Nothing you or you or you haven’t done, but you in the back…

We lost a good friend last week. Craig’s quick and easy and genuine smile leaves a void that will not be filled. As Aidan’s godfather and an all-around adorer of my family, I know we are all watched over from another loving angel. Every punny joke my kids get a belly laugh from will make those angel’s eyes twinkle.

As is with the stuff of life, we could not manage to get the boys a few of days of support here and the quick trip, coupled with no child care in New England made it necessary for Scott to go alone. Do the math. I’m here with the seksi job of single parenting. I also was traveling last week, which is a rarity for me, and got back middle of the day on Saturday. Bottom line is that my laundry was not ALL dirty, drawers were certainly not full and groceries, well, no one is starving, yet.

And this was how this morning went:

Up at 5:30, shower, prep me, strategically skipping the hair washing grace a the head lice notice from school (can’t be too careful), make pancakes from scratch (because I can roll them up to go in case I cannot drag sleepy boys out of bed) but Noah got up with no fuss early and elected to have a spelling test from his homework, which I had to proctor (good thing I have the pancake recipe memorized), match socks out of the laundry basket, wake other boys, who need to finish homework b/c choir runs late on Tuesday, when I hear the garbage truck. Sam volunteers to run the garbage out and meets the “quarantined” cat at the door (make mental note to determine if in his desperation, the cat has sprouted opposable thumbs). I chase him back to the basement and change the wash when I’m down there (after noticing that there were very few, if any sponge bob boxers left in the clean laundry basket). Wrap breakfasts b/c the boys wanted to take them over to Gramma’s when Aidan asks why Noah gets to wear sweatpants to school. Noah never got dressed but was suited up in his supercape and Easter bonnet (newsboy cap) with his full backpack strapped on…in his jammies. Incidentally the homework he put so much effort into doing well and on time…..left on the dining room table.

That was just before school. To say nothing of Sam getting bit at school by a classmate and having loads to report from the “hygiene” video they watched, after which he announced the he wants to start wearing deodorant.

I digress because when I get to work, the admin has made the big pot of the dark coffee, and happily I settle into my desk. The first person of the day in my office, is the cute 30ish interior designer who tells me that her husband **made** her wake up at 6:30 because he needed her to choose her outfit so that he could iron it for her. I laugh knowing that at 6:30 my 4lb 1oz preemie was spelling “habitat” and relating it to the hot news in the first grade on howler monkeys.

Nothing any other parent didn’t do this morning or won’t do tomorrow morning. Today was one of those days when I am so grateful to have people in my life like Craig who show me that rather than driving me to despair, I must see the silly, laughable, precious, fleeting gift that it all is. Thank you, Uncle Craig.

in my defense

Anyone who rushed to judge my inability to consistently discern one boy from another, should have a look.



admittedly, dressing them the same never did me any favors




and now it is only mostly better

The Minute I Saw You

Facebook users often encourage other users to take up a cause or show affinity for someone/thing by changing your status. Most recently I saw what was meant to be a loving sentiment to your child. "I loved you before you were born. I loved you the minute I saw you" You get the idea. Well, this had me in stitches this morning.

Just as an opener, at one point, later in my twin pregnancy, I think I was wider than I am tall. No love there.

Aidan was positioned horizontally (that would be side-to-side) somewhere above elbow height for most of the pregnancy. Nope, no love there.

I waddled slowly for most of the 35 weeks while toting around an 18 month old who was fond of telling people I was having 5 babies. But really who could blame him when I could shade him from the sun under my belly. No love there either. Truthfully I never minded being pregnant but cooking two of them is, let's say, physically challenging.

What really had my laughing though was the sentiment that "I loved you the minute I saw you". I had the twins by c-section which included some very lovely, numbing drugs. We got to the moment of truth and Scott showed me a baby! I thought he looked an awful lot like Sammy, but tinier. There was no announcing "it's a boy!" because having twins was enough of a surprise. We knew they were both boys. Moving on Scott showed me "another" baby. I thought, "that jerk just showed me the same baby twice".

How much is too much?

There is a theme emerging in our birthday cakes - it's sugar and lots of it! For the boys birthdays, I did an ocean themed cake with a mound of brown sugar to make the island and frosted teddy grahams, floating on fruit roll up floats in danger of being gobbled up by gummy sharks.









Nothing says 60th birthday girl like 21 oreo sunflowers with spearmint leaves, 28 candy butterfly wings and 13 M&M ladybugs.








I'm now trying to calculate just how many miles one of those sunflower is going to cost me!

Pirates at Disney

Do you remember your sixth birthday? How about your eighth? I can pretty much guarantee that my little boys will always remember theirs. We planned a trip to celebrate, complete with the full surprise. They had no idea when we picked them up from school that they were on their way to Disney World. They chatted about school, as usual typically competing for air time to tell their stories about the day and week.

We got them to the airport, telling them that we were wishing Pop and Grandma Marcia a happy trip. Except then we got them out, sat them on the open hatch of the van and asked them where they wanted to fly to. Noah said "Ireland". Sammy chirped, "Florida". Scott cued him with, "where in Florida?" They got this finally and hollered "DISNEY".

Wish granted.

None of us knew just how awesome it was going to be. We did what we could to set the stage. With Aunt Gina, Aunt Bridget, Uncle Mike, Uncle Reed, Laura and Martha, we were at a better than 2:1 adult to kid ratio. And a better vacation crew could not be found!

The stage was set against the back drop of a pirate room.


This is the moment of anticipation waiting for the gates to open.



Day One, we scheduled a Pirate Adventure for the boys.

Look we are dressed like pirates.


And now we are pirates



Not done yet. Watch carefully.


This is the look of pure bliss. A gift for me too.


Those eyes are closed!



Now for Noah.



No make up for Sam thank you.
Sam likes his beautiful face as is.

And so does Mike