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Meera had pureed prunes for the first time last night. She loved it!(as always, click on photo to enlarge)
the J-M 3 this morning,watching a re-run of Obama’s historic victory speech in Grant Park last night
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The boys slept together last night in Owen’s bed. They were sleeping soundly in there as Braydon and I watched the television, astounded and teary, as Barack Obama won the 2008 presidential election fair and square. My thoughts were all over the map, but kept coming back to my boys. Words cannot describe what it means to a black boy’s mother as we watch this unfold. The significance that Barack Obama’s mother was white is also not lost on us here in the J-M household. After nursing Meera around 2:30am, I checked in on my boys. They were both lying on their backs, fully outstretched, with their arms wrapped around each other’s. I stared and tried to pour the message into their little minds through the universe in the night: ‘He won my babies, he won. You will wake up to a new day.’ This morning Kyle was quick to ask, “Who winned Papi?! Who winned?!” ‘Guess what guys?!!! Barack Obama is our president!! PRESIDENT OBAMA!!!” They (Kyle especially) literally jumped for joy. They were concerned about McCain. They were worried he was sad. We talked about what it means to win –and lose– fair and square. And what it means to concede. Then they ran to tell Meera, just waking up in her crib. “BarackO winned Meera! He winned as president!!!” We turned on the t.v. in the kitchen for the second day in a row. This time to watch BarackO as President Elect, and to get glimpses of the next First Lady and two little girls with “beautiful brown skin just like us.” These images are so powerful. To say that this is profound is an understatement. At three different moments this morning I held each of my children in my arms and whispered to them, for the first time ever, what I now actually do believe to be true: “My baby, you can be anything. The sky’s the limit now. You can be anything you want to be.” The barrier has been broken. It is not all peaches and cream. There is struggle to come. There is a long road ahead. But we have turned a corner. Today is a new day.
Our voting place is within walking distance of our house, so we all strolled down there this afternoon to cast our votes for BarackO. Kyle voted with me in one booth and Owen voted with Braydon in another booth (while Meera kept watch to make sure nobody was peeking– see photo below!). They had a “Kids Voting USA” station set up next door. It was a great thing. So, K & O got to officially vote for BarackO themselves— which was way cool. A good time was had by all (including all the lookers-on… we were quite a scene). NBC news just called Pennsylvania for Obama, and just like everyone else in the world Braydon and I will be glued to the t.v. all night long waiting to see how this turns out.
Growing up my parents had a big burlap banner that hung on the wall of the cottage we lived in all summer at the camp my parents ran. The banner said, “Children are the world’s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future.” I can’t look at the three photos below (taken this morning) without thinking of that banner.
The boys are sporting their “BarackO” shirts today and have a pretty decent grasp of the basics of a big presidential election. Here’s what they know: a) the president is the “boss of the whole country,” b) the country we live in is the United States of America, c) we elect our presidents here by voting, d) voting means you choose which person you want to be president, e) voting is important, f) not every country designates their leaders this way, g) here in the U.S. people 18 and older can vote [they are –understandably so– very perturbed that children can’t vote], h) today we are choosing between Barack Obama and John McCain, i) our family wants BarackO, j) it is very exciting and Mommy and Papi are all revved up about it. If only it were all that simple. There’s a lot more for them to learn in the years to come… obviously. The magnitude of this historic moment in our country’s past-present-future is pretty much lost on them. But I hope that someday they’ll ‘get it.’ In the meantime, they are pretty pumped up about the parts of it they do ‘get.’ And they know ‘it’ must be huge because we actually turned the t.v. on this morning and had the news on while we got ready for breakfast (the t.v. is basically never on while the boys are awake). Later today we’ll be bringing them with us to vote so that: a) they can see it in action, and b) so that we can always tell them that they came with us to vote in that monumental election when –*HOPE*FULL*Y*– BarackO became president and a corner was turned in our nation’s history. BARACK THE VOTE PEOPLE! OBAMA FOR CHANGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
the J-M 3 watching the election coverage closely
I’ve been meaning to blog about this, and unfortunately it is one of the many things that has fallen through the cracks this past month. But I just don’t want to leave it out entirely because it was a really big deal for the boys that I don’t want to be forgotten along the way. One day in early October when we were driving home from school Owen started talking about how he wanted to have a play date. Since the boys are in separate classrooms I thought it would be a great idea to have each of them pick a friend to have over after school one day. I asked them who they wanted to each choose from their classrooms. This launched them into a lengthy and vibrant discussion that basically centered on each of them listing off all of the kids in their classes. We talked about it and talked about it the whole ride home, but neither of them could narrow their choices down to just one friend each. Eventually Kyle said, “I have an idea! Let’s have a big huge giant play date!!!” Owen jumped right on it. “Yes! Yes! We can invite everyone!!!!” At first I thought, “No way!!!” but then I thought, “Hmmm… why not?!” So we made the invitation over that weekend (the boys dictated to me as I typed it up on the computer), they helped me get the invitations all set (Owen water-color painted the envelopes and Kyle stapled directions to our house to all of the invites), and we put them in everyone’s mailboxes the following Monday morning. The RSVP’s poured in that week, and that Friday we had 25 kids over to play after school! It turned out to be a beautiful afternoon. I bought cookies and cider and bottled water and made a pot of coffee for the parents. It was a crazy crazy big, huge, giant play-date and it was a lot of fun. Kyle and Owen were in heaven.
the invite
Monday morning, ready to bring all the invitations to school
ready for the play-date
fun!
