Ladies Man and the Comedian

Boys can break your heart in sooooo many ways, I am coming to find out. As moms we struggle to keep our kids protected and feel loved, giving them all their basic necessities and then some. Then we send them out into the world with their little or in my case, "big", personalities and hope for the best. Some kids have a tough exterior but are puppy dogs at home with mom, while others wear their hearts on their sleeve always. I have both types of personalities to deal with, so caring for them sometimes takes love, strategy and patience. Somehow I always wind up feeling their pain much worse I think.. must be a mother thing. When one has a bad day at school or is struggling, I feel frustrated and sad. I mostly feel helpless. So I read more and try more. They'll never realize it. One thing I can count on is comic relief and that is what I have been getting from both lately. Jake is perfecting his joke-telling skills. He commands a lot of attention with this. He has some good ones like "What do you call a witch who lives at the beach?...a sand witch (sandwich). He is keeping them in his memory bank and I just wish he would do the same with schoolwork. Maybe I need to tell his teachers to tell him jokes.

Evan takes hip-hop class, is now an everyday preschooler and has become quite the ladies man. Even the school's director shouts out "rock star" when he walks in. I came to find out that he still cares for the little girl from his class last year who is now in the room next to him, but has two other girls in his class who can't live without seeing him. Even the teacher has commented on this and the girls' mothers have made Evan the talk of the pre-k 4. They love his spiky hair and his big blue eyes. The teacher informed me that I am going to have lots of phone calls when he gets older and to get ready for broken hearts. The one little girl in his class won't leave him alone, when I arrive with him in the morning and the two sometimes get together and giggle when he walks in the room. Evan does not care for this behavior and seems very perterbed by it, as he clings to me. The teacher said even her granddaughter who attends the pre-k program in another class knows about him and likes him?! Yikes. Why can't they just stay babies?

Have to share this. A favorite funny author of mine writes in Parenting, "Things We Know We Shouldn't Do, But Do Anyway" - Say your out of mac'n' cheese to avoid having the fifth, "but you need your protein" fight that week; Set the clocks ahead an hour, so it's "bedtime" just because you need some silence; Give in and let the kids paint the dog's fingernails because you're too tired to come up with a reason not to; Funnel the kids birthday checks from the grandparents into their college fund without telling them- the kids need an education more than they need the latest Khan Zhu or Littlest Pet Shop toy; Lie to your 10 year-old about what Lady Gaga means when she sings that she wants to "take a ride on your disco stick"; Terrify expectant moms with life-as-you-know-it-is-over stories cause it's true and they'll find out soon enough; Tell each sibling that she is the special one and mean it.

Favorite quote by fellow mom and friend Lisa H- "You're a good mom 95% of the time and the other 5% you're human