Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Friday, May 1, 2009
How my baby makes me laugh
*** Disclaimer**** - Lest some of you think I am heartless or in denial please know that I have a blog on my sister in the works but it is heavy and sad and right now I need funny so when my little man sat on my head last night and laughed I thought hmmm . . . maybe I will do the funny until I am ready to write the sad. If you don't know me personally, my older sister passed away last week suddenly and I will write more about that later, she was only 39, that is far too young to leave the world.
How My Baby Makes Me Laugh . . .
He sits on my head with his big old pajama clad behind and starts playing with a toy , like this is the most normal of spots to perch, he did laugh though so I think he secretly knew it was funny. Hmm, he likes to think he's funny, wonder where he gets that from???
If I lay on the floor, he uses my body like a piece of gymnastics equipment.
He likes to blow zerberts on any and all exposed flesh that he can reach so watch out if you come over - he doesn't care who it is. He once caught me just above my jeans on my back as I was squatting down to clean the toilet. Talk about a surprise you weren't expecting.
He likes to look at me right before he does one of the things he knows he is not supposed to do just to see if I am paying attention, like climbing on the fireplace, in fact he makes baby noises and calls attention to himself until I catch him doing said activity so I will come over and pick him up to move him. Manipulative little dude.
He likes to play the "Hold my arms out to other adults then psych! Immediately turn back around and hold them out for mom again" game.
When he really likes something he throws one hand in the air, looks up and says GA!! I have yet to figure out what that really means?
He thinks he is six years old like his siblings
He is extremely physically capable and I don't know if that should delight or terrify me!?
He already has a favorite book - Baby's First Word Book, isn't that a Henry James?
He has the cutest, biggest behind I have ever seen on a baby.
He likes to make this face when you, never mind I can't describe it in words you'd have to see it. It is a face that is far too intense for a 15 month old to pull off, he learned it by copying his siblings, it makes them laugh too.
It is this stuff that gets me through the day. It is why I still love him at 2 AM when he is screaming for no apparent reason for the third time in a night. It is the benefit of extra fun in my life that has never for a second made me regret having a fifth baby when everyone in my life except my husband, mom a couple of very close friends thought I was crazy.
That's the good stuff . . .
How My Baby Makes Me Laugh . . .
He sits on my head with his big old pajama clad behind and starts playing with a toy , like this is the most normal of spots to perch, he did laugh though so I think he secretly knew it was funny. Hmm, he likes to think he's funny, wonder where he gets that from???
If I lay on the floor, he uses my body like a piece of gymnastics equipment.
He likes to blow zerberts on any and all exposed flesh that he can reach so watch out if you come over - he doesn't care who it is. He once caught me just above my jeans on my back as I was squatting down to clean the toilet. Talk about a surprise you weren't expecting.
He likes to look at me right before he does one of the things he knows he is not supposed to do just to see if I am paying attention, like climbing on the fireplace, in fact he makes baby noises and calls attention to himself until I catch him doing said activity so I will come over and pick him up to move him. Manipulative little dude.
He likes to play the "Hold my arms out to other adults then psych! Immediately turn back around and hold them out for mom again" game.
When he really likes something he throws one hand in the air, looks up and says GA!! I have yet to figure out what that really means?
He thinks he is six years old like his siblings
He is extremely physically capable and I don't know if that should delight or terrify me!?
He already has a favorite book - Baby's First Word Book, isn't that a Henry James?
He has the cutest, biggest behind I have ever seen on a baby.
He likes to make this face when you, never mind I can't describe it in words you'd have to see it. It is a face that is far too intense for a 15 month old to pull off, he learned it by copying his siblings, it makes them laugh too.
It is this stuff that gets me through the day. It is why I still love him at 2 AM when he is screaming for no apparent reason for the third time in a night. It is the benefit of extra fun in my life that has never for a second made me regret having a fifth baby when everyone in my life except my husband, mom a couple of very close friends thought I was crazy.
That's the good stuff . . .
