Wednesday August 18, 2010
School is starting one week from today. Apparently I missed the genetic code for Mom’s not wanting to realize their children are growing up on my way down through heaven way back when. I am as excited as Adam! We’ve been shopping for school supplies, packing his backpack, and talking and talking about school. He wakes up every morning and heads straight to the desk drawer to grab a pen and mark off another day on the calendar. I can almost feel that school feeling when the year is just about to begin. The new tablets of paper, the new erasers, the school house that smells super-clean and fresh and ready. It makes me want to enroll somewhere myself.
Yesterday we celebrated by doing a bit of last minute school clothes shopping. Somewhere many monsoons ago, someone chose to inflict school uniforms on the patrons of our school. I’m not a fan of uniforms in the first place, but the colors they chose make me roll my eyes every time I think about it. Light blue button down shirts and navy pants. Light blue dresses for the girls. Drum roll please. Suffice it to say, I should never teach at this school. Often when the boys are sick or particularly grumpy, I give them baths and find the cutest clothes they have. Somehow it makes it easier to be sweet to them. I’m thinking that seeing all that blue day after day after day topped with a child who hasn’t had his fingernails trimmed for a month, sporting a bad sinus infection, and struggling with a Math problem …. Well, I’m just thinking that come February I’d have a really hard time focusing on something positive.
So anyway, we went school shopping. Because Adam’s closet isn’t exactly wealthy in the light blue button down shirt department. But we made it a super fun day to celebrate his coming of school age. David was doing a job run and working at the office so Liam stayed with him for an hour and a half while Adam and I went to the mall. It was so, so much fun to be with just him. We held hands and went quickly from store to store looking at children’s clothes. And since it was his special day of celebration, we skipped the dollar menu at McDonalds and ate pizza at Sbarro. He was perfectly quiet with delight at his huge piece of pepperoni pizza. We talked about school like we seem to do every other minute right now and he solemnly informed me that he is most excited about learning to read. And just because we never get the chance to do treats without Liam, we double-treated and got cinnamon pretzels at Auntie Annes.
Strangely enough, we did not find a single short-sleeved button down light blue shirt in town so I came home and ordered them on Lands End.
Liam cried and cried and cried heartbroken tears when he got back in the car with me. I think he could not believe his luck at having been with daddy because it is always Adam who gets to ride along, not him. He is going to be a very sad little boy next week when Adam goes to school.
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Why do viruses have to plague us in the summer? I got hit with a vicious sore throat, body aches, exhaustion, chest congestion & sniffly nose last night. This morning Liam joined me. Every time he sneezes (which happens about every five minutes), snot shoots down over his clothes and covers his hands. I had full intentions of starting the potty training process today. This was the perfect excuse to push it off for another few days. My body wants to do nothing but go back to bed for two more hours and when I wake, to sip hot tea or something else soothing. Somehow cleaning up streams of urine from the floor does not seem like a good idea. I think we’ll read a lot of stories instead and hope for long naps.
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The boys are totally cracking me up when they talk right now. Liam is the funniest to listen to because his words are so twisted and mixed up and consonant missing he nearly creates a different language. He repeats ev-er-ything Adam says. Everything. And his favorite phrase is, “Oh, pi[t]y [s]akes.” Don’t ask me where that phrase came from. This morning he pulled off one small piece of his honey cake and said, “[l]ook. Oh, pi[t]y [s]akes.”
We all turn into bums because he can’t say the c sound yet. So he walks around saying, “Mo[mm]y bum (come).” He has always been a super daddy baby, but since I took so many trips this summer, I’ve become a little more important to him. Almost every day out of the blue he will run and wrap his arms around my legs and say with delight, “Mo[mm]y bum [h]ome [n]ow.” Home means wherever he is at the moment. It’s nice to feel loved.
Everything is big, big. His eyes got so wide they nearly went vertical when we drove into Virginia Beach and he saw the huge hotels. “Big, big [h]ouse, Mo[mm]y.” And whenever anyone asks him how old he is he says, [t]wo. A[d]am [s]ix.” But mostly I want to just squish him because he is so full of sweetness.
When we were shopping he touched everything from salt shakers to baby clothes and said, “duuuuute (cute) mo[mm]y. Dis duuuuuute. Mo[mm]y [l]ook. Duuuuute.” I gave him his bath at bedtime and he marched down the steps to get his blankie. “Da[dd]y, me dute.”
But cutest of all is the way he always says, “dank oo pees” (thank you please) every single time you give him something. I wish I could just attach a little video camera to him all day and memorialize the stage he is in. Because he is so much fun.
Adam’s funniest thing right now is the way he abbreviates things mistakenly. When we were in Harrisonburg awhile ago he saw a horse and buggy. I explained that there are Old Order Mennonites there who are similar to the Amish in some ways. Since then he always refers to them as “Older Mennonites.”
