Watchful Elf

We broke out our Elf on the Shelf set this weekend. I snuck the elf onto Griffin's bed while they were all playing downstairs. When Griffin found it, Aidan and Brennan had to explain the elf to him and what it meant. Griffin was thrilled to discover that the elf had been sent by Santa to stay with us, but not as thrilled to hear that the elf traveled back to the North Pole to report on him and his brothers to Santa each and every night. (Sneaky, sneaky elf.)

After much discussion, the boys named their elf "Buddy" in honor of their new found love for the movie, aptly named, Elf.

The highlight of the elf visit every year is the boys waking up each morning and searching for him all around the house. (Chris and I are much better at the hiding of the elf at the beginning of the holiday season. By Christmas, the elf is basically thrown on the couch in plain sight.) There's a whole lot of pride in being the first person to find the elf's hiding spot.

This morning, Aidan spotted the elf hiding up on the front windowsill of our large foyer window.

After the boys were home from school, they were playing in the foyer and a wrestling match erupted over a disagreement over a toy. Before I could get in the foyer to break it up, I heard Brennan yell, "Stop! We have to stop! He's watching us! The elf is watching us!"

Immediately, the wrestling and fighting stopped as all three boys looked up to the windowsill at Buddy the elf.

And I knew immediately, that the fifteen dollars I paid for Buddy the elf was money well spent indeed.

Thanksgiving for the Holidays

I try to spend a little bit of time each day to be mindful of all that I have in my life for which I am thankful. I have a whole lot of thankful, for my husband, for my children, for my family and my friends. I am thankful for the life I get to lead and for the people I get to share this life. My blessings are many and I never want to forget how grateful I am for all of them. I remember all this on Thanksgiving, but I am also a whole lot of grateful that Thanksgiving marks, at least for me anyway, the beginning of the holiday season.

It's Christmas season people. Game on! Holiday cheer, christmas music, twinkling lights and baking galore! Holiday television specials, hot chocolate filled with marshmallows, christmas decorations and a whole house decked to the halls. I love Christmas.

It was almost like the weather got a memo that the holiday season was upon us, because Black Friday dawned with a scattering of flurries across the sky. We went into today with at least six inches of snow on the ground. We celebrated with snow pants, gloves and hats and the first hot chocolate with homemade chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven. Life doesn't get much better than that on a Friday afternoon.

We have had a lazy few days, spent at home in our pjs. We unpacked christmas decorations in between snuggling on the couch under blankets watching a movie. I love the winter and the nesting it brings all of us. It slows us down and gives us an excuse to hibernate with the people we love the most.

Yesterday, we unpacked our Playmobil manger set. I gave it to the boys and asked them to set it up. Griffin asked what all of it was and I told him that Aidan could explain all the figurines and the setting to him and Brennan as they set it up.

Aidan looked at me thoughtfully and nodded, but after a beat he said, "Actually Mom, I think my bible would do a better job at explaining the whole thing." He ran up to his room, grabbed his bible, found the right page and read the story of Christmas to Brennan and Griffin.

After a few minutes of Aidan's reading, Griffin looked up at me with a crossed brow and said, "Do I really need to listen to all of this?"

Heh.

Today, we are off to get our tree. With the falling snow and holiday carols, it is a perfect day to find our Christmas trees. As long as you don't mind the windchill.

Whirlwind of a Weekend

I am worn out this morning. We had a social, busy weekend full of fun nights out, but two nights of wine, parties and late nights makes for a grumpy mom on a Monday morning.

We spent Saturday at a neighbor's house for a birthday dinner party. They put out an amazing spread of food - stuffed tenderloin, crab cakes, lobster tail and wine, oh so much wine. I knew I had consumed quite a few glasses, but I never could have guessed that six people could manage 11 bottles of wine in four hours. That's a whole lot more fun that I bargained for when the kids were up at 6 am, bright eyed and bushy tailed. Sunday was a long day.

At the end of that long day, we had to pretty ourselves up again for our annual foray to Ryan Miller's Catwalk for Charity which supports Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Good food, open bar, and lots of auction items galore.

