making no cents

this sunday, liam received a twenty dollar bill from my parents in a card as a present for his first communion.  his eyes grew wide; i honestly don't know that he's ever received that much cash at one time before.  knowing how his brain works, i bet he was calculating how long it would take him to earn that much with his allowance, and arriving at the conclusion that this, for sure, was a windfall.  i told him that since it was a gift, he was free to spend it however he saw fit -- but that he needed to really think about his priorities and what would be a smart purchase.

so on monday, right before he and i went to play tennis, he announced that he wanted to buy a tennis hat in our pro shop.  not a toy, not a book, not a wii game.  he wanted to spend his money on a hat. which might not be a terrible choice IF HE DIDN'T ALREADY HAVE ABOUT 20 BASEBALL CAPS IN HIS CLOSET.   "andy roddick wears baseball caps when he plays, and he's a pro!"  i told him.  "don't you think you could just wear one of those, instead of a special tennis hat?"  but his mind was made up.

which makes this parenting thing so hard ... how do you watch your child make a stupid decision and sit back, silent?  but i bit my tongue and resolved to let him make this mistake on his own. so we stopped by the pro shop and looked through the selection.  he tried a few on, chose the one he liked -- and then looked at the price tag.  he looked up at me in shock.  "eighteen dollars for a hat?" he asked, incredulously.

"well, it's actually more than nineteen, once you add on tax," i told him.  "so you'd have less than a dollar left."

he paused.  he stared at the hat, and then his twenty dollar bill, and then the price tag.  his eyes darted back and forth between them as he made a very difficult decision.  and then ... then he placed the hat back on the shelf.  "i think that's too much money," he said.  "forget it.  let's go play."

it's moments like this that i think -- wow!  we're doing something right.  somewhere along the way, my son has learned the value of a dollar. he's learned what's important to spend his money on, and when it's important to save.  maybe we sort of know what we're doing after all.

but no good parenting moment lasts forever.  sadly, this one lasted only a few hours.  that evening,  the nightly discussion ensued about showering; neither kid wanted to bathe because they were not dirty.  (you know, even though they both had field day all day at school and were outside in the hot sun and in the dunking booth and then both played tennis and then both played baseball outside for an hour after that, they were NOT dirty.)

selfishly, i left this battle to be decided upstairs under the watchful eye of chris while i cleaned the kitchen after dinner.  soon enough, i heard the water start, and shortly thereafter, susanna waltzed downstairs in her pajamas, with clean skin and wet hair.  "guess what, mommy!"  she exclaimed, holding out something in her hand.  "i just earned fifty cents!"

fifty cents, to susanna, is a windfall.  "that's awesome, sweetheart.  what did you do to earn that?"

"liam wanted me to take my shower first, so he paid me."

yep.  our son gave our daughter the equivalent of two days' worth of his allowance so he could delay his shower by ten minutes.  maybe we sort of know what we're doing after all?  oh how i make myself laugh.  or cry. one of those.

sharp-dressed mann

liam's had a few significant events at church over the years, and what he's worn has been an important part of them.  when he was five months old, he was baptized in a beautiful white gown with his monogram and date stitched on the hem.

at age six, he played joseph in the christmas eve pageant, and was decked out in a long red robe and headpiece.

but this past sunday, for his first communion, he wore no dress of any kind.  on the contrary, he wore a coat and tie for the first time -- and i swear he aged about 10 years in the process.  we were separated from him in the congregation; he and his fellow first communion classmates were seated in the first few pews as the guests of honor, while the parents sat several rows behind.  and all throughout the service i found myself staring at his blond head -- with that cowlick-that-can't-be-tamed sticking straight up in the back -- and marveled at how fast the years are flying.

 it will come as no surprise to those who know me when i say that i became a little emotional, especially as we watched them process down the aisle, the boys all decked out in their sunday best and the girls in their beautiful long white dresses.  it really does seem like yesterday that i was watching our priest cradle liam's body in his arms as he poured water on his little bald head.  and now, in the blink of an eye, he's standing apart from us, wearing a coat and tie and dress shoes, reciting the nicene creed and singing hymns and kneeling and standing and sitting (and kneeling and standing and sitting, as we episcopalians do) at all the right times.  it really wasn't so much the actual event that made me teary; it was the seeming suddenness of it all.  i'm not quite sure how it all happened so fast.  but it makes me want to slow down these days and this stage of our lives and just enjoy them for what they are, because i know in another minute he'll be wearing a much larger coat and tie as he is confirmed and then does cotillion and then takes dates to dances and then attends baccalaureate and then graduates from high school and college.  (hopefully at some point along the way, he'll figure out how to tie his shoes and his tie.)

