Meeting Bom-Bom

Back in January, Amelia met her great-grandmother Bom-Bom for the very first time. Bom-Bom is one of my very favorite people on Earth. She is 99 years old. When I was a kid, we'd stay with her after school sometimes. I have so many wonderful memories of Bom-Bom, it would be a very long post to share them. But here are a few:

Her car was an olive green Chevy (??) with shiny vinyl seats. These seats were so hot in the Memphis summers, you could literally burn your legs on them. She'd always give us a towel to put on the seats--you know, to avoid the smell of scorching flesh! My cousin Clint and I used to make magic shows for Bom-Bom. She was such a good sport, as I'm sure our sleight-of-hand wasn't so sleight. She would lay in front of the TV with us, usually watching Wheel of Fortune, and we would pretend to ride bikes in the air, her form of exercise (which must have worked cause she's still hangin' out at age 99!). I loved to help gather walnuts from her backyard and help pick carrots and beans and okra from her garden. Bom-Bom loves Scrabble--and she can put down some high-scorin' words faster than a Nascar racer. It was both fun and frustrating to play with her--while we'd study the board and our letters trying to play the best word, she'd just plop one down when her turn came, picking up 50 points and using 6 of her 7 tiles, wondering out loud "what's takin' y'all so long!?"

Bom-Bom is--and long has been--a real blessing for our family. She's probably the most truly kind and honest woman I've ever met, full of faith and Christian values that she applies to her every-day life, "a red-letter Christian" (as Tony Campolo would call her). We could all learn a thing or two from her about how to live life to the fullest, without regret, without judging others and with a kind word at every turn. The day Amelia met her, she was bright and alert, cooing over Amelia and holding her gently. Some days are not that great for Bom-Bom anymore, but how fortunate for us, that this day was a beautiful one--so that one young beauty could look into the eyes of an older and wiser beauty for the very first time!

Update on Le Femme Marsh Un & Deux

Molly is going to a new school, embracing the challenges of her new class beautifully. In the afternoons, she gets to ride the bus home with her cousins, which makes her feel like a very big girl! She's making friends and reading well. She can tell time (on a real clock, not just digital!) and do basic math. She recently completed the Kindergarten booklet for the St. Jude Mathathon. Her class had a birthday party for Oscar the Grouch while studying the letter "O." They also celebrated the 100th Day of School with a big counting party, as well as the 101st Day by dressing in black and white and watching 101 Dalmatians. I had lunch with her on Wednesday, which was a treat for both of us. Molly is in a Daisy girl scout troop, and Feb 9 was World Thinking Day. Her troop had South Africa as a country to display. All the troops had booths with new foods to try and costumes to wear.




Rebecca's Montessori preschool has been busy, too! For Mardi Gras, she wore a purple and green mask and ate a King Cake. Two classmates, Haley and Drake, found the plastic babies in their slices and they got to ride in a "parade" around the school's circular drive while parents marched behind and threw candy, coins and beads to the other kids who were parade-watchers (like Rebecca). Peter was a walker in this parade. He said the kids were really into it. The challenge for the parents was the proximity of the children to the throwers-of-candy. Since the kids were pretty close to them, it sort of felt like they were pelting the kids with beads--a few times, some kid got nailed in the head with a lollipop and had to bounce back in time to catch the next treat coming his way! Next came the Chinese New Year, when Rebecca dressed in a Chinese dress from Aunt Jenny and wore red tights (red is the traditional color to wear for Chinese New Year). It's the Year of the Rat, she told me. Also, they learned the story of a dragon, which they acted out on New Year's Day (Feb 7). She got to stomp on bubble wrap to try to scare away the dragon (portrayed by the bigger kids/Kindergarteners) with the noise. And it worked!



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I have added pictures to previous posts, so scroll down to see them!

Love is in the Air!

Happy Valentine's Day! This picture is of Amelia in her heart-get-up. She was the only one up and dressed before I left for my 24-hour call day in Jackson yesterday, so she's the only one with a Valentine's Day picture! Molly's school was not allowed to have parties (?!), but they did a Valentine exchange. Rebecca's school had a party and a treat exchange also. Peter was out of town for the week, but he sent multi-colored roses to me at the hospital. So it was a good one for all of us. My wonderful parents spent the night at our house and did all the Kid Shuffling, battling an under-the-weather Rebecca and an under-the-weather Granna, as well as a spit-up-infused Amelia. All is well! Hope your Hearts Day was Happy!

