Snuggling

A few weeks ago, I let the boys climb into my bed to watch a show before bedtime. I ran downstairs for a minute and returned to my room to find this:

Griffin watched the whole show from Aidan's lap - both of them content to be snuggled up next to each other.

Recapping the Weekend

Our weekend was supposed to be pretty low key, but surprisingly seemed to get busier as it progressed.

On Friday, Chris had a night out with the boys golfing, eating heaps of chicken wings and watching multiple sporting events. I admit to being a little too eager to push him out of the house for a girl's night home alone. It had nothing at all to do with the dvd my cousin had dropped off for me earlier in the week. Nothing at all to do with that little dvd known as Twilight. Uh huh.

I enjoyed the quiet time soaking up unrequited love, vampires and teenage angst. Lovely, perfect night home alone.

Saturday, I headed off to play tennis while Chris took the boys for haircuts. Chris returned with a message for me from his barber. I was warned to drop the scissors and step away from the boys' hair. I have a tendency to believe that I possess skills that would allow me to do a quick trim. This misguided notion has left many of my children with crooked bangs and little bald spots. But, yet - I keep doing it. It's a disease. I can never meet Chris's barber in person. There may be bloodshed.

We spent the afternoon outside, soaking up the sun. It has been a beautiful few weeks here in Buffalo. Sun and sixty degrees suggest spring is in the air. Brennan took many a spin on Aidan's bike. Aidan attempted tricks on his skateboard. Griffin rode his much loved Star Wars scooter. We even grilled hot dogs and hamburgers in celebration of the warm temperatures.

We continued our weekend Sunday with a little more tennis (for me) and a matinee of the 3D version of Monsters vs. Aliens. The boys were in awe of the special effects, loved the glasses and ate several pounds of popcorn. We headed home after the movie for dinner with Grandma Jo Jo, my brother Seth and sister in law Tennille.

The boys wrestled Seth to the ground, challenged him in Wii and then had us all laughing til tears streamed down our faces because of their antics in a dance off. You haven't lived until you have seen Griffin bust a move. (Or endured Brennan's dance moves under his stage name "Gas Man.") The boys loved up their Uncle Seth as much as possible, only letting him leave when he reminded them he would be home in two weeks to visit at Easter.

There was nothing extraordinary about our weekend, but it was a perfect weekend nonetheless.

Vocab Hurts

Aidan has weekly vocabulary words to study at home. In addition to learning the words, he is required to write a sentence using each word in his take home journal. He had a hard time with this assignment at first and begged for help in creating sentences.

In response, I told him to take experiences or people from his life and figure out a way to use his vocab words into sentences that relate to those things. If that failed, try some imagination!

It seemed to work. For a while, Brennan was quite the star of Aidan's sentences.

"My brother Brennan can tell funny jokes."

"I can jump higher than my brother Brennan."

"My brother Brennan likes to make me laugh."

And then I made a surprise appearance in vocab land.

"My mom looks very pretty in dresses."

I would be lying if I didn't admit I was thrilled at my first appearance in his homework.

It quickly lost its luster with this doozy:

"My mom always eats all the donuts."

Hmmmm, not so pleased with that sentence and the assumptions the teacher will make after correcting that doozy. When I asked Aidan about that sentence and the fact, that yes, I have no idea what donuts he is talking about, he replied, "Well mom, you told me to use my imagination."

Great. Doesn't every mother want to be known as a donut hog?

P.S. Can I just add that the donut sentence snuck in on a night when Chris was in charge of reviewing Aidan's work prior to handing it in to school? I feel an urge for some vocab sentences starring the Dad.

Remembering the Miracle

I always knew I wanted to have children. I looked forward to being a mother and creating a family. I went so far as to have it planned out. I would have my first child at 28, and three more would follow shortly after that. It was all part of my plan. (Yes, the plan involved four children. I was a tad bit delusional back in the pre-kiddie days.)

We spend so much of our youth being fearful of becoming pregnant that you never realize that the conception of a child is, in itself, quite a little miracle. I never knew. I thought it would all just magically fall into place, just when I wanted it to.