each child presented their silhouette as an offering to God

that morning, he shimmied over his neck the tie that chris had first knotted around his own, pulled at the collar of his sportscoat, and fiddled with the brass buttons as he got used to the feel of these new pieces of clothing.  when i shared with him the lyric about every girl being crazy about a sharp-dressed man, he shrugged his shoulders, embarrassed.  but the words are true.  because this momma -- well, i'm crazy in love with my sharp-dressed mann.

we quickly realized that we needed to get out of the sun -- seems our children's eyes are a wee bit sensitive

much better

liam with his godparents, dusty and katherine

the three mann men, along with a new baseball bat as a gift from his grandparents

wordless wednesday

i received an ipad for my birthday back in december, and while i really like it, i can't say i'm as coocoo-for-cocoa-puffs about it as many of my friends.  "it will change your life!" several gushed to me.  "you won't know how you ever survived without it!" others said.  it is awesome -- don't get me wrong -- but i've been known to go a few days without picking up the thing. 

well, until i installed the "draw something" app.  now that i have that game, there's no way the kids would ever let the ipad go untouched for more than 24 hours.  it's a drawing game (sort of like pictionary) that they play exclusively with their aunt leslie out in california.  they alternate guessing and drawing, and always know whose turn it is.  we've settled into a routine where we play a round (which normally takes about a minute) right before we leave for school in the morning, and then again after we get home from the bus in the afternoon.

so i hereby present to you two examples of drawings that our children have created for leslie's guessing.  one of them i happened to save because i was so impressed.  the other leslie happened to save because she was so bewildered.  one of them was drawn by susanna, and the other by liam.  i'll leave it to you to figure out which one belongs to which artist.

 what's that?  you're wondering what the answer is for the second one that liam artist unknown drew?

HOT SAUCE.  of course.

wordless wednesday

liam flipped for the start of pool season -- literally! -- even with frigid water temperatures and a cool breeze blowing.  chris and i, on the other hand, sat nearby in our tennis clothes and observed.  we have fifteen more weeks to jump in.  i'm sure we'll get our fix soon enough.

by the way -- never in my life have i attempted a flip off the diving board, and neither has chris.  it feels sort of weird to look at my child and realize he can do something that we cannot.  the first of many such accomplishments, to be sure

a mother's day portrait

i don't post pictures of myself (or chris) all that often on here -- we haven't changed much over the years other than adding wrinkles (me) and losing hair (him), so there's really no need.  but today i feel compelled to share with you a recent portrait that an esteemed local artist made of yours truly.

titled "My Mommy" by william joseph mann, II ~ may 2012

liam quite proudly presented this to me at my bedside this morning for mother's day, along with other treasures (like a beautiful handmade broach i wore to church, a book, and a poem.)  in case you were wondering ...

• the black lines underneath my eyes are not dark under-eye circles.  they're eyebrows.  ("huh," he said, as he studied my face and then his drawing and then back again.  "i guess eyebrows actually go above the eyes.  oops.")
• the purplish blue item in the bottom left corner is a tennis racket that is obviously not drawn to scale.  unless he thinks i either play with an ant-sized racket, or that my head is enormous.
• "and i made your ears red because you're just coming off the tennis court!" he explained.  until that moment, i had no idea my ears turned such a color.  you learn a lot from your children.

tomorrow i have the pleasure of dining with susanna in her kindergarten classroom for her mother's day celebration -- so surely there will be more to come.  but i'm telling you what ... if i have eyebrows on my cheeks and inflamed mismatched-sized ears on the sides of a gargantuan-sized head, i might just start developing a complex.

but hey!  at least i'm smiling. with big, plump, red lips, no less.  there's always a bright side.

slightly off-base

liam had his first baseball game of the season last week and unfortunately i had to miss it.  halfway through the first quarter inning chris texted me.

note to self: must. learn. baseball.