Hail to the Chief

With President's Day fast approaching (and I know how giddy you get in anticipation of that...), both girls are learning in school about The Big Guys who have led our country thus far. Both Molly & Rebecca can tell you who the current president is and both know and recognize both Washington and Lincoln. Tonight at dinner, Molly was enlightening us about Mr. Lincoln and Rebecca announced that "our president right now is George W. Bush."

I then added that we would be picking a new President in November. Their eyes lit up. "When is November?" asked Rebecca. "After Halloween." "How can we pick a new one?" Molly wondered. "The grown-ups get to vote. There are a few people who want to be the President and we listen to them and decide who we think will be the best one. Then we vote. And a new President gets elected."

"Can we help you decide?" Molly asked. "Sure. There are a lot of grown-up issues that we think about to help us pick." Rebecca: "Do you just raise your hands all at once and someone counts them to see who gets the most?" "No, we mark a box on a computer or on a piece of paper and they count the marks." (The whole electoral college system seemed a bit too much to explain to a 6-year-old and a 3-year-old.)

Molly wondered which "grown-up issues" we needed to consider. "Well, there's a war now." I said. Molly: "In Iraq. I know. And there are a lot of soldiers there." "Yes, so we want to pick a President who can make the right decisions about the soldiers, to keep them safe and keep our country safe. The President is in charge of the soldiers." "Okay, so what else?" "We want a President who can make good choices about the country's money. And one who can find ways to help people who are poor." Rebecca pipes up. "Jesus said we should help poor people. I think we should let Jesus be the President." "Yes, we should let Jesus be the President. But he's not running." (That is enough of an answer for a 3-year-old.)

"we want a President who can make good choices to take care of the Earth." Rebecca: "Like recycling? And picking up litter?" I nodded and added, "And keeping air clean and making sure we have energy for things like lights and gas." Rebecca considered this. "We have a Honda Hybrid so we don't have to use a lot of gas." What smart kid! :)

"We want a President who can get along with the presidents and leaders of other countries, don't you think?" I said. Molly immediately had an answer for that. "Yeah, so we don't have more wars and so we can fly on airplanes. There's a big world out there, and I want to see it. So far, I've only lived in Iowa and Tennessee and a little bit in Connecticut, and there's a lot more." I nodded.

"What are the names of the people who want to be the president?" asked Rebecca. I named the four front-runners. The conversation broke down a bit when I said our country had two "parties." There was talk of balloons and pinatas and goody-bags, so I had to steer the conversation back to relevance. I think what I liked best about this conversation--the part with the names--is that my three little daughters will not know a time when a woman was not taken seriously as a candidate for President. I want them to believe that's possible for them, that they can truly do whatever they are called to do. I'm not sure the current woman is The Woman to achieve this milestone, but for my girls, the sky is the limit!

So, grown-ups, as you ponder this very important task at hand--when to raise your hand when they call out the name choices for our next President--consider these:
--how will this person lead our soldiers?
--how will this person handle our money?
--how will this person treat the poor?
--how will this person take care of our world?
--how will this person get along with other leaders?

Try to look at it through the eyes of your children. For they will be the recipients of the gifts we leave them, both good and bad!

Meemers, Mimi, A-moo-moo, Amelia

Little Amelia is now 4 months old. She reaches for stuff--hair, earrings, toys--with a decidely determined look, wrapping her delicate little fingers around and holding on for dear life. Although she is small compared to the other girls at this age (and compared to the two little boys at her daycare home, who are younger and about twice as big), she seems so big compared to when she was born. Her legs are plumping up, with rolls and dimples. She prefers to be held in a standing position, although she's pretty fond of sitting up, too. She dispenses big, gummy, open-mouthed smiles freely, but saves the biggest smiles for her sisters. She loves the lady who cares for her when we're working, whose name is also Amelia, and giggles in anticipation as soon as we get to her front door. In the last two weeks, she has discovered her own feet, pulling off her socks, grabbing those toes, and falling over to one side while holding them. On the day we moved into the house, she rolled over as I was changing her diaper, just plunk-plunk, back-to-front and back again! When we do not give her what she believes she has asked for, she breaks into this panicked cry, as though she will never again be fed. (For the uninitiated this invokes fear that something is truly wrong. But nothing is.) Example: she is fussing (which, for all you non-parents is quite different from crying) and is hungry. I pick her up, walk with her into the kitchen and carry her as I finish whatever I was doing. Then I hand her briefly to her dad so I can, say, pour myself a glass of water before preparing to feed her. This is when the panicked, breathless wail ensues--I asked to be fed and you gave me to the guy without the right equipment! Oh, no, I will starve! Take me back! Now! Even handing her back to me does not quiet the fury, only the item of concern (the milk) will do. This is a girl who knows what she wants and is not at all interested in anything else!

