The Tracys of Denver

Let's see...has it been about a month? Lots of new things to report for both boys. Eban saw his first feature length film in January with Grandpa Morgan, me and Avery. We went to see the movie "Bolt" about a movie star dog who gets lost from his little girl owner. Well, Eban switched from my lap to Avery's, they shared popcorn, licorice, and drinks. It was so cute. At one point in the movie, the cat character was telling Bolt that he wasn't loved and that he was expendable. At the token quiet moment, Eban yelled out at the screen, "THAT'S NOT NICE KITTY!" with such meaningful force. Grandpa, Avery and I were laughing so hard at this unexpected outburst. It was great! Eban continued watching the movie taking in every moment. For weeks afterward, even now, he will be "Penny", Seamus is "Bolt", and Sadie is "Mittens." I can't wait to buy this movie for sentiment's sake. Following the movie, we had Chad in town - Jackson's godfather. It was great to get the old clan together as we had Heather and Clyde here, Michael and Lucy, the Rehm Family, etc. We sang, ate and danced all night long. The picture below is of Al Chadsey...how to describe this oil painting and its significance? In a nutshell, this was hung at the bar he owned year's ago. As a joke, someone took it (I think) and started mailing it to other's in the bar industry in D.C. and every year or so, it's sent to someone else for their viewing pleasure. Well, we received it for Eban's 2nd birthday and we need to decide who we will bestow this lovely picture to in the near future...any recommendations??? Patti came in town for a week and I sadly don't have any pictures from that visit. But then after that week, the boys and I flew to D.C. with Patti. Talk about pure mayhem!! Ugh, I knew we were off to a shaky start when the whole plane knew who we were before we even boarded at Denver! At the airport before liftoff, Patti had Eban and Jack and I was watching the immense amount of carry ons we had, I saw Eban take off and run away from her in the big terminal. I saw him laughing with pure, evil joy as he boarded the moving walkway so he could "ride" the fun toy. Patti, meanwhile, is outside the moving walkway in between the entry point and the exit. She's determining which way to run depending on Eban's strategy. He's screaming with delight; bored Denver Airport patrons are watching us with unfettered amusement...ugh...Eventually on one of Eban's many trips on the moving walkway to getaway from us, he tripped and fell down. Patti is yelling for him to put his arms up so he doesn't get sucked into the grates at the end of the walkway when some nice man put his down down and Eban stood up and took his hand. Patti was staring at the whole situation as it was unfolding and couldn't believe that Eban was holding a stranger's hand like it was par for the course.

At that same point as the situation was unfolding, I was attempting to gather all our stuff - one huge car seat, one blue lazy boy car seat, an overflowing diaper bag, my filled-to-the-max purse, a back pack filled with toys and a DVD player...there was a lot of junk. Needless to say, after I had gathered everything on my back and started to race down like a person carrying a load that was ten times the size of her...Patti waved me down telling me not to worry about the random guy holding my son's hand! It was a comedy of errors to say the least. As we attempted to board, we requested seats in the same row from the gate attendants. They were boarding the other passengers at this time and Eban started having a hissy fit as he wanted to go back to the moving walkway. He raced off and I yelled at Grandma (in a funny way) to go get him and he started yelling and kicking and screaming in front of all the waiting passengers. She looked at everyone who was staring at her and she asked, "WHO WANTS TO SIT WITH US?!" All of their horrified faces easily answered that question.

