Work In Progress

dear diary:

there are so many things i've meant to share with you, but i just haven't had a moment to spare.

first of all, my eldest turned 13. i know. you're all, "what?! no!!" but seriously, yeah. he did.

it's crazy, and i'm still processing it myself.

he seems to be going through these adjustments of maturity. much more likely to come give me a hug or wrap his arm around me or rest his chin on my shoulder. because my shoulder is lower than his chin. it's like he's realizing that he's growing up quickly and maybe he'd better get some snuggling in while he still can.

he decided that all he really wanted to do for his birthday was have some buddies over for pizza and to play minecraft all night long. which they did. they started some world and didn't quit playing until they defeated it at 6 a.m.

he is also learning to march in band, and i think he's kind of digging it. he still likes band, but whether it sticks into high school remains to be seen.

henry also finished out the high school swim season with a pretty decent showing at jv sectionals. and at the awards banquet at the end of the season, the coach handed out records books to all of the boys. in it are lists of the top 10 swimmers in each age group for every event ... records going back to 1992 ... and henry's name was listed in the top 10 in every event he swam over the course of the season. ie his name was on the list in about eight different events, including taking the #3 spot for the 50 backstroke in the medley relay.

huge accomplishment.

(my kid, without the cap. he won't wear one.)

academically, henry is also still walking that line between making us very proud and making us pull our hair out. when he's on top of things, he's ON. but when he's off and not feeling like he needs to turn things in, we have trouble. however, his ancient civ/social studies class recently took part in the world savvy project, and henry's team's project was one of five from the two local middle schools to participate in the regional competition, held at macalester college.

the boys did a great job presenting their project about ocean pollution and, specifically, the trash islands in the pacific, during the interview process. then they separated into different groups for a roundtable discussion of world and environmental topics. at the end of the day, henry's group scored high enough to move onto the national online competition in may. pretty awesome.

he's had a good couple of months.

harper has also been a busy girl.

she turned eight. (again, "what?? no way!!" but yes. way.)

she is still 110% her own person, for better or worse. no one pushes my buttons more or makes my heart flutter quite so much. she's spectacular. and infuriating.

for her birthday, she also chose to keep it simple, even though the amount of time she spent deciding on her guest list would suggest otherwise. this girl's heart is so big that she wanted to make sure the girls she invited were all friends and knew each other and would have a great time together. in the end, she chose two neighbor friends and her "very best best friend," cecelia.

they played wii for about three minutes, decorated their own cupcakes, drew a gallery full of art, decorated the rest of the cupcakes because they ran out of things to do, and cecelia drew a mustache on harper. and that was that.

speaking of art, harper has become obsessed with drawing. every day, a new stack of pictures appear. typically, she draws mermaids and dragons. or herself in various stages of growth, as a tiny series of paper dolls that she then cuts out and leaves scattered all over the place. one day, she had a president homework assignment and chose to draw three presidents for extra credit: eisenhower, arthur, and obama. and then she added the capitol and a tree for extra extra credit.

she's been taking a class through community education called "young rembrandts," where she is learning actual techniques and how to "see" what she wants to draw. her skills are fine tuning, and she loves it.

she is also becoming rather musical. i think i'm going to sign her up for piano lessons because she appears to have the ability to pick out, learn, and memorize songs on her little keyboard. imagine what she could do with a full keyboard and knowledge of where the notes are! the other day, she came to me and played a song she had taught herself: the "do re me" song, all the way up to "fa," when she ran out of notes on her piano.

crazy.

speaking of music, her school's class concert was last week, and harper was selected to be in the kazoo band. she thought that was pretty great. and played the kazoo most of the weekend.

currently, harper is fighting a cold and is on day 2 of laying on the couch, snuffling and drinking tea and watching "my little pony."

in other news, the kids just had their first-ever snow day. we got a foot of snow - not normally something that would slow us down, but the timing was bad for plows and school buses.

so while henry shoveled, harper dug out a little igloo, made a pantry, and filled it with sunny d.

