What's in a Name?

8.21.2009

balance

It's that time again. Elementary school has started and preschool is only a week and a half away. Baseball starts this weekend. Soccer starts on Monday. It's time for carpool schedules and 'quick dinner' nights. It's time for Saturday morning's "divide and conquer", with one boy on the soccer field and one on the baseball field. Plus Isabel needs a nap or two every day.


Despite all this, I am still training for a triathlon. It's only a month away, but I wish it was sooner. I am a person who likes to be prepared. Because there are three sports to train for, I feel a lot of pressure to get a couple sessions in each sport every week. Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying the training. Surprisingly, I an even enjoying the running, but I just don't feel like I have enough time to do it all. Given all of our other commitments, I feel like I am cutting corners on my training. I know that this isn't the Olympics and I'm not in any danger of becoming a professional triathlete, but when I commit to something I like to be prepared for it. I could go out tomorrow and complete the race, but I want to compete. I want to do better than I have in the past. I want to achieve.

But when I decided to become a wife and mother to many little ones, I learned to put the needs of others before my own. And their needs truly are more important than my race. Sometimes I still struggle with that lesson, but in the end it is all about balance. =)

8.07.2009

the sneak

Devin is becoming a big kid. He can read. He understands rules and consequences; he can be very helpful with his siblings. Because of this he has more freedom, like letting him go to the neighbor's house alone with a walkie-talkie, but he also has more responsibility, like letting him pour his own milk or letting him bathe himself. We recently started letting the boys earn a weekly allowance (based on chores and good behavior). Devin is really excited about this and he's proud of himself that he can do these new things. He feels like he's growing up. I shouldn't be surprised that some of his negative behaviors are getting a bit more sophisticated as well.

Devin has always been a little sneaky. He's the kid that rarely will do anything overtly wrong, but if he thinks there's a chance that he won't get caught, he's just as evil as the rest. Today the boys were jumping off their beds. I told them to stop and a few minutes later I hear Devin telling Alex to yell "LALALALALA" really loud. So Alex starts yelling and I hear the loud 'thunk' which clearly is Devin jumping off the bed. So I call him downstairs to talk to me and I ask him if he really thought that having Alex yell would cover the sound of him jumping. I couldn't hide the snicker in my voice, because part of me admired his creativity, and Dev knew he wasn't really in trouble. However, I thought I made myself clear that he needed to get in line.
So later when he went to yellow and eventually to red (we use a traffic light analogy for poor behavior) Devin cried and went to his room. When I invited him to join the free world again he wasn't carrying on about losing his allowance (a consequence of going to red) as much as he did last time this happened, but I didn't think much of it. Until bedtime when I noticed that Devin's ziploc bag full of money (I know, we need to get the kids wallets, but try finding little boy wallets that can hold change... which is completely necessary since most of their money is not paper). Devin's bag had more change than I remembered. I checked Alex's bag and it looked pretty sparse, but I wasn't sure if any money was missing. So I called Devin over, held up his bag and asked him if there was anything that he wanted to tell me. He got the "oh shit" look in his eyes and then he told me that he figured out how to get money out of his piggy bank through the hole in the bottom.
What??!?! I was absolutely floored! Here I thought I was confronting a little thief and I was ready to wield Mom's fury of discipline, and the kid really was only taking what was already his. No wonder he wasn't too broken up about losing his allowance. Again, I kind of admired Devin's ingenuity. He proudly showed me how he got the stopper out of the bottom of the bank and he told me that he only took two quarters, three dimes and a penny. Then Devin promised me that he won't do it again, but I can tell he's not sold on the whole concept of saving his money. And I am realizing that I need to step up my parenting skills a bit.

8.03.2009

in a nutshell...

OK- so it's been three months. I admit that I have been remiss about posting updates, and when I consider all that has transpired since I last blogged I am a little ashamed that I haven't made the time. So, here is a laundry list of what has been consuming our lives since May...

- Alex got tubes in his ears (which means that every lake or ocean swim requires ear plugs and his "ninja headband" to keep the ear plugs in). He's still the loudest kid I've ever met!
- Isabel went from walking to running and learned a zillion new words (although some very innocent works like 'chalk' and 'block' could be misconstrued as foul language by one who is not well versed in speaking one-year-old).
- Devin swam his first season on swim team and was a serious contender in the 6&Under competition.
- Alex played football with 1992 Heisman winner Gino Torretti (whose daughter was in Alex's preschool class).
- Andy and I spent an absolutely wonderful weekend in Charleston - without the kids!! Thanks Mom & Dad. =)
- Devin graduated from Kindergarten (and had a multitude of end-of-year school activities that brought me to his school almost as much as him!).
- Andy took a new position at Wells Fargo and has a two-year commitment to lead their technology integration efforts.
- I swam 28850 meters, biked 275.3 miles and ran 124.5 miles as part of my triathlon training to date. More training to come!
- We celebrated Devin and Alex's birthdays with 18 little friends at the neighborhood pool.
- Alex developed a love for rock-n-roll and cites his favorites as Eddie Vedder, Widespread Panic and Kid Rock.
- We visited the families in Chicago and got to see a lot of friends and family at Isabel's belated first birthday party.
- We spent a week on the beach in SC with our great friends the Challis family and a wonderful time was had by all (despite Isabel's horrific sleep schedule).
- Devin learned to skim board, Alex improved his boogie board technique, Isabel found her true calling as a nasty mess in the sand (she loved it, but was so disgusting).
- Devin and Alex each found hermit crabs, snails, sand dollars and even held a small shark on the beach.
- Isabel ate constantly on the beach, but she kept putting her food down in the sand and then eating it again. So gross. I think she started to prefer her watermelon and pb&j all gritty.
- The Hennessy family (my brother, Belinda and the four kids) came for a visit that was too short, but a lot of fun!
- We went boating on Lake Norman on three separate occasions and all were fantastic.
- We swam with friends at the neighborhood pool and the YMCA water park more times than I could possibly count.
- Devin learned to pour his own cereal and milk so he can "make breakfast" for himself and for Alex. Now he's working on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
- I did 1593 loads of laundry (ok - maybe overstated a bit, but with the beach towels and the work out clothes and the little dirty girl it has been a lot!).
- Andy still loves me. =)