Word To The Ys

Sometimes I start a post and realize it’s really boring.  I’m ditching the first effort, which focused too much on my crazy day, and instead will talk about my more-entertaining children.  To wit:

Maxwell

Last night after he’d gone to his bed, I heard Max sobbing into his pillow.  I raced up to see what was wrong.  “Buddy…what is it?”  I asked.  He replied, “I just feel like time is going so fast!”

I laid down in bed with him, stroking his hair.  “Time is going so fast, I feel like I’m gonna wake up tomorrow and it’ll be Seth’s graduation!” he choked out.  Aw, buddy!  I feel you.  He’s such a sensitive little fella.  We lay in his bed, whispering (me) and loudly lamenting (him) about the passage of time.  After 10 minutes, we finally got to the core of it: “I can’t believe I’m going to be in second grade!  It feels like with each new grade and year that passes, I’m losing my childhood!”  Ah.  This sparked a good conversation about living our best each day, no matter what.  Doing fun and interesting things and always learning something new; committing things to memory so we can continue to enjoy them in the future.  It’s always amazing to have these discussions with him because he just gets it, even though he is still so young.  Such an old little soul.  I know how hard it can be, because he’s basically me…just in boy form.  I told him about 2nd grade being my favorite year in elementary school; about how that was the year I became a writer and learned to sing and spelled almost every word right but learned about making mistakes.  I try my hardest to talk him through these emotional growing pains, just as I patiently rub his feet and legs in the middle of the night to alleviate his physical growing pains, sleepy though I may be, because I remember how much it hurts.  I hope I helped to ease some of his anxieties.  I think it worked because he fell asleep shortly thereafter.

Oliver

Ollie has been changing so much lately.  Not as much as we’d thought, as many things that had calmed down were due to his protracted illness and not a developmental shift, after all.  Joke’s on us!  But he is still growing up in ways I never thought would come.  He recognizes after he has an inappropriate action or outburst what he’s responsible for (fairly quickly, too) and apologizes of his own volition.  I’m pretty sure there are 30-somethings who still can’t do that!  He stays near us when we ask him to instead of running off.  He’s picked up a sense of caution, which has decelerated my gray-hair growth significantly.  He will soon start pre-K at Maxwell’s school, which he also still calls “Max’s School”.  It will be hard to say goodbye to the preschool that has literally taught him how to exist in a group. 

Speaking of preschool…today, when I picked Ollie up from school, I saw that he was wearing this:

and enjoyed the story of its origins as told by his teacher: “I was making the nametags for each of the kids, and drawing a little picture of something they wanted on it.  Lots of robots and butterflies and simple things.  Then I got to Ollie and he said, ‘A Goat!’  I wondered if I’d be able to draw a goat, but picked up the gray marker to at least give it a shot until he interrupted with, ‘NO! A pink goat.’”

Have I mentioned how much I love this child?  I mean, a pink goat?  Where does he come up with this stuff?!?

Seth

My baby.  Sigh.  He’s been…interesting lately.  His temper has reached an all-time high, while his general nature remains sunny and fun.  People never believe us about the temper thing, until they see it explode (from nowhere, really) and witness his head spin 360 degrees while his mouth emits the hellcat scream.  Wowza.

But let’s focus on what we enjoy of him lately.  He is speaking in sentences, even if I’m the only one who really understands most of what he says (well, me and the Baby Whisperer, Ollie.)  Tonight we went out for dinner (see: first paragraph referencing a crazy day, and contrary to my norm I’m not being hyperbolic.)  Let’s just say it was a place where we could eat pancakes and bacon. FOR DINNER.  That’s magic, right there.  We were waiting for our order and Seth saw someone else with theirs.  “I WAN DA BAKEH!” he exclaims.  I’ll translate: “I want that bacon!”  We assured him his was on the way.  He ate it first, like any respectable member of this family would. Also amusing: he tries to tell knock-knock jokes.  It usually goes like this: (Seth) “Na-Na!” (Me) “Who’s there?” (Seth) belfjshwlfugjsklajdufgh! (Me) “belfjshwlfugjsklajdufgh who?”  (Seth) *grinning and laughter*

Well, folks…that’s all I’ve got for tonight.  But tomorrow (Friday) morning, our very own Crazy Aunt Linda will be on-air in WI extolling her love for Adam Lambert!  Listen to her here at 9:00 AM if you want to enjoy her hilariousness:

http://player.cumulusstreaming.com/SLPLayer.aspx?WZOK-FM

Coming Soon…tales from the MN State Fair 1993!  With audio!  Tales of our new school year!  More movies!  Less whining!

