Milk was meant to be consumed at the temperature of one's body. Cold milk will be promptly returned to the server.
Sharing is one sure way of losing things near and dear to your heart. A more effective alternative is to make sure there is enough to go around before consuming your treasures. Hand out the candy and blankets to make sure no one is trying to take yours (especially your brother).
Yelling at the neighborhood from your second story window is a great way to pass a few minutes in the morning or an hour at nap.
If management does not provide you with an en-suite bathroom, your closet works well as a urinal.
The art of hiding is undervalued by many. No matter how many times someone calls your name nor how many times s/he walks past your hiding place, you must remain quiet. Particularly if you are hiding in your secret gum chewing eating spot. However, questions about the temperature of your milk should be promptly answered.
Horses. Contrary to popular view, a horse doesn't neigh. A horse says "Yee Haw!" Go ahead, try to argue with me, I've seen a lot of pictures of horses in my time.
Accessories are essential, shoes are optional. When watching Mamma Mia, don't forget your guitar and finger cymbals. Sunday School is a brilliant opportunity to roll out accessories...swim goggles, knight's helmet, whatever your heart desires.
One name per couple max. Rachel and Steve=Uncle Steve. Let's conserve precious brain space, you know I mean Ben, even if I call all of you Jon.
My Knick-Knack. What a big week for me you. Kindergarten and your fifth birthday! Watching you is like a dream come true. I am so proud of you. You are a smart, kind, and creative boy. I am proud of how much you love God and your deep understanding of the importance of human kindness. It even rubs off on your brother (which is amazing most days).
You have proven to me that you have the heart of a leader. Not because you are bossy (although you do seem to excel in that area) or have a lot of friends. I see you as a leader because you work to lift other people to higher levels, you get people to follow you and you care so deeply about other people. The other day I caught you trying to convince your brother to call you Mom, nice try.
When you were born, I immediately saw you as you are today, a strong brave boy, ready to take on the world. And here you are, exactly as I had imagined. I love you for all that you are and everything you so clearly want to be.
The other day you played a joke on Uncle Robby. It reminded me of Daddy, a silly sense of humor, always ready to joke and laugh. Don't get me wrong, it was so naughty to trick Robby into drinking a water bottle filled with soap.
You are an amazing person and I am proud to be your mom. I love you. Mama Lou
Right before I took him to school (he changed his mind this morning and wanted me to take him instead of Kevin), Kevin said to him, "I know you are going to do great."
I know that he said this because Patrick recounted it to his Campus Club teacher 2 seconds after he met her and added, "So I know I'm going to be okay." I went back on campus after Campus Club to see him in his kindergarten classroom. He was perfectly fine and content. Loves his teacher. Got right to work.
It isn't just the sound of summer coming to an end, it's the sound of Patrick's baby-hood closing out. School is starting on Monday, first day of kindergarten. WOO HOO! I said WOO HOO! Who's with me (in this freaky alternate universe where your baby is a boy and he's going off on his own to be influenced by others..), Patrick? Patrick? Alright, where's Patrick. There he is, hiding behind my skirt.
We had our trial run on Friday.... Not so hot. The kindergarten classroom is bright, clean and shiny. One might even describe it as, inviting. Patrick's description is that it is a little bit frightening. He did start warming up when he saw the Legos and his teacher got (almost) as excited as him about his birthday on Wednesday.
The whole Kindergarten Orientation was mega-frustrating for me. I should be more patient, since I understand him all too well. Instead it makes me prickly because I feel like I am watching myself. I even talked to Patrick about my first day of kindergarten and making my first friend, Mandi (still count her as my friend, thank you very much). Because really, is there anything about school that is more intimidating than meeting new people and making friends? School is one part learning and two parts social matrix. Right? heh.
So there were tears, there were also declarations. He declared that he didn't want to start kindergarten (this after listening to him talk about kindergarten for a year and a half), I declared that he wasn't going to be allowed to ride in the back of the Expedition (a treat reserved for big boys). It kind of went back and forth from there, use your imagination.
If he was a clingy, crying, shy child that would be one thing, but he isn't. And I know he isn't, and he knows he isn't because two hours later he was a completely different kid. Watch now as he performs his "goodest baddest bad guy" on his Sensei.
This was after he was coaching and leading the class. "Come on Braden, you have to step up and do this thing!" Hi! Leadership Qualities, meet Patrick... Oh you already know each other!
Where are we today? Patrick is less focused on his birthday (I get to choose because I am the birthday boy!) and more focused on his kindergarteness (I get out of the bath first because I am a big kindergartener. wootywoo.).
His brother's response? Keith: I go kindergarten. Me: You are going to kindergarten? Do you know how to spell your name? Keith: P-A-T Me: Yep. You're ready.
Please take all of my money. I mean, it is so clear that the $200 weekly deposits just aren't cutting it. And really, what could I possibly need that I can't buy from your aisles? And now you seem intent to make me spend my hard-earned dollar on Ed Hardy paraphenelia. Really, has it really come to this?
And please don't punish me for what happened this week. It was our family's third trip in only five days.... I didn't get a cart. I still managed to spend $60, but I did it without a shopping cart. As I balanced three boxes of potential kindergarten snacks, lip gloss, wrapping paper and school supplies (none of which were on my list) I thought: here is the way I stop spending so much money at this dang store. But really, who am I kidding, your charm is undeniable I'll be back next week with an extra large deposit.
You know you are the mother of some Harry Potter freaks if.....
1) Your 2-year old says "Harry Potter" with an English accent. Okay it very well might be a toddler accent but there is a distinct non-rhotic "R" pronunciation in the "er" of Potter.
