My mom arrived yesterday, and we are so glad to have her here! She’ll be here for “six sleeps!” (although, I think Owen spoke for all of us when he said, “But I want her to stay for twenty sleeps?!!!!”). We haven’t had the luxurious privilege of having her here, all to ourselves, for a good long stretch like this since last March. We are so psyched.
Today was K & O’s first big-time climbing adventure! We took them to an Indoor Rock Climbing Center. The place is serious— over 7,000 square feet of indoor rock climbing surface. The boys free-climbed a lot, but the highlight was that they each got to have five “rope climbs” (as K & O called it) — belayed by a very cool rock climber on the staff of the center. K & O were by far the youngest people in the place, but they definitely held their own on the walls!!! Kyle, in particular, was absolutely amazing… the staff guy called him a “natural rock climber,” and even Braydon and I were pretty stunned/impressed with what we witnessed our 3 year old do. Owen was totally into it too, he was just –as usual– not quite as fearless as Kyle. Both of them loved it and can’t wait to go back for more. Their favorite part was belaying down with the ropes/harnesses! [as always, click on any photo to enlarge]
Our cool staff guy outfits the boys with their gear.
They start free-climbing without being fastened in.
First “rope climb” – Owen belays down.
Owen loves indoor rock climbing!
Kyle loves indoor rock climbing!
O & K take a break (much to our surprise, they initiated this), to watch the “grown ups doing rope climbs” for a while… They get inspired…
…Immediately after watching the adult climbers, K & O insist on more “rope climbs” for themselves. On his first try, Kyle makes it all the way up the wall to touch the ceiling. This was seriously impressive…
…and Kyle was justly delighted with himself (as were his mama, his brother, and his climbing coach)!
Owen climbs high too, not quite touching the ceiling, but high nonetheless!
Way into climbing!!!*
You know Braydon and I are huge fans/addicts of the Livesays blog. For those of you who aren’t also fans/addicts, the Livesays youngest baby daughter is sick in a Haitian hospital right now. I can’t stop thinking about them. If you pray, please pray for them today. If you don’t pray, please send out some good wishes and positive thoughts for their family.
Papi comes home today. We’re all very much looking forward to that. Kyle has been up since 5:30 am (highly unusual. I can’t even remember the last time he was up before 6:55 when sleeping in our own house). I know it is because he’s so excited for Papi’s return. Still, it means I’ve been up since 5:30 too; and I’m exhausted from this week of going it alone. Last Friday my post was “TGIF”… well, TGIF again. ;0
I dropped the boys off at Heather’s office at 3:30 and drove to the airport. Boarded a commuter jet – what land is this where we have jet airplanes for commuting – and hopped to Cincinnati. The sunset at 26,000 feet was gorgeous, the man next to me moved to another seat and we both had more room. The clouds spread out like a blanket covering, warming, protecting the earth; shrouding it. Pockets of lights below, patterns of cities and highways, a police car, traffic, a baseball diamond. Another city, people going home. There were two small kids traveling with their mother in front of me. My family is getting ready for bed right now.
When I landed I called home to catch the boys before they went to bed – but missed them. Grabbed a Quizno’s sub for dinner. A long time ago I saw a travelling salesman driving in front of me, he had shirts hanging on a bar that went across the back of his car. They filled the car from side to side. His wardrobe on the road, his home away from home; his car. Where does he eat every night? I carry my bag, sit down and plug in my phone to charge it.
The woman across the isle from me on the next regional jet worked on her laptop, spreadsheets and powerpoint decks. Patterns of keys clicking; a splash of red and blue. Another person working. Landed in Greenville to dense fog. It covers everything in a hazy mist. The plane ducked out of it and the lights of cars and buildings emerged.
There is a line at the National rental car; I bypass it to go straight to the garage. The attendant: Yes Sir, No Sir; his neatly combed hair cut in a typical southerner’s style, his moustache short; Leave Me Alone Sir. But I don’t blame him, it’s 9 PM on a Tuesday, he’s married, clearly a father; doesn’t want to be there any more than I do.
The tall skinny long-needle topped pine slipped by as I drove behind a semi down the highway. I catch H on the phone before she cleans up and goes to bed. It begins to really hit me now. The glow of enormous Southern strip malls lighted the sky and the haze around so I could have driven with the headlights off. I pass a Honda dealer, a BMW dealer and a Jaguar dealer. I pass an Olive Garden and a Boston Market. What land is this that has these things?
I check in at the Embassy Suites, a nice young lady greets me “Good evening, do you have a reservation?” One of my staff was looking for me earlier, but there is no way I am going to talk to them now. There are a number of tables in the hotel bar with people congregated around them. They are all looking around to see who else is around. I wonder if they see each other – they clearly see me as I walk by. I see a man sit down among them with his laptop and a powerpoint presentation running. My room is on the 9th floor.
***
On the mirror in our bedroom at home, Heather has tucked in a card with a MLK quote: “Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.” I believe this to be true. I believe this to be true for everyone, for everything they want, for everything they do. For everyone. I believe that hope connects us together in ways that we often ignore, or at least forget to notice.
I have not been gone 12 hours, but the realization of hope and appreciation is acute. Our future baby girl, our now baby boys, my wife, our house, our careers. It is all done by hope.
