Thursday, March 6, 2008

march 5th

happy birthday, annie (one day late)!

we love your humor, enthusiasm, nurturing nature and talent. you are great mother, sister(in-law) and friend. thanks for all you do.

march 5th is also the birthday of two of my cousins as well as the anniversary of pat and my first date (15 years ago). what a great date to celebrate!

all in the family

one year, i got my sister a birthday card that said: "Happy Birthday, Sis, ...so which of mom's traits are you going to try and hide this year?" in that vein, may i present the hinckley (+others) quotables for the past couple of months:

Lily proclaimed: "Evan Jean Hinckley" as she ran after him down the hall at church when evan was being disruptive. (in case you don't know, jean is her middle name, not his.)

while i'm in the kitchen making dinner, i hear lily repeatedly saying "that's me" to pat as the opening for a Hannah Montanna DVD plays. i come in after the third "that's me" and ask pat if she is pointing to the character "lily" who is hannah's best friend. yes, indeed she was. is that why she loves the show so much?

grace: "mom, what's the name of that song from wicked."
me: "i'm not sure, but hopefully, i'll be getting the soundtrack for valentine's day and then i could tell you."
pat (who is near me in the kitchen): "so you want the wicked soundtrack for valentine's day?"
(yea, i know, so subtle. pat took the hint though and i am happy that wicked is now on my ipod.)

grace: "dad, back away from the table and do not eat anymore candy until i'm done with my valentines."
me: "who do you sound like?"
grace: "i don't sound like anyone."
me: "you don't think that sounds like something mom would say."
grace: "EEIIWWWW!"

i LOVE butter and anything with a buttery taste (especially toffee). i love to sample the cookie dough when it's just butter and sugar mixed together. my dog seems to share this love. he once ate a whole stick of butter that i left on our dining room table and he loves to go after the butter wrappers in the garbage. evan too seems to have this love for butter. he snuck this stick and i found him happily eating it. i like the pix that shows how sad he was when i took it away.




some bonus quotes from extended family:

my brother jim: "out of all your kids, lily just cracks me up the most. she's just so far left of center."

my niece, maddie: "mom, what happens when you die?"
wendy (my sister): "dying is when you go to heaven and never come back."
maddie: "mom, will you die?"
wendy: "not likely anytime soon and don't worry, if anything were to happen to mom and dad, you would go and live with aunt april."
about a week later, my niece goes up to my sister and says: "mom, will you die before i'm a teenager so i can live with aunt april?"
(obviuosly, she is too young to fully understand death. ironically, this niece hated me when she was a baby. she took forever to warm up to me and would often cry when i got loud or animated.)
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warts and all

i think it was oliver cromwell that said: "paint me, warts and all." i have no intention of revealing all my warts on this blog, but i did promise to explain the coming about of fritz, and i might as well share a couple of other "warts" while i'm at it.

for those who do not live near me (because trust me everyone who lives me already knows and is more than tired of hearing about this), evan was orginally going to be named frederick after pat's grandfather. before he was born, i had second thoughts and we decided to name him evan. i don't think he was but a month old before i regretted this choice. this feeling of regret never left. i wanted to legally change his name when evan was one, but pat wouldn't agree. pat did agree to give evan the nickname "fritz" which was his grandpa's nickname. for now, evan answers to both. pat says that maybe we'll take a vote at the hinckley reunion this summer to see whether we'll start introducing him as "fritz" or "evan." feel free to comment on this: you can give your opinion, tell me i'm crazy or express empathy for pat (yes - he's stuck with me for 12 1/2 years - amazing!)

wart # 2 is that this past summer, lily had her two front teeth removed due to a bad cavity that was nearing her root. we had the option of filling it, but my dentist recommended extraction since he didn't think a filling would hold well. after getting a second opinion which supported my dentist, we agreed to the extraction. (yes, i could have taken better care of her teeth and given her less sippie cups). here are some pre-op/post-op pictures:


finally, jake suffers from seizures. in january, he bit his finger badly during one seizure. we tried to keep it bandaged despite the fact that he got one bandaid in his mouth, tried to swallow it and vomitted. the finger then got infected and he had to go on antibiotics. thankfully, the ketogenic diet has helped control his seizures for the past 4 years. seriously this diet is amazing!! recommend it to anyone you know who has children with epilepsy. jake was seizure free for one year and still has less seizures than when on medication.

quotables

"is that lily holding baby lily?" -lily's response when i showed her a picture of gracie holding her when lily was a baby.

"drama class is actually a lot of fun." -gracie (this is only humorous in that grace seemed surprised by how much she likes drama class. this from my child who we refer to as "a drama queen" when she is not around.)

"mom, you can go with my teacher and i'll stay home with japie and evan. daddy can go to work, and i'll be the mommy" -lily, in response to learning that she would be going to preschool next year instead of this year.

"mom, if you don't get rid of that smell soon, you're going to have to buy a new car." -gracie when it took me a couple of days to clean out my car after returning from a road trip.

"mommy, they have dress-ups for you!" -lily while walking by the prom dress section at macy's.

"i said the prayer "last"-erday." -lily's replacement word for "yesterday."