Things that frighten me

Teddy: Last year I liked Robin, but this year there are just so many more choices. This year I like Beth - she's just SO cute!

This is the kind of line I would expect from Jackson when he gets to middle school - not at all from Teddy. I'm pretty sure I'm not happy about this, though it was very funny when he said it.

A possible alien abduction

Teddy just got a new alarm clock and we haven't yet fully figured it out - we need to be able to let him go to sleep to music but wake up to the beeping alarm - I'm sure the instructions will shed light on our issues, but anyway I am still going in there to wake him up and then a few minutes later to act as his snooze alarm. I walked in there as the snooze alarm that I am and said Sweetie it's time to get up now and he rolled over and said. I can do this, trust me to get up. Okay baby, I'll let you getup. I left fully intending he'd be zoncksville again in no time. I went back in there several minutes later and he was just putting his shirt on.

When I reminded him to brush his teeth there was no eye rolling. Then he picked up a tennis ball and started playing with the dog, perfectly happily. Teddy is as far from a morning person as say... uh... cough.. uh Brad and that's saying something. I just shook my head and accepted the unexpected gift of his mood. I finished getting ready and headed downstairs to find him... not the zombie boy sitting in front of the TV I expected but sitting at the kitchen table eating a bowl of cereal that he fixed. (I know - you're saying it's just a bowl of cereal let's not alert the media - but no, this is Teddy we're talking about. It's quite possible that this is the very first time in his 11 years that he's fixed his own bowl of cereal without Brad or me standing over him pointing to first where the bowls are, then the spoons, then the cereal, then suggesting he open the box and actually pour some out - all while his eyes are rolling so far back in his head I'm afraid he'll make himself blind).

But okay, I can go with this extremely startling event this morning, no problem. Until.... he stands up, puts his bowl in the sink and annouces he wants to head down to the bus stop early again so he can read some more. Well, how lovely of him I think but come on, this is Teddy. I'm sure it hasn't occured to him to put his homework in his back pack and I'm thinking - should I let him go off to school without a lunch in hopes that it will help him remember things like that in the future - but no, I decide to remind him - smuggly. Don't you want some lunch? (I've got that I know better than you do look on my face). Now I get the eye roll. I already made it, he says, it's in my back pack. uh. uh. uh. Do you want some snack money? Na, I've got $0.50 and I just want to get a cookie. uh uh uh uh.

WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY SON????? He gave me the biggest grin he has, the one that will melt women's hearts (I'm fairly sure he won't know he has this power until at least college and probably later - thank God). Gave me a big hug, kissed me and left..... I'm still confused. Who do you call for such a body snatching?

Camela

Mom of the year moment

I started off in a bad mood to begin with. Brad's away. I'm working with both boys trying to get their homework done. I'm walking from the foyer so I can call up to Teddy in his room to answer questions and then back to the kitchen to encourage Jackson to finish his writing homework. And what, do you ask, is Bandit doing? Well I'm glad you asked because this is surprising. He was barking. At me. Just barking his friggin' head off for no earthly reason until I finally just couldn't take it any more and I snapped.

And yelled.

At the top of my lungs.

I mean really, really loudly.

GOD DAMN IT! WOULD YOU SHUT THE F#@K UP AND STOP BARKING!!!!!

oops.

Then I looked over at Jackson who was staring at me with the most priceless face ever. The face that said - we-ell now, wasn't that interesting, I think we'd better move right along from here. But then he deadpanned as only Jackson can deadpan - "uh mom, I'm not sure Bandit understands all those words"... and just like that, all the tension was gone. Sometimes Jackson is just the most perfect little guy.

Camela

Finally - my long parental nightmare is over

My two very active, fairly athletic boys, ages 11 and 8 1/2 really didn't know how to ride their bikes till this week. To be fair I taught my very cautious son Teddy (over his very strident protests) a couple of years ago when he was 8ish so he's been capable of it for a while - but every single time I've convinced him to actually get on the bike it has taken every bit of his concentration to stay upright and make it from here to there and back so it's never been remotely fun for him. It's just hard and stupid - end of story.

