:::Twinners:::

I'm so glad my little Molly was born. Now I know what my kids would have looked like.

She's my mini me.

I also love her because she's funny and a bit of a diva. Well, maybe we're the same in that respect as well.

Date: Friday, April 1, 2011
From: Sarah
To: Me, Elizabeth, Mom

Molly just saw me organizing my digital files and said, "Oh that's me and Rebekah."  I said, "You and who?!?" and she said, "You know, you call her Rebekah."

:::Up In the Air, Flat On the Ice:::

Thanks to everyone for the nice comments on my last post!


Yesterday I arrived in Texas at 8:30 am. That means that my flight from DC left at 6:00 am, which means that I had to be at the airport at 5:00 am, which means that my cab had to come at 4:40 am. Mark my words -- I will never take a 6:00 am flight again. Amen.

The movie shown during the flight was 'Up In the Air.' It. was. fantastic. I might even call it the best movie that I've ever seen. The acting from the entire cast was superb. The writing was wonderful, realistic, and well-paced, and the directing was just perfect. It changed my life, which I was not expecting, and you might not expect based on the plot of the movie. I still can't figure out exactly why the film impacted me so much, but it did and I'm so glad I could see an edited version of it. I only wish it wasn't rated R in real life.


Last night we went to Scott's first 'hockey' lesson. Really, it's just a hockey skating class since they have to pass three prerequisite classes before they even attempt playing hockey. Watching his beginner class skate was one of the funniest things that I have ever witnessed. The kids were dropping like lead zeppelins all over the place.

Scott was struggling a bit because he's never been on the ice before, so he got to use a special PVC walker to help him along the way.

That only upped the comedic factor a million fold. You should have seen him shuffling along the ice with his little helmet on. My stomach muscles were sore from laughing so much.

He was having a great time with it and thought it was hilarious every time he crashed and burned.

All of the coaching staff is from Australia (are they related?), and are so nice. The head hockey coach called the boys 'men' each time he addressed the group. 'Come on, men! Get up!' 'Come on, men! We can do it!'

Towards the end of the lesson the assistant coach took The Little Master's walker away and tried to make him skate on his own. I think he picked up on the fact that the Master was developing a strong affinity for his cool toy and wasn't seeing it as a temporary learning tool.

More comedy ensued. This is Buddy 'skating' towards the wall on his own.

While we were watching Scott's class there were a few ice skating classes running on the other side of the rink. Sophie said she wanted to learn how to ice skate one day, so my sister took her over to the information desk to learn more about future classes.

The next time I saw them Sophie was lacing up to join a class that was also meeting for the first time that week. She was over the moon that her dream had been fulfilled so quickly.

She had her fair share of falls as well, but Sophie is one of those kids who pulls on your heart strings all of the time, so her spills were more Tiny Tim sad and less Lucille Ball funny.

Molly was surprisingly well-behaved the entire time. Thank heavens.

When she wasn't running around the bleachers she was petitioning to be held so she could see her siblings.

Gold star for sticking out an hour of practice, Momma.

:::A Hair Wig:::

Oh my goodness.

I have to post this essay that Sophia wrote about beauty. It was entered into a district-wide contest, and she won a ribbon for it! An actual ribbon, not just a participation ribbon!


I read it this morning and simultaneously laughed and cried my way through the whole thing. Mostly I laughed because it's so 100% Sophia. The best material is found in the section about Gramma losing her hair and having to wear a "hair wig." Priceless.


The Good Things and Bad Things of Beauty

Beauty is something that people like to see and something that people like to be around. My Gramma is someone that I like to see and I like to be around. She is beautiful.

My Gramma is nice to me and I love to see her. When she comes to visit, she likes to play with me. She likes to read stories to me and sing “You are My Sunshine,” when I am going to sleep. When I visit Gramma in California, I like to go to the beach with her and find seashells and catch waves. Sometimes, we get too close to the moving waves and we have to run really fast from them. Sometimes, my pants get wet and Gramma has to wrap me in a blanket on the way home. We keep our seashells in a jar in her backyard. They’re always there when I visit. At Gramma’s house, I have a pink room and a princess bed. There are a lot of toys there and Gramma sits with me on the floor to play with them.

My Gramma had cancer and that is the bad part of this story. It was sad because we couldn’t do fun stuff anymore. Gramma’s cancer medicine made her tired and sick. I couldn’t visit her and she couldn’t visit me, and she couldn’t talk on the phone as much. There are more sad parts. Gramma didn’t look the same anymore, because she was bald. When you have cancer, the medicine that kills the cancer makes your hair fall out. It made me feel sad because she didn’t look like my Gramma. She didn’t look right. She didn’t look real to me. She had to wear a hair wig, so it wouldn’t seem like she was bald to people. At night when she was sleeping, she wore a soft and fuzzy blue hat, like long wool, to keep her head warm.

Even though Gramma looked different and couldn’t do a lot of things with me anymore, inside there was the same Gramma. She will never be different inside. She will never be wrong inside. It’s the same Gramma that is still beautiful to me. She still had love for me and there were still things we could do together. She still sang to me, but she had to do the singing on the phone. She still listened to my stories about fun stuff that had happened. She still had good ideas of things we could do together when she felt better.

My Gramma is someone that I like to be around and someone that I like to see. She is beautiful to me.


What a great kid.

Before I read this I wouldn't have guessed how fully she had processed my mom's cancer. I knew she knew about it, and my sister was really straightforward with them and didn't use any euphemisms when describing what was going on, but I was still surprised by the impact it obviously had on her and how much she still remembers her feelings and what was going on during that time.

