Bi-Polar Weather Rant

My friend, Jen, said it best: The weather has been absolutely bi-polar lately!

Example: Today it was 65, gray, dreary, and fairly cold. Friday it is supposed to be 96, sunny, and HOT. FOUR days apart, two seasons apart. Certainly keeps you guessing!

This is not REALLY complaining. I LOVE living here! We've been here over 18 months now, but I'm still a weather retard. I can't make my brain believe that it's "normal" to have it "raining" outside right now (in San Diego, "rain" is usually more like the clouds spitting) and on Friday we'll wonder if it's too soon to start using the air conditioner.

By Wednesday next week, it will probably be in the high 60's or low 70's again. At least the wardrobe never gets dull--shorts one day, sweaters 3 days later, back to shorts. Anybody have any lithium we can give to the weather?

A TOPHER memory

I know, I've blogged a LOT about Hannah--she just gives SO much material! But I don't want Toph to feel neglected, because I love him too. Tonight we were discussing this at the dinner table, because I couldn't think of anything past a simple PHOTO of Toph--no events like the "dance" of a few posts ago. Now my memory has been stimulated, so I'll bless my readers with Toph memories too.

Toph and Hannah are basically 25 months apart. For those math-challenged, that means that Toph was TWO when Hannah was born. As in TERRIBLE TWO'S. And I'll admit that the two's were harder with Toph than with Hannah because he was a tantrum boy.

Anyway, that's not my memory.....

Any Mom of a newborn can attest to the fact that a newborn does indeed DRIVE the family for awhile--ours was no exception. Toph, being TWO, and not in full command of the English language would sometimes get frustrated trying to communicate..........

Smart kid that he is, Toph found a fool-proof way to get my attention (usually in the late afternoons when it got to the "crazy" time of day). He would BITE ME ON THE BUTT. Yep, take his two-year-old mouth, with those RAZOR sharp teeth and just take a bite out of Mom. He'd bite other places too, if circumstances allowed, but biting my backside as I was washing dishes got to be a favorite of the Toph Man. Yes, I agree, NOW it is amusing......NOT so much back then! He's finally gotten over that little behavior. But he laughed a LOT at my screams!

LOVE YOU, Toph!

Looks like he's just been caught!

Let's get PHYSICAL

Hannah had a physical today. We needed to do this for school, and besides, we haven't done it in a year. Since we got the shots 2 weeks ago, this was a piece of cake!

Dr. Page is our doctor here--we LOVE him! He's like Fresno's Dr. Jones, although there's NO replacing Dr. Jones! He will be one of my heroes FOREVER--probably because I'm not so sure I'D be alive if not for him.

Hannah is in the 96th percentile for height (46 3/4 inches) and the 100th percentile for weight. Dr. Page said that those are only 5 percentage points different, and that she'll drop weight during her first year of school--more regulated eating times and NOT being around the snack basket, along with more regular exercise. He says it's his experience that MOST kids her age experience a major thinning the first year of school, and NOBODY should be concerned. Topher did the same thing. She's HUGE--she's tall like a 7-year-old girl, so it's no wonder she's as tall or taller than most of Toph's 1st grade class. No question, she'll probably be one of the biggest kids in Kindergarten.

Robert's Mom experienced similar conversations with the pediatrician as he was growing up--not on the charts for a kid his age. Genetics dictates that Hannah will be in the same boat. Also on the genetic subject, Hannah got Daddy's LONG body. Few people realize that Robert and I have the same inseam--but he's 6'2" and I'm 5'4"! While a size 10 shirt fits AROUND Hannah, often she needs the size 12 for the length--woe is me! And finding "kid-like" clothes for this girl has become harder. She's wearing a 10-12 in shirts. She likes Dora and Princess stuff, and they don't make much of that past a size 8--most of the things in Hannah's size are so grown-up looking! This does not help the 5-going-on-15 problem we have. Same thing with shoes. She wants the Princess, Dora, or Strawberry Shortcake shoes, and they only make those to a size 12--NOT size 2! Lots of "Hoochie Mama" stuff available though!

