My baby bunched life ....

Ever since I became a Baby Buncher (http://www.babybunching.com/baby_bunching/), I have just not been the same person that I was pre-baby bunch.

One thing that has suffered immensely is my brain (and my level of patience for situations that challenge my patience = my sanity) when my children are with me.

Tonight was one of those times.

Picture this .... soccer party and awards ceremony with inflatable activities, foods, drink, hot sun, little shade and a stage where awards were to be given out at 6 p.m.

At 6 p.m., a very long speech began, given by an associate minister, and my 2.5 and 3.5 year old began to fidget in their seats within minutes (all inflatables had been deflated mind you and the audience was relatively quiet.) My youngest child crawled under the table and got cookie pieces mixed up with loose black top and I became unsure of what she had in her mouth ... and bent under the table to investigate.

We were asked during the speech to consider Jesus in our lives and our commitment to him all the while that I began to pray that my children and I would make it through this ceremony peacefully and successfully. After all, dh could not attend due to the need to spend 20 hours this weekend (yes, 20) working on my mini-van, 2-3 hours this weekend working on work he had to bring home from his place of employment (for which he will get no additional pay), and the 1.5 hours of lawn mowing that needed to be done before he returned to work on Monday.

Of course I wanted my oldest child to shine in the honor that was his for completing this soccer season, but I was also mindful that this was a set-up for potential disaster for myself and my kiddos (aka baby bunch) at this awards ceremony/party.

I picked my youngest child up from the ground just as my 3.5 year old spoke out loudly and clearly, "Mommy, I HAVE to make poopy!" At the same time, my youngest child became agitated because of no longer having the cookie (or the loose black top that I was no longer allowing her to put into her mouth.)

So, I had little choice but to leave my 11 year old in his seat and take my baby bunch to the bathroom (whispering as we walked that we would pick up a cookie for my youngest on the way back to our seats and hoping I wouldn't miss the awards part of this program for my ds.)

It took forever for us to reach the bathroom, where both girls delighted in seeing the sink and the little step stool this bathroom had that allowed them to reach the sink easily on their own. Quickly, they began to turn on the water and wash their hands .... I hurried my 3.5 year old into the stall to do her #2 ....

Then my youngest said "Pee Pee is coming!" So, I let her finish washing her hands in the sink while my oldest finished her duty in the potty. Then the girls traded places .... one still at the sink and one still at the potty who would then need to return once again to the sink when done .... and all of this felt like it is was taking forever and I felt sure that I would miss something important that would disappoint my 11 year old ....

We finished up with hand washing and throwing paper towels into the trash. Then we left the bathroom only to find there was a water fountain directly in front of the bathroom. And of course both girls were "REALLY thirsty mommy!!!"

So, one at a time, they each got two turns at the water fountain ... then ....

"It is TIME to go out to see your brother now girls!" I said (feeling anxious and tired inside of all the chaos thus far and wishing we were home already and hoping not to have to make another trip to the bathroom later.)

Of course, we had to pass the playground to get back out to the awards ceremony (the playground is by both doors that lead into the building where the bathroom is) and my 2.5 year old began to scream "I want to SWING! I want to SWING!"

Nobody was swinging and I know from many, many weeks of spending hours on this playground during soccer practices that once the swinging begins, it is very hard to get my little ones away from there .... plus, my 11 year old was sitting alone at his award ceremony .... my little ones were too young to swing alone, unsupervised ...

So, I picked up my wriggly 2.5 year old and heard the associate minister STILL giving his speech! Inside I sighed and I prayed and I thought to myself that I was really good with God, personally, and could we PLEASE just get on with this because we might not make it to actually see this award take place and my ds might feel slighted from missing this big moment since so many things are about his sisters these days .....

I grabbed cookies and water and we returned to our seats. It was hot and my 2.5 year old crawled back under the table. (I began to wonder why I never noticed before how much the loose black top looked like Oreo cookie pieces ...) I thought to myself how much I was really wanting this "ceremony" to end before my 2.5 year old had a meltdown or began to choke on concrete. I felt like I must be crazy to see so many other families with their children sitting perfectly sanely through this. And I wondered to myself why anyone would ever want to listen to anything so long ever really and what were the people thinking who scheduled this lengthy ceremony?

