Eleven years old today

Greyson at age 2:

Age 4:

Age 6:

Age 8:

Today:

Happy birthday to our preteen, 11 year old boy!

Big day for Reece

In the span of one hour last Thursday, Reece earned the special belt in karate (given to the child who does the best job that week) AND got his first library card. Being six is very exciting around here.

March weather in Cleveland...forget lion or lamb, think schizophrenic

Wednesday afternoon:

Friday morning:

Different day, same old crazy

Last night, I was waiting in Reece's room for him to finish brushing his teeth so I could tuck him in. I heard a huge and fairly drawn out crash from the bathroom and then didn't hear anything else, so I raced in fully expecting to see Reece splayed out on the floor seriously injured. Instead, I found him standing by the toilet trying to look innocent with a shelf and all its contents strewn around and on the toilet (including a million pieces of glass that used to be a bottle of bath bubbles). Apparently, he had been standing on the toilet messing with the blinds on the window, put his hand on the shelf for support, and discovered that the shelf only rests on its holder and isn't, in fact, attached to anything.

The first thing he said to me was (in an annoyed tone), "MOM, why didn't you tell me it wasn't attached?" Because then it would have been fine that he was somewhere he wasn't supposed to be, doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing??

It gets better.

As I was cleaning things up and he was now, finally getting his brush ready, I said to him, "Reece, do you think you've learned a lesson from all of this?"

Complete silence.

"Reece??"

(With much exasperation in his voice) "MOM, I'm still thinking."

A tribute to a man of honor

I've been composing and editing this post in my head all week but am still not sure I've got anything that says what I want to, what I'm feeling. Mostly, I think I'm not even the right person to write this, but since I'm the one with the blog, I guess I'll have to do.

As pretty much anyone who reads this blog knows, Dan's dad passed away last weekend. It wasn't completely unexpected, but it was still a surprise because he'd been doing so much better lately. We've had an intense week since that phone call came in late Saturday night (maybe Sunday morning?). Dan flew down to Florida on the first flight we could get him Sunday morning, my mom drove down on Monday to stay with the kids, I flew out Tuesday morning, and both of us came home Friday evening. Last night we were saying we couldn't believe it had only been a week - it feels partly like a month went by and partly like it never happened. For me, a part of the strangeness is that I was on spring break and ended up in Florida in sunny 80 degree weather, even going to the beach one day. It's hard to enjoy the amenities while grieving, and it's hard to grieve in that kind of climate.

But what I really wanted to do was thank my father-in-law for being the man he was. He was the rock of the family, always steady and reliable and considerate and there. He survived a difficult childhood, World War II, emigration to Canada and then the US, a plethora of odd jobs, and no one ever heard him complain. He looked so much younger than his age that he was able to say he was 10 years younger than he actually was. He never wanted a fuss made about him, but because he was such a good guy, everyone wanted to celebrate that. He and Dan's mom welcomed me into the family and from day one (21 years ago) made me feel like I was one of their children. He showed his children how to be a great parent and spouse, and I am particularly thankful that he showed Dan that there is no such thing as "women's work". 

While I am jealous that Dan and his siblings got so much time with their dad, when I had so little with mine, I am also so glad that they did have that time and that I was able to share in a large chunk of it. It doesn't matter that he was 85 and had a bad heart - we all would have been happy to have had him around for so much longer. Have a good rest, Larry/Dad/Pop Pop. You deserve it.

Too much Sunday school?

Reece brought home the following piece of paper yesterday from school:

My initial reaction was, "Are we comparing our body parts to people who follow Christ, now?" Then I remembered there's a boy in his class named Christian. Heh.

Does it really take that much time to check things out before forwarding them??

I just received one of those forwarded-a-million-times emails about something supposedly horrific (this time an Amber alert) from a friend. It took me all of 20 seconds to find it on snopes.com and determine that it is (shock!) a hoax/urban legend. I know they don't really harm people, although in this case the Missing and Exploited Children hotline gets inundated with calls every time it gets sent out in a new wave of emails, but I'm just so tired of them! We've all been on email long enough to be able to spot these a mile away, or at least to check up on them before forwarding. So, while I used to just reply to the sender with the link to the refutation, now I Reply All. Just my little contribution to making the world a better place.

In other news, the boys still sleep in the same bed sometimes, and invariably we find them zonked in some kind of crazy position. Case in point from a few weeks ago:

Also, last week I turned the corner and saw this:

I fear this blog is just going to fall apart when the crazy leaves that boy in a few years. That or it will change to a police blotter log dedicated to him.

Mother Nature's kicking my...

