And So it Goes and So it Goes

A new year, a new series of kid stories.

Gish turned 5 last month. It's funny that when SG turned 5 he seemed so much older than Gish does. I wonder why that is? Gish is still such a baby. You know, when they can say the most inappropriate things that are still considered funny. Like when we were skiing; Gish fell on the bunny slope (can you believe my FIVE year old skiis????) and he started to cry, not because he was hurt but because "now everyone will be laughing at me." I tried to tell him that everyone falls sometimes when they ski and that no one would be laughing at him. Why did he think that people would be laughing at him? And through his sobs he tells me "because I laugh at them when they fall!" Ok then. I would say in that case that you deserve it.

SG has become quite adept at skiing. "C'mon, Mom! Let's go in the terrain park!" Is he nuts??? Why on earth would anyone want to go down a flight of stairs IN SKIS?!? ON PURPOSE?!?!?! He can't understand why this does not sound particularly fun to me. (COOL! Did you see my SKI popped off when I fell off that bridge??) Heaven help me. Whoever came up with this sport anyway? For a school project he decided to make a video tape of himself skiing. It was my brilliant idea, but what I didn't think through completely was the poor shmo (read: the daddy) that had to ski with a video camera - sometimes backwards! The video actually came out really good and the kids in his class enjoyed it so much that he played it twice. I'm waiting for the day that he asks me if he can go sky diving.

And did I tell you what he wants to be when he grows up? A roller coaster designer. He wants to make roller coasters. The bigger and scarier the better. I just know that he is going to talk his little brother into being the roller coaster tester. Hang on everyone, here we go.

Lotion

Boy time flies, doesn't it? I can't believe we are getting ready to celebrate Gish's fifth birthday. Five. How is that possible? This is my BABY. No, I refuse to believe that 5 years have passed since he decided to make his appearance. I overheard a conversation between Gish and SG the other day in which they were talking about an argument that they had "inside Mommy's tummy." Apparently, Gish was hogging the space so SG pushed him. When I interrupted that they were not inhabiting the space at the same time, SG informed me that "well, Gish was only this big" when that happened and that seemed perfectly reasonable to both of them. Ok.

Remember I said that I believe my kids have superpowers? Gish's superpower made an appearance again in a rather scary way. Remember that his superpower is his tolerance for pain. Well, about a month ago he brushed the back of his hand against an outdoor chimnea and got some pretty severe burns on the back of his hand. He cried for a few minutes but then seemed fine. By the time I got him to the doctor, his hand was purple and a good part of the skin had blistered, popped and scraped off. Yuck. He hardly showed any sign of discomfort. I gave him some precautionary ibuprofin that night in case he was in any pain but he never needed medicating after that. ANYWAY, the burn is finally healing and all that is left is a pink scar (hopefully a temporary one) where the worst of the burn was. I have been putting lotion with vitamin e and cocoa butter on it every night to try to minimize the scar. Somehow in his head, he now equates lotion with fixing boo boos. He came running to me the other day holding his thumb out (which he claims was cut but I didn't see anything) and begging me to "put lotion on it!" I was baffled at first until I realized what he was talking about. So I put a little of the cocoa butter lotion on it and he didn't mention it again. This happened a couple more times with a other boo boos and worked each time. Lotion. Who new? At least my kid will have the supplest hands on the playground.

There's Good News and There's Bad News

That was the phone call I got yesterday. Do you want the good news or the bad news? Usually I ask for the bad news first to get it over with and then perk myself up with the good news, but yesterday I got the good news first. The good news is that Gish wrote his name, by himself, absolutely perfectly. No letters were backwards, it was legible. Good boy. The bad news it that he wrote it in magic marker on my pillow! Not my throw pillow, the pillow that I put my head on at night. In perfect letters. And then, just in case I couldn't read it well enough, he drew a picture of himself. ON MY SHEETS! Lovely. We didn't know whether to praise him for his work or punishing him for where he did it. It was like the time he drew a shark on my white carpet with a red sharpie marker (Gish, what is THAT? It's a SHARK, Mommy!) Luckily I learned my lesson with that one and only have washable markers now. Still. Rotten kid.

Then last night right before I put him to bed, I noticed that he left his clothes in a pile on the floor. The boys are responsible for putting their own clothes in the hamper so I told him that before he went to bed he needed to get up and put his clothes in the basket. He said he didn't want to. I said "If I were you, I would get up and take care of these clothes little boy!" He responded, without missing a beat, "if you were me, then YOU would put the clothes in the basket!" Rotten kid.

Some Insight into my Oldest

I can't believe we are back to school already. It seems that the summer flew by. The boys loved loved loved camp (of course, Gish loves anything that SG loves) but were so excited to start school that they didn't even mind camp ending. We even got to take a nice vacation at the end of the summer - and Gish was finally tall enough to ride some of the big coasters! Yippee! It's amazing how he can walk for 6 hours straight, up hills without uttering a single complaint when we are at an amusement park, but the 100 yard walk from the grocery store parking lot to the front door will do him in every time.

