Mom's night out

As much as I love my children, I look forward to the occasional night out. It's a much needed break and I find myself counting down the hours until I can escape, childless, out into the world. Last night was such a night and couldn't have come fast enough. Dad got home shortly before I had to leave. I gave him instructions on the baby, wished him luck and crossed my fingers as I walked out the door. The funny thing about Dad being in charge is that he never does things the way I would and somehow the children still survive. In fact, the kids look forward to Dad being in charge. Probably because Dad will let them watch a movie and have popcorn on a school night! The irony is that as anxious as I am to leave, I am equally anxious to get home. And as the time gets closer to when I said I would be home, I find myself checking my watch often. I'm not this way once my babies get older, and I think part of it is that I am still nursing and my baby doesn't take a bottle very well. So I start mentally picturing the baby screaming at her father and the house being in total chaos. So I come home and what do I find? The older children watching Indiana Jones and eating popcorn on the floor I vacuumed only hours before. (I had told them not even a week ago that they couldn't watch it because they were too young and it was scary. Sneaky kids!) The baby is in bed sleeping, but the monitor is not on and she starts to cry shortly after I get home. So the children survived, and I got a few hours away. But I was glad to be home to organize the madness and send the children to bed. (Dad probably would have let the kids finish their movie even though it was already past bedtime when I got home! No wonder they like it when I'm gone. Mean old mom!) I'm lucky to have a husband that encourages me to get out, but I can't help worrying while I'm gone!

What was your favorite thing for the day?

I started doing this with Lillie every night at bedtime because sometimes we have a hard time with positive communication. She always comes up with about five favorite things and insists that I have a favorite thing as well. Some days it is hard for me to come up with something, but it's been a good lesson for me in looking for positive things in my days. But last night, Michael gave me an even greater insight into a positive attitude.

Me: What was your favorite thing for the day?
Michael: Getting shots at the doctor. Wanna know why?
Me: Sure!!
Michael: Because that means I can go to Kindergarten now!

Now there's looking at the bright side! He's so much his father's son!! He got four shots and two warts burned off, and still was happy about it. What a great kid!!

Dare I hope?

Could it really be? Is it truly possible? Or am I just fooling myself? I think, maybe, possibly, Katherine just might be...Potty trained!!!! I'm not claiming 100% success, mind you. But she has been in underwear for three days now and only had a couple of accidents. There's been very little tears about going to the bathroom, and no tantrums. She went in a public restroom and has gone on various errands with no problem. I hope I'm not jinxing myself, but I am hopeful!! It's been a long road and hopefully this is the end. HALLELUJAH!! Now I get to do it again in a couple of years. Oy!!

Baby paraphernalia

They always come out with new stuff each time I've had a baby. So I thought I would list my favorites and where you can find them! This time around I tried a fitted pouch sling and I absolutely LOVE it! You can find them at hostlings.com. I really don't know how I had four other children without one. Odessa loves that she can be with me and I love that I still have two hands! The next item that I love is my saucer. I've had it with all of my kids and they are great. But with Odessa, I also bought the rainforest jumper. The link is super long, but if you go to Target.com and search for the rainforest jumper you can find it. Odessa loves to jump and she's a crackup to watch in it! One of my other new favorite things are these cool bows that are made from tights. They are adorable! You can find them at babyblingbows.com. There's also a list of local stores on there in case there's one in your area! The funny thing about my girls wearing things like this is that if Dad gets a hold of them, the bow comes off because, "It looks like it hurts her head!" This happened Sunday and I had to go retrieve the bow and put it back on! Silly Dad! The last thing I'm going to list a link for, I haven't actually used, but I'm patiently waiting my order. They are called crawler covers and are like leg warmers for babies. They are adorable and I think will work quite well for my little crawler. I bought mine at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5043139&section_id=5281526&show_panel=true&show_panel=true So there you have it! Those are some of my favorite items this go around! I'm sure there will be a bunch more next time! (Did I say next time? ;)

Stupid winter

I'm all for snow and winter. But only for like a month! This winter has seemed eternal and longer than necessary. I escaped to Vegas and saw that there is hope spring will eventually get here. But I'm afraid it may still be months before I see any of my bulbs poking up through the ground. I'm anxious to be able to send the children outside to play. I love being able to banish them outside! I love my flowers and working in my garden. I blame the continuing long winter on that stupid groundhog! What does he know anyway?

