Just now in the bath

Women have wombs ya know Olivia. (says Jake)
Ya, and bras to.
Yes Olivia, but you need to say harder words like Mississippi.

??????

Trying to just be in the moment

I've been trying to decide how to write this post. Do I write about what the pictures portray.....how happy we look and how much fun we seem to be having at the pumpkin patch or do I write about how frustrated Dave and I were the whole time we were there? Does it matter if we were having fun or not and not really "there in the moment" with the kids as long as the kids were having fun? But don't you think the kids can feel it if you aren't all there? As soon as we get there we always want to get the business at hand done so we can just have fun and leave whenever we think we need to head out. So we let the kids know that we are going to pick out pumpkins first and go to the pony rides, train rides, other stuff after we get our pumpkins picked out and a few pictures taken. Jake immediately just picks the first one he sees and then starts whining about going into this one area that you have to pay extra for and I wasn't interested in spending $$ for that but I was lame and told him not right now, and we will see, maybe in a little bit. It just ruffled my feathers and put me on edge....we got the pumpkins picked out, with him asking probably 5 more times before Dave pulled him aside and told him if he asked one more time that they would go sit in the car while Olivia and I did the other fun stuff. Now Dave is totally crabby and on edge. Picture time. Come on kids lets smile and act like we are having fun! I of course felt like we didn't get a single good one, but they were just being goofy and the pictures are cute. The rest of the time was fine. I think I was able to relax and enjoy our time, but when we were paying and getting ready to leave Olivia asked for one of those huge lollipops and I said no, and I have no idea what on earth got into her, but she started climbing up the bale of hay to grab one. I picked her up and told her no again and she started throwing one of the biggest fits I have ever seen her throw. I have the wagon handle in one hand, trying to hold her in the other, while she is kicking and screaming, I look at the guy and say, I guess the fun is over! and drop the wagon handle and walk to the car. I just assumed Dave and Jake would get it and follow. I carried her on her back like a baby as she kicked and screamed. Everyone is looking at her and at me, but I did not care one little bit. She finally calmed down, just before we got to the car. We had a little talk, she agreed that it was not a good choice, blah blah to throw a temper tantrum, she apologized and she got an X on her board when we got home. I, on the other hand pretty much cried the entire way home. I felt like the kids were so unappreciative and expect so much, and Dave rationalizes to the fact that they are 3 and 5. I'm sure it is somewhere in the middle. I'm also disappointed in myself that I can't just relax and have fun when we go out and do these sort of things. Perhaps it's because of this type of behavior, maybe I expect too much out of them. I don't know. The rest of the night was fine. Olivia helped clean out the pumpkins (Jake wanted no part of that, they were too slimey!) and Daddy carved them and sliced his thumb open pretty good, but that is par for the course. Oh, hey, did you know that Halloween is tomorrow? Jake has reminded me about 20 times this evening so far. :)

Just one of the girls, but still a stinky boy

Yesterday our friends from Virginia were in town and since Jake was off school he was home for our playdate! The girls were playing Cinderella (I was the wicked step-mother, which fit well with my attitude) and when Jake and my friend were done racing cars he said he would be the fairy godmother and ran to get dressed. Too cute. It does make me happy that despite all the things that he labels as boy things or girls things he doesn't actually limit what he plays with within those labels. Luckily Dave doesn't get all worked up by him getting dressed up either. We do have a friend that absolutely freaks out when his boys want their nails painted or want to dress up. They are 3 and 5 for crying out loud. Just let them play. They will feel the pressure to fit in from their peers soon enough.

Soccer is over, and he really loved it this year. I feel guilty that I did not put him in the indoor session that is starting in 2 two weeks, but I'm already exhausted and I refuse to become one of those moms who moan and complain about all that they have to do (I already do that) and still sign their kids and themselves up for more stuff to do. With the holidays coming up, work and school stuff getting busier, and both kids already doing gymnastics, indoor soccer will have to wait until the next session and then Jake will have choose between gymnastics and soccer if I can't start getting a better night's sleep. (not really his fault I know, but man, between Dave's snoring and the freaking dog's snoring I am getting NO SLEEP unless I go to the guest room which is getting old real fast.) On that note, I am out of here. Friendly neighbors and a firepit await me outside.......

