Another Mom

Brennan and I were discussing the holidays at bedtime. I asked him if he had thought at all about what he wanted for Christmas or his upcoming birthday.

"I don't know," he said thoughtfully, "But I do know what I am going to get you for Christmas!"

"You do?" I laughed.

"Yes. I am going to get you another Mom." Brennan said triumphantly.

"What? Another mom?" I have to admit I was worried where this was going and sure it was going to lead to some comment on my mothering skills. It had been a tough week all the way around for us. Let's just say it has not been one of my finer mothering weeks. Chris had been out of town and we all had a big ol' bad case of the grumpies.

"Another Mom!" Brennan laughed.

"Well, what would the other Mommy do?" I asked, hesitantly, not sure if I wanted to know the answer.

Brennan thought for a moment. "The other mom would do all the cleaning of the house. All the laundry and all that other stuff. Then, all you would have to do is play with us all day long. You'd like that wouldn't you Momma?"

Yes. I think this Other Mom gift idea has some merit after all.

Pumpkin Carving

The dog ate our pumpkins. It started with him gnawing on them a bit as they rested on our front stoop, but we chastised him and he stopped for a while. The next thing we knew, he had rolled them off the front steps and was using them as giant balls to roll around the front yard.

Then he ate their insides. Happy Halloween!


The boys were not happy. I was even less happy, given that I had shelled out over thirty dollars for the giant beasts of pumpkins. The neighbors, on the other hand, have found it hysterically funny. We live to amuse our neighbors.

I promised the boys I would get more pumpkins so we could do our annual carving. (Damn dog.)

But I was saved from the pumpkin purchase! Our dear friends Danielle and PJ had a second birthday party for their sweet daughter Lexi. And guess what? It was a pumpkin carving, pumpkin decorating, pumpkin smash of a party! Hurray for non-dog eaten, slimed up pumpkins all set to paint, to carve, to dress up.

The boys got right to work.

And now the carved, dressed up pumpkins are safe at home, where we will keep them high on a shelf, away from our pumpkin eating pooch.

Brennan and the Girls

There is something about Brennan. I can't quite put my finger on it. I can't actually describe it. But there is some special thing about Brennan that draws in the girls. He had quite a following in preschool and it seems to have carried over to the kindergarten crowd.

The first week of school, my cousin Nicole texted me to tell me that her best friend's little sister, who is in Brennan's kindergarten class, just announced at dinner that she was in love and his name is Brennan.

The second week, the class was assigned to make a special picture for someone they love. Brennan brought home his picture for me and three other pictures signed with an assortment of girls' names. When I asked Brennan about it, he blushed, and quickly said, "I don't want to talk about it Mom."

And now I have found out that Brennan's lunch table, the special peanut-free lunch table that he has to sit at, is populated with all the girls' in the class. And if it's full and with no room, there are two girls in particular who will "squeeze themselves in to sit next to Brennan."

In addition to having his own lunchtime harem, Brennan told me that there is a special girl at his lunch table that he likes a whole lot. She buys him ice cream after lunch every day. Upon finding out that this little girl has been giving my child money to buy ice cream for the past few weeks, I immediately sent him to school with enough money so he could treat her to a cone.

And that is romance, kindergarten style.

Tech Savvy

When Aidan was around three, he used to beg me to let him play on the computer. He loved the games on all the kiddie websites, but after minutes upon minutes of me having to navigate the computer and the games with him, I started to discourage computer time.

Yes, I am not all that patient when it comes to kid centric computer games.

Griffin has never shown all that much interest in my laptop, but yesterday he asked if he could play on it. Since I was desperate to shower (uninterrupted!), I brought up a website of kid activities, shows and games to get him started. I doubted it would hold him for long, based upon my experience with Aidan at the same age, but I hoped it would buy me some time.

After a few minutes of playing around, Griffin seemed to have the hang of it. Stretched out on my bedroom floor in front of my laptop screen, he switched from games featuring Dora to Diego, Backyardigans to Yo Gabba Gabba. He was a tech wizard! After I got out of the shower, I even had time to run downstairs and throw in load of laundry.

When I returned to my bedroom, Griffin looked up and yelled, "Mom, I can even watch movies on this thing!" Sure enough, he had dialed up an episode of his very favorite show, Franklin.

And he needed not a word of instruction or assistance from me. The third child is scary that way.

Entertaining the Dentist

The boys all had dentist appointments on Wednesday night. Yes, all three boys and me, off to visit the dentist. I am a glutton for punishment.

