Sibling love

May 13, 2014May 13, 2014Leave a comment

The kids and I have been walking to school in the morning since Jon is gone and it allows me to get a bit of fresh air before I head to work. Ri rides her scooter. She is a machine on that thing – she maneuvers over cracks and bumps like a pro and when she does hit one too hard and loses control of her scooter, she falls down, brushes off the dirt, and keeps going.

Mario, on the other hand, is not as adept at maneuvering the scooter. He prefers to run or bike. Today, he chose to bike (the other days he sits luxuriously in the stroller until we get close to school and then he runs at the last minute so no friends make fun of him!). He is getting more confident on his bike, even standing up as he pedals, which makes him very proud. He also does a great job stopping at the crosswalk and looking both ways (funny how he does not do so good at that when walking across our street to Quinn’s house). This morning, he had Ri and I in stitches when he stopped to try and look at something on the curb and fell right over on his bike. He plays dead when he does this and waits for Ri and I to come up and tell him he’s crazy. We got about three blocks from school when I saw him pedaling fast and coming up to a telephone pole. He couldn’t quite cut over to the left to avoid the pole and it clipped his handlebar and caused him to fall. He got a nice scratch on his knee with blood dribbling from it. He’s not one to typically shake this injury off. He sees blood and he freaks. Not as bad as when he needs a splinter out but almost as bad. But there was Ri by his side saying “come on buddy, be strong! Push through the pain!” I reiterated Ri’s support and told him to be like Ri and shake it off (a little competition doesn’t hurt). And so he got up and started biking – very slow – but at least biking. Maria proceeded to cheer him on the remainder of the way; “you are a biking monster, Mario! You are incredible and so strong! Nothing can stop my little brother!” She is his biggest cheerleader.
We got to school and he asked me and Ri to take him to the nurse. That made her happy. After we got his band-aid, we walked down the hall toward the stairs. I asked if Ri could take him to his room since I had to get his bike. I expected a loud “no” from him but he surprised me with a yes nod of his head. Ri was ecstatic and took his book bag.
“Come on buddy, I will hold this book bag so you don’t have weight on your knee.” She grabbed his hand and headed up the steps. I watched them turn the corner, and I began walking towards the exit door very aware of the giant grin on my face.
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Legos and Baggie books

March 17, 2014March 17, 2014Leave a comment

I refused to allow the kids on the computer Saturday morning so they roped me into playing Legos with them. Quite an experience.
Mario created flying men who could wield a giant axe mid-air to cut off peoples’ heads. Lovely.
Maria created a trailer to carry horses and several townspeople to Texas. (Non-sarcastic) lovely.
Maria and I were finally able to get Mario to calm his violent men down and hop on the trailer. Then she surprised him and made the trailer fly! Mario was impressed.
He follows her lead more than he will ever admit. For example, she created a “blender” on her trailer for the people to make smoothies. Within two minutes, he was building a similar blender and explaining how people can make smoothies. Ri looked at me and smiled. She knows her influence.
After an hour or so, they begged to play Minecraft for a few minutes. I agreed only if Mario read a Baggie book to us.
Mario whined a bit but then gave in to the pressure and sat next to Ri and read. He is doing so well with sounding out his words. He does really good looking at the pictures to figure out the words, too. Sweet story about that: in one of Mario’s books, there was a picture of a dog running with his owner everywhere. A boy asks “can I take your dog on a walk?” A girl responds “No, take the dog for a run!” She looks angry in the picture even though it’s clear that is not the intent. When Mario read that last sentence, he read it angrily. I asked him why he used that tone. He responded “look how angry that girl looks – that is how she would talk.” Very analytical thinking out of that boy.
He was close to finishing his baggy book when he hit a hard word: “skipping”. He tried a few attempts when Ri stepped in and gave a hint.
“How does “sk” sound?”
Mario couldn’t quite get it.
“What do you do with rocks at the river?”
“Skip!”
“Good job buddy! Now what does “ing” sound like?”
“Oh, skipping!”
God, I love seeing those exchanges! How darling. Makes my heart flip-flip.

