Forgotten Children and Other Things

We have yet to leave a child behind , we have had to make a few phone calls on the way home from church to see WHO has one of our children but we have never forgotten one of them.  Until Wednesday, I did not forget any of them.  Keith just thought I did.  I was meeting my friend AV to tear down the set from C’s last play {it was her son’s last one too}  C was home sick, both little girls had been napping for hours and I was hesitant to wake them, they would both need to be fed, and then PS has not been happy up on stage, which means we’d have to listen to her cry while A would talk. I knew if we were to go alone so we could go fast.  I was talking to a friend telling her my dilemma,  she said to wake C and have him listen for the girls.  I sent C to the couch and left.  Keith was meeting an Air Conditioner guy {we need a new unit we have had 3 companies come give us estimates} Keith came home and the van was gone, not usual I run errands during the day, although it is a lot less since PS HATES her car seat with a screaming passion.  So, as I was saying, Keith came home to a quiet, but not empty house.  As he walked in the house he noticed A sleeping on our bed, upon further inspection PS was soundly sleeping in her Moses Basket.  The van was gone the house was quiet, he began to wonder what in the world was going on.  As he continued walking he noticed C snoozing/watching Netflix on the couch.  Then he remembered that C was home sick and realized that I had not actually left sleeping children home to go off to lands unknown.  The girls slept for almost an hour more before I received the “she’s awake” text from C.  They slept for 4.5 hours PS, and 3.5 hours little A.  I guess they were really tired.

Every time PS spits up, little A gags so much I think she might just throw up!

After school I sent the kids out for “fresh air and sunshine”  O collected a towel to sit in the yard and read, E remembered her friend was at gymnastics so she took a book to the back porch, the others all went out side.  I was pulling little A’s hair up in a pony tail when she asked “mom do I need sun scream?  I like to wear sun scream.”  I sent her out with out sun scream it was 4pm.

We went to the mall last week, this is what we found…Do you want to build a snowman???
He’s ONLY $500
I told the kid, even if I had $500 I would not spend it on a giant Olaf, and I like Olaf.

The final birthday for our house came 2 weeks ago, I took in cupcakes for the boy during his advanced Science class, they were talking about their camping trip, so I knew that the interruption was not going to be a problem…  I picked the cupcakes up from Sam’s club, check out the icing they use.  I love that it is TRADEMARKED, really who is going to want to name their frosting But Cream???

We went out for R’s birthday, his choice {again} was The Melting Pot, we love it every time we go!  On our way there we drove around the lake at the end of our street,  do you see what we saw?See it yet?
That is about a 6-7 foot Gator.
It is mating season, they make a weird noise and are on the prowl.  We are smart enough to stay away.  While we were driving around less than half the lake we counted 3 large gators and 1 small one {small as in only 4 feet long just a small one} We watched as a not so bright teen ran up to the small gator, which by the way is against the law.  The lake is clearly marked with signs warning of gators, and the laws against harassing them.  No worries we are not going to mess with something that uses a “death roll” in the process of getting dinner.

Birthday Dessert.
He chose the “S’more’s chocolate fondu” made with milk chocolate.

And he ate the last strawberry…

I just saw a commercial for Fisher Price ‘crawling Minnie mouse’  that will “help your child connect the dots for crawling”  Wow what a claim!!!  I mean, how in the world did children learn to connect the dots on crawling before the amazing toy from Fisher Price?  What a claim!

What about you ever leave someone behind?
Go hug your kids, be sure to tell someone you love them, we were reminded again how fragile life is.
jen

 

 

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The Bees Are Back Again

Every Spring for the last few years we’ve had a swarm of bees.  Last week I was thinking about those bees as I was coming home from watching our high school choir compete at MPA {Music Performance Assessment} Isn’t that boy handsome?  Hard to believe some of these kids are seniors and graduating in weeks.Sadly they did not advance to the next level, but as their teacher reminds them, “you are here to glorify God not win awards”  They sounded amazing, I rushed into the auditorium to hear them sing, glanced over and saw Keith sitting there.  We were able to sit together and listen to them sing and giggle about the very LOUD explosion PS did in her diaper.  She was so loud that 2 rows in front and 2 rows behind us heard.

