Better luck next year

Bleh. We were so close. SO CLOSE. After two cross country trips, six airports, numerous trips to the disease badlands of the Children's Museum and the local libraries (two of them!), grocery shopping that included mouths on handles (ugh), and just five days short of the officials start of Spring, we broke our streak.

If the kids had made it to Saturday, we would have made the entire Winter without an illness. Robbie did get a runny nose for a while, but that hardly counts. No H1N1, no regular flu (and they didn't even get vaccinated...) no colds. No strep throat, no ear infections, no pink eye. Nothing.

Until Monday. Then Jack threw up. Tuesday, everyone was fine and dandy. We even had friends over (most likely a mistake).

Today, Ellie said to me first thing,"Mommy, my tummy hurts." She then asked for French toast. I knew she wouldn't keep it down, but I didn't want to dissuade her. I made her what she asked for. It came up half an hour later. And the fun lasted all day. Then Jack started up again after a good 48 hours of feeling fine.

I shouldn't complain. I have friends who spent back-to-back weeks with sick kids on antibiotics, the works. I have had an easy winter.

But I've been cleaning vomit up all day.

And boy, is it no fun. For them especially.

I just hope Robbie has a miracle and the Lord lets this bug bypass him.

Because I suspect his warnings and aim wouldn't be very good.

Princess hair

I love to braid. It's no grand secret that I have been waiting for Ellie to sprout hair so I can wrestle her down and do all manner of beautiful braids.

Sadly, Ellie has my hair instead of her dad's: on the side of thin, super fine, curly half the time, whispy the rest. I can certainly braid it, but the braids fall out after a few hours. :(

Then I come across this website, www.princesshairstyles.com. And now I'm even more sad that Ellie's hair won't hold a braid (and further that she lacks more than about three minutes patience in the hair torture department. Her ideal hairstyle is a bow or barrette in one side. Done.)

It's probably for the best. I can't decide if the little girl who's head is the featured princess hair enjoys being a guinea pig for princess hair fashion or not. I suspect Ellie would fall into the "not' range. So sad. Check this site out if you have a little girl who would love something fun and different, who likes to have her hair done or if you feel like a child's hair should reflect a holiday: plenty of hearts and shamrocks to be found here! Also, I suspect there are a few semi-formal or prom-ish styles in there, too.

Amazing!

There are two television shows I dearly love and which I try not to miss. One is, naturally, "Lost." (Five episodes in, I almost posted the question on Facebook, "Anyone else wonder what happened to Charles Widemore?" Then he showed up at the end of the episode...ohhhhh "Lost" how you taunt us).

Anyway, my other show of choice is "The Amazing Race." If I could be on a reality show, that would be the one. I love the different types of people they get on the show, and love to see how the stress of travel affects personal relationships.

Their casting is predictable: A few model couples, a few gay/lesbian couples, an older couple, mom and dads and they always cast a pair that just seems unlikely to make it through, most notably a hillbilly couple from Tennessee a couple years ago. I so wanted them to win because, seriously, if anyone could use a million dollars, it would have been them. Alas, they fell short (not first out, though!)

This year, I didn't hold out much hope for The Cowboys, Jet and Cord McCoy when during the first leg of the race they changed all their American dollars to Brazilian reals even though they were flying to Chile. I thought, "Great, they cast the stereotypical dumb cowboys." I am so glad I was wrong!

Jack and I are cheering for these guys all the way. Jack even made a cowboy sign today to wave around during their glory moments. I love that in a game where every other player in every season wears exercise clothes, these guys are racing around the world in their Wranglers, boots, rodeo belt buckles and cowboy hats. Phil even asked them one week if they were comfortable in the belt buckles and one of the brothers said, "My pants would fall off without it." In this week's episode, Jet wouldn't take his hat off to bungee jump. The handlers told him he'd lose his hat. He said, "Nope, we're good." At the end, his jumping partner was amazed that he still had his hat to which Jet replied, "A real cowboy hat never falls off."

They placed first two weeks in a row, slaying the competition last week in, duh, cowboy related tasks in Argentina. They are athletic, polite and good natured. In this week's, episode a few things caught my attention with these Oklahoma boys:

1. Despite never having played soccer in their lives, they suited up and made short work of a soccer goal challenge.
2. At a beer drinking challenge, it looked like they might lose because one of them doesn't drink much and the other "has never had a beer in my life." The cowboys barely survived the beer drinking competition. I love that they fight the stereotype.
3. As they were driving to the pit stop, they saw prostitutes on the side of the road and Jet said, "Cord, we are not in the Bible belt anymore." I just laughed.

So anyway, from casa Lonsberry, go Jet and Cord!

In the meantime, who can I wrangle into getting a passport and trying out with me to be the next year's "mom" team? I've traveled some, I'm passably athletic, I speak functional Spanish which has got to be good in at least a quarter of the known world. Certainly I'm as qualified as the next mom to be on the "mom" team, right?

Five

Jack through the years. Top row: 3rd birthday, two-weeks-old, 2-year-old pictures.

Bottom row: First birthday, fifth birthday, 4-years-old gardening!!

Five is kind of a cool age.

First of all, you're not four.

If someone asks your age, you don't have to waggle or cross any fingers or count. You just hold up your hand with confidence: five fingers, five years.

You can get a library card.

If you follow a regular immunization schedule, you get shots.

Your're old enough for summer soccer in Mount Morris and level 2 swimming lessons in Nunda.

You start kindergarten.

Today, Jack is 5. Five years ago, I entered that unknown land of labor, delivery and parenthood. He was a textbook birth, followed by four months or so of colic. At 1, he would shove a book in my hand and say forcefully, "Read, Mom, read."At 2, he gained a sister, a big-boy bed and let go of his binky. At 3, he planned his birthday party, learned to garden and gained a baby brother. At four, his mind kind of exploded, his curiosity became limitless, he formed his own friendships. It was at four that I really realized for all the creation I did, this boy was not mine.

Certainly, Jack is my son. I made him. But he is his own person on his own little life track. And I am so privileged to be guiding him, cheering him on, hugging him through the hard times, helping him learn to make choices. Poor first-born child. Jack is my test subject, the one who has had to endure all my insanity and learning how to be a Mom. I'm sure his brother and sister appreciate his loving, tolerant nature, because I'm not sure either of them would have endured my craziness like he has. And I am certainly a better mother because of him.

Somehow, he will survive his shots tomorrow (he has been dreading this day for a very long time.) T-minus six months until Jack becomes a school boy. Somehow, I'll survive his move to kindergarten. I will miss him and what a big help he is, but school is kind of the first big step out into the world of becoming your own person. Right now, we are working on reading. He's wanted to learn for a while, so here we are, letter workbooks and phonics and whole words all jumbled into random daily lessons. He is waiting (with waning patience...it's been five days!!) for two books on folding paper airplanes to come in to the library. He is obsessed with legos, particularly little Lego men. It took a lot of effort for me not to put each new Lego set he got for his birthday in a baggie so he could make each different plane or car. Finally, I realized his plan of dumping them into one big bucket and building whatever he wants is not the end of the world. In fact, it's been the beginning of dozens of planes Lego never thought up.

Because that's the great thing about being 5: You're on the cusp of so many of life's great discoveries, from Lego planes to school

I love this kid, my little Jackie, as he calls himself. He is a smart, fun, helpful, happy little boy. His birth five years ago was a dream come true. It made me a mommy. And while that road is certainly not the easy breezy one I'd expected, it has been worth every step. My little Jackie: I can't imagine my life without him in it.