Oh What A Night!

This morning I awoke with My Favoritest's alarm. I showered and was ready for the day before anyone else in the house woke up. I spent a little time taking some pictures of our elf Murphy's latest activities. She had carefully hung our stockings on the mantle, complete with toule and twinkling lights.

The presents were wrapped under the tree. Doodle's gifts for everyone were chosen with care and lovingingly wrapped with lots of tape and a crumpling technique. Just above her packages were a cluster of ornaments received in the mail the day before. As I focused my lens, I smiled to myself thinking that this is what our Christmas celebration is about.

 

And then I walked to the back of the living room and took a few snapshots of the whole room. And as the Hanukkah decorations and Christmas tree filled the viewfinder, I was so at peace with our whole holiday celebration this year. And not too long after, Doodle woke up and the house started to hum with the noise of my family.

Our day went as most days go. Bubbie and Zayde took Doodle ot a movie. Sadie (who's new nickname is TerrorTot) refused to give in to her exhaustion and wouldn't nap. My Favoritest came home early from work. Dinner was in the crock pot. All in all life was good. I was picking things up around the house, when I caught a wiff of burnt. I made the oven, stove, toaster circut and then headed to the laundry room. Calling for my Favoritest, we quickly realized the smell was in fact the dryer. As I pulled some clothes out, a big billow of smoke came with it and I saw bright orange in the back of the dryer. We called 911, grabbed the baby and the dogs and got out of the house. And we stood in the driveway as snow flurries spit out of the sky and watched smoke billow out of the window. Hearing the sirens grow louder and praying they got there before too much damage was done.

 

To our great relief and amazement, "they" were four firetrucks filled with volunteer firefighters. On Christmas Eve! There were no less than 15 heros on our lawn and in our house.

The fire was real, but thankfully small.

 

The real damage was only to the laundry room.

The house and everything in it smells of burnt stuff. The fire inspector told us it wasnt safe to sleep there, so while our gracious neigbors ordered pizza and entertained my kids and parents, I called the insurance company and My Favoritest and I gathered some things from the house and we headed to the hotel.

One trip to Target, one trip to the gas station store, and 2 more trips to our house and we are settled in a 2 room suite. And as I sit here typing this, I hear the hum of the power screw driver as Zayde builds a shopping cart for TerrorTot's Santa gift. My Favoritest is crunching wrapping paper and he's doing it just for me, so my morning is special. My babies are nestled snug in their beds/newly purchased pack and play.

The presents are stacked around our beautiful red tinsle tree

The stockings are resting in the hotel easy chair.

 

All six of us are in our matching jammies (which were spared from the stench) that we opened together! And although it is far from the image I had of our Christmas Eve, my family is safe and together and we are finding joy in our traditions and making more! I hope this finds you with those you love, laughing together!

 

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Shiny and Bright

Both of my grandmothers died the year I was ten. Within 6 months of each other. At 34, the memories are harder to remember. My maternal grandmother, Grandma Mantel, spent winters with us, and I knew her better. She was part of my every day life for months at a time. When she died, I chose to take some small figurines that were on display in the room we always slept in when visiting her in Chicago. Those figurines still find special places in my house, even though they are broken, and chipped, and never quite go with anything. They are a solid link to a memory. My paternal grandmother, Grandma Rupright, was less of a physical presence in our lives. She lived in Indiana, and we lived in Georgia. We visited each summer for a week. I remember snippets of our visits and of her. Being coated in bubble slime on the front drive, ice cream in gallon buckets in the garage freezer, playing with my cousin, walking down the gravel driveway. Holiday packages filled with "nuts and bolts" and divinity. I know she loved us with every fiber of her being, but she was not keen on travel and so our visits were few and far between. When she died, she donated her body to science and there was only a memorial service when her remains were returned almost a year later. I didn't choose anything from her home to remember her by. I have several dishes and beautiful tea set that my mother passed along to me, but nothing that I had a memory of.
About a week ago, my Aunt Jane called me out of the blue. She said she had some of Grandma's Christmas tree ornaments that she has held on to all these years. She asked if I would like to have some of them. Before I could tell her yes, tears were streaming down my cheeks. Not because I remembered the ornaments (we never spent Christmas at their house), or because I had always wanted them (I didn't have a Christmas tree until My Favoritest), but because they were hers. They were a link to a woman who is fading from my memories. They were a link for my father to his childhood. They were something that could be passed to my daughters should they have tress of their own some day. I was thrilled at the thought of them hanging on our tree.
Today I arrived home to a package on the front step. When I saw the return address on the box, I couldn't wait to open the box. Carefully wrapped in styrofoam peanuts, bubble wrap, and more styrofoam, were eight delicate, scratched, colorful, priceless ornaments. And as I held them each up and looked at them, I couldn't help but imagine a Christmas tree in my granparents livingroom and the bright beauties being hung lovingly by my Grandma Rupright. I hope that if she is looking down on me, she knows that a piece of her holiday tradition has found its way into my home.

