Weirdest Year on Record

I was making the annual Christmas calendar I make for the grandparents and ourselves, and while going through the pictures I determined this has been the weirdest year ever. First, there was the snowpocalypse. Then Aidan fell out of the high chair and landed on his head and had to go to the ER. Then, we had a tornado which took out our power and did some damage to our garage and knocked two large trees on to our front and back lawns. Then we had a storm that left us without power for four days. Then Eric's train got hit by a truck hauling concrete and derailed in a fire-y mess. Then we were hit by a massive storm that wreaked havoc on our basement.
Then Liam started kindergarten and Brendan started preschool, and we started to get into a routine for really the first time ever.
Then Liam got the most awful 72 hour nonstop vomiting illness from which he could not recover, which turned into pneumonia which caused him to miss:
my art presentation to his kindergarten class,
our downtown Brendan's 4th birthday weekend extravaganza,
trick or treating at Orbitz,
the school Halloween party,
the kindergarten Halloween party and parade,
his 4th annual trick or treating at his aunt's work,
Halloween,
his last soccer game and the soccer team party,
the kindergarten field trip to the zoo (which Eric was chaperoning and which would have been his first time on a school bus),
the class dress-up-like-it's-the-1950's day,
and which culminated in a 5 day stay in the hospital for a pleural effusion and a two week post-discharge picc line in his arm.

So, it's really no wonder my nerves are rattled!

Statistics and Patting My Back

It occurred to me in the shower today that the past couple weeks are the first time in over six years that I am not pregnant or nursing. Actually there was a period of a few months between weaning Brendan and getting pregnant with Aidan in there, but for all intents and purposes this is a definite departure from the last six and a half years. I was planning on weaning Aidan but my little stint in Lincoln Park with Liam was what finally did it. And now I am very close to having a new-found freedom of another sort as I wrap up my MLS. I turned in my application at midnight, March 2, 2007 and found out I was pregnant with Brendan that afternoon, which was also my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. I started the program 7 months pregnant with Brendan, on campus for two weeks at what they call boot camp. It's in insane 2 credit hour 8 week class rolled into 12 days.

This semester I took a technology class and an AV preservation class, and that one was one of the hardest I've taken throughout my coursework. My final paper was due the Monday after the the week Liam was in the hospital, and the weekend I had allotted for writing the paper was the weekend we were at Children's. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do it bedside (haha, no way I later learned) so I wrote my prof and he was really understanding and told me not to worry and just get it in when I could and it wouldn't be counted as late. I turned it in 4 days late, and was wondering if I could pull off a B and not ruin my GPA too much (I know, no one cares about GPA, but still, for all the blood, sweat and tears I put into this non-lucrative degree, I wanted a respectable GPA.) Anyway, the other thing I thought about in my shower today was, "oh, my AVL prof said he would have grades today or tomorrow." So I went down and checked my class, and I had a message from him. He said my paper was worth waiting for, and I got an A on the paper and in the class, and he asked if he could use my paper as an example in a future class. Wow, that was so awesome. I mean it was really a hard class, not an easy A class, and I worked my butt off but definitely wasn't able to do the amount of work I wanted to, and for this super cool prof to give me that kind of praise, well that definitely shined a happy light on a very dismal month.


So Wednesday's the big day we hope to get the all clear for Liam. Keep your fingers crossed and your prayers prayed if you wouldn't mind. I cannot wait for this to be done. Liam does have a cold right now, but hooooopefully it's not much of anything. He's staying home from school just to let him rest and not overdo it, but he and I cannot wait to get him back into his normal life.

Also

If Liam gets the a-ok on his appointment on the 30th he will get the picc line out, which will be so so awesome. It will also be the 32nd day of his illness. That is truly insane. We're starting the 10 day count-down. I don't even want to mention how excited I am for December, lest I jinx that. And if you don't believe in jinxing, let me tell you this story. The week before he got sick we were at a friend's house and the kids were learning to ride their bikes without training wheels. (We were at Liam's friend Meghan's house learning, because she had just learned over the weekend so Liam, Brendan and her little bro who is 4 were all learning together.) I was talking with their mom Peggy about another of Liam's classmates whose little sister had just been hospitalized for pneumonia. I told Peggy, "Knock on wood my kids have never had any weird illnesses, the worst has been a 24 hour stomach bug and an ear infection." Yep, not 5 days later Liam got the plague.