wordless wednesday: DC style, part 3

i probably should title this "wordless wednesday: UR style" but i'm trying to keep with the theme of our spring break adventure.  alas, this is the final installment.  after this post, i'm going to actually have to come up with something interesting to say.  (or, in the words of the two old guys of the muppet show, "why start now?")

chris has heard me say that the university of richmond has been named the most beautiful college campus in the country enough times that i've come to expect an exaggerated eye roll whenever i remind him.  but there really is no place like it on earth.  shortly after feeding the ducks by the lake that's in the middle of campus, liam turned to me and said, unsolicited, "this place is BEAUTIFUL, mommy."  sweet vindication!  i think chris probably rolled his eyes at that too

we popped into the chapel and were treated to an organ rehearsal.  the kids were more interested in the stained glass shadows on the floor

no trip to one's alma mater would be complete without a visit to the bookstore.  liam came away with a spider-themed tennis bag, and susanna is now the proud owner of a pink UR water bottle.  (and, seriously.  look at that background.  it's truly unbelievable)

just the four of us: liam, me, susanna, and one of the gazillion inch worms hanging from the trees that landed on liam's finger.  i thought raleigh was inundated but it has nothing on richmond

on our way out, we stopped by the brand new stadium.  the kids ran a lap around the track and our non-athletic daughter's legs were just a blur ... perhaps we've found her calling?

mid-cheer underneath the sign celebrating the big football win -- this one's for my uncle (who was the star cornerback of the team)

our final stop of our journey was by my college best friend's house, where susanna bonded with alison's three daughters and about 52 dolls.  it's a little funny when you think about it -- out of all the super fun things we did, we started and ended with american girl

wordless wednesday: DC style, part 2

riding the metro -- the same line, coincidentally, that chris used to ride every single day to and from work during the years we lived there

seriously -- why is liam hunched over?  does he think he's going to block the washington monument?

i, on the other hand, am hunched over for a reason.  the back brace wasn't cutting it by this point.  but i survived the zoo somehow

the kids' favorite animal at the zoo: the 11-day old monkey, who clung to his mama's chest while the fiercely protective papa (pictured) shot nasty looks at the audience gathered around

after the zoo, we walked a few miles to our friend bill and cheryl's place for an amazing dinner, and another one of chris's fraternity brothers, brett joined us.  brett and bill also happened to be with us the night chris and i met, at a bar not far from their current home ... it all sort of comes full circle, doesn't it?

par for the course: liam manages to get his dessert all over himself, while susanna looks on, amused

the kids have been asked by several people what the best part of our trip was.  the soccer game?  american girl place?  zoo?  museums?  metro rides?  playing with their cousins?  seeing the most beautiful college campus in the country (pictures to come in a future post)?  nope.  without a second's thought, their response: the hotel pool

wordless wednesday: DC style, part 1

a few pictures from our first two days of our family trip to DC ...

true story: i was in chicago in 2006, hugely pregnant,  and happened to walk into the american girl place.  it was then and there, standing in what just might be the most over-the-top feminine place in the country, that i decided that i just had to have a girl.  luckily it all worked out, because one of my most favorite memories so far as a mom was experiencing the american girl place with susanna (and kit, of course). 

what are the odds that one of susanna's best friends, lily, and her mom were going up on the same day?  i took this picture while susanna mulled over her many options of what to purchase, before she ultimately decided on a cheerleading outfit for kit.  pom-poms included.

tracy was not only a dear college friend, but also my roommate when we moved to DC after graduation AND was with me the night i met chris.  if you look closely you can see the puffy edges of the back brace i had on underneath my top.  not exactly the most flattering piece of equipment, but ohmygoodness i was still in so much pain.  which was probably exacerbated by the fact that they're currently remodeling their house (hence the crazy ceiling behind us) ... i think i was having flashbacks to the dust and grime of our renovation last summer

tracy's kids john robert (8) and cassady (6) became fast friends with our two.  it's funny how we always just assume our kids will hit it off with other kids they've never met based simply on their ages ... we would never expect that of adults ... but for whatever reason, it always works.  i have a feeling they'd all be BFFs if we lived closer

on friday night chris took liam to a DC united game (professional soccer).  DC scored 4 goals and won the game, so liam was in heaven.  chris wasn't so much; after a few weeks of 80-degree temperatures in raleigh, it didn't occur to us that we might need to pack for cooler weather.  they warmed up with hot chocolate at the stadium

on saturday, while i went up to maryland for my sister-in-law's baby shower, chris took the kids to the air & space museum with their second-cousin reilly

in the observation tower at air & space.  their poses are reminding me of all the award shows where celebrity presenters stoop down to get their mouths near the microphones, even though it's not necessary, and wind up looking ridiculous.  in every picture chris took, they're all hunched over and i have no idea why

madness

this whole NCAA basketball pool thing was a bad, bad idea.

