Morgan to Josh: shoes?
Josh: why do you want shoes?
Morgan: car!
Josh: where do you want to go?
Morgan: Gramma and Grampa's!
When Jocelyn outgrew her newborn clothes, I packed most of them up and put them aside for the next girl. Patience was the next girl and so they went back to Mandy's house (where many had come from in the first place). But there were some I just couldn't bare to part with. There were some that I could still see her in, her fuzzy little blonde head swimming in a sea of pink fluff. Those ones I packed back into a plastic bin and put way into the back of the basement.
This weekend we finished cleaning out the basement (we're a bit behind on returning the dumpster), and I found that bin in the back of the basement. I brought all the pink fluff upstairs and washed them, figuring I would donate them. But as I pulled each item out of the dryer, I saw her little pink head again, and pictured snuggling her in those fluffy outfits, and I just couldn't stand to let them go.
So we dragged out every doll and teddy bear we could find and dressed them up in pink frilly outfits. I helped Jocelyn cuddle each one and take deeeeep breaths in and pat their butts.
Josh asked me if it made me want another baby. No, no more babies. I just want the ones I already have to be babies again, just for a moment. I want to wrap them in towels after a bath and power their butts and dress them in warm footsie pajamas and hold them close on the couch while they fall asleep.
Just for a moment.
WE ARE SPECIAL, WE ARE WEIRD, BUT WE ARE NOT ALONE
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Sunday, October 9, 2011
October 9, 2011
Hey guys - ping ping! It's time to hear from everyone again!
It's difficult to give a speech to a silent audience, and the same goes for these emails. I so appreciate those of you who write back from time to time and tell me which stories struck a cord with you, or what's going on with you, or even just "hi". But MANY of you do not. I even forget sometimes how many people I sent these emails to, when there are so few responses! I remember a time when we all wrote weekly and all had plenty of stories to read, but that was many a moon ago...
On the subject of many a moon ago, this weekend was the second dumpster weekend! We cleaned out the closets in the front hall (one is a walk-in that I could no longer walk-in to!). Amongst the lost treasures of the front hall was a camcorder and stack of tapes, circa 1997-2001. And so we watched some movies of me looking very fat (Jesse: "Don't worry mommy, you still look beautiful, but you have a big belly"), and of Timothy having a much different head to body ratio than he does now.
I was strikingly large. I realize in much of the video I was either pregnant or up to several months post-giving-birth. But still, I was strikingly large. On the one hand it was hard to look at myself, but on the other I felt good that I don't look like that any more. And the eyebrows - yikes.
So anyway, if I haven't heard from you in the last 3 months, it's time to write back - or write a group email of your own! That would qualify as well :)
Rhonda
It's difficult to give a speech to a silent audience, and the same goes for these emails. I so appreciate those of you who write back from time to time and tell me which stories struck a cord with you, or what's going on with you, or even just "hi". But MANY of you do not. I even forget sometimes how many people I sent these emails to, when there are so few responses! I remember a time when we all wrote weekly and all had plenty of stories to read, but that was many a moon ago...
On the subject of many a moon ago, this weekend was the second dumpster weekend! We cleaned out the closets in the front hall (one is a walk-in that I could no longer walk-in to!). Amongst the lost treasures of the front hall was a camcorder and stack of tapes, circa 1997-2001. And so we watched some movies of me looking very fat (Jesse: "Don't worry mommy, you still look beautiful, but you have a big belly"), and of Timothy having a much different head to body ratio than he does now.
I was strikingly large. I realize in much of the video I was either pregnant or up to several months post-giving-birth. But still, I was strikingly large. On the one hand it was hard to look at myself, but on the other I felt good that I don't look like that any more. And the eyebrows - yikes.
So anyway, if I haven't heard from you in the last 3 months, it's time to write back - or write a group email of your own! That would qualify as well :)
Rhonda
Sunday, October 2, 2011
October 2, 2011
Well today was another first. We had Timothy's girlfriend over for the afternoon, which gave us the awkward responsibility of making sure someone else's daughter didn't get overly groped on our watch. We decided that Jocelyn and Jesse were up for the task.
