A Pop Tart to toast the last day of school

May 25, 2012May 25, 20121 Comment

Maria could not have expressed more joy about the last day of school. She appropriately christened it this morning with a strawberry pop tart and a bike ride to school. There were no dresses on her last day (she has more of her mom’s style in her than she realizes).

She wore her running shorts and a casual tank top with her hair pulled back in a pony tail (thank you Maggie for brushing through her hair this morn).

And i gave her another treat this morning and biked with her to school. Mario still fits in the “baby” seat on my bike (I told him he will always be my baby and he agrees to let me hold him until he “gets bigger” (whatever age that means!)). Maria thought it was so cool to bike together and said excitedly “when dad gets back, he can use your bike and we can all bike as a family!” She is our pack dog, for sure.

When we arrived at school, she allowed one quick picture by the side of the building. When I asked her for one in front of the doors where her friends congregate, she said “no way!” She saw the look in my eyes that I would get one any way, and bolted for the door. The only voice that stopped her in her tracks was Mario’s yelling “Maria, wait!” When she looked back, he waved goodbye and she sweetly waved back before heading in the door and up the stairs for her last day in first grade.

I knew she wouldn’t ignore her pack mate.

Ten Reasons to be grateful

May 23, 2012May 23, 2012Leave a comment

Top Ten Reasons to be Grateful for Today:

1. Waking up to Maria snoozing away like a baby giraffe laying perpendicular to me in my bed with her head tucked into my legs and her legs sprawled out over the end of the bed.

2. Watching Mario’s “I’m Sexy and I know it” video on my phone – he is banned from hitting the bars until he’s 30.

3.Eating Reese Peanut Butter Puffs and a chocolate easter bunny for breakfast!

4. Watching “mini me” (Maria) bike to school in her running shorts and t-shirt and look both ways before crossing the streets! You go girl!

5. Biking into work in 55 degree weather; I can’t believe it will be 93 degrees this weekend.

6. Drinking an iced decaf americano with milk and cinnamon and seeing a clip of Usher’s “Oh My Go-” video on tv. Love that song.

7. Hearing the joy in my mon’s voice when she called at 1 pm to tell me she got off work early and picked up Lou from doggie daycare.

8. Looking at the colorful array of flowers that I get to pot tonight. Hopefully at least a few live after my touch.

9. Soaking in Jon’s voice and hearing him say “I love you.”

10. Giving a smile to the janitor in my building who responded with a boisterous “It’s a grand beauty of a day, ma’am!” amen, sir.

Is it really only 10:30 am?

May 20, 2012Leave a comment

The kids and I went to Cincinnati last night for a family wedding. Grandma Meg and Peepaw joined us for the festivities along with Meg’s sisters and their kids. Meg’s sister, Mindy and her husband Danny hosted the gala for their daughter Amy. Amy is a down-to-earth, sporty, happy gal who seems utterly smitten with her new husband, Todd. Todd seems like a carbon copy of Amy (minus the “gal” and add “guy!”). They smiled throughout the wedding ceremony and had a blast at the reception (Todd did a dirty dance in front of Amy before taking off the garter and Mario and Maria were completely entranced).

Mario played around with four or five boys who all knew each other from Todd’s side of the family. They did not invite him in but Mr. Mario asked his Aunt Kathy if she would introduce him to the boys, which she did, and it was over from there. He fit right in when he wanted to play with them (the only bit of crying came when he collided with an 80 pound kid and got knocked into the side of the door). Maria was perfectly happy not conversing with any kids, but rather, hanging out with the adults. She sat with Meg’s cousin, Suzanne and her husband. She enjoyed ribbing Suzanne’s husband about anything she could, and sitting close to Suzanne to talk about video games. After Suzanne, she moved onto Kathy’s stepson, Miles and his fiancée, dragging Miles on the dance floor and out to the pond. They were all wonderful with her, and very patient.

After the wedding, we headed to my mom’s house to spend the night. We petted Lou for a while since we had never been with him in his house. He loved the kids. We woke up at the break of dawn (6:45 am) and played with Lou and his tennis ball for an hour before getting ready to hit the road. We had to go to Target first since Mario’s flip flops rubbed his feet wrong. Next came McDonald’s for some quick breakfast. Then, French Park.