We love our Meemers!

Wonderfood

Every so often, when I am home after being on-call and Peter can get away for lunch, we eat somewhere without chicken fingers on the menu. Recently, we decided to eat at Bangkok Alley, a Thai restaurant on Germantown Rd. Now we enjoy Thai food, but there are really different types of Thai--there's the sweetened-up Americanized version (less spice, more coconut milk) and there's the more authentic (so we've heard) kind, with unique blends of spices we rarely get to eat here. In New Haven, when I was at Yale, we had some awesome Thai food. In Northampton, where I went to college, again, yum-yum. In Davenport, we had a decent Thai place called Exotic Thai, which could satisfy the craving but wouldn't scare the Midwesterners' palate. We were reasonably sure Bangkok Alley would be on par with Exotic Thai. We were wrong.

In a matter of minutes, I became a huge advocate of Edamame. This is a soy bean. Oh, yum, you may say. No, really, it IS yum! They look like small, plump snow peas, served in a bowl. The skins are buttered and salted. You pick them up with your fingers, bite into them and suck the peas out. They are very nutty and soft, wa taste and texture which blends perfectly with the buttery, salty skin. The skin is then deposited in a side bowl, crab leg-style. There are about 3 peas in each pod. I could have been finished eating after this appetizer, but I had some scrumtious curry after that, with a little coconut milk and a lot of zing. Edamame was recently featured in an issue of Mother Earth News and is touted as being exceptionally good for you. I can hardly believe this is true, since these peas are so tasty. And things this tasty are rarely good for you, right? (Don't tell my kids I said that.) Edamame (ee-da-mommy, according to the server) is a WonderFood.

Go Tigers Go!

The University of Memphis basketball team is ranked Numero Uno IN THE WHOLE COUNTRY. We have been under-rated for a couple of seasons now, since we are in Conference USA, which is admittedly, a pretty non-competitive conference. So we were basically the Best among the Worst. Last year we sailed to the Elite Eight. This year we are goin' all the way! We have achieved victory over several highly-ranked teams that are not in our dinky conference, such as Georgetown and Arizona. Dad got some tickets for Saturday's game against Univeristy of Central Florida. When he and Mom offered to watch the Rugrats so we could go, we jumped at the chance. On the way, Peter was saying how reasonable season ticket prices were, and I said, "yeah, but if you're in the nosebleed section, it's probably more exciting to just watch at home." While our tickets were not at all in the nosebleed section--we were behind one of the goals, about 12 rows up!--I quickly took back my comment. The energy in the FedEx Forum is just eletric! The sea of blue, the chanting, the band, the singing, even the giant sub sandwich which shoots t-shirts into the crowd--it all made for such an amazing package. U of M soundly defeated UCF, as expected, and what a glorious experience it was! When I was a kid, I went to games with my best friend Brian and his family, and we always had so much fun--but the Forum is just a whole different level of SHOW than the Colisseum was. Wowsers! On Feb 23, we play University of Tennessee. If we beat them, then surely the Dick Vitales of the sports world will shut up about how we don't deserve our high ranking. We believe in you, Coach Cal! Go Tigers!

1000 Words, No Pictures--Xmas and New Year's Eve

I still have not downloaded the pictures from my camera or copied Dad's picture disks, but I have missed blogging, so I'm just gonna post entries without images until I find time to manage my stuff!

