Category: parenting

children, kids, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting, rock and a hard place, Taekwondo

Fake Out

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Full Speed demonstrates a 'real' hit.

The thing about threats is that you have to follow through with them.  I mean you don’t have to follow through.  You could threaten away until you are blue in the face and the only result would be children who don’t take you seriously.

Seriously?  That would be bad.

I told T.Puzzle and Full Speed I would take them out to dinner only with good reports from school.  They both succeeded.  I was golden.  My clean kitchen would remain intact and I would get something to eat I didn’t have to prepare.

Yet…

Full Speed decided to fake hit me at some point because I made him mad.  Yeah, that’s his new thing.  Fake hitting Mommy.

This is when I imagine fake locking him in his room until he’s eighteen or stops fake hitting me.

Instead I said he blew it.  Even though both boys earned the privilege of dinner out, the privilege was now officially off the table.

When all was said and done, I tried to fake clean my kitchen after the dinner I had to prepare against my will.

Too bad that didn’t work either.

children, gratitude, happiness, kids, marriage, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting

Cupcakes and Picnics

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With Mad Dog away, in the evening I have decided to watch the Sound of Music with the boys.  Each night we curl up in our loft and watch the adventures of Maria unfold.

It seems they are enjoying it.  Full Speed woke up on Monday singing “How do you solve a problem like, Mari-aaah?”  He also is growing quite a crush on the littlest Von Trapp, Gretel.  “Mom, she’s so cute.”

T.Puzzle, well, he loves anything musical.  That is how I know we are related.

As the Von Trapp children traipsed through the fields of the Austrian mountains, Full Speed was very concerned that they left their picnic food unattended.

“Who is going to clean that up?” he wondered.  He’s not at all phased that the cast breaks into spontaneous song or that they end up in 47 different locations during the song’s 4 minute montage.  Nope.  He’s worried about the picnic.  In fact, he’d really like a picinic.

T.Puzzle wants one, too.  He would like to have chicken and cupcakes on the menu.

Do-Ray-Me-Fa-So it looks like a picnic may be in our future.

Know any good cupcake recipes?  I bet Maria would.  If nothing else, maybe I’ll break into song about it later.

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children, gratitude, happiness, kids, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting

Eye of the Tiger

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It finally happened.  Mad Dog now has an office less than five minutes from our house.

Since Mad Dog seems to struggle with work/life balance, this should help him considerably.  I hope he uses his saved commute time for good and not… more work.

Either way, it’s nice to know that he is nearby even if we can’t see him.

T.Puzzle and Full Speed were thrilled as we dropped Mad Dog at his new office.

“When are you taking me to work, Daddy?” asked T.Puzzle.  Apparently working with Dad is pretty amazing.  There’s work, there’s time to play with matchbox cars and don’t forget the best part which is a hot breakfast.

We said our goodbyes and as we drove away I explained that in the evening we would be able to pick up Mad Dog from work and go to dinner as a family.

“It’s a good thing we are going to get him, Mom,” Full Speed said.  “He’s not going to be able to see.”

“Why is that, Full Speed?”

“It will be dark and dangerous.  There might be tigers hiding in the trees that could get him, too.”

I had no idea the neighborhood we lived in is teeming with such danger.

I have called Mad Dog many things (most of them good), but tiger bait, well, that’s definitely a new one.

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children, eyesight, kids, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting

Hold My Hand

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This week’s beautiful weather has afforded me the use of a bike to pick up Full Speed from kindergarten.  Mad Dog’s bike has a nifty trailer attachment that turns any regular bike into a tandem.  Full Speed loves it and so do I.  Whenever I greet him outside the school the first thing he says to me is, “Bike, today?”   His face lights up when the answer is yes.

As I grabbed his hand he shared some about his day as we headed to our bike.  He loops his hand through mine out of habit.  He doesn’t need to because we only cross through a crowd of people to reach our bike.  I don’t tell him not to.  I know my days of holding his hand are numbered.  I do my best to memorize the weight of his hand in mine and note that it feels fantastic.  Oh, how I will miss this.

“Mom, I had a vision and hearing test at school today.  I think I did really good for the hearing and I did just okay for the vision.  There’s a paper in my backpack that tells you all about it.”

I can’t help it.  My stomach lurches a little at the thought of reading his vision test results.  Just because I think his vision functioning is more than sufficient for school, doesn’t mean that the school nurse will agree.

When we get home I open his bag with trepidation and read the results.

20/50 for both eyes.  There’s a note attached that he needs an eye exam pronto.

Now my job will be to delicately explain to the school nurse that Full Speed’s had regular eye exams since the tender age of 20 months old and 20/50 vision is downright spectacular for him.

When I speak with the school nurse later I tell her only a slice of Full Speed’s vision history.   Over time I’ve learned that once you have a label, especially one with a medical diagnosis attached, it is hard for people to classify you as anything other than that.

So far I think I’ve been able to strike a balance for Full Speed.  I send him into new situations without disclosing any of his vision issues, and let everything unfold in its own time.  Right now, all he is to the world is an inquisitive and bright kindergartener.

And I’m the lucky lady who gets to hold his hand.

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gratitude, happiness, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting, self-discovery

Choices

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In life you can’t choose your family.   You are born into a family and all its complicated dynamics whether you are ready for it or not.  If you decide at some point to have children of your own, the only thing you control is who you choose to help you parent this family.   Sometimes, circumstances make this choice seem impossible as well.

So what can you do?

You could spend your days wishing you were someone else.

Or, you could look at your life, accept it for what it is and be thankful for the ways, even the smallest ways, that you can make a choice.

Today, I am choosing to look at all the ways that my life and family are good.  I can say I am truly thankful to have two, wild rambunctious boys that keep my life crazy but ultimately undeniably interesting.  I am thankful to have a true partner in Mad Dog.  To know he’s got my back will carry me through anything.

I realized if all I do is look at my life as a disaster, then that is exactly what I will find.

If I choose to look at how amazing it is in this very moment, that might be exactly what I find, too.

What choice would you make?