O Tannenbaum

Wie treu sind deine Blätter...

We found out that our favorite Xmas tree place has been sold to the town so we only have 2 (maybe 3) more years to purchase our trees here. I’m bummed, we really love the quality of tree we get from these folks.

Or maybe I’m bummed for another reason

Bummed isn't the right word...nostalgic. 

Because now I've got this

No matter what his age...I'll keep him

4th of July at Fransted Campground

We celebrated the land of the free and the home of the brave by heading north to the mountains. This was a bit of a bizarre trip for us.  We went up on Friday and hit NO TRAFFIC – so the trip that generally takes 3.5-4 hours took a little over 2. We started the night off with the neighbors fireworks. They were amazing. Spotty was a bit bummed that he didn’t meet any friends, but we told him “dude, we have only been up here for 3 hours and we set up camp and now its dark and are watching fireworks, don’t worry about it – you will find friends to hang out with tomorrow. 

I love seeing Spotty Chop first thing in the morning. I think he is adorkable!

Saturday was the Franconia parade and it did not disappoint (short, sweet and no traffic). 

these guys loved boy toy and spotty chop's decorating so much they gave us all leis 

boy toy likes to photobomb

When we got back to camp Boy Toy asked if he was going to head down to the fields to see if anyone was hanging out. Spotty said no, that he didn’t want to anymore. We convinced him to go down and just see what was up, he could always hang with us. Well he went off and found some folks to hang with, and we never really saw him again.  They were from Ohio, 3 kids 15, 12, 9. The 12 year old is reading the same series Spotty is (it’s the BEST), the 15 year old just got super smash brothers for the DS3 and hadn’t played with anyone before (Spotty is a pro) and the 9 year old loved river tubing.  

Spotty had a blast. He did come up to eat on occasion and we had to hit Chutters so he agreed to do that and that was kinda it.  Boy Toy and I hung out with our friends parents. I read, Boy Toy helped plant some plants. It was a very relaxing trip, even if we didn’t get to spend any time with our boy (who then felt guilty that he didn’t spend any time with us – don’t feel guilty – you make friends, it’s what you do.)

A present for Moo!

Let the Camping begin!

We spent Memorial Day in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It was bitterly cold Friday night and Saturday wasn’t much better. That didn’t mean the weekend was a loss, on the contrary we had a splendid time! I packed the car whilst Boy Toy was at work and Spotty was at school. It went really well, really fast. I should have known that something was wrong. Somehow the heater, stove and we thought Boy Toy’s clothes didn’t make the trip with us. 

The heater would have been nice as it was below freezing, but we survived. The stove would have been even better, but Boy Toy managed to have a fire burning and water boiling so there was tea, coffee and hot coco. Saturday morning Boy Toy decided that he wanted breakfast and he wanted breakfast at the Littleton Diner. We have been coming to Littleton for…27 years or so and we have NEVER eaten here. We always say that we should and we finally did. The food was great, the service was fantastic, we will be back. We did our typical Chutters run. We told Spotty Chop to come up with the 5 things he really wanted because we have a bag (or 3) from Chutters that he did not finish. There is SO MUCH candy that he just can’t seem to say no to anything, and a lot of things that seem like a good idea at the time turns out to be stuff that he only wanted a piece of. We reminded him that we would be back in July (twice!!! Moo and Family are coming with us later in July!!!!!!) So Spotty got a lot less candy, but got the things he really wanted (plus a few…cauz it’s the first trip to Chutters for the year).  Spotty wanted pork chops for dinner and luckily the cooking grate came with us. Boy Toy cooked us up some incredibly tasty chops and baked potatoes. Is there anything that tinfoil can’t do? There was an ice cream social that we of course attended because ICE CREAM IS A GOD GIVEN RIGHT, not a privilege. Even if it is below freezing.

