Maria hearts horses!

July 14, 20121 Comment

Maria loved horse camp last week. Actually, I need a stronger word than love – she adored horse camp. My little anti-competitive girl finally showed some competitive spirit when she came in second in Showmanship rather than first. She told Jon “she should have come in first and gotten the trophy.” It took riding to bring out that spirit.

We went to watch her ride on Friday afternoon. The farm seems really nice and clean and they have a lot of riders from OSU there. Maria strutted out of the barn on a huge horse named Wes. He was taller than me. My first experience with a horse was when I was older than Ri, probably 10, and I was scared too death. My dad had to sit with me on it because I cried and shook when I got on it by myself. Contrast that with Maria, age 7. Here she was riding past me poised and smiling and completely comfortable. What a woman!

She rode around the ring with three other students. She trotted. She performed obstacles. It was pretty amazing to watch. Jon has been around horses and has a love for them. He knows the names of different riding styles and different breeds. Me, I know little to nothing besides what Meg has imparted. It is going to take some time for me to appreciate the sport like I do baseball or soccer but I will get there if Maria loves it. When we went into the stables and saw all of the horses, you couldn’t help but fall in love with them. Beautiful, elegant, smart creatures and Maria knew everyone of their names. You could sense she felt right at home.

When Mario walked up to one and made crazy sounds around it, she snapped at him explaining to him that he could spook the horse. She’s got it going on. She wants to take private lessons now that camp is over. She told Jon she wishes she were at the camp today. Yep, she’s got horse riding in her blood.

Can’t sit still but I’ll be around longer!

July 9, 20123 Comments

I have finally been vindicated with the MSNBC article out today. My A-D-D and obsessive compulsiveness around never sitting still is going to allow me to live longer! Maybe only by a year or two, but still. That is two more years of enjoying UDF peanut butter-n-chip ice cream, biking on 70 degree days, and watching peach sunsets like the one we saw last night driving home from Cincy.

I got Maria off the couch tonight and biking down to the park with me. Mario ran around like a nutcase all day so he chose to ride with me on my bike. I couldn’t resist him pleading to ride with me when I look at him in his little muscle shirt. Those tiny little biceps and triceps hanging next to his side. Eat him up. And Maria’s little running shorts and t-shirt – she swears my attire off but little does she see how much she dresses like me.

We moved around all night long – trying out the monkey bars and running down the huge grassy hill. We could finally breathe since it was only 84 degrees compared to the 100 degrees it had been for the last few days. I love these types of nights – biking to the park and spending time outdoors – I will take that over a car and sitting inside any day. So here is to more research on the benefits of moving around a lot – I will be your test bunny!

Burning up

July 7, 2012Leave a comment

We are now into the second week of above 90 degree temperatures, and I am seriously contemplating a move to Alaska. I am tired of walking outside and immediately dripping in sweat. And heaven help me if I need to walk a few blocks – I look like I just emerged from a swimming pool. I arrived at a meeting three blocks away from my office last week and blotted sweat from my face for a half hour before I found some relief. The worst part is that I start to get cold when I walk into air conditioning because of the cold air mixing with the massive amounts of water on my skin. So, I look even more attractive with sweat pouring off me and goosebumps covering me.

The kids are over it, too. Maria wants nothing to do with the outside unless it involves lots of shade or water. Mario can hang a little better than any of us but he’s even given up lately. So, when I took off a half day on Friday afternoon, the question was what to do in 100 degree heat? We decided to pick up our cousin, Alana for an afternoon play date. We hit the store for a slip-n-slide first. But when we came home and set it up, it had a huge tear in it. Never fails. So we set off for the pool where I wrestled with all three of them for an hour (when will the day come when I can just chill with a book and they play by themselves?! But then I will miss them…).