I got pregnant right away. I was 28. And I had a miscarriage shortly thereafter. The miscarriage shattered me. I became even more undone when subsequent months of trying to conceive again came and went without any success. I watched close friends celebrate their pregnancies while my heart broke a little more each passing month.

Eight months after my miscarriage, eight very long months, I became pregnant with Aidan. We found out on Christmas Day. It was, and will remain, the greatest gift I have ever been given.

Since that time, I have learned that my 8 months of tears and breakdowns is a tiny, microscopic drop into the giant sea of women riding the roller coaster ride of trying to conceive a child. I had it easy. I had it good. And I never knew.

I know now. I learned.

Over the last six years, I have shared in the experiences and emotions with friends on their emotional journeys to become a parent. I learned quickly that I had been part of a miracle with my three children. I am more blessed than I deserve to be.

This week I was reminded of this through the tears of a dear friend. It reminded me not to take it all for granted. It reminded me to go home and hug my children tightly. It reminded me of my miracles.

An Interview with the Boys

1. What is something mom always says to you?
Aidan: "I love you."
Brennan: "Get dressed."
Griffin: "I wuv you."

2. What makes mom happy?
Aidan: " When I rub your head."
Brennan: "If I give you kisses."
Griffin: "Rubbing noses."

3. What makes mom sad?
Aidan: "When you don't win in tennis."
Brennan: "When I am not getting dressed."
Griffin: "When Brennan screams. " (Brennan: "I don't scream. You scream." Griffin, "Noooooo!" Brennan, "YES YOU DO!")

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
Aidan: "By tickling me."
Brennan: "Tell me jokes."
Griffin: "When you sing the farmer song."

5. What did your mom like as a child?
Aidan: "You never told me."
Brennan: "a baby"
Griffin: "?"

6. How old is your mom?
Aidan: "57?"
Brennan: "I don't know that. Maybe 4? No - 5! Yeah, 5!
Griffin: "Two."

7. How tall is your mom?
Aidan: "Kind of tall."
Brennan: "Really, really big."
Griffin: "You're big."

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Aidan: "Play tennis."
Brennan: "Clean up."
Griffin: " Tennis."

9. What does your mom do when you're not around
Aidan: "Go to work."
Brennan: "Go to work."
Griffin: "Go to tennis."

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
Aidan: "I think you are really, really, really good at tennis."
Brennan: "Reading magazines."
Griffin: : "?"

11. What is your mom really good at?
Aidan: "Tennis."
Brennan: "Reading books and tennis."
Griffin: "Singing."

12. What is your mom not very good at?
Aidan: "Golf."
Brennan: "Cleaning windows."
Griffin: "?"

13. What does your mom do for her job?
Aidan: "You're a lawyer."
Brennan: "Like go to work and go on the computer and help people. She's a lawwwyah."
Griffin: "You go on the computer."

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
Aidan: "Pizza."
Brennan: "Carrots."
Griffin: "Pizza."

15. What is your favorite thing to do with Mommy?
Aidan: "Go outside."
Brennan: "Play memory."
Griffin: "Make you pizza from my kitchen."

16. What makes your mom proud of you?
Aidan: "When I get 100% on my tests."
Brennan: "When I clean up the playroom."
Griffin: "When I play with water."

17. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Aidan: "Daphne from Scooby Doo."
Brennan: "Caillou."
Griffin: "Diego."

18. What do you and your mom do together?
Aidan: "We both do tennis."
Brennan: "Eat ice cream. Play memory. "
Griffin: "Go on walk."

19. How are you and your mom the same?
Aidan: "Both of our favorite foods are pizza and we both like to play tennis."
Brennan: "Well, we do have the same hair."

20. How are you and your mom different?
Aidan: "You don't like golf."
Brennan: " I don't know this one."

21. How do you know your mom loves you?
Aidan: "When you give me hugs."
Brennan: "You gives me hugs everywhere."
Griffin: "You love me."

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Aidan: "Tennis."
Brennan: "Wegmans."
Griffin: "Work."

