Rain, Rain Go Away and Don't Come Back til Fall

It has not been a nice few days here in the Northeast. The rain came at the end of the week and has lingered, dispensing a fine mist that is never ending. Our family is not happy about this freak weather system and is chomping at the bit to get back to our regularly scheduled summer activities. (I haven't hit a tennis ball since last Tuesday, people! I am going through a serious withdrawal.)

Instead of our normal weekend activity of playing at the pool with our buddies:

We have been forced to come up with a more creative way to entertain ourselves indoors. Forts composed of boxes and bubble packing? Rock on.

(Hmmm, the availability of all those boxes probably confirms I have an online shopping problem.)

If all else fails, we make crazy hats out of construction paper and dance like crazy. Desperate times call for desperate measures! Let's hope the sun comes back soon.

(Check out Griffin's face near the end of the video. I think he is trying to sing the bass line. As an added bonus, you can also hear Aidan and Brennan "negotiating" the merger of their box/bubble wrap spaceships/forts.)

Swim Team 2009

Opening practice for swim team 2009. This year, no tears and two kiddies in the pool. Brennan jumped right into the pool like a champ. He was a streamlining fool. Aidan was all over his strokes and did laps like a champ.

All this and a freak weather pattern that brought us rain and 55 degree weather.

You know they love it when they even want to get in the water in spite of their goose bumps.

Sing, Sing a Song

Aidan had a playdate with a boy from school. After he was dropped off at our house, Aidan's friend asked if they could play on the computer.

"Sure," I said and then asked, "What do you guys want to look up on the computer?"

"I want to go to YouTube and show Aidan some videos." The friend replied.

"Hmmm, what kind of videos?" I asked.

"Of my favorite song! It's called 'Love Game'" He said enthusiastically.

I smiled at him as I tried to piece this whole thing together. A song? Love Game? YouTube? And I thought having kids addicted to Star Wars was a challenge.

I opted to play it safe. I told the boys we could look up the song on itunes and play the clip so Aidan could hear it.

We did. The clip said something to the effect of someone dancing on someones disco stick. Oh boy. Aidan's friend enthusiastically rocked out to the clip.

After the clip ended, he looked at Aidan and asked, "Aidan, what's your favorite song?"

Aidan paused, thought about it for a second and answered, "Eye of the Tiger."

I had to leave the room to hide my laughter. He is so his father's son, that's all I have to say.

Go Directly to Jail

Aidan's schooling of the past two weeks has basically consisted of a daily field trip to here and there and everywhere. The teacher always requests a few parents to chaperone the class for each trip. My chaotic schedule, combined with work and the responsibilities of two other little kiddies (no siblings on field trips!), has made my chaperoning options limited. This is how I got stuck taking his class to the local Whoville police station instead of to the more exotic locales of the Buffalo Zoo or the Sweet Shoppe.

I mean, it's Whoville people. How much goes on at our police station anyway?

Not much apparently. They pretty much let the kids wander anywhere and everywhere, including locking them up in the empty jail cells. (I winked at the officer as he locked up the cell doors and asked if I could drop off my other two kiddies later on in the day for lock down. I don't think he knew if he should take me seriously or not. He gave me a small, nervous smile and backed quickly away from me.)




After lock down, the officer even gave us a tour of the local Whoville courtroom. It brought back many a memory for me, back in the day, fresh out of law school as a brand spankin' new assistant district attorney. As a new ADA, I spent my days (and nights!) holed up in many a town courtroom. I engaged in quite alot of sophisticated jurisprudence (jury trials for drunk driving charges), intertwined with excruciatingly long arraignments where my supervisor told me to think of the clanking of chains of the prisoners as mere "sleigh bells." I realized I wasn't cut out for the life of crime fighter when I won my first probation violation hearing, resulting in jail time for the defendant. I should have celebrated my victory, but instead I had to quickly excuse myself to the judge's chambers where I promptly burst into tears. The judge found me there still crying five minutes later. He wasn't quite sure what to do with me. At that moment, the only thing I was most sure of was that I was probably not cut out to be a career prosecutor.

(And then I sold out, selling my soul in return for a white collar job at a fancy law firm doing anything that did NOT involve going to court. Anything but that. Me, save the world? What? Ah, I was cute that way.)

But today, was simple. No soul searching or tears, just police sirens and cute jail, all to entertain a bunch of sweet first graders in the last few days of school before summer.

