a meme

how refreshing, a meme. like a tall glass of water. my sister in law over at hulaseventy has a meme up that is so perfect for my frame of mind right now.

you see, i just returned from kroger after a disagreement with someone who was in line BEHIND me but thought they were in front of me and battled me at the register and i acted like a fool and even though i was right i should have behaved better but i was so determined to explain that she was BEHIND me even though she insisted she had been there and yet i had watched her walk up and choose a spot in front of me and had wondered to myself "why is she standing there? shouldnt she stand behind me?" argh! and then she "allowed" me to go in front of her in the midst of it all even though i had BEEN in front of her from the beginning and she finished it all off by then kindly complementing my daughter just before i left heaping burning coals on my head even though i WASNT the one who had made the mistake of thinking i was first to begin with. thus, this afternoon i became the one thing i dread coming close to being.... the angry white woman. argh!

so, i will do this meme and be glad that i am home with my family who all know i am not so much an angry white woman as a frazzled mom with two small children and a massive cold sore on her upper lip. (im not kidding. it looks like ive hung a christmas tree bulb from my upper lip. and that is no exaggeration.)


here are five relatively unknown things about me:

1. I eat a lot. A whole lot. And most people would say, "right....your body looks like a 12 year olds," but i really do. My husband is actually astonished by how much i eat, and tells a story about the first time we ordered pizza together and he assumed he would get most of it thinking i was one of those girls who eats a slice and says she is full. nope. that's not me. i will cheerfully eat up my meal and some of yours if you will let me. i actually eat my three meals a day and then one more meal right before bed, like a plate of nachos or a box of macaroni and cheese or something. i have no idea why i can eat so much, but im going to enjoy it while it lasts.

2. i think i am a "baby whisperer," at least that's the title Nate has given me for it! ok, that sounds bizarre, but really, i think i have some weird way of understanding a baby's needs. i realize most moms know the needs of their babies pretty well, but i sometimes think i should write a book about what i see babies doing and what they are trying to communicate! i know some would say i have limited experience with just two kids, but i really do see some things babies do that i wish more people were aware of! i swear, im not a lunatic. just a very analytical woman with a need to figure things out.

3. I am allergic to animals. and dust. and pollen. and almost everything that exists. except food, of course. my allergies and asthma are controlled by medication, but just the thought of cat fur.....ewww! I have no desire ever in my life to own or possess any kind of furry animal. Yes, there were animals around as i was growing up, but it seems my a/a have gotten worse as ive gotten older...or as ive moved further south. this problem makes for some uncomfortable moments as i meet new people and am introduced to their beloved balls of allergens. Im constantly encouraged to pet the dog "dont worry, he wont bite" (its not the bite im worried about, its that silky sneezeworthy fur covering his body that makes me cringe) or to let the cat rub up against my ankles EEK! No thank you.

4. I have a very hard time spending money on myself. No idea why, and it really makes no sense to me, but it's true. I just see so many other things that money could be spent on like bills, and oh, say, bills, and maybe, um, those things that keep coming in the mail each month... bills. And then the kids, and all the fun things i want them to enjoy. And of course food. And then there are all of the other people in the world who have so little and I just cant justify buying stuff when I already have stuff. Unless it is really really cheap.

5. I would love to have a best friend. I would love to have a girl friend to share all those secret feelings and frustrations with who knows everything about you and you know everything about them. I think there is an acute loneliness that comes from being an only child that carries over into adulthood and the whole making friends process. Dont get me wrong, I have lots of "friends" but i have trouble getting close to any one specific person. Part of it is that i am older now, and many friendships are already established and people just dont get real close in their older years unless they are kinda forced into a relationship either by work or a common event in life. I am hoping that some time in my lifetime God brings a person just right for me to have a grand friendship with. Sounds so corny when I read it but its true!

welcome

...to the den of sickness. we have sicknesses of all kinds floating thru, whatever your body might desire. We are currently sharing croup with anyone interested in a barking cough, sore throat, and slight fever.

We are on our eighth illness since October. That means we have been sick more than well around here since fall. I remember being sick a lot as a kid, but watching my kids go thru illnesses is just the pits. They feel so terrible and there's very little you can do to help them. And then you are relatively quarantined, no kids allowed to visit and you cant hang out anywhere with kids, so that means no church, no school, no playdates. Just a lot of hanging out at home. Which is great for the first day or two, but after that gets a bit boring for the other child (as well as mom.) And then when you finally do venture out after a week indoors, and the child begins hacking up a lung in the check out line, you endure the critical stares of other moms (of all people) who have forgotten what it's like to be at home with a sick kid.

But Spring is coming, and soon the weather will change. And this is all a part of growing up. And i try to remind myself that this is good, in a way, because it is building their immune system. And, it reminds me to be thankful for all my mom went thru with me!

"daddybaddy"

The other day Luxie was running around singing a little song she learned at school. It went something like this,

"You like me, there's no daddy baddy, You like me there's no daddy baddy, you like me there's no daddy baddy, you are my good friend."

It took me a minute to figure out the real lyrics ("no doubt about it"), but I couldnt help getting a kick out of her interpretation! I think this is one of God's little ways of helping us thru the tough times of raising kids. They honestly say some of the funniest things Ive ever heard!

