Pico DiPaolo

I understand it, I really do.  It’s just that when you’re a mom and you’re enjoying a little park time with your little one, it’s really a bit frustrating when a bus load of camp or day care kids pull up to also utilize the facilities.  Again, I’m happy that these kids are using the park.  It’s there for everyone.  I just wish there was an easy to utilize park report, kinda like a traffic report, that let you know when to expect these big floods of kids.  Like a moth to the flame, it didn’t take long for Elise to notice the 30 kids in bright mustard yellow t-shirts with “tunzoffun” camp shirts on.  She sprinted towards the big park where they were. 

It was pretty much time for us to go anyway.  As we walked towards the car, I noticed itty bitty beads of sweat on her nose.  On a baby, even sweat is adorable!  Chris is right, using the park to release constructive energy is helping and Elise is loving it.  She’s mastered slides, loves the seesaw, swing and can even climb up.  I love her laughter and when she says, “big,” when she gets up there.

One year at Trinity – probably Junior or Senior year – we were studying for finals in Wimberley.  It was a great place to get away that was peaceful.  Reading Days at Trinity always seemed to be either loud (people who figured it was two days of vacation…probably business majors) or stressful (people in all the study lounges looking stressed at all hours of the day as they make their last stand in whatever class they are failing).

Wimberley has grown a bit since then, but still isn’t known for its selection of restaurants.  At the time I remember it was DQ, Subway or a couple of sit-down restaurants unless we wanted to go to San Marcos.  So we went to Subway.  “Can I help you?” the person behind the counter asked.  We told him what kind of bread we wanted, standard Subway protocol.  He replied with a straight face, “Oh, we don’t have any bread today”.

“OK…,” we paused.  “So, what do you have?”

“Not much”, he replied.  Not only did he not find it worthwhile to mention the lack of bread before we ordered but he didn’t have much of a back up plan either.  I honestly don’t remember what we ate for lunch that day, I just remember how nonchalantly the guy said he didn’t have bread as if it was the least popular side order on an extensive menu.

Chris said we’d start writing down top ten stories as we remember them. Here’s the first one that came up since his blog.

Chris and Elise played all day on Saturday because Joelle and I had a date with the elephants at the circus. He lined up a playdate with his friend Thomas and his baby, Roshan. They met up at our pool. Before I left, I reminded Chris to put Swim Ear in Elise’s ear when they were done. He was surprised that I put it in Elise’s ear and I said, “Yep, she knows the drill. She expects it.” I said, “you know, I’ve been through a lot of pain in my life and that is still very memorable to me. I remember laying…” Chris cut me off to say, “laying on the tile for a little coolness to relieve a little of the pain.” He then said, “top ten, top ten.”

Seriously though, that was a very painful thing if I do remember that so clearly. I was about 10 years old! Always remember the swim ear! (You can purchase drops at a drug store or make your own with equal parts rubbing alchohol and white vinegar.)

When you have two kids, you really feel like you should strive to be equal with them.  We ran into friends at Target and they commented how they had to buy two boats, one for each child.  It works that way with everything.  If I give Elise a hug, then Joelle should get one, too.  I think it’s a losing battle – everything can’t be equal all the time. 

However, I feel like I should write something about Joelle since I dedicated a blog to Lis last night.  I told Elise’s side of the story regarding the name tag at Vacation Bible School drop off, but I didn’t mention Joelle’s reaction.  One might think that she’d be mad at her little sister for putting on her name tag, but she was actually quite thrilled.  Joelle has turned into a pretty sweet big sister.  She seems to really enjoy Elise getting bigger, at least when her toys don’t end up chewed on by Elise!  Joelle was egging her on and pleading with me to let her stay.  It makes me a little sad that they won’t be at the same school next year because I know Joelle would be the big sis who would be thrilled to see Lis in the halls. 

The other story about Joelle that is recent and cute comes from Chris.  He asked her what she watched on tv that day.  She said the name of the show, but Chris didn’t recognize it.  Joelle said, “It was on Noggin.  You know, it’s like preschool on tv.”  Chris laughed and I laughed when he told me that story.  Advertising works for kids.  They’re little sponges for everything!