Please try to stay awake......

But I've been tagged by slackermommy who either has it in for me or just wants to know a few more little tidbits about me, so I must oblige and fill in the dang form:

4 jobs I have had:
1: Dairy Queen (1st job, not too bad, free ice cream!)
2: Bagger, Checker at Hy-Vee (BIG grocery store)
3: waitress (a skill that every person should have in case you need to make good money to get you by, this was my 2nd job for many years)
4:Programmer Analyst II at my current place of employment (Ooooo Aaaaah everyone, a biologist who can program too!)

4 movies I have watched over and over again:
1: The Shawshank Redemption
2: The Wall
3: Star Wars (the original ones)
4: Breakfast club

4 Places I have lived:
1: Oxford, England (I was born there, but have no memories of living there, but it still counts, right, plus I need it to get to up to 4 places)
2: Kansas City, MO
3: Kirksville, MO
4: Saint Louis, MO

4 TV shows I enjoy watching:
1: LOST!
2: Desperate Housewives
3: The Office
4: Anything on HGTV/TLC home improvement wise/real estate wise

4 Places I have been:
1: Mexico - fun single times
2: Jamaica- where we got engaged
3: Hawaii - where we honeymooned
4: Europe - All over, I have to go England for work, so we have utilized the free ticket abroad to travel after work obligations are done.

4 Websites I visit daily:
1: My google reader to read all of your blogs!
2: stltoday
3: my work's website
4: my email is always up

4 Favorite Foods:
1: Mexican food especially chips and salsa (but not store bought)
2: Mexican 7 layer dip
3: ice cream
4: any Italian food

4 Places I would rather be:
1: in bed sleeping
2: on a beach sleeping
3: getting a massage and almost sleeping
4: on vacation somewhere warm with the family with all the stresses left behind (for real!)

If you are still awake, pat yourself on the back.

puking and respect

Jake made it through just over two months of school without getting sick, and now he has gotten a double whammy in less than one week. He came down with a fever of 101-102 on Friday night and Saturday (I think because I contemplated going out on Sat. night) but was fine by Monday so he went to school. I picked him up yesterday and he seemed fine and we went to gymnastics and all was fine there too. He fell asleep on the way home, which isn't too unusual since by the time we are done there, it makes for a 9 hour day for him. Then, he got sick while we were making dinner. But he still wanted to eat. The he got sick again, and again, and again and again and I don't know how many more times. Poor guy. The kicker was, every time he would cry out needing help to the bathroom to get sick, Olivia would cry out demanding something totally unreasonable. While I am able to be completely patient and whatnot with Jake at 1:00, 2:00, 3:00 am, etc. I am NOT able to deal with Miss O's demands at the same time. I would stick my head in her doorway tell her to be quiet right now and lay down. Go get Jake, help him to the toilet, help him back to bed, tell her to be quiet again, no she can not have a bagel and cream cheese, lay down right now, and repeat an hour later. Needless to say it was a long night and re-emphasized that I don't think I can handle the sleepless nights that a third child would bring despite all the peer pressure I seem to getting. (That would be a whole other post)

