Happiness is....

Turning the corner and finding an unexpected water fountain on a hot and humid summer day.

 

Gone Fishin'

This 4th of July, we were lucky enough to spend a few days with my in-laws at the beautiful Lake Geneva, WI. We had a wonderful time doing American things, like eating and swimming and boating (I guess these things aren't really 'American' per se, but they were done in America, so close enough, right?) Our favorite pastime done over the long weekend was taking the kids fishing for their first time ever. They LOVED it. Of course, it helped that all of the big kids were enjoying themselves and that fish were being pulled out of the lake left and right. Adrienne caught her first fish with the help of her big cousin (and by 'help' of course I mean he did everything except take the picture shown below) and made herself useful by picking worms from the dirt boxes. Happily for the fish (but not so much for the worms), she was throwing every other worm overboard unhooked and watching as the fish gobbled them up. Nate was fascinated by the whole event and eager to help his dad out with the fishing. Luckily they caught several little fish, making the experience very rewarding. When I later showed Nate the pictures of him fishing, he pointed straight at the fish and said, as clear as a bell, "Shark!". And so we now know with certainty that the male art of inflating the catch is rooted somewhere in those Y genes because it is definitely not something that we could have taught to Nate yet. Despite no official invite yet, we are planning the same time same place next 4th of July!

Silent Spring

It has been quiet around Trouble's Tribune this spring. Like everything you enjoy, the time comes where you need a break. A few days off; maybe a week. Time to regroup, refresh. Then weeks turned to months and you started avoiding coming here, much like avoiding someone that you made a promise to that you still haven't gotten around to fulfilling. And yet, the only person promised anything was you and hence you are the only one cheated as well. Finally you came back to have a look, a trip down memory lane, and were reminded of the reason that you were here in the first place: to give a home to special memories that otherwise exist only in your heart.

So where to begin again? Much has happened in the last few months yet little out of the ordinary. Nate's 2 teeth have grown to 8. Adrienne's hair has been cut into a cute bob. Nate's vocabulary has evolved from "ball" into "basketball" into "Go, go, white sox". Adrienne now includes words such as "colleagues", "bougainvillea", and "anthropod" into her conversations. Nate has stopped trying all foods put on his plate, but still loves to throw them on the floor. Adrienne has become extremely motivated by chocolate and other special treats. Nate plays soccer or basketball throughout the house. Adrienne's world is a ballet stage. Nate pretends he has boo-boos to get extra kisses. Adrienne likes to hold Nate's hand. Nate thinks everything Adrienne does is cool, except when she snatches his toys. Adrienne introduces Nate as her "best friend, even though he hits me sometimes". 

A few months have come and gone, and just a few missed milestones, right? Just a few funny stories, some laughs, a few tears, perhaps a flu or two, but nothing major. Then one morning you check on your kids and find there are feet sticking out from the baby blanket. A baby blanket which apparently can no longer contain the growing body that lies beneath it. You realize suddenly that the sleeping body beneath that blanket is not a baby anymore; that your baby is not a baby anymore. It occurs to you how fast he has evolved into a little boy and that he is growing up much too quickly just like his big sister did. As this realization of time and its funny ways dawns on you, it seems your eyes, much like the baby blanket, are suddenly too small to contain the tears welling up in them. So you take a picture to capture the moment and wonder how fast it will be before those little feet are sticking out the bottom of a full-sized bed. 

So while you regret the silent spring of Trouble's Tribune, change has certainly made its mark anyway. A kiss on the biggest of those sweet little toes brings you back; 10 soft, pink, little reminders to enjoy what you have right now. And a memory to live on.

Modern Day Guilt Trip

Thanks to Adrienne for my lesson in a modern day guilt trip. Here is what I found on my phone after refusing to go home and get Bear-Bear to bring along on our errands. There are about 50 of these. Doesn't she look SO sad. I think there might actually be tears in her eyes in one of the photos!

I think she took these paparatzi-style just to iterate and reiterate how absolutely heart-broken she was about leaving Bear-Bear behind. I was actually feeling a little bad about my parenting choice until I got to the second half of the photos. I think she has forgotten the Bear-Bear debacle by now. I don't know where they perfect this art but kids are amazing manipulators!

Happy Father's Day!

This Father's day came without too much fanfare. I was arm-twisted into not buying any presents so that the hubby could pick out a few of his own without my complaint. This arrangement generally works well for us, with the caveat that said-presents typically cost just a little more than I would normally want to spend (but, hey, I am a cheap-skate so what can I say?).

