Jinxed

Last night Zee and I were talking about schedules, who would be home when and such, she asked, "you know that you can take a shower without another adult at home?" (first mistake). I do know this and I will leave the boys to take a shower, but I try really hard to avoid it. I worry about what they will get into, the mess that will be waiting or that my shower time will be invaded by two little boys (the most common result).

Fast forward to this morning. The boys had eaten breakfast and went downstairs to play. Zee has some time off and is home today, so we went upstairs to work on various cleaning projects. We were getting a lot done and commenting on how well the boys were playing (second mistake). Then the crying started. And escalated into screaming. Bug comes up the stairs with his hands over his face, screaming that "there's something seriously wrong" kind of scream. Within the next 90 minutes, I had:

• been on the phone with poison control 3 times
• spent 20 minutes with Zee and Bug in the bathroom, giving Bug an eye wash
• found empty bottles of Dawn, Windex and Clorox Green Works in the playroom
• tried hard not to lose it with Little Man
• cleaned copious amounts of soap out of the plastic train table with the hose
• tried again not to lose it with Little Man as he disobeyed me, following me outside through the opposite side of the house and then peeing on a tree
• washed off all of the toys which were covered in dish soap
• tried to clean the soap out of the carpet (unsuccessfully)

Luckily, Zee was home and could help. They picked the plastic train table. None of the stuff they got into was caustic and none of the bottles were full. Bug is fine and his eyes have cleared up.

Now I'm exhausted. This took all of the energy I had, physically, mentally, emotionally. And in the end Little Man didn't even get appropriately disciplined. There were so many things to deal with and I was so angry that I didn't feel like I could do anything without losing control. The toys that they "washed" are being put in time out. But by the time, I could deal with that part of it, the association between the action and the punishment was gone.

So how do you handle these issues? When you have to deal with the consequences of the action before you can discipline? How do you get them to understand (at 4) the seriousness of what they have done? Is there a Bearenstain Bears book for this one?

I'm at a loss.

There are days when I get caught up in the to do list... the laundry that still needs to be folded, the mess in the playroom that is beginning to take over the rest of the house, the list just gets longer.

Then there are days when I ask my boys' what they want to do & they say, "cuddle on the couch with you, mommy". My heart melts. It's now 11 o'clock. The laundry can wait & the mess will be there tomorrow. We're still in our pjs, cuddling on the couch... and we might just be here all day.

I am so so tired but I wanted to get this out before tomorrow catches me off guard and I forget.

Today was a perfect day. I want to somehow capture it and keep today around just a little bit longer. The funny thing is that even though it felt perfect, there were things about it that went wrong... sunburned shoulders, financial stress, whining. But today, none of it mattered. The boys woke up super early, but it gave me the chance to go shopping with my mom. Then we spent the day visiting friends and playing in the pool. The weather was amazing and the boys had a blast.

So when someone invents a way to stop time and capture little pieces to relive, I'm going to pick today.

Me: I love you & wish you would listen and obey.
Monkey: Mommy, I love you too...and just I wish you would understand me.

Me too, kiddo, me too.

After almost a week of not feeling well, I finally broke down and went to the doctor yesterday. I was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection... not cool but also not unexpected. Thanks to my husband, sister & a wonderful friend, I was able to get some rest. Enough to handle things when Wil brought the boys home early because Bug threw up. He's now napping. Monkey is sitting on me, eating goldfish and watching Rocky & Bullwinkle.

And honestly I'm not sure where I was going with this... maybe that means I need to go back to bed.

Little Man's Sunday school teacher graduated from college last week & moved back to Colorado. Tonight when he said his prayers I caught this:

"Thank you for Miss Mandy that she can live happily ever after."

We miss you, Mandy!

We have church from 11 til 2. It usually isn't too bad. We don't have to rush to be out the door in the morning, meetings don't start at the crack of dawn and we still have some part of the day left after church. But in order for it to work I have to stay on top of things.

Yesterday, I was so not on top of things... Bug had a really late nap. Wil & I both fell asleep on the couch watching Veggie Tales with Little Man. This led to a late dinner and even later bedtime.

Today I'm paying the price... a rainy Monday with really grumpy boys. Please send chocolate or a nice long nap.

I blame it on the plan...

You see, I had the perfect plan for how to get everything done so we'll be ready to leave for Louisville at 4am tomorrow. It involved taking the boys to preschool/the babysitter and spending the morning cleaning, finishing laundry & packing.

But it never works that way...

"Hi Doc!"

Easter 2010

Bug discovers a bowl of chips and digs right in.

We spent Easter Sunday at my cousin's house. Which was wonderful. She's amazing and always makes sure that there's something for everyone. The boys had an Easter egg hunt (Little Man wanted to find ALL the eggs. Bug wanted to stop and eat all of the "beams" from inside the eggs.) They played with the train table she had saved from her boys and loved seeing Grandma and Uncle Matt. (Grandpa was stuck at home with poison ivy in his eye. So gross.) We visited with my grandparents and Aunt Sharon, watched some tv with the kids and just spent the afternoon relaxing. It was fabulous.

Growing Pains

I'm not even sure how to cover the last few weeks. Some days it feels like I needed to quit my job because life was about to get C.R.A.Z.Y.

We took Little Man back to the doctor for his follow-up appointment for the breathing treatments. He was all clear! No more breathing treatments. No more signs of wheezing. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case with Bug and he came home with his very own "spaceman" mask. There are no pictures to document this, because it became a HUGE fight to get him to sit still with the mask on his face for the 15-20 minutes needed to get all the medicine in his system. It was exhausting. Luckily, it did the trick and the nebulizer has been put away.

Wil has a new calling at church, Young Men's President. It requires a lot of time. My calling can be time consuming as well and we're still learning how to balance it all.

Wil's full time job is also changing... to what? We have no idea.

We were able to see dear friends get sealed in the Washington, DC Temple for time and all eternity:
We celebrated Zizi's birthday with a fun dinner, but unfortunately no pictures.

In an effort to help out some of our family, I spent 8 hours in the car in one day, never going more than 2 hours away from home. We picked up my great Aunt, stopped at home, took her to Harrisburg and headed to Tremont to see Wil's cousin who had just returned from Iraq. Little Man was with me the whole time. Wil and Bug joined us for 5 hours of the trip. I was glad to help and happy that we got some moments like this out of the "adventure"**:
The cousins drove up to visit while they were on Spring Break:
We enjoyed General Conference and Easter weekend (pictures to follow).

I got so sick of my hair that I went from this:

To this:

We turned the water to the hose on after the long cold winter and found a pipe that had frozen. Unfortunately we didn't find it until water started flooded out from under the baseboards in the play room. Luckily, we think the builder will cover a good deal of the damage. It also means that the carpet is all torn up and we can't send the boys downstairs to play.

The house is a mess and I look at the calendar and think it could be weeks before I even have a chance to catch up. I keep thinking we are handling all of this fairly well, at least until something minor happens and I react like my 4 year old. So if there are days (or weeks) when you don't hear from us, you'll know why. We'll be taking it a day at a time and trying to smile and enjoy some of this craziness!