christmas: part 3 of ? (btw, i realize it is march right now...late march)

well.  after we got home from our twisty, windy, lovely trip to granny's we crammed cashel in a different car to make the 30 minute ride to aunt ellen's (or as i affectionately call her, aininy - "ai-" as in ain't, "ni-" as in nine, and "-ny" as in knee...ai...ni...ny - it's what i've always called her :-))

we had a wonderful dinner over at her house and the only thing missing was the rest of my family.  apparently wende spearheaded the dinner preparations (she's an a-w-e-s-o-m-e cook!)  the menu was of the stuff-yourself-with-all-kinds-of-yummy-appetizers-then-keep-eating-because-the-salad-and-pasta-and-dessert-are-too-good-to-pass-up-and-hey-its-christmas-so-who-cares variety.

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after dinner we had a lot of fun.

we played the wii - well the kids did - aimee did - she shook her booty on the dance game but let me tell you something.....that girl cheats.  she knows how to just shake the controller to get points.  then we all yell at her and tell her to stop cheating because she's so cute when she actually dances and that's what we all want to see. just to give you a little insight as to aimee's cuteness/boldness, here she is.  she apparently stole my camera.

we opened presents.  well, cashel attacked his presents with the help of the older kids, specifically his idols, molly and emma.  cashel also had a great time with aimee and eli.  cashel enjoyed watching eli put his lego helicopter together.

here is a cute montage of emily getting kisses from cashel and her playing with his cute little toes.

and finally.  whenever we're at aininy's i always marvel at the table.  THE table.  THE table that emily, wende and dana and i have spent HOURS under.  this table will have to be bronzed one day and hung in a museum.

we don't fit like we used to....

but, other grandkids do!  hope you guys have as much fun under that table as we did!

things i never want to forget

1.  cashel calls carrots and hummus "carrots and thomas"

2.  he calls baboons "airbone"

that took me forever to figure out

3.  at school they've learned about a character in a book called "abiyoyo."  jason and i just thought he had made up this word because it's not a character either of us are familiar with until one day his teacher said it to me.  the best part is that neither jason nor myself have bothered to look this book up so we still don't know the story so everything we know about abiyoyo is from cashel.  it's like we've made up our own character.  he, according to cashel, is a giant who eats children and is scary.  we've created this game at home where cashel and i have to run and hide from abiyoyo, who is jason walking around with a big blanket over his head saying "i'm abiyoyo!" 

4. back when grandmother was in the hospital i was putting cashel to bed, cuddling with him in the bed, and i started to cry a little bit - tears running down my face.  cashel saw me and did the following:

stuck out his lip

yep...sweet boy tried to make me laugh

then he

wiped away my tears and asked if i was afraid of gorillas and monkeys

i said "no baby, i'm just sad"

and he, while wiping away my tears

said, "it's ok mommy, don't cry"

and gave me hugs and put his little hands on both sides of my face and gave me lots of kisses all over my face

2.22.2011

“i am standing upon the seashore.  a ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean.  she is an object of beauty and strength.  i stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

then someone at my side says:  “there, she is gone!”

“gone where?”

gone from my sight.  that is all.  she is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear the load of living freight to her destined port.

her diminished size is in me, not in her.  and just at the moment when someone at my side says: “there, she is gone!”  there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout: “here she comes!”

on february 22, 2011, my birthday, 9:45pm est, my dad called me to tell me that my grandmother had passed away.  it was expected but i still wasn't prepared to hear this.  below are pictures that, while they may not be pictures one would expect...are pictures that, to me, embody the cheerful, silly spirit that was my second mom - my grandmother....georgia thelma reneau long.  

the passage above gives me comfort.  she literally died of old age.  she was 99.  she was beautiful and graceful until the end.  it gives me comfort to know that there were others on the other side...cheerleaders, if you will, ushering her through the pearly gates.  

