I'm a little sad as we put away Christmas, this year. Not that I'm sad about getting a corner of the living room back, or sad about being done with the over-commercialized present-fest that the celebration of Christ's birth has become, these days. But I'm sad, because Christmas makes me realize how fast time flies. You only celebrate it once a year. That means I only get 18 Christmases with each child until they are considered adults! And even less than that if you consider that at some point, they will probably start with the attitude thing, and thinking they're too good for their mom's silly traditions and such. Last Christmas, I had a 9 month old baby and a 3 year old. This Christmas, I have a brand new baby that wasn't even a thought on my mind last year, a 21 month old, and a 4 year old!
It seems like yesterday when Jubilee was two, and we made gingerbread men for Christmas. She didn't want to eat hers, because it looked so cute! Instead, she held it, and rocked it back and forth in her arms. Now, she doesn't hesitate a second before devouring that cute little cookie man! She used to decorate the tree by clumping all the ornaments in the same spot. Now, she is very particular about spreading them all out equally, and she can even get them hooked onto a tree branch without help! Last year, I could still trick Jubilee into thinking Christmas was on a different day, that way I could celebrate with my family, and not miss Christmas morning, if I were called into work. That would not have flown, this year. She had a countdown going to the day!
I think about all the memories from this year, and how next year at Christmas, Agape will most likely have mastered saying 'Christmas tree', and will no longer call them 'ma-tree's. The girls might not dance around 'nakie' to 'Rockin' around the Christmas Tree' as they wiggle excitedly across the living room floor. They might not use an entire carton of sprinkles on one batch of cookies, while I'm busy pulling the next dozen out of the oven. Jubilee might not wrap random objects she finds around the house, and add them to the pile under the tree. She may be beyond making ornaments out of construction paper and ribbon. And they're not going to fit into the same adorable Christmas jammies or dresses. Oh there will be some positives, like not having any more shepherds from the nativity scene get decapitated, and not having countless ornaments strewn about the house, as the lower portion of the tree looks less and less decorated the closer we get to Christmas. But even those parts, I will miss!
The girls are still young enough to not be completely sucked in to the materialism that Christmas brings. The only item Jubilee expressed the desire to have for Christmas were some cat stickers! And the other things she wanted to do to celebrate the day included eating spinach custard, having a dance party, and eating the piece of candy she had gotten from a birthday party, and had been saving all month to eat on Christmas day(Although she forgot to actually eat it on Christmas). I don't look forward to them getting old enough to want to make wishlists of all the stuff they want, or when their focus shifts to getting the coolest toy on Christmas morning. But maybe, with the right guidance, we can avoid that! (At least, that's what I always tell myself)
Sometimes I want to freeze them forever just like they are. But I know I would miss out on so much. And I know God has a plan for them that is much bigger than I can imagine. And I hope I would never stand in the way of their potentials, even if I had the ability to stop time!
Friday, December 30, 2011
Friday, December 23, 2011
I have been busy...
As Jubilee was putting on her shoes, (backwards, of course) she told me rather nonchalantly, "These shoes are getting snug, Momma." I looked down and said what any busy mom would say: "That's because you're putting them on the wrong feet!" But when she had put them on the proper feet, she said "They're tight when they're on backwards AND the right way too!" So I bent down and felt her toes, which were about to burst through the seams of those size 9's! This has never happened to her before! Jubilee's feet have always grown so gradually, and she's only had those cute purple butterfly shoes since September! And if I had known that they were getting snug, I surely would have delegated 'new shoes' to one of the Grandma's Christmas lists. Now here we were, days before the big holiday, and we had to go shoe shopping.
We chose Target as our location to battle crazy Christmas shoppers, and off we went. Armed with our new child-management tactic of putting the children in the double stroller, we were ready for anything! This time, however, we put Toren in his carseat in the cart, and just put the two girls in the double stroller. We were quite the caravan!
