May 2, 2007

Hello Everyone,
It is May 2 again, and I've been thinking about Jacob and our family as I always do this time of year. Mama and Daddy and Rachel I hope today your memories were more sweet than bitter. Mine were I think. Still there is always a big gap when I run down the names of my siblings, or when I tell people how many children are in our family.
A couple of weeks ago I ran across these links to photographs taken by pullitzer award-winning photographer Renee Byer. She followed the story of a young boy diagnosed with incurable cancer, and documented the last months of his life with his mother. These images were so powerful and moving to me, I just cried all the way through them. Made me think so much of Jacob and the last few months of his life, and what it must have been like for him, and for mama. I miss Jacob so much and I wish I could have seen how he would have grown up and what he would be like now. But I know I'll see him again, and I so look forward to that time.
http://www.sacbee.com/static/richmedia/swf/journey/part1/
http://www.sacbee.com/static/richmedia/swf/journey/part2/
http://www.sacbee.com/static/richmedia/swf/journey/part3/ http://www.sacbee.com/static/richmedia/swf/journey/part4/

The last couple of days have been pretty good! Joseph and Brigham had Tae Kwon Do Monday and this afternoon, and they really like it. So I guess my days as chauffeur mom have officially begun. Yesterday was an early-release day for the boys, and later in the afternoon I went to Brigham's classroom for his portfolio review. He is doing fine academically and the teacher told me that Brigham is the most creative child she's ever had in her 20+ years of teaching. She showed me a little picture and story he made in his story journal that day. He had drawn a picture of a house, and just below it a mirror image of the same house. Then he wrote, "My house is an optical illusion. Can you tell if it is upside down or upside up?" Of course, this is written in funny little Brigham phonetic spelling, but it was definitely decipherable, and pretty cool! So, even though Brigham is not correctly identifying numbers 13-19 (oops, bad mommy!), Mrs. Fuller said she wasn't at all worried since obviously his brain is working quite well. Music to a mother's ears.
That night was the school "gallery night" with artwork from each class displayed on the walls. So we went to see the boys' artwork and while we were there, we listened to a little asian boy playing the piano over by the art room. He was probably 3rd or 4th grade, and he was SO amazing! Made me feel like I've already failed my kids, not having them start piano at 2 years old... My rationalization is that it's not fair to rob little kids of some of their childhood by making them be so disciplined at such a young age. But somehow, I think maybe I'm just rationalizing to myself because I know *I* don't have the discipline to help my boys excel like this...
The cockroaches are waking up from their winter hibernation around here. I've seen a couple out and about, but none at our house until Tuesday. I was sitting at the computer when suddenly Mosey screams, and starts crying hysterically like he's hurt himself badly. I jump up and run to him, and try to figure out where he is hurt. I don't see any blood, but he was eating some crackers so I thought maybe he bit his cheek or his finger. But he shook his head, that wasn't it. I held him on my lap until he calmed down a bit, and then he started saying something about a "big black thing." I went to go look for something big and black and horrifying, thinking maybe somehow a snake got in the house or something. But I didn't see anything, so I went back and held him some more. He wouldn't set his feet on the floor, and just clung to my neck. Finally he told me it was by Brigham and Joseph's room, so I went back there and there was a lovely roach, lying face up on the floor. Not a huge scary one by any means, and it looked to be on its last legs anyway. So I went back and told Mosey it was only a cockroach, and then I got some roach spray and Mosey watched me put it out of its misery. The really funny thing was later on when Mosey was going over this situation again and he told me about the cockroach that "tried to kill him." LOL!! Obviously my little Florida boy has already forgotten some of the not-so-nice things about living in South Florida. Five months ago a cockroach wouldn't have fazed him!
Ok, that's it for tonight.