happy birthday (and christmas) david!

dave, i love that i cannot hear acdc without thinking of high-school you, your old blue truck and the mullet you sported. and then i think of your truck catching on fire -woops- and your replacement cars, first the 280zx, shortly followed by the geo metro whose bumper you "sewed" back together with big metal wire/staples, instead of just getting a new one after it was ripped off. i love your intense frugality and the incredible (although sometimes unsightly) solutions you come up with in order to save. the incessant "guess what? i love you!" game you played with little boy bobby still makes me smile. i cannot believe, but dearly love and am secretly jealous, that with a little soldering you turned a bike into a unicycle and legitimately taught yourself how to ride it all over our bumpy dirt roads. you are so quick to give a full, hearty laugh at my jokes and stories and that alone makes me love you forever. yes, you once rocket-launched me across the entire front room when i refused to get out of your way, but you also didn't yell at me when i borrowed your white shorts and then ruined an entire load of all your new clothes with the tube of lipstick i left in the pocket. it is amazing and so impressive that with a full family you went back to college, worked like mad and officially revealed that you're an engineering genius. i still can't believe you and erin have SIX kids, but i love the happy chaos and love that rules your home and how you are all just perfect together. when i was about 6 years old you pulled me out of too-deep water in a friend's pool just as i was about to start panicking for air. i was so relieved and grateful to have you as an older brother at that moment, and the feeling has stuck. happy (late) birthday dave. i love you.

intentions

i've had plans to post this and that of the happenings and makings (some finally! yay!) of the past couple weeks but time has gotten away from me. perhaps in january i'll do a christmas 2007 retrospective (what's not to love about a retropsective?). for now:

making a list

even after pulling out several to save for eve's birthday, the amount of gifts under last year's tree was embarrassing. so this year i've adopted a little rhyme (courtesy of my sister sarah's neighbor's sister- wow. that's annoying to type, let alone read. . .) to direct my shopping:

"something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read."

i've puchased and wrapped every gift for the girls (not much making happening this year. i blame baby.) and i have it on good authority that santa has his all ready to go too. . . maybe shoved in a closet somewhere until christmas eve.

since the girls are oblivious to this blog until a picture of themselves appears, i will show some of what we've gotten to fulfill our little rhyme. my favorites, as always are great books and simple toys:

something to read:

zoo-ology by joelle jolivet for eve (this is a bigger than normal book with great illustrations and groupings) and ABC by bruno munari for ruth. both are really going to work out for me; entertaining the girls for long periods of time and without getting too burdensome to read to them over and over. both are more about observing and identifying things than following a story-line. i've gotten some other great books as well (i only have so much self control) which will be great for reading and looking at. perhaps i'll do a post (or five) at some point featuring my favorite children's books.

something you want:

i think i spoil my children. but in my defense, eve came up with the request for a camera on her own ("i want that sing that mama has with the pictures on it and you push it for the pictures"). she has been asking for it exclusively for over a month now. she'll be in heaven and i'll get the chance to fix all the settings on my own camera. thank you ebay. i'm not sure ruthie's gift will be as exciting. after watching her pretend play with a barbie at church for nearly 25 minutes today, i'm questioning the blocks, but i love them and am hopeful we'll have a great time building together.

also wrapped up in the closet we have things to wear (jeans and ballet slippers), things they need (umbrellas and underwear) and things ready to stuff in the stockings- courtesy of santa. and i'm fairly certain santa will be giving:

little doctor play kit for eve. perfect, given all the appointments for the girls and myself lately. and duck on bike for ruth. really entertaining. the duck will join the many other tin toys in our home (ride-a-rocket, humming spinning top, russian police car and ambulance among others) almost all by schylling, one of my favorite tin toy companies.

now i just have to start working on chip. not nearly as easy as the girls. . .

"o tannenbaum. . ."

