The spice of life

Something has been missing from these stories so I'm going to have to fast forward a bit to get to Mark.  Nothing is complete without Mark.  Once Braeden was looking at photo albums and he told me that I was a lot prettier after Mark was born.

"I think he completed you," Braeden said.

I think he's right.

He aggravates me, tries my patience, delights me, entertains me, keeps me company, and completely completes me.

He also adds spice to everything.

Maybe it's the red hair.

My children got more intense as they arrived.  For example, Braeden became really mellow and quiet when he was tired as a baby.  Emma would get fussy when she was tired.  Mark would get hyper.  (Hyper-er?)

Once when Mark was just a baby we went to Canada to the Vancouver Aquarium to see the beluga whales.  (Emma had a thing for beluga whales and wanted a baby beluga for Christmas.)  We may or may not have made some surreptitious purchases in the Vancouver Aquarium gift shop.  It was Thanksgiving weekend so the border crossing was busy.  Adam and I watched with a certain amount of dread as the car ahead of us was at the checkpoint.  The guards opened the trunk of the car and were rifling through everything.  We had Christmas presents in our van and we didn't want our little ones to see what we had bought.  It seemed like they were searching all the cars though.

When it was our turn, Adam handed over all the documents to the guard.  It was dark and he shined a flashlight in the back of the van.  Braeden and Emma knew to keep their mouths shut and Mark was asleep.  It was only a year or two after September 11 and crossing back into the United States was not to be taken lightly.  We were going to just get done with this and get home.  Then the guard asked if he could look in the van.  He flung the door open behind Adam.  Mark was asleep in his carseat on the other side of the door.  When the cold air hit and a strange man was standing over him, Mark woke up and started screaming bloody murder like only a wronged red head can manage.  I've never seen one of those border guards, whose sole purpose in life is to intimidate, so intimidated.  He quickly shut the van door and sent us on our way.

Smugglers everywhere need a Mark.  Even if it's just Christmas presents you're smuggling from your own children's view.