New Nephew

Here is to my nephew, Zeke. Though we never met, nor even knew the other existed in the 18 days we were related, nonetheless I sense a void in my life that I cannot wait to be filled in eternity.

For Zeke's story, go to www.missionarydoctors.blogspot.com

Happy Ending to Kind of Bummer of a Week

This last week was kind of a bummer. If it had been just about any other year, I would have been with all my in-laws skiing Winter Park, CO. But noooooo. My 'hotshot' brother-n-law had to go move to Tchad, Africa--the fourth most failed nation on the globe--(with his pregnant wife and 2 yr. old son) to write witty blog post and be a missionary (http://www.missionarydoctors.blogspot.com/)! (I guess the fact that the my wife and boys don't get Spring Break for anther two weeks also may have contributed a little as well.)

But really, that is not what bummed me out so badly. I really do love my wife's brother, he definately is one of my top-3 favorite brother-n-laws. What really bummed me out most was that for eight years, my wife and I have been able to avoid having to throw a birthday party for our oldest son who has, with one exception, celebrated every birthday in Colorado with my in-laws. It probably wouldn't have been an issue, if it wasn't for super social son #2 goating his big brother into trying to have as large a party as possible.

Having resigned to the inevidable evil that is a birthday party, we set out to secure a two hour session at the local bowling alley with pizza and soda for a small gathering of 5 boys. Then our eldest son shared his list of intended invitees for his birthday party including pre-k students through junior highers, vertually the entire school--including his teacher. I suppose the one kind of positive element here is that he didn't want to do anything for his birthday but to play a big game of football. Did I mention this discussion took place the Thursday before his birthday? After confirming that he understood to have more people and have them at the house meant that the entire place needed to be cleaned better than it had even been before--probably on Sunday morning, I agreed to increase the invite list.

Truth be told, once the decision was finally made, I started to get a little excite--about how much cheaper it will be to play football rather than a 'pay for party'--and potentional "cakes" ideas. When I was about the same age as my oldest son, I too was a huge football fan and my mom made me the coolest football field cake frosted with green coconut to look like grass. But I was challenged by not being able to find small football figures anywhere and was using cupcakes. The challenge of not being able to recreate my mother's master piece cake, inspired me to create my own master piece--an "wreath cookie" cake (similar to a rice crispy treat, but made with corn flakes). The kids may not have been impressed, but I sure was!

My biggest fear was the devistation that my son was going to have when the reality that "the big kids" don't want to hang out at a nine-year-olds birthday party. My secondary worry was the weekend weather forecast that was calling for a high of 51 degrees (albeit acceptable football weather) and likelihood of rain most of the weekend.

Well, Sunday morning came and we only had one phone confirmation--which the birthday boy took, but couldn't remember who it was or how many people it might have been confirming would be coming. (my wife had gotten verbal confirmation from several of the parents of the most necessary friends.) I remembered the 7th birthday party of my niece & nephew and the awesome football jersey "my son" (than 3 yrs. old) made along with all the other party attenders. So I rushed out to Walmart to pick up some tee-shirts to be able to do the same thing, but forgot to ask my wife how many kids we were expecting or what sizes they were likely to be...medium should be average.

I returned just in time for the 2 year old to go down for a nap as kids started to arrive--what idiot would schedule a birthday party during little brother's nap time? I plead the 5th. First kid there was one of the "big kids" from the upper grades classroom. As was the second and third--technically, they were choosing to join this birthday party with their brother & sister who are in my boys class instead of the kindergarten party their littlest sister was going to at the same time(yes, 5 siblings and their mother is pregnant with twins!). When all arrived we had 10 boys and 2 girls. After everyone had made a "jerseys" we headed down to "the field" for what turned into an hour fifteen minute game, where the birthday boys smaller team ended up winning 28-14 on the strength of 3 turnovers. The game was cut short after the third near concussion and the overwhelming desire for pizza.

Fun was had by all (ok, most), a 2 hour party turned into 4 plus and despite requesting no gifts the birthday boy cleaned up (that is very figurative--Mr. Mom had to Clean Up!). Oh, and did I forget to mention that the rainy, 51 degree day turned out to be a sunny 70 degrees?

Dirty Rats!

As I mentioned in my last post, PopPop & GiGi added 2 "precious" little rats to our home for Christmas this past year. The previously un-named vermin have officially been dubbed; Fright (on the left, because she seems to be scared of everything) & Dora (on the right, because she LOVES to explore).

Though they have only been a part of our home for just over a month now, the boys are still willing to "clean" the cage each day and play with the "girls". In fact, the most interested in the "ratties" is Ben. He loves to stick his chubby little fingers in the cage (which Fright loves to ... taste) and he has become a pro at putting their food in their bowl. He however, does NOT like the feel of their little claws on his skin and will not tolerate them climbing on him. Toby & Seth have discovered that Dora & Fright enjoy hooded sweatshirts, so that is often the standard "cleaning" attire so that have a place to hang out til the cage is ready.

Dora got her name due to her numerous expeditions during the afore mentioned cleaning sessions. Though she wants to check everything out and moves quickly from one side of the room to the other, she is very happy to be "caught". Fright on the other hand will dart out and back in to the cage, always seeming to be measuring the distance and time it would take her to return to the safety of home. However, she has discovered one place she is likes almost as much as the cage...the dresser drawers. She will run under the dresser and climb into the bottom drawer, when you open it to find her she climbs up into the next and the next and then back down. It is nearly impossible to find and catch her (which she really does not like) once she gets in there.

