Vacation and a Move

I am totally stressed out right now!

We are going on a twelve day trip to Kasey's home state where we will visit tons of family and friends, play a little golf (Kasey, not me), swim, eat yummy food, stay up way too late, and a whole slew of other things.

We are leaving tomorrow. Kasey is supposed to get home around 8 o'clock tomorrow morning and we are hopefully leaving by noon. Which means all the packing of the suitcases and car is left to me. In addition to the packing, I have to prepare the snacks for our 14-hour drive (Mapquest says it takes 14 hours, which means in Kimberly time it will be closer to 17 or 18 hours.), clean the apartment (wash dishes, clean out the fridge, take out all the garbage, vacuum), and run all my errands so I don't rack up a huge bill in overdue fines on books and movies while we are gone. Just thinking of all that has to be done in the next 22 hours is so daunting.

But to top it all off, I signed the lease papers on a new apartment yesterday. So yesterday when I should have been running all my errands and cleaning up, I was calling the city and the electric company and the phone company and a million other people to switch all our services to the new address. Don't get me wrong, I'm totally excited about moving. This new apartment, while it may not be bigger, is nicer and cheaper. It has a deck and our own private backyard for the girls to play in whenever they want. And I don't have to go out in the heat with them. I get to sit inside and watch them out the window. Plus, the landlord is replacing the carpet as I speak (blog?).

So although I'm really looking forward to getting into this new apartment, I can't help but wish the timing had been a little better. We will get home from our vacation and Kasey will have to go to work literally 16 hours later. We have to be out of our current apartment 4 days after that. So it looks like I'll be calling some men from church to move me while Kasey is out of town. My parents are coming over, and that will be a huge help.

Oh my heck, writing about this is stressing me out even more! I just hope I can forget about what's waiting for me at home and have a nice, relaxing (yeah right) vacation.

Pushover Parent

Update: Well, I stood my ground last night. Kimberly cried for 75 minutes, but I did NOT let her sleep in my bed. However, Makayla could not sleep with all the screaming so I told her to lay in my bed until Kimberly went to sleep. By the time Kimberly was actually sleeping, I didn't want to risk Makayla making noise so I left her in my bed. Then Ellie started crying and there was no way I was going to let her wake up Kimberly, so Ellie slept on the couch. *sigh* So much for my resolve.

Hello. My name is Laura, and I'm a Pushover Parent.

Lately I've been realizing that I'm doing all the things that annoy me the most in other parents. I let my kids walk all over me. Tantrums gain them exactly what they want. After disciplining them, I feel bad and then give them popsicles or ice cream (or sometimes both).

When I think about it, I get so mad at myself. But in that moment when they are pushing my buttons, I just want them to leave me alone already! Chocolate will make you stop crying? Awesome! Have two! You will let me take a nap if I put in a movie that you don't normally get to watch? Cool! Where's the remote?

The last few nights Kimberly has been waking up. (She's been sleeping through the night for 3 months now.) The only way I can get her to go back to sleep is for her to sleep in my bed. I am adamantly against co-sleeping for more reasons than I care to go into in this post. I've been letting her fall asleep next to me, and then I move her to the crib. But last night I was too tired to stay up and wait for her to fall asleep. So I slept on the couch.

I woke up several hours later with a stiff neck and a cramp in my leg. I just kind of sat there for a minute wondering how that little turkey got my big ol' bed to herself while I was squishing onto my too-short couch. Oh right! Pushover Parent.

So tonight I'm making a resolve to start being the parent I used to be. One who sets boundaries and doesn't budge. One who doesn't fall for that innocent sad face routine. One who sleeps in her own bed. Without the baby. Every night.

I'm going to start being the parent again, instead of the friend. My girls have plenty of friends. They need a good parent, and that's what I'm determined to be.

I'd Like to Add Another Word to the Dictionary

spuke- [spyook] noun. verb, spuked. slang.

-noun
1. spit up, as a result of older sister pushing on baby's belly after eating.

-verb
1. to spit out forcefully. Eww! Kimberly spuked!

-slang
1. a toddler's combination of "spit up" and "puke"

***********************
Do you think I would get paid if this word actually made it into Webster's? Do you think it would be enough to cover Ellie's college education? Since, you know, she was the one to come up with the word.

On Bugs and God

While Makayla watched a bug climb up the car window she asked, " Mom, who made bugs?"

"God did."

"Why?"

"I'm not sure."

She pondered this for a moment and then asked, "Who's God?"

"It's Heavenly Father."

"Oh. . . is God his last name?"

I couldn't answer because I was laughing too hard.

Daddy's Little Girl

Sadly, Kasey has been working out of town more than he has been home in Kimberly's short 6 months of life. Every night when he calls to talk to us, I put the phone up to Kimberly's ear so she can hear her Daddy's voice. I was a little worried, though, that when he came home she would recognize his voice but not his face.

How silly of me! Yesterday after Kasey got home, Kimberly sat on his lap and hugged his arm like this for a good 30 minutes. It was so sweet, and I was so happy that she knew her daddy.

The Countdown Continues

Kasey just called, and he is only 13 hours away from home. Hooray! We can't wait to see him!

Two Hours Later

I wrote that last post while everyone was in time out, myself included. Makayla and Ellie were fighting, Kimberly was screaming, and I was at the end of my rope. So I assigned everyone a different room for 5 minutes of alone time. While in my self-imposed time out, I tried to think of what I could do to ease the tension in the house. My idea?

Swimming in the bathtub with swim suits. Laughter is pretty much always the best antidote to a bad situation, in my opinion. And there was lots of laughing! Afterwards, I was a happy mom with three very happy children.

Maybe we should swim in the tub a little more often!

Losing My Mind or What Was Left of It

Only 38 hours (give or take) until Kasey comes home. I hope my girls are alive when he gets here!

Random Stuff

I've had a lot of thoughts floating around in my head lately. I can't collect those thoughts enough to make a coherent post about each, so here's a list of random stuff.

1. Every parent and pediatrician has his/her own ideas about what babies should eat and when. I found it interesting that on the same day, only mere hours apart, I had one mom friend who was shocked to learn that Kimberly (at 5-1/2 months) is eating stage 1 baby food. And another mom friend was flabbergasted that I was only feeding Kimberly solid foods one time a day, not 3 like she thought was appropriate at this age. It's just interesting to me, and makes me realize how important it is not to judge other mothers. We are all doing the best we can.

2. In March or April I started exercising by walking several times a week for an hour or more. I felt good, but could tell that I needed just a little bit more. So this week, I started alternating walking and jogging. And let me tell you, my body hates me for it. All you runners out there, does that feeling ever go away? The feeling that with one more step you're going to fall over dead in your tracks? Because if it doesn't, I'll settle for being overweight.

3. I'm reading a book called Financial Peace by Dave Ramsey, and it has changed my life! The power of cash is amazing, and I have hardly used my debit/credit cards at all in the past month. If you have not read this book, you owe it to yourself to do so. Seriously. Life. Changing.

4. I can't wait for Kasey to get home so I can start sleeping again. His absence is the reason for my recent insomnia, I'm sure of it!

5. My older girls have been on a spitting (raspberry blowing) kick lately. It drives me crazy! Several times a day I threaten to staple their tongues to the wall or tape their mouths shut, but obviously don't. It's so frustrating that I don't know how to stop this behavior. Today when we were driving home, the sun was right in Ellie's eyes. She got so angry and finally looked up and said, "Grrr! Sun, I hate you!" And then spit at the sun. I have to admit that I could not contain my laughter.

6. The phrases that I say repeatedly every day are "Hurry up! We're late!" "Stop fighting!" "Stop spitting" (see #5) "Are your ears broken?" The answer to the last question is apparently yes, because I continue to say these same things over and over.

What they must hear (because they repeat it to each other constantly) is "I just can't handle you right now!" and "You're making me crazy!"

7. I was a little depressed looking at pictures from my sister's wedding. Because do I really look that fat? Until I saw the pictures, I was feeling pretty good about myself. I'm only about 10 pounds away from what I weighed when I got married, and I thought I looked good then. I think I should probably invest in a full length mirror so I can get a reality check every once in a while. On the other hand, I was really happy in my ignorance. Maybe I should continue to believe that I look better than I actually do.

8. Last one. Why is it that when my children are awake, stomping all over my patience, time seems to slowly creep along? But after they are in bed, I wash some dishes, read a book, and suddenly it's after midnight. It's so irritating!