to everything turn, turn, turn

miley's school shares a large piece of property with this great park. after fetching her from class we usually head to the playground for some sand between the toes. the kids explode out the double doors and race hair-in-the-wind across the grass field. this is one of my favorite scenes.

in the thick of tantrums, defiance, and bickering i catch myself yearning for an easier time. in my frustrated mind older children = an easier time (i realize this is a huge misconception). its scenes like this that slap the silly right out of me. that remind me that the uninhibited running, laughter, and play of early childhood is fleeting. that make me wish for the power to stop time.

today i walked slowly behind them with tears in my eyes- attempting to drink them in while mourning the inevitable passing of this young season.

regarding plans

planning is one of my favorite things to do. i spend time planning vacations i will probably never take. planning meals is way funner than preparing them. browsing the course catalog is more exciting than taking classes. you catch my drift.

i have big plans- graduate, get a credential, earn a masters, motivate under preforming students, and change the world.

i have little plans- this week i'd wanted to surprise brian with some new reciepes, make some of his old favorites, help christa find a car, build a raised flower bed, and plant organic vegetables. come to find out brian won't be here to enjoy a home cooked meal (or anything else) until the middle of next week. this news was followed by too many errands and tantrumming children.

so i sat. pissed that my plans were ruined. feeling sorry for myself. looking around at the dirty dishes, cluttered surfaces, and nasty floors. maybe if i cleaned the toys/food/god-only-knows-what off the floor i'd cheer up and be able to concentrate on my homework. so i cleaned the floor. felt a little better and sat down to make flash cards (flash cards and plans- equally exciting).

enter levi from the back yard happily scattering a bowl of dirt around my freshly cleaned kitchen floor. followed by my gigantic overreaction. mia stood back observing my behavior. she approached me carefully and said: mom sometimes plans change. you know a clean floor can get dirty. plans change mom and that's okay.

wow.

silliness & selfishness

brian is out of town again this weekend. i really am trying to be happy for him. happy that he's out fulfilling his dreams with his favorite people (see #5), but i'm not. i'm selfish. i want him home. with me. with us.

i try unsuccessfully, almost every morning, to persuade/temp/bribe him into staying home from work. i fall just short of throwing myself at his feet, arms clenched around his ankles. in response to my fits he offers a chuckle, a mini lecture on responsibility, and blah blah blah.

i miss all the silly surprises when he's gone- the uncontrollable laughter from the next room, the masking tape hallway hopscotch, and the sharpie markered belly faces.

six in a sexy suit

mia sporting my favorite hat & sunglasses

yesterday we went swimsuit shopping for the oldest bug. we picked out five different suits to try on. one of mia's picks was a ruffly yellow polka dot bikini. when she took it off the rack i thought it was lacking in the coverage department, but the cute print sent it to the fitting room with us anyhow. she tried it on first. i was horrified. a tiny little triangle top and bottoms that fell two inches below her belly button.

me: take it off sweety. we're not getting that one.
her: why mom, i look hot!? (as she posed for the mirror)

after getting over my shock, i tried unsuccessfully to explain the importance of modesty to my kindergartner. we didn't leave with a suit yesterday- i'm now on the look out for a child size full length wetsuit.

5 things i learned at the dr.'s office today

the picture we e-mailed dr. liu late last night

1. miley's ears are infected
2. levi's right ear is infected (it must have been jealous of the left ear that was infected last week)
3. mia has an ear infection, an eye infection, probably bronchitis, and possibly pneumonia
4. levi's fall onto the floor jack didn't fracture his skull
5. we have the worlds greatest pediatrician (okay- so i knew that one long before today)

the stinkeye

this is what we affectionately call the stinkeye. levi offers me this look whenever he's asked to do something he doesn't want to (eat, stop jumping on the counter tops, hand over the knife, etc.). it's alarming how early mr. trouble pants mastered such an expression.

luckily, if you give him the look right back, he brakes out in an uncontrollable smile. i tell ya- if that child wasn't so cute...

