Archive for the ‘holiday’ Tag
February 15 2011
I sent my oldest son off with a pack of Superhero Squad Valentine cards for his classmates this morning.
Because nothing says love like the Incredible Hulk, Wolverine, and Captain America.
A pack of Valentine cards that I had to talk him into getting in the first place by assuring, “Look! These aren’t mushy at all!”.
He still wasn’t happy about it.
Since school was closed yesterday due to selective parent/teacher conferences, they were having their party today, along with a celebration for the 100th day of school. I tried, I really did, to get him to do something, anything, for the 100th day. “We could draw a picture! We could bring in 100 suckers! I’ve got a great idea, how about 100 stickers!”. He flat-out refused. Fine, I finally agreed, but “you should really bring in Valentine cards for your classmates”. “Not Carrie-Ann!”, he stated in resolution, “she’s mean to me”.
He didn’t want to do that either, though, until I took him to the store with me. There, we dug through the selection of mass-produced sentiments of care until we came across the Superheros. “It’s either this or Hello Kitty”, became an easy decision once that ultimatum was delivered. Upon return home, we sat at his desk and wrote each name in the scrawl of 1st grade.
“But I’m still not making one for Carrie-Ann”, he repeated adamantly. And we didn’t.
I snuck a few extra in his backpack, though. Just in case.
December 20 2010
Buzz is really into Santa Claus.
Really. Into Santa Claus. With emphasis.
He’s fascinated. It’s not just this time of year, though now in the season it doesn’t seem as strange to protectively cart around an action figure of Father Christmas.
For awhile, he was falling asleep with Santa’s head. Just his head. Because the figure was so well loved that he severed the head from his body and no matter how much we’ve tried to super glue, it just won’t adhere back together.
Nothing weird about that at all.
When I decorated for the holiday last week, I also found in hiding our small seasonal snowglobe. It’s a plastic kind, hardly breakable I thought. Inside is a serene winter scene with Santa in full regalia sitting next to a star-topped tree, while shaken snow drifts around him. Buzz latched onto it as soon as I set it out.
He carried this globe around everywhere. It even took the place of his beloved Santa head on his pillow at night. Because sleeping with a snowglobe is still weird, but less so. I found it in bags and boxes and drawers. Under tables and high on shelves and in a battle with Buzz Lightyear. Then, one fateful morning, it was stuffed in a sock and banged on the floor one time too many.
Turns out, the plastic snowglobe? Completely breakable.
Seems we’re back to the creepy Santa head.
November 26 2010
Oh, Thanksgiving. You’re supposed to be an easy holiday. Cook a meal, eat a meal, pass out. Why weren’t you that easy this year?
Jedi awoke yesterday morning in a mood. He was a whining mess from the start. Then, as I tried to make him eat breakfast (he has to have something since he takes insulin or else I would have let it go), he complained of a stomach ache. That migrated to a pain in his ear which he began to cry over. Great, I thought, so now he has an ear infection?
I was able to get him to eat a bit of breakfast, but he complained that his stomach hurt more with every bite. Having a stomach ache on Thanksgiving is kind of like a soccer player breaking their leg on the day of the World Cup. The worst possible time, is what I’m saying. I started to consider canceling.
“I don’t want to eat! I don’t want Thanksgiving!”, he told me between cries.
I gave it a little more time. The pain in his ear thankfully went away but he continued grumbling about his stomach and he looked really worn down. I went ahead and prepared the mashed potatoes I was supposed to make, but called my mom and canceled before they were finished.
Soon after, I gave Jedi a dose of fever reducer. Almost immediately he perked up.
“I want to go to Thanksgiving!”, he declared. Thus, the festivities were back on.
Upon return home, we all passed out in a tryptophan stupor. Before my husband, who was on the road home himself, called to say the transmission went kaput in our car still 3 hours out of town. It was like the Splenda-sweetened icing on an already difficult pumpkin pie.
November 01 2010
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before…
A ladybug, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, and a scary zombie walk into a bar. No, wait, wrong story…
A ladybug, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, and a scary zombie spend the night trick or treating on Halloween. There’s no punchline here, just a lot of candy.
May 09 2010
I tried to write an entry on Saturday honoring Mother’s Day and what it means to me. I wanted it to be sweet and sentimental, full of positive emotion and light. I wanted to share tender moments of the past 6 and a half years with these bright little souls. How different my life might be if they weren’t in it. Because of them, my life is full. My kids are the best, kind of thing.
Except my kids were not the best. They were monsters that day. They screamed, they yelled, they cried. My son hid in the bathtub, after sticking his foot in urine-filled toilet water, while my daughter tried to empty all the q-tips out of the drawer. This after everyone made so much noise that she woke from her nap early. It was this sequence of events multiplied by a hundred all day long.
It was nonstop.
Isn’t it always?
I couldn’t wait for bedtime.
Then, at the end of the day, I looked in on my peaceful children sleeping blissfully against their pillows. And I smiled. Partly because the day was finally over and it was quiet at last and I actually made it through without throwing myself off a bridge, but mostly because these moments. This is it, in a nutshell. This is motherhood. Loud and crazy and chaotic. Up, down, and everywhere in between. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows or how I thought it would be.
But it’s beautiful.
Especially when they’re sleeping.
