Tag: mom stuff

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Ten Things Tuesday

I have to first say Thank you to Mrs. Brownstone the XBOX wife for this wonderful gift to share with everyone!

1. I am thankful for my sister. I am thankful for having my sisters, Brittany, Nicole and Tori. I don’t always get to talk and spend time with them but I love them dearly and am thankful for them. Especially because I saw Britt doing Ten Things Tuesday and thought HOW AWESOME!

2. I am thankful for the fact that I can have breakfast for dinner and my kids eat it, they love it, and nutritious to boot!

3. I am thankful for my twins being able to sit in their high chairs to feed themselves and they ate their mashed potatoes all by themselves!

4. I am thankful for my G being able to wash his own body every night when he takes a shower. He still needs help washing his hair but he can wash his body and that is super awesome!

5. I am thankful that I will be spending Thanksgiving with 75% of my family….now I just need to convince the other 25% to come out (hint hint Britt!).

6. I am thankful for all of my extended family and this weekend I will be able to see all of their crazy selves and spend time with them. Although it may be for a sad occasion with the passing of my Aunt, we will be “waking” in her honor and celebrating life just as she would want!

7. I am thankful for this blog and other blogs and being able to share in my friends’ and families lives. We may not all connect all the time but thanks to the net we can still stay in touch.

8. This one is odd….but makes sense…I am thankful for my chunky monkey body. If I didn’t have a chunky monkey body, that would only mean I am childless and I am thankful I am chunky because that means I have three wonderful gifts to share my chunky self with hugging each one of them everyday.

9. I am thankful for my mother for teaching me how to be tough. Because some days, when I want to give into my kids, I remember my mom and how she would NEVER give in to me and she taught me independence.

10. My dishwasher. Because I have a BOAT load of dishes and my hands are so cracked and dry anyway from cleaning that I couldn’t bear to wash dishes. So I am thankful for my Whirlpool to do it for me.

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Parents and Children

We all say it as potential parents. We say this to ward off the evil wrongs done to us by our parents. We say it in spite at times. We all say that we will treat all of our children equally and with fairness. But really? Do we?

NO!

Not one person can say that they treat all of their children with fairness and equality, unless of course you only have one child. In that case of a single child, no other children are vying for your attention, affection, and approval. If you can say you treat your children equally I stand here telling you…You are a liar! Each child, probably with some difference in age, will require different needs to be fulfilled and honestly you feel differently for each child which by human nature results in a different outward display. This is not a flaw, just a stated fact. I have viewed this behavior by my own parents.

True equality happened to me with multiples. In all seriousness. One Mommy, Two babies and they are both crying….which one do you pick up? If you pick up one the other is still crying and visibly more upset because you picked up his or her twin and vice versa. What do you do? In my case I picked up both. I breast fed both at the same time, changed them at the same time, dressed them at the same time, bathed them at the same time, spoon fed them at the same time (and I am not ambidextrous by any means), everything happened to them at the same time. Not only did this allow for some serious time management for my oldest, but allowed me to sleep and accomplish a few things.
Now the tough part will be their needs as older children since one is a boy and one is a girl. However, I also have big G to think about too. The other day was a tough one as a mother as I told him that the toys he was hiding were for the babies, he could play with the toys, but he had to play with the toys with the babies. He hated this! So I asked him if he wanted to be a baby and he told me NO. Okay, case closed, so I then explained the difference. I also made sure that I spent equal amount of time playing with him as I did the other two so that we all were spending time together. I also made sure that he got his special time alone with me just as the other two do. I have to say that being truly equal is the most time consuming, emotional experience that happens to a parent. Normal human instinct is telling you to go with the flow of the three kids and tend to the one that needs the most attention at that time….well, who dictates that? I think as parents we have been trained that way and in the end each, child is put into a role for life!

My oldest is my oldest by time, cannot deny that. However, G is not my babysitter, G is not the babies surrogate parent, G is not responsible for his siblings, G will not be put in the perfectionist spot of most oldest children. I say this knowing that my son had obvious flaws that I love, I always want him to do his best and when he gets older he will not be the automatic babysitter. If he WANTS to baby-sit he can, but he won’t be expected to. As for the twins, I will always do my damnedest to treat them as individuals but they will be loved and treated as equally as G all the time. Alrighty….enough of that heavy stuff….off to a fun rant of sorts.

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Mommy Free Time

I have some Mommy Free Time all day today and probably some of tomorrow or could be all day tomorrow…..Film at Eleven. (Happy Dance!)

