Overscheduled

I used to read about overscheduled children and wonder why the parents did it. Kids need time to be kids! What was everyone in such a hurry about? I realized that we were likely to have a full schedule, with four kids, once they got older.

Is 3 and 7 older?

Because here's what we've got on our plate in our family in the next two weeks.

• Birthday party
• Baseball Opening Day ceremony and pictures
• Charlie and Joe's baseball game
• Another birthday party
• Charlie's "All About Me" week at school (he's got various things to do each day)
• Some sort of family "Build a Peaceful World" project due for school (because our kids sign up for every. thing. offered.)
• Picture day at elementary school
• UIL competition for Joe
• Gymnastics class for Will and Helen
• Charlie and Joe's baseball practice
• Another baseball game for Charlie and Joe
• Cort's soccer game
• Luncheon for Mom
• Another baseball game for Charlie and Joe
• School auction
• Hosts of a wedding shower
• Charlie and Joe's book club meeting
• Rockets game (where Charlie and Joe are going to be ball boys)
• Gymnastics class again for Will and Helen
• First grade field trip
• Another baseball practice for Charlie and Joe
• Cort's soccer game
• Another birthday party
• Marathon Kids final lap celebration
• Dads basketball tournament fundraiser at elementary school
• Another baseball game for Charlie and Joe
• Hockey game - taking the whole family

Only gymnastics and the hockey game even involves Will and Helen. I think this is only going to get worse.

March Madness, Maddux style

We are big March Madness people around here. Charlie and Joe's first entries into an NCAA tourney pool were in 2004 . . . when they were two days old. The Maddux March Madness pool is an annual tradition. This year, we have entries for all six family members. They are posted on a door so standings can be checked at any time.

Charlie picked both of the two biggest first-round upsets - Richmond over Vanderbilt and Morehead State over Louisville. He's got UConn winning it all. Joe has Duke. They are both doing better than me. They pretty much know from memory the picks made by each person in the family. Actually, Joe remembers the final four picks we made last year, which is kind of freaky.

Helen and Will picked all their own entries. Will's pick to win it the championship was 14th seed Indiana State. We have no idea why. He doesn't seem too upset to be out of the running though.

If you know Helen, you can figure out the rationale for her picks.

She had both Georgetown and George Mason winning in the first round. Why? She learned about GEORGE Washington last month at school, of course.

She had St. Peter's going to the Sweet Sixteen because we know a Peter -- he's a friend and fiance of Claire, our babysitter extraordinaire (and Helen always likes the guys better than the gals).

But she apparently likes her classmate John better than Peter, because she had St. John's going to the Final Four.

Helen's pick to win it all is still in the running: San Diego State University. Why SDSU? Because of the movie Madagascar, of course. When the animals washed up on the beach of Madagascar, the giraffe Melman surveyed the place and decided that they must be at the San Diego Zoo. Hence, San Diego State University is picked to win the NCAA tourney. Makes perfect sense, right?

I love that Joe and Charlie think Will and Helen's picks are soooo funny, when it was just a couple of years ago that they were making their picks based on similar rationales. In fact, this year Joe graduated from making his picks solely with his heart (last year he had A&M winning the whole tournament) to making educated picks (he did pick A&M to win in the first round, but didn't think they would make it any further than that).

Sadly, I still pick largely with my heart. A&M's loss knocked out one of my final four teams. My top pick is also out. I have a feeling I'm going to be paying up to a 7-year-old this year.

Not yet

I chaperoned a first grade field trip to the Houston Museum of Natural Science on Wednesday. We visited the butterfly center, since the kids are studying all sorts of bugs (Darkling beetles anyone?) and are about to embark on butterflies.

Field trips are sometimes tricky for me. In theory, I intended my reduced schedule at work to enable me not only to pick up the kids from school, but also to do things like chaperone field trips. In reality, though, the practice of law isn't really like that. Sometimes you have plenty of time to get away, and sometimes you don't. Right now, I'm not really even that busy. But, there was the possibility of something coming up on Wednesday that would require me to be at work.

So I didn't mention the field trip at all. I thought I would wait for them to ask if I was going. I was hoping that they wouldn't think of it for awhile, and that by the time they asked I would know my schedule a little bit better. And that my schedule would be clear, so they wouldn't be disappointed.

But here's the thing. They never asked. They talked about the field trip, sure. But they never asked if I would go.

Last year in kindergarten, it was a travesty if I couldn't attend a field trip or some other event at school. I attended the vast majority of them, mind you, but if I missed a single one there was hell to pay. It always made me wonder if the parents who have to work 8 to 5 and can never attend a school event got as much grief as I was getting.

I knew that eventually, they wouldn't care. At some point they won't even want us around. But I'm not really clear on when that milestone of not wanting your parents around actually occurs.

Wednesday morning, they still hadn't asked whether I was going to go on the field trip. I brought it up and said I was going. They briefly said, "You are?!" and that was it. I wasn't sure if we had reached that milestone yet.

I showed up at the museum and saw Joe's class first. He immediately took my hand and held it. Later, when I would come back to his class from hanging out with Charlie's class (I have to do a lot of running back and forth at these types of things), he would spot me from afar and wave his hand high to make sure I could find him. For Charlie's part, he held my hand, and even my entire arm, the entire tour. I'm pretty sure he gave me over ten kisses, some of which were on the lips.

So as it turns out, we haven't reached that milestone. Not quite yet. Whew.

Look who got big beds!