And then there's Jackson who is so much more physically self aware - for whom biking should be second nature - but sadly believes in his heart of hearts that he is not capable of doing anything until 2 years after his brother does it, since he's 2 years younger. It's like a law of nature or physics or something - it's just true. So I couldn't get Jack to even sit on a bike - not even one with training wheels (which we took off a few years ago). Brad still says I'm more stubborn than Jackson, but I find that hard to believe.

It's been in the back of my mind that this fall was not going to pass without Jackson learning how at least as well as Ted. It's been two years and frankly it's embarrassing that my kids don't have this skill. I always figured they'd want to ride with their friends and that would push them on, but .. eh Ted's too lazy to be spurred on by a potentially physically taxing version of peer pressure and Jack's just not familiar with the concept (bonus for him). Our neighborhood is really not good for learning - it's all hills. The only place remotely flat is from our house to the end of the cul-de-sac but even that is a slight hill and not a huge distance - on every other inch of street in our neighborhood you are either going up or down at a fairly steep grade. So again to be fair to them - I've not pushed it as hard as I should have and not taken them up to the school or whatever to help them out and Brad's not been at all interested in getting involved with this project over the years - I was the only one horrified by their lack of ability here.

Now cut to this weekend

Ted comes in and says: "hey I'm really good at riding my bike"
Me: ... duh.. what.. uh... wow honey that's great! Can I see?
T: yeah come on out and see - he was really excited
And there he is - on the bike he learned on, his old bike, the one that's too small for Jackson, but sure enough he's riding up and down the street just like he knows what he's doing. He's actually enjoying himself, not to mention thinking he's the bomb (he didn't notice he looked like one of those clowns riding on a tiny little bike.) I'm thinking - BRILLIANT!!! If he will just keep playing around on that little bike we can easily translate that onto his bigger bike.

AND THEN..... I am outside doing something else and Jackson hops on the little bike and starts gliding down the little hill to the cul-de-sac. He's got the balance thing down with no problem. I sneak up behind him and give him some pointers and push while he gets peddling and pretty soon he's doing it on his own. And on the next day he wants to go out again and Brad actually went out with him. He said he did better with Brad - whatever! He spent 10-15 minutes each day and then on day three he just went out and practiced on his own. All Brad could say was... "he is SO not his brother".

But now, Ted's riding Ted's bike and Jack's riding Jack's bike and we can't get either of them off of them which is just exactly how it's supposed to be.

phew!
Camela

A mini Brad's away story

Picture this... It's two days before vacation. It's packing day. Tomorrow is pack the car day. It's a long story, but both kids are at home this week with Brad who is trying to also work. There's intermittent help, but mostly he's dealing with them and well... you can just imagine how sweet and loving his mood is.

So I come home from work where I've been running around like a lunatic trying to get ready to be gone for a week and Brad's being all sweet and loving as I described above, but luckily he's on his way out to take the kids over to a friend's house where they're going to spend some time while we pack. They leave, I go upstairs to change my clothes and no sooner than I get my shorts on do I hear Bandit going absolutely ballistic in the back yard. This is not the ordinary ballistic state the Bandit is almost always in, this is serious I'm going to rip you limb from limb ballistic. I'm assuming there's either some deer in the field behind the house or much more likely a turtle in the yard. I grab a shirt and run down the stairs and outside so I can bring Bandit in.

I make it down to the landing of the deck stairs before I find out what Bandit's barking at. Deer? nope. Turtle? not so much. It's a badger. A badger who's the same size as Bandit. The poor badger, I'll call Fred, is backed into the corner of the fence and Bandit is about 8 inches from him barking his head off and periodically lunging for him. Shit! Of course Brad just left. Of course I just saw my neighbor who might have been alerted by Bandit's barking just driving away. I'm screaming my head off at Bandit who has no idea anything in the world except poor old Fred exists.

