My timeless reality of parenting

As Oprah says there are certain 'a-ha' moments. Oh how I love a day where I can quote Oprah. We just recently took down christmas and there was a lingering bunch of 'what do we do with this stuff'. Among the 'stuff' was a victorian era looking cardboard box. Against every bit of 'I Should save this' training I had, I decided to recycle it. As metaphoric as it seemed, I was pretty much getting rid of pre-kids ideas. Prior to kids I had always envisioned a christmas of Victorian proportions. Egg nog, gathering around a piano caroling, perhaps a wassil or two. Most of all though, a gorgeous, almost untouchable tree with candle light (somehow done safely) and fragile, sentimental ornaments. Though we had no real money when we were first married, we managed to buy a few things towards my victorian christmas vision. Spike pretty much got no say in the decorating. Even the first two years of having kids, I managed to keep some semblance of Elizabethan elegance. And then...it happened. The Spider-man ornament picked out by Jake. This would be followed by batman, and starwars. Bob the Builder and Thomas the Train were selected by Aidan and my humble untouchable tree, was shattered. And you know, as I was getting rid of some element of my petticoat wearing, wassiling imaginary christmas I did honestly think that I was happier with the new ornaments because they meant so much to the boys. Now really, I had heard my mom and countless other mothers breathlessly, and selflessly declare that something made them happy simply if their children were happy. A child myself, I couldn't buy that. I thought they were programmed to say that. While there might be some people who subscribe to that 'must say it' theory still, I actually do get happy when the boys are so happy. When Aidan did his little jump up and down in hyper excitement because his Crayola ornament arrived and when Jake rushes to show everyone his light up spidey on the tree, I do smile.

Bowling Day

So Amy and I naively thought that it would be fun to bring the kids bowling. C'mon, we're going nuts all winter with the kids cooped up inside. So let's just say that bowling left me with no energy to 'spare'. If I say fiasco you have to take the word as no exaggeration for the description of today's bowling... If someone ever proposes taking two 2-year olds and 2 four year olds bowling. Just say no. Actually Jake and Hailey (the other 4 year old) were okay, but it was hard for them to wait and take turns. And thank god the machines in the arcade were not turned on!

Aidan and James (the other 2 year old) however were a mess. Aidan did well for a little while. He got such a kick out of it. But once the thrill was gone, that was it. James had no interest at all and accidentally ran onto the slippery part of the lane and when we called for him to come back, he lost concentration and fell. He hit his head sooo hard on the wood lane. I could practically feel it. Luckily I travel with chocolate chip cookies and one of them instantly helped him. So we left early--before our paid hour was up. and we headed right to McDonalds. Little did we know everyone in Chester decided to go to McDonald's for lunch, also. But imagine sitting in a McDonald's parking lot (with the playland clearly visible) and telling the kids "Sorry, too crowded" so we went in. I will say they did better after eating. But wow. I'm not even sure Amy and I got a coherent sentence out all day. It was so tiring.