Anyway, at the end, Dr. Page goes, "Well Hannah, I now pronounce you 100% healthy and normal." What a good way to end a physical. Good job, beautiful girl!

Mother's Day Gifts

I'd blogged about Mother's Day before I opened my gifts, so I need to take a moment to post my WONDERFUL gifts:

My adorable boy made me a hanging butterfly sculpture in school. It was all wrapped up when I picked him up on Friday, and he was SO excited to have a surprise. Then we forgot all about it until bedtime. GOOD JOB, Toph! I LOVE it! It's now hanging on the wall in our dining room, if you want to see it.

My Mother-In-Law LOVES holidays as much or more than me. She always gets ME a gift! This year was awesome! She got me a very cute, pink T-shirt. I LOVE IT!!! It made me cry, because it was so sweet. I'm going to enjoy wearing this around!




My awesome Hubby got me a cute cookie jar from Harry and David (sorry, no photo). A nickname from long ago is "Mooser" and so I collect some moose memorabilia. I needed a new cookie jar, and this was JUST perfect! How did he know?! LOVE YOU, Honey!

Mother's Day Saturday

Yes, we celebrate Mother's Day ALL weekend in our home, and not by MY design either! Since Sunday is devoted to observing the Sabbath, we start early. Today was GLORIOUS! I got to sleep in late. I had a breakfast of junk while I read. Then, when the sugar high wore off, I went upstairs to nap--THAT wasn't so successful, but it was relaxing. After a LONG shower, I had a snack and read some more. I finished an absolutely unique book, Ella Minnow Pea, by Mark Dunn. I had a leisurely afternoon, and did whatever my heart desired. Not a bad gig.



We began the evening by going to my all-time FAVORITE restaurant, Yanni's. I get the BEST steak I've ever eaten, EVERY time I go, what heaven! We shared a couple of fantastic desserts, Budino. If you've never had it, it's divine! I guess our idea to eat at Yanni's was a good one--we saw several of our friends there tonight too! After the kiddos got to bed, Robert indulged me in a "chick flick." I watched and thoroughly enjoyed the movie 27 Dresses. Now I sit, uninterrupted at the computer and blog to my heart's content. Happy Mother's Day!

"Stick it in my hole!"

So, I've written MANY times about my spirited child, Hannah. She is so full of life and energy, and SOMETIMES, the filter between the brain and mouth is missing!






I'll now recount the famous "Stick it in my hole" incident for posterity's sake. I'm a bit fuzzy on the date. I know it happened in Fresno, before we moved. I've narrowed it down to late 2005-mid 2006. I'm thinking it was in 2006 though, because I'm pretty sure we were potty training when it occurred. (Can you tell I'm a Mom? I'm referencing time according to when we were potty training! But I digress.....)




We were at a family dinner at my Parent's house. EVERYONE was there--grandparents, parents, aunt/uncle, sisters/brother and their families--EVERYONE!






As is typical of one of our family gatherings, after dinner the men were in the family room, watching something on TV (no doubt a ball game of some kind) and the women were gabbing around the dining room table.




We hear roaring laugher, and I now realize it's directed at Hannah who is (please picture this in your minds......) Legs spread apart, jumping around the family room, pointing to her crotch, and saying (with the most gleeful look on her face), "Stick it in my hole!" She repeats this strange dance probably a million times.




I'm MORTIFIED and highly entertained. The question arises, WHAT is that kid watching on TV? What kinds of movies do you watch at home? Where is she getting this stuff? WHAT?!







I have no answers! I'm 29 different shades of red, and I can't believe my beautiful, precious daughter is making such a spectacle of herself, in front of my VERY proper grandparents. I have no explanation of where she's come up with this.





She DID do it at home previously, I believe after a moment of "self discovery" whilst potty training. But I gave it NO attention, believing (incorrectly as it turns out) that by NOT saying anything, she'd not do it again.