My boys (DH and G) are in Albuquerque for the next few days. Chad has some business there so he is visiting customers and staying with his folks. Yesterday he decided that maybe he should take Grant so that he could see his cousins and have a mini-vacation from me. Though I think the mini-vacation (mini-stay-cation) is for me. Don’t get me wrong….I love my G dearly, he is my oldest, but man…..sometimes you need a break from your kids. So they headed off onto the open road and made it to Albuquerque late last night.

I, on the other hand enjoyed a night with just the twins. Not total free time….but guess what? THE TWINS CAN’T TALK!!! Or change channels, or bitch, or moan, or tell me to shut-up, or tell me no, just cry and whine because they are babies. So refreshing! The squids and I got dinner last night, watched the debates which were pathetic…..like watching a couple of teenage girls fight about gossip, did a few little projects, got all the laundry done, all the dishes are DONE, did some mending of clothes and odds and ends. Needless to say I had a quiet, productive evening! Not to mention I have NO laundry to do except the clothes on my back and the squids and the only dirty dish in the house is my coffee mug. PLUS!!!! I have a hair appointment today and my wonderful Mommy is coming to spend time with the Squids and I get girly pamper time. Loving my day! But tomorrow I am sure I will miss the boys terribly and hope they come home…..but for now…..I can take a nice deep relaxing breath!!

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Good Will Grant

Lots of goings on lately! Sorry for not being able to post here is some of what has gone on:
Chad went out of town last weekend for business so we spent the day with Grandma Sandy. The kids and I had a great time just playing and I got to sneak in a cat nap! OMG!! I have not had a nap in ages so that was nice….even if it was for only 30 minutes. While we were there Grant asked my Mom about her birthday since her birthday falls two days after Grant’s. Here is how that conversation went:

G: Grandma Sandy did you get any presents for your birthday?
My Mom: No Grant, I didn’t get ANY presents for my birthday.
G: YOU DIDN’T? No balloons?
My Mom: No buddy, no balloons.
G: NO party hats?
My Mom: No sweetie, no party hats either.
G: NO Optimus Prime?
My Mom: No Grant, not even an Optimus Prime.

Such a sweet boy….thinking about how much his Grammy would love to have an Optimus Prime. Good Will Grant gets better though. We had the A/C guys here on Tuesday installing the fantabulous new unit (which by the way is a dream and when it runs my house smells like fresh rain…Film at Eleven). So Grant goes over to one of the installers who is working on our ducting. Here is how that conversation goes:
G: What is your name? My name is (spells) G-R-A-N-T, Grant, Grant Thomas Herring.
HVAC Guys: Well Hi, my name is G-E-O-R-G-E, George.
G: Hi George, nice to meet you. Whatcha doing George.
HVAC Guys: (George explains how he is adjusting the ducting, etc.)
G: Well….you are doing a great job George. Thank you George, good job.

I am sure George and Jon appreciated the sentiment from a five year old…especially because they were working at our house for over 10 hours in the heat and in our attic.

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My car and house have Menopause

So DH (Chad) and I have decided to upgrade our home and install a 30 year new A/C unit. Yes, the unit on our home is the original unit. Like everything else the darn thing probably has a stamp that says “1978 Made in Vietnam”. My cabinets said that mind you so I am assuming anything else being replaced must say that. The old A/C unit creates menopause in my home….at around oh say 11pm my house turns into the county morgue. I swear you can chill some fancy prosciutto in this house with how chilly it gets. Then around 2am I wake up sweating like a fat woman stuck in an elevator. Full on drench! My house has now warmed up again, requiring my half dazed self to drag into the hall to turn the thermostat down to my chilly 74*. I like it chilly because gives me a reason to stay cool and cuddle under the covers. Which is retarded because I live in the hottest of the 48 contiguous states. Regardless…off topic.

On top of my house having this wonderful hot and cold spells, my wonderful new mini-van has decided to act in the same fashion. Back on the 9th I had to take it in because the A/C flat out stopped working. I then had a new respect for my mother who also trucked around 3 kids in a car….not only because she trucked them around but did that with NO A/C!! She is a champ! But she was also smart because she took ice cubes that my brother rationed out so sparingly. I mean it will melt otherwise…pass around the damn ice Chris!

Anyway, back to the van. Took it in, got fixed, WEE, cold A/C again. Yeah, this lasted about 3 weeks…exactly 20 days! So I drove the van on Saturday to visit my Mom and get inside after I had ran it to cool it off…..yeah that was in vain. The thing never cooled off and all the kids are loaded ready to go. (Insert lots of curse words!) So, bit the bullet, drove to Mom’s and enjoyed the day. In the meantime, called to yell at the dealership and make another appointment to get it fixed, which is what happened this morning. Had to take the darn thing in. I hope this time they get that fixed…..I am so fed up with A/C issues!! UGH!