Me and My Shadow



LD can brighten any day
with that smile and those big eyes



The other day, LD pranced daintily downstairs after telling me she wanted to pick out her dress for the day...

"See my pretty dress, Mommy?" she said as she swayed side to side and cocked her cheek to the side. 

"I do.  It is perfect." I chuckled as she swirled around me with her eyes closed as if she were up on a stage fit for a queen.

 "Yep...it's beautiful...do you want a picture of it?"  she replied as she twirled around the living room and then went up to flopped down on the stairs.  Not being the one to shy away from overindulging when it comes to photographs, especially when the kiddos initiate the request, I was tickled pink when the following set of photos came into being. 

Two of my "shadows" put on quite the show for me, brightening up my day, and certainly bringing to mind all the joys that childhood is about.  LD and HS will one day reflect upon their own and I am hopeful that they will say that they were lucky to have shadows of their own and that they were firmly stuck together like glue...after all, the beauty of having a close knit family are the shadows that dance through the rest of your life with you...even if some of those shadows are your furry brother!



Closer than bows on a little gals head...



Like the wallpaper sticks to the wall.

Like the seashore clings to the sea.
Like you'll never get rid of your shadow;
You'll never get rid of me.

Let all the others fight and fuss;
Whatever happens, we've got us.



(Me and my shadow)


Two of My Favorite Shadows minus One



We're closer than pages that stick in a book

We're closer than ripples that flow in a brook

(Strolling down the avenue)
Wherever you find him, you'll find me!



Howling Along



Does it get any better than
holding your friend's hand
while listening to fun
music?



Today was one of those really awesome days.  You know, one of those days that starts off with a full cuppa cawfee in your favorite mug.  A brewed pot of cawfee that you didn't have to stumble up to make with sleep filled puffy eyes because it is way to early for any human being to be up.  Well, at least to early for non morning people.  Then you get ready for the excitement that you know you can't suppress because it's the polar opposite feeling from those that accompany the constant stress of a 9 year old stuck in a school who doesn't understand him and the gnawing anxiety that stems from waiting for results from something. 

I needed today.  LD really needed today since she has to deal with my roller coaster moods.  It was an awesome day.  Did I happen to mention that?  Oh, I did?  Well, just in case it didn't sink in...it was AWESOME.  Thank God for friends who don't realize when they invite you to head out with them to do something, that the invite was just the thing you needed to perk up an otherwise exhausting brutal week.  

Uncle Wayne and the Howling Dog Band arrived in fun theatrical flare to entertain keiki at the local library.  What a hoot they were!  Imagine a good ole boy from the hills of West Virginia who stopped off for a while in a hippy college town and viola...you can picture the lead vocalist.  He cracked me up from the time he started his performance to the end.  One thing that I gleamed for certain...he adores kids. 

This face says it all!

For 45 minutes, Uncle Wayne and his Howling Dog Band (which turned out to be only one other fella) held LD in rapt attention.  She was literally a sweaty darn mess after she was done bouncing, jamming, and twirling to the silly songs of whales, mice who won't leave houses, kangaroos in Tasmania, and what grew from the hole in the ground (green grass, a very tall tree, with a nest with an egg, and a bird, of course!).  I sat crisscross apple sauce with the other excited kiddos and dived right in to the fun of just being around LD and her little friends.  She cracks me up.  She, unlike her brother and myself, tends to take a little time to survey the situation before charging forth.  Once she's comfortable though, Sally bar the door! 

Love the sign that greets the kiddos
as they enter the sand area at
Dixie Grill!

I can think of no better way to end an outing than heading to the Dixie Grill where they have a....

SAND BOX just beckoning the kids to allow time for their momma's to have time to eat in peace and actually carry on a girlfriend conversation.  Love it! (chimes and falsetto singing)

Now I sit here in perfect peace.  LD is snoring...literally.  She's taking a nap without testing my patience for the first time this week.

Yep.  Today was just one of those days.  Those awesome miraculous days that you just can't imagine not  howling along and joining in the fun.



Bang!

I have to be honest.  Stupid dog tricks really crack me up.  Now don't pretend that you don't know what I'm talking about.  You've been over at a house and been entertained by more than having Fido "roll over."  It never occured to me that I would become one of those moms who would encourage her beloved furry son to learn one.  Before getting Cody, it was always entertaining to be over for dinner at someone's house and see what their dog could showcase.  Well, does Cody ever know how to perform a showstopper! 

HS has been working overtime on training Cody on his latest and greatest dog trick.  

 If you want to see it live and in person, you'll have to come over for a drink on the lanai. 

