Updates and ramblings

So I have been meaning to blog about this for a while now. Atty had his six week check up at Children's a couple weeks ago. I got to take all four kids. By myself. An hour each way. To the hospital. At lunch time. Through nap time. Tiny office. Waiting. Waiting. More waiting. I'm not going to lie to you all I was scared. So scared I planned ahead and even bought special supplies to entertain team *R* (as we call ourselves). I added in lots of extra travel time so that when we got parked in the parking garage we still had time to eat a lunch I had packed in the van where they couldn't run around and get distracted. I always like to add in extra time to nurse the baby too, which is never easy in public with three other little boys. That all went smoothly except they got food all over their clothes (of course) and so they looked nothing like their prior clean selves by the time we had to go in. Oh well at least their bellies were full...they listen better that way. Gave them a little pep talk about how we are a team and we've got to work together, did the team hand shake and away we went with a silent prayer for my sanity. All actually went well. I was so proud of them. Towards the end of the office visit they got a little squirrelly but I really just felt for them at that point because we were all feeling very Done myself included. The new cool pens and paper pads for each that I got worked to entertain as well as the special snacks I packed (do you see a reoccurring food theme here). We sang songs while waiting and I wrote words to sound out on the dry erase board in the office which they enjoyed. The harder part was when the doctor was in the room talking with me because they would then start to try and get my attention (or the doctor's) at times and that was a bit frustrating. Just because I really need to hear and process what Atty's doctor was telling me. The only time I started to sweat it was when two doctors were in the room towards the end of the visit and all the boys started to act out in different ways at the same time and I had to address the behavior while the doctors waited, just so that I would be able to hear. Sort of embarrassing. We survived though. I even had to take Atty to get A Lot of blood drawn at the end of the visit and not only was he amazing through the whole thing (which was awful, the vein blew before the guy got all the blood he needed for the tests, so he went to do the other arm and it didn't work and then he settled on the finger poke and squeeze to finish.) his brothers were also. I was distracted and sad when we left because there was a lot to think about and because they had decided to drastically up Atty's medicine which had me scared. They were even thinking about hospitalizing us again. I just wanted to cry. And yet I felt so overwhelmingly thankful for my wonderful children. I let them know how amazing they were and how their team work help me out so much and made an other wise hard trip easy-peasy (as easy as a trip with four littles can be). They felt pretty stinkin proud of themselves, as they should. We even got some pictures. Bubu's new favorite face. Ugggg. Look at Atty's great smile...even after getting all poked up. He got a new duck, his favorite thing ever, and he was loving it! I gave it to him when he was getting the blood draw to try and sooth things over. His brothers were so sweet about it and didn't fuss at all about the fact that Atty got something and they didn't. Which is hard for little kids to understand usually. I know that one well, I usually always have to buy three of everything! Which is why they rarely get new things, ha, ha!!

Oh and that stroller, yeah, it stunk. So embarrassing. It stunk and it was dirty and musty. I haven't used it since we moved and it's been stored out in the shed the whole time. I dragged it out the night before in the dark and shoved it into the van to be all prepared ahead of time. So I didn't notice the funky smell until I pulled it out and opened it up to go into the hospital. Atty wasn't walking very well at all at that point and I couldn't carry him and put the baby on my back, and hold onto Bubu and Spike, and carry every thing else too, so I had no other option but to use the nasty thing. Pretty humiliating. I guess we should have gone by the name of the stinky *R* team. Dirty kids, stinky stroller, can't get much better then that. At least they were well behaved little hill billy's.