We managed to find almost the same shoes that she had just grown out of, only in a size 10. And they were on clearance! Score! Agape only had a minor meltdown when we told her 'no' she could not have the sparkly toddler sized ruby-red slippers. Unfortunately, she did not buy my explanation of how their cheap construction would cause blisters on her heels.
We had a couple of other very important items to pick up at the store, including thin mints for cookies and a stocking for baby Toren. I led the way, pushing the cart with Toren in it, while Ua followed pushing the two girls in the stroller. While we were in the Christmas section, I happened upon a woman I knew from nursing school. We both said 'hi', and then she realized that as I stopped, the man pushing the stroller behind me also stopped, and that this must be my family!
"Are these all your kids?" She asked? I think she was a little overwhelmed by us all. She kept repeating, "Wow, you've been busy since nursing school!" She said that line at least three times during the conversation! As I reflected on this event, I realized that if I saw a woman I hadn't seen in 5 1/2 years, and when I knew them 5.5 years ago, she was still in college, and she had no children, and now she was carting 3 kids around, I might be a little surprised, too! And as I thought about it, I realized that I've given birth to 3 children in 4 years! That's pretty impressive, if I do say so, myself.
We chose Target as our location to battle crazy Christmas shoppers, and off we went. Armed with our new child-management tactic of putting the children in the double stroller, we were ready for anything! This time, however, we put Toren in his carseat in the cart, and just put the two girls in the double stroller. We were quite the caravan!
We managed to find almost the same shoes that she had just grown out of, only in a size 10. And they were on clearance! Score! Agape only had a minor meltdown when we told her 'no' she could not have the sparkly toddler sized ruby-red slippers. Unfortunately, she did not buy my explanation of how their cheap construction would cause blisters on her heels.
We had a couple of other very important items to pick up at the store, including thin mints for cookies and a stocking for baby Toren. I led the way, pushing the cart with Toren in it, while Ua followed pushing the two girls in the stroller. While we were in the Christmas section, I happened upon a woman I knew from nursing school. We both said 'hi', and then she realized that as I stopped, the man pushing the stroller behind me also stopped, and that this must be my family!
"Are these all your kids?" She asked? I think she was a little overwhelmed by us all. She kept repeating, "Wow, you've been busy since nursing school!" She said that line at least three times during the conversation! As I reflected on this event, I realized that if I saw a woman I hadn't seen in 5 1/2 years, and when I knew them 5.5 years ago, she was still in college, and she had no children, and now she was carting 3 kids around, I might be a little surprised, too! And as I thought about it, I realized that I've given birth to 3 children in 4 years! That's pretty impressive, if I do say so, myself.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Things that don't belong
There are lots of things that are out of place around our house. For instance, dried playdough chunks do not belong in my shoes. The flour container does not belong in the refrigerator. Crusty stickers do not belong stuck to the side of the desk. The cutting board does not belong on the stove. Baby Jesus' manger does not belong in a pile of toys on the kitchen table.
There are essentially two different forces in place causing all of these things to be where they don't belong: the children, and the adults. The children take credit for the playdough, the crusty stickers, and the manger, as well as the myriad of other toys, books, and accessories that children gather, being scattered across the house, the car, the yard, and everywhere else the children go. The flour, however, was my fault. And the cutting board was also an adult's doing. Which led to the house being filled with the toxic fumes of burning plastic when I accidentally turned the wrong burner on, trying to make tea.
we found the keys; they were in Toren's carseat, beneath his leg. One item we have yet to re-locate at this moment is our Whole Foods gift card. We would really like some all natural crunchy granola-type food, and we'd like not to pay for it! We've looked in all the obvious places, but considering the current condition of our home, its probably in the lego box, or in the bottom of the dirty laundry pile. It might be a while before we get our free granola. :(
There are essentially two different forces in place causing all of these things to be where they don't belong: the children, and the adults. The children take credit for the playdough, the crusty stickers, and the manger, as well as the myriad of other toys, books, and accessories that children gather, being scattered across the house, the car, the yard, and everywhere else the children go. The flour, however, was my fault. And the cutting board was also an adult's doing. Which led to the house being filled with the toxic fumes of burning plastic when I accidentally turned the wrong burner on, trying to make tea.
