The Sixth Sense

We were running a little early this morning. Georgie, Norah and I had well over a half hour to burn before Georgie had to be in school, so the kids (although oblivious to what a cemetery is, since I never really found the need, or desire, to explain it to them) asked to walk around the "park" behind the church. The church/school was built in the 1700's, and most of the graves are over 200 years old. Most of these have not been visited in decades; these are the ones I love to visit. I try to imagine the people buried there, what their lives were like, and how they died. I tend to steer clear of the newer plots. The graves that are still very new, still just a pile of dirt and freshly cut flowers are too depressing for this early in the day.

As I walked this morning, Georgie was walking his usual 10 feet behind me, happily humming to himself and kicking an acorn down the path. Norah, holding onto my finger, pointed out the birds and squirrels, and the occasional plane flying overhead. When we came closer to the end of the path, Georgie looked up and focused intently on a little bench a few feet away.

"Look, Mom!" He pointed to the bench sitting under a tree. "There's my friend!"

I looked up, thinking I'd find one of his classmates standing around, waiting for school to start, like we were.

"I don't see anybody, buddy. Who do you see?"

"The little girl over there. She's very sad today."

"Oh, ok. I'm sorry she's so sad. Maybe you can make her happy again." I started to blow him off since my children have quite the imagination, and we have had dozens of imaginary friends in and out of our lives over the years.

"No, Mom. That little girl wants to play with me but she can't. She's very sad because she can't breathe." He sighed, looking very sad himself, and then continued, still looking in the direction of the bench. "She wants to come to school with me, but she can't, right Mommy? She has to stay here in the grass. She's very, very sad. I wish she wasn't dead anymore so I can play with her."

He pointed again towards the direction of the bench, and then I remembered something about that little corner of the cemetery. At the very end of the path, a few feet from the little bench, there is a very special grave that I visit on occasion. It is the grave of a three-year-old girl who died almost 20 years ago.

Mrs. R: Hey Georgie, your pants are on backwards!

Georgie: No, my pants are not backwards... my BODY is backwards.

Spiderman-iac

I took Abby to Kyle's birthday party tonight. When the movie ended, the last of the pizza and cake had been eaten, and the games had all been played, Abby and I made our way back to the car, party bags in hand, where I noticed that I had three missed calls from home on my cell. (I had kept the phone in the car to charge, since the battery was beyond dead.) A small wave of panic washed over me since George doesn't usually ring my cell when I'm out unless it's pretty important. I returned George's call on the way home and learned that Georgie had come down with a fever and had not eaten anything all night. In fact, he had stayed curled up in my bed most of the time Abby and I had been gone, which is rare for him especially since his Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop were over for a visit. When Abby and I walked in the door, I pulled Georgie onto my lap, and sure enough, he was hot as hell from head to toe. As Abby told him all about the party, his head hung towards the floor. I figured he must have felt pretty bad, so I coaxed him into chewing a Motrin to bring the fever down quickly. After he reluctantly swallowed his medicine, I asked him about his night, but he would not speak a word to me, or anyone else, and continued to stare down at his feet. I asked George if he had been this quiet all night, but he said, "No, actually. He was crying about a Spiderman car for the first hour or so after you left. He cried so much, I wonder if that's what made him sick."

"Spiderman car?" I asked. "What Spiderman car, Georgie?"

"Tile." Georgie responded miserably, but finally with a little interest in conversing.

"Tile? What are you talking about - tile?"

"Tiii-ile! Ti-ile!" he whined, and so I continued asking him insane questions about floor tiles and game tiles until I figured out that he was not, in fact, referring to tiles after all. He was talking about Kyle (clearly pronounced "tile" in two-year old dialect) and the Spiderman car that Abby had bought for the party.

"You want the Spiderman car that Abby bought for Kyle?" I asked him.

"Yes," he said. "Tile's bider-man tar. Not Tile's. Mine. My bider-man."

I should have foreseen this "spidey-envy" when we were at the toy store buying Spiderman toys. I should have realized that I could never get away with bringing a Spiderman product into our house and then back out again for any reason. Who was I kidding? I have the boy who does not waste time pretending to be Spiderman, but instead has convinced himself, and truly does believe, that he is in fact the superhero himself. I reassured Georgie that first thing in the morning, I would take him to the store to buy him his very own Spiderman car. The instant this promise was made to him, his temperature instantly plummeted back to 98.6°, his mood elevated significantly, and he has been happily coloring at the table (in his Spiderman coloring book, wearing his Spiderman pajamas) with his sister for over an hour, chattering away the entire time (about, who else, Spiderman).

