I was just thinking about how this silly little pop song (Carly Rae Jepsen) reminds me of when I was first crushing on Mr. G. And then I remembered that today is the 16th anniversary of the night that I decided he was cute and then dropped hints and waited, and waited, and waited for him to kiss me.

 No such luck. So I kissed him instead.

 Best move I ever made. Where do you think you're going Baby?

 XOXOXO

 ~Clover

We have a situation. It seems that young William is in love. Poor kid’s got it bad too. He fidgets. He swoons. He blushes. You can practically see his heart fluttering at the mere mention of his beloved’s name. It’s nothing short of total twitterpation.

She’s a lovely girl. But it’s definitely a doomed romance. She’s 3.5 years his senior. And if the December/May romance wasn’t complicated enough, she’s in the second grade for crying out loud. There’s just So. Much. More. that she has experienced in this world. I fear she has very little time nor patience for my pint sized Casanova.

Either he hasn’t notice or doesn’t care about all that. He’s too busy planning their future. Last night at dinner he mentioned her name. When Grandma asked if that was a friend from school he sighed and said, “No, that’s just the girl who is going to marry me.” Grandma, who is much better at hiding her amusement than I am, asked what made this girl so special. He told her exactly what he told me the night before…”She wears really soft clothes. Just like Mommy.”

Later he added that the really soft clothes make us good for snuggling. I am pretty sure that is about the highest compliment a four-year-old romantic can give.

Apparently it’s also the go-to pickup line. On Saturday he marched right up to her and asked if she would care for a snuggle. She didn’t say no…

She must also smell nice. Because there’s a shirt he keeps burying his nose into, and he won’t let me wash it. He tells me that her perfume must have rubbed onto him when they were snuggling at the movies on Friday night. (At Sweet Pea’s birthday party. Clearly I need to watch out for this snuggling obsession.) Or, later when they were playing tag and she tackled him.

Either or.

Usually on Wednesday afternoons I have to drag him out the door to go pick his sister up from school. This morning he woke up at 7AM and asked how much longer it would be.

Ahh...my sweet boy. Matters of the heart are complicated at best.

 ~Clover

 (You'll have to forgive me. It appears that Google is bullying me into changing my browser by holding my blog functionality hostage. Things are kinda wonky...)

I feel like I’ve spent so much time and energy these last few weeks on things that could be categorized as trying to “fix” my little girl. Orthodontists. Eye doctors. Teachers. Reading Specialists. Psychologists. Ironically, I’ve never thought she was in need of fixing.

With the exception of some wickedly crowded teeth, that still holds true. She is smart. She is funny. She is beautiful. She is creative. She is athletic.

She is dyslexic.

I’m having a hard time this week separating that word from her. I think about it when I’m making her lunch or rubbing her back at bedtime. I thought about it when I scheduled a playdate for her tonight. I thought about it when I had lunch with her and her friends at school today. It’s a strange sort of obsession. Two parts worry. One part relief. She’s dyslexic. It’s a real thing. A thing with a name. A thing that won’t ever go away. A thing that will cause her anxiety and frustration. A thing that has already caused us both heartache. But it’s a thing that we can work on!

There have been many, many moments over the last two and a half years when the yet unnamed dyslexia has sucked big time. A few moments stand out pretty clearly for me in fact. I can already tell that those will be stories I tell to other mothers years from now when I’m reassuring the newly initiated that their membership in the club isn’t the worst thing that’s ever happened to them. And heaven knows that there are going to be more struggles, frustrations, offences taken, and battles over homework getting done. But today this diagnosis, this concept – it’s a thousand times better than the not knowing what the disconnect was and feeling helpless to help her.

I’d like to take a moment here and remind everyone in my not so subtle way that I TOTALLY called this in kindergarten. Not only that, I stated my firm belief that it was a shared family trait. And helloooo…right again. Damn I’m good. But anyway…

It’s overwhelming, to say the least. All this stuff I’m learning about how her brain may (or may not) work. It seems to be a slippery little thing, dyslexia. Even what most of us think we know about it isn’t accurate. And there are as many different iterations as there are people who have it.

Here’s what I know. She’s got it. And she’s got it good. (Damnit.)

I also know that educating our family, my daughter and her teachers about how to help her manage her dyslexia is going to take up a lot of my time over, say…the next 17 years.

See? Overwhelming.

