Moments

Leave a comment

Moments from this past weekend:

Mario running and jumping into the pool, arms crossed in a rapper style pose, rising up with those green goggles sucked onto his face and smile as wide as the ocean;

Maria climbing up the ladder to the high dive, walking confidently to the edge, looking down at me and the water, smiling and jumping in with feet planted firmly down to hit the water first (avoiding that belly flop she initially landed)

Maria on the playground swing, hair shooting everywhere and face filled with exhilaration as the chains untwist while she flies high in the sky

Mario scaling the outside of the plastic slide like a mountain climber

Maria showing her cousin around our potential new house like it was ours already, pointing out all of her favorite spots including her attic bedroom.

Mario and Maria dancing around in the fountains at the Scioto Mile

Mario raising his hand to the tour guide at the Santa Maria after she explained how they trapped rats in a wood box, emptied them in the ocean, and then used the wood box again to trap more rats.  The tour guide called on him and Mario explained “I have a book at home that Mommy reads called Michael Recycle.  We recycle, too.”

The pride in seeing my teachings come alive in Mario as he yells at a driver that beeped at us “We are not killing animals and polluting – we are walking not driving!” 

Maria performing her rap with arms cocked up and head moving side-to-side rapper-style “This isn’t the doghouse, this is the kitty litter house” and Jon and I cracking up at personality on that girl.  We see Baby Maria Slick coming to record stores soon.

Watching Maria race up the street on her bicycle begging to go all the way to Giant Eagle without me and Mario (“I am almost 7 now mom; I don’t need you anymore = I can do it by myself.”)

Mario taking down his shorts and undies on the side of the porch and peeing in the bushes (“Mom, boys are allowed to go pee outside in the woods.”)

Maria crawling into bed with me at 5 am and cuddling up against me with her cold feet and wrapped around my legs and her sweet breath against my neck

Feeling Mario rub my arm as we lay together at bedtime and waking up to see his little mouth barely open in such a deep glorious sleep. 

It is official

Leave a comment

It is official…  Maria has morphed into my little sis, Sarah.  There were signs in the past.  Sarah loved to take long baths.  Maria loves to sprawl out in the bathtub with her head immersed in the water staring up at the ceiling.  Sarah wore long flowing skirts with hippy cotton shirts (due to dad’s dressing skills, or lack thereof).  Maria does the same (of her own will). 

In Sarah attire!

And Sarah loves books.  Last night, Maria told me she was going to read one of my books – an adult book.  I was upstairs cleaning the bathroom so I mumbled “ok” and went about my cleaning.  When I came downstairs, she was sitting on the step reading Annie Dillard.  Deeply immersed.  She looked up at me with those big blue eyes and long tangled blond hair and I saw Sarah 20 years ago. 

Maria’s affection for Sarah took some time.  When Maria was little and Sarah would come in town, Maria would cry “No Sarah!” over and over until Sarah left my side.  Now she begs to see her and asks me questions like “Do I  look like Aunt Sarah” while she reads or “would Aunt Sarah like this” when we pass a toy or book related to Mexico.  I am very cool with the idolization of Sarah bit – no jealousy on my part at all in having my daughter think my little sis is a superstar.  If Maria could get one percent of Sarah’s love for books and five percent of Sarah’s passion for adventure and growth, I would be very pleased.

Cranking it Out

Leave a comment

We erected the “Coming Soon” in our front yard.  Actually, Jon and the neighbor, Dave, ambushed me with it after I ran to the store and returned to see it firmly planted in our yard.  I felt queasy.  Maria jumped out of the car and rushed to it. 

“Mom, can we move to our new house now?” Yeah, she is quite the sentimental one. 

Maria and Mario are both ready to pack up and move.  I wonder if they will feel nostalgic about this house. I wonder if they will miss their rooms, the bathtub, the kitchen?  I have been thinking about what I will miss the most.

1. The confined space.  As crazy as that sounds, there is a part of me that likes our small house.  It is easy to clean!  It is easy to call for one another on different floors.  And it keeps us close. 

playing on the patio

2. Our patio. I love our patio in the back with the magnolia tree and the spruce trees.  I have a lot of memories of the kids playing in the hose out there or swimming in their old plastic pool or pooping (Maria!) and peeing (Mario!). 

