I hope everybody had a great Mother’s Day Weekend! I know my wife Tiffany did, and that’s what matters the most to me. She loves Mother’s Day more than any other day of the year — she calls it her annual review and it means a lot to her because she spends every waking moment taking care of our three kids. Come to think of it, she gets a lot of her sleeping minutes interrupted as Jack wakes up in the middle of the night a good 5 or 6 times a week (if you don’t know who Jack is, click here).
Anyways, I’m not going to bore you with a play-by-play recap of our weekend, but I do have a couple of fun stories to share.
Jack’s Card
I went shopping with my other two kids, Benjamin and Ava, last weekend (April 30). That’s huge for me, eight days in advance. Normally, I’d buy something the day before. If I’m procrastinating, the night before. So this was HUGE! I had Ben and Ava look through the cards at Target and I looked for one from Jack. I found one that was perfect. It said:
For a Special Mom on Mother’s Day
on the front and
You may not hear this often but the the feeling is always there—
Love you, Mom — always have, always will.
on the inside.
It was a fancy, faux-jeweled card from Papyrus, so when I saw it, so I knew it was going to be pricey. But I KNEW I had to buy it. I turned it over, it was $7, but it was a no-brainer. I knew it would make her cry, and that’s the goal with Mother’s Day purchases, right? I took it to school and asked Jack’s teacher to have him do a handprint on the inside. Then I had him write his name (if I tell him J-A-C-K, he can write it).
She opened it, she cried, she posted it on Facebook. She loves it. I love making her happy.
Ava’s Card
Ava is only 5. But she spent about 15 minutes looking through all the cards and finally found one she liked. It was nothing spectacular, but that’s the one she wanted to get, so that makes it spectacular. I had her sign it on Saturday. She wrote her name at the top, like it was a school paper or something. She has trouble pronouncing her “R’s” and right now, that’s causing her confusion with spelling. So the word “really” is spelled “w-i-l-y” in her mind.
In her card, she wrote that Tiff is “wily speshil” and then there were some pretty illegible words beneath that. When she wrote it, I asked her what she wrote, and she said she couldn’t read it. She asked me if I could help her read what she wrote. I had no clue, but she thought it had something to do with Mommy making the best food.
Tiff chuckled at the card yesterday morning and asked Ava what she wrote. Ava just shrugged. She had no clue. We still don’t really know what it says.
Benjamin’s Card
Ahhh, Benjamin. Love the guy, but sometimes he drives me nuts. He’ll be 10 next month. When we were looking at the cards, I asked him if there was one he liked. He said he wanted to make one instead. I told him Mommy would like it if he picked one out, because it’s always fun for parents to see what their kids are thinking about, but he was insistent on making his own. So that was fine.
Last week, I asked him how his card was coming along and he said he was making it in school. I confirmed with him again that he was making it in school. On Saturday, I asked him if his card was done and he said it was.
So yesterday morning, I was pretty surprised when I was putting the presents out and I heard him ask us to wait because he was finishing up his card. What??? Really??? And then I hear him yell out to Tiff, “Mommy, how many coupons do you want me to make you for Mother’s Day?” I’ll be giving him grief about that when he’s 40, no doubt.
My First Friend To Become A Parent
I was talking with somebody about this on Twitter the other day and it made me laugh to think back on this, so I figured I’d put it in my blog. Back in 1998, my final semester in college, one of my best friends from college was about to become a parent. He was at my apartment and we were watching the last game of the World Series. His wife was due any minute. We lived in a small town — he lived about a mile away and they lived about two miles from the hospital, if even that much. He could get from my place to his place to the hospital in 10 minutes easy.
But still …
She called up and told him she was in labor! How exciting! But the game was in the seventh inning and the Yankees were about to wrap it up. He asked if it was cool if he stayed until the end and she said no problem. We watched the Yankees close out their sweep over the Padres, we chatted for a couple of minutes, I congratulated him in advance and he went home. His daughter wasn’t born for another 6 or 7 hours, but we laugh when we look back at how he stayed for the end of the game.
You Know Your Wife’s A Keeper …
I was talking to a friend of mine who was excited because his wife wanted to go the Angels game yesterday for Mother’s Day. He said you just can’t argue when your wife wants hot dogs and soda for lunch on Mother’s Day! That gave me a flashback to Valentine’s Day when Tiff was pregnant with Benjamin back in 2001.
We were on our way out the door to Maggiano’s for Italian food and she changed her mind at the last minute. She wanted crab legs. I didn’t really know any seafood places, so I got on my cell phone to call up some friends for recommendations. She cut me off and told me not to bother — she knew exactly where she wanted to go. There was a place she had gone to in Las Vegas and she really liked their crab legs and since they had a place down in California, that’s where she wanted to go. I didn’t like her recommendation (I swear, I tried to talk her out of it), but she couldn’t be swayed. I tried and I tried.
So on Valentine’s Day when she was pregnant with our first child, we enjoyed dinner at Hooters. You can’t win an argument with a woman who’s five months pregnant.
Training
Oh yeah, so I run. My training for the San Francisco Marathon officially started this morning. And, I skipped my run. Kind of. Jack was up for a while in the middle of the night (seems to be the trend around here for the past month or so) and Tiff took care of him. He was running wild when I got up, so I stayed back to take care of him. So, I’ll run after work tonight.
I went on a long run over the weekend though, going 26.25 in 3:18 (7:33/mile). It was a decent effort, not all-out, but a good, hard run. I ran out of gas at about mile 19. I guess that’s what happens when you fuel for a run with sliders! It’s a good baseline for a training cycle, though. I’m really optimistic about this training cycle. I feel like I did well getting ready for Boston, I know what worked and what didn’t work, and I’m ready to attack this cycle for San Francisco a little smarter than last time. We’ll see!
Have a great Monday, y’all. I have an AWESOME guest post from U.S. Army Major John A. Atilano II tomorrow. Awesome, I tell ya. See you tomorrow!
Patty says
A friend just sent me your blog address and I think what you are doing is fantastic! I have a 7 yo son with autism who is really struggling with social skills. I have decided to start a LEGO social skills group for him, but need money for the training and supplies. I’m in the running for a Pepsi Refresh grant. Here’s the link.
http://www.refresheverything.com/legoclub
Keep doing what you’re doing. You’re not just helping with autism and other charities; you’re inspiring others, like me!
sarah says
i love hooters. they have awesome grilled cheese sandwiches. 🙂