Oh-Bla-Di

Today is the last weekday of our summer. From here on out, we’re in the official school year. We’ve got another weekend, but then it’s off to the races.

To mark the occasion, we enjoyed a picnic dinner and some time at Eastwood Metropark. Eastwood has become our favorite stomping-grounds this summer since it has both an abundance of “nature” (read: longish grass, water, and birds/ducks) and a good playground.

We’ve got one more Saturday morning full of t-ball games tomorrow and then we’ll rest up for the big day Monday. Not gonna lie, I might be doing a happy dance by 0830 Monday morning. Together all summer is cool, but school days are awesome.

PS – The blog is back!! I’m going to try to make this a regular-ish thing, so come back soon!

I’ve talked about them before but we discovered a new (to us) band last year called Rabbit! and we listen to them several days a week.  In our minivan, Rabbit! is called “New Yusic” and probably always will be.  We were listening to it again last week and I finally figured out why “Camera” is one of my favorite songs on their Connect the Dots album…it perfectly sums up the vague parenting feeling that it’s all slipping by too fast to capture it.

I wish I was a camera
I would take a picture of
All the small and subtle stuff
Everything we can’t give up
I’ll keep my memories all intact
Of how we love and how we laugh
I wanna be a camera
I wanna be a photograph

I want it all to just slow down long enough that I capture all the little things that make my babies special, the things we swear we’ll never forget but that fade by the time the terrible two’s have passed.

I wish I was a photograph
Of times and places in the past
The truth is every picture’s old
Taking seconds or a year ago
This way we could stay the same
Let the world around us start to change
I wish i was a photograph
Or maybe just a picture frame

The time is so fleeting that, seconds after something happens, it’s all a memory.  Babies roll over for the first time only once; only one step is the first one.  Every milestone, every change moves them farther along their path.

A box and a pinhole set in the window to capture the path of the sun
You can hold on to lighting right when it’s striking, if you keep the shutter open
Digging through the thumbnail proofs
The ones I keep are ones of you

Maybe if we set things up just right – start a blog, take thousands of photos, terabytes of videos – we can remember it all or at least archive it for later reference?  How do you capture the way they smell when they’ve been outside to play on a spring day or just after a cozy winter bath?

I wish I was a picture frame
The kind that you can get engraved
One that says “I love you Jill,”
One that says, “I miss you Jane.”
Now I know you won’t get scratched
Underneath a pane of glass
I wanna be a picture frame
I wanna be a photograph

I want to bottle up their lives and memories and put them under glass, so nothing will hurt them or tarnish them.  Something this precious should be protected.  The frame would say, “I love you” so that no one would ever doubt that the protecting was all simply for love of those kiddos.

I wish I was a photograph
So nobody would have to ask
Who was in your high school play?
Or, What was on your wedding cake?
I could be a college crush
I could be an image of
How we live and how we love
I wish I was a camera

How we live and how we love
I wish I was a camera

All the little moments -the ones to review, the ones to relive – I want to record the times they can’t remember so that my kids can look back and know.  So they can see how they were happy; so they can see how much they were (are) loved.  I want them to remember, through my own memory, how each day, development, word, deed, and thought was cherished (even the crummy ones).  I want to be an image of that feeling for them; I want them to know how we lived (for them) and loved (for them).

So it’s been nearly a month since I’ve updated this blog.  To be honest, that’s a little hard to believe because Noah’s birthday seems like it was yesterday…or maybe last week.  So, it seems as though it’s been a fast month.  On the other hand, little dude’s birthday may as well have been a lifetime ago for all that has happened.  We’ve been busy living life at a mostly frenetic pace so, when we’ve had slow moments in which I could be blogging, I’ve chosen to simply be present and put memories to rest only in my mind.

But, since just reading the archives of this place reminds me how weak my memory is for the details, I’m going to try to get some stuff recorded before it’s gone for good.

Since I last wrote, Matt’s been to San Antonio for a week, I’ve opened a new veterans center at UNLV and been to Champaign, IL, Ava started dance classes again and Noah has started walking.  To say we’ve been chasing life would be an understatement.

