It’s a kinda big day in my world today.  For example:

• Andrew starts Kindergarten tomorrow
• Three years ago today my mom died.  After watching and helping her for three weeks, this was the the first day she was gone.  And while this day and this time of year feels a lot less bad than it did one or two years ago, there’s still a gaping void in my life where my mom should be.  For me, time does heal, but the reality of her absence still just pretty much sucks.
• This morning we took Andrew in to the UW Children’s Hospital for a consult about Andrew’s belly button.  He’s had a herniated umbilicus since he was born, and at his 5-year appointment last week, his doctor suggested that we talk to a surgeon.  Sounds like herniated belly buttons heal themselves in about 70% of cases, but if it hasn’t healed by the time a child is 4 or 5, it probably won’t heal.  I’d planned to hold-off on surgery until Andrew was 10 or 15 or so (there’s no big hurry), but the doctors indicated that young kids often recover faster and worry less.  So we decided to go ahead and do it now.  His surgery is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 22.  It’s a pretty minor surgery, but I kinda feel like throwing up nonetheless.  It’s a bit of a mind-numbing experience to explain to your skipping happy-go-lucky son what a surgery is…first in general terms and then as the questions become increasingly specific in more challenging terms (knife??  cut????  whimper).
• Sylvia has had a rough time these last days.  There’s been multiple humongous public tantrums.  Fortunately, when she’s not exploding, she’s delightful.

Yup, that pretty much sums up the emotions puttering around in my gut today.

We’re off to attempt a school supply shopping trip.  Then Tom is watching the kids this afternoon for a few hours.  Sweet relief!

Here’s a photo for you.  Andrew got to meet his teacher – Maestra Laura – yesterday afternoon.  She seems like she’ll be a lot of fun, and I think my guy is going to love his new school.

Hugs,

Althea

After his 9-day visit to Texas, Andrew returned home late on a Thursday night.  Here’s my boy running happily toward me at the airport.  What a happy feeling to see him again!

Here’s Andrew and Aunt Mel at the airport.  We were really excited to have Melanie able to visit us for a long weekend!

The next morning, Andrew was soooo happy to see Sylvia.  And Sylvia was so happy to see Andrew.  Here’s a photo (snapped off my phone) of their happy reunion.

And a couple other random images.  Here’s Sylvie.  A little girl with a a little curl right in the middle of her forehead.

We moved their car seats to the back of the minivan.  So exciting!  They can touch each other while driving!

Andrew and Melanie flew in on Thursday night (Sylvia and I got back from St. Paul earlier that day), and on Friday morning, we packed up and drove out to Jack’s house for our semi-annual pilgrimage.  This time, we were excited to bring Melanie!

Big news here at DotzourFamily.com today.  Since I started this blog in May of 2005, I have shared the highs and lows of our family’s life.  And here, today, I am posting the 1,000th post.  That’s a big number!  If I had advertisers/if this blog brought in any money, this would be the time to give away fabulous prizes.  But I have no income, and there are no fabulous prizes.  Hooray!

So instead, I’ll thank you for commenting.  In addition to the 1,000 posts, my dashboard tells me that I have received over 1,500 comments.  And each one of those comments makes me happy.

Being a parent, I have often felt adrift at what to do next <or> amazed and wanting to share my miraculous kids.  While Mom was struggling and not struggling and then struggling with cancer, this blog was a great tool for sharing and connecting and feeling supported.

I wonder what 1,000 will grow to?  Stay tuned.

After Bryan and I got back from the wedding in Michigan, Sylvia and I packed our bags and drove up to St. Paul to see Maretta and Kyle.  Maretta was in a play (The King’s Ward), and she wasn’t going to be able to make it to Jack’s house for our annual get-together, so Sylvia and I decided to head up north to see them.

Here’s Maretta and Sylvia (check out the pose she’s striking!) standing in front of Maretta’s home.  Maretta, Kyle, and two friends live on the second story of this beautiful home.  In this beautiful neighborhood.  In this lovely city.  It all just makes me smile.

Here’s a photo of us out together for dinner.  Sylvie was enjoying herself quite a bit:)  The weather had been up past 100 degrees, but while we were eating dinner, a front blew through, and it was a coolish walk home.

Maretta took us to Como park where we rode on the carousel before going to the zoo.  Sylvia was excited but as you can tell from the death-grip she has on Maretta’s neck, she was a little nervous too.

We went to Kowalski’s grocery store and bought ourselves an extravagant picnic lunch.  They had a display of summer clogs for 50% off. As you can tell from Sylvia’s footwear, I had to indulge.  So cute!!!

I’ve been thinking about getting Sylvia a doll carrier for some time, and when I found this kid-sized Ergo at Peapods, I got too excited.