Thank you Heather for hanging in there and supporting me so much in all I do with work. It is done by hope.
And love.
Well, Braydon/”Papi” has left again for another “work trip” to “talk to the man” and “have many, many meetings.” This time he’s gone from this afternoon all the way until Friday. This is only 3 nights, but it feels daunting. The idea of holding down the fort (the twin-three-year-olds+all-household-everything+my-job-during-the-2nd-week-of-the-semester+boys’-school-drop-off-and-pick-up+being-pregnant ‘fort’) for that long feels like a lot. I know, I know, many people have it a lot worse than me. My dad used to travel a lot when my sister and I were little, leaving my mom alone with us in rural snowy New Hampshire for days at a time. I don’t know how she did it. And now I think about families like my friends the Double Lucky family, who have young twins and two careers, one of which requires extensive international travel. Honestly, I cannot imagine how Cindy and Ed stay sane with the travel situation. I highly respect them for it. Not to mention single-parent-families. Seriously. Now they are truly the unsung heroes out there, really. I feel ridiculous complaining when I think of stuff like that. Nonetheless, here I am. It is just not easy to hold down the J-M fort alone.
Anyhoo… A little snippet from today (mainly for Braydon cuz I know you’ll just love to hear this B…)
So, this afternoon Braydon picked up the boys from school so he could spend some time with them before he left for his trip. At 3:30 he dropped them off with me at my office on campus on his way to the airport. The boys love coming to my office. And I love having them come. I have a big jar filled with lollipops in my office. Originally (long before K & O were on the scene) the lollipops were for students who were in my office for meetings with me. Students still love to get a lollipop from my office, but K & O are definitely the biggest fans now. They bound up the stairs of Price Hall and run to my office. They spring into my arms then go straight for the lollipop jar. Today was no exception. Have I mentioned 😉 they are very routine-oriented kids. So this is their “Mommy’s Office” routine: after they get their lollipops unwrapped and into their mouths they walk through the hallways of Price looking for faculty offices with open doors. Any open door they find they walk right in and chat with whichever professor is in there. My colleagues genuinely seem to love this little ritual (K & O don’t come often enough to make it a nuisance). K & O shake the professors hands (even ones they know well), chit chat with them, explore their offices, and check out their computers/books/nik-naks. Then they move on to the next open-door-office. Their favorite person to visit is our department coordinator, Erica, who greets them with big hugs. They love her. Any students who happen to be around Price are just a bonus. K & O will high-five with them, jump into their arms, act crazy with them, and generally just brighten the mood of the entire Lehigh University Sociology and Anthropology Department. They run around making everyone laugh for a little while, and it is a breath of fresh air (two breaths of fresh air), to say the least. The next part of our ritual is to go next door to Grace Hall. I blogged about Grace Hall another time in this post. The boys need to go there every time they visit my office on campus. On the first floor of Grace Hall there are beautiful hardwood-floor basketball courts. Today was awesome for K & O because we just so happened to walk into Grace Hall in the midst of… none other than… men’s intramural basketball!!! There were about 30-40 students in there. Some were playing pick up b-ball, some were just shooting hoops, and some seemed to just sort of be there hanging out. K & O watched, wide eyed, for about 5 minutes. Then slowly they started inching their way into the midst of things. From what I could tell the guys were all cool with it, so I let it happen. Slowly but surely, K & O got themselves out onto the courts and into the action. Soon enough they each had a basketball and were running around with the “big, big guys!!!” K & O were dribbling the ball and trying to shoot it. The “big, big guys” were very impressed and very taken with the ‘two little guys.’ Next thing I know K & O are being held up high, all the way to the hoop rims, to throw the balls in. The “big, big guys” were gathering around them, and for small spurts of time they’d all be actually playing together. It was quite a sight: all these cool, tall, male college students running around with two tiny guys in the midst of it. I sat on the first row of the bleachers and just watched with a huge smile on my face the entire time. From time to time K & O would look over to me and smile so wide that I swear it was ear-to-ear. At one point, when Owen had been held up high and actually got the ball into the hoop, he shouted over to me, “Mommy, you need to say ‘Yay Owen!’!!!” It was all very, very cute. We stayed for over 30 minutes. Then I felt that it was probably time to let the “big, big guys” play by themselves. The only way I got K & O out of there was by bribing them with elevator rides. Grace Hall has an elevator, and I let them ride up and down in it, pushing all the buttons themselves, several times before we left to head home. Driving home I was thinking about how Braydon would have gotten such a kick out of seeing the whole Grace Hall basketball scene unfold. And I was thinking about how in moments like those it really does seem like my precious boys have somehow come out of the darkness of their beginnings to lead such very charmed lives. At least for now. And my hope and my goal is to keep it that way for them for as long as humanly possible (preferably, forever).
Happy MLK Day from the Johnson-McCormick Family Blog.
On the days when I don’t post you can just assume it is because my day is waaay too busy/hectic and I am waaaaaay too stressed/frazzled and our life is waaaaaay too chaotic/crazed to do it. Given that all of our days are hectic, frazzled, and crazed, you can just imagine what my non-posting days are like. Yeah, go ahead, just use your imagination. Your wildest imagination. Today was one of those days.
Recent comments