Mommathon

My mom and step-dad took the kids today to an indoor play place (the name escapes me) that they’d never been to before. The review was that it had more games than Chuck E. Cheese. Next, they went to Panera for lunch. Then they took them to a WWII airplane show where they got to climb in and on airplanes from that era as well as a bunch of other old military stuff. Liam said his favorite was the helicopter. Colm said his favorite was everything. They even had a band playing WWII music which I thought was pretty cool. Then they took the boys back to their house to hang out for the rest of the afternoon. What did Sean and I do the whole time they were gone??? I went and got a MUCH needed haircut while Sean went to the health club. Then I CLEANED our house. It was time. It was getting kind of yucky around here. I mopped every floor that can be mopped. I had to refill the bucket three times and went through quite a bit of vinegar. I then vacuumed every floor/area rug that can be vacuumed. I cleaned all the toilets and did the dishes. The only thing I didn’t get to that still REALLY needs to be done is cleaning the bathroom vanities. I know that none of that sounds very fun, but it seriously needed to be done. Then, when Sean came home, we went out to a nice lunch all by ourselves at WilJenny’s. I had the yummiest lunch. I wish I would have taken a picture for you. It was about four or five huge shrimp wrapped in bacon covered with spicy mango salsa all on a bed of tomato cheese grits. Seriously. It was SOOO good. Then we went to the grocery store-by ourselves. Really, a heavenly experience. Then we came home, unpacked the groceries and went to Costco. Again, by ourselves. Do you know how much you can get done without the kids in tow. It’s amazing really. Some couples have date nights, we had a date day. Thanks, grandparents. 🙂

Liam is at spy camp this week. He goes in the afternoons each day and let me just say, it is cool. The first day he came home talking about acids and bases. Yesterday they studied fingerprints and today they talked about the properties of light. Since they were talking about light they made “indoor firecrackers”. Not sure what that is, but from the enthusiasm that I saw it must have been cool. They also did this hovercraft thing where they floated in the air on this big frisbee like contraption. Again, I haven’t seen any of this; I am hearing it from Liam. They also do a lot of problem solving activities (some of which I have seen because they do them towards the end of class) and there is even some thought put into their snacks. For example, on the first day they had pretzel sticks and marshmallows so they could build stuff with their food before they ate it. The teachers are cool, too. They are two college-age men/boys who wear lab coats which Liam just thinks is awesome. The icing on the cake, however, is that the newspaper came to take pics of them yesterday at camp and a picture of Liam and two others boys made it into the paper today. He thinks he is famous. 🙂

I had a friend of mine from church tell me that she thought that people who didn’t send their kids to Catholic schools just didn’t love them enough. Now, when she said this lots of things ran through my head. It was the kind of thing where you really don’t know how long it has been since they spoke and you should probably say something but you can’t say what’s running through your head because that would be really rude. Honestly, I don’t know what I said in response because my mind was still in disbelief that these words had been uttered. I am still in a little bit of shock even though time has passed. Had I been one of those people who can just speak off the cuff and sound intelligent in any given situation I think I would have said something like this: I think that parents have to make the decision that is right for their child and that would demonstrate that they loved them since they were making a decision based on many factors and not just that it was Catholic.

I got that vibe quite a bit when I was teaching in the Catholic schools, too. Parents who feel like their kid is better than those horrible awful public school kids. Parents who feel that their Catholic school kids can do no wrong. Well, let me tell you. I have taught those kids. I had kids who lied, cheated, stole and did a number of other things that weren’t very holy. I think it would also be an eye-opener to a number of those parents just how few parents that send their kids to Catholic school actually go to Mass during the weekend. I must say, I was a little surprised, too. So, I guess my point is. Why does it matter what I do or what my neighbor does? Who cares. People have a lot of reasons for doing what they do in any given situation.

I would love to see those who chose public schooling and those who don’t to not see each other as adversaries, but as parents trying to do what they think is best and to have a mutual respect for each other as parents. In the end that is what we all are, parents, day in and day out making the best decisions that we can at the time.

Colm is one of those kids who wants to have the same stories read to him every night. God bless the library. I don’t mind reading the same books day after day, night after night because I get to take them back in a week. I hope to bring you a book or two each week that we are currently enjoying in our house. Just a forewarning, most of the books will be about a holiday, probably Halloween. I am also not promising that they will be “high quality” children’s literature. Let’s just say Colm likes what he likes and sometimes I am not sure why he likes it. That said, here are this week’s picks.

On Sunday we went to play marbles and practice for the end of August when they/we will participate in a game of marbles that may get us into the Guinness Book of World Records for the most people playing marbles all at the same time.

I had a great birthday yesterday. Sean and the boys gave me some lovely shirts, a skirt and some capris. Then we had a yummy breakfast at First Watch with my mom and step-dad. I had their spinach, tomato and avocado Eggs Benedict, a piece of sausage (from Liam’s plate) and their breakfast potatoes. We then went home and hung out…played Candyland, Go Fish, put together a very difficult Star Wars puzzle…and then we went to Houlihan’s for dinner. It wasn’t my first choice, but I knew everyone would be able to find something to eat there and boy did we. Sean and I shared an appetizer of baked brie with strawberries and balsamic vinegar served with these little crisp raisin toasts. Then I had a half portion of babyback ribs, a yummy version of coleslaw and some French Onion soup. Then dessert…they have these desserts that they call minis which I had never had before, but something mini sounded too small so we ordered three minis that we could all share. Okay, minis are just regular-sized desserts that would be fine to share between two people…but we had ordered three of them. They were yummy though. We had banana cream pie, lemon meringue and creme brulee. I seriously thought I was going to burst, so we came home and went on a family walk with the dog and then the boys ran around in the sprinklers for a while. Good day.

Decorating the bikes

Big kid with no training wheels

Up the hill…slowly but surely

Hanging out at the pool with Dad

Luau boy

I almost didn’t finish this book. I started reading it and it was just kind of weird in the beginning. I kept at it though and I am glad I did. It really was a good story, with a few strange bits mixed in.

Colm has to go to the dentist once a month to get his Palette Splitter expanded. He had an appointment yesterday and good news, his bite has been corrected. He still has to keep it in though to train the soft tissues in his mouth to stay put, kind of like how you have to wear a retainer after getting braces removed. Also, after next month, we only have to go back every six weeks until I don’t know when. Next month we get to go twice, once for the palette splitter and then the boys both have their regular cleaning appointments. We’re getting kind of chummy with the dental hygienists. 🙂

This will always be known as the 4th of July that Liam learned to ride his bike without training wheels. Our neighbor let us borrow their old bike that their boys learned to ride on. Let’s just say this bike has seen better days; there isn’t much Liam could do to this bike. Sean took him across the street, gave him a push or two and he was off. His next lesson was braking which he figured out quickly, too. Two hours later he was riding in the neighborhood bike parade.