Interestingly enough, here’s another thing I know. My girl will never step foot into a classroom and be a nameless face. She will not have the luxury of slipping through the cracks. For the next however many years until she finishes her education (probably a Post Doctoral degree) she will be requiring, and getting just a little bit more from her teachers. And I honestly believe that they will be happy to do it. Not only because she is a sweet, loving kid who people like to help, but because we have such great teachers here. So there’s a blessing, right? And another blessing is that we caught this in second grade, before she had a chance to decide she wasn’t very bright or that she didn’t like school. She loves school. She loves books. She certainly isn’t lacking in the self esteem department. My goal is to keep it that way. (Blessing number three…she’s got me. And you know how I just love to tackle a new challenge.)

I’ll let you know how it goes…
~Clover

This year has been so crazy at our house. My going back to work has been an incredible blessing in so many ways, but it has been disastrous for the blog. Which is really a bummer for me. I love this blog! It’s such a history of our family life.

Sadness.

Admittedly, I’m better about posting to Facebook. (Although I do that much less now too.) It’s on my phone…and it’s easy to come up with a sentence or a quick iphone photo. When I post here I want to write. I want to post thoughtful pictures that have been edited and whatnot.

Someday I’ll be sad that I don’t have every little thing archived here. I guess not someday. NOW. Now I’m sad about that.

Le sigh.

I thought it might be fun to go through my Facebook account and post some of my favorite status updates from this year. They are below, chronologically from the end of the year to the beginning. Little snippets of life in our house. Little snippets…

I was just helping 4 year old William in the bathroom. As per my good mommy training, I said, "Nice work Will! Good job listening to your body." And he said, "I know mom. I'm a GREAT pooper. If I went to a poop festival, I would win a trophy. And I bet it would have a metal poop on top." Umkay. Yeah. Maybe we have been a little overzealous with the encouragement.

And just like that, I have two kids who can read. I guess I'm going to have to start spelling more complicated expletives. C-R-A-P!

Lauren: "I'm really thankful for Turkeys mom. Because they are yummy. (thoughtful pause) But I bet Turkeys aren't very thankful for us!" Hoping your Thanksgiving Day is filled with moments of gratitude. Big and small.

Two fabulous parent teacher conferences today. So proud of my hard working kiddos!

Will, "I need to get in the tub and wash my boobies." Lauren, "you're a boy, you don't have boobies." Will,"Oh yeah, what are these then?" Lauren, (incredulously) "Those are your pickles." Will, "Pimples?" Lauren, "Yes!" (rolling her eyes at her super un- savvy brother...)

Dear world,
Between my new job and both my kids being in new schools I have met literally a thousand new people in the last ten months. So if everyone could just wear name tags for a while, that would be SUPER helpful. K. Thanks.

Will was so excited to see frost on the ground today. Like, SO excited. Talked about it for 10 minutes straight. It was delightful to live in his wonderland for a bit. But now I'm just cold.

Will: I ate lunch with Autumn today. She's a kindergartener. Lauren: What does she look like? Will: (defensively) What? She's a girl. Lauren: I just asked what she looks like. Will: Oh, well...she has long curly hair, a nose and two eyes.

How did I end up at karaoke on a school night???

Happy 4th Birthday to my little man. Wow, how these four years have flown by!!

Happy "Lucky 13th" Anniversary to my Prince Charming, my Best Friend, my Soul Mate, my Babydaddy, and the only guy who can stand living with me...I love you Mr. G! You’re the berries.

Why didn't I take any pictures at the party we went to last night??? Now you guys are just going to have to take my word that I was in an incredible house, eating uber delish food like little ahi bites on sesame crackers, fancy little sliders, and jalapeño cheese puffs, while looking fabulous in borrowed stilettos with all my girls.

Went to my first all school Mass with the St. School kids today. Pretty moving to hear all those little voices singing and praying together.

Citizens of Earth...Never fear! We are safe from the evil Dr. Toilet Paper Roll. SuperKitten has destroyed it. It joins the fallen villains PaperTowelasaur, Mr. Homework, and The Tissue Box. The world can rest easy tonight. But SuperKitten knows that lurking in the shadows are an endless supply of evil paper products. And so he sharpens his claws and waits...

Yesterday we found one of the goldfish floating in the bowl. Lauren immediately announced that it was Will's.

So proud of my girl on her first day at a new school! She put on a brave face this morning, and by noon she was telling me she loves her new school! Yay! And phew!

Sometimes God comes to you disguised as your life.

Mr. G is either going to get a great pic of this barn, or a farmer is going to shoot at us for trespassing. Hard tellin' which.

Me: "Will, please be quiet and let your sister sleep so she will be a happy camper today." Will, "WE'RE GOING CAMPING???!!!" Let the daily (unintentional) crushing of his spirit begin.

