The Facts Of Life...

At some point it is guaranteed if you have children they will do something that will cause you to go through a few stages of emotions with in a very short time frame.... 1st stage is shock, 2nd stage anger ( Very important to employ all calming skills known at this moment, even better if said child is not home) 3rd frustration, 4th confusion and 5th this one take a bit longer to get too... eventually you will find humor in the situation.
So on Halloween I was doing laundry and even being nice enough to put away my 7 year old boys laundry.... I went with his basket of folded clothing to put them in his dresser when what awaited my was quite shocking.... I reached for his drawer and looked down to see his name so neatly carved across the drawer front not once but multiple times. Lucky for the boy he was at a friends home playing because the anger stage came quite quickly..... I was sure he should be grounded for life. So I called my husband in and sent my daughter to retrieve him from his friends home. For my husband the shock stage lasted much longer than mine. Luckily for my boy by the time he entered the door way the anger stage was phasing to the frustration phase. So with my husband there to help me manage my anger stage we brought him in to talk to him. We started prying for information on what his tool of choice for carving had been... He started out with telling us it was a half of a plastic egg (Somehow mom and dad just didn't buy that and egg was quickly destroyed) Then the realization that mom and dad meant business kicked in and he began to tell his story. His story involved a needle found on the ground at school and brought home. You can imagine the concern I felt of him finding a needle of unknown origin and bringing it home. We pressed further for a description and location of the needle. He then informed us it was red and shaped like a black widow. (We finally figured out he meant like an hour glass) It was a thumb tack. So then The next stage of confusion kicked in... While I was angry and frustrated that he had perpetrated such an act, I was worried that he did not see the danger in picking up a needle or thumbtack and playing with it. Now we were faced with the dilema of how to teach him that he should never pick up sharp objects and never deface his furniture... what punishment fits that type of behavior. The thought of grounding him forever did cross my mind... as did making sure Santa did not bring him any toys this Christmas but give mommy and daddy money instead to replace and or repair the dresser also crossed my mind. When I explained to him that it would take an entire Christmas worth of toys to replace something like a dresser the boy crumpled in tears. So we told him that he would be helping daddy sand and re stain the dresser (Which in his mind is a bit fun so further punishment would be necessary) and that he would have to do things to help pay for the time it took daddy to complete such a project (I also added some time grounded from friends just to drive the point home).
So now that the anger phase is gone I still have a bit of the Frustration phase lingering but I am starting to see the final phase of humor. This is one of those things every parent must go through and one that I will tell stories of for the rest of my life and his.... Crazy boy. I really thought by 7 we would be past this phase... but not so. So perhaps if... no when a situation like this happens to you, remembering this five stage process will help you through... just remember every one with children must pass through this part of life process some mulitple times.

Gone are the gorgeous locks....

Okay So I am sad to admit I finally caved to the pressure from my husband and my mother to tame those beautiful curls on my baby boys lovely little head. Everything was going splendid until my Step Grandfather referred to my little boy as "Daddy's little girl"... And that was the beginning of the end. I should take some consolation in the fact that I got away with it until he was 14 months old. Sadly the picture above does not do those lovely curls justice. His hair had been combed through at this point.

Surprisingly he did not lose it when she squirted him with the water. The curls are going...

No Tears or crying from baby??? Even though Mommy felt like crying. Going.......

And their gone :-( . Mommy is having a hard time letting go of those cute curls and having her baby growing up faster than she is ready.

Baby doesn't seem to mind at all. However it took 5 adults and two siblings to help contain baby so we could tame those beautiful curls. Well Daddy is happy and baby doesn't mind... so I think mommy will survive.

Back to the Grind

And so it begins again... School starts, work starts and the overwhelming feeling of to much to do and not enough time becomes amplified. So I know that every mother feels this way. At least the ones that are willing to be honest.
I am sad to say... my children start school... I even admit this while the boy is beating Chica over the head with the bag to the baby toys and arguing with her right behind me. I must be certifiable, but I am sad. They do drive me crazy at home on a regular basis, however they are my kidlets and I like having them close to me. I miss them when they are at school almost 8 hours a day 5 days a week. It seems odd to me to have my small (Relatively speaking) Children gone for most of the day instead of home with me. I guess I need to look at the upside to this... I will have more one on one with Bubbo until the new one gets here.
I guess that is another topic I needed blog... I know I am a little delayed but we are going to be having a baby at the end of January. It came as a bit of a surprise to us. It took us so long to get pregnant with Bubbo that we figured we had better start trying a little sooner rather than later

What happened??

