Laugh With Moms

If I could record the amount of noise in my house right now and play it for you, you wouldn’t believe me.  We have a fairly small house and everyone crowds into 3 rooms that are about 600 square feet in total.  When my son comes in the door from school on a rainy day, the noise level rises threefold.  He is a typical boy and therefore all activities involve crashing, yelling, wrestling, running, tumbling, etc.  When he comes through that door, the two girls are pulled into his activities and thus the result is complete chaos.  The noise level is beyond bearable at times and yet there is nothing I can do, nowhere I can send them to blow off steam.  When he comes home from school he needs to be able to get some of his energy out and when it is nice, no problem we go outside and take care of it.  But when it is rainy and nasty, the result is pure noise that at times is deafening.  Most of the time is doesn’t even faze me as it means that they are having fun, well until someone gets kicked, punched or landed on and then we add crying to the noise.  When my husband’s grandmother was in a nursing home, she had a roommate who would mumble things throughout the day.  When we would go to visit, her roommate would mumble over and over “Noise…so much noise”.  Everytime the noise gets unbearable, I think of this and smile as his grandmother (known as Gigi or Nana) was a one of kind lady.  We have many sayings around our house that come directly from her.  One of those that we use regularly is “he can talk a dog off a meat truck” which is one we use for our son as he seriously can.  She would also say “shit or get off the pot”, one we would like to use regularly for our daughter when she lingers on the toilet before bed.  Anyway the din of the children is starting to finally settle down as we prepare for bedtime.  Although right now the two older rugrats are engaged in a kicking, pushing game that may get them sent to bed a little early tonight.  Noise…so much noise will end shortly as the 8 oclock hour is fast approaching and it can’t get better than that.

With the ushering in of fall, I have also managed to usher in a little more of something that is unwanted.  With the weather gettting colder, nothing is better than hunkering down with some nice comfort food.  As a result, I went to put on the jeans I bought at the end of the summer, with a lot of tugging and stretching, low and behold there is a muffin top teetering over the belt line of the jeans.  Unfortunately I also caught a glimpse of that lovely site from the mirror as well.  Therefore I got both the aerial view and the side profile which was just downright disheartening.  So here is what I did, because I was still going to wear those high heel flare jeans to the party  I was attending no matter what, I hiked that belt line above the muffin top to minimize its impact and I put on a sweater to cover it even more.  I then went downstairs and completed about 200 situps (like that was going to help in the 10 minutes before I needed to leave) and drank a bottle of water hoping that maybe I could flush it out.  Then off I went to the party, where there were a bevy of wonderful appetizers, lasagna and pasta, and nice desserts!  I started off with the veggie platter where I lingered for awhile with my margarita in hand.  I then moved onto the chips and salsa and eventually made it to the regular salty potato chips.  And then I went full-fledged into the lasagna concoction only to be washed down with an additional beer.  I would have gone for a brownie too, but I forgot that they were an option.  So needless to say a run is a definitely in my future once the little one takes a nap.  I will go downstairs to our dungeon of a basement that has no heat and run on that treadmill to combat the damage done last night.  The muffin top will remain intact, I just hope to keep it at a minimum.  Three kids and an affinity for anything involving pasta, it will probably remain intact for some time.  They do say that the best part of the muffin is the muffin top.

Let me just say that is not a picture of me and I will not divulge whether my muffin top is better or worse than the one shown above.

Over the past two months I have been checking out the blog of a fellow mom blogger http://www.nieniedialogues.blogspot.com.  If you haven’t heard of her, her name is Stephanie Nielson and she and her husband where critically injured in a plane crash in mid-August.  They are the parents of four young children and her blog is a testament to the kind of mother, wife, daughter, sister, etc. she is.  She writes awesome posts about enjoying the little things that happen even when it seems impossible to do so.  She is currently still in critical condition, in an induced coma to help her body heal from the burns she suffered in the plane crash.  Her husband, Christian, is currently in rehabilitation to heal from his burns.  If you haven’t checked out her blog, please do so as her sister is currently continuing the blog and reposting some of her most cherished posts.

One of my favorite posts, which there are many, is one in which Stephanie listed all the things she was proud of and I thought what a great idea.  Shouldn’t we all do this from time to time to remind us how great our lives really are despite all the tough stuff that happens in and around our lives on a daily basis.  So here is my attempt at what I am proud of:

I am proud of my three children who are loving, independent, smart and endearing little human beings.

I am proud of my husband who is working so hard to make our lives a little bit easier and who loves his family so much.

