Twins & a Toddler

Thirteen

Thirteen is the sixth prime number.

Thirteen is sassy.

Thirteen is one of only three known Wilson primes.

Thirteen is the smallest emirp.

Thirteen is moody.

Thirteen is a happy number.

Thirteen is the third centered square number.

Thirteen can watch a PG-13 movie.

Thirteen is tall.

Thirteen is kind.

Thirteen is missing from an airplane row.

Thirteen is quiet.

Thirteen is smart.

Thirteen is typically missing from the elevator.

Thirteen is loved.

Thirteen is funny.

Thirteen is loved.

Thirteen is Pete.

Happy Birthday Pete!

 

 

 

Do Something Nice Day - February 25

He wasn't my Pap but the void left by his passing was as big as the Grand Canyon.  Rarely a day goes by that we don't think of him and wish he was still with us.  When I think back on the 17 years
I knew him, the one thing that sticks out is that he was always helping someone, or on his way to help someone, or more likely, helping us with a project.  It was rare that he ever sat still and when he was sitting still, he was probably thinking of what was on his to do list for the next day or week or month.  He and that green truck were always on the go.

In the months after his death, we would feel the void even more as we adjusted to the new normal.  I think he would be proud of the work we have done on the projects he started.  We still have a few to go but we have started and finished others that he certainly would've helped us with.  I remember in the first few weeks  we would run into people who knew him and shared stories of how he touched their lives.  One time when we were at the bank, the tellers told us about how one day he just stopped in to tell them a story.  We learned that he would take cinnamon rolls into the doctors office just because.  He would take food to the food pantry on a regular basis.  We aren't even sure how many driveways he plowed over the years for people.  He did so much for so many people.  In the moment it's hard to appreciate how lucky we were to have him in our lives.

So on the day of his passing we decided to try and be more like Pap.  We are going to do something nice for as many people as we can.  It won't begin to make his loss hurt any less, but we are hoping by doing this we can honor him and celebrate his life by doing something nice.  Should it inspire you to do something nice today, that would be even better.

We miss you Pap.  All of us.

National Park Haiku's

This summer our family vacation included touring some of the National Parks in the southwest part of the country.  We were lucky to be able to visit Bryce Canyon National Park, Cedar Breaks National Monument, the Northern Rim of the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park.  We also hit Lake Mead after a hot visit to the Hoover Dam and the Valley of the Fire State Park.  All were equally amazing in their own right. 

At three of the National Parks, the kids participated in the Junior Ranger Program and were sworn in as Jr. Rangers for Bryce, Grand Canyon and Zion.  In order to earn the badge, they have to do various activities at the parks and attend ranger programs.  At Bryce we learned about how the Hoodoos are formed, at the Grand Canyon we learned about the California Condor (honestly, the best ranger talk I have ever attended) and at Zion we learned about the Weeping Wall and how the water that seeps out is 1200 years old.  Who knew!

At two of the parks, the kids had to create Haiku's about the park.  Below are the kid's Haiku's at Bryce and the Grand Canyon.

 

Layers stack up high
Wind and ice create hoodoos
Red rocks climb blue skies

        by Pete

Tall and red they grow
Beautiful and very strong
Up high to the sky

        by Cuppie

 

 

They also wrote them at the Grand Canyon, here it was hard to keep them focused as they were trying to write the Haiku's as we climbed part of the canyon!  We had to make a rule of no writing and walking at the same time.  We are lucky no one went off the edge!

Great chasms of rock
Seen from hiking trails high up
In the light blue sky

        by Pete

Look how deep it is
It makes me want to pee my pants
Oh I'm scared to death

        by The Boy

 

 

Rainbows in the sky
Animals everywhere
Very deep it goes

        by Cuppie

 

 

 

We are very proud of our Jr Rangers, they now have 4 badges and I'm pretty sure future vacations will involve trips to our National Parks for more badges.

This Mom's Summer Fun List

Each summer we make a summer fun list of things to do with the kids.  Some of the items are things we have already planned out and others are items we do each summer.  Right now, we still have last years list up and there are about 10 things we didn't do last year.  Not too bad considering the list was pretty big.  Now that summer is in full swing, I started thinking about the summer list, but this year I think the list is going to be things that the parents want to do this summer. 

1) Sleep in.  And I mean really sleep in.  No being awakened by an alarm, by a kid, a dog or some other beast that demands our attention.

2) Take a nap during the afternoon and not have anyone or anything laying on me.  

3) Come home to find the kids did their laundry, folded it and put it away in their rooms.

4) Walk through our house and NOT find a kid on their electronic device.

5) Go out to eat and not have anyone whine or complain about the food, the location or how hard it is too be a kid who doesn't eat many foods.

6) Leave a restaurant and not hear someone say how hungry they are 15 minutes later.

