huck blog

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time machine

August 26, 2007, 2:16 pm

Ten years ago today Troy and I made New York City our home. We love to play the game where we ask each other: “Can you imagine if we could have seen into the future back then? What would we have thought?”

Here’s what I think we would have thought. We would have been very relieved to see old Max still around and we would have wondered where Molly was. We would have been quite happy that Shannon, Susan and Trent still lived nearby, sad that the few other friends we had here would have moved away, thrilled that Heather, Aaron, John and Shana would eventually join us, devastated that Ronnie and Dottie would no longer be in New Jersey, tickled that Michael, Sharron and Mark would become such close friends of ours, shocked that we would have made a movie with Dezi and Chris, and curious about all these other wonderful New Yorkers in our lives.

I think we would have been very confused that Troy was working at some church on Fort Washington Avenue, wherever that was. I would have been troubled that I didn't have a job.

But what would have really caught our attention is this cute little kid whose pictures are all over our walls and whose toys are all over our floors. We would have been pretty surprised to see Huck running around like he owns the place, and I know we would have been pretty excited to meet him. I’m convinced that we would have happily anticipated the next ten years, finally getting to where we are now. It’s pretty impossible to picture life in ten more years, but we welcome them with achy backs and bags under our eyes, hoping for a little more sleep and a lot more time with this boy of ours.

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hot in the city

August 25, 2007, 3:06 pm

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broadway huckleberry

August 19, 2007, 3:08 pm

A few nights ago Troy and I met the Webbs in Times Square to see a Broadway musical called “The Drowsy Chaperone” while Huck spent the evening with Gracie and her parents. As we walked into the theater a sweet usher named HUCK directed us toward our seats. Because of my motherly transformation over the past couple of years I couldn’t stop my shrill voice from shouting, “Is your name really Huck? My son’s name is Huck! I’ve never met another Huck before!” After almost hyperventilating over all that, I happily sat back in my seat, beloved high school drama teacher on one side and Pappy T on the other, and didn’t stop smiling for almost two hours. I love musical theater and I love Broadway and few things make me happier than when I’m sitting there waiting for the lights to go down and the curtain to open. In this particular musical a man sits in a chair feeling a little blue and decides to listen to one of his favorite musicals. Within a few minutes his New York City apartment turns into a Broadway stage as the musical comes to life right before our very eyes! What starts out as quiet music playing on his record player becomes a full blown orchestra rising from the pit just a few feet away from us. This is my "Fantasy Island" fantasy. It was so magical and wonderful and made me very excited to share all of this with Huck one day soon. Judging from his reaction to the Rockettes, I think he might like musical theater. And judging from his outrageous imagination, excellent dance moves and beautiful singing voice, I think he might be a Broadway star himself someday!

(Or an eccentric basketball player.)

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greene days

August 14, 2007, 8:54 pm

Gus came to hang out with us for a few days and brought his mom and dad, too! We went to the zoo and played at playgrounds and drew chalk trains and bubbles and sometimes shared toys and ate lots of pasta and read lots of books and played kind of rough and took a couple baths and occasionally grabbed each other and kissed. (Huck and Gus had fun together, too.)

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weekly trip to the bodega

August 13, 2007, 3:37 pm

Slowly spending seven bucks from Grandma and Grandpa, one twenty-five cent ice cream sandwich at a time ...

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the sweetest thing

August 5, 2007, 9:33 pm

One of my favorite things Huck did while we were in Kansas last month was reminisce about his childhood. Everyday he would excitedly point to a field or a playground and say something like, “When I was a little girl I used to pick up sticks right there!” or “When I was a little boy I used to go down that slide!” These memories always made him so happy and I thought, wait, he knows he's making this up, right?

Huck is pee-pee trained and enjoys using most any toilet. (I knew we were onto something when he happily used the frightening airplane toilet.) However, when he needs to go number two he asks for a diaper. The other evening he was wrapped in a towel sitting on my lap after his bath when he sweetly said, “I’m afraid I might poop on you.” He's very polite.

When Huck really wants to be heard he says, “I need your attention.” When he really wants to be forgiven he says, “I’m sorry. I apologize.” (He always says this in the sweetest little voice you ever heard because he’s hoping we’ll decide to forget that time-out thing.) When he really wants a diaper he says, "I need privacy." And when he really wants to understand his mommy he says, "Are you frustrated?"

The other day Huck left me in bed and cheerfully shouted, “Have a great morning, Mama!” I now have a reputation around here for being the one who sleeps in, thanks to a very sweet Pappy T who almost always gets up with Huck and leaves me in bed till 8. Yesterday afternoon I caught the two of them innocently playing a game where they pretended to “sleep in like Mommy.”

Lately Huck holds onto my face when he’s ready to wake up and asks me in that really sweet voice, “Are you getting up, too?” Troy just recently read that it's good to answer drunken cavemen in the positive when you can and that "Yes ... later" is a nice alternative to the constant "no." So the other morning I figured it was a good time to test the theory when I answered him in my sweetest little voice before falling back to nighty-night for an hour all by myself.

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