Our Little Secret

We live in a quiet, safe little corner of New Jersey. Most people don't lock their doors, and the honor system still works at the little roadside produce stands where you help yourself and leave your money in the unlocked boxes.

Our house is on a quiet little country lane here in the northeast's version of Mayberry. The neighbors are friendly and look out for each other. All of which makes the rest of the story so bizarre.

At the end of our road, you run into a gated drive. There are signs - private property and no trespassing. Totally out of place. But, because it's so secluded from everyone else, it's never really bothered us. The people who live there keep to themselves and we only occasionally see them drive by.

When we first moved here, we were surprised at how many people couldn't wait to spill the beans on our reclusive neighbors.

It seems that, in our quiet little haven, we moved 3 doors down from... the mafia. The real mafia. Our neighbor was the lawyer for a family whose name you would probably recognize. (I won't name names, but it rhymes with Bambino.)

But we got used to the idea, and haven't really given it much thought in a long time. We just planned to stay out of their way and not do anything to ruffle any feathers.

But now there's a little problem. It seems that the other neighbors are rallying together against him to try to stop him from building onto their compound. Apparently he's been uncooperative with them in the past, and now they want to get together to fight him from being able to get some of the building permits he needs. And they want us to join them???

Okay, I've seen enough of the Godfather movies to know that you don't want to mess the mob. Unless you like waking up with a horse head in your bed. (I don't even like waking up with Isaac in my bed.)

But we like our nice neighbors, and we don't want to get them mad at us, either. So, this weekend, Scott's meeting with some of them. Hopefully we can figure out how to remain neutral without offending the good neighbors or the bad ones! Wish us luck.

Dad

We received news on Thursday that Scott's daddy has prostate cancer.

We are relieved that it was caught early, and the chances are good that it hasn't spread to other areas. The hardest part now is waiting for confirmation of that.

He is ready to tackle this head-on and, being one of the strongest people I've ever met, I'm sure he'll do just that.

When my mother battled her cancer, I saw in her a strength and determination that I hadn't seen before. She was determined to beat it, and now she has been cancer free for several years.

Please keep Scott's dad in your prayers, specifically for a good report next week.

Totally Two

Isaac's birthday was just a couple of weeks ago, and he's already acting so much like a 2 year old. I was expecting him to slowly transition into a toddler. But he's fully there.

He's definitely got the "I can do it myself" syndrome. Eye-seek do it!! He's determined to do everything without help.

He can now get a cup from the cabinet, take it to the refrigerator, push the button on the door, and fill his cup. Which, by the way, wouldn't be such a bad thing except that half the time he completely misses the cup and gets more water on himself and the floor than in the cup.

You can follow the trail of destruction and know exactly where he's been. Yesterday, I found my reading glasses in two pieces. And I'm constantly finding strange things like tissue boxes and hot wheels in my washing machine. The salt shaker mysteriously became clogged until I caught him in the act of licking it and then putting it back in place. The list is endless.

I'm sure the girls went through this stage as well. I've just blocked it from my memory. Well, almost. I do remember Katherine's obsession with flushing everything down the toilet. Including Dylan's new kitten. The cat survived, but he was never really quite right after that. Dylan named him Sally Bop because of his habit of "bopping" himself into the wall. A habit that he developed after being flushed away.

Friday Fun

I'm not a morning person, so fixing Dylan's hair Friday morning for picture day was a less-than-enjoyable experience. I had to fix it while she ate breakfast because we didn't have an extra 4 minutes to spare. And considering that I was functioning on only one cup of coffee at the time, I thought Dylan should have been grateful that I didn't burn one of her ears off with the hair iron.

But she just looked in the mirror and said, in a very disappointed tone, "Oh, I thought it was gonna look different. I wanted it just like is was in last year's picture."

But when she burst through the door that afternoon, she very cheerfully announced, "Today wasn't picture day! It's next Friday!! And I want you to fix my hair exactly the same way next week!!!

A few minutes later, I walked down to meet Katherine at the bus stop. I waited for the bus. And I watched as the bus approached. And I watched as the bus drove past me without slowing. I watched Katherine press both hands against the window. I yelled at her to tell the driver to stop, but she only stared back with the same look you would expect from someone stuck on a runaway train.

