Exhaustion, with a side of levity

Whoo boy! Has this been a loooooong couple of weeks around here. I’m so tired I can barely see straight. I do, however, have some funnies to share with you before I get to the rest of the story. I figure you’d be too tired to read the funny part if I didn’t put it first…

Here are some conversations I’ve jotted down throughout the week, hoping to someday blog about them.

Belle says to me while singing away to her High School Musical 2 soundtrack:

“Sometimes when me and “Grabiella” (Gabriella) sing, it sounds nice when we sing together!”

Little Bear threw a tantrum one day (I forget which day it was now) because he wanted to play in the snow. Snow. When it was mid 70’s and sunny. On a day when I, terrible as it is, have no control over the weather!! Oh the crying and whining that brought.

Belle is allowed to buy her lunch one day a week. When I asked her this week what she had for lunch she replied, “Grilled Cheese”, which sounds suspiciously like Girl Cheese. Little Bear retorted, “No, Boy Cheese!”

J happened to be home the afternoon the space shuttle took off. He watched the NASA channel and even pulled up a video of the take off on the computer. As J was clearing the table for dinner, he showed Little Bear the clip on the laptop. However, LB got a little lost in the terminology. Here’s how the conversation went:

LB: Daddy, I gonna watch the space ship.
J: Watch it launch?
LB: No! Dinner!

That’s all the funny I have for now. Now for the exhaustion portion of the program. We have very nearly survived J’s two week rotation in OB Anesthesia with hours from hell. The work itself is nothing extraordinary, but the schedule is 24 on/24 off. Meaning he works for 24 hours-sleeping at most 3 hours, and then is off for 24 hours-sleeping at least 13 hours, not counting all the times I have to wake him at the table and on the sofa. Keeping the kids quiet while he sleeps is something I’ve dealt with for years and isn’t such a big deal any more. The part that’s been the hardest is we have had absolutely no rhythm to our lives. I’m not much on a rigid schedule, but a rhythm is something I really need.

It hasn’t helped, either, that the kids have had a cold. They were all on the mend until Friday night when Belle took a downward turn. I’m guessing she picked up a second cold. She does this crazy thing when she’s coming down with something big-she cries out in her sleep, sort of like night terrors, where she thrashes around in bed and cries loudly but isn’t awake. Eventually she will wake up, so I have to keep checking on her waiting for the time she really is awake. Last night she started crying around 10 and woke up Little Lamb. I moved her to LB’s room (who sleeps like a rock) and she continued crying on and off until about 10:45. She finally woke up and began complaining of pain in her mouth. She moaned and whimpered about an hour or so without any real idea of why she was hurting. I think it was about 1:45 before she settled back to sleep, on the sofa this time-I was tired of the constant up and down the stairs routine.

This morning she said things sounded funny in her right ear and she had some wet stuff in her ear, but no pain in her ear or her mouth. It wasn’t much and J was busy when I paged him, so I put it aside. She had a mild fever so I gave her Tylenol. It helped a bit and she napped for about 1.5 hours. If you know Belle, you know that any nap at all is completely rare except in the car. She pretty well stayed glued to the sofa all day. Around 3, I noticed more fluid running down her ear lobe and immediately paged J. He said we should bring her in to the ER to get checked.

Poor little Belle was soooo freaked out. She knows that hospitals are for serious things and she was really scared to go. She complied with everything the nurses and docs did, but she had this fearful scowl on her face the entire time we were in the hospital. Our suspicions were correct- she has a perforated ear drum due to an infection. We got the scrip for the antibiotic and were on our way. By the time we got the scrip filled and got back home it was 8:10pm.

So I’m sure I’ve made you tired just reading all of this. I must go collapse in bed and pray that no one wakes me until at least 6:30 in the morning!

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D.L.F.B.

