Ok, so here's one of the items from the lunches I was writing about. I figured I better go ahead and post some photographic proof after my rave review. This pig was an entree in the boys' lunch on Tuesday. Sara made an extra one for Bodie, so I actually got to see one in broad daylight before it was packed into a lunchbox! Normally I only get to see the tattered remains of what Sara created, after G and G get home from school and I rummage through their uneatens for a quick snack.

I presented this pig to Bodie at lunch, he got the biggest smile and uttered one word, "Piggy". Then he promptly picked off the nose and ears and popped them in his hungry little mouth. Next he picked up the rice ball, and I guess he didn't like the sticky texture since he set it right  back down. Thanks be to God for that, too, because I was starving!

He didn't get a second chance at it. I gave him an apple and slammed that pig like there was no tomorrow.

I apologize to my billions of readers all over the universe, for my lack of composition this summer. I've let you down, and I have no doubt you've all been wandering listlessly through the summer, unguided by my insight, like a throng of honeybees whose hive has vanished. I don't have an excuse. Well, I have a bunch of excuses, but I'm so wracked with guilt that each excuse I conjure up seems such a paltry exoneration, I can't summon the will to type it. However, I couldn't let this occasion pass without acknowledgement.

Today is our 14 year anniversary! I can't believe it . What an awesome girl I married. We've had such an incredible life so far! A really out of the ordinary journey, some might say. We had 7 super fun years together before adding these 3 little souls to the tribe, and as they say - you don't really experience life until you have kids. I think that's true.

When we got married, I know it sounds sappy, but I felt like the luckiest man on Earth. I really had no idea how lucky I was. It's hard to write about because I'm sitting here trying to think of appropriate words to convey how much happiness and growth Sara has brought me, but it's impossible! In short, I believe that Sara is some sort of super-human.

Sara is an alpha-female, in a quiet way. You don't want to mess with her, believe me. I've tried. Just ask the jackasses on the Good Ol' Boy Network known as the New Hanover educational system. Sara single handedly called to task the New Hanover Board of Education. She stood at a podium in front of them all and called them out, each of them sitting there with their brand new iPad 2, while the Special Needs kids in New Hanover county have less and less services due to the overnight "disappearance" of $2.4 million! What the hell? Sara was the only one who even raised the  question, "What happened to the money?!" They figure most parents of kids with autism or other disability are way too bogged down, frazzled and drained to do any research. They're right about that. Most parents aren't like Sara, staying up all night many nights a week, trying to decipher the best path to take with Gavin. Calculating the most effective use of these critical developmental years. Often times I've risen at 4 a.m. to start a pot of coffee, and Sara is in the kitchen just finishing the lunches for the boys after another all-nighter doing research on autism, or working on Snugfits, or folding laundry, or planning meals for the week….

Speaking of lunches, another bit of evidence on why I think Sara is beyond-human, is the lunch boxes she packs for Gavin and Garrett. You've got to see these things! They're like something straight out of a magazine. The boiled eggs are formed into little shapes like fish, cars or bears. The sandwiches are neatly pressed in a "crust eliminator" thingy that makes them look like some appetizer at an upscale Parisian bistro. The meat and cheese for the crackers is always cut into little stars or flower shapes with a cookie cutter. Its unbelievable. The cupcakes are always decorated with faces or designs which could make the cover of any magazine. And it's all done with no food dyes or preservatives: Feingold Diet! I keep telling her she's got to photograph these lunches before the boys destroy them at school. Photography isn't on the agenda at 2 a.m. understandably. Maybe I could get my lazy butt out of bed earlier and do a photoshoot for her, I really want her to post some pics of these lunches on the blog. Case in point: friday night we went to dinner with our good friends and their 2 girls, all the kids recognized another patron at an adjecent table as one of the second grade teachers' assistants. After a warm greeting with multiple hugs and high fives (it's funny how kids get so excited to see their teachers out in public, isn't it?) she stood up and addressed our table. "Okay," she said,"I've got to know which one of you parents is the one who makes Gavin and Garrett's lunches everyday. How in the world do you make all of those cute little shapes and designs? Its like opening a work of art everyday for me. I look forward to it just as much as they do!" Sara just blushed and said thanks. She didn't reveal any secrets.

