Woolsey Family Chronicles

Ava continues to keep us on our toes. Most the time we don’t know what to do with her, but we do our very best, that is for sure. Her recent passion is spelling. She spells everything. When we get in the car Ava usually says to me, “mom, can we do some spelling? This means that I think of words and she needs to spell them. She spells most words correctly. She can spell Mississippi forwards and backwards. Another one of Ava’s less admirable passions these days is lying. She likes to tell me stories about anything and everything, and she will go to great lengths to lie in order to get out of trouble. She will lie about lying; it is a tangled web she weaves. I know it is just a phase but I am beginning to take it seriously. Today Ava spent the afternoon hanging out by herself in her room as punishment for lying. Hanging out in her room by herself is Ava’s worst nightmare. We all know by now what a social butterfly Ava is and that she does not like to be by herself when there are social opportunities to be had. While Ava was banned to her bedroom I was in the front yard and the little kids were pushing their lawnmowers, strollers and bikes to the edge of the drop off of our very steep driveway for the sole purpose of driving me to the edge of sanity. All the while Ava was at the second story window knocking on it and waving emphatically at us from her “prison quarters”.

I have been taking the kids, the triple threat that is, to Tumble Time Gymnastics by myself on Wednesdays because I don’t have a nanny on that day anymore. We have our very own class that they opened up just for the Woolsey triplets, which has been really great. This last week, though, a mom and dad brought their 2 year old son to “our” class. I was quite proud of myself as the mothership and my three precious cargo for managing to get from the parking lot through the front door safely, with all of them holding hands with each other. It was definitely one of the cutest things I have seen in a while, and a proud mommy moment. So, the first thing the dad of the 2 year old says to me upon inspection of my situation is “triplets?” Yep, I say. “Ohhhhhh, I’m soooo sorry.” I have heard this strange insult to my wonderful children a few times now and to that I always say “oh you shouldn’t be sorry because they are just the most wonderful kids.”

Now I have heard a few rude things since conceiving triplets, most of which I have listed on this blog before. My personal favorites are “that is my worst nightmare” and “I would kill myself.” The “I’m so sorry” comment is one that always catches me off guard. You feel sorry for me? Okay, I can understand thinking that, but saying it out loud? Really? Yet, there was an irony in his comment that I came to realize after the hour gymnastics class was up. I was by myself with the three and my three kids did everything that was asked of them. Not one of the ever uttered one complaint and were happy fully participating gymnasts. I easily managed the three of them through the obstacle courses, then lined them up on the bench and put their shoes, socks and sweaters on and ushered them out of the door. Meanwhile, it took mom and dad to manage their unruly 2 year old who only seemed to know how to say one word very loudly, and this word he abused . . . NO! He threw tantrums when he was asked to do something he didn’t want to do, he screamed at the top of his lungs at random. At one point his mom muttered under her breath, “this is embarrassing.” So, as it turns out, I am the one who should have told them I felt sorry for them. Humph.

Today I took my boy Pres to the train museum with Molly and Ronin. Preston spent most of the time running back and forth on the train as fast as he could. He loved it. Then we went to the top level where there are Thomas the Train tables set up and all the kids can play. Preston collected all the trains he could find on this massive table and lined them up in a row, and then strong-armed anyone who tried to take one of the trains from his newly formed collection. It was a mommy/son day and I know that we all thoroughly enjoyed it.

Ava-ism:

Did you know that there are three people watching us all the time?

Who?

Jesus, God and Santa Claus

Until next time, the mothership is signing off.