Our end of October/early November life in photos

The last couple of weeks have been a blur with ear tube surgery, cold viruses, and Halloween festivities.

First up, my MOMS Club chapter visited a nearby construction site.  The boys in the group left an impression on the crew (see below).  

G in his hard hat that the construction company gave to each of the kids.

 M was happy to sidewinder crawl all over the asphalt.  

 King of the mountain.  

The impression the boys left on the site.  

The workers who removed the footprints from the new cement.  

 Making the curbs.  

Then there was N's Halloween party at school.

And there was the pumpkin carving tradition....

N designed her pumpkin: a vampire.

Daddy used her blueprint.

N designed G's pumpkin--Frankenstein.

And Daddy's results (with neck bolts included). 

Our local town had a trick-or-treat event, which we attended.  

 

The "real" McQueen had some words with his pit crew guy.  

Of course, there was Halloween night for even more trick-or-treating.

And then back to normal life just rolling on.......

M celebrating new tubes, his 4th molar, and his 13-month-birthday.  

 And the funny things the kids say, like G telling us, "Batman wears blue diapers."

Mixed feelings about keeping this going

I am definitely pro-breastfeeding, no doubt about it.  But I would be lying if I said I wasn't sort of ready to see this ship sail.

Like life, breastfeeding has it's phases.  At first it is profoundly difficult....or at least it was for me.  Cracked nipples from hell....damned eczema-prone skin.

But then it gets much easier and is uber-convenient.  No cleaning bottles, no mixing formula, no spending money on formula.  Just take your boobs wherever you go and voila!  Baby fed and happy.

Then it becomes difficult again when one's boobs are no longer the center of the baby's world--once the baby becomes interested in other stuff---tv, toys, siblings, noises, light.  After spending so much time thinking, "Is this kid ever going to not want to nurse constantly?" you are amazed that you find yourself saying, "Would you just nurse already and quit dawdling?"

And then teeth enter the picture, which is normally fine until the baby is cutting new teeth.  My boobs can tell teeth are coming in long before my conscious mind.  There is more pulling and tugging involved.  A more pronounced latching on.  

M is 13 months old today, and of my 3 kids, he is still big on nursing.  He even says "nurse," or his baby version of nurse....."urssss."   He still nurses twice a night, and at least twice during the day.  By 13 months, N had long since night-weaned (at age 4 weeks) and completely weaned by 12 months.  G night-weaned around 10 months old and was totally weaned by 14 months.

Since M is my last baby, I sorta want to keep this nursing relationship going.  It would be nice to make it 15 months just to be able to say to myself that I nursed each of my kids longer than the last (I'm a little self-competitive.)   I continue to maintain my weight loss which is never a bad thing.  And it is extremely sweet to watch M nurse, detach and then fall asleep snuggled up to my breast, with his hand resting softly against my skin.  There is no greater comfort and security for a baby.

But it would also be nice to be able to go out with friends for dinner without fretting over nursing M to sleep before I go, and worrying that he will wake while I'm gone and D won't be able to settle him down because M wants to nurse.  It would be nice to have a little bit of Carrie back.

I try to remind myself that this phase will pass, sooner rather than later.

My little worry collection

I'm not much of a collector given that I abhor clutter; too much of it ramps up my anxiety.  Some folks with OCD hoard, and some are like me.

But I do have a very small collection of children's picture books about worrying.  My kids and I read oodles of books from our local library, and back in the day when I only had 1 child I actually found time to browse.

So here they are:

 This vulture isn't much of a worrier but he has a generally pessimistic view of everything, which sounds a lot like me in my premedicated days.

Some other children's picture books about worry that I've read (*) or heard about are below:
Felix and the Worrier by Rosemary Wells. (*)
Mr. Worry:  A Story About OCD by Holly L. Niner (*)
The Worry Monster by Caroline Uff
Something Might Happen by Helen Lester.

Appreciating a mom

A Facebook friend posted the following as her status, which I promptly stole.....

‎3 Years old: My mom is the best! 
7 years old: Mom I love you. 
10 years old: Mom whatever
17 years old: OMG my mom is so annoying.
18 years old: I wanna leave this house
35 years old: I wanna go back to my mom's house.
50 years old: I don't wanna lose my mom. 
70 years old: I would give up everything for my mom to be here with me.
 ♥ I appreciate my mom


There is a tremendous amount to complain about as a mom...the job at times is thankless.  As a mom of young kids, I do get lots of slobbery kisses and cuddles, but I am also treated, at times, like less than a slave.  There is no end to the demands, day and night, that young children place on a mom.  Sometimes I hear, "Mommy, I want," or "Get me...." entirely too many times during the course of an hour.  


But I also know that there is just something about a mom that children cling to, regardless of their age.  The security of mom.  The comfort of mom.  The unconditional support that is mom.  And this is, in part, why I have never been terribly eager to think about my children moving beyond their needy, young childhood phase.  Even though it is terribly limiting for me as a person, it is also a period of time in which I am as close to being a god as I'll ever be.  


