children, life in pictures, parenting

In Transit

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All I can say is whoever invented the portable DVD player (which little T.Puzzle refers to as a DBDB player) is one of my personal heros. The only way to travel with hyperactive children is to load them up with snacks (NOT caffeine) and buy a couple new DVDs. My only wish is that Full Speed came with a volume control or more like a maximum question barometer that I could set to low.

We broke up our nine hour drive and stopped at a hotel in South Carolina. There was a pull-out bed for the boys across the room from our bed. It was late enough that the boys should have been sleeping but not late enough for Mad Dog and myself to turn in for the night. My remedy for this was simple. I approached their bed and told them that in order to get a fancy breakfast in the hotel lobby (which was included in the room price) they had to be quiet. One peep out of them and they would lose this amazing privilege.

They were asleep in ten minutes.

You can tell from these pics that they enjoyed their breakfast immensely (note T.Puzzle’s sassy refusal to face the camera).

We are off to a good start.

happiness, mommyhood

Family Vacation

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It’s family vacation time. If you have to pack for young children, this means your workload increases by a factor of ten. So, you can call it a ‘vacation’ if you want, but everyone knows if you are a stay-at-home-mom, your work comes with you and then some. Since you are not going to be in your normal setting, you have to work hard to pack for as many worst-case-kid-scenarios that your trunk space will allow. It’s a little overwhelming but you do your best. You do your best because in your heart you know that the most important part of the vacation will be the family part. That makes all the extra work worth it. I’m only saying this because my kids are over the age of two. If you would have asked me how I felt about family vacations when they were two and under; well, let’s just say, all bets are off. With time comes wisdom, and with age (meaning that of my children) comes a whole lot less of your house you need to pack up to have a great vacation. Regardless, vacations are fun; even if you have to work really hard for them.

Family vacation pic from a 2008 Disney trip

We are heading to Gatlinburg, TN to meet up with my sister and her family. I will try to post our adventures along the way. Be patient and know I am committed to daily posts (at least until my blog’s one-year anniversary) and will get them out when I am able. Thanks for your continued readership and I love each and every comment. Have a great day!

mommyhood

All in a Day’s Work

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The job of a stay-at-home-mom varies from day to day. Sometimes it varies from moment to moment. One of the unwritten rules of stay-at-home-motherhood is being available for maintenance and delivery calls. These could be anything from getting furniture delivered or waiting on a plumber to fix the leak in your shower. I am home for 90% of such calls and I don’t enjoy it one bit. I don’t enjoy the ‘window’ of time they give you. The ‘window’ is more like a huge, gaping chasm of time that can take up your whole day. This ‘window’ is always so mind-numbingly vague like ‘will be there anywhere from 8 to noon’ that you wish you could plumb your own way through a leaky shower. Honestly, I would like to call these scheduling people, who for some odd reason seem completely out of the loop, and tell them my ‘window’ is from 8 until 8:15. If anyone shows up past this window, they actually have to pay ME a penalty of three thousand dollars. I know what your thinking. My niche may not be motherhood, it might be in big government.

The other aspect I completely dislike about these types of calls is that there are strangers in my home (and they are mostly men) for undetermined amounts of time. They could be here twenty minutes or twenty years. You have no idea except that whatever it is, it feels like eternity.

Then you have to deal with the moods and personalities (some that are clearly disordered) of these strange people as well. It’s usually a 50/50 deal with half being kind and the other half being quite condescending (this would garner a ten thousand dollar unnecessary-rudeness tax). And rarely, there is the genuinely nice person who will talk to me like an equal (because for some reason, the stay-at-home-mom label doesn’t seem to have much substance in most of these scenarios).

So, to get right down to it, I had to wait for the plumber today. He and his partner were going to show up ‘around lunchtime’. Is lunchtime early? Is it late? Is it before or after one? Ooooh, the suspense was killing me. Turned out it was around 12:07, which I thought was pretty decent so no penalty tax yet. The two men were courteous and both attempted to engage me in idle chit-chat. It seemed that I was not going to have to charge any sort of tax or penalty until…. one of the men asked me if I would be home later in case there was a question about billing.

“Sure,” I said.

“You don’t work, right? You’re home all day all the time?” he asked.

I was like taking a knife in the gut.

I. Don’t. Work.

Really?

I don’t think he was being intentionally rude but it bothered me anyway. That is the worst possible thing you can say to a woman who stays at home to raise her children. I’d write more about this incredible injustice but I can’t.

I have too much work to do.

children, parenting

Sleep Disturbance

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You know when you first wake up from a deep sleep and you’re kind of groggy and not yet fully conscious? Well, Full Speed used this to his advantage. He comes waltzing in our bedroom at around two in the morning and directs me to move over. I comply. I do so because I am tired and completely out of it and he is so sure of himself and his direction, I assume he must know what he is talking about. We proceed to doze for the next forty-five minutes or so. Full Speed taps me on the shoulder and insists that he needs to be placed in between me and Mad Dog. Now, I’m fully awake and a dawn of understanding creeps over me. Why on earth is Full Speed in my bed? Why is he telling me where he can and can’t sleep in relation to me and Mad Dog?

It seems he sensed an opening and took it. He would have gotten away with it until he upped the ante and wanted to be in between Mad Dog and myself. He should have quit while he was ahead.

Mad Dog and I still don’t understand why he came in our room anyway. Was he scared? Was he lonely? Who knows why. Next time I hope I snap to my senses a mite bit sooner. Even in the dark of night, I swear my kids are out to get me.

children, life in pictures, mommyhood

Single-Minded

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Little T.Puzzle is obsessed with all things Thomas and he loves puzzles (hence the nickname T.Puzzle). You combine these two great loves of his and he has found nirvana. He has a Thomas and Friends puzzle that he puts together incessantly. If I so much as put the puzzle away so a floor can be cleaned, as soon as he can, he pulls it out and reassembles it. On the days he is home with me, he periodically informs me that he is going to take it apart and put it together again.

Not only is he single-minded in this Thomas puzzle obsession, he likes to pretend he is Thomas. I had to take him to the optician’s because his left glasses lens has two, distinct scratches. While we are waiting, I drew his name on an erasable board. He knows the letters of his name well enough to recognize it. So, I ask “What does that spell?” Instead of saying ‘T.Puzzle’, he says ‘Thomas’ and that makes an older couple in the corner laugh. They have a grandson equally enamored with the whole Thomas phenomenon.

When it was time to leave, the Grandma leans over and says, “Bye, Thomas!”. Little T.Puzzle just looks at her like she lost her mind. “I not Thomas, I JAMES (which is a Thomas friend who happens to be red and the jacket he was wearing was red).

So I took ‘James’ (who is apparently the most contrary of all the engines) home and guess what he did? His Thomas puzzle.