09-28-2011

Pictures Past

Tonight, my heart broke and my soul shattered when all I could do was hold my daughter and cry with her as she wailed "I don't want pictures of AunT, I want HER!"

Me too baby girl... me too.

Dr. Seussian Creature

While I was out running errands and restocking supplies for the house this week, I happened upon a clever throw blanket, thought that it fit my mood and given that we will soon be in the throws of winter when one could always use another blanket - I got it.

Yes friends... I splurged. Me. The one who doesn't purchase anything unless its on 'The Need' list. If you want it I tend to respond with "I am truly sorry, but it's not a necessity." The child in question will have to wait for it to migrate over to the 'need' list, or wait six months and see if the desire to have it grows so strong that it will simply be the end of days if said item is not make it's way into the cart and thusly to our home.

For this and other reasons, JB and BW have come to prefer shopping with Charles. The man either cannot or will not say "No." It did not take long for the children to recognize this fatal flaw of his, and so now when he needs to 'run an errand' without company (ie. escape from the offspring), he finds that he must either pursue a covert operation, or wait until they lose interest. And now that they are older, that can take a long time.

I usually discover which tactic he's selected when I need his help and am unable to find him... anywhere. The newly instated rule is that he MUST take his phone with him when he escapes, as he might actually be needed at some point beyond the 'Go ask your dad.' kind of situation.

Often times he'll bypass the whole dilemma of kids begging for things by insisting that we run errands as a family, knowing that if mama is in the mix, we'll stick to 'The Need' list, by default. He gets the hugs, I get the sad dog faces, and all is good in the world.

But then I bought this blanket. As each child came home from school they immediately took notice of it. "Mama! What is THAT!? Can I have it!?"

"A blanket, it's mine and no you may not have it."

"WOW! It is cool!" And then a pause, followed by "Um. Did you NEED it?"

"*Sigh*... No, but... I thought it was really very cool, so I got it."

As if looking at myself in the mirror in miniature form, JB stood before me, tightened her jaw, crossed her arms over her chest and began tapping her left foot. And then, she started nodding her head ever so slightly, in time with her foot.

BW standing next to her had no expression on his face for the longest time. It was as if the laws of nature had been completely violated.

In unison, their eyes moved back and forth between me and the blanket, the blanket and me...for what seemed like an eternity but was actuality about ten seconds before they simultaneously looked at each other, grinned and as they threw their hands in the air shouted gleefully "Let's go SHOPPING!"

I was able to distract them from the idea of shopping, and the mayhem that most certainly could have followed by suggesting that we re-arrange their rooms and come up with ideas for how to redecorate at some future undecided time.

The blanket tho, made it's way up to the master bedroom, and has taken residence on my side of the bed.

When Charles first saw it, his only question was "What is that dead-looking Dr. Seussian creature-thing doing on our bed?"

And wow, he called it.

09-15-2011

09-14-2011

09-13-2011

09-12-2011

09-09-2011

09-06-2011

It's the Socks, Mama

One night, before tucking BW and JB into bed, I was chatting with them that they needed to go to bed without delay, that their efforts to spend more time with mama at night meant that I couldn't spend time with them in the mornings when they enjoyed it the most.

"Mama needs the same number of hours of sleep every night, regardless of when YOU go to bed. If you go to bed at your regular time and don’t get up for this reason or that, then I can study, go to sleep and get up early enough to share breakfast with you and we can start the day off very pleasantly without any stress or rushing around.

"But if you delay going to bed because you ‘need water’, you feel lonely, you ‘need to get something’ or ‘oh, mama I forgot to tell you about…' I still have to study and that means that I go to bed as late as you stay up past your bedtime, and that means I miss out on the mornings with you. Which is a bummer because I love our morning time together."

"But Mama" JB said, "What if we’re not tired and that’s why we stay up?"

"Well, even if you don't think you are tired, your body really is ready for sleep and it needs a lot more than mama and daddy’s so that you can grow. The energy that you would use to play when you are awake is used instead to grow when you are sleeping, and growing requires LOTS of energy."

"That's right Mama. That's why I wear my socks pulled all-the-way-up!" contributed BW.

"Oh?... What do you mean BW?"

"Well mama, I wear my socks up as high as they'll go because your bones like it best when they are cool. When my socks are pulled up extra high, my feet and legs are hot, so my bones grow extra long to escape the heat and get cooled off. That way, I'll be really tall when I'm a big-jobber!"