"Big Woman"

We often tell Wesley that he gets the "big boy (blank).” Sometimes we say, “You get to use the big boy cup” or “you get to sit in the big boy seat.” Sometimes we say, “You are such a big boy” when we praise him.

Before having kids, I thought all this “big boy” stuff was a bit unnecessary and that it emphasized the need to grow up quickly but now I find myself saying these things all the time.

I have discovered one unexpected consequence of us saying “big boy”. Wesley now sees me as a “big woman.” If he wants to sit in my chair at the kitchen table he says, “I want big woman chair.” If he wants to use adult toothpaste instead of the safe-to-swallow paste he says, “I want big woman toothpaste.”

At least someone sees me as “big”. I know maybe ten other adults who are shorter than me. When Wesley is a teenager I am sure he won’t say, “I want short woman chair” but he will probably find another way to tease me about being vertically challenged.

Met-My-Mate Mondays, Part Three

My friend, LL, over at Vita Familiae started Met-My-Mate Mondays to tell the story of how she met her husband. She invited others to join in the fun. If you want to join in or just read her story click on the button below.

If you want to catch up on my story, here is part one and part two.

In the fall of 1996 Chris started coming to Blacksburg more often. He attended his former roommate’s wedding in Roanoke, attended a few football games, and visited his aunt and uncle in Blacksburg. We started “dating” right before Thanksgiving. I think I saw him at least twice between Thanksgiving and Christmas and we exchanged Christmas presents. He gave me a shirt and a gift certificate. I gave him a CD that he hated.

When I went home for Christmas, I told my parents that I had started dating Chris. My mom kept asking on Christmas day, “Why isn’t your boyfriend calling you?” Good question but what I was going to say?

I did hear from Chris again on December 30. He sent me a two paragraph email. The first paragraph detailed his trip – how many miles he drove, the MPG, and total driving time. The second paragraph asked me what I was doing for New Year’s Eve (the next night).

To put it mildly I was upset that I hadn’t heard from him and that he was giving me all the driving details of his trip. I thought I forwarded his email to one of our former coworkers, Christiana, and I commented on how impersonal he was.

You guessed it; I hit reply instead of forward so Chris got my email to Christiana at his office. I realized this later in the day when I didn’t hear back from her. I was afraid to go home and answer the phone that night.

Stayed tune for the next installment, I promise it gets better. It's great now.

A Breakfast Mess

This will make some of you more health conscious moms cringe. If you don’t like messy children, skip this post. Yesterday Chris made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. We had the leftovers this morning.

Lydia didn't mind that she was covered in chocolate.

Reading Together

When Chris or I start to read to the kids, Lydia always comes over and tries to get between us and Wesley; even if we are holding Wesley. Tonight Chris was lying in the floor reading to Wesley and Lydia went over and sat on his arms.

My Kind of Morning

I had such a great morning. First I walked for 45 minutes with the kids in the double jogging stroller. It is a great workout pushing 75 pounds up the big hill in our neighborhood. The stroller weighs about 25 pounds plus the weight of the kids.

Wesley and his best buddy, Hunter, started Tumbling for Threes today. Last year they were in a toddler class from July to December. Parents had to participate in the class and by December Lydia was sick of sitting in her infant carrier and missing all the action so we had to take a break until Wesley was old enough to go to class by himself.

During our walk this morning, Wesley actually remembered the name of his gymnastics teacher from last fall/winter. Her name is Michelle so maybe that made it easy for him to remember. She is also his teacher this summer.

It was so much fun for the mommies to sit in the balcony and watch the kids participate in the gymnastic class. Both boys did such a good job listening and following directions. The teacher said this was the best opening day class she has had! There were three boys and two girls in the class today. (I hope the good behavior continues. In his first soccer class, Wesley was an angel but the second week, he did not follow directions.)

After gymnastics, we went to meet another friend and her two girls at a spray park in Arlington. This was a blast. My kids are obsessed with water so they loved all the sprayers. They also played on the playground. Wesley spent some time in the sandbox but I managed to keep Lydia out of it. I knew it was time to go when she started saying, “all done” and “bye bye”. The poor girl was exhausted and fell asleep on the way home eating her lunch.

Look how excited Lydia is in this photo.

Wesley spent a lot of time playing with this digger toy in the sandbox.

Isn't baby Colten so cute in this swing? Wesley wanted to push him but, of course, we didn't let him.
Here is Wesley pushing Lydia in the baby swing.

Turning Two Again?

Wesley moved to the three year old room at his school this week. Today on the way home I was asking about his day and if he saw Miss Anne, the teacher for the two year olds. He said, “When I turn two again, I will be in Miss Anne’s class again.”

Let’s see…When I turn 25 again I will not have to color my gray hair, I will not have wrinkles, and I will not have a post-two-babies-body.

Met-My-Mate Mondays, Part Two

My friend LL over at vitafamiliae started telling her story about meeting her husband and I decided to join in. If you want to read her story or play along, click the button below.



If you want to read the beginning of my story from last week click here.

I finished my undergraduate degree in December 1994. My parents paid for the first three years of college, but I had to borrow the money for the last year. Thankfully, Virginia Tech lowered the number of credits (by four I think) needed to graduate and I was able to graduate a semester early. I had a very good time as an undergraduate and I didn’t study as much as I should have. My 3.2 GPA was not good enough to get into physical therapy school at the time. After receiving all the rejection letters, I applied to Tech for graduate school. I started out in the Cardiac Therapy Program in the Human Nutrition, Food, and Exercise department. I really didn’t mind having to be at the gym or pool three days a week at 5:30 AM; I just found it extremely boring so after two semesters I dropped the cardiac program and started preparing to do my thesis research on sports nutrition. I loved my advisor, Dr. Rankin.

How does this relate to “Met My Mate” Chris? I am getting to it. The point is that I stayed at Tech because the idea of entering into the real world job market with a biology degree did not appeal to me at all.

At some point during my first year of graduate school, I got a new job in the library as a Science Reference Desk Assistant. I loved this job. I helped fellow students and sometime professors find research articles or other texts. When it wasn’t busy, I studied. I liked this job so much that I thought about getting my Masters in Library Science if I didn’t get into PT school. (Have I mentioned how much I loved college?)

After not seeing (or hearing from or hearing about) Chris since March 1995, I saw him again in the summer of 1996. I was sitting at the Science Reference Desk one Friday afternoon and Jeff (our former coworker) and Chris got off the elevator and walked over to say hello. As soon I as I saw Chris get off the elevator I thought, “Oh no, I have a crush on him.” I don’t’ know why I immediately thought I had a crush on him. I was dating someone else at the time and we hadn’t said a word to each other for a long time. He was very cute though (and still is). .

Chris and Jeff walked over and started talking to me. Somehow we decided to go out when I was finished with work at 5:00. I don’t know where my boyfriend was but he didn’t go. I think it was Chris, Jeff, and Natasha (one of my roommates from undergrad who had come for a visit). We had a great evening but I didn’t consider it a date. I don’t think I saw him the next night.

I knew something was wrong with my relationship with the guy I had been dating for a year if I could hang out with another guy for an evening and have a wonderful time. I was a little confused about this but I didn’t expect to see Chris again. In fact, I didn’t see him again the rest of the summer. At one point, he called and asked if I wanted to drive up to Northern Virginia (a four hour drive) the next day for a Sting concert. For some reason I couldn’t go. Maybe I had to work. At least I didn’t go at the last minute which would have showed too much eagerness on my part. I didn’t hear from him the rest of the summer.