I F*cking Hate Sports!

I know I'm a terrible mom right now, but once again softball has ruined a perfect weekend. This weekend was supposed to be the first weekend in months where we had no kids! It was not supposed to be our weekend with Anne and Paige so I arranged for Lena to go to my parents house. James and I were supposed to have a long needed and awaited date night and now that's not going to happen. 

James called me on lunch a little bit ago to inform me that we had to switch weekends because of Anne's softball schedule. I love the kids, I just hate that their sports schedules trashed our summer and has now taken over our fall. She doesn't even like to play. She complains about it constantly! But her mom played, Paige plays, and therefore Anne has to play. Her mom has enrolled her in a travel team, which means not only an unpredictable schedule but it also comes filled with unpredictable insanely far away locations. 

She found out today that on one of our weekends with the girls Anne has a ton of tournaments. That means either A we need to switch or B we have to drive all over creation to make all 6 games. Taking Lena into consideration (and her equal mis-like for sitting there for hours without end) he decided it would be best to switch. So it's bye bye date night at the hibachi grill. No Japanese noodles and steak for this girl. Not unless I want to shell out extra money for food our 7 year old won't even eat. 

I feel like such a shitty parent for thinking that way, but who knows when a golden opportunity to spend an entire weekend with no kids will come again. Certainly not anytime soon and I can't help but feeling perturbed by all the surprise crap that comes from sports.

And right this moment, I really want to cry...

Finally Updated The Frame

I have no idea why I'm up so dang early this morning. Technically I still have another hour to sleep. It's very unlike me to waste a precious hour that I could be in bed. I've mentioned before that I have to set four alarms and that's just to get up on time! When my first alarm went off, I hit snooze like I always do, laid there for a few minutes, and decided nope, I'm up. Aliens must have snuck in last night and replaced me with a pod person.

Lena's new school pictures came yesterday, well they actually came the day before but she avoided forgot to give them to me. I was so excited to see that she actually smiled this year! Last year's photos ended up buried in the abyss of my closet because she was scowling at the photographer. I'd show them to you, but I'm not really awake enough to attempt to dig them out of never never land. You'll just have to take my word for it when I say it looked like she wanted to go medieval on the poor guy and toss him into an alligator filled mote.

When I got home last night the first thing I did was pull down the school photo frame to put in the latest and greatest addition to my collection. I had forgotten that there was another photo stashed behind the one that's been on display for the last two years and completely melted when I discovered it.

I immediately rushed into her room with the old photo from 1st grade with my Awe, look at you's. (You'll notice that there are only 3 of them... Her 2nd grade photo was equally as happy as 4th grade. It's probably in the same box.) She was not nearly as sentimental about the missing front teeth as I was and wanted me to immediately put it away before anyone saw. I guess we have faerie spies hiding in our house, because the only other person home was James so I'm not certain who these other people were going to be. Oh wait, yes I do, I posted it to Facebook. Lena's not allowed to have a Facebook yet, so for the moment I'm safe. What she doesn't know won't hurt her, right?

Biology is Unavoidable

We actually had a kid free night yesterday which is why I chose to spend the evening cuddled up with my honey instead of in my usual state of being engrossed in my laptop. Lena went out to dinner with her friend's family last night and wanted to stay over. Since it was one of the rare occasions the mom was home I let her get away with it being a school night. The kids ride the same bus, are in the same class, and they only live a couple blocks away so I let it slide. 

As you can see though, her best friend just happens to be a boy. She's never particularly meshed with other girls. We tried Girl Scouts for a couple years and I had hoped she'd make a few friends, but no such luck. She would much rather climb trees, hunt for bugs, and play in the dirt. We have a box FULL of Barbies and it really only appeals to Anne. Lena's prefered entertainment / style of play has made it rather difficult to connect with other girls her age. While it worries my sister into a tizzy that Lena will have problems later on, it doesn't really stress me out. My best friend is a boy and we've been part of each other's lives for the last two decades without any issues (but that's another story I suppose).

His mom and I were talking last night when they swung by to get her some PJs and fresh clothes for the morning and we were talking about how much they've been growing lately. We ended up talking about how will we know when it's time to seperate them a bit and end the sleepovers. With his mom being gone as much as she is, he's at our house constantly. While his older brother is there to watch him, he seems to prefer it at our house when she's away at work. We've sorta unofficially adopted him. I help him with his homework, I make sure he showers, I make sure he's fed, I do his laundry, and I sign his notebook for school. Both James and I feel he needs the stability of a parent being there for him and we don't mind a bit. 

But as she pointed out, they're getting older. Things like armpit hair are starting to develop. Their hormones are starting to kick in, though I don't believe those hormones are a factor currently. Right now, they're still embarrassed to be seen in public together and both of them freaked out a couples weeks ago when I took them to Subway in town and a classmate saw them. They immediately attempted to hide and sneak out, but it was already too late. They'd been spotted and I was not leaving without dinner. 

It's still food for thought though. Yes they act more like siblings at the moment, but when is the right time to define the fact that they're not. How do I take away basically her only friend at some point just because he's a boy. I'm not sure. His mom is not sure. It doesn't seem fair to think about splitting them up, but at some point biology is going to play a factor. Any pointers on what I should watch out for?