Love is in the Air

Just. Not. Enough. Time.  (And I have yet to figure out how to mentally write and post on this Blog. That would be very helpful and would ensure more Blog updates). 

So, last post was actually on Christmas (well over a month ago - boo).  We had a wonderful, great Christmas!  Mia joined us on Christmas evening for gift exchanging (she knows the kids so well and completely rocked with her present-choices), dinner-eating and game-playing.  We had such a wonderful time.  Mom took this picture for us.  Zach is looking especially...floral?

We spent December 26^th, car shopping. Our sweet 'lil '98 Honda CRV was, in fact, totaled from my December 3rd accident. We bought a 2013 Honda CRV.  It’s a funky-fun 'Kona Coffee Metallic' color.  I'm a big fan.

I'm still getting treatment for my neck/shoulders/back injury from the accident.  I see the chiropractor once a week and get medical massage once a week.  The strains and sprains haven't ever been unbearably painful but are definitely still present (I can't turn my head all the way to the right still) and definitely bug me after my longest teaching days.  The heating pad is just permanently on the couch so I can use it daily.  

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, it’s only appropriate I update you on the love lives of the Martin girls.

First: me.  I have a suitor.  An admirer.  There’s a little chubby-cheeked 3 year old boy named Lawrence in one of my classes.  He hearts me.  He loves me so much.  He is so stinkin’ adorable. One day, one of his teachers came down to tell me that Lawrence had nearly broken down in tears when he asked about me and they’d had to break the news that that day was not a Ms. Jenny/Music class day.  His teacher wanted to borrow a couple of maracas for him to shake just to tide him over ‘til we next could jam.

The next day, when his class arrived, Lawrence ran in and threw his arms around my legs – making sure to then sit as close to my stool as possible.  After I passed out egg shakers and we were about to start, I glanced down at his little smiling face.  He gave me the slightest chin lift and kissed the air twice.  I started laughing and said “Were those kisses for me?”  He grinned and said something like, “Oh yeah.” 

The following week, I bedazzled my messy ponytail with a sparkly headband (you know, trying to distract from my fatigue, etc.).  When Lawrence walked in, he opened his arms and said, “Ms. Jenny….QUEEN.”  Too much.  Way too cute. That kid just makes my day – no matter what.

As for the younger girl in this house, Kayli is very busy making plans of her own.  As I reported in my (lengthy) post on December 19^th (last section titled ‘Kayli’s Betrothed’) – she seems to be rather taken with this young man at preschool named ‘Kruse’ (not ‘Cruise’ as I SO wrongly assumed). Well, last week, I arrived at preschool to pick her up.  I found Kayli chatting with Kruse in the sandbox.  Neither had seen me and this is the conversation I heard:

Kruise asks, “So, what are you going to be when you grow up?”

In a bored (like – this is SO obvious – voice), Kayli responds, “A dolphin trainer.”

“OK, that will work.  I’m going to be a scientist.  Will you at least have a kid?”

Kayli seemed noncommittal and didn’t clearly answer. Then, perhaps, trying to seal the deal, Kruse stood up, walks across the sandbox and plants a kiss smack on Kayli’s lips.

I kind of gasp-surprise-laughed, “UMMMM, what was that?”

Kruise turns to me and innocently answers, “I kissed her.”

“Right, but, we really shouldn’t kiss – especially on the lips. It’s germy.  We should save kissing for our families.”

“Yes, but I kissed her on the lips because I love her.”

Oh. My.

So, while Kayli and I navigate the raw emotions of the preschool boys around us, Matthew and Zach are establishing their own roles and methods.  Zach recently told us about the lines he’ll have as Prince Charming’s sidekick in the youth theater play “Cinderella Rockin’ the 80’s.”  He said the gist of one of his monologues is that this character is always the sidekick, the friend, the 2^nd place, the vice president, etc.).

Joking, I said, “Oh, Zach, do you feel you can relate to that as the 2^nd born?  As Matthew’s younger brother?  Are you just his sidekick?”

Before Zach can answer, Matthew pipes up, “I work alone.”

Then Mike ever-so-helpfully interjects, “No, Matthew you’ll want a wing-man.” (As in the when-hitting-on-girls scenario…something I’m quite certain Mike knows next to nothing about.)

Where is this family headed?!  A 5 year old getting kissed in the sandbox?  Training our boys to be each other’s ‘wing men’?!  Valentine’s Day might be interesting this year.