My old childhood park that I used to frequent with my best friend, Beth. I love walking through that park. My mom was quite impressed with it, too (as was Lou). The trails are magnificent – patches of shade with huge fairy tale trees covering you, patches of bright sunlight with wildflowers, and patches of dark with troll bridges and ferns everywhere. We walked the creek for a long time, too. It had just enough walks to jump from to not get soaked but high enough standing water for the kids to get good splashes. At the end of the trail, Maria took a good fall trying to climb onto a boulder and got a good chunk of skin off of her elbow and knee. Nonetheless, as I always report, she is a machine and once the initial shock and cry hit, she was a trooper heading back to the car and into Grandma’s bathtub.

On the way home, neither mom nor I was coherent. We were exhausted from what felt like a “long day.” So how was it only 10:30 am? Ridiculous. There should be some rule that when kids get up so early and your day starts while most people are in REM sleep, you get to fast forward the clock 4 hours. When we got home, the kids took and bath and played around. Then we had to head up to Marx Bagels for some bagels and cream cheese (my favorite!).

After bagels, we hung outside with Lou while the kids “spied” on us. Julie got home in the meantime, and the kids begged to stay to see Baby Gracie. She arrived a bit later and walked in the door exclaiming “Mary!” How could I leave before hearing that punker-wunker call my name!? The kids played downstairs while I cleaned and talked to Liz and Julie and helped Julie move coffee tables and tvs all around. We left CIncy around 3:30 and within ten minutes, both Maria and Mario were sawing logs. Out cold. So I debated stopping at Pottery Barn outlet at Washington Courthouse but I could not resist. When I stopped the car, and wiggled their legs to get up, they both bellowed “No!” They cried and hit the seats with their feet. They were pissed (now they get a taste of their medicine when they wake me up everyday at 6:30 am)! We finally made it into Pottery Barn (Mario on my right hip and Maria dragging beside me) only to find no good selection of rugs. Ugh!

So, I treated them to McDonald’s Playland. The Washington CH Playland just got renovated and it is actually quite nice. Mario, again, made friends immediately with two other boys who were brothers. Maria decided to stay by her mom because her side hurt from her fall. After letting Mario play for a half hour we took off for Columbus. Maria begged me from the back seat to let her give Mario the horn I bought him. I bought it for him a week ago and told him if was good all week, he would get it. Maria convinced me he had been good since he did not scream in the middle of the wedding, and he said “thank you” when Grandma Lolo gave him food. Pretty high standards, heh?!

As soon as we stepped in the door, Maria grabbed the horn and gave it to Mario. The whole neighborhood knew about the present because he honked it incessantly for ten minutes straight. We hooked it on his bike (with training wheels) and took a two-mile bike ride to our old house and back. When we got home, the kids rested to a tv show while I mowed the grass (which looked like the grasslands). When I finished the lawn, Maria and I played baseball. Mario watched his last Ben Ten. We wrapped the night up with mac-n-cheese and chicken and two books about telling the truth and a pig going to camp. Does it get any better than that?

When I headed outside to take out the lawn clippings, my neighbor commented about how she couldn’t believe that I could mow the grass and water the lawn in such a speedy time. I told her about our entire day and she laughed hysterically. “Do you ever stop,” I believe she asked, but I was already at the top of the driveway grabbing the last lawn bag to put out front.

Taking it easy?

May 19, 2012Leave a comment

My girlfriend texted me in a frantic state this morning asking if I could pick her son up from after-school care. I had planned on working until 5:00, Jon was going to pick up Maria, and it just would not work well with our schedules. I called her to tell her the situation, and we hung up. Then I went to work and had to deal with a bunch of idiotic matters. I felt drained by 11 am. So, at 11:15, I texted my girlfriend and told her that I would get her son, Zach at after-school care. She thanked me with a text containing a bunch of exclamation points. I figured with my frazzled state I needed to take it easy, and take a couple of hours away from work (I knew I’d be answering emails after the kids went to bed anyway).

At 11:45, I visited Maria during her lunch time and watched her destroy her her sandwich. She got a grilled cheese (that was actually on wheat bread) and she tried to rip off the bread in order to smother ketchup all over it. The first ketchup packet squirted all over her shorts. The second, all over her plate. She resorted to dipping her sandwich into the ketchup pond but decided that the wheat bread was too “yucky” to eat (she has her dad’s taste for white bread). I was surprised to see her eat her tomato soup, but after a few bites, she gave it up, too. Luckily, I had brought some mini oreo’s for a treat for her and her friends. I had brought nutter butters last time and got lambasted because they contained peanuts and Maira sits at the peanut-free table because her friend, Janira is allergic.

I finished my afternoon meetings early, and got Maria. She could not wait to pick up Zach. After we picked up Zach, we went to Mario’s school. Mario loved seeing Zach, and began wrestling him as soon as he met eyes with him. We decided to head to the river down from Mario’s school. There is an area off the bike path that has a ton of shells and rocks for the kids to gather and throw. It was a total hit for Mario and Zach. Maria was interested for a bit but was too worried about trying to get Zach’s attention. She kept pleading for Zach to “come over to her because she has a secret for him” but he was too busy running in the river (yeah, his mom is going to love me). Maria finally realized how to get his attention – lift up a huge rock to elicit a world of shells and cool rocks. They picked through them together for a while, and Maria was in bliss. Mario, meanwhile, found a rock in the water and acted like he was “surfing.” After an hour, we took off to the car and headed to Wendy’s for come chicken nuggets (yeah, I know you health nuts out there are cringing right now) and home for a picnic on the deck.

Following the picnic, we rode our bikes to Zach’s to drop him off wet, yet safe, to his mama. Upon our return to our house, we took the fastest showers ever (“just worry about the main body parts – privates, underarms, feet and face!”). We all got in our nighties and slipped onto the couch for two goodnight stories.

TGIF

May 11, 2012May 11, 2012Leave a comment

Ten Reasons to be Grateful For Today…

1. Gorgeous powder blue sky with cotton ball clouds and 70 degree temperature = perfect biking to work weather.

2. Lunch with Mom at Mario’s school – free Panera with a big chocolate chip cookie! Running around the playground with Mario, spinning in plastic seats and playing tag in the muscle room. Mario made me a gorgeous beaded necklace so “I can remember him every time I wear it.”

3. Playing soccer with Maggie and Mario in the back yard (except when Maggie stole the ball from me and scored)!

4. Figuring out which drapes to get for the living room window and hall window. So exciting to branch out and take a walk on the wild side! I am not matching the color of the drapes with the furniture – crazy!

5. Seeing Jon on a scooter that his friend wants him to buy. He looked like a ten-year old who just got the present he begged his parents for all year.

6. Taking Maria to school and listening to Jack’s CD in the car. Maria asked if Jack wrote one of the songs after he broke up with Chelsea. I told her I was not sure and that we should ask him since we have the good fortune of being related to the singer of the band! She stopped me in my tracks and told me that we should not ask Jack such a question because it may make him sad and she doesn’t want to see her uncle sad. Also, loved seeing her in the cowboy boots that Grandma Meg got her for her b-day!

7. Going for a bike ride with Mario; he still fits in the baby seat on my bike! We biked all over Grandview; hit the park for some slide tag and Giant Eagle for a flower to plant outside.

8. Watching a yellow finch land on the branch of a japanese maple tree.

9. Talking to my mom about her new pup, Lou, and how everyone at the doggie day care thinks he is the best dog ever (so funny to see her as such a proud doggy mama!).

10. Eating Orange Leaf’s brownie batter and birthday cake yogurt with oreo and graham cracker topping. Mario got his pineapple, as always. And sitting outside together talking about desert animals.

Conquering the bike

April 30, 2012April 30, 2012Leave a comment

Maria has conquered the art of biking!

She is now able to mount the bike by herself and get off the bike by herself. She must have grown a half-inch over the last two months because that was the crux of the problem earlier. She couldn’t quite get her foot down to the ground when she stopped the bike without falling over in a heap. But now when she stops, she is able to get the very top of her foot onto the ground like a ballet dancer’s en pointe and that little move stops her from falling to one side. And she has mastered the balance of putting one foot on a pedal while jumping on her seat and getting the other foot on the other pedal. It is the coolest sight ever!

The babes riding away!

I am so proud of that girl. And she loves to bike up the street alone with me far behind her. She does a great job looking down both sides of the street when she crosses at intersections and she doesn’t have to deal with any crosswalks with lights for a mile (and by that time I have caught up with her – albeit gasping for air).

Mario wants so badly to catch up with her. We took his training wheels off yesterday with the hopes that he would just pick up the art of two-wheeled biking. Wishful thinking. It is so funny how siblings have incredibly different strengths and weaknesses. Maria is so good at biking and rock climbing. Mario, not so much. Mario is so good at baseball and basketball. Maria, not so much. He fretted the entire time we rode and made me bend down to hold the front and back of the bike. My back screamed in pain when we got home (he did massage it for me though!). He wasn’t too proud to ask to put his training wheels back on, thank goodness. I was worried he would not ask because he would think it was a “defeat.”

Maria, forever the cheerleader, immediately zoned in on the potential break-down Mario could have exhibited over the bike. She wrapped her arm around Mario’s neck, and said “Ahh, buddy, you will get the hang of it. You can do anything!” Mario responded “I just want to win!” Maria looked up at me, shook her head and whispered “Oh, Mario, Bo Bario.”

Congratulations all around

April 23, 20122 Comments

Maria finally got on her bike by herself tonight! Yes, sounds strange but that’s life for ya. She is right in between bike sizes and we went with the bigger size for her. Therefore, she has trouble getting on the bike by herself and stopping the bike herself. When she stops, she used to have to fall into the grass or onto the sidewalk because she could not reach her feet to the ground. She has recently gotten tall enough to lean to the side and place her foot to the ground. It is much easier to the eye to see her do that versus falling to the ground with her bike on top of her. Two nights ago, she stood by her bike on the driveway, raised one leg over, and jumped on her bike as it rolled down the hill – she got on the bike all by herself! I was so pumped up! Maria was even more excited asking me to watch her over and over until I yelled “My baby is getting on a bike by herself!” at which time she promptly told me to hush because I was embarrassing her.

Mario, not to be one-upped by his sister, got out the scooter and tried to ride around on it to impress me. After I congratulated Maria again for working hard on her bike, Mario looked up at me with sad little eyes and said “Mom, why aren’t you being nice to me?” I tried to explain to him that Maria was accomplishing something at the moment and he would have a time when he was accomplishing something big, and I would congratulate him. It fell on deaf ears. He held his hands up to cover his ears and ran away. When I went inside to talk to him, he ran to his bedroom. He only came out after I tempted him with baseball.

I pitched the ball to him and he whacked the ball all over the yard. I kept congratulating him for his stellar performance. After a few more hits, he looked at me and said “Maybe we should let Maria try to hit.”

Maria swung and missed. Again. Mario looked at her and said “Too bad, Maria. When you get better, you will get congratulations.”

That little sh–. He was setting it all up and I did not even see it coming. He has always got to one-up. Maria is luckily unfazed by his behavior, but I am going to break him of this nasty little habit eventually (although I am sure there will have to be some congratulations involved).

Let the Bikes Roll Out

March 13, 2012Leave a comment

Let the bikes roll out.

Let the shorts be worn.

Let the convertibles lose their tops.

It hit 70 degrees today, and life is good.

I could not wait to get off of work and pick up the kids. I retrieved Mario first since he begged me to do so this morning and he is on the way to Maria’s school. He has been discussing Superheros all week, and when I picked him up he had a red cardboard cylinder around his bicep. I asked him what he was wearing.

“It is my superhero power shield. We all got to pick a superhero name and I picked GoldStar. I have lightning that shoots out of my mouth and lasers that shoot out of my eyes.”

Awesome, dude. He says goodbye to his friends and we head to the car. On the way to Maria’s school, we talk about superheros. He loves to talk about Wonder Woman since I loved her so much as a kid. When we get to Maria’s school, he leads me to her classroom. The room is quiet with kids studying until Mario barges in and yells “Ria, mom picked me up first!” He always has to get one up on her and I am surprised she doesn’t just belt him some days. This morning she wanted me to take her to school so badly but Jon had to take her to get to work on time. She cried for me (she was having a “I need mommy” morning) as she walked downstairs. Mario stood at the top of the stairs and yelled to Maria “Mom is taking me to school – not you, Ria.” If she would have thrown her shoe at him, I could not have said much to her. He is a complete stinker.

We left Maria’s school with Maria on my iPad and Mario on my iPhone. We got home and I let them sit on the front steps playing with the electronics while I put things away. It is so refreshing to open the windows and feel the breeze run through the rooms. Fresh air, finally! We got the bikes out to time Mario’s dash up the street and back and to try to help Maria learn how to mount her bike without falling. We cooked sausages. Jon came home and Mario darted down the sidewalk to greet him.

We stood outside and watched the kids play. We admired our work from Sunday – the garden looks half way ready to go and the windows look good with their screens. Walking in the house and smelling the fresh outdoor air is a godsend. And hearing the kids playing outside on the back deck brings gratitude for the upcoming Spring.

Partyin’ til the Cows Come Home

February 18, 2012Leave a comment

Party Girl

Maria slept over at her friend’s house last night. Her friend turned seven and had Maria and two other girls over for a birthday party/sleepover. She wrapped her friend’s presents (two barbies) in Christmas paper (I never buy wrapping paper besides Christmas time); signed her card, and found a big party bag to place all of the goodies. These are the times that I think she could make it by herself in her own apartment better than most 20 year olds. When I told her she could call me or dad if she got scared, she looked at me with an exhausted look. “Mom, pleease!” And sure enough, Jon and I never heard a peep from her until we picked her up. She had gotten a manicure, perfume, and made up with her girlfriends.

Meanwhile, Jon and I had chilled with little Mario all night. He wanted to play on my iPhone or ipad all night long. He is completely and totally addicted to all things electronic. He could sit on the floor, legs crossed, head cocked downward to see the screen, and tap on the iPad all day long. He is mesmerized by whatever he is playing. You could call his name ten times and he still doesn’t hear you. Scary stuff. Was I like that when I played PacMan on Atari? He gets away with murder when Maria is gone because Jon and I let him stay up while we watch a show or read. He plays the iPad the entire time. I figure he is in school all week with no electronics so why not let him live it up on the weekends.

Mario and his iPad

In any case, after we make him turn off the electronics, I read to him for at least 20 minutes. He enjoys that time with me, which is good. At least he is not crying for more electronics or covering his ears yelling “I’m not listening!”, which is how he reacts anymore when he gets mad at you (learned behavior from his sister, I believe). And he understands the books we read – he can tell me the main idea of the story every time. So, his fixation with electronics doesn’t concern me… yet.

We picked up Maria from her friend’s house this afternoon and visited our old neighbors, Doris and Kim. We had not visited them since we moved in our new house (we are so bad that way). They always welcome us into their house, and the kids love them. They hung out with Kim outside while we talked to Doris. Kim does anything they want; today she let Maria act like she was driving her car and let Mario toss a ball to Gunther (their dachshund).

As soon as we left and walked in our door, Maria asked “when am I going to Alana’s house” My brother-in-law invited her to spend the night tonight through Monday since they are going to watch Maria on Monday while Jon and I work. Jon and I are chopped liver anymore. The girl likes to get her party on. We packed her up and Jon took her over. She’s gone until Monday.

Mario, meanwhile, loves having his sister gone for a day or two (any longer and he misses her like crazy). He gets Jon and me all to himself. I play baseball with him (he has got an arm on him and can hit pretty good, too). I take him for a bike ride and he is in the lead the entire time (when Maria goes with us, she always gets in the lead). We go to the library and he gets all my attention while he plays his computer games (usually I read to Maria while he plays). We play Wii table tennis and he kicks my butt! We play Hi Ho Cherry-O, and he refuses to stop playing until he wins a game. No, he’s not competitive at all….

Jon and Mario play hunting games on the iPad. Mario yells “Dad, I shot the bear right in the heart!” Jon gives him the rock and then takes a turn. Mario watches in awe. They are hilarious together. I think Mario will be supplying the meat for the family in no time. Meanwhile, Maria will be busy having sleepovers and partying it up til the cows come home.

Dogs and Hamsters and a Super Bowl, Oh My

February 6, 2012Leave a comment

This past weekend was one of those weekends where you wake up Monday morning feeling you totally took advantage of the weekend’s purpose – to relax, be silly, watch football, and eat chips while vegging in your pjs.