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What's A Festival

Me: Doodle we are going to a festival today.
Doodle: What's a festival?
Me: It's hard to explain. You will see when we get there.

And after a full day spent at the Pittsburgh International Children's Festival, I think Doodle understands what a festival is! This is the kind of thing I wish we had done on Saturday so I could post this, tell all our Pitty friends to go, and then go back again ourselves. It was a fantastic day spent together as a family. Here are a few of the highlights.
Our first stop (after lunch of course) was Exxopolis. Because my description won't do it justice, here is the link to the website Architects of Air. It is basically a really big tent that some how transforms the light inside.

Inside the tent it is a little warm and clammy, but positively peaceful and wonderful. The colors are so vibrant and powerful, that the colors of other things are dulled. Doodle was perplexed but the fact that she kept changing colors.

This picture doesn't do it justice, but this area of the tent had beautiful panels that mimic stained glass.

After our exploration of the lumminarium, we headed to check out all the booths.

Marbles

Naps (the only 20 minutes she slept the entire day)

Silent Disco (wireless head phones provide the music)

My Favoritest provided added entertainment

And then we made our way to the Petting Zoo

Upon leaving the petting zoo, Doodle plainly stated that we would come back to the animals after we went to our show! I think she enjoyed the animals just a little.
We made our way to the theater for our show Aga-Boom. All I can say is it is a combination of Cirque and Blue Man Group for the under 10 crowd. Doodle was a little nervous at the beginning, but by the end she was loving every minute of it! And what's not to love about a show that ends with a giant paper fight and humongous balloons flying around the audience?

After the show, we attempted to head home but we got suckered into another stop by the petting zoo. And on the way there we discovered some people playing on slacklines. They were letting anyone who wanted try it out. So, Doodle did,

And even though she started off terrified, she walked the whole thing. I was so proud of her for not quiting and she was really proud of herself!
We hit up the petting zoo one more time as promised and then with many small crying fits, we headed home. It was a fabulous family day!

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I Swear We Ordered the Solid Baby

On April 9th, SJ turned 9 months old. And almost to the day, she refused to eat baby food. I didn't think this was going to be such a big deal. I mean she was still taking 3 bottles of formula a day. So, I figured we would add a little food at each meal time and call it a day. Oh, how wrong I was!
Once SJ realized that she didn't have to eat baby food any more, it was like we unleashed a ravenous beast! She eats with pure joy bordering on madness. She eats more than you could possibly imagine. I keep thinking that she will loose some of her fervor, but she hasn't.
It seems like all I do all day is feed the beast! We haven't found much that she doesn't like, which is good. We might go broke trying to fill her hallow leg! And I am spending lots of time chopping food into tiny bites!

This was her plate the other night. It is a salad plate, but a very full salad plate!

Here she is shoveling her food into her mouth

And this was all that was left!

And here is a short clip of her stuffing her face.  This is the only way she eats... full out, shovel style!

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On My Mind

Something has been on my mind for a few days. I have debated writing about it, but my brain keeps coming back to it, so I am going for it.

This was recently posted on a "facebook friend's" wall.