We were told by the speaking minister that our relationship with Jesus Christ crosses denominations and does not have to do with what we wear or what church we attend and that it was personal and I was thinking 'yes, yes, yes, I know, know, know, know ... and Lord, I do totally know this because I do have a relationship with God and I do NOT attend a church weekly right now and I know the Lord does not want or need me to wear special clothing to have a relationship with him, etc.' I thought to myself that I know where I stand with the Lord and PLEASE could we just move on to the award part of this ceremony ....

Finally, the coaches were called up to present the awards and ..... would you believe? They had something very special planned:

Starting with the youngest team, each child was to be called up to the stage area and something about exactly how they were special and how they played on the team would be said about each child ....

'Oh my!' I thought to myself as this began. I totally felt like I wanted to cry inside. It was very special and thoughtful and wonderful to say these nice things about each child, but COME ON already .... this was going to take F-O-R-E-V-E-R! (What were these very kind and thoughtful people who scheduled this thinking?!!)

My 2.5 year old decided at that point to try to head on over to the playground on her own ... she giggled with delight and ran off ...

I left my seat to chase her but grabbed my purse before I left the table and knocked over my paper dishes .... cups, plates, napkins and food began to blow off with the light breeze that must have been at ankle level since I had been unable to feel it on this hot day while sitting there in the audience doing chair aerobics ....

I retrieved my 2.5 year old and .... needless to go on at this point as you are getting the scenario, right?

The whole thing lasted one hour and 15 minutes ....

The nice thing is that just before the last 15 minutes, I finally found new seats for myself and my three children. We were able to obtain these seats because people who had previously sat in this area (shaded by a large van) had left (escaped?) and I somehow managed to get my motley crew moved just in time for ds's team (oldest age group) to go to the stage.

WHEN, a pregnant woman sat down next to me and began to converse with me.

"A little bit too long for the young ones," she remarked.

I said, "my little ones were done when it started and it has been VERY long."

(The new seats gave my youngest child an area to run a bit where she was not disruptive and I was still able to see and hear the microphone and speaker.) My oldest child was about to have nice things said about him and I had been waiting this long and listening to so much other stuff and dealing with so much chaos while waiting that I was NOT going to miss this .....

The pregnant woman looked at my youngest child running in circles with her daughter of similar age and asked "how old is your daughter?"

Inside, I thought for a moment, 'I have two daughters and this question is not simple and I do not wish to talk at this point because I am trying to listen to what is happening on stage and watch all three of my kids at the same time who are currently located at 12, 3 and 9 if you were to put them on a clock as to their current locations and God did not give me three eyeballs that move freely in three different directions.'

Ds's coach began to speak.

I just said to the pregnant woman, "I am sorry, I want to listen to this." (Yes, it felt like I was being unfriendly, but what could I do?!)

And I did feel bad inside a bit, but this is my job, ya know? These are my kids and this is what I do (I am a parent and my job right now is to be a stay-at-home mom). I love my kids. I want what is best for all of them. But sometimes this means I just can't make small talk or chit chat or appreciate pastoral speeches or the intricacies of long, drawn out ceremonies. My brain just can't get a handle on all of it and I lack the outward grace of being a mixture of both June Cleaver and Mary freakin' Poppins at this time in my life ... it's just a balancing act and my children have to come first.

To conclude this blog entry, I won't even go into the tantrum my youngest had that happened when the award ceremony finally ended and it was time to leave.

I will also leave out the part where I had to wrestle my two year old into her car seat twice and had to remove both of her shoes because the back seat of our newest car is much smaller than my minivan (being worked on still), and my daughter's shoes were hurting me during this wresting match ...

I will also leave out the part where I handed the shoes to my sweet and understanding ds and told him to put them "somewhere, anywhere" and he looked at me like 'o.k, strange, but this is my life and it's normal, whatever, o.k.'

And I won't mention how I then began to drive the car as my two year old released herself one last time from the car seat and practically threw herself into the front seat of the car sobbing ...

And I will certainly leave out my feelings about this really wonderful ceremony and party that I am sure so many wonderful volunteers so carefully planned but that I HATED with every piece of my body and soul at that point ...

