Ahem...

Sad to say, sometimes my children have to fight for my attention. I've found myself incredibly busy lately. So through the eye of the camera, this little munchkin brought life back into focus for me.

He just inserted himself and popped up while I was trying to finish projects and post pictures to the shop. Sweet man.

So, here I'd like to announce Summer 2011's Resolution: Stay Focused!

If you'd like to see the yoga tote bag that is out of focus in this picture... visit my sewing blog.

Not True

My husband let slip a little discontent yesterday, as he busied himself by loading our golf clubs in the car. He plainly complained, "I hate facebook. I think you put all our kid updates there instead of the blog." As my husband is one of the only people I know who is not on facebook (a wise man) he is unaware of the kinds of updates I post on facebook.

For his benefit, and to make a case, the past five updates are listed here:

~had a great time at Blackstone today... might need to make that our golf home.

~cried when the kindergarten teacher read Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the Last Day of Kindergarten.

~Lionel Messi, on the list.

~I bet you wish you were going with 100 kindergartners to the zoo. Did I mention torrential rain?

~grateful for the health of my family, humbled by the struggle in the path of friends.

Clearly drivel and holding not much more substance than the 100 or so characters each post amounted to. So the next question might be, where have the regular blog updates gone? I'll tell ya.

I have increased my volunteer hours at the elementary school by at least an hour a week, and in fact was there from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Thursday.

(Cooper's first oral report, ever! Notice his sweet teacher trying to keep a straight face.)

It's golf season, and while my post-surgical return has been slow and disappointing I am golfing. In fact, I can attribute at least 10 hours to golf this past week. Naturally I'm planning on about that many next week, and the week after, and the week after...

(The boys at Hudson Gardens.)

The kids have gymnastics, tennis, swim lessons, and karate. They have fun, I drive. Enough said.

(Cooper at his first swim meet, wearing jammers in the smallest possible size.)

Swim team. What was I thinking?!?!?!!? Swim practice is suggested every day. This means I'm sitting at a practice, driving to a practice, or driving home from a practice about 10 hours a week. This says nothing of the hours I'm putting into washing swimsuits and towels, and packing swim bags and lunches.

I've also tried to open my eyes to the friends and family around me in need this month. I have had multiple friends undergo major surgical procedures. Two friends have happy, healthy babies. And I know and love three families who are facing major medical burdens. I haven't been a big help to them all... but I have cooked a lot of extra meals, covered for them when they needed it, driven their kids around, and spent a lovely afternoon photographing one special family and their son.

Finally, I have agreed to run in a Ragnar with my brothers. Because I want to be a force for that team, I'm adding some running time to my current workout schedule. (By being a force I mean I just don't want those buggers to make fun of me.)

(caught updating my facebook when i'm supposed to be playing with the kids,oooops)

I might be maxed out. It might be the reason I momentarily lost my oldest a few weekends ago. It might also be why there is a mysterious smell in my closet. And it most assuredly is why we have eaten pizza more than once a week for about a month.

So, sweet husband, we're not leaving you out. I'm just not getting to sit still in front of a computer more than an hour a week. Also, school is almost out. Which does mean it will get worse before it gets better, but it will get better.

Surely You're Joking

If you were a fly trapped in my car, you might hear something like this...


Mason: What did the green house say to the yellow house?

Me: What?

Mason: No. Say, I don't know if you don't know.

Me: I don't know.

Mason: They didn't say anything, they were not the same house. Anyways, how did the red light talk to the yellow light?

Me: How?

Mason: Mom, say, I don't know, because this is a joke.

Me: Oh right. Did the lights say, let's make orange?

Mason: Yes! You got it right, actually. Why didn't the green light say hello to the stop sign?

Me: Because they are not the same.

Mason: No! Because they are on different streets. But listen: What did the pink flower say to the yellow flower?

Me: I just don't know.

Mason: They don't talk, they are flowers. But also what did the stop sign say to the other stop sign?

