Tag: Kids

No Rules

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Do you really think rules will help these goofballs?

Mario gave us a huge insight into his thinking tonight when Jon picked him up from school.  He had gotten all the way up to “Space” at school.  His classroom has the kids’ faces pasted to rocket ships and they move from earth all the way up to Space depending on how good they are.  Jon commented on how proud he was of Mario for getting to Space and then asked why he behaves so well at school and not at home.  His response: “because school has rules, dad. You and mom don’t have rules at home.”

So there we have it.  Little does he know how he just changed life as he knows it at home.  I told Maria that story when I picked her up from school, and she immediately started to plan when we should rule out “rules for Mario.” Jon asked about rules that would apply to her and she shook her head: “I don’t need ’em, dad.” 

Of course.

Broken windows and dreams

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We survived the holiday weekend.  Maria’s cousin, Alana stayed with us from Saturday through Monday morning.  I love having her over because the girls get along so well.  They go up to Ri’s room and play barbies or listen to Justin Bieber or play Pet Shop in the basement.  I can actually read a little bit of a book or clean the house without having Maria at my heels asking me to play.  Alleluia.  And I love that they are so close.  I wish I would have been as close to my cousin when I was little.  They are good for each other, too.  Maria shows Alana how to be more daring and Alana shows Maria how to play something for more than three minutes.

Mario stayed at Grandma Ionno’s house on Saturday night until Sunday.  He loves himself some Grandma and Grandpa time because he is all by himself and spoiled to death.  He gets to wrestle, show-off, watch tv, and lay around in his pjs.  Not a bad life.  He did want to come home on Sunday night, however, because he knew Alana would be there.  Jon explained to him that the girls may want alone time and Mario chirped back “Alana will want to play with me because she tells me all the time how cute I am.” Oh, ok…. We gotta watch that head of his.

When he walked in, the girls showered him with hugs and love (no wonder his head is big).  They all went upstairs and played “Big Time Rush”. This game consists of Maria and Alana being themselves and Mario being one of the BTR singers.  He played James when we saw him.  He walked by us with his nose in the air as Maria and Alana fawned over him.  It seemed to come natural to him – scary.

I walked up to Stauf’s to do some reading around 5 pm.  Jon watched the kids.  I got a call around 5:45 from Jon.  “Get home now” he stated firmly.  “Mario punched his window out.” My mind leapt to blood everywhere, glass shattered all over.  Luckily, his had suffered a couple of cuts with no glass in them and the glass mostly landed on the roof.  Jon had already subjected him to the wall when I arrived home.  He held a tissue on his hand.  He looked like a mean mama-jamba.  He looked like a prize-fighter.  Jon and I are in for it.  I made him put alcohol on it so that he felt the sting – until that time, he really didn’t see any negative consequences to his behavior.  After I stung him with the alcohol, he cried and shouted “I don’t want to do that again!”  When Jon asked him why he would want to punch his window, this was his response: “I wanted to get on the news.” Oh, are we truly in trouble.

Mario showing his wounds

After that chaos, the kids fell asleep in Maria’s room; Maria and Alana in the bed and Mario on the floor in his sleeping bag and band-aid. 

On Monday, we all talked about what an incredible figure Martin Luther King was and is in our society.  Both girls knew what he stood for and what he fought against.  I told Maria how we walked across the Broad Street bridge when she was one year old in order to honor him.  She couldn’t remember.  Mario knew that MLK “had a dream.” I told him how I remember going to his classroom when he was two and seeing his picture on the bulletin board.  The teachers had taught the kids about MLK’s famous “I have a dream” speech.  They then had the kids tell them what they dreamed of.  The words underneath Mario’s picture were “I dream of ‘popsicles’!” 

Thanks for giving us dreams, Martin Luther King, Jr.

What did we used to talk about?!

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My girlfriends and our talking points!

I drove down to Cincy today to take care of my grandma.  On the way down, I got the chance to make all of my phone calls that I usually never have time to make.  I called my girlfriends in Cincy and my former colleague at the law firm.  The conversations all went something like this:

“How was your holiday”?

“Great, INSERT KID’S NAME was so cute.  He unwrapped his presents and had a big smile on his face. He’s been starting to talk.  Do you think he should be talking more?  He hasn’t learned how to go to the bathroom yet.  Do you think I should be potty training him yet?…

Before kids, the conversations would have went something like this:

“How was your holiday?”

“Great.  I went out dancing. Remember that dance club we went to last week?  Saw that cute guy there, too.  I hit that running trail that we love. It was so nice to get a ten mile run in and then hit the sauna….” 

Why is it that once we have kids, they are all, or at least a majority, of what we talk about?  I am positive that I had a full life before M&M but the way that I talk, you would never know.  Dance club? More like Kids Club anymore.  Workout class. More like Toddler Gymnastics class.  The Onion wasn’t too far off when it parodied this dilemma. It has become a game for me and my girlfriends now.  As soon as we notice that we are talking only about the kids, we struggle to find at least one other topic to discuss.  It’s just that a majority of our lives are spent with these little munchballs so a majority of our conversation turns toward them.  But I do feel bad for the poor souls who don’t have kids and have to hear us drone on about our little darlings.   Even though I must say that those other poor souls without children tend to spend a majority of their time talking about their dogs….