It's not that we all died

Summer is a hard time to post. Even though, for most people, the pace slows, I feel like it speeds up for us. The days are longer so we try to pack more in. We go swimming after pick-up, ride bikes to daycare, and spend long hours in the bathtub trying to get the popsicle dribble off various body parts. We are on the go from the time we get up on the weekends until we collapse in to bed. None of the activity is particularly conducive (to me, anyway) to toting a camera around. Still, a few things not to be forgotten:

1. Chava insisting on putting on her bathing suit first thing in the a.m. and then wearing it all day - for nap, with sandals when we go to pick up Maddox, and out to eat.
2. Maddox refusing to wear clothes as often as possible.
3. Both kids demanding to go swimming (in a BIG pool) at 6:43 in the morning.
4. Little tiny beads of sweat on Chava's nose.
5. The kids playing "Can't Catch Me" with the waves in Scituate.
6. Maddox falling asleep while sitting in the captains seat on Dad's boat.
7. Maddox FINALLY swimming comfortably with Michela and Eli in their pool in Lincoln.
8. Chava with some serious sweaty bedhead after a hot night.
   

News flash!

Chava now in underwear. Repeat: Chava now in underwear. Over.

p.s. anyone interested in about 600 size 4 diapers? Josh?

Firefighters

Maddox recently discovered this great firefighter toy that someone gave him (Nonna, was it you?!). It actually shoots water really far and he loves aiming for things off the back porch (maybe Bob can train him to hit squirrels). He had Chava all convinced to play Firefighter with him the other day but she couldn't find a suitable substitute for the firefighter backpack hose... until she cam upon her pink purse. Perfect for any occasion.

Crazier still

Things get crazy

I think (hope!) this was the result of popsicle eating.

Because it's their job to torture me like I tortured my parents

I gave Maddox some grapes the other afternoon for a snack. He immediately started pouting and fussing. I finally asked him what, exactly, the problem was. He said, "Mom, I do not like these grapes. You know what I like. I like FIRM GRAPES!!!"

(Pictures coming tomorrow. I have some funny ones in the camera I just haven't had time to upload.)

Milestone

Last night Chava and Maddox completely finished off a box of Annie's mac'n'cheese in one sitting.

Knowing what's important

On Wednesday night, the kids rode their bikes down to the train bridge after dinner. As Chava and I were coming up the hill toward home, we passed a man and a woman who, by the look of their ravaged faces, were likely alcoholics or drug addicts. The woman looked like she might be missing her teeth; her mouth had that collapsed, unhappy look to it. As they walked past, Chava asked me, "Why that lady so sad, Mama?" I told her I didn't know why she was sad. Chavie thought about it a minute and said, "Her t.v. broke, Mama?" I'm glad she still thinks that would be about the saddest thing imaginable.

Grumpaw's New Boat

We (minus Al) had a great time on Dad's boat on Saturday last. Chava was a holy terror after keeping everyone up in Scituate past midnight the night before, but as soon as she saw her brother get butt nekkid for a dip, her mood turned right around. Maddox was unusually fearless and has made me promise that next time I will go in so I can catch him as he jumps. I haven't told him yet that I won't be going in the water until August.



Eli and Vernie show us around.


















Maddox at the helm.















Chava was the first official boat napper.



















A good look - if you're 4.



















Cousins.



















The kids (and one overgrown kid) warm up after their swim by watching a video. I told Dad his boat is nicer than my house. So I'm moving in.














Chavie.




















Those are Noah's feet. He was most disappointed that our camera doesn't respond fast enough to get him mid-flight as he jumped off the lido deck in to the water.

Nature vs. nurture, take 2

On Saturday, Maddox caught Al swigging cider straight out of the container (nasty habit, I would never do that). So, naturally, he asked if he could drink some that way, too - Al was only too happy to aid and abet in this important rite of passage:














Of course, Chava came over to see what all the action was (that child is SERIOUS about being in the center of everything). No matter what he tried, Al just could not convince her that chugging right out of the container was of any interest, at all.














The good news is that I don't drink cider, so only Al will get to enjoy the special backwash left by a 4 year old chugger.

I can't talk about what comes out of Maddox's butt

It's going better, but I don't want to jinx it.

I was dying of poop. I'm better, but might die again.

I would guess that most parents like to imagine what their kids will grow up to be. Funny, I never really asked my mom what I was like as a kid - I know what kind of hair I had, and I remember that I liked Art better than Gym, but it would be interesting to know what she and my dad thought of me when I was too young to think of myself.

I can tell you what I think of my kids. I think Chava is going to be the kind of kid who is friends with everyone, who is totally undaunted by social cliques and the horrible discrimination I see going on in Maddox's class already. Then she's going to grow in to the kind of kid who is always up to something ("C'mon, guys, let's all show up for second grade on Tuesday with NO PANTS! It will be awesome!") but the teachers will continue to like her anyway because she's smart and really good intentioned underneath it all. Al and I have already talked about the parties she is likely to have in high school and beyond, and our need to lock up the liquor.