In an effort (albiet a weak one, I admit) to do something special-but-doesn't-cost-any-money for father's day, I had a bright idea that we could make some personalized cards for dad. I probably should have went the way for crafting, but was un-inspired by my 5 minutes of internet searching for ideas in addition to the fact that Nate is way more of a destroyer of crafts than a crafter these days. So I opted for a personalized card, probably subconsciously swayed by the gorgeous pinterest photos of small children looking adoringly and wide-eyed into the camera whilst doing something totally sweet, like holding a flower and giving their sibling a hug. I am sure I can totally get my children to do something like that, right? Right!?

So, on a hot Houston June afternoon, I packed the kids up for a post-work photo shoot. It must have been 90 degrees (which feels like 110 due to the million percent humidity it is now) and sunny... so perfect for taking photos. We were sweaty after 10 minutes, which was mostly just the drive to our destination in the car while it cooled off. Then, as with everyday, the kids were so excited to be doing something that they were wild and unruly. They were running everywhere and picking flowers and throwing rocks and generally having a wonderful (if sweaty) time. My pictures, however, were terrible. Not to say that they are normally great or anything. They certainly are not. But these were really bad. Probably because my expectations for this were so high. Anyway, needless to say that I deleted 99% of the photos from that day. Most of them were of blurry limbs and heads, or little backsides running in different directions.

I did, however, manage to salvage this project into something...well...printable, at the least, for a father's day card (even if I did have to stretch the cheese-factor to make this work!). The photos weren't what I was imagining, but at the very least they capture an essence of who we are right now: playful, silly, active, joyful kids. They illustrate, importantly, that the kids are happy. To me, this freedom to be happy comes in large part from a lot of back-stage and thankless chores of love and support from their wonderful father. So, for this father's day: a big thanks to my hubby, for being a wonderful dad to our two amazing kids.

Christmas Elf

I have to admit, I was leery over this outfit when my mother-in-law brought this home. You know, leery in the way that I thought this outfit was cute, like, 100 years ago. But Adrienne wanted to wear it and there is no stopping a 3 year old who knows what she wants. Ta da! Clearly I was wrong. Seriously, have you ever seen a cuter Christmas Elf?!

Impossible

Does anyone else find it impossible to take a decent picture of their little ones?? Well, here's to trying and many more attempts in 2013.

Three

Adrienne turned 3 a couple of weeks ago. It was a monumentous birthday and one that came with much anticipation for her. Unfortunately for Adrienne, her birthday comes following a long string of family birthdays in the summer/fall and I think she was beginning to think her birthday was never going to come. We would tell her that her birthday is in November and she could repeat that if you asked her, but of course she had no idea what that meant in real time. 

A: Is it my birthday today? 

Me: No, honey. 

A: Awwwwwwww, mooooooom....... 

And thus it went quite often until, then, it was her birthday.

This year she was lucky because Grandma and Granddad could be here for both Thanksgiving and Adrienne's birthday. The more attention the better. As soon she woke up, she was out of bed and excited about her birthday. We congratulated her on turning 3 years old. "No, I'm not 3 yet." She informed us. "I haven't blown out my candles yet". I don't know why, but somehow she had put the pieces together that blowing out the candles directly correlates with turning another year older. This seemed like a simple enough problem, so I offered to put candles on her breakfast waffle so she could blow them out and be three already. This upset her. Candles DO NOT go on waffles, Mommy. They go on cakes. With singing and friends and blowing out the candles and turning another year older. It would be so silly (i.e. distressing) to do it another way. 

So we waited until Adrienne's friends arrived. She could hardly wait to turn 3, so we turned straight to loading up her cupcake with candles. Finally they lit (it was a bit windy) and we were ready to sing Happy Birthday. Unfortunately the pictures don't do it justice. Adrienne just drank it all in during the singing, standing there looking so proud and happy. And finally--poof! The candles were out and Adrienne was 3. She loves being 3 and is happy to tell anyone who will listen. And she is a big girl now, she says. I can't believe my little big girl is 3 already!?

Later that night, we were going to open her birthday presents. She had enjoyed blowing out the candles so much earlier in the day that I asked if she wanted us to sing and blow out the candles one more time on her birthday. "No, Mom," she said, "I am not ready to be 4 yet." You and me both kid. Happy 3rd Birthday, Adrienne!

ONE!

Last weekend we celebrated Nate's first birthday. In many way--well, most ways, really--I can't believe it has only been a year since Nate was born. Not in the bad way, like 'it has ONLY been a year?! How are we going to make it through the next 17 years?!' It just seems like so much has happened since then.  Since Nate was born, we've had hospital stints for both of the kids, 2 long flights from Singapore to the USA, a death in the family, a move back to the US of A, a new city, a new job...ok ya, a lot has happened. So there is that. But also, it just feels like Nate has been around longer than a year. Like he has been a part of our family for longer than 12 months. It is hard to even imagine what it was like before he was with us.

