Of Mothers, Brothers, and Others

My posse was with me on Mother's Day for breakfast at our house and since this entire day was supposedly about me and for me I tossed this idea out for breakfast table conversation:

Me: I want you all to take a few minutes out of your busy lives and tell their favorite memory about me?

If you know me, that is so me.

Son 26: Remember the time you had Leo put down?

Me: That's low.

Son 26: All he did was steal a piece of pizza.

Me: He stole it out of your brother's mouth.

Son 26: It was a Pizza Hut Stuffed Crust Pizza, remember?

Me: It was in your brother's mouth.

Yes, I did have Leo put down. The vet said I should do it. He stole pizza right out of someone's mouth!

Son 19: Me next. Remember when you had Thor put down?

Me: Come on, that one really hurt.

Thor was my most favoritest dog ever. He was a hundred and ten pound Rottweiler/Mastiff mix. He had a hip replacement when he was a pup, ended up in rescue, found us, out grew his false hip, and was in a tremendous amount of pain.

See, this is what happens when you have boys. It is as old as Monkey See, Monkey Do. The older one leads,the second one follows suit. And if the younger one can't follow suit, he simply ups the ante.

By this time we are laughing hysterically and wiping away tears caused by the antics of these two older brothers as they tried to out do each other with their fond, fond memories.

Here's the real kicker though, and none of us saw this coming.

Son 7 (who has only been with us two years and never knew Leo or Thor): Remember when you had Granny Cat put down?

Oh my gosh, my sides are splitting and my gut aches from laughing so much. I expected it from the older two, I invited them to bring it on. Together they grew up with me, one for almost two decades and the other for over a quarter of a century. I expected me to rub off on them.

These are the same two boys who thought it would be a great idea to decorate their sister's stone at the cemetery for Halloween. They were seven and fourteen at the time and it was our first Halloween without Madeleine. I was busy making a wreath for Christmas with a cute little teddy bear, plaid ribbon, and couple of jingle bells.

"Why are you working on a Christmas wreath when it isn't even Halloween," they asked. "Because everything is on sale right now, and I want to make it bright, cheery, kind of unexpected for this coming winter," I replied.

About an hour later they brought me a baggie full of their money and asked if Halloween decorations were on sale, too. I told them it was a very good sale because it was the last weekend before Halloween. I let them walk the block and a half to the craft store and they came home with their stash.

They had bought an odd assortment of doll arms that they wanted to stick out of the dirt at their sister's place (that's what we called it) in the cemetery. They begged me to let them decorate her place because she was a kid and it would be "cheery and unexpected." They could not understand why I wouldn't let them put out their decorations. I had a difficult time explaining to them that even though people decorate their homes with skeletons and body parts and hands coming out of a pumpking, well the cemetary wasn't really the place to do decorate with chubby little doll arms.

Anyway, we are a quirky crew with an offbeat sense of humor. All of us. It is what holds us together, our ability to laugh at ourselves and find humor in the difficult. We are the ultimate blended family, an eclectic assortment ... this family of mine. Some of my children were born into this humor, others picked it up through osmosis.