Month: March 2015

Deep thoughts from the Clare Bear – Part One Million

Posted on by heather.e.d.mcpherson@gmail.com

I could write a post every week entitled “Deep thoughts from the Clare Bear” since we have so many conversations with this girl that throw J and I off guard.  She’s a sweet, silly, sassy girl but she’s also a deep thinker who is just as likely to be contemplating the meaning of life as she is to be imagining herself living at Arendelle in Frozen.

 

clare climbing at the park

Last week Clare and I walked to the library together.  I love our weekend walks since it gives Clare time to just chit chat about whatever she’s thinking about.  On this particular walk she threw glanced over her shoulder and said, “do you like being a mom?”

Keeping my voice calm and relaxed. “Yes, I do Sweetie.  I love it.”

“Is there something that you don’t like about being a mom?”

Working harder at keeping my voice calm and relaxed. Reminding myself to find the balance between being honest and not laying to many of my emotions on my five-year-old. “Well, sometimes it makes me pretty tired.  Sometimes I get overwhelmed and I feel bad when I get frustrated.  But mostly I love it.”

“OK.”

Clare skips off.  I take a big sigh.

IMG_1620

iPhone Photo Drop – March 2015

Posted on by heather.e.d.mcpherson@gmail.com

It’s that time again! The time where I throw a mishmatch of my favorite stories and pictures from the last few months.  Enjoy!

A little while ago, Sammy told me that he didn’t like my kisses.  “I only like Daddy’s kisses.  Yours are wet.  I have to wipe them off.”  I laughed at this silly little boy and his funny observations on the world.  (My feelings were only hurt a teensy-tinsy bit.)

Over Christmas I was mentioning this story to my Mom and Debbie and Clare overheard it.  She skipped through the room and said “I love your kisses Mom.  I think they’re just right.”

IMG_1614Out on a walk with Sammy:
Me: Sam, what are you thinking about?
Sam: Beluga whales.

IMG_1626

On long car rides we’ll often play the “Guess Animal Game” where one person thinks of an animal and everyone else has to ask questions and try to guess the animal that they are thinking of. We played in the car the other day and things got pretty silly.  J and I just stayed out of it, listening and giggling to ourselves.

“I’m thinking of an animal.  But it’s not an animal.  We put it on paper and it… sticks to things.”

“Is it tape?”

“Yes!”

giggle giggle giggle

“I’m thinking of an animal that is an animal but it’s riding in the car and it has blond hair and it likes dinosaurs!”

“It’s me!”

giggle giggle giggle

kids wearing goggles

kids watching tv with belly out

 

Sammy and J were picking up pizza a few weeks ago. Sam was bopping around the restaurant in his usual Sammy way. J glanced over and saw that the woman waiting in line with them was literally petting Sam’s head.

“I just couldn’t help myself,” she explained. “Normally I’m not a kid person, but he’s just so cute.”

sam climbing at the park

Farewell to a Good Dog

Posted on by heather.e.d.mcpherson@gmail.com
 It was a sad day this last Monday at the Mac House.  We had to say good-bye to our first baby, Miss Sadie May.  She was 15 years old and it was time, but it doesn’t make it any easier.
Sadie was dealing with typical old-dog health problems and slowed down each winter.  This last winter has been tough on her and I knew that we had a decision to make soon.  The end of life decision is the very worst and hardest part of pet ownership, but I do feel that we handled it well.
The kids are handling it well.  They had the opportunity to say good-bye and give her pets before we went to the vet. They’ve been a little bit sad and have had lots of questions about life and death in trying to understand it all. In all honesty, Sadie wasn’t all that attached to the children.  She was the first baby in the family and she always resented being bumped from the position.  She accepted the children, but she didn’t really enjoy the kids.
J and I, on the other hand, are pretty broken up.  We’re just trying to remember the good times with our sweet doggie girl – how she used to dance on her hind legs like a circus dog, how she always stretched before standing up, how she used to bound like a greyhound at the beach.  We reminisced about the time when I opened my eyes after meditating to find her sitting on the yoga mat in front of me, about to reach up and lick my nose.  About how she used to sneak on the furniture and we only knew that she did it because she left a big drool spot and white hairs.  She was our constant companion on walks, hikes, camping trips, beach trips, outings to parks and anything else we could take her too.
 

She was, quite simply, the sweetest dog I’ve ever met.  She’s left a hole in our household and we miss her very much.

Raffi for the generations

Posted on by heather.e.d.mcpherson@gmail.com

 I grew up on Raffi.  Who is Raffi?  He’s a Canadian singer-songwriter who was very popular in the children’s music set back in the 80s.  He sang Baby Beluga, Bananaphone and Down by the Bay, among many, many others.  We had a whole section of Raffi records in our record collection and listened to them regularly.  I even went to a Raffi concert when I was about eight and waited in line to get his autograph (which I’m sure my parents still have – along with all of the records). 

I’ve sung Raffi’s biggest hits many, many, many times – first as a kid, then as a baby sitter and preschool teacher and then as a parent.  We sang I Like to Eat Eat Eat Apples and Bananas to Clare when we were trying to get her to eat applesauce and bananas.  We sang Down by the Bay daily for about a year when it was Clare’s favorite song.  Tonight Jeremy sang Baby Beluga to Sammy at bedtime since he asks for it as his bedtime lullaby.  We are big, big Raffi fans around here. So when I saw that Raffi was playing a concert in Portland – well, I jumped on it.

 
So the kids and I went!  (J isn’t quite the Raffi fan that we three are.) The show was sold out, so it was a theater packed full of kids, grandparents and parents all anxiously awaiting Raffi.  Perhaps no one was quite so anxious as the enthusiastic little five year old girl, who dressed for the occasion in her prettiest birthday dress that just barely still fit her.  
“Maybe Raffi will see me and ask me to go on stage with him,” she whispered to me.  “I want to wear my prettiest outfit just in case.”
Well, Raffi didn’t invite any children on stage with him, but Clare still danced in the aisle and sang along to her favorite songs.  Sammy sat most of the show in my lap, comfortable and content to let me sing into his ear.  I may or may not have wiped away a tear when I got to deep in thinking about doing something with my children that I had done as a child.  Sometimes the emotion of these things sneaks up on me – that is, when I’m not singing This Little Light of Mine.