365 project: week 8

This week: Henry's first skating attempt; the view from the bottom of the park; I get a visit from an old friend (my wedding dress) with a new mission (to be my cousin Kayla's wedding dress) and Lon takes advantage of the opportunity to play a little dress-up; the boys explore yet more ways to integrate the Mario Bros into their lives (this time, via Cheerios!); and Henry is freshly scrubbed.

good timing

Monday was fundraiser night at Ponderosa (a school fundraiser where 10% of the total purchase was donated to our school), so my parents and Bethany and Klaudia met us for dinner. Grandpa Okie came too, a decision he probably regrets given how loud and obnoxious the boys were at dinner. I'm pretty sure he doesn't miss those days at all! Anyway, we had an hour to kill between picking up Henry and meeting everyone to eat, and it was a fairly nice day, so we headed to the park. It was a good thing we did, too! It was sunny and dry yesterday, but by the time we woke up this morning, there was a nice coat of snow on the ground and it was alternately snowing and raining. It's late morning now, and it's turned to a nice slurry outside, the kind that coats your boots/shoes/paws and renders the kitchen floor a muddy mess just minutes after you mop it. I can't complain since it's been such a mild winter, but I'm definitely glad we fit in our little park visit while we had the chance!

ice skating (is not the sport for me!)

On Sunday, we piled into the people mover, picked up Klaudia and her friend, and headed off to meet Johnny, Erin, and Lucy at Deep River Water Park for an afternoon of ice skating. Well, most of us had an afternoon of ice skating. It turns out that Henry isn't much of a fan of wearing ice skates, and I wasn't either. I tried, really I did, but once I got those skates strapped on and wobbled my way out the door and worked on it for a few minutes, I still couldn't balance on the damned things, so I decided to take them off rather than break an ankle on my first attempt. It turned out to be a good thing, since I was much more effective at chasing after Henry while wearing street shoes (and there was a *lot* of chasing involved).

Liam and Max picked up right where they left off after skating last year, and were both doing really well on the ice (though there were still more than a few falls). It was Klaudia's first time skating, and not surprisingly since she is a fine athlete with excellent balance (also young, strong ankles!) she took off right away and was doing spins and stuff by the end of the afternoon. Johnny and Erin got lectured by a mean official that they couldn't carry Lucy on the ice, so Erin ended up sort of pushing her along most of the time, which honestly looked exhausting, though Lucy was having fun. After a while, we took a break from skating and headed indoors for some warm food and a chance to chat, then the kids went out for one more round of skating before we all left for home, happy but worn out.

365 project: week 7

This week: Mike gets a strike and Max has fun to spare; we raise our glasses for Lon's 21st; Henry does some navel gazing and discovers one of life's great pleasures; a truck at the ready at Hamlet FD; and cousin Gracie has adorable messy hair.

bowling party!

Max's bowling party was no turkey! (Har har, I'm a bowling pun genius!) I think that we hit on something that really was fun for all ages: the adults got a chance to do something they don't often make time for, the teenagers seemed like they were having fun, and even the littlest kids there (Henry and Leo) got to take their turns with the help of bumpers and ball slides. Max loved opening his gifts (it was a VERY Mario birthday!) and hanging out with everybody. And we especially loved that our friends Mark, Katie, Linus, and Leo made the trip from Chicagoland and spent the day with us. They even stuck around afterward for plenty of pizza and catching up back at our house. Sadly for them, I think our boys managed to turn their boys into Mario fanatics in the span of a few brief hours. Our deepest apologies, Mark and Katie, and we hope the spell wears off soon!

avalon is 21!

A couple of years ago, Avalon went with me to buy new cell phones. At one point, we happened to mention that we are sisters, which totally blew the salesman's mind because of our "vast" age difference. After a minute, he looked at Lon and asked if she was an accident. I sat there, boggled at the sheer nerve of that question, but Lon was cool as a cucumber and just said, "Well, I may have been an accident, but my brother was a mistake!" Of course, neither of those things are true, but the point is that she took that rudeness right in stride and offered a comeback that was smart and pointed enough that the salesman didn't know what hit him.

