The Story of Stuff

I went to an estate sale today.  Usually it's a lot of fun to see what treasures I can find on such an adventure.  However, today, as I walked through this (huge!) house full of someone else's stuff, I couldn't help but feel immensely sad.

Spread out in every room of this house was someone's entire life for droves of strangers to come rifle through.  From stocked up packages of toilet paper to books, shoes, furniture, coffee mugs, trinkets, and  vacation souvenirs, everything was on display and for sale to the highest bidder.  As I wandered from room to room the emotions continued to rise.  Each of these items belonged to someone.  Each had a special or unique meaning.  Each was given or chosen with a purpose.  I wished for a second that these items could talk, to tell their stories.  For example, the owner of this house had a collection of miniature beautiful glass figurines.  I imagined each one being purchased by a grandchild or picked out as a momento on a vacation to Niagara Falls.

What made me particularly sad was listening to one gentleman who was there talking on the phone.  I perused the titles of books in a back bedroom inadvertently eavesdropping while he talked to someone (loudly!) about the value of something he wanted to sell.  He loudly discussed the monetary value of this unknown item while he simultaneously dismantled a mantle clock to find markings or some value to this item as well.

I suddenly felt guilty invading this person's home.  It felt oddly voyeuristic to be picking through their personal items.  So I walked from room to room with my hands in my pockets and started wondering what had happened to this person/people.  Realizing (from the hospital bed, numerous walkers and canes, and electric lift chairs that were for sale) that this must be the home of an elderly couple who had probably lived a long life and had passed away or been placed in a nursing home didn't bring much consolation.  In the cupboards and closets and shelves of this beautiful home was the stuff that told the story of their life.  Each of these items meant something at some point and now it was being pawed through by people who wanted to get a bargain or make a buck.  So sad.  

A Snapshot in Time

Dear Alex,

Today is your 4th birthday.  I can hardly believe the amazing little man you have blossomed into in 4 short years.  You started pre-kindergarten a few weeks ago and today you will get on the bus to go to school for the very first time!  Your excitement to ride the bus with your big brother is infectious!

Time goes way too fast, of course, so I want to make sure to capture all the little things about you that change and disappear so quickly!

 

I love the little "flaws" in your speech.  You speak very clearly and maturely for your age, but it's the little things like how you say your "l" as a "y" (for example, the other day we were walking up the stairs behind Nate and you yelled, "Move it or USE it, Nate!") that I love!!  It's especially adorable to hear you say "upsy-side down" or how you call McDonald's "Old McDonald's".

You are truly my "shadow"...my little "velcro-boy".  It gets frustrating when I have stuff to get done or I'm trying to get out of the house to go to work, but truth be told, I wouldn't trade it for the world.  Bedtime is still a struggle in that you have to be attached to me in order to settle down and go to sleep.  The snuggle time is priceless though!  When I'm heading out the door in the morning, you request hug after hug after hug and will follow me out the door yelling "I love you, Mommy!",  "Have a good day!", "Watch out for wart hogs!"...all while blowing me a hundred kisses and telling me how much you'll miss me.  Truly heart melting.

I love how you tell me "I love you, Mommy...and I never, NEVER hate you!" at least once a day.

You love to build things, create things, and take things apart.  You brought me a toy the other day that had been broken for as long as I can remember.  At some point it had lost a screw and you had found one (somewhere!) and used the screwdriver you got in your toolbox at Christmas to fix it.  Daddy came in one day to find you taking the door latch off your bedroom door.

On one hand you are very independent, wanting to get your own breakfast, help out with dinner or fold your own laundry.  On the other hand you know just where to "play me" and will insist you need help getting dressed, putting on your shoes, or brushing your teeth.

You truly are my sunshine.  You are insanely adorable, charming, and a bit manipulative.  You know exactly how to get your way and how to use your charms for good (AND evil!)  :)

You LOVE to get dirty.  You are always playing ball, digging in dirt, or getting wet any way you can.

You still pick fuzz from your blanket when you're tired.  

You are so funny, silly and goofy and have such a fun-loving, crazy, fearless, monkey side. 

 

For a kid your age, you are very patriotic.  You are often overheard singing the Star Spangled Banner.  You can recite the Pledge of Allegiance in your sleep.  And one of your favorite lullabies at bedtime is God Bless the USA, which you know all the words to.

You are a special little boy, Boo.  I love your spirit and the sheer joy you radiate!  I know we've had our fair share of power struggles this past third year of your life.  I look forward to your 4th year to see how you grow, learn, and (*gulp) change even more.  Remember that you will ALWAYS be my little boy.  Your snuggles will never get old, your smile will never fail to make me warm inside and out, and you'll always be my favorite Alex!  I love you to the ends of the earth!

