that's MY boy!

To say that Carl loves music would be a gross understatement. Most of his favorite toys have been musical ones. Many play songs, some play note combos and they have a toy piano that he loves playing in various ways. He also loves singing, but mostly prefers to sing solos. He will yell at you if you try to join in when he isn't ready. He loves jumping on his trampoline to his favorite singers. His favorite TV shows have music in them and he has been known to cry when the characters stop singing. (Even though, on these shows, in less than 6 seconds, another song will begin.) In the nursery, they have a CD of piano Christmas music that I play for naps and bedtime. Since they were born in late November, Christmas music played right from the start of their lives. I think they find it comforting. Or maybe, I just like using them as my excuse to keep Christmas music out all year long! But, Carl requests "Music please" when we get ready to sleep. If I don't get over there fast enough to turn it on, he will begin humming the first song, The Holly & The Ivy. And, it is recognizable. He even likes playing keys on the real piano, or sitting next to me while I attempt to play him a children's song or two.

But, the reason for the post title... on March 15th, Carl came up to me and sang "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do". He stayed on the scale until "Ti, Do" - and then - he jumped down the octave to make them more comfortable for his voice!! I think I scared him by cheering so loudly! That's MY boy!!

photo taken 12/6/08

it's that time of year...

It hit 80* yesterday. Time to take the chapstick out of my car before it melts in my coin dish!

more than just a duck

We have lived here for a little over two years. Our home backs up to the neighborhood retention pond and we can see the pond from not only our yard, but our family room and kitchen as well. The entire time we have lived here, we have watched three ducks swimming in our pond. We often feed them bread - well, we feed them the crusts and Carl eats the middle of the soft bread part. There are 2 mallards and one white duck in this trio. The white duck has a piece of his upper bill missing, so when you see him, it looks like he is blowing you a raspberry. Being white, it makes him the easiest to spot out swimming. You can't see his tongue in this picture, but it shows his bill very well.

A couple days ago, on the way to school, I saw the white duck - my white duck - laying lifeless on the side of the road next to the pond. The two mallards were pacing by his side. The body of the white duck remained there all day, even though we have a lot of traffic. When Lew came home from work, he called our home owner's association manager and asked if he was aware that the duck was dead. It really looked like a car accident, but if it was more, maybe someone needed to know in case of disease and the pond's remaining wildlife. We have lots of fish, turtles, geese that visit and frogs. Lew offered to take the duck and bury him if Wade wanted him to. But, the duck was gone later on.

I am fully aware of how silly this is, but I cried for days over this foolish duck. It was just a duck. Heck, I don't even know the lifespan of a duck. Maybe he was old already. Gretchen liked the idea that he went to heaven. She also reassured me that he would come back to visit us and swim on the pond again.

But, his death came less than one week after my father's birthday. He would have been 64, but he passed away last November 23rd. I will never see him again. And now, this fool duck goes and dies. I saw this duck just about daily. And now, I will never see him again. Just bad timing for this duck's death, I guess. But, I have now got this visual loss to remind me of what is on my mind so much of the time. A friend told me that humans are the only animals to grieve. So, although the two mallards may seem confused and lost for a few weeks, they will move on. I don't know if I fully believe her.

straight jacket in size 4T?

OK, before you start reading this, raise your right arm above your head and keep it there.

Gretchen sucks her left thumb. So, at nap, she keeps her left hand busy doing that. So, you figure that would soothe her to sleep pretty quickly. It probably would if she weren't using her right arm and hand to fight falling asleep with everything she's got. She starts with holding just the elbow part up. That I can gently brush back down into sleeping position. Then, she moves onto using her hand to pick up any piece of blanket she can grab. So, that requires me to rest my hand on her upper arm and then tickle the lower part of her arm to try to keep her still. Nope, she fights with the fingers at that point. You can say, in a very matter of fact tone, "Keep your arm still." After hearing that - she begins wiggling her feet. (Oh - how is your arm feeling?)

She does drift off to sleep after awhile, probably finally from boredom after the game doesn't really go her way. But, I can't help but wonder how quickly she would take a nap if I could just keep that arm still right from the start... straight jacket in size 4T?

of course I need to figure out how to post photos

my first entry

Well, I have decided that I have enough little anecdotes to make some notes in cyber space. For now, I am just going to jot stuff down here, but not share the address. I do think eventually sharing and using this forum will make a nice way for our family to update the relatives who live so far away.

I am a stay at home mom to 3 year old twins and 8 year old twin cats. We enjoy real life around here. I plan to share some of it in a hopefully humorous light. And, I am a fairly intelligent woman. I realize this is a public forum and I am certainly not going to say anything stupid or personal to incriminate myself!

I can't promise the same for stories about my husband!