Oh, boy. Here we go again.

It's official. I'm pregnant again. I'm excited and terrified at the same time. Excited because, well, baby! Nervous because now we'll be outnumbered. Excited because...awww...baby! Nervous because my kids are smart and know how to organize against us already. Wish us luck.

Prayers

There was another severe earthquake in New Zealand today. The Christchurch area is devestated and at least 65 are dead. Please, regardless of your creed or religion, pray for the victims, their families, and all affected by this horrible disaster. If you would like to donate to the New Zealand Red Cross simply click on the following link:  http://www.redcross.org.nz/donate
Fortunately for me and my family, my aunt Mary is a good 4-5 hours from Christchurch, so thank you God for the peace of mind that I have knowing that she's okay.

39.

I knew it. I knew the second I admitted how happy I was that spring had arrived that nature would kick me in the pants! Last Friday, we had temperatures about 70°F. Today, 39°...and it snowed last night...and it's supposed to snow again tonight. Really? It's just wrong. You can't tease me with sunshine, open your windows weather and then snow again. At least not within 72 hours.
What did we do this weekend...? Oh, yeah. Not a lot. Friday night my friend Kim had a little get-together at a local Irish restaurant for drinks to celebrate her 30th birthday (Happy birthday, Kimber!). I was slapped in the face with how very different things are for me now than, say, 6 years ago. 6 years ago, I would've been out all night, whooo!-ing the whole time, talking people into buying the birthday girl shots. Last Friday, I had 2 beers and was ready to go to sleep...by 10:00. My 23 year old self is so ashamed. I can practically see her shaking her head. Sorry, me 6 years ago...I have 2 kids and wake up at 5:00am on weekdays. I can't hang with you anymore. *yawn*
Saturday Carls III & IV along with Paige got haircuts. Kids getting haircuts = stressful afternoon. Carl IV is so ticklish that he sits in the chair with his shoulders shrugged up to his earlobes, and Paige is...how can I put this nicely? I can't. She's 2-years-old. Enough said. So, she was all cranky and turning her head everywhere except where it was supposed to be. I ended up practically putting the girl in a headlock so the lady could cut her hair. Add to this that they all 3 went within 5 minutes of each other, so I'm keeping track of both kids while Carl III is getting his hair cut. Whew! Pretty exhausting afternoon. Lame? Yeah...probably. But exhausting all the same.
I just looked at a calendar and realized that in 2 weeks my little man is turning 4. Uhhh...what?! When did this happen? If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go weep in the corner.

72!!!!!!

72°!!! Can you believe it?! This time last year we were digging out from 4 feet of snow, and right now it is 72°!! Ahhh...spring is in the air. I can see grass. Birds are chirping. The sun is shining, and not glaring off of mounds of snow. What a beautiful day. And here I sit...at work...inside...staring longingly out the window. *sigh*

Playing for a Change

I've been in a little bit of a funk lately. Not a bad mood. Just a funk. No rhyme or reason, just happens sometimes. Well, I stumbled across this amazing organization called 'Playing for a Change' on YouTube. I think I'm coming out of my funk...because as long as things like this exist in the world, things aren't so bad. 

Normal is weird...in my family, at least.

Paige's 2-year-old well visit was today, and aside from the hysterics following her immunizations, it went beautifully. She is strangely "normal." Let me explain: My son was, until very recently, in the 99th percentile for everything. Head circumference? You betcha. Height? Yep. Weight? The kid was over 10 pounds at birth...what do you think? So, when I get the little sheet that shows where Paige fit into the spectrum, I'm so used to looking to the top that it always shocks me a little to see how neatly she fits into the normal range. She's in the 50-75 percentile in everything. The girl is, physically at least, average. Luckily she's got the wack-a-doo tendencies that help her fit in at home! 

Who are you?

If you've never noticed before, there is a little thingy on the side of the screen that shows whenever someone visits my blog. It uses some marvel of technology to detect where you are and shows the city/state/country and when you stopped by. Most of the time I can figure out who goes along with where, but there are a few that have just been driving me bonkers because, try as I might, I cannot think of someone that I know from..wherever. Example: Plainfield, Illinois...who are you? I know people in Chicago, but I Googled Plainfield, and it's not so close to Chicago. It's driving me nuts!

