Say It Enough, You'll Start to Believe It
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For those of you keeping track – okay, I’m probably the only one keeping track – Sloan has now lost six teeth. Two on the bottom and four on top. Every time he smiles I crack up a little.
For the record, she still has all her teeth. She wanted to show me.
I had a casual business meeting yesterday. It was at a St. Louis Bread Company so I decided rather than round up childcare for Landon and Tia, I’d just take them along. No big deal. They know how to behave in a restaurant.
Riiiight.
I’m not sure exactly when I determined that bringing them along was a bad idea. It might have been about the time that Landon started dipping his napkin in his cup. Or maybe it was when he poured his entire cup of water over his sandwich.
No, that wasn’t it.
It could have been the moment when they both crawled under the table and started peeking their eyes up over the edge and laughing hysterically. At that point I got a nagging feeling that this meeting wasn’t going as well as it could have.
I think the breaking point came when they spilled out from under the table and began wrestling on the floor. Right in the middle of the restaurant. Shrieking and laughing.
Yeah. That was it. That was the moment that I knew bringing them along had been a very. bad. idea.
Thankfully, the woman I was meeting was gracious, a mom herself, and had a great sense of humor. We might even be able to do a little work together.
Provided, of course, that I never bring my kids along again.
Landon took me by the hand the other day and led me into the dining room (which is used as the arts and crafts room these days) and showed me this:
“Baby. Boo-Boo,” he said, eyes big. “I do dat.” Then he grinned, turned and walked out of the room.
Every time I walk in there, this creepy looking baby is staring at me.
It’s kind of disturbing.
This post is going to be a random conglomerate.
Landon got his permanent cast on yesterday. He picked a fiery red cast. They decided to cast him all the way up above his elbow even though the fracture was in his wrist. Otherwise he might be able to pull the cast off. I saw the X-Rays. He broke both the ulna and the radius just above the growth plate. We’re thankful the growth plate wasn’t affected at all!
He’s proud of his cast. And Steve the monkey got a cast too because his arm was hurt. So everyone is healing.
Tia seems to be a little jealous. She told me she wished she had a ‘puwple tast’ for her arm. Here she is pretending she has a cast like her brother. Landon’s trying to figure out how to navigate the world left handed. Watching him eat brings a smile to my face. Half the time he misses his mouth, the other half the time he shoves the fork down his throat.
Lee has found the silver lining in this whole broken wrist ordeal. “He’ll get tons of practice dribbling the ball left handed,” Lee said, his eyes getting all glassy and dreamy. So, you know, he’s got that going for him…
My kids, like all kids, wear me out daily with their constant fighting, whining, tattling and arguing. But it’s moments like this one that we had last night…
…that energize me and give me the strength to get through one more day. I am writing this at 7:48 in the morning and the kids are screaming at each other behind me. I keep looking at the picture to remind myself that there are sweet moments to look forward to.
Speaking of being energized, you can read my latest post over at 5 Minutes for Mom. It’s all about how I’m actually NOT supermom.
Tia had her last day of perschool yesterday. I’m so excited for summer break. I have all sorts of lofty goals and plans for the kids. We’ll see if I can stick with it or if I cave and let them watch TV all day long. Just kidding, I would never do that…
Lee and I started the P90X workout this week. I can’t move anything from my neck to my ankles without gasping in pain and I’m walking like a ninety year old woman with a hunchback. It’s intense but so far we’re enjoying it. Except for the Abs workout, which I’m fairly certain was developed by Lucifer himself. Seriously, if I cough or sneeze I have to hold onto something to offset the pain. Fun…
I had a whole paragraph (or two) written about the Arizona Immigration bill and my horror at the President’s audacity to stand up next to a foreign President and publicly call out another State. I’ll save you my rant, but will say that we are the United States of America. We don’t need a President who’s a man of all Countries. We need him to be the man of the People, which is what we elected him for.
And that’s all I have to say about that.
