Ittybits & Pieces

Little boxes made of ticky tack

2021-01-03T00:06:00.002-05:00

I remember you. I remember thinking everything that shifted did so like an earthquake. Sudden and violently. But I couldn't see the whole picture. I didn't register the time before. I hadn't noticed how compartmentalized our lives had already become. How precarious our connections. Of course I miss the way I thought things used to be. I miss not thinking about how a laugh or a handshake between friends and loved ones could end one or all of us. But I also think how wonderful it is that we live in a time of electric connections. And I am grateful.

80 years and change

2019-05-19T05:38:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Typically atypical

2018-03-03T22:40:00.001-05:00

Legend-ary

2017-05-22T10:26:00.003-04:00

"Did you know our school is named after a legend? Literally, a legend!"

Coming soon to a medical office near you

2017-03-22T09:28:00.000-04:00

Trumpcare's convenient back alley entrance

The kids are growing like weeds

2016-12-04T21:51:00.001-05:00

Of course, you knew that. Didn't need me to tell you.

Annabel has braces. And boldness. And brains.

And we are entering that crossroad.

Sometimes I close my eyes and hold my breath just to feel the pulse running through my ears.

I pretend it's the sea.

Always changing.

She's given up dance and taken up theater. She has a voice coach as well as a basketball coach.

She no longer plays at dress up. She's now a professional.

She'll be T-H-I-R-T-E-E-N in a few weeks (13?howisthatpossible?)

I've rummaged through picture files here on the fingerprint stained laptop I somehow managed to wrestle away from her brother, but I couldn't find much of anything recent to show you.

She is more her own now, in ways that are not mine to tell.

*********

Silas is more of himself, as well, now that he's the grand old age of nine.

His body hasn't yet caught up to his feet, but it doesn't matter his size.

These days he takes the stairs two at a time, wearing a santa hat and last year's pajamas.

Legs visible from the calves, he claims he's never outgrown things.

Beatific, barely bespectacled boy, who sings in the shower and doesn't care who's listening.

He'll hug you if you ask him. Gladly.

But, no pictures, please.

And he'll tell you about his dreams: That one day he will be bigger than a French car.

Mothers and daughters

2016-05-08T21:06:00.000-04:00

It never gets old.

Happy Mother's Day to all the women who nurture.

Foam war chronicles

2016-04-08T15:26:00.000-04:00

The Yellow Team.

The Blue Team.

Yellow Team advances with capture of weapon dump.

Short on strategy. Tough break for Blue Team.

Regroup in higher ground.

Overtaken in their own base camp.

"War never works out. Even when you win you lose."

War correspondant ... signing off.

Word

2016-01-20T23:58:00.001-05:00

And today, for the second night in a row at lights out, he told me he'd "like to keep reading if that's OK."

"That's fine. Let me know when you'd like broccoli as a snack."

Never a dull moment

2015-11-19T22:02:00.004-05:00

"I just need to be me."

Making a spectacle of one's self ...

2015-10-08T23:57:00.001-04:00

He sits in the chair and plays patty cake with the armrests.

He is nervous, though he isn't saying so.

"They won't touch my eye with any of these gadgets, will they?"

"They'll just ask you to look through the goggles and tell them what you see. It's not uncomfortable."

I'm just trying to smooth over his fears, and I'm not sure it's helping.

Discomfort comes in many forms. Especially where small cubicles contain larger-than-life anatomical eyeballs.

Experience, I suppose, is one antidote to discomfort.

But it helps when part of that practice lets you choose your specs.

And it helps when no one actually pokes you in the eye.
Because knowing what to expect often takes practice. ...

And patience. ...

And perhaps answering all manner of questions that don't seem to have anything to do with the present circumstances. Such as ...

"When I'm 20, how will you do errands?"
"Maybe I'll send you to do them for me."
"But what if I'm in college ... or far away?"
"Then I'll just do them ... same as now."
"But how? You might not be big enough."
"I'm not going to shink THAT much in just 12 years."

After all, I'm sure he didn't expect to need glasses until he was much, much older.