Matt’s trip to San Antonio was of the last minute, emergency kind since he needed to go visit Michael on his return from Afghanistan.  Michael was hurt, which I’m not really going to talk about until I have his permission, but we were (are) so grateful to have him home and on the road to recovery.  Matt was gone for 8 days, but I think that was probably only barely enough time.  We hope to head back to San Antonio in mid-October so the whole family can get to see him.

After two years of advocacy and foundation building, UNLV has finally opened a one-stop shop for veteran services.  I’m so excited about the possibilities for this center and really believe that it is a game-changer for UNLV student veterans.  We opened during the week that Matt was gone, so it was a little bittersweet (all my UNLV vets are someone’s Michael) and also a little hectic.  I don’t recommend single parenting during one’s most busy work week ever.  Chances are good stress levels will be high and patience levels will be low.  Last weekend, on Sunday, I traveled with Liz and another colleague to the University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign to do a presentation about our vets program at UNLV.  It was fairly well-received and we also were encouraged by other presentations that helped us to know we are on the right track with our work.

Noah transitioned to a new classroom at school during the week Matt was gone and has been having a great time in toddlers.  His teachers, Miss Amy, Miss Nettie, & Miss Abby, have all been awesome.  This is the classroom where Ava started at Bright Horizons, so we already feel pretty comfortable with how things go in there.  With only a week or so of peer pressure in the toddler room, Noah was up and walking almost everywhere.  He still crawls if it seems more convenient, but has realized how much more he’s able to do on two feet.  He’s a little steadier every day and is truly turning into a toddler.  At school he sits in a chair at a table to eat meals, sleeps on a cot & is learning to play nicely with others and follow directions.  At home, he plays a little more independently and still clearly thinks his big sister hung the moon.  No one can get him to laugh at silliness like she can.  At his 12 month well-baby check, he was completely normal.  He weighed 21 lbs, 5 oz, and was 30 inches long.  We had another doctor appointment about a week ago and he’d gained another pound.  Whole milk is really doing its thing for him.

Speaking of big sister, Ava has been learning so much at school lately.  Since last I posted, she’s learned about the solar system, bats, soccer, football, and cars.  The solar system, in particular, struck a chord and she’s still fascinated with all things planet, moon & stars.  She’s also started dance classes again and being six months older has obviously benefitted her.  She follows along a little better and isn’t the baby of the class anymore.  Whoozers is also just growing up, getting smarter.  Today, while we were playing outside, she wanted to write letters with her paintbrush and water.  It’s exciting to see her start to “get it.”

It’s our fourth year here in Vegas and that means it’s assignment matching time.  Matt got word last week that he’s got a job in Dayton, so we’ll be heading back there next summer.  We’re super excited to be heading back to our house – the one with the huge backyard and all the family-friendly activity so nearby.  That news has me pining for fall and trees and cooler weather but, alas, it’s 100 degrees here in Vegas still and it’s a full year until we’re back on the other side of the Mississippi.

Our house in Ohio.  Doesn’t it look cozy?

A couple of anecdotes to remember:

~The other night when I was asking Ava what she learned at school that day, she replied, “Mommy, why are you always asking about learn, learn, learn??”  So exasperated with the nightly inquisition!

~Noah is such a bruiser.  He comes home nearly every day from school with some sort of damage to his face from falling or running in to something.  On Tuesday when I picked him up after his latest incident, Abby kept a copy of the report and said, “Well, I’ll just add it to the pile!”

~After seeing Lion King on the stage at Mandalay Bay, Ava is obsessed.  The movie is an instant classic although she’d only seen it once before and we are constantly playing “Simba” and “Simba’s mommy or daddy.”  Preschoolers are wonderfully impressionable.

~While we thought that Ava was incredibly musically inclined as a baby, her little brother may just have her beat.  He shakes his booty like none other and even likes to conduct the music he’s hearing.  Doozers has a pretty good sense of rhythm already.

~Ava’s been begging to “go see Rebels” so we finally did last Saturday.  We went to a UNLV women’s volleyball match.  She loved it, even though they got trounced, and Noah also liked all the clapping.

~We took the kids to see fireworks, postponed from July 4th, at Lake Las Vegas last Saturday night.  Ava loved all but the finale – she didn’t like them all going off at once.  True to his “chillest baby ever” reputation, Noah was completely unfazed by the loud noises and explosions.

