Conversations Heard At My House

On Getting a Pet:

7 yr old, "Can we have a pet mouse?

Me, "No, I am not buying any mice. We are trying to get rid of mice"

8yr old, "Hey maybe *those* mice can be your pets"

7yr old, "Those aren't pets!! People don't kill their pets!!!"


On clothing:

3 yr old, "I look stupid in this shirt"

5 yr old, "No, you always look like that"


On gardening:

"You don't need to water those flowers. I peed on them for you"


On bugs:

3 yr old, "Did you see all the ants I brought inside to feed the toad"

Me, "Uh...no. Where did you put them."

3 yr old, "I put them right here, but now they are gone."

Me, "Oh NO!!"

3yr old, "Don't worry Mom, I can find more."


On breathing:

9yr old, "Do you think if I hold my breathe long enough I will turn blue and die?"

Me, going into long explanation of why this would not happen.

9 yr old, "Do you think maybe?"

Me, "No"

9yr old, "Well just maybe, right?"

Me, "Ummm, no"

9 yr old, "Well, you don't know everything so maybe it could happen."

Me, "Hey why don't you hold your breathe and try it?"

9 yr old, "Will you revive me?"

Me, "I won't need to"

9 yr old, "But what if you do?"

The loud banging heard next is me smacking my own head against the wall.

Dancing Queen

My baby loves music and she loves to dance. Her absolute favorite song is "Yellow" by Coldplay. Everytime she hears the song she can't help but dance and bob her little head. It is very cute.

She is also really into taking off her clothing.

We are so hoping that these two things combined do not indicate a future career path ;-)

Made My Prenatal Appointment Today

I finally made my prenatal doctor appointment today. My appointment will be July 19th, making me about 17.5 weeks for my first visit. The receptionist seemed a bit confused when she asked for the date of my LMP and I said about June 2002. LOL

I was really torn about whether I wanted to return to the same group of doctors or use a midwife and have a homebirth. I went back and forth, and back and forth again. Driving my husband a bit crazy in the process ;-) In the end I decided to go with the doctors and a hospital birth again.

I like the group of doctors who have delievred my last 3 babies, it is the hospital experience I could really do with out. After I gave birth my daughter, a labor that had complication after complication, the nurse told me that I was lucky if it had been any other doctor I would have been in having a c-section. *That* is my worst nightmare.

So far we haven't told anyone irl about the pregnancy, except for my best friend. I haven't even told my children yet. I know they will be excited and want to tell everyone. My 5 yr old did say to me the other day I was looking pretty fat, so I don't think it will be long before I'll have to tell them.

Nursing Strike

My baby has decided that she is done nursing. She no longer walks up to me and gives me her sign that she wants to nurse.

Now she comes up to me and shouts, "Ma-Ma... ba-ba". I have been replaced by very vanilla soy milk.

I have asked her a few times if she wants nursies and she answers with her new favorite word, "NO".

My baby is growing up ;-)

Unpacking

Today I was reading Rachel's blog about unpacking and thought of my own boxes still sitting packed in my attic... 15 mos after our move.

And yes, many of them are labelled "junk", "crap", and "whatever". I even have one labelled "junk drawer", which, obviously, has the entire contents of the junk drawer at our former house. I look in it and see things that might be useful.... like the button that goes to my sons red sweater. But I really need to get honest with myself and face the fact that I will never sew it back on. I'm just not good at that stuff. I have to accept the reality that I would rather my son wear a sweater missing a button than sew. I wonder where that puts me in the running for the Bad Mother of the Year Award.

What baffles me about this isn't so much the need I felt to pack it all (I was 9 mos pregnant and I think that must count for some kind of temporary insanity reprieve), but rather why I can't just throw them away now. If I haven't needed anything in the box for 15 mos, odds are that it isn't very important.

So today I decided to become motivated and purge some of the "junk" from our attic.

The first box I went to had all my old college papers. I looked through it and read some of the things I wrote. Gee, who was that girl? Did I really think such intellectual thoughts? Some of the things I wrote I really didn't even understand anymore LOL. I guess gestating and lactating take more brain cells than I realized.