3. Maria’s room.  Meg and dad painted her room for us when she was still in my belly.  They put such love in their work and created a tender light purple and green bedroom for Maria’s entrance into this world.  I remember all the nights I sat in her room with her, rocking her in the chair, walking with her, feeding her, reading her stories.  I love the feel I have in that room.

maria celebrating her 6th b-day in the dining room

4. Our dining room.  I love the brick red color of it and the memories I have of the Thanksgiving dinners and the birthday parties.  The kids have had all of their birthdays celebrated in that dining room and both smeared cake all over their faces on their 1st birthdays in that room (probably still have remnants on the baseboards). 

5. Mario’s room.  We always complained about Mario’s room because it was so small but do love Mario’s room even though we have always complained about how small it was because it was where my little man slept since he was born and where I walked with him nearly every night to get him to fall asleep. 

6. The neighborhood. We have the best neighbors.  Doris and Kim have been our neighbors since we moved into the house in 2000.  They take such good care of us, and have been a godsend with letting Cy out when we go out of town.  The kids adore them, and they shower them with treats and love.  The other neighbors have children close to Maria’s and Mario’s ages and I will miss not having them around to play.  Two little girls love Mario and Maria and they call their names all of the time.  As one neighbor put it “Maria and Mario are the rock stars of the neighborhood!”

M&M and Ahjeni

But, as much as I will miss it, Jon and I are ready.  We are excited about the new adventure that awaits us in the Glenn Avenue house.  The beauty of the new house is that Jon and I both really love it and are both able to picture ourselves and the kids in it for a long time.  The excitement continues to hit us at odd moments and it continues to build up in us to the point that we drive by the new house and just admire it at random times (e.g., after a DQ run last night).  It is a quiet street with  mature trees and gorgeous, unique homes.  It will be a good nesting place.

In the meantime, we can’t focus too much on it because we are in the midst of a major clean-up of our current house.  The attic and basement have become storage sites for not only ten years worth of things collected but for all of the random things we had collected pre-Mary and Jon world.  Boxes and boxes of trinkets, toys, clothes, books, paperwork that we really never needed when we moved into the house or after.  We woke up this morning sans children (thanks to Patty and Joe who took them off of our hands last night through tomorrow) and started up the process at 10 am (after a 10 mile run by me and a coffee trip by Jon).  By 3 pm, we had cleaned out the attic to the point that you could actually see the floors and the window in the front of the room.  Jon purged eight giant black hefty bags worth of folders and materials.  He gave a bunch of old clothes to Goodwill.  We had boxes of books and tvs and printers for Goodwill.  We treated ourselves to Skyline Chili in the midst of it all (probably a bad move in retrospect as we both were fighting some stomach reflux when we started back up!).  

We are looking forward to the basement clean-up tonight (ha ha).  We figure if worse comes to worse and the Glenn Ave. house falls through, we at least have accomplished a major clean-up.  But all will go as planned, and we will soon find ourself sitting in the bay window looking out on Glenn Avenue excited to create more memories in our new home.

Forgiveness

Leave a comment

Jon and I have been ridiculously stressed about the possibility of purchasing a  new home.  We have been wheeling and dealing with the sellers for about a month, and a deal is now coming to fruition.  And, of course, we are second-guessing it all.  Very normal reaction, I am sure.  You get attached to your home.  Jon and I spent our wedding night in this house.  Maria and Mario came to this home after their births.  Cy and I took off on our long runs from this house…. 

Lovin' the tub

Our realtor/neighbor Dave came over two nights ago to talk to us about moving forward with a final bid that would seal the deal.  We sat on the porch with him biting our nails and asking a lot of questions.  Maria and Mario played in the bath tub upstairs.  They yelled for me to come up within two minutes of the start of our meeting with Dave.  I ran up and threw them some barbies and toys to play with in the tub.  I ran back downstairs. 

Dave had just started talking about inspection companies when I heard Maria scream for me to come up again.  I ran up and Mario had put soap in his eyes.  I grabbed a wash cloth and helped him rub the soap out.  I ran back downstairs to hear the tail end of Dave’s thoughts about an appraisal. 

Three minutes later, Mario yelled for me.  I ignored him.  Maria yelled, too.  I ignored her.  When they both screamed, Jon and I decided that maybe one of them was actually needing assistance.  I ran upstairs.  Water soaked the floor, the bath mat, the area around the sink.  They both pointed at the water and gave me a blank look. 

