Weaning

Well it has been over three years that I have been pregnant or breastfeeding. I think in total it was three years and two months. I haven't nursed C in three days. He is 13 months old. I originally planned to nurse him six months, but six turned into nine and nine turned into thirteen.

S was only eight months when I found out I was pregnant with C. I struggled with the pregnancy for a while. I remember thinking that it was hard to be excited about a new baby because I still had a baby. Once S was weaned and sleeping through the night it became easier to grasp that I could take care of them all. I was pretty scared that I would have a hard time caring for three children under the age of four. It has turned out great. I cannot imagine our family any other way. I finally feel like I am making so head way, even that I am doing okay mothering my three boys. C is still not sleeping through the night, but I feel like it is a huge step for us not to be nursing through the night. After lunch I gave him a cup and he held it for himself and drank huge gulps of milk. It was humbling and exciting at the same time to realize that he is growing up and doesn't need me as much.

On the way home from picking H up from preschool I got a huge Dr. Pepper from Mickey D's, because I no longer have to worry about how much caffeine I am ingesting. I feel a little loopy from the extra caffeine. I am excited and sad at the same time to finally get my body back to myself. I am a little sad, because I have been growing or sustaining a life everyday for the last three years. I found out I was pregnant with H September of 2002, so for over five years there have only been five months that I wasn't pregnant or breastfeeding, that is until today.

I think I would be down right weepy if it weren't for the fact that I think we are going to have another bambino.

Motherhood is the best hardest thing that has ever happened to me.

$35 Special

I went to the post office today, joy of all joys, to send a friend some preggie drops, which are fantastic when you are pregnant. I also needed to buy stamps for Christmas cards. With a 4 1/2 year old, 2 1/2 year old and a 13 month old anything is an adventure. I had C in the backpack, S on my hip, and holding H's hand. S had a wonderful time sitting on all of the benches and low shelves. Fortunately H is now old enough to hold a spot in the line while I run after S. We managed to get everything mailed and purchased. Everything was going swimmingly until some older lady behind me belches "Geez you've got three of them, ugh." I chose to ignore her, until she told her companion, "She's got one on her back and one on her hip and then there's another one." I yelled back, "they are beautiful children, not rabid dogs." I am really sick and tired of people commenting on my children. "Are they all yours?" "Wow there are three of them." Those are the two I get the most. It drives me insane.

So, I get everybody back across the street and into their car seats and wouldn't you know it, when I turn on the wind shield wipers, I have a F#@$ing parking ticket.

$35, isn't that special.

Crapitty Crap Crap

I am in a crappy mood. Blah blah blah. I knocked five things off of my mega Christmas list yesterday. So far today, not a single one has been crossed off. I did discover that while I thought we managed to get all of our boxes from this last pcs, I think we are missing some. Of course the missing boxes would be the boxes of Christmas decorations, ARGH!!!

If I was Martha Stewart I could craft elegant and beautiful decorations from toilet paper. Alas Martha Stewart I am not. Oh well.

Long time no blog

I haven't blogged in a really long time. I keep having brilliant ideas, but then I either forget or just never sit down and do it. I don't have a brilliant idea today, I just needed to get back on the horse so to speak. So here is a brief run down of what has been going on here.

Well not much actually, just the usual things, taking care of little people. H loves school, except in the morning when I ask him to get dressed. His teacher is really kind and sweet. S is getting bigger and speaking more clearly, I cannot wait to hear what he has to say about life. He is such a funny, sweet little person. He is very happy. C is still crawling, he is showing some interest in standing up, but not a whole lot, we are working with him. Although honestly I am not sure about having all three of them walking, might be more chaos then it already is.

Husband is enjoying his job, although I think he is having some issues just enjoying where we are now. I think, we think that he is deploying as soon as this job is up and I think he is starting to think about it more and more.

I am getting ready to go on medifast. I haven't weaned C yet, hopefully I will do this any day now. He won't take a binky, so it will be a little challenging. However being that he is still getting up two or three times a night I am just about out of gas. I am pretty exhausted, Thanksgiving just about knocked me out. I am ready to get rid of the S and C baby weight. Husband and I are seriously discussing having another baby, so I need to get serious about getting all of this weight off.

Other than that things are pretty normal here. I keep having to get up and referee H and S, holy moly. I am going to blog more regularly, that is my pre new year's resolution.

The Coughing

I swear if one more doctor tells me that my son's cough is just a cough and try a humidifier I am going to body slam their stethoscope. H has a cough, it keeps him and everyone else in the house awake at night. He coughs until it sounds like he will puke. He is upset and exhausted. I finally tried some magic words like coughing spell and reactive airway and we got an albuterol inhaler. Which by the way the doctor said might make him bounce off of the wall. So my child who isn't sleeping well will now have even more reason not to sleep.

