Beach Baby!

I have a day to pack up my stuff, the boys stuff and all the other assorted stuff I have convinced myself we can not live without for a week. In this day, today, I also have to take the boys to swim team, swim lessons, soccer practice and a soccer game.

I also need to clean my car. Ugh. My poor car has completely succumbed to the title of family vehicle with wrappers and debris, lego men and transformers littering every available inch of floor space. And did I mention that Griffin gets car sick any time he rides in the car over twenty minutes? Yes, my car doesn't smell all that good either.

Instead of doing any of this, I am drinking coffee, perusing blogs and reading facebook. Denial is a wonderful thing.

Beach vacation? What beach vacation? 12 hour drive? What 12 hour drive?

I need to kick into high gear. Beach, baby! Beach!

The Wardens

My gift to Chris for Father's Day was time to himself. I think we reach a point, particularly after having children, when time to do as you please is truly the best, most indulgent gift.

He was at the golf course by 7 a.m. and did not return until almost 4 p.m. I think he liked his gift.

The boys asked once or twice where Chris was throughout the day, but after hearing he was golfing, they were content with the explanation and did not inquire further. Daddy golfs and to them, that is good.

On Monday evening, I had plans to meet a friend to play tennis for an hour. As I prepared to get up from the dinner table to get ready to hit the courts, the boys were not pleased.

"Where are you going Momma?" Brennan asked for the third time.

"To tennis Brennan. Mommy is going to play some tennis for a little bit."

"For how long?" Aidan asked gazing at me seriously.

"Hmmm, I don't know. An hour maybe?" I replied.

"So, does this mean you'll be back to put us to bed or not?" Brennan inquired.

"Not sure - I will definitely come up when I get home to give you kisses though, okay?"

"But when?" "Will I be awake?" "Can you wake me up?" "Who are you playing tennis with?" "Are you only going to play tennis or do something else?" "Are you coming right home after?" "Are you leaving right now?" "Can't you stay longer?"

At this, I stopped answering their questions and burst into laughter. I gave Chris a mock glare and yelled, "Okay everybody, Daddy was gone for like 12 hours yesterday and no one says a word! I only want to leave for an hour guys!"

They didn't find it funny. Not funny in the least. My three little wardens. At least they're cute.

Backyard Bliss

Rain, Rain Go Away and Don't Come Back til Fall

It has not been a nice few days here in the Northeast. The rain came at the end of the week and has lingered, dispensing a fine mist that is never ending. Our family is not happy about this freak weather system and is chomping at the bit to get back to our regularly scheduled summer activities. (I haven't hit a tennis ball since last Tuesday, people! I am going through a serious withdrawal.)

Instead of our normal weekend activity of playing at the pool with our buddies:

We have been forced to come up with a more creative way to entertain ourselves indoors. Forts composed of boxes and bubble packing? Rock on.

(Hmmm, the availability of all those boxes probably confirms I have an online shopping problem.)

If all else fails, we make crazy hats out of construction paper and dance like crazy. Desperate times call for desperate measures! Let's hope the sun comes back soon.

(Check out Griffin's face near the end of the video. I think he is trying to sing the bass line. As an added bonus, you can also hear Aidan and Brennan "negotiating" the merger of their box/bubble wrap spaceships/forts.)

Swim Team 2009

Opening practice for swim team 2009. This year, no tears and two kiddies in the pool. Brennan jumped right into the pool like a champ. He was a streamlining fool. Aidan was all over his strokes and did laps like a champ.

All this and a freak weather pattern that brought us rain and 55 degree weather.

You know they love it when they even want to get in the water in spite of their goose bumps.

Sing, Sing a Song

Aidan had a playdate with a boy from school. After he was dropped off at our house, Aidan's friend asked if they could play on the computer.

"Sure," I said and then asked, "What do you guys want to look up on the computer?"

"I want to go to YouTube and show Aidan some videos." The friend replied.

"Hmmm, what kind of videos?" I asked.

"Of my favorite song! It's called 'Love Game'" He said enthusiastically.

I smiled at him as I tried to piece this whole thing together. A song? Love Game? YouTube? And I thought having kids addicted to Star Wars was a challenge.

I opted to play it safe. I told the boys we could look up the song on itunes and play the clip so Aidan could hear it.

We did. The clip said something to the effect of someone dancing on someones disco stick. Oh boy. Aidan's friend enthusiastically rocked out to the clip.

