Funny

For some reason when I make little mistakes as a parent I feel the need to share it with as many people as I can. I don't know why. Sometimes I get embarrassed after the fact, yet I continue to do this.

For example: It's 3 PM. We're hanging out having fun. I smell something funny. Something smelly and yucky. I investigate. Only one child is a possible suspect as one kid is napping and the other two are at camp. I strongly believe the smell is pee. Possibly poo, most likely pee. I look at Zack and say "did you have an accident buddy?" He shakes his head noooooo. I feel for wetness and feel nothing. But still there's a smell and something just was not right. And then I realized. I felt the squishy weirdness of a wet diaper. And I wondered what in the world was going on because Zack is potty trained and he's been doing great with all of that. FINALLY no accidents, finally smooth sailing on that front.

I asked him why he had a diaper on and he just gave me that dimpled grin. I asked him again why he was wearing a diaper and he giggled and said "Mommy you put it on me." I thought back on our activities of the day. We had taken the boys for their last day of camp, gone to the playground, and then gone to the mall for more play, shopping and lunch. I recalled that he had peed on the potty at our lunch and couldn't remember him having any trouble or anything unusual. (But I also remembered I was changing Ben's diaper so it is likely I wasn't paying attention.)

I asked him when I put a diaper on him and he told me it was in the morning when I got him dressed.

So, somehow without realizing it, I put a diaper on my FOUR YEAR OLD and didn't realize it until three PM. And Mr. Lazy Boy sat there and peed in it all day long, never telling me he had a diaper on instead of underwear.

I'm pretty sure this signifies I've totally lost my mind.

It Becomes Quite Clear

I'm back on the healthy eating, exercising bandwagon.

After a setback yesterday, I have identified once again my biggest weakness.

Sugar.

I decided rather last minute to make snickerdoodles to take to playgroup. I chose this type of cookie because I had all of the ingredients and I thought I could resist the temptation easier than something chocolaty. So, I was all prepared resist temptation and let the kids & other moms eat all of the cookies.

Sigh.

That plan was an epic failure. Somehow, there were lots of cookies left. I totally overestimated how many would be eaten. So I fed a few to the kids and decided to eat one. Just one.

Or six.

Moral of the story. Keep the sweet stuff out of the house.

The good news is that I am back on track today. One of these times I'll get this right.

Reprieve

As much as I love my kids... as much as I truly adore them...as fun and engaging and amazing as my big kids are... they were driving me out of my ever loving mind. There, I admitted it. The first 1/2 of summer was awesome, some rough days sure, but mostly pretty great. Then we went on vacation of which I've only partially blogged, which was similarly fantastic. Then we got home and every one of my children turned into wild animals. Or something. My patience was shot and despite my decision not to enroll the boys in any summer camps this year I caved. We were at Tae Kwon Do at the parks & rec department and I noticed that they still had vacancies in the last week of camp. And I wrote a check. This particular camp only takes ages 5 and up so I still have my little guys at home.

I had some concerns about camp. I was worried my two little kids would still be a handful and I would end this week without feeling any better about things, much less prepared to tackle the remainder of summer. I mean, a two year old and four year old can dish out some stressful situations, after all. I was worried the kids wouldn't like it or it would be BORING, or they (mostly Mark) would cry when I left them. Or cry when I came to get them. Or, in a surprisingly likely scenario around here, both.

My worries were for naught, however, because suddenly there is a strange phenomenon around my house. I have time to breathe. I'm finding myself enjoying my babies, and missing my big guys. When I go get them we are all so excited to see each other it's ridiculous. And I feel more equipped to handle the insanity that goes on during the time I'm trying to prepare dinner. Big kids fighting, little kids hanging on me, and lots of whining. Yep, that hour is still just as rough as always, but I have the patience to get through it. It's been some time since I've had that peaceful, in control feeling.

Yes, this reprieve has been good for me. Yesterday I took Zack and Ben to the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary and the beach with my mom's club. When we got home both boys napped for over an hour, and my home was silent in the middle of the day for the first time in... well I can't even remember the last time. I never used to appreciate the quiet. I'd have to fill it with music, or tv. All I did was the dishes, but I soaked in that silence! I finally feel refreshed, batteries recharged. I have confidence that I can tackle the final three weeks of summer.

Thank you Summer Camp!

