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Locked Out: No Little Brothers or Sisters Allowed!
When I was really little, like around four years old, the doors to my brother’s bedrooms suddenly had little locks on them one day. I remember hovering around the door as the hook and eye lock was installed, wondering why on earth my brothers would need such a thing? Was I going to get one too? I was told that the problem was me, I was going into my brother’s rooms uninvited, apparently, without their permission. I remember being hurt and indignant. When had I, Tamara Suzanne Hansen, EVER gone into their rooms uninvited? Never! That’s when! I never even sneaked into their rooms when they were gone to steal Halloween candy! NEVER! If anything, my brothers were the problem, not me. The were the ones barging in on me. (Maybe, just perhaps, I have one foggy memory of one incident in my brother Dan’s room with his Halloween candy and some very disappointing Red Hots, but perhaps that was a dream…) It turns out that the locks were just high enough that my four year old self couldn’t reach it unless I were to drag a chair to my brother’s rooms, but that would have been really just too too conspicuous. I really don’t remember being that much of a problem though, and the act of putting those locks on my brother’s doors and not a lock on my door has left me feeling stung for over 30 years now…
Flash forward to present day in the LJ house.
Jude is obsessed with Gigi’s room. The moment her door opens, he drops everything and hustles to it as quickly as his chubby little thighs will allow. Upon entry, he runs here and there, tossing this, dumping that, and this sister who is working so hard of keeping her room clean is left with a huge mess that was not made by her. We thought his fascination would wear off, and so over Christmas Break, asked Gigi to leave her door open a little more, to allow him a bit more access to he could get over it. He didn’t. He tried to move in. He began trying to sleep in her bunk bed, dragging his toy bins into her room, and started staking out territory. He managed to break her computer (both by shoving stuff in the disk drive and adding water to the machine) and also busted her Nintendo DS. We closed the door a little more often to keep him out. He learned to work the doorknob! Poor Gigi never had a break, there was Jude, in her room, whether or not she was there. It is to the point that, yes, we put a child ‘safety’ doorknob cover on Gigi’s door so he can no longer get into her room unaided. He pounds longingly on her door now, hollering her name and drags any adult over and places their hand on the knob in hopes that he will gain access. It is so sad to watch him deal with the emotions that come from being excluded from his favorite place and his favorite girl. And I totally get his feelings because that was me about 32 years ago.
It seems that my brothers and parents had a good point. Perhaps after four years of having a little sister around had been enough. And for Dan, make it six with a little brother AND a little sister who were constantly fascinated with his things and his room. It took many many years for me to finally justify my parent’s actions in supporting my brothers, but I finally get it. I always thought that little brothers and sisters got a bad rap, and it is probably worse that they deserve, but watching the most patient sister in the world deal with her bruiser of a brother is breaking my heart too, and it left me to do something I promised myself I’d never do: allow my older child to lock her younger brother out. Sometimes you just need a break! Lesson learned.
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Christmas 2009 is Officially Over
01.03.10 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Christmas 2009 is Officially OverI spent the day plucking ornaments from the tree and wrapping our family Christmas keepsakes in bubble wrap and paper, packing them away in tubs until next year.
I find the task simultaneously somewhat sad and relieving. Sad because the extra light, sparkle and twinkle that Christmas brings with its glitz and lights is gone and we look forward to months of dark and rainy winter weather. I miss the extra sparkle. At the same time though, I love returning the the uncluttered normalcy of regular life.
Today as I packed things away, I had additional feelings of excitement. See, I realized that the next time I see these things, we’ll be in our new house, acting out our traditions there, in a place we love instead of the crackerbox we call home for now. Can’t wait till the Christmas of 2010!!!
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Red Robin Doesn’t Want Us Back
01.02.10 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Red Robin Doesn’t Want Us BackI wouldn’t either. Today we decided to go to see The Princess and the Frog. By the time we got there, wrestled the kids out of the car and bought our tickets, the theater was so full that there weren’t three or four seats together. If we were to stay to see the film, we would have been peppered throughout the theater or sitting in the very front rows that would leave a crik in your neck. We headed to the front desk and reserved tickets for the later show and had two hours to burn. What better way is there to burn a few hours than going to eat at Red Robin? Bradley had his birthday coupon, so we saddled back up, buckled the kids in, and headed over to the restaurant.
Today was a big day in Jude’s life: we got him his very own bowl of mac and cheese. He did not have to graze on Gigi’s mac, did not have to beg scraps or hustle fries from Mom or Dad, he had his very own bowl, his very own apples and his very own milk. We watched him enjoy each spoonful, each sip, each nibble of apple and took pleasure in his pleasure. He was enjoying his autonomy, like a big boy!
Not vomit, but it looked something like this...
The crew at Red Robin marched out with Bradley’s birthday sundae, clapping and chanting their birthday song. Jude sank down low in his seat, shy of all the singing and attention. Once they left, he sat back up, but didn’t take another bite of his food, and turned away a bite of Daddy’s sundae. Bradley tried again to give Jude another taste to which Jude whimpered, “No! No!” Then he promptly vomited all over my pants and sweater. We felt lucky that it landed on me and not the table, floor or seat.
I rushed off to the bathroom to clean up. I rinsed out my sweater, cleaned my pants and headed back to the table to find Bradley, Jude, the floor, seat, and parts of the table covered with what must have been round two of the expulsion of food from Jude’s tummy. Bradley looked panicked, the people in the next table looked totally disgusted, and the staff was all a-twitter. Bradley’s shoes, socks and pants were covered and Jude’s boots were full, sweatshirt coated and pants slicked with vomit. Love-ly. I rushed outside with my boy, hoping that he would keep the remainder of his food inside long enough to bypass the rest of the diners and diners to be.
