Notes

Sometimes in the midst of frustration, something small makes your day.

I've been struggling lately. I can't pinpoint exactly what it is. Kind of nothing, and kind of everything. Which makes no sense. Which is another thing I struggle with. If I had to try really hard to pinpoint it all I guess it would boil down to this job is hard. I can work all day and never ever get it all done. But enough with the whining...

Because, you see the reason I work so hard is those four little guys up there in that blog header. Four boys rapidly growing and changing and presenting me with new challenges. One of those little boys (Mark) made my day this morning.

I wrote a note to his brother on a post it note to remember to turn in his lunch money so he could actually eat lunch (the check has been in his folder since Friday.) The next thing I knew I was finding post its all over the house. "I love mom," "Happy Birthday Mom," and my favorite, "Go to bed on time, mom." It made my whole day and I made sure to tell him about it. I also made sure to tell him when he came home from school how I thought of him every time I saw one of the notes.

Now I need to make sure to put post it notes on my shopping list.

PS. I forgot to mention it's totally not my birthday, not even close :)

Leprechauns

Eric has an optional assignment at school this year to make a Leprechaun Trap. Last year we had the same assignment for both boys, and it was fun. The leprechauns created some mischief in the classrooms, and showed signs of stealing various baits (gold! food! other things little minds thought of) but alas, no leprechauns were captured.

This year, my analytical Mark has his doubts.

Twice today he asked me "Mom, are leprechauns real or just a story." Twice I tried to cover without exactly lying to him. We participate in all of the mythical fun creatures of childhood. The tooth fairy leaves money for teeth lost when she doesn't forget (and she always comes the next night. Except when the teeth get misplaced and the kids completely forget. Not that that's happened.) The Easter Bunny brings baskets full of fun goodies, and we can't forget Santa - my personal favorite.

Yet, I'd never actually considered leprechauns until the school sent home that project. The first time Mark asked me I fumbled and bumbled and told him the legend and they hunt for gold, and Ireland, etc. The second time I asked him what he thought. He said "I think it's a story the teachers tell and they aren't real, but the teachers tell us that so we can have fun." Such a wise young boy. I didn't really answer that time because he dismissed me with a "I'll look it up on the computer later." Because that's what we do with questions when Mommy doesn't know the answer.

So, actually I misspoke, because he actually asked me a third time, and this time asked me to ask the computer because "the computer knows everything." So I looked it up and read to him the legend, making sure to say this was the story about leprechauns, careful not to outright lie to him. "Mom, that doesn't tell me if it's REAL." So I looked my 6 year old in the eye,and told him "Remember what you said about the teachers telling it to you so you can have fun?" "Yes," he answered flatly. "Well, you were right." I went on to explain that we should keep this our little secret so the others can still have fun and his answer was a very blunt "Well it's not fun anymore."

So, I still don't know if I should have lied to him or do what I did. I suppose I really never will. I dread the day he realizes Santa doesn't quite add up. It's bound to be soon. He asked an awful lot of questions last year.

While I'm sad that his belief in fairy tales is short lived, I'm pretty proud at his sense of logic, and reasoning, and ability to fit the pieces together. He's totally going to tell all his classmates too. I'm doomed!

And the sign on my forehead says...

.... SUCKER!

That's right. Totally and completely let Mark con me into keeping him home from school today.

I knew he was okay to go to school, deep down I really did, but he pulled out all the punches and appealed to my nemesis, Mommy Guilt.. and in the end despite all rational thought I let him stay in the car as we dropped Eric (who developed a sudden headache as we approached the drop off point... yet I made him go to school because I wasn't driving through the carpool line and leaving with ALL of my children.)

Anyway, the fact of the matter is Mark WAS sick over the weekend and stayed home legitimately yesterday. Maybe I spoiled him a little too much so he wanted to stay again today. All I know is he was almost in tears, saying he felt horrible, even though he'd been playing fine all morning.

