Sunday, June 29, 2008

Flashbacks...

This afternoon I'm not feeling terribly well. In fact, I'm feeling quite terrible! I woke up this morning looking somewhat like a cyborg or something-the left side of my face was swollen so badly that my eye was just a slit and when I smiled it was rather scary looking: one side turned up, the other turned down! So off to Dr. I went to be prescribed an antibiotic to treat a "rather acute sinus infection."
Fast forward to now: I'm feeling a little bit duh-headed and just can't seem to snap out of it so I keep laying on the sofa and sort of dozing off. I woke up to hear Little One was on the middle of the kitchen table sitting naked on top of a massive pile of cheesies. She had just thrown a glass plate off of the table and it was smashed into many little bits. So I cleaned it up and while picking up the mess I had to retrieve a new roll of paper towels from the pantry to get the job done. You see, for some reason I thought that wet paper towels would catch the tiniest little particles of glass that I was sure were lurking under the table. Wet paper towels pick up everything, right?
So now I decided to sit with Little One on the sofa and snuggle for a minute which translated to me falling asleep and her pooping her pants. And nobody could find the wipes. Diaper bag is in the car, hubbie is out. Still, I can manage, #1 fetches the paper towels. Mess somewhat taken care of, I decide (oh so NOT cleverly) to give her bottom a rinse in the bathroom sink. The sink where my older two have spat large quantities of Sponge Bob toothpaste this afternoon upon discovery that I had purchased a travel size tube for a little trip we're going on this weekend. Little One's backside now has blue and white streaks but at least she smells like bubblegum--that's better than what she smelled like 5 minutes ago!
All diapered up, sink scrubbed down, backside nice and clean and now things are looking relatively normal. I decide to check my email. I must seriously be in a fog and not hearing anything because I turn around LITERALLY 2 minutes later and that brand new roll of paper towels is now spread from the living room to the kitchen and back into the bathroom and now an empty cardboard tube is lying on the floor behind the sofa. As I was cleaning up this mess it made me think of a recent post by Bridget, a lovely gal who is deliciously pregnant. I have to confess, I do love preggo belly. I am an intensely private person and I think I've only touched someone else's baby belly once in my life but something about the pregnant silhouette just makes me mushy. I really enjoy watching the journey that women go on as that little baby develops right inside mama's warm bun oven! It's so exciting and while I've taken the journey 3 times myself I still feel my skin come alive when I'm near pregnant women--it's like electricity in the air, all that vitality and newness of life and knowing that they're nourishing a precious little gift inside them. OK, enough!
So as I was cleaning, I thought of a recent post by Bridget and had a vivid flashback to spring last year that I thought I'd share with you. Honestly I hadn't really shared it before because my landlady sometimes reads my blog and I didn't want her to be terrified when she read it but she's a pretty cool lady and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she understands. After all, she's got two little ones of her own that keep her pretty busy!
Let's see, Little One was about 10 or 12 days old and hubby had decided to go to Albany for the evening, leaving me home for roughly 7 hours with the 3 little mohicans. Well, I popped in a brand new movie to watch with the little angels and I actually cried (it was a cheesy Barbie movie too, you know it had to be the hormones) watching it. All was well and good until I fell asleep with the baby in my arms on the sofa. I don't know how long I was out of it but it couldn't have been more than half of an hour. I woke up to the terrifying sound of running water and a little kid slipping and falling on her bum in the kitchen. Rather than bolt upright and race to the scene of the crime, I tried to gently ease the baby onto the sofa and then race to investigate. I cannot tell you what the two monkeys had been doing, but I can describe to you what I found and what I surmise they had done.
From my refrigerator to the other end of my kitchen there was a vast sea of chocolate and strawberry syrup. And a puddle of water. And a brand new, off white, organic cotton bath towel that was no longer brand new or off white which now was swirled into a puddle of syrup on the floor. There were footprints that led to the bathroom where the sink was left running and chocolate fingerprints lined the wash basin. There were two sticky, drippy cups out and about--one on the bathroom counter, one rolling across the kitchen floor. And two naked children... wet, sticky, slimy, pink and brown naked children.
Dazed, I grabbed some cruddy beach towels and threw them down on the floor to start mopping up the mess. The naked children were placed in the shower along with my once off white, recently new organic cotton towel. I sprang into action, cleaning, scrubbing, sopping, lecturing, etc.
Here is how I envision this scene going down: One child says to another child, "Hey, want some chocolate milk?" To which child # 2 replies, "No, I'd prefer a tall glass of strawberry milk, I do find it rather refreshing." Two little monkeys then scurried off to the refrigerator, grabbed the syrup and popped the little squirt tops open with their teeth. Upon tasting the sweet syrup straight, they decide to leave the milk alone and it's bottoms up with the Nesquik. Hmmm, this stuff makes quite a mess on clothing, maybe it'd be better if we got naked to drink it, that way Mom won't observe any evidence on our clothes and our little indulgence will go undetected. They strip. Somewhere in the action, a drop of syrup hits the floor. Ooh, now that was fun. Now I can see them having squirting wars with the bottles of syrup as those were also brand new.... I'd be pretty willing to bet money that you could squirt the strawberry syrup a good 4 or 5 feet, easy. After the joy of the squirt-a-thon as worn off the see that they've created quite a mess. Hmmm.... Let's go get a towel to clean this up... enter BRAND NEW towel. The towel just isn't cutting the mess so they decide that water will wash it all away and nobody will ever know the difference. Hence the bucket brigade of topless sippy cups that was used to pour water over the whole sloppy mess. At this juncture the floor became slippery instead of just sticky, causing a toddler-esque bum to fly up into the air and cause a loud thud when gravity pulled that bum back down to the ground. Enter disoriented Mom.
Yeah, that was a fun night. If anyone thinks you can mop up that sticky mess off the floor, think again. You have to get down on your hands and knees and scrub every square inch of that linoleum. On the bright side of things, I felt perfectly fine the next day when I picked up a piece of grilled cheese sandwich off of the floor and confidently reintroduced it to my kid's palate. It may have hit the floor but that sucker was CLEAN!