Weekend bliss

July 28, 2013July 28, 2013Leave a comment

This weekend rocked on so many levels – the weather was incredible at a mild 72 degrees; the kids were in great moods; I didn’t get bombarded with work calls….

When I came home on Friday, Ri and Mario were hiding in the trees with their walkie talkies. I saw Mario but didn’t dare tell him I did or he would have been so upset. He loves thinking that he’s getting one over on us. Both of them were in camo – Maria was wearing Mario’s 4T jacket and shorts – and rockin’ them out!

On Saturday, we cranked out some house cleaning due to the incessant rain. Ri cleaned the top of the fridge and Mario cleaned the floor (he stopped prematurely because Dragonvale kept calling out to him). Ri hung in with me though – we can count on her to help clean anywhere but her own room.

The rain let up in the late afternoon and the kids and I took a walk up to Lazy Days festival at the library. I was a sucker and let them each buy a hand-made stuffed animal from a local vendor, Cherrie. I justified the purchase by telling myself that I’m supporting local business – I was secretly hoping that one of the kids would get the pig with a tutu but they chose the alligator and owl. She had the cutest animals ever.

Ri had to get her shaved ice drink with apple and lemon-lime flavors. She loves those things.

We got home and played Candy Land. Mario opted to continue his Dragonvale game on my phone so Ri and I played together. Ri has gotten a bit of a competitive streak since playing softball so when I took the lead by picking up the Ice Cream Princess and she got pushed back to near the start of the game by picking up the gingerbread man, I knew there was trouble. She threw our plastic men and the cards and cried “I can’t I believe I’m going to lose to my mom! I can’t even beat an old person!”

Mario cocked his head at me and quipped “She sure has some emotions!” That added fuel to the fire.

After she calmed down, we took a bike ride to the park. Ri loves when I rode my bike with her rather than run so Mario hopped on my bike in the “baby” seat he can still fit into and we were off. We zoomed down two hills and therefore, had to go up two of them. Ri was a trooper pushing her bike up. At the park, Mario wanted to try the monkey bars. He got across three bars and fell. Determined, he tried again. And made it. He was charged up.

I cheered him on but knew in the back of my head the entire time that Ri was gonna be upset if she couldn’t do it. Sure enough, she tried over and over but couldn’t get across. I told her that I could never do it as a kid either and there were lots of kids that couldn’t do it. Nothing helped. Mario tried to help by detailing every step he took to go across the bars. That really didn’t help. Ri stomped off and got on her bike to leave. We joined her and I continued to tell her that she was wonderful at other things. Mario chimed in with the sweetest little attribute: “Ri, I’m so scared to go off the high dive and you do it without being scared at all!” What a doll. Those moments seal the deal as to why we chose to have two kids. Ri smiled and kissed his cheek (Maria style which means she smashed her lips into the side of his face).

This morning, Mario got up for a run at 7:10. He got into bed with me in his t-shirt and shorts and whispered “I’m going for a run.” I heard the door open and knew he was off. Jon and I stood outside and watched him run all the way to the end of the street. He wants to sweat so much that he has “big sweat balls” dripping from his face, he tells us. My boy.
Ri took a four mile bike ride with me to Stauf’s and Giant Eagle. Her butt killed when we got home.

I made the kids play outside while I mowed the grass and picked weeds. Mario played like he was all alone in the woods and had to build his own fire to survive. Ri kept begging to play with him but he refused so Jon helped Ri find her own hiding spot, which of course spiked Mario’s interest. He wanted one, too. Before I knew it, there was silence for a while. I came around the corner and found them in their own secret spaces – Mario on his phone and Ri reading US Weekly that she had begged for at the store.

Pure bliss.

Magnificently wonderful

June 18, 2013June 18, 2013Leave a comment

Top Ten Reasons I loved last night…

1. Ri rocking out new polka dot Reds socks for her softball game!

2. My crazy Menkedick clan (all of them!) coming out to cheer Ri on at her game. She was beside herself happy!

3. Ri going three for three and catching a few grounders (she almost had an out at first but the batter outran her by an inch).