I've been sitting and thinking about what new illness Georgie may be coming down with, but then I started to wonder: is Georgie really falling ill with the flu, or could it be that he is literally sick without Spiderman? And was it really the Motrin that brought down his fever so rapidly, or was it the promise of a new "bider-man tar" that healed him?

I think that we are, without a doubt, dealing with a Spidermaniac.

The Croup, Part II

I had just fallen asleep about 11:00 tonight, when I was awoken by a seal-like barking sound coming from the kids room. I then heard Georgie start to cry. I knew right away, from my experience last year with Abby and the very distinctive cough, that it was croup. When I opened the door to his room, I saw that Georgie was sitting up in bed, but not fully awake. I tried to keep the room dark, and stay quiet myself, in hopes that he would easily fall back to sleep. I sat on the side of his bed and he crawled across to me, resting his head in my lap. We sat like this for a few minutes and I sang to him. And as I stroked his face and ran my fingers through his hair, I savored this quiet moment, when he wanted nothing but to be in my arms. I cherish the dewy-eyed moments with my children when they regress just for a moment, long enough for me to cradle them and reconnect to the days when they were dawning infants. Eventually, he looked up at me and let out a contented sigh, crawled back to his pillow and closed his eyes. I waited until I was sure he was asleep, walked very quietly back to my own room, to my own bed, where I now sit knowing I will hardly sleep tonight, worrying and listening for my little boy.

My baby boy is two

Happy birthday my baby boy. You're two years old today. I kissed your sweet face tonight while you slept and thought back on these past two years. Seeing everything through your eyes has changed my world forever. How could I have ever known that one day "messy" and "loud" would be the two best words to describe my most treasured moments? How could I have imagined that the birth of my son would open my heart and mind, and fill me with such simple joys? I thank God every day for the silly hopeful grin that never seems to leave your face, and for the endless supply of hugs that bring me so much comfort when I am down-hearted and weary. And for your eyes. How could I forget those beautiful eyes that will eternally tug at my heartstrings. No matter how bad the tantrum, or however big the mess, a simple bat of those long black lashes, and the slate is wiped clean. Tonight you are nestled beside me, and as I listen to your every breath, I think about how you're changing, how you're growing up so fast, and for that, I never want to leave this moment.

Tables are for glasses, not for a****

I sent George out tonight because I have alot to do around the house... So far I have accomplished nothing! Oh, well... it's nice to have things quiet for a while. I have to get back in touch with the administrations department tomorrow about my math class from the summer. Apparantly the school thinks I dropped the class. I was there every day, took every test, and the teacher gave me my grade on the last day of classes... I got a 98! I definitely want to make sure those credits are counted! I worked hard (and paid good money) in that class! Anyway, I have some stuff to do, but I just wanted to add in that Georgie is now climbing on everything!! I was cleaning the dishes earlier, and while I was in the kitchen, Abby yelled up the staris, "Mom! Georgie's on the table!! He's being so bad! But not me. I'm not bad. I'm a really good girl! Come and see!" I dried my hands and walked down the steps to find the baby on the kids table! He climbed onto one of the chairs, and then onto the table! What next? I think it;s so funny, that for a kid who's afraid to walk, for fear of falling, has no fear of climbing high onto furniture (or anything else, for that matter)!! He's a character! At first, when I came downstairs, he looked very guilty, like he knew he wasn't supposed to be where he was...

oops... am i in trouble??

So, anyway... he was so proud of himself that he made it onto the table! He was laughing & smiling like mad, and showing off his cup ...

check me out, mom!

...until Abby decided to climb up with him.

hey mom! she's in my shot!

That was a mistake! His ego was crushed that Abby too, shared this rare talent that he only recently discovered he possessed... He was so mad that she could climb onto the table too, and very upset that she stole the spotlight, even if only for a second!

crushed...

Ah, rivalry... it starts so young.

This is...

