Pittsburgh!

April 14, 2018April 14, 2018Leave a comment

Who wants to go to Florida when you have Pittsburgh for spring break?

We again failed to plan a week-long spring break adventure with the kids. We were so on the ball when the kids were little and didn’t even know that they had a spring break – we went to Florida several years in a row. Now that they’re older and want to go places, Jon and I continue to drop the break ball and procrastinate. I did give them the DC trip for fall break though, so I don’t feel as bad.

We decided we’d hit Pittsburgh to visit sweet Elena and hang out with my sister and brother-in-law for a few days. Patty had invited the kids to Marietta at the end of the week to be with their cousins and celebrate Easter so Pittsburgh provided the perfect getaway spot for a few days. Maria wanted to leave at 6 AM on Sunday morning in order to get there by 9 AM. Mario and I talked get into leaving at 8:30 am. Mario told her he needed to play a little bit of his fortnight game before we left since he’d have no access to Xbox in Pittsburgh. I needed to walk the pup a couple of miles since I knew he would be staying inside with Jon while we were gone (although he loves it because he gets truck rides and pupucinos). We ended up out of the door by 9 AM, which I thought was pretty good.

I allowed the kids to stop at Starbucks and buy their pink drinks and a sandwich treat for the road. They had their blankets and phones, and were all snuggled in for the trek. Little did they know that I remembered to bring their books so that they could read a bit in the car. We had amazing driving weather – no clouds in the sky and a soft sun pressing on the windows. It made for a quick jaunt to Pittsburgh. We called Sarah when we were about an hour away to let her know we were close. She announced that there was an egg hunt at the Aviary. We told her we would head straight there and take Elena on the hunt.

The kids were excited at the thought of an Easter egg. They knew that they were going to miss out on the Grandview one we do every year since they would be with Patty during that time. We scooped up Elena from Sarah a few minutes after we arrived at the Aviary. We walked through the entranceway to find the Easter egg hunt. The kids were cracking up because it was just a small five foot patch of grass with a few eggs interspersed. Kids were told what type of egg to find (robin’s egg, bluebird’s egg, etc.). When a kid found the egg, he picked a plastic egg out of a big basket and opened it up to see what color ticket you got. A blue ticket got you a starburst; a green ticket got you a snickers bar. A bit different than what the kids had imagined. But they hung in there and made it fun. Elena thought it was awesome. We ended up planting ourselves there for a good two hours.

The kids got to fly a simulated flying machine. They were scared when they dipped down between tall buildings. It was hilarious to watch. They played in the penguin area with Elena. We went to storytime, which cracked us up due to the very animated older lady who read the book to us. We fed chickens after the book (the kids were pros due to MamaMeg and Peepaw’s house). We walked around to see the different birds, which Elena helped us identify. We ate lunch; the start of our fabulous eating routine. Here is Sarah and Jorge with all of their organics and granola, and here we are getting carry out pizza and chicken nuggets everywhere we go.

After the aviary, we unloaded all of our bags for a quick stop at Sarah and Jorge’s house. The quick stop included painting Easter eggs. Yet another activity that we typically do at the house before Easter but have been too busy to fit it in. I was happy that Sarah had went out and bought some supplies. After the egg coloring, we hopped back in the car and headed to Frick park. This did not go over as well as planned because we had worn sweet Elena out at the aviary. She proceeded to bawl her eyes out when Mario and I decided to play a little basketball together. But sweet Mario stopped playing in order to hold Elena on his lap and calm her down. Throughout this trip, I was amazed at his nurturing skills. Maria has always amazed me with her empathy and nurturing skills but those skills were not at the top of Mario’s list in the past so it was good to see him be able to go nurture his skills. We obeyed Sarah’s directive to have Elena back by 7 pm to put her to bed.

