Category: family

Neko has a knack for coming up with the cutest ideas at the most inconvenient times. Tom was literally on the way out the door for his evening out, when Neko picked up the camera and delclared, “We need a family picture!” She had recently found a few small albums we had put together for her preschool class, and decided they needed some updating.

After a few minutes of trying to convince her this was a great idea for tomorrow or something Chris could help us out with, Tom sighed and put down his bag and picked up the camera.

And, you know, for the two quick shots we took, this wasn’t too bad. (Except for the fact that Ellery is missing. She was sound asleep and I couldn’t imagine getting us all surrounding her without a major injury occurring. Sorry kiddo.)

On a side note, I have an appointment to get my eyebrows waxed in five days. They aren’t always that scary. Really.

By mid-morning it had already been a rough day. Shep is on the tail end of sick, as is Ellery. Neko is halfway through sick. Tom is getting sick. Everyone is tired and grouchy. Between all three kids, we were probably up hourly.

It doesn’t help that it’s been grey and overcast for ages. On top of being sick, I think the weather has been bringing us down.

Jen was here to watch the kids so I could log a little time in the shop. Although we tell her to call us with any questions, she’s a super-experienced sitter, and has never called. So when my cell phone rang, and I saw it was her, I was worried.

So now we should backtrack to fall. On one fine, fall day Neko found a fat, green caterpillar in the yard. We humored her by letting her put it in the bug cage, thinking we would release it the next day. But the next day, the caterpillar was gone. Overnight, it had turned into a chrysalis.

We had done the whole caterpillar/chrysalis/butterfly thing before. Wait a week or so, and the buttefly emerges. But once we started doing some research we discovered that this particular caterpillar stays in the chrysalis stage ALL WINTER and emerges as a moth the following spring.

So it spent the entire winter in the mudroom. I’d glance at it periodically and think that I should really just throw the whole thing out. There’s no way that thing is still alive after months in a chrysalis with no food or water. But when I answered the phone today, Jen informed me that the moth had emerged.

I didn’t even know what to say. Although she was bouncing with excitement over the moth, I don’t think Neko ever doubted it would eventually emerge. Perhaps I should think like a four-year-old a bit more often. I can be a real skeptic sometimes.

By evening, the moth was fluttering around the cardboard box we had moved him to, so much that we were worried he would hurt his wings. We told Neko it was time to let him go. My parents and sisters came up to watch, and by the light of the porchlights, she let the moth go.

Later that night, I heard Neko talking to Shep, “I know you miss the moth, but we had to let him go. He has to go find his other moth friends.”

It may not seem like it most of the time, but she’s listening. And understanding. And the sun came out today. So maybe, just maybe, we’re gonna pull ourselves out of this grey-sky, germ covered funk and run headlong into spring.

Tom was in the Big City for a mid-day meeting, so we decided to meet up with him at the end of the day for some time at the park and dinner out. The weather was beautiful and I’d just cleaned the house, so scooping the kids up for some outdoor fun before they could wreck the house seemed like a good plan.

We were going to go to the enormous park, but decided to go visit our old neighborhood park instead. It’s funny to go a place where you used to always run into someone from playgroup or a class, and this time around not recognize any faces.

The kids had a great time, and we all needed the sunshine. And pizza at our old favorite was SO GOOD. I must think of how to bribe someone in O-town to open a new location.

We’re trying to do more local events. We need to find friends in our town that we can hang out with, plus the kids must get tired of sitting in the car so much when we drive to the Big City.

So on a freezing Saturday morning, we headed out to the local Easter egg hunt. Barb came to watch Ellery so she wouldn’t get infant frostbite, and so we could have a 1:1 child to adult ratio, which is always for the best in events that involve wide open spaces and chocolate.

When we arrived, we were amazed to see plastic eggs as far as the eye could see. Neko even let out an audible gasp. The organizers had smartly sectioned off areas for different age groups, so Tom and Shep went to the 2 and 3-year-old area, while Neko and I headed off to the 4 and 5-year-old section. So, Shep, I apologize that there aren’t any photos of you at the hunt…but there is video of you, which, when I am 53, I will make into a nice video compilation.

When the buzzer signaled the start, pure mayhem ensued. Neko froze and watched as the seasoned professionals began grabbing eggs at lightning speed. I finally got her moving, and she was able to pick up around eight eggs with her heavily mittened hands before, in about 43 seconds, all the eggs were gone. Fortunately, she was too distracted by the Easter Bunny to notice all the kids surrounding her with more eggs than would fill their baskets.

