Well, the results are in.
Photo #3 won by a close margin! You can see it on the sidebar of the blog now! I personally liked #4 and #1 the best, but my mom agreed with the readership on #3, so #3 it is. As promised… here are a few of the rejects. It was very hard to narrow this down to just a few since we have about 50 that would be post-worthy rejects. But here are the top six:
Reject 1: ‘This is NOT Fun’
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Reject 2: ‘Fake Smiles (and Meera is slipping)’
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Reject 3: ‘Eyes Closed’
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Reject 4: ‘She’s Crying’
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Reject 5: ‘After a Short Break for her to Re-Gain Her Composure She’s Losing It Again’
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Reject 6: ‘It is One Thing For You to Do This to Us, It is Another Thing For You to Do This to Our Sister’
Owen says goodbye to Meera before heading out forhis 2nd day of school
As the boys were heading off to school this morning they were very concerned about Meera: “You need to take care of her Mama,” “Will you make sure she’s o.k. Mama?” “She’s so sad that we’re going to school Mama!” “Don’t forget to feed her when we’re gone Mama!” And they were talking to Meera: “Meera, it’s o.k., we’ll be back after school Meera,” “Don’t be too jealous Meera, you will go to school when you’re bigger!” “Kindergarten is only for kids Meera, not for babies!” “You don’t need to worry Meera, we will always come back, don’t worry!” It was very cute. Braydon did drop-off and they did great again on Day 2 of separate classrooms. What a relief! And what an amazing feeling when, at 8:45 I found myself in a truly astounding experience: the boys off to school, Meera down for her nap, and me not having to rush frantically to get to work. I sat in the family room pumping breast milk alone in a delirious haze of sheer sweet moment-ness. I actually turned on the Today Show and watched it for a few minutes while just sitting there!–something I haven’t done for probably at least a few years. Yes, there is a to-do list a mile long of stuff I’ve gotta get done (including –amongst all the home stuff– a few work projects that I have on-going)… but… I don’t have to try to frantically frenetically frenziedly juggle work –that huge, huge heavy ball of wax– into the mix. The career is delightfully “on hold.” No meetings to run to, no lectures to prep, no scrambling to get my act together, no work clothes, no hair dryer, no hundreds-of-deadlines-looming over me, no zillions of emails to reply to, no b.s. workplace politics to be worrying about, no heavy obligations hanging over me, no committee work to fret over, no editors breathing down my back, no publishers pushing me, no papers to revise, no files to review, no students’ issues to worry me sick. Seriously, I cannot even say how much I am loving being on maternity leave. And the thought of having the whole fall ahead of me… it is just delirious deliciousness to me right now. Ahhhhhh… to be able to just breathe. I don’t even remember the last time I could… just… breathe…
Today was a huge day for us! Today was Kyle and Owen’s first day of kindergarten at River Valley Waldorf School! They are in a 2-year, mixed-age kindergarten program for 4-5-6-year-olds. They are the second-youngest kids in the program but their teacher from last year thought they were ready, and we agreed they were. And even though they are two of the youngest kids, they are still the tallest! There are two classrooms (evenly split between age groups and gender) with two different sets of teachers in each class. And the biggest part of all: Kyle is in the Star Room, and Owen is in the Moon Room! Different classrooms! This. Is. Huge. It was a huge (huge huge huge huge huge huge huge) decision for Braydon and I. One that we spent many-a-night this summer discussing late into the wee hours (sometimes blurry-brained between marathon nursing sessions with baby Meera). Even though many people would probably not separate twins this early, we feel very confident that we’re making the right decision for our boys with this. Over the past couple of weeks we’ve worked very hard to prepare K & O for this big thing— and the first day of school was looming large. At first they were not at all thrilled about separate classrooms. But over the past few days they’ve become more and more excited about the idea. By this morning they were ready to go, totally ready. Still, Braydon and I were feeling anxious about how it would all play out. It went splendidly. Totally splendidly. They kissed each other good-bye and went off to their different rooms without looking back. As both of their teachers told me later… “it was fantastic and could not have gone any better!” I’ll post more about this tomorrow, but now I’ve gotta go have a glass of wine with Braydon—- the gear-up for this day (the planning and prepping and shopping and packing and working-a-lot-with-the-boys-to-get-them-mentally/emotionally-ready) has been exhausting and now I’m really ready for the wine-down. đŸ˜‰
8:21 a.m. — Meera is holding her head up really well these past couple of days. This morning she proudly showed off her skills for Braydon.
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4:13 p.m. — After we all came home from a very fun birthday party for one of their friends, the boys had a blast playing outside in the pouring rain for over an hour.