Today, I am hoping to finish my very last essay for grad school. I started it yesterday but didn't make too much progress, though starting it is often the hardest part for me. But it's in my Audiovisual Preservation class and I really have been out of my element in that class. They lost me at vinegar syndrome. My professor is super awesome. He's young and works at the Library of Congress, and his boss is...the Librarian of Congress. You pretty much can't get any cooler than that, right? Also he reminds me of my supervisor at work, and I think they both went through the cinema studies program at UIUC so it makes a lot of sense. And both of them have been so kind to me throughout the whole ordeal of the last month. I feel so lucky to have such an awesome job and awesome colleagues, not to mention the best family and friends.

One positive and unintended consequence of this whole thing is that since I didn't sleep at home for 4 (or was it 5? I'm already repressing) nights Aidan got weaned and is a much better sleeper. Always look on the bright side of life...when you're chewing on life's gristle, don't grumble give a whistle...

Did I mention Brendan and Aidan came down with colds the night before Liam came home from the hospital, and have passed it on to me?

Things I've Learned This Past Week

1. Morphine withdrawal is not pretty.
2. When it rains it pours.
3. Lots of people are really, really nice.

Halloween Bloooos

I'm writing this from the bed next to Liam's bed, as the world's best little sick person restlessly sleeps and moans under the blanket of fever and chills. When he first came down sick on Friday morning I thought it'd be short-lived. We had a whole Brendan's 4th birthday and Halloween weekend extravaganza planned. Friday was Brendan's birthday. After their alarm went off the boys came into our bed, like they usually do, but Liam seemed uncharacteristically fussy. Eric said he got up with him a couple hours earlier and he had a 102 degree fever. He went back to his bed and the rest of us went downstairs to see Brendan's birthday balloons and open his presents. He brought them upstairs so he could open then with Liam.

That morning I was going to Liam's kindergarten class with another mom to do a presentation about the artist Horace Pippin. I was so bummed Liam couldn't be there, but it was fun to be in his classroom and see all the little kids. It has a much warmer feel than the preschool he and Brendan go to. And his teacher is excellent. (So is their preschool teacher, but they are very, very different people, as the schools are very very different schools.) She's a 23 year old DePaul graduate and is doing a great job keeping 18 kindergartners engaged and behaved for 3 hours every morning. I have to get a picture of her and Liam. Anyway, I texted the other mom, Stephanie, to say I'd be there at 8:25. She didn't respond, and it turns out she thought the presentation was at 10:30 so she missed the whole thing. I'll give myself a pat on the back for doing what I think was a great job when the whole thing went off-script. It was fun. The next plan was that I'd get home in time for Eric to take the 9:27 train into work. Then around 2:30 I was going to rustle up the boys into the car and take them down to Orbitz for their office Halloween trick-or-treating. But since Liam wasn't going to be able to go, Eric worked from home and brought just Brendan to work later in the afternoon. Liam still had a fever but he seemed relatively ok.

I wasn't sure if Eric and Brendan would be back in time for dinner, and Liam wasn't super hungry, so we ordered Jimmy Johns (though I'm not in favor of giving him too much money after his political antics.) We had to cancel the rest of the plans (which included going to Ed Debevics for Brendan's birthday dinner and then going to the Marriott overnight.) I knew when Liam didn't eat more than two bites of his sandwich that he was pretty sick. Sure enough that was Friday night and now it's Sunday afternoon and he hasn't eaten anything in all that time. He's just barely able to drink water and the occasional sips of juice. We considered taking him to the hospital this morning as he was starting to show some signs of dehydration, but we've been able to get that under control at least for now.

Today was his last soccer game and the Halloween party at his school. Brendan and Aidan are there now with Eric, and obviously we missed the game. I know Liam doesn't have too many expectations about what we should be doing this weekend, but I'm so sad for him to miss his class Halloween party tomorrow and trick-or-treating. To top it off he's completely Ferris Bueller when he's sick. Totally sweet and pathetic and it's heartbreaking.

When Did He Grow to Be So Tall?