Maria and Mario got the joy of reading her a couple of books and trying to get her to sleep. About 30 minutes later, Mario quietly descended the stairs and proclaimed that he gives up. “She just won’t go to sleep.” He left the job to Maria. And don’t you know, she eventually got the job done. Of course, she ended up falling asleep as well. But she did rise an hour later in order to chat with us and devour some pizza we bought. She knows she’s got to get to bed at a decent hour because the little one will be up at 6:30 am ready to go. And sure enough, you could hear her asking where Meemaw and Mario were before the sun rose. We got up, brushed teeth, put on some clothes, and got E in the stroller to head to Starbucks. We ate our sandwiches and headed off to Frick with the hopes it brought more joy after a full night of sleep. The slide was still a bit wet from the earlier rain but the kids still enjoyed it. We hung on the jungle gym and Elena loved having Meemaw and Mario sweep under her arms and glide her across the playground like she was a bird.

Monday with the only nice day predicted for the week so we decided to hit the Pittsburgh zoo. The joke while we were there was how many times we went by an animal habitat and there was no animal present. The kids had wanted to hit IKEA on Monday but I refused because it was going to be nice out, and I wanted us to get outside at least one day in Pittsburgh. Hence, they loved to find no animals in their habitats and rib me about it. Although there were less than the optimal number of animals out, the most important one was out: the monkey. That is the only animal Elena wanted to see. We also got to see a giraffe, elephants, and lots of pretty fish. I don’t know what Lanae enjoyed more – the monkeys or eating animal crackers at lunch. Of course Meemaw would not let Elena eat the crackers until she finished her grapes and peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Mario enjoyed laying down the rules as well. I think the lack of rules that Jon and I have instilled has made the kids want to enforce some (but only on others)! Heaven help their children…. Mario was dead tired by the time we left, which cracks me up, because the boy can play basketball for hours or wrestle for days. But you have him walking around the zoo and he complains that his thighs are killing him.

After the zoo, we headed to Whole Foods to get ingredients for dinner. Earlier that morning, Sarah had told us that we were on our own for the day and evening because she had to work and Jorge was in Philadelphia. Maria loved that. She was so excited about “playing house.”

I could not believe the prices at Whole Foods. We bought three zucchinis and they cost nine dollars – outrageous! As I was lamenting the cost, Mario grabbed a little chocolate pretzel out of one of the bulk bins. Elena caught him. She begged for him to get one with her. They both thoroughly enjoyed engaging in some sneaky maneuvers in order to get Elena a pretzel.

As soon as we arrived home and walked in the door, Maria was ready to cook. She told me to leave and take a walk – she had the house, and kids, handled (as if she was 20 years old). And sure enough, she and Mario handled everything perfectly. She made some kick butt zucchini muffins and started dinner while Mario played with Elena. I got to unwind with a walk in the park. Maria made a yummy pasta and spinach dinner for us, which warranted her a trip to Millie’s – her favorite Pittsburgh ice cream spot. It did not disappoint.

When we returned home, I had to jump on a call. When I walked into the living room, this is what I found….

To their credit, this only lasted for about 10 minutes, and then they were up and running around and playing “pioneers” together.

Mario called it quits for trying to put Elena to bed. However, Maria stood strong and succeeded in putting her to sleep a second night in a row. Rock star. The kids played Gin Rummy while I gave Sarah a massage. The next morning, it poured rain. I tried my hardest to get us to walk to Starbucks but I could not convince the kids. Once we started driving there, I was glad that they won. Rain was coming down in buckets. We sat in Starbucks and ate blueberry muffins and oatmeal.

The kids could not wait for our Tuesday adventure. We were finally heading to IKEA! You would think that Ikea was an amusement park the way they were acting. I had read on-line that they were hosting spring break activities at the store but that ended up being a coloring table for toddlers. But that was OK; the store itself provided entertainment. Besides, Maria and Elena really just came for the Swedish meatballs.

After IKEA, we hit to the Children’s Museum because it’s not a Menkedick trip unless you go non-stop for ten hours straight. I had debated on bringing bathing suits for the kids because I knew Elena would want to play in the water play area. But, alas, I had forgotten them. I figured Elena could still splash around in the area without getting too wet. Wrong. She wanted to go fill on under the sprinklers. You know Ri was right there with her caring less that her clothes were soaked. The surprise was with Mario who typically cannot stand getting one inch of his clothing wet. He not only ran under the sprinklers but he allowed Maria and Elena to dump water on his head (but not hear his shoes). to see him because you need to pack everything and it’s tight as possible! He did it all for Elena.

