Carmen Ella Dwatsa

Presenting Bryn's fabulous tale of Carmen Ella Dwatsa and her triumph of courage in the face of adversity.

Georgie MaForjie

For the past few months, I've been worried that the public school system was stifling Bryn's *creative* talents. She comes home with very nicely done projects, but they're all fill in the blank, color this apple red, sort of projects, and doesn't seem to have nearly as much time for her other sorts of self-directed projects.

Yesterday all my fears were allayed when she came home from a half-day and spent nearly 6 hours "drawRing" ("but mom, that's how Gracie says it") and making stories about her drawRings . Here's a small sample: Captain Cat (or maybe it's Astronaut Cat) in outer space, and "already has a thing like Georgie MaForjie in Star Trek." She's referring to his visor; clearly the mark of a good space cat.

Captain Cat went on to rescue all the gems from the deepest darkest crater of the moon (Calvin, listening raptly to her stories proclaimed at this point, "If I ever got stuck in a crater on the moon I would cry and scream and whine until Daddy came to get me." He's all about having a plan for emergency preparedness).

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. I'm going to try to get her to narrate some of her other drawings for a slide show, and of course her latest book is due out any day now, so stay tuned.

Random kids I found hiding in my camera

Cabin Fever

To keep our sanity, sometimes we like to pretend it's summer, don our suits, and smile through the chattering convulsions:



And sometimes we just embrace Cabin Fever by constructing even smaller cabins inside our own. The (wooted) Foam Sweet Home was a Christmas present that arrived Friday. Having it in our tiny house sort of reminds me of those Russian nesting dolls.

The kids all love it. So far it's been used as a cat fortress, a restaurant, a secret lair (yes, they actually called it that- thank you Word Girl), and the world's largest teething toy.

And speaking of the littlest Miss, look what trick she pulled out of her footed jammies- the assisted stand.

Cold Spell

We're just coming out of the New England ice age for the January thaw (one of the cruelest tricks in the book because then this thing called February happens). Before the thaw, I took Bryn and Calvin to the frozen reservoir near our house where they boot-skated, made snow angels, and wrote their names in the snow with sticks.

I like to follow stealthily behind them with my camera because occasionally Calvin will grab Bryn's hand and they'll have a little Hansel and Gretel moment in the woods. I suppose that makes me the selfish step-mother who intentionally lost them. But don't worry, they made it home (this time...).

Will bark for food

Just the facts, Ma'am. Just the facts.

A little less than a year ago, when I was pregnant with Ivy, the kids and I had a pleasant conversation in the car that went something like this:

Calvin: Mom, what do babies taste like?
Me: Uhhh, I don't know Calvin. People do not eat babies.
Calvin: But baby sister's in your tummy...
[takes me a minute to follow his logic and realize that he thinks the way she got there was the same way food gets to my tummy]
Me: Calvin, I didn't eat baby sister.
Bryn: Then how did she get there?

[I then briefly explained that all women have eggs in them that contain half a map of how to make a baby, etc. etc.]

Fast forward to yesterday, when Calvin and Bryn had another delightful conversation...

Bryn: [poking at her stomach] I think I can feel the eggs in my body!
Calvin: How did they get there? Did you eat some food that grew eggs?
Bryn: No. I think before we were born, up in Heaven, Heavenly Father had all the girls go around eating all the babies. Our mom ate us, Grandma ate Mom and her other kids, and so on. And that's how we got eggs in us.
Calvin: Ohhhhh.

Betcha didn't learn that in school.

Bryn also illustrated these pictures for Calvin after the first talk last year. Here are the eggs:

Here's the developing fetus:

And here is the happy mother giving birth:

heigh-ho, heigh-ho

Peter has changed his look, yet again. The Lab is in for a real treat when he comes into the office. And just wait until he finds out there's no snack time.

Feelings. Nothing more than Fake Feelings.

From time to time the kids like to work on their modeling/acting careers. A portfolio can't all be polished smiles, so they practice a range of emotions.
Surprise:
Scared, like what you feel when you read Bryn's latest book (due out sometime in the next few days- it's in the publishing stages):
You don't want to see me when I'm angry:

Happy shiny people not holding hands:
And sad. Ivy's sad is the most genuine (she's a method actor), Bryn's is the most subtle, and Calvin's, well...

Let's just say he's got it down.

A Family Resemblance

Calvin with two of my brother Mike's kids and dog

Cal and Jonathan really took to each other during this trip. At one point they filled up mom's laundry room with scrap wood and threw naked barbies everywhere and called it their clubhouse.

Home again, Home again

Jiggety Jog.

"Let it not be a death but completeness."

-Rabindranath Tagore


My sweet grandmother Reba passed away Dec. 27th and her funeral was yesterday. Grandma has 10 children (including my mother), and so it was quite a sight to see them all together.

Grandma's passing leaves a great void in my life. She was a spitfire, but also so loving and caring and fiercely protective of her family.

She would often call me on the phone to chat about this or that, like names for the new baby (she loved the names Kerna and Kristen Rae and couldn't figure out why I wanted to go with Ivy) and even sent me a card when Bryn and Calvin were both sick this year. And of course never a birthday went by without a card and personalized message from Grandma.

After we had our house fire, she was a solid rock for me. The farm she and my Grandpa had burned down when their kids were just little, and they had to start their lives completely over. But she was still so compassionate to my measly situation compared to theirs, and sent me things like an apron, dish towels, and dish cloths from her own kitchen. Those are irreplaceable treasures.

Grandma is a Superwoman. My grandpa was called to war (WWII) and left her to tend the farm and 4 children under the age of 5. Later, when they had 10 children, she went to college and got her Bachelor's degree, and later her Master's degree, at the same time as my Grandfather, and they taught special education/ resource until retirement.

One more random fact: Grandma was the 5th child in her family. My mother is also the 5th child. I am the 5th child in my family. Peter is the 5th child in his family. I like our little club of Fifths.

And a partridge in a pear tree

The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind with Christmas, the whole family together, 4 weddings (okay, really just 1 but it felt like 4) and a funeral.

Laura married Tim on Tuesday in a beautiful ceremony. Bryn was the flower girl and Calvin was the ring bearer (or Ring-Man as he called it- it sounded much more like a superhero that way). I was the top secret stealth Matron-of-Honor. Hopefully more on this (with pics) later.

My grandmother died a week ago. I was fortunate to be able to enjoy her company a few times before she left us, and introduce her to Ivy. More on this above.