BAMBINOS

The three of them are loving potty training. Loving potty training. I really can’t tell who loves the whole thing more– Meera or the boys. All I know is that the three of them are doing all the potty training. There is very little adult involvement in any aspect of it whatsoever.

Meera wants to do everything that K & O do. Everything. One afternoon M was eating a late lunch after an even longer than usual nap. K & O had the Lion King blasting, as usual, and were acting out the entire play, as usual. At one point they were lying on the floor “dying just like Mufasa.” Meera managed to climb down from her seat at the table, while holding her plate of food, and continued to eat the rest of her lunch while lying on the floor right in line with her brothers.

It’s no secret the boys love all things lawn mowers, chainsaws, and power tools.  And now that it’s just about spring, we’re embarking on the outdoor maintenance sea.  When we went to Lowes this past weekend for a new plug for the model train (more to come on that), they had the lawnmowers out for sale.  Can’t miss a chance to ride those of course.

If mimicry is the sincerest form of flattery, then Pat should be thrilled.  Owen as Pat and Kyle as Owen riding the lawn mower.

Today Kyle went to Alisa’s house after school for a playdate. I blogged about Kyle and Alisa in this post (click). Apparently a great time was had by all. Braydon picked up Kyle, and of course asked Ning (Alisa’s mom) how it had gone. Ning and her husband (Alisa’s dad) don’t speak a whole lot of English, but she managed to tell Braydon that it had gone great, and she said several times that “Kyle is a very good boy! So sweet!” (her quote, not ours) Kyle was beaming with happiness and he and Alisa hugged and kissed goodbye more than once. I always tell the boys that when they go to someone’s house for a playdate they need to do two things: 1) be polite and use their best manners [especially, saying “please” and “thank you” to the parents], and 2) play whatever their host wants to play and not make a fuss about wanting to do something different. {Note: I, unbeknown to the boys, get a little kick out of this because when they host playdates at our house I also tell them the same two rules— including that they need to “play whatever their guest wants to play and not make a fuss about wanting to do something different”! Really, they can’t win!! ;0}  Anyway, today Kyle was absolutely filled with pride with how well he did on the playdate, and what a great playdate it was. When he saw Braydon, the first thing he said was, (and he repeated it to me again later upon returning home), “I did everything she wanted to do, even though it was hard!” That’s right. That’s my boy. And what a good boy he is!   😉

In late September, as the summer was ending, we bought the boys this ramp. We blogged briefly about it here (click). Well, now, almost six months later, with winter ending and spring in the air, the ramp is back in action. Big time action. The stunts are completely crazy. I mean, completely crazy. I just happened to have the camera with me the other day and was able to (kind of) capture some of the crazier stunts I’ve seen yet. The photo does not do it justice. It is absolutely absurd seeing it in real life. It scares me to think of what they’ll be doing when they are 15 if they are doing this when they’re 5.

Dear Kyle and Owen,

So, you’ve been loving Lehigh Basketball this winter. And this was a big year for Lehigh Basketball. Lehigh men’s basketball made it to the final round of the Patriot League Championship. And– get this—   the final game was vs. Lafayette! It was tonight, at Lehigh. The two star senior players are two of my students. One of them (Zahir Cahrington) took Intro to Soc with me his first semester of his first year. He was an all-national basketball recruit from inner city Philly. In Intro he sat right in front of the auditorium (it was a huge class of 250 students). I noticed him right away because he was so tall and he was so obviously totally into Sociology. Ended up taking every single course I teach. And is now applying to our graduate program in sociology. I adore this guy. Over the four years we’ve become pretty close and he’s come to know you boys pretty well too. He is great with you two. He sincerely cares about you and is genuinely interested in you. He’s just a super gem all around. One in a million. All-star super duper basketball player too. MVP of all the games, MVP of the Patriot League, millions of awards for everything he does, etc., etc, etc.  The other guy (Marquis Hall) has been taking classes with me this year. Took a class with me in the fall (Race & Ethnicity), and now again this spring semester (Race & Class in America). Incredible guy. From Oregon. Valedictorian of his high school senior class. Is a Finance major at Lehigh. Has a 3.9 GPA as he is about to graduate this spring. This kid will go places. It is written all over him. I’ve been having a great year with him in class — and he loves it that I bring you boys to his games. He adores you two, and vice-versa. So, anyway, the big game was tonight. You know, incredible rivalry (Lehigh vs. Lafayette). Huge, huge game. And, lucky for us, because of my relationship with these two star basketball players (they’ve written it up — my relationship with them —  for Lehigh magazine, the LU website, alumni publications, etc.)… the Director of Athletics (big wig) gave me 5 tickets — prime seats —- for our family to go to the game. We felt like V.I.P.’s getting this special treatment. It was an $80 value for the seats. (of course we spent almost that on hot dogs and popcorn and soda and ice cream etc.!). But, seriously, it was one of the best athletic events I’ve ever been to in my whole life. Totally incredible game. Edge of our seats the entire time. You two were in HEAVEN… screaming your heads off, jumping out of your seats with every LU basket, chanting “defense! defense! defense!”… and –icing on the cake– getting to stay up way past your bedtime. Meera tolerated it (as she always does; THANK YOU MEERA!!!). It was such an awesome night. Anyway, Lehigh won! They got the huge Patriot League trophy, we got to watch them cut the net off, and you two ran onto the floor to celebrate their huge victory with the team. It was one of those nights where I felt so proud of my boys (you two) and my other boys (my students)… and most of all… I felt really glad to have the job I do— for your sake. I am glad to be able to give you two these experiences, these opportunities, and these really great role models to look up to. If I weren’t a professor at a place like Lehigh, our life would be a whole lot different. Anyway, when we got home you had warm milk with cinnamon (“sleep milk”) while Papi read you a book. And then you both fell asleep in about 2 seconds flat. It was — for you two — a perfect Friday night.