Basically, after more chasing and trying to get Eban to stop going behind the gate attendants desks to play with the computer and keyboard, they finaly looked at us and told us to "JUST GET ON THE PLANE. We know who you are." So we ran away from the exasperated gate attendants and laughed our way down the concourse with two crazy children in tow. We were at the back of the plane and then it was fine until some man decided to come near our row to do calisthenics. I was holding Eban or Jack - I forget who - and trying to give him a taste of another row when I was about to cross the aisle to go back to where Patti was sitting. Needless to say I was thwarted by the swanky moves of his aerobic workout and had to wait 5 or 10 minutes until it was through. I wanted to laugh out loud...one could easily see I was about to cross the aisle when super workout man got in my way! The second leg of the flight was terrible. Jack screeched half the time and Eban mimiced the language of the couple behind us so loud that I didn't know what to do when that ensued. When we landed, of course we were the last ones departing the concourse and happy McDonalds woman screamed at us saying she had cookies for us. I assumed she was shutting down so I yelled back that I loved cookies...that when right behind me, I saw some airport worker with his orange vest and knee pads and I immediately knew she was talking to him. Great...I made a fool of myself for the umpeenth time and the guy she was flirting with felt bad that I had yelled back about the cookies, that he grabbed them and ran back to me with the cookies in hand. Now I guilted someone out of their cookies. Thank goodness that day ended and I can simply look back at it with fondness.

Eban and Jack loved staying at their grandparents house. They really loved the only unclean place in the house which was the dog's crate...they loved going in it and locking themselves up...they came out looking as if they rolled around in dog hair for hours. Aunt Deirdre and Caitlin freaked out about how it was the only place in the house that wasn't cleaned before our arrival...Eban and Grandpa loved snuggling and watching t.v., Eban also loved having coffee with everyone in the morning, and it was a good trip while I went to my meetings. The kids surprised their great grandparents for dinner on the Sunday that we were there. Eban was uncomfortable with all the unfamiliar faces as Aunt Beth and her whole family was there so it was a house full of 14 people. As we were leaving, Aunt Beth exclaimed to Eban, "Aren't you going to say goodbye to us?" So he yelled back with his hand waving as he was exiting the house, "GOODBYE US!" Hysterical! My meetings on the Hill were a mixed bag of goodies. In one way, it was exhilarating to advocate on behalf of community service on the Hill, but on the other half - many people are quite affected on the Hill. People seemed to be in such a rush that very little eye contact was made. Some people seemed quite genuine while others were so stuck up (for lack of a better word) that it really disappointed me that my Senators or Representatives would hire someone that did constituent relations with that type of attitude. I haven't written a letter yet to the unnamed Colorado Senator/Congressman, but I eventually will. It's unprofessional, rude and unacceptable. Other than that, it was great to build relationships with those individuals and I look forward to continued open lines of communication - with the exception of the one office.

Let's see...we left and were met by Tutu at Reagan International Airport. I was dreading my pending flight, but as soon as we got on the plane, both Jack and Eban hit the sack. In Minneapolis at our layover, we had few minutes to spare, so I ran to the closest fast food chain store with Eban in my arms...and that was my workout for the month. I was sweating bullets trying to get food for them for the plane or else I knew we'd be in for it. All went well on the trip back to Colorado. Eban loved sitting next to the window and all was copacetic. When Tutu was here, both Ryan and I had jury duty. I ran my first meeting as vice chair of the Colorado Governor's Commission on Community Service. My mother and I saw the movie "Defiance" and we joined a health club in the northern suburbs. While Tutu was here, Jack learned to say please. It's so cute as it sounds like "peas." He also signs for the word more. One night, Tutu was giving the boys sherbet and Eban would tell her "more" every five seconds. Tutu asked repeatedly, what do you say? And then he would say "please" and the sherbet would enter his mouth by her spoon. Finally after the millionth "please," she asked him to "Say the magic word." He looked at her with bright little blue eyes and a cocked head and happily said, "The magic word." We were laughing so hard as he was following directions...so she had to give him a bite of ice cream as he did what she asked.

Tutu left on Thursday morning and Seamus is depressed. He loved all the attention and all the food she cooked throughout the day. He really is pathetic when he's sad as there's nothing you can do to get him excited. Grammie Kass just sent a lovely gift package of Little Einstein's video, a bath toy and a box of food that Eban can cut on a kid's cutting board. Eban has been busy "cooking" for us with his new gift and takes it very seriously. And speaking of seriously...the other day, Eban was in the downstairs bathroom and he locked himself in as he likes his privacy when he's "going" potty. I get nervous that he'll get into things and I was knocking on the door and asking him to let me when when he told me, "NO mom! I'm serious!" I have no idea where he learned the word serious, but I couldn't laugh out loud as I didn't want to encourage him to lock me out. I'll leave you with these kiss faces!