What happened? I have been in a bit of denial lately. I believe this finally snapped me out of it.
My baby boy just turned one.... actually he turned one at the end of last month. Now with my other children I have thrown a big birthday party, inviting family and friends making the cakes myself etc. With Bubbo's birthday approaching I think I was trying to ignore it.
I was going to have a family birthday party when everything the world began conspiring against me. My poor mother in law fell a couple days before the birthday celebration. She broke her hip and ended up in the hospital. She had to have surgery and will be out for weeks. Approximately the same time I received a phone call from my mother telling me my Grandmother had passed unexpectedly in the night. Sadly she lives on the other side of the country and tickets were around $650 round trip. There is no way I could afford to fly my family of 5 out there for the funeral. And my option of leaving my children with my in laws so I could go alone was not available. So I helped my parents get ready for their trip and dropped them off at the airport.
Considering that my parents were gone, my husbands parents were tied up and I was dealing with the loss of my grandmother.... Celebrating my sons birthday was pushed to the way side. Emotionally I don't think it bothered me too much... I was not ready to admit that my baby had turned one. When did he grow up? I look at pictures of him as a baby and wondered how he changed so quickly in front of my eyes without me seeing how much he has grown. Within days of his 1st birthday he decided to prove how much he was growing up by taking he first steps.
Days passed and I began to realize that the dreams of the big first birthday party I had imagined for him was just not going to happen. So I finally admitted I had failed as super mom (at least go round) and in a snap decision while planning the 4th of July (Note when I say the planning..it was only an hour before my parents plane landed so about 4:00pm on the 4th of July)... I was at the store and in utter defeat purchased a sad walmart birthday cake and a smaller cake for him to have for his own. The baby boys birthday party consisted of his immediate family, My parents and my brother and his wife. We sang happy birthday and he had his first cake which despite it being thrown together with a pathetic excuse for a cake turned out just as fun as it would have been . Because of the last minute planning we went without presents. At least he got to see fireworks for the very first time.
So there it is the sad excuse for a birthday party. The most I can hope is that he will never remember and perhaps I can make it up next year.

In the end... I feel increadibly blessed that the baby boy is here and healthy. A year ago we were in the hospital with a baby boy... scared out of our minds. Unsure of the future, not knowing what was wrong and not knowing if he would make it. He did our Father in Heavan has blessed us and now a year later he is a wonderful Healthy baby boy. I can not imagine not having him here, part of our family, part of our life. He is amazing and I am grateful.

I'm terrible.

Okay- So I am really awful at this blogging thing. I will try and do better. Time -well, there is just not enough of it. Time flies when you are having fun... Lately time flies even when your not.
Since it has been a while (that is an understatement) I will give you a quick update and go from there. Chica and boy have one month of school left. Now, normally I would be dreading them being home all day (they tend to bicker a lot) but this year has been a rough one. The boy is in kindergarten and I have been taking them to their old school since we moved, I wanted them to be able to finish up the year. Problem with this is.... It takes me twenty minutes to get there. I have to drive there to drop them off in the morning, pick the boy up mid day and then again to pick up the Chica at the end of school. So you can only imagine the amount of time I spend packing up the kidlets driving back and forth and the tremendous mileage and gas bill it creates. I am exhausted and feeling extremely done. I am really looking forward to spending some time at home. Unfortunately due to my schedule my work at home has suffered. My home projects are sadly neglected.
The hubby has been spending some time out of town and I am feeling tired of responsibilities by my self. I look back at my life now and wonder how I ever survived 17 months with out him. I suppose you do what you have to do. After this little trip he will be home for a while.
I have not had time for any fun, cute little projects... I am hoping to take some up when my schedule changes.
Chica is turning 9 in a couple of days. When does it happen? When do they go from needing you constantly to thinking you know nothing? Yesterday she was a baby snuggled in my arms refusing to let me put her down (not that I minded too much.) Now she is steps away from being a teenager and I don't feel ready.
On top of this Bubbo baby turns one at the end of this month. I really enjoy the stage he is at now. He still needs me. His personality shows more every day. The only part I can't figure out is why at almost one, he is still not sleeping through the night. I forgot what it was like to get a decent nights sleep. Any help here?
So this is my life in a nutshell. Always running, trying to keep up with constant change. I am hoping to keep this updated more frequently. Until the next time... have a good one.

In a funk

So I am sorry it has been a while since I have posted (Since I don't have many readers it is more sorry to myself) I have been in a funk lately that I can't quite shake. It doesn't help that I am sick. I have the "Icky Ewws" as my daughter would say. She even has a song for it, but that's another post. I also have a sick chica, sick boy and worst of all sick bubbo. I have still not figured out why Mothers are allowed to get sick. How is it that we are supposed to take care of everyone else (Especially when they are sick) when we can barely get out of bed. So this week I have to admit I am a failure as a fabulous mother and my kiddos would agree. It frustrates me that I have no patients when I am sick. It also is irritating that it takes me 10 times longer to get better because I can't just lay in bed and rest. It frustrates the hubby too. He doesn't seem to understand the getting sick thing very well... He was born naturally healthy. He hardly ever gets sick except once a quarter or so and when he does he goes to the bedroom turns off the lights shuts the door lays in bed and doesn't move for a day (Note that he is not bothered by anyone during this time) Then the next day he wakes up feeling almost as good as new and off he goes. I wish I knew how to do that. Until then everyone in my little family suffers.