Oh Yes, I'm Gonna Go There!

Boogers. Yep, a post all about those sticky little ickys.

Hate 'em.

For the past 2 nights, Lazy Baby will be fairly booger free all day. As soon as we lay down at night and go for that final nursing session, he's all full of boogs and can't breathe! And just the thought of getting all uncovered and uncomfortable and running to the bathroom for a nose-sucking session... ugh! I just reach over to the shelf next to the bed and got the baby vicks. Not quite the best remedy, but will do when desperately not wanting to get out of bed.

I despise the nose sucker. So does Lazy Baby. I totally suck at using it! Pun totally intended. It takes me at least 20 sucks to get one stinking little booger out. Seriously. Does anyone have the secret? This is my 3rd child and I still have no luck with the thing. And Lazy Baby loses his cool after about 5 tries. Then it's like some crazy game of trying to get it anywhere near his nose... A wrestling match where the 6 month old wins every time. And he screams bloody murder the whole time. So this is the real reason why I don't get out of bed to do it at night. (OK, I lie, once I'm in bed and all comfy, nothing short of a 4 year old emergency pee in the middle of the night is getting me out).

It gets better once they are closer to a year and their nostrils are big enough that you can successfully q-tip the boogs out without pushing them back in. For now I'll just have to wait until I can get them out with a small fingernail...

Now that I've booger'd you all out, have a great weekend!

The Sports Rant...

We let Tweenie play basketball this year. And now I'm pretty much regretting it. I'm fairly certain she won't be playing next year.

A few years ago we let her play soccer. (We let her do one thing a year, the following year she chose softball - but that was when we had moved away briefly and lived close to her school). The soccer was pretty lame, they had about 3 games. I was a little disappointed. And one of the parents said that all the sports were that way, even the high school. I was disappointed then - but back then I only had one little almost toddler, and the school had an activities bus that dropped her off a couple of blocks from home. They have since lost the funding for the activities bus - it only runs on Mondays and Wednesdays and only has 2 stops, the closest of which is 7 miles away from home.

So I pretty much expected the basketball to be the same way. They had a couple of practices during the week before xmas break. And 3 practices over break. But once they went back after break they started having practices every single day. And they have 1 or 2 games a week from that second week back until the end of Feb!!

She had secured her own ride to begin with - knowing that we usually don't let her do any after school activities because transportation is an issue. But after that first week of practice she lost her ride. Her ride was with a 5th grader and as there were way too many girls on the team they cut the 5th graders.

Her school is 30 mins away. Twice a week we can pick her up 7 miles away, but of course they have ended up having games on those days and we have to go all the way to the school anyway. It's a huge put out to have to go pick her up every night. And it's become quite an expense... We are pretty much low income, and here is the run-down of expenses: $50 for basketball shoes, $35 for the jersey, $15 athletic fee, $5 for meals for every one of her away games (which comes up to be around $50) and then an extra $50 in gas per week!!

It wouldn't be so bad, but she is not appreciative of any of it. She acts as if it's her right to do this. She has no appreciation for the time or money we have put into it. And she absolutely takes advantage.

Her first home game she called at 5:30, said it was halftime and that her game would be over around 6 or 6:15. I told her we would leave right then and be there waiting for her. She knows that when we come it's with a car full of kids and that she's to come out. We got there at 6pm and waited. And waited. And waited. At 6:30 we thought about going in to see what was taking too long, but we didn't see a bunch of people leaving, so assumed that her game was still going. We figured she would come out when it was over. Nope. At 6:45 I went in because little man had to go potty. There was a game going on, but it was the 8th graders, I didn't know they split them up like that, but her game had been over since 6pm. I found her messing around in the hall with her friends. I was so ticked off!! She knew we were waiting outside. She knew she was supposed to come out when her game was over! Then she went to the car while I took little man potty. As I was walking back out she came walking back in saying she had to go to the bathroom. When we asked her why she didn't come out she said that she was watching the 8th graders play. I asked her why she was messing around in the hall and she started to say that she was just going to the bathroom, but then realized what she was saying and said she was just getting a drink.

The real kicker about the situation was that she was mad that we were mad at her! She felt like she had done nothing wrong. She felt like she was justified in her behavior. She didn't feel bad about the situation until I told her she couldn't attend practice the following night. Then it was all tears, but not apologetic, not realizing how much she put us out. It was tears for what she would be missing out on. She called us for a ride at a specified time! Why would she call for a ride and then mess around while she knew we were waiting outside?? We were waiting outside with 3 kids 4 and under for 45 minutes! And she felt like it was her right to do what it was she was doing. Why didn't she say to pick her up later? Anyway, she missed her practice which made her ineligible to play in the next game. And she was all mad about it. I told her that if she pulls a stunt like that again that she will be off the basketball team. I explained to her that we are *letting* her play and that we don't have to. I still don't think she understands that.

