I finally hit a deer with my car tonight.

Man, that line makes it look like I’ve been trying for years to make that happen! I guess, living in relatively rural NJ for several years, it was bound to happen. I always thought that I would be travelling some back road when it did, though. Tonight, I was heading down a pretty major street with plenty of businesses and homes on each side when I noticed brake lights coming on in front of me. As I began to slow, I saw, out of the corner of my eye, a deer standing on the right side of the road looking for a break in traffic. Within a second or two, it was darting out into traffic and on a collision course with my car. I wasn’t able to brake in time and the front of the CR-V hit the deer “dead on” (pun intended) as it ran in front of the vehicle. There wasn’t too much impact, but the deer actually flew off to the left side, landing in the road and skidding onto the curb. I didn’t get a chance to watch it, as I needed to see how bad the damage was to the car and continue to drive in order to get off the road. Looking forward again, I saw that the driver’s side of the hood was pushed back and actually covered a couple of inches of the windshield. At the same time, I felt that the car was still controllable, so I pulled into the right lane and into the first parking lot that I could find. As I got out of the car to survey the damage, the first thing I noticed was the deer hair all over the front of my car. Next, I saw and smelled the coolant dripping slowly, but steadily from the radiator. I was not happy.

All of this would have been just a pain in the ass and merely quite inconvenient had I not been on my way to meet my sister and brother-in-law in Connecticut to pick up my mom so that she could spend the weekend (and my first Father’s Day as a dad!) with us. I had to call them on my sister’s cell phone to tell them to turn around since I would not be showing up at the meeting spot. This really sucked because we had really worked to make this happen around our schedules in addition to the fact that my mom has not seen the babies since late December.

Now the fun really begins with all the calls to insurance and body shops and getting a rental car for the next week, at least. What a bummer!

Chloe began to pull herself up in her crib today. I looked down at her while I was changing Gabriel’s diaper and there she was, up on one knee with her little hands wrapped around the slats of her crib. She looked up at me and smiled (a bit devilishly, I may add!) and laughed. I think she was quite proud of herself.

This follows last week’s realization that she could sit up by herself. I should point out that WE just realized it, she’s apparently known all along! This time, while giving Gabriel his bath in the kitchen, I went to check on Chloe who seemed to be a bit quieter than she usually is at that time of the night. When I turned the corner into their room, I saw her sitting up and putting her hands on the top rail of his crib. She was able to do this because his crib has yet to be lowered since he hasn’t shown any signs of pulling up yet.

It’s really amazing how quickly she is developing her ability to move around and get where she wants to go even though she isn’t crawling yet. As I type this, she is sitting on their blanket and appears to be closely examining the chair in our living room. No doubt checking out it’s future use as a standing aid! Each day just flies by and they get more and more adventurous and comfortable with their world.

Check out this [url=http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/129]incredibly interesting presentation from Microsoft Labs[/url] from the [url=http://www.ted.com/]TED[/url] conference. This is a pretty mind-blowing demo of a new technology that takes advantage of the many web-enabled social photo hosting sites and some really fantastic stitching algorithms from MS. Enjoy!

We had a rough, late (early?) night last night. Gabriel woke up about 11:30 PM (right around his usual time) and cried so hard and long that he actually woke Chloe – who is normally a very sound sleeper. And then they both went back and forth taking turns waking each other up until about 2am. That was fun. We ended up taking Chloe into bed with us to remove one half of the equation. At that point, they both slept soundly until it was time for their morning feeding. So, I’m dragging this AM.

Speaking of the babies, Gabriel spoke his first word the other day. Of course, it was a non-sense word, but it was [b]SO[/b] clear and he repeated it [b]so[/b] many times that I’m calling it his [i]unofficial[/i] first word. The word was “naduck”.

Actually getting out of the house the other day, I went for a good bike ride with John on Monday morning. We hit the [url=http://www.njskylands.com/pkkitt.htm]Sussex Branch Trail[/url] again in an attempt to ride all the way up to Newton. I didn’t think I would be able to go the whole way since this was the first real ride this season and we had a limited amount of time that morning. I was right, we only made it up to Andover. But I feel like I could have done the whole thing if we had more time. Although the day began sort of gray and cloudy, it cleared up and was a perfect May morning.

You may have to click the “Play” button twice to get it to play.

Chloe isn’t [i]really[/i] saying “Dada”…at least not in reference to me, but it sure is cute! And I have no idea how Gabriel learned to make that cool noise with his tongue. I don’t think I was able to do that until I was about 11! The kid is [i]obviously[/i] a genius!

This has been what some would call “an interesting week” full of stuff we didn’t see coming.