for years, chris and i have participated in a pool with my extended family.  there are around 30 participants, and at $5 and winner-takes-all, it can be a nice chunk of change if you're the victor.  (not that i would know anything about that.)

with liam being such an avid reader of the sports section each morning and an absolute sports freak, it seemed only natural that he would join the family pool.  add the fact that he's a numbers guy (and the bracket is chock-full of numbers), i just knew he'd be ecstatic to participate.

i should have known better.

"no thank you," he replied when i first suggested the idea.  "i don't know who will win."

"that's the whole point," i explained.  "you DON'T know.  it's incredibly hard to predict.  but that's the fun of it -- getting lucky!"

he shook his head.  "i don't think so.  i like to be right.  and i'm not sure i'll be right."

i looked at him, incredulously.  and it all sort of started to click.  he took a series of tests last month at school for academic placement, and the area where he faltered consisted of problems that challenged him to think outside the box.  when we met with the psychologist to go over the results, she told us that he had explained to her that he would rather not answer at all than to answer and be wrong.

i won't go into the long conversation we had about THAT, but apparently it had fallen on deaf ears, because here he was, presented with the opportunity to win $150 just by being lucky, and he was flat-out refusing.

so what does a mom do?  i forced him to play, of course.  i thought it would be a good experience to persuade my young son to get into gambling see what can happen when you take a chance and do something for fun. 

so he studied his blank bracket.  he made a lot of smart choices based on seeds, and he made a few emotional ones (namely, picking davidson, chris's alma mater, to go to the sweet sixteen.)  and then he made a fatal decision.  he chose missouri to win the entire thing.

and, as anyone in the world knows who follows one iota of sports, missouri became only the fifth team in the history of the NCAA tournament to go out in the first round as a #2 seed.  (interesting fact:  the first #15 seed to ever win was none other than my beloved richmond spiders, in 1991 against syracuse.  U of R is also the only team who can say that they've won as a 15th, 14th, 13th, AND 12th seed.  and i am hereby redeeming myself for my total airheaded post about football, thank you very much.)

but back to the story at hand.  after submitting his entry online, liam became a bit obsessed on the first day of the tournament, asking constantly if he could get on the website and track the standings.  he'd periodically report his ranking, excited to see his bracket in the top three at one point.  he started to ponder what he was going to do with all his winnings, despite my warnings that things can change quickly.

and then the world came to an end.  chris and i were at the club on friday night and happened to see the final minutes of the missouri game, both of us ecstatic to witness such an upset. you've always got to root for the underdog, right?  until it hit us what this meant for liam. when we picked him up from the kids room, we decided not to say anything, but somehow he already knew.  and all the way home, he wailed from the back seat, inconsolable.  (think of a three-year old temper tantrum, but in a seven-year old body.  NOT FUN.)

as we finished brushing his teeth that night, he looked up at me with bloodshot eyes with one more thought.  "maybe when i wake up tomorrow morning," he said, "the paper will say that norfolk state got charged with violations and they'll put missouri back into the tournament.  think that can happen?"

when i told him not to get his hopes up, he muttered something about this being the dumbest idea ever and how he's never going to enter a pool again, before stomping off to bed. 

sort of gives the term march MADNESS a whole new meaning.

harry

it can be funny what sticks with you over the years.  there are entire trips i don't remember taking (a side effect of my epilepsy medication, my neurologist theorizes), but then there are simple statements from a decade ago that i remember as clearly as if they were uttered yesterday.  even though some of them might seem less than earth-shattering, i figure that there's got to be some reason why they continue to occupy residence in the depths of my mind.

one of them came hurtling forth this evening as i sat with liam on the couch in the family room.  all of a sudden, i could hear my cousin allison during our annual family beach reunion probably five years ago, saying something that at the time didn't resonate with me whatsoever.  there were probably ten or so of us sitting in a circle on the beach, ranging in age from an infant susanna all the way up to my eighty-year old grandfather.  and at least half of the crowd were hunched over tomes in their laps, tuning out everything around them as they focused singularly on the same text:  the final book in the harry potter series that had just come out at midnight the day before.

