We lost Bo

Well, we have officially lost all four of our kids at some point in time. I have been dreading the day we would lose Bo; I figured it was bound to happen though considering our record. Well, last night at the football game he wandered ahead of me. I sent Josh after him as I said hi to a friend. Now usually this tactic is quite successful. Josh and Kate are regular “Bo getters” and they both have become quite the experts at their retrieving skills. Tonight however was a little different. I said Hi to my friend and looked back up and Bo and Josh were gone. So I said to her “I will be right back, I have to go see where there went.” I walked over to the steps on the bleachers, where they just were and looked out in all directions. They were nowhere. I was puzzled at how they could disappear so quickly. I was sure I was just over looking them in the crowd and in a second I should see them, but the seconds kept passing. Jackie came up to me and said, “Did you find him” When I replied no she took off in one direction and I the other. She hollered to me, “Jamie, what color is his coat?” It was at this time my cognitive skills were fading as they do when I begin to panic. And I said, “I don’t know, maybe blue.” I wasn’t losing my mind YET, cause I was sure Josh had him somewhere, and most people in Springport are getting quite familiar with who Bo is. And besides that, if anyone tried to steal him I am quite sure they would see if he had a return policy. But still I was ready to see my baby safe and sound. So I went to tell Michael I just lost our child and he needed to help me find him. He said in his smarty-pants tone “Where is he.” Well duh, if I knew that I sure wouldn’t be standing here admitting to you that I lost him. I went one way he went another and in moments here came Josh and Bo up the other side of the bleachers. Bo had been wanting to go see the band all night and I guess that was his intention cause he just kept pointing to the band as Josh kept pushing him toward me. When I got to them Josh explained to me that he ran under the bleachers. This explained how they were able to disappear so quickly. I thanked Josh for sticking with him even though Bo was not listening to him. I then told Jackie to stop the search and she looked at me and said “Um Jamie, his coat is orange” Oops. Yeah, a little panicked. But thankfully not as stressful as when we lost Timmy, but still, I just like to know where my kids are and that they are safe. And now that I think back on it they were all age 3 when they each took their turn getting lost. Ya know, now that I think about it, we have four and we have lost all four at one point in time, well that certainly doesn’t look good on the ole parenting resume. Humph. This brings me back to my statement from my last post, “And I teach parenting classes” I guess I probably don’t want to list those incidents on my “list of accomplishments”.

And I teach parenting classes!

Often times I will let Bo push the unlock button on my key to unlock the van. Well, I was getting ready to leave my sister’s house and he grabbed the keys out of my purse and headed out the door. I was grabbing some other things out of my sister’s house and I heard the horn honking, hearing the long honks I realized he was no longer just pushing the lock button; he was actually in the van “honking” the horn. So I headed out the door where I then found myself standing in the rain trying to convince a 3 year old to unlock the door and let me in. He just kept saying “no”. The thought that went through my head as I stood there getting wet in the cold rain was “and I teach parenting classes, huh, the irony”. So I did what any good parent would do. I walked back in the house, shut the door and helped myself to some homemade cookies Jess had made. Ok I did eat the cookie next to the window so I could be sure he didn’t figure out how to start the car and drive off. But I took a half a minute to shift my energy from “extremely” annoyed to a much calmer place. I then walked back out there and said again. “Ok Bo, it is time to unlock the door please.” He said, “ok” and as he opened the door his next words were, “I peed in the pants”. Oh yeah, I was supposed to be going to Wal-Mart to get food to feed our family. Yeah, I am pretty sure it is somewhere in the mom requirements to feed the family. As tempted as I was, I just couldn’t really take my kid with wet pants to the store. So I headed home, as I was turning down my road I remembered I had a back up pair of underwear and pants in my van. Of course by this time I didn’t have time to head back in to town and still make it back to pick up the kids. So we had leftovers for dinner and the kids will be eating hot lunch tomorrow since we have no bread! On the bright side at least I didn’t have to go shopping today! And Josh didn’t have play practice today so I picked the kids up after school and came home. I let the kids have a little TV time and I lied down on my bed and did absolutely NOTHING for 45 whole minutes! It was grand. It is amazing what a little down time can do for ya.

