the good stuff

it's beginning to look a lot like (jib jab) christmas....

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

the saver of the day

This is Rebecca...artist, photographer, founder of Salon Nouveau, my little sister, and very often my rescuer:

Rebecca does that a lot these days....saving the day.  After my jaunt to the ER early Monday morning, she let me sack out on the couch all afternoon, helped Jane with the bathroom, and changing the channel, and making lunch for her, and waking me (thank heavens!) in time to get Sam at school.  Letting me recover when I really needed it.

But it is more than what she did for me this week, she is always such an incredible help with the kids, will spend hours outside, creating sidewalk masterpieces, playing elaborate imaginary games with them, long after I would have called it quits.  She is always cooking while she is here, a task I am happy to relinquish while she is here.  She is a great sandwich maker, what she can do with what is available in my pantry is nothing short of miraculous. 

She is an unwavering supporter of Sweet Jane Photography, and offers the most helpful constructive criticism and advice.  Not to mention the most talented photo editor around!  And she id the perfect guest photographer, responsible for my new profile picture and this little beauty:

I am so gtateful for everything she does for me and my little family, I am so very lucky to call her my sister AND my friend.  Thanks, Beck, for everything.

the good news is: it's not pneumonia

So I have had a horrible hacking cough and cold for the last two weeks.  Managed to completely lose my voice on Saturday, (more good news for TK, right?) and finally went to see a doctor about the whole situation.  My mom was convinced it was pneumonia, and I'll admit, I thought it was the case too.  My real concern was these episodes where my chest got really tight and I would be gasping for breath.  When I woke up yesterday morning, wheezing and gasping, TK finally convinced me that enough was enough! 

Why is it so difficult as a parent to take care of MYSELF?  The kids have any tiny thing out of the ordinary, and I am on the horn with the pediatrician.  But I have to be choking for air before I go and see someone.

Anyway, right off the bat I had a nebulizer treatment, they did a chest x-ray, another breathing treatment, I heard them use the term "walking pneumonia", but every time someone would listen to my breathing, they would say, "so you've NEVER been diagnosed with asthma?"  Apparently, the wheezing is "classic asthma", (good--I don't want to have any kind of new-age breathing) and they pronounced me a "newly diagnosed asthmatic" by the end of my visit.  The kind respiratory therapist came down and showed me how to use an inhaler and the very peace-pipe-looking spacer thing, and sent me on my way.

Let me tell you, I felt like crap the whole day.  I kept thinking that I would much rather have had a diagnosis of pneumonia, an antibiotic, and be done with it.  Not something that I am going to carry on with me for the foreseeable future.  Granted, they think that my asthma is triggered by something else, like this chest cold I have had, possibly allergies--I am always a respiratory mess this time of year.  So MAYBE this means I DON'T have asthma symptoms all the time.  Then, just as I was getting ready for bed, the coughing started up again, and the wheezing, I started getting short of breath and I thought, what the hell, and used the inhaler.

The relief was almost immediate.  I slept like a baby, didn't wake up coughing like a lunatic, and feel great today.  So maybe this asthma thing isn't so bad after all.

catch up

I was looking over my last few posts and realized that they have, in recent times, been a mad rush to catch you all up on our lives, or explain why I have been absent.  It's true, I am busier now than ever (hooray!) but thought I would take a few minutes to breathe, catch my breath, and give you all the random awesomeness that is my life....

(and before I do, I HAVE to write this--my favorite online store for buying little bows for Jane's hair, Picture Perfect Hair Bows, is having a 50% sale on everything on their site...I checked with Carla, the lovely lady who runs the place, how long the sale is going on and she said for just a little while longer, so if you are needing some, head over there and tell her I sent you!  Carla's bows are beautiful, last forever, and are inexpensive at regular price--a downright steal at half off!!  I am heading there right now to buy about 20. Or so.)

