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In just a few months Elise will start preschool. I will miss my constant companion. She rarely misbehaves when we are out running errands. In fact, I think she enjoys a trip to Target almost as much as I do. Maybe she loves errands because when she is sitting in the cart facing me she has my full attention. She jabbers on about this and that and I talk to her about the virtues of Greek yogurt over the ones with the cartoon packaging. We give and take, her and I. I will miss her but I am also so excited for her to start school. She loves to be around people even though she can be quite shy. She is always asking to go to drop in care at the Y, “Play with friends at Kids Stuff?!”
Bittersweet is this whole raising children thing.
Yesterday Michael chose a career path and Patrick was invited to a birthday party. They grow up so quick. All three of them pissed me off to the point of giving me a stress migraine at swim lessons last night but after dinner (which they didn’t like so they went to bed with only a few cherries in their bellies) Michael helped clean up toys without a complaint. Patrick scrubbed the kitchen table and chairs clean, which is helpful for me and fun for him because he gets to use the coveted squirt bottle. He was even kind and generous enough to let Elise work alongside him. Although at one point he said, “I know! How about I squirt and Elise scrubs!” Tim and I both replied “No.” in unison from the kitchen sink where we were finishing up the dishes.
They grow up so quickly.
So today, while looking over the following photos, I am making a pledge to myself. I will do my best to keep perspective about how fleeting this time with them is. Yes they can be little shits but they are our little shits and I want to soak up as much time with them as I can before they realize that I am just a Mom who blogs instead of doing laundry and I am not the all-knowing, Super Woman they think I am. Also… I am going to make myself take even more photos because I seriously don’t want to forget the day that Elise and I bought flowers for the front yard while wearing a hand-me-down sweatshirt from her brothers.
I also don’t want to forget that she chose a $2 watering can that was pink with purple stars on it as a reward for being such a patient helper while I loaded bags and bags of rock onto a flat-bed. Or how clever she thought she was when she learned how to use the rain barrel I installed.
And boy was she mad when she tried to carry the over flowing watering can over to her newly potted flowers and all the water kept spilling out.
She was concentrating so hard, and was so frustrated that she gave me the stink eye when she saw that I was documenting her trials and tribulations.
In the end there was enough water in the can to get this shot.
But by the time I moved around to the other side of her, the watering can was empty.
She filled her can, frustratingly carried it the 5 feet from the rain barrel to the flower-pot a dozen more times before she was content that her flowers were sufficiently hydrated before she would come inside for lunch.
Yeah. More photo taking, more time with kids because they grow so quick.
Friday I do my weekly, get what I need to make through to big grocery shopping day shopping at Target. While we are in Target I tend to wander the isles with Elise because… Target is awesome and I love everything there. Plus, this past Friday, we had time to kill between Elise’s swim lessons and PJ’s Preschool Graduation. I got what I needed and then we swung through the kids clothes sections and hit up the clearance racks for play clothes because the sandbox, while awesome, lends itself to the kids needing at least one extra set of clothes a day and I didn’t want to spend big money on clothes that would be the go-to sand and summer fun clothes.
While weaving through the racks with the world’s biggest shopping cart that Elise insists on riding in, I saw something that I had never seen at Target before, Minecraft tees. This is huge people. My kids LOVE Minecraft. All three of them. Elise likes to have someone build her pink houses and then fill the pink houses with pigs and sheep. Michael has built condos and explored caves while battling creepers. Patrick… well he likes to build sculptures and blow them up with TNT.
For those who haven’t heard of MInecraft…. Minecraft is like Legos but with a never-ending world to explore. The game is made of blocks and each block can be moved and placed. You have to mine for resources and plant wheat and raise cows for food. It is like pioneering but with zombies. Michael’s school is even offering a few different Minecraft classes this summer for varying age levels. (click and down load the summer Youth program to see classes on everything from video game design to robotics to music and sports classes) It really is a great game.
Of course, I bought shirts for everyone. Even Elise got a boys size XS shirt that she wore with leggings all Saturday. The boys wore their shirts to bed on Friday and then all day Saturday. They only took them off because I promised them that I would wash them and they could wear them on Monday to school.
Fast forward to this morning. Shirts were clean and laid out the night before. Michael already had his on along with his Minecraft sweatshirt I made him for Christmas 2 years ago when I came down stairs. He was PUMPED to show his friends his shirt.