I don't know if the first day of kindergarten makes other parents play an infinite loop of Sunrise Sunset over and over again in their heads for weeks preceeding, but it does for me. What the hell happened to time? How can Liam being starting kindergarten tomorrow, when he was just a six pound three ounce baby in my arms a couple years ago? Two years tops. Every single day of his life I have been so in love with him, so amazed by him and who he is. From the moment he was born he has been thoughtful, calm, gentle, engaging, spiritual. A poet scientist. An old soul. Eric and I have joked (sort of) that since some have said they might look for the next Dalai Lama in the U.S. they should stop by our house. I have no idea how I got so lucky to have this kid. When we brought him to the doctor for his first appointment, he was 6 days old. It was freezing, and my mom had totally freaked me out asking me why we would be bringing a tiny baby out in that weather to a doctor where there could be sick people. Eric had to call them a least a few time to make me assured that it was the right thing to do. The doctor, who was just a month out from retiring, who had presumably seen at least thousands of babies, first said, "Hmm, that can't be right" and he had the nurse re-weigh him. Liam left the hospital four days earlier weighing 5lbs 12 oz. Tiny, but fit as a fiddle, no jaundice or anything even though he was born in December. Now, 4 days later the nurse said he weighed 6lbs 10 oz. She re-weighed him without his diaper and he weighed 6 lbs 7 ounces. The doctor was impressed. I was worried. "Is that ok, is something wrong with that?" "No, not at all. It's great but usually they don't gain weight so quickly. He must be a breastfeeding pro." And then the doctor did his exam. And about a minute into it, as he looked at Liam and Liam calmly, thoughtfully looked back at him, the doctor turned to us and said, "He has a remarkable disposition. I am serious. You don't know how many parents would do anything to have a baby like this. You are very lucky." Now maybe he said that to every set of new parents, but he was 100% right. And I know everyone thinks their kid is amazing and perfect, but I also know that Liam is awesome and special and I am so lucky. And I am happy for him to be starting kindergarten because he loves learning and playing, but I am sad for me because I love being with him. And honestly ever since Aidan was born there has been so much sleep deprivation (not all because of him) but anyway I just haven't had enough energy to make the most of my time with Liam, and now I will have less of it. I knew I would be sad but I didn't know it would be the kind of sad that comes in waves and pushes my heart into my throat and makes my eyes well up with tears even while I'm at the public service desk at work. To help myself through this I either think about how I spent approximately 1.63 million hours searching in vain for a superhero backpack for him that promised not to be full of lead and razor blades, and then we looked at the 11 backpacks that did have such a claim but were all ugly, and then he agreed to get an outer-space-themed crocodile creek backpack this is made in China but says it's safe and their company has never had a recall. And now I am sewing some superhero patches on it and he is happy. Or I picture him sitting at the kindergerten snacktime, spreading brie cheese on little wheat crackers and drinking pomegranite juice, and that makes me happy. (For the record I won't be sending that snack with him to school, but it is one he likes.)
At least, for now, he is still small.

Train Crashes and Tornados and Teething - Oh My!

I think Led Zeppelin says it best, "I'm having a nervous breakdown, drive me insane." Unfortunately in my case it's not a cute girl induced nervous breakdown, it's more the stress of the random and not so random weirdness that seems to come with life as you get older. Which, btw, I realized lately that I no longer really feel old, the way I did when I was 28 or 29. And that is because I've realized that back then I WAS old, for a young person. But now I am YOUNG, for a middle-aged person. And somehow that brings me comfort. Anyway, here are some pictures from the tornado. I was at work when it hit, evacuating people to the safe area, thinking it was probably not much of anything. But as soon as I pulled out of the garage to head home, I could tell something had definitely happened. Huge old trees were toppled all over the place, and I had to vary my route a few times. (And a. I love love love weather excitement and b. I hate that seriously at least half, if not more of, the old trees in my neighborhood have been lost now, do to weather or illness. bummer.) When I got home there were people outside milling around, inspecting the damage, even though it was dark and the power was out. Fortunately my power came back on the next day (thanks in part to my brother who works at ComED) but we did lose a refrigerator's worth of food and had some damage to the garage and the yard.








Here's the aftermath of the brush cut up:


And here is a picture of Liam with his sunflowers, that were getting pretty tall before the damn tree fell on them and smooshed them. As God is his witness, He'll plant again!! (fist shaking toward the heavens)

I Want a Do-Over (or, Everybody Must Get Stoned)

The weekend started with a breakfast that included me and my four favorite boys. Then we whisked the three littlest boys to my in-laws for their first over night stay since Aidan was born. Next stop - 90 minute massages for me and Eric. Doesn't that sound amazing? Except for some reason shortly afterward, (i.e. near the start of our freedom,) I became soooo tired I could hardly muster any energy for the rest of the ENTIRE DAY/NIGHT/NEXT MORNING. Curses!

