Chris turns 21!

Christopher turns 21 today.  He is the only child who has lived under our roof with every sibling.  Other than a few months at a time none of the other older siblings has lived with their younger siblings.  When Ella was very young he made her call him "boss" which she still calls him.  There was a a time when that annoyed me and now it's just kind of funny.

                                                           Happy Birthday Chris!

Other Centered Santa

Most years Ella and Jacob have seen Santa at our foster son Robby's group home.  This Santa is different than other Santa's.  He 's very other centered.  He does let the kids tell him what they want for Christmas, but also talks about giving to others.

Jacob got on his lap and Santa asked him if he'd been good.  Jacob hesitated and Santa looked at Ella - let's ask someone who doesn't know you  - knowing perfectly well they were siblings.  Ella didn't seem sure how to answer - she hesitantly answered, "yes to the has he been good question."  On the way home Ella explained to Jacob that Santa doesn't expect perfection.  She continued that he's really just expecting more of a 50/50 good to bad ratio.

Santa then asked Ella what she wanted and she kept hedging with I don't know.  He said, "Let's put it this way. What would make you happy?"  She said, "Mom I thought I have everything that makes me happy  - friends, family and comfort.  He gave me two choices.  I could either write him a note asking for something for myself or I could give up my request and he would get a toy for someone who doesn't have any.  I was thinking maybe I could do both.  Something small for me and something for someone else."  I love that she was giving it so much thought.  Seemed like character building on her part.

Now on the other hand Christian totally reenacted a scene from the movie "Elf".  When Santa walked in he excitedly pointed and shouted, "I know him"!  A good time had by all.

In Sync - but not the band

Yesterday it was very hectic here, not especially unusual I suppose.  I was running in the door after dropping Ella off at soccer practice and Mark was slicing mushrooms while he had something outside on the grill.  He said, "Can you take over?"  "Sure," I said.  Our Melissa was standing in the kitchen and commented on our ability to, relatively seamlessly, take over each other's duties when needed.  Mind you it's not always seamless and I have a tendency to think my way is better than however Mark is going to do it, but generally we are in sync, shall we say.

It's a good reminder that the easy rhythm we have in our marriage wasn't always there and I need to remind our young married kids that this too will happen for them, but it takes time.  Sure we still get on each other's nerves and step on each other's toes, but the practice of every day living does cut down on those times.

Years back a good friend who also had been married for, probably 25 yrs. at that point, said the thing he would most miss if his marriage ended was the history they shared together.  How true it is that no one else has been there for all the experiences we've enjoyed and sometimes endured together.  There are so many expressions or jokes we repeat or stories we remember that no one else shares.  The longer we're together the more memories we gather.  Well, now I'm just depressing myself because like it or not someday there will cease to be new memories to share.  With the household of kids we're still raising one of the rare times we argue it's over who gets to go first - Me first - Me first!

Callie is 11!

Our Callie girl is 11 today.   She loves the Katy Perry song "FIrework" and it fits her. There's a stanza in it that reads "You don't have to feel like a waste of space - You're original cannot be replaced - If you only knew what the future holds - After a hurricane comes a rainbow"  Then the verse which is belted - "'Cause baby you're a firework - Come on show 'em what you're worth - Make 'em go oh, oh, oh - As you shoot across the sky."

Every time I hear this song I think of Callie and am grateful for the little firecracker she's become.  I'll admit we're still often in the hurricane stage with her, but she shows her rainbow side on a regular basis and we were often unsure that would be the case.

Nearly every day she awes us with something new.  This year will be full of Callie hurricanes and rainbows which is what makes life so very exciting and challenging.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY CALLIE!

Wow - summer must've been busy!

I can't believe I haven't posted since the end of June.  Summer's are pretty busy, but full of things I wish I would have documented.

The funniest, in retrospect, thing that happened involved Callie - of course.  She had been having an exceptionally impulsive day.  Mark and I had only sat down to rest for a few minutes when we both realized she wasn't in eye sight.  Mark started walking towards the family room which is one story off the ground and saw things flying towards the window, but didn't hear a sound.  He realized the window was open and there was no screen and she was pitching virtually the entire contents of our family room out the window.  As he started running towards her saying, "Callie, Callie, Callie,"  she started throwing as fast as possible as to finish what she had started.