2) Drumsticks=Wands
3) Your five-year old yells, "alohomora" when opening his bedroom door and "lumos" when turning his light on and off.
4) You've watch Harry Potter no less than 20 times in 3 weeks. And read a book and a half.
5) Your five-year old officially declares his love for Hermoine Granger (the early years) and her big brain and big books.
The trip was made up of a million little memories that look different to each of us but we all love it just the same. There are our highlights:
Keith: Aloha and the Kiddie Pool
There is something alluring about the Hawaiian hospitality and Keith TOTALLY got it. He started in with his "Aloha's" the minute we got to Maui. Hawaii was pretty much his state after that. If you want to fly low under the radar, leave Keith at home. His social light is so bright Patrick gets caught up in the party. Keith gives you an "Aloha" and a couple of eye bats, Patrick is going to fill you in on his full name, everything he has eaten and plans to eat, and his hopes and dreams for the future. Patrick's Hawaii audience is usually the daddy and baby set. Keith specializes in the blonds.
And the Kiddie Pool is where these two saw most of their action. Many new friends were made at the Kiddie Pool.
Patrick: The Baby Beach
And sushi (duh). This is the four of us at Sansei Sushi, but I already told you all about it.
We went to Baby Beach in Lahaina on our last full day in Maui. Baby Beach is protected by an outlying reef. It has calm, warm shallow water making it the perfect location for Patrick and Keith. And (back to the Aloha) there was a boy who rivaled my kids' gregariousness, GAME ON! His dad was catching creatures in the coral so that was super fun for the boys.
Mama: Dinner alone with Daddy at Merriman’s
Our wedding coordinator made reservations for just the two of us at Merriman's after the ceremony. Scrumptious (I had the lamb, Kev had the filet)! In case you were wondering, going out to dinner in a wedding dress is a brand-new experience for me (people were kind of staring). I wasn't sure I wanted to go through with it, but we ran out of time for a costume change. The upside, I wasn't the person wearing the fanciest dress in the joint, we sat next to a couple who got married (for real) on the same beach. Cute. Here is our dessert, chocolate some sort of thing, sorry for the blurry camera pic, we had a shuttle back to the hotel.
Kevin: The Wedding
(hee, that was my first choice too but I figured that went without saying) Next up the wedding...a retrospective (which requires scanning, so bear with me, I promise I will be back with wedding pictures and the story that is lingering in my heart.)
The story of our vacation of a lifetime, in three parts (or two or four... we won't know until we get there)
Part I: The Food of course.
Our trip to Hawaii was a series of very bad hair days, exception noted. .. See, this is me washing out the hairspray and styling from the wedding hair.Excuse me, but my wedding hair day was quite excellent.God smiled down on me and gave me a fantastic Puerto Rican hairdresser at the Ritz (let's give it up for God, really hairdos outside the circle of trust are very risky).David would have been so pleased.I had a lot of anxiety (natch) about the hair because it is windy and David was foretelling old lady hair.
As I was saying, Hawaii was a series of very bad hair days punctuated by a lot of food.Breakfast was the feast of plenty.Patrick indulged in miso soup, smoked salmon and capers rounded out by two bowls of cereal and guava juice every morning.Keith was putting away three waffles, eggs and bacon.Toward the end (much to his pineapple-hating brother’s chagrin) Keith started eating bowlfuls of pineapple.I will not get into Kevin and my breakfast eating habits except to say that we didn’t need lunch and Keith’s new word is “sticky bun.”
Top eating experiences:
1)The hamburger fit for my king.Some good burgers at Cool Cat Cafe. The menu said:
Remember watching the Cartwright's on Sunday night? If you have the appetite of Hoss and Ben, then try your chops on this. Three burger patties (yep, that's more than a pound of beef) all loaded up on a French roll with mayo, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, sweet Maui onions and thousand island dressing. Juice will be dripping down your arms.
I read:“Remember the Cartwright’s? Blah, blah, blah.Sweet Maui onions and thousand island dressing. Juice will be dripping down your arms.”SWEET, that sounds like my husband.At some point I realized that I had ordered Kevin a pound of hamburger with the fixingsplus an order of onion rings.It was a beautiful thing and he ate it all.Patrick ate the onion rings. Can we get a crown over here?
2)KING CRAB LEGS: prix fixe no less, we’re all in, dutch.Patrick harassed our waitress until these wonderful shellfish found their way to our table.I did all the work, we shared in the bounty.Does he like crab legs or does he like the idea of crab legs?We’ll never know….
3)Sushi of course: The only problem with this sushi is we only had it once.See what mean parents we are?And yes, Keith loves sushi, his favorite are kappa rolls and tuna rolls.Patrick has a new (?) obsession with octopus.We had a really nice waiter who waxed on about having kids and the wonders of being a parent.Always a nice little reminder when you are stuck in a restaurant with a two-year old.He also had a funny little schtick when Patrick was pouting.“Call Nine-Whine-Whine for the WAH-bulance.” heh, cheese.
4)Dessert for dinner via room service
What can top off a vacation?Dessert delivered in bed for dinner.Mine would have been perfect if two boys didn’t agree on the level of its perfection.Chocolate cake with chocolate ice cream and coffee... $11We’ll order two next time.
5)The pig at the luau (or the Shirley temples if you are a Callahan boy)
We had a blast at the Drums of the Pacific Luau.The Callahan Boys had their first sips gulps of Shirley Temples (it’s vacation, what are you gonna do?).Keith mostly focused on his cherries, Patrick was in sugar heaven.
Our suitcases came back a full 8 pounds heavier… And so did we.
