Alphabet Soup

While we are talking birthdays....I guess I probably should live up to my New Year's Resolution and post Baby Boy's 3rd birthday party. Seeing as how this party was in January! I wanted to do something easy and different. We went to a local paint your own pottery place, Color Me Happy.  The boys love going there and when we went over Christmas break I had the idea to have his party there. They gave each child the letters in their name to paint. After they fired them and wired them together, I picked them up and delivered them. I didn't even have to make favor bags! I LOVED going home and having nothing to clean up!!! He was so excited before the party, but it was overwhelming to be the center of attention. He ended up crying and being held by someone the whole time. He did NOT like having Happy Birthday sand to him. Silly boy!

 Cute alphabet birthday shirt from curious georgia on Etsy.

 Painters hard at work!

 Poor JT had more letters than anyone, so Mama ended up helping!

He was so perseverant.

 Birthday cupcakes!

 My favorite picture of the day! 

 The party goers!

His favorite present.

Monster Truck Birthday

Well, it seems that when you turn 5, it is a HUGE deal. JT has been talking about his birthday since January. His birthday was March 24. I have had to hear about this birthday daily. "I am NOT inviting so-and-so to my birthday party because he tore my name tag." Not getting invited to someone's birthday party is obviously the worst of worst put downs when you are 4. He wanted monster trucks as the theme. Now, the kid doesn't even watch Monster Jam. I tried and tried to convince him to go with a cute theme. Pirates? No. Super Heroes? NO. Legos? NO! Ok, fine. Ugly monster trucks it is.
I was determined not to have a Gravedigger anything. The days of cute birthday parties is almost over. I plan to stretch it out as long as possible. Pinterest to the rescue. I LOVE Pinterest. Did I tell you I LOVE Pinterest? It took some searching, but I managed to pull together some cuteness. Etsy is a lifesaver for busy moms. I ordered everything, and I mean EVERYTHING. I am learning that my time and sanity is worth just letting someone else do something. It really did turn out cute, and he had a blast, which is what really matters. I didn't take as many pictures as I should have. I was busy hostessing! I never got pictures of the front porch that we decorated with checkered flag bunting. We also strung it up all over the inside of the house. Oh well!

 Waiting for his guests to arrive!

 Favor boxes. Oriental trader boxes filled with another checker flag, monster truck bubbles, a monster truck bouncy ball, monster truck tattoos, and a plastic wrist band with racing themed words stamped in. All from Oriental trading. A monster truck iced cookie, made by me. Awesome hang tags made by my friend in Idaho. When she finally opens her etsy shop, I'll share the link!

 Wall banner made by above mentioned friend. Table runner from the Dollar Tree. Safety cones from Oriental trader and some monster trucks. He loved the banner. I am thinking about hanging up the bottom part in his playroom.

 Spare tires, aka. chocolate mini donuts from Target! Stolen from Pinterest.

 I had planned on dipping these pretzel rods in chocolate, but ran out of time. Alas...

 The birthday boy in front of the gift table. We put his presents in the center of the table as they arrived. I love these checkered flag plastic tablecloths I found at the Dollar Tree. Love that place for party stuff!

 Custom Birthday Shirt from Etsy. How cute is this? I ordered it from shababe and the quality is excellent! I will definitely order more customs from her! He LOVED his shirt so much he has worn it to school 2x already!

 Invites made by another friend. If she decides to start selling her creations, I will link her too!

 Blowing out his candles. I probably should have just gotten a 5 candle because they didn't really want to fit!

 How awesome are these cupcakes? Toppers came from cookiecovers on Etsy. They came in a box that was pretty enough to be its own gift! My friend from Idaho made the checkered flag wraps.

Monster truck tire painting. We had planned to do an obstacle course outside, but it was raining! I had found several cute games but they were fine acting like wild children racing the monster trucks around the house. It was a hectic day, but so worth the stress. I would say he will always remember this birthday.

Resolution 2012...Make the time to blog

Yeah, like that'll happen with any consistency! no really, I am going to try.

Life has been full of lots and lots of drama since I have last blogged. House burned down. Yes, my house burned to the ground. I plan to have a lot to say to help someone who is going through the unthinkable get past it. There are so many things that I wish someone had told me.