Which brings up another "good" discussion at our house that rears its ugly head every once in a while when I feel unappreciated at home or stressed at work. For those of you that don't know, I have an amazing work situation. I have been at my current place of employment for over 10 years and with my current group for over 5 years. I do genetic research but I am no longer in the wet lab and everything that I do now is all in the realm of what is called "bioinformatics" which is manipulating all the biological data with a whole lot of programming and nifty things that I won't bore you with. Suffice it to say, I don't have to physically be at work except to touch base with my boss (who actually lives in Indiana and only comes into work a few days a week as well!) and my other two co-workers. So, I go in three days a week and work from home two days a week and have been doing this ever since coming back from my maternity leave with Jake. It made my decision about whether to quite or stay home much easier. I was only leaving the kids 3 days a week, keeping my full time position, benefits, etc and when the kids are sick, we don't have to use vacation time or call in sick ourselves, I just work from home and take care of them. This benefit, is where it also gets kind of touchy though...... There are times where I do have meetings or things going on, or just really want to get out of the house and be at work. If I am working on something that I need my boss's help on, I need to be there. This week I was already planning on being home an extra day because of parent/teacher conferences and the sprinkler company is coming out the same day to shut the system down but gave me a 4 hour window so there goes the whole day. Now Jake is sick. I got pretty irritated when Dave didn't even think to offer to stay home today with Jake. It is always assumed that I am the one that is going to be the one to stay home. And I understand that, but it would be nice if he would at least offer. He knows how I feel, we have this discussion about twice a winter (during the heavy sick time) and I know it doesn't make sense to use up his vacation time when I can just work from here, but it is a respect thing. I don't take my work situation for granted but it makes me feel like he does. I've also expressed to him that I feel like he doesn't think that my job is as important or as big of a deal as his job. When in reality, I support this family just as much as he does financially. All right, I'm done ranting now. I feel better. I should just feel lucky that I have this "problem" and this recurrent argument, and suck it up because I know there could be worse things.

I just saw a commercial for something I thought Olivia might like for Christmas and I asked Jake if he would like to get that for her. He said, "Let's talk about what she can get me instead." good grief. maybe a lump of coal? On a positive note, He just ate a breadstick and kept it down and is asking for another one. Hopefully this was just a 12 hour bug that the rest of us can avoid getting! OK, I'm done procrastinating.....better get back to work!!!!

And Who Is.......

The kids have been into "defining" who everyone is in their life. Constantly asking and confirming who someone is. Who is your sister mommy? Aunt Cori. Who is your sister daddy? Aunt Susan. Who is your brother? Grandma is your mommy, Daddy and Paw Paw is your Daddy , Daddy. It took a while but a few weeks ago I finally got who is your mommy, Mommy? "Well, that's Grammy. She lives far away and we don't get to see her. Do you remember her?" Both say no. Not too surprising since it has been a year since she has seen them, and then it was January before that. "Do you want to see a picture of her to see if that helps?" So I show them pictures and then they are distracted by looking at other pictures and we are off on another subject. My Mother and I currently are not in communication. If you read slackermommy my childhood and hers were very similar and over the course of adulthood, things did get better and the relationship was on the road to repair but unfortunately turned toxic once again. It is one thing for me to have to deal with the pain and extras that come with having her in my life, but quite another to put my children through it, hence where we are at now. 'Nuff said on that subject, this is not a safe arena to discuss such matters. Olivia asks a few more times through the days as they go through the whole list of family and in my head I wonder why they don't think to ask about who my Dad is.....Well it happened today. On the way home from Target. How random is that? Dave and I just look at each other and my heart starts beating a cajillion times a minute. "My daddy isn't alive anymore." Why not? chirps Olivia from the backseat. How do explain to a 3 year old and a 5 year that their other Paw Paw committed suicide? "Well, he was very, very, very, sad and just didn't want to be alive anymore." Then Jake pipes up, "Was he in Jail?" While it was funny at the time, and made Dave and I laugh the more I think about it, yes, he kind of was in jail.

It's hard trying to explain death of any kind to a child, much less suicide. I'm sure I will have to answer their questions many times over the course of their lives and the answers will develop and become more involved as they mature and can handle the reality of it. I never want to hide the fact of what he did, nor make it a dark dirty scary family secret. We have not had a pet (Dave cleaned up the fish before the kids noticed anything) or anyone pass away since the kids have been born so they have no hands on experience with it. And now they are becoming more aware that they have a grandparent out there that isn't a part of their lives......geeesh. This parenting gig just keeps getting tougher and tougher.

R.I.P. Little Fishies....

