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Five Question Friday

Posted on September 2, 2011 | 2 comments

Hope everyone has fun plans for the long weekend… I’ve got plenty, can’t wait to catch you up on the flip side! Until then, here’s some five question Friday answers for you…

1. Shoes in the house – yay or nay?
I really don’t care either way, we have hardwood floors which are easy to clean, but if we had carpeting, it would be a different story. But I do teach my kids to take their shoes off and put them where they belong (do as I say, not as I do… right?). And when I’m at other people’s homes, I always try to take my shoes off at the door.

2. What do you call them- flip flops, slippers, thongs, etc?
Flip flops and sometimes fippy flops or just flips. I can’t bring myself to call them thongs but I recall my mom used to call them that when I was a teenager, much to my great embarrassment. I find it funny that back then, the mere hint of impropriety around adults made me so very uncomfortable but I guess I’d rather be a prudish teenager than the opposite – so much less regret.

3. What song are you almost embarrassed to admit you know all the lyrics to?
A plethora of country songs maybe, but let’s be honest, knowing all the Wiggles songs I know, nothing else I could admit to would even come close. Simon and I could be quite the performing duo if we ever fell on hard times, I bet we’d make a killing at children’s festivals.

4. What is the best quality to have in a friend?
Honesty. Authenticity. Dependability. And someone who doesn’t hold grudges, at least not petty ones – not that I’m in the business of giving my friends something to hold grudges against.

5. Do you know what you want for Christmas?
A memorable holiday filled with family and happy times. The Christmas season is my favorite time of year and so many of my happy memories are from the holiday season so I hope the same thing for my boys. And this year I’d love for Liam to get the real reason for the season, for him to grasp the gift we, as Christians, believe we were given.

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Posted in Five Question Friday

Thursday Thoughts

Posted on September 1, 2011 | 2 comments

I really hate how commercials depict women who are pregnant with multiples and how they reveal this tidbit to their spouses. The men always seem comically overwhelmed and “aw shucks” about it all and the women are not at all freaked out. Really?
My hubby got to be home last night rather than at work (though boo, he has to work on Saturday night instead) and it was so nice to share the parenting load for the bedtime routine, plus we got to eat dinner together while the kids wound down to Olivia in the livingroom (someday we’ll all eat together but for today – we’re happy to get to spend the time with each other).
It was almost as nice to go for a walk in the neighborhood without the children; though I took George who seems to need more pit stops than the children.
Jack’s current favorite phrases are, “I want to talk to you, mommy” and “I have an idea…” though he uses them both as segues into whatever he’s saying regardless of whether or not he actually has an idea or something to tell me.
Liam is officially a kindergartener now that he’s gone to orientation and completed his last day of daycare (according to him). He’s wildly thrilled though you would never have known it for how subdued he was at the orientation. This out of character shyness will allow for a momentary lapse in his non-stop talking – giving his teacher a false impression that he is quiet and reserved (at least until lunchtime). He was happy to find out there were two boys in his class that he knew from daycare and preschool and three more boys in the other kindergarten class who he knew as well. I don’t think he even looked at the girls – at least I don’t have to start worrying about that until middle school.
Wesley was rock star NICU baby and came home this past weekend – he is the sweetest little peanut. And Sarah and Brian were rock star NICU parents – go team parents!
Out of the blue, Liam asked me why I told him he had five more minutes of playing the Wii (on SUNDAY, four days ago) and then let him play a lot longer. Thanks for remembering and pointing out my parenting flaws, kid.
My brother, Mike, is biking from Lansing to the Mackinaw Bridge (the DALMAC), on purpose, for fun – I am impressed because unlike myself, he’s no spring chicken (he’ll super appreciate that comment).
Jack was being awfully sweet this weekend when we were saying goodbye to my parents in their hotel room in Holland, telling them both, “I love you, Grandpa” and “I love you, Grandma” without any prodding and my dad said, “Oh, Jack, I’m going to miss you when you get older.” Because despite his pill-ishness, he is an unabashed sweetie and that will probably go away as he gets older as it does with most children (this is a key reason why people have more children – I decided a blog would be less time-consuming and nearly as satisfying).
Apparently, five is not too old for the sweetness to end – last night at bedtime I told Liam, “I love being your mom” and without skipping a beat, he responded with “I love being your son!” (Don’t moments like that make every difficult moment in parenting worth it?)
I cannot wait for the new tv season to start… it’s like a mini-Christmas, the anticipation I feel about returning favorites and new shows (sad, but true).
Looking forward to dinner and movie with a couple girlfriends this weekend – whoot! And it’s a long weekend – double whoot!
Oh, and it’s September – does this unsettle anyone else?

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Posted in Life in general

Perfectly Imperfect

Posted on August 31, 2011 | 17 comments

To say that I think about the fact that Jack was born without a fully developed left hand every day would be not be an exaggeration. But what parent doesn’t think about the things that set their child apart? What parent doesn’t wish they could solve all their child’s problems? What parent doesn’t hope for a perfect newborn with ten fingers and ten toes? And therein, as they say, lies the rub.