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Speaking of Harrisonburg, I get to do a joint book signing with THE FAMOUS DORCAS SMUCKER on the 28th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In my wildest dreams I never expected this to happen!!!!!!!!! We’re going to be at the Dayton Farmers Market from 11-1 so please come out and say hello. I cannot believe I will actually get to meet Dorcas!! I’ve been reading her blog for years and if you’ve been reading mine for any length of time, you know I love her. I love the way she has with words … spinning a tale out of ordinary events and keeping you spellbound then setting you down gently and quietly again without a bump at the end. Her writing is tight and tidy and all the raw edges are wrapped up. I love her sense of humor.
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Is anyone else getting overwhelmed with claustrophobia at the idea of summer being over and winter coming? I just want to scream and dig in my heels and say no, no, no. Adam loves winter. He really does, but he says it often just to get a reaction from me. And whenever I fuss he says, “But you can’t do anything to stop it.” So unfortunately true.
Loved this post…Can you believe it, we have kids old enough to go to school????? Today we are going to do some fun things before Gwenyth goes to school.. Do you worry about Adam like I do about Gwenyth going to school?? Maybe I’m weird.
Very cute post! What a fun way to spend time with Adam. =)
Duuuuute post!
When I was in school all the boys had to wear the light blue shirts and navy pants with a tie and the girls had to wear navy jumpers. What is with all the blue? Apparently it’s a national thing.
Glad Adam is so excited about school! Sorry about the virus you caught, no fun 🙁
I know what you mean about wanting to enroll yourself in school. Last week I had to go to school-house cleaning (first for me). I could have just looked and looked at all the textbooks, and stuff. I got all excited.
Hope you get well soon. And happy that you get to do a signing with Dorcas! That’s way cool.
totally cracked up at the description of the kid in february! incredible word picture.
your boys look quite snazzy riding in the car!
Ha. The February kid cracked me up too but is it ever the truth!!! No better then I like blue in the first place, I’d have a hard time with those uniforms too!! Glad Adam is excited for school. Madison is counting down too!
Your shopping trip with Adam sounds so FUN! Can’t wait to do that w/ my Ravi. How time does fly….can’t believe my oldest is ready for K!?!
Happy book signing. Love your enthusiasm.
I hope you all get well soon! No fun being sick in summer (or anytime for that matter!).
And I can just see you “scream and dig in your heels and say no, no, no”. I want to do the same thing, but I wouldn’t be able to do that nearly as well as you. Loved the post & think it’s so cool that you get to have a book signing with Dorcas. I didn’t leave a comment on your site for a very long time, but I want you to know how I totally love reading your posts. Wonder why I did today?
I enjoyed reading about all of the cute things that Liam is saying.
And I’m pretty much with you about my kids going to school…I’m excited for them, especially learning to read. Maybe because I love reading SO much and I want them to enter that world with me.
And yes, I am totally wanting to dig in and drag my heels about summer coming to an end. I feel kind of panicky about it, and like Adam said, there is NOTHING you can do, except enjoy it while its here.
Miss you. It would be so fun to see you again!
I love Dorcas and Michelle both! I need to get to this signing….. exceptt hat it’s sooo far from IN, when do you come here for a joint signing? i’ll be 1st in line!
This post makes me smile. I started read Dorcas’s blog because of you, and I’ll agree. It is certainly worth reading. I love her quote of the day. And her long drawn out account of their greyhound trip was hysterically funny. And I like reading your blog too.
You are just such a great writer, I enjoyed every line! You had me me laughing so much. Which is really a God-thing because of a sudden death in our church that is changing our long-awaited weekend plans, and I’ve had a sad day with it all. So, a laugh was needed!
School uniforms. You crack me up about your kid in February thing! Ha! But I think I would think the same thing, were the colors what you said. Our school does khaki pants/jumpers, and white/navy shits. Not too bad, and people seem to like it. But personally, why not do black instead of navy? I’m not a navy blue person..
Picture of your boys with their shades crack me up! Little brother like to imitate big brother, I can see. 🙂 Loved those little Liam quotes. That is just SUCH a fun age. Just love it!
And YAY for the book signing!!!!
Your lil’ Liam talks ‘zactly like our lil’ Brooke! They are positively in the cutest stage right now! I wanna freeze her sometimes!
The uniforms and the February kid description about did me in…took me back 10-14 years when I taught school. I could almost ‘smell’ my students…ewww! But I LOVED teaching so that wasn’t totally a bad memory.;)
Happy days ahead for Adam and his family! Learning is SO fun!
Fun post! I’m so with you on dressing a kid up in cute clothes when things are rough. Somehow, if they are squeaky clean and have something especially cute or new to wear, it makes them just a easier to put up with! I probably am shallow or something!