So, I’ve been trying to get myself out of this crazy/messy house funk for a while now. I do better for a while, get tired, let things slip, get mad at myself for letting things slip, loose all motivation to make it better, sulk around for a day or two, then slap myself back into reality. If this sounds at all familiar to you, let me share a little idea I found randomly one day on the good ole internet.

I can’t remember what link I followed to get there, but I found this blog where a woman is trying desperately to get her house/life/family in order. She has a friend who has been there, done that, and found a way out of the hole. She is contributing posts to the blog to offer advice and cheer everyone on. Here is how she suggests to start:

D.L.F.B.

Dishes, Laundry, Floors, Bathrooms

The idea is that if you can spend a small amount of time touching each of these areas each day, your house will gradually become easier to maintain. It also helps you keep from getting overwhelmed with the amount of cleaning you have to do. I hate those days when I feel like I’ve hardly played with the kids for all my attempts at cleaning. Especially when I look around and still see so much that needs to be done.

Now off to empty the dishwasher while Little Lamb naps!

You’ve ruined my life!

Tonight Belle, Little Bear and I headed over to a friend’s house for a casual party-the parents all hang around the food table/fire pit and the kids run around on the play equipment. We all had a great time. We got home a little before Belle’s normal bedtime, but I told her she could stay up for a little bit since it’s Friday. As nine o’clock was approaching, I got she and her brother dressed for bed and said it was time for bed. She whined about staying up late and wanting to do some project. I said no, she’d stayed up late enough. She whined some more. I said I was going to let her do the project in bed, but now she couldn’t because of all the whining. She tried the “I’ll be good now” strategy, but I said it was too late.

Once we were upstairs, I read books and tucked in she and Little Bear. She asked to color in bed, but I said no…remember the whining?? She proceeded to sniffle and nearly cry while I said prayers. When I asked her what was wrong she said,

“You’ve ruined my life from coloring!”

me: “What??”

Belle: “You’ve ruined my life from coloring and I love coloring!”

Dramatic much?

I didn’t expect to hear those choice words for a couple more years. Oh how I’m looking forward to the tween/teen years!

Tidbits

J worked seriously long hours last week and through the whole weekend. I’m still recovering. Thus, you get little tidbits of our week:

One day Belle told me a boy in her class (the one who doesn’t behave!) colored in her lunch box with a marker. She and her friend told the teacher and she made him clean it up.

Little Lamb is so close to walking. She pulls up on me or some piece of furniture, lets go with her hands in the air and a huge smile on her face, takes one step and falls forward into my lap. It’s so precious.

Another day Belle told me a different boy spanked her on the bottom during small group work. Apparently she was in his way. The aid saw it happen and made him go talk to the teacher about it.

Little Bear has (mostly) spontaneously told me he loves me twice! I’m a big “I love you!” person and say it every chance I get. I do ask him to say “I love you, Mommy” and he always obliges me. I figure if you don’t teach them to say it, how will they know? Just like please and thank you. Anyway, twice now Little Bear has responded to me with “Luh yu, Mommy!” without me asking. It warms my heart!

Little Lamb is progressing with her speech far more quickly than I expected. We play peek-a-boo but instead of using those words I say, “Where’s ____?” And then, when he/she reveals themself, I say “There you are!” Now Little Lamb will parrot back the same tone I use but say something like “Dere luh lah” I wasn’t sure I believed it at first, but J witnessed it last night and there’s no denying it!

Today Belle told me a different boy in her class lifted up her shirt one day last week. I told her that was a MAJOR no, no and to tell a teacher immediately if it happens again.

An all girls school is sounding better and better!

Now I hear Belle coughing in bed. She was fine when I put her in bed at 8:30 and now at 10 she is coughing! Ugh. Much as I want Fall and the cool temps to come, I am not looking forward to the illnesses that come along with them.

A sticky situation

I’ve been so hit or miss with the posts lately that I realized I never told you about a little discussion with Belle. Understand that Belle has only attended church affiliated schools up until this year, so singing songs of prayer before snack or lunch is normal to her. We don’t generally say prayers at our meals at home because I don’t think my husband would appreciate it. Sometimes Belle will ask to sing one from school and we always oblige her.