Monday, April 20, 2009
Becky
This is my sister Becky, she was 39. She passed away this week. I miss her already. I want to post her eulogy here but I have to figure out how to do it. I am not a techno guru. I will get to it sooner or later. I am still not ready to write a long sad post but I am getting there. For those of you who didn't know her let me just fill you in a bit.She was older than me by 20 months. She was 39. That is way too young to die. I am the second and then I have a younger sister and a younger brother. My mom had all four of us with in 5 years. I did the opposite five in four years, well okay it was more like 4 in 5 minutes and then one more five years later :)
Do you ever look at people around you who have things like this happen, a death of a very close relative, or some other horrible thing and think that those kinds of things just don't happen to you? I was one of those people, now I am on the other side. Its so very weird. It gives you a completely different perspective on life. Not better or worse I guess, just different. Its like you've been looking at a picture from the same angle and height for years and then you climb up on a ladder and see it looks absolutely different than you imagined. Does that make any sense?
Well speaking for "those people who have these things happen to them" perspective changing events come to all of us at some point in our lives but it isn't necessarily always from a tragic situation such as mine, it can also come from beautiful wonderful events like the birth of four babies at one time or one baby four times? Any babies, babies bring tons of perspective changing magic with them when they enter the world. Love the babies, don't want anymore, well more like can't afford anymore and need a nanny. Becky was a nanny by the way, back to my original intent with this post. It'll make you dizzy - I know, my stream of consciousness writing style tonight is free therapy for me so feel free to click out to something more, hmm, well predictable. So Becky was a nanny, a great one, for 15 or more years. She learned after the first family not to get too terribly attached to the kids. Her first assignment was somewhere in New Jersey and she told me that she still had dreams about the cute little boy and his family. It hurt her not to have him in her life anymore, I wonder if she knows that I now understand that all too well. Becky was creative, intelligent, scary, annoyingly weird, hilarious and frustrating. She was just my sister but I know other people saw her differently. It bothered me when she all of a sudden decided new people in her life would call her Rebecca instead of Becky or Bec as I called her, but I guess she just wanted a grown up name.
There time for a new paragraph. My English teachers would have a ball with a red pen on this piece of work. Becky liked music that I just didn't get like Tori Amos - yuck if you put me in a room with that music on I would complain of illegal torture tactics. I am sure she is a nice person but all that melodramatic whiny muck grates on my nerves. Anything that reeks of co dependence or angst is a deal-breaker to me, that includes people. I believe Becky knew that about me and respectfully hid some of hers from me. Does that make me cold? I don't know, I just know that I have joy in my life, joy of living a normal life (well, that's debatable) Joy from being kinda conventional and conservative and not doing drugs etc :) Joy in watching my children grow up in a stable predictable environment year after year which I know could be snatched up at any moment and so I remember to thank God for each day we have together in this world. I guess that gives you enough to chew on for the moment. I will tell you more about her funny escapades one day soon. She was a hoot. I will miss that most of all. Love you Bec.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
One thing . . . leads to another
I was forced to clean my house all last week because my quads had their classmates party on Sunday. Now I have awful carpets and nothing can make them better except ripping them out to get new ones but we just aren't quite there yet. But I scrubbed the floor, the baseboards, windows, bathroom, the kitchen, and even the playroom. I dusted and mopped, swept and did all the things that I normally don't get to on a regular basis. What I have found is that when you start cleaning up one area of your home that leads to another and then another because once you get one cleaned up you realize just how awful the other parts look in comparison! But here is a typical clean up session for me, maybe it will be make you laugh but it is accurate and the truth -I get up and down a big coffee because it gets my blood moving and gets me out of "sit around in pj's eating breakfast mode (note: I still eat, I just move while I am doing it, I have never been and never will be a breakfast skipper , pshaw - AS IF?) Then I have to feed everyone and change two diapers. Then I tackle the have to's - dishes and laundry, meanwhile something in the kitchen catches my eye, it is my daughter who has been bugging me for three days to paint her toenails pink , painting her own toenails pink - everything screeches to a halt "Mouse, you know you can't do that by yourself "
Her "but mommy you said you would and you kept saying you would and you still hafent done it!"
Okay, she's right and I kinda HAFE to live up to my promises don't I?
"Allright sweetie, hang on." I finish up whatever I am doing and start doing something else that catches my eye and I hear this faint voice "Mommy you aren't doing it yet?!" Oh yea right - arrrgggghhh!