"We" put in a small pond out in front of our house this spring just just after moving in. We had put one in at our old house and really liked what it added to the landscaping and there was a perfect spot just waiting for it. This pond has not been without its trials and tribulations. First of all, let me clarify what I mean by "We". All I did was go to Lowes to buy the kit since we needed a new pump and filter etc. and it was the best deal for the money and of course I supervised while he did the install, oh and I rearranged the flagstone rocks at the end. :) Anyway, the liner wasn't as heavy duty/hard as the other pre-formed ones, but the other stuff was the same as what we had before and a lot cheaper than buying it separately, so it was still a good deal. Dave gets the area cleared out and spray paints the ground and starts digging. Apparently moving 10 minutes west makes a big difference because 2 hours later not much dirt has moved and all I see is clay and rocks and a broken shovel. A neighbor loans him a pick ax (or something like that), which helps a ton (but will also contribute to a major headache further down in the story) and not long after the liner is in the ground and by the end of afternoon it is level and filled with water. At the end of the day, after an argument about the cheesy black, plastic waterfall (Dave wanted it, I did not) we are arranging the flagstone around the pond and the fountain is going! BEAUTIFUL. All the new neighbors ooh and ahh. We are cool. We plant flowers, hostas, spread the new mulch and we are done.

A week later the sprinkler company comes and turns on the sprinkler system and two days later the pond has caved in. What the heck is going on? Of course the soft liner that I purchased is immediately the first to get the blame cast on it. All the flagstone gets removed, the rest of the water gets drained and the liner gets pulled out. What do you think we found? Remember the pick ax the neighbor loaned my husband? Apparently he axed right through a sprinkler line and every time the system kicked on water was just pouring into the foundation of the pond. Never mind that this was the 3rd line that was not mapped out on the "map" from the original installation provided by the previous homeowners. We had to have the sprinkler company come back out, repair the line, then Dave had to repair the foundation, re-level the pond, re-fill it, re-arrange the flagstone, and voila! it was done again.

A week or so after that, Dave comes from work and calls me and asks if I emptied the pond for some reason? Uh, no? Why? Well, it's empty. Lovely. What else could possibly go wrong with this freaking thing? He filled it back up and we have never solved that little mystery. We have our theories, but that is for another post. After going a month of smooth sailing we decided to get some fish. We got 5 little goldfish, and some water plants for them to swim around in. All the kids loved feeding them, and seeing them and they got really big and fat and almost look like coi. We only had one casualty when Dave cleaned the pond and the chemicals must have shocked it too much. Our little water habitat even attracted 3 little froggies which the kids thought were a mommy, daddy and a wee little baby froggy that would hop all over the place and jump in and out and were a lot of fun to watch. This all came to a tragic end last Monday morning. On Sunday, Dave emptied the pond and scrubbed it clean to get it ready for winter, but he must have used a sponge that he had used to wash the cars. It didn't all click at once though. He went to feed the fish Monday morning and they were all belly up. He was bummed, and was trying to think about what he could have done wrong/different than all of the other times he has cleaned the pond. Then he made a comment that he thought the pond looked a bit soapy. Ding Ding Ding. That is was killed the fish. We haven't seen our frogs all week either. So sad. Not only has this new pond been a major pain in our hineys, it has taken lives now too, but what is common thread? The pond or my husband???? hmmmm.

At least this gives us the winter to read up and learn how to provide a stable environment for the fish so the pond doesn't need to be cleaned so often, and we can ensure their survival through the winter and whatnot. In the Spring, we will start with a new, poor, unsuspecting little fish family that will hopefully be with us for a long time.

The big test.....and WE passed

Olivia already has her first ear infection of the season which is a real bummer. I was hoping that that we wouldn't have to deal with them as much this season but it isn't looking good, since her nose was barely running. She is about a year into her 2nd set of tubes and already has her adenoids out which has helped cut down the frequency of them a lot. Jake made it through three sets of tubes before his finally started tapering down. I guess we have to wait till she is 4 or so to be really done with them. Anyway, Omnicef is typically our first course of action now since the lower levels of the penicillin family no longer work and can I just tell you that the girl remembers how much she HATES the white medicine? It is strawberry flavored and smells pretty good, but it is grainy and my kids are all about the texture of things. I'm sure now, it is not so much the flavor or texture that she remembers, but rather that of Dave and I holding her tight and forcing the medicine down her throat as she was screaming. Sunday was the first night of the medicine and somehow we did get it down her with a bit of cajoling and threats and it was done. Monday I did it by myself and the stakes were a bit elevated. After displaying my best efforts of patience, and creativity in diversion tactics, bribery, and then idle threats, and only 2 X's on her board, I was pretty ticked off and we ended up on the floor 45 minutes later with her screaming and me forcing the medicine down her as she was screaming and trying to spit it out as quickly as I was squirting it in. Oooh boy was I hot to trot. She then took a 4 hour nap. So, if you really need your kid to take a nap.......

