Holes

June 17, 2011

Holes

Lots has happened since last I posted. So much so that I (I know you'll find it hard to believe) am not going to go into much detail. I just want to get some things down so I don't forget! In the last two weeks, kids in this house have gained new holes in their heads - Ryann got her ears pierced last weekend:

She was very brave and adored her new earrings for a few hours. Now she's sick of having to care for them. She wants to hurry up and be able to choose new earrings to match with her every outfit.

Max has another hole in his mouth where he lost his second bottom front tooth. I know, I know, you're not going to believe it (again) but I don't have a photo of his holey mouth yet. Additionally, the tooth fairy must have had a very busy schedule last night because she never made an appearance. I'm certain her calendar will clear up tonight and Max's tooth will be missing and be replaced with a dollar, like last time.

A few weeks ago now, we were eating supper together as a family. Adam began to choke on something he was eating. He was coughing well so we watched him closely and suddenly he stopped mid-cough, with his mouth hanging open. He wasn't turning purple or anything but he was sitting so still, I thought it must be a bad choke. I urged him to "keep coughing, keep coughing!" He remained still for about another two seconds and suddenly, he nonchalantly loosened up his body and asked, "Why?" Even Max and Ryann burst out laughing at his absurdity.

Ryann and Adam began swim lessons again this past Monday. These are Adam's first lessons in the pool without a parent and since his surgeries. We decided the best plan was to leave his glasses on for his lesson because even though they were constantly full of water droplets, he'd really be vision-impaired with no glasses at all. First, Ryann took her lesson and looked like she loved every minute of it. Adam impatiently waited for his lesson. Ryann and I watched Adam having his lesson and at one point, my eyes welled up as his teacher lobbed different colored sinking rings into the very shallow end of the pool and then instructed the kids to search for certain colors. Adam was assigned blue. And he found every one of them. My baby, who probably 10 years ago would have been completely blind by now, was able to look down through the wavy waters of the pool and see those rings!

I've developed another cotton wool spot in my right eye. My body is crazy. And that's all I have to say about that for now.

Stu and I celebrated our 9 year wedding anniversary this Wednesday. The non-traditional 9 year anniversary gift is leather so I got Stu two football coaching books. One on offensive plays and one on being the best football coach you can be. Nine years ago, Stu bought me a pair of diamond earrings as a wedding gift. About a week and a half ago, I noticed one was missing (I have not removed them from my ears for more than a few hours at a time since we were married). We searched in vain and never found it. I got a new, bigger, better pair of earrings on Wednesday :) And a cake from Cold Stone Creamery. Those gifts are in competition with one another for being the best!

Deanna shared with me that she and Ryann were singing "You Are My Sunshine" to Adam the other day. He disagreed with them saying, "I am NOT your sunshine! I am Mommy's son!" He is so literal; he cracks us up all the time.

I took Max to his baseball game this past Thursday. This child is such a dichotomy. He just recently learned to tie his shoes and still can't remember his left from his right. Yet, on the way home from the game this week, he piped up from the back seat asking, "Is three minutes 180 seconds?" I told him yes and asked him how he knew. He said he just counted in his head. I explained to him that meant he understood how to do multiplication. "No I don't!" Max sounded scared. I told him again, "Yes! You can do multiplication. Here - what do you suppose 2 times 3 is?" "No! No! I can't do multiplication!" Max cried. I said to him, "Think about 2, three times". Max was quiet for a second and then said, "Six?" "Yes!", I cried. I continued to give him harder and harder multiplication problems until we got to 7 times 4. He actually got it. And he was only thinking about the answers for a few seconds each time. He says he now wants to be a baseball player, and play for the Twins, when he grows up, but I'm thinking he might follow in Grandpa Tom's footsteps and become and engineer.

I'm going to sandwich the Godawful story in here so that I remember and honor a great man but follow it up with some lightheartedness. Last Friday, my friend Bri's younger brother died of a tragic accident. He was a window washer and when his safety equipment failed, he fell 8 stories to his death. He was 25 years old and was the second youngest of five. My friend Bri is the oldest in the family. I did not know Ryan well but I knew that he was an amazing, fun-loving, day-brightening, musical, humorous, uplifting man and the world is just a little darker without his light. His loss has definitely left holes in many hearts. I've tried to send out lots of prayers from my own heart but also prayer requests to anyone so inclined, that Ryan's family will find peace at the end of their terrible grief. There are no words or gestures that can give them much relief, other than maybe that his death was quick, not painful, and he now gets to live forever in Heaven. Lucky guy :)

The kids, Stu, and I visited Stu's mom's house this past weekend to see her new, beautiful deck that wraps halfway around the house. Stu's brother Pat thought of a cute idea for the kids to each decorate a wooden fish for Terri (Stu's mom) to hang somewhere near the new deck. The kids each painted their own fish and Stu and I painted nameplates that the fish will hang from. Guess who's fish is whose: