Monkey Joe and other tales

We are getting ready to leave for Knoxville in a little while to visit Gran and Grandaddy, Kerry, and Kate, but before we go, there are a couple of stories worth telling.

Thursday, I took the kids to the new Monkey Joe's at Northlake. It is a great facility. It has at least 7 of the big inflatable jumpers, arcade games, a parents' area with comfy chairs and a big TV (I don't know when you get to sit there, but it looked nice), etc. I was a little frustrated at first because, of course, once the kids found the arcade games, they didn't want to jump, they wanted money for the arcade games. I was not about to feed money into arcade games after I paid $14 to get us into the place, so I said no. This did not deter them, though. They "played" those dern games anyway. Oh, well. They were having fun, so I had to tell myself to just chill. They did go through periods when they would jump, and they had a ball doing that too. The only problem was that one of the big jumpy things had a giant inflatable Monkey Joe on the front of it. It was probably 15 feet high. Pressley was terrified of it and refused to go into the section that allowed her to see it. Every time I would carry her over there to watch Evan climb or jump, her eyes got huge and then she started screaming, "NO that! NO that, mommy!" So, I resolved not to take her over there. Then, much to Evan's delight, one of the employees got into the Monkey Joe costume and came out to slide down the slide and visit with the kids. Pressley was more terrified of costumed Monkey Joe than inflatable Monkey Joe. We had to go to the snack area and sit at a picnic table where we could not see him so I could try to talk her off the ledge. She kept looking over her shoulder toward where Joe had last been seen to make sure he was staying put, all the while desperately clutching at my shirt. Poor thing. I tried to explain to her that it was just a boy or girl in a costume and nothing to be scared of, but she would not be consoled. Cut to later that night when I was putting her to bed: Pressley has been difficult to put to bed ever since she learned to climb out of the crib and Thursday night was no different. One of the times I went upstairs to put her back in bed, I got her all tucked in under her blankets and she looked at me with those big bright eyes and said in a loud whisper, "Where's costume, mommy?" I assured her that it was in a closet in a locked room and that the person who had worn it was at his or her house watching TV and that Monkey Joe would certainly not be making any more appearances today. The conversation had to be repeated one more time a few minutes later, but finally she fell asleep, no doubt to dream about giant purple monkeys coming to get her. Bless her heart....

Evan has been super sweet this week. For one thing, during the whole Monkey Joe's outing, the two of them were playing together in one of the jumpers and I was sitting nearby when I heard Pressley's signature shriek. I jumped up to see what on earth was the matter and I found Evan leaning over her talking to her and then he planted a big kiss on the boo-boo on her arm she was pointing at and then took her hand and off they went to play together again. It was priceless! Then, yesterday morning, I woke to hear Evan rustling around in his room. I could tell he was getting himself dressed, so I stayed put and let him do it. In a few minutes, he appeared beside the bed to insist that I get up. I looked down at him and noticed that he had on his soccer uniform. So cute. He had been asking all week about when it would be time to play soccer again. Apparently, he knew when he woke up that it was Friday and Friday was soccer day, so he got all ready. I had to talk him out of wearing his uniform to school by convincing him it might get dirty. He eventually agreed to wear his Buzz Lightyear shirt to school instead, but it took some doin'.

As for me, I've started working again this week, which may explain why it has taken me so long to post an update. I am doing a project for Counsel on Call for 20 hours a week from home. It is a pretty good gig. My mom has graciously agreed to pick the kids up from school on Tuesdays and Thursdays and keep them until 5:30 so I can have two full days to get in most of my hours in on those days, and I'll try to get the rest in during naps or after bed-time. This week worked pretty well even though mom and dad were out of town Tuesday through Thursday so we had to re-work the schedule a bit this week.

