Olympic Dreams

We've been watching a lot of the Olympics in the last couple of weeks. Since NBC seems unable to broadcast the most interesting results before the last hour of the telecast, and I seem to have lost the ability to stay up until midnight, I've been DVRing the coverage and watching it with the boys the next day. It's been interesting to see what piques their interest. C has really taken to speed skating (or "skate racing" as he calls it), cross country "ski racing", and snowboard cross. I would never have predicted that these sports would be what would catch his attention. But they've sparked an interest in learning to skate and ski, so that's a good thing. Too bad the seasons for both are almost over. I hope he'll still be interested when the next session of lessons starts in the fall.  And that he manages to have more athletic ability than his parents!

O, on the other hand, has less interest in the games. The only sport that routinely catches his attention is figure skating, and that's only because of the soundtracks.  "Hey, that's the music from Firebird!...That's the song from Frances: Whiny Sister!...That song is in the Little Einsteins: Pirate Treasure episode!"  If recognizing music were an Olympic sport, he would be on the podium for sure! Yes, clearly my boys watch too much TV, but hey, they're learning classical music! That's got to count for something, right?

I'll leave you with an Olympic deep thought from C: "Hey Mom! Why does the Switzerland flag have a hospital sign on it??"  You can find the answer here.

The Best Medicine

Obviously I've been feeling down in the dumps lately. Luckily, I have two boys who are excellent at providing comic relief. There's not much that's funnier than watching a 2 1/2 year old bowl for the first time.

Will the ball make it all the way down the lane to the pins???....No!
But we cheered all the same!

Love and laughter really are the best medicine.

Ordinary Day

Today was supposed to be my initial 8 week OB appointment. Today was supposed to be the day that I would get my first glimpse of our new baby and its beautiful heartbeat. When I first found out I was pregnant and calculated my due date, I thought, "Uh oh, this timing is going to be a little crazy!" Because today was supposed to be the day I would learn for sure that September would be the busiest month on record, with C starting kindergarten, O starting preschool, and a new baby arriving at the end of the month.

But instead, today is just an ordinary Monday. Hubby went off to work, C went off to school, and O and I spent a morning filled with the usual activities (laundry, music class, errands, and a few debates about whether or not the potty is scary...). And any other day, this ordinary day would have been the perfect day. But today I woke up knowing what this day was supposed to be. And the hurried scribbles on the calendar that blacked out our previously scheduled activities weren't enough to wipe away my sadness.

We should be Five...

One day when C was just three years old, he announced "We need another baby!" He had never mentioned anything like this before, so I was baffled by this statement. "What do you mean?" I asked him. And he said with total certainty, "We should be five. Our family should have five." "Five kids?!?" I asked him, in disbelief. "No, Mommy. Just five people. Not five babies." he said.

I had an instant flashback to the delivery room immediately after O was born. As O was snuggling on my chest, I informed Hubby, "We are soooo doing this again!" Clearly, the idea of having a family of five was not out of the question for me. But at the time of C's announcement, O was just a year old and still not sleeping through the night, so adding another child to the mix was the last thing on my mind. I chuckled and told C, "Well that might never happen, but we'll see what life brings us."

Ordinarily, I forget the funny things the boys say quite quickly, but C had said "we should be five" with such conviction that it stuck in my head. And over the next year and a half, he kept talking about it. Always out of the blue, and always at the most unusual times, but he never wavered. It didn't matter to him whether he had a little brother or a little sister, he just knew that our family needed one more person in it. And as O transitioned from a baby into an independent boy, the idea of another baby that had been in my head since the delivery room, began to sprout. Like a long dormant bulb, what had been hidden away began to slowly bloom.

Earlier this month, for two blissful weeks, I knew our third child was on the way. Until suddenly, it wasn't. Multiple OB visits and tests confirmed that this wasn't our time. For now, and perhaps for always, we will be just four. And it's such a great foursome that I feel guilty even wanting more.

But I can't help feeling that C is right. We should be five.

I hope someday I can tell him that we will be.

Boyish...

When I was younger, I always imagined that when I grew up, I would have two girls. Sometimes I imagined they would be twins, other times not, but it was always girls. Girls to play Barbies with and girls to take to ballet class. But, when I was pregnant with C, I had a feeling he was a boy from the very beginning, and I was so excited! I never once wished for a girl. When I found out I was expecting again, I hoped for another boy, because I wanted C to have a brother and best friend for life. And I was thrilled to end up with a second son. I think my life has turned out just the way it was supposed to, even though it's so different than I imagined. But some days it just really strikes me, "Yes, you have two BOYS."