So this is were we are at. For now. Three medicines and one that we went up on drastically. He has to take three of them in the morning and two of them at night. He was taking the third medicine at night but after a few days of that he started getting insomnia worse and worse to the point that he slept only about three fitful hours one night! I called and told them that between the little baby and a boy with insomnia I wasn't going to last so they suggested switching the med to the morning and that has been working a lot better. Atty is so tricky, any medicine that is suppose to be a sedative will make him hyper. This medicine that was keeping him awake is suppose to make you super drowsy which is why they wanted him to take it at night. He's got weird body chemistry I guess. I was reading in the side effects of this particular medicine that a small % of people got insomnia in the studies, and so of course Atty does too. He seems to like to fit into those small percentages. All the meds say that they make you drowsy, which they do make him act sort of "drunk" and fussy they just don't knock him flat like they do for others. Which is amazing considering how much medicine is being pumped into his little body right now. I have to admit I don't like it. I really don't. I do like that he is now (as of today) not having any seizures. Of course I like that. (Except for the tonic spasms he's still having those but that just comes out as a noise he makes.) ~I don't like that it is just suppressing the seizure activity not actually solving the problem (which I know they don't know how to do being as the brain is still such a mystery and all). I don't like suppressive medicine, even things like fever suppressors (I know, I know) I'm not going to get into a big long reason of why. I will say that I feel like when you suppress stuff instead of getting to the root of the problem, it can manifest its self as a different problem because its got to get out some how. That doesn't mean I never use medicine to reduce high fevers or get ride of a massive head ache, I just try not to. I'm a natural gal that's all there is to it, so I try other stuff first and often it fixes the problem. Am I getting weird enough for ya? Really that's stuff for a whole different post if I was so inclined. ~ Any ways I also don't like all the side effects of his medicine, sort term, and all the possible side effects long term. Some of the stuff straight out of the pamphlets is super scary. At one point they put Atty on a medicine, right before this last new one, that ended up making everything worse and that was really frustrating. It was a stupid mistake and they should have known better, even his main doctor said that. It was a really bad set back that should have been avoided. I don't like that it seems as if my child is an experiment. All the meds he is on haven't even been studied in his age group, nor have they been studied in this combination that he is on. I know that the doctors are frustrated too because he is not an "easy case" but they just seems so flippant about everything and that annoys me. I do feel blessed that his main doctor happens to be the only doctor I liked in our whole hospital experience, so that is nice. Although we of course still have different views hers being more main stream and mine being more alternative we still seem to be able to mutually respect each other. Something I haven't felt from any other doctor there. I keep reminding myself that we are hoping to get him on only one med as soon as it gets to a therapeutic dose and then ween him of the others, but in the mean time it makes me sick to my stomach giving him all this medicine and I keep praying that the side effects will be minimal and mild.

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Have I mentioned yet that Atty is such a trooper...absolutely resilient...amazing...and quite possibly the sweetest kid on planet earth? I am so proud of him and his positive can do attitude!

It ended, here, tonight...for a moment.

This is my 200th post.

I thought I should do something big or share something amazing, make it memorable like I've seen other bloggers do for milestones like this.

Something really big.

So here goes................Today for the first time in Years (unfortunately I'm not kidding) I have washed, dried and put away Every Single Piece Of Laundry in this house! This is BIG people, very big! There is no pile of dirty laundry in my laundry room, or in laundry baskets, no clothes in the washer or dyer, no mountain of clean clothes on the couch, no clean piles of clothes sitting in the kids rooms waiting to be put away in a free moment......................it is all put in it's place!! (and) It Feels Wonderful! :) My laundry situation was plaguing my dreams! I told my husband the only thing I wanted for Christmas was no dirty laundry in the house (He got me a necklace instead, guess who doesn't like to do laundry?). I think I might stay up late just to stare at my clothes free couch, I almost forgot what it looked like. ;) It's not that I had dirty clothes laying all over the place, it's just that there was always laundry in some form somewhere waiting for me to either wash, dry or fold and put away. (but) Tonight, for at least this one night, it is all done and in it's rightful place and I have to say I am loving the feeling.

Today I made it to the light at the end of the tunnel and that my friends is worth celebrating in my little world. Because the laundry at my house...well lets just say it's like the song that goes;

"this is the song that never ends,

yes it goes on and on my friend,

somebody started singing it,

not know what it was

and they'll continue singing it for ever just because"

(repeat over and over again until all sanity is gone.)

(and) Change the word song for laundry. (and) Tweak a few other words in there. Then you get the picture. Maybe.