we found the keys; they were in Toren's carseat, beneath his leg. One item we have yet to re-locate at this moment is our Whole Foods gift card. We would really like some all natural crunchy granola-type food, and we'd like not to pay for it! We've looked in all the obvious places, but considering the current condition of our home, its probably in the lego box, or in the bottom of the dirty laundry pile. It might be a while before we get our free granola. :(
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Why I don't shop at Walmart
One thing we didn't really anticipate with 3 kids was how on earth you take them all shopping with you! Granted, my husband is currently 'between opportunities,' as he likes to call it,(In other words, 'unemployed') so we do currently have two adults home. But even with the two of us, we haven't yet figured this one out! Its probably because we are not sleeping so well. So you get a cart. Check. Then apply the baby, who is conveniently tucked into his 'babypod'(as we have affectionately dubbed the carseat), to the top portion of the cart. Check. That's the easy part. What do you do with the 21-month old and the 4-year old? You try putting the little one in the bottom part of the cart. This would work if the 21 month old didn't start immediately screaming at the top of her lungs, causing everyone within earshot to stare at you like you were terrible people! But even if the screaming didn't happen, you would still have a problem, because the child would take up all the space you needed for the large amounts of stuff you had to buy at the store in order to care for your many children! So you let the little girl out of the cart. And she dances about in the isles with her older sister, as other shoppers do their best not to run the cute kids down! Meanwhile, you try to simultaneously shop, and keep the children out of harms way. It is very, very stressful.
As a rule we generally avoid Walmart, due to past experience, the way their products often self-destruct due to their cheap construction, and mostly, due to my social justice friend who has educated me about their sheisty business dealings. But sometimes, we have to go there in order to return a gift that has been purchased for us, because its just not working out. This time, we had a box of size 1 diapers, and our baby boy had busted out of size 1 diapers during the first week of his life! We totally needed size 2. We thought we could handle this, because we knew exactly what we were going for, which means we wouldn't have to wander around the store looking for something we needed or wanted to use the store credit on, which has led to some past bad experiences.
And we were proud of ourselves for having come up with a genius child-transportation plan! We have a sit-and-stand stroller. The box clearly states that the product is only approved for two children, but we have discovered that there is plenty of room for two girls to ride in the 'and stand' part of the stroller, while the baby rides cozily in the carseat up front. So we thought, as long as both parents are on the shopping adventure, why can't one parent push the three children on the sit-and-stand, while the other parent mans the shopping cart? Brilliant! However, this did not save us from another bad experience at my unfavorite store.
We arrived at the customer service center, where we had to wait in line for a long long time, along with unhappy holiday shoppers. When it was finally our turn, and I explained the diaper situation to the disgruntled employee at the desk. She did not say a word to me, but looked over at a co-worker beside her and said 'We can't exchange this, can we?' The co-worker explained that yes, unfortunately, because the box had been unopened(they checked the tape on both sides to make sure!) it can be exchanged, as long as its an 'even' exchange, even though I did not produce the desired receipt. She told us to go get the size we wanted and then yelled after us 'you have to come back here to the service desk!' In case I was going to attempt a diaper escape mission?
