the torture of big d

someone is torturing big d. there must be some secret plan, somewhere, with the intent on bringing him down. the previous owner of our house was a firefighter. and we all know how crazy fire fighters are about smoke detectors. we have one everywhere. every room, every hall....

a couple of weeks ago we woke up, in the middle of the night, to that annoying chirping sound from the smoke detector. it was the one in the hall, right outside our bedrooms. chilly had woke up and shut his door. big d, being nice, got up and tried to fix it. instead, he ripped the thing off the ceiling and shoved it in a towel and kept it in the bathroom. problem solved. the next day, he stuck a new battery in it, and hung it back up.

the next night, while fussy wasn't sleeping, i hear the same thing. i hit big d and tell him that it is at it again. he gets up and sleepily goes into the hall, listening. nothing. so back to bed he goes.

then again we hear it. it's a different night again, and he's replacing batteries to another smoke detector. he tells me the dog woke him up and then he heard the chirping.

then last night. blissfully asleep, i wake to the same chirping noise. big d grumbles and gets out of bed. i start dozing a bit, fussy is on my arm. the next thing i know i am shocked into reality by this big bang. it sounds like big d is really upset and has taken a hammer to the smoke detector. (my first conclusion always seems to be what i probably would have done in his place) i keep listening and realize it is really just the ladder being put up in the kitchen. we have vaulted ceilings. the smoke detector is completely out of reach unless you have a huge ladder to climb. i am wide awake wondering what is going on, but pretty sure he is replacing the battery. i hear the ladder again, i hear the garage door. finally a few minutes later he comes back to bed and tells me that "he is so mad because the dog woke him up". apparently the dog woke up big d to get him to turn off that horrible chirping noise.

the crazy thing is, all the smoke detectors now have new batteries. if we had been smart, and changed them all at once, there would have not been the nightly wakings. but for some reason, you sort of forget the fact that they need replacing during the middle of the day. which brings me to my question. why do they only chirp at night?

i guess they only chirp at night because they are, in fact, evil little things, bent on torturing poor big d.

running interference

so i'm not really into football, but i do understand this concept. even more now that i have small kids. small moving kids. kids that are underfoot at all times. just today while i was cleaning my floors (for the second, and not last time today) my sweet baby kept moving to the place that i was trying to sweep. then he'd take the dust pan and swing it, spreading the cereal, crumbs and general debris all over. so i'd sweep again, grab the pan out of his hands, quickly scoop up the mess and throw the dust pan back at him before the tears started to fall.

it was the same with mopping, only he'd come over and sit on the mop. then chilly would complain that he wanted to help. so i gave him a mop. and then he would try to get to the mess before me and slam my mop away. don't you wish you had helpers like me?

it would take me much less time if my kids would leave me alone while i clean the house.

i'm a great

aunt that is

here's my lil' grand niece!

cute huh?

thanks to the great grandparents for the photos. and yes i had just got done with a five miler and THAT is why i looked and smelled soooo good.

the weekend edition

harry took a test on saturday. it's for the gifted blah blah blah program at our school district. i'm curious as to what his results will be. is it bad that i was surprised that he even was chosen to be tested? not that i doubt his smartyness, it's just i always see gifted kids acting gifted. i guess i might just be too close to the situation to see it.

if his results come back that he is "gifted" i doubt we will put him in the different school. at least not right now. he is doing well at his school. especially with chilly starting in the fall, a move would just make things really complicated. and we like a bit of complication, just not that much.

my niece gave birth to a lil' girl. "lil" is subjective really. she was a whopping 9"2'. crazy? well since harry (my first) was 9'1", yes, it is crazy! i can't wait to see her. i'm hoping to give the new mom a bit of un-destracted mommy time before i get there. heaven knows she doesn't need me and all my "valuable" information butting in.

fussy hasn't slept well for several days now. it's making my running routine hard and disjointed. i finally decided to get some acidophilous and gripe water, mylicon, and teething tablets, ibuprofen and tylenol. i'm stocked up, i'm ready for tonight. if he doesn't sleep, we are all in deep trouble.

chilly did get over his pukies. he had a mild case on friday. which meant he slept through preschool. did you know how much i love preschool. well, i do. i think i love the 2 hours more than sleeping. almost. just because i can guarantee 2 hours of quiet at home, even if i am not able to sleep. i really love HIS preschool. he loves it too. he has sharing time on mondays. wanna know what he took. his skeleton costume. what did i see coming out of preschool? a skeleton running to the van. fun stuff. i was a bit embarrassed, then i realized he's just plain happy dressing up. don't' mess with a good thing you know. if he was dressing up as a princess, or a nudist, then i might have to stop him. but for now...


