Pizza wars

Last night we read a bedtime story about attending a pizza party...
Henry: I like pizza parties.
Me: (fairly certain that Henry had never actually attended a pizza party) Maybe you can have a pizza party with your friends someday? I went a pizza party once, and it was fun.
Henry: Well, I went to a pizza party when I was a baby.
Me: One time, when I was a little girl, my Brownie troop went to the Pizza Hut on a field trip and I got to make my own little personal pizza with whatever I wanted on top.
Henry: (clearly not impressed) Well, one time, I went to a party and it was with my friends but we rode in a school bus to a big skyscraper building and there was a egg and the egg cracked open and there was a pizza inside and I ate it except it wasn't a pizza it was just a shadow of a pizza so I had to take the space shuttle then rocket then airplane and then go down the slide with Daddy into the garden. The pink rose garden that we planted and it smelled so nice. A giant bird looked at us and flew away. We went inside the house and my friends were there for a party with bubbles everywhere and we had pizza.
Me: OKAY. I GET IT. YOU WIN.

I see trees of green

To tell you the truth, I have never been a fan of the song "What a Wonderful World."  I don't hate it, mind you. I would have at one time, perhaps, uncharitably described it as treacle, but that is only because my stone-cold heart  is uncomfortable with basic human sincerity. Perhaps because of this earnestness, Henry loves it. I had been catching snippets from time to time, he would sing just a quick phrase out of context "red roses too... " or "... the colors of the rainbow so pretty..." and I would think to myself,  what is that from? That sounds so familiar!  The other morning as I was dropping him off in his classroom, all of the children were quietly, happily, and cooperatively working on activities in small groups. Henry joined one group right away. I allowed myself an extra moment to just take in that scene alone - perfect, progressive old Italian educator - inspired preschool at work. Then, something extraordinary happened. Music was playing in the classroom and the song "What a Wonderful World" began. Suddenly, I noticed all of the children gently swaying and singing softly to themselves. They all knew the song (clearly a classroom favorite), and everything seemed so calm and peaceful and everyone seemed so kind to one another.

So now, dammit, not only do I kind of love the song, it even prompts an emotional response (I know, I know) because for now on, every time I hear "What a Wonderful World", I will remember Henry as a three year old wearing his Spider Man t-shirt singing softly along with his friends.

Happy First Birthday, Charlie Bear*

Charlie turned 1 year old yesterday!  This picture was taken a few weeks ago as his birthday was celebrated on three separate occasions. We celebrated his birthday with cake about 3 weeks when Nana and Granddad were visiting. All of the pictures that I managed to take were ones of Charlie trying to eat the cake remains directly off the plate. His second celebration happened when Aunt Amy (Mamie) came to visit last weekend. For that celebration, Henry and Mamie made homemade sugar cookies with gobs of buttercream frosting (delicious cookies, by the way - so soft and lethal. One cookie can give you the sugar shakes. Just imagine their effect on a 3 and 1 year old!). Half of the cookies were frosted with pink icing, and the other half were frosted with green icing.  Finally, last night, on his actual birthday, we had our third and final celebration. We went to a Mexican restaurant. For dessert, we had ice cream and churros (did I mention that I am now addicted to churros? It is my Latin roots). The boys each got a balloon although only one balloon arrived home intact. We drove to the restaurant separately. I warned Mike as he was loading the children into his car, "Don't let Charlie hold his balloon on the drive home. I am worried he will somehow wrap the string around his neck or pop the balloon with his little razor sharp baby teeth and then choke on the balloon pieces. Henry can hold the balloons." Mike said, "Eh, I think it will be fine -  Its a two minute drive." I was a few cars behind them and I noticed a red balloon on the side of the road. That looks familiar, I thought... sure enough, as they were driving home, Henry convinced Mike to roll down his window and then he somehow let go of his balloon and (I believe) gave it a slight push in the direction of the open window and well, we came home with one balloon. Charlie's balloon.

The minute we arrived home, I think Mike and I were suddenly and simultaneously hit by the additive effect of raising a baby plus a toddler for a full year. We were overcome by exhaustion. Literally. It was all we could do to bathe the kids and put them to bed. In fact, the kids went to bed very early, which means that they cried out after lights out for a few minutes longer than usual but we were too tired to even feel bad about it. Actually, we laughed. We laughed when they cried out in harmony. I tried to summon the energy to finish cleaning the kitchen, to wash the bottles for the next morning, but I had to rest before I could tackle that job. We both crashed on the couch to recharge our batteries. We both fell asleep for a little bit. Then, we woke up and went to bed at 9:30 pm!  This never happens. We didn't set our alarm clocks (on a weekday, of all things!) and woke up after 7am. That is a lot of sleep, but I still feel tired today. In fact, I must look more tired and more disheveled than usual because this morning when I was dropping the kids off at daycare, someone asked me with an empathetic head tilt and tone, "Oh, is Mike out of town for work this week?" That is never a good sign.


*"Charlie Bear" is Charlie's nickname. It is our creative and unexpected twist on the classic children's toy Teddy Bear.  I mean it, look it up. This Teddy Bear is a real thing.