So there ya go, no give away or life changing revelations, just one happy lady that feels free of the constant laundry for one evening. So free that I am wandering from room to room with a smile on my face. It feels so good. Ahhhhh! Now that's worth the 200th post.

I even made it my kids problem...

I have a problem and it's now showing up in all areas of my life.I love my problem...and that's the problem.

I wear my problem for all to see.

I sit on my problem, or rather my kids do, yes I've even made it my kids problem.

People see my problem right when they come into my home.

My Grandma made a problem and then gave it to me.

Lots of people feed my problem.

My problem finds me where ever I go.

Even when I am not looking.

I can't keep it away.

I can't wipe it away.

Even my baby girl wears my problem and is friends with my problem.

How could she not when it comes disguised as cute clothing!

I even let my problem sneak into my bedroom.

I pin my problem on to my shirts (actually I don't, but lots of people seem to think I do and keep giving me these super cute pins)

I read about my problem.

I drink my problem...ur I mean out of my problem.

The toy box is the problem and is full of the problem.

I even drew a picture of the problem years ago. (when I was 16, around when the problem started)

The problem is a little out of hand...

Just thought you should know. ;)

*Sadly this is only a fraction of the problem...I would crash the internet with my problem*

A little bit of thankfulness...

~I am thankful for those rare quiet mornings when all my little early risers sleep in and I have a moment to myself in a relatively clean house. ~ Now that my husband is working again ((big smile)) it's so nice to wake up to coffee already made, and he always makes enough to leave me a cup. ~ We pulled out the Christmas tubs yesterday, and our tree (yes we have a fake tree). I love looking at all the little ornaments we have collected over the years and I am looking forward to putting them up on the tree this week, I call it my patchwork tree. We have collected a lot of Christmas books and stuffed animals over the years too, which I also unpacked last night. I am so thankful that my boys have a love for reading (as in listening while I read). They were the most excited about the 'new' books. Looking at them all snuggled up with the stuffed animals, squished together on the couch, listening to me read Christmas books, it warmed my heart. I over heard Bubu calling God on his toy cell phone and thanking him for Christmas and telling him all about the Christmas stuff we have, it was adorable. ~ While the wind has been raging (crazy wild winds lately) and the rain pouring I give thanks for every night that my children go to bed in a warm home with food in their bellies and love in their hearts.~

I'm so not kidding people...

I mentioned in a prior post that lately I get a minimal amount of showers per week.

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This is why...

In the 10 minutes it took me to take a quick shower the other night, Spike got a big ol' shiner right under his eye, and Atty (can't have wheat, gluten or DAIRY) got into some ones milk. Which will make for a long night and you don't even want to know what his digestive track will be like tomorrow (let alone his behavior). And no I did not leave them alone to fend for themselves, my husband was "watching" them.
My husband was also "watching them the other night when I left to have drinks (the Starbucks kind) with some friends. I rarely go out and this is why...as I am buckling my baby girl (note that I am still not going out alone) into her car seat I see motion out of the corner of my eye. I look up and there are two naked little boys running across my front yard. Normally I tell my husband to put the alarm on just to be safe, the one time I didn't, this is what happens. Good thing we hadn't pulled away yet because when I went screeching into the house dragging the boys behind me, my husband was in the kitchen, oblivious. His only redeeming factor was that he was washing the dishes.
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So next time when I am complaining on here that I Never go out, and I Never get to take a shower...or even get a moment peace...now you know why.
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...and yes I am feeling sorry for myself...sniff, sniff...and a tear...

~Move your body~

You know what made my day today?

~

Putting on the Madagascar soundtrack and dancing with the kids while they showed me how to "Move it, move it". Their shrills of laughter, their silly dance moves, the pure joy they find in the movement of their bodies and the sound of the beat. It's so freeing and fun. I'm not sure who enjoys it more me or them.

~

"I want to move it, move it. I want to shake it, shake it"

~

You do NoT want to see me dance to that, trust me...but the kids on the other hand, they don't realize I have no sense of rhythm what so ever, they just think I'm being funny.

