What a Melon Ale, belts, ugly armpits and fishing for pennies

I began my weekend early by enjoying an evening out with friends last Thursday.  We met under the pretense that we were going to discuss our latest bookclub pick, Don't Breathe a Word, but we all know that it is really just a monthly excuse to get together to eat, drink and discuss other stuff.  I saw 'What a Melon Ale' on the menu, a seasonal offering (we were at a local brew pub afterall), so I tried it.  Oh. my. goodness.  If you can imagine summertime in a glass, complete with a watermelon wedge as a garnish, then that, my friends, is What a Melon Ale.  (A blonde ale, with fresh watermelon juice).  Yummy!

Friday was a pretty light day, just swim team and swimming lessons, and a playmate came over to spend the afternoon.  She brought her American Girls dolls, so Rylan was one happy little girl!




Colin looking on as Rylan and Owen have their lessons



Saturday morning was devoted to karate belt testing.  Rylan was moving up to purple, and Jordan was earning his orange.  Testing lasts about an hour for each of them, so it was a full morning.



Naomi and Jordan demonstrate behind-the-back wrist grabs  (the girl that Jordan likes...)



Saturday evening was a night out for Dean and I - we were off to a concert!!  A few years ago, Harley Davidson built a huge complex just off of the interstate, near Loveland.  They constructed a large amphitheatre as well, and put on about 5 concerts each summer.  Several weeks ago I saw that Kenny Wayne Shephard was performing there and I snatched up tickets faster than a biker can hop on his hog.  The concert was wonderful - he performed several of my favorites.  The lightning show all around us was fantastic, and we got rained on a little - but we were prepared.  It was entertaining to watch the ones who weren't.  KWS is a blues man, but the concert goers were a (ahem) rather colorful group of people.  I saw a lot of women in tank tops that were exposing a lot more than they probably realized.  I tried to just focus on the stage.  Dean also pointed out the sad fact that we always seem to get stuck behind a group of stupid drunk women who are still single for obvious reasons.  My Droid took terrible pictures, this is the only decent one I got..  That's Noah in the white, and Kenny in the black.



Kenny finished the concert with a ten minute long performance of Hendrix's Voodoo Child.  I remarked to Dean, "No wonder Woodstock went on for days.... the songs are never ending!!"

If you aren't familiar with KWS, I included this audio treat just for you - an instrumental number called 'While We Cry'...  Lean back, close your eyes, and just let the music transport you - think of it as a six minute mini-vacation!

On Sunday, Jordan and I participated in the Mother & Son Amazing Race, put on by our city's Parks & Rec. department.  We were one of seventy teams that attended the event.  We had to complete 10 different tasks, plus a couple of extra surprise ones.  It took us a little over an hour to finish.  We had a lot of fun! 

Here were our tasks:

(Extra) - Join up with the next team to arrive at station, and 'toss' a water balloon back and forth, using only a beach towel stretched between each team.

1. Fish around in a baby pool filled 8 inches deep with green oatmeal and locate 10 pennies.

2. Water bucket brigade - transport water from one bucket to another, using just a plastic cup.

3. Indoor obstacle course.

4. Choice between spoonful of 'mystery food' inside a can labeled 'Dog Food', or transport six dumbbells, one at a time, across a room and back.

5.  Keep a balloon up in the air, hitting it back and forth for 30 seconds, without using your hands.

(Extra) - shake two different step counters to a combined total of 200 'steps'as quickly as possible

6.  Lego building challenge (just assembling and then disassembling a small lego kit)

7. Newspaper leapfrog - get across a gym floor using only two pieces of newspaper.  BUT.  You both have to be on the same piece, at the same time.  So you stand on one (holding on to each other helps), and then scoot the piece you just stepped off of around from behind you and get it in front of you again.  Repeat.

8.  Scooter canoeing.  Kneel on a little square scooter and use a rubber-tipped stick to push yourself across the gym floor.

9. Toilet paper toss.  Toss a roll of TP through a target (much like a football)

10.  Remember each and every helper's name that operated each station (we were given the advice before hand to remember their names) and write them down in order - that was hard!