After bidding wars, and a whole lot of bidding management and encouragement by now bidder professionals, our friends PJ and Danielle, it looks like our group of friends' children will be enjoying a pizza party with Ryan Miller, after which the moms will enjoy dinner cooked for them by Paul Gaustad. (Oh he's so dreamy! Sigh.)

I just keep telling myself the money we spent on these things all go to a good cause, right? Yep. Sure.

Chris also got pulled up on stage during the festivities to receive an award for his work and support of Ryan's foundation. Our hooting and hollering from the audience was a fine example of how proud we all were of him.

After all the excitement this weekend, my couch, fleece pjs and a dvr full of mindless television is looking pretty decadent for a Monday night. I am obviously not used to so much fun packed in two short days. I am not as much fun as I pretend to be.

Parent/Teacher Conferences: 2010

Yesterday was parent/teacher conference day at Aidan and Brennan's school. I am proud to report that I managed to keep alive my tradition of crying my way through all of the boys' conferences. (Oh to be a fly on the wall in the teacher's lunch room.) But, on the positive side, I am grateful to be the crying fool of a mommy crying from sheer joy, rather than horror.

How's that for positive spin?

They were joyful tears. I am always amazed at the nice things we hear from the boys' teachers and I often feel a slight weight from my shoulders ease during the conferences. I am also always surprised at how well the boys' teachers capture their personalities so quickly and with such detail. They know my child. They take the time to get my child. And that means more than I can say.

My favorite part of Aidan's conference was the teacher telling us that because of Aidan and his Harry Potter obsession, she has a classroom of children, all reading Harry Potter. She laughed and told us that to be honest, there are kids in his class not ready for Harry Potter yet, but if Aidan tells them to read it - read it they will. 22 Kids, all with their noses stuck in various books in one series, all because of my boy.

Brennan and Aidan are both surpassing any expectations we had for them academically. I am not sure I can put into words how proud we are of them for this. But as always, the words that bring the greatest joy to me as a parent is hearing both teachers tell us how kind our boys are, what good friends they are to the other children in class, and what good hearts they have. I could not hope for anything more.

Not Like the Other

As a mom to three children of the same sex, I am fascinated by the differences and nuances in each of their personalities. They have all been raised in the same household, by the same parents and with the same rules, but they are all so their own persons.

It is a true nature versus nurture experiment played out before us.

I know we aren't supposed to compare our children and I honestly try to keep my comparisons to myself, but there are times that I simply can not help myself.

Each night I snuggle up with each boy alone, to talk about their day before they go to bed. While Aidan loves to talk to me, he prefers we discuss his current obsession, be it Star Wars, legos or some obscure scientific thing he read somewhere. We have spent the last three weeks dissecting each and every part of every. single. Harry Potter book and movie, including which character I would most like to be, which spell is the coolest, which part is the scariest, our favorite scenes and well, I think you get the picture. He has always been like this, our Aidan. It started with Toy Story (he used to carry around the empty dvd case of the Toy Story movie when he was one), moved onto Thomas the Tank Engine (he slept, ate, and took the vehicle "Jack" from Thomas with him everywhere we went and even wanted to name Brennan "Jack"), and then moved onto Star Wars and Legos. I'll admit that at times it is cute, his obsessive way of reviewing and categorizing his interests, but there were times when I just wanted to hear about his day, his friends, his life at school and I came up empty. But this is our Aidan, a boy with an intense focus on a single issue that makes him an almost unstoppable force.

So you can imagine my surprise when Brennan started kindergarten and our nights involve him sharing every single thing that happened to him in his day, and well, everyone elses. It is like a virtual play by play in the life of a kindergartner. I know who is behaving, who had their name up on the board ("John again, Mom! "He is an 'imperuppter' (interrupter) and doesn't listen at all!"), who likes to talk (Chatty, Chatty Mia Mom. All she does is chat, chat, chat all day long!"), who to avoid, ("Momma, there are two Caitlins - nice Caitlin who I like and pincher Caitlin who likes to pinch me during circle time") and who is out of class. ("Today Momma, Charlie is sick and Claire is in Vegas.") I can not believe the amount of information that comes flowing out of Brennan's mouth the minute I sit upon his bed. It is like he is storing it all up for me and can not wait to release it. I spend most of the time listening and laughing at his dramatic reenactment of his day. He has only been part of his class of 18 children for three months, but I already feel as if I know each and every classmate by his detailed descriptions.

