Miracle League

Pacey had his first Miracle League baseball game today. Apart from a very brief foray into soccer when we first moved to MN, this is the first organized sports team we've signed him up for.

I sometimes wish Pacey could just play baseball with all the other little 6-year-olds around here. I believe in his inclusion in the community and feel like reasonable accommodations can be made in certain scenarios such that he could participate and feel good about it.

But for now? Pacey needs someone to play baseball with him. And the fact that this league is available, a league where it doesn't set him apart to have someone run the bases with him and remind him of his job as third-baseman, is awesome. He gets to have a buddy - today a young men's team from a local private school was volunteering - who helps him understand, truly be a part of and enjoy the game. He didn't have to be the only kid who had their mom (or dad) trying to help keep their attention on the game amidst all the other stimuli. The kids had a blast and although I fully accept (cynic that I am) that these teenagers are likely largely fulfilling their college-application need to volunteer, I hope that they got something more out of it. They were kind, respectful and really did a great job of helping without overshadowing.

All in all, it was a day of smiles and feelings of achievement. WIN.

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Four Years Minus 10 Days

Oh this girl. She alternately tells me I'm the best mom ever to live with, or the most boring mom. She has big ears (figuratively speaking) and unwittingly calls me out on occasion. Her little-kid speech patterns are rapidly disappearing, enough that I've stopped correcting. I want to hear her call us the Harris Fal-imy for a bit longer.

She picked out the above outfit entirely from Pacey's closet. Well, except for the socks. She apparently likes to wear two different ones "so I can remember which one goes on which foot!" What you can't see is that the outfit is completed by a pair of Shrek briefs, worn backwards of course (why don't they put the picture on the front?!?) This was the day I was taking her for her state-mandated Early Childhood Screening (where they identify any areas your child could use intervention to ensure kindergarten readiness). It was terribly difficult for me to not make her change, but I didn't. She loved the outfit and I can tell it made her feel good. So, whatever. The examiner complimented her profusely on her enthusiasm, cooperativeness and general good-nature (and my girl is a smarty pants). Although my two children score very differently on these standardized tests, I hear equally complimentary things about their participation, willingness and manners and I could NOT be prouder of either of them.

When she sleeps, scrappy blankie wrapped around her face, 17 books open around her and more often than not a few stuffed toys also keeping her company, she still looks little. Her cheeks have a little baby-curve left in them and her pouty little lips look the same as the day she was born. But the rest is disappearing so fast (in other words, the time is right to bring a new baby home!!!)

Age three has absolutely had its challenges, but on the whole I have enjoyed this year with her immensely.

27 Weeks

Hellloooooo third trimester. This is the point at which you feel like you're comically huge but then you do some simple subtraction and realize there is still so much more growing to go. Though I'm almost looking forward to Hedgehog getting a little more cramped in there so he can simmer down the bopping around, especially in the wee hours of the morning.

Must stop taking photos first thing in the
morning. Not doing me any favors.

Also, look! Sun! We've had a glorious 72 hours of sunshine and I'm in a forgiving mood: Minnesota, you're still alright.

We went to a Twins game on Saturday afternoon, our first of the season. I was reminded of how unusual it was for Pacey to be so attentive and well-behaved at sporting events starting at age 2. Brighton was...a challenge.

Ready to catch a foul ball, mom

Before the whining started

This kid was made for sporting events

Hopefully there will be another house update to come this week...due to a moisture issue in the stucco in the last house (that wasn't revealed to us until the purchase agreement had been signed), we had to walk away. We've had an offer accepted on another house and are really hoping everything proceeds as planned. If you feel inclined, keep your fingers crossed for us!

10

Have you seen the movie In Good Company? It's a favorite of ours around here (well C and I anyway) and we frequently refer to a particular exchange between two of the characters. One (Carter Duryea) is a young 'superstar' that comes into Dan Foreman's company and replaces many of the older employees. As he starts his new position he's in the process of a divorce; the implication seems to be that the marriage didn't last long. At one point Carter engages Dan in a conversation about marriage:

Carter Duryea: Dan, you seem to have the perfect marriage. How do you do it?

Dan Foreman: You just pick the right one to be in the foxhole with, and then when you're outside of the foxhole you keep your dick in your pants.

Carter Duryea: That's poetic.

It's a little crude, sure, and keeping my "d*ck in my pants" is not something I've ever particularly worried about in making my marriage a success. It's the first part that I identify with..."pick the right one to be in the foxhole with." 