We each got a t-shirt and enjoyed some bbq afterwards.  It was a very hot afternoon, and we both sweated and panted as we raced back and forth, but we had a good time!  It was interesting (and a little sad) that we witnessed some mom and son teams blatantly cheating - what kind of role modeling is that??  You could also tell which moms were in it TO WIN, and dragged their sons along to do so.  Kudos to the teams where the moms made it fun and exciting.  This was the inaugural year for this event, but alas, Jordan was at the top of the age range, so he won't be able to participate again.  Hopefully the event will be bigger and better when Owen's turn comes around in a couple of years.  Boys K-5 can participate.



In the meantime, my dear husband worked and worked on the computer all weekend to get a project for work finished on time.  He had to man the little ones as well, while I ran back and forth to all of our events.  Thanks hon!  I am now making up for lost time on the computer.... can you tell?

Buckle up!



This morning as I was barreling down the road at 40mph...

Sweet Little Voice from way in the back seat:  Mommy!!

Me: Whatee??

SWL: Buckle me!!

Thank you Owen, for looking out for yourself today.  Your mommy obviously needs more coffee.

Wordless Wednesday



Alongside Cache LaPoudre River, near Rustic, CO.  April 9, 2010
When I spotted him, I shouted out so loud, Dean nearly drove us into the river.



Meet the Family: Colin

16 months, June 2011

Colin very nearly became the baby who wasn't to be.   I didn't trust that he was safe and sound until he was delivered and placed in my arms.  Such a sweet, sweet boy.  He was an easy-going infant - and thank goodness for that - it was a real struggle at times to manage every body's needs during that first year.  I wish that I had taken the time to document our days, but then again I am glad I didn't because I was really struggling with PPD, and the posts would have been angry and depressing. (it would seem that some days they still are!!  sorry 'bout that...)

The pregnancy was absolutely nerve-wracking.  After the initial horrific episode of what could only defined as a 'very large bloodclot', I still had unexplained bouts of profuse bleeding for the next 3-4 weeks.  It was awful.  I laid down a lot.  It is hard to parent from a couch.  We got through it, and from about week 24 onward it was smooth sailing.

Colin was born in early February, and I chose to breastfeed him.  He nursed like a champ in the beginning,  but by about the five month mark, his interest was waning.  It was August, it was hot, and my period had returned.  By September, he was getting very skinny.  I could feel his bones whenever I held him - yet (stupid me) alarm bells weren't going off for me.  When he had his six month appt. in late August, they didn't like what he weighed.  He was in the third percentile.  They wanted to weigh him again in a week.  By that next appointment, he had lost several more ounces.  Tests!!!  Let's do some tests!!  Lots of blood draws, finger pokes, urine and stool samples!!  Well, everything came back normal.  More ounces were lost.   He was now off the charts.  We had to get a baby scale and weigh him before and after every feeding.  Finally *I* figured it out that because my period had returned, my milk production had dramatically fallen off...  (doctors... *snort*)  It was time to introduce him to formula.  All this took place during the month of September, and we had planned to go on vacation in late Sept/early Oct.  We left on our trip and traveled though KS, OK, TX, LA, MS, GA, FL, TN, and AR...in ten days.  It was actually a very nice vacation that went very smoothly.  We made a lot of bottles along the way - it was actually more convenient than breastfeeding (gasp!  Did I just say that??).  Here is a photo of Colin, in Galveston, TX, at the beach.



8 months, Oct 2010

This photo was taken shortly after Colin started on the bottle.  He is so skinny!  It is hard for me to look at - but then I realize how far he has come in eight months.  Compare it to the picture above, taken about three weeks ago.  Whoo-hoo!  I can't help myself - I squeeze his meaty little thighs about a hundred times a day.  It must be a primal thing.