Mario also ended up enjoying the art area. He pooh-poohed it at first when Ri tried to get him to sit with her. He and I and Elena ended up at a table playing blocks for a while. But then he saw kids running their artwork through a drying machine and that intrigued him. I showed him one of Maria’s creations where she traced her initials and that sealed the deal. He ended up in the area for 45 minutes making three separate creations – one with his initials, one with the word “HI”, and one in tribute to his favorite basketball player, James Harden. It warmed my heart watching him and Ri. Elena was simply concerned about getting to the ice cream store. We had promised her ice cream after the museum.

The sendoff was bittersweet, as always. We bounced the ball with Elena out back for a while – she’s got some mad basketball dribbling skills. When we went inside to gather our belongings, she found a birthday invitation from her friend. It was the cutest thing ever. She danced around proclaiming that she’d been invited to a birthday party and then she asked all of us if we wanted to go with her. Darling girl. We did several group hugs and then took off squeezed in the Volvo. The ride home was long; we were all tired, It didn’t help that we filled our bellies with gas station food.

Once we got home, we felt a mixture of relief in being in our own beds but also sadness in missing our little munch. It’s like a tornado ripped through our lives for three days but it was a tornado filled with stardust and glitter and ballerina twirls.

Summer nights

August 25, 2015Leave a comment

Maria and Mario chowed down their dinner on Sunday night because Jon got a text from Biscuit and Cookie’s dad that they would be over in ten minutes to ride electric scooters with Mario. Ri chimed in that she wanted to go, too, on her bike.

Mario’s response in a flirty voice: “Ri has a date with Cookie….”

She shoved him into the table.

We told them both to be back at Cookie’s and Biscuit’s house at 8 pm because it was a school night. Last word out of their mouths “ok.”

And 8 pm came and went. Jon was trolling the streets trying to find all of them. I was walking up and down adjacent streets. We asked neighbors if they’d seen them. Now, I was not too concerned for their safety. They were together in pairs – Ri and Cookie and Mario and Biscuit. That is one beautiful thing about our neighborhood – it has sidewalks, people are out, kids are running around. But I was irritated that they hadn’t listened to us.

Finally, I see Ri and Cookie and Lucia biking down the street laughing and having a great time.

“We stopped by and said hi to Lucia! When we told her Cookie’s mom was making ice cream sundaes she got her bike and joined us!”

Ok, we nabbed two of them but we needed the other two rascals. It was 8:20 and nothing. Then I get a phone call. My neighbor says “I’ve got two boys – one in neon. Want me to hold them til you get here?” Little does Mario know there are eyes all over Grandview watching him. I asked my neighbor to send them to Biscuit’s house.

When I asked where they were, Mario replied excitedly “the highway!”

What?!

He explained that he had convinced Biscuit to go down Grandview Ave. towards Tim Horton’s and the highway to “spice up” their usual route. Jon and I had a long talk with him about staying within a two block boundary. He is quite the instigator and I would bet he’s gonna be quite our little rule breaker, too.

But we forgot all about being irritated with them once the ice cream sundaes were served. Moose track Ice cream, chocolate chips, chocolate syrup, whipped cream. Yum! We are gonna miss these summer nights.

wild childs

June 2, 2015Leave a comment

There is a family who lives close to us that we adore and they have two kids who are Maria and Mario’s ages. H is the same grade as Ri and R is one grade higher than Mario. It is a god-send because we can get the girls together at the same time as the boys and no one feels left out.

This weekend, Jon and I took the girls and Mel and Stephen took the boys. Inevitably, we have crazy stories to tell when we swap the kids back to their respective houses. These kids party hard together!

The girls went to their first book club meeting Saturday evening and made waffles with all sorts of toppings in honor of the book they are reading “Everything on a Waffle.”

