Manners

When the club we belong to announced they were hosting an etiquette luncheon for boys and their mommies, I may have been the first mom to call and sign us up.  I love the idea of boys who appreciate manners and understand that a true man is also a gentleman.  It is a value Chris and I both hope and work towards imparting on our boys.  Open doors, say please and thank you, and show respect for your friends and family.

The boys were excited to have a chance to get dressed up for the occasion.  I may have had the cutest dates I have ever seen. (Yes, a bit biased.  But still, does the cuteness not kill you?  I could eat them all whole.)



The lunch was terrific.  The host talked a lot about how girls and woman should always be treated as being special by boys.   One of the ways boys can treat girls (and their mommas and grandmas) special is by showing manners, like holding open doors, pulling out chairs or showing them affection.  The boys learned how to shake hands, how to pull out a lady's chair and order from a menu.  They had them practice each one in front of the group attending the lunch.

My favorite part had to be the boys learning how to pull out my chair.  Each boy did it with a flourish, but Griffin may have stolen the show.  He pulled out my chair, helped me push it back in, then stopped to give me a kiss on the cheek before sitting himself back down at the table.

Yes I cried.  Okay?  I cried at the etiquette lunch.

I also cried when after the lunch, Griffin raced ahead of me to get to the car first.

"Wait Momma, Wait!"  He yelled.

I stopped by my car door and looked at him.  He smiled a handsome grin, opened the door for me and gestured for me to get into the car.  Once I was seated, he gently shut the door behind me.

Oh, what a love.

We practiced the manners just a few days later when we went back to the club for dinner to attend a meet the summer sports coaches family night.  I was impressed when each boy remembered to put their napkin on their lap the moment they sat down and all wanted to pull out my chair for me.

I could get used to this manners thing.

Sunday Morning Snuggle

Chris is normally the first adult in the house awake on a weekend morning.  He wrangles the boys downstairs and starts a mean weekend breakfast which we call call "Daddy's Diner."  (And the breakfast inevitably always involves bacon.  A whole lot of bacon.)

This morning, I was actually up before Chris.  (And this is a rare occurrence indeed.)  My early morning wake up may have been attributed to my going to bed the night before at 8:30 pm.  (Yes, we party it up in our house, okay?  We live like rock stars.)  But two hours of tennis earlier in the day starting at the ripe hour of 7 am, had left me begging for bed by 8 pm.

I got up this morning, quietly tip toed out of our bedroom to let Chris sleep and went in search of the boys.  I got hugs from Brennan and Griffin, both playing in their rooms, but Aidan was still in bed, looking very sleepy.  I went over to Aidan's bed to give him a kiss, when he looked at me with heavy eyes and said, "Will you lay with me Mom?"

My answer to this question, particularly for my nine, almost ten year old boy, must always be yes.  I have to say yes because I know all too very soon, this question will not get asked anymore.  And the lack of that question, of his needing his mom for an early morning snuggle, will break my heart.

I nodded my head and smiled at him, eating up his sleepy grin.  I curled up next to him in bed and he tucked his head up next to mine, so close that I could inhale him and kiss his forehead, again and again, while I rubbed his back.

"I love you Mommy."  He whispered into my neck.

"I love you too Aidan."

It was the best ten minutes of my weekend.

Breakdancer!

When I picked Griffin up from school yesterday, his teacher greeted me with a huge smile.

"So, Griffin was telling me all about your breakdancing today!"  She exclaims.

"My what?"  I ask, confused.

"Your breakdancing!  He said it's your favorite thing to do around the house and you do it every chance you get."

Yes, that's me.  The breakdancing mom.  My five year old has quite an imagination.

Cutting Hair

Chris got up incredibly early with the boys Saturday morning to beat the rush to his barber's shop. And when I say "his" barber, I really mean "his." Chris has known this barber since he was a boy. He even calls him to let him know he is coming in with the boys and always gets an inevitable invitation to arrive before opening so they do not have to wait.

But this meant that before I had even crawled out of bed at the ripe hour of 7:45 am, the garage door was closing as Chris backed out of the driveway.

I went downstairs to a quiet house and a pot of coffee just waiting for me to drink it.

Blissful.

The boys returned a few hours later, all fresh faced and hair-cutted up. The hair cuts somehow made Aidan look older (like a young man!) and Griffin younger (my sweet baby boy.) And Brennan, well, Brennan went from California surfer boy to a prep school young 'un. As I am partial to Brennan's long locks, I expressed some slight displeasure over the short do.

Chris laughed it off and told me he liked it. Brennan agreed and said, "The first thing I noticed is that I can see Mommy!"

Hmm, well, I guess his bangs had gotten a little long.

But they will grow again. Oh, they will grow.

Family Band

Instead of a wii band family, the boys have set up shop as rockers in our living room. Aidan plays bass. Brennan rocks the drums. Griffin is our guitar player.

Our rock stars in training.

Easter!

"Mom, can we wake you up super early tomorrow?" Brennan asks me seriously with pleading big brown eyes.

