Is It Time For School Yet???

This past week has been tough. The kids have been fighting a lot, not listening and refusing to do any Summer Reading. It's all wearing on me. I'm exhausted from their late nights, I'm exhausted from getting up early, I'm exhausted from working more, I'm exhausted from being exhausted. I know that I cannot let one week do me in, I need to focus and remember that these moments with my children will be gone, they will grow up and not be little anymore and I will miss it. But God it is so hard!!!! Especially when the very first thing every single morning out of my son's mouth is "Can I have the computer?" NO!!! You can't!! Go read a book, or play with the $100 worth of Legos that I bought so they WON'T ask for the computer or say that they're bored. Yes, it's been that bad of a week. This week is going to be worse because I'm working every single day except Thursday. Great for my paycheck, but tough on my nerves and body. Lifting 30+ pounds of dog food 30 times a day will wear anyone down. I think I need a vacation. Or at least 48 hours of sleep. I'll take either one at this point. When I have weeks like this past week, when I've been up early, cleaning, taking care of pets and kids, then go to work and work my butt off, then go home to my third shift, I'm a wreck. And I swear to God if I hear one more stay-at-home mom say how tough her life is, I will smack her in the face. Toots, you've got it MADE!!! I used to be a stay-at-home Mom, and yes, it was tough, but not nearly as tough as this is.

So yes, today I am looking forward to the first day of school, but that won't last. It's just another bad week and this too shall pass.

Me~

6

A certain little boy turned 6 on Saturday. A certain special little boy. One who stole my heart the moment he was born. Right before my eyes I've watched him grow into the sweetest little boy I've ever met. He's my little scientist who loves to make things, he's a time traveler who insist on taking his baby sister back to 1985 with him. He can't walk by me without saying "Hi, Mommy. I love you". He loves our alone time when I read his favorite book to him. We're almost finished and he's already planning our trip to the bookstore to get the next one. We had family over Saturday for cake and ice cream and it was a good day. I still can't believe how fast these 6 years have flown by........

Me~

Is She 4 YET?!?!

It's no secret that I kinda don't like the 2's, but we all know how I feel about the 3's. I despise them. I wish I could skip that age completely. At 2 they don't really understand yet and they're pushing boundaries, talking back and the dreaded "MINE!!!" phase. And then they turn 3 and all Hell breaks loose. It's exhausting. Lo has reached the 3's early. I don't even know what to do or say to her at times. I've had to threaten her with spankings! Thankfully just the threat is enough.....for now. I'm still holding out hope that she will be different than my other 2, but I doubt it. I'm not that lucky. I was lucky that she was a delightful baby that slept well, ate well and never cried. I was also kind of lucky that she was delayed in the crawling/walking phase. I couldn't imagine having 2 crazy children running around the house at the same time. Lex was plenty!! But I'm paying for it now. She's a hellion!! But a super cute hellion.....

Have I mentioned how happy I am that spring break is over and Lex is back in school? No? Well I am!!! They exhausted me last week!!!! :)

Little Miss. Independent

For the past few weeks Lola has started informing me that she "can do this" or "can do that" all by her little 2 year old self. Needless to say.....I'm scared. I hate this phase almost as much as puberty. They think they can do things even when I know they can't. For example...I know she can't climb into her carseat without me helping. I just know this. She doesn't, she thinks she can do it and she gets very pissed off if I try and help her. So I let her try, stay close and catch her when she falls. She wants to pick out her own clothes, her own foods, her own shows to watch and she makes sure I know she can do it herself, she feels the need to remind me by saying..."I can do this all by myself, Mommy. Lola can!!". Yes, she speaks in the first person. It's hilarious. If you've been reading my blog for a while then you know that Lola was delayed in walking due to a high fever which triggered a febrile seizure which set her back almost 6 months. With Early Intervention and lots of patience and love she can walk, run, climb and all that other dangerous fun stuff. She is still very slow, more cautious with stairs, but we're working on that. So you can understand my anxiety about this phase. I'm nervous she's going to hurt herself. I'm afraid I won't be there is she is trying out her new found freedom. But I can't be afraid. She sure isn't! So, I'm stepping back. I'm letting her do things by herself. I'm not fighting it anymore. We've already needed 3 bandaids today, but that's ok!! Lola can do this and so can I!

Are You A Wimpy American Mom? Or Are You A Tiger Mom?

A few weeks ago I went to the dentist to be tortured have my teeth cleaned. While I waited I grabbed TIME magazine to have something to read. On the cover was a picture of a pair of legs in a skirt standing over a little girl holding a violin. The title caught my eye...TIGER MOM. I began reading the story and was, at first, appalled at what I was reading. The story was about a woman named Amy Chua, who calls herself a "Tiger Mom". She's also the author of the book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. The article in TIME magazine was all about her parenting skills, she uses Chinese "strict, Old World, uncompromising values". In short, she's strict, very strict. Going as far as to make her daughter practice the piano through the night until the girl got the piece right. She says Americans are weak, we don't raise our children strict enough, we don't push them hard enough...and so on. Crazy, right? They talk about a few other incidents that you can read about here if you like....READ HERE. I read the entire article and by the end of it I felt a bit better. She talked about regretting some of the things she did and said to her kids, she talked about compromising with her daughters now and how she was cocky and thought she could control her daughters when they were first born. We can all relate to that one!! Her parenting style may be a bit rough for some, but there are some aspects of it that I actually agree with. For example....I do not coddle my children, I do not praise every. single. thing. they. do, I push my teenager just a little bit more every time, I encourage my son write his name until he gets it right (with praise, of course) and I am not their friend, I am their Mother. Don't get me wrong, I cuddle with my kids, if they get hurt I comfort them and I do praise them when they do something well or good or on their own without me asking. I would never call my children names, make them do something into the wee hours of the night and I would never not except a homemade gift. My teenager is an honor student, all A's and one B. She pushes herself to do better every day, she studies all the time and she is really just a good kid. So I guess I'm doing something right. But am I a Tiger Mom? I don't know about that. I'm not out to raise perfect children, I just want to raise them well. And so far, so good. :)

Teenagers Are Gross.....