Too Soon to say Goodbye

Jim Whipple, Jr. - 1991
The way I'll always remember him.
♥

So many words are running through my head tonight.

So many stories, thoughts, memories, fears, concerns, and unfortunate realities are bouncing around in my mind.

So many tears are running down my face.

Words like: "Life isn't fair"..."Only the good die young"...and "true privilege".

Because that's what it was.  A true privilege to have known a man taken from us much too soon.

Today was the funeral and graveside military ceremony/burial for Jimmy, my brother's best friend.  We practically grew up together and his family is one of those kind, caring, loving families you always want to be a part of.  I can not imagine their grief to learn that their son and brother was taken so suddenly at only 38.  He leaves behind two young children who will hold only early memories of a great man they call, Dad.

It was a beautiful ceremony. Touching stories were shared, heart-wrenchingly appropriate songs were played, a community of people (standing room only!) came together to show their love and pay their final respects to a wonderful friend, father, son, brother, soldier, and all-around fantastic guy.  He will be missed (among other things) for his mischievous sense of humor, his beautiful blue eyes, his charming personality, and his kind heart.

Growing up, we used to call him Eddie Haskell because he'd come into the house with a compliment for my Mom, he had impeccable manners and always spoke with yes ma'ams and no sirs, long before the military broke him in.

This poem was read at his funeral and it says so much of what I can't right now:

The Final Flight

Don't grieve for me, for now I'm free,

I'm following the path God laid for me.

I took his hand when I heard his call,

I turned my back and left it all.

I could not stay another day,

To Laugh, to love, to work, to play,

Tasks left undone must stay that way,

I've found that peace at the end of the day.

If my parting has left a void,

Then fill it with remembered joy.

A friendship shared, a laugh, a kiss,

Ah, yes, these things too I will miss.

Be not burdened with times of sorrow,

I wish you the sunshine of tomorrow.

My life's been full, I savoured much,

Good friends, good times, a loved one's touch.

Perhaps my time seemed all too brief,

Don't lengthen it now with undue grief.

Lift up your heart and share with me.

God wanted me now, He set me free.

               author:  unknown

RIP Jimmy
October 29, 1973 - September 14, 2012

photo by Kelly Cook, 2012

A Very Merry Half-birthday

I wanted to post this a few weeks ago on Alex's actual "half-birthday" but was on a train with no internet access at the time.  Since then it's just been crazy and hectic so I haven't followed through until now.  Regardless of its late posting, it's still uber important to capture these fleeting and totally lovable traits about my Digger Fuzz Bucket right now.  This picture in time of my precious (conniving, troublesome, adorable, precious, lovable) 2 1/2 year old is brought to you by, well, ME!

Alex - 2 years, 6 months
(barely) weighs 25 lbs.

Alex (loosely) wears size 18M clothes, size 7 shoes, and may never get out of size 3 diapers.
He's familiar with the concept of potty training but inconsistent with its delivery.

Alex talks up a storm and can say anything he wants in long, complex sentences rivaling those of a literary writer, but he still has some cute versions of certain words like:
"reego"  (yogurt)
"oh-pahs" (apples)
"boff" (garbage)
likes to "pay fains" (play trains)
will ask "is dis/dat?"
"watch dis"
is every bit as animated and creative as his brother
says "far F*ck" for firetruck
"uh, SIR!" (sure!)
"no way!"
he says chicken "POOP" instead of "coup"
Loves berries of all kinds and pretty much calls them all "Boo-bees" - he's starting to make a distinction though with "Back-bees" and "Stah-bees" :)

Alex is addicted (beyond hope!) to his "fway" (pacifier) and must have "ket" (blanket) when he's bored, needing comfort, tired, sleeping, or otherwise just plain sitting still.  He has two that are (more or less) the same and when he demands both he'll ask "where nah won (another one) ket go?" He has the most adorable habit of meticulously folding his blanket up along the edge and then picking at it with his free hand.  LOVE IT!

I love how he simultaneously smells of dirt, baby powder, and syrup...almost always.

He loves to paint and color, mostly himself, but sometimes on paper.  He could spend hours eating playing with play-doh.  And loves stickers.

Every night before bedtime he brushes his teeth and then says "pick one?" which means he wants to pick a band aid from the arsenal of character band aids I've collected over the years.  It usually winds up on the floor or on his bedroom wall to be removed later, but at first it starts out on the "boo boo" of the day...sometimes real, sometimes fictional but always healed miraculously by his bedtime band aid.

He's become "Velcro Boy" lately and needs to be physically attached to me at all times.  Especially come bedtime.  I love the snuggle time but hate feeling manipulated at times.  I keep reminding myself that this, too, is fleeting, and someday (soon!) he'll be pushing me away and telling me to Go! like his brother used to.  I will enjoy every hug, kiss, carry, and snuggle he requests until that time!

