Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Two October Birthdays, One October Anniversary

October is a very big month here at Casa hush. First comes DD's birthday, followed a week later by our wedding anniversary (7 Year Itch, anyone?), then DS's birthday, then Halloween.

If we had known then that we'd be so fertile around Christmastime, we probably would have re-thought the whole fall wedding idea. That said, I remain a huge fan of fall weddings. We got married in a large-ish Midwestern city, on one of those unseasonably warm, sunny October Saturdays. It was something like 70 degrees outside. We were such lucky bastards.

Every year on our anniversary we break out the photo album. This was the first year the kids really noticed the photos, and seemed to enjoy looking at them. I have to pat myself on the back a little bit: my wedding gown has aged really well. It was a form-fitting, lace-embellished gown, in the style of Monique Lhuillier. I think some of our guests thought it looked very conservative and maybe even a bit grannyish back in 2004, but it would fit right in with today's bridal fashions. Of all people, it was my mother who convinced me that it was, in fact, The Dress. She urged me not to go with the type of strapless, poufy skirt number that was all the rage circa 2001-2005. That was the first and only piece of fashion advice my mother ever gave me. And 7 years later, I still have to say: Hey thanks, mom. You were right.

So, DD is now 2 and DS is now 4. We no longer have any children in diapers, nor drinking from bottles, nor sleeping in cribs. Mostly we all sleep fine at night - if they wake up and get lonely, the kids just crawl into our ginormous bed. We seriously thought this time would never come. It is so good.

Halloween is the last of our Big 4 October events. We have 2 parties to go to this weekend, and on Monday we'll do some trick-or-treating in our friends' neighborhood. We live too far out in the country to ever get any trick-or-treaters ourselves. DS wants to dress up as either Iron Man or Captain America. Bummer. The days of my son in cute, cuddly Halloween attire are apparently over. DD is going as a bumble bee. I know it won't be long before she asks to be a frickin' princess. Gah. My friend who is Halloween-obsessed and also has a 4-year-old, was lamenting the fact that her daughter chose a "racy kitten" costume this year. Major bummer.

In other news, there is an older girl at DS's school who has a major crush on him. She keeps drawing him notes with stories and pictures depicting their future together. It is really too funny. The girl's mom approached me after class yesterday and joked about how we're going to be future in-laws. DS seems oblivious to it, and simply says "yeah, she's my friend." I think it's his utter nonchalance that keeps her coming back for more.

14 comments:

mom2boy said...

Happy October to the whole Hush household!!! Congrats on making it through and enjoying (most of) the ride. It really is inspiring to hear about parent marriages that make it and make it look like something worth working for.

Tate is recycling Batman from last year. Yay!

Cloud said...

Happy birthdays and anniversary!

My wedding dress was also a bit conservative and probably not in fashion. It was certainly not what I had in mind when I started looking for a dress for my beach wedding. But I loved it then, and I love seeing the pictures of me in it now.

Maria said...

So, are we going to get to see pictures of this fantastic dress? ;-)

My daughter has an admirer as well (and it's mutual), and they both have the kind of blase/innocent attitude toward it as you describe. It's so very cute and sweet.

Jac. said...

Congrats on another anniversary! And making it through the baby years unscathed.

DS is doing Halloween as Spiderman. DH is accompanying him as the Green Hulk. You may recall that last year DS was Buzz Lightyear and DH went as Woody. DH is awesome about these things. DD is going as a dragon, a cuddly, recycled-costume dragon).

DS also has a girlfriend - it's the girl next door! She's a little bit older (6) and she luuuuuurvs him. He likes her a lot but is quite insistent that he is going to marry me when he grows up (incidentally, can someone give me some advice about what to say to that.... I'm torn between thanking him for being so darned cute and such a momma's boy, and wanting to make him understand why that will never ever happen - thoughts?)

the milliner said...

Happy Birthdays & Anniversary!

DS has chosen to be an owl this year, so, yay! at least one more year of cute, cudly costumes. He's beyond excited about Hallowe'en this year, which is fun.

We'll also try trick-or-treating this year. Though I suspect that DS will be scared by it, but we'll try it and see.

hush said...

@mom2boy - Thank you! Recycled costumes are the best. I wish DS had gotten the memo on that one.

@Cloud - I would love to see a picture of your gown or something like it.

@Maria - Here's a link to a dress that looks similar to mine, except the bottom of my dress was not as mermaidy as this one, and mine really only had lace around the bodice and shoulders instead of all over like this one does:

http://www.peridress.com/-Modern-Trousseau-Gallery-Wedding-Dress-Style-lauren.html

@Jac - Your DH is such a good sport. Mine has a mild phobia of wearing costumes that I like to tease him about. About what to say to your son who wants to marry you someday, you know, I'm wondering if he thinks marriage means when you just really really love someone and will all your life. Maybe just focus on the definition, and show him some pictures of your wedding, etc, until it clicks for him. I remember not long ago DS would say similar sweet, well-intentioned things about wanting to marry his sister [insert Kentucky joke here], and that's what worked for us.

@the milliner - An owl! Too cute. Enjoy one more year of the cuddly! Hope trick-or-treating goes well.

paola said...

@Jac
DD (yes, you read right) wants to marry me and although I was thrilled to still be her favourite, I did inform her that a mother can't marry her daughter or son otherwise she'll have to go to prison.