His name is Stellan and he needs our prayers

Please got to this site and pray for this family. They have been through a lot and their baby boy is in the hospital again. I've been following their life story for some time now and I really feel overcome by sadness that they are going through this yet again, and right before his first birthday which is tomorrow. I can hardly imagine what it is like for his mom...and dad...and siblings.

rough patch

My house is a mess. My boys are a handful and then some. I've had one shower and one bath in the last 8 days. I'm tired. I'm sore. I'm edgy and grumpy. My husband had to go back to work on Monday and since I don't like asking people for help, I'm on my own. I managed to do one load of dishes on Monday, nothing on Tuesday, and although my house is falling apart at the seams it's not looking like I have the will to clean today either. My house has never been this messy, and it is driving me crazy, but just adjusting to four kids four and under and the demands of an (extremely sweet and calm) infant is wearing me thin. Seriously if my little strawberry wasn't the angel that she has been I might have had a total melt down by now, but so far I'm still hanging in there. Maybe I should focus on what I have done.

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I have pushed out a big beautiful baby girl, that was no easy task! I've managed to only freak out on my husband one time in the past week. I've done pretty good at over looking the little stuff that usually drives me crazy (sort of) or at least not addressing it right now. I've managed to feed and cloth and even give my boys a bath this week. I took them all to the library yesterday when we had hit a wall and it was going to get real ugly if we didn't get out. I managed to get them all in and then back out of the library with out much fuss and we even stopped at a park for a bit on the way home. I've managed to spend one on one time with all my boys during the past week to remind them of how special they are to me, and to try to make up for all my grumpy in between.

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I know this overwhelming part only lasts so long. I know I will be feeling better soon and life will flow the way it is suppose to. I know that I just need to tuck my head down and force my way though this rough patch...but...that knowledge is not making me feel better right now. I'm thinking it might be a crying in the shower sort of day, if I could even take a shower.

A whole new level.

I would get down to my kids level more often but...................it's really dirty down there! ;)

I have been cleaning like a maniac. Partially because I am at that stage in my pregnancy were I want everything perfectly organized and clean to sparkling at all times, and also because my baby shower is this Saturday and I am a freak about my house being put together before people come over. I cleaned all day again yesterday and the house was looking quite nice if I do say so myself, then I bent down to talk to Bubu and while I was listening to what he was saying I glanced over at the wall by the back door and noticed a whole new world of dirt! Months of sticky hands touching the walls down low. I guess since it was below my eye level and I'm not as flexible and bendable as I once was right now it had completely evaded me and my frantic cleaning. Once I saw that though, I noticed much, much more and once again I was thrown into a cleaning frenzy that left me breathless (not hard to do right now). My husband is not working today and I came up with millions of things I need him to do as I was wandering around the house cleaning and organizing yesterday, isn't he lucky?!! I already had him fixing the bathroom, painting a wall and steam cleaning my carpets this week, hey if he's going to be home I'm putting him to work no use having a strong capable man just sitting around (like he ever gets to do that). Now I must stop blogging because I am sure there is much more that I need to clean, plan and prep before tomorrow.

My life in a nut shell

It was a long week.

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All the regular every day busyness of raising three boys three and under, and caring for three additional childcare kids for an average of 12 hours a day all together. On any given day I have 6 kids in my house under the age of 6, most of them boys! The cooking, the cleaning, the dishes that never stop, the (messy) projects, the story reading, playing with, refereeing, bum wiping, laundry, constant picking up after, and multi-tasking a million different mini-catastrophes in 24 hours is a repetitive never ending process. Add to that the scrap booking I have been trying to catch up on, and the HuGe batch of apple sauce I made this week, the apple crisp, more apple sauce, and the peaches I prepped for the freezer, and you have one over whelming week for a pregnant lady. Then like the cherry on top of this chaos pie add to that this end of the week experience.

