My favorite 3 Maple Trees

Every fall I wax about these 3 beauties just outside my family room window. This year, I'll just leave you with pictures...

Beautiful day

Today is one of those fall days. The kind that make me yearn for fall all the rest of the seasons.

Anyhoo,

I had my first meeting with the case manager for Michael's Early Intervention Evaluation. She was very nice. And Michael was exceedingly friendly towards her. I had been a little frightened that he would go to a corner and hide tornado warning style all while mewing like a cat. He did that in our class last week when the teacher asked him what stuffed animal he'd brought in. I was a little concerned that behavior like that might get him labeled severely disturbed. But instead, Mikey was showing her all the artwork he's done, "I made dis!" and introducing her to his cars and buses, and doing adorable things that even I've never seen him do before. Like pick up the phone and say, "Call Me!" (call Memere). And then put the bus up to the phone and say, "Bus call me!"

Needless to say, I was sitting there answering the questions that she was asking...all while he is contradicting all my worries in the background. She was laughing at his pretend play and said, "I do have some children on my caseload that have serious issues. But many many of them are 2 year old boys who just need a little prodding in the right direction."

Anyway, I said all the things I swore I wouldn't...like blaming myself for him not talking, telling her how much tv he watches (embarrassing!), and going on and on about how good he is at other things besides talking. Ugh. Just answer the questions and don't elaborate. She was probably thinking, "Geez. This kid doesn't talk because his mother doesn't shut up." Oh! And I was reading a form she asked me to fill out, and Mike was repeating something to me. I was completely tuning him out, and she touched my arm and said, "Mike wants to say something to you." Holy mother of... nice job, Mom. Way to stay cool.

The end of my inspirationless blogging day...

Full circle

It is a common goal that we try and live as long as we possibly can. Of course, right?

Our entry into this world isn't glamorous or pretty. For the first few years, we have no control over our bowels and bladder, we often drool, we have difficulty communicating our needs to others, we are often irrational and confused. Our bodies are fragile and we must be protected from dangers. We are totally dependent on the more capable humans around us...to provide food and shelter and comfort and make all our decisions for us...even if we fight tooth and nail.

The end of our lives can be a mirror to those early days...if we are lucky enough to come full circle. Not glamerous or pretty. There are a few critical differences. It is our children or often perfect strangers taking care of us, instead of our parents. Taking care of a child's needs works on a pretty set timeline. After 3 or 4 years, you are most certainly not going to be cleaning up blowout diapers. You realize they WILL learn to speak, reason, help themselves...all in just 4-5 years (give or take). The elderly stage of our life can last an unpredictable amount of time. And how quickly we lose our functioning is so variable. But changes happen almost as quickly as with children...just in the opposite direction.

I watch my parents taking care of their parents. And I am so proud of them. Because it is just another representation of what caring, compassionate, wonderful people they are. They bend over backwards every day to help their mothers through this twilight of life. They make decisions for women who once upon a time changed their diapers, kissed their boo-boos, gave advice, ran households, had fulfilling independent lives. And they agonize over these decisions...is this good enough? Is it what they want? Am I doing enough for them? Have I considered all the options? All when there are very few rewards for their hard work and worry. All when there is no way of knowing whether each question has been answered correctly, and more questions and issues pop up every day.

I ache for my parents as they continue. I cannot imagine. But if someday I do have to take the same tasks on...I can only hope to be as gracious and loving a child as they are.

Conversation with Lily

We were driving home from...I can't remember...somewhere, and Lily and I had this conversation in the car.

Lily: Mom, can you believe that I'm FOUR now?

Me: (pretending to cry) Yes. You are so big. I don't know why you won't stay my baby. My little baby girl just keeps growing and growing.

L: Don't worry, Mom. No matter how old I am, I'll always be your girl.

Me: (smiling a big smile) Oh. Okay, then. As long as you'll always be my girl, you're allowed to grow up. Will you call me every day?

