The Corbin Clan

A Masterpiece In Gingerbread

2011-12-17T17:40:00.006-05:00

Thank you to cousin Karen for inviting us to a gingerbread house making family night. The kids had lots of fun eating pizza and building their house, even if the end result proves that they are better artists than engineers.

Here's the proof that at one point the house was standing:

Unfortunately, it didn't survive the car ride quite so well. Here's what it looked like by the time we got it home:

Oh well. On the plus side, in the its present state it's harder to tell that I've been stealing all the gumdrops off the house.

What Horses Dream About ...

2011-12-05T17:09:00.003-05:00

It's amazing what you find when you have kids. Today I grabbed a notebook and turned to a random page to jot something down and I found this drawing. I'm not sure when it was made, but it's definitely Rebecca's handiwork and it made me laugh.

Gregory In Kindergarten

2011-09-15T21:45:00.009-04:00

With two weeks of kindergarten under his belt, Gregory is settling in to taking the bus with his big sister and practicing his letters. His favorite school event is snack time and every morning he wants to pack his own snack. He did smuggle a toy in his backpack one morning (a little 'inja' figure) about which he proudly told me his teacher told him 'never do it again', but overall I'm taking the 'so far so good' attitude. Still, I would love to be a fly on the wall in his classroom.

Here's what he had to say after his first day of school:

Here's some pictures from his first day:

Davis Farm Day

2011-08-10T22:02:00.008-04:00

Brushing Bunnies

Just goes to show, Gregory will touch anything.
Mom and I took advantage of Evan and Nora's visit to Boxborough to get the cousins together at Davis Farmland. We had a fun day of hayrides, bouncy houses, and way too many goats. The girl's brushed bunnies and played in the pretend vet clinic while the boys wrestled and ran wild. More highlights include the many different versions of 'The Bouncing Eyeball' told in line for the hayride and Pablo (the Mexican milk snake, who the staff described as 'very friendly').

The Family Fish

2011-08-03T20:53:00.003-04:00

No - we don't have a new pet fish - we have Gregory. Gregory started swimming the end of last summer, but this year his swimming has really taken off. Here he is jumping off the diving board into 12 foot deep water.

Happy 8th Birthday Rebecca

2011-07-25T19:58:00.003-04:00

I can't believe it's been 8 years since I became a Mom for the first time. Rebecca celebrated her birthday with a party at a local roller skating rink which stirred up memories of days (long) ago when I used to skate at the long since closed Granite Rollo. The day consisted of MJ songs, Carvel ice cream cake, and lots of litte girls falling on their tushies. Good times - Happy Birthday Rebecca!

St. Patrick's Day Parade

2011-03-19T21:21:00.008-04:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I know, I know - 3 days late, as usual. Here's some pictures from the St. Patrick's Day parade.

Wii Love It

2011-02-14T19:54:00.001-05:00

Here's some video of Gregory playing with the Wii (not that he gets into it or anything):

My Knight In Shining Armor

2011-01-29T19:12:00.006-05:00

In a desperate attempt to get out of the house I let the kids pick where they wanted to go today. They decided on the Higgins Armory Museum in Worcester. I'd never been there before but it was pretty neat. Turns out it was Viking day so we got to see a bunch of guys dressed up like Vikings having Viking 'fights' and playing Viking games. Lots of cool suits of armor. Gregory was especially disturbed by the suit that was missing its helmet, which he expressed by yelling "Oh my God! Look at that poor knight! That's disgusting!"

Here's some more photos:

Snow Day

2011-01-27T19:52:00.003-05:00

Another foot of snow today so school was canceled for the 3rd time in 2 weeks. What else is there to do on a snow day but make pancakes? The kids and I mixed up a batch and succeeded in not setting off the fire alarm like we usually do, which always traumatizes poor Gregory. Yay us!

Snow Concert

2010-12-18T19:17:00.002-05:00

Here's the video from Rebecca's snow concert. Although there was no snow on the ground, it did flurry for the event. Rebecca is in the front row in the gray sweater, white shirt, and purple plaid skirt. Too bad she's so camera shy (not!).

Are You Friggin Kidding Me Santa?

2010-12-04T19:49:00.004-05:00

All that effort for this
Holden held the annual girlscout caroling, Santa arrival, and tree lighting event tonight. Rebecca was a trooper who sang enthusiastically and then waited patiently in line to see Santa. Gregory, on the other hand, had a bit of trouble. He was cold (give me a break - this year it was a balmy 34 degrees - I still remember 3 years ago when the temp topped out at 13 degrees), he wanted to sit in the car, he needed to use the bathroom, etc. With a combination of holding him, encouraging him and wrestling him, I managed to string him along until he and Rebecca got a chance to sit with Santa. My motive? To get a Santa picture so I don't have to shell out $30 at the mall this year for one. When they finally made it to Santa's lap I snapped a quick picture from the side. Then I moved into the prime photo spot right in front of the big man, at which point my camera battery died. My comment to Santa: Are you friggin kidding me?

How Not To Dress A 4 Year Old For Halloween

2010-11-01T21:40:00.006-04:00

Glowing Fairy Princess and War Machine

Hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween. What did the kids dress up as? Rebecca was a fairy princess with battery powered LED lights embedded in her skirt and Gregory was War Machine. That's right, I let my 4 year old dress up as War Machine (for those of you who are not in the know, War Machine is the silver Iron Man type guy from Iron Man 2). I'm not even sure if he's good or bad, although I believe he was played by Mickey Rourke? At any rate, we didn't set out to Target for a War Machine costume. Gregory originally wanted to be a tiger. He wanted to wear his favorite tiger 'costume', an old dress up dress of Rebecca's with black and white leopard spot trim. He's convinced it's a tiger costume and he puts it on and runs around the house attacking people. So you can imagine why I encouraged him to go to Target for a 'real' costume. Well, as soon as he saw the 'silver Iron Man' costume, the tiger idea went out the window. It was love at first sight. At the time I didn't know the difference between the silver and red Iron Man, so I agreed. Before we checked out I had figured out that the costume he had picked was called War Machine, but he was so happy with it I didn't have the heart to make him put it back. I must be getting soft in my old age.

So Gregory's nursery school had a costume parade Friday. They requested no violent superhero costumes so I figured they probably wouldn't appreciate War Machine. Somehow I managed to talk Gregory into wearing last year's Yoda costume. Saturday was pumpkin carving and I was quite proud that Rebecca managed to scoop out and carve her 'challenging' pattern all by herself (and it came out better than the one I did for Gregory!). And of course, trick-or-treating on Sunday night. Greg and I were impressed by the Dad who was trick-or-treating with his kids and simultaneously watching the Patriot's game on his phone. All in all, a successful Halloween. Now I just have to figure out how to stop raiding the kid's candy.

My Morning Jacket and Shellfish

2010-10-20T03:54:00.010-04:00

Marshall Point Lighthouse

The family made the trek up to Freeport Maine this past weekend for a wild and fun weekend. Friday night Greg and I, along with Jif, Chris, Kenny, Amy, and friends, all had tickets to see My Morning Jacket open the State Theater in Portland. Mom and Dad generously offered their babysitting services for all 4 grandkids so we could all see the show. Jim James has an awesome voice and stage presence and according to him, MMJ had some revenge to take on the State Theater on account of their bass player who became extremely ill last time they played the venue after eating bad shellfish. Go figure. At any rate, revenge was found in the form of loud music and high energy which made for a great show. Here's their final encore. I'm in the center of the back of the floor in a white tee-shirt. And no, I couldn't find myself.

On Saturday Greg and I took Rebecca, Gregory, and cousin Evan up to Camden with a side trip to the Marshall Point lighthouse in Port Clyde. We experienced some wild, windy weather to the point where the kiddies were somewhat worried about being "blown away" on the walkway to the lighthouse (they later decided the wind was "cool"). We hit up Cappy's Chowder House in Camden for lunch where I ate some extremely good shellfish, before retreating back to Freeport.

Rebecca holds on for dear life

Mom and Dad generously offered to babysit again Saturday night and who are we to squash their dreams of watching all 4 grandchildren at once? So we headed out and hit 2 parties before crashing at Kenny's house at the ungodly hour of 4 AM. I haven't been out that late since college and with good reason - it took me 2 days just to start feeling normal again!

Thanks to Mom and Dad, Jif, Chris, Kenny, and Amy for babysitting, accomodations, and general fun. Love you guys!

Join Rebecca's Girl's Club

2010-09-19T21:29:00.010-04:00

Rebecca loves to create things. Her newest invention is her 'Girl's Club', which apparently includes all over her female cousins. Here are some materials she has created (I provide translations below each - her ideas are good but she still needs to work on her spelling. My comments are in italics.):

The Rules

Girls Club Rules
1. No Boys Allowed
2. No Spitting Possibly directed at her little brother
3. No Teasing
4. Have Fun

Club Book - She made one for each of her cousins. This one is for her cousin Sophia.

Meeting Schedule
1. Meeting
2. Recess
3. Make a map of your ?
4. Secret Handshake
5. And last, just in case you forget ... Go back home

Girl's Club Promise (slightly pilfered from the Girl Scouts)

I promise to protect girls from boys and to serve god and girls.

So who out there is ready to join up?

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

2010-09-01T19:55:00.010-04:00

Look out nursery school!

Today was Rebecca's first day of second grade and Gregory's first day of nursery school. Sorry to sound stereotypical, but Greg and I were like the quintessential parents dancing down the Staples' aisle to 'The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year'. By our calculations, we've been home alone in the house together once in the past seven years until today (Greg's on vacation this week). The two of us celebrated with a very nice lunch at the Sole Proprieter.

But enough about us. Both kids got out without a hitch. Gregory declared himself 'excited' for his first day of school, but wanted to know why he couldn't take the school bus. He wasn't sure what he was going to do when he got there, but he thought maybe it would include 'playing pirates'.

Mom, you're embarrassing me

Rebecca loves her new teacher who apparently is 'very useful because she knows how to turn on the fan'. I guess that is a useful skill when the first day of school turns out to be ninety-one degrees and high humidity. Rebecca also decided she wants to go to all the schools that I've been to so she can get 'three different colored hats'. Hey, if it motivates her to practice math problems, I'm all for it.

Heifer Highlights

2010-08-29T18:12:00.005-04:00

Rebecca capped off a busy summer with her week at Heifer Camp. This day camp is held at Overlook Farm in Rutland and is run by Heifer International, an organization dedicated to fighting hunger and poverty.

Rebecca and Aboo pose together.

Despite a rainy start, this was Rebecca's favorite week of camp. Apparently the highlight of the week was milking a goat. Other strong points: gathering chicken eggs, feeding the llamas, and getting butted in the back by a particularly ornery goat (fortunately not the one she was milking).

The kids also spent time working in the gardens, exploring the international village, and hanging out with Aboo the camel. We are very fortunate to live ten minutes from this remarkable farm (the Heifer Project only has 5 locations in the U.S., including Overlook Farm. If you are in the area, check them out!

Rebecca's Birthday at American Girl

2010-07-26T19:22:00.000-04:00

Rebecca and Rebecca

Happy Birthday to my Rebecca who turned 7 on the 24th of July. This year we decided to skip the birthday party and take her somewhere she has been begging to go - the American Girl doll store.

We are lucky enough to live about half an hour from an American Girl store, so the day after Rebecca's birthday we headed to the Natick mall to check it out.

After spending an hour examining every doll in the store, Rebecca decided to go with the suitably named 'Rebecca' doll. Rebecca (the doll) has wavy brown hair and hazel eyes, just like my beautiful little Rebecca (the 7 year old), so we decided it was fate.

Once that was settled, it was time to pick out an outfit for Rebecca (the doll). Again Rebecca (the 7 year old) had to examine every outfit in the store before selecting a horseback riding ensemble for her new doll.

Lunch for 3

All this shopping made us hungry so we headed into the American Girl Bistro, where we had a reservation. They served us a nice three course meal and even put a little booster seat on the table for Rebecca (the doll).

All in all, a nice day. Here's a little equation I worked out. Warning: this is not for the faint of heart:

Priceless

1 American Girl doll + 1 American Girl doll outfit + 1 pair of American Girl doll shoes + 2 lunches at the American Girl Bistro = more $$ than a pool party for an entire kindergarten class.

Canobie Lake Park

2010-07-17T13:27:00.008-04:00

It's been a few decades since I went to Canobie Lake Park, but last Friday Mom and I braved the ninety degree weather and took the kiddies to Salem, NH for a day of amusement park fun. The drive was much shorter than I remembered - only about an hour counting a stop in Boxborough to pick up Grandma.

I'd heard it was a great spot for younger kids - less expensive and less crowded than some larger unnamed parks, coughSixFlagscough. While that was true, it was still a bit pricey ($72 for the 4 of us - 1 adult, 1 senior citizen, 1 child under 48 inches, and 1 child age 3 and under (free)). It was definitely less crowded, and there were lots of rides for those of our group who were under four feet.

After a quick spin on the oldest carousel in the country, we hit kiddie land, which is basically lots of rides with various shaped cars that all go around in a circle. But the kids loved it and went on all of them. Then Grandma made everyone go on the Boston Tea Party where we all got soaked.

Okay, actually, it was Gregory who wanted to try the Boston Tea Party, a short raft ride with a drop off at the end that produces a spectacular splash. I figured he would be too small but Grandma encouraged me to check, he wasn't. Although the line appeared long, she also pointed out that it was moving really fast so we gave it a go. Turned out it was both Grandma's and my favorite ride of the day.

Gregory's favorite ride was The Mine of Lost Souls (a boy after my own heart!). He spent most of the ride clinging to me and saying he was scared, but it's the only ride he has talked about since, and he talks a lot. Rebecca loved the kids sized dragon roller coaster, which she insisted on riding alone.

We ended the day at Castaway Island, the humongous water drenched jungle gym with the slowest water slides ever. It was crowded, but Rebecca loved it. Gregory was a little less pleased, he didn't enjoy randomly having buckets of water poured on him, but he found his place on the little kid's water slide, which he rode about twenty-five times.

It turned out to be a great day. The end result was two tired kids, a tired parent, a tired grandparent, and lots of fun.

Educational Friday

2010-06-28T16:29:00.005-04:00

This past Friday the kids and I participated in the first Boston Free Friday of the summer, free admission to the Boston Children's museum. Throughout the course of the day, we learned several things, both in and outside of the museum. Here's a chronological list:

This deer eats leaves and probably is not long for this world.

Rebecca spot this critter in the front yard about 40 mins. before we left for the museum. It proceeded to leisurely stroll around the house eating grass and leaves, completely unfazed by my kids who were running from window to window, jumping up and down, and talking excitedly (granted the windows were shut). As far as deer go, this one probably doesn't have the best sense of self preservation.

When there is free admission to a children's museum, your best bet is to go to your local library and get passes to the closest museum you can find to the free one. This is because everyone in the state will be at the free museum, leaving all other nearby museums empty. We lasted an hour in the children's museum before hightailing it for a much more enjoyable walk around the waterfront.

Kids love to watch seals. As part of our walk around the waterfront, we stopped at the Boston Aquarium to view the outdoor harbor seal tank. The kids stood against the Plexiglass for fifteen minutes and watched the 'seal ballet', as Rebecca called it.

Okay, to anyone with good taste, I apologize in advance. Here's a sublist of what we learned in this next photo:
1. It's harbor seal mating season.
2. These seals are not 'hugging', as I initially announced to the kids when I foolishly pointed them out.

Dave Rawlings Machine And Yet Another Drunk Guy

2010-06-08T04:11:00.005-04:00

Greg and I were treated to a spectacular night of music Saturday when we saw Dave Rawlings Machine at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston. Here's a sample of what we were so lucky to experience. It wasn't shot at the show we saw, but it's one of my favorites and we got to see them perform the same song.

Sorry I didn't get my own video but Greg and I were in the FRONT ROW and it felt really rude to pull out my camera and start video taping in plain view of the musicians. Why were we in the front row? Because Greg wanted to see Dave Rawlings' hands, which he did for the entire show. I just felt extremely lucky to see such a great show and to be close enough to those amazing musicians to see everything they were doing. We were about 6 feet from Gillian Welch (enough said - she's awesome!), 4 feet from Dave Rawlings, and 2 feet from Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show.

They put on an awesome show in what Gillian Welch dubbed 'a banjo lovin town'. Also, I got to go with my sis and brother in-law, who made the trip down from Maine. Thanks Mom and Dad for babysitting all 4 grandchildren so we could all go!

And there was another 'way to drunk guy at a concert' incident (click here for the first). Right before the show started, an intoxicated, stumbling man jumped up on stage and pretended to check the mikes (all 4 of them, hello, security?) before falling over backwards, taking out a table (not the one holding 4 fiddles, thank goodness), and bashing into Morgan Jahnig's beautiful upright bass. He lay on his back for a full minute, unable to get up, before security finally decided to do something and promptly escorted him out. Anyone else out there have a good 'drunk guy at a concert' story?

