Fort

How is it possible that the simplest things in life can result in hours and hours of fun?

Imperfect, but okay

I needed this today.

To accomplish something.

To hold something in my hands and think "THIS. THIS IS WHAT I'VE DONE."

It was one of those days you know? Mental inventory of life. Resume flashing through brain, me trying to catch glimpses of exactly what is on there. An informal, panic stricken, self-judgmental, personal inventory of my life.

It came early this year.

Then I finished this.

** spoiler alert** If I have you for a stocking you will not be surprised come Christmas.

This.

This is what I've done.

It's imperfect, but okay.

Like lady like apron.

I Knew This Day Would Come...

He tries to be good. I know he does. But the way he lets his frustration out is bad...

B...A...D.

He's a biter, and it happened today at daycare.

I have gotten one call already, the one where they call me Mrs. and I feel really old. They told me he had fallen off the chair, bumped his head, it was cleaned, iced etc, etc. All was good.

But today at pickup it was more on the sly, back door, a kind of BTW, he bit someone and that's that. And I felt awful, judged, terrible. The biter and bitee are not known to each other. Or at least the parents aren't. Which I guess makes for less awkward interchanges in the parking lot. But still, he's the one.

But maybe not. My hope is not. I scoured his little body today looking for signs of a battle, toothmarks that might indicate a tete a tete, rather then a one sided gnawing. I am convincing myself that a new bruise on his arm, the size of a pencil eraser is sure sign of some other little germy mongrel sinking their chompers in...but I will never know. He's not saying.

But really, how could you be mad at that face? And those teeth?! How sharp they are! All the better to...

Oranges?!? Oh' the good ol' days.

*Not oranges. But they are orange. Slack please. Cut me some. This photo is all I had.

Rice kris-pee treats, dunkin donuts, nutter butters....

For snack during a pre-K soccer game?

***

When we were assigned October 3rd as snack family for Dec's soccer team, my mind began to spin... what to bring? What does everyone else bring? What will make the kids believe that Dec has the best parents?

I decided that "we" would bring tiny Gatorades and individual serving bags of Rainbow Goldifsh crackers. Awesome. Awesome?!?

Supermarket trip with 2 kids in tow sealed the deal. Dec's soccer snacks were done. DONE! And, it wasn't even Tuesday. Was I the best mother in Town or what?

Or what?

But then soccer was canceled. Oh brother!

The gatorade was quickly (shockingly fast, actually.) consumed by Dec's dad in the coming days. Boxes of goldfish crackers hid away in case we get the "you're on snack dooty" call this week. P.S. we didn't. P.P.S. yet!

Fast forward to this evening, playing "math" (a lively, after-dinner game with 'dessert'). Juicy, bold oranges. Scrumptious oranges. A bright, juicy orange was the dessert. There, I said it, just in case you missed it.

Declan peeled an orange for the first time. "Good job!" and "Where did you learn to peal an orange like that?!?" flew across the dinner table. We talk fractions, subtraction, addition - all with that prize orange as our teaching tool.

During these shenanigans, the orange brick comes and smacks me clear on the noggin. Oranges. Oranges!?! Yes. Oranges.

When I was a little girl, we never had goldfish crackers, rice kris-pee treats, or dunkin donut munchkins for snacks at soccer. Never. NEVER EVER! We ate oranges. Oranges! The delicacy of a true athlete. (As described in detail this evening over a simple game of "math" with Dec.)

And now, back to those oranges. Oh, we LOVED THEM. LOVED THEM! (didn't we girls?) . How then, did snack time at soccer become filled with pre-packaged rice kris-pee treats, packaged gatorades, dunkin donuts hot cocoa and munchkins? What happened? I don't even know.

But as if the Gods up above have heard my angst, we got an email notice from the coach this week that all canceled games will be rescheduled. Hip hip....

And when our game is on. When we are declared snack family for the day.... you can be sure that this family will be bringing oranges and water to the game.

Oh yes.

Oranges!

Just like the good ol' days.

Question

Don't it make you wanna

JUMP JUMP?

My First Date

Dec was sad when I picked him up from school today. He felt a bit left out. Friends around him were partnering off, heading to playdates, whispering in the corner, and tripping him on his way in from the playground.

So this evening, I took him on a date. First trip to the movies. Left Dame and Nonie at home.

These are the things I learned:
1. Norwalk, CT has 2 movie theatres. And we were in both this evening, made it to the right one just in time for the show!
2. Cloudy With a Chance of Ice Cream is not the name of the movie. But it does make Dec laugh when I call it that.
3. Sometimes, I just need a little time with my first born. Alone. That's when I get the non-stop "I love you mommies" that make it feel like it is raining ice cream and chocolate kisses.