Kyle with his best friend from school, Edmund
holding Meera was definitely a big hit with all the girls, especially these twin girls who are good friends with K & O
the back yard
at one point I counted 16 kids on the trampoline… K & O were in their glory!
The boys have been getting in trouble a lot lately for ‘talking back.’ The other day Owen was in a mood and he had talked back a couple of times. I said, “Owen! I’m so tired of this talking back!! Where did you learn this anyway?!?” Right away he said, dead serious: “I learned it at June’s house. Her house is yellow.”
I was tucking Kyle into bed the other night. After prayers and talking about the day I was telling him how much I loved him, etc. I said, “Kyle, my baby, I’m so glad that I’m your Mom.” He looked up at me with love in his eyes and said, “I’m so glad I’m your grandson.”
Owen is thinking a lot these days about being “grown up.” He often talks about how he wishes he was “grown up” and about all the things he’ll do when he is “grown up.” I could list endless cute quotes from him on this topic. Two of the most recent best are: (to Papi–) “I wish when I be grown up I can be you.” & (to Papi & Mommy–) “When I be grown up I am going to order you guys something really nice in a big box from the box truck!”
Watching an episode of Dora about ‘things that make you happy.’ Dora and Boots were talking about the things that make them happy. I said to the boys, “Guys, what makes you happy?” Without thinking for even a second Kyle said, “Meera!”
Owen and Kyle were putting on their rollerskates. For a long time they couldn’t do it themselves, but I watched as they did it entirely on their own. I said, “You guys are good at that!” Owen said, “Yes we are! That’s because we were born in Haiti!”
Kyle is still sure that when he grows up he wants to be “a traveler.” Yesterday during breakfast he was talking on and on about it. He has grand plans. One of which is: “When I be sixteen years old. Wait, no. When I be seventeen years old, I will be a traveler. Me and Owen and Meera will go on a big jet plane, just us by ourselves, and we will go to Connecticut. Wait, no. We will go to New Hampshire. And we will go to MorMor and MorFar’s house and Mommy and Papi will stay home. And me and Owen and Meera will go skiing!!!!!”
The boys were playing with Meera in the kitchen as she sat in her swing seat. They decided they needed to go to the playroom to get a toy for her. As they were both running off, Owen shouts back over his shoulder to me, “Mom, will you keep an eye on her? Because orka whales are coming and babies are afraid of orkas!”
I’ve mentioned before that the boys have expressed numerous times that they seriously think that Meera has “brown skin.” I keep thinking that they’ll start to lose this notion, but they continue to bring it up from time to time. The other day Kyle says, “Mom, I’m so glad Meera has brown skin! Since you’re her birthmother I just want to say thanks for making her have brown skin Mom!!”
A few days ago we were coming into the house from playing outside and the boys were covered in mud. Before opening the door I said, “O.k., I want you two to go straight into the laundry room and take off all your clothes before we go upstairs for a bath.” Owen very dramatically says, “O.k. Mommy!! I will go straight inside and take off all my clothes! But I won’t take off my hair! Because it is attached to my head!”
Recently Kyle was telling me how sad he is that our pool is now closed for the winter. I was talking about how exciting it will be when it opens again in the spring. He said that when it opens he wants to invite his friends over to swim (which is something we did often this past summer). I said, “Who will be the first friend you want to come over to swim with you?” He thought about it earnestly for quite a while, and then very seriously said: “Michael Phelps.”
Owen’s prayer, before bed, a few nights ago: “Dear God, I don’t like acting up. I don’t want to act up. Why do I have to act up so much? Amen.”
The boys continue to be semi-obsessed with the whole pregnancy-birth-birthmother thing. Their seemingly infinite questions about these topics are on-going. Sometimes just when I think they are really starting to get it, they say something that indicates that they clearly are not. The other day Kyle says to Braydon, “Papi, were you born out of MorFar’s belly?”
This morning the boys insisted on moving their chairs so that they could be as close as possible to Little Miss as while they all ate their breakfast. cereal for K; applesauce for M; french toast for O.