Some days I wish I could go to medical school. I wish I could prescribe my own medicine and take care of my children myself. Plus at our current military clinic there are a ton of residents and interns. Our "Dr" today looked like she was about 23 years old. The last time we went in our "Dr" who looked 16 asked me if I was a doctor, I think because I do research before I go in and know some of the lingo. I am so thankful that we have not had to deal with any serious illness, other than the cancer scare we had a couple of months ago.

Maybe I will go to medical school, oh yeah and add that to the $70,000 of student loan debt I already have. Sigh.

Where is the Manual

Last night I mopped the floor while listening, okay jamming out to my ipod. I realized half way through that it had been almost a year since I'd done that. Come to think of it, the last time was when I was pregnant with C and I fell down while mopping.
So, I am mopping and listening to music and thinking about when H was a baby and my husband was in Iraq. I had this nightly ritual. Henry and I would eat around 1700, I was doing weight watchers, so I was starving by 1700. I would bathe Henry and put him to bed around 1900. Then I would jump on the treadmill for a run. Afterwards I would mop the floors. I don't think I would mop every night, but maybe every other. The point is I did something for myself every day. Fast Forward we have moved two more times and have two more children and I am struggling to keep toe nail polish on. I don't do anything every night other than try to keep the disaster that is my house at bay.
I swear it seems like just yesterday I was sitting in my apartment at college making macaroni and cheese after I'd been out drinking. I always made mac and cheese before I went to sleep to try and keep from having a hang over the next day. All of the sudden I am an Army wife and mother of three small children. I used to have a brain. I used to study and go to school. I used to have the entire world open to me. Now I can hardly get to the grocery store, incidentally I haven't been to the grocery store in over a week. We are starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel for dinner. I don't remember what happened. Oh that's right, this guy asked me to marry him. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids, I love being a mom. Today at preschool, H's teacher told me some really great things about him and how he is doing. It was so wonderful.
What drives me crazy is that I feel like I have lost myself. I used to wear cute clothes and great shoes. I used to read novels and drive a really sexy car. Now my clothes are rarely even clean. I drive a minivan that is totally cluttered up with stuff. I read romance novels because reading them does not involve thinking. I feel like I am just getting by.
I think I missed the part where they handed out the manual where the rules were written out. Like, some women will hardly gain an ounce during pregnancy, while others will blow up like some one put an air hose in their mouths. You will not see fellow air hose women, you will only know the tiny petite women. I went to a picnic for my husband's new job. I swear all of the other wives were tiny and dressed very nicely. I was wearing my summer uniform, Capri's and a v neck t-shirt. How did I miss the train? Where the hell was the manual, class, memo whatever that explained how the hell you are supposed to be mother, wife, chef, maid, plumber, mechanic, chauffeur, laundry wench, etc and still keep wear fashionable clothes and have a cute hair style. AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
I guess for starters I can make a nightly date with my ipod and my mop.

Wee Boy Urinal

A knock on the door the other day signaled the arrival of (trumpet fanfare) the Peter Potty Urinal. My cousin has this mite sized urinal for her two boys, and S has been really interested in using the potty. S is still a little too small to stand and pee into the big potty, so I thought perhaps a wee sized urinal would do the trick. Well, we have had it two days and I have had to clean up elephant sized pee spills. See, the urinal has a water tank on top so that your tykes can flush their very own urinal. The pee and the water goes into a little tray with handle at the bottom. The first time was my own fault, I refilled the water tank without emptying the tray. H and S flushed the urinal about twenty times when water and pee started gushing out of the tray, Peeagra Falls, eww gross. The second time today, S went into the bathroom and was trying to empty the tray into the potty. While I applaud his attempt at helping, he didn't get much of the pee water into the potty. In the midst of all of this I discovered that the floor in the bathroom is not level, all of the pee water slowly flowed from one end of the bathroom to the other.
Everyone is fascinated by having a urinal, I fully expect to sneak up and catch my husband peeing into it. I wonder if they make itty bitty urinal cakes? Interestingly enough, another name for urinal cake is toilet lolly. How delightful.

Sleep Zombie

I think the lack of sleep is finally getting to me. C is getting up two to three times a night. This morning his wake up coincided with his Dad's wake up. Our bathroom is right off of the room, so even with the door closed the room was really bright which totally woke C up. He was up from 0500 to 0700. Argh. Then H was up at 0600. So no sleep for me. I am feeling part of the way to crazy land. Maybe running in the election for mayor of crazy land. I start getting this panicky feeling that he will never sleep. S just did not have sleep issues. He still loves to sleep. He slept until 0800 this morning. At least by the time C is in college he can supervise himself and then I will be able to sleep.

