Part III and Life Goes On

Life goes on.  Vacation pics have had to be side-lined!  We've started school--all of us.  JB is teaching a journalism class, I'm teaching two sections of Brit lit, and Benjamin is working on his first book.  It's called "I am Growing," and so far I think it consists of a print of his hand in paint on a piece of yellow construction paper.  

B is doing great in the two-year-old class.  I was a little anxious because he's not *quite* two, but really I knew he would be fine.  One of the teachers, Miss Mel, said that she was impressed by how eager he is to help and to participate in all of the activities.  I like to watch him from the door for a minute before he sees me when I pick him up in the afternoon--he's this little independent person in a world I only know the surface of.  He seems to love it and so do I.  

B's class started two weeks after mine did, so we had to get other arrangements for childcare.  Those two weeks actually turned out to be a great blessing.  Aunt Mary, who lives in Temple, about thirty minutes away, was able to come up to watch B for four of those days.  I love that she got to know Benjamin better by spending so much time with him, and Benjamin got to know her too.   She made a little photo flip book one day of all of the things in Benjamin's daily life--cup, blocks, car, piano, Brazos, parents, etc.  He is just tickled to see all his stuff and his people in pictures.  

The two weeks before B's class started were also the two weeks I needed to work hard on an article I am revising for a journal.  So B got to bond with his Grandmommy during her three day stay with us too!  And JB and I enjoy having her as part of our daily life for a few days. I love special occasions, but I think a special kind of bond is formed by letting folks into our daily lives.  

And that is one thing I loved about our long trip to NY this year.  I think we achieved that daily-life feeling more during a two week stay.  

But then we had our all-too brief visits with Stephanie in RI and Amy in CT.  A highlight of course was B's first time in the ocean.  He was so enthralled with everything about being on the beach--the waves, building sand castles, even eating a bit of sand with his lunch.  

We ate well one our little jaunt to New England.  Here is our contribution to one of the meals--we took a picture for Karen.  We used all of the vegetables you gave us from your garden--beets, onions, cucumbers make a great salad.  

And I got far too few pictures from our visit with Amy.  Maybe we would have gotten more if the mozzarella we tried to make had actually worked out.  What a disaster!  Two batches down the drain!  We followed all of the directions!  Good thing we'll be friends long enough to try again some day, huh?   

Benjamin's new favorite game (still) is giving treats to dogs.  Zephyr and Gatsby are well-loved.  

And finally, on our last day in the North East, I became a godmother.  And, more importantly perhaps, Jack got baptized.  Here is the happy family with Father Sal.  It was a beautiful service. You wouldn't have known through it all that Sara had laryngitis.  I've never seen such a trooper.  

And finally (really this time) here I am with my godson, Jack Brennan.  I am proud to be an important part of his life--even from far away.  (And I love the fun dress Sara got me to buy--she has such a better eye for clothes than I do).  Here's to you, Jack!  

Summer in NY Part II

It was certainly a joyous reunion when JB joined us in NY after we had been away for 1.5 weeks.  Greeting family after a time away feels even better than Christmas.

We spent the first day of his visit up at Mohonk with (almost) the whole family.  Too bad Karen couldn't be there.  I think Sara and I have finally gotten over the strangeness of visiting there after having worked there and knowing way too much about the world of Mohonk employees.  It's such a beautiful place; I'm glad it's not spoiled forever.

Benjamin helped paddle us around the lake.

Then we went with grammy and pa on their favorite hike.  

The massive weeping beech tree above was better than a playground for wee ben.  

And we spent lots of time in the big tree house with Auntie Sara, Unc Sean and Grammy. (Sorry about this picture, Sean..it was the best one of everyone else: ) )  I think we figured out that building one of these in our backyard might be possible, right, JB?   

Mohonk is such a relaxing and fun place to spend time together as a family.  

We spent the next morning out at Karen's homestead.  Benjamin loved meeting her blue horse, turkeys, and chickens.  We loved getting to see where Karen lives, and had a lovely hike  with her and her dog Chip along the beautiful stream that parallels the road she lives on.  I miss lush places deep in the woods like this when I am in Texas.

