Category: Play

The problem is you think you have time.

5 Comments

 

M &M enjoying the rain

I facilitated a retreat at my work a couple of months ago and my co-facilitator delivered this quote during one of our sessions:

“The problem is you think you have time.”

This serves as a powerful motivator for me.  It reminds me to do the things in life I sometimes have no desire to do but that in the end always end up adding a little something to my day and expanding my life experience.  Whether it be letting Maria and Mario stay up late to watch a movie and eat popcorn after I have had an exhausting day at work and just want to curl up in bed; reading them one more looonnngg book after I have already read them five before bedtime; or driving out to my family’s house when I just want to take a long walk around the neighborhood and read the newspaper at Stauf’s – it is forcing myself to not succumb to the gravitational pull of my tired or indulgent self.  

Let’s face it – between working full-time and taking care of two youngins, I get tired and I want some self-indulgance.  No doubt, there is a time and place for that.  But there also is an understanding that time is fleeting.  I want to spend it well enough that when I am 75, I am able to look back at my 30s and 40s and think “I led a pretty exciting, adventurous, fun-filled life and took full advantage of my days.”    

Take the kids to the park, have lunch with that old friend, spend some quality time with my hubby in the evening. 

Saturday was a rainy, chilly day and we were all inside doing random tasks.  Jon’s parents were down and they decided to go to the nursery for fertilizer.  As Jon and his parents were leaving, Mario stepped onto the porch to say goodbye.  I went out to grab him, and looked down at the sidewalk.  Big puddles.  Lots of mud and sticks.  What could be more fun to a kid? 

I rounded up Maria and Mario in their rain gear and their rain boots and off we went.  I knew Jon and his folks would come back shaking their heads and I knew I would have my hands full taking off all of their dirty clothes, carrying them up to a bath, scrubbing them down….  but hey, the problem is you think you have time. 

M&M with their worm friends

By the way, we not only got muddy and wet, but we found two wiggly worms to examine and hold.  Does life get any better?

Coloring eggs

Leave a comment

Maria showing off her soon to be colored egg

Coloring easter eggs has been one of my favorite past times both as a kid and as a 20 something adult.  I vaguely remember coloring them as a child but I do remember hunting for them – their bright primary colors bursting out at me from behind grandma’s chair, nestled next to a plant, under a big oak tree.  The thrill of finding a brightly colored egg far exceeded anything else in the day (except for maybe the foot tall solid chocolate bunny).  Now I get to transfer my thrill to my daughter who developed a passion for egg coloring starting last year in my mother’s kitchen.  My mom bought an easter egg coloring kit for her.  I was hesitant at first.  All of the cups filled with water, easily cracked eggs, color dye everywhere.  But, we were at my mom’s house so what the hey?!  Maria loved it.  She colored each of her eggs with pride and wrote on them and put stickers on them and treated them like fragile Waterford crystal.  Hence, a tradition was born.

Maria spotted the easter egg coloring kit about a week after Valentine’s Day (yes, god love the retail shops with their easter items packed in stores the day after Valentine’s Day – just keep those holidays coming for our businesses).  We bought the kit, and I was able to keep it up on the shelf for a few weeks before we decided that we just had to color some eggs.  We decided that we would color some this early in order to get out enough eggs to all of our friends and family before easter.  Maria begged me to start the process as soon as we came home from school tonight but I stalled as I picked up all of the poop outside in our backyard (I do have my priorities straight!).  I kept pumping Maria up as I picked up the dog’s remnants so that when we walked inside, Maria was ready to go.  Damn, I forgot you had to hard boil the eggs before you colored them!  Ugh.  That was a mistake.  Maria broke down believing that it would take all night to boil the eggs and we would NEVER be able to color the eggs.  Meanwhile, I filled the pot with water, got the water boiling, and placed the eggs in the pot.  By that time, Maria had found the stickers in the box and the dye pills.  I got her working on filling the cups with water and by the time she finished that task, our eggs were ready (always the key – keep them busy so they don’t have time to stew!).  Maria placed one dye pill in each cup watching the pill slowly dissolve and commentating on what color the water was becoming. 

Mario and his own works of art

Meanwhile, her brother cut his construction paper and drew his “letters”.  He asks me what letter to draw, I state “A” or “J” or “B” and he acts like he is drawing the letter.  Actually, the other day I looked down after telling him to draw a “M” and he had drawn what looked to resemble a “M”!  He may be getting it – god knows he talks like a four-year old so he may as well start drawing letters like one.  He had no interest in coloring the eggs, which came as relief since trying to watch the water cups, the eggs, and two hyper kids would have been a little much. 