Blogger's Block

I have three or four saved drafts, but nothing sounds witty or interesting. I am here, I just can't think of anything intelligent to say. The kids have been sick. I am tired. I still have a zillion boxes to unpack which my next door neighbor commented on today. She leaned into the garage and was asking me what everything was. She also wanted to know what was up with the car seat that had been sitting in front of our garage for a week. S puked on it and I haven't motivated to finish cleaning it and getting the cover back on that I washed. Geez. Well, I moved it to the garage. See, this is the material that I have, not much. I had a job offer, but I decided not to take it. I want to be at home with the kids, but it was tough to say no to something that would give me adult interaction. We watched Yo Gabba Gabba today, but I am afraid it is some kind of mind altering program. It has a weird 70s vibe to it. Why does DJ Lance have five little alien looking dudes in his boom box case????

What is a poop in the hand worth?

Yesterday our two year old came downstairs with poop in each hand. You know you are a mom when you are grateful that the poop is in one piece and has not been smeared anywhere. He was bringing it down to put in the trash can. At first I didn't realize that his destination was the trash can, so I chased him around the house trying to stop him from doing something with the poop. Fortunately he made it to the trash can at the same time I did so I could open the lid for him. Ahhhh motherhood, isn't it just great. Ewww! Ewww! Ewww!

Walter Reed

Today the boys and I went to Walter Reed. We had to pick up some paper work for H so he can start pre-k. How do you explain to a very curious preschooler why that young man is in a wheelchair and does not have his legs? I told H that the man had a boo boo, serious understatement I know, but I can't tell him that the man was hurt in Iraq, because his daddy will be going back to Iraq or Afghanistan and I don't want to scare him. I know kids his age tuck that kind of info away. It is amazing to see these young men, I know there are also young women, but we have only seen men. I am starting to lose count of the amputees that we have seen. I have only seen one person that was missing only one limb. Mostly we see double amputees. The most incredible thing about these young guys is that not a single one is hanging his head. They are all going about there business. I am amazed by there strength. These guys are defining the word HERO, these wounded warriors. I on the other hand get back in the car and cry a little, it breaks my heart to see the young guys missing limbs. It also scares me to death, because I know that my husband is going back.

Help Me!!

C is not sleeping well. I do not know what to do. I have tried everything that worked for H and S. He naps several times during the day. He goes to bed early, but he will not stop waking up during the night. I am at my wit's end. I lost it last night during a disagreement with my husband. I think I growled. I am exhausted and totally over taxed. I need a vacation. Actually I just need the baby to sleep through the night then I could sleep. If I sleep then I can think. No more growling. I think I may try a different sleep method. Oh by the way the cry it out thing is not an option because the walls of our townhouse are paper thin. Last night when I was sitting in C's room rocking him I heard the Dad next door call his son downstairs. It was like he was sitting in the room. I feel frazzled and half insane.

I'm Back!!!

I cannot tell you how excited I am to be posting something on my blog. We checked out of the hotel this morning and moved our bizarre collection of belongings into our new house. I have not had decent access to the internet since April. I think it is a little sad that I am so dependent on the internet, but it is difficult to find preschools or shopping without the internet, especially because phone books do not even come close to providing the information you need.
I just wanted to post a blog from our new house on my new cable internet. Yay!!! I am sitting on the floor in an empty house, but we have cable and internet, you know, the basics.

Birthday

We had a great party for H's birthday. He loves the idea of surprise parties, so we surprised him with decorations and cake. R. took him to get pizza and we decorated and got ready. Unfortunately R. left his cell phone at the house, so they came back a little too early. I was trying to hide and then jump out at the same time and ended up busting my butt. He was really excited. He loved all the Thomas the Train decorations. I tried to make a 3D train cake and it was a total disaster. Fortunately I had extra cake batter that I'd baked in a bundt pan. I'd already made two batches of Thomas the train blue frosting, so I frosted the bundt and piped black train tracks all over the cake. Then I put birthday Thomas on top. It was not quite what I had in mind, but I don't think H. even noticed. He was too busy playing with his new toys to even eat more than one bite of cake.
We bought too much stuff, but I couldn't help myself. We got this ultimate Thomas train set. It is HUGE, but it was on sale and had a lot of trains that came with it. He loves it, but I am kicking myself, because we have to cram all kinds of stuff into the car and the van. I cannot believe that my baby is four years old. It seems like yesterday I was holding him in my arms. He is so big and so smart, it is mind boggling. S's birthday is next, but hopefully we will be in our new quarters.

Fed Up

I realize it has been a while since I have posted. Sometimes I feel inspired and other times, I have nothing. Housing is telling us it will probably be the 14th of June before we get the keys to our new quarters. I cannot express how frustrating this is. Last night I was giving C. a bath and started thinking about how desperately I want to have a nursery for him. He will be seven months in a week or so. He is not sleeping more than two or three hours at a time at night. I am sure that if we weren't sharing a room he would sleep better, but there is no more space in my parent's house. We are about as spread out as we can be. Our stuff is everywhere. H. keeps asking about his stuff and his bed. He also keeps asking when we can go to our new state. I am running out of things to say and also running out of enthusiasm. We are heading to the beach this weekend which should help. I cannot wait to walk on the beach and listen to the waves at night. I think I need to tell the husband that we need to be stationed near the ocean.
Everyone is getting over a cold. We went to a kid's museum and a place called Monkey Joe's. I think we got the cold from being around all those other kids. Monkey Joe's is awesome, it has all kinds of jumping castles. The also have giant blow up slides. The boys love it. The first two times we went R. helped the kids and did some jumping and sliding. This last time I got in and went sliding. It was great. There is nothing as great as feeling like a kid again.

