Coupon: Good for One Laugh

The boys were craving pizza, and Martin picked one up on his way home. There was a coupon stapled to the box, good for 10% off any order placed on Super Bowl Sunday. Only that's not quite what it said.


I actually called them and mentioned the typo, and when I was talking to the woman there (who was quite embarrassed to realize these coupons had been going out all day long), we both realized there were even further typos (check the bottom line), leading us both to much laughter (and again, that bit of mortification on her part). She was very thankful for the call and went to go change the coupons right away. Oh, that was a good one.

Rosa Sat

Many of you have already seen/heard this, but they played it on WBEZ yesterday during the inauguration coverage, and I hadn't heard it before, so In case you didn't either...here 'tis.

Martin is Home!

Yippeee!

His heart responded as they had hoped.

Thank you all for your thoughts.

At Last

At last I can type the words President Obama, and it's really officially true!

The boys and I watched the inauguration together, and I was so happy that they watched willingly and with interest (almost through its entirety). Otto was actually glued to every moment. As it started, Otto yelled, "Mom, it's starting! Come! Come!" And even though Max got bored somewhere toward the end of Obama's speech (I wish I could say otherwise, but it's the truth), Otto was committed and watched until the helicopter taking George W away flew out of sight.

I loved Aretha Franklin singing "My Country 'Tis of Thee." I think that song has never sounded so wonderful. (Maybe it's just my excitement brimming over.?) And of course, we were all thrilled to hear John Williams' name and listen to his composition "Air and Simple Gifts," as performed by Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman. Beautiful. And I'm still humming, “’Tis a gift to be simple, ’tis a gift to be free, ’tis a gift to come down where we ought to be...”

Obama's speech was...just right. I'm ready to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and begin again the work of remaking America. (Wait a minute, now I'm singing another familiar song.)

And I was happy to hear from poet Elizabeth Alexander, as I am always delighted when a poet has an opportunity to share their words with such a large audience. (I can't imagine the pressure of composing a poem for such a momentous occasion, and the crazy added pressure of having to read it after hearing from such an orator as Barack Obama.) I liked it, though, especiallly these lines:

What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light.

And I just have to add that Reverend Lowrey's closing lines to his benediction were the best I can remember ever hearing (although admittedly, I have probably heard less than my fair share of benedictions):

Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right.

Let all those who do justice and love mercy say amen.
Amen!
AMEN!

January 20 is here!

Two things today that are making me so happy: at 12 pm (EST), Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th president.

And sometime today, Martin will leave the hospital and come home to us with a steadily beating heart.

I am so hopeful about both of these things.

Smashing Pennies

The boys keep trying to "smash" a penny by putting it under the couch. It's an exciting operation: they ask me to lift the couch while they carefully place the penny right under the couch foot (which is about the diameter of a quarter). They both look like they're on the bomb squad the way they lay on their bellies and hold the penny as if it is going to explode and—carefully, slowly, okay, we've got it, I think we're clear—put it under the couch foot. Their two heads lean toward each other as they examine the placement. All the while, I'm holding up the couch and wishing they would hurry as it's getting heavy, but also secretly trying to watch their every gesture and remember how cute they are in their seriousness. Oh, if only we were heavy enough to squish the penny so their plans would be realized. Wait a minute, strike that. I don't think I want to be any heavier than I already am! :) I don't want to discourage their dream by telling them that there is no way we're going to smash that penny. But I do wonder how many times we'll do it before they come to that realization themselves.

When I was a kid, we lived pretty close to the railroad tracks, and my brother and I would walk into town, crossing over the tracks on the way. We'd lay a penny on the track on the way in, and on our return trip, a train would have come by, and we would find our pennies considerably flatter. It was fun to try to find them, as sometimes they would fly around and be further away than expected. We tried nickels and dimes and quarters, but pennies were the best.

These days, our penny smashing comes primarily from the presses we find at the zoo or museums. They're fun to collect, but I do miss the train smashed pennies. If only we could find some way to replicate that with our couch...

Matters of the Heart

Today we checked Martin into the hospital because of continued heart issues. We've known it was coming for a few weeks. Last fall, Martin saw a doctor for the first time in years (yes, we realize this is not good) because he was having some back pain. In the visit, the doctor checked his heart and found he had an irregular heart beat. Since then, he has had a series of things to try to get it back to a normal rhythm.