Sunday was gorgeous. Boy Toy and I wanted to take a hike, but Spotty really just wanted to hang out at the campground, so we hung out. Cribbage and board games were played, 

reading was read, knitting was knit and Spotty was having a great time with a bungee cord. I honestly have no idea what he was doing, but he was entertaining himself (something that he says he can NOT DO without VIDEO GAMES – big bone of contention lately and we are like “no dude, you can, you just gotta try” – later Sunday night I said “you were having fun with the bungee cord?” and he is all “I had a blast” so I said “that’s what we are talking about when we say “entertain yourself” – it was a light bulb moment…I hope). 

There was also start of the season cake! We do love us some cake. So we hung out down by the big tent, Spotty painted a dragon, we played ladder ball and some board games. Boy Toy cooked us some steak and more taters. It was a perfectly relaxing day. We had a fire Monday morning (tea and coffee were needed) and packed up so that we could go to Polly’s Pancakes. They remodeled over the winter. The building was starting to collapse. So they tore down the 100+ year building and put a new one up in its place.  It is now heated and air conditioned and fully handicap accessible and the best part? It really looks the same. It is bigger, but they didn’t try and cram more tables in (well, maybe a couple). It has the exact same look and feel. We were so happy! The old building was so perfectly charming that we were afraid that it would be lost. But they did an exceptional job. We were well fed for our 3-4 hour trip home.

We stopped in at Boy Toy’s oldest brother’s as they were having a cookout. Spotty and his cousin Terminator had a water fight, they ended up getting so wet they jumped into the pool (one of those quick to set up jobs you can get at Walmart/Target) it was perfect for splashing around. I think we finally got home around 7 or 8 pm. EVERYONE took a shower and then off to bed.

I didn’t mention video games, not because they didn’t happen, but because I am a bit grumpy about it. Spotty Chop is having an incredibly difficult time unplugging. We are trying really hard to help him unplug, but not make it seem like a punishment. Spotty has a 3DS that he really hasn’t been playing at all since he got his tablet (Simpsons Tapped Out rulz!!!!) so I purchased a Harvest Moon game for me and some monster hunter 4 game for Boy Toy. As we are all WELL aware Boy Toy and I are huge gamers and I thought it might be fun to have our own games to play when Spotty was busy with his tablet. 

How much gaming time do you think I got? And Boy Toy? Did you guess 0? Yea – so lesson learned do NOT buy a new game(s) before a trip unless all you want to see is the top of Spotty’s head hovered over the 3DS. I should have realized that a) internet is rare in the mountains,  b) new games are new games, and I happen to be a great game picker outer and c) unplugging is impossible when the lure of a new game is at hand. 

What did you just say?

Back in 2009 I got my hearing checked. Primarily because Boy Toy wouldn’t shut up about my not listening to him.  Well funny thing. Apparently I had some hearing loss. They wanted me to schedule an appointment with a doctor and blah blah blah. I never did anything about it because it seemed as if the only person I couldn’t hear was Boy Toy. And really was that such a bad thing?

Fast forward to now. I made another appointment, but this time made sure I was also seeing the doctor after the hearing test. Why? Spotty Chop tells me he loves me all the time. Lately I can’t understand what he is saying. When he needs me and he calls out for me I don’t respond, because I don’t hear him call me. I can’t even tell you how horrible it is to realize that you aren’t hearing your kid tell you he loves you. My sadness knows no bounds.

So what happened? I had a hearing test. My results were not “normal”. Well, as the technician said “you having hearing loss this young isn’t normal to begin with, but the graph of your hearing loss isn’t normal either. “

In “normal” hearing loss it looks like this. 

As  you age your ability to hear high pitched sounds (including consonants)  decreases. But this generally doesn’t start until your late 60’s or 70’s

This is what mine looks like. 

We can see that I can hear the low pitches as well as the high pitches. It the middle stuff that is all wonky. Basically I can’t hear vowels. Unless they are loud enough.  Apparently vowels aren’t as important as consonants because consonants convey most of the word info and they act as breakpoints for syllables. Which is why this hasn’t really affected me too badly up until now.   

So what does this mean? I have to get hearing aids. Both ears. I am less than pleased about this outcome. It pretty much blindsided me.

