Sometimes my husband works a lot (those of you who know him, try not to choke!).
He is (and always has been) putting in long hours to provide for me, my boys and our future. Even though the amount of time he spends working can be frustrating, I can’t fault him for this.
It has been a challenge at times taking on the lion’s share of parenting with my boys. You’ve read my blog. You know why.
Being frustrated about it gets me no where.
Well, except for the occasional bouquet of spectacular flowers:
If you are new to this blog, meet Full Speed and T.Puzzle. The most calm and quiet brothers you will ever know who always, always behave. For everyone else, please disregard my previous posts. It's time to wipe the slate clean.
We made it. To IHOP that is. The boys were well behaved, the food good and we met some friends there as well.
Full Speed and T.Puzzle were excellent.
Let me repeat that.
Full Speed and T.Puzzle were excellent.
We went to Full Speed’s book fair after IHOP and you will never guess. They were excellent there, too. I mean really, really good. It was swarming with people and chaos. They never wandered far from my side and patiently ( yes, that’s right, I said patiently) waited in the very long line to purchase our books.
You could have knocked me over with a feather.
We came home, got in our pjs and curled up to read our new books.
I couldn’t have written a better ending to our night so I won’t.
I’m feeling nervous. I have been cracking down on the boys and their behavior and frankly, the only thing that is close to cracking is me. But that’s not why I’m nervous.
I told Full Speed and T.Puzzle that they need excellent reports from school so we can go to IHOP for dinner. No exceptions. I need a ‘blue’ day from Full Speed, blue being the absolute best mark you can get in kindergarten, and I need an excellent report from T.Puzzle’s teacher. If not, no pancakes no how.
So you see I’m nervous because I don’t want to have to follow through with my threat. It’s not that I’m jonesing for pancakes for dinner. It’s that I’m jonesing for my kitchen to remain mess-free.
However, I guess the real punishment if I get negative school reports won’t be so much that the boys won’t go to IHOP and my kitchen will be messy, but that I would have to cook for them.
It was Full Speed’s turn to graduate. I have less reservations about his involvement in tae kwon do because since the age of three, he has taken to it like a fish to water. I figure there can’t be any real lasting damage if the kid is having a blast.
As for the adults viewing the nearly two and a half hour long graduation spectacle, I don’t think we fared quite as well (my apologies to Grandma and Grandpa for the extreme time commitment, on a Saturday no less!). Apparently, we got off easy. Previous graduations for juniors and above have clocked in at five hours.
Why oh why can’t Full Speed be a Tiny Tiger forever? One hour graduations for the little kids are the bomb. And, poor T.Puzzle was beside himself with boredom and hunger near the end of Full Speed’s graduation. He sounded like a broken record, “Can I get some pizza? Can I get some pizza? How about some pizza peeps?”
Full Speed in attack mode as he spars for his belt advancement.
Despite all this, we enjoyed watching Full Speed perform his forms, kicks and punches. He sparred like a champ and showed great attention and focus. As for me, I showed great attention and focus, but only when Full Speed was on the mat. The rest of the time I too, dreamed of pizza (and shopping, and reading and birds and the meaning of life, pretty much anything except tae kwon do).
We join him on the mat for the belt tying ceremony.