and while i was taking photos of that, mario snuck out of the front door to see what this "snow" business was all about.

half a second after this photo was taken, his paw touched the snow, he jumped half a foot straight in the air, and ran back in the house. where he belongs.

later that afternoon, harper wanted to check out her sunny d to see if it was frozen.

it was not. but i told her that as long as she was out there, she might as well get the mail, too.

and that's what we've been up to. or, at least, a very glossed over and abbreviated version. but now i've caught you up. and now i can go back to ignoring you for another couple of months.

xoxo

that was pretty awesome

on friday, henry came home from swim practice holding a piece of paper and trying his hardest to not smile his fool head off. he handed me the paper, and lost the fight against the grin.

"i got bumped up to juniors," he said.

only three months in the top intermediate tier, and his coaches moved him on.

he was super proud. as was i.

he was still riding that high on sunday, when he attended a break-out clinic, hosted by his club and led by three olympic swimmers: megan jendrick ('00, '08), matt mclean ('12), and jimmy feigen ('12).

(sidenote: my kid always looks like a giant. put him next to two olympic swimmers who are 6'5" and 6'6" and suddenly henry looks like a kid. however, he's supposed to end up around 6'5" ... which makes my mom heart go apoplectic at the thought of feeding and clothing him for the next handful of years.)

the four-hour clinic started with about an hour of introduction and advice and "what i've learned" from the athletes, during which mclean's gold medal from london made its way around the kids.

i think it looks right at home on henry, yes?

and i totally held that puppy.

it was surprisingly large. and heavy.

the kids were completely into the the moment, and hung on the swimmers' every word.

but then it was time for the fun part: swimming with the olympians.

how many kids get to say they've done that?

for the next two hours, megan, matt, and jimmy broke down the strokes with some training drills, and the kids swam alongside them.

and then it was time for the races.

each kid got a chance to race the swimmers. henry (lane one) chose to swim in a backstroke heat - 25 yards against jimmy feigen (lane four).

jimmy gave the kids a five-second head start, and he didn't go his hardest ... but my kid totally won the heat.

and got a high-five from jimmy.

and a head-pat.

and i think henry was floating after that.

the final heat was a 25-yard freestyle race, which henry was also invited to swim in.

now, i've been to the olympic trials before. i've seen these athletes swim In Real Life. however, unless you see them in a regular-size pool with regular kids, you just can't grasp the power these athletes have in them. it was awesome to watch.

the last race was a good one ... and henry swam his heart out.

after the last race, the kids went back into the stands for another half hour of Q&A. megan, matt, and jimmy were charming and patient and great with the kids and full of tips and honesty, and the kids ate it up.

on the way home, henry was fairly quiet. then, about 10 minutes into the ride, he very quietly said, "that was pretty awesome." then he went back to playing on his phone.

yes, it was pretty awesome, indeed, buddy.

where have i been

it's both a statement and a question. because, truly, i'm not sure. october was nutso.

a little of what i know we DID do ...

1. marc and i celebrated 16 years of marriage. we saw "argo" (fan-flippin'-tastic) and had appies at friday's. (meh.)

2. we bought two bookshelves for the basement at world market. because we signed up for their customer perks card thing, we got 25% off ... doing quick math, we realized it would cost just as much to buy these two as it would to build the plans we had devised, minus all the actual work and math involved in building. so, easy decision. well, then the store discovered that they didn't, in fact, have the three in stock that they'd said. they had one. but gave us a raincheck and told us to pick up the other one the next week. that was on october 5th. three weeks of them not receiving the bookshelves in their shipments ensued, and yesterday i finally picked up that second bookshelf. we might have been better off building ... it would have gotten done. whatever. now we have the shelves, and this weekend i can finally unpack the remaining 25 boxes of books in the basement that have been sitting there, giving me the stink eye, for the past 13 months.