The longest Pcs

We are officially homeless. We are staying with my folks, waiting for housing. We are on the waiting list, waiting.
Our trip went better than I imagined. However the night before we were supposed to leave C. was sick. His cheeks were hot but he didn't have a fever. I thought he might be teething. At 2:30 am C. and I were in Walmart, because I saved out Tylenol, but no syringes. I tried to give him some medicine from a tea spoon, but you can imagine how well that worked. I got tylenol all over his pjs, but his change of clothes was in the van. So I put C. in one of S.'s t-shirts. I felt like a white trash mom in walmart in the middle of the night with my baby in a t-shirt and no socks. Then C. and I headed to the empty house. I was afraid that he would wake up the other kids. We slept on blankets on the floor. We still managed to clear our quarters and hit the road. The trip went well. We stayed in some really nice Residence Inns that were next door to Courtyard by Marriotts that had indoor pools. The boys loved swimming.
So, we are waiting to hear about our quarters. We don't have a new address yet, but I will email it out when we do!!!

And Another Thing....

I am tired of breastfeeding. I have had six months in the last four and a half years that I haven't been pregnant or breastfeeding. I love my babies, but I want my body back. I can't get C. to take a bottle. Any suggestions would be very very welcome. Anyways, I just wanted to get that off my chest. Apparently this is catharsis Wednesday.

Frustration

I have been reading the blogs of several ladies that were in Vilseck when we were there. I must say that I am frustrated with myself because they all seem really great. I know I blogged something similar earlier, but I just got done reading a woman's blog that I knew, but never met. She and I have a lot in common. She seems really nice. I think I was too caught up in having my first baby and being stressed out by deployments. I don't know. I do not like regrets, but I regret that I didn't try to get involved in more things. I am going to rectify this at our new duty station. I am really going to try to get out there and meet some people. I think I am too self conscious. I am really shy. I have been working on being more outgoing. I think I am doing better, but it is tough.

My Big Secret

Well, here goes. I have a secret, well it is a secret from some not from all. I gained a gazillion pounds when I was pregnant. I lost all the weight I gained from H. before I got pregnant with S., but I'd just lost it, so I gained weight like crazy. I like to blame the deployment and frequent pregnancies. Any ways, for those of you who saw me in Germany I do not look too different. I will say though that I had not lost any weight from S. when I got pregnant with C. S. was only 8 months and I was still breastfeeding. So my big secret is that I have a ton of weight to lose. I am seriously bummed out about it. I was reading the blog of another Army wife who was stationed in Germany and she lost a butt load of weight doing weight watchers. So there, I am inspired. I started today. I will keep you posted. I have been avoiding people that know me because I am so embarrassed by the weight that I have gained. So I decided to out myself so that I can throw off the "secret."

If a Tree Falls.......

So, I am sure you have heard the philosophical question about a tree falling in the forest. If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, does it make a sound? Or at least something like that. Well, I have discovered and answered my own philosophical question. It goes something like this: If a toilet overflows and there is no one around, does it still make a mess? Well grasshopper the overflow will make a huge mess.
Oh yes sports fans, some how at some point in the day yesterday someone flushed the toilet and it spilled water all over the bathroom floor. I have no idea what went down the toilet, but I will say that the toilet seriously objected to whatever it was. I walked into the bathroom, barefoot of course, and found that both bathroom rugs were sopping wet. I also now know the answer to: what does sopping mean? There is definitely a difference when you know the toilet is about to overflow and you scramble around the back of the toilet and either turn the water off just in time or in enough time that there isn't too much water. It is not a fun experience to discover that the toilet overflowed at some point, seriously, ewwww.

Duct Tape

I am going to put duct tape on the tapes of S's diaper. He keeps pulling it off and running around naked. If you have been reading my blog, you know the poop issues we have with himself. I think I will ask my husband to bring home some hundred mile and hour tape!!!!

ARGH!!!