7) Binge watch a tv series.  OITNB thank you very much.

8) Have a night where everyone puts themselves to bed.  Without us saying a word.

9.) See my children all dress themselves for the day in appropriate clothing.  No long sleeve shirts on a 90 degree day.  No wearing clothes too small that they have out grown or mis-matched clothing. (disclaimer, I am often called for a foul on the mis-matching of clothing so I may cut them some slack there).

10) Have a day where I don't hear the sound of crickets from inside the house.

11) Swim in the pool without any children hanging off me.

12) Have a family dinner where each kid cleans their plates and says "Gee Mama, that meal was swell."  The meal cannot be pizza.

13) Have a stranger come up and tell me how great my kids were while we are out in public.  And not because I have threatened them within an inch of their lives to behave.

14) Take the kids to the pool and then take a nap poolside.

15) Have a night where I am not awaken by a child standing beside the bed eerily watching me sleep or the dogs wanting to chase the night ghosts.

16) Have one day where no one utters the phrase "where's my charger"?

I know, it's not the typical summer fun list, but I think it is a list of attainable things that could be checked off this summer.  It's not like I am asking them to bend over backwards right?  What might you put on your summer list that would make your summer complete?

Oh...there was one item I took off the list because we did it today....sneak off to a movie without the kids!  It was nice. 

Thank You, We'll Take Them Back Now

A few years ago I wrote a letter to the teachers at the start of the school year about how ready we were for school to start.  It's one of my favorite pieces that I've written and as we come to the close of another school year, I start to reflect on our past year and upcoming summer.  So I thought it might be time for another letter to the teachers.

Dear Teachers and other school Employees,

First let me say thank you and job well done.  You and our kids made it through another year of school in one piece.  We never really doubted you all could do it but let's be honest, there were probably more than a few times where you wanted to pull your hair out and hide under a pillow and not get out of bed.  It's okay, they do that to us too.  Sometimes thank you just doesn't seem like enough but here are a few things I am thankful of this past school year.

Thank you for being a positive role model in our kids lives.  Never once did our kids have a bad thing to say about you.  About the homework you sent home with them, sure, but you personally were a shining light and they flocked to you likes moths to a flame.

Thank you for helping our kids succeed.  You learned how to motivate and push each kid just the right amount to help them do their best.   It also didn't hurt that you gave them candy bars and ice cream for math facts and other special milestones.  Ice cream will get you everything with these kids.

Thank you for creating an environment where our kids could excel, succeed and grow this year.  I know at times they were contentious, enthusiastic and probably overly exaggerating but they definitely learned the value of a good spell checker.

Thank you for not judging us when we packed Lunchables for our kids.  They are picky eaters and our creativity with lunches went out the window in September.  Speaking of which, who do we speak to about getting Domino's pizza on the menu more than once a month?  That would really make our lives much easier.

Thank you to our wonderful bus driver for being quick on the brakes when you saw our kids were actually at the top of the driveway in the morning.  Sometimes the snooze button gets hit more than we would like to admit.

Thank you also wonderful bus driver for finally agreeing to let us send the kids to catch the bus by themselves.  Watching them from the porch with a cup of coffee was much better than walking up the driveway and yelling at them to keep their hands to themselves.

Thank you to the art teacher who always greeted the kids with a Hello Humans when they tumbled out of the car each morning in the drop off lane when we hit the snooze a bit too much.  Speaking of the drop off lane, who do we talk to about getting a sign that tells that parent they are not to exit their car in the drop off lane.  This is a personal foul that should get you banned from the drop off lane for at least a week.

Thank you band director for helping our oldest kid learn to play another musical instrument.  We honestly thought she was faking it after the second band concert, but at the third one, she actually had a solo.  Who knew!  Sorry she won't be back next year, she is going to focus on piano and violin instead.  The trombone never won her heart.

Thank you to the pick up lane ladies.  Halfway through the year we abandoned the sign showing our last names and created a whole new system of hand signals to specify which kids we were picking up.  Turns out you can spell our names in sign language pretty quickly.

Most importantly, thank you all for helping our kids through the loss of their grandfather this school year.  I know how fragile our kids were when they returned to school and you helped bring some normalcy back into their world after it was turned upside down.  For this we can never thank you enough.

So teachers and staff, enjoy your summer off.  Sleep in, watch as much You Tube as your brain can handle, play xbox, go to the pool, play in the lake, hit a few camps and just plain have fun.  I know that's what our kids plan to do this summer.  You earned a well deserved break.  We'll send them back to you in August, taller, older and excited to see what awaits them at school. 

Sincerely,

Two Moms Who Are Ready for Summer Break, and for no homework or lunches to pack, or agendas to sign.

 

 

Mom, Can I Ask You Something?