He's been assigned a cardiologist, he's been put on various medications, and in December, they did an electrical cardioversion on him. It was sort of a traumatic week for all of us, as we were in the hospital with Max for an oral surgery on Thursday, and the next Tuesday, we were taking Martin for his treatment. Martin's procedure went smoothly, but because it was following Max's very lengthy and scary (to Max) procedure, it was stressful for everyone to be in the hospital again.

It seemed Martin's heart had responded as they had hoped, and we were all relieved. But shortly after that procedure was done, they discovered that the irregularities had returned.

Martin has been on a Holter monitor for the last 21 days. It's pretty fancy, hooked up to a Blackberry phone, and they are constantly monitoring it. They called several times, usually because he has done something like sprint down the street or shovel snow. His phone will ring, and the person will ask, "How are you feeling?" He'll have to explain the reason there was a sudden change in his heart. It's pretty cool that they are so closely following his read-outs (I assume there is some sort of computer program which alerts them that there is a change in rhythm).

Anyway, because the irregularities persist, his cardiologist decided to admit Martin to the hospital, administer a drug that will hopefully assist in resetting the rhythm, and then do another electrical cardioversion and monitor the effect of it all.

We dropped him off at the hospital at noon, and then we went to lunch while he got settled. We then went back to visit him at about 3. Max was a bit nervous about the whole thing (last night he was feeling very sick, he thought he had to throw up, and in retrospect, we think he was getting very anxious about Martin going into the hospital). Big tears would suddenly be rolling down his face. Max has also been very unhappy with the current weather, the short days. He says he's done with snow (it just keeps coming down, and the last week has been very cold). Today, the sky was pretty gray, and he felt completely despondent about it. He says he really needs to see some grass.

When we went back to the hospital to visit Martin, we had to walk down a long hallway, and you could see many other hospital patients in their rooms. I didn't really look in, but I got quick glances, and in retrospect, I wish I had paid more attention to know exactly what Max saw. But as soon as we got to Martin's room, Max got very upset and wanted to leave right away. He was again crying and he said he didn't want to tell us what it was, and when I suggested a few things, he got more upset and told me to stop talking because he didn't want me to guess what it was. I think he's afraid if he says his fear out loud it is more likely to happen.

Max will often imagine things that make him feel awful, like if he sees a piece of garbage on the street, he'll imagine chewing on it, and it is so yucky. I think this is a combination of being so extremely sensitive and also being so creative. He is able to imagine all sorts of things and how they could be terrible. I wish I could magically get him to spin things the other way, so that he was more optimistic and happy (so that he could see something and think of something lovely to do with it), but on the other hand, I was sort of like this as a child (albeit I was an bit older of a child when I began to feel such feelings of despair), and no amount of encouraging me to be more positive worked. In fact, I remember it made me feel more like something was terribly wrong with me.

Max said he had a dream that I read his mind and knew what it was he was so worried about, and in his dream, he said it was okay. But when he told me the dream, he said he doesn't want me to know what it is that worries him. I said, "Is it because you are afraid that then I will talk about it and make you think about it more?" And he replied, "Don't talk about it!"

He's in a phase again where he is very anxious to be away from me, and I have to accompany him to the bathroom, to the kitchen to get milk, the the next room to get a toy. He used to ask me to get him something from the kitchen, but he now just asks me to go to the kitchen with him to get it. In short, he needs me to be with him at all times. Every noise in the house makes him jump, and he wishes we didn't have downstairs neighbors, especially such social downstairs neighbors—there are a lot of mysterious noises that go bump in the night, usually a door slamming, or one of them running up or down the stairs, or people erupting in laughter, or a late night decision to move a bookcase, or what sounds like a relay race in the dining room. (?!) I'm sure our noise is even more to take, as they are below us, and we are prone to taking a 10 pm run through the house as well.

Max is very worried about sleeping tonight, as he is used to being "protected from the wall" by Papa. He likes to be in between us. I am hopeful that we'll all be tired and able to fall asleep when we go to bed tonight, but I am prepared for another long night with my very nervous little boy (last night was difficult, and at that point, we still had the "protection" of Martin). I was thinking that Martin is not the only one who is having trouble with his heart. Max has such a heavy heart for such a small child. And my heart aches for his heartache too.

Otto is mostly sunny and light, and every interaction with other people today would result in Max's withdrawal or tears and Otto's chipper conversation, and then some comment from the other person about their different moods. "Not helping!" I wanted to say. Obviously, it's only okay for me to consider their differences, in the quiet of my head or the public of my blog. But never in front of them. Duh. ;) But Otto is also a bit worried about Papa and really doesn't like that he has to be away from us for two nights.

