kids – Page 11 – Writes for all Mommies

2016 Year in Review

03/12/201604/12/2016 WFAM

Mad Dog and I were seated 15 yards back from the end zone. Our panoramic view of the field added to the excitement. T.Puzzle was at QB calling the shots and Full Speed was zipping up and down the field at a breakneck pace.

Sounds amazing, right?

It kind of was and it kind of wasn’t. There are many perks to having the boys on the same flag football team such as shared practices and games. There are also many pitfalls. Let’s just say there are days when egos collide and managing the talent is way above my pay grade.

Even though their flag season was a mixed bag of victories and defeats, I am grateful that I get to watch these boys from the sidelines. Besides, I’m feeling generous because I am a World Series Champion! Yes, it was a long road and a lot of hard work, but I hung in there. Don’t worry, I haven’t let success go to my head.

Celebrating the Game 5 victory with the masses. Still can’t believe we were there.

In the spirit of full disclosure, success actually has gone to my head a little bit. As it happens Mad Dog and I are predominantly featured in a recent World Series recap. It premiered on FS1 and is available for DVD purchase. Well, we are flashed on the screen for a millisecond or two, but it still counts. Here’s proof the Cubs couldn’t have won without me.

This is us gearing up for the historic Game 3 showdown.

Now that I’ve sufficiently addressed my newfound celebrity status, here’s a breakdown of the rest of my team:

Let’s start with T.Puzzle. This is the child that continues to confound me. He is overly opinionated and strong-willed yet gets glowing reviews from teachers and coaches. Often, after another flip comment has escaped his adorable face I’ll say something like, “wow, raising you is the challenge of a lifetime.” His instant response is, “because I’m so awesome, right?” Something like that. He’s something alright.

T.Puzzle continues to loathe school, adore video games and aggravate his brother. He’s entering the double digits age-wise. I have a feeling I may need to start another blog dedicated to coping with T.Puzzle’s impending milestone decade. The truth is, he is completely true to himself and even though he challenges me a lot, I know he is always going to land on his feet.

Full Speed is transforming before our eyes and becoming a kind and thoughtful young man. Thankfully, he still has a great sense of fun and is loving his Extended Studies this year with its focus on improv. He loves school, reading, reading and oh, did I mention reading? He is a walking encyclopedia of sports facts and stats. This was really helpful for me, especially as I got farther into my World Series winning season. Chicago thanks you, Full Speed!

Then, there’s Mad Dog. He continues to excel at work. There I reasons I love this and reasons I don’t love this. I love this because I can tell that he is feeling challenged and inspired by all his new and varied responsibilities. He’s also an incredible leader. I am very proud of him and like that he remains humble and grounded. I don’t love this because he is often working long hours and has to travel. I’m not a huge fan of sharing Mad Dog with the world, but I get it. He’s awesome and the world needs him. So, I let him go with love.

As for me, it really all boils down to this. I realized that I am my truest, most genuine self when I am in the company of these three incredible men and they all accept me exactly as I am. My goal for the coming year is to be the self that is loved by them when I am out in the world. It is easy in concept but hard in execution. I’m not sure if the world is ready for an empath like me. All I know is that if I have these guys in my corner, then what the world thinks of me is less important. In fact, for any of you reading this, I encourage you to be your truest self in all circumstances. The only approval you actually need is your own.

Wishing you a Blesssed Holiday Season, a Bright and Merry New Year and above all else Love.

motherhood

The G.O.A.T.

10/10/201607/05/2018 WFAM

Some evenings the stars do not align and my boys have practices at different times. This is never a problem if Full Speed is the one waiting for his start time. All I have to do is bring a book for him and he is content to wait it out. T.Puzzle is more complicated. Sometimes he likes books and sometimes he hates them. Sometimes he’s chatty and sometimes he is belligerently bored. And, being that I am a stubborn sort myself, I don’t allow electronics during the week. Basically, I’m stuck with him for better or for worse. Recently, I’ve been able to embrace this time with him a little bit more. Working on word puzzles with him is a good bet and I find his self-centric worldview to be incredibly entertaining.

As we were sitting in my car waiting for his practice time I was overcome by a wave of love for him. You remember the kind maybe? It’s like that moment when you crept into your child’s room to gaze upon them when they were small and peacefully asleep. Watching the sweet rise and fall of their chest made you feel like your heart would burst right out of yours. That is the best feeling and one I felt I wanted to share.

“You are so cute!” I gushed.

T.Puzzle’s instant response with dimples blazing, “I know.”

This kid. He thinks he is the G.O.A.T. (the greatest of all time).

A few weeks back I got a call from his school informing me he had hit his head. All was well but recently he asked me about it. How did I know he didn’t have a concussion? I said that the school nurse had asked him a bunch of questions that he answered correctly which indicated he was fine. What were the questions he wanted to know?

“Well, she asked you who your favorite person in the whole world was and you said ‘my mom’ and that’s how we knew you were okay.”

“I know you are lying, Mom. That couldn’t be true. If the nurse did ask me that the answer wouldn’t be you, it would be me. I am my favorite person in the whole world.”

A G.O.A.T. is born.

Mr. GOAT’s sunscreen application he insisted he DO IT HIMSELF!

children, family, humor, motherhood

The Summer of Love

19/08/2016 WFAM

Per our tradition, I was seated at the counter flanked by the boys as we ate our final lunch of summer break. I don’t know why, but lunch at the counter seems more summery than table eating.

T.Puzzle (looking rather forlorn): “Why does school have to start again?”

Me: “The first day of school is that bad, huh?”