As I was saying, I was pulling into our driveway and glanced at the swing set.
I knew immediately it was bees.
I grabbed my camera and went closer for an inspection.Closer still, they were swarming around my head and the buzz was so loud.Lots of bees.Every year we get a swarm, we have been lucky enough to get 2 swarms a few  times.Look how amazing my new camera is, I was not standing very close.  These are honey bees, they do not sting, they are simply following their new queen to a new home.  I went to school to pick up the kids, while I was there I warned the neighbor so their kids would not come to inspect and get in trouble.  The bees will get upset if you mess with the queen.  By the time we came home they had flown off to a more suitable location than a metal swing set.

What about you, do you have a spring nature ritual?
The original hive is still in the Live Oak Tree,
I watch them coming and going while I wash dishes.
Arn’t the bees amazing?
Go hug your kids, they need your love before you know it, graduation will be right around the corner.
jen

An Extra Birthday Dinner

This week was Keith’s birthday, we are almost {1 kid left} to the end of family birthdays until November.  While I am glad to have my kids stop aging for a few months I will miss the celebrations.  This years celebrations have been far from normal, if you will remember, I missed O and C’s birthdays because of our extended NICU stay.  I was thankfully home in time for E’s 8th birthday.  We had our family party after all our January birthdays were over,right now I have no idea when we will be all free at the same time do celebrate the March birthdays {well that, and the boys want shrimp, pasta, sauces, and hot wings.  I’m sorry I just cannot figure out a way to combine those food choices, we might have to compromise.}

C the traditionalist again chose Keith and 5Guys.
{no pictures }

O had to wait until they went up to C’s future college in February to enjoy her birthday dinner of Fazoli’s.
{unlimited breadsticks you can’t go wrong with that}

I was home in time to be chosen for E’s dinner to Panara this is the first time she choose me, I think she missed me.

March holds most of the rest of the immediate family,  J chose Keith, they ate at Dave & Buster’s they had an awesome time, Keith said “it is like Chuckie Cheese on steroids.”  After eating burgers, they used up their tokens playing games, they stopped at Friendly’s for dessert.

Keith was a wise man, choose me for his dinner, although it was a little “iffy” that we would get to go since that was the day of PS’s melt down.  I did not know if we were going to be able to keep her quiet in a restaurant, as much as I love and adore her I know others don’t want to listen to her, because as I mentioned, I love her yet, I did not want to listen to her.  Here is the funny part, he told E he was choosing her for his birthday dinner to Red Robin.  She grinned with true love at his choice, here was her concern, “Okay, but I can’t drive and I’m not paying.”  Because he had game duty he was not going to be home on his actual birthday until after 8, not conducive to driving 30 minutes away for a meal with an 8 year old whose bedtime is 7:30.  So they went a day late, birthday dinner at Red Robin.
{He is a member of their birthday club his burger was free}

Not only did he take E, he took all 3 girls
{I was more than happy not to ride that long with a baby who HATES her carseat,
I stayed home with the boys and ordered pizza for them}

The closest Red Robin is at a mall with a “Merry go Round”, the same one I’ve been telling little A we cannot ride.  Well, he has opened a whole can of worms…  “The Merry go round was so fun!  I rode a horse, my horse was brown with a black tail, and it went up and down it made me “bizzy” I liked it, not the bizzy part, but the merry go round part”  The “bizzy” is exactly why I cannot ride them.  E rode a dolphin and O stood between the girls.  The big deal is A is TERRIFIED of horses, we have no reason why she just is, but she rode a horse.  Hopefully the fear of them is subsiding so we can again pull the plastic 4 inch horse out of our closet to put it back with the doll house.  She was so afraid of horses that she would not go play doll house, or even go into her toy box if she thought there was a horse around.  {They ended up not getting home until 8 and going to bed an hour past bed time, good thing birthdays only come once a year.}

I am excited to be going out on Tuesday with R who has already chosen me and the Melting Pot again.
Cheese fondue and Chocolate fondue dessert here we come!