my mom said that, in those last few days especially, they were able to "see" that she had "connected" to the otherside.  mama and aunt ellen and even emily were able to witness her connection.  grandmother had a day, about 5 days before she passed, where she waved her arms and seemed to be talking to someone.  they thought she said "daddy" at one time.  they don't really know what was going on but the best part to me was that mama said that she asked grandmother, "mama, are you happy?"  and the biggest grin came across grandmother's face and she shook her head, yes.  maybe i shouldn't be divulging these things, but they are special and i don't want to forget these things and years from now, when i'm old and gray i want to remember this and, hey, that's what this blog is for anyways....a kind of diary to myself...for the super important things like this and for the funny (albiet much less important) things (like the fact that cashel saw a billboard today of a a black man and called him michael jordan....again).  that would have made her smile...

grandmother...you are always with me.  i love you.

before i forget...

...cashel has said a few funny things lately that don't want to forget to mention...

when we had a family day last monday in venice beach we decided to go watch the basketball players.  cashel loves that.  we're watching people play and cashel says...

"where's michael jordan?"

he looks around...

sees a black man....

and says....

"oh, there he is.  he took his shirt off."

____________________________

last night when we were driving home from our day cashel says....

"i'm hungry.  i want carrots."

me:  "carrots?"

cashel:  "and celery."

me:  "carrots and celery."

cashel:  "and salad"

me:  "cashel...are you a rabbit?"

cashel:  (with a big smile) "nooooooo....i'm cashmoney!"

:-)

guess what i found!

cashel walking into one of the rooms in my parents' house over christmas:

i found the vaseline!

aunt mary (on the phone with her sister, kathy):

why, yes, you did!  kathy...i have to call you back.....oh robin....

guess what cashel found...

funny how she made me clean him up

lately

cashel has been supremely funny and he's definitely been acting like a two year old -

here's some of what i can remember as of late:

1.  when jason and i are talking he yells, "mommy! daddy! stop talking!" he keeps doing this until we stop.  we ask if we can talk to him and he says yes, so we often continue our conversation while looking at him.

2. he is obsessed with washing his hands and insists on having his "ladder" so he can reach the sink and wash his hands.  by wash his hands i mean, put a ton of soap on his hands.  he must do this himself.  we waste so much hand soap right now...and water...he likes to keep it running.  we're starting to try to teach him not to be wasteful with soap, water, etc.

3. he is also obsessed with lotion in the same way as the soap and throws an absolute fit when we take it away.  we've had to start saying that he can only have two pumps of lotion.  he's also only allowed three toothpaste "refills."  oh yeah, i made the mistake of having him brush his teeth with his finger because i couldn't find his toothbrush so now that's the only way he wants to brush his teeth.

4. he is very particular on his pj's.  he usually wants to wear his "doggies" and we've had to teach them that they're dirty, not clean, like his dinosaurs or monkeys.  getting him to change clothes is often a challenge these days too.

5. this boy has quite the memory.  he'll bring up things from last week that i've forgotten about.  it's amazing.  he went to a play date with a friend of jason's.  the kid's name was ansel and the next thursday cashel said, cashel want to go to ansel's house.

6. for a full month after coming home from the east coast our car conversations went like this:
"wanna go see molly.  go see emma. go see aunt mary.  go see uncle kelly.  go see moxie.
go see aimee. go see eli.  get kisses from lucy.  see uncle marc.  see aunt emily.  see reagan.  see addison.  go to molly house.  emma house", etc (you get the picture)

the conversations at the end of the month turned into this.
"where molly house?"  (me: in georgia)  we would go through this with everyone.

and then one day cashel said. "cashel wanna get on airplane and go to georgia.  we live in california.  molly come to california.  emma come to california." 

he would often cry about it.  he loves his cousins so much.

one day he said "aimee's in georgia."  i said "yes, cashel."  he said "where uncle marc?"  i said "he lives with aimee."  he thought about that for a while then said "uncle marc in georgia." 