Me: Are you a circle?

Mason: Yes! But he was a triangle, and that's just crazy. Why didn't the red light say hello to the green light.

Me: I don't know.

Mason: Because they weren't the same color.

Me: Didn't you just do that one?

Mason: Of course not. Why didn't the green light say help to the house? I mean why couldn't the green light say hello to the red light?

Me: I don't know.

Mason: Because the green light was just a little too high.

Me: That's a good one.

Mason: How about three more, mommy.

Me: Just three? OK

Mason: Why didn't the sun say hello to the light?

Me: Because the sun is light?

Mason: It is?

Me: Why not?

Mason: I don't know. Mommy, I really want to play angry birds, please. What's taking so long? Did you know drops can also make a big waste? Mom, did you know that grrrrrrrrrr is like 3 miles away?

Me: What do you mean?

Mason: When Cooper like counts to like 5, then it is 5 miles away.

Me: Like in a thunderstorm? Who told you that?

Mason: Dad, I think. Why did the guitar climb the steps?

Me: To hit the high notes?

Mason: No! Of course to get to heaven.

* Humor note: you may have found this terribly boring and not funny. Just imagine being 4 and listening to grown-ups.

That's Hot

We've had both snow this week as well as temps in the 70s. On our way to the golf course we passed a family walking on the side of the road and the two young girls were dressed head to toe in fleece. It's been cold enough that I can understand why a parent would make this clothing choice. But it was hot enough at that very moment that I instantly got sweaty on behalf of those little gals and said, "Whew they've got to be hot!"

Coop piped up from the backseat, "Wait, what kind of hot?"

And I, in shock, demanded, "Wait, what kinds of hot do you know about?"

Mason said, "Steaming hot."

I tried to lead the conversation to safe topics with, "And spicy hot."

Then I glanced in the rearview mirror in time to catch Cooper's mischievous grin and he slyly said, "And kissy hot."

O. M. G.

Bunny Vision

I have concluded that I am ready to take bunny abatement to the next level this year. I'm spitting mad over the havoc they have wreaked in the garden. The only thing that has kept me from doing something more permanent in the past has been these two little critters.

I feel really bad about crossing over to the bunny-killer side of the fence. I didn't want my kids to see dead bunnies. But the rabbit colony is producing so many little ones they get trapped in our window wells and die of starvation or heart attacks, or injuries from the fall every year.

Now, where is the local IFA?

Current Events

In his never-ending pursuit of bragging rights in the LEGO club magazine, Cooper is taking to reconstructing the latest headlines and current events in LEGOs. This week's installment is the meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. More specifically, the guy in yellow is spraying containment resin on the ground around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.


I will be his editor and will draw the line at (or rather well before) the destruction of Osama bin Laden's compound. I'm thinking Kentucky Derby news sounds about right for the next one. Or maybe a recreation of The Greenest Colleges in America. What's your vote?

Happy Mother's Day

May your day be filled with dandelions collected by 4-year-olds.

Photobooth Friday: Lost and Found

1 Stick + 1 Rock = 1 happy happy happy BOY, III

Apparently there are families that are all organized and stuff. And they do cool things like take pictures of their children at regular intervals in front of the same landmark so as to see how much the child has changed and grown.

I am not organized.

I don't do cool stuff. Except sometimes by accident.

My in-laws have a clutch of perfectly gnarled scrub oak in their front yard. And my boys are drawn to that scrub oak like moths to flame. (I haven't actually ever seen a moth fly toward a flame, but whatev.)

Anyway, what I'm telling you is that I have pictures of my boys in relatively the same place at regularly spaced intervals and I've noticed they are growing and changing. Man, it works! Those organized people are onto something.

Scrub Oaks in review:

The first time (Cooper, 2 years and 7 months)
The second time (Mason, 2 years and 8 months)

The third time (6 going on 16)



Stay tuned!