Crazy Book Lady

When I lived in Texas I went to an estate sale of a woman who had more books than the library on post in Germany. I believe that she kept every single book she read. On one hand it was fascinating to see all of her different interests. On the other hand, I started to get a weird feeling. I felt like I was looking at my own estate sale 50 years in the future. Since then I have been trying to limit the number of books that I buy and certainly limit the number that I keep. Currently I have three full size books shelves and several plastic containers full of books. Thank goodness my husband is in the Army, because moving is probably the only thing keeping me from becoming a crazy book lady who has books instead of cats.
So this morning in between trying to keep S. in his diaper and jiggling C. I have been sorting books and magazines. As if I even have time to finish a book, I can't even finish a magazine these days. I have last month's O magazine that I haven't even read half of.
I am also sizing up everything we own trying to guestimate how heavy it is. It is driving me crazy. I am sure I will throw away or donate something that I will later wish that I had. We probably will not even be overweight, but I am not taking any chances. Honestly though I cannot part with my decorating magazines or my Martha Stewart Living Mags. We will have a house someday. Plus I need to know exactly how to grow begonias and launder antique linens, I mean you just never know.

Too Hooah

You Might be a LITTLE too hooah If....

- the only time you and the spouse eat without the kids is at the unit "dining
out".
- you always back into parking spaces.
- you have to look up your parents phone number, but can dial the CQ, SDNCO,
company, battalion and brigade with no problem at all
- each page of your vacation atlas has two routes marked.
- your favorite author is Mike Malone or Tom Clancy.
- when your kids are too noisy, you announce "at ease!"
- you don't own any blue ink pens.
- your leave always occurs during the last week of September.
- you keep a box of MREs at home and in the trunk of your car in case of
emergencies.
- when talking to relatives by phone, you end the conversation with "out ."
- you refer to your spouse as "Household 6" or CINC House."
- you've seen Patton enough times to memorize his speech.
- CNN or FOX is your favorite program.
- you call the Post Locator instead of Information to find your friends.
- you take the family camping with no tent or sleeping bags.
- your kids can speak three languages by age eight.
- the only suit you own is your Class A uniform.
- you carry your cell phone to the shower.
- your vehicle is registered on post and in two different states.
- you have more money invested in TA-50 than in your car.
- you tell your kids to go to bed at 2100 and they try to explain that it's
only nine o'clock.
- the allotment column of your LES has more entries than the entitlement
column.
- no one understands the stories you tell because of all the acronyms.
- you can explain the Gettysburg battlefield better than directions to your
house.
- your kids know the words to "she wore a yellow ribbon."
- your two-year old calls everyone in ACUs "daddy".
- the phone book lists your rank instead of Mr.
- your spouse hasn't unpacked the good china for ten years.
- your monthly BAS goes to the mess hall.
- you ruin the movie for everyone around you by pointing out the unrealistic
military scenes.
- you live on post so you can hear reveille every morning.
- your family calls you "Sir."
- all your jokes begin with "there was this soldier, a marine and an
airman..."
- you feel compelled to get a haircut every five days.
- all of your shoes are military style, except for one pair and that pair is
your running shoes.
- you are convinced that coffee is a nutrient.
- your home town is convinced that you are a foreigner.
- your first impressions of civilians are that they all need haircuts.
- civilians exercise and you conduct PT.
- you feel guilty about leaving work at any hour.
- you only wear those dorky military glasses or the geeky aviation glasses.
- when your kids categorize other kids as either military brats or civilian
slugs.
- if the phones in your home resemble the standard military version.
- if you answer your phone at home by explaining that the line is unsecure.
- if your spouse owns several military cookbooks published by family support
groups.
- if half of the mementos in your house are from Korea or Germany.
- you don't leave the house, you sp
- when your spouse tells you the dishwasher isn't loaded according to sop

I Miss Germany

We left Germany just about a year and a half ago. When we left I was sooo ready to get back to the States. I missed Walmart and being able to buy whatever whenever I needed it. I had really started to hate feeling like a foreigner. I felt a huge weight lift from my shoulders when we landed in Dallas. It didn't take long for me to start missing things about Germany. I miss the beer and the country dining (pork, pork, and more pork.) I really miss our quarters, sigh, we had really great quarters. At the time we were stationed there I took some things for granted. It really drove me nuts that I couldn't go places without someone noticing or commenting. I always saw someone I knew at the commissary especially if I didn't take the time to shower or if I was feeling grumpy. We lived on a pretty small installation, so now that I live on a very large post, I miss knowing the person at the checkout at the PX. I also miss having people who cared if I left the house and was gone all day or even if I hadn't left the house in a week. I miss my neighbors that lived on the street. Here no one hangs out on the street, everyone is to themselves. I miss the guys that worked in the training room. Now when I go to my husband's office, the guys know who I am but hardly anyone speaks. I miss the CDC, I particularly miss Miss Darla. If you were stationed in Vilseck and you had small kids, you know Miss Darla, she was the best teacher/caregiver I have met. She was awesome!!!
Even though the familiarity of living in a small community made me nuts sometimes, I really miss it. I miss the friends I made there. I have been reading the blogs of some ladies that were living where I was and I feel like I missed out on some great people. I think sometimes when you are out of your comfort zone it is difficult to see two feet from your face. Two deployments surely didn't help!! I am not sure how I would have gotten to know some of them, but I marvel sometimes at how much I have in common with them and how interesting they all are. It makes me appreciate being an Army wife and having the opportunity to meet some really great women.