The store had been re-arranged since our last visit, which was several years ago, now. We spent a good deal of time trying to find the baby department, which we finally located in the remote back corner of the store. I grabbed the 2's and we sped along back to the service desk and disgruntled employees. I noticed as I put the diapers up on the counter that the box I had chosen had 100 diapers in it, and the box I was returning only had 92. This is a problem, because as you go up in sizes in the diaper world, the count generally goes down. Because clearly, the bigger the bottom of the child, the less diapers the child uses, right? Not so much, but this is just the way they sell diapers. So I was not surprised when I was asked to cough up $5 and some change. This is around the time that baby Toren woke up and started crying. I didn't have my wallet on me, but luckily, my husband came to my rescue and paid for the diapers, while I took over rocking the stroller back and forth for the baby. I knew he was hungry, so I thought it would be best if we went to the food court area, so I could nurse. As I was doing so, baby Toren decided to yet again prove that he indeed needed the next size up in diapers, and had a huge blowout! Not only were his clothes soiled, but mine were, too. When he was finished nursing, I trotted over to the restrooms, only to note that they were blocked off by the man cleaning them! Who cleans the restrooms at 5:30pm in a busy department store? Anyways, the cleaning man mumbled something in broken English, and I realize he's telling me to go use the bathroom in the back of the store! Lets see, drag the obviously poop-covered newborn through the entire store to use a different bathroom? If I wasn't still sore from my recent labor and delivery, I may have considered it. But it just wasn't happening. Maybe the men's room had a changing table? I headed back to where husband and the girls were camping out, in order to trade the baby off on the only one in the family that was allowed in the men's room, only to discover that he was on the phone. Having a very important conversation about a potential job interview! Yay, job interview, Boo bad timing. I attempted to keep the girls quiet, so he could talk on the phone, while I burped baby Toren, and tried not to get poopy in the process, until he was off the phone. At the point, I looked over at the bathrooms, and noticed that the cleaning guy was letting people use the bathroom! Apparently, everybody but me! I headed back to the bathroom, and he allowed me in. Diaper and outfit were changed, and we booked it out of Walmart as fast as we could push that sit-and-stand.
We have learned our lesson. Next time, we will just re-gift the too-small diapers to someone who has a tiny baby.
As a rule we generally avoid Walmart, due to past experience, the way their products often self-destruct due to their cheap construction, and mostly, due to my social justice friend who has educated me about their sheisty business dealings. But sometimes, we have to go there in order to return a gift that has been purchased for us, because its just not working out. This time, we had a box of size 1 diapers, and our baby boy had busted out of size 1 diapers during the first week of his life! We totally needed size 2. We thought we could handle this, because we knew exactly what we were going for, which means we wouldn't have to wander around the store looking for something we needed or wanted to use the store credit on, which has led to some past bad experiences.
And we were proud of ourselves for having come up with a genius child-transportation plan! We have a sit-and-stand stroller. The box clearly states that the product is only approved for two children, but we have discovered that there is plenty of room for two girls to ride in the 'and stand' part of the stroller, while the baby rides cozily in the carseat up front. So we thought, as long as both parents are on the shopping adventure, why can't one parent push the three children on the sit-and-stand, while the other parent mans the shopping cart? Brilliant! However, this did not save us from another bad experience at my unfavorite store.
We arrived at the customer service center, where we had to wait in line for a long long time, along with unhappy holiday shoppers. When it was finally our turn, and I explained the diaper situation to the disgruntled employee at the desk. She did not say a word to me, but looked over at a co-worker beside her and said 'We can't exchange this, can we?' The co-worker explained that yes, unfortunately, because the box had been unopened(they checked the tape on both sides to make sure!) it can be exchanged, as long as its an 'even' exchange, even though I did not produce the desired receipt. She told us to go get the size we wanted and then yelled after us 'you have to come back here to the service desk!' In case I was going to attempt a diaper escape mission?