How A Daisy Becomes A Brownie

2010-06-05T08:09:00.002-04:00

We've passed a milestone in Rebecca's life, she graduated from the Daisies and is now officially a Brownie. Here's a confession though, her ceremony was actually last Wednesday, May 26th. Things have been crazy around here - sorry I'm late getting it up. Enjoy her projection - I can't imagine where she gets that from.

The Slippery Slide

2010-06-01T21:34:00.004-04:00

We took advantage of the nice weather over the weekend to hold a cookout/sleepover with Uncle Jake, Aunt Kirsten, and the Cousins. The highlight for the kids came in the form of a Slip N Slide, or as the kids all called it, the Slippery Slide, that Rebecca got for her birthday last year. None of them had ever been on one before, so it was quite entertaining to watch. Here's some video:

And in case you're sitting up at night, wondering what a pair of 3 year olds would say when discussing their first Slip N Slide experience, you'll be happy to know you'll be able to sleep like a baby from now on. Here's Gregory and Ella doing just that:

I know it's hard to top that, so I'll just leave you with some action shots:

Now if only we could figure out a way to rig a few of those babies together!

Undone

2010-05-24T08:37:00.003-04:00

Here's the promised post of my second Pearl Jam video from 5/17. It took some wrangling with YouTube to get it up, but I can finally claim victory.

Eddie dedicated this song to his good friend, BU history professor Howard Zinn, who passed away in January.

On Pearl Jam, Pregnant Women, And Falling Drunk Guys

2010-05-19T17:11:00.013-04:00

Greg and I had the pleasure of seeing Pearl Jam Monday night at the new Boston Garden (so much better sounding than the TD Banknorth Garden). As usual, Eddie Vedder put on an awesome show where he managed to interact with a crowd of nearly 20,000.

On our way in, I was psyched to see not 1, but 2 pregnant women. I have a special spot in my heart for pregnant women at Pearl Jam concerts. This is because 4 years ago, the last time I saw Pearl Jam I was 6 months pregnant with Gregory. It explains a lot.

But seriously, 4 years ago when we ordered the tickets I thought 'hey, I'll only be 6 months, I won't be that big'. And I was right. I wasn't that big, I was humongous. For that show we had awesome seats. Behind the stage, but only a few rows out. Since there is no back to the stage, they were the best seats I've ever had at the Garden. And here's the best part. Close to the end of the show they did a cover of Neil Young's 'Rockin' In The Free World'. If you've ever seen Pearl Jam, you know Eddie sings to all sides of the stage. Well, when he came to the line

I see a woman in the night
With a baby in her hand
Under an old street light
Near a garbage can
Now she puts the kid away, and she's gone to get a hit
She hates her life, and what she's done to it
There's one more kid that will never go to school
Never get to fall in love, never get to be cool.

He ran to the back of the stage and looked right at me. I was elbowing Greg, going "Honey, Eddie Vedder's singing to me!". Greg disagreed, and we've never reached a harmonious opinion on this event. So Eddie, if you're reading, can you please either confirm or deny that 4 years ago at the Boston Garden, you sang this verse to a hugely pregnant woman behind the stage? Leaving a comment would be fine. Thanks.

So back to Monday night. According to Conor Oberst, victory is sweet even deep in the cheap seats, and I agree with him. But here's something else that's sweet deep in the cheap seats, videotaping a huge stadium of people rocking out to Pearl Jam. Here's the best one I got (at least unless YouTube has shut me down due to copyright infringement). It's one of my favorite Pearl Jam songs and it's worth watching the whole thing so you can see 20,000 euphoric, singing, dancing people, even if you don't like the song.

He opened with another great song, 'Release'. I started to get some awesome video of that as well, but I was interrupted. By what? I'm glad you asked. I was interrupted by an extremely intoxicated three hundred pound guy who came rolling down the seats from somewhere above about 10 seconds into the song. He nicked Greg (luckily Greg managed to stay on his feet) and then landed on a poor girl in the row in front of us. He was a big pile of legs and feet, with the girl was pinned underneath. It took everyone about two minutes to get him off of her and this included me, who turned the camera off to help. The poor girl seemed okay, although her leg was bruised and sore. The large, intoxicated guy stood there for about two minutes and then insisted on climbing into our row, where he took up two empty seats.

Well, that was fine, until the owners of those seats showed up to claim them. In a row wide effort to remove him, he started shoving, and someone freaked out and a fist fight ensued. Finally, the brave soul next to us grabbed him by the back of the shoulders and briskly escorted him out of the row with a curse and an order to never come back. Yay!

After that drama, we settled in to watch an excellent show including a lesser played song in tribute to Howard Zinn.

Okay, that one's not uploading so well, I'll put it in another post.

Again, if you've ever seen Pearl Jam live, you know it's not a question of whether Eddie Vedder falls, but when. Despite a good effort, he managed to stay on his feet for the whole show. He did consume his token bottle of wine and by the end of the show he was jumping onto speakers, shirt hanging off. All in all a great show by a very cool band whose appreciation of their fans is evident in the quality of their performance.

We have several more shows booked for what I'm calling our mid-life crisis series, so stay tuned!

Team Corbin Goes To A Luau

2010-05-14T20:00:00.002-04:00

Tonight was the annual Spring luau at Rebecca's elementary school. It's a night rife with with plastic leis, junk food, and dancing in a hot gym. I'd planned on getting lots of action shots and fun video to post, but it wasn't meant to be. Why you ask? Because after eating pizza, a red push pop and two cups of apple juice, Gregory did some wild dancing in a very hot gym and proceeded to throw up everywhere.

That ended our night early. Now I'm off to the living room to watch the Bruins, play cribbage, and drink heavily. Cheers!

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-09T14:25:00.006-04:00

Happy Mother's Day to all the ladies out there! Sorry I haven't posted this month - I've been sidetracked on a project. We haven't had too much going on here, but here's a summary:

Biking on the Rail Trail

Gregory took his first bike ride on his 'bumblebee bike'. We discovered that he moves at 1 of 2 speeds; fast forward or carry me. He did manage to get his little legs pumping like crazy and moved out at a good clip that had me jogging next to him (he still can't steer so well). Rebecca is quite the expert on her bike now, and is almost ready to shake the training wheels.

Yes, he did eat that entire pile of wings

We've discovered that both kids have inherited their father's love for chicken wings. Greg is cooking up a bunch of 'little chickens', as Gregory calls them, tonight, and everyone is excited except for me, the vegetarian.

Thank you to Cousin Karen for bringing us to the Blue Bunny Bookstore in Dedham square yesterday. The kids and I had a great time! I'm glad you and Rebecca are now buds and hopefully Gregory didn't terrorize you too much! ;-)

Rebecca has become a great reader in the past year, and loves the 'Little House' books. Greg and I have some good shows coming up including Probable Cause, Pearl Jam, and Dave Rawlings Machine. Plus I'm looking for someone to go to She & Him at the Boston House of Blues in July. Let me know if anyone wants to go!

Hope everyone is well and I plan to start posting here on a weekly basis again so please checking. :-) Peace!

Something Happened!!

2010-04-27T20:23:00.000-04:00

April has been a slowww month for us around here. So I'm happy to report that I now have something to report. Rebecca lost her second tooth tonight!

Okay, I know second tooth is not as exciting as first tooth, but did I mention it's been a slow month? And all the drama that was present with tooth #1 was relived with tooth #2. After tears, shaking, pleading, and one good pull from Mom, she was able to pull it out herself. Now hopefully the adult tooth that was growing in behind it will move forward and save us some $$ in orthodontist bills.

Here's a picture of newly toothless Rebecca with little brother Gregory who is having a sympathy lost tooth. And yes, that is what your living room looks like when you spend all your time pulling out your hysterical kid's tooth instead of cleaning.

An Easter Evening With Wilco At Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel, Providence, RI

2010-04-05T12:35:00.000-04:00

Jeff Tweedy may hate Easter, but he put on one hell of a show last night at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel in Providence, Rhode Island. I have to say, this was the best Wilco show I've ever seen. Three plus hours of Wilco including pure Wilco merriment including an accoustic set and without so much as a bathroom break.

Here's the ample setlist, way to overwhelming for me to remember everything, but luckily someone got a picture of it. This was my first time at Lupo's, which turned out to be a super cool venue. The surroundings were comfortable and provided a good environment for the band to interact with the crowd.

It was a request show where fans could go to the Wilco website ahead of time to request songs. They even gave away 2 gift certificates for local restaurants to two lucky fans who used the online request system. Sadly, there was no video or photography whatsoever allowed so I have nothing to post in that department. Instead, here's a previous video of the band performing 'Not For The Season', which they also played last night, and was the song that Greg requested. (I know they played it for you, honey!)

Who's Afraid Of A Six Foot Rabbit?

2010-03-28T21:39:00.000-04:00

Well, it's the scariest time of the year once again. No, I'm not talking about Halloween, I'm talking about the yearly visit to the Easter Bunny.

Gregory is especially taken with the bunny, and I try not to let my prejudice over the grinning, six foot rabbit color his experience.

For some inexplicable reason, I decided to subject myself to not one egg hunt, but two of them. Saturday we went to the Sterling Academy of Gymnastics Dragon Easter Egg Hunt. SAG, in their ultimate wisdom and kindness, have replaced the bunny with a less scary gigantic dragon. Much better! It was a nice event with the egg hunt, followed by jumping in the huge dragon bouncy house, face painting, and cookie decorating.

Not one to let myself off easy, I decided I had to let Gregory get his picture taken with the bunny. The Paxton library held an egg hunt this afternoon, complete with lurid leporidae. I did manage to allow my children to sit on its lap, and even get a picture.

To show you how hard this was, here's a side by side comparison of reality with what I saw in my mind.

So who's up for watching Donnie Darko next Saturday night? That's right, not me!

Pakwate

2010-03-25T21:09:00.001-04:00

Welcome to my world.

Father Daughter Dance

2010-03-20T21:33:00.000-04:00

Rebecca and Greg went to their first Father-Daughter dance tonight, hosted by the Girl Scouts. Rebecca wore a new dress, and said her favorite move was the 'slide' (Greg swinging her above his head).

Authentic St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-14T20:05:00.000-04:00

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! Today they held the St. Paddy's day parade in Worcester so we bundled up the kids and headed down to Mrs. Lavigne's house for her annual pre/post parade party.

After grazing at the breakfast spread, we headed out for the quick walk to Park Street to catch the festivities. Suffice it to say, it was a bit different than last year, and by different I mean it was 30 degrees colder and pouring rain. After spending a week in Ireland last year, I felt that the rain made the whole experience a little more authentic, but somehow that didn't seem to be much compensation. But the kids and parents were troopers and we managed to last through the bagpipers before trekking back up the hill.

Thanks to Mrs. Lavigne who had an incredible traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner ready for us back at the house.

Family Pancake Day

2010-03-06T22:54:00.000-05:00

Had a great time at Parker's Barn in Brookline, NH, today with the kids, Greg's girls, and Mommy D. It was packed when we got there and there was an hour and fifteen minute wait. Not to be deterred from our mission of eating pancakes, we hit the gift shop where we looked at lots of cool stuff, bought some maple syrup, and I tried to bribe Gregory into behaving with some maple candy (it didn't work) shaped like a moose head (he picked it).

After, we headed up to the sugar shack to see the process of making maple syrup, but got called back just after the tour started. Good thing too, there was an adorable little boy up there who could actually out talk Rebecca, and the 2 of them were giving the guide a run for his money. Rebecca and I ate delicious pancakes. Gregory decided to be the sausage king of Brookline, NH and ate 4 sausages, Chelsea's kielbasa, and about 2 bites of his pancake.

After eating, we headed outside where I got some rare pictures of all 5 of our babies together.

Gregory Plans To Join The Cirque-us

2010-02-25T13:08:00.000-05:00

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!".

Happy Pig Appreciation Day

2010-02-17T12:19:00.000-05:00

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?

Rebecca's Winter Concert

2010-02-15T11:00:00.000-05:00

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!

Corbin Sledding Party

2010-02-09T10:17:00.000-05:00

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!".

Thank Goodness For The Tooth Fairy

2010-02-03T10:51:00.000-05:00

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?

Buddha Belly = Built-In Floatie?

2010-01-22T20:50:00.000-05:00

New England Winter Swimming Lesson Style

Today was week 2 of winter swimming lessons. Gregory continues to amaze all the Moms with his level of comfort in the water. The other kids make an effort to keep from getting their faces wet, but Gregory makes an effort to keep his face from getting dry. He spends as much time as possible with his entire body, including his head, submerged, and just one hand sticking out, holding on to the side of the pool. I think he has an unfair advantage - his little Buddha resembles a built in floatie - maybe it acts as a buoy?

The Floating Buddha

Tired, happy kids

Rebecca and I swam for the first half of Gregory's lesson - apparently as part of the lesson the parent can take the kids in the free swim part of the pool. She's doing great - swimming further than she was this summer, and even trying to swim with her face in the water. She gets some good speed going that way although I keep telling her she'd go faster if she'd let go of her nose. She made it through her entire lesson without any floatie, while Gregory and I swam. I actually did most of the swimming while he held onto my bathing suit straps yelling 'Hi everyone, I'm riding a dolphin!'. Hey, it could have been worse, at least he didn't think he was riding a whale!

I'll leave you with a video of the Gregory's class high fiving their teacher while jumping in the pool. Can you guess which one he is (hint: look for a certain feature in the midriff region)? Big sister Rebecca (wrapped in a pink and white striped towel) watches from the side.

Weekend Roundup: Swimming, Snow, and Line Dancing (Really)

2010-01-17T19:06:00.000-05:00

Future Bloggers?

Don't you just love weekends that follow this simple formula: busy Saturday, quiet Sunday? We've just had such a weekend here at casa Corbin. The fun actually started Friday night when the kids had their first swimming lesson at the Y (I forgot my camera - still kicking myself). This was Gregory's first swimming lesson ever and I was amazed by how well he listened and followed his adorable teacher's instructions. He is really comfortable in the water and had no problem doing everything she asked (while she was encouraging the kids to dunk their chins, he was submerging his whole head - I was so proud!). I promise to bring my camera next week and get some photos/video.

Saturday morning, we were at the library when it opened (translation: the kids were going stir crazy in the house). The temps reached the mid 40s, so when we got home I decked them out in full snow gear and sent them outside. They sledded, tracked bears, and made snow angels for a full hour and a half.

My parents arrived to watch the boy, while Rebecca and I set off for Mother/Daughter line dancing night at The Dance Ranch in Worcester. Country music is definitely not my thing, but this was a Girl Scout event in which Rebecca's Daisy troop was participating, so I decided to take one for the team. After a feeble attempt to teach her the Macarana, Rebecca refused to dance with me, and played tag on the dance floor with her friends. Here's a video of her dancing (at least she has the bow down!).

Today we spent reading, playing on the computer, playing outside, watching the 2nd half of the Blues Brothers (which ended, as usual, with a massive dance off between me and Gregory, followed by a towel snapping war between the boy and his father). The little monsters are growing up so fast - Rebecca is reading up a storm, and Gregory has discovered that 4 letter word that is a favorite of preschoolers everywhere (you know, it starts and ends with 'P', and has 2 'O's in the middle). Between that, and his newly developed talent for running around, shaking his hips, and declaring 'Look at my bumbum' (thankfully, usually with pants on), things have been pretty interesting around here.

That was our weekend, what did everyone else do?

Where's Noelle??

2010-01-12T21:17:00.000-05:00

Not much going on this week. I'm taking advantage of the cold weather to stay indoors and get my professional blog started. Here's what I have so far: noellecorbin.com - stop by and let me know what you think! I'm planning to get the kids out of the house this weekend so I should have some interesting posts coming up. It's supposed to get into the low 40s on Friday! Good times!

Here's the latest picture of my little wild man to tide ya' over:

About Me

2010-01-07T11:13:00.000-05:00

Just in case you've never met me, (and in response to MomDot's Introduce Yourself Day) here's some stuff you might like to know. My name is Noelle, I'm in my late 30s, married to Greg (9 years!), with 2 little ones: Rebecca(6) and Gregory(3). I have 3 beautiful stepdaughters (18, 16 and 14). We live in central Massachusetts, where I've lived my entire life.