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I had to do my grocery shopping last night as tired as I was. I have a busy weekend ahead and knew I would never be able to get it done before the weekend was over. So after I waited patiently (ha, ha) for my husband to get home and shower so that I could leave I hurried out the door. List in hand I crawled into the van, it was around 6 :30 and I hadn't eaten dinner first. Not a good idea. Got to the grocery store and moved robot style through the isle grabbing what I needed. Filled the cart to the max as usual and pushed it along on aching feet to the check out counter. Lady starts ringing up my groceries, small chat, lie and say I'm feeling great, how about her? Reach into my purse and at the same time get the sinking feeling that my wallet isn't in there. Yeah. A good portion of my groceries are rung up at this point. I blurt out that my wallet isn't in my purse while I am still frantically looking for a wallet that I know isn't in there, and that I need to check my van. This has never happened to me before. I was mortified, the lady was so sweet though and said she would just save them for me. I told her I might have to go all the way home (which I did!) and she was still sweet. So home I rushed at almost 8 pm to find my wallet, I might have started to hyperventilate and I was definitely sobbing when I flew into the house frantic for my wallet which I had left on the top of the computer desk after ordering a present for Bubu's up coming birthday. My husband offered to go back but I was so freaked out when I left the store that I couldn't remember what check stand I had been at and only remembered what the oh so kind lady looked like. So I had to walk back into the store, swollen eyes and all (at least I had been able to force myself to stop crying on the way back) and pay and wait for the groceries to be hauled back up front. So. Stinkin. Embarrassing. I know I looked like a crazy pregnant mess at that point, and I was starting to feel dizzy because I needed to eat and I was still choking back tears and trying to put a fake smile on my face. Horrid. Got home, helped put kids to bed because now it was past bedtime for them, before I finally got to eat at 9, what a night. Nothing ever seems to be simple in my life I swear.

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Next time someone asks me what I do for work I am going to tell them I am a multi-tasking, mini-catastrophe handling manager of a large Enterprise. I take no vacations, or sick days and I work 14-24 hours a day 365 days a year...no wonder I can't keep my head on straight! Ahhhhh...now I like that...that made me feel just a little bit better. If I had thought of that while I was standing in the grocery store last night I might not have felt so frustrated with myself.

:)

phantom rabbit

Last night I was roused out of sleep feeling like something woke me up and with the words "peek a boo, I see you" echoing in my head. Since I have to pee every hour or so right now I figured I must of been having a weird pregnancy dream at the same time that my bladder was calling to me so I forced myself out of bed and shuffled into the bathroom. The phrase I heard a moment before kept repeating it's self in my head though and I starting thinking about how that would make for a really scary movie. Then I heard it again for real and I kid you not my heart leaped out of my body! It was coming from Spike's (new) room directly across the hall from the bathroom. It was this high pitch creepy little kiddish voice coming from behind his door. Did I mention I am still afraid of the dark at 30 something? Yeah. I gulped my fear and pushed open his door, nothing to see, all is quiet. I noticed that Spike had rolled off his mattress that is on the floor right now and was sleeping next to his bed, so I leaned over to move him back onto the bed and that freaking voice sets in again with a "peek a boo I see you" and I swear I wanted to start punching anything, the air if need be. Then I saw it, Spike was laying on a little stuffed bunny toy that apparently repeats that very phase every time it is pushed. So every time he rustled around he was making it go off. Ugggg! I hate talking toys!!

Let me assure you that no one wants to wake up to a creepy voice randomly repeating "peek a boo I see you" even if you're not afraid of the dark.

...sigh...

See this beauty. This is my baby niece. We went to visit them today and I got to hold her for the first time and I seriously didn't want to let go...she is such a snuggle bug. She has the most beautiful red hair, I'm thinking right about now that red hair most definitely runs in our family genes! This Auntie is in love. *
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Oh I could gaze at her all day...sigh...

Heat Wave

So you don't think I'm just being a whiney pregnant lady, check this out . It's hot. We are not use to this sort of thing in the Pacific North West. Not many of us have air conditioning over here in our homes. We don't even think about it. Because it's usually raining. My house yesterday...miserable. Even with every ceiling fan on and three other fans plugged in, they just blew the hot air around. Today, because my husband picked up a FREE (thanks to Craigslist and an awesome friend keeping an eye on things for me) old air conditioning unit last night, the kind that goes in the window, our playroom is a bit cooler. It doesn't reach far, but if you stand right in front of it... wonderful. So we are trying to huddle around that. The rest of my house is still too warm, but it's like ten degrees hotter outside today too so I am thankful for the cooler playroom (even though I am still sweating buckets). We can't even go outside this afternoon to play in the water because it's just plain WAY too hot out, the kids are watching a movie as I type, something we normally don't do at this time of day. My garden is pathetic, my yard scorced, my plants dying...so sad.

