The Rundown in Bulleted Points

It has been a while (yet again) since I last filled you in on the latest with the little Rochies.

-Claire now sleeps in a "big girls bed", it is a toddler bed about 6 inches off the
floor. She rolled off the bed the first night, but not again since.

-Jack has began saying "Are you kidding me?" Complete with a sardonic tone. He
learned that from Mommy. From Daddy he has learned "Focus."

-Jack has a favorite pew at church. Last week he asked a gentleman to move down,
albeit politely, so we could assume our usual seats.

-Claire has been melting our hearts with her "ur welcome", "love you", and "no
barking, puppies". I can't quite describe it, but she is so incredibly funny.

Just a few of the many reasons they will later be annoyed with us.

Claire has been very potty focused lately. She is an artist and it is her medium. She does it with all of her clothes on, with all of her clothes off. She reads on the potty, sings on the potty. She likes all potties. Her pink potty, the big potty, and most of all public potties, eeeww. Jack on the otherhand constantly likes to see just how close he can cut it. He doesn't want to go potty now when it is available and waiting, he would prefer going after you get out of the house and down the road about a mile, funny how that works.

For your viewing pleasure

Sorry for the delay, now back to the program

So the blog was a little behind, now it is about back up to speed, phew. Things are going well. Jack is doing well in speech therapy, so well he is trying his hand at talking back. We don't care for it just yet, because our satire is lost on him. Still loves to throw a ball. Wants to throw the ball inside, outside, at school, at home, throwing the ball.

Claire is battling her second round of pneumonia this year. She is usually so happy and easy going, you only notice she is sick if you know her well. She just isn't quite herself and will occassionally let out a terrible cough. But she is wheezy and a little less happy than usual. She is taking breathing treatments and some meds and will hopefully be on the mend soon. She constantly wants to sit on the potty and is talking about the potty, we'll see. Because although she is spending some good quality time in there, she isn't actually going potty. She is talking more and more every day. Good fun! She is so stubborn! She wants to do everything herself, our little independent child. My mom just chuckles quietly to herself. I suppose she has earned the right to do that after years with me.

Claire is no longer the baby of the family! My brother and sister in law adopted a baby boy!! His name is Xander Riley Smith (that is pronounced Zander). He is adorable! So cute and so tiny! I forgot they start out that small! What a blessing!! Our family needed that influx of joy!

Enjoy the pictures!

Christmas

We had a big family dinner on Christmas Eve. We had Papa Fred, Nana Brinda, Papa Chip, Uncle Riley, and all the Rochies together for a big dinner. Yum. We had been reading the story Santa is Stuck, which is a story about Santa eating too many yummy treats and then getting stuck when he tries to fit back up the chimney. So when we put the cookies out for Santa, the kids both wanted to eat them because "Santa stuck, Mommy!" so we got the kids ready for bed, put out the cookies and walked Uncle Riley out, I turn around and find Claire bear sitting in the middle of the dining room table, guzzling Santa's milk and nibbling his cookies! It took her only a matter of ten seconds to scale the table and start in on the goodies!

The kiddos made out like little bandits and were so much fun! They loved all the paper and the gifts were just what they wanted! For Jack a digital camera, a smart cycle (a bicycle game that hooks up to the tv and you pedal and steer to play different learning games), cars, and toys, oh my. Claire got a pink vacuum like mommy's, BABIES and more BABIES, a new talking kitchen, a tea set, and a pink barbie laptop! Alot of fun and I am excited to see what next year will bring!

