Winter Program

Last night was the annual CMS Winter Program. It is always hilarious, mostly because you can't actually understand most of what they're singing, there are always technical problems, and there's always at least one child who utterly melts down. I was fascinated to see what Cordelia's approach and reaction would be. Not surprisingly, she was cool, calm, collected, excited, and supremely confident. I couldn't tell you what she sang, but the theme seems to have been…Asia? I guess. I just wanted to make sure, 33 bobby pins later, the hat stayed on. 

 Here's Cody with Ms. Bardaje, his teacher.

 Here they are waiting…and waiting… and waiting…

Here's Cordelia lining up to perform, with her kindergarten crush, Kinsey. Cora loves Kinsey. Often I'll spend time doing her hair in the morning only to see it completely undone when I pick her up 3 hours later. Her explanation is usually, "Well, Kinsey had her hair down today."

Her class kept waiting in the hallway, many of the little ones sobbing. It seemed that the high school students responsible for the sound booth didn't show up. This resulted in the program not starting until it was supposed to end — thankfully Cody and Cordelia's classes went first, because Emma hit the wall and we couldn't stay to the end or for the potluck. (Cody was crushed.) Cordelia didn't seem to mind the wait. She had her game face(s) on.

Finally they brought Cody's class on, since their performance was, mercifully and cleverly, a cappella. ALL you can hear is Cody's voice. He's awesome. He's a future section leader, like his daddy. He's clearly working overtime to keep everyone on pitch and on the beat, singing out every word with total confidence. 

Cordelia was thrilled to watch in the company of Sophie, her other student crush. Sophie is 10, has "sparkly bracelets on her teeth!" and is the sweetest tween imaginable.

 This is her teacher, Ms. Benzi, whom she adores.

 More waiting, more sound checks, more waiting. She was nonplussed. I was so impressed with her aplomb.

The boy on her right is Dylan. I love Dylan, and his mom. She told me later that Dylan was extremely nervous, which I thought was sweet, because it wasn't remotely true. Dylan was fine. His mother was the one who was nervous. I remember feeling exactly like that before Cody's first show! She apparently said to Cordelia, "Dylan is so scared! Can he stand by you because you do not look scared?" (Neither did Dylan.) Cordelia surveyed her scornfully and apparently replied, "No. He cannot. That's really not where he's supposed to be." She also pointed out a little girl, whose mother was RIGHT THERE, and said bitterly—and loudly—"THAT'S the one who always HITS ME!" We mothers exchanged mortified, awkward smiles across the Chinese hats.

 Here she is...

 She thinks she did….great! And she did. :)

Cordelia's verdict? "I LOVED being on the stage!" Oh dear. : )

Concert Prep

Tonight's the big night: the annual Winter Program. Cordelia's first, and Cody's third (for a trip down memory lane, click here.) Cordelia seems nonplussed, so we're interested to see how she handles it. Cody is locked and loaded. 

WhenI picked him up from school yesterday he said, "Mom: You ARE coming to my concert tomorrow, RIGHT?" (As if there were ever any doubt! :) I said, "Oh buddy, I'll be there with BELLS ON. Can you guess what that expression means?" 
He looked at me and said solemnly: "I'm guessing it means you are SUPER, SUPER EXCITED that you feel like you might want to JINGLE."


Here he is, practicing. More to come!

Redefining Privacy

Confession: When new mothers used to say things like, "It's so much work I literally didn't have time to shower," I secretly thought, "Oh, come on. Who can't find time for a quick shower?"

Then I had Cody.

When Emma was born, my pledge to myself way that I wouldn't go a day without a shower. I've kept it (though it turns out it's even harder to do with a newborn AND TWO OTHER SMALL PEOPLE) because it's the time I treasure most in the day. More than prayer, more than coffee, more than anything. Whether it's four minutes or a whopping eleven, I can't wake up and get going without the hottest shower possible. It's where I can, in order of importance: 1) Not hear anything that's going on in my house; 2) Let my mind wander to any subject I want, apart from schedules and feeding and work and where the hell is that other glove?; and 3) Get clean. There is nothing more awesome than not knowing whether or not someone (or more than someone) is screaming, thanks to the rushing water.

Usually I'm in the steam around 4:30 or 5:00 am, so there's not generally too much going on, depending on Emma. But this morning I waited until after breakfast. I was fully enjoying minute three when I heard Cordelia, startlingly close: "Mom? Daddy shouted at me."

I sighed behind the curtain. "What did you do?" She replies, "I didn't do anything. I was not bothering Emma, or refusing to listen to Daddy." (These, obviously, are bald-faced lies.) I said something about how she should let it go and just try to be a better listener. A moment later, I hear Cody. "Mom? I just got one tiny time-out because I was not listening to Daddy and he is changing an exploded diaper now and I touched Cordelia when he asked me not to." Okay, so I sighed again. But then I helpfully suggested he just get his time-out over with. In, you know, a different room. He pattered off. Cordelia then started yapping about something and I said gently, "Baby? Do you think I could just have two minutes of privacy? Then I will be with you."