and i think we have about 10 dollars in overdue fines at the library. who'd of thought the "i love lucy" dvd's would be so dang hard to return. they aren't, unless i keep forgetting.

okay, so that's it. i've updated my bloggie. i'm waiting for pics of my great niece, but those will have to come later.

just a bit of advice

i know, i know. unsolicited advice. but i can't help it. i'm sure smarter and better people already know this, but sometimes, i gotta just pass on a bit of my houswife and mothering education. so here goes:

never, ever, ever, ever, ever, buy brown bathroom rugs. they show everything. well, they show everthing except the things that really need to be washed out.

just a thought

every story has a begining. just like that first page in every book. the problem is, we never are sure where the beginings are. sometimes you see something and think, "when did this happen?" or "when did my kids start doing that?" i guess i wasn't around for the actual begining of it. funny how it seems that all the interesting stories have muddy beginings. i mean, would you call the first time i saw big d the begining of our story, or the middle. do you take it from when each of us were born, or what? logically it would be the first date, but it might be more interesting to add the first time i saw him, or the first rehearsal.

i am trying to understand how you could be in the middle of a great story, only to not know it. by the time you might realize it, you've long past the begining and are halfway to the end. just as we have lots of stories unfolding arouund us, are we equally surrounded by small beginings. first pages in volumes of books.

even after the books are written, or the movies set on the shelf, sometimes another book is added to explain more of the begining. a prequell perhaps. we've seen it dozens of times. i guess we have a fascination with how things start. does the beginig have any importance? it may be the most boring part of the story, but it usually is the most human. most true beginings were made by someone making a decision. a person doing something almost completely unremarkable. hence the situation of trying to figure out the true commencement.

we could get really philosiphicall and start reasoning that everything goes back, wether you believe that God created all, or that we came from a small explosion of matter. we could also go the whole "chicken or the egg" thing, which, you got to admit, is pretty interesting. take it back to the very start. we read in the bible "in the begining there was darkness..." but even then, at the first of the first, we know there must have been more, there must have been something else. some other start of that start. everything is just tied together, like some huge domino design, falling very quickly around us, and pushing off other starts in different directions.

that was my thought anyway.

more of the story

happy valentines day!

grandma's are wonderful. they bring by treats that make a baby, who hasn't felt good, feel much better!

poor baby, poor mommy and daddy....

poor fussy is sick. has been. that is why i haven't blogged lately. i probably wouldn't have made any coherent sentances if i had tried. we've been a bit sleep deprived.

i think he is getting better though.

it doesn't get any easier the more kids you have. in fact, i think it gets harder. not only because you are in charge of more kids anyway, but that you really don't know what to do when they are sick, and you think you probably should have it down by now. and each kid is different. where one will be fussy and not eat with strep, the other one will get the pukeys. weird. kids are so weird. little bodies and no words to describe exactly what is wrong.

bless big d for staying home from work to take a bit of burden off me. i know he stayed home yesterday because he couldn't keep his own eyes open, but he helped out more than he knows.

so there we are. official diagnosis of fussy...some kind of virus. i am thinking he is on the mend. he actually has been eating and nursing for the first time in days.

sigh

it's that time of day. the time between homework, and daddy getting home. that wonderful time of day when kids are grumpy and mom is too. when diet coke doesn't even touch the headache that has been threatening all day, but which the 2nd grade math homework instantly freed.

big d has a new work schedule. and it's lame. he gets home almost an hour later than he used too. he leaves from work hopefully by 4:30, but he doesn't walk in through the door until 5:45 at least. later if it snows, if there is traffic, or if the sun is shining. i'm sure if he would drive to and from work, he could make it quicker, but he loves the bus.

i know most stay at home mom's do the same thing as me. "go see if daddy is home yet" just for a distraction. that has yet to work on the baby who seems extra fussy lately and wants mom to hold him all the time.

the wonderful hour of my life when i wish i could run away, or take a bubble bath and all my troubles would disappear like the diet coke.

enough already

snow, that is. move along. stop snowing please. i'm done with white, powdery, snowy stuff. done with slippery roads and snow plows. i'm done with the snowblower, the shovel. snowboots. done. with. winter.