I reacted as any stressed, hungry, overly worked person would: I flipped out.  Lost it.  Yelled at them and slammed the bathroom closet door.  Told them that I could not believe how inconsiderate they were to get water all over the floor.  I stomped back down the stairs and out the door. 

The little rascals come through

Then I felt horrible.  Why do I do that?  Why can’t I just take a deep breath and walk away?  As I sat on the porch listening to Dave and Jon, I saw the front door open.  Within about ten minutes, out walked Maria and Mario all clean and dry and in their nighties.  Tears automatically flowed from my eyes.  I scooted them back in the house on the couch and sat them down. 

“I have to tell you both something. 

Thank you.  Thank you for being such wonderful children and for knowing that mom was upset and for doing your best to make things better. Mom has been really tired and stressed lately and sometimes I take that stress out on you.  I don’t mean to do that.  I love you both very much.” 

We hugged. 

“Will you both try harder to not get the floor so wet?”

“Yes, mom, we promise.”

We hugged again.

My babes

I walked back outside with them.  They played hide-n-seek and Jon and I finished up with Dave.  I sat on the porch watching them play soaking up the sweetness and sensitivity of their actions post mama-freak-out.  That one little gesture brought me back home – just what I needed.

Summer festivals

Leave a comment

In the tub!

The St. Christopher festival went live at 6 pm last night.  We arrived by 7 pm.  Jon and I grew up with catholic school festivals since we both attended catholic schools from 1st grade through high school, and we both have an affiliation for their festivals.  Gambling, beer, and duck ponds – does it get any better?  Maria and Mario will not be heading down the catholic school road because of Grandview’s awesome public schools but they can still enjoy the festivals – and boy do they!
 
As soon as we walked up to the gate, the kids spotted the rides and begged to head right to them.  The bouncy house has always been a hit with them, and it did not fail them last night.  Mario kept bouncing near a little girl in order to see her fall.  Wicked little guy.  I finally had to chastise him in front of all of the parents and he cooled it somewhat (until us parents went back to talking and I saw him inching closer out of the corner of my eye).  Maria climbed out with two more minutes of time left.  I asked her if she had fun and she responded “Yeah, mom, my hip just hurt.”  God, she is Jon’s child!

After the bouncy house, we strolled past a climbing wall (these festivals are going up-scale)!  Mario immediately ran towards it and the carni-man asked him if he wanted to try it.  Mario did.  I thought that he would scale up that wall in two minutes with as tiny as he is and as strong as he is but instead he stopped after the first foot hold scared to death.  He explained to the carni-man “I will do it some other time.”  God love him.  He chooses his risk-taking activities wisely.  I asked Maria if she wanted to try it and she did, too.  They strapped her in and up she went.  She had some hesitation at first but as soon as I yelled to her that she was beating a boy on the other side, something hit home.  She had on flip-flops so it was hard to grip the foot holds  but she made it 3/4 of the way up the wall before she lost her footing and came down with a large surprised smile on her face.  Again, what a joy I get from observing  my courageous, intrepid daughter. 

We hit the tub ride (Maria’s and Mario’s favorite for years) and the inflatable house before getting two rainbow sno-cones and calling it a night.  Tonight is the big night because dad has agreed to come with us.  We have already reserved the climbing wall for dad to climb – Mario announced when we left the wall last night “My daddy could climb to the top of that wall because he is really strong.”  Nothin’ like some pressure, babe!

Anna Quindlen comes to life

1 Comment

Maria jumped off the high dive this afternoon.  No floaties on her arms.  No cajoling by her friends or lifeguards.  Just pure desire and courage.  She has always enjoyed the water but never had much of an interest in swimming or jumping.  Her idea of swimming is laying your body in the water, head pointed to the sky, eyes closed, and chillin’.  Recently, that idea has been flipped on its head.  Maria has warped into a water monster.  She loves to jump off the edge of the pool and swim to me.  About two weeks ago, she tried out the low dive.  I had to wait at the edge of the pool in order to help her swim over after she jumped but she did it.  This week, while with our sitter, Megan, she went off the low dive and swam all by herself to the edge.  It is like we are watching a caterpillar blossom into a butterfly.  Then, today, she dove off the high dive!  Tomorrow, I am worried she will be driving. 

