Bragger's Rights

writing names, staying
dry, sleeping through pain - my kids
are so amazing

It's been a very long week in our house. Cabin fever has set in, and my nerves are just about shot. When Erin sent me the Brag Book Blog Blast idea from the Parent Bloggers Network, all I could think about was how "deficient" my kids were. Thinking about their strengths made me dwell on the negatives. And then of course, I started feeling like a terrible Mom. Who needs that??? So I decided that I wasn't going to bother with this post. After this morning (full of yelling and tantrums - from the kids and myself), I realized that I had to think in a more positive way. So I checked out Jenifer Fox's site (her book Your Child's Strengths looks really intersting), and this is what I have come up with...

In no way, shape, or form are my kids at all "deficient". They can't possibly be "better" - they are already perfect. Yeah it would be GREAT if they would listen and stuff, but that doesn't make them bad - it just makes them kids. My kids. And my kids are the three brightest, funniest, most beautiful, amazing children that have ever graced the planet.

Gabriel will be 4 next week, and every day he manages to impress and amaze me with his "Gabriel-ness". He's huge, handsome, and far too bright for his own good. Today, he amazed me by writing his own name and the numbers 1-4. He's been writing letters for months now, but he usually needs dot-to-dots to help him make actual words.

Elliott is the sweetest and silliest 27 month old that ever lived. She amazes me every day just by being her little pixie-ish self. In the middle of melt-down hour this morning she looked at me and said, "Mom. I just wove you so much." Her favorite phrase is "wove you so much". Next time you see her, see how long it takes for her to say it to someone. Or something.

There really aren't enough words to express my amazement with Janna. I am in constant awe.

My children's greatest strengths are their ability to give me strength. The sounds of their belly laughs, the sight of their big (or in Janna's case HUGE) brown eyes, the smell of their hair, the feel of their hugs are the things that make my life worthwhile. I have earned my bragger's rights this week. How 'bout you? Are your kids as awesome as mine?

Attack of the Otitis Media

I had mentioned a few days ago that Janna was a little out of sorts. Yeah. She has another double ear infection. Last night when I went in to check on her before I went to bed I noticed that she was whimpering and rubbing her ear. In her sleep. Poor baby. So off to Dr. C.'s office we went this morning. My Googlie-bear has lost a half pound (she refuses to eat and she's been projectile puking on me), and her ears are a mess. Hopefully the magical meds will make her all better soon.

A Realization...

I know I already posted today, but I just wanted to add some useless Courtney Trivia. Today was "supposed" to have been Gabriel's 4th birthday. When I found out I was pregnant, February 26th was the date the docs gave me as my due date. The little turd decided to stay in there for an extra 11 days. So not important now, but 4 years ago I was in misery!!

Oh, and my day??? Got no better. It's still not going well.

Little Pissers

This morning started out like any other morning. Gabriel came into our bedroom at the crack of ass and insisted on either getting in bed with us or playing downstairs. Uh, Gabe, it's 5:20 in the morning - go back to bed. He did - reluctantly. And loudly. At 6:30 he came back in and Jon let him go downstairs. I am not a huge fan of the almost 4 year-old being alone in the living room. He ransacks the place, and I end up cleaning it all up. I am overruled every day in this matter. [He spent the morning trying (and succeeding) to annoy me. Thank goodness it's a preschool day.]

Then Elliott climbed into bed with me. SOAKED with pee. Up to her neck. Jon carried her into our room and didn't bother to notice that she had peed through herself. After showers (I hate showering with kids), I checked her bed. My husband "made" her bed - covered the soaking wet pee-pee sheets with all of her covers and dolls. This happens on a regular basis. I knew I had to wash the sheet and pad, but do I look like a friggin' laundry service?? I asked him if Janna had also peed through herself. Of course she had. Has for the last 4 days. Do ya think her sheets have been changed? NOPE! Not since I changed them last week. I keep a water-proof pad on top of the crib sheet to ease my annoyance with crib changing (heaven forbid Jon actually change the baby's bedding [or Gabe's or Elliott's] ). Has the pad been changed? Well, kind of. Jon just keeps folding and flipping, re-folding and re-flipping the thing. We have probably 15 of the damned things. CHANGE IT! Would you sleep in a pee-pee bed? Nopers. Why in the hell should the girls have to? So her day started out with peeing through herself, and so far, she's done a pretty good job of making sure it ends that way. [She's peed her pants twice today. On purpose. When I say "on purpose", I mean that she's been asked if she needs to go ("Nope, I don't"), and then put on the potty anyway. Nothing happens. Then she goes into the hallway and "hides" so she can pee her pants. Good times.]