I have been a bit freaked out by this, but I am slowly coming to terms with it.  I mean

 a) it’s not the end of the world and

 b) good fucking god things could be so much worse.  I have a couple of friends that are dealing with an unimaginable amount of hurt right now. Hurt that I wouldn’t wish on too many people (there are a couple though…) so as I so often say “suck it up buttercup” it is what it is.

There is good news though.

a)It is genetic, but not hereditary, so I won’t pass this on to Spotty.  

b)  I have only lost 5-10 decibels since 2009, so the loss is going kinda slow 

c) There is also some really promising research going on right now with stem cells. They think within the next 50 years there may be a treatment for this that would regrow auditory hair cells. This is cool because currently there is no treatment for this type of hearing loss. It can’t be cured.

So it looks like I will be wearing my hair down a lot more often in the future.  God DAMN it now I will be dealing with frizzy hair too. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhh

PREACH

Lacrosse!

Spotty Chop decided to try out lacrosse this spring. Primarily due to his best bud J-man's decision to try it. They had their first game today. Did I remember the camera? Hells no. If I had remembered the camera would I have been able to get action shots? Have you seen the hockey photos? My Canon camera blows. I loved my "real film" Canon, I don't know why my digital EOS takes such shitty photos. But I digress.  This year for the first time the Hawks were able to field 2 U11 teams. Spotty is on the "black team" with J-man. I requested they be on the same team so that I could deal with taking the boys to all the practices and games. J-man's dad has stage 4 colon cancer. It aint good. There was a bit of a kerfluckle when the split the boys up into 2 teams as they somehow managed to "forget" my request. The coach was (IMO) a bit of an ass as he told me "I've already switched the teams 10 times". I of course was curious as to who's request would trump mine. I was priming myself for a MAJOR throw down, but the coach got the boys on the same team. Which was great, sort of. Spotty's hockey teammate "Veeg" also decided to try lacrosse out and had initially been on the black team with Spotty - which was great as Veeg knows no one from this town.  Of course he is the one that was switched to the white team. Such a freakin pain in my arse.

Spotty's game was at 9:30 this morning. They won. I don't get this sport just yet. there are too many kids on one side, the positions seem to play SOO different from soccer or hockey. Spotty did really well as a defenseman. Then they put him in as a "middie", the coach started yelling at Spotty as he wasn't in position and I thought to myself "I really hate this coach and it is going to be a LONG ASS SEASON". Spotty started having a meltdown on the field, Boy Toy's crankypants were twisted in a knot as he can NOT stand when Spotty cries when he is frustrated. Spotty Chop started yelling at the coach that he had no FRIGGEN IDEA WHAT HE WAS DOING. I was wondering who i was killing first Boy Toy or the coach. But then the coach pulled Spotty off, put his hands on Spotty's shoulders and talked to him, and then another coach came over and talked to him. They apparently were able to explain what he needed to do because he got right back into the game. And did fine! He in fact decided he liked that position more than the defensive and offensive positions that he played.  I feel better because the coach isn't a total doooshnozzel. Some coaches yell, but he at least picked up that his method wasn't working for my boy and adjusted it so that Spotty could pull himself back together and have fun. (The fact that Spotty was able to pull himself together let Boy Toy pull himself together and I didn't have to kill anyone! )

After Spotty's game Veeg's older brother had a game, we were going to go home and then come back to the field as Veeg happened to be playing against Spotty's cousin Hockey Star. But Boy Toy's brother & family were at the field. So we hung out talking to them. And then it was game time so we decided to just stay. Veeg's team is the "White" team. Not enough kids showed up. We asked Spotty if he would be willing to play again and he agreed. It was great. He got to play with Veeg 

Yes they are both #3. (Spotty is in the white helmet) Spotty was a bit panicked and ran over to the coach "can there be two 3's???, but the coach said "you can be Tall 3, and Veeg will be short 3". Spotty enjoyed playing again, and as this is his first time ever playing the other coaches were talking to him and letting him know  how to play the various positions as well. 

