children, humor, mommyhood, parenting

Ready for His Close-Up

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We were at the barber shop over the weekend waiting for Mad Dog’s turn in the chair. The boys were being good but eventually, little T.Puzzle decides that he needs to test every, single behavioral boundary. Soon, Mad Dog resorts to taking away his beloved Lightning McQueen crocs as punishment for not listening. Little T.Puzzle starts to lose it and dance around in anguish.

“I want my crocs! I want my crocs!” he cries as he hops up and down.

Well, Full Speed is not going to let this display go by unnoticed. I’m sure you are familiar with the sibling phenomenon of “My Sibling is Bad, therefore I’m Super-Good”. Full Speed wanted the world to know that little T.Puzzle was being out of line.  Full Speed has access to a cell-phone that can take videos. It is an old phone of Mad Dog’s that can’t make calls, texts or emails. We use it to keep Full Speed entertained with the games, camera, and video options on it.

So, he dramatically pulls out his phone and says, “I want to take a video of little T.Puzzle being bad.”

He holds the phone up, points it at a distraught T.Puzzle  and shouts, “Action!”

Of course T.Puzzle didn’t disappoint and Mad Dog and I found ourselves highly amused by Full Speed’s budding directorial inclinations.

gratitude, happiness, kids, life in pictures, mommyhood

Aquamarine

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As the mom of boys it’s a given that you are going to have to participate in activities that you don’t really understand. Things like spontaneous wrestling, watching racecar or train themed shows, arbitrary kung-fu contests and laughing at random and sometimes purposeful bodily function noises. I get that. So, it’s a pleasant surprise when you have to do something boy-related that turns into something unexpectedly fun.

We took the boys to a Corvette show that included a chili cook-off. I don’t know if it’s because they are getting older and seemed easier to manage, or that the show was small and uncrowded but I really enjoyed myself. Of course I judge the Corvettes by which one is the prettiest color (an aquamarine blue convertible won my top vote) so I may not have been appreciating it the way I should.

Anyway, since my life is destined to continue in the realm of all things boys; it’s nice to see the shimmering aquamarine lining finally starting to peek through. Regardless, you’ll never see me initiate spontaneous wrestling.

Full Speed’s favorite Corvette, little T.Puzzle in the foreground refusing to pose (shocker)
children, life in pictures, mommyhood

Help Me

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It’s hard to describe what it means to mother the likes of children like Full Speed and T.Puzzle. I do my best to give an accurate depiction through my daily posts. Here I’m doing something different. I am going to post several pictures to show you what ten minutes in my life are like. Keep in mind, this is only ten minutes. Imagine that and the other 12 hours and 50 minutes that they are normally awake.


Send help immediately!

health, kids, life in pictures, mommyhood, self-discovery

Clean Socks

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little Frick and his Legos

The life of a stay-at-home Mom is pretty exciting. I mean between the laundry, the cleaning up and food preparation it’s a wonder I have any time left in my day to blog. Take today for instance. It was action packed (insert sarcasm here). First, I played Legos with little T.Puzzle  (this actually was fun because he was super-giggly) and then in the afternoon I took him to the allergist (this actually was not fun). I told you my life was exciting.

little T.Puzzle snacks while waiting for the doc

Lately I am forgetting that my ‘job’ really is a sum of all its parts. Every sock I wash and put away and every frozen waffle I prepare (I know I am a culinary genius!) are all leading up to something greater. I’m raising children to become what I hope are kind, caring and self-fulfilled adults. When I say it like that, then who am I to defy the laundry gods another round of clean socks?

I don’t struggle with the value of what my job means overall. I do struggle with the seemingly mundane tasks that it sometimes entails. I know at the end of the motherhood trail the journey will be worth it; I’m just not in the mood to vacuum my way there.

children, mommyhood, terrible threes

Options

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My friend who reads my blog regularly (thank you, thank you) came over for lunch. She is raising boys as well and while hers are much older, she has much wisdom to dispel on the subject. Of course I am all ears. I implemented some of her suggestions with varying degrees of success. The first one was to simply tell Full Speed my expectation and to do so only once. If he complied then he would be rewarded, if not then no reward.

When we arrived at school I told him that I wanted him to say ‘good morning, ma’am’ to the school’s receptionist. Oftentimes he is running about talking silly and he doesn’t address her properly. I told him this once and he didn’t do it. I didn’t make a big deal but later that day I told him that meant he didn’t earn a privilege he had wanted. The next day it clicked for him and every day since. He stops in front of the reception area and greets her with respect. So, there’s my progress.

My friend’s other suggestion concerning my constant power struggle to get little T.Puzzle’s shoes on before we head out the door, was to put his shoes on while he is watching his morning cartoon. That way he is distracted and the shoes are on when I shut down the tv and it is time for us to leave.

I put the show on, grabbed the shoes and with great care and stealth tried to slip on his shoes. In the instant he saw me and the shoes he gets up screaming from the couch and runs away to hide.

My friend never once suggested that I be the one to run away and hide, but I’m telling you, on the days that start with tantrums, ‘I nots!’, and general defiance, it doesn’t seem like a half-bad option.

I’ll keep listening, learning and trying different things. Eventually something will click or we will have to move to a place where it is culturally acceptable be barefoot.