So now that Colin has been crisis-free for several months, he has really grown (no pun intended) into his own person.  He is the class clown of the family.  Thank goodness we homeschool because he would be the thorn in every teacher's side.  He loves to do something outlandish and then looks around to see who has been entertained by it.  So then he does it again.  and again.  and again.  Bowl of oatmeal or yogurt?  On top of the head it goes.  He will make faces, make noises, spin in circles, play peek-a-boo - anything to make you laugh.  He also likes to 'talk' with Abby and Kitty.  He will howl with along with Abby when she is excited about something, and he will make sweet little sounds as he toddles behind Kitty.  They both tolerate him pretty well - especially Abby, since he grabs big handfuls of her fur quite a bit.

Here is a sweet little photo of our baby boy - a joy that is long overdue in sharing!



Colin, 11 days old



Meet the Family: Owen

Beachfront along Seawall Blvd., Galveston, TX. Oct 2010

Owen was named after my grandfather Orin, because they were to share the same birthday.  However, Owen came a day later.  On Leap Day.  So technically he is 3/4 of a yr old, but around here he is three.  Owen is a precocious little bugger with chocolaty brown eyes that just melt your heart.  He never manages to stay in trouble for very long.

Owen came into this world, fast and furious, giving us barely an hour's notice of hard, drug-free labor to prepare for his arrival.  He was a high-maintenance baby - our sleepless nights went on for over a year and a half.  Then night-terrors took over.  I think we finally crossed over to a happy place when he reached the 2 and a 1/2 yr. mark.  He used to share a room with Rylan, because his frequent night-time screaming would not bother her.  When we reached the point that Colin was ready to make the move from his bassinet to his crib, Owen became roommates with Jordan instead.  That way, Jordan could calm Owen in the night, when necessary.  Owen's biggest nighttime complaint is running out of water in his sippy cup.  He will scream bloody murder when he can't find it amongst the sheets, and protest it's emptiness even louder when he does find it.  And the whole time he is in a strange sort of half-sleep that makes it impossible to reason with him.

He is currently 3 yrs and 5 mo.  And not an ounce potty trained.  He has no interest in doing so... whatsoever.  He is currently noticing all of the Cars-themed training pants and so forth, which I always make a point to walk by whenever we are at the store - but the interest is not enough to entice him into a full-blown effort.  We have had a nice, comfy Bjorn potty chair at the ready in our bathroom for over eight months now, and occasionally we plop him on there first thing in the morning if we notice that his diaper is dry.  It has only worked twice.  :(  I predict we will need to have some 'naked days' here, next month, when our schedule slows way down and we don't have to be on the run everywhere.  He may not think he's ready, but we are!!  Enough with buying diapers for two... that is a $100/mo bill we can do without!  You can look forward to some what I am sure will be (for you, anyway) entertaining posts as the battle ensues...

Owen loves to play with anything and everything.  Cars, dolls, trucks, Legos, beads, dress-up, kitchen utensils, plastic animals... you name it.  He must always have a little toy, one for each hand to hold, when he goes to bed at night.  Preferably a car and then something else.  What's a blessing is that it doesn't have to be the same toys each time - we would never be able to keep track of where they ended up during the day!  Last night it was his 'Mater tow truck and a plastic construction sign from Trio.

Owen is pretty active, but he is very particular with the activities that he does.  He has a tricycle-type wooden bike that he uses constantly inside the house.  We have a circular floor pattern on the main floor, and racing in circles is a favored activity.  Rylan rides on her (very much outgrown) tricycle (which Owen refuses to upgrade to), Owen rides his wooden bike, and Colin pushes the plastic grocery cart.  The noise can be deafening at times.  For outdoor use, we got Owen a Strider bike for his second birthday.  It took the better part of a year before he would even get on it.  Even now, he will 'walk' with it, but he will not sit down and allow the bike to carry his weight.  Owen is not old enough to partake in the karate class that Jordan and Rylan do.  He will have to wait until he is four.  Even then, I am not sure that he will want to participate.  He adamantly refused to take part in the homeschool gymnastics class that Jordan and Rylan did last fall and winter.  What kid wouldn't want to jump into a foam pit or swing on a rope?  Owen, apparently.

