Out of the Mouths of Babes

During a hug this morning while Kendall was getting out of the truck.

Kendall: Mommy, are you going to take a shower today?

Mommy: Yes, Honey, I plan on it.

K: Good.

M: Why?

K: You should. I'm pretty sure you have germs in your hair.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm pretty sure I do, too. So after I vacuum the powder dust that settled overnight, I'll take a shower and wash the cooties out of my hair.

Life is good!

Bugs

I'm not sure what I've done to deserve the punishment that has been bestowed on my house. Kendall and I have been sickly for 2 days now, and Tim is beginning to feel a little gross. Just when I think that I've got everything under control, a bombshell falls.

After an absolutely perfect weekend with sunshine and family time, Kendall woke up at midnight Monday, complaining of stomach cramps. I couldn't get her to the bathroom fast enough, and we spent the entire night then sleeping on the floor in my bathroom. I've never felt so helpless. Of course, the whole time Kendall was talking to me.

"Mommy, when you were little did you throw up?"
"Why am I throwing up?"
"When you threw up, did it feel strange?"

I just kept rubbing her back and holding her hair until there was nothing left. Then we made a pallet on the floor and she snoozed while I tried, though every time she made a sound I was afraid I needed to rush her to the toilet. Naturally, Tanner woke us the following morning at 7, and we just sort of vegged all day yesterday. Kendall slept, in and out of consciousness, most of the day. Between naps I'd force her to drink some water or Gatorade, and she even ate a little applesauce before bed. Then, shortly after the kids retired, I found myself curled up in the fetal position on the couch, shivering. Luckily, I didn't have any of the stomach issues ... but I had a mad fever at bedtime.

This moring I kept Kendall home for one more day -- she's still pretty weak from not eating. And I am achy from head to toenails. Why do we hold fevers in our lower backs, anyway?? The only position that is comfortable is the fetal position. And while I was trying to make the pain go away earlier, Tannerbug managed to slip out of my sight for a few minutes.

My eyes were closed for a maximum of 5 minutes. I'm sure of this because we were watching the last segment of Chuggington (most moms know that these kids' shows work in segments, usually about 10 minutes each or so). When my eyes closed, Kendall was on the computer, Tanner was sitting in the recliner, and the 3rd segment had started. While my eyes were closed, Tanner exclaimed, "Mom, I'm goin' to get my Lightning McQueen." Then I opened my eyes and realized he wasn't there. But Chuggington was still on. So it couldn't have been that long, could it?

Anyhoodle, I asked Kendall to go check on Bugs so as not to have to move out of the fetal position. She came back and said, "Ummm, Mom, you may want to see what he did."

Most of you know that Tanner does something ridiculous about once a week. Cutting sheets, glue stick on the walls, perfume on the carpet was the most recent.

But none of those compare to what I encountered when I walked in Tanner's room.

I could smell the baby powder before I even made it out of the kitchen. Upon entering the hallway, I had to take in a lungful of clean air so I wouldn't choke. On the way down the hallway, I could see multiple foot prints in the inches of baby powder that had floated out of Tanner's room.

Speechless. This is the only word to describe how I felt when I saw Tanner sitting in the middle of his bed, coated in diaper cream, buried in feet of baby powder.

And the baby powder was everywhere. On the ceiling, on the walls, between the bed and the wall, on the blinds, inside the drawers, in Brady's pack-n-play.

EVERYWHERE.

And the zinc oxide diaper cream was smeared into the center of Tanner's navy blue comforter. What wasn't extracted from the two tubes of cream onto the bed was smeared into his hair or his clothing.

Seriously?! That's all I could even say. (Of course, then I had to run and get my phone to take pictures before I started cleaning it up. Of course.) Then as I put Bugs in the tub, clothing and all, I called my mom, who is also sick at home today, to come help me clean it up.

I didn't even know where to start. Dust? The vacuum? Open windows and throw everything out? Send Tanner to live with someone else?

So now, looking at the pictures, I'm sure I'll laugh about this later. But for now the ache in my lower back has returned and I have a baby powder headache, but I'm fearful of closing my eyes again. So I am going to attempt to sleep with one eye open. And after my nap I will begin reading the parenting book my BFF sent me.

I guess I need it. I'm sure you've noticed there is no evidence of any sort of punishment here in my recollection of today's event. I still don't know how to punish him for it. I'm open to suggestions.

And on a side note -- The proper way to remove zinc oxide diaper cream from fabric is as follows: First soak the garment in hot water and detergent, rubbing the spot to remove the excess cream. Then soak the garment in white vinegar for 15 minutes to remove the zinc oxide. Of course, this was a little difficult with a full size comforter, but there's some info for the future.

Middle Child Syndrome

It's been a bit crazy around here over the last few weeks. Aside from the regular crazies, we've acquired a new addition during the day -- I've agreed to watch a friend's son, Brady. He is a precious little thing ... all round, sweet-smelling and squishy. At 18-months old, he is quite a little bundle of joy. (OK, so he's not that little, but still a cutie, all the same.) When Brady's mom and dad were trying to decide what to do about daycare for him, Tim decided that I should watch him during the day. I'm here anyway, and I obviously don't do anything all day long, so I guess I needed a hobby. Now I at least have a little boy around for Tanner to play with (as opposed to sitting around, sucking his thumb, and watching TV all day while I do ... well, nothing ... obviously ...) and some cash coming in. It pays enough to pay for groceries, which means we can put that money towards something else. So it's a win-win situation ... my friend didn't have to put her baby in daycare and I get to make some cash.

But ...