The eldest was hurt very badly in a car accident in November. He has a long road to recovery ahead of him, but he will be just fine.

Fun day we had over Christmas break. Lunch at our favorite place to eat on the water. It is not a meal without a trip to the dock.

so. incredibly. tired.

I am not cut out for having a full time job and a full time family. I am beat down. School started and things have been crawling along.
Work...laundry...clean...cook...laundry... bathe little people...laundry...paperwork... laundry...stories...bedtime...laundry...pack daycare bags and lunches...shower...fall into bed hopefully at 10...alarm at 5:30...repeat. Funtimes.
Then The Wild Indian and I were gifted the stomach virus. Now...I just can't catch up. Grrrrrr.

Summertime

It has been soooooo incredibly hot this summer. The farthest they have gotten from the AC this week has been trips to the back porch to blow bubbles. Really, it is too hot to do much of anything outdoors, even the fun park pool. I am bribing the kids with a pool trip tomorrow IF they help get their room clean today. I have high hopes :)

This has been one busy summer. It seems I have accomplished much of nothing. Repaint the house project= epic fail. Get organized project=epic fail. The big thing I did get done was getting my pesky gallbladder out. I feel so much better. I highly recommend gallbladder removal :) In my extremely incoherent, relaxation cocktail state, I asked them to save my stones so that I could show my mom. Now I have a pee cup full of gallbladder stones. What do I do with them now? Jewelry has already been suggested. Um...no.

During our hot, hot summer stuck in the AC, I have been making observations. I thought I'd share a couple. When a toddler runs, they look like a person doing an over the top impression of a drunken, gay man running. Apparently, 20 pairs of underwear are not enough to last a 3 year old 2 days, because you are supposed to change them every. single. time. you go to the bathroom.

He's Found His Calling

JT appears to have aspirations to become a painter. He did this in less than 10 minutes. I was making the dinner of champions, DiGorno's cheese pizza, and he was creating a masterpiece. He had announced that he needed to pee, because it is necessary to announce it to everyone in earshot when you are 3. I realized that he had not come back to announce that he was "done" and he was quiet. NOT good. So I send the Wild Indian to go check on him. He comes running back into the kitchen yelling, "JT is in BIG trouble!" I began to smell the stench of trim paint about halfway there. Here is what I found. Note the discarded jean shorts and resistance ball on the floor. I ave NO clue how he got the paint opened.

The conversation went a little something like this.

Me: "WHAT DID YOU DO!!!???"

JT: "I painting."

Me: "WHY" (Like a 3-yr-old can tell you why)

JT: "I helping."

It is high-gloss trim paint. I washed as much off as I could (off of the wall AND off of him.) Now I have to sand, prime with a sealer stuff, and repaint. Yeah me!!!!! Its been 3 weeks and I just don't have the fortitude to fix it yet.

Blocks

Just have to say that it is wonderful to watch the little boys paying in a tub of assorted building blocks that belonged to the big boys whe they were little. Now if they would just stop busting up the creations with a toy hammer and drumstick, I might be able to think.

Another Poop Post

I remember the days when there was absolutely NO way I would ever have discussed something as gross as poop. Well, that was before kids. Hello...even though it may not appear this way, I was raised to be a Southern Lady. Southern Ladies don't sweat or poop and only curse during college football games. Just so we are crystal clear on the matter, but I digress.



Fast forward to life in a house full of boys. OMG. If we could get through 30 minutes without discussing bodily functions, it would be a miracle.



Yesterday the pre-child unimaginable happened. Poop...and lots of it. Yup, poop happened...during nap time...and I guess Southern boys don't like poop very much either...so he took off his diaper...full of poop...and then stood there wailing.



This is the point in the afternoon when I called my husband and told him that he needed to come home, and that when he got home, I was crawling in my bed and he could manage the children for the rest of the day. I was done. Do you hear me? D-O-N-E. Cleaning up the mess was the straw that broke my back. One container of Clorox wipes+ two loads of laundry+one unhappy baby in the bathtub= one undone mama.Thank God I have a wonderful husband that will do this when I ask him to. I don't know how single moms manage to parent and stay sane in the process.



