Lessons in Motherhood

This is the blog that I’ve been dreading writing for almost a week now. I’ve tried to start it several times, but I just couldn’t figure out how to get the words out. Well, that and I thought that this whole episode would end happily and you, my dedicated blog readers, would not be the wiser. Anyway, it’s time to fell up so I’ll just tell you plain and simple…

We lost our cat, Anubis.

There I said it. We lost him. He didn’t die. Nope. We lost him. When we went to Buffalo two Saturdays ago, we think that he must have snuck out of the house before we left. Then, we left for the airport and didn’t realize he was missing until we came back on Tuesday. Ugh. Go ahead. Judge me. I’m a terrible pet owner. I left my declawed cat outside by himself for four days. It’s horrible. It’s terrible, and what’s worse, we haven’t found him. We’ve tried. Trust me. We’ve walked around with flashlights, called for him all across the neighborhood, hung signs, sent emails, even posted info on a neighborhood Facebook page. We have tried, but he is gone.

Then, a woman that lives in the neighborhood offered to let us use her “humane” trap to try to catch him. She has a lot of experience trapping her own cat who gets spooked and runs away. I resisted the offer for a long time because what if I trap a skunk or possum or some alien creature? That would be my luck.

Anyway, I gave in tonight and decided to try the trap. Then, as I was walking in the neighborhood, I ran into a different neighbor who told me that she heard a cat meowing really loud at 2am. Now, if you’ve ever stayed over at my house, you know that Anubis is about the loudest animal on the planet in the early morning hours. He’s obnoxious. It had to be him. So, I just walked over to this woman’s house where there are woods and placed the trap with some nasty smelling mackerel in it.

I will let you know who or what I trap tomorrow, but wish me luck. I think that this might be on the top 10 strangest things I’ve ever done list right along with canyoning (thanks, Nikki), flying to Germany by myself, giving birth to two children naturally, etc.

This story is about Sophia, but I have to start with Josie, our border collie. Josie is the smartest little doggie I know. She’s especially good at understanding me when I say things like “Do you want to go to the park?” “Do you want to go for a walk?” “Do you want a bone?” See. Josie understands anything that starts with the words “Do you want to…” In fact, sometimes I try to mess with her and say “Josie, do you want to go to Siberia and pull a dog sled?” “Do you want the cat to jump on your head?” Regardless of what comes after the magic words, she’s always enthusiastic. She will tilt her head to the side for a split second, and then jump around like a crazy lunatic. That is Josie.

Sophia probably knows about as many words as Josie right now, and she has the same routine down. You can ask her any question, and she will immediately answer yes or no by nodding her head. We test it all the time “Sophia, do you want to go to China?” Yes “Sophia, do you want to go swimming?” No. The only questions that she can really answer are “Do you want milk?” (always yes) and “Do you want to eat?” (almost always yes). Anything else is just a wild guess as to whether the answer is yes or no. Sometimes it’s yes when asked the first time and no when asked immediately afterwards. It’s pretty entertaining, except that she’ll probably never talk. She’s too effective with the pointing and the nodding. Who says you need words at all?

On our last evening in Buffalo, we decided to go for frozen custard which is a typical Buffalo delicacy (one of maybe 5 or 6 that we MUST HAVE every time we visit). Anyway, on this particular trip we went to the most heavenly of all custard places, Fran Ceil’s, which is not to be confused with Francile’s, Franceil’s or Francine’s.  Nope.  It’s Fran Ceil’s. Don’t ask me why.  Another Buffalo mystery, like why anyone stays there during the winter (just kidding, Buffalonians…always on the defensive, aren’t you?)

Anywho, so Fran Ceil’s is the most creamy frozen custard on the planet (in this humble custard connoisseur’s opinion), but the ambiance is a bit lacking. In fact, it’s just kind of a shack with a blacktop driveway and one (count them one) metal picnic table.  See below…

Now, it was right after this picture was taken that Luke saw his entire electronic life flash before his eyes. He was showing us this picture on his iPhone4 when Hailey bumped his hand, causing him to drop his still-bumperless phone right on to the blacktop – POP!

You could hear it right away. The glass shattered. Hailey began crying immediately, but I have to say that Luke really held it together (as in he didn’t cry too). He was really quite calm and collected about it.

Here’s where the story gets a bit eerie. Last Tuesday, I had a little scare with my own iPhone4 wherein it just completely stopped working. And by not working I mean that it became completely unresponsive for about half an hour. That happened to be a critical half an hour in my life because I was waiting for the microwave-repair man to call me. Yes.  My microwave stopped working, my phone stopped working, and I was ready to jump out the window.  If ever there was a day to become a Luddite (or Amish), it was that day.  Anyway, after I locked the windows to prevent myself from jumping, I quickly made an appointment at the Apple store to have the phone looked at that evening at 7:15pm. Well, turns out, I didn’t make the appointment for that evening but for the following Tuesday because that was the first available appointment at the stupid Apple store (curses!).

Well, my phone eventually started working again, but I did not cancel the appointment because I was sure it would break again, and I would have to wait another 7 days for another appointment (how convenient!). So, I had this random appointment on this Tuesday at 7:15pm. How perfect it was when Luke’s phone cracked on Monday, we returned home Tuesday afternoon, and he was able to keep my appointment at the Apple store at 7:15 that night. What?!!?!? That’s some type of karmic Apple goodness.