10 years ago today Chris and I stepped over the threshold into the foxhole of our marriage. It seems nearly impossible to believe in so many ways. I can't believe we were such relative babies when we got married. I can't believe that we met under such improbable circumstances and had the faith to stay committed through some difficult obstacles. I can't believe how many challenges we've faced together and how much the vast majority of those struggles have strengthened and cemented our relationship. And yet, I think both of us, if asked, would prefer to focus more on the significant number of lucky breaks we've had along the way. We are fortunate to have the family and friends we do, fortunate to have had the opportunity to build this little family of ours. 

Being married takes work, for sure. It seems crazy sometimes that our culture considers it normal for two people, often from wildly different backgrounds and at a young age, to commit to one another through the various phases of life, encountering any manner of unexpected bumps along the way. I don't take our relationship for granted, and I continue to vow, as I did 10 years ago, to hang in there through the rough parts and enjoy the good ones, however mundane they may be. 

Here's to many more decades together in our foxhole, honey. Happy 10th anniversary!

Three Things

We have this really basic (read: lame) board book we got for free somewhere that has about eight pages, each with a picture of an animal on it. For some reason, B has been picking this particular book as her last-one-before-bed story lately. I got a little bored with it tonight so I asked her to tell me three things she knew about each animal as we turned the pages. For those of you with three- or four-year-olds, I highly recommend this as an amusing activity. My favorite was the rhinoceros:

1) They have horns
2) They poke other animals with their horns
3) They sometimes have runny noses (?)

***

In keeping with that little anecdote, here are three things about each kid, lately.

Pacey:

1) The other day he went ahead and confirmed what we all suspected was the truth anyway: "Look, it's Daddy! Pacey's favorite!"

2) He has just started developing an interest in good guys/bad guys, largely due to the recent movie Wreck-It Ralph. It's hard to tell just how much of the concept he understands, but he does a hilarious evil "Mwah-ha-ha" laugh when he's being the bad guy. The other day we were killing time at a sporting goods store and decided to fit the kids for new bikes. Brighton hopped right on one with training wheels and started pedaling up and down aisles. Pacey has had a harder time mastering pedaling and he was getting a little frustrated with it, and with his little sister being more proficient. At one point Chris was helping him down an aisle and he pulled up alongside Brighton who turned sharply and toppled off her bike. Pacey pedaled right by her with a "mwah-ha-ha" under his breath. Now, I don't condone this sort of malicious delight in another's misfortune but my GOD it was hilarious and I know Chris and I were both having a hard time not laughing out loud (B was fine).

3) He absolutely cannot resist babies. We were at the pediatrician today and there was a two-week-old baby in her for her first check-up. I had to physically restrain him because he so badly wanted to hug and kiss the baby. Man was he pissed at me. I suspect our baby is going to be extremely well-loved-upon.

Brighton

1) The other day she started singing, "too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my shirt," and I about fainted dead away. I eventually figured out that she'd picked it up from a Shrek spoof of American Idol where Prince Charming sings that gem from Right Said Fred. Frankly, I'd be less bothered hearing the f-bomb come out of her mouth than I was hearing her sing about being sexy!!

2) She has recently made friends with an eight-year-old girl who has speech therapy right after Pacey. Chloe, the girl, also has Down syndrome and it makes me happy to see that Brighton accepts her for who she is and doesn't appear to notice any differences about her. Every week she looks forward to playing in the gym with Chloe while we wait for Pacey to finish up, and she's even asked me if she can invite Chloe over.

3) She continues to be extremely excited about the baby and tells every single soul she encounters that her mommy has a baby brother in her tummy. At this point I am VERY relieved that her questions about how the baby got there were limited in scope and easily addressed without too much detail. Or I suspect we'd be having a lot of seriously uncomfortable conversations with strangers.

Notes for a Hedgehog

I haven't been feeling awfully motivated to take photographs of myself lately, but the belly continues to grow. It's funny how different this pregnancy is mentally...there is so much else going on day to day that I haven't been focusing on it as much. Not to mention, we won't be settled in a new house until a few weeks before he is born so it's not like I am painting nursery walls and folding tiny laundry yet.

But, in the off chance that one day my son will be able to put aside his horror at ever having been anywhere near my uterus, I wanted to record some things about this time for him to look back at.

* This is by far the most active baby I have ever carried. I'm on my feet and moving enough of the day that the second I sit or lay down he is walloping me. There's still obviously enough room for him to change position quite a bit and I've started to see parts poking out randomly. Feeling a growing baby moving around inside you never gets any less amazing and weird.

* I have no doubt that Pacey will take the baby's arrival in stride with his usual adaptive grace; for now he's generally pretty disinterested. Brighton, on the other hand, couldn't be more excited. She tells EVERYONE we meet that her mom has a baby in her tummy and it's a boy. She is so looking forward to being a big sister and I think she's going to be a great one (they both will).

