Saying Hello to Second Grade

We watched Obama's back to school speech after dinner last night and halfway through Hayley turned to me and said
"I bet this guy is FAMOUS"

She had a fabulous first day of Second Grade and I hope she is now having a fabulous second day of Second grade.

Saying goodbye to Summer

Saturday was our Back to School Feast with Grandma and Grandpa. We ate burgers and homemade fries and saved room for a Boston cream pie for dessert. We shared our favorite memories of the summer and what we were looking forward to most as the school year starts.

Sunday we had a fire in the fire pit and had a weenie and marshmallow roast. One by one the kids got sleepy and I gave them each a bath and tucked them in. When they were all asleep Andy and I watched the last logs burn and enjoyed a cool September night (I even had to go inside for a jacket).

Today we played outside and met Grandma at the beach for one more afternoon at the beach.

Tomorrow? Watch out Second Grade, Hayley is on her way!

Memories

I wrote this in March 2006 and reading it today made me smile. In fact, anytime I think about Ace's chubby little baby feet I smile. You may not believe this but I remember exactly what they looked like when he was a baby. I can conjure them up in my mind at any moment, he had the chubbiest, pinkest feet with 10 monkey toes. He loved to chew on his feet and loved to push them into my face while he nursed so I would kiss and pretend to eat them. Now Lucy loves to do the same thing. She loves nursing and laughing while I kiss her toes, it is in the top 10 list of her favorite things to do. And, by they way, Lucy does have shoes but has never worn them.

Originally from March 30, 2006:
Ace has no shoes. Poor baby, he lives in South Texas where it is rarely below 70 so he spends 90% of his time barefoot. Sometimes he has socks but he likes to eat them so he takes them off. Shoes confuse him and he walks really funny with them on or else he runs into things because he can't stop staring at the foreign objects on his feet. I shared this with the priest at the church where I teach and he told me that his acupunturist says it is very important to walk directly on the earth to keep our equilibrium correct. So Ace will have extraordinary equilibrium. My baby still needs some shoes.

Last of the Summer Whine

The kids have been fighting a lot this week, the last week of summer vacation. It is understandable, they have been together all day, every day, for almost 3 months now. The house can seem very small, and they all feel like they need a little space now and then.






Everyone is looking forward to school. Ace and Julia will be at the same school but different days and hours. Lucy will have some time without her 3 personal assistants. I think they are all ready for that.

But they will miss each other. They are four very unique little people but we are one big family, and we need each other.

You Go Girl,

....just don't go too fast.

Dreams

Early this morning I had a lovely dream. I was shopping at the local CVS and they had Charmin toilet paper on sale, 99 cents for one of those big packages with 12 double rolls. I filled the cart and triumphantly returned home with trunk full of toilet paper. Then I woke up and realized it was all just a dream. We were still down to our last roll of toilet paper. I was very sad. Then, I was even sadder when I realized that that was the most exciting dream I had all week.
Even earlier this morning I had a nightmare. It was Christmas, which is splendid. Except the problem was, it was suddenly Christmas. We had somehow time-warped 3 months ahead, Lucy was 15 months and we had missed all the fun of Labor day, her first birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, all the things between now and then. I was very happy to wake up and find it to be August 30th.
Late last night I had a funny dream. Ace sleep-walked into my room with very floppy hair and no sense of direction. He stumbled around, ran into the dresser (not too hard, that wouldn't be funny), and finally made his way to my bed where he announced "I'm tired". Oh wait, that one wasn't a dream, that really happened.

Here, for no particular reason, is a very silly picture Ace took of Julia. I'm not sure what she is so happy about but I think she was up to something. That is usually when she has that look on her face, when she is up to some mischief.

And now, for something much less poetic...

I'm preparing for next Sunday's Back To School Feast (idea courtesy of NieNie, Suburban Turmoil, and other fantastic bloggers)

I'm making cards for each of our school-goers and including a little poem in them.

Here they are:

Julia (entering her first year of Preschool:

You are bold and you are clever
And we will love you for ever and ever

You will go to school and see Ms. Maureen
You will do things undone and see sights unseen.
You'll have so much fun, sweet JuJu Bean.

Ace (entering last year of preschool, moving from the 2 day to the 4 day program)

Last year you were three, now you are four
You will go back to the same school, but now even more

You will see old friends like Ellie and Mandy
And make lots of new friends, cause you are as sweet as candy.

Hayley (entering 2nd Grade)

It's time to go back to school, it's already September
I know second grade will be a year to remember

You will make new friends and learn something new every day.
And you will have our love with you, all the way!

Quote of the Day

From Barack Obama's eulogy of Senator Ted Kennedy:

"We cannot know for certain how long we have here. We cannot foresee the trials or misfortunes that will test us along the way. We cannot know God’s plan for us.

What we can do is to live out our lives as best we can with purpose, and love, and joy. We can use each day to show those who are closest to us how much we care about them, and treat others with the kindness and respect that we wish for ourselves. We can learn from our mistakes and grow from our failures. And we can strive at all costs to make a better world, so that someday, if we are blessed with the chance to look back on our time here, we can know that we spent it well; that we made a difference; that our fleeting presence had a lasting impact on the lives of other human beings."

