One Perfect Mess

Archive for April, 2009

One year ago I got the surprise of a lifetime. I still am in awe of the fact I have two children. I stare at my son in disbelief wondering how life got that one by me and so unbelievably grateful that it did. I can make lists and carefully plan out every little detail all I want to and ultimately it’s all for nothing. God has a plan and I firmly believe that every child is a miracle from God that should be celebrated. That being said, if perhaps the next miracle could wait a year or so.. I’d prefer not to be pregnant three summers in a row…

Just now making it at the last minute. Gotta represent for NaMoBloPoMo! Happy Birthday Andrew!! We’re at the beach celebrating with the fam. Had to come over to the indoor pool (don’t ask) for the WiFi. Pictures coming later in the week!! I like exclamation points!!!

In honor of his birthday tomorrow:

1. He always leaves one bite of food on his plate. For the trash gnomes he says.

2. He hates mushrooms and peas

3. He likes to rub Maggie’s belly on his head for good luck

4. He wants to be a cartoonist

5. He likes those really awful chocolate covered doughnuts from the grocery store

6. Outback is his favorite restaurant

7. He always sends me flowers for Administrative Professionals Day.. except this year. And I won’t let him forget it.

8. He sleeps incredibly soundly.

9. He is slow deliberate a perfectionist

10. He and his brother William like to wrap each other’s gifts so that they are very hard to open

11. He used to enjoy a good toga party, and I believe there are pictures to prove it

12. Whereas I like to make to-do lists he prefers to make tallymaster lists that make choosing a movie to watch take four hours

13. He procrastinates. Really badly.

14. He hates the color yellow

15. He nearly died in the hospital after surgery

16. He ran his hands under hot water so they would be warm immediately before walking to the altar. I probably didn’t notice because I was too distracted by Gypsi.

17. He cannot tolerate even the tiniest little glimmer of light when he is sleeping

18. He hates things that smell strongly even if it is a nice scent.

19. He is frequently late.

20. He picked out our china pattern

21. His hair was super blonde when he was little

22. He loves dipping green onions in blue cheese dressing although I haven’t seen him do this in awhile

23. He eats his cereal without milk

24. He has an instant breakfast almost every night

25. He has a monkey tattoo (not really)

I spend a lot of time online in the mommy “cyber community.” Between the two dozen or so blogs I read and the bulletin boards I am a member of I see a whole lot of discord between women (and men too… not to shortchange my daddybloggers) and their inlaws. I am well aware of how lucky I am. My inlaws are without a doubt the nicest people I have ever met. They have welcomed me from day one as a member of their family and have never been critical or made me feel out of place. It is obvious to everyone that meets them that they are down to earth, dependable and 100%, without a doubt, honest to a fault. My mother in law puts flowers in our room whenever I visit and always goes out of her way to make me feel welcome. She’s been having a hard time lately but hasn’t let that get in the way of her efforts to show how much she cares for her family. Family is always first. There are those that put up a front, obsessed with keeping up appearances. But then there are those like Momma C and Bill Daddy that actually walk the walk. They have passed their solid ethics on to their children and God willing we will be able to pass it on to ours. We are so blessed to have them in our lives and I could not think of anyone I’d rather have as grandparents for my children.

In what may very well become a recurring theme here on HA(wk) here is my Sunday top ten.

Top ten things to do on weekends

10. Cookout

9. Breakfast at Cracker Barrel

8. Costco!

7. Head to Asheville

6. Sprinklers

5. Let the kids stay up past their bedtime

4. Eat too much

3. Dogsit Shauna

2. Home Depot, you can do it, we can help

1. Visits from Cici and Granddaddy!

The bedtime scene as it really should unfold:

I give the Peanut his bath before Andrew gets home. Dinner is in the oven ready to go. I feed the Peanut and put him down to sleep. Andrew, Weebles and I have a nice dinner around the table. I tidy up the kitchen as they are finishing up. Andrew gives Weebles her bath while I feed the Peanut again and get him re-settled. The Weebs and I spend some time keeping the eczema monsters away and getting her in her jammies. The three of us climb into bed and read some bedtime stories and then I nurse Julie to sleep. Time = 8pm

The scene last night (most nights resemble this in some form):