Pay It Forward

Every day on my drive to work I pass countless school bus stops. I always look (and get a little teary) imagining my kids waiting there, and sneering at the idiot parents that are too lazy to walk their kids to the bus stop and are sitting in their SUVs with the heat running wasting all kinds of gas and polluting our air more than necessary..but I digress. I pass a lot of bus stops. Right. Well, this morning at one of these bus stops there was a boy, probably in 5th grade (he was really tall, and I know they're elementary schoolers because some of them are wearing backpacks that are bigger than them!), standing at the bus stop smiling and waving at every single car that drove by. People were honking and waving. It just made me smile. Then it got me thinking...if something as simple as a wave can make someone smile, why is it so unusual for things like that to happen? Classic example: Wawa (for those of you that don't live in the PA area, this is like a Tom Thumb with a sandwich shop inside...they're fabulous. I fully intend to open one on Pensacola Beach, make my millions, and retire young.) I always hold the door if someone is coming out while I'm going in or vice versa. People always look so shocked and are ridiculously grateful at this simple gesture. Have we as a society become so self-centered that holding the door for someone is worthy of such thanks? That's just sad. So, I challenge you, cyber-stalkers, to commit some random acts of kindness this weekend. Let that person trying to merge into traffic get in front of you. Hold the door for the person behind you (even if it means standing there for a second or two). Smile at a stranger. You never know how terrible that person's day may have been up to that moment...you could be the high point of their day.

Indigo Child

I was chatting with my mom online yesterday, and she was complimenting me on my blog being so entertaining (Thanks, Mom!), and she asked if I had ever heard the term "Indigo Child." I hadn't so I immediately Googled it and did a little reading. I am so flattered! My mom put it very aptly as a "flower child...with attitude." I love that! Upon doing a little more reading on the term, though, I found that more often than not, children that were considered "Indigo" by their parents actually tested positive for ADHD. That got me thinking...how can they accurately test something like that? As the parent of 2 VERY active and whacky children, I'm beginning to worry that some teacher along the way is going to say that one of them is "hyperactive" and try to have me medicate my kid. I really don't like that idea. I've known kids (and adults) that were on riddalin (sp?) and aderol, and I have to say, I'd rather have a total whack-a-doo kid than the doped up zombie that results from medication. I feel like (especially in recent years) any time a kid acts up in school, they're labled as hyperactive or ADD. Umm...maybe you suck as a teacher and need to work on keeping your students' attention? It's a possibility, am I right? These are the things that haunt me at night now that I'm a parent. That and the fear that my son will be a bully, my daughter will be a snob, or the opposite of those 2 things. Parenthood is stressful, even when the little punks are asleep.
Speaking of the little punks, Carl IV had his Valentine's Day party at school today, so I'm sure he'll be all strung out from having eaten nothing but lolipops and conversation hearts all day. God, help me!

Frustration

Hi, can you hear me? Yeah, way down here. Stuck between a rock and a hard place? Yeah, I'm there. *sigh* I am faced with a pretty frustrating and difficult decision right now. I'm thinking of putting the kids in normal daycare instead of paying Carl's mom to do it. I just feel like they need more structure than they're getting there, but since she's family it's kind of hard for me to be like, "Hey. Quit letting them run around like wild monkeys and make them sit down and do stuff." Plus, she's watching them for SO very cheap, I just feel awkward complaining, you know? My biggest frustration is her constant chauffeuring of Carl's brother, Adam. At least once a week Debbie is driving Adam to a doctor's appointment, or to check in with his parole officer, or to get a prescription filled...it goes on and on. This results in my kids being stuck in the car for, usually, at least a couple of hours. That's not fair. Even if this trip falls during nap time, nobody sleeps right in a car. So, this results in a crappy day for the kids which turns into a crappy evening (because they didn't get a proper nap and have been trapped in a car for ages), which leaves Carl III and me with two exhausted cranky kids by 5:00. It screws up everyone's day...UGH! Frustration! Frustration! Frustration! So, now I'm thinking it would be less frustrating and more beneficial to the kids if they were in a classroom environment. The tough part is finding a daycare that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Wish me luck.