I couldn't get rid of it, though it serves no purpose. I figure one day my children can find it. I imagine them reading it, "Gee, Mom had a brain before we turned her into a blathering idiot, incapable of uttering a complete sentence or remembering her children's correct names" ;-)

Then I found some puzzle pieces that I had neatly placed in a ziploc bag. I have no idea where the other 99 pieces are that would go to these orphan puzzles pieces. That was easy to toss.
But I am sure I will now find the remaining pieces.

I found a very old pocketbook which had copies of my college transcript and my LSAT scores. Further evidence that I did have a working brain once upon a time. I resisted the urge to turn them into iron-on transfers and put them on the front of a t-shirt.

So at the end of the day I filled two big black garbage bags full of "junk", lots of forgotten stuffed animals, broken bits to toys, old McDonalds toys, toys I never really liked to begin with, seasonal decorations that haven't been out for years, old magazines and toy catalogs of the children's that were half missing.

Hmmmmm, I am sensing a pattern, most of the things I got rid of didn't even belong to *me* LOL. Maybe I'll have the kids help me go through my things and let them get rid of what they think I don't need.

I have told my husband if we ever move again I am taking nothing with me but my toothbrush, and even that is up for debate.

14 weeks

All of a sudden my clothes no longer fit.

Now if the morning, noon and night sickness would just go away.

I Thought I Had Heard Them All

Today when we were at Home Depot exchanging the rug, which took WAY too long btw, the cashier counted the children (outloud...good to know he could count that high ;-)) and then said the oddest thing to me.

"It must be very hot at your house."

Huh?

Quickly things ran through my mind.....is this some sort of sexual innuendo? is he implying that we cannot afford air conditioning? or that my house is not well ventilated?

I thought that I must have heard wrong and so I said "What?"

And he again repeated, "It must be very hot at your house."

Seeing the puzzled look on my face he sought to clarify his comment, "You know with them all waking up in the morning for breakfast."

Huh?

Luckily I had the antics of my 3yr old to distract me from any further conversations.

Our Busy Saturday

Well late yesterday afternoon the UPS man came to pick up the pool, but he was not able to take it because I had it packed up in 3 boxes, not one. I could not find a box large enough to put it all in. Taping all the boxes together was apparently *not* an option.

I was going to have to call and have them reissue tags for the UPS man to come back...another 3-5 days, and then probably 2 weeks before the new pool would make it to us. I reminded the customer service representative that we wanted to swim in the pool this summer, not skate on it in the winter ;-)

So I called around and found a Walmart that had one in stock, only it was an hour away from us. So at 9:00 I packed everyone in the van and off we went. The things I won't do for my children's happiness LOL.

From there we went to Home Depot and I returned a defective rug I had bought two weeks ago and bought some more grout sealer so I can put another coat on our new slate floor. I brought the kids through the McDonald's drive thru and then we stopped at the garden store.

I bought two flats of red and white petunias to put into our 4 flower boxes on the porch, and 6 large potted pink and white petunias for pots on the front porch steps. Also bought way more potting soil than I needed, it is so hard to judge how much you need.

When we came home my younger children "helped" me plant the flower boxes. I tend to be a perfectionist about this sort of thing and it is very difficult for me to watch them plant the flowers LOL. But I try to remember that the process is what is important, not the final outcome. If they kill them all I can always buy more flowers :-)





Then we dragged all the wicker furniture off the front porch and freshened them up with a new coat of paint. I got out the leaf blower and blew all the "extra" potting soil off the porch and driveway. The children had fun riding their bikes around me while I pretended I was a hurricane trying to blow them off their bikes. LOL

Another fun day at the big yellow house.

A Big Ugly Vent

Why is it if you only have one or two kids you are "allowed" to have them misbehave? But if you have alot of kids then you have more kids than you can handle.

Why is it that the nosey busybody at the grocery store failed to notice all the rest of my children standing quietly and patiently at the checkout counter while the 3 year old ran screaming out of the store with me chasing him through the parking lot?

Does anyone have a 3 yr old that behaves well? Isn't it the very nature of a 3yr old to be irrational and willful, and to assert his independence to the point of making all those around him want to yank every hair out of their own head in frustration?

