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"

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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!