To do list:

1. Find cure for insomnia (I'm exhausted!).
2. Find happy medium between instilling enough confidence to overcome nervous tummy and instilling so much confidence that your kid thinks he's the best player on the team and better than his daddy.
3. Figure out what on earth could make a 2 year old so manic - and fix it.
4. Send thank you note to delightful wife of (stay with me) Corin's big brother from his fraternity from his freshman (and only) year at Suwanee for having us over for dinner last night.
5. Become a better (and more frequent) host.
6. Apologize to Shay - again - for stealing formatting ideas from her blog (e.g., publishing a to do list). Remind her - again - that imitation is the highest form of flattery.
7. Become more creative to eliminate need to steal clever ideas from other bloggers.

Busy week...

Proud soccer mom

So... today was the first soccer game. Evan was a rock star. He scored the first goal of the game. Four goals in all. We were very proud of the way he played. There were only 4 kids there from Evan's team. The games are 3 on 3, so there was lots of opportunity for those kids to play. Unfortunately, one of those 4 kids was a little girl who preferred to stand on the field with her thumb in her mouth. Even then, she didn't like being out there, and would run screaming to the sidelines after a few seconds. (I am NOT judging. Glad it is not my kid - this week. So, no judgment. Just reporting the facts.) Anyway, because of this, the 3 boys played the whole game with very few breaks. The other team had at least 8 kids, so they were still fresh as a daisy when our 3 boys were falling over tired. The second half was tough. Evan was so tired of running, he just kind of stood there most of the time. The coach's kid was the energizer bunny. He was the only one of the 3 that never seemed to get tired. He just ran and smiled and scored goals. It was a super fun game. Very high scoring. There was essentially no defense, so anyone who could maintain control of the ball could score. It was all very cute. Pressley was fairly well-behaved. She only ran out onto the field a couple of times. Luckily, it was never when anyone was headed her direction.

Evan running with the ball to score a goal.

Pressley insisted she get some camera time too. It can't be all about the boys...

(More photos linked at left.)

Score!!!!

Two fabulous things happened today. Corin is back home with us safe and sound AND we had a successful soccer practice tonight. I tell you I did not know what to expect. After last week, I was a bit apprehensive. We left the house too early, and arrived at the turn to the soccer field about 10 minutes before practice. Not knowing how standing around waiting (like last week) would affect Evan, I actually drove past the field and into the neighborhood nearby to avoid any kind of unnecessary nerves. Once we arrived, a beautiful thing happened. Evan hung out with me for about 1 minute and then announced that he thought he'd go on out to the field. Beautiful! But, I didn't hold my breath. I thought certainly he'd be back with some kind of potty emergency or phantom illness. But, NO. He stayed out on the field for the entire practice. Not only that, but he appeared to be having, how shall I say this?... FUN. He was quite the participator and even appeared to win a couple of races (if that's what they were). I must admit that I was not riveted to the practice. I actually got to enjoy talking to some of the other moms. And sit in a chair. A very different experience indeed. At each water break, Evan came racing over to drink out of his spiderman water bottle, and then each time I told him the coach was ready for them to come back, out he went. I can't tell you how rewarding that was. And at the end of practice, I'm loading up our stuff and heading to the car when he asks, "Mommy, can I stay and play with Everett and Nate for a while?" Ummmm, certainly! At which point he spent 10-15 minutes playing football (American football, that is) with his friends from the team. I probably shouldn't mention that Everett's daddy accidentally drilled Evan between the eyes with the tiny, hard football. It wasn't his fault. He was trying to make sure Evan felt included, and Evan wasn't paying real close attention. But, I'll say this... that kid is a lot tougher than I ever was or ever will be. He didn't whimper. He came over to let me assess his wound, but he literally did not make a sound to convey his discomfort (read: pain).

Anyhow, now I am very cautiously optimistic about the chances he'll participate in his first game tomorrow. I'm still not sure that Evan fully grasps the fact that he should not steal the ball from or "tackle" his own teammates, but I guess that is what makes team sports so cute at this age. We shall see. I'll keep you posted.

