Giant houses and mini cars, fast and fun

Christmas morning logan comes down the stairs boisterously cooing, "Ava  look at that giant doll house! its HUGE!"  Ava was in love as soon as she saw it.  Logan was not as easily impressed with his mini racer until he drove it outside.  The entire living room was overflowing with a surplus of presents.  Each kid including my nephew damien had their own wrapping paper.  My kids were all in different colored snow men and damien was in santa paper.  The kids all had a blast tearing through their presents while periodically stopping  to take things out of the package play and move on. The gets woke up at 7;25a.m.

All the grown ups were up till 3 wrapping building and organizing so that christmas would go off with perfection.

We put out cookies and chocolate milk for santa with the kids before bed.  We made reindeer food an sprawled it on the lawn and then the kids went to bed.  They actually went to bed in their own beds.  This might be the one night a year they actually do that.  Once they were asleep we went to work.  I had been staying up wrapping presents every night that week.  I had not slept for days.  The kids in bed we went to work like the elves that we are.  We even swept up the reindeer food and disposed of the cookies and milk. My mom got breakfast ready for the next day.  We worked and worked.  I set up the presents for the best possible display.  I had to set them up so that they had optimum appeal.  They needed to have to wow factor.  I needed to be able to feel the joy coming out of them that morning. 

The morning was a blast and the afternoon was even better.  We went outside and logan got to experience the true joy of his toy.  He tried to ride it inside to start but ended up in the dining room table.  He almost was over it but we got him back on it outside.  He never wants to get off of it and just rides around the cul de sac endlessly. 

I know that things will never make them happy but I love that I can make them feel special.  I love that one day they will be orchestrating christmas for their kids and think about how much we put into it and how much joy they remember having.  I know this might just sound silly but it is my purpose to do things that show them how special and amazing they are to me.  I have been told that I am an "alpha mom" and what not in negative ways but I am not ashamed.  I am the best mom to my kids that I can be.

consumer whore-ish

I have been on a constant search for christmas presents for my kids and family.  I need the right things to make sure they know i love them or believe in the fantasy or something along that line.  I also just have to admit I am a consumer whore. I know its not hip to want to but things for your kids and what not but what can I say.  I love it when they have the stuff that all the  other kids have or want, when other kids are jealous over what my kids have.  I also love the thrill of the hunt.  I enjoy getting good deals and finding the toys that are impossible to find like the ellusive zhu zhu pet. 

The thing is i have had a blast searching for zhu zhu pets and what not.  I have spent way too many hours in front of stores in line waiting for doors to open and a tv or cameras or zhu zhu pets to be doled out.  I have made fantastic memories with my mom and best friend.

We went to get the new four pack of zhu zhu pets because well at this point we needed them.  Ava said she just wanted the pink one and so we sat and waited and waited.  Annike, my mom and I waited starting at eleven p.m.  We got situated with our chairs and starbucks and scrabble.  Toys r us had been bombarding the world with advertisements for zhu zhu pets and the paper had just done an article on them that morning. So we were prepared for a long wait and a long line.  We were the line...so far.  we set up our blankets and drinks and peed before the store closed at midnight.  People kept passing us and asking why we were there and making whatever comments they needed.  Some of those were ncouragimg some were snide none of them mattered we were having fun.  We bundled up in our snugglies that we bought while waiting in front of target for black friday, our comforters piled on top of that.  My mom had her scarf covering her head like an old polish grandmother. 

We three all bundled played scrabble for the rest of the night.  We played a total of three scrabble games alternating who won.  I actually win a game.  I know dyslexic me actually won a game.  The wind kept blowing us and the pieces but we managed.  Annike obsessed over how I could park the van to block the wind, which I did after she tried.  It helped, a little, well at least it made us think we were warmer and not focus on the smell of the trash can next to us.  I never realized how competative Annike was.   We could of finished at least two more games if we timed my mom and her.  They would take so much time trying to configure the perfect word for the most amount of points.  There is something deeply satisfying about beating them when I just don't care as much.  We finished our last game as a weird well very odd woman walked up at about 3 am.  We knew that we would never actually get up in time so staying up was a better option for us and way more fun.  I wish that woman would of stayed home longer.  Shortly after her two people that were much more like well hipsters came up and rolled there eyes with us at her.  The line started to build and the humor started to flow.  the doors opened and we all got what we needed. 

The thing is I have friends that think I am just plain bananas for doing all of this.  I do it for so many reasons.  I don't have a lot of money and want to be able to give my kids everything they want.  I shop around and start early to stretch every dollar.  I live for that moment of them coming down the stairs on christmas morning and cheer joy and excitement overwhelming them.  I love the squeals of glee that they can't control.  I also got to spend time with my mom and best friend without children where we just got to be and play and talk together.  It was fun, so if that makes me a consumer whore like the man driving around toys r us screamed st us from is van then fine I will whore it up next year too!

blog post

sorry i have been so busy lately but i have almost six blogs I need to finish and post and will soon.  The holidays have been a lot.

