Entries in TGIF (7)
My dog is stinky.
Made appointment for groomer.
Named Tiny Bubbles
Chester is anxious
Fell off table way too scared
Blood everywhere…eww!
It’s OK Buddy
Let me find the source of blood
Sit still you big lug
I said “Sit Still PLEASE”
Yucky. You lost a toe nail.
“SIT NOW CRAZY DOG”
Oh, no…you did NOT
I should not have raised my voice
You pooped everywhere!
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Needless to say, Chester’s recent grooming experience SUCKED! We adopted the poor dog from the Australian Shepard Rescue League on January 1st of this year. We were approved for adoption rather quickly, however it took about 9 months for us to find the “right” dog for our family. He is really a big love…and I mean BIG. He is 90 lbs. The typical Aussie is around 45 lbs. We joke that we got a 2fer. He is pure Aussie, but looks like he was bred with a Newfoundland. He is such a gentle giant. He’s so sweet and so great with our other dog and, most importantly, the kids.
We figured out very early on that he had a weakness for baked goods. He ate a freshly baked banana bread right off the counter. In his defense, I make the world’s best banana bread. It’s a secret family recipe passed down from my grandmother. THE Daddy literally had to wait to marry me to get ahold of the recipe. Even then I waited a couple of years before giving him the “directions” *tee hee*. ANYHOW, I am able to discipline Chester, however when THE Daddy raises his voice, he immediately goes into “submissive” mode. For those of you without dogs…this is when he sinks as low to the ground as he can possibly get…kind of a “you can’t see me” pose. This is the second time he has actually shat himself with a male raising his voice. The people who surrendered him to the Rescue League must have abused him, specifically the husband.
People who abuse animals SUCK! I’m thankful today that Chester is now with a loving family in a safe home. Also, very thankful/relieved that Resolve Carpet Cleaner removes blood from carpet. He tracked it ALL OVER the house before we realized he was still bleeding! Picture little doggy footprints leading from the upstairs Master Bedroom, down the stairs and out the back slider.
SO, how’s that for my first Haiku Friday? If you’d like to join in, check it out at: Playgroups are No Place for Children.
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It’s been another long week with THE Daddy traveling for work. We can’t wait for him to come home tonight! I can’t believe we have another 5 weeks to go before he is done building the restaurant in Maine. This is getting old for all of us. On the bright side, his next big build will be one town over from where we live, so he’ll at least be able to sleep at home.
You would think that the older the kids get, the easier it would be for them to have him away Monday-Friday. But, in fact, they seem to take it harder. They are starting to grasp time and on Monday mornings when I tell them that Daddy will be home in 4 tomorrows, it seems like eternity to them (and me!). Unfortunately, they aren’t mature enough to place blame where it belongs and I take the brunt of their frustration. I felt so bad sending them off to school this morning, they both seemed so tired.
Enough ranting…this is supposed to be a happy post! SO, THE Daddy is coming home, we had showers last night, putting an end to evil Indian Summer. We are supposed to have a beautiful weekend…they’re saying it’ll be in the high 60’s and sunny, utopia. I got all of my work done this week while the kids were at school, so I don’t have to play catch up at all. It’s Homecoming this weekend at my high school, the one where I coach softball…so we might go watch the football game. Princess is having a sleep over at my mom’s on Saturday night and will be going to watch my little step-sister ride in a horse show at UNH. She’s very excited for that. I’m equally excited to not have to sleep with her feet in my face for a night! Lastly, the Patriots don’t play until Monday night, so we have all day Sunday to do absolutely nothing…I might even get to take a nap!
There was a time when I couldn’t distinguish between the week and the weekends. The kids were “at home” with me 24x7. I love that term…I don't know many "at home" moms who can ever be found actually at home! THE Daddy used to work more on weekends as well. He’s gotten better at saying “no” and carving out family time. This new routine we’ve settled into really makes me appreciate the switch between Friday am and pm. It’s nice. I find myself looking forward to Friday afternoons because all seems to fall back into balance with our world. It’s almost like I’m holding my breath while walking a tightrope all week and on Friday afternoon when the kids get out of school and THE Daddy comes home, I can finally breathe.
Hope you have a great weekend planned as well. Please share in comments.
“I try to take one day at a time, but lately several are attacking at once.”
There is an electronic sign board that I see on my way home from bringing the kids to school every day. They put up a new inspirational message or quote every morning and this was the one today. Some days they are funny, others thought provoking. This one struck a chord. This has been a very difficult week and I’m not even sure why.
THE Daddy and I were away for 3 nights and arrived back on Sunday night. The week started with Princess having such anxiety over going back to school after throwing up in front of her kindergarten class that she refused to go to school without me. I spent a lot of time with her on Monday and she seems fine now. She was a little weepy on Tuesday and then bounced right back for the rest of the week. BamBam has been throwing tantrums every now and then, but he’s 2 and I expected a small amount of backlash from him as payback for leaving him for 3 nights. THE Daddy is back to traveling for work. He was able to sneak home on Wednesday night and managed to meet us at the chiropractor. Afterwards, we even got to eat at my favorite restaurant, Cartelli’s. It’s an Italian restaurant that also has a sushi bar…weird combination, but it makes my family really happy.
It was great to have THE Daddy home because we all really miss him when he’s away, plus I was exhausted and felt like sleeping after my chiropractic entrainment. The kids were not easy to get down and didn’t fall asleep until at least 9pm and I fell asleep in BamBam’s room with him until about 11pm. I snuck back into our room and THE Daddy was just taking a shower…which he sometimes does at night so that he doesn’t wake the entire house when he leaves at 5am. I was so tired that I couldn’t even muster up a conversation with him, let alone respond to his attempt to take advantage of us actually being in the same bed at the same time. I remember saying “Honey, I’m sorry, but I’m not superwoman…I love you very much, but I’m exhausted.” That went over like a ton of bricks. He’s been very cold to me with one word responses the rest of the week and I feel like shit because I know that I disappointed him and wasted a rare opportunity to be together.
SO, I woke up on Thursday feeling really shitty. He had already left before the sun came up. Since the kids got down so late, they were really hard to wake up and motivate in the morning. I managed to get them off to school, but didn’t get our “good morning” call into THE Daddy before dropping them off. In my defense, I tried, but it was later than usual and he didn’t answer because he was busy at work. He was already disappointed in my lack of enthusiasm the night before and then he didn’t get his morning kid fix, which equaled double disappointment. He’s been polite to me on the phone…I hate it when he’s polite.
Anyhow, we see a Network Spinal Analysis Chiropractor, Dr. Deb. She is an extension to our family at this point. I started seeing her when I was about 4 months pregnant with Princess. My whole family now sees her. If you are unfamiliar with the difference between a standard Chiropractor and Network Spinal Analysis, check this out. It’s changed our lives and we try to see Dr. Deb at least every 2 weeks at this point. It had been longer for Princess and we felt she really needed to release tension and work out her anxieties, so I booked another appointment for her on Thursday as well.
The kids were in pretty good spirits after Princess’s entrainment, so I thought I’d bring them to Friendly’s for dinner. We get in there and BamBam throws a fit as we’re about to be seated. I’m still not sure what triggered it. After he kicked me and refused to sit down, I looked at Princess and said, “I’m sorry, but your brother isn’t in a good mood and we need to eat at home.” We promptly exited the restaurant, much to the relief of the other patrons and our potential server. We get into the car and Princess starts yelling at me. THE Daddy’s side of the family tends get verbal when they’re angry. I like to call it “barking”. It reminds me of an angry dog…you know, when they are barking so loud that you can’t get them to hear your commands to stop because they literally can’t hear you. I used to try to rationalize with them, but learned that it is impossible and you just need to let them work through it and speak with them about it afterwards when their ears (and minds) are open again. She ranted for the entire trip home, which took an agonizingly long 20 minutes. Here’s what she said over and over again,
“I don’t love you, Mommy. I don’t want a Mommy. You’ve ruined my entire life. I want a different Mommy. I only want Daddy. But if Daddy does what you did, I don’t want him either and then I won’t have a family.”
Now, I expected to hear these words at some point in our lives together. I didn’t expect them so early on in our relationship. SHE’S 5 YEARS OLD! And I’m a pretty good Mommy, if I do say so myself. Sure, I have my faults, but she’s more than provided for and she knows that I love her. I just wanted to curl up into a ball and cry. THE Daddy was so polite to me at our “good night” call that I didn’t even tell him how horrible the night was. Ditto again this morning.
Princess bounced back and was disgustingly sweet to me the rest of the night, and with the exception of a small fit over not letting her wear lipstick to school this morning, has been on her best behavior. She apologized for being mean and we worked through it. One of my sisters-in-law gave me a visual to use to explain to the rest of the family what happens after they lash out. It describes how I’m feeling perfectly.
You start out with a clean slate, a nice new piece of paper. When someone verbally berates you, it’s as if they took the paper and crumbled it. When they are finished and apologize (themselves feeling better), they think they’ve smoothed out the paper and all is well. The truth is that you can take a hot iron to the paper to smooth it out, but it will always have a crease where it was crumbled. That’s how I feel today.
Motherhood and being a wife has many rewards that I could not even begin to list, however, I have never felt so inadequate in my entire life as my husband and daughter can make me feel. It’s as if they always want more from me than I am able to give and it sucks. When we’re having good days, I’m skeptical because I feel like I’m on the high side of the teeter-totter…it’s only a matter of time when it goes crashing down to the bottom and you hurt your butt! If anyone has the secret recipe on how to find the perfect balance in the middle, please share.
My “Thank Goodness It’s Friday”…the weekend is coming and we’ll have time together as a family. Hopefully, we can find some sort of balance briefly before it gets thrown off again on Monday.
THANK GOODNESS IT'S FRIDAY!!
THE Daddy comes home this afternoon. His arrival will be just in time to catch Princess in her first stage performance ever. I know, you're probably thinking that an almost 5 year old is way too young to perform onstage. I'd say that for 99.9% of the 5 year olds out there, I'd agree. I certainly do not want to become one of those horrid "stage moms" who make the news. Princess has been belting out songs such as Natasha Beddingfield's "Unwritten" since she was a mere 3 1/2. She was born a diva. The lactation consultant in the hospital even knicknamed her "Madame xxx".
Princess is attending a Broadway Kids Camp this week at the Dover Bell Center. Neither THE Daddy nor myself are musically inclined and never would have heard of the place if it hadn't been for a child care worker at our local gym. Princess was in the Play Hut over a year ago while I was working out. When I came back into the room, a couple of the moms approached me and asked if I ever heard of the Dover Bell Center...nope. Apparently, Princess had been entertaining them with her repetoire of songs. We're used to the little peanut singing her way through the grocery store and the local mall while we shop. Her voice literally turns heads. I just laughed and said something like, "yeah, she likes to sing"...and they came back with "NO, you NEED to get her into classes at the Bell Center. She has an amazing voice." I noticed this summer that they were offering a week long camp and thought, what the hell, let's give it a try.
The first day of camp, the teacher sent home a tape with her song...one that she would be performing SOLO on Friday (today). She is the youngest in the class and didn't quite meet the 5 year old age limit, however, they had space and let her in the class. When I got home and heard the tape, my first thought was "YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!?!". They gave her "A Candle on the Water" from Pete's Dragon. Not a song we were familiar with. Not an easy song for any person to sing, let alone my little Princess...sure, she has a pretty voice, but how the heck is she supposed to learn the words in just 5 days?!? Well, she's been working on it all week and the kid can NAIL IT. I'm still skeptical about her getting up on stage to sing in front of 100+ people. The teacher swears that she's only had 1 kid in 12 years NOT sing their solo. We'll see. To make it even more stressful (for me), we have 7 other family members attending. Princess is tickled pink...I'm going to throw up before curtain call!
My TGIF is twofold...first because I will not have to listen to the song 50+ times a day after today AND second, because MY stress of her getting up on stage will be over after the performance tonight. She is totally not stressed out, but I'm scared to death!!
THE Mommy
We had such a great time last night!! There was a wide range of talent...from a scared little 5 year old boy who forgot his words to 9 year old "pros" who nailed their songs. Princess definitely was amongst the top few performances. She looked so pretty in her little dress...and so tiny compared to the older kids. Phew! Glad that's over. She's too young to join the Broadway Kids program this fall. The cut off is 6 years. We're thinking about joining a Theatre Tots class instead. She'd definitely have a great time, but I'm not sure I can handle the stress!!
Yesterday I mentioned my friend's wedding. This morning I am off for a weekend on Nantucket with the girls...kind of a bachelorette party weekend. We leave this morning and don't come back until Monday. THE Daddy is in charge of the kids all weekend. On one hand, I'm not sure what I'm going to do without Princess and BamBam. I've never been away from them for that long...sure, we've had occasional "sleep overs" with family, but I've never been so far away that there's no possible way for me to get to them quickly.
On the other hand...I CAN'T WAIT to go away. I get to eat what I want, drink as much as I want and sleep in. I might even get to take a nap ON the beach. I haven't been able to do that since having kids. The beach is no longer relaxing for me b/c it just screams DANGER everywhere you turn. I'm leaving the mommy switch for my brain AT HOME...maybe THE Daddy will need it;)
Today is BamBam’s 2nd birthday!
BamBam had us worried early on. He put me through 9 weeks of bed rest prior to his c-section delivery one month early. However, he was the sweetest, most easy going baby. As he enters the “terrible twos”, he is beginning to have moments of frustration followed by tantrums. I must say though that he is much, much easier to talk down than Princess ever was.
I love both my children with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns. I feel truly blessed to be able to experience being a mother of a beautiful 5 year old diva in the making…and my little BamBam, 100% BOY (expect for when he’s wearing his sister’s princess costume and high heels!).
Happy Birthday, big guy! I’m thankful that I get to be your mommy!THANK GOODNESS IT’S FRIDAY!
This will be the first Friday post on MommyCosm. I plan to create a small list of things for which I’m thankful.
1) Sleepovers at Auntie’s house! I think I’ll refer to her from now on as THE Saint. My sister-in-law offered to take BOTH Princess and BamBam for the entire weekend, brave soul. It can be a double edged sword to live so close to both of our families...but I'm not complaining this weekend!
2) Margaritas. Immediately after dropping Princess and BamBam off with THE Saint, I am meeting THE Daddy for dinner. Yum, yum. My favorite margarita involves Tarantula tequila and Chambord , straight up with sugar on the rim. Here’s to having a quiet dinner, a couple of drinks and a night free from playing musical beds with the kids! I wonder if we can get the dogs to let themselves out in the morning so that we could actually sleep past the crack of dawn for once, ahh paradise.
3) Air conditioning. It’s been really, really hot and humid this week here in New Hampshire. I'm going to turn off the "mommy button" in my brain, set the AC to 65, snuggle up under the covers and slip into a margarita induced deep sleep!
What are you thankful for this weekend?