On Friday, Jon and I took Mario to the hockey game. Maria had to make the executive decision on whether to go to Kids Night Out at school or to the game with us. It was a brutal decision because she had her girlfriend asking if she was coming to Kids Night Out but she had her dad going to the hockey game. She LOVES hanging with her dad lately, especially when it’s dad and mom and Mario (she is the pack dog). But, ultimately a brief description of the hockey game (watching boys skate on ice and try to hit a puck in a goal) led her to choose Kids Night Out with popcorn, grape juice, friends and a movie. The pack dog strays when there is food and entertainment….

Mario loved the hockey game. He ate his favorite food – a hot dog – and watched the players skate along the ice and hit each other up against the wall. Jon and I thought he might enjoy that activity more than he did since he is all into fighting. Rather, he enjoyed hanging on the railing and talking to the older boys behind us in the box. He also enjoyed the cheerleaders…. We left the game during the third quarter and picked up Maria. It seems that every time I see her at school, she is even older and more independent. She reminds me of me when I was in fourth and fifth grade (probably like when I was in first grade, too, but I can’t remember that time at all!) hanging out with my girl posse. When I picked her up, she was laughing with her three girlfriends and they were falling all over each other. Too cute.

On Saturday, we headed to Hamilton Parker to find tile for our bathroom. The kids ran around checking out the showroom showers and the kids’ room while Jon and I talked to the sales guy. Maria explained where everything was in the showroom since she had come to the store with me back in September. “Buddy, the kids’ room is over here and it has a tv.” Mario’s response: “Will the tv have Godzilla?” Maria’s reply: “We’ll see buddy and if it doesn’t, we”ll find something else for you.” The way she calls him “buddy” makes our hearts melt. After Hamilton Parker, we headed to BW-3’s for some wings and nachos. Nothin’ like a healthy lunch. We waddled out to the front of the restaurant and the kids begged to play a game. They put a dollar in a chicken and egg machine and each of them got a plastic egg. Maria scored a tattoo and Mario scored a little orange plastic cone that had the words “Back away slowly.” I read it to Mario and he laughed “I know, mom and dad, I am going to put this in my room and when you walk in, you will have to walk back slowly.”

We headed to the pet store in the late afternoon to torture ourselves by holding sweet little precious pups that needed a home. Maria always picks the most docile puppies that love to be held. She sits in the little room with them caressing and talking to them. Mario hangs out at the hamster bin trying to put the hamsters on the exercise wheel or in the tire. They run from him like he is death. Mario does not have quite the touch with the pups like Maria does. He likes to put them on the ground and watch them run around and play. If they don’t move much, he picks another. I can usually handle about 45 minutes in that store because it is such a madhouse of people but I made it an hour on Saturday. When we left, Maria begged to go on Sunday.

On Sunday, I skipped yoga because Maria and Mario begged me to stay home. We ate cereal and read books. Maria and I went on a stroller ride to the store to get pencils for her class project – a timeline of her life – all 6 years. We headed out to Dirty Franks for lunch (yeah, two for two on the healthy lunch front for the weekend!). When we returned, the kids and I took a bike ride to the library to grab some movies and new books. Maria and I watched Mario ahead of us – his little legs pushing the clunky wheels of his tricycle. He wants so badly to lead the group but usually Maria cannot help but bolt ahead because she is on a two-wheeler bike and can’t easily slow down without falling off. But I held onto her on this bike ride so Mario could take the lead and he was one proud puppy. When an older lady passed him, he stopped and said hello to her. When we stopped at the library, he said “Mom, an old lady said hi to me and I said hi to her back. I stopped my bike and everything. Are you proud of me?”

We headed to Kroger’s before the Super Bowl and Maria and I stocked up on chips and dip. Maria was grabbing all sorts of dips and chips for our party arguing that “it is the Super Bowl – we had to have a real party!” When we got home, we turned on the Super Bowl and watched all of the commercials. We all sat on the couch together – Mario on Jon’s arm playing Leapster, Maria in between Jon and me. She loved it. She kept saying “I love cuddling with my mom and dad and brother.” We have got to start up family movie nights. Maria fell asleep with 30 seconds left of the Super Bowl. Mario remained wide awake playing his Leapster Ben Ten game. I dragged him upstairs with me to hit the sack, and we were both out cold in three minutes flat.

"MOM!"

Adventures in the Life of a Working Mama

Category: Biking