Football star

October 17, 2012October 17, 20121 Comment

Football season ended two weeks ago but Mario refuses to move on. Our nanny David is keeping the season alive by heading out with Mario everyday he picks him up and throwing the ball long to him. Mario loves it. The other day I came home and he fell to the ground sobbing “I don’t want you home yet, mom!”

When I came home yesterday, Mario begged for me to tape him and David. Maria wanted to be Mario’s cheerleader. I was worried a catch was not in the cards for Mario Joseph but then BAM! 4th down he brought it home.

And without any showboating as well. That’s my humble boy.

Intrepid Girl

October 16, 2012October 16, 20121 Comment

I can’t think of a daughter who I could love more than this little girl below holding a hissing cockroach.

Her teacher informed me that all the kids bypassed the cockroach except my girl who confidently approached the table and said “I’ll hold it!”

She is a rock.
Daring.
Adventurous.
Intrepid.
Amazing.
Just like she describes herself in her artwork hanging at school. I saw it today when I volunteered for her class.

That’s my Rebe!

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.

Spiderman wants costumes!

October 12, 2012October 12, 2012Leave a comment

Maria’s teacher again came through and agreed to partner with me on a project to collect Halloween costumes for homeless kids in Columbus. I printed handouts for the kids to send home in their book bags and took them to school during lunch. Maria wanted me to stay in her class to talk about the project but I was running late. She started to sulk and I was trying to cheer her up (“we’ll get ice cream later!” – why do I always use food?!) when her teacher came by and recommended that we make a video talking about the project for the kids to watch at school the next day.
Maria loved the idea! Gotta love Ms. Palmer – she got me out of the school tear-free. Maria and Mario came up with the above video for her school mates that night. Mario always begs to be famous and after they made this video, he asked “do you think I’ll be on the news?”
He’s always trying….

Stepping off the scale

October 11, 20121 Comment

I appreciate the New York Times article on the issue of women’s weight but dang, I wish this issue didn’t need such blatant attention. I wish we were at a point with women’s weight where the size of a woman’s pants did not enter anyone’s head when they met her.

I have to admit that I am guilty of this very thing at times. I don’t like the thought of someone assessing my body shape and judging me on my arms or belly but I find myself meeting another woman and thinking “she looks like she works out a lot; she’s got awesome arms; I’m glad I don’t have her boobs.” I stop myself eventually, thinking about how obnoxious I am being to both the woman and myself (stop judging my body against hers!). And when I look past the physical, I can be completely present in the conversation. Where I want to be.

I struggle with my weight, with what to eat during the day, and I often think about how much more I could get accomplished through the day if I didn’t focus on that crap. I love Lena Dunham’s quote in the article after she is asked about her jiggly belly: “No, I have not tried to lose weight. I decided I was going to have some other concerns in my life.” Amen.

Now that I have a daughter (and son, frankly), I am all that more aware of this type of behavior. I commend these actresses and authors for getting out there and showing society that there is more to them than their weight. Media is definitely a vehicle for changing thinking. I do not want Maria and Mario to spend any of their precious time worrying about their body shape – life is too short to ignore the “other concerns” in it. And those other concerns are so much more interesting.

SumDog

October 10, 2012Leave a comment

Maria’s teacher this year is awesome. I really like her a lot; she loves the outdoors, is green, and is supportive of helping out in the community. She also values the importance of technology in kids’ lives and showed us a statistic during orientation that a majority of second graders will have jobs when they get older that we haven’t even heard of today. Amazing.

Maria gets a range of websites and apps to check out that help her better learn spelling or math. Some of the kids in her class love to get on them and play them all night. Maria is not in that category; she would much rather shoot videos or read friends’ blogs (another cool thing that Maria’s teacher started up). I have to monitor her at the computer to ensure that she is spending some time on these math/spelling websites. One site is called SumDog. It is a big hit amongst the kids at her school, especially the boys. She was interested for a couple of days but she gets so frustrated when she can’t get to 1st Place that she gives up and moves onto something else.

Mario, on the other hand, has the complete opposite attitude. He jumped on SumDog a few weeks ago when Maria got off of it and started to play asking me what the answers were to the math problems. After a while, I started to give him hints for how to figure out the answers because I could not get anything done while standing next to him yelling out numbers. I told him to look for a “S” in “Smallest” or a “L” in “Largest” and then he would know whether to choose the smallest or largest number. He ran with that advice and eventually worked hard enough to get in 1st Place. He was so excited. Then he moved onto the “+1” series and began counting “5+1” and “3+1” on his fingers in order to get the right number. Each time I looked over at him, he was hitting 1st or 2nd Place.

He loves the game. Every day after school, he begs to play it. I hope he is this enthusiastic about it when he starts kindergarten. The other night I found Maria trying to log him in under her account so that she would get credit for playing – I really do have to watch that girl!

Obama Rally

October 10, 2012Leave a comment

Obama pins, Obama cups, Obama shirts. Protestors. Loud music. Welcome to the OSU Obama rally, Maria and Mario.

I asked our babysitter to drop the kids off at my office with the stroller so that we could walk over to the rally on the Oval. I made the last minute decision when I found out they had a few more tickets at the Obama headquarters downstairs from my office. With as much back and forth between M&M about the candidates, I thought this would be a good experience.

I knew from the beginning of our stroller ride that Mario was not gonna hang with me in all of the chaos. He has a nasty cold that has him headache-y and coughing. He perked up a bit when the Secret Service guys talked to him as we went through security and he even danced for them when he caught a bit of Black Eyed Peas on the loudspeaker. But when we moved into the crowd and the speakers were blasting and the crowd was cheering, he wailed “I want to go, mom!” I tried to distract him but there was no use. So, I made them take in all of the people and excitement and energy of the place and always remember how important it is to vote. On the count of three, we all yelled “Vote!” And then we headed back to my office.

Of course, once in my office, Mario came alive with the sight of chocolate everywhere (a lot of us have bowls of chocolate on our desks). He remembers the chocolate all too well and went directly to the rooms that had it. Maria went directly to my desk to be “the boss.” They could have played in my room all night.

But Jon rescued me and drove up like a knight in shining armor to pick us up. We ate Bob Evans (could I live on chocolate chip pancakes? Yes), and then I rode home (no room for my bike in the truck) only to find M&M in the driveway riding their bikes in the dark waiting for me.

“We beat you, mom!”
“Yea, but I’m gonna get you now” I remarked as I chased them down the driveway listening to them laugh and prod me to chase them faster.

After engaging in these chases for twenty minutes, I finally petered the kids out. They parked their bikes and went inside. Mario turned on the computer and yelled “Mom, come here!” I walked over and he said “see mom, I told you Mitt Romney is more famous because he’s on the front page of the computer!” Maria and I shook our heads and scrolled down to find a picture of Obama to show him.

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).

Autumn

October 7, 2012Leave a comment

Autumn
you always sneak up on us
With your cool, crisp morning air
And your ever darkening evenings
Your mums stand tall on the grocer’s shelves, waiting
for their new homes
Your pumpkins and gourds greet the neighbors
And your leaves, ahh, your leaves
Burst with color
and scatter like confetti all over
the yard.

"MOM!"

Adventures in the Life of a Working Mama