Samuel's Village

Happy Birthday to my big six-year old, Samuel!  I am so proud of the boy he is becoming!  It is said that it takes a village to raise children, and I believe there is so much truth to that.  Many, many people have already been involved in leading and guiding Samuel from family to friends to teachers to the stranger that offers a kindness to him.  I think one of the most important groups of people in a child's "village" is their grandparents.  Grandparents and grandchildren have a special bond that I have loved watching develop between my own children and their grandparents, and remember so fondly in my own.  As a tribute to Samuel's six birthday and the village that is helping raise him, here is a memory from Samuel's first year with each of his grandparents and great grandparents.

Shirley Carroll was my father's mother and she lived long enough to meet Samuel on several occasions   This picture of her and Samuel is my favorite of them because they both look delighted to be meeting each other!

George Watts is my mother's father.  Grandad is my last remaining grandparent and he has been able to spend many celebrations with us for holidays and birthdays.  This is such an awesome picture because he was truly pleased with his great grandson!  Samuel was just a few days old and snuggled right in.

Elaine Boudreau is Peter's mother and the children call her Memere.  This picture was taken right before Samuel's first Christmas as Elaine was out visiting us from Connecticut.  Memere and Samuel share a great love for books!  Elaine makes so many wonderful handmade gifts for the children and the kids know without a doubt that Mermere will always watch the entire Disney movie with them, because she loves it as much as they do.

  

Grandpa Angelo and Grandma Roz live in New York City part of the year and Maine the remainder of the year.  Angelo is Peter's father and he and Roz travel to see us every year in October.  It is great fun to carve pumpkins with them every year and it wouldn't be Halloween without them!  This photo is taken when Samuel was 5 months old and we traveled to the east coast to visit Peter's family.

Kim and Dee Carroll are my parents and have a had a huge impact on the children since they live locally and we see them all of the time.  All the children love spending time at Grandma and Papa's house where they get to have bonfires, sled, eat ridiculous amounts of sugar, go fishing and watch more television than mom and dad would allow.  Here is my favorite picture of my father with Samuel as a baby - it is one that speaks of true peace.

Here is my favorite of my mother and Samuel.

Grandparents provide completely unconditional love to their grandchildren.  How blessed Samuel as been to witness the love of these seven grandparents.  You are truly loved Samuel.  Happy Birthday buddy.

Disguised Blessings

In preparation for putting our personal residence on the market, our children have watched entirely too much television and played an astronomical amount of computer, Kindle, and iPhone games.  Peter and I have been hanging sheetrock and trim, caulking, sanding, and painting.  We've cleaned and sorted and packed.  Meaning that ultimately, we've put the kids on the back burner for a few weeks, and oh the guilt!

Yesterday morning, Samuel woke up with red mucus filled eyes, sore ears, a fever and all the other tag-alongs including a cough and sore throat.  He was way too sick to go to school.  Ethan appeared in perfect health, as usual, so we readied him for preschool.  After all the morning rituals, I popped out to the garage to start the van only to discover that  the battery was completely drained.  Peter had accidentally left the ignition turned toward the radio position after pulling the van into the garage the previous night, something very unlike my meticulous husband.  I called two friends and couldn't reach either of them to take Ethan to preschool, so I made the executive decision that we were all staying home.  I didn't even call AAA, because Peter could just jump the battery when he returned from work.

And you know what?  It was wonderful.  It was a reminder to slow down with my kids.  We made homemade green and yellow play dough, and each kid made an awesome hand print.  We colored.  My princess and magical castle turned out quite lovely, thank you.  I built legos, cooked plastic cupcakes and watched LeapFrog's Amazing Alphabet with two perfect girls on my lap.  Of course I cleaned, and sorted a thousand toys, and dealt with a bloody nose and many diapers too.  But it was so fun.  That nasty cold and drained battery were disguised blessings, because I needed a day like that as much as much my children obviously did.  Here they are, playing with their homemade dough.

Thank you for this awesome day.  NOW I'm ready for the cold to go away, because my ears hurt too.