Earlier this week little A was in my bed going to sleep, as I was praying with her she said she “I do not want to sleep in my bed, I want to sleep here tonight.”  Much later Keith took her upstairs to sleep for the night.  We were still awake, I was nursing PS, while he was in the family room getting some school work done.  Little A came stomping down the stairs, gave him a growl and dirty look before coming back into my room.  She took a grumpy look at me, then she said “I do not know who did that!  But I said I wanted to sleep down here all night!”  She was ticked, all I could do was laugh.  Later I put her on a blanket on my floor for the night.

What about you, any birthday fun plans going on in your family?

Go hug your kids, they need your love
jen

It’s My Party and I’ll Cry If I Want To

Goodness today was one of those days, one of those baby days that cannot end soon enough.  Only, I am afraid if it ends it will repeat itself, quite honestly I am not sure how many days like today I could take, kind of Groundhog Day gone bad if you know what I am saying.  Don’t get me wrong I do not, I repeat Do Not want baby girl to grow up, but I do not want to repeat today.  Ever again.  Ever.  My normally great sleeper, great morning nap’er cried for more than 4 and a half hours without stopping, unless I was nursing.  Even then she might actually have been crying.  The only time all morning I did not hear crying was the 10 minute, super hot, steam up the bathroom, pretend that all is well shower I took around  11:30 in hopes that while I was showering she would miraculously stop crying and go to sleep.  I will admit that when the water shut off I could hear her crying, I checked on her, dried my hair.  I could not hear her crying while I had the dryer on either.

I do not know what set it off, the spicy chicken from Chick-fil-A yesterday for dinner, waking her from a deep sleep to take the kids to school {curse you time change} a belly ache{her tummy feels a bit hard} or the shots a delayed reaction?  {I know some of them take a week or more to completely do their job.}

I felt terrible that everyone at the Chiropractors office had to listen to her scream/cry for my visit.  {I fell off the ladder climbing up to the storage attic during the middle school dress rehearsal.}  Yes it was comical, yes some kids laughed, but then so did I.  I misjudged the number of steps the ladder and wall and whole area is painted black the stage lights were off, only the spot lights were on I could not see well, and I was carrying a different brief case, since the first one I pulled did not actually open up.  My doctor said my back was like an accordion all crunched up, at least that is what I think he said, it was kind of difficult to hear over PS’ incessant crying.  Oh, little A tried to help, she held her sitting on the floor but PS was in such a fit she was practically upside down in A’s arms.  {No fears I rescued her} His receptionist told me she almost came back to hold her for me.  I gave her my permission to come in at any time to rescue her/me/the doctor while I was getting cracked back into place.  It is very difficult to “relax your left shoulder down” knowing that 1 it was going to hurt and 2 the baby was most likely annoying, or causing distress for others in the office.

She cried from 7:45 until 1:30 when I had exhausted my mom tricks, we went for a walk in the yard, we swayed, tried her magic chair, the lamby sound machine, the beating heart bear, burped her, changed her, nursed her some more, let her Cry it Out, finally I swaddled her again only this time I turned on some worship music on Youtube.  BINGO  I held my swaddled tight baby, head under my chin, body to body, while little A and I sang some worship songs.  That was the trick.  For the next 3 hours worship music came from my lap top and things were peaceful.  Little A did not get lunch until almost 2, where we could finally play and visit together, playing dominoes, putting puzzles together and talking about numbers.  She likes numbers better than letters, so she says.

J was my cryer it exhausted me, it strained my ability to parent effectively, my mind was fried, my stress level was sky high, I did not enjoy that child as a baby, as a toddler he was a dream! But as a baby, not so much.  He knows it.  I loved him then, I love him still I just found it difficult to enjoy him as a baby, unless we were moving or there was a lot of action around him he was crying.  Ten months for almost 20 hours a day he was crying.  That is a long time to listen to crying.