The store had been re-arranged since our last visit, which was several years ago, now. We spent a good deal of time trying to find the baby department, which we finally located in the remote back corner of the store. I grabbed the 2's and we sped along back to the service desk and disgruntled employees. I noticed as I put the diapers up on the counter that the box I had chosen had 100 diapers in it, and the box I was returning only had 92. This is a problem, because as you go up in sizes in the diaper world, the count generally goes down. Because clearly, the bigger the bottom of the child, the less diapers the child uses, right? Not so much, but this is just the way they sell diapers. So I was not surprised when I was asked to cough up $5 and some change. This is around the time that baby Toren woke up and started crying. I didn't have my wallet on me, but luckily, my husband came to my rescue and paid for the diapers, while I took over rocking the stroller back and forth for the baby. I knew he was hungry, so I thought it would be best if we went to the food court area, so I could nurse. As I was doing so, baby Toren decided to yet again prove that he indeed needed the next size up in diapers, and had a huge blowout! Not only were his clothes soiled, but mine were, too. When he was finished nursing, I trotted over to the restrooms, only to note that they were blocked off by the man cleaning them! Who cleans the restrooms at 5:30pm in a busy department store? Anyways, the cleaning man mumbled something in broken English, and I realize he's telling me to go use the bathroom in the back of the store! Lets see, drag the obviously poop-covered newborn through the entire store to use a different bathroom? If I wasn't still sore from my recent labor and delivery, I may have considered it. But it just wasn't happening. Maybe the men's room had a changing table? I headed back to where husband and the girls were camping out, in order to trade the baby off on the only one in the family that was allowed in the men's room, only to discover that he was on the phone. Having a very important conversation about a potential job interview! Yay, job interview, Boo bad timing. I attempted to keep the girls quiet, so he could talk on the phone, while I burped baby Toren, and tried not to get poopy in the process, until he was off the phone. At the point, I looked over at the bathrooms, and noticed that the cleaning guy was letting people use the bathroom! Apparently, everybody but me! I headed back to the bathroom, and he allowed me in. Diaper and outfit were changed, and we booked it out of Walmart as fast as we could push that sit-and-stand.
We have learned our lesson. Next time, we will just re-gift the too-small diapers to someone who has a tiny baby.
I should stop talking about my underwear...
Things have gotten a little hectic, lately. I attribute this to the fact that we just had our third child! Toren is three weeks old, today, and just in these short three weeks, we have had many grand adventures that I just don't think I would have had if I didn't have three kids! One effect of these children is sleep deprivation. A common problem with most new parents, only magnified when the older two children wake up around 6:30 every morning. I attribute this story to sleep deprivation and the lack of my brain to come up with logical examples. Jubilee was hungry. Someone is often hungry in our house, not because we have a lack of food, but because there are many mouths to feed! She asked for a snack, and I gave her a bowl of yogurt(organic!) with strawberries on top. I was thinking to myself how grand it was that even in my sleep-deprived post-partum state, I was still managing to give my children healthy food, when my thoughts were interrupted with "Can I have some more strawberries, please?" A request that under usual circumstances, I would grant, because she did ask so nicely, and fruit is healthy. However, Jubilee's little sister, Agape, had seen the yogurt and fruit happening in the kitchen, and had asked for some as well, because she always needs to be eating what anyone else is eating. Thus, we were out of strawberries. Jubilee has always been an easy-going kid, good with transitions, and even disappointments...until she turned 4. 4 year-old Jubilee is a drama queen. I'm exaggerating. I know some really dramatic kids. She's not a drama queen, but she does have some dramatic moments, and this was one of them.
I informed Jubilee that "I'm sorry sweetie(always throw in pet name when bearing bad news), but we're out of strawberries." Which brought immediate tears, and the predictable question, in predictable whiny 4-year-old voice, "why????"
To which I answered, "Because you and your sister ate them all!"
And Jubilee rebutted with, "But I want some more right now!"
And I responded with, "I don't have any more. They are gone! What do you expect me to do, grow some right now?" And I thought in my head, what ridiculous location can I suggest growing strawberries that will make the girl laugh instead of cry? And what came out of my mouth was "In my underwear?" Which certainly made my husband laugh. Jubilee, not so much. She got over it, though, as she generally does, and I continue to look forward to the day when minor disappointments don't cause tears of utmost distress.
So fast forward to...the next day. Miss Jubilee goes potty. Yay. She has to cross through the kitchen after using the toilet to get back to the living room, where myself and my hoard of children were playing. Or rather, Agape and I were playing, as Toren slept, and Jubilee was traveling back from the bathroom, through the kitchen. We had made cookies that morning, and they were still uncovered, since I had not found myself with two hands free for half a second to be able to cover them with saran wrap, yet. So apparently, as Jubilee went by the cookies, she thought she would help herself to one. Even though she had asked Mommy for a second cookie already, and Mommy had said "No, one cookie is enough." And she had asked "Why?" And Mommy had launched into her usual lengthy explanation about how cookies(or cake or chocolate or whatever the offending food of the moment may be) are yummy, and a little bit is a nice treat, we only have a little bit because we want to keep our bodies healthy, etc., etc., etc.