Furthermore, the highlight of my boys' school day has got to be reading the note Sara packs in there everyday. It's a cute little joke or riddle of the day, then she adds a thoughtful insight about something fun they'll do that day or something she remembers about them from babyhood. Its just a sweet little reminder for them about how much she loves them, but I'm sure it helps them plow through the stresses of Kindergarten and Second Grade. Now, does anyone out there need any more evidence that my wife is the most brilliant woman on Earth?

So, what do we have planned to mark our 14th year of holy matrimony? Same thing we do every Sunday. We're getting bagels at the bagel joint, going down to the beach where our boys will roll in the sand, Sara will lounge on her bright yellow chair like the beach goddess she is, and I will rip up some tasty waves with my board like the Izzy Paskowitz I wish I could be. Okay, by "rip up", I mean trying not to drown whilst surfing, and hopefully not tearing the new beach shorts Sara got me. Hey, at least I look cool when I'm carrying my board to the water! Cowabunga. Then tonight, we'll hit the local fish joint where kids eat free on Sunday, Bloody Marys are 2 bucks, and the fish is fried so deeply it could qualify as a finalist in the dessert category at the state fair. It's a classic!

 

Bodie is the most even tempered 2 year old, at least when contrasted to the other two mood swinging kids in the house. He's got this uncanny ability to take things in stride, and just go with the flow. The other day at the swimming pool, his Earth ball disappeared, and Bodie didn't throw the slightest fit. He just kept looking for it everywhere, and now and then he'd say "We can find it Daddy." My other 2 boys would have been frantic with distress. We never did find the ball, by the way. He decided it would be easier to find one at Target later on. "We can go to Target after dis," he announced. He adjusted his goggles, then continued his romp in the shallow end.

Bodie has picked up on some of his older brothers' emotional outbursts, however. It's just learning by osmosis.  Actually, their eruptions haven't been so bad lately, since we started the Feingold diet and cut out the food dyes. It really works! Food dyes are pure evil, it turns out. Do your own research.

Anyway, Garrett is especially funny when he's mad, like a furious little Donald Duck. Last weekend Garrett was super tired, crabby, and ready for bed. Out of the blue, Gavin scared him from behind with a loud noisemaker he got from a party. Garrett spun around and went off like a pack of firecrackers on Gavin. "I'm wilwy, wilwy, wilwy, wilwy ANGWY at you, GAVIN! UHHH!" Poor kid. I know the feeling. I get crabby too when I'm tired.

When Bodie gets mad at me for something like helping him get undressed for the bath, he only yells a little bit. He'll say "I wanna do it, Daddy! I WANNA DO IT" To which I'll calmly respond "Are you mad at dad?" mainly because I love his response of late, which is "I'm not mad, I'm just ANGWY!!"

Really though, Bodie is just content to glide through life with a mischievous smirk on his face most of the time. His terrible two tantrums are few and far between - I hope I'm not jinxing it - but he almost always does what he's told the first time I tell him. Now, what kind of two year old is this? It's really mind boggling. I'll say "Boys, get your shoes on and climb in the Jeep." And 3 minutes later, Bodie will be standing by the Jeep with shoes in hand (since he struggles to put them on). Gavin and Garrett will most likely be ignoring my directive until they hear me say "Goodbye guys, we are leaving."

Getting him to eat is a different story, however. He thinks everything is yucky, except for french fries and chicken nuggets. I don't know how he survives, since we don't make his food of choice more than once or twice a week. We don't give in to his demands. We want our kids to enjoy all types of food. Sara is an incredible cook, and she'll be darned if she's going to waste her talents with frozen nuggets. Bodie usually eats a good breakfast, at least, mainly because he's famished from his rejection of the previous night's fare. Hopefully he'll get past this picky stage like his brothers did, without it stunting his growth! (Can that really happen?)