Meanwhile, I'm working hard on my biting-my-tongue muscles
November 20, 2008
I haven't been blogging that much lately - for a variety of reasons. There have been things going on in the extended family (illness and school drama and whatnot) that I don't feel free to talk about here, although they are heavy on my heart. And plus one of my children is deep in a new transition in life and I'm trying out this new "respect his privacy" concept I've been hearing so much about. He's old enough and online enough to be aware of what I've got to say here, and so I don't want to say anything that would be embarrassing or difficult for him.
Imaginary Memo from the desk of 23 year old Raphael
to: Mom
Mother, do you think you could have figured this concept out BEFORE you blogged my oodly-doodly-whapping adventures?
Imaginary Memo from the desk of an elderly me
to: 23 year old Raphael
Oh, hush. You were adorable.
Anyhow, since the afore-not-mentioned son is in the middle of all this changing, and I'm busily not blogging it, it's hard to know what to say here, exactly.
HEY! Wanna hear a totally random anecdote about Tre? When he was about two and a half, he finally hit his "terrible twos." One day he was eating his lunch and he stood up in his high chair. I said to him sweetly, "Tre, if you don't sit down, I will have to take you out of your high chair and your lunch will be over." And he fixed me with a fierce look, planted his fists on his hips, and hollered, "You will NOT!"
I was devastated. My BABY, my BUDDY, my SIDEKICK had turned on me. I wept for hours.
The GOOD THING about this total random anecdote is that when Max hit that same age, and did the SAME thing, except HE stomped his little foot and bellowed, "I WILL NEVER SIT DOWN!" And I was unphased, because I had been through this before. That is a good, totally random thing to remember these days.
Here's another random anecdote, this one from today!
We were doing school, and Tre was having a really hard time with...everything. His brothers were annoying him, math was being unreasonable, noises were assaulting his ability to concentrate, and I was an insufferable source of rules without reason. Finally I asked him to stand up for a minute. He did, and glared at me.
"Great," I said, "now drop and give me ten push-ups."
"WHAT? WHY?"
"Because you seem to have a little extra emotional energy today, and sometimes working your body can help settle your heart and mind."
He huffed, rolled his eyes, and generally showed his displeasure as best he could as he dropped to a push-up position. Max watched from behind his math book and muttered,
"Well, at least his HEAVY SIGH muscles are getting a good workout."