Well lets see, I half way sit in the chair in front of her, well almost, I do a hover squat but then have to stand up because I notice her toenails are too long and ragged so I have to go find the clippers which will also require the trash can to put clippings in so I go dig the clippers out and make mental note to dump and sort junk drawer someday soon. Then I grab the trash can and notice it is full to the top so I put it down, I put the clippers down, I go to the pantry to get a new liner, I have to unrig the homemade baby proofing (headband and a chip clip) on the doors. Get the liner, change it out then take trash bag to garage, notice there are three bags already out there waiting to go to the trash can outside, so I take them all and then think while I am out there, "I should just go ahead and get the mail." Oooh I better run back and shut the door so the baby doesn't fall out. I get the mail and start to look through it. Get irritated at same old junk. Make mental note to throw out the last four issues of the same catalog I get every week and have never ordered from but for some reason have a hard time letting go of. On the way back up the driveway I notice some onions and other weeds sprouting in my soon to be filled with Gerber Daisys flower beds (Yay Perinneals! ) Pull 'em. Toggle between leaving weeds in driveway to dry up like my dad taught me or picking them up in a garbage bag to throw away like husband likes , decide husbands way would require yet another side trip to get a new bag so I leave them on driveway which irritates husband who later throws them back in flower beds which I find to be very counterproductive passive aggressivy! Then remember CRAP I am supposed to be painting daughters toenails, how the hell did I end up obsessing about weeds! I run back inside and slow down to open the door because there is usually a baby, sometimes mad, waiting on the other side. There is so I have to do this sortof slow dance thing trying to ease the door open enough to push the baby gently enough to move him but not enough for him to fall down while moving. Then I shimmey around the door like you have to do when you are trying to get into a stupid public bathroom stall thinking to yourself, "I am an average sized person and there is no comfortable way to get in here without putting a foot in the toilet in order to shut the door!! What do the plus sized people do? Aarrgghh!"
So anyway, I finally get back in the house, aiming for the little girl awaiting a pedicure when I smell something peculiar , yep, budgie has done a boo boo in his pants as we like to say around here. So I head for the bathroom and locate diapers and wipes, which must be refilled so I do that and notice the trash can is overflowing so I do that and then notice son is playing in toilet water so gross! I scoop him up and wash his hands while he fusses. Then I have to change him and that requires another trip to the garage where the diaper champ awaits smelly and full, that needs changing too!!!!! Nope not touching it, DH can do it when he gets home. So I set the offensive article on top of the diaper champ and head back in, baby in tow. Set him down and pause with brain freeze for a moment - I am supposed to be . . . hmm, see exasperated daughter staring at me holding nail polish and practicing her best imitative Zoey 101 eyeroll , 5 year olds should not be that good at that yet! "Mom - toes - polish!" Oh crap, yes toes, polish "coming!" I say and I clip, polish, sweep, wash hands. Flop on the couch - mission accomplished.
"Mom I-am-so hungry -I-wanna-eat-NOW!" comes another voice
Oh well, I will get to sit down when I am like 58 and then I have a feeling I will never get up again. Now aren't you exhausted after reading all that? It was hard reliving it just to write it all down, but I will never miss the chance to make you laugh and appreciate your own life, so there. Have a good night and don't ever ask me to paint your toes.
Her "but mommy you said you would and you kept saying you would and you still hafent done it!"
Okay, she's right and I kinda HAFE to live up to my promises don't I?
"Allright sweetie, hang on." I finish up whatever I am doing and start doing something else that catches my eye and I hear this faint voice "Mommy you aren't doing it yet?!" Oh yea right - arrrgggghhh!