I was so ecstatic about Maria’s diving feat that I called Jon in Baltimore to tell him.  He experienced the same awe that I had earlier.  A few minutes into the conversation he lightly mentioned that “Maria is just like the daughter in that article you love.”  His connection both impressed me (oh, he does listen to me!) and left me speechless.  We hung up and I googled Anna Quindlen’s “I\’ll Never Stop Saying Maria.  I read this when I was pregnant with Maria Grace.  At the time, Jon and I had not decided on a girl’s name .  We had Sophia and Grace in mind but neither of them made us too excited.  After I read this article, Maria entered into the mix.  The article described a love one mother had for her courageous, authentic daughter who dove off the diving board at age 3 and barreled off a cliff into the Caribbean at age 5.  I remember telling Jon how much that line itself and the article in general struck me as I was getting ready to have a daughter.  Anna Quindlen summed up the conflicting emotions of having a daughter well – trepidation along side hope and joy for the future (both hers and your own). 

As I re-read the article, sentences brought tears to my eyes. 

“If I were pressed for one word to describe my only daughter, it would be courageous.” 

“She’s an authentic human being in a way I was not at 16, less good girl, more real person.”

“She makes me believe in evolution.”

“Being her mother is like playing basketball with a crack player (and she is that); she raises the level of the game of life by just showing up.” 

These short quotes do no justice to the endearing article – a mother of a daughter just needs to read it herself. It moves you.  It is an amazing sensation to experience your daughter getting older and taking chances, branching out, weighing risks and benefits.  Our influence on her is transparent but she is forming her own little will and beliefs and it is both wrenching at times and absolutely exhilarating.

Summer Break

Leave a comment

My attitude shifts when, after months of cold and darkness, the sun finally decides to hang out with us a little longer.  Flowers join the party.  Neighbors come out of hibernation.  Birds serenade you as you roll out of bed in the morning.  Ahh, summer.

We are getting our first experience of summer break for Maria who is in between Kindergarten and 1st Grade.  Maria is going to school two days a week through Kids’ Club where she gets to hang out with friends and go swimming one day and on a field trip the other.  Mario is only going to daycare two days a week (versus 5) so it is like a summer vacation for him, too.  Our sitter, Megan, stays with them 4 days a week (one kid only two days a week and both the two other days).  This is the end of our first week with Megan and with the new school schedule. 

When I dropped Maria off on Monday morning, she clung to me like she had on her first day of daycare and Kindergarten.  I introduced her to other girls but nothing helped.  I read her a book and played a game with her when finally the teachers announced that the kids needed to line up to go outside.  A tall girl, Elly, saw Maria having a hard time and said “I will play with you outside, Maria.”  Maria looked up at her with a tiny smile.  I reassured her that the day would be fun, and she slowly loosened her grip on my hand and let me depart without massively wailing at the door.  Throughout my day, I got concerned about Maria’s clinginess and strong need to have me by her side.  This is a constant struggle for me – I need to let them do more on their own so they won’t be so distressed when I leave.  I guess there are worse things I could have done to her as a baby, like beat her or not change her diaper.

By the time I picked Maria up at 4 (yes, I left work early), she was in a great mood talking about how awesome the day had been.  There is a higher being when you need one.  My day had been ridiculously stressful so if she would have been wailing when I arrived, I would have called it quits at work and stayed home with her until she was 18.  Luckily, for both of our sanities, that did not occur. 

On our walk to swim lessons, she boasted about walking to and from the pool with her class.  She also got to play with her favorite lifeguard and swim teacher, Nick. He made a train with all of the kids on his back.  Pure heaven she tells me (embarrassingly and with a promise not to tell dad!).  She went to Olentangy Indian Caverns on Tuesday on a real live bus (every once in a while I would look up from my work and think about her on that bus and pray that everything was ok – neurotic, I can be) and got to go on a tour and collect rocks (our favorite activity).  

Mario was typical Mario at daycare drop-off.  He complained about going to school, was grouchy as hell when we took him in (teachers coo over him and say hello and he sticks out his tongue or lifts up his chin and ignores them all); and got annoyed with his friends when he first saw them.  nevertheless, by the time we picked him up, he was talking about how Ben did this and Sophia did that….  He showed us the books he read and the activities he did and raced us down the halls.  Again, thank god for that welcome back.    