"What? No!" I reply, ever the mean mommy, who oh so desperately loves her sleep.

"Come on, Momma. How about like 6:30?"

"No."

"6:35?"

"No."

"6:40?"

Yes, you get the picture. The boys were very excited for the arrival of the Easter bunny and their baskets of goodies. Aidan mentioned only a million and one times that oh, he so hoped that the Easter Bunny knew about Skylanders. (And if he hasn't, I am sure Aidan could entertain him with a few hundred tales about Skylanders, skylanders videos and skylanders characters. We may be living in Skylander hell.)

The boys made it until the ripe hour of 7:01 am until their giggling and running around upstairs even got the dog barking in excitement. Downstairs, we all went to seek and find the baskets. In addition to the baskets, Chris and I hid a few eggs of candy and also in a stroke of genius (if I do say so myself), we hid clues in a scavenger egg hunt.

The scavenger hunt was a huge hit. The boys were racing around the house to follow the clues that led them anywhere and everywhere we could think of hiding an egg. A sample:

"Dino roar! Dino sneeze! Will you pass me a tissue please?" (Clue leading to dinosaur tissue box in boys bathroom.)

"I get hot as I tumble! (Clue leading to dryer.)

"Where can you play hockey on air?" (Air hockey table in basement.)

and my personal favorite:

"Have you ever seen Brennan's underwear drawer?" (leading to, yes you guessed it: Brennan's underwear drawer. Don't judge me. It was late when we were writing these things.)

The clues led the boys to (drum roll) Skylanders! Let video game madness ensue.

After several hours of video games and easter basket goodness, we were off to brunch with Chris's family. I must say, I adore Chris's family like they are my own. They are exceedingly good to us and we are blessed to have them in our lives. I love them dearly. And they can put on a feast. In fact, their thanksgiving dinner is the best I have ever had. But, and I say this with love, brunch is not their thing. Nope. Not their thing.

This year's brunch buffet consisted of the following (in this order): sliced pineapple, cold macaroni salad, cold sliced ham, hard boiled eggs cut in half, orange jello mold, and three types of sausage.

For a brunch-lover like me, it's sort of sad. Oh so sad. No french toast stuffed with apples and cinnamon. No belgian waffles with strawberries and whipped cream. No egg casseroles full of veggie goodness. No potato casserole with buttery toppings. And no coffee cakes. Not a blueberry crumble to be had.

Sad. It hurts me anew every year. But Chris is happy as can be with his sausage options. So there you go.

Our next meal on Easter was at my mom's house with Travis and Lynda. My mom did a full out egg hunt extravaganza this year. Each boy had color coded eggs, each of which contained codes that led to specific wrapped gifts.

And there were a whole lot of eggs which meant, yes a whole lot of gifts.

After perusing his easter haul, Griffin looked a me and said, "Easter is almost like Christmas."

Almost.

As if the egg hunt wasn't enough, it was followed by the piece de la resistance: a cotton candy machine for dessert.

Because Easter isn't Easter until you have eaten your weight in sugar. The boys were over the moon making cotton candy and eating it as fast as the sugar was spun. It was a huge hit.

But the best moment of the entire Easter, at least for me, was Brennan's response to the butter lamb gracing our table at brunch.

"Remember everyone, that lamb is butter. It isn't chocolate. Even though it looks like white chocolate, it isn't. Last year, I bit his head off and boy did that taste awful."

Easter 2012.

No Florida

This is the first year in each of my boys' lives that they will not spend their spring break at the beach (or as we like to call it in our family "Nana's beach") in Florida.

No Florida. No beach. No sand or surf. Just Buffalo in April.

Yes, no Florida for the kids and all because the parents will go to Europe without the kids instead.

We are a mean mom and dad, aren't we? In a mere three weeks, Chris and I are off with a few friends on a Mediterranean cruise. It was an idea discussed for years and the fact that it will soon be a reality, is almost overwhelming. Chris has never been to Europe and still barely has any idea as to where we are going. I am chomping at the bit to see the beaches of Santorini, the ruins in Athens and stroll the coastline of the Amalfi coast. It is all too much.

We are celebrating on this trip. We are celebrating my turning 40 this year and even more importantly, we are celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary. So much to celebrate and appreciate and truly so much to see. And to do it all with great friends is a blessing.

So, no Florida this year. But, I think the boys will forgive us, just this once.

Library Run

I asked Griffin if we could stop off at the library before we hit Wegmans for our weekly grocery shopping.

"Sure," he said, "I was hoping to find a few books by David Shannon. I really like his stuff."

And sure enough, we were at the library for all of five minutes before he ran over to me with excitement, waving a book in the air.

"I found one! It's a David Shannon!"

I can not get enough of this child.

48 Hours of Stolen Girl Time

For 48 hours, we talked each other's ears off, laughed 'til we cried, laughed 'til we cried again (and again..), ate chocolate, drank much wine (and some beer too) and visited a swoon worthy spa.

It was perfection.