Well, while Tanner enjoys being the big boy (when Brady's here, he's all, "I'm the big brudder. I'll hep Brady do dat. I'll go poddy before Brady. I'll hep you make Brady's lunch.") most of the time, I can tell he's having a really hard time dealing with sharing the Mommy.

Of course, Tanner always shares the Mommy, right?

Well, not really. If you remember, Big Sissy goes to school and Tanner gets to have the Mommy all to himself all day long.

Until now.

While we were strolling along nicely, trying to get some semblance of a routine going, everything was fine. We were pottying ... sharing ... loving Big Sissy when she got home ...

But then at night we (meaning Tanner) started waking up at night, just to come get the Mommy and have her tuck us (meaning him) back in. No biggie, I guess. He goes right back to sleep (I think) 99% of the time.

Anyhoodle. My point ...

This week Kendall was out of school. Which I was actually looking forward to, and then it snowed and was freezing, so we were stuck ... trapped ... confined ... like caged animals ... to this house all week. I actually thought (Oh, silly me!) that having Kendall here would be helpful. She's a wonderful little helper and "babysitter;" however, I quickly realized that Kendall thinks Brady is more of a "baby" than he actually is. She wants to old him and carry him around like a baby doll. She talks to him in this high-pitched little voice that drives me bonkers.

Don't get me wrong, she's still super helpful. She takes both the boys potty, she helps change diapers, she pours juice and milk, makes snacks, and loves on Brady when he is tired. But still, she has completely overturned the "routine" we were building.

So not only have I had to remind Tanner how much his mommy is still his mommy ("You my mommy, right?"), but I've also had to remind him that Sissy is still his Sissy.

Add that to the guilt I'm already feeling about not being Super Mommy, and we're a big ole mess.

So this week Tanner became the Middle Child. You know the middle child -- not the first born ... not the baby ... the one who just sorta fades into the woodwork and isn't special for any particular reason. (OK, I absolutely don't believe that, but I've heard from some other middle children-friends of mine that this is, in fact, how they feel at times.) So Tanner has gone out of his way to make sure he has been noticed ... whether it be by drawing on the rug with markers, coloring in his books with chapstick, spitting his milk at lunch, clinging to my leg at the most inopportune times, or inflicting pain on the other kids.

And he is wearing me out.

Hence the thought of updating the blog but then never really getting around to it.

So as hubs is at work, the kiddos are in the bed, and the dog is snoring, I am going to sit here and update my blog and then really do nothing.

Obviously.

And tomorrow I'll spend some extra time loving on Tanner, reminding him that he is my one and only precious baby boy.

And always will be.

Power Writing

Tim and I sat in our keeping room, Sunday night, watching Kendall. Intently. As she worked really hard to complete her first paragraph.

She was writing a paragraph for her kindergarten teacher ... not as an assignment ... she just wanted to practice.

So as she sat on the coffee table and sounded out words she wasn't sure about, rereading every single sentence each time she moved on to a new one, tears filled my eyes yet again.

This is another milestone I don't think I was quite ready for. I helped her write her letter to Santa, writing it out for her and then she copying it. But this time, she wrote it all by herself. She came up with the sentences she would write, the topic she would cover. All I had to do was tell her when to put punctuation and how to spell a few words.

And before she could take it to Mrs. Nations, I was able to snap a picture with my phone so I could share it.

I'm so proud of my little girl. I am constantly amazed by how much she has changed in such a short time.

And now that her first paragraph is complete (with a few notations on the sides), I am hoping to have someone with whom I can share my love of writing and reading.

Early Rising

February 1st was Georgia Pre-K sign up day in Cherokee County, it seems.

And I was prepared for it, I tell you.

I sent the kids to Mom's to spend the night so she could get Kendall to school Monday morning and I could get up extra early and get my spot in line at Kidd Connection (my first choice for Pre-K due to its close proximity to Holly Springs Elementary School). I set my auto brew on the coffee pot and my alarm for 4:30 to ensure a great spot in line.

Of course, Tim and I stayed up a little too late watching the Grammy's but that's another story completely.

So Monday morning, with puffy eyes I set out on my trek to find Tanner a spot in "free school." Because he IS going to preschool. No matter what. And just in case I'm not able to secure a well-paying job (ie. anything more than what I make now ... I mean, I can live on hugs and kisses, but a family of four obviously cannot.), we're opting out of the private pre-K, and apparently parents camp out the night of sign up in order to get a spot in their schools of choice.

Not.

I arrived at Kidd Connection at 5 AM amid dark skies. Not even the street lights were on that early! And I sat in the parking lot for about 15 minutes, trying to entertain myself with Facebook on my phone. Naturally, there was nothing to keep up with at 5 AM, and there wasn't enough light to read my recently acquired Nora Roberts novel, so I just sat. Then I had to turn the truck off because I was running low on gas ... and it got really cold. So at 5:15 (yes, only 15 minutes later) I decided I needed to go get gas. That only took another 10 minutes. So around 5:45 another mom showed up (I'm hoping she was thinking the same things I was thinking), and we proceeded to sit in the parking lot until exactly 6 AM when he director showed up to open the door.

I suppose this was better than the alternative of sitting outside on the ground among a line of tired, over-worked, under-paid moms waiting to sign up their kids for preschool.

And now Tanner is almost 99.9% in -- he is #2 after the kids currently enrolled get placed in GA Pre-k.

So that's good.

And now I can be a member of the club of moms who makes up these God-awful stories about camping out in front of the preschools the night before GA pre-k registration in order to scare the first-time-sign-up moms.

Obviously, this is a group who creates these stories ... and then sits back and laughs the morning of registration. :)