Let's put the bed together already, seriously

So Monday I, without Michael loaded up to go get a bed we purchased for Kate off of Craig’s List. Michael was busy that day and I wanted to get it so the first free night he had he could set it up for Kate. I think I was just as excited as she was. With the help of the previous owner we got it all loaded up and I carefully drove it home. I really couldn’t wait to get home. I was not used to being the driver with such a load in the back, usually Michael handles such things. But I am woman hear me roar, I got the bed home. Michael was home when we arrived so naturally I let HIM unload it. Then Tuesday night was too busy to get things set up, but Kate worked hard at getting her room all cleared out. She had to move everything under her bed and clean out her old desk. Finally, Wednesday was wide open. Jake was even here to help. Jess and I left the boys to the project and headed into town. An hour later Michael called me asking me where the bag of screws was. Long story short, the bed is still in pieces. It is now in the corner of her room, but still in pieces. They never found the screws. Ugh. How frustrating. I will do some looking tomorrow but beyond that I just HOPE we can order some replacement screws. I suppose if all else fails we could just duct tape it together. That’s what my parents always used to fix their furniture.

Uninterrupted sleep, what's that?

This morning I spent the last 20 min. of my sleep in my daughter’s bed. At about 6am Timmy came and climbed into the bed cause he had a bad dream. Now usually I let them lay with me for about 10 minutes until they are calm and then send them back to their room. But this morning by the time I was going to send Timmy back to bed, it was so close to the time to get up I figured why send him back and take a chance on waking Bo up. So I decided I would just try to sleep with him for the last 35 minutes. Now, I to love snuggling with my kids, but sleeping with Timmy is like sleeping with a Kung Fu Fighter in the middle of a fight. And then to top it off, at about 6:30 my daughter walked in wanting to climb in our bed afraid of the wind. I was not about to be in a queen sized bed with my husband and two of my kids. And the odds of me getting Kate to go back to her room were pretty slim. So I jumped ship. I left my husband in the bed with the two munchkins and went to Kate’s bed to try and get twenty more minutes of rest. Life with kids, gotta love it.

Crazy huh

Isn’t it crazy how our happiness can so often depend so much on someone else.

I was having a conversation with someone the other day, and they made a comment to me that made me feel kinda stupid. Later on that day I realized I was still fretting about the conversation. As I looked at it, the reason I was so bothered is because I cared about what this person thought of me. And then my mind starts to running away with…”Oh, she doesn’t like you, probably never wants to hang out with you again. She probably thinks you are stupid. She would probably rather spend time with someone else. And why are you like that anyway, that was stupid what you did, you need to get your act together.” And on and on my obsessive mind went through the day.

Finally just before I finished cooking dinner I realized how long I had been stressing. I looked at the situation and realized how crazy these thoughts were and realized I probably wasn’t even accurate. And then I ask myself this question.

“Who cares if I am accurate? Who cares if she really does think you’re stupid. Who CARES!!” “Why is my happiness and peace of mind hinging this person’s opinion of me? It baffles me how so many other people can dictate how we feel. And the ironic thing is usually those other people don’t even realize we are so worried about it. We just think for them, our imagination runs and our dependency on being accepted takes over and we are now held hostage to worry and stress. When as elementary as it sounds, if I have peace with who I am, then no matter what is going on around me, no matter who agrees with me or thinks I’m stupid, it doesn’t affect my happiness.

So somehow through diner I decided that I wasn’t going to let my happiness hinge on someone else. And then I returned to LIVING my life. And after the kids went to bed my imagination began to run and I had to remind myself again, but I FINALLY let it go. Whew what a relief. To be honest my own thought are enough to keep track of, I really don’t need to keep track of everyone else’s too. Right!?!