As her birthday approached, we made plans to bring cupcakes to school. She was very excited to have me come up to school to celebrate. She happened to ask me a few days before why they don’t sing prayers before snack or lunch and I said something like you just don’t do that at this school. I was caught a little off guard, I guess, and didn’t have a good explanation. Then she announced that she was going to sing her prayer from preschool when I brought her cupcakes. So, I had to give her a little more explanation. It made me sad to tell her she couldn’t sing her sweet song. Partly because I’d love for her to be in a private Christian school and partly because I realized that while she is surrounded by loving teachers, there will be something lacking in her education that I will have to supply. I’ve taken a bit of a back seat on these matters, trying to balance my beliefs with those of my husband. Now I am the sole person that can meet those needs. We’ve found a church we (Belle and I) like. Little Bear and Little Lamb seem to like the nursery-there’s only one class for all kids 0-2. They do have Sunday School, but we haven’t been yet. I didn’t want to push Belle to early knowing that Kindergarten has been such a big hurdle for her. Maybe it’s time now.

Anyone out there have any ideas or tips for me?

A rant…

Generally speaking I find watching JS and JT a rewarding experience. They are nice boys who like Little Bear and Little Lamb (ok, JS mostly ignores Little Lamb but he’s only 2.5). They have, however, made me realize what little mess my kids make when eating.

Now there are certain foods that will make a mess no matter what-saltine and ritz crackers, crusty bread, Life cereal-but most foods don’t generally make that much mess. At least that’s what I thought! On Mondays when I keep JS in the morning and JT in the afternoon, I often have to sweep the floor after snack and then do it again after lunch. Today I vacuumed the floors after lunch. Some of the mess was from Little Lamb and Little Bear as they had ritz crackers, but a disproportionate amount of the mess was from JT. Who ate a PBJ sandwich (on super soft white sandwich bread) and a fruit roll-up. How can that be messy??? After I vacuumed the family room, kitchen, high chair and booster seat, JT asked if he could eat his dessert. “Sure” I said. And he sat at the table and proceeded to make another enormous mess! A bag of mini chips ahoy cookies. I can see making a little mess with those. But really? Right after I vacuumed!!!!????!!!

I’m not blaming little JT. He doesn’t mean to do it. I’ve just learned to appreciate my children a little more lately. And that, I’m reminding myself, (grumble, grumble) is a good thing!

For the record, JT’s Mom packs his lunches. Just in case you were wondering where the nutrition was…

Off to clean the table and JT’s chair. Don’t get me started on the table and chairs!!

As promised

Here’s the long awaited birthday pics!

We’ll start with Little Lamb’s first birthday:

She’s wearing the same outfit Belle wore to her first birthday party. 🙂

She was seriously excited about opening the presents! She seemed to know that it was a special day.

Here is a shot of the cake. It’s the same one I made for Belle and Little Bear for their first birthdays (LB’s was blue), except it’s only one layer. It’s a Martha from the wonderful Martha Stewart Baby magazine. Oh how I miss those! They have a similar on online (one bowl chocolate cake), but it isn’t exactly the same and it doesn’t show the decorations. I made one recipe and baked one layer for Little Lamb and another for Belle.

And here’s a cute pic of Little Lamb enjoying her cake. It’s a little fuzzy, but the expression is worth it! She was rather intrigued by the plate (her first) and ending up throwing it on the floor. Thank goodness for Corelle!

Now we have Belle’s birthday!

She received this fun microphone from her Mimi and Grandad. Can you tell she’s excited here?

Here’s the cake I made for Belle at home. The coloring is modeled after her most favorite stuffed bunny, Sleeping Beauty. I used a bunny shaped pan that I bought at World Market in an after-Easter sale.

We celebrated Belle’s birthday again this weekend at her party. We have some fun pictures I’ll share another time. Must get dinner on the table!