I don't know if I can blame it entirely on the massage, though I know that was a part of it, (even though they've never affected me like that in the past) but I'm sure my perpetual state of near-exhaustion contributed too. We did go out for lunch (Pick Me Up) and dinner (Ben Pao) and a movie (Midnight in Paris at the Century Center Cinema) and picked up The Tourist on the way home and watched that, and the next morning we went to that sexy, shimmery place called Home Depot to get mulch. So I can't say all was lost, but really, when you have a weekend to yourself and you feel like you've been given Phenobarbital, you get to complain a little bit, right?

However, as a consolation prize I did chip a small piece of my tooth late last week. (Not "my tooth" as in my one and only tooth, but "my tooth" as in one of my teeth, most of which I still have.) Why is that so awesome, you ask? Well a. it didn't hurt, b. it didn't require a root canal or any other horrible procedure and c. when I went to the dentist today he gave me the badass-feel-good-hookup, that only gets better the more you breathe. Plus then he reenacted the Tonys for me, and let me tell you I don't know who was higher. All my tensions and stress melted away, and everything was once again happy in Donnaland. So the lesson I learned is that next time Eric and I have a weekend to ourselves I should create a dental problem for myself and then go to the dentist. Let the games begin.

Ah, hindsight.

ps. Blonde on Blonde is the perfect album to listen to on a beautiful summer day riding home from grandma and grandpa's house in the country.

Firsts

This weekend was one of firsts. We went to Saint Louis to party with my 90-something year old aunt who's been a nun for 75 years. It was Aidan's first time hanging out with a bunch of nuns, and they totally dug him. (As an aside, I can say from experience when visiting another of my aunt's who is a nun, that there are few things cooler than having a crabfest with nuns in Baltimore. I am not joking. If you ever have a chance you have to do it; it will blow your mind.) The nuns dug Liam and Brendan too, though many of them thought Brendan was a girl. He took it in stride. It was also Aidan's first time in a pool (I know!) and a shopping cart (I know!) and it was the first time Liam and Brendan swam around in the pool without holding on to me or Eric. (Let's be clear, they were wearing swim vests.) It was the first time Aidan was caught outside in an incredible downpour. We were at the Anheuser Busch brewery and the only reason we really went there was to see the Clydesdales. It turns out that you can take a free tour (plus $34 for three stuffed Clydesdales) and the first stop is the stables with the Clydesdales. En route there was an insane downpour, and while we were walking to the stables the wind was practically blowing us over. Then we got sequestered in the stables, so they brought out one of the amazing, huge horses and the dalmatians were running around and the kids totally loved it. (I was only a little worried that we might get stampeded if the booming thunder spooked the 2500 pound horses, but they were very calm.) And going back through the storm to the main building and getting soaked to the bone was "so awesome," said Liam. The trip made me realize that A. Brendan has come so so so far, since he was very good with only minor tired-related meltdowns and B. Aidan really does have a totally different life being the third child. In six days he will be one. Unlike Liam and Brendan by this point in their lives, he has never been on a plane (for God's sake Brendan flew to Ireland when he was 5 months old!) I already mentioned he had never been in a pool or a shopping cart, he's never been outside the Midwest, he's never been to a Wiggleworms class at the Old Town School of Folk music, or any series of classes for that matter. But hopefully he has as rich of a life because he has two adoring brothers who include him and watch him and dote on him. And at least now he can say he's been to St. Louis - a first for all three of them!




After the rain...

The Cutest Thing Ever, part II

I walked into the laundry room yesterday, and noticed that right inside the door, on the other side of the cat door, there was a whole collection of small toys. Aidan must be putting little toys in there through the door. Like how the Brady Bunch kept losing their things and then they found out their dog was stashing things in the doghouse.

Also, Aidan's new favorite thing to do is climb up onto the first step of the stairway, stick his feet straight out in front of him, and monitor whatever happens in the front room. Then, after a while he falls off the step on purpose, then climbs back up and falls off again on purpose. Repeat.

Imitation Is the Highest Form of...?

Brendan: When I grow up I want to work at two places. Number one, Orbitz. Number two, the library.

Liam: When I grow up I think we should all work somewhere where they do science.

