Gotta love Peyton

So, we're driving around town the other day, and from the back seat I hear the usual nonessential communication between the boys....when suddenly Peyton calls everyone's attention, including mine.

He says, "Mother, I know the top four jobs I'd like to have when I grow up!" Okay....Peyton, let's hear it. We're enroute to Pop Warner football evaluations, so, not surprisingly, Peyton says, "#1 I'm gonna play in the NFL. (hey, it could happen....) And if I don't get to do that, then my #2 choice is, I'm going to be a Canadian." Christian & I exchange confused glances...and begin to inform Peyton, that he cannot choose to be a Canadian and furthermore, that's not so much an occupation....when he interrupts our thoughts. "What?? I think I'd be really good at standing up in front of people, making them laugh!!!"

Exactly. At which point, Christian and I start dying laughing, realizing the word Peyton was searching for. But before we can kindly correct him, he says....."see, look how much I can make you guys laugh, see??"

So, we just savor the moment and hold off on the correction for now.

He continues, "my #3 choice for a job is to work with Dad. I have no idea what he does, but I know he makes a lot of money, like $100 a week!!!" and my #4 choice is to work with you, mother. We could like work at McDonald's together, wouldn't that be great??"

So, to recap.... NFL, Canadian, ??? with Dad, and McDonalds. Wow!

The only thing I know for sure is Peyton will choose to be happy whatever life holds for him. That I know.

quiet week

I'm in the middle of what's sure to be the quietest week this summer, maybe even this year. Christian and Peyton are away at Church camp atop Palomar Mountain.

Christian's moved up to the Jr. High camp, having spent two years in the Youth camp, so he was feeling pretty stoked & confident about that Monday afternoon as we arrived .

9 year old Peyton, however was arriving at camp for the very first time. Mind you, this is the child who does fine sleeping over at Grandma/Grandpa's and Nana & Grandon's, but has only attempted to sleep over at the house of his best buddy, Ivan. You see, at least 3 times, we've gotten the lonesome voice phone call between 10:00-12:00 at night, with sweet Peyton on the other end saying, I miss you....I want to come home....."

So, as I made the one hour drive up the mountain, this thought was on my mind. Would Peyton be okay without us?

As we're in line checking in, he sweetly puts his arm through mine and says, "you're staying, right?" Uhh, what do you mean, Peyton? "you're staying with me, at camp, right?" he replies, with the saddest, you wouldn't leave me, kind of look you've ever seen. I hug his shoulders, Peyton, I'm not staying, I can't stay. I have to get home and take care of Elliot & Brooks this week. I thought you understood that. (I'm being as sweet and gentle, in my answer as I can possibly be, hoping & praying he won't back out of the whole camp idea in fear.....)His puppy dog blue eyes start to well up with worried tears and he bites his bottom lip to try and fight back the anxiety....

Then he grins this huge awesome grin, jokingly punches me in the arm, and laughs, "I was just messin' with you....I'm fine!"

He got me good.
And it's weird, but I'm proud of him, both for being mature enough to go to camp, and clever enough pull a good joke on me.
I love that my kids are growing up....for many reasons.
Have a great week, boys! And I'll enjoy the peace and quiet a few more days.....

"Mommy" farewell

Christian is my oldest son. We're similar, you might say, and very close for a mother and 11 year old son.

We were driving home from San Diego last night, Brooks was asleep in his car seat and Peyton and Elliot were with Kenny at Basketball practice. A very rare moment for Christian to truly have my undivided attention and total silence at the same time.

His voice sounded serious, "Mommy, I need to talk to you about something." Okay, I said, go ahead. "Um, I've been thinking, um, that maybe I um, am getting older now and would it be okay if I called you something besides, Mommy?"

I was cool. Really. I said, absolutely! I can totally understand that, you're growing up, I figured you'd stop calling me "Mommy", sometime before you left for college. That's fine.