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Last weekend was spent in New York City with three of my best friends, Kelly, Steph, and Jules.  We met 13 (seriously.  seriously??) years ago as waitresses at a restaurant in Cambridge--the very same one where TK and I met--and we became fast friends.  We used to be so vigilant about monthly nights out with the four of us, but it has become so difficult in recent years.  It doesn't help that we are now spread out over three states, that job titles like Assistant Dean of the College of Fine Arts, Senior Vice President, and Mom are keeping everyone very busy either.  In July, we decided on a weekend away, and it was such a success that we are going to find a way for a destination weekend every year together! 

We walked through central park.  We shopped. (two FULL hours in Sephora.)  We ate.  Saw a show (In The Heights. Amazing.) and had an incredible dinner after.  Laughed so hard that Steph's esophagus might never recover.  We closed down the restaurant--which says a LOT in the big apple.  We cried.  At the show, in a pub the next day, on the train, we are serious weepers.  I realize that it is such a testament to our friendship that we can have such separate lives and yet when we are together again it is like only a moment has passed.  These girls are such an important part of my life, it was so sweet to have a weekend to celebrate that.  As kelly says, "friends are family that you choose for yourself."  No truer words could be spoken!

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My kids are hysterical. 

Jane found a couple of harmonicas and commenced to playing.  "Playing" meaning making so much noise I almost threw the things out of the window.  All was forgiven, though, when she lay on her back on the floor, and started playing the blues:

*harmonica solo*
"the sun is going down"
*harmonica solo*
"It's starting to get dark"

I nearly peed my pants, I was laughing so hard.

Sam has ANOTHER loose tooth.  Are you kidding me??  I thought I was going to have a tiny break to get used to the first one being gone....guess not.

Jane (and sam, and Abigail, and mom, and dad...) has been dealing with some form of a cold or another.  Yesterday morning I heard her clearing her throat a little, and knew that she had a bit of a sore throat.  She came over to me, clearly in that sad, sickly, pathetic state and said, "Mommy, I have sore breath!"

Here's an important thing!  We had Sam's Ed Plan review last week and decided as a team that Sam will end his time in Special Ed classes this year!  HOOOORRRAAAYYYY SAM!!!!  We were pretty sure at the end of last year that this would be the plan, but to hear it and actually make that decision is amazing.  I will never forget what it took on Sam's part to get to this point, and we are so proud of our boy.

And, he's a little smartypants. If we could get him to really pay attention in class (the kid's brain is always on dinosaurs.) he'd be the perfect student!  I am seriously impressed in his reading and math skills, and his emerging writing skills as well.  Now comes the delicate task of balancing the desire to encourage and reinforce these skills without making him do too much to the point where he doesn't like it anymore.  Anyone have the secret for me??

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On a less important note....when does Starbucks come out with the Eggnog lattes??  Come on, people, I have been SO patient, but there is only so much I can do here....does ANYONE in my blogging world have any idea??  *sigh* I love me some eggnog latte.

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Speaking of dinosaurs (weren't we?), Kelly found a store on the upper west side in NYC that she was using as an example of a "how-does-a-random-store-like-this-stay-in-business" and at first I agreed--the store window was full of small animal skulls.  Then Julie pointed out a dinosaur poster on the wall...so we went in....and I have two words for you:  JACK. POT.  This tiny little store has an entire Paleontology section with actual fossils, and little cases of fossilized dinosaur egg shells, and (are you ready?) actual Spinosaurus teeth. Santa is definitely making a stop here for a little future paleontologist.  TK told me, though, that a khaki archaeologist vest was out of the question.  We'll see.....

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That is absolutely everything I have at the moment.  I hope that November is treating everyone well...all I know is that I can FINALLY listen to Christmas music without people (TK) looking at me like I'm nuts.

election day......

a little something inspiring, with words from Barack that EVERYONE can believe in, no matter WHO you are voting for...

We are not as divided as our politics suggest

We are one people

We are one nation

Together we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words that will ring from coast to coast, from sea to shining sea:

Yes we can.

Vote. 

halloweening

a quick post for tonight, though I am LONG overdue for a big fat juicy post.  More will come, but I am getting ready for my big girls weekend in NYC with the Hot Buttered Mamas (that would be Kelly, Steph and Julie, for those of you not privy to our nicknames).

