someone always takes a nose dive

The fact that I am surrounded by boys nearly 100% of my time is starting to wear on me. Between my husband and two sons there is a lot of testosterone flying around my home. Even the cat is male. When the boys were smaller it didn't seem as obvious as it does now. And I fear it will only get worse. I fear for what the future holds.

My tiny toddler is a 2 year old going on 10. His current favorite word is poop and I often walk into his room in the morning to find him laying in his crib, hand down the front of his diaper. The noises, the potty humor, the messes, the nose dives off every piece of furniture we own... sometimes it's a lot to deal with.

Last summer/fall my big five year old had back to back sports. Between flag football and tee ball we were at some sort of ball field two times a week. I loved watching my little guy play- especially football. He's fast and he gets the rules and truly loves the sport, which means I love watching him playing it.  But the mud on his shoes. The gross wet mouth guard being spit into my hand. The dirty uniforms. The dirt and mud everywhere- the car, the house, the washing machine. All the sports practices and everything that comes along with it- the laundry, the snack prep, the getting the whole family out the door on time, on top of the astronomical number of hours we watch sports on the TV. Backyard time is all, "Mommy play football with me. Mommy throw the ball to me. Mommy tackle me!" It's like I live inside the ESPN channel.  And when we are in the  the backyard NOT playing sports someone is taking a nose dive off the toddler slide.

 
 I have been caught by my son's doctor explaining to a stuffed sheep why we don't say the word poop. I have listened to my tiny toddler yell poop up and down the aisles of the local grocery store, with what felt like hundreds of witnesses. I have been trapped in a car while two of my boys (husband and oldest son) sing, "Under a shady tree, poop and pee", to Laurie Berkner. (The real words are "Under a shady tree, you and me...") When we leave school at the end of the day and I tell my tiny toddler to say "goodbye" to his friends he turns back to them and shouts "Bye Bye Pee Pee!". I have no idea if he is addressing the class as a whole or if there is one little friend worthy of the name "Pee Pee". When I ask my tiny toddler a seemingly innocent question such as "What is Daddy doing?" I get this response, "Daddy Poop!" or "Daddy ewwww!" (in our family, like every other family, we have our own  little language. "Make ewww" is something we just started saying to the big five year old when he was a baby, as in "Did you make ewww? Do you need your diaper changed?")

I freeze and hold my breath countless times a day as I watch one of both of my boys fling themselves off the couch onto the floor. I may be over reacting but I swear they are going to break their necks one day somersaulting off the living room furniture. I pick them up and dust them off after they catapult themselves off the top of the sofa, dropping straight down to the floor, often head first. I watch in horror as the big five year old slides down the banister and flies down a hill on his bike. They stand up in the tub, dance on the coffee table, bounce on the bed... I can see how the momma of those bed bouncing monkeys kept letting her little monkey babies fall off the bed, one after the other. Although I doubt I would have called the doctor each time. I wonder, frequently, how I would know if they one day suffer some horrible head trauma from all this boy induced craziness. I mean, let's face it, they act pretty strange on a good day. Last week I witnessed my tiny toddler run straight into a tall glass display case at church, one that he has walked up to a thousand times. He ran right at it like a bull, bouncing off and falling backwards. Yesterday he fell off his Hot Wheels motorcycle, while it was standing still. He wasn't even riding it. Took a nose dive off the motorcycle.

Every book we read in this house is about sports, or trucks, or monster trucks, or cars, or NASCAR, or wheels, or dinosaurs,  or diggers and bulldozers, or Santa. The tiny toddler has a thing for "Ho Ho". Every. Single. Book.And there is no sitting still for the reading of these books. Eventually someone takes a nose dive off the chair.

Don't get me wrong, sometimes we have tea parties. But eventually one of the stuffed animals gets tackled, tea is spilled, little tiny cups are used as weapons, cookies are smashed into the carpet. And someone takes a nose dive off the couch. Even if we are eating at the table the boys end up on the table and the food ends up on the floor. And then, one, or both, of the boys also ends up on the floor.

yes, he was just run over by that truck. another nose dive.

Someone always takes a nose dive.

again with the "got dead" theme

My big four and a half year old came home from preschool yesterday with red dots and blue lines drawn, in marker, on his hand. He proudly pointed to his art work and explained that he drew the flag for "America and all the people who got dead". Again. Again with the "got dead" theme. This obsession of his has been with us since September 11th and it doesn't look like it is going away anytime soon.

We sat him down and explained, in truly preschool terms, what happened on that fateful day ten years ago. He was planning to go to the Cleveland Browns football game on the anniversary of the tragic events and we knew that the NFL would surely be putting on some sort of remembrance. We thought it best to mention it to our son before he heard it from someone else, so to speak. I don't think we even said that anyone died. But kids are intuitive. And they overhear a lot more than we think they do. So who knows where he heard the rest of the story - from us, mommy and daddy? From the day care teachers? From the news playing in the background of his life in the living room or the car?

So each day he comes home from school with a new picture he colored. Like the picture he drew of the monster trucks painted red white and blue. And the page full of butterflies - a yellow one for mommy, a purple one for love, a green one for gravedigger and a red one for the people who got dead. sigh. (don;t know who gravedigger is? concerned I am opening my child's sponge like brain to terrible things? click here.) he is bordering on obsession. And it is freaking me out.

