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.

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.

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.

Sex

This morning Kemper asked me what "sex" means.  I explained that it means a couple of things.  The first is that whenever you have to fill out a form for school, camp, etc., it asks you what your sex is and that they want to know if you're a boy or a girl.

Then I said that it also is something that two people do together when they really love each other.  He thought about this and replied, "So when people love each other, they say 'sex' to each other?"  Um, not quite.  But that was the end of the discussion so perhaps he got what he needed for now.

Summer Lovin'

We just returned from a week of camping in Maine.  This was our second year at Papoose Pond, though this year there were nine families in our group.  Some from church, some from the boys' school, and a couple of others from Waltham.  It was a great week.  The kids were able to run around with all of their buddies, and there were enough adults to keep an eye on them pretty much all the time.

One of the boys' friends has two younger sisters, ages 5 and 3 1/2.  A day or so into the trip, Kemper and Ava, the 5 year old, really seemed to hit it off.  That evening while he was getting ready for bed, Kemper found an inchworm, which Morgan suggested he release outside.  When Kemper seemed sad at the prospect of letting it go, Morgan asked if there was a problem.  Kemper replied, "Well, I really wanted to show it to my girlfriend before I let it go."  Needless to say, we were both completely surprised by this.  But they spent a good amount of time together, even holding hands when the group went on a hike.  It was incredibly sweet.  Though I have to say I never thought this sort of thing could start this young.

Quiet

Last night Rowan and Kemper attended an overnight out at school.  This is the first time they've slept away from home without mommy and daddy.  They have been talking about the sleepover for weeks, and could barely contain their excitement yesterday while they waited for carpool.  They were a bit confused about how much stuff they needed to bring; somehow they got it in their minds that they'd be staying at school for three days.  Rowan packed his backpack the night before.  When I checked it the next morning, I found he'd packed three pair of pants, one pair of clean underwear, and a pair of socks.  For a single night.  No shirt, no pajamas.  I helped him choose a more appropriate set of clothes, and sent them off.

Morgan and I dropped Cannon off with a friend, and went to test out a few canoes.  We're thinking of buying one, and this seemed like a good opportunity to put them in the water.  We then went to dinner, and collected Cannon.  It was a very pleasant evening.

This morning it is so quiet in the house.  No fights over Bionicle parts or who sits where on the sofa.  No nagging from me about getting ready for school.  No one has stolen anything from the baby.  All in all, it's very peaceful.  And while I miss the boys, I have to confess I'm glad to know they're ready for sleepovers.  They should do them more often.

Music

Cannon doesn't have the privilege of listening to many "children's" songs.  With Rowan and Kemper, I indulged them a fair bit, mostly with things that I found minimally offensive or outright enjoyed.  Dan Zanes, Laurie Berkner, Jazz for Kids, Tom Chapin, and a few collections of folk songs for kids.  They of course also had Raffi, which to me was barely tolerable, along with some classics from The Sound of Music and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  And we occasionally managed to put some of our own tunes into the mix.

But while I occasionally still put Dan Zanes on, we're mostly doing "adult" music.  Johnny Cash is fairly popular ("Folsom Prison Blues" is a particular favorite), as are "Jumping Jack Flash", "Mexico", and "Slip Kid"  just to name a few.

Not long ago, the older boys watched the movie "The Nightmare Before Christmas".  There were two song in particular they liked, so I bought them on iTunes:  "This is Halloween" and "What's This?".  Collectively they refer to them as the Halloween Songs, and request them frequently.  Cannon apparently is also a fan; I was surprised not long ago when I heard him shout from the back seat, "howeensong"!



Another of his favorites (actually this is the only other song he requests by name) is what the boys refer to as "Mexican" but is actually called "Mexican Radio".  This is another iTunes purchase, a blast from the past indulgence of mine.  I don't know about anyone else, but I loved this video and was always thrilled when it came on MTV back in the day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyCEexG9xjw&feature=fvsr  (Sorry, but this video won't let you embed it here.)

I find it very amusing that my kids beg to hear this song over and over.  But perhaps my favorite thing is when we're in some random store and Cannon will start clapping and bopping to the music.  He'll say, "Like song!"  And when the song ends, so does the dance.