My Janna is being a pisser today, too. Elliott kept her up last night turning the light in their room off and on. And she's cough-y. So, Baby Girl is a little out of sorts today. Fine. But her cry is like fingernails on a chalk board. My Mom says she sounds like a wounded duck. I agree. Nothing is to her liking today. She doesn't want to eat. Or drink. Or play. Or sit. Or lay. Or be held.

I really do love my life. I am so lucky that I get to stay home with my kids. I also have a husband who helps ALOT (bedding changes withstanding). But today has just been one of those days...and it's only 2pm.

The New Do!

I wanted to wait to post a picture of my little Schmootsie-poo (yes, that is what I call her - her favorite movie is "Monster's, Inc.") until her hair had been washed. So here she is!! Forgive the darkness of the pics. She looks so much like my Mommy in the bottom picture!!

If You Give a Boy Some Scissors...

If you give a boy some scissors, he might want some paper to cut. Or some curtains. Or his sister's hair. You can probably guess where this story is going.

Gabriel has some trouble with scissors. He has his own safety scissors, and he likes to cut things. Loves to cut paper and playdough...he can't get enough of it. However, his smallish scissors don't cut fabric - or the things that little boys don't need to be cutting. He has "stolen" my snippers before (they were "hiding" in his window sill so I could finish cutting plastic to put over the window) and used them to cut his curtains.

"Gave 'em a haircut," he said. When asked why, he gave his stock answer: "Cause I said so."

"You see, Gabe, curtains don't have hair. There's no need to cut your nice, blue curtains. And now, you get to have no curtains. No, I don't care if the sun comes in and bothers your eyes. DON'T CUT THE DAMNED CURTAINS EVER AGAIN!!!" Ok, ok...add a little more profanity in there, and you get the gist of what I told him.

Today, Jon was hanging a Thomas and Friends wall border around Gabriel's room. He obviously needed scissors. The kids went up to see what Daddy was doing, and everyone plainly heard him say, "No touches. No one touches the scissors, or I get out my spanking hands." I heard him downstairs, so I am guessing the kids heard him, too. He turned his back for a moment, and SNIP went the scissors. In Elliott's hair. I have no clue what Jon said to Gabe upstairs, but he came trotting down the steps and sat himself on the couch. His face was red and he looked so guilty. Seconds later Jon came down dragging Elliott by the arm. He handed me the curls that Gabe cut off. I thought that maybe he had pulled them out of her head. Jon very calmly told me what happened, and then he got out his spanking hands. I was L.I.V.I.D. Furious. I looked at Gabe, asked him why he cut his sister's hair (his reply?? see above), and then told him that if he didn't want me to get out the clippers and shave his head he needed to go to his room.

Poor Elliott. She was so upset. Jon was annoyed with her, too for thinking it was funny at the time. But she's 2. Everything is funny when you're 2. She kept saying she was "cutted" and that "Gabey messy up my hair". So I took her to get her first haircut. She was AMAZING. She loved it. I was waiting to get her hair cut until Fall - something special for right before school starts. Oh well. She looks absolutely adorable with her new short hair, though!

[Updated 2/24 - Jon told me an extra tid-bit of hilarity about this last night. Apparently after Jon turned his back, he heard the kids giggling and talking nonsense (they have their own language). The only word he could actually distinguish was "haircut". By the time he had himself off of a chair and in their faces (about 4.2 nanoseconds later), the damage had been done. It wasn't so funny yesterday, but now that I think about it, it's amusing. To a point.]

These Little Piggies

my feet are cold, and
yet i refuse to find socks.
i hate them so much.

i tell people they
are against my religion.
even the cute ones.

when will spring arrive?
it needs to get warmer so
i can wear flip-flops.

and speaking of those,
don't you love the sound they make?
the thought makes me smile.

