Ten

With the stroke of midnight, our third child happily entered into the realm of "double digits".  On Sunday, Reed excitedly announced his own personal countdown to the exact minute when he would move out of the "single digits" of his life.  In fact this morning, he reported that he was "exactly 5 hours, 37 minutes old.  I suggested that he add 10 years to that number.  Make that 10 years, 5 hours, and 37 minutes!

There is so much to love about this boy.  First of all, he has his daddy's grin. 

 He loves to laugh and joke, which brings about the biggest smile.  Just like his dad.  He is a number lover.  He's always been quick with math problems.  He especially likes mind benders and word problems that take deep thought and concentration.  He can whip out an answer in his head in no time.  Memorizing is easy for Reed.  He memorizes every piano piece he plays.  Charlie Brown, 007, and Carol of the Bells are his most recent favorites.  He likes songs that are fast and loud and I frequently hear him humming as he plays his songs. He is planning to take up the saxophone just as soon as he can.  He would also like to play the drums and the guitar.  He is full of musical talent and rhythm.

This year has brought about some firsts.  Reed adopted soccer as his sport of choice.  He learned the lingo and technique needed to help him develop into a very successful player.  He's aggressive yet gentle, competitive, and very serious about the game.  When we told him we were moving, the very first question he asked was, "what about my soccer?"  

Homework is now a routine.  He comes home from school and heads straight up to finish it all as quickly as possible.  He always makes his bed and straightens his room.  Hmmm, you must have a few of your mom's genes!   However, unlike your mom, you are obsessive about arriving on time.  You know exactly how long it takes to get to school in the morning, whether we make all of the lights or not.  It's all about numbers and watching the clock - let the count down begin - no matter where we go.

I would say this year you also developed a love for books.  The Hatchet series really caught your interest, or was it the movie you accidentally started at the Lester's house?? 

 Reed was an usher in Cousin Adam's wedding this summer. 

 He had a good time, but once it was all over, he wasn't too wild about the tuxedo!  His favorite part was filling up at the candy bar!  

Reed continues to love football - especially Manning football.  The Colts are his fave, although the Giants are a close second.  This year the Cowboys are also getting a serious look, but they didn't even make the playoffs!  After last week's playoff disappointments, I'm not exactly sure who gets his vote, but be assured, he'll be glued to the games with serious attention.

He's an enthusiastic Webelo Scout.  This week he crafted a pocket knife holster.  He stripped his own walking stick and has the blisters to prove it!  Campouts and bonfires are definitely his thing.

As his mom, I treasure the daily hugs he shares.  He is always helpful and has a happy, willing heart.  He memorized his 2 favorite Bible verses recently.  He found them on his own and committed them to memory right away. 

 

If I were to report on his favorite food this year?  It would be a tie between Pizza Stuff and chocolate.  He loves anything chocolate - bagels, candy, cakes, cookies, and muffins.  He won't eat banana bread unless I add chocolate chips.  He loves chocolate chip pancakes and chocolate ice cream.  He used to eat anthing with ketchup on it (eggs, mac & cheese, peanut butter & jelly), but now it's chocolate.  Lace it with chocolate and he'll gobble it right up!

The funniest things you did this year?  You counted the assembled pieces in the 1000 piece puzzle Dad was working and reported that he only had 763 more to go.  We all got a good laugh out of that one!  Happy Birthday, Reed Hollis!  I am proud of you and I love you bunches!

Seven

a post that's just a month late!!

He's SEVEN today.  Our little Cole Franklin.  I have to be careful - he won't be "little"much longer, although I have to say that I think he loves being the youngest in our family.  This boy is full of fire  - everyday, all day long.  He's been that way since he was in my belly.  The day he arrived was a celebration for all.  It ended my life as a pregnant woman - huge as I was (51 lbs heavier than normal)!

Seven years of fun began on this 24th day.  He was due on Halloween, but I convinced the doctor that I really wanted to be home from delivering long before the 31st! Caro, Brooks and Reed couldn't wait to meet our "boo baby".  What would he look like and when would he be able to walk and talk?  

Cole, you are a blast!  People always say you talk with your eyes and you laugh all of the time. 

 I watched those eyes change from blue to green as yellow streaks emerged around the age of 1.  I thought for sure you would join your sister as a blue eyed child, but at the last minute, you surprised us all and now your eyes are green.  Yes, you have filled our lives with surprises.