On a regular basis my mom comes to my house to "babysit" me, as I call it.  Usually this comes when I've been dealing with sick kids and been trapped inside for days at a time.  And I am 37 years old.  


There will never be a time when I don't need my mom.
And there will never be a time when my kids don't need me.....even though they might not admit as much.  


It is an awesome responsibility.  

Warms the English teacher in me....

N has to do a reading response journal entry 4 times a week, whereby she reads for 10 minutes and then writes the date, title of book, author and pages read (if a chapter book).  Two of those 4 weekly entries must be an extension.....a personal connection to the book, an opinion of a favorite or least favorite character, whether she learned a lesson from the story, etc.

It is such a thrill for me to discuss her reading with her and guide her as she writes her entries for a number of reasons.  First, it is just amazing and thrilling to listen to her read to me.  She is especially good at reading Junie B. Jones books because she puts a lot of pizazz into it---she sounds exactly as I imagine Junie B. would.  Secondly, I get a peek into her thought processes and personality by the questions she asks or the ideas she has about what she read.  Thirdly, I get a thrill like I did when I was in the classroom of helping a learner make a connection to her reading.

Tonight she read Chapter 1 from her Usborne The Wizard of Oz book.  She asked what we would do if a tornado came and took our house to the desert or somewhere else really far away.

She brought up what she learned at school to do during severe weather---cover her head, put her chest on her knees in a crouched position.  And we talked about what we do at home when there is severe weather.

She wrote:
Dorthy went under the bed insted of going to the celler because there was a cyclone.  I wold go in the basement.

On Nov 2, N read from Junie B. Jones and the Mushy Gushy Valemtime.  We have read this book twice now, but N pointed out to me that it is spelled ValentiMe on the cover, not ValentiNe.  I had never noticed this before.  That day she wrote:
Im not like Junie B because I dont sit in the timeout chair and I dont yeell.  


I am such a nerd for many, many reasons but especially because I get such a kick out of helping my kid do her homework.

Saying no to some things and yes to others--Volume 1

As I've mentioned, I like to stay busy.  I keep my house pretty clean and neat....aside from the zillions of toys covering my family room floor.....but I refuse to clean "clean."

Some people set aside certain days for cleaning certain rooms----Monday is bedroom day, for example.  But over the course of a week, our bedrooms don't get that dirty.  I kinda like to wait until a room really needs it to clean...so that I can truly see the efforts of my work.  In my book, this means bathrooms get a good cleaning at best every 3-4 weeks.  Sometimes they go 5-6 depending on what I have going on.  Irma Bombeck was dead on when she said, "Cleaning the house while the kids are still growing is like shoveling snow when it's still snowing."

Since I'm not a slave to housework, I do volunteer stuff to keep myself busy and my brain occupied when the kids are napping or in bed for the night.  I am glad to be a stay-at-home mom for now, but some of the reason I stay active volunteering is so that when I go back to work down the road I will be able to say I did something other than keep my kids from killing each other and cooking middling dinners for my picky-ass-bunch.  I will have a host of people to call on for references.

Since 2005, I have been president or co-president 3 times of my MOMS Club.  I was VP-Service once.  I was Activities Coordinator once.  I was MOMS Nite Out coordinator once.  I was playgroup coordinator more years than I can recall.  And now I am tired of it.  It is time for others to step up, get involved.  G will start preschool next year; M will start 2 years after that.  I have, at most, 3 more years of MOMS Club in me.

The other night I got a call from our homeowners' association (HOA) president about running for the homeowners' board.  I had sworn NEVER, EVER, EVER to get involved with a homeowners' board again.  In our previous neighborhood, I worked with 2 other people to try to get the dang thing off the ground, and it was a pain in the arse.  It made me hate our neighborhood and want to leave.  Hence the reason we live where we do now.

I really like our neighborhood, and I want to stay here indefinitely.  Pay off the mortgage, get the kids through the local elementary school.  We are halfway between D's mom and my parents.  Perfect situation.

And I don't want to screw with that.

But I do like getting involved.  And I am so over MOMS Club volunteering.  And for the next few years, until M starts preschool, it is just not feasible for me to volunteer as much at N's school as I would like.  So it seemed like maybe being involved with the HOA is a good idea.

I think maybe I was flattered into agreeing....I am highly susceptible to flattery.  Seems I was on at least current board members' shortlists of people to contact about becoming involved.

Maybe they just know a sucka when they see one.

Tune in next time for Volume 2:  How the Eff Did I Get Roped Into Planning My 20th High School Reunion?

Milestone day

This is gonna be short and sweet.....
I've been going since 6:00 a.m.

M had bilateral myringotomy this morning......tubes in both ears.  I am hoping, praying, wishing, wanting and desperately needing this boy to sleep MUCH better very soon.  G began sleeping 8-12 hours a night within 48 hours of his tubes at 14 months.  I know it would be a miracle if M did the same.

And tonight M took his first solo steps from the couch to the coffee table.  He won't be running marathons anytime soon, but I was sure it would be at least another month until he even attempted a hands-free venture.

As usual, being a seasoned parent means absolutely nada in terms of knowing what one's kids are gonna do next.....