Gregory Plans To Join The Cirque-us

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Grandma, Rebecca and Gregory,
ready for Cirque Dreams

On Friday night Grandma and I took the kids to the Hanover Theater in Worcester to see Cirque Dreams: Illumination (warning - you may want to mute your computer before following that last link!). Not only did we enjoy a rare chance to get dressed up, expose the kids to some culture, and see graduates of the Mongolian School of Contortion in action, we also discovered Gregory's life's calling (as if we didn't already know!).


In case you missed some of our earlier videos, here's a roundup.


A year ago:


6 months ago:


And just a few weeks ago:


So really, I wasn't surprised when watching this act:

he turned to me and said "Mom, I want to do that!".


He then proceeded to fall asleep during intermission and miss the entire 2nd half of the show, but I'm sure he was dreaming about hanging upside down while spinning 30 feet over a stage.


Rebecca's reaction? During the same act, she turned to Grandma and declared, "Now that's what I call entertainment!".

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Happy Pig Appreciation Day

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Notice the 'pig-tails'. Clever, no?

Rebecca came downstairs this morning with a huge smile on her face, "Mom, you have no idea what I dreamed about last night".


"Well, tell me", I urged as she danced into my bathroom.


From inside the bathroom she shouted, "I had a dream about pigs. A bunch of pigs. And they all had different tattoos!".


Um, tattooed pigs? OK. I didn't have a response for that. Judging by the smile on her face, I assumed they were nice, tattooed pigs.


The toilet flushed and she emerged from the bathroom and proclaimed, "I decided today is Pig Appreciation Day".


I motioned for her to come sit next to me. "How do you celebrate Pig Appreciation Day?". I admit it, I was curious.


"You um, um, appreciate pigs". She gets her quick wit from me. "You know, be nice to any pigs you see."


Knowing she was spending this day of February vacation at gymnastics camp, I figured her chances of meeting any pigs were slim to none, emphasis on none. I tried to think of something else.


"Why don't we think about pigs we've read about in stories?", I suggested. "Can you think of any?".


"Wilbur!", she immediately chimed in.


"Good one". Damn, that was what I was going to say. I racked my brain. "How about Babe?". Technically from a movie, not a book, but it was 6:30 AM.


"Who's Babe?", she asked. What does she mean who's Babe? She's only watched that movie about a hundred times. It's been a while, but still.


"You know, Babe. From the movie". My brilliant response.


"You mean the pig who thinks he's a sheep dog?". I knew she remembered.


"Yes". There was only one other I could think of. "Or how about the hog that jumped on Grandpa's lap when he was a boy sledding down the hill on Sunday?". Fortunately, we just read this chapter of 'Little House in the Big Woods' last night.
That was the extent of the list we could come up with. If I'd had my coffee, I probably could have thought of something a little more obscure, such as 'The Three Little Pigs'. Oh well.


I got her ready for gymnastics, putting her hair in pig tails in honor of her newly invented holiday. She's signed up to have the gym lunch. I don't know what she'll get, I only hope it's not, er, ham and cheese? I can only imagine. Some how I don't think the gym has heard of Pig Appreciation Day.


Can anyone else name some famous pigs from children's stories?

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Rebecca's Winter Concert

Monday, February 15, 2010

Happy Valentine's Day! Rebecca's school put on a Winter Concert this week. The theme was 'Earth Songs' which I was thrilled with. I hit the 10 AM show with Gregory and the video camera (Greg couldn't get out of work, so my mission was to capture the whole thing). Here's the video of the first song (Rebecca is in the white and green striped sweater).

She did beautifully! Unfortunately, early into the 2nd song, Gregory decided to start yelling, which meant I had to throw down the video camera and cover his mouth. She sang so beautifully - I was broken-hearted I didn't get the 2nd song for Greg. So I snuck back in for the 2 PM show. Looking back, I guess 2 PM on the Friday before vacation is probably not the best time for Rebecca to be in a concert.

She struggled a lot more with standing still in the afternoon show, but I swear at 10 AM she was great. Oh well, some days you just can't win, but I was still proud of her. Afterwards, I took them both to swimming lessons. Rebecca was 'sit diving' and swimming totally underwater and Gregory is swimming on his own too. The lessons are really paying off!

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Corbin Sledding Party

Tuesday, February 9, 2010


We decided to take advantage of our backyard hill with a sledding party for all the cousins on Sunday. The freezing cold temperatures dictated a little less sledding and a little more consumption of hot mulled cider (among other things!). Here's some video of the big event.


The sledding was followed up by an intense indoor dancing session:

And yes, that is my handsome husband dancing in his Ireland rugby team shirt and hat. Eat your hearts out ladies! Rebecca said her favorite part of the day was when she "turned into a fairy" and Gregory's was when he "got to be a big chicken!".

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Thank Goodness For The Tooth Fairy

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Rebecca, after tooth pulled,
before Tooth Fairy Reminder

Rebecca lost her first tooth last night. I mean, it was the first tooth she ever lost, but it was also the first tooth to come in when she was a baby. As far as baby teeth go, hers were a bit late to poke through. I remember when she was 13 months, sticking my finger in her mouth and feeling the sharp little point as that first tiny tooth painfully burst through her sore, irritated gums.


I felt a mix of emotions. Excitement that she had finally reached this milestone. Nostalgia that her cute little gum smile would never look the same. Amazement at how quickly the time was rushing by. Relief that I had stopped breast feeding just a week earlier (talk about good timing!). In the following months, the rest of her tiny baby teeth rapidly popped through. That one little tooth, the right of her 2 lower front teeth, seemed to have opened a dental floodgate.


Now it's gone from her mouth forever. Somehow over 5 years have passed since that late summer day of discovery. Her adult tooth has already pushed through, coming up behind the baby tooth, indicating the need for numerous wiggling sessions to loosen up the baby tooth and avoid expensive orthodontic bills. That adult tooth looks way too big for her mouth, so much bigger than the rest of the her baby teeth. I can't believe it's supposed to be there.


This has also been a nostalgic milestone, although it was a bit overshadowed by Rebecca's reaction. The tooth was so loose, it was causing her pain and she didn't want anyone to touch it. As soon as an adult hand came within 3 inches of her mouth, she would start crying and screaming, the anticipation too much for her. Greg and I finally convinced her to let us tug on it, and she tearfully opened her mouth. One quick tug, one small trickle of blood, and there it was.


She cried while we held a washcloth to her mouth, until I asked a question, "so, what does this mean? Who's coming tonight?". All at once the tears dried up and a newly landscaped smile formed. "The tooth fairy!" she shouted.


Finally she gets to use the tooth pillow

From then on it was all excitement. She showed the tooth to her brother, who seemed a bit wary of it, to say the least. She called Grandma and Grandpa. At bedtime she carefully placed it in her long waiting tooth pillow (bought at a craft fair over a year ago), and stuffed it under her big pillow.


Lo and behold, this morning the tooth was gone, a crisp $1 bill in its place. I asked her if she saw the tooth fairy last night, and she said yes. Apparently the tooth fairy was 'wearing a sparkly pink dress, with ruby red rings, red hair, and a tooth wand'. Go figure.


Amid all this drama, I still have to wonder at the speed with which my baby is growing. If this tooth opens the floodgate again, she will soon have a mouth full of adult teeth. And I will still be sitting here, scratching my head and wondering where did all the time go?

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