But here’s the best part of the story. And maybe I should NOT tell you this part because we should have been sworn to secrecy lest everyone swarm the Apple store later today. But I’ll tell you anyway if you promise not to waltz into Apple and demand a free iPhone.  Oh crap…I just gave away the ending.  Well, anyway, do you know how much it cost Luke to replace his phone? NOTHING!!! Not a damn penny. Not that I’m complaining, but the Apple Dude just went in the back and drummed up a brand new iPhone4 for him. Like he was some type of Apple celebrity (I guess Luke failed to mention that Microsoft is his biggest client, although I’m surprised the Apple guy didn’t smell the stench of the Mother-Ship on him). Anyway, the replacement was supposed to be $200, and the Apple guy took such pity on him that he got it for free. So, does that mean that I have to take all of that stuff back about Steve Jobs because I don’t think that the $200 really makes up for the thousands of dollars in marriage counseling that he still owes me?

More pictures from the trip here.

PS: I just posted this and 2 minutes later received an email from AT&T with the subject: “Five reasons to upgrade to an AT&T BlackBerry smartphone.” Hello AT&T!?!?!? Did you not get the memo? Steve Jobs just personally handed my husband a brand new iPhone while he was at Microsoft’s headquarters mending fences….or something like that.

Hailey is taking Spanish lessons one day a week at school. So far she knows how to count in Spanish, which she knew how to do before she started. Also, she knows that tortuga means turtle. Fabulous. What a nice investment that was in her future.

Oh, well there’s one other thing she knows and that’s how to translate any English word into a completely made-up Spanish word. Yes, we’ve spent the whole weekend in Buffalo testing her Spanish skills, and I can honestly say that there is not an English word on the planet that she can’t translate. Check it out…

because you can just tell that she’s trouble.

Hailey fell into the bathtub with her clothes on this evening. It was so funny. Of course, she wasn’t sure whether or not to laugh or cry.

Thank goodness I’m going on vacation tomorrow, and by that I mean going back to work!!! These kids wore us out this weekend. We may not have had big travel plans but between the pool and the park and the running here and there…I’m thoroughly exhausted. We did a horrible job of taking pictures this weekend, but I managed to scrounge a few decent shots off of my phone.

Yes, I let Hailey to sparklers. I know, you’re ready to call child protective services, but I did them when I was her age. So, she watches Star Wars and plays with sparklers. Parents of the Year, I tell you. Both girls really enjoyed the sparklers and the fireworks.

That’s not snot coming out of her nose, it’s a tomato seed from one of the 20 tomatoes that she ate this weekend. Every time I turned around Sophia was stealing cherry tomatoes and shoving them into her mouth…just like her sister!

Lots of funny things happen in the Hamilton kitchen. There was the cake debacle, the salty chicken, and many others. However, today the funniest physical comedy routine that I have ever seen happened right in our own kitchen. It started innocently enough with Sophia wanting to drink out of a big girl cup. Hailey kindly poured her some water from the ‘fridge then as Sophia was walking with the cup, she tripped on a stool and fell. Water, of course, splattered everywhere. Then the big fake tears came, and Hailey felt so bad that she got Sophia a second cup of water. Sophia turned around and tried to walk through the first water spill, but slipped and fell down again, spilling the second cup of water. At that point, we all just started laughing. I’m pretty sure that this routine would have continued at least three or four more times had we not put a stop to it.

While my Dad was here last week, he received the following Facebook message…

alo peter sono PEPPUCCIO DALLA SICILIA TERMINI SEI TU IL FIGLIO DI MARIA E AUGUST PALMISANO?

That’s Italian if you’re not a language expert. Roughly translated it means…

Hello, Peter. I am Peppuccio from Termini, Sicily. Are you the son of Maria and August Palmisano?

The message turned out to be from my father’s cousin on his father’s side. Now, you’re probably thinking that this is not a big deal because people are finding relatives on Facebook all the time. Here’s the deal though. We have always known that we had family in Italy. My Grandfather, who died before I was born, was one of 6 siblings. Three came to America, and three stayed in Italy. At some point, we lost contact (perhaps due to some crazy family feud) with the family in Italy. My Dad has tried several times to contact our family there, but with no luck.

None of us, not my Father, his two brothers, their children, nor myself have ever set foot on Sicily, the land where my Grandfather was born. I have only dreamed of finding the rest of our family which connects me to my Grandfather in a way that I have never known. It’s the closest that I will ever come to knowing him.

And there it was…that one little Facebook message which changed the course of our family’s history. Over the past week, my Dad has been communicating with Peppuccio and filling in more of our family history. Both families in the US and Italy are so thrilled to have made the connection. Peppuccio is downright poetic about it (or we think he is since we are roughly translating his Italian).

This all culminated in the purchase of three plane tickets for the three brothers – my father and two uncles – to return to the land of their father’s birth and to meet their cousins.

These are my favorite messages from Peppuccio (with a little translation assistance)…

“We are happy to welcome you here in Sicily and Termini so you can see how beautiful is this land of your father and mother. I am sure that our grandmother Antonina Aunt Mary and Aunt Manina from heaven will be happy. And in 60 days we embrace after 60 years since we were born.”

“Expect to see you with my heart full of happiness. You will see that Sicily is different from all others because of your father and the earth. You will breathe the same air you will see the same sea that he has lived and you will love Termini Imerese.”

I wish I could be in the airport when they finally meet. Luckily, I’m already planning our trip there in the Spring to experience it for myself.