My Monkey

Last week, the boys were outside playing in the backyard while I cleaned up the kitchen. After a few minutes, I glanced out the back window and noticed Brennan was missing.

I walked to the back door and yelled to Aidan, "Aidan! Where's Brennan?"

Aidan looked around and replied, "I don't know."

I felt a slight panic as I yelled, "Brennan?! Brennan!"

Then I heard a little giggle, followed by a rustling in one of our large pine trees.

"I'm up here Momma! Look!"

Brennan had climbed a tree. Not only had he just climbed up a tree, but he climbed pretty high up that tree.

Once Brennan discovered his climbing talent, there was no stopping him. He climbed it again and again, in spite of the sharp pine needles, bug bites and scratches on his skin. I have lost count of the number of times I have glanced up and found Brennan sitting high up in one of the trees in our backyard.

Brennan is our little monkey and he is quite proud of his climbing prowess. Neither of his brothers will attempt the feat. I think he likes it best that way.

Summer Lovin'

The pool is officially open, and it is 70 plus degrees and sunny. I could not have conjured up a more perfect Memorial Day weekend if I tried. We swam and spent much time lounging by the pool. We enjoyed time with family and friends. The boys had ice cream three days in a row. Chris golfed to his heart's content in a tournament and I even managed to sneak in a few hours of tennis.

We were back to reality this morning, sleepily trying to get out of the house on time in spite of the disorganized chaos left in the wake of a busy summer lovin' type of weekend.

It was just the first weekend of the summer, with many more to come. We can't wait to soak up every last bit.

Cousins

The boys love their cousins and treat them like rock stars. We are fortunate to live on the same street with most of our family which allows the boys to soak up their cousins as much as possible.

This accessibility extends to the swimming pool. There has been many a time one of our cousins has arrived for some quality time at the pool with their friends, only to be tackled or hugged to death by my boys.

Thankfully, the cousins seem to like it just as much as the boys do.

Summertime and the Livin' is Easy

Summer is on its way. The sun is shining. The sky is perfectly blue. The breezes are warm and comforting. And in two days, the pool opens officially for the season.

Today was a beautiful, warm day. I was a little grumpy to be stuck at work, inside, while the sun shone so brightly. But I comforted myself with forgoing our traditional dinner plans and instead picked up a pizza on the way home from work. The boys and I had an impromptu picnic outside, eating dinner on paper plates as we soaked up the early evening breeze. I shed my work shoes for flip flops and got comfortable on the patio. I giggled as I watched Aidan push Griffin on the swing. I was amazed at my monkey child Brennan who has decided his new favorite thing is to climb trees in our backyard. The boys ran and played until much past their bedtime. But it was good - all very good.

We were all happy and relaxed. Summer feels good on our family.

Soccer Boys

Spring soccer, game on! As I may have mentioned, soccer in whoville is on the crazy side. Anyone and everyone with a child can be found at the huge soccer fields on Friday night in whoville. They stagger the times for games and practices by age group and it creates such a traffic logjam that the local police is required to direct traffic for most of the evening.

You have to see it to believe it.

This year, Chris volunteered to be the assistant coach for Aidan's team with our friend Dylan as coach. This allowed us to sneak in Brennan for some playing time even though he is technically under the age limit. Brennan is in love with soccer. He practices his drills at home, talks about it incessantly and asks everyday, multiple times, when he can go to soccer.

There is also something really sweet about seeing both Aidan and Brennan on the same team, playing together. They overwhelm me with their cuteness in their matching uniforms and big smiles. As teammates, however, they have very different soccer styles. Aidan is fast and often the first to get to the ball, but he prefers not to fight for the ball and will willingly surrender it to another player. Aidan's goals tend to be breakaways without challenges from the other team.

Brennan, on the other hand, takes soccer as more of a contact sport than is required. I had to remind him several times this past Friday that the kids with the red shirts were his own teammates and therefore, he didn't need to tackle, push or kick them out of the way to get to the ball. Brennan has yet to make a goal, but he did knock down half of his own team attempting to get the ball going in the right direction.

They may approach soccer differently, but for both boys - it's pure fun. I have to admit it is just as much fun for me to cheer them on from the sidelines.

Icky, Icky Boys

This is a conversation I really wish I had NOT overheard amongst my boys. (Please note I have purposefully omitted the names of the involved parties in order to protect the innocent.)

Boy 1: (whispers softly to his brother) "I just stuck my finger in my ear and licked it. It tasted REALLY gross!"

Boy 2: (whispers back softly) "Oh yeah?"

Boy 1: "Yeah! Gross!"