Healthy Pregnancy and After

At Diets In Review this week, the focus was pregnancy. There are many articles on how to have a healthy pregnancy, and how to lose the weight afterward. There are even some dad's perspectives. I enlisted the knowledge of some of my friends who have successfully shed the baby weight and wrote about the tips they shared. Thanks for being willing to answer my questions ladies! The post is here.

Go Cart Race

Mark would like to invite everyone over for a Go Kart Race. Tickets (!) are 10 dollars each and can be purchased on the day of the event. The date and time are TBA because 1. We have no Go Karts and 2. We need bleachers! And lunch is included so we have to cook plenty of food to be sure we have enough. We'll need snacks too because it's an all day event. Mark's not really worried about the logistics of not having Go Karts or bleachers because he is relying on his parents to get cracking on that soon. Now would be good. So far they aren't really getting started though.

Mark plans things. An idea is sparked (this time from checkered flags he saw in the Oriental Trading Post flyer.) He takes this idea and expands it until Kevin and I just shake our heads. I can see this serving him very well in the future and it's fun, when he's not volunteering Kevin to build Go Karts and bleachers and me preparing lunch for countless people. I've tried a few times to get him to scale this down, to make it something we can pull off. (My best thought is maybe have some friends over with their radio controlled cars & do a little race and then maybe watch the movie Cars? Snacks and juice boxes?) He is not deterred, though. He simply says "It's okay mom. I know it will take a few days to get it all together. "

A few days? Uh huh.

Vacation Part Two Continued

So, we left off at the fourth of July which was awesome.

Sunday, we got up and had lunch at my favorite Mexican restaurant in the whole world, and then headed out to Seminole (about an hour east of Edmond) to the Children's Museum there. The kids had so much fun! It was a lot like other museums we've been too, but with more to do. Mark's favorite place (measured by the fact that he kept wanting to go back!) was the classroom. He was the teacher & Granny asked him questions, which he answered by writing on the board. The little guys loved the train ride, and Eric was drawn to anything scientific that he could memorize and absorb!

We stopped at Braums for ice cream on the way back to town & my mom & dad surprised us by offering to take the boys back home so we could hang out with my brother and his wife. We had a great time!

On Monday, one of my friends from since I was 12 came to the house and we had lunch, the kids went nuts on the water slide, and we all had the best time.

Tuesday we headed to the lake, and my brother drove the boat while the kids rode on the tube with daddy, and then mommy. What we planned to have be a few hours at the lake, turned into the whole day. It couldn't have been a better day.

Wednesday was our "transition day." The kids and Kevin all got their hair trimmed and I got mine colored in my moms nice new hair salon they added in the garage, and then we headed out to start part three of our trip.

PS I started going through pictures today. I didn't get very far, but I started.

Camp In

The middle of last week the boys built a tent in Mark's room. This tent consisted of Mark's comforter spread across the gap between Mark & Ben's beds. They desperately wanted to sleep in that tent, but the math in my head went something like 4 boys plus kid made tent equals total chaos and not much sleeping. Some days I am up for this kind of night, others, not so much. I promised that maybe another night,I'd set up a real tent in the playroom and they could camp out in there.

Finally, last night I set up the tent. I somehow remembered our *small* tent being much smaller. However, after putting it together totally wrong the first time and being rescued by Kevin (and he might have laughed at me a little) we were all set to go.

The kids were so excited to get there jammies on and head up to bed. (Hello, when does that happen?) I even let them talk and giggle and ignored a fair bit of running around in the spirit of the "camp out."

Things went south 45 minutes after bed time. Mark came downstairs and said he was scared and I might have grumbled. Okay, I did grumble "What on earth would you be scared of?"He muttered something about shadows. He went back up after some conversation about night lights and blankets and this, that and the other thing. Shortly later we heard a crash and a scream. I assumed the worse and Kevin and I bolted downstairs. In the hall was a teary Mark and in the tent was a confused Zack. No sign of any injuries but upon seeing us, Mark flipped out. We asked what happened and the 6 year old version is that he was trying to get his night light out of the playroom and startled Zack. But, I'll tell you the screams were those that sounded like someone was severely injured. Thankfully, no one was.

Then I asked where everyone was. I learned that Eric went to his bed because he was hot, and Ben had gone to his bed when Mark moved back to his room. Zack was the only one left in the tent and even he opted for his bed after the commotion.