And did that same nosey busybody really think it was helpful as I carried my kicking, screaming, thrashing son back into the store to tell me I had "more kids than I needed" ?

As I left the store I thought, no, I need even more children to make up for the judgemental sorts of people like you.

Update On My Day

- Took apart high chair and cleaned it, put seat cushion through the washing machine, all the while wondering why the make high chairs with so many nooks and crannies for junk to collect

- Five loads of children's laundry and two loads of towels

- Sorted through winter outwear. Decided that 85 pair of gloves and mittens was way too many and culled it down to a more acceptable number

- Vacuumed family room, sunroom, kitchen, foyer, and butler's pantry

- Took all cushions off all the upholstered furniture in family room and sunroom and vacuumed them

- Had the children carry out from the third floor all the crushed moving boxes that had piled up and bring them down to the garbage can area and pile them neatly

- Found all the children's books on the first and second floor of the house and carried them up to the children's library

- Reorganized the children's library
I also keep their school and art supplies in there. This took over two hours.

Before photo:



- Picked up tupperware that the baby threw on the kitchen floor 50 times and wonder why I don't buy some cabinet locks or throw the tupperware away...the latter would save me from the next item on the list

- Cleaned out refrigerator and did throw away a couple tupperware that had scary science projects growing in them, washed down the shelves and outside of the the refrigerator

- Washed the fronts of all the kitchen cabinets and dishwasher


- Cleaned up mudroom and had 5yr old line up all the shoes, which took up the entire area of a 4x6 rug

- Packed up all the winter children's clothing that had not been packed last week and carried all the bins from the first floor up to the third floor storage room

- Carried Fall (!!!!) outdoor decorations from foyer closet up to third floor storage room

- Went grocery shopping (yes all the children were with me)

- Picked up Chinese food for dinner

- Went to video store and rented children a DVD as a reward for being such good cleaning helpers

- Got tv out of the closet and set it up so they can watch their movie

- Supervised or helped with 7 showers/baths


- Of course did the normal stuff like make breakfast, lunch and snacks, change diapers, wipe butts, mediate arguments, load and unload dishwasher twice

But I didn't even do half of the stuff on my list for today. Cleaning up the children's library took a huge chunk of my time. There must be a thousand children's books. The photos really don't show the amount of work that was involved and the huge amount of complaining and whining that were heard. The children whined a bit also ;-)

After:


(The paint color combination came with the house. So far the third floor children's library has been low on the priority list LOL)

The rain prevented me from spray painting our outdoor porch furniture and the grocery store incident with my 3 yr old made me rethink going to Home Depot. Hopefully I'll get both of those things done tomorrow. I also want to hit the florist and buy the flowers for our flower boxes and plant them this weekend.

Put Your Mind To It Day...

Today is "put your mind to it day" at the big yellow house.

It got this name after the husband of a good friend of mine came home from work, shortly after she had given birth to their fourth child, and asked her what she had been doing all day. And then went on to say that he thought she could get alot more done around the house if she would be more organized and just put her mind to it. He has yet to live down this piece of "constructive criticism".

So tonight I'll post a list of what I managed to get done today.






I am wondering....would it be so wrong to put the lids on the containers and stack them in the corner so the children couldn't mess up the house faster than I can clean it?

Don't Give Me Any Stinkin' Baby Food

The baby pushed the stool over to the table and we caught her eating one of the big kids root beer floats. And, yes, I let her finish it. How could I take it away when she worked so hard to get to it and she looked so cute?

And for maybe the second time in her entire life, she actually slept through the night last night. Maybe I should give her a root beer float every night ;-)

My Anniversary

Ten years ago today my husband and I got into our car, drove to NYC, and got married. No friends, no relatives, no fanfare... and no regrets. We were not conventional then, and I guess we still aren't.

When I dug out the photographs of our wedding, taken by the janitor at the town hall, my first thought was how well rested we looked. I don't think I have had undisturbed sleep since five months after our wedding when I gave birth to our first son. And no, he was not an 8lb preemie, as much as my mother would have liked to pass him off as such.