7.  At night, after reading about 8 books, we turn off the light and turn on his turtle that he got from aunt emily, uncle marc and eli and aimee for his 2nd birthday.  this turtle lights up the ceiling with blue or green stars.  after debating which color he wants we sit there and give away stars.  he gives them to everyone, molly, emma (of course), uncle kelly, aunt mary, nana, uncle brian, granddad, mimi, papa, mommy, daddy, reagan, addison, brenden (his friend from school), charlie karr (another friend), monkeys, gorillas, loki, saka (this is what he calls laska), and great grandmother.

for the last couple of nights i've been telling him that great grandmother doesn't feel good and is in the hospital.

he's been giving great grandmother two stars.

smart, amazing, beautiful boy....if i don't say so myself

childhood bff

sometimes things work out perfectly.  in early december i learned that my childhood best friend would be at her parents' house in georgia over christmas.  we-he-he-he-hell....we just happened to be spending some time in the north atlanta area so we were able to see each other!  part of the reason why this is so amazing is because, as you know, we live a 6ish hour plane ride away from the east coast and her family lives a 6ish hour plane ride in the other direction...in london!  the stars aligned for robin and susan.

here we are with the gang.  susan has four, that's right, four beautiful children.  sam, lucy, lauren and ben.  funny thing, the baby was actually named dan by susan and her husband john, but apparently the kids rebelled and named him ben.  i guess susan and john knew they were outnumbered - literally- and named him ben.

here is cashel and the mobile kids.  on the left he's attempting to kiss lauren, she's only two months younger than him.  in the top right he's and lauren (on the right) are playing piano while lucy (on the left - she's three) is bossing them around.  and the bottom right is cashel mesmerized by sam and his game.

i asked susan to describe each of her kids in one word and this is what i got: sam - he's unstoppable, lucy - she's in charge, lauren - she's sweet (ok, i actually don't remember what she said about lucy - sorry susan - but lauren is sweet so i'll go with that), and ben - he's easy.  he's an easy baby and smiles a lot and loves the attention he gets since he doesn't get as much as the others when they were babies. understandably, no?  there is nothing cuter that a three year old girl being bossy with a british accent.  adorable miss lucy.

jason and i were able to spend about four hours with susan and her family.  i was able to see her parents, who were my summer vacation parents and her older sister, joy.  it was so, so great to see them.  jason and john really got along well and i think we all realized that if we lived close together we would see each other all the time.

susan helped me grow up in lots of ways.  we spent at least two weeks together each summer from the age of 5 until about 17.  even when my family stopped going to the beach (holla! cherry grove and the harford motor c) i was invited to go to the beach with them until my parents arrived.  susan was like a sister i never had (along with my cousins, wende, emily and dana).  i love her wittiness and still remember silly ways that she would make me mad.  we once got in a fight because, you know the shampoo by st. ives?  well, i realized there was a long accent mark over the i so i called it st. ives while susan kept arguing that it was st. eeeves.  we got in a big fight over that and i think the whole time susan knew what she was doing - that she was wrong - but just enjoyed seeing me get mad.  we used to write in each others year books which is hilarious because she grew up in new jersey.  one other time she did all she could to convince me that she could feel the earth rotating....while we were in a moving car.  oh susan, thank you for helping me learn how to put in a tampon.  i remember you not letting me out of the bathroom until it was in.  you yelled at me and i thank you.  

i have such fond memories of susan.  we met when we were five running around the motel - literally - we ran into each other and realized we had the same gown on!  we were inseparable from that moment on while at the beach.  here is a picture of little versions of us:

we also had two other fun friends at the beach - megan and kelly.  here's a picture of teenage versions of all of us (yes i am wearing my brothers' frat shirt):

while we all have gone our separate ways, we've all reconnected to come extent thanks to facebook.  maybe some day we can all have a big reunion!

in the meantime, i'll just enjoy the time we got to spend together this christmas.  we chatted and chatted and chatted and could have gone on forever.  we joked about ditching the kids with her parents and the four of us going out for margaritas.  maybe one day down the road.

 lylas susan.