I think I have one more set of pictures to post from this trip.  I just can't get over how many fun things we did without getting burnt out. With all the pictures I have, I'm in danger of forgetting the things we didn't take pictures of :  a bike ride on the rail trail one evening, an evening in Ellenville to see a play with dad, many afternoons in the backyard with B in the pool, Hudson Valley Shakespeare festival at Boscobel, afternoon tea at the Tea Room with Sara and Mom, and Sara convincing me to buy a dress that I never would have picked out myself : )  And a great trip to Bear Mountain state park and zoo with dad during which my camera ran out of batteries after I took just one picture.  

Summer in New York Part 1

 This summer I spent, with Benjamin, a relaxing 2.5 weeks in upstate NY with my family with excursions to RI and CT to see friends.  JB was with us for the last week.  This was a perfect amount of time to be away from home and have enough time to spend with everyone.  Looking back on it now, I cannot believe how much we did during those two weeks.  We went out almost every day and did almost all of my favorite things to do in the Hudson Valley.

First of all I got to meet the guy above.  What a sweetie.  But he keeps his mama busy.  I loved spending lots of time with Jack, and Benjamin loved playing with Jack's toys.  When we got home last week, B found a pacifier behind the mattress on our bed.  B hasn't used one since he was about 6 months old, so yeah.  Anyway, I asked him if we knew a baby we could give that pacifier to, and he said "Baby Jack!"  It was a nice thought, but don't worry  about getting an old pacifier in the mail, Auntie Sara.

We hiked at Minnewaska and waded in the lake. 

We enjoyed the beautiful flowers at the Orange county arboretum. 

We went to the Ulster County Fair!  Benjamin's first merry-go-round.  

He didn't love the rides, but he could have spent all afternoon sipping on the lemonade.  

He helped his Auntie Sara make whoopie pies.  He got really good at saying "whoopie pie!"  

And oh man were they good.  

 I'll just have to do a few more parts to this summer in NY post.  Just so you know, he can still recognize all of you in the pictures.  And he still seems to remember some of the things that we did...especially the lemonade.  

Time for bed.  

On music, a harmless addiction, and fine art reproductions

The latest addition to our family arrived this week.  We (especially JB) have wanted to have a piano in our house ever since we moved in, and we finally found one.  It's not that pianos are so hard to find; but when you are waiting for someone to practically give one away, finding a good one is a little harder. In the course of our search, we may or may not have climbed the back fence of a dilapidated house with a tree growing out of the kitchen floor to look at a piano we were told would be there.  

This piano belonged to one of JB's former co-workers.  The big plans we have for piano lessons in the coming years are always somewhat tempered for me by memories of La Tarantella.  Does that name ring any bells, sisters o'mine?  Over and over and over again, faster and faster and faster?  

I can't wait to have people come through and play our piano!  JB has been serenading us already with songs he knows by ear.  JB's gift of playing instruments by ear is a part of him that I will never truly understand, but one I can whole-heartedly appreciate.  It seems he can pick up any instrument and start playing a song.  

But the accordion keeps you humble, right dear? 

Our friend Hanna, a young woman from Germany who is here for a year with a volunteer service, helped inaugurate our piano with some fine renditions of Schubert and Schumann.  And one song from a vampire musical.  Thank you, Hanna!  

Anyone else want to come and play?  Benjamin will make you coffee...

B extremely attached to the daily ritual of coffee-making

And two final pictures for Ellen, whose medieval triptych Christmas and birthday cards have been the surprise hit of the year.  He contemplated the artistic merits and theological implications of the piece (and the quality of the reproduction) for a good five minutes.  And he also likes playing hide and seek with the baby Jesus.  

Off to NY, RI, and CT this week!  Looking forward to visits with family and friends.

