Constructing a Life

Sunday is my niece's first birthday.  Happy Birthday Violet and congratulations to your mom for making it as well.  Your mother is a beautiful and wonderful mother.  I'm sad I'm not going to be in Boston to celebrate, but glad I got to spend some time with you guys last month.

I've been listening to some New Orleans music lately.  Sean and I first found this guy when he was on an episode of the short lived tv show, "Studio 60".  They had one of the best versions of O Holy Night that we had ever heard.  Well, from time to time, I've looked on itunes for him.  I found his latest album which is just amazing.  He does a cover of ACDC's Back in Black (actually from another album, but...) that is awesome.  He can combine trombone and trumpet with Latin, with rock or any other style and just JAM.  Here's two youtube videos.  If you have inclination, look him up on Itunes...

We are having another healthy baby boy, we found out on Monday, after an ultrasound.  We are excited, and I will be the queen of the castle with my boys.  We recently asked Stephen what the baby's name should be, and he said, "James" and we asked why.  He said, "He's a football player and plays for the Green Packers and the Cowboys."  We thought this was a very definitive answer, so I asked again yesterday and he said the same thing.  We were thinking Thomas, after Sean's uncle. Thomas is a family name on both sides which is nice.  We were also thinking Smith, my maiden name as a middle name, but neither of these are set in stone.  As we've learned with Stephen, we do prefer to leave the definite name to reveal almost at birth.  There's not much people can say about a name after a person is attached to it.  They can smile and say, "That's nice", but you don't get the remarks that you get if you say a name before the birth.

Thomas James is pretty good name too.  I did start listening to the song Sweet Baby James by James Taylor this morning.  

This morning on the way to school Stephen said, "Does my little brother have hands?" and I said yes and he asked, "Do I have hands?" lol.  He's a sweet boy, but not sure he understands what exactly is coming. 

A friend of mine from law school emailed me today that he is getting divorced and it makes me sad.  Sad for him, sad in general. Sean and I have had a couple of friends and family divorce and each time it happens, it makes me eternally grateful for Sean and for the relationship we have.  We've been through and are going through many stressors--moving cross country, buying a house, tearing down a house and building three new ones, not selling those new ones, having a baby, back surgery, hip replacement, preparing to have another baby, starting a company...just to name a few, and each thing has made us tighter as a team.  I can't imagine going through all of that without a team partner.  

It also makes me think of friendships.  This was a close male friend of mine I had while in law school.  I think as naturally happens, when people get married, they may keep friends of the same sex, but they drop or let go a little of friendships of opposite sex, deferring to your spouse.  I miss being geographically closer and having a closer relationship with him, to go out for drinks (okay, in my case, water) and talk.  It is something that facebook or online communication just can't do is hug and say, I'm sorry you are going through something difficult.

After my sister came to visit, Sean, Stephen and I went down to Houston for the 4th of July.  We discovered that Stephen LOVES fireworks.  We just shot fireworks on the street in front of some family friends, but he couldn't get enough.  You never know what kids will like and what they won't.  He kind of freaked me out because he kept saying, "I want to shoot them, I want to shoot them." then we told him he could when he was older.  This past week he said to me at breakfast, "Mommy, when I'm older, can we shoot fireworks for my birthday?" He then went with Sean and others to get more fireworks.  This boy couldn't get enough.  I was reflecting later with Jon, who is from Boston, and we realized that one of the reasons that it kind of freaked me out is that we didn't really shoot off fireworks in the street at my house growing up.  First off, there was some kind of thing like it was illegal except on July 4th??? (or we just broke the law on July 4th? I'm not sure).  Second, we got fireworks from South Carolina, the closest place to get them, when we went to Hilton Head for vacation.  We didn't get a lot either. I remember the poppers and the snakes and the sparklers. I remember the fountains being the most adventurous, not the kind of stuff that is available today.  Stephen LOVED the poppers, which I absolutely hate, probably due to some big brother of mine using them to scare the pants off me.  We finally gave him a sparkler, which I think brought home to Stephen that it was fire.  From then on, he watched safely and quietly, but still mesmerized.  Picture is coming, I still have to process the pictures.