This stubborn behavior of Owen's has me concerned about how future lessons will go for us.  He is receptive to most stuff - when he 'wants' to be.  We are still about six months away from when I plan to begin formal lessons with him.  We will begin with the Core Knowledge Preschool Activity Book 1.  He does love to listen to stories, and I am ready to get him on the computer and begin with preschool games to get him comfortable working with the mouse.  Beyond that, I hope that this tendency of his to refuse to do stuff abates some as we progress through this year.

Owen is very loving and affectionate, and is the classic kid that needs just a kiss to make an owie feel better.  He still loves to rock and be held and cuddled as we dance to music.  Love that boy!

Meet the Family: Rylan

Dowdy Lake, near Red Feather, CO. Aug 2010

Meet my beautiful daughter Rylan, age five.  She is my first-born, and is heavily out-numbered by brothers and boy cousins in these here parts.  She has a few females to rely on, but one lives in Florida, another lives in Oklahoma and one is just a baby.  So, you might think that she would have some tomboyish tendencies.  And you would be correct.  As long as tomboys can run around in princess dresses and wear pink cowboy boots at the same time, then we are okay.  Don't forget the tiara.

She is the most expressive and linguistically gifted little girl.  She will argue till she is blue in the face.  She knows lots of big words.  And uses them regularly.  She never forgets... anything.  She loves to play with Legos, Barbies, Disney Princess dolls, playdoh, cars, and fill her fifteen billion different play purses with 'stuff' and leave them all over the house.  She loves to ride her bike (still on training wheels), her Barbie scooter, and on the copilot behind my bike.  She climbs fences and rocks, digs for worms, plays with the garden snakes and stomps on ants.  She also chews her toenails.  yuck.  Her older brother taught her that.  (thanks, Jordan)

Rylan idolizes Jordan.  They make terrific playmates and are able to agree most of the time.  Jordan does a great job of involving Rylan in what he is doing - but he also has the bad habit of making her do the dirty work, like asking if they can play the Wii, after I have already told him "No".  She also loves her younger brothers - she has two now.  She fights like cats and dogs with Owen, except when Jordan is out of town.  Then she is queen bee and the dynamic changes quite a bit.  I often think about the dynamics and the whole 'middle child' syndrome.  With four, how does that work?  If three are boys, and one of the 'middles' is a girl, does that negate the syndrome effect because she gets a different kind of attention being a girl?  Hmmm.  She does dote on baby brother Colin quite a bit.  When I nursed him as a newborn, she would shove a doll up her shirt and nurse her too.  When I burped him, she would follow.  Too cute.  She shares a room with Colin because she is such a good sleeper.  I often hear her talking to him in the mornings, when they are both waking up.  I will often find her in the crib with him.  She will have already filled his crib with lots of books, and will be showing them to him.

When Rylan was about at the 15 - 16 mo. stage, she began a love-affair with books that lasts until this day.  I would place about 10 or so of her favorite board books in her crib at night, after she had fallen asleep, and the next morning, when she woke up, she would spend a good 30-45 minutes looking at her books.  I could hear her shuffling through the stack, making comments now and then... as well as any 16 mo. old can really express themselves.  As soon as I heard them hitting the floor, in a well-timed succession, I knew she was done and ready for some attention.  Funny, that hasn't changed much.

She is learning to read as we speak.  The program All About Spelling has done a magnificent job in presenting the phonograms we use, and she is starting to read simple words like a mad woman.  I predict by Christmas time we will have a full-fledged reader on our hands - yeah!

Rylan loves to dance.  Every once in awhile I will let her watch a snippet of Dancing with the Stars, and she will stand there, mesmerized.  She also loves to sing.  So do cats, but they do a much better job.  She prefers to do a private, operatic performance with her dolls.  She can sing about tragedy with the best of them.  I really, really need to record her on the sly someday soon, because I know this won't last much longer - she will get self-conscious soon enough.  Especially when the dog starts howling.