Got my annual "dumb mom" sunburn. You know, the one you get when you spend the morning making sure the kids are covered in SPF 50, have their hats, goggles, snacks, beverages, floaties, towels, sand toys, etc. And then after 4 hours at the lake you realize you never asked anyone to help get that part of your back that you can't reach. I'm crispy. Prepared, but crispy. Damn.

Yesterday Will was afraid to get his face wet. Today I bought him some goggles, and no lie, he learned to swim. OMg, someone slow this crazy ride down!!

Thank you to everyone on Payette Lake who let us sit on their dock, play in their sand, ride in their boats, eat their food and drink their beer. This was one for the books!

McCall Friends, we have decided to let you fight over who gets to host us at their lakefront/boat-ready retreat tomorrow. You can start your bidding here. We take bar-tending staff, gourmet buffets, and fireworks viewing locales into consideration when making our decision. Go...

We took some items to the thrift store, including a chair. Will's reaction was straight off that hoarder show on A&E. He threw his body across the chair and wailed, "I'll miss you chair!" I had to make up a story about the chair's happy new life. So just for fun, Mr. G told him we were going to get rid of the couch too.

Lauren just informed Will that she is the Queen and he is the servant. Then she demanded that he bring her "a glass of martini." Who is that kid's mother???

Will: Dad, can I have chocolate milk for breakfast? Mike: I don't know buddy, that sounds a little... Will: Undignified?

I really hope 5/21 isn't the end of the world. I have Wicked tickets.

Happy Mother's Day to all my beautiful girlfriends! I'm thinking that all the stretch marks, sleepless nights, diapers, barf, smashed tubes of lipstick, whiney fits and temper tantrums to date have been absolved via a homemade card with a hand print and a poem in it. Hope your day is just as schmoopy. Or, that you get sent to the spa. Either way...

Happy Birthday to my beautiful girl!! Being your Mama for the last seven years is my greatest joy!

Navigating tomorrow without getting fired or causing my child psychological damage is going to require a bend of the space time continuum. I need some Harry Potter powers and I need 'em quick.

Will would like to let the other 3 year olds of the world know that flushing an entire roll of TP at once is, in fact, a VERY bad idea.

Will told me tonight that he has an itchy spagheeto bite.

One of the myriad of things that I love about my job is the opportunity to attend our monthly all school Mass. (I love this almost as much as attending Mass on Tuesday mornings with my daughter’s grade school. If ever there was proof that God loves us, it’s a church full of happy kids singing and praying together.) This week, we celebrated Mass together on Tuesday, All Souls Day. Dios de los Muertos. The Day of the Dead. And here’s what I learned:

Someone smarter than I has estimated that since the beginning of time there have been roughly 110,000,000,000 people on earth. In case all those zeros confused you, I said one hundred and ten BILLION people. Some seven-odd billion of us are still here wandering around. So that means one hundred and three BILLION of us have gone on to greener pastures. Wow. Is anyone else sort of getting this mental image of bugs piled up in a porch light?

Anyway, the point is that on The Day of the Dead we are remembering, celebrating, and praying for those one hundred and three billion of our brothers and sisters who have already died.
I’m sure that it wasn’t his intention, but when Father Frasier got to this part of the homily I was starting to feel a little bit insignificant. And then he really drove it home with this gem:

Someday I am going to be dead. And everyone who knew me is also going to be dead. And I will be forgotten.

FORGOTTEN?

I suppose if you are super well adjusted that doesn’t freak you out. But anyone who reads this blog knows how far from well adjusted I am. Can you hear the panic in my printed voice?? Forgotten? Me? The girl who was convinced that by 37 she would have star on Hollywood Blvd? Me? The woman who is pretty sure the Great American Novel is lurking somewhere within? Me? Can’t be. I scrapbook. I blog. I take pictures of the stuff I make for dinner for goodness sakes. I’m ARCHIVED. Forgotten?
And then that quiet little voice inside my head asks me, “What do you need to be remembered for?”

Um…

I would like to be remembered for being kind and loving. I want to be remembered as a good mother and grandmother (someday). I want to be a good friend. I would hope to be remembered as generous, but the likelihood of that ever being at the level that gets your name on a building is slim. When it all boils down, I don’t think I really need to be remembered. I would love to be thought of fondly by the people who I interact with in this life. But when all you crazies are gone too, what does it matter if my name is ever spoken again? That’s a lot more than most can hope for.