We let Timothy and his lady friend watch a movie in the game room (no door on the game room) while Josh and I watched How To Train Your Dragon (which was adorable) with the other kids in the living room. Every 5 or 10 minutes I'd send one of the kids in with a message - "go tell Timothy I'm going to brush Jocelyn's hair", "did you tell Timothy's friend that you're in the first grade?", etc. Pretty effective, they looked forward to the message giving and then came back and reported location and clothing status of Timothy and his friend. They were feeling quite important, and Timothy didn't yell at them even once (I assume because he didn't want to look like a jerk in front of his friend).
A bit after the movie I noted that Jocelyn and Jesse were in the play room so I managed to mosey by and saw there were 2 heads and a blanket on the couch in the game room. Hmmm, that was no good. So I found Jesse - "Did you show Timothy's friend your cartwheel?"
There, that took care of it.
So I think we managed a mostly grope-free house for over 3 hours - phew! What a stressful afternoon! Ah but it's always about creative problem solving isn't it - the kids acted the way the kids act usually and I didn't have to be creepy mom. Win win!
Otherwise not too much news around here. We have a dumpster this weekend and next so have tried to work on filling it in between rain showers.
Jesse started staying an extra hour at school this week for a lunch bunch. He was inviting to stay and do activities and have lunch with a few kindergarteners. We didn't realize he was the ONLY one invited to stay. Just so happens that one of the kindergarteners is his BEST friend from last year and so he's just having about the greatest time in the world.
On the first day, Jesse was VERY excited to tell me about his day. After covering, in detail, what was actually in his lunch box and what order he ate it in, we finally got to the conversation that occurred at the lunch. It went something like this:
me: what did you talk about
Jesse: oh, you know, like what we did on our weekends
me: did you tell them about your new bed (my mom came down and we built him bunk beds from a kit, which turned out awesome - stairs instead of a ladder!)
Jesse: yeah
me: dd they talk about their beds too?
Jesse: no
me: so what else did you talk about?
Jesse: FACE PAINTS! And EVERYONE had had face paints some time!
Then there was a long description of the face paint conversation.
I also asked him what teachers were there and he said Miss Suzette and someone else that he didn't know. He said she asked his name.
me: did you ask her name?
Jesse: no
me: why not?
Jesse: I don't talk to adults I don't know.
me: but if you asked her name, then you'd know her.
Jesse: but I don't talk to adults I don't know, so I can't ask her.
We went in circles for a while from there. I think Jesse is even worse than Jocelyn at remembering names! Even Josh knows the kids names now and still has to prompt Jesse. I'll have to google if that's a specific part of the brain or something. Neither will make good salespeople! haha
On the subject of lunch, I was checking the kids cafeteria purchases and noticed that Timothy was averages 3 cookies and an ice cream every day and that Morgan was getting 2 cookies a day. I asked Timothy WTF and learned that he was buying dessert for the whole lunch table. I'm just so glad that he's so generous when it's not his money!
Then I emailed Morgan's teacher and asked if we could just go with one cookie a day. Turns out that each day the morning para and afternoon para switched at lunchtime, so he would ask to go to the snack line with one and then wait for the other to arrive and go again. Morgan is one heck of a problem solver when it comes to food! So they are going to start getting the update from each other now when they switch.
I went in to Morgan's school on Friday to see the place and meet with his teacher. I got to see the fitness room and meet his "favorite" teacher (the computer room teacher!) and then we went upstairs to see his room and chat about his IEP. On our way up the stairs school was letting out and hundreds of kids were coming down while we were going up. We were walking up the left side, which I thought was strange. Miss Leah was pointing to her right and yelling to the hundreds of kids descending upon us "right side! right side! on the right!" When we got to the top of the stairs and were alone, I turned to Miss Leah and said, "You know that's their left, right?"