Holiday show...Logan went on stage!

Two years ago logan cried that someone was going to hurt him and we had to leave.  He cried until we left the auditorium.  He was so afraid.  It broke my heart in so many ways.  I was trying to protect him from all the pain, but he was deeply in it.  He cried for weeks after every time he left me.

We have spent the last two years trying to build his sense of security.  Last year he stayed in the auditorium but would not go on stage.  He has become afraid of so much.  The last month he has been telling me that he can't wait for the Holiday show.  I was not going to get excited until he was on the stage.

He was so excited to sit with his friends. Ava skipped on stage in her beautiful pink part dress and crystal hair bows that Gaga made her.  Logan was with his friends dancing and singing his heart out.  He looked so grown up in his button up and cords.  They were smiling.  It was fantastic.  Ava had her hands in her pockets swinging her dress around.  They were so happy.  I was so proud.

It took us so long but he was so amazing.  I teared up but could not cry.  It was in public.  It is these moments that I realize how much he lost.  We are so lucky to have the time to help him find his way back to good.  I am so lucky.  I am so insanely lucky.

two years ago...

Tomorrow will be the two year anniversary of the day I lost five people I loved. The world has never been the same.  I have never been able to look at people the same, to trust people fully again, but more than anything I miss my friends. 

It was a Friday and i was sitting in a circular booth at a local resaturaunt with my mom, grandma and two small children.  We were planning our day bickering over nuances I needed to buy a gift for a friends daughters birthday on Saturday.  She was turning five and shared my husbands birthday.  The kids were being rambunctious as young children tend to be.  We were ordering food when my mother got a call.  It was a friend of hers calling to say that something crazy had happened at hospice and she needed a ride.  She told my mom two women that worked there were murdered.  I knew then.  I begged mt mom to call back, I needed to know what their names were.  I already knew, I needed to hear out loud, I asked about the babies.  I needed to know, what I already knew.  The room stood still.  I looked up and everyone was gone, the room was so large and I was so alone.  It felt like I was a t the center of a fish hole lense.  I called a friend and simply asked, "Are the babies gone?" she said "yes".  I do not know what else I said to her.  I just know I was no longer in my own skin.  I was at the center of the lense, I could her mumbling but I was lost in my own terror.  They were all gone.  How could he of killed them all.  We no longer needed to buy that present, she would never be five.  My heart was beating through my chest as I screamed out in pain.  I was alone and they were gone, how do even begin to process this?  How do I tell my children? I had to call people, I had to know this was real.  I called up a friend who just lost her wife.  Her daughter just witnessed her mothers murder.  I had no idea what to say.  She never answers her phone why would she answer today.  She answered and apologized for not calling me earlier, I just told her that I loved her and that I was there.  I don't know if you ever know what to say.  I then had to tell my son why we would not be going to a birthday party the next day.

I had to protect my own children now.  I cold not tell my young son that a man that he loved and trusted, a man that pulled him out of a pool killed his two children, killed two adults he loved and then himself.  I could not tell him that a daddy could kill his own children.  I told him that there was an accident and that all these people were dead.  He had just lost his grandfather a couple months earlier.  He was only three.  I never wanted to shatter that bubble of innocence that young children have.  He said ok.  He asked about the party again, i had to tell him that there was no party.  He hugged me and went on playing.  I thought everything was as ok as it could be.  I was not ok, not even close, either was he.  We spent the next weeks forgetting our Christmas preperrations to go to funerals and memmorials.  Logan would not go to his Holiday program, he just cried.  He became so afraid of everything.  The break from school I thought would do him good, did not. 

When school returned he would scream and cry that someone was going to hurt him, he needed me to protect him.  I cried with him as his loving teacher hold him close.  I knew I had to send the message that school was safe, but I cried everyday leaving him.  I did not know if I believed that he was safe without me.  I did not feel safe.  How could I judge people, I trusted the man that just did this.  Logan was becoming engulfed in fear.  He was so sweet and innocent and loving.  I was hurting so much and so was he.

It has been two years now and logan went to a movie with friends without me on friday.  He was scared but brave enough to go.  He was so proud of himself for going and I was so proud of him for confronting his fear.  Tomorrow on the two year anniversary is the holiday show again and Logan is excited about going on stage and singing.  The past four months he has been coming back into himself and growing in leaps and bounds.  I am so proud and sometimes so sad, when I look at him and realize how much he lost.  He has grown so much.  It is beautiful how children can heal themselves.  I try to take this time and hold the gifts I have in my life close, to remember to tell people that I love them.  My heart still breaks when I think of how Drea would sing to Logan, and Olivia would play with Ava wanting her own baby sister. I will always hold my memories in my heart.  I will hold the people left behind in my arms and in my heart.  One of you doesn't like to return calls in a timely manner, you know who you are and you know that I love you still.  These were the people closest to me when I was starting my family. 

