Sunday, February 17, 2013

THIS is glamour.

This is how I answered the door when the pizza guy delivered the pizza.

This is not how I remembered looking.

Then again, the last time I looked at myself in a mirror it was 2:00 and I had just rushed through a bathroom break before returning to my chores while refereeing the kids in their play. At 2:00 today*, I did not have the thick headband, nor the accenting sparkly BELT of Katie's, on my head. When I add the arm shrug in large floral print that I remember answering the door in, well, it was a winning look.

(*If I was looking for a pearl of wisdom, it might be that alot can change in 3 minutes/hours, and... don't store found accessories on your head while cleaning.)

So, for the first time since 2:00, I looked in the mirror while I was sitting with Jack during his bath. I  realized how I looked... oh so glamorous.

The pizza guy (good looking, young, hip, and did I say good looking?) was smiling a little and I *thought* he was amused by Jake's claim that he could carry the burning hot child size pizza box. Instead, it seems he *may* have been laughing just a little at my appearance.

Then I remembered that I'm a mom of three and while I do clean up nice, I've had these adorable, inquisitive, imaginative barnacles.... er,  kids hanging off of me all day. So I've moved on. Because there are more important things to think about.

Like, does anyone else have a kid who likes to drink their bath water? Pretty gross.

In other news;

Katie and Jake are friends again. They're walking their pillow pets around the house on leashes (made from Katie's tights). They are called "Apple Dash" and "Dark Vader". The kids are VERY responsible stuffed pet owners.

Jake is a BIG fan of Darth Vader. He roots for him in every YouTube video we watch, and he almost has me convinced that D.V. is the hero and *not* Luke Skywalker.

Almost bedtime. The time of night I look soooo forward to. But first, showers for the rest of the kids, then story time, and then bed!

Friday, February 15, 2013

The Secret Garden - Spoiler Alert: It's a story about an ugly, cross girl whose parents die of cholera and who is deserted by the servants soon thereafter. (And that summarizes chapters 1-3)

I just started reading this book with Katie and Jacob tonight. (Well, more with Katie because Jake was out like a light by the 8th page.)

She really liked it, even though we stopped at the end of each section to talk about things that happened. Like, say, CHOLERA ("Where is the cholera, Mom? Is it NOW??"), a little girl being left alone when her parents DIE from the cholera ("What do they do with the people who die, Mommy?"), a little girl being totally FORGOTTEN when all of the servants (who don't really like her anyway) DESERT the house, and the same little girl being described as "cross" and "ugly" for the entire first three chapters... I didn't really remember any of this from when I read the book.

Come to think of it, maybe I saw the movie. Where they summarized lots (and LOTS) of the first chapters. I think that's why all of the story setup is vaguely familiar but still surprising.

But, Katie seems to like it. She was "imagining the story" when she closed her eyes and didn't actually fall asleep, so I guess we'll continue on.

(Jacob can join us. This story is great for putting him right to sleep!)

Speaking of Katie, she's been sick all week. She started puking on Sunday and was FINALLY well enough to go to school today.

I knew she was better because, 1) she was no longer vomiting up ONE ounce of water she tried to drink, 2) she was able to keep some actual FOOD down, and 3) she wasn't the polite little girl she had been.*

*Oddly, my kids lose most of their demanding side when they get sick. Not just puking sick, cough and cold sick too. Dealing with the symptoms is gross, and messy, and a lot of hard work to get through, but it's kinda wonderful too. Because it's not everyday that my kids are all, "please" and "thank you" and "may I" and no one is fighting or exclaiming about how the other kid did them wrong...

Is it weird that I'm a little nostalgic?

Not that I like the puking or anything, it's just a nice change from the yelling and arguing that I see more often than I would like.  And I'm expected to mediate for the arguments when there is clearly no answer that won't result in one or both kids being furious with me.

(My newest approach to fighting/arguing is to put both of them in time out when they start up. They both know in advance that this is what will happen, and I usually ask, "Oh wonderful children that are the sunshines of my life [I may be paraphrasing a little bit here], are you fighting? Because if what I hear is fighting you will both go to time out..." because I'm a softie and don't *actually* want to punish anyone. Luckily, that stops things from progressing, or at least pulls it back from the hitting phase, where no one is a winner.)

They *do* get along a lot of the time though. And they bond over school (Katie's the teacher), Spongebob, books (Katie's the reader), games on Katie's nook (Katie's the game planner), and Katie mothering her brothers, and that makes me proud.

Just too bad we can't stretch that "a lot of the time" to include the other 80% of their waking hours.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Jacob is... Quirky.

<p>So. Every morning Jacob wakes up and fusses because he doesn't want to get up. He says it's too bright, school is stupid, he's too tired, and "eeeaaaaaahhhhhhaaaa". (I don't know what that means. It's just some kind of nails on chalkboard sound he makes when he's... displeased. It's awful. Especially first thing in the morning. Or anytime.)

When he can *finally* be coaxed from bed, daddy helps him get dressed and then it's my turn to oversee the teeth brushing/bathroom stuff. This goes pretty smoothly for the most part, exept for one tiny, little, horrible thing.

Jacob has issues with water.

Oh, he loves to play in it... He can play *in* it forever and his hands and feet can get all pruney and he's fine, but get a drop of water on the kids' clothes and it's the end of the world. Like, must-change-my-shirt, can't-wear that, why-can't-my-shirt-just-be-dry horrible. First thing in the morning. Quirky, right?

So this is what's been happening every. single. day. for about 2 weeks...

I take a shower each morning (just as I have for longer than Jake has been ALIVE). When I get out on the shower, water drips onto the floor (not rocket science, right?).

Jacob always manages to find one tiny drip with his socks.

I (in my most patient of voices, you know, the one that makes me sound like a crazy disney princess?) humor him and tell him that they will dry, but he doesn't care. All he can say is that his socks are wet. And I know from past experience that his feet aren't going anywhere near his shoes till those socks are dry.

So, I grab the socks he didn't wear from the day before (they were wet, doncha know) and put them on him. He's fine with that. And today's socks have now become tomorrows.

So today, imagine my surprise when Jacob gets through his morning routine with no water/sock drama!

Thinking I'm in the clear, we start getting shoes and coasts on. Gramps comes in from outside to get Katie to the car. Leaving behind tiny amounts of... snow. Watery, drippy snow.

All is fine till Jacob gets to the kitchen and goes to get his shoes on... and steps in a little bit of water from Grandpa's boots.

Insert big sigh here.

Luckily I had the socks from the day before so he had dry socks.

Tomorrow I'm going to put his socks in his shoes. Duh. Why didn't I think of that sooner...