I've begun to resort to stacking things up as a way of "cleaning" my house. Sigh. That's never a good sign.
But in honor of the stacks on my kitchen counter, the computer desk, and the chair in the corner of the dining room, as well as the stacks in my closet, the basement, and the laundry room, here is a metaphorical stack of stuff all squashed together in one precariously balanced tower for the blogosphere.
I will number the items in this stack, lest you become lost in the clutter.
1. LOST TOOTH. David lost his second tooth! And this time he didn't lose his lost tooth. It fell out yesterday afternoon during Lego Club. Another volunteer happened to have a little plastic baggie, so the tooth was safe until bedtime. Incidentally, David was grossed out about putting a nasty bloody tooth under his pillow, even though it was in a plastic baggie. He insisted on leaving the tooth on the other side of the room. To be honest, I can't blame him. Fortunately, the tooth fairy found the tooth in its less than traditional keeping place.
2. PARTY. A few weeks ago we drove to Milwaukee for a party. My kids are always game for a party! We were there to visit Leah, a very dear friend from my mission in the Dominican Republic, and to celebrate her son Ian's third birthday.
This is David, Ian, Noah, Mary, Cole, and Benson.
A good time was had by all. Best of all, I finally got to meet his beautiful baby girl, Sage.
You can see more pictures of the festivities here. I highly recommend you check out the cool pinata Ian's dad made. But then come right back because I have more stuff for you here.
3. CAREER PLANS. Mary announced, unprompted, that she wants to be a teacher when she grows up. Oh, it warmed my heart. She also told Daddy that he should be a doctor when he grows up.
4. COUSINS. Back in November, just in the nick of time for Thanksgiving dinner, we discovered real, live cousins here in Madison! This past Saturday I got to go to Deserae's baby shower, then on Sunday she and her husband Mikhael came to dinner AND Deserae's mom was in town too. So we got to visit with Aunt Rula as well!
Here we are with Deserae, Baby Elim, and Rula. Mikhael kindly took the photo.
Baby Elim was a pretty busy that evening. At one point, Deserae let David put his hand on her belly--and Elim gave him a big kick! You should have seen David's face. It was like he'd just seen Santa Claus. Later on, he bragged to Mary about how he'd felt the baby kick. The next morning he was still thinking about it because he asked me if he had ever kicked me when he was inside. When I said that he had--a lot--he wondered why. His theory was that I had poked him with long needles, prompting him to give me a big kick. I assured him that wasn't the case. We look forward to meeting Elim face to face next month. And maybe some more baby kicks.
5. BASKETBALL. Right now would be as good of place as any to post pictures of David playing on his kindergarten basketball team. Except that I haven't taken any. Which is okay because I think this is one of those things we'd all rather forget. (Help!! What do you do when your kid is terrible at something???) I have to give David credit for going faithfully and happily to every game. But he definitely doesn't come home happy. He comes home every time broken-hearted because he knows he's the worst player. The problem is that he won't not go! He never says no to something that could potentially be fun. But we're running out of potential. Quitters never win, but quitters also don't get their confidence flushed down the toilet by a bunch of double-dribbling, traveling, fouling five-year-olds. How I wish my son would say, "I quit!" Do you think it's wrong to conveniently not tell him about the last game? Is that lying? Is lying to your kid in a situation like this wrong? I just don't think his self-esteem can take another game--and I know my heart can't.
6. VALENTINE COOKIES. On Monday night, my good friend Skye offered to watch our kids so Greg and I could go out to dinner . . . ALONE. Aaaah, it was so nice. In our absence, the kids all had a blast together, but they didn't get around to decorating the valentines cookies. So we all got to go back to Skye's house together the next day for a big heart cookie decorating extravaganza.
Fun, fun!
And yummy!
Though, as you can see from this little friend, decorating cookies can be a bit tiring.
Skye is also David's fabulous Primary teacher at church. (David is learning so much this year!) What a sweet woman to happily hang out with David three days in a row!
7. WEATHER. I am going to complain just for a moment about the weather. (Deal with it.) Everyone else in the state is walking on clouds of joy because we've been experiencing some balmy 40-degree days. But it's making me grouchy. First of all, I think I'm colder than ever. That's because it feels so dang warm that I don't bother to wear a coat or blow dry my hair. This winter is messing with my brain. Secondly, it feels like spring, but it's not really spring. I don't like Mother Nature lying to me. The world is dreary and soggy and muddy and brown and goopy-green and covered with a patchwork of dirty snow. Dirty snow! I hate dirty snow. I can find nothing aesthetically pleasing about dirty snow. All this warm weather has brought to us is ugliness. And in a few days the temperature will drop, and the ugliness will be FROZEN IN PLACE. We'll be stuck with it, and the feeling of hope will be gone. (Can you tell I am having a glass half empty week?)
8. PROTEST DAY. School was cancelled today. No, it was not because we're drowning in an ocean of MUCK (see item #7). In case you haven't heard, the teachers--and a lot of other folks--are down at the capitol today. We heard an audio clip of the protests on the radio this morning, and David proudly declared, "I think I hear Mrs. Q!" (Since then, I've been careful to avoid audio and visual news accounts today--there is a lot of protesting going on these days and it can be confusing for a little kid to understand the difference between what's happening in Bahrain and what's happening down the road.) I suppose today proves that, as much as I love living here, I am not a true Madisonian: Instead of taking my kids to the capitol for an educational experience in democracy, we stayed home for play dates. And to stack stuff up....
Which brings me to the end of this stack of stuff.