4. Mario sucking on his ring pop and playing a fishing game on Jon’s phone; he grabbed Peepaw every two minutes to report the type and weight of his catch.

5. Sar Bear informing me that she got an agent!!! She is on her way to being a world renowned writer (or a psycho killer if this picture says anything)!

6. Dude man announcing that he may be headed on a cruise ship to swoon the old ladies and party it up with the crew all while blasting out some sweet clarinet and saxophone.

7. Jon having all of us in stitches with his stories at dinner about past vacations and times at the Glendale Ave. house.

8. Mildred’s sauerkraut balls. Enough said.

9. Watching dad race Mario to the car and being so thankful for inheriting those Menkedick genes.

10. Spending an evening with such a gregarious, joyful, loving family. These are the moments you grab hold of and tuck away; they are what make this brief time on Earth magnificently wonderful.

The Muscle strikes again

August 3, 2012Leave a comment

Maria continues to bolster her nickname “the Muscle.” I met M&M at the pool this afternoon after they called me at work and begged me to meet them. They were sugared up on strawberry ice cream bars when I arrived. They were ready to wrestle with me in the water.

After wrestling for some time, Mario decided to hit the diving boards. Maria followed. They dove off together a couple of times. Then I noticed that there was a little boy jumping off the low dive with Mario who was teasing him by blocking the top of the ladder so Mario couldn’t climb up out of the water. Maria noticed this little boy right after I did and instead of watching the stand-off take place like me, she marched right over to the ladder and looked him the eye and scolded him to “stop bothering my brother!”

She pulled Mario up out of the water and then she ran to the low dive only to beat both Mario and the other boy. Then she allowed Mario to take her place so he could jump before the other boy.

Our girl doesn’t mess around – and don’t you know that boy didn’t so much as look at Mario the rest of our time at the pool – and he definitely avoided Ri!

Bears and sushi

August 2, 2012August 2, 20121 Comment

Sarah and Jorge returned from Yellowstone and Glacier with limbs intact – even after walking right by a grizzly! Oh, the stories they had to intrigue Maria and Mario.

Mario drags Jorge everywhere as he does with any male that comes to the house. Jorge is a very good sport playing basketball one minute and fighting with Ben Ten figures the next. Maria waits for Sarah to talk about her adventures and most importantly, to open up Sarah’s Mac computer photo shop. The photo shop lets you contort your face in all sorts of lovely ways. This was a beauty of a picture from the shop last night when we chose “Alien.”

Sarah had an awesome slide show of their trip full of pictures of the mountainsides, sunsets, gorgeous wildflowers, moose and bears. God love ’em, they go for it when they decide to hike and they take great pictures. The bear pictures obviously peaked the kids’ interests but I think they fell more in love with the little chunky chipmunk peeking over a rock because he was “so adorable.”

We splurged on sushi for dinner. Spicy tuna, dragon, and spicy salmon rolls – yum. Maria braved a bite but promptly spit it out. “I will stick with macaroni and cheese” she declared. We sat around the kitchen table and talked about our trip to Michigan and the sand dunes Sar and I used to tackle when we vacationed as kids. It was a treat having my sis and Jorge over for dinner. M&M did not want the night to end begging to spend the night with them at the apartment. Sar and Jorge weren’t quite prepared for that action yet but they better get ready for Jon and me to send them to Pittsburgh for a weekend sometime soon ( if they can handle bears they can handle M&M!).

Too cool for school

June 8, 2012Leave a comment

My sis is a rockin’! She is a superstar. She is fab.

Sarah got the writing gene in the family. My brother got the music gene. And I got the left-brained, analytical gene. But between the two of them, I have added some right-brained creativity to my world (I can draw a heck of a stick man). Back to my sis, Sarah. Did I tell you she’s a superstar…?

