The Elf and the Baby That Knows

If only Brooks could speak, he'd tell poor little Chance all the secrets, including the fact that yes, mom does move that Elf.  I keep wondering to myself when Chance is going to put two and two together.  I keep waiting for the day for him to come home from school and have some kid spoil the fun.  But in the meantime, the parental lying and deception continue.  Again I find myself up against another moral dilemma that Christmas brings: tell your kid not to lie.......and then keep the magic of Santa and his Elf going at all costs. 

So you see, the morning of December 1, there was an Elf on our mantle.  He appeared there over night holding a piece of paper, written by Santa, explaining that we've been chosen to house this elf until Christmas Eve.  The Elf was to watch over the happenings of the house and report back.......Naughty or Nice.  Apparently the threat is not enough to stop the constant infractions that occur between Chance and Brooks.  Somehow the Elf swinging from the chandelier gets overlooked in a moment of panic when your little brother has taken your prized eraser shaped like a stapler and torn it in half. 

So the Elf is a bit mischievous, he takes things that are not his, he eats food and leaves behind crumbs.  And most importantly, he moves when no one is looking.  Sometimes he hides in very hard to find places, but Brooks is always around when I move him and so when Chance goes looking, somehow Brooks always knows where he is, screaming and pointing UUF, UUF, UUF!!!!  And every time Chance has no clue, exclaiming, "Brooks!!! You are such a good finder". 

And so the magic continues, if only Brooks could tell.

Eleven

My humor has changed since living abroad, and I find this totally hilarous on this fine Wednesday morning.

RUDOLF and OLIVE

Chance: "Mom, can you please tell me the names of all the reindeer, I only know two."

Me: "Which 2 do you know?"

Chance: "I only know Rudolf and Olive."

Me: "Olive?"

Chance: "Ya mom, you know: All-of the other reindeer."

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Chance was coloring at the table with Brooks (which seems to be a very frequent occurance lately) and as he's drawing his picture, he tells me about it:

"There is SO MUCH colors in my picture, like Tumbleweed and Copper and Denim".

Halloween

Everyday that I would walk the neighborhood, I'd tell myself, "next time you better bring along your camera and take some pics of these uber-decorated houses".  It apparently got to Chance so much that we didn't have out sufficient amount of decorations, that he begged and pleaded to please go and get some.  One day after school we drove up to the Halloween City store.  I was hoping for the friendly front yard, with happy pumpkins, cute little witches, and welcoming scarecrow people.  But when Halloween City let me down, it was one of those days where I just wasn't in the mood to drag the kids to a bunch of other stores in search for the perfect decorations.  So, we settled on Halloween Citys nasty scary evil ghosts and such.  Believe me, we made it out of there with the tamest decorations I could find, but.. I kinda flinched at the sight of it, and I know that poor lady that was knocking door to door trying to spread the word of her "bible", must have said some extra prayers for our house when she had to wade thru the hanging skeletons to ring our doorbell.  But Chance liked it. 

We did have lots of family fun decorating our pumpkin.  Ooo and goo for all ages.

We put Daddy to work on the bat design, and it turned out pretty rockin I must admit.

Chance skyped with his long-time friend from Zurich, Jack several weeks before Thanksgiving.  Jack's family just moved to Chicago from Zurich about the same time we did.  Jack and Chance were chatting about who was going to be who for Halloween, and Jack exclaims to Chance, "yeah and in America we get to go trick-or-treating to lots and lots of houses, not just 3 or 4!!!!" 

This was Chance's first year with "real" trick-or-treating.  A totally different experience from our very intimate, friends house to friends house make shift trick-or-treating we did in Zurich.  Chance was elated at the fact we'd get to go from house to house to house to house to house getting oodles and goodles of candy that I would eventually binge on myself and then throw the rest away. 

Chance was Luigi, and with a request like that, how could I deny the little shorter stout fellow a shot at making Mario proud?

The neighbor boys were Yoshi and Toad.  All that was missing was Princess Peach but I was too cheap and not cool enough of a mom to pull that one off.

So after a fun little neighborhood gathering down the street, we tagged along with the neighbor gang for trick-or-treating.  I was envisioning a lap around our cul-de-sac and maybe a couple houses more.  My friend informed me that last year her boys collected 14 lbs of candy and that they were trying to beat their record.  Little did I know this candy hunting endeavor would last for a full on 2+ hours.  Brooks stayed in the stroller most of the time and then passed out mid-way.  Little Mario just couldn't keep up with the pace.  And Ryan stayed at home to pass out candy to the rest of the neighborhood. 