Right now Luxie is going thru the "question" stage of childhood. She is just dying to understand everything, and I am doing my best to make things clear. The worst time is in the car when Nate and I are having a conversation. It's like we ve got someone peeking over our shoulder asking questions they dont understand! It goes something like this:
I say to Nate "the car kept dying today"
and we hear from the backseat "someone is DYING?"
"no sweetheart, no one is dying"
"but you said someone is dying!"
"No Luxie, (over my shoulder) we said 'the car is dying'"
"The car is DYING?"
"no, the car isnt dying, it just means that the car wasnt working right."
"the car isnt working right?"
"right, the car kept quitting today, now let me finish telling daddy the story"
"why was the car quitting?"
"i dont know sweetheart, that's why im telling daddy, now let me finish please."
5 seconds pass
"are we going to have to get a new car?"


This happens CONSTANTLY thruout the day and i know my mom has some sly grin on her face as she reads this thinking "oh... I remember." Yes, it is a typical stage of childhood, and actually, it's much better than a lot of the other phases we seem to go thru, but MY GOODNESS it is exhausting. I will be honest, Ive tried a variety of things to avoid the drawn out conversations--feigning ignorance "hmm? i dont know" ignoring the questions (this only leads to multiple repeats of the questions until I answer..."mommy? mommy? mommy? did you hear me? mommy?" and the old "let's ask daddy when he gets home" but nothing seems to work. Ive resigned myself to the fact that i have one bright girl here who will stop at nothing to get her question answered.

zaine, on the other hand is AAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!


(this blog post was interrupted by my checking on Zaine who had wandered around the corner and finding her with a poopie diaper, opened and smashed onto the floor and her hands.)

AAAAAAAA!!! I pause for one moment and the girl is always INTO SOMETHING!

(after a major clean up involving much antibacterial soap all over bodies and the floor, Im back to say....)

....Zaine is my quiet, plays alone girl with a very funny personality. She is content to entertain herself (thank you Lord) but loves to get into things because she is an explorer. However she wants to be wherever Luxie is, and loves to act out what she sees Luxie doing. They actually have a ball together, when Lux wants to play with her. In fact their favorite pasttime is Zaine pushing Luxie int the doll stroller.

Needless to say, it's been quite a ride around here lately!

"she clicks"

Yes, for the last several month Luxie has been clicking. You know...you put your tongue on the roof of your mouth and then with a little suction it drops down and makes a "click" sound. Luxie has begun doing this whenever she becomes excited, happy, or shy about something like a friend coming over to play or the start of her favorite program (which is now Little Einsteins, by the way.)

This is not just some random "click, click, click," at the end of a sentence or "click click" as a means of communication like playfully answering a question. This is clicking that interrupts her thoughts and sentences....a bit like a tic! It goes like this, "Really? (click) Sydney's coming over? I cant wait! (click click)" Or maybe something like getting a Littlest Pet Shop toy in her Happy Meal, "(click) (with a big smile) he's cute"(with shyness). Nate likens it to a dog wagging its tail, and I have to say, that is the best example I can think of to describe it! Whatever the cause behind it, we hope it's overcome before she's standing at the alter with her husband to be, "(click, click) Yes! (click) I do! (click, click)!

Lemony Snickets around here

So the last two days have been a ride. It's been like a series of crazy incidences. Odd things have been happening left and right! I mean, how often do you find your 12 month old wandering around chewing on a snow globe? How often do you pick up that child with a snow globe in her hand, and begin to wonder why your sleeve is wet? And when you look down at your sleeve you find the snowglobe leaking its odd liquid all over you? And then you realize that is why your 12 month old was sucking on it? And how often do you freak out and call poison control because your daughter ingested "snow globe liquid?" And how often do you hear someone say "we have no recorded incidences of stomach pumping because of a snow globe?" They did however, warn us to keep an eye out for the big V or big D and fever, due to bacteria in the liquid. Shaved another couple years off my life...! Zaine seems to be fine aside from some crazy diapers (her body fighting the substance, thankfully) but--I keep waiting to find glitter or some fake snow....

Then today I was in the basement with the girls watching Nate build the walls. Our basement is unfinished but we are trying to get it built before the end of the month, and he is doing all of the work he can before hiring out. So we have this big rule about "wearing shoes" because, of course, there are dangerous things lying all around like nails and splintered boards and such. Well Luxie had a moment of dancing around crazy and I had to calm her immediately because just behind her was this board with nails sticking up out of it. I could just see her step back on top of it or worse yet fall onto it. And no more did I get the words out of my mouth before I stepped back RIGHT onto a nail pierced board. Yes, I know, slippers hardly count for shoes and I ought to know better, but WOW was I surprised by that nail. "A NAIL! A NAIL! I STEPPED ON A NAIL!" I must have said it 700 times while balancing on one foot with Zaine in my arms. Nate grabbed my foot and pulled the nail board out and im not kidding, I felt a little suction "pop". "Take the baby, take the baby, take the baby..." was all i could get out and when Nate grabbed her I headed for the stairs crawling up on my hands and knees. All I could think about were those horror stories of lockjaw and I knew I hadnt had a tetnus shot in YEARS. I was heading straight for the antibacterial whatnot--anything to prevent the side effects if there were going to be any! What's funny is that when I got to the bathroom, I realized there wasnt much pain, and actually, there wasnt any blood. The hole was there.. small, but definitely there, so I have no idea what happened! And thankfully, it never really ended up hurting too badly. And my jaw seems to be working just fine, so another tragedy averted....

And now Im off to bed, to get some rest before a new day dawns. I have no idea how to prepare for what mishaps await me in the morning!