Now I’m going to hobble my way to the bathroom to start getting ready for the day. I will attempt to brush my hair, but given that it hurts to raise my hands above my shoulders I may have to lay a hat down on the bed and shove my head into it…
Alternately titled: Those Third-Born’s Are Gonna Get the Attention Any Way They Can…
Sloan is the vivacious first born.
Tia is the only girl.
Landon is the third born who gets left behind a lot.
So he has to make a name for himself in this world.
One way he’s done that? Being the first to break a bone.
We have our first experience in a cast around here. We’re not entirely sure what happened. We were eating dinner. One minute Landon was in his seat – the next, he wasn’t. He came up gagging and choking on the chicken in his mouth, so you know, we had heart attacks.
When we all recovered from that we noticed his wrist was limp. He wouldn’t move it, wouldn’t grasp anything, didn’t want us to touch it. He also got lethargic and sleepy, so we immediately worried about a concussion. Rather than take any chances (Sloan had a concussion when he was 18 months old. We waited several hours to go to the hospital and he ended up on an IV) we decided to take him to the ER.
By the time we got to the hospital he had perked up a bit, but still refused to use his hand. Two hours later we came home with him in a temporary cast. I get to call the Ortho today to get him set up ith a permanent cast.
Goody. Just in time for swimming weather…
He didn’t have a concussion, though and despite his arm in obvious pain, he’s back to his usual self.
So there you have it – the third born has made a name for himself. He was the first.
Yay!
We spent a lovely, relaxing week in Arkansas last week where we kicked off our time celebrating the graduation of Lee’s youngest brother from the University of Central Arkansas. Zach was thirteen when I first met him. He was fourteen when Lee and I got married. And now he’s all grown up, has a job and is such a great guy. I’m so proud of him.
I’m getting verklempt. Talk amongst yaselves. I’ll give you a topic. The Partridge Family was neither a Partridge nor a family…discuss.
We heard rumors that Kris Allen (also a UCA alum) was at the graduation. Actually, it wasn’t a rumor – Zach’s girlfriend got stuck behind the mob of young fans wanting his autograph. I didn’t see him, though, and it’s too bad because I think he’s a doll. I would have stared. I’m not afraid to admit it.
My son is a goofball. Seriously, where does this kid get his over the top personality? Lee and I are so reserved and shy…
My sister-in-law, Becke’, photographer extraordinaire, sat down and gave me some great photo tips. I learned about ISO (they’re like worker bees. Trust me…), f-stop, shutter speed, and how the three work together to create the perfect exposure. I learned how to shoot in Manual mode and, while I need a lot of practice (I still can’t take a decent picture indoors) I came away taking better pictures from just one session. I’m telling you – Becke’s good.
(She is equally skilled, incidentally, at killing mutant Arkansas wasps that better resemble a hummingbird than a wasp using nothing but a Steno Pad and sheer force while others, who are less brave than she, look on. Don’t ask me how I know this.)
Flowers are the best practice subject. They have vibrant color, unique shape and they’re still while you take their picture. Not like my kids who are apparently allergic to sitting still.
See that blurry background? I set that! I determined how much blur I wanted (the f-stop, if you will) and adjusted my shutter speed and ISO to match. Me! Let’s all do the happy dance together, shall we?
Now I just want an editing software. I am hereby entering every contest I come across for Adobe Lightroom or Adobe Photoshop. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I need Lightroom or Photoshop, but my want is riiiiight on the border of a need.
Besides photo lessons and graduation, we enjoyed an abundance of family time. We ate out every night – and when I say every night, I mean every.single.night. My stomach is in rebellion. I’m on a bit of a detox today of dried fruit, water and green tea.
We watched the kids soak up as much cousin time as they possibly could. From putt-putt to Wii, those kids relished every moment together. I loved playing with my cousins growing up and have so many cousin memories, so I’m excited to see my kids building the same memories.
The lone girl. She held her own with all those boys, even trying to convince her older cousin that she had boy parts. We’re still trying to get her to understand that she is, indeed, actually a girl.
The baby of the family was so thrilled to be invited along with all the big kids that I thought he might actually jump out of his skin on the way to play golf.
Sam – the concentrator.
Cade – the sports nut. Feel the emotion.