On a happy note R is the baby whisper’er I ran an errand the other night, during her normal fussy time I left her in Keith’s arms to run out and get milk and a laundry basket {my life is so glamorous!} When I left she was content, some time after that she started to fuss, Keith passed her off to R, who we discovered has the magic touch.  I might pull him from school if tomorrow is a repeat of today!

What about you, did you have a cryer?  What worked?  I had some lovely friends give suggestions and links to other blogs which were informative and helpful and slightly funny, which I really needed.  Any advice is appreciated on the off chance that this becomes habitual.  Until then I will not be eating the spicy chicken at CFA and I will do everything in my power not to wake baby PS in the morning.

Go hug your kids, they need your love!
jen

A Few Questions

One night I got a text from O who was up in her room making little A giggle.  She sent a text that read “mom what’s for dinner A says tomatoes”  I replied “close, chicken and POTATOES”

A—“Momma, is today, today or is today tomorrow?”
ME—“Today is today.”
A—“What happened to tomorrow?”
ME—“good question baby, good question”
ME—“Today is yesterday’s tomorrow”
A—“I’m gunna go watch doc mc stuffen”

I was sitting in my room listening to E read aloud for 10 minutes, J and R were scrambling around in the sitting room and dining room, little A was riding the scooter from the family room, through the sitting room into the dining room, taking a detour through the kitchen to circle back around and do it all again.  Suddenly the commotion was louder than normal, followed by silence.  Keith came back to our room looked at me and simply asked “Remember when Mrs Brady said ‘no playing with balls in the house?’ well…”  I responded “oh dear what broke?”  One of the dining room windows {there are 5 of them} The window C fell out of, the one closest to the door.  Oh dear.  After a few minutes J came back to me, he said “I know what our next project when dad is gone should be.”  We are classy I tell ya, classy, we now have 2 duct taped windows on the front of our house.

Day 2 of the unfortunate hair bow hair cut incident and it is sinking in, tried to put her hair in 2 pony tails and one is markedly thinner because of the comb over, not like the other side is very thick, and a single pony is hard because I need more than 1 clip to hide the short hairs…

So we’ve been home for 6 weeks now, we are developing a routine things are mostly good because I finally can read her clues, she needs way more sleep than I remember the others needing, and she hates her carseat with a screaming passion.  I avoid running errands and have anxiety, holding my breath when I go anyplace, seriously the 2 minute ride to school is just too long.  I feel terrible for A since she is next to the screaming banshee everywhere we go.  It is a little better is O is back there with her because she can at least hold her paci in her mouth.  Anyone have quiet carseat tips.  My mom suggested putting her in her seat more often, but the NICU doctor said not to that she has a greater chance of apnea in her seat since she was a preemie.   I guess I can be content with a screaming baby is a breathing baby, but I cannot listen to that it makes me sick.

I’ll leave you with this little gem, today is my sister’s birthday.  I love this picture it fills my heart with warmth and laughter we could hardly breath we were laughing so hard.  She is the greatest sister anyone could ask for, she has housed us when our floors were being resurfaced, as I was having a baby, she has come over at a moments notice for a rescue, she is great for a laugh or shopping buddy.  But not a pedi buddy, I laugh when it tickles, and by laugh I mean giggle uncontrollably.  She loves my kids with her whole heart and will be a most excellent mama when she gets her baby.
Happy Birthday Ellen

Go hug your kids they need your love
jen

The First Time in 18 Years

I’ve been a mom now for 18 years.  I have cared for children for almost 30 years now.  I have experienced a lot of things as a mom that I never planned to experience.  I’ve had many mom’s ask me parenting advice on things like biting, or hitting or lying.  {Can’t offer advice in biting, none of my kids have been biters YET, can’t offer advice on hitting, my kids seem to not be overly aggressive, as for lying, we are still working on that, I’ll let you know if I land on a solution when I find it}

BUT

Yesterday, yesterday was a parenting first for me.

For breakfast little A wanted fruit snacks, before Keith left for work I pointed out little A’s problem solving skills, and how well she handled the scissors all on her own.