All in all it was a good first take at this peculiar tradition....now onward to Thanksgiving.

It's All About DADA

Brooks has become a Daddy's boy big time.  Yesterday we went to get Chance's haircut after school and upon coming home, we walked in the door, Brooks looked around the corner shouting "Dada" as he looked all over for him.  Poor guy, to his disappointment it was only 4:30.  And Daddy's aren't usually home at that time.  After searching high and low, he finds my phone and starts crying at it, "Dada, dada, dada".  He NEEDED to call his Daddy and fast.  I am desperately texting Ryan to call us ASAP......how do you tell a 14 month old, sorry you have to wait for your daddy to call you back.  Needless to say, there were tears until the phone rang.

Daddy comes home, and his excited boys (and wife) gather in the closet as he takes off his work clothes.  Brooks is clinging to his leg, Chance is jumping on his arm. 

Ryan sits on the ground and asks, "Brooks, who is your number one?"  Answer: DADA.  "Chance, who is your number one?" Answer: DADA.  "Honey, who is your number one?" How could I not say: DADA. 

Then the audacity.  Want to know what came next? He asks himself, "Daddy, who is your number one?: DADA".  Uh-huh. 

QUOTE OF THE DAY

CHANCE:  "Dad, why can't you be like all the NORMAL dads and NOT watch football all weekend long"

RYAN: "Oh, so you want 2 moms?"

Block Party USA

One of my biggest struggles since moving back is the Blog.  LACK OF CONTENT big time.  Basically we are boring, and whiny, and there is nothing much to report.  What did you do last weekend?  Well, we watched the Longhorns lose again and Ryan mowed the grass and added chemicals to the pool, I cleaned the house and took Chance to German class, went to the grocery store, and moped around complaining of LACK OF CONTENT.  Now this is some exciting stuff to the readership.  Boo hoo.

At least my boo's were welcome in October.......and being back in America, tis the season for everything Halloween! October did seem to redeem itself. 

Ever since we moved in, we were warned about the annual neighborhood Block Party that would be held in, yes, OUR front yard.  Well sort of.  I went and snapped a view from our front door of the catering tables as they were setting them up.

It's was an amazing party, and 100's of people that lived in our area flocked to the 2 streets that flank our house for a pretty darn good party.  There was catered BBQ and margaritas, 3 bounce houses for the kids,

a live band,

pumpkin carving contests (yes, that is our bat pumpkin),

pie eating contests,

the best face painters I have ever seen, 

and the famous Boogy Woogy Choo-Choo. 

There was even halloween themed Cake Balls........I am realizing since being back that these bad boys are the new trend in American parties.

Brooks saw the big boys playing in the bounce house and decided he needed a moment to partake in some fun of his own.

The kid wondered all over the place

Even sharing a special moment with big Brother

And chowed down on some real American chocolate chip cookies.

I felt like it was a scene straight out of desperate housewives. But I've gotta say, I like that everyone was out of their houses, mingling and having a good time.  Let's keep it up.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Chance had his upper GI Endoscopy and PH probe done this week, and yesterday he was at home with me "recovering".  We went to the mall to do some shopping and I told him to pick the place for a special place. 

"Let's go to Starbucks, Mom.  Starbucks is good cause you can have breakfast there or lunch."

All American

I think it's a coming of age thing here in America, well in the south anyways, that if you are a young school age boy, you will at least attempt one season of Little League Baseball.  Not sure who it's more of a coming of age thing for....Chance, or me who is now at the age where I have a son playing it. How'd I get so old so quick?

This season was fantastic.  Chance loved it and grew every game and practice.  I was hesitant at first after hearing stories of Kindergarteners having private batting coaches, but we didn't see a too-competitive side to the sport YET. 

Chance said his favorite position to play was catcher, and you could tell with his focus.  Sometimes in the outfield, anything could be a distraction and you could always hear the coach saying over and over "Chance.....ready position"!

So, all in all it was a great experience, and I am so proud of Chance for stepping up there and trying something new!  Looks like for the winter we'll be back to playing basketball for our second season!

Ladies Man

Yesterday Chance gets off the bus and whispers in my ear, "Guess what I got at school"?  Then hands me a small pink slip of paper with a phone number on it.  A GIRL's nonetheless.  I met this little girl at the park the night before, and Chance introduced her to me saying she was in his class.  He was so excited about having her number, he went home and plugged it in "his" phone.

No, he doesn't really have his own phone, well, okay, yes, maybe he does, but only for emergencies or when he goes to friends houses and I want him to be able to contact me. 

Somehow this seems to be the trend lately, and really it blows me away at how he manages to get chick's numbers seeing that he is increasingly shy these days. 