Love, Mommy

P.S. Link to the press release about the game —-
http://www.lehighsports.com/sports/mbball/release.asp?release_id=8842

Both boys are experimenting a lot with spelling and writing.  Owen seems to have a particular fondness for it.  They also have a love of body painting.  What do you get when you mix these two things together and a handful of markers?

When getting the boys dressed for Kung Fu today I noticed a big W on Owen’s chest.  Didn’t think much of it.  A few minutes later, as Margie was heading out the door, she told me the rest.

Owen had proudly come down from rest hour to show her his name:

O  – on his forehead

W – on his chest

E –  on the top of his foot.

But he couldn’t remember or find where the N had gone.

The latest with the boys is their new-found love-affair with rollerblading. I swear, if it isn’t one sport, it’s another. No sooner was their winter obsession with basketball waning that these rollerblades were appearing. Appearing over, and over, and over again. These things seem to come and go with the seasons. It is as if the boys — on cue — switch sports right in tune with Mother Nature. The craziest (and scariest) part of this early-spring-rollerblading-thing is that the rollerblades they are using are Braydon’s and mine from years back when we lived in Boston. They had been sitting quietly unused in the basement for all of these years… until K & O discovered them. Inspired by the Olympics (ice hockey, speed skating, ice dancing & luge, ski jumping, and snowboarding too), the boys thought they had just hit the jackpot when they realized that these rollerblades were just ready and waiting. So, not only are these rollerblades really old and outdated (like, over a dozen years old and outdated), but they are way way way too big for the boys’ feet. No matter (at least not to them). The boys could not care any less. They love them and have been rollerblading for long stretches of time every single day. They play hockey on them in the garage. They play “speed skating” on a chalk-drawn “course” that they drew in the driveway (they *are* Apolo Anton Ohno!). They do “tricks” (i.e., figure skating), and they race at crazy-fast (scary scary scary) speeds down the hill of our neighbor Emily’s driveway (i.e., some sort of creative blend of short track speed skating / luge / ski jumping / snowboard cross. At first I had hoped that this was just a passing phase (rolling around like madmen on the waaaaay oversized rollerblades), but it seems to be sticking. Sticking hard. I seriously foresee this being their activity of choice for the next six months of spring and summer. And because it is just so incredibly dangerous for them to be riding around on these things (ankles flopping around, feet sliding forward and backward, rollerblades way too heavy for their 50-pound bodies), Braydon and I are probably going to have to bite the bullet and buy them their own (i.e., safe) properly-fitting, updated for this millennium, rollerblades. We talked about maybe trying to wait until their birthday (‘we could give them rollerblades as their birthday present this year!?’), but we don’t think we can wait that long. We’ve already had one broken bone this year (Owen, collar bone) and I do not want to have any others. I see a trip to the sports’ store in our future. Our near future.

Little Miss has morphed into quite the little Girl (capital G). Braydon and I talk about it everyday– ‘How did this happen?’ We say it with some level of disdain and disgust, but most of all —  with sincere awe. It is bewildering to watch it develop right before our very eyes. With the boys we could always blame it on genetics (ha! ‘this just HAS to be nature over nurture, right???’ right?!), but with Meera… well… we don’t know how, exactly, to explain her girly girl ways. Is it possible that all three of our children are already rebelling against our attempts to raise them as gender neutral as possible (without going overboard)?! I mean, seriously, in a home where boys are encouraged to play with dolls our boys wind up the quintessential Boys’ Boy. And in a house full of trucks and hand-me-down overalls, our girl –already at age 21 months– is the Classic Girl. What the heck?! I’ve been thinking that it might be reverse psychology. Is that possible at such a young age???? Now, in all honesty, we conscientiously don’t go over the top with this stuff (because we’ve always thought that could backfire too). So everything is (or at least we try for it to be) within reason. But Meera has just proven to us that something seriously funky is going down with gender in this world of ours. Meera has become very particular about what she will and will not wear. She has definite ideas about it all: which clothes (always a dress, if at all possible!), which shoes (always her red rain boots or her black paten leather mary-janes, if at all possible!), which coat (the dressier and fancier the better), and how to accessorize (always accessories! always! if at all possible! necklaces, bracelets, scarves, hats). And her hair! Those french braids! She loves them and will sit patiently for as long as it takes for me to braid them in. Oh my gosh, that girl. She is her own self. And oh my gosh, how I love her. I had absolutely no idea I could love a girly girl the way that I love mine.

(Lake Nockamixon State Park)

Dear February 2010,
Good Riddance.
Sincerely, The J-Ms

P.S. Lucky for us our trusty coffee maker went on the fritz during February. At first this seemed like yet another thing to hate about this month. But, no! It was a blessing in disguise! We finally had a semi-decent excuse to buy that Keurig coffee maker we’ve been coveting. And oh how that Keurig made our last few days of February sooooooooooo much better than they would have been without it!!!!!!!!!!!!