I graduated from UMass, Amherst in 1994 with a BA in Sociology, and minors in Psychology and Economics, but somehow I ended up working in computers as a web developer. In 2003 I received an MS in Computer Science from Boston University. I've worked as a programmer for the past 14 years, mostly on web-based applications. In that time, I've held a plethora of titles (Programmer, Web Developer, Software Engineer, Technical Business Analyst, Internet Software Architect) but they pretty much all mean programmer, mostly web-based. I started this blog 2.5 years ago because I found I really suck at scrap booking and keeping a journal. It's not commercial. This year I started another blog, The Naturalista about my family's attempt to live naturally, reduce our exposure to toxic chemicals, and enjoy the great outdoors. I might try limited ads there, but haven't done too much on the commercial front. Since I've enjoyed creating my first 2 blogs so much, i'm thinking of starting a technical blog - a mix of programming and technical tips for social media, web pages, etc.

Enough with the official details though, here's some other random facts about me:

I was born on Christmas Day. That's where I get my name, Noelle. I guess I just wasn't destined to be Debra (what my parents were going to name me before I was born on Christmas and they decided they had to do something special).

I laugh when people fall. I can't help it. I've always done this even though I try really hard not to. I do stop though if they hurt themselves.

I'm hopelessly addicted to sugar. If I could just skip the meal and only eat dessert, my world would be right.

I enjoy making things (crafts), but have no talent for it. I keep torturing my family by giving them 'homemade gifts'.

I can't cook, but I'm a decent baker. Fortunately I am married to a man who is a fabulous cook.

I've had a huge crush on Johnny Depp for 20 years.

I love traveling. Anywhere. I've been to Europe 3 times in the past 5 years and keep trying to figure out a way to go back. I even love airports. That's right, I said it. I get all excited when driving to the airport, even if I'm just dropping someone off.

My favorite color is yellow. This is because when I was a little kid, I had a yellow baby blanket that I carried everywhere. I still have Yellow Blankie - it's folded up on the top shelf of my linen closet. Every once in a while I let my kids play with it.

I've worked in at least 9 different programming languages.

Here's what I look like right now:

I have 285 movies on my Netflix list. I only watched 37 movies from Netflix in 2009.

I love dark, scary and/or fantasy themed movies.

I try to hide it, but I'm a total dork!

That's me in a nutshell. Nice to meet you!

Skating Stars

2010-01-03T18:18:00.000-05:00

Gregory practices with a chair

The kids took advantage of the wintry weather Saturday to try out their new skates. A local resident constructs and maintains a little rink in the center of town every year, so that's where I headed with my first timers. We lasted just over an hour before I got cold and packed everyone back into the car. Kind of humbling to be outlasted by a 6 and 3 year old. The kids loved it, didn't want to leave, and Rebecca keeps asking us to take her back. Next time I'm bringing hot chocolate (for me)!

The Christmas Edition

2009-12-29T21:10:00.000-05:00

As promised (and only a few days late) here are pictures from our Holiday. By some miracle, Santa brought Gregory presents instead of coal, and Rebecca gave out her own gifts for the first time ever, thanks to her school's PTA gift fair. Boy does that girl have an eye for a bargain! Without further ado, here's a pictorial account of the big night/morning.

Rebecca hangs her stocking.

The kids leave a snack for Santa. Rebecca insists we need to leave something red for Rudolph, and after a minute of frantic brainstorming/pulling apart the fridge we find some red grapes which she deems acceptable red nosed reindeer fodder.

As a special treat, I let Gregory sleep in Rebecca's bed. I issue stern warnings that Santa only stops at houses where the children are asleep, and Gregory has a moment of panic, "You mean I had to be good ALL year???".

Morning comes all too quickly, and lo and behold, Santa was here. Let the opening begin!

Rebecca told an elaborate story about buying a guitar for Dad, but she surprises everyone when it turns out to be a Patriots Flag.

My Dad's special gift to me, my sister, and my brother, we each get a pair of Marion Bronze bookends made by his Grandparents.

Gregory's favorite gift is "my Bumblebee (transformer - the only thing he asked for during the past 3 months), my motorcycle (bicycle), Wolverine, and my truck". Rebecca says her favorite gift "has to be my coyote". Her Auntie Jiffy gave her this because the kid loves coyotes. Rebecca added the tutu, and wants me to sew a matching cape.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. Next stop, 2010!

Christmas Bling

2009-12-25T18:57:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas! Hope everyone had a great day. We had lots of fun here at Casa Corbin opening presents, eating, and celebrating. I'll post pictures tomorrow but I wanted to share this video. We went for a ride last night to check out Christmas lights last night and thought this house was quite spectacular.

Cookies and Carols

2009-12-19T23:30:00.000-05:00

Lots of Christmas fun going on at Chez Corbin this weekend. Today we made my grandparent's Christmas press cookies. I posted the recipe here. The kids helped with all the steps, especially the decorating part.

After cookies, I cleaned up and the kiddies practiced a 'show'. Is anyone else's kids obsessed with forcing their parents to watch these endless 'shows' (kids, I loved every minute)? Here's a taste:

And since I know you want it, here's more:
Er, they probably shouldn't quit their day jobs.

My talented little muffins are all tucked away in bed now and a big snow storm is on its way. Here's a parting photo of what you get when you combine 1/2 a dozen cookies, no nap, and a 3 year old:

How To Get On The Nice List

2009-12-17T06:59:00.001-05:00

At 6, Rebecca looks a lot like me. As a baby, she looked more like her Dad. She certainly didn't look anything like my baby pictures. Suddenly, around 2.5 years, she morphed into a little mini-me. Now, wherever we go, people comment on how much we look alike. Saturday was no exception. The 2 of us went to get our hair cut. She had me go first and then climbed into the chair and instructed the hairdresser to cut her hair 'like Mummy'. There had already been talk about our resemblance, and as the snipping began, it turned to how her hair is similar to mine - thin, slightly wavy, etc. After a minute of that, Rebecca piped in with "I'm so happy I'm a little mini of my Mummy". It melted my heart (and lifted her up a notch on Santa's nice list).

Memories Of Our First Christmas, And Our First Major Incompatibility

2009-12-12T18:08:00.000-05:00

Gregory searches for the perfect tree.

Saturday morning we packed ourselves into the van in search of our Christmas tree. This yearly ritual always brings back memories of our first cohabiting Christmas, when we blended together 2 different lifetimes of Christmas memories, and discovered our first real incompatibility.

Go back to the late 1990's. Back before we had kids, when we were living in a dumpy 500 square foot apartment. Imagine owning no lights, no ornaments, and no decorations. Picking the tree was the easy part. The real challenge came when we talked about what we would buy to decorate it. Greg had grown up with white lights and color coordinated, uniform glass ornaments. All blue and silver, or all red. Whatever. All round. All the same size. To Greg, this is what a Christmas tree was supposed to look like. Orderly. Sophisticated. To me, it was what they put up in a department store. Impersonal. Muted. Boring.

My ideal Christmas tree was a little different. We always had the multi-colored lights, with a hodgepodge of ornaments collected over 2 generations of Christmases. Old scratched silver and gold bells, sewn cloth ornaments, the gingerbread house my sister made out of a milk carton and some felt when she was in the brownies (still my favorite ornament to this day!). I loved the character of each different ornament and the fun, colored lights. I couldn't imagine opening gifts under a dull, colorless tree. We had found our first real incompatibility.

Here's what we did. Greg's birthday is early December. It's always a challenge to have to come up with 2 gifts in December and back then we were on a really tight budget. I wanted to find something meaningful, that we could afford. I thought and thought - about what he likes, what makes him happy. This made me think of all the joy and love he brought me. I wanted to spend all my Christmases with this man, no matter what color lights we used. Soon I knew what I had to do. I marched down to CVS, bought a few strands of white lights, and wrapped them in some birthday paper.

His birthday fell on a Friday night, and we celebrated by going to pick our tree. Then I gave him his present. Surprised but happy, he strung up the white lights. The next day we hit Walmart (yes, back then we did shop at Walmart). We bought a box of plain red, silver and gold glass balls. They were uniform. They were cheap. But they were special because they were the first ornaments we ever owned.

He had his boring white, red, gold and silver tree. About a week later, CVS was giving out free ornaments. A little ceramic bear in a Santa hat. I took one home and hung it on the back side of the tree. My little token to my childhood Christmas tree. When Greg got home from work, he noticed it immediately (how he found it so quickly, hidden in the back is beyond me). But he decided he could live with it and the CVS bear stayed on the tree.

I thought that would be the end, and decided I could live with endless Christmases of boring, uniform trees, so imagine my surprise Christmas morning when I found 3 strands of colored lights wrapped under our tree. 'For next year' Greg told me. And then we had our solution. One year we put up white lights, the next year colored. It has become our family tradition. Every year we've added a few unique ornaments to our uniform glass balls, and Greg has learned to ~~love~~ like them. This year is a white year, but I've come to love the white lights almost as much as I love the colored ones. They are brighter. The ornaments are easier to see, and sparkle more brightly in the bright white light. Most important, they remind me of that first Christmas.

Rebecca's Door

2009-12-10T15:14:00.000-05:00

There's nothing like being shown up by your 6 year old. This morning I was enjoying a little early morning blogging (I know, I have a problem), when my little Becky-Boo padded in to say good morning. I showed her yesterday's post, and she was particularly fascinated by my lame attempt to draw Gregory's nightmare door. After studying the photo, she asked, "Mommy, can I draw on the door?". I checked the clock, quickly showed her how to pick colors and use the paint brush in Gimp, loaded the door picture, and then exited to the kitchen to pack her lunch for school. Ten minutes later, I called her in to eat her bagel. She never appeared, so I went into the bedroom and found her still in her pajamas, still sitting at my laptop, engrossed in her drawing. I caught a glimpse of the screen and felt amazement. Here is a side by side comparison of our work:


My scary door face	Rebecca's door

Granted, I didn't try very hard on mine, but she is only 6, and this was the first time she ever used graphics software. Dude, she totally showed me up! Her's has teeth. And nostrils. She must get her artistic ability from her Dad. On a related note, she almost missed the bus. On another related note, I'm expecting to be woken up at 3:00 AM by Rebecca having a nightmare about her door.

Winter Wonderland Wakeup

2009-12-09T15:28:00.000-05:00

Showcasing my astounding
graphic design abilities!

Our kids have embarked on a diabolical mission to deprive us parents of as much sleep as possible. Not a happy development - anyone who knows me knows I need me some sleep. It's mostly Gregory. He's developed an irrational fear of the doors in our house (he's not afraid of what he thinks might be on the other side of the door, but the actual rectangular piece of wood). All I can get out of him is that he thinks the 2 squares at the top of the door look like eyes. Go figure. Anyway, he's been waking up most nights between the hours of 1 and 5 AM. He pads down the stairs and climbs into our bed, following up with his patented 'I scared' with a request for 'something to drink', 'kid TV', or usually, both. Kids, here's a little secret. Your Mom and Dad will let you get away with just about anything, if it means they don't have to get up between the hours of 1 and 5 AM. If we can get him to go back to sleep, or even lay quietly, a lot of the time we just let him be and go back to sleep ourselves(bad us!).

Sunday morning was a prime example. He came downstairs sometime around 4:00 AM, asking for 'kid TV'. He tossed and turned for at least an hour, managing to bump into Greg or myself every time one of us started drifting back to sleep. Finally, under threat of being sent back to his bed, he quieted down and miraculously fell asleep. By 6 AM, Greg and I had rejoined the sweet world of Sunday morning sleep.

But fate was against us. Saturday night into early Sunday morning we had our first December snow fall here in Central Massachusetts. Only a couple of inches, but apparently that's enough to be wildly exciting in the pre-Christmas world of a 6 year old. At 7 AM, Rebecca burst into our room yelling 'Wake up! Waaake upppp! It's a Winter Wonderland outside. Wake Up! Waaake uppp!'

This didn't go over so well, except with Gregory who went from sleep to wide awake in 2 secondes flat. He jumped out of bed, and excitedly ran around the house with his big sister, looking out the windows. OK, that last part was kind of cute, even though I knew my Sunday morning slumber was over.

Here they are playing in the snow. Is anybody else's kids obsessed with pretending to be bears?

To make sure we don't let down our guard, Mother Nature hit us with another snowstorm today. School was canceled and Rebecca ventured out into the icy outdoors this morning for about an hour before declaring 'the storm is too much for me'.

She promptly changed back into her pj's, put on 'Spirit', and drank some hot cocoa from her very cool bunny mug (I know you guys are all jealous of the bunny mug!).
Nature has been on a making herself known around here lately. Last night on the way home from gymnastics a coyote ran in front of our van, only 50 feet away from our driveway. There was no traffic on the road, so I stopped and turned the car slightly until our headlights washed across him. He just stood there on the other side of a stone wall, staring at us for a minute, and turned away and trotted toward the far side of the field. Rebecca was got a good look at him and was very excited since coyotes are one of her favorite animals.

An Afternoon of 'Culture' at the Nutcracker

2009-12-05T20:28:00.000-05:00

Rebecca and Gregory at the Nutcracker

This afternoon, my Mom and I took the kids to The Nutcracker Ballet at the Hanover Theater in Worcester. I hadn't planned to bring Gregory, but I had an extra ticket (and no babysitter), so Mom and I bravely decided to give it a try. We figured we could always take turns out in the lobby with him if he got too unruly.

The most amazing thing was Gregory actually sat still through the entire first half, and most of the second half of the show. I was stunned at how well behaved and enraptured he was during the show. He was actually quieter than his big sister (there's something to be said for seeing it the 1st time - this was Rebecca's 4th year). Rebecca did OK, but all the excitement of Christmas, getting dressed up, snow on the ride to the theater, and an MnM cookie in the lobby was a little too much for her.

Grandma shows Gregory the
orchestra before the show

The dancer's were great - especially the sugar plum fairy and her consort. Our seats were in the 2nd row, which has both advantages and disadvantages:

Disadvantage: When you are further back, it looks more like the dancers are gliding on the stage - when you're really close, you can see how hard they are actually working.
Advantage: you can see really well - especially important when you are with really short people, such as the kids and my Mom (just kidding Mom!).
Disadvantage: you can see really well. Yes, this can also be a disadvantage. Sorry if this is too much info, but if we can put a man on the moon, don't we have the technology to create a pair of men's ballet tights that you can't see through? I had to resist the urge to put my hand in front of Rebecca's eyes.

On the way home, we went around the van and everyone talked about their favorite parts. Grandma and I loved the final dance of the sugar plum fairy and her consort (they were both really wonderful dancers!). Gregory's (surprise, surprise) was when the Nutcracker killed the mouse king. He briefly declared he was going to grow up to be the Nutcracker so he could kill the mouse king, but has already returned to his previous ambition of becoming the abominable snowman (see Wednesday's post). Rebecca's favorite part was when "the toy soldier shot the mouse in the butt". Nothing like a little culture for the kids (this was also Grandma's second favorite part!).

In other news, our misfit toys are back downstairs in their box, dreaming of next Christmas. This development was the result of a misfit toy throwing episode the kids had with our TV yesterday. Also, today is Greg's 38th birthday. Happy Birthday honey! How does it feel to be in your late 30's? Sorry - I have to milk it for the next 20 days - XOXOXOX!

We're All Misfits

2009-12-03T21:23:00.000-05:00

Rebecca with her favorite
Rudolph character

Last night was the annual showing of the beloved Rankin and Bass produced "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" on NBC. This is a big event in our house. Rebecca remembered it from last year, although she did make a running jump onto the couch to hide behind me when the abominable snowman first showed up. Gregory fell asleep mid Christmas special last year, so this was his first real experience with the celebration in claynation. He was very taken with the monster (you could almost say obsessed) and throughout any scene that didn't roar, he was pondering the whereabouts of the furry beast. He did have trouble distinguishing between Yukon and Santa Claus. Even though I explained several times that Yukon has the red beard, and Santa has the white beard, he was still commenting this morning that "Santa pulled out Bumblebee's teeth and pushed him over".

I'm a little embarrassed to say this is one of my favorite Christmas specials (probably something to do with the fact that it is only shown once a year, and I refuse to buy a copy for the house - it would definitely lose something if the kids watched it over and over). I enjoyed catching some of the puns from an era when the adult jokes in kid's movies were more subtle. Here's a few I liked:

Hey, what do you say we both be independent together, huh? - Hermey

How do you like that? Even among misfits you're a misfit. - Yukon

Well for the first year the Donner's did a pretty good job of hiding Rudolphs - non conformity. - Burl Ives Snowman

If that's not enough red nosed goodness for you, here's some trivia I found after extensive Internet research (I went to IMDB->Rudolph->trivia):

Why is Dolly for Sue, who is apparently a perfectly ordinary doll, living on the Island of Misfit Toys? Greg and I have actually discussed this on numerous occasions! This gripping debate raged on for decades, until official word from Rankin-Bass recently decided the issue: Dolly for Sue is a "misfit" because she has psychological problems - she feels unloved.

But Who's Counting Dept.: When Santa's sleigh finally takes off into the storm near the end of the film, it's being pulled by SIX reindeer instead of eight, with Rudolph leading the way.