Let's Pretend

Griffin is a daddy's boy through and through. If given a choice between his mom or dad, it's all daddy all the time. After two boys who personify the "momma's boy" moniker, it is somewhat bewildering to me to have a child, my last sweet baby, who prefers his daddy's arms to mine.

Sometimes it makes me laugh. Other times it hurts just a bit.

Today, though, it made me laugh.

I took the boys to the pool for the morning. As I swam with Griffin, giving him rides on my back around and around the pool, he turned into my arms, gazed at me with his big blue-green eyes and asked that fateful question, "Where's my Daddy?"

"He's on the golf course G, but he'll meet us to swim a little bit later." I replied, smiling.

Griffin strikes a pout and says, "But I want to swim with him now Mommy."

"I know honey, and you can swim with him later."

He shakes his head back and forth as he considers my answer. After a moment, he looks at me with a huge grin and tells me, "I know! I am going to pretend you are my Daddy. So then I am swimming with my Daddy. Okay? Let's go Daddy! Swim!"

Hmmm, not a huge fan of this pretend game. I smile at Griffin and say sweetly, "What about your Mommy Griff? Don't you want to swim with your Mommy?"

He gives me a look that tells me he is not amused.

"No, Mommy isn't here. Mommy is at golf. Daddy is here to swim with me. Let's swim Daddy!"

Yes, so Daddy gets to golf with his buddies and still get all the credit for swim time at the pool while Mommy does all the work. Perhaps I should have taken up golfing instead of tennis.

Oh, Monday.

I skipped the trip to Wegmans over the weekend even though we needed it. We really, truly needed it. If they didn't serve food at the pool, we probably would have all starved. But combine the pool food with the spread at my cousin Allison's graduation party, and we were well fed even if the cupboards were bare.

This worked great for me and my tendency to procrastinate, right up until I sipped my first cup of Monday morning coffee and something just didn't taste right. Hmmm, two cups in and well, damn, if this doesn't taste like decaf.

Hell hath no fury like a mom denied her caffeine. (And a pox on the husband who tries to pass off the decaf in the coffee maker as real coffee before scurrying off to work.)

Wegmans immediately became a Monday morning priority. I rushed the kids through getting dressed. I ran upstairs to brush my teeth and realized that Chris had kindly used up all the toothpaste. I was left with the boys' special bubble game flavored paste for my teeth-brushing.

How any mouth can feel fresh after brushing with a fake bubble gum toothpaste is beyond me. It's pretty gross. Mouth gaggingly gross.

We make it out to Wegmans in record time. I negotiate a dispute over cart selection with the boys, finally settling them all into a mammoth cart with seats for all. I desperately push them over to the coffee bar, my eyes intent on the biggest iced coffee I can order. I place my order, search in my purse for my wallet to pay and find... no wallet.

I forgot my wallet. No money, no coffee. No caffeine, no happy mommy.

I get the kids out of the cart and hustle them back to the car. As we hustle, Griffin trips over a crack in the road and falls hard on his knee. The scraped knee proves too much for the little guy and he dissolves into a full blown crying tantrum in the middle of the parking lot. Brennan, always a sympathetic crier, decides to join in. They are both quite the spectacle.

A woman walking by us rolls her eyes at me before she quickly looks away. With a jolt, I realize I am part of the spectacle. I am that mother with those kids.

And I never even got to have my sweet, lovely, oh so needed iced coffee. Not a drop.

Field Day Friday and Swimming Saturday

Aidan's class celebrated field days on Friday. I took Brennan and Griffin to cheer him on while he raced. We giggled at the sight of the kids running relays that forced them to change into long sleeve shirts and laughed out loud at the sight of them sliding around the gym floor in their socks to find their shoes from a giant pile. It was very cute, but also exceptionally loud. After a half an hour Griffin turned to me, placed his hands over his ears and yelled, "I can't hear ANYTHING Mommy!"

It's amazing how loud forty kids can be in a confined space.

After naps, we had soccer that evening. It was a beautifully sunny night, perfect to sit and watch a few soccer games. Brennan made quite a few spectacular saves in goal and Aidan made a few of his breakaway goal specials.

Today, we have been lazy by the pool. It is our regular weekend activity of summer. We meet up with friends to watch our kids play by the pool. We enjoy lunch and easy conversation. It is one of my most favorite things of summer.

Tonight, Chris and I are headed out to see Tragically Hip in concert. We have first row seats to a sold out show. I almost feel like a rock star. Almost.

