Headlights in the Fog

November Goings-on

The days are flying by. It always feels like everything starts to speed up in a race towards Christmas. Last week, Jack's first grade class put on a Thanksgiving show. Jack was listed in the program as 'Pilgrim #4.' The way the show was set up, each kid got to say a line into the microphone. It was a little hard to follow the plot line because of this... there was much mumbling and many fast talkers. Luckily, I am familiar with the story of Thanksgiving. A week or two before the play, Jack came home and told me, "Did you know that if I was a boy in the times of the pilgrims that I would have to WORK ALL DAY LONG and have NO TIME FOR PLAYING?" I found that amusing.

Here is Jack on stage:

 

The other night I was lying in bed with Kitty as she was calming down to go to sleep. She was talking up a storm and asking me questions and singing and more questions and then some profound thoughts and then more singing. I finally said, "Kitty, it is time for settling down and going to sleep." She responded, "I would if you weren't talking so much!" I just had to smile and let that thought become a balloon over my head so I would remember to tell Thom about it.

Costume-a-rama

Halloween has come and gone and I am left wondering what on earth is going to be my next project in the studio. I had such an awesome time making Jack and Kitty's costumes this year... I've been describing the feeling as 'creative goofing off.'  I learned how to sew heavyweight silver material (hint: a leather needle and a long stitch length), I paper mached a helmet, I learned how to make silver boot spats. I found out much joy can be brought to a girl by making her a fancy goody bag (below.)

 

The day before Halloween Jack's school had a parade. It is such a blast seeing the kids in their costumes... especially seeing the really well made homemade ones... this year my favorites were R2-D2 made out of an IKEA clothes hamper and white duct tape and a transformer that actually transformed. Standing up, the kid looked like an odd jumble of yellow shapes attached to a black jumpsuit, when he leaned over, the shapes fell together to form a yellow school bus... I've never seen anything like it. It was awe-inspiring. Below is a picture of Jack in the parade with his class:

 

We had the good fortune of having my mother-in-law, Gretchen, here to celebrate with us. An unexpected blessing was a visit by my friend Alison and her sister Cheryl. They were visiting friends nearby and figured out it would only take 10 minutes to get to our house. The kids really enjoyed seeing them as Alison and Cheryl oozed enthusiasm and wonderful comments about the costumes making Jack and Kitty feel very special. While Alison and Cheryl were here, I saw for a brief moment how our home must seem to them: filled with love and laughter, color and creativity.  I've been working in therapy to reframe the way I see my house... rather than seeing it as dirty and messy, thinking of it as a place people love to be because of it's awesome energy and aura. Below is a picture of our kitchen table taken on Saturday... it illustrates the energy I am talking about.

Last night Thom and I went out for dinner to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary, which is on Tuesday, 11/3. 8 years! I love that man... I loved him soon after I first met him and have loved him ever since. It is wonderful to see how our love grows and changes over time. Being parents together is something we had no idea about before we were parents... but now I know my man as the amazing father he is, the amazing provider, the quietly strong support system that keeps me going. I love him! I do! I do!

One last picture: Kitty and our neighbor Patrick... such a cute picture:

One last note: for those of you who were part of my 1999 allergy drug induced oddessy... it has been 10 years since that happened... 10 years!

Halloween is on its way

There has been a bit of a gap in blog entries as of late... sorry for that... it isn't due to lack of things to share!

I've been having a great deal of fun working on Jack's Halloween outfit. At first he wanted to be a Clone Trooper and buy the costume at Target: "Mom, home made costumes look weird." Fine, I was resigned to that. Fortunately, my mother-in-law came to visit. She had just been on a cruise to Great Britian and had gotten gifts for the kids. She bought Jack these super cool pajamas that look like chain mail and a tunic. The ones she gave to Jack are of a Knight of St George. I'm not sure if he decided right away, but soon he decided to wear the pajamas as his costume. He okayed me making a red cape with a shield with a cross stitched on the back. Next he approved me making him a chain mail hood out of silver leathery looking fabric. Next, while talking about how was Jack going to carry his helmet and a sheild at the same time, Thom came up with the great idea that the shield could be the goody bag and be worn over an arm or shoulder. Below is the outcome of that idea:

I'm now working on Jack's helmet... as is evidenced in the masking tape and cardboard concoction in the top photo. I'm just at the point of applying paper mache to it... which is good, seeing as Jack's school costume parade is this Friday. I've got to do a few layers of paper mache and then paint it silver.

Luckily, Kitty's costume needs have been low key. After I made Jack a cape, she said she wanted a cape... so I made her one out of pink lame. She is going to be a princess... we have 4 or 5 dresses lying around the for her to choose from.

