-
Guitar
08.13.11 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Guitar
There is a story that is often told about a young Bradley, and a guitar. Bradley’s grandparents lived near the Alderwood Mall, a place that, now, does not seem all that country. But when they bought the property back in the late 60’s or early 70’s where the Alderwood Mall stands now was all swamp and horse pasture. I remember Grandpa telling me, on a number of occasions, that he thought he was moving to the country with the swamp and acreage around them. They never anticipated that they would live next to one of the busiest shopping malls in all of Washington. The city grew up around the house, which was probably pretty nice for them as time progressed.  As Grandma and Grandpa got older and less capable of doing, they became even more interested in watching the activity, construction and remodeling around them. When Bradley was still a toddler, he managed to escape his parent’s and grandparent’s watchful eyes and he wandered off to the field next door where they were beginning to excavate for a new store, hotel, building, something… When they realized that their boy was missing, the adults in charge streaked around the house and the yard without finding the young Brad-Boy. But they could hear him. Off in the distance they heard a little baby voice, singing at the top of his lungs, “GUITAR! GUITAR!” Only it sounded more like ‘Gee-tar’. Then they spied that little singer, on top of a mound of soil, holding a guitar, strumming and singing his little heart out. The worry of the missing boy left their minds as they laughed and listened to their passionate musician sing his one-word song. It was the dawning of a key component of my husband.
It took until he discovered The Beatles as a young teen for him to pick up the guitar again. With a little help from his Uncle Don and a library full of Beatles chord books, Bradley taught himself how to play the guitar. Bradley played in a band or two in high school and a bit in college, but about the time we got together the musicians he played with began to be inspired by different things, fell in love, became sucessful and they drifted apart.
(Bradley, stop reading, because I’m gonna brag on you now.)
And he is good. I had friends who played in high school and college, but it wasn’t until I heard Bradley play for the first time (PJ Harvey’s Sheela Na Gig, some Morrissey and even the Bradley Littlejohn original ‘Rain and Sunshine, in case you were wondering) that I realized that REAL people can play instruments WELL too. He didn’t just strum, he picked, he soloed, he finger styled… I was enthralled, amazed, and despite having a boyfriend, developed a bit of a crush on this cute boy who had a guitar and singing skillz in spades, not to mention his blonde ‘cute boy’ hair and a smile that wouldn’t quit. We got together under the ruse of guitar lessons, by the way. But by the time I learned the G and D chords we had found out that kissing was pretty fun too and the guitar lessons stopped. During the first few years we were together, the guitar went everywhere with us. And places where the guitar couldn’t go were filled with the sounds of Bradley’s voice: on the way into Target, in the car, walking home from WWU, Bradley’s voice was our constant companion, bouncing off of buildings and echoing all around us. But then? We got busy. Babies came, houses needed building and remodeling, college had to be finished and a myriad of tasks and commitments pulled my darling away from his guitar. Then the songs began to become quieter and then they nearly went away. I began to wonder if the guitar and the singing were a thing of the past. Something we would look back on fondly and wish we had kept up with.
The months, well, year, after we finished the house (our one year moving in anniversary was a few days ago) was a pretty dark time for us. While we weren’t in a war or anything, there was definitely a level of post traumatic stress, a lot of anxiety and a fair share of depression in the both of us. We were just SO spent from building the house and it took a long time to recover from it.
About the time we were beginning to exit the fog of funk in February or so, Bradley picked up the guitar. At first I thought it was mostly just mindless strumming, but then he started playing. And singing. For hours. These days, again, the guitar is never far from his fingers. I make dinner, fold laundry, and clean the house with my own personal troubadour following me around, playing our favorites. It is a great trade. With the advent of the internet, he can look any song up and within five minutes or so he has the chords and words for us to wail along to. (While I am not a singer per se, I love to sing.) It has added that wonderful connectedness back into our lives, and I love it. His songs these days focus more family requests, like Taylor Swift and the Star Wars Theme Song instead of his own material, but I am so grateful and appreciative of my darling, talented, guitar-playing husband’s return. What a gift we have in him.
-
Paper Dolls
08.12.11 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Paper Dolls
Poor Jude. He doesn’t know what’s about to hit: the school year! And when it does, that little boy’s heart is going to be so lonely for his big sister. At the beginning of the summer it was all Bradley and I could do to keep them from tearing one another to pieces. Now? They are inseparable. Today I was walking upstairs when I overheard the following exchange as the twosome was busy playing with magnetic paper dolls:
Gigi: Hey Boyfriend! Are you ready yet?