Reunited with Shep and Tom, we headed to the coffee house for cocoa. Neko discovered a Disney chess set, Shep discovered biscotti, and Tom and I discovered a few moments to sip coffee.

Ellery, I promise, next week there will be photos of you. As a fellow third child, this is my vow.

I think I’m a fairly creative mom, but every now and then, I remember that I was raised by The Master, and that I have a whole lot to live up to.

Tom and I got away to see Jim Gaffigan with Paul and Amy (which was hilarious…I actually cried), and my parents watched Neko and Shep. Fresh on the heels of the Ariel purchase, it was clear the evening would have one focus. However, only my mom can turn hanging out with an absurdly propotioned princess into a creative and stimulating activity.

With a little construction paper, string, markers and a pair of scissors, they turned the space under their dining room table into an ocean for Ariel. The picture really doesn’t do it justice. It’s really quite beautiful, and Neko even put down Ariel to gather some other ocean friends.

I carry a small camera in my diaper bag at all times. Every now and then a great picture appears before me, and I want to capture the moment, and then I get the camera out, and then the moment is usally gone.

I forget about the small camera, and suddenly it has all these photos on it.

So there’s no story here, except that I finally downloaded the pix off the small camera.

I’m an aunt again! Welcome to baby Alex, pictured here at about eight hours old. Congratulations to Susie, Doug and big brother, Chris.

Christmas began at 3:45am. Neko wandered into our room and declared it was morning. We declared it was an indecent hour to be awake, and thank goodness, she believed us.

However, at 6:15am we could no longer stall. She trudged into our room, sadly declaring there were no presents. We realize now she had peeked out into the living room and looked at the Christmas tree. Since we put the presents around the fireplace (where there’s a rug for my rapidly expanding caboose), she didn’t see them. Tom took the moment to run out into the living room and get the video camera rolling. I walked a sad Neko into the living room. “Are you sure there are no presents?” I asked.

And then she looked up and saw all the boxes and packages and her face lit up and she started going nuts, babbling about presents and Santa and ohmygoodness. It was priceless. We couldn’t have scripted it better. I looked up with glee at Tom who looked at me and said, “Oh, shit.” Turns out the video camera was on stand-by the whole time. So we won’t be able to share that little piece of history with, well, anyone, but believe us, it was good.

The next hour was a blur of wrapping paper and presents, much like the first photo. Neko would declare each thing she opened the most amazing thing in the world and then toss it over her shoulder in search of another present. Shep was watching Neko carefully to see what he should be doing, but he looked a bit like a foreigner in a new country.

When Neko was done opening her presents, she insisted on helping us open ours. And when we moved on to my parents’ house later that day, she helped everyone there open their gifts. She’s becoming quite a pro, and perhaps next year we’ll rent her out to Donald Trump to be his official present opener, since clearly he’s too busy cracking on Rosie O’Donnell to open his own gifts.

Later on, Tom made scones and we played with the new train set. We broke up many squabbles and marveled at the wreckage Christmas left behind. We are clearly not yet in the years where Christmas day is full of sipping coffee and lazy naps while the children play with their new gifts, but we did get to witness the absolute joy and exuberance of the first Christmas where all the pieces have come together in Neko’s head. And I wouldn’t trade that for a nap. Probably.

We thought for sure there would be, like, a zillion things to do on Christmas Eve. We had carved out the late afternoon and evening do Christmas-y stuff as a family. But it turns out that everyone in the world must stay home on this day, since everything closed up at 5pm.

So we shoved the kids into the car the minute they woke up from naps and sped downtown so we could hit a few events before they closed. The whatever-they’ve-named-the-energy-company-this-week train display was first on the list. The kids loved this the most because of the nice people who gave away free cookies at the entrance…but the train display was really neat, too. Then we hunted down the model of downtown made of gingerbread, which was really ho-hum. Much neater was the gingerbread house display in a nearby hotel lobby. I think gingerbread houses will be on our agenda next week, even though Christmas is officially over. Then a quick zip by the square to see ice skaters and to gaze at some big trees.

We headed to dinner at P.F. Chang’s, which is totally not Christmas-y at all, but quite delicious. Then home just in time to tuck the kids into bed with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads. Or something like that.