Right Now

School lets out for the summer at the end of the week.  Eileen is sad, Linus is excited, I am nervous, and Robin has no idea.  The freedom of summer has the potential to be fun and exciting.  However,  with all 3 kids all day, every day, there is lots of potential for fighting/grumpiness/frustration.  In these last few days, I am trying to breathe in all the wonderfulness that is the kids these days.  I need to be able to look back at this post when times get tough. 

Linus

I can't believe how grown up he is.  In a matter of days Linus will officially be a first grader! I tell people that when it comes to him, I am playing the long game (ie not nit picking him constantly over every misbehavior).  I feel like I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  No one at his school believes that he is anything but delightful.  Karate has been so good for him.  It has really helped him to learn how to self-regulate.  Getting him to karate twice a week can be annoying, but he truly loves it.  I like that it enables a twice weekly workout for me in addition to the perk of character building for Linus.

Linus really is so very grown up.  Sometimes I have to remind myself he is only six years old and not rely on him too much.  He can be so responsible.  When Robin got hurt and cut himself the other day, Linus rushed to his aid, applying a wet cloth to the wound and then bandaging.  Linus is a very competitive and cutthroat board game player.  It's nice that he can handle games like Settlers of Catan.  I love who I see him becoming.  He understands the good stuff in life.  He asked if the next time it was a cold rainy day, if we could just stay inside by the fireplace, have hot cider and popcorn, do puzzles, play board games, and watch movies. I know, right?

Eileen

Eileen is her own person.  She loves pink, dresses, rainbows, unicorns, and princesses.  She also loves building, creating, and drawing.  In the last few weeks her art has really taken off and I've been impressed by her pictures.  The other day she drew a spider, cut it out, attached a long piece of tape, and hung it by the door in order to scare me when I walked through it. She rarely lets me take her picture or hang her art.

She was angry I tried to take a picture of her in her recital outfit.

I love how thoughtful she is.  She tries to think of ways to "fill people's buckets."  While she is supposed to be taking a nap, she likes to make cards in her room for people and then slip them under their doors. Eileen still likes to go off quietly by herself to read, draw, build, or play.  It's great except she leaves a path of destruction in her wake. We're still working on that part.

Robin

Robin remains all sweetness.  Despite all his challenges, he continues to persevere and soar.  His therapist can't believe how far he has come in six months.  He is sooooo close to making the switch to walking.  He is obsessed with Caspar Babypants and begs for more constantly.  Robin likes to wear his yellow boots.  He is beginning to do pretend play.  Robin pretends to pick flowers (which sounds a lot like "yellow") and then gives them to you.  This evening I caught him playing with his baby, putting Charley on his rocking horse, singing "rock, rock, rock."

rocking baby Charley

I love how he jumps up off the table the moment a wet diaper comes off to give me a hug and says "naked, naked, naked" while giggling.  I then get to wrestle him back down to put on a fresh diaper.  Robin melts my heart on a regular basis.  The way he says "Mama" with just the right amount of love, awe, and excitement.  Even better is when those words are followed by a kiss.

So yes, my kids are all kinds of awesome.  I need to remember this next week when the squabbling begins, the long unending weekend with no school to act as my salvation.  There will be a routine, swim lessons, day camps, and adventures to pass the summer.  I'm thinking if it all goes down hill, I'll just revert to a 1980s life style and make baloney sandwiches, turn on the sprinkler, find some TAB to drink while laying out in the sun and re-reading Summer Sisters by Judy Blume.  Maybe I'll do that anyway.

Baby's Getting Down with His Bad Self

baby getting up
baby getting down down
baby got a smile
baby got a frown frown
baby getting up
baby getting down down --Baby's Getting Up by Caspar Babypants

I had a nice break from kiddie music.  I managed to get the kids to branch out and listen to more grown up tunes.  They especially like Jack Johnson, Lady Gaga, and Adele.  I started to feel like Robin was missing out on all the great albums I accumulated during the early years of Linus and Eileen, so I brought them back into rotation.  Caspar Babypants seems to have brought out the inner dancing fiend in Robin.

Every morning without fail Robin tries to say Caspar Babypants and then signs "more" and has us follow him to the living room.  He scales the couch, assumes the position, and waits for us to turn on the CD player.  He just can't get enough.

We have to be careful to not mention said artist around him unless we are ready to drop everything and dance.  His face lights up at the mere thought and he starts bouncing in anticipation.  The crumpled look upon his face when told that Caspar will have to wait will make you feel like you have a heart of stone.  You might as well just say you enjoy feeding on the souls of small children to be able say no to that face.

In addition to dance parties on the couch, we've been spending quite a bit of time in the living room because I bought Robin a small trampoline with bar to help him improve his tone and stimulate him a bit more.  He likes it, Eileen and Linus love it. 

