Friday, July 23
This talks about Tucker turning 3
Yesterday was a milestone with my baby. Tucker is officially three. I still think of Tucker as my baby even though this new baby is quickly preparing to enter my world. Still, Tucker is in fact, still the baby for about 9 (hopefully 7) more weeks and it makes me sad in a bittersweet way that he is all grown up.
When he was born, I had never worked so hard through anything in my life. Labor with Tucker was just that...LABOR. Intense and painful and hard damn work. And drug free. And when he finally got here, through a series of positions and turns and prayers, he was the sweetest, smallest, cutest little thing. And he has been that way ever since.
Tucker has taught me a lot about parenting that I didn't learn from Cameron. And visa versa. When Tucker came along, I couldn't help but slow down and just savor the moment. Mostly because I truly thought we were done having kids and wanted to enjoy the baby stage as long as possible.
And yesterday we celebrated three years and he's not little anymore. In fact, he's growing like a weed this summer and cute as can be. We went to McDonald's for Happy Meals with our friends Cailey and Cayden and then home for a rest. When Daddy finally got home from work, we opened a few presents and he was tickled to death with what he got. Happy and excited always is Tucker.
This Saturday we are having a Disney Car's bash for the family. And when I say family, remember we both have brothers and sisters (who have kids) and parents in town along with extended family of four great grandmas and various friends and others who usually pop up. So we plan for about 40 people and we go all out. Because, we are not partiers for any other occassion, but for the kiddos birthdays, we find reason to celebrate them.
We are fixing hot dogs and a variety of chorizos and sausages along with salads and the much anticipated watermelon. Okay, probably just me wanting that watermelon, but if you can't find me during the party, I have been known to chop one in half and eat it with a spoon right out of the rind. Check in the shade, it's supposed to be 102 on Saturday and I'm always hot.
Pictures to follow, although probably not of me mowing down on the watermelon.
When he was born, I had never worked so hard through anything in my life. Labor with Tucker was just that...LABOR. Intense and painful and hard damn work. And drug free. And when he finally got here, through a series of positions and turns and prayers, he was the sweetest, smallest, cutest little thing. And he has been that way ever since.
Tucker has taught me a lot about parenting that I didn't learn from Cameron. And visa versa. When Tucker came along, I couldn't help but slow down and just savor the moment. Mostly because I truly thought we were done having kids and wanted to enjoy the baby stage as long as possible.
And yesterday we celebrated three years and he's not little anymore. In fact, he's growing like a weed this summer and cute as can be. We went to McDonald's for Happy Meals with our friends Cailey and Cayden and then home for a rest. When Daddy finally got home from work, we opened a few presents and he was tickled to death with what he got. Happy and excited always is Tucker.
This Saturday we are having a Disney Car's bash for the family. And when I say family, remember we both have brothers and sisters (who have kids) and parents in town along with extended family of four great grandmas and various friends and others who usually pop up. So we plan for about 40 people and we go all out. Because, we are not partiers for any other occassion, but for the kiddos birthdays, we find reason to celebrate them.
We are fixing hot dogs and a variety of chorizos and sausages along with salads and the much anticipated watermelon. Okay, probably just me wanting that watermelon, but if you can't find me during the party, I have been known to chop one in half and eat it with a spoon right out of the rind. Check in the shade, it's supposed to be 102 on Saturday and I'm always hot.
Pictures to follow, although probably not of me mowing down on the watermelon.
Monday, July 12
Deep Thoughts from Vacation Bible School
This week I am teaching the preschool portion of our church's Annual Vacation Bible School. I'm not particularly fond of teaching preschool. They are tiny and needy and you can practically gurantee one of them has to pee and one of them is crying at all times. But, it is rewarding and they love everything you do with them, if only for about two minutes. I sometimes feel like I am dancing circles on a stage trying to keep them all engaged. You can't give them busy work when they are three because they don't know how to keep busy. They can't cut particularly well. They can't color very well. They can't write their names. They can't operate a glue stick. And they absolutely cannot follow directions. So, with this in mind, I am reaching for just about any activity that lasts about two minutes that somehow incorporates their limited knowledge of the bible and Egypt and Joseph. I have no curriculum except for what the older kids are doing. I have simply geared down down down and tried to make it exciting.
