August 2013

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August 2013

As we mentioned in the July update, we celebrated Reagan’s first birthday on August 10th, the anniversary of the day she came home from the hospital. The O’Brien-Kindem families celebrated by cooking kabobs on the grill, playing in the backyard or in Paul’s two playrooms, and Reagan enjoyed her first cake. Reagan was the star of the show as she opened her presents, with the help of her brother, sister, and cousins. Reagan received many great gifts but her favorite was a purple car given to her from her aunt Stacey and uncle Tom. Reagan stepped into the car the moment daddy finished assembling it and she showed an immediate look of determination and delight as she zoomed around the house. John and Larkin demanded their turns on the car as well, but they were kind enough to allow Reagan to sit on their laps.

On August 27th, the SAS inside sales team (Jamie’s old department and colleagues) hosted an event in honor of Jamie and her children. The goal of the event was to spend time with the Kindem-O’Brien families, especially ‘the adorables,’ but also to raise money for the fund set up for John, Larkin, and Reagan. It was a highly successful event, and Paul and the family were deeply touched by this thoughtful gesture. The event included an organized corn hole tournament (72 participants – 36 teams), a raffle drawing for prizes where John, Larkin, and Reagan picked the winning tickets, and many good conversations. The most entertaining prize was a $100 gift certificate to Adam & Eve. A young woman won the prize which brought much muttering and laughter throughout the crowd. Paul and Pete were teammates in the corn hole tournament and made it to the final game, but were outmatched by two of SAS’s finest bag throwers. John, Larkin, and Reagan enjoyed practicing their bean bag tosses, eating off other people’s plates, playing skeet-ball, and meeting many new people.

Thank you, SAS, for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers, for being so incredibly generous, and for hosting such a wonderful event. Many of Paul’s co-workers were also in attendance since UNCMC’s president decided to close the office early to allow everyone at the company to attend, which made the event even more special. We are blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives.

Other news: John, Larkin, and Reagan’s hair continues to grow, and grow, and grow, as it should, but John’s hair is getting more and more attention because of its length. John has only had one true haircut and that was more of a clipping of the ends. Paul hears comments ranging from: “You cannot cut it, it’s beautiful,” and “He looks like a mini Brad Pitt,” or “He looks just like the Australian surfers,” to “He looks like a girl”, or “Seriously Paul, it’s time to cut his hair.” John has dirty blond hair, it goes down well past his shoulders, and he gets these natural curls and ringlets in the back. At a library story hour, the librarian asked Grandma: “What is this little girl’s name?” For now, John is keeping the surfer dude look, but we’re not sure how long it will last…

ReaganReagan is climbing on couches and chairs, running down the neighborhood sidewalks after John & Larkin, jumping on the small trampoline, doing sign language gestures to say “more” and “all done,” and seems almost to have the ability to say short sentences. It sounds crazy, but many of us have heard these murmurings that aren’t loud or crystal clear (like real words being spoken), but when you hear them you know exactly what she is trying to say. It sounds a bit like someone with a lot of food in their mouth. Reagan’s also getting more defiant in the things she wants and gets very upset when she can’t have something or do something that she wants to do.

John is a master at playing pretend baseball. He swings his pretend bat as daddy throws a ball in front of him, runs hard to first base, around second and third, and slides at the pretend home plate. Larkin or daddy yells out “safe” as he slides in and John sticks out his chest, and struts around with a confident air. Then he either does it again or squats down as if he is the catcher and asks for daddy to pitch the ball to him. John loves watching baseball whether it’s at the ballpark or on TV. Jamie is smiling down on this little boy. There really is no cuter child John than John when he’s being silly, doing pretend play, and laughing. He is a truly special little boy. However, this special boy also is very much a boy, and continues to have listening problems, and is a little too aggressive at daycare. Paul and his teachers are working with him, and he is making progress, but as his teacher told Paul, “He’s a boy and they tend to go through these phases.” We are hoping it’s just a phase, but I’m reminded of the rugby game scene in wedding crashers where Bradley Cooper tackles Vince Vaughan with way too much aggression and then says, “I don’t know what got into me, Secretary, I just…” and Christopher Walken replies, “I do…five generations of large family breeding. When your father was younger, he used to do the same thing.”

Larkin is becoming so independent and appears more beautiful each and every day. She wants to put on her own clothes, put on her own shoes, carry her cups and plates to and from the counter to the table, asks/demands to wear dresses or certain clothing on certain days, etc. However, Larkin is smart enough to know when she can’t do something, and typically asks for help, but follows it up by saying with conviction: “When I’m bigger I’m going to do xyz.” Most of these are good Larkin examples, like “when I get bigger I will swing on my own, make my own food, put on my own seat belt,” but some of them are a little more comical, like “when I’m bigger I’m going to have those (referring to breasts)” or “when I’m bigger I’m going to drink wine/beer.”

The Kindem family closed out the month by celebrating Paul’s grandfather’s 90th Birthday. Paul’s aunt and uncle from Green Bay, Wisconsin along with their entire family (11 of them) flew down to NC for the event. The family enjoyed a nice meal at Mellow Mushroom in downtown Durham, going to the Durham Museum of Life & Science, and celebrating with cake at Paul’s house. The greatest snapshot from the event was captured when Papa made his wish and blew out his candles with his 11 great-grandchildren surrounding him.
Family

 

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