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.

TV Power

As soon as Aidan was able, he taught himself to use the tv remote. This gave him the power, over his brothers of course, of selecting what shows they were all going to watch. Aidan liked this power. He liked it a lot.

Interestingly, Brennan was never interested in learning how to use the tv or the remotes. He just didn't have any interest. He was perfectly content to have others do it for him when he needed a show put on or the wii set up. I tried to teach him a few times, but he quickly reverted to asking for help.

Until Griffin. Griffin decided he was done asking others to turn on a show. He patiently asked Aidan to show him how he did it. And then before my eyes, my five year old taught himself how to recognize and read the names of his favorite shows so he could be a dvr expert. (This meant the boys were stuck watching a whole lot of Supah Ninjas because Griffy loves his Super Ninjas.)

Once Brennan realized Griffin knew how to use the dvr (and that they had watched the same episode of Supah Ninjas about ten times), he knew he had to step up his game. So, slowly, he also exerted some control over the remote.

But now, Griffin has had a taste of his power of the tv and he has become quite the tv dictator. He rushes to the tv in the morning to grab the remote and ensure that he has final say over what will be watched and when. I often find him wandering the house with the remote in his hand. Once he asked me to keep an eye on it, while he hid it under a pillow so he could go to the bathroom.

It's a tv stand-off. And the five year old is winning. My little power hungry guy.

Puppy Love

Chris and I are convinced that Chewy thinks Brennan is a puppy, just like him. He just seems to treat Brennan a little differently than the other boys. He has also tried to sneak into his bed once or twice for a nice snooze. But of course, if Brennan had his way, Chewy would be a permanent fixture in his bed.

Oh, the puppy love.

Summer Sleep

My boys sleep like the dead in the summer because if the weather is warm, they are here, there and everywhere jumping, running, biking and swimming. During the winter months, I forget about this sleep. This utter exhaustion that overtakes my boys until they are almost begging to go to bed. (Almost, but not quite.) While the sunday snowboarding brings them close to this brand of tired, nothing quite does it like a warm day spent gallivanting under the sun.

We had a summer weekend this weekend. Summer in March. The weather was delectable. Perfectly blue skies with warm sun and birds chirping. The temps were in the 70s in a month when we are fortunate to hit the high 40s without snow flurries. March is normally my least favorite month of the year because it means a month of a little snow, a little rain and chilliness, but this March may go on record as the best ever.

The boys were out to play by 8 am. Basketball, biking, games of soccer in the front yard. There were visits to playgrounds, minnow catching in a neighbor's creek, and long walks with the dog. By the time 5 pm came around, they were all collapsed on the couch with heavy lidded eyes. After dinner was over, they were yawning and looking as if they might take a nap at the table. Each boy was fast asleep, without complaint by 7:30 pm.

Chris and I followed shortly by 9. I guess summer sleep isn't just for the kids. It wipes out the parents too.

Overheard

It was a morning of running around to get a few chores done so we could skip outside and enjoy our summer-like spring. I asked the boys to throw down all the sheets and pillowcases so I could start the wash.

(Yes, instead of laundry chutes (which we have in our house) or laundry baskets (also have about ten of those), I prefer the old school method of gathering and throwing down the open two-story staircase. It works for me. And as an added bonus, it completely freaks the dog out, every single time.)

I hear the boys rustling and hustling upstairs to complete their task as I clean the kitchen. Then I hear Griffin say to Aidan, "This one must be mommy's pillow because it smells just like her."

Aidan is quiet for a second, but I can make out a loud sniffing sound and then he says, "It does smell just like Mommy."

Oh my loves. Too sweet.

Rock Star!

My cousin Nicole stopped over today and asked if she could take the boys for a bike ride around the neighborhood. (Because, yes, it is 70 and sunny in March in Buffalo!) The boys were thrilled. Aidan and Brennan hopped on their bikes and Griffin opted to ride his scooter. Nikki roller bladed next to them.

After Nikki returned them home, I got a text from her a few minutes later.

"It's a good day when you are rollerblading with sunglasses on and your five year old cousin tells you that you look like a rock star."

I think that is the compliment of the highest order from our Griffin. And she is a rock star, you know. Especially to us.

Our Leprechaun

The boys' school has a student presentation night in which projects are displayed for parents to peruse as we all eat ice cream. This year, Brennan's teacher stepped it up a notch with a live performance by the class of a few Irish songs.

The class was all dressed up in green festive gear and looked unbearably cute.

I may be biased, but I think we have the cutest leprechaun of all.

Happy 41!

Spring Fever

Spring sprung yesterday in Whoville. We had sun and blue skies in a month that usually bounces from snowfall to rain. It was unexpected and boosted all of our moods. The boys could barely restrain themselves from jumping out the door to ride bikes, swing, hunt for rocks and play basketball. They stayed outside almost the entirety of the day, just soaking up every last bit of the first signs of spring. (They also insisted on wearing shorts and t-shirts from the moment a smidgen of warm weather was suggested. I think the high today was 55. Not quite shorts weather in any place in the world except Buffalo.)

Today, spring repeated its miracle. After getting Aidan and Brennan off to school, Griffin, Chewy and I took off for a walk around the neighborhood. It was a perfect, quiet walk enjoying the warmth of sunshine on our faces. I felt such sweet joy in our walk as I watched Griffin ride circles on his scooter around me and Chewy. The gift of an unexpected spring day.

It better not snow next week. That's all I'm saying.

Practice Makes Perfect

I was giving Griffin bedtime kisses, when he grabbed my face with his hands, held me closely and looked me in the eye. "Mommy, I do not want you to kiss me. I am going to kiss you now. I need to start practicing for the day I get married and start kissing."

With that, he pursed his lips, closed his eyes and gave me a big ol' smooch.

Sweetness.

Stolen Moments

I love stolen moments with my boys, when I get them all to myself for a minute or two. I find these moments are too often far and in between, but when I capture them, it is like an unexpected gift, uninterrupted time to simply enjoy my child one on one.

I have had two such moments with my Brennan over the last few weeks. We didn't plan them, but in the midst of running errands or carpooling here, there and everywhere, it was just the two of us. We celebrated our first unexpected date with a quick ice cream. Brennan's favorite thing in this world is ice cream. I love how happy a small bowl of ice cream makes him. It's watching pure joy in action.

Our second moment was just ten minutes in a car, in between basketball practices, basketball games and a few errands. We were in waiting mode and entertained ourselves blowing bubbles, bigger and bigger to watch them pop. We both giggled uncontrollably as we chewed our bubble gum and Brennan yelled, "Let's take our picture!"

And so we did. A self portrait of ten minutes soaking up my sweet boy.

Ode to the Rock Star

Chris heard Brennan and Griffin giggling behind a closed bathroom door with sounds of the water running.

(Note to anyone who does not have boys - it is an immediate sign of danger to have any of your children giggling behind closed doors, but add in running water, and well, that's when you really know something's up.)

Chris opens the door and sees both boys standing over the sink, cupping water and running it over their heads. There is water everywhere and the boy are soaked.

"What are you doing?" Chris asks, in exasperation.

Brennan shrugs, looks at Griffin who grins. "We wanted to look like rock stars, you know, with the whole cool slicked back hair."

Chris said he had to leave the room before he bust a gut laughing at the sight of them, with their hair dripping wet and standing up all over the place. My dear sweet boys. Instead of rock stars, they sort of resembled two drowned puppies. But we shall keep them, wet, slicked hair and all. Rock on.