* In addition to announcing his existence, Brighton loves to inform people that her baby brother's inside name is Hedgehog, but that we don't know what his outside name will be yet. That always gets a raised eyebrow or two.

* Speaking of which, I think we've settled upon a name. We'll have to take a quick peek on delivery and check that it suits him, but I doubt we'd do a last minute 180.

* I love how much a part of our lives he already is. The kids talk about him, Chris and I muse about what he will look like and be like, and he is part of our planning for life in the future (heck, we're buying a whole house for him!)

* The only thing I'd really characterize as a craving is the one I have for Jazz apples, cold from the refrigerator. I have eaten pound after pound of them. It must be Jazz, no other variety will do (don't talk to me about Honeycrisp, yuck!)(yes I could be exiled from MN for saying that). I'll have to save a sticker from one for his Baby Box (my kids don't get baby books, just a Tupperware container into which I stuff things I think they'd like to see one day (nothing biological in nature)).

If you'd like to send out some good vibes for us, we're hopefully under contract on what will be our new house. Inspection will go forward this week and although we aren't anticipating any deal-breaking surprises (who ever does), I'm having a bit of a hard time trusting this thing so think happy house thoughts for us!

Lately

Sometimes I find myself not blogging because there isn't really anything happening that's worthy of prioritizing time at the computer for.

This is not one of those times! Things have been so crazy and busy around here...an update by way of bullets:

* I'm 25.5 weeks and am pretty sure I'm carrying a future kickboxer. Hedgehog is a mover and shaker. Everything appears to be going fine and I have reached the point where everyone feels comfortable assuming the girth is due to pregnancy. I love how excited people get about babies being born.

* We finished the updates in our house: re-carpeting over half of it, replacing some other flooring, replacing cabinets and countertops and painting the kitchen and dining room, overhauling the master bath and countless other small projects.

* We put the house on the market on Friday evening, before the granite was even fully installed. Chris was still plumbing the new sink in at 9:00 pm and was out at Home Depot at 7:00 the next morning.

* We spent all day Saturday exiled from the house for 10 showings to potential buyers. At 6:00 pm we had an offer that just exceeded our asking price, which we accepted.

* We looked at each other in bewilderment (recall, if you will, the house was on the market for 60+ days last summer with one too-low offer) and realized we better find ourselves a house to move into!

* A whirlwind tour of nearly every available property in the surrounding areas commenced. At this point I feel certain we've seen everything that meets our criteria currently on the market. After a few houses? They all look the same. Also, I strongly do NOT recommend house-hunting if you are pregnant and have an acutely increased sense of smell. Even houses that don't smell bad just smell TOO MUCH. And the people that had several different varieties of rodents in cages in the bedrooms? Ugh. I took to just holding my breath as I peeked into bedrooms because I just couldn't deal with the smell of PEOPLE.

*We have a short list. A very short list. There is really not a lot available to buy right now.

* The house inspection on our place was this morning and I had the very awkward experience of encountering the potential buyers. In my house. When I was not expecting them. The inspection was due to go from 9:00 - 12:00 so Brighton, Huff and I made ourselves scarce til 12:15 when we picked up Pacey and came back. To find the buyers here with their agent. Soooooo awkward. Real estate transactions tend to be so anonymous and encountering them this way was just so weird. Anyway, they were a lovely older couple and we chatted for a bit. The inspection doesn't seem to have uncovered any deal-breakers so as far as I know we proceed. And they got to see what the house looks like *actually* lived in rather than staged for showing.

* As of June 26th (barring any unforeseen bumps) we will be moving into a new residence. Hopefully not a rental.

* In the middle of all this I am working on planning for Pacey's next school year before his IEP in a couple of weeks. I had a wonderful meeting with his team, and I was struck again at how hard they are working with me to find the right hybrid educational setting for my kid, who just doesn't fit neatly into one category or another. It's all still a work in progress, but I feel good about where we are going. Also, I really hope that even if we move out of the district he can stay at this school for the next year while I evaluate the pros and cons of moving to our new home district (naturally we aren't considering any that would be cause for concern, but I don't want to give up a great thing too easily).

* I also got what I believe is probably a taste of what age four is going to be last night. Brighton and I (and even Chris got involved) engaged in a throw down. She is getting so sassy and so defiant at times and as much as I like to pick my battles, you do actually have to fight them before the war is won and the winner isn't you. We've had a very good six months or so with her, which usually dictates that stormy weather is ahead. Awesome.

I'm sure there is more, but right now the sun is making an extremely rare appearance and even though it's only 45 degrees still, I'm going to go outside for a little Vitamin D. Lest my child be born with some rare and strange complication due to being gestated during the longest winter in the history of winters.