Not only are they gross, but they're whole purpose in life is to piss us off. That, and to sleep/eat/talkonthephone. Just today my teenager decided to not call me and tell me she was going to be walking to McDonald's when she was supposed to be at the mall where I left her. Not only that, but she left without doing her chores and I refuse to follow her around and remind her of the things she needs to be doing daily. She wants me to treat her like a grownup, she better start acting like one. So today when she left, she didn't close her door all the way and one of the dogs went in there and peed and pooped on her floor. So I went in to clean and was like...."Why bother?! This room is disgusting!" I decided to take pictures and show the world what living with a teenager is really like. So behold!! The teenager's room!!!!..........

Apparently she's storing up for the Winter.....

Those aren't raisins, people!!!

Because putting your clothes away neatly is just not cool.....

Because on the floor, next to the bed is EXACTLY where things belong.......

And just so the other side doesn't feel left out......

Yes, that's maple syrup. You know, just in case she has the hankerin' for some waffles......

And her bed, also known as "The place where I throw all my junk"......

You're probably thinking..."My gawd. What kind of Mother are you, posting these pictures?!?!" I'm the kind of Mom that believes that spreading the word and raising awareness of just exactly how gross teenagers can be is beneficial to everyone. Especially Moms who haven't dealt with it yet. I hope this has helped. 

Side note: she has cleaned her room and it now looks like a normal human being lives in there and not some squatter.  And believe it or not, she has a down comforter with a nice cover that she refused to actually use. Instead, she uses the old blankets and pillow cases, because "it's too hard to put the cover on the comforter". -_-

Another Embarrassing Mommy Moment

I've said it before, now I'm saying it again...I could write a book and fill it with all the embarrassing things my kids say or do. Just re-reading this post makes me wanna cry. But, I'm a pro at this by now, so I just keep on truckin'! Things happen. Kids say or do things that I can't control. There are situations that I can't control either. Just this morning something happened that reminded me of a mortifying incident that happened a few months ago. It was a regular Saturday night. The hubs was out working, Lola was sleeping, Lex and I were about to watch a movie and the teenager had a friend coming over. As Lex and I were sitting on the couch getting ready to watch our movie the teen walks in and starts talking about something or another. She sits down, on the remote, and the channels start changing at a rapid pace. Lex is freaking out because our movie had just started, the teen is trying to get up and I'm trying to reach under her arse to get the damn remote! I grab it, start pushing the "exit" button to make it stop switching channels and that's when it happens. It stops on a porn channel. Now, you have to order the porn for it to actually be playing, but the name is clear as day right there for my young teenager to see......."Foot Long Black Dong". Yes, you read that right. She's staring at it with a looks of "WTF?!?!" and I'm frantically trying to change the channel. No such luck. The damn remote picks that exact moment to act like an ass and it won't change. This is kinda how it went....

ME: "DAMN!! CHANGE ALREADY!!!"
TEEN: "EW! MOM!!! What?!? OMG!!! EWWW!"
LEX: "MOOOOOOOMMMMMAAAAA! Our MOOOOVIE!!!! Come on!!!"
ME: "WTF is wrong with this damn remote?!?! C'MON!!!!!!!!! CHANGE!!"
TEEN: "I think I'm gonna be sick. That is SO gross! Grown ups are SOOO gross! EWWW!!!"

-_- -insert dying here- The thing finally changes to the right channel leaving the embarrassing words behind, but forever imprinted on my young daughter's mind. Things finally calm down, her friend shows up and Lex and I start our movie over. End of story. Right? WRONG! A few weeks later I go into her room to change her sheets, I put on a fresh one and notice there's writing on the damn thing.  I lean in to read what it says and I'm shocked! Just shocked! You probably guessed by now what it says.....that's right. Written in permanent black sharpie are the words. "Foot Long Black Dong" on my 14 year old teenage daughter's flowered sheets. When I asked her why she would do something like that she replied "I would never do that! She did it! -insert other teen's name here-! I told her what happened and she thought it was hilarious and wrote it on my sheets". I just shook my head and walked away. End of story. Right? WRONG!!! Lex has been sick for the past 2 days and I have been making a little sick bed on one of our couches for him to lay on. I like to cover them with a blanket or a sheet so as to prevent the spread of ick. This morning while I'm folding laundry he sits up and says "Mom. There's words on SisSis's sheet. What does this say?" Oh my gawd. No. Please say it ain't so. Yes, I forgot about the writing on the sheet and used that particular sheet to cover my little man's sick bed with. ((sigh)) I walk over, pretend to read the horrible writing and say as calmly as I can. "This says..."Teenagers are idiots". He laughs and laughs and I walk away trying not to laugh. For now that is the end of the story, but I'm pretty sure there will be plenty more embarrassing Mommy moments to come.