Happy Birthday Robin

My gift: 100 things I love about you, in random order.

1. Your generosity.
2. Your kindness.
3. Your ethics.
4. Your honesty.
5. Your soft blond hair.
6. Your strong lean legs.
7. Your hands and forearms.
8. The veins that pop out through your skin.
9. You don’t like football.
10. You don’t like basketball.
11. You don’t like NASCAR.
12. You like baseball just enough to take our son to a game once a year.
13. In fact, you only watch sports on TV once a year, during the Tour de France. And I SO don’t mind watching images of the French countryside at 7 in the morning.
14. You’re a runner.
15. You were a breaststroker like me.
16. You like vegetables.
17. You like tofu.
18. You like my cooking, no matter how awful it can be.
19. You’re perfectly happy eating a peanut butter sandwich every day.
20. You’re polite.
21. You’ve put the toilet seat down every single time in the last 16 years.
22. You love your mother.
23. And your sister.
24. You love my family.
25. I love your family.
26. You like French music.
27. You like ALL music.
28. You bought me a Shuffle and a laptop.
29. You give me gifts I would never dare buy for myself.
30. You’ve never forgotten my birthday.
31. Or our anniversary.
32. Or Mother’s Day.
33. Or Valentine’s Day.
34. You’re smart.
35. You read The Economist.
36. You’re ambitious.
37. You care about doing a good job.
38. You care about being a good person.
39. You’re an amazing father.
40. You make stuff with Harrison that I would never have the patience to make.
41. You take Harrison to the barber to get haircuts together.
42. You come home early to take him to swim lessons.
43. You read Harry Potter to him at bedtime.
44. You never miss the kids’ doctor appointments.
45. When the kids are sick, you are the voice of calm when I’m freaking out.
46. You are tirelessly patient.
47. You’re witty and you appreciate wit.
48. You make me laugh every day.
49. You laugh at my jokes.
50. You value your friends.
51. Whenever you tell me I HAVE to see something, I always think that it’ll be boring to me and it’s always something that is totally interesting to me. I don’t know how you do that.
52. You loved our cat even when I didn’t.
53. You make stuff out of wood.
54. You love beautiful furniture.
55. You like Art Nouveau.
56. You can sing.
57. You can draw.
58. You can cook.
59. You can fix things around the house.
60. You believe in quality over quantity.
61. We have the same tastes for our home.
62. We have fun shopping together.
63. You agree that going to Metropolitan Market is as good as any date.
64. You like art.
65. You like the theater.
66. You love date night as much as I do.
67. You love going out to dinner as much as I do.
68. We’re both into LOST.
69. I won’t go into the details of our intimate life to spare the readers, but suffice it to say I’m satisfied.
70. You teach me things and know the answers to all my questions.
71. You fix my computer.
72. You talk. You’re a talker and I love talkers.
73. You listen.
74. You read long, interesting books.
75. You rarely watch TV.
76. You let me make half-caf every morning.
77. You never nag or tell me to do something.
78. You never complain. About anything.
79. You listen to me complain. Every day.
80. You encourage me to be exactly who I want to be.
81. You let me make mistakes and tell me it’s okay.
82. You tell me to follow my dreams.
83. You value my opinion.
84. You said I would never have to work again if I didn’t want to.
85. You have a way better neck than I do, and the kids have your neck.
86. You ride your bike to work.
87. You ride the bus to work.
88. You like to dress up.
89. You wear suits and cufflinks.
90. You like fancy soap and fancy face lotion.
91. You’re nonjudgmental and open-minded.
92. You said we should get a practical minivan.
93. You save for retirement and pay for life insurance.
94. Our children adore you.
95. You adore our children.
96. Your family is your number one priority. You never say it, but it shows.
97. You believe the things that I believe.
98. You’re happy and you appreciate what you have.
99. Your vision of the future is the same as my vision of the future.
100. You want to spend your future with me.

A Beautiful Human

About once a week when I pick Harrison up at preschool there's a man outside the church mowing the grass. The first time I saw him was about a month ago. I was inside and he was waving at me from outside to get someone to open the gate so he could access the rest of the lawn.

When I opened the door because I wasn't sure what he wanted, he said he was a volunteer who cut the church's grass. He said this with a slight slur, and his movements showed he was disabled. There were other mothers and children around, so I tried to hold back my tears.

Here was this man in his early forties, probably disabled most, if not all of his life, volunteering his time to make the yard nice for the people who visited the church, including my son who plays in the preschool playground there every weekday. It's truly one of the most beautiful things I've ever known.

Now whenever I see him I take pause for a few minutes before going in to get Harrison, and I let myself cry. I cry out of gratitude for him and inspiration by him. I'm not a religious person, but I imagine those moments are prayers directed his way, and prayers that I can be a fraction that good for even a day.

It's What Kids Do

They cry.
They scream.
They whine.
They spill their juice.
They spill their milk.
They spill their water.
They won't get dressed.
They won't eat dinner.
They won't go to bed.
They pee in their pants.
They pee in their bed.
They pee on the floor.
They fight.
They bite.
They hit.
They defy.
They resist.
They run away.
They throw food.
They throw blocks.
They throw tantrums.
They make a mess.
They make a mess.
They make a mess.

And, repeat.
It's just what they do and it's no one's fault.

Thankfully,
They hug.
They kiss.
They cuddle.
They say I love you.
And all is well.

Notes on a Scandal

Can someone please give these women another Academy Award? Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench do not disappoint (do they ever?) in this film. It's the kind of complex and juicy movie that when it ends, I wish I hadn't seen it yet so I could watch it for the first time.

As flawed women, Cate and Judi's characters complement each other. Both their roles are exciting to watch, Judi's role being the more unexpected one.

I wished I'd read the book first though, had I known about it. While the movie unfolded at just the right pace, I think I would've enjoyed the prolonged suspense that a book offers.

How lovely it must be to live the life of the author who came up with this story. To live in another world most of your day, inventing interesting characters who do interesting things. And inventing your own escape from reality.

Ear Confession

Tonight Harrison asked me, "Does Gigi still have a ear confession?"
"Yes, sweetie, she does," I replied.

The poor girl has had an ear infection for who knows how long. After a month of a drippy nose and emerging teeth, she started banging her head on the floor. I took her in, and as always happens when I take her in suspecting an ear infection, she had a raging one.

Luckily a new study from Denmark (or Sweden or the Netherlands, I don't remember which) showed that children with ear infections who aren't treated are no more likely to suffer ear complications than children who are treated with antibiotics. This was a relief to me, since I was concerned that I'd waited so long to take her in that she might have gone a little deaf. My pediatrician reassured me that this didn't happen. (This is the second time I've had to be reassured that I didn't cause deafness in my child; the first time was at an OB appointment when I was sure I'd damaged Gigi's tiny ears by taking her to a Depeche Mode concert when I was five months pregnant.)

So it's day two of amoxicillin and she's doing much better. Harrison had a similar recurrence of ear infections and outgrew them by the time he was 18 months old. She'll be 18 months in July. Summer is looking better every day in every way.