This morning sickness is killing me

This morning sickness is killing me. I get a whiff of that cold crisp are and I just want to vomit. I smelled trident gum today and it made me gag. I just can’t stand that icky feeling. Nope, I am not pregnant, but the problem is for 3 of my pregnancies I was morning sick in October and November. So every year when the air starts to get crisp, I have moments when I actually feel pregnant. It is like when you eat sloppy joes right before you get the flu, and than you never want to eat them again. Fall crisp air, trident gum, fabreeze, and arm and hammer toothpaste make me feel sick. It doesn’t help that when I was morning sick with my boys I pretty much threw up everything. So, besides the fact that I don’t really want any more kids, I just really don’t ever want to be morning sick again. And on the subject of never wanting to be morning sick again, I was helping set up for the Mom to Mom baby sale tonight and was walking around looking at the booths. I saw all the baby stuff like swings, changing tables, extra saucers, and all that stuff and all I could think was, “oh I am soooooo glad I don’t need to buy any of this stuff. Whoo hoo!

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree

As I began pondering what to write about this evening my thoughts turn to Bo. I am sure those of you who regularly read my blog feel as though you know Bo very well seeing that he is often the topic of the blogs. He is 3 ½ now and I am starting to see signs of “normal human being” in him. Granted the kid will never be completely normal, he has Michael and I for parents, he really only has so much to work with. But he is starting to grow up a bit. He is still quite the ball of energy but he is speaking mostly English these days, and is almost accident freeish. He will actually sit and play with his toys for more than 3 minutes by himself now. And lately I can get bubbles or play dough out and he will play for an hour while I clean the kitchen and such. What I have been quite amused by is the dialogue he has with who knows who while he is playing. It is funny cause he talks to his imaginary people the way I talk to him. The other day he was saying, “OK, do you want to play with the tractor or the train, the tractor or the train, no you can play with the tractor or the train”. I just had to laugh because this is how many of our conversations go. I will usually give him a choice between 2 options and he tries hard to pick a different one at first before picking. And another little story happened yesterday. He went in to use the bathroom and when he was done I hear him talking to the doll sitting on a little wooden potty chair for decoration. He said, “oh you have to go potty to, good job, or you are going acky on the potty, oh OK” I just had to laugh because again these were all words he had heard before. I have noticed if you really want to know what you sound like, just listen to your kids. Some times it is sweet and endearing, and other times not so much, like the times I hear my kids say to a sibling, “I said get over hear right now!” Yeah, not my proudest moment. But it is funny, the apples really don’t fall far from the tree. lol

Oops, what time is soccer?

Today I forgot about Timmy’s soccer practice. Tuesday’s are my busiest days with Timmy’s soccer practice, Josh’s play practice, Josh’s boy scouts and I teach a parenting class in the evening. It is all written out color coded per person on the calendar. I even told numerous people on the phone today my whole schedule. But by soccer time I had forgotten. I was folding laundry when I checked to see if it was time to pick up Josh. That is when it hit me, SOCCER!!!! It was half over by that point and when I did the math on how long it would take Timmy to get his shin guards and cleats on, combined with the time it would take me to first convince Bo to get ready and then actually get him ready, there would be fifteen minutes left and I just couldn’t bring myself to begin the charade. It was exhausting getting Bo ready for anything these days. He can’t just put one leg in his pants after the other. He has to jump into them and hop around while I try to pull them up. And when putting on his shoes he likes to insist that the right foot goes in the left shoe and the left foot in the right. And then to the van. Oh the choices. Does he want to sit in the booster, or the car seat. If he chooses the booster does he want it in the middle or the back, on the left side of the van or the right. And all his choices have to be HIS idea, cause if I make a suggestion, well that just can’t be what he wants to do. Heaven forbid the mom know anything at all. What has this world come to when the mom has a clue what the kid wants. So yeah, when I realized I was already a half an hour late, I just decided to keep folding the laundry.