Rylan is also quite the artist.  She paints just about every day.  I have to buy a ream of printer paper at least once a month.  Lately book-making has been the thing.  I also need to buy more staples.  I constantly face the problem of "Do I save this??".  I've saved a lot of her firsts: a face, a body, first written words, first name, first portrait, first family portrait.  She drew a self-portrait of herself the other day as a grown up.  It was complete with breasts and a baby in the belly.  I told her, "Wow, so this is what you will look like when you are thirty, right?".  Rylan said, "No, that is too old.  I want to have babies long before then.".  Over my dead body you will, Missy!

I am so thankful to have at at least one girl.  I hate packing away her old clothes.  I cried and cried when it came time to pare down the baby clothes and give some away, donate some, sell some, and save the rest for a keepsake quilt some day.  I had such attachment to those clothes.  The boy's baby stuff I'm like, "meh", but the baby girl stuff really gets to me.  Even walking through a store, I gravitate towards the baby girl section and feel all sad.  Silly I know, but true.  She is growing way too fast.  I constantly tell her to stop growing, and she says that she wants to be a parent (her word for grown-up) so that she can drink coffee with me.  She is such a sweet and affectionate little girl.  She still climbs into my lap, she loves to listen to stories, and she will stroke my face or arm while I am doing so.  I know that the day will come, all to soon, that she won't want to do that anymore.  And that makes me very, very sad.  But it will also mean that we can do all sorts of other things that an older kiddo can do, so I try to just focus on that instead.

Rylan also comes up with the funniest, sometime bizarre things to say... if you have time, read the posts under the heading The things kids say...  That will give you some great insight into the way this little girl's mind works...
I love that girl!

Meet the Family: Jordan

Parked along the sea wall in Galveston, TX. Oct 2010
I look at this picture any time I need a laugh - Jordan's expression says it all...

Jordan is my eleven year old stepson.  He moved out to Colorado with his daddy, Dean, when Dean's company transferred him.  Dean has had sole custody of Jordan since he was two.  I first met Jordan when he was just a couple of months shy of his fifth birthday.

Jordan's number-one strength is that he is adaptable.  A lot of serious life events have happened in his eleven years so far... a divorce, a move, a new preschool, a new step mom and a move, a new elementary school, a new sister, transition to homeschooling, a new brother, another new brother and perhaps the most upsetting of all was his mother's diagnosis of stage 4 colorectal cancer 14 months ago.  Through it all, Jordan has managed to weather it all fairly well.

Jordan has several unique gifts (although sometimes they are a burden as well).  Jordan has ADHD.  The symptoms are manageable for the most part.  His ability to focus on ONE thing is compromised, he is impulsive, jittery, outspoken and interrupts constantly.  Kindergarten was a nightmare!  His classroom was situated just one room away from mine, and the way our school was configured (no hallway), I would have to walk through his room with my class to travel elsewhere in the school.  I hardly ever saw him in there.  Where was he??  Well, for the most part, he was spending time in the 'refocus room', where students who are misbehaving are sent to stare at the wall  pull it together.  He was sent every day, several times a day.  First grade was not much better.  We had high hopes at the beginning of that school year.... he would have a veteran teacher, be in a class of just 14 students, and had an intervention plan written out where he could go to the Moderate Needs room when he needed time to focus - away from the hub-bub of the regular classroom.  As it turned out - the 'veteran' teacher (who should have been able to redirect him when he needed it) sent him to Moderate Needs for most of the day, every day.  He got to participate in very short-lived doses of all the super fun things that first-graders do.  By the end of the year he was miserable.  To top it off, he was witnessing some off-the-charts behavior from his fellow students in the Moderate Needs room.  Students who were there for emotional/behavioral stuff... if you catch my drift.  After receiving some particularly graphic drawings from a psychotic disturbed little boy, Jordan was beginning to dread going to school.  When the year was over, we decided that both of us were officially 'done' with public school.

