The Patient Patient

Hey y'all - 

Our dog Ella is done with her round of arthritis treatments at the vet. Hard to tell if they've done her any good, or if it's the daily hikes she's enjoyed as a result of your dad's furlough that are improving her overall mood. She's always been a drama queen (Hey Pot, this is Kettle. I know I'm black). If you suggest that she go outside to tinkle, she makes a sound like, "OH MY GOD, ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!? I COULDN'T POSSIBLY! I'M COMIN', ELIZABETH!!" etc. But if you leave the room to brush your teeth, you'll come back two minutes later to discover the bagels you left in the middle of the dining room table are missing. 

Laney went along on the last two trips to the vet, and just like a lot of other skills she's been exposed to for, oh, a few minutes (dancing, hairdressing, firefighting), she's now an expert. The secret to getting Ella back in tip-top shape seems to be a combination of fluffing her fur with a Disney Princess hairdryer, giving her a "shot" by touching her with a ballpoint pen, and rubbing her down with a plastic sand shovel.  

Ella usually dozes - sometimes even snores - her way through the proceedings.

Sometimes, I feel bad for Ella because she has to take ibuprofen and glucosamine every day, and it takes her a while to get up in the morning. Then, I realize I've just described every person in my 82 year-old grandmother's exercise class down at the Methodist church, and those girls can boogie.*

Love,

Mom

* From 9a-4:30p, when they need to put their legs up and work on a crossword. 

Pumpkin's Pumpkins

The How 'Bouts

Hey y'all -

Your Grandma Sue finally came home from gallivanting around wine country with her dad and sister, and offered to babysit y'all so your dad and I could go on a belated anniversary date.

We went to a great local restaurant downtown, and as we normally do, we spent most of our time talking about you two.

Specifically, we were talking about how Laney has a terminal case of the "How Bouts" lately. As in, "How 'bout you're the evil queen and I'm the princess and you try to stop me from getting to the swing?" Or "How 'bout upstairs is my hula party and you're invited and you can come at 7:30 or 8:30, but if you come at 8:30, you won't have to wait." Or "How 'bout I'm a grumpy old troll, and if you want to come in the front door you have to answer my riddle? Just give me a minute to think of one."

Your dad filled me in on some of the "How 'bout"s from your recent hikes, and had me laughing so hard, tears came to my eyes. 

Y'all are still going on daily hikes, which is great, because Missoula is beautiful in the fall:

You dad says that just yesterday, you guys were heading up the hills overlooking Missoula, and as Laney started up the path, she said, "Hey Dad, how 'bout we're the lava girls (?) and this mountain is actually a volcano and we need to stop it before it ewuffs and destroys the viwage." And your dad said, "Hey Laney, how 'bout we just take a walk that doesn't require a narrative?" To be fair, your dad, as someone who is completely unfamiliar with both girls and the theatre, has done an admirable job of acting out the roles of prince, monster, dragon, horse, etc. He's not going to win a backyard Tony anytime soon, but he tries to commit to whatever role he's been assigned. But sometimes, a man just wants to enjoy his nature. 

According to Dad, he got about halfway up the hill when he noticed Laney wasn't right next to him any more. He looked back, and she was sitting in the middle of the trail with the saddest look on her face. "What is, it, Laney? What happened?" he asked. "We didn't make it to the top of the volcano in time, and we didn't save the village," she sighed. "You know, Laney," he tried to explain, "sometimes you can just go on a walk, and it doesn't have to have global repurcussions."

We came home from dinner to find Laney sacked out on the couch. 

All that world-saving must be exhausting. 

Love,

Mom

English Teacher

Hey y'all - 

When your dad arrived at Hagen's school at pick-up time the other afternoon, Hagen's teacher met him at the door and said, "It's amazing the number of words Hagen knows for such a little guy!" I wish I could take even partial credit for this, but I can't: it's all Laney. 

                            

Laney will take Hagen by the hand and lead him around the house in a flurry of "Can you say...?'s. Sometimes, she asks him to repeat after her a word that she herself cannot pronounce, a la "Hey Hagen, this dragon doesn't eat meat. Can you say vegemarian?"  When he wakes up in the morning, she'll climb into his crib with a book to "read" to him. 

This morning, we heard Laney in her room, teaching Hagen how to play a game on the iPad. She kept saying, "I'm so proud of you!" and "I need you to be brave and try again!"

                           

I think Laney knows that she's making progress with her language lessons, because just the other morning, I saw her hug Hagen and exclaim, "Buddy! You know SO many words!" ...and then lean into his ear and whisper, "...that I taught you."

 She knows the score.

Love,
Mom

Dad And His Girls*

Hey y'all -

As a "non-essential" Forest Service employee, your dad is still furloughed, which is irritating. Not as exasperating as having a kid in Head Start who can't go to school, or being a mom in North Carolina who relies on food stamps that aren't being distributed any more this month, but still.

Some good has come of this process, though: your dad has had lots of extra time to play with you guys, and it seems he and Laney especially are hitting it off these days.

Right now, those two are really into playing this World War II aviator video game together.

Laney steers the plane and Dad shoots at the Axis enemy. Or maybe it's the other way around. I don't know. I DO know that if they were really WWII-era pilots and the outcome of the war depended on their aviation abilities, we would all need to start practicing our German, schnell.

You guys (and Hagen) have been on a hike together every day this week.

This is as much for Ella as it is for y'all. Ella's been receiving laser treatments (crazy, I know) for her arthritis, and one of the things the vet suggested is that she go on a long walk every day to keep her legs limber. 