Time for a good sense of humor

A couple weeks before Christmas my Dad went to the emergency room because he was in unbearable pain. For those of you who don't know my Dad, he is Chuck Norris. He doesn't know pain, he causes pain (wink), but he most certainly never admits to being in pain. I am gonna go ahead and bypass retelling what we had to go through to get him from the ER to being admitted for more tests. It was really bad, he was not receiving an adequate level of care, they were not taking his pain seriously, and apparently my mom was afraid I was going to get myself arrested if those two things didn't change. Luckily, Riley (my older bro) came to join us, and play the good cop. After days of tests we had our answer. Multiple myeloma (a blood cancer that plants itself in the marrow and specifically attacks platelets) with a 5 by 10 centimeter tumor on his tailbone, thus the excruciating pain. Dad and I have been getting by, doing what we do, joking around. Mom, not such a fan of all the joking jokes and laughing. This is cancer and dammit people, it will be taken seriously. Dad did 15 radiation treatments trying to shrink the tumor and make him more comfortable, but the tumor didn't respond as the doc had hoped. So, now instead of a hoagie, he has a hot dog bun on his tailbone. He and I had a better schtick to use if they could get it down to the size of a golf ball, but no luck. Now he is doing some intense chemo. His age makes him inelligible for a bone marrow or stem cell transplant. The docs tailor the chemo down to the DNA level. Amazing. He has a great attitude and is ready for a fight. The hardest things are managing the pain, not just the tumor, but apparently cancer just hurts. All the pain and medicine are messing with his short term memory, he forgets things he just heard and that is really hard to see. My brilliant Daddy can't remember what you just told him, but can tell you the atomic weight of Boron. Ha! He is hanging tough and will do the chemo for nearly a year. He gets 2 weeks off between each block. I will keep you posted. This is really hard, my Daddy is my favorite.

Decking the halls...

Thanksgiving in Chicago

We spent the holiday in Chicago with Aunt Jenny and her mom (Judi~ but I have to will myself to call her Judi instead of Mrs. Gibson, seems naughty). This was Jenny's first time making the big Turkey Extravaganza, affectionately referred to as "only the most stressful meal of the year!" By both of our mothers! Jenny and I made every side dish, every dessert, all of it. This was my first time making honest to goodness home-made stuffing, Mrs. Gibson provided brilliant technical support and I will never go back to stove-top. We worked so well together in the kitchen, you would think we did it all the time. None of the typical stress that comes with the holiday, we set no schedule for ourselves, we planned to eat when we managed to get it all cooked. It was yummy. The kids had a great time! They love their aunt Jenny. Mrs. Gibson and I went to the American Girl Place to pick up Claire-bear's present from mommy and daddy, a set of twin baby dolls, ahhhhhh. We plan to go back for Thanksgiving next year for Jenny's first holiday in her new condo.
We were so busy having fun, I forgot to take pictures, but here is a picture of one of our little Turkeys just before Thanksgiving break from school, he is still very proud of his turkey hat. He always says "I made 'dis!!"

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Trick-or Treat

Halloween night looked like it was straight off a movie set at MGM. It was a boo-tiful (aha, see what I did there!) autumn night. A crisp breeze, the smell of fireplaces and leaves in the air. The sky was lit with a beautiful moon and you could see the silhouette of the falling leaves flying across the sky. It was such a gorgeous night it made me giggle because I could hardly remember a more perfect autumn night. Jack was Buzz Light Year (from the movie toy story) he played the part quite well saying "to infinity and beyond" at every turn. Claire was a chicken. She later fought hard not to be separated from her costume, I think she wanted to sleep in the little fleece chicken legs. Nana B worked the candy bowl while we took the kids around to some neighbors. Then we headed over to Jack's school at our parish and enjoyed the Halloween Bash- caught a light supper there, before heading over to Trick-or-Treat Papa Chip. Oh, what a dream. At Papa's house, you can eat ALL the candy you want!!! You get to play with the remote!!! Did I mention that at Papa's house you get ALL of the candy you want!!! Chocolate candy and chewy candy and more candy!! Papa's house is the greatest place there EVER was for a Space Ranger and a Chicken.

Where the Redsox Reign Supreme

After much anticipation, the ladies (Claire, Nana B, and Mommy) headed for the east coast. When booking the tickets for this trip, I did the math. I dared to dream, only in hushed whispers, that our trip might coincide with destiny. The BoSox did it again. Yahooooo!!!!




It was a wonderful trip to see my family. Typically when we head east we spend the bulk of our time with the "Smurphs" the Smith/Murphy section (my cousin Donna's crew), who are just our speed. This trip was to visit with my Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin Diane and her son. We had a great time and even managed to sneak in a visit with the Smurphs. Hi guys!! I hope there will be no hard feeling after the big game on Sunday!! (wink, wink).