For a treat and a pat on his head, he'll do anything for ya!

Woof-erful Experience

HS and Shelby ready for their daily walk

Ask HS what he is most excited about this week and he'll tell you.  He has a job.  A real paying job.  One that he didn't know he was getting money for until he was holding the keys to the neighbor's house and had been given the low down on what they expected of him. He listened with rapt attention to each item that they expected HS to do.  He asked good questions and thanked them for allowing him to watch Shelby. 
     He is riding on cloud nine right now.  Someone gave him a him job and by gosh, they think he's responsible!  I could hug these neighbors right about now, especially after the not so great feelings that he gets about himself during the school day. They gave him a great challenge and HS is rising well to the challenge.  Shelby, our "adopted" son for the week, is doing really well following HS's commands and lead.  HS gets him first thing in the morning for his outside time while he gets ready for school and then is sure to tell me, "now, Mom, remember, you have to watch Shelby while I'm gone.  I'll take over when I get back from school."  So there you have it, I'm taking orders now from my rather grown-up acting, responsible, and so loving darlin'. 
     By the time he gets home from school, I can't tell whose biting at the bit to go for a walk more...HS or Shelby.  One more positive to this new found feeling of responsibility...he's taking care of Cody now, too!    Today, after writing an e-mail to Shelby's mom and dad, HS leaned over and whispered, "after I finish saving my money mom, I may just have to take you out for sushi."  Now that, would be woof-erful!

Inhale

I was caught midway between having my bottom finally sitting down for a moment to play a nasty game of catch-up on this blog and making a fresh pot of cawfee to help brush the cobwebs from my brain when the doorbell rang. 

To my English heart's joy, there stood the UPS man holding two packages for me.  One held a rather large batch of photos that I had finally been able to get around to ordering (what is it with my obvious lack of keeping on top of my life?) and the other package held treasures from Amazon.  I couldn't wait to rip off the package tape on this box and grab a hold of the contents and inhale. 

In this day of technology crazed people who just can't seem to get enough of the latest i-phone, laptop, or kindle I stand in stark contrast.  My pink phone purchased 5 years ago barely keeps a charge let alone has the capability to text (I am way to ADHD to plink in letter after letter on my numerical keypad) and typically it is turned completely off and far away from the recesses of my purse.  No wonder I don't get many calls on it anymore.  Our laptop is an oldy but goody that HH purchased shortly before LD was born.  So *sigh* it is almost 4 years old.  A veritable dinosaur compared to the new fangled ones being sold at the NEX.  I do own a Sony Reader, but I am honest enough to write that most books on it have been free to download and the few that I've purchased I can count on two fingers. I also hate to admit *please don't read this HH* that I have barely used it since he gave it to me as a Christmas gift in 2010.  Poor thing sat deep in a drawer with no battery power for about four months after I read The Help.  I did pull it out recently, recharge it, and begin reading another book, but I just do not get that same inspiration to keep picking it up like I do a printed book.

So, it seems that I may just be one of the few remaining people on Earth who would so rather curl up and inhale the cozy scent of paper than feel the coldness and strain of reading from a reader.  I love the warmth and comfort a good book can bring. I love to inhale the smell of new books and I love the tickle that the dust from old yellow beloved pages of older books brings to my nose. 

Forget the cawfee.  I know where my bottom end is looking to sit... in the wingback chair downstairs as the afternoon sun fills the area with the warm orange glow of a Hawai'ian sunset as I open one of these books and hear the familiar crack of a new binding waiting to be opened and the pages eagerly awaiting the turn to the next page as I digest each word.

Inhale. 

Clip, Clip, Tear.

Today I finally decided to follow through with a milestone that many do long before now with their children.  That's right.  A long, long, LONG time before now.  Take for example poor HS.  He didn't stand a chance as a little darlin' curled up in my arms at the tender age of 2 1/2 months.  He had so much hair the Navy docs laughed and said he was already out of Navy regs. with all his hair when I delievered him.  Others, including his own proud momma, couldn't get enough of his thick wavy curls that covered his head and beyond his earlobes.

I remember making the awful deal with HH through my clinched teeth as we walked away from yet another person telling us our "daughter"was so precious.  "Honey, the next person who calls him a she is going to ensure we take him quickly to the barber.  I'm not having him mistaken for a girl for the next year or more of his life" HH tried to propose the deal as delicately as he could. 

