healthy competition

like everything else in my house, report card day is a competition.......its a good one, but when i say its serious - boy is it!  i guess i always assumed that because of the age gap between josh and the older boys, he wouldn't really succumb to this....but i was wrong - wrong, wrong, wrong.....and not just about grades.  my three kids compete with each other about EVERYTHING!  and for the most part they are nice about it (i did say for the most part right?), but it AMAZES me that there is no allowance given....for age, difficulty of classes - NOTHING!  we actually had to get out jake's old PSAT scores when luke got his this year to compare them.....and even though they recognize that their STRENGTHS are in different areas - the report card is still a big fat competition!  and im actually not complaining....why would i?  i do worry some that they will all have ulcers when they are older, but i love that they challenge each other academically.....and they do!  of course, they challenge each other in everything else too - and the fact that josh can do ridiculously difficult tricks on the trampoline earns him NO POINTS, because in ONE BOUNCE he's just okay - even though he's 8 inches shorter.....no quarter given in the bayer household!!  and this is a game that they play pretty much every night!! i know its tough on josh, but he holds his own....and as a 3rd child myself - he'll get his eventually :)

the thing i love the most about all of it, is that they are such a UNIT....even though they fight (alot), when it comes right down to it, the 3 of them are a TEAM!  they take care of each other, sometimes begrudgingly, but they do it!  they find common ground in their competitiveness and their humor - and of course in lacrosse.....and they also find common ground in  KNOWING THINGS......myth busters, and guiness book of world records - and how things are made - and national geographic....they all like to know stuff - even though its different stuff - its still something that bonds them together....

one of my favorite obscure bayer fact stories.....we are sitting in the kitchen one day, crowded around the breakfast bar, as usual - and josh says..."did you know that the playpus is the only poisonous mammal?"  to which jake says "you are crazy....there's no way platypus are poisonous!"....thus ensues a debate between the 3 of them - josh INSISTING he is right, jake insisting he's crazy - and luke of course looks it up.....and guess what?  platypi have a spur on their back foot that has venom in it...and is poisonous to humans!!  so josh is DANCING around the kitchen - and jake is imitating a ridiculous kicking motion with his leg and asking what good a left leg spur does anyone - luke is just laughing and laughing!!  these are the moments that make my family so freaking funny!  but i appreciate so much that they are CURIOUS, and smart, and accepting of each other!!  of course it made sense for josh to know that because he is the ANIMAL guy....it doesnt matter that he is only 11.....just like luke is the science guy - got a myth buster question - luke's your boy......and jake is your debator.....that's why its funny that he took the time to argue with josh - its what he does - and its fun for him.....and for me - you know how i love an argument :)

To repeat what others have said, requires education,

 to challenge it, requires brains.- Mary Pettibone Poole

having sat thru a bunch of the florida primary nonsense tonight (yes, it always comes back to politics), i realized that it could be we just like a good fight.....there's no question that every time one of the candidates gets COMBATIVE, he gains momentum....look at us as a culture - we LOVE boxing, and mixed martial arts.....football and hockey - generally anything where people try to physically harm someone.....i think politics has turned into our MENTAL mixed martial arts!!

“Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it.” - BRUCE LEE  i might be crazy but that sounds an awful lot like what is going on in our primary, right?

i'd like to think that we are smarter than this, but i dont think so.....i think we treat politics like our latest reality show - we only watch it when its got some JUICE.....because really how many times can you hear someone drone on about the ECONOMY?  but open marriage? now there's something you can sink your teeth into!!  we are SO CRAZY!!  but i honestly am at the point where i BELIEVE that our current political mess, stems from the kind of HEALTHY argument and debate i see in my house.....arguments are good - they show ideas and solutions from different sides - they can help achieve perspective - and maybe eventually bring everyone over onto the same page.....not always, but sometimes.  i think what has happened over time, is that we have slid down the slippery slope from healthy argument to all out BLOODBATH.....it's like both sides are just trying to get things done to SAY THEY CAN.....and strike sparks off of each other to draw attention......  we want a FIGHTER - and apparently the primary process has become the process by which we determine who can give and take the most hits, and still stay standing!!  it's pretty f'd up, but at least it FINALLY makes sense to me!! 

who knew report card day would lead to this kind of revelation??