Autumn is...

Packed Hayrides

Washing Apples

Apples Being Put To Good Use By Amazing Babysitter

Foliage

Donuts on Strings

And Mini Maple Creamy. Maple Creamy. Maple Creamy.

Tada!

I present to you...

my bag.

While this may look like an ordinary, streamlined, state of the art, coordinating colors, square bag WITH a zipper - might I add - it is, in fact, EXTRA ordinary and do you want to know why?

Well it's because I made it.

Yup, that's right. With my own two hands. And the two helpful hands of my sewing teacher. She had to come and help when my zigzag seam went haywire.

And she had to look at said seam and exclaim "I have NEVER seen anything like this."

And she had to tell me "I think you're done for the night."

And she had to say goodbye to the other students as they left.

And there I sat. Slaving away. Ripping, zigzagging, and repairing.

My bag.

Antidotes...

I am itchy. From head to toe and places in between that I would rather not mention.

I have the ivy.

Of the poison persuasion.

Not the pretty green stuff that elite colleges are named after, the awful shiny kind that apparently lurks in every inch of my yard, and while I have weeded the same spot over and over again, will never learn to put on long sleeves and pants.

So now I suffer and scratch and wonder about something I heard once.

In nature, close together, if there is something that is harmful, or poisonous, right near it is the antitode.

So where is the antidote to the P.I.? And if you tell me it's that pink calamine stuff I laugh, cause that gives about as much relief as scratching with oven mitts, it's a joke.

So now I have to go out there and one by one rub all that foliage all over to see which will bring the most relief.

Then I'll bottle it and be RICH.....why hasn't anyone thought of this yet. GENIOUS!

BTW, just googled PI images to get one to upload and saw some cases WAY worse off then mine. I'll just zip it, lotion up and go to bed.

SAME HANDS AS GRANNY

This morning I buttoned Dec's school shirt. He looked down and exclaimed, "You have the same hands as my Granny!!!" And he was right.

I do.

I quietly thanked him for noticing.

And for making my day.

Man, we're old.

Happy 100th post me-ladies :)

I would like to thank, in this order:

Bernice,
Annie,
Kara,
Tese,
Friendly's.


Because Annie uses Bernice Brownie Recipe, which we all know to be delicious.


And when Tese called Annie to ask about the recipe, she didn't pick up the phone. So Tese called Kara, to see where Annie was, or to see who knew what about Bernice's brownie recipe.


Turns out Annie has blogged about Bernice's Brownies and Kara told Tese so.


Tese whipped up a batch of brownies and offered them to me as dinner the other night when I met her at the park and ride. We were headed to a David Sedaris show. It was hysterical! I gladly accepted.


Tonight I opened up the bag of Bernice's treats and plopped one in my new anthropologie bowl (housewarming gift. cute) and scooped some Friendly's ice cream on top. As I enjoyed my sweet (with two, budding, cavities, might I add- didn't know I had non-filled teeth left) I reflected on how the Friendly's ice cream really wasn't that good. This surprised me. I mean, it wasn't bad, but it was second fiddle to the brownie. It was, however, the perfect soft-ness which made the dish a success.


A celebration to be sure! Which was perfect because when I signed in I saw I would be the 100th post and I knew my brownie sundae celebration was more than just a craving fulfilled.

Happy Shared Birthday

To the world's best parents!!!

Love you guys

They tipped.

A beautiful fall day.

I put the garden to bed.

And while I did, they tipped.

No injuries though. So that was good.

So then I separated them. Nonie to the swing. Dec to the john deere.

(and this is picture of sweet Xave, who would never flip Nonie in the red wagon)

FRONT PORCH VIEW OF MIGRATION . AWESOME

We stood on the porch in our pjs watching this crazy, early morning flight.

It took close to 6 minutes until the last bird flew over the horizon.

Then we went inside and squealed in amazement at the spectacle of it all.

It was awesome!

A Halloween Waffle-er

"Mom, I've given up on wanting to be an astronaut for halloween. I think I really want to just be Scooby Doo."

Am I a fool to believe him?

We hadn't even reached October and he waffled over the following costumes in the following order: a shark, a hammerhead shark, the joker (from batman, though he admitted he didn't know what this was - and that his best friend at school was being batman), an astronaut, a race car driver, lightening mcqueen, a football player, scooby doo, a shark again, an astronaut, a car, a hammerhead shark, an astronaut.

I miss the old days when he was too young to care (captured in porcupine photo above).