Who is Richard Patience?

Eva is babbling in her car seat behind me and Sam in gnawing on fruity gummy chews that I got from the co-op last week, so I dare to turn up the radio. On NPR Paul Brown (or maybe it’s Craig Windham) tells us about the compromise reached at the United Nations climate talks in South Africa. He explains that “richer nations will funnel money” to poorer nations through a fund.

“Who is Richard Patience?” Sam asks.

“Richer Nations,” I say. “He’s talking about countries that have money.”

“Where do they get their money? Where is it?”

“I don’t know but they’re going to share it.”

“Oh,” he pauses for just a moment before screaming at me that he is done with his gummies and I need to take his empty bag. “NOW Mommy. HERE!” I reach in to the back seat and exhale.

I start humming You’d Better Watch Out, you better not cry, you better not pout I’m telling you why, something I’ve been singing since Sam insisted he dress himself this morning and then nearly melted into a puddle when he couldn’t get his arm through his inside-out sweater sleeve.

Mornings are not always fun in our house. The LEGO advent calendar has helped. It gets him out of bed. He lifts his sleepy head and runs to the kitchen counter and looks for the next number. Sometimes he’s punched through the cardboard and pulled out the little creation before I even catch up with him. But some days his frustration at not being able to do the build by himself and my frustration with the incredibly long amount of time it takes for a 4-year-old to dress himself collide in a frenzy of “COME ON we need to go RIGHT NOW or we’re going to be late!”


Read the rest here.

She Walks

With all the craziness of Sam's birthday and the sudden realization that 4 years have passed since I brought home our little family's first bundle of joy, the second bundle of joy has been flying under the radar for a few days. But not to be outdone, Eva decided to grab our attention Sunday night. Sam and I were sitting on the floor playing with the new Trio blocks he got for his birthday, trying not to get too depressed about the Packer game when out of the corner of my eye I saw Eva push herself in to a stand and walk 7 steps across the living room floor unassisted. She's been standing without holding on and walking while pushing a stroller for weeks, but this was the first big steps alone. Sammy was so excited that his reaction was almost as delightful as her steps. Here are a few pictures and a video of her from the last week. My big girl.

Second Best

As Kelly and I sat on the couch at the end of the day after finishing the last of the champagne and finally getting Sammy to sleep, she told me she didn't know how I did it. She said that she had been exhausted at 3pm and was thinking she wasn't going to make it through the day. How do I do this every weekend? It was now almost midnight and we were talking about men and relationships and the ups and downs our lives have been through during three decades of friendship. And I had to remind her that TODAY I didn't do it all alone. Today I had her. And Jamie. And other wonderful friends who step up and support me when I need it most.

Our day started with the LEGO advent calendar and glazed vanilla doughnuts and a 4-year-old who could barely contain his excitement about having a birthday party. And over and over again throughout the day I felt the quiet presence of this good friend of mine who came to help and who definitely made my boy feel special during his 4th birthday. She patiently babysat Eva while I tended to party business and greeted pre-schoolers and took photos of the blurry mass of them as they tumbled and raced and jumped and climbed at Kidsport. She helped with loading and unloading the car. She played with the sugared-up, hyper-stimulated children while I cooked lunch when we returned home. And she absolutely made everyone's day with the cardboard rocketship that our entire family enjoyed. So while this post should be about Sammy and how incredibly fast the past four years have gone, it's about this wonderful friend of mine and the way she made it all possible. When Kelly's boys were little I used to train them to say "You're the best mommy in the whole wide world," and when she started trying to teach Sammy to say this about me on Saturday, I had a hard time not saying "Second best."






A few birthday party pics:

The Workshop

Santa's Workshop at Sam's Pre-school

First we sing

And then we frost our shirts... ahhh ...cookies.

Then we make reindeer food.

Sam's first ever close-up view of Santa.

"Marbles," he whispered.

Digging for candy canes with his best bud Gedion

Worth the Investment

A Baby Sled. What a great invention!

What We Do When Eva Naps

Wonder Woman

When Jamie’s name appears on the caller ID, I know it can’t be good. I always hold my breath when she calls because I imagine she might be calling to tell me they used the epi-pen and Sam is now on his way to the hospital. I am laying sideways in my Lazy-boy, trying to find a way to feel comfortable when I see her number on my cell. Every muscle and joint in my body aches and I feel much older than my forty-four years. I just brought a pyrex bowl of plain white rice back to the kitchen after sampling a few bites and deciding I wasn’t ready to eat when the phone rang.

Sometimes I call Jamie our “daycare provider” but over the years she has become so much more than that. She is a friend, an advice giver, a consultant, a teacher, a partner in crime, and very frequently a therapist and rescuer. Sam calls her family. I call her Wonder Woman. When she closed the daycare earlier in the week because she was “in no shape to watch kids” we all knew it had to be something nasty. Jamie never gets sick. Jamie is the one that takes care of all of us -- children and parents. After a day of rest she was back on her feet and the daycare was open and all of the parents breathed a sigh of relief. Whew.

Read the rest here.

Safety Glasses and Red Snow

Sam insisted he needed "safety glasses" during our third trip outside on Sunday. These are the glasses that came with the 3D sidewalk chalk Grandma bought Sam this summer. Note to my neighbors: Do not be alarmed by the red snow.

Anyone who doesn't like winter should spend an afternoon with a 4-year-old boy... building forts to defend and mountains to climb, throwing snow balls at the garage and burying toys in the piles, experimenting with all the summer sidewalk stuff, and generally throwing your body anywhere and everywhere without getting hurt. If it's the first big snow of the season, as long as you have warm clothes and lots of Kleenex, fun is guaranteed.