Aidan made it through his cleaning and inspection without a hitch. Brennan hopped up into the chair next, eager to open wide for some bubble game flavored toothpaste. The dentist noticed Brennan had lost a few teeth and commented on it.

Brennan, speaking with his mouth half wide open replied, "You see, I have this friend whose name is Dr. Dylan and he likes to pull out all of my teeth."

The dentist shot me a look as I laughed and smiled right back at him.

When it was Griffin's turn, he got into the chair, but seemed distracted. The hygienist turned to him and asked him to open wide. He started to, but then while staring right at the hygienist, smiled and busted out singing, "Any way you want it, that's the way I want it, anyway you want it!"

The hygienist and I both burst out laughing. As we wiped tears from our eyes, she looked at me and said, "Journey? That's an interesting choice."

I said, "It's the Glee Journey mash up."

I am not sure she thought that made my kid any cooler, but I totally did.

Fall Perfection

This weekend was the perfect fall weekend. The sun was shining. The trees were full of changing leaves. It was a perfect excuse to head to a farm for picking apples and pumpkins.

The apples were gigantic. (All the better for me to bake apple pies with once, twice, or maybe three times... I have a slight addiction to apple pie in the fall.) We easily filled two huge bags up with apples - more apples than even I, the apple pie lover, am sure what to do with. After we picked many an apple, the boys each picked out a pumpkin to take home. (The same pumpkins that have now been used by Chewy as toys to roll around the front yard. That was money well spent.)

Snapshots of Our Life

"Griffin, do you want another cup of milk?" I ask during dinner with the boys.

"Yes!" Griffin responds.

Before I can get out of my chair, Aidan jumps up and smiles at me. "I can get it for him Mom," Aidan says as he opens the fridge.

"Wow, Aidan, thank you." I reply. "Isn't that so nice of your big brother G?"

Griffin nods with his mouth full of dinner. After he swallows, he turns to Aidan and says, "You sure do fill up my bucket again and again Aidan."

The filling of people's buckets is a concept, based upon a book, that all of my boys learn in preschool. Each of us has a bucket that is filled up with love, acts of kindness or nice deeds from other people. It is one of my favorite lessons learned in preschool and I love that it always makes an imprint on the boys.

It also makes me cry. Alot.

----------------------------------------

The boys are obsessed with Harry Potter. Aidan started reading the books over the summer and the boys have been begging to see the movies. Finally, we watched the first Harry Potter movie a few weeks ago.

During the opening scenes, one of the characters yells at Harry that there is NO such thing as magic. All three of my boys gasped and whispered (at the same time) as they shook their heads in denial, "Yes, there is!"

I love that they believe in magic. I hope they never stop.

-------------------------------------------

Before they left on their camping trip a few weeks ago, Chris told the boys to pick a few things to bring for the six hour car ride to the Canadian wilderness.

Aidan came downstairs with a book and a dictionary.

Chris laughed and told him, "Aidan, you are NOT bringing a dictionary on a camping trip!"

Aidan looked offended and responded, "But I like the dictionary. I like to look up words and read what they mean."

Chris took the dictionary away and sent him back to his room to get his DS.

I have a feeling that all these stories of our parental encouragement of video games over books, homework and dictionaries are really going to come back to haunt us someday.

Kindergarten Justice

A few weeks ago, I asked Brennan how his day had been at school. After telling me he had a great day, he told me he had felt bad for one of his classmates, Matthew, who had not had such a great day.

"Why B? What happened to Matthew?" I asked.

"Mom, Matthew was in the bathroom and one of the other boys didn't know that so they opened up the bathroom door. And Matthew wasn't done yet. So we all saw Matthew in his underwear, Mom!"

"Oh no. What happened?"

"Well, everyone laughed Mom. Everyone!" Brennan took a deep breath and continued, "Except me, Mom. I didn't laugh. Not even a bit."

I managed to stifle my burst of laughter. Sure, he didn't. Yep.

"I am sure that hurt Matthew's feelings. It's not nice to laugh at people like that." I replied.

"I know! So the teacher was not happy at the class."

"I am sure she wasn't."

"Nope. Not happy at all. And then the teacher told us that because we all laughed we had to draw a picture of ourselves and what we look like when we go to the bathroom and show it to Matthew."

I nod head and then stop. Wait. What?

"Your teacher did what?" I asked, uncertain.

"She said we had to draw a picture of ourselves going to the bathroom and show it to Matthew."

My eyes narrowed and focused on Brennan. "Brennan, did that really happen?"

Brennan looked back at me, gazed off into space for a minute and shrugged, "Yeah, I guess I made the last part up. But I did really see Matthew's underwear today Mom."