There she is, in all of her glory, doing the "stick it in my hole" dance for the entire family to see, and believe me, she got PLENTY of attention for this little shenanigan! Such a spectacle did she make, that the incident was discussed several times--apparently in her presence too.

No, this was not a single-time incident either. Shortly after the first performance, we were at CHURCH (yes, you guessed it!), and in front of the Bishop, Hannah decided to perform her lovely "hole dance." You can only imagine what an uncomfortable time it was for all of us. I really don't remember this. Robert swears it happened. I think I've blocked it as a traumatic memory. I guess the Bishop said something like, "Wow, Hannah, that was.....interesting."

Please earth, just open up and swallow me NOW.

Incidentally, this is not the first time Hannah has bypassed the mouth filter..... On the first day of school this year, we had just dropped Toph off at class, we saw a large group of other LDS parents from our ward (a bishopric member among them). Someone complimented Hannah on her High School Musical shirt, and she replied with, “Hi. Want to see my panties?” And she was starting to pull down her shorts to show everyone! I was mortified, but realized that Hannah said what she said because her panties were also High School Musical! She was really proud of them, but I convinced her to keep her shorts on!

With Hannah in our lives, it's NEVER dull!

I Don't Wanna Have a Baby.....

This is the theme of conversation between me and Hannah these days.

Apparently having a baby hurts, and you have to get a shot, so Hannah wants NOTHING to do with it! She brings the subject up almost daily now, and even gets emotional (can you say DRAMA?) when discussing it.

Today, she was feeling benevolent, because as she was queueing up the waterworks, she told me that she wished she'd never been born. Great, I was gearing up to hear how Sharon is a better Mom than me, yet again. Instead, she surprised me by changing her drama. TODAY she wishes she'd never been born, because it hurt me, and if she'd never been born, I wouldn't have been hurt.

First of all, there's NO WAY to explain to a 35-year-old 5-year-old that the pain was worth it. You can't truthfully say that it didn't hurt, because it DID. But the pain goes away and it morphs into a 5-year-old--totally different kind of pain! (Please smile, that was a joke of sorts.) She is not in a mental place to understand the in's and out's of childbirth. And, thank you very much, she does NOT know how you "poop out a baby." I've tried to remove this phrase from my vocabulary. She DOES know that sometimes you have to get your tummy cut to get the baby out, and THIS also freaks her out, to no end.

Second of all, WHO TELLS HER THIS STUFF?????????? She's not the only little girl in our circle to be freaked out about this, so WHO is laying on the horror stories? STOP IT!

Father's and Son's.......NOT camping

In our Church, there's an annual Father's and Son's campout. It's always on Mother's Day weekend (and Moms I know would LOVE it if it was a Father's and Kid's campout). As long as we can go out to dinner on Saturday night for Mother's Day, it's fine with me.

Toph looks forward to this for an entire year! Good times are had by all boys and dads--I think.

So this year, Robert throws Toph a curve ball. He gives Toph a CHOICE: either, the traditional Father/Son campout with the friends OR time alone with Dad--beach, dinner, MOVIE. Toph did take a few seconds to contemplate this big choice before asking if he could have the beach/movie/campout option--smart kid. To Robert's credit, he said that either option was COMPLETELY fine with him and did not sway either way.

In the end, Toph decided to take the beach/dinner/movie option. Toph has been wanting to go to the beach for a LONG time, and we haven't done it in a month. He LOVES going out to dinner at Islands, and movies AT THE MOVIE THEATER are just top notch for Toph. It's hard for camping to compete with the beach, Islands for dinner (GREAT burger place), and Iron Man at the movie theater. I'm sure they're having a great time, and we've decided we need to do this more often than once a year. Maybe once every OTHER month (whoever doesn't go with Dad gets special ALONE time with Mom).

So what did Hannah and I do? For our girlie time, we went to Hannah's favorite, Chevy's, for dinner. Seriously, HANNAH did the choosing. I'm not a big fan of the Chevy's here--horrible service and a parking nightmare most of the time. Then we went to Borders--be still my heart!--and read and bought some books. We went to the store for some ice cream, and now we're playing on the computer. Really, as I type this, I Hannah keeps having me do stuff on the game WE'RE playing on the other computer. But Hannah's going to bed at a regular bedtime. That's the curse of whoever gets stuck with Mom--no sense having both kids sleep deprived tomorrow!

