Slowing Down

This is the time of year that things are supposed to slow down.  It’s not light out nearly as long as it used to be, the leaves start to fall, the weather turns cold and we just slow down.  I’m still waiting for that to happen.

Let me first say we realize more than anything how lucky we’ve been this year with first spring ball, not having to sit through even 1 rainy t-ball game, and now fall soccer not having to sit through 1 wet soccer game, and it’s Seattle!  The soccer season isn’t over yet and it’s looking like that luck might change but I almost want to register for another soccer season just so we can experience true Seattle sports seasons. 

Soccer has 2 weeks left and swim lessons start tomorrow for 8 weeks.  We already have Walter registered for ski lessons in January and he and Evan are going to start skating on Sundays to see if he’s into it still before we register for hockey.  We are just waiting for “the weather” as they say here, and so far happily it’s stayed away.  It’s October and we are still in the 70’s during the day!!

Which leads me to my next point: I got a mom car.  I’ve wanted a mom car for a year but finally bit the bullet when I realized that cars are not going to get cheaper and the longer I wait the more fancy extras that I don’t need, I’d be able to convince myself I wanted.  So we bought a car.  Evan likes to say I bought a car.  He wasn’t really a part of the process so much as to say, OK that’s a fair deal or no I think you can do better.  I’m incredibly grateful to him for his support but also darn proud of myself for buying a car by myself. The sales manager kept telling me to call my husband and see what he thinks and I kept saying, you don’t get it, this is my car.  I loved my sales man and told him I’d prefer not to deal with his manager.     It was a very exhausting process for me.  I realized after I “lost” the car I wanted, and felt like someone had broken up with me, or picked me last for the sports team, that I just needed to make a decision and get over it.  I lost a second car and then finally settled on “my” car at 5pm on a Sunday when the dealership closed at 7 and Evan had a hockey game at 7:50.  He dropped the boys off for the last hour of the process and the boys and I were home just in time for bed by 8pm on Sunday Sept 30th.  The last day of the month and of the quarter.  

I spend SO.MUCH time in my car at least 2 hours a day during the week and more on the weekends.  I want a car that is comfortable and that has room.  Walter doesn’t like my new car because he can’t reach his brother.  He does like the CD player because it flips out and he likes that we can talk to Daddy through the car and when Nicholas mommy calls me, he can hear her talk from the back seat.  He likes that he can climb out of the back of the car and that Nicholas can fit in the car now.  I Love my Highlander.  I love the way it drives, I love the 4 cup holders and the blue tooth.  I love the power lift gate and that I can load it up with a weeks worth of work out gear, toys for the park, snacks, a case of water, my yoga mat and still have room for 4 car seats. 

What I was also going to call this post was “what I’ve learned”.  as in what we’ve learned as parents of 2 boys.  I don’t know that  we really get credit from parenting Wesley yet: he’s still pretty young and we are just now starting to figure him out. What we’ve learned from him is this:

Time passes in a flash and hold your baby those extra 2 minutes he won’t calm down, embrace that you are the only one to comfort him and instead of being frustrated at 4am when you’ve been woken up for the 4th time, give a few more kisses, because soon it will all be a distant memory and he’ll soon be sleeping with only 1 or 2 wake ups a night and he’d rather crawl away from than to you, and nothing will make him more happy than his big brother (can’t really complain about that now, can I?). 

From (or perhaps through) Wesley I’ve also learned that the biggest batch of big kids turn in to a bunch of goo goo ga ga fools when in the presence of “the cutest baby in the world”.  And a bunch of young kids who act like super heros and power rangers and can’t stop fighting each other, all stop, smile and play quietly when the baby shows up on their playground.  He really is the universal language. 

From our (almost) 5 year old we’ve learned: the power of peer pressure and suggestion at such a short age.  Walter has never even seen a Power Rangers TV show: doesn’t even know there is a TV show and is obsessed with them.  Want to know why?  Nicholas is.  And Nicholas, who never before cared for any super hero or Avenger now has more Spiderman and Avenger Tshirts that Walter does.  Soccer is cool for Walter and Swimming is cool for Nicholas all because the most important person in the world tells him it is (and it’s not us!!)

I get sad to think that these boy won’t be BFF for ever.  Kristie says they will, she says they are soul mates and we can see it really they do speak their own language.  I’m cautious not to let them get sick of each other by spending every moment together.  I think if they don’t see each other ever night of the week, that they will be BFF in High School but if I let Nicholas come play after soccer, they’ll tire of one another sooner, or something.  But I finally let that go.  I’m going to let them be each others world and pray that it’s a lifetime before some girl (or maybe boy, cuz that’s OK too) becomes the center of his world because I don’t want to think about him growing that big.  We adore Kristie and Al too.  Evan likes Al, Kristie and I get along great.  We started running together in the mornings, and carpooling to swimming 1 time a week so we can do dinner or the library after.  We are finally starting to make this house our home.  That also makes me really proud.

I’ll finish with the things I learned later.  In the mean time, I updated pictures.  We went to Fox Hollow Farms this weekend because the rest of Issaquah was at Salmon Days and we like to avoid crowds.  It was perfect: prefect weather, the crowds were light, we had so much fun.  Saturday I took the boys in to Seattle for a kids yoga class and Casper Babypants concert.  (Allie you’d be so proud!!) Walter did not want to go, said yoga is boring but he had so much fun and danced his butt off.  When I went to go to adult hot yoga last night he was upset he couldn’t join.  I’m glad he’s so in to in now, I just wish the working mom curse wouldn’t kick in when I find all kids yoga classes are at 1pm on a work day.