Today I had 17 of them. All excited to be there, our first activity was the simple task of getting them seated on blue painters tape in the shape of a circle. We then proceeded to practice our VBS songs with the help of drumsticks. They love to drum. Then we attempted to revisit the story of Joseph in Prison. Guess what? None of these kids (praise God) knew what Prison was. And I'm pretty sure they didn't know what jail was either. Apparantly I'm the only bad mother who threatens that if their kids don't wear their seatbelts, they'll go to jail. I'm not sure how effective this chat was, but we moved on to arts and crafts, which involved decorating Egyptian style collars and Gold cuffs for their arms with plastic rhinestones. The boys could have cared less, the girls....well, it was one step away from picking the engagement ring of their choice. Apparantly, no matter what age, a girl knows some good bling when she sees some and there were some tears over the pink heart shaped jewels. See, this is where I fail miserably at teaching preschool, because, while I pride myself on transition and flow and accurate lesson plans, I don't have a lot of patience for the tears and the tattling. Therefore, I ignore it, which only proves to make it multiply and grow in decible. Thank God my other sister, Leanne, is also helping in my class, because apparantly God gave her all the compassion because she was able to calm them down. Not the first time that I have ignored the drama and she has been able to calm a hysterical person down. I don't know why I'm such a hard ass like that. And yet, here I am teaching preschool.
After arts and crafts, we were mostly all in tears so it was time for a recharge, which included moving outside for some fresh air, and a go-gurt and some fruit punch. And then we were all smiling again, sugar charged and ready to pee. So back into the bathrooms, where we had bathroom helpers and it was a group ordeal to get all 17 pottied and washed and zipped and back in place on the blue tape.
The day continued pretty much like this. And while I am exhausted, it is one of the most rewarding things that I do. I am headed downstairs to finish cutting out Joseph's coats of many colors for a project for tomorrow, because, as I mentioned above, not one in 17 has the ability to cut.
And to top it all off, my daughter, who is out with the big kids, was telling me about Joseph and how mean his 11 brothers were to him and so on and so on about prison and slavery, etc. And in the middle of feeling bad for Joseph, she immediately says, "I have to poop." and she's off. So while moved, poop takes priority over Joseph every day of the week in our house. And we still have four days of VBS to go.
Today I had 17 of them. All excited to be there, our first activity was the simple task of getting them seated on blue painters tape in the shape of a circle. We then proceeded to practice our VBS songs with the help of drumsticks. They love to drum. Then we attempted to revisit the story of Joseph in Prison. Guess what? None of these kids (praise God) knew what Prison was. And I'm pretty sure they didn't know what jail was either. Apparantly I'm the only bad mother who threatens that if their kids don't wear their seatbelts, they'll go to jail. I'm not sure how effective this chat was, but we moved on to arts and crafts, which involved decorating Egyptian style collars and Gold cuffs for their arms with plastic rhinestones. The boys could have cared less, the girls....well, it was one step away from picking the engagement ring of their choice. Apparantly, no matter what age, a girl knows some good bling when she sees some and there were some tears over the pink heart shaped jewels. See, this is where I fail miserably at teaching preschool, because, while I pride myself on transition and flow and accurate lesson plans, I don't have a lot of patience for the tears and the tattling. Therefore, I ignore it, which only proves to make it multiply and grow in decible. Thank God my other sister, Leanne, is also helping in my class, because apparantly God gave her all the compassion because she was able to calm them down. Not the first time that I have ignored the drama and she has been able to calm a hysterical person down. I don't know why I'm such a hard ass like that. And yet, here I am teaching preschool.
After arts and crafts, we were mostly all in tears so it was time for a recharge, which included moving outside for some fresh air, and a go-gurt and some fruit punch. And then we were all smiling again, sugar charged and ready to pee. So back into the bathrooms, where we had bathroom helpers and it was a group ordeal to get all 17 pottied and washed and zipped and back in place on the blue tape.