I told myself it was okay to let him sucker me this way. Besides, he'd hardly eaten anything in the past few days, maybe he was just still feeling weak from that. Maybe this, maybe that, Mommy Guilt, and, and, and... It was all swirling around in my head and I just agreed to let him stay.

The boy is fiiiine. Relaxing, planning his next major event (he wants to make a club and have a picnic. I shouldn't worry though, he'll arrange it ALL.) So, the main question here is did he dupe me or did I do it to myself?

** Sorry for the horrible run on sentences in this post. I know they are there but too tired to fix it.

*** Please send every healthy no more puking thoughts to my house. We are planning to go to Disney World this weekend (my parents are in Orlando this weekend) and sick kids would kind of wreck that. Thanks :)

What Was to Be a Random Post on Many Topics Turns Into a MAJOR Rant

Let me just start off by saying that it's funny how soon I forget. For example, shortly after writing how awesome my kids were being and how summer was surprisingly not impossibly hard, I remembered something. Could be that Sue's comment on my previous post triggered the memory. In any case, a mere 3 days (I think - they are all jumbling together lately) before my smug "Yay isn't summer fun" post Mark had a complete collapse on the floor meltdown over ice cream. Rather, over not wanting ice cream for a treat for doing well at swimming lessons. Nope, he wanted twizzlers. I reminded him repeatedly that if he chose twizzlers he could not then have ice cream in any form. He agreed, only to flip out when after eating 16 (okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a smidge) twizzlers. Then. His mouth was SPICY and he NEEDED something COLD to cool it off. I clenched my fists and buckled down and stay calm outwardly. Inwardly I was all eye rolls and wondering why my 6 year old was having a fit worthy of an overtired 2 yera old. Outwardly, though, I just let him throw his little bullheaded tantrum. And I never gave in. I can't quite declare victory though because it was exhausting and I feel quite the failure that he puts on these antics. What am I doing wrong? (And I know it's a personality thing that we have to go through and that he's "spirited" and "creative" and it's not really my fault but sometimes I can't help but wonder anyway.)

So, why I a few days later was all smug and confident is beyond me because it all fell apart again. I know this. I 've learned MANY times to not count my blessings outloud (even on the internet.) Because there's some little switch that tells the world that things are getting too easy over at Life With Boys and surely the heat must be turned up a little.

More of the same irrationality yesterday at the movies. I told them we could get snacks at the free movie or eat lunch at McDonalds afterward. Everyone was on board with movie snacks. Until walking out of the theater when (guess who!) asked if we could eat lunch out too. When I reminded him that they made the choice for snacks I had more of the same behavior from last week. Still, I did not relent.

Lest you think Mark is my only obnoxious child, let me assure you that Ben is the model of the two year old terror and I'm praying that Pre K will shape Zack's listening skills because Mommy is failing miserably in that regard. Even my oldest is kind of getting on my nerves because he keeps forgetting he is a KID and not the parent. I actually said today, "Leave the parenting to Mommy Eric. I've got it under control."

Maybe all of this is compounded by the fact that Kevin has been working from home for the last few days on conference calls that last until 8 PM and I didn't sleep well last night and we've been putting the kids to bed later yet they are still getting up earlier, and... well. Yeah.

At any rate, I'm trying to keep the summer fun and light and we are still going to the pool and the playground and this and that and the other thing and the kids are having FUN. I know all this is cyclical too, and I'm probably due a few good days soon. I hope. And I'll probably blog about them in spite of the consequences because I'm bound and determined to be grateful for the good days.

He's Still a Super Spy

I woke up this morning and the kids were watching TV. Later, I found a lemon had been cut in half. Kevin made salsa last night, so I wondered if he had done it. Although it hadn't been squeezed, so something didn't quite add up. I asked and Mark said, "I cut it, but don't worry mom. I was safe." I started in on my "you don't use knives without a grownup" spiel. Before I could get finished he said "It's okay mom, I had an adult helping me." REALLLLY? Funny I thought Kevin and I were the only adults around here. I inquired for further explanation. "Well, see mom, I've been to French and I know this great Ice Cream Parlor, and the workers there helped me." Uh huh. Got it.