She switched to saying ok we can just live together forever and ever! I replied that as much as I love her I do hope that one day she will find someone she loves even more than she loves me who she would prefer to live with, but until she does she can live here with me and the others who choose to stay. She was happy with that answer.

@Hush
My wedding outfit has stood the test of time pretty much too. I go married in a Max Mara jacket and pants and although it was rather unusual to be wearing slacks, friends who have known me for years thought it was much more representative of me than a wedding dress would have been.

Congratulations for the big three. I remember having the Halloween conversation last year and can't believe a whole year has gone by.

Anonymous said...

Happy Anniversary! Very exciting. We just celebrated our 15th last month, and I still love my dress. I also love that I still love it despite the fact the my MIL told me I would "regret it for the rest of my life." It was emerald green which threw some people. Whatever.

We are all excited for Halloween here, too. Girlie is Spider Man this year and the boyo is a Ninja. The big news for me is that I didn't have to sew anything this year. YAY!

No boyfriends/girlfriends here yet. Which is fine by me! Good luck with that!

Don't you love that feeling of going to bed and knowing that there's a really good chance you'll get to sleep undisturbed until morning? I still appreciate that every single night. Glad you're there!

Unknown said...

Uh, thanks Blogger for eating my comment. Boo.

@Got It Ma - hooray for emerald green! I nearly chose a deep red silk, but my hubby expressed a slight preference for white(but ultimately left it to me to choose), so I did white with a deep red sash, and I'm cool with it.

@Hush, Happy Anniversary to you guys and birthdays to the kiddos. I love how *content* and happy you sound in this post.

I'm confused about "racy kitten" costume for a 4yo?! Who makes these, and why would anyone buy one? Don't we mamas get veto power over the skanky stuff for at least a while longer?! Or am I misinterpreting something?

eta said...

How nice to hear a story--and more in comments, too!--about the calmer, sheath-y wedding dress option. We celebrated our 10th in August, & I too still like my dress, which I even got to wear once more about a year after the wedding.

My kids are going as characters from a book we read this summer. It's a fave book, one I'm thrilled they love as much as I do, but absolutely no one is going to have any idea what they are. Even when they explain it. Elder (8yo) just realized this about a week ago, & asked me about it. I thought as fast as I could, & I came up with the idea that, at Halloween, you can dress up to get to pretend to be something you are excited about, or you can dress up to impress others. I also said either is an okay choice, & sometimes you can do both at the same time (like when he wanted to be a pharaoh), but that if you do dress up in a way you like that people won't know, you shouldn't let people's questions diminish your enjoyment of getting to be what you want. I have no idea if that's actually a good way of presenting his problem in a way that can help him find a way out, but I hope at least I didn't make it worse.

Whew--that must've been on my mind more than I thought! Thanks for letting me share that one. Congrats on your October festivities. We have some similar birthdays here, & at Halloween I generally feel that the roller coaster of the holidays is just cresting the first big hill & I can hear the clicking of the chain speeding up as we start to fly downhill towards Thanksgiving & the winter holidays. Hope you all have a good ride for the rest of the year, too.

hush said...

@Paola - Ooh, your wedding outfit sounds dreamy! Yeah, I can't believe another Halloween has already come and gone either.

@Got It, Ma! - Happy 15th! Emerald green dress? Swoon. Lurve that. Was your MIL trying to be a walking cliche with that comment?! Gah!

@Anandi - Blogger eats up so many good ones. Argh! Glad you re-commented though so we can talk about this "racy kitten" costume. Having actually seen it in person on said 4-year-old, it wasn't so bad. I wouldn't have called it "racy" per se, except I was quoting her mom and I can kind of see it is in a grey area. It was a black body suit that covered everything except head and hands, and had this feathery fuschia trim around wrists, ankles and which made the tail. It was not homemade. On a grown woman it would have been totally scandalous, but was fine on a child - maybe that's the litmus test?

@eta - Happy 10th! So cool you got to wear your dress again!

I'm loving your idea: "at Halloween, you can dress up to get to pretend to be something you are excited about, or you can dress up to impress others. I also said either is an okay choice, & sometimes you can do both at the same time (like when he wanted to be a pharaoh), but that if you do dress up in a way you like that people won't know, you shouldn't let people's questions diminish your enjoyment of getting to be what you want." Totally saving that one for future reference, thanks!!

Vacationland Mom said...

When is your DS birthday? Mine is 10/19. He just turned 1. Hooray for October boys! Is yours a good sleeper? Mine is currently this kind of sleeper: nurse all night (or atleast every 2 hours) and sleep next to mommy or no sleep for anyone! He has slept through the night (e.g. more than 5 hours at a stretch) a total of 3 times in his life. I am SOOO looking forward to the days when I can go to bed and not be woken up a million times!

hush said...

@Vacationland Mom - The 23rd. My DS has had low sleep needs since birth. The nurses in the delivery room kept saying over and over again how alert and wide-eyed he was - that should have been my first clue!

Those full night's rest days you're yearning for will be here within the next year, I bet. Hang in there!

Vacationland Mom said...

OMG that's weird- the nurses and midwife were saying that about my little monkey too!!! I can't wait to sleep... thank you for the reassurance. Also thank you for the comments on my blog :) It means a lot to me.