Life and other crazy things

| Mommakisses

Yes, life has been crazy here… kids, birthdays to plan, friends and family to enjoy… yep life is good.

My little K is growing up… she turns 1 on Saturday. ONE! Can you believe it? I’m really not sure where the time went… What happened to how slow time went when I was in school and the day would drag on and on? Or the summers that would last FOREVER?

Now I have a husband and kids who make me smile (S just asked me to “take the petals off” of her banana and throw them in the trash!).

The thing I keep thinking about it is how close I walked to the edge of life a year ago. Did I know it at the time… no… morphine kept me from thinking that clear. Was it unnerving? Oh, yeah… especially for my DH! The best he could do was play some computer chess to keep his mind of the fact he had a new born baby, and his wife was bleeding out.

It took about 5 hours to fully stop the hemorrhaging. I had an incredible team of drs., nurses and all taking care of me… and K for that matter. My parents had the other 3… and really didn’t know the extent of what was happening until it was over… which is really a blessing.

Do I know why I walked that path? Not really. I mean, I know why I was bleeding now, but why did God take me down that path… I’ve not gotten any word from Him. I don’t know His plan. All I know is I now have four wonderful kids and I’ve been given the chance to raise them. It is my prayer to be the worthy of that chance. To raise them to serve Him with glory and honor. I know I have a wonderful husband, and I have been given the chance to love him the best I can. I pray I can do so with glory and honor for God. I have been given the best friends ever… and I want to be the best friend I can be for each of them. I have been given the best family ever… I want to be the best I can be for them.

Thank you, Lord, for one more chance.

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Mine! Mine! Mine!

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When you are three you know two things: It’s all about me and it’s mine! S walked this territory today… while helping me with the wash. I had the water ready, soap and softener in, all we needed were clothes. As we put them in the washer she said things like “That’s my blue shirt I used to wear” (her dad’s blue t-shirt), “That’s my blue shirt I wear all the time” (my aqua shirt) and so on… And it didn’t matter what the item was… it was hers… socks, pants…

Until she hit one item… then it was “And that’s mine blue shirt… wait… that’s… ewww that’s YOUR underwear!” Guess there’s some things even a three year old won’t claim!

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Sisters

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S is big on “you sit by me” like most kids her age… different people different days, but someone MUST sit by her… except what she means is… almost touching by her… not the normal sit-in-the chair-beside-me. No, she means the chairs must be RIGHT by each other… so if she is around the corner of the table, she must move her chair around to your side.

Today it was K she want to “sit by me.” Only for her to be happy, K’s high chair had to be almost touching her seat AND with K facing her. That made it tough to get the food on her tray fast enough and still make sure it wasn’t too hot and get it cut before little hands were after it.

Then, in a moment of Mommy’s-sleep-deprived, I moved the chair to face me… oh goodness! “NO, K sit beside me!” She is beside you, Honey… I need to have her this way. “OH, I don’t mind,” she huffed and crossed her arms… clearly she minded. So I pushed K a bit closer to S, while keeping K facing me and asked if that was good enough.

“Yes, now I can blow for her!” Ah… S just wanted to feel like she was helping K. Sisters are a good thing!

What are we celebrating?

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Tonight was what our church calls “Trunk or Treat”… where church members park their car, decorate their trunk, and costumed children parade by gathering candy. They also have games, bounce houses, hay and pony rides… general fun for those under the driving age.

When I picked the boys up from school, they were very excited to be able to don their chosen attire and harvest the sweets. J told me of a conversation he and friend had, where they were discussing the few days left until Halloween. J continued with this “I told him our church celebrates Halloween tonight.” I cringed. The idea of actually celebrating what Halloween stands for did not sit well for me. The conversation became one of trying to help an 8 year old grasp the concept of redeeming something that was rather dark.

I guess I have viewed Halloween as something you do… like going to a movie… NOT a celebration… Dictionary.com lists celebration as “to observe (a day) or commemorate (an event) with ceremonies or festivities; to make known publicly; proclaim; to praise widely or to present to widespread and favorable public notice.” Halloween is listed as “Eve of All Saints, last night of October” (1556), the last night of the year in the old Celtic calendar, where it was Old Year’s Night, a night for witches.” Proclaim or praise a night for witches? I don’t think so.

So what are we doing? When we are participating in Halloween, are having an evening of fun with our kids? Or is there something more we are doing? I am not sure. I know as a child, I enjoyed pretending to be someone else… I know my kids (drama kids that they are) enjoy the same… so what am I teaching them? If he had used any other word, I am sure I would not be having this conversation with you… I would not be l thinking about it. I really didn’t like to hear that our church celebrates witches…

And yet, our kids had a great time… Here they are with GR…

A teenager in the house?

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Not yet, but sometimes I feel like it… or at least a 3 year old going on 13… oh so sassy! Sometimes it’s a growl when she’s not happy about something, sometimes it’s just being stubborn. With the new floors, I thought it might be good to get the kids house slippers… sometimes even simple tasks are NOT easy!

I found the ones for S first. She just HAD to have them, and for whatever reason, it took some convincing for her to understand we WERE buying them, but I needed to pick out the boys. This required her to sit… I guess that’s too much for a 3 year old. By the time we left, I was grumpy!

Since then she has told me how much she loves them and thank you several times. Yesterday morning was no exception… until she started asking where we got them.

“At a store Honey.”

“No, at the mall,” she put her hands on her hips…

“Yes, in a store at the mall.”