It was one of those times when what she did was so enormous it was laughable - even in the moment.  It was, however, beastly hot and not much fun to make her pick it up and haul it back into the house.
The girl may have a point - I'm in a bit of a pitching mood myself - if only to avoid her calling my attention to the fact we all have too much.  Putting it neatly in bags before hauling it outdoors is a lot easier.

Day 3 State Special Olympics

We had to be there earlier Sat. and got a closer parking lot spot.  I was hoping we could just swiftly go up the bridge and into the field without Callie getting too freaked out about the buses.  No such luck.  She tried riding Austin's, our helper for the day, back but was having trouble staying on.  As we neared the bus she kept saying - not by the bus - on the bus - like the field trip.  She jumped on the bus and all was well.  Apparently to her being in the monster is better than walking by it.  Definitely an analogy of some sort, but I was much to tired to connect the dots.

Callie had her long jump and as she has done at every practice she jumped once then again and again in the pit to the end.  She had an audience by the second jump who found her "style" adorable.  Then, for some reason, she only jumped once the last time.  She took a silver, which was awesome.

Christian had his 200 meter run first and really ran the whole way taking a gold medal.  Then took a gold for the 50M.  Really surprised us all as he is usually pretty cavalier about his running.  He was really proud of himself as well he should have been.

Our first state meet was exhausting and stressful, but I'm glad we did it and we will do it again.

Day 2 - Minnesota Special Olympics Meet

Today Callie had her 100M run.  The walk from the parking lot to the field was very stressful for Callie.  There are school buses for shuttling people and city buses as well as general traffic noise.  All of which is completely overwhelming for Callie.  She is terrified of the buses - she fears their loud breaks, their unexpected starting and stopping.  It took everything we had to get her safely up and over the bridge.  She finally made it, but was clearly stressed out by the experience.

 Thankfully she remembered the Boogie Tent - the place where dancing happens.  She did the macarana, the hokey pokey and Surfin' USA - with every song and dance she relaxed.  It was also mascot day - there was the Saints baseball team mascot, the Wild's mascot, McGruff, some others I didn't recognize and her favorite - Buck the Swarm mascot.  The Swarm is our pro lacrosse team - her big brother, a big fan and player of lacrosse,  would have been proud.  In true Callie style she put the mascots together in matchmaker style and brought people in to dance along.

She was ready to go when it was time for her big race.  I watched several other races as I waited for her to line up for her race.  Finally it's their turn and Callie and our friend Julie follow the group into the arena, then across the field and I was perplexed - why are they crossing the field when the finish line is clearly right in front of me - the cheerers are right in front of me.  All of a sudden I realize that she is going to run her race on the other side of the track.  She is going to run the race that we had worked so hard on.  We worked on conquering her fear of the starter gun or even the whistle - we talked and talked about staying strong - not crying or falling down or clawing the track due to her anxiety.  I panicked that I was going to miss this race that we had all worked so hard on.  I jumped up, grabbed my camera and while repeating - you've got to be kidding me - all the way around the track I ran trying to get there in time.  I wanted that first race on video so we could celebrate it over and over.  I realized there was no way I would make it in time.  I could tell she was running well, but not what place she took.

Immediately afterwards she went to the awards ceremony.  We anxiously waited to see what place she came in.  Hallelujah she was 2nd - she appeared to be the youngest by far, but she came in second.  We were all so proud of her.  As Julie and I talked about it we realized that it was very likely she ran well because she was on the far side of the track - away from the cheerers and all the observers.  In retrospect it was a good thing for Callie and after all it is suppose to be about her and her ability to overcome - not my need as a mom to fulfill my desire to madly cheer for our girl who is an overcomer and continues to be an overcomer.  Oh, I was cheering - it was just a quieter more inside type of cheer.  Yeah Callie!