Yukon Cornelius' stalwart sled dogs include a Cocker Spaniel, a Poodle, a Saint Bernard, a Collie, and a Dachshund.

At the conclusion of "Holly Jolly Christmas", Hermie the elf can be seen dancing (and flirting) with an equally attentive girl elf, suggesting a budding romance.

The fruits of our labor - impromptu cave
and a boat load of Rudolph characters
Can you guess which one was Gregory's favorite?

After last night, I figured today would be the perfect day to pull out our misfit toy collection. Back in 1998, way before our push to live more sustainably, CVS sold stuffed versions of all the Rudolph characters. Greg and I bought every single one, and hung them around our old apartment for a few years. Then the toys spent a few years in storage, until Rebecca was about 4. We've pulled them out on a limited basis, but this year I decided to go all out. Rebecca and I wanted to surprise Gregory, so before he got home from daycare today we cleaned off the kid's coloring table and made an impromptu mountain ice cave out of some pillows, a box, and a sheet. We set out every single stuffed Rudolph character and waited. When he finally got home, he was beside himself. Guess which character he went for first? The two kids spent the last hour before bed playing Rudolph. Now I just have to figure out how to make Santa's castle ...

Thanksgiving, Part Deux

2009-11-30T21:25:00.000-05:00

My Mom and Dad did their traditional post-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday. Years ago, M & D relinquished the Thursday dinner, in favor of having it a day or 2 later so that everyone can come. And come we did. The total headcount was 17, and through some clever maneuvering, they got everyone in the dining room, with the exception of the 3 little kids (Rebecca, Cousin Evan, and Gregory) who were at the kids table, 5 feet away in the living room. We ate, watched the kids run around, ate, watched the kids see who could do the best gorilla walk, ate, watched the kids repeatedly hurdle Uncle Kenny's legs. You get the picture. Speaking of pictures, here's a couple:

Rebecca holds the cutest baby ever, my niece and goddaughter Nora.

Sisters and brother: Shannon, Rebecca, Gregory and Sumner

I just can't get enough of Miss Nora

Thankful

2009-11-27T20:51:00.000-05:00

Gregory enjoys some cheese

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We had a great, low key Thanksgiving here at Casa Corbin. Greg cooked up a delicious dinner and I made my signature hot mulled cider. Rebecca said her favorite part of the day was playing with Moose (Kenny's dog) and Gregory said his favorite part was 'eating cheese with my mouth'. Tomorrow we're heading to Mom and Dad's for Thanksgiving, part deux. In the spirit of the Holiday, here's a sampling of things I'm grateful for:

Siblings

Little girls

Little boys

I feel so lucky to be where I am, married to a wonderful man (and a great cook!) with such good friends and a loving family. Thank you!

Enchanted Nature Calls

2009-11-23T23:21:00.000-05:00

A glorious start

The kids and I took advantage of the unseasonably warm November afternoon and went for a hike around the Wachusett Meadow Bird Sanctuary. This beautiful set of trails is only a 15 minute drive from our home, and I'm sorry to say today was the first trip we made all year! We traipsed around the the trails coat free for 2.5 hours. Here's the break down of how we spent our precious November afternoon: 1 hour hiking, 1 hour trying to find a bathroom, 1/2 hour playing on rocks.

Read the rest here...

StumbleUpon Me

2009-11-22T23:19:00.001-05:00

The inner web developer (a.k.a. dork) in me is showing through. I've been playing with social networking and added a link at the bottom of each post to link to the newest way to get visitors, StumbleUpon. I'm not crazy about the kludgy graphic - they had some other smaller ones I might try out. What do you think? Is anyone else using StumbleUpon?

I also added my Twitter updates to the sidebar. If you want to connect, follow me and I will do the same! Is it too cluttered or should I keep adding more social networking bling?

Daniel Johnston Live In Boston

2009-11-20T08:51:00.000-05:00

I love having a chance to catch up! I've been meaning to post this for a month but have had some problems getting the video onto YouTube. Problems seem to be solved, so here's the scoop. For those of you unfamiliar with Daniel Johnston, you can get an idea of his remarkable life from the documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston. Greg and I were lucky enough to get tickets to see him at the Paradise Rock club in Boston back in October. If you can get past his untrained voice, you will hear some of the most heartbreakingly beautiful lyrics. We took this clip with our digital camera because it is both my kid's favorite Daniel Johnston song, and we wanted to play it for them.

We were delighted by the enthusiasm of the crowd for Daniel, and also the youth of many of the fans. During the second half of the show the opening band came out and played with him. That was kind of annoying because the drummer and guitarist played way to loud and made it difficult to hear Daniel. The saving grace? Daniel seemed to enjoy singing with them, and after the life this man has led and the toll his illness has taken on him, it was great to see him experiencing some well deserved happiness.

Here's my baby singing his favorite line from the same song:

I'm Glad I'm Not The Only One Who Found This Funny

2009-11-17T08:52:00.000-05:00

Due to the horrid flu that has recently made the rounds through my house, I'm currently short on blogging material. Instead, let me share this incident which occurred a few weeks ago when leaving Rebecca's gymnastics lesson:

It actually started on the way into the lesson. We were running 1 minute late, as usual, and as we ran across the parking lot I casually pointed my key ring toward my unique, gold, 2006 Toyota Sienna and hit the lock button. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the parking lights flare, and I also barely noted to myself the little, black, plastic lock button made a weird clicking sound when I pushed it.

Fast forward an hour. Rebecca and I are back out in the parking lot, gymnastics lesson complete. We arrive at the gold Sienna, and I push the unlock button on my controller. Nothing. I try door handle. Nothing. It's locked.

'Uh oh', I think, 'Maybe I broke the controller, or the battery is dead'. Suddenly, that weird clicking sound the controller made becomes the center of my awareness. I hit the unlock button again. Nothing. I decided I better do it the old-fashioned way, and use the regular key. I stick it in the lock, and try to turn it. Nothing. I try to turn it harder. Still nothing. This is more serious than I thought.

I go around back and try the trunk door. Nothing. I try to use the key on the passenger side door. Nothing. I blindly panic and start randomly pushing buttons on the controller. Nothing. The whole time Rebecca is telling me in a loud, high pitched voice that she is cold and hungry.

I pull out my phone to call Greg. While dialing, Rebecca says 'let me try' and reaches for the keys. I absently hand them to her so she'll be occupied while I try to think of what I'm going to tell Greg. He answers his phone.

Greg: 'Hi Honey.'

Me: 'Hey, um how was your day?'

Greg: 'Fine, what's up?'

Me: 'Where are you?'

Greg: 'Passing the Big Y' (about 1 minute from home, and about 20 minutes from the gym). I notice out of the corner of my eye Rebecca doing something with the keys and the van door. I decide not to worry about it. It's not like she can break a lock that's already broken, right?

Me: 'We're at the Sterling gym. I can't get the van open.'

Greg: 'What do you mean you can't get the van open?'

Me: 'The clicker doesn't do anything when I push the buttons, I think it's broken.'

Greg: 'Did you try the key?'

Me: 'Yes, it didn't work either. It's really broken.'

Greg: 'Oh no. Do this. Go around back, and see if it works on the back door.'

As I'm getting ready to tell him I already tried that, I notice an older lady striding across parking lot yelling in my direction.

Me: 'I'll call you back'. I flip my phone shut quickly and instinctively grab my keys from Rebecca so this crazy lady doesn't see I'm letting my 6 year old attempt to manually turn my key in a non-working lock.

Lady: 'That's my car - your car is over there.' She points toward the center of the parking lot. 'It's wide open'.

Me: Laughing lamely as the light finally dawns in one blazing second. 'Oh - I can't believe I did that!'

Lady: Glares at me, both her kids are staring at us in amazement. 'This is my car.'

Me: Feeling mortified, the only thing I have to add is the inanely lame 'We have the same car.'

Lady: 'Your car is wide open. It's over there.' She's really pissed!

Me: My fight or flight instinct kicks in. While hurriedly fleeing toward my car, I mutter a lame 'Thanks.' I see my van. The automatic side door is wide open thanks to my earlier button pushing frenzy. I try to give Rebecca as short an explanation as possible about what just happened. I glance back over my shoulder - the angry lady is inspecting her lock for damage.

Rebecca and I get in our unlocked van and buckle up. I put my working key in the ignition and start her up. My phone rings - it's Greg.

Me: (Trying to sound cool). 'Hello?'

Greg: 'What happened?'

Me: 'We're in.' Maybe he won't ask for details.

Greg: 'Did you get in through the back door?'

Me: 'Um no.' There's no point in hiding the truth. 'Actually, I was trying to get into the wrong car.'

Greg: Silence.

Me: 'There was another gold Sienna parked close to us. I hung up on you because this lady was yelling at me. It was her van and she was really pissed.'

Greg: Laughing uncontrollably. 'I'm so glad I'm married to you.'

Thanks for understanding and appreciating me honey! I love you! (and I hope I didn't give you the swine flu - how are you feeling?).

Not What I had In Mind

2009-11-13T21:47:00.000-05:00

A week of rest and relaxation. Sounds good right? Not when it's a result of being clobbered by the flu! I'm finally (mostly) over the horrid virus that has had me down for the past week. Thank you to my marvelous husband for doing everything while I was sick. I came down with it last Friday, and Saturday was the worst day (high fever, excruciating back pain, headache not touched by Motrin or Tylenol). Greg was supposed to work, but I called him about 45 minutes into his day and asked him to come home (the first time I've done this in 14 years). He did, and I didn't get up again until yesterday. I don't know if it was H1N1 or regular flu - they are no longer testing - just assuming that if you have a fever and live in an H1N1 affected area (pretty much the whole country right now), you have H1N1. I ended up with a secondary infection in my lungs and have been on antibiotics since Monday. So there hasn't been a lot of other stuff going on in our house this week. Here's a few random pictures:

Gregory helped to clean the meringue off the Kitchen Aid beaters today. Because what's better for recovering from the flu than Lemon Meringue Pie?
Greg and Gregory spent most of Monday on leaf removal while I continued my flu holiday. Greg took this picture for me so I could see my little guy enjoying some unseasonably warm November weather.
This one is from November 1st when Rebecca (furthest to the right) and her ballet friends attended 'Tea with Clara'. This involves heading out to the Hanover Theater where the girls have cookies and 'tea' (juice), and then are read 'The Nutcracker' by Clara (the girl dancing as Clara in the ballet next month). This year the girls even got to dance to a score from the Nutcracker, lead by Clara. Rebecca loved it, although she wasn't feeling great. Turns out this was day 1 of the flu for her - hopefully we didn't infect Clara. Rebecca is feeling better now and was able to go to school this week, after having her own week off.

2009-11-08T11:19:00.000-05:00

9G7YRW5FF6QC

The Plague Continues

2009-11-06T19:46:00.000-05:00

Bored, slightly sick 3 year old

Yup, for 17 contiguous days now we've had at least 1 sick person in our household. And for the past 10 days I've been one of them. For the past 3 days I've had both Gregory and Rebecca home sick, and been sick myself. Yesterday I got hit with a new cold, on top of my lingering flu symptoms and today it felt like my head was about to explode. Here's a small excerpt from my day home alone with 2 sick kids, for those of you who don't have kids yet, don't.

Sorry about my whining. I don't mean that - do have kids. My kids have given me the greatest joy I've ever known. Just be prepared for the occasional day like this:

We went to see the doctor today. Turns out Rebecca has the flu (probably H1N1, but they are no longer testing for it) and a secondary sinus infection. Gregory has a cold and ear infection. The doctor does not believe that he has the flu on top of that because of his high level of energy and I second that. Can anyone think of anything worse than feeling like you were hit by a truck, and having to care for a sick 6 year old, and an energetic, bored, slightly sick 3 year old for 13 hours straight by yourself? I stopped at CVS on the way home from the doctor's office and filled prescriptions for antibiotics for both kids. Here's the sequence of events after we got home. Actions are in italics:

Me: Stumble in the door carrying prescriptions, masks from doctor's office and whining 3 year old. Drop everything and open an unhealthy can of organic Spaghetti-O's since it's past lunch time and Gregory is starving.

Rebecca (shrill whining voice from the living room): Mom, I can't get Animal Planet on the TV.

Me: Hold on, let me get lunch started.

Gregory (climbing up to kitchen table): Mommy, talk to me!

Me: Just a minute. Let me get lunch started, and I need to give you each your first dose of medicine.

Rebecca: I don't want to take my medicine.

Me: Finish dumping Spaghetti-O's in pan and run to living room to turn on Animal Planet.

Gregory: Momma, talk to me!

Me: Rebecca, you have to take your medicine.

Me: Return to kitchen and start measuring out Gregory's antibiotic.

Rebecca (shrill whining voice from the living room): I want juice!

Me: Just a minute!

Me: Finish measuring Gregory's medicine. Bring it over to him and get him to drink it. Return to counter and start measuring Rebecca's medicine.

Gregory: Mommy, I just peed in my pants.

Me: Go use the potty! (When he has accidents, it's a small amount, and means he needs to do a lot more immediately).

Gregory: Come with me. I'm scared of the door (for some inexplicable reason, he has developed an intense fear of all the doors in our house).

Me: Stop measuring Rebecca's medicine. Carry Gregory to bathroom, turn on light. Stand there while he finishes peeing. Remove his wet pants and throw them down the laundry chute. Run back to kitchen and pick up Rebecca's medicine.

Gregory: Momma, talk to me! (As he climbs back on kitchen chair, sans pants).

Me: Gregory, just a minute. Let me give your sister her medicine, and I'll get you some pants.

Rebecca: I don't want to take my medicine.

Me: Carry medicine into living room and try to get Rebecca to drink it. She pushes it away.

Rebecca: Ugh - that's going to make me throw up.

Gregory (whining voice from kitchen): Momma, Momma, MOMMA!!

Me: WHATTT?

Gregory: I'm hungry.

Me: Force Rebecca to drink medicine.

Rebecca: That's disgusting. I'm going to throw up.

Me: Come have some Spaghetti-O's. It will take the taste out of your mouth.

Gregory: Momma, Momma, MOMMA!!

Me: Run upstairs, grab Gregory some sweatpants. He has no clean underwear upstairs - he will have to go commando.

Gregory: I'm hungry!

Rebecca: I want juice.

Me: Run downstairs. Put sweatpants on Gregory. Wash hands.

Gregory: Momma, talk to me!

Me (while spooning Spaghetti-O's into bowl): I can't right now. Eat your Spaghetti-O's.

Gregory: They're too hot.

Unhappy sick Rebecca

I won't torture you with any more. Did I mention I had a splitting headache and stuffed head the whole time, and all I wanted was to take some decongestant and some Advil and go to sleep? Hopefully the antibiotics will help, and they will start feeling better tomorrow.

They Should Just Paint a Big 'P' On Our Door

2009-11-02T21:08:00.001-05:00

New paint

For plague. That's right. Rebecca, Greg, Me, Gregory, now Rebecca again. It's been a steady stream of illness here at Chez Corbin. Here's an after picture of our long overdue house painting (I can't believe I forgot to take a before picture). Luckily our door is already red so the big red 'P' won't stand out too much when they come through marking the infected houses. Please excuse the leaves. Greg actually had the lawn completely leave free last Sunday, but it is the season.

Pajama Day

Only allowed when sick

Here's some more pictures I meant to post last week, but due to my illness and new addiction to watching 'Heroes' episodes on demand from Netflix I never got my act together. Fortunately I've entered the disappointing Season 3 and am starting to get my life back. Here's Rebecca going to 'Pajama Day' at school on Friday, and Gregory laying in our bed eating 'jelly and toast' - something that is highly forbidden, except when he is sick.

Happy Halloween

2009-10-31T22:51:00.000-04:00

Princess Leia and Yoda

Happy Halloween everyone! Hope everyone's little ghosts and goblins had a safe and happy holiday. We had some big plans for today - Charlie Gowel's 1st birthday at Robbin's Farm Park in Arlington, and then on to Newburyport for Hallowtreem. Unfortunately, Gregory developped a bug that gave him an 103 degree fever Friday night. So he and I laid low today while Greg took Rebecca to Charlie's party. Gregory seemed to be feeling much better after a day of rest, and it was an unseasonally warm 65 degree night here in central Massachusetts. So we decided to let him go out trick-or-treating for an hour, but to stay close to home in case he started running a temp again. With much regret, we stayed home from Hallowtreem, and made a quick trip around the closest block. Probably a wiser decision - after about 1/2 an hour Gregory had enough and was ready for home. Rebecca was disappointed, but her Princess Leia hair was definitely ready to pack it in.

Nora Gets Baptized

2009-10-26T22:06:00.000-04:00

Nora enjoys her first cupcake ever.