So, while I comfort these two little boys, I have to give some more thought to my other boy, the absent one. I hope that Martin is not too lonely in his room in the hospital. I remember from the time I had to stay overnight and away from the boys that it was very lonely indeed. We are very hopeful to figure all this out soon and get back to our regular lives. We love you, Martin!

More Max Art

Max has added some new character to his repertoire: Deputy Danger, Danger Dog and Super Diaper Baby. Below is his first time drawing these characters (I was pretty amazed by this as a first run). They're from a book we just read by Dav Pilkey, the author of Captain Underpants.



Here's a picture of Captain Kitty Cat, a superhero that Max has made up. He's a mild mannered calico cat by day, but at night, he is a green-caped crusader. Max is very into cats right now. He and Martin picked out a 365 calendar (the kind where you rip off a page each day) with all these photographs of cats doing silly things (like brushing their teeth). He runs to it every morning to rip off the page and see what today's cat is doing. He would really love to have a cat (and Otto still wants a dog). Mommy and Papa are still thinking this over.



And here's a picture he drew, inspired by watching Lola (of Charlie and Lola) make a drawing of a rainbow. At first he just drew a rainbow with grass and a sky. He kept putting it up on the wall and taking it back off to add details (the smiling sun, the tree, the birds, the bird nest in the tree). And I think that's Max and Otto walking the cat and dog they are still hoping for. I actually used it as the art work for a music exchange CD I just made, so I suppose it's Max's first commission. (Details of our deal are sketchy: at some point I had asked him if he would want to draw a picture for me to use on the CD, and he didn't answer. He made this drawing, hung it on the wall, and I removed it, scanned it and used it without permission. Can that count as a commission?)



And here is Max working on his counterfeiting skills...

Snow and More Snow

We've had more than a week of snowfall.

You can see the snow angel's progression from the first dusting of snow last week to the more recent dumps we've gotten.





We have been out every day for some play in the snow, most days making a simple trip to the park and a visit to Dunkin Donuts. It's pretty shocking how many donuts we have purchased in the last week, especially considering that I don't even like donuts. From the looks of our box after most visits, neither do the boys. But they do quite like the frosting.



Last weekend, we went sledding on one of the few hills here in Chicago. It was crowded, but since we didn't arrive until about 4, it was beginning to clear out. We stayed for a while, until well past sundown.



Earlier this week, we ventured into the back yard for the first time since this round of snow. There was lots to play in. And we found big blocks of ice in the water table and wagon.







Our new snowball makers, which work really well. The last couple of days, the snow isn't packing well at all, however. It's just too darn cold for that.



At the nearby park, we have had the playground all to ourselves on our daily visits. It has been cold, but really sunny and beautiful. The snow helps brighten things up a bit as well. And we're all pretty toasty in our snow bibs and warm boots. Yay for appropriate clothing! (There's no bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.)





Here's a peek out of our office window. That's our car, buried in snow. We don't plan on driving anywhere anytime soon.



Today, it was a high of -5 degrees F. We trekked out to the post office, but we were so cold that we didn't stay out any longer than necessary. It was the first day we skipped the park completely. We're bracing for more of the same, as the temperature is not expected to rise above 0 for the next 3 days or so.

Modifications

I "Heart" You

I had explained to Max and Otto at some point that the heart symbol stands for love, and Otto is quite taken with this. He will frequently find something that is heart shaped and say, "Mom, I....you" and show me the heart shaped object to fill in for the word love.

This morning, he made a string of Legos into a heart shape and held it in the air and said, "Mommy, I.......you." It's always so sweet to hear those words in any form, but it's extra adorable when he does it in this way.

Go Bat

The boys have recently become very interested in Batman: Batman Legos, Lego Batman for the Wii, learning the Batman theme on the piano, watching the old Batman series (Bang! Kapow!) on TV and watching the 1990s Batman: The Animated Series. We actually bought the entire box set of Batman TAS (as it is called by those in the know) as a Christmas present for Martin, and we have been slowly plodding our way through all 17 discs of episodes.

Max has been drawing a lot of Batman characters, and he has (temporarily?) abandoned drawing any of his other favorites for Batman villains. He was in a big Star Wars stage for a while, drawing lots of Boba Fett and Jango Fett and Darth Vader, and then he had a period where he drew a lot of Indiana Jones and Irina Spalko. Then there was a big Spongebob phase, where he mostly concentrated on Sandy and Spongebob, but he drew a bit of Patrick and Plankton too. He also drew a lot pictures of Wall E and Eve. Oh, and Mario and Luigi. We have joked that he only draws licensed characters.

