ZOO!

 

Hi All, 

So we finally got around to having the boys’ birthday party last month.  I have been wanting to have Rin’s BDay at the zoo for literally years now.  It used to be 7 minutes from our front door to my favorite parking lot and since the zoo is free here, it was our favorite 'what should we do today' thing.  We went there all the time.  I mean All.The.Time.  I love that place.  So it was sort of a no brainer as to where I thought we should do it.  But, this being DC and all, there was a multi-month waiting list.  So, 3 months after they turned 2 and 5, we finally had a real celebration.  

Rin really wanted to have a cake with the map of the zoo on it and he wanted to place plastic animals in the appropriate places on the map/cake.  But, as creative as that was, it didn’t pan out because I couldn’t find anyone willing to make it.  And you all know I’m not gonna bake one and try to decorate it.  That would be a total fiasco.  Can you imagine?  I can barely bake muffins from a mix.  So off we went to Giant.  Rin picked out a Pirates of the Caribbean cake (no, I promise he hasn’t seen the movie.  He just likes pirates).  And Bek wanted the Lalala cake (aka Sesame Street).  And they got excited about the party.  No to mention the gifts that came along with it.  And the people coming to visit to celebrate our sweet babies. 

We had both Nana and Gigi come into town for it.  And most of Rin’s class ended up coming, along with DC friends, ice skating friends, old friends from when I was working.  The whole shebang. 

The weather was a little up in the air and it was sprinkling when we got there but luckily the weather cleared up in time for our tour of The Asia Trail (how appropriate for our family, right?) and the kids had fun. 

All in all, it was a good time.  My boys felt special and that’s all I really wanted for them.  The presents, the cake, the event itself is sort of extra as far as I’m concerned.  Being surrounded by people who love them is the best gift of all. 

Rin’s already talking about next year.  Oy vey.  The boy has plans.  Big big plans… 

Love to all, -m

And then we were off to Utah…

Hi All-

Oh my gosh, you guys.  I wish we lived near big mountains because our Rinat absolutely loves to ski.  And when I say loves, I mean like after 5 hours at ski school, he BEGGED to ski some more.  The only way we could pry him away from the slopes was by bribing him with a rice crispie treat from the café at Deer Valley. 

Before we came, I wasn’t actually sure how well it would go, so the first day we just signed him up for a one-hour lesson.  Let me tell you- he went absolutely bonkers over it.  So the following day he did a whole day of ski school, 10am-4pm, longer than he goes to preschool at home.  And he loved it and asked for more. 

And after THREE days of ski school and loving every single second of it, we had to try hard to convince him to ski with Daddy instead of ski school another day because he really really wanted to do ski school again.  He loved his instructor, he loved the other kids, and he especially loved the hot cocoa.  But his favorite part by far was the obstacle course that they call Candyland.  Not only did my little first-time skier have to maneuver around the cones and under an arch, he then had to hop up in the air when he skied between two of the cones.  I was extremely impressed.  Not sure I could do that myself. 

Sometimes I get frustrated with the extreme emotions that Rinat has. There is no even keel with him.  He is either ecstatically happy or miserably sad or sooo frustrated that he can barely stand it.  Has anyone read the book “Raising your Spirited Child”?  Yeah, I thought she was writing specifically about him in the intro.  He is the very definition of spirited.  Well, though the tough times are extremely trying for us and for him (poor guy), the up times completely blow them out of the water.  When Rin is doing something that he loves, like skiing, he is just the most amazing child to be around and I am in awe of him and his enthusiasm.  It is infectious.  He is not just happy, it’s like he is so happy that his head is going to explode from happiness; he is going to burst into flames; he is going to turn into The Flash and run so fast that I won’t be able to see him.  He is Superman.  And it is marvelous to be a part of it.  Sometimes I just have to sit back, appreciate it, and soak up some of that excitement for myself.  Why not?  He has enough Happy to spare and I just love that I get to be there to see it.         

But this trip was not only about skiing.  We spent lots of quality fun time with family.  Grandma Shay stayed with us the whole time in the condo.  And UncleT/AuntL/Osk came for most of the time too.  And we had more aunts/uncles/cousins come for dinner one night too.  It was a family bonanza.  This part of my family lives clear on the other side of the country and unfortunately this means that I don’t get to see them near as much as I want to (can you believe flight prices?  Not to mention flying with a toddler is sooo not fun) so we have to cram in a whole lot of QT into just a few days.  And we did.  With the little kids, there was just a whole lot of hanging out and that was just fine with me.  The kids ran around and explored the house and tried to find trouble to get into.  Rin enjoyed having Ted around to be rough and tumble with.  And we just had fun being together.  It was good. 

Some of the hang out time was spent in the hot tub.  Bek kept saying “BuhBoo, BuhBoo” (bubble, bubble for anyone who doesn’t speak toddler) and trying to escape out the back door to climb in it.  He is definitely my water baby.  Why is it exactly about cold weather that makes hot tubs fun anyway?  I really could care less about them unless there’s snow on the ground. 

There wasn’t a ton of snow while we were there but they had fun with what there was.  All Bek was really interested in was eating it anyway which is exactly the same thing that Rin did when we came to Utah when he was Bek’s age.  I thought Bekers might be freaked out from the snow, seeing how he’s sensitive about those things and all, but he really got into it.  After eating it for a bit and making the sign for more over and over again with this look of concentration on his little face, he looked at me with the question in his eyes and asked, “WahWah?”  Yup, he got that snow and water were sorta the same thing.  And- a biggie- he pointed outside and said “No!” (snow).  My little boy is finally talking and telling us what’s going on in that noggin of his!      

