Wedding Worries

Last weekend we attended a wedding. I had no idea the impact this would have on my children. Chloe just wanted to dance. She couldn't understand why we weren't dancing the moment we got to the church. She had on her 'tap shoes' (black patent leathers), therefore, she was there to dance. However, seeing the pretty white princess (a.k.a, the bride), calmed her down just a bit. But then she got to thinking about it and all she wanted to do was dance with the princess and she wanted to do it now. I'm afraid I put just a tad too many happy tales of dancing at the wedding into her susceptible little brain and failed to pass on the solemnity of the event preceding the reception.

Bennett was a hoot! That kid is Mr. Romeo. However, on this special night, he only had eyes for me. I wore my special, little black dress that is reserved for special dates with Daddy to places like the symphony where you get to dress up. I've never gone on a date with Bennett in my fancy, black dress before. You would have thought I put it on just for him. He didn't take his sweet, little eyes off me all night. He tried to sit next to me whenever possible so he could put his arm around my shoulders. He would wink at me from across the dinner table. When asked by other pretty grown-ups if he would like to dance with them, he replied, "No, I'm only dancing with Mommy tonight." and he'd look at me and smile.

Dancing with him was hilarious. You would have thought I had a magnet in my tummy and his head had the other magnet in it. He would lay his head, actually press his head is probably more accurate, against my tummy and just look up at me as we rocked back and forth to various tunes. He also placed his hand securely on my back side - again, another magnet issue, I think.

Then there was Gavin. The surprise of the night. He's highly confident, yet doesn't show it, a huge planner, a have-to-know-how-to-do-something-before-he's-taught-how-to-do-it kind of kid. Very meticulous. He doesn't necessarily have anything against girls, but he doesn't really notice them. So, you can imagine our surprise when out of the blue, as soon as the bride walks out the back door of the sanctuary, he exclaims, "Now I'm really worried!"

"What on earth could you be worried about right now, Gavin?"

"Well...I don't know who I'm going to marry yet. I don't know who I'll invite or where it will be."

He's dead serious too. This scenario obviously never presented itself to him before and and now he is forced to think this whole thing through right here and now. And it gets even better. We get to the reception hall and see the wedding cake. Gavin is speechless at its beauty. It has a waterfall in the middle of it! Could a cake get any cooler?! Gavin doesn't think so. As, the servers are cutting the cake, he leans over and whispers to me, "Mom, can I go up there and ask them if they'll save that waterfall for my wedding? I REALLY want it!"

I told him, "I'm sure they'll make even cooler waterfalls by time he gets married." I guess that will help him narrow down his choice in brides. The one who goes for a waterfall on the cake must be the one.

Lego Lunatics

As you can see, we have alot of Legos. And now we have alot of Legos in nice, neat, color-coded, little, organized piles all over the floor. Ahhh, this is an anal person's heaven. I LOVE to organize! I convinced the boys that this would be a fun activity. Bennett held on longer than I expected, so I'm giving him a participation ribbon for: A Job Well Done For A 5 Year Old Attention Span. Gavin, however, was as excited as me at this venture. I could see the organizational flow chart taking shape in his neatly compartmentalized little brain. Only a few more years as my apprentice and he me might just outdo me in this category. But the icing on the cake was that we actually had FUN doing this for 3 hours straight.

And color coding isn't the only thing we did. That was just the beginning. We went out and bought our very own Lego Container (and got it 40% off too!). Not that Lego makes such a thing, but we invented our own. Boy does it feel good to be efficient, thrifty and organized all at the same time! Gavin and I were giddy with excitement at the challenge that lay ahead. How were we to organize all these Legos? Should we separate by color, piece, size, length? This challenge was growing by the minute.

Daddy is also willingly sharing in all this fun - with equal, unabashed excitement. I mean, if this is how you're willing to spend an entire Saturday afternoon, you have to really believe in what you are doing. Organizing the kids' Legos is an area near and dear to Chuck's and my heart. We put our heads together and came up with a game plan. We delegated responsibilities between the 4 of us (Bennett was still slightly more happy to be doing this than taking a nap) and never looked back.

Here is just one of the seven modules we pain-stakingly devoted our afternoon to. To be honest, I'm slightly disappointed that I had to combine colors, but at least like pieces were put with like pieces. I had to concede on that one. Otherwise, we would have probably ended up with 30 perfect bins and one Mommy highly over-protective of her perfectly organized Legos that they would be for-looking-at-only. That probably wouldn't go over very well with my kids. Therefore, I have proposed an adequate solution. Whenever they would like to play Legos, I will be ever present to help retrieve and/or replace a piece in order to keep them in sound structural and maximum operating condition.

But the truth of the matter is, this organizational masterpiece will probably incur it's first few misplaced items early tomorrow morning. I will just have to practice mustering up my best, "this doesn't bother me" face and smile as I walk away with a twitch in my head. Really...this was all about the kids - THEY wanted it organized, right?