A Tale of Two Children

Ahhh, my boys…

5 going on 4 and 3 going on 10…

So alike, yet so different.

They play together all the time but if you ask the youngest, he says he doesn’t like the older brother.

When my 3-year-old draws pictures of the family, he includes himself, mummy, me, his baby sister and the nanny.

“Where is your brother?”, I ask him.

“I don’t like him!”, responds my youngest son.

And for all that, they are also so much different when out in a social setting. Take Friday night for example… We were out for dinner at our Temple with other young families and after the meal and a brief service there are cookies and juice for the kids (and adults).

Both boys took off for the room with their friends and I turned to one of the Dads and said, “Watch and see… Linus will be standing by the table trying to get my attention so he can ask me if he can eat a cookie and drink some juice.  Stewie on the other hand, will be standing at the table after clearing some room for himself, eating.”

Sure enough, Stewie was chewing down on cookies – looking very serious – while Linus was standing politely at the end of the table holding a cookie in his hand, asking if it was OK to go get one.

I guess that is the middle child realizing that to get what he wants he’ll have to just take it.  He does this often, never for anything bad – he asks for sweets – but in a public setting he takes first to make sure his appetite is addressed instead of  waiting to be given the green light.  This boy is VERY serious when he eats.  He makes me laugh!

Sewn to the ground

I love my family.  The make me laugh.  Especially my kids, Linus and Stewie, or monkey-see, monkey-do.  If one does something the other must do it.

The only place where they completely differ is around how they interact with each other, obviously, considering the ages.  Linus is going to be 5 soon, and Stewie just turned 3.  So here are some of the things I’ve had to deal with as these two grow up together;

Stewie: Crying

Me, “Why are you crying… Come here”

Stewie, “I can’t… Linus put me in a time-out”

Or…

Stewie: Crying

Me, “Stewie!  Come here”

Stewie, “I can’t… Linus sent me to my room”.

Or just last week…  Linus, Stewie and myself were playing in the basement when all of a sudden Stewie is laying on the floor on his back not moving a muscle and all of a sudden Stewie is crying.  I ask him to get up but he said that he cannot.  Why???  Because Linus sewed him to the ground.

Oh yes!

His brother had sewn him to the ground.

I tried to convince him that there was no way without thread and a needle that he could have been sewn to the ground and his brother even tried lifting him off the floor by his head, but that little boy was not going anywhere.  Then Linus let go of his head and it thumped back down to the floor.  Ouch.  More crying.

After laughing a little and trying to get him off the floor it was Linus that solved the problem by jumping over his brother and un-sewing him from the floor.

With that Stewie got up, stopped crying and the two boys went back to playing.

Oy vey!

Quick and too the point

Today is the 32nd Anniversary of the release of Star Wars.  I wouldn’t be the nerd I am today without it.

Ran tonight, relatively pain free.  Some heel tenderness.  Realized I need more / new running music.

My 2 year old son’s bum hurt so he came in looking for “butter”, that being bottom butter.  I went to get it.

This is my life.

Give me strength…

To make it through this weekend…

I’m melting. I really am. I’m melting down. I can see that UrbanMummy is almost totally wiped out. I’m well on my way.

You see, I have an assignment for my Organizational Behaviour course that was due last week. I got an extension. I have a group assignment due for my Human Resources Management course that is due Monday, but for some reason I am the only member of my group that has actually done any work on this project. Each day I check my email and nothing comes in from my team members. To make matters worse, I am presenting to my HRM class Monday night and I have not even looked at that chapter I am covering. It’s going to be tight.

But here is where the problem lies. I promised yummy UrbanMummy that I would not do school work at night after the kids went to bed unless a) she was working on her course too, b) I had a class, or c) it was absolutely necessary. So I wait until she goes to bed and I begin my work on house stuff and my classes, which means that this week, I have been getting to be between 1-3am. Not bad eh, for someone who gets up between 5-7am when the baby wakes up.

Yes, that baby, the Weed, who doesn’t sleep, but naps in 2-3 hour stints all night. He could be up at 12, 1, 2, 3… you get the point. But once he wakes up after 5am, he’s up for good. It’s play time. So this morning when he woke up at 3:30 with tummy troubles, I cursed him as I trekked into bed at 1:45. I managed to get him back to sleep at 6am, and I plopped down and snoozed away for another hour and a half until 7:30 which is exactly 15 minutes after I should have left.

I dropped the Weed into the nanny’s hands, couldn’t use the shower (it was re-caulked before it destroys our family room ceiling) so I skipped breakfast, grabbed my iPod and hit the road at 8am. Listened to Bang your Head by Quiet Riot, Heaven by Bryan Adams (our wedding song), Heaven’s on Fire by Kiss and I Want to Know by the Information Society. I also listened to a few WWE theme songs.

Then the day begins…

I hope UrbanMummy naps. I hope she also figures out what she has to do for her assignemtn, now very overdue.

The day will end with a dinner at our synagogue, and for me, more school work and some more house cleaning before bed.

Saturday is chalk full of events for the kiddies like a play date, returning some stuff to the mall, and going to see the Leafs play the Sabres Saturday night. A BIG game for the Leafs to say the least.

Sunday, I believe, sees the beginning of some programming for the kids, and then as the day progresses, I see a birthday party, a much needed haircut for the Happy Boy, and the retrival our our second car (that has been in storage since we moved) to our house where it can be cleaned up and put for sale.

Like I said in the subject title…I need strength to make it through the weekend!

… and I ran. I ran so far away…

Ran 2.2 km in 18 minutes.

Filled up my car at 76.9.

Read 2 chapters of Organizational Behaviour text.

Started my essay.

Took the Second child for his first walk – 30 minutes up and down Avenue Road.

Burped the baby, like 25 times.

Was spit up on twice…

All in a days work.