T Leaves

T left today for six weeks. Sending your baby off to a faraway place really sucks, but that is another story for another day.

Wednesday, I ask him exactly what he wants to do with Thursday...HIS DAY, his last day in Iowa ...until August 7.

I say we can do whatever he wants: Adventureland, the zoo, video arcade, water slides, pool, sleepover...totally his call.

I brace for the worst. My pocketbook winces. He thinks about it. Stares into the sky for guidance. Taps his foot.

Declares:

"I want to watch ESPN SportsCenter all day...and that includes the NBA Draft!"

Me: Are you absolutely sure?

T: Yes, and lay on the couch and talk to you. No errands, no cleaning, no groceries. Just us, and Sportscenter.

So that's what we did.
We also laughed. A lot.
We cried too.

This morning, I left him at the airport with his Grandpa.

He left.

He turned to me before he went and he had a tear.

He tried to be brave.

His lip quivered.

He held onto Tiggs the stuffed tiger with all his might.

He said, "I love you to infinity and beyond, mama."

Turned, and was gone.

I got back into my car.

Cried.

And cried some more.

Naughty

Who done it?

T?

Or me?

Shoes

T is change averse. You get the kid on a schedule, you KEEP the schedule, or Houston, there will be a problem. You figure that out...your life will be easy. I, on the other hand, enjoy a bit of variety and schedules make me nauseous.

Every now and again this causes some issues with the kid and me.

One of the great benefits of being change averse though, is that T is relatively simple minded when it comes to fashion. He likes what he likes and you'd just best not go messing with it or it will quickly become a donation to his younger cousins, who would probably dress in monkey suits, if they knew they came from T.

When T was younger, the transition from winter clothes to spring clothes so tormented him that he would insist on wearing long pants and long sleeves until the middle of summer, because as he said, "Me no like my skin."

Thankfully, we've finally gotten past THAT two year hiccup.

There are some great perks to this little aversion, however, and those perks are namely cheap, easy shopping.

During summer there will be gym shorts and t shirts, PLAIN t shirts. You cut the arms off said t-shirt and boy, you are really pushing the envelope. You will only catch that happening when the other boys are doing it too, like simultaneously, with the SAME shirt.

For winter, there are hoodies, gym pants and a t shirt underneath said hoodie. The hoodies may not zip, or they will be tossed to the pile of sweatshirts that can only be worn when all the others are in the dirty laundry pile and mom refuses to do laundry five minutes before school starts.

Believe you me, there will be NO jeans. No collared shirts. Nothing "scratchy, or chokey."

And god help us all, no trendiness, what.so.ever.

This...I can totally deal with! And to this I will also utter a very loud: AMEN!

There ARE, however, SHOES. Lots, and lots of of them, and boy do they smell.

The kid can literally run through the bottom of a pair of shoes in two weeks. Even when his toes begin hurting and his feet begin sticking out the holes, I have to BEG T to puh-lease just wear the swanky new pair I purchased.

Earlier this year, he refused to wear football shoes for half the season because he just knew the others with no tread on the bottom whatsoever were faster. I promised him he'd fall on his butt in the wet grass and he said, "I don't care, let me fall on my butt in the grass."

And that is precisely what he did. And the next day we went and got him some new football shoes (because he FINALLY decided he wanted/needed/HAD to have them) ten minutes before practice, which we could then not get OFF his smelly feet for the remainder of the season.

This here is a picture of just a few of T's shoes from the past three months. There is another pair that is missing (because they were on his feet), and another pair that were at my parent's, and the other half of one of these pairs was in the dog's mouth...and then there are TWO more NEW pairs (one at my house and one at my parent's...) because you never know when the golden moment will arrive and T will decide, indeed, he's ready to take a wack at breaking in these new shoes.

(There are also, of course, the football shoes I mentioned above, and the baseball shoes that we can never seem to find at 5:14 p.m. when he's to be on the other side of town at 5:20 p.m.)

New shoe day?

It will be today.

Yesterday, I threw all these away.

My nostrils and my entry love me for it.

Hump Day Crash

I am one of the lucky ones. I've ridden a road bike now for about five years, this was my first "real" crash. I did not loose my spleen, even break a bone. Unfortunately, there is not even a great story to tell about my speeding down a great descent to win a crit, there is only a fall on my head.

On the trail back to the shop, we were cooling down from a great Wed ride. A woman runs her large dog on the trail, dog is off leash, she's wearing an i-pod. Dog jumps in front of bikes, all bikes come to a screeching halt, and as we say....the one in back loses. That was me. I knew the instant I hit the brakes that I didn't have time to stop. So I positioned myself to ride up the right side of the rider in front of me. Except he made a sudden motion right, and I flipped hard and fast on my right side, my head bouncing hard off pavement. Prognosis: significant concussion, contusion, bruising, torn/damaged neck ligaments.

I've been asleep since. A gallon of fluids, some good drugs, a hot ER doc, and a week, I am back at work and as of today I hope, back in the saddle.

I am supposed to be out of competition for three weeks. We will see about that. It seems like a long time but a week's worth of fitness has left my body, I still have a pounding headache, the ligaments in my neck are torn/damaged, and staying awake for more than 8 hours in a stretch is a victory in and of itself.

We have lots of other news...some great/some sad...but I will withold that for a subsequent post. I have some digging out to do.

Sorry

Sorry for the extreme lack of posts of late. I have been chasing my kid around like a mad chicken and I am tired.

Very tired. He, on the other hand, seems to go faster over time.

Faster and faster. Akin to how he grows.

T Says....

This morning, as I showered and tried hastily to quickly shave my legs, I looked down to find this dog...head fully in the shower, peering around the curtain to my left:


And then...there was THIS dog, peering around the curtain, head fully in the shower to my right:

And then there was this child of mine; taking a big poop directly in FRONT of said shower...stinking up the situation in a big boy kind of way, babbling on like nobody's business:



And I lamented, to no one of them in particular....wow, I wonder if I will ever shower again in complete solitude.

T says:


Well mom, that's what you get for having these two dogs!


He then farted loudly, finished his business, flushed.


I wouldn't have it any other way.