Everyday when I pick Jack up from school his first words to me are, "Can we see Julien and Louis today?" I then remind him he should say, "Hello Mom!" before asking me questions. Having my friend Renee and her family (Julien, Louis, Annabelle, Gabriel and Pierre(the dad)) is an enormous blessing in our lives. Our kids play together at least 4 times a week... and they never tire of each other. Below is Louis, Jack and Julien watching Star Wars together (note that Jack is holding his stuffed rabbit Mary.)

Checking In

Last weekend we went to visit Karen and Ed in their new house in Maryland. They have a river they can walk to and the kids had a great time exploring and playing. Their Uncle Ed has a hidden talent as a stone skipper. I caught the below picture of him in action:

 

That is Olympic form!

Things around here have been routine... and that is a good thing. Volunteering in Jack and Kitty's classes as well as being a running part of Jack's school Art Club has been keeping me busy. Any free time I get I spend in the studio. Listening to podcasts and sewing. My latest projects have been Jack and Kitty's Halloween Costumes. Lots of Cape making involved.

School Trips

This was the week of two school trips: Jack's class went to a local bakery and Kitty's class went to one of my favorite places, The Lower Merion Conservancy. I was a chaperon on both trips. Jack's was quite fun: we rode on a school bus to the bakery which is 20 minutes away. Once there, the parents (there were 12 of us) were told to drink coffee and eat bread samples while the kids were toured through the bakery. At the end, each child was given a loaf of bread to take home with them. We then had lunch in a local park where the kids got to run free before going back to school. A great trip, if I say so myself.

Kitty's trip was also fun. I drove the four girls pictured above to the Conservancy which is located in Gladwyne. Again, the parents were dismissed for the duration of the learning segment which was all outside on an amazingly beautiful day. The 4 other mother drivers and I hiked through the woods on well-worn trails. The park also allows dogs... so I got to see many different breeds of dogs. Kitty loved the experience. Upon asking her what she remembered she said, "Seeing poison ivy. Do not touch it! It will make you hurt!"

 

Above Kitty continues to charm the cats... this time Solomon.

New Pictures

 

These pictures were taken by Kitty's preschool teacher, Miss Kate.

Welcome Home Alex!

My nephew Alex arrives home today from a tour in Iraq. To say that I am proud of him would be a vast understatement. Even though I am proud of his service, I have to say I am happy he is home.

I started volunteering in Jack's school weekly Art Club. The first week was a flag painting inspired by the work of Jasper Johns. I thought Jack and Kitty's flags were a wonderful addition to our front door in anticipation of Alex's arrival home.

In other news, I finished Kitty's birthday wall hanging of three of her loveys. Below is the finished project:

Whew! It was a lot of work. She loves it. She has a new lovey she'd like a picture made of... I told her I needed some time off from lovey portraits to do some other projects.

Fun Fair

Yesterday we attended the yearly Fun Fair put on by Jack's school. It had been postponed three times due to weather. Luckily, yesterday was a beautiful day... simply amazing. The fair has a very 'let's-put-on-a-show' feel to it... homemade carny games, homemade treats, pizza bought at our local pizzeria. It was lovely. Except for the overly loud music blaring out of huge loudspeakers and the fact that all of the kids seem to need to yell at the top of their lungs to communicate with each other. They had a blow-up moon bounce and slide. Kitty was at first apprehensive about going on the slide, so we enlisted Jack to go with her. Well, all it took was one go and then Kitty wanted to go on it again and again and again. It took a few tries, but I finally got the above picture of her mid-slide. Isn't she just exuding joy?  Towards the end of our time there, Jack said, "MOM! I JUST LOST A TOOTH!" He handed me the tooth and then gave me a grin... it was startling and very bloody... he looked like he had just lost a fight. Below is a picture of the new arrangement of his teeth:

Today we are off to swim lessons and are pondering putting a wall in the base of our grass in the front yard. Everytime it rains a huge mud pit forms on part of our sidewalk and Kitty and I have both slipped and fallen down as a result of it. We've talked about putting a wall in for years. Having an actual safety related reason to do it does make one motivated.

It may seem from my photos on the blog that Isaac only hangs out with Kitty, but the below picture is evidence to the contrary.

Keep on Keeping on

In rather startling news, Lulu has started letting Kitty pet her. Kitty has been around for 4+ years now and I don't think once in all of that time did Lulu let her withing a radius of 10 feet from her body. Seriously. This is yet another indicator that Valium is agreeing with Lulu.

