Doo deloo doo
Doo deloo doo doo
This is the tune that goes through my head in the couple of hours between supper and the kids’ bedtime. That and the classic, “It’s the end of the world as we know it”. Except I don’t feel so fine.
During the day there are meltdowns for various reasons. Low blood sugar, woke up early, my brother has a toy that I want and NO OTHER TOY ON EARTH WILL DO. You know, the usual when it comes to preschoolers.
There are also many high moments during the day. The times when you all get the giggles over something funny (or someone farted), your son tells you that you’re “cute”, or your other son walks onto the deck and hands you these:
I know. He’s a keeper…most of the time. Graham brought me a flower too, but didn’t want his picture taken. I tried, but he covered his face and said, “I TOLD YOU not to take my picture!” Way to veto the sweet gesture, buddy.
That final two-hour period before bedtime is what will likely be the death of me though. Everyone’s tired, Honey and I included. We’ve been joking lately about paying someone to deal with the munchkins for those two crazy hours. It would be worth every single cent. The boys go from laughing hysterically together to fighting over who gets to do things FIRST. It’s a competition as to who gets out of the bath first, who comes downstairs first, who gets their pyjamas on first, who eats their bedtime snack first.
The kid who “wins” can be heard taunting the other with the phrase, “I won the snack race” to the tune of “Nana, Nana, Poo, Poo” while the other one is wailing like their world has come crashing down around them. I should get THAT on video and post it. Talk about effective contraception.
Thankfully, most days Honey and I can just look at each other, smile, and say to each other, “We did this to ourselves. On purpose.” We can also be heard asking each other what time it is, with the standard response of “Are you SURE that only five minutes has passed? IT FEELS LIKE AN HOUR!”
Then the kids are finally in bed and we can sit and reflect on the good parts of the day without the distraction of all of that screaming going on. I need to sit here and document how much I believe that they are worth it, despite the melting down that happens. Because when I’m in the midst of the drama, the thoughts running through my head aren’t usually along the lines of “you’re so CUTE when you throw your head back and wail like that”.
I know. Bad Mommy. But they’re still alive. And so am I. The warm and fuzzy feelings are returning…helped along by how sweet they look while they are sleeping. And how sweet they were to bring me blossoms. Come morning I’ll be ready to go through the whole routine all over again.
I’m getting my bum up in the air while on my tummy! Watch out Mommy!
I woke up at 5 am today, and I was SO! Happy! What’s that? Was Mommy happy? Let me ask her….
Oh. She says, “Not so much”.
This is another post about my wonderful Internet friend, Brenda (aka Secret Agent Josephine). If you’re tired of hearing me wax poetic about her, then you’re not welcome here anymore.
Kidding! This is a great story, so stick around.
You all know that this great woman offered to make me a banner (and then sent me five different ones). She then turned her creative genius up a notch and now has a monthly contest to give away a free banner. See her site for the details. I don’t know how she picks the winner, but here’s a tip – she likes Starbucks.
On her site, she has a little “I Spy” graphic. What she does is highlight cool stuff she finds at Amazon.com. (Does that second period look weird, or is it just me?) Anyhow, one day she had highlighted this little tea set:
How cute is THAT? So cute. She then had some sweet reader send one to Baby Bug. I sat here coveting (sorry, God). I wanted one for Emily. It wasn’t expensive, but Emily isn’t quite at the “tea party” stage. I debated back and forth in my mind for about a week.
“She doesn’t need it yet. Wait until her first birthday.”
“But it’s so CUTE. And it’s tin- it won’t break!”
“But then SAJ will think you’re a stalker. Find another one.”
“This set is PERFECT. No other set on Earth WILL EVER COMPARE!”
Oh, the drama that goes on in my mind. You really have no idea. I finally brought it up with Honey, and he told me to just get it already and stop having conversations with myself.
I clicked through SAJ’s site to Amazon and saw that the set was on sale for $8.90. Score! I added the set to my cart…only to get to the checkout and discover that they don’t ship to Canada. OF COURSE they don’t. Sometimes online shopping bites when you’re Canadian, eh?
I checked out Amazon.ca, but they didn’t carry it. I Googled the set on Canadian websites and found one for $19.99 plus $9.99 shipping. A little pricey for my blood. I emailed SAJ to bemoan the shopping options in Canada. She wrote back and told me to just ship it to her and she’d mail it to me. Did I mention that she ROCKS? If I could afford it, I’d buy her her very own Starbucks.
After supper tonight, Matthew and the boys went on another quad adventure. I put Emily in the stroller and we walked down to the mailboxes. The set is here! I raced home and cracked open the package. IT’S EVEN BETTER IN REAL LIFE.
Here’s Emily proving that she has a thing or two to learn about proper cup holding:
Here we are doing “Cheers!” Look at her sweet smile:
The great thing about this age is that I have put the set back in the box and she doesn’t even know that I took it away from her. With the boys that would. not. fly. I can’t wait to see her playing with it with all of her cute little girlfriends. I hope I get to have tea parties with her too. Girls are so much fun! Wheeeee!
I will keep it in the box until her first birthday…though I may have to crack out out the next time I have my girlfriends over.
Tea party, anyone?
Usually when I do a post about the kids, it’s because they have done something funny, or crazy, or smart, or they are just driving me a little NUTS, and I come on here and try to put a humorous spin on it. Today I’m feeling all lovey and *squishy* about my kidlets, so if that ain’t your thing, you can stop reading now.