Yesterday I got the honor of being a Godparent to my little niece Nora, a.k.a. the cutest baby ever. I was very happy to stand up there with my brother, and my mom (since neither Kenny or I are 'good' enough Catholics to get a letter of verification - sorry Mom) and see that little bubble charm the priest and entire congregation. What a smiley girl!

Rebecca, Evan and Gregory did pretty well in church, except for Gregory's pew climbing incident. That little guy is fast! Unfortunately Greg was sick with an ear infection and sinus infection, so he ended up staying home. We really missed him but he is already starting to feel better now that the antibiotics are starting to kick in. Jif and Chris had a nice party at their place on what turned out to be a glorious day weather wise. The general consensus was that we should get Nora baptized more often if that is how the weather is going to turn out for her big day. Gregory was very pleased by his first exposure to orange soda.

The Wizard Of Oz

2009-10-20T18:55:00.001-04:00

Rebecca at the Hanover Theater

After a weekend with no Internet (how did we ever survive back in the olden days?), Verizon has me back online. Rebecca and I attended 'The Wizard of Oz' Saturday afternoon at our favorite venue, the Hanover Theater in Worcester, Mass. The musical was great with some neat high tech effects (some kind of sheer screen was in front of the stage during the tornado scene which they used to create a 3D illusion with the events on the stage occurring in the middle of the tornado). They stuck pretty close to the movie - even down to making everything sepia tones (through lighting and costumes?) in the Kansas scenes, and vibrant color in the Oz scenes. Rebecca said she loved the show, and wasn't afraid at all, although she did grab my hand several times when the lights were dimmed between scenes - to make sure I wasn't scared ;-).

Sunday we had a North Conway reunion with the other Corbin family and the Treems over to our place for lots of food (chicken ring, homemade crab rangoon, sausages and hot dogs, backed mac-n-cheese, and apple crisp), and to watch a thorough thrashing of the Tennessee Titans by our New England Patriots. The kids picked up right where they left off in August, racing around the house, putting on 'shows', and having a great time.

Mussel Man

2009-10-12T20:24:00.000-04:00

Mmmm...

Gregory has always been our good eater. I was amazed when he was 2, he started eating shrimp. But I figured he would get to kindergarten at least before he ate something that I won't. I was wrong - we recently learned he loves mussels - yech! He must get it from his Dad - the two of them put away 2.5 pounds of mussels this weekend.

New "fluffy" haircut

Rebecca got a really cute haircut Saturday - she decided to go pretty short. She's really pleased with it and enjoys "fluffing" it.

You Should See The Other Kid

2009-09-29T21:28:00.001-04:00

Gregory's eye has turned some spectacular colors in the aftermath of his run in with the hall table. There was still a lot of swelling this morning so we brought him to the pediatrician this afternoon for a quick look. She thinks he's fine - nothing broken - and that we should expect his face to look like a rainbow for the next 7 to 10 days. Guess we won't be taking that Christmas card picture anytime soon.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ouch

2009-09-27T22:07:00.000-04:00

It's been an eventful weekend here at Chez Corbin. The good is all the fun we've had. Friday night we attended the Fall Festival at Rebecca's school. The only dinner choice was hot dogs, which my vegetarian self found kind of odd. So Greg and the kids ate hot dogs and I had apple crisp for supper - oh how I suffer (not!). There was face painting, Blinky the clown, and lots of screaming K - 5th graders. The fun continued into Saturday with a trip to the playground, the town library, and Kids Fest at Mount Wachusett. With a forecast of rain all day Sunday, every family within a fifty mile radius decided to hit Kids Fest on Saturday, and it was packed. Long lines everywhere - the bouncy castles, the cafeteria, the games. I had planned to buy the kids lunch there but the cafeteria line was so long, we ended up hitting all the free sample booths for bags of chips, pretzels, goldfish and fruit gummies. Yup, all four food groups! That didn't really cut it so we hit Papa Gino's on the way home for some pizza. Today we watched the Patriot's beat a very good Atlanta Falcon's team and fed the kids homemade lentil vegetable soup (trying to make up for yesterday).

So that was the good. The bad? I've had a miserable cold all weekend. My brother Kenny was supposed to come stay with us for the week (he's working a booth at The Big E), and also had a bad cold. Greg feels like he's coming down with something and Rebecca had a headache all afternoon - probably also coming down with it since she's the only one left who hasn't had it yet. Cold and flu season is here.

And the ouch? My poor baby boy decided to climb up on the hall table to get his sister's Leapster, and it tipped over and landed on his face. He now has a shiner that would make John Lester flinch, and a healthy fear of the hall table. His 'booboo' slowed him down for about forty-five minutes but he was soon back to his wild man self, trying to dive into the tub during his bath (repeatedly), and showing off his 'trick' (which starts with a little dance, followed by slow motion running, hurling his Sponge Bob foam football at the TV, and ends with a cartwheel). The good news is he has made tremendous progress on the potty training front, and we are hoping to be completely diaper free within the next week or two!!

A New Faire

2009-09-22T10:47:00.000-04:00

Rebecca's face painting

This Sunday, my very generous mother-in-law took the family to King Richard's Faire in Carver, Massachusetts. Unfortunately, this was also the weekend we had set aside for Gregory's potty training, and had already started working him up to it when we got the fair invitation. It turned out that we were still trying to turn the tide of the battle on day three, so we made the hard decision to keep him at home with Greg, to continue the potty battle, while I brought Rebecca to the fair with her yia-yia, aunts, uncles and cousins. Somehow I always get the short end of the stick (not!). And we ended up with a glorious, sunny fall day to boot!

King Richard's Faire is a Renaissance fair that comes to southern Mass every September. I've never been to this type of event so I found the whole thing fascinating. When we parked our minivan next to a Camry full of adults in full medieval costume (and no, they were not employees), I realized we were not in Kansas anymore. It's a celebration of fantasy complete with elaborate costumes, jousting matches, 'royalty' strolling through the grounds conversing with us common folk, muscle powered carnival rides and fantastic animals, where pretty much anything goes. The best part? For me it was the employees. I think it must take a special kind of person to work at a Renaissance fair, and the way many of them got into their role was contagious. The worst part? The commercialism! The price of entry for a child 5-11 is $15, and $26 for adults. That totaled $41 just for Rebecca and I to get in. I would have sucked it up without complaining, but for almost every activity inside the gate you also had to pay. As we walked through the gate, we were surrounded by a vast number of storefronts selling everything from costumes to musical instruments to housewares, all medieval themed and all extremely pricey. The there was face painting, food and drinks which I guess I can understand, but they were also way overpriced. The worst was the rides. $3 per body to ride on a boat shaped swing, that you had to swing yourself. It was just a wooden boat hanging from ropes. With five kids, plus an adult to help them, it was close to $20 to go on a three minute swing ride! A small 'maze' with a 10 foot slide at the end? $2 per person and it took all of three minutes to get through it. Didn't they just charge $41 for the two of us to get in? Come on. They could do the same thing at the playground for free. Lucky for Rebecca, the day was on yia-yia, who is much more generous than myself.

Hercules, the liger

The only thing that you didn't have to pay extra for was the entertainment, which was pretty good. My favorite was the wild cat show, although I spent the whole thing with a six year old on my shoulders since it was so packed we couldn't get anywhere near close enough for Rebecca to see on her own. The highlight was Hercules, the liger. Hercules is a lion/tiger hybrid who measures 11 feet long when fully stretched out. His birth was an 'accident' (it's illegal to purposely breed the two cats), and he is in the Book of World Records (I assume they meant Guinness, although they didn't actually specify that), as the biggest cat ever recorded. Interestingly, the fact that his father is a lion and his mother is a tiger is significant in producing his gigantic size. If his mother were a lion, and his father a tiger, he would be called a tion, and he would be a dwarf instead of a giant. At least that's what they told us. My picture doesn't do him justice, he is actually curled up in it, but I had a forty pound six year old on my shoulders when they had him stretch so I couldn't get a picture of that.

My next favorite show was the Aerial Angels, three fire eating, aerial silk performers from Michigan who include a great deal of humor into their clever act. Rebecca loved the pony ride (she got three of them) and she even got to hold a falcon. Yia-yia made sure she and her cousins got to ride on whatever they wanted, and on her way out she told me "this is the best fair ever". I must say it was quite the excursion into fantasy land. Thanks Charlene for giving us such a nice day.

The Sterling Fair

2009-09-13T21:29:00.000-04:00

Gregory admires a pig

We made our annual trip to the Sterling Fair today, after a one year hiatus due to torrential downpours last September. For anyone who has never been, the Sterling Fair is part agricultural fair, part cheesy carnival, held every September on the runways of the Sterling airport. Rebecca had a vague recollection (last time she had just turned 4) and of course Gregory had no idea what to expect.

We hit the agricultural part, which is actually my favorite, first. This consisted of large exhibits of stinky but cute farm animals including cows, horses, goats, pigs, bunnies and donkeys. The kids LOVE this, and want to stop and look at every one of the thousands of livestock. I have to say my favorite animal was a 14 month old pig. He was very cute, and did I mention that he was six feet long? At 14 months? Does anyone know what age a pig is considered full grown? I have no idea, but if this guy gets much bigger, they may need to build a bigger stall.

We took a brief stroll through the craft competition displays, which mostly consisted of Greg and I repeatedly yelling "Don't touch that!". They did have some
gorgeous quilts, and an elaborately decorated fairy house built entirely out of materials found in woods. The latter was built by a thirteen year old girl and was really cool.

The last part of the agricultural section is the horse and oxen pull. I never thought I'd say something like this, but I love the animal pull competitions (the tractor pull doesn't do it for me, but the men love it - must be a guy thing). Today they were doing the horse pull, and I could have watched it all day. If you've never seen it, they have this metal sled thing on a dirt track with 1600 pound blocks stacked on it. The sled has a ring on one end which they slip over a hook attached to a harness attached to a team of enormous horses. The participant must then pull the sled a certain distance (in the horse pull it's about twenty feet). After each team has a go, they take a huge front-end loader and add another 1600 pound cement block to the sled, and repeat the process. If a team cannot pull the sled, they are out, and the last team left wins the event. It's kind of like watching bull riding or the strong man competition on TV - you can't believe you're watching it, but you are, and actually find it somewhat interesting. (OK, the strong man competition isn't all that interesting, but you know what I mean). We only watched the beginning, so maybe it gets more painful when the sled gets really heavy?

Rebecca on an old school motorcycle ride

Rebecca would have watched the horses all day, but Gregory was more interested in climbing the metal bleachers so pretty soon we moved on. Onto the cheesy carnival part. You know - ridiculously overpriced deathtraps, I mean rides, and the worst food you can imagine. We took a ride on the ferris wheel ($10 worth of tickets for the four of us for one ride). The kids rode the merry-go-round, and each got to pick one more ride, and our $20 worth of tickets were gone. While I was waiting for Rebecca to finish the sparkly motorcycle ride, I was eavesdropping on the people standing next to me. Greg was on the other side of the fair putting Gregory on the truck ride, so I needed something to entertain me. I was stunned to hear the Dad say he had spent $80 on tickets so far that day. His wife had spent $60 and the grandmother had spent $40. Guys, that's almost $200 on shifty carnival rides. You should have spent that money on a couple of season's passes to Six Flags. The rides are much better and you can go for a full year. I don't get it.

Anyway, that was it. Lots of fun as usual and now I'm all set with shady carnival rides until next year.

Labor Day Escape To Maine

2009-09-10T22:17:00.000-04:00

Rebecca and Gregory pose with a moose at
the Maine Wildlife Park

We headed up to Maine over Labor Day to visit Jiffy, Kenny, Chris, Evan and the cutest baby ever, my niece Nora. Greg had to work until 6:00 PM on Friday, so we all met at Mom and Dad's, terrorized Jackie and Don for awhile, and set out. Amazingly, there was no northbound traffic, and we made it to Jif's house in Pownal, Maine by 9:15 PM. Gregory fell asleep 15 minutes before we arrived, so we carried him in and put him right to bed without waking him up. At 1:00 AM, when he sat up in bed crying because he didn't know where he was, I belatedly realized my mistake. After his 4 hour nap, he was ready to play, and it was 4:15 AM by the time he went back to sleep. Rebecca had him (and us) up at 6:30 AM - not a good start.

Needless to say, I was less than motivated on Saturday, and ended up taking a long nap. Gregory and Rebecca played all day outside with their hilarious cousin Evan (3) and his 2 imaginary friends, Dinosaur Bones and Mr. Oatmeal. This whole entertaining each other thing is great. By afternoon, I was feeling better and spent a few hours running around the house with the kids in a very loosely structured game of hide and seek. We ended with a cookout and early to bed.

Rebecca's scary bear face

Sunday was another beautiful day, and we headed over to Gray and the Maine Wildlife Park. This fabulous rescue zoo is full of animals native to Maine. Some of the more spectacular occupants include a pair of mountain lions (mountain lions in Maine? Who knew????), bobcats, lynxes, 2 black bears, 2 young moose, 1 gigantic mature moose, a bunch of deer and some porcupines. The animals are kept in natural enclosures (for the most part), and the park paths are lined with colorful late summer flowers. We spent a couple of enjoyable hours there before heading home for lunch and naps.

Later, we visited with Beth and Leah, and then headed into Freeport for a chilly dinner on the deck at Gritty's. This was my first time at the Freeport branch of Gritty's, and was happy to find a large grassy area attached to the outdoor dining deck. I want to know what genius came up with this idea. Our kids ran and played with hordes of other hungry kids for the entire hour it took our food to come. What could have been a very stressful and unhappy experience (sitting at a table for an hour with 4 small, hungry children) turned out to be a pleasant hour sitting at our outdoor table, having adult conversation and watching the kids play.

Monday morning we were slow to get moving but eventually got packed up and said our good byes. Reluctantly back to work/school/real life starting Tuesday!

Rebecca Goes to First Grade

2009-09-03T08:06:00.000-04:00

Rebecca back to school

I just put Rebecca on the school bus, bound for her first day of first grade. No hesitation, she didn't look back once as she ran across the street, towing a huge bag of school supplies to a bus filled with kids who looked way to old to be going to the same place as my little first grader. That's it - she's on her own from 8:30 AM until 4:00 PM. I hope she loves every minute of it, finds joy in learning, makes lots of friends, and doesn't lose her lunch money. We've tried to hammer home those important lessons - work hard and you can do anything, and don't forget to flush!

Enough nostalgia. Time to rant. Since when did the list of required school supplies grow to include 2 boxes of crayons, 10 no. 2 pencils, 1 box of colored pencils, 1 box of fat colored markers, 1 box of thin colored markers, 1 bottle of Elmer's rubber cement, 2 glue sticks, 2 rolls of paper towels, 2 containers of Clorox antibacterial wipes, a box of sandwich bags, and a box of tissues? The poor kid was so laden with stuff, she could barely climb the bus stairs. Ah, the good old days, when everything you needed fit neatly inside your plastic pencil case. Seriously, why do we need all this stuff? I know the school budget, like everyone's budget, is extremely tight. But does each kid really need their own crayons, colored pencils, 2 different types of markers, and 2 different kinds of glue? Greg and I are trying to reduce household consumption of unnecessary and unsustainable stuff, but the pre-school shopping spree felt like a giant step backwards. In addition, we packed 2 healthy, peanut free snacks. Many parents search high and low for the elusive healthy, peanut free snack. In my opinion, the popular "fruit gummies" are too laden with high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors, artificial flavors, and chemicals I can't pronounce to count as "healthy". Here's an easy tip: pack fruit. We packed a container of blackberries and a banana. Her backpack was pretty full at this point, so I sent her with $2.25 to buy the school lunch (shudder). I've heard all kinds of horror stories about toxic school lunches, but this was something she really wanted to try (it's her first time in the cafeteria). For now, we've agreed she can buy lunch one day per week, and the rest of the week I'll try to compensate by packing healthy, organic food. Life's a compromise, right?

Enough about my feelings. Today is her day. She is a bright, energetic and determined little girl, and I hope she has a fabulous experience. The house seems too quiet without her as I prepare to start my own work day. I can't wait to hear all about it this afternoon when the bus returns my precious child to me.

