Best day of my life

November 2, 2012November 2, 2012Leave a comment

Mario could not sit still all morning. It was his big day to go hunting with Jon. I can’t believe I missed taking a picture of him in his camo shirt and pants. He searched the closets for his camo hat, too.

Jon and he made it to the woods around 1:30 in the afternoon. Jon informs me that Mario was beside himself with joy. He turned to Jon after sitting with him in pure silence for 20 minutes and whispered “this is the best day of my life.” Wrap it up with a bow – it doesn’t get much sweeter than that folks.

Meanwhile, I had the pleasure of picking up Ri and her two girlfriends and taking them to Bob Evans for dinner. I picked Ri up from Kids Club and her friend, Ceylone begged to go with us, which led Ri to beg to let her come with us, which led her friend Janira to beg to come, which led all three of them to beg to come with us. Ceylone’s mom and Janira’s mom thought I was nuts but I actually enjoy these types of outings.

I sometimes dream about what the outings will entail: we’ll talk about their day at school, they will ask me pressing questions they have as young girls, I will answer with rapturous stories making them squirm in their seat anxious for my next word.

Reality: They play on my iPhone until their food comes. They scarf it down. They run-off.

I gladly delivered them to the school at 6:00 pm for three hours of Math Club -Kids Night Out. Gotta love those teachers working all day and then hosting this event. They jumped out of the car and ran to the side door. I told them it was locked but they didn’t believe me. When they tried to open it, they all turned to each other and yelled “we got schooled!” Heaven help me.

They let me snap a quick picture before they headed in and I lost them in the crowd of excited second graders running into one another to get to the gymnasium. I had just settled at Stauf’s a half hour later when I got a text from Ri’s teacher telling me Ri felt sick. So much for my three hour block of alone time.

But at least I know I will get some cuddle time with my girl tonight.

Tailypo

October 31, 20121 Comment

Halloween week has brought 25 degree days and snow even!

Our poor little frozen pumpkins.

The kids have not been as excited about Halloween this year as in past years. We went to Target a few weeks ago to find costumes – Maria picked up some sleazy adult ones and when I nixed them, she went for the cowgirl costume. Mario debated between a few – I pushed for the Hulk – but ended up with a Redaki costume (only because it had a sweet mask). And after that trip to Target, there has not been much ado about Halloween. In years past, they would have been begging to change their costume after seeing a cooler one on tv or they would have been asking how many days until Halloween. Do they already feel too old to celebrate?!

Ri probably does based on her comment this morning to me. I bought her a turtleneck with gold stars on it to match her cowgirl outfit and she refused to wear it swearing that she “looks like a sissy baby in it.” Attire choices in the teenage years are gonna be horrid.

Mario is just way too focused on hunting with his dad this weekend to care about Halloween. Either that or his teacher, Mr. Park, has scared the zest for Halloween out of him by reading him the book, Tailypo. This past weekend, Jon was upstairs and Mario was downstairs. Jon heard a wail and shouted down to Mario. Mario continued to wail at the top of his lungs and had giant tears falling down his face when he ran up to Jon.
“I saw a monster downstairs. We read a story about a monster whose tail gets cut off and a man eats it and the monster kills the man to get it back. I’m scared of that monster.”

He slept with his arm on Jon’s body all night. Each night since, he has begged for me to go upstairs with him to get dressed because he’s so scared of the dark. He has slept in our bed way too many nights due to Tailypo. Thanks, Mr. Park.

The kids got a bit more into the spirit of Halloween on Monday night when we went to Ri’s school for pumpkin carving. I sported a huge cutting knife in my satchel, which felt very awkward carrying into a school. I bought two huge pumpkins to carve since the kids were not impressed with the baby ones I brought home last week. Maria went to town on her pumpkin but Mario ran around like a mad man playing with our next door neighbors’ kid, Paxton. He finally sat himself down to carve when Paxton tired out.

As we were carving, they drew a kid’s name every half hour. The winner got a small prize. Paxton won the first time. Mario and I were almost finished carving his pumpkin when they drew names again. They drew Mario’s name! He was charged up and came running back to me saying “I won!” A few minutes later, I deciphered what he meant by “I won” when he said “I won first place because my pumpkin is cool.” I explained to him that names were drawn and that’s how he and Paxton won a prize but he wanted nothing of that explanation. Now I know how scientists feel when they are talking cold hard facts about climate change and people dismiss them as not true. Mario refused to believe that he won for any other reason than he was the best. Imagine that.

So here we are on Halloween day. Hurricane Sandy blew in on Monday night and her remnants are still felt in Ohio (our love and support for the East Coast residents). It’s cold and rainy and grey. It’s supposed to rain during trick-or-treat tonight. But I think the kids will be ok with it based on their chill attitudes so far. I, on the other hand, am supremely upset because I look forward to mounds of candy to pick from all week long. Looks like I will have to hit the stores tomorrow for the 50% off sales.

It’s a boy party!

October 26, 2012October 26, 2012Leave a comment

Mario got his first invitation to a boy friend’s birthday party this week. He got invitations when he was 2 and 3 years old but he is at an age now where he actually opens the invitation and mulls over whether to go or not. He’s gotten a few invitations from girls and declined but he jumped on this one from the neighborhood boy, Quinn.

He held the invitation behind his back and asked me “Mom, do you think I will ever get invited to a boy’s birthday party?” I knew what he was doing – he wanted me to say no so that he could surprise me and say that he finally got one. I obliged him with a “no” and he sprung the invite in my face and shouted “I got invited to Quinn’s and it’s at Galaxy Games and Golf! I can’t wait for a boy party!”

And boy he lapped that party up on Wednesday night. He was upset at first because he found out Maria was coming. “It’s a boy party, mom!” Then I explained how many parties of Maria’s that he came to and he surprisingly let it go without a fight. It didn’t matter that Maria was there anyway because he was off and running with the boys as soon as we stepped foot in the door. Luckily, Maria had a girlfriend at the party since her little brother was there, too (even though Ri could have showed those boys a few things!).

Mario loves loves loves playing with the boys. He loved football because he got to hang with the boys and wrestle and tackle and run. He loved Galaxy Games and Golf for the same reason – all of the boys ran and jumped and tackled each other. Like small jungle creatures. They’d stop for a quick drink and go back at it full speed.

Mario can go all day with just water. When they all gathered in the party room, Mario barely ate pizza and kept asking when they could go back on the playground. I forced him to eat a piece if he wanted cake and he grudgingly agreed. I can still use the “your muscles only get bigger if you eat” line on him to get him to eat because he is still into those muscles of his.

After pizza, they got to take their tokens and play games. Ri and Mario love to play games. Mario loves skeeball. Ri tries everything. Mario holds his tickets close to his side and won’t let me touch them. Ri gladly hands them to me to hold. Every time Mario won tickets, he’d run to me to show me and then run away scolding me not to follow him (can we say independent stage?!).

After 45 minutes of running around to fifteen different games in a space the size of your kitchen, we cashed in our tickets. Mario had 98. You gotta be kidding, I thought. Luckily for Galaxy Games’s sake, they round up so Mario got credit for 100. Ri got 150 due to my superb coin placing skills which I used to place a token into a 100 ticket slot. Of course, my magnanimous girl looked for things she could buy Mario with her 150 tickets but he was only interested in a plastic hammer for 100 tickets.

He proceeded to use it to bonk all of his boy friends. And they did it back to him. Ahh, sweet boys.

Maria got gel. Not sure it’s purpose but I don’t think it was for cooling seven-year old eyes.

When I first got the invite, I complained to friends about the party being at 5:30 to 7:30 on a weeknight. But by the end of the party, I realized what a good idea it was to have it at that time: 1. You don’t ruin weekend plans; 2. You don’t have to cook dinner; and 3. You have exhausted kids by 8 pm! Of course my two are insane night owls but at least the party got them to a point where they wanted to read a book and not jump on the bed all night.

Pumpkins and pizza

October 16, 2012October 16, 2012Leave a comment

The Irons pumpkin patch cured the girlfriend blues. I hadn’t seen my Cincy gals for months due to summer camps, sports events, work functions, vacations, and moves. You name it and one of us was doing it. However, I find that if I don’t get my time with my life-long girlfriends, I start to funk out and get the girlfriend blues. I got my girlfriends in Columbus who I love but these Cincy gals are my life blood. They’ve been with me my entire life through the acne, the break-ups, the homecoming dances, the principal office, the family dramas. They know me – the real me. And damn if they don’t make me laugh and let go of worry every time I see them.

I missed Kathy in the mix – my soul sister moved to Michigan a couple of months ago and just had a baby so she couldn’t make it to our pumpkin patch outing Sunday. She’s the one I count on to talk about what the hell we’re doing in our lives – where we want to be in two years – why we’re not pursuing what we want – how we are gonna make a change! She’s also my fellow lawyer….

Even though we don’t get together every month, I love how our kids always warm up to one another after the initial thirty minute awkward mulling around. Jill’s girls are so polite and sweet, like Jill. Ericka’s daughter is confident and laid-back like Ericka. Lisa’s kids are sassy but loving like Lisa. And mine, well they are crazy and loud, like….