Alex loves to dance and will do so whenever the mood strikes.  Whether it be a commercial on TV, a song on the radio in the grocery store, or entertaining friends with a song and dance over dinner.  His favorite line to catch a laugh is "Should be dancin', yeah!" and he'll sing it and wave his arms up and down just to get his beloved Brie to giggle.  It works like magic.  Every time.

Besides dancing, eating, painting/coloring, making a mess, splashing in water, playing in mud, and snuggling with Mommy, I'd say Alex's #1 passion is torturing his big brother.  Oh how he torment poor Nate so.  He'll jump on him, climb on him, sit on him, stand between him and whatever he's doing, knock over a creation, destroy a fire scene, or just haul off and smack him for no good reason at any given time.  He's a little instigator and one heck of a trouble maker!

I could go on and on but I'll leave something for his official 3 year post in September!!  All I know is this boy enriches my life in more ways than you can imagine.  He's my baby, my shadow, my buddy, and my SUNSHINE!

2010 According to Facebook

I posted this last year and thought I would follow suit again this year just to keep it consistent.  Besides, I like the picture into my status updates for the year and what I talked about...Now mind you, according to the application I used to generate this, they used some 13 (or something) statuses of a possible 837 to choose from so this really is just a snippet.  It's fun anyway, though...

Happiness is...

sharing an old classic with a new generation!

And finding said classic at a barn sale for $1 makes me downright giddy!!!  I loved this game as a kid so when I saw this last weekend, I was thrilled to scoop it up and bring it home.  Who knew my kids would spend hours dropping the marbles in the holes, sinking them, and dumping them out again to start all over.  I got the added joy of playing some kick butt games of Stay Alive with my sister this weekend!  Who doesn't love a little flash from the past?!?!

Happy Birthday, Digger Fuzz Bucket!

You've heard of the Dirty Thirty when someone celebrates their thirtieth birthday, but around here it's a little different.  I can't believe it's already been another year since I wrote this, but my little one is turning the "Dirty 2.0" today!!!  And believe me when I say, Alex gives dirty a whole new meaning.  This boy loves dirt.  He loves digging in it.  He loves dumping it.  He loves eating it, swimming in it, even "bathing" in it.  He moves dirt from the sandbox to the garage, from outside to the bathroom floor, even his bed is gritty at the end of a long day.  The bathtub ring that's left over when his bath water drains is evidence enough that this boy loves to be filthy.

For his 2nd birthday, I decided on a "dirt" theme.  Because, really, what categorizes my Alex at this age better than his love of wallowing in grime?  So, I enlisted the aid of a fantastic friend who put together the best chocolaty dirt/mud cake ever imagined!  It was delicious!  And Alex got to make a mess with it which made him ecstatic!  (a separate post and photos to follow!)

Things about Alex at this age that I don't want to forget include:

I love his devil-ish guttural laugh that sounds evil and usually means he's pure trouble and up to no good.

He holds his hand out and says "Sake, Sake" (Shake, Shake) in an effort to be polite and shake hands.

He always says "Bye" and blows kisses when he's off to play, or pretending to leave somewhere.

He has this scary look when he's pretending to be shy or hoping you're not looking where he stares up with his head tucked down.  It's creepy!  If you've seen it, you know the look I mean!

He loves singing songs and dancing.

He's relatively cooperative and listens fairly well.  (See below for why I say "relatively" and "fairly well") .

Right now, his favorite book is Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb

His favorite song is Itsy Bitsy Spider, especially when the rain comes down and tickles him on the face.

He loves dirt and water (see text above and photo below!).

Alex loves eating...anything, all the time.  You can't tell because he's such a peanut, but this kid is an endless pit.

He's in 12M clothes but now that it's getting to be pant and long sleeve weather, it's necessitating a move to 18M for the length in the legs and arms.  His pants are looking a little short.  It looks a little ridiculous.  I recently bought him some Clippos to make his 18M pants stay up, though...very exciting stuff!

He has at least a 100 words and can repeat anything you ask him to say which is a fun game!

Alex could happily swing for hours at a time.  Yelling, "Fast!" and "Up, up, up!"

And he can even swing like a champ, "big boy style" (see what I mean about the short pants/sleeves, though?)

He loves throwing balls (or anything round and ball-like for that matter).  He'll spend hours putting balls in boxes, dropping marbles in holes, or just playing catch.  He's got a wicked arm and mastered the eye/foot coordination to kick a ball at a VERY early age!

Alex is one heck of a climber...he loves to climb and does so swiftly (he recently even climbed up a ladder onto the roof of the house after Daddy, before either of us knew it)

I love the way he says "yes"...very pronounced and with the slightest lisp at the end!