After the clip ended, he looked at Aidan and asked, "Aidan, what's your favorite song?"

Aidan paused, thought about it for a second and answered, "Eye of the Tiger."

I had to leave the room to hide my laughter. He is so his father's son, that's all I have to say.

Go Directly to Jail

Aidan's schooling of the past two weeks has basically consisted of a daily field trip to here and there and everywhere. The teacher always requests a few parents to chaperone the class for each trip. My chaotic schedule, combined with work and the responsibilities of two other little kiddies (no siblings on field trips!), has made my chaperoning options limited. This is how I got stuck taking his class to the local Whoville police station instead of to the more exotic locales of the Buffalo Zoo or the Sweet Shoppe.

I mean, it's Whoville people. How much goes on at our police station anyway?

Not much apparently. They pretty much let the kids wander anywhere and everywhere, including locking them up in the empty jail cells. (I winked at the officer as he locked up the cell doors and asked if I could drop off my other two kiddies later on in the day for lock down. I don't think he knew if he should take me seriously or not. He gave me a small, nervous smile and backed quickly away from me.)




After lock down, the officer even gave us a tour of the local Whoville courtroom. It brought back many a memory for me, back in the day, fresh out of law school as a brand spankin' new assistant district attorney. As a new ADA, I spent my days (and nights!) holed up in many a town courtroom. I engaged in quite alot of sophisticated jurisprudence (jury trials for drunk driving charges), intertwined with excruciatingly long arraignments where my supervisor told me to think of the clanking of chains of the prisoners as mere "sleigh bells." I realized I wasn't cut out for the life of crime fighter when I won my first probation violation hearing, resulting in jail time for the defendant. I should have celebrated my victory, but instead I had to quickly excuse myself to the judge's chambers where I promptly burst into tears. The judge found me there still crying five minutes later. He wasn't quite sure what to do with me. At that moment, the only thing I was most sure of was that I was probably not cut out to be a career prosecutor.

(And then I sold out, selling my soul in return for a white collar job at a fancy law firm doing anything that did NOT involve going to court. Anything but that. Me, save the world? What? Ah, I was cute that way.)

But today, was simple. No soul searching or tears, just police sirens and cute jail, all to entertain a bunch of sweet first graders in the last few days of school before summer.

Let's Pretend

Griffin is a daddy's boy through and through. If given a choice between his mom or dad, it's all daddy all the time. After two boys who personify the "momma's boy" moniker, it is somewhat bewildering to me to have a child, my last sweet baby, who prefers his daddy's arms to mine.

Sometimes it makes me laugh. Other times it hurts just a bit.

Today, though, it made me laugh.

I took the boys to the pool for the morning. As I swam with Griffin, giving him rides on my back around and around the pool, he turned into my arms, gazed at me with his big blue-green eyes and asked that fateful question, "Where's my Daddy?"

"He's on the golf course G, but he'll meet us to swim a little bit later." I replied, smiling.

Griffin strikes a pout and says, "But I want to swim with him now Mommy."

"I know honey, and you can swim with him later."

He shakes his head back and forth as he considers my answer. After a moment, he looks at me with a huge grin and tells me, "I know! I am going to pretend you are my Daddy. So then I am swimming with my Daddy. Okay? Let's go Daddy! Swim!"

Hmmm, not a huge fan of this pretend game. I smile at Griffin and say sweetly, "What about your Mommy Griff? Don't you want to swim with your Mommy?"

He gives me a look that tells me he is not amused.

"No, Mommy isn't here. Mommy is at golf. Daddy is here to swim with me. Let's swim Daddy!"

Yes, so Daddy gets to golf with his buddies and still get all the credit for swim time at the pool while Mommy does all the work. Perhaps I should have taken up golfing instead of tennis.

Oh, Monday.

I skipped the trip to Wegmans over the weekend even though we needed it. We really, truly needed it. If they didn't serve food at the pool, we probably would have all starved. But combine the pool food with the spread at my cousin Allison's graduation party, and we were well fed even if the cupboards were bare.

This worked great for me and my tendency to procrastinate, right up until I sipped my first cup of Monday morning coffee and something just didn't taste right. Hmmm, two cups in and well, damn, if this doesn't taste like decaf.

Hell hath no fury like a mom denied her caffeine. (And a pox on the husband who tries to pass off the decaf in the coffee maker as real coffee before scurrying off to work.)

