09.30.2010 -- Sickening, Really

One day, Facebook as we know it will be in the rear-view mirror. These days, however, it sucks up a lot of time and energy from a lot of good people. For myself, I spend time looking at what people post there and the benefits may just cancel out the detriments. More specifically, I am much more up to date with certain loved-ones than I would be otherwise, and I am also much more current with people who may not be as important.

The point of this post is to say what I don't say every day on Facebook, where it gives a prompt for a status update: "what's on your mind." What's on my mind, Facebook? What's on my mind? Well, it's a little sickening, really: sickeningly sweet. I am so in love with my family that the love songs that run through my mind are more geared to my kids than my sweet, sweet husband. Case in point: the David Gray "My Oh My" song. For some reason, this refrain is the most common muzak in my head when I'm holding Lucy or Gabe. (Please no over-examination of the lyrics. I've checked, and they don't fit very well, only certain parts: "My oh My, you know it just don't stop.")

Status update: I am so so so so so so so in love with my family. (Told you it was bad.)

Yesterday, we went to the rec center for an afternoon of swimming--I was hoping that the outdoor section would still be open, the temperature being in the high eighties yesterday. It wasn't. Still, the kids and I had a blast.

Lucy is now a true swimmer. I must have been around her age when, after swimming in the presence of my Grandmother, she remarked that I "looked like I was drowning." Lucy is a chip off the old block in this respect: she too, looks like she's drowning, but she can actually swim! Gabe is a little water baby. He has NO FEAR, which is a little scary, but entertaining. He loves to be on his own in the water. And when I say on his own, I mean completely on his own. His preference is to jump into water that is about twice his own height and spend a few seconds swimming. He is then content to be fished out--sometimes sputtering, but always grinning.

As Lucy told Brian last night, we "met a classmate" of hers at the rec center--red-headed Will. He was there with his family and Lucy, true to form, ended up tight with his sisters--especially his older sister, Addie. I had to drag her away from the pool and the slide when it was time to go.

Afterward, I "let" Lucy and Gabe play on the climbing wall. Let in "quotation marks" because no one has to try too hard to get me to let my kids spend time doing something like climbing.

Such a good life!

09.14.2010 -- Five, etc. (Or Maybe Etcetera and Five)

These two are great kids--and they are my life right now. Lucy is enjoying kindergarten, especially math, PE and music. After school, because we have very few obligations, it's normal for us to spend an hour or so at the school playground just messing around. Good times.

In this picture, Gabe is sporting a small cut below his lip. This came from a fall at said playground where he bit THROUGH his lower lip. Booo! I was there and caught him before he hit the ground, but not before his chin hit the tower he was climbing.

Gabe is into jumping, standing on unlikely things "surf style," and wearing clothes that he considers "ball" clothes. Last night at a soccer game, his cousin, Gabe (not a typo), let him ride his three-wheeled scooter--he was a natural.

Last night was spent at Lewis Park to watch our nephew, Luis, play soccer. Fun! Lucy, Gabe and I showed up in time to see the game start. Luis did great, by the way, and his team totally spoiled the opposing team's undefeated record. Monica and Scott brought pizza for dinner and I brought popsicles for dessert. I wasn't sure if Brian would eat with us, but I knew he was planning to come right after he hit the gym. When he showed up, I was talking with a friend, standing at the far side of a roofed eating area. He gestured toward the end of the pavillion, to the tables where Monica and Scott had the pizza laid out and asked if we were eating here. I was mostly paying attention to my friend, but heard Brian and answered that "yes, there was food," and that he should go say "hello."

A few minutes later, I glanced around and saw my husband going through a potluck line that belonged to a different party.

This food was in the same general direction that "our food" was in, and we knew quite a few people in the group, but it was definitely not for us, as we had contributed nothing and had no business with their party.

I was a little mortified for Brian. He had no idea that he was crashing a party. What did I do?

I loudly explained the misunderstanding to the group of people that we mostly knew, acknowledging that it was my fault and not his. They were great and invited him back for seconds. (Not that he took them up on their offer.)

This started a short discussion on how easy it would be to crash potluck parties--as no one said a word to Brian about him helping himself.

Fairy Party

Here's a confession: Lucy wanted a water party outside. She never mentioned any fairy party. However, so many of her friend's parties were outside and featured water and princesses, that I made an executive decision and announced that she would be having a fairy party this year. Happily, Lucy liked the idea, so we went with it.

Last year, we tried to include EVERYONE. It worked--but the idea of doing it again exhausted me, so I set my limits this year. We also had some of the older girls in the neighborhood over as helpers: they helped paint faces, make fairy skirts with strips of tulle, and put together fairy houses.

The party went well, but things got a little rowdy there in the middle when the girls made up a tag-chase game called "fairy free." We had an accidental run-in with a very hard, very mean banister that left a black eye. Oops. (Sad!)

Lucy loved the make-up and nail supplies the most, her phrase of the day being, "I can't thank you enough!"