Kitty started school last week and has been LOVING it. Her enthusiasm for school takes me by surprise because I'm so used to the way Jack reacts to school. He sees it as an inconvience to his lego playing schedule. He always was hesitant in each of his classes... this year (knock on wood) seems to be the first in which he'll walk in to school and forget to say goodbye to me. I'm not offended, I'm glad he is feeling so much at ease with the whole situation. Last year at this time he was crying and asking me not to go while clinging to me when I dropped him off. One day I walked him in to his classroom and his teacher had to literally pry him off of me and hold him back so I could leave. Luckily, that behavior only lasted for a week. I think two reasons why Jack is like school so much are recess and lunch. He has both of those with his best friend Louis. Jack told us recently that he was tested for reading level and that he was a 'Level 9.' We asked him what this meant and he had no idea. I know he is reading well, so I assume that 'Level 9' is a good thing, but with nothing to base it one... who knows?

Kitty really just adores school. One of her close friends for going on 3 years now, Keeley, is in her class. Every morning it is a joyous reunion between the two of them. This morning they hugged each other so hard that another parent said, "Wooo! Boy, are they glad to see each other!" Recently Kitty was class leader for morning meeting. She was allowed to pick a co-leader and she chose Keeley. Miss Kate, Kitty's head teacher, has been raving to me about how amazing Kitty is. One day when she was putting Kitty in the car at pick-up she said, "Kitty is a born teacher!" I liked the sound of that but didn't really know what that meant until Kitty told me a few hours later that she was teaching Keeley how to write the letter 'K.'

At night time, Thom feeds the cats their super-yummy wet food. It is also the time that he slips Lulu's valium and blood pressure medication in to food. The cats really enjoy getting their food and readily congregate in the kitchen after the kids go to bed and Thom comes downstairs. Thom has been trying to get a decent picture of all three cats together... problem is, when Thom gets down to their level on the floor with the camera, they all start walking toward him. Every shot we have of all three together is an action shot. I also have to say that Isaac has really brought our tribe of cats together... no, wait a minute... maybe it's the wet food that brings them all together! No, Isaac is part of it as well. Today Solomon was giving Isaac a bath. Made me remember Gus giving Lulu a bath. At her first vet visit the Vet said, "I have never seen a cleaner or well groomed kitten!" That was all Gus's doing.

Everything (eventually) comes up roses

Kitty starts school tomorrow. She's been going with me to various appointments: yesterday she watched me get my haircut, today she went with me to the chiropractor where she picked out a pair of funny glasses from the bin of toys they give to kids. It's been nice having it be just the two of us, but I am looking forward to some time by myself.

I took Jack to the Dr on Monday as he had a bad cough that had gone on for a few days and didn't seem to be getting better. It was so bad one night that he threw up from a particularly violent coughing fit. The Dr spent some time listening to his lungs and then pronounced that Jack had Walking Pneumonia.

I fought back the tears because it sounded serious and I was wishing I had gotten him to the Dr sooner. The Dr said that we caught it super early, that only one lung was effected, and that he'd be feeling like himself again after 2 days on the medication. The medication includes a rather strong antibiotic and a medication inhaled through a nebulizer. Luckily, the nebulizer is not scary and actually looks a little science fiction-y. This was a plus in Jack's opinion of the whole thing. A day later, he was starting to feel better. I think he's struggling a bit, though, because he missed so much school the first week and doesen't feel like he belongs quite yet in his new first grade classroom. He also has had to take it easy with physical activities like running. One of his best friends happens to have recess at the same time Jack does and he has been helping Jack come up with things to play while sitting on the bench. What an awesome friend! 

Sunday we traveled down to MD to visit with Thom's best friend, Nathan, his wife Cia, their family and also another friend of Thom's from high school: Jimmy. It was so much fun! I laughed and laughed and laughed. The kids really enjoyed each other. Jack did get tired after running... this was before we had the diagnosis, so it makes sense to me now why he became slug-like and not wanting to do anything but go home. Meanwhile, Kitty was being treated like a queen by Nathan and Cia's three girls: Hannah, Peri and Tyche.

 

Hannah read to everyone for quite a long time. Kitty was so amazed that Hannah let her pick out the books to read! She mentioned this quite a few times after we left on Sunday and then in to Monday. All in all, it was a wonderful get together.

I've had 3 sessions with my new swimming group. I am loving it even though I feel a little self-concious to obviously be the slowest swimmer. Today we spent some time having a 'stroke clinic.' In it you go over particular strokes and how to do them better, how to improve your technique. Today's stroke was freestyle/crawl.' The coach would talk about a particular part of the stroke and then have everyone swim a lap concentrating on it. He went over about 10 things having to do with freestyle. I really had a hard time keeping it all in my head and trying to remember what my elbow, arm, hand, head and legs were supposed to be doing. Everytime we would swim, I would be the last one to complete the lap. As I would swim up to the wall, I'd see 15 or so paris of legs just standing, waiting for me to be done so we could go over the next thing.  The day I started the coach told me to not be hard on myself and take my time and I keep saying that to myself as a mantra when I start to feel self-concious. I'm fine with my progress, it's just swimming with 15 other people with rippling muscles that makes me a little queasy.