Of course, I didn't expect him to look so much older in the blink of an eye.

So many things ...

2015-07-17T23:21:00.000-04:00

Summer has come ... but the time I thought I'd have to fritter about and catch up here hasn't so much materialized.

Another patchwork of my best intentions.

****

Today is Amah's birthday.

The kids and I visited. A tiny little party with immediate family ... but no picture.

For the first time in years she was able to eat meals made of solid food: An omlette and toast, baked fish and boiled beans, birthday cake. She is happy and ravenous. Progress.

"I think her brain is getting more composed. They are really helping her get better here," observed Silas from behind his slice of cake, which he was working on digging out on the tender morsels from its thick frosting shell.

Annabel's eyes teared up. Mine stayed dry. Progress.

****

The cat is growing in her sleep.

****

Annabel would prefer that her mom drives faster and her dad drives slower.

Silas seems to be growing every time I check the rearview mirror.

****

Both Jed and I have done fun stuff ...

****

We're staying busy with running ...

****

And plays ....

****

And enjoying Mothers and all their Natures ... whenever we can.

Legitimate conversations

2015-05-19T23:21:00.000-04:00

"Mom ... When you and dad got married did he stay near the front while your dad walked you down an aisle?"

"Yes, Silas, that's pretty much how it went."

"Who was your caterer?"

"Tommy Carlucci. I don't think you've ever met him."

"And who made your cake?"

"Karen Casey ... she lives across the street from papa."

"Did it have bride and groom on top that looked like you and daddy?"

"No. We weren't that fancy. We had edible flowers ... pansies."

"When is your anniversary?"

"September 28."

"Wait ... you mean your anniversary comes AFTER I was born?"

"Well not the first few."

411

2015-05-18T22:18:00.002-04:00

5/17/15

13.1

2:05:08

Pear shaped

2015-05-11T14:25:00.000-04:00

I don't know what shape I expected life to take back when was waiting for my experiences to gel.

But I can't complain it hasn't been straight up and down.

Don't count your chickens before they're hatched

2015-04-01T16:58:00.002-04:00

An illustrative reminder.

Privacy?

2015-03-25T21:54:00.001-04:00

What's that?

Eleven

2015-02-25T20:36:00.000-05:00

Times change.

You wake up one morning. The number after your name ticks up by one.

And you realize something just isn't quite right with your little world.

The sun peeks through your windows and its light is set further ablaze by the color of your soundings.

This can not stand.

And so ... we change.

But as we do, we have to remember. ...

Some things always stay the same.

These days

2015-01-28T08:44:00.003-05:00

I know I'm going to miss these days ...

Messy, lazy, blurry days.

Snow day

2014-12-14T22:29:00.001-05:00

He could not contain himself.

I couldn't contain him, either.

She knew I didn't want to go out in the cold and the wet.

She didn't want to go out there either.

But something in my face ...

She's called it The Look of Disappointment ...

Made her haul on her dayglow coat and too-small boots and pretend to care about snowmen of the smallest stature.

Karma and the kitten

2014-10-22T10:25:00.001-04:00

Life and death.

Hat Trick

2014-10-07T22:11:00.000-04:00

I think I have finally reached a parenting trifecta.

Some things are just important ...

For instance, not risking "love" by crossing it out ... (Stepping on cracks, though ... that's cool.)

*****

Getting them to fall asleep can seem like an art form ...

But really it's just the material of nightmares.

*****

Best of all is what your daughter will learn from watching all 208 episodes of "How I Met Your Mother" ...

"Hey mom! Come look at the strip club I built in Minecraft. I call it 'Barney's'."

From the Why I Married Him department ... Brought to you by the Mouths of Babes department ...

2014-08-28T20:03:00.000-04:00

MOM! Dad is doing his own dental work!

How we roll

2014-07-04T21:27:00.001-04:00

... or, more accurately, how we would have rolled if the People's Parade wasn't rained out.

Isn't everyone?

2014-06-30T22:53:00.002-04:00

"My sister thinks she's black toast intolerant."

"I don't think there's any black toast in this milk, though."