Those "lazy" days of summer

I must be just a little bit slow.  Slightly behind.  There is no such thing as “spring cleaning” to me.  My massive urge to purge and clean tends to arrive in…late July when it’s stupid hot (for Seattle, anyway) and the last thing a smart person would do is lock themselves in the hottest section of their house (say the windowless, airflowless master closet) and clean.  And yet…

 

Zachary is a hoarder.  He gets from me.  While I’m by no means an I-need-professional-help hoarder, I have slight pack-rat tendancies.  What’s annoying is that it bugs me.  Fine if you want to be that way, but then it shouldn’t piss YOU off.  The piles of papers and broo-ha-ha that build on the kitchen counter slowly gnaw away at my soul…and yet I’m partially responsible for putting them there.  The mail, the swim lesson report cards, the catalogue I want to look at (though shouldn’t order from), the amazing masterpiece that one of our children created, the Lego magazine that gets looked at and cherished so much it eventually falls apart, the photo that someone took of our kids and that I’ll supposedly, someday put in an album (but in the meantime will just keep on the counter in the pile of paper crap until I eventually shove it in a folder in a drawer that is bursting with other supposedly sentimental paper crap that will just stay there until I finally get Mike to get the kids’ memory boxes down from the garage and I can shove that one photographic treasure into the accordion folder that is my get-out-of-guilt-jail-free-card since I have no intention of scrapbooking a priceless photo album full of love, memories and cut out paper shapes, themed borders or glitter penned dates and clever captions).

 

Anyway, Zach has SORTA gotten my knack for holding on to STUFF.  We’ve only lived here a little over a year and, while, of course, I make my children pick up their rooms, we haven’t done a deep clean, massive re-org and, well, you can tell.  So, a couple of days ago, we basically emptied all of Zach’s belongings into the hall.  We moved furniture.  I cleaned baseboards, I even touched up paint.  We rearranged furniture.  This was so exciting you’d have thought that we’d bought him his own personal bedroom pony.

 

He excitedly explained to Matthew, “Tomorrow morning when I wake up [in the bed now located on the opposite wall], I’ll be all,” making groggy wake-up sounds, “Hmm? Wha?  Where am I?  Did we move again? Wha’s happening?”

 

Matthew’s been so inspired by Zach’s room re-do he wants us to tackle his. We’re still not done with Zach’s.  We’re on day 3.  I feel like Matthew’s  – what with all the Lego and small Star Wars paraphernalia – will take us an additional week.  And lazy summerday time is suddenly dissolving faster and faster.  August is jam-packed.  Next week we head to Spokane for the Engaged Encounter Convention and to see Mike’s family.  The week after that, Mike’s doing a computer nerd gaming conference thingy in Seattle.  He’ll essentially be gone (but sleeping at home) from 8am-12am for several days.  The week after that, we head to mom and dad’s Port Ludlow beach house with the bff’s and all our brood of children.  The week after that, Mike heads to Vancouver B.C. for a computer nerd convention and I’m taking the kids camping with my dad for a few days.  The week after that is Labor Day and then, boom, school starts and then boom, it’s Christmas, baseball season, and then our children are graduating from high school and moving out. 

 

See how time is just flying?!  So, Matthew’s room…might have to wait a little while.

Matthew and his Wingman

A couple of weeks ago, when the boys decided to do a lemonade stand, Matthew and I had a conversation that later resulted in a conversation that Mike and I had that essentially scared the dooty out of me.  Some people were walking by the boys’ stand and Matthew made very little effort to even recognize their presence let alone try to sell them some of the “world’s best lemonade.”  I chatted with him about how he can’t expect to sell much if he’s not even going to be friendly.

 

“Yeah, but I don’t like talking to strangers, Mom,” he said. 

 

“Well, sure, but if you want this to be a success, you’re going to need to,” I explained.  “And you can at least be a little friendlier.”

 

As often happens, Matthew quickly worked out that he could get Zachary to do the outgoing aspect of life that he tends to avoid.

