Summer Break: Day 56

At least he's taking a nap.

Daydream Believer

THIS is almost worth having another baby.




It KILLS me that I didn't think of this when I was a mother with one infant. I'll probably still try to make my crazies do this, but it won't be quite as funny.

You can see what else this baby girl is dreaming about HERE.

Summer Break: Day 50

So today I was at a luncheon at the church for a friend who is moving to Idaho. I sent the crazies to play in the gym with about a bazillion other crazies. I got interrupted from pleasant conversations by my older two...that I HAD to see what Grayden was doing.

I found him in the men's bathroom; naked and sitting on a urinal.

It's been one of those weeks. The kind where even the sound of a child's voice makes me break out in hives.

Adding to it all: Two power outages. Not like a little flicker, but no power well into the wee hours of the morning. AT&T trouble; no phone or Internet for SIX DAYS! Grayden went five days without napping. He's two. Oh yeah, Grayden is two. That definitely added to my difficult week. Spencer's fully loaded school schedule is really starting to take it's toll. There are too many days where he leaves for work at 7:00am and doesn't get back until long after bed time. And a power outage when your husband is gone is really boring.

Plus the rest of the week was chalk full of late nights and early mornings, doctor appointments, watching friends kids (don't worry friends...I'm happy to watch your kids...it means I get to reciprocate), and the usual obligations. Blah, blah, blah, wah, wah, wah. I certainly am not implying that I have it any worse than the rest of you.

On the upside, I anticipated the entire summer to be this hard. I don't think this week was much worse than any other. I've just reached my limit. I've made it SEVEN WHOLE WEEKS without loosing my cool. Sure, there have been grocery trips from hell and all around bedlam for moments out of each day, but I've pulled myself together throughout.

I think at bare minimum, I deserve a nomination for Mother-of-the-Year. I don't expect to win. Once I can make it to eight weeks, that's when I'll start writing my acceptance speech.

Summer Break: Day 45

Awesome.

Christmas in July

Parker's thoughts tonight:

I wonder how Santa can stay awake all night. He must stay up really late on Christmas Eve. Is he nocturnal or something? It's not really good for you to stay awake all night. He must be really tired.

And so the count down to Christmas begins...

Whoomp! There It Is!

When Mom comes to visit she usually insists on helping with a project. This time she only got as far as the funding. (Thanks Mom.) She paid for the supplies but the trip was just too short. So I did it myself the very next day.

I bought this gem of a toy box at a garage sale last summer for $2.

After a little spray paint and piecing together some pillows...BAM!
I'm especially pleased with the green and white chevron patterned pillow. My intentions were not to piece the pillows, but I couldn't find fabric I liked so I decided to take matters into my own hands.

Do you love it as much as me? I use it as a drop box for shoes and backpacks so they don't clutter my kitchen floor. (Theoretically.)

Summer Break: Days 29-33

Grandma Benson managed to arrange a visit to Ohio in her busy, busy life. Thank heavens! It's been way, way, way too long. I saw my mom briefly when I went to visit Mike after his accident. But other than that, we haven't seen my mom in nearly a year. A YEAR! That's nuts.

Mainly I just used her for babysitting services. She came on Friday and Spencer and I went out running errands together that night. We went on a day date on Saturday. We went out for ice cream (and more fireworks) on Monday night. And Tuesday afternoon I went out all by myself...a luxury I never take for granted.

Yet somehow I felt we got a good visit in. Probably because she's on Arizona time and so we stayed up too late every night. She's not tired at 12:30am because it's only 9:30pm her time. We had a great visit. It was really good for me and good for my kids (and probably good for her, too). I didn't take pictures. I never think to get my camera out when she's taking so many pictures. But really, the pictures are all on her camera and she's in Arizona. I should have taken pictures. You can see them HERE.

Disclaimer: As for Reid's suspenders? He found them in the costume box and was certain they transformed him into some kind of superhero. He insisted on wearing them all evening.

Boo-Yah!

Is that how you spell it?

Parker turned six today. (I know, right?) Like any other kid on the eve of his birthday, he could hardly contain himself last night.

Spence and I stayed up late hanging streamers and making cake and wrapping presents. The usual. Parker heard us around 12:30am and since he'd been asleep for a few hours, assumed it was morning. He popped out of bed bright eyed and bushy tailed, sprinted down the hall, and exclaimed, "BOO-YAH! It's my birthday!!" Who has that much energy when they wake up?

Reid rained on his parade this morning (the real morning like when we eat breakfast) by telling him he looks exactly the same as he did yesterday when he was only five.

I disagree. He totally looks six.

Summer Break: Day 29

It's official. I sold all my baby clothes on Craigslist this morning.

I went through all of them earlier this week. I thought I might get a little sentimental. Didn't happen. I'm hard-hearted. The only thing going through my head was, Man we dressed our babies cute! Cuter from 0-24 (which is what I sold) than we do know. That was before they had any sort of opinions. Parker, who gets most of the brand new clothes, has had an opinion since he could talk. He does NOT like anything with buttons or collars or anything that will make him stand out. It's t-shirts all the way. Kind of sad. So our babies who couldn't express opinions dressed exactly how Spencer and I pleased. It was lovely.

So I wasn't sad at all about giving it away because I kept thinking how much someone would appreciate this collection of stylin' clothes. How lucky would they be to have such a well dressed baby at a small portion of the price. A woman contacted me. I pictured her to be this cute, young mom just starting out and wanting exactly what I had to offer.

Then I met up with her this morning. She was smoking while pregnant...if that tells you anything. I almost turned around. I'm dying to give a more detailed description of this woman, but it's awfully judgemental and not very nice. But I will say that if she was shopping for baby clothes and money was not an issue, I bet she still wouldn't pick the kind of clothes I gave her this morning.

And then I was sad. I had a pit in my stomach all the way home. I was fine getting rid of them to someone who would appreciate the beauty of it all, but not so much if they won't be appreciated in the way I wanted them to be.

But I did it. And I'm sure she will still appreciate it on a different level. (Only after I grabbed out a small handful for a friend of mine who has a baby boy. She would TOTALLY appreciate them. I don't know why it didn't occur to me to ask her if she wanted them in the first place. What a jerk I am!)

Summer Break: Day 28

I have spent the summer running from doctor appointment to doctor appointment. Today marks the third appointment this week. I am quite envious of those of you who have kids without health problems. My kids are healthy, it's minor problems...totally manageable, but SO MANY appointments.

Reid, of course sees an orthopedist and a prosthetist PLUS the Shriners doctor who has to approve all his funding. Did you know prosthetic legs for a 4 year old can cost $6,000-$10,000. YIKES! We've had cars that cost less. Thank goodness for Shriners. But it's a tedious process. We started back in March and he still doesn't have a new leg.

Reid also has a speech delay. Appointments for that are scheduled.

Grayden has torticollis...twisted neck. (See HERE for prognosis or HERE for a visual.) Looking back on when I first found out, the doc didn't think it'd be a big deal. And now he's almost three and I am taking him to weekly OMT (osteopathic manipulative therapy) appointments 25 minutes away.

And if that weren't enough...Grayden had his first ear infection back in February or March, but because of his head tilt, the fluid hasn't been draining. So he's been through all kinds of garbage for that, too.

Plus other normal appointments.

It's been a rough week. And yet, my problems are so minor. Definitely not life threatening. I've been reading the blog of the family that had the auction a few months ago. The family with the son who has the rare skin disorder. It is HEART WRENCHING. I can not fathom the pain baby Daylon endures. Or Jennifer, his mother. I bet she hurts every bit as bad as her son. The Edling family could use some prayers.