We hit Wendy’s for dinner – I sat by myself as directed by Maria. She likes to sit with Alana by herself. I made her take Mario, too, which she begrudgingly did but then tried to boss him around the entire time. He just flirts with Alana the entire time asking her to give him a kiss and telling her he will marry her. He is a little Casanova even with his cousin. After dinner, I needed an evening stroll to wake up after all the french fries we devoured. We decided to walk to a few blocks to a shady park. Maria rode her bike, I strolled Mario and Alana walked with me. As much as I hate the heat, I hate even worse to be in a car. Our park trip got cut short because of an urgent text message from Alana’s dad that she needed to get home. The kids started to walk with me (we had to leave Maria’s bike because her legs hurt – my girl) but they all soon became tired and I ended up strollering Maria and Mario and putting Alana on my back. Nope, not kidding. I looked like the hunchback of Notre Dame pushing a double-wide stroller.

I know when winter rolls around I am going to wish it was warmer and forget all about these sweltering abysmal days. That’s how the mind works – it’s why I am able to think about having another baby without drugs. But for now, I will continue to wish for icicles and mittens and sled-rides.

Thought for today: Life is Good

July 4, 2012July 4, 20123 Comments

Why is it that we convince ourselves with each new year that the fireworks show is going to be an amazing time full of laughter and hugs and unforgettable moments? When instead it is full of spats and whining and trying to find a good spot to set up camp? Ok, so I exaggerate a tad. After all, I believe life is as good as you want to make it so even though there were the spats and the whining and the search for a perfect viewing spot, there was also laughter when the cookies were brought out, hugs when the fireworks sparkled in the sky, and unforgettable moments when I witnessed Jon and Maria holding hands as they walked back to the car.

I haven’t so much learned to lessen my expectations through the years as I have learned to change my thinking. I used to think “this night will be perfect” and when one thing went wrong, I would get upset and believe the entire night was a failure. Maybe it’s a matter of getting older (or maybe it’s a matter of reading lots of self-help books!) but I have improved my thinking in these circumstances. I go into an event now with the thought that no matter how things go, I am lucky to be able to experience the event and have time with my loved ones or by myself. I am privileged to be able to walk to the event, be able to talk to people, be able to eat good food. So when Mario trips and cries or Maria whines or the weather is sweltering hot, I can acknowledge them for what they are and move on to experiencing the better. My results are much more positive and gratifying. And so when I got home last night, I thanked life for giving me time with Jon and M&M to watch fireworks and smile at one another and have tender moments together (trying to get in the car quick enough to not shine our headlights on spectators).

This holiday has allowed me to sharpen my thinking skills even more between the 90 degree, hour and a half parade and the irritable, sun-drenched, fatigued children. But, alas, we were all together downing the waters and watching the floats and having some laughs with cousins and old teachers and friends.

We even managed a bike ride to Stauf’s for a thirst-quenching iced coffee. Maria is becoming a bike pro using only one hand at times and standing up off the seat at others. Mario still enjoys his mama riding him on her bike, which I still secretly love, too since Maria is already pushing away like a 15 year old to be her own person (it’s too soon!).

And so, I continue to revel in my positive thinking as we head over to Jon’s niece’s house for a cookout. How lucky I am to have as much as I do in all aspects of my life – family, friends, home, health, work. No matter if I get a burnt burger tonight or Mario throws a tantrum or the slip-n-slide fails – life is still good on this July 4, 2012.

Some bacon with your splinter?

June 26, 2012Leave a comment

The evening started out enjoyable but plummeted downhill very quickly. Maria, Mario and I biked down to the park to meet Sarah, Jorge, and Stella for a little picnic dinner. We packed up all sorts of goodies – ham sandwiches, spaghetti, cheez-its, watermelon (yeah, our “picnics” are four-course meals) – and squealed with joy when we spotted Sarah, Jorge and Stella under the pine tree.