As Bradley was pretty well coated, we ran to Old Navy where he quickly purchased a new pair of pants to wear to the movies. But, when we got into the theater, we ran into the same situation as before: full again. We got reimbursed and walked out, exhausted and relieved to be taking our vomit scented selves on home for a refreshing bath. We’ll try for The Princess and the Frog again tomorrow…
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Happy New Year!
01.01.10 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Happy New Year!
By the time New Year’s Eve rolls around, we have celebrated multiple birthdays and holidays and usually try to just take a night off relaxing. We spent our
New Year’s Eve here at LJ House playing video games, eating hot dogs and drinking root beer floats.   Here at the Littlejohn house we celebrate New York New Years,
which means that at 9:00 we ring in the New Year with whistles, horns, poppers and the usual noismakers when midnight hits the East Coast. Then we send the kids
to bed and spend the remainder of the evening with grown ups only, sometimes seeing the New Year arrive, and sometimes only making it to the Texas New Year
instead before the sandman comes along, sending us into dreamland. We are always together, as it is said that what you are doing on New Year’s Eve
fortells what your year will be like. Apparently, we will be family focused and perhaps a bit sleepy. I can deal with that! Happy New Year!
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Bradley’s Belly Button Birthday
12.29.09 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Bradley’s Belly Button Birthday
You wooed me with your promise of guitar lessons. While left unattended while my beau was gone for a year, you told me you would teach me to play the guitar. I had friends who could ‘play’ the guitar, but I had never met someone who could play like you. I was enchanted, very interested, and looking for any innocent excuse to spend more time with this fascinating guy. I learned two chords after I returned from Europe with my new singleton status. My guitar lessons ended because we got distracted by one another. Who wanted to play chords on a guitar when we could start a whole lovely adventure together?
The night we officially became a ‘couple’ also happened to be the night of your 24th birthday. It was that year when the big snow started the day after Christmas. I drove to your house in my old beater Isuzu, handed down from my brothers, and got stranded at your house for five glorious days. We played in the snow, walked everywhere, and marveled at a world that was stopped by the flakes that continued to fall from the clouds. I came to your house that week as a girl with a crush and left as a girl in love. I couldn’t believe my luck. I still can’t. We fit together like a puzzle: vegetarians, liberals, wannabe parents, gardeners, crafters and we both really needed someone attentive to love. I remember you told me that you weren’t looking for a girlfriend, you were looking for a partner. I was really happy to be your partner, and now I am really happy to be your wife and partner in child taming.
We spent that spring and summer lazily planning our future. I lived on my parents boat until it sold that spring while you finished your degrees at UW. We had small jobs, me as a part time nanny and you as a note taker at the university. You graduated and we decided to graduate from our childhoods and moved to Bellingham, where we started our own independent life in earnest. We found crappy jobs but were so happy in our little house on Ellis Street.
You proposed in the snow while we were walking home from work one day. You stopped me at a favorite fountain of ours and started telling me about how amazing I am. At first I just listened, confused and shy of your adoring words, and suddenly I figured out where this was going: you were about to ask me to be your wife, your partner in life! I stopped you and made you start all over so I could pay attention in more detail, now that I knew how serious this conversation was. As you always do, you honored my request, started over, and I, of course, said yes. We were married at the tender ages of 25 and 26 on June 5th, 1999, a year and a half after the proposal.
On our honeymoon, at my insistence, we bought three day passes to Disneyland. Neither of us had been since we were five years old. We walked in, me anticipating magic, you dreading every step. We hit all of the wrong spots at first: Toontown & Tomorrowland. Total duds. Then we stepped into Adventureland, and all that childhood magic came pouring back. It was all different, but totally the same. We had a blast! That trip started our current obsession with all things Disney and our drive to return over and over.
We decided to be responsible adult children. That is, we would embrace our inner children while still handling our money and lives responsibly. We decided not to grow up, and I think so far we’re doing a pretty good job of that. We spent our days and nights playing Resident Evil and Tomb Raider, swam every day in summer, sometimes twice a day, played in the woods, camped, took road trips, ate bad food, dug in the dirt, danced and laughed until our bellies hurt. As time has gone on, I became a teacher partially to keep that youthful spirit alive and you have become a stay at home dad. You draw, a passion since childhood, have embraced your love of Star Wars and spend hours role playing with our own children all the while maintaining a house, building a house and paying the bills on time. I think we have met our goal!
I have accomplished things I never thought possible before there was you. Because of your belief in me and your belief in us, almost anything is possible. Babies were hard to come by for us, but we have them, love them and wish we could have 11 more! I was a 25 year college dropout who didn’t think much of herself as an intellectual, but with your encouragement I returned to school, easily maintained a 3.8 GPA and graduated. We bought our first house as students with barely two dimes to rub together and used the equity when we sold it to pay off our student loans and to buy our new house, then you started building us a whole new house this fall. You make the impossible possible. I thank my lucky stars that you just happened to step out of your comfort zone to come to a birthday party at my little attic apartment many many years ago. And I marvel that you think you are getting the better end of the stick, that you got the prize wife when I think quite the opposite, that I got the prize husband!
You are wonderful, you are amazing, and I am so lucky that I got to be the one to fall in love with you. Happy Birthday Papa Bear. I look forward to June 29th when we’ll put a proper spin on your 37th celebration of life, and the lifetime of many many more celebrations with our children, grandchildren, and maybe even a few great grandchildren too. I love you.