On Thursday, we had our post-op follow-up appointment with Gabriel’s urologist to see how he was doing after the surgery. We were relieved to hear that everything was looking pretty good and very relieved that his catheter was removed. The catheter made diaper changes very difficult and it was almost impossible to do them alone, so going back to normal was very well received. On the downside, it looks like he may need some additional surgery to “touch up” some of the work that was done. This is at least 6 months away, so it’s not something we’ll be dealing with right away.

Additionally, Thursday night was the return of Gabriel’s throwing up. This time, he did it right after he ate and Robyn had just put him down for the night. I was at class, but luckily, Robyn’s mom was there to assist her in the cleanup and in getting Gabey back to sleep. The poor little guy sometimes gets so worked up that he gags and that triggers the whole puking thing.

Last night was one of the longest, most difficult nights we’ve had with the kids yet. Chloe and Gabriel both have colds that are causing them to be stuffy and a little cranky and made sleeping an ordeal for all four of us. Robyn and I were up most of the night holding one of the kids, trying to lull them asleep. We may have gotten three hours of sleep. On top of this, we altered our regular schedule to accomodate Hannah’s birthday party brunch today so after getting moving in the morning, I had to take the time to put Gabriel’s car seat back together after dismantling it for cleaning yesterday. He threw up in it as we were attempting to leave the house for a shopping trip yesterday, leaving a puddle of mixed-vegetable-smelling vomit at the bottom. Yuck!

The other day I noticed that our downstairs toilet had a little river of water running out of the bottom. I didn’t pay much attention to it, but then I nearly panicked when I left the house to teach class that night and all I could think about was coming home to our entire first floor covered in 3 inches of water. So, I’ve decided to turn off the water supply and watch for further developments before taking any action. Hopefully, it can be fixed by tightening the the nuts or at worst, the seal that needs to be replaced. Another thing to add to my list of stuff to do!

You know, after writing these things down…I’m trying to think of more stuff that took us by surprise and I just can’t think of anything else…I guess it wasn’t such a bad week after all! However, it was enough to get me sidetracked enough to not follow through on my Mom Stories. Watch in coming weeks for some more funny ones….

On tap this month:
[list]
[*]Maboroshi – Kitaro (Millennia)
[*]Call Me When You’re Sober – Evanescence (The Open Door)
[*]Three Little Birds – Bob Marley (One Love: The Very Best of)
[*]Not Alone – All that Remains (The Fall of Ideals)
[*]We’ve Got Everything – Modest Mouse (We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank)
[*]Weak And Powerless – A Perfect Cirde (Thirteenth Step)
[*]Dragon Attack – Queen (The Game)
[*]Raoul and the Kings of Spain – Tears for Fears (Gold)
[*]Molly Mustang – Pete LaPlante
[*]Redemption – Shadows Fall (Threads Of Life)
[*]Hysteria – Def Leppard (Hysteria)
[*]DMV – Primus (Pork Soda)
[*]Eulogy – Tool (Aenima)
[/list]
We start off quietly with some old school Kitaro. I searched long and hard for this album because it was the first “new age” music I ever bought. We used to listen to this tape while we practiced in the short-lived Worcester Bujinkan Dojo back in the late 80s. I lost my tape (along with a bunch of training tools!) when Tim up and moved back to Maine and I’ve pretty much been looking to replace it ever since.

In fact, several of this month’s songs could be considered old school, I guess. Dragon Attack, Hysteria and DMV are songs that remind me of my younger days.

And then we have Molly Mustang – a Pete LaPlante original that is definitely a classic in my eyes.

You may notice that some of these songs are repeats from last month…well, I just couldn’t get enough of them. Sometimes you don’t get sick of a song in just 30 days.

Got any suggestions for next month’s list? Drop me a line in the comments and let me know!

Since Sunday was Mother’s Day and I wrote about my Mom yesterday, I wanted to dedicate the whole week to stories that involve moms in one form or another. So, here goes….

Back in the late 70s before it was against the law to not wear seatbelts, my mom was driving my sister and I to visit my grandmother in [url=http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=sturbridge,+ma&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1]Sturbridge[/url]. If I remember correctly, my mom owned a huge, green station wagon and, to be honest I’m not even sure if that car had any seatbelts. So, we were sitting, un-seatbelted, in the back seats watching the winter scenery pass by. As we came around a corner, I recall feeling the rear end of the car start to twitch around and slide a bit as we hit a patch of ice.

My mom, in a very calm, fighter pilot type voice said just two words – “Hold on…”

A couple of seconds later, the car slid across the center of the road and we crashed into a tree or a hill or something on the side of the road. Luckily, my sister and I were fine although I think we both ended up on the floor and my mom was okay as well. We got out and a passing driver must have stopped to see if we were alright because I seem to remember the car being towed away.

This memory of my mother’s voice telling us to hold on is seared into my brain and it makes me laugh every time I think about it.