First Grade Nostalgia

2009-09-02T22:06:00.000-04:00

My daughter started first grade today. This was a big event for us. All day, the big playground, cafeteria lunches, the real deal. While standing at the end of the driveway this morning, waiting for the bright orange-yellow bus to whisk her away, I thought back nostalgically to her first day of kindergarten. The excitement of going to a new school with the 'big' kids. Riding the school bus for the first time. Has it really already been a year?
When the bus stopped, she struggled across the street, laden with three bags of 'required' school supplies (don't get me started). Up the three stairs she climbed without a look back. No wave for Mom - she was too busy making her way to an empty seat on a bus filled with alarmingly older looking kids. I experienced a sad, sweet flashback to last year. She would arrive home from kindergarten on the bus, eagerly peaking out her window. The bus would stop, and there was my baby. She would run down the stairs, a huge smile on her little face, and jump into my arms with an exuberant 'Mommy!'.
As my day passed quietly by, I thought of her often. Was she being treated kindly? Did she remember the important lessons Greg and I have tried so hard to teach her? That if she works hard, she can go anywhere? That she is a beautiful, precious child, no matter what? That she is loved? That she needs to wash her hands after visiting the girl's room, and please, don't forget to flush? OK, that last one was more practical than sentimental, but important nonetheless.
Time is a cruel concept, where fleeting, precious moments flicker across our reality, and then are gone in the blink of an eye. Forever.
As I waited for her bus this afternoon, I thought of all the ways she has grown. She seems so tall lately. In the last year she has learned to read, add, subtract, tie her shoes and swim. How many other countless tiny changes are taking place everyday without my notice? Panic rose as I thought about how quickly her milestones have come and gone. How long before she is a big kid in the back of the bus? In high school? College? A wife? A mother? My rising panic changed to joy as the bus pulled up, and I saw her smiling little face in the window. And there she was, running down the bus stairs and jumping into my arms yelling 'Mommy!'. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for that gift. I will treasure it every day it is still available.

North Conway Week

2009-08-30T22:00:00.000-04:00

Coolest Bunk Bed Ever

We had a fabulous vacation this August in Madison, NH, complete with friends, family, theme parks, mountains, lakes, and a black bear. We rented a house for a week in Edelweiss Village in Madison, NH. Not only did our house have the coolest bunk bed ever (see picture - that's a twin, over twin, over triple - a little scary with the 2 year olds), but from our deck, you could catch glimpses of Middle Pea Porridge Pond through the green trees. Edelweiss contains five beaches spread over three ponds - Little, Middle and Big Pea Porridge. And despite their names, they are pristine, clear, spring fed bodies of water - the largest of which is closer to a small lake than a pond. Just right for young children, which worked for us because our household consisted of six adults and five kids between ages two and six. So even though we adults outnumbered (barely) the rug rats, it often felt like there was a horde of kids swarming our compound. It was actually really fun - the kids had a ball playing together and the household chores (cooking, cleaning, and entertaining kids) seemed less daunting when split between six adults instead of two. Leaving was harder than I imagined, and our house seems so quiet with just the four of us - I really miss having everyone around.

So what did we do? The first few days we spent at the ponds - swimming, canoeing, and cooking. Tuesday was rainy so we stayed in the house for the morning, then headed to North Conway for a ride on the Conway Scenic Railroad. We chose the shortest route - fifty-five minutes round trip from North Conway to Conway and back. This proved to be a good choice since both two year olds were getting very restless by the end of the ride. En route, we had some pretty views of the White Mountains including cloud topped Mt. Washington (the tallest peak north of the Carolinas and east of the Mississippi, according to our adorable, elderly conductor).

Conway Scenic Railway

Wednesday was the big visit to Storyland. I know in the past I've turned my nose up at this theme park - this was my first Storyland visit, ever. See, this summer I realized my baby girl is turning six! How many more years do I have to do things like Storyland before I start getting eye rolls and attitude in return? If you haven't guessed by the name, Storyland is a nursery rhyme based theme park ten minutes north of North Conway. The target age is eight and under (prime age is probably two through six). There are lots of little scenes based on nursery rhymes for the kids to explore (The Three Bear's House, Old Mother Hubbard's Shoe, etc.). Further into the park, there are kiddie rides including a (very) small roller coaster, a log flume with a decent drop off, teacups, and a tiltawhirl where you sit in turtles instead of little red cars. Nothing too scary - I was able to bring Mr. Gregory on all of those (the required height for the bigger rides was thirty-six inches and the marker bar just scraped the top of his head so he was in). I must say everything was very clean, and I only saw one gift shop.

Unfortunately, Wednesday morning Greg woke up with the stomach flu. I won't go into the gory details but trust me when I say it wasn't possible for him to make Storyland. I braved it with the two kids, and the two other families staying with us helped me out a ton. One of the coolest things was en route to Storyland we took a less traveled route (the main road through North Conway had major construction and traffic). Slightly off the beaten path, it still was pretty heavily populated. The night before I had taken the same road to retrieve a forgotten wallet at Ben and Jerry's by the North Conway Scenic Railway Station with one of the other Moms, scoping it out for our morning Storyland trek. It was pretty dark but I definitely saw something bear shaped in one of the yards we passed. People (myself included) were pretty doubtful that I had seen a real bear, so as we drove the road again in the morning light, I watched yards to see if any had one of those sadistic bear cutouts that always make you think you saw a bear, until you get a good look at it. And what do you think happened? That's right - right around the place I thought I saw a bear the night before, a REAL black bear ran out of someone's yard, directly in front of our minivan, and into the woods on the other side of the road. I saw it, Rebecca saw it, everyone in the two trucks following me carrying the rest of our brood saw it. When I checked to see if Gregory could see, he was fast asleep with a little drool running down his chin, so he missed it, but everyone else saw it!! So that made my day and kept my mood happy as I spent the day in Hell, I mean Storyland (just kidding - it was very nice and the kids both loved it).

Thursday was slightly overcast so the three Moms made the spontaneous decision to head to Santa's Village (translation: Storyland with a Christmas theme). It was much further - close to 1.5 hours from our rented house, but the drive was gorgeous - right through the heart of the White Mountains (no bears this time). Santa's Village was actually very nice too, except for these very annoying 'Elfabet' figures, each based on a different letter, placed all over the park. The kids were all given cards printed with the alphabet, and as we traveled through the park they had to stamp their card in each of the twenty-six 'Elfabets'. It got old after about three stamps, trust me. The Santa's Village roller coaster was actually bigger than Storyland's. Rebecca refused to go on it although Gregory jumped right on and loved it. We fed reindeer, took a 'sleigh' ride, and saw Santa before the day was out. I have now hit my kiddie theme park quota for the year and will officially go insane if I go within ten miles of The Sesame Place or Polar Express.

Our last full day, Friday, was warm and sunny, and we spent a marvelous day at Middle Pea Porridge Pond. Then it was time to make dinner, put the kids to bed, pack, clean the house, and crash into bed. We didn't even have the energy for a six person game of cribbage by the time we were done. And that was it. Great week guys - Greg and I are hoping to do it again next year.

For tons of pictures, check this out.

First Dentist Trip and Bike Ride

2009-08-26T21:12:00.000-04:00

I'm having a little trouble getting out of vacation mode here. I'm actually still working on the NH post, I'm at a loss about why it is taking me so long to finish, except that I brought a really good stack of books to read, and didn't get close to finishing them on vacation, so I've been working on them since returning (on top of work, cleaning, life, etc.). In the meantime, we've had a couple of events this week.

The most notable is Gregory went for his first ever dentist appointment. Gregory does not like to brush his teeth, and the activity often turns into a tag teem wrestling match (parent and toothbrush versus Gregory and plaque). He has a visible layer of plaque on his bottom teeth which I always figured was due to said toothbrushing aversion. Anyway, I thought there was no way he would sit and allow a dentist to clean his teeth, but I just couldn't look at his little teeth without feeling like a neglectful mother, so I asked around for the name of a good pediatric dentist in our area. Several people recommended Dr. Gallagher in Worcester, and back in June, I made back to back appointments for Gregory and Rebecca. The soonest available on a Monday was August 24th, so Greg took them in this past Monday.

Greg said Dr. Gallagher was unbelievably good with the kids. They put them in side by side chairs, which worked well because Rebecca LOVES the dentist. Her attitude must have rubbed off on Gregory because the boy did great and let them examine and clean his teeth as much as they wanted. The end result? Rebecca has great teeth, barely any plaque, and they don't foresee any dental problems in her future. Gregory? A bit of a different story. According to the dentist, the plaque on his bottom teeth is the result of his being "a mouth breather". I don't understand why, something about the build up of calcium and other things caused by breathing though the mouth, and that all the brushing in the world wouldn't help (I still plan to continue our toothbrush torture tradition every night - must be my sadistic side). Still, they cleaned him up, and then informed Greg that Gregory has a pretty severe under bite (his lower jaw is longer than his upper, causing his bottom teeth to rest in front of his front teeth). There is always a chance he will outgrow it, but they foresee braces and possibly surgery in his future. Not much we can do now, which is good because we won't be able to start his orthodontist fund until we finish paying for his day care, but I digress. In the meantime, the under bite is probably what causes his lower lip to protrude slightly, giving him his adorable pout. I guess I will just enjoy that while he still has it, especially since it will probably cost me upward of $10,000 worth of orthodontist bills in ten years.

For fun I took the kids on the Rail Trail Friday morning for a bike ride. Rebecca did great, probably the most biking I've ever seen her do. Gregory tried with his tricycle, but it's just too difficult to pedal on the dirt trail, so we ended up ditching it (translation, I carried him most of the way). Next time, I will bring the stroller.

My Baby Turns 3!

2009-08-14T08:55:00.000-04:00

To my Gregory, on your 3rd birthday.
Three weeks ago, on Rebecca's birthday, I wrote the story of her birth. Today, in honor of your third birthday, here is your story.

It was Monday morning, August 14th, and I knew I was going to give birth very soon. I grew amply with my first baby, but with my second I was absolutely enormous. A lot of women exaggerate this, but I really don't feel that is the case here. In early June, when asked how long I had to go, I would respond 'two months' at which point, the inquiring party would laugh at me and say something such as "you're going to have a long summer". In my head, I was thankful they didn't know I had rounded down, and actually had two months and three weeks to go. By mid-August, I couldn't bend over to pick something up without losing my balance and falling forward. I had long since outgrown my pregnancy bathing suit, and most people were asking me if twins were expected. For several weeks, I had experienced irregular cramps, but they were becoming more frequent and stronger. Rebecca was born seventeen days early, and I advised my boss to get a replacement contractor in early. Somehow, here it was, seventeen days before my due date, and replacement was due for his first day at work. This Monday my plan was to spend the whole day training him. So despite some telltale signs, I made the hour and a half drive from Holden to Waltham, and worked a long day, trying to show the poor guy everything. By six o'clock that night, I was done. Sitting at the conference table with the contractor, I noticed some of the cramps felt more intense. On my way through the mostly empty parking lot, I had one strong enough to stop me in my tracks until it passed. I decided it was probably time to start watching the car radio clock to see if the pains had developed any kind of pattern.

You have to understand the logistics. I worked in Waltham, was due to deliver at Emerson Hospital in Concord, and lived in Holden. So basically, I drove past Emerson about fifteen minutes into my hour and a half commute. As I started down Route 20, I found the pains were coming roughly every four minutes. I contemplated driving the remaining hour home, and then having to turn around and drive another hour back to the hospital. This option wasn't at all appealing, so I called my doctor. We decided, since I was practically driving past the hospital anyway, I might as well stop in and have the nurses check me out. I parked in the Emerson parking garage and waddled into the maternity ward. The pain was not as intense as my first birth, and there was still no fluid leakage, but I really didn't want to miss that epidural window.

Although I wasn't feeling them as much, the nurses felt my contractions were regular enough that I should stay a while. I called Greg who had already packed up Rebecca, and told him to come on in. As I waited for him, my water broke, and the labor came on full strength. We're talking fast and furious, one intense contraction on top of the next. My first act upon arriving at the hospital, was to fill out my epidural paperwork (see previous post about first birth). So as Greg rushed to my parent's to drop off Rebecca, I received that beautiful six inch needle stab in the spine. Things were moving very fast, and for a while we weren't sure Greg would make it in time. He did, and after a little unexpected pushing (the baby was face up), there was my beautiful eight pound, one ounce baby boy. That's right - eight pound, one ounce, seventeen days early. Thank you for not coming two weeks late. He had the softest, roundest little cheeks, and like his sister he didn't cry on his entry to the world. Some fluid was stuck in his lungs because of his face up arrival, and they put him into a special room for observation overnight. The only family in the room was Greg and my Mom. My Dad was watching Rebecca, and things went so fast my sister, who was coming from Bath, Maine, missed it by ten minutes.

That's it. You know how it goes - stop on the way home from work, pick up a pizza, have a baby. I can't believe three hectic, joyful years have raced by since that night. Gregory, you might be turning into a little man, but you'll always be my baby.

Van The Man

2009-08-05T09:57:00.000-04:00

The Wang Center

For our last summer concert, Greg and I saw Van Morrison last night at the beautifully restored Wang Center in the Boston Theater District last night. The show was advertised as "Astral Weeks" and other older material, of which I am not very familiar. Greg loves Van Morrison and has listened to "Astral Weeks" since he was a kid, so this one was for him. Apparently Van Morrison is a bit ambivalent about performing, and does not want to be photographed or videotaped by fans. I was upset because in my rush to finish work, pick up Rebecca at camp, and get her to my Mom and Dad's, I had forgotten our camera. It didn't matter because when we arrived at the Wang Center, there were large signs everywhere forbidding attendees from taking picture/video, and this was actually enforced by Wang Center ushers. So sadly, I have no personal video/pictures from the night to post, but the performance was professionally videotaped, so maybe it will become commercially available at a future date.

It was a beautiful evening, and Greg and I arrived about forty-five minutes early, so we thought about stopping at a bar for a drink before heading over to the show. Everything nearby was packed, so we ended up going in early, and enjoying a overpriced glass of wine (me), a beer (Greg), and the view of the magnificent performance hall, from our seats high in the balcony. Van came out at 8:00 PM sharp, with no opening act. His onstage musicians included two cello players, a bassist, a drummer, a percussionist, a pianist, a flute/trombone player, a guitar player, and himself (vocals, guitar, saxophone and harmonica).

Unfortunately, the show was somewhat wasted on me. His voice sounded cool, but I couldn't understand a word he was singing, which made it hard since the only song I knew that he played the whole night was his encore. Greg is very familiar with Van's older stuff, and thought he sounded great. It was fun listening to him, and watching him conduct his nine piece band on stage, but I would have enjoyed it more if I knew more of the songs.

The encore song was "Gloria", which I thought was created by The Doors. Greg told me that Van Morrison actually created "Gloria", and it was an international hit for his first band, Them. Them toured the US in May and June of 1966, ending with three weeks in L.A. at the Whiskey a Go Go. During the last week, The Doors opened up for Them, and apparently Jim Morrison, extremely impressed by Van, based a lot of his own singing style on the Irish musician. On the last night of the tour, the two bands played "Gloria" on stage together, and The Doors continued to cover the song for the rest of their short but influential career.

On the way home, I started wondering if Van Morrison is the most famous person I've ever seen perform. My guess is no, although he is probably among the top four. So in honor of our last summer concert, here's the list, in very loose chronological order, of all the famous bands I've seen in the past twenty years. One star means I've only seen them as an opening act, and two stars means I've seen them more than once.

Van Halen (with Sammy Hagar)

Robert Plant (solo)

Tesla

Guns n Roses

Metallica*

Pearl Jam**

The Red Hot Chili Peppers**

The Rolling Stones

Bob Dylan**

Aerosmith**

The Grateful Dead**

Jerry Garcia (solo)

The Beastie Boys

Crosby, Stills and Nash

Peter Gabriel

Phish**

The Allman Brothers

The Black Crows

Neil Young

Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young

Wilco**

B.B King

Jeff Tweedy (solo)

The Decemberists**

Van Morrison

I know I'm missing a few, but that's all I can come up with. If I saw them multiple times, I listed them roughly where I saw them for the first time. Anyone else seen some famous bands?

Maine Weekend

2009-08-02T18:34:00.000-04:00

Rebecca on the pontoon boat

We just got home from a very fun and exhausting weekend at Maine. Our friend's parents have a camp cabin right on Crystal Lake in Harrison Maine. And no, it's not the Friday the 13th Crystal Lake - no hockey mask wearing serial killers to be seen. It's a beautiful little lake North of Sebago Lake, surrounded by small mountains. There's a little beach, dock, and a pontoon boat. At night the lake looks like glass and you can hear the eerie calls of the loons (it's especially peaceful after a night sitting around the campfire and a bottle of Riesling).

Gregory enjoying a s'more

This weekend Patty and Phil bravely invited us, and four other families with small children to pitch tents on their property for a big camping sleepover. The kids were in heaven, and had a great time going for boat rides, tubing, swimming, fishing, toasting marshmallows, eating s'mores and hiking up Hawk Mountain. Rebecca was the only kid to fall in the lake with all her clothes on, and Gregory found a toy lawnmower which became attached to his little fingers as he possessively pushed it around the yard for hours. It was actually nice, whenever he was getting into mischief, I would just tell him the lawnmower was free and he would stop his shenanigans and mow the pine needles. Plus, it had a little fake engine that whirred when the wheels turned, so even if we couldn't see him we knew where he was just by listening. We considered stopping on the way home to pick one up at Walmart, but figured once he actually owned it he would never play with it again. He did go for his first boat ride too - he was nervous for about five minutes, then he became his usual wild self and it was Greg and I who were nervous. Thanks Sarah, Kenny, Patty and Phil for having us to your beautiful spot.

