July 27

Checking in mid-crazy week.

As predicted, Two is loving the humane society camp.  He is a lover of all animals, that Two.  He has a long list of pets he wants to acquire.  Unfortunately (for him), we are at our max of one dog, so he'll have to wait until he grows up and lives in Las Vegas, which is where he just declared he wants to live.  I told him Las Vegas was the city of sin.  "What's that?" he asked.  "Inappropriate things," I replied, wondering if this would just attract him all the more.  "Ewwww," he said, and curled up his lip in disgust.  "OK, I'll live in New York City instead."

One has been giving our nanny a hard time, and it's been an interesting few days.  He has decided to challenge her authority (as expected, since he challenges our authority on a daily basis), and her first reaction was to dig her heals in and fight back.  I have had many talks with her to "disengage" from the power struggle.  I think she's getting it, or perhaps the novelty wore off for him.  Either way, today was a better day with no emergency phone calls to me at work.  And for that, I am thankful.  Just 3 more weeks, people.  Work with me here.

In brighter news, One has also been going to football camp this week, and he has been positively, absolutely loving it.  Which is sort of a miracle, since he has become a sullen (pre) teenager who doesn't love anything.  He is smiling.  He is enthusiastic.  He seems (dare I say it) happy.  What a joy to see.  His good vibrations have translated into some cocky behavior on the Rugby field, which I am anticipating getting an email over.  I plan to chat with the head of the program briefly at our end of the season picnic this Saturday and explain that, although cocky isn't good, neither is morose and ill-tempered.  We will continue to work on this, but I am a bit relieved to see some self-confidence on the field, no matter how annoying it is to the coaches.

Three has been enjoying more one-on-one time with the nanny this week, with Two and One busy with their activities.  He has been a puzzle-putting-together fool.  He also is spending lots of free time at our neighbor's tree swing.  He's really a delightful little one.  He rolls along to his big brothers' activities with little fuss and makes his own fun.  So grateful for that.

One made a sweet comment to me today.  We were calculating how much overlap he and Two will have  in this football camp he's doing (it's for kids entering grades 4-8) and he said, "Good, we'll have a chance to do another thing together.  We don't get to do too much together."  I looked at him with surprise.  "Really?  You mean it?  You actually like him?"

That was a nice surprise.  I was worried all this together time this summer would drive them farther apart, but generally speaking, these boys of mine seem even tighter than ever.  It's been a busy week full of sweet moments.