This morning Pete and I were home alone, as she stumbled up the stairs slowly adjusting to the morning light she sat down in the chair across from me and said "Mom, can I talk to you about something?"  My Mom alert immediately went off in my head.  She and I were alone, she used a tone that meant it was something serious she wanted to talk about and she hit me first thing when she came upstairs.  This must be important. 

As my mind started running through possible things she wanted to talk to me about I said sure honey, what's up.  I'm thinking maybe she had hit her boiling point with the boy who has been a verbal bully at school year this year, or maybe a discussion about the changes her body is going through.  I'm ready I thought.  I can handle this.  We've already covered the birds and the bees, the bees and the bees and body changes in this past year.  I've told her countless times that she can talk to me about anything.  That's when she looks at me with her sleepy eyes and in the most serious of tones says, "Can we get our own XBox Live accounts?  We really need our own instead of a shared family account.  What do you think Mom?" 

Our kids are growing up.  Tonight when we went to the violin recital, we took our car and all three kids sat 
in the back and not once did we have to say, don't touch your sibling.   As the kids are getting older their needs from us are changing.  No longer do they need our attention 24x7.  Sometimes they don't even want us around.  Our jobs are less about the day to day stuff and more about helping them make good choices as they earn more independence.  Plus making sure they see the light of day and don't spend every awake moment in front of the glare of a screen.  I like watching who these little people are turning into but often times I look at them across the room and wonder what happened to our babies. 

So tonight after the kids allowed us to take them to dinner somewhere that they really didn't want to go but didn't cause too much of a fit because it was Mother's Day Eve, I bought them a second XBox Live account.  As they tested it out to see if it would do what they wanted it to, the excitement I could hear in their voices was worth the $10.00 for the month.  They assured me they would pay for the rest of the year tomorrow.  A friend recently said to me about raising kids, the days are long but the years fly by.  I'm pretty sure if I squint hard enough, I can see the years zooming by.  I must remind myself not to squint too much.

New Team Member

Dear Pete,

Over the weekend you and I had a wonderful talk on our way to buy more yarn.  You were quite the crocheting fool this weekend and just couldn't imagine how you were going to get through the next 24 hours without it so we took a quick road trip together.  During the drive we had some wonderful conversations and I answered a few questions you had about swear words and the meaning of sh(&, cr%^, he@# and what the word douche means.  Well, we kinda covered douche but you said to stop and you covered your ears when I said femine hygene product.  You'll laugh about this later but I was glad you felt comfortable asking me these questions and not your pals on the playground.  I still get a little concerned when you make the statement, "guess what we saw on the playground?"  I breathe a sigh of relief when the answer is a bug of some sort.

The real purpose of my letter to you is on the way back to the cottage you mentioned asking for a laptop for Christmas and I said that would be a good thing to add to your list this year.   At which point you looked at me and said "Mom, I know you help Santa.  Mama told me".  I wasn't prepared for you to tell me this but I had a feeling you knew at Easter when you saw Mama's Easter basket full of beer.  While you still hadn't worked out all the details, you informed me that you knew Mama and I were Santa's helpers.  You still believe in Santa and I was so glad to hear this because that means you will be able to help keep the magic and spirit of Christmas alive as well.  As for when you will get your own set of instructions from Santa to follow with your kids?  If you keep the magic inside you and believe in Christmas and Santa, you will know what to do when you have kids of your own.  Until then, I'm glad Mama and I have another helper on our team to help keep the magic and spirit of Christmas alive.  And maybe together we can figure out how the reindeer food disappears each year.  That continues to stump me too Pete. 

Love,

Mommy

p.s.  I asked Mama if she really did tell you about Santa and she says she never did.  Guess you figured this one out on your own kid. 

First Day Recap

Today was the first day back to school for the kids.  We are doing the odd grades this year.  5th for Pete and 3rd for The Littles.  This year we have The Littles together, for a variety of reasons but mostly so we don't have to make 50 cupcakes for their birthday.  Selfish yes.  Practical yes.  We'll see if the decision to put them together pays off or is a bust.

The kids were very excited about starting school.  They missed their friends through the summer.  We spend a lot of time during the summer with friends that we don't see during the school year due to being in different school districts so they were super excited to get back with their peeps and catch up.  Today is probably the only day that we won't have to poke and prod them multiple times to get up in the morning, the newness wears off fast.

Typically the kids bring us homework on the first day of school but today it wasn't too bad.  I think our district is worried about the new pick up and drop off procedures right now and not bombarding us with paperwork and forms yet.  Instead each of the kids had something they had to fill out about themselves and the teacher they want.  The Little had to a fill in the blank job description for the perfect teacher.  Here were their ads:

Linus:  "One teacher who cares about me.  The person must like me and must be willing to spell.  The teacher must know that I LOVE MINECRAFT and should be a boy.  She must love minecraft and hate spelling.  Her favorite comment to parents should be spelling stinks and she should love saying me, me, me, me to students.  Must also be nice."