Here's to Father/Son and Mother/Daughter dates--pretty fun!

Just an update: the boys did NOT get to eat at Islands--too long of a wait, so they'd miss their movie. Toph picked Rubio's instead. Also, Topher apparently talks constantly through movies, AND he thought that Iron Man was probably close to an X-rated movie--because it was scary. Too funny! They had a good time, and Toph was entertaining--what more could you want?

Something Useful!

I subscribe to the lifehacker feed on my Google Reader. It's a LOT of techie stuff, but there's other life stuff that I find interesting. But they post about 20 posts each day, so you have to LOOK for the non-techie things. www.lifehacker.com

Anyway, today I was looking through the 19 posts thus far, and there was something about looking up the annoying telemarketer phone calls. There's a cool website called "caller complaints" (http://www.callercomplaints.com/). If you have Caller ID (and, besides my parents, who DOESN'T?!) you can type in the phone number of who's calling you. If they know, they'll tell you. You can also lodge a complaint on their website, but BETTER--go to www.donotcall.gov. IF you're on the national "do not call" list (and who ISN'T?!) you can file a complaint. They'll investigate. And, if the person phone harassing you is not an "allowed" harassment, they can be fined!! I'm ALL for that!

Now if I could only do something about all of the charities who call me RELENTLESSLY. I mean, the Police call WEEKLY trying to get me to give them money! I love having police to serve and protect, but the money tree in my backyard has given up the ghost.

So, investigate your most annoying unknown telemarketing phone calls and TELL ON THEM! No, I'm not in favor of tattling, but in these circumstances, it's okay. Just don't tell my kids!

House Fairy Update

So Sunday morning my kids saw the introduction letter from the House Fairy. They seemed excited about the prospect of her visiting--but they didn't clean their rooms. Maybe the rooms even got worse, but I'm not sure that was possible.

Thursday, the House Fairy made another visit, but all we got was fairy dust--all over the house. In case you're wondering, she leaves a little piece of cardstock with her signature on it, and part of her signature has glitter glue--that way she can leave the fairy dust, without a new mess to clean. Anyway, the fairy dust was in the kids' bathroom, both kids' bedrooms, and on top of a pile of stuff in the family room. We could have dusted the whole house.

Last night I was gone, and I left instructions for the kids to spend JUST 15 minutes cleaning their rooms. I didn't care if they were ALL CLEAN, but I wanted 15 minutes of hard labor. With my kids, labor in small doses is much easier to accomplish. When I got home, I found Hannah's room pretty GOOD. Her bookcase was needing a little bit of help. Toph's room, however, looks pretty bad. It looked "okay" from the door, but after walking inside, I could see that he had a LOT more to do.

I guess the House Fairy agreed with me, because she left a little bit of fairy dust and a set of stamps in Hannah's room--on the bookcase, so Hannah would know where to work. In Toph's room, she left some fairy dust and ONE Pokemon card. He was THRILLED to have a Pokemon card--wonder what she'd have left if his room was CLEAN? I think I'll request that the House Fairy leave a SMALL, sweet treat as a "good start" kind of communication.

All in all, I'd say it has been pretty successful. The kids are getting excited about House Fairy visits, and I'm hopeful that it will help them be more motivated to be MORE conscious of their surroundings and leave LESS mess. Time will tell!

Bragging, and PROUD of it!

Couldn't you just HUG him to death?!

Toph is AMAZING! I'll admit to not quizzing him much on spelling words. I'm personally opposed to spelling tests in the 1st grade. I think it's a lot of pressure, and my kid has had 15 (or so) spelling words each week for the year. I've REALLY gotten lazy about quizzing him in the last month.

Really, why should I bother? He's gotten 100% every week except one.