and this is what my much-younger cousin alli said:  "i think i want to have kids, just so i can read harry potter with them."

for whatever reason, that statement -- as funny as it was -- has stuck with me.  i didn't really get it at the time.  but tonight, it made total sense.
 
liam and i started reading the first of the harry potter series right around the beginning of january.  and it's kind of become our thing.  chris and susanna have star wars as their mutual love; liam and i now have harry potter.  we read it every night that i'm home, and on the evenings when i'm out, liam has promised that he won't pick it up without me.  (the first few times i actually hid it from him, but by now i actually think he can't imagine reading it by himself.)

fantasy and science fiction is totally not my thing -- but it's not really liam's either.  he would much rather read an encyclopedia or almanac than most fiction, to be honest with you. but we have both become immersed in the world of wizards and witches and hogwarts.  liam will scramble to do his evening chores while i scramble to clean the kitchen after dinner, all to leave us more time for harry.  and we'll curl up either in my bed or on the couch, progressing through each chapter and plot twist before i force myself to stop.

and tonight, we neared the end.  with maybe a dozen pages left, harry defeats the evil voldemort -- the same wizard who killed harry's mother as she tried to protect him -- with a power he didn't know he had and didn't understand how he had it.  he later asks his mentor to explain.

"your mother died to save you," dumbledore replied.  "if there is one thing voldemort cannot understand, it is love.  he didn't understand that love as powerful as your mother's for you leaves its own mark.  not a scar, no visible sign; to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever.  it is in your very skin."

i got through the first few words before the lines began to swim on the page.  i paused, swallowed, and tried again.  liam looked up at me, startled.  "what's wrong?"

"it's just that ... well, harry's mommy loved him as much as i love you," i tried to explain through my tears.  "and you'll carry my love with you forever, just like harry does ... " i trailed off.  and then my sweet, sensitive little boy began to cry himself, before nestling even closer to me and kissing my cheek.

and i thought of my cousin's offhand comment all those years ago -- about how she couldn't wait to be a mother just so she could read harry potter her children -- and i smiled at my teary son cuddled up against me.

because now i understand.

he shoots, he scores

i am drowning in a sea of work ... so my time at the computer these days is limited.  (HA!  what i mean to say is that i am now in front of my computer upwards of 8 hours a day helping to write the new north carolina algebra I curriculum ... so my time to spend on our blog is limited.  time on math-related websites?  no problem there.  pun intended.) 

but posts like this one are easy: upload a video from the ipad of liam playing some basketball, and i'm done.  one of susanna as cheerleader (and i use that term loosely) will surely be coming soon.

my favorite part of each clip is his reaction afterwards.  it's not just a smile; his whole body lights up with JOY.  i'm so glad i have it recorded, because this is the essence of who liam is.

a hint of things to come

even though it was never in our plan to have children one grade apart, that's what God decided to give us and we've grown to love their age spread.   i know i've said it many times before, but liam and susanna actually consider themselves best friends.  they fight from time to time, but for the most part, they're close enough in age that they share so many similar interests and get along amazingly well.  i can't imagine it any other way.

BUT i know this age spread will pose its own sort of problems down the road.  i got a glimpse of it this weekend, as susanna hosted her first-ever sleepover.  liam was at a hockey game with a friend and got home hours after the girls had gone to bed -- thank goodness.  because that left only this morning that we had to deal with the three of them together.

but oh what a morning.

we first heard them at 6:04 a.m.  susanna and her friend had decided they couldn't enjoy the early dawn hours without liam, so they ventured across the hall to wake him up.  (note: liam is usually up by 6:04 a.m. and has already at that point let the dog out, fed her, gotten the newspaper from the end of the driveway, and is halfway through the sports section.  but after going to bed at 10:30 last night, he was a little off schedule.)

so chris and i awoke to little girl giggles and squeals as the older brother was apparently strutting around like a proud peacock, showing off.  susanna's friend was smitten, at the ripe old age of six, with this older boy.  (ironically, she has a younger brother who is as close in age to her as liam and susanna are.  but the dynamic of older sister-younger brother is a totally different ball game.)  "leeeeeee-ummmmm," she'd croon, beckoning him into their room to play.  everything he did was high-larious to her.  liam, apparently, was a rock star.  as she put on her shoes to leave, she told susanna that she as soon as she got home, she was going to write liam a letter and mail it to him.