Snapshots from Waco and El Salvador, June 16-24

When I woke up at 5:30am on Sunday, July 24, in the Hotel El Torogoz in San Salvador, my only thought then and my only thought for the rest of the day was greeting Benjamin that afternoon.  It had been a wonderful week in El Salvador:  a week so full and stimulating that I didn't get much of a chance to sit and think about missing my child.  But the day we were traveling back I couldn't think of anything else.  When our plane made an extra stop in Houston to let off a sick passenger, I felt pretty sick to my stomach, so to speak, and I realized how much I was looking forward to what I thought would be a 4 o'clock reunion with my family.  

When we finally got to DFW, the customs line was long to the point of absurdity, wrapping around each of the baggage carousels the looping around on itself multiple times.  We walked for 5 minutes just to find the end of the line.  They fixed the problem and the wait wasn't very long after all, but then we got to the car and realized that one tire was almost bald, so we drove home very slowly indeed.  It seemed everything was working against my reunion with Benjamin.  

When I finally pulled into the driveway, seeing him again was everything I hoped it would be.  He looked a little bit older, he was saying so much more, and I'll always remember the look on his face when he realized his mama was home.  And it was pretty great to see JB again too...

Here are a few pics JB and Grandmommy took while I was away:  

An excursion to Cameron Park 

At our wonderful farmer's market 

And here below is just one picture from El Salvador.  I may do a separate post about the trip, but I may just leave the stories to tell you in person.  This is just a baby blog, after all : )  The one story I will tell here, to give a little context for our trip, will end up being kind of long, but writing it is as much for me as for you, so I won't be offended if you don't make it through.  

 The picture below shows my first view of the Lempa River, the main water source for El Salvador and the river our friends in Valle Nuevo crossed over the course of a couple of nights on March 18, 1981 as they fled the destruction of their town and its people by the military.  

The left side of the picture is El Salvador and the right side is Honduras, where they stayed in a refugee camp for 9 years until near the end of the civil war.  The U.S. backed Salvadoran military (backed financially and with guns given directly from the U.S. government) had a policy of killing anyone who might be a guerilla (rebel) or a sympathizer, including women and children.  This policy lead to numerous massacres, some which wiped out entire villages of people.  As the people of Valle Nuevo crossed the river, they dodged bombs from helicopters and guns from all sides.  Juana told us how she was running down the side of the mountain at night with her two children (ages 6 and 9 at the time), and she lost them for almost a whole day.  She finally found them up in a tree, and they crossed the river together.  50 people died in the crossing, some because they lost their grip on a rope thrown across the river and the current swept them away.  Hundreds more died in the days after the crossing of various ailments and injuries and then more in the refugee camps.  

As I tell this story, I remember walking down the side of that same mountain a few weeks ago with Juana, Margarita (who must be 80 or 85), Felipa (who was making the journey for the first time since the 1981 crossing), Pedro, and Douglas and Mari, who were not yet born at the time of their parents' crossing.  I remember thinking how strange it was to be there, how out of place I felt to be entering a story that was not my own.  As I walked down the steep and rocky hill in the comfort of my good sandals, my well-fed stomach and the broad daylight, enjoying the beauty of the place, I felt like I shouldn't be there, intruding on a story in which I have not earned a place.  

And yet, as I walked down the hill, there was Douglas offering his hand as we climbed over the rock barrier of a cow pasture; there was our driver with his machete blazing a trail for us in the high grass; there was Felipa lending an arm as we stumbled on the rocky slope.  At the river, Margarita sang for us the songs she had written since the crossing about Archbishop Oscar Romero, about her community, about the crossing and the refugee camps.  As they shared their memories, they were inviting us to be part of their ongoing story.  They want us to hear their stories, to understand their suffering, and to be part of their lives in the present.  

And so in a small way I think we are part of their lives.  Personally, I felt of the smallness of my presence there more than anything.  But I also felt how much they appreciate our return year after year for the last twenty years, especially those of us like Nancy who have been going for 10 years and have contact with them throughout the year.  They appreciate the friendship, the prayers, and the help we have been able to provide with their own community development projects like habitat for humanity housing and their ongoing battle to gain legal title for their farm land.   