I miss my friends. 

Highschool revisited...best date ever(my ava dava do)!

I went to see the Nutcracker ballet with my mom, my 3yr.old, Ava my best friend Annike and her daughter, my niece Maya.  Annike's 6yr. old son Liem was in the ballet.  This performance happened to be at my old high school that is also a high school for the arts.  I did not anticipate how surreal this was going to be.  I pulled up at the school after rushing there from work in the pouring rain.  The school has been completely torn down and rebuilt.  I don't know if I expected it to still be able to feel my way around but I couldn't.  At the time it was oddly familiar.  The way everything was run was the sam the faces were just different, well not all of the faces. 

I remember walking through my first day of freshmen year with Annike and now here we were again, with our kids, ten years later.  I think that has a lot to do with it.  How has it been ten years since I graduated from high school.  I know that I am not old, yet.  It is just so strange.  I feel so much like that same awkward girl and yet it feels like a different life ago. 

It was amazing to watch my precious and beautiful little Ava glow with joy while watching the dancers.  She sat on my lap in the third row starring, still and quiet.  Ava is not ever really quiet or still so this is why I knew that this was important for her.  She loves to dance.  She is very serious about it and loves to make her body move. It is amazing to watch your child see everything that there heart wants to do.  It makes me want to take her more dance performances. I want to open her eyes to all the possibilities of the art she already loves at such a young age.  I remember loving to dance but she seems to have a passion and a gift for it.  I am looking forward to see where this glee and love takes her.  That little dancing pixie has my heart.  She is so beautiful in spirit.  Ava will pull my face into hers just to kiss me. She needs to be close physically with me.  It sometimes drives me crazy.  i think that if I hear that cartoonish "mommy" called at me to pick her up or come close and sit with her I will scream. I know that one day way to soon she will want nothing to do with me so I do my best to cherish her love and sweetness, even when i want to pull my hair out. 

She is so sweet and gentle and strong and bold that I sometimes forget that she is only three and so much still a baby.  I am so much still a baby trying to figure it all out.  This is what i was  galloping through my brain as I watched Annike walk out of the school with a kid on each hand disappearing into the rainy parking lot.  So much has changed since the first day of high school and yet so much still feels the same.  One day I will stop being so insecure.  It is coming especially regarding my children.  I am at least sure of that, my children are fantastic and I do have something to do with that.

minnie mouse gave my daughter a mullet

My kids are allowed to each pick one friend to give a present too.  We give them to relatives and that one friend each.  My daughter chose her new friend from school Lily.  Lily is spunky, sweet and insanely adorable with a side of mischief.  Ava wants to get her an asian looking styling doll, Lily is asian.  She said that she has a doll that looks like her, a tinkerbell, so lily should have one that looks like you.  This then made me laugh hysterirically.

Ava had her first playdate with out me about two weeks ago.  I asked all the right questions.  Do you have a gun? No, good. Does your pool have a locked gate? Yes, Good!  I had nothing to worry about.  I forgot one question that I had no idea I needed to ask, Does Lily know where the scissors are? The answer was yes.

I came to pick Ava up after a couple of hours.  Donna and I were sitting on the couch listening and watching the girls giggle in Lily's room.  It is so great for Ava to have a friend and not just be dragged around to big brother Logan's play dates.  We were just talking about how they always liked someone to go to the bathroom with them, when the girls went into the bathroom together.  They were giggling for about two minutes when we heard the water turn on.  That was our cue that something was wrong.

Donna and I came rushing into the bathroom to a scene that made us want to laugh, scream, cry and look to each other for how to react. I am just getting to know her and want to scream and cry, so I laugh.  Ava is sitting on the counter in a snow white costume with her beautiful golden curls strewn around the room punctuated with long black hairs.  Lily in her Minnie Mouse costume scissors in hand burst into tears.  They now know what they have done and worse they were in trouble.  Ava looks in the mirror and cries that she looks like a boy!  Donna and I laugh.  I can not exclaim enough how awkwardly funny about this situation.  You could not write  a funnier situation.  It looked as if edward scissorhands got drunk and decided to cut some hair.  It was hilarious as long as i pretended it was someone elses kid! I cried myself to sleep.  The next day I went out and bought clip in real hair extensions.  Ava gets to have fairy hair and I get to pretend my daughter does not have a mullet.

This is why I laughed when my daughter decided that Lily needed a styling head and thanks to disney fairies we were able to get one that look asian like.