It's the Little Things

One of the fabulous things about our new house is the fact that it has 3 bathrooms. 3! Full! Bathrooms! Finally, I can pee in peace! I can shower without the inevitable, "I gotta pooooooop!!!" I don't have to worry if there's pee on the seat! One thing that I didn't think of moving from a 1 bathroom house to a 3 bathroom house is the fact that we only had 1 soap dispenser. So, for the past few days, we've just been using a bar of soap in the kids' bathroom and kept the soap dispenser in ours (selfish? Maybe. But, hey. We pay the bills. The least we deserve is liquid soap, am I right?). Yesterday on my lunch break I zipped up to Target to grab a couple of 99 cent Softsoap things, and we'll just refill them as needed. Holy cow. To hear my son's reaction to the announcement that he had his own liquid soap, you would've thought he'd just found out that Spiderman was moving in next door! "WHOA! My own soap?! For my bafwoom?! Mom, fank you sooo much! That is soooo cool! PAIGE! Woook! Mom got us our vewy own soap for our bafwoom! Wanna go wash our hands?! Come on, let's go wash our hands!" That kid cracks me up.

The Worst Week...probably EVER

If you remember correctly, we moved into our new house over the weekend. The move went relatively smoothly, thank God. The downside was that we had to move on Sunday, and both Carl and I had to work on Monday, so most of our stuff is still jammed into boxes which are jammed into any available space in the house. This makes getting myself and 2 children ready to leave the house in the morning a challenge, to say the least. I'm digging around trying to find diapers one minute, mascara the next, and Carl's backpack the next. Whew. It's exhausting being a mom. Anywho, we're moved in and the place is great. The week started to go downhill on Monday night. Well, that's not true...Sunday night was a little rough for Carl III and I because we're so used to all the noise from our old house that trying to sleep in the deafening silence at our new house was practically impossible. But, whatev...both kids slept beautifully and I was relieved that at least they hadn't been flipping out at sleeping in a new place. Or so I thought. Turns out Carl IV was lulling me into contentment only to lose his freakin' mind every night since then. "MOM!! MOM!! Don't go! It's so dark!" Me: "Dude, it is SO not dark. You have 2 night lights and I left the light in the bathroom on." Carl IV: "MOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!! Pwease can I have a dwink? I'm very firsty!" Me:"Grrrr. Alright. Stay in bed. I will get you a drink. Then I will give you a hug. Then you will put your head down and not make another sound. Understand?!" Carl IV: (sobbing) "Oh-tay." Me: (returning to the room with water) "Alright, man. I love you. Good night." Carl IV: "But...but...MOOOOOOOM! I want Daddy! I want to tell Daddy good night!" Me: " DUDE! You told Daddy good night." Carl IV: "But, MOOOOOOOM!" Repeat for another 15 minutes until I have to threaten to turn off his nightlights so he can see what "so dark" really looks like.  UGH! Meanwhile, Paige is upstairs snoozing away. Aren't they supposed to get better at bedtime as they get older? Where did I go wrong with the boy, I wonder? It probably all goes back to me rocking him to sleep when he was a baby. Ah, well. Live and learn, right?
Yesterday, we had an ice storm blow through the region. Not at all fun. Our power went out at 4:45am causing both kids to wake up in hysterics because it was...well..."so dark." So, we snuggled together in our bed and tried to fall back asleep. Hmph. Have you ever shared a bed with a 2 year old and almost 4 year old? Not comfy. Not comfy at all. Eventually we all moved downstairs to cuddle up on the couch, where Paige passed out for about an hour. Carl III left for work thinking that he would probably be sent home in a matter of 2 hours. WRONG! He worked until almost 11pm! Our power was out until 3:30pm. I was outnumber. And cold. And had hurt my back by being outrageously smart and going outside to check how the conditions were...turns out they were icy enough to make me fall.  Stupid ice. So, I'm practically crippled, chasing after 2 kids, it's cold, and oh, yeah. The cable guy was there to activate our service at the new house. All in all, not a good day. I was SO very ready for bedtime. Until I realized that I would be flying solo at bedtime because Carl III was still at work. So, I had to face the "But, MOooooooom!" all alone. *Groan!*
To top it all off, we had no hot water this morning. I'm guessing the pilot light went out on the water heater when we lost power, so hopefully it's an easy fix. I had to take a shower at my mother-in-laws this morning before work. I don't care who you are...getting ready for the day somewhere other than your house...it just throws off your whole day. So, here I sit with "I forgot my round brush" hair. Is it Saturday yet? Wait, what?! It's supposed to snow again on Saturday? Great. Of course it is. Because Saturday is still part of this horrendous week. Alright, Sunday. I have high expectations. Don't let me down.