Sara is Smiling

The Ordinary Days

When a friend emailed me this video I assumed it was going to be silly and sappy. Her warning of : "I cried...ALOT" barely even registered. I watched it anyway, and I cried...ALOT.
I think it was the timing.
I'm having a hard time the last few weeks. Work is busy which means I'm stressed and Quincey's stressed and he's not home.
The kids have been bad.
I know you don't like it when I call my kids "bad". What I mean is they're fighting a lot, not listening to me, and they're getting pretty great at learning my buttons. I recognize that this is not "bad" behavior, but rather quite normal.
This doesn't stop me from beating myself up, though.
I'm doing this wrong. I need to be better at this.
I see Charlie yelling at Max and I think she's learned that behavior from me.
Max leaves a trail of shoes and books and clothes and toys wherever he goes and I think I haven't taught him properly.
I get upset with Eloise when she won't stay in bed. When I finally surrender and let her stay up all she does is sit on my lap in the big chair, and I think she just needs more time with you.

It was what I needed to hear right now. Maybe not you, but watch it anyway and be the judge.

It's all the ordinary days, the everyday life both good and bad that I'm trying to capture in my blog. That was my stated intent from day 1. I think I'm doing that. I hope I'm doing that. Because as "bad" as they can be; as bad as I can be; this time will be over so soon. It's special and important and it's mine. It's the most meaningful thing I'll ever have a hand in. And no one can ever take that from me.

Only a mother could love..

Please join me in loving this picture. It needs no explanation. It just IS.

Nostalgia

Charlie says to me in all seriousness yesterday: You know what we need? One of those leashes. For Max. It would be soooo much easier for us walking home from school if I had a leash.
I burst into laughter.
You're not putting Max on a leash!
Charlie: But Mom, I've seeeen other kids on leashes. You're allowed to do that.
Me: Those are for little toddlers who run into the street! Not 6 year old big boys that don't necessarily obey their 7 year old sisters!

I was feeling a little nostalgic for my Charlie baby today. I was leaving for work and Elly didn't want me to go. After a few minutes of hugging and kissing she was over it.
"See ya later!" she said as I walked out the door.
Walking to my car I remembered how Charlie never wanted me to go when she was little either. She would freak out if I said "See ya later!" because later is LATER! We'd say "See you soon!" to each other whenever I'd leave. I thought it was so precious. My tiny little 2-3 year old was so adament that it was "See you soon" and if you slipped up and said LATER there was hell to pay. And 2 year old hell is a hell you want to avoid at all costs. :-)

The Scape Goat

Charlie's no innocent. She can set the kids up and have them take the fall like a pro.
For some reason, though, Charlie has become the go-to-gal when culpability is in question.

This morning while interrogating Eloise about the orange pop spilled on my pale blue wool rug, the answer came:
Charlie doed it.
Miss Charlie wasn't even home. She had been at school for hours.

Last week when Elly had a little accident in her pants:
Me: Elly, did you pee in your pants??
Elly answering carefully: No, Mama. Charlie doed it.
Me: Charlie peed in your pants while you were wearing them??
Elly replies with a deadpan - Yes.

And Max is no better. Max could be in a different time zone when something occurs, but he still forces his theory as if it's fact.
Today I was having a conversation with him about things he and I could do to stop arguing with each other so much - particularly in the morning before school.
He listens to my suggestions, and when I ask for his he says, :Ya, I really think if Charlie would stop giving me bruises that would help.
He then proceeds to look for every bruise, scratch or pimple on his body and come up with wild stories about how they might have happened.
Umm..aren't you the ninja master that gave your sister a bloody nose last week?
If you live in a glass house, you best not be throwing stones, my friend.

 

Here she is...

the same baby girl who after a 15 minute morning nap screamed to be rescued, and then again would only sleep for a mere 45 minutes this afternoon. The same baby girl who completely refused to let me get anything done today because a nap was out of the question.


Why is it more fun to pull on my pant leg and cry for hours than to lay down for a rest?
Babies are poopy heads.

Pre-Mother's Day Mother's Day

I've discovered the secret to a fabulous mother's day. Stumbled upon it actually, with the help of my mom.
Overtired Kids.
She had some of the grandkids over for a sleep over, and did not enforce a bedtime. They went to bed roughly at 1am and got up at 6am.
How does this contribute to my fantastic mother's day?

It started with Quincey taking me out to a nice dinner while the kids were at the sleepover. I'm a little down on the whole Mommy thing right now for various reasons and thought that the best gift this mother's day would be a get-away from motherhood. The next morning with the kids (except Quinn) still gone, Quincey took me out to breakfast.
It was technically Saturday, but I declared it Mother's Day since it was going great so far and I knew the odds of a repeat on Sunday were slim to none.