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Each year, at the end of August we have taken a photo of K & O sitting in this one particular spot of our yard. Check out the photos on our blog’s sidebar to see the photos from Summers 2005, 2006, and 2007. Last weekend we did the photo shoot for Summer 2008. Meera was included this year! Doing it was a vivid reminder of why we generally work hard to avoid posed photos. Braydon, who was protected behind the lens of the camera and thus a bit more detached than the rest of us, was the only member of the family who didn’t have a major meltdown in the process to get these photos. Somehow, despite the pain and suffering of the posed photo shoot, the four of us over the age of 12-weeks-old did manage to laugh most of the way through it (between tantrums). We took a total of 78 photos during two different times of day, but we’ve narrowed it down to 5. Which is your favorite?!?! PLEASE VOTE!!! Vote by clicking on the poll at the upper left hand corner of our blog! Poll ends Monday… at which point we’ll reward you by posting 5 of the best reject photos from the Johnson-McCormick Summer 2008 Tree Photo Event. As always, click on any photo to enlarge.
Photo 1
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Photo 2
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Photo 3
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Photo 4
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Photo 5
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Every Wednesday at 11:00 a.m., for this entire summer, Calvin has come to give the boys swimming lessons. I first met Calvin in my Intro to Sociology class a couple of years ago. He was a sophomore and in a big lecture class of 250 he stood out. He’s smart. Turns out he’s a fine swimmer too. Big time. I had Calvin in another class this past spring– the spring of his senior year. Captain of the Lehigh Swim Team. President of the Black Student Union. Star Student. Late spring, as graduation was approaching, Calvin was winning every student leadership award that’s given out. He’s staying at Lehigh for the next year, getting his MA in Political Science, and applying to PhD programs. This is the kind of student you love to love. There aren’t many like him, but when they come along… well… it sounds cliche but it is true: they are the ones that make the whole thing worthwhile. And now that I have kids of my own — now that I have black boys of my own — when a black male student like Calvin comes along I can’t help but think of him as more than simply an exceptional student– Calvin is the kind of role model I want in the lives of my sons. He’s that good. So we got to talking. And in addition to having a genuine academic/intellectual/sociological interest in the development of young black boys, Calvin also has some experience teaching swimming. I had been looking for some sort of way to get K & O into swim lessons of some sort. But I had been having no luck because of the weird situation we had on our hands— at age just barely 4, K & O had never had a swim lesson in their lives but were unusually good strong confident swimmers. Swim centers I’d looked into wouldn’t take them into group lessons because their swim skills were way too advanced for their appropriate age groups, but their social skills were way too –how shall we say it… um, unadvanced…– for their appropriate swim skill groups. Calvin agreed to come to the house once a week this summer to do private lessons at our pool. And more importantly (from my perspective at least), he agreed to build a relationship with my boys. I was pretty up front with Calvin about it– yes, I wanted them to learn something about swimming, but my not-so-hidden agenda was just to get them around Calvin on a regular basis. By the third week Calvin was their hero. And they were doing the freestyle. And now, as the summer is ending, they consider Calvin their “Swim Teacher” as well as their great friend. Kyle has already announced that Calvin will be getting an invitation to his 5th birthday party (that kind of says it all). Oh, and in addition to the freestyle they’re also doing the back stroke, and treading water, and flip turns underwater off the pool wall, and they are both diving beautiful perfect 10 dives into the deep end. Calvin has suggested we continue the swim lessons through the school year. He’s looking into using the Lehigh pool once it gets too cold to swim in ours. It will be nice for the boys to keep swimming through the winter this year. It will be even nicer to watch them continue to build their relationship with Calvin. Anyone who knows anything about the studies that have been done on black boys knows that all the research evidence points to the same thing: the importance of the relationships between black boys and older black male role models in their lives. Finding those role models, however, is sometimes the tricky party– especially in situations like ours; we want there to be an organic glue holding the relationship together… not some kind of fabricated pseudo-relationship based on emphasizing black role modeling. So, right now, for us, the best part about the boys’ relationships with Calvin is that it is organically bound together by a shared genuine interest: swimming. And just for the record… just in case one (or both) of them ever are superstar swimmers… Calvin was K & O’s first Swim Teacher. You read it here first. Summer 2008.
K (after golfing alone with Papi at Lehigh University Golf Team’s new driving range and practice center): “Mommy, Lehigh is my favorite golf place. Papi hit the cart. The golf cart. He hit it when it was driving because he hit the ball so far. He’s the best golfer in the whole wide world. No other kids were at the Lehigh golf. No other kids are ever at golf places. Just grown ups. But I’m there. I will practice my whole life and when I’m growned up I will be even as good golfer as Tiger Woods. That’s how good my Papi is.”
O (saying his prayers): “Dear God, I very very very very much want school to start. And thank you for my school. I really love it. And I really love Meera. And I really love my Kyle. And I really love Mommy and Papi. And I really love God. And I really love myself. And I really love everyone in my whole life. Amen.”
K (acting up during dinner… I said, “Kyle! Where are your manners?!” and he responded…): “In my pocket.”
O (out of the blue, at a totally random moment): “Mommy, what happens if I eat sand? Will a vacation grow in my mouth?”
K (at lunch after eating a big pile of bread and butter pickles): “Mommy, my heart melted when I ate those!”
O (while swinging on the swing set): “Are ‘black people’ people with brown skin? We are black? Am I black?”
K (completely seriously– with no tone of sarcasm whatsoever– in response to me asking him to go dump out the compost in the compost bin): “Sure Mom! I definitely can! I’ll be happy to!!!”