we have had snow since december. it has snowed every other day for the past week, and it will continue next week. my parents have 4 feet of snow in thier yard, we only have 2 feet in ours. it is miserable, cold, wet. cloudy snowy crappy winter. but at least it's february!

which reminds me, i've been blogging for 2 years.

back to winter. what do you think, 6 more weeks of this crap? or is spring on its way? i'm hoping for an early spring. i am probably going to need a canoe to go along with my minivan though.

fussy's birthday party

we were supposed to have a birthday party for fussy on sunday. supposed to. but i got sick. actually i have been sick for well over a week. it just hit me really hard on saturday. so i cancelled sunday. which was good, because by sunday, i really felt bad, and fussy felt bad. and we were misserable together.

so instead of a party, where other people come over and wish him happy birthday, we had a small "just us" family thing. i felt badly that we didn't have an all out big to do. but really, when it was all said and done, it was a nice evening. nothing too big. just our sweet family.

so without anymore ado, here's some pictures of the big day. my one year old!

fussy asleep after dinner. we went to the happy meal place as a cop out for mom. but the kids enjoyed playing. i mean, that is what a birthday party is all about right?


after waking up he opened his presents


and started eating the wrapping paper



a bit of cake for the birthday boy

he wasn't too sure about it


and top the evening off with the crazy brothers stuffing balloons in their shirts. i swear i don't teach them this stuff.
looks like fun huh?

you do miss out and the rocking chair from grandma and grandpa that has been a big hit. and the cars from auntie nettie that he takes everywhere. so much for mom and dad buying him anything.

happy birthday fussy dear

has it been a year already? it seems both like it has been forever and that it was just yesterday that you were born. i remember the day clearly, but i have trouble remembering other specific days.

you are such a special sweet baby. and i knew you would be. from the moment we found out we were going to have you! you may have stolen my heart, but you give me so much love in return. you keep me on my toes, but you stop to give me love just as often.

you are you. original. it is going to be hard for you sometimes, being the third boy. with two strong older brothers, you might just get lost a bit. you have your own personality. your own sense of humor, your own timetable.

i will miss this baby year, but you are so much fun now. it's okay that you are growing up. i have had so much more fun than i have ever had with a baby before. you are so silly and so cute. i cannot possibly imagine having a different baby. so happy birthday my sweet boy. my third son.

i love you my fussy.

fussy's first year

life really isn't fair

there are several things brooding in my mind lately. there are many examples of this simple phrase i use every day to my kids. i guess i didn't have that growing up. maybe because i was the baby of the family, and my parents didn't like to hear me fuss. maybe because i really had never been bad off. maybe because of my generation of "me". i don't know, but i say the words, but i never really believed them.

now here i am, a grown woman. with kids of my own. and life isn't fair. every single day something unfair happens. some big, some small. some good, some bad.

when i first started realizing this, i thought some cosmic all foreseeing power had it in for me. see, that would make it fair. punishment is fairness in a way, right?

of course where my kids are involved, i really do try to be fair to them. maybe i am overly sensitive right now, because the raising of my 7 and 4 year old have caused me to try and make things fair. same amount of money spent at christmas, same type of toys, same birthday presents. same bedtime, same amount of gamecube time, and the list can go on. as i am learning now, it so sucks to have life give you that "curve ball". then you wonder where "fairness" ends and "jealousy" begins.

i hear chilly exclaim all the time that "THAT'S NOT FAIR!". i always try to remedy the situation, if indeed it isn't, and if i feel it is, i always explain why. still, 9 out of 10 times of disappointment for him are shouted out with that phrase.

where am i going with this? i don't really know. i guess i just figured out that simple thing about the sucky-ness of life. maybe i was being optimistic deep down and never understood the truth. life is hardly ever fair. the sooner i let go of this fairy tale, the better for me and my kids. i can only do so much in their lives. i only have so much control. life will get them in the end. when it does, i hope i am there to help them really understand that life isn't fair.

what?

the indoor/outdoor thermometer reads, at 8:30 this morning, 3.5 degrees outside. ho.ly. crap. i'm SOOO glad i have a working treadmill. even if i am hacking up my lungs.

stairs, the final frontier

fussy has been a slow baby. he has yet to prove to the majority of the world that he can crawl. he just doesn't care to. it seemed all fine and well with me. i was a bit worried, but found an immobile baby is a good baby.

harry started really walking at 8 months old. chilly was more like 10 months old when he started taking off. fussy pulls himself up but doesn't really care to take a step. he's going to be a year old in a couple of weeks. but you see the difference right? mobility.