I had to come in here and write something really cute and really sweet about Elise because she’s killing me.  Not literally, but she’s gone into super hyper baby mode (I know Maria and Joey will be jazzed to read this, since we’re on the countdown to the Salt Lake trip).  She’s wild and I can’t control her.  I sat her down briefly to help Joelle with her Vacation Bible School (VBS) shirt and that turns into a 20 minute chase around the church.  Yes, I am faster then a 18 month old, but there are many, many distractions to dodge and I have to carefully catch her or she will lurch and hurt herself in the process.  At the pool yesterday, she ran to the shower (she loves the shower at the pool and the environmentalist in me denied her the pleasure of using it until time to leave).  Mistake?  maybe.  She tripped and fell and scraped up her chin pretty badly.  Chris calls it her goatee scab. 

Ok, so now the good parts…  At the above mentioned VBS drop off, her first thought was to whip on Joelle’s name tag.  It was on her neck so fast that Joelle and I didn’t see her do it.  We just saw her prancing around like she owned the right to be in the room with it.  She seriously thought it was her ticket into VBS fun.  Also, at the pool – she’s so darn cute when she isn’t tripping into the shower stall.  She is big into observing things (like the VBS name tag) and noticed a kid walk up some random steps to a window.  She intently watched as he was able to procure a treat from the window.  (This is the snack bar at the pool.)  She immediately popped out of the baby pool and marched up the steps.  There, she patiently waited until I had to relent and get her a treat.  Oh, and on the way there, over the super hot Houston concrete, she started walking on tippy toes to escape the heat of the pavement. 

So, here’s to remembering these times as we suffer on the plane to meet little baby Joaquin!

One day Petie told me a story from another family member (I don’t remember what) and I responded with “Oh, you hadn’t heard that? That’s one of their top 10 stories.” There’s a concept that I have discovered over time called “Top 10 Stories”. Every person has a repository of favorite stories they like to tell. It doesn’t have to be the most outlandish tale or exciting occurrence but it seems to come up time and again.

A top 10 story is that one that comes up every time your family gets together. Or every time there is a staff meeting an inside joke comes up and someone has to explain it to the “new guy”. Maybe that counts, too.

It’s a fluid concept – one that you only really know when you hear one. When you hear it you realize that you have a particular bond with the person or group because you have spent enough time in their company to have heard the story a few times before.

Spouses have heard each other’s top 10 stories so many times that you wouldn’t be able to list them if you tried – the stories are part of who they are and their experience so it’s hard to separate them. But, again, the next time they tell one of them, you’ll know.

Maybe this won’t make sense until the next time you hear one. Try to think about your top 10 stories. Petie and I briefly tried to come up with ours and had a hard time. As we think of some we’ll share them.

Photo courtesy of the Wichita Public Library

I had forgotten how gradual the game of “hide and seek” develops with kids.  Thinking about it obviously they won’t toddle off to hide while you count to 10 immediately.  Elise has entered what I’ll call “phase 1″ of learning how to play.  I’m not sure how she got started doing this – I don’t think Joelle has played hide and seek much lately.

Step 1: You have to be around so she knows she can get your attention. She won’t hide if you are elsewhere in the house.

Step 2: As you take your eyes off of her she will back into the nearest corner or piece of furniture.  Considering the finesse of an 18-month-old this can be abrupt if she misjudged how far she was from the ojbect.

Step 3: You realize – “Oh, she’s hiding! How cute!  You just start to look around (anywhere but where she is) or say the words “Where is…?” and she pops out with a huge smile on her face and a “haha!” noise.

And there you have it, 18-month-old hide and go seek.

I think it all started with my innocent question about Chris’s new pull chain in his closet.  He had to put in a new light fixture because little Monster, who has been taught by Chris to pull the chain to make the light go on and off, pulled too hard one day.  Our house is 40 years old, so we still have pull chains in the closets and those pull chains are old.  The play room closet light fixture has also been replaced because one little friend thought it would be fun to swing from it.  Although it may have been fun, it didn’t last long.

