Winter?

It has been an odd winter in Buffalo. We are used to a snowy winter, full of snow ball fights, snowboarding, sledding, skating, and hot chocolate somewhere in between. Instead, it has been mild, with little to almost no snow.

Instead of snow, we've had rain. And, lord, do I hate the rain. The boys love to play outside in the snow, even on the coldest of days. They can be out there for hours upon hours until their noses are bright red, building snow forts and battling snow monsters. It's a nice break to get outside during a long winter.

But not this winter. It is a winter of mud. So much mud. And a winter of rain. It has essentially taken my least favorite month (March) in Buffalo and made it last four months. It's not pretty outside and it's not pretty inside. Not only is the mud taking over our lives, but the boys and even the dog don't want to go outside. (Mud battles? No, thank you.) This has made our house seem very, very small and our boys seem very, very loud.

We finally had a week or two of enough snow to get the boys snowboarding and let us get in some sledding. But I have seen the weather forecast, and it's not looking good. March is back. And I don't like it.

Pictures of Old

I have many pictures on my iPhone that I have taken as I have been out and about. Some I have played with on some of the photo sharing apps. All of them are pictures that make my heart ache for their cuteness. Oh, the cuteness.

Joey the Spider

My cousin Bridget babysat the boys for me a few times while she was home on holiday break from college. I came home from one of those times to find a new addition to our family - Joey the spider.

Bridget laughed as she told me that Griffin dragged out his insect collecting kit and begged her to play with it for him. She told him sure, and then directed him to go searching about the house for a bug to capture.

Bridget confided that she never believed he would actually find anything to put in the bug specimen jar and thought it would keep him happily occupied for a little while at least. Of course, not a minute later, Griffin found a spider on our ceiling.

"Bridget! Bridget come quick!" He yelled to her.

She ran into the living room as he pointed out the spider. Being a good sport that she is, she moved a chair, grabbed the bug jar and reached up to the ceiling to trap the spider.

"It was gross," She said to me. "I honestly still worry that I have a spider trapped in my hair." And then she shook like she had the heebee jeebies.

Now that the spider was captured, Griffin named him Joey. Joey lived for a while in his glass jar on our kitchen counter. (Yes. I have three boys. If it isn't giant lego creations that can't be touched on the counter, it is a rock, a stick or a bug. This is my life.) And then, in the holiday hustle and bustle, Joey and the jar was gone. I sort of forgot all about Joey.

This morning Griffin found him. And the jar. In our laundry room. Yes, this is disgusting. I may be disgusting. My home may be disgusting. I mean, who loses a spider in a jar in their laundry room for a month? Seriously?

After shaking the jar for a few seconds, Griffin shrugged and said, "I guess this is what a dead spider looks like."

Yep. A spider homicide. I totally count this as a learned science experiment. I am done for the day!

The G

Griffin comes out with the best one-liners. He is witty and clever, constantly causing Chris and I to dissolve into laughter at his comments and delivery.

This morning at breakfast, Aidan was a bit grumpy. He didn't want to go to school. He didn't want to get out of bed. He didn't want to eat breakfast. Grumpy, grumpy, grumpy.

Aidan started to pick at Griffin a little bit and Griffin brushed him off with a big grin and said, "Now Aidan, don't go all crazy on the Griffy, okay?"

Our five year old, deftly managing his nine year old brother. I like it.

On Diversity

Over the last few weeks, Brennan's class has spent a lot of time discussing Martin Luther King. Well, at least, I am assuming that they have spent a lot of time on him, because Brennan comes home every single day talking about some new aspect of Martin Luther King's life. He is enthralled. And I love that.

While I was putting Brennan to bed tonight, he brought up Ruby Bridges and told me how shocked he was to find out that people treated her like they did, all because of the color of her skin.

"Just because she was brown, Momma! Can you believe it?" He told me, clearly aghast.

"I know. It's horrible how people can be scared of someone just because they are different from them." I reply.

"Well, I just don't see the reason. I just don't see it. Everybody is different from each other." Brennan says.

"That's true. Do you see how your classmates are different from you or you are different from them?" I ask, somewhat absentmindedly as I make his bed.

Brennan gazes into space for a moment and then says, "Well, I try not to let it bother me that they all have white skin."

Interesting. This may explain why Brennan's Mii on the Wii is a black man with a mohawk and a goatee.

Sweetness

"Mommy, close your eyes," Griffin whispers to me as I sit on the couch reading a book.

I quickly comply, closing my eyes tightly shut.

I feel him reach over me and his nose brush against mine. He kisses my nose, my cheek and my forehead.

"You can open your eyes now Mommy."

Oh, the sweetness. I open my eyes to see his loving green eyes gazing at me.

"I love you Mommy."

"I love you too G."

"I love you more," He says with a grin.

"No way. I love you more."

I do. I love him more. More than seems possible.

Boarder Boys

Sunday mornings are spent getting the boys off with Chris to the ski hills. I love watching them set off, all in their gear, so excited and full of energy to get boarding.

I love even more the tired, oh-so-t0-the-bone exhausted, boys who return from their adventures. Their eyes are heavily lidded. They smile happy grins that signal a day of fun that spent every last ounce of energy they possess. There is nothing cuter than three little boys, all worn out and happy. I could eat them up.

