March in Recap

How on earth can it have been a month already?   The speed at which these days go by now, is incredible.  We've finished soccer (A SUPER successful season - finishing 3rd overall in a few different leagues and tournaments), swim has continued for Atlas (who, can actually swim now, he just needs to learn how to breathe, the teacher hasn't shown him that yet), track has begun (Ares is pretty set to run the 1600, 800 and long jump - although, first meet isn't until next weekend). 
Ares turned 9!  (What!?!?!) and got a Nintendo Switch for his birthday.   His parents are the coolest, aren't they?!


These boys (yes, plural  now!  Atlas eats them too!)  put SO MANY jalepenos on their nachos and in their macaroni and cheese!  Crazy kids!

U-9 Streetsboro United played in the Upper Division after going undefeated in the Lower.
They got 3rd, I believe, and they allowed the least amount of goals in the whole league.  Go Defense!

RENT this month!  The singing was AMAZING, but I'm not sure I'd see it again

My favorite photo of Atlas thus far!



This is what Ares practiced in for Track. I couldnt' take a photo from the track, as my fingers were frozen, so I waited.  We couldn't see the kids on the other side of the track, when we were standing at the center of the football field.

Swim

Well, we told Ares if he could participate in every swim lesson (7 total) then he would never have to take swim lessons again.  He did great for 1-3, but lesson 4, he wouldn't do anything except for nearly drown and pout and be multiple laps behind other kids. 



This is the first lesson that Atlas would participate.  Well, first and a half, I guess.  He had a great time (he's to the right of the kid in blue).  He had tons of fun and got a cookie at the end.  (That may have been why he did so well, whatever it takes). 

Although Ares was a complete Ass during the swim lessons, (and during school, where he didn't do his work), he was fantastic when it came time to doing his school work that should have been done during the school day.   He wrote quickly and neatly and didn't complain a single time.  He was writing about spider webs. 

Happy Father's Day - 2016

For Father's Day this year, Adam wanted to the family to play 18 holes of disc golf.  (Not my favorite activity, but hey, it's father's day!)   We pushed Atlas in a stroller, and he got out a few times to throw, Ares did very well for a very technical course.  He and I played from the red tees (between 5 and 25 yards from the white tees that Adam played from).   I played really well - as in, I beat Adam.  I kinda had fun.  It was about 89* out, and bugs everywhere, but aside from a tick on my leg, no one got bit by anything.  After the 18 holes of golf (which took us about 3 hours), we went to the lake to have a swim.   The disc golf and lake are right next to each other - they even share a parking lot, so it was perfect.  Beautiful weather, the boys played in the sand and the water for a couple of hours before we packed it in to make dinner and watch GAME 7 of the NBA FINALS!!!  2016 BABY!  

We told Atlas 'no'.  He doesn't like that.  He cried for about 30 seconds this entire day, but it happened to be
when I was trying to take a family photo.   Ah well, such is life.

 

Can't even think of a title for this post

Adam's working a 5pm-2am shift, M-F.  It sucks.  For everyone.  For Adam, when does he find time to sleep?  When does he eat?  How can he help around the house?     The first week (of, I just learned, 6 weeks), he was getting the boys to daycare and on the bus.  So he'd get home at 2:30am, eat something, then go to bed around 3, wake up at 7:50 to get the boys on the bus and go back to sleep.   I'd have them dressed and fed and everything, but he had to wake up.  AND, the boys were making a huge mess while I was gone, and Adam was still sleeping.   


Ares was a difficult child on Monday (day 1) with swim lessons, thank goodness my mom was there to help.   I was still ready to throttle him.


The rest of the week was OK, for the most part.  Soccer went smoothly, because the weather was nice, homework got done, with lots of screaming, but it got done.
Adam got a honey-do list, because while I was dealing with the kids and the house the first few days, I also had to clean up after him while he was home or going out to play Frisbee golf.   Livid for him not emptying the dishwasher but playing 3 hours of golf... haha,  well, yes, I was.  LIVID.  I had 20 minutes to see him before I picked the boys up, and I ended up emptying the dishwasher, and then walking out.    Adam went grocery shopping, and also put away Atlas' clothes for me after he did laundry.  That was nice.