And then they all went to sleep. I think it will be a while before we try this again.

Beach Day

I promise I will finish giving every detail of our vacation soon. I know it is riveting, edge of your seat stuff and you can't wait to read it. Ahem, yeah. Just kidding, but still, I will write it. Later. For today, I'm at Deep South Moms talking about our fun day at the beach yesterday.

I'm a little sunburned and I made a major Mommy error and missed parts of Ben's face with the sunscreen. Not sure how I did it, but by the sunburn under his eyes and on his upper lip I'd say I missed that area entirely. Kind of makes me want to cry.

Vacation Part Two

So we arrived at Granny and Poppy's house (after a brief hello visit with Kevin's family) and within seconds the boys were asking about playing on the water slide. Of course, the grandparents obliged and they had so much fun. Ben went up and down a few times, but over all he played in the pool and laughed as the boys went down. This surprised me since
Ben is not known for his cautious nature. Okay, I can't even type that with a straight face. He is a wild child for sure! We slept so good that night after playing cards until one in the morning.

Saturday morning we went to the parade with most of Kevin's family and then, breaking the traditional IHOP fiasco before the parade (I mean is every IHOP seriously, ridiculously slow?) we took all the kids (8 of them 7 and under!) to McDonalds for lunch. Who can beat an indoor playground in July in Oklahoma?

Then it was back to Granny & Poppy's house, and this is where the blogging it as it actually happens would come in really handy. It was the fourth of July... I know my mom and I went to Wal-Mart for some more stuff for dinner but the afternoon is a blur. I remember at Wal-Mart Ben was in the cart reaching for me saying "Need mommy, neeeeeeed mommy as I tried to get him to stay in the cart. Wanna guess who won? NOT mommy. I'd venture a bet there was water slide action involved! My cousin who was my flower girl in my wedding was there. Only now she's all graduated from highschool and starting college next year and she is adorable and sweet as ever! Seeing her all grown up was truly a treat and also kind of makes me feel old. Because when I got married she was 4 or 5. I have kids older than that. Okay, must stop fixating on being old...

And then the kids were in the water slide (catching a pattern here? They LOVE that thing!) and it started to cloud over and thunder and lightning. Then it rained and rained and rained. Only, that was after dinner. REWIND...

We ate dinner that my mom made of barbecued ribs (okay, actually Kevin and Daddy did that part and fantastically I might add!), baked beans, potato salad, corn bread & rolls. Everything was awesome! (Thanks mom!) THEN the boys played on the water slide and then the lightning and the thunder and boys were filled with angst because if it's raining they can't do FIREWORKS. Wahhhhhh.

Only, Oklahoma must have been chanelling Florida weather because the storm, while impressively gusty and loud, only lasted about half an hour. And then we did fireworks. My husband managed to do so without injuring himself which is a darn good thing.

A note here about the people in my parent's neighborhood. They are firework maniacs! They were going off from every direction and it was pretty awe inspiring, if a little overwhelming for me. The cutest part of the night was Ben trying to blow out the fireworks. "I bwow them out Mommy." Too fun!

Again, I slept like a rock. And so did the boys. This is about the time they started getting up at 7. 7 Central Time which is 8 on their time zone. I guess it doesn't really count after being up til 11 though. I was so excited to get to sleep that late I didn't quite know what to do with myself. Except stay in bed so that is exactly what I did!

(to be continued!)

Jumping to Today

For just a second, I have to post something that happened today. Mark and Eric woke up extra crabby, which is saying a lot this week. I dragged them to the grocery store. Then Sams. At Sams I knew something was wrong when my 2 oldest boys wouldn't eat their pizza OR drink soda! So I told them we must go to the doctor. I had to put up groceries first and on the way home from Sams all but Zack fell asleep. They all stayed asleep. Eric had spiked a fever and Mark had a lower one, but still. Sick kids. When my kids won't eat pizza and take a nap I know it's bad. I called my friend, and cancelled our plans to go to the pool, and every now and then I'd hear Mark thrashing around on the couch. I assumed he was hurting and went to check on him. He said to me, with his eyes closed "I'm NOT SICK, I'm MAD that you cancelled the pool!!"

Such a mean mother am I who will not take her children to the pool with fevers and sore throats. Sheesh what's wrong with me?

PS Doctor says it's strep. Hello Zythromax. Which despite smelling nice and strawberry banana-y tastes bitter & nasty with a side of sugar. Yeah, I totally tasted it when they made the face after they took it. After I told them it would taste good.