Today, I am sane enough to look on the bright side. At least he didn't play in it:)


Damn disposable diapers!! grrrrrrrrrr.

Yes...I am crazy

A lot of my friends think I have lost my mind. "Why?!?!" They say!! I swear, it is almost a dirty little secret. Yes, I cloth diaper. Yes, I am the only person I know that does. Yes, I have tried to convert some friends. Alas, they didn't take the plunge.

I get it. It can be nasty, but not as nasty as the 8am blow out that was so incredibly vile that Baby Boy had poo in his hair by the time I got his clothes off of him. There is nothing like a crap-tastic explosion to start the day. Now I have to disinfect the bathtub. sigh.
Here is an old picture of a very little JT in his very first cloth diaper. It is a medium sized fuzzi bunz that Baby Boy had on yesterday.
Cloth really isn't that bad people. They are super cute. You don't feel like white trash when your kid is running around in their diaper. You are saving Lord knows how many tons of crap (literally and figuratively) from the landfill. It's two extra loads of laundry a week. In a house with as many people in it as mine, two loads of laundry is NOTHING.

Check out some of the stores that specialize in cloth diapers. Trust me, it is NOT your mother's cloth anymore.
Try http://shop.thegoodmama.com/ for super duper cute fitteds. Unfortunately also way out of my price range.
I first took the plunge with a sample pack from http://nickisdiapers.com/
Check out http://www.cottonbabies.com/ the original home of the Bumgenius.
I think I am going to replace some of my shot favorites with some Blueberry pockets. http://www.blueberrydiapers.com/

My one true love is no longer available for purchase. That is a good thing. It seems that the fabric they used has a tendency to separate. Really now? When I washed last time I discovered, to my horror, that all but one of my breathable Haute Pockets have separated (aka. lost their waterproof layer) Half my stash, gone!!!! The big decision is to replace with something else or not? I don't know if I can justify purchasing a partially new stash for a kid that is almost 18 months old and doesn't use cloth at day care.

Too bad I didn't have girls. JT told me yesterday that "Girls don't poop." Hmmm. That's a mighty high standard you have for your future mate, big guy.

Appetite for Destruction

Welcome to the Jungle
We've got fun and games!

Or so they seem to think. Seriously...how many things are they going to break and/or damage this summer?
Two weeks ago, Baby Boy disovered the real purpose of crayons...wall decoration...window decoration...floor decoration. I love Magic erasers.
Last week, the Wii was dropped...twice. Now it wants a break, so it won't spit the most boring game we own out.
Yesterday, in the ten minutes it took for me to take a shower (with Baby Boy locked in the bathroom with me) he squeezed a half tube of Desitin everywhere and mangled my glasses. I recommend never putting Desitin on a scalp issue, because it is NEVER coming out of his hair. My bathroom is going to have eau de diaper rash for the next year.

I need to go back to work. I need a break.

A Week in the Life

It has been a busy week around here.


Monday was my birthday. It was a great day. I went to the hardware store to gather things for the 'repaint the house project' with NO little kids. Daddy made a fabulous dinner and surprised me with a new DVD for family movie night. We all watched a movie together while eating popcorn, half of which ended up in the floor, but that's what vacuum cleaners are for :) I made a dent in the HUGE laundry basket full of mismatched socks after Baby Boy went to bed halfway through the movie. I am a PARTY animal, the hardware store, a movie with the kids, and sorting socks on my birthday ;) The best gift of all was a picture of me with ALL of the boys and no one looking miserable!


Baby Boy learned what crayons are really for (not eating as he had thought previously), and he was delighted to show me...on the walls....on the floor....on the french doors....on the windows...You get the drift. If the 'repaint the house project' been running on schedule, I might have killed him.

Wednesday I had a Doctor's appointment. I have to go and get gallbladder testing. WOO-HOO! Having Baby Boy jacked it all up and it's been killing me lately. Fun times there.

The 'repaint the house project' started in the boys' bathroom. I swear to GOD, I felt like I needed to wear a hazmat suit to deep clean it. I am planning on getting to the trim today. It was on the schedule for Tuesday, but you see how that went.

