Aftermath Irene.

(Visit to Niagara Falls last month)

I slept through the storm last night which is not unusual since I'm a deep sleeper. By now, my kids know not to reach for me at night as they'll get no response from me, so they go directly to Seth. I'm glad to report that nothing was damaged on our property and we didn't loose any electricity.

I woke up at 9:40 am realizing that David's drum lesson is supposed to start in 20 minutes. I rushed to the family room shouting that he should get dressed right away and he'll eat cheerios in a car. While he was writing something at his art table, he calmly told me that he and Julia already had breakfast after which he washed the dishes and Julia washed the kitchen floor. "Great, go and get dressed then", I told him.

"I need to finish writing this note and tape it to our kitchen wall", was his response.

I glanced over his shoulder and saw this written on his note "no running, wet" and there was a picture of a puddle.

So, while we got no water damage outside on our property, there were plenty of puddles in our kitchen and a trash filled with an entire roll of a wet paper towel. While hurricane Irene might have come and left, hurricanes David and Julia are here to stay.

Happiness.

Why do these two have the biggest grins on their faces and most importantly why are they so happy standing next to each other? It's unimaginable and that's why it needed to be photographed.

Actually, the reason why David is so happy is because he passed a diving test which consisted of swimming across the pool using the right technique. Julia was congratulating him and considering she has no interest in going on a diving board, there was no jealousy and she was sincerely happy for him. She had been witnessing him sitting on a bench for hours staring at the kids jumping off the diving board and water slide.

Now, when we are at the pool, I know exactly where he is at any given minute. Four hours on a diving board without a minute of rest, that's what I call summer.

Chores.

A sign of David doing dishes last night.

(Another sign -- broken dishes in a trash can.)

P.S. I know I'm overdue for a post or ten. It's been pretty overwhelming and busy here, but I'll try to catch up soon.

It Was Nice Knowing You, David.

No, it's not David spring cleaning his room or moving out (I could only wish!). David was mad at me and Seth, so he was throwing all his toys out. Thankfully, Julia was happy to inherit all of them. He only left his books. The great news is -- his room is spotless. The bad news -- Julia's room is a mess.

Oh, David, David. Life with you is never boring.

My Son.

As I drop one of my children off at school and drive away with the other, he tells me in a matter of fact voice that the principle spoke to him. About what? He doesn't remember. When? A long time ago (he has no sense of time, so a long time ago might have been last week). Why? He doesn't know, but he had to write an apology note to his teacher. I might as well guess why. The more I insist on the answers, the more reluctant and frustrated he is becoming. I make a mental note to speak to the teacher when I drop him off, but then I'm met by a substitute. I'll speak to the teacher next week.

As I leave him at school and say a prayer for a substitute, it all suddenly comes together -- the vice principle and the principle's greeting me by my name and the new reward system that just recently was implemented by David's teacher for a handful of boys in his class.

I drive home and think of Seth's words. "His behavior is not going to get any better until he goes out to college". I feel as though a heavy stone resting on my heart and my tears are welling up.

Then I get home. I walk in the kitchen and suddenly am reminded of dozen love and thank you notes written by him to me and Seth.

I recall how excited and appreciative he was the second he saw my knitted mouse for him. My sad feelings get replaced by happiness. I realize that I might not have the most obedient or calm child, but I have been blessed with the kindest, most appreciative, generous and loving son.

Messages ... And Not All of Them Speak of Love.

Right now, I'm not sure what the kids were fighting over earlier today. But it ended up with David writing two notes to Julia. Here's the first one.

Dear Julia. I will hit you at 1 minute. Your pal Dave. P.S. I will hit you. P.P.S. I will call you names. P.P.P.S. Get away. Bad Julia.

As soon as he handed her the first note, he proceeded to writing the next one.

Dear Julia. I am saying I'm sorry, but I am not saying sorry 100 times. Your pal, Dave. P.S. I am wrong. Sorry!

I'm glad I stayed out of their argument. Sometimes, you just have to let it go and trust they will figure at least some things out by themselves. After all, according to David, Julia is his best friend.

Life.

My thoughts and feelings are scattered all over lately. There's fear, frustration, sadness and feeling of helplessness. Yet, at the end of the day I realize I have two healthy (still questionable about one of them) kids and life is really good.

Julia.... my Julia. I've been saying for years now that I should have studied child psychology before becoming a mother and more so now than ever. David has been reading Bible to us. Last night, Julia was woken up by a nightmare and later in a day she asked me: "Mommy, does God put bad dreams in our head while we are sleeping?". I'm not sure she was satisfied with my explanation though.

And then there are times when she talks back like a teenager. Her favorite phrase : "I don't care". It had been driving me nuts and after a few weeks of ignoring it, I finally snapped and asked her where she got it from and who in school talks this way (of course, I blame everything on school). She replied to me in a matter of fact voice "Dr. Seuss talks like that".

David now decided to go by Dave only on a paper though. Is it just sheer laziness of writing 5 letters? Who knows with him.

I've been knitting non-stop lately. The crazier my life gets, the more I knit, the less I sleep. I think I might have even found a knitting community in my town.

Julia has been begging me to teach her how to knit because according to her that's the only way she is going to get another knitted bunny.

David felt pity on me for carrying my yarn in my hands from one room to another, so he made me a "basket" just for my yarn.