Summer Days

When I picture summer, I picture long lazy days full of nothing to do but enjoy the sunshine. Our reality is always the opposite. We hit Memorial Day, celebrate the opening weekend of summer, and quickly launch into a crazy schedule jam packed full of stuff. Stuff, stuff and MORE stuff.

It's all good. It's full of friends and family, the pool, soccer, golf and tennis, backyard barbecues and graduation parties, concerts and festivals. All wonderfully fun stuff. It's just alot.

I get anxious when I look at my calendar and see it full. And each year, I promise, I swear, that this year I will learn to gracefully decline a few things here and there to preserve a few long lazy days of summer. It's June and my record is not looking so good. But I have hope for July. Really.

My addition of a tennis addiction has only further exacerbated our full schedule. I am playing tennis at least three times a week, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. This week, it's a lot more. It's five nights in a row of banging that little yellow ball across a court. Thankfully, most of the nights involve matches that start at 8:30 pm. This allows me to put the kids to bed before I indulge my inner tennis player. But it also means that I am putting in some long, late nights. I got home past 11 pm on Monday night and Tuesday night, after showering and unwinding from my match high, I went to bed past 1 am. I am tired. The type of tired that might allow me to doze at my desk.

On Tuesday, I forgot to set my alarm to get all of us up and out of the house to work and school. Chris is normally our morning guy, but he is traveling for work this week, leaving me to get through the morning rush alone. Aidan has to catch the bus at 7:25 am. At 7:20 am, Aidan woke me up from a very deep sleep.

"Mom? Mom? It's 7:20!" He said as he patted my back quietly.

I looked over and saw him already dressed in his school uniform. He had brushed his teeth and combed his hair. When he was sure I was awake, he smiled at me and said, "Brennan is still sleeping. Griffin is in his crib awake. Do you want me to go read to Griffin while you get up?"

I could have eaten that child whole such was my love for him in that moment.

We all made it up and out of the house in record time. I count it as a minor success that Aidan woke me up at 7 am this morning. I just might survive the mornings this week after all. At least until Chris gets home.

My Monkey

Last week, the boys were outside playing in the backyard while I cleaned up the kitchen. After a few minutes, I glanced out the back window and noticed Brennan was missing.

I walked to the back door and yelled to Aidan, "Aidan! Where's Brennan?"

Aidan looked around and replied, "I don't know."

I felt a slight panic as I yelled, "Brennan?! Brennan!"

Then I heard a little giggle, followed by a rustling in one of our large pine trees.

"I'm up here Momma! Look!"

Brennan had climbed a tree. Not only had he just climbed up a tree, but he climbed pretty high up that tree.

Once Brennan discovered his climbing talent, there was no stopping him. He climbed it again and again, in spite of the sharp pine needles, bug bites and scratches on his skin. I have lost count of the number of times I have glanced up and found Brennan sitting high up in one of the trees in our backyard.

Brennan is our little monkey and he is quite proud of his climbing prowess. Neither of his brothers will attempt the feat. I think he likes it best that way.

Summer Lovin'

The pool is officially open, and it is 70 plus degrees and sunny. I could not have conjured up a more perfect Memorial Day weekend if I tried. We swam and spent much time lounging by the pool. We enjoyed time with family and friends. The boys had ice cream three days in a row. Chris golfed to his heart's content in a tournament and I even managed to sneak in a few hours of tennis.

We were back to reality this morning, sleepily trying to get out of the house on time in spite of the disorganized chaos left in the wake of a busy summer lovin' type of weekend.

It was just the first weekend of the summer, with many more to come. We can't wait to soak up every last bit.

Cousins

The boys love their cousins and treat them like rock stars. We are fortunate to live on the same street with most of our family which allows the boys to soak up their cousins as much as possible.

This accessibility extends to the swimming pool. There has been many a time one of our cousins has arrived for some quality time at the pool with their friends, only to be tackled or hugged to death by my boys.

Thankfully, the cousins seem to like it just as much as the boys do.

Summertime and the Livin' is Easy

Summer is on its way. The sun is shining. The sky is perfectly blue. The breezes are warm and comforting. And in two days, the pool opens officially for the season.

Today was a beautiful, warm day. I was a little grumpy to be stuck at work, inside, while the sun shone so brightly. But I comforted myself with forgoing our traditional dinner plans and instead picked up a pizza on the way home from work. The boys and I had an impromptu picnic outside, eating dinner on paper plates as we soaked up the early evening breeze. I shed my work shoes for flip flops and got comfortable on the patio. I giggled as I watched Aidan push Griffin on the swing. I was amazed at my monkey child Brennan who has decided his new favorite thing is to climb trees in our backyard. The boys ran and played until much past their bedtime. But it was good - all very good.

