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Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Called It

My family is in New Jersey. all of them. I'm still in MA. And I'm o.k. with that.

Actually I'm not. It sucks. But I'll deal.

The reality is that my wife lives about 300 miles from her entire family. She's got her mom, step dad and 5 siblings who all grew up and bought homes within 20 minutes of each other in New Jersey. She and I moved back to my home town of Dudley, MA back in 2001. We try to get her down to The Garden State as often as possible. Most of my vacation time from work is spent on long weekend or holiday trips down to Jersey. Not the typical vacation destination, but Chrissy has a wonderful family and it's great to connect with everybody.

This time, we were able to score a good deal on Southwest Airlines and Chrissy and the kids were able to fly down there for the week. I've got to tell you, though...there's nothing more nerve wracking than having your entire family on one airplane....loading and reloading the Southwest.com "Flight Status" page until you see "Arrived" appear. Anyhow....
I'll be joining them in a couple days to spend Labor Day weekend down there (also my Mom-in law's birthday).

Right before the family left, Ivy was like **this close** to walking. I had seen her take a step or two at home, but nothing major. I told Chrissy "When you guys get to Jersey, she's gonna just take off" and guess what....

She did.

I totally called it. Apparently, she's all over the place. I was able to see a few minutes of video footage that Chrissy shot that my Father -in law, Charles, edited and posted on his facebook page (thanks for that, pop-pop, by the way). It's so bittersweet.

It's so strange, sometimes, being an attached parent. We sacrifice so much and spend so much time and invest so much mental, physical and spiritual energy on our kids. Then it's in the one 72 hour period that I'm apart from her that she decides to start walking. I was sad...but only for a few seconds. I've seen some of these Youtube video montages, of troops arriving home from war to be greeted by their family,. Kids that they left as babies who are toddlers now. Some left behind pregnant bellies to now be greeted by 3 year olds. I can't really complain.

I'm heading down there after work on Thursday. If traffic is favorable, I might make it down before Ivy's bed time (Gavin will be long in dream-land, though), and honestly, I don't even care if she walks to me or not. To just be able to hold her, nuzzle into her chubby cheeks and neck...to smell her little baby girl milky baby neck....to hold her so tight while she tries to squirm away...to kiss my sleeping son on the head and make sure he's tucked in just right...no one but a parent would get it...but that's gold, right there. The walking....that's just cream cheese.

I'll see you soon, guys.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

An End and A Beginning

The pool came down for the season today. Just one of those blue Intex inflatable ring pools....but it's a lunker, 18 ft across and 5,000 gallons....it's certainly large enough to cool off the Leo clan (and occasionally some guests as well). This is the second season we've had it up...it's been just about the best $200 bucks our family has spent. We love this thing. I was a little sad to watch it drain out....The kids had a blast in it this year. Gavin went from being a little sketchy about it in June to turning into a fish by August. Ivy spent most of her pool time clung to Mama's side, but she dug it too. Sometimes I'd get home from work, walk through the door, and find the house empty but could hear the faint laughter coming from the backyard. The family would already be swimming and I pretty much wouldn't break stride as I rushed across the deck and down into the backyard to join them. One of our favorite new traditions that we've started this Summer was to have a pre-dinner swim, then head over to the raspberry or blackberry patches and eat a few handfuls of berries before going in and getting supper going.
I'm super psyched for Autumn, but it was a little sad to see the "Big Blue Bag Full of Water", as Gavin calls it, go down for the year.

