Grampa celebrates 80 years today!
We took him to a little Irish pub in Franklin, McCreary's, for an early supper, then we came back to our house for some delicious home-made carrot cake (courtesy of Aunt Patty) and presents!
Happy Birthday, Dad.
Amanda sent this out to some friends about losing Sylvie:
I just wanted to let you all know that on Sept. 13, we said goodbye to our beloved Sylvie F. Johnson. You probably remember that Jennifer Johnson gave Sylvie to me when she left Vanderbilt. She was with us for 13 years before going off to sleep gently in Kieran's arms last Saturday.
You might remember Jennifer's stories about Sylvie pressing buttons on her answering machine and alarm clock. I thought, "oh, haha, sure" until Sylvie moved in with me and Laura. Sure enough, she did indeed know how to set off alarm clocks. Her goal seemed to be food freshness. The food laid out at bedtime was no longer adequate at 3 am, and she was bound and determined to protest shoddy service. If the alarm clock ploy didn't work, she would flip the metal dresser handles up and down, knock things off the nightstand--or, later in her career, meow loudly in the sleeping baby's bedroom.
As far as Sylvie was concerned, the most worthwhile thing I ever did was bring Kieran home to live with us. Right after our marriage, she abandoned me and never looked back. I could be petting her; she'd be purring and drowsing...and she'd hear his keys in the door and leave tracks behind flying to meet him. The second best thing I did was buy her a king-sized bed. Sure, she had to share it with us, but she knew who owned it. And my one remaining accomplishment was, in her old age, buying her a home with more windows and low windowsills.
That didn't keep her from resenting my many failures, though. When Laura and I adopted Eliot (who still lives with Laura in his old age), Sylvie spent three days on the roof of our house on Greenway. We couldn't believe she went hungry that long. She had to tolerate Eliot for some years, but just when she thought she was rid of him, she realized that he was just moving to Laura's to be replaced by something much smaller, but louder, smellier, and more demanding of her staff. Yep, Aidan showed up and Sylvie was less than thrilled. I considered it payback for all the night wakings Sylvie had subjected us to when she was being chased by a toddler whose first word was "Gat-ty!" (Kitty!)
Somehow, she survived the indignities of living with babies and small children, until she realized Aidan loved her passionately and was now old enough to pet properly. She started sleeping in his room. Bryce was always too rambunctious for her, so she would only visit him at bedtime when he was too tired to annoy her.
In this last year, Sylvie spent most of her time sleeping in the sun. She slowly lost her ability to jump at all, and we resigned ourselves to the scratches on the beautiful side panels we chose our bed for--that was her way of telling us to wake the hell up and pick her up onto the bed, dammit.
About a month ago, we noticed her staggering occasionally. She began to lose mobility, and though we ran many tests and tried many medicines, she ended up unable to walk. At that point, we knew we had to do the right thing. The boys went off with Aunt Laura on an outing and Kieran and I took Sylvie to our very kind vet. She actually ended up passing away from the tranquilizer and didn't need the real shot--she was 15 or 16 years old and ready to go. We rocked her and talked to her as she went off to sleep. It was very peaceful and very hard.
The boys are learning to process loss and death...they have lots of questions about death, about cremation, etc. It makes them ask about my parents a lot as well, but I think it's helping them understand--what there is for us as humans to understand, that is. And, being kids and happy kids at that, they only made it a day before starting in about kittens and puppies. :)
When Jennifer asked me back then to take Sylvie, I didn't think too hard about it. I'd just rented the house on Greenway, Laura was moving over from Memphis, and I thought "why not?" Sylvie turned out to be the companion of my whole adult life so far, and a huge part of our budding marriage and family life. She was very beautiful, with her round owl eyes, and she was pretty vindictive. But she was not standoffish, she needed love and gave it freely, and she spoke her mind. A good role model.
We always kept Jennifer's name as Sylvie's last name, confusing a series of vets. Her middle initial F. stood for Ferocious...but she wasn't really. I think she just liked the sound of it.
Love you all,
I can't write a proper obituary just now. After a day like today, I just don't have the words in me.