I picked up the kids and got a run down of the sleepover (although very little sleep occurred). I was nervous that tired grumpy little people were going to ruin my day, but it actually had the OPPOSITE effect. They were SUPER mellow ALL day. It was dark and rainy and we snuggled on the couch watching movie after movie and dozing in and out. We didn't even eat lunch we just snacked on popcorn on and off.

Finally around 7:30 Quincey was home. The baby had gone to bed andthe rain had stopped so we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. It was our first "campfire" ever, and the kids were Nervous Nellies. First they wouldn't come near it. Then when they did, Charlie would panic and scream. Then a tiny ash landed on Max. He let out a blood-curdling "I'M ON FIIIIIIRRRREE!"
*blink* *blink*
Quincey and I just stared at him. When he realized no one else was panicking he brushed it off and put his weiner back in the fire.
They eventually relaxed and enjoyed it. Elly's inner pyro went to town on the marshmallows. She roasted nearly an entire bag to dust. She'd get it flaming, blow it out, then return it to the fire until it was nothing but a sticky bit of ash on the end of her stick then start all over again.

We sat out there for hours despite the cold, and then everyone went to bed without a fuss.
Best. Mother's Day. Ever!

Tae Kwon NO!

I put Max and Charlie in Tae Kwon Do.
Maybe I've talked about this before..in a nutshell, Charlie didn't want to, Max did, now they both love it.
Just last week they earned their next belt up - yellow stripe. They'll often spar, or as they call it BATTLE.

Today shortly after watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Charlie declared war and she and Max sparred as Elly and I sat on the couch playing Yahtzee on my ipad. I wasn't watching them, but saw in my periferal vision Charlie spin around like she'd been shot and fall on my feet. Her nose was bleeding and she ran to the bathroom screaming.
My jaw is on the floor as Max stands erect, faces me, and bows. "And that's why I'm the master."

Of course, he got in trouble. When he apologized to Charlie his apology went like this: "Sorry, Charlie. I was just trying to win."
The weird thing is, she seemed to respect that. There was no yelling or arguing, and when all was said and done Charlie was actually laughing about it.

I guess since they're being given these fighting skills, I'll have to keep a careful eye on these "battles" of theirs!

In the middle of the night.

So at approximately 1:50am, I am rudely awaken by my loving husband.
ELBOW "What's with the alarm, Sara?????"
Hunh? I startle awake. I'm confused because there's no alarm going off, but my hand is resting on the clock.
"The alarm! That's like the 5th time you've pressed Snooze!"

Apparently, the kids had set the alarm to the middle of the night (accidentally, so they say). I was unconciously hitting snooze over and over and over and over AND OVER again.

I have no recollection of this, but it's been making me giggle all day.

Now see, there have been more frequent occurances of Quinny supposedly sleeping through the night lately, but when I wake up my monitor is mysteriously turned off. I'm afraid I've been turning it off in my sleep and not getting up! Poor baby!

I was trying here to get a picture of her on my make-shift white backdrop, but she wouldn't stop speeding away. Then Charlie, ever the helper, tried to bribe her with a chocolate egg. Baby plus chocolate egg equals no more photo shoot!

Baby Bunny

We always do the egg hunt in the front yard. The snow melts in the front before the back, and it's more fun to do it outside than inside.
On easter morning when the kids got up they ran up to the big window to see if they could see any eggs from there. They didn't see eggs (because I hadn't hid them yet), but guess what they saw? I big wild bunny hopping across our yard.
It couldn't have planned it better if I'd tried!
Charlie has figured out the whole Easter Bunny, Santa, Tooth Fairy thing, but Max and Eloise were in complete awe that they'd actually seen the easter bunny.
Later that day I put a bunny costume on Quinn because let's face it..it's adorable.

She was not a fan. This is all I got before she ripped the ears off. :-)

Rewind

I found this photo today, and it made me smile. I don't think I've shared it before either.

So for whatever reason the carseat was in the house.
I came upon this scene pictured above. Eloise was sitting there, strapped in, all alone. No one was around, but she was completely content and quiet. I knew she couldn't have done it herself so I summoned Charlie (alwaaaays Charlie) who would've been 5 at the time.
Apparently she was "babysitting" her. She strapped her in (insists Elly wanted to be strapped in), put her blanket on, laid her favourite toy on her legs, brought her a balloon, and gave her a giant bag of cheetos. Then she lost interest and went downstairs to play with Max.