But back to Batman. He has focused on the Penguin and Two Face particularly, drawing them over and over again, throwing aside drafts which have any perceived imperfections. He has gone through reams of paper, literally, in the last month. I was waiting until after Christmas to post some of his Batman drawings, because we made a "Go Bat" game out of some of his drawings, using the basic idea of "Go Fish." He made 14 different characters: Batman, Robin, Two Face, The Penguin, Clayface, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Cat Woman, Harley Quinn, The Joker, The Riddler, Mr. Freeze, The Mad Hatter, Killer Moth.

They are so beautiful, and we gave the "Go Bat" set to his cousins and some other relatives. I won't post the whole set here, but here are a few of them for a taste...





It's funny, looking at these pictures, which are now about a month old, I realize that he has been working on Two Face and would probably reject that Two Face (he has said he wants to revise the drawing in future sets). And I can concur that his more recent versions of Two Face are much more detailed. But I still think these are so wonderful, and I just love to look at them.

Insight

Max told me recently that he thinks he draws pretty well now, so he believes me when I say his drawings are good. But he says that he thinks I used to say I liked his drawings, even if they were bad, because I didn't want to hurt his feelings.

He will hear me tell Otto I like his drawing, and he'll come over and inspect it and then look at me with a mixture of annoyance and understanding, as if to say, "Oh, come on, Mom, that doesn't look like a penguin at all. I guess you're just trying not to hurt Otto's feelings." And actually several times he has said something quite along those lines.

Of course I do genuinely like their drawings, at every stage of their lives, and I don't say I like them so that I won't hurt their feelings but because I do seriously respond to them with enthusiasm. (I don't think that sort of enthusiasm should be faked, and I think kids can tell if you are just praising them out of habit or in some false way.) But I think it's interesting that Max has understood somehow that you would be careful not to hurt someone's feelings by not telling them their drawing was not good (or that you didn't like their song, as evidenced by his comments about applause at the Kimya Dawson show).

I think Max has learned this from his own experience. A couple of years ago, a friend of his told him that his drawing of Darth Vader didn't actually look like Darth Vader. I have no recollection of that, so I probably was not there when his friend said it. And Max didn't tell me that at the time. But for a long time, he would tell me that he didn't think he could draw. It was weird, because he had always quite liked drawing and making art projects, but there was a period of time when he just didn't do much art at all.

This summer, his friend Effie told him that she liked his drawings, and in fact, she tried to draw some of his characters in the same way that he draws. I think he felt very good that someone liked his drawings enough to copy them. He also had gotten some raves for some drawings he had done for greeting cards that he sold at the UNtrepreneurial fair at the Life is Good conference.

Since then, he's been drawing so much, and I think he's gotten really good. But then again, I guess I'm biased. I'm sure he'll tell me later that he doesn't think these current drawings are any good, and that I must have been just trying to make him feel good by telling him that I love them.

New Wednesday Routine

I wrote this post in mid-December and am only now getting around to adding the photos to it. In the meantime, we have gone back for another Wednesday Skate and plan to do it again this week.

Last Wednesday, we went ice skating with our homeschooling group. Both boys were really excited to do it, having had a pretty good time of it at Winterfest.

Man it's so much easier with these handy supports.



I didn't get a lot of other photos, as I was also trying to skate. There was also a tough period where Otto wanted to stake without the support bar and wanted Max to do the same. When Max refused, Otto became so upset he didn't want to skate at all. They finally worked it out, and then it was time to stop skating anyway. It's so funny how their arguments are so often because they want to do the same thing, they want the other to want to do just what they want to do.

Then, a bit of play in the snow.




And lunch at Hot Doug's, which, I think I can truly say, is the world's best hot dog place. The kids just got corn dogs, but I highly recommend one of their very creative combinations. What other hot dog shop has daily specials like: Three-Pepper Wild Boar Sausage with Chipotle Dijonnaise and St. Pete's Blue Cheese drizzled with Honey?







A fanastic day. I think we'll do it again this Wednesday.

Treasures from the Attic

We saw an old typewriter at a friend's house recently, and when Papa told the boys that he had something similar in the attic, they were very excited. It's amazing what treasures can be unearthed in the attic of two (and I suppose I should now officially say four) pack rats. Wait, strike that, and say instead: in the attic of four collectors of artifacts.




