huck blog

so long, shans ...

September 23, 2009, 8:32 am

The three of us are heading to Brooklyn this afternoon to say our final goodbye to my best friend Shannon. She’s leaving us tomorrow, heading back home to Texas to begin a new life in Austin, the town where we met 15 years ago. To say we’ll miss her is a ridiculous understatement. She’s not only been a huge part of our New York life for the past 12 years, but she’s been like an aunt to Huck. She waited for many hours while I gave birth to him that March evening 4-1/2 years ago and was the first non-parent/non-hospital worker to hold him when he was just an hour old. She has proceeded to visit him as often as she can, always giving him special attention, always making him laugh very hard, always reading him a book before bed. The two started a very special cinemagraphic relationship about a year ago when Troy began directing their “Huck the Great” film series. Nothing makes this mama happier than watching her child happy, and when Shannon’s around there’s a lot of happiness.

A few weeks ago we were driving around Virginia listening to a CD Shannon made for us. Huck and I were particularly crazy about Brandi Carlile's bluesy song "Dreams" and played it several times in a row as we sang along loudly. From the back seat Huck asked me how the song made me feel and I told him “happy and excited.” He added, “With just a squirt of sadness, right?” And that sums things up about now. We Schremmers are happy and excited for all the extra time we’ve spent with Shannon in the last few weeks, happy and excited for the adventure she’s about to begin, happy and excited for future visits from her … but we’ve got a squirt of sadness, too. Make that a couple squirts.

We love you, Shannon, and we'll miss you more than our words can say. Caden and Cole, your auntie is on her way.

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yet another good point

September 21, 2009, 1:21 pm

This morning whilst folding laundry Huck and I had a very passionate theological conversation about how God wants us to love each other more than anything else. In my infinite parental wisdom I carefully crafted my monologue to include the boy in Huck's pre-K class who tried to take his magnet toy during free time last week, gently pointing out that Huck should even try to love him. (Or at least not hate his guts.) Finally I concluded my lesson by saying, "It's easy to love me, right? But it's not always easy to love other people." And then he said, "Well, Mommy, it's sometimes hard to love you," followed by examples of my unlovableness that had something to do with being mean and rude and cranky.

And then I continued folding laundry and let him finish the lesson.

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little red lighthouse festival

September 21, 2009, 1:20 pm

This weekend we joined our neighborhood to celebrate the Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge down by the river. And just to make the whole thing extra celebratory, Huck wore a bunch of Mardi Gras necklaces the whole time.

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good point

September 17, 2009, 1:17 pm

I’m having trouble remembering to feed myself lunch when Huck is at school and therefore by the time I pick him I’m starving to death. Before bed last night Huck said to me, “You need to always remember to eat lunch, Mama.” I thanked him for the reminder and told him that I had indeed eaten lunch earlier. He said, “You know how I knew you’d eaten lunch today? Because you didn’t eat all my snacks at the playground.”

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school days

September 15, 2009, 8:25 pm

And just like that, Huck is a real live school boy. On Monday morning he said more than once, "But I just want to go to school right now!" It was hard for him to wait clear till 12:20. When I pick him up he's always very excited to see me, usually shoving a work of art into my face and reporting what was eaten (and not eaten) for lunch. But then I am abandoned for his friends who are all equally hyper and filled with testosterone. Huck, Parker, Luca, Valentino and little brothers Marco and Lorenzo run down the sidewalk screaming and pushing and laughing and hitting until they get to the playground where they stop just long enough to take their backpacks off and then begin again. For the next two hours they run, play, jump, fight, shout and occasionally cry. We moms and dads try to keep up with them but eventually give up and talk to each other about school lunch. Huck (and his friends) fall asleep very quickly at night, barely making it through dinner. They are exhausted, overly stimulated and outrageously happy.