The first day with Megan was trying for all.  Maria had a meltdown because Megan asked her to read and asked her to clean her room.  When asked to read, she did her Maria self-defense move and cried about being too tired and not feeling good.  Megan picked up on it when she asked Maria to clean her room later and Maria had the exact same excuses after she had been playing just fine for an hour earlier.  Megan is no dummy.  Maria screamed and cried and basically went ballistic to the point that Megan texted me and told me she did not know what else to do.  My face immediately lit up upon receiving the text and when I got home, Maria and I had a long talk.  Since that day, she has been much better (then again, I don’t think Megan has asked her to clean her room again for fear of Maria’s wrath!).  Mario adores staying at home.  Megan is good for him because she is an athlete and he loves sports.  They can shoot baskets, play Wii, and ride bikes. 

In the summer, I try to get home at the latest around 5:30.  We have been good lately about eating dinner at the house before we run out to the pool, the yogurt shop or Zach’s house.  Once out of the house, it is like we are in a time warp.  Every night I tell myself that I will get the kids home at a decent time so they can bathe and read books and watch a show and go to bed by 9 pm.  That would give Jon and I at least an hour or two to relax.  But, inevitably, I look down at my watch at the yogurt shop or the park and see that it is 9:15 and we are not even home (baths go to the wayside at that point – poor dirty kids).  In the Winter, an hour feels like ten hours because it is cold and dark and wet outside.  You are stuck in the house playing games or watching tv or staying warm.  In the Summer, an hour feels like ten minutes it goes by so fast with all of the things you can do.  Hit the park, head to the library for outdoor music, eat at the yogurt shop, visit friends’ houses. 

The other night we hit Music on the Lawn for Conspiracy.  Conspiracy is a kick-butt, jammin’ local band.  Maria and Mario played around with some neighbor kids – Mario tackled people as soon as they approached him to dance.  The typical Mario.  However, I think I scolded him about 50% less than last time so we are making progress.  They played a few Black Eyed Peas songs that my girlfriend and I embarrassed ourselves to as we pretended to know how to dance hip-hop.  One day I will take lessons….

At the yogurt shop

When we woke up the next morning, Mario and Mario and I acted like we were driving in a car (on Maria’s bed).  Maria and Mario were my parents.  I begged them to turn on the imaginary radio.  Mario shouted “I know what you like daughter, Black Eyed Peas!”  Maria chimed in right after Mario with “No way, hubby, she loves Michael Jackson more!”  I can’t wait for next Tuesday – I think it is a band that does MJ songs – Beat It , Billie Jean, Human Nature.  I will definitely ignore the time for that show.

Mario and Gio

Leave a comment

Maria and her cousin Alana hit the farm together for a few days this week.  I was left with Mr. Mario all to myself.  I decided mid-week that it was a perfect time for me to have Giovanni, Alana’s little brother, over for a play date.  I had never had Mario and Giovanni together for two reasons: (1) Maria and Alana are at an age where I can take them to a movie or a school play and they can play up in Maria’s room for hours and (2) Mario and Gio are at ages (3 and 4) where they don’t quite play together well yet and they are, how to say this nicely, hyper, manic, spastic creatures.    

The boys heading to the pool

Giovanni’s mom dropped him off to me at 4 pm.  We decided to go to the pool first.  I had told Mario that Gio may be a little scared of the pool since he does not swim as much as Mario.  The entire trip down to the pool, Mario kept telling Gio not to be scared of the deep end because it is easy to swim in deep water with water wings.  Gio responded that he did not have wings like Mario.  Mario shrugged his shoulders and sighed “oh, that’s too bad.” Nothing like the empathy that his big sis would have had – she would have demanded that we head to Target to get wings for him.  Mario, he is still learning this trait. 

The two boys had a great time at the poolbut they barely spoke.  Gio held on to the ladder at the side of the pool while Mario jumped into the water like a skydiver out of a plane.  After a while, Gio caught sight of how awesome the water wings were, and asked Mario to use them.  After a little bit of cajoling, he agreed.  Gio loved them.  He walked all over the pool confidently.  Meanwhile, Mario ate a piece of pizza on his towel.  His new thing is to spread out his beach towel so that all sides are completely flat and then lay on it with his hands under his head like a little superstar.  During adult swim, the boys jumped in the baby pool together but went there separate ways.  Such different behaviors than Maria and Alana when they are together.  They typically stick side-by-side unless there is a fight happening (which can be rather often).  But the boys were fine heading their separate ways and not engaging until it was time to leave. 