Well I guess that's the update from here! Hope everyone had a great weekend,
Rhonda
We let Timothy and his lady friend watch a movie in the game room (no door on the game room) while Josh and I watched How To Train Your Dragon (which was adorable) with the other kids in the living room. Every 5 or 10 minutes I'd send one of the kids in with a message - "go tell Timothy I'm going to brush Jocelyn's hair", "did you tell Timothy's friend that you're in the first grade?", etc. Pretty effective, they looked forward to the message giving and then came back and reported location and clothing status of Timothy and his friend. They were feeling quite important, and Timothy didn't yell at them even once (I assume because he didn't want to look like a jerk in front of his friend).
A bit after the movie I noted that Jocelyn and Jesse were in the play room so I managed to mosey by and saw there were 2 heads and a blanket on the couch in the game room. Hmmm, that was no good. So I found Jesse - "Did you show Timothy's friend your cartwheel?"
There, that took care of it.
So I think we managed a mostly grope-free house for over 3 hours - phew! What a stressful afternoon! Ah but it's always about creative problem solving isn't it - the kids acted the way the kids act usually and I didn't have to be creepy mom. Win win!
Otherwise not too much news around here. We have a dumpster this weekend and next so have tried to work on filling it in between rain showers.
Jesse started staying an extra hour at school this week for a lunch bunch. He was inviting to stay and do activities and have lunch with a few kindergarteners. We didn't realize he was the ONLY one invited to stay. Just so happens that one of the kindergarteners is his BEST friend from last year and so he's just having about the greatest time in the world.
On the first day, Jesse was VERY excited to tell me about his day. After covering, in detail, what was actually in his lunch box and what order he ate it in, we finally got to the conversation that occurred at the lunch. It went something like this:
me: what did you talk about
Jesse: oh, you know, like what we did on our weekends
me: did you tell them about your new bed (my mom came down and we built him bunk beds from a kit, which turned out awesome - stairs instead of a ladder!)
Jesse: yeah
me: dd they talk about their beds too?
Jesse: no
me: so what else did you talk about?
Jesse: FACE PAINTS! And EVERYONE had had face paints some time!
Then there was a long description of the face paint conversation.
I also asked him what teachers were there and he said Miss Suzette and someone else that he didn't know. He said she asked his name.
me: did you ask her name?
Jesse: no
me: why not?
Jesse: I don't talk to adults I don't know.
me: but if you asked her name, then you'd know her.
Jesse: but I don't talk to adults I don't know, so I can't ask her.
We went in circles for a while from there. I think Jesse is even worse than Jocelyn at remembering names! Even Josh knows the kids names now and still has to prompt Jesse. I'll have to google if that's a specific part of the brain or something. Neither will make good salespeople! haha
On the subject of lunch, I was checking the kids cafeteria purchases and noticed that Timothy was averages 3 cookies and an ice cream every day and that Morgan was getting 2 cookies a day. I asked Timothy WTF and learned that he was buying dessert for the whole lunch table. I'm just so glad that he's so generous when it's not his money!
Then I emailed Morgan's teacher and asked if we could just go with one cookie a day. Turns out that each day the morning para and afternoon para switched at lunchtime, so he would ask to go to the snack line with one and then wait for the other to arrive and go again. Morgan is one heck of a problem solver when it comes to food! So they are going to start getting the update from each other now when they switch.
I went in to Morgan's school on Friday to see the place and meet with his teacher. I got to see the fitness room and meet his "favorite" teacher (the computer room teacher!) and then we went upstairs to see his room and chat about his IEP. On our way up the stairs school was letting out and hundreds of kids were coming down while we were going up. We were walking up the left side, which I thought was strange. Miss Leah was pointing to her right and yelling to the hundreds of kids descending upon us "right side! right side! on the right!" When we got to the top of the stairs and were alone, I turned to Miss Leah and said, "You know that's their left, right?"
Well I guess that's the update from here! Hope everyone had a great weekend,
Rhonda
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