If I could pay my water and electric bills for this month with out looking I would. I want the rain back... ;)

The newest and coolest

Atty started it. It's the newest thing. Sleeping in your chair is the latest fad around her. All the cool kids do it. The little girl on the bottom left is actually faking so that I will carry her to her mat...anyone who knows anything about anything knows that it's so much more awesome to be carried to bed instead of walking on your own two feet.*
Is it bad to say that nap time is my favorite time of day? It is my Only break of the day, and I treasure every moment of it! Plus they look so peaceful and sweet it reminds me of how absolutely precious they are...a much needed reminder on some days I must admit.

It's just a teaser.

Daisy. My favorite flower. I have about four or five different types in my garden up front and they are all blooming right now...so pretty. So...Welcome to my tiny garden. The taster garden as I like to call it. We don't have much space at this house so I have had to make do with two little garden boxes that my husband made for me. Better then nothing that's for sure! Still a teaser though, just makes me want the real thing.

Pretty soon this bush zucchini will be spilling out into the aisle and tripping me up! Can't wait to make zucchini bread, love it.

My artichokes, yummy, yum, yum!

This year I kinda just threw everything in there last minute, next year I will have to plan it a little better. Plus for some reason I forgot to plant lettuce or spinach, so sad.

There are my cherry tomato plants, and I think some early girls too, who knows, the boys destroyed so many of them and lost the tags and I bought new ones and they destroyed some of those and it went on and on so the survivors will just surprise us all. I need to find them some bigger containers though, they have so out grown those ones! The little pots sitting on the other side my mommy brought over for me, mint and rhubarb. Got to get around to planting the rhubarb out front (away from the boys) and the mint into bigger containers. Or leaving them in those containers until they die, I'm good at that too.

FOOD. GOOD.

This...well this was good. Black bean burger with buttered yams and celery sticks. Oh yeah!

But this...well this was better. I made chocolate covered strawberries. I had left over chocolate from a treat I made for the daycare moms for Mother's day, and what else was I suppose to do with it? I ate way too many!

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My pregnant self is a bit obsessed with food...ya think? I barely ate a thing when I was prego with Bubu and still gained 55 lbs and had an 11 lb baby. I went on a gestational diabetes diet with Spike, just to try and make him smaller and gain less, still gained 50 lbs and had a 10 lb baby. So this time...not going to do it. Don't care. Not going to try hard to fight the inevitable. What's the point. Just going to enjoy this pregnancy and a few more chocolate covered strawberries.

Oh and this, it doesn't taste good, but it sure is beautiful. I call this a unicorn sky. Even my husband calls them that now, so funny.

Testy times three

All three of my boys are going through a testy stage at the same time! Yeah me....

Examples;

Exhibit A- A few days ago Atty scaled our 5 foot fence that is surrounding the pond in 2.2 seconds...After I ran around the house to get to the gate (barefoot on gravel with my heart pounding, screaming at him like a mad women) he needless to say got in big trouble. Which apparently didn't faze him, because he tried it again the very same day! He has been determined to scale that fence since the day he saw it.

Exhibit B- Bubu has picked up the word Damn it...again (from his father) and has been slipping it in to his vocabulary randomly and in increasing dosages during this pass week. Just last night he said "Move it Damn it" to his brother. I feel like the best mom in the world.

Exhibit C- Spike is starting to throw the most horrendous fits I have ever witnessed, worse then the ones Atty throws that I thought were going to drive me bonkers. I've never seen anything like it. And it's over random little things, that I would never dream would bring on an hour long scream fest. We are talking screaming, crying, shaking, no reasoning, nothing I can do but put him in his room (over and over again) kind of fits.