I hope to get a Noah-at-13-months post up soon, but I have a few days until he hits that milestone.  Probably I’m the worst Mom ever for missing the one year milestone, but we got a little sidetracked right about when I should have been writing it.  In light of that guilt, I’ll pledge to get it done this month.  Here’s to promises kept!

“An old military tradition is that true friends who have not seen each other for long periods of time never question their friendship. These friends resume at the same time they left off regardless of distance and time between them. We call these friends ‘Family’.”

Lots to say, no photos sorted, so that means it’s time for a Ten on Tuesday!  Here’s what’s going on around these parts…

1.  Last week, Ava’s preschool class talked about what they were going to be when they grow up.  Monday through Wednesday morning, she was going to be a princess.  But, on Wednesday afternoon she decided she was going to be a mommy instead.  When I asked her if she was going to be a mommy who stayed home with her babies or a mommy who went to work, she told me she was going to “go to work and chew bubblegum.”  She’s seen the bubblegum dispenser I keep on my desk and has decided that that’s what I do when I come to work.    Whoozers also chose her outfit to dress up like a mommy for school on Thursday…khaki shorts, cute blouse, and a headband.

2.  This week at school, Ava’s class is learning about volcanoes.  The lesson yesterday was so terrifying to her that she cried all the way through it and had to be reassured repeatedly that there aren’t any volcanoes anywhere near Las Vegas.  Awesome.

3.  Noah continues to grow like a weed and has progressed from cruising to walking with his walker.  His new favorite game is to walk back and forth on the tile from one end of the house to the other.  We’re really wishing we’d bought a more maneuverable baby walker.  Also, he’s stood on his own for a few seconds a couple of times.  No consistency there yet, but it’s only a matter of a couple of weeks before this little dude is off to the races.

4.  Doozers is really an independent kid.  Must be the second baby thing, but he’s pretty much content to be plunked down in the middle of the playroom with some toys and have at it.  That independent streak leads to frustration, though, when there’s something he can’t do.  And that frustration leads him to biting the offending toy.  We’re thinking we’re going to need to take proactive steps to keep that from developing into a habit.  Kiddos who hit can stay in school, but kiddos who bite get booted to the curb.

5.  For all the toy biting, I can’t for the life of me get Noah to eat real table food.  He’s all about the purees, oatmeal and cheerios.  He’ll eat chunky food and will feed himself, but won’t feed himself soft-cooked veggies or breads.  This is such a new thing for me…Ava flat out refused purees starting at 10 months.  I don’t know how to teach someone to like real food.

6.  I’ve got a real interest in teaching Noah to eat real food because I don’t really want to spend all the time making purees anymore.  Our schedule is hopping around here and Matt’s been at work a lot lately.  I’m thinking that any job that he could work fifty hours a week and have no night and weekend time would be an awesome step up.

7.  Speaking of a hopping schedule, we got to hang out with some great TPS friends last Thursday night and will get to go to a mini-TPS reunion this weekend at Edwards.  The Traynors are back on the left coast and we’re all getting together to celebrate their arrival as well as Sparky’s return from a desert on the other side of the world.  We’re so excited to go see these people this weekend!

8.  Just to keep things interesting (and not get too settled in at home), we took off for Mt. Charleston right after the Traynors left on Friday morning.  We spend Friday night camping on the mountain and got home mid-afternoon on Saturday.  We were wiped out when we got home and spent the rest of Saturday recuperating.  We all had a good time, though, so think we’ll go again soon.  We’re slowly working up to longer camping trips…pretty soon we’ll leave for days at a time!

9.  Since Sunday was our only day at home this weekend, we used it to get a bunch of stuff done.  Of course, nothing we did was on any of our mile-long lists of “things to get done” but, instead, we engaged in some extreme puttering.  You know, the kind where you work on tons of stuff and it’s all physical, sweaty work?  Libby got a bath, I cleaned out and reorganized the closet under the stairs (here’s where I really wish I’d taken before & after shots), Matt cleaned up and repacked the camping gear and cleaned up the garage, and the kids did their best to stay out of the way.

10.  And, now, that we’re all settled, and in between trips and visits, I’ve got to do some writing.  Dr. Ackerman, my fave professor from my Masters program, has asked me to write a book chapter with him.  It’s due on August 15 and I’ve not yet started.  Ah, Procrastination…been a long time since I’ve seen you.  Thanks for the clean closets, though.