Claire-bear fell hard and fast for my Uncle. I think she would have been happy to stay with them. Diane was the cousin I followed around step by step. If she stopped walking I would run into her, so it was really cute to see Claire following her son around...everywhere!!!




Claire loved the Dunkin' Donuts pit stops, sweeping pine needles, watching the ocean and all of the love and attention from family!! Enjoy the pics from our trip and please welcome our newest member of the family, the Black Dog ("puppy"). A neat place: http://www.theblackdog.com/

South Cape Beach
Claire and Diane at the Beach


Sweeping the deck

Claire and her new BFF, my Uncle Arvin

Claire and "puppy" taking a stroll in Falmouth (below) and Claire watching the waves (above)

Sunday, October 07, 2007

I really sick.

Man, I just lost the entire thing I wrote about Jack. eeehhhhhhh (whining). I can't write a whole thing about Claire and then not write one about Pipper. Darn... ok then... where was I...

Little man is still obsessed with baseball. We aren't officially ready to call him a southpaw yet. But if he is still cramming his glove on the wrong hand and throwing lefty. We may need to special order a glove for him from the man in the red suit.

Jack has been sick all weekend. He reminds us every 30-odd seconds that "I really sick [insert parent name]." I'm just taking a break until it is my turn in the trenches.

School is going really well for him and so is his speech therapy. His teacher is slowly going from "Mrs Leak" to her actualy name, Mrs. Fleak. We had to focus on "F" words last week. Yep, we both reacted like juveniles to that as well and got a little giggle out of it. Tired, must go. Enjoy his first day of school pictures, the only thing larger than his backpack is his head.

Claire- brought to you by Oreo

Took the kids to a ball game, Claire's first. She was really just into her
adoring fans and the Food. She is our little eater, whereas Jack continues to see exactly how little he can eat and continue his rapid growth.

It has been quite a while since I updated the blog,before I know it the dizzying spiral towards the holidays will begin and I will be seriously behind. Claire is a busy, busy girl. She loves her "woobie", her "Nanny" (Nana Brinda), the puppies, and tormenting her brother. If he is doing something she wants to try it, if he is eating something she wants half, if he is sitting somewhere then he'd better move over.

When we went up north to sift through decades of life at Jeremy's family home, preparing to put it on the market, we came across Jeremy's beloved (albeit CREEPY) monkey "George" that he loved as a child. Like father like daughter.

The two are no longer content to share an arm chair, so Claire has her own now. We let them sit at their little bistro table and watch cartoons in the morning over breakfast- Smurfs being their favorite.

She is saying more and more every day. She can hardly say anything and she already is one of the funniest people I know, better buckle up I suppose.

Claire discovered the Oreo cookie last week and my oh my does she love it!! She is an "opener". She opens the cookie and licks off the frosting, then finishes off the cookie. These being the orange frosted ones for Halloween.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Our Dear Girl

I was only seconds away from publishing a thoughtful little post all filled with love and thoughtful things about our little Claire-bear, but she is wicked smart and very, very curious and well.. she deleted it. I know, that is right up there with my dog ate my homework, but it happened. Really, it did. At any rate, that little bit of touchy-feely mush took alot out of me. Time is running slim, we have a birthday party to get to so I will give you a little run down of fun facts about the Sissy- boo.

• People of her inner circle refer to her as either Claire-bear or Sissy-boo, Sissy for short.
• She has a deep wheezy laugh, that eerily reminds me of Beavis and Butt-head.
• She is a non-discriminate eater. She will try anything you give her. This week she discovered the lima bean and the chocolate chip cookie. But, when in doubt she will eat a little of whatever Jeremy and I have on our plates.
• She snores.
• She is wicked smart.
• She lavishes more love and affection on the dogs than anyone else in the family.
• She has the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen.
• She has an unwavering devotion to her woobie (her blankie).
• She will dance whenever there is a song in the air.
• Like her brother before her, she does NOT like my singing.
• and she has already started to take things from her brother...usually food.

Happy Birthday, Claire - Bear

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