Her next away game she was instructed to call when they were *leaving* the McD's. Because I know that it is about as far from the school as our house, so if I left when they were leaving McD's we would get there around the same time. So what does she do? Calls when they *get* to McD's and says they will be there for 30mins and it will take 30mins to get back to the school... I knew what she was doing... surely her friend did the same because her and her friend were the last ones there. I was mad, but I just let that one go. The next day my husband took his time picking her up from practice. But of course she took her time as well and was one of the last ones out. So we pretty much agree that she has no appreciation. And won't be playing again next year.

Every time we let her do something she totally takes advantage. I just don't get it. Both my husband and myself were rarely allowed to do special things at school, and when we were you can be sure that it didn't come with the attitude that it was our right or that it was expected our parents would just let us do it. There was no one to take or pick up my husband from such events. I was lucky enough that I lived one block away from my grade school. But of course in Jr High and High school I had to either hoof it, ride my bike or find my own ride.

I used to feel bad that we didn't let her do more things, but now... I really don't feel bad at all. If she were more appreciative I might go out of my way a little more often to let her do more.

I Love My Kids

Have I said that lately? Probably not. I've been too busy complaining.

Right now Little Man is being so sweet. Baby sister grabbed all the blankets from her bed and is play sleeping in the middle of the living room and Little Man is tucking her in and piling stuffed animals on her. Now that is some sweetness.

Lazy Baby is busy mouthing the fire truck Little Man gave him. I am loving his new found ability to entertain himself for 5 or so minutes at a time. He just loves being in on all the action. His favorite thing is to just sit in the middle of the living room floor and watch everything going on around him. I brought out the playpen, but he doesn't do as well in there. Probably because it feels like a cage. I got him a walker for Christmas (we have no stairs to worry about), but he also feels a little too contained in that. He might get better with the walker once his little short legs can reach the ground ;) He's almost 7 mos, and the walker says age 4mos and up. But I doubt they account for short leg babies ;) Lazy Baby does have some brains though, he figured out fairly quickly that if he leans all the way over to one side he can reach the ground with one tip-toe. But he can only move it backwards a smidgen. Not as fun for him as I hoped it would be. But what is really? ;) How many toys have we bought that we thought would entertain our little ones for hours on end, only to have them tossed aside for a paper towel roll or a romp in the empty toy box? Seriously, I have totes and XXL ziplock bags and boxes full of abandoned toys. I hate to part with them.

Sometimes Little Man will follow me to the kids' bedroom and rummage through the abandoned toy lot and pull something out. And he'll actually play with it for a while. And I get to recycle all the baby toys at least once more here. I need to go dig out some stuff for Lazy Baby, he's really getting into playing with stuff now. After he cycles through all the toys I need to either have a yard sale or start giving them away! I'm such a hoarder though ;)

What's a mom to do?

So I survived my week of appointments last week. Yippee! And we get about twice as much money from energy assistance this year! Double Yippee!! The lady scared me, just before she told me how much we would receive she said that this year was going to be less than last year because more people had applied and there was less money available... But we have an additional child and I was working part time last year. We're getting the same small amount for electric, but double for LP Gas. Which is the real killer in the winter. I hate dealing with the LP tank. It's expensive! I think more so than gas from a city. This year hasn't been quite as bad as last year. Last year it was about $400 for 200 gallons (which is less than half a tank). The last time I got LP this year it was a little over $300. We keep the thermostat at 60! And close off two of the back bedrooms in the winter. And we still go through too much LP. Last winter we went through a little over a thousand gallons! We really need to get a wood burning stove, but those are pretty pricey. Some year at tax time we will. But this year we need to fix the roof. And hopefully have enough left over for a cheap minivan.

Well, I didn't intend to talk finances...

I wanted to talk destruction.

But I also wanted to story before that ;) 'cause really I'm a storyteller.

It's a long, involved story, with digressions and everything. I can't just tell one simple story.

So, Little Man has been tearing his socks apart. He's down to about one pair of socks. He likes pulling strings. He will pull strings out of his socks until there's nothing left but a ring around his ankle.

They were cheap socks. I wonder if that makes a difference in string accessibility? I struggled last night at Wal-Mart. Do I buy him another bag of cheap socks? Or do I spend an extra dollar for two fewer pair? Not completely convinced that more pricey socks were more durable, I went for the cheaper pack with more socks. But they were a different brand than the last bag I bought him. So we shall see what happens.