We are sticking close to home today. I am waiting on Daddy's Father's Day present to be delivered. If I left for 5 minutes, that is when they would show up. Naptime=trim painting.

Hello Summer

It's officially the first day of summer vacation. Yes, last Friday was my last day of school, but today is the first day that I didn't have to get up at 5:30 to go to work! Hallalujah!


I am a bit discombobulated. I have gotten to the point that I NEED a schedule. My life needs to be scheduled or I end up getting nothing accomplished. I have worse ADD than my kid. I think today's plan is to plan June. I can not believe I am saying this, but I'm gonna write a lesson plan for June. Movie trips, beach days, Splash Zone, Library Summer Program, painting the fingerprints off of the walls, grocery shopping, and stay home and do nothing days. Spontaneity be damned!

yeah, yeah, yeah

You try working a full time job, raising 5 kids, and maintaining a blog. hhmmppphhh.

I've been catching some slack about not keeping up with this thing. I'll do better this summer, but I'm not making any guarantees come August. Just sayin.

Well, Wednesday was the last day of school for the students. WE WERE SOOOOOOO CLOSE, to not being sent to the Principal's office this year. Yeah, that was MY kid sitting there having lunch in the Principal's office, while all MY students' parents were signing in for Honor's Day. That write up will go in his baby book. Maybe I should start a file and this can be numero uno.

What, pray tell, did he do to earn the privilege of lunch in the office? Shooting birds. Yup, that's my boy, flipping off his classmates on the last day of school. I am so proud.

Really, I was expecting many such trips this year. One out of 180 really is pretty good.

On the other hand, he's getting to be pretty good at baseball. This t-ball season has gone well. He has all the makings of a star...including the trash talk. He could probably go head to head with a senior in that area. :)

Weekends

Why can't weekends be relaxing? It seems as if the weekends are filled with run, run, run...clean, clean, clean...laundry, laundry, laundry... I wish I could take the weekend and do nothing. That's right, nothing. My selfish version of a weekend would be something like this. I could sleep until whenever I wanted to get up, instead of being woken up five times in 15 minutes until I get out of bed at 6:24 on a Saturday. Maybe even stay in bed, by myself, and read a book that doesn't have pictures. I could watch something other than Dora, Diego, Super Why, or Thomas. Eat something other than leftover mac and cheese or chicken nuggets. The unselfish version would include a trip to somewhere fun, lots of play-doh and paint, lots of books with pictures, hide and go seek, checkers...but no damned laundry and scrubbing of bathrooms.


Unfortunately, I must be productive. 7 loads of laundry done today, floors mopped, clothes put away, children fed, children clean, fights averted, boo-boos kissed.

Dear Child Sized Clotheshangers,

I would sincerely appreciate if you would stop planning mass escapes from my house. Thank You.
P.S. Please tell the patterned socks to return home as well.

2010

Christmas has come and gone. We had a wonderful Christmas. I really ...

Well, I thought I would have time to blog at 2am, but apparently JT could sense me doing it in his sleep. MOOOOOMMMMEEEEEEEEEEE. It seems his nose hurts, as does my own. Which is the real reason I am up at 2am.

I guess it will be February before I post Christmas pics.

What's in your drain?

Here's what was in mine.

Really.

$7 and some change, a rubber band, a lollipop stick, a band-aid, a baby sock, copious amounts of lint, an assortment of nails, screws, nuts and bolts...

Gross.

Really, really gross.

It all started with a flashing F21 on the display of the glorious piece of mechanical engineering that is my Kenmore He5t. (Shout out!) Then me going, 'well, F%$#!' and then turning to the magic of google to figure out WTH to do. If you are curious...

#1 Take the soaking wet clothes out of the machine #2 Manage to get the excess water out of the drum (fun times here) #3 Find the right tool to take off the front panel. FYI- it was not a phillips head but some wierd 6 sided thing that was not an allen wrench. #4 Manhandle the front off of the thing #5 Prepare for the "small gush of water" that will come when you unsccrew the cover. There was no exaggeration there. Perhaps they should have said "the gallons of water that will spew forth." Just a suggestion. #6 Clean it out (I hear that often thongs are found in it. he-he) #7 Put it all back together and pray it doesn't leak.

