Monday, March 30, 2009

When Pulling The Covers Over Your Head Is The Only Viable Option...

My brain is fried.

I am exhausted.

It's the middle of the afternoon.

And it's only Monday...

Man, it's gonna be a long week...

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Question...


Is it considered poor parenting if you think about dropping one (or four) of your children off a cliff?

Not actually doing it, of course, but having the thought run through your head?

Sigh...

I love them...

Really, I do...

Monday, March 23, 2009

It Must Be Monday...


My children hate me.

Not really, but some days it seems as though they have formed a club whose sole mandate is to drive me around the bend.

These people have been off school for over a week (if you count the first weekend of March break-and I do, since they were at home for those days), have had brilliant weather for most of it (yes, it's been a tad chilly for the last four days, but the sun has been out even then), and Jamie has asked me every single morning, "Is today a school day?" and has then repeated the question before climbing into bed at night, "Will tomorrow be a school day?"...each time leading me to believe that he actually wanted to go to school...

So why did Brian have to pick the child up, carry him out the front door and onto to the school bus this morning, while the young charmer yelled at the top of his lungs the entire way, "I don't want to go to school!"?

I'm surprised the neighbors still talk to us with the amount of noise that comes from our house...

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

March Break Is Not Really A "Break" At All...


It has been over a week since I posted anything...and once again, I am going to place complete blame on my children.

I know, I know, bad mommy...which is what Emma has been saying to me over and over for weeks on end...my daughter has yet to leave the baby jaguar routine behind, but she is (thankfully) sleeping through the night again...

We are on March break here (aka spring break), and Brian has taken this week for vacation as well...and I was looking forward to a nice, quiet week with the kids and my husband. We would celebrate Emma and Jamie's 5th birthday (which came yesterday, on St. Patrick's Day), go to the library or a movie or two, and clean out the basement, which has turned into a self-regenerating junk pile.

By now I should know better than to plan anything around here.

Every single day has been filled with something that was not on my list of "to-do's"...and while I really shouldn't complain about the weather, I'm about to...since the weather is yet another reason why I haven't gotten around to crossing things off my list...it's been absolutely beautiful here since Sunday afternoon (can't remember further back than that, so Saturday may have been nice too and I've just blocked it out)...and who wants to trudge around in the dungeon when the sun is shining and the temperature has been above freezing for the first time since October?

We've also been smack dab in the middle of one of those crazy weeks where there is one obligation or another every single day...between Brian, me and the kids, the only day this week for the six of us to relax together is Sunday...the day before March break ends and they are all off to work and/or school again...

I'm going to need a break from my break...

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

He Might Be Ready...I'm Not...


My son Ian, who is eight years old, has his first crush.

Altogether now...awwwww...

For the last week and a half, Ian has been "meeting" his friend Skylar on Club Penguin (if you don't know what Club Penguin is, count your blessings, or check out my post about it, filed under Kids-titled "Some Days You Just Won't Win...). Skylar is in Ian's class at school, and having met the girl, I can see why my boy is smitten. Skylar is a very pretty, if a bit taller than Ian, young lady.

I'm not quite sure how Ian and Skylar came to know that they both like to frequent the Club Penguin website, since Ian likes to keep to himself most of the time. However it came about, my son has been on the phone talking to a girl, while meeting her in a frozen penguin town in cyberspace.

This morning I finally asked the question I had been avoiding for the last few days.

"Ian," I queried as he was putting his boots on to head out the door to school. "Do you like Skylar?"

The goofy grin and ducking his head down into his chest kind of gave him away, but he answered, "I don't know..."

"Ian, it's ok to like girls you know," I told my blushing 8 year old. "You're at the age when it starts."

"Oh," he said. "I didn't know that."

"Well, maybe you can talk to Daddy about it too," I said. "He used to be a little boy like you."

"Oh, yeah," Brian said, coming into the conversation. "I had my first crush on a girl when I was in grade 3 too."

The two of them went out the door to the bus, and so I didn't hear the rest of the conversation, but as I watched them through the window, my heart did little flip flops...first, because I thought, my baby has a crush on a girl. And then I thought, my baby has his first crush on a girl...

The little hussy better treat him right, that's all I'm saying...

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Every Day One of Them Says Something...


Any time that Ian sees Brian and I display any form of affection for one another, like the times we give each other a kiss (and I'm not talking about any big, wet, sloppy, inappropriate-for-the-children-to-see kisses here - just a quick joining of lips), he scrunches up his nose and yells at the top of his lungs, "E-e-e-w-w-w!"...which is probably normal for an almost-nine year old boy who still thinks that girls have cooties...

This morning Brian and I stood in the kitchen, sharing a few precious seconds together. Arms wrapped around one another, we gave each other a kiss. Through the pass-through window to the dining room, Avery watched us from where she sat at the table drawing.

"Avery," I asked. "Does this gross you out?" (thinking of Ian's usual reaction).

"No," she replied. "It beauties me out."

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

I Was Wrong....

...I really, really hate doing taxes.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Blech.

I hate doing taxes.

'Nuff said...

Sunday, March 1, 2009

I Was Only Kidding...


For the past two weeks, Avery has been asking us if she can take dance classes. First it was hip hop, then it was Irish and/or Scottish dancing, then it was ballet. Ballet was the one she really seemed to stick with, so we started looking around to see what kind of classes (read: how much will it cost us?)there are here in town.

On Friday, she came home from school, and excitedly announced that what she really wanted was to play soccer. The following conversation occurred that night during dinner...

Brian: "So Avery, you want to play soccer now?"
Avery: "Uh-huh."
Me: "I thought you wanted ballet classes?"
Avery: "I changed my mind."
Brian: "What changed your mind?"
Avery: "Well, my friend Madison plays soccer and besides, ballet dancers are always hungry..."
Brian (trying not to choke on his dinner while laughing) "What? Who told you that?"
Avery (pointing at her mother who was having difficulty swallowing her own food): "Mama did...and I don't want to be hungry. So I want to play soccer. Soccer players aren't hungry all the time..."

Brian looked over at me, laughing and said, "You told her that?"

"Avery," I finally sputtered. "I was only kidding..."

Avery: "Ooooh...I didn't know that..."

Which just goes to show that 6 year olds don't always get the joke...