Oh, I MISS GERMAN BEER!!!! I was pregnant or breastfeeding most of the time we were in Germany, so I definitely did not get my fill of the beer.

Woman vs. Wild

I am not sure if you have seen the show Man vs. Wild, but it is about this guy aptly named Bear who is dropped off in various remote areas and has to survive while he gets himself back to civilization. While I definitely have a leg up on him in the food department, I've never eaten roots or bugs, I do not know if he could actually survive three children under the age of four. I have particular doubts about his ability to survive a 3 1/2 year old and a 21 month old finger painting.
On Wednesday, I decided that it would be great if we finger painted. So, the three of us, C. was napping, decided to go into the kitchen and shut the gate, thereby confining the boys to the kitchen. They were thrilled to be painting, but things quickly deteriorated and I mean less than ten minutes. The boys were painting on large pieces of paper on the floor, so feet became involved. This was great, very cute until the paint was all over the floor and everyone started to slip.
I quickly figured out that there was no way I could leave either child alone in the kitchen while I took someone to the bathroom to be hosed down. So I put H. on my back and S. clung to my front. A split second before I put my foot down on the beige (ridiculous color for a living room with small children) carpet I realized that I had paint all over my feet. Luckily there were two plastic shopping bags on the counter. I put one on each foot and off we went to the bathroom. The paint came off there bodies very easily. As soon as I had them cleaned up and out of the tub. I started working on the kitchen. If you ever doubt the amount of surface area that your children touch, let them into the kitchen with paint on their hands. You will have a new appreciation for the amount that you must clean and sanitize.
I will not get into the gory details, because recently someone pointed out that I talk about poop a great deal in my blog. S. walked over to the gate and held up a brown finger and said one word, "MESS." Needless to say I abandoned cleaning up washable finger paint. S. strikes again. YUCK!!
I wish I had some beautifully painted pictures to post on the site, but everything just ended up a part of the mess. I think we will wear beach shoes next time.

TGIF

Whew, what a week. I am certainly glad that it is Friday. S. got into his diaper again, this time while he was supposed to be napping. I had no clue he was awake. When I finally heard him I walked into his room and my nose was assaulted by the smell of poo. Believe me, when your almost 4 year old tells you he has poopy on his toe, he probably does. Earlier this week I stepped on some of S.'s poo and I knew immediately that it was poop, so why wouldn't H. know he'd stepped in his brother's poo. S. had smeared his poo all over the crib, including the rails. He also tossed some out of the crib which is how H. got poo on his toe. All I have to say is Ewwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!! After I was done cleaning S. up, I walked out of the bathroom and caught my pinky toe on the door jamb. Ouch!!! I broke my toe and now my foot and toe are black and blue.
I think I will hunker down and lay low until Sunday.

