Some Summer Stuff

The heroes and Betsy with their popsicles.

I really have no idea why this painting project surprised me



Ingrid took some pictures of us at the beach. June 2009
Sam's tennis form. Wimbledon? We were watching Wimbledon and so when he went for his second tennis lesson he was shuffling his feet back and forth - hysterical. He thought it was weird that Andy Roddick got a mirror when Roger "Feathery" got a cup.







It seems silly to blog about weather, since that topic is for polite conversation that you have with semi-strangers, but this summer in Richmond has been really good. I really don't like the summers here. When someone asks me if I like Richmond I say, "yes, but it is awful in the summer." It can be 87 degrees but the heat index is something like 102. Ridiculous. You can't even get dry after you get out of the shower. So, the weather is pretty key to my summer survival and it has been so nice. The fact that we have been able to go to the park and doing anything outside is surprising and is keeping the peace around our house.

This summer is different because I have scored myself a helper. She is a student from the University of Richmond but lives in NYC. She has an internship in Richmond this summer and is currently living in our basement. In exchange for that, she helps with the kids about 10 hours a week. It has been great. We are all really happy with the situation. The kids love her and Joel and I get to go out at least twice a week. We have been able to go out from 3-10 - totally unheard of! It's so helpful to have someone who can sit with the children through what feels like endless dinner times and we don't have to pay too dearly for it. The kids really like her, as Sam said, "She is my favorite big person." This little situation has made our lives a lot easier. She works during the day and she is out with her friends a lot of the time, and then she is here when we need her. It's nice having someone around. At this point, with only 1 more weekend to go before she leaves, I am not very excited to going back to the way it was. It's nice to not have the high expectation anxiety that comes with booking a babysitter and making sure you have the time of your life while the clock is ticking.
The kids have changed their play too. Flying is still the theme around here, but it's not Peter Pan it's Superheroes. Sam is Superman. Oliver is Batman. I made some (very bad quality capes - luckily they are not at the stage yet where homemade things aren't as good as the store bought stuff). So, it turns out that superheroes aren't necessarily appropriate for 4 year olds, that stuff can be kind of scary. So, we've spent a lot of time on youtube.com watching the theme song from Superman and seen Christopher Reeve flying everywhere and saving helicopters. Sam likes to dress like the man of steel, but you have to do with what you've got. So, he wears his Spiderman costume (it's blue and red, underwear on top - since Superman has that on his costume) and his cape. Sometimes he puts on a button down shirt and then pretends to rip it open to show the big "S". It's classic. Oliver isn't in to dressing up too much, he just walks around and repeats everything that Sam says and basically just being a monkey.

So it's already May, the boys are out of school and it is already so hot that I am suffering in the house and if I wasn't so stubborn I would put on the AC. We have had a good spring, went to Panama with the Lavelle family for my mom's 65th birthday. I didn't expect much, you don't hear of people going to Panama often, but 8it's always those times when you have the most fun. But it was a really funky place that was very calm and beautiful. Lots of water taxis, oversize star fish and slow food service, just the sort of thing you need on vacation.
Joel's parents came for 2 weeks to visit. That was nice too, it's always fun to have something different going on and the kid-kadoos get very excited to run downstairs and wake them up in the morning.
I cut Oliver's hair. It was really long and in a mullet style. I really don't know why I find it hard to do that first haircut. He was 26 months when I sat him outside with a Popsicle and chopped his locks off with some kitchen scissors (it looks surprisingly good all thing considered). Sam still likes to wear dress up clothes most of the time although it seems like we've moved on from Peter Pan to Robin Hood, they wear the same thing though except one has a belt. Sam is desperate to take upright bass lessons. It's sort of the dilemma of the moment. I have found a teacher and an instrument (they don't make mini double basses, I guess there is not a lot of demand for them) that I would have to go and get in Maryland. The thing is, he's 4 - how much can he practice with this instrument and can he take care of it? He has been unwavering on his wanting to play the bass. He will take Joel's guitar, which is full size, stand it upright and grab a chopstick from the drawer and pretend that he is using tat a s a bow and play the bass. We shall see what becomes of this, it is sort of a commitment since you have to rent the instrument and everything, we're trying to work it out. I really admire his creativity though.
Oliver is speaking a lot, you sort have to be around him all the time to understand what he's saying. So far his clearest sentence has been, "No, Mammy (Sam) is shoo shoo head!" It's about time he started sticking up for himself. I suppose you can only be called a shoo shoo head so much before you lose it.

The wee one

The original purpose of this blog was to compensate for the fact that I am not a good historian. I am hopeless at journals, not the best at photo albums and realistically will not get a baby book done. So, this blog was going to be the answer to all of those woes. I was going to catalog and write down in painful detail all of the wonderful things that are going on in our little house. All of those precious memories would be saved on the internet for generations to come and my great-great-great grandchild, who is curious about ancestors, will see how funny and cool we were. Great idea right? The catch is...that doesn't really happen too much. Not that wonderful things don't go on, they do, they just don't always make it in the blog. It was predictable really, but at least it got started even if it is sporadic.

So, It's been a while and I haven't ever written much about Oliver. The poor number 2, it's true they really don't get all the fanfare as the first. So, he deserves a post all his own. Oliver doesn't look a thing like Sam. He'll be 2 in a few weeks and he's just now starting to talk and he is hysterical. When you first meet him you think he's a bit of a bruiser, maybe even a thug, but he's a softie. He screams really easily when he doesn't get his way. If he doesn't want to come with you he will just sit down wherever he is, if that isn't efective enough he'll lay down , ANYWHERE! Occassionally, if he's in a particular mood he will just walk slowly backwards until he bumps into something and then he will start the sit down/lay down routine. Through all of this you start to see that he is exraordinarily kind.

When Joel leaves for work there is some ritual that goes on, he goes over and kisses Oliver on the head and says "See you later alligator" to Sam, who say, "after a while crocodile", and then he says, "hope it's soon baboon" and then he leaves. If any of that ritual doesn't happen 1 or both of them is devastated. We have had to do the the hwol Alligator, crocodile, baboon schpeel screaming over the yard. Anyway, the other day Oliver got down from the table screaming and ran to the door with his poor little hand on his head just screaming and I couldn't figure out what it was, but I guess Joel had just said goodbye and didn't kiss him on the head. So, Joel came all the way back in, kissed him and then Ollie just turned around and went and sat back down to eat his breakfast as though nothing had happened.

Yesterday morning Oliver woke up and Sam was still asleep and Oliver found one of Sam's many mimis (blankies) in his room, so he went over to Sam's room opened the door, put the mimi in Sam's bed and came out and shut the door again. This morning we went downstairs and got the milks so Oliver started walking up the stairs with both of the cups and Joel said that he had to stay downstairs with the milk it'll get spilled and reached for them. Oliver went hysterical and started screaming and crying so hard, we really couldn't figure it out, it was pretty over the top, even for Ollie. Anyway, so then I asked him if he was bringing the milk to Sam and he said, "yes". It was so sweet of course we let him take the milk upstairs. I couldn't believe he got so upset, he's been told not to bring milk upstairs heaps of times (obviously no that consistently or he wouldn't be trying it again but..)

He is very in love with animals and is always looking for Lucy and he tries to show her pictures in books and feed her apples and carrots. These are just a few of the things that are in my head for the moment and best to put them in the blog where they belong since my head can't hold much these days. Now they are safe for the generations to come.