Will

Helen

These guys finally got big boy and big girl beds a couple of weeks ago. They were beyond excited. After spending an inordinate amount of time searching in vain for gender neutral bedding that I loved, I just went with a cheap green Target quilt with cars-themed sheets for Will and flowery sheets for Helen. They couldn't be prouder. And so far, no problems. There are definite advantages to waiting until almost 4 to take them out of cribs!

More Helen

So this morning, after we got to school, Helen walked over to the shelf in her classroom, picked up a large box of small Legos, made sure she had caught my attention, and, while looking me straight in the eye from across the room . . .

turned the whole box over so Legos spilled out and spread all over the floor.

Have I mentioned lately how much she gives us a run for our money?

Our Helen

On the way to school the other day we were talking about being good, listening to the teachers, etc. Helen assured us that yes, she would be good at school today.

But then she offered, nonchalantly, that she had been bad yesterday (something I had not heard about).

I asked her why she was bad, and she offered only that "Jenna was in my spot." Hmmm. So I asked her what she did when Jenna was in her spot.

She replied, simply, "I moved her."

Well-behaved? No. Resourceful? Yes.

A first

We got progress reports from Jumpbunch the other day. (Jumpbunch is one of the extracurricular activities offered at Will and Helen's school.) Will's progress report included the following:

"Will is always so sweet and well behaved in class."

Upon reading that, we realized that in almost 7 years (and 4 kids' worth) of parenthood, this is the first time we've had a progress report on one of our kids that includes the words "well behaved in class."

Thanks, sweet Will.

Happy Valentine's Day

Cort and I got these Valentine's in the mail from Will and Helen. They made them at school, with help from their teachers, in fill-in-the-blank fashion.

To: mom, dad

Roses are blue

Violets are blue.

You are tall

And big too!

Here is my Valentine’s message for you: You got Valentine’s

From: Will

To: Mom, dad

Roses are yellow

Violets are blue.

You are good

And happy too!

Here is my Valentine’s message for you: Bring cookies

From: Helen

Maddux kid-isms

It's been awhile, so here are a few more wise sayings from our kiddos:

Charlie:

At age 6 - "Guess what I was doing on the first day of my life? I was being born."

At age 6, while listening to a song on the radio - "Mom, this isn't a very nice song. It's talking about breaking a heart."

At age 6, to a june bug - "Hey bug - get out of here! Don't you know it's July?!"

Joe:

At age 6, this conversation with his brother who was blocking his way - Joe: "Let me through here!" Charlie: "You can't pass through here unless you tell me the names of the two best Astros pitchers ever." Joe, without skipping a beat: "Fine then. Mike Scott and Nolan Ryan."

At age 6, observantly, "Most things are made in China."

Helen:

At age 3, with a sneaky look on her face - "Did you hear that noise mom? 'Cause I did something."

At age 3, repeatedly, she used a prefatory "Maybe so" or "I think so." As in, "Maybe so I'm going to go to school today. I think so Will's going to come with me."

At age 3 - "When I'm a grownup I'm going to go to work at my own office. And I'm not going to have no Montessori work or free work. I'm going to have a TV and watch Dora. Like Daddy."

Will:

At age 3, repeatedly at bedtime - "I'm going to cry when Mommy goes bye-bye. Because I loooooovve you and I'm going to miiiisssss you."

At age 3, when told to be quiet because Daddy is sleeping - "And if I not quiet, Daddy might cry?" (I said yes.) "That's okay. I'll take care of him."

At age 3, while at home sick - Will: "Where's Daddy?" Me: "He's at work." Will: "Oh. I sorry." Me: "What?" Will: "I sorry you not at work Mommy. Because you're home with me because I'm sick."

At age 3, repeatedly, "But I want to be the rotten egg!!!"

At age 3, regarding soccer practice - "I'm going to listen to my coach. Because I weally, weally love him. And his name is Daddy."

At age 3, while discussing a football game on TV with me - Me: "If they get to the yellow line they get a first down." Will: "Did they get a first down?" Me: "Yes, but we didn't want them to." Will: "Why?" Me: "Because we're for the Texans, not the Giants. So we don't want the Giants to win." Will: "Oh. But the Giants will be sad."

At age 3, after the appliance repairman had recently fixed our washing machine, a few days later a light broke - "It's okay. The fixing man can fix it."

At age 3, regarding the toy bag from which they get rewards - "We are almost out of toys for the toy bag. So we need to go to the toy restaurant to get some more."

At age 3.5 - this one is priceless - "Mom, when I get to be a grownup I'm going to sit on the bathtub and watch YOU poop."

At age 3.5, on the way to the doctor's office - Will: "Mom, when I grow up I'm going to be a doctor." Me: "You are? That's great. You'll be a really good doctor." Will: "Yes. And then next year when I grow up, I'm going to be Spiderman."

At age 3.5, when admonished not to say the line "Excuse me, you're biting my butt" from Madagascar - "But, it's funny. And I like to say funny things."

Marathon Math

The Houston Marathon route goes right past our street corner. The kids love to watch the runners and cheer them on (sometimes bringing out the musical instruments for extra entertainment).

This year, one of our good friends ran the marathon. The boys had a great time tracking her progress on the internet. Because of the microchips on the bib numbers, every runner can be tracked on the internet as they pass each 5 kilometer checkpoint.

As we were eating lunch, our friend passed the 30K mark. Joseph thought for a second and then said, "So she's gone 18 miles." Which, after considerable deliberation, Cort and I figured out was pretty much right.

So we asked him how he figured it out. He said, "Well, Mom ran a 5K and that's 3 miles. So there are 6 5Ks in 30K. And 6 times 3 is 18."

Yep. Math is definitely his strong subject.