Playing at the park

  

We left the pool and stopped off at the playground. Mario climbed up the ladder and slid down the slide while Gio watched.  Mario prodded him to go down the slide but Gio declared “no, way, I am a scaredy cat!”  Mario responded that he is “not scared of anything” as he slid down the slide.  Mr. Macho he is.   Giovanni climbed up the steps and went down the small slide and played on the swings.  Mario stuck with the fireman pole and the big slide.  When we got home, I had to clean up Cy’s hair in the kitchen so I left them to their own devices.  I wondered how they would play.  Within about three minutes I heard a loud bang and lots of laughter.  Thirty seconds later another bang and laughter and screams.  Giovanni held a plastic golf bag and Mario smashed a golf club against it.  They thought it was hilarious.  Next, they moved onto musical instruments with Giovanni playing the piano (“playing” is a loose term) and Mario rockin’ the guitar.  After ten minutes, they moved onto throwing pillows and random little objects around the living room floor and bellowing manly roars.  And there you have it. Take me back to the cave men days.  This is what two testosterone little Italian boys gets ya.  But they were happy and that is all that mattered. If I could manage the destruction, these two enjoyed each others’ company. 

The cousins splashing it up on Memorial Day

In the end, Maria and Alana are probably easier to watch over but there is a lot less bickering with the boys.  I just have to watch that the boys don’t destroy every breakable object in the house.   

As they buckled their car seats, Giovanni asked if they could watch Tom & Jerry.  Before I could answer, Mario said “Mom, I will watch Tom & Jerry because Giovanni is our guest and I should let him pick.”  I think there was some self-interest in his statement but it was at least a step towards sharing.  As I got the movie out, Giovanni looked at Mario and declared “You are my best friend, Mario.”  Mario smiled and replied “You are my best friend, Giovanni.” 

When Mario woke up the next morning, he begged to have Giovanni over again for a play date.   I told him it was a school day.  He proceeded to revert to his cave man behavior seen the day before – yelling and stomping around the house.  He even declared that he wished I had never been born.  I told him that would mean that he would never have been born.  “Fine!” was his response.  He went on to tell me that he was going to take away all my pretty dresses (fine with me – I don’t wear them!) and he was going to live somewhere else.  It was a good prep session for the teenage years.  Of course, because Mario has the ability to go from angel to devil in two seconds flat, he walked up to me three minutes after this tirade and held his arms up for me to hold him.  “I love you, Mom.”

Ahh, the joy of boys, or rather, kids.

The End of Kindergarten

Leave a comment

Heading to 1st Grade!

Maria passed Kindergarten.  Whoo-hoo!

The Silly Kindergarteners

I was in charge of her end-of-the-year party last Thursday.  It was one of those things that I agreed to back in September thinking “Oh, that is so far away, I can do that.”  Somehow, my mind warps and thinks because it is so far away, it may not ever actually happen.  I had actually forgotten all about signing up for the event and only learned of it when I canceled my volunteer day because of some work issues that arose.  Maria’s teacher replied to my cancellation by stating “Oh, don’t worry about it, you have the end of the year party to deal with anyway!”  I laughed pretending to know what she was talking about and as I stepped out to the sidewalk realized that I had signed up for that party back in September.  Wow, it actually did get to that date. 

Of course, because I have the anal, perfectionist, extreme personality that I have, I planned for it for the following two weeks.  I looked up end-of-the-year parties on the internet.  I asked other mothers what their classes were doing for their parties.  I called amusement centers, clowns, face painters, and balloon artists to get pricing.  Fortunately, I am very careful with our money so when I learned that a face painter would be $100 an hour and a balloon artist would be $150 an hour, I erased them from my ideas.  My girlfriend is an art teacher at another school and had a plinko game (remember plinko from the Price is Right? One of my favorite games on that show!).  She thought a carnival theme would be fun.  I jumped on it since she had a game to bring.  That was one less for me to be concerned about over the last few days before the party. 

The water balloon toss

The entire time that I was planning this event, I was laughing at myself.  I knew it was crazy to get so involved and over-the-top about a kindergarten party.  But, it didn’t matter how much I tried to talk myself out of putting so much energy into it, the energy still went there.  So, in the end, maybe it is just something I like to do.  Other parents came through for the party, too, bringing candies, popcorn, juices, cotton candy,  and stickers and toys for prizes.  