But suffice it to say that, in the end, she went off to sleep gently in my arms. Although we're sad to have lost the spunk, and sometimes spite (remembering the way she'd knock things off my dresser to wake me up to fill her dish), that she brought into our house over all these years, we know she's sharpening her claws somewhere on the Big Guy's furniture..
~1993-2008.
Rest easy.
There should be no shortage of fresh chow and a willing hand to wrestle with where you are now. We will miss you.
Grampa and I, along with our friends John and Keaton, took the boys to their first in-person football game tonight.. Father Ryan played Overton over at Greer Stadium.. they had a great time.. but it wasn't so much about the football as the snacks, bands, and cheerleaders.... and Ryan's purple (yes, purple) Leprechaun...
Saturday mornings are the best...
Two boys, two flashlights and a pair of Boom Whackers (educational music toys) fashioned into DIY lightsabers... let the battles begin...
Jedi Bryce
Darth Meanie
Force Push..
and so it begins....
It's Labor Day, but Amanda still had classes to teach today, and it was such a beautiful day, so we all went over to campus to drop her off and then wander a bit...
We threw a Labor Day weekend block party with our neighbors yesterday afternoon.. a water slide, some lots of bikes and tricycles in the cul-de-sac and lots and lots and LOTS of good food.. all a combination for a great time with good friends..
The kids were full of pizza and got their popcorn and were all ready to see Clone Wars, the new Star Wars movie!
As a sidenote: our grownup review of the movie-- pretty good! In fact, we're impressed that the computer animated groupings of pixels on the screen were able to make us care more about those characters than the actual flesh and blood actors (namely Hayden Christiansen and Natalie Portman) in the prequels..
Watching Attack of the Clones with the boys this morning, in preparation for tonight's Clone Wars movie (they'll be going as part of friend Jake's Birthday party), when Aidan and I had the following conversation:
Me: See, Anakin and Amidala are falling in love.
Aidan: Why?
Me: That's a really good question.
1) we're always out of something in the fridge or pantry
2) there's always a potty that needs unclogging
3) Jango Fett is always missing one of his guns (and sometimes his head)...
I know I've got lots of updating to do from all the fun an frolic of the summer, but I just wanted to get a few of these pictures up from today, the first day of school.. Aidan starts 2nd grade and Bryce kicks off his career with the first day of Pre-K.
For the record, Aidan's an old pro at this First Day thing by now, and Bryce was a trooper. He went right into his classroom, met all his classmates, and had a great day. When it was time for pick-up-- they had just a brief half-day today-- he really didnt' want to leave.
So I think we'll be alright on the school front.
Here are a selection of the pictures.
For a limited time, you can get the full photo-set here
Aidan turned 7 this week, and the parties seemed to be never ending.. it was more a birthday festival than a singular event. We had a little gathering on the 31st to commemorate his actual birthday.. but the real celebration didn't kick off until the weekend.. first with a visit to Chuck E. Cheese with his good friend Jake and Uncle Ross on Friday..
Playing some skee-ball..
Playing the Firefighter videogame...
Then the big Superman Pool Party bash with all the neighbor and school friends on Saturday..
We had a little party for him-- the bigger parties will be this weekend-- but wanted to squeeze in this shot of Aidan with his HUGE new basketball hoop!
Yeah, Daddy will be working on setting that one up for a few hours tomorrow!
Dispatch from SleepyMama:
Overheard conversation between Bryce and his buddy Zoe, age 5, as they were acting out The Little Mermaid with dolls:
Zoe (in her Ursula voice): "You have THREE DAYS to kiss your true love. Got that? THREE DAYS."
Bryce: "What happens then?"
Zoe: "If you don't kiss in three days, then Ariel comes back to being a mermaid and Ursula catches her."
::slight pause::
Bryce: "Why don't we just blow up Ursula?"
This morning, as I was getting ready for work, Aidan said he wants to come to work with me sometime this week. And he mentioned that he wanted to wear a tie when he goes.
Bryce: "Why do you want to wear a tie?"
Aidan: "Because I like to be a handsome guy, Bryce."
