Tag: Play

Grandma get-away

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Which lady is over the age of 70? I know – the immediate answer is “none.” My sister-in-law and I are 40 and our kids haven’t quite aged us enough to look 70 (although we have our days). Whereas my mother-in-law, Patty, looks like she’s 40 with her infectious smile and petite frame and zest for life when she’s really 70+ years old! Every person who meets her is floored when they find out her age (do her genes transfer to me since I married into the family?!).

I’ve been thinking of her a lot lately because she’s been under the weather and has not been able to engage in all of the activities she is used to engaging in on a daily basis such as a mile swim, lifting weights and fast walking (yeah, all of those activities might occur in one day’s time.) She is a machine.

Nonetheless, she still managed to take Maria and Alana two weekends ago and treat them to a raucous good time in Marion. Before they headed up to Marion on Friday night, she took the girls to Tuttle Mall. They got treated to a shopping spree at Justice. She even let them shop by themselves while she and Joe waited outside the doors – pure heaven for the girls who felt independent and cool not having an adult in the store with them. Little does Patty know that she provided them with quite the memory; Maria still talks about that shopping experience today and insists that she will go by herself next time we go.

Patty also took them to the indoor playground where Maria took off her shoes and stunk up the place. My girl does not believe in wearing socks so her shoes smell horrendous. Patty had to buy her socks and clean her shoes. Poor grandma! She called me to tell me in her sweet Patty-fashion. She never comes at me accusatory or obnoxiously. She started out with a recap of what they did that evening and then proceeds into it like any other incident. But I knew at that point that we needed to get on that girl to wear socks. And don’t you know that Patty must have said something to her to get her to turn around because she is wearing socks this week. Only grandma….

Patty took them to a Halloween party in the neighborhood on Saturday night. She bought them witch costumes and all. Spoiled, they are. They both had a blast and talked about it throughout the next day. All of this and she wasn’t even feeling that great.

The day after the party, the hostess asked Patty if Ri had fun. Patty said “of course” and the hostess said “I just couldn’t tell with her.” Maria is her father when it comes to showing her emotions. She could be having a blast and you’d never be able to tell.

Patty also described to me how Alana kept talking about her school friend, Riley. Maria got sick of hearing about Riley every two seconds so when Alana began to mention her again, Maria chimed in with “we know, we know, Riley has that sweater!” And when Patty asked Maria if she wanted a shirt that she was buying for Alana because Riley had one, Ri promptly replied “no way.”

I don’t know how Patty stays sane at times with these two but I am so glad that the girls can spend time together (even if they act like the Bickerson twins, as Patty affectionately terms them). I always wished that my cousin and I spent more time together growing up. And it’s nice they have a separate place to stay outside of their homes – it creates more of a get-away to them. And Patty lets them do their thing – be it shopping by themselves or playing on the computer or hitting a Halloween party and running around with other kids.

Jon always teases me and Patty about our big mouths, our desire to always engage in conversation, and our inability to sit still. I tell him he married his mom. He shuts up after that.

I do see a lot of me in her. We have similar personalities and that’s why I just want to see her feeling back to her normal self. I know how hard it was when I got pneumonia and couldn’t do anything. I was stir-crazy. So, here’s to Patty feeling better – watch out YMCA – she will be back soon with a vengeance!

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Ain’t it the truth

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Ok, this week has been a rough one (and it’s only Wednesday!). I am still thinking of the carefree days in Michigan last week. Mario detests the thought of heading back to daycare (I would too since he gets to play on the computer, play soccer and wrestle David all day) and wails every night we tell him he needs to head back. Maria wants to move out on her own and be a grown up already. I am overloaded at work due to our week vacation (where I truly ignored emails and work in order to have a “vacation”). And it’s that time of month. Yeah, do you feel my pain?!

So, I pulled up my all time favorite cartoon to give me a boost mid-day.

Ahh, much-needed laughter….

Life is Good

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Can we have a more insane, crazed night than tonight?

I walked in the door at 5:45 pm after a nutty day at work full of little fires and big personalities.  As soon as I step in the hall, Maria gets in my face crying that she needs a grass skirt and coconut boobs for tomorrow’s Hawaiian day at horse camp.  Seriously, can’t the horse camp owners just make it a colorful t-shirt day?  Everyone has a colorful t-shirt in their drawer – no-one has a grass skirt and coconut boobs.  I text a few friends who are no help.  I know that I am going to give in to her and run her to the store eventually.  But first, I want to mow the lawn before Jon leaves for the airport.  I change, slip on my grassy shoes, and head out.  Our mower sounds like death.  I have hit one too many rocks with it (in no part due to my inability to take my time) and it is ready to call it a day.  I finish the back yard and when I go to start it in the front, it refuses.  I knew not to mess with it any longer – its little mower life was up – but not before it gave me one last cut in the backyard.  I will miss it.  Luckily, we had Jon’s brother’s mower in the garage.  I used it in the front only to find three-fourths of the way through that I had lost a screw on the left side of the mower so the handle would not stay up.  I had to finish the lawn holding the left side up while I tried to push the mower with my right arm and hip.  Ain’t it great?