Robin's therapist suggested bringing out our easel for Robin to use.  He's started enjoying drawing with the big kids. Being able to put a crayon to paper is apparently a developmental skill (which he lacked until recently). And of course, they were too excited about the easel so Robin has not had a chance yet.  It's the floor for him.

Working on sensory skills is fun!

I'm thinking our next step will be a little baby jazzercise--incorporate the trampoline into our dance parties.  I've been needing an excuse to get him some more baby leg warmers....

From the Mouths of Babes in May

Robin:  There you go.

Eileen: When you carried me naked in your tummy I couldn't see where you parked.

Eileen:  I love Mary best because she's beautiful.

Eileen:  When are we going to look for the lost city of Atlantis?
Me:  Um.  We're not.
Eileen: (sadly) But I want you to look for it.

And just so Linus gets some representation....

The Magic of Believing

Almost exactly two months ago Robin took his first steps.  It was a joyous occasion.  However, after those initial steps he kind of stalled out and took maybe 1 or 2 steps a day, some days none.  His lack of progress resulted in a special consultation with a physical therapist, separate from his regular therapist.

The physical therapist pronounced him ready to walk.  He just did not believe he could do it.  She handed him a toy and as long as she was touching the toy, he would walk around the room.  If she let go, he collapsed.  It was just like a scene out of the movie Dumbo.  All Robin needed was a magic feather and he could walk.  Back home, I began barely holding onto his lovey instead of his hand and letting him walk holding onto his lovey.  He continued to collapse the moment I let go.  We went like this for a few weeks.

Last week I mentioned the idea of a weighted vest to his therapist.  Robin has low tone and poor core muscles.  He also sometimes needs help "waking up."  He isn't sleepy but it takes a bit more to make him alert and active.  I thought the pressure of the vest would help stimulate him while also helping him build strength.  His therapist thought it was a good idea, but suggested starting with a weighted backpack and seeing how he responded before I spent money on a vest.

I emptied out Linus' little toddler backpack and put a one pound bag of beans in it.  The backpack has chest and waist straps which really helped secure it.  The result was nothing short of miraculous.  Since Robin has a propensity for hunching forward, the backpack pulled him up and straightened him out.  This alone seemed to help.  Luckily, Robin loves his backpack and hates when we take it off him.

The hallway of the kids' school provides excellent practice for walking,  Long, straight, with lots people nearby to cheer him on as he walks.  We started by setting goals to have him walk with very little assistance the length of one classroom.  After lots of hard work, we eventually worked our way up to having him go the entire length of the intermediate and middle school classrooms.  Robin is even kind enough to sometimes let one of the teachers hold his hand while he goes. 

Finally, in the past three days Robin has gone from taking 3 steps maximum by himself, to 10,15,20 steps.  He can even pivot and move around objects.  I tried to take a video and of course he didn't want to cooperate, he was on a mission to climb the stairs and couldn't be bothered.

I'm so excited that Robin is progressing to bipedal movement.  19 months old, whatever. His world is going to open up for him.  The backyard and playgrounds will be infinitely more exciting.  Robin just needs lots of encouragement and opportunities to try.  I'm so proud of him.  All it took was a lovey and a magical backpack of beans.

My Happy Place

Everyone should have a happy place, somewhere that instantly makes your heart feel lighter.  Mine is Bainbridge Island (although Maui might be a close second).  Many of my idyllic childhood moments took place on the shores of Pleasant Beach or traipsing across the island. 

Yesterday I woke up, excited about the predicted beautiful weather ahead.  After making a few suggestions about possible adventures for the day, we quickly settled upon a trip to Bainbridge Island.  The kids are often pretty good about mobilizing when they sense the need to act quickly and we were out the door in less than 40 minutes from the time I stepped out of bed.  Thanks to my childhood visits, we skipped the downtown Winslow tourist scene and instead made for the less crowded parts of island.

Ferry rides are so exciting!

The kids did their part by taking car naps throughout the day.  We picnicked at Battlepoint Park, where I fondly remember chasing rabbits as a kid.  The awesome playground was a big hit.

Of course we made time for a little nature exploration. We found a large bush with a major tent caterpillar investigation.

From there we headed to Fort Ward.  The kids loved scampering along the rocky beach.  Robin was excited to find so many "balls" and delighted in throwing the rocks.  We found plenty of crabs and moonsnails as we turned over rocks.

We then hiked the loop trail and checked out the forts.  The kids did great and Robin excitedly cheered us on as we walked.  Eileen tired after a while and needed carrying.  This is resulted in Robin playing peekaboo with her over my shoulder.