I also won't go into how I had to stop the car one last time and replace my two year old's shoes in return for her sitting nicely and safely in her car seat, but how the car next to me had its passenger door half opened and the person holding it open was totally unaware that I needed to OPEN my freakin' door and was having some kind of discussion with her head pointed in a completely different direction ...

And I will REALLY leave out the park about what I was thinking during that moment ....

FINALLY, in the car, I recited out loud (for myself and my sanity) the Lord's Prayer and the Serenity Prayer. I turned up the radio and I prayed silently that we would make it home quickly. Ds just looked out the window calmly as if this was all just perfectly normal.

Halfway home, I began to talk to ds and told him how proud I was of him and how nice the awards party and food had been (because this really was for him and not about me, and people with good intentions and good hearts planned and executed this event that was actually a very thoughtful event in many ways.) Ds agreed the event was very nice and smiled while looking through the bag of goodies his coach had given him before we had gotten into the car.

When we arrived home, I felt like I was dizzy and had been mauled by a dog ... dh was exhausted from all of his work during the weekend too ... but all three of our children were happy and we all smiled and went for a family swim ... and somehow I felt like it was a successful outing after all.

A-men!

Making Decisions

Why are some decisions super easy to make even though they are huge, whereas other decisions may be much smaller, but seem to consume much more time and energy?

Sometimes decisions come to me quickly and I feel certain about them ... like the times I moved my son to different schools. Other decisions I just labor over and over and over about and drive myself nuts about ....

Soooo, I make a list of pros and cons about some things and that doesn't even clarify the answer sometimes. Sometimes it isn't about logic; but you think, what is this decision really about, ya know?

Other people sometimes seem like they make certain decisions much easier than I do. I think that is probably just my view though of them and not necessarily their reality. I really do believe that we all have different things that might take more thought to decide than others and that not everyone is the same when it comes to which decisions come most quickly.

What is decision making like for you?

Just one more day!

Just one more day of school to go for my ds! I honestly don't know why I am so excited about this ... it isn't like I will get to sleep in for at least four weeks due to the schedule we are now on (early a.m. swimming lessons, then 9 a.m. Summer camp for ds for a week).

But, I am excited nonetheless!

One of my biggest challenges with ds in the past during a school break is giving him too much freedom ... such as allowing 3 a.m. bedtimes simply because, I too, am a night owl. This honestly did not used to be a problem until last year when he began pushing beyond that bedtime limit and then became backwards in his daily schedule. Any bed time after 3 a.m. for him works out very badly. This backwards schedule he acquired last Summer was hard to fix, so we are starting out with an early schedule this Summer and I hope to keep it fairly regular like that. (It doesn't always have to be really early, but by 10 a.m., I would like for us all to be heading somewhere or at least dressed and doing something most days of the week this Summer ... this probably sounds easy to many of you who may be reading this, but it just has not been our typical MO in the past ... so we begin fresh with a newly energized way of doing things this year ....) Gotta keep my preteen from getting lazy, ya know?

So, here's to Summer! I hope everyone has a great one, regardless of whether or not yours starts right now, or much later. I do like how the days won't be chopped up by the bus bringing ds home at 2:45 p.m., and then having to be sure he gets his homework done and is in bed by a certain time, with certain papers signed, etc. ... the days seem more leisurely in the Summer due to having more freedom over our daily schedule. They also have the potential to become long as I deal with three people needing things from me all day, every day, all Summer long.

We'll see how it goes!

When surgery is a vacation

I had to have some wisdom teeth removed. I had been told 1.5 weeks ago that I had an infection in the bone and that at least one tooth needed to be removed pronto. I am a big baby when it comes to surgery (like most people probably are) and I tried and tried to strategize my way out of having to do this. But the day drew near and then it was the night before. I did the six hours with no food or drink thing, slept, and then off dh and I went for the big day.

The oral surgeon showed us the x-rays and pointed out how close two of my teeth were to the nerve tissue. This posed greater risk than if they were not and he recommended that only one of the bottom wisdom teeth come out at this time (fine by me as I wanted to keep them all!) But, I admit I was scared. The oral surgeon spoke of possible numbness there for the rest of my life and such things should the nerve be damaged during surgery.