They were dosed up on sugar when I picked them up. We decided to head to the G-View Hop to get some Jeni’s ice cream. It was packed with people and the girls were charged to get two scoops of Jeni’s ice cream. We walked down to Nicholas’ house and said hi to him and his dad. The girls love Nicholas, who is five years old and sweet as can be. After chatting with them, we headed to Trinity to play on the playground. The girls were wild and crazy along the way saying hi to people and jumping all over the place. They were even more insane at the park getting wet on the slides and taking their shoes off to run around. All I could envision was the two of them in college at some campus party; they would be the center of attention, no doubt.

They settled into the evening at 11 pm after taking showers and putting their hair up in towels.

The next morning, they begged for waffles so they could load them up like at book club. I agreed (I’m such a sucker). Notice how delicate and organized H’s waffle is compared to Ri’s insanity.

After some playing on the trampoline and xBox, we headed back up to the Avenue for one more dose of Jeni’s (Sunday Funday = ice cream for lunch). Of course it started pouring rain as soon as we left but the girls wanted to keep scootering. Wild childs.

Yea, these two make the boys look tame. They met us at Jeni’s with dry shirts and calm demeanors. They clearly had not been sufficiently sugared up on waffles, chocolate syrup and marshmallows.

Getting it in

November 11, 2014November 11, 2014Leave a comment

It was 60 degrees when I got home from work last night. There was no way these kids were getting out of going for a walk with me. The whining about it being too cold to go outside began a couple of weeks ago right alongside the daylight savings’ time change. I feel their pain. It’s hard for me to push myself back out the door when I get home and it’s pitch black outside. My heart tells me to throw on my pjs and be done. But my mind tells me to take the dog out, get some cold air, enjoy the darkness and calm.
But this tug-o-war of the body and mind did not have to occur last night because it was warm outside. Like the beginning of Spring after a Winter frost. Delightful.
I offered to take two friends with us but everyone they called was being responsible and doing homework. So it was just us. I compromised and agreed to Jeni’s if they ate a good dinner.
I love walking with my two babes. They are hysterical and darling and observant. Mario acted like he was running into the telephone posts to make Ri laugh. Ri pointed out all the Christmas decor in the windows and how strange that was when we haven’t even had Thanksgiving.
“Get used to it, girlie.” I told her.
We were the only ones in Jeni’s and we had a sample fest. Mario cracks me up with his staple choice – wild berry lavender. I wish he’d choose chocolate because he never finishes his and I am not a fan of lavender. Ri, on the other hand, always goes for the chocolate and peanut butter scoops – my favorites…but she eats all of hers! Mario got his first and sat at the bar. When we went to sit by him, he shooed us away.
“I want to sit by myself, guys.”
He’s been starting this new independent phase where he wants to order on his own, sit on his own, do everything on his own. I won’t complain.
>

After Jeni’s, they begged to go to the park. It was 7:15 and a responsible mom would have denied such a request. They still needed to read and take a bath and get to bed at a reasonable time with school in the morning. But I’m not a responsible mom when it comes to the last few gorgeous 60 degree nights of the season. We need to slurp it up while we can. And so the park we went. I chased them around, they slid down slides and I gave them some wild, twisted underdogs. Mario was scared to twist his swing chains around and then be pushed high in the air to untangle; but after watching Ri do it over and over, he tried it. Pure glee.
>

They did a good job enjoying the evening with me. When we got home I asked them “wasn’t I right? Wasn’t it awesome getting outside?”
They both looked at each other and then back at me and shrugged their shoulders. They artfully dodged the question by wrestling around on the floor for the next five minutes.
Yea, they were not going to admit that mom was right. But I know….>

First day of school – 2014

August 14, 2014Leave a comment

And so a new school year begins….
Mario in First and Ri in Fourth. We had one school year – last year – where the kids were both in the same building. It passed too quickly, and now we have Ri heading to the Intermediate school just a few blocks from our street and Mario staying at the Elementary school about a mile away. Ri has to be to school by 8 am (and will deal with nothing less than being ten minutes early) and Mario has to be at school by 8:15 (and could care less if he’s there early). It made for an interesting first morning. Jon and I had to draw straws to see who took who. Actually, we didn’t in the end because we both knew who Mario would want to take him. Jon. He’s a huge dad fan lately. So Ri and I started up our street at 7:35 am hoping to meet some friends along the way. We found Nora!
>