Here's all the pictures.

Pool Party

2009-07-29T10:09:00.000-04:00

Pizza at the pool

Well, we made it through Rebecca's pool party without any disasters (i.e. thunderstorms). We actually really lucked out with the weather, and all the kids were great. I took advantage of the event as fodder for my first MassMoms.com post. If you're interested, you can read it here.

The guests were all having fun, so we decided to take Rebecca's gifts home unopened. Therefore, I'm violating my 'kids don't have to write thank you notes to other kids' policy, since she didn't have a chance to thank her guests in person. I know - what a hypocrite! The gifts were very thoughtful, and virtually every one came with a card, made by the child - I was very impressed! Here's a picture of our favorite:

The little girl's entrepreneurial and artistic older brother helped her. Greg and I were literally on the floor laughing when we read the back. Too funny!

Check out all the pictures here.

Happy Birthday Rebecca!

2009-07-24T18:43:00.000-04:00

I can't believe it has been six years since my little Becky-Boo came into this world. I remember her birth like it was yesterday. It was still three weeks before my due date, and I was lying in bed late on a Wednesday night after a long day of work. Suddenly I felt a small stream coming from a place where liquid usually does not flow without my permission. It woke me up, but I wasn't sure what it meant. It wasn't the big gush that would signal my water had broken, and I wasn't experiencing any labor pains. Having skipped Lamaze classes, I felt rather under-informed at this point, and actually got up and Googled "small amount of liquid with no pain". The web was rather ambiguous on the subject - possibly it was labor, but it could mean nothing. Fortunately while I was sitting at the computer, the answer came to me - in the form of pain. Not too bad yet, but regularly spaced and getting stronger.

Under informed I may have been, but I did know that a first birth usually takes many hours, and most women are more comfortable if they spend the first few hours at home. I sat and did a crossword puzzle for a few hours. It wasn't so bad, I could handle this. I didn't wake up Greg, figuring he was going to have a long night, and I might as well let him sleep while he could. The contractions finally got strong enough, and close enough together that I figured it would be reasonable to start the forty-five minute drive to the hospital, so I woke him up.

Me: "Greg ... I think my water broke a little while ago".
Greg: "If your water broke, you would know it" - he rolls over and goes back to sleep.
Me: "No - I'm in labor. I'm having contractions".
Greg: "Really?" - starting to wake up - "Do I have time to shower? I'll be quick".
Me: "Um, I guess".
...
Ten minutes later, I've called the doctor, and she agreed I should come in, and would meet me at the hospital. I've called my parents, my sister in Maine. They are all getting ready to come to the hospital. The contractions are getting worse.
Me: "Hon? This is really starting to hurt. Are you ready?"
Greg: "I'm almost done shaving."
He's shaving?
...
It's 3:45 AM and we're in the car, backing out of the driveway.
Greg: "Do you mind if I swing by Dunkin' Donuts for a coffee?"
Me (figuring it will help him wake up for the drive): "OK." It hurts, but I can handle it.
...
The Dunkin' Donuts in the gas station two minutes from our house is closed, so we drive through the center of town to the other Dunkin' Donuts in Holden. It's a cold wet morning for July, and we see a fox jump into the bushes as we make our lonely way up Main Street. The other Dunkin' donuts is also closed. It's four AM - who gets coffee in our town at four in the morning? Disappointed, Greg continues to the highway and we start the drive to Emerson Hospital. My contractions are increasing and I'm starting to think this isn't so easy anymore. As we pass through Acton, Greg asks the question.
Greg: "Can I please swing into the Acton Dunkin' Donuts? It should be open by now."
Me: "This is really hurting. I think I need to get to the hospital."
Greg: "I'll be quick", we're a few mere miles from the hospital when we take this detour. This Dunkin' Donuts is also closed.
Greg: "I know the one in the gas station is open this early." It's getting close to 5 AM.
Me: "Let's just go."
Greg: "OK, can I swing by it? It's on the way to the highway."
Me: "The highway is right there."
Greg: "But if I take 2A, there's a Dunkin' Donuts right before you get back on Route 2."
...
We approach the Mobil station/Dunkin' Donuts on 2A. If you live in New England, you know there's roughly six Dunkin' Donuts in every town (I made up that number, but you get the point). The Concord rotary is ahead and it's only a five minute drive to the hospital.
Greg: "We're in luck - it's open!"
Me (mid agonizing contraction): "Don't even think about it".
Greg: "But ... it's open".
Me: "Get me to the hospital, now."
Greg: "Really? But, it's open."
Me: "I don't care if you drop me at the door of the maternity ward, and come back, it's two miles away. Get me to the hospital NOW!"
We pass by the brightly lit Dunkin' Donuts with all the happy coffee drinkers inside. Greg drops me at the maternity ward door, and goes to park the car. To his credit, he did not go back for his coffee - yet. He joins me inside several minutes later, and the doctor establishes that yes, I am in labor. I'm actually only four centimeters dilated, but my contractions are severe and right on top of each other. As we start to fill in the paperwork for the epidural, in strolls my Mom, with the largest Dunkin' Donuts coffee we've ever seen.
Greg: "Ohh, she got a coffee".
We briefly tell her the story of our drive in.
Mom: "I got a big coffee, we can share".
Greg: "No, I want an iced coffee".
Soon he hands the precious paperwork to my Mom and makes a mad dash for Dunkin' Donuts. I'm hit by another contraction so the nurse grabs one of my arms and tells me to breathe. My Mom throws down the paperwork and grabs my other arm, and repeats the Nurse's instructions.
Did I mention I blew off Lamaze?
Contraction passes and Mom starts filling out the longest form ever created.
Mom: "Do you have Diabetes?"
Me: "No".
Mom: "Heart disease?"
Me: "No".
Another massive contraction starts. Mom puts down the paperwork and there's a repeat of the 'relax and breathe' session.
...
Contraction over. Mom picks up the paperwork.
Mom: "Have you ever had major surgery?"
Me: "No".
Mom: "Kidney problems?"
Me: "No".
Another contraction.
...
After agonizing third relax and breathe session, the paperwork continues. I watch the monitor, the next is already building.
Mom: "Have you ever had an organ transplant?"
Me: "You're my freaking mother!! If I ever had an organ transplant, a heart attack, a stroke, or even a hangnail, I think you would freaking know it!!!"
OK, I said that in my head. Here's what really happened.
Nurse: "I think it's important to get the paperwork finished as fast as possible so we can call the anesthesiologist".
They haven't called him yet?
Me: "Just check 'no' for everything".
Mom: "Really?"
...
Anesthesia guy arrives. I never knew having a huge needle jabbed into my spine could feel so good.
Anesthesia guy: "That should be the last one you feel" ("that" meaning the enormous contraction I was currently experiencing).

Happily, it was the last. From there on I felt no pain. I chatted with my parents. Greg came back with an enormous freaking Dunkin' Donuts iced coffee. My sister arrived. It was like a party in the delivery room. Then it was time to push. That was hard, but I didn't mind. As long as I wasn't feeling the contractions anymore I didn't mind anything. After about thirty minutes of pushing, there was the crown of her head. They put a mirror at my feet so I could see - not pretty! Was my Dad really watching this?

A few more pushes and that was it. The doctor asked my husband if he wanted to cut the umbilical cord. He deferred to Auntie, and my sister did the honors, and then they handed me my beautiful baby girl. At 7 pounds 1 ounce, I was kind of grateful she was slightly early.

I can't believe six years have slipped by since that morning. I can't believe what a bright, funny, wonderful little girl she is. I can't believe I agreed to have eighteen 5 and 6 year-olds to the town pool for her birthday party tomorrow night. I can't believe I'm actually looking forward to it. Happy Birthday Baby!

Some Adult Conversation

2009-07-22T10:29:00.000-04:00

There's not much going on with the kids this week (at least not until Saturday's pool party - more on that later). But there is some fun stuff going on with me that I know everyone can't wait to hear about! Bear with me - my definition of 'fun' has changed over the past decade.

I had a fabulous dinner last night with the Ballet Moms - thanks guys. You know you're having fun when it's 12:15 AM, and you have to get up in exactly five hours, and you're still disappointed that everyone has to go home, and wish they could stay later. You guys are the best! And thanks to my fabulous husband for cooking us another delicious gourmet meal. We all had some much need adult conversation, food and wine!

OK, this seems pretty lame, even by my standards, but Greg and I finally watched a (semi) adult movie Sunday night - Tropic Thunder. The DVD has been sitting on the bookcase shelf since we received it from Netflix in June, which tells you how often we have a chance to sit down and watch a movie together. If you haven't seen it yet (and I know the chances of that are slim since it came out a year ago and we are probably the last people on the face of the planet to see it), I have to recommend it. Especially if you like fun, slapstick comedy - hilarious.

I've volunteered and been accepted to be a blogger for MassMoms.com. That's the Mom Blog for the Worcester Telegram where roughly a dozen Moms (and Dads) post great information on a large variety of topics, all having something to do with being a parent in Massachusetts. I have tons of great ideas for posts and can't wait to get started. I'll put links to my MassMoms posts (3 or 4 per month) here since frankly, it's easier than posting the stories twice.;-)

That's it for now. We have a busy couple of weeks coming up: Rebecca's birthday party this weekend, Maine with the Ballet Moms (and families) on the 31st, then a week in North Conway, NH, the second week of August. So hopefully I will have some fun posts coming up!

Pool, Magic, Sleep, Whiffle ball

2009-07-18T21:36:00.000-04:00

This was the first nice week of the summer, and yesterday was a glorious end (it rained buckets this morning). I took the kids to the pool for a couple of hours. Rebecca is finally starting to swim - it only took three years of swimming lessons! She does this kind of treading water stroke where she slowly drifts toward her destination. Every once in a while she breaks into a crawl attempt, gets some speed going, and then runs out of steam. Still, she swam from the slide to the ladder (about 15 feet) twice without any help - and is very proud of herself. I was also very proud - she has actually been practicing a lot this year and working very hard to learn

Magic Keys

We packed up mid afternoon and headed to the senior center where magician Steve Rudolf performed his Starship Magic Show. The act was designed for about Rebecca's age and at times Gregory got more entertainment from my keys. He was also quite fond of Squeaky, the monkey puppet (unlike myself - you can probably imagine what Squeaky sounded like. Thank goodness I had a tired two year old on my lap giggling and snuggling simultaneously - how often does that happen any more?). By the end, it was way past Gregory's nap time, and he fell asleep during the five minute drive home.

Whiffle Bonding

Tonight there was some man bonding in the backyard over whiffle ball - guys are so weird. The matching outfits was not planned, but I found it amusing enough to take a picture.

Wilco, The Concert

2009-07-14T11:00:00.000-04:00

Wilco, the fans

This summer, we have tickets for three shows - something that hasn't happened since before Rebecca was born. Greg and I trekked out to Lowell last night to see show #2, Wilco, with Eric and Sara Treem and my brother, Kenny. This has to be about my tenth Wilco show, and lets just say they've really broadened my horizons with some of their opening acts. Last night's opening band, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, was by far the best one (despite some of the band members appearing, um, well, let's just say it looked like they had themselves some fun before the show?). Greg and Kenny were both familiar with Oberst's work with his other band, Bright Eyes, which they said is awesome. This performance was good enough that it made me want to purchase his new Mystic Valley Band album, and also get a hold of some Bright Eyes tracks. For an interesting look at the beginning of this band, check out this free documentary.

Under an ominous sky, the crew quickly changed up the stage and front man Jeff Tweedy led out Wilco, opening with their new song, 'Wilco, the Song'. The rest of the show was a thoroughly enjoyable (albeit slightly shortened) mix of old and new. Unfortunately, right about the time they were getting ready to start the encore, it started down pouring. If you've ever seen Wilco, you probably know they love the encore, but this time it wasn't meant to be. I was willing to stick it out, and even donned my Mom's bright blue raincoat (I've been borrowing this for the past five years - thanks Mom!). Although a canopy covered the band, the wind was blowing the rain all over them and their instruments were getting soaked. So that was it, just one song for the encore and then they had to go. Probably for the best since I threw out my back the night before, and had been standing for five hours straight at that point. I held up pretty good, but by the end I was really starting to feel it. Want to see someone who wasn't experiencing much pain last night? This guy:

That's Taylor Hollingsworth (I think) of the Mystic Valley Band, with some pans to Conor Oberst. Despite appearing somewhat incapacitated, Taylor's guitar playing was fine (according to Greg, who would know - his exact words: "That guy was jamming out"). I must be getting old or motherhood must be taking over, since I mostly felt concern for his health. Go figure.

Note: This show was Saturday, July 11 and this post was written Sunday. I tried to upload the video to blogger to for two days and finally gave up this morning and uploaded to YouTube.

Friday Twilight

2009-07-10T23:50:00.000-04:00

That's right. Tonight I became the last person on the planet to watch the movie 'Twilight'. Very cool! Greg is on the beach on Plum Island as I speak (or, er, write) with five other husbands and my brother, all fishing. I talked to him earlier and he was very excited that he actually caught a fish (not a keeper - thank goodness!). Since he's staying there tonight, the kids and I decided to schedule a Friday evening 'o fun.

Rejected

It started with four hours at the pool this afternoon. For dinner I made a yummy corn and potato chowder which neither of them would touch. They ended up eating toast and animal crackers (what kid doesn't like potatoes? oh yeah - mine). For a special treat, after dinner I decided it would be a good idea to pile the couch cushions on the floor and play 'King of the Mountain'. Rebecca pretended to be everything from a mermaid of the mountain, to a crocodile, and Gregory just jumped on the cushions shouting "I'm the man!".

They were actually tired enough to go to sleep fifteen minutes before bedtime, so I decided to run downstairs and start a laundry before settling in to my movie. As I bent over to pick some clothes up off the floor, I threw my back out (I guess King of the Mountain wasn't such a good idea after all). Although I couldn't stand up straight, sitting wasn't so bad, so I took some Advil and watched 'Twilight'. When the credits rolled, I was still unable to stand up straight so I hobbled to the bed, and here I am, flat on my back, blogging on the laptop. Did I mention that Greg and I have tickets to see Wilco tomorrow night at the Tsongas arena in Lowell? That's right, what could be better for excruciating back pain than three hours standing in a mob of dancing people? Should be interesting.

Plover Love

2009-07-06T23:00:00.000-04:00

Rebecca in the freezing water

Sunday was a beautiful, sunny, warm day here in fickle Massachusetts. What can one do but hit the beach? We drove up to Newburyport early Sunday morning and met up with the Treems, Corbins, Nutters and Celonas on Plum Island. I'm ashamed to admit this was Gregory's first trip to the Atlantic Ocean, but at least it was a great one. Lot 1 in the bird sanctuary became our spot for the day, since Sandy Point parking was already full when we got there at 8:55 am (the rest was closed due to plover mating season). Happily, there was not a greenhead to be seen for the entire day.

The kids had a ball playing in the sand and surf. Gregory with Momma at the beachThe water was painfully, numbing cold. We're talking Titanic cold (ok - according to the NODC it was somewhere around 59 F, but it felt Titanic cold). I love swimming in the ocean, and I'm usually a trooper when it comes to getting in, but on this trip I didn't get in past my knees. Luckily, there was a strong breeze all day which made it pleasant to sit on the beach without swimming. Most of the kids did get completely wet at one point or another (usually not on purpose) except for Gregory (because of 'the fish') and little Willie. Who would have thought the babies have the most common sense (except Ella - she's a wild child!)? The guys all fished, although the only fruit of their sand spikes was a single skate.

The two 'little men'
in the Barbie jeep

Time flew by, and we backed up around 3:00 PM and headed back to the Treemhouse to rinse off 9 extremely sandy kids and a fabulous barbecue. Gregory and little Willie were very fond of the Barbie jeep. Thanks for hosting us Eric and Sarah - we had a great time. We'll see you Saturday for Wilco!

Here's the video I managed to take with the digital camera. The background noise is the wind, which was too strong for kite flying (we tried).

Berries, Fireworks and Camp (oh my!)

2009-07-03T23:46:00.001-04:00

Hard at work (not!)