“No… AT the mall. Momma.” and she turned around and left… apperantly in her mind there is NO store at the mall… it’s just the mall… Walmart and Target are stores… but the MALL is something else, and she was having NOTHING to do with any other thought.

Then this morning, standing in front of a closet FULL of pretty things… S said, “I have nothing to wear!”

My only hope is that since she’s 13 now, in ten years she’ll be 23… Right???

Can you hear me now? Good!

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Just a quick note to let you know that S can hear… 😉 For the most part things went real well… I mean really, how easy is it to get an active 3 year old to sit, look at you, listen for a beep, and let you know she heard it? Not very.

As the mommy, I had to “be the chair.” This means I had to sit and hold her on my lap. She started off strong, repeating everything she was asked to as she was asked to… this means when she was asked to speak normally, she did. When she was asked to whisper… well, mostly. The dr. was just a bit concerned with her volume level when she spoke quiet… there’s not much quiet about my S!

After a while though, these games were no longer fun… so getting her to finish the task was a chore. This means there is one range we are not totally sure about, but the dr. is not concerned about it. And he wants to see her back in 6 months… guess we’ll go from there.

Thanks for all the prayers… I am so grateful for friends and family who will knock on Heaven’s Door and seek the Father for my family.

New Floor

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The kids are loving the new hardwood floor… well, they were… S discovered today you’ve got to be careful… while trying to get a drink and go back outside to play she tripped on some dirty clothes in front of the washer… and went face first into the dryer. The result???

Did I Hear You Right?

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I know it could be worse. I understand it’s not the end of the world. I know there are LOTS of people out there dealing with MUCH harder issues… All that knowledge doesn’t make this easier to stomach.

My sweet S has been saying “What?” when I talk to her a lot lately… I figured it was a 3 year old goofing off. One who didn’t want to put her toys away, or pick up her clothes. Then she started telling me she couldn’t hear whatever we were listening to in the van… well, it was kind of low… Next she started standing in front of the TV… I started to wonder if she was having vision issues… Yes, I can be kind of thick…

Then earlier this week it was, rather off-handedly, “my ears hurt.” She’s got her second set of tubes in… when she’s got an infection, I know it because of the “drainage.” Again, I just though she was messing around. Then (really how much should it take before a mom starts paying attention????) a couple of days ago she started jacking the volume on the tv up… and I would make her turn it down… “But I can’t hear it!” You can hear it just fine… I’m sitting right here and I can hear it, so I know it’s not too quiet…

Yesterday, after yet another tv volume jacking, I called her pediatrician’s office. The nurse on call (the one who answers parent’s questions and helps determin if a child needs to come in or if there is something that can be done from home) suggested one of those tubes might be blocked and she should be seen.

Once she is seen, her dr. says those ears look clear… no fluid, no infection… and rather as almost an after thought suggests testing her hearing. Sure I say, thinking this is no big deal… she hears me just fine… after all she answers me, and is very clear when she talks.

His nurse came to take her into the room where they run the test. I packed the other three (the boys are off for fall break this week) up and follow… after all, the door to leave is right there by that room and we will be leaving as soon as this test is done…

G, being a goofy boy, does his best to make noise and be silly while we stand there waiting on the test to be done. I have to get onto him several times. He’s making too much noise and will mess the testing up… probably not, but he really making too much noise to be in the office.

The door opens and S bounces out, followed by the nurse, who looks at me with a straight face, “She failed.” What? “Both ears.” WHAT???? As we head back to the room, my mind fogs over with a million questions, and I can’t even think of one. I do manage to ask by how much, to which I am told they really don’t know. This test is just a pass/fail test. For more information, we must go to an Ear Nose Throat dr. Back to the guy who put the tubes in her ears.

I called them as soon as we got into the car. They have a specialist who will retest her hearing next week. I have to wait until next week to get any kind of answer… so until then I have to wait… and trust God.

This has made me want to hug on her a bit more tightly… and this was very evident this morning. She curled up next to me on the couch when she got up. “I want some milk, Mommy.” Ok, baby, I’ll get you some milk. I hugged and kissed her a bit more. “I want some milk, Momma.” OK, baby, I’m going to get you some. “Then stop hugging on me!” OK, some things just don’t change.

Girls Night Out

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Even a mom of four can have one once in a while… I got to go with some friends for a Girls Night Out, to a Nashville Predators hockey game a few nights ago… and as always, my kids have to make things “interesting” … or something like that.

The plan was to leave at 4:30, grab the kids some dinner, meet my DH at his office by 5:30, give him 3 of the four, take K with me to meet the others by 6. My mistake, you ask??? I went to the bathroom. I’m quite sure there is a rule, written or unwritten, somewhere, that says a mom can not go near a bathroom until all children are in bed. If she does, the children either 1) must follow her into said bathroom or 2) use the free time to do something they know they should not.

Sweet, sassy S decided number 2 looked too good to pass on. I should have known when I actually had a few moments to myself that I would live to regret laugh at it… eventually.

Upon returning to the living room to begin packing children, diaper bag, juice glasses, homework, shoes, etc into the van, I was greeted by K’s sweet smile… such a joy… oh, man she pulled her hair band out… wait… it’s more than that… What is that??? I spot a bottle of lotion… nope not the right consitancy… then I see it… on the floor in front of the couch… a newly emptied tube of DESITIN!!! Yes, S had finished off the tube in her sister’s hair…

She got a very quick bath, a Dawn shampoo, and we were off to the hockey game… At least we had fun!