First Dance

Last Friday was my FIRST baby’s FIRST dance. I honestly can’t believe it. It is times like these I find myself going down memory lane. Thinking of his first steps his first words. The first day he walked in a slammed his briefcase on the counter and pleads his first case at the age of 4. I think of all the items we found in the VCR, like puzzle pieces and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and now he barley knows what a VCR is. Now he is off to middle school going to dances. Soon his voice will be cracking and he will have armpit hair. Really, me with a kid who has armpit hair. How can that be, after all I am just a kid myself. I find myself wondering if I will ever FEEL old enough to have kids as old as there are. My Dad says your body grows old but in your head you always feel young. I remember when Josh was 2 and I had a friend with a 5 year old and I just couldn’t imagine myself with a 5 year old. And that came and went. Then I couldn’t imagine him turning 10, and that came and went. And then middle school arrived and now I just honestly can’t imagine myself with a son who has armpit hair and shaves his face. Really! I just can’t imagine it! And that is just the beginning, I have 4 kids. After having a son with armpit hair it will be off to the brazier section of Sears with my daughter. And then two more sets of boy pits to follow. Sound crazy!

Go to sleep puppy!

I walked into the kitchen the other day and found Bo on all fours with lapping up water out of a bowl like a puppy. For about 3 weeks now he has been watching “Clifford, the Big Red Dog.” Apparently he is trying to be just like him. Today while all the little kids were warming up for their soccer game they were kicking balls into the goal. Bo wanted to go play with the kids and I saw no harm in letting him play with them during their warm up. When I looked up he was out on the field on all fours pushing the ball with his nose. And then to top it all off I was tucking the little “red bull” child to bed. (That is what all call him cause tucking him in is seriously like tucking a 3 year old on red bull to bed) So I was lying next to him singing his night time song, while he was bouncing on all fours and then he licked me! EEEEWWWWW! “Now mommy lick Bo” he said “Bo you are not a puppy” I said. And his response was “Woof!” Well, maybe he is part puppy. For now anyway. “Go to sleep little puppy.”

Take time to enjoy the show.

Do you ever have those times when you feel like a juggler in a circus. There you are standing in the middle of the circus ring with 15 bowling pins in the air and you can’t sit down or even just take you eye off them for one second or they will all come crashing down. As long as you keep throwing each up at the same pace then you can keep things going smooth and no disasters are made. Well, I’m feeling that way myself. And at this point in my thoughts I am remind myself to “live” and “enjoy.” I am looking out my window watching the sun set. My kids are taking a little time on the video games. I usually let them have a little bit of time, when time permits, and while they are glued to the TV I usually scramble around my house finishing things up. Whether it be the kitchen the laundry or just the aftermath from Bo, I work at 90 miles an hour till the jobs are done. I have to be fast because “video game” time only last so long. I don’t think it would look to good on my parenting record if my kids eyeballs fell out of their head. But tonight they are playing video games and me, I am looking at the beautiful sun slowly go down behind the field, and watching its warm rays reflect off the fall colored leaves. I can hear the insects singing through the screen. I can smell the air coming through the window as I breathe in the last remnants of it’s warmth. I have laundry baskets around me with clothes waiting to be folded and I can hear the last load jostling about in the dryer. But rather than going 90 mph as I normally do I decided to remind myself to take the time to enjoy this wonderful life I live, not just get it done. So often I can get too task oriented, but I have to remind myself I don’t want to just frantically “juggle”. When life is going 90 mph, I would rather ENJOY the breeze. If I drop a bowling pin it’s not the end of the world, but if I forget to “ENJOY” the show, now that would be a bummer.