Then as I was loading lunch boxes into backpacks I remembered…. It is spirit week at both the boys’ schools….Today at Michael’s school it is “Career Day-Dress like what you want to be when you grow up”
SH!T! DOUBLE SH!T!
This lightbulb moment happened at 8:35am and the bus comes at 9am. Awesome. So I braced for the worse and started into a spiel about Spirit Week and started to work some Mom spin/hype magic. If advertising or publishing companies ever wanted to learn from masters they need look no farther than a time crunched Mom trying to sell her kid an idea she knows they will resist. We are spin magicians. Halfway through my impromptu spin campaign I could already see that he was starting to recognise that he would have to change out of his Minecraft shirt but I could also tell that he was coming around to the idea of “wearing a costume all day at school and pretending to be a grown up! How cool is that. You are so lucky!!!”
I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up as soon as I saw him start to get interested in “wearing a costume.” He didn’t answer. I thought I blew my timing and I would have to deal with sad sad tears that were my fault because I promised him something and now I was taking it away. The seconds turned to minutes and let me tell you what…. I had to resist every temptation to start giving him options of careers I knew I could throw together quick. If he said Weather Man (like he did on his first day of Kindergarten) I would be fine. I knew he had a button up shirt and tie hanging in his closet. Done and Done. I began praying- Please say Weather Man. Please God let him say Weather Man. Anything beyond that… well lets just say the creative genius side of me isn’t an early riser… I would have been up shit creek.
He looked around, furrowed his brows, pursed his lips and stood quietly. I was just about to ask him again so I could start the mad dash to dig for some random clothing item when he said, “Can I just play video games when I am grown up?”
I told him no that wasn’t a job and he had to choose a job. Quickly.
It was now 8:39 and I was ready to turn him into a weather man whether he liked it or not and then he said in a hopefull voice, “What if I make the video games? Is that a job?”
I looked at him in his Minecraft t-shirt and his Minecraft sweatshirt and said, “Yes Michael it is. Get your shoes on and I will tell you all about a guy named Notch.”
PARENTING WIN! We were out the door in minutes, on the front lawn talking about Notch and we had time to spare. TIME TO SPARE. By the time the bus pulled up he had his future all planned out. He will work at Nintendo for a bit because he really likes Super Mario Brothers but when he wants a break from Mario he will go work for Notch at Minecraft.
He is awesome. Tim and I made that kid.
I only cried a single tear when I saw him in his little graduation cap. I am proud of this because I was torn between scooping up Patrick, holding him close and whispering, “Please don’t grow up” and running up to his teacher, giving her a big bear hug and shouting to the world, “We DID IT! We survived the year from preschool Hell!” Both emotions tug at heart-strings in a way that brings tears. My baby is growing up so fast and we have gone through the trenches and made it out the other side victorious.
He still has two more days of school before he is officially done but the light at the end of this very dark tunnel is getting brighter. He didn’t get to stand on the square he wanted to while on stage and even though he folded his arms and pouted there was no fit and he snapped out of it relatively quickly.
Progress people. We are moving in the right direction. Two months ago I would have had to pull him off the stage kicking and screaming. He has come far. I am so proud of him. I am grateful for his teachers. And damn it, I am proud of TIm and me too. This has been the hardest few months of parenting we have experienced and we made it through.
Cue the Alleluia Chorus.
He was one of the most animated kids on that stage. He knew his lyrics and choreography well enough that he was able to look out into the audience instead of just watching his teacher.
Patrick, we love you more than you will ever know. You have taught us patience and resilience. You light up the room and bring so much joy to our family. You have gone from refusing to hold scissors to cutting and pasting like it is your job. You still only sign your name PJ but that is okay. I have to admire that you were clever enough to recognise that PJ is easier and faster to write than Patrick.
You are a charmer and a ham but you are also quiet and shy. That unique combination of traits makes anyone that you show the slightest bit of interest in feel like a million bucks. You have a rare gift. You can make someone feel like the most important person in the world. I hope you use your powers for good and don’t take advantage of your Mommy’s soft spot for you mischievousness smile.
Congrats buddy. You did it. Next year Kindergarten. I say bring it on. You will do great. You are a wonderful kid and there is nowhere else to go but up. I love you.