Recent Funny Things.

Overheard at the pumpkin patch from a mom dragging her son from the petting zoo:
"He's done! He kicked a pig!"

That's not something you hear everyday.

My son has a small tendancy to sleepwalk. He got up in the middle of the night, went into the bathroom, over to the toilet, emptied his bladder and went back to bed. The problem? He didn't lift the lid.

We decided to have frozen peanut-butter cups for dessert. I got two out for him and handed them off. He was way excited because he loves these things. He was halfway through the first one before I noticed something hanging off the cup. "Um, did you take the paper off that?" He hadn't, he had eaten half of it with the paper and not noticed. Even funnier? He blamed me for not informing him that they came with paper under the foil.

The baby was sitting in his bouncy seat having a merry old time. He sneezed a couple of times and I said "bless you" without even looking up. My oldest son asked me what the icky thing on the baby's face was. I went over to look, sure that it was going to be a shadow or some other nonexsistant thing. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the baby had sneezed out a giant, gooey booger that had lodged itself between his pacifier and his face. Pressed booger, anyone?

Happy Anniversary to Us!!

Woo Hoo! Nine years! That's so crazy. It really has been a blast, though. There's nothing better than spending nine years with the person who was meant for you, sharing life's ups and downs and being the kick-butt parenting team to two beautiful little twerps. I have seriously enjoyed the past 9 years of marriage with my hubby and am looking forward to many more.

As long as he stays away from my Peeps. ;P

Just some pictures.

Just the two of us.


Kicking water all over mommy!


The eye of the storm.


Hello!


I should probably say that he just had his two month well baby appt. and is up to 11 pounds 9 ounces. His doc says he's doing great growing wonderfully. He had his shots, and that wasn't fun, but I always feel a great sense of relief since illnesses like pertussis are what my nightmares are made of. Anyway, happy he's developing well and such a cheerful little dude!

The Update of the Boy.

Just FYI, I had this all ready to post days ago and my computer froze up. Hence, it is a little late. But better late than never, I always say.

Thanks for all the advice! We are following a plan of action we have thoroughly discussed. First, I got online and found some info on child abuse. We then showed him what child abuse looks like and informed him that this is what often happens to kids who run away from home. We talked about some of the stories available and when we got to end I asked him if he really wanted to run away. His answer was a resounding no! I told him that such horrible things happen to runaways he should be grateful to live in a house with parents who love him, treat him well and take good care of him. He agreed. I asked him not to say that anymore and told him not to even joke about it. He agreed to that too.

As far as the attention issue, I understand that he feels that this is unfair. I absolutely agree with him. Parenting more than one child is unfair. That's just the way it is. At almost six years old, he is able to entertain himself while I am busy. He has chosen not to do this. He has also chosen to break long-standing rules while at home. We have informed him that when he breaks these rules it causes his parents to become very frustrated. Frustrated parents are not likely to give him what he's after so it is in his best interests to avoid doing so. He is old enough, smart enough and quite capable enough to follow the rules and had been doing so admirably for quite some time. While I understand that he may need more attention I cannot in good conscience reward his bad behavior by giving him what he wants. If he gets sent to his room for back-talking or refusing to listen I am not going to go in there and entertain him. Discipline is not supposed to be fun or make him feel good. We still talk about why he is in trouble and remind him that since he knows the rules and chooses to disobey them, he has chosen to be punished. He knows that a crappy attitude, defiance, sassing, nagging, arguing, throwing tantrums, whining and lying get him into trouble. Lately he's been racking up every one of those on a daily basis. Sometimes it seems provoked by circumstances, sometimes he just does it for the heck of it. What's more, he absolutely MUST have consequences for these behaviors every time to maintain consistency.

That being said, I have offered him the opportunity to earn back a trip to the Pumpkin Patch by doing some chores and maintaining good behavior until Sunday. He's blowing it pretty badly so far, but you never know. He's allowed to earn back a toy a day with good behavior but he's lost every toy within a day or two of earning it back. The way I explained it to him is that he keeps pushing and pushing until nobody wins. That when he is in trouble we all lose. We lose time together, we lose fun, and none of us are happy or content. He seems to understand this to some extent. We'll just have to see where he takes it from here.

*Update* Corbin has improved mightily since I wrote this. He has even displayed some seriously selfless behavior, like forgoing outside play so he could be inside where I could hear him while I dealt with a baby that didn't feel good. He did so cheerfully and behaved wonderfully well while that happened. He got super kudos from his dad and me and seems more open to trying harder. Yay for him, and us!

Seriously?!?!