Jude: NO!
Gigi: Well, we need to get ready to go shopping. (Under her breath): JUDE! Get your guy dressed!
Jude: NO!
Gigi:Â Well, you have to dress your doll or else we can’t go to the mall.
Jude: Ok, Didi.
Gigi: Are you ready now? Oh Daddy! You have to get some pants on!
Jude: NO!
And so it went, until finally they played quietly along side one another, parallel play, The Beach Boys in the background, happy as two clams in the sand. Except in this case, we have two happy summer siblings in the big sister’s room. I like that better anyhow.
-
River
08.02.11 | Permalink | | Comments Off on River
Today we were lucky enough to spend some time visiting with an old friend of Bradley’s named Gary. If you know Bradley well, it is likely that you have heard one of his Gary stories. Gary was Bradley’s best friend growing up and kind of his protector too. To me, Gary is legend, a superhero, so it was pretty fun to sit on his patio and listen to the tales pile up as he and Bradley took turns.
Gary lives just outside of Gold Bar, where the Skykomish River crashes down the mountain, full of ice-cold glacial water. So, of course, we promised Lady Guinevere and Sir Jude the Brave that we would give them the opportunity to splash around a bit in the river. We brought our bathing suits too, but the water was plenty cold on my toes. I was good.
One of our little darlings spent their time throwing sticks (right at Gigi’s head), then throwing rocks (at Gigi’s and Martha’s heads), and then getting covered with sand. Can you guess who that was??? The other little darling spent her time building a sand castle. Daddy was on river rapid current child removal watch, while I spent my time behind the camera.
We didn’t stay long (we didn’t know we needed the State Park Pass to play), so about an hour after we arrived, we found ourselves back in the car, nicely coated with sand. Wet, cool and happy, we were satisfied Littlejohns as we left the beach. We will return, soon, armed with a park pass next time!
-
Signs of a Good Summer
08.01.11 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Signs of a Good Summer
1. Bruises, scratches and other Minor Wounds: I was looking at my kids last night and saw signs of a good summer. Looking at Gigi’s long, lean, brown legs, I saw scratches, bruises, dried juice and the underside of her feet? Filthy! It has been warm here, in the Pacific Northwest. Warm weather finally came after spending weeks under the umbrella or damp sweatshirts. As soon as the sun peeked her rays out from behind the clouds, my kids peeled their clothes off like bananas and hit the yard. They hit it HARD too. No shoes, short shorts (and in the case of Jude, nothing at all sometimes) and lots of digging in the dirt.
2. Filth: Last night Gigi reported that Jude’s hair was dirty. Really dirty. We answered that we knew and carried on with our own activities – digging in the dirt for adults, also known as ‘gardening’. When I did finally get Jude in for a bath his hair had several (and yes, I exaggerate) pounds of sand, dirt and grime in his hair that had somehow materialized in the day and a half since we had last soaped and scrubbed him. I know that kids plus dirt equals a dirty (and happy) child, but I had to lean him back over my knees with his hair in the water, rubbing his scalp and hoping that gravity would help to get all of it out. I also had to SCRUB his body. The dirt did not want to wash off. When I washed his little face, there were actual water trails in the dirt, like tears, running through the dust and grime. The water, post bath, was yellowish brown from all of the dirt that came off of that child. Like I said, a good summer!
3. Willingness to Spend Time With Your Sibling: Jude and Gigi have had enough summer that they are actually choosing to spend it together. Every waking moment, pretty much anyhow, finds them side by side, imagining up wonderful stories and amazing worlds. To her credit, Gigi does an excellent job of catering to Jude’s interests and changing the play to keep him interested and engaged – a hard task when working with a wily three year old brother. But there has been enough summer that our kids found their rhythm together, they figured out a friendship that will last them their whole lives. We always tell our kids that they are best friends, when all else fails, even when Mama and Daddy are gone, they will always be there for one another. That was the point of having two. This summer they realized that indeed, they are best friends. (Granted, they still scream, fight and beat on one another, but the good side is prevailing most of the time.)
4. Non-Stop Action!: Our kids cannot sit still for more than a moment. They are busy from the moment they rise (thankfully 7:30 these days, not 5:30) until the moment they lay their heads on their pillows and crash to sleep.  I was trying to photograph their dirty little legs last night, when Jude stated going silly on me and Gigi followed suit. The next thing I knew their filthy little bodies were skipping off into the sunset, in pursuit of the next big summer adventure and one another…
-
Daddy & Boyo
07.31.11 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Daddy & Boyo