The Mom Who Made Them All Cry

We were in the midst of the bedtime ritual. The day had seen many a lego war between my three boys, so all of their bedrooms were a mass of discarded lego ships, lego guys, and lego masterpieces drafted for the cause. Griffin had even used his prized possession in the battles, the Lego Pirates of the Caribbean ship. It was a birthday gift from Grandma Jo Jo and had taken Aidan many an intense hour of construction to get it built.

The lego ship is normally stored on Griffin's dresser, carefully placed there to ensure that no one or nothing even thinks of breaking even a bit of its precious cargo. I saw it on Griffin's floor and envisioned him stepping on it and breaking it in a middle of the night bathroom run, so I knew it had to be moved. I very carefully lifted it from the bottom to move it back on his dresser, but just before I was about to put it down, I slipped and well, I dropped it.

The crash of legos splattering here, there and everywhere on Griffin's hard wood floor was almost as loud as the wail from Griffin, and then from Aidan, and then, of course, the sympathetic crying from Brennan.

Griffin yelled, "It's broken!"

Aidan screamed, "It took me three hours to build that!"

And Brennan just stood with them, my accusers, and cried big fat tears watching the ship that was now in, what seemed to be, a million tiny pieces.

You want to know the fastest way to get three boys to cry? Yes, break a lego masterpiece. That will guarantee it.

I have promised Chris the world if he can fix it. I will resort to blackmail. Anything.

Griffin and his iPhone (Not Really)

It was a big Apple gift year in our family. With Aidan's new iPad and Brennan's new iPod touch, Chris and I were concerned Griffin may be a bit put out. So, in a stroke of genius, Chris charged up my old iPhone and gave it to Griffin to play with. There is no phone to this iPhone, but it has angry birds, a camera and a whole lot of music for G to play. He is in heaven.

The only problem is he is now taken with telling anyone and everyone that he has an iPhone. The reaction it gets its is pretty funny and the astonishment only dies down when I explain that it's not a phone at all, but just an old device to play music and games. Unfortunately, I am only there some of the time to explain G's iPhone news and so now half of Orchard Park thinks my five year old is rockin' a cell phone. (Once again, we have inadvertently become the cautionary tale. It's a gift.)

While Griffin was playing the family favorite angry birds at my cousins basketball game last week, he turned to my brother, Uncle Travis and asked loud enough for everyone to hear, "Why are these birrrrds sooo angry? They're so angry! Why are they so angry?"

It was enough to send all the people seated around us into a fit of laughter.

Continuing on our angry bird obsession, I was putting Griffin to bed when he said, "Mom, can I tell you something?" (He starts every single story with this question. Every. single. time.)

"Sure." I replied.

"On my angry birds game? There is this one bird. And she is in charge! She is fierce! She is all powerful. And all the other birds listen to her because she is that bird." He said to me intently.

I nod my head as he continues with a glimmer of mischief in his eye. "You know what we call this bird?"

I shake my head no.

"She's called Mom."

I laughed for a good five minutes. I laughed so loud and so hard that both Aidan and Brennan left their rooms to come into Griffin's room to ask what was so funny.

He is a character this boy of ours.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

It was a busy weekend for our clan. We went from pj days of new years right into the hustle and bustle of reality. It was a bit of a harsh transition.

The boys both had basketball practices on Saturday - two different places, of course, so Chris and I divided and conquered. We reconvened as a family to get the boys to their dentist appointments. After our first nightmare of a dentist appointment, I always get a little nervous about how the visit will go. But, thankfully, we have found a great dentist with a gem of a dental assistant who works magic upon my boys. In fact Brennan was so relaxed during his cleaning that his eyes started to close. He then yawned and said, "I am so relaxed. I think I may take a nap."

Yes, that's not something you hear everyday in a dentist's chair.

After the dentist, we raced home. I suited up for a tennis tournament while Chris headed out to the hockey game with a friend. I played four hours of hard, challenging tennis and was so tired after, I thought I would have to be carried home. As it was, I just barely managed to hobble to my car.

On Sunday, the boys were off to their first day of skiing and snowboarding of the season. (Or as Aidan told me, "it's not snowboarding mom. It's boarding. We're boarders." Alrighty then.) The weather has been challenging for winter sports this year, but the slopes had just enough snow to get the lessons off to a start. While they were at skiing, I was at Wegmans bright and early to stock up on our essentials. Our pantry was woefully empty, with neither milk nor bread or even coffee. (It was the need for coffee that really got me to the store. I have my priorities.)

I came home, emptied out a few hundred dollars of groceries (ugh) and found just enough time to change into my tennis gear (again!) for a match. After my match, I rushed home to shower and change, so the entire family could go watch my cousin Nicole play basketball.

Nikki is already a rock star in our family. We love her dearly. But it was fantastic for us to see her truly in her element. She is only a sophomore, but is a starting player and regular high scorer for her school's varsity basketball team. She rocked the courts and we cheered our heads off for her with much of our extended family. (I texted Nikki I was going to wear a t-shirt to her game that said "We're with Nikki. She's a badass." She texted back, " Of course. I think the whole family should wear those ts." Heh.)

After the game, Chris and I knew we should probably go home and get the kids to bed. It was a school night after all. But, the invite for dinner with our extended family was too good to resist. It was a lovely impromptu dinner with my grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousins. It reminded me, yet again, how blessed we are to share our lives with such wonderful family.

It was a crazy weekend of go, go, go, but all good, all fun. It balances out the days of pjs and legos with a whole lot of busy, busy, busy. And busy, busy, busy is all good surrounded by those you love.