O (about Meera, one day when he was watching me nurse her): “Mommy, she’s so cute. She’s. So. CUTE. She’s so cute that sometimes I think I want her to be my lovey. I could cut her in half so Kyle can have her as his lovey too.”
K (about Meera, one day when she was wearing a dress that he thought was really pretty): “She looks like a little princess!!! Mom, we really like her!”
O (during a discussion about the Tooth Fairy): “Mommy, is the tooth fairy a girl or a boy? Because I think it is a boy. But other people said it was a girl. But it is not. It is a boy. Right? Because all fairies are boys. Right? That’s right. I know that is right. All fairies are boys.”
K (sitting down for lunch one day): “Mommy! This looks like a wonderful lunch! This is absolutely delightful!!!”
O (stating the obvious): “Mommy, I like to wear pull-ups at night because then I can just pee right in my bed. And I don’t even have to worry about it. Kyle wears no pull-up. But I like to wear it. And also Mommy, when I go poopie on the potty, I always, forever just want you to wipe my butt. Not me mommy, just you!”
K (stating the obvious): “Mommy, in my mind I am thinking that you are just like our server. You are a server mommy! A server to Kyle and Owen!”
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You only have your 4-Year-Old-Summer once. It seems to me like it is the perfect age for summertime. This has been an imperfect — but somehow therefore perfect — summer for Kyle and Owen. They have run barefoot for the past three months. Their feet show it. Every one of their twenty little brown toes are stubbed. There are scabs, blisters, callouses, scrapes, and bruises all over their feet. At least half of their toenails are broken. The bottoms of their feet are permanently stained with grime. It is quite a contrast to their baby sister’s pale soft little feetsies and tiny tiny toesies. What a difference four years make. And yet, what little difference. In so many ways K & O are not much different than Meera. They are, like her, in so many ways, still so wonderfully beautifully innocently unaware. For the past three months K & O have been immersed in days without much care in the world. How blissful to not be burdened with thinking about what is around the corner; without trying to peer beyond the bend. How sweet it has been for me to be able to give them days of endless summer. Falling asleep with their hair still wet from the pool. Crickets and caterpillars. The smell of fresh cut grass. Lazy mornings. Blueberry pancakes. Bikes. Bubblegum. Strawberries. Fireflies. Corn on the cob dripping with butter. But, at the same time, this summer has been so profound and intense for my big little 4-year-olds. The summer started with the birth of their long-awaited much-anticipated heavily-adored sister. And it ended with the death of their mother’s cousin. Life and death; bookends to an endless summer. It began with their questions and statements about new life. And it ends with their questions and statements about the end of it. That is the most incredible thing about life with 4-year-olds: just watching as they try to make sense of it all. Just knowing them as they grapple with wrapping their heads around it all. It isn’t just that they are curious and inquisitive– they take it further: they create their own meanings out of all of it. “Bad news,” said Owen, as we drove to the airport to drop Meera and I off last week. And then he announced, matter-of-factly, “My June died.” “Wow,” Braydon and I both said. Not knowing quite what to make of that. A few minutes later, after some silence, he proclaimed, “Good news guys! I have many other Junes!” The boys are regulars at our local bagel shop. Teenage twin girls are working there often when we go in. But this weekend the twins weren’t there. That night as I was tucking him into his bed, Kyle said, out of the blue, “Mommy, the twin girls at the bagel store died.” It doesn’t matter that Braydon had told him that the girls had gone off to college, Kyle was adamant: “They died, they really, really did died.” Yesterday afternoon, cuddled up in towels, warming up in the sun, they both wanted me to know: “We don’t want to be in Heaven. We want to be with you.” “You are with me,” I said. And they jump in the pool. Huge jumps. Big splashes. Unafraid. Two little fish. They hold hands in the shallow end and circle round and round singing “Ring around the rosie, pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all fall down” and they dive under the water, hands still clasped tight, and with their eyes wide open they find each other’s lips for a big underwater smooch. They pop up, faces straight up to the sun. Glistening. Gleaming. Screeching. Laughing and yelping, “MEERA! Watch us Meera! Watch us baby sister! WATCH THIS!” And from her little chair, poolside, she recognizes their voices and smiles and baby-gurgles and drools in delight with it all. This is our endless summer.
Well, the results are in. Photo #3 won by a close margin! You can see it on the sidebar of the blog now! I personally liked #4 and #1 the best, but my mom agreed with the readership on #3, so #3 it is. As promised… here are a few of the rejects. It was very hard to narrow this down to just a few since we have about 50 that would be post-worthy rejects. But here are the top six:
Reject 1: ‘This is NOT Fun’
Reject 2: ‘Fake Smiles (and Meera is slipping)’
Reject 3: ‘Eyes Closed’
Reject 4: ‘She’s Crying’
Reject 5: ‘After a Short Break for her to Re-Gain Her Composure She’s Losing It Again’
Reject 6: ‘It is One Thing For You to Do This to Us, It is Another Thing For You to Do This to Our Sister’
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