L: Yes. And I'll let you hold all my babies.

Me: Goodie. Are you going to have girl babies or boy babies?

L: Girl. Because I'm a girl and I think I'm pretty good so I want good girl babies. And girls have to have girls.

Me: Well, I'm a girl, and I have 2 boys.

L: Well, I don't want boys. I want girls.

Me: That's fine. Memere had only girls. But I sure like having boys too. Whatever.

L: (a short pause) Fine. I will have one boy. But still two girls.

Me: Whatever you want, Lily.

L: Mom? Where do baby horses come from?

Stuff on my mind Saturday

--Today marks 4 years since I walked through the doors of this house. The first time I laid eyes on it. It is easy to remember the date, because it is exactly one month after Lily's birthday. In a way it is hard to believe we've been here 4 years already. But then I see how big Lily is...and that Mikey is now almost the age Andrew was when we moved in...and it seems like 2 lifetimes ago.

--My Memere has fallen twice and big decisions are being made about her future care. My heart aches for her and also for my mother and uncle. I wish I could be there to...I don't know...but it seems like I'd be more useful.

-- We've just been notified that Andrew has to give a presentation in December about our family holiday traditions. I can't think of any. Which makes me sad for my kids. Why don't we have any traditions? I mean, other than the standard American Christmas traditions. And the "make fun of Daddy's ornaments" tradition. And the "Mommy curses at the cookies and ruins batch after batch until we just buy some at the store" tradition.

--We are refinancing our house. It costs us $0, I guess since it is through our current mortgage company and they want to keep our business. Even the notarizing is free if we go to one of their banks to do it. And it will save us $280 a month. I love getting money back for doing literally almost nothing. Other than contributing to the death of a forest. I mean, seriously? Could they use more paper?

-- Out of the blue yesterday, Lily began pronouncing her name "Lily" instead of "Liddy". She's been getting really distinct end sounds...like r's and l's...but it finally moved into her own name. While I'm happy for her, because people will start understand her name (she spells it for them, because she knows they can't understand her)...I'm also sad, because she just marches stubbornly towards little-girl-hood.

--Mikey asked to "Pee in Pot" yesterday. And sat for quite a while with no success. Perhaps in a mere 6-9 months we'll be out of diapers. Of course, in true Giselle style, I am not rushing to buy underpants or even pull-ups. I don't potty train, so much. Me no likey accidents. But I don't want to discourage him. So I suppose I'll at least buy a new potty seat for the upstairs toilet. (our old one grew a new species of ick...you can view it at the Smithsonian) (not really) (but it was disgustingly disgusting).

--Jeff leaves for Mexico tomorrow. And I'm getting my period today and my throat is scratchy and virusy feeling. Should be a good week! I see much pizza delivery in our future. At least I'm committed to blogging every day, so you can hear me whine and moan. So that's something.

--Yup. That's about it on my mind today. Exciting stuff.

Thinking of making a switch

When we moved here 4 years ago (omg...4 years ago...more on that tomorrow...), I looked around at pre-schools a bit. I eventually got him into a program that took kids who turned 3 in the fall, but missed the school cut-off date. In the process, I fell in love with the school. And we have been there ever since...Andrew went 2 more years and Lily is in her 2nd year there.

I love so many things about this school. 3 teachers per classroom. A bathroom attached to each classroom, so they don't have to break as a class to go to the potty. A music program. A physical education program. An emphasis on the social/emotional development as opposed to academic (until the 4's program). The downside has always been that it is in another school district, so while it is close to us, noone else in the school lives in our town or will end up in our elementary school.

I've been thinking about next year. When Lily and Michael are both pre-school students. At our current school, we're talking a potential monthly bill of $500-$600 dollars. A month. For PRE-SCHOOL. There is a school just down the street from us that comes highly recommended and is much much cheaper. I toured it when we first moved here and liked it. There are not nearly the ammenities. But, again, it is PRE-SCHOOL. Where you learn about colors and numbers and that we don't spit on our neighbors in story time or stick buttons in our ears.

