Never A Dull Moment

It was 5 minutes before we had to leave for the bus stop.  No one was even close to ready and I was in the bathroom with Sweet Pea.  Of course, this was the moment that Little Man barges into the bathroom declaring he has to poop.  I shoo him upstairs to use the kids bathroom.  A few minutes later Peanut barges in and tells me he has to pee.  I shoo him upstairs and tell him to use my bathroom.  It is almost a certainty that when we are running late everyone will need to use the potty at the exact same time.  Shortly after all of the chaos of potty declarations I hear yelling coming from upstairs.  I run up to investigate and Little Man is yelling that Peanut has peed on him.  Sure enough, I find Little Man sitting on the potty doing his business with Peanut standing in front of him with his pants around his ankles and Little Man's legs are dripping with pee.  I grabbed up Peanut ran him to my bathroom and had him finish, I stripped Little Man down, cleaned him up and got him new clothes, ran everyone back downstairs to get shoes, coats, hats, backpacks and we missed the bus.  So I drove Little Man to school and dropped him off and then took the little ones to the soft playroom.  I didn't stop to ask Peanut what he was thinking when he peed on Little Man - I can only imagine he either 1. didn't notice Little Man because sometimes he is in a world all of his own or 2. just couldn't wait and forgot there was another bathroom option or 3. thought his aim was so great that he could get it in between Little Man's legs while he sat on the potty.  I couldn't bring myself to ask, I just was to frightened of the answer.

Are you laughing and crying at the same time yet?  Because I was.  It gets better.  After school, Little Man pulls out a picture that he drew.  The assignment was to draw a picture of "Something that Makes you Mad".  So of course, Little Man drew an excellent picture of Peanut peeing on him and of him saying "Logan, please stop!" and then under what is the solution to this he drew a picture of him cleaning himself off with a towel.  This was not an assignment from his teacher.  That would be too easy.  No, this was an assignment from the school guidance counselor.  I am now expecting a call.

Sing it Loud, Sing it Proud

My heart swells when Peanut sings.  We waited so long to hear his little voice in song that I sometimes wondered if we would ever get to hear it.   Now he sings all the time but we still don't take it for granted.  The other night after putting the kids to bed we heard Peanut singing in his room so we turned up his monitor and sat in our room listening to him sing to himself.  This song is the months of the year.  He came home singing this from school and you can tell that he knows he is cute, he knows that I am proud and he knows how to use both of those things to his advantage.  I just love how clear his words are!!

Sweet Pea has her mama's singing abilities and by that I mean there is no hope that she will ever be able to hold a tune.  Bless her heart, she still belts it out loud and proud.  This is the song I sing to her every night before bed although now we kind of just sing it out of tune together.

Wednesdays Make Good Moms

I love Wednesdays.  I really do.  I try not to rush through Monday and Tuesday to get to Wednesday because they have their good points too, but I really love Wednesdays.  Little Man goes off to school, Peanut gets dropped for 3 hours at preschool and Sweet Pea and I are set free to roam and play.  We have our routine.  As soon as she is strapped into one of her brother's car seats (she insists on the big boy car seats in the way back of the van) we head out to her chanting of "Cookie Store" which clearly means Starbucks.  After a coffee for me and a petite vanilla scone for her, she asks for another store.  Today it was Trader Joes.  In we bounce and run through all of the aisles getting edemame and corn-free cookies.  She talks me through each aisle and purchase and we giggle and laugh.  We add Papa Bear's favorite BBQ sauce to the cart and then I pause and say "How much do we love Papa? Two bottles or three bottles" and she squeals "Three bottles!" and so in they go.  When we get in line to pay she knows there will be stickers at the end and we play games counting the items as the cashier takes them out of the cart.  Today the cashier looked at me and asked me if we found everything we were looking for and so I asked Sweet Pea if we found everything and she yelled "Ya, we did!" and I smiled at her enthusiasm.  The cashier smiled at both of us and said "I remember seeing you here before, you are the mom that really loves being a mom.  I can just tell".  I smiled and agreed but it made me laugh because just an hour earlier I was on the phone with Papa Bear and had told him that I didn't think I was cut out to be a good mom this week.  This week the lack of naps and non-stop noise was getting to me more than usual so I was taking a break from being a good mom and just trying to be a mom this week.  And last night I was telling a good friend who is expecting her first baby in a few months that if she stays sane and keeps her child alive, she is being a good mom because parenting is hard and sometimes you have to cut yourself some slack and pat yourself on the back for making it through the day.  So while the kind cashier was right, I do love being a mom and I do have some excellent kids that make my job even more joyful - what she sees, when she sees me at Trader Joes every Wednesday - is actually that I just really really love Wednesdays!

Chopped Liver

Little Man has always been the one who comments when Papa Bear and I kiss or hug each other.  When he was tiny he would just try to push his way in between us so that he could be a part of it.  As he has gotten older he comments on it "Yuck" or "Eww gross" and sometimes "What am I?  Chopped Liver?" but always with a laugh and a giggle. 

