Why?

That has been my biggest problem today. And I have realized it's not in the way that I always thought it would be. I remember those tv show/cliche scenes of kids asking why the sky is blue, or why dogs chase cats, or those questions that make you go, "Why on earth do you need to know the answer to that? Besides, I don't know the answer anyhow."

However, this is not the way Moose works. I would honestly prefer that version. His is, whenever I ask him to do something or make a request of him, he responds with, "Why?"

It is driving me bonkers. I am so completely one of those moms who constantly says, "Because I said so." Often with an exclamation point. Is the fact that I asked you not enough? And really, I don't think I would mind so much if he asked me an actual question, versus just saying why.

This is where our battle has begun. My sweet hubs, sensing my exasperation, made this ultimatum with Moose. For everytime he says, "Why?", he will lose an Easter egg from the birthday party he attended last Saturday. Oh yes. The battle has begun.

He did it shortly after dinner. The minute he realized what happened, he was jumping up and down, flailing his arms about like a limp noodle, crying that he wanted his egg back. Oh goodness.

He did it again right before he crawled into bed. I asked him to say his prayer. He was already knelt down next to his bed, assuming the position. Then he blankly looks up at me and says, you guessed it, "Why?"

Now, I don't have a problem with question asking. I consider myself a very tolerant explainer when it comes to question asking. However, we've come to realize Moose asks why simply for the habit and reflex of asking.

My request of Moose is, if you really want to know why, ask an intelligent question. (Yes, I used this terminology with my 3 1/2 year old. He knows tons of big words that he can't define. It's occasionally annoying, but I'm sure he'll have a large vocab that he can actually use one day because of it.) That is, don't just ask me why. If you really want to know why I'm asking something or whatnot, ask me, "Why do you want me to say my prayer?" or "Why do you want me to pick up my puzzle quickly?" Then I can respond with an answer such as, "Because we say a prayer to our Heavenly Father every night before we go to bed." or "Because your sister is trying to grab at them, and you're making her cry by snatching them away. So if you pick it up quickly, there will be less fighting."

I don't think I'm completely unreasonable. We'll see how many eggs he loses. We haven't determined yet how he can earn them back. I'm thinking if he can go a whole day without losing one, he can earn one back. So far, 2 eggs in the cupboard. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Precious Moment: Well, it didn't start out precious. The kids were driving me nuts as I was making a dinner or waffles, scrambled eggs, syrup, and homemade breakfast sausage made from ground turkey. So, to get them away from my ankles, I told Moose to go check and see if the hubs was here. He started heading for the door and Monkey saw him. She started squealing and jogging after him. Only to realize once he opened the door, that the hubs was not here. Monkey was crushed. I felt horrible. Then, when I knew he was here (we live on the second floor of an apartment complex and you can hear anyone walking up the stairs.) I told them to go look again and she was happy once again. Although I did notice she didn't squeal or jog like the first time. But still, it was sweet to see how excited she was for her favorite guy to come home.

What'd you say...

So many random moments over the weekend. Moose and I were writing his name in the condensation on our window in the morning. (We get an insane amount of condensation on our living room windows every morning. Turns out they're great activity boards.) I asked him something along the lines of "and what comes next?" And he says "animal crackers?"

We went to a friend's birthday party on Saturday and she had a beautiful Barbie cake (where the barbie is actually in the cake and the cake makes her dress, and the frosting is like the fabric of her skirt. They put frosting all over her torso to make the dress cover her up. I had one in fourth grade.) Anyway, Moose told me, literally like 7 times, that the Barbie was a toy and that we should not eat it. It was hilarious.

At this same party, there were pizza, strawberries, milk, and cake (as well as other yummy tasty treats). Monkey decided she wanted to eat and was chowing down on Little Caesars cheese pizza, strawberries (an exciting first), drank her milk from a big girl cup (well, it was a big BOY cup, since she was sharing with Moose), and then chowed down on chocolate Barbie cake. She was so impatient with me, she grabbed her own fork and started stabbing at the piece of cake, trying to feed herself. Oink, oink, little girl.

