Saturday, October 18, 2008
hAllOwEEn pArTy!
Aunt Marni, Landon, Aunt Brenda, Chris, Preslie, Grandma Jeppesen, Ben, Baylie, Nolan
The little witch is cousin Preslie, Power Ranger Breydan, Darth Nolan, Buzy Bee Baylie, & Skelaton Ben
Grandma Jeppesen visiting from Chicago with a grumpy Bee, and Skelaben.
Baby spider Landon visiting from Chicago with Baylie Bee.
On a hay ride! Between all of us, we won 4 cakes in the cake walk! It is fun to have family visit.Friday, October 17, 2008
"I'm never gonna do that", and other pre-parent thoughts!
Today is picture day at school. Argghhhh. Before I was a mom I quickly judged others parenting styles saying to myself, "I'm never gonna do that with my kids." I thought my kids would never go out of the house with a messy face or without clothes on that don't match. I have HIDEOUS elementary school photos of me where I cut my own bangs for the photo, big holes in the knees of my tights, and the list goes on. I have always harassed my mom about those photos saying, "Geesh, mom!! Could you have at least brushed my hair?" Yep, I WAS a judgemental pre-parent. Now that I have 3 of the little beasties (as my college pal Portia refers to them) of my own...there are many, many things I do that I thought I'd never do as a parent. (By the way mom, thanks for all you did for me. I would let Baylie cut her own bangs too if I had 5!)
1. Lying to the kids. Oh, gonna be honest all the time, right? Mmm hmm. Let's see, there's the lies because the truth would hurt ("You do have a lovely singing voice"); and the just plain self-serving stuff ("No, that isn't chocolate, it's mama's medicine.")
2. Yelling, throwing stuff, and generally losing it. Because I have a pretty firm grip on my temper, I believed I'd have this one in the bag. But who knew I could get so angry at my kids? There's nothing like a little sleep-deprivation and a ton of stress and some well-timed whining to help you see the darkest sides of your personality. Good times.
3. Feeding them crap food. I didn't think I'd ever simply wipe an apple off on my shirt after it fell to the floor and hand it back to the child, let alone serve boxed mac and cheese five nights in a row. And yet, my children have sampled all kinds of bad-for-you things on occasions when convenience trumped nutrition. Let's not even mention fast food.
4. Making hollow threats. I am a real firm believer in consistency, and I try to cash the checks I make with my mouth. But I've totally done this when I made a threat I didn't want to keep. "If you don't stop, we are leaving the pool right away." Yeah, except for the fact that we carpooled with two other people. And you aren't stopping the behavior. Ooops. Point goes to kid.
5. Talking about things I shouldn't in front of the child. Whether it's a frustrated moment of complaining about someone, or mentioning a friend's not-yet-public pregnancy to a friend with my kid in earshot, I've sometimes fooled myself into thinking they can't hear or won't understand. Ha. Children hear everything and understand twenty times more than I think. My kids are 5, 8, and 11, you'd think I would have gotten this by now. And when it leads to an awkward conversation when my child blurts out the tidbit later, I have no one to blame but myself. Parenting is grand like that.
So we will see what my kids school pictures look like this year! I know I won't be judging anyone elses, or their mom! Here is Chris and I in our 3rd grade school photos. (that was back when the school photographer used the same comb on every single student in the school and gave everyone lice. Now days- they just don't use combs...it's called "grunge") Chris is SO cute!
1. Lying to the kids. Oh, gonna be honest all the time, right? Mmm hmm. Let's see, there's the lies because the truth would hurt ("You do have a lovely singing voice"); and the just plain self-serving stuff ("No, that isn't chocolate, it's mama's medicine.")
2. Yelling, throwing stuff, and generally losing it. Because I have a pretty firm grip on my temper, I believed I'd have this one in the bag. But who knew I could get so angry at my kids? There's nothing like a little sleep-deprivation and a ton of stress and some well-timed whining to help you see the darkest sides of your personality. Good times.
3. Feeding them crap food. I didn't think I'd ever simply wipe an apple off on my shirt after it fell to the floor and hand it back to the child, let alone serve boxed mac and cheese five nights in a row. And yet, my children have sampled all kinds of bad-for-you things on occasions when convenience trumped nutrition. Let's not even mention fast food.
4. Making hollow threats. I am a real firm believer in consistency, and I try to cash the checks I make with my mouth. But I've totally done this when I made a threat I didn't want to keep. "If you don't stop, we are leaving the pool right away." Yeah, except for the fact that we carpooled with two other people. And you aren't stopping the behavior. Ooops. Point goes to kid.
