In Cognito

A little too small for the royal digs... though Mommy had visions of an ultra cool crown to adorn this lemur's head.

Sometimes he's naughty, sometimes he's nice, and all the times he's uniquely Ya.

I ♥ Faces: Dress Up Time

I ♥ Faces
Week 42 - “Halloween Dress-Up” Photo Challenge

I admit I went a little crazy this year with costumes. I just couldn't pick one cute outfit over another... so I purchased three costumes for little man. Since he can't voice his own preference, I dressed him up in each and snapped a few pictures (which I promptly posted for family to vote on).

I have partially settled on a cool dragon costume...

but I LOVE the images I got of him in his Naughty-n-Nice costume. A third costume, a lemur, was way too big for little man, though I had high hopes of a mighty King Julian-Ya a la "Madagascar." The store I purchased the costumes from takes everything back prior to Halloween, so lemur is already gone (though one precious photo of a very disgruntled Ya remains). I guess I'll flip a coin to decide on the one he'll wear for this his second Trick-or-Treat excursion.

Now Chi was a little difficult because she has an opinion... she's finally settled on Little Red Riding Hood; most likely because she really likes wearing the red wig I got on a whim because it was on sale. Eventually, she'll get the outfit on and I'll post a few images (though these days getting her to pose -make that pause - for a picture is incredibly difficult).

The good folk over at I ♥ Faces have a plethora of costumed gems posted on their website that I'm checking out because next year we're gonna try to make a few costumes and I need ideas.  How exactly that will work since I don't sew and always burn my fingers with a glue stick, I don't know.

Did I mention that fall is my favorite time of year?

When else are the colors of nature so vibrant? When else can you get away with eccentric clothing? What other time of year has a day that offers the opportunity to meet neighbors you'd otherwise know only from their car's windshields or sporadic meetings at the mailbox? And when else can you take on a character's role beyond curtain call and be just a little bit more than who you usually are?

Never.

What we've been doing...

Free time is reserved for the weekends these days, and so we try to fill them with adventure.

First, Chi lost a tooth and changed her hair style :

...it looks better in the mornings, really...

Ya determined he likes little pumpkins, but hasn't figured out how to eat them yet... though he's tried really hard:

Mommy was determined to get a picture of Ya surrounded by fall foilage. This was NOT the picture she had in mind, a dangerous (but cute, because it is Ya, of course) impression of a chipmunk:

Ya was determined to cram as many acorns as he could find into his mouth... this is how many he had in his possession:

A few days and hundreds of picture attempts later, we did get one amazing portrait... but it seems to be hiding in Mommy's new dinosaur, Tetra (external storage drive with a terabyte of memory - - which I'm told is a lot of space).

Tough talks and prayers

Chi went to a sleep over last night. It was her gymnastic studio's annual Halloween sleepover. Kids dressed in their costumes with leotards underneath and had what I can only imagine was organized chaos for the evening. She seemed to enjoy it, though the build up to the event was more fun than the execution of it. She suffered her first nose bleed following a swift kick in the nose by some other gymnast. I think that alone made her wish for home and lose enthusiasm for the programmed activities. Nevertheless, she braved the whole evening and returned to me this morning (carrying a dark load of laundry under her eyes) safe.

One of the other attendees, a rather handsome young chap of no more than eight, was sporting the tell-tale hairlessness of one actively combating cancer with radiation and chemotherapy. Chi's sleeping palette was next to his for the evening, and as she waved goodbye in the morning, she said to me quietly, "He's bald, mom." It was more of an observation than anything else, and she certainly didn't intend any malice or ridicule. We've got a lot of kids who've chosen the shaved head look, after all. I determined, though, that his hairstyle was less of a conscious choice, as his eyebrows were no longer a feature of that sweet face, and though he appeared quite strong, he had a look of wisdom and acceptance that children combating serious illness possess. I had noticed the young man's tee shirt of choice just so happened to be one advertising a cancer research and medical care organization.

Teachable moment? Yes, indeed. Talking about cancer is no fun and is truly difficult to do with the tenderness necessary to induce empathy and concern in a child.

How do you explain to your six year old what cancer actually is? She's no true understanding of cells and their functions, so how could she possibly understand that some cells are malformed, clump together and are dangerous? I thought about saying some cells are bad, cancer cells are among them... but then thought better of it knowing that my never-forget-a-thing daughter would go up to the next person she suspected had cancer and would say "you have bad cells." And I, the well-meaning parent, would turn scarlet and will myself to disappear from the situation, which would not likely happen.