Here’s my beautiful, delightful girl.

We wandered around Minihaha Park. It was a lovely park with lots of water.  Sylvia had fun splashing around!   (photo by Maretta)

I’ll leave you with a view of my girl’s toes.  Maretta (who took this picture) likes bare tootsies as much as I do:)

It was so nice to spend a full day with my sister.  I really enjoyed seeing Maretta and Kyle’s apartment, visiting with their kitties, seeing their roommates, and – the icing on the cake – watching Maretta give a great performance on stage.  Thanks for a really lovely visit, guys!  Maretta, one of these years you’ll have to make it back to Jack’s!

While Andrew was in Texas, Michael and Lisa bravely took Sylvia for the weekend while Bryan and I drove up to the Upper Peninsula for a wedding.  One of Bryan’s past co-workers and good friend was getting married at a beautiful site on Lake Michigan.  I’m so glad we were able to get away to attend!

Here’s me and my handsome sweetie before the wedding.

I neglected to bring my camera (“How did this happen!?” you ask?  “How could you let this happen????”). So the only pictures I got are taken with my phone.  And for some reason, I took no (zip, zero, zilch) of the bride and groom.  I think Bryan was enjoying being with me at a wedding where I wasn’t zipping away every few moments to get a few more pictures:)

So here, compliments of my phone, is Bryan at the beach at sunset.

And here are the bride’s shoes.  She made her dress herself.  The wedding was held on the beach, and the clouds sprinkled rain down on the personalized umbrellas off and on.  Family members made lovely toasts and one friend recited pi as far as he could.  A young boy said that when he heard that Adam was a scientist, he thought that he must be a mad scientist.  It was great!

Cupcakes were so lovely and were made by a friend of the bride’s.

Here’s the bride’s pretty wildflower bouquet.

Such a beautiful sunset!  Such bring and brilliant stars!

The bride and groom met at the Burning Man festival.  And because they are quirky, independent thinkers, they decided to create a bride and groom (modeled on themselves) whom they burned in effigy at the end of the reception.

There they go…up in smoke and lots and lots of fireworks.  What a great party!  And how fun to get away for a couple days with my husband!  Thanks to Michael and Lisa for taking the kiddo!

Oh my dear friends, so many things have happened, so many photos have been taken.  July.  July?  I don’t honestly actually remember July.  Let’s look back at the photos (mostly taken on my phone) to see what we did that long summer month.  Let’s see, my last post was on July 9.  The next day I started exercising.  And my blog writing ceased.

We took the kids to the Dane County Fair.  It’s always so fun to see all the animals and get a cream puff.  Sylvia loved feeding the goats.

And for a special treat this year, the kids got to do a pony ride!  Here’s Andrew (with his face all self-painted) looking at his pony with some skepticism.

Sylvia was really excited (and a little worried).  She wanted me to stand right next to her.  But as soon as her pony (Blue) started to walk, she tipped back her head and laughed with delight.  I have not-so-secret hopes that my girl will come to love horses so we can ride together:)

Here the kids are eating a cream puff. Or rather using their fingers to scrape all the cream off the puff.  It’s nice that one cream puff can feed a family of four!

Here are my fierce and adorable children.

Andrew asked me for several weeks to give him a short haircut like his daddy.  So finally I gave in and agreed to lop off some of his beautiful curls.

Here’s the curly carnage.  Fortunately his hair is cute short or long (so says his mom), and it grows back!

Here’s a note Andrew gave me asking (I guess it’s pretty self-explanatory) to have a sleep-over with Alivia.

In late July, Andrew headed to Texas for a nine-day visit.  Granny flew up for a quick visit, and then she flew back home with her very-excited grandson.

I don’t think it is possible for Andrew to be more happy and content than he is when he gets to spend time with his relatives.  He absolutely relishes his visits to Texas, and I think I talked to him once or twice the whole time he was gone.  From all reports, it was a great vacation.  For me too!  One kid is much easier than two!

Not to dive right back in on a complaining note, but, well, sometimes real life involves some ear-piercing moments.  And some days include many, many, many of those moments.  Today was one of those days.  For Sylvia.  And me.  And me and Sylvia.  My dearling daughter, who is in large part a complete joy and delight, is also sometimes such a challenging little person for me.  In the last month she has stopped napping during the day.  That change has resulted in smooth, happy bedtimes, but it has also meant that my dear girl gets very tired off and on throughout the day.  And a tired Sylvia is a girl who has decreased ability to regulate her mood.  Which can be a frightening thing to contemplate.