I give Peanut his bath while Weebs tries to throw heavy plastic objects at his head. Dinner is on the stove in danger of burning any second. I jump out of the tub and run dripping wet to the kitchen to stir everything then run back to appease my grumpy toddler and screaming infant. Peanut doesn’t want to sleep so I end up nursing him throughout dinner while we all sit in front of the TV watching TiVoed Daily Shows. Weebs throws 93% of her dinner on the floor then screams for “SKEEEEM” pointing towards the kitchen. I figure I’d rather she eat something rather than nothing so I grab her some ice cream and then try to put the Peanut down again while I start the bath. Tonight was special in that the lawn really needed to get mowed and there isn’t any other time before we leave town to get it done. So, Andrew took off outside to do that while I climbed in the tub with Weebs. Right about the time we got in, Peanut started wailing. I frantically try to get the soap out of her hair and then plop her out while I run to fetch the baby. By this time she wants to know where the hell Daddy is and starts up a signature toddler tantrum. She sees him going by the window on the mower every couple of minutes and gets freshly angst ridden. She’s running around totally naked while I realize the poor Peanut had managed to leak out of his diaper and his whole sleeper is soaking wet. So, I change him while the toddler is at my feet wailing loudly. I put the baby on the bed and chase the Weebs around with lotion trying to get at least most of her covered having realized only today that pollen causes her eczema to flare up. Then I wrestle her (and you parents of toddlers know just how literally I mean this) into a diaper and her PJs. Off to nurse the once again screaming baby after throwing on the damn Backyardigans. Weebs’ eyes instantly glaze over at she gazes lovingly at the screen. I get the baby settled down and put him to bed, soother going. I dose up the toddler with Benadryl (it’s recommended for her eczema dammit… it had almost nothing to do with the way bedtime was going so far). Then it’s teeth wrangling time and finally into the bed we go with a few books. After nursing her to sleep I try to sneak away because Peanut has started to meck in his crib and I’m terrified it is going to wake her up. She keeps inching closer to me every time I try to sneak away. Finally I get out of bed and turn the soother back on to keep the baby quiet for a few minutes longer. Then, I have to run upstairs and make up the crib because I washed all the bedding. Again, if you’ve never put a sheet on a crib mattress you are missing a particular brand of hell on earth. Finally, the Weebles is tucked in and the Peanut has dozed off. Time = 9:30pm And the kitchen is a total wreck in case you are keeping score. G’night!

I don’t know what it is about Fridays that makes me want to undertake waaaay too much. I think subconsciously I think if I get everything done today then I can just kick back and hang out with the family all weekend. Ha! I think we all know how that turns out. Added to the usual Friday “cleanupthewholehousedotenloadsoflaundryandgetallnextweek’sgroceryshoppingdone” madness is the fact that we are leaving for our first vacation as a family of four mid-week and my to-do list to get ready to leave is about four pages long. We did manage a trip to the park this morning and the Weebles had tons of fun on the slides. I think I must be overprotective. There were other kids her size there and their parents just sat at a picnic table a good forty yards a way eating lunch and talking. Meanwhile I practically had my arms in the air ready to catch my baby at a moment’s notice in case she fell. Guess by the time the Peanut gets to be almost 2 I’ll just drop them off at the park on the way to the spa…

1. She carries my old blankie and Widget everywhere
2. She prefers pacis with the mouse or duck logo over the bear logo, even though they are the same otherwise. She checks the logo every time.
3. She refuses to use her potty unless she is allowed to close the bathroom door, the girl demands privacy
4. On the weekends she generally calls both Andrew and I “daddymommy” or “mommydaddy”
5. She seems to actually enjoy the taste of bubble solution
6. She is allergic to eggs
7. She likes TV and I’m not too happy about it
8. She has learned how to operate my iPod touch and can turn on her Yo Gabba Gabba video by herself.
9. She hides things in the back of her chair
10. She is totally obsessed with socks. If she finds one of her brothers that has fallen she will take it to him yelling UHOH SOCK SOCK BRUDDER SOCK. She also likes to get socks out for herself and her brother. Sometimes several pair.
11. When she was a little baby she loved to watch hockey with her dad.
12. By the time she was three months old she had already been to five states.
13. She says please, thank you and I’m sowwy.
14. She has already gone through 10 large diaper boxes full of clothes. Having another girl one day just makes good financial sense…
15. She seems to take great pride in carrying lots of things at a time.
16. She likes to collect rocks in the backyard.
17. She is a little wary of plants.
18. One of her favorite things to do is look at pictures of family and point everyone out.
19. She likes to sneak into the laundry room and clean the litter boxes. I will put this to good use when she is a little older.
20. Her favorite book is What do Cows do?
21. She hates being covered up when she is sleeping
22. She doesn’t like to eat vegetables most of the time, except at Cracker Barrel. She will eat anything you give her from Cracker Barrel. Even if it is take out. How does she know?
23. She has always liked hip hop. Strange, I know.
24. She enjoys trying to find things that fit into the DVD player on the side of the laptop. I’m not sure it even works anymore…
25. She managed to lock herself into a hotel room and the police had to come to cut the dead bolt off so we could get to her.

Valuable lessons learned today:

Do not assume that it is a simple task for a Home Depot employee to take down your name and address. It can take 45 minutes.

Do not assume that just because you always have tons of painting supplies cluttering the garage up that when you actually need something, say for example a roller, that it will be there.

Painting ceilings pretty much sucks.

Painting anything without a roller sucks twice as much.

Surfaces painted with a brush alone look like hell.

Do not, under any circumstances, paint anything bright yellow. No matter how many coats of white you put over it with your sad little 1 1/2″ brush, it will still show through.

Class dismissed.