Vacation Part One

When I think of our summer vacation I break it down into four parts. Long, horrible, never ending drive. My parent's house. Kevin's parent's house. Lastly, back to the long, horrible never ending drive.

Starting at the beginning, I was excited about being with my family, but not too terribly excited about the long, excruciating drive. We had decided to stop in a hotel this time, to break up the drive a little, but we wanted to get as far as possible the first day to minimize meltdowns the second day. We planned to leave at 4! a!m! and stop at 9 at the Florida Caverns for a tour. We did this. The internet said the first tour was at 9:30, and my heart sunk as I we passed the part of FL that switches over into the Central Time Zone. We had allotted enough time to let the kids play for 1/2 hour before the tour. But waiting for a full hour and a half before the tour wasn't on our agenda. We still had to make good time to get to our hotel in Marshall, TX which required driving through the rest of the FL Panhandle (it is slightly maddening how long it takes to get OUT of FL. 4 hours up and a million hours (or maybe 3)across that panhandle. They need to consider a giant bridge across the gulf from Tampa Bay to New Orleans, or at least Alabama. I know, self serving of me to think this but it's sooooo long) and then a few hours each in Alabama and Mississippi, and an eternity (I want to say 6 or 7 hours) in Louisiana. I'll spare you my feelings on Louisiana, which I'm sure is a perfectly lovely state except for their extreme lack of REST STOPS on the highway. That's a story for the way home though.

Anyway, I apologize for my tangent, but I like to accentuate how long of a drive this is. We lucked out and the first tour actually began at 9. We wandered and explored and then went on the tour. This was a perfect outing, the boys were in awe and Eric was so cute at the end when the lady asked if there were any questions and he asked many, many questions about stalagmites and stalactites. Finally, Kevin pulled him back and said we needed to give someone else a turn. His curiousity thrills me!

Back in the car and we did make it to Marshall, TX at about 8 PM. Right on schedule! Despite the drive being insanely long, the kids were a dream. I had worried a great deal about Ben, who has very strong opinions screaming much of the way, but he was perfectly happy most of the day. I will say the dvd player is a lifesaver. It averted many tired of being in the car meltdowns.

Once in our hotel, it wasn't long until we all drifted off to sleep (not before I went and sat *alone* in the hot tub for a few minutes. The next morning my boys were up uber early (SURPRISE! Thank you central time) and we had breakfast and were on our way.

Day two was shorter, a mere 6 hours through TX and into central Oklahoma. A grand total of 21 hours on the road (plus the time we stopped at the caverns & for the night.) But we made it! Let the fun begin!

Unpacked and Unhinged

Unpacked -I did it. I unpacked everything yesterday. Well, everything except the giant rubbermaid container of boys clothes. It's in the guest room and I figure they can get dressed out of it for a week or so and we'll put it away as it cycles through the laundry. Totally lazy of me but it makes me happy, so I'm going with it.

Unhinged - My kids have completely lost their minds. Fighting with each other, talking back to me. Totally loud, totally screaming, total chaos. Even worse, I seem to be unable to get their attention without getting loud and I'm just not into yelling. It's been frustrating. I suspect they are over tired from late nights and lots of running around last week. Or maybe it's from the 20 hour car ride on the way home. At any rate, we are all completely cranky and out of control. I'm hoping to fix that soon.

On a positive note, (and I'm typing this very very quietly) the kids are sleeping past seven the last two days. I'm thinking they are still on Central Time. Which is fiiiine with me. But they need to quit being so freaking crabby!

PS I have a bazillion pictures to go through and post and of course blogging about all the FUN we had, but that will wait until another day.

Unplugged

Wow, I really expected to post at least once while I was gone, but I literally only sat down at a computer once while I was gone. It was good, but I'm happy to be back! I'll update on vacation stuff a little later. For now I must unpack and work on other things!

Going to be MIA

Just a quick post to say I'll be on a brief blogging hiatus for the next week and a half or so. :)

I had a post go up on Sunday over at Deep South Moms about Ben's eczema and some new things that are working. And there's another one going up tomorrow about how much I'm dreading vacation. Or at least the driving part. Check out Deep South Moms tomorrow to read that one.

And now I have to pack. Bye bye for a while internet! (I'll miss you!)