It's no wonder he's so tired all day he's travelling throughout the night. Besides "French" he's recently been to South America, and Chicago on Secret Agent business. I'm tired just thinking about it. He's trying to recruit me into this spy business. My name would be Secret Agent MOM. So far, I'm declining. I do enjoy my sleep.

What AM I going to do with that boy?

Another Taste

Another taste... this time of how you can do every single thing your child wants to do and still have him treat you like crap. Oh the fun!

Today was another great day. The big boys went to school (yay!), the little ones and I cleaned a little, went to playgroup, came home and Ben napped while Zack played and I got a few much needed things done.

I figured Mark would come home happy. Today was their Splash Day in which they get to play on water slides and bounce houses at school, as well as other crazy water games. Should have been a good day. He did come home happy. We played with clay, and then he made a guy out of wooden skewers and when I say he made I mean he laid the guy out and then ordered me to hot glue it onto a big sheet of paper so he could cut it out. Any guesses who cut it out.

All of this was fun and I was kind of feeling like a good mommy for having my chores done so we could play when they got home from school. Then he fell asleep on the couch for about 3 minutes and when he woke up OH BOY suddenly his day sucked.

And it must have been all my fault, naturally because nothing made the child happy. Nothing. He didn't want meatballs in his spaghetti and he was NOT going to eat a VEGETABLE (the horror!) and there were tears involved and frayed nerves too.

Then somewhere through dinner Mark decided he liked meatballs (vegetables too) and then I didn't stop them when they took water & soap outside to play in bubbly water.

Somewhere along the way it all went awry and I ended up putting them to bed at 6:45. Which brings us to now and there's some unholy racket up there so I must end this post and go deal with that.

And something tells me this is what I get for having such a lovely day yesterday and thinking that might be what summer is going to be like. Me jumping through hoops only to have someone mad at me all the time. Reality check, anyone?

Super Spy Mark

Mark is a super spy. Make no mistake, he's not pretending to be a super spy. He really is! It's very exciting! " Today Mark is getting rocket shoes and a helping hand." He has found another super spy at school that he gets his gadgets from and teaching all the tricks any super spy needs to know.

Some things you will find interesting about super spies...

1. Super spies do not do chores.
2. Super spies have powers.
3. He *might* "rocket home" from school in his rocket shoes tomorrow. (Must remember to tell my friend who picks the boys up.)
4. Super spies have many gadgets. Mark's gadgets include an invisible Ipod, power, invisible lasers. That's all he has so far, but he plans to get many many more gadgets.
5. Super spies also read over my shoulder while I'm blogging this and inform me of typos. This must mean they are really very smart!

Apparently, this topic is hot hot hot at kindergarten. I did inform Super Spy Mark that he needs to talk about this at recess or other free time, and not while his teacher is teaching. I'm pretty sure Super Spies have to learn about reading and math too.

* sentence that is quoted came straight from Mark's mouth, thought I should give him credit for that line.
*Zack is now telling me that he too is a super spy. He has flying power.
*Also we really must find a way around item 1. Because, no.
*I keep adding to this post because, frankly I find this hilarious. Although I have moments of wondering if he in fact is going to get to school today and NOT get rocket shoes & be very disappointed. He said something to the affect of I hope S really gives me my rocket shoes today. Also, this morning he was asking me everyones shoe sizes. So, I tried to gently tell him that the rocket shoes might be "Invisible" like his Ipod, and he said quite seriously. "Mom, you know the Ipod IS real." So, not sure what to make of this except to find it so extremely funny.

