All Grown Up: Birthdays and First Kisses

So I step away from a while and one of my kids turns 4, while the other manages to sneak in a first kiss. No joke.

I'll start with the natural progression; I'm a sucker for mushy retrospectives. My amazing and wonderful first-born has turned four. This takes her securely out of the realm of toddler and into the realm of "kid." And it fits her well. Like many young girls, she is "four going on twenty-four." In the past year she has gone from an adorable but tantrum-prone toddler into a precocious, smart young lady. Although she has always had a personality, it is becoming refined into a real sense of self. Mac is cool and fun to hang out with. She has insight. She has a sense of humor. She can still throw a wicked tantrum, and I wouldn't exactly label her as "mature," but I can say that I would like her even if she wasn't my kid. And since she is my kid, I think that she is just about the best thing ever.

Oliver, meanwhile, has continued to mature along his own path. While we are still waiting for his first words, he managed to sneak in his first kiss* the other day. I took the kids to a local restaurant to pick up a gift certificate. While we were waiting for the owner to come back with the gift card, I let Oliver and Mac play on the ground with a few other kids hanging out up front. It was three little girls; all of them came crowding around Oliver, trying to touch him and saying things like "look at the cute baby." Mac played the role of the proud sister, kind of waving her hand around him like he was a prize in the Showcase Showdown on the Price is Right. One of the kids was the adorable little girl of the owner. I guess she is probably around two years old. She bent down right in front of Oliver. I looked away for a second, and when I looked back, Oliver was giving her his little hen-peck kisses on the lips! What a little player! I don't know who initiated the interaction, but I do know that he shared his first kiss with an "older woman" named Sophia.

And so my little ones continue to grow up at an alarming speed. I guess the time always goes by too quickly.

* Oliver's first kiss was really with mommy. He gives cute little kisses where he stretches his neck forward and pecks at your face like a little hen. Sometimes he puckers, and sometimes he just opens his mouth and kind of sucks on your cheek. He gives out lots of kisses. But this was his first kiss with a stranger of the opposite sex.

Sleep Rules

Yet again, my children have declared a sleep strike. Mac now starts crying in the car when I pick her up after work because she does not want to go to bed. This is before we even eat dinner. Why? Who knows, but the primary reason seems to be that she is afraid of the dark. She has two nightlights -- any more, and it would be too bright to sleep. So I now have to drop Oliver in his crib and go lay with her until she falls asleep at night.

Now, we never really transitioned Oliver out of our bed into his own. He always starts out in his crib, and then comes in with us around midnight. No big deal -- I love the snuggles. This goes for both of them -- I figure soon will come the day when they won't even want me around, or want to give me hugs in public. I might as well take the love while I can get it. But anyway, lately Oliver either won't go down at all, or goes to sleep for about an hour, and then wakes up and screams. Since I don't want him to wake up Mac (who often has just fallen asleep) I grab him and bring him out with me. Then, when I go to bed, he comes with me. I know, I know -- a really bad habit.

So in the middle of all of this, Mac has decided that she wants to sleep with us, too. I can't say no, because Oliver does. But the one rule that I have managed to enforce is that each person starts out in his or her own bed. Sometimes that works and Mac sleeps through the night, none the wiser and never joining the rest of us (including Sniper) in our room. And those are the best nights, because, as much as I love Mac, she is very hard to sleep with. Why? Because she kicks, squirms, talks, and has rules. Rules, you ask? Yes, rules. They are as follows:

1. You can't breathe on her face, but...
2. You have to face her. You can't turn away and face the wall, no matter how long you have been laying on your side.
3. You can't breathe on her arm (I just learned this one this morning).
4. You can't have on any covers that she doesn't want on (sometimes she doesn't want the sheet, sometimes she doesn't want the comforter).
5. You can't always sleep on the pillow if she doesn't think there is enough room.
6. You can't curl up your knees because then she can't put her legs down straight.

And let me assure you that these rules are quite often enforced with a loud stage whisper, whiny pout, outright shriek, or crying that resonates through a quiet, sleeping house like a tornado. Tim and I are trying to figure out how to lay the smack down and get this all under control, but we are, quite frankly, too tired. At this point, I'm wondering if I should just start to price king sized beds and call it a day.

The Best

Every night as I tuck the kids into bed and go through the whole bedtime routine (which went horribly wrong last night, by the way) I am struck by two things: the first is how good soft, warm little bodies feel in cotton jammies. Not the soft, fleece jammies (although those are so nice to wear), but the cotton jammies that are thicker than in the summertime, but not too thick. After a kid has had them on for a few minutes, they heat right up and get really soft. So you have soft, warm little bodies in soft, warm little jammies. Really, there is nothing better.

But then after you put the soft, warm little bodies in bed, read them books, get them vitamins, water, pacifiers, and check on them at least five times, they usually (eventually) fall asleep. And then you get the second thing: how good the even, sleepy breathing of kids and babies sounds. When babies are little, and you check on them every five minutes, that sound is so reassuring. And when babies turn into toddlers, and going to bed is an exhausting, tenuous venture, that sound is so relaxing. And I can never help but put my hand on the back or stomach of the soft, warm body, and listen to it breathe as I feel the chest rise and fall. And I thank God that I am a mommy, their mommy, as I do this every single night.

Our Trip to New Hampshire (a.k.a. How Many Times Can we Eat at McDonald's in One Weekend)

This weekend we had a family road trip! Tim has been actively competing this year in hopes of placing in Top 10 and being able to compete for World Champ in tae kwon do. The way it works is that you compete in as many tournaments as possible all year (July-June) in any or all of the following categories: forms, weapons, sparring, extreme forms, and extreme weapons. For each first, second, or third place that you take, you get a certain number of points. The ten people with the most points at the end of the year for each age group and rank compete for world champ at (where else?) World Championships in (where else) Little Rock, AK. Tim is currently ranked number 2 in forms and sparring for men's black belts 30-39 (my little one turns 30 this year :) I have also dusted off my nunchucks and started competing again, too.

This weekend's tournament was in New Hampshire and we decided to make a family trip out of it. We did this in Deleware a few weeks ago, and it worked well. The key is an indoor pool. The kids love it. We all go to the tournament and Tim and I compete first thing in the morning. Then I head back to the hotel with the kids and swim while Tim judges.

We headed up Friday night after I got out of work. Stopped at McDonald's for dinner. A rare treat, and I looove cheeseburger happy meals. We got in late, went to bed, and competed the next morning. I only had one other person in my ring. So I got second in forms and first in sparring. And, by default, first in weapons. Tim took four firsts and a third.

According to plan, I took the kids back to the hotel and got them suited up. We couldn't find the indoor pool (whose existence we had confirmed before booking), so we headed down to the lobby complete with bathing suits and blow up duck. Only to find out there was no pool. Mac handled it extremely well, and we found a Burger King playland instead.Then we stopped at McDonald's fo ice cream. When Tim got back we headed to Boston for dinner, which was really exciting. Then back to our hotel.

We had a delicious McDonald's breakfast Sunday morning, and all was relaxing until we hit the road to go home. 20 minutes into the trip, Mac projectile vomited ALL OVER the back seat. I can't describe how gross it really was. And the worst part was, we had the next 7 (yes 7) hours to smell it on the way home.

Happy Halloween