My Big Brother's Backpack

This is a story that I remembered while driving to work this morning. We were getting ready for the start of school back in August. Our third son was starting Kindergarten and needed a real backpack for the first time. I went to the local Target store and found the best backpack that was, not too large, plenty of pockets for stuff and, a dark color to hide the inevitable stains/dirt that will accumulate on it shortly. I was eager to show the NEW backpack to my third son. Meanwhile, my second son saw the NEW backpack and thought it was the coolest thing. "Do you want to trade?" he said, to his younger brother. My third son jumped at the chance to have his big brother's old backpack. I, of course, stepped in and said that it would not be fair since one is NEW and the other old (and dirty already). The younger brother (my third son) insisted and was thrilled to have his big brother's backpack. After many months at school, both brothers are still happy with their backpacks. Little brothers do look up to their big brothers and in ways that I would not have thought.

Kids Are A Gift

I was sitting at my desk, late last night, working on the computer. In the other room, I could hear the sounds of multiple boys giggling and tossing in bed, trying in vain to get to sleep. A little background on our current living situation. Shortly after having our fourth son, we decided that our 3 bedroom, 2 bath house was just too small. We set off on a long, seemingly never-ending, journey to remodel the house and add more living space. We have been staying at my in-laws' home for about 8 months now, while our house gets worked on. Lucky for me, my in-laws are terrific (I hope they feel the same about us after this long stay :) ).

During the remodeling the boys, with the exception of the youngest, all stay in one bedroom at night. There is a large king sized bed in which they all sleep together on. The boys ages are 9, 7 and 5, so they all fit fine. It is the getting to sleep part that is difficult. Inevitably each night, I have to play the bad guy and threaten to have them sleep in the garage, if they don't quiet down and get to sleep. Tiredness eventually wins over silliness and the boys fall asleep in a large ball of jumbled blankets and pillows.

On this night, I was at my laptop in the next room and just quietly listening to their giggles. If ever you want a group of boys to giggle, just tell them all to be quiet and go to sleep. It works everytime. I had had a long and difficult week, but I just sat there and enjoyed their laughter. I was very thankful for our boys. They're exhausting on a good day, and frustrating on the bad days, but a blessing nonetheless. I need to remind myself more often what a privilege it is to have kids.

Two Days of Summer

I Want To Be A Baseball For Halloween

I have 3 boys old enough to trick or treat this year. So the annual "what am I going to be for Halloween?" started early just after school started in September. Luckily, two of the boys wanted to be Boston Red Sox players. "Easy!," I said to myself. Manny Ramirez has long shoulder-length hair, which I made by taping black yarn to the inside of the Boston Redsox hat. They wore their little league baseball uniforms with Boston Redsox shirts and looked great.

My oldest son, on the other hand, wanted to be the 756 home run baseball that Barry Bonds hit. As an engineer, I prided myself by thinking that I would come up with some clever way to make him look like a baseball. Well, after about 2 weeks of trying various thoughts and designs, all I could do was make my son look fat, but not like a baseball. He was getting a bit concerned and volunteered to be something else. He decided to be a basketball trading card instead. "Great!," I said.

Well it took some doing, but I managed to scan one of his basketball cards and blow it up to about 2 feet by 3 feet in size. I put the image on a large poster board and cut a hole out where he could stick his head through. I'm happy to say that it all worked out well and all his friends and classmates approved of his basketball trading card costume.

Another successful Halloween accomplished. Now, I just have to figure out what to do with 3 large bags of candy....

Aiming At The Toilet

We have four boys, so it is not surprising to me when there is a little urine around the toilet that didn't quite make it. Recently, things were getting worse and my wife and I were scrubbing the toilet all the time, trying in vain to keep the bathroom smelling nice. One morning this week during breakfast, my second son got up to go to the bathroom. I happened to be walking by the bathroom, and I notice him aiming at the top edge of the toilet as a game. Of course, he is missing half the time and, well, you know. Yuk!

After a long lecture, actually a short yell session, I made it clear that if he wanted to play the aiming game while peeing, he would have to clean it up. He didn't seem to like that so much. The bathrooms have never smelled so nice. Well, as nice as a bathroom in a family with four boys can smell.