Halloween 2008 was a raving success, not in any small part because I had the two cutest kids alive walking the streets of Providence.  Sam was a shark, once he saw the pottery barn kids catalog, he was sold.  Jane was determined to be a mermaid, and in my effort not to buy a disney little mermaid costume, I set to making her getup, hair and all.  I will say that other people walking with their kids LITERALLY stopped in their tracks to tell me how adorable she was...it's tough having such awesome kids sometimes....really tough.

It was so fun, especially being home, though we missed our annual trick-or-treats with the McGraths.  We did get to spend the evening with friends--the Millers and Cantys, old friends from the cape, were here, and 2-year old Hannah and Janie are good friends.  We had a little dinner before hitting the streets and getting the good stuff (that's Hannah in the poodle skirt below....)

Jane only cried a few times, once really good when some big kids didn't see her and knocked her down--the remorse that wolfman felt was sweet, though, so it was all good.  She wanted to be carried a bit at the end.  When I put her down at one point I realized the bottom of her costume was pretty messed up, one fin falling off.  She started to get upset, but I quickly told her that I would fix it for her.  She settled right down and said, "You'll fix it mom? Because you're a fixing machine?"  Yes, dear, I am a fixing machine.

I would also like to point out that up  until today the plan--according to the kids--was that Jane was going to share her candy with me, and Sam was going to share with Dad. That is, until the candy was in their hands.  When I asked Sam how many pieces he was going to share, he said, "ummmmm, zero."  I knew it, dirty rotten kids.  But it's okay, I'll steal it from them while they are sleeping. 

Enjoy these few pics of my little sea creatures, I'll report back once I return from the big apple and all of the wine is out of my system...

holiday cards 2008

Finished all of my holiday card offerings for this year!  (Good thing I had plenty of Christmas music to listen to, getting me into the moooood.)

They can be seen in the featured galleries section on the sweet jane website  and in an album over on  the sweet jane photo blog.

Thanks to all of the families whose photos are used in the samples!  How wonderful that I have such photogenic clients!

 

waiting for the tooth fairy

That's our boy, the toothless wonder. 

On Sunday night, as we were talking before bed, I noticed something looked a little off with his mouth.  A closer look revealed one very loose tooth.  I was caught SO off guard, when I asked if he knew he had a wiggly tooth, he got very panicky and said yes. I quickly shifted into "OHMYGODYOUARE SUCHABIGBOY!!!" mode, and he quickly got on board the tooth-fairy express.  We talked about what would happen next, no, it woldn't hurt when it came out, yes, there would be an exchange of money for the tooth, and my thoughts on where exactly the tooth fairy lived. (In the sky, on a tooth-shaped cloud.  I was on the spot, people, it was the best I could do.)

This morning the tooth was still intact, and by the time I picked him up from school, the thing was hanging on by a thread, evidence that he didn't pay attention to anything in school except for that darn tooth.  At home I gave him apple slices, assured him that yes, crunching hard would help that tooth along.  One misplaced crunch, though, and his top front tooth hit that loose one hard, and knocked it back,causing his mouth to bleed.  I stole that opportunity, grabbed a wet washcloth, and while cleaning up his bleeding mouth I happened to pull that little tooth right out. 

All tears about the bloody mouth evaporated with the elation of the lost tooth, so teeny in my hand.  He ran upstairs with TK, and his sister close behind, to examine his new smile in the mirror.  He was completely thrilled with the result.  Put that tooth right into the pocket of the little tooth fairy pillow that I whipped up yesterday (Seriously. I did. Grabbed some fabric scraps, a little embroidery thread and viola.  Tooth fairy pillow.) and he's ready for the pay-off.

Speaking of the payoff, I had a conference with the Tooth Fairy herself, and though she tried to tell me about inflation and all that, we agreed upon a silver dollar and a new spiderman electric toothbrush.