Now, I know I share my little interesting experiences or funny stories, or the occasional thought-provoking (maybe not for you, but at some point it was for me) parenting thing. But my day to day really is that of a homemaker. I do those things that make our apartment feel like a home. Well, that help it feel like a home that's not a pig sty. I try my bestest (most days) to keep the dishes under control, do laundry, keep the toys from completely covering the living room/kitchen/bedroom floors. I change diapers, wipe bums (yes, unfortunately that's still plural. When on earth will his arms be long enough to do it himself?), run small errands, read stories, tickle bellies, manage time outs, take multiple cleansing breaths every day, and ultimately play house. Every day. All day. I cook, I clean, I am the ultimate (although so very far from perfect) mother, wife, cook, maid, chauffeur, and play mate. Now, let's not forget that I don't do any of these perfectly on any given day, and rarely do I do any of them perfectly on the same day. But I don't often mention these day to day tasks of parenting/playing house because I do them every day. And unless something remarkable happens while I'm doing these, I tend to forget I did them. (if I remembered to do them at all.)

So yes, I do all that boring stuff too. Although I say boring sarcastically because you make your own fun. If I dreaded my day to day activities, I wouldn't be able to make it to the next day. Although I don't mind laundry (after 5 1/2 years without a washer or dryer, I'm loving laundry) or doing dishes (after over 4 1/2 years without a dishwasher, I'm loving that too).

And good night...

Well, we stayed up too late (for us.) and are headed to bed asap. We told Moose he has to sleep in tomorrow because it's Saturday. I'll let you know how that works out. :)

Good night.

Who knew that was true...

So I was scrubbing the kiddos down in the tub today and remembered a funny thought I've had.  I never realized it was true.

Kids really do need to have their "behind their ears" scrubbed. They get totally crusty and gross. I don't know what it is that they do that gets weird stuff behind their ears. I don't need to scrub behind my ears. It's one of those things you remember from old tv shows, or old sayings. I never realized it was true until I had kids.

It took me even longer to convince my hubs it was true. But once you feel that spot behind their ears, if it's been a while since their last scrub, there's no denying it. It's real.

Who knew?

Oh, ps, we went back to the park and I found the transformer. (15-20 min. drive up and back, with Monkey screaming over of the half way home.) Mom of the Year Award for me. :)

Score 1 for me...

Nothing big really. Just that I was really organized today and it felt good to feel like I was the one in charge of when we do what, and not my 2 runts.

Highlights of today:
*Moose left his transformer (his most favorite toy at the moment, which actually makes me sad too. He's been singing his own transformer songs and everything. So cute.) at the park. Usually we don't let him take toys out, for this very reason. The last time it happened, he lost his Mater truck at Albertsons. We were lucky enough to get that back, although he and the hubs went back the same day, if I remember correctly. If he's a good boy, we might do a drive by tomorrow. (despite the 15 minute drive.) We'll see.

*Monkey did not have diarrhea. Although, she didn't poop at all, which just might mean we're in for another exciting night!

*Had some great "me" time. Talked with other moms at the park. Even though it was a short visit. (Partially because I started driving to the wrong city, and partially due to the really cold weather/wind.) It was really nice to talk to other moms. It seems so simple, but it's such a relaxing thing. It's really nice to talk to other adults who understand the day to day things you go through. It doesn't have to necessarily be other moms. But you can sympathize with each other if you're all dealing with the same issues. Also went on my nightly "run" (I'm not actually running the whole time.), came home and took a nice shower, and then patched Moose's two pants that have been by my sewing machine for a while. All of this, of course, made possible by my amazing hubs who played with the kids and is currently singing them songs as he puts them to bed.

Sometimes I really think I'm the luckiest girl alive. :)

Just another day...

So, lots of thoughts from today and last night.

You know how I'm always saying it's such a great thing to go and peek on the kids at night? Well, last night I went and did so, and occasionally I stroke a cheek, tug a blanket, that sort of thing. Well, I made Monkey stir and watched her until she settled down. Once she was settled, she proceeded to fill her diaper in a noisy and stinky way. Oh man. Talk about timing.

Well, in the end I was really glad I was there, because laying in that all night, besides being all around gross, would have done a number on her sensitive skin. So we took her to our room, and changed her diaper.

This leads me to my next story.