Maria was very concerned about cracking the egg while she placed it in the cup so I assisted her on most of them.  We waited patiently for the color to soak onto the egg-shell.  Maria would pick one out (with her hands of course), give it a scrutinizing review, and then place it back in the water for a little more coloring.  Finally, she had enough of the waiting, and decided that no matter what color they were, it was just the right color for her.  They dried pretty quickly and she began writing our names and hearts and designs.  She wasn’t too into the stickers (I don’t think we ever got stickers with our kit) but she liked the little round egg holders that came with the

Maria modeling her creation (and yes, she was trying to "model")

kit.  She placed them gently in the holders after she finished her creation.  She had a minor meltdown toward the end when we only had a yellow and two blue eggs left and Grandma, who was talking to Jon, asked if she would make her an orange one.  She fell to the floor after looking up on the counter and not finding an orange egg: “Oh, no, mom, Grandma wants an orange egg and I don’t have one for her!” She sobbed hysterically and repeated “NO” each time I tried to come up with an alternative.  Finally, I realized that we still had the cups of dyed water so I threw the pale yellow egg in the red cup and viola, we had an orange.  I knew that science class which explained color mixing would come in handy some day.  Maria immediately popped back to life and got that little orange egg all spruced up for Grandma and Grandpa.   

I think the hysterical sobbing wore her out because after the orange egg, she left the other two to head into the living room with the boys.  And there we have it, the 2010 easter season has officially begun in the household.  The blue eggs lead the pack with four, pink eggs with two, purple eggs with two, green eggs with two, and orange egg with 1.  Thank goodness for Grandma – she added a little more color to our world.         

M&M expressing their disdain with having to clean up after egg coloring and art time

Snow Day!

3 Comments

The university closed Tuesday due to the incredible snow fall and ice accumulation. I woke up at 5:30 due to my darling son who has decided that 5:30 am is his new time to rise. You can almost see him popping his tiny head up, rubbing his eyes, and opening his mighty mouth. Indeed, I am quite sure that is his routine before we hear our morning serenade of: “Maaaaaammmmmmeeeeee; Oh, Maaammmeeee.” I dragged myself out of my warm nest of a bed and told him to go back to sleep. “Rock, mommy?” I scooped him up and pushed his head onto my shoulder and firmly stated “five minutes, Mario, that is it.” Yeah, I might as well be saying “blah blah blah blah blah.” He had what he wanted and I knew he was sporting that devilish smile as we headed to the rocking chair.

After ten minutes of rocking and thinking to myself “this is the last night of this – tomorrow he is crying it out!”, I put him in his bed and trip back into my nest. Five minutes goes by before I hear “Maaaaammmmmmeeeee” again.  The irritation and anger I feel at that moment compares to how you may feel if you were getting your eyelashes pulled out or getting run over by a semi truck.  I get up, stomp to his room, and put him in bed with me. It was no use. He was wide awake.

By 6:30 am, we are all eating pancakes and eggs and watching Little Bear. Maria’s new favorite morning activity is to cook pancakes and eggs, and yes, she actually prepares everything to cook them. She gets the bowl out, the mix, the eggs, the milk, and the oil. She stirs it up as much as she can (she has counseled me on numerous occasions that I need to buy an electric mixer so that we do not have to do it by hand!). She prepares her plate and mine, and we all sit down together (Mario finds our pancakes absolutely repulsive – the first bite he takes immediately causes a cringe on his face and a regurgitation into my open hand). After breakfast, we get all bundled up in our snow gear and head outside.

The snow was too light to make a snowman but I found a plastic sled and the kids took turns getting pulled down the front yard hill. Mario popped up after one run and yelled “Mommy, go Stauf’s get ice water and muffin?” I thought Maria would poo-poo it because she likes to stay near home but she agreed (with a little cajoling involving hot cocoa and a muffin for her). I held Mario on my right hip and pulled Maria on the plastic sled. By the third block, I felt as if I had just been in a WWF wrestling match – my body ached completely! Maria could see the pain in my face and got out of the sled, pulled it behind her, and walked the remainder of the way. Why do I try to be Superwoman all the time? I ain’t 20 any more….!