Well lets see, I half way sit in the chair in front of her, well almost, I do a hover squat but then have to stand up because I notice her toenails are too long and ragged so I have to go find the clippers which will also require the trash can to put clippings in so I go dig the clippers out and make mental note to dump and sort junk drawer someday soon. Then I grab the trash can and notice it is full to the top so I put it down, I put the clippers down, I go to the pantry to get a new liner, I have to unrig the homemade baby proofing (headband and a chip clip) on the doors. Get the liner, change it out then take trash bag to garage, notice there are three bags already out there waiting to go to the trash can outside, so I take them all and then think while I am out there, "I should just go ahead and get the mail." Oooh I better run back and shut the door so the baby doesn't fall out. I get the mail and start to look through it. Get irritated at same old junk. Make mental note to throw out the last four issues of the same catalog I get every week and have never ordered from but for some reason have a hard time letting go of. On the way back up the driveway I notice some onions and other weeds sprouting in my soon to be filled with Gerber Daisys flower beds (Yay Perinneals! ) Pull 'em. Toggle between leaving weeds in driveway to dry up like my dad taught me or picking them up in a garbage bag to throw away like husband likes , decide husbands way would require yet another side trip to get a new bag so I leave them on driveway which irritates husband who later throws them back in flower beds which I find to be very counterproductive passive aggressivy! Then remember CRAP I am supposed to be painting daughters toenails, how the hell did I end up obsessing about weeds! I run back inside and slow down to open the door because there is usually a baby, sometimes mad, waiting on the other side. There is so I have to do this sortof slow dance thing trying to ease the door open enough to push the baby gently enough to move him but not enough for him to fall down while moving. Then I shimmey around the door like you have to do when you are trying to get into a stupid public bathroom stall thinking to yourself, "I am an average sized person and there is no comfortable way to get in here without putting a foot in the toilet in order to shut the door!! What do the plus sized people do? Aarrgghh!"
So anyway, I finally get back in the house, aiming for the little girl awaiting a pedicure when I smell something peculiar , yep, budgie has done a boo boo in his pants as we like to say around here. So I head for the bathroom and locate diapers and wipes, which must be refilled so I do that and notice the trash can is overflowing so I do that and then notice son is playing in toilet water so gross! I scoop him up and wash his hands while he fusses. Then I have to change him and that requires another trip to the garage where the diaper champ awaits smelly and full, that needs changing too!!!!! Nope not touching it, DH can do it when he gets home. So I set the offensive article on top of the diaper champ and head back in, baby in tow. Set him down and pause with brain freeze for a moment - I am supposed to be . . . hmm, see exasperated daughter staring at me holding nail polish and practicing her best imitative Zoey 101 eyeroll , 5 year olds should not be that good at that yet! "Mom - toes - polish!" Oh crap, yes toes, polish "coming!" I say and I clip, polish, sweep, wash hands. Flop on the couch - mission accomplished.
"Mom I-am-so hungry -I-wanna-eat-NOW!" comes another voice
Oh well, I will get to sit down when I am like 58 and then I have a feeling I will never get up again. Now aren't you exhausted after reading all that? It was hard reliving it just to write it all down, but I will never miss the chance to make you laugh and appreciate your own life, so there. Have a good night and don't ever ask me to paint your toes.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Cyber Socializing
Okay, admit it - most of you (ahem - us) enjoy time wasting with cyber-socializing. Pretty harmless and only a bit addictive but a relatively new phenomenon, (I like to use big words!) Anyway, I am finding it more and more necessary to get through my day. I carry my Crackberry, I mean Blackberry in my pocket and marvel at the little snippits of info I get from friends or "friends" from days past.
I love getting "friended" by people, but it cracks me up when its someone from high school, usually in my year, whom I never even spoke to or atleast don't remember doing so. Must we all be friends? Do I still have to play nice and let everyone into my little cyberworld or is it okay to be exclusive? I was pondering this questions recently when I decided to weed out my friend list. Not to be mean at all, just to par down or simplify my life in this tiny area I have control over. So on Facebook I cut maybe 5 or 10 people whom I never exchanged messages with because I don't really care that they are bowling with their sister in law or the fact that they are going to Hawaii and just want to make all of us non-Hawaii goers jealous (it worked) or maybe they are having a baby - nahh I always think that is cool to hear about! But anyway, I weeded and then started getting refriended (I think I just invented new Facebook lingo) by the same person over and over and I just kept ignoring it. Not because I didn't like her, I don't even really know her anymore, well never did, we just happened to graduate together. I found it odd and annoying that she kept pestering me so I dug my heels in and finally blocked her completely. Why? Why does she care? That is so weird. My point, and I do have one, is that this new time sucker FB has its own rules and strangly enough, politics just like everything else. Like my mom always said, you have to use your social skills, even on FB. I was going to go into Twitter but I fear I may bore some of you so I will leave that for another day. My last thought is that I am getting to live vicariously through the postings of my favorite group of students who are now in their mid twenties, they are my cheerleading squad from my teaching days. I laugh at the things they post, one is in England, one is in Egypt, one in Miami, etc. They are completely grown up but I keep getting shocked when they allude to some not-for-adolescents behavior and of course they are not adolescents anymore, they are adults, at least on paper! Have a good night.