Jack’s hand is called symbrachydactyly, it occurs in one in 32,000 births. I do not in any way feel any guilt or have thoughts that something I did or didn’t do during my pregnancy caused this to happen. Neither do I believe that having a limb difference will hold Jack back from doing anything he wants to do. (Proof: musician Tony Memmel; Def Leppard’s drummer Rick Allen; Major League pitcher Jim Abbott; and Manhattan College center Kevin Laue. All these men are successful in professions where it would seem key to have two hands.)

So it’s not that I feel bad that he will have a limited life, because he won’t. But the thing of it that kills me, is knowing how his classmates might look at him and treat him and tease him. And at the same time, I fully believe that God gave him the personality he has – full of life, impish humor and irresistible charm – to offset most of the hurts that might come his way and protect him in the years to come (ironically, we thought it was Liam who would be standing up to people on his little brother’s behalf but I think Jack will do just fine on his own). But I still feel unprepared for what is to come and I know it will be hard, harder than it is now because at some stage he’s going to become aware that he is acutely different. And I hope that awareness doesn’t take anything away from him and that we have fully prepared him for that moment. That when someone comments on his hand, he’ll point out how every person is born different be it with blond or curly hair, tall or stout stature, with or without two hands. That he will proudly talk about it and not hide his “lucky fin” away as something to be ashamed of or embarrassed about. And that he’ll be confident that his little hand does not make him who he is and he won’t listen to anyone who tells him otherwise. And all of that is really no different from any other parent and no different from what I think of with Liam, it’s just that with Jack, his imperfection is known. But that imperfection is also what makes him perfectly him. Perfectly imperfect. Just like everyone else.

17 Comments

Posted in Parenting, Symbrachydactyly

Top Ten Things I Use Every Day

Posted on August 30, 2011 | 2 comments

I think we are all creatures of habit – I cannot think of anyone I know who does things different all the time (not to say that people aren’t adaptable, but given normal circumstances, I think people operate predictably and that’s okay). I was thinking about things I use every day and thought – this would be a great top ten list! I do hope you enjoy a little glimpse into my monotony.

Top Ten Things I Use Every Day:

The shower – I cannot start a day without a shower, even if I’ve just taken one before I went to bed. I have not been and never will be an evening showerer. Mostly because I like fresh hair each day and because I hate that sticky skin feeling you get after sleeping. There are occasional Saturdays when I don’t shower all day but they are very rare.
Google – I love to look up things on the Internet and believe you can almost always find an answer on the Internet (unless you are looking for something too vague like cake, in which case, you’ll find my blog). Here are some things I’ve recently Googled: “97% honeysuckle white recall,” “egg free chocolate cake,” ” goat cheese fondue” and “arden myrin hanes.” [I also love that Google has become a verb and I accept that.]
One of our vehicles – we almost always leave the house every day; more than once.
My angry mom voice – though Liam has been asking me to stop using it, which I tell him I will do when he starts listening better because he doesn’t respond to my nice mom voice.
The toilet – it had to be said.
My smartiephone – I recently got a new one (Droid platform, HTC Inspire) and I kind of love it. I had a Droid before but there have been improvements and I’m more than okay with that. I can never go back toa dumb phone, sad, but true.
Google Reader – to keep up with all my bloggity blogs (for those keeping track, the number of unread blogs soared to close to 800 before slowly going back down – riveting stuff, I know)
Plastic plates and bowls from the Target dollar spot – I just can’t pass them up when they get news ones so we have an assortment of Ironman, Hot Wheels, Dr. Seuss and Spiderman that I use every meal to serve up food to the boy-os.
Stainless steel water bottles – I have two, one is always in the fridge, getting water chilled for when I empty the one in my hand. They are 22 ounces so each time I go through one that’s almost 3 glasses of water – helps me hit my 8-glass-per-day target with ease.
Bribes for good behavior – I am not such a stellar parent that my kids always immediately obey me (or even slowly obey me) and I honestly don’t know that I’d ever have the energy or ability to get that to happen but bribes often get the job done, horrible parenting tactic or not. Fruit snacks, television time, special outings, smoothies, extra minutes at bedtime, Lego time, Wii time, Wiggles time – whatever it takes – I’ll use it.

This post is linked to Oh Amanda’s Top Ten Tuesday.

2 Comments

Posted in Search Terms, Top Ten Tuesday

Music Monday: New Tunes

Posted on August 29, 2011 | 3 comments

It’s Monday once again, just like always… I’m ready for the week, anyone else? Did you know we are only 17 weeks from Christmas? And 18 weeks from a new year – doesn’t 2012 seem so space-agey? Anywho, that’s neither here nor there.

Thought you’d enjoy a little new music to get you through your week… here are some songs I recently downloaded thanks to an Amazon MP3 credit from my handy Kindle.

If I Die Young | The Band Perry (an XM/Sirius DJ recently compared them to Taylor Swift which annoyed me and seemed like an insult – her inexplicable fame and fortune not withstanding)