It is interesting that the 'inappropriate' behaviors that Jordan exhibits in the classroom are what makes homeschooling such a successful option for him.  He is curious, inventive, and he will doggedly pursue his interests.  That being said, we would not be able to make homeschooling work for us if we didn't actively work to suppress his symptoms to a manageable degree.  I was all for using drugs in Kindergarten and first grade (just to make his teachers happy), and then I backed off.  I thought that a change in environment (learning in the home) and dietary changes would be enough.  I do believe his diet plays a part in it.  For almost two years now we have been tinkering with dosages and different meds to find the perfect balance.  We avoid artificial food coloring - Yellow #5 seems to be particularly problematic.  Give him some orange soda and he will go completely nuts.  Well, after the better part of a year, I realized that the combination of his behaviors and my frustration level with him was damaging our personal relationship.  I have always chosen to deal with him with a heavy hand, mostly because he can come across as completely obnoxious if he isn't on his meds, and I am super-sensitive to how he behaves in public.  I have this hang-up that my children's behavior is a personal reflection on me and how well I am doing my job as a parent.  A completely selfish and controlling aspect of my personality.  that's why I am in therapy, people!!  Yet, I am sure, that others would interpret his behavior as just your average kid.  I think that you don't really 'know' what it is like until you live with the behavior, day in and day out, weeks, months, and years on end.  So be nice and don't judge me.  :)  In the past six years, the symptoms have dramatically improved.  I do look forward to the day when he has enough self-awareness that he can manage the behaviors on his own.  Do the drugs interfere with his creativity?  Nope.  We have a good combo (20mg of Vyvanse for the day and .5 mg Risperidone and 3mg of Melatonin at night) that helps take the edge off of his inattentiveness and helps him to filter out the plethora of stimuli that comes his way each day.  Does it make him a zombie or change his personality???  Not a bit.

If I were suddenly in the throes of divorce and lost custody, I would live where my kids live.  I could not imagine living without them or not being an intimate part of their lives.  But life happens, and that is not always possible.  In Jordan's case, his mother lives in OKC, where all of Dean's family resides as well.  Her parents live there, and since she is an only child, they depend on her as they advance in years.  Picking up and leaving is not an option.  Jordan goes on visitation with his mother (and stepfather) three times a year - rotating holidays (Thanksgiving or Christmas), Spring Break, and six weeks in summer.  The visits go fairly well, but there is always a very rough 'reentry' period of time after an extended visit.  Life there is, umm..., much different then it is here.  To help bridge the cultural gap, I constantly strive to help Jordan 'connect' with his mom.  She calls every day, which is a very good thing.  The conversations though, are typically short.  You can tell that both parties are asking the same, tired questions.  I feel like an intruder, but I try and guide Jordan to tell her the more interesting aspects of his day (which he typically forgets) and to have deeper conversations with her.  I want him to get to 'know' her, and more importantly, for her to get to 'know' him.  She needs to know that he likes going to museums.  He likes to read.  He likes watching interesting science/history/geography stuff on TV like NOVA Science Now, Mythbusters, Nature, anything on Nat Geo, and so forth.  Follow your children's interests and you can form a real bond and have fun at the same time.  In this case, it will be difficult.  Even I could hear the disdain in her voice through the phone the other day when he told her he was watching NOVA.  "You watch that?"  (face palm)  I have my work cut out for me.

Jordan is smart.  He learns best by doing.  He pulls down the microscope at least once a day to look at something he found outside.  He will make five new friends within minutes of arriving at a playground.  He is funny.  He must have at least a handful of Lego pieces with him at all times.  His hands can be busy with the most complicated of things, yet he will listen to and repeat back all that you say to him.  (that can be infuriating when you think he isn't listening...)  He constantly wants to be a part of whatever you are doing - cooking especially.  He loves to make funny movies with his siblings on his camera.  He loves Sponge Bob.  And he has a crush on a girl (Naomi) in his karate class.  He is affectionate.  He insists on hugging every family member at bed time.  He helps around the house or with his siblings without complaint.  He is my right hand, and I couldn't do what I do without him.  I just need to tell him that more often.  And be less strict.  really, I'm trying!