We ate together for a few minutes but then the kids split away to climb the tree. Within 10 minutes, I heard Mario crying. He sat on the ground next to the tree with one shoe off holding his foot. I knew right away what we were facing, and I dreaded it. A splinter. A splinter half the size of a sewing needle, if that. But to Mario it was the size of Mount McKinley and there was no way that anyone was touching it. Sarah asked to look at it but as soon as she touched the bottom of his foot to turn it towards her, he screamed and cried hysterically. She got in one fingernail push and he went ballistic. Jorge tried his magic, too, but to no avail. I knew we were going to need tweezers because he would not let us push for a long enough time to get it out.

“Mom, stop touching it” he continued to scream every time I tried to get close to him. I explained to him that we needed to get it out quickly or it would lodge into him deeper (nothing like trying to instill more fear into a kid in order to get something done). He agreed to head back home with me to get the tweezers. As I carried him to the bike, he continued to weep and he told me to hurry so that the splinter didn’t go any deeper. My fear-mongering was working.

We got home and I had the brilliant idea to do what my mom told me my grandma did to her when she was little – wrap bacon around the splinter. I got out a slice of bacon and wrapped it around Mario’s foot. This action did bring a faint smile to Mario’s face until he realized that I’d still need to use the tweezers. Allegedly, the salt in the bacon draws the splinter out. I believe my grandma used to wrap bacon around my mom and her brothers and sisters’ splinters all night long. There was no way I was waiting that long for Mario – he would have had a coronary. So, we kept it on for ten minutes and then I propped him on the couch to work on getting the splinter out. You would have thought that we were performing open heart surgery on him. He was hysterical and bawling and jittery. I kept trying to calm him down but as soon as I did, he immediately started it back up when I moved my hand towards his foot.

“Mom, let me tell you one more thing! Please mom, don’t touch me, let me tell you just one more thing.” He begged like this over and over. I finally grabbed his foot and held my other arm over his arms but the little guy is strong and he used his free leg to kick me. My temper started to flare at this point – 45 minutes after he first got the splinter. He looked at me with huge tears running down his face and exclaimed:

“I hate God because he created splinters and they hurt me!”

My poor boy. I knew that there was no turning back for him, and we were just going to have to go for it. I called in Sarah and Jorge. Sarah held his arms while I held his other foot. Jorge took the tweezers and began to dig. Nothing. Except screams of fear from Mario. He was begging for mercy and for us to stop all action. Jorge eventually handed the tweezers my way and I just ripped into the skin on the bottom of his foot. After two tries, I got it. A little splinter the size of a mouse’s hair. This miniscule piece of wood caused an hour of pure hell.

Mario was traumatized afterwards holding onto me for a good ten minutes. When I told him I’d take him to the library, he barely moved. His core had been shaken. I know one thing – he will never be a carpenter when he gets older.

Lazy Sunday Afternoons

June 24, 2012Leave a comment

Lazy Sunday afternoons
Oh, how I love thee

Two sleepy pumpkins
Sprawled out in the BOB

I thought these days were over
with Maria age seven and Mario
almost five

But the lure of an afternoon stroll
with a canopy overhead and
the wind grazing toes
was too tempting

And I simply thank
the stars
and moon
and sun
as I listen to
the melody of
light snores coming from my babes
on this lazy
Sunday afternoon.

My little slugger

June 23, 2012June 23, 20122 Comments

“Go Mario!”

He soaks up the fans’ adoration and takes a hard swing at the ball. A bouncey grounder to second. He holds his loose helmet on top of his tiny head and runs to first. He looks over at me and gives a thumbs up.

Proud pumpkin-seed boy.

When he heads out to the field, he catches me reading an email in my phone.

“Mom! Put your phone down and watch me!”

Nah, he doesn’t crave attention – not at all. I put my phone down and he sports a mischievous grin. I yell “good job” to him when he runs after a grounder even though he has the closed part of his glove on the ground instead of the open (we definitely need some grounder work).

He lines up after the game with his teammates and gives the other team high fives. Hopefully he keeps up that sportsmanship up through the years because that competitive spirit in him always pokes through.