so i know what path we're headed down.  a path where their social circles will inevitably mix, where liam and his friends will likely be very interested in susanna and her friends -- and vice-versa, to be sure.  a path that will take us to sleepovers where we might have to string up that yellow police tape with "do not cross" printed on it.

but it better be a path where we can count on liam to continue to be his protective self, looking out for his little sister and keeping a very close eye on anyone who might dare date her.  it's the only way we might survive the teenage years.

a small fumble

in addition to teaching my local delinquents who have been suspended from school, i took on a new job this past fall partnering with special education teachers throughout the state.  together, we team-teach small classes of learning disabled students in a "blended" format that pairs online learning with face-to-face instruction.  this semester, i'm teaching a brand-new curriculum called Introductory Math that focuses on very basic concepts, ranging from number lines to reading clocks and counting money.  many are important life skills that should assist these students in functioning in the real world after they graduate from high school. 

one of the most important aspects of my role is to create an announcement on their Blackboard page that greets them each day.  i use a variety of web 2.0 tools, from cartoon strips to videos to vokis (funny-looking characters who speak with my voice) to animated images -- basically anything that will capture their attention and get them excited about what they're going to learn that day.  on friday, i decided to tie in our current topic, integers, with the superbowl.  i felt sure that somehow, negative numbers were involved with football, but i didn't know how.  so i consulted the resident expert.

"chris, isn't there something in football that actually results in like a negative movement or something?" i asked.

he groaned.  "i have explained this to you a million times," he replied, barely looking up.  "yes.  if the quarterback gets sacked, it's negative yardage."

"what if another player gets sacked?" i asked.

"sara!  no other player can get sacked!  it's only the person who's throwing the ball!  you've been to football games with me before.  how can you not know this?"

yes, i've been to football games.  but when i attend these events, i prefer to talk to people and maybe watch the cheerleaders and comment on their skimpy outfits.  i do not actually watch the field.  in fact, i made it through four years of college attending just about every pre-game tailgate and only managed to enter the stadium one time, and that was to watch my sorority sister get crowned homecoming queen.  and even then, i departed right after the ceremony.

"but what if, say, i'm the quarterback and i throw it to you, and then you run a little bit, and you throw it to someone else, and then they get like picked up and moved backwards?"

i won't go on.  suffice it to say that there was much more groaning and frustration by the time we were finished.  but the whole time he ranted and raved, i was busy composing a poem in my head, having latched onto the phrase "negative yardage".  is there a word that rhymes with "yardage"?  i wondered, amidst some string of nonsense coming out of his mouth about lines and scrimmages and other things.  i finally wandered off and hoped he had finished.  after a few rough drafts, this was what i loaded into my classes' announcements:

the next day i began to hear from my co-teachers, all of whom said that our students were excited to read the poem and see the connection between math and everyday life.  i counted that as a success, and having received that feedback, was inspired to show the poem to liam.  

he scanned the screen and said, "i know what goes in the blank -- the word 'negative.'  BUT," he turned to me, "i'm afraid you kind of left out some stuff.  like, it's only a sack if he's behind the line of scrimmage."  and he proceeded to explain to me (very calmly and patiently) the ins and outs of this game that i do not understand.  he didn't groan or complain or say, "how can you not know this?" in a condescendingly incredulous tone.  he just simply, in his seven-year old refreshing way, explained it.  i learned, for example, this "line of scrimmage" is not one of the painted white lines on the field.  who knew?  and i actually began to understand.  a little, anyway.

chris got home that evening and i related the story to him, concluding with the informative lesson liam had given me.  he stared at me with a sort of stunned look on his face before groaning once again.  "I TOLD YOU THE SAME THING!" he said to me, exasperated.  "i swear sometimes you just don't listen."*

i'm thinking from now on, if i ever have a sports-related question, i'm going straight to the expert -- the kind and patient expert, that is.  liam.