So back to the school year. Gish has gone from a 3 day a week, 2.5 a day schedule to a 5 day a week, 2 different school, plus aftercare program. The first day I thought when I went to pick him up that I would need to peel him off the floor, but no, my child actually sent me away because he wasn't done with his game yet and doggonit he was NOT leaving until he found out how the alphabet bingo game played out! When we left, he was actually skipping (SKIPPING) to the car and singing! I thought it was a first day fluke, but nope, he genuinely loves it. Thank goodness! The last thing I want is another babysitter living in my house. I've been punished enough, thank you.

It's hard being a working mom with 2 kids in school. Especially in the beginning of the year. There is so much to do it is hard to do any of it particularly well. I have been trying to be efficient wherever I can. One way I have done that is to combine my morning commute with exercise. I have been riding my bike to work on days that it is not raining. What this means is that I put on my gym clothes with makeup (I change my clothes when I get to work but not the makeup). It often looks pretty funny. Gish will often keep me company in the bathroom in the morning and a morning a couple of days ago, I looked particularly horrific in a cruddy t-shirt, stained sweats, and a full made up face. I said to Gish "how do I look?" He was silent so I figured he was just trying to spare my feelings. After a good 10-15 second pause he says "Mommy, you look so beautiful I have no words." That's my boy. Look out girls!

SG has the greatest teacher this year! I met her at Back to School last night and I wanted to be in the class! What fun she is! When I first got there, I was looking at all the stuff hanging out in the hall, and there was one particular project that all the kids had done but him. I asked the teacher about it and told her I was afraid that she didn't put it up because my child's handwriting is so atrocious and she didn't want to showcase that (I was joking). This started a conversation about how I think he is going to be a doctor based solely on his horrible penmanship. When she said that it isn't always that bad, something clicked for me. She's right. It's only bad when he is in a hurry to finish because there is the promise of something more fun or more interesting on the horizon. This would also explain the behavior I've heard about from his last 2 teachers. They said during certain parts of the day he would be unusually fidgety and have a hard time sitting still. Hmmm... I wonder if it was right before recess, or snack time, or gym time, or something else that he looks forward to. The thing that cemented it for me was what happened the first week of school. (I shared this story with the teacher and she said I made her night).

The first week of school was a bit crazy and I didn't get around to doing the laundry for a few days. When I finished folding it, I was struck by the fact that we all had 4 days of clothing but that something was missing. Noah didn't have any underwear in his pile. I feared that maybe he was having accidents again and hiding his underwear from me. He has never done that before, but who knows? I started to look under his bed, the back of the closet, etc. Then it hit me. After much probing, he finally admitted to me that he had not worn underwear all week! Not one time! He went to school every day commando! When I asked him why he did that he rolled his eyes at me and said exaperated, "Mim (he calls me Mim), I don't have TIME to put on underwear. I only have so much time to play my game before school and the underwear thing just slows me down!" Ugh. So now I have revised my morning checklist for him before he can play any games - homework in backpack, lunch in backpack, dressed (and checked for coordination of clothing - he is known for wearing things liked ripped orange cordoroy pants with a red muscle shirt on backwards), shoes and socks on, teeth brushed, pajamas in the laundry basket and now UNDERWEAR!

Camp

Both boys started camp this morning. They were so excited that they would have slept on the front stoop if I would have let them. Watching Gish getting on to the bus was a bit of a surreal experience. SG assured me that he would look out for his little brother and scare away all the bullies. I thought that was very sweet of him. I didn't tell him that I firmly believe that anyone that tries to mess with Gish will surely end up on the losing side of that battle (Gish can absolutely take care of himself). SG also made Daddy buy him a notebook to pack in this backpack so that he can fill it with the names and phone numbers of all the friends he is going to make. I'm sure he filled the first 2 pages before he ever got off the bus. I tried to tell him to wait a couple of days until he knows the kids better but patience is not one of his strong suits.

I have renamed them: they are now my children "Moody" and "Persistent". I made the mistake of telling them those names. SG, aka Persistent follows Gish, aka Moody around saying "you're moody. Yes, you are, you're moody. You're moody, you're moody..." etc etc etc. Of course the more persistent he is about it the more angry the little one gets. By the end he's screaming "I AM NOT MOODY!!" It's really quite humorous. I wonder where they get those traits? (ahem)

A short post today. Will post more after I see how they like camp.

So Bad. So so bad.

That's me. A bad bad blogger. The excuse, er, I mean problem has been that now for some reason this site is behind my firewall at work. Go figure! They want me to actually do WORK at work. Anyway, that's when I usually do my posting. Who has time at home with two little ones running around.