Dora & Fright live on the dresser in Toby & Seth's room, near a rather poorly insulated window. So, being the animal lover that I am (not wanting to deal with 3 young men when they awoke to find a rat-sicle), I sacrificed an older towel to the cause to hopefully provide a little extra wind-breaker over the cage. Though I do not understand it, it came as no surprise when I noticed the ends of the towel had been pulled inside the cage and shredded. However, what was quite ... upsetting, was when I was doing laundry and noticed what they had done to the sleeves on one of the boys shirts--a favorite hand-me-down from BIG cousin J. Patrick.

I was furious. If those dirty rats had been bigger, I would have tried to figure out a way to make coats out of them. Then I thought about my boys letting the rats roam their room and even encouraging them to "hide" in the dresser drawers--which they have been explicitly told not to allow to happen. This thought only made it worse. I had to calm myself down by saying things like; "They're just dumb animals. What did I expect from them? I knew this was what they do."

BUT, I TOTALLY LOST IT! when I caught one of those dirty rats gnawing on the sleeves right in front of me.

3 Fakes and 1 Real Christmases

Living 3 hours from most of our family has provided us with much more visits than the 13-16 hours away that we have lived for all of our boys lives. One of the boys favorite advantages to this is the numerous "Christmases" this provides ... affectionately referred to as "fake Christmas" (a celebration of Christmas on a date, albeit near the actual holiday but on a different date and not the "official" event involving just our immediate family). This year we were able to have 3 "fake Christmases"!

"Christmas" came one week early when Aunty Kristin and Uncle Mike stopped by to spend the night on their way to Gatlinburg to celebrate "real" Christmas with Mike's family and it was a White One. Seth scored real cowboy boots and Toby a Buccaneers helmet and jersey. But the highlight was the snowball fight with Uncle Mike and Zoey.

Toby tooks a cold one right in the face

That week ended with "fake Christmas" #2 with Gamma & Gampa and a (real) Christmas Eve, Eve meal featuring a birthday cake for Jesus' with an assist from Ben.

"Real" Christmas began with our tradition of opening one present of new pjs. "Real" Christmas morning was full of more wonderful things -- though ironically we celebrated it on Dec. 26 (cause Santa knows we are Adventist) -- technically making it "fake Christmas" 2.5. However, the "green thing" from cousins Julia, Henry and Patrick (as well as aunt Kerri & uncle Jonathan) may have been the biggest hit.

Our final "fake Christmas" didn't come until three weeks later when PopPop & GiGi returned from real Christmas in France. Again, it was wonderful, everyone loved playing with Ben's infant toy 'spinny' car track.

However, the biggest hit of the holidays had to be, Thelma & Louise ... Hildy & Gerdy ... Dora/Zippy & Fright/Kitty ... or whatever they end up being called.

Fake Christmas makes us smile (especially when we get to have 3)!

RABBIT RABBIT!!

This post was intended to get back at my brother-n-law who texts me every month with this message (to supposedly "steal" ones luck for the next month if you are the first to say it on the first day the month). Being an ER doc, he is often on duty during the wee-hours of the new month (when I am usually sleeping) and is able to get me before I can get him. However, just over 2 weeks ago he, his wife and 1.5 kids moved to Africa ....

I figured that being the first to do it in January would give me all his luck for the new year!

Apparently, someone beat me to getting him, because I just got word that he has Malaria!

Now, I feel a little guilty ... and slightly worried that because I attempted to get him when he was "suffering" the Rabbit Rabbit is going to back-fire on me and he will end up with all my luck for the new year after all.

I just can't win ... but at least I don't have malaria!

The Tooth Fairy is Not the One that is Sick!

Apparently, Seth decided to catch up to Toby's money haul in one fell swoop....

The SECRET note (this is of course private and none of us have any knowledge of it) was a "request" for, and I quote; "I wont for my tooth 100 one dollar bils".

The Tooth Fairy's nice apology for missing last night was removed by the Tooth Fairy's Boss and replaced by a less nice explanation that it is the Tooth Fairy's job to take lost teeth and that any money left in its place was a token GIFT, therefore not subject to negotiation.

The Tooth Fairy is Sick

So, Seth FINALLY nursed his first loose tooth (bottom left center) out yesterday, much to his surprise I think. I believe he has been anxiously awaiting the day that the Tooth Fairy would finally visit him.

... For clarity, it is important to know that Toby "lost" his first tooth while visiting PopPop and GiGi who pointed out that the Tooth Fairy pays extra when you are with grandparents. He then managed to "lose" his next tooth while they were visiting as well. Long story short, some people make their fortune selling their blood; he has gotten rich "losing" teeth.

Apparently Seth has witnessed Toby's prosperity enough for it to be fact that lost teeth and riches go hand in ... mouth, because there was no fanfare about what to do. However, there was a moment of great wailing and gnashing of teeth when I caught him quickly stuffing something under his pillow -- assuming it was some sort of contraband to be played with after he was supposed to be asleep. After he got his mother involved, it was discovered that in fact it was just a SECRET note to the Tooth Fairy that we were not allowed to see. Disaster (momentarily) averted.

All seemed well until this morning when it was discovered that after all that trouble the Stupid Tooth Fairy did not show up!

I'm pretty sure the Tooth Fairy is leaving an apology tonight for being sick and unable to fulfill its duties previously ... along with some extra cash Apparently, grandparents aren't the only way to make more off of lost teeth!