At every opportunity he can find Fred tries to duck under the fence to freedom but Bandit's not having any of that and takes that same opportunity to pounce on poor old Fred. Fred turns back and hisses and bears his huge teeth but mostly he's just sitting there with the fence to his back and ballistic Bandit to his front.

There's no way I'm going down there getting near a wild animal.... let alone the badger... ba dum bum... I decide to get the hose and spray water on Bandit hoping to distract him long enough to let Fred escape. I get the hose and start spraying and it doesn't exactly distract him, but it does bring an extra layer of chaos to the scene until they are literally rolling around in the mud I've just created - one big pile of paws and claws and teeth and barking (because let's not kid ourselves, Bandit never once stopped barking - even while he was biting Fred he managed to keep the barking up).

They look like a small fury version of a street fight where two people are rolling around trying to get the upper hand. Holy Shit what have I just done. Now they're both going to end up some awful bloody mess and there's still no way I'm going near them. Maybe Fred will kill Bandit:) What will I tell the kids? When will Brad be back? What should I do now? But then Fred makes a break for it; diving under the fence (a side note here - if Fred can fit under the fence so can Bandit, but luckily he doesn't know that).

Fred gets about half way to freedom before Bandit clamps onto his ... uh.. shall we say.. posterior.. and is not planning on letting go any time soon. So now the tug of war is on. Fred gains a few inches. Bandit pulls him back. Back and forth, back and forth. I'm still screaming and so pissed off I can't begin to tell you. I'm trying to get the water in Bandit's eyes. The seconds tick by, oh how I wish it was caught on film. Finally Fred breaks free and darts into the forest. I saw no blood on his retreating butt or anywhere on Bandit. Bandit is a nice shade of brown instead of his normal white, but luckily he's heading to the country club for pets tomorrow where they can deal with him.

Okay, now I'm really going to go pack now.
Camela

2 cute pictures of the boys

Our friend Kevin turns 11 on Thursday; 8 days after Teddy turned 11. Teddy and Kevin met for the first time the day Kevin was born. The hospital where Kevin was born assumed Teddy was just on his way home and didn't bat an eye at us walking around with such a little infant. Kevin had a Lego themed party and here are pictures of my boys showing off their creations - and they are so cute I just had to show them off.

Teddy and his fire truck

Jackson and his space police hovercraft

Holy Canoli my baby's getting older

Teddy turns 11 tomorrow!!!!


I can't stand it. It's too much. How in God's name did this happen. He's heart stoppingly beautiful (at this moment especially when his mouth is shut) and just keeps getting more grown up every day. There are still things he's working on - like remembering to use utensils, and being able to find the shoes on his feet - but I figure he'll get them some day, or maybe he won't but he won't be living with me any more so I just won't care as much.

This is one of my favorite pictures, taken a year ago in the Outer Banks.

The Carolla lighthouse is in the background if you look closely.

He's lovely and sweeet and very empathetic to everyone except his brother. He's very responsible with things outside of the home, extremely assertive, yet also shy and unsure (this he get's from his mother). He's wildly analytical and extremely curious; asking thoughtful and thought provoking questions of just about everyone on just about any topic (he gets this from his father). He spends a great deal of time trying to figure out how to make or build the next cool and intricate thing or on trying to figure out how things work. He is a consumate debater. He will debate with anyone on anything at anytime; happy to take whichever side you didn't. His teachers think he's amazing, his parents are not as certain this is a good quality - though certainly think he'll follow in his grandpa's and aunt's and uncle's footsteps and be a lawyer - really anything else would be wasting some serious innate talent.

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He is a wonderful son and brother though this pre-teen time has not been my favorite. I'm guessing I've got a few more years of this less than wonderful time with him, but am confident it'll all be worth it in the end. We are very lucky to have him in our lives; they are richer every day for his existance.

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Camela