"Mom, look! I'm nursing."

I'm terribly behind in so many aspects of life as one who runs the house.  For instance, the kids still (in spring) have loads of fleece PJs and clothes in their drawers, and now nothing will shut properly.  However, with the recent string of deaths and illnesses in young parents around me, I have been attempting to embrace the moments that matter.  We go to the park on beautiful days.  We snuggle on the couch and read books.  One day we read pre-nap stories on a beach blanket in the yard and ate popcorn in the sun!  Bursting drawers and snow boots still in the bedroom closets be damned...we're going to have some fun around here.

Vivian's main source of fun is at Henry's expense.  She figured out that if she wields Barbies at her brother, or mermaids during bathtime, she can totally and absolutely send him into shrieking hysterics!!  I kind of like it, because he gives the rest of us so much trouble that Henry has his fair share coming.  Robbie told me he heard from a friend that having a two-year-old in the house has been likened to living with someone under your roof who is constantly drunk.  We got a lot of hard laughter out of that news!  Yes, they have no impulse control.  They make huge messes.  Reason doesn't work.  Wow, why didn't I think of that sooner?  Robbie and I have been living with 2-year-olds for many, many years in a row.  Someone is always two, or acting like it, around here.

Usually when Henry wakes up we all hear the pounding of his fast feet as he sprints down the hardwood floors in the hall to find me.  This morning I only heard whimpering and some moaning as he entered the kitchen.  He was sore from his four mile run, and his little body was tight all over.  He was in slow motion for the whole morning.  This NEVER happens.  Later, when Henry got up from naptime without ever having gone to sleep,  he entered the living room with a tiger and a stuffed giraffe to his nipples.  "Mom, look!  I'm nursing."  He was SO proud of himself.  He was also very excited recently when he arrived at playgroup and ran to show his boy buddies the My Little Pony Rainbow Dash toy figurine that we are going to use, against Robbie's wishes, as his cake topper.  It is his heart's desire to have Rainbow Dash on his birthday cake.  He's been talking about if for months.  I, as his mommy, will make his dreams come true.  I, as his mommy, will pull this cat out of the bag way down the road when he brings some pretty girl home from college.  I can't wait!!  Again, Henry has paybacks coming.  Bless his heart.  I love him dearly, but he can wear a woman out.

"I told you I would smoke you up, Grandpa!"

This morning we got up at 5:30 am and headed to Country Club Plaza for the 4-mile Trolley Run race.  This was Henry's first Trolley Run.  He is 3 for another week.  The temperature was in the 50s, and it was raining.  Grandpa Mike and Grandma Mary drove over from Illinois so that Robbie and I could cover each child with an adult runner.  Our running partners were Robbie and Olivia, Mike and Evelyn, Julie and Henry.  We had a ball!  Baby Vivian stayed home with my mom.  This year we ran on a team called Jude's Dudes.  Jude is the third son of a mom I know from church, school, and my moms' group.  Her other boys are the ages of Henry and Vivian.  Baby Jude was born blind on Leap Day, and his parents organized a race team to benefit a wonderful school called Children's Center for the Visually Impaired.

Upon exiting the trolley bus, Henry felt cold and said he wanted to go home.  He found lots of mud puddles to stomp.  The funniest pre-race moment came in the Port-a-Potty when I had to suspend him in the air so that he could clear the urinal.  Stinky!

Robbie and Olivia had a great run.  He timed her around 38 minutes, and he said they enjoyed the entire race without side pain issues or any complaining.  Olivia has really grown in her running since her own first race when she was like Henry, just a couple of weeks shy of four years old.  This was her fifth Trolley Run, and she's 8!

Evelyn and Grandpa had fun together too.  After two miles Ev started skipping and sliding her feet.  I guess she about slipped onto her back on the wet pavement once, but Grandpa's hand saved her from falling.  She was happy and excited when she met up with Henry and me at mile marker 1.  This was Evelyn's second year running the race, and we plan to enjoy racing together as a family for many years to come.  Her finish was a wonderful accomplishment.

Henry and I had the best time.  He's a machine.  We started off hand in hand so that I could control our path and pace.  He never wanted to let go, so we held hands the entire run.  My little buddy ran three miles before he ever walked or stopped.  It was amazing.  We chatted about his upcoming birthday, his love of transformer toys, spied dogs on the sidelines, and got high-fives from fans on the sidelines.  If he had not been handed a cup of water at mile 3 that he didn't know how to handle while running, I doubt he ever would have stopped.  He asked me a couple of times, "Mom, are you impressed?"  Then he'd say, "Mom, are you SUPER-duper impressed?"  "Am I like a super hero?"  "Am I super fast?"  I answered, "You are super fast like Lightning, KA-Chow!!"  He didn't complain.  He didn't stop.  Somewhere during mile 3 Henry informed me that his running was going to make his poop come out, and I got a little worried.  We got to the final stretch, and we saw Robbie and Olivia waiting on the sidelines.  They started calling out loudly and happily, and he kicked up his pace.  He was certainly tired, but he ran all the way to the finish line.  His time was 52 minutes 38 seconds.  We then sought out the much anticipated donuts!  The girls enjoyed strawberry milk.

As we entered our van, cold and wet, Henry settled into his seat and declared, "I TOLD you I would smoke you up, Grandpa!"  Grandpa Mike and the rest of us erupted in laughter, and in fact, Henry did finish ahead of Grandpa.  They challenged each other to another go for next year's race.

Mary Jane Scarboro and Mom made a wonderful hot breakfast for us at Mary Jane's, so we were able to drive straight to a super and much desired meal.  We hung out, told stories, took pictures, and realized that this is the stuff that family memories are made of...what a wonderful morning.  Rain or not, we had a ball.