Mischief managed. It sounds like a jet taking off when it spins again. I forgot that it used to do this. I think this may become a 2ce a yer chore. Great.

However, I fear that I may have shot myself in the foot. In the last month I have also taken apart the drain under the kitchen sick to resolve a drainage issue. I have been much too handy. I am certain that I have forfieted all honey-dos for a while. Damn.

mommy guilt

I have been struggling with 'mommy guilt' lately.

I am sad that I have to work outside of my home. How I wish I could stay home with my babies. Unfortunately, working is something I must do. Insurance and a pay check are a must, but still... I just have a deep desire to be home. Probably it is one of those classic cases of 'you always want what you can't have.'

I came to this realization about a month ago. Someone asked my why in the world I do some of the things that I do. (I mostly use cloth diapers on Baby Boy, and I make all of his baby food.) I really think that it is because I can't be home. I have the need to do things for him beacuse I can't be there.

The guilt really started with JT. I knew he needed to be home with me. Dang, he really still does. Don't get me wrong; I adore his preschool. However, we had issues with his infant caregiver. I think part of the reason his gross motor skills were delayed was that he was allowed no freedom to move around. I am pretty sure he was cooped up in a playppen/bouncy seat/excersaucer except when I picked him up. I knew he needed to be somewhere else, but there was nowhere else for him to go. I had to choose the lesser of evils. Childcare is one of the horrible things about living somewhere rural. His preschool is wonderful. You know somewhere is good by the amount of teachers' kids there. I hazard to guess that 85% of the kis there are teachers' kids. We are a picky lot about our level of care, so that percentage says a lot about the place.

Baby Boy has the best care situation. My best friend watches him. He is her baby. He adores her and she adores him. Her kids dote on him. I just am sad because I am missing so much of his life. He spends more time with her than he does with me, and that just sucks.

Just had a melancholy mommy moment. Such is life.

The Crispness of Fall...Not

Aaaahhhhh... Halloween. The colorful leaves, the crisp air...the 84 degree high on Halloween. So goes the interesting southern Ga weather. The kids were mostly miserable, but it ended up being ok. The above picture is the whole crew before we headed out. The breeze was nice on the island, the bugs weren't bad. We had a great evening.

Baby boy was supossed to be a pea pod. However he would have been encapsulated in fleece. Not happening, unless we wanted a 10 month old with a heat stroke. Target to the rescue with a skeleton made out of thin cotton. Here he his, happy as a clam chewing on my Diet Coke.

and here he is when I tried to take it from him to get picture of his costume.

JT was an adorable Clifford. This was not the planned costume. We were going to borrow a hand-me-down costume from our friends. I ran into the children's consignment store to look for some jeans for The Wild Indian and they had all of their Halloween stuff on sale for 50% off. I grabbed it, thinking it would be fantastic for Storybook Character Day next year. $2.75!!!! It is at least a $50 costume. So here I am, feeling all proud of myself for finding something cool for a couple of years from now, and JT sees it... and wants it...now. After some cajoling that it is going to be too big, too hot, I finally break down and let him try it on. The damn thing fit... so he was Clifford.

The Wild Indian was costumed up as Horton. It took some serious bribery to convince him that he really did not want to be Mater from Cars for the third year in a row. He was Horton for Storybook Character Day, but was flat out refusing (and I mean stomping of feet, jumping up and down refusing) to be Horton for 'real' Halloween. At the above mentioned consignment store, I found a recycled Horton bag. I got it with a friend's daughter who loves elephants in mind. Jeez, it was $1. He saw it, and said, "Oh, is that for my Horton costme?" In my infinite wisdom, I said, "Why of course it is." So ... he was Horton. Sometimes things just work out the way you want them to... even though it wasn't your intention.

2 shoes does not = one pair

I knew it was gonna be a very BAAAADDDD day when The Wild Indian showed up at school with one navy and one black croc on. Let's just say the note wouldn't fit in the agenda space. it started with HE WAS OUT OF CONTROL TODAY and ended with ...making farting noises during afternoon storytime. Shoot me now.

But you have to admit that farting noises were hysterical when you were 5.

Well, they sort of still are. :)