Circus = Orange Juice

We're trying to keep quiet a super-covert operation around here today. Nathan is going with his dearest friend to the Circus's opening night tonight and we JUST CAN'T GO AROUND ANNOUNCING THAT TO MICHAEL. It's weighing big-time on his mind. He is giddy about going and can't stop blabbering about it. Hmmm. How would a superhero handle this? Code talking! We had to come up with something because everytime Michael heard "circus," he blurted out, "I wanna go circus." Nathan and I came up with a code word for circus: ORANGE JUICE. Now it is absolutely hilarious to see Michael's expression when Nathan says something like, "I can't wait to go to ORANGE JUICE tonight," or "How long until I go to ORANGE JUICE?" I hate to deceive my younger darling, but it's for his own good. I rarely get alone time with Michael when Nathan is away, so I am looking forward to that this evening. As much as I am treasuring my time at home with both of them this summer, I still love the alone-time with each one.

Michael Jackson

We will never truly know if Michael Jackson was a creep or not. People can speculate until they're blue in the face, but I'd like to give the guy the benefit of the doubt. Odd, mysterious--I agree that these are suitable adjectives of him.
An extraordinary entertainer and artist...definitely. I was so sad to hear about his death yesterday. I saw conflicting reports: one of his death, and one reporting his collapse and comatose state. I don't wish comas on anyone, but I was pulling for that report to be more true than that of his death. It was sad ot me that he spent the first part of his life with great fame and fortune. The latter part of his life was clouded with creepy undertones, personal attacks, health problems, and introverted hermit behaviors. He still remained famous, but much had changed.
When I was six, my dad took me to the Thriller concert at the Astrodome. I remember parts of the concert pretty well. He was all the rage, and his theatrical choreography and music just pushed the limits of popular music. I can imagine a little girl with blond pigtails dancing around the house singing Thriller and Beat It.
I'm not really a fan anymore, but when his songs blip onto the radio pretty rarely, I sing along. It's just sad to know he is gone.
It is just really sad.

Some Recent Funnies

1. Nathan is OBSESSED with Magic Tree House books. I didn't quite understand the depth of the OCD until he rattled off 40 out of the 42 book titles, in order, and categorizing them by whether they were his from the book fair, mine from my class library, on loan from this public library or that one. He was very distraught about forgetting two of them, and raced to the computer to google the titles. Weird.

2. While Nathan is rattling off the book titles, Michael wants in on some fun and attention. He sat with us in the kitchen, in his high chair, eating a spice cookie. He keeps shouting, "CHICKEN! CHICKEN!" What? Nathan rambled on, book number yada is yada yada, blah blah blah. CHICKEN! Michael, you're eating a cookie not a chicken. "Mommy, it wooks wike a CHICKEN!" Sure enough my brilliant little toddler was correct. He bit that little cookie into the shape of a chicken. A cookie cutter couldn't have been any more precise. So, I have a Magic Tree House book savant, and a poultry shaped cookie biting master. Oh, the intelligence runs rampant in this house! HA!

3. There's a children's poem by Jack Prelutsky called I'm Being Eaten By a Boa Constrictor. This morning, I swear, I was being eaten, chipped away, by the ENDLESS talking of a six-year-old. There's was a really cute commercial not too long ago where this little girl was juuuust a-talkin'. This, that, saying just about everything about nothing. Nathan is a talker, most definitely, but this morning he was REEEEEALY pushing it. I love to hear the creativity that comes out of his mouth. He beams with ideas, excitement, and wonder, but there must have been some atmospheric pull this morning that had his little mouth gushing out as many words as he could physically form. The house is really quiet right now, though. He found a Magic Tree House book-on-CD at the library and darn near busted a gut with excitement the other day. He's in the other room listening...perfectly still...quiet...aaaaah!

Oh, the really dark photo in the post just before this one is of Nathan reading in bed--yep, a Magic Tree House book--in the dark, by the light of his super cool, flip up LED book light. He loves it. So, so cute, but he IS obsessed!

Sheets + Chairs = SOOO Much Fun!

What can I DOOOOO? There's nothing to DOOOOO!

We have enough toys for a small country worth of children, and somehow we're lacking fun.

Nathan wants to set up Battleship. Great. However, we have Michael whose battle tactic would be WAY more destructive that sinking a few ships. We'd have little red and white game pellets all OVER the house. Battleship is better when Michael is napping--which he is not at the current time.

Zoo Game? Nope. Pieces, cards, shiny little circle things...also better for when Michael is napping.

I've done a nice job changing up routines this summer, making time to spend with each son individually (often while the other is at school) and still having lots of together time. This morning it is "back to basics." I enlisted some kitchen chairs and a few sheets. They're having the grandest time. They've manage to drag in EVERY SINGLE STUFFED ANIMAL that we own, blankets, play costume stuffs, and an occasional dog who will manage to sneak into the new, odd structure in the living room.

Here are a few pictures: one is of the "tent" and some others are of our summer experience so far! (I took a photo of Michael sleeping in his crib...notice the difference compared to his infant picture from 2006!)

