All About Me

So, what about Mama? (Yeah, so what about mama. It's about the kids now, honey.) Last heard, she was in a community theater production of 42nd Street.

Bottom left hand corner is me. Weird.


Oh yeah, that. It was fabulous and exhausting and my marriage suffered greatly throughout. We are all nicer now that time and rest has healed our wounds. So I kind of neglected the house and kind of let Jerry take the burden of just about everything and he kind of hated me for it. Oh well, guess I'm just that kind of person. Love me. I am back to dance class (and singing lessons too and oh, acting class as well!) and still lovin it and gosh it's nice to have left behind a few pounds this summer. And gosh, I could not have picked a better time to break my foot just as the show ended and before classes begun.



Yeah, I broke my foot about 2 months ago and it still hurts and I still limp. Do NOT mix wine with TV's So You Think You Can Dance while one babe is swinging in your arms as another lays in your dancing path. Pretty soon you are overly confident twirling away and you drop your baby smack on the floor as you trip all over another one and there you are lying on the ground laughing at your fool-self, screaming in pain, and comforting scared babies (they were fine!). Damn that hurt.

Not long after that I developed a beautiful double ear infection. Too much hotel swimming pool and catching jumping babies left my ears full of pain-inflicting bacteria. It still feels like a tiny balloon is inside my left ear. Sweet.

Poppie with his grandsons.

What an amazing summer it was indeed.

But wait, more good news. Jerry and I are going to NYC next week and here's the cream: sweet, adorable, gracious MIL is staying with the kids here. That means J and I all alone for 4 nights!!! I am just way too lucky. :)

Oh, yeah, and as for Jerry . . . well, the BIG journal Nature named him as "one of five crop researchers who could change the world". He's our token Messiah here at work. Whatever.

. . . Tsega too

And while Bereket is partnering with Sira, Tsega is there to follow, or lead, provide backdrop, or whatever. Hey, didn't want to leave him too far behind. As if . . .

He can either be found banging sticks, taking the fridge apart, petting his dog Louie (we bequeathed our hound to Tsega's care), or in my arms squeezing me breathless. I say all this and here he is quietly reading books, not bothering a soul.

I like the strange blue light from the toy. Eerie cool.

Sit n Spin

They don't make 'em like they used to. But this is more about capturing those beautiful rays casting just the right glow. I love sun when it filters in like smoke and lights like fire . . .

If you haven't paid attention, there is hardly one thing Sira can do without Bereket partnering up. Get used to it, Sira-cakes.


Forgive our early morning bed heads . . .

Summer is leaving me

As we harvested this big squash-thingy and marveled at its ridiculously overstuffed stature, we also mourned the remaining days of summer. Oh, say it ain't so . . . Cold dark days ahead stuck inside with three three-somethings. Somehow I feel depressed.


Here we go with another cycle, head first. Brace yourself . . .

Sharing is fun

Boy A has toy. Boy B wants toy. Boy A doesn't want to share and neither does Boy B for that matter. Hmmmm, strange alien-like toddler behavior. Boy B is clever and asks peeeeese. No go. Boy B is persistent and eventually finds the magic word. ENguh. This uttering used to mean all done. Then it branched out into new meanings. Here ya go or give me that. Now it also means let's trade. It can go on for long time like this, enguh, no enguh, back and forth, trading toys or food, all three boys. I find myself saying, No Enguh! We can enguh after you eat. Somehow trading lessens the blow of sharing.



Hey, they're triplets. They're a little odd-duckly.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Forgive Bereket's sluggishness. We just awoke him with his new tractors from Grandma C.

Happy . . .

one minute



sad the next.



And the next (maybe it was the outfits).





And that's the way we roll . . .


Seriously, who dresses you kid?

PJ Day

Kids, backpacks, shoes, toy cars, hair, and unread notes falling out of backpacks piling up on me this morning, and I realize, it's pajama day today for one the boys. Which one? From which backpack did this fall? No date, no teacher name, only the para's names (who remembers them?).

Bereket naked with junk


So after some clever sleuthing, we figure out it's Bereket. Bereket's class is doing PJ day. Undress, looking for a pair of PJs, do we have any bona fide sleeping clothes left? Off we send our son to school in his jammies. Hmmm, this is strange, is this right?

Anyway, now I am worried. Was the note for today?

Bre, come . . .

They all had, well, tummy problems. A bug we had not seen before. Preschool initiation. Gosh, guess they are potty trained; I mean, this many trips to the bathroom, no diaper, it dawns on me. Anyway, forget it. Let's go to Kansas City and spend the weekend over stimulating Uncle Bri (my bro)--all the way from California--and see the insides of public restrooms, a lot. This last year has been sometimes awful in public places where remaining reasonably quiet and still is required so restaurants have taken a vacation. Oh well, let's go!

And it was a blast. Thanks unc. Thank G for al fresco dining, good for triplets. The boyz wonder where you have gone, "Bre, come . . .come . . . " Out of ten, the triplets get an 8.5 for behavior and overall graciousness (I give Bri a 7.5) and really, any higher score and they probably need reviving. This is something good seeing that we've done 2.0s before. Make that negative 2.0. And when it was worse, like pouring a cosmo in my lap, as Tsega would say, "Maaake-up!" (Click for cartoon where T picked up this adorable shtick.)

This is what happens when three terrible toddlers unrestrained with energy and mobility finally (sort of, anyway) recognize boundaries. They become tolerable and presentable in public. Fun age. Still cute, not as crazy, but still crazy. Maybe big brother will share some KC shots as my hands were too full to steady a camera. So I share these instead, from few evenings ago. Boys tearing it up where the tree swing used to hang as sun fades. Summer's over baby.