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Thanks, Angela!

I absolutely love this video from Music and Lyrics.... I was telling my mom about it this evening and then when I saw Angela's thoughtful comments I knew I had to post this here. Enjoy!!

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Lyrics gone wonky


So I was singing Funkytown earlier just because I like how my older two sing "Funkay Toooooooooooooooooooown!" and I caught the oldest one going off singing something completely random, or so I thought. She was groovin' away, "Wockleberry, wockleberry, wockleberry woah-oooh-woah-oh!!" Apparently "wockleberry" and "talk about it" sound startlingly similar in the ears of a 6 year old.

I wonder what a wockleberry looks like...

Fishing for tips

So I'm having company over today and I need to clean up around the house. I just have absolutely zero drive to get it done! You know, the dusting, washing/putting away the dishes (I swear, my dishes would spend an entire life cycle in the drainboard if my husband didn't care), picking up random toys, scrubbing the toilet... my house isn't filthy by any means, but there are toys out and general clutter abides here.

So my question is this: where do you get the motivation to straighten up on days like this? Have you got any little cleaning tips that you could share with me? Today I've got a bad case of Listless Mom Syndrome. I think it stems from the small nap that I took when I put Little One down for her sleepie deepies this afternoon; I got just enough rest to realize that I need some rest.

On a side note, Little One fell asleep getting kisses earlier, it was rather cute. She had started to wake up from her nap and I went in and snuggled with her and started giving her little "nibble kisses" as we call them. Her hands, elbows, cheeks, belly, knees and toes... you get this picture. It must be a mom thing. Anyhow, after I kissed her toes I looked up and she'd fallen asleep again with an angelic look on her face. Wouldn't that be a lovely way to drift of into dream land every evening? Little kissy nibbles from someone who loves you and makes you feel safe? If there's one thing I'm making sure of, my little girls know that they're loved!

So... what makes you want to get right in and bleach your toilet bowl?

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Would a Rose by any other name really be a Rose?