The relationship with Valle Nuevo is necessarily a difficult one that tries to cross boundaries of language (for some of us), culture, religion (El Salvador is predominantly Roman Catholic), wealth and privilege, and resources.  I appreciate that SMC (the larger body our church is part of) tries to confront these difficulties rather than dismissing them as unimportant.  But we share with the people of Valle Nuevo a respect for the effort being made on both sides to make this a mutual relationship based on our unity as children of God and people of faith.  

Memorial Day Trip

I've noticed that the number of comments that Benjamin gets on a daily basis on his curly/wavy hair has grown in direct proportion to the number of weeks we let it grow.  And as it grows, I get less likely to cut it.  His curls are just so pretty.                                                                                         Coloring has been a delightful recent development. He will sit in his little chair and try out each color and talk to himself while he draws.  Since this picture was taken (above), we have cut a wide swath of thick brown paper from a roll we found in the garage and covered this little table with it. The paper curls around the edges just right so we don't have to tape it.  Tried the tape, but B delights in ripping it off.  We also bought washable crayons : )                       I think JB likes coloring on the brown paper as much as Benjamin, and together they can sit at the little table for 20 minutes at a time.  JB produces delicate renderings of things Benjamin likes or places we've been, and B shows his appreciation by scribbling over them.  It is a beautiful thing to watch.                                                              Drawing is not always a quiet activity, however.  Benjamin has also invented extreme drawing: Draw!  Draw! Draw! He yells as he gets up from his chair and scribbles like a madman.

We are a week back from a fun visit to family in East Texas.  Paella-fest 2012 was decadent and delicious as usual, but the highlights for B were visiting this train (below) down the street from his grandparents house and visiting his great-grandmother, Midge. (And camping in a thunderstorm, but I'm getting ahead of myself... )  

Benjamin was really quite taken with his great-grandmother on this visit and was able to say her name and give her hugs and kisses.  I'm so thankful he has been able to get to know her and hear some of her stories ("Did you know I was the first woman in Texas to get a permanent?").  Midge prayed over Benjamin before we left and sent him with her blessing.  I am thankful for her blessing and I look forward to telling Benjamin about it when he is older.  

  

If they are not saying "Choo-Choo" then I don't know what.

Uncle Jeff and JB walking the tracks and getting B's feet
mightily dirty

JB and I were really looking forward to taking Benjamin camping while we were in East Texas.  We found a great spot right on the edge of Cooper lake with a beautiful view.  The rest of the family joined us for supper and left us for the night just as a bright red sun lowered over the horizon.  

Everything went beautifully until about 1am.  I was unable to sleep, so I lay there watching the sky as lightening appeared on the far side of the lake.  In my sleepless stupor, it seemed so far away that I lay there admiring how beautiful it looked for maybe half an hour until I heard a loud rustling in the brush outside the tent.  This was enough to awaken JB and just as we were figuring it must be a wild boar, as heavy as it sounded, the wind whipped in off the lake at what must have been 50 miles an hour.  

We made a quick decision to leave, so I nestled Benjamin in my arms, and as soon as we all got out of the tent it started to blow away. Benjamin in one arm, I pulled the tent out of the brush with the other and let the tent wrap around a tree.  JB insisted we get to the car, so I ran with B 1000 ft. to the car while JB grabbed what belongings he could.   As JB was leaving with an armload of gear and winds getting stronger, he heard that same heavy rustling in the bushes and made a dash for the car.  We left the tent under our heavy camping bin and went back for it the next day.  

We were only 30 minutes from JB's parents house, and it didn't start raining until we got back.  Looking back, it doesn't seem so dramatic, but standing there at the edge of the lake with Benjamin quiet and barely awake in my arms as the wind nearly knocked me over, I felt pretty vulnerable.   We thank God for our safety.  

Uncle Richard and B set up the ill-fated tent

Jack Brennan

We are, of course, honored that Sara and Sean would choose to name their first child after JB.  The Brennan name will be carried on!

Just kidding.  I know you didn't choose the name because it is JB's, but we like in all the same.  I good name for a beautiful baby.  I am counting down the days until our visit.