Three Peas in a Pod

It's 10:35 in the morning - aka "Elmo Time".

Awesome!

wander aimlessly,

that's what we did today. and

it was so much fun!

mall walking with kids -

usually not so great.

are you really mine?

no fights, tears, or pouts.

i even got to shop for

a new vera b.

Today has been nothing short of AWESOME! And if you know me, then you know that very rarely do I say the word awesome in connection with an outing with my kiddos (unless it's being used negatively - G and E were awesomely bad). My gal pal Jennifer and I decided to take the kids to the mall for some exercise (ok, we needed some relief from a nasty case of Cabin Fever). We figured a lap or two would tire them out a bit, and we could enjoy a quiet afternoon to ourselves. What was supposed to be an hour (or less) trip turned into three hours!! The kids were AWESOME! They walked nicely, held hands, listened, touched next to nothing...they were just awesome! Gabriel and Samuel usually end up arguing/heckling like little old men (picture Waldorf and Statler from "The Muppet Show"), so J & I were waiting for their "act" to begin. It never did. Elliott usually starts whining and being, well...a 2 year old girl. She didn't. Janna was so good that I kept forgetting she was in the stroller.

The walking itself was great, but the real test came when Jennifer and I spotted Crabtree & Evelyn. We wanted to drool over the latest Vera Bradley bags, and we were giving the kids a solid 3 minutes before they started going nuts. The woman in the store was AWESOME. She kept the little ones entertained while we tried on bags. So of course we had to buy something (25 minutes later). Jennifer purchased herself an awesome Daisy Daisy Hipster, and I bought a Raspberry Fizz Wristlet. I have created a monster - I got Miss J. a V.B. wallet for Christmas, and now she's addicted!!

Children's Place was next - they were having AWESOME sales (I got the girls a pile of fleece and stuff - I couldn't help myself. Some of the stuff was $2.49!!). The kids were great in there, too. They touched, but they were behaved. Gabriel and Sam tried to get us to buy them some "sweet camouflage" pants.

We let them throw pennies into the fountains (which was probably the highlight of the day) - something I don't think my kids had ever done. Then they all ate lunch like they had never seen food before. And because they were so AWESOME, we had ice cream! Never a treat I give the kids during the day, but they deserved it! Then everyone got to have a ride in a car or train. By the end of our trip, all 4 kiddos were exhausted. But still extremely happy. Mine are still sound asleep right now, and I know that Sam took a nap for Jennifer, too. We may have to make a trip to the mall every Friday!!

The Silence is Broken!

I've been slightly concerned that The Divine Miss J isn't babbling yet (something that books say is a 6 month milestone). Gabey and Elliott were babbling fools...but my sweet little peanut is kind of quiet. Well, she yells and sings and makes her own noises, but there is no babbling. No ma-ma-ma, da-da-da, ba-ba-ba, goo-goo-goo...you get the idea. My thought is that since she has two of the talking-est siblings on the face of the planet and a mother who never shuts up, why should she have to babble? Whenever she makes any noise, The Boy or The Big Girl are there to tend to her. She doesn't have to move, cry, speak - they do everything for her.

Yesterday, however, Jon pointed out that she says a word - not a babble, not a coo, but a word. Of course I thought he was insane. She has no words, she's just making noises. Yes, she carries on a "conversation" with her Raggedy Ann and her monkeys, but it's normal baby stuff. So, he put her in her "hopper" (exersaucer), and she started hopping away. He kept telling her, "Say it. Say it for Mommy." I shook my head and walked away. And then she said it - the word. "Hop!" I came right back over and looked at her. Of course she clammed right up. So Jon moved her to the jumper thing in the doorway of the bathroom. And she started right in with her hopping. And with her talking. Every time she jumps, she says hop. When she's not jumping, she's laughing or yelling - nothing discernable comes out of her mouth. But once she starts hopping, she yells out the word "hop".

I know, I know. She's only 6 months old - she can't possibly be talking. She's simply mimicking the sounds that we make when we tell her to hop. And I'm fine with that! It's not necessarily babbling, but it's something!