Labor of Love

Our youngest child seems to take after her mother in terms of organization: she throws everything onto the floor, mixes it all together, and sees no reason to pick it up or organize it even if no one can step foot into her room. I grew out of it…(editors note. ummmmm...., I'm not so sure you did)... I know she will too. However, in the meantime, Brian and I figured we might be able to help her a bit by giving her a little more to work with in terms of places to put things. So we began our hunt for new furniture for her room. I use the term “new” very loosely as we were following Craigslist. Whatever we bought would be new to her, but not new per se. In any case, we found what looked like a perfect fit for her on Saturday. Unfortunately it was way out in Nampa- a good 45 minutes away- but we headed out there anyway and after viewing it, Faith fell in love with it, and we decided we’d come back the following day to buy it, take it apart, and lug it home. As you can see in the picture it is BIG. And it has MANY pieces. I actually had difficulty sleeping Saturday night worrying about if it would fit in our two cars and whether or not we’d have to head back out a third time in order to complete the mission. We discussed, briefly, whether it wouldn’t just be better to go find a similar bed at a local furniture store (and pay 3 times the cost) but decided that buying used teaches the kids so many good lessons: saving money, helping the environment, the pay off of hard work, the satisfaction in a job well done, etc… so we decided it made sense to devote what we knew would be a large part of the weekend to this project.

Anyway, Sunday morning we headed out again, in two cars. We left the kids in the Suburban with video games galore while Brian and I went inside the tiny house full of people. I’m not sure but it may have been a polygamous household- 6 children, two women, 1 man and many, many pets (2 dogs, 4 cats, 2 bunnies). The house stunk to high heaven. We proceeded to break the bed/desk/dresser/fort into about 50-60 smaller pieces, all of which were then lugged outside and divided between the two cars. They barely fit- each car was packed to the rim.  This part of the process took almost 2 hours.  For those of you keeping track, we were now at 1.5 hours driving time on Sat, 1.5 hours driving time on Sunday, and 2 hours to take bed apart and load it into the car. And the hard part was yet to come. 

Brian stopped at the nearest gas station to wash his hands in scalding hot water, then changed out of every last bit of clothing and threw them immediately into the washing machine. Cat pee. UGH!

We arrived back home at 1PM on Sunday and proceeded to pull each and every part out of the cars and lay them on the lawn for disinfecting. The kids and I wiped down every single piece, both sides, and sprayed them all with Lysol, prior to carrying them up, one by one, to Brian who attempted to put them all back together in the right order. Let me tell you… I had my doubts that it was possible. But we kept at it and put the puzzle back together one piece at a time. Mom arrived when we were about ¾ done and provided wine to keep my energy up (you can always count on Mom to bring the wine!). We ordered pizza partway through the process and although I sat down to take a break, Brian worked through dinner. Finally, at about 630 that evening we had the bed up and ready to go. 11 hours of labor. That’s how spent our Sunday.

However, it was all worth it. Faith LOVES her bed. There are nooks and crannies to store things in, a desk to do art on, a place to store her toys, and the bed is up high (which she thinks is the coolest thing ever).  As soon as it was put together all the way, she and Tanner set about “organizing” it.  They threw all her toys and stuffed animals into the fort under the bed, put special things on the shelves of the desk, filled the desk drawers with various items, decided where to store her underwear, socks, jammies, and tights, etc…. It was about the cutest thing to watch ever. Faith was clearly in charge and Tanner was clearly her “helper” and the way they worked together was amazing. Mom and I just stood back and let them have at it, listening in as Tanner asked for direction and Faith hemmed and hawed about where things should be placed. That night they both slept on it together (Jake was at a friend’s house for a sleepover).

Watching them work together for hours was the sweetest thing.  Brian and I went to bed exhausted but feeling pretty damn good about the work we had done as a family and the lessons that we hope were passed onto the kids through the effort.

10 going on 17

For the first time in a few years, Jakes birthday was going to be short this year. Normally the kids birthdays fall mid-week, so they have a friend birthday party on the weekend, then their real birthday party during the week on their actual birthdate. It has a tendency to become Mardi-Gras like in duration. But this year, Jake's birthday was on a Sunday, so it was all encompassed in one weekend of birthday-ness.

He had six friends over for a sleepover on Saturday night. Then we had our birthday dinner and birthday party as a family on Sunday. BOOM. Done. 

There are other ways it was different though. None of them as easy as scheduling. 

He's getting so old. It's become instant teenager around here, just add water. He's cross and scowling most of the time at home. You can see him with his friends and he's laughing and having a blast, but then he gets in the car and it's like a blast of cold air comes in with him. He argues, he sulks, he's sarcastic (yes I KNOW - that's my fault) and he spends a lot of time in his room (not his choice most of the time - I just banish him there). But it's more than just the attitude.