So I fumbled along in my explanation. To the best of my recollection, the conversation went like this:

Mommy: "Sometimes, Chi, people get cancer. It's a disease. That little boy has cancer. His hair is gone because he's fighting it. "
Chi: "How do you catch it, Mommy?"
M: "Honey, I really don't know. Sometimes cancer just...happens. It's not something you catch, and you can't get it from someone else.
Your body has cells. Did you study cells in science class?"
C: "No."
M: "Okay. Well, your body is made up of cells. Cells have jobs. Some are your blood; some, your skin. Sometimes cells get messed up and they grow badly. They get sick and because they're sick, they clump together. This is dangerous to other cells that are around. So doctors try to kill the sick cells with a big machine or a liquid. Both of them attack the cancer, but your hair also gets killed."
C: "Oh...so when you get cancer, your hair goes bald."
M: "No. Your hair falls out when you try to kill the cancer. We should say a prayer for him and ask God to give him strength to fight cancer and for God to help make it go away."
C:"Okay. He's a nice kid. I liked him. [pause] You know, I've seen some ladies with no hair, too."
M: "Lots of people are fighting cancer, Chi."
C: "I'll pray for them, too."

And at that point I got a little teary eyed and my throat clenched. I'll be praying, too, because no one should have to fight the cancer fight - - especially not a child.

I ♥ Faces: Pink Week

I've been taking a forced vacation from blogging for the last few weeks... it seems like two teaching positions, two kids, two dogs, and whatever else life throws at me has been consuming my every waking moment (and I don't blog well in my sleep).

On the sidelines was the nagging concern of health issues. A pre-30th birthday call announcing that I might be cancerous rocked my world. Two months afterward, my doctor finally returned the test results of my biopsy and has found me to be ovarian cancer free! It's fabulous news, as I'm not quite ready to take on a battle for my health of that magnitude. There are a lot of follow up tests to check on the pesky abnormal cells I'm harboring, but God willing they'll be nothing more than "different from the norm" for the remainder of their collective (my) life. We'll call them eccentric and move on to more important things, like being Mommy.

Here's my entry for this week's theme in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month: My beautiful little girl who hopes to live a long, healthy, and prosperous life where she will one day become an artist, singer, circus performer, whatever she desires.

And as long as we reach for a cure for cancer (and other terrible attackers of our health), she'll do just that.

A-Maze-ing Day Pt. 2

One of the greatest features of this particular location was the inclusion of a corn maze.

I've never been in a corn field that I can recall. And after this experience, I likely won't venture back into one any time soon. The maze changes every year based on a selected theme and the owners carve out a path as though they were creating those sci fi crop circles. Walkers are given a blank map to fill out as they travel along the paths; when a pedestal (there were 8 or 9, but we survived only long enough to find 5) is spotted, the participants use a crayon to rub in more of the map's image. It didn't help... at all. Instead, we relied on visual clues (ie: the broken corn stalk we passed a half dozen times, or the families we met every few minutes heading in different directions that never seemed any closer to the exit).

We were told that the "average time" to get successfully through the maze was two hours. We forgot to inquire about how many people actually were successful.

A large bamboo pole with a flag on it served as the emergency caller, but it seemed to encumber a rather difficult meandering along the paths even more than the stroller (which Ya refused to stay in) did.

And so, we wandered.

At first we were committed and determined to succeed; later, we just determined we would finish the course before night fall.

Once outside the maze (yes, we cheated and took the "emergency exit" - - crawling under the crime scene-esque tape near the watch tower and depositing the bamboo staff flag in the holder), we returned to the mini farm on the property.

On the way, however, Mommy made yet another major-mommy-mistake (Tri-M, try anything...) by deeming a dilapidated brick building the perfect picture taking location.

I set Ya up on the rocky edifice and instructed Chi to sit beside him.

Then Oma chimed in, "Uh, Rachelle, I think that's poison ivy." Did I mention Chi has bionic ears? The child instantly began to itch as I scrambled to remove her and her brother from the dangerous leafy location. And though we assured Chi that Oma was mistaken, we doused the kids with the cure-all ("Han-i-tizer") to kill off any possible itchiness that might decide to bear witness to Mommy's stupidity.

Ya was not amused by the goats. In fact, he was pretty apprehensive about going near them. But the chickens? He was totally enthralled.

I probably took a few too many posed photos...

I realized this a little late when Ya determined that he was supposed to sit among every gourd and pumpkin collection he saw and, once seated, would look up at me and grin until I raised the camera.

Well trained, yes indeed. I'll get help for this, I swear it...

Chi liked the obstacle course and tube slides. She could've spent hours running between them and on them, but Mommy got tired.

Oh the priceless adventures we have!

A-Maze-ing Day Pt. 1

Today, my 13-month old son and 6 year (and 10 month) old daughter accompanied me and Oma on an adventure through a country farm oasis west of us. Despite the fact that I am anything but country in spirit or nature, I was stoked about venturing away from suburbia, even if only briefly.

The drive was fairly easy - a straight road from door to destination and very little traffic. The camera was ready and loaded, the probable costume for Halloween tucked into the stroller "just in case," and the kids were napped out and perky. It was the perfect set up for pumpkin hunting. Almost like deja vu, Ya picked out the tiniest little orange pumpkin wanna-be in the bunch. Then he abandoned it. To my surprise, he preferred this monstrous growth: