She lost a tooth

   N went to church Sunday to show all her friends her loose tooth.

   Monday she went to school with a loose tooth. She returned home with a small plastic tooth that opened up and held her first lost baby tooth.

  Tuesday after school, she went to write a note to the Tooth fairy requesting that she keep to keep her tooth but still get a present.

   After writing said note, she discovered her sister V had taken the small plastic tooth, opened it and lost her tooth.

   Cry.

   Mom vacuums EVERYWHERE.

   Mom shifts through mucky nasty water and other junk that was vacuumed up and discovered the lost tooth! And to add to the "I am MOM hear me ROAR" feeling, the tooth had broken in half and I found both pieces!!! Thank goodness teeth don't float.

   N discovered tooth broke.

   Cry some more.

   Mom says the tooth fairy still takes broken teeth.

   Crying stops.

   10p.m. at night and mom remembers the Tooth Fairy. Mom searches the house for the note. Stuffs it, a note from the Tooth Fairy and the tooth in an envelope and places it next to N's pillow.

   BANG, BANG, BANG! On the parents bedroom door that morning!!!!.

  Great rejoicing over 50 cents.

   N - "Mom, I love the Tooth Fairy. She writes nice notes and gives great gifts!"

  Score!

Busy

Will I ever not feel busy again?  I heard that radio jockeys have every minute planned out in advanced.  Some even break it into 30-second intervals.

That's what my life is like now with 4 kids. . .for example:

7:40 - wake up

7:41 - no, serious, wake up, the kids are screaming

7:42 - calm the kid who is crying

7:43 - get the oldest out of bed

7:44 - shuffle the two younger girls downstairs

7:45 - tell the oldest to get out of bed, but this time louder

7:46 - get bowls for everyone out

7:47 - address complaints about breakfast while serving them whatever I can reach

7:49 - you forgot pants, go put pants on

7:49 - clean up Y's spilled bowl

7:50 - try to get caught up on the dishes

7:53 - get the baby out of the crib, all things from here on out are one-handed

7:55 - tell the kids to eat faster

7:56 - have kids put bowls in the sink

7:57 - tell N to go get dressed

7:58 - teach V and Y to make their beds

7:59 - tell N to get dressed faster

8:00 - Teach V and Y to get themselves dressed

8:04 - finish getting myself dressed

8:05 - get my work clothes and computer packed up and ready to go

8:09 - tell N she can't wear a shirt for both her tops and bottoms

8:10 - See if Dani has finished the lunches

8:11 - N is clothed, needs shoes and backpack

8:12 - address complaint that V and Y are now bored

8:13 - finish packing

8:15 - out the door to go to school/work for the day

And I won't try to scare you with Dani's schedule :S

I can tell the future

I can tell the future. It's true! I have a 70% accuracy rating.....I think.....

I randomly wake up at 2 am remembering I never took the child proof knob lock off the girls bedroom door. Following this thought is the, I bet the is the one night V will wake up needing to go to the bathroom and she wont be able to get out. She will then cry and wake me up to get out. I SHOULD GO TAKE THE LOCK OFF. Do I? No. "I'm being parinoid" I tell myself and force myself to go back to sleep.

So what happens?

Did I get woken up at 4:30 in the morning? No. Yeah for me! Until I step on a wet spot on the carpet that morning. Turns out since she couldn't get out she peed her pants, put her urine soaked bottoms in the hamper because they were "yucky", put new bottoms on and went back to bed.

Should I punish her? It is my fault she couldn't get out in the first place.....but then why didn't she cry and potentially wake up all her siblings and in turn making me a grouchy monster? No. No I did not punish her, at least not that bad. I did ask for a marble since she didn't tell me about it till after I stepped in it.

Proud to be an American

A conversation I over heard a dew weeks back between N and V.

V: *mumbling*
N: "You're not from China! You are from The United States of America."
V: "Oh, yeah."
N: "And we speak English! Here I'll show you. Uno, dos, tres...."

Yeah I was rolling.

Education

When I grew up, all I heard was, "get a degree if you want to (be happy/successful/survive)."  I was bombarded with studies from the college board about how I'd make at least 30% more throughout my life if I got a 4-year degree.

It's not true.  People survive, and are perfectly happy in this life without a college degree. The  non-college educated can quite easily make more than college grads now.

I'm not saying that a degree isn't valuable.  I AM saying that the advertised value of a degree is wrong.  Instead of telling my children "get a degree or you'll die!"  I'm gonna tell them, "get a degree with a purpose."

Many of my friends went to college just because it was the thing to do.  They studied and got good grades because they were told to.  Most of them retained very little of what was taught them.  To my generation, our parents taught us wrong in regards to college, and some conspiring intelligent and well-established people have now laden us with so much debt that we're effectively slaves to the older generations.

I can't do anything to free my generation from this, apart from extol the virtues of getting out of debt, advise them to put off buying what they want (or feel is needed), and to learn wise money-management practices.  If you were born between 1975 and 1995 you'll be lucky to get out of debt before you're 50.

I can do a lot to keep my kids from becoming slaves.  Tell kids to get a degree with a purpose.  Teach them to calculate the value of debt before taking it on.  Get them into college as soon as they can (and if that's before age 18, then so much the better).  Help them test the waters to make sure their plans for the future match up with what reality can provide (by helping them do job searches and looking at posted requirements, and working with them to create a resume).

College isn't the answer to all life's problems, it's a tool for solving some of them. Unless my kids know how to use it, what purpose would it serve?

The "C" word

I was taking a mush needed and desired nap after church this last Sunday. The boy was swaddled and sung-as-a-bug right beside me. I vaguely remember N coming and telling me she wanted to cuddle too and joining our nap for a bit as well.

Not too long, I think, after that I rolled to my right and see N crouched on the floor. Grougly, I think to myself, "Can't she be a bit more quieter? I'm trying to nap!". As if on cue she ups and leaves my bedroom. But then it hits me. "Isn't that where my make-up bag is?" (Bathroom under construction = all bathroom products are on the floor on my side of the bed.)

I jolt out of bed and head to the hall bathroom. And there my three girls are. The oldest with my lip stick, the middle with a uni-brow, and my youngest with mascara rubbed over her face and my blush in hand.

What do I do? Did I reach for the camera and snap a shot to post on Facebook and share with family and friends? Did I double over? Did I give a lesson in cosmetology? No. What I did do was ask, "Why?" and not just asked but pleaded and demanded an answer. I snatched my make-up out of their hands and contiuded to ask "Why?! Why would you do this?!"

Todd heard my pleads and hurried up-stairs.

I annoyingly returned my make-up back to it's bag on the floor by my bed started to wonder the house letting him deal with the situation. I started to panic, my anxiety rearing it's ugly head. SO before I went into full panic mode I went from bathroom to bathroom collecting towels to wash. I started the laundry. I went to my bedroom and started to organize my clothes, hung up the piles in front of my closet and then just sat there.

Todd came in and shut the door and proceeded to tell me the punishment he delt the girls. Observing my controlled breathing he asked me what was wrong.

I spilled.

Why can't I be one of those moms who runs for the camera? Why couldn't I laugh myself silly at the uni-brow and raccoon eyes? Why didn't I take the lip stick and fix Y's lop-sided grin? Why couldn't I be more like all of them? Oh I dared to COMPARE!

I know, I know. We are all different and it's not fair to ourselves or anyone else to compare but it happens. More often then I'd admit. 

Todd listened and he helped me organize my thoughts so we could both understand what I was trying to convey.  It took the entire evening.  Finally, right before bed, Todd said something that just clicked,
  "Dear, no sane person would ever judge themselves against another person.  We're too complicated for that.  No two people have had the same life experience, and no two people are alike, so why bother trying to rate yourself against someone else?"

It was just what I needed to hear to get me in the frame of mind to listen.

To Be Continued....

Out of the mouths of babes

Our master bath is in the process of being remodeled. The contractor/neighbor remodeling it loves kids, and our kids love visitors, so when he comes they want to talk to him, show him their toys and tell him their news. Here is a bit of an exchanged when he came last to do some work.

V - "Hi!!!"
Contractor - "Well hello there."
V - "Guess what!"
Contractor -  "What?"
V - "I have a potty! It's not mommy's potty it's MY potty!"
Contractor - "Really."
 V - " Yes! I'll show you, come with me."
    
She takes him upstairs to the hall bathroom and points to the potty seat on top of the regular toilet.
Contractor - "I see."
V - "Yes that is my potty! One day when I have a big butt like mom I'll sit on the big potty!"

Contractor busts up laughing and I just mentally subtract a few points from my self esteem.  Thanks V.