Perspective

On days when I am tired.  Or cranky. Or feeling overwhelmed by my three little monkeys..

I think of my grandmother ( my dad's mom).  She will be 90 next month. :-)

She met my grandfather during WWII and was a nurse for the Army.

They married and proceeded to have 12 children.  :-)

After she was finished having children, she went back to work as a nurse during the summertime when the older kids were out of school and could help watch the younger kids.

She still sends birthday cards to each of her children, their spouses ( my aunts and uncles), her grandchildren ( I think they are 35 of those..) , and all of her great-grandchildren.( going on 15 now..). She also crochets blankets for my cousins' cerebral palsy benefit every year.   She loves to watch the Brewers and the Packers play.  She is NOT a fan of Bill Clinton.  ( hahahahahaha!)

Here is a family picture from the 1960's...

Incidentally, my father is the one on the very left of the pic...back row.  He is 4th of 12.  :-)

And here is me and my sis with my Grandma Lorraine last month while we visited in Wisconsin.

Happy "early" Birthday Grandma.  I love you and think you are an amazing woman.  :-)

xoxoxox

Genetics

This is my father at age three or four ( I can't remember..)

And this is Finn at approximately the same age...

Amazing.  It is simply amazing.  

:- ) xoxoxoxo

He gets it from his Grandpa...:-)

Finn is our one child that will fall asleep anywhere if he is tired...here's the proof!  

Oh, and I tried to take the Goldfish out of his hand while sleeping but he had a death grip on the bag!  hahahahaha!

xoxoox

A Yankee Doodle baby...

Happy Fourth of July !!!

xoxoxox

The prized possession..

It was love at first sight..

Not a moments hesitation,

and he was off into the sunset.

As if he had dreamed about what to do,

how to pedal, how to brake.

Big sister ran along side to help,

and of course be bossy. :-)

Oh, and little brother brought up the rear...

too soon it will be his turn...sigh..

xooxx

Ahhhhh....beautiful Four!

In case ya missed it...Finn turned Four last month!  June 28th to be exact..:-)  I love the age four...kids just become so much more independent yet still love their mommy and daddy cuddles.  Finn is such a an interesting little human being...he is serious about being heard and does not like it when he thinks you are not paying attention to him.  ( I think this might be "middle" child issues too). He is very sensitive about all things...for example..he still does not like to watch Cinderella because he gets very upset when the stepsisters rip and tear Cinderella's dress apart... he says " it makes me sad mommy".  Finn consumes about 3-4 bowls of strawberries a day. no joke.  If we are out of strawberries he is not a happy camper.  Good thing we live near a city that produces strawberries all year long.. :-)  Finn still adores anything that has to do with pirates or rabbits. I actually found a song that is called "Buccaneers and bunny rabbits". Needless to say..he loves that song.   Someday I would love to get him a rabbit..he would really like that I think...:-)  So Happy Birthday to my darling Finn...you are one of a kind and we love you dearly...xox

Oh yeah, about 3 1/2 weeks ago....

....she finished Kindergarten.  :)

That is her good-by hug from her teacher..sniff-sniff...

xoxoxo

Parenting ups and downs...

Sometimes being someone's "parent" just scares the crap out of me.  How or why did God decide that I was ready to become a parent?  Some days I feel like I could handle 10 kids..some days I want to dart out the door with the first whine of the day....most days I feel like the three I have are just enough to NOT push me over the edge.

 Let's start with the UPS:

1.  I get to be called "mommy"  or "mom" or "mama" or "MOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM"!

2.  I have been entrusted to raise the three most perfect little people...

3.  I get to share a bowl of cereal with Finn...he is just the perfect kid to share a bowl of cereal with.

4.  I get to snuggle and have a conversation with Olivia.  She asks AMAZING questions and comes up with AMAZING answers.

5. I get to chase and tickle Wyatt....but even more...I get to hear him giggle.  :-)

6.  I get to be a child all over again...( seriously, one of the best parts of being a parent).

Now the DOWNs:

1.  Discipline :-(

2.  Losing my temper

3. Yelling

4. Feeling out of control ( this is the worst one I think)

5. Discipline ( yes, yes, I know it's good for them...but enforcing rules BLOWS!)

6. Feeling like I'm failing...:-(

7. Poop, throw-up, and when kids do that "I'm gonna spit out this food to piss you off " bit....

8.  Losing my temper. ( see the pattern here?)

Now I know that most parents go through this but I am trying sooooooooo hard to find a way out of the anger that comes when either something happens that I can't control or I just can't find a constructive way to work my way out of a parenting problem.

I deeply admire all the parents out there that are calm all the time...and they do exist, I have seen them in the parks, grocery stores, etc...maybe when they get home they lose it or something.  hahaha!

Anyway, I guess I just feel so tired a lot of the time and my patience just isn't what it should be.

Wah- wah- wah!  Right?

Every day is a new day...a new start ...and a new chance to make something better...I gotta keep going with that...:-)

xoxox

A picture says a 1000 words...

xoxoxoxox

Olivia's big night!

