What's Your Point? Wednesday (edition: has it been a week already?)

Of note this past week:

--Dirt Bag Boot Camp continues. Wendy is a fabulous trainer. I get the sense that she is deriving a certain amount of pleasure from seeing our contorted faces as we struggle to complete the exercises, but I guess these boot camps can get rather monotonous for her and she has to throw a few things at us purely for her own amusement.

--Tragic announcement (please sit if you are not already): My iPhone is gone. It apparently fell out of the car in the parking lot as I was getting out Monday evening and surprisingly enough, no one has attempted to return it to its rightful owner. It's frustrating on several levels, but it is, after all, just a phone. A phone that I really, really liked. Perhaps a little too much, so I'm processing that and making sure I "Don't Waste Losing My iPhone." But enough about the phone. Farewell, old friend. May you enjoy your stay on the black market and your new owner.

--Simeon is pulling up on everything now. He tries to stand up on his own by doing a challenging, downward-dogesque move but so far has been unsuccessful.

--Asher is very into sounding out words now. It really surprises me how well he can read most CVC words. Today he told me how to spell Jim, which is his Poppy's name. Then he said, "The place you go to work out is J-I-M, too?" I began to explain how G sometimes makes the same sound as a J, and Y is sometimes used as a vowel and that English is a really frustrating language to master, so that word is really G-Y-M. He said, "Oh, the gym we go to is G-Y-M and the Jim we love is J-I-M!" Exactly.

--Jude was sick last weekend and as I was trying to be really nurturing and comforting by rubbing his back as he was lying in bed, he looked at me and said, "I want you to go." Touching. But I can't blame him. Just leave me alone and let me sleep. Jude and I are cut from the same cloth indeed.

--Asher had his last soccer game on Saturday. It was quite a season for the Yellow Lightening. He was on a team with a bunch of his friends and he had a great coach, so it was a really good experience for him. We aren't playing any sports this summer but this fall, Jude will have turned 3 so they will be able to play on a team together. And he has already informed us that we will watch him play and we will (oh yes we will) yell, "YAY JUDE!!!!!!" when he is on the field. My inner-crazy-sideline-yelling-mom-self started to emerge this season so little does he know, he has nothing to worry about.

WYPW (Edition: Jude)

Life as we know it continues. This is no small gift, I realize, but it doesn't make for a very active blog. So here we are again at another WYPW, also known as the one day each week I post.

Jude is in the bathroom right now taking full advantage of being in the bathroom by repeating "poo-poo!" over and over again because the bathroom is the one place that, as he is reminded constantly, potty-talk is acceptable. If you are, in fact, poo-pooing on the potty, you may talk about it as much as you please. And so he does.

He is most definitely a "seize the moment" kind of guy. When he sees opportunity, he goes for it. Asher and I were at the gym the other night, Simeon was taking a catnap, Kris was in another room, and Jude was, supposedly, watching Thomas in the living room. Except he wasn't. He got a stool from the bathroom and brought it to the kitchen and proceeded to help himself to my freshly-baked zucchini bread I made for our bible study the next day. He ate the entire top layer, which, incidentally, is my favorite part, too. He did get a spanking for getting a stool and using it to take something off of the oven, but we secretly laughed because that is quintessential Jude.

We have recently convinced him that his name is not Judah-cuda Kristobear Rives. He has several nicknames which have only served to confuse him. Judah Barracuda and Judah Bear mingled with his given name resulted in the hilariously inaccurate moniker above. We think he is clear about it now though.




Yesterday Asher helped him with something and he said, "Thank you, Asher! You're the best big brother in the whole wide world." He also spilled some milk and went right to the towel drawer, got out a towel, and cleaned up his mess. Moments like those are so comforting. He CAN be taught!




My point? I find Jude to be a delightful combination of frustrating and endearing.

Kris might tell you the exact same thing about someone else we all know and love.

So what's YOUR point?

Please do share!

WYPW

Well I'll just go ahead and tell you right now what my point is. My point is I. AM. SORE.



For reasons still unclear to me, I accepted an invitation from my friend, Wendy, to attend Dirt Bag Boot Camp, which she runs. It was on a total whim that I made this decision. I've never wanted to go boot camp. I've never even thought about going to boot camp. And yet, I find myself at boot camp. At 5 o'clock. In the morning. Cheryl accepted the challenge, too. And now we can't quit because we both have this intense need to show the other up...er...I mean, finish what we start. Yeah...that's it.


In all honesty, as painful as these past 3 days have been (only 17 more to go!) it has felt good to try to do something challenging. I have run more in the past three days than in the past three years. I told Cheryl I sort of bragged a little to various people that I lost all my baby weight without doing any cardio (just strength and flexibility training) but I was wishing that first day I would have hit the treadmill a time or two. I wished it the second day, too. And about my fourth time up the 6 story parking garage this morning, I wished it again. It's good to regain a little lung capacity. And all the other stuff besides the cardio--I can't even talk about it right now. It's too soon. I might cry. (My point: I already told you. I'm sore.)



I had a conversation with Asher that went something like this this morning:

A--Mom! There's something BAD happening outside right now!
Me--Oh no! What! (said in my best fake-concerned voice as I could hear Jude playing nicely and as long as that is happening, how bad could whatever it is really be?)
A--There is a FLY on our LETTUCE! And I sang this song to it: "Shoo, fly! Don't bother our lettuce." and it would not go away.
Me--Well maybe it's not familiar with that song. Maybe you need to actually shoo it away. Not all flies pick up on subtle hints in the form of folk songs.
A--I did! And it just went more into the lettuce.

(My point: Four year olds are pretty funny.)

Simeon pulled up on the coffee table today for the first time today! He smiled at me with a "well this is a skill that's going to come in handy" look on his face. (My point: Where did my baby go?)

I'd write more, but I am conserving the rest of my energy for tomorrow. When I will wake up at 5 o'clock. In the morning.