Last night Dave and I decided we were going to grow "a pair" and take control of the situation. We got the medicine out and she immediately started throwing a fit, clamped her mouth shut, and put her hand over mouth. I told her I was going to count to three and if she didn't settle down and take her hand off of her mouth and take her medicine she was going to get an X on her board. Do you want to guess how many X's she got before she took her medicine??? 6 X's and 45 minutes later, she finally took the syringe and squirted the whole thing in her mouth all by herself. She didn't get milk this morning (which is HUGE to her, so huge that we actually have a mini-fridge in our bedroom to hold cups of milk in it so we don't have to go downstairs to get her milk first thing in the morning. sad, I know) and no caillou this morning. She didn't get to listen to stories in Jake's room last night either. She lost 3 of her 5 allotted privileges. Most importantly, WE stuck to it and did not cave in.

Tonight, she took the syringe from my hand and just squirted it in her mouth with no prodding what so ever. We all cheered and gave her high fives and made a big deal about how we had so much time to play and do fun stuff now before bed since she took it like a big girl. I guess she wanted her milk and Caillou.

It's funny, now that I know I/we can stick to the punishments, I am not so scared to give an X out. I think the days of warnings are over. One warning sure, but not over and over. Life has gotten better around here just by having expectations clearly written out, and having the charts. It keeps us in line too, we can't just fly off the hook and come up with unrealistic punishments. I was kind of feeling weird about having to do a "discipline system" like, I was a failure, because we couldn't figure it out on our own, but what we were doing wasn't working. I do like this way a lot because it grows with your children as they get older (even into highschool) and I imagine that after a while your kids won't remember a time without it.

An excuse to give me a shout out

Ok, so prologos posted about this and I thought it was cool and also thought it would be a great way to to see who the heck is reading my little 'ole blog but has not yet graced me with a comment. I know you are out there.....I used to read and read for so long, never commenting and then I felt like I knew the blogger so well, but they didn't know me so I started this blog and finally made my appearance on theirs. You don't have to do all that, just let me know what you see here.

I initially only saw her going counter-clockwise which would make sense considering what I am interested in and my job, but now, having just gone back to it, I see her spinning clockwise. Is this because my new migraine medication has just kicked in or was I able to switch on my right side of the noggin?

Have fun and leave me a comment!

The jokes keep getting cornier and cornier

So, I'm up in the shower shaving my legs (finally!) and I hear footsteps running up the steps and I expect to see one of the kid's heads pop into the shower, but no, it is my hubby. He says, "I just knew you were doing something I would be interested in! Hey, where's the windex?" Under any of the bathroom sinks or the kitchen sink. Then comes the ringer...... "Do you have windex in your pants? 'Cause I can see myself in them." Hardy har har. Good Grief. Never mind that I didn't even have pants on, remember I was shaving in the shower? He does crack me up, not that his jokes are all that funny, but because they are so darn corny and his "talent" for turning anything normal and mundane into a sexual innuendo amazes me. After 10 years of this, I have gotten pretty good at predicting the exact joke at the right time, but today he got me. This is what I get to look forward to the rest of my life. Yipee!!!! :)

Don't make the mamma bear come out.....