Maria idolizes her and when Sarah is in town, she begs to be with her. They do Stauf’s trips together, make collages, and take the pups on walks. Everyone sees Sarah in Maria – she definitely has Sarah’s independent streak and her contentment with alone time. I am hoping Maria laps up Sarah’s love of reading and writing as she heads into second grade. Maria has framed pictures of Sarah (and Sarah’s pups) on her bed stand and she asks questions about her randomly through the week. The other day she asked if Aunt Sarah liked first grade. I told Ri we’d have to ask her next time she was in town, and Ri chirped “is she coming soon?!” There is no doubt that Aunt Sarah is super cool in Ri’s eyes.

And she is even cooler in her big sister’s eyes with all that she is accomplishing. She recently wrote a post on turning thirty, and it allowed me to see a glimpse of the struggles that she is facing with being a traveler and being a married, mom-on-the-mind, thirty-year old woman. That she opens up to the world like she did in that piece and gives others the opportunity to ponder where they are, what they are doing, or simply get some enjoyment out of a good piece of writing, is, how can I word it? Super Cool. About a year ago, she started an on-line magazine, Vela, for creative non-fiction writing inspired by travel and women are the only authors. No small task but she did it. When I opened up Facebook this afternoon, she had posted that she was quoted in a Forbes article based on her role in Vela. Huh?! I love that I can randomly scan Facebook and find out my sis was interviewed by a Forbes writer. Gotta love that girl.

So, this post goes out to you, my little sis, for being one cool chick. Take refuge in the fact that you have an adoring niece who will probably be begging to live with you in the next five years, and a gushing big sis who thinks you are awesome!

Distance really does make the heart grow fonder

June 3, 20122 Comments

Maria Grace stayed with Jon’s mom this entire week. We went up for Memorial Day on Monday and she just returned today. I swear she looks two years older. She got four inches cut off of her hair during her stay with Grandma. She greeted me with a huge hug and smile but when I asked her how her time was with Grandma and Alana, she responded “it was fine but I don’t want to talk about it.” Huh?! I asked her if something went wrong and she looked at me puzzled. “No, mom, I just don’t feel like talking about it.”

Ok. I am not ready for this response when just two weeks ago she would have went on and on about her time with Alana and her adventures with Grandma. Well, maybe I exaggerate a bit – she has never been that talkative about her days; but she used to at least summarize them for me! I let it go in order to just enjoy the moment with her – soak up her smile and her laugh. Mario yelled “Ria” when he saw her and gave her a huge hug that lasted 30 seconds. He had been asking when she’d be home for the last three days.

One of the first tasks that Maria set out to do when she walked in the house was write a letter to Ann Curry. Yes, the Today Show’s Ann Curry. Jon and I default to NBC News in the morning, and Maria enjoys watching it, too. She loves Ann Curry; she thinks she’s smart and stylish. Her letter told her as much and she also added a sentence stating that Ann Curry helps her learn more about the world. Precious. I had Maria write Ann Curry’s name and address on the front of the envelope with the hopes that it does not get pitched since it is clearly from a kid. We will keep our fingers crossed…!

Meanwhile, Mario and I wrestled. He made me grab his leg each time he started to turn the DVD dial and then after I grabbed it, he shocked me with the electric waves coming out of his fingers. I had to play dead for five seconds and then come back alive to do it all over again. He could have played that game with me for two hours but I could only handle about 15 minutes. I had to play a game of HeadBandz in order to get him off the wrestling kick, and then find his Spiderman costume for him to wear.

I got a massage in the mid-afternoon, which was a piece of heaven for an hour. Is there anything better than a scalp massage at 3 pm? And I could hire someone to rub my feet all day long and think it was money well spent. I lifted myself off the massage table afterwards, and had deep creases along my face and legs – a sign of a good massage. Jon decided to cook lemon chicken for dinner so we spent an hour preparing the chicken and the sides while the kids played on the computer and drew. It was a very strange yet wonderful experience for us. Strange to smell sweet aromas throughout the kitchen and wonderful to cook our own meal (the joke is that we have only used our pots and pans a handful of times since we were married in 2002).