“Did my team win, mom?”

“I think you tied. You both played well.”

“No, mom. I think we won because I got around the bases and I caught the ball. Yeah, we won.”

Ok then. He clearly does not need any confidence booster from me. But he does need me to put down my phone.

Life is Good

June 19, 20121 Comment

Can we have a more insane, crazed night than tonight?

I walked in the door at 5:45 pm after a nutty day at work full of little fires and big personalities. As soon as I step in the hall, Maria gets in my face crying that she needs a grass skirt and coconut boobs for tomorrow’s Hawaiian day at horse camp. Seriously, can’t the horse camp owners just make it a colorful t-shirt day? Everyone has a colorful t-shirt in their drawer – no-one has a grass skirt and coconut boobs. I text a few friends who are no help. I know that I am going to give in to her and run her to the store eventually. But first, I want to mow the lawn before Jon leaves for the airport. I change, slip on my grassy shoes, and head out. Our mower sounds like death. I have hit one too many rocks with it (in no part due to my inability to take my time) and it is ready to call it a day. I finish the back yard and when I go to start it in the front, it refuses. I knew not to mess with it any longer – its little mower life was up – but not before it gave me one last cut in the backyard. I will miss it. Luckily, we had Jon’s brother’s mower in the garage. I used it in the front only to find three-fourths of the way through that I had lost a screw on the left side of the mower so the handle would not stay up. I had to finish the lawn holding the left side up while I tried to push the mower with my right arm and hip. Ain’t it great?

I cleaned up, threw on a new shirt, and we headed out to the Dollar Store for Hawaiian goodies. We lucked out and scored a skirt, leis, and flower clips. Hopefully, Mario’s daycare has some left over boobs from their party that Ri can get tomorrow. Mario scored a set of handcuffs and knife – perfect for a wild four-year old. We ran out of the store and into the car to head home for a hot pocket and sandwich. After we heated the hot pocket, Maria jumped on her bike and Mario hopped in the stroller and we were off to Music on the Lawn for some music by Conspiracy. People packed the lawn taking in the funk. Mario engaged in a robot dance that had the entire left side of the lawn cracking up and Maria get treated to a bag of popcorn by her friend Zach. When he offered it to her, she blushed the loudest red I have seen. God help us.

Mario had a bathroom attack while dancing so we ran into the library. Of course, since we were in there, he needed to get a handful of movies. We met Maria outside for a few more songs and then called it a night at 8:45 pm. When we arrived home, I grabbed the scissors and began pruning the roses. They have been driving me nuts for weeks, and I promised myself I’d get them done last night or tonight. After working on those for twenty minutes while Maria and Mario played with the handcuffs and knife, I came inside to read a book to them. We read a couple, headed upstairs to get changed into pj’s and brush teeth, and headed back down for one episode of Scooby Doo.

My god. My eyelids kept falling over my eyes like broken shades. But I persevered through finishing up emails and memos for tomorrow and chanting all the while “life is good; life is good.” And alas, as crazy as it is, life is good.

One Big Sweat Gland

June 16, 2012Leave a comment

I am really disliking this heat. I can’t stand that I walk outside for two minutes and my armpits look like someone poured a glass of water on them. I can only live in black and white shirts in the summer because I sweat so badly that any other shirt is noticeably drenched.

My doctor tells me that I sweat so heavily because my body is so efficient in releasing sweat from all the work outs I do. It almost makes me want to stop working out. Jon calls me his “one big sweat gland.” How endearing. Maria and Mario both back away into the corner when I approach them after being outside and yell “get away, you are too sweaty!”

I have tried the anti-sweat super deodorants but they don’t do a thing. My super-sweat overpowers every time. I guess it could be worse – I could…. Nah, it’s pretty bad. I hate being frozen every time I walk up to the coffee shop because I have sweated so much that the AC feels like ice crystals on my body.

