Notes everywhere

This girl write me notes telling me how much she loves me all the time. She gives me so much paper that I’m sure, she thinks I don’t appreciate it. I do. I just don’t know what to do with it. I have to eventually threw them away and I feel a little less guilty when I take a picture and save them here for my own memories. Love this girl!

Halloween 2019

This year we had another successful Halloween in the neighborhood. The forecast was for a lot of rain and storms, and people talked about canceling it. But we persevered under a very warm evening with gorgeous Halloween skies. The kids enjoyed  trick or treating and hanging out with the neighbors afterwards. Clair stuck with the big girls mostly. I find it hard because I don’t want anyone going off without one of their parents.

 The boys hung out together as always. Max his Halloween dreams came true. He had been worried earlier in the week he wouldn’t get to spend the evening with Henry. I’m glad it worked out for everybody. 

 I also had the pleasure of visiting both Max and Clair‘s classes in school for the parties today. I’m glad they still wanted me to attend. 

Why Ellie should get the costume she wants

 Ellie and I tend to have a lot of different opinions these days. I know this is the start of the teenage years. One of the things we haven’t really agreed on the past few years is her Halloween costume. She wants to be a lot creepier than I would like her to be. I prefer my little princess returned. This year, she wanted her creepy outfits that look very similar to what she was last year and I didn’t want to spend my money on it. So, she wrote an essay to convince me to let her get what she wanted. Though I didn’t feel the essay was very convincing, the effort was and she got what she wanted.

Clair’s first book

This book has been a work in progress for about six months. Well, she started it one day six months ago, and decided to finish it one day last week. But this time we printed it and she illustrated it as well. The best part for Clair was when she took it to school and showed it to her teachers and her classmate. She got such amazing reception and interest from everyone. I’m so happy about that! She came out of school so excited that day and pronounced that it was the best day ever because everybody loved her book and she was going to publish it. 

Along with her 11 other jobs she now wants to be an author as well. 

 Here is a copy of her first book for posterity. The odds of keeping track of all the paper this child creates are slim to none.  I love her creativity and her energy. 

Round and round the calendar goes

And just like that, what they called a long summer is over. The kids are back to school. It’s hard to believe how quickly the months passed. 

Monday night we were sitting at dinner and Claire asked if we could have just one more week of summer. We laughed and told her that they were probably a lot of other kids asking for the same gift at the same time around the state. But, none the less, tomorrow morning, everyone would be heading back to school.

This year we have a big twist in the schedule. We have a middle Schooler! This means early mornings for Ellie and at least one parent to support her. None of us are morning people. This is a big adjustment, but after two days so far so good.

The first day was a little nerve-racking for everyone. Ellie asked me if I would walk her to school, instead of walking with her friend. She would walk with her friend tomorrow. I was honored and definitely willing to take the time to walk her to school. I’m grateful she still wants me around. I know this time is fighting in our life. That being, despite the fact she said she’ll always want me around and always want to live with me. 

For Ellie, the first day was all right. Lunch was a little bit hard because she didn’t feel anyone talk to her at lunch despite sitting with a big group of girls. That made me sad. Middle school is hard. Friendship is hard. Adolescence is hard. I am Hoping today is better. I am praying God gives you a grace and skills to help her through these years somehow. She does like most of her teachers.

At the normal time Clair and Banks got ready for more time at the elementary school. Their morning went very smoothly. It was a minor change in the drop off location of the school, but otherwise we sent to have the kids off. Max needed to help others friend to carry his supplies, due to his hernia. I had to strap clear supplies to her, literally, because there were so many. Apparently she made it to her teacher without falling down and she helped unload all her stuff. Both had good days, with a little bit of social disappointment about around lunch and recess. Here’s hoping today is better for them too. 

I hear of the stories of my kids feeling left out or feeling like nobody wanted to play with them or eat with them, it breaks my heart. I hope that when they see others that they notice are left out, but they are able to step in and offer to be a friend to them. No kid should be alone at lunch. No kid should be alone at recess. That is, unless they really want to for some reason. But I honestly believe people don’t want to be left alone in the situations so I think so just get used to it.

Friendships and social interactions can be so hard for some of us. I will keep trying to be better at it because I know my kids need to have a way of learning to navigate the world. 

Here are a few images from the day.

Not exactly the breakfast of champions, but she was really happy with it!

Mamma and her eldest. 

Grannie called to say good morning. 

Wakes right past the elementary school and into the middle! 

Gorgeous girl! 

Snuggles, always and forever. 

Off to 4th grade! 

What a great friend! 

She’s full! 

Max’s umbilical hernia repair

One of Max’s doctors Discovered the spring that he has an umbilical hernia left over from when he was born. This Friday, we finally had it repaired. Four days later Max is doing OK. He handled it like a champ. He is brave and patient.