Mice

If you have never had mice in your house or in your garage, thank your lucky stars!!! My first mouse encounter was in Germany. While my husband was in the country we had no problems. However once he deployed to Iraq for the second time, it was as if a beacon was sent around the county or at least it was beamed into the field by our house, "Come one, Come all, a woman is on her own with a small child." I went into our detached garage one day to get something and discovered little black pellets. Let me tell you once there have been little black pellets in your life, you will never look at debris the same way. Just a second ago I found a black crumb next to the keyboard and had to analyze it to make sure that there had not been a mouse computer party. Back to the garage. The mice were into everything. Basically they'd made the garage into a boom town. They'd made a nest in the bike trailer that I used to pull H. around town in. I'd made the mistake of leaving a lolly pop in the trailer. It was disgusting. My husband's golf bag had become the local Mouse Motel. Some mice were running a bar out of one of my husband's boots. Totally Gross. I completely and totally FREAKED out. I admit it, I lost it. I put H. to bed for a nap. I grabbed rubber gloves and garbage bags. I threw everything away. Everything. I didn't even ask before I threw my husband's golf bag away. I borrowed a neighbor's truck and tossed everything they pooped on. Some things I cleaned. I scrubbed my husband's golf clubs and anything else that could take being bleached. Thankfully I could retreat into the house and be safe from the GERMS. Incidentally I used D-con because the mice were out in the garage, just be forewarned, the mice will poop green pellets before they die.
Fast forward to Fall of 2005, I started noticing these little black pellets in almost every room. To my horror, we had mice inside the house. Talk about crawly skin, freak out feelings, I thought I was going to go nuts. One evening I was cooking for a bake sale, when I saw a flash of a tale. Fortunately I was able to catch the little buggers using glue traps. Late one night my husband and I were in bed, he was sleeping soundly while I watched late night tv. Sure enough I start hearing screeching and scratching. After everyone was in bed I would place traps in front of every one's door. S. was only four or five months, and H. was about 2 1/2 so they were both in cribs. To my horror I realized that if I needed to get to either child I would have to *gasp* step over a mouse stuck in a glue trap. Holy moly, there was absolutely no way that was going to happen, not to mention the fact that the poor creature (only now can I say poor creature, at the time in my mind the had horns and evil leers) was screeching loudly. So I woke my husband up even though he had to get up at four, I woke him up. He got up and disposed of the creature, thank goodness he is such a good husband, he has to be to put up with my insanity. After several months of catching H. and I. (husband) in the traps, we finally got rid of them all. At least I think.
So this past summer I started thinking of offensive strikes. I was not about to be infiltrated by the nasty buggers again, oh no, I was going to strike first. I knew that I could not use poison, which would have been the easiest thing to use, but not with children around. So I bought an ultrasonic device. Not sure if it works, but we seem to be mouse free this year. I was contemplating the purchase of red fox urine, because the red fox is a natural predator of the house mouse. I thought long and hard and googled every aspect I could think of. Finally I decided against the urine because I was afraid that I would attract the natural predator of the red fox. We live close to a nature preserve and it wasn't a far stretch to imagine bears and cougars knocking on the door asking for reservations at Chez Fox. So I bought something else entirely, a mouse repellent that you put around plants in the backyard. Well, I should have googled the ingredients on the label first, but I was desperate, it was getting to be mouse season and I was about a month from giving birth to our third boy C. So I step outside and shake this stuff all around the foundation of the house. Not smart, not a good idea, because the main ingredient was naphthalene, yes oh yes, mothballs. So within minutes the entire house smells like mothballs. So I googled naphthalene and of course come upon a laundry list of horrible side effects from smelling mothballs, nasal cancer being one of them. So in my pregnancy induced insanity I send my husband to the store for a bag of charcoal because it was Sunday night and everything was closed I knew the odds of getting activated charcoal would be slim. While he was gone I used the hose to dilute the pellets with water. When he returned we went around the house depositing charcoal. My husband held the bag and I placed charcoal, mainly because I didn't like his charcoal placement, he was tossing haphazardly and I just knew that if we were going to get rid of the odor the charcoal had to be on top of the pellets. By the next day the odor was gone, thank heavens. Now, can you imagine being our neighbors and looking out your window and seeing a woman 9 months pregnant placing charcoal all around the house??
Long story short, I do not like mice.

Wow!

I am not even sure where to start. It has been a while since I blogged last. So much has happened. The worst thing is that my Grandfather died. My Mom keeps saying that "it is a sad thing not a bad thing." I think that hits the nail on the head. He was not doing well and he would not have wanted to live the way that he was living or would be living if he'd recovered. It was a sad day, but my Mom and her sisters were there when he died. My youngest and I were there as well, but after he passed I took the baby out of the room so they could be alone with him. It seemed like there was a moment to be had.
My Grandmother has alzheimer's. It was really good to see how good she looks. My grandfather did not look like himself at all. So it was so good to see my Grandmother look like herself.
I left the two older kids with my husband, so I had a break from all of the madness of being at home. I was so grateful to be back at home with the kids. I missed them so much. My husband went straight into the field, so things got hairy quickly. Bedtime is very tricky. It is difficult to get everyone in there pajamas and tucked into bed while putting the baby to sleep or trying to nurse. At bedtime I miss having my husband's help. I cannot wait until he has a different job. His current job in the Army is very time consuming. However I am extremely grateful that he is home and not deployed. He has been to Iraq twice and I am sure that he will go back again soon. For now I am thrilled to have him home.
I realize this is a jumble of thoughts, but I haven't had much time to sit down and blog, so I have a ton of things bouncing around in my head. I am hoping to carve out some more time this week.

Collapse of the Zen

I don't know what happened, I was living in the Zen zone, I was feeling like a zen master. I was talking to a friend on the phone yesterday saying how great I was doing, handling three young kids like a pro. Feeling like a zen mama. Then today, I felt like I was barely hanging on to the ledge. I am sure that part of this is that our new mattress is causing my back to ache all through the night. So what little sleep I am getting is now reduced even more because my back keeps waking me up. ARGH! I called the store where we bought the dang thing. They were not much help. "Ma'am we don't have a warranty for comfort" Now go back and read that with a thick Texas accent. "I'm sorry you don't like your mattress but people give off bodily fluids, your mattress is now used, our hands are tied." More Texas accent. Never mind that I bought the $80 waterproof mattress pad that he recommended. Searching for Zen place. I am certain there is a life lesson here, but not sure what it is. Perhaps someone should sell mattress insurance. I would certainly buy some.

