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There is a wave of relief in our house with the boys home. All three J-M children slept very very well last night and woke up in fantastic moods.

Everything is back together again.

Meera at Pacifico

Little Miss has been getting so much attention these past few days that she doesn’t even know what to do with it all. (But she does appear to like it!) With the boys away for their first big overnight trip to NH alone with MorMor and MorFar (!!!!!!! big huge big huge deal for ALL involved!!!!!!!), life has been very different around here. Very, very different. Very, very quiet. Very, very calm. Very, very peaceful. Very, very sane. Very, very boring and empty and placid and dull. It has been very eye-opening and we have lots and lots of thoughts about it. Last night we took full advantage of our final night as a simple quiet mobile easy-breezy threesome (the boys come home later today)… and we went out to dinner at Pacifico, a Nuevo Latino place that we love. This is something that we would never do with K & O — they are just simply too loud and way too active for a place like Pacifico. But Little Miss was definitely in her element there, quietly nibbling on avocado from our ceviche, and happily devouring the bread that the servers kept bringing her, and generally being the sweet little sit-still and enjoy-the-scenery girl that she is. She was, of course, good as gold, and stole the hearts of all of the restaurant staff as she smiled and waved and said “hi” and “bye” to them over and over and over in her cute little restaurant-appropriate voice. Braydon and I could not believe that we were out “on a school night” drinking margaritas and eating delicious things and having real conversations and just generally relishing in the extreme loveliness (and recognizing the excessively deep dullness) of having only an angel-baby singleton baby girl for a moment. Little Miss seems to feel exactly the same way that we do: this ‘life-without-K-and-O-thing’ is nice and all, but the sooner they get home the better. Life is definitely interesting-to-an-extreme with them around… and it isn’t always easy to have the constantness of their overflowingness… but we would not trade it for the world. We’re counting the hours until we pick them up at the airport. We can’t wait to get this house all filled up with those wild and crazy boys again.

Grandma Lorraine, Grandpa Les and the Great Grands

We spent Easter weekend at Bement Camp again this year. It was the best ever (click here for last year). This year was especially special because all of the cousins and second-cousins on my entire side of the family were there. Grandma Lorraine and Grandpa Les had all of their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren together in one place for a day (we came from the states of Washington, Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania). K, O, and M got to play all day with all of their second-cousins and it was grand fun. It was a really special time for us all. And the rest of the weekend –including Easter itself (Meera’s first Easter)– was the icing on the cake. We have a whole slew of photos to tell the story and show some of the highlights.

Roadtrip: the 5 hour drive from PA to MA
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Saturday morning, 6:47am: Kyle, Owen, MorFar and Neptune
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Geese on the lake at Bement Camp
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Every once in a while it’s good to check in on what music is inspiring our family. In the last few months, the boys’ interest in music has jumped up. More specifically, they are becoming aware of different songs, pieces, lyrics, composers and performers. Their love of music drives their consciousness and it’s really amazing to witness.

Some of the cuter, funnier scenes involve K & O DJing at their little stereos in their room. They often demand we come up and listen to a song they are playing. Here is the list of all three Jammers (J-M’rs) favs :

• Say Hey, Michael Franti
• Truth #2, Dixie Chicks (from the Top of the World Tour live CD)
  
• Morning from Peer Gynt Suite, Edvard Grieg
• Stir it up, Bob Marley
• 1812 Overture, Peter Tchaikovsky
• Short Ride on a Fast Machine, John Adams
• One thing, Finger 11
• Symphony #5, Beethoven
• Who let the dogs out, Baha Men
• What a wonderful world, Louis Armstrong
• Watch me baby, watch your brother, from I’m going to be a big brother
• December, George Winston

And Meera’s favorite (the boys call it her ‘sleep music’ since we put it on in the car to lull her a bit):