I don't have any photos of Max typing, because he was very secretive about his mission, allowing only Papa to conspire with him. But after a while of listening to Max and Papa typing in the kitchen, Max delivered a letter to us. It was addressed "Rachel, Living Room." We need to replace the typewriter ribbon, as the text is hard to read, but here's the letter:



And of course, Otto wanted a turn as well:



In the attic, the boys also found Martin's grandfather's hat, which Max thought looked sort of like Indiana Jones' hat, but in the wrong color.




La Creperie

Max suddenly got the urge for crepes on New Year's Day. We had already made french toast for breakfast, waffles the day before and pancakes the day before that, and there were leftovers of all three in the refrigerator. Plus, we had made bran rolls for a party that we did not go to (so there were 64 bran rolls just sitting on the counter waiting to be eaten). So when Max came to me and asked to make crepes, my initial reply was, "Let's do that tomorrow morning." But before that sentence even got halfway out of my mouth, I could see Max was getting very upset. He had a BIG IDEA.

Thank goodness I stopped myself and said, "Let me think about it for a minute." And then I did, as quickly as possible (because with Max, hesitation is not appreciated), and I said, "Sure, let's make crepes. You can eat some now and then we can save some for tomorrow's breakfast or freeze them or whatever."

He was clearly relieved, and he said, "I want it to be a surprise for Papa and Otto. I want to make a restaurant."

He immediately went to the kitchen drawer and pulled out his chef's hat. He donned the new apron he got from Aunt Linda this Christmas. Then he got some paper and asked me how to spell "crepes." He drew a little menu, with a picture of a crepe. Then he asked me what the ingredients were, and on his own, he got out the flour, the eggs, the milk, the salt, the measuring cups, the bowl. He then helped me clarify the butter.

He wanted to do as much as possible all by himself. He measured out all the ingredients and cracked three eggs, perfectly (usually he doesn't like to get egg slime on his hands). He whisked. Then we heated up the crepe pans, and as I was pouring the first crepe, he said, "I want to do that!" So I handed him the batter, and off he went. He poured the crepes, he put on oven mitts and maneuvered the pan to get the best coverage of batter. And then, when it was time to flip, you guessed it, he wanted to do it all by himself.

He had a few mishaps, some crepes flew around the kitchen, landed on the floor or the stove or the cookbooks, and many of them flipped onto themselves, making something more akin to omelettes. But he did get pretty good at it, and no one was burned or hit in the head with an errant crepe pan, so I think it was a roaring success.






And when he was finished, he made a sign to hang on the refrigerator to let everyone know that the kitchen was closed. It was time for the chef to eat.



Check out his flipping style:

Battle Droids

Martin and Otto finished the battle droid set even before we left Tennessee, but now that we're home, the full battle droid army is ready for, well, battle.

Happy Birthday, David!

Christmas 2008

We went to Tennessee to spend Christmas with my parents and my brother David, his wife Jill and their two boys, Owen and Noah. The kids had lots of fun together, playing games, watching movies, making (and eating) gingerbread trains, drawing (so much drawing!). And there was also lots of cooking, baking, eating and talking (as much as is possible while also entertaining 4 boys). We were so busy doing all those things that we missed a lot of photos of those moments, but I managed to take enough to sort of document the holiday.

On Christmas Eve, we wrote letters to Santa, put them in our stockings, hung those by the fireplace, put out cookies for Santa and celery for the reindeer. And here are four little boys who are very anxious for Santa to come.



Grandpa reads "The Night Before Christmas."



Then we rang the "dinner bell" outside to alert Santa (and everyone else within hearing range) that we were off to bed, and it was time for him to come.

The boys were in bed (and asleep!) relatively early...



And awake early too. Max is impatiently waiting for his cousins to wake up also, so we can all go down and see what Santa brought.



Stockings.





A tree full of presents.



Top hats and penguin slippers, two of their favorite presents.



More presents.



Grandpa and Grandma.



Cracking walnuts (Max loves to receive and crack the nuts from his stocking).



Making a fire with Grandpa.



Redecorating the stairs.



Noah and Legos: love at first sight.



More Lego building, everywhere.









Owen got a doll for Christmas, which he named Otto. He took very good care of him.



Owen loved this marble track.



Game playing.





Grandma reading with the boys.




Max "reads" Captain Underpants to Owen.



On a hike.





Visiting the horses across the street.