Happy birthday, Avalon! May you always have the grace to handle sticky situations, and a sassy rejoinder for the salesmen and other assorted creepers of the world. We love you!

365 project: week 6

This week: Grandma and Grandpa come to visit; the Burger Kings face off; a boat is made from a box; Liam tackles crab legs while Max keeps his eye on the prize (cake!); and snow falls furiously over downtown Walkerton.

the people celebrate King Max's birthday, shower him with praise and rose petals

well, maybe not the rose petals. but today is his 6th birthday, and on this day, max is king.



max has experienced some significant changes and events in the past year, and he has taken them all in stride. he played a season of soccer, became an international traveler, lost his first teeth, and graduated from preschool. that's right, max is now a big, bad kindergartner, and he loves to tell us stories about his day at school. he's enjoying himself and doing great, not that we expected anything less.

our max has come a long way from the quiet, reserved boy he used to be. when we pick him up from school, he is always busy saying goodbye to an endless stream of his fellow classmates, and he's no longer so shy in public. however, max still maintains a cautious demeanor; he likes to be comfortable in a situation before opening up. personally, i think this is a good attitude to take. at home, max is his usual outgoing self, making witty jokes and insightful observations, and laughing like crazy.

life can be hard for a 6-year-old with a smart, very competitive 7-year-old brother. max wants to participate in the all the same activities as liam, even if they are over his consumer-market-determined age bracket. but it's clear that he still gets it. when we play monopoly, max usually ends up with the most properties, and he almost always has park place and boardwalk. i'm teaching liam to play chess, and max likes to watch. every so often he calls out potential moves, and i'll be darned if some of his suggestions aren't brilliant. he doesn't choose sides when offering moves, which has caused me and liam to proclaim a max gag rule, much to max's chagrin.

it also isn't easy having a tornado of evil disguised as a 2-year-old brother. henry does his best to get his hands on (and destroy) everything that isn't nailed down, and anything he can pry loose is not nailed down. at times, henry can be quick to push max's buttons, but at other times, max is surprisingly tolerant of his younger brother. once in a while.



tonight, we're taking max out to dinner with a big group of family, and i'm sure he'll be a gracious host. the next year will be full of exciting experiences for max, including another season of soccer, swim lessons, a vacation to the beach (the atlantic ocean!), and his very own pet (meow!). so here's to max and a great year!

365 project: week 5

This week: The elusive Dora makes an appearance, completing the triumvirate of pets; the boys get a dragon humidifier; chess is a big hit; and Klaudia goes to the semiformal.

oh, henry!

We've talked it over, and Mike and I agree that neither of the older boys was as expressly, exuberantly "two" as Henry is. The child is constantly in motion, usually in a direction that only leads to trouble. Nothing is safe anymore. I used to be able to put my keys and other items I didn't want Henry to get on top of my filing cabinet, but now he's figured out that he can simply climb the handles of each drawer as if they made a ladder sized just for him. He only gets a pacifier at naptime, so we keep them up in a high cabinet in the kitchen; Henry's solution to this is to simply pull up a chair and climb up and get them.

Yesterday, I moved the pacifiers to the top of the fridge, thinking that might foil him for a minute or two. When he got home that night, he waited until he thought I was occupied with something else, then he "stealthily" dragged his chair from the dining room into the kitchen. I could hear him making little noises of confusion, so I stood just outside the doorway and looked in. Henry was standing on the counter with the upper cabinet door wide open, rooting through everything in the cabinet in search of a pacifier. When he saw me, he demanded, "Mommy, where are my pacis? Mommy, you get my pacis now!" Surprisingly, it took all the way until the next day before he spotted the bowl of pacifiers up on the fridge. I'm sure tonight I will walk into the kitchen to find my youngest perched up on top of the fridge, making a bowl with his shirt bottom, trying to liberate as many of the pacifiers as he can before he gets caught (or falls down).