Tidbits from my boys

How do you teach a child to carry a tissue to catch the projectile snot or even get a tissue once said snot has shot? I am so proud of my 3 year old, he covers his face when he sneezes however he doesn't remember to carry the tissue until AFTER the sneezes shoot. He suffers from severe hay fever which is about the only thing, other than olive skin coloring, that he inherited from me. The poor baby will be woken from a deep 3 am sleep with his powerful snot and he will just sit there saying/yelling "mommy" until I wake up enough to get to the bathroom to retrieve the tissue or, if I was thinking at bedtime, grab the tissues I sat at my bedside. It is funny how bodily secretions do nothing to mothers--no fear whatsoever, no flinch, no surprise, no anything except the wish of the time when they are taken care of my the secreter.

The Huge Wiener Monster: As I sat here checking blogs and posting my hubbie popped by to give me a kiss goodbye on his way out to work. I gave him my full attention and realized that his "work" pants are hole ridden ALL in the crotch region. I told him as much and he shrugged it off however, my 8 year old took it and flew. He explained to his dad that one of these days "it" was going to just bust out of the hole (and made arm jesters, very largely, to represent what "it" would look like) and you'll just be a "HUGE wiener monster that will turn around and say AAARRGHH and trip an old lady". Yep, he meant trip her with "it". My hubbie was rolling... Dax was going off with this story and even though it was probably completely inappropriate, Jesse cracked up and seeing him laugh made me do the same. Oh boy the imagination my children have.

It makes sense--of course it does Tel

I've changed the title of my blog as a tribute to my 3 year old son. It is his new phrase and he uses it properly-kind of. For instance, I was putting his PJs on him and suggested he only wear the bottoms because the nights have been so warm and he replied "I want the top with the bottoms, it makes sense mom". Yes, it does. Tops go with bottoms even if you sweat your guts out all night and toss and turn so much your mother doesn't sleep a wink (yes, I am one of THOSE mothers who let their children sleep with them until they choose to sleep on their own--another topic, another time). It was an entire "Bob the Builder" ensemble so it did make sense. Like the PJ incident, my blog makes sense: the incoherence, the casual display of meaningful things in my life, the rude shit I talk about, etc are all part of who I am or mainly how I think JUMP... JUMP... JUMP... but I come up with really good thoughts while jumping around.

As I write this "intended to be short" post my fore mentioned son came out of the bathroom and asked/stated "Can I be naked? My shorts are sweaty and I need them off cuz my legs need fresh air on me" Naked doesn't mean bare ass to him, that is nakey or "woo woo". Naked is to be without pants; wearing underwear and a shirt. Tel and his cousins frequent this look daily at their grandma's house (the saint retired early to watch grand babies so all of us could continue our careers, at the end of this month she will be the charge of 5 children, 3 yrs and younger and an 8 year old--I emphasize SAINT), they all 3 prefer this and all 3 sets of parents do not but that is what g-ma's are for right. So Tel is naked watching "his shows", playing Star Wars guys and as content as a child can be. Again, naked is without pants--how many of us would like to be naked most of the time, oh hell maybe even nakey would be good in this weather. Happy first day of summer.

Staying At Home

Summers are always hard for me. I completely envy the patience of the stay-at-home parent--it's not for everyone. I only work part time but staying home day after day with my kids is beyond difficult. I find myself being not as patient as I am during the school year, zoning out when they are telling me some "important" story, and counting down, as soon as they wake up at 6 am, to their 8:30 bedtime. To make matters worse, I normally have my hubbie home for 3 days (his schedule is a 3 on, 3 off which is LOVELLLLLY!) but because due to him knowing me so well, he has worked overtime as much as possible so that I can have a spend frenzy in Maui and not come home in the red. It is so sweet of him because he works really hard and on nights he's gone way too much and misses us but I don't think it could possibly compare to how much I miss him. I have been a single mother for 4-5 days a week since summer began and this is NOT pretty on top of my needing to work outside the home. I have taken the boys to the movies twice, take them to the gym and swimming lessons daily, gone to my mother's to "slip and slide" on more than one occasion, my mother-in-law took them overnight last week, and of course the junk food movie days we have planned with one another. I still feel overwhelmed and depression sets in because I feel bad about not liking being home with my kids. Days like today do make it better though:
When I picked my boys up from the play center at the gym today every one of the ladies went on and on about how cute my kids are, how they are so helpful, and how polite they are (even my 3 year old), then I talk to another mother at swimming and she tells me how "neat" my oldest is because he is so caring and helpful to his fellow swim mates/friends. The other mothers of the 3-4 year olds were telling me how good my youngest is; he listens and tries everything the instructor asks, he has no fear of the water and even tries to use "big arms" (freestyle) while passing off the floating part of his class.
So even though I pretend to enjoy the obnoxious stories of the various fiction characters my son's tell me about and I will volunteer but roll my eyes when asked to be Lea or Padme they must know that I care about them and they put as much, if not more, stock into what I say as I do in what they say. To them and me each day is a learned lesson and I wouldn't give it up for all the nannies in the world. But yes, I'm looking forward to my vacay and then the beginning of the new school year because I feel I give them much more quality in my time than in the summer---FO SHO!!!