Olivia has wanted to get her ears pierced for a LONG time...she just didn't have the nerve until quite recently.  She really prepared herself for the whole process.  The last 4-5 times we were at the mall she watched a couple of girls getting their ears pierced and she looked through the store at all the earrings..."I'm not quite ready yet mommy".. she would say.  Then we heard that her beloved 10 year old cousin would be getting her ears pierced..."oooooo ..Mommy, I'm almost ready to go"...she really just needed to think about it some more..:-)

Then the other day she told me she was ready....we had a girls night..just me and her.  She marched into the store and we told the lady that she was here to get her ears pierced.  I asked her if she was nervous..."Nope"..she said.  I was doubtful about that response but trusted that she was ready.  They had her climb up into the chair and she very intently watched the girl clean all the equipment, put on gloves, and mark her little earlobes.  Then another girl came over so that they could do both ears at one time ( I highly recommend this)...Olivia still looked very calm and while I could see her nervousness she was very relaxed and pensive.

The moment came....and then it was gone.  No tears, no wincing, not even a sound.  Even the girls who did it were completely shocked.  She looked right at me , with her little grown-up ears, and said. "Mommy, now I have earrings.".  :-)

sigh....

xoxoxo

He's hungry..

Uh....i wonder if they realize that they are about 1/2 inch from losing their shirts?

That goat looks HUNGRY!

xoxoxoxo

I'm sure it was a very interesting story...

...why can't I remember it?  Because every day.  Every single day.  I get to hear about 25 , no, maybe 30 interesting little stories.  I just happened to catch his expressions during this one.  This one occurred at the dinner table so most likely it was about something that happened at preschool, or maybe it was about a bug, or maybe something his sister told him ( uh-oh).

xoxoxoxo

Middle buddy started it.

My kids like to do many things.  Most of them involve torturing each other in one way or another.  Some would call it "playing" but I call it a glorified-dictatorship-birth order torture.  :-)  In other words,  when you are bigger than someone else, you can take it upon yourself to find some sort of way to make the one smaller than you "suffer".  Not in a bad way ( well, some times in a bad way) but really it's just life right?  

Hmmmm......mom let me play with the hose which means in three year old land.." Hmmm...how can I put this cold hose water on my baby brother?"

The "innocent" one?  

Maybe I can start by pretending to wash off Wyatt's slide...yeah, that will get the water closer to him..

Has no idea that is big brother is plotting to drench him..

Yup, there it is.  That gleam in his eye.  I ( and his sister) know to run for the hills when I see it...Wyatt has yet to learn this evasive tactic.

Wait, what?  Could this be glee?  Oh, noooooo!  This could mean that they could one day conspire against me!

It turns out he likes 65 degree hose water...who knew?

Meanwhile, the snap peas keep on growin'...

Mostly because this sweet face has been watering them and talking to them on a daily basis..

Well, at least until she realized that she could control the hose now...."innocent", I think not!

xoxoxoxoxo

In case you were wondering...

...some pirates DO need to use floaties.  

:-)

xoxo

Who's who??

Here are all three of my darlings at the same age...about 3 days old...sometimes the they look so much alike it just scares me!  

Can you guess who is who?? :-)

xoxoxoxoxxo

I don't know what I like more...

......the adorable little frog 

or

those adorable little chubby hands 

 that are holding it.  

xoxoxoxo

Even Vegetarians can enjoy McDonalds

Yup, even we go to McDonalds.  What do we eat?  Well, the kids get happy meals with a grilled cheese sandwich (just order a cheeseburger without the meat) and of course that comes with their favorite tiny french fry and apples.  I like their salads and once in a while I indulge in a fish sandwich.  On this particular day we were there with friends and the kids played so hard that they all crashed for 3 hour naps when we got home.  Wyatt surprised me by actually climbing up the big kid structure all the way up inside one of the tubes!  I send Olivia in after him but he had already turned around when he realized he couldn't see me. ....I'm gonna have to keep an eye on this one!  hahahah!!

And yes, it is a little known fact that even Pooh like french fries...:-)

just some thoughts..

....about being a mom.

i don't think I ever knew or cared to know how hard this job would be.  Some days ( or maybe like last week, the WHOLE week), I pretty much felt like walking out the door.  Is that shocking?  Well, if you are a mom, you a probably saying , "Nope, I felt like that last month, or last week, or yesterday. ".  I felt inadequate, overwhelmed, and well, just plain mean.  And I know that the kids felt it.  I know that they felt worn thin by my yelling and most times I saw that their faces were always hesitant as to what I might say and do next.  sigh....but,

this week is so much better.  Even though this week I have the sore throat ( that has been passed from family member to family member), i still feel better.  Even though May gray is here and the days are perpetually cloudy sometimes all day long, i feel better.  I think that sometimes God throws us mommies weeks or days like those to test us, to see if we can truly overcome obstacles.

i am thankful that my children are healthy.  I am thankful that my husband is patient, and kind, and the most wonderful father to our children.  I am thankful that we live in a safe town and have food on our table and clothes on our back.  I'm pretty sure last week...I wouldn't have cared..:-)

and of course ...I would never walk out the door.  :-)

xoxoxoxoxo