Category: Family


Penos Envy

November 28th, 2006 — 9:27pm

Day 28
Mood: Disheartened (should never try on clothes at the end of a long day)

I live with three small boys and one big boy. I am surrounded by penises.

This is not how I grew up. There were mostly girls in my house. Frankly, penises were always a bit intimidating until I had children of my own and saw how small they really start out. ANYWAY, let’s just say that in a house with four boys there’s a lot of attention paid to male genitalia. And here I am just a lone Mamma in the midst of it all.

First there’s Shakey and his “super sperm”–or so he’s named it since he can’t sneeze in my direction without getting me pregnant. When his mom teasingly raised her eyebrows by how quickly I got pregnant for the third time, the man actually uttered these words TO HIS OWN MOTHER (imagine Shakey standing tall with hands on hips like Superman) “I’m the Sniper. Don’t mess with my super sperm.” Now I figure he said it to his own mom, so it’s fair game for blogging.

Next we have Mr. 2. Mr. 2 does not yet show much interest in using the potty, however he does think it’s quite funny in between diapers to chase his brothers around, hold out his penis and yell “I gonna pee on you” and then make a hissing noise. I’m happy to report, so far, that he hasn’t actually gone through with the threat, but I’m betting that’s just a matter of time.

I reported earlier in the fall that we have a plethora of acorns in our yard and apparently all the rounds of the Let’s Pick Up the Acorns game we play with the boys to keep them from spreading out the raked leaves has left an impression on Mr. 2. As I was changing his diaper the other day, he reached down to grab his penis (is that genetic?) and while holding it looked down and then said to me, “Woolk Mommy woolk, it woolks like a acorn.” He was right. It sort of did.

Not to be outdone by his younger brother, we have Mr. 10. Mr. 10 was five and half when our middle son was born. I expected the questions all along. Surprisingly, his first concern was how the baby was going to get out (believe it or not he was relieved when I told him how–that’s because it wasn’t happening to him), but sure enough about a month before I was due he skipped into my room one day and asked how that baby got in there anyway. So I started at the beginning… I told him every baby begins with a sperm and an egg. I explained that mommies have the egg and the daddies have the sperm. At this point he stopped me.

Mr. 10: “Wait daddies have sperm?”
Me: “Yep, all men have sperm.”
Mr. 10: “ALL men have sperm?!”
Me: “Yep”
Mr. 10: “Do I have sperm?”
Me: “You will.”
Mr. 10: “Where?!”
Me: “Well you know your testicles there underneath your penis?”
Mr. 10: interrupting me, pulling down his pants and stretching his penis up (I swear) over his shoulder “I HAVE SPERM RIGHT HERE?!”

It was like Christmas in April! He never asked how the sperm and egg got together. He was just so psyched to find out he was going to have sperm.

Finally there’s Mr. 4. Mr. 4 is my golden retriever–all full of love and extra smart. He’s the detail guy. Mr. 4 spoke the earliest too. He could name all of his body parts but for some reason pronounced penis like peenos–like his was greek.

One day in the shower Mr. 4 was telling me once again that I did not have a penos. And as had become the habit, I nodded my head and agreed. Then he proceeded to tick off a list of everyone he knew and whether or not they indeed had a penos. “P has a penos, M doesn’t have a penos, Uncle C has a penos, Grandma doesn’t have a penos.” And on and on this went until he thought he categorized everyone he knew. But he had forgotten one person. So I asked him, “what about Daddy? Does Daddy have a penos (I had to say it that way, how could I resist?)?” Very quickly he replied with large eyes, “Oh yeah, Daddy has a BIIIG penos.”

Ahh, life with four penoses boys!

7 comments » | Family, Living with Boys

Spice Up Your Holiday!

November 26th, 2006 — 4:16pm

Day 26
Mood: Rested and Ready

Just when you thought it was going to be another boring holiday with the family…the fine folks on the web bring you a terrific idea to transform your gathering from Ho Hum to HO HO!

3 comments » | "Great" Ideas, Family

I DID Get The Worm

November 25th, 2006 — 7:18am

Day 25–The Home Stretch
Mood: Pissed off then Happy

I woke up very early this morning considering I had every opportunity to sleep in, after all it’s Saturday, my entire family is still asleep and I have no where to be. I tried to deny my wakefulness by rolling over and closing my eyes again, but I was too consumed by the thoughts of my dreams to go back to sleep. Does that ever happen to you?

My original draft of this post included some background on my dream and a description of it, but no amount of writing about it exorcised my mood.

Then my mom called. She was right there by me when all the history of my dream happened–supporting me the whole time. So I told her about it, and she truly understood why I woke up in a bad mood. She’s probably the only one who would have.

After we hung up the phone I felt so much better. I got the story off my chest, she listened patiently and validated my feelings, and I thought “jeez I was pretty stupid.” “Why didn’t I just call her in the first place?” See like I’ve said in earlier posts, my mom knows almost everything about me. She’s the kind of mom I’ve always been able to talk to–no matter what. Sometimes I take that forgranted…but today I didn’t. After our call, I went outside and stood in the sun and basked in the warmth of the unseasonably warm day and my mother’s love.