Ph.D. in Poop Control

I know I have mentioned that we have three children under the age of four. Our oldest is potty trained for the most part. He still wears a diaper at night, which means that in the morning I have to change him which means there is still the potential for three poopy diapers from three different bottoms. On Friday they seriously all pooped at the same time. I laid them down next to one another and went down the line. Later on that day, about 1700 I decided to put a load in the wash. The oldest H. came over and asked me if S. could poop in the potty. I said that he was too little and that S. was not a big boy like H. I did not think anything of this conversation, and I continued with the laundry. As soon as I was finished I went to S.'s room where I found him covered in poop. Now I was messing with the laundry for less than five minutes. He had poop in his hair, in both hands, and it was also smeared all over the rug in his room. I took him to the bathroom to clean him up, where he managed to get poop on my clothes and on the outside of the tub. I cleaned him and the bathroom. I thought I was done, but the final volley was from C., the baby. One last poopy diaper for the day.
Of course you would have thought I learned my lesson, but my husband gave S. a bath when he came home from work last night. S. hit the ground running, he likes to run around naked. I am sure you are all groaning at this point, because surely, surely we would have remembered the night before and put a diaper on him immediately. I was feeding C. and my husband was rounding up pjs for bedtime. He walked into H.'s room and S. was sitting on the floor squishing poop again. Argh!!!! It took me quite a while to scrub the poop out of the rug in H.'s room. Plus I had to go hunting for the little pieces of poop that he'd deposited. I think he must have been running?!?! Not sure, but I do know that S. will be under tight diaper security.

Oh My Gosh, They're Alive

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone out there. If you have kids you understand how difficult it is to go out to dinner. Especially with little children. So this year instead of doing a special Valentine's dinner out over the weekend. My husband and I decided to order a lobster dinner online which included two lobsters and came to the house in a large cooler. You would think that because the website has live in the site address, I would have clued in ahead of time that the lobsters were alive. Needless to say it came as a surprise that there were two live lobsters in the box sitting in my kitchen. I am amazed that they could survive so long out of the water there was a saltwater soaked pad on top of them. I would not have ordered live lobster. The thought of boiling them alive is upsetting. I thought about trying to free them, but we live about 10 hours from the ocean. I also thought about adding salt to the bathtub and letting them hang out there. I wasn't sure how much salt to add and honestly I think our 19 month old might try and take a bite out of one. That would have been an interesting trip to the emergency room. I watched my husband drop the little fellas into the water and fortunately there was no screaming and even though the pamphlet warned of it, there was no tail splashing. I mean can you imagine watching the tales of the lobsters splashing in the water, yikes. I guess I got over the moral objections, because I can report that the lobster was very tasty. However, I will never do that again. I don't care what anyone says about lobsters feeling or not feeling pain, I just cannot stand the guilt. I also must admit I feel sorry for the lobsters at the grocery store. Sometimes I think strongly about becoming a vegetarian.

Great start to the day

This morning all three of our boys were laying in the bed with me. No one was crying or fighting. It was a wonderful way to start the day. Granted two seconds later two of them started fighting, but for a couple of minutes I just looked at the three of them and was extremely grateful.

Something Sad

I have recently started reading Learning to Live, it is a blog by a military widow. She lost her husband in Iraq and she is blogging her life experiences so that her son will know how she coped. It is amazing. It is brutally honest and extremely personal. I can only imagine what she has gone through. My husband has been to Iraq twice and I am pretty sure we are in for several more deployments. Reading her blog is like reading the endings of my worst nightmares while my husband was deployed. Every time the doorbell rang or there was a knock on the door I felt panicked. Every time we talked on the phone and the phone line went dead I had to have faith that the lines were down and that it wasn't that the building had been mortared. She lived the knock on the door. I highly recommend that people read it. Whether you are for or against the War in Iraq you will get a very personal insight into what the tolls of war are.

Here is something new

I've never blogged before. I thought this would be a good outlet for a bored and stressed out stay at home mom. I have three children. My husband is in the army. Obviously there is a whole lot more to it than that, but it is a start. We live on an army post. Yes, post, not base, the air force has bases, the army has posts. We have small quarters. I was particularly grateful for the free (which irritates my husband, he says we earn it every day) ac during the summer when I was pregnant.

I am calling my blog Everyday Something New, because I learn something or experience something new everyday. I have a 12 week old, a 19 month old and a 3 1/2 year old. It gets crazy. I am extremely grateful for all three of them. Some days we have so much fun!!!! Other days, it is almost too much to handle, but those days are rare and I always find some time to laugh about it. Particularly when I bat for the cycle, which means changing three poopy diapers in a row, it has to be three different ones, if someone doubles up, still gross, but it doesn't count.

Lately I have been having a hard time being a home. I love my kids and I know what a luxury it is that I can stay at home. I am feeling like the woman that I was before is starting to disappear. It doesn't help that three pregnancies so close together has left quite a few pounds on my body. That kind of thing really messes with your head. I have been trying to come up with something that I can do, maybe a stay at home business, writing novels, anything. I haven't come up with the perfect solution, but I am soul searching.

So today, my new thing for sure is this blog. We will see if I keep up with it or not, I kind of like it.

Sarah