Maria and Mario had to feed the llamas like they do every year (Mario isn’t scared of them even though he was bit two years ago by one and swore he’d never feed one again – distant memory now, thank goodness).

We all laid our respective kids in the grass with the leaves surrounding them with the hopes of a Christmas card-ready picture. The other kids gave some sweet, angelic poses but this is as good as I got.

Goofballs.

We chowed down at LaRosas after the pumpkin patch. Ri got the spaghetti and meatballs she has loved since shortly after birth and Mario and I got pizza. I wish we could get a LaRosas in Columbus but our waistlines would surely expand. Mario and Josh did their boy thing and wrestled during lunch. They created a little bond by way of throwing each other to the floor. The girls drew and gave their condolences to Ri and Emma for having to deal with those crazy boys. Us ladies chatted about work, motherhood, periods, and other random topics that get interjected in the hour that we have together without kids at our beckon call.

After LaRosas, we doled out our hugs and kisses and headed to the outlet mall for some new gym shoes (my most favorite indulgence!). We met my mom at the mall and found some sweet shoes after testing them out throughout the store.

Mario thinks my mom buys everything when we go to the outlet mall so when we got home he pronounced to Jon “Look at the sweet shoes Grandma Lolo bought me!” We also hit Old Navy for some pants for the kids (Mario wears serious high waters and Maria’s all have holes in the butt). They each scored a bouncey ball from the 25 cent vending machine (I am a sucker for bouncey balls) and some new threads. Good life.

Mom and I got some fries while the kids played at McDonald’s play land and talked about the latest happenings in the family, and Lou, of course. She spoils that dog of hers taking him on 6 walks a day sometimes! Good life!

We gave our hugs and kisses to Grandma and made our way back to Columbus to see Jon who was driving back from his cousin’s house without any deer that he had hoped to shoot over the weekend. Oh well, looks like Chipotle for dinner this week.

Cheers for guests

October 15, 2012October 15, 2012Leave a comment

Maria cheered her final cheer of the season this past Saturday. She woke up complaining of a belly ache but cranked out the entire game nonetheless (later in that day she boasted that “[her friend’s name] would have cried and not cheered but not me – I am strong and don’t give up!).

Meg and dad came to watch her cheer and were quite amused at how distracted she was while cheering. She’d begin a cheer with gusto and then someone would pass by and she’d stare at him or her. She’d make some random sways while staring but her mouth produced no cheers and no hand movements occurred. She’s got her daddy’s innate desire to be aware of everything around her at all times. Meg and dad also got a kick out of her “boom” cheer where she swings her hips to the side… she performs it a little too well.

After cheering, dad headed back to the farm and Meg enjoyed some b-ball with Mario. Ri and I found the frisbee and pretty soon Mario joined while Meg checked out the flowers on the patio. I love playing frisbee with the kids. It’s the one activity we are all good at playing. Ri’s got a heck of an arm and Mario catches zingers. They were cracking Meg up with their sidebars (Ri’s commands and instructions to me and Mario’s dance moves after each catch).

We hung out waiting for Meg’s friend, Suze and her kids to arrive. Suze came to town and painted a rooster on the side of Meg’s and dad’s barn and she and her kids were flying out of Columbus back to Arizona on Sunday. Her rooster is absolutely Incredible. What a talent!

You would have thought we fed Mario speed when Suze and her kids walked in the door. He zoomed around the house squealing and finding random objects to show Suze’s son, Ian. He blasted “Sexy and I know it” on the CD and danced around the family room. He tackled Ian. Pure Madness. Meanwhile, Ri gawked at Suze’s daughter, Sedona, hanging on her every word, and tried to show off to her by being quite sassy with me (“get me a drink, mom…now…”). I had to pull her and Mario aside and give them a little talk in order to avoid going off on them in front of our guests. They calmed down after the talk to the point of being half way normal. Ri loved hearing about Ian’s and Sedona’s school stories and Mario loved having an audience to watch him play iPhone games. Ri lasted until 11 pm and Mario until 11:30. Party animals they are.

Sunday morning was idyllic. We woke up to 65 degree weather after a cold week. Mario and I ran five miles in the stroller and met Meg, Suze, Sedona and Maria at Stauf’s. I loved starting my day with a run, sipping coffee, chatting with funny gals, and people watching.

We ran home and rushed around to get ready for a trip to Cincy. Mario cranked out some push-ups for Sedona before we left and Maria chided Ian about sleeping on her pillows. Whoo, those two may think twice about a return trip! Meg and I were getting snacks ready in the kitchen. She turned to me as I loaded up the pretzels and remarked “You are such a good mom.” It came out of the blue and took me aback. Funny how six words can cause such emotion. It meant a lot to me coming from a fellow mom, and the woman who helped raise me and whose opinion I hold dear.