The above video is after Eban saw Bolt and you can hear him correct me about Seamus' name. Other than that, Jack is enthralled with Seamus and Seamus looks after Jack unlike any other human/animal bond I've seen. It almost seems like Seamus is Jack's dog.

Last weekend, we heard the exact phrase, "Can you please tell your son to put some clothes on?" When we are at our house, we have no problem with Eban being "naked baby" as he loves to run around the house without clothes. It's also useful with the potty training as there's one less step when you get into the bathroom. Well, we had some of Ryan's colleagues over and after dinner, Eban promptly stripped down to the bare essentials and the 7 year old girl that was there tugged on my shirt and asked me if we could please dress him. She has two older sisters so a naked boy was a first for her. I guess we'll need to be more cognizant of when he takes his clothes off as I'm so used to it!

During my holiday break, I was able to spend some quality time at the Rehm's where everyone painted their nails (Eban chose the color black and Ryan told me to take it off him immediately - I didn't listen). My godson Dennis has a bruise on his noggin from falling out of a crib...but he also had a cute haircut!

Grammy Kass came in town for the first of the year and the boys ate up all the attention she gave them. They also ate up her chicken chili recipe so that was a plus to find something that they both love to eat.

We went to Kalea's third birthday at a jump castle place...talk about kiddie haven! The boys loved it and loved the cake after the party even more. Eban loved it so much that he sneezed on the cake and blew out the first candle - yup, we had "that" kid at this recent birthday party. Kalea was gracious about it - hopefully she'll do it back to him on his third birthday!

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of catching up with my oldest friend...we've known each other since the days we were born. Staci Sue is so smart that she created the machines the make the cheese that go into your mac and cheese boxes and the machines that creates the apples when you get them as a side order at a fast food restaurant. It's more complicated than that and I'm sure I don't have it exactly right...but she's pretty smart! One of my favorite memories is the fact that her parents let us dig in their back yard...we wanted to dig a hole to China. I think we got to be about 10 feet and then we got tired as we needed ladders to get down into the hole!

Jack is now saying "yeah" "kay" and "more" all the time. He sometimes signs the word more but we are working with him on that.

Eban is almost potty trained!! I can't wait for that to really happen as the savings on diapers will be helpful.

February is busy for us. I'll be in Providence, R.I., for the first full week of February so Grandma Patti is coming in town to help. She has no idea how late Ryan now works due to his new responsibilities at work, so she'll bond with both boys tremendously. I get home and less than 12 hours later, Patti and I are on a flight to D.C. with the kiddos for several functions that I have. Every day I have something starting with Sunday a reception for JWU and the fact that we are on the President's Higher Ed Honor Roll, then other meetings on Capitol Hill with various legislators and then a board meeting near the White House for America's Service Commission and lastly, I have a reception in Union Station. It will be a whirlwind visit with the boys...then Tutu will fly out to D.C. and help me take them back to Denver and stay with us for a week. Ryan will be in Redmond half the time so it will be a tad hectic. I also have jury duty coming up and so does Ryan...one day apart of all things. Too bad we don't have it together! Then I'm a state judge for DECA (the high school business club) for two days down in Colorado Springs toward the end of the month. I'm hoping that Ryan and the boys will join me for the night as there is a swimming pool and you can't beat that when traveling with kids! Tonight, Chad, Jack's godfather, is coming in town for two days so we are hosting a party for him at our digs. It will be fun to see everyone together after all these years!

Hmmm...here's a funny Eban/Jack story. Eban has not become a fan of Seamus' slobber...one morning, Seamus went up to him to give him a kiss and Eban got "slobbered" and it all over him arm. Eban kindly looked at me and said, "Mama, look!!" So I watched him go over to happy little Jack and rub his slobbery arm on the top of Jack's head - not once, but twice!! The two nasty slingers were then beautifully displayed on Jack's head. That's what I call brotherly love!

SEAMUS AND HIS LITTLE BOY, JACK