First of all, I want to make it clear that no matter how long, and hard, and tough a day may be with them, I would not have my life be any other way. At the end of even the craziest day, Matthew and I will sit back and recount the things that the kids said or did and we get a good chuckle out of it all. My kids may be BUSY, but they’re not bratty, or awful, or anything along those lines. They really are good kids. Kids who say “please” and “thank you” and “sorry” and “Love you, Mommy!” and “You’re so very beautiful”. They also say “No” and “That’s not a good idea” and “I’m sorry, but I can’t pick up my toys right now”, but in light of the rest of the day those are only minor infractions.
My main reason for starting to blog almost two years ago was to document our daily lives. There is so much that happens in a day, and each post is but a snippet of the greater picture. I want to document that bigger picture. I want it all caught on film, and in print because my memory ain’t so great. Sometimes I wish I could bug our house with video cameras everywhere so that twenty years from now I can go back and see everything.
There are moments during a day that while they are happening, I wish that I could somehow magically record them with some special camera in my brain. Moments where the kids look at me and smile with their eyes. If you have kids, you know “The Smile”. It’s the smile that says, “I love you” and “You are my world” and “I don’t want to be any other place than right here, right now”.
But my kids are growing up. Fast. Graham starts Kindergarten in September. He has friends at Pre-school that I don’t really know, but who are important to his world. I am no longer the one and only girl in his life. As he gets older, I know I’m going to get pushed aside for some sweet thing, and I will be bumped to a lower ranking. That sucks.
When the kids are all grown and gone, I want to be able to remember the moments of today. I know that I will have hazy memories, but I want to remember The Smile. I want to feel Emily’s soft and fuzzy head against my cheek. I want to remember what it felt like to carry Nathan on my hip and have him nuzzle into my neck. I want to be able to hold onto each and every moment.
I know I can’t. To try to is futile. But I will hold onto what I can, by documenting how I’m feeling. By detailing our daily adventures. By taking many, many pictures.
I have been told that the memories of today will only be built upon by the memories of tomorrow. I’m sure that those memories will be just as great, if not greater. They have to be.
I’m just not ready for these memories to fade yet.
“Going Green” seems to be the new, um, black these days. I personally think it’s wonderful that being environmentally friendly is so in vogue. Maybe the planet will still be able to sustain human life when our kids are grown. I can dream.
I was sitting on the deck this weekend and reading a magazine that had an article discussing different things we can incorporate into our daily lives to make the world a better place. (Kind of ironic that a magazine was spouting this, since they jam them so full of paper subscription notices, etc. Never mind the fact that you have to recycle the magazine after you read it). Since it was Earth Day and all, I thought I would take a hard look at what we do around here and see if I am as “green” as I think I am.
- Recycling. We recycle most things that are recyclable. It can be a pain because we have to cart everything into the recycling depot ourselves. It’s worth it for all of the cash we get back from my empty pop bottles. If I really wanted to be proactive I could not by any Diet Coke at all, but we all know that’s only going to happen WHEN I DIE.
- Light bulbs. It is recommended that you buy those pricey energy-efficient ones (you know – those curly bulbs) to replace the inexpensive regular ones. I have a better idea, which not only saves energy, but reduces costs. We won’t replace the old bulbs once they burn out. The kids can just run around willy nilly in the dark. Maybe we’ll even give them some scissors to run with just to make things interesting.
- Using environmentally friendly cleaning supplies. I’ve been trying some of these lately, and that’s a good thing. I’m doing something else to improve on this one. I don’t clean more than once a month. Once the cobwebs start forming is a sign that it’s time to dust. I won’t even tell you what signs my bathrooms are giving me. Just think – less cleaning products being washed down the drain. Look at me go.
- Disposable diapers. We use them. I had full intentions of using cloth diapers, but that was before I actually had kids. I even had a friend give me a stash of unused cloth diapers that had been given to her, but we were too
lazygrossed out to actually use them. We’re still doing our part, though. I leave the kids in their diapers until they are so full of pee that either a) they explode or b) the fasteners give way. Some may call it neglect. I prefer to see it as just doing my part to lower our waste (waste! ha!).
Not only am I reducing waste, I’m conserving both energy (mine) and money. What was Kermit talking about when he said “It ain’t easy being green”? I never would have guessed that mediocrity could be so rewarding.
I’ve been up quite late for a bunch of nights having “me” time/getting stuff done. Next Monday, I start my first 10-week teaching contract since Emily was born. I have a “To Do” list about a mile long. There’s no hope in, um, heck of it getting done, but I’m going to go down fighting. Needless to say, I’m tired. Nothing new.
My kids decided to wake up at 5:30 this morning. Not all of them, but it only takes one of them to make me have to get out of bed. I’m not naming names. OK, I am.
GRAHAM! PLEASE SLEEP IN TOMORROW! You owe me.
So. I was extra tired, and the kids were extra whiny. Today was a day where Honey was gone all day on a road trip, which only happens every four months or so. Figures. Flying solo, I was. I know many of you do it daily, and I salute you. I suck at it.
Then, around noon, my throat started getting sore.
Awesome.
So. I’m extra tired, the kids were whiny, Honey was gone, and now I was feeling sick. Let’s just say I wasn’t really on my game today. That could be one of the biggest understatements I’ve ever made.
When Honey got home he sent me up to have a bath and took over the kids. I plan on spending the rest of the evening on the couch. He’s da best. I’m hoping it’s just a case of “over-tired” and not a case of “actually getting sick”. I’m also hoping an early bedtime by yours truly nips whatever it is in the bud.
But you don’t care about me and my whining. No! You just come here to see my cute kids. At least my Mom does. Hi Mom!
These children of mine may have moments of whininess but they also say things like, “Mommy, I love you so so so so SO MUCH” and give me hugs and kisses. They always seem to do those things right before I completely lose it. Good strategy on their part. Shows they’ve got brains as well as beauty.
Speaking of beauty…
Peace out, dudes. The couch is calling my name.