I know in many ways my boys are more alike, than they are different, but it is the differences that fascinate me. It is those little nuances that make each of them a unique, lovable, individual of a boy that are all mine to love.

Bad, bad word

As Chris travels less and less, I think I am out of practice on the single parenting gig. For a while, I was like a mommy machine tackling single parenthood and juggling three kids, a dog and a job with ease. Okay, not ease really. More like tackling all of the above with a whole lot of yelling, a whole lot of red wine and a big ol' case of cranky pants.

But now. It isn’t with so much ease (or lack thereof). Chris was gone for a week in November on a work trip (Vegas, hardship, right?), returned for a few days and then was back on the road for another four days (Orlando, more hardship). It wasn’t easy. We all struggled. I was grumpy, the kids were cranky and the dog found every mud puddle to roll out his frustration.

But then Chris returned and we all breathed a big sigh of relief.

This morning, Chris had a very early start to his day and was out of the house before the boys and I were even awake. In our crazy morning dash, Aidan and Brennan missed the bus, so I loaded all three boys into the car for morning drop off before work. It was only then that I realized I had to drop off a file at one of my law firm’s partner’s home first. He lives only a few miles from us, but his house is not visible from the road and I couldn’t remember where it was. I looked at long driveway after long driveway until I finally took a gamble and turned into one that looked familiar.

It wasn’t the right house.

The driveway was long and curved and had deep ditches on both sides. This meant I could not turn the car around, but had to carefully back up the car and avoid driving the car, myself and the three kiddos into a big ditch.

I am not a good backer upper. Even the boys will routinely pray any time I go to back up a car. It is not pretty.

After I missed a turn and almost sent the car over the sides of the driveway, I clutched the steering wheel in frustration and yelled as loud as I could, “SHIT!”

There is absolute silence from the backseat and then I hear a gleeful, “Shit!”

Oh no.

I turn my head and see Brennan grinning at me. “Brennan! Boys – that is not a good word. I shouldn’t have said that word, okay?”

“Shit isn’t a good word?” Aidan asked.

“Why can’t we say shit?” Brennan continued.

“Shit!” Griffin yelled.

“Shit?” Brennan said again.

“How can a word like shit be a bad word?” Aidan asked over his brothers yelling.

“Okay, no more. It is not a good word and we are not going to use it again, understood?” I finally manage to get myself out of the driveway and find the right house. I drop the file off, get back into the car and take a deep breath.

As I pull away, I catch the boys' eyes in the rear view mirror and say quietly, “I want everyone to remember that we are not going to use that word again today, okay?”

Brennan looks up at me and says with a sigh, “Huh, I think I actually already forgot it mom.”

Aidan is gazing out the window and he turns to look at me as he says, “I remember it. Do you want me to spell it for you?”

I have one word for that. SHIT!

Reading Reader

Aidan is in a full on obsession with books. He is reading non-stop, fueled by his infatuation with all that is Harry Potter. We purchased Book 7 over the weekend, and instead of diving right in with his normal glee, he seemed sad about the inevitable end of the Harry books.

Last night, after much discussion about how much fun it would be to move to Hogwarts and if I would prefer the invisibility cloak over a new broom, I diverted his attention by asking what he wanted for Christmas. He told me he really wanted the Harry Potter Lego Castle (of course), and he also hopes Santa brings him a Kindle.

"What?" I laughed, "A Kindle? Really?"

"Yes! A Kindle!" He replied, "It would be so great Mom. I could load up all my Harry Potter books on my Kindle and keep them with me all the time so I could read them again and again whenever I want."

I think we need to find Aidan a new book series and soon.

Catching Up

Griffin's birthday is coming up in just a few weeks. Our precocious little three year old will be a precocious little four year old. Oh, how time has flown.

I asked Griffin if he was excited to be four.

"Yes!" He shouted enthusiastically, "I can not wait to be four! Then I will be like everyone else in my class! No one else is three, except me. I will be four like them! Except for Owen, Momma, he's five."

Sometimes, it feels good to feel like you are catching up to everyone else.

