Sunday, March 13, 2011
33
He turned 33 today. He is getting old and I think I love him more because of it. Growing old with someone that you knew at a younger age is a beautiful thing. I get to realize the changes. The security, the maturing. He is everything I could want, he really is. He isn't perfect but he is perfect for me. As we drove away from Lowe's today (it is his birthday and he said he wanted to go to his favorite store...) I saw an elderly couple with a rough gait, wrinkles, gray hair all the marks of "old" and I said, "that is us in another 40 years" and he said, "I can't wait". Tomorrow he will be 33 and a day, I will love him more.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
My little girls are growing up
This post is long overdue in being written, and there are a few more that are needing to be documented too, but I can spare a moment to do it now and that is the story of life.
The girls have asked sporadically from time to time if they could have their ears pierced. We stayed pretty firm on the "wait until you are older" routine. I was 13 before my mom pierced my ears, at home, with an ice cube as a numbing agent and my dad holding my hand telling me I was bleeding like a stuck hog. During Christmas break 2010 we were riding along in the van after doing some errands in Little Rock and Lucie brought up the fact that she would really like her ears pierced. She must have caught us on a good day because Jim and I looked at each other and said, "OK, if you are ready for this we are okay with it too" I explained she would need to use some of the money she got for Christmas to pay for it and that it would probably hurt. She was still game. So we stopped at the mall...I hate the mall...and went to Clarie's. She had to wait in line as an older lady was having a second hole put in her ears. It was good though because she got to watch it be done and the lady was especially nice to tell Lucie how it felt and encourage her. Lucie climbed up in the chair and I held her hand. Jim had the camera and the other two kids. The girl who did the piercing asked if we wanted to have another girl come over and do both ears at once. Lucie said No, one at a time. She was a trooper. She flinched a little bit when the gun clamped but I squeezed her hand and she did so well. When the girl went to the other side Lucie started pulling her head away but I placed my hand on her head to steady her and it went on without incident. She was smiling the biggest smile when they let her look in the mirror. She had chosen a multi colored crystal daisy as they would match all her outfits. After we were done and paid and she listened to the cleaning and care instructions we went to get ice cream as I had a free coupon at ChickFila for each of them. All in all it went really well. Since then she has done a great job of keeping them clean and taking care of them.
Oh Emma. She is another story. At first when Lucie expressed she wanted to have her ears pierced Emma said "No way, not until I am 8!" I liked this idea as it means only one child to keep up with at a time. Plus, Emma does not and has never liked having anyone or anything touch her ears. It is getting better as she ages but still cannot stand for me to clean or touch her ears. So I wasn't too sure how she would react to having a gun put next to her ear and how she would deal with the resulting pain. Everything seemed to be going well as Lucie went about having her ears done. I will admit I was very focused on Lucie at that point and not aware that Jim was dealing with a meltdown. So where in there while we waited for Lucie's turn Emma decided she needed to have hers done too. Our standard is not to make switch decisions with our kids especially when something has been previously agreed upon. So Jim was standing firm that she was not getting her ears done that day. Once I was aware of the situation I agreed with him too. So when we went and had ice cream after Lucie's ears were done we had two happy kids and one in full meltdown. I talked Emma down and we discussed that if she still wanted to have her ears pierced in 6 weeks, on love day, I would take her. That was okay with Emma. Time passed and the end of January brought Oscar's birthday and a visit from Grandpa and Grandma. Lucie was doing so well at this point with her earrings that I thought maybe we should go have Emma's done a little earlier than planned and have it made extra special with the presence of Grandma there too. When I told my mom about it she was game. Emma was extra excited even though we were not waiting until love day. We went to the same place. This time I told the girl we needed to do both at the same time. I sat in the chair and held Emma in my lap to have a more secure hold on her (she really doesn't react well to pain) and Grandma held her hands. Jim once again had the camera and Grandpa was in charge of the other two. Emma's face says it all. Instead of smiles it was tears and a yelp of pain. She pushed her body backwards when she felt the posts go in. Even when they showed her the earrings in her ears she had tears streaming down her face. Luckily she had a large supportive group of people who love her and kept telling her how beautiful she looked. She had chosen purple crystal daisy earrings because purple is her favorite color! We went to celebrate with ice cream minus the coupons. I think in the long run Oscar thought this was a pretty good deal. He didn't have any pain and got to have ice cream twice!