The day of surgery he was scheduled to start at noon, but kept getting pushed back and pushed back, until 4 PM when they finally started. Max, David, and I spent a good five hours in a 8 x 8 hospital room with Max in preop. He was good for the first few hours watching TV while I did work and David did stuff on his phone. Eventually back got old. Things started to get silly. The boy hadn’t had any food for dinner the night before. We offered by this time he be well on his way to recovery. Find me when the doctors took him in he asked if he could walk to the operating room. The Anastasia Yala just was very kind to him, and told him that he could go however he wanted and that he had been very patient. So off walked about five doctors, my sweet nine-year-old little boy, and his daddy to the operating room. They said one of us could go back, and David is the one that can do these things without showing emotion. So I assume that’s what’s best for the kids at that point in time. Meanwhile, I headed to the waiting room alone, saying prayers for my boy.

David came out a few minutes later and said things have gone very well. The anesthesiologist were impressed with Max has one capacity. Apparently he has an excellent set of lungs and should either be a singer or professional screamer. We have seen the evidence of him being a professional screamer. 

The surgery lasted a little less than an hour. We got back to see Max after he had started to come to. He was very groggy and confused. His arms were moving about on his face. I kissed him and ripped his hair and asked if he was OK. He told me he needed coffee.

At that moment in time to nurses turned to me and said what did he just ask for? I said he asked for some coffee. He said does he drink coffee? I said nope, never. But I think he feels the way he thinks I feel each morning when he knows mommy needs her coffee. Everyone had a good laugh over this, and we encourage Max to go back to sleep because he didn’t need to wake up right now. 

But Max wanted some apple juice and some food and he wanted to wake up. No doubt he was confused because after the coffee, it came in a request for mommy to go have her hernia fixed now.

Recovery went well. He was able to keep down apple juice and goldfish and a popsicle before we left the hospital right around rush-hour. They don’t keep them long and postop care for outpatient surgery. I always wish that they would keep them longer.

Max did great on the ride home. By the time we were heading home he was asking what we were having for dinner and there were signs that he was moving in the right direction. I was pleased he never threw up.

When we got home his sisters had some presents for him. Gramma was also waiting to see how he was doing. He stayed on Tylenol and ibuprofen for less than 48 hours. The only thing left is to get him walking upright and not scared of using his abdominal muscles again. This part is still a work in progress.

I’m really proud of how he has handled this all. He goes with the flow, he is brave, and he keeps a good sense of humor at every turn. I’m so sorry he’s going through this, and I hope this journey of the surgeries over the next month will help us figure out how he can live a better quality of life.

Scottish Adventure 2019

This year we ventured to Scotland again to spend time with Granny. Gramma came too and enjoyed her first European adventure. It was a busy nearly 3 weeks. Each day was busy. There were lots of castles, loads of eating out and treats, history every, and a good amount of Scottish family time. I wish I had more time to document specific stories, but instead, here’s a brief outline of the itinerary that kept everyone quite busy this time!

 

Day 1 – Drive to Newark, Nj and catch our direct flight to Glasgow

Day 2 – landed in Glasgow, got to our flat, Clair and Mommy napped, big kids played at the park, everyone went out to an Italian restaurant to celebrate Granny’s 70^th birthday

Day 3- We walked around the West End of Glasgow. We saw the university and Mommy took a lot of pictures. Daddy told stories of his childhood. Hazel was entertaining guests who were arriving for her big party over the coming weekend.

Day 4- We ventured to Cilzean Castle in Ayr with Uncle Dolan, Granny, Millar, and Glyn. Here we met up with Muir, Andrew, Stacy and their little girl. It was very rainy, so we didn’t get to explore the beach like we did last time. The kids were disappointed. We took them to an indoor play park in Ayr before returning to Glasgow for dinner.

Day 5 – We celebrated Hazel’s 70^th at the Glasgow House for Art Lovers. Both brothers and their families came, along with cousins and friends. Hazel was celebrated properly. The kids enjoyed seeing Sebastian the most. We hung out with Sebastian for a little while afterwards, then returned to Park Circus for dinner. David met Dolan for a drink.

Day 6- We went to Buchanan street for a little shopping. Then Mommy had to leave to go to Poland for a week’s work. Daddy and the kids met up with Granny, Uncle Dolan and Sarah to do a walk around downtown to solve a mystery. They all enjoyed it. 

Day 7- The family all ventured to Stirling and enjoyed a tour of Stirling Castle.

Day 8- It was a rainy day and they hung out at Granny’s. Ellie spent the day baking. They did take a walk into Pollock Park and explored the little fairy houses.

Day 9- More walking around Glasgow to finish the mystery walk.

