Bittersweet

Taking a break

I think it’s time for me to take a little bit of a break from blogging.   It’s not that I don’t enjoy it…I really do.    The thing is that we have limited internet connectivity and as always, life is throwing stones at us again and there is no time.   Throw in a little bit of the problem of certain people who read causing…er….rather, knowing too much or think they know more than they do and ka-bloohey!

The girls are growing up to be wonderful little beings with a dash of spiciness and I still want to keep a record of that so I will post from time to time.

So it is not good-bye, but see you later.    Check in from time to time or send me an e-mail.

When Trouble sleeps on your couch…

Life certainly has been interesting lately.   It’s a good thing I have a sense of humor or this could be a huge pain in the…

I found out from Daddy that  his friend Trouble actually moved to town and it wasn’t going to be a short visit.   I swore when I heard it.   Maybe things will settle down.  I don’t mind Trouble, it’s all rather amusing right now.

A few things about Trouble:   He likes to call…ALOT!    The benefit to that, the creditors can’t get through!   You never know when he’s going to show up…on your couch.   The other night after Daddy got home, I very quietly got up to check on the girls and turn the heat off in the living room.   A deep voice on the couch says, “Touch me and I’ll hit you.”     I almost fell down.   Either Sturdy Gurdy got a voice or it was Trouble.    I didn’t know he was there!  I know he thought I was Daddy, but I had been so quiet!   Later on in the night I got up for a bottle and while I was digging around trying to find my bathrobe, I heard talking in the living room.   Sh*t!  It almost sounded like there was someone else there too.   Only Trouble was out there and he was talking in his sleep (I  think).  I snuck back to bed and hoped that the bottle would be forgotten.   That was wishful thinking.   I got up again with my bathrobe and listened first.   More talking in his sleep.  I waited until the snoring started again and ran out and got the bottle quickly and hopped back into bed.    He got his though the next morning.   Bug ran out to watch cartoons  about 7 a.m. and then ran back into her room.   Daddy was laughing and said “there was someone out on the couch, huh?”   Bug said, “Missy!”   No honey, that ain’t Missy.  That there is Trouble!

Angry

That was the topic of the day yesterday.  Bug is getting more independent and if you ask her to do something or remind her of the rules, she says “NO” and if you remind her of the rule, a tantrum isn’t too far behind.  Yesterday was not particularly outstanding in this respect, but in the end, a lesson was learned.  

I guess, in a way, I’m more like my father than I want to admit.   When I ask that something be done, I expect it to be done.  I have way more patience than he ever had, but the expectation is there.   When I reminded Bug that juice was to stay in the kitchen, she threw her cup (with a lid and a straw) with force back into the kitchen and said “NO!”    Before she could blink an eye, I grabbed her hand and made her go into the kitchen, pick up the cup and put it in the sink.   With a quick reminder that she needed to do as Mommy asks, we went about our day.  

Bedtime came and we did our usual ritual of reading and snuggling.   She had a nap at a reasonable time in the afternoon and went to bed willingly at 8:15.   She started messing around and playing on footboard and wouldn’t stop.   Then the full out screaming tantrum started.   Reasoning works pretty well with her - usually.   She screamed and cried, threw her bottle and her binkie.   (yeah, it’s not about the bottle right now, okay?)   As I was bending over trying to talk to her while looking her right in the eyes, she tried to kick me.    SNAP!   I told her to straighten up and settle down and walked out of the room.  I was done (for a while).   She kept screaming and was waking up Littlest.   Daddy went in and tried to sternly talk to her, but she cried even harder and screamed more.   I counted to 10, took a deep breath, took a drink of tea and a bite of cinnamon roll  and then went back in.   She was ready to listen.   While she calmed down and I held her, I told her that when she was angry she needed to use her words.   She should never hit or kick.   She needed to tell us that she was angry and try to explain why.   I gave her some examples and told her that while someone can be angry with you, they can still love you.    After a bit of quiet, Bug said, “Daddy angry me.”   Yes, Bug, Daddy was angry with you because you were crying and screaming and trying to kick Mommy.   He still loves you very much.   And Mommy loves you very much.   After another bit of quiet, she said, “I angry Daddy.”  I asked her why and she said, “Daddy light on me - eyes hurt” meaning that when Daddy came in to talk to her, he turned the light on and it hurt her eyes and she was mad about that.   We talked a little bit more and then she said, “I tired” and laid down to sleep.  