I was seriously considering knitting him a nice pair of socks. I went and tracked down some nice blue and tan sock yarn. I bought a book on knitting socks from EBay. I want to try to knit some socks anyway. Since I finally figured out how to use those horrendous double pointed needles. I like a challenge.

I have a new passion for knitting. I've been a crocheter for a few years and love it. But knitting is a little different. I love them both. The sucky thing is that I am pretty limited to getting my supplies at Wal-Mart. Which is pretty limited. I really wanted to try those fancy circular needles for hats. Wal-Mart only had one size in 24" and then a couple sizes in 29". I bought the 24" and attempted a 22" hat. And it worked OK - you aren't supposed to be able to make something smaller than your circular needle size. So making a 22" hat on a 24" needle was a bit of a stretch.

I really wanted to knit some hats for my babies ;) which have 16-18" heads.

So for Christmas I asked my mom for 16" circular needles in a variety of sizes to match which double pointed needle sets I had. ('cause the really sucky thing is that you have to end up using the horrendous double pointed needles anyway - when you have to decrease beyond the 16").

So Christmas came and I was really excited to start making little hats!! But the typical mom thing happened.

When I was like 12 or 13 or so the song "Jesse's Girl" had me head over heels with Rick Springfield. The only thing on my Christmas list that year was the Rick Springfield album (yes, I know I am totally dating myself here)... My mom ended up forgetting her list and buying me a Bruce Springsteen album instead. I was devastated. I've only recently been able to stomach listening to the Boss (and only because that album is one of my husband's all time favorites).

So, I opened up my gift from my mother. Mind you, I was very specific with my list for her. She got half of it right - I got the right needle sizes, but the length? She got all 29" cables! Typical mom fashion. So I won't be able to knit anthing less than probably 27" projects with those. I'll just have to make Baby Sister some dresses, ponchos or something...

I ended up just buying my 16" needles from EBay after Christmas. I got them last week, so I've been busy trying out hats. I'm getting better ;) The first one I did ended up being a little short. The last one I did ended up looking a little funky ;)

I made a cute little purple hat for Baby Sister. I purled some butterflies on it, which turned out really nice! Then I decided to dress it up a little by putting a pom-pon on top! And the stupid pom-pon took almost as long as the hat. I bought a little set of pom-pon makers and it just takes forever - I should have just made it the old fashioned way of wrapping yarn around a piece of cardboard... but the ending part went a lot smoother than it would have on a piece of cardboard...

So I finished the hat and Baby Sister wore it for about 5 minutes.

Then Little Man picked up the abandoned hat and would not take it off for anything! I decided that I should make him one sans butterflies and with a more masculine color... I barely got him to take the hat off for his bath. Then at nap time? As he had his quiet time on the couch, he pulled strings.


He came to the gate between the living room and kitchen and said "sorry mom" and handed me the hat. Which now had a string with a loop sticking out of the top, and one strand of yarn kind of hanging out from the side... he had pulled that pom-pon apart piece by piece until there was nothing left of it. His shirt was covered with itty bitty pieces of purple yarn. There were itty bitty pieces of purple yarn littering the couch and the entire living room.

He is still finding little pieces of yarn today.

I don't think I will be knitting him a hat any time soon.

And I definitely will not be knitting him any socks.

New Year, What's New?

Nothing! :)

Except for starting the New Year with a bunch of appointments!

And of course my idiotic brain set up appointments for energy assistance and 6 mos well child for Lazy Baby within an hour of each other on the same day! Grrr. I set up the energy assistance appointment back at the beginning of Oct. Jan 5th was the earliest appointment they had. I probably set up Lazy Baby's appointment around the same time - after his 4 mos well child in October! Earliest reschedules for both were March. Ended up having to take an appointment with a different Dr for Lazy Baby on the 6th... So 2 days in a row where I have to bundle all 3 little ones up at 7am to take the hubs to work so I can have the car. We are so getting a minivan with our tax refund.

Anyway...new year, same old complaints ;)

Trying to finish off all the kids' stocking candy.

Trying to get my house back in order from the holiday chaos. Managed to get all my dishes done on Saturday, but now back to a overflowing counter full of dirty dishes...Almost had all the laundry done, but then added another day of clothes to it...

Had a bunch of phone calls to make, documents to hunt up and all sorts of good stuff planned for today, but everyone seems to want to be crabby and not sleep today... one of those days. Not a damn thing is getting done, so we're back to the same ol same ol around here.

As much as I hate to admit it, things are a little easier when the hubs and tweenie are home. First day of them back to work and school has been a little beyond chaotic.