Also today, Gavin and Ivy participated in a long standing central Massachusetts tradition today....It was their first lunch at George's Coney Island hot dog stand in Worcester. C.I. has been a staple of the Worcester County food scene for nearly a hundred years. I'm pretty sure that you need to prove that you've eaten at Coney Island before they issue you a drivers license around here. It's a total experience: HUGE neon sign to greet you on your way in. The inside looks like some Eastern European detention center holding room meets 40's art-deco. The booths are wood, and there are THOUSANDS of names (including mine) carved into them, generations of customers..."vandalism as census" I've heard it called. They pretty much only serve hot dogs. There are a few other sandwiches on the menu, but you rarely see one served. The way to get your dogs is "Up", that's C.I. lingo for mustard, chili sauce, and onions. And chocolate milk....you GOTTA wash them down with chocolate milk. The kids aren't quite ready for the spicy of chili and onions so Ivy took hers plain and Gavin has 2 with ketchup and mustard, and chocolate milk, of course.
Coney island is a place where everyone from this area should have a memory of. I have several. In High School I found a wallet with not ID in it, but containing $300bucks taped to the underside of one of the tables (no kidding). I brought Chrissy there when we were up from college visiting my folks. When Gavin was born, my folks came to visit in the hospital and brought a dozen or so C.I. dogs ("up", of course) with them...we stunk up the whole floor with that chili and onions....great stuff.

It was nice to share that experience today with my family. They are such a blessing to me. It'll be a few years, but I'm psyched for the day that Gavin decides he's ready to take his dogs "Up". He may need an extra chocolate milk to wash them down, though.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

That Guy

Chrissy and I married young. Well, young, I guess, by current standards. I was 21 and she was 20. We were married for 10 years before we had our first child. In that decade, we saw scores of friends, friends of friends, co-workers, acquaintances, etc. get married and move into parenthood. We had a front row seat for watching "cool" people turn into moms and dads...and, from our perception, those titles were impossible to ever be combined. We watched husbands and wives start to dress alike. We witnessed the transformation of "funny single guys" into passive "yes dear" husbands who were afraid to sneeze for fear of reproof by their wives. We saw all kinds of kooky stuff go down as we watched from afar and secretly longed to be them. Well, at least longed for the parenthood part.
But the one thing that happened with pretty much everyone who had kids was that they talked about their kids all the time. All the time!!! ALL. THE. TIME. "This one walked", "that one said this", "She rolled over", "he pooped in the potty", "she has 9 teeth", "this one ate a dime", "This one loves books/legos/cars/dolls/blocks/penguins/vegetables/sleeping/not sleeping/whatever".....it made me crazy. Shut up about your kid. I pretty much can't stand your kid. I'd probably like him more if you'd stop talking about him for 2 seconds and breathe. I'd have conversations like this with my wife:

"Chrissy, I don't want to go to the _________________ (insert location/activity/event) because _________________ (insert name of annoying parents) will be there and so will their wiener kid ___________(insert name of wiener kid) who they never shut up about. Every time I see them these days it makes me want to ________________ (insert creative/humorous self injury) and bleed out all over the floor."

I vowed never EVER to be like these guys when I became a parent.
Now...you all know how this plays out, right?

yup.



I am That Guy


and I love it.

love it

LOVE. IT.

I get it. I didn't then, but I get it now. These people talked about their children all the time because that became their whole lives and the sum of so much of their love/energy/time/money/mindspace. The successes of their children became their successes, their children's failures and frustrations were theirs. As their children were discovering the world, so were they. And not in some unhealthy, vicarious way, but through the eyes, mind, and heart of a parent who has dedicated themselves fully to the success of their child.

I LOVE talking about my kids. I talk about them all the time. Because that's what I've got in my life. My Kids. My Wife. My God. Those 3 things are the subject matter of about 97% of what I talk about in casual conversation. I'm sure that there are people who hear me and think about me what I thought about those parents back before I was one myself. And I'm fine with that. Just like they were fine with it back then.

3 John 1:4 reads:
"I have no greater joy than to hear of my children walking in The Truth".

That verse is right on.

When I hear Gavin walking through the house singing a hymn to The Lord. When he recited his catechism during family worship. When he initiates prayer for a need that arises. There truly is no greater joy than to witness that.

Ivy will be there soon, and when she is, I'll tell you all about it.


Whether you want to hear about it or not.

