Category: Play

Sports Maniac

Leave a comment

Mario and I tried to play soccer outside last night but the mosquitos were killing us. I have already counted ten bites today. So we decided to play some Wii games instead. I begged for table tennis but he wanted basketball. I do not play basketball well. I can’t shoot. Mario quickly found that fact out when we began to play.

“Mom, you shoot like this” as he jumped up with the controller above his head. I tried again with no luck. He got exasperated. “Mom, you need to try harder. I need some competition!” That’s my boy. He loves the challenge but he also hates the defeat. When Jon and he played 18 holes of golf last night, he got angry when Jon won one hole. “I hate golf!” he yelled and placed down his controller. When Jon told him they could quit, however, he sang a different tune. There was no way.

We moved onto sword fighting a while later. My boy can go to town in that game. He works his body up so good by jumping and swinging all over that you think he is going to fall over and pass out. At one point he had a death match with his opponent after fighting non-stop for two minutes and tying. He begged Jon to finish the match for him because he could barely move. Jon won (what a hunk!) but when we looked over at Mario, he was sprawled out in a chair and his little belly was rising up and down trying to get more air. We finally found a game to wear him out!

Of course, he wants more pain. Just like his mama continues to run when her legs are sore, he continues to fight when he’s exhausted. After the Wii game, he begged us to sign him up for fencing. We will add that to his request to play soccer, football, boxing, basketball, and wrestling….

20120730-161929.jpg

Superball love

Leave a comment

Collecting superballs.

If I have passed one worthy, admirable, cherished tradition to my children, this is it.

It’s taken 7 and four and a half years for Maria and Mario, respectively to start this noble hobby but our trip to Michigan ignited the flame. We found a putt-putt in Traverse City that sold old dishes and knicks-knacks and SUPERBALLS! Just the way I used to buy them, too – right out of a gum ball machine. The only difference was that they were 25 cents versus 10 cents when I was little.

And M&M even engaged in the same action that I did after I got a superball – analyze it and name it. I was always very creative naming my dark blue balls “Midnight” and my orange balls “Sunny.” Mario has that same creativity. He got one with square colors painted on it and called it “Squarey” and a multi-colored ball that he named “Colorey.” Maria provided a little more artistic touch naming one “River” and another “Earth.”

They brought the balls up to our room and gave them baths; placed them in “beds”; and put them to sleep. It was very sweet. Of course, an hour later they had thrown the balls around the room and didn’t know where they were located. I am going to have to teach them how to be better Superball Caregivers, for sure. I do have a legacy to uphold.

20120724-220845.jpg

Laughing with Conan

Leave a comment

I needed a good laugh today. I didn’t get a good workout in this morning because Mario begged me for the second day in a row to take him with me before I left for the gym. I tried so hard to quietly tip-toe down the steps at 6:45 am but somehow those ears of his picked me up and I heard the pitter-patter of feet coming down the steps towards me. He tapped my leg and softly said “can I come with you mom? Please.”

How do I say no to that request? Jon tells me it’s easy but it ain’t for me. No siree. So there I found myself picking him up and grabbing my iPad and heading out to the stroller. There goes another day of lifting weights at the gym but I guess he’s worth it….

Then I had to sit in hours of negotiations waiting to hear from the other side and yawning in mental fatigue. Luckily, I found Conan O’Brien’s commencement speech. It had me laughing within the first paragraph. Nothing like a good laugh to bring you back to life. Now, I am ready for a wrestling match with those little munchos after work.

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

3 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

Leave 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.

Big Time Rush is in the house!!!

1 Comment

My first concert with my mom was Prince in Riverfront Coliseum. I painted my face purple and found every article of purple clothes available to wear. I only remember little snippets of the evening – picking up my mom’s friend in Clifton, the grandiosity of the Coliseum, dancing my heart out, and watching Prince perform some sexy moves!