Smack Down by an 11 Year Old

My doubles partner, my dear friend Christine, and I have made a commitment to seek out competitive tennis playing opportunities this year during the winter season. In addition to entering tournaments at our level of play, this weekend we entered a tournament a level up from our rated level.

We knew that by playing up, we were out for good experience playing against competitive players which will help us focus on what we need to work on in our game. We do not expect to win matches. But what we didn't expect was that our first opponents would be an 11 year old and her mom.

Yep. An 11 year old. An 11 year old girl that hit the ball harder than anyone I have ever played against. Her shots were unbelievable. And we didn't know quite how to play her. She schooled us, smacked us down, and smacked us again, beating us 6-3, 6-0.

Honestly, her doubles partner (her mom), didn't have to do much but stand there and let the girl beat us into submission. And she did so quickly.

There is something horrifying at losing a match to an 11 year old. It beats up on your ego a bit. We have our second match tomorrow, and I have to admit, I am just hoping our opponents have cleared puberty. I think I will take that as sign we may have a fighting chance.

Winter Swim!

The boys had their first indoor swim meet of the season today. This was complicated by the fact that Chris was out of town and, well, swim meets are crazy, chaotic, messes. It is hundreds of kids, their parents, their coaches running here, there and everywhere. I knew there wasn't a chance I could handle two swimmers and their respective events and an, ahem, spirited three-almost four year old. Not a chance.

Thankfully, my mom stepped in to take Griffin for the morning. Or as Griffin likes to say, he had a "playdate with Grandma Jo Jo." Yes, a playdate that involves pancakes, toys r us and candy. Life doesn't get better than that for a preschooler.

Aidan, Brennan and I were off to the meet. This is the first year that the parents were not allowed to choose the events for their swimmers. Instead, the coaches determine where your children will swim. This meant that for the first time Aidan was swimming butterfly and a 50 freestyle, on top of a freestyle relay, 25 freestyle, and backstroke. For Brennan's first ever indoor swim meet, he was set to swim breaststroke (never swam before in a meet), backstroke (never swam before in a meet), a 25 free (only event he has ever swam before in a meet) and a 50 free (Dear God, please make sure the lifeguard never takes his eyes off my child and that he doesn't drown. Amen.)

(I know you think I am kidding with that prayer, but I said practically the same thing to every parent within shouting distance the minute Brennan hit the blocks for the 50 free. That and, please do not let him drown. Please.)

So, you can imagine my surprise when Brennan won his heat for the 50 free. WON HIS HEAT PEOPLE. Yes, it was the lowest ranked heat (we like to call it the controlled drowning heat) for boys 8 and under, but wow. Just wow, I was so unbearably proud. He just kept chugging along that pool until he reached the finish line. Brennan also won his heats for backstroke and 25 free. Again, they are the lowest rated heats, but I was really, really proud of him.

And in the even more color me surprised category, Aidan also won his heat in the 50 free. Aidan was placed in the third highest heat. He executed a beautiful dive into the water, stayed steady throughout the race, did the sweetest flip turn (upon which I yelled out so loud - "I didn't know he could do that!" that three rows turned around to look at the loud lady in the back) and then he took it. I couldn't believe it. It was quite an accomplishment for him. Aidan also won his heat in 25 free and just missed the 25 backstroke by a millisecond. Afterwards, one of the parents next to me, turned and asked how long he has been swimming. At my story of Aidan as the crazy, crying kid who refused to get in the water, he shook his head and said, "that kid is a natural." Who would have ever thought? Not me.

I was very proud of both my boys. We struggled alot this fall with deciding which activities the boys should do. I do not want to be one of those overwhelmed and overscheduled families with extremely stressed out kids. The boys like swimming and they are doing well at it, but I am not sure they love it. They also want to try basketball and continue with soccer and snowboarding. They enjoy baseball and golf. Aidan is obsessed with doing another mini-triathlon and Brennan is in love with mountain biking. Add their schoolwork into the mix and it can be really tough to pick and choose, particularly when you have other kids who are doing it all and doing it all with crazy intense focus. After alot of debate and discussion, we decided to stay with swimming this year, but cut down on the practices the boys attend. Instead of Aidan swimming four times a week, he swims twice and instead of Brennan swimming two times a week, he swims once. It seems to work for them. And after watching them today at the meet, seeing the joy and sense of accomplishment and pride on their faces after each race, I am very glad we stuck with it.