* note: for the record, i'd like to admit that chris has every right to be exasperated with me.  that doesn't make it any better, but i totally get it.

wordless wednesday

one of the highlights of  our days when the temperatures don't reach much higher than freezing:  hat head!

lord of the dance

"have you seen that little blond boy dancing over there?" i overheard a woman ask her husband as i passed by them last night at our club's new year's eve party.  "i cannot take my eyes off him.  he's cracking me up!"

i knew without looking that they had to be talking about liam.  i'd been getting similar comments all night, as friends and acquaintances stood around the dance floor in awe of our firstborn.  as soon as the deejay cranked up the music, he hightailed it to center stage and did not stop moving for two hours.  in chris's footage below, you can tell the moment that liam realizes he's being taped -- and his moves don't change a bit.  he just beamed, loving every minute of doing his self-described "freestyle".

and what a perfect way to open up 2012 ... with a smile.  may this be the year that, as the saying goes, we all dance like nobody's watching.  (or, in liam's case, dance however you want, regardless of people are watching or not.)

happy new year!

2011: the year in review

it's 8:30 pm on new year's eve, and, like 100 of our closest friends at our club,  we have already partied and eaten and danced and celebrated and even counted down and rung in the new year.  the balloons all dropped at precisely 7:30 amidst a chorus of thousands dozens of horns being blown by our children, and if we were cautious not to wake up on january 1st with a hangover, we'll now all certainly have one based on the sheer volume that's still echoing in our heads.  think i'm exaggerrating?  check out the footage below, courtesy of a friend of ours:

but with the closure of one year brings some reflection.  on our way home tonight i thought about our highlights.  here are the top three for each of us, in random order. 

susanna

• teeth:  after months and months of rockin' in its socket, susanna finally lost her first tooth.  and a few weeks later, she lost her second.  she corresponded with the tooth fairy herself, and is now sporting an attractive gap on her bottom row .

• the pageant:  surprising all who know her well, she took on the role of mary in the christmas pageant like a broadway star.  no insecurity or uncertainty like we all expected; she just accepted the role with excitement and smiled her sweet little smile the entire time she was in front of an audience of 500.  and it occurred to me that the next time she'll be walking down the aisle of st. michael's in a veil will be on her wedding day.   (and when that happens, let's just hope that there will be no baby involved.)

• kindergarten: she was a teary mess the afternoon i picked her up from her evaluation day (when they meet the new kindergartners in smaller groups), but after she was assigned a teacher and learned that she already knew half of her classmates, she perked right up.  she loves her class, absolutely adores her teachers, and enjoys the bus ride home in the afternoons.  and with a big brother to walk her to her classroom each morning, how could her introduction to elementary school be anything but stellar?

liam

• school: we had a rocky start to the school year with a new principal who tried to dismantle the plan we had in place for liam this year, but after a transition period, i'm happy to say that he's getting what he needs.  he has exceptional teachers who understand him and challenge him and motivate him.  and as long as he's happy and continues to love school, that's all we'll ever ask.(below is his first-ever project, a study on sunrise and sunset times for december.)

• sports: i thank God every day that sports were invented.  for if not, i'm not sure what liam would do with 95% of his time.  this year he's played baseball, winter soccer, spring soccer, fall soccer, tennis, golf, swimming, and basketball.  and if that weren't enough, he received a football and a (street) hockey goal for christmas and has spent the past week out in the cul-de-sac playing those.  if you ask him his favorite, his answer is always whatever sport is in season; he loves them all.  and you want to know what he likes to do just about as much as playing sports?  watch them.  he's been to hockey games, college basketball games, PGA golf tournaments, soccer tournaments, high school basketball tournaments, college baseball games, and professional hockey games (and i'm sure others that i'm forgetting).  and you want to know what he likes to do just about as much as playing and watching sports?  read about them.  the very first thing he does every single morning is run to the end of the driveway to pick up the newspaper so he can devour the sports section over breakfast.  the boy is obsessed.  (because i will never let him play organized football, i decided to indulge him a bit and chose a football picture to include in this post.  the boy can throw a perfect spiral ... too bad it's the most dangerous sport in this country and his overprotective momma won't let him play it for real.)

•  Y guides: raleigh's Y guides program (the Y stands for YMCA) is the largest in the country, bringing together a dozen first grade boys and their fathers in a tribe that meets once a month and plans amazing outings.  different tasks and activities earn them patches that they put on their vests, and each of them have their own Y guides name.  (chris's is The Artful Dodger, in reference to his love for the los angeles baseball team.  liam's is Wee Sports Fan, in reference to his love of Wii Sports.)

sara

• the renovation:  i have a kitchen i can cook in!  and an office i can work in!  and a breakfast room we can eat in!  sure, the renovation process took twice as long as it was supposed to, required way more money than we'd anticipated, and necessitated us moving out for the majority of the summer, but all the pain was worth it.  i still walk into my house and smile at what i see (and marvel at how we survived the house in its previous state for all those years.)
  

