Snow Day

The weatherman got it right this time and as our town essentially shut down and the boys had a day at home. I took the opportunity to make the boys day by letting them have ice cream sundaes for lunch.


Why?

Because I am crazy.
Because I thought it would be a fun memory.
Because I forgot that they would largely be stuck inside for the afternoon bouncing off walls.
Because I am dad...for good and for bad.

Maybe it will buy some good behavior going forward?

Jude's Super Bowl Day

No, this is not an ad for Lego...though I am sure this post couldn't be any worse than most of the commercials that did air this year for the Super Bowl yesterday...but instead, just a quick post to remind myself of how amazing Jude is.  

Maybe my expectations aren't high enough, but based on the behavior we deal with so often right now, it is not a surprise to me where my expectations are...

Of course, it is in those moments that something comes along and surprises us right....Jude was not interested in playing with his brothers today (even though we had 50 degree weather outside in February).  Jude was not interested in watching the Super Bowl when it did come on....no, he decides to build this police van (which was one of his birthday presents this year) and he does it...on his own.  I really thought it would have to be a daddy/son project...or at least have one of his brothers do a large portion of the project for him...

He did an amazing job.  

Oh if the behavior could only improve and surprise me as much too.

Night Terrors

I am not sure what you think of when terror comes to mind, but for Kristen and I over the last year+, I think the first thing that comes to mind is "Night Terrors".

"A night terror, sleep terror or pavor nocturnus is a parasomnia disorder, causing feelings of terror or dread, and typically occurring in the first few hours of sleep during stage 3 or 4 non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep" - wikipedia

A very clinical type definition, but it is something else entirely to live through.  This is not to be confused with a nightmare...it is a very different animal and if you have never experienced it, you most likely will not understand the true dread that we have experienced the numerous times this has happened with Jude over the last year.

For us, we have seen when Jude is especially tired, and generally when he in on a particular medication, these episodes can happen.  He will appear to wake up in a cold sweat, trembling and frightened...always calling out for Mom or Dad to help him.  We of course wake up and rush to him, but are very much helpless to do much but hold him until it passes and there are few things I have experienced that are quite so humbling, scary and that can make you feel quite as powerless as watching a child experience pain, terror, or any other thing...to be there in that moment with them and yet still have no ability to comfort, to make the experience better or to lessen the dread and terror that they are experiencing.  It has brought Kristen and I to tears as we have sat with him.

We are incredibly fortunate that he doesn't remember the episodes in the morning but we are always tired from lack of sleep and generally worn out as our nerves are frayed and our emotional tanks are dry.  On one hand, these episodes remind us how little control we truly have and how thankful we are to have our faith that can carry us through, but on the other hand, I rail against having us go through it at all.  I do pray that we are able to find a way to manage his hives and keep him from experiencing these episodes from the medication.  

Jacob's Winter Concert

Ah...the Winter Concert Season continued with a second night in a row of activity as we went to Jacob's concert tonight.  The school did a nice job with getting the various grades in to the auditorium, and back out so that all 1st through 4th grade all came in, did their thing and left....AND it didn't seem like an interminable amount of time.  That is well done.

Jacob's grade did both singing and recorders and treated us to 5 total songs:
Get Up, Get Up, Get Up!
Golf BAG Boogie
Hot Cross Buns
Merrily We Roll Along
Secret Agent

Here was a small section of one of them that I captured:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10203037369760245&l=973292633294218322

It may be tough to see him, but Jacob was in the front row, sixth from the left.
Great job Jacob!

Jaden's Winter Concert

Tonight was Jaden's Winter Concert at Miscoe Hill Middle School.  While it is certainly entertaining just getting Jaden to dress up, it was equally entertaining, in a different way, to listen to the Chorus and the Concert Band play.

It was a decidedly shorter event this year, and was disappointed that they didn't really give any opportunities for each of the sections so that you could hear them alone...but overall it was probably good for all the poor parents and our sore bums from sitting on the hard wooden bleachers for the hour plus that we were there for already.

If interested, take a peek here at Jaden and the band:

Transformation

Every year amidst the normal cycle of New Year's goals and plans that we all tend to make for ourselves, I have noticed that alot of the same things come up year after year...

Improve my physical conditioning

Improve my spiritual maturity

Improve my parenting

Improve my mind

Become a better husband, worker, and on and on it goes.  

It always comes back to becoming a better version of me...the me I wish I was but am not yet.

