BloggingDangerously

Worth It...

Several months ago I started the habit of putting my hand in my pocket each morning and pulling it out, seemingly empty, and saying to my daughters, "Here, take my love and put it in your pocket and it will be with you all day long."  The second day I did it they reached into their pockets and pulled out "yesterday's love" and gave it back to me.  I tucked it into my bra where it could be recycled for the next day.  Now, if I forget to start the day this way, they say to me, "Mama, you forgot to give us love today!" and then the exchange, and counter exchange takes place.

Yesterday I blogged about the dilemma of encouraging my daughter versus downright shoving her into something.

Yesterday afternoon my son came home from rock climbing at the rec department saying he was afraid - not only of the rocks - but of saying hi to another boy there that he knew.  "If he didn't say hi either, he must be scared too." I told him. "Think how impressed he'll be that you're brave enough to say hi first."

And last night I tweeted that my other son is skillful at many things - not the least of which is DRIVING ME CRAZY.  If I say, "Don't touch that." his tongue shoots out of his mouth of its own accord and licks the object and when I look at him, incredulous, he says, "You didn't say not to LICK it!"  At which point my head explodes and the conversation is paused while we mop up the mess.

So why the hell do I do it? Besides of course that the hospital's return policy on babies SUCKS?

Well tonight I was itching to get to the gym but I had to make it through bathtime first.  It was two down, two to go and my 4yo daughter was next in line.  She got into the shower but she needs help so as I stood there washing her hair she said something about love.  I gasped! "YOU!" I told her, "You forgot to give me love today!"

She put her two hands together as if she were carrying quite a load and said, "Here is A LOT of love for you."

"That's not love!" I objected.  Then gesturing to her naked, soapy body, added "You don't even have any POCKETS!"

"No." she countered.  "I was carrying it in my heart."

And THAT is the point of motherhood.

Excuse Me for 3.82 Seconds While I Bludgeon My Husband

The kids started track a few weeks ago.  It's AWESOME.

My 6yo daughter LOVES to run and has already moved up from the 4-6 year old age group to the 7-8 year old group where she came in second in her first race.

My boys aren't super fast but they're so proud of how much they're improving that it's REALLY helping their self esteem and teaching them that persistence pays off.  It's also going to help them come August when football starts.

The 4 year old seems to be enjoying it.  She'll whine and whine about how bored she is then turn on the juice and run circles around the other kids.  I think her attention span hasn't caught up to her speed but when it does?  Look out.

I thought it would be fun to time the kids at the 100, 200 and 400 early in the season and then again at the end of the season to give them a picture of how much faster they'd gotten so I asked my husband to pick up a stop watch.

"No need." he told me.  "I have one."

He grabbed it out of the garage and showed me how to start and stop the timer.  What he didn't do was teach me how to turn the hourly alert and alarm off.  So for the past 8 days the stop watch has been beeping (LOUDLY) every hour on the :46 minute mark (I also don't know how to set the time correctly.)

I was out of town last week and when I got home I heard it beep for the first time.  "Don't worry." he said, "it beeps every night around this time and then it doesn't beep again." 

Which wasn't true.  It beeped every hour (on the :46 minute) and went off at 6am.  I snoozed it (apparently) because it went off again at 6:10.  I got up and snoozed it again.  At 6:20, when it went off AGAIN, I nearly shoved it down my husbands throat but instead I said, "YOUR TURN."

He put it in a drawer.  It didn't help.  It's been three days and all I can hear is BEEPING.

I finally figured out how to make the alarm stop but it's still beeping every hour on the hour.

Update: I will wear black for an appropriate mournng period and then I will marry Google for helping me figure out how to turn off the DAMN beeping.

 

Triathlon: Update

I wanted to see what the verdict was before I told you what I did.

I went into my daughter's room and woke her up and said, "Hey, it's REALLY cold out.  Let's skip the triathlon, okay?"

I wanted to tell her that I didn't think she needed to compete and be miserable but if she REALLY wanted to compete I wanted to give her the chance.

She looked at me, hugged me and said, "Okay mom."  Then she rolled over and slept for TWO MORE HOURS.

At 11am I took her to a birthday party where she was the only girl.  She kicked the boys' behinds in two games AND got a strike.

And then we went homee and she rode her bike like it was her best sport.

 

Triathlons are Easier than Parenthood

I mentioned on Friday that my daughter was signed up for a triathlon on Saturday morning.  She's a great swimmer and an amazing runner but weakish on the bike - on account of being 6 and just having learned to ride.

I took her out last week to practice starting and stopping since those are the two trickiest parts and after we'd practiced each of them about 20 times she burst into tears and decided that she no longer wanted to compete in the triathlon.

(I should mention that unlike some previous bike-teaching incidents that ended with BOTH of us crying, I was VERY calm.)

During the week she went to a pool party and to track practice and was still pretty insistent that she didn't want to compete in the triathlon.  Until I told her that I thought she might win.  Then she was all fired up.

"I'll try." she said.

But Saturday morning when my alarm went off at 6:30, she was FAST asleep and the outside temperature was 55 degrees.  It had rained for a good portion of the previous 3 days so the pool promised to be about 55 degrees as well.

I was torn.  Do I wake her up on the third day of summer vacation to toss her into a freezing cold pool?  Or just let her sleep in her nice warm bed?

If it were my race I know what I would have done - I would have competed because that's how aggressive I am - but would sending her into the race make her less likely to compete in the future?

I wasn't sure.

The race is only an annual event and she'd learned to ride her bike just so she could compete this year.  Was I prepared to tell her that she had to wait an entire other year?

Also, my daughter sometimes gets asthma attacks when she gets very cold.  On the other hand, she's been swimming in the 50 degree Atlantic Ocean for a month.

What would you have done?

 

Things About Me

My flight got in 3 hours later than expected and I'm SO tired right now this is about all I can manage.

1) I have a bad hip.  It's from having babies and carrying heavy backpacks. I realized this week that if I got an ipad I could get rid of the heavy backpack and save a fortune on Chiropractor co-pays.  I NEED that ipad to save money.

2) I have been in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans.  I hope never to swim in the other two.

3) I love to visit strange places.

4) I prefer not to eat strange foods.

5) My husband and I discussed visiting Greece together the night we met.  We've still not been.

6) My "lottery" dream is to buy a trimaran, move to San Diego for 6 months to learn to sail it and then head West.

7) I got a massage gift certificate from my husband for Christmas.  I still haven't used it.  I haven't used it because I can't bear to think of NOT having a free massage ahead of me.

8) I have no artisitic ability whatsoever.

9) I'm so tired I might be drooling.

10) My daughter (age 6) is doing her first triathlon tomorrow (Saturday) wish her luck.