Then Lucia!
>

And then throngs of kids in front of the school doors. Ri talked with random friends and then the teacher came out to welcome them. I snuck in behind Ri and got to see her classroom. She promptly shoo’d me away and I obeyed. But not before making sure her school supplies were in the room. They weren’t. Great. I confirmed with her teacher that they wouldn’t need them today and found the name of the PTO rep who I needed to call. I swore I ordered her supplies not once, but twice on line just to be safe. She’s the child that will freak out if everything is not in order. I left without even telling her so she wouldn’t stress all day and promptly called the rep to make sure I could have her supplies by tomorrow.
Then I biked like Lance Armstrong down to Mario’s school. When I arrived, there was a line around the school to enter. I cut through it and I made it to Mario’s room in time to see him planted in his seat ready to learn.
>

I had managed to get his supplies ordered ( the child who could care less). One star for me. Mario was quiet and shy. He began to draw on the sheet of paper in front of him that had the words “Summer, I did….” He kept glancing around at friends coming in the classroom. He doesn’t have any of his football buddies or previous boys from Kindergarten in the classroom but I know he will make quick friends. My girlfriend sent me this darling GQ-like picture from earlier in the morning.
>

It was much easier to drop off this year than last year when Mario cried and cried. He’s growing up.
I biked over to Ri’s school at lunch. They had a 4-8th grade cookout. They were dancing to the YMCA song and running everywhere. Ri was her chill self sitting on the jungle gym.
“Why don’t you go dance, Ri?”
“I don’t want to.”
I smiled and rubbed her dangling foot. I’m learning to stand back. As much as I want to advise her on who to play with and who to befriend, I’ve got to let her be and trust that she will figure it out like we all did as young girls.
I biked from work at 2:30 to catch Mario after school. He came running out happy as can be
and chatting with his buddies. He confirmed he had a great day – thank goodness. I expected Ri to be down there when I arrived but she was not. I started to ridiculously fret that maybe she went home instead or got kidnapped or had to walk alone or… You name it, I thought it.
I got a text at 2:55 from Ri’s friend, Evie informing me that Ri wanted to talk to me.
“Mom, we are at the top of the hill;can I go say hi to Mrs. Pharion?”
I was relieved she had made it down from Edison and that she was not asking me to pick her up (she is not my walker girl). When I caught up with her, I asked her how the walk to Stevenson was. She said “great.” I was very happy to hear that word; hopefully she will continue to like walking home with Kathryn and Evie. It’s good for her. It also led to her pleading for a phone like Evie has and ten justifications for having one. This will an on-going battle this year, I am sure.
By the time I got done talking to Maria, Mario had decided to go with Stephanie and Quinn to DQ. Sophie ran over to Ri to ask her to go. Ri planted a big hug on her.
>

And they were off for after-school ice cream with their buddies. First day over and done with – grateful to see it end with smiles and friends.
>

A Summer Night

July 13, 2013July 13, 2013Leave a comment

A Summer night

Sitting on the curb
Licking rainbow ice cream
As it melts onto the cone
Burnt cheeks and tanned arms
From long summer days
The thrill of being 20 feet away from authority;
as long as that authority still cuddles with them at bed time.

Blackberry crisp or vanilla bean?
“Let’s go for dark chocolate
with a dollop of whipped cream…”
Chatter about cats, teachers, and
Jessie
Random observations of people passing by and
belly laughs ignited by little brothers’ antics.

Brain freeze

October 25, 2012October 25, 2012Leave a comment

Ri and I ditched the boys the other night and stopped at UDF for ice cream. They had a buy-one-get-one-free sale so there was no doubt we had to head there. They were out of my favorite peanut butter and chip so I had to go with cookies-n-cream and cherry cordial. Maria, as usual, took forever to decide a flavor.

