A Day in the Life: Small (but significant) parental victories

This past weekend was a sort of like a generational walk down memory lane.

Of deserving first mention, was the primary purpose of the trip. My stepmother Michele Belletete had passed away in early December after losing her battle with brain cancer. Unfortunately it was a battle that was unfairly weighted against her from the start, but she did a tremendous job fighting it just the same. She outlived the doctor's expectations by at least 6 months, and had a solid two years of quality time before her health really declined. She passed away peacefully in her bed with her son Aaron holding her. One can only hope for such a passing. Saturday was her memorial service.

Because of the special event, all of us kids were home for the weekend, with all of our families in tow. There are seven of us Brady-bunched together, and six spouses and 14 kids, which makes 27 right there. Pretty impressive if you ask me. The ages range from almost 44 years to 2 months old (the oldest and the youngest being in the Wilson family).

Ellie in particular was excited to see her cousins. And since we have been home a bit more frequently since she has developed a memory, she is remembering more and more of them. Charlotte and Delilah are her obvious favorites (age closeness) although she also thoroughly enjoyed Delaney (3 in March) after seeing her again since this summer.

I was in particular excited to teach Ellie how to ski. I knew that Charlotte and Delilah were quite adept on the skis and figured that if they were around it might be my best shot to get Ellie on them as well. Of course, the only time was Saturday after the service and I knew that was going to be tight.

But we made it. And it was a huge success. Even though when we were driving over there at 4:30 in the afternoon I knew it could be an absolute set up for disaster. And even though we started with tears just getting the snowpants on ("the sniff sniff, snowpants are making me, sniff sniff, cold!"). Through an immense amount of positive enthusiasm pouring out of me so constantly as to ward of any meltdowns, we got the ski boots and skis on Ellie and before I knew it she was on the magic carpet. Of extreme underestimation was how sore I was going to be trying to hold her up and run next to her as she skied down the bunny hill. We even made it back out after a break for some french fries (it was dinnertime after all). Even better for me, was that she wanted me (and GAP) to go out with her. Nothing against Mike, but she generally learns better from Mike how to do things. So I don't usually feel like I get the opportunity to have that Shazam! moment with her.

As she was skiing down the hill she would scream "Go Ellie Go!", laughing and giggling. It was a huge moment for me, also because my dad was teaching her too. He taught just about everyone I know how to ski, so its his thing (maybe now passed down to me).

On Sunday morning, even sore and worn out from the 1.5 hrs on the bunny hill, it was time to head over to Mom's for some more snowy NH reliving of the youth. As kids we used to spend hours outside in the snow, sledding and setting up jumps, whitewashing each other and blasting snow balls. I wanted to recreate the same with our kids (and yes, I wanted to go sledding too). It worked out great. Maria and her kids, Aaron and his kids, Lance and his kids and The Drzewieckis were all out there. Ellie was laughing and having a great time. Until I convinced her to go down herself and then she landed face first in the snow (and yes I was laughing hysterically at the situation at the top of the hill).

I could go on and on. But to make matters even better, when we got home, past dinner time (but so much thanks to mom who sent us home with some mac and cheese--it was perfect) Ellie busted out writing some letters. She wrote her first letter E about 4 times. Looks like the constant "don't you want to do .... like your cousin Charlotte does" has been working out! I must say, after having such a trying December with Ellie and bad behavior, it really did feel like we had reached the pass part of "this too shall pass".

So as not to leave Zack out of it, I should mention that he started rolling over this weekend too. Can't hardly keep that kid on his back now! He was a flirt and a smiling happy baby the whole time. I am not sure he was ever put down...