As is true with a lot of things in life, the new light fixture came with a rather cheap little string.  There probably isn’t a big market for this type of fixture, huh?  Anyway, I suggested taking the fan pull off for Chris to use.  Unfortunately, it’s a little short.  I can barely reach it on my tippy, tippy toes.  The good news about that is that I can’t sneak in there any longer to accidentally find gifties and Elise certainly can’t break this one.  The bad news is that Chris does also have to reach high up.  On the right side, it hurts his herniated disc a bit.  On the left side, it hurts his arm that had a tetanus shot.  (He wounded himself on Sunday.)  He made me laugh out loud as he mimicked himself in the morning trying to turn on the light, alternating his reach to find the least painful way to get it on.

He proceeded to ruminate about his morning routine and commented that the one remaining light in the bathroom will definitely go out in the 20 minutes he’s in there one morning.  One of the 5 year cf bulbs went out after a short life of flickering light because I tried to use the dimmer on a non-dimmable bulb.  The other light is emitting a light flicker as well.  That’s why Chris surmises that it will also not make it to its 5 year goal.  We’re not really that lazy, but I think we’re just determined not to waste any energy on the bathroom because we’re remodeling it.  Although it pains our light green bones to do it, (the contractor even said, “the minute you start a remodel it’s environmentally unfriendly,” when Chris asked what environmentally friendly stuff we could install) we’re remodeling our master bathroom. 

Chris finished his story by saying that if the lights go out (all the girls are asleep when he gets ready for work), he’d just jump crazily in front of the window to get the sensor light in the backyard to come on.  He demonstrated for me and I laugh to myself again imagining his insane S.O.S in front of the window for illumination.  I think he might just have to wake me up.  …just this once, unless the light can just hold out….

Chris, Joelle and I were chatting about something over dinner and Joelle as part of her response said, “ok, good chat, anyway….”  Chris and I both immediately looked at each other with knowing smirks.  She is definitely our kid and she is certainly picking up our vocabulary and the way we say things.  Chris and I would totally say something like that, heavily laced with sarcasm and Joelle has picked it up.

In another example of Joelle growing up, we thought she had a grown up response to Charlie, who was visiting on Saturday.  When he was playing the Wii he was complaining that people were talking so he couldn’t pay attention and Joelle turned to him and said, “Charlie, people are gonna talk.”  Indeed, people are going to talk. 

Finally, I was in love with a note that Joelle left me one morning.  We leave notes for Joelle in a little mailbox and she occasionally leaves us one, too.  One morning, I woke up to find one beside me on the bed.  It read, Hi, Mom.  Fun, fun, fun.  Love, Joelle.”  I chuckled with her delightful note and realized that it was pretty much what I write to her each morning.  I mean, I outline exactly what we’ll do each day and to her, it translates as “fun, fun, fun.”  That makes me happy.

The morning after Nana and Joelle’s slumber party on the tree house balcony, Nana came over to the “carriage house” in Wimberley looking a little dishelved.  Her normally perfectly placed hair was all awry as she related to us the story of the “country cowboy,” with Poppy shooting at pigs during the middle of the night.  One hand held a flashlight and the other hand held his rifle.  Dale Dugger, the neighbor, hollering after Poppy, “did you get one, Pete!?”  Joelle, who had kept Nana up until 10, miraculously slept through it all. 

Earlier that evening, Elise was making a fuss after we had put her to bed.  We usually hang out on the porch after putting her to bed and chat until it gets dark.  I walked in to check on the baby and the TV was on!  I was a bit spooked by this until I realized that the TV remote had been on the nightstand near the bed.

We’ve tailored a unique “room” for Elise in the Wimberley carriage house by pulling forward the bed and leaving her behind the headboard with her pack n play.  Poppy and Chris left the nightstand there by her pack n’ play.  We realized our error (leaving the nightstand within reach) and had a hearty laugh at that.

In the morning, we discovered a suprise.  There was more than just the remote on the nightstand.  Bullets in the baby’s pack n’ play.  What if she had swallowed one?  For days, we were watching her nervously for any signs that her digestive system might be in distress. In the dark with her lack of dexterity at the time we were pretty sure it was unlikely that she would have been able to see one of those and put it in her mouth, but it was awful thinking she could have eaten a bullet.  Poppy didn’t help by saying, “those are lead!” 

I should note that the rifle was a definite consideration to all of us and we all knew where it was – far from the babies.