The other night my husband asked me if I had been able to see into the future ten years ago would I still have married him. I laughed and said, "What, give up all this?" as I motioned around the room at the toys that were still strewn about, the mountain sized pile of laundry, the half done home improvement projects, and the unruly posse of children who were out of their beds for the hundredth time that night with their tales of woe.

And then I said, actually shouted over the din of the children, "I couldn't envision a happier, more fulfilling life"

The Frog Has Been Found

Tragedy has been averted.

A 3 year old has been spared his older brothers' wrath.

The frog cage is now locked up like Fort Knox.

Harmony is restored to the big yellow house.





Personally I am just happy he didn't try to open the frog cage the same way he tried to open the pool box ;-)

Enjoying Our Day

Last summer when I was trying to lose my pregnancy weight, we would walk to our post office everyday. It is about 4 miles round trip and since the kids ride their bikes while I push the stroller, I have to walk rather quickly so that I am not left completely behind. It is pretty good exercise.

For the past few weeks that we have had nice warm weather the children have been begging to resume our daily walks. But, to be completely honest, the morning (all day long) sickness has wiped me out. I have barely had enough energy to walk to the van and drive to the post office. LOL

I needed to mail a present to my friend who just had a baby and this morning I was feeling somewhat human. So I filled up the water bottles and off we went. It was great. The weather was warm, but with a slight breeze. And I enjoyed looking at all the neighbors yards and seeing what sort of flowers they have blooming in front of their houses. My front yard is rather uninspired and could use some help.

And now we are home, relaxing on the front porch. The children have out their art kits and are coloring and painting. The baby is walking around showing off her newest word "NO". Everyone is having fun asking her questions just so they can hear her shout it. It is one of those perfect moments that you wish you could bottle up and save.

But, as with anything, the wonderful harmony cannot last forever. The 3 year old has just come out to inform us that he opened up the frog cage and one of the frogs has escaped. Now begins an all out search of the big yellow house. Should be fun.

Hmmmmm...think I could convince them to pick up all their junk off the floor while we are looking? I mean you never know the frog might just be hiding in the trail of legos.

I know, wishful thinking.

The Zen Pond

When our realtor first brought us to look at the big yellow house, he bragged about the flower gardens and in particular a small man made pond. I looked at the pond and did not see a zen meditation place but rather a mosquito breeding ground and drowning hazard.

So we did what any normal rational parents would do. We drained the pond and turned it into a huge firepit. Now, not only can we enjoy roasted marshmallows every weekend, but we also can also have a place to get rid of all the butt-ugly 1960 era panelling that has disgraced this big yellow house for too long.

It turns out the promise of marshmallows is a great motivator for the children to help carry the wood all the way from the house to the firepit.

The children love the fires.... the husband less so since it entails alot of destructive work for him, which in turn requires lots of reconstruction. LOL





One of the children asked if we could have fires every weekend. And my husband, the cynic, replied that since he is yoked to the big yellow albatross we will probably be having fires every weekend until he drops dead of exhaustion.

And without missing a beat the child screamed, "Yea!!!"

Looking On The Bright Side

My 7 year old just came to me and said, "You know what the good things about not having a pool right now?"

Me, "Uh, no what?"

7 year old, "It's pouring rain out and is supposed to keep raining for the rest of the week! We couldn't have swimmed anyway."

Hmmmm...yes that might be good news if we DIDN"T ALREADY HAVE 2000 GALLONS OF WATER IN OUR YARD!

2000....

the number of gallons of water that are pouring out of the pool and into our yard.

5... the number of children who are crying

2... the number of children who are most likely responsible for the slow leak in the inflatable upper ring of the pool when they helpfully tried to open the pool box by repeatedly stabbing it with steak knives.

14... the number of days before the replacement pool will be delivered.

20... the number of times I have already been asked when the new pool will get here

50,000... the number of times I anticipate being asked when the new pool will get here.

I can hardly wait ;-)

10,000...

the number of times I have been asked over the past two days if the pool is done filling yet.








I keep telling the children that I would give anything for the pool to filled just so I wouldn't have to listen to anymore whining.

They pondered that a few moments and then my 5 year old thoughtfully asked, "Do you think the pool is filled yet?"

Nope, not yet.

Sigh....I think it is going to be a long day.