                                           

Thor has to lift her into and out of the car, and she doesn't run around like she used to, but she seems happy to be going on adventures again. 

When Laney was smaller, and everything was, "NO! MOM DO IT!!" I used to tell your dad, "You just wait. The tide is going to turn one day, and you're going to be the awesome one, while I become the irritating one who brushes her hair and makes her eat broccoli."

And I was right.

Love,

Mom

* Of course, Hagen has been along on all of these outings, too, but he was already pretty firmly in the "pro-Dad" category. In general, Hagen isn't what anyone would describe as a "tough crowd."

Anniversary Weekend

Hey y'all -

Last Friday was your parents' fifth wedding anniversary. In case anyone's wondering, five years is exactly how long it took me to start forgetting my anniversary. Your dad remembered, so points for him. Standing in the kitchen drinking coffee the morning of our anniversary, we had this conversation:

Brooke: Anything you want for our anniversary?
Thor: Can't think of anything I need. You still want one of those colanders?
Brooke: Nah, I bought one at TJ Maxx the other day.
Thor: So we're good?
Brooke: Yeah. How do you want your eggs?

Cue the Barry White! Launch the rose petals in the air! Turn the lighting down to its most ambient! Romance is in the air, my friends.

All joking aside, I had the BEST time on our anniversary weekend.

On Friday, we went out to First Fridays, which is a great monthly event in Missoula. Stores and restaurants stay open late and have gallery showings and refreshments and kids' activities and you can walk all around downtown checking out fun things and window shopping.

We had dinner at The Top Hat, which is a restaurant and music venue downtown. They were hosting Family Night, and may I say, every bar needs a bring-your-kids night. Parents got to sit with their friends up in the lounge area while the toddlers and preschoolers went nuts on the dance floor. We ran into some parents and kids we knew, and we all shared pizza and eggplant fries and had a great time.

Hagen walked up to a little pigtailed girl who was standing by herself on the dance floor and took her hands in his and started bopping up and down. For a split second, she just looked bewildered, then she screamed in his face and ran away. This is your dad, explaining to Hagen that girls are unpredictable, but you gotta get back out there.

The only flaw in the Kids' Night festivities at the bar was that someone (I suspect) forgot to tell the band that it was Kids' Night. This is the look of a musician whose booking agent didn't inform him he'd be playing for toddlers:

They played a lot of melancholy ballads and a cover of "Mrs. Robinson," and the whole thing was wildly inappropriate, but the kids didn't seem to care.

I had mentioned to Laney that the brewery by our house was going to be hosting a kids' art project for First Fridays, so she came up to me mid-dance and yelled, "DO WE STILL HAVE TIME TO GET TO THE BEER LIBRARY?!?" One of her teachers was sitting next to me and asked, "What the heck is the 'Beer Library?'" I explained: That's what Laney calls the brewery by our house, because you go there and get your growler filled up, then you take it home and enjoy it, then bring it back and get another refill. Beer Library."

So we raced off to the brewery where your dad and I enjoyed a pint, while you enjoyed the paint.

The next morning, we had breakfast at IHOP

Then Laney and I headed off for a girls-only shopping day. I stopped into the crafts store to pick up a few things for your school's Halloween Carnival, and ran into a pumpkin painting activity table, so we had to stop and do that. Damn you, Michael's.

 Sunday, we hit the park and the carousel.

Not ready to go

I can't remember ever having such a fun family weekend. I think the weekend was so much fun in large part because I decided to stay away from my computer as much as possible and just focus on being present. My job has been more demanding than usual lately, and I spend a lot of time with one eye on my inbox. This past weekend, I kept both eyes on what's most important. A very happy anniversary, indeed. 

Love,

Mom

Back To Normalish

Hey y'all - 

After the hardest couple of months on record, our little gang is back together. Between my trips to LA and Vermont, and then your dad's two-week stint for the Naval Reserve, it feels so darn good to have everyone home again. In fact, we all went to the hardware store together last weekend on your dad's first day back, and it felt like a sawdust-scented vacation.

So it seems everything is back to normal around here. Laney's still into dressing herself and daring you to tell her she's made a fashion misstep. Rainbow hot pants and rain boots, Cinderella nightgown, etc.

Ella's health has been in decline, and she's been diagnosed with severe arthritis, but she can still rally to come inside if cheese grits are an option. We started her on some high-octane meds yesterday, and we're hoping they help with the inflammation. Every time Thor uses the word "Arthritis," I correct his pronunciation in my head to my paternal grandmother's preferred, "Arthur Itis."

Hagen's just like every other Burbach male I've met - only happy when he's building/fixing/doing something. Like washing dishes.

Yesterday, Thor got to work building a new safety rail for Hagen's bed so we can transition him over to the big kid bed and get rid of the crib. Hagen went into his room and got his own damn drill to speed things up.

In fact, Hagen's very favorite thing to do lately is to beat the ever-loving snot out of something with a blunt object and then declare "PIXED IT!" A few more swear words added to his vocabulary, and we'll send away for his contractor's license. 

So that's all great and wonderful and makes life worth living. On the flip side of the coin, when the government shut down yesterday, your dad's job was shut down with it, so he's home and unemployed for the foreseeable future, until Congress gets its act together and he can return to work. On the downside, it's a financial hit we didn't anticipate. But on the upside, your dad is outside with you guys right now, teaching you how to install rain gutters. Bang, bang, bang, PIXED IT. 

Love,

Mom