5. Talking about things I shouldn't in front of the child. Whether it's a frustrated moment of complaining about someone, or mentioning a friend's not-yet-public pregnancy to a friend with my kid in earshot, I've sometimes fooled myself into thinking they can't hear or won't understand. Ha. Children hear everything and understand twenty times more than I think. My kids are 5, 8, and 11, you'd think I would have gotten this by now. And when it leads to an awkward conversation when my child blurts out the tidbit later, I have no one to blame but myself. Parenting is grand like that.
So we will see what my kids school pictures look like this year! I know I won't be judging anyone elses, or their mom! Here is Chris and I in our 3rd grade school photos. (that was back when the school photographer used the same comb on every single student in the school and gave everyone lice. Now days- they just don't use combs...it's called "grunge") Chris is SO cute!
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Snuggle in Heaven
Today was so busy. From the moment my kids were out of school, I barely saw them. Chris picked up Nolan so I could gather last minute supplies for the class at church I was teaching tonight. (Activity Days- we made homemade chocolates & caramels) Meanwhile, Baylie was at volleyball and Ben in scouts. After scouts, Ben and I dropped off school paper work for the school name tags. Returned home to make dinner, iron uniforms for tomorrow, make lunches, do homework, and write checks for field trips and the school "monster mash" party coming up. (only to discover I am completely out of checks)Nolan has always been our snuggler. He LOVES to sit around and "snuggle." At dinner he said he'd make me a deal, if he took a bath and got into his pajamas, I'd snuggle with him. Doing something else at the time, I said "yea, yea just go get into the tub!" An hour later he is still following me around waiting for his time. At this point it is late and time for bed! While digging through the medicine box trying to find itch ointment for Nolan's fire ant bites, I hear him softly say, "I wish I were in heaven." I completely froze and looked at him in such surprise. He continued, "then we could just snuggle all day." It made me so sad that I did not make time to 'snuggle' today.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Rock'em Sock'em Boppers
This is how our parent/teacher conference with Ben's teacher started out this week. Ben got reprimanded at school for hitting. Apparently, another boy pulled him out of his seat in music class because he wanted the chair Ben was sitting in. Ben pulled the boy back out of his seat and sat in his chair, and so it began...the boy started hitting Ben and Ben hit him back. There is a fine line between defending yourself and punching another in frustration. Both boys get sent to the hall for "discussion."
Meanwhile, my mom came to Texas this weekend to watch my sister's kids for the weekend while she went out of town. While visiting, my mom brought Nolan an early birthday present. Rock'em, Sock'em Boppers. Perfect timing eh? While Nolan was gleefully pounding away on his big brother...Ben sat and took it like only a big brother would. There is only so much a boy can take...the sock 'em boppers were in a "time out" after about 60 seconds of being blown up. Why do toy inventors have to make toys that promote pain & violence? What were they thinking..."I know!...let's give kids punching gloves to knock each other out!" But then the moms buy them.
Meanwhile, my mom came to Texas this weekend to watch my sister's kids for the weekend while she went out of town. While visiting, my mom brought Nolan an early birthday present. Rock'em, Sock'em Boppers. Perfect timing eh? While Nolan was gleefully pounding away on his big brother...Ben sat and took it like only a big brother would. There is only so much a boy can take...the sock 'em boppers were in a "time out" after about 60 seconds of being blown up. Why do toy inventors have to make toys that promote pain & violence? What were they thinking..."I know!...let's give kids punching gloves to knock each other out!" But then the moms buy them.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
A visit to the fire station
Ben's cub scout troop visited the fire station today. Since I filled in for one of the den mothers, Nolan scored, and got to go too!
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Rotten Goose Down Feather Pillows
This past weekend the boys decided to have a "camp out" in the backyard. I dug out the tent and let em go. In the midst of all the other chaos going on I didn't notice they decided to use MY 100% white goose down feather pillows off MY bed to take outside. Of course it was the one night a year it rains in Texas. Have you ever smelled a wet feather pillow? It smells like "rotten poop" as Nolan would say. nice.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
The Hairbrush Way
I really have never seriously "spanked" my children. A smack upside the head maybe. Generations are changing so much and in child rearing too that's for sure. Maybe that's why at the park after school today I really did "yearn for a hairbrush" for some of these rude little whippersnappers!
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
An 11 year old with a cell phone?
Baylie continues to harass me regarding her NEED for a cell phone. She is one of 2 in the entire 6th grade that does not have one. (boo hoo) (Let me just add her entire 6th grade class consists of 32 kids!) This is her latest presentation of why I should not only pay 1/2 of her phone, but also pay the bill every month. blah blah blah I do like #1 on her reasons of getting a phone...a robber.
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