On the first day of school I thought we parents were going to sit in the room with our children, but it suddenly became clear that we were expected to drop them off and return in an hour. Thankfully Huck (and his classmates) all accepted this, and we parents got to wander around the neighborhood trying to look like we had a purpose in life. I must have told Huck that I’d be right outside the room because when the first full day came on Friday he said, “Are you going to stand in the hallway outside my classroom today for the whole two and a half hours?” Wincing at the thought of how heartbreaking (and boring) that would be, I told him that no, I would just go home and then come back in time to pick him up. Then he said, “Or you could do errands.” I again said no, I would just go home. And then he got a certain funny look on his face and said, “Or you could get a job.”

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just like his father

September 11, 2009, 2:25 pm

Today is Huck's first "full" day of school, which means two and a half hours. This is also the first day that he gets to eat school lunch, something he has waited for all summer. When I went to a parent orientation on Tuesday I learned that every Friday is pizza day, and Huck has been talking about this news non-stop. Yesterday he told me that he asked Ms. Dorothy in class if she knew what kind of pizza they'd be serving today. She told him it's usually cheese pizza but sometimes it's pepperoni. I'm about to pick him up. Can't wait to find out about the pizza.

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he loves it

September 9, 2009, 7:33 pm

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butterflies

September 9, 2009, 10:56 am

This afternoon is Huck’s first day of preschool, though this fact has not yet been mentioned in our home today. Throughout the summer we talked a lot about school with great anticipation, but in the elevator about a week ago some neighbors asked him if he was excited for school to start and he answered, “Not so much.” The other day he told me he had butterflies in his stomach from nervousness and NOT EXCITEMENT. I'm definitely to blame for this newfound anxiety because I’ve overdone it with my enthusiasm, talking about it way too much and asking the same questions over and over again. There’s no nervous butterflies in Mommy’s tummy. Mommy can't wait for preschool to start! But I’ve taken his cue and tried to find other things to talk about, knowing deep inside that once he walks into that classroom with me in a few hours and sees the colorful rug, bulletin boards, fun learning stations and his buddies Valentino, Parker, Luca and Lucia that he will finally feel that wonderful first-day-of-school exciting sensation. I know I will.

Last night during our family prayer (which is each of us telling God something we're thankful for from that day) I said, "Thank you, God, for the summer I've had with Huck and thank you for the fall that we're about to have together," trying to remind him that just because he's off to school for two and a half hours everyday doesn't mean we're not going to still see each other a whole lot. He then prayed, "And thank you for the winter we'll have together!" Because he loves winter most of all.

(Thanks for the spring, too.)

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math whiz

September 8, 2009, 9:11 am

An example of cute things I find lying around the apartment sometimes.

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good old virginia fun

September 7, 2009, 12:07 pm

Our annual Labor day weekend trip to Uncle Ronnie's and Aunt Dottie's in Winchester, Virginia found us once again being eaten by a shark and captured by King Kong at Dinosaur Land, eating apple cinnamon donuts and playing in the sand box at the orchard, trapped inside beautiful caves and a delightful mirror maze at Skyline Caverns, meeting beautiful baby Emma Belle and playing on the slip 'n slide with Bryce and Carter. There were also lots of whoopie cushion antics, Play Doh hamburgers, home made kaleiodoscopes, firecrackers on the driveway, sitting out on the deck looking at the full moon, People magazines, glasses of wine, ice cream bars, puzzles and putt-putt. And because Troy claims he is most relaxed when doing manual labor, he helped move an apple tree. In short, it was a perfectly wonderful weekend.

One of my favorite moments was when Troy was going on and on telling Huck not to play with the five layer bean dip. Huck was getting annoyed and finally said to me in a hushed tone, "Daddy's being an idiot." It's hard to tell your child not to use the word "idiot" when his use of the word "idiot" makes you laugh for ten minutes straight.

Next stop: first day of preschool on Wednesday.

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summer pals

September 2, 2009, 10:56 am

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last days of summer

September 1, 2009, 8:17 pm

We got to spend today at a beautiful lake somewhere in New Jersey with some of our favorite moms and kids. Best of all, this was a man-made lake with no fish, which meant that mama got to swim, too. Summer, why can't you last forever?

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