This year is starting to get away from me. I can't believe we are pushing June already. We had a bit of a hard time last week when we had to put our beloved dog, Jack, to sleep. He had a tumor that was just swallowing his head and he really had no quality of life left. It was a tough decision, but I think the right one. It is weird for us to not have him greet us at the door when we get home, but I don't think it is really affecting the boys at all. For Gish, as long as the cat is still around, all is right with his world. SG was upset at the idea of losing Jack, but hasn't once asked for him so I think for him it is a bit of out-of-sight-out-of-mind. I'm glad that it isn't harder on them. It's the daddy that I am most worried about. He was definitely the closest to the pooch and he was the one that had to take him to the vet. It was not/is not easy.

The kids are getting ready for camp and I am getting ready to FINALLY not have a live in babysitter anymore! Woo Hoo! I can't wait to get my house back. I keep telling people, if you hear me talking about getting another live in sitter, or if you happen to walk by me perusing any sites like au pair sites, just hand me a gun, put my hand to my head and tell me that it will be much quicker and less painful this way. Seriously, I will even do the boys laundry MYSELF if it means that I don't have to have another drama queen, I mean sitter, live in. We'll just have to figure out how to make it work next year.

In other news, the boys were at their first real wedding this weekend. Well, they were at one other, of a former sitter, an aupair, who left us to travel for 3 weeks and in that time met a man, got pregnant and then married and is currently living in Rhode Island. Mind you, she left us because she was soooo homesick. That one doesn't really count though because no one there spoke English and we didn't recognize any of the food or the music. It was a typical Armenian wedding, which was great for them to experience, but a bit hard for us. This wedding was their Aunt and they had a blast! They were the ring bearers (or ring bearies as Gish called them) and they wore tuxedos, and walked down the aisle and everything. I was so proud. Especially when Gish, noting how his Aunt was struggling with the ring said very loudly, "Well, Aunt D., why did you tie the ring to that pillow anyway?" to lots of giggles from the crowd. I think all weddings need a comic moment or two.

I was super duper proud of SG when he took a microphone and read a poem to the couple that he, well, WE wrote. We practiced all day and he read it beautifully. Everyone was touched. He was really upset at first because he the DJ said he could do it but he needed to go potty first. By the time he got back from the bathroom, the DJ told him he missed his chance. Schmuck. The poor kid was crushed. You better believe that we were not leaving that affair, nor were any of the guests, before he got a chance to read that poem. Gish managed to memorize it too after hearing SG recite it all day long. The two of them were just precious. Of course, SG didn't share the mike, but at least Gish THINKS he was part of it. I was pretty puffed up to say the least.

Anyway, going to end this now before the firewall police catch me and I lose this post.

My Baby

My baby keeps reminding me he is NOT a BABY ANYMORE! He's 4 now. His birthday was last week and in our usual fashion we had 3 parties. Everyone keeps telling me how much he has matured in the last couple of weeks. Nah, he is still my baby. (I am NOT a BABY!) In fact, on his birthday, after we dropped his brother off at school he went back to the car and tried to climb into the front seat. When I questioned what he was doing he said "Mommy, I'm 4 now. I can drive." HA! I answered, "maybe when you're 5" which seemed perfectly reasonable to him. His parties were fun - especially the one on Saturday night, which was a cocktail parties for all the parents. We let the kids play in the basement and the grownups had a grownup party upstairs. I figure I'm the one that did all the work on that day 4 years ago, why shouldn't we be celebrating ME? But alas, just like on that day 4 years ago, I did all the work this day too. *Sigh.* And like that time 4 years ago, everyone came to my house and "oohed" and "aahed" over everything, brought a couple of gifts for the baby and then left me to my own devices. Ah well, it was fun.

In other news, I was superproud of my Supergerky! A few months ago he saw the movie Zathura and was so taken by it that he decided to write the sequel. He spent days coming up with the plot, writing out the outline and making illustrations (in crayon of course). He was so pleased with the final product that he wanted to send it to the movie studio. We sent it to the director, the executive producer, the movie studio and the PR firm. Well, we were thrilled a couple of days ago when he got a real live letter, addressed to him from the CEO of Radar Pictures (Ted Field) telling him that while he didn't know whether or not they would be doing a sequel, that SG is a wonderfully creative little boy with a great imagination. He thanked him for sharing his work and encouraged him to keep writing. I'm sure it was written by an assistant, but nonetheless, how utterly cool that he got such a great response from the Executive Producer of the film! He was a bit underwhelmed, but I think he will be thrilled as he gets older and realizes what that really is about and who the letter was from. Meanwhile, I wanted to bring the letter to my office for Show and Tell. 8) That's my boy!

And lastly, Gish has renamed me. He now calls me Frieda. I don't know why, he just does. It's a little weird. Frieda. Whatever.