I am sure some of you (Mike) are wondering...Yes.  I cried.  As soon as I realized my BABY, barely out of the womb, was about to hit a bona fide KID milestone, I shed more than a few tears.  I noticed that loose tooth, and walked into the room where TK was and he looked up at my face and said, "uh-oh, are you okay?"  Nope.  Not even remotely. A loose tooth???  What's next?  A drivers license and a girlfriend??  What the @%*$#?? 

Today, though, I am better, and when Sam came to me this afternoon, bearing that new toothless smile, and said, "Are you so proud of me mom?  That I lost my tooth and am a big kid?" I could honestly answer, "You bet I am, kid."

dino-differences

Sam and Jane are VERY different kids.  In so many important ways.  Like how Jane would have cold cereal every day for breakfast, while Sam wants french toast.  How Sam is happy "because I love my mom, my dad, and my sister!!" and Jane can look at me (after telling her I can't understand her while she talks with a binkie in her mouth) and say, "what are you, stupid?"  (Oh YES, she did.)  Jane wants us to watch every little dance and show she puts on, while Sam is content to play quietly by himself.  Her verbal skills are through the roof, while we struggled so hard and for so long with Sam.  The list goes on and on.  And on.

But.  We are blessed with two very different kids who LOVE to play with each other.  Believe me, I know that we are very lucky in this case.  For a little while, they were going in different directions, Jane wanting to play with her baby dolls, and Sam with his beloved dinosaurs, but in the last few weeks, she has come around to prehistoric playthings, much to the delight of her brother.  They can be found at any given time, a pair of dinos in their hands, deep in pretend play.  It's true that Sam is guiding most of the dialogue, ("Jane, say, oh no, don't eat me!") but she is getting better at keeping up and he is getting better at letting her say what she wants.  (maybe because we're always shouting, "SAM!  Stop telling her what to say!!") 

Once Sam is off to school, Jane continues to play with dinosaurs, which I love, and today I paid attention.  The first thing I noticed was how Sam left his dinosaurs when he went off to school:

Poor, poor velociraptor, in the jaws of the T-Rex, as Sammy calls him, "the apex predator".  (Would I kid you on that one??  That's a prime example of the influence of the history channel on my boy.)

Then, down on the floor, I see Jane and her circle of dinosaurs:

I hung back and eavesdropped for a bit and this is the gist of what's going down here:

Big dinosaur is the daddy.  There are several mommies, and many babies.  There is one little baby dino in the middle, who goes around the circle asking the names of all of the dinos in the circle:

Hi. My name is soo-saa.
Hi. My name is see-see.
Hi. My name is say-soo.

(All of them have some variation of this name.  Cracks me up, especially with the little whistling-lisp that she has.)

Every so often, the baby dino says,

Are you still a bad guy?
No, I'm not a bad guy anymore. Sorry 'bout that.
Oh, that's okay.

(That is possibly my favorite little encounter.)

I finally get the whole story about the little polygamous dinosaur  family, and realize that even in the ways Sam and Jane are the same, the things they have in common, they are still unique little people, happy to play together, but content in keeping their own real interests and identities.

Now that we have instilled a sense of self-reliance, independence, and compromise, how do I get them to eat their vegetables??

and just like that, he's reading.

Sam gets homework every night.  And if I haven't said it before, the boy LOVES homework. (cough-cough-nerd-cough-cough) Almost every sheet is writing practice, and learning to recognize "sight words", the idea being that he will recognize small words by sight before they begin sounding them out.  He has taken to pointing out these sight words when we are out and about, which, naturally, thrills me.  Active learning is fun!! (I guess I know where he gets the nerd thing from, huh?) 

One of his sight words last month was "all".  In yesterday's homework, it was practice writing the word "down" and it was about the leaves in autumn;  red leaves fall down, yellow leaves fall down, and so on.  He recognized the -all in the word fall, so as soon as he finished his sheet, I tried a little something.  I wrote the word "all" four times on a piece of paper.  We then went all by all and added a consonant first--f, t, b, m.  Knowing the consonant sounds and recognizing the word "all", he was immediately able to sound out the words.

