children, humor, kids, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting, tantrums

The Fast and the Furious

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I have written many times about how I can’t relate to Full Speed’s ultra-competitive nature. With time and experience I’ve learned that even if I don’t understand it, I have to accept it.

Where I have yet to journey the path of acceptance in this realm, is when I’m attempting to have a leisurely family bike ride.

I'd like to say bike rides were simple when the boys were little and fit compactly into one handy bike trailer. But alas, within five minutes of launch Full Speed would be pounding on T.Puzzle who would resort to biting as his go-to defense. Good times.

We recently purchased a tandem trail-a-bike for T.Puzzle. T.Puzzle is content to ride in tandem with ol’ slow poke Mom. He’s just thankful to be out of the tiny baby bike seat. So is my backside. No more being kneed on a repetitive basis by T.Puzzle’s overgrown four year old limbs.

The ride to pizza was fine. The ride to the park even better. As long as Full Speed is riding tandem and in FRONT with Mad Dog, things in life are great.

Why not mix it up? Let’s give lil’ T.Puzzle his chance to shine and hop on with Dad on the ride home from the park.

This is when near disaster struck. Full Speed was so determined to beat T.Puzzle, he pedaled at a furious rate. Even if I stopped pedaling completely, Full Speed’s relentless legs propelled us to the lead. I didn’t mind at first. In fact I could already see the humor of the situation glaring back at me.

I lost my humor quickly when at a busy intersection Full Speed kept pedaling no matter how many times I yelled ‘STOP!’

Things turned even more unfunny as we maneuvered down our main subdivision street trying to avoid oncoming traffic and remain in a single file formation. As Mad Dog and T.Puzzle eased in front of us as a truck whooshed by, Full Speed let out a tantrumific cry. He was outraged and boy, did he let me know it.

That’s it. I was done. I pulled us over to the sidewalk, hopped off the bike and refused to ride in the insanity any longer.

Full Speed’s response?

He leapt off the bike and attempted to beat his Dad and his brother by foot.

And wouldn’t you know it? That little man almost beat them.

He was fast AND furious.

children, gratitude, happiness, life in pictures, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting

Transformative

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T.Puzzle and I on our date at Sonic.
Okay. So there are a lot of trials and tribulations to raising young children. The energy requirements alone are enough to make you faint. I still am lobbying the government for Sundays off from motherhood. Oh, and I would love some monetary compensation to call my own.

Besides these obvious pitfalls, there is a fantasic upside.

My boys are still at the age where spending time with me is almost as awesome as the impending summer release of Transformers 3.

Full Speed beams during our regular Thursday lunch on St. Patrick's Day.

I’ll take the good with the bad and spend as much time with these guys as I can while they still let me.

All I have to be is myself with them.

No transformation required.

Yet.

children, eyesight, gratitude, happiness, health, life in pictures, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting, self-discovery

Limitless Sky

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Life hands you challenges sometimes. When you are faced with these, it is often difficult to understand why.

I have two young boys that were born with a rare genetic eye disorder called ectopia lentis.

I don’t know exactly why this happened.

All I do know is that it has put us on a path in life that is beyond anything we expected. We have been connected to amazing people we never would have met otherwise. We have had to test our mettle over and over each time victorious in the knowledge that as a family, we can overcome any obstacle.

So, I may not know exactly why vision challenges came into our lives. At least now I’ve had time and growth to realize some of the amazing lessons that have gone along with it.

If we can do this, we can do anything.

Think about any challenge you have lived through or are living with right now. If you can do that, you can do anything, too.

The sky’s the limit.

This is a pic of the boys being introduced by the director at the Vision is Priceless annual fundraiser. We are very thankful to this organization for all they do. Check out their link in my blog roll.
children, eyesight, gratitude, health, kids, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting

Walking the Walk

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A typical Snellen chart. Originally developed ...
Image via Wikipedia

I had my annual eye exam yesterday.  I figured if I volunteer for Vision is Priceless and I expect my boys to go through all the machinations of maintaining their vision and eye health, then I should be first in line at to get my own eyes tested.  It was painless, quick and I finally ordered a pair of prescription sunglasses.  Trust me, daily driving in the Floridian sun demands dark shades.

During the appointment I felt disproportionately anxious and emotional to what was actually happening.  Here is why:

1.  I was awake.  Folks, that’s pretty much all it takes for me to feel disproportionately anxious and emotional.

2.  Having to go through some of the necessary and slightly uncomfortable steps of my eye exam, like the pressure check with puffs of air and dilation drops, made me sad that my boys have had to do so much of this stuff at such an early age.  I don’t like having to stand by and watch them cry as they get dilation drops or the doc struggles to keep them still to get a photograph of the inside of their eyes. 

The woman that had walked me through the first steps of testing leading up to my actual exam asked me if it was all going alright.  I confessed that I was thinking of my boys and their eye history.  Since they are very well known at the optometrist, she understood my meaning.

She said that actually I’m quite lucky that my boys  have been to exposed so much to doctors.  She said she has fifteen year olds that refuse some parts of the eye testing because they are scared, defiant and/or crying. 

So, my concern will no longer be feeling bad about their familiarity with all things medical and optical.  I will be thankful they are learning to respect doctors and any tests that are required of them.  My real concern is that soon, T.Puzzle and Full Speed will attempt to usurp the testers and run the show, equipment and the eye testing all on their own.

It’s a fine line for sure.

vision has never held these boys back, not one minute, not one second. We are very fortunate.

 

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children, gratitude, happiness, humor, kids, life in pictures, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting

This Is Why

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I know as a parent you are supposed to be teaching your children life skills.   These skills can vary to the emotionally complex or be as simple as picking up dirty socks.  I think the latter is the easier to teach on most days.

However, Full Speed and T.Puzzle have not yet learned how to help me with laundry and this is why….

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At least I have something entertaining to watch as I sort through the boys’ socks that have successfully migrated to the laundry hamper (fingers crossed!).