I love getting "friended" by people, but it cracks me up when its someone from high school, usually in my year, whom I never even spoke to or atleast don't remember doing so. Must we all be friends? Do I still have to play nice and let everyone into my little cyberworld or is it okay to be exclusive? I was pondering this questions recently when I decided to weed out my friend list. Not to be mean at all, just to par down or simplify my life in this tiny area I have control over. So on Facebook I cut maybe 5 or 10 people whom I never exchanged messages with because I don't really care that they are bowling with their sister in law or the fact that they are going to Hawaii and just want to make all of us non-Hawaii goers jealous (it worked) or maybe they are having a baby - nahh I always think that is cool to hear about! But anyway, I weeded and then started getting refriended (I think I just invented new Facebook lingo) by the same person over and over and I just kept ignoring it. Not because I didn't like her, I don't even really know her anymore, well never did, we just happened to graduate together. I found it odd and annoying that she kept pestering me so I dug my heels in and finally blocked her completely. Why? Why does she care? That is so weird. My point, and I do have one, is that this new time sucker FB has its own rules and strangly enough, politics just like everything else. Like my mom always said, you have to use your social skills, even on FB. I was going to go into Twitter but I fear I may bore some of you so I will leave that for another day. My last thought is that I am getting to live vicariously through the postings of my favorite group of students who are now in their mid twenties, they are my cheerleading squad from my teaching days. I laugh at the things they post, one is in England, one is in Egypt, one in Miami, etc. They are completely grown up but I keep getting shocked when they allude to some not-for-adolescents behavior and of course they are not adolescents anymore, they are adults, at least on paper! Have a good night.
Friday, March 13, 2009
All I really want right now . . .
Its Friday, ahhh what that used to mean -no work, no school, no housework or laundry, a date with my husband or friends and sleeping in the next morning, maybe a party to look forward to or shopping at the mall with unspoken for cash, running with my dog etc.
Here is what it means now -
-getting up early anyway because the baby thinks breakfast is at 5 AM everyday
-getting up early for baseball pictures which start at 8-freakin AM?????
-trying to understand why our softball coach thinks anyone would want to add a third softball event to the same day (pictures, practice game and practice game) Huh, she has no life or maybe just less than 5 children
-being stuck in the house with five no make that 6 cranky kids if you count DH when it rains and having to feed them
-still doing just as much laundry as weekdays or risk having a terrible laundry make up monday session
- wanting desperately to order pizza but not due to daughter being on Gluten and Casein free diet that everyone swears works but doesn't (Pizza is her fave and mine too.)
- Having to fix and feed everyone 3 times a day instead of twice.
-having to listen to myself complain in my head when I can't get to the blog to do it.
-imagining how great my friends lives are at the moment because of course they have to be better than mine!
okay, thats it I am through for a moment, hope you enjoyed my SUPERFUN ATTITUDE!
Monday, March 2, 2009
Snowy Day in Georgia
Well, we finally got it, and on March 1st! I always and only wish for one day and night of snow each year, here in the fairly deep south (which I adore.) Sleet turned to snow yesterday as the temps plummeted and my children were thrilled. 
Here is doodle talking to a lumpy grungy snowman, I think she is waiting for it to wake up and say "Happy Birthday! Seriously she stood there for like 20 minutes oblivious to the cold and she refused to wear gloves.
Here is dad being a good dad trying to make grungy snowman #2.
This is me trying to take a picture of Jack with the snow, left handed. He didn't have any appropriate attire, heck none of us did. Should you invest money each year on snow proof clothes and shoes when your children are growing and will only need it once each year? Especially when 4/5 of your kids are all the same age and size so its not like hand me downs would get used all that much!
I finally got in a picture this morning and I like this one simply because it is so colorful in our hodge podge of piece-mealed clothing! Hope it is dry and sunny tomorrow like they are predicting. 70's by Friday. Now that's what I like about the South . . .
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