As hard as the evening was and frustrated I was getting, it was worth it to have the conversation we did.   Bug is the most wonderfully affectionate, but emotional little girl.  I don’t want to break her spirit, just guide it.  After watching/listening to a couple with a little girl at a bus stop argue and when the little girl started crying, the mom rudely told to  her to “shut your mouth up” and to quit whining - Daddy and I think we are doing okay so far.  Anything beats that kind of behavior.

The Divine Miss M

Littlest continues to amaze me.   Like I’ve said before, I’m pretty laid back when it comes to my expectations of the girls as far as learning goes.   They are smart cookies, so I figure they will reach milestones in their own time.   I have to say, though, I was beginning to wonder if Littlest would ever get past A-B-C-D or 2.   She listens very intently to what you say, but doesn’t repeat it like Bug does.  Well, I finally figured her out.   She must like to wait until she has things down before she says them out loud.   The other night when I thought she was asleep, she popped up and said, “E-F-G-H” and laid back down.  Another time in the car she said, “4-5-6″ and then said 9.   She has said a bunch of other things lately too -  real sentences.   She has progress to saying A through H very well.    I’m so proud of her progress.  

She’s not only a miracle, she’s a genius!

(*At least I think she’s a genius.)

Hooooney! There’s a half naked man on our couch….

I didn’t expect to see someone on our couch this morning. I’m not too surprised I guess, although it’s never happened before.

Daddy’s friend from out of state came to visit his family and called Daddy yesterday afternoon to get together. As far as I know, Daddy has seen his friend only once in the last ten or so years. They talk on the phone, but that’s about it. I’ve talked to the friend a time or two, but never met him. Well, they made up for lost time. Oh boy did they make up for lost time.

They stumbled home the first time about 8:30 or 9 pm.  I was already having a hard time getting the girls to sleep, but when they heard Daddy come through the door, that was it. They were excited that Daddy was home and then the friend. The girls fell in love with the friend. Bug at one point even said, “I love you!” to him.  We gotta watch out for those girls, especially if they are falling in love with tall, dark, bad boys already!  After a short time with the friend, he convinced the girls it was time to go to sleep so they could grow up tall and strong.   They went to sleep fairly easily after that.

Daddy and his friend weren’t done yet and off they went, taking taxis here and there.   I don’t know what time they finally came home, but it wasn’t last night.    I hope for Daddy’s sake that the friend doesn’t come back for another ten years because it may take Daddy that long to recover!

Needless to say, friend stayed on our couch last…er….rather this morning instead of driving home.     Daddy wasn’t in any shape to take the girls to “school” so I went to work  late.   It’s not very often I get to drop them off, so it was kind of a treat for me.  

Just another day in paradise.    Life never gets boring here.

Think of Littlest

November is Prematurity Awareness Month and today is the Fight for Preemies.    Click on the badge above to learn more.

Without the March of Dimes and their continuing efforts to fight prematurity, our Littlest wouldn’t be the wonderfully, stubborn, healthy little girl she is now.   Even the efforts to save our Sweet Baby Boy wouldn’t have been available.    They also helped us in the NICU with a bag of necessities (toothbrush, disposable camera, etc.), a book for Bug, food,  gas cards so we could keep coming to visit Littlest, as well as emotional support. 

Anxiety

I was browsing through the pictures on my computer, trying to find the one I wanted to attach to an email.   I came across some that gave me instant, massive anxiety.

 

These are the pictures of the house when we first purchased it over four horrible years ago.   What a nightmare.   We tried though. 