WHAT A BOY!! He's amazing!
Good job, Toph. I'm SO VERY proud of you!

Snap, Krackle, POP!

So Hannah and I have been having a love/hate relationship. She loves to hate me. Some of the time. At least she hasn't said it lately, so that's progress.

Hannah is NOT a morning bird, so I was a little bit surprised to find her awake and talking to me at 6:20 Tuesday morning. Her nose wasn't working, because it wasn't letting the air in--her words, I swear.

So, I say to myself, "we can't keep doing this. She's not sleeping and she's crabby. It's just like when she was a baby. It's time to go to the doctor." POP--I'd had it with the weirdness.

I made the appointment, because, I figure, she's got a sinus infection. I've been pouring all manner of drugs down her throat for almost 2 weeks. What started as "probably allergies" (since we all did the same thing at the same time) has progressed to something truly miserable for my girl. At lunch, Hannah was giving me a hard time, because she didn't want to go to the doctor--"You just worry too much. I'm NOT sick and I don't need to go to the doctor. So stop your worrying." I have mentioned that she's 5 going on 35, right?

We went to the doctor. NOT only did she have a sinus infection, but she also had an ear infection. HOW DID I NOT KNOW THIS? Maybe because she didn't complain about THAT. Only EVERYTHING else! The only time she complains about her ear hurting is when she is forced to blow her nose. Who knew? At least we have good drugs NOW. And with any luck, we can go back to our "normal" routine.

Our original pediatrician would soothe me by telling me that he always trusts his mamas' intuition--because it's mostly right. I'd bring Hannah in and tell him, "find something you can fix, or you get to take her home." The nurses would laugh, because before you see the doctor and they write down all of your complaints, I'd just tell them that Hannah has been extra grumpy or has stopped eating or has stopped sleeping--and they'd look at me like I'd grown an extra hole in my head. Then Dr. Jones would say that beautiful thing about mother's intuition, and I'd feel better, because my baby WAS sick, and he could make her better so I could take her home. Some things never change.

And then SOME things do--like this crazy weather! I'm going to get bad Mom of the year award for sure. I send Toph to school in short sleeves (because it's been in the 90's) and then it's COLD. The next day I send him in long sleeves, because he's a cold kid--and then it's VERY WARM again. This week, I send him in short sleeves, and it's PRETTY CHILLY. He was fine inside, but not at recess or lunch. I've seriously messed up in the dressing department. Yes, he's capable of dressing himself, but it goes MUCH faster if the clothes are already out and ready to go when he wakes up--and I usually forget to have him do it before bed. So I've resorted to stuffing a sweatshirt into his backpack and telling him that it's his back up for when he's wearing short sleeves and he's freezing. Hopefully that will get him through the May GRAY stuff. We lived here last May, you'd think I'd learn......

Well, tomorrow is another day.........

Ahhhh The ever-elusive SLEEP, or lack thereof

Sleep and I have a love-hate relationship. I LOVE to sleep, and I HATE when I can't. And I can't more often than I'd like. Sleep has always been somewhat elusive to me. I am a BIG TIME night-owl, so I find it EXTREMELY hard to go to sleep early (much before midnight). I am now a very light sleeper, so I need the right conditions: QUIET, dark, comfortable. And without enough of this precious commodity, all heck breaks loose in my life--and the headaches are ripe to return.

Last night was NOT a good sleeping night. I was up until 1 am. At 2:55 am, Toph was up, crying to me: "I didn't get to come downstairs and spend time with you last night." (At bedtime, I'd made the kids a deal, because they said (liars!) that they weren't tired. If they were still awake at 9:30--90 minutes--they could come downstairs and spend time with me. I knew they'd never make it.)
Me: Are you kidding me? It' 3 o'clock in the morning!
Toph (still crying): But I didn't get to have my special time with you.
Me: It's NOW 3 in the morning. You didn't get to do it last night, because YOU WERE ASLEEP, just like you were supposed to be. I never thought you'd be awake at 9:30. You did what you were told to do--go to sleep.
Toph: But I wanted to come back downstairs. (I'm realizing now that he's kind-of awake, but not fully functioning.)