The day continued pretty much like this. And while I am exhausted, it is one of the most rewarding things that I do. I am headed downstairs to finish cutting out Joseph's coats of many colors for a project for tomorrow, because, as I mentioned above, not one in 17 has the ability to cut.
And to top it all off, my daughter, who is out with the big kids, was telling me about Joseph and how mean his 11 brothers were to him and so on and so on about prison and slavery, etc. And in the middle of feeling bad for Joseph, she immediately says, "I have to poop." and she's off. So while moved, poop takes priority over Joseph every day of the week in our house. And we still have four days of VBS to go.
Thursday, July 8
Thank God for Small Favors
I had a terrible rotten no good very bad day today. And that's all I'm going to say because I tend to waller in myself and bitch to whoever will listen. And quite honestly, I'm too exhausted to type the whole ordeal out. So instead, I thought I'd just list 10 things that failed to piss me off today. Or rather, my "Small Favors" list from God.
1. Hula Hoops. Cameron is in a "Hula Hoop Class" this week and she is loving it. No matter how grouchy you are, you can't watch a group of little girls getting some hip action on with thier hoops. Especially when the teacher plays Beach Boys for them to hoop to.
2. Cheap rubber flip flops. I love when you walk into Old Navy and they have all the colors of the rainbow displayed together. It just makes me smile.
3. Hugs from Tucker. It's like he just knows, and he decides to just stop his busy active life and come give Mommy a hug and a snuggle. No matter how brief, it just makes it all better.
4. Late hot summer nights. It was 10 pm and the kids were still out riding bikes. I remember it from when I was little and there's just something magical about getting to be out that late with your friends.
5. Diet Pepsi. I have given up a lot of things while preggo, but one thing I will not give up is my daily indulgence. A icy cold Diet Pepsi. Today's was especially refreshing.
6. Target Sales. Here's my best one yet. A pack of underwear for Cameron (9 pairs), a pair of shoes for Tucker, and a baby blanket for new kid in town. Grand total out of pocket? $1.20. Dang I'm good.
7. Rum Tum Diddy. It's an old Girl Scout recipe. It seriously consists of ground beef, diced tomatoes, corn, and a little cheese. Try it. In this case, if it's too good to be true, it definately is true! It's delicious. And we had it for dinner tonight. And Cameron ate four bowls. And Tucker poured his milk in his and ruined it, but that's another post.
And I can't even make it to ten. That's how bad this day was. But there's seven things that I can honestly say went right today and/or didn't piss me off.
Hope your day went better than mine.
1. Hula Hoops. Cameron is in a "Hula Hoop Class" this week and she is loving it. No matter how grouchy you are, you can't watch a group of little girls getting some hip action on with thier hoops. Especially when the teacher plays Beach Boys for them to hoop to.
2. Cheap rubber flip flops. I love when you walk into Old Navy and they have all the colors of the rainbow displayed together. It just makes me smile.
3. Hugs from Tucker. It's like he just knows, and he decides to just stop his busy active life and come give Mommy a hug and a snuggle. No matter how brief, it just makes it all better.
4. Late hot summer nights. It was 10 pm and the kids were still out riding bikes. I remember it from when I was little and there's just something magical about getting to be out that late with your friends.
5. Diet Pepsi. I have given up a lot of things while preggo, but one thing I will not give up is my daily indulgence. A icy cold Diet Pepsi. Today's was especially refreshing.
6. Target Sales. Here's my best one yet. A pack of underwear for Cameron (9 pairs), a pair of shoes for Tucker, and a baby blanket for new kid in town. Grand total out of pocket? $1.20. Dang I'm good.
7. Rum Tum Diddy. It's an old Girl Scout recipe. It seriously consists of ground beef, diced tomatoes, corn, and a little cheese. Try it. In this case, if it's too good to be true, it definately is true! It's delicious. And we had it for dinner tonight. And Cameron ate four bowls. And Tucker poured his milk in his and ruined it, but that's another post.
And I can't even make it to ten. That's how bad this day was. But there's seven things that I can honestly say went right today and/or didn't piss me off.
Hope your day went better than mine.
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