I am woman hear me...curl up in a ball and whimper like a little puppy.

Andy is on his way home today after being out of town for 8 days. After a short "I am an independent woman and I'm doing it for myself" phase, I crumbled and admitted defeat. I even hid from the kids one day. They were driving me up the wall so when I heard them barreling up the stairs after playing happily without me for exactly 3 minutes and 32 seconds, I ran into my room and hid behind the bed. I would have had a moment of peace if Lucy hadn't given me away by saying "Hi! Hi Mama!" and giving away my location. That was a low point, I admit.
It hasn't been all bad. As long as I kept the kids busy, we were all happy. The tour of the fire station was the highlight of the week (perhaps the whole summer) for Ace. Fireman Frank could not have been nicer. He took an hour and a half out of his day to give us a great tour, he answered all of our questions and he gave all the kids helmets and coloring books and crayons. Ace floated out of the fire station on cloud 9. He has not taken his firefighter pants off yet.
Hayley had her last swimming lesson and was very proud to graduate from the Pollywogs with honors.
Julia enjoyed riding Ace's bike around the track at Hayley's school, she is so confident now that I can't keep up with her. At the beginning of the summer she went so slowly that I could stand in one spot for a few minutes before I had to take a step to catch up to her. Now she leaves me in the dust.
Lucy has been kind enough to save her official first steps for when Andy returns, but we've had a lot of close calls. She takes a step or two and then a stumble before she plops down and decides it is faster to crawl. If she weren't always in such a hurry, I bet she would be walking by now.
Honestly, the worst part of the week was trying to keep up with all the things that Andy does around the house that I take for granted. He does a lot of big things, like calm Ace down after he has a nightmare about lobsters, or watch Bill Dance Outdoors with Lucy at 3am when she has teething trouble. But there are also so many small things that I don't even notice. For example, our hot water heater leaks so we have to keep a pickle jar under it to catch the overflow. If we forget to empty it, we end up with a puddle of water on the basement floor. Guess who never remembers to empty it? Yep, I had to mop the floor twice while Andy was gone. I really missed him when I found a dead mole by the back door. You see, my plan of action when I find a dead rodent near my house is to go inside and alert Andy to the situation. This time I had to get out the snow shovel and move the little twerp myself. I stepped on a snake in the process. I'm still shuddering from that experience. So, Andy, come home soon, I kind of like having you around.

Oh what a night

It has been an exciting weekend around here. Lucy turned 11 months, Hayley went to a birthday party where she and Julia went down a huge water slide, Grandpa went home to NC for the start of the school year, a hurricane is nearby. But nothing, NO. THING, compares to our dinner at the 99 last night. It was a night that Ace will talk about for months. An event that, less than 24 hours later, has already been told and retold by Ace at least 30 times.
What could have been so legendary you ask? I have 2 words for you: Fireman. Frank.

We saw him leaving the restaurant just as we were going in. Ace froze in his spot and, I'm 90 percent sure, peed a little.

I know Fireman Frank's wife so they stopped to say hello. She is somewhat aware of Ace's deep obsession *ahem*, I mean admiration, for her husband so she wasn't completely weirded out by our encounter. Then again, maybe she was. Here's how it happened:

Me: "Oh! Mom! Dad! This is him! This is Fireman Frank!"

Ace: (Complete Silence, huge goofy smile and googly eyes at Fireman Frank)

Grandma: Oh! We have heard SO MUCH about you.

Me: "You have no idea! Ace pretends to be you. Every day. All day. All the time. We hear about you all the time. Seriously, all the time. I mean it. All the time."

Ace: (Complete Silence, huge goofy smile and googly eyes at Fireman Frank)

Fireman Frank. "Wow."

It goes on like this for quite some time, my mom describes to F.F how Ace imitates him by lining up all his fireman gear and putting on a presentation, Ace stands there with the same googly-eyed expression, and just nods his head at every word F.F says. Fireman Frank graciously invites us to come by the fire station anytime for a tour with him and we say our goodbyes.

Looking back it is possible we looked like complete wackadoos but I also think Fireman Frank may be accustomed to hero worship from 4 year olds. I have no excuse for my own behavior, maybe they will just assume I'm a heavy drinker.

This Fireman Frank sighting and invitation to the station would be enough to make Ace happy for the entire weekend but the night was not over yet. As we walked into the restaurant, Ace was telling everyone in sight that he had a personal invitation to the fire station. One of the hostesses stopped at our table about 20 minutes later and said that there was a fire rescue truck picking up a to go order outside if we wanted to catch a look, she had mentioned to them that we had a future firefighter at the table. I took Ace outside to see and the firefighter waved him over and let him sit up in the truck. Ace was literally shaking with excitement when we got back to the table.

When I got home and everyone was settled in bed, I called Aunt Katherine. Katherine loves Ace so much and she worries that he has such high hopes that there is no way reality can live up to his expectations. I know she's right, I know there will be days that real life just isn't all he'd hope it would be. But my wish for him is that there will also be plenty of nights like last night. Nights when his hero does show up and life does feel like a dream come true.