The 5 o'clock crazies

Tonight, just as I was about to sit down to dinner, Corin called to say he would be late. Since the kids had already decided they weren't going to eat any steak, potatoes, or zucchini, I eventually excused them from the table and ate alone. While I ate, they got wound up. As I loaded the dishwasher, they disassembled our sitting room. Corin walked in a moment later to find Pressley's naked hiney sticking out of a pile of cushions on the floor. (I had just been summoned by Evan's remark that Pressley wanted to show me something, and that was what I found as well. Somehow the two of them got her jeans and her diaper off while I was loading the dishwasher. Still don't know why.) Corin has told me in the past that his mom called this sort of behavior the 5 o'clock crazies when he was growing up. Apparently, it happens at 7:15 in our house. I am upstairs in the office for about 10 minutes for some much-needed crazy-free time.

Movin' right along (dooby doo dooby doo)

Whew. What a weekend. It started on Friday evening with Evan's 1st soccer practice. You may recall from my last entry that Evan was really pumped about soccer. However, his enthusiasm faded when we got in the car. By the time we got to the soccer field, he had a full-fledged tummy ache. My first reaction was to be really irritated and frustrated, but that was not helping matters at all. Here's a brief account of the events:
5:10 - arrive at Columbia Seminary field for 5:15 practice
5:11 - ask other moms if any of them are there for the Silverbacks practice (answer is no)
5:12 - call neighbor to find out if I have missed a memo regarding a scheduling change (leave crazy message)
5:15 - coach arrives and starts setting up for practice
5:20 - Evan tells me he has to go potty; ask another mom if there is potty nearby (answer is no); other mom suggests tree; I tell her it is not that kind of potty emergency
5:30 - leave soccer field in the car to scout out an open door at the seminary
5:35 - finally find open door at seminary
5:37 - Evan pees a teeny tiny bit and says he's done; I fuss at him for making us run all over creation only to decide he no longer needs to go
5:38 - Evan doubles over crying that his tummy hurts; I tell him we'll just go home
5:40 - back in the car to go back to field to retrieve soccer ball we left behind when we embarked on potty quest
5:45 - my nurturing side kicks in: I sit with Evan under a tree to try to get at the reason we are not playing soccer; my suspicion of "nervous tummy" confirmed; give pep talk; sit patiently and wait
5:50 - Evan decides he might want to play after all
5:51 - coach calls for water break after Evan has been on the field for 1 minute
5:52 - water break ends; Evan refuses to go back onto field
6:00 - practice ends and Evan's tummy miraculously feels good enough to go eat mexican food for dinner

Here's what I learned: 1) I am not as naturally nurturing as I would like to think. 2) Nurturing is way more effective than fussing in this type of circumstance - no matter how bad you want to blow a gasket. 3) We need to build confidence over the coming week so we do not have a repeat performance (non-performance) next Friday. Corin took Evan to the soccer field at Candler Park on Saturday and tried to teach him a few things. I am useless in this arena since I never played soccer and have no appreciable athletic skills in any event.

Saturday night, my parents were kind enough to keep this kids for us so we could go to the String Fling, which is the big annual fundraising gala to benefit the Center for Puppetry Arts. Since Corin is on the board, we were able to invite several guests. We invited a group of folks that I've been friends with for years and don't get the opportunity to see nearly often enough. It turned out to be a really fun night. I am so grateful for the kind of friends who can pick right up where you left off however many weeks or months ago that you saw them. I've linked a few photos to the left.

Today we went to the puppet center for a Muppet Movie sing-along with the kids. Basically, the showed the movie in the big theater and handed out props that you are supposed to use during various scenes in the movie (e.g., like a little rubber frog that you are supposed to pull the legs on every time the movie talks about frog legs). It was a little sophisticated for our kids, but Evan seemed to enjoy the overall experience. Pressley, who took no nap this afternoon, was antsy and eventually had to be removed from the theater. It was a fun experience anyway. I enjoyed belting out "Rainbow Connection" and "Movin' Right Along" (made possible by having the words displayed on the screen). I'm just dorky that way.

Boy, they grow up fast...