The day arrived and the kids were so excited for the party.  When I walked in the room, Maria jumped up screaming “Mommy!” and the other kids tried to sneak a peak of what was in all of the bags.  The face painting was the biggest hit.  My artist girlfriend made some beautiful creations on their faces but was getting tired after every kid lined up to get their face done.  Someone had to help and no mom wanted a part of it so I bucked it up and tried my best at drawing butterflies and sharks.  Poor Riley.  She was my first customer and she saw a picture of a butterfly.  “I want that one right there.”  After I finished what looked like an ink explosion on her cheek, she ran into the bathroom to look in the mirror.  Her facial expression when she walked out was priceless; let’s just say she looked a little disappointed.  The next kid wanted a shark with blood.  I could have drawn a blue circle as long as I drew lots of red down the circle’s cheek to show lots of blood spewing from his mouth.  That was all most of the boys cared about in the end.  Give me all of those kids, please.  None of these intricate girlie drawings. 

After the big shin-dig!

Maria begged me to allow her to do some of the painting.  Typical of my daughter – she does not want to enjoy the kids’ games and amusement; she wants to be one of the adults.  I let her draw on my hand and ended up with a picasso painting from my fingers to my wrist.  We finished up the afternoon with a water balloon toss and playtime on the new playground structure (with a climbing wall!).  Overall, the afternoon ranked an A+ amongst the parents and the teachers so I was happy when I left.  I scored some serious tootsie rolls and Nerds, too, since we bought so much.  Nerds are not an appropriate candy for a three-year-old by the way.  Mario shakes the little balls into his hand and then tries to pop them in his mouth but only a third of them get in his mouth – the rest are all over the floor and couch. 

When we got home, I asked Maria if she had fun.  “Sure, mom,” as she focused on playing with her barbies.  I asked what her favorite activity was during the carnival and she said “I don’t know, mom.”  She was obviously interested in doing other things by that time (an hour later).  So much for creating a world-renowned, unforgettable party for Maria and her class.  I should have listened to my better judgment and stuck with ice cream cones and a walk to the park.  But hey, at least I get my fill of tootsie rolls and Nerds for the next six months.

My fishermans

Leave a comment

 

Maria and her catch

We drove to Big Mario’s and Vicki’s house last weekend and fished down on their dock.  The entire trip out to Mario’s and Vicki’s house, little Mario talked about catching a fish.  He remembers Jon telling him that the fish don’t bite when it is the middle of the afternoon because it is too hot and they stay far under the water to keep cool.  Therefore, we have to wait until dinner time to go down to the dock with our nets and poles to catch fish.  I think fishing is Mario’s favorite activity at this time in his life – it probably even beats basketball.  He just loves everything about it – putting bait on the pole, watching for a fish to bite, holding the fish in the net, measuring its size, and like every good fisherman, bragging about how big the fish was after the fact.  Maria loves to head down to the dock, too, but her tolerance level is much lower, especially after she catches one (that activity is complete – onto the next (a lot like her mom)). 

 When we got to the dock, the sun was still beaming.  Mario and Jon worked on the fishing poles and bait while Maria and I sat on the dock and looked out at the water.  I asked her “pluses” while we waited (8+2 =..; 9+4=..).  She loves to work on math problems.  Jon and Mario finished and brought Maria a fishing pole.  Within five minutes of Jon casting it, Maria caught the first fish of the evening – a huge catfish with whiskers as long as pencils.  Mario immediately wailed: “Not fair, I didn’t get one yet!”  Maria consoled him and patted him on the back telling him “Don’t  worry little brother, you will get one soon.”  Because Maria had gotten her catch, she decided to leave her pole stranded and head back to the house. 

Mario holding his catch

My fisherman

As I walked her off the dock, I heard Jon yelling for me and turned around to see him trying to handle Mario’s pole and Maria’s.  There were good-sized catfish pulling on both of them.  Mario was beside himself yelling at Jon to get them out of the water.  Mario held the net with one of the catfish in it while Jon worked on getting the other free from the hook in its mouth.  Maria and I cringed while watching Jon but Mario just ate it up.  Maria told Jon “get that fish away from me.” Mario immediately chimed back “Get that fish towards me!” 

He begged Jon to let him fish some more.  After about ten more minutes, he pulled out a blue gill.  This one was more his size and he stood by it proud as a papa with his newborn son.  He begged for more but the mosquitos were biting like mad.  When we got to the house, he announced his accomplishments.  He exaggerated the size of both the catfish and the blue gill.  Everyone gave him a high-five and he slapped their palms hard with a smug little look on his face.  My little fisherman.