So I'm thinking about switching. Downside...I could spend the year comparing apples and oranges and missing our old school. Upside...I could meet some parents that will move onto our elementary school.

And the sad thing is, I'll have to make a decision soon. Registration is in January for both schools.

I know it won't matter either way. Again with the ONLY PRE-SCHOOL. And the cost won't break us. As some of my "helpful" friends have pointed out, Lily and Michael will be in college at the same time for minimum 3 years. Ouch. And Lily's first year of college, Andrew will still be in.

Yah...perhaps the money I save next year on pre-school should just go directly into the college fund. ;)

The wedding

Finally! Wedding pictures! And you will be horribly disappointed by what I have to offer. But let's remember...it was held in an art gallery...with art left out...and Jeff was the best man. So Andrew was left with the camera while I chased Michael away from the $7000 vases.

I also wish I was industrious enough to turn on the scanner feature of our printer and scan in the photo booth pictures of the family. They are...awesome. Maybe I'll figure it out later. But it is November. And there are deadlines for posts ;)

The newlyweds

The groom's cake (seriously brainwashed family)

Andrew took this...I guess to show that we were in an art gallery?

The only 2 people not wearing black dresses have to stick together...

Lily harassing Michael. She was "keeping him out of trouble".

A.K.A. "chasing him into $7000 vases"

That's it. Those are all the photos I got. Lordy. All these wedding with us all gussied up, and Jeff and I just can't seem to get in a shot alone together. Representative of our life, I guess ;)

Finished!

Okay, so I just finished a 770 page book in 2 days. Neglect with a capital "N". And Jeff was so kind to let me hide in our bedroom to read...all afternoon. I think today an afternoon of uninterrupted football is in store for him ;)

Due to my book (fabulous, by the way...graphic and exciting and science fiction at its best...all the way from page one to page 766), we didn't do much today. We got up at the crack of dawn, as usual, and got the kids all dressed up and cleaned off for professional pictures. Which went...okay. My main goal was to get shots of Mikey (who hasn't had professional shots since he turned 1), and then good shots of the 3 kids together. Those are the two shots I didn't quite get. Well, there is one beautiful shot of Michael...but I swear it looks so much like Andrew at 3, I could have saved us all a bunch of money and just framed an extra photo I have from 4 years ago and passed it off as Mikey. The 3 kid shots were a disaster. Michael did NOT want to be in them, and Andrew was screwing around the whole time...not smiling, turning around, pestering his sister. And Lily was doing her best...but unfortunately, her best means piggy-noses and buck teeth...she just tries a little too hard to smile for the camera ;)

Our best shots were of Jeff and I by ourselves (which we weren't even there for) and the whole family shots (again, not even there for). Whatever.

Okay, so tomorrow...no more reading!

Outtakes

This blog is filled with entries of me describing how Lily is my "challenge". My "willful" child. How much I would sometimes like to lock her up in the...no...wait...I don't think I've written about those days ;) Yet.

The amazing thing about my...ahem...independent-minded...Lily? She is a totally different kid outside our house. When I take her on errands, when we go hiking. Oh, wait. Okay so she's not ALWAYS a different kid outside the house. But take her on a trip...whew. She was WONDERFUL. CHARMING. LOVING. FRIENDLY. I USE ALL CAPS BECAUSE IT IS SO AMAZING.

Here are some Lily quotes from our weekend in Texas...

On the plane, as soon as we got on the, she started asking, "Mommy? When are we going to blast off?" I reluctantly corrected her.

Once the plane was in the air, she asked every 10 minutes if we were in Texas yet. The flight was almost 4 hours long. After about 2 1/2 hours, I told her to look out the window and tell me if we were in Texas yet. She peeked out, then sat down and sighed, "No." "How do you know, Lily? What does Texas look like?" "It has lots of lines on it." No doubt in reference to the maps of Texas we'd looked at before the trip.