I am proud that I moved halfway across the country, without knowing a soul, to follow my heart.

I am proud that we have a plan and we are actually doing it.

I am proud that I have great friends who love me inspite of my unwillingness to talk on the phone.

I am proud of both my sister and brother who are extremely successful and wonderful people who have great families.

I am proud of my parents who have been married for 39 years, raised thoughtful and successful children and who were always, and continue to be there for us no matter what.

I am proud that I went on to graduate school and will eventually and finally pay that off sometime in the next 10 years.

I am proud that my college friends and I get together at least once a year despite living in different states all over the country.

I am proud that I have connected with friends who I have not seen in 15 years through the wonders of FaceBook.

I am proud that we have started this blog and have a place to share our truimphs and struggles with total strangers (more realistically our close friends, but maybe in the future total strangers.)

I am proud that I was a camp counselor in Maine for a summer when I was in college.

I am proud that my family would much rather spend time together than anywhere else in the world ( I guess until they are teenagers!).

I am proud that I ran a ten mile road race this summer and actually finished.

I am proud that I have made exercise a priority in my life and will hopefully add more healthy eating in the near future.

I think that I could go on for awhile because when you sit down and really think about your life, there are a lot of things to be proud of.  I hope to revisit this list and add to the list often.  I am truly proud.

Every week my son has a share day at school where he brings an object from home that he can “share” with his classmates.  This week there is theme to the share day and that is as a family we are to make a pumpkin out of any materials we would like.  He will then share with his class how we made it and what happened while we were making it.  So last night we embarked on Step 1 of the project.  My son has about a three second attention span for fine motor/arts and crafts activiites and thus these types of projects require multiple days for completion.  Step 1 was to stuff the paper bag and paint it orange and green.  During the painting, my youngest daughter needed a diaper change and quick bath as she was covered from her dinner. I gave the other two kids specific directions of where the paint needed to go and where it didn’t need to go.   I ran up the stairs, changed the diaper, gave the bath and put her in her pajamas in record time.  Now I know that the minute I ran up the stairs, the wheels started to turn in the heads of the other two kiddos who were way too quiet by the way.  How can we make this boring painting project a little more interesting?  I ran back down the stairs and hear muffled giggles.  As  I turned the corner, the other two came streaking out from the kitchen with painted pumpkins on their bare bellies.  I just shook my head with a big smile, grabbed the camera and told them not to touch anything.  Of course on the way up the bath they touched everything and bumped their bodies to each other as well as the wall and cabinet in the bathroom.  My reaction to this childhood fun has changed over the years of being a mother.  When I just had my son, this “fun” would have resulted in my getting mad about him not following directions and getting everything incredibly messy.  Now, with three kiddos, everything is always messy so I don’t get as bent out of shape about it and I try to enjoy their “fun” as much as I can. Now I grab the camera and hope they can get up to the bath without more collateral damage.  I wonder if he will add this part of the project when he “shares” with his class on Thursday.

My kids and I usually have some plans for each day of the week.  However, today was one of those days that we were just hanging out.   It started out with some good old fashioned coloring and turned into us shooting rockets up in the air in our front yard.  I feel like since my second son was born my older son doesn’t get the attention he always needs.  I guess I realized this more this past week since my older son would insist on me not getting the baby from his crib or telling me just to put the baby in the stroller.  So today was a day I tried to give my older son all of me.  As I was feeding the baby I would make sure my older son had a snack at the table with us at the same time.  When my older son wanted me to play a game with him and run around I held my 23 pound humongous baby in one arm while chasing him around.  Today was special for both of us.  When he said “I love you mommy” like he does every day, my heart melted.  He says it every day but something was different about the way he said it today. It was an amazing day with just me and my kids.

Today I started my day off with a run with a good friend at 6:30am.  Two great things about that:  great conversation while you are running, you don’t even realize you went so far and your workout is over by 7:30am.  One thing I don’t love to do is run.  It is a chore for me to get out there and run, yet it is the one workout that does the trick in the body sculpting arena(and I use that term very loosely, as loose as the spare tire I have running around my midsection).  It burns a lot of calories and tones up the butt, hips and thighs.  Unfortunately running gives me more bang for the buck as they say so I continue to torture myself a few times a week.  Luckily I have a good friend who also likes to torture herself on a nice Saturday morning.  Contrary to what I feel when that alarm clock goes off at 6:15am (I don’t give myself much time to think about the run, I just get up and go), it is the best part of my day.  I can say that very positively right now as my kids are already at each others throats and it is only 9:00am.  After the run, we usually fit in a nice cup of coffee before I have to dash home to be mom for the rest of the day.  There truly is no better way to start the day, exercise with a good friend and a good cup of coffee.  Now I just have to figure out how to fit in the shower before soccer!!

ouch!