I'm getting more and more pissed off the more I think about what happened......I had the good fortune of getting to go on Jake's field trip this morning to Purina Farms.
I've mentioned before that I am kind-of hyper sensitive to the fact that he is smaller than every other kid in school and it is noticeable, but we don't talk about it in front of him and most importantly HE doesn't know that he is a small kid and it certainly doesn't hold him back in sports or in sticking up for himself. Anyway, there was an area where the kids were playing where there were tunnels and rope swings etc. for the kids to play on. Jake ran up to me to give me his jacket and then ran to get in line for one of the rope swings. There were 3 kindergarten classes there from his school, his class had blue shirts on, another class had green and the 3rd had yellow. Well, a mom standing next to me with a green class shirt asked me, "Is he really in kindergarten?" (like I bought an extra shirt for a sibling or something) and I said, "Yep, he is in Mrs. X's AM class, which one is yours?" Her response as she starts giggling, "I'm sorry, but he really is in kindergarten?" and do you want to hear what I actually said to her, or what I said to her in my head??? "Well, I am barely 5ft. tall and he made the age cut-off by like 3 days so he is the youngest in the class." VS "Well, you rude bitch you can quit laughing at how little my son is since you don't even know him or me for that matter, and what gives you the f'ing nerve to strike up THIS conversation with me in the first place. F-off" She actually walked away from me still laughing. I wanted to cry. I still do.

WTF. Jake had a great time and I let this stupid rude woman ruin my experience on my son's first school field trip. (Please excuse the cussing, unfortunately I do it a lot in my head, not so much out loud.....unless I'm really riled up.)

Smart Discipline...Hardcore Day 1

We sat the kids down last night to get their input on what the house rules should be and came up with:
1: No whining (a major issue at our house)
2: Listen and follow directions
3: Use your manners
4: Always tell the truth
5: Be nice to yourself, others and toys
For kids ages 3-8 you are only allowed 5 rules and from I understand they can be changed from time to time, but I think these are pretty all encompassing. Do you see any loopholes?
We explained the rules and also explained that they would get 3 free X's on their chart before losing privileges.
Olivia loses 1)milk in the morning, 2)tv in the morning, 3)tv the rest of the day, 4)stories in Jake's room (she always listens to his stories before going to her room for her story)5)stories in her room.
Jake loses 1)tv in the morning 2)tv the rest of the day 3)computer/vsmile games 4)stories at bedtime 5)all reward magnets earned need to be taken down from board. (He earns computer time when he earns 5 magnets which he gets by getting dressed without being told, getting a green card at school, being especially nice and or helpful to Olivia or anyone else, helping unload the dishwasher, etc.) One caveat to his chart is if he brings home a yellow card he automatically gets 3X's.

It sounds like they watch a lot of tv, but they really don't. In the mornings they do watch a show while we get ready for work and during that witching hour between nap and dinner if we can't get outside, because one of them is still sleeping. There is more on the weekends, but honestly it is really just the thought that they can't watch that makes it more of a punishment.
We said we would give a few warnings and reminders about the rules the first few days so that we all can get used to the chart. Jake kept coming up with all sorts of scenarios and questions which I was glad for, since it meant he was paying attention. Olivia was coloring and making mail and delivering to each of us. I kept trying to bring her back around and when her punishments were final and I went over them with her, oh my gosh you should have seen her face. She looked absolutely crestfallen, but said she understood. Then for the next hour she kept asking me if I was happy with her, if I was happy with Jacob, if I was happy. yikes.

We laid out her clothes and she said she was going to go potty in the morning all by herself and then get dressed all by herself. Fast forward to this morning. I woke up to her telling me she needed to go potty and she went, no arguments. She didn't get dressed by herself, but she didn't throw a fuss and she was dressed and had her hair done in less than five minutes. Yee Haw, she made it out the door without getting an X on her board. She did deliberately poke a girl in the eye at school so we had to put an X on her board when she got home, for not being nice but that was it. Only one X on day one. Not what I expected. What a happy surprise! She was really proud of herself and she said she wasn't going to get any X's tomorrow!