Yesterday was Mother’s Day. Robyn’s first as a “real” mom – with kids who were actually outside of her own body, that is. I tried my best to take some of the burden of caring for Chloe and Gabriel off of her shoulders for the day. Taking them for a long walk, handling the feedings by myself and giving Robyn a chance to get out of the house to get a pedicure were my Mother’s Day presents to her. Later in the day, my mother in law and Jay and Douglas came over for dinner. Patty and Hannah were not feeling well, so they stayed home. It was nice, as always, to see them. We don’t all get together as frequently as we used to.

I spoke with my mom earlier in the afternoon and I felt bad that we would not see her on Mother’s Day, but we’re planning on having her come down sometime in the next few weeks – the first time since the holidays. I am grateful that my cousin had invited her to have dinner with them on the holiday. It’s sometimes hard to live so far from my mom and I sometimes find myself missing her at odd times. My mom is not your “average” mom (whatever that is!). She’s not like the other “mothers” who have been or are now part my life, but she’s the real mom who’s been there since I was born.

My Mom is sort of a hard woman to get to know. She’s not one of those people who, when involved in a conversation, will simply offer up unrequested bits of information about herself. Looking for her opinion on something? You better be prepared to really ask for it. Over the past several years, I have been trying to get to know my mother as a person – not just as the woman who gave birth to and raised me – but as the person she was before I was born and as the person she is today. Sure, I think I know the woman remembered from my childhood, but so much of those memories are tainted by imperfect memory and the seemingly happy twist that I’ve (perhaps) subconsciously put on things. Sometimes, getting information from my mom is a bit like pulling teeth. The questions I ask are sometimes very vague and open ended and don’t produce the results that I’m looking for. Sometimes, with enough digging, I get some unexpected answer and sometimes, I get a story that totally changes my perspective on my mother or my family or some past event that has faded from my memory.

My Mom doesn’t freely offer advice. Many of my friends complain that their mothers know too much about or are involved too closely with their daily lives. Not here. My mom is pretty much hands-off. At times in the past, that’s exactly what I needed. When you’re in your late teens, just experimenting with the freedoms that come with that age, no one wants their mother involved in their personal things. I appreciated her leaving me alone. I was probably not the best son that I could have been as I was largely absent and unavailable to her when she needed me. I think back on this time when my grandmother passed away and my mom got sick and was in the hospital and I am ashamed of myself for how selfish I was. I’ve never apologized to her for that. Looking back, the single piece of advice that I needed at that time was probably “Get over yourself and look at what is going on. Your family needs you.”

But now, I think I have learned a little more about what is important in life. After all, I am an adult now with a family of my own with a whole host of experiences both under my belt and plenty still to come. I want my mom to be involved in those personal things and to give me her opinions on the way that things should be done. I’ll either heed her advice or I won’t, but at least I’ll have something to go on. I want her to call us on the phone and remind us to rub Vix on the kids’ chests when they have a bad cough or to make sure that we have bread and milk in the house because there is some bad weather on the way. Sometimes, those stories of annoying, over-involved moms don’t sound so bad.

I’m not saying that my mother was not active in my upbringing. I was generally a pretty decent kid who didn’t need to be watched every moment of the day to make sure that I stayed out of trouble. Being a bit of a nerd, it was not until my late teens that I experimented with so many of the distractions that often lead much younger children astray. One thing for which I will always be grateful to my mom was her willingness to act as chauffeur during my early years of involvement with the martial arts. She never really questioned my desire for more training. I think she saw that this was something positive in my life that was also very important to me. Maybe she just didn’t have anything to do with her Tuesday and Thursday nights for two years of her life? Whatever the reason, she had the prescience to see that this was a good thing for me. It has probably turned out to be the single biggest positive impact on the direction of my life.

Undoubtedly, I get the reserved, quiet side of my personality from my mom. This side of my character is one with which I struggle and I find myself having to work hard to overcome when quiet and reserved are just not appropriate. Because of this, I find that I am often frustrated by my mom’s quiet demeanor. Sometimes I just want her to be more aggressive and come right out and tell me what she thinks or to tell me how she feels about something. But, another part of me says “Who are you to judge? This is who your mother is. She doesn’t try to change you so why should you try to change her?” I guess I somehow feel like she’s missing out on something by not speaking her mind. Or maybe I’m missing out on something by her not speaking her mind. I don’t know….

In any case, here’s to you, Mom on this day-after Mother’s Day! Love ya!

After his surgery the other day, we noticed that Gabriel had two little teeth popping up through his bottom gums. Chloe has had her two teeth for a few weeks now and Robyn and I were thinking that Gabey’s were going to take a while to appear because we didn’t feel anything when rubbing his gums. Sometimes these kids just surprise you in so many ways.