She replies sweetly, "Oh sure, Mommy, but while you have your two minutes of privacy, is it okay if I just keep you company?"

It was actually hard to say no. : )

Swim Kids

We started the kids in swimming lessons, and not just because we needed a way to burn energy on cold weekends! They did group lessons but those were kind of a bust—classes were too big and they really only got a minute or so of attention. So I put them in "semi-private" lessons together, figuring they would at once put each other at ease and ignite their native competition. It was inspired, as they're making tons of progress for just those reasons. But the best part of the below, from earlier this morning, is the way they instinctively celebrate each others' success. It's what gives me hope they'll grow up to be dear friends instead of playroom adversaries.

Sibling Revelry

You're Beautiful, It's True

Sister Quact

The Agony and the Ecstasy

Teething, combined with budding toddlerhood, before Tylenol:

Next day, post-Tylenol (and one tooth is finnnnaaally popping through, which hopefully means we will all sleep again soon!):

Window Into Cody's Mind

I should have posted this a few weeks ago when it happened, but then the Plague descended. Anyway.

So I'm sitting at my computer on the dining room table and I've just opened up a Word document so I can start writing a piece. Cody walks in and stands next to me and starts asking about the keyboard. "So you just press the letter and the letter appears on the screen?" he asks. I answer in the affirmative.

"And you don't have to write with a pencil?" he asks. Again, I answer in the affirmative.

Cody asks if he can try typing. I slide out of the seat and invite him to sit down and experiment with it. What follows is--hand to God--a cut-and-paste transcription from that Word doc, which I will save forever. I beg you to read to the last three lines.

**********************************************

THE BOOK IS GOOD.

Cody is tall.

Cordeliala love jrafs

Emma is kind.

Shannon is Cody’s mom.

Jonathan loves Shannon.

Cody runs fast.

Cordelia hits sometimes.cody lovescordelia                                                                                                                 cody loves mom

Um, how is it January 17?

I'm not quite sure how it got to be January 17th at 1:30 p.m. Nor am I quite sure how to begin a recap, so I'll just start with where I am today. Everyone in my house is screaming right now; I am too, but mostly in my head. So why not blog?

Things I have done today:

• Showered. I always like to count this one as a win. 
• Grounded two of my kids before 7:00 a.m. 
• Put a load of laundry in the washer
• Remembered that it's not only Cody's show-and-tell day, but his day to bring snack; even remembered to bring 20 spoons so the kids could eat the applesauce without having to use their hands; dropped off kids on time
• Put Emma down for her morning nap; spent that time catching up on FBI work
• Returned things from before Christmas to Kohls (that have been sitting on the seat of the car for a month)
• Grocery shopped (which was helpful, as we were down to frozen waffles and sour milk)
• Picked up Cordelia, fed the girls, and put them down for a nap

Things I have not done today:

• Managed to get Emma to take her morning nap
• Remembered that the groceries were in the car until 90 minutes after I got home (why yes, there was ice cream, yogurt, milk, and cheese in my bags, so nice of you to ask!)
• Managed to get Cordelia to stop howling, since she "cannot possibly sleep, EVER again, because you took away my Hopsy when I got grounded and YOU ARE MEAN!"
• Managed to get Emma to settle down for her afternoon nap
• Remembered to move the now-mildewy wash into the dryer
• Called Hannah back…from, maybe 5 days ago?
• Emailed Monika back…from at least two days ago
• Eaten

At first I was going to say, "Things I have accomplished/not accomplished." But "accomplish" just really seems like a judgmental term, don't you think?

So today's kind of a bust. It's been kind of a rough start to 2014. We wound up in the Urgent Care in New Jersey on Emma's birthday, because at 3:00 that morning Cordelia came sobbing into our room at Mom's with a terrible ear ache. We know how this story ended. The weekend after we got back, JVL took Cody to NC to work on the condo. Emma's body chose that very day to start to shut down. She's been so healthy all year, but finally got what was going through the rest of us. From that Friday night to Monday morning, she didn't sleep for more than 45 minutes at a stretch. (Me neither.) Cordelia had been promised a girls' weekend, and we did our best. We ironed. (She loves this.) We played a lot of Candyland. We painted our toes! We even ventured out to Starbucks for cake pops. 

 

 And we had pastina two nights in a row. : )

But poor Emma was getting worse by the minute. We took her to the doctor first thing Monday because she'd developed a rattle in her chest and was pulling at her ear. Sure enough, in addition to the ear infection, she needed a nebulizer every 4 hours for the week. 

She disliked this. 

 

It was terrible to see her struggle. When Emma can't manage a smile, you know something's really wrong. Cody and Cordelia were so empathetic. I dug out the masks they used when they each had RSV (stashed with the nebulizer I bought, figuring I'd need it again, and voila!) and they breathed in solidarity. She was more confused than anything, but it did slow the screaming.

Once she was starting to turn the corner, my immune system started openly mocking me. Now, though, we have all finished our antibiotics, and I'm thinking maybe we'll start the new year all over again tomorrow. : ) Including all those resolutions I have failed to keep for the past 17 days. 

Happy New Year!!