Boy 2 sits in quiet contemplation for a moment, leans over to Boy 1 and whispers, "I've eaten my boogers before and that was pretty gross too."

Boy 1: "Wow."

Boys. Icky, icky, little boys.

Twisting the Knife

Griffin and I are rocking in his room before bed, snuggling close. I rub his back while he rests his head against my shoulder, tucked into my neck. We rock back and forth in silence for a few minutes.

Griffin slowly lifts his head, catches my eye and says softly, "I'm happy now Mommy."

"You are?" I reply smiling, "I like when you're happy G."

"I am. Happy!" He smiles sadly and continues, "I was sad when you were gone. Just sad."

Ouch. He gave me a nice heaping dose of mommy guilt with that little dig.

The boys definitely have a tough time whenever I travel, which truly isn't often. I could probably count the number of times I have been away on my fingers. It seemed this time Griffin seemed to have the worst time adjusting to my absence. I returned to a needier and much more emotional Griffin. He clutched my legs when I had to leave to go to work and sobbed, begging me "not to go." He also told my mom to "go home" when she was at our house, fearful that she was there to babysit him. He needs to know where I am in the house at all times or he gets really agitated.

But he's happy now. Happy.

Griffin Discovers He May Have a Future with the WWF

It's all crazy, all the time.

Girlfriends

There are many things in my life for which I am grateful. At the top of the list is my girlfriends. I have had the honor of sharing my life with some truly amazing women. The type of women who are accomplished and beautiful and smart, but manage to also be kind and supportive and generous. My friends always chose to see the best in me and I, in turn, in them. The power of a good female friendship is pretty remarkable.

This weekend I escaped to the beach with three very dear friends - Diane, Amy and Christine. I have been friends with Diane and Amy for over half my life. We are, as many have commented over the years, big complimentors. We spend most of our time together telling each other how wonderful each other are or how beautiful. Your ego gets quite a boost from some time with these women.

Six years ago, Amy, Diane and I were gabbing in the backyard watching the setting sun at Diane's home in Portland, Oregon. Joining us was a new friend of Diane's, a neighbor - who was meeting us for the first time. After fifteen minutes of hearing us talk to each other ("You are so beautiful tonight! I love that shirt on you! You are so smart! I love how you told that story! You amaze me with your accomplishments! etc, etc."), she interrupted us with wide eyes and remarked, "I'm sorry, but do you guys always talk to each other like this?"

We asked her, dumbfounded, "Like what?"

"Like this!" She gestured wildly as she tried to explain, "I feel like I'm in the middle of a freakin' Oprah Winfrey show or something. I've never heard anything like this in my life!"

We laughed, shrugged our shoulders and told her, without apology, that yes, this is how we talk to each other. We always have. We always will. We are lucky.

This weekend, joined by Christine, the big ego boost continued. When we were not saying nice things to each other, we told stories that made us laugh so hard we cried. We stayed up until midnight each night talking. We soaked up the beach, lounged in the pool and enjoyed margaritas as we watched the setting sun. I spent most of each day and night interjecting into each conversation with the phrase, "I am so happy."

It was four days that was, simply, a gift. I have always heard that your female friends act as a mirror to your own self. If that is true, I probably have a better, a kinder, a prettier and a way funnier mirror than I deserve.

Brennan: On Mommy 2009

Brennan's class created their requisite Mommy posters to decorate the walls of the school for Mother's Day. Below a drawing of a giant flower and a green stick figure with one piece of blue hair, Brennan answered the following to his teacher's questions:

My Mom's Name Is.... "Mommy"

My Mom's Favorite Thing To Do Is.... "Drive to Wegmans." (He must sense my excitement over strolling the artisan bread and bakery aisle. My focaccia and Nonna's fougasse is calling me! When I laughed over this answer, the teacher confided that one of the other kiddies wrote their Mom's favorite thing to do was... sleep. Love it.)

When I Come To School My Mom... "Goes to Work."

I Love My Mom Because... "She gives me surprises every night." (I have no idea on this one. Surprises? Not a clue.)

First Crush

Brennan has a crush. It's the first crush for our group of boys. Aidan has never spared a girl a second glance, despite always requiring a quick clothes change before his buddy Ellie comes over to play. But, Brennan has spared a second glance and even a third. He's got it. And he's got it bad.

Her name is Amelia, Lia for short. She is very cute - blonde ringlet hair, big blue eyes. She's a doll and she has stolen the heart of my second born.