• Wish I could, Norah Jones

It is always an Event.
It was an Event last year (click here), and it was an Event the year before (click here), and it probably always will be.
Egg Dye + K + O = CRAZY
crazy, crazy, crazy.
craziness.
I will admit, it does get easier and less insane each year we do this.
But still, it is C-R-A-Z-Y.
Should have tried to get a video of it, but of course I was way too busy trying to do damage control.
All in all, as C-R-A-Z-Y as it is (think egg dye flying, dripping, puddling, splashing everywhere; think 2 sets of hands semi-permanently stained with egg dye; think uber-enthusiasm… like totally-into-enthusiasm-like-you-probably-would-not-believe-unless-you-could-witness-it-firsthand TIMES TWO; think insanity)… it is a darn good time and a bunch of good laughs too (amidst the mayhem and mega-challenge-to-your-quick-clean-up-reflexes). And this year, for the first time, the boys did blown eggs too (in addition to our traditional hard-boiled) and it was truly very impressive to us that they were able to not only blow the eggs out but that they were able to also not crush the egg shells in the process. Quite impressive given that this is K & O we’re talking about. I can say for sure that they could not have done that a year ago.
Progress, progress.
Next year we’ll add Little Miss to the mix. This year we just gave her the egg dye box to play with. She was more than satisfied with that.
The Egg Decorating Event. A tradition we love (and are also very glad to only do it once a year).

We are within the one-month-zone now. Less than one month until Kyle and Owen’s 5th birthday. They’ve been talking about it here and there since about November, but now — now that it is getting so much closer — we’re hearing about it daily (often multiple times daily). Kyle and Owen love their birthday. And we celebrate it big-time each year (me using it as a great excuse to throw a great big bash). You know the excitement is really building over something when they start playing that thing out in various ways over and over and over during their days. And recently the boys have started in on that phase of the birthday-anticipation. In these photos they are “playing birthday” (as they call it), this time with the cake part of the birthday ritual (there are many variations on the birthday theme, believe me!). They were out in the back yard in their play shed and were so immersed in their play that they didn’t get the least bit distracted by me sitting right there snapping photos. Here they are, singing Happy Birthday to themselves, with the (sand and stick) “candle cake,” slicing the cake, serving the cake, eating the cake. They did this over and over, many times. I’m so glad that I can capture some of these moments in photos because they are just so precious. These kinds of perfect moments make up for all their shenanigans.

Today was a big, huge, mega-big-deal day for Kyle and Owen Johnson-McCormick. The First Day of Baseball. They have been so excited for this day. Just so, so excited. Words cannot describe. They have been eating, sleeping, breathing, and talking talking talking playing playing playing baseball since the weather got warm enough to be out there every single day playing it. To say that these boys love baseball (and the Red Sox in particular) is a major understatement. Luckily for us all (because I don’t know what we would have done if it had been rained out), it turned out to be an absolutely spectacularly gorgeous spring day. Truly the perfect day for this momentous occasion. This momentous occasion that they boys had been eagerly anticipating for many sleeps now.

A few weeks ago I signed K & O up for t-ball with our town league. Technically they aren’t quite old enough, but they are soooo ready for this, and I could not imagine making them wait another year before starting. The officials let them slide in despite the fact that they are by far the youngest on the team (from what I could tell the next youngest player is six months older than them and the vast majority of the kids are 6 or 7 year olds). In true K & O style, though, they managed (seemingly quite easily) to hold their own and make a name for themselves on the first day. Owen was, as usual, quite the hot ticket on the field — a rowdy funny guy who gives everyone a run for their money and a lot of laughs along the way. Kyle was the epitome of himself — earnest and eager and completely heart-meltingly enthusiastic. Both of them hit the ball real well and (miraculously) followed the orders of the coach for the entire 1.5 hour “practice” (although it was, admittedly, getting a little touch-and-go there at the very end). This was real ‘old school’ t-ball (i.e., lots of dull time with nothing to do but pick dandelions in the field as the coach cycles through every single kid making sure each one makes at least one hit while everyone else just stands there). As a person who grew up at a children’s camp, having been a camp counselor myself, and having had my fair share of experience dealing with kids/people/leading events/etc… I sat there thinking of at least 100 different ways that they could modernize this way-too-old tradition and make the time so much more fun and exciting for the kiddos. I felt for K & O — watching was kinda painful — and at one point I overheard Owen say (sorta to himself and sorta to the coach) “Well, there sure is lots of extra time!” (a very nice way of saying, “wow, this sure is boring”) — but, alas, they did survive, with their love of baseball (hopefully) fully in tact. The highlight for each of them was, of course, when they had their own turn up at bat. They can hit the ball pretty easily off the tee (they are, after all, used to hitting real pitches from MorFar, Braydon, or anyone else willing to throw it to them), so they each got to hit a few balls in a row. Kyle got to play First Base for a while, and loved it; “I got to be the first baseman!” he told MorFar when he called to ask how t-ball had been. Meera hung out with Braydon and I as we watched the big boys play. And those boys, I’ve just got to say it: They were so cute today. As Braydon and I sat there watching with Meera we must have said to each other, at least 2 dozen times, something along the lines of: “Wow, this is like ridiculously all-Americana.” Photo documentary below! (as always, click on any photo to enlarge)