The sneaky snacker

That's what I've become. I save all the really yummy things for when the kids aren't looking. I just barely finished off a Haagen Dazs ice cream bar. The kids were glued to the TV and I knew I had limited time. At any second one of them could have caught me and then all I'd hear is, "I want one!!" So I've become the sneaky snacker. I snack when they aren't looking. And after they go to bed, watch out Ben and Jerry, here I come! It's such a bad, bad habit! But I can't afford to let them have the good stuff, and I'm unwilling to eat the cheap stuff. So until they are all gone from home, I will continue to be a sneaky snacker!!

Optimism

I didn't get anything done today. This is how I felt when I looked at my house this evening. I had two loads of laundry that hadn't been folded for two days sitting on the couch. I had a sink full of dishes, and I didn't even cook dinner. There were toys all over the house and the floor is still sticky. I've been saying I need to mop it since Tuesday. The girls' room is covered with clothes that Katherine so graciously dumped during "nap time". So when my husband called and asked what I did today and I began recounting the events of the day, I realized that I really did a lot and I need to give myself some credit! I do have five kids for pete's sake! So for the sake of optimism, here's what I DID do today! I swam for twenty minutes, went to a parent-teacher conference, dropped Michael off at school, played with my mom and sister (yay for staring at someone else's house!), picked Michael up and fed him lunch, I took a nap(I don't even know the last time that happened!), I took Lillie to gymnastics, I fed the children dinner (yeah, it was only cold cereal, but oh well), we all did homework and read and I successfully bathed all five of them! Phew! So here's to not getting anything done today!! On to tomorrow...

Things I never knew I would say as a mother.

1. Don't put bubbles on the baby's head.
2. Please don't climb up the door jams.
3. You can have a snack before dinner as long as you'll leave me alone!
4. Spit the money out, it doesn't go in your mouth.
5. Please don't shove the cat through that hole, he doesn't fit.
6. Katherine, get your clothes back on, you can't jump on the trampoline naked!
7. It's ok if the baby isn't sleeping in her bed, as long as she isn't screaming just let her be.
8. Please don't jump on your sister's stomache.
9. Don't take your DS in the bathroom please!!
10. Please go get a tissue!
11. You can't wear that to school, it's not the middle of summer!
12. Honey, the cats can't eat peanutbutter.

These are just a few little gems that I thought of! Isn't motherhood fun?!?

I'm not moving to Africa!

Although I'd like to sometimes! Odessa has entered the time in her life when I must often tell her that I'm not moving to Africa, I'm just walking into the other room. She does really well playing, unless I get up and attempt to do anything productive. At that point, she cries and crawls after me. The other children think it's funny when I inform her that I'm not moving to Africa, but I've uttered the same words to each of them in turn!