It started with Brennan talking about her quite a lot around the house. He started requesting play dates with Lia in between his prolonged discussions on her virtues. After a few weeks of much discussion on the life of Lia, Brennan boldly announced last week that he "has a girlfriend!" And then he looked at me squarely and said, "And her name is Lia, Mom."

"I figured as much Brennan. Lia is a nice friend to have." I told him while my heart broke a little.

Today I picked him up from school. He ran into my arms to give me a hug. After he left my arms, he quickly ran over to Lia to tease her about something and tug at her hair. Brennan quickly caught my eye as he stood behind Lia and mouthed to me, "This is LIA!" He then smiled a sheepish smile and ran to grab his backpack.

Lia. Tonight, I learned that Lia is "very tall." She is also "very funny." And she knows how to "dive in deep water. Like deep, deep water mommy. Deep!" I also promised to set up a swimming play date over the summer with master swimmer Lia.

I should have known Brennan would be the first to fall head first into his first crush. I know I should have known, but it's bittersweet just the same.

Naked Dance

I recently told our neighbor across the street, a mother to two girls the same age as Aidan and Brennan, that if she ever wanted to teach her children the male anatomy she simply had to direct her girls to glance out their windows at 7 pm to watch my boys prepare for bath time. If it's bath time, then my boys are dancing naked.

There is no shyness in the naked dance. Oh no, no shyness indeed. It's full out booty wiggling, jumping and twirling all while screaming with glee from the sheer nakedness. Boys like their bodies. Every single inch of their bodies. (Okay, some parts get a little more (ahem) love than others.)

The front of our house has many a window open to our neighbors across the street. The hallway upstairs which is home to the naked dance is wide open to the windows - meaning that the neighbors get quite a show if they happen to be looking out the window towards our humble abode. For all we know, the naked dance gets many a standing ovation from our neighborhood. It's quite a dance.

I can handle the windows and the eyewitnesses to my boys' special brand of crazy. But tonight I was oh so grateful that the eyewitnesses could not also hear my children sing with gusto as they danced naked. Because tonight they created a whole new song, courtesy of the creative genius of Brennan. It's a sweet little ditty called, "I Love My Penis."

As far as I can tell it goes something like, "I love my penis. My penis! I have a smelly butt. Do you want to smell my butt. My butt is slimy! I love my penis!"

After three or four rounds of Brennan singing as he danced, Aidan and Griffin caught on and joined him on the chorus.

It was quite a sight. The naked dance meeting the penis song. If only I had thought to grab video.

Beach

Ah, vacation. Lovely, wonderful vacation. The beach was terrific, as beautiful as always.

The night before our vacation starts the same as every other. I run around like a lunatic, swearing, stressed out beyond belief attempting to pack for myself and three children. I pack up backpacks for carry on filled with toys, books, snacks and treats. I make lists, check off lists, and make new lists. I lay out everyone's clothes for the plane and pack a carry with everyone's essentials just in case. I download kiddie shows for my ipod just in case of emergency. I charge up a D.S. and check batteries in the leapster and camera. I get grumpy at the work and wonder why we even bother to go on vacation.

Chris laughs at me, tells me he has no idea what I am so worked up about, and packs a small bag for himself in under two minutes.

In my next life, I am coming back as the Dad.

After all the bags are packed, including Chris's, I wait until I am all alone with the luggage destined for check in and I start to stash my secret library. Books, books and more books are tucked into nooks, crannies and pockets - inside of everyone's stuff, including mine.

This works every year and satisfies my small (ahem) addiction to reading on vacation and well, all the time. But this year, the boys' collective bag was overweight. Chris raised eyebrows at me as I sheepishly had to extract no less than four hard cover books from the boys' bag while we checked our luggage.

The jig is up!

We arrived in Florida relatively unscathed. The direct flight was dreamy and oh, so wonderfully quick. We spent our days in the sun soaking up every last bit of vacation. The mornings were at the beach, digging or building sand castles in between hopping waves. After lunch, Griffin went down for a nap and I took Aidan and Brennan to the pool.

It was glorious.

At the end of each day, the boys were exhausted from all the sun, all the activity and all the fun. We all managed to sleep well, even with us tucked into one bedroom.

We all loved the time with my grandparents. Griffin dazzled my grandmother with plenty of hugs and smiles. Aidan and Brennan loved talking up my grandfather on anything and everything. We even fit in a trip to the local aquarium where the boys were over the moon touching sting rays and watching sharks, manatees and dolphins swim.

I have vacationed at the same spot for over ten years. I always question if we should mix it up a bit and pick someplace new. But then we get there and it is perfection. All of it. I start my day drinking my coffee watching the surf and end my day gazing at the setting sun. There is no other place I would rather be.