So, life with two kids is definitely harder than I thought it would be. Not because I have two children that need me constantly, but because I have one that needs me constantly and one that has decided that since I have lots going on it's suddenly OK for him to break every rule he can think of. This fine morning, for example, I was still in bed with the baby feeding him when my oldest started the every-two-minute campaign for breakfast. I calmly informed him that he'd just have to wait and said "why don't you go play, I'll be out as soon as I can." Naturally, I became more terse and annoyed when he came back over and over again to find out if I was going to fix his breakfast now. Then he came back and I got a good look at him. He had apparently colored all over himself with a purple marker. He knows he's not supposed to do that. I told him to go get the marker, throw it in the garbage and go to his room. He blithely replied that it wasn't his marker, but one of daddy's pens, which he knows he's not supposed to play with. I wasn't sure I believed him since he's shown a great capacity for lying through his randomly-placed teeth these days. I told him to go get the pen and bring it in so I could see it. He left for about five minutes and then came back to inform me that he couldn't find the pen. I responded that he'd better find it or there was going to be trouble. BIG trouble. He immediately started whining that he COULDN'T find it anywhere and that it was lost and when was I going to make breakfast? I became irate. I quickly changed the baby's diaper and headed into the living room. After loading the baby into his swing for his morning nap I looked around at all the places likely to be harboring a pen that Corb had used. It wasn't in any of the usual places. I called my hubby and asked him if he had left a purple pen in the living room and he said he had but that it was a fine-point pen and not a marker. I was more convinced that Corb was lying since the marks all over him were fat, like those from a marker or felt tip, not a fine-point pen. Of course I couldn't find a purple marker either. After practically turning the recliner upside-down I found the cap to a purple Uniball pen. Ok, so it was daddy's pen. At this point, rules broken included coloring on himself, using daddy's pen, losing daddy's pen, and losing it without the lid since it is now probably staining the hell out of whatever it's on. I told him he'd better get started washing all the ink off. It only took sending him back to the bathroom five or six times to get him reasonably clean. I cringe to think what the washcloth and towel look like, I should check that. When I was telling him that he was in big trouble for breaking all these rules and that he needed to spend time in his room this morning he got angry and ran to his room, slamming the door as hard as he could. I couldn't do anything about it that second, as I was feeding the baby again, but he must have figured out that I was going to be seriously pissed as he appeared in front of me about two minutes later and gave me a breezy, offhand apology for being a "brat." I said he should be since he would now be forgoing the trip to the Pumpkin Patch planned for this weekend. I made him some waffles and made him eat them in the doorway to his room and then into his room he went. I figured that he would behave for the rest of the day, but that was apparently too much to hope for as I just had to go in again to take his cars away. I heard one hit the wall and went in to hear his explanation as to why that might be. First he lied and said it tipped over, but then I found the car under the crib about three feet away from him. He then said that he was playing with the car and it just flew over there. After telling him that cars don't "just fly anywhere" he admitted that he threw it. He lost his cars for throwing toys (against the rules and he knows it) and lying (ditto). That didn't stop him from threatening me while I was taking his toys away, though. At this point, I'm not even sure where we progress from here. He doesn't have much of anything left for me to take away. I made sure to tell him that he'd better pull himself together if he wants to participate in Halloween this year and that if he didn't I'd be taking his Halloween costume back to the store. He informed me that he will run away and kill himself (where the hell did that come from??) and that he doesn't care what I do. I'm getting to the point of being so tired of his behavior, which has been relentless for weeks, that I don't really want to be around him even when he is behaving. I'm tired of being lied to, disobeyed and disrespected. Especially since I work so hard to make sure that his life and all the things in it stay on track. I work on his homework with him, take him to the library, drive him all over hell and gone every day, tickle and wrestle with him in the evening when his dad gets home, and on and on it goes. I know moms are generally unappreciated but I think this is more. What could have possibly made him decide that the rules don't apply to him all of a sudden? Where did this blithe attitude come from? Where on earth did he even hear the "running away" and "going to kill myself" strategies? I'm at a loss.

This kid's cuteness is like Kryptonite to Superman.

This is my current favorite shot. Dang, that kid is gorgeous.

Even though this one's a bit blurry, it's darn cute!

Yay!

So I called B and found out that the stupid cord was in his filthy lunchbox so I was finally able to upload my photos! Bear in mind that these smiles happen quickly and unexpectedly so these aren't the best photos. I'll endeavor to get better ones so you can see how stinking cute this little turd is!


Caught this one as it was fading.


That's what I'm talkin' 'bout!!!

I love it!

Things I'm not thrilled about.

1. B left half-full bowls of his dinner on the counter last night (not even near the sink) and went to bed.

2. They still haven't caught the crazy robber running around town.

3. I got some awesome photos of Linc smiling last night but neglected to make sure the photo card was in. The cable to hook the camera up to the computer is missing so I cannot download said photos and, hence, cannot post them here. Dammit.