The kids even liked it! And Maggie, hung over and all, enjoyed it, too. After dinner, we rode our bikes up to the mailbox to deliver Ann Curry’s letter (and a b-day card to Grandma Lolo) and chow on some Orange Leaf. Mario gave up on his bike at Stauf’s so I carried him the rest of the way (I am a sucker!). Jon played on his new scooter for a bit; Maggie texted her friends and engaged in time trials with the kids; and I cleaned up. A good ending to a long day. I am excited to have Maria back with us even if she doesn’t want to divulge her week to me. As long as I still get those hugs, I am ok.

Dancin’ the Night Away

April 25, 2012Leave a comment

Maggie came over tonight and we jammed it out to Call Me Baby. Maggie introduced me to this song a couple of weeks ago and I can’t get it out of my head. I sing it while heading to meetings and picking up the kids and mowing the lawn. I just wish I could dance like any of the youngins’ in the video. Maggie jammed out a move to try to teach me but I looked like I was having a major chest spasm.

Later in the evening, we found Now 7 and Now 41 CDs in Maria’s room. This discovery set off a round of dancing sessions with Maria and Mario (and Jon even got a wild hair when Nelly sang). Maria is thoughtful when she dances because she is busy trying to hear what the words are to the song while she dances. This causes her to look like she has no rhythm. And because she has my genes, she is already one step in the hole when it comes to rhythm. Mario, on the other hand, has some moves in him. He could care less about the words to the song; he just moves to the beat and lets the words go as they may. The two of them together are a hysterical live show. At one point, Maria started jumping up and down and throwing her arms up to put bunny ears behind her own head. Maggie and I thought we should try her move at the bar next time we went out.

Mario began to move like Rico Suave and gently hold his fingers to my mouth as he stared at me. Jon commented that he has a career as a Chippendale. Twenty seconds after he said that, Mario sprang out from behind the chair with his robe and shirt tore off. Bare-chested with his pj bottoms dancing to “I’m Sexy and I know it.” What a shame.

Who created these two!?

Congratulations all around

April 23, 20122 Comments

Maria finally got on her bike by herself tonight! Yes, sounds strange but that’s life for ya. She is right in between bike sizes and we went with the bigger size for her. Therefore, she has trouble getting on the bike by herself and stopping the bike herself. When she stops, she used to have to fall into the grass or onto the sidewalk because she could not reach her feet to the ground. She has recently gotten tall enough to lean to the side and place her foot to the ground. It is much easier to the eye to see her do that versus falling to the ground with her bike on top of her. Two nights ago, she stood by her bike on the driveway, raised one leg over, and jumped on her bike as it rolled down the hill – she got on the bike all by herself! I was so pumped up! Maria was even more excited asking me to watch her over and over until I yelled “My baby is getting on a bike by herself!” at which time she promptly told me to hush because I was embarrassing her.

Mario, not to be one-upped by his sister, got out the scooter and tried to ride around on it to impress me. After I congratulated Maria again for working hard on her bike, Mario looked up at me with sad little eyes and said “Mom, why aren’t you being nice to me?” I tried to explain to him that Maria was accomplishing something at the moment and he would have a time when he was accomplishing something big, and I would congratulate him. It fell on deaf ears. He held his hands up to cover his ears and ran away. When I went inside to talk to him, he ran to his bedroom. He only came out after I tempted him with baseball.

I pitched the ball to him and he whacked the ball all over the yard. I kept congratulating him for his stellar performance. After a few more hits, he looked at me and said “Maybe we should let Maria try to hit.”

Maria swung and missed. Again. Mario looked at her and said “Too bad, Maria. When you get better, you will get congratulations.”

That little sh–. He was setting it all up and I did not even see it coming. He has always got to one-up. Maria is luckily unfazed by his behavior, but I am going to break him of this nasty little habit eventually (although I am sure there will have to be some congratulations involved).

"MOM!"

Adventures in the Life of a Working Mama

Tag: siblings