Maddox, I'm not so sure. I think Maddox is smart, and he has a great imagination and likes to get kids rallied around him to play some pretty complicated, made-up games (the last one involved the playground structure at school turning in to the inside of Doctor Dangerous' body, with the slide being his mouth so he could barf the kids right out). But he worries. And he gets upset easily. And he would be wayyyyy too nervous about what would happen to let his sister host a kegger at our house (maybe that's how nature takes care of us - partners siblings with such different personalities so that we minimize the amount of vomit we have to clean out of our couches).

The last two weeks have been draining. Maddox agreed that he would give up diapers and so we have spent countless hours trying to get the poop out. He begged for diapers. He held it in. And then he held it in some more. And then his belly hurt, and he still held it in. My days consisted of going to work, picking up the kids, spending time in the bathroom while Maddox screamed and cried, and washing skid marks out of underwear. I will save you from any more details. He finally went last night (after 10 days!!!) but I fear we are not quite back to the place where we can do things in the evening like, oh, maybe talk to one another.

So, what kind of kid is Maddox? He is a wonderful, loving, funny, charming, creative kid. He's a vigilent kid. He's a planner, and a thinker. And he's anally retentive. I'm not sure what that means for the years to come.

A first

We are still in recovery from the Great Barffest of 2008. Chava was essentially sick all week; I got it on Sunday, and Maddox has thrown up intermittantly since the wee hours of Monday a.m. (but seems absolutely fine in between puking sessions). Both kids refuse to go to bed without a bowl next to them. I think it's Chava's newest lovey.

In the interim, I was presented with this at Maddox's school last week:














I honestly wondered if he would just skip drawing people all together. But no! He said, "That's our family. But not Dad." I don't know why Al got dissed. But I think Maddox got Chava's hair exactly right.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in to the water...

Al and I were proud of ourselves for surviving Chava's Great Barffest of 2008. We did about 10,000 loads of laundry, changed her sheets approximately 8,243 times, and cleaned vomit out of her hair about 12 times. But then she stopped throwing up, and life was good.

She finally went back to daycare yesterday. Kathy said she was okay, but very low energy and didn't eat a thing all day. She seemed tired when we got home, and refused the snack I had brought her. She and Maddox were playing together while I made dinner when she suddenly ran over with a look of consternation on her face and cried out, "Change my diaper, Mommy!" My nose told me right away this was no ordinary poop and it was, in fact, a total swamper. It happened again about 5 minutes later. But then she must have felt better, because she ate a reasonable dinner and was pretty energetic. We herded the kids up to take a bath, and while I ran the tub they took off all their clothes, as is their custom. When I came back from grabbing pjs, Chava again looked unhappy and there was a brown stream down her leg as well as two puddles on the bath mat.

Really, if I were a smarter woman, something in my head might have clicked and the rest of the night wouldn't have turned quite so... sour. But I was in a hurry (had a hair cut to get to, after all), so I wiped her leg and butt with a wipe and dumped her and Maddox in the tub while I got the bath mat soaking in the washing machine. Of course, when I returned, she was happily playing in her cloud of brown water as it slowly seeped over to Maddox's side of the bath.

Needless to say, it was disgusting. But I got a great hair cut. And I think I've convinced my hairdresser that he really doesn't want kids.

Can you guess what lead me to think of this?

I spent a lot of yesterday pondering why they don't make washing machines with macerating blades in the drain. It was only after some sleep last night that I realized it wouldn't really be good for the clothes.

Long time no post

I don't know what's happened to me. I'd like to blame it on the fact that Al left the camera upstairs, so it hasn't been easily accessible, but can that really explain a two-week photo hiatus? Maybe it's the New England spring, which refuses to be sprung. Maybe it's because Al and I finished eating all the Easter chocolate, and I'm in withdrawal. Or maybe I'm just lame. In any case, luckily Grammy has been busy clicking away. Maddox gets the shift, though, since he's at school on Fridays when Chava gets Grammy all to herself.

Whirling Dervish

whirling dervish

noun

a dervish whose actions include ecstatic dancing and whirling

Ready for her close up

Two things

1. Maddox totally picked out his own clothes today and got dressed by himself. Hallelujah! Chava, of course, picks out her own clothes most of the time now and INSISTS on putting them all on herself, even though it takes approximately 6 hours.
2. Maddox and I finally had the conversation about how one cannot actually marry one's sister. He seemed to get it. So this morning I overheard him breaking the news to Chava:

M: Chava, I can't marry you. It's against the law. So..... do you want me to marry my cousin?

Two Conversations at Bedtime

Maddox: I'm scared.
Me: What are you scared of?
X: The shadows. And fire. And the fire detectors.
Me: The shadows are just light. And the fire detectors keep us safe.
X: If you keep lighting matches after I poop, you might burn the house down.

----------------------------

Chava (an hour past bedtime): Maaaaaaaaaaaaaa-meeeeeeeee. I need a nose wipe.

A nose wipe!
I need a nose wipe!

I need a bottle!

I neeeeeeeed a boooooootle!

Diaper change?
I need a diaper change!

Maaaaaaaa-meeeeeeeee! I want to watch t.v.!

Okay, just bottle.