Guest Blog Posts

Well, it's time to start spicing things up around here and to help me do this, I'm asking several of my friends for help. In the next couple of weeks, I will have guests either blog, or fill out questionnaires. If you'd like to participate, leave your email in a comment, and I'll contact you! It's a great way to get more traffic to your own blog, as well as letting me know a little bit more about you, my follower!!

So keep an eye out for some fun posts, who knows, you may end up discovering some intersting facts about some interesting people!!

The Things We Do

Sometimes I amaze myself at what I'll do for my kids.

Today we took a walk around the lake, and as we meandered along the back side we heard a splash. Tay and Vin caught a glimpse of a fish swimming away just as it passed out of sight. That event brought my attention to a fish swimming {if you want to call it swimming} upside down next to the bank we were at.

"Mommy, is that a real live fish?!" says my 5-year-old.

I felt the call of duty.

I replied with "not for long." as I stepped down and scooped up the poor thing.

I brought it up to the kids so they could get a good looksy. Theren had the guts to touch it, but Vince was a bit more stand-off-ish.  We looked at it's glassy eyes, and the gills as they moved, and the way the "fish skin" changed colors as I moved it from side to side. Both kids were wide-eyed with wonder, and they both thought I was "so cool" for fetching the thing.

Then it died.

I wasn't sure what to do with it at that point. Throwing it back seemed so heartless, but I wasn't too comfortable with carrying a dead fish with us for the rest of the walk. And what would I do with it once we got home? I don't know how to prepare a fish, and even if I did, is it even ok to eat it?? Does it have a disease or something?? {can you tell I've never done this before?}

I ended up calling my mom to ask her opinion and after her consultation, we threw it back into the water.

Tay took a while to believe me when I told her that no, the fish will not come back alive when it gets back in the water, but once she saw it floating upside down, not moving, she quickly turned her back on it.

"But aren't we going to eat it for dinner?"

Ah yes. She's turning into a mountain girl all right. No doubts there.

Vin was pretty much indifferent. He said good-bye to the fish and we continued our walk.

But I was {if even for a few minutes} a super hero for having "catched that real live fish".

I'll take that any day!!

What Is He Thinking??

I'm amazed at this little baby sometimes. He's so small, and I know that his brain is not able to retain much memory, so I wonder what he dreams of that makes him smile in his sleep, or cry out, or kick his legs repeatedly.

Then there are the times when he's awake and looking intently at an object or someone's face. what is he thinking as he watches us? What does he learn from staring at the Moulin Rouge film poster on the wall about our couch?

I would give anything to know how his brain works first hand. Just a glimpse.

To take it a step further, I'd love that opportunity with any of my kids. Especially my 5-year-old girl, who seems to have a lapse in thought about 70% of her day.

Potty Training update

We've had ONE success!! Praise God!

He had two "oopsies" and got in trouble, and I think that turned a light on. He voluntarily took off his undies and sat down on the toilet until he pee'd again. He got hugs, kisses, screaming, high-fives, coconut cake icing AND a drink of Gatorade. {We firmly believe in over-rewarding this act of "Potty Conversion"}

UPDATE ON UPDATE

As I was typing this, he did it AGAIN!! Oh my dear Lord, could this really be happening?!

Two times in a row, with no accidents in between?!

I'm in heaven.

I rock.

He rocks.

We all rock!!!

The Potty Training Drama

My son is currently sitting on his training toilet, crying because he has fully realized that he does not get to wear a diaper today.

Seriously?

He has an entire drawer full of undies with cars and racing flags and flames on them. {if you knew my boy, you'd understand what a big deal that is} He doesn't want them!!

He would rather be in a diaper that is {in reality} too small for him, giving him red, itchy marks on the inside of his thighs and rashes.

I don't get it.

Right now The rugs are rolled up and set aside, the coffee table is pushed up against the fire place, the training toilet is on the floor, and only a few toys are scattered around the front room. Gates are up and doors are closed to all rooms except the bathroom, creating boundaries keeping him from wandering all around the house. I have rags and windex and floor cleaner at the ready.

I'm putting in a huge effort on this, and all he can do is cry about not wearing a DIAPER!!

This child doesn't understand what I do for him.....

Oh the challenges of Motherhood

I want to open this post by stating that I love being a mom. It's amazing and wonderful, and a huge blessing. I would not give it up for anything.

That being said, sometimes being a mom makes me want to stab my eyes out. Especially with 3 kids, all at home at the same time.

For some reason it seems that on the days after I've had a near-sleepless night with Oz, Tay and Vin team up to make things so stinking difficult for me.

Yesterday was a bad day for our little Owee (Oh-ee{how Vin pronounces Owen's name}). He would not sleep, was having a horrible time nursing, and absolutely nothing seemed to settle him except laying on my chest, making chores and general house work non-existent. On this day, of all days, my two older children {God love them} decide to make a complete and absolute mess of

every.

single.

room.

of the house. No joke. There was not a room that was absent of convicting evidence, be it a piece of clothing, a soaking wet hand towel, toilet paper, food, dirt, toys. There was something everywhere.

Even outside they got into a flower box that had been tucked away and emptied the potting soil all over the upstairs patio. naturally, {just because that's what kind of day it was} when I tried to sweep it up {while holding the baby} 90% of it fell through to the bottom deck, creating even more of a mess.

By 9 O'clock last night I was fighting back tears as the big kids were screaming about having to go to bed, and Oz still wouldn't nurse but rather preferred to scream as loud as he could. {Possibly to show the other kids that he's got game??}

I'm convinced that if it weren't for a merciful GOD,{and a wonderful who husband who took things over for me when he got home} I would have lost complete control of all things.

Things are looking up for today, though. So far I've only had to yell three or four times about the kids playing on the side of the house, and poor little Owen has now been asleep for 13 hours, excluding the 15 minutes he was awake to complain about being alone while we ate our breakfast. He ate with no problems this morning as well, he was asleep the whole time, but he ate.


Maybe he'll decide that he likes sleeping from 10:30 to 7:30 and continue to do so until he goes to school......

Owen asleep in the front carrier as I do my workout on the Ellyptical