3. henry had two more swim meets. he got all of his previously seeded times into A range (ie he did a really good job), and swam a few new events and got A and B times. he is officially the fourth fastest 50 free swimmer on his team and rounds out the A relay teams. he's super proud of himself, as he should be. and later this month he begins swimming for the school system instead of the local club for the winter season, training with the junior and senior guys. he should improve even more over the next few months.

4. we finally made it to the orchard, with one week to spare.

5. steps were taken to make the front room (ie "wii room") functional. i got all of the boxes out (there were still six boxes in there. a year after moving in. it was time.), and we found a nice young family to buy our yellow couch and chair and ottoman, much to harper's sentimental little hoarder heart's dismay. then the room was empty, so we started to populate it with my vision. remember my vision? well, the couch part is now scratched off the list. sadly, that amazing rug went on sale about a week after i decided what to do with the room, and was completely sold out by the time i told marc that evening. wasn't meant to be. so this room is now on the "need to figure out a rug" list with the great room. i found another i love, but it's $5k. not happening. but the room is starting to at least look like a room, so, yay.

just don't turn around.

however, that glorious cabinet from my vision is on a boat from india right now, and marc got a smokin' deal on a tv. so this room WILL BE wii-equipped for thanksgiving. and harper's happy.

6. i was contacted by a home website rep, asking if i would be willing to allow one of my photos of our kitchen/great room space to be used in an article on space trends. i said sure. so that was cool. just wish they would have used the re-shoot photo so the pantry door was closed and the island was wiped down ... and the boxes were out of the wii room. oh well. that's what i get for showing the imperfections on my blog. i guess i need to show cleaned up versions more often ...

7. during all of this, the one-year repairs were taking place at the house. a grout & caulk guy ... drywaller ... plumber ... mr fix it ... painters ... and it's still not done. painters missed some stuff, and i still haven't heard when the trim guy is coming to fix something. which means the painters can't return until he shows up. and november looks insane, so working around stuff will be tricky.

i need it to be december soon. or maybe january.

8. marc turned 39 whatever age this might be.

so, naturally, we got him a boba fett model and three boxes of his favorite cookies, which the kids have vowed not to sneak.

oh, and he bought himself a really big gun. so he'd better be happy.

9. harper learned how to crochet.

or, rather, she begged to learn for three days, she threw fits through an entire day of trying to learn the initial chain, then once she figured out how to do that she spent the next day making chains three feet long and leaving them all over the house. learning the first crochet stitch has been less enjoyable, so she hasn't touched it since. she's a joy.

10. and finally, it was halloween.

("creeper" a la henry, "not quite sure what it's supposed to be" a la harper.)

henry said he couldn't wear his trick-or-treating costume to school because of a "no mask" rule. so then he was trying to come up with something he COULD wear. he debated lots of ideas ... all required more time and energy than i possessed, though he had a genius idea that i wish we could have made work at zero hour: glue flip flops all over himself, carry a binder full of barbies, and go as mitt romney. i love this kid. in the end, he ended up with this for school:

i know, right?

but for the actual halloween event, he wanted to be slenderman. a video game something-or-other. i didn't now, either. but it required a black suit, black tie, and white something over the head and face. it took me 10 days and six thrift stores, but i finally found what he needed for under $25.

then he went to a friend's to trick-or-treat, they went to about 10 houses, then went back to the friend's to play video games. 15 minutes, maybe. totally worth all of my time.

harp, on the other hand, was committed from the beginning to being a peacock.

and she rocked it all day long.

there were a bazillion other things in october, but these were the highlights. november is guaranteed to be just as nutty, but at least we get to look forward to marc's family being here for thanksgiving, and having four days to just chill and enjoy. and we're very much looking forward to the "chill" part.

 

 

here we go again.