The Letter A

Rules: It's harder than it looks! Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real. . .nothing made up!
1. What is your name: APRIL
2. A four Letter Word: ABLE
3. A boy's Name: ALEXANDER
4. A girl's Name: ALLISON
5. An occupation: ANESTHESIOLOGIST
6. A color: APRICOT
7. Something you wear: APRON
8. A food: ARTICHOKE
9. Something found in the bathroom:
10. A place: ALASKA
11. A reason for being late: ACCIDENT
12. Something you shout: AAAHHHH!
13. A movie title: ANNAPOLIS
14. Something you drink: AGUA
15. A music group: ABBA
16. An animal: AMERICAN ALLIGATOR
17. A street name: APRIL STREET in Houston
18. A type of car: ACCORD
19. The title of a song: KOKOMO
20.A celeb/singer/actor/actress/athlete/famous person: AVRIL LAVIGNE

One Polarized Potty Reaction

I JUST got finished with my bantering to Elizabeth today about how potty training wasn't going as well as I had hoped it would for my summer job. Michael was just totally uninterested, and quite avoidant of the whole process. No big deal. After all, he still has until the end of August before he turns 3. I'm not hung up on a child being fully trained by the time they're 6 months old or anything. Nor do I want him waiting until he goes to high school. It has really become a non-issue. I figured we'd give it another shot later in the summer.

I've really enjoyed being the one who does the school dropping off and picking up. I waltzed into his classroom today, and no sooner had I shut the door did one of the teachers announce to the room that Michael had just tee-teed in the potty.

WHAT!?!?!?!?

My Michael? I hadn't even completely scanned the room to find him amongst the other kids and toys. My son? The "Do you want to go to the potty?--uhhh, NOPE" kid? My simple, one word "WHAT!?!?!?!?" reaction held such a complicated meaning.

Surprise, Amazement, Proud Mama, Woo-hoo, Happiness, annnnnnd...

Deep, empty sadness.

I'm holding on to little frazzled strands of baby-ness in my house. They're so few and far between at this point; I think I'm just keeping things around for visual stimulation of what it's like to have a baby around. I didn't think my years of mommying baby-aged children would start to end so, so quickly.

10 Years in a Blink

I don't reflect upon our years of marriage using measurements of time. More often I measure our marriage by the events that we've collected to form the story of our lives. It all began in our Spanish teacher's classroom, well not exactly. We met in the halls of our middle school having some friends in common. Our relationship began in the fall semester of our senior year, when our Spanish teacher would allow some of us to dine in her classroom instead of experiencing the rugged chaos of the high school cafeteria. We dated, fell in love, attended prom together, graduated together, and moved away to college (520 miles away) together (much to my father's chagrin). Tomorrow, ten years ago, I was Nick's bride and he was my groom.
Here is a look back at the last ten years.
June 12th, 1999: our special, special day
Visited Massachusetts and (mostly) Maine for our honeymoon
Lived with four other guy friends while we waited for our house to be completed
Bought and raised our first furry baby, Charlie, a golden retriever puppy born on our wedding day
Moved into House #1
Cruised the Mexican Riviera
Adopted our second furry child, Sadie, a rescued golden retriever from Kansas.
Grew out of House #1. Quickly.
Graduated from Texas Tech University, May 2001
Became employed
Built and moved into House #2, became landlords of House #1
House #2 had a super-cool basement
Two miscarried pregnancies in one year, man 2001 was an awful year,
Bought some acres in Shallowater, TX, to someday live on forever
Drove through a neighborhood on our way to lunch one Saturday, stumbled upon House #3.
Cruised the Mediterranean Sea to soothe our sadness, see spectacular sights, and give our happiness a rebirth
Moved into House #3, what a glorious house!
Tore out lots of wall paper.
Sold Shallowater property. It would've been a flat, grassy money pit.
Pregnancy #3: Apprehensive for every minute, complicated pregnancy, unimaginably happy outcome
Nathan Nicholas Cobb, our first son was born!
I dreamed motherhood would be amazing, but I soon learned that it surpassed all of my wildest expectations.
Nick traveled like CRAZY with his job.
I did not teach the year after Nathan was born.
Nick, Nathan, and I temporarily relocated to Cincinnati, Ohio to be closer to Nick, 3 ½ months
Another year of Nick traveling, me working, and Nathan now in childcare
End the school year with a trip to Houston for Andrew's college graduation
Grandparents watch Nathan while we go to Churrasco's for a date
Dinner conversation: Let's jump ship, totally transform the life we know now.
Traveled to Colorado for vacation, road trip!
Quit jobs, sold house, moved to Houston where Nick would prepare, apply, and go to dental school—we hoped!
We moved TO Lubbock with all of our things fitting comfortably in the backs of our two little Ranger pick-ups. Moving BACK to Houston, after giving away SO much to our neighbors, we loaded up two vehicles, jam packed, and I can still picture the movers heaving shut the back door of the 54 foot humongous trailer.
Rented House #4, a tiny little thing with a great location. We tripped over boxes all year.
Began working at my old elementary school
Built House #5
Moved into House #5
Nick completed leveling courses, DAT testing preparations, and acceptance into dental school. All of that seems so trivial written in one line.
Pregnancy #4
Michael William Cobb, our second son, was born.
Nick begins dental school
Barbara manages much of the boys' care.
Cruise to Alaska for Barbara's birthday, more amazing that I could've ever imagined
Since then, work, school, backpacks, lunches, late nights, early morning, finals, grades, lesson plans, bedtime stories, playroom disasters, high chairs, cuddle times, yard work, house chores, and the list goes on.
I love our life. It's just how I expected it to be, and yet there are surprises all of the time. I have an amazing husband, two jewels of children, I am healthy and happy. What more could I ask for? There is no rush for time, but I cannot wait to see what the years ahead have in store for Nick and me!