Inez is six. On her actual birthday, she had some sort of stomach flu. She threw up at school during her class’ Christmas party and got sent home. Her birthday party was postponed and she napped all afternoon. When she woke up we had a little family party for her and luckily, all the sad emotions from earlier in the day were easily forgotten.
The Birthday Clown (a tradition from my family) brought Gwen a hat. It was a $2 clearance hat from TJ Maxx that she wore the whole time we were shopping there a few days previous to Inez’s birthday. I tricked Gwen into thinking we weren’t going to buy the hat and that we had to put it back, but I actually bought it on the sly. She was pretty excited when she opened it, as you can see.
My Dad sent a copy of the poem Now We Are Six by A. A. Milne to Inez. She was so excited to turn six that she memorized it.
Personally, I love the ending:
But now I am Six,
I’m as clever as clever,
So I think I’ll be six now for ever and ever.
It’s not that I want her to stay six forever, but if she only could stop growing up so fast, that would be great.
I was reading a few of our old posts this morning when I stumbled on the brief—seemingly temporary—birthday post that Holly wrote for me on my birthday. In it, she promised that there was “more to come later.” I searched through all the other posts since then and wasn’t able to find this “more” that she mentioned. Hmmm. I did find her ode to James McAvoy though. So, that’s something.
So yesterday was Jonny’s 25th birthday and I had a bunch of great photos that I was going to scan for this post, but haven’t quite found the time yet. I have a feeling that Jon will be okay with that.
Well, I remember when my Mom was pregnant with her seventh child (Jon) and she and my Dad decided that if they had a girl then my sister Heather and I would get a bunk bed, but if they had a boy then Joe & James would get the bunk bed. I was six and therefore sad when Joe & James got the bunk bed (especially because Heather always tried to push me into the crack between the bed and the wall to scare me, but that’s a different story).
Fortunately, Jon has filled the bunk bed void with a lot of fun and great memories. A few classics spring to mind. For example there was the time that he tried to bleach his own hair, but having naturally black hair it turned a nice shade of orange. He wore a hat to school the next day, but that night he had a volleyball game where he wouldn’t be allowed to cover his orange head. He quickly scrambled and found a box of black hair dye. Well, he fixed his hair, but he also dyed his head black. I can see those gymnasium lights reflecting off of his scalp as if it were yesterday.
Probably one of my favorite memories of Jon was when we went to Arizona with the Wihongis and Joe & Liz. We were there for a few different events, like nearly going deaf from a Blue Angel that buzzed about 20 feet over us, the Aloha festival and scorp hunting to name a few. We also went to a little open house of sorts at our brother-in-law’s parent’s house where someone had made a delicious fruit dip. Joe, Liz, Jon & I were standing around the food and chatting and as I reached for the last piece of fruit to dip in the yummy dip Jon went to intercept the apple slice from my hand and in the process he got overly excited and some saliva fell from his mouth directly into the fruit dip. Well, we all nearly wet ourselves but no one thought to do anything about the dip, until later when we saw someone else eating some.
Jon is such a fun guy to have around. He’s always waiting in the shadows to jump out and scare you or try and start a snowball fight—just ask Ashley! He’s a great uncle and the girls love it when he’s around, which is more often now since he and Ashley are living downstairs from us! We’re so glad that he married Ashley and that she is part of our family.
We love you “Jo nathan” and hope that you had a great birthday! And for the record, I am glad that Heather and I didn’t get the bunk bed after all.
Oh, and here is one picture that I did manage to scan.
So when my oldest sister, Carol, had her first date with Gene I remember sitting on the couch in our living room in Anaheim watching the whole scene. He came in and met everyone that was there and I have this vivid memory where he was wearing a flannel shirt. I know that doesn’t sound right for a punk rocker, or “the blonde kid” as he was referred to by my Dad, but that is what was burned into my mind. Kristy (sister #2) asked me what I thought—which seems silly now because at the time I was maybe nine years old—and I said that he looked like a lumberjack (yet another piece to my memory puzzle to back up my flannel shirt rememberance). I didn’t disapprove, but I wasn’t sold right away either.
Well, it didn’t take Gene very long to take a hold of our hearts (except maybe for Dad, but that may be somewhat understandable considering the lame guys that Carol had dated previously—sorry Carol, although I’m sure you’d agree—and she was also his first daughter to date and get married). We’re so glad that he married into our crazy family because now he’s stuck.
But seriously, we love Gene. He is such an amazing person, father, husband, doctor, surfer, and “kid” to have around. We always feel welcomed, loved, uplifted and enlightened when we are around him. He is seriously a kid at heart and is always up for any adventure.
I even remember being at their house in San Diego and Carol had to tell Gene to come in from skateboarding so that he wouldn’t disturb the neighbors late at night. That was probably three or four years ago. Gene will be the 80 year old surfer.
We know that you’ll never live too far from the ocean or your year-round perfect weather, but please come visit more often! We do have good snowboarding here and I’m sure that Carol could turn that into some sort of field trip for the girls. You’re always invited.
We love you Gene and hope you had a great birthday!
To my little niece Tori-
Happy 1st birthday cutie pie! I’m sad that you are not doing your elephant seal crawl anymore. I hope that you retain that skill though so that you can grow up with naturally mad dance skillz and maybe even become a b-girl on
SYTYCD. Although, knowing your
Mom & Dad they probably have higher aspirations for you.
Gwen would love to play with you again, so we hope to see you again before you get too old. We should get Lexie in on it as well, and the three of you could get into some trouble together. And I’m okay with the trouble as long as it’s three girls at the age of one instead of sixteen!
We love you Tori!
love, Aunt Holly, Uncle Dave, Inez & Gwen
Today is my niece’s 9th birthday. I had the privilege of caring for Tazzie when she was almost two for a few weeks. She has always been such a funny girl, although she’s become a little shy as she gets older and needs some time to warm up to us again before she feels comfortable. I blame her parents for living so far from us, but that’s a topic for another post. Here are a few of my favorite pictures of Taz:
Happy birthday to my niece Lexie! It’s her first birthday, she is one-third of the Kewish cousins born in September ‘06. We are so happy that Gwen will have two cousins her same age, especially when they get older. And although we haven’t met her yet, we think she is very cute! See?