At first I wasn't too concerned. I fully expected the bus to be back in about 30 seconds. I didn't know Katherine would stay on another 15 minutes before getting up the nerve to tell the driver that he'd missed her stop!

I wish I could say that Isaac was my easy child.

More Joys of Motherhood

I guess some of the most dreaded words a mom hears from her school-age child, spoken at bedtime is, "Oh, I forgot to tell you, but my teacher said I needed a ______ . And I have to have it tomorrow. And, did you remember that tomorrow is picture day?"

Dylan is the world's worst.

It's hard to believe we've fallen so quickly. I mean, school just started Monday. But, with yesterday being a holiday, after only 3 days of school, it was enough to derail us.

Last night, it wasn't just one, but two things, she had to have.

The first, a shoe box filled with items that would help tell about Dylan. Important little items with lots of meaning and stories behind them. Things to give one a sense of who Dylan is. What makes her tick.

But, when you're scrambling to get hair clean and special outfits ready for school picture day, and it's already well past bedtime, it's hard to sum up 10 years of Dylan. But we did our best. Thrown into a beat up Keds box was just about anything located within arms reach.

A toothpaste tube lid? That'll do! Talk about how it's your favorite flavor and all.

A dirty sock? Great!! Tell about how you have this freaky toe thing that drives you crazy if the toe part of the sock bunches up and it takes about 10 minutes to put them on and take them off again and how your mom has to get your socks from only one store that carries a special no-seam toe and they cost about 5 times more than regular socks and how we end up spending more on socks than we do on shoes.

A popsicle stick? Sure. That's a good one. You can start with how your brother calls them poppa-see-wees and how we discovered that the real reason he loves them so much is because he can coax the puppy to come near him by sharing his poppa-see-wees with her and how your mom screamed and went on about where that dog's tongue has been and why does she even bother any more.

But that shoe box had not been filled for more than 5 minutes when Dylan remembered something else she just had to have. Tomorrow. A book cover.

There's no way I can get a book cover tonight, Dylan. You'll have to tell your teacher we'll get it this weekend.

I've got to have it tomorrow! She said something about being on me like something about rice. I don't know what she meant. But it sounded bad!!

Yes, Julie. In Jersey, we really do say it. Whaddya gonna do?

School Starts

It's finally here. The first day of school!

The girls were very excited and a little nervous as they left this morning.

I'm sure they'll have lots of stories when they get home today. And I can't wait to hear them. I miss them already!

2 Today!!!

I can't believe our little guy is two years old! The time has flown by! He has been the easiest child a mom could've asked for. A good sleeper from the beginning, he's always been obedient and patient in just about any situation. He quietly makes his needs known. Having him around has kept me young. Made me feel younger, in fact.

Okay, I just wanted to see what it felt like to say that.

From the time he was a few hours old and his piercing screams got him kicked out of the hospital nursery, he has been anything but quiet when making his needs known. And sleep? Who needs it? Not Isaac, for sure.

And whoever said having a baby keeps you young was senile.

But I wouldn't trade a second of the last two years for anything in the world. For all the earsplitting screams, impatient groans and moans, and days of surviving on 2 or 3 hours of sleep, there have been many more smiles.

I say, keep 'em coming! (The smiles, that is.)

Happy Birthday, Isaac!!

Weekend of Labor

Looking back now, I guess I have only myself to blame for our Labor Day weekend gone bust.

On Thursday, I was looking forward to a long holiday weekend with perfect weather predicted. Sunny. Temperatures in the 70's.

With the kids starting school in a week, I was anticipating some fun family time. Lots of grilling out and playing games in the backyard.

To make things even better, we had dinner plans on Sunday at a very nice restaurant with some very nice people. Adults. And we were lucky enough to get The Good Babysitter. The older one. The one that can control our wild kids. She's usually already taken, so this too was a special treat. Oh, and did I mention that the dinner was going to be free?

Sounds too good to be true.

And it was.

On Friday, Dylan got sick. High fever throughout the weekend. I took her to the doctor today to rule out anything needing medication or hospitalization. Thankfully, it was just a random virus that she's slowly recuperating from.

I wouldn't dream of blaming poor Dylan. She certainly didn't ask for it.

But I should have known better. If the weather predictions had called for nonstop rain...if the only babysitter available had been the one that we refer to simply as The Zookeeper - for obvious reasons... if the only place for us to eat had been McDonalds...then everything would've have gone as planned.