Sad

If you ask me in August, if I get sad when the boys go back to school. I would tell you I do. I know I do. Even with the huge sigh of relief I feel when the hustle and bustle of summer evolves into the luxury of a regular school schedule, I get sad. I can’t help it. The beginning of the school year is another milestone that shows me my babies are growing up. So, I get sad.


And yet, even though I know I will be sad, I am always surprised at how awful it feels. Knowing how you will feel and then actually feeling it are two very different things.

I am not handling the new school year very well. This years sadness is a unique mourning. All my boys are growing up, but sending my last baby off to kindergarten has hit me awfully hard. I miss him. I miss my babies.

A few months ago, I envisioned I would spend my child-free Mondays celebrating my new found alone time with the ability to just get things done. Instead, I have spent a whole lot of Mondays crying, moping and sending sad, desperate texts to my poor husband.

This past Monday, I was at Wegmans to conquer my family’s weekly grocery shopping. I walked into the store and saw a momma with her two little boys. I felt the tears well up, slowly and surely building, until I hid myself in the paper products aisle letting loose with a good cry. A few aisles over, I ran into an acquaintance of a friend I hadn’t seen in years and there amidst the cereal boxes, I had a unique case of verbal diarrhea as I spewed my sadness onto this poor woman and told her how much I missed my Griffin. (She was probably counting her lucky stars it had been years since we last saw each other and quickly began plotting her escape from my momentary insanity.)

So, yes I am sad. A sad, sad, Mommy to three, not so little, boys. I am taking some time to adjust to all the growing up happening in our house. And crying a whole lot of tears while I figure all of it out.

Our Dancer

I spent some time with the boys discussing what activities or sports they would like to be involved with this upcoming winter.  After some debating over continuing with swimming or tennis, both Aidan and Brennan decided they want to play more tennis, year round.

Griffin, on the other hand, had different plans for his fall.  He took me aside a few weeks ago and told me he knew what he wanted to do.  He wanted to dance just like the guys he sees on television.  I told him he could definitely learn to dance and I promptly started researching dance classes for boys.  After asking around, a friend of mine recommended a dance studio where her nine year old boy takes classes.  It is a little bit farther than the studios in our town, but it has more classes for boys and even offers boys half price tuition to encourage more boy dancers.

Griffin and I looked over the schedule and class offerings together.  He decided he wanted to start with Acro - a mix of hip hop and acrobatics.  I signed him up and crossed my fingers that he would love it.

We were discussing his upcoming first class today.  After a few minutes discussing what he could expect, he turned to me and said, "Mommy, sometimes, when I close my eyes, I see myself on stage."

Our Griffin.  Our Dancer.  I am already dreaming of getting him a guest spot on Glee.

Toxic!

The morning rush can get a bit harried in our house.  The boys share a bathroom and navigating the face-washing and tooth-brushing can lead to some inevitable arguments about personal space.  This morning, Brennan and Aidan were brushing their teeth, when Griffin came running down the hall to the bathroom.

"Everyone out!  Finish up and get out!  I have to go to the bathroom!  And trust me when I tell you that you do not want to be in here because the air is going to be toxic!"  With that pronouncement, he shooed his older brothers out of the bathroom and slammed the door.

I found Chris outside the closed bathroom door laughing for a solid minute.

Toxic!

Aidan Turns Ten: the Celebration

It isn't easy having your birthday on the first day of school.  But chocolate cake and presents always make things look good.

Even better, is a birthday party with nerf guns galore.  It was all Aidan's idea and he had been planning it for months.  A party where everyone brought their own nerf guns to battle it out for supremacy.  My boys sported their matching nerf jerseys for the occasion.

We divided the birthday guests into teams.  Each team had a base, with a jail and a flag the other team had to capture to win.

Aidan's idea of a nerf battle war birthday party was quite the hit.  No one wanted to stop playing and we heard boys talking about it for weeks.  I think even Chris had a blast!