Kyle on the phone with MorFar first thing this morning–
chatting it up with excitement about the first day of baseball.
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Right before we left for practice–
they wanted to wear their Red Sox shirts, of course.
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Owen up at bat.
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Kyle up at bat.
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Meera cheers!
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Owen hitting another ball.
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Owen running home!
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Kyle hits another ball.
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Kyle running home!
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Like I said, “ridiculously all-Americana.”
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Could there be a cuter baby sister on the sideline?
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P.S.

Dear MorFar,
This whole baseball thing… this thing that the boys love so… it is all because of you, and it is all for you.
Love,
Your Daughter (who hated t-ball when I was a kid, but who is loving giving you baseball-LOVING-grandsons)

Baseball in the driveway, May 2006
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Watching a Red Sox game on t.v., July 2008
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We do our best to be very sensitive and careful in how we handle and discuss race, class and gender in our family. We work on our use of language, our interactions, our alterations of existing materials, our own internal, built-in biases. We work on them, attempt to work them out, and be in a place of natural equilibrium and equality in our daily life. We are not by any means perfect, or even always good, but we are always working to be better.

Meera Grace, 3/28/09, 8:04 AM

Well, this one is bitter sweet for me. In all honesty, mostly bitter (although she is absolutely all sweet). I’m just sad that the first year is disappearing so quickly. How can my newborn tiny infant suddenly be 10 months old? 10 months? A year ago I was pregnant and we were setting up the crib. How can we now be watching our girl getting ready to walk? As far as I’m concerned, this is getting way too close to the 1-year mark. Every day I wish I could freeze time. I don’t remember feeling this way about Kyle and Owen. It wasn’t that I wished away the time — not at all — but with them I have always been so incredibly curious what they’ll grow up to be, and with them caregiving was always such incredibly hard work (simply because they were twins; and rambunctious “all Boy” twins at that). Of course I’m curious what will become of Meera Grace (she’s an interesting case in and of herself), and of course taking care of her is hard work (caring for any baby is), but I just wish I could keep her my baby-baby-baby forever. 10 months seems like a big jump from 9 months. And this past month has seen such fast-paced development for our little one. It is all just moving way too fast and no matter how hard we try to slow it down, time slips away. And then it is gone forever. Which is why I am bitter. But then I look at her and the bitterness melts away immediately. Because seriously, you cannot be in the presence of this baby and feel anything but warm-fuzzies. At least I can’t. Meera had a Well Baby doctor’s visit on Thursday. She weighs 23 pounds and is 29.5 inches tall. That’s the 90th percentile for weight and 95th for height. Like Braydon said, she seems to have the Swedish genes going strong and my Popop would be proud. And Meera would love Popop too, since she seems to love just about everyone. She goes willingly to strangers to be held, she smiles and waves at people she sees, and she loves to “talk” and interact with any of the kids at Kyle and Owen’s school each day at pick-up. This month, however, for the first time, Meera showed her first signs of stranger anxiety. Three times she cried when random friends (different people/different times, but all male) tried to talk to her. Since she rarely cries (rarely), it was striking (yet right on track for her age and development). She’s also figured out that she can get just about anything she wants from her big brothers, who will do just about anything they can to please her if she even wimpers or whines the tiniest, tiniest bit. Meera’s favorite new trick is banging two object together. She’s been doing it for the past 3 weeks or so, and getting a big kick out of it. That — and standing — are by far her favorite things to do. All she wants to do is stand. She shows absolutely no interest whatsoever in crawling (or even rolling over– she still