He Wuvs His Brother When He Ain't Beating Him Up

Blrrrrrrrrr...

Like I said he was a blur once we made it into the classroom. These were the only pictures we got that weren't of the back of his head.

On the way to school

Yes, we have to take a picture of everything. Its in the genes - just ask all your grandmas.

What a listener?! If only he listened this well at home.

A Smile from Ear to Ear

Big Brother started preschool today and in a lot of ways. It felt like I was starting preschool. I was the one who was anxious, the one who couldn't sleep at night - although that could have also been because the Bee kept waking up crying-, and I was the one who was hesitant to have us apart.

I envisioned many tears, screams, whining, kicking, and a few swear words tossed around - by him, not me of course. I am sorry to say I have little drama to report. He went in, put a hard hat on, and started playing. No real action or drama to report. We left with nothing more than a quick kiss, and a big goodbye.

We went to pick him up after a few hours of clock watching expecting to hear one horror story after another from his teacher, and a boy who would run to his family as if he hadn't seen them in years. Instead, he was sitting on the carpet in the very front listening to his teacher read a story, and occasionally interjecting with his many brilliant ideas and comments. When he finally saw us at the door, he smiled and waved, and went back to listening to the story and putting in his two cents. Totally what I hoped for, but nothing what I imagined. The teacher had nothing to report except that our little caveman kept taking his shoes off at the playground.

When questioned later about his day, he did admit to using a naughty word or two, and maybe perhaps pushing a boy - figures. When asked if he missed us he simply replied, "no". How's that for love?

A New Look for a New Year

Birthday ready!

(Daddy really just wasn't a fan of the whole mullet look. I personally miss playing with his long soft baby hair.)

Don't Touch My Hair!

When my oldest son was about 8 months, he started to play with my hair while he nursed. At the time, I thought this was cute. Three and a half years later he still likes to play with my hair whenever he needs some comforting or wants to go to bed. Now, he does it while sucking vigorously at his thumb.

It's not so cute anymore! He yanks, and twirls, and pulls those fine little hairs above my neck and snags just enough to send chills running down my body followed by a loud Ouch! I don't like it when you, Big Brother do this anywhere. To quote Dr. Seuss - Not in the chair, or on the couch, not in the bed, or while eating bread, I don't want my hair pulled anywhere! I don't like my hair pulled Big Brother you are. Oh ya, and don't forget to mention this to Sam the Bee. He has mastered the art of hair pulling at the tender age of 11 months.

Disclaimer: In no way am I really trying to imitate Dr. Seuss. I am not that good.

It's a Poo-filled Day

It's a poo-filled day, but it turning out to be a poo-filled week. My youngest has had diarrhea for the past three days, and this morning we all woke up to it in the bed. Another reason the family bed doesn't work so well for me anymore. Poo on the sheets, on him, on my arm, and daddy will be happy to know, Bee favored his pillow for soaking most of the poo up. Not the way I wanted to wake up this morning after not getting any sleep again last night.

Of course, I thought I was going to be able to get away with just washing the sheets and not the mattress pad, since after all, I did have a waterproof crib cover under the sheets. Nope. It had moved its way south of the bed, and the poo made it just next to it, but not on it, sooo helpful. This means two loads of laundry, and not just one. Trekking my way outside, down our long unstable path to our detached garage, through the heat and mosquitoes twice -way more if your account for switching loads into the dryer to avoid the mildew stink. This all brings new meaning to waking up on the wrong side of the bed, because this morning it meant waking up in yellow poo or staying clean. I woke up in poo. I'm not sure I want to know what this foretells about the rest of my day.

New Here!

Well, my first attempts at blogging were originally with another host. I thought this one would be more user-friendly, but really what I'm saying is that I'm stuck in the dark ages. Okay, maybe not the dark ages, but at least the Civil War Era. I started to learn HTML back before I had kids, but just found all the coding toooooo boring. I just left it as something my husband could learn and do, and I would just occasionally beg him to do some coding for me as needed. It's been six years since then, and this is the first time ever. Lucky him!

All the posts before this one were first published over here.

The zombie needs sleep!

I dread nights these days. I know that soon after I put my ten-month-old "Bee" to bed, he will wake up within the hour screaming. This can continue for the rest of the night with him screaming every 1 -3 hours. He prefers every two, though. What exactly he wants I'm not sure. Having him sleep in our bed doesn't work, his crib doesn't work, brother's bed doesn't work. We checked for ear infections, and no quick remedy this time.

This has been going on for months. He was a better sleeper at 2 and 3 months than he is now, and this was during the time he was dealing with his reflux. Maybe we have just failed to teach him to self-sooth, but how can this be accomplished without waking up brother, especially since it took us 3 years to get him to sleep without waking up more than once.

The lack of restful sleep of course, leaves me feeling exhausted. I go through my day in a daze - a zombie. It's hard to do anything in this state. As a mom, I have to be on all the time, but I just can't seem to do it these days, and I don't know how much longer I can deal with not getting any quality sleep. Sometimes my body gives up sleeping in the middle of the night and just stays awake waiting for the next cry - 3 am, 4 am, 5am, 6am, and no sleep, but many cries. My own child is tormenting me.

Bee, why won't you sleep? Mommy needs sleep.

Is it possible?

Is it possible that my 3 year old has the capacity for rational thought, the ability to understand cause and effect? His previous what-were-you-thinking behavior can make me think otherwise. No, A&D is not for finger painting on mirrors and sinks, and no, it's not okay to put that plastic bag over your baby brother's head.

A few days ago, we were walking to the park when a Fed Ex truck rode by with a man who was suppose to be driving it, but was not. He was intently looking down and savoring his slurpie as he stirred it during that hot and muggy day. He felt it was more important to pay attention to his slurpie than the fact that he was driving by a school, a park, and pool during this very sticky and busy day.

My 3 year old who was riding in the stroller at the time, yelled out to me completely astonished, "Look mommy! The truck is dribing by is self !"

"Why do you say that I asked?" prodding for info.

"The man is not paying attention. He just moving the straw back and forth, back and forth."

"What do you think might happen?" I asked again searching for the signs of intelligent life.

"He's gonna crash! (proceed to fill with your favorite crashing noises)" Nothing like a good crash I guess.

Luckily, no one was hurt. We'll at least as far as I could see.

Lost in a sea of nothingness

Well, you ask why I haven't written in a while? I had nothing to say. I just plain old lost my inspiration (or my mind). It's all the same really. You see, even now, I am saying nothing.

Parenting can sometimes suck all that is you, and if you had little to give, then it doesn't take much for it all to be gone. I need to get back to sewing, so that when someone asks me what I like to do, I can say I like to sew. I don't think surfing the net is considered a productive past time.