So, I let dh make the final call (since I was apt to back out of the whole thing) and two of the scheduled three teeth were to be removed in moments. Terrified, I allowed the nurse to put the gas mask on me and within minutes I have no recollection of what occurred. The next thing I knew, I was awake and somewhat dizzy, in no pain, with dh at my side. Within moments we were back in the car and off we went back home.

I had no pain, some amazing medicine and the opportunity to spend the entire day (until 9 p.m. that evening) fulfilling no demands from anybody. Nobody expected anything from me and I slept and I just recovered and ate jello four times that dh made and served to me at appropriate intervals. It was just heavenly, gals, to be able to rest and recover and serve no one. It was so nice to have someone bring me medicine on schedule and be sure I was taken care of.

Not that I want to have surgery of any kind again, but what does it mean that this was just a wonderful and restful experience for me? How does it get to be that surgery feels like a vacation?

Update

DD#2 will also play T-ball and dh will be their coach! Yay! This will make for some cute photos! The girls are sooo excited. They watch their big brother play soccer and want so much to be on a sports team too :)

Summer Plans

I am getting excited! Slowly but surely I am pulling together our Summer activities. Here is what we have so far --

DS is going to Camp Invention for a week.

Family Trip to Kings Island

Both DD's will play T-ball and are sooo excited (and dh will be the coach!)

SEVEN Kid's Day Outs scheduled for the girls (Or maybe these are scheduled for me, but 7 Wednesdays this Summer!!!) with DS's former preschool teacher who runs an awesome Summer program ... this one is lucky for us that DD#2 is potty trained .... and the girls get to be together (always makes me just feel better) and they get to practice being away from ME (to get ready for preschool AND to help me work toward sanity!)

Family swimming in our backyard (often)

Maybe a Summer Kindermusik class for the girls (just 30 minutes of music and instruments and singing and movement) .... this one is cost depending and age depending ..... it is just SO hard to take one girl somewhere cool and have the other one sit something out. So, I am hoping this works out because we need to stay busy or I will surely perish this Summer at home all day with these three adorable kidlinks of mine!

Family cookouts (at least 2 with extended family)

Duckpin Bowling (this is just on my idea list for dh's two weeks off this Summer) ... since the balls are small, I thought the girls could do this fairly easily ....

Picnics (at least 2)

Check out small playground nearest to our house (maybe take a short hike)

Roller skating? (As a family maybe during dh's two weeks off .... )

At least two visits to Jump-N-Play

At least five visits to McDonald's Play Place

Possible Jr. Lifeguarding class for ds (if I can find one that works for his age and our schedule)

Friends over to play for DS

Cousin sleepovers (at least two)

Evening Canoe Trip with ds ($5 per person!)

Insect program at city park (attend at least one and visit the playground afterwards ... might be a good picnic site).

Complete last two coaching classes (me)

Lots of walks

Children's Museum (at least once)

Still working on this list ..... but what do you think? Does it seem too busy? Does it seem balanced enough between activities for all of my kids? Am I missing anything really cool that you would like to suggest for my list? What are your Summer plans?

Infant Swim Resource

It has been a tough road having two little ones and a back yard pool. I don't really recommend the combination in general. It's dangerous and scary, even with a fence around the pool.

However, many of you know that I first signed the girls up for special swimming lessons when Katie was only just 9 months and Ellie was just 1.75 years old. They have gone back annually for updates and I consider their skills to still be a work in progress since they don't normally demontrate them in our pool.

But tonight, my 3.5 year old was helping her father fish bugs out of the pool (getting it ready for Summer). Dh and I were both out there and both girls were fishing bugs out of the pool. Neither dh or I saw it happen, but we heard the splash. DD#1 fell in the pool fully clothed, including her shoes.

I rushed to where she was when suddenly up pops her head and her hand grabs the side of the pool! This exact skill has been practiced repeatedly at her swimming lessons at ever lesson update. The kids are tested at the end of their sessions to swim to survival fully clothed in attire for every season. It is important to not get over confident, but I am so thankful that my dd has learned this skill enough to rescue herself at age 3.5!

Here is the link for information about Infant Swim Resource http://infantswim.com/. This program is just incredible.