So, I usually try to stay very far away from posting about the weather. Because really, everyone has it, it's always changing, and it just shouldn't warrant discussion in a semi-permanent place such as a blog unless farm animals flew or something equally amazing.

However.

Last week we had an ice storm, lost power for at least 12 hours, had two gorgeous days of iced-over everything and brilliant sun, then random non-weather, then a foot of snow in 10 hours, a snow day, Dan's car stuck in our driveway TWICE (Greyson and me alternating pushing and shoveling), and then a thunderstorm Sunday night that kept me up for an extra hour or so. So now I'm cold, wet, tired, and sore in muscles I forgot even existed. I'm just saying, could we have maybe a short break in between? I have to schedule a week-long massage to recover.

The pictures, as always, do not do it justice:

Skiing ups and downs, so to speak

The kids had their first ski lesson last Saturday, on my birthday. I was amazed at how quickly they picked things up - my memories of my own lessons are extremely sketchy, although I think I spent at least one entire season on the bunny hill. Reece, in particular, had no fear and what appears to be a bit of talent (although it could be just because he's closer to the ground than anyone else, so his low center of gravity helps). Greyson took a bit longer to warm up to everything, and there was much whining along the way from his corner. He did, however, get the guts up to try the next hill over, which involved a rope pull rather than a J-bar to get up the hill, and it turns out was actually an expert hill (not obvious from the base, believe it or not). I ended up having to go up to help him get down, but he gets props for even trying.

 Notice the sullen one on the right.

  

I was surprised at how much I remembered, especially since the last time I skied was 12 years and two kids ago. I'm so thankful that my mom had us take skiing lessons and schlepped us back and forth to the slopes even though she didn't ski, because not only am I comfortable and confident on skis (and I LOVE the new shorter skis), but I watched other adults learning how and was so glad not to be in their shoes (or boots, if you will). Dan was supposed to take snowboard lessons but had a minor foot injury so didn't chance it. Which was good, because then he could monitor the boys while I got to hit the "big" slopes.

If you look at these three pictures quickly, in order, it seems like Reece is coming right at you!

This week we went back for lesson #2, and I wish we'd taken pictures of the hills, because it was such a dramatic change from last week! Fewer than half the runs were open this week, with large patches of grass all over, and the "snow" was so icy that it was not as much fun (at least for me) to ski. The kids did well, though, and this time Greyson had lots of confidence and pretty much taught himself to do turns, while Reece began the whining halfway through the afternoon and had to leave the hill with Dan before the rest of us were ready to go.

So to recap, last week Greyson was whiny and Reece was happy. This week, Reece was whiny and Greyson was happy. If we go again, either everyone will be happy or I'm leaving the country - alone.

February and cold, with a side of chocolate

Usually I like February. Short month, my birthday is in it, the chocolate-to-person ratio is very favorable, and it's closer to the first day of spring than to the first day of winter. However, something has changed a bit this year, and I am now officially tired of the cold. Don't mind the snow (in fact, it's quite pretty), but this perpetual shivering is getting on my nerves. I just need one or two days of 50+ degrees, and then it can go back to the icy chill. Is that too much to ask? I know, I know, I CHOSE to move here from parts south. And I'm really trying not to complain, because life here is 95% awesome. It's just that other 5%, which is at this moment frozen under a sheet of ice and a foot of snow in the back yard, that I'm not happy with.

Mostly same old, same old around here. Reece's birthday seems to be lasting indefinitely, as we celebrated it with my brother's family this week but weren't able to do the laser tag we'd planned on because Reece was a bit under the weather, so that still has to take place. He's been averaging a present every 4-5 days since his birthday, although I think those are finally done. Reece did say to me on Friday, kind of dejectedly, "I wish more boxes would come for me in the mail."

Greyson's hairstyle looks more and more like Justin Bieber's on a bad day, and on Saturday I grabbed the entire front that was hanging in his eyes and told him I had something that could help. He liked it so much, he asked me to continue with as much of the rest of his hair as I could. And then he complained that it itched and took them all out. Dan took the picture as blackmail for sometime in the future:

In other news, I remembered LAST NIGHT that Reece's 100th day project was due this morning. Which we hadn't even started. At least I had gotten the supplies. So I spent an hour of the time I should have been prepping for my class to do Reece's homework. He did do half the taping, so at least I can say we worked on it together. And then I turned it in this morning, because Reece stayed home sick (with Dan), and I found out the 100th day has been delayed one day due to the snowday the kids had last week. So I didn't even have to finish it last night. Gah.

(Those are 100 q-tips, in case you couldn't tell.)