The girls have asked sporadically from time to time if they could have their ears pierced. We stayed pretty firm on the "wait until you are older" routine. I was 13 before my mom pierced my ears, at home, with an ice cube as a numbing agent and my dad holding my hand telling me I was bleeding like a stuck hog. During Christmas break 2010 we were riding along in the van after doing some errands in Little Rock and Lucie brought up the fact that she would really like her ears pierced. She must have caught us on a good day because Jim and I looked at each other and said, "OK, if you are ready for this we are okay with it too" I explained she would need to use some of the money she got for Christmas to pay for it and that it would probably hurt. She was still game. So we stopped at the mall...I hate the mall...and went to Clarie's. She had to wait in line as an older lady was having a second hole put in her ears. It was good though because she got to watch it be done and the lady was especially nice to tell Lucie how it felt and encourage her. Lucie climbed up in the chair and I held her hand. Jim had the camera and the other two kids. The girl who did the piercing asked if we wanted to have another girl come over and do both ears at once. Lucie said No, one at a time. She was a trooper. She flinched a little bit when the gun clamped but I squeezed her hand and she did so well. When the girl went to the other side Lucie started pulling her head away but I placed my hand on her head to steady her and it went on without incident. She was smiling the biggest smile when they let her look in the mirror. She had chosen a multi colored crystal daisy as they would match all her outfits. After we were done and paid and she listened to the cleaning and care instructions we went to get ice cream as I had a free coupon at ChickFila for each of them. All in all it went really well. Since then she has done a great job of keeping them clean and taking care of them.
Oh Emma. She is another story. At first when Lucie expressed she wanted to have her ears pierced Emma said "No way, not until I am 8!" I liked this idea as it means only one child to keep up with at a time. Plus, Emma does not and has never liked having anyone or anything touch her ears. It is getting better as she ages but still cannot stand for me to clean or touch her ears. So I wasn't too sure how she would react to having a gun put next to her ear and how she would deal with the resulting pain. Everything seemed to be going well as Lucie went about having her ears done. I will admit I was very focused on Lucie at that point and not aware that Jim was dealing with a meltdown. So where in there while we waited for Lucie's turn Emma decided she needed to have hers done too. Our standard is not to make switch decisions with our kids especially when something has been previously agreed upon. So Jim was standing firm that she was not getting her ears done that day. Once I was aware of the situation I agreed with him too. So when we went and had ice cream after Lucie's ears were done we had two happy kids and one in full meltdown. I talked Emma down and we discussed that if she still wanted to have her ears pierced in 6 weeks, on love day, I would take her. That was okay with Emma. Time passed and the end of January brought Oscar's birthday and a visit from Grandpa and Grandma. Lucie was doing so well at this point with her earrings that I thought maybe we should go have Emma's done a little earlier than planned and have it made extra special with the presence of Grandma there too. When I told my mom about it she was game. Emma was extra excited even though we were not waiting until love day. We went to the same place. This time I told the girl we needed to do both at the same time. I sat in the chair and held Emma in my lap to have a more secure hold on her (she really doesn't react well to pain) and Grandma held her hands. Jim once again had the camera and Grandpa was in charge of the other two. Emma's face says it all. Instead of smiles it was tears and a yelp of pain. She pushed her body backwards when she felt the posts go in. Even when they showed her the earrings in her ears she had tears streaming down her face. Luckily she had a large supportive group of people who love her and kept telling her how beautiful she looked. She had chosen purple crystal daisy earrings because purple is her favorite color! We went to celebrate with ice cream minus the coupons. I think in the long run Oscar thought this was a pretty good deal. He didn't have any pain and got to have ice cream twice!
Friday, March 4, 2011
Wait wait...
Emma-ism
Emma has taken to saying wait wait... She does this usually with a hand motion or the index finger up and wagging. At times we find this highly annoying and react with the typical parent montage of "No, you ..." However, being us we usually react by mimicking her. Jim and I have even been known to say it to each other when the kids are no where around!
So the conversation might go like this:
Jim: Go brush your teeth and then we will go to the park. Grab a jacket.....(continue with instructions)
Movement, pause, turn, finger raised, interruption....
Emma: Wait wait...pause The track park, or a different park. Let's go to the track park!
Jim: Wait wait....Yes the track park.
At this point I don't think she thinks it is odd to say wait wait all the time. I don't think it is a tic that we should worry about. She has said or used other expressions in the past and they typically phase out as she continues to grow. Lucie likewise did things like this, expressive one or two word statements that would have us laughing or smiling because it was too cute. We just don't want to forget about it so I had to write it down.
Emma has taken to saying wait wait... She does this usually with a hand motion or the index finger up and wagging. At times we find this highly annoying and react with the typical parent montage of "No, you ..." However, being us we usually react by mimicking her. Jim and I have even been known to say it to each other when the kids are no where around!
So the conversation might go like this:
Jim: Go brush your teeth and then we will go to the park. Grab a jacket.....(continue with instructions)
Emma: Wait wait...pause The track park, or a different park. Let's go to the track park!
Jim: Wait wait....Yes the track park.
At this point I don't think she thinks it is odd to say wait wait all the time. I don't think it is a tic that we should worry about. She has said or used other expressions in the past and they typically phase out as she continues to grow. Lucie likewise did things like this, expressive one or two word statements that would have us laughing or smiling because it was too cute. We just don't want to forget about it so I had to write it down.
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