doesn’t roll over!), despite our best efforts to encourage her interest in it, but she wants to stand up all the time. Just in the past week she has started to be able to not only stand holding on to something, but to ‘walk’ along it as well (coffee table, etc.). She still sleeps like a DREAM BABY. And we’re still astounded, daily, that somehow we lucked out and got a DREAM BABY. How could we be so lucky??? This past month Meera has started to show some of her willfulness. We’ve always known, from the start, that it was there, but before it was very subtle and now it is coming out more often overtly — especially around eating. She wants to eat what we are eating. Always. Period. She will eat baby food if she is hungry enough, but would much prefer whatever is on our plates. And if she isn’t hungry enough she’ll just go on a food strike, pursing her lips to keep her mouth shut tight, until we give in and give her something she can manage from our plates… which is more and more often. My guess is that by the end of this month she’ll basically be eating all normal food and the baby food jars will be more-or-less obsolete. Her favorite food is now macaroni and cheese (oh no! now we have 3 of them!!!), and Kyle and Owen take great pride in knowing that their sister loves “The Bunny” (i.e., Annie’s shells and cheddar) as much as they do. She also loves pasta of any kind, mashed potatoes, any/all bread, and cheese. And she’s loving trying to drink out of a sippy cup (and getting pretty good at it too). Meera’s relationship with Margie (the original, the best, Super Nanny) is very sweet and adorable. They hang out together like old friends. Meera talks and Margie listens. Margie talks and Meera listens (Spanish? no problem!). Margie cleans, Meera plays. Meera has her bottle, Margie has her tea. They have a whole routine going. They are best buds and it is so cute to see. Little Miss is quite the verbal little thing. Margie comments on it regularly to me — telling me that she is way beyond her age where all things talking are concerned (I have no reference because K & O were just being exposed to English for the first time when they were Meera’s age, so their speech development was not typical whatsoever). Meera says “hi”; “bye”; “hi kitty!”, “all done!”; “bottle”; “baby”; “book”; “bunny” (her lovey); “no”; and… we think… maybe “Mama” too. She probably says other words too, these are just the ones that are immediately coming to my mind. Of course only we (and Margie) can make these things out… but still… she’s talking up a storm. And babbling all day long. This month we got one of the boys’ old high chairs down from the attic and put it in the kitchen. Meera likes being right in the center of everything, so this is working out well for her! She sits there while we get breakfast ready and cook dinner and lots of other times in-between when we’re all gathered in the kitchen. She likes outings in the stroller, but prefers the backpack (loves the backpack). And she continues to adore (like, ridiculously, over-the-top adore) her wild and crazy brothers… who are always good for a good laugh… and who tickle her and play peek-a-boo with her and read books to her and run circles around her entertaining her with their antics. And she is very entertained. Laughing, smiling ear-to-ear, clapping… she loves every minute of every show (and the show just goes on and on and on). We have all these Baby Einstein videos from when K & O were babies, but Meera has built in entertainment so we have yet to even pull one off the shelf. She enjoys watching them do anything they are doing (puppet shows!? yay! riding the train!? yay! you name it, and if K & O do it, well, then, she loves it). Lately she is getting in on the action more and more as a semi-reciprocal sibling relationship begins to grow. They try to include Meera in some things now– and if she can fit into the action while she’s in her walker (i.e., relatively autonomous and safely stuck in something they can’t pull her out of), then we watch and laugh as the three of them “play” together. I can only imagine the future. But I do know one thing about it: for as long as the five of us are all together in this world it is sure to be interesting. You can say whatever you want about our life, but there is truly no denying that there is never a dull moment. I cannot wait to see what Meera becomes. I am incredibly excited about what she is becoming. And so, despite the bitter… there is the sweet.

It’s no secret that Kyle and Owen have a long and loving history with Marching Bands. If there is any doubt, just look: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here or, here. And, last night we had the best of all possible worlds for our pleasure….