6 a.m. alarm = summer is officially over.

nevermind that it's 218 degrees outside with 40,000% humidity, because the kids are once again in school.

i got up this morning and made henry an egg & cheese & bacon burrito (yes, i fried that bacon just for him at 6 a.m. ... hope he doesn't expect that to last.), while he got ready and gathered his things. there were definitely a few more nerves this morning than last year, not sure why. i predict he'll be totally fine by third hour, once he's seen all of his friends and gotten the hang of being in the halls with the masses of puberty again.

i forced him to sit for a first-day-of-school photo ...

and he was gently reminded that i will do that every first day of school until college. and even then, if he stays within a 90 mile radius, i still may show up on his doorstep.

after that, we sat on the steps and chatted for 10 minutes. he was in no rush to go to the corner. we just talked. and it was nice. he's such a good kid.

the bus came, and he left, and i turned around to start the process over again with harper, while marc went back to bed.

instead of a burrito, there were pancakes. (not homemade ... she doesn't like those. they were the mini frozen buttermilk ones from the local market.) and then i made her lunch: chicken and smoked gouda and avocado on a spinach wrap (totally by request) and baby carrots. and there may have been something special put in the lunchbox when she wasn't looking.

and then it was time for a first-day-of-school photo, and she happily complied ...

then she trotted off into the yard to look for bugs and check out the dew on the grass. until the bus showed up 10 minutes early. and no one was at the bus stop. and suddenly all the kids and camera-wielding parents came running.

apparently, no one but the bus driver got the memo.

but by 8:02, they were both gone. an hour later, marc was gone, too.

and i checked the news. and facebook. and read a couple of design blogs. and ate an apple. and comtemplated taking a shower and running to the grocery store. By. My. Self.

i might be sad and lonely later. but by then, they will both be home and be so excited to share all about their first day. and i will get them a snack and listen to their stories.

and then the next nine months will fly by.

time flies

in two weeks, the kids will be sent back to school.

(no, i will not apologize for not boo hooing about that. they need school. i need school. school is good.)

right now, we are trying to find something productive and interesting to do with our days to get us through. we've hit the apathetic level with our days and outing ideas. now, play dates seem to be the big thing to keep it sane around here. there are a few plans left on the docket, but we'll see how things pan out.

however, as i look ahead to harper starting second grade and henry starting seventh, i can't help but think how quickly the past seven years have gone. most days the kids are content being with each other, hanging out, playing on the computer or talking about the computer. (typically, mine craft is the topic of conversation.) and, really, they've always been happy to be with each other.

but i know that may start to come to an end. the gap in their ages - and, to be fair, their gender - will widen in the coming years.

harp already gets weepy when she thinks of henry going off to college and leaving her, but i don't have the heart to tell her that he will probably pull away from her sooner than that.

they may still come together over computer games or whatnot, but the more likely scenario is that he'll continue to get into his own things, he won't want to hang out with his little sister, his schedule will keep him away from us more, adolescent hormones will kick in and he'll withdraw from us (and she will become an even bigger drama queen; god save us all.), there will be friends and jobs and swimming and girls ...

and harper will always be five years behind.

no, i'm not excited to think of the drama of the coming years. however, i know that on the other end of that, they will both become adults, and suddenly the age gap will disappear. and they will be closer than ever.

knock on wood.

i'm just not in a rush for that "growing up" to happen as quickly as it has already.

so ... the "exciting" stuff

the other day i mentioned that the last weekend had been "exciting."

here's why.

remember when i told you about henry's upward trajectory of improvement and involvement in swimming this year? well, a week after that swim meet, we attended the C finals meet. he qualified in a couple of events.

one of those events was the 50 meter freestyle. he was seeded in 32nd place.

then he swam it.

he improved his time so much that he won the event. won. kicked 31 other kids' times out of the way.

so, wow, right?

after that, we knew the summer session was pretty much over. there were the A/B finals the next weekend, which henry didn't swim, and then the state meet at the U of M the following weekend. so we took it easy ... he took a week off of swimming to just chill. then he took a week off for a fencing camp.

well, in the middle of that second week, i got a call from his coach. he said, "sooo ... you know that henry is in two relays at state this weekend, right? we haven't seen him at practice, so i wanted to make sure you knew about it ..."

uh ...