Notice the hideous color on the walls

Horrible tile job and peel and stick linoleum tiles on the floor, walls not painted, barely patched.

Backyard looking in the yard of the vicious pitbull (and the fence that she jumped over to attack Big Yellow Dog).

Back yard looking over the soon to be Lake of Fire.

The next picture is about a year after we bought the house.

This wasn’t our final product, but it was what I had on my computer.    More painting, new fence, the roof redone (getting rid of that stupid thing on top and fixing the multiple leaking areas), flooring, septic system.   Then started the failures - mold, electrical failure, septic system still not working well, impossible to keep clean, mice in the garage, bad neighborhood, nobody wanting to go outside.  It was a  cold and uncomfortable house. 

This is our nice, stress free home now.

The only thing I don’t like is the white rock, but you know what?   I can totally live with it!

Ahead of her time

When Daddy picked up Bug from daycare one day last week, the teacher was all excited about Bug’s work.   They were learning about body parts.   Each child had an outline of their body on a large piece of paper.   Each day they talked about a different body part.   The teacher was excited because Bug, at age 2-1/2, drew/scribbled in the proper location where the eyes, nose and mouth were supposed to go.  She showed Daddy the other children’s examples and they had scribbled all over the body, but not where the face should be.  The teacher said that is usually a skill acquired after the age of 3.   I even tested her on it on the magna-doodle and sure enough, she did a crude face - eyes, nose, mouth in all the right spots.    Shoot, we already knew she was smart.  

Littlest is coming right along as well.   She says A-B-C-D (and sometimes E), but won’t go further, but loves the ABC song.   She likes the “puppy song,” which I realized was counting to 15.   When we count to 15 we go, “1…..15, 15 puppies!” from 101 Dalmatians.  Then Bug always says, “Puppies Gone!  OH NO!   Puppies back.  Cat got them.”    It’s quite dramatic, but because of the puppy part, Bug can easily count to 15 now (we are working higher).  Littlest has picked up on the OH NO part of the count, though last night she said 7, 8, 9 out of the blue.     It’s so fun to watch them learn new things.   The Magna-Doodle is a great help with shapes, letters, numbers, and even crude drawings of animals and dancing people.   Bug loves it when I draw a pig face.  Not sure why.   Last night she had me drawing every family member dancing.

The reason I was forced to draw dancing family members was because we were watching Dancing with the Stars, which Bug loves.   She loves to dance throughout the show and has learned some flourishes and dramatic dance moves.   I was laughing so hard watching her.   Littlest loves to dance too, but has an earlier bedtime, so doesn’t get to watch the show when it’s on at 8.   Last night Bug was perfecting her jitterbug.   We need a video camera (do you hear that Santa). 

Finally, last night we splurged and went to a Chinese buffet for dinner.  It was almost cheaper than all four of us going to BurgerBills.   The young lady seating us wanted to know Bug’s name because I had called her Bug-Bug.   I spelled her name and told the young lady that everybody calls Bug that.   Then she wrote it in Chinese on the receipt for us to see.   She asked how far apart the girls were and because she spoke broken English, it was quite a discussion.   All through the meal various women who were working there came by to see the girls and all their hair.   Daddy had several discussions about Littlest and the fact she was a little over one pound when she was born.   The girls loved eating there.  Bug had wanted “rice,”  not Mexican rice or teriyaki rice, just “rice rice.”   They had rice, jello, plus a variety of other things.   Finally Daddy got them each a swirl ice cream cone.  Littlest was in HEAVEN.   With her eyes half closed in pure enjoyment, she lovingly ate that ice cream cone to the very last drop (that hadn’t dripped already).   When we left, the girls were waved goodbye to and our first server gave us probably about 10 fortune cookies!   Littlest’s fortune said, “Time heals all wounds.   Chin up.”   Very appropriate.    I hope they welcome us back to that place (it was good) because, even though I tried to clean up after the girls, we left a mess (and a good tip).  

Every day is always an adventure!