We were all happy and relaxed. Summer feels good on our family.

Soccer Boys

Spring soccer, game on! As I may have mentioned, soccer in whoville is on the crazy side. Anyone and everyone with a child can be found at the huge soccer fields on Friday night in whoville. They stagger the times for games and practices by age group and it creates such a traffic logjam that the local police is required to direct traffic for most of the evening.

You have to see it to believe it.

This year, Chris volunteered to be the assistant coach for Aidan's team with our friend Dylan as coach. This allowed us to sneak in Brennan for some playing time even though he is technically under the age limit. Brennan is in love with soccer. He practices his drills at home, talks about it incessantly and asks everyday, multiple times, when he can go to soccer.

There is also something really sweet about seeing both Aidan and Brennan on the same team, playing together. They overwhelm me with their cuteness in their matching uniforms and big smiles. As teammates, however, they have very different soccer styles. Aidan is fast and often the first to get to the ball, but he prefers not to fight for the ball and will willingly surrender it to another player. Aidan's goals tend to be breakaways without challenges from the other team.

Brennan, on the other hand, takes soccer as more of a contact sport than is required. I had to remind him several times this past Friday that the kids with the red shirts were his own teammates and therefore, he didn't need to tackle, push or kick them out of the way to get to the ball. Brennan has yet to make a goal, but he did knock down half of his own team attempting to get the ball going in the right direction.

They may approach soccer differently, but for both boys - it's pure fun. I have to admit it is just as much fun for me to cheer them on from the sidelines.

Icky, Icky Boys

This is a conversation I really wish I had NOT overheard amongst my boys. (Please note I have purposefully omitted the names of the involved parties in order to protect the innocent.)

Boy 1: (whispers softly to his brother) "I just stuck my finger in my ear and licked it. It tasted REALLY gross!"

Boy 2: (whispers back softly) "Oh yeah?"

Boy 1: "Yeah! Gross!"

Boy 2 sits in quiet contemplation for a moment, leans over to Boy 1 and whispers, "I've eaten my boogers before and that was pretty gross too."

Boy 1: "Wow."

Boys. Icky, icky, little boys.

Twisting the Knife

Griffin and I are rocking in his room before bed, snuggling close. I rub his back while he rests his head against my shoulder, tucked into my neck. We rock back and forth in silence for a few minutes.

Griffin slowly lifts his head, catches my eye and says softly, "I'm happy now Mommy."

"You are?" I reply smiling, "I like when you're happy G."

"I am. Happy!" He smiles sadly and continues, "I was sad when you were gone. Just sad."

Ouch. He gave me a nice heaping dose of mommy guilt with that little dig.

The boys definitely have a tough time whenever I travel, which truly isn't often. I could probably count the number of times I have been away on my fingers. It seemed this time Griffin seemed to have the worst time adjusting to my absence. I returned to a needier and much more emotional Griffin. He clutched my legs when I had to leave to go to work and sobbed, begging me "not to go." He also told my mom to "go home" when she was at our house, fearful that she was there to babysit him. He needs to know where I am in the house at all times or he gets really agitated.

But he's happy now. Happy.

Griffin Discovers He May Have a Future with the WWF

It's all crazy, all the time.

Girlfriends

There are many things in my life for which I am grateful. At the top of the list is my girlfriends. I have had the honor of sharing my life with some truly amazing women. The type of women who are accomplished and beautiful and smart, but manage to also be kind and supportive and generous. My friends always chose to see the best in me and I, in turn, in them. The power of a good female friendship is pretty remarkable.

This weekend I escaped to the beach with three very dear friends - Diane, Amy and Christine. I have been friends with Diane and Amy for over half my life. We are, as many have commented over the years, big complimentors. We spend most of our time together telling each other how wonderful each other are or how beautiful. Your ego gets quite a boost from some time with these women.

Six years ago, Amy, Diane and I were gabbing in the backyard watching the setting sun at Diane's home in Portland, Oregon. Joining us was a new friend of Diane's, a neighbor - who was meeting us for the first time. After fifteen minutes of hearing us talk to each other ("You are so beautiful tonight! I love that shirt on you! You are so smart! I love how you told that story! You amaze me with your accomplishments! etc, etc."), she interrupted us with wide eyes and remarked, "I'm sorry, but do you guys always talk to each other like this?"

We asked her, dumbfounded, "Like what?"