turns out, that 50 free time of his got him on the 200 free relay and the 200 medley relay. and we didn't know about it. and he hadn't been practicing.

so we quick got him in three more practices, then headed to the U at 6:45 a.m. saturday morning.

the atmosphere was amazing. i think henry was truly in awe of the size of the natatorium at the U, and the amount of kids wandering around. he was nervous, but soon he got with his team, did his warm-ups, and settled in.

most of the kids who were there from his team swim in the level just above where henry swims, so he didn't know any of them. luckily, during warm-ups there were some times to be silly and relax. like when all the girls danced the macarena and the boys tried to hide:

(sidenote: people still know the macarena?! huh.)

then practically every one of the 300+ 13 & under swimmers in the arena danced along to YMCA.

not henry, mind you. he may take after his mom in the pool, but when it comes to dancing, he's all his father. ie, he doesn't. but he did crack a smile, at least.

(oh, and how cool is this? the meet was selling olympic caps - with "lochte" and "phelps" printed on them. there were also caps that said "bootsma" ... rachel bootsma is a local girl who just graduated from high school and made the olympic team. all the girls on the team sitting in front of me were wearing "bootsma" caps. i don't know if they swam for her old club, or if the girls were just supporting a local hero. either way, it was fun to see.)

then it was time to get down to business.

i know he was nervous and overwhelmed, and he'd been having trouble with his goggles coming apart at the nosepiece during starts, which made him pretty tentative off the blocks. but he did a great job. and his 200 medley relay ended up placing 10th. (don't know about the other relay ... the results weren't up before we left.)

he was proud of himself, and i think the fact that he even made it to state his first year out put a little extra sparkle in his eye.

and then ... then ... more exciting.

not only was henry a swimming fool that weekend, but harper also had a fun meet at her swim school.

her pool is about 20 yards long, and because it's a school, there was an instructor in every lane keeping an eye on the kids. but that harper ... she swam in four events.

a "50" free ...

a "50" backstroke ... during which she gave me a big smile before as she turned ...

(the kid smiles the whole time she swims. i love it.)

then a surprise "25" butterfly ...

which we didn't know she was swimming, but she got 2nd place in her heat!

and then she turned right around and headed back for a "100" IM ...

amazing. she kicked little kid booty. and had a blast.

icing on the cake is that my mom was in town for a work event, and had been planning to head home on friday, but was able to extend her visit by a day to go to both events. the kids were thrilled. they never get grandparents at any of their events, so i know her being there meant a lot to them both.

it was an exhausting day for them both, but i think the excitement of it all kept them going. my little swimmers.

that's my boy

we are approaching the end of henry's first year as an official Swimmer.

his level of interest and his level of ability and improvement have both gone up sharply in the last 11 months. it's now fun and exciting to see him race and get into it and make friends on the team.

where he had only "potential" last september, he now has documented ability. he's built to swim - long and lean, with huge hands, a massive (for being 12) wing span and flipper-like feet.

at his meet on wednesday, he was in four races - final heat of all but one - and he won all four races. he's gained confidence in his ability and in himself, and that has made all the difference. instead of standing behind the block fidgeting, he now gives himself props when they call his name.

and confidence in himself seems to be all it has taken to push himself more and take swimming more seriously. i get that. i was the same way. it took me a year or two on the team to really "get" what i was supposed to do, and to make enough friends to feel like a valued part of the team, like i belonged there. henry's circle of friends hasn't ever extended outside of school, so this "being a part of a team" thing is a new and important piece of the life pie.

(sidenote: seriously, how good looking in my kid?! that makes me a little nervous ...)