When he writes/draws (which he loves to do) he'll name letters 

and pretend he's writing them...."A", "B"....

He's a snuggler.  More so than Nate ever was at this age, anyway.  He says "Hi, Mommy" when he gets up, points to the couch and says "Sit!"  "You Sit, too!".  I get hugs and kisses every morning and he loves to snuggle in the morning (so much so that I often get a late start heading to work!)

He already has his brother's imagination.  Recently when Nate wouldn't let him play with his puppy, Alex wadded his blanket up, stuffed it under his arm and started petting it, calling it "his puppy".  He'll pretend to hand me a monster and expects me to scream and throw it away, then he laughs, says "More, Mons?" and will hand me another monster to discard of similarly.  

It's one of those things that never gets old. 

When I take his picture, he'll squinch up his face, squint his eyes, and grin, "CHEESE!".  It's adorable, but makes it difficult to get many good pictures of him these days!

Alex loves tic tacs and asks for them all the time.  We have this "game" we play where he'll ask for a tic tac when he knows he can't have one (breakfast, just before bed, etc.) and I'll say "No, tic tac!" so he laughs and says, "Coo-kee?", and when he gets a "No, cookie!", he'll smile and say "Gom!"...to which he gets a "No, gum!", lather, rinse, repeat.  It's cute!

He loves his brother, so much so that he instigates the crap out of Nate and is always in his face.  Nate gets "annoyed" by his baby brother but I can tell they will be the best of friends some day.

He has definitely started those terrible twos a little early.  His frequent use of the word, "No!" is strong evidence of this!  He likes to do things yourself and don't particularly like to share.

Alexander, it seems like just yesterday that you were brand new in the hospital.  

Meeting you this day, two years ago, was one of the best days of my life.

I treasure those first few days together in the hospital.  It was just the two of us, and the bonding opportunity we were given was the best!  I loved that time to get to memorize you, soak you in, and have it be just the two of us before we threw you headlong into our family and the world.  

You are my sunshine, Alex.  You bring me joy in ways I can't explain.  I can't imagine my life without you in it and I thank God for you every day!  I love you, Digger Fuzz Bucket!  Happy birthday!

I'm Remembering

Flipping through an Ltd. Commodities magazine the other day, I came across a "retro" Monchhichi doll that was a flash back to the golden age of my youth.  Ok, so I'm not that old, but still...man, it took be back.  I'll be honest when I say that I haven't even THOUGHT about Monchhichis since probably the 2nd grade.  Believe it.

I posted a status update on Facebook asking if any of my friends also remembered them as I thought it was a bit of an obscure reference and I was bowled over by the mass quantities of people who not only remembered them, but could recite their slogan, sing their theme song, even knew the date of their arrival on US soil.  (Ok, so I may have exaggerated that last part, I think it was actually Wikipedia that told me that!).

Anyway, that conversation sparked a whole other reference from my dear friend, Tiffany, who introduced me to this.  Imremembering.com - only the best website, ever.  Seriously, I'm loving this thing!  All things retro from back when.  Stuff you don't see anymore.  Things that aren't even made anymore.  And if they are, they're just not the same.  Flipping through these photos has waves of memories, emotion, even people and places flooding back.  It's fantastic.  It's also giving me some credence to throw away some of my sentimental kids stuff from back in the 80s since I can just reminisce right here with less storage issues.  (But not before I take a photo of this stuff to share on the website and run a quick check on ebay to make sure these classics aren't worth a fortune!!!)  They even have a Facebook page! 

I'll make you go look if you want to relive your youth first hand, but here are a few of my personal favorites (taken from the website):

 Friendship bracelets.  Who doesn't love these?!?!  It makes me want to break out with my embroidery floss and whip one up right now!  Does anyone have a saftey pin so I can attach it to what's left of the knee of my

 acid washed jeans?

New York Seltzer - my BFF always had these at her house growing up.  In every flavor imagineable.  It was the coolest drink ever.  Even made me feel a little grown up to drink them! 

C'Mon!  Tell me you didn't LOVE the Crystal Pepsi!!

I'd be embarrased to admit I might still have one or two of these kicking around.  

 

I LOVED these!  I had this Glamour Gals case (with the revolving door in the center) and the one in the middle with the red stripes was one of my favorites.  I think her name was Lana or something.  They were fabulous!

 

I was never cool enough to OWN one of these, but they were so cool.  I'd touch people just to leave my handprint on their shirts!

These stickers ROCKED!

Something about these ribbon  barrettes just made me feel like more of a princess.  Perhaps the ribbon hanging down allowed me to pretend I had long glorious locks.

So, go visit the website and reminisce a little.  You'll be glad you did!  (And thanks, Tiffany, for the suggestion!)  I think I'm off to photograph my Major Morgan and Pogo Ball for inclusion on this webpage!