Day 10- Gramma and David took the kids to an old factory outside of town. I don’t know much about this adventure. I heard it was tense. Julie got back from Poland as planned around dinnertime. We ventured out to a local café for a dinner and planned the weekend.

Day 11 – David entertained the kids in town, Gramma and Granny met for Scottish tea. Julie finished up her last day of work and met a colleague for lunch. We went to see the T-Rex exhibit in town before meeting up for dinner.

Day 12- This was moving day from Glasgow to Edinburg. On the way we stopped at a cute little town near the Forth of Firth. We enjoyed tours of the bridges, beautiful blue skies, ice cream, and a safe settling into the new flag in Edinburg, which was by far my favorite. It was clean and gorgeous and well kept. Granny decided to stay with us in Edinburg which was nice.

Day 13 – We did the Hop of Hop Off tour of Edinburgh to get our bearings, hear the history, and make decisions about what to do for the week. Clair felt we didn’t “hop on and hop off” often enough. We went to the toy museum and one more little stop along the way. We had a nice dinner out at my favorite Café Rogue after the tour and ventured home by foot via a play at the local park.

Day 14- We ventured out of town, north, to St. Andrews. The kids all say this was their favorite day. It was a beautiful summer day in Scotland – almost 70. The kids loved being at the beach. The Grannies walked for miles while Max dug in the sand and the girls got much wetter than they were supposed to. All was well until David cut his toe on something in the sand so we decided to clear up and head off the beach. We took a little golf cart/train ride tour of St. Andrews and then did a little walking before venturing back towards Edinburg. We stopped for dinner about 20 minutes outside Edinburg in a little town called Dumfirmlen which had a very nice restaurant and an enjoyable park as well. A good end to a great adventure.

Day 15- Back to museums today. We tried to mix up learning and play. Today we ventured to the Surgeon’s museum which is part of the Medical School of the University of Edinburg. As I suspected, Clair was most interested in it. She really enjoyed seeing the organs in jars as well as the videos about the different systems of the body. Ellie was not a big fan of the organs in jars and the pictures on display. Max took it all in stride as always. After this museum and lunch, we split ways. Daddy, Max and Granny went to the National Museum of Scotland. Julie, Gramma, Ellie and Clair took a taxi into town to ride the tram. Clair was desperate for a tram ride. It was a short ride because I didn’t want to leave town. Clair was disappointed. Then the girls did a little shopping and we all met up at the park. The Grandmothers kept the kids while we got to go have a date night. It was very enjoyable. We started with a pub quiz, had a late dinner, and topped it all off with a late night drink at a fancy hotel bar, the Waldorf. 

Day 16 – We went to the Eye of the Oblisque because this has been on the kids list of things to do the whole trip. They remembered in fondly from the trip 3 years ago. Everyone really enjoyed this museum. Julie left early to meet her friend Farah for dinner. The rest enjoyed dinner at Nando’s before heading home for the day.

Day 17 – This was a busy hiking day to see the high points in town in Edinburg. We started off by going up to Carlton Hill and then off to Arthur’s Seat. Arthur’s seat was a tough hike. Gramma and I didn’t go all the way up. David made sure each of the kids summitted and took pictures. They were proud.  After the hikes we headed out towards the famous Edinburg Botanical Gardens. On the way we ventured for a lunch of burgers. We ended up at a pub that wasn’t too thrilled with our crew of picky eaters. Everyone survived though, and we made sure to stop at a bakery on the way to the gardens. A very busy day that resulted in walking over 10 miles I believe, despite having the car taking us from point to point.

Day 18 – Today we took the tour of Mary King’s Close which was underground and full of personal stories. We heard about the plague and the tough life of the underclass in Edinburgh many years ago. Unfortunately a few people on the tour picked up this horrendous cough that still is not gone. Everyone except David and I, which I assume is a result of the constant nightly wine which the others did not enjoy.

Day 19 – we left the flat in Edinburgh and visited with Brian, Sarah and Sebastian in Dollar. It is a lovely town and they have done an amazing job renovating a historic house. We enjoyed a relaxing day and lunch with them before heading to the airport. We stayed in a hotel right by the airport so we could catch the early flight home the next morning. Before bed we wrapped up the trip with dinner at Millar and Hazel’s local – Ollies. It was a nice evening.

Day 20 – we were up early to catch our 9 am flight. The flight home went smoothly and landed on time. We were greeted by 100 degrees and mid-Atlantic humidity when we exited the airport. Most of us wanted to head back immediately as that’s not the weather our family enjoys. Instead we embarked on the long drive home, which went fine.

 

It was an exciting, busy and exhausting trip. We all went to bed quickly and happily in our own beds once finally back to Maryland. I’m glad we are able to do these trips and spend time with Hazel and the family. It means the world to us all. I’m really glad my mom got to come along and enjoy the adventure. Not only is she super helpful, but I also hope this made great memories for her.