fussy scoots. you remember the video from a couple of posts back right? we live in a split level house. for our first 2 babies, we lived in a flat house. with no stairs. this is by far a stair-y house. my nephew once mentioned that we must be very wealthy to have a house with 4 levels. apparently most 10 year olds don't see ratty furniture, holes in the walls, and peeling paint.

for the past couple of days, i can't keep fussy from the stairs. it is his first exploration of the day. i worry that he will fall down them. i worry that he will crawl up them, and then fall down them. okay, he has. hour after hour he's on the stairs. learning how to top the flight. i have a baby gate which i put up to keep him from going down the stairs, but it doesn't quite fit going up. but then, if i am in the kitchen with him, i really need to have two gates. and we all know how cheap i am. since i don't have enough gates, and since he is almost 1, we have been trying to teach him how to go down. he doesn't like to roll onto his belly to slide down. so i've been pulling his feet to the edge and scooting him to fall on the step with his bum. he hasn't liked the options. he voted to either fall down, or cry until i come and get him. or sit there.

an interesting thing happened today though. fussy went up. to the top of the top. and then before i could "rescue" him, he started going down on his bum. scooting to the edge and falling one step at a time, landing on his diapered bum. then he climbs back up, and scoots down again. then he goes to the plant, pulls out all the dirt, climbs back up the stairs and does it all again.

it is so fun to have a baby. even in my sarcastic moments, i see how cool it is that he learned for himself.

stairs have been conquered.


*as a side note. as i was typing this up, he got into the plant again. since harry is off track, he wanted to help clean up all the dirt. so he picked up fussy and brought him down to me. and ran upstairs to vacuum. meanwhile fussy sort of chased/raced him back upstairs. at least harry doesn't wonder how come the house is a total mess most days*

time flies

except when it's:

january
christmas eve
dental appoinments
doctor waiting rooms
kids getting throw ups
pregnancy
february
between lunch and dinner
wash cycle
colds

and
running on a treadmill

i am really happy that big d fixed ours. no more sub zero runs. at least it felt like it was sub zero. enough to have my eyelashes freeze. no more bundling up in tights,pants, undershirt, overshirt, jacket, 2 pairs of gloves, earband and gaiter. i feel so free, and so mind numbingly bored!

dear lacey,

happy birthday.

remember when we did that scene together? the one about graceland? where i was named bev? remember when we traveled around to attend "fake" beatles concerts? remember the sting of that first tattoo? remember that really cute kid that came to that party in the cheerleading outfit? that was all fun. staying after school and dancing in the drama room. or asking our teacher to sing "desperado" one more time. being in shows together, driving across montana. buying beatles cd's, and sleeping over.

i miss you.

did i ever tell you that? did i ever tell you how much i loved being your friend? well i did. really, i can't remember ever having a friend that was so kind to me. a friend that was so thoughtful and genuine. i really am sorry if i ever treated you badly, or for the times when i wasn't worthy of being your friend.



i think of you often and wish you the best of luck up there in the frozen north.

all my love
meemer

its' not that i am old...it's just that...

it snuck up on me. when did this happen? not only am i turning 30 years old, i can't remember how i got here.

i have an idea. my kids stole it. they stole my 20's. they steal all the good food at home. the chocolate, the cinnamon bears. they steal the best spots on the sofa to watch movies. they steal my nights, they steal my socks. AND now i find out, they stole my youth.

it isn't that i am old. i feel very much young. i still feel like i did when i was 22, only things seem different, like i'm wiser. smarter. assier. my body is fine, my gray hairs... well, i can't find them. i am noticing tired lil' wrinkles in a few places. really, i just don't feel like i'm 30.

i don't even know how 30 is supposed to feel! maybe i do feel like 30, i just don't realize that 30 isn't much different from 20. maybe that is why women keep saying they are 29 every year. they just don't feel 30 yet.

THEN i go on and think that in only 10 years, i'll be 40. i really better get to work if i want to having something to show for 40 years of life. i know i have accomplished some things already. apparently, i taught my kids how to steal my youth.

i'm not sad for turning 30. in fact, i am a bit excited that people have to take me seriously now. i have been looking forward to being part of the cool crowd for a while now. of course, now that i am here, i bet they will all turn 40 and be much cooler again. i guess i just better enjoy who i am, and try to remember how i got here. even better, try to pay attention to the next 10 years.

happy birthday to me!