Saturday, April 23, 2011

Easter Fail

Tomorrow is Easter.  You know, where your kids wake up in the morning and find special fancy baskets filled with colored plastic grass, jelly beans, and other tooth-rotting substances.  Maybe a toy or a dyed egg as well.

Except in our house.  I might manage to scrape together an Easter bowl for the kids to munch from, but I just don't see the whole basket thing working out this year.  Perhaps I should explain that I have never been particularly attached to this holiday.  I've always done the baskets for the boys, mostly because my parents did them for us.  My dad would hide our dyed eggs all over the house and we'd spend the morning searching for them.  But I've never been that organized or ambitious and feel accomplished when I'm able to cobble together the baskets before they come downstairs on Easter morning.

Morgan's idea is that we take them to the Lego store and let each of them pick out a gift.  I'm good with that, as goodness knows they already have more than enough candy in their lives.  But then they have to learn the Truth. Not sure I'm ready for that.

What kind of a parent am I that I let things get too busy to do a holiday for my kids?  Clearly a busy one, between work and trying to get a specific job I want and cooking and cleaning (such as it is), etc.  Hopefully this won't be one of those things that comes out when they're grown.  I can hear it now:  "Man, do you remember that year Mom didn't even bother to do Easter baskets for us?  That was so lame."  Sigh.

Monday, February 07, 2011

Terrible

It's the terrible twos.  As difficult as the twins were at that age, I'm pretty sure Cannon is worse.  Maybe I'm just too old to deal with it this time around.  Or perhaps it's due to his communication skills being greater than one would expect at this age (and therefore tricking me into believing he should be acting older).

Whatever.

He's making me crazy.  Here are some examples of what he does on a nearly daily basis:

"Mommy, can I have some toast?  But DON'T PUT IT IN THE TOASTER!!!"

"I want some hot milk.  But DON'T WARM IT UP!!!"

"I don't want those pants."  "I want a different shirt."

I know, I know.  One day I'll look back and wish he hadn't grown up.  But there is just no reasoning with this kid.  Sometimes we'll be cruising along, having a great day, he's all cheerful and happy, then for no apparent reason, something will set him off and it can take the better part of an hour to calm him down.

Oh, and he will not nap for me.  He goes off to rest cheerfully when our nanny is in charge, but for me?  Forget it.  Let me just say this makes for a very cranky kid and mother.

Then again, he is pretty darned cute.  The other night while snuggling at bedtime, he gently put his finger on one of the dark circles that have become a permanent fixture under my eyes and asked,  "Mommy, are you okay?  What happened to your eye?"

That would be a result of you disturbing my sleep several times each night, kiddo.  I know he'll eventually stop this behavior, but I'm afraid by that time I'll be stuck with the bags.

Wednesday, January 05, 2011

Letters

The other day we were walking from a parking garage to a museum with the grandparents.  It was a few days after a decent snow storm here in Boston, but it was actually a fairly mild day - maybe around 50 degrees - so we'd all left our coats in the car for the short walk.

Cannon and I had fallen behind, due mostly to his desire to pet a dog being walked nearby.  After he was done with that, we continued on our way to meet the rest of our group.  We passed a manhole cover with the word "DRAIN" across it.  Cannon stopped, looked at it very seriously, then said, "Look, Mommy.  There are some letters on it.  Those letters say, 'It's cold outside'".  It was very cute.