23. How do you know that Daddy loves Mommy?
Aidan: "Because he married you."
Brennan: "All the hugs."
Griffin: "I don't know."

24. What is your mom's favorite COLOR?
Aidan: "Red and pink."
Brennan: "Pink."
Griffin: "blue."

25. What is mom scared of?
Aidan: "Bugs and spiders."
Brennan: "spiders."
Griffin: "skeletons. I like bugs"

26. What is mom's favorite TV show?
Aidan: "I don't know."
Brennan: "I don't know."
Griffin: "Diego! No, the news! I like Diego though."

The Dressing Room

I had a meeting at a clients this afternoon. The meeting finished up too late to trek back to the office, but a little too early to head home. So, I did the only reasonable thing any woman would do with an extra hour on her hands - I shopped. Well, actually, I justified the errands as more of a returning than a shopping expedition, but the truth is - I always have returning to do. (particularly at the stores I frequent the most. It's a sickness.)

I brought my return into the store and told the salesperson that I would love to do a quick peek around the store before I did my transaction. Before I knew it, I had a few things to take back with me into the fitting room.

As I tried on my selections, I heard a woman asking the salesperson for another size in a sweater.

"See," said the saleswoman, "I told you that a large would be just too big. Really. Just huge on you."

"It is really big, isn't it? A large has quite a lot of room." The woman responded.

"That large is just swimming on you. I knew immediately when I saw you that you weren't a large. A medium maybe, but really, a large?" The salesperson gives a quick laugh and continues, "I mean you just aren't that big."

Their conversation made it gobs of fun to try on my size LARGE tops in the dressing room RIGHT next door to them. Lots and lots of fun. It took every ounce of willpower I possessed not to interject myself into their conversation. But I kept my size large opinion to my size large self.

A Tribute to Lincoln - First Grade Style

After a long day at work, what parent doesn't want to go see each class at Aidan's school from kindergarten to grade 8 put on a presentation that is a tribute to President Lincoln? (I know. Bad mommy. Bad.) But I'll admit it, I was weighing our odds of successfully escaping school presentation night at Aidan's school from the moment we entered the cafeteria. Thankfully, the school begins the night with the lowest grades. (The forlorn faces of the trapped eighth grade parents tugged at my heartstrings just a bit. I saw my future and it isn't pretty.)

Aidan and his class rocked their rendition of "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" and "Dixie" while dressed to impress in construction paper crafted pilgrim gear. While other parents brought out their impressive high tech gadgets to record the event for posterity's sake, I remembered I forgot to bring the camera and held out my cell phone. (Hey - it works, right?!)

After each class presented, they were ushered off to an ice cream social. Aidan accepted his scoop of ice cream as merely an excuse to ladle heaps of m&ms to the brim of the bowl. I even let him go up for seconds. (It's hard to say no to a boy eating ice cream in a pilgrim hat.) And I am sure even President Lincoln could appreciate a boy's love for candy coated chocolate.

Monday at the Playground

We continued to celebrate spring today. I bribed Brennan and Griffin with a trip to the playground to get us through a trip to Wegmans. It's amazing how agreeable two little boys can be after an hour in the sun running, jumping, and climbing.

Is it Spring? Could it Be?

Spring has sprung. (Well, maybe. In March, in Buffalo, spring is sort of an on again, off again proposition. Today, we enjoy sunshine and the birds chirping. Tomorrow it's a blizzard. That's how spring is ushered into Buffalo.)

But this time it could be different! Really! The weather forecast shows sun, sun and more sun for the next week! And 50 degrees baby. That's practically balmy for March in our parts.

It could not have come at a better time. Cabin fever has settled into our home. We are all a little sick of each other, of the four walls of our home, and of bitter cold temps. (It was an unbelievably, record breaking, cold winter.)

After an hour of tennis this morning, I rushed home to take the boys for a walk. We walked around the block enjoying the sunshine and sky of the bluest blue. We circled back after a bit and headed to our neighbors playground. (The boys call it the playground because while it is owned by our neighbors, it is about the size of the town playground. I am not exaggerating in the slightest. Thankfully, our neighbors graciously offered up their backyard playground for the use of all the kiddies in our locale. This may be because they are the type of people who can have like 8 kids, homeschool them and still appear unfazed.)