Children being abducted

If you were in Toys R’ Us yesterday, I’m sure that’s what you were thinking. Nope, it was just two parents trying to take their tired, hungry, cranky children out to the car.

I certainly didn’t win any parenting awards this weekend, not even a wife of the second award. It was just an all around cranky weekend. As always, we had a bunch of errands to run and one was Babies R’ Us to look for a child safety lock for the sliding closet doors. Of course since we were there and Toys R’ Us was attached, we did our normal play time there. It was fun for a while. Then when the two kids riding scooters were whizzing around after being told by a store employee to stop, and almost hit Bug, I lost IT! I yelled at them. I pointed and told them that they had been told before to stop it and that they had better stop it NOW. Then something about almost hitting my child. The boy just looked at me without emotion. That really ticked me off. Daddy was kind of taken aback at my outburst. We did notify another store employee and they went searching for them. Excuse me, but where were the parents? Probably watching us and laughing. We made it to the front of the store when all Hell broke loose. Both girls ran to the back of the store. I heard Daddy yelling at them (I had paid attention to the videos one minute too long). I ran to the back of the store and we frantically searched for them. We could hear them giggling.  We each picked up a child once we caught them and carried them back to the front.   Of course there was sobbing, crying, kicking, screaming, lots of loud, “no, no, NOOOOO!”   Everybody was staring.   I would stare too, but I was too busy trying not to be beat up by a 22 month old.   They both had short naps and snacks before we went in, but obviously it wasn’t enough.   We made it out of the store without security stopping us.   Whew!

Weird thing about the day was earlier when we were at Goodwil, Bug was wearing a pair of purple wings just following us around.    All of a sudden this little girl comes over and starts ripping the wings off of Bug.  Daddy yells, “Hey, that’s my kid and you better leave her alone” and starts walking to the child who was the same size as Bug.  The girl left and Bug stayed between us.   Not 10 minutes later, the same girl comes back over and starts shoving Bug and trying to rip off the wings again.   I went over and physically separated them.  Bug was so shocked she just stood there taking it.    About that time, some adult relation or friend or whatever started walking towards the girl, but didn’t say a word.   Not one reprimand, nothing.   This girl was aggressive!   Fudgesicles.     Then awhile later, Littlest was playing with some little rubber stamp things on a little table when a little boy comes over and scatters all the stamps off the table.   I sternly told him that was unacceptable and he better leave my daughter alone.   Luckily his parent picked him up and put him back in the shopping cart.    So why weren’t my kids in the shopping cart?  Because they were behaving and not running around wildly.     So you see, by the time we got to Toys R’ Us, I’d had it with unruly kids trying to hurt mine.  

I was cranky all weekend.  We had to carry crying kids out of another store on Saturday.  I was bossy, nit picky, and unbending.   It wasn’t a full moon and it wasn’t “that time of the month.”   I just wanted a bit of time to MYSELF, but it never happened.   Just five minutes even.   I love my family dearly, but I wanted a little bit of me time that never came.   I’m not bitter about it…nope, not at all.    HA!

This former King has lost her crown

When you have a tendency to clench your teeth constantly, teeth crack.  When teeth crack, you have crowns.   When you have crowns, you probably should avoid certain delicious treats.   Bubble gum, taffy, and….carmels!   I had eaten some carmels last week without adverse effects.   Yesterday, I found a carmel I had put in my pocket and thought, “yeah!” and popped it in my mouth.   Chew, chew….CRUNCH!   Oh dear, there must be something wrong with this carmel.  I pulled it out of my mouth and what should I see, but the oldest crown in my mouth was now in my hand.    Fudgsicles!    I couldn’t get into the dentist after work because of my doctor’s appointment, so I had to wait until today after work.   It looks ugly, but you can’t really see it.     I only hope they can glue it back one until after January 1 when I will have the money to replace it and the other tooth that needs to be crowned.   I can’t leave the space it left alone.   I keep putting my tongue in it.  I’m going to have it all irritated if I’m not careful!

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