I had a long frustrating day today and the one thing that makes my day infinitely better is being with Papa Bear.  So as I loaded more folded laundry into a basket to march upstairs, Papa Bear grabbed me into a kiss.  I melted as I have done for 13 years and then we hear Little Man comment.  "What am I? Carrion?"  We laughed so hard we had to stop kissing. 

He thinks he is soooo clever!

First Sleep Over

Little Man had a very important first last weekend.  While Papa Bear, Peanut, Sweet Pea and I took up lodging at a hotel in Delaware, Little Man decided he was big enough to stay over at Mee-Mom's house all by himself.  He slept in Mee-Mom's bed with her and Simba and didn't seem to miss me at all.  He woke up with her bright and early and had sugar cereal (frosted flakes) for the first time in his life.  It was so special to him to get to play with Simba all by himself, have a special cereal that has corn in it and be so grown up.  Unfortunately, he also shared his lovely cold/cough with Mee-Mom  but she swears that it was worth it.  Next time we are leaving both boys with her although we might have to find some sugar cereal that doesn't have any corn in it for Peanut. 

(I did sneak in and check on him after he fell asleep because I couldn't help myself)

Drill Sergeant Mama

This cold/cough has really made its way through our family, but has clung especially to Little Man.  This hasn't happened in a few years, but Little Man has a tendency to turn chest congestion into a much more serious lung infection and asthmatic reactions.  We had to give him his (very old) rescue inhaler 3 times this week and he had to be taken to the nurse at school because he couldn't take a deep breath at recess.  So after a terrible early morning with another need for the inhaler we this we headed into the doctor's office (again) to see our favorite and well trusted doctor (who wasn't in earlier this week), it was a sprint to the appointment and I was ready for a nap before we even set foot in the door.  The doctor heard wheezing and crackling and got to hear his awful cough and he was given a breathing treatment, oral steriod, z-pack and a new inhaler prescription.  The pharmacy was a mess because the doc had forgotten to sign one of the scripts so it was almost an hour later and 2 scripts short that we walked out the door and turned the corner to starbucks.  We all deserved a treat at this point and thanks to a well funded gift card from my mom, we could have one.  We settled in with cookies (them) and coffee (me) and took a deep breath (me and SweetPea) and a wheezy breath (Little Man).  This very kind lady started chatting with us and reminicing about when her children were young.  The kids were having a cookie induced excellent behavior moment and their pleases, thank you's, and yes ma'am's were flowing easily.  I was pleased and they knew it.  As we were leaving they both said goodbye and nice to meet you to the kind lady.  She glanced at me and told them that I had taught them well and then asked me if my husband was in the military.  I shook my head no and Little Man piped up "No, but my Mama is a drill sergeant".  The entire Starbucks burst into laughter as I rushed my kids out the door. 

The Sick House and Happy Birthday to Mommom!

Sweet Pea is sick.  Again.  Little Man is sick.  Peanut is sick.  We are a sniffling, coughing, stuffy head mess of a house.  The whining is out of control, theirs and mine. This is not quite the start that I had envisioned for 2013 but we will push through.  We have all natural cough medicine pulsing through all of their veins.  Some are on antibiotics, some are not.  No one is sleeping well.  Or breathing well for that matter.  This is not our best moment, but we are going to tuck that away this weekend.  We are going to medicate and buck up because even though we are not at our best, we have something to celebrate.  Mommom is turning 90 and we are going to party in Delaware, one way or another.  Mommom and I share a mutual love of all things sappy. We save scraps of paper for pure nostalgia purposes even when others give us a hard time.  We are both crafty and love to cook and bake for others.  She is the one that I call to share a particularly good recipe with or who I call when am really proud of a crafty project.  I save all of her cards and letters because I know that even though I pretend and hope she will be around forever, I know that it is just not possible and I want to read her words when I miss her in later years.  I like to think and hope that I am a little bit like her because she honestly one of the most amazing people I now or will ever know.   I am so wonderfully thankful that my kids get to make these memories and celebrate with her this weekend, even if we are a snotty gross mess!  Happy Birthday Mommom!

Happy New Year

We rang in the new year by putting the kids to bed early and taking down the Christmas decorations.  It wasn't wild and crazy, but it was nice to start getting the house back to normal.  Today the boys and I went to a New Year's Open House party while Papa Bear and Sweet Pea stayed home to nap.  The boys had a blast and immediately ran off to play as soon as we got there.  Peanut would come to check in every once in a while but Little Man was a blur as he rushed by to play. 

As we start the year I wanted to mention a few things because I know how much the kids will have changed by this time next year.  So currently:

1.  Peanut has announced that he would like to be a squirrel one day so that he can climb trees and eat nuts.
2.  Little Man would like to be a dog so he can stay home and do nothing all day.
3.  Sweet Pea would like to be and do anything that Little Man wants to do so she keeps barking at me.

We are really excited for this year, both for the things we know are coming and the ones that will surprise us.  We know that this year:
1.  Sweet Pea will start preschool
2.  Peanut will graduate from speech therapy
3.  Little Man will enter 1st grade
4.  We will take our first vacation to Great Wolf Lodge to celebrate birthdays in March/April
5.  We will go on our annual family beach trip
6.  Peanut will start on the swim team with Little Man

We don't know what surprises this year will bring, but we are ready and excited to take on any challenges as a family.