There is some serious mental gymnastics that you could go through that are part of the human condition within this cycle and part of me wants to throw my hands up at it...to even mock myself for participating in it.  I know that there is not something inherently different about this year than last year that will make these changes last.  But...despite that, there is something awesome and amazing and liberating about the cycle of time that God has created that enable these pauses...these resets...these arbitrary new beginnings that we can choose to take advantage of if we want to.

And with that, I choose to and I will do my best that change habits and patterns that will enable the better me to become a reality rather than an unfulfilled wish.

I guess by writing this down, hopefully I will hold myself more accountable to completing it...but one of the ways I choose to do this is by completing a workout program starting today that will complete at the beginning of April.  It will be tons of work...and if I put that work in, I know that I will be in a better place...so, pray that I can stick to it and not only do it for me, but as a good example to my children.

Jude's Birthday Party

We were crazy enough to let Jude invite 3 other 6 year-old boys over for a birthday party and sleep-over celebration.  He was quite excited and had a fantastic time.  We thought that they would relax with a movie after hanging out for awhile...but no movie, show or anything else would sway them from the consistent tackling and rough-housing that we were in for all night.

Luckily, no damage was done and eventually they did fall asleep, but Mom and Dad were exhausted and happy for pickup time to arrive the next morning.

I think I may be re-thinking the cost of the big party places :)

New Year's Letter

from http://www.hdwallpaperstop.com/clock-creative-wallpapers/

A gauntlet was thrown down by a friend regarding "upping our game" for our letter and I took that challenge and had one small bit of inspiration and off I went, thinking..."No problem.  This is going to be fun and so neat."  Yes, in my head I thought I was neat...different post entirely.  Anyway, to say this simply.  Creating the song lyrics and a video were WAY more time consuming and WAY more difficult than I really was expecting and at some point...now...I had to cut my losses and admit defeat.

So, everyone is getting the letter, as planned (a CD cover/insert) and it still directs them to this page...

This is the partial video...it really wasn't good (maybe it was bad enough to be good?...but, know that an awful lot of effort went into creating it for your enjoyment and I got lost in the messy middle of the project.

We do love you all and wish you a Happy New Year and we will resume our normally scheduled (which means late) Christmas / New Year's letter next year.  (Yes, I am planning on the fact that it will be late ;) )

Blizzard 2013

The Blizzard of 2013 came to Massachusetts on Friday and Saturday and dumped between 2 and 3 feet of snow on us in less than 24 hours.  They expected us to lose power, but, we were lucky and that didn't happen.

Kristen, on the other hand, was subject to some frustration as she was stuck at work for 24 hours as other nurses were unable to get into work.

 Due to the 60 mph winds, snow drifted up against the house and made drifts that were over 6 ft high.  It drifted up against the house, trees and our garage doors.  It even piled up on the doorknob as you could see here when I opened the door in the morning.

 Here was one view of the pile in front of the garage door.  The perspective is lacking, but it at least gives a hint of the snow up against the house.

The front of the house is a winter wonderland.  Certianly not conducive to soccer despite the net still being out.

This was the parking lot at Kristen's work when we picked her up.  It gives you an idea of what she would have been dealing with if we hadn't dropped her off and picked her up.

Jacob's Birthday Party

It was Super-Bowl Sunday yesterday, but for the Moffitt household, 3 of Jacob's friends and some other family friends, it was Jacob's 8th birthday party at Coco-Keys, an indoor water park about 45 minutes from our house.



 

I think that all the boys had a great time, though the drive was long and Jacob really enjoyed hanging out with all three of his friends.  They prettty much all stayed together the whole time.

We were lucky to have Jamie's parents, John and Sara, come with us and spend some time hanging out with us in between chasing after children.  It made for an even more memorable event for all of us that we could have a couple more friends to hang out with for the special occasion.

We even got to make it home, after dropping off the kids, in time for the fun part of the SuperBowl...as San Francisco rallied to make it a game.  Overall, it was a really fun and enjoyable day and hopefully a memorable birthday party for Jacob.

As far as Jacob now being 8, we are really looking forward to this year and hoping that he ultimately is able to bridge the gap from his more baby-ish ways to being more mature.  We know it is a difficult balancing act for him...being between Jaden and Jude is not an easy place to be....but we hope that he just tries to be himself and get attention for good things rather than acting more like Jude to get attention.