I cleaned up, threw on a new shirt, and we headed out to the Dollar Store for Hawaiian goodies.  We lucked out and scored a skirt, leis, and flower clips.  Hopefully, Mario’s daycare has some left over boobs from their party that Ri can get tomorrow. Mario scored a set of handcuffs and knife – perfect for a wild four-year old.  We ran out of the store and into the car to head home for a hot pocket and sandwich.  After we heated the hot pocket, Maria jumped on her bike and Mario hopped in the stroller and we were off to Music on the Lawn for some music by Conspiracy.  People packed the lawn taking in the funk.  Mario engaged in a robot dance that had the entire left side of the lawn cracking up and Maria get treated to a bag of popcorn by her friend Zach.  When he offered it to her, she blushed the loudest red I have seen.  God help us.

Mario had a bathroom attack while dancing so we ran into the library.  Of course, since we were in there, he needed to get a handful of movies.  We met Maria outside for a few more songs and then called it a night at 8:45 pm.  When we arrived home, I grabbed the scissors and began pruning the roses.  They have been driving me nuts for weeks, and I promised myself I’d get them done last night or tonight.  After working on those for twenty minutes while Maria and Mario played with the handcuffs and knife, I came inside to read a book to them.  We read a couple, headed upstairs to get changed into pj’s and brush teeth, and headed back down for one episode of Scooby Doo.  

My god.  My eyelids kept falling over my eyes like broken shades.  But I persevered through finishing up emails and memos for tomorrow and chanting all the while “life is good; life is good.”  And alas, as crazy as it is, life is good.

Thank you, bike.

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How awesome is it to watch your first-born ride her bike confidently down the road? 

So Awesome!

Mario rode in the bike seat on my bike while Maria rode her bike ahead of us.  Maria mesmerized me as she experimented with taking one hand off the handlebar, lifting her butt off the seat, zig-zagging her bike along the sidewalk.  Wasn’t it just yesterday that she was scared to have me let go of the handlebars, and now she is a biking machine,.  I love it.  She led us all they way to Upper Arlington to play at a new park.  A cool little park with a stream and a climbing wall and fun obstacles.  When we were heading out, Mario complained that he didn’t want to leave.  She turned around and said jokingly “I knew you would be complainin’ about leaving!”  She was clearly proud that she led us to the park, and enjoying her new-found activity of biking.  We took the long way home – past all of the outdoor restaurants and shops – and she lifted her head up high as she passed the crowds.  I could feel her self-confidence even as Mario and I rode 20 feet behind her.     

Thank you, bike.

Mario’s play debut

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Mario starred in his first play tonight along with the rest of his preschool class….

Mario waiting for his cue from Ms. Ashley

It’s preschool so no one is supposed to stand out but I must be the bragging mom and state that Mario scored a few one-liners and sang in front of the audience without batting an eye.  He is definitely a show boat.  Every year, Mario’s school holds a fall festival where they bring in a petting zoo, bouncy house, tumbling, etc.  This year, they decided that each preschool room would do a 15 minute play.  Mario’s room decided to do a play about the book Abiyoyo.  A wonderful South African folk tale about a little boy and his father and a giant monster.  Mario loves the book and used to always come home singing “Abiyoyo Abiyoyo.”  Mario’s teacher, Mr. Park, painted their faces and draped them in tissue paper and brown paper grocery bags.  The kids were so excited.  Mario took me to see the “production” room where they would rehearse (he also knew the brownies were in that room).  He adjusted his tissue paper around his arms a hundred times and looked at his eye mask ten times in the mirror (he is not vain at all!). 

Then the time came.  The kids all trotted out while the parents sat on little benches waiting to see their little babes perform.  We all had our video cameras rolling and our phone cameras clicking.  Ms. Ashley read the story while the kids acted it out.  It all went fairly smoothly for the first five minutes but then there was a scene where a huge paper boulder had to be picked up by Abiyoyo.  Abiyoyo (two kids sharing a costume) threw it and it hit another kid.  That kid threw it at another kid and so on and so forth.  It was hard to get much control after that.  I was surprised by Mario, however, who would usually get in on any type of throwing, kicking, violent action possible.  He just stood by Ms. Ashley reading the book and adding his two cents whenever he felt the need.  At the end, he sang “Abiyoyo” “to the crowd of parents and took a giant bow.  What a character.  He definitely has a personality on him. 

Mario and his buddy being goofy

I am glad we stayed for the evening.  Ever since Maria started at Grandview schools, we have been barely involved with Mario’s daycare.  It used to be our everything when Maria and then Maria and Mario were there.  We knew all the teachers, knew all of the schedules, brought in goodies.  Now we are lucky to remember all of Mario’s teachers.  Tonight reminded me of how grateful I am for Mario’s school teachers and administrators.  They are a fun and smart group of people who genuinely care about the kids.  However, I do wish they’d ask before they cover Mario’s face in black face paint!