We gave our hugs to the crew and headed to southern Ohio for some pumpkin patch fun with my best girlfriends (minus my girl Kath who had to head back to Michigan with her newborn baby, Rose) and my mama. When we returned, I had a most delicious treat from Suze – brownies from the Bon Bonerie in Cincy. One for me, Mario and Ri. Heaven.

Football Star

October 8, 2012October 8, 2012Leave a comment

Mario morphed into a football star over the last eight weeks. The boy who once moaned and groaned about having to go to practice now hates leaving when practice is over. The boy who made all of the parents chuckle in one of the first games because he walked over to the sidelines and cried “when will this be over?” now refuses to come out of the game.
A testament to Jon and me for making him stick with it.

He played his last game Saturday morning in the bitter cold wearing his skull cap and batting gloves to keep warm. He looked bad to the bone.

He played most of the first half. When the coach told him to rest on the sidelines so another kid could play, Mario would not budge from the field. It was only after all three coaches and Jon yelled at him that he obeyed.

He loves the camraderie with the other boys – always wrestling or yakking it up or playing with them. It’s been good getting him on this team in order to learn teamwork and cooperation, and to make friends. When we take Ri to school, the boys on his team yell “hi Mario” and he loves it. Jon and I agree that he is going to be a handful once he enters kindergarten.

At the end of their last practice, all of the older kids lined up and the little kids got to run by them and tackle a dummy. They loved it, especially Mario. He cremated that dummy and made us so proud! Ha!

After he hit the dummy, he stood right behind it while the next little boy ran towards it. The dummy fell into Mario and hit his eye. My mom instinct rushed me over to him to see if he was ok. He turned to me and yelled “Mom, go away!” Yep, he’s a man now that he’s finished his first season of football and he doesn’t need his mom (that is until it’s 8 pm and he wants me to hold him up the stairs and read a book).

Homecoming

October 6, 2012Leave a comment

Maria complained last night when I picked her up from school. She did not want to leave. The reason: she did not want to march in the homecoming parade.
“Mom, I don’t want to walk all that way!” (The parade is about a half mile long).
She then took it a step further.
“I hate cheer leading. Just hate it. I just do it for you and dad.”
Lovely.
Little did she know that I was not backing down on this one; she had to finish out the season and then we’d stop next year if she wanted. But i was a taken aback because she seemed to be enjoying it the last few weeks.
Jon asked what was the matter when she stormed in the house and stomped up the stairs. I told him. He walked up and got her laughing (he can get her laughing anytime). A few minutes later, he asked her if she really hated cheer leading. She said “no.”
I looked at her quizzically and asked why she kept telling me she hated it but told dad she liked it.
“Dad understands me, mom. That’s all.”
Oh, ok.
We laughed together on our walk to the middle school – she was in much better spirits explaining that sometimes it’s hard being a cheer leader because her team loses a lot and she wants to win. A little competitive spirit coming out in her….
We got to the school and she played with her friends while the band got in order. She wanted nothing to do with me as can be seen by this picture…

Classic “Maria to mom” look.
But then one of her friends udged her and told her to smile and I got this picture of the Maria I know and love…

Much better.
Meanwhile, Mario stood across from the high school cheerleaders and showed off his moves. They giggled and stared at him saying “he’s so cute!” He acted like he didn’t hear them but as soon as they stopped he danced harder and revved up his show so that they’d pay attention to him again.

It worked.
Luckily, Maria did not witness this behavior. She would have been totally embarrassed and certainly would have tried to put a stop to it.
In the end, it all worked out. Maria walked in the parade and had fun. Mario got attention from the high school cheer leaders and ate it up.
A win for everyone.

Brownie Gal

September 24, 2012September 24, 2012Leave a comment

Ri wore her brownie sash for the first time this year complete with the badges that I diligently ironed on last night. Ri worried that I had no clue how to iron the badges on because she knows her mother’s lack of home ec skills. When I brought the iron downstairs she looked at me with concerned eyes and pulled on grandma. “Grandma’s right here if you need help” she said coyly. But I cranked it out without any botch ups.

“See, I did it, Ri!” I beamed with pride.

“Thanks mama.” I could sense that Ri wondered why I was do excited over completing an ironing project. But Jon understood what an accomplishment it was for his wife (who has yet to learn to sew a button onto her pants).

I placed the sash over her head this am, and she stood tall as I snapped her picture. I never joined Girl Scouts as a kid and I don’t remember any of my girlfriends joining either. But Ri seems to enjoy it and it gets her around other girls so I promote it as much as possible.