Brendan: Actually, when I grow up I want to work at three places. Number one, Orbitz. Number two, the library. Number three, be someone who puts tattoos on. Number four, a bone treasure hunter.

??

To Kathy and Megan

and anyone else who points me to articles about bookbugs; this is what my plan is:

I'll run it past my director to see if they could microwave the books before I touch them.
Me (to patron) "Sure, let me grab that off the shelf for you. I'll be back in about 18 minutes. I just have to run down to the staff kitchen."
Me (putting on latex gloves) "I'm going to take these 47 books for Mends and Binds and run them through our microwaves. Can everyone please keep your lean cuisine out of the kitchen for a while. Shoot, where is my hazmat suit?! I KNOW I put it on my cart last week."
Me (on phone with patron) "I'm sorry I won't be able to get that for you. Well yes, it is on the shelf, but someone's using the microwave right now."

The problem with my comedy is that A) it's not funny and B) I keep going way too long. I'm just hoping if I go on with it long enough it will eventually GET funny. Like the one time with that airplane joke that never ends. My best and only laugh. Oh well, and the John Ritter Water God joke. But that's just a classic. No one can screw that up. Liam actually did it once completely spontaneously. And I laughed. Boy did I laugh.

Also, Kathy, thank's for my new favorite word, jackhole. It's reminds me of how the world opened up for me when my sister broke out "jagoff" about 16 years ago.

Next post...NOVA!

10:19pm

And Liam and Brendan are STILL TALKING!! WT Seriously F? Why does this happen sometimes? No, I don't want to put them in separate rooms. I like that they love each other and want to share their philosophical views on Jupiter, Venus and hot dogs. But why must it be at 10:19pm?
For cereal.

Ruminations

Brendan, on the Beach Boys "Wouldn't It Be Nice,"
"Well, why does he wish every kiss is never ending? You can't keep kissing when you go to sleep."

Brendan, on Mommy,
"If you keep exercising and eating good food, some day you can have a big stomach like me!"

Aidan, on dirt,
nom nom nom

Aidan on afternoon naps,
waa waa waa

Aidan on standing,
1st time today!!! woot woot

...and a side of novocaine

Don't you hate it when you wake up, eat a bowl of cereal, and an hour later you're having an unexpected root canal in Northbrook? Yeah, me too.

The Friendly Confines

Today was a day of firsts. We took Liam and Brendan to the Cubs game, which was Brendan's first trip to Wrigley. He was a great fan, cheering enthusiastically, eating 2 hotdogs (with mustard AND ketchup, shhh!), pretzels, and many peanuts. At the bottom of the third he turned to me and asked seriously, "Which team are we cheering for, the ones in white or the ones in black?" Up to that point he'd been yelling "Go Cubbies" and clapping at all the right times. Too funny. It was semi good weather for an April 2 game, but since Brendan usually naps around one, and we were getting cold, we only stayed til the 7th inning stretch. After a rousing rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame", we left and the Cubs were losing 3 - 0. But I'm sure it was us who brought them good luck, cause one inning later they scored 5 runs and ended up winning. It's too bad we missed that, but I was actually surprised we made it as long as we did. And of course it wouldn't have been an outing without Liam getting his requisite injury, tripping up the stairs and landing on his lip. He was a trooper though.









Afterward we bought the boys their first Cubs hats, then we picked up Aidan from Action Ridge and took all the boys for haircuts, where Aidan has his first cut by a professional barber.

waiting for haircut:



Brando's haircut


LT's haircut


AMJ's first haircut. whatchaya talking about?




And of course, Go Bulldogs!!

It's Good Protein

It's clear now that Aidan believes he has been hired into the family in the position of Eater of Anything Within or Nearly Within Reach. I'm glad he's a good eater, and extremely un-picky. So far I have had good luck with that and the other kids too, but Aidan takes it one step further. If I turn my back for a second he will inevitably be chewing when I next look at him. Cat food, pine needles, dirt, hair, cat fur, food scraps, magazines, books, seasonal decorations, black stuff, green stuff - he doesn't discriminate. However he gets VERY mad if you take any of these things out of his mouth. And he gets the stuff in there with amazing speed and precision. He'd been pretty good with the cat food bowl, but then lately realized how much fun it is to splash in the water. And then while he's there anyway, he figures he may as well have a little snack. This is all new for me. Liam, well he probably did collect some random samples off the floor to examine in his laboratory, but not to taste himself. As for Brendan, obsessive putting of things in his mouth was one of the few challenges he didn't try.