Not to be a downer or anything to keep bringing it up but sometimes it still feels like Big Pete’s passing is so new.  It’s on everyone’s mind a lot I think.  It's on mine anyway.  And then other times it takes me by surprise when I remember that we won’t get to see him again.  When Rin went skiing for the first time, I had such a rush of pride at his bravery to go try new things and I was so happy to see the absolute joy on his face.  But my second thought, that caught me completely off guard, was that Big Pete should have been here to see this.  He was just talking to us this summer about a ski trip and it would have been so fun for him to be there to see it too.  He too would have been so proud of our little Rin.  Rin is fearless and so full of joy and I know it would have brought such a smile to Pete's face.  But then, maybe he was up there watching.  Who knows?  But if so, am certain that I know the words he was saying.  He was looking down at my darling, fearless, maniac of a boy and cheering him on.

“Atta boy, Rin!”   

And, by the way, so was his daddy. 

Love to all, -m

Oh, and Bek decided to pee in the potty for the first time while we were in UT.  I’m not counting on it happening again anytime soon but it’s good to know he’s thinking about it.  My big boy.  How did it happen so fast?

Winter- or lack thereof

Hi all-

This winter was sort of strange all around the US.  Where’s the snow? This time last year, my friend Carson and I were stuck in the Frankfurt airport trying to bring Bek home from Kaz and were afraid we were going to be stuck there because there was so much snow here in DC. And when I say stuck there, I mean stuck IN the airport since our little Kazakh citizen didn’t have a visa to enter Germany.  Thank goodness we got the heck outta there.  Anyway, it’s been strange with no winter and no snow to speak of.  But we did get a tiny bit at least and the boys made the most of it.

But the fact that there was no winter here in DC meant that we got to do some fun things that we don’t normally do in winter- like go visit the new MLK memorial and our fave, the FDR.  We have been wanting to go see the MLK for a long time and actually had one attempt that was aborted due to a walk for the homeless and all of the closed roads that we encountered because of it.  So we went to our trusty old dino museum that day instead.  I can’t wait until the Reston Metro opens.  We’ll hop on about 2 miles from our house and walk off right at the national mall.  Awesome.  The world at our fingertips. 

During January, we also celebrated Rin’s BDay at school.  “The earth goes round the sun, the earth goes round the sun, and another year goes by, the earth goes round the sun.”  Rin has circled the sun five times now.  Sigh.  He told me the other day that he wants to get to be 6&1/2 and then stop getting older.  Fine by me. 

Next up in my very belated posts- off to Utah…
Much love, -m

A Confession

Hi All-

I have a confession to make.  Prepare yourself…

I don’t love having kids every single second of every single day. 

I know, I know.  How could I say something horrible like that?  And after we worked so hard for so many years to get them, right?  But yeah, it’s true.  I love love LOVE being a mom but sometimes I miss what life was like before the kids. I miss being able to hop out and see a movie whenever I feel like it.  To make plans with a friend that I then don’t have to cancel because someone gets sick.  To wake up leisurely or read my book uninterrupted.  Most of all, it annoys me that I can’t just hop in the car for a quick stop at the grocery store (since I go several times a week these days).  Instead, a trip to the store involves making sure everyone has a snack and toys so there are no meltdowns, that everyone has coats, shoes, and a clean diaper.  That all zippers are zipped, teeth and hair are brushed, and noses wiped before we head out the door.  I spend the time there trying to make sure that no one grabs anything off the shelves, knocks anything down, throws things, yells, runs, asks too loudly, “Why’s that lady so FAT?”, whines for candy/pancakes in the shape of Disney characters/stickers/juice boxes/a cookie from the bakery.  Mostly I miss the quiet and calm of pre-kid life.  And I miss my Peter time too.  It used to be that I could just hop in the car with my sweet hubs on a Saturday afternoon while he ran around delivering golf clubs.  We would hang out together (in the daylight for gosh sakes!), drink coffee at Starbucks and just ponder the meaning of life as we drove.  But that’s just not possible anymore.      

BUT

Then there are times like tonight when my darling husband has packed up the car, the kids, and everything they need to spend the night at Grandma’s house and taken off with my precious darlings and I miss them.  I mean I MIIIISSSS them.  A lot.  But it’s nice.  It’s nice to have the chance to feel their absence and to remember why we tried so hard to make a family in the first place.  I miss the laughter, the kisses, my tiny boy hanging onto my leg, my big boy talking non-stop, and just the general chaos of life with my boys.  The bed next to me is empty and I have trouble falling asleep and when I wake up in the morning, I know immediately that something is not right in my world before I even open my eyes.  The house just feels different. 

Having an entire day to myself is like that movie that has been remade about a million times where the storyline is that two people switch bodies.  The guy who is single ends up in the body of the guy with the family and vice versa.  And it leads up to the big lesson about realizing what is really important in life.  Life is not about the bigwig job, the late nights out at a bar, jetting around on vacation (though I do love an exotic vacay).  It’s waking up to a little voice in my ear at 7am saying,  “Mommy, I made breakfast and Bek is awake.  Can I get him out of his bed and take him downstairs?” when Peter is out of town and Rin has been entrusted with the job of taking care of his mom and brother.  It’s my sweet boys rolling around on the floor naked after their bath and laughing so hard they can’t breathe.  It’s Rinat spending a dollar of his first allowance money ever to buy something for his Daddy in addition to himself.  This life is more than I ever hoped for.  It’s more chaotic.  It’s more exhausting.  It’s more frustrating.  But it is so much more full of love.  And that, of course, is what life is about.  I am so lucky to love and to be loved by these marvelous boys. 

And I am so lucky to have time to myself to be reminded of it.

Love to all, -m

ps- No, the photos have nothing at all to do with this post.  I took them in October but never posted because of Big Pete’s death.  So I am putting them up now.  It’s nice to be reminded that even in the middle of a horrible time in our lives, there are still shining, happy moments.