She and Andrew had studied the emergency card. When we began to descend for landing, Lily took one last look at the card, then put her head between her knees and hands over the back of her head. She said, "Come on, Andrew! We're landing." Andrew replied, in true big brother fashion, "We're not CRASH landing, Lily." We all had a good chuckle.

On the plane ride back to Philly, she once again reviewed the card when we began our descent. She looked at me and loudly asked, "Do we know if it is a crash landing yet?" The man seated behind her barely stifled a snort.

Lily has a serious love affair with her Uncle Chad. And has had it since she was an infant. They are true kindred spirits. So she was delighted to hang out with Chad the day we got there. The next day, we went to the zoo and didn't see him all morning. When we showed up at the rehearsal dinner that night, Lily ran into Chad's arms, turned to me and said, "Can you believe Uncle Chad is here?!?!?"

We were driving home from the rehearsal dinner and it was night time. One of the side effects of my children's early bedtime is that they are not used to seeing stars and darkness. It's kind of socially weird. Anyway, we were enjoying the view of the Houston skyline at night, when out of nowhere a police car turned its siren on...right behind us. It scared the bejeezus out of everyone in our car. Lily yelled out, "I'm a freak!" I said, "Do you mean you are freaked out?" "Oh, yah, I'm freaked out."

We rented a Ford Explorer while we were there...and Lily could reach the window button. When we weren't on the freeway, we let her have her fun opening and closing the window. And that is what she did...over and over...up and down and up and down. At one point she said, "Mom? Dad? This is the best car ever. I love the windows."

We were at a brunch that Chad and Monica's friends held at their house the morning after the wedding. It was a delightful morning at a delightful house with a DELIGHTFUL PLAYROOM. OMG...I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. I think it was the only meal I got to sit and eat in its entirety the entire weekend. Jeff's aunt told me at one point that she would go check on Lily in the playroom. Apparently as she stood there watching Lily, Lily turned to her and said, "You know you don't have to watch me, right?"

We were going through security to go back to Philly and it was an empty airport. As the lady checked Jeff and my driver's license, she very sternly asked Andrew how old he was. He stammered a bit and said, "6." She said...again very sternly, "Well, show me your license." Andrew paused and then respectfully said, "I said I was SIX, not SIXTEEN." She finally broke a smile and ruffled his hair, "Good answer." Then she asked Lily how old she was. Lily automatically put up 3 fingers and said, "Three...no! NO! I'm four now!" And looked around all excited.

Andrew was very good the whole time...although a little hyper with excitement at inappropriate times. He is only 6, after all. And he doesn't get nearly the attention that Lily and Michael get. He's moved out of the "cute little kid" into the "big skinny talkative kid" stage. Which is equally fun...but requires more effort. You have to participate and not just sit back and watch. Anyway, he handled it all very well. He was so tired. The night of the rehearsal, he ate a little bit of dinner and then lay his head down on the table and fell asleep. In a bar. With blasting music and noisy people all around. That was the night he peed in bed...for the first time in 2 years. He was T.I.R.E.D.

He was so sweet to Lily at the airport. He watched out for her and explained everything. Imagine them holding hands as they walk on the plane, with Andrew whispering in her ear, "Now it's going to get cold right before we get on the plane. Watch your step. You can have the window on this trip." etc etc.

Michael talked up a storm as well. My favorite was when we were swimming at the outdoor pool, and he was turning blue. He kept saying, "Big water freezing!" He also told everyone that he "Go on train!" which meant the bus from the long term parking to the airport. He was way more excited about that then the actual plane. And his new phrases for the weekend were "Time to go!" which he said every 5 seconds when we were trapped in the hotel room. He wanted to get out and have adventures. The other was, "Nobody Hee-ya." which he said anytime we walked in a room where there were no people. Often combined with "Sorry ma!" Walk into the breakfast buffet area after it's closed? Michael exclaimed, "Sorry ma! Nobody hee-ya."