We put Meera in the baby backpack for the first time today. She loved it and spent almost two hours in it happy as can be at Peace Valley. Peace Valley was really, really beautiful today with all of the foliage. This was the first day in over four weeks that we’ve had a chance to spend a whole day with just the five of us. It was a much needed Family Day. And what a great “S” Day it was.
This was the first year the boys drew the faces they wanted onto their pumpkins. Kyle’s pumpkin is left, Owen’s in the middle. Meera’s is on the right– since she couldn’t choose for herself I asked K & O what we should carve on hers– they wanted Meera’s to “be a heart.” They love the whole idea of jack-o-lanterns, they just don’t have the attention span for them… so as usual I ended up carving them. But they sure did love taking the tops off, pulling the guts out, and getting the seeds all ready for roasting…
Sweetness. Since she goes to bed so early, we decided she wouldn’t be dressing up for trick-or-treating this year… she’s got the rest of her life to do that. Plus, no need to dress her up as a princess since she is a princess to all four of us all day every day around here. Here’s Little Miss Princess Sweetness on her pink Bumbo throne, up after her afternoon nap, ready to join (observe) the action of the Halloween festivities. Her brothers adore this girl. And this girl adores her brothers. 
We had a gorgeous Halloween day.
Kyle plants pumpkin seeds in the back yard.
Owen and Meera.
Meera had green beans for dinner. She then retired for the evening. She was sound asleep by 5:40. Just in time for the boys to get their costumes back on (earlier they had worn them to school too) and get ready for trick-or-treating…
The end of their night, checking out their loot.Thoughts, The Day After
When K & O were 1, our first Halloween, it was just so incredibly fun. I simply couldn’t imagine that Halloween could get any better. But the year they were 2 topped it. And I thought that was it: Halloween could never be more fun than when they were 2. Then last year, when they were 3, it was the best. But last night, seriously, last night was the best Halloween that there could ever be. These boys are just so much fun. Gosh darn do they give us a run for our money— they are non-stop every.single.day. and they are TOUGH. They are not times two, they are exponentially more challenging as two. Four year old active willful spirited boys can be a handful. These two are off the charts. You can’t let your guard down for a second. And the past month has been hard with them. Everything that we’ve had going on has really taken a toll on our boys. They’ve been pushing our buttons and trying our patience and bringing us (well, just me really) to tears. But nights like last night… those moments… they just make it all so very worth it. These boys could not be happier, more excitable, more fun-loving, life-affirming boys. Trick-or-treating with them is like trick-or-treating on Cloud 9. They make everyone around them feel good. And to be able to be their Mom on a night like that. Well, it is just an honor and a privilege and just plain pure bliss. “Look at the stars!!! THE MOON! We’re trick-or-treating Owen! We’re sooooooooo lucky Kyle! Good thing I ate my carrots Owen cuz I can seeeeee innnnnnnn theeeeeeeeeeeee daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaark!!!!!!!!!! ME TOO KYLE! Look! Look at me run! In the dark! I can run so fast! Like the wind! WAIT, stop look! Look at the beautiful tree leaves! And look!!!! A PUMPKIN! They have a pumpkin at this house! We have pumpkins at our house! We love pumpkins! TRICK-OR-TREAT! TRICK-OR-TREAT! TRICK-OR-TREAT! We’re princes! Island Princes! We were really really for real born on an island! I love chocolate! THANK YOU HAPPY HALLOWEEEEEEEEEN! Mommy, let’s walk on the grass! It is dark! THE MOON! THE MOON! The moon is RISING! Look at all the stars!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT A BEAUTIFUL NIGHT! What a beautiful sky! Owen look at the sky! I know Kyle, it is sooooooo beautiful Kyle! We are so lucky! Mommy, I love you! You’re the best mommy ever in the whole wide world! Kyle, you’re the best brother ever. Owen, I love Halloween, and I love you my brother!” Honest to goodness, these are verbatim quotes and it was just like this the entire, entire time. With the volume turned up as high as it could possibly go. House to house to house. Leaving ear-to-ear smiles in their wake. Yes, much of the time, these boys are so bad, but oh how they are sooooo good. So bad but so good. So, Halloween 2008… the day after I’m left thinking that surely for real this time there is no possible way that any Halloween could ever possibly be better than the year they were 4.
More photos below (click here)~~
The boys out grew their golf clubs and I had to get them new ones. And now that they are a little older, I couldn’t simply get new clubs, I had to get the beginner bag too (sheesh). The package arrived yesterday in a box truck that was white (this fact is important to Kyle).
This morning, Kyle was so excited about them that off we went at 8:30 to the Lehigh University Golf complex for some driving range fun.
There are no distance markers on the range, but safe to say Kyle is hitting it about 60-70 yards now. He’s struggling a bit with keeping his focus, but for goodness sake, he’s only 4. Owen is turning into quite the putter. From extended distances he can pretty easily and consistently 3-putt; which is about where I am.
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