That said, I know that God remembers. And Dios de los Muertos is a day for us as the church to remember. So say a prayer right now for someone else who led a good and ordinary life. And then was forgotten.

~Clover

Happy Halloween!

~Clover

This weekend we celebrated four trips around the sun with Sweet William.  I just adore that kid!  I mean, seriously...could he be cuter??  And his heart is made of pure gold.  He's kind and gentle, he's smart and funny, he LOVES his sister, he's a good friend and an excellent builder of train tracks, hex bug habitats and Lego creations.  Every night before bedtime he asks me to sing him a lullaby.  He remembers his pleases and thank yous, he gives incredible hugs and he loves to snuggle with his mama on the couch.  Last week he drew me a picture of Jesus.  (And it was pretty good!)  That little boy is my heart, and I am so blessed to be his mom. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WILL!!  We love you so much!

~Clover

Superfun BIG excitement...

We got a new kitty!  His name is Henry and he is absolutely the sweetest thing.  Very mellow and snuggly.  The kids are over the moon. 

Henry is a little camera shy, but I'm working on getting a good snap of him.

In the meantime, check out Mr. G's new blog for lots of beautiful pictures of things other than Henry.  You won't be sorry!

Reticent Photo

~Clover

I’m just going to be really honest here.


I’m not very brave. I wish I was braver. I really do. Bravery is especially lacking when it comes to anything involving hurtling through space. Skiing especially comes to mind. But also riding on a motorcycle and even driving at night. There’s just something about the fact that I could get flung to neverland at any moment that doesn’t sit well with me. I can strap myself in and ride a rollercoaster until the cows come home. But put me on an inflatable tube behind a speeding boat and I’m gonna squirm.

My children, thankfully…or maybe not, I’ll let you know when we survive the teenage years…didn’t inherit this from me. I think I’ve mentioned before that it’s Mr. G’s job to make them brave. And he’s doing fine work. They love to tube and ski and otherwise put themselves in harms way in the name of fun. And somehow, when it comes to watersports, I’m always the responsible adult who has to get dragged around the lake with them. That makes no sense, does it?

There must be something about the look on my face or my white knuckled grip that makes Sweet Pea a philosopher when we’re tubing. Maybe she figures she better ask me questions about life and death while she still has a chance. Or maybe she thinks my guard will be down and I’ll tell her some secret that she’s not old enough to hear yet. Who knows? But for whatever reason, whenever we’re whipping around the lake at mach speed she asks me deep questions.

Last night she hollered at her dad to speed up, made a motion that indicated she would like him to try his best to give us whiplash, and then said to me, “Mom…what is the future?”

Uh…that thing that’s getting cut short right now.

I was stumbling through an answer, shouting over the noise of the boat when Will looks over at me and says with a sly smile…”Watch out Mom! THE FUTURE IS COMING!”

~Clover

This summer feels like we have turned a corner, or made a leap...or something.  My kids are just suddenly so...I don't even know.  Capable?  Accomplished? Grown up?  All of the above.   It's enough to take your breath away.  And sometimes leaves me standing around wondering what I should be doing.  Is it Ok, for me to sit and read a magazine??  I'm just not used to not being...needed.  Le sigh. 

But I do like to read magazines...

We headed into Spring with me in a panic over the lack of swimming skills at Casa Del Clover.  It felt like a big parenting failure on our parts.  So I signed the kids up for 4 weeks of swimming lessons and crossed my fingers.  On day one, Sweet Pea jumped in the deep end and swam across the pool.  Yay!  Yay!  So she's taken care of, and that was my #1 goal.  But now I have to finish 2 more weeks of Mommy and Me swimming lessons at the public pool.  And that is another post entirely.  (They don't heat the public pool.  Did you know that?  And if you think I'm being a weenie about that, don't even ask me about the lack of waitstaff.  I'm just sayin'...)

Anyhoo...I'm so excited about the newfound water skills.  To that end, we have been beaching, boating, pooling and otherwise consuming more than our fair share of spray on sunscreen.  (Has anyone else noticed how expensive that stuff has gotten?  It's like $10 for two trips to the pool.  I've over it.  I bought a bottle of old school No Ad the other day.  I guess that's another perk of older kids.  They don't squirm while you grease 'em up.)

This week we are soaking up our summer sun Mountain style.  These are some pics of day two of our Southern Idaho Staycation, at Davis Beach in McCall. (Courtesy of Mr. G.) In just a few days we'll head to Sun Valley for part deux of G Family Fun.  My happy kids tell me they like this summer itenerary.

~Clover