I think this is the suckiest part of all that has happened in the last month. I mean we all know life goes on but there is a little bit of guilt associated with that. For most of us it's one day at a time. I'm sure for my mom it's one breath at a time. But in the past few days I'll catch myself having bit of fun and feel bad about it. I know it's ridiculous and it does not serve anyone well to dwell on this. As my Uncle pointed out in his eulogy my dad lived a good life. Not always an easy one but it was always full of love and family and friends. So rather than being sad about that which we can't change it's time to move forward and live the same kind of life my dad did, full of love and family and friends.
So on that note, let's talk kids.
We're trying to teach Connor to say please. See, he's fallen victim to the third child syndrome. He doesn't have to speak because A: Sean and I are more experienced parents now and an read his non verbal cues a lot more quickly than we did with Emily, B: he has two doting older sisters who give him anything he wants with a mere point and grunt, and C: sometimes, in the hub of dealing with 8 children at once it's just easier to give in to the point and grunt than it is to work on the language.
Yesterday Connor wanted some chips. So he pointed and grunted. Sean told him he needed to say please. I even demonstrated, saying please a couple of times and Sean would give me a chip.
He was not giving in. Point and grunt and then throw a fit when he didn't get a chip. Later that evening we had to run to the mall (the night before last day of school and we still didn't have teacher gifts!) While we were in the car I sneezed. Connor thought that was pretty darn funny and then spent the rest of the drive saying "ACHOO!" Are ya kiddin' me!! He can say achoo but not please.
When we got home he thought he'd hit Nana up for a chip (oh and let it be known, Nana's name isn't Nana anymore - it's cookie. Much like Pavlov's dog - Connor sees Nana - Connor wants a cookie) Nana asked him to say please. After a bit of coaxing she managed to get a "deep" out of him.
Close enough.
Emily has a new pen pal. She had one a few years ago but her pen pal moved and writing to someone you can see anytime is not as much fun apparently. So I hooked her up with one of my fertility friends daughter who is the same age. Emily is so excited, not just because she has a new pen pal but because her pen pal lives in the States - and "not just like Buffalo that we could go to anytime we want but faaaaaarrrr in the States" I guess upstate New York doesn't count as a different country to her anymore, btdt. It's helped to take her mind off of the stuff going on here. And being that she's feeling all patriotic with Canada Day coming and being that her new buddy lives in some foreign land (insert chuckle and eye roll here) she's making a care package.
Mary Jo, now there's a funny kid. My nephew Micheal was here yesterday after the funeral. He's 15. All of my brothers kids are fantastic teenagers. Respectful, polite and considering they are all older than the rest of their cousins by several years, extremely playful and tolerant with the little ones. Well Mary Jo was quite taken with her cousin. She followed him around all afternoon. She'd climb into his lap if he sat down. She showed him every single stuffed animal she owned and, being the giggly little girl, she chased him around outside for a bit. Every now and then he'd come to Sean and plead with him "help me!" out of the corner of his mouth but he was such a good sport about it all. Mary was quite sad when he left. If we didn't know better we'd think Mary had a crush on her big cousin.
It will certainly be easier to get her ready for family events now though, we'll just tell her Mike will be there.
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