 

The caption that went with the picture was

" They are already among us and they smile and go about their work by day and plot by night. Beware of men who have only beards and no mustaches... and have names like Abdul, and Ahmad, and Hussein, and Ijaz and Siraj and Youseff and Mohammad and Feroze and stuff.... Time to ship them all off to the Sands of Araby"

When I read this the first time, I just shook my head at ignorance. And then it really started to dig into my subconcious. I am not climbing on a political or moral high horse, I promise. but I do have something to get off my chest. I understand that the acts of terror have been commited by radical Muslims. I also understand that even before we had time to process the Boston Marathon Bombing, our brains were already assuming the terror was caused by someone with ties to Al Quedia. The recent history gives us all reason to think that way, that our terror is caused by these radical Muslim terror cells.

What our recent history doesn't give us reason to believe is that ALL Muslims are terrorists. That sort of ignorant thinking scares me. It makes me see flashes of yellow stars, millions of discarded shoes, black and white prison clothes hanging on mere skeletons of humans, and fading blue tatoos on forearms. What makes the statement on that photo any different than the propoganda that Hitler spread causing enough hate to kill 6 million people simply because they were Jewish? I have friends who are practicing Muslims. Some by birth and others by marriage. Some cover themsleves with traditional garments, or facial hair, others have no outward signs of their faith. They have a different belief than me. They have different religious rules that govern their lives. Beyond that they are not much different than I am. They are good people trying to navigate this world the best way they know how. They do not deserve to be the focus of hate.

In recent weeks, Jews around the world observed Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Rememberance Day. It is a day that is filled with the phrase "we will never forget". To me, this phrase is not only cautioning us to remember the Holocaust and the horrors of that time in history, but also to remember how it happened. How and entire race became the focus of so much hate. And in remembering that, we are bound to do our part in preventing it from happening again. But if we allow ourselves to be overcome with fear and hate for an entire religion because of the horrid and disgusting behavior of a small percentage of that religion, we are stepping onto a dark path. We are dividing ourselves and weakening our spirit. We are looking for evil in every face we meet. Instead of hating and fearing those who are different than us, learn from them. Be inquisitive and ask questions. Those questions lead to conversations which lead to a better understanding of others. Teach our children to value the differences in others. Look for ways to strengthen your own beliefs without destroying the beliefs of another. Refuse to use your own religious beliefs to belittle the beliefs of others. And most importantly don't blanket an entire group with hate without cause because as my mother always told me "hate is a strong word and it is hard to take back once you say it."

 

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Dark Hallow Woods

I'm going to go ahead and warn you, from this point forward (at least for a little while) I am giving up on maintaining any chronological order. There are things I want to share while the memories are fresh and there are things I want to share that are already fading from my memory.

I touched on how much things have changed in the last few months regarding my overall happiness. One of the things that has definitely helped my mood is the time change. I know there are people who hate the time change, but from that fateful day we fall back, to the blessed morning we spring forward I am counting down the days to when I see more sunshine!

One of the reasons I love the added hours of sunshine is that it affords our family the opportunity to spend time outside together. There is time for a walk before dinner, or a game of catch after dinner. Sunday, we took advantage of the daylight and all took a walk together. At the end of our street there is an entrance to a state park, Dark Hallow Woods. All winter long Doodle has been asking me if we can take the dogs for a walk in the woods. I have told her that I haven't been in the woods and we needed to wait for daddy to go with us. Last fall, Doodle and My Favoritest took many walks in the woods, but I was still healing from surgery and didn't feel comfortable wearing SJ in a carrier or walking the dogs, so I wasn't able to join them on their wooded adventures. And I will be honest, last summer and fall, those 20 minutes or so when they would romp off into the woods were pretty lonely. So, when My Favoritest suggested taking Doodle on a walk, I jumped at the chance to join them. I loaded SJ into the ergo and off we went.

It was delightful. Doodle was as happy as a clam!

 

The dogs sniffed every smell there was to be found in the woods.

 

SJ attempted to twist her way out of the ergo in an attempt to watch her sister and the pup pups at all times.

 

It was a perfect cool evening and there was no place I would rather have been than with my family.

 

On our way back to the house, Doodle asked if she could walk Zoe, and for the first time ever we let her be in total control (as much as a 25lb 4 year old can be) of the dog. She was so proud of herself! I have loved getting to watch her become more and more responsible with the dogs.

 

 

 

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