The Mall

Well, today my sis and I went to the mall, only this time she had more kids than I did. It was kinda fun to have the small crowd for a change. The crazy adventure began when I realized I left my stroller in my van and we took her car. Fortunately I had a token in my purse for one of those mall carts. We grabbed a double stroller so Jess could put Zane in her stroller and Ayden and Bo would ride in the double. It didn’t take long before they started pestering each other. Bo was riding in the front and Ayden would reach up and wop him on the head and then Bo would squeal and then tattle, “Annin Hit Bo,” he would whine. We made our way to old navy. The boys were picking at each other and Zane was getting fussy. Amazingly enough I had great success at old navy. I have needed long sleeve shirts for a while now and was glad to find some. Once my bill was all added up I realized I left my wallet in Jessica’s car. While calling my sis on the phone to locate her the boys had irritated each other to the point of screaming. Jess could hear them from out side the store. Jess covered my bill for the moment and we got out of there. Wandering the mall we ended up going into the Ambercombie store. This is a store I have maybe been in one other time and boy did I feel out of place when I walked in. It is dark like a lounge and has trees throughout the store. You should have seen the look on the workers face when this mom walked through the door pushing the primary colored bus with 2 kids and a giant diaper bag. “Can I help you?” He asked. “Oh I am with her.” I said pointing to my sister ahead of me. She too with her stroller. We must have been a sight. Jess was looking for a man’s leather bracelet and when they didn’t have one we got our crew outta there. Aside from me crashing into clothing racks with my ginormous bus, things were finally going well. The baby went to sleep and we bought Ayden and Bo a snack so the pestering had ceased for a bit. I looked at my watch wondering how much time we had left and it was 2:00. Oh my gosh, we had to leave right away to get home in time to pick up the kids. So we headed for the exit, only something was wrong with my “bus”. Something was wrong with the wheel and it was making a horrible screeching sound. But I was in such a hurry I really just had to keep pushing it. We passed through the food court on our way out and people kept looking over at me with their faces looking as if they were in physical pain from the awful noise. At this time my sis and I are laughing so hard. But I just kept pushing it out. Seriously, you could here it though out the entire food court. It was straight out of a sit-com. All in all it all worked. I got some shirts and the kids got picked up from school. However, I do think that if the mall is going to rent out strollers that the stores should make there isles big enough to push it through. But maybe they are just trying to keep the zoo crews like mine out. I know I will not be taking my bus back to Ambercombie.

Why we keep your kids.

Have you ever wondered why us parents keep our kids. Let’s face it there are some days I want to stick a “free to a good home” sign on there chest and stick them out by the road. I was on my way home from picking Josh up from an after school activity making it the 2 time I had been up to the school that afternoon, and we were in a hurry to get Josh home and changed and then into Eaton Rapids for his soccer practice. I had informed him that there wasn’t time for me to make dinner and he would have to have a pizza pocket before his practice. Normally, he loves pizza pockets but today that wasn’t good enough for him. He was sure it wouldn’t fill him up. And the day before I picked Kate up from her after school activity and she was complaining about something of which I don’t even remember anymore. The irony of the situations. I am working so hard to get THEM to THEIR fun activities, only to have them deplete me of any remaining energy I have with their whining. So after discussing this irony with them I let them know that I would be glad to resign as the “taxi” driver as to not have to listen to “whining” on the way home. Things got quiet after that.

But then that very night I was doing the dishes and I could here the boys laughing at their video game they were playing. I love to hear there giggles. And then I heard Kate from all the way upstairs singing at the top of her lungs to Carrie Underwood. I just had to laugh. As I cleaned I just kept listening to my kids having fun. My heart just melted with joy. It is moments like these that just make all the “exhausting” moments just fade away. And then I remember why I keep my kids. haha

To get things done, things must get undone.

Well I learned today that when using Play Dough to keep your 3 year old busy while trying to get work done, well, one should not work in the other room. I had Travis here and he and Bo were playing with the Play Dough at the kitchen table just having a good ole time. I was in the office listening to the laughter between the 2 boys, hoping they would stay busy, so I could finish up what I was working on. The laughter finally getting to the point I thought they were probably having too much fun. Sure enough I walked into the kitchen to see what looked like a Play Dough explosion. It was all over the table, chairs and the floor. And Bo was on top of the table stopping bits of Play Dough into the bottom of his shoes. It just seems like to get anything done while the kids are occupied I just end up with yet another mess to clean up. Yup, if they are giving you enough time to get ANYTHING done, it is only because they are destroying something else. Well, gotta say it is a good thing he is so cute. haha