Chairs

RyGuy knew he was headed for trouble. He made a decision to stop the naughtiness in its tracks and find something else to do.

"MOMMY! Wook at me. I'm cleaning your chairs."

I replied, "Thanks, bud, that's awesome."

"Yeah, Mom I real awesome."

Seany jumped to attention, "MOMMY! I want to clean chairs too."

RyGuy, "Ah. Ok. Sean first you wipe off all the crumbs. Then you rub the towel. (pause) Hmmm. No Sean, first you wipe off the crumbs with your HAND not the towel!" (giggles commenced.)

Kindness

An incident has had my mind churning with thoughts of kindness. It is so easy for people to be unkind, to laugh at others, to create an environment of spite.

Sometimes, it is hard be kind, to be brave, to be respectful. Sometimes being kind feels akin to not being popular. But if cruelty equals popularity, I for one chose being picked last or perhaps not at all. The biggest bully is not popular, that person is not well liked, that person just has weak followers who don't want to be the next target.

I try to not feed into that gossip, that malice, and I hope, I think I usually avoid getting sucked into that vortex. The woman that I want to be and the mother I want the chicklets to see me as is kind, loving, well mannered and though not perfect (despite my best efforts :D) always tries to be a better version of myself.

I hope this is the lesson that the chicklets learn and that in time, they understand. Alex describes said lessons complimentary of me saying, "My mom is always kind, even when it doesn't matter."

Quote I'd like to remember

I read a lot of books. I'll get back to blogging on the other blog about them v. soon.

This is an excellent quote that I thinks illustrates how I feel about our life. It's from the Ember series by Jeanne DuPrau, in the fourth book of Ember, The Diamond of Darkhold. The Ember books by the way, I highly recommend to the preteen crowd, they are excellent stories.

"You know, son, I don't think there's such a thing as an easy life. There's always misfortunes we can't control lurking out at the edges -- storms, sickness, wolves. But there is such a thing as a good life, and I think we have one here."

Visiting

Can't wait for Easter! My mom, dad, and sister will all be here. The entire Avery family under one roof!

Store

RyGuy:

"Mommy. My butt has a STORE on it. It is so STORE, I am going to go put my butt medicine on it."

(full minute pause while he disappeared)

"Wow Mommy! My butt isn't STORE at all, anymore!

Monster

After 3 hours spent correcting behavior, I had it.

RyGuy: "MOMMY! I WANNA BE A MONSTER!"

Mommy said under her breath, "Ry. You already are a monster."

RyGuy's Primary Children's Day

His morning started out with a train ride. Quickly followed by his sedative, he spent the rest of the morning being messed with or in his hospital wagon.

At one point in the afternoon, someone had the BRILLIANT idea of letting the little guys make masks to wear for the messing-withs. Above Ry appears to be creating his mask, when he actually decided he'd over stickered it. Below Ry is modeling the mask he wore for the remaining specialists visits.

Seany's surgery day

A toy room to himself for 10 minutes. And walk down the hall before heading in the wagon to his doom...

Mommy love

A snapshot of Ry's life to remember, the week he wanted to be just like me:

At Costco, I said to the store in general, "Oh, cute. Look at the little pink dress." (Easter has arrived.)

RyGuy, " Mommy, I want a pink dress. I want to be just like you."

At Kohl's, shopping for a new purse, "Mommy! Mommy! Look at me! I have a purse just like yours." (He even swung it across himself the way I wear mine.)

After we got home from shopping, I changed into jammies. Comfort first. Ry disappeared and reappeared with a set of jammies and pronounced, "Mom, I got my jammies too!"

(It happened last year too. Right after the ordeal that is his clinic day.)