And it was like a lightbulb going off in his head.  Suddenly, and obviously, he made the connection between the letters and the words, how they work together, and was so excited.  He brought his homework sheet back out and proceeded to sound out the words red, green, brown, and yellow.  And he managed it with only a little help from me! I'm sure you can picture me, the nutcase mother that I am, whooping and hollering "You're READING, Sam!!  READING!!!"

The boy spent the rest of the afternoon going through various books, trying his hand at a little more reading. He was a bit discouraged, even though I tried to explain that scientific books about dinosaurs do not make easy first reading books.  I managed to find a Buzz and Woody first level reading book (that we have had forever and love) and by page three he was back up on his high horse, sounding out the words, beaming at his accomplishment.

I know that there are milestones that we come to and pass without much pomp and circumstance, but this one was HUGE for me.  The idea of having a child who is actually reading makes me so very happy.  I hope more than anything that he develops a real love of the written word, and you can bet that I am going to do everything to encourage that.

Today, though, I am proud as can be of my Sam, the reader.

wednesday in the park

Fall is in the air, (SWEET!) and yesterday we took advantage of no school, having Auntie Becky here, and a nice day to head down to the park behind the big high school. Jane was determined to play soccer, so we brought along the "kicker ball" as she calls it.  I thoroughly enjoyed the lesson part, how Jane COMPLETELY did not understand the "no hands" concept...and Sam thought that was hysterical...

The field was full of the white dandelions, or as sam so adorably calls them, "wishing flowers", so we made lots of wishes, and Miss Abigail sat and watched like the perfect little spectator she is...

This is the face I get these days when I ask him to look at the camera...So lovely.

He is laughing his head off, after watching Jane pick up the ball and throw it..."JAAaaaaAAANE! Inly your FEEEEEET!!!"

She might be getting the hang of this after all...

A little post-soccer stretching

get your mammies grammed

It's October first, so that means it's time again to talk about boobs.  October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so here's what I am going to say:

DO YOUR SELF EXAMS, LADIES.  Early detection is key to treatment and remission!!!

GET YOUR MAMMOGRAMS, if your doc says it is time. 

Over the last two years as an Avon Walk participant, one of the things that strikes me as so incredible is the fact that every three minutes there is a new breast cancer diagnosis in this country.  Every three minutes.  Pretty crazy.

Here is what I plan to do about it:

Getting myself ready for the next walk with a brand spankin new pair of pink shoes.  I am gearing up for another walk, getting myself signed up and recruiting the team....

So, who's with me?

ninja cat

alright alright...organizing today, getting some things in order, photos of the kids, all that good stuff.  Promise something amazing and astounding and mind blowing.  Or at least amusing.  Until then, I leave you with something I came across on Stephanie's blog:

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you.....ninja cat:

meg and jeff over on the photo blog

Have some sweet photos--a TON, maybe the most of any sneak peek!  Loving how all of their photos are turning out....check them out here!

ahem....is this thing on?

Ok, so I've been the absentee blogger.  Love to tell you that there is some exciting reason why I've been away fro a few days, like we won powerball and have been trying to stay incognito, or that I've been whisked away to europe to photograph some hush hush celebrity wedding, but really it boils down to only a few things:

Laundry, kids, grocery shopping, and the Stephenie Meyer Twilight book series.

In all honesty, it has been the books that kept me away.  Not since the blissful days of Harry Potter have I been so wrapped up in a series of books.  Thank HEAVENS that all 4 books are out, and I was able to plow though the entire series in about 5 days.  But it was tough to do anything else when all I wanted to do was immerse myself in all things Edward and Bella....

But back to reality, and the exciting news that TK and I are getting away for the weekend to NYC!  Woo Hoo!  The kids get Granny and Auntie here at the house, always a treat, and we get to be living it up in the city that never sleeps.  Only I hope that we do some serious sleeping in.  We have absolutely no concrete plan for our weekend, except for "eat good food".  Sounds easy enough!  We're going to catch up with our friend Kelly on Sunday (yay!) and fly by the seat of our pants for the rest of the weekend.  Love it.

I promise some quality iPhlogging while I'm there....