Tag: motgerhood

What did you learn?

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So just a day after I posted my last blog about giving the kids feedback on how they played during their games, I read this article. Life is about constantly growing and learning, right?
I love this approach. It isn’t off-putting like giving feedback may be to a kid who just listened to the coach drone on about the game for 15 minutes. It’s not accusatory like giving feedback about certain plays on the field. It allows the child to think through actions on the field and arrive at his or her own self-feedback. It also reinforces that we are all here to learn – in sport, in school, in relationships. We are far from perfect at any age, and need to embrace the constant quest. 

To that end, I think I will add this to my repertoire and ask myself this same question at the end of my days. 

“What did I learn in that meeting?

“What did I learn from giving that presentation?”

“What did I learn from chowing on that sheetcake at 11 pm?!”

Missing the chaos

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Bike home. Take the pup for a walk. Take off work clothes and put on shorts and t-shirt. Bike to Mario’s practice. Say hi to moms and watch Mario make tackles. Leave practice to head to Maria’s practice. Say hi to moms and watch Ri kick the soccer ball. Gather up Ri and her girlfriends and bike them home. Eat random foods for dinner: cmhslice of ham, noodles, cereal, Klondike bar, peas. Make the kids brush teeth. Wrestle with them. Scold them to settle down. Tell them a funny story from when I was little. Rub their backs. Turn off lights. Let the pup out. Kennel him. Eat some chocolate chips. Wash face. Brush teeth. Go to bed.

Just like I thought my evenings would be twenty-five years ago when I daydreamed about life after college.

This weekend marks the end of practices and games (at least for another month when basketball starts). Ri has four soccer tournament games – two on Saturday and two on Sunday. The first one on Saturday starts at 8 am and it’s 35 minutes away. Ugh. 

But as hectic as life has been, I find myself melancholy at the thought of it all ending. It’s a blast watching Mario in his football pads blocking Hilliard kids from tackling the receiver. It’s thrilling watching Ri get the ball and kick it to her team mate. It’s much more fun than watching them do homework or play Minecraft on the computer. And it gets our family up and moving. Jon assisted coaching Mario’s team and went to nearly every practice and every game. The boys all looked up to him and Mario loved having him around. Maria loved heading to practice to see her friends and her coaches. I loved being able to walk the pup without Mario whining that I “always have to walk the dog” (even though he stares into the computer screen the entire time he whines). 

But it does get tiring doing it every night. Mario on Monday, Thursday, Saturday and/or Sunday. Ri on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and/or Sunday. 

It will feel strange to walk in the door from work and have no plans. Be able to look over homework. Talk about our days. Make dinner. Sit together. 

Ha, who am I kidding? It’s Fall: we will be riding our bikes to the park and heading to La Tavola for an ice cream dinner. Or Ri will head to the basement with her frozen dinner to watch Say Yes to the Dress. Or Mario will go down to Quinn’s and snack. Maybe we will sit down together in Winter. Wait, there’s sled riding and playing in the snow….

   
    
    
 

6 am wake-up call

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It was just me and Mario on Saturday night. We planted a few flowers and watered the lawn and hit the sack but only after a bit of a meltdown because he wanted Quinn to spend the night. They had gone to the talent show at school from 6:30 until 8:30 pm and were hoping for a sleepover. To compromise, Stephanie and I agreed they could play as “soon as they woke up in the morning.” Before we went to bed, Mario made me promise I would wake him up whenever Quinn came over in the morning. I explained to him that he would definitely be up before Quinn and he attempted to convince me that Quinn got up when it was still dark.
Mario awoke at 6:05 am on Sunday morning – the birds were chirping but the sun had not risen.
“Is Quinn here?” He asked as he popped up from the bed fully expecting that he was at the foot of the bed ready to play.
“No buddy, he is not.”
“Can I go get him at his house?”
Seriously.
I reiterated that Quinn would not get up until 8 or so – a normal hour for most children. He looked at me in disbelief but I made him lay next to me and try to go back to bed. When I opened my eyes up five minutes later believing he’d be back to sleep, he was wide awake staring at the window. “I know Quinn is up.”
There was no going back to sleep. We got up and got ready to walk to Giant Eagle for a donut; I had convinced Mario that Quinn would be awake when we got home. It was close to 7 am by the time we fed Rocco and let him out. Mario plopped in the stroller and we walked down the driveway… and who do we see at our front door? Quinn. Gotta love it. Do you think they will be getting up this early when they’re teenagers? (I will wake them up at the crack of dawn and torture them as payback). Quinn hopped in the stroller with Mario after I went in the house to get an iPad for him to use. Look at these techno-geeks rocking it out in luxury up to Giant Eagle!

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They played Minecraft and Animal Jam as I got in a little run. We stopped at the park to let out some energy. I did yoga while listening to these crazy boys act like they were commanders in a war. Quinn would act like he was shot and Mario would go run around him protecting him from bad guys. It was so sweet, in a macho boy sort of way…. Then they actually played on the swings and the slides. I gave them underdogs on the swings and they laughed hysterically as they flew up to the sky. That was sweet in a darling boy sort of way….
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We eventually made it to Giant Eagle for donuts and when we walked back into the house, it was a whopping 8:45 am. By the time lunch rolled around at noon, it felt like 8 pm. But as crazy as it sounds, I really wouldn’t have it any other way (well, actually, if we could stretch the wake up time to 7 am rather than 6 am…).
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