After spending 2 weeks with Aaron’s youngest brother, Zeb, I learned a few things. The biggest thing I learned and am coming to grips with is that I’m old. I’m just plain old. And to some, 29 doesn’t seem old, but to 17, it’s old. I remember being 17 and 29 WAS OLD. But now that I am 29, I don’t FEEL old, but apparently, I’m just old. That’s okay. As long as I don’t LOOK like I’m old I can handle it. I definitely learned if you want to believe you are still young, I highly would discourage inviting your 7 year old ring bearer who is now 17 and 6′4″ to come stay with you. Not only do you feel old, but you feel really really short. One day we were walking through a supermarket in search of yeast. Yes, yeast, people. Yeast is bought at the supermarket, which I also didn’t know until recently. Do you now what section yeast is sold in? Neither did I. It’s in the section where you find the sugar. I’ll explain later why the yeast was necessary. Back to my story, we are in Ralphs market, myself, Zeb, and all 3 kids, walking down aisle after aisle in search of the proverbial manna, and I realize that people might actually think that I don’t have 3 children, but that I am the mother of FOUR! But can you imagine, me a mom of a teenager!!? This might run through people’s minds! insanity. And sooner than I think I WILL be the mother of a teenager. Hang on, I need to go get some alcohol before I can finish this post . . .
Then it got my mind turning and I wonder how much longer I can shop at Forever 21. I’m not 21 anymore. I’m almost not even in my twenties anymore. At what age is shopping at Forever 21 a no-no? I just thought as long as I looked like I was young, I could be young. No. Doesn’t really work like that. Then you’re just some old lady trying to wear clothes and act like you’re from a different generation than you really are. But the fact of the matter is that I am almost THIRTY. Which is now old to everyone younger than myself.
I’m not really sure what 30 feels like, but I didn’t imagine 30 feeling like this. I imagined I would feel extremely grown up and no longer enjoy things like dancing in the shower, eating dessert before dinner, turning up the radio in the car just a little bit too loud. But I don’t. I feel like I did 5 years ago, 10 years ago. I kind of feel the exact same. Maybe with a little more patience and a few extra kids running around, but I don’t feel any different. Then I realized that this is what it’s like to talk to people who are 70 and 80 years old who say that their mind and their heart is exactly what it was 30 and 40 years ago, that time just passes them by. I kind of feel like time is passing me by. I never believed I would be old. But maybe that’s the narcissistic tendencies that come with being young.
Okay, back to things I learned.
I learned that I like The Strokes, much to Aaron’s chagrin. He’s not such a fan. But Zeb played them every single day, and they grew on me. And my love for Kings of Leon solidified. Oh, don’t even get me started on MGMT. Although I have loved them for awhile, I never sat and watched You Tube videos of them playing live. And bandana wearing guy, pretty darn cute. Never knew that before.
I learned Disneyland in the rain is fun. I remembered that there’s more rides there than It’s a Small World and Jungle Cruise. I remember I like roller coasters and I still scream my head off. Poor dude next to me didn’t get to use the handle in Tower of Terror. Sorry whoever you are out there, but you should know not to sit on the end and expect to get to use the one handle when you sit next to a girl.
Scary movies make me nervous and sweaty. Sorry, TMI? But it’s true, I don’t like scary movies, thus making me nervous, and once my nerves get frenzied, I start to perspire.
Oh, another reason I’m old. I feel like I am going to die. Staying up to a 17 year old’s bedtime, yet still having to wake up to my 3, 5, and 7 year olds’ middle of the night pee breaks, nightmares, and wake up times. Yeah. Not smart. I definitely realize that I cannot handle 2 weeks straight of 5-6 hours of sleep each night. I probably shouldn’t have indulged the nightly movies that began at 10pm, followed by some tivo, but I also realized that I’m a sucker. Easily swayed and convinced I did not need those extra superfluous hours of sleep.
Movie theaters in the middle of the day are still fantastic. And cheaper. Oh, and I still laugh out loud at previews.
I was informed by my brother in law that my kids are spoiled because they don’t have enough chores. And this is true. Spoiled? No. But not enough chores? Yes. But I take this with a grain of salt coming from someone who I laundered all their clothes and washed all their dishes for 2 weeks straight. Again, I realize I’m a sucker and believe that it’s easier to just do it myself than have to show someone how to use the washing machine or wait for my children to actually take their dirty clothes and walk them 9 yards to the nearest hamper. However, he did take the trash out when asked.
I learned that boys will be boys. Always. And if you don’t believe me I have video of Aaron and his brother wrestling on my kitchen floor. Aaron still has a busted knee and is covered in bruises. His double jointedness and weight was definitely on his side, although he is experiencing the full ramifications of his maneuvers. All it took was one remark and one pull up too many by his littlest brother and they were slamming each other into the limestone. We all have decided that we would like to see Uncle Judah and Aaron wrestle next. My money is on Judah, sorry babe.
I learned a ton of new vocabulary words (which again, please see the paragraphs above regarding being old).
I am thankful I never had a younger brother. They can be quite irritating and they tease you a lot. And they really don’t care that you just spent 45 minutes blow drying your hair, especially when they have water on their hands and they are within 4 feet of you.
I learned some new tricks on my iphone, for instance, how to change your wallpaper to this.
Calm it down people, Aaron is cool with Ryan Reynolds’ abs being my wallpaper under one condition: when I am in public I tell people that they are my husbands’ abs.
and for some reason I can’t take a photo without making a thumbs up.
I learned moms will always be moms, and not just my mom. But they all worry about their kids and would like to talk to them daily when they are not at home. Gail, just want to put it out there that he got every single one of your messages. And he got those messages within a few hours of you leaving them. Just had to clear my name there so there’s no confusion.
I learned that the kids have not given up their notion to have another sibling. I think having an extra roommate for the boys and an extra player in their games did not help convince them that our family will not be expanding. Unfortunately they don’t realize that another sibling will not play football with them or attend their tea parties, but will drool and slobber on all their toys, grab their hair by the fistfuls, and scream really loud in the car. The night Zeb left Greta told me as I was getting her ready for bed that “Uncle Zeb will be back next week”. I told her no that he was going home to his mom and dad and her cousin Silas, but he’ll be back another time. She looked at me held her forefinger and thumb about a centimeter apart and said, “no mama. I told Uncle Zeb he’d have to come back in this much”.
So just a recap. Disneyland is still fun, as are movies when the sun is still shining, there’s a lot of music I have never heard of , yeast is necessary to make bread which is necessary to make caramel rolls, moms and boys don’t change, my kids aren’t convinced I’m barren, and yet I am old.