Jake had no problems this morning but got a yellow card for not listening during their book buddy activity. His teacher gave him 3 warnings to settle down before giving him the yellow card. 3 X's instantly. I was talking to another mom (about their field trip at school) after gymnastics and he was running around and I asked him to sit down for just a minute and then we would leave. He sat for 5 seconds and then got up and just walked out of the building. That earned him another X. We went to McDonald's for dinner since his school was having a fundraiser there tonight and he got his usual nuggets and fries. Dave told him he needed to have just one bite of cheeseburger before he went and played. Jake totally lost it and started throwing a fit. We gave him two warnings and even said it was fine, it was his choice of whether to take the bite of cheeseburger or not, but if he didn't he couldn't play. He started to get totally out of control, his teacher was like 2 tables away, the place was packed with teachers, kids, and parents. I just said, We are done. I picked him up and walked out while he is screaming and totally losing control. Needless to say that gives him another X. (5th one) Dave and I drove separately since Jake and I came straight from gymnastics and Dave and Olivia came from school/work. Jake started screaming he wanted to go in Daddy's car and I said he doesn't get to make that choice since he is having a temper tantrum. I get him strapped in and then he resumes kicking and screaming at the top of his lungs. I have to say I was very calm through the whole thing, I'm not really sure why, but it honestly didn't really phase me......anyway, I'm out on Manchester Rd, which is a 5 lane, super busy road and who decides to unbuckle his seatbelt and get out of his booster seat? Ooooh yeah. "You get back in your seat right now young man. Don't you ever unbuckle your seatbelt again while we are driving. That just earned you another X." (#6) Luckily there was a long red light and I was able to get him buckled back up. The rest of the way home he says over and over that he only wants 3 X's (so he knows what the dealio is) and when we get home he says he is never ever getting out of the car. OK, that is your choice. I'm going in and putting your x's on your board. I'd like for you to come in with me so we can talk about it. He follows me in about 2 minutes later. We talked about it and the rest of the night was golden. Took a bath, read books, and he fell asleep during songs.

Needless to say, I really thought that Olivia would have been the one to have the major melt down......these kids never cease to surprise me. I hope there is not a role reversal tomorrow!

*cute thing Olivia said while still at McD's with Daddy. They were eating ice cream cones and she said she needed a spoon for her ice cream because her tongue wasn't long enough to get all the ice cream out of the bottom of the cone. Usually she just takes a bite out of the bottom and sucks it out.

Bragging Rights Go To.....

MIZZOU!!! We absolutely thrashed Nebraska in our 41-6 win. I can't wait to see where we move up in the rankings. (#11 in the nation now!) Of course, since we are Mizzou fans, we are always waiting for the fallout and we are heading to #5 Oklahoma on Saturday.......

(maybe now my sister will make her presence known and leave a comment! Love you!)

*My husband built this "M" and filled it with white rock to honor Mizzou, and yes, it is on top of our wall proudly displayed in our backyard. Sigh.

It's October in Saint Louis

And what am I doing? Sitting outside in a tank top and shorts while my kids are playing in the little pool. That's right, the pool. It's hot and they are usually good and stay in one place when there is water involved. It's just that it is October for crying out loud. I'm not sure why this still surprises me. I've lived in STL since '96 and I could very well be writing all of the above and it could be January or it could be snowing in May. Gotta love it. Anyhoo, the hubby is on his way to Columbia for the Mizzou game against Nebraska. Fun, fun. This match up always provides bragging rights for the next year since my sister lives in Lincoln.

Some of you have been waiting to hear how we have been doing with the smart discipline stuff and I have to confess we haven't started yet. The hubby and I are not communicating the best right now, and we really need to be on the same page. I am trying figure out what Olivia's currency is but unfortunately the things I have come up with, if taken away, will make our lives miserable as well. Say for instance, her cup of milk as soon as she wakes up, and she wants to watch caillou or dora in the morning and max and ruby in the afternoon then there are the stories and songs at bedtime. If any of these things are taken away pure hysteria ensues. I'm really not a big fan of taking away the story or songs since that is our wind down to the day and it would end the day on a bad note, plus the one or two times we have taken one or the other away, it took her forever to calm down and fall asleep. I need at least 5 really meaningful things to take away and preferably one or two of those that aren't going to make MY life more difficult. :) Anyway, I'm going to think about this some more this weekend and sit down with the hubby on Sunday night and get it started on Monday. I promise. I have to....... because.....

