Running the Boys

I talked to one of my sisters in Maine today. Her 8-year-old daughter is not enjoying school this year because she is in a class with only one other girl and something like 15 boys. The boys are rambunctious and wild and won't settle down. The teacher spends most of her time trying to maintain order. One of the things that annoys my sister the most is that the teacher punishes the class by keeping them in for recess. In other words, the teacher forgoes the one opportunity she has for letting the kids blow off steam.

Tab and I have realized that our own boys need the chance to run around and act a little crazy every day. With the bad weather we've had these past few months, it has been harder to get out for our usual long walk around the neighborhood. Our weekend visits to the playground have virtually ceased. If the boys don't get their exercise, they start climbing the walls...literally. This morning I caught Stephen descending the stairway on the outside of the banister, hanging on to the rails as though he were on the monkey bars.

Although the weather had warmed up a bit, there is still a lot of wet slushy snow on the ground and lots of mud, precluding any outdoor play. To give the boys a chance to exercise, Tab took them to Romp Around, a local indoor playground. They came home a few hours later, sweaty, tired, happy, and relaxed. And I enjoyed a quiet house for part of the afternoon.

One of the reasons why we wanted to let the boys burn off some energy today was that we were invited to my grandmother's house for my uncle's birthday party tonight. This is the second family gathering to be held at her house since my grandmother died last August. With my aunts and uncle and cousins there, talking and laughing as we always do when we are together, it felt as though Nana was there with us in spirit.

My 15-year-old cousin Devin was there. The boys, especially Daniel, idolize Devin as a kind of big brother figure. He obliged by pretending to be a monster, and they pounced on him. Then he chased them around the house. I watched the three small males and one large one galumphing around my grandmother's living room, narrowly missing tables full of knicknacks and lit candles. Boys!

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