Crushing

Brennan and one of the girls in his class have been crushing on each other since kindergarten.  It has been two long years of repeated acts of public devotion.  (And when I say public.  I mean public.  Her mother apologized to me after the little girls' birthday party because apparently her daughter stood up during the party to publically claim Brennan as her own.)

But big changes are afoot.  Two days ago, Brennan told me he had a secret.

"You do?"  I asked.

"Yes,"  He said to me solemnly, "But, I can't tell you until you are putting me to bed at night."

"Okay."

That night, he pulled me close and whispered "I am in love with a girl."

"I know."  I whispered back.

"No Momma, you don't know this.  I am in love with Isabella." 

"You are?"

He nodded and then said, "And she is in love with me."

"She is?"

"Yes, she told me so."

"Well, what does this mean?  Are you dating or something?"  I asked a little confused.

Brennan gasped, "NO!  We just love each other.  I love her and she loves me.  That's it."

"Ooookay."   I said, not quite sure how to respond.

Brennan smiled a small smile.  "She really likes my hair. I like hers too."

I have to tell you, they both really do have nice hair. 

Love is also in the air for another little one in our brood.  Our Griffin has been "in love" with his pre-K classmate since the day they met two years or so ago.  He held onto that crush all through kindergarten even though Ellery went to a different school and we haven't seen her in almost a year.   He would talk about her and even shed a few tears at the separation.  (He's a sensitive soul, my G.)

But he also came home from school a few weeks ago brimming with news. 

"Mommy, I have to tell you something HUGE."  He told me with excitement. 

"What?"

"I am not in love with Ellery anymore!"  He announced in a whispered tone.

"Wow!  You're not?"

"No.  I am in love with Serena."

Serena is a cute little girl in his class that talked my ear off the last time I was a classroom volunteer.  Her topic of discussion?  Griffin and her belief that Griffin bore a startling resemblence to the pop music sensation Justin Beiber.  So, I had a inkling that Serena may have developed a little bit of a crush on my boy.  But it was a huge shift for Griffin to discover a new love.

Although Griffin informed me his new crush was a secret, he went outside and yelled it out to everyone in the neighborhood all of three minutes later.  The news is out.  Serena is in.

There is one last boy standing.  He has made no announcements of love or crush worthy girls.  But I did have a dad to a girl from his class confide in me that his daughter had pronounced Aidan the "coolest boy in the class."

Oh boy.  Puppy love.

Overheard

The boys were on our back patio playing with the neighbors.  I heard them giggling and then one of the neighbors said, "Who is the prettiest girl you know?"

"In my class?" Griffin asked.

"No.  Ever."  The neighbor responded.

"Oh.  My mom!"  Griffin replied.

It took all of my willpower not to run outside and smother that kid with hugs and kisses in front of the whole neighborhood.  Every single bit.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

The boys were a little crazy and a whole lot grumpy a few days ago.  Each of them had their moment - a brilliant crying temper tantrum of a moment.  All of their moments occurred outside, on the front lawn, at full volume.  I responded by having a few mommy dearest moments of my own.

In short, it was not our best day.

I was counting down the minutes until bed time.  They were still wound up at bedtime, so to give them time to regroup and calm down, I asked them to each read a book in their own bed for a few minutes.  I retreated to my bedroom for a few minutes of peace.  All was quiet in the house for at least five minutes, until I heard the giggling.

I stomped out of my room, prepared to find them wrestling, jumping on beds, or dancing with underwear on their head, but instead I stopped outside of Griffin's room shocked by what I found.  They were lying side by side, snuggled up in Griffin's bed, reading a book together and laughing.

To see their heads so close together, to hear their quiet voices reading the words out loud and to see their shoulders shake with mirth over the antics of Diary of a Wimpy Kid made the day worth it.  It was a minute of pure perfection that makes even the worst of days the best of days.

Popular-ist!

The boys had just finished their pre-bedtime showers when Brennan bounded up to Chris and announced, "Daddy, I am the most popular-ist kid in my class."

I laughed and repeated Brennan's word.  "Popular-ist, B?"

"Yeah.  I am!"  He laughed.

Griffin shrugged, smiled and said, "I am also the most popular-ist kid in my class too!"

Brennan nodded at Griffin, then looked at me sideways and said, "Yeah, Griffin got my good looks."

Nope.  No self esteem issues in our house.  Not a one.

Track Team

After we finished up the chaos that is basketball season, I asked the boys if they wanted to start a new sport for the six or so weeks before summer sports season begins.  They told me that they preferred a few weeks off, so apart from golf lessons, we were looking at a nice few weeks of freedom.

But then!  Aidan and Brennan came home from school a few days later giddy over their decision to sign up for track.  Track, I asked, confused.  Because, really.  No one had ever mentioned any interest in track.

Track!

Mother's Day

It was my last mother's day tea.  My last one.  Three boys.  Three kindergartners.  And all of them took part in the same  mother's day tradition, singing the same songs as part of the same celebration.  I cried each and every time.

When the moms arrive for the tea, the teacher has us wait outside the classroom.  One by one, the kids come out to give their mom a flower, escort her into the room and seat her at her designated spot at the tables.  It is my very favorite part of the tea.  I love seeing the sweetness in each child's face as they find their mom in the group of us and lovingly escort her into the room.  Their little chests puff up with love and pride.  It is truly a beautiful thing.  (And inevitably, I am crying even before I get to my seat at the table.)

It feels like just yesterday it was Aidan singing the special songs, and then Brennan.  Days like this make me feel like I blinked and my children grew up overnight.  