T.Puzzle: “It’s so bad we should call it The Day That Cannot be Named. The other day I hate is Valentine’s Day. It’s all love and bleh. I don’t understand why there has to be a whole day about love. It makes no sense.”

Full Speed (courtesy of a joke book): “If you’re born in November, that means your parents had a pretty cool Valentine’s Day.”

I laughed so hard I almost spit out my food. This made Full Speed laugh which only made me laugh harder. T.Puzzle remained unmoved, I mean, it was the day before The Day That Cannot Be Named after all.

T.Puzzle shares his true feelings about returning to school.

family, gratitude, happiness, motherhood

My Field of Dreams

25/06/2016 WFAM

We were on our way. We had travelled many miles and planned months in advance for this day. This was THE day.

Full Speed and T.Puzzle were going to their first Cubs game.

In the weeks leading up to this momentous event, I tried to convey to them how special this was to me. So much of my childhood and memories of my mom were wrapped up in Cubs’ fandom. I had met Mad Dog because of the Cubs. Our first date was in the left field bleachers. I fell in love with Mad Dog at Wrigley.

Wrigley Field is my mecca.

Obviously, I was feeling a bit emotional but mostly excited. We decided to walk part of the way from our rented, summer apartment and grab a cab closer to the field.

We stayed near the zoo and went nearly every day. That was so much fun!

Then, I felt the first raindrop. Then, another. Soon, I wasn’t sure if I was feeling rain wet my face or anxious tears.

How could it threaten to rain on this of all days? The most holiest day of my young children’s lives?

Inwardly (ok, outwardly, too) I started to freak out. Full Speed could tell I was losing it and quickly grabbed my hand.

“It’s okay, Mom. It’s only raining a little. It’s going to be okay.”

And, then, almost instantly it was okay.

Here’s why: I stopped focusing on all the things that could go wrong (possible rain, thunder, game cancellation) and started to look at all that was wonderful.

First of all, I had this incredibly handsome and caring young man holding my hand. Wow, Full Speed is going to make one heck of a husband when he grows up. Which brought me to my own husband. He worked so hard and planned so carefully for our little family to have this awesome Cubs experience for two reasons. First, he is a Cubs fan, but secondly, because he does all he can to make me happy. Seeing him up ahead leading our little family and watching him stay positive that no rain would slow us down, made my heart full.

I decided in that moment that I wasn’t going to let the threat of bad weather ruin this awesome day. However it unfolded was going to be perfect. I was with my favorite guys and all I felt was gratitude.

Sure enough, soon after we arrived in the park it rained and rained and rained.

What did we do? We got some ponchos and soldiered on.

With much anticipation and thankfully no thunder, the game started on time. Within moments, the Diamondbacks had a runner on and their clean-up hitter launched a line drive home run to right-center. It was the kind of homer you instantly knew it was gone. The way it cracked off the bat was soul-crushing.

And, it still rained on us. A lot.

Somehow the Cubs made a comeback, honestly if you’ve been watching their season at all, this is hardly surprising. Offensively they are a juggernaut. They managed to get the lead back by the fourth inning and maintain it until the end. This only got sweeter when my favorite player, Anthony Rizzo, clocked a solo home run in the bottom of the eighth inning. I screamed so loud I nearly lost my voice. You can actually see us on the MLB recap as we were behind home plate as Rizzo completes his trek around the bases. We are easy to spot because I am jumping for joy. To this day, Full Speed does a dead-on impersonation of me jumping around like a crazy person for Anthony’s home run.

Here’s the screen shot, it’s a little blurry but there we are, front row in our ponchos. T.Puzzle is standing looking up at me, I’m cheering, Full Speed is seated and Mad Dog is snapping a pic. So AWESOME!

It was a magical, magical day.

Thank you, Wrigley Field.

You did not let me down.

humor, motherhood, parenting

Your People

15/03/2016 WFAM

Family vacations are stressful. Why is that? Maybe because you plan weeks or months in advance and there are expectations that everyone will be cheerful and have fun doing extraordinary and often expensive activities. So, the pressure is ON. Have fun OR ELSE! You throw in an aversion for crowds and noise, put me on a cruise ship full of screaming kids and there isn’t anyone or anything that can save me or whoever ends up in my path.

We were standing by the balcony overlooking the main floor of the ship when T.Puzzle accidentally stepped on my foot.

I snapped.

My temper shorted out and I yelled at him to ‘Quit it!’ or ‘Cut it out!’ or ‘For the love of all that is good and decent in the world, STOP STEPPING ON MY FEET!’

To an outside observer it would seem that it was an innocent mistake by a distracted nine year old boy. They wouldn’t know the back story of how this said boy steps on my feet religiously. If he could bottle his accuracy of squashing my toes, this kid would give a trained sniper a run for his money.

The squashed toes were the icing. The pressure of FUN was getting to me. I looked at Mad Dog in despair.

He said, “I know with our family we are going to have highs and lows. While the highs are tremendous, there are days when you are so frustrated that you want to give our children up for adoption (I’m politely paraphrasing this last part). You have to accept the good with the bad.”

This made me pause. He was right, of course, but why am I always so ready to fly off the handle with the people I love the most in the world? I wouldn’t snap at a friend if she stepped on my toes. I would laugh it off and be on my merry way.

The difference is the amount of shared history. When you live life with people day in and day out, your truth seeps out whether you like it or not. You let the ugly flow because on some level you know that these are YOUR PEOPLE. They love you unconditionally.

If you can be your truest self around someone, and that includes all the stuff you hide from 99.9% of the rest of the population, then you know you feel safe with them.

Every one of us is complicated. Most of us strive to be our best.

If we are really lucky, we can be our worst, too…

3 times over.