Nonetheless, we wanted to mark the occasion with the proper celebration that one's first trip around the sun warrants. Planning birthday parties is not my forte, however. Especially for a one year old where too much excitement and sugar may very likely ruin the day, if not the entire week. As luck would have it, last weekend was family weekend at the University of St. Thomas and Saturday (Nate's birthday) happened to coincide with the annual birthday bash for St Augustine. So we (I) figured that St. Augustine wouldn't mind sharing his birthday celebration with an adorable one year old who bears a large and saintly name. Right?!

Big sister was a big help for most of the day, seeing as Nate's birthday is the next best thing to having her own birthday, replete with even a few presents thrown her way. We started the day by decorating the birthday cupcakes. I'm sorry to say that these don't look amazing. But they did have lots of chocolate frosting! Adrienne was particularly helpful in monitoring and disposing of (by way of her mouth) errant sprinkles or M&Ms that were not up to birthday cake standards. As such, about one out of every four M&Ms made it to the cupcakes and often even those got removed later in further quality control tests. Oh well, everybody ought to eat chocolate for breakfast every once in awhile.

Following that, we walked over to St. Augustine's/Nate's birthday party. This was perfect for the kids--toys, games, train rides, bounce houses, face painting, balloons, a giant pinata, and, of course, birthday cake! The kids loved it. I probably should have put more thought on that part. I think Adrienne may think this is what birthday parties should look like. She may even expect something similar for her birthday next month. You know, 'Nate got bounce houses and a train ride and all I got was this lousy cake?!' Luckily, Adrienne will get Grandma and Granddad's undivided attention for her birthday so that will be extra special. We followed up Nate's big day with presents, birthday cupcakes, and a few friends. It was a fun day for all of us to celebrate the passing of a big year with many changes, the best of which is, hands down, our little guy. Happy birthday, Nate, we love you very much!

Fall weather

I haven't been around here lately. We have been out enjoying the lovely fall weather. And by 'fall', I mean 'upper 80s'. The only reason we are in long sleeves in these photos is because of the mosquitos. After five years near the equator, I am anxious for some cooler weather! But in the meantime, we are trying to make the most of what we got. And what we have got, as you can clearly see from these photos, is an adorable almost one-year old who really wants to walk! We still haven't seen those first unassisted and wobbly first steps but I know they they will be making their appearance soon. Then again, don't hold your breath. Nate seems to barrel around just fine on his hands and knees.

Return to Chaos

Since I left you, my dearly neglected blog, with the calm and tidiness that comes with just managing one small baby for a well-enjoyed five days, I should mention that we have officially returned to chaos around here. Adrienne and Dad had a wonderful trip to Chicago. I suppose we should have expected as much, but Adrienne definitely has the travel gene. The night before they were leaving, we let her 'pack' her own suitcase. She finished in minutes, dumping several buckets of toys in her suitcase and securely stowing it by the front door for the early morning taxi ride to the airport. When 3am arrived too quickly, as it always does when you have to head out the door at that unforsaken hour of the morning, I went to wake Adrienne up. Before I could finish the sentence "It's time to go to the air.....", she was out of bed and on her way to the front door, happy and excited. Too bad I can't say the same for her dad at that hour of the day! Apparently she was a good traveler and, predictably, was spoiled rotten the entire time. No wonder she didn't feel like talking to Mom the entire trip! Of course since I wasn't there, I don't have much in the way of pictures or details about the trip. However, my hubby did text me this picture and I think it pretty much sums up the what the whole trip was probably like: mid-day cotton candy for no apparent reason.

But alas, all good things must come to an end. Ever since she has been home, she has been claiming that she was "so happy to see me when she got back from Chicago!". Now I know this is a lie. She simply couldn't find the time to talk to me while she was there because she was so busy eating cotton candy and basking in the attention of her cousins. Also, she literally was crying when she returned to our front step where I was waiting for her. And she tried to hit me for not letting her eat more candy, which promptly got her sent to the naughty corner. So while I am partially swayed by this belated sentiment, I think she is actually trying to butter me up so she can take another trip. She is already talking about wanting to go to New York City to see Uncle Ryan and Aunt Lilly. Either New York City or the moon, she says. Sigh. I'm sure this kid is going to grow up and want to go see the world.

In other news, Regis and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary on the 17th of September. I was planning to post something to commemorate it. You know, something funny and sweet and endearing in all the right ways. But that never happened, as you can tell. Oh well, maybe for our 8th anniversary. On the plus side, we did manage to celebrate with a night out--an evening very much enjoyed with the man I am still deeply in love with. Happy Anniversary, Hubby!