This morning, I was taking a shower while Monkey was napping. Moose was on the couch, playing with this neat new toy from my sis in law. Anyway, so he's in the living room, I'm in my bathroom. I finish my shower and reach for my towel, only to remember it's not there. The hubs used it (with my permission) to change Monkey on last night, just in case it got messy, to protect our bedspread. I really didn't want to run across the apartment to get a fresh towel. So I stood in the shower for a minute, waiting to hear him stomp across the house. (Seriously, the kid never walks.) He didn't come, so I tried knocking on the shower wall. It's not too far from the living room wall where he was. After about a minute, I heard him running down the hallway! Woohoo! He went ahead and got me a towel. Bless his heart! I was so pleased I offered him a candy heart (leftover from V-day.) Of course, he went on to ruin it by begging for a cookie, which was not the offer (and is much bigger than the offer) and ruined the mood a bit. But overall, I was still so pleased!

Then later on, after Monkey woke up, we had the hiccups together. Awww.

Upon returning home from my run this evening (something new I'm doing, and my hubs is so supportive.) my hubs was wrestling with Moose (something he loves and really needs, but he's just so big and I'm not a very good wrestling partner) He (kid, not adult) was laughing so much and having the time of his life. I just loved hearing him laugh so hard. It was that kind of laugh, when my hubs wasn't even touching him, he was cracking up. I just loved it. Kids need those moments. Moose probably needs them more than he's been getting since Monkey was born. I suppose that's something I can work on.

A pretty busy day, overall pretty good. Filled with some great moments. Moose's towel story reminds me of a really great one from last summer. Perhaps I'll share that tomorrow. It's way better. One that I wrote down in my journal. I'll definitely share it soon.

Like a rollercoaster...

Kids are so up and down. After another nice, long nap this afternoon Monkey was apparently rejuvenated. At least for about 2 hours anyway. If tomorrow is equally strange, we're calling the doctor.

It's so hard to tell sometimes what's going on with kids. Especially when they're as young as my Monk here, who will have her first birthday in under 2 weeks! (So hard to believe.)  She's got an ear infection, she's teething, she's had a cough/cold, and I betcha she's probably having a growth spurt on top of it all. So does she have a fever? Sure, sometimes. She's drooling a storm too. She gets crabby. She's just a ball of baby/toddler stuff. She's got her well-child visit in a few weeks. Hopefully our doctor will check her over and declare her all well and fit for duty.

So far, we've been super blessed to have kids that are generally healthy as oxen. They still get the average cough/cold. Especially when it's "that season" and everyone and their dog is catching stuff. But all in all, oxen.

So many aspects of what we have to do as parents is complete chance. We haven't had to deal with any major or even minor health issues. But I've had so much stuff happen to nieces and nephews, all at very young ages. My precious niece passed away at 3 1/2, due to complications stemming from a genetic disease she was born with, but on a slightly less tragic scale, they've had hearing issues, autism, impacted teeth, severe food allergies, broken bones, and all sorts of stuff. The worst we've had so far is the stomach flu. So blessed, but I really can't take any of the credit.

But no matter what hand you're dealt, you deal with it, you love your kids with more love than you can possibly imagine you're capable of and you take it one day at a time. So, here's to tomorrow.

Sad kids and the library...

Ugh. So the day started out unusual, and kinda icky. We got the kids to bed late last night after an Easter dinner with family. But they konked out pretty fast, probably 1 minute after their heads hit the bed, at 8. Moose was up at 7:15. Cozy enough. Monkey, she didn't get up until 11:30. Yes, you read that right. 11:30.

I went and checked on her once to make sure she was alright. Oh my gosh! Did it stink in there?!? She was still completely asleep. But I knew was going to go straight in the tub once she woke up. One might think, why not wake her up and clean up that poor stinky baby? Because then that leads to cleaning up a screaming & very unhappy baby. So I waited. The room totally smelled like pee and she had some of her antibiotic poop as well. So nice to read about, right? I know. I had to smell it too.

Well, so I stuck the kid straight in the tub (after undressing her, of course) and bathed her. She was so sad and still really lethargic. So I redressed the doll in some clean pj's and she basically cuddled me for an hour. I managed to get some formula in her. The she decided to sleep for another 45 mins. or so.  After she woke up, we finally got everyone rolling to take a DVD back to the library that was due today.

Well, I was originally going to do a drive-thru (since our library has one) but Moose really wanted to go inside, knowing we weren't going to borrow anything since we were just there Saturday. I thought, "This could be nice. Check for a book I'm waiting for, read a few to the kids, maybe even snag a DVD for me from the rack near check out. This might be good." Oh, to the contrary.

For no reason whatsoever, Monkey starts screaming after she finally ventured off my lap and over to a bookshelf. It went straight south from there. I was mid-book with Moose, but we needed to leave. Screaming baby in the library is just a bit awkward, you know? But Moose was not pleased. Not one bit.