We cuddled for a few minutes, and then I asked if he was ready to go back to bed. The answer: NO.

Toph: Could we go downstairs for our special time now?
Me: NO, it's THREE O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING! We're supposed to be sleeping right now. What would we do downstairs in the middle of the night. (Clearly, I'm getting frustrated by this point.)

Toph did stop crying and I walked him back to bed and turned on his Ipod. Both kids sleep with music going at night, and have since they were little. I'll do almost anything to keep them sleeping, and I don't mind the music playing all night, because it's supposed to be quiet. It's calming music--Toph leans toward classical or reverent church songs.

15 minutes later: "Mom, my music stopped playing."
Me: Ok, you DO remember how to turn it back on, right? Please turn it back on and go back to sleep.
So he did, but he turned it on louder--Toph likes his music loud.

I waited about 5 minutes, and decided that I'd be listening to his music for the rest of the night instead of sleeping and went in and turned it down. He complained but I explained that the neighbors didn't need a concert at 3 in the morning.

20 minutes later: Toph gets up to use the bathroom and turns his music up louder again--not quite as loud as the first time.

20 minutes after that: I got up and turned his music down--HE was asleep, but I was not. Sometime AFTER FIVE, I fell back to sleep......

5:55 am: Hannah gets up and comes in my bedroom: "Hi Mom. The sun is waking up, and I'm not sleepy any more." (For those of you who don't know Hannah very well, she's NOT a morning person by ANY stretch of the imagination, so seeing her and talking to her this early is really unusual.)
Me: Hannah, it's NOT even SIX o'clock in the morning. You need to get back in bed and try to go back to sleep, or you'll be too grumpy later. (And I'm too tired to deal with life right now.)
Hannah: But I'm not sleepy any more.
Me: PLEASE, go try. Lay down and close your eyes and listen to your music, and just rest. At SEVEN, if you're still awake, you can get up, okay?
Hannah: Okay.

Some might wonder where Robert was during all of this activity......He'd fallen asleep in his chair downstairs last night, and he never woke up enough to make it upstairs. I used to try to get him to move, but now I wake him up twice and tell him that I'm going to bed, and if he wakes up, he comes upstairs.

Hannah went back to bed and was pretty quiet for a little while. I tried, mostly in vain, to go back to sleep, but didn't really manage to do more than catnap. When I got up, and the sun was REALLY awake, I had the WORST headache! So my morning started with 2 extra-strength Excedrin. When I get a good migraine going, LIGHT and NOISE really affect me.

I managed to make it to Church, but it seemed louder than usual--lots of happy kids! After Church, we ALL were supposed to take naps. Hannah SAYS she did, but she woke Toph up pretty soon after naptime started. Robert stayed downstairs, and was trying NOT to nap (so he could get better sleep tonight). The kids got up and played upstairs pretty quietly for a little while, and then were quiet downstairs. THANK YOU VEGGIE TALES MOVIES! I managed a short nap, and my head is somewhat better tonight.

I just want to know WHY sleep has to be such a battle for me?! I'd like to be more like Robert. He can sleep anywhere, any place, in any conditions, and in about 5 seconds. Must be nice!

The House Fairy visit.....

This year I'm really working on "getting it together." I haven't managed to perfect this yet, but I'm making progress. One of the websites I have used to help me get some good ideas is flylady.net. There's TONS of ideas on how to organize and keep your house clean. I'm loving it!

Well, on flylady, I found out about the House Fairy. I think she's going to become my new best friend. Check it out: housefairy.org




Tonight the House Fairy made her first visit to our home. She left the kids an introductory letter, a poster of the "official rules," a membership card, and some chore charts to fill in. It will be interesting to see how the kids respond tomorrow. She didn't leave any nice treats, because their rooms are pretty bad right now.

Hopefully I'll be able to post about a magical transformation that takes place in our home as the kids are EXCITED to keep their rooms looking clean and tidy. Keep your fingers crossed!