Cuppie: "One teacher who cares about you doing your work.  The person must like students and must be willing to dance.  The teacher must know me and should be nice and generous.  She must love school and hate red slips.  Her favorite comments to parents should by you're a good person and she should love saying thanks to students.  Must also be good."

Pete's assignment was to fill out an ABC of me.  Here are some of my favorites:   * A topic that interests me is science because I want to be a biologist.
   * If I were king of the world I would give money to the poor and make fashion illegal.
   * A question I have wondered about is how was humanity formed.
   * I wish we had no summer break.
   * If I were a zoo animal I would be a bat because I like bats.

Here's to another good school year and if you want a good chuckle, you should check out my post from last year, it still applies. 

 

 

 

Sixteen = Wedding

On A and I's sixteenth anniversary we were legally married.  Most of you already know this as you follow us on facebook or know us in person.  A lot of people asked us why now?  The easy answer is because we can.  With the recent court rulings and the federal government and Department of Taxation recognizing gay marriages, we had more to lose by not marrying than waiting for Ohio to come around.  It was important for us to do it on our existing anniversary date.  Mostly to make it easier for us to remember the date! 

We rented a house in Ellicottville, NY asked a friend to officiate, invited family to join us and made it happen.  The ceremony was just what we wanted;  small, personal and wonderful.  The kids sang a song and were involved in the ceremony, two flower girls and a "wing man".  While we wished we could've had our friends and extended family with us, but we know we were in your thoughts that day. 

In the three weeks we've been "married" I have often wondered, has anything changed.  Honestly, not really.  Besides the fact that we still get congratulations from people we see in our little community (the support has been overwhelmingly positive), the kids still need fed, the laundry needs to be done and life goes on.  Do we have an extra safety net that protects our family, you betcha.  But A and I have been committed to each other and our relationship for sixteen years now.  Besides making it legal, we are still pretty much the same.  I just wonder, on our seventeenth anniversary do I get her some furniture or something to do with paper?  Guess we'll figure that out in our first year of marriage.

If you haven't seen the wedding video and are interested in seeing it, message me for the link.  We are happy to share it with friends and family.

 

 

What We've Learned from Six Days and Five Nights

Pete is home.  I honestly think it was a survival story for the Moms instead of for Pete.  I do believe her first experience away at camp was a success.  No tears, no calls to come get her and she made a few friends there as well.  Here's a few things we learned having our oldest away for six days and five nights.

1) It's too long!  We kept telling ourselves it would be over in a blink of an eye but it was longer than we thought. 

2) We were lucky to get one phone call on Wednesday evening but our five minute phone call mearly reassured us she was ok.  I overheard another parent say that their phone call was only three minutes.  Guess we should be glad we got five minutes.

3) What makes hockey equipment really smell is hockey camp.

4) The first thing they tell you on the last day of camp is "we return these campers back to you and they can all dress themselves for the game and TIE their own hockey skates.  You are welcome."  In addition to that, the first thing Pete told me when she saw me was she suited herself up in her gear all by herself minus the jersey.  This is HUGE people.

5) After six days of hockey camp, the child should come home with more dirty pairs of underwear than clean underwear.  Just saying.

6) Thankfully the campers were required to shower each day.  And she assured us she brushed her teeth daily too.

7) Our fears about the picky eater surviving at camp were for naught, she found plenty of food to eat at the cafeteria and even tried some new foods like cornflakes and waffle fries.  Sigh...waffle fries and cornflakes, way to branch out there kid.

8) Having the kid repack her dorm room in her luggage is interesting. 

9) The siblings who are left at home will say they don't miss the older kid being away but trust me, they missed her like crazy and had a whole list of items to tell her about.

10) A kid CAN live without any access to minecraft for a week.  Or any electronics for that matter.

11) You will think that you will have loads of free time being down a kid but not so.  We seemed to be just as busy with the two as we are with three.

12) At camp you gotta talk the talk to walk the walk.  The kid who knew nothing about the NHL or the players in the NHL will suddenly start talking about what a great goalie Quick is and can you believe the Kings won the cup again?   Why did the Kings take Gretzey out of that game?  Sidney Crosby is a really good player too.  Honestly, A and I sat at the table dumpfounded at these comments and had no idea how to respond except to say that Jess would be proud.

13) The kid you dropped off at camp will be returned to you older, taller, more responsible and better for the experience.  She will also be extremely tired and eager for more hugs and kisses.  Not sure how long that will last but we will keep hugging and kissing her until she makes us stop.  I think we will all sleep better tonight knowing we are back under the same roof.