Maria’s first concert was a tad more subdued and kid-friendly (I got introduced to the ways of the world early with Prince’s music!). We saw Big Time Rush last night at Nationwide Arena with about five thousand dressed-up, screaming, heart-swept girls and their moms (half of whom were just as dressed up as their daughters). Maria and I showed up in our running shorts and t-shirts (Ri sported her homemade Big Time Rush t-shirt made by Aunt Laura – so much cooler than the t-shirts for sale).

We had awesome seats on the first level. We visited Alana up in her seats before the show. Maria wanted to sit with her, which I knew would happen, but I wanted to at least check out our seats down below. I made Maria head down with me just to check them out and told her if she wanted to head back to Alana after that, we could. When we got to our seats, we found that they were pretty close to the stage. Between that and the fact that Alana had brought a friend with her to the show (Maria has her dad in her – she likes to have her time alone with her cousin or friend and does not like intruders!), we stayed in our seats. It was worth it – we had a killer view and Logan walked up to our seats and sang a song one step away from Ri! I about had a heart attack – reliving my youth but Maria reacted in the complete opposite manner. She did not want to rush down and touch Logan. She did not want to act giddy and scream when he got near. She wanted to be, and was, completely composed. While I nudged her to shake Logan’s hand, she refused standing quietly in front of him. The girls behind us were ready to hyper-ventilate and Ri stood with perfect composure. Is it that she’s only 7? I don’t think so – I think that is deep inside her and who she is – at age 7 and 37. No screaming madly for her – she is the calm and collected one (even more than her mom!).

So, when we returned to our seats, she gave me a piece of her mind.

“Mom, you embarrassed me when you did that. Please don’t do that to me.”

Her big blue eyes stared up at me in the most genuine, heartfelt manner, and I felt two feet tall. It was the saddest moment for me because here I was thinking that she was as excited as I was! But I’m glad it happened because it solidified in my brain how much my daughter needs her space and is completely opposite to me when it comes to behavior at these events. Nonetheless, after I explained to her why I nudged her and why I was excited, she forgave me and shook off the embarrassment smiling at the thrill of having been so close to Logan.

But she stayed true to herself throughout the rest of the show staying calm and collected in her chair while screaming fans surrounded her – every once in a while she would stand up and pump her fist or shake her booty but it was far and few between. My girl is way too cool.

20120706-161043.jpg

Triplets for Ri

1 Comment

20120702-144935.jpg

I am a grandma. Maria had triplets on Saturday afternoon – Sarah, Jessica, and Emily. She told me that the birth was easy and she was able to run around with them hours later. Their “births” occurred at Toys-R-Us in Kenwood on our way home from Louisville. She begged me to buy the triplets for her and I refused at first. But then I thought back to my days as a little girl with my dolls and I couldn’t resist.

She has been taking care of them ever since Saturday. They cry and giggle and burp and say “mama.” Pretty cute. She wrapped them in a blanket at Grandma Lolo’s house and walked them outside while my mom walked Lou. She invented a new diaper for them that just soaks in the pee and poop so there is no cleaning necessary. She fed them their bottles and successfully juggled keeping them all content and happy. She is super mom.

In fact, I see her future as a super mom handling 5 kids at a time. She was at the dinner table with Grandma Lolo and Papa Rod and Rod told her he had to go into work for 12 hours to fix power lines. She responded “I am glad I’m not old enough to do that work!” I Indeed, she would much rather work with babies. She is a natural, after all. Anyone that can feed two babies and get her little brother to help feed the other newborn rather than play his newest Ben Ten game has certainly got innate talent.

Some bacon with your splinter?

Leave 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.

Life is Good

1 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.

Friday Stasis

Leave a comment

I did not want to leave the house today. 

I wanted to stay cuddled with Maria on the bed watching Justin Bieber on the Today show and listening to Mario chuckle as he threw his sock at the ceiling fan and witnessed it ricochet across the room. 

I did not want to sit in meetings and make phone calls. 