Another Blast From the Past

Yesterday I was dealing with some major nap time madness of the variety which takes the 2 year old 2 hours to finally fall asleep. I was irritable and frustrated because I need Ben to nap so I can stay sane get anything done around here.



As I tried to remember what Eric and Mark were like at roughly the same ages Zack and Ben are I initially thought it was so.much.easier. Then I had a flash of memory that made me crack up at my selective memory. Oh, the things I repress!

One day, in our house in Georgia I put two small boys in their beds for naps. This was before Eric started PreK, and he was still technically napping, although obviously not well, so I'm going to say they were 2 and 3. Things were fairly quiet and I was happy that I won the naptime battle without an actual battle. Score one for Mommy! Only, then I went out to check the mail and heard voices. Being slightly slow, I wandered back inside wondering why I could hear them so well when they were in their room. I puzzled it over for just a second and stepped back outside. I can laugh about what I saw now. Then it scared the life out of me. My two and three year old boys had opened their bedroom window, pushed the screen out and climbed right OUT. There they sat, between the house and the shrub playing with toys they had brought out.

Sigh. This is when we learned about these alarms that were so loud that the kids were too scared to open the window! We've recently put this on the garage door since Kevin decided a hook and eye would be annoying. Something about wanting to be able to get in the house when he gets home from work.

Yes, this reminds me that they also were once crazy toddlers and I made it through that stage with them. Maybe I'll survive this too.

Sometimes Maddening... But Mostly Funny

I've been wracking my brain lately. The boys seemingly have fewer and fewer and fewer clothes, pairs of socks, undies. Now, I do laundry every.single.day. Usually two loads a day. The rules of our house entail children putting their dirty laundry in a hamper, preferably the downstairs hamper, OR the washing machine (in the event that it is empty) on a daily basis. If you are a parent you surely know how often this rule is followed. Rarely. Several times a week I send them upstairs to collect alllllll of their dirties and bring them to me.. I even let them "throw them overboard" from upstairs to down as an added incentive to actually do it. Despite all of this we still have this problem of where the heck are all of their clothes. I have no pants, I have no underwear, and I want to pull my hair out because I just washed it! Eric's cubscout tee shirt... missing. We have three school tee shirts to wear on Fridays (only two kids going to school SURELY out of three we can come up with two, right?) and this morning we could only find one. It's been driving me insane.

This morning while I was hunting for socks, Mark says "Hey momma, there's clothes in the cooler!" (This probably requires the explanation that much of our camping gear is stored in Mark's closet) I looked at him funny. "I couldn't find my hamper so I've been putting it in the cooler instead."

This explains SO much!!!

After the Big Day

Many years, after the opening of gifts and general chaos that Christmas morning brings, I am sometimes let down because the kids don't always get excited about the stuff Santa brought and you know, Santa works hard to get Christmas just right. This year I think we, I mean he did very well! This is one of the games the boys got, and we had quite a fun time playing yesterday. Please excuse the piles of laundry that haven't been put away, as well as any other clutter. And my hair, please excuse my hair.

Part of what I love about this game is almost everyone can play. The easy level (colors only) is perfect for Zack, while the harder levels are a bit more fun for the boys... Even though Zack was playing on his own team every time his turn was over he'd run away crying and say "I NEBAH get a turn!!!!" He's a funny guy!

Poor Mark got stuck on my team. Kevin & Eric won almost every round. We did manage one victory towards the end. Before that he was pretty sure the ONLY way he'd EVER win would be to ditch Momma and get on Daddy's team. Whatever little dude!

Crutches

Update on ornament contest - no ornaments were broken yesterday - I was shocked. If you haven't already entered go here to guess the total # of ornaments that will be broken by Christmas Day. Guess the closest and win a prize!
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So, not to be a total whiner, but this post is whiny... Fair warning.

I went to the podiatrist yesterday for my foot. Which was feeling much better, but I decided to go in so that I could ask why I get these random injuries for no real good reason. Plus, it still hurt to walk, just not as badly as the days before.