Besides, anything that can teach me a home ec skill gets a win in my book and Ri’s!

Chuck E. Cheese – Vegas for kids?!

September 15, 20122 Comments

I keep thinking back to this week to figure out what I did to deserve the hell I am in this afternoon.

Two full hours at Chuck E. Cheese. With what seems like multiplying kids. And even more multiplying screaming, irritated adults. And they advertise this place as fun?! I guess it is to the kids who they advertise to but they really need a warning to parents that you need to take a relaxant before stepping foot inside or you may think about walking right out to the interstate.

My only memory of Chuck E. Cheese was as a seventh grader in Pleasant Ridge. We had a Chuck E. Cheese down the street and it hosted “Tween” night on Friday nights. My girlfriends and I would put on our sweet jeans with safety pins up the side hems (to make them tight) and our fancy shirts and head out to dance to the pop music blaring from the mices’ mouths. Creepy? Sure. But we knew nothing better.

Now I only know Chuck E. Cheese as an over-the-top, loud, raucous, mind-numbing, dizzying land where even some adults floor me with their intensity for playing more, More, MORE!

Maria is loving just being with her girlfriends. She has a group of gals she loves to play with at school and they are all here today to celebrate a birthday. They are playing Guitar Hero and random sweet, calm games (bowling and froggy jump).

Mario, on the other hand, is utterly overloaded. Too many games and videos, and stuff. He doesn’t know which way to go next. He loves the shooting games, especially zombie ones (he must know they are coming soon!). He adores skee ball just like I did as a kid. And he has taken to a pirate game. What am I saying? He’d pretty much play anything here and like it. And he is of course all into getting the most tickets.

After I settled into the noise and chaos and had a couple of slices of pizza, I found myself getting a tad more tolerant of it all. I put myself into the kids’ shoes and imagined the wonder and excitement they would obviously feel walking into this place. It’s like Vegas for kids. But the tolerance quickly faded after a 200 pound kid crushed into me as he chased after his friend to beat him to a video game.

Which way to the interstate?!

Three Days of Ox

September 10, 2012September 10, 2012Leave a comment

Maria is at a new stage in her life where she gets excited about school festivals because “her friends will be there.”

We had our community annual Ox Roast on Thursday, Friday and Saturday this weekend. On Thursday, she begged me to take her and her friend to the Roast. I had just suffered an atrociously long day at work but I remembered being her age and looking so forward to these festivals to play and hang out with friends. So I agreed.

There weren’t too many other sucker parents down there! But the girls had a blast after spending $25 on “all you can ride” wristbands for them. I drew the line at the $5 games where you try to shoot in a hole or toss a bag in bucket because we rarely win and when we do, the prize is cherished for three minutes and then tossed.

Maria loved rock climbing – she got to the top easily (even in flats!).

She went on the swings because her friend begged her. Unfortunately, she is inflicted with her mom’s intolerance for circular motion at high speed. She looked green after that ride. So we chilled it out with the calm slide and more rock climbing.

When Ri’s stomach was still little queasy, we went real low key with the baby bathtub ride. I didn’t think Ri would ever still go on this ride but she surprised me (her stomach probably begged her). It took me back to when she was a toddler.

I finally dragged them out of there at 8:45 and we grabbed some nutritious fair food on the way.

On Friday morning, Mario found out that Ri had gone to the festival. He cried and cried about not going. So, I promised to take him Friday night. Yeah, I’m a sucker. Ri and Mario and I got on our bikes and headed down to the Roast after I got home from work. I knew that we’d be back on Saturday so I put my foot down on wristbands. I allowed them to ride on two rides each and then they scored a free ride on the slide because of a change in shifts. Mario found the cotten candy booth and they engorged themselves on extra big sticks of goo.

On Saturday, Maria had a party for one of her classmates at 2:00. I thought that she may be tired after that party and want to chill. Yeah right. We came home and her and Mario begged for more Ox Roast. I thought maybe there would be a prize for hitting it three nights in a row but the only prize was spending a boat load of cash on rides and bounceys, and food. Not really, the prize was letting the kids have these experiences, watching them laugh, letting them boost their courage (Mario went down the slide without me for once!), and teaching them that life is what you make it. When I wouldn’t let them play the $5 games, they whined for a minute but then I told them about everything else that was there and they quickly let it go and ran to the swings to play.

I was spent on Saturday night when we got home at 9:30 but it was a good kind of spent like when you run a fast race or work for hours in the yard. Documentation of the fun:

"MOM!"

Adventures in the Life of a Working Mama

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