I'll stop now. They are just so stinkin' cute. When they aren't peeing all over themselves ;)

The Texas trip...but not the wedding yet

So we went to Texas for 5 days to celebrate my brother-in-law getting married. It was our first time flying with 3 children. I think it will be a separate post altogether. ;) But I'm going to post wedding pictures in another post. Hey! Did you know it is National Blog Posting Month? Where you are challenged to write a post every day in November? I think I'll stretch this Texas story out to 2 or 3 posts...AT LEAST.

Anyhoo...for the last few days before we left, I tried to figure out how I would style my mop of hair for the wedding. I wanted to donate it, but didn't think it was a good idea to do it right before professional pictures would be taken. Tuesday afternoon, I called a local salon and asked for an appointment. That night I went and had 9 inches chopped off my head. In true east coast style, the stylist chopped my pigtails and said, "Oh. You look better already. That hair was doing nothing for you." and later, "Really, if you aren't willing to do anything with long hair, there is no point in having it." I swear, 4 years ago this would have had me crying in the chair. Now I just laughed along. Here is a picture of the first morning I styled it. I'm a bit better at it now...and it is usually just tucked behind my ears. Which looks fine. And I have product now. And I use a hair dryer. Look me! I'm a girl!

Okay, so the plane trip. Lordy. They were good, really. But they are 3 children. The plane was rows of 4...2 seats on each side of the aisle. Jeff picked our seats when he ordered the tickets, and somehow the best arrangement he came up with was 4 across and one in front of that row inside by the window. Hmmmm, I'll give you one guess who got a seat by himself in a row apart from the rest of the family. But the kids did really well. Andrew had to keep a travel journal while he was on the trip, and this is the picture he put on the page and what he wrote:

"I'm on a airplane and I'm next to my sister but if I'm meen I hoft to sit by my self."

Once we got to Texas, there was lots of time for the kids to entertain themselves. One of their favorite things was to make a nest out of pillows. Another was playing with their new Pokemon toys that I'd bought just for the trip. Another was waking up so incredibly early that we had to wait HOURS for the breakfast buffet to open (it opened at 6:30). Another was peeing and pooing on themselves so that Mommy would have to clean it up. I had packed really lightly so we'd have fewer bags (3 suitcases for 5 people..woot woot!). But I had not anticipated the sheer volume of urine soaked clothes to deal with. Michael had a case of the runs (pooed in the bathtub 3 times in a half-hour period), Lily couldn't quite sit back far enough on the toilet, but she didn't want help, so she would regularly shoot pee all over her clothes and the bathroom, and Andrew was so tired at night that he soaked our bed with urine and didn't even wake up...soaked the comforter that was ON TOP of him. As Jeff and I changed the sheets and comforter at 11:30 at night, we dubbed it the "Weekend of Excrement."

Honestly, they were really good...nothing they did was intentionally bad. Traveling with young children just is what it is.

Friday we went to the zoo before the rehearsal dinner. Houston has a really nice zoo. And it was hot, but not "I want to kill myself" hot. Here is Lily posing as a flamingo. She was standing there like this and I asked her if her foot was hurt. She told me, "No, Mom. I'm a flamingo."

The carousel ride. Michael picked an animal right next to the enthusiastic conductor. The man was trying to make Michael smile and waving at him and talking to him...and Michael just scowled at him, or grinned a little and then quickly looked away. Shy. That is my Mikey.

Andrew was "too cool" for the carousel, telling us to "give my ticket to a little kid." But he was a good sport and rode the white tiger. I think he may have even enjoyed himself.

The day after the wedding we went to a park in downtown Houston. It was really cool...even though my kids were rather timid.

There was a fountain park for the kids to play in. Pictured below is Michael working up the nerve to go in. Not pictured below is Andrew getting knocked over by a 2 year old (not Michael) and bleeding on the pavement. Not pictured is Andrew limping dramatically over to a first aid stand and getting a splinter in his foot as he dragged himself over the deck. Not pictured is Andrew howling in pain as the medic bandaged up his knee. Not pictured is Andrew pulling the splinter out of his own foot without crying when ice cream was offered as a salve.

They also spent a lot of time eating treats and watching tv. And somehow I have no pictures of our trip to another park in Houston that had an awesome train, weird looking ducks, and the science museum that we toured briefly. It was an awesome day that I have no record of.

Future posts: Lily the amazing traveler...and all the cute things she said. Chad and Monica's beautiful wedding. Jeff's weekend versus my weekend ;)

Obligatory Halloween post

Holy busy couple of weeks, Batman! Between going to Texas, Jeff being in Brazil, my parents visiting, and the week of Halloween festivities...I am behind in my stories. I have a lot to catch up on. And I'm going to start from the end...Halloween. Because that's the logical thing to do.

Aaaaand, I just realized all my Halloween pictures are on here are in backwards order. Typical.

Okay, so when did Halloween become a week-long event? Since I have school-age children? In different schools? Oh, yes, that's when.

Starting from the very end...

Our pumpkins. If my children ever say I don't love them...

We did the pumpkins on Saturday morning. Mere hours after Jeff came home from Brazil.

I'm serious... his plane landed at 6 am, and he was carving pumpkins at 9:30. Welcome home! Pull up a chair and have children scream and cry and fight while you force a knife through impossibly tough vegetable skin. Good times. Michael had the most fun. After his was done, he spent a long while fitting the discarded pieces back into their holes. A real veggie puzzle. At least it kept him away from the sharp implements.

Way cooler at night.
Trick-or-treating was really fun. Mikey kept up for about half of the night. Lily putzed out 3/4 of the way. I decided she was done when she walked away from someone's house and said (loudly and rudely), "They didn't even give me any chocolate." Andrew was a champ. He hit every house on our street that had it's front porch lit up.

I didn't figure out to turn off the flash on my camera until later. Those are glow sticks the kids are holding.

At home before trick-or-treating. Backwards in time...are you still with me?

Lily is Tiana, from The Princess and the Frog. Michael was supposed to be a frog (insert cute 'awwwwww' here). As you can see, he opted to go with Andrew's old 4T Spiderman costume. He regularly touched his biceps and said, "I MAN". Andrew is a Pokemon...named Articuno. He showed his Aunt Sara a picture in September, and she nearly exactly created this creature. Andrew was so incredibly thrilled...even though no one knew what he was.

Backwards to Friday...

Andrew's elementary school does a Halloween parade. Except that they walk about a mile around the borough (read: town). The locals sit out on their front porches, the kids have a blast. The 5th and 6th graders take a detour through the nursing home in town. It is a lovely tradition.

Back to Thursday:

Michael and I take a little toddler class together. They also had a Halloween party and parade.

This is a picture of us trying to get a group shot. Turns out 2 year olds don't like to do what you ask.

Go figure.

You will notice Michael's costume. He is dressed as "Uncooperative 2 year old"

Also notice how cute the Cat in the Hat is behind him. What a yummy costume!

Later in the day, Thursday:

Lily's class also had a Halloween party and parade. Lily was a pro...waving like a beauty queen.

I think this is later in the day Thursday...seriously, how did I eff up these pictures so royally?

We went to a pumpkin patch, because we were in Texas the week before, then it rained...and suddenly we were all, "Holy crow! We have to get pumpkins! There is a shortage!"

Well, our pumpkin patch didn't seem to have a shortage.

Lily with a pink pumpkin. She didn't end up choosing it...shock of all ages.

Lily having a fit because Andrew touched the pumpkin. She's like fire and ice, that girl.

All in all...crazy week. I'm so thankful that my parents decided to drive here and spend the week with me. I can't imagine doing all this without any support. Parents are grand ;) Now who's going to come stay with me when Jeff goes to Mexico next week? (joking...it's not Halloween week...we'll be fine...)