Christmas was glorious. We got to hang out with lots of family members. Santa came to Granna and Papa's house, because we just couldn't fathom Christmas morning in our stinky apartment. Plus we had just finalized the deal to buy the Dream House, so we were feeling even more resentful of the apartment. We had gatherings with my dad's side, my mom's side, Peter's family and even a little time with just us. Loved it. The kids loved it. Every year I try to keep things simple, and every year, simple gets harder. But it all worked out beautifully, and Jesus's birthday was well-spent by all.

After all the holiday hustle and bustle, I really needed to get away. With my impending Return to Work (maternity leave is so dern short!), it was just a necessity. So I rented a cabin on Pickwick Lake, about 2 hours from Memphis. We invited Uncle Matt, Aunt Laurie, Caroline, Hallie and Annsley, to come along. It was just what I needed, a little R&R away from the city. The cousins had a blast playing Go Fish and Cranium Cadoo and WebKinz. Daddy/Uncle Peter mastermined a nature walk with scavenger hunt, which produced lots of neat leaves, rocks and tree limbs. The nearby hotel had an indoor pool that cabin-renters could use, so we took advantage of that. We made smores in the wood-burning stove. We ate spaghetti and pancakes. We got a ton of fireworks, but they were outlawed in the park, so they are mostly still untouched. We did do sparklers and poppers, though.

We celebrated "New York New Year's" which really is more fun, because there's a ball to be dropped and Auld Lang Syne to be sung. When Central Time hits midnight, it's rather anti-climactic and hardly even acknowledged on TV. The kids got sparkling juice (Sprite with cran juice) and the grown-ups got sparkling Brut, all in fancy plastic flutes. We had party hats and noise-makers. By 10 minutes after 11, Caroline and Hallie were sleeping. Amelia and Rebecca slept through the whole event. Annsley woke up from the noise-maker production. And Molly, who feel asleep 20 minutes before the ball dropped, woke up for the toast and promptly returned to her slumber. The grown-ups played a little Pictionary, and we were all asleep by about 12:30 or 1, which, frankly, is really late for us.

As Seen on CNN

Our lovely little corner of Earth was jolted from its 75-degree balmy slumber yesterday by tornadoes and "cloud walls" and "straight winds," but we are all fine and dandy, so thanks to all of you who have called, sent text messages and emails.

According to many (myself included), this was the scariest looking storm "ever" in Memphis, and we are no strangers to stormy weather. Out one window, sunny and lovely; out the other, black as night with clouds that seemed to touch the earth (and did in some places).

It was pretty frightening in the area where we live and definitely in the town where I work (Jackson), where the brunt of the storms hit. All evening yesterday and all day today, the 24-hour news networks were chock full of images from little ol' Jackson and the mess that was formerly known as the Union University campus. Dorms collapsed, students were trapped, etc. Miraculously, no one there was killed and only a very few were hurt to any serious degree. I was at the hospital there in Jackson, and caught a pretty little red-headed baby named Chloe to the magical sound of sirens and hospital loud-speakers announcing the "CODE D" (for "disaster"). I guess the toughest part was being separated from the rest of my little family. They were hunkered down in the bathroom first, the closet second, as a tornado touched down less than a mile away from our house. It ripped a roof off, depositing it pretty much intact right in the middle of the road.

Peter reports that the girls were well-prepared, from school drills, I suppose. Molly calmly informed Daddy that they needed to get in the tub and have a mattress over their heads. Rebecca showed him how they should protect their heads and sit "criss-cross applesauce" (known in the less PC days as "Indian-style"). When they were in the tub, however, Rebecca did get pretty anxious and scared & started to cry. Amelia also was not in the best of spirits. So they transferred to our closet and took a few toys and games and the Boppy pillow for Amelia. All's well that ends well, and Rebecca is excitedly reporting that "God held our house down with a big hand" so it wouldn't blow away like Dorothy's house in Wizard of Oz.

Of course, not everyone was as lucky as we were. One nurse from my unit lost her entire house, opening her closet door to nothing but rubble and her sun porch. I have already mentioned the Union community. The other Jackson-area hospital suffered significant damage to the medical buildings. As I drove home this morning after my 24-hr shift, I saw mangled semi trucks on the Interstate, trees pulled out down to the roots and upside down along the side of the road, dozens of them flattened like matchsticks, billboards snapped in half. And last I heard, there were about 50 deaths in this area. How lucky we are.