Halloween 2010

One of the things I like best about having children is how it gives you an excuse to go all out with the holidays. Halloween isn't just a day. It is a month long decorating, pumpkin carving, apple picking, spooky show watching, neighbor ghosting, scary crafting, treat baking extravaganza.

I swear when I was a kid Halloween meant me grabbing a pillowcase and going door to door for a few hours. It wasn't a string of days fueled by sugar. The times, oh, how they have changed.

We opened up the celebration with the school parties. Brennan is in quite an interesting class this year. The planning of the kindergarten class halloween party was on scale with the planning of a wedding for the royal family. It was silly and insane. After the twentieth email of four or five paragraphs long, marked by many !!!!!!!! punctuation marks !!!!! to adequately express the enthusiasm of the room parents for the party planning, I turned to Chris, threw up my hands and decided some people have just way too much time on their hands. And given that our children attend a very small school, virtually guaranteeing that these other parents and children will be a part of our lives for the next 8 years (!!!!!!!), I am afraid. I am very afraid.


(As an aside, one of the emails actually listed a detailed party itinerary which included one of the room moms leading a sing a long with a list of each song to be sung WITH LYRICS included in case other parents wanted to be prepared. Yes, that itsy bitsy spider song has always been a tough one for me to figure out. I am glad I got to study before hand. )

On the flip side, I am one of the homeroom parents for Aidan's class. We sent out all of ONE Halloween party email to the parents asking them to send in $3 so we could buy crafts, treats and toilet paper for a mummy game. That's all. And that one email was about three sentences wrong. There was no "reply all" by each and every parent, no itinerary, no enthusiastic punctuation (!!!!!!!!), just straight and simple and to the point. Good god people, get a grip for the love of all that is holy.

(As another aside, the kindergarten class has also appointed (!!!!!!!) a class photographer so that each precious moment can be documented. She even went on the field trip with them today to capture it for our upcoming kindergarten photo album. These are not my people. Not at all. But I digress.)

So, Halloween at school! Brennan's class does the costume parade where they walk into each classroom to show off their costumes. The boys' school goes up to 8th grade, so it is beyond adorable to see them walking into all the older classrooms to strut their stuff. They even walk into the school office and the Principal's office.

(This is Brennan and his friend Ciara. She's a favorite of Brennan's. I think because she buys him ice cream at lunch every single day. Smart little girl, right?!)




After the parade, they were off to their fancy halloween celebration. And I will be completely honest, it was fairly spectacular. They had balloon sculptures, inflatable ghosts, a million and one games, and a treat bag about the size of a large tote bag stuffed to the brim with a whole lot of halloween related stuff.

I had to sneak out early to go do Aidan's classroom party. We had the kids decorate pumpkins while they listened to a halloween music, then they wrapped each other with toilet paper for a good forty minutes. (The toilet paper game is always a crowd pleaser.) After that, we gave them a treat bag about the size of a small ziplock with like three items in it. And a good time was still had by all.

After the school celebrations were over, we hustled home to rest up for another halloween party that night. Dancing, eating, and an all you can eat ice cream bar. (Brennan spent a little too much time at the ice cream bar.)

(I had to snag a picture of Aidan with his friend (sigh) Emily. They were inseparable over the summer and did not leave each other's side at the party. I am so NOT ready for this, in any way, shape or form.)

For the actual day of Halloween, we hosted a slew of adults and their children over for pizza, juice boxes, adult beverages and mayhem for pre-trick or treat fun. Our house was a mass of children running here, there and everywhere. That mass of children then morphed into a trick or treating gang, running from house to house in the neighborhood with a mission to get as much candy as possible. I honestly think I saw people flinch when they saw our band of ragamuffins running towards their door yelling trick or treat.

The adults followed as best we could, led by a wagon full of adult beverages, and happily carrying hot apple cider drinks spiked by our clever friend PJ who made each of us a drink to go. He is now guaranteed a spot as Halloween bartender for at least the next ten years of trick or treating bliss.