Snow angels

There are only a few times when the amount of children I have really stands out. One of them is when the kids want to go play in the snow. I have all their snow clothes in a big plastic tub that I pull out when they want to play. But then it's just chaos. I make everybody go to the bathroom first, so they fight about who goes first. Then I start directing...Put your snowpants on. Yes you have to put on snowpants before you put your boots on. Where's your gloves? I just had them out on top of your coat. Now you can put your boots on. Come here so I can tuck you in...Then I spend the next ten minutes tucking everyone and everything in so snow doesn't creep in where it doesn't belong. By now, they are hot and sweaty and ready to go. I can only get one of them done at a time, so as soon as someone is dressed I send them out the door. When I finally get the last one outside, I breathe a huge sigh of relief. Then I hear a knock on the door. I open it to see one of them (pick one) standing there with a glove off. "Mom, can you put my glove back on?" Sure. The glove is back on, out you go. Five minutes go by and I hear the door. I yell, "Don't walk through the house with your boots on." I hear feet stop halfway to the kitchen and go back to the door. Then I hear, "Mom, Andrew hit me in the face with a snowball!" "Ok, I'll come talk to him." It goes on like this for another half hour. The door opens and closes with complaints of gloves coming off again, and children getting pushed by their siblings or other similar complaints. Then I finally hear, "Mom, I'm cold. Can I come in?" Sigh. Ok fine! So I go help the children, who either overwhelm me all at once or trickle bak in one at a time, undress. I try to contain all the wetness in one area, all the while keeping track of gloves, hats, socks and all the other parts required for snow play!! In the end, they are cold, wet and in dire need of hot chocolate. Boy do I wish it would stop snowing!

Dear Babysitter,

I love my children dearly, but I really need a break. It's so hard to trust someone else with these amazing people, but my sanity is at stake. So please, please watch over them. If they are naughty put them in the corner. It's ok if they watch TV. As long as they are safe, I don't care if they are brain dead from too much TV. The little one cries a lot, so give her lots of hugs. If they eat all the candy in the house, they'll survive, just don't let one choke. I would like it if they went to bed on time, but if they don't, that's ok too. Rules are important, but while you are here, it's ok if we bend them a little. Hopefully, I will return renewed and refreshed and able to face it all, all over again. But in the meantime, take care of my children. They are my heart and my life and I would die a million times for each and every one of them.

Sincerely,
The mom

Things you never want to hear your children say...

"Fire in the hole!" This from my three year old! I ran quickly through the house to find the small child yelling 'fire in the hole' over and over again! I finally found her standing on a bench in the bathroom turning the curling iron off and on. Each time she turned it on, she yelled, "Fire in the hole!" I have no idea where she heard the phrase, but I must say I'm thankful that all she was doing was turning on the curling iron!!

Player one

I have a closet that we keep all of our games in. They are stacked on top of each other and are up high because I don't want the children to get them out at will. I learned that if that happens then I have game pieces all over my house. So I put them up high. At one point in time, probably when we first moved into our house, they were all nice and neat and organized. Now, two years later, they are skewed and slightly falling down. There's a voice among all the games that will announce that "Player one has six points and player two has four points." This voice sometimes makes his announcement after a game has been haphazardly shoved back into the closet. However, sometimes, the voice from beyond will randomly declare the points. Why haven't I gone searching for the voice? Because it would requires some serious organization, and I've learned that because I am trying to fix it, it will be on the bottom! And so, from time to time, the children will ask, "Mom, what was that voice?" I just tell them it's a game in the closet and they go on their merry way. One day, maybe player one will have some more points, but not until Mom decides it's worth the effort to find 'The voice'!

'No' means...

ask a bunch more times and add please and maybe you'll get your way!! I've never been the kind of mother that caves easily to the demands of my children. And yet I have four children that after being told no, still insist on trying to get what they want by incessantly repeating themselves until I'm about ready to explode. And then, it seems they think that after all is said and done, if they add a whiney please, then I'll suddenly melt and give in to their wishes. I know that every so often it works, which is probably the problem. But that only happens like 1% of the time. I suppose I am just raising very optimistic children to whom I wish to tell, "No means no, dang it!!"

Random thoughts

I keep trying to put together something coherent, but I'm not there today. So here's to random thoughts.

I need a caffeine drip. I let the kids make a mess and now I'm gonna have to make them clean it up. Oh joy. The groundhog saw his shadow. Stupid groundhog. What does he know anyway? I hate my clutter, but I'm very good at collecting it. My three year old may not make it to her fourth birthday and will most likely never get potty trained. If I go back to bed, will the kids actually let me sleep? I think I'll sign off now and try to find my more optimistic self. May your day begin less randomly and more coherently than mine!!