I wasn't going to conceede easily.  NOPE.  Not this gal.  "Darlin' they just aren't looking closely when they speak to us.  For for Pete's sake...HE's wearing head to toe navy blue with trains on it.  Or, he's wearing little bluejean coveralls with a big huge football and his cute little ballcap covering his endless sea of brown curls.  You are being to sensitive.  They don't all think he's a she."  I replied back sweetly. 

"Babe.  Everyone who doesn't know us calls HS a girl.  Tell you what, if the next people we run into call him a girl while he peacefully is sleeping without a care in the world, we're taking him directly to the Barber.  If they call him a him, then you can keep the curls...on his head."

Deal.  Good grief, did I just make a pac with the devil himself?

Well, we all know how the story ends.  We shortly ran in to new faces who called him a she.  I cried like a baby as they cute his locks and he morphed before my eyes.  He then screamed bloody murder for the next three years every few weeks whenever we headed to the barber.  It was...misery. 

Fast forward five and  half years after HS was born with his mass of curls.  LD was born on a cold Friday mornin' without a hair on her head.  She was bald as a billard ball.   It took forever for her to grow her hair.  As it grew I knew she would not face the same fate as HS.  With each new blond ringlet I guarded her hair like it was the next precious jewel.  Then it began to grown down her back.  I fought the urge to cut it.  I was going to perfect the braids and begin putting it in adorable little buns just like Princess Leigh.  Ok, so it's all the time flying around like a hornet has been sucking on it, but nope.  I'm not cutting it.  I began making silent deals with myself: when mom and papa are here, I'll cut it.  when it's her 3rd birthday, I'll cut it.  after I've taken some adorable shots of her posing with her gynastics leotard on, I'll cut it.  With each silent deal I made to myself, I broke it.

LD getting her hair cut for the first time
Nov. 6 2011

Until today.  OK, so she's 3 3/4 years old.  Nevermind that her 4th birthday is next month.  Today, I bit the bullet.  Today, we (HH, HS, and me) witnessed her milestone.  LD got her hair cut.  She didn't cry.  She didn't fight.  She giggled.  She watched her show.  She was so proud.  As for me, I teared up.  HH took one look at me as he paused from videotaping a knew before he finished his question, "babe...are you...crying?"  I don't think crying is the word.  I sobbed. 

Her hairdresser gave me two little bags when she was finished cutting LD's hair.  One held a tiny blond lock.  The first clipping.  I admit, it took two times to cut LD's hair.  I didn't want to much taken off.  HH looked at the back of LD's hair after I thought we were done and said, "what did she clip off?"  The hairdresser agreed with my HH.  She hadn't really cut much off, if any. I thought it looked great.   

The second bag held a rather large lock.  The second clipping. 

In all, I could only bear to have about 2 inches clipped. 

I know, I know, I know...

not a drastic change. 

It's called Baby steps.

Werewolf Meet Butterfly

What happens when you cross together one spunky Nine year-old Werewolf... 





 ...with a flitty flighty Three and three quarters year-old butterfly?

The perfect combination, of course!
















This Halloween started off a little horribly rocky.  Even a bottle glass of wine wouldn't help me say it started off splendidly.  I'm not going to deny it.  Seriously, I'm not. 

After a delightful sibling fight in front of half our neighborhood at a potluck that was indended to be "fun" for all of us, I had almost decided that my kiddos weren't going to go trick-or-treating.   If there is one thing this momma can't stand...it's being embarassed by their bouts of horrific behavior.  However, they rallied together and plotted worked together ensuring their quest to gather candy and partake in good ole neighborhood door-to-door trick-or-treating occured...hand in hand.  

I have to hand it to them, they forgave oneanother, wiped the tears, and headed out for the evening.  I may be a little glad of the fight.  It made HS be glued to LD for the rest of the evening.  My days are numbered that he will want to choose to be with mom and lil sis over his buddies.  The day will come that he won't want to "strike a deal" because what he wanted was to spend time with friends...not family.

Thankfully, the half hour of torment and tears faded.  I watched with joy as they went door-to-door hand in hand...almost perfecting the deal they had made to me.   Regardless of their sibling spats, they do have a lot of fun moments together.  

I think HS's memory of almost getting to go around (with me two or three houses behind...that was the deal pre-fight much to my reluctance) faded and turned into a memory for them to look back and say with a start...

remember that year we fought and got mom sooo mad she almost took away trick-or-treating?   She sure is a sucker for us!  All it took was coming downstairs hand in hand and looking up at her with our big blue eyes and vowing we'd love eachother...for the rest of the night...as we trick-or-treated?  Then she made us promise we'd hold hands with one another around the entire neighborhood...man, she didn't waiver on that!