Wegmans immediately became a Monday morning priority. I rushed the kids through getting dressed. I ran upstairs to brush my teeth and realized that Chris had kindly used up all the toothpaste. I was left with the boys' special bubble game flavored paste for my teeth-brushing.

How any mouth can feel fresh after brushing with a fake bubble gum toothpaste is beyond me. It's pretty gross. Mouth gaggingly gross.

We make it out to Wegmans in record time. I negotiate a dispute over cart selection with the boys, finally settling them all into a mammoth cart with seats for all. I desperately push them over to the coffee bar, my eyes intent on the biggest iced coffee I can order. I place my order, search in my purse for my wallet to pay and find... no wallet.

I forgot my wallet. No money, no coffee. No caffeine, no happy mommy.

I get the kids out of the cart and hustle them back to the car. As we hustle, Griffin trips over a crack in the road and falls hard on his knee. The scraped knee proves too much for the little guy and he dissolves into a full blown crying tantrum in the middle of the parking lot. Brennan, always a sympathetic crier, decides to join in. They are both quite the spectacle.

A woman walking by us rolls her eyes at me before she quickly looks away. With a jolt, I realize I am part of the spectacle. I am that mother with those kids.

And I never even got to have my sweet, lovely, oh so needed iced coffee. Not a drop.

Field Day Friday and Swimming Saturday

Aidan's class celebrated field days on Friday. I took Brennan and Griffin to cheer him on while he raced. We giggled at the sight of the kids running relays that forced them to change into long sleeve shirts and laughed out loud at the sight of them sliding around the gym floor in their socks to find their shoes from a giant pile. It was very cute, but also exceptionally loud. After a half an hour Griffin turned to me, placed his hands over his ears and yelled, "I can't hear ANYTHING Mommy!"

It's amazing how loud forty kids can be in a confined space.

After naps, we had soccer that evening. It was a beautifully sunny night, perfect to sit and watch a few soccer games. Brennan made quite a few spectacular saves in goal and Aidan made a few of his breakaway goal specials.

Today, we have been lazy by the pool. It is our regular weekend activity of summer. We meet up with friends to watch our kids play by the pool. We enjoy lunch and easy conversation. It is one of my most favorite things of summer.

Tonight, Chris and I are headed out to see Tragically Hip in concert. We have first row seats to a sold out show. I almost feel like a rock star. Almost.

Summer Days

When I picture summer, I picture long lazy days full of nothing to do but enjoy the sunshine. Our reality is always the opposite. We hit Memorial Day, celebrate the opening weekend of summer, and quickly launch into a crazy schedule jam packed full of stuff. Stuff, stuff and MORE stuff.

It's all good. It's full of friends and family, the pool, soccer, golf and tennis, backyard barbecues and graduation parties, concerts and festivals. All wonderfully fun stuff. It's just alot.

I get anxious when I look at my calendar and see it full. And each year, I promise, I swear, that this year I will learn to gracefully decline a few things here and there to preserve a few long lazy days of summer. It's June and my record is not looking so good. But I have hope for July. Really.

My addition of a tennis addiction has only further exacerbated our full schedule. I am playing tennis at least three times a week, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. This week, it's a lot more. It's five nights in a row of banging that little yellow ball across a court. Thankfully, most of the nights involve matches that start at 8:30 pm. This allows me to put the kids to bed before I indulge my inner tennis player. But it also means that I am putting in some long, late nights. I got home past 11 pm on Monday night and Tuesday night, after showering and unwinding from my match high, I went to bed past 1 am. I am tired. The type of tired that might allow me to doze at my desk.

On Tuesday, I forgot to set my alarm to get all of us up and out of the house to work and school. Chris is normally our morning guy, but he is traveling for work this week, leaving me to get through the morning rush alone. Aidan has to catch the bus at 7:25 am. At 7:20 am, Aidan woke me up from a very deep sleep.

"Mom? Mom? It's 7:20!" He said as he patted my back quietly.

I looked over and saw him already dressed in his school uniform. He had brushed his teeth and combed his hair. When he was sure I was awake, he smiled at me and said, "Brennan is still sleeping. Griffin is in his crib awake. Do you want me to go read to Griffin while you get up?"

I could have eaten that child whole such was my love for him in that moment.

We all made it up and out of the house in record time. I count it as a minor success that Aidan woke me up at 7 am this morning. I just might survive the mornings this week after all. At least until Chris gets home.