Overall, we managed week 1, and I only hated life 3 out of the 5 days.    Saturday morning was rough too.  The boys are loud, and poor Adam got like, NO sleep Saturday morning.  I tried my best.  This Saturday I'm going to take them out for donuts (and a long drive somewhere).  Not that they deserve it.  Sunday we totally got the wall of rock up.  I love it.  It makes me SOO happy.  I love it from every angle, every time of day, any lighting, I love it.  Here's a quick teaser, there's a whole post on this. 

This week, Swim lessons were so frustrating that I wanted to bite Ares.  Any of you ever get so frustrated, that you just have no idea what to do and you've lost your mind?   I was there.  Ares was a horrible horrible horrible example of a child.   I don't hit my kids, but if I ever did, it would have been on Monday.  Only Ares, Atlas was perfect.  (I know, my Atlas!)  Luckily for Ares, there were other parents around, and I didn't feel like a call from CPS would be productive this week.  So he mocked me, taunted me, talked back to me, and wouldn't listen.  So homework never got done, no matter what I tried.  I can't threaten anything, because we have nothing going on that I'm in control of.  NOTHING.    I ended the evening, after all of the I love you, blah blah blah with "Ares, you fucking drove me up a tree today, let's have a better day tomorrow.  We HAVE to have a better day tomorrow. Goodnight"     Then I opened a bottle of wine.   The cap (hey, we're saving money now, because I hired a house cleaner) cut my thumb.  I can't grip anything.  This may work to Ares' advantage. 


Tuesday - Soccer. (Oh!  Adam had dinner waiting for us!)   Ares was poorly behaved BEFORE soccer.   Oh, I forgot to mention yesterday that Ares 'HATES' everything.  EVERY-THING.   "I hate......"  insert whatever we're talking about.   I ended up telling him that I didn't care.    Poor Atlas today though, it was cold out.  Like hoodie sweatshirt, winter coat, and winter hat cold.  I forgot Atlas' gloves.  for 90 minutes he complained about wanting to go home.  I felt so bad, because I had to have Ares at soccer.

• Note - First soccer game is in 4 days, thanks for the short notice - Ares will not be there.
• Note2- Practices moved from T-TH to M-W,  Fuck.  Thanks so much.  Ares will also not be at practice the first few Mondays.    

 Oh yeah, and I swear a lot more now.   It's better than screaming, crying, or beating Ares, right? 


So as you can see, we're 1 week and 2 days into this  new schedule, and I'm handling it very well.    


Things I miss: 

• Someone helping me take the trash out
• Someone making Ares' lunches
• Someone to tell me to get the hell to bed when I'm staying up too late and doing nothing productive
• Someone to tag team with for the boys
• Someone to open my wine bottle for me, because apparently I'm inept.  (note: I still have 3 glasses left in that wine bottle, so I'm good for the week - unless tonight (wed) is like Monday, then I'm drinking it all)
• Someone to talk to when we're at practice
• Someone to entertain the damned dog
• Someone to not wake me up every evening at 3am when coming into bed (I'm sure he's thrilled about me getting up and getting ready in the morning). 
• Someone to fix my phone, because the piece of shit won't work 85% of the time, and I'm sure it's something I hit or a setting my butt changed that he could fix in .5 seconds.  

So, so far this all sucks.  But the worst part is, it's not better for him.   Yes, he gets about 4 hours of awake kid-free time, but half of that is cutting grass, buying fertilizer,  laundry, graciously making dinner for us to come home to (twice now!) but he also has crappy hours, doesn't get to see anyone but his class all day, and still can't figure out when to eat.   It would be better if he were enjoying it, so I could resent him for this schedule, but this is really bad for all of us. 


Sorry for all the complaining here, but it's what's going on, and I feel like I can't post on FB anymore (besides, who wants to read all of that stuff  - no one). 

Atlas' first swim lesson

He was awesome and did amazing.  I was stressed about him not listening or paying attention.  I was afraid that he'd be that kid running away from the lesson. I'd seen so many of them.   Nope,  at the ripe old age of 2 he was a trooper.  Oh, and when changing him out of his clothes,  he kept saying "you can't see my penis anymore" because i put a diaper on him.