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.
The 5 (or earlier) AM wakeups are starting to get to me and I think I'm cranky. Things are bothering me. Or maybe it's not just me, because what is bothering me is actually disturbing.
First of all, when I went to school yesterday it was on modified lockdown because of multiple calls to 911 on election day in which the caller was threatening teachers. That's all the info I had, but there were police at the school and all the classrooms were locked. Who on earth threatens elementary school teachers? Oh and the calls were made from a pay as you go type phone so they couldn't be traced. Poor teachers. Luckily, I guess the issue was resolved. But I have so many questions that I'm sure won't be answered. Who did this? Why? Was it a prank? Someone who had a beef about the election? Just some random psycho who gets his thrills scaring the crap out of people? Or someone who truly intended harm to someone? I hope not the last.
This bothers me too. People just dropping their kids off and giving up on them. I can't even imagine how much it would screw a (probably already troubled) teen off to have mom or dad go dump them at the nearest hospital. It looks like Nebraska is making an attempt to rewrite the Safe Haven Law for infants only. (Just to be clear, I do agree that the Safe Haven Law is a good thing for babies. I'm all for keeping newborns out of trash cans.)
Oh and we have a lovely popup spyware virus-y thing on our computer. Norton isn't finding it, but seriously, UGH. It's annoying and it's slowing down my computer. I found instructions for removing said spyware virus-y thing but it's like reading Greek so I'm waiting for my hubby to have time to do it. In the mean time let's just hope my computer doesn't crash because then I might be in a REALLY bad mood!
And I have a headache. And did I mention that the kids were up before 5 again? Yea, I'm cranky. Enough with the ranting though, everyone have a great day!
Just a quick post today... By quick I mean I'm going to type as fast my fingers will fly and not proof read OR spell check so there will be sentences that don't make any sense and plenty of type -os. I might have just skipped it, but there's the whole NaBloPoMo thingie. :)
So, the last few days I've regressed on potty training Zack. First, HE regressed and then I, to save the small shred of sanity I might have left, just took a few days o-f-f. This morning I got right back down to it.
He and Ben stay at my friend's house on Wednesdays while I volunteer at the school. It is awesome! Unfortunately the last few times he's been over there he's been too distracted playing to care about potty time. This translates to LOTS of pee in the pants. Not cool. So, today I bribed him. If he could go allllllll day staying dry I would buy him a car. This was of course, after on the way out the door he announced "Mommy, I POOPED!" Argh.
So, being all full of inconsistency like I am lately, I gave him the car early. But he HAD stayed dry up to that point and we were waiting in the car pickup line at school and that is some boring time for a 3 year old. I also threatened that if he peed in his pants I'd take it away until he could stay dry like a big boy.
Bribes and threats, that's good mothering for ya. But, it's working cause he's not had an accident all day!
This should be easier the 3rd time around, shouldn't it? Cause it's not...
I guess I should stop reading news headlines when I am sleep deprived and up at 5 AM because I read the headline "Turnout records fall even in GOP-friendly states" I got a little crazy wondering HOW in the world they could possibly know that given it's just now election day. Was this some sort of approximation based on the voting turnout in the early voting? How in the world with as adament as most of the people I know are about their candidate (on both sides) winning would turnout FALL from the last election. Then I clicked on the link and said to myself "OH the RECORDS are falling NOT the turnout.
Well good! I hope we blow the previous election turnout records out of the water. No matter who the vote is for.
What I don't want, however is to stand in line for 3 hours, so I'm hoping everyone around here took advantage of early voting. I, true to form, am waiting until the last minute... well the last day. I plan to vote after taking the boys to school, but will have the two littlest with me. This makes me happy that there is school though, because when I lived in GA election day was a school holiday. In the last major election I only had 2 kids to drag with me, so it wasn't a big deal, but 4 might just be too much!
So go vote everyone! I'm sure I'll be up way too late watching the results.
Ben is an individual. He has such an opinion about everything and it's a teensy bit hard to manage sometimes. He's in an age with almost no impulse control, and it's hard to enforce the rules amongst his SHRIEKING.
He's gaining words daily, though he still does not have very many. However, NO, he has down, and uses it very often and emphatically.
Recently, we were at a friend's house and he was sitting in a chair. Zack tried to get in the chair with him and Ben put both arms out and declared "NO" with a kind of growl like I've never heard out of such a little guy. I couldn't stop laughing
Last night I was bathing him and he ripped the wash cloth out of my hand and declared "NO!" His eyes said the rest "I'll do it myself thanks so much!" Then, it was even worse when I was trying to get him out of the tub. "NONONONONO," complete with kicking and screaming. Ay yi yi.
As I was getting his diaper on it was "Go WAY, go WAY" Now, we aren't 100 % certain that he is actually saying go away but it sure does sound like it. However, he'll often walk through the house saying in a sing songy voice "goooo way, go way, go waaaay" as if he's trying out the phrase. Where on earth did he come up with that? Anyway, after the angry tirade of "go away" I got an even angrier (more angry?) chant of "No NO NO NO" as I put him in his pajamas.
If this is 20 (and a half) months I'm not sure what I'm in for when he's actually two.
I've seen lots of bloggers signing up for NaBloPoMo, and besides the name cracking me up, I decided it might be a nice challenge. The idea is to go over and sign up and commit to posting once a day, every day (even weekends) for the month of November. I post most days, but lately I seem to be so busy that I've been letting a few days pass me by... especially weekends.
So, today I was just going to be all "HEY look at my post over on Deep South Moms" (if you are here early it may not be up quite yet, but it should be posted sometime this morning!) Instead, I'll try to post something real here too... well, as real as it gets.
Many of you know I have been terrified of daylight savings time. Last year, the boys had been steadily waking at 5:45 in the days leading up to falling back. So when we actually changed the time that magic wakeup time changed to 4:45. Since 5 am has been wake up time around here, I was certain I was going to be summoned for various kid needs at 4. I was afraid...
Also, for the past few days, I've been getting up with Mark (the earliest riser) and keeping him from waking everyone else up SO early... and also using this time to get some stuff done. (Instead of waiting for the baby to wake up and wake up to disaster most mornings.) It was working pretty well except I was getting so tired after only a few days. Then there was the matter of me trying to sleep in and being unable to on Saturday.
So last night I decided... who am I kidding I couldn't hold my eyes open... to go to bed early. I was asleep by 9 and it was a good thing because I was awoken to meet different kids' needs 3 times in the night.
However, when my 5 AM alarm went off nooooo kids were up. I tried like crazy to go back to sleep, but could not, and when Mark closed my door about 10 after 5 I just got up.
I am so thankful for small miracles!
Eric the Ninja! Who apparently couldn't look up at the camera or put his candy bag down to show the whole costume...
Buzz Lightyear, AKA Zack. He has the BEST smile EVER!!! 
Ben as Woody the Cowboy... He wore that hat just long enough for me to snap the picture. And I had to work for that!
And Spider Mark... I mean Man, Spider Man. He felt the need to pose. 
We had so much fun!
Posts
All Comments