:^)

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Gavinism Chapter 2

Communication has always been important to Gavin. He has had a knack for expressing himself from even before he could speak. Chrissy and I taught him a bit of sign language as a baby, and he got to a place where he had 50-60 signs down and could form simple but complete sentences...like More, Water, Please...stuff like that. On a couple of occasions he even told us, through sign, that he needed a new diaper. It wasn't so much that we put tons of effort into teaching him as much as it was that he just took to it really easily. When he started speaking, it was the same thing. He'd come up with really interesting ways of describing things or feelings....he'd speak in simile. Or he'd describe, in crazy detail, a situation he was in or something that he saw that day. We kept a journal for a while of stuff he came up with. Some kids gravitate towards building things, or art, others towards sports or role playing, Gavin seems to gravitate towards books and words and communication, which makes for some hilarious and poignant stuff at times, hence my chronicling of them here in "Gavinisms". Let me set the stage for our second chapter:

Time: 6:45am
Place: Living Room Couch
Who: Gavin and Myself

Gavin and I had just finished reading a few scriptures before I left for work. I hugged him and as I got up to find my keys/wallet/phone/glasses, he initiates the following exchange:

Gavin: "It's like a frog in a bucket"
Me: "What's like a frog in a bucket?"
Gavin: "Sin"
Me: "What do you mean?"
Gavin:"It's like slimy and hard like a rock or like metal"
Me: "Interesting. What's it like when God forgives our sin?"
Gavin: "Like mashed potatoes. Or like medicine, tickly medicine all over your body."

He's got it. Mashed Potatoes. God's forgiveness of our sin is like a big steaming delicious plate of mashed potatoes. Comforting. Wonderful. Reliable. Forget "Chicken Soup for the Soul"...I'll take "Mashed Potatoes for the Soul".

Best Simile Ever. Nicely done, son.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Garbage Post

Every once in a great while, usually on a Saturday, our family will wake up and indulge in a breakfast concoction that is equal parts wonderful and terrifying....the garbage omelet. In a garbage omelet, anything goes. Literally. Some leftover chili? toss it in. that 1/2 inch of salsa at the bottom of the jar that you can never quite get a chip down far enough for? toss it in. Leftover broccoli? fried onions? stewed tomatoes? 3 day old Christmas ham? toss it in.

That's this blog post. The Garbage Omelet Post. A little bit of everything.

The past few weeks have been kind of hectic. It included a 10 day trip to New Jersey to visit Chrissy's family, Ivy's first birthday, and a day trip or two. Here's some photos and commentary of what's been going down:

Ivy's First Birthday



Birthday Balloon Girl



Ivy is wearing her present from her Mommy and I: a necklace with one pearl. We're going to give her one pearl every year for her birthday to add to a necklace. This year, we added some little diamond-looking things to jazz it up a bit.

One Candle for One Year



and Who doesn't like presents?



Next up: Party's at Playgrounds!!





Monkey Bar Madness



My Girls




Gavin and I checked out the Riverside Park Classic Car Show:



a sharp '63 Chevy



Gavin literally has these EXACT 3 cars in Matchbox. Same colors, too. We line them up, just like these.



The Rambler was like the mini-van of the 1950's.


AND....on the way home we stopped by the "Warbirds over Woodstock" R/C Air Show:





"O.K. for takeoff"





You've got to be a little bit crazy to fly around in this thing.



Future Pilot?


Well, that just about brings us up to speed on what's been happening around here. The Garden is still producing, lots of 'maters, TONS of cukes. The peaches were wonderful and the blackberries are HUGE, but kind of tart.

Later this week is the "birthday gauntlet". Chrissy's birthday is 8/13 (AND she's a twin :^), mine's the next day on 8/14, and my mom's is the next day on 8/15. Should be fun.

One last item: The Lord has really been drawing me to Psalm 55:22 lately: "Cast your cares (burdens) on The Lord, and He will sustain you. He will never let the righteous fall." Sometimes I hang onto the dumbest emotional and Spiritual baggage instead of turning it over to Him. But I'm learning. And He's faithful. And patient. Very Patient. Thankfully.

He WILL sustain you.