I've been teaching a nature science unit to Linus' kindergarten class.  I used the opportunity to do some plant identification.  It took some convincing before I convinced Linus what we saw was a nurse log.

We ended our adventure by meeting up with my aunt, Eileen, for some frozen yogurt.  The kids loved playing in the fountains.  Eventually, little Eileen was just relaxing on a statue and becoming drenched.  We didn't have changes of clothes for them, but sometimes you have to just let go and enjoy the moment.

The ferry gods smiled upon us and we got to load a boat earlier than expected.  The kids were cooperative throughout the trip for the most part.  I went to bed completely blissed out from a wonderful day.

Mother's Day meant sleeping in, morning snuggles, flowers, a latte, and french pastry in bed, more lounging in bed, a trip to the farmer's market, and an afternoon of pampering at a spa.  There was a moment this morning as Linus' serenaded me in bed that I began to tear up because I could see just how much my kids love me.  Sometimes a mama needs that.  It's been an amazing, rejuvenating weekend.  I hope I can hold onto the feeling as we continue with our insanely busy month and head towards summer. But at the moment, life is good.

Conversations in the Car

One of the biggest adjustments to moving to the suburbs has been spending a large amount of time in the car.  I miss being able to walk everywhere, or when driving was needed, the destination was only 5 minutes away.  I spend a minimum of 1.5 hours a day in the car compared to maybe 1.5 hrs every two weeks.  Craziness.  The one upside to all this driving in the car is the conversations I have in the car with the kids.

In the past week alone our topics of conversation have included World War II, racism, antisemitism, origins of the universe, what it means to be "born sick" (sparked by Hozier's Take Me to Church), priestly celibacy, and why people are homeless.  My morning commute to school has become a series of mental exercises.  I love that my kids are deep thinkers.  The tricky part is coming up with satisfactory answers that are both accurate but not too overwhelming or complicated.  Some days I am more successful than others.

This morning our conversation somehow turned to the gospel writers after Eileen asked who St. Luke was.  I was able to answer he was the patron saint of dentists.  This was not enough information for the young minds riding in back.  After a bumpy start, I explained that the gospel writers recorded the life of Jesus for different groups of people.  This of course made no sense to the 4 year old and 6 year old.  Linus called me out and asked if that meant that they just made stuff up.  Shoot.  I had to think fast.  I then called upon Harry Potter to rescue me.  I told Linus that writing the gospels was like if he and I were trying to tell people about why they should love Harry Potter.  He and I would probably tell them different parts of the same story that we thought were most important for someone to hear.  Even if we did not say the same thing, we would still be telling the truth.  Harry Potter for the win!  Fr. Brad, our parish priest and lover of all things pop culture, would be proud.

Sometimes I wish I did not have to spend so much of my day driving back and forth, or that I could just get lost in my own thoughts while driving, or just listen to music of my own choosing.  But when I think about the quality of some of our conversations, I am grateful for these moments.  I hope my kids continue to talk to me and I am able to use these times to help craft their world view, making them more compassionate and informed people.

As I pulled into the school parking lot, Linus saw a sign for the Give BIG campaign.  I quickly explained what it was.  He told me that if it was up to him, he would give money to Children's Hospital because they help Robin.  Done.  I think I am on the right track with that kid.

Round the Campfire

Every kid who grew up in the 1980s coveted the Sears Catalog Holiday edition.  I would flip  through the pages, coveting all the cool toys, fantasizing what it would be like to own them.  I imagined how much more fun my life would be.  I dreamed of the day I would have a disposable income and be able to buy whatever I wanted.

Now I am an adult and my Sears catalog dreams have been replaced by Pottery Barn and Pottery Barn Kids.  My kids covet the Halloween edition.  I do have some disposable income, but I can hardly afford all the things I love.  I don't get to be Rachel on that episode of Friends where she essentially transforms her apartment into a Pottery Barn catalog.  Instead I like to walk around U Village, visit all the stores, and fawn over all the cute, fun things. And sometimes I walk into The Land of Nod and watch my children begin to play with the display items.  And I watch as all three joyously play together.  And then sometimes,  despite my best efforts, I can't resist the urge to impulse buy.  And that is how I became the proud owner of a stuffed campfire.

Of course we had to rush home, set up the tent, and put on our jammies.  The kids excitedly played.  There was no fighting, just fun.  I can't buy everything I want, but today I satisfied the child inside me.  Mean mama that I am, I ended the camping fun in favor of bedtime, but not before I sang our family's version of one of the kids' favorite camp songs.

"Round the campfire, embers glowing bright.  We have met in comradeship tonight. Round the boughs of whispering trees.  Guard our golden memories.  And so before we close our eyes and sleep, let us pledge each other that we'll keep.  Dimock Family strong and deep.  Til we meet again."