Cole, you might be my fourth child, but you have provided many firsts.  You were the first to insist (with incessant crying) that I drive around in the middle of the night until you fell asleep.  I always said "I'll never do that!".  You were the first to refuse all baby food.  How could you eat real food when you had no teeth and were less than 1??  You surprised me and mashed everything with those little gums.  You were the first to write on my walls with a  Sharpie marker and the first to play in the dishwasher detergent.  Maybe I should say you were the only one.  You were just trying to help at the age of 18 months - dumping the gel in the dispenser, right were it belongs.  'Cause "I can do it BY MYSELF"!  You were the youngest to jump off the high dive in Houston and the youngest to jump from the 2-story deck at the Robinson's lake house.  I thought for sure that jump would end your bravery, but no, you came up out of the water announcing that you were going to do it again!  You did a flip off our diving board at 2-1/2 - your water wings flew off and you began to sink. Once your dad pulled you out, you just giggled and hurried off to do it again! 

You never like to be alone.  You are absolutely attached and in love with your brothers and sister. 

 Any day they are gone you ask me multiple times when they will be home. You coined the phrase "BrooksReed" - "when will BrooksReed be home?"  

You are the master at keeping up.  You can ride your bike as far and as fast as they can. You can discuss movies and play games as well as those big brothers.  Your memory is like your sister's.  You can still remember details from life in Mississippi - and we moved away when you were 2-1/2.

Cole, you are a loving, silly, smart, fearless, delightful little boy. 

 You bring joy to my life.  I love to snuggle with you in the mornings and I love to hold you on my lap.  I wish I could bottle you up and keep you at the age of seven forever and ever, but then I wouldn't have the chance to watch you grow into a man.

  My heart swells when you say, "Mommy, I really missed you!" or "Mommy, I really love you!"  It thrills me to hear you read and to watch you smack that baseball. 

You've had a lot of firsts this year.  You lost your first tooth, in fact you lost 6!  You completed Kindergarten, and learned to read.  Math is fun for you - especially counting money and telling time.  You also began taking piano lessons.  I love to hear you playing "Spooky Halloween" and "Jingle Bells"!  You are a Tiger Cub although you've already been camping with the scouts for 4 years!  This year is exciting because your best friend, Nate, is a scout, too!

You are the light of my life and I am so thankful to have a boy named Cole Franklin to call my very own.

Eleven

The 17th of July always brings back the very best memories. It's the day my very first son was born in Edmond, OK. I was induced, so there wasn't much surprise, but there was nothing better than the excitement of meeting that sweet baby boy who came out with the cutest little smile.

We named him Timothy Brooks. Timothy is for his dad and Brooks was a name we always liked. We decided on his name in March as I sat under our big tree in the backyard while his dad was doing yard work. Caroline was taking a nap and I was petting the dog - I was in quite fragile shape since I was expecting! We decided to call him Brooks so there would be no confusion as he grew older - and I really didn't like "Timmy". Now he also answers when he is called "Broo-oo-ks" by his brothers or "Brooksie" by his baseball coach. He is #5 on the team like Brooks Robinson who used to play for the Orioles (our Brooks played for the Orioles for 2 years, too).

Our Brooks has a great sense of humor. He is the magician and jokester of the family. He laughs out loud on a daily basis and loves to read the comics. He really likes to read most anything. His favorite authors are Horowitz and Lupica. He likes Sports Illustrated for Kids - reads it cover to cover the day it arrives.

His favorite sport is baseball. He's our 2nd baseman. He made his first double play this year - one was unassisted. He knows how to "take one for the team". He even had his first broken finger this season.

He's a snowboarder. He still likes to ski. He can flip and dive at the pool. His tricks make my stomach lurch with nervousness! He's pretty good on a rip-stick. He can do whatever he sets his mind to do. It's an amazing thing to watch.

He took a week-long canoeing trip to Minnesota with the scouts. He caught 3 Small Mouth Bass. He got dirtier than ever before - and had more mosquito bites than all the previous years put together. He discovered that dried meals in a bag aren't too bad when you add hot water. He also remembered how tasty home-cooked meals can be.

Let's see, what doesn't he like? corn on the cob, homework, vacuuming, and losing to his brother.

He's entering the land of eleven. I wonder what this year will bring... girlfriends? new friends? new likes and dislikes. hopefully less homework and more time to hang out. new milestones and accomplishments....

Happy Birthday, Brooks. We are so proud of you and we love you more than you will ever know!

40 Before 40

40 things I will do (or at least attempt) before I turn 40...

1. Run 40 miles.  No, not at one time.  Just 40 miles.  I wouldn't want to put myself into shock.

2. Climb Mt. LeConte

3. Read 40 books.

4. Learn something about graphic art - at least enough to understand my blog header.

5. Start taking piano lessons

6. Learn to change/add ringtones on my cell phone.

7. Play more games

8. Paint at least one room in my house.

9. Understand/code HTML - that goes along with #4

10. Have 4 dinner parties

11. Learn to identify "travelling" in a basketball game.  After all of these years, you would think I would have it mastered by now.

