Jack
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Jack. Eight.
The universal and the unique are at war when parents try to describe their children to other people. Jack is Everyman at eight – everything I could say about him will sound like what all parents say about their offspring, and in many ways he is an eight year old like every other eight year old right now, born in 2008, coming of age in the United States. There is nothing I can put here that will distill the essence of the uniqueness of our Jack to an audience who has never met him. My intimacy with him is (naturally) so personal, and I lack the medium to convey it…
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Why My Sons are the Best
Craig knows new words every day. Every day. Today, for example, he said such sentences as “No bedtime yet for Craig.” “Line ’em up, cars!” “I want juice or milk baba.” “Aunt Corrie, Aunt Caki, Aunt Amanda, uuuuuum, who else? Nana! Grandpa Doc!” When he is being disciplined (gently) or put to bed or similar by one parent, he will ask for the other. “Daddy coming?” or “Mommy coming?” He is a clever little sprite. Yesterday Jack asked sweetly if we could watch a movie on the couch and cuddle. I said after I got the baby down to bed, and I took Craig into his bedroom to read a…
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Saturday Afternoon Meal Planning
Taking a break from worky work to do domestic work (including meal planning), after which I shall go back to worky-work some more. Although this indubitably sucks, it’s not all work this Saturday – we did squeeze in a trip to the New Orleans Insectarium today, which was by no means relaxing, given the children, but at least it was time to be fully engaged with the kids. (By “fully engaged with the kids,” I actually mean “staggering under the weight of my giant 7 year old who crawled up my body like he was scaling a tree, and nope, that sensory sensitivity ain’t totally gone.” There were lots of…
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Babies Babies Babies
I’m surrounded by preggos. One friend at work just had a baby girl and three others are pregnant with boys (due in December, January, and March). My sister is also due to have a baby girl any old day now, as is a cousin down in Florida. It’s fun. It’s also been great to remove all baby stuff from our house and deposit it to others in need. I say this because, looking for something to say today, I skimmed my October 2007 archives, and they mostly consist of pregnancy posts. Cravings, sickness, worries, surprise that I was already preg at our first anniversary. Lord, what a blessing Jack is, but what…
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Those Boys, Though
Yesterday, Jack went to a Cub Scout meeting with his dad. Craig was asleep, and so it was just Liam and me. Middle child that he is, my Liam flourishes under individual attention – and he so rarely gets it. I took the stolen moment. First we got out paints and paper, and he painted some pictures while I wrote some notes. Heads bowed together at the kitchen table, both of us studious and focused. He bored of this rather quickly, though – again, a very Liam-like behavior – and started asking for tv. “Let’s have a snack on the porch instead” I suggested. I had him at “snack,” and…