The other week we went to McDonald's before baseball practice as I was too tired to cook.  Chance was running about with other kids there on the play equipment, one of them being an outgoing girl he had just met.  They are playing for an hour or so, and when it's time to leave I am packing up our stuff, totally unaware, and willfully hand him a pen and paper when he asks.  AS IF.  I should have questioned this act, but there I was again, a deer in the headlights.  I look up, and this little girl, who had apparently been there with her dad on "custody" night, was dictating her name and phone number to Chance as he is eagerly writing it down.  I then come to and wonder, is this really happening?  My six year old is getting the number of a girl?  And the dad was sitting there giving me the evil eye, like "he BETTER NOT call her".  I just nervously snickered and said, "I'm sure he just wants to schedule a playdate, and don't worry, he won't call".  What was I supposed to do?  Not sure what the American customs are here these days with regards to phone calls amongst munchkins who don't need their own cell phones.

So the exchange happens, she is about to leave and the little girls asks, "How old is Chance anyways?"  I say 6 and she hesitates, rethinking what she's just done.  "Well, I am 8 she says" and wonders off, leaving Chance in awe chanting her name over and over as she drives away never to be seen again. 

I need a class in parenting these kids of situations.   

A Nice Reprieve

A couple months ago my college roommate Cristin called to say that she and her beau were getting married in New Orleans.  My immediate response: "We'll be there".  It'd been over 4 years since we had seen each other last and over 3.5 years since Ryan and I had been away from our kids for a night.    Apparently we don't get out much.  We were blessed to have a fantastic sitter watch our kiddos for us while we jetted away for the weekend.  Ahh, the dreams of not having to get out of bed in the morning.

It's funny to me how the entire just of our overseas experience I was always looking for comforts from home.  And now we are back, somehow "home" has been redefined.  Our trip to New Orleans druddged up a lot of nostalgia from Zurich and our travels abroad, bringing me a much needed feeling of "home" that I have been longing for since being back in the US.  I am not exactly sure what I was expecting, perhaps a bit of grunge combined with a city still in recovery mode. I was completely surprised with a quaint, super cute, European feeling town in full tourism swing once again.  Granted we didn't leave our little bubble of the downtown area, despite my one mentioning to Ryan that it would be nice to take a tour of the "aftermath" of Katrina......his reponse, "Sorry honey, but I don't think we'll be venturing down to the 9th ward today." 

In stealing some words from our friend Stirling, New Orleans is like a mix of Spanish, French and Carribean architecture.  It made me feel for an instance that we were back in Europe on a little weekend adventure.  If only.  But at this point I'll take what I can get. 

Friday night we ventured out to Bourbon street to meet up with Cristin and her hubby and friends.  We did feel totally out of place.  Why you might ask.  Let's just put it like this: we're OLD.  And this fact was proven by the loads of people in front of us trying to get in to Pat OBriens, each was being carded.  Then they get to me and I get the "come on in" wave.  Really?  I don't look 21 any more?  And the same damn thing happened the next morning when we ventured in to the casino early in the morning to hang out with the alchies that had yet gone to bed.  Shoo in again.  Not one time in that whole weekend did I get carded.  It's quite a blow to the ego I might say.

Saturday morning before going to the casino to blow our $20 on the slot machines, we went to the famous Cafe Du Mond. 

No trip to New Orleans is complete without it, and the fantastically heavy beignets. 

Or if you are Ryan you call them bidets.  I was over the top happy about their Cafe Au Lait, again another comfort from "home".

That started my weekend of photographing my cute little hubby, although his mug shots show is disdain.

It must have been all the time I got to spend with him and being just down right giddy.  No strollers intrupting hand holding time here, no stress of children misbehaving in restaurants to over shadow the pleasant atmosphere.  At one point we looked at ourselves and said.....it may be another 5 years before we get to sleep till 8 am again. 

Saturday morning after filling our bellies with 3 orders of beignets, yes, that would be 9 total, plus 2 coffees each, we walked down to see the Mississippi river.

And down by the square in the French quarter where the artists like to sell their work.

Saturday afternoon was the wedding.

And then we rushed back to the hotel so we could squeeze in the last of the UT game.  Good thing the Longhorns won......the weekend could continue in good spirits, enabling us to some fine dining Saturday evening.  Sunday morning there was no 13 month old alarm clock to wake me at 6:15, no arguments over who would get up with this loud alarm clock, no one needed anything from me, and how nice that was! Our hungry bellies brought us back to Cafe Du Mond.  New Orleans vibrancy was in full swing Sunday morning with bands playing at every corner. 

