Supporting you in motherhood, one little blog post at a time
You know that strange feeling that settles over you if you’ve ever been away from you kids for more than a day or two? That somehow in the hours you weren’t with them they grew in ways imperceptible to world at large yet glaringly obvious to you. I haven’t technically been away but I am very much out of the boys’ loop as I continue my lengthy wisdom teeth recovery.
They seem older somehow. Even in the picture above they seem to resemble young men more than little boys.
When did that happen?
It’s amazing how quickly we adapt to what life throws at us. Mad Dog is in full swing as ‘Mr. Mom’ and has perfected a seamless morning routine with the boys. Apparently, Full Speed is in charge of helping T.Puzzle put on the clothes that Mad Dog has laid out from the night before. Full Speed does well with this until it’s time for the pants. He has to count to three and as T.Puzzle jumps, Full Speed attempts to pull T.Puzzle’s pants the rest of the way up. The key is timing and yanking the pants precisely when T.Puzzle has reached mid-flight. I have yet to see this in person, but I can hear an awful lot of commotion coming from the boys’ room as this new ritual takes place. It sounds highly entertaining.
I am adapting by setting my daily goals very low.
Today, I did a load of laundry.
What’s next?
I may get wild and crazy and shower.
Clean clothes AND a clean me?
Talk about a rockin’ Thursday.
When Mad Dog travels, like he did over this past week, my life with the boys becomes slightly more adventurous. Thankfully, lately, I have been appreciating these adventures more. I also managed to miraculously schedule two dinners with friends (one I invited to the house after the boys were asleep) and a lunch with my mother-in-law.
I haven’t had that much social activity since the early nineties when children were a twinkle in my eye and my hair was taller than a full-grown palm tree.
It was rather strange. While I was physically stretched to the max maintaining the family routine and meeting my social obligations this week, my spirit felt completely full.
I’m learning that as my children grow and need me less, I need to embrace this (as much as I can because it hurts ever so) and find myself a little more each day.
That’s what friends and a fabulous mother-in-law are for.
Now that T.Puzzle is a camoflauge belt, he technically is allowed to spar. This means I am technically allowed to be completely neurotic about it.
Oh, my denial runs deep. I keep wishing and hoping that his sparring days are far, far in the future.
In class as I grabbed a seat another Mom asked me, “Has T.Puzzle sparred, yet?”
I went into this long explanation about how he has not, how I’m not ready for it, he’s too young, too timid and maybe Mad Dog can take him to a sparring class because I don’t want to see it.
I think a simple ‘no, he has not’ would have sufficed.
Needless to say, as soon as I’m done with my crazy little speech, the instructor approaches me and asks if T.Puzzle has his sparring gear.
Today is the day.
Yikes!!
The more I thought about it the more I realized my concerns about T.Puzzle sparring had nothing to do with him.
I am associating this with him being grown-up.
Newsflash— he is growing up.
Sometimes knowledge like this is worse than a flying high kick to the head.
After it was over, it was all relatively harmless, and T.Puzzle shouted, ‘that was the most awesomest!’, I paused and tried to be grateful for how well he handled it.
Me?
I still have a ways to go yet.
More often than not, Mad Dog and I have these surreal moments, especially as a weekend draws to a close, where we look at each other in disbelief and say, ‘the boys were really well behaved, weren’t they?” It’s almost like we need someone to pinch us or that we need to thumbprint our kids to make sure that they are really, truly ours.
When public outings for so long have been a battle ground, it’s refreshing when they simply become enjoyable.
I didn’t see that coming at all.
And, for those who read this blog regularly, I bet you didn’t either.