My Kindergartner tells me that her music teacher will be having a baby this July. "Her name is Rose and she's going to be a cute baby!" This was fabulous information for me as I've been trying to come up with some good end of the year gifts for the teachers. Ultimately, we made a dress and matching burpie and picked up a cute little "my first year" photo frame for the teacher (picture of dress to follow--we were on a tight schedule and I nabbed a solitary photo of dress and burpie on the front seat of my car).
I still haven't finished up a gift for my daughter's primary teacher. I'm:
1. An indecisive person
2. Admittedly frugal
3. Always waiting till the last possible moment to get things done
My major challenges here though are that I absolutely love this teacher so nothing seems like it truly expresses how much I have valued the time she has devoted to my daughter this year. I have never gotten the impression that this teacher was just "getting the job done". On the contrary, she has personally vested herself in the success of each and every student in her class. I can only hope that next year, when I have two in school, their teachers will be as attentive. That said, I really want to do something that tells this teacher how special she really is. By tomorrow morning. I've been looking for a good gift idea for about a month, nothing strikes my fancy. Now that we're down to the wire I'm going to have to do some purpose driven shopping this afternoon!
::fingers crossed::

Thursday, June 19, 2008

I find this hard to believe...

I took a test this morning that I saw on a random blog.... I just don't know if I can believe the results!

83

As a 1930s wife, I am
Very Superior

Take the test!



Take the test and comment back how you rate, I'd be interested to see what kind of results others come up with!

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Fun Friday afternoon

Yesterday I took all of the girls up to a small, local amusement park called Magic Forest with #1's kindergarten class. It was great fun--the weather was perfect, the whole park is shaded so we stayed cool and the park is still closed to the public so while there were several school groups there, we had no wait time to get on the rides and the crowd was so friendly. We stayed to close up the park after the school groups all left and it was cute to see my girls and a friend's kids run from ride to ride and basically just hop on each one at will. There were maybe a dozen kids in the park for the last half hour and they had a blast!
After we left the park we hit the Carter's outlet store where they had some great sales ($1.99 bins, INSANE $5 racks and oodles of stuff for 70% off) but not much in the line of sizes for my kiddos. I grabbed a few things and headed off to pick up a few groceries and print off some of those fairy pics of Little One at the ol' Kodak Kiosk. I picked up a new pattern so be on the lookout for some new kiddie clothes in the next week or two...
I was sure that when we got home the kids would be exhausted but would you know that those little stinkers were up till 9?! The baby, of course, was sleeping by 6 and only woke up intermittently to eat a quick snippet, get a diaper change and pass out again. But then she woke up at 6 this morning and there was no keeping her down, she was ready for the day. So I pulled out my Sunday School materials and started studying again... I haven't taught in... well... forever. Tomorrow's the big day, say a little prayer for me!

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Bacon with no calories, no fat?


I stumbled across this fascinating product today while online and thought it would be perfect for Fathers' Day. I guess Bill's getting a card with a picture of BaconSalt and the promise that it's on its way. :) Anybody ever tried this stuff?

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Thursday Night

What's a girl to do when all have gone to sleep and she's got a case of the crafties? Make a cute little tutu dress for her baby of course! And what's a girl to do on a HOT and humid Saturday morning while hubby is taking a shower? Take pictures of that baby in the tutu dress!! Hope you enjoy as much as I enjoyed following her around the yard. :)



Thursday, June 5, 2008

I've been so neglectful of my poor blog

I know it's no excuse, but I really have been busy this week! Between school and pediatrician appointments, having company over, end of the year field trips and little sewing projects life is bursting at the seams over here!
Right now I'm working on a SUPER CUTE dress with matching ruffled pantaloons, an apron for my apron swap (nothing like last minute, right?) and a mei tai for a dear friend. She chose the cutest paisley fabric and I'm really hoping to be able and snap a photo of her little cutie to share with you.
Oh, I have so many ideas and things flying around in my head that I want to try--it's almost overwhelming! Well, until next time... and hopefully I get some pictures around to share! Big field trip tomorrow, I'm pulling for no rain. :)