Boston Love

Talent Show

The boys' school has an annual talent show.  Neither Aidan or Brennan have ever shown any interest in performing in the show, but Griffin was determined to be a part of it.  At first, he decided he would form his own band (led by him, of course!), but then he amended his plans to include his brothers.  Aidan on bass, Brennan on drums and Griffin on vocals.  After their first rehearsal, the boys decided they wanted to include their adopted brother Ryan, who would share lead vocals with G.

And a band was born.  And I know I am biased, but they were just the cutest, swoon worthy, darling band of boys ever to grace a stage.  Really.

They rocked the house to One Direction's You Don't Know You're Beautiful.
 

Warm Weather Mornings

 The moment the weather turns to sunshine and warm mornings, my boys wake itching to get outside to start their day.  Often, I barely manage to hold them off until 7:30 or 8 am before they are off swinging in the swings in their pjs and bedhead.  (And the pjs are always mismatched.  Always.)  It isn't just the boys who love the outside time, but the pup does too.  He is right there with them, so excited to finally have his pack living it up for outside play.

Hugs

I wanted to conquer grocery shopping early this morning to avoid the inevitable chaotic mess of a Sunday morning at Wegmans.  I was rushing out the door when I yelled a goodbye to the boys playing legos upstairs.

"Wait Mom, Wait!"  Aidan yelled down.  "I need to give you a hug!"

"Me too!"  Brennan shouted.  I heard the bumps and thumps that signaled three little boys running down the stairs at a breakneck pace to get to me before I left.

"Guys, I will be back in like an hour and a half, two hours, max."  I replied, somewhat tiredly as I doled out hugs all around.

"Well, that's two hours too long."  Aidan said, kissing me on the cheek.

And there it is.  A reminder of how blessed I am to live with such love.

Boston!

We struggled a bit with our plans for Easter break this year.  We discussed heading down to Florida, but with Easter being so early, we had some concern that the weather could by a little iffy.  It's a long way to go to be trapped inside.  And if we did go, it was almost a certainty that we would have to drive because the air fares are a little ridiculous.  (Seriously.  You could fly to Europe for the same price.)  This combined with the boys' desire for us to take a trip somewhere as a family of five, led us to the idea of a few days exploring Boston, MA.

Boston it is!  We had a fantastic trip.  One of the benefits of traveling with children is the ability to see the world through a fresh set of eyes.  Everything and anything is new and exciting to the boys.  It brings me such joy to watch them experience new things.  They loved the hotel and couldn't believe they had their own room to share with their very own tv!  The hotel had an amazing indoor pool area, complete with a mini basketball court, a climbing wall, ping pong, Foosball and a gigantic projection screen that played kids movies.  Nothing says vacation like watching The Lightening Thief from a pool.

Our first night we enjoyed pizza pool side, swimming and playing basketball.  The next day, we were off to explore the city.  We opted to do a hop on, hop off trolley tour that included a duck tour of the Boston Harbor.  It was a perfect decision.  We spent the day getting on and off of trolleys, visiting all the sights.  We saw almost everything we could in Boston, including a tour of Harvard and MIT in Cambridge.  We enjoyed lunch at Faneuil Hall and dinner in the North End at a traditional Italian restaurant.  Dinner was so good that Griffin announced he could live in this restaurant forever and be happy.

The food was that good. After dinner, we walked to Mike's Pastry and watched the boys eyes bug out of their head a their options.  We loaded up a few boxes of baked goods and went in search of some gelato for Brennan, who sadly couldn't enjoy the Mike's goodness because of his peanut allergy.

Not to worry though, because we quickly found heaven in a gelato shop.  Brennan picked blood orange gelato and inhaled it in blissful splendor.  After his first few big bites, he turned to me, smiled and said, "Mom, this ice cream dances on my tongue."

Hmm, maybe we could live in the North End after all.

Our second day we spent exploring the Museum of Science.  The boys could not get enough of the Museum.  We watched a live show on lightening.  (Griffin pronounced it the coolest thing he had ever seen.)  Aidan and Brennan entered an engineering competition to design and build a claw that could pick up a number of plastic animals when attached to a crane.  Their design worked and made it up on the Leader Board.  (Go Team Buffalo!).   The boys were locked in wind tunnels to feel what a hurricane would be like.  We saw life-size dinosaurs and much, much more.  We finally dragged the boys out of the museum just because we were all starving.  But the boys were thrilled to hear we were going to take the T, Boston's subway, back to Faneuil Hall for lunch.

After we got on the T, I asked Griffin what he thought.  He shrugged, looked around the subway car and said to me, "I thought there would be people sleeping on the seats.  On TV there are always people sleeping on the seats."

Heh.

After lunch, the boys wanted to spend time souvenir shopping.  Many hours were spent agonizing over the perfect souvenirs, until finally, Aidan selected a Boston Celtics t-shirt and pennant and Brennan and Griffin picked Boston Celtic basketballs to bring home.

We spent the rest of the day exploring the waterfront and watched ferries come into dock.  We also managed to get back to Mike's Pastry one more time just to stock up.

Griffin enjoyed his second day of attention wearing his beloved Buffalo Sabres hoodie.  We never knew that one way to guarantee a whole lot of attention and meeting many new friends was to wear Buffalo Sabres clothing.  Griffin got hoots and hollers wherever we went and we met so many people from Buffalo.  (The absolute best was one of the souvenir shops. We walked in and one of the employees yelled "Sabres in the house!"  Griffin lapped it up.)

That night, Chris surprised Aidan with tickets to the Celtics game.  Brennan and Griffin were happy to spend the night at the pool, swimming their hearts out, and trying out their new basketballs on the hotel court.  We even enjoyed room service.  (Something they had begged to try when we first checked into the hotel.)

All in all, the trip surpassed all of our expectations.   The boys have already asked if we can go back someday.  I think we can make that happen.