• work: i took on an additional online teaching job in august, increasing my hours to an almost-full time schedule.  so i still synchronously teach local seventh graders who have been expelled, but now am  asynchronously teaching special education high schoolers from all over the state as well.  it's been a huge adjustment for me but now that i'm four months into it, i think i'm finally getting the hang of time management.  (i've never been a quick study.)
• an empty nest:  i'm not sure i'll ever get the hang of having the house to myself from 8:00 in the morning to 3:30 in the afternoon.  most of those hours are spent on work, but i also spend a lot of time volunteering at the kids' school, being involved in activities at church, and playing tennis.  i love the flexibility i have now that both kids are in "real" school, but my favorite part of day is at 3:25 every afternoon, when super and i walk to the end of the cul-de-sac to meet the bus.  does seeing your children's smiling faces as they bound down the steps, eager to regale you with stories of their day, ever get old?  i hope not.   

chris

• a new car: my poor husband had been driving around a car with 150,000 miles and a peeling sorority sticker on it for eight years. it was way past time to get a new set of wheels, and he finally did this fall.  
• vestry: chris was elected at st. michael's and will serve a three-year term.  a huge honor, a lot of work, and it couldn't be suited to anyone better.  (in my humble opinion.)
  
• the shed: so i get a new kitchen, and chris gets a new shed.  seems fair.  but this shed is nice!  it has plenty of space to store all the outside crap and tools and toys and miscellaneous items that would otherwise have no place to go since our previous storage room is now our breakfast room.  and to make it even more spectacular, he received a solar panel for christmas that he's attached to the shed's roof and can now generate power.  how cool is that?  (okay.  it's not as cool as the kitchen.  but still.) 

family

• a baby!:  my little brother, ben, and his wife, laura, are expecting!  they shared their happy news with us over the phone the night we came home from the state fair --  already on a sugar high from our funnel cakes, this just propelled us into another realm of joy.  each night as we say our bedtime prayers, we thank God for "the baby in aunt laura's belly".  and to make it even more special, the due date for my first nephew or niece (and the kids' first cousin) is actually may 18 -- susanna's birthday.

since we obviously don't have a picture of the baby, i thought i'd share one of us at the fair less than an hour before we learned the big news

• a ring!:  my little sister, leslie, is engaged!  and the story behind how she shared the news is a good one ... on christmas eve, there were ten of us seated around our dining room table for dinner: the four of us, my parents, chris's parents, and leslie and richard (her longtime boyfriend.)  the conversation was pleasant until liam decided to use his best seven-year old tactics to bring out the awkward.  "so, aunt leslie, why aren't you and richard married yet?"  but instead of an uncomfortable silence, leslie simply smiled and held up her left hand for us all to see.  richard had proposed the day before in minnesota, and she hadn't breathed a word of her big news!  (thank goodness for awkward seven-year olds, right?)  we're now looking forward to flying out to california for the wedding sometime in 2012.

• disneyworld:  and speaking of trips, the highlight for the four of us this year was our venture to disneyworld in february.  it took a lot of planning, a lot of driving, and a lot of $$$, but it will surely go down in the books as one of the best vacations we'll ever have.  (and that's why, kids, we likely won't be going back any time soon.  why mess with success?)

i say this every year as i sign off ... but our true highlights are the health and love and happiness and faith we continue to be blessed with.  we strive each day to show our gratitude for all that we've been given.

and as the kids have been saying to everyone they've seen today ... "see you next year!"

wordless wednesday, christmas style

meeting the big man at our club's santa brunch

enjoying the craft table at the museum of history family holiday party

one of the four main christmas food groups: cookie dough

making gingerbread houses at school

gofster's back, making snow angels on the dining room table

gofster vs. barbie in a game of guess who (notice that they've chosen the characters sarah & chris) ... my money's on gofster to win

stuffing build-a-bears at the club for duke children's hospital

they were thrilled to be given matching christmas pajamas ... wonder how many more years that will last?