 

The next night while Mike and I enjoyed one of our date nights, we sat in the bar courtyard area and I related this story to him.  I was suddenly transported about, mmm, 12-15 years and I could clearly imagine our two boys/future young men, hanging out at bar.  Zachary, all Mr. Sauve, approaches a nice looking young woman at the bar and, with way too much swagger, says, “So,” (jerking his head toward the corner of the bar where Matthew is standing slightly awkwardly), “my brother over there thinks you’re cute.”  Matthew gives a goofy little wave, maybe even a cheesy grin punctuated by a thumb's up.

 

“But,” I tell Mike, explaining the vision that I’m having, “Then Zach, Mr. Studly Confidence totally gets the girl!  Oh my gosh!” I exclaim realizing with horror, “Zach is Matthew’s wingman….and Zach is a TOTAL player!”

 

Mike laughs and says, “Well, no, Zach’s not a TOTAL player.  He’ll be a gentleman.  Don’t get me wrong, he’ll get plenty of play, but he’ll be a gentleman about it.”

 

I fear for the future.

 

Epic July times

I feel like the last week plus was seriously epic.  We packed SO much into ten-ish days.  I successfully painted our master bathroom (including the double sink vanity).  I won’t take an ‘after’ picture until we have the light fixtures moved and the huge mirror reinstalled.  So, it might be a bit, but it looks good!

 

Last week, while I painted (on the hottest summer days yet), the boys did sports camp.  Matthew was outside in the heat for three days doing baseball camp.  Zachary was in a stifling hot, stuffy gym doing basketball camp.  Kicking off the week of sports camp, we took the boys to their first ever Mariners game.  We even got to parade around the field before the game started since it was “world little league” day.  It was pretty sweet!  Matthew LOVED the game – especially now that he considers himself quite the baseball player and expert.  (He currently wants to be a Mariners player when he grows up).  Zachary enjoyed the game mostly because of the endless treats we kept doling out.  He would’ve been a little happier if games were only four innings long.   

 

We did lots of other fun stuff – Mike and I had a couple of date nights (woohoo!).  We went to the zoo; the kids rode the carousel.  We set up the slip ‘n slide in the backyard (Kayli now LOVES it).  We had a nice, pretty chill 4^th.  We played baseball.  We swam in our neighbors’ pool.  We did yardwork and projects around the house.  The kids did a lemonade stand at the end of our driveway and – the pressure! – I had to make and attempt to live up to their advertising that we’d be serving the “world’s best lemonade!!”  All in all, summer’s been splendid…despite the fact that we’ve been sleeping like total dooty.

 

Kayli’s cold of a month ago turned into a hacking cough that kept her up at night for weeks.  Eventually the cough went away (thank goodness), but the weeks of sleepless nights and rare napping has turned into her having “night terrors.”  For a few nights, we thought she was just having full on tantrums in the middle of the night because she was awake.  We’ve since done some research and figured out that she’s actually still asleep but having a monster fit in her sleeping-ish fatigue.  It’s been rough.  We did get good sleep for two nights but then last night she was up again screaming, kicking, yelling, throwing punches, nearly running into walls, throwing books, etc.  Sigh. Good times.  And the REAL fun of it, is you’re supposed to just let the fit ‘run its’ course.’  Last night, I took objects away as quickly as I could before she could throw them.  Well, the little gal is fast and managed to get a book before I could.  She somehow hit herself in the mouth before chucking it, thus waking herself up in her hysteria and pain.  Finally, then, she let me cuddle and comfort her and eventually put her back to bed.

 

So, the last weeks have been super fun with some sleep-deprived stressful, but the biggest most momentous occasion of all occurred last night.  We had THE TALK with Matthew.  Thanks to a helpful tip from Rebecca and using the genius book that she’d told me about, “It’s So Amazing – a book about eggs, sperm, birth, babies and families” (by Robie Harris), we got through THE TALK very well.  I’d gone through the book and marked some pages that might be helpful, and after reading outloud to Matthew the general overview on sexual intercourse, I looked up to see how he was doing.  His jaw literally dropped and with mouth open he sat there with a look like, “Um, for reals?!  You gotta be kidding me.”  After explaining how all this crazy baby-making business works, we kept asking if he had questions.  He had many.  My favorite was, after being so shocked by this news, he said, “Do I, like have other body parts that I don’t even know about yet?!”  He also pointed to the framed picture from our wedding and said, “So, right after that you…ya know…?”  Ahhh, good times and PHEW! That that went so well!