Evan's first soccer practice is tomorrow night, which meant that when we got home from our beach trip, the first order of business was getting him some cleats and shin guards. Since there is not a sports store near our house, I decided we would go to the Sports Authority at Northlake on our way to Wednesday night supper at church. I did not expect to spend 50 minutes picking out cleats, but apparently I am behind the 8 ball and all of the on-top-of-it-soccer-moms had bought up all the size 12 cleats. So, we had to try on every pair in the store. Naturally, the ones Evan liked were not available, so we talked him into a pair that cost $12 more and he was more or less happy. Then, when the sales lady walked us back to get the shin guards, I'll be darned if there wasn't a pair of size 12 Nikes with the blue stripes (and $12 cheaper) right there on the shelf with the shin guards. Now we had a dilemma.... We had to talk Evan back into the ones he wanted originally because we had so successfully talked him in to the more expensive ones, he was resistant to going back. The only reason it mattered is because the cheaper ones came in part of a "soccer package" that included shin guards and a ball. So, we convinced Evan to get the cheaper shoes by promising him a ball that he would otherwise not have gotten. I think I save about $3 and ended up with a ball we did not need.

OK, but none of that is the point of the story. The point of the story is that Evan was so thrilled with his new cleats and shin guards that he wanted to wear them to church. Since this kind of thing falls into the category of "not-worth-fighting-over", I told him that was fine. We'd show them to GranNan and Poppy at supper and then he could put his Crocs back on before he went to his class. He never changed out of them until we got back home, but I should have been able to predict that. He was so cute showing them to his little friends at church. What made the whole thing even sillier was that the only socks I took with us to try on the cleats were ankle socks. So, he was running around with his shin guards totally exposed. I never played soccer, but I'm fairly certain that falls into the category of "silly looking." But, the proud look on his face overshadowed any silliness and my only regret is not thinking to take a picture to share with you.

As for Pressley growing up fast... we had a busy morning this morning. Long story short (ish) - she fell asleep on the way home from the dentist/ eating lunch and didn't want to go back down for a proper nap after having a 5 minute snooze in the car. I left her in her crib anyway, hoping she would eventually give in and sleep for what little time we had left before we had to pick Evan up from school. A few minutes passed and all was quiet, so I thought I had won. Ohhhh, but no such luck. I heard a door close and looked up to see the little stinker coming down the hall. I asked her how on earth she got out of her crib and she said, "I sleep in crib..." Yeah, right. Then she informed me she had a dirty diaper. We took care of the diaper and then I put her back in her crib and asked her to show me how she got out. She reached up and grabbed the "foot" of the crib (for lack of a better description) and threw one leg over the side and then the other, and then shimmied down the side. When she reached the floor, she threw both arms in the air and grinned up at me proudly. The only thing missing was the Ta-dah!! I mean, seriously! I guess now we have to get her in a big girl bed since the crib is no longer doing its job.

UPDATE: While I was typing the paragraph about Evan, he was apparently downstairs getting into his shin guards and cleats, but got stalled and called for my help. So, I have a photo for you after all. How lucky was that?? Ta-dah!!

WaterSound mini-vacation

We are back from WaterSound. We had an absolutely lovely mini-vacation. As you can see from the photo above, WaterSound is an absolutely gorgeous development on the gulf coast. The sand dunes there are just remarkable and we felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. I guess it is still largely undiscovered. The weather was gorgeous. The kids were delightful. I am just so glad we are able to do stuff like this.

The first day there was largely consumed by catching crabs. I have never seen so many crabs. Corin was catching them and putting them in buckets, but eventually had to stop because we ran out of buckets. Here is a photo of Evan holding the first catch. Under the photo links, there are more pictures of the crabs in the multiple buckets. The kids had a ball watching and "feeding" little clams to the crabs.

The next day, we didn't have as much luck with the crabs, so Evan decided he wanted to be buried in the sand.

Last night, we went to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants down there. It was practically deserted, which was kind of nice since we have been known to wait an hour and a half for a table there. Anyway, when we were seated, the "adults" at the table next to ours scowled visibly at us and then promptly asked their server to move them to another table. Corin and I were both indignant. Our kids are usually pretty well-behaved in restaurants, but these folks didn't even give them a chance. The first thing they did at their new table was laugh VERY loudly with their waitress and the next thing they did was receive a phone call, which one of them answered, and then proceeded to have a conversation at the top of his voice. Our kids, on the other hand, were well-mannered, quiet (almost the whole time), and polite to the waiter--thanking him each time he brought something to the table. Now, I ask you... would you rather sit at a table next to two ADORABLE and perfectly delightful children or next to three loud adults who have the bad manners to answer a cell phone call (loudly) at the dinner table? I think I know the answer. I rest my case.