We even ran across a blues concert in a park

and some really awesome street swing dancers.  I told Ryan we should take lessons to dance like that, and I was basically told I should start with a zumba class to loosen up my hips. 

All in all, what a fantastic weekend.  It did give me the bug to travel more, we'll see where that takes us.  Back at home the kids survived our weekend away and the newly-married sitter may never have kids thanks to ours!  So far we've lived down 2 days of the remaining 5 years until I get to sleep till 8 again. :)

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"People in jail are NOT lucky, you know why? They get bad dreams EVERY night while they are in there.  Why do they make the food so yucky when you are in jail?"

THE GOOD, THE BAD

THE GOOD: I got 5 "5-Star" tickets today.

THE BAD: A boy cut his paper in half today when he was supposed to be working on it.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"I'd pay one billion gazillion dollars if we could just move back to Zurich.  I'll give you all my monies mom, EVEN my bills." 

QUOTES OF THE DAY

#1:

Me: Chance, if you'll help me prepare and set up for our garage sale, I'll pay you money.
Chance: Okay, I'll do it, but only if you pay me in ALL CHANGE.

#2:

Chance: There's a new guinea pig at school.  He's in our science class.
Me: Oh, you have a separate science classroom?  What do you do in there?
Chance: Everything that scientists do.  You know what scientists do right?
Me: No, what's that?
Chance: Scientists mix powders and stuff together and wear goggles.

Incredible Moments

I got a call around 10:20 today from the school nurse telling me Chance just wasn't right, and could I please come get him.  So Chance spent the majority of the day with Brooks and I "recuperating".

And while I spend a lot of time complaining lately about our current living situation, I must admit that today was one of those days filled with incredible little moments that you wish you could freeze frame, throw 'em in a box and replay them later.

One of the blogs I read reminded me of this project currently going on in which they are asking people around the world to film something on 10-10-10 (pretty memorable date I think) and submit their video for possible inclusion in a comprehensive video/movie they are making. I find the project intriguing, and yes I plan to film something and submit it. Not so much cause I think my video would even come close to being chosen, but because I want to be granted free access to the final video. It’s going to be pretty darn cool.

Thinking about this video made me think about our day, the moments we had together today just milling around the house. And for an instance it all seemed magical, a nice little reprieve from the stress that seems to be following me around lately.

Every day around 2:30 Brooks starts milling about the house saying “Buh Buh”, his word for Chance. He somehow has an internal clock that tells him it’s about time to take our 15 minute walk the bus stop to get Chance. The bus stop is right outside our house I might add….but Brooks walks the whole way and it takes just that long. It’s the highlight of his day, and for the first hour when Chance gets home, he is stuck by his side. So today when I told Brooks we needed to go get “Buh Buh” he was so excited, until I started to put him in the car. I finally convinced him that we had to get in the car to go and get Chance, and after some initial objection, he chanted “Buh Buh” all the way to school….falling asleep along the way singing a very sleepy “Buh Buh” song over and over.

So back at home we spend 30 minutes in the back yard playing at the water table.  Some how my phone gets chunked in to the water, ruining it.  Back inside, dirty baby Brooks leads me to the bathroom say "Bubble" the whole way.  I couldn't believe he was so direct in telling me that he wanted to take a bath.  He is getting so big!  Moments later……..sick boy is suddenly bouncing off the couches and I manage to capture it on video…..the boys dancing together. So cute in itself, and even better it was Brooks’s first time to dance without holding on to something. Each time the music would stop, Brooks would cry and scream until Chance rewinded the video and played it again.

It's these moments you can't get back.  Thank goodness we have it on video.

And Finally He Noticed

Chance has this small fan at his bedside table that he likes to blast at full speed when he goes to bed.  He likes to bundle up under his down comforter, and to counter act the 81 degree heat that we live in, he employs his trusty friend to create some coolness. How he can sleep with 100 mile per hour winds blowing so close to his face I have yet to understand, cause when I lay down with him to spend a couple minutes before bed, it is eye-dryingly strong wind. 

Every night before we go to bed, either Ryan or I sneak in his room and turn off the fan.  I have secret fears of it catching fire or blowing Chance straight thru the wall.  Possibly even creating a tornado, cause we all know we don't have enough of those around here already.  Funny thing is, he's NEVER noticed or mentioned the fact that he goes to bed with the fan on, and wakes with it off.  I keep wondering at what point he'll notice.

And finally he noticed, 4.5 months later, telling me tonight not to turn off his fan in the middle of the night.

