it would be cheesy since it is so darn cheap, but the boys really loved it and are looking forward to returning for the next six Wednesdays. R says they will learn a lot from the class.

I was glad I had thought to call ahead and order a pizza to pick up on the way home (still no cell phone here). It was great not to have to think about dinner in the 30 minutes I was home; at 6:15 I headed out to my womyn's circle, and the boys headed out to play with the neighborhood kids.

Life is so darn good :-)

The end of May

I've been thinking a bit about what to do about his blog, about whether I should continue with it or not. I've been printing out old postings to put in a binder, more like a journal. I thought perhaps rather than writing here every evening, I'd print something out from a text editor and add a few photos into a quickie scrapbook type-thing. But as more time passes as I think about it, the more I start feeling that I'm not recording things I don't want to forget. Even if it's just for me, I want it written out. So here I am. Perhaps I will continue to print it out every evening and shove it in a binder. And perhaps I'll even add real photos instead of the small ones that get printed out with the blog. But for now, I guess I'll blog.

I was going to start with June but holy cow it's been a while since I've done this and I have photos "res'd down" from back in May too. So I'll start there.

The end of May we went to the zoo with some friends. They were going to see a show in the Bronx and invited us along. We skipped the performance but met up with them at the zoo before and after it, and really enjoyed ourselves. It was nice that B had a chance to join us; he doesn't really get the opportunity to utilize our Bronx Zoo membership much.

Speaking of zoos our Beardsley Zoo class ended. Both boys had a wonderful time and definitely want to do it again next year. The woman who organized it with the staff may be sending her kids to school next year, so I stepped up to do it. I don't want to see this class not happen; it's too good to lose. I put a note on my calendar for the beginning of August.

One day when some friends were over all the kids had fun playing with E's Eyeclops Bionic Eye, which is a magnifier that hooks up to the TV. They check out hair, skin, salt, and fibers in the rug. They all had a really fun time. Luckily it eventually stopped raining and we were able to go the new playground as planned.

The kids had so much fun that they talked the rest of our playgroup into going there the next week for our weekly park date. The park really is phenomenal; it took them two years to raise the money to build it. It's what they call a "boundless playground", which means it's built to be accessible for disabled kids. One problem though: they have all these horizontal bars where horizontal bars do not typically go and they are not even painted a different color to announce their presence. So two kids in our group (including R) got bonked pretty hard when they didn't see them and ran into them. All those bars all over the place just blend into each other when they are all painted the same. Nevertheless, the park is still quite fabulous. They even have a whole website for it. Click on the photo to see it larger; it's very cool.

With all this wacky weather we've been having, we've been enjoying some spectacular rainbows. Here's a photo of two that E took in the parking lot of the soccer field.




Lots more every day fun happening too. E washed my car but never did get paid because he didn't finish the inside. He loved climbing up on top of it to do the top though.

More restaurant playing going on. Here we have pigs in a blanket, chocolate covered ants, spaghetti and meatballs, and pumpkin cookies with ice-cream.
That husband of mine is one creative guy.

For the boys, our town's Memorial Day parade is all about the guys in the little cars, and the candy people throw off the floats. And we are talking serious amounts of candy. Another highlight is having Nagy Papa meet us there to watch with us. He lives so close he can actually walk there. It's been really fun having him join us the last couple of years.

My personal favorite thing is living in a town where such a thing occurs. I love being able to wave to people I know in my hometown parade. I love living in a small town.

Our wedding anniversary was the day of the parade. B and I have been married for 17 years, and have been together for 24 years. Yikes! Our anniversary is the 25th and we didn't make a big deal of it this year. I took the night off from cooking and we went to Young Young's Chinese Buffet.

E's 8th birthday was on the 26th. He is just thrilled to be 8 now. Seriously. We had a small celebration with Nagy Papa and a teeny store bought cake since we had breakfast at Hometown Buffet with lots of junk food for brunch. He asked for, and received, lasagna for dinner.

It feels good to remember. Thank goodness I keep an accurate date book :-)