Heptadecagon

Eleven years ago today, I woke up early and prayed. I had prayed the entire day before, as I had for much of my pregnancy. Up until that moment, aside from a bout of PUPPP , everything had gone my way.  I was sitting at 37 weeks and 6 days. I had carried two babies (two!) until past term, technically. I was still able to walk and eat and move for goodness sakes. Could I be so selfish as to ask that the last piece magically fit as well? I alternated my words to God with silent moments; I envisioned the movement of Baby A, willing him or her to rise up out of the pelvis and turn, sparing me from a C-section. Baby B was head down and ready to make the journey the intended way; why couldn't Baby A have done the same? And yet, it was not to be. I won't bore you today with the details. I've already done that before . But on this day, the girls' 11th birthday, the memories come flooding back, inundating me with thoughts of how it felt to be expecting twins, not knowing if...

Some patterns are easy to spot.  For example: 1, 2, 1, 2... 2, 4, 6, 8... A, B, C, A, B, C, A, B, C... Circle, Square, Triangle, Oval, Circle, Square... Other patterns aren't that easy, but if you know what to look for or spend enough time thinking, you can find the answer. This is true about number patterns especially. For example: 1, 8, 27, 64... 20, 50, 10, 40... 0, 4, 2, 3, 6, 3, 8, 5... What I'd like to do is to figure out the patterns that occur in my life, all the time. The patterns that I know are just bubbling under the surface, that aren't really concrete, but if I had the time to really look at the information, I'd be able to find a pattern and predict what will happen. Then, I might not be so surprised. Like when the long hair under my chin will be so long that I can pull it off with a tweezer. By that time, the hair is probably observable to the innocent masses I encounter each day. You'd have thought someone would have said something. Or...

Melina: Mommy, can someone run out of nail polish? Me: Um, yes. Melina: What happens? I paused here, thinking that Tara is right. A story from the point of view of Melina would be, at least in our opinion, priceless.  Me: Well, if we run out, we go to the store. But if the store runs out, they need to get it from the factory. If the factory runs out, well, I guess they'd have to make more. Melina: Can we go to the store and get more nail polish? Me: We haven't run out yet. Melina: I hope no one ever runs out. What a world, to run out of nail polish! And to have that as her only worry. Quite the life! Odd to me, normal to her.

That really odd moment where you would swear up and down that the bird chirping outside is actually inside the house?  Yeah, that's where I am this morning. Because this bird, probably a mere sparrow, is LOUD. Really LOUD. And I wouldn't be surprised to see him perched on the TV in the family room. He's not. I just checked.

The kids are lucky enough to have a fantastic art teacher. They end up doing some really cool projects, one of which is what he calls The Lego Project . They took a picture with a Lego App, then had the kids translate the picture onto paper. Mr. H had wanted the children to use paint, but because the wee ones are essentially filling in blown up pixels, it was more convenient to use marker. Mr. H hung both Zoe's and Talia's in the display case at the front of the school. Can you tell who is who? The girls had the ability to choose the color scheme. I can "see" the one on the right better, but my neighbor has a better time distinguishing who the person is with the color scheme on the left. Crazy how the brain works, and differently, I might add, for various people. The cool thing about this picture is that Aaron's mummy case project is the one on the bottom, which means he got to share the art space with his big sisters!  Even cooler? The mummy cas...

Brrrrrr-ing! I looked at the caller ID and picked up the phone.  The last name sounded familiar...maybe it was one of the kids' friends or a student of mine. "Hello?" I said. "Hi," the voice responded on the other end of the line. It was a little boy. "Yes?" "Is Aaron there?" I really didn't feel like interrupting Aaron while he was eating dinner. It is tough enough keeping the red head tied to the chair without giving him a reason to get up from the table. "He is busy right now, can I take a message?" "Well, I was wondering if I can come over to play sometime." There was no pause, but the mind is a wondrous thing. Before I even responded, a multitude of thoughts coursed through my brain, two of which I'll share. Number 1: parents need to make sure that a child who is calling announces who he or she is. Number 2: parents should NEVER allow their child to invite him/herself over to another kid'...

A bar of soap.  How often do you go through a bar of soap? I asked that question 10 days ago, on January 15, when I replaced the bar of Dial in the master bath shower. Only two people shower in there regularly (get your mind out of the gutter...we take separate showers), but sometimes, I take two showers in a day. I'm not a freak. I normally shower at night, as it is easiest for my hair to dry. However, if I run in the morning, I'll need to clean up again. Hence, some two-shower days. What's the verdict?  How long does a bar of soap last in our house? I checked last night and realized that by tonight, I'll need to place yet another sudsy cake in the dish. 10 days for a bar of soap? Even though we are careful to keep the soap out of the water unless we are using it, I'm not going to go on about how I think the soap should last longer. The point is that I have extra soap in the cabinet ready to be the replacement. For that matter, I have the luxury of taking ...