12. Decide whether to take up tennis again.

13. Get our meals back under control.  Interpreted:  quit being lazy and use my brain.  I used to be so good at organizing!

14. Have my 2nd and very, very last garage sale.  After this year, I'm all done.

15. Sell something on Ebay.

16. Watch/help my youngest child learn to read.

17. Score a complete baseball game (without losing track when something exciting happens).

18. Watch all Bourne movies without falling asleep.  I've slept through 2 of 3....

19. Get all of our boxes unpacked and moved out of the house.  Some are still packed from our move to Mississippi 8 years ago.

20. Eat chocolate chip pancakes at the Pancake Pantry in Gatlinburg.  Oh my, they are the very best.

21. Take a yoga class

22. Host a chocolate fountain party

23. Take a cooking class

24. Hike (part of) the Appalachian Trail

25. Should I really go skinny dipping?  that would be a first....

26. Run a 5k race.

27. Go on an overnight camping trip.  Ohhh, don't know if I should have put that in writing.

28. Learn to belly dance.

29. Clean out the basement.

30. Take up BodyJam

31. Read the Bible through from cover to cover

32. Ski down a black slope

33. Get back into the splits again.  Notice I did not promise to repeat a high kick routine, or anything outlandish like that!

34. Try 10 new foods.  I've already tried rattlesnake.  I'm sure I can find a few other gross delicacies for me to partake of....

35. Memorize my most commonly used credit card.  I'm tired of looking it up!

36. Take each of my 4 children on a special outing.

37. Learn to identify a Copperhead!

38. Play Guitar Hero

39. Row again.

40. Run and WALK the Houston 1/2 Marathon on January 18, 2009.  Anyone want to join me?

326 more days till Friday, March 13, 2009!  Surely I'll be prepared for the new decade once I've lived through all of these adventures....

I have just one question for you...  How many people do you know who have their 40th birthday on Friday the 13th?  Bet I'm the only one!

Last Weekend...

Countdown for a 90th Birthday Party

1 Birthday cake with pink roses

2 bowls of pink, green and white mints

3 bags of ice

4 grandchildren

5 cameras

6 arrangements of roses

7 platters of finger foods

8 hours to prepare

9 cans for the punch

10 minutes to rest

...

9 -inch basket for depositing cards

8 photo albums

7 trips to the grocery store

6 trips to the airport

5 meals with mexican food

4 cartons of strawberries

3 (x20) friends with smiles

2 doting children and daughter-in-law, too

1 sharp grandmother to keep us in line!

Grandmother

We celebrated Grandmother's birthday this weekend.  She's been living for 90 years.  My parents' house was full of old pictures of my grandmother throughout her life.  I spent a long time studying each one.  As I gazed at the pictures of Grandmother in her youth, I found myself trying to get more.  You know what it's like when you are trying to see something in a picture because the angle is just not right?  You want to see what is behind the person's left shoulder, or what the writing in the picture says.  But you can't quite get there.  In a picture, all of the information is there, but it's only as clear as the focusing of the camera.  You can only decipher what the camera saw, not what the photographer was attempting to capture.  Pictures don't talk or sing or narrate.  They just are.  They are a window to the past but there is only one side. You can look through it, but you can't climb through it.

Grandmother had pictures out from all of her albums.  She had the pictures sorted by child/grandchild and event.  She wanted us to have the albums - pictures some of us had never seen.  I recognized most of the ones she had picked for me; although, there were a precious few which were new.  Like the one of Caroline scrunching up her nose at Poppy through the window that connected the upstairs to the kitchen in their house...or the pictures of our first dog (Amber) and my cousin David's first 2 girls at my house in Edmond before I even knew I was pregnant with Caroline.  What a treasure!

The pictures I was most interested in were those of Grandmother and Pop before any of us were around.  They are black and white, but not to Grandmother.  She could give me all of the details.  Like the portrait of her in the navy and white dress with the red cherry pin and matching earrings.  Or the snapshot of her with her friends right before she married.  Her dress was blue - "between royal and navy" - with a matching hat and shoes.  She always looked happy and so beautiful.  The shots of Poppy were so handsome.  They were taken long ago when he was working for Conoco and going home to a young family.  Those were the days when they were teaching my dad and my aunt about the love that they had together.  The same love that they would give to us as grandchildren.  I couldn't count the number of times that they told me, but I can remember it like yesterday.  It's the love that you can see in the photos and the same love that I can feel in my heart.  The warmth and peace and happiness that I feel every time I talk to my grandmother and in every memory of Pop.  The photos show a story, but it's Grandmother's to tell.  I don't really need a window; I just need a few more hours to sit by her side and listen.