Yesterday was one of those days. Here's just a sampling of why...

--I watched the first NASCAR race I have ever seen in my life, so that the boys could see the real Lightning McQueen. Of course the DVR stopped taping with 5 laps to go, so after investing 2 hours of our time, we still don't know who won. At least the boys enjoyed seeing some real pit stops. Those guys really DO change tires fast!

--I was totally exasperated with their blatant disregard for my "No throwing balls inside" rule, when I realized that they were playing baseball using a small whiffle ball and a lincoln log for a bat. Just as I warned them, that game ended poorly when C hit O square in the face with the ball. He really needs to work on his pitching skills!

--I put a diaper on their baby doll, in an attempt to discourage the new game they've started playing with this doll, commonly known as "The Baby Pooped on Your Face!!" When C asked why the baby had a diaper on it, I explained that this way, the baby would no longer poop on people's faces. To which he replied, "yes he can, because the poop will just leak out of the diaper!" And then he and O began running around screaming, "The baby's diaper leaked and he pooped on your face!...No, the baby pooped on your face!...HA HA HA HA HA."

Sigh.

But even with a lifetime of race cars, injuries, and poop talk to look forward to, I wouldn't trade my wild and crazy boys for anything! I just hope that they'll always let Mom into their "No Girls Allowed" clubhouse.

Dreams

O usually is the first of the boys to wake up. In the past, as soon as he was awake, he would come hurtling toward our room and jump right up in our bed. Where we would engage in a battle of wills, in hopes that he would go back to sleep until his brother woke up. But in the last few weeks, O has started staying in his bed a little longer. He starts talking, in the hopes that C will wake up and play with him. Since O has that "it's impossible for me to whisper" 2 year old voice, C usually does wake up in response to the barrage of words coming his way. It's fun to listen to their early morning conversations.

From yesterday morning...

O: "C? Are you awake?"

C: "Mmm...what?"

O: "I had a bad dream about rainclouds."

C: "You did? Why was it bad? Did the cloud rain on you?"

O: "Yes, it rained on my FACE!"

C: "And got in your eye?!"

O: "Yeah! And I had four more dreams too. How many dreams did you have?"

C: "I didn't have any dreams. I had ZERO dreams."

O: "Oh. I had four dreams. One bad dream about rain clouds and then dreams about race cars."

C: "You had dreams about race cars?"

O: "Yeah. Race cars in a show!"

C: "Awesome."

Tired...

I've been very tired this week. Insomnia plus a nasty lingering cough have really made me feel worn down and bleary eyed. It would have been the perfect day to stay in bed and do nothing, but of course, I never have that luxury anymore. A girl can dream though!

I asked the boys to please be quiet and calm this morning since I wasn't feeling well. Which to them apparently meant, please pull all the couch cushions onto the floor to make a pyramid, and then jump across said cushionless couch playing "racing bunny rabbits." Sigh.

After taking C to school, O & I stopped by CVS to pick up some prescriptions, and then hit Costco for our usual staples. Of course, in my sleepy state, I forgot to buy peanut butter. We've been completely out of peanut butter for 2 days, and since C eats a PB&J every day for lunch, this has been an issue, and was one of the main reasons I went to Costco this morning. I realized I forgot to buy it as I was loading our other purchases into the car, but O burst into tears at the idea of going back into the store. It was cold so I couldn't really blame him, and I just left it. But I hate that feeling of finishing an errand, only to realize you will just have to go out again later.

These are the days I really wish the boys still napped. Because I would actually take one too. This day needs a reboot!

City

Building this kept the boys busy for about 45 minutes before school.

50 books in 2010--update!

The boys' Gramma has been visiting for a few days, and I've taken full advantage of having someone else around to entertain the boys for a change! I squeezed in a long overdue doctor's appointment for myself, and was also able to read 2 books, bringing my grand total to 3 books read so far this year. Not bad for a week's work, and necessary to catch up since I started this challenge almost a month into the New Year. I've really enjoyed all the discussions that this challenge has sparked among my local and online friends. They've been providing wonderful suggestions, and several have taken up the challenge too. One great suggestion was "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. I read the whole book yesterday (staying up waaaay too late to finish it!) and I can't wait to read the sequel! After that there will be only 46 books to go. Keep the suggestions coming since I'll need a lot of them!