In an attempt to do a few things all at once in a house that is getting smaller by the minute, this is what happened.  My husband and I could not stop laughing for about an hour which has not happened in a long time.  I will take one for the team for a little giggle.  His first instinct was to grab the camera by the way!!

It never ceases to amaze me, the things we moms get done when given a few hours, and a few less children.  My two boys were at karate camp today, and that left me with my one year old daughter.  For me, man to man defense is a breeze.  With the few hours I had, I decided to tackle a few things I had been putting off.  The first thing on my list was to unclog a toilet.  This was a job that I had been putting off for several weeks.  So far, I had tried plunging and snaking the beast to no avail, so it was time to get serious.  I had to drain the toilet, and lift it off the pipe in the floor.  After a few trips to the basement for some tools, I was on the way to flushtown when my daughter dropped a wrench on her toe.  A few kisses and some juice did the trick there, and I was back in business.  After being up to my elbows in s**t, I retreived the culprit.  A tube of diaper cream.  I cleaned myself and the bathroom, and made a trip to the plumming supply store with baby in tow.  Upon arrival home, I fed my chickadee lunch and grabbed a quick breakfast. (yes breakfast)  Once she was down for a nap, I put the toilet back on the pipe, bolted it in place, and yes, success.  It was then onto repairing a pair of jeans.  I only poked myself with the needle a few times.  When this task was completed, I vacuumed the first floor, and cleaned the rest of the bathrooms.  Time was up.  I ripped my very unhappy daughter out of a sound sleep to go retrieve her older brothers.  I ran into another parent on the way into the karate place who said “time flies, huh?”  It sure does buddy.  I still had to do laundry, help with homework, and make dinner.  It somehow all gets done.  Go Mama go!

I could hear the kids playing in the kitchen/dining area while I was one room away in the living room trying to catch a few financial hints from Suze Orman on Oprah.  Actually even catching Oprah on TV is something to be happy about as Spiderman or Dora usually wins out.  All of a sudden my youngest daughter (who is 1), let out a healthy and loud wail that immediately indicated something serious had just happened.  I ran into the other room to assess the situation, picked up my daughter and watched in horror as the biggest goose egg began to take form on her adorable forehead.  It grew in size right before my eyes and turned a beautiful dark shade of blue.  Once I picked her up she was pretty much OK with only a few wimpers here and there.  I then turn my attention to my son who said, “Mom she was just running really fast and bonked right into the doorway.”  Knowing that he had a quick answer for me without my asking is a pretty good indication that that is totally not what happened.  So I said, “Let’s try that again, what happened?”  He gave me that quizzical how would you know what happened you were watching Oprah look and proceeded to tell me the real story that involved him picking her up, falling over and knocking her head into the doorway.  He said, “Luckily, I didn’t hit my head on the doorway too!”  Yah, we are all really grateful that that didn’t happen and only your sister was hurt and disfigured in that debacle.  Anyway, as the goose egg continued to grow and become more discolored l thought I would just phone the doctor to see if anything more than ice would be required.  Of course, the doctor is closed due to Columbus Day.  Luckily in my case, my awesome older sister (I just told her about the blog, so I thought I would add the awesome part in case she is reading!!) is a pediatrician but lives 1000 miles away from me.  So I called her up and was quickly reassured that she would be fine and to try to apply ice to the wound which is obviously really easy with a flailing 16 month old.  My sister has four kids of her own so conversations between us involve a lot of side talk to the respective children and lots of requests to repeat what we just said.  The kiddos correctly decide that this would be an awesome time to get out the permanent markers or climb on the ottoman that is blocking the step down into the family room.  Not much gets accomplished, but it sure is nice to talk to her and to get  a little reassurance that the goose egg on the head is not too serious and does not require a fun-filled trip to the ER with three little rugrats!!!

Today I realized I need to learn a foreign language. Why? Because my son has turned into a parrot. He literally repeats everything I say. Even when I think he is not listening he is…he always is! He was playing in another room while I was on the phone and when I got off he started asking me questions as though he was part of my conversation. I have now resorted to spelling things out in hopes that he will never learn how to spell. However, when the dreaded day does come and he is able to understand what I am spelling then it is time for me to speak another language. I am thinking some unique language so he can never crack the code:)!