THE GOOD, THE BAD

THE GOOD: I didn't have to miss playground time cause of my doctors appointment. At least I got to school on time.

THE BAD: I had to miss a little bit of Drama cause Ms. M was testing me for reading.  And I told my friends that I went to 13 different countries, and they said I was lying.

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, No It's a Shooting Star

We're driving home from baseball tonight, LATE, it's dark.  I soon come to realize that the amount of times Chance has actually been outside when it's dark is very limited.  Yes, I do need my evening time which is why my kids get put to bed before the roosters go home.  But I am coming to realize he is almost 7 and the kid has seen stars only a handful of times.  My wake up call went something like this as he describes the airplane coming in for a landing:

MOM!!!  I see a shooting star!  No, I see 3 shooting stars, no 4!!!  And they are all shooting together.  And they are blinking!  See, there they go, shooting across the sky, really really low!!!

Pathetic

Quote of the Day, and this didn't come from Chance.  So that leaves.......guess who.

"Pleeeeeeeeeease make me cookies.  Do not make me call my mother."

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BROOKS

I can't believe it's been a whole year.  I remember sitting in church a long while back and the preacher said that life is like a roll of toilet paper, the closer you get to the end, the faster it goes.  Seems like ever since we had kiddos, this is the case.  It feels like it was just yesterday we were in the Zurich "hotel" hospital drinking cappuccinos and eating massive amounts of croissants to recover from the traumatic birth of Brooks.  But oh it was worth it.  What can I say, this little man has completely changed our lives, brought us so much joy, let us be parents all over again.  We can't imagine a world without him, and feel so amazingly blessed that he is a part of our lives.

I didn't really plan anything big for the day, keeping it low key and at the pace of of the little man.  Mimi drove up for the big occasion and Nanny and Pappy came over to celebrate it as well.  Brooks had been toying with the idea of walking all week but decided to go ahead and hold off until the big day.  He took his first "official" steps on his actual birthday. 

He even walked outside to greet everyone as the arrived and show off his new moves.  Thank goodness for helium balloons to offer a feeling of security.

We did lots of things that Brooks likes to do........bubbles:

Water table:

Eating (birthday boys never let go of their balloons though):

Present unwrapping (with the help of big brother, whether you want it or not!):

Playing with your new toys:

And most importantly, getting completely drenched in cake.  Brooks wasn't so sure about it at first, but quickly warmed up to the fact that, oh this is why mommy can't stop eating this stuff.

And while the birthday boy would have liked to remain green all day, he had to go get dipped in the bath to round off the day.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR VERY SPECIAL BOY!  We love you!

THE GOOD, THE BAD

THE GOOD: My class read for 22 minutes today.  (They are working towards reading alone for 30 minutes)
THE BAD: Yesterday on the playground me and E and A decided form a secret club.  Today E didn't want to play with me.  He only wanted to play with his other friend and didn't include me.  I even told him he could be the boss of the club but he said no. :(  I really miss my friends in Zurich.

On a side note, I've gotta say I'm pretty darn impressed with the kid for going at it with a positive attitude and getting out there.  It's gotta be hard to move to a new place and try to fit in.  Boy can I relate.  He was given a 2 week project to complete his "ME".  He is so cretive, and such a hard worker.  He worked very diligently to get this done and way before deadline.  I'm pretty proud!

A Little Lake Action

Goal for this past weekend: GET OUT OF THE HOUSE.  No more yard work, no cleaning, no errands.  Just get out and have some fun.  Like the good ole days.  I've been missing the footloose and fantsy free weekends that we used to have in Zurich. Funny how the memory is so selective, funny how you only remember the really good or the really bad and nothing in between.  At least that's how it works for me, and currently my mind is in the grieving Zurich phase of, woah is me, life in Zurich was SO GREAT ALL THE TIME. I'm sure that is how it REALLY was! It doesn't help that I read the blogs of all our friends there and read about all their fun adventures.  Common theme here: Stacey, your behavior is NOT helping the situation. 

So, self therapy to the rescue: The Lake.

I was very pleasantly surprised when we pulled up and found little jetty like cliffs, each with their own private picnic tabled gazebos and grills.  And then we had a nice little cove/beach to play on. 

We fired up some burgers on the grill, gave Brooks a watermelon to devour and we were set.

The boys took a dip in the lake, and I got taunted a little for being such a wimp.......no thank you Mr. Water Moccasin and gigantic man eating carp, I don't want to be your swimming companion. 

The view from the lake while I was watching the swimmers was quite fab. 

And we even happened upon an ancient ruin from the original settlers of this region while there.......for a moment I felt like I was back in Europe.