More x-rays.

Turns out that I do not, in fact have a stress fracture. Instead, it's some joint pain thing caused by my chronic ankle twisting in my younger days. Also, he said there were some cysts on the bone which I guess is possibly a sign of arthritis (dude, that word is SCARY at 31) but he wasn't concerned about that as they were few in number & tiny.

Anyway, he recommended a cortisone shot in the joint that is hurting and mentioned that it might hurt worse for a few days and then get much better.

So, long complain-y story short, I've gone from walking with pain, to walking on crutches. I can't even drive. Can I tell you chasing after 2 toddlers on crutches is HARD? (The older guys don't require much chasing and are being awesome to help me out right now. However they are now at school so it's all me with Zack and crazy man Ben.

Some notes about walking with crutches.

1. I'm much better at it than last time I had to use them. I guess that time in the gym has made me a little stronger.

2. It really sucks when you can bear no weight on a foot and your lovely children KEEP stealing your crutches to use them as fishing poles, and or weapons. Then when you need to do something like go to the bathroom and there is no crutch to be found anywhere so you are left to hop into the other room.

3. Stairs. I haven't attempted them because I'm fairly confident I will die. However, this will make naptime somewhat of a dilemma, so I'm totally hoping to be miraculously able to walk unassisted by around 12:00 or so.

4. Mark calls crutches "crunches" which I find totally adorable.

I hear on good authority that these cortisone injections are awesome to relieve pain. They better be because so far I'm thinking they are pretty evil. Notwithstanding the pain they are causing now it hurt like crazy going in and I am thinking this better be WORTH it.

One more funny thing in all this. Mark suggested I just get a wheelchair. Made me laugh, but definitely excessive. Although I'm thinking maybe I can scoot around in this computer chair a little for those times my crutches mysteriously disappear.

The time frame for the pain is supposed to be 1 -2 days so hopefully by noonish tomorrow I'll feel lots better. I'm glad it's a short lived thing because I'm pretty sure my friends and family couldn't handle my incessant griping much longer.

When We All Work Together

I've been trying to get some help around here from the bigger boys, but the other day the little ones got in on the act too.

I was a happy momma having everyone work together... although I'd prefer Ben not STAND in the dishwasher. But he hopped right in there and was handing Eric the cups and plates. Helping... as opposed to right now when he's pulling the dishwasher tray OUT of the dishwasher. Yea, I better get on that!

My Student Of the Month

Mark, in spite of being capable of all sorts of naughtiness at home, is a very, very good boy at school. He was selected as the "student of the month" for his class. I was so proud! Today there was a little award ceremony and breakfast. At the end I was going to take his picture. He was mad at me about something and I can't even remember why... So he would NOT smile.

I used my "don't you smile" tactic on him and he hid behind his hands and giggled like crazy.

Then, finally, a hands free, non scowling picture. So, he's looking off to the side and the behind the hands smile was much bigger. This is what we got. Congrats on being Student of the Month Mark-o... Now could you bring that good boy home from school today?

A Non Post

I know there is stuff I want to write about from the weekend but the words just aren't flowing from the fingertips like they normally do. My thoughts are kind of jumbled and anything I wrote would probably make no sense anyway (so, basically same as usual, right?)

Since I am having so much trouble, rather than continue to ramble and try to fight my way through some semblance of a blog post, I will leave you with something cute that Mark said yesterday.

In the van he quietly says "Mommy, guess who I love? She has a pink shirt, and a skirt with flowers." I said "Is it me?" And he said "MOM I'm NOT finished yet." So I shut my mouth and let him continue. I had my arm up resting my hand on the back of Kevin's headrest and Mark went on "... and she has a long skinny arm and a diamond ring." Not that my arm is actually skinny, but it made my whole day.

So, next time I'm frustrated about Mark and his shenanigans, maybe it will help me to remember that he LOVES his mommy!