So he proceeded to throw a fit. A massive fit.

I was already holding one screaming baby (whose reasons were slightly more convincing at the moment, being sicky and all). It was so annoying. I could tell one sweet lady just wanted to help. But I know Monkey wouldn't have gone to anyone else. And Moose, well, he's just old enough to not behave that way. There was no way I was caving on what was going on. He finally tells me he wants me to finish the book. I know we were really close to finishing. But there's no way I'm going to do that with a screaming child on my lap. Not happening.

To make a really long, and unhappy story short: Moose cried and cried until I threatened him with a public spanking. I don't know if I would've done it or not. I suppose I would have if he made me follow through. But luckily I didn't have to and the threat worked. He screamed the whole way to the car (but walking on his own and not being carried by me. Thank goodness.) He then screamed half the way home, until he calmed down, we got home, got ready for a nap, he stayed in bed for maybe 30 minutes, and is now puttering around the living room, somewhat quietly reading books, and completely killing my mojo for doing what I normally would do during naptime.

Ugh.

It doesn't matter...

"...but it does matter, because it doesn't matter." The logic of a 3 1/2 year old.

So, I promised true parenting, the pretty, the ugly, and the stinky. Today's a lovely dose of the stinky. Sweet Monkey, getting over an ear infection, is on antibiotics. They warned us that this would mess with her diapers quite a bit. Welcome to yucky-ville.

We prepared ourselves (and her sweet little toosh) by using diaper creme the last few days to keep her skin from any irritation. It took a day or so, but the antibiotics kicked in. Today, she blew out two diapers, soiling 2 separate outfits. She spent the rest of the day running around in her diaper and a pair of socks.

Oh, the joys of parenting.

Day after day...

Well, yesterday was one of those days where the computer was already turned off, and me and the hubs watched New Moon, and got to bed late, and my post was put off one night.

Yesterday Moose was a ball of nervous energy, basically driving me slowly, crazy.  Today, however, was a bit better. Thanks to PBS Kids games and Harry Potter #7 to keep me company.

Most of my thoughts are currently headed to you, my dear friend, PJ and your very honest comment. This is what I've got swirling around in my head.

No matter how much you read, or try and prepare yourself, nothing will truly prepare you for parenthood. And I say this in the best and worst of ways. This does not mean, that you should not try and prepare yourself. To the contrary. The more tools in your tool belt, the better off you'll be. Eventually. It just takes time. 

But overall, there's no way to know how your child will change your life. Everything changes once you actually hold that baby. Everything. In the best ways. In ways you cannot possible dare to imagine. And it's different for every single person.

Is it normal to be scared? Completely. I should've been more scared before my first. Now, however, the shock value is somewhat gone. I've been poo'd on, pee'd on, screamed at, bitten, barfed on, bear hugged, snuggled, eskimo kissed, cried on, and everything else. I'm sure my list will only get longer.

The beauty of all of this is: I can't wait. As grueling as parenting is, I absolutely love every minute of it. I may not love it in the exact moment something's happening. But at the end of the day, when I look at my sleeping angels (which I highly recommend. Really helps to remind you what treasures they are. Kids are so angelic when they sleep.) I'm reminded why I'm doing what I do, and I get the strength to carry on. Day after day.

Parenting is a real job. The most under-appreciated job there is, I bet. But the best payment is what you receive naturally. The love of your children. The joy you feel when you see them enjoying life, living, experiencing all that the world offers.

Sometimes I have to remind myself of these things. I've only joined the parenting club about 4 years ago now. It's hard to believe it's been that long. While at the same time, I feel like I've been at it a while and getting pretty good at some of it.  But I'm slowly realizing that this job, parenting, is something that won't ever end. No matter how long my kids have been married, raising kids of their own, they'll still be my babies. And I'll still worry about them, brag about them, and pray for them every day.

PJ - These 9 months are going to seem eternally long. The first pregnancy did for me too. Just know that once this little angel joins your sweet family, your life will have changed in the best way possible, and it will only get better. And once these 9 months are over, time will speed up. Whether you like it or not. And you'll eventually miss the days of feeling your baby kick you in the bladder, and having to everytime you sneeze.

Hang in there. All you parents. Find support. Find ways to get through the tough times. But hang in there. I'm rootin' for ya.