"wie treuse deine bletter. . ." i can't rememeber more than those four (horribly mispelled, i'm sure) words from the german version. but that doesn't change my love for the christmas tree and the season that welcomes it.

after the untimely and crunchy death of last year's tree i have been determined to get my hands on the freshest tree possible. and i did. this year the holiday dream of cutting my own tree came true. there was no snow, no boots, no hot cocoa or axe involved, but there was my family, a saw and plaid wool. not bad.

in fact, it was nearly perfect; the tree, the crisp and clear dusk, the looks of horror on the girls' faces when the tree fell, the birds flying from tree to tree. we even managed to get our 8'8" beauty home from from rhinebeck, ny strapped to the top of the car without too much trouble, thanks to the massive amount of twine strung through and tied all over our little two-door. we had to get in and out through our windows for the food and bathroom breaks on the way home, but i think we all secretly loved it (it will always make me feel like one of the dukes of hazzard). once we were home we all stayed up until 11pm turning our pine into a legitimate christmas tree.

now my home is filled with freshness, winter, rebirth, love and charity all rolled into the scent of fresh pine. which will stay fresh until the day i take it to be chipped into tiny little pieces for the local parks, if all goes according to plan.

++

and thank you to all for your excitement and kind wishes. after another scare and resulting ultrasounds this past thursday i can confirm that we are both doing well and that this IS a boy. (i have two more pictures with giant arrows to prove it).

happy birthday (week) mom

i love you mom. i love that you made all seven of us volcano-shaped mashed potatoes "erupting" with red colored gravy that destroyed the broccoli trees and cheese-cube houses on it's way down. i love that i can't count how many times i've seen you laugh until you cry. i am in awe when i think of throwing a wet, dirty dish rag at bobby, missing and hitting you in the face instead; you were so calm as you peeled it off your glasses and slowly handed it back to me. i love thinking about the hours you spent patiently helping me with my third grade robot project. i love the power you had over us with just one look. i love, though will never really understand, how you rarely have a recipe for something, you "just make it." i love all those songs you were constantly humming, singing or whistling and the fact that you are, to date, the best whistler i have ever heard. i love that you gave us each our very own box of sugar cereal each christmas. i love the motherly pride that frequently beems from your face and how you have always been so quick with your praise. i love that you seem genuinely pleased to talk with me, even if it is the third call full of questions that day. i love the absolute confidence you have always had in dad, yourself and all of your kids, no matter what. i love that you are still one of the very first people i want to talk to about news in my life, good or bad. i love you for always being able to help me see the good and hope in hopelesness, that you have always been a safe haven to come to.

i love realizing more and more each year how much of you is in me. and how much happier my life is for it.

happy birthday week mom. i love you. a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck.

in production

thanksgiving was fun and delicious and the visit from (a part of) the joneses was even better. i've had no time to check the internet, emails or even voice mail and it has been wonderful. apologies to all who've been ignored the past week and a half. i'll be getting back to you shortly.

my projects have been fairly pathetic lately. too lazy. too tired. too unmotivated. and here we have the big reason why:

yes, child number three is in the works. coming up on 17 weeks. and the word from the dr who gave me an ultrasound a few weeks ago after some mystery pains is that this one is a boy. a boy. it took a few days to get over the fact that we wouldn't have three little girls all in a row- we love girls- but now we're really starting to embrace the idea. the idea of a mini chip running around makes me laugh and will be crazy. although if he follows chip's course, i'll be lugging him around and spoon-feeding him for the first two years until he decides to start running away and talking non-stop. but at least he'll be entertaining.

to all dear friends who are finding out about this for the first time here, please accept my apologies. know that i love you and if i weren't so lazy and tired i would have called or at least emailed you personally with the news. but by kid number three, it's kind of no big deal right??

in order to preserve some of the child's dignity i have not included the ultrasound with the giant arrow pointing to his privates. really? do they have to use that giant arrow? at least this time they didn't type out "it's a boy!" along the top like they did with ruth. except ruth was a girl, clearly, and they knew that.