(oy vey.)

he still needs some tweaks, but heck: he's 12. it's his first year. he'll tweak. and if he stays excited about it and interested, there will be swim camps in his future. and he'll have a blast. and he'll make even more friends. and who knows how well he can do in the long run. that's up to him. but i hope that swimming will do for him what it did for me - the self-confidence and self-assurance to carry him through many other aspects of growing up, and a good solid work ethic. and the ability to eat five large meals a day and still have a perfect body.

i need to get back in the pool.

we're still here.

things have been getting in the way of blogging.

truth be told, i'm growing bored with blogging. but i don't really scrap much anymore, so the stories have to go somewhere. so i keep blogging.

just, apparently, not very well.

and right now, the weather is amazing, so i'm getting pulled away from the computer by nice days, bike rides, weed pulling, sitting on the couch by a window that's open and letting in an amazing breeze ...

or by a little girl who asks me to play barbies outside, then she gets sidetracked by chasing butterflies and dragonflies and rolling down the hill ...

(click on the pic and you can actually watch her roll down said hill:)

and then i get sidetracked by how pretty she is ...

then i get sidetracked by boys who trudge across the empty lots to shoot at things ...

and the biggest guy tries to give the not-quite-as-big guy pointers on how to aim, how to stand up straight, and how to please stand up straight, and how to just stand up straight already ...

and then i start thinking about how the biggest guy's only real regret in life is that he didn't go into the military like he wanted to oh so desperately, and that he never got the chance to see if he could have made it as a sniper ...

and then i get sidetracked thinking about how neat our kids are, and thank god that mchotness didn't enlist because then we never would have met and fallen in love and made out and created those kids ...

and then i got sidetracked by mother's day, and the plan to go to the arboretum that was waylaid by a line of cars about a quarter of a mile long, waiting to turn into the arboretum; cars full of families and mothers who, apparently, had exactly the same idea. so we ended up at lake minnetonka, watching sailboats and ding dong people who had no clue how to fly kites. and then i look through the four pictures i took that day and get sidetracked by how giant my eldest is and the fact that he still has, according to his doctor, about a foot more to grow ...

(no, he is not standing on something. no, i am not sitting on something. he's that much taller than i am. shut up.)

and then when i finally do sit down to type something, i get sidetracked by my assistant, who chooses to sit right in front of the keyboard. it's really hard to type with your wrists resting on a cat, and i'm sure it isn't ergonomic. but you do what you have to do.

so i will try harder from now on.

so, we had spring break.

there's this girl

she came into the world yelling and full of personality. she made sure we all knew she was here, and she was going to play by her own rules.

 

 

she's still pretty much just like that.

 

 

she is sweet and creative and funny and full of every emotion you can imagine. and likes to switch it up without warning.

she loves foods other kids won't touch, but she won't eat a bite of pizza to save her life.

and she will go into full drama queen mode if you try to make her.

she could be outside all day, every day looking for bugs.

every book she brings home from the library is either about animals or fairies. and on the first library day of the new school year, she managed to find a book series all about animal fairies.

score.

she and her brother adore each other, and have since day one.

 

 

the downside of that is she's convinced she's a 12-year-old boy, and should get to do everything he gets to do, right down to airsoft guns and burping.

it's hard to believe she's seven already, as of 4:07 this morning. she's still my little girl, and i refuse to accept how quickly she's growing. i know the days are numbered when she'll let me brush her hair and pat her bottom and snuggle up with her to watch her favorite shows: miss spider's sunnypatch friends and how it's made. soon, she'll be an emotional (wait ... she already is), eye-rolling (oh ... she does that already, too), door-slamming (uh ... yup) teenager who intermittently tolerates and ignores her parents. maybe not ... maybe we'll get lucky. i fear the day the boys figure out how gorgeous she is, and fear even more the day *she* figures it out. if i could keep her mud-strained knees, bruised shins, tangled hair, digging for bugs-ness forever, i would.

because right now is pretty great.

and today, as per her birthday wishes, i am having lunch with her at school - arby's ham & cheese sandwich and those "potato things" (??) - and reading "how the grinch stole christmas" to her class, she'll have a possible playdate with a friend down the street after school, dinner at india palace, and a pumpkin pie with candles on it for dessert.

because for all the things about her that are tricky and frustrating, there are twice as many things that are simple and perfectly her.

 

happy seventh birthday, miss harper. love you big.