He doesn't seem bothered by it. I ask him if he is sad about what happened, or if he is worried that it might happen again. And he says no. So maybe I just have a very compassionate little guy on my hands. And I know he is getting to that age where all the obsessions start. He can already name every monster truck. He can tell you the mascot for every NFL football team. He can quote lines from both "Cars" movies. This boy is not a newbie to obsessions. But because this newest one centers around people "getting dead" it worries me a little.

It's funny, really. I am no different than anyone else in America who wasn't touched personally by the events of September 11. I followed the news. I felt horrible - just terrible for the families who lost loved ones. I worried about the future and didn't like the thought of being in a large crowd, for fear of another attack. But eventually I turned the TV off and went back to my life. And when the 10th anniversary rolled around I registered it, I thought about where I was when I heard the news and how I was still living in my apartment in Akron where Brad and I eventually had to turn off the TV just to stop the constant barrage of coverage. Yes, I registered it. And I moved on. Life is here, in the moment. I have two small boys, one of whom is learning English and requires lots of extra patience to deal with his moods and frustrations.  I have a household to run and the mom taxi to drive. I have meals to shop for and prepare and a husband to keep track of. Oh, and I have a thousand verses of We Are the Dinosaurs to sing. That alone takes up most of my day.

But my big four and a half year old seems to have plenty of time to think about America. My big four and a half year old who is not even American by birth is currently being a better patriot than his mommy. And his desire to wave the flag, and draw the flag, and talk about the flag- he didn't get that from me. My travels around the world have made me totally appreciate my life here in this country, that much is true. But I am not over the top patriotic. So a part of me is proud of my little guy. So so proud. And maybe I shouldn't worry about this obsession with the people who "got dead". Maybe next month I'll be looking back at this obsession fondly, as I live through his next one. I have a feeling it is just beginning...

I needed to decompress after a morning at Walmart - and now I'm ready to make my holiday gifts!

I spent the morning at Walmart. And those of you who know me well know how much I dislike Walmart. But the car needed an oil change and my errands list included a birthday present for a baby, so it was just easier to go to the dreaded super giant and knock it all out at once. Besides, who doesn't love killing an hour and  half in a Walmart with a two year old?

Now that two year old is up in his crib, rolling around, making noises like he is going to start calling for me any minute. But I had to take a few minutes and decompress from the morning spent at Walmart. So I sat down at the laptop and planned out the home made gifts I'll be making for Christmas. I planned out the Halloween suckers I'll be making for my big four and a half year old's class party. I even scoped out a cool treat to make for Thanksgiving. I am ready for the season, right down to the card my boys will be making for their day care teachers this Christmas.

Even though I am currently not working outside the home I have this feeling that life is going to be crazier than usual this season. My big four and a half year old has tee ball, china school, and football. I might want him to sing in the church Christmas play. We have our china play group. I have our Families With Children From China  board meetings and my secretarial duties. I am thinking about trying to start a central Ohio chapter of Families for Russian and Ukraine Adoption. Oh, and I might have a job starting soon. So I'm thinking we are about to just explode with busy. Which is why I am planning the same home made gift for many of the people on my holiday gift list. A simple, easy to make, wholesome sugar scrub. The coffee scrub is my favorite - I'll be sure to make a little extra for me. And the memory jar that my oldest son will be making for his grandparents is just too sweet.

So I have made all my plans and I am ready to go. Wanna see more? Click on the red PINTEREST button to the right of this post and check out  my planning boards!

Are you well on your way to your holiday planning?

bring on the busy

Today is day # 4 of  100 Days to Christmas. So far I have added my calendar pages to my 100 Days to Christmas Binder. I had the "wish list" discussion with my family and jotted down what we plan to get the boys. Today's task is to set the budget, which is especially important this year with me not currently working. Since my husband and I have been talking about this already I know this task will not be difficult to complete. The remainder of the tasks for this week include making my gift recipient list and starting to think about gifts for every special person on my list, including any home made gifts I might choose to give. later in the week the tasks turn from thoughts of Christmas back to the current season, when I will be asked to finish decorating my home for Fall. Christmas made easy and relaxing, in just a few minutes a day!

I am also happy to report that we had a very busy weekend- busy for us, at least. Between the board meeting I participate in and the two classes my big four and a half year old takes my entire family spent the entire morning Saturday at China school. We left the house at 8:00am and didn't return until nearly 1:00. We then raced around getting the boys fed and getting ourselves ready for our anniversary date. When the sitter arrived, less than an hour after we got home from China school, we were ready and I was not doing my usual running around like a crazy person getting the house ready so as not to be judged by this person taking care of my children. It was awesome!

Between Friday night's tee ball game and Saturday's activities I still found time to stay on track with my daily cleaning and organizing and so was able to enjoy not just a great night out Saturday but a relaxing Sunday which included a family football game in the backyard, (my team lost. that tiny toddler just won't man up...) I also went to the baseball fields with the boys, something my husband would have done alone in the past because I would have felt like there was too much to do at home to go and run around the bases with my kids. I was able to relax at our dinner out because I wasn't mentally freaking out about all the household stuff waiting for me at home. Oh, and because we tried Alex in a booster seat for the first time and settled him in next to Daddy, who then spent the entire meal pushing him back down into his seat, pulling him off the table, taking silverware away from him.... When my older son was little he wouldn't sit anywhere but right by my side, so I was totally enjoying watching my husband be tortured for a change!

So another great weekend, more amazing memories, brought to you by strong organization. Bring on the busy!