I had to eat my words.

I had a headache yesterday morning, so while the little PS was napping I thought I’d lay down with little A, we could watch some tv and relax.  We turned on DisneyJr {DisneyJr has no “people shows” all cartoons, and we like most of the shows} Doc Mcstuffins was on, I swear my eyes just shut, the headache, the relaxed quiet show, and snuggling with little A, my eyes just shut.  Then opened, when she asked me to help her take out her pink hair bow.  Only she was holding scissors, the same ones she expertly used to open the fruit snacks for breakfast.

“I need help I can’t cut the bow out”

I sat right up.

“My bow was falling out so I tried to cut it”

I reached up to pull out her bow and hair came out.

Lots of hair came out.

Large clumps of hair came out.

I started to cry out “Oh baby, oh baby, oh baby, your hair”

She answered “my bow was stuck I tried to cut it out”

Only in trying to cut out the bow she cut her hair.

Her LONG gorgeous LONG curly LONG beautiful LONG hair

17-19 inches of hair cut off the crown of her head.

{It has never been cut, the ends are healthy it has been so pretty}

Never been cut until yesterday.Sorry the picture is blurry I am actually crying at this point.Some of it was so short I could not actually pick it up for the picture.The total damage, until after her bath when I started brushing her hair.Her hair was all the same length, so long that when she showered it was to her bummer.Our hair dresser asked for pictures when I sent her an SOS text.  The whole crown is cut short, the front is about 2 inches long, the back is less than an inch long.We both did a lot of crying.

For now we will use clips to hide the damage but unless we wanted to go with a short cut {short as in less than an inch long,} we have to wait until it grows some.

Here is the text I sent Keith.
J- A cut her hair
it is BAD
BAD
BAD

K Oh NO!!!
Picture?
The back?

J-I can’t even explain how bad
No the front

K-You just said how good she was with scissors
{thank you honey for putting that out there}

J-It might be 1.5 inches long
{After I measured it is less than an inch in spots}
I am sick

K-What did she say

J-Her bow was falling out
I have a headache, so I was laying down watching tv with her and I fell asleep.
Not for long, but long enough to have her be a problem solver.
It is bad
The whole top of her head 17 inches cut off
We had a shower and I’ve tried to hide it
She finally stopped crying
All I kept saying was
Oh baby Oh baby

K-She cried because she realized what she did?
Was she trying to cut the bow out?

J-I think so.  Or because I was crying
Yes the bow was falling out so she was going to cut the bow,
At first I thought she was cutting the bow then I realized it was her hair.
Waiting for TS to see my text and help
If I part the hair WAY OVER then I can hide it we see TS today at 3:15

Yup there is NO WAY to fix the damage.

I sent another friend a text of the picture of the hair on the counter.  She laughed at me, while she was in the grocery store, I hope people stared at her!  She suggested I hang a sign around her neck to explain that she did it herself.  Then she asked if I could make a toupee with the cut hair or give her a weave… I told her we were going with a combover, she found that funny too…

The kids were warned so they came into the house on tip toe afraid of what they were going to see.  At first it is not noticeable, because of the combover, but once you move that hair, it is bad.

I had told her that only Mom or only Mrs T cuts hair.  I am pretty sure by her response today she was really just trying to cut out the bow and did not realize that the bow was clipped in her hair.  She was only being a problem solver and was just trying to get that bow out.

I know it is JUST HAIR.
I realize that people lose hair all the time, bad hair cuts, chemo, reactions to medications or stress or other reasons.  I just was not prepared for this.  I did cry over it, she cried over it.  We went to school to take J birthday donuts where Keith saw it.  If I keep it in a combover then it is not as noticeable.  It is bad.  Just not as noticeable.  We went to the NHS induction tonight for R {jr NHS} and O {NHS} and C {Who served for the dessert}  When we returned home little A came running “I did not cut anything with scissors, I did not cut my hair.”

What about you, any hair cut tragedies in your life?
Go hug your kids they need your love, life is short tell someone how important they are to you.
jen