This video is a little over dramatic on the no-no-noing, which is why I thought of breaking out the camera. But it's pretty representative of how Aidan shakes his head no when he knows he is doing something naughty, or yes when he tries to pretend what he's doing is okay. Sometimes he then crawls away with an air of smugness, often accompanied by stopping to clap for himself. Other times he shakes his head no while chowing down on contraband.



Also, this video is the first we took of Liam's Billboard Top Ten "Too Many Monkeys" song. We made another that's a bit smoother, but I like this in spite of and because of the rough edges. You'll hear me prompting Liam to sing, but then he takes it away. The entire song was written by him. Obviously, Bob Dylan of the 21st century.

Happy Earth Hour

We've got our flashlights and candles ready for the big Earth Hour 2011. I'm no Papa (Don't Preach), but I do think it's a great way to start teaching your kids about forgoing mass consumption, starting with energy, and for beginning a dialogue about taking responsibility for your carbon footprint. In that vein I have been reading a challenging book, which I might have just blogged about recently, called The New Normal. I don't agree with everything he says, but there is much to reflect upon. I think it's clear to most people (perhaps not Sarah Palin) that we can't continue in the ways we've be trending since the start of the Industrial Age. I'd definitely recommend checking out this book, then going out for a couple margaritas.

Rubadubdub

Aidan is now big enough to take his bath with the rest of the rascals. And he is VERY happy about it! You can't really tell from the pictures of the other boys but they are very happy about it to.

Mmmmm

I know what I am making for St. Paddy's Day dessert, Guinness Cake!
Or maybe this recipe. Either way, why have I never heard of this?!?! And who's coming over? Of course, I will be in cataloging class, so that'll just be extra fun!

In Which

Aidan has decided sleeping through the night for six months was enough, and shall no longer do it ever again;

Eric accidentally bought 86 rolls of toilet paper;

The St. Patrick's Day crowd, at least near us, didn't cheer on hizzoner Da Mayor in what was his last St. Patty's Day parade - boo;

In which Liam remarked that the St. Patrick's Day parade "was fun, but wasn't as fun as (he) thought it would be";

The St. Patrick's Day party at my parents church had a lot of bumping, grinding and head shaving, but not a lot of Irish music or Irish dancing. The boys were happy but the adults were not;

Liam wrote a kick ass song tonight containing the lyrics "too many monkeys / too many monkeys/ we're lost in the middle of MONKEYS!";

One of The Kings is missing - again!;

Brendan thinks Luke Skywalker is one of the U. S. presidents;

There weren't enough hours in my day to begin with and now one of them has been taken from me.

Are You Kidding Me?

I can't Facebook this (because of my self-imposed Facebook Lent ban), but it must be noted. On the front page of the Chicago Tribune right now there is an article entitled "Newt Gingrich: Passion for Country Contributed to Infidelity." As if that was not ridiculous enough in and of itself, the article directly below this one is entitled "House Republicans Vow to Uphold Defense of Marriage." Wha? What? By the way, Newt Gingrich's "infidelity" occurred during his THIRD marriage!!! I'm not criticizing his decisions, but I'll be damned if he (who is considering a run for the Republican Presidential ticket) is going to say marriage can only be between one man and one woman. Because if he hasn't yet, I betcha he will. I just betcha.

On a funnier note, at Liam's preschool today another student told the teacher, "I don't have a cold, I just have some flu trapped in my voice mailbox." I hope that kid runs for president.

Little Birdhouses in Our Souls

Random pictures from the past few weeks. I have a lot of wise, thoughtful things to say, of course, but since a cold has been circulating throughout the family for the past few weeks and now Aidan has a respiratory virus that prohibits him/me for sleeping for more than an hour at a time, this should suffice...

The Brendan show, feat. Aidan...





Snow pants are snow cool...



Liam and Aidan, aka Liam and Little Liam, aka Little Eric, Littler Eric...


Our first snowman...


Fun in the basement, aka the Former Dungeon, which used to be soooo awful and now is sooo awesome. Also, Liam doesn't have a flat head like the 3rd picture suggests...

Cutest. Thing. Ever.

