What I Do All Day

You know there may be a point in my life when my kids are all in school and I'm here alone during the day and it is (blissfully) quiet and I'm going to miss the chaos that goes on here all day... so I'm going to let you know what I did all day today... so far...

Mallory wakes up.  Dragging her blanket behind her.  Climbs up to the counter and lays her head on the blanket and says "I want breakfast."

Max wakes up.  Dragging his blanket behind him.  Nuk in mouth.  Climbs up to the counter.  Sneezes.  Wipe his nose.

I make two waffles - one for each child.  One wants cinnamon & sugar.  One wants syrup.

Pour two glass of juice.  They will not drink anything else in the morning.  Must be juice.

Max's nose is running.  Wipe his nose.

Serve up the waffles.

Max won't eat.  His nose is running.  Dose him with motrin because otherwise I  know how this day is going to go - whine whine whine - wipe nose - whine whine whine - wipe nose - and repeat!

He finally eats.

Mallory gets dressed.

Max just wants to snuggle me.  So I stop and snuggle and we all play games on my phone.  They think that is the best ever - because I don't let them do that very often.

When I think their baby brains are good fried I tell them no more and ask if they want to play playdoh while I pack my bag for vacation (we leave on vacation tomorrow!!)

The loudest "YES" I ever hear!

Dig out playdoh.

Set them up to be entertained while I go pack my clothes.

They yell "Mom can you help us?" 16 times while I am trying to pack my bag.  To which I come out for every single one and assist them.

Watch in horror as they mix the playdoh colors!  It is like I have twitch when I watch them mix the colors.  I have to bite my tongue and walk away and let them be kids.  I can't stand it.  Why do you have to mix them?  Can't you be neat little 4 and 2 year olds?

Max has to go potty.  Max has to go real potty (#2) but is totally afraid of doing that in the toilet where it belongs!  He is totally trained with #1... but refuses to do #2.  And I'm afraid he is going to get constipated because he does this... I have to go potty.  So we run in there and he doesn't go.  Then I get him all dressed back up - because he is in the phase of have-to-remove-all-clothes-in-order-to-go.  2 minutes later... I have to go potty.  I'm not kidding we did this 5 times.  Then I finally said, Max, just poop in your pull-up!!!!  I'm done!  To which he responds in his sweet little voice "but you get mad".  *feel like horrible mother now.*  I told him I would not get mad... this time.  : )  Then he says... I have to go potty.  Back in we go.  I reminded him of the special treat I have in the medicine cabinet for when he does go and walked out the door.  3 seconds later he yells "I'm done!"  I said... no you are not.  And left him and started cleaning up the playdoh bomb that went off.

Max goes poop on the potty!!!!!  Mallory and I act like huge fools and are clapping and cheering!  Mally says "Oh Max I'm so proud of you."  Then I say "Max, Mommy is so proud of you too!"  Then Max says "I'm proud too."  This was a HUGE accomplishment!  That special treat has been sitting in the cabinet for 3 weeks!!!

Finish cleaning up the playdoh mess to which Mallory has to put all the crazy mis-matched playdohs back in the containers because I can't do it.  The colors are messed up!  How do you know which container to put them in?  So she does it.

Sweep the floor.

Max eats his special treat.

Sweep the floor again.

Decided that I should make homemade chocolate chip cookies for our vacation.  Dig out all that stuff and let the kids help.

Clean up that mess.

Sweep the floor again.

Make lunch.

Let them each eat one cookie.  Max drops his cookie.

Sweep the floor again.

Read stories and put kids to bed!

Clean up kitchen for the 3rd time today!!

Now... go to work while they nap!

Vacation tomorrow!

Vacation from staying home & sweeping floors!

So excited!!

Hot Gardens

Before we left for St. Louis we were experiencing 60s and rain and in St. Louis it was… oh… I don’t even remember… HOT!  Hot! 80s possibly even super high 90s.  So we were not use to it at all.

Anyway – we decided to go to the gardens – it was a free day and one of my cousins lives right next to it.

We just walked into the gardens and here are my kids already looking hot and exhausted. 