...my very first entry in my new blog! I still have my journal on blurty.com, but I plan on moving those entries to this site eventually. Probably when we get back from vacation! The kids are doing great. Georgie is still not walking... sort of. He can walk, and has in the past, but after a few bad falls, he decided that crawling is still the safest mode of transportation! Oh well, he will do it in good time. He's so funny! His personality is definitely coming through more and more every day. Abby and I worked very hard to scrub her little house clean, and get it set up on the yard for her! She and Georgie played in it all day Sunday. Nick came over for a while on Sunday afternoon, and played in the yard with us. Abby was in the tub later that night, around 7, and Nick came back over, and informed us that he was going mini-golfing with his mom and dad... and he said Abby was coming with him. I asked Abby if she wanted to go, and she jumped out of the tub, and into her clothes, as fast as she could! She was sooo excited! They left to go golfing... I put the baby to bed and George and I watched Six Feet Under... by the time the show was about half-way over, Abby was home. She was so excited to tell me everything about golfing and playing skee-ball! She had a strawberry shake, that she was more than willing to share with George and me. Apparently, she only played 9 holes at the golf course, and whenever she would swing the club, she would hit herself in the chin! :) Gerri said she did pretty well, for her first time, though.

She had a very busy weekend... on top of playing in the yard on Sunday and golfing that night, she had James' birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's on Saturday. She had a great time there!


Chuck E. Cheese!

She played alot of games, and went on the "rides." (She played alot of skee-ball at Chuck E's and with Nick Sunday at Nifty Fifties.) James seemed to have a good time too, at his party!


abby and the birthday boy!

When we got home from party on Saturday, George wanted to get some yardwork done, so I put Abby and Georgie in the wagon, and pulled them to the playground. What a trip! It's uphill bothways! Very steeply uphill, I might add... You go down a big hill, and then as soon as you get to the bottom, you go right back up again, and on the way home it's the same: down the hill, then back up and up and up again to get home...

We are getting ready to start our late summer trips soon. Our first one is this weekend coming up, to the shore with Jay and Lisa and the kids. It should be alot of fun! It'll be Georgie's first time on the beach... (with the exception of last year.. when he was a newborn)! I hope he likes it! Abby is psyched! She can't wait!

Poor Georgie... he has been so beat up lately! He had a horrible diaper rash that would not budge. He split his chin open when he was trying to walk across the room, but instead fell into the side of the toybox. He got so bit up by mosquitos, that his legs and face were so swollen and irritated... some of the bites got infected. He has so many bruises from falling. He has multiple teeth breaking through, so his mouth hurts all the time. Nothing stops his appetite, though! He is such a good eater! He loves everything you put in front of him! We call him "chicken-little" though! He's afraid of everything... toys that make noise, stuffed animals, he's afraid to stand up... hehe! He's so cute!

Abby is determined to make him walk! She grabs him by the arms and drags him around the room, yelling, "Stand up, Baby G! I am going to teach you how to walk right now!!" He finally gives into her, stands up and takes a couple steps... and then as soon as she lets go of his hands to clap for him, he sits down and crawls away as fast as he can! They play really well together. They miss each other terribly when one is away from the other too long.

Abby got a book in the mail from my grandmom the other day! She ran all over the house with the envelope, screaming, "I got mail!! I got mail!!" I finally caught up with her, and asked if she wanted to open it, and of course, she did! It's a cute little book, called "All Things Bright and Beautiful." It's about everything God created.

While we were playing in the yard Sunday, we found a grasshopper... he was missing a leg,and wasn't doing very well. We put him on a leaf, and placed him in the shade to keep him comfortable. Abby would walk him around the yard occasionally, showing him the sites, every now and then... when she was done walking him, she would put him back in her little house. At the end of the day, I was putting things away, and I found the poor little guy, squished. We think it was either Nick or George that carelessly assaulted him. Abby came up behind me, before I could hide him, and asked what happened to the grasshopper? I had no choice but to tell her the truth... so I told he that he was really, really hurt, and really sick. I asked her what we should do, and she told me that she wanted him to go to Heaven, where he wouldn't be sick anymore. She then proceeded to pray to God, and call to him to come and take her friend to Heaven where he would be happy and safe. We closed our eyes, and counted to five, and when we opened them again, the grasshopper was gone, and Abby was so happy, she kept thanking God for her friend grasshopper, thanking him for taking her grasshopper to heaven, and thanking him for her family and friends... She's too sweet! She's going to marry my grandmom when she gets big, she said!

I signed up for my fall classes last month... English and Sociology... Woohoo! I start in one month! It's still just two nights a week. Tuesday is for English, and Wednesday is Sociology (I think... but, it may be the other way around. I have to check on that). The classes are three hours long. Three hours of writing English essays... ugh! I hope (but I know I'm wrong) that there is not an overload of homework! What do you think? Highly unlikely, right?