Liam and Brendan have a couple baskets where they keep their cars and their Cars cars. Anyway, Aidan loved to crawl (army crawl still) over to them and take the cars out. But we kept telling him no, he can't eat them, and he now understands that. So recently he has developed a new technique. He takes this little toddler spoon over there with him, throws it in the basket, madly thrashes his hand around in the basket til he finds it, and takes it out and chews on it. It is soooo cute I can't really properly convey it. I should take a movie of it. Sometimes, he accidentally grabs a car, and then he looks at it, whips it back in the basket and continues to thrash his hand around until he finds the spoon. Other times the spoon gets out of his reach and then he gets pretty pissed. I think there should be a t.v. show about this. I'd watch it. Seriously.

We're Having a Heatwave, a Tropical Heatwave

The temperature's rising, it isn't surprising, she certainly can, can-can.

Anyway, it's actually supposed to be snowstorming, blizzarding, and other exciting things. I am most excited that work may close tomorrow night and then I could stay home and play in the snow with the boys!! We shall see. I have a meeting from 1 to 3, might that be cancelled too? Ok, and what is it with spell checker saying cancelled is spelled canceled? Apparently two "l"s is British? Whatevers. Who here can tell I'm just procrastinating on cataloging homework? Eric made an unbelievable stirfry tonight while I was in a different class. The stirfry had a lot of superfoods, and I feel my superpowers really revving up. Unfortunately I'm still too tired to get off the couch and go brush my teeth. But don't tell Eric, since he's slaving away getting gas for the snowblower and food and water supplies before the massive or not so massive snowstorm. I wasn't alive for the '67 one, but my family has a lot of great stories about it. And some reel to reel. My dad ended up walking to work that day since there were very few buses running, and when he finally got there around noon the only other person there was his boss, so they went to the cafeteria, made lunch and his boss drove him as far home as he could. My parents' work ethic is pretty incredible. Obviously I did not inherit all of their amazing genes (see lazy points above.) I can't watch Mad Men without thinking of their life (which entailed far less booze and adultery, but similar amounts of cool clothes and historical context.) Oops, Eric's back with the groceries. I'll have to go back, ahem, to cataloging.

And the Days Go By

Wow, it's 3:06 on a Wednesday, and here I am, sipping coffee and casually catching up on my computer stuff. How can it be so? This morning Liam had his first ever Before School Playdate. This amazing luxury included his friend's mom picking him up from our house, taking him and said friend to play, then taking them back to her house for lunch, bringing them to school AND bringing Liam home after school. WOW!! I actually felt a little sick to my stomach about Liam not being here with us this morning, but mostly incredibly happy for him to be able to play with his friend all day. I was also happy Brendan handled NOT going as well as he did (which is to say perfectly!)

Then my parents came over and I was able to get a few things done around the house too. Brendan almost didn't take a nap, but finally did, and it definitely has been awesome. Next year Liam will probably be going to am kindergarten at his grade school, and then pm at the Montessori, so it will be a very long day for him (especially since it starts around 8, and he doesn't even wake up til 9!) And I already miss him and all the years I've had with him before school really started. But time marches forward. One consolation for me is that Brendan will be with Liam in the afternoon school (and I won't even begin to complain how monumentally expensive next year's tuition bills will be, which is sort of crazy considering it's preschool/kindergarten, but that's a rambling for a different day.)

The strangest part of all my sentimentality is that for the last couple weeks, we have had no daytime routine to speak of and we're totally full of cabin fever and there hasn't been a zen moment during our days much at all, and my work schedule's been a bit insane, and I don't like the mood in our house many times throughout the course of our days. Yet still, when I have a moment to myself I find my thoughts focused on wanting to spend as much time with these little guys as I can, before they're not so little anymore. This morning Liam got into his friend's car and shut the door without so much as a kiss or wave goodbye to Mom (though he did wave, probably with some prompting, as they pulled out of the driveway.) He's so ready to dive into the next chapter of his adorable little life, and I just hope I am too!

(Two Posts in Two Days!) Da-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah, nah-nah-nah

Two buds...


The hawk that flew over my head in the backyard a few months ago. Liam and Brendan spotted it across the street a couple weeks ago.


Tired Jedis


Youngest Jedi


I kept wondering why Zoey loved the Gingerbread House so much, and then I remembered there were a couple peppermint kisses on it - her fav


Cousins and uncle rocking out Christmas Eve


I see a garage band in my future (good thing we have a detached garage


The two newest babies in our family


Me and my bro and our new sons


Christmas Eve


LTs bday