tiffandtheboys

For those of you who aren’t aware, one of Alex’s nicknames is Benito.  We all waited with baited breath for the magical hour (12:17p.m.) to arrive on Friday.  That is when he officially turned three.  I was excited about the prospects of having a calm, mild-mannered, three-year-old who would summarily denounce the trappings and personality of his two-year-old Mussolini persona and become the Ghandi that we all know is lying dormant in there.  Alas, I think Benito still reigns, but as always, he is only tyrannical about 25% of the time.  The rest of the time, he is the smooth talking, charmer that we know and love.  We have been having birthday celebrations all weekend.   I will post new pictures as soon as I find the camera.  It is buried somewhere in the piles of bags and gear that came back from Papa and Bubbie’s last night.  Have a great Labor Day weekend with as little actual labor as possible.

Love to all,

tiff and her wee men.

The boys took me, Bubbie, and Noni (that’s Great-Grama Norm for those that don’t know), to the Ventura County Fair.  They had a blast.  I think they did rock-paper-scissors to figure out who would be the cow.

I am going to try to document the next several decades of my universe.  It is a concentric universe in which, Chris (my partner in parenting crime) and I revolve around three equally thrilling and volatile celestial bodies.  While we are on the same orbital path (Chris and I), our responsibilities and skill sets are quite separate, so we often go for periods of time with very little interaction other than a wave or scowl as we fly past each other.  I think we both know that we could not give this whole parenting gig the attention it deserves, if we didn’t have each other to rely upon, take advantage of, mock, tease, and trust deeply.  I have needed to do the “trust fall” on more than one occasion, and so far he has caught me every time.  Thank you, Chris, for being “that guy”. 🙂

Zach is our oldest: He is the peacekeeper in the family, always looking for the most peaceful resolution to any conflict.  He is five going on fifty.  He is cautious and grounded and conservative.  I am surprised he hasn’t already memorized the actuarial charts and given us advice on our life insurance choices.

Alex is our middle child, or as we prefer to call him, “The Center Child”.  He is almost three years old, and I believe he is the enforcer of the three.  He wants to know all the rules and exactly what the consequences may be.  I believe he wants to be intimately familiar with the exact parameters of any situation, so he can get as close as possible to the line without stepping over.  Being the middle child, naturally we worried about how he would be able to assert himself and maintain his identity within the bookends of his brothers.  So far, this is not presenting itself as a huge problem.

Sam is the baby.  Seven months old.  He will probably be the fastest of all three because he will spend so much of his time chasing the other two.  I apologize to you now, Sam, for the endless string of hand-me-downs that loom in your near future.

I have informed the men of my house that when everyone is out of diapers, (but prior to Chris and I needing them) we will be getting a dog.  It will be a girl…gotta balance out the estrogen in this house somehow.

So let the chaos commence.

Much love,

tiff