"Like this!" She gestured wildly as she tried to explain, "I feel like I'm in the middle of a freakin' Oprah Winfrey show or something. I've never heard anything like this in my life!"

We laughed, shrugged our shoulders and told her, without apology, that yes, this is how we talk to each other. We always have. We always will. We are lucky.

This weekend, joined by Christine, the big ego boost continued. When we were not saying nice things to each other, we told stories that made us laugh so hard we cried. We stayed up until midnight each night talking. We soaked up the beach, lounged in the pool and enjoyed margaritas as we watched the setting sun. I spent most of each day and night interjecting into each conversation with the phrase, "I am so happy."

It was four days that was, simply, a gift. I have always heard that your female friends act as a mirror to your own self. If that is true, I probably have a better, a kinder, a prettier and a way funnier mirror than I deserve.

Brennan: On Mommy 2009

Brennan's class created their requisite Mommy posters to decorate the walls of the school for Mother's Day. Below a drawing of a giant flower and a green stick figure with one piece of blue hair, Brennan answered the following to his teacher's questions:

My Mom's Name Is.... "Mommy"

My Mom's Favorite Thing To Do Is.... "Drive to Wegmans." (He must sense my excitement over strolling the artisan bread and bakery aisle. My focaccia and Nonna's fougasse is calling me! When I laughed over this answer, the teacher confided that one of the other kiddies wrote their Mom's favorite thing to do was... sleep. Love it.)

When I Come To School My Mom... "Goes to Work."

I Love My Mom Because... "She gives me surprises every night." (I have no idea on this one. Surprises? Not a clue.)

First Crush

Brennan has a crush. It's the first crush for our group of boys. Aidan has never spared a girl a second glance, despite always requiring a quick clothes change before his buddy Ellie comes over to play. But, Brennan has spared a second glance and even a third. He's got it. And he's got it bad.

Her name is Amelia, Lia for short. She is very cute - blonde ringlet hair, big blue eyes. She's a doll and she has stolen the heart of my second born.

It started with Brennan talking about her quite a lot around the house. He started requesting play dates with Lia in between his prolonged discussions on her virtues. After a few weeks of much discussion on the life of Lia, Brennan boldly announced last week that he "has a girlfriend!" And then he looked at me squarely and said, "And her name is Lia, Mom."

"I figured as much Brennan. Lia is a nice friend to have." I told him while my heart broke a little.

Today I picked him up from school. He ran into my arms to give me a hug. After he left my arms, he quickly ran over to Lia to tease her about something and tug at her hair. Brennan quickly caught my eye as he stood behind Lia and mouthed to me, "This is LIA!" He then smiled a sheepish smile and ran to grab his backpack.

Lia. Tonight, I learned that Lia is "very tall." She is also "very funny." And she knows how to "dive in deep water. Like deep, deep water mommy. Deep!" I also promised to set up a swimming play date over the summer with master swimmer Lia.

I should have known Brennan would be the first to fall head first into his first crush. I know I should have known, but it's bittersweet just the same.

Naked Dance

I recently told our neighbor across the street, a mother to two girls the same age as Aidan and Brennan, that if she ever wanted to teach her children the male anatomy she simply had to direct her girls to glance out their windows at 7 pm to watch my boys prepare for bath time. If it's bath time, then my boys are dancing naked.

There is no shyness in the naked dance. Oh no, no shyness indeed. It's full out booty wiggling, jumping and twirling all while screaming with glee from the sheer nakedness. Boys like their bodies. Every single inch of their bodies. (Okay, some parts get a little more (ahem) love than others.)

The front of our house has many a window open to our neighbors across the street. The hallway upstairs which is home to the naked dance is wide open to the windows - meaning that the neighbors get quite a show if they happen to be looking out the window towards our humble abode. For all we know, the naked dance gets many a standing ovation from our neighborhood. It's quite a dance.

I can handle the windows and the eyewitnesses to my boys' special brand of crazy. But tonight I was oh so grateful that the eyewitnesses could not also hear my children sing with gusto as they danced naked. Because tonight they created a whole new song, courtesy of the creative genius of Brennan. It's a sweet little ditty called, "I Love My Penis."

As far as I can tell it goes something like, "I love my penis. My penis! I have a smelly butt. Do you want to smell my butt. My butt is slimy! I love my penis!"

After three or four rounds of Brennan singing as he danced, Aidan and Griffin caught on and joined him on the chorus.

It was quite a sight. The naked dance meeting the penis song. If only I had thought to grab video.