Summer Routine

I haven't posted in awhile and I feel bad about it. When I started this I was determined to be a regular poster but it seems as though it is harder to set aside time or come up with topics. So here is a post about my summer vacation so far.
Each day I go to the gym at 9:00. I hadn't went for a couple of weeks (last week of school chaos and trying to get into the summer routine set backs) and when I started back IT KICKED MY BUTT!!! I am still more sore each day than what I had worked up to but I think it is a good thing because I didn't lose at much tone/strength as I would have thought. Some days I just do cardio, some weights and cardio, and on Thursdays the same class I went to before only in the morning. Yep, still having to wear a pad because of the incessant jumping and my first day back to said class I fell on my ass. That's right folks...FELL. It happened so quickly I don't know exactly what happened but I do believe it had something to do with the tread of my shoes sticking to the tread on the work out stair and the other foot moving to the stair before first foot could 'unstick' itself. I didn't get hurt, was mildly embarrassed, and laughed soooooo hard at myself. After the gym I race my boys to swimming lessons which are at 10. Dax is in pre-swim team again this year. His ability is there but because of his age he isn't in the "competition group" which consists of junior high kids. Tel is in his second session of level 1. His first teacher recommended he go to level 2 because he, too, is a fish; but because of his age I chose one more session of level 1. At 11 we leave the pool and run any errands in town that need to be done because with the price of gas there is NO way in HELL I'm going back in. We get home around noon but have already ate at some junk food place which shoots my diet in the face. Then it is time for the house clean because YES it is for sale. No one has had a walk through but my realtor has had MANY calls and people are constantly stopping and grabbing a brochure. I know the market is slow and it has been listed for only two weeks, but I want it sold yesterday (remember my problem with impatience). Mondays and Fridays I take my grandma to her physical therapy, Tuesdays I work all day (summer "make up" school, it is cake-I read the entire time because very few people are there for social studies), and Wednesday, oh Wednesdays I despise you. Around 4:30 is when I get to sit down and NO my house hasn't been cleaned yet. Gym, swimming, grocery store, lunch, piano, feed pseudo farm....... I would like to excuse myself and go to bed now but my hubbie works a totally f-ed schedule and I think it would be considered neglect if I were to let my kiddos cook their own dinner and run their own baths. Anyhoooooooo. I'm sorry there is nothing exciting for me to talk about. Oh, wait there is!!! Next month will mark my 10 year wedding anniversary and I am going to Maui! I need to work out diligently, watch what I eat, and buy cute sun dresses with matching shoes cuz I'm gonna look GOOD in the pictures we bring back. It'll be just like a postcard baby. Well, that's my goal anyway.

Passion

As I sit here eating my faux Chinese take-out (Panda Express) I realize I have become a hypocrite. There was a time that I was neck deep in sociological study where I protested Internet filters on university computers, when I would have packed up my newborn son and joined a freedom march cross country had it been the era. I was going to rid the world of inequality, starting with not gender socializing my son. Now I am signing the child up for football, second year now. To my defense: he sleeps with a teddy bear, is the sweetest male I have ever known, and has to concentrate on being aggressive. I have no passion for anything anymore, I teach sociology but cannot transfer my lost passion to my students. I feel like I'm not on the cutting edge of society, as if I have been caught up in the herd and am just following the ewe in front of me. I have "settled" for the mundane life of mother, wife, teacher....I say "settled" because I was going to be the INNOVATIVE of those roles. The mother unexpected, the beyond equal spouse, and the best damn teacher that ever walked. I need to find a new passion that fits with my Beaver Cleaver life I happened on. How do I do this? Or how do I rekindle the passion that once was but adapt it to dinner at 6, baths at 7, and bedtime at 9?