Today was our last day at the beach. We had to check out of the condo by 10 a.m. local time, so we loaded up the car and then headed down to the beach for one last hour. We were pleasantly surprised to find an apparent storm during the night (that we did not hear or see) left a large tidal pool on the beach. The kids thoroughly enjoyed playing in the shallow water and I thoroughly enjoyed sitting in my chair with the ocean breeze on my face and watching my children play. I could not have asked for a more pleasant 4 days.

Settling in

First of all - welcome to all the new folks who have told me they are reading! Thanks to my dad and a couple of friends who have linked me on their blogs, I no longer feel like I'm talking to myself.

This has been a much better week. Evan and I are working the kinks out of the morning routine and we are getting to school more or less on time with minimal power plays. Whew! Homework has even gotten easier, though Evan still thinks I'm a complete idiot. He told my mom tonight that he didn't know mommy was smart. He knew daddy was smart, but not so sure about mommy. Lovely. Oh, and he told my mom that if mommy and daddy are both smart, he must be smarter than both of us. My mom tried to explain to him the error in his logic, but apparently she doesn't have much credibility either. It is much more likely that some kid named Ethan in his class knows best. Last time Corin and I tried to explain to Evan that he had the words of a song/poem wrong, he reported back to me the next day that Ethan had backed him up, so he's still pretty sure that he's right and we're wrong. I realize that all of this probably does mean that he is going to be a very bright boy and logical thinker like his father, but meanwhile, I just don't like being told I'm wrong all the time. I'm kinda stubborn that way. I am trying very hard, though, to understand that this is probably just a very important stage in his development and I shouldn't take it too personally.

Another huge milestone this week: Pressley has stopped crying every time she goes to the gym with me. I have a hard enough time getting into the habit of going to the gym as it is without the peanut gallery in the back seat crying and screaming "NO gym, mommy, NO gym!" I need a cheerleader, not an antagonist. We are somewhere in the middle now, and I'll take what I can get.

We are off to the beach on Saturday for one last hoorah before the weather gets too cold (hopefully). We are planning to stay on the gulf coast for 3 nights, so we are praying for no hurricanes. So, next time I post, I should have some cute pictures to share. I think--and this will be news to Corin--I'm going to try to get a family picture of us on the beach, so I'll be sure to post it if we get a good one. However, anyone who has a 2 and 4 year old knows that the chances of that are slim...

Pavlovas and Baryshnikovs

We've had a fun weekend so far. Katya, one of Evan's friends from school had a birthday party on Saturday. It was a co-ed ballet-themed party. It was really cute. Katya's mom had a "real ballerina" at the party, who read Angelina the Ballerina stories and then did some ballet with the kids. It was a riot. First, the kids were just supposed to stand in a circle, tell their names and their favorite dance moves. The girls all participated in this and did little leaps, arabesques, etc. Skip to my child who doesn't say his name but jumps into the air and then falls to the ground with a thud (on purpose, of course). It was funny to see the cute little ballerina and all the little girls try to mimic this move. Shortly after that, all the boys lost interest in the ballerina and moved into the playroom to pull out every toy in the house. The moms of the boys did their best to control this process, but with little success. I was able to get Evan back into the living room briefly for pretending to be snowflakes and pretending to be animals, but he was SO not into it. I thought Pressley would be totally into it. Her one experience with ballet was last spring when we went to watch some of these same little girls from Evan's class in their ballet recital. Pressley stood in a chair in the back of the room and tried to mimic everything they did. So, I thought she would be in her element at the party. But, she too just sort of stood like a lump and looked at the ballerina, perplexed.

All in all, it was a very successful party, as all the kids seemed to have a big time. But the experience did confirm that, as a general rule, boys don't make very good ballerinas.

There are more photos linked at the left.