castoff

levi loving his dino
we haven't been near any ships, but levi did get his cast sawed off. his arm didn't look as bad as i thought it would. i was relieved that his lizard-like skin wasn't covered in mold (the little monster dove head first into the hammond's spa a few days after we had his arm casted). his skinny little forearm is still a wee bit crooked, but the doctor assures me that it will correct itself in time.

strange thing is, i miss the cast. it smelled like feet and made bath time a nightmare, but it suited him.

how we roll

levi sporting his 'i voted' sticker

this morning we braved the rain and headed out to our designated voting destination. during the short car drive i did my usual threats, bribes, and pleas for good behavior. this conversation followed my rant-

mia: mom, i get to pick the next president!
miley: (before i had a chance to respond) no mia! only grown-ups get to vote.
mia: no! i saw barack obama (pronounced correctly) on tv and he told me kids can vote too.

apparently emotionally charged political opinions don't stop with mommy. walking into the library flanked by one kiddo on foot and two more in the stroller got me some sideways glances. sorry people- this is how we roll. with the exception of levi pulling the cardboard voting booth over on me, the kids did great.

when my vote had been cast, the nice volunteer man gave stickers to each of the kids. i politely remind him that i needed a sticker too. once outside i made good on my car ride promise by letting the girls get soaking wet in the rain puddles.

more than anything- i hope tomorrow brings us a united america.

a happy home halloween

little mermaid 5, abby cadabby 3, and baby ninja 1
we have always lived in condo complexes (not trick-or-treat friendly), so on halloween we would load our costumed clan and drive to friend's neighborhoods for candy. this year was a wonderful first- we walked our street, mingled with friendly neighbors, and passed out loads of sweets to the spooky bell ringers.

this halloween marked another first- moms complete loss of costume choice. mia's mermaid pick turned out beautiful, but i had to do some serious manipulating before she would discard the ugly seashell headband that came with the costume in exchange for the adorable flower i made for her hair.

there is no manipulating miley however. her strength of mind will serve her well in the future, but it tends to make parenting more difficult. just before this picture was taken, my little sesame street fairy tried to turn me into a frog with her trusty magic wand. something tells me she didn't want her picture taken.

baby ninja, who seems less and less like a baby every day, didn't slow down long enough to get his picture taken. his big sisters had taught him some cool moves and he was busy running through the house screaming "ha-yah!" he loved trick-or-treating and successfully charmed all the neighbors into giving him more than one piece of candy.

good thursday

i had a good thursday. no- it was great!

the cake mia's teach had made for the luncheon
first- the monkeys and i attended a lunch party thrown by mia's kindergarten teacher. she had delivered notes to all of the adults who volunteer in her classroom, inviting them (and their kids) to a lunch in their honor. the company was good and the babies weren't horrible.

as i surveyed the table i was struck by the fact that only 3 of the 13 guests had children in the class. the majority of those in attendance didn't have any relation to the 5 year-olds they spend so much of their time helping. i was so moved. there really are good people in this world!

frankenstein, abby cadabby, and our blond little mirmaid

then- to alleviate my guilt for not having found the time to carve pumpkins, we went home and everyone made a trick-or-treat bag to match their costume. mia loves being crafty, girl after my own heart, wrapping the paper mermaid hair around a pen to make it curl was her idea. she kept reminding her little sis that "when it comes to glue, a little dab will do," but miley went crazy with the elmers anyway.

late night giggles

finally- daddy came home. it's been 2 weeks since he's had a day off and almost that long since he's had a night off. we were a tiny bit happy to see him. i made dinner and we put the man cub to bed (he refuses to go to sleep without a smooch from every member of the family). the sisters stayed up hours past their bed-time laughing so hard that it hurt. they roughed around enjoying the kind of play that only their daddy provides them.

i soaked in as much of the joyful noise as i could, knowing that life would be buzzing again first thing in the morning.

lady killer in a cast

levi had his arm casted the morning after the break- brian's 32nd b-day. he'll have it on for another 3 weeks before being downgraded to a brace.

the cast doesn't hold him back (at all!). he digs having daddy doodle on his arm. he's eating rather well with his left hand and as usual refuses to let anyone help him do anything. he quickly discovered the benefits of having a casted arm- weapon against the sisters and loud noise maker.