Stealing a cookie was a first time offense. And I fully blame it on the story "Who took the cookie from the cookie jar?" which involves children pointing their fingers at each other and blaming classmates for stealing the cookie.(not my favorite book) But regardless, she came back to the living room with a ring of chocolate around her mouth. Good try, Jubilee, but poor execution.
"Jubilee, did you help yourself to a cookie in the kitchen?" I asked.
Jubilee, of course, answered, "I don't know!" I asked the question again, and got the same response. Then she changed to "I don't remember." To which I explained that it just happened, of course she remembers and of course she knows. I told her that there are things in life that she legitimately does not know, for instance (and I thought and thought of what question she could legitimately answer 'I don't know' to, and was stumped...)'do you know what color Mommy's underwear is?'
To which she answered "I don't know!", and I told her that she did indeed know whether she took a cookie and ate it. I then informed her that she had chocolate on her lips, and she promptly confessed. She had some time on the couch to think about her actions, and apologized for taking the cookie without asking. Later that day, she came up to me and asked, "Mommy, what color are your underwear?"
In case you are curious, they happened to be blue.
I informed Jubilee that "I'm sorry sweetie(always throw in pet name when bearing bad news), but we're out of strawberries." Which brought immediate tears, and the predictable question, in predictable whiny 4-year-old voice, "why????"
To which I answered, "Because you and your sister ate them all!"
And Jubilee rebutted with, "But I want some more right now!"
And I responded with, "I don't have any more. They are gone! What do you expect me to do, grow some right now?" And I thought in my head, what ridiculous location can I suggest growing strawberries that will make the girl laugh instead of cry? And what came out of my mouth was "In my underwear?" Which certainly made my husband laugh. Jubilee, not so much. She got over it, though, as she generally does, and I continue to look forward to the day when minor disappointments don't cause tears of utmost distress.
So fast forward to...the next day. Miss Jubilee goes potty. Yay. She has to cross through the kitchen after using the toilet to get back to the living room, where myself and my hoard of children were playing. Or rather, Agape and I were playing, as Toren slept, and Jubilee was traveling back from the bathroom, through the kitchen. We had made cookies that morning, and they were still uncovered, since I had not found myself with two hands free for half a second to be able to cover them with saran wrap, yet. So apparently, as Jubilee went by the cookies, she thought she would help herself to one. Even though she had asked Mommy for a second cookie already, and Mommy had said "No, one cookie is enough." And she had asked "Why?" And Mommy had launched into her usual lengthy explanation about how cookies(or cake or chocolate or whatever the offending food of the moment may be) are yummy, and a little bit is a nice treat, we only have a little bit because we want to keep our bodies healthy, etc., etc., etc.
Stealing a cookie was a first time offense. And I fully blame it on the story "Who took the cookie from the cookie jar?" which involves children pointing their fingers at each other and blaming classmates for stealing the cookie.(not my favorite book) But regardless, she came back to the living room with a ring of chocolate around her mouth. Good try, Jubilee, but poor execution.
"Jubilee, did you help yourself to a cookie in the kitchen?" I asked.
Jubilee, of course, answered, "I don't know!" I asked the question again, and got the same response. Then she changed to "I don't remember." To which I explained that it just happened, of course she remembers and of course she knows. I told her that there are things in life that she legitimately does not know, for instance (and I thought and thought of what question she could legitimately answer 'I don't know' to, and was stumped...)'do you know what color Mommy's underwear is?'
To which she answered "I don't know!", and I told her that she did indeed know whether she took a cookie and ate it. I then informed her that she had chocolate on her lips, and she promptly confessed. She had some time on the couch to think about her actions, and apologized for taking the cookie without asking. Later that day, she came up to me and asked, "Mommy, what color are your underwear?"
In case you are curious, they happened to be blue.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)