This week was really rough. Olivia only wants me for anything and everything. Only I can get her her milk, only I can go with her to the potty, only I can wipe her, BUT, SHE wants to pick out her clothes and underwear, BUT then she won't pick anything out so then I pick it out and she then refuses to put it on so then she picks something out but refuses to put it on again. So I walk away and Daddy tries to help but only mommy can help....you get the idea. She finally gets dressed, hair done, shoes on, and only I can buckle her in her carseat (never mind that I am still in my bathrobe and have a towel on top of my head) and then they finally leave for school and work and I have 30 minutes now to get ready for work and to get Jacob on the bus. This crap has to stop. I will make her go to school naked or in her PJs. I don't care, but it is damn near impossible to get her into her carseat when she is all worked up into a frenzy. I will say that TV goes off and milk goes away when she is not cooperating, but we do give her too many chances. Jake on the other hand, hardly ever even comes out of his room now, without already being dressed. He revels in being the "good one." It is pretty funny. Mommy, I'm listening, I'm already dressed, I'm ready to go, etc. What a suck up. :)

It's a good thing Jake doesn't go to this school. I like to say he got in trouble for kissing another student last week, but that wasn't really the problem. He gave a kiss to someone and was then told to not to do it again and I guess since it was his new best friend, he thought he didn't need to listen to his teacher (which was the real problem, not the kissing) and he did it again. At least it is kissing now, and no longer hitting! We went to math night the other night and one of the girls in his class ran up to him and they hugged and then she just picked him up and carried him around for like a minute. He was all smiles the whole time. Then after gymnastics, another boy in his class picked him up and carried him out the door. It is reassuring that it is not only my kid that can't keep his hands to himself, and for the time being, Jake can't pick other kids up!

I'm back to pink

I'm back to pink to support breast cancer awareness month. Check out slacker-mommy if you want to enter her contest. I recently started reading whymommy who has inflammatory breast cancer and the symptoms are quite different than finding a lump. She has two very small boys and I am amazed at all she is going through. I'm a lurker, since I don't know what to say.....I've never known anyone personally who has had breast cancer, not that that would necessarily give me the words. It does freak me out however......why am I the lucky one who doesn't know anyone? Will it end up being me who gets it?

Vodka......is.....BAD.

I'm seriously going to stay away from the stuff for a long, long, time. There is a reason why I typically only drink beer or wine, or an occasional pomegranate martini for special occasions. I know what my limit is and pretty much never drink enough to give me a hangover. Afterall, our kids still get up with the sun, no matter what time we stagger in. Anyway, we went to a neighbor's house to help celebrate his 40th b-day and lordy lordy. They had a bartender that mixed some mean drinks and had some interesting and tasty concoctions that I was more than willing to try out despite my warnings to the hubby that HE better not drink too much because we had a lot to do on Sunday. Let's see, after one glass of wine I had something with 3/4 vodka and 1/4 juice of some sort. Then 2 shots of something fruity that he made up that had vodka in it, then it gets a bit blurry.....I had a cosmo I think, and then a beer or two with absolute citron in it. I do remember that that was very good. What was really bad was I remember walking up to our house around 9:00 and calling the babysitter to make sure the kids were in bed, since every light in the house appeared to be on. All was good, so she said, and I thought, wow, I'm really tipsy. We came home 4 hours later, and I drank the entire time. The neighbors have a disco room set up in part of their basement(black lights, fog machine, disco ball, flashing lights, etc.) and we were dancing fools, and time just slipped away from us. Staggering home at 1:00 was not good, and when the puking started at 6:00 am, it was REALLY not good. Needless to say, I am 34 and had to have a rude reminder of why I rarely drink in excess. Luckily the hubby listened to my warning and was "fine" the next day, and able to take care of the kids and keep me hydrated with H2O and sprite. I didn't get up officially until 7:00 pm and was finally able to eat a bit. I put the kids to bed and was exhausted. Showered at 8:30 and went back to bed. We couldn't remember the last time that I had gotten that drunk and sick. It has to be sometime before Jake was born. Once every six years or so? Not too bad. That gives me just enough time to forget why I don't get totally drunk and then it will be MY 40th b-day. Party On!