All of this leads up to my sweat experience this afternoon. Jon’s niece, Sherri brought her kids over today while she and her hubby went to a charity golf outing. We decided to go to the pool. Of course, a normal human being would have loaded the kids in the car and headed to the pool. But, alas, I have never been normal (thanks dad and mom and Meg). Maria wanted to ride her bike. Emi wanted to ride mine. Eli wanted to ride mine, too, but she is not quite tall enough. Mario wanted to ride his since Jon fixed the seat and he can actually move pretty quickly. So, we packed up all the towels and goggles into the stroller and set off with Eli walking with me and the rest of the crew biking.

Surprisingly, Mario biked the entire way and Eli walked with me the entire way. The soccer camp she went to last week got her in shape (she even ran with me when Mario got too far ahead). Emi and Maria biked ahead of us – it’s nice having Emi with Maria because she makes her stop at each side street and look both ways – good influence!).

We stayed at the pool for an hour or so but Mario got tired and cold so we decided to head back sooner than we had planned. Mario, because he was tired and cold, did not want to ride his bike. Eli did not want to walk. Thank god Maria and Emi still wanted to ride their bikes. So, I put Mario on one side of the double stroller and Eli on the other and threw Mario’s bike over the two of them. How the stroller tires did not burst, I will never know. We walked a half mile, which included a hill near the end of our walk that took me ten minutes to climb. When we reached the house, I looked like I had just jumped into the pool. Drenched in sweat. Eli and Emi were speechless; Maria scolded me to take a shower; and Mario told me I needed to stop sweating. Oh, the love. Jon just looked at me like I was insane in the membrane.

“Why didn’t you drive?” he asked as I walked in the house. Now that would be a way too normal thing to do, and he knew that before even asking me. His term of “one big sweat gland” for me actually is endearing – he secretly loves it, I know. Or, I guess it is more accurate to say he secretly endures it because there is no other choice. My body is efficient, that’s all I gotta say.

Slightly insane but still kickin’ it

June 14, 20121 Comment

Mothers are all slightly insane. – JD Salinger, Catcher in the Rye

And there you have it summed up well. I thought of this quote tonight as I sat with my girlfriend, Amy and her two kids and husband at Jeni’s ice cream parlor. Maria and Mario wanted to see Zach and Grace (Amy’s kids) and we decided to meet at a local ice cream parlor and sit outside. Zach is as wild as Mario so whenever the two of them get together, it tends to be chaotic. Gracie and Maria do their own thing – typically not together since there is a two-year difference – but they are cool with just hanging out in their own separate hemispheres.

When we got to Jeni’s, Amy and her hubby already had a table. Zach came running up to me and rammed into my side. Mario jumped on him and fake-punched him in the back. Maria climbed on Mario. Gracie watched. Let the chaos begin. A friend with a daughter in Maria’s class was in front of me in line for ice cream.  She began to make small-talk with me about what teacher Maria had next year while Mario was dodging in and out of the stools with Zach. This is how the conversation ensued:

Her: “So, who does Maria have this year?”

Me: “She has, ugh…Mario, get off the floor and stand over here now! She has Ms. Palmer – is she any (evil eye to Mario) good?”

Her: “I hear she is just awesome. Did Maria like her first grade teacher?”

Me: “Yeah, she… Mario, stand still now; do not move another inch or no ice cream! Yes, she really liked her – Maria, watch out for the wandering baby! – first grade teacher.”

And so it went for another five minutes as my friend waited in line without any children in tow surely thanking the heavens for a night with no interruptions.  When I went to sit down, it started all over again. Amy and I would get a question and half an answer out before interrupting one or the other with a command to one of the children. But somehow we were able to pick up where we left off in the conversation – even if it was right in mid-sentence – and complete our thoughts. Mothers may be slightly insane but we can multi-task with the best of them and walk away from a get-together having got caught up on each others’ lives and kept the children from disaster!

"MOM!"

Adventures in the Life of a Working Mama

Category: Outdoors