Then I parked the car in front of a Walgreens and turned around to assure him, I was okay with it. He, however, wasn't. Tears were trickling down his face, as he swallowed hard and said, "my throat is burning hot." Looking at my 11 year old baby, it dawned on me that this was a harder transition for him to experience that it was for me. Well if you know me at all, it doesn't take much for my faucet to turn on and participate in the emotion. I hugged him & told him I loved him. "I love you too", he said. Yeah, but I love you the most, I added. He answered with, "I love you the most, Mother."

My "Mommy" days with Christian are done.

To blog or not to blog?

To blog or not to blog? That is the question. Whether tis nobler to spare your minds the task of reading another's simple thoughts or to thrust my life, my days' adventures across the universe as if my writings were of great importance?

Yeah, I just don't know.

U-Turn

So we are driving around town the other day, just Brooks and Elliot and myself in the minivan. Out of nowhere Elliot asks, "what does that sign mean?" I look up quickly and notice the "No-U-Turn" sign at the intersection. Well, while driving, I try my best to explain that it means you can't turn your car around and go back in the direction you just came from. Not fully sure that he understands what I just said, or that it makes much sense to me either. "Oh", he replys. "I thought it meant that it's not good to pick up cars and then drop them. That would be bad."

I love the perspective of a 4....almost 5 year old.

Will you ever look at a U-Turn or No U-Turn the same? I don't think I will.

Thanks, Elliot.

Hands

It's Winter. It's flu season. And I just was forwarded a rather disgusting email which gave me more knowledge than I ever asked for of the many many places my hands can pick up germs and viruses such as the flu. Elevator buttons, escalator handrails, my kitchen dishcloth...etc. Why I know all of this info. is good to be aware of, the truth of the matter is I cannot SEE the germs that come in contact with my hands in any given day.

Having said that, I saw something profound today as my eyes were closed.

We were sitting down to dinner as a family, and grasped hands to pray before our meal of "breakfast for dinner". (A very fun and special treat I used to love as a kid). I normally grasp hands with Brooks and Peyton, but for some reason it was Brooks and Christian's hands I was linked to tonight. As Kenny said thanks, I couldn't focus on anything but the striking contrast between my 2 year old's and my 10 year old's hands. Brooksie's hands are as soft as silk, his skin as squishy as butter, I could just rub the top of his hand against my cheek all day and not tire of the adorably sweet feel of it. Christian's hand was like that at one time, I'm sure of it. But as I held his slender hand in mine, there were no similarities between the two. Christian's hands are thin, as is his whole figure at this point. They are rough with callouses from the monkey bars the basketball, the usual rocks and mud and sand of the school yard. He has hangnails. He has dirty nails! He has scars already that will mark his precious hands for life. And yet, I love those hands just as much as Brooksie's beautifully perfect younger hands. I was struck, not by Kenny's prayer, but by how fast my children are growing and changing every year, every day. A phenomenon I never examined before I became a mother.

God, help me make the most of each day I mother my boys. As fast as they change and grow on the outside, change them on the inside to look and grow more and more like you.

Meet Murray

Murray came to be a part of our family this summer, at the time just about a year old or a little more and found by the local humane society as a stray dog. He's fun. Young and full of life, gentle with Brooks, he tolerates Elliot laying on top of him, and chases Peyton and Christian at top speed. He's a pup still, in ways that tend to drive Kenny a little insane (the yard's not looking so good, a few valuables have been chewed to destruction......) But all in all we have gotten pretty attached to the blonde fluff ball with one bent ear. Murray was the name of a really cool dog in one of Kenny and my favorite sit-coms from years past. Helen Hunt, Paul Rieser......can you remember......Mad About You. He too had a one ear up and one ear down thing going on, so it brought back some memories. Plus letting the boys name the dog would have led to "Darth Vader" and somehow that didn't quite fit.

We've got a ways to go with the whole "training the dog" procedure, but Murray is part of our pack now and I can see lots of good memories heading this way for years to come.