She finally chose peanut butter fudge cups with chocolate sauce and whipped cream (the ice cream scooper knows my “only a little bit of chocolate syrup” look by now, thank god, because before that she was getting enough sauce to feed her classroom). We both dug into our deliciousness and we both pooped our heads up a few seconds later. Our eyes squinted.

We had brain freezes.

We laughed at one another’s goofy expressions and then Ri asked why we get brain freezes. It’s certainly handy in 2012 to have an iPhone on hand to research such questions. If I would have asked my mom that question in 1978, we would have had to go to the library (remember the card catalogs at the library?!) and research by using actual books. Ahhh! Maria looked at me like I was 100 years old when I told her that.

We found out that a brain freeze happens when the cold strikes the palate of your mouth which strikes your nerves which swells the blood vessels in your head which gives you a headache. What can you do to prevent it?

Eat more slowly.

Forget it, we decided we will deal with the pain.

Slightly insane but still kickin’ it

June 14, 20121 Comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No snow but lotsa ice cream!

February 11, 2012February 13, 20121 Comment

We woke up this morning dejected. The supposed 4 inches of snow that should have blanketed our lawn turned out to be a dusting of white powder atop our green grass. The kids looked out the window and sighed. But although Old Man Winter failed to appear through snow, he did appear through frigid temperatures.

-1 degrees with wind chill.

No run for me this morning. Instead, I hit the 8 am yoga class downtown with the hopes that everyone else slept in under their covers. Not so lucky. It was packed with women in their yoga attire and freshly painted toenails and perky little ponytails. How awful and judgmental am I? Jon always gets on me when I start describing people like this. And he’s right. The reason why they annoy me so much is because I secretly want a pair of yoga pants instead of my ten-year old adidas capris, and I secretly want bright candy red nail polish on my nasty, beat-down toes. So, I’m jealous – I admit it. Class was ok – I got spoiled with my very first instructor who whooped me up and made me feel like I had run a marathon after her class. Everyone else pales in comparison (as Jon says to me “they teach like normal people, Mary!”).

Maggie came over at 11 am to watch the kids while Jon and I hit the Container Store to order a custom designed closet. Whoo-hoo! I would post a picture of our closet to let you see the disaster it is but it would be way too embarrassing (and that is from someone who is rarely embarrassed). The store personnel were great – very friendly and efficient. Our designer worked a layout for us and within 45 minutes, we had purchased the materials and installation for our bedroom closet. Awesome. When we got home, Ms. Maggie had bathed out children – a feat we had not accomplished in two days. She even got Mario to wash his hair (a feat I have not accomplished in a week) and Maria to let her brush her hair. Maria’s hair looks gorgeous when you actually brush it (imagine that). We have Maggie sitting for us this Summer and we cannot wait – she is going to have these kids whooped into shape so quickly that Jon and I are going to be put to shame. We have no problem with shame.

Maria’s friend Gwen came over at 2 pm. I was skeptical as to whether we should keep Alana over when Gwen came but these are 6-year-old girls – there couldn’t be too much drama, heh?! Actually, they played well together without any drama; a few spats here and there but no drama. They trashed the basement by having a “paper party” (consisting of throwing paper all over the place); demolished Maria’s room by spreading barbies and clothes all over; and trashed the kitchen by making crafts. I had gotten them interested in Wii Just Dance but I noticed Gwen sitting on the chair looking bored and a little sad. I asked her if she liked to dance and she shook her head “no.” So, we moved onto a different activity – crafts.

: Maria with her TP doll

Gwen told me she loved to draw and so it was an easy choice. Maria and Alana went with it, too. We made toilet paper dolls (I did not make that craft up – I found the idea on the internet!). The girls also tried to one up each other by drawing on themselves with magic marker. Alana drew on her hand, Gwen on her finger, Maria … on her neck. Yes, a giant butterfly with different colors across her neck. She cried when I told her that dad would be so upset and told me with big tears rolling down her face: “I was just trying to be funny.” That is her thing – she likes to make people laugh by going to the very edge – or over sometimes. I love her for that trait but also worry about it. We need to temper it a bit. We got most of the butterfly off and Maria moved onto stickers.