little lady killer.

not the mama

 

you know brian's been working a lot when he sternly asks his middle child to pick up her books and she responds with "daddy, you're not da mudder!" a phrase typically reserved for her bossy big sister.

he wasn't laughing, but i almost wet my pants.

a matter of time

 

this picture was taken with my phone in the ER late last monday night. the following morning (brian's b-day) it was sent to the phones of some of our favorite people without any explanation. chelsea was the first to call back, i picked up and heard-"what was he climbing on!"

of course he was climbing. climbing on a planter wall outside a restaurant. i didn't get to him in time. he fell. the fall itself wasn't bad, and this mother of three was telling him to get up and shake it off. he was crying, but not the i'm really hurt cry. no screaming. luckily, i wasn't alone.

kim: he's holding his arm, i think there's something wrong with his arm.
me: no, he's fine- look (moving his wrist and elbow to demonstrate that everything worked)
kim: don't do that.

then i saw it- the unnatural arch in his right forearm. i panicked. cried. scrambled for my phone. kim and scott shuffled car seats and kids. i stood in a fog trying to comfort my baby and keep his arm steady. scott took the girls home and kim loaded levi and i in her hummer and drove us to the hospital.

i made a number of frantic phone calls: first to brian's dad- i knew he would answer, i knew they would be there, they always are when we need them. his voice was calm and knowing he would take care of the girls comforted me. i took a gamble calling brian, hoping that he had forgotten to turn his phone off during class, he hadn't. then i called uncle timmy (brian's boss) at home hoping he could reach someone at the school. no such luck, but tim offered to take care of the girls or come sit with me at the hospital.

levi sat in his car seat whimpering, holding his arm during the 10 minute drive. at the ER they took us right in and the little champ let them examine his arm, take x-rays, and fit a soft cast. both bones in the middle of his right forearm were broken. he insisted on walking out of the hospital by himself when we were done, giving the nurses and doctors left-handed high fives and knuckles the whole way.

to my son, thank you for being such a brave little man. we knew it was only a matter of time, but couldn't you have waited a while?

pants on fire

 

mia is my talker, our afternoons are filled with the detailed comings and goings of the kindergarten class.

last week she told me all about her trip to the nurse: her stomach hurt, she was escorted to the nurses office, had her temperature taken, her throat checked, and was sent back to class with a lollipop.

today she told miley about a little boy named scott who was spitting at her: she asked him nicely to stop, he didn't, she told her teacher, who then gave scott two checks on his bear for spitting, resulting in the loss of the famous treasure box trip for poor spitting scotty.

my mommy senses were tingling, so i enter the conversation. i ask if she had done anything to provoke the spitting. her response was of course that she had not, quickly followed by her request that i not mention this to her teacher.

what!? under interrogation she confesses to lying about the nurse and the spitter. i was shocked by her sudden talent for lying, ticked that i had believed the bull, but amused by the way she had unknowingly incriminated herself. i put my hand over my uncontrollable smile and proceeded with my best mom voice. ohhh did we have a talk. then, i told her that she would be apologizing to her teacher at school for the whoppers she's been telling at home.

she lost it- crazy screaming, crying, and flailing limbs. the thought of making her teacher mad and/or getting checks on her bear is devastating. i feel guilty, even though i know it's the right thing to do. we can't have a little liar liar pants running around.

p.s. yes, i am procrastinating. my intention when i sat down at the computer was to write an explication paper. now levi's awake- oops.

picking up the eggshells

with children in tow even the most minuscule of tasks can quickly become an exercise in patience, strength, and endurance.

exhibit a) picking mia up from school today

when it came time to get mia from school i had already woken up to a storm of ants in the kitchen, survived levi's tantrumming at the university bookstore, and discovered that the a/c in my car no longer gets cool. at the school i unloaded the crew, repeatedly reminded katrice not to go inside the classroom, told miley to get her foot out of the drinking fountain and her finger out of her nose, retrieved mia, pried levi off the playground, and herded all the little sheep back into their car seats. with all the children safely stowed, we were on our way to katrices hair appointment. but wait, where is my phone? oh that's right, i left it sitting on the hood of my car. it was run over.

