wintry days ahead

The weather changed to gray and wet. To Cyndi, it was perfect weather for a family Thanksgiving. Ariel had her 25th birthday this year, and we celebrated with a party on Sunday. Several of her friends came over, some from school days, some from post-school, some running and bicycling partners. We grilled a bunch of food. Ry and Jack were so excited about the party, and they joined in. We were a little concerned, because they can be so overwhelming, but Ariel and her friends welcomed them, especially in rounds of Twister and a word game.



Ariel's friend, Ethan, taught Jackson a hand game, which Jack took to show and tell this week. Cyndi had a busy week prepping for the family meal. She took it upon herself to get and make all the side dishes.



On Thanksgiving morning, Jackson was up early and when Rylee woke up, they hugged each other like little cubs. We didn't do our usual Turkey Trek run. There was a light rain, and there were still dishes to make. Pete and I got Bennie for Thanksgiving at Dorie's.



Ariel joined us, too. There was wine and lots of good turkey. Jackson played some chess and played with Lauren. I saw Ry pop in and out of the room. He seemed to be entertaining himself, as the other kids were running about.



The boys' vocabulary astonishes me sometimes. Ry said something about being in balance the other day, and Jackson told me all about ordinal numbers. They have a saying, "If you want to be enthusiastic, you've got to act enthusiastic." That word, enthusiastic, comes out so clearly from Ry's 3-year-old voice. Jackson is reading, but has yet to read a book aloud to me. Rylee is spelling. He wants a soccer net, so we told him to write it down for Santa. He got out a piece of paper (from his drawing supply) and a pencil, and asked how to spell net. He drew a huge n (backwards) and an e from his name and then a t. It was a capital T, Jackson pointed out.

This afternoon we travel to Santa Fe for a little holiday vacation. It may snow.

art

This is typical of Rylee's figure drawings. This is a self portrait. He explained to me that he only could get four fingers on one of the hands. "But that's okay," he said. It's just a drawing. He's beginning to make narrative art, where he'll put lots of figures on the page, maybe add some numbers or letters, usually his name, and it'll have a story. A drawing of Mommy will include a coffee cup. Pumpkins are a big theme, and some of the pumpkins might have a scary or mad face. I recall Jackson pretty early on included buildings in his drawings. Here's a collage he did last year:



Jack's been pushing for a "DS" for him and another for Ry for Christmas all year. I thought they sounded pretty cool. A friend of his has one, and you can write and draw on the screen and send it to a nearby friend who also has a DS. I think he likes that feature, and I wonder now if I can add that feature to his laptop. I looked at the DS closer, and it's really just another portable game player. I saw the line of games. Yuck. I have to talk to Santa.

Some good mornings this week. A couple of runs and a swim workout early before Cyndi went to see her dad. "The rosy fingers of dawn" reached from above the mountains this morning as I left the pool. Made oatmeal for the boys. Ry gave me a big, big hug this morning. He's got baseball gear strewn all about the living room. Puts on Jack's cleats immediately out of bed, then puts on the catcher's gear. There's a YMCA program for 3-5 year olds he'll love in the spring when Jack's in little league.

Fall 2008

just an update

Pictures are coming, I promise.

Ry is writing his name now, counting, even adding and subtracting (actually he's been doing that for a while), singing songs he learns at preschool, and even spelling words he hears Jack spell. Jack taught him to write his name. Ry likes to draw pictures of his family, individually and as a group. They have big heads, big round eyes with little pupil dots, and big smiles. The boys always include Ariel in pictures and "family hugs." Ry writes his name on his pictures. Right now Ry's into Word World, Handy Manny, spreading out all of the baseball gear, battling his transformers, wearing his costume (still), and Halloween candy (it's on a high shelf, with threats Daddy will take it away). Jack has started using the word processor on the computer. He's teaching Ry to play chess. He's reading and takes weekly spelling tests. His teacher loves him. He has a perfect record for never having been disciplined in school. (He monitors that and I'm afraid he may be devastated the first time he gets a "deduction.") Cyndi takes the boys regularly to the library. They get some DVDs and Jack always gets "science books." Right now he's reading about Halley's Comet.

Cyndi goes every morning to have breakfast with her dad at the recovery facility and goes again later in the day or evening. He looks better, seems to be in good spirits, but is still very frail and he is still unable to walk. There's some talk about moving to another facility or even home. I don't know that he will be walking by Thanksgiving.

So a new routine is starting to develop where I make breakfast for the boys and then dress them in the clothes Cyndi's already laid out. I only wish there were a routine where I get up earlier and run.

I just sent a letter to Michael. It's a little late; hope he gets it. The boys got your cards, Mom & Dad. Thanks.

Ariel called me Tuesday night to ask if I was feeling better and to congratulate me. I said it was a long time coming. Later I thought I should congratulate her. It's such a wonderful thing for her generation. When I look at her face, the faces of the boys, and the faces of all of the children born in this generation I see such beauty. I really, really like the new face of our country.

Dad sent a picture of flying his flag on Wednesday. Patriotic pride, I guess, is a good description.

I don't know where Thanksgiving will be. It'll probably be somewhere in Albuquerque. Thanks to Beth and Gary, we plan to spend a couple of nights in Santa Fe that weekend, and if the ski slopes open on Thanksgiving Day maybe we can even sneak in some skiing. A big maybe. It just turned cold yesterday. It's been very warm so far this fall.

Halloween weekend

Friday was Halloween. The kids in Jack's class got to take costumes and games to play on Friday. He brought the chess set and played with another boy who knew how to play while many of the kids gathered around. As I hoped, the game didn't actually end. One of the children upset the board. He also wore his costume to school and many children keyboarded him on the playground.

Our little party was fun. Soup and other food; family and some friends brought some nice wine to share. The kids played until it was time to trick or treat. Ariel came. We strolled up our block, then down another. I'd say only 1 in 3 houses had any lights on to welcome trick or treaters. Still, the kids loved it and both Jack and Ry were dragging their jack o'lantern buckets filled to the brim with candy. Ry probably only ate candy that day, and he was a holy terror. Cute though. Afterward the kids spread out their loot in the living room and began trading. (Anything with peanuts was confiscated.)

Saturday morning, we had breakfast burritos just before the early polls opened at 10. Ry ate the eggs and bacon and cheese and tortilla heartily, and for the rest of the day the boys forgot about candy. The line to vote looked long, but it was sunny and the process was unbeleivably smooth. The boys got to go to the booths with us to watch us fill the ballots out. Afterward, there were some errands and a birthday party that didn't quite pan out. Cyndi and Ariel went out that night for Indian food.

The weather was so beautiful and warm the entire weekend. We got up early Sunday morning and discovered it was even earlier than we thought. After we changed the clocks, we went to church. I sat in with Jackson at the children's eulogy, so he could get used to going with the other children. The children knew all the answers and Jack just took it in. One question was, "Do you want to be a saint?" He turned to his friend and asked, "What's a saint?" It was a donut Sunday, and afterwards we got some more shelving for the garage. I spent the afternoon re-reorganizing the garage and mowing the backyard while Ry got all the baseball gear out onto the front lawn. Nicki came over (she's at UNM) and she and the boys played a little baseball. We grilled some chicken and ate that with some salad and sweet potato fries outside. It was just a beautiful evening.

jinx

Woke up this morning and first thing I read was this: my sentiments from yesterday. And later there was this.