What was super funny was that Spotty and Hockey Star played against each other twice - they seemed to have a lot of fun seeing each other on the field. Boy Toy's brother took a couple of long distance shots with the two of them, but lord knows if I will ever see them. We did manage to get a photo of them off the field.

At least this season only goes for 8 weeks, not 8 months. 

God Help Me! I may be raising an Accidental Christian

Last night we went to Barnes and Nobel (and GameStop). Spotty Chop wanted to spend a gift card he got. While Boy Toy and Spotty were looking through the books I went looking at the religious books. We have been talking for awhile about starting to talk to Spotty about religion and I wanted to see if there was anything out there.  Spotty and I have already started talking about some of the Greek and Norse  gods and  goddesses, but they are a bit...blood thirsty for him. Guess what I found? The Action Bible .This book is a graphic novel and I thought it might be a fun way for Spotty to learn about the Bible.  I asked Spotty to read the first few pages (how the earth was made) because I wanted to try to explain that there are some people that believe that the Bible is true EVERY WORD OF IT and how they deny that dinosaurs exist, and the rest of their crazy crap. Well wouldn't you know Spotty loves this Fing book! He finds it really interesting. "Mom, I don't want to be disrespectful, but God seems to be a bit crazy with his killing everyone on earth just because he was angry". 

Oh sweet pea - you have no Fing idea!

I blew his mind with the explanation of the word "babble" and how the word comes from the story of "Babylon".

So now I am looking to see if other religions have similar books so that we can explore other religions. I know Hinduism does, his best bud Anidude has given him some comics about some of the pantheon in Hindi culture. but I am not having a ton of luck. Luckily I have time. 



Update:

"Jacob's brothers were dicks weren't they? I mean they threw him down a hole and then they sold him. THEY SOLD HIM!!! AND? for only 20 sheckles. They should have at least gotten 100 for him." - I do so love you Spotty Chop

"And what is up with God?" he looks up and says "no disrespect, but did you really have to kill EVERY FIRST BORN??? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT!!!???"

Happy Pi Day!

Today is the day to celebrate mathematics.   Pi (Greek letter “π”) is the symbol used in mathematics to represent a constant — the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter 

Spotty Chop's school had the high school honors students come hang out/and do fun math things yesterday. Spotty Chop now knows Pi as 3.14159265

We woke up this morning at 6 am to make it to Burlington for an 8:10 am game. After the game (they lost 1-0, but it was a really close & great game - Timmy was checked into the boards for the first time, I thought Boy Toy was going to leap onto the ice and start beating the crap out of the refs as they somehow didn't see it. At Spotty's age there is absolutely no checking, funny how some teams don't play that way. I say this because 5 other kids were checked into the boards and it was only called once ). Someone said "happy Pi" day. Someone else said "what's Pi?" and Spotty said "3.14159265". One of the dad's said sarcastically "that'll impress the girls". To which I smiled, gave the raised eyebrow of "don't make me kick your ass"  and said "it will impress the right girls." The mother's of the girl's on the team gave the "nod of damn straight" to which sarcastic dad said "touche".

Dear Spotty Chop you are 120 months old

Well, almost 120 months old - we have to wait for 5:03pm. But I can say it a bit early. 

This is what an almost double digit boy looks like

This is how an almost double digit boy gets to school today

You are the best kid ever. You have no idea how proud of you I am, especially in dealing with my recent surprise hospitalization on Saturday. Your dad was a mess, he really can't deal with anything bad happening to me. You kept him grounded and sane. You have been so sweet and careful of me. I can't get off the couch or go to the bathroom without your help. You insist that I hold onto  your shoulders whenever I walk anywhere. You are especially great at giving me kisses that other folks have been sending to help me recover. You are extremely superb at making sure that my furry friends kisses are translated well to me. 

I hope you  have a great day at school and you enjoy the treats we sent you in your lunch!

I hope someday you decide to have kids so that you can be as in love as I am with you.

love
mama