Thursday, September 29, 2011

Mommy English

Do you know Mommy English? The longer I am a mother the more versed in Mommy English I seem to become. It's apparently a language that you acquire over the years of trying to convince your children to do things they are either reluctant or flat out refusing to do. Unfortunately, there is no Rosetta Stone course for Mommy English and instead you just have to learn while on the job. Right now, my Mom English seems to revolve around food. A few weeks ago SB was refusing to even try mashed potatoes. I sat there astounded that a child who asks for french fries morning, noon and night was refusing to eat what is essentially mashed up french fries. And then it dawned on me, he doesn't know mashed potatoes are mashed up french fries, heck I doubt he even realizes french fries are potatoes, instead choosing to believe they simply sprout from the ground golden brown in perfectly shaped sticks. And so I told him in a cheery voice "eat your mashed up french fries young man" and you know what? he did!

Just the other morning I had another opportunity to hone my Mommy English skills. Both SB and QT were ignoring their pumpkin swirl bread I so excitedly had bought at the store and no amount of reminding them to eat their breakfast was working (big surprise there) and so I changed my words. No longer was I telling them to eat their bread or their pumpkin bread, instead I asked why they weren't eating their Halloween bread. Their ears perked up and they took a whole new look at the slices on their plates and what do you know? they ate it!

So now I am on a mission to rename anything and everything if it would mean that my kids would eat more veggies or clean their rooms or just do things in general that will make not only their lives better but my life easier.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Running Out of Time (and Energy)

I have just about a month left of my maternity leave and am realizing more and more with each passing day that my goals are not getting accomplished. They are not lofty goals, they are simple goals, like getting the dining room table cleared off once and for all, organizing the nursery so Sully can move into his own room once he's too small for the co-sleeper, coming up with some sort of workable schedule to get everything done every week (the basics of laundry, meals, etc), putting together an easy to navigate work wardrobe so I don't have to try on three outfits each morning before figuring out what still fits me and what doesn't and sorting through all the toys in my house to get rid of all the junk and make it easier for the kids to find what they want and clean up after themselves. Yesterday I did manage to accomplish one goal, which was trimming the tree in the front yard and the bush in the back. Of course, there are a ton more bushes to trim but I'll take what I can get. Hopefully the cool weather today will inspire me to get back out there and trim up at least one more bush.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Bottles of Different Shapes and Sizes



A bottle for the baby, a bottle for mommy to drink right now and a bottle for mommy to drink once all the kids are in bed.

Monday, September 12, 2011

What a Wonderful World This Could Be

I have sort of been avoiding all the September 11th hype these past few weeks. It's been ten years and yet when I watch the footage from that day it seems like just yesterday and my sadness over the enormity hasn't faded too much from how it was that very morning. Last night though as I settled into feeding Sully I turned on the television and there was a September 11th special just starting and I couldn't turn it off. It was footage taken that day, footage that showed the first plane fly into the tower, footage from inside the lobby where fireman were trying to figure out what to do and how to help, footage of loud bangs emanating from the roof as bodies crashed down, footage of one tower and then the other crashing to the ground..........and as I watched, I held my little, innocent Sully bear and hoped and prayed for a better world for him.

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Up All Night

The Sully Bear has been an eating machine lately. Holy cats, it feels like he's eating constantly. Last night we were up four times to feed him and the last time, around 4:00 a.m. got sucked into watching a movie so even once he'd fallen back to sleep I was still up and am still up now at 12:30 p.m. Despite the incredible lack of sleep, it's the most wonderful feeling in the world though when after he eats I put him on my shoulder to burp and after a few minutes he falls asleep and I just get to hold him, listen to him breath and stare at his beautiful face.

SB finished up his first week of K4 and it seems to be a success. He really enjoys school and seems to be loving the all day format. He's excited to nap on his nap mat, excited by outdoor recess and even excited by hot lunch. I figured he'd shy away from hot lunch for a while but he wanted it the very first day of school. That it was pizza probably helped. When he got home I asked him how he'd liked his lunch and he said it was good and then I asked if he'd eaten his carrots and he thought about it just for a second and then said "ahhh, probably not." Probably not, as if he wasn't quite sure if he had eaten them or not. I for certain knew that he hadn't and when I asked him why he didn't eat them he went on to explain that they were the "wet" kind. I can only assume that means they were cooked carrots, in which case, very gross and I completely understand why he didn't eat them.

QT has been missing SB which I just find ever so sweet. I miss him too although not as much since normally I'm going to work during the week so I'm pretty used to not seeing him during the day. It amazes me to think that next year even QB will be in school. They are just growing up far too fast.

As for me, I'm healing. My bruises have turned a lovely shade of purple, black, yellow, green and blue but they aren't as sore and I am no longer taking the Percocet but am popping Advil off and on because my back is still sore.

I'm also half-way through my maternity leave and feel as though I've accomplished so little. I'm in the middle of re-working my wardrobe, trying to purge all the things I wear but don't love and all the things I never wear but it's been slow going. I've managed to make meal plans some weeks and just wing it most others. This week I managed to cook two meals from scratch and both turned out well. One was an Italian casserole, basically ground beef, onion and spaghetti sauce topped with a mixture of sour cream and mozzarella cheese and then topped again with crescent roll dough. The second was a Low Country Boil of red potatoes, fresh corn on the cob, onion, smoked kielbasa and shrimp. The husband really enjoyed this one and it was super easy to make because as the name implies, you just boil everything in a big pot. The goal, of course, is to have a meal plan that gets stuck to every week but it just feels as though something always crops up. My plan for last night was to make Spanish Paella but then it was 95 degrees with close to 100% humidity and there was no way in heck I was going to have the stove on for over an hour to make it. We opted for hot dogs and chips instead.

My goal this weekend is to come up with a really workable weekly schedule for all the things that need to get done. That plan may include hiring someone to take over some of those things that need to get done. Right before I had SB I hired a cleaning person to come once a month and it was wonderful. I gave that up when money got tight and money is still tight but my sanity is worth something, right? So, I'm considering looking into a cleaning person again and for more often than just once a month since we've added two more children, a dog and a cat to our household since the lazy days of a life so long ago I barely remember what it was like.