4. My eldest child, having lost all privileges except breathing, has decided that he's going to follow me around all day since he has nothing else to do. I spend an obscene amount of time telling him to scamper off to his room before I wring his neck. He also thinks that if he can talk me into watching TV, he'll be able to watch it too.

On the upside, Corb decided not to eat his lunch yesterday. I informed him that if he didn't eat it he would have no food until dinner. He said ok. I had a moment of evil and decided that he could stay in the living room while I watched TV for grownups. He thought that was a major treat for him until I opted to watch Food Network all afternoon. By dinnertime he professed to be positively faint with hunger. So, naturally when I gave him his uneaten lunch for dinner he wolfed it down and then had some of what we were having. Yes, I am evil. I know it.

How the homework gets done.

As you probably know, my hubby is a miracle of responsibility. He's very good at getting lots of things done, although he does suck most heinously at cleaning up after himself. Particularly in the kitchen. But that's not the point! No, the point is that he's very good at doing two things at once and I thought these shots of him doing homework from his Business Communications class showed his talent well.

What a guy!

Dropping like flies!

Today Corb had a dentist's appointment. I made the appointment because I suspected that his previously damaged front tooth had become abcessed. Sure enough, it had. After an x-ray and a quick look the dentist decided that the best course of action would be to pull the tooth. I agreed wholeheartedly. The dentist did a wonderful job! He made the process entirely painless for Corb who handled the whole visit with great humor and poise despite the fact that he was scared spitless for the three days he had to wait for the appointment. He ended up with a fat lip which other than the missing front tooth is the only obvious sign that anything had happened. He did awesome and I'm so proud of him!

YES YES YES!!!!!!

Guess what?!?!? I'm going to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra on December 2nd!!! With my brother and SIL and my hubby!! The kids are going to Grandma's house!! It's going to be sooooooo great!! I'm so excited!! This is the best possible way to kick off the Christmas season!! Seeing a super fantastic, double terrific show with people I love to hang out with!!! Yay!!!

Life changes.

It amazes me how many huge life changes I have been through in the last few years. I thought I'd never survive the first few months of Corb's life. He was such a difficult baby. It was hard on all of us. I remember thinking how disorienting it was not to be able to imagine what the future would bring. It was the first time in my life that I couldn't picture my life in a year, or 10 years for that matter. When my grandpa died it was hard, but I could imagine that it wouldn't hurt as much in a year and would continue to ease with each year thereafter. I wasn't disoriented. Corb's arrival disoriented me so completely that I couldn't even imagine that it would get easier in a year. Of course, it did although I never regained my full equalibrium.

Things continued to throw me off after that. First we moved. This wouldn't bother most people, but I have an extremely hard time moving. It takes me forever to feel comfortable in a new place. It doesn't feel like "home" for months. After the move there were petty family squabbles, job changes and school. Then my dad died. That whole experience was so surreal. I remember thinking while watching him die that it couldn't really be happening. Things like that just don't happen to people like me. But it did, and I had to deal with it. Oddly enough, life went on just like it always did. Then Marie died. I coped better with that. I can only assume that I was something of a pro after dad.

Then we had all those miscarriages. I think I did passably well with those too. It was hard, but I had some great support and faith and that seemed to be all I needed. Then we actually had a pregnancy stick. It was both terrifying and exciting. It was a tightrope walk between not wanting to get my hopes up and remaining thankful for my blessings. By the end of the pregnancy I was so impatient for Linc to be born because I knew I would never believe that the pregnancy was 100% viable until he was safely in my arms. Obviously the labor and delivery were a shock to my system, I never believed it would work!

Now Linc is here. Only, this time is different. This time I don't feel disoriented by not being able to see the future. I'm excited. I'm eagerly looking forward to seeing the person he grows to be, how he and Corb relate to each other and what our family will be like with four members instead of three. I never thought that having a baby in the house could be less than insanely stressful as it was with Corb. I'm finding every day that it is so much easier this time and that I'm more qualified for this job than I thought I was. Not that it's never hard, or stressful, or frustrating. It's just so much easier. I don't second guess myself or drown in the fear of my own ignorance, like I did with Corb. I have experience. I don't know if all my methods are the right ones, but they seem to be working great so far.

I guess that's all that really matters!

First bath!

Lincoln had his first bath last night. The wait was due to the fact that the umbilical stump came off in two pieces, with the second piece waiting much longer than the first! He wasn't ambivalent about the bathing process, he hated it from start to finish! That's ok, it wore him out and he slept great after that!


Can't tell how pissed I am?


Now you can!