one of those days

Do you ever have one of those days where you just want to tape your children's mouths shut and lock them in seperate rooms? If not, you must have only one child who is still precious and quiet. I, on the other hand, have 3 children who find no geater delight than to torment one another, causing my day to be filled with squeeling and screaming and crying and the occasional full body tackle when the aggravating has gotten too intense. Seth and Lilah are currently chasing each other aroun the house, screaming at the top of their lungs because Lilah is playing with the toy vacuum and had the nerve to say "mine." Seth is devastated that she might think the vacuum belongs just to her and is crying like a tiny little baby and screeching for mommy to "tell Lilah it's not hers!!!!" Like it matters. You may be wondering why I am typing on the computer during this interaction rather than intervening. I will tell you why. I am tired. My children have lost several toys today, have each spent time on the "time out spot" more times than I can count, and I have spent entirely too much time attempting to talk them through conflict in a calm and patient manner. I am no longer capable of doing this and I know that if I attempt to intervene in this current fight, I will lose it and will scream and yell and will probably throw the toy vaccum out of the window, which the neighbors might frown upon. I still want people to think I have maintained my sanity, whether it is true or not. It does not help today that even when the kids aren't at each other's throats, Seth has been in an especially talkative mood. He seriously DOES NOT STOP TALKING and asking questions... all day... every day... he has also recently taken to calling people names, usually made up nonsensical names, but names nonetheless. This is not allowed, whether he is joking or not. Seth does not understand the seriousness of this issue, however, and so he continues to do it. Consequently, my days have largely consisted of putting him in time out and explaining why name calling (even funny joking name calling) is completely unacceptable. All I want is some peace and quiet and a couple hours of not having to discipline my children. Thank God I get to go to my spouse group meeting tonight for a few hours. It is much needed today. And to top it all off, I found out my brother and his family will be moving to New York in July, which is not at all close to Detroit and so I'm very sad to be far from them and for the kids to not get as much time with their cousins. We will just have to make frequent trips to visit. But I was hoping to have Sarah and the kids close by in Michigan to help me preserve my slipping sanity...

rebellion at its finest

Seth is rapidly approaching the age of four. This means he is quickly becoming a real boy and no longer a baby or toddler or cute little cuddly thing that can do no wrong. Quite the contrary... he has developed a will and a passion and his own selfish little sin nature just like we all do as we grow. Every once in a while he will express it in a way that shocks me one way or another, either in a way that will infuriate me or strike me as hysterical. Tonight, it was the latter. My parents were visiting to help me out since I'm still kind of recouping from being sick. My dad had been playing with Seth all day and Seth was thoroughly worn out and starting to get pretty cranky. He was in one of those "melt down over every little thing" moods and it was being exasperated by Lilah who was quite strategically dancing on his last nerve. Lilah was being corrected for her role in aggravating Seth on purpose. But, Seth was being entirely too sensitive. So, I told him that he needed to go to his room and have a rest or "chill out time" for a few minutes until he was ready to join the rest of us with a better attitude. He was outraged at this directive and went storming off to his room crying and screaming and then yelled at the top of his lungs and with a passion that I have rarely seen from him that I was "just a poopy stinker!" Thank goodness that he was in his room and could not see me because I fell apart. We all did. It took me a solid 60 seconds to get myself back together so that I could go into his room and "deal" with him. So, please don't worry... he was corrected and did suffer a punishment for his blatant disrespect. We also discussed in depth why calling mommy a poopy stinker was unacceptable and what the Bible says about honoring your mommy and daddy. But I will admit that it was a difficult conversation to have with a straight face. Needless to say though, I am sure there will be a day when I will miss the time where calling mommy a poopy stinker was the worst and most rebellious thing my children could think to do. =)

week of hell

So this past week has been a bit rough. Well, to back up a little... last week I had that yucky upper respiratory cold stuff that has been going around. That was not a big deal. But then Thursday night I started having "rigors" (uncontrollable shivering/shaking) for several hours. I had a fever and started with vomiting and stuff. So, Josh took me to the ER to find that I had developed pneumonia. This was also not really a big deal. But the pneumonia was followed by either a virus or infection that caused a persistent headache and vomiting. So, Josh took me back to the ER and they did a spinal tap to make sure it wasn't bacterial meningitis. It was not. And we were hoping I was out of the woods. But I developed a spinal headache that lasted for several days and laid me out until today. I have never been so sick in my entire life. A spinal headache feels as though your head will implode and kill you instantly if you sit up in a vertical position. Josh has had me on four rounds now of IV fluids, caffeine pills, and an obscene amount of Tylenol, ibuprofen, Zofran, and Percaset for the past week in an attempt to get me on my feet again. I would have preferred to give birth 5 times without an epidural to avoid this past week. I guess I can't really say that as I have never given birth without an epidural. But definitely 5 times with an epidural... Now I have to recoup from a week of being immobile. My house is disgusting. Nobody in my family has clean clothes. Josh has decided I actually do more than sit around and eat bon bons all day. He said that he has a newfound respect for my role in making our lives work. lol =) The kids have seen me get poked with IV needles so much that they have started giving each other shots with all their toys anytime they think someone doesn't feel well. The only upside of this past week is that I have sufficiently lost most of my baby weight now, about 10 pounds in 6 days. Long story short, don't get a spinal tap unless you feel quite certain you are actually dying without one.

my big boy

Today, Erin picked up Seth to take him to the Zookids class for the afternoon with Brenna. She is doing me a wonderful favor by freeing up my afternoon so that I can get stuff done and (should we actually decide to move) get some packing done. So I gave Seth lunch before Erin came and told him then that he was going to the zoo with Brenna for the afternoon. He was soooooooo excited. Please understand, this is the FIRST thing Seth has done on his own with a friend where he was not with a parent or grandparent and siblings. When she came, I went outside to get car seats transferred over and Seth was waiting in the back room with his shoes, ready to go. We got his coat on and put him in the car. He was beaming. Seth looked at me and said, "Mommy, today I'm a big boy!" I said,"You sure are." And now all I can think about is that he really is and it's going too fast.