After crafts, we had to get out of the house for a bit. Not so much for the kids but for me. I know I have ADD – the folks should have diagnosed me years ago but then I would have been on drugs for way too long so I am glad they didn’t. And it could be worse – I could sit on the couch all day watching Ellen. We headed to Graeter’s playland for some running around and some ice cream (a tad hypocritical). If I could eat Graeter’s for every meal, I would be one happy camper. I love their chocolate chocolate chip. I love their peanut butter chip. I guess I simply love anything chip. The girls loved the see-saw until some other kids moved in and bothered them. They moved on to the slide and the tree house. Some boys began teasing Mario on the slide, and Maria took care of them. She protected that boy like a vicious guard dog making sure that they stayed away from him. I was even scared. After playing, we enjoyed some yummy ice cream. Alana got strawberry (ugh!), Mario got 2 dips of chocolate chip (and left some for me god love him) and Maria and Gwen split a chocolate banana split. They went to town on that thing. I think Gwen has Maria’s appetite so the two of them together ate that split in record time. Alana hadn’t even made a dent in her cone. On the way home, the girls looked out the back window and talked to drivers behind us saying things like “Come on slow poke, catch up!” or “That woman looks old and look at that man…” They giggled the entire way home. It reminded me of me and my girlfriend, Beth when we would take road trips as young girls. The innocence and slapstick and giddiness.

We ended the night with pjs and toothbrushing and helicoptering (until Alana bumped her head on the bed headboard). Oh, and some ice cream sandwiches just to make sure we got our fill of milk and sugar for the day.

Summer’s Last Hoorah

September 3, 2011September 3, 2011Leave a comment

I could not believe my eyes when I saw 98 degrees beaming from the Barnes and Noble sign outside of my office. Isn’t it September? I tried to walk very slowly to a meeting out of my office about five blocks away in order to avoid serious sweat pores falling down my face but it did not work. When I arrived, it looked as though someone had stopped me at the door and thrown a bucket of water on my face. My hair was dripping – really, dripping! And people who don’t sweat just look at me like I am a disgusting, inhumane creature. I don’t like people who do not sweat; they are odd and should be feared.

Silly faces at the pool

When I got back to the office at 3, I realized I had no more meetings and I had cranked out some good work during the week. So, I made the executive decision to meet up with the kids at the pool. I biked home, changed out of my soaking wet dress, and threw on the bathing suit that I had not worn in weeks. When I got to the pool, I peaked in to see Maria holding Zach’s hand leading him to the edge of the pool and Mario jumping in while making a karate-like chop in the air. Ahh, my children. I jumped in with them without any begging on their part; I was ready to get cooled down. The water was cool, and it felt heavenly. Mario jumped into me while Maria acted like Zach was her dog and she made him paddle to her. Megan divulged that while they were sitting during rest time, she listened to Maria and Zach. They spent the entire time discussing their wedding and how many dogs they were going to own, and cats, and fish. Then they moved on to kids. They agreed to three kids. Pretty practical. Megan said they should consider living on a farm if they have a lot of animals, and they both thought that was a grand idea. They talk about their wedding and marriage a lot when they are together. They act like a married couple often, too. Maria tries to get Zach to do something and he refuses; she struts away. They both play alone for a while and then eventually forget they were fighting and resume life as usual.

Maria and Zach

Tonight, Zach got angry because he wanted to go to the yogurt shop and not the ice cream store. When his mom and dad did not give in to him, he pouted the entire time and ignored Maria. Maria tried to hug him and he pulled away. She turned away from all of us and huffed away. I explained to her that she needed to ignore Zach because he was in a bad mood, and she turned to me and explained “I am mad at Zach. I have a right to be mad because he is being a jerk.” How could I argue with that one?! Mario, meanwhile, is completely oblivious to it all. He is way too mesmerized with the sword and shield he found at Zach’s house. He hides behind poles and jumps out with his sword in the air and shield by his chest. A natural warrior.

"MOM!"

Adventures in the Life of a Working Mama

Tag: Ice cream