Eli – the cut up.
Sloan – the one who’s here to have fun.
We are officially back to life, back to reality. But – glory! – school is almost over. Tia has three days left. Sloan has ten. I can’t wait for summer vacation.
How long do you think it will take for me to wish school would start up again?
On May 13, 2009, my children successfully completed a rite of passage for childhood. They did it with reckless abandon and fully confident that what they were doing was brilliant. They were proud of this accomplishment.
But alas, their pride was short lived and shattered the minute I gasped, shrieked and cried, “NOOOOOOOO,” before bursting into tears.
The home done haircut. We all did it as kids. I cut my bangs to the scalp when I was five and my mom reacted with similar shock, horror and anger to mine this day last year. But you see – my kids, they never do anything small. Oh no – they go full in, balls to the walls, after life. It’s a quality that will serve them well in life.
Provided that neither one of them ever decides to become a hairdresser, of course…
I give you – the haircut: Before and After.
Before:
One year later:
Before:
One year later:
Before:
One year later:
Before:
One year later:
In the midst of my grief last year, so many people were sweet enough to remind me that I would one day look back on that moment and laugh. They were right – I do. But I also still remember that horror and the heavy pit in my stomach. So while I may laugh, I also cringe.
For Sloan’s sake, however, I have lifted the ban on his usage of scissors. This time last year he was forbidden to use them until he was 104. So as you can see, I have come a long way…
Originally posted on October 20th of last year, this post still makes me laugh. Mostly because I still remember how NOT cool I felt watching my minivan get a scrubbing in between all them fancy cars.
Due to several car trips in the last few months, our minivan has taken a bit of a beating. Covered in dead bugs, splattered with mud and sporting the drop marks accrued during our deluge of rain last week, her sleek black exterior has lost a little bit of it’s luster.
It’s not often that one reads the words “sleek” and “luster” in the context of a minivan, I know.
So yesterday afternoon, I took my rockin’ hot minivan through a specialty car wash. You know, one of those car washes where actual humans scrub your car?
After pulling her loveliness into line, I got out and shopped around the convenience store for a few minutes before heading out to watch them remove the layers of dirt that had been holding her back all these weeks. And what did I find when I came out?
I found my minivan sandwiched between two Lexus’s (is the plural Lexi?) who were also being scrubbed to shiney perfection. Then a third Lexus pulled up, followed by a BMW and a fourth Lexus.
And finally, the Créme de la Créme – a gorgeous (and I’m not a car person) sports car pulled up and parked nose to nose with my van. I have no idea what brand it was, but it was somthin’ fancy, let me tell ya!
And guys, I kid you not, my van blushed and giggled when that thing parked in front of her.
And so, there I stood, the girl who brought her hoopty van to a class act party. I was the like the stray dog at a country club. The sore thumb. The minivan surrounded by Lexi!
I tried to play it all cool like this was only my day car, but you should see what I drive at night. But my mom garb didn’t help the situation – that being my unwashed hair, jeans, tennis shoes and puffer vest.
Oh, then there was the fact that I forgot to bring cash to tip the boys washing my car and had to scrounge for enough change to make it worth their while. I, my friends, am nothing if not classy.
The best part of the whole process, though, was watching the boys attempt to work my tricked out van. What she lacks in style she makes up in sheer awesomeness! I mean, hello! She has an automatic back hatch and one automatic side door, which I have child proofed, so the poor guys kept getting stuck inside the car when vacuuming because they couldn’t figure out how to open the door and got confused as to which was automatic and which was manual.
Good times.
And then, of course, there are the multiple – and I mean mul.ti.ple – scratches on the car from the kids running their bikes down the sides. Yep – that’s how I roll.
So when the guys finally finished her up and handed me the keys, I climbed inside my now sleek and lusterous minivan and started her up. Next to the purring sports car, she sounded like some sort mammoth as she roared to life.
And with that I held my head high, looked down upon the lowly sports car and I pulled out of Lexusland, driving her hotness off into the horizen. I hope everyone watching wasn’t too jealous…
Sloan and an Ape made nice at the Zoo last week.
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