As I pushed Griffin in the sun, he giggled and lifted his face up to the sky. After a moment, he sighed and said, "I love the sun, Mommy."

I think we can all agree that we all love the sun. Now let's hope that mean month of March doesn't take away our sunshine please.

The 38th Year

Today Chris is 38. It's hard to imagine for me. I still see us young tykes instead of thirty somethings quickly advancing into middle age.

We celebrated his birthday with an adult dinner out at, of course, a steak house. (To Chris, steak is like chocolate. He is at his happiest with a big pile of succulent beef in front of him.) As I ate my petite filet and Chris wolfed down his 20 oz porterhouse, Chris remarked that the uber trendy couple next to us sharing a bottle of wine must be all of 12. I laughed and placed them at 23 or 24 years of age. It made us both realize our age. An age when anyone and everyone starts to look like a young un.

We are getting older. And in Chris's case, a little grayer. But if I had to do it all over again, I would still pick him to be by my side, to share my life, to grow older and grayer together.

March Roars Like a Lion

March roared its way into our life this week by taking all of us down with a nice ol' fashioned stomach bug. It's not March unless we are vomiting in our house, right? (Seriously. I checked my archives and literally a year and a week ago we all had a stomach bug. How's that for reliability?)

Our sole hold out was Brennan, who despite my being convinced he will fall at any moment, has endured and is healthy.

The stomach bug, some other health issues I have been dealing with (minor, but annoying), the gigantic piles of clean laundry tormenting me with hours of folding time, and the cabin fever settling into all of our bones has made me a little grumpy. (I say little, but I really mean alot grumpy. The kids and Chris can attest to that.)

But on Friday, I took a break from the grumpies, put boots on Griffin and Brennan and went outside to enjoy the muddy almost spring like day. The boys stomped in puddles, collected rocks and indulged their fascination with drains. I was amazed at how a simple thing like a muddy walk with a warm(ish) breeze blowing into your face can make you feel a million times better.

Shut What?

The boys were dancing to my mix of songs on my ipod when the shuffle switched to the song "Shut Up and Let Me Go" by the Ting Tings. (It's a catchy tune from one of the Apple commercials. Oh hell, I guess that's no help at all, considering ALL the songs from the Apple commercials are downright catchy. In fact, I may just well be Apple's itunes bitch because I seem to download every single song from every single commercial right after I hear it. Either that or I am just a marketing wet dream.)

The boys started strutting their stuff to the beat until Aidan let out a loud gasp at the first chorus.

I turned to him and asked with concern, "Aidan, are you okay?"

He turned bright red, shook his head and said softly, "Mom, that song just said a bad word." He turned to Brennan who danced on obliviously and yelled, "Brennan, did you hear that? A BAD WORD."

I honestly was confused and had to ask, "What are you talking about? What bad word?"

He looked back at me aghast, shook his head and walked close to me. He whispered, "Shut up. Mom, they said SHUT UP."

It was probably not one of my finer parental responses that I started giggling uncontrollably and couldn't stop for the duration of the song.

Exhaustion Sets In

I am tired. I am completely wiped out. Chris has been gone for five days and I desperately need a quiet moment, anywhere, anytime, someday. The boys, while they have certainly had their challenging moments, have on the whole been pretty good - no major incidents to report. But the lack of back up, of trading off to someone else, the inability to go to the bathroom without some little tyke banging on the door with a question or a need - it is bone deep exhausting.

The kids were especially crazy tonight, completely wound up after a pick up game of hockey in the foyer. (Our poor hardwood floors never had a chance with our brood.) The hockey game evolved into a game of tackle and wrestle. The wrestling switched into let's all climb on top of Aidan. And that's when I grabbed my phone (my pretty little iphone) and snapped this shot:



They are exhausting and crazy and they create noise levels I never knew possible. But they are mine. All mine.