everyone in the car was tip-toeing around my frustration, choosing their words and actions more carefully than they should ever have to. mia, my sensitive soul, said "mom, i'm sorry you're having a bad day." followed by katrice saying "i am pologize" as she took hold of my hand. katrices over affection is usually so annoying, but today i simply enjoyed the feeling of her rough little hand in mine and let her gesture sweep the eggshells from the floor around me.

nothing that happened today was all that unusual or catastrophic. i just wish i could remember that when it's happening, instead of feeling like the world is coming to an end.

don't just listen, follow

 

last we heard of miley she was starting her first day of school. we all loved mia's pre-school, miley not being able to attend there was one of the few things that saddened me about our recent move. when miley became of school age we confidently enrolled her in a sister program to the one mia had attended.

after tearing myself away from miley that first day, i looked at brian, for reasons i couldn't explain, and told him that i wasn't sure that this was going to work out. to make a long story short, it didn't.

i continued taking her to class that week. i had argued with myself, called the reluctance to let her go silly, and attempted to rationalize it all away. after leaving her on the third day of class that little feeling of uneasiness i had in my gut had accelerated into what felt like physical illness. every fiber in my being was screaming out for my middle child. i had no idea what was going on. all i knew was that i had to go get her.

i arrived 45 minutes before class was to be let out to find my little 3 year old girl walking around outside by herself. not behind a gate, not on a playground, and not under a teachers supervision. totally alone. i had a complete meltdown. the director of the program has since given me her word that locks have been put on gates, the teacher has been taken care of, and other safety policies have been put in place to ensure that this will never happen to another child.

i have been beside myself. how could i have let this happen? i knew it the first day,the first time we walked in the classroom, and i was too weak to do anything about it. the good that has come out of this is that i, and now you, will always listen and follow your instincts.

as for miley she's happy to be spending her days at home in her swimsuit, playing horsey with her big sister, and under the oh so watchful eye of her mom.

drum roll please

 

if you remember,this weekends goals were as follows-
1.  finish baseboards in the toy room.    [check]
2.  build the island half wall in the kitchen.   [check]
3.  mount the island cabinets to the half wall.   [check]
4.  lay the flooring in the dinning room.   [check]
5.  don't completely neglect the children.    [okay, about #5, there was a small incident involving levi, some antacids he thought were candy, & a quick call to poison control, otherwise,it was fine]

 

 
brian had this awesome idea, to make a sort of time capsule on the inside of the wall before he enclosed it.  the kids got to write their names, draw a picture, and pick a little toy that they were okay parting with.  we thought they understood they weren't going to get the toy back, but mia keeps tearing up saying that she misses her pony.  my goodness that child is emotional.  where does she get that from?

and what of my dear katrice while all this is going on?  she went about her business happily going from one of her favorite activities to the next:  playing solitary UNO, typing on the computer, doing her word search, coloring, & watching movies.  to make myself feel better i promised her that monday would bring a trip to the library and some dr. pepper.  

i don't want to post the after pictures until the kitchen is complete, about another 6 weeks.  and the beat goes on...

what did baby hitler have for dessert?

why, a dollarstore blue marker of course. lets hope it wasn't toxic.

this weekends goals
1. finish baseboards in the toy room
2. build the island half wall in the kitchen
3. mount the island cabinets to the half wall
4. lay the flooring in the dinning room
5. don't completely neglect the children

hee hee, i'll let you know how it goes...

just add water

 

it has been hot in the so-cal desert this week, so we headed down the hill for a little cooling off at the community water park.

 

excuse me! the little nudist kept trying to take off his swimsuit.

 

here's the proof. proof that they aren't always fighting. the no-fail recipe for happy kids- just add water.

 

bye! bye! here's wishing y'all a wonderful summer weekend.

goodbye ear infections, hello trouble

 

mr. levi has completely recovered from getting his tubes put in last week. he is ear infection free and back to driving his mother crazy!