Maria trying to help mom pull Mario (Mario wanting nothing of it!)

We got our ice water, hot cocoa, bran muffin and black russian bagel and plopped down at a table. I love that my kids love Stauf’s – it is a refuge for me and I enjoy that they find it to be the same for them. They will sit in their seats for a half hour eating their muffin and bagel, looking at the pictures on the walls, watching the people, and even talking to me! It is a piece of heaven. After Stauf’s, we walked back home (Maria walked the whole way home again!) and I decided it was time for a little day care. It was close to 11 am and I knew they would not nap with me. And, I wanted a little Mary time before the night came (I fought guilt all afternoon about this decision but that is a whole other blog entry). I dropped them off at school and headed back to Stauf’s to catch up on email and fund-raising for my boards.

Before I knew it, 3 pm hit, and I decided that I would try to take them sledding at a local park with a nice sized hill. I loaded up the sled, their snowsuits, and sped to the daycare. The entire way to daycare, I debated whether to actually take them or not because I knew the hill would be full of kids and I would have Maria and Mario and a sled and just little ol’ me. But, what the he–. Life is too short.

We headed over to the park, threw on our bundles of clothes while maneuvering and squirming around in the car, and trekked it to the hill. There were quite a number of people there already and Maria immediately withdrew. “Why are all these people here. I don’t want to sled here.” We tried a little side hill at her request but the snow was too thick and we barely moved. After that lame experience, she decided to work with the crowd. We headed over to the hill and began the climb up. I held Mario and the sled and she climbed up using the blue and white striped rope that the City must have installed to help with the climb. Maria impressed me with her climbing skills and determination. I had to help her up a few times, but she got close to the top each time and if it wasn’t for the ice, she would have done it alone. I told her her to chant “I know I can do it” each time she got down, and after telling her that, I heard her whispering it as she struggled up the hill.  My girl. 

Maria and Mario after a sled ride down Wyman Hill

The first ride down the hill was all of us on the “Flyer” – an old school wood sled that I think my dad gave us back when Jon and I were dating. We barely fit on the sled, and we flew down the hill after a push from a man who I am sure got a kick out of me trying to handle M&M, the sled, and the ice up the hill. But we hung on, and when we finally stopped, we were all smiles and laughs. Mario turned around and pleaded “Again, mommy?” I looked at Maria wondering if she would want to brave the hill for another run (Maria and exertion do not typically get along). But, to my amazement, Maria was already heading toward the hill. Again, my girl.

Maria found a girlfriend who asked her to go sledding with her and I got a glimpse of Maria playing with her girlfriends in a few years. Ahh, I had visions of me and my Cincy girls when we were 10 years old and taking advantage of our snow days. We did about 7 runs before we called it a night, and I must say, my winter blahs flew away for the remainder of the night. Of course, those winter blahs flew back with a vengeance the next morning when I stepped outside and slipped onto my rear while taking out the trash (the cuss words were spewing out so fluidly that I amazed even myself) but heck, with this weather, I will take an evening  of bliss anyday.

Ahh, the movies

Leave a comment

Yes!  For the first time in a long time, I went to the movie theatre for a 9:30 PM movie.  Jon’s parents took Maria and Mario for the evening and Jon’s leg was hurting so I went all by myself to see Colin Firth’s amazing performance in A Single Man (boy, is he a good lookin’ lad (of course, only topped by my hubby!)). 

There is nothing better in life then to go by yourself to a movie theatre, grab a popcorn and large drink and a box of Goobers, find the perfect seat just a few rows up from the middle aisle, plop down a few minutes before the movie to get adjusted, and then have the previews begin.  Ahhh.  The only issue I had tonight was that there was only one preview – I am one that likes at least four.  I simply melted into my seat, popcorn in my lap, pepsi (rather have coke but I had a night alone – I won’t bitch!) in the cup holder, and Goobers on the chair beside me.  I coul literally sit in a theatre all day long if someone would bring me refills of all the above.  I usually can’t sit still for a half of an hour at home but there is something magical about the movies for me.  I don’t know if it is because it takes me back to being a kid (I used to walk a mile to the Gold Circle Cinemas for a movie); takes me to another world for two hours; or whether I simply like the time alone in a big theatre with goodies and entertainment.  Whatever it is, thank you god for it.  

Meanwhile, that Pepsi and those Goobers are telling me who is boss right about now.  To the Tums and to bed for me!