Happy 4th of July! We took advantage of the first sunshine in weeks today and filled our day with all kinds of summertime fun. This morning, Rebecca went to the town recreation department half day camp (swimming, tennis, crafts and drama). Gregory and I went strawberry picking during which he demonstrated an amazing talent for eating berries, but not too much interest in actually picking them. He also got to feed a goat at the farm petting zoo and play on the backyard playground, which included an antique tractor. For a longer description of our berry picking experience, click here. We met Rebecca at the pool at the end of camp with a picnic and ate lunch on the grass while we waited for free swim. After a few hours of pool time we returned home. I wanted to try to get Gregory to sleep since the fireworks were later in the night. No luck there, but we did get hit with a few medium thunderstorms, which put our fireworks plan in jeopardy.

Farmer Gregory

The thunder finally stopped about 7:30 PM, and we could see blue sky in the distance, although it was still raining at our abode. I packed up the car and made Greg take us to Rutland to see if the fireworks were still on. They were, and as the sky cleared in the nick of time, we set up camp on an overlooking hill and waited. This was Gregory's first fireworks experience, so we weren't sure how he was going to take it. He was very excited during the walk to the festivities, and when we asked him what a firework was, all he would say was "beep beep". As soon as they started in earnest, he decided that they "hurt my eyes". Greg advised him to close his eyes, which he did, and within two minutes he was asleep (you know you're tired when you fall asleep with dynamite exploding over your head). Rebecca was delighted and watched the whole show excitedly. By the time we arrived home they were both fast asleep.

Mitropolis Family Party

2009-06-28T19:08:00.000-04:00

Family Picture

Today we met up with the Mitropolis side of the family for a fun afternoon at the Dracut House of Pizza. Thank you to cousin Karen and Auntie Diane for organizing everything. The little cousins had a great time trying to break one tough pinata, and chasing each other around. It was so nice to visit and catch up with everyone. ...And don't worry Peter, Rebecca has decided she's too young to marry you, so you're off the hook.;-)

All the photos are posted here.(noelle01520/annie123)

Recital Day

2009-06-26T20:49:00.000-04:00

Between the graduation party, the dance recital, and Father's Day, last weekend was pretty much a blur of activity. As if that wasn't enough, I've been sick since Sunday (but am finally starting to feel better). So this post is really late, but here it is.

Getting Ready

Sunday was the big day! Yup - Rebecca's recital day. We were up and at 'em early - me gelling, curling and pinning (her hair), while Greg drove to Pepperell and back to pick up her sisters. There was a change in venue this year which pushed the start of the show up an hour and a half, 11 AM was our target arrival time at Quinsigamond Community College. Rebecca's first dance, the tap routine, was third in the program, and her second routine (tumbling) was 33rd (or 4th from the end), so we were sat through the entire 2+ hour recital.

After the tap routine (which was great), I went backstage to get her into her tumbling costume. Unfortunately all that gelling and spraying had taken its toll, and an elastic was hopelessly knotted in Rebecca's hair. No one had scissors, so I pulled and Rebecca cried until finally another Mom, more talented at the whole hair thing, intervened and managed to get the elastic out (a big clump of her hair came with it but at that point I was happy to take what I could get). At least my daughter was happy in her costume, unlike the adorable littlest clown who was declaring her costume was too itchy and refusing to put it on.

Sisters

Seems our troubles backstage were an omen of things to come. Routine 2 started out well, but soon disaster struck. There is a point when the little kids jump in circles in the back of the stage while the older kids run off stage and come back with hula hoops. This is the signal to is the younger kids to stop jumping in circles and do somersaults through aforementioned hoops. Unfortunately, the hula hoops were erroneously placed on the wrong side of the stage. Already on shaky ground, the poor kids didn't know what to do. The bigger kids ran back and forth and then finally decided to do somersaults back across the stage to get the hula hoops. By the time they got that done, they were way behind in the music and had to skip ahead to the next part of the routine. All the while, the little kids (including Rebecca), kept jumping in circles in the back, waiting for the hoops. This kept up until the last 15 seconds, when everyone finally figured out what they were supposed to be doing. So it was basically 30 seconds of the routine, a minute and a half of jumping in a circle, and then 15 more seconds of the routine. I'm so glad I took her to all those extra practices for the past 2 months so she could learn the routine.;-) I did feel kind of bad for the kids because they worked so hard to learn it, but these things happen. Good thing they are little enough that pretty much anything they do is somewhat cute.

Shannon's Grad Party

2009-06-23T20:47:00.000-04:00

The Graduate
Saturday we all went to my beautiful step daughter's graduation party. Shannon graduated from high school last week - we are so proud of her! It's hard to believe - the first time I met her she was 5 years old, and I feel so lucky to have the priviledge of watching her grow up. We got to visit with lots of family and friends, and Rebecca and Gregory had a ball playing with all the other kids and the Slip and Slide. I think Greg is still in shock that his little girl has graduated. Congratulations Shannon!
Grassy Gregory on the Slip and Slide

The Salamander Story, Part II

2009-06-18T18:55:00.000-04:00

By popular request (OK a request from one person - Sarah!!) here is the salamander story I referenced in this post. Before I begin, I would like to say, if you are a member of PETA, don't hold it against me. I love animals and would never hurt one on purpose. Also, I was only 10.

Here it is. The house I grew up in is in the middle of the woods, and there is a plethora of woodland creatures in its vicinity. As kids, we would catch various amphibians, and make 'homes' for them in our sandbox, including toads and salamanders. If you turned over a rock in our yard, it seemed like there was about a 1 in 3 chance of finding a salamander (a common red backed or a similar all black one). By the time I was ten, I was starting to loose interest in playing with slimy animals, but occasionally would still participate in a salamander 'race' with my younger brother Kenny. To race, each of us would catch one of the unfortunate critters, and let it run over alternating hands. Every time it climbed onto the next hand, we would bring the next hand in front, to give the salamander somewhere to run, and so on ...

This is what it looked like
before the race!

As you may know, when the tail of a salamander is handled, it can easily fall off. This is a defense mechanism in case a predator grabs the little guy by the tail. The salamander is able to run away, leaving the predator with only a tail to eat. The salamander gets the last laugh since it can then regrow a new tail. Surprisingly, in all our salamander games, I had not experienced this phenomenon before this day (do you see where this is going?). Now, Kenny and I were kneeling in the grass, near some rocks which edged the walkway to our house. We were racing salamanders when something happened to my salamander. I looked down at my hands, and saw I was holding the front of it in one hand, and the tail in the other. Really not so surprising considering what we were doing, but this is the really weird part. I have a very clear memory of what happened next. Clear enough that I believe: a) it happened or b) Mom laced my Hydrox cookies with LSD. The back legs were still attached to the tail piece!! I screamed and dropped both pieces on the ground, and BOTH pieces crawled under a rock. (The LSD in the Hydrox is looking a little more plausible, isn't it?). The sight of the back legs and tail crawling under the rock on its own is something I've never gotten out of my head and I've never touched another salamander (not even the one in my basement). My only theory is that the tail got pulled, but somehow I had found a salamander with a genetic abnormality, and too much of it fell off?

Anyway, that's the story, at least how I remember it. Kenny, if you remember it differently, please let me know!!

The Moment You've All Been Waiting For

2009-06-17T09:53:00.000-04:00

Yup. It's that moment you've all been waiting for. That's right. It's Rebecca's 2009 dance rehearsal video. For those of you not in the know, parents are not allowed to take video during the actual recital (on Sunday). But the rehearsal is another story - it's a sequin studded free for all. Here's her primary dance routine:

But wait, there's MORE! This year she's in two dances. Primary dance and tumble kidz. Here is routine #2 (this one is worth watching):

Gymnastics Show

2009-06-14T22:25:00.000-04:00

Rebecca and Gregory getting
their gymnastics medals.
Rebecca and Gregory had their year-end Gymnastics show Saturday. Here's a short video to give you an idea. They did a warm up and got to demonstrate the skills they learned this year. Then three of the competitive gymnasts did some tricks for everyone. Every kid got to stand on the podium and get a medal. Rebecca came back with hers and told us "Yup - I got a medal cause I'm a winner!" Gregory wasn't too impressed with his and took it right off and stuffed it in our bag. Then it was out back for ice cream sundaes. On the way out, the competitive kids were giving high fives to the little kids. When Rebecca got to them she gave them each an enthusiastic high five and exclaimed "You guys are amaaazing!!".

The Salamander Story

2009-06-12T17:16:00.000-04:00

Why do I always have to open my big mouth? My Rebecca loves a good story. If you catch her interest, she wants you to tell it to her over and over (and over and over ... ). We've been through this several times in the past year. First it was the story of Anne Frank, which I told her after Greg and I went on a Neutral Milk Hotel kick about a year ago. She wanted to hear about Anne, her 2+ years hiding in an attic, her capture, why she was sent to prison, how she died, how her father found her journal and published it, etc., etc., ETC.! Finally, I got tired of making up the parts I didn't know. I checked a book out of the Holden library about Anne, and we read it together. It was a children's National Geographic book - I figured at 4, Rebecca was a little too young to sit through/understand Anne's actual diary.

Then the was the "Into the Wild" soundtrack which prompted the telling and retelling the sad story of Christopher McCandless. Then, we saw a fox on the side of the road with 2 babies. This somehow resulted in many retellings of the story of the only person known to have survived rabies.

A spotted salamander

So I should have been ready earlier this week. We were driving in the car to my Mom and Dad's, who were babysitting when she said, "Mom - did you know once I got a bloody nose, and the blood dripped down my shirt?". I hadn't known about that. Five minutes later, I got another story which I won't repeat about peas and her digestive system. Finally I had to ask, "Rebecca, are you trying to gross me out?". The truth was out. At this point, a normal Mom would probably try to change the subject or something. But not me. I decided to get into a gross out contest. After several lame attempts, I finally resorted to my salamander story. A few of you may know I have some kind of weird love/hate relationship with amphibians (as opposed to reptiles, where it is pretty much hate/hate). We have Amy, the frog in our pond. We also used to have a spotted salamander that lived in a drain in our basement. I ran upstairs screaming the first time I saw it, but I came to accept it. I haven't seen the salamander in about a year now. It used to go away for a month or so, and I would think it was gone for good, and then I'd go downstairs to start the laundry and there it would be, sitting on our drain. But it's never been gone anywhere near this long. I even kind of miss it. I'm choosing to believe it had a peaceful, geriatric salamander death somewhere in our drain than the alternative (that there is something bigger living in my basement that ate it).

But this story is not about that salamander. It is the first of two creepy amphibian events in my early childhood, which are probably the root of a lot of my issues. I find it creepy and disturbing, and I don't really like telling it. But I had to win this gross out contest, so I pulled it out. At the end of the story, she was quiet for a minute, and then she said "Mom, tell it again". I told it one more time, but when she asked for a third telling, I came to my senses and told her the story creeped me out, and I didn't want to tell it again. She agreed that I had also succeeded in creeping her out (Yes!) and I hoped that was the end of it. At my Mom and Dad's, Greg and I were walking out the door when she asked me to tell it again. Uh oh. I think I know what her new favorite story is going to be. What could I say? Here it is. Me: "Honey, Daddy and I have to go now." Rebecca: "Please?" Me: "You already know the story." Rebecca: "I don't want to forget it." Me: "I'll tell you what, why don't you tell it to Grandma and Grandpa after we leave?"

Sorry Mom and Dad!

The Decemberists

2009-06-10T20:19:00.000-04:00

Greg enjoying a balmy Boston summer night.

By some miracle (thanks Mom and Dad!) Greg and I acutally went out alone last night and viewed an excellent show by alternative rock band The Decemberists. The concert was in South Boston, at Harborlights (OK, so it's now the Bank of America Pavilion, but Harborlights sounds so much better, doesn't it?). This is a medium sized venue overlooking Boston Harbor, and is roofed, but open on three sides. On a nice day, this is a beautiful spot to see a show. Unfortunately last night was not such a night. Even lead singer Colin Meloy, born in Montana and currently a resident of Portland, Oregon, poked fun at us "Northern People", assuring us that it was summer elsewhere in the country.

The first half of the show consisted of a nonstop rendition of their new album "The Hazards of Love". Luckily, my smart and musically minded husband foresaw this, and bought the album last week. A lot of the Decemberists' music sort of grows on you, and listening to the new album several times over the weekend greatly increased my enjoyment and understanding during this part of the show. We were thrilled to see the entire story told start to finish, and figure we probably will never get another opportunity to do so (the fabulous female singers who contributed to this album are not part of the group, and probably will not participate in the next tour).

Decemberists' front man Colin Meloy
in a playful spotlight struggle with Chris
Funk, during the 2nd half of the show.

The second half of the show was much more relaxed. They played some well known favorites such as "The Barrow Boy" (Rebecca was thrilled when we told her - this is her favorite Decemberists song!), and "Valencia". Colin engaged the crowd in a lot of playful banter, and played a snippet from "the worst song I (Colin) ever wrote", "Dracula's Daughter". Colin and guitarist Chris Funk even shared their guitars with members of the audience, including one lucky guy who was brought up on stage and forced to play Funk's guitar with a beer bottle.

All in all, it was a great show. It was worth braving the weather, and we are looking forward to the next time The Decemberists roll into town.

Groovy Granola

2009-06-09T15:40:00.000-04:00

Our homemade granola.

Last night I was in an experimental mood, and decided to try baking granola. This has been building for two days, since I googled 'low sugar granola recipes' and bought ingredients for the first one that came up. Rebecca was my helper, and we heated, stired, and baked. It was actually really easy to make, and the kitchen smelled amazing while it was cooking.

The result was very yummy when warm, and both my picky eaters declared they liked it. This morning, it was still good, but had definitely lost a little something in the cooling process. Still, it made a good breakfast with milk and some blueberries. I plan to go through this excersize again someday, although I will experiment with different recipes. I told Greg, now that I make my own granola I'm going to stop shaving my legs (just kidding ... I stopped shaving years ago).

Tonight we have a rare night out without the kiddos!! Greg and I are heading into Boston to see The Decemberists!

The Pool Is Open

2009-06-07T20:50:00.000-04:00

Happy summertime! This weekend was the long awaited opening of the town pool. Rebecca's school is directly across the street from the Holden Recreation facility, and for months, every time I pick her up, she picks one or two from her standard set of pool questions. "How much longer until the pool opens? Why haven't they taken the pool covers off yet? What if it keeps getting hotter and hotter everyday? Won't they have to open it then? Do you think they'll have Ring Pops again?". Did I mention, she's been waiting for the pool to open? I have to say, I get pretty excited for pool season too. Membership is an incredible perk for Holden residents - we pay less than $100 for the entire family, for the whole summer.

The weekend weather forecast was inconsistent, oscillating between partly cloudy, sunny, and a high of 70. Not exactly pool weather, so I tried to prepare But we lucked out and it turned out to be a beautiful weekend - sunny and upper 70s. The pool water was rather frigid, but the kids didn't seem to mind. Gregory waded in to the kiddie pool, tripped, got up, and said "Oh, that's cold". That was all we heard about it. He then took off for the slide, which empties into a 4 foot deep pool. I caught up with him on the pool stairs and told him he is too small for the slide, at which he replied, "but Mamma, I'm a BIG guy!". If he thinks he's going to pull out the cute card to get me in that freezing water, so he can go down the slide on my lap, he's got another thing coming (at least until July)!

Future Stunt Man

2009-06-02T22:29:00.000-04:00

The past few weeks have been incredibly uneventful (or at least uninteresting). As a result, I'm kind of scrounging for material. Today, I'm pulling one from the vault (translation, I finally got my act together and uploaded a video I've been meaning to post for the past 6 months). Here's Gregory, the kamikaze, displaying amazing agility, courage, and the sense of a grape (he comes by it honestly since it's his Dad and myself who are actually letting him do it). This video was shot 6 months ago, right before the infamous ice storm of December, 2008.

What can I say, his favorite activities are jumping off things, jumping into things, and jumping over things. I foresee many trips to the emergency in our future.

A Quiet Weekend

2009-05-31T18:47:00.000-04:00

Gregory "helping" with the gardening
They said it would never happen. The chances are about one in a million. We actually had a weekend, at home, with no plans. Greg didn't have to work Saturday and spent most of the day cleaning out the front of our yard. Somehow, every fall/winter, that section seems to accumulate about five years worth of leaves/sticks/branches. This year, with the ice storm of December '08, it was exceptionally bad. He finished up today and is ready to move on to the next project (the chimney!).

Our first native strawberries of the seasonI took the kids to the Barre Farmer's Market Saturday morning and we also got our first native strawberries at a farm stand in Rutland!! We bbq'd last night and again tonight. After each dinner, we had our first real strawberry shortcake of the summer. I went back to Rutland today and bought more strawberries, since the kids inhaled every berry that was left over last night.

Author's Tea

2009-05-24T19:27:00.001-04:00

Rebecca's kindergarten class held their annual Author's Tea on Friday afternoon. This is their performance (in lieu of play or concert) where they sing some songs and read some original poems. Here's Rebecca's poem:

And here's the grand finale of the show (Rebecca is the one in braids):