Pretty flowers.

All my kids were worried about was finding the koi fish.  At the wedding another cousin of mine had gone here and showed my kids a video of these fish.  They wanted to see them in real life.

Tons of them!  And they are all begging for food!

Then it was time to cool them off.  So we sat in the shade for a bit.

Family Picture! 

Then we found some water to cool them off- because the shade was still pretty hot.

Mallory found a leaf on the ground she carried with her and brought it to the water.  Well she started scrubbing this little raccoon with her leaf.

Scrubbing behind his ears!

Then it was time to go and Max let us know loud and clear what he thought of that idea.

Mallory decided that she should clean her shows before we left.

Max fell asleep on the two minute drive back to my cousins and we were getting ready to leave for the drive back home and he was completely soaked.  I was able to get him out of the vehicle, into my cousins house, lay him on her hardwood floor, change all of his clothes and diaper, re-dress him… and he never woke up!  I call that success… or extremely tired boy! 

This concludes our trip to St. Louis.

St. Louis Wedding

I had a cousin getting married in June in St. Louis.  My Mom was going by herself… I was still living in a camper in the rain… so I told her – wouldn’t it be so much fun if the kids and I came with you to keep you company?!  She foolish thought it would be a blast!!  So we went!

I don’t have a lot of pictures – but I was trying to get pictures of the kids and I all dressed up on my phone.  Not sure why I didn’t dig out my big camera… but I didn’t.  Traveling with 2 kids and 1 parent is… um… exhausting!!  Don’t get me wrong – Grandma was right there to step in when needed and I had Ellyn too – but you know how kids are they only want Mom!!

So here is my attempts at pictures…

 

 

Can you see Ellyn laughing in the background in the picture above?  And then Mallory broke that necklace she is wearing… it was a necklace from my Grandma!  Little stinker!

My Mom steps in to get a good picture.

Well maybe just a picture… not a good one where everyone is looking.

We leave for the wedding.  I bring a few snacks because it is a late wedding in the middle of my kids routinely eating supper.  Max brings a Monster Truck to play with.  We decide to park where the meal will be and take the wedding bus to the church.  We sit in the bus and wait for it to fill up.  Max starts driving his truck around the back of the seats.  Now this is a like a limo bus, so not very big and not bus like at all.  Well, Max drops the Monster Truck behind the seats and I can not get it!!! 

The other passengers on the bus are laughing!  Me not so much!  This kid has been carrying around this Monster Truck since we left Wisconsin!  It is a prize possession to him right now!  So the passengers tell Max to go ask the driver if he would help him.  Sure enough… my not-shy-at-all Max walks up to the front and asks the tuxedo-wearing bus driver if he could get his Monster Truck.  Driver looks at two-year old Max and says “Is it valuable?”  Max says “Yup”.  As if Max understands the word valuable.

Tuxedo-wearing driver comes back and gets the truck with a broom and hands it back to Max and says “I suggest you don’t do that again.” and walks back to his driver seat.  Now… everyone is laughing!!!  But I am thinking… wow this driver is not so kid friendly!

We get to the church and of course to the front we go because we are family.  The wedding goes – full catholic wedding.  During a kneeling prayer – Max spills his goldfish crackers all over the pew in front of us!!!!  Seriously!!!!!!  So I’m catching fish and putting them back in his cup.  The people who have a pew full of fish – don’t even look around and check what is going on. 

Then… it is time for communion and people are getting out of our pew and those dang fish spill again!!! 

I could not wait to get out of that church!!  This kid has not been schooled enough on how to act in a church – he goes to the nursery and plays at our church!  : )

Max is kind of like Chandler on the show Friends… he locks up when he has to get his picture taken and comes out with the craziest looks/expressions on his face. 

And that was the wedding.  My kids were really super shy during the dance and they sat on my lap the whole time.  And then my little Mallory missed her Daddy so much she had a break down in the coat closet!!  We went in there to call Jesse (it was the only quiet spot) and she cried and cried and cried when she heard his voice.  She couldn’t even talk.  She may or may not get that from me!