Let me continue...

Exhibit D- I am making another diaper cake for someone who is having a baby shower soon. I was working on it the other night and had placed three bottles down on the table, one lotion, one bubble bath, and one oil. I made a point of telling the boys to leave the stuff on the table alone and go play. I walked away for one second assuming that my husband was watching the boys like he said he would, and the babies got into the lotion and bubble bath got the lids off and spilt them on the table in the blink of an eye. I scrapped up the contents (you do what you need to do to get the job done) and finished the majority of the cake and then very responsibly put the diaper cake safety in my room. Last night I got to take a bath for the first time in a long time. While I was in there Atty got into my room (Again while my husband was suppose to be watching him, see a pattern anyone?) got his hands on the bottle of oil that was perched on the top of the cake and spilt the WHOLE contents onto my carpet. Oil...on my carpet. The only bottle they didn't get there hands on the first time. Can't scrap that up, can't even get it out of the carpet with my carpet cleaner. So after taking a relaxing bath I went into a screaming tizzy and then got to clean my carpets before bed.

Exhibit E- I planted a bunch of tomato plants in containers on the porch, right now the boys love tomatoes to I thought it would be nice to grow some for them to eat. Plus I love fresh straight from the garden cherry tomatoes, yummy yum. After I got them all planted Atty pulled up over half of them before I had any idea what was going on. I'm serious people he is that quick.

Need I go on, or do you get the idea? On top of the big stuff, there has been a none stop flow of talking back, from all of them. Fighting with each other on a way bigger scale now. Screaming and squawking and climbing all over everything and trashing the house. Play fighting and turning everything into a gun, which I don't permit in this family, and don't allow in the daycare. I don't even know where Bubu picked it up from but he's got his brothers copying him now and they run around the house Pish, Pishing each other using anything from a toy drill to a tinker toy as a weapon. When I tell him to stop he says, we're just Pish, Pishing mom. What?

I haven't the energy for it right now. I was managing when the boys were taking turns testing me, but now they have ganged up on me and are coming at me from all angles and I totally can't handle it. Bubu was my big helper, always has been, but now he is going through some late terrible two phase (the one he skipped that I was so thankful for) and he is almost four. I thought I was in the clear, boy was I wrong. Atty and Spike have definitely decided not to skip the terrible two's phase and are diving right in.

As I said, Yeah Me!

At least that's not stinky.

So my day started out with a poop filled toilet overflowing. Yeah. I had to run to the other bathroom at the other end of the house to grab the plunger, and then sprint back to the bathroom that now had sewage flowing out into the hallway. Nice. 15 nasty, have to bleach repeatedly, towels later and I now have one sparkly bathroom. Every square inch disinfected.

...But then less then an hour later while talking on the phone I glanced over at Tank who I am still trying to get potty trained and he had taken off his underwear and was in the process of pooping on the ground. Uuuugggggggg! Good thing I have a trusty carpet cleaner, I don't know what I would do with out that thing honestly. I feel like I have reached my nasty quota, for the week anyways. Just to mention, both poop filled incidence involved Atty, go figure.

Since this post seems to be all about poo, let me just say that my youngest is 21 months and is almost entirely potty trained, wears underwear except when sleeping and rarely has accidents. Bubu was potty trained completely by 19 months. But Atty, well I have a feeling I will be still changing his diapers when he's four. Part of it is due to the fact that he has sever food sensitivities that cause lots of tummy troubles for him, so he doesn't always seem to know when he is going to go potty, it just happens. The other is he truly doesn't seem to care where he goes, he just lets go where ever he happens to be. Doesn't say a word, until he's done anyways. It's so frustrating. I try not to get too irritated by it, because I know full well that sort of attitude just makes it worse, but good grief. Needless to say he's back in diapers for the day, cause my tolerance for all things messy, is border line at best right now.

Which means that I probably should cancel the finger painting project we are about to do, but at least that's not stinky.

ducked out...