Posted in Max, Ollie, Seth | 2 Comments »

SUNDAY:

After two weekends of seeing his parents dress “handsome” to attend weddings, Ollie breaks out the finery for Sunday morning church.

This picture is sort of a game of “one of these things is not like the others”, but we could all be the oddball out for different reasons.

MONDAY and TUESDAY:

No pictorial evidence, but these days were pretty normal.  Max, Ollie, Joe attend school; I work; Seth plays like a rockstar.  Which generally entails dumping out the contents of the entire toy shelf in a giant chaotic heap on the floor and ripping up books, just like any respectable rockstar would.

WEDNESDAY:

I am so crabby and tired on Wednesday.  I’ve been having some health-related things that have been knocking me out (nothing serious at all, and I’m hopeful that it will be corrected soon.)  When Max gets home from school we all go out into the lovely afternoon and I take pictures of the boys, to remind me of why I do this crazy-hard job in the first place.

It works.

Ollie has his last swimming class; he has transformed from hell in water to floppy little imp in water over the course of 8 weeks.  Still not even close to swimming, but definite progress has been made.  We all eat ice cream after attending his last lesson in celebration of his work.

THURSDAY:

Can you say…all-school MUSICAL?!?

Joe attends the daytime performance due to class that evening and misses out on the magic of the evening show.  Maxwell is…a revelation.  A revelation in what happens when small children are in many scenes as “human wallpaper”.  In other words: he is not aware of himself as part of the scene.  In other words: he does a bunch of hilarious stuff to make me and all the other loved ones in attendance laugh until tears roll down our cheeks. 

Nose flicking: check.  Underwear adjustment: check. 

And best of all: unconscious mouthing and mimicking of leads’ songs and/or lines: check.  He gestures like a pro, I tell ya.  Or at least like his Boompa. 

FRIDAY:

Our friend was ordained on Thursday night while we were at the musical/in class, but she has a party Friday and we happily go.  Happily without the kids.  Who are happily at home with Uncle Mark and Angie…well, all are happy except Ollie, who has been throwing up all day and is already asleep by the time Mark and Angie arrive.

The party is fun.  Loud, but fun.  We don’t stay long because Mark and Angie await us for post-bedtime chat and games.  We play a ridiculous game on the Wii (Wario Smooth Moves).  The most entertaining bit is when, after Angie and I make several unsuccessful attempts at it, Mark and Joe insist on trying this tandem jumping mini-game, thinking it’s really easy and why are Courtney and Angie so bad at it?  Guess. what.  Not so easy!  I do believe Mark would have stayed until 3:00 AM in an attempt to “beat” it, but we kick them out around midnight and collapse into bed.

SATURDAY:

Joe takes on the jungle-like yard.  It takes four + hours, but I think he wins.  We have a pile of compost to show for it.  But enough work!  In Joe’s family, we do our birthday celebrations in quarterly chunks.  Saturday is the Summer Birthdays party.  We sit in ridiculous traffic but eventually arrive at the “Country Cousins” house with three very excited children.  Did you know that, according to them, the word “cousins” is to be followed by a thousand exclamation points?  Here we visit, play, eat, and get really silly.  And dirty.

I am very remiss this day in that I do not take into account the grown-boy antics of Joe and his own brothers; I do not bring Joe’s swim trunks for the giant homemade slip’n'slide.  I am rewarded for this oversight by Joe sliding all over it anyway in his regular shorts.  Our camera battery dies before I can get any pictures of him with Ollie playing forever on the big ‘ol injury maker, but here are some other action shots of the cousins:

I will refrain from posting any photos of the man-children on here, because it is better for everyone involved.  I am happy that boys will be boys forever, though; it is some small comfort to this mother of three boys.  Until I think of all the potential hospital bills.  But at least MAN-children have to pay their own bills!

We take our leave from the COUSINS! and travel home.  It takes so long, but it is worth it.  We all pass out unconscious upon our return.

SUNDAY:

It is finally August.  We gives thanks for a fun but hectic and very stressful month and give even more thanks that we have seen it through to the other side.  Next up: Maxwell on vacation for a whole month!  Driving me bonkers!  Joe taking his finals!  Driving me bonkers!  Ollie finishing up preschool!  Driving me bonkers!  Seth and his temper!  Driving me bonkers!  But it’s just normal-bonkers instead of asylum-bonkers.  Relief.

Posted in Joe, Max, Mostly Me, Ollie, Seth | 8 Comments »