And here are just some of the knits I've completed in the last few months:

I love to knit, but I despise sewing (if required) pieces together. So, I end up completing a project as I'm running out of the door with a wrapping paper in one hand. Thus, I don't get to photograph many of them.

My next few projects will be for my kids -- a mouse for David and a skirt for Julia.

I'll try my best to post more often, but honestly, I'd rather spend this time knitting. Thank you for stopping by here even though this place is not updated often.

Six.

David turned 6 years old last week. Six!

This is what six looks in our house....

Happy Birthday, my big boy! You are loved so very much.

Out of My Comfort Zone.

David and I made it back to Campgaw mountains for a second time. This kid ... he doesn't stop to amaze me. He is so different when it's just him and me. It seems as though he wants to take care of me and not the other way around.

Back to skiing. For every time I went down a hill, he made it 3 times. He had such a control of his body, that he would just zoom right back on line whereas it took me awhile to stop and then head back up to the back of the line. He was basically skiing by himself. I didn't mind as long as he didn't insist on going back to a ski lift.

No such luck. After thirty minutes skiing on a "bunny" slop, he insisted on going to a ski lift. He held my hand while we were up in the air, told me not to look down and insisted that a lift is really safe. He was cruising around the trees like a pro not falling down even once. He asked me to go all the way on the highest hill. No way. It's beyond going out of my comfort zone. It's stepping out of my body. I'll pay someone to take him there next year.

By the end he got bored a little bit. He needs to be challenged all the time and when he succeeds at something, it's not interesting for him anymore. Add to it waiting in line for 10-15 minutes and my 5 year old is ready to climb the highest mountains .... literally and figuratively.

A really good day indeed.

Happy Valentine's.

Children. They do change everything. In the past I used to buy a Valentine's card for my husband just right after the Christmas was over. Today I realized I had forgotten to purchase a card in spite of helping my kids make handmade cards for all of their friends and teachers and decorate every corner of our house with handmade hearts in the past month or so. The priorities have definitely changed.

I really didn't want to purchase any more chachkas, so instead I turned to this fun project -- melted crayon hearts. I remember seeing it many times on other blogs and no wonder, because it's so much fun to make with the kids (after we took all the paper off). My friend also blogged about it here . We ended up making about 45 of them using every single crayon in our house and still managed to run out of them.

This is what out table looked like on Saturday. David needed to take a lot of breaks since he was handwriting a lot of notes, cards and even a song. Breaks took a form of reading. He's into reading Magic Tree House series books right now. Eight done, forty more to go.

He wanted to write a poem for his speech therapist, but then changed his mind and decided to write a song. I just hope my card from him is as sweet.

The kids wrote cards to each other and their teachers. I knitted this dishcloth for David's teacher and yes, I realize she deserves a cashmere blanket instead, but that's all I had time for. It's being blocked right now, thus no picture.

Perhaps, being inspired by all this crafting and talks of Valentine's, Julia has been coming up with really hilarious sayings. She's been walking around the house saying to herself "Darth Vader is in love with me". The other day as we were in a car, in her whiny voice (it comes out whenever she really wants something) she tells me "Mommy, I like daddy, but I really really want Luke Skywalker to be my father". And that's when we realized the kids need to take a break from watching "Star Wars".

I hope to write more entries soon since we've been keeping ourselves very busy. Hope tomorrow everyone feels more loved and appreciated (I'll make it up to my husband for a forgotten card).

Skiing.

This morning I took David skiing to a town nearby us. It was so nice spending time alone with him. I didn't know what to expect since it was my first time skiing even if it was on a bunny slope and I wasn't sure whether or not I should enroll him in a lesson. In no time he proved to me that he didn't need a lesson (at least for now) and I realized that I'm terrified of skiing. As my son was going down the hills without falling even once, I was stopping myself by falling down and dragging my body down the hill. I eventually figured out how to ski and most importantly how to stop and we headed to the ski lift -- another fear of mine. There, I had another adventure which is too embarrassing to write about, but that also showed to me how brave and independent David is.

It was a really great morning. Next Saturday we are planning to spend an entire day there (weather permitting, of course).

Round Four.

David stayed home today with a low grade fever... again. We picked up Julia earlier from school who was complaining of a stomach ache. Yep, now she is sick too. What really made her upset was not that she is running a fever, but that she is going to miss her turn to have me and Seth come in tomorrow and talk about her during her star of the week. Without a beat, David reminded her that just yesterday she wished she were sick too. And then he told her to get on a couch, covered her with two blankets, set up arts and craft area next to the couch and has been reading to her for a half an hour now.

Those moments are extremely rare in our house and that's why when it does happen I run to get a camera. Of course, there are still 7 hours till their bed time and I'm sure in no time Julia will be reminding David that anger leads to a dark side as she usually does dozen times a day ( I told you kind moments are very rare between those two).

Cozy.

This is a view from outside of our window this morning.

This is inside of our home.

David was off from school again with a strep . Yesterday, when his fever hit 103 degrees, all he wanted to do is sleep. This morning, feeling much better and fever down to 99 degrees, he insisted on doing his math homework and playing math games. I think we'll stay indoors today drinking hot cocoa, reading Christmas books (we are celebrating Ukrainian Christmas today), playing games and enjoying an outside view, but tomorrow it's playtime outside! Through the eyes of my kids, winter is becoming my favorite season.