Top o' the morning to you

Click here to see Henry's first St. Patrick's Day.  He was 6 months younger than Charlie is now, I had forgotten how red Henry's hair was at one time.

Technically, St. Patrick's Day is tomorrow, but for the boys, it's today because of their school celebration. Their daycare doesn't miss a chance to celebrate a holiday. Also, their daycare doesn't miss a chance to have a parade.  So, here's Charlie dressed in his finest green attire. It just so happens that his finest attire is green - a green plaid shirt/cord overall combo. He is also sporting an heirloom (read: stained hand-me-down) bib and a vintage (read: clean hand-me-down) cap. I love his wisps of hair showing under the cap - his green ensemble really emphasizes the red in his hair. Our little Irish lad. I have a sneaking suspicion that he will be able to fetch a kiss or two today.

The boys have been learning about St. Patrick's Day at school, too. In addition to looking at a basket of potatoes (yes, that happened), Henry learned about leprechauns and rainbows and pots of gold. He also learned that if someone isn't wearing green on St. Patrick's Day, he is allowed to pinch them. I have a feeling I am going to regret being the one to have taught him that last tradition.  According to Charlie's class report, he and his baby friends learned about the color green and "St. Patrick, the Irish Catholic."

We moved!

After several months, we finally got the official word on the house that we put in an offer for in August (as they say, "nothing short about a short sale!"). Just before Christmas, and I mean days before Christmas, we learned that we were closing on the house on Jan 6. Since the holidays, it has been a whirlwind: house inspection, furnace breaks in existing house on coldest day of winter, Charlie gets sick, closing on new house, Mike and I pleasantly and maturely negotiate paint colors, dry wall repair/plumbing update/carpet cleaner/cable installation/alarm system installation/termite inspector, Granddad and Mike spend 7 full days painting every room in new house, Charlie gets his first tooth, pack, move, unpack, Charlie gets 4 new top teeth on the same day, clean old house, Henry gets sick, Charlie gets sick again, and take a breath, that brings us to now. Since we closed on the new house, we have made 14 trips to Lowe's, Home Depot, and Ace Hardware, considered 62 paint colors, and have visited the pediatrician 4 times. I am quite tired, and I am sick of living out of boxes, but slowly, the house is coming to together. On the morning of our last day in the old house, Mike and I reflected on leaving the rental:
M: Bye old house and so long to getting trapped in the master bath
J: So long to getting trapped in the main bath... And while I am on the subject, so long to getting trapped in the office for several hours and resorting to taking the door off its hinges and busting out the door knob to escape (true story)
To clarify, the rental had several doors but only a few of them worked properly.
M: Bye tall condo complex in our backyard that blocked out the daylight and whose tenants peered at our every move like we lived in a fishbowl.
J: Bye rickets!
M:  Bye colony of crickets living in the basement
J: Bye family of squirrels living in our attic
M: Bye dangerous storm drain in the front and back yard
J: So long to extensive, intricate 17-pt turns just to park the car in the driveway

Of course, there are also a lot (really just 3 that I think of) reasons to miss that house:
1. Henry learned to walk and to talk in that house.
2. It was Charlie's first home.
3. The oven was so small that it didn't take a long time to preheat.

 Despite donating two pickup trucks' worth of stuff, we still filled up an entire moving truck. In fact, there wasn't enough space in the truck and we had to make several additional trips by car.

Although they can easily fit into one box, these two items come with their own clothes and accessories that require storage space.

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We have space and a guest room so please come to visit!

Sharing their DNA

Although this was filmed several weeks ago now, here is a short video of Henry and Charlie playing together (one of the very first times!) and, yes, literally and symbolically sharing their DNA.

Happy Halloween!

I feel horrible that so many wonderful childhood milestones have passed without any updates. I keep planning on writing about significant family memories like summer trips, weddings, 3rd birthday parties, apple-picking, and hand, foot and mouth disease, but I never seem to find the time. I would love to write a funny, little anecdote about Halloween, but instead I will just post a few pictures.

My little honeybee. When I was pregnant with Henry, one of my first thoughts was: Now I can finally dress a baby up like a honeybee! Henry's birth date made him essentially honeybee ineligible - he was just a few weeks old on his first Halloween and he was well passed the tolerant stage of being stuffed into a thick, fleece, round, immobilizing costume on his second Halloween. Is a honeybee an original costume? No. But, come on, just try not to smile.


He may have been passed honeybee territory, but Henry was still interested in being a winged creature. Henry's costume preferences changed frequently during the month of October. His costume preferences included (in approximate order): A prince ("A cape, crown, and boots!"), Tinkerbell (yes, the very one... how?... I don't know...), an ice cream man, Arial (yes, mermaid princess... how?... I don't know...), and finally he settled on a bat. Just a bat. Although in the picture above he looks like a crow. Well, not any crow. The Crow.


Henry's costume choice made it fairly easy on me. We got a black cape for his wings and pinned the cape to his sleeves for a wing-like action. We covered his rain boots in black duct tape. He wore all black clothes. He was fairly clear about his expectations for a bat costume: cape, black clothes, and black boots. I tried to get him to wear an eye mask but that didn't last too long. He became quite adept at wearing that cape so it billowed with just the right dramatic flair as he walked.