Thanks to all of you who left me comfort and advice on traveling alone to the grocery store when you are out numbered by children. I wish I could say I armed myself with that advice and bravely met my doom, but alas I chickened out. My mom ended up coming over for an overnight visit and being the gracious daughter I am I figured she was craving some quality alone time with her grand kids so I ducked out to the grocery store, ha, ha. I had already taken them with me earlier to go shopping for a birthday present, before then attending a birthday party with them at a children's museum (So fun... large group of people, lots of distracting things, three excited boys, all alone). Plus while we were out shopping, I got the crazy idea that I should take the boys out to lunch (which we never do) and we went to a fast food place (which we never do) because I was craving a chicken taco salad. I decided to take them inside instead of going through the drive through. One because I needed to study the menu and figure out what I could get Atty that was wheat free, and two because I thought it would be nice to sit down and eat out with the boys, a treat of sorts. Now I remember the main reason why that was crossed of the list. It's not fun, and they didn't eat barely a thing. The babies wanted to jump on the benches and Ira started squawking because I wouldn't let him run around and well let's just say I didn't enjoy my taco salad as much as I wanted to and that made me grumpy. So by the end of the day I was super burnt out and thankful that I could sneak out the door alone. I did check out all the car carts at the store though, and they don't have the cool one that Kat mentioned, so irritating. A friend of mine remind me that they have one of those childcare rooms that you can leave your kids in for a short amount of time. I've never used the service, I'm a little freaked out about my kids being exposed to some nasty germs or something. I might try it out for Bubu, although knowing myself so well, probably not. I would be too stressed out about how he was doing and whether or not he was safe, that I just don't think it would be worth it. The helper idea is a great one, Bubu loves being a helper, I'll just have to add another hour on for all that extra "helping". The hands on the cart idea is another good one, that I know at least Bubu will understand. So again thanks to everyone and maybe next time I will put your ideas to good use.

I'm going to be hurting tomorrow...

Phew...busy day.

It ended up being a gorgeous day here in the soggy NW. Spring cleaning! I started out by attacking the laundry room with a vengeance. I could no longer handle the stench. Seriously. It was the combination of my husbands boots drying on the boot dryer every night, the mountain of laundry, the cat box that I can't empty right now and my husband conveniently forgets to do All The Time, along with the stinky nasty carpet (who puts carpet in a laundry/mud room?). So I hauled most everything out, vacuumed, and sprinkled baking powder on the carpets. While I was cleaning I stumbled upon some bulbs I recently bought that desperately needed to be planted, so I decided to take a little break before getting out the carpet cleaner. Out into the sun I went, the boys and I got our gear and headed up front to the flowerbeds. I then got lost out there for hours. Planting, weeding and pruning. When I was done the boys helped me pick up all the weeds and put them in the wagon. I love gardening and it was so nice to get out there and fix it all up, it really looks great now. I can't wait until every thing starts blooming. Any ways we headed back in, and that's when it hit me. My whole body started aching. It's been awhile since I have done that much yard work. Yikes! I wanted to stop and curl up on the couch, but I resisted and instead put on a movie for the boys and got busy cleaning the carpet in the laundry room and putting every thing back. Except the cat box, which I moved out to the hubby's shop, think he will empty it now? I know I'm evil. Then I moved on to the playroom and got the boys to help me clean up their mess (which by the way is already a mess again as I type, ugggg!) then vacuumed the house. I have to clean the carpets in the playroom tomorrow, and bleach toys, oh the joy. Now I need to finish dinner, hubby's coming home late from work tonight, and I really need to clean the kitchen because I haven't washed a dish all day. I am going to be hurting tomorrow. I can feel the ache in my legs and back and arms, gardening really can be such a work out and I always have a tendency to over do it. Oh well, it was a beautiful, warm day once I started on the garden, I just couldn't stop until it was complete. It was so warm that I got to air the house out which was nice. Nothing better then fresh spring air. We also had a picnic outside for lunch and the boys really liked that. I think I might have even got a bit of a sunburn on my face, that's not hard for me to do though, getting sun burnt is what I do best, being fair skinned and all.

Oh and I still have a mountain of laundry to deal with but now it's a clean mountain on the couch, so we're making progress.