I’d totally double treat too if I had never weighed more than you know what my whole life ;(-. Yea, I’m real freaked about it feeling a little like Fall in the air. I just do not want summer to end!
Love the new talking stage too, that’s why I don’t know if I can quit having babies….don’t want to be without a 2 year old 😉
oh….school! i used to get SO excited for school days! i do hope that i don’t have to homeschool kenzie all her life!!
This stage of your life is so fun and exciting… but for us it was also a new stage of life…. actually life changing. From now on everything pretty much revolves around school and that was just something to get used to. You think summer’s go fast now… just wait till next summer… even faster it seems when you know you only have a few short months to have 24/7 with the kids. Loved the way you celebrate his coming of age. 🙂
I never thought i would be a mother who would be soo ready to send the boys back to school… but yeppers, i’m there. In just the last week …. sooo time to get them back on a serious schedule. grrrr. Thankfully they are ready for it too.
Yeah for the booksigning with Dorcas. I’d love to be able to come…
I really like my kids to grow up, it actually kinda aggravates me to see people keep their children aas “babys”.
I looked at the date of the book signing and then at the calendar thinking “yeah i can go” and saw that I have to work:((
Land’s End clothes are great.
And there are a lot of virus’ going around our neck of the woods for this time of the year too. I’ve evidently got what my Dh had last week–and his was Dx’d bronchitis by the Doc . . . I’m hoping and praying to avoid the Doc and the antibiotics he handed out to Dh. . . .
Feel better soon–and I hope I do as well!
Am I the only one that wishes school would not start for a long time yet? I am cheering that they get one more week cause the new school building “isn’t quite finished.” Amazingly we did go school shopping. But maybe it has to do with digging my heels in for winter. I know once school starts, winter is right behind.
Those school uniforms, someone did not have an imagination.
Way to go on the book signing with Dorcas. 🙂 I will put a good word in for her. You’ll love her.
Older Mennonites? love it!
Your kiddos crack me up! And have fun getting all ready for school.
oh.my.goodness. hearing you describe why you couldn’t be a teacher at that school so cracked me up! *raising hand* i’m with ya on that one sister.
have you checked out TJ Maxx. i was there the other day and right inside the door they had racks and racks of navy bottoms and light blue & white tops. must be the uniform colors of choice.
congrats to your big boy Adam. that’s always a bittersweet time when they start school…
and yes on the winter feeling. the nights are getting cooler here and you can just tell the summer days are winding down and it always depresses me a bit at first. once all the festive pumpkins and caramel apples come out i handle it better.. but for now. 🙁
love ya, friend.
Eyes rolling here too. What is with light blue and navy uniforms? Who makes up this stuff? Someone real sore, bitter I’d say, about his childhood experience in school.
What? You and Dorcas? The Michelle and The Dorcas? Together?! Oh my. That sounds all delightful.
Love the learning to talk stage…and each and every funny thing that you shared about it! So.Very.Adorable.
Which is maybe why they survive potty training…eh? 🙂
love ya girl!
Oh those wondrous blue shirts! And potty training…
Am I the only one that would be a fan of uniforms? I c.a.n.n.o.t. wait until next Saturday.. do you think I should spend the night in line to make sure I get to talk with you and Dorcas?
Might have to round up some friends to do that.. be the most fun I had for awhile!!
Yes, I am a fan of my children getting older.. I was so excited when Kendall went to first grade and each of the others also. Now, my third child will be a senior and my youngest will be in 8th grade. This year might be the year, I shed a tear!
Adam and his teacher are going to have so much fun!
@qawzse789 –
Oh, I am SOOOO glad you are coming on Saturday! Stand in line? I doubt it. 🙂
I was soooo NOT ready for school to start this year!! Seems like I’ve had NO summer….when Cody starts K this year, I’ll have 3 in school…time will FLY for you, too!! =) HAGD!!
Hey, hows the first week of school? I’m getting to hang out with Ginni this week, so we’re having a great time catching up. Thats interesting that you don’t care for the uniforms. I always liked it. Altho I got tired of wearing blue all the time, I liked the uniformity and sense of belonging effect that it gave. Especially on field trips. Hope Adam adjusts well to school. I can’t imagine having a child at that stage, but I guess it’ll come before I know it.
@travelexpert –
Hey, Trish!! So good to hear from you! And what fun hanging out with a sister! That’s awesome. Adam is loving school and he doesn’t mind the uniforms. 🙂 Maybe what you said explains why the teachers like it. I cannot imagine wearing the same color to school day after day after day after day. And the colors … well, let’s just say I could put up with blue dresses better than that blue / navy thing for the boys. 🙂 I think it would even make more sense to me if the girls would actually wear a uniform instead of some hodge podge collection of everything from aqua to powder blue to turquoise. Still can’t say I’d like the idea, but there’s my little 1-2-3 on why I don’t. Have a fun week!