When Sylvia is well fed and well rested, she can take life’s bumps and turns with great aplomb.  But.  but.but.but.  When she’s hungry or tired, sometimes the world just seriously needs to watch out or get out of the way.  Steer Clear.

She gets notably sleepy in the early afternoon (when she used to nap), but I’ve found that on some days, she also has a really hard time throughout the morning.  And for Sylv, a hard time means a lot of shrieking and throwing of things.  It means she’s playing a lovely game or riding her trike and then <poof> she erupts and all that’s left is smoke and bits of sizzling ash.  This morning, her screams echoed through the house off and on for hours.

Andrew spent the morning at a nature camp, and while we were going to pick him up, Sylvie threw an all-out, 10-alarm fire tantrum.  Her shriek was like a police whistle, blowing first staccato and then a sustained note complete with a whistle-like tremolo.  Although we had the windows closed, pedestrians walking on the street looked up with alarm as we drove by.

On the way to get Andrew (maybe a 10 minute drive), I was calm and tired and rather fed-up, so I tried a different tactic – mockery.

Me: “Oh, that’s only mediocre screaming,” I noted.  “I’ve heard much louder.”

Sylvia: <shriek>

Me: “You know, that one was alright, but really, I expect more.”

Sylvia: <sustained scream>

Me: “Your Aunt Maretta can scream much better than that.”

Sylvia: <clearly surprised by this one.>  She  pulls herself out of her hysteria, and asks, “Uncle Kyle scream too?”

I’m not proud of mocking my daughter in her time of great sadness and fury, but it was all I had in me at the moment.

Unfortunately, after picking up Andrew from his camp, she started tantrum-ing again when we got back in the car.  I told her it wasn’t acceptable and that I would have to give her a spanking if she kept doing it.  I gave her to the count of three, and she screamed at me after each count.  So I took her out of the car and gave her bare bottom a couple swats.  I’ve done that a couple times in the past.  I’m not sure where I fall on the spanking issue.  I never really really spanked Andrew, but with Sylvie I am sometimes just at a loss for how to get through to her and to make her boundaries clear.  The drive home again wasn’t fun.  Post-spanking, Sylvie upped the ante on her screaming.  I watched in the rear-view mirror as Andrew’s face got redder and redder, his hands pressed tightly over his ears.  Then he was openly weeping saying, “Pllleeeeaasee, Sylvia.  STOP!!”

I passed a scooter whose driver wasn’t wearing a helmet, and my thought was that minivan drivers should wear big hard-sided helmets because maybe then my head would not crack open like an overripe watermelon due to the screaming of a two-year-old.

Ahhh, yes.  FORTUNATELY, upon returning home, we all made up, and them Tom came over to watch Sylvie while I took Andrew for his 5-year-old doctor’s appointment.  And Sylvie was a total peach for Tom.  And after getting home from the doctor’s the rest of our day went just fine.  In fact, the spanking seemed to have a good effect in that Sylvie brought it up a couple times and remembered how after the spanking we hugged and said that we love each other and she remembered that it happened because she was yelling in the car.  So maybe things will go better in the future.

Maybe, maybe these recent days of increased intensity will mellow a little as she gets used to not napping or as she gets closer to Three (in February).  Or maybe not.  In any case, when this little girl of mine is in a good mood, she is such fun to be with.  I just love her to pieces no matter the mood.  She’s an energetic little spite, my girl!

A shy voice in the ether.

“hello?…”

Friends?  Family?  Curious acquaintances?

I’ve left you for oh, so long.  My last post was a month and a half ago.  And you know the weirdest part (for me)?  I haven’t even spent much time thinking about this electronic journal into which I have poured so much of myself these past five years.  Truth be told, I haven’t spent much time thinking at all.  Instead, I’ve been enjoying the summer and – drumroll please – I’ve been working out.  Apparently my brain and body and soul have room for one or two obsessions (this blog being one of them) but not three or four.  So I’ve put all my energy into getting up at 5am to go to my boot camp work out and then dragging my sorry body through the rest of the day…writing down everything I eat…before I collapse at 8:52pm.  I’ve had fun with some photo sessions these last weeks, and our family has spent lots of time outdoors (much of which was spent donating blood to the local mosquito mafia that have taken over Madison this summer).   But I haven’t even been composing blog posts in my mind much less typing them out.

I just logged on to my blog and had to update the software, and I almost forgot my password.  Crazy crazy.

I’ve got lots of things to share from our July and August, and we have exciting things on the horizon (Andrew’s first day of school is on Sept. 1!), but to start out, I thought I’d write to say hi and come on back.  Thanks for the emails and calls I’ve gotten from friends either concerned for my non-posting welfare or friends who’ve let me know that their days are better with a little dose of this blog.

Love ya all!

Peace,
Althea