So, I took my time getting ready for work.  I appeased Mario and watched him throw his sock into the ceiling fan twenty times chasing him to try to be the first to retrieve the far-flung sock.  I stared at Ri mesmerized by the tv showing Justin Bieber singing to the massive NYC crowd.  I took Mario downstairs and made him peanut butter crackers for breakfast (I know all my health-nut friends are disgusted – sorry).  He begged to watch one of his library movies and I agreed since it is a Friday.  Maria came running downstairs and exclaimed “I got $5 from the tooth fairy!”  Man, inflation has shot up the average gift from the Tooth Fairy. 

When David arrived, I took off.  I got to work just in time to get my decaf americano, answer two emails and leave for a 9:30 am meeting.  The day went quickly; I had a YMCA board retreat from 2-5 that I really did not feel like attending.  Not because I don’t like my colleagues on the board or because I had something much more fun to do.  Maybe it was because I knew I would have to engage and talk and I just felt like keeping to myself.  But I find that I get into that loner mode a lot, and I have to force myself to go to something in order to defeat it.  It’s one thing to enjoy my solitude; I think that is a necessity in this life.  It’s another to just not want to converse with people because it will take effort and you might get stuck talking with the guy that you think has an ego the size of Mars.  I think it’s also a necessity in life to make that effort, especially when it relates to a larger goal – here, creating more teamwork and collaboration amongst YMCA board members.  So, I went, and I really enjoyed it.  I talked with people I have never spoken with before and learned that the guy I thought had an ego the size of Mars ran another non-profit that I was really interested in for future volunteer work.  I learned that the YMCA hosted a lot more activities than I knew of – activities that I believed passionately about (teaching inner-city kids how to swim and working towards getting the Y residents more fit through nutrition and exercise). 

I talked with Maria about the retreat when I got home.  She loves the YMCA and has gone to several board meetings with me.  Of course, at this age, it’s all about the food (she loves the home-made mac-n-cheese) and not about the mission.  But she gets it in general because when we pass by a homeless person from time to time, she will say “Mom, maybe he should try to live at the YMCA.” 

After a few minutes with Maria, we rushed Mario to tee-ball.  Grandma and Grandpa Ionno came down to watch him play.  It was picture night, too.  Mario was hilarious with the photographer – he did his cool mac-daddy smile when she posed him and would not open his mouth for a full one.  Patty and Joe got a kick out of watching him in the field – when a kid hit it, all of the kids ran towards the ball no matter where it was hit in the field.  Mario even dove with another kid for the ball at one point and when he got it, he just looked at him with a cocky grin and threw the ball to first.  Competitive can we say?

We hit Bob Evans after the game for some hotcakes and dinner rolls (we all needed to carb up after watching two long innings of tee-ball in 88 degree weather).  Maria was cracking us up as we ate dinner.   Mario went to the bathroom and had been in there for a while.  Jon came back from paying the check and went to see if Mario was ok.  Maria watched Jon pass our table and told him he better go check on Mario because there was no way his dad (her grandpa) was going because he was resting comfortably in his chair!  She is a trip.  

The kids rode their bikes for Grandma and Grandpa when we got home.  We adjusted Mario’s bike seat up a few inches, and it made a heck of a difference.  He sped along with no problem on the sidewalk.  Poor guy just couldn’t get enough power earlier because his knees almost scraped the ground when he peddled.  When Patty and Joe left, Maria strolled Mario up the street with all of her bears in one side of the stroller and Mario in the other.  They flipped the stroller about five houses up the street.  I was busy watering the yard so I did not bolt up the street like I normally would have to make sure everything was ok.  This time I just yelled “Come on guys, get back home!”  I am sure the conservative, cautious family up the street about had a heart attack but hey, it was Friday, and I had reached my limit of crisis.  I had survived a day of work, a tee-ball game, 90 degree weather, and I was ready to chill.  They did manage to get the stroller erect and head home, and we all chilled in the house for the remainder of the night.