And to pay homage to this wonderful woman I promptly went inside, and before breakfast, taught my boys how to spray whipped cream on the tips of their fingers in the shape of little flowers and enjoy it without having to bother with some silly vehicle like pie.

1 comment » | Family, life lesson

Oh Crap!

November 22nd, 2006 — 10:45pm

Day 22
Mood: Rested

It’s day 22 and I almost forgot to post tonight. How many days do “they” say it takes to form a habit? 28? Great, just when I get used to this whole post a day thing it will be time to stop. Well, I guess I don’t have to stop posting every day once December rolls around…but I’m really not sure I’d have something to say every day for another thirty days. And I know there are a number of you out there saying “you haven’t had much to say for these last 22 days.” I appreciate you hanging with me. I have to say thanks to my favorite new Google tool–Analytics–I can obsess all day about how many readers I have and where they’re coming from.

It was a rainy, cold day here in VA. In a way, it’s perfect weather for the Thanksgiving holiday. We’re supposed to sit in the house, eat food and watch football right? You wouldn’t want it to be gorgeous outside, then you’d just feel like a sloth for lounging on the couch. This way–with the sucky weather–we have an excuse. In an early nod to tomorrow’s theme, I’m grateful that we have family close by and that I didn’t have to brave the highways or airports this weekend. I’m all about the no traveling around the holidays excuse we now have because we have three kids. Though if someone was going to offer me an all expenses paid trip back down to The Breakers, I’d be at the airport in a flash. I’m still missing that twice a day maid service. I can’t quite get my boys convinced that this would be a good habit to start.

Oh, I noticed a weird thing when I was at my parent’s house. Wouldn’t you think you’d get your preference for how the toilet paper goes on the holder from your parents? I did. But APPARENTLY I was wrong. I was using my parent’s guest bathroom when I noticed that the paper hung down off the back of the roll–not over the front! Now I still have to check with mom. It’s entirely possible that this was the doing of dear ole dad, but let’s be real…that would mean he actually thought about putting the paper on the holder. Don’t know about your house, but in ours…I’m not really sure what my boys (all of them) think that little bar next to the toilet is for (other than balance for our newest potty-trained friends). I just find it hard to believe that I grew up with a paper down the back mom and somehow transformed to an adament over the top kind of girl. Sheesh, you think you know someone!

End Note: I titled this post before I ever even thought about writing about the toilet paper. That was just a funny coincidence I realized once I saw the photo near the title. Made me giggle.

1 comment » | Family, random thoughts

Quiet

November 18th, 2006 — 11:01pm

Day 18 Still!

Mood: Very Bittersweet
The conference is over. I’m at my parents’ house–they are getting ready to move. They are moving near me, which is terrific, but they are leaving the town I went to high school in. And now I haven’t been back here much over the years, and I don’t have a lot in common with many of the people I was friendly with in high school so I don’t keep in touch with that many folks, but I’m feeling sad that I won’t be able to come back here to a home. I drove around today, had lunch at a great hamburger joint–whose burgers are just as great as they were 20 years ago–drove by my old house and walked around downtown.

I also visited my grandmother in the nursing home today. That is probably adding to my melancholy. She has alzheimer’s and needs round the clock monitoring–a little hitchhiking trip some years back was the signal that she needed more care. She knew who I was. She told me I was beautiful and said I looked a little spoiled (I think she meant chubby). She was happy to see me and I have to say I was so happy to see her. She doesn’t remember that I’m married, that I have any children and that she didn’t see me yesterday. It’s so sad that she needs to be this nursing home, but at the same time she seems to be comfortable in her routine. It’s not much of a life, she doesn’t live in a very large world–but I hope it makes her feel safe. I pray that I keep my wits about me as I age.

Of course I just topped my night off with a trip to the movies to see Babel (yes kids a movie that wasn’t animated! and at first I typed “an adult movie” but in rereading that didn’t come across the way I meant it–though it would have been funny if that’s what you thought). It was interesting. I’m not sure I got it–I think it’s about love. But it certainly wasn’t an uplifting movie.

Tomorrow I get on a plane and go back to my life as wife, mother, employee, suburban mom. This past 24 hours by myself has been good for me–a chance to be alone with my thoughts. Time really slowed down–except for the time this afternoon that I didn’t want to move slowly–and I feel like I’ve heard my own voice a bit. It’s amazing what you can hear when things are quiet.

And for the record, even though this post is officially on Sunday, I’m counting this as my Saturday post for you NaBloPoMo watchers because I haven’t gone to bed yet.

1 comment » | Family, Movies

Behave! Mom’s Watching!

November 2nd, 2006 — 8:14pm

Day 2 and I still have something to say.

My mom wants the URL for my blog! So far I’ve held off. When she mentioned it again tonight I told her I didn’t know if I could give it to her because then I couldn’t vent about her here. Her reply? “Um yeah, that’s the idea.” Killjoy!
There’s really not much mom doesn’t hear from me. And she’s too smart for me to pull anything over on her–she knows all the stuff I don’t tell her too–even if she pretends like she doesn’t. Which is so frustrating by the way. It’s like I have a little mini-Mom on my shoulder acting as my conscience. Makes it hard to be really bad. And there are just some times when you need a little bad in your life.

So I guess she’ll get the address. Leave a comment, tell her hi. She’ll feel so honored.

4 comments » | Family

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