That's what really got me. I hadn't expected her to remember so many details about living through that time period. For some reason I had assumed that it would quickly become a hazy, distant, childhood memory.

Now I want to know what her thoughts on me are. I do know this much, at least. The last time I was there I asked her if I was going to get married and she said, 'Um, no. I don't think that would be good for you. You need to do other things.' Hee, hee. There you go.

:::Molly Videos:::

I forgot that I had these two videos to post of Molly from my trip. The first video is Molly and I greeting the morning. The second is of Molly reprimanding Bruno, their new dog. It's her new favorite past time.

:::Dallas Arboretum:::

On Saturday I got on a plane and flew to Texas for a one week vacation. The flight was smooth sailing the whole way. I got an aisle seat, sat next to a woman who slept the entire time, and bought a cheese and cracker tray. I am easy to please.

As a point of interest, many aisle seats on planes have arm rests that can be raised. Did you know that? There's a little silver button on the inside of the arm towards that back that unlocks the arm and allows you to push it up. Very useful information that I figured out through observation and trial and error.

As soon as Sarah and Don and the kids picked me up from the airport we went to Taco Bell (oh, how I miss it), then drove to the Dallas Arboretum.


It is a beautiful and well thought out space filled with flowers, trees and a lot of greenery. The kids had fun looking at all of the storybook houses that were on display, but the main attractions were anything that had to do with water.


This giant frog was a favorite of everyone.


And so was this little pond, as well as these cool waterfalls.


It turns out Scott can take some pretty decent pictures. Sarah is going to print out the photos he took there and display them as part of their primary talent show.


I had to photograph my Keens in the first outdoor/rugged environment I've ever worn them in.


They're as ugly as original sin, but truly are the best shoes ever.


I had the brilliant idea to rent a wagon for $5 so the kids could sit down if they got tired. I thought it was funny that most of the time they didn't want to be in the wagon, but would rather be walking around. Kids. Towards the end though when their little feet started dragging we were glad that we got it.


We followed a few paths and wound around the grounds for awhile just looking at different plants and watching the kids play in every water feature they could get to.


This koi pond wasn't my favorite. Do these fish scare anyone else? I don't know what it is about them, but they have frightened me since I was a little girl.


Unfoooortunately, I didn't get to take all the pictures I wanted. Turns out that when you're watching three wandering and active children (even with three adults) you don't have much time to contemplate and set up photos. Who knew?


We also saw four or five brides there taking wedding photos. Sophie loved looking at them, and I couldn't help wondering how incredibly hot they must have been in their heavy satin dresses, thick makeup, and petticoats on.

When we couldn't take the heat anymore we finally left and went to Sonic (yes!), then headed home. I'm really happy to be here, but I'm dreading going back to DC because I think I've finally reached my limit. I just feel done. This is going to be the hardest return I've ever made.

:::texas 2009 -- favorite memories:::

1. getting to know the new kid on the block.



2. being in a family.

3. seeing corn double its size in under a week.




4. giving buddy his 'omus pime'.



5. talking about things unrelated to work.

6. making problems all better. i printed this picture off for scott, and ten minutes later he came back to me bawling his eyes out because the terror, er, molly, had nearly ripped it in half.


so i printed out two new pictures. problem solved, no more tears.



7. seeing the kids be lulled to sleep in their car seats.


8. being able to talk to my mom in person again.

9. taking multiple self-portraits.




10. spoiling.



11. kissing boo-boos, real and imagined.



13. hearing scott call my sister 'muther'.

14. watching my sister adeptly do sophie's hair in the morning. the traditions of 'lean forward!', tight pony tails, and mandatory ribbons continue.



15. finding that i could still rock a baby to sleep, carrying sleeping kids in from the car.



11. becoming a stage mom during sophie's play, being agressive about photos.



13. the fact that the kids were always so excited to talk to me, tell me things, share things with me.

14. getting snacks and drinks for them. i love feeding children.



15. playing. scott came up to me at random points and yelled, 'scottie attack!', then would tickle me for a few seconds before yelling, 'auntie bekah attack!', and run away expecting quick reciprocation.

16. being loved so much.


and that's the end of texas.

:::about buddy:::

1. he lives wholeheartedly.

2. he loves the transformers. he has never seen the movie, he only knows about them from a happy meal toy he got, but he l-o-v-e-s them. bumblebee is his favorite.


3. yellow is his favorite color. before bumblebee, he loved greg, the yellow wiggle.

4. he can be naughty, but he has a completely innocent soul.


5. he wants to be loved.

6. he is destructive. he is a boy.


7. most people don't 'get' him, i think he may have frustrations ahead of him.


8. he has a special relationship with molly. every time she wakes up from a nap, he greets her with sweet greetings and loving questions -- "did you sleep well, mama bear? i love you mama! how are you mama? you're so cute, mama bear!"


9. he has the longest eyelashes in the universe.

11. he loves his male relatives. he thinks he belongs in california with his papa.

12. he is a great dancer.

13. he is a bottomless pit. he always finishes his dinner.


14. there is a direct and open path to his tender heart.


15. he likes to pretend he's a robot.


16. today, you would never guess that he was a whining, crying, screaming, clingy, difficult, migraine inducing baby.

17. he loves talking to strangers.


18. he loves to say prayers.


19. he is the second grandchild, first grandson, first nephew. he is my bosom buddy and my best pal. i love him more than i ever thought possible.