He would rather be almost anywhere than with us. He goes out to play with his friends and is just GONE for hours at a time. Up in the foothills, down at he creek, at his friends houses, anywhere but home. It used to be for his friend birthday party, even as recently as last year, we scheduled events and games and movies. This year we didn't do a thing. They just came over and went upstairs. The few times we went to look in on them we got an embarrassed stare, an eye roll and quiet derision until we closed the door and came back downstairs. 

There are glimpses that our real boy is still in there however. He has always been friends with a boy with Downs Syndrome at school. Really since right after we moved here. Anthony may have been one of his first friends in the neighborhood. Jake invited Anthony to his party this year, which thrilled Anthony and his parents. He couldn't stay for the sleepover part, but he had a good time at the party and left at 7:00 or so. Jake was so great with him (and always is) that you can't help but be proud of him. He instinctively knows how to interact with Anthony, doesn't talk down to him, makes sure he's doing okay and having a good time, and keeps him in check behavior wise. It really is amazing to watch and gives me hope that he'll come out of this phase and go back to the wonderful boy he was just yesterday it seems like. 

His world also has become very weirdly social, like teenage girl social. He gets in spats with his friends, they clique up on each other. He totally avoids someone for weeks at a time, then spends hours and days with that same person, them against the world, friends forever. He had a friend he was on the out's with until the day before the sleep over, then all of the sudden they were best buddies again and the party couldn't happen without Charley. So Marisa had to get involved and go through the mom to get things smoothed out and the last minute invite delivered.

It really has become quite surreal almost overnight, and the party was the perfect example. They came through the door, went upstairs, came down when we gave them food, went back upstairs and totally avoided us until it was time to leave. 

I guess it's just life and I was a teenager myself once upon a time. I DO remember it not happening until high school though. NOT AT 10 years old!

Happy birthday Jake. Act your damn age!

Faith Turns 6

Faith turned 6 last week. I know I say this every single year… but REALLY?? Six?? Unbelievable. She was so excited for her birthday this year- it was really cute because in the past it hasn’t been a very big deal to her but this year she was talking about it for weeks beforehand. Kind of incessantly. She basically wanted everything she saw in every store we went into and on every TV commercial she saw for the two months leading up to the big day.  She wrote out a birthday list that included who she would invite, what she wanted for cake, what she wanted as presents, what would be in goody bags, where the party would be, etc.. 

The night before her birthday I took down the blog and we read together how she was born at 9:29AM. We looked at the pictures of her little bald head with the glued on red bow. We talked about how right after the dr. took her out of my tummy I asked, “Is it really a girl??” because I still didn’t truly believe I was going to have a daughter.

When she woke up on March 6^th she was greeted with huge “Happy Birthdays” from all of us, including Grandma Mary who stayed in town to help celebrate. She was definitely the Queen for a Day. She had a chocolate donut with m and ms’s on top for breakfast and opened one of her presents from Auntie Sue so she could wear new clothes to school that day. She was very excited to bring in her birthday treat to school (chocolate cupcakes made with help from Grandma Mary) and was highly anticipating the time when she would get to stand on one of the tables in her classroom while her classmates sang “Happy Birthday” to her.  

After school Brian took her to dinner at her choice of places- Lulu’s Pizza. They were only gone for about an hour because she was just too excited to come home and open her presents. She got several stuffed animals (a Mama Tiger and a Baby Tiger), some clothes, a Lego Friends Pet Salon from her brothers, and a little pony that walks when you pet its back. She was thrilled with all of her presents. We followed that with cupcakes and ice cream. I tucked my baby in that night and besides being so grateful to have her in my life, I felt very nostalgic for the days of her babyhood.

Saturday was her birthday party with her friends from school. She chose to have the party at the place that she does her gymnastics. The six girls played for an hour on the equipment then had cake (animal theme, of course)and ice cream and opened presents. Grandpa Phil and Joan were in town for the weekend so they got to participate in the fun. 

All in all, I think her 6th birthday was a huge success and I can go back to devising a way to keep her this age forever. 

Last Day

I think we're kind of ready to be home. We are both a little done with the resort, both a little done with the food, and both a little done with the weather. We are having a nice time together and the sounds of the waves as a backdrop to everything is just great, but we miss the kids and are ready to be back home.

Today it rained again. Marisa handled it much better than I thought she would, I was concerned upon waking and hearing the rain falling that I was going to have to play "perspective goalie" all day today. But she got up and went for a walk on the beach after breakfast while I went and worked out and sat in the sauna for awhile. After that we met up for a chilly, but fun, swim. We read for a little bit down by the beach and just had a very low-key morning.

She wanted to go out to lunch instead of eating at the